How to Get Started in Joint Ventures Wholesaling for Real Estate Beginners | Drew Moran

Welcome back to the Tech in Real Estate podcast, where we bridge gap between real estate and technology. In this episode, we are thrilled to have a special guest, Drew Moran, who brings a wealth of experience in both technology and real estate.

Ariel Herrera 0:00

Welcome back to tech in real estate podcast today, we have a guest who has both experience in technology and real estate. Welcome to the channel, Drew Moran.

Unknown Speaker 0:10

Thank you, Ariel, thank you for having me.

Ariel Herrera 0:13

Super excited to have you here as I'm a tech geek. And it's exciting to hear from someone who not only has real estate experience, but also is has Tech experience as well. But before we dive into that, love to just hear a little bit about your background, maybe where you grew up, where you currently reside, and how you ended up in your role today. Sure,

Speaker 2 0:37

yeah, so I'll give you a little background story. Because I think, kind of explaining to the audience like where my family's from, and some of the values he brought me up with kind of led to where I'm at now. And so my parents just like, they're from Ecuador, my whole family is from Ecuador. And just like any family, you know, coming from another country, to this country, to the United States, you know, they come here to make a life for themselves, and for their family, right. And so what they brought with them here was, you know, that mentality of, if you work hard enough, you'll get to where you want to be. And that's kind of where what they instilled in me, along with, you know, make sure you get your education, get good grades, you'll get the jobs that you want, etc. At typical Hispanic family. What they really didn't instill in me was like, the whole entrepreneurial side of things, which is what I'll get to later, too, which is what I'm learning now. But as I grew up, right, it was always about, you know, go to school, get good grades, graduated high school, I along the way, I met some really cool people that influenced my decision to go into technology. So have a good friend, his name is Pedro. And he had a brother. And every time I would go visit Pedro, during the summers, I would see his brother always taking apart computers and putting them together. And this was very early on in my childhood, and that, that just left an impression in me. And that's kind of what's the word mean to going into tech. So high school comes around. I didn't attend your traditional high school, I attended a vocational school that combined both your traditional high school curriculum, along with what they call, you know, vocational courses. And that's kind of where I started off with, with with it with tech. Then after high school, I went into college, got a bachelors in it. That was a very generic IT degree. And after college, you know, got my job, got my first job, just like my parents wanted me to write. And I've been doing that for the past 30 plus years. Just, you know, going to school, getting good grades, graduating, I got into tech. And it wasn't until I started just listening to podcasts about financial freedom. That led me down the rabbit hole. And I landed on real estate. Just a little bit more context around that I I don't have any friends that are into real estate or entrepreneurs. Not a lot of family members that are entrepreneurs themselves. And I just kind of landed on it. And I started going down that real estate rabbit hole joining the communities, the forums, they send it to more podcasts. And about two years ago, I think two years ago now I decided to get my license or real estate license, right. But I didn't plan to do the whole traditional realtor thing. I decided to get into wholesaling. And I actually formed my LLC last year on 2022 and February. amongst all the other stuff that was going on in my personal life. I had just gotten married, I had moved in with my wife or baby on the way I had the crazy idea to start a business to on top of all that. And I tried to do by myself. At first the whole wholesaling thing, you know, SMS, texting, cold calling, things of that nature, but I quickly learned that it's kind of hard to do it by yourself. And so what I started doing was reaching out to folks within those communities Is that I had joined, started being a little bit more vocal, loud about what I was doing. And I was lucky enough to team up with somebody very early on. That helped me. I wouldn't say get my first deal. But I came across my first deal because of them. And I ended up getting a finder's fee, because of what resulted from that. But um, they, they helped me with the underwriting the negotiating all that stuff, right. So I was pretty, I pretty much just got a finder's fee. But it gave me that proof of concept that everybody's always looking for. Right. And that's what I, that's what I needed. That's what I needed, I needed to prove myself to prove to myself that, okay, this is doable. I was just doing, I'm still doing a part time I was doing a part time then, because I have a full time job as a cybersecurity engineer. And it, it just, it was that spark that I needed to just keep pushing forward, even with everything that's going on, in like my personal life now. So I still push through, I'm still pushing forward. I haven't landed a second deal yet. But um, but I'm working towards it. And again, I'm working with somebody else to help me get that second one. So that's kind of where I'm at. That was a brief overview of where I'm at right now

Ariel Herrera 6:31

is incredible. Thank you so much drew for sharing your background from beginning to to now. And I think we both have similar backgrounds, and that I'm actually Ecuadorian as well, I think recycled your identity. And so I know what it's like to have those principles and still work hard go to school. But entrepreneurship isn't really stated. And is that a risk factor? And I feel like a lot of people who come from other countries, especially Hispanic cultures have is to have low risk when starting out. Yes. Yes, that's great that you started by just reading about financial freedom, stumbled upon real estate, which I know you must have done a lot of research in that spectrum. But being able to not just take your knowledge and keep it as is but also to reach out to others in other communities and to build relationships. So could you detail a little bit more about how you were able to start fostering these relationships and ultimately, somewhat find kind of a mentor slash partnership?

Speaker 2 7:37

Yes. So I realized that because of my background, in it with tech, that I was able to offer some value to others that weren't as familiar or as savvy with technology. And this year, actually, is when I started, kind of, you know, putting myself out there as hey, I'm good at this. How can I help you, you know, build your business or help you in your business in whatever way possible? And in return, all I just ask is, you just teach me this other side that I'm not so good at. So people skills, underwriting, things of that nature, right dispositions, it's all wholesaling terms. And that's how I landed in working with my partner that that I'm JV with now. And so, actually, last month as when we started, so the the agreement was, and he approached me actually, he was like, Hey, I know you're good with tech. I'm good with people want to team up? I'm like, let's do it. Let's give it a go. So we decided to JV for three months, we're in month two, right now. We're having a VA also help us. And so far, it's going well, where I set up the systems, I set up everything on the back end, I trained the VA on how to use those systems. And then what the VA does is he just tees up the the leads the hot leads to my partner, who's the people person to the underwriter, etc. And that's kind of how, how we're, you know, building up that relationship and if things go go well, then we're the plan is to formalize the partnership, right? So so far, right now we're just dating, quote, unquote, for a few months, see how it goes and pans out. And yeah, we definitely plan on formalizing it and seeing how big we can get this thing.

Ariel Herrera 9:51

That is excellent. I love how you're able to take some of the strengths that you have, maybe some weaknesses, but pair those weaknesses with someone also strengths, which is awesome. And you mentioned a lot of terms wholesaling JV being VA, I want to get into the process that you take without giving away too much secret sauce. But before we get to that, could you explain what some of these terms are?

Speaker 2 10:15

Yeah, sure. So wholesaling. For those that aren't familiar. It's, you're familiar with flipping houses? Right? Yes, wholesaling is flipping contracts, you're not necessarily putting yourself at risk by by owning the property, per se, what you are owning is the quote unquote, equitable interest of a contract, and then selling that contract to an end buyer, right to an investor. So the simple process, as far as wholesaling goes is, you know, you you generate leads, meaning you look for motivated sellers, people that are looking to sell their property, essentially, then you, you marinate that you work with the seller, you negotiate them something that's agreeable for both parties, and you get it on their contract. And then you disposition it, destroy it, you find an end buyer for it. That's what that means. And you assign that contract to them, they buy it, and then you're basically acting as the middleman between that seller, and then the end buyer. Right. So to put it simply, that's what wholesaling is. And then, of course, JV joint venture, it's pretty common in the real estate world, especially in the wholesale community. It's just basically, you know, partnering up with somebody, so, which is something I highly recommend, those that are starting off, do partner up with somebody, find what you're good at. Everybody has something they're good at. Mine's just happened to be technology. Everybody has something that they're good at something that they can offer to other people within the real estate investing space, that you know, they could use somebody with your particular set of skills. But of course, you have to put yourself out there first. Right? Without that, nobody's going to know what you what value you can bring to the table. So make sure you get loud, you put yourself out there. If you're looking to get into real estate and you know, good things will happen. Only good things can happen.

Ariel Herrera 12:36

Excellent. I'd love to go over some examples of how to get loud how to build a brand. But at this stage want to censor back to what you discussed and having that first deal already. Could you in detail, what that looked like what the processes that you've taken, how you kind of systematized this part of your business?

Speaker 2 12:54

Sure. So I decided to, to be able to generate leads, there's a few ways you can go about it, right to reach out to these prospects to these potential homeowners that are interested in selling their property. You can either cold, call them, pick up the phone, give them a call, you find their information online, it's easy to get a hold of that. texting, email, bandit signs, right, you may have seen signs on the on the street that says we buy ugly houses, etc, etc. Things of that nature. Direct Mail, literally mailing them either letters or postcards. That's another method. Pay Per Click PPC, Facebook ads, there's a whole slew of ways to generate leads, the one I decided to focus on was text messaging, because it's the one that I did a little bit of research on. And that kind of resonated with me the most that would fit in my particular situation where I'm at right now, I felt that it gave me the flexibility to both, you know, do my nine to five, and then, you know, have a system in place working for me in the background to send out these text messages. And then I also found out later on that it was a lot of replies coming in, and I couldn't get to them all in time. So that's why I brought the virtual assistant to help me with that piece. And what ended up happening for that first deal was no joke. When I sent out my first SMS campaign, meaning you know, my first batch of text messages, brand spanking new. This was last year. I had never send out text messages before I sent them my first batch it was a batch of 50 number reply number 30 something or So somebody said yeah, I'm interested in solving. I was like, okay, it can't be this easy. Let me let me get give this guy a call. So usually what I do after sending out the text messages if somebody's expressed interest in selling, I call them right because you want to get them on the phone as soon as possible. You want to strike while the iron is hot. So I legit skip the meeting that I was that I was on. And I called the guy. His name is William. I still remember his name. His name was William Bill. And he had a portfolio of 10 duplexes, small multifamily units that he was interested in, you know, in offloading, but he only want to start it with he wanted to start with one because he wanted to see how the relationship would work. Right. And I had no idea how to value multifamily small multifamily units like that. Right. I was aiming for single family residences, mainly. And then this guy comes out of the woodwork saying, Yeah, I got 10 Small multifamily. Do you want them? I'm like, yes. But then we discuss with my partner first. So that's where that in working with somebody else. That's where that definitely comes in. I'm glad I was able to work with with the guy that I JV with at the time. His name is Brian. He's part of the what they call the creative finance sub to community from our pace more beyond Facebook, on Facebook, awesome group. I found them on there, we synched up there, and he's the one that helped me out. And he Yeah, he got it under contract, he found sellers for those properties. And then at the end, you know, he gave me my finder's fee. Because, you know, he basically took it, he took the conversation over after the guy after Bill said, Yes, I'm interested in selling. Brian took over the conversation from there and then handled everything else. So that was my first case. That was my proof of concept that what I was doing wasn't working. And then yeah, I've been after that. I've been after that second deal since mind you, I haven't been as consistent since you know, the baby was born. But I'm getting back into that. Now. This year, I started getting back into it, and I JV with another with another partner of mine to get that second deal. But that's how the first one happened. I guess I got a little bit spoiled. I thought it was gonna be that easy. But it's definitely not. It's definitely not that easy. I just got really lucky. But um, but yeah, that's how that first deal happened.

Ariel Herrera 17:35

Yeah, that's excellent. I love that you were able to once in the batch like SMS campaign tax, I can imagine how nerve racking that was initially like, oh, well, yes. Let anyone respond? What if everyone does respond? How do I get back to everyone? So quickly? So how did you handle those nerves and being able to jump into a pool that you've never experienced before,

Speaker 2 17:57

I had practice by doing some cold calling first, because I knew eventually I was going to have to get on the phone with somebody. Right. So I practiced some cold calling, I was helping out another gentleman. So before I sent out my first SMS batch, I just to get my feet wet. I hooked up with somebody else from that Facebook community. And they needed help cold calling people. And I'm like, You know what, let me jump in just what I can learn. Right? Let me offer my help, just so that I can learn. And in my spare time, you know, I would cold call some of the leads that he that this other gentleman would provide me. And that's how I got my, my feet wet. That's how I got the nerves out of the way. That's how I got all that rejection, that fear of rejection out of the way.

Ariel Herrera 18:51

Excellent. That occurs to everything in life. Right? Preparation is key.

Speaker 2 18:55

Yeah, no, definitely. So that helped big time. So that when I called Bill and I asked them, hey, so you're interested in selling tell me you know, what you're looking for the condition or properties, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? It felt like a natural conversation.

Ariel Herrera 19:11

Perfect, and not sure if you've mentioned this earlier. But how did you find your lead with were you going to batch leads or one of those websites to download, say all foreclosure properties in a given area at once? Or was it more of like a custom way that you were finding leads?

Speaker 2 19:28

Yeah, so I did miss on mentioning that. So Brian, the gentleman that I've met on that Facebook group community, he actually since I was putting myself out there saying, hey, you know, I have an SMS system in place. Anybody that I'm good with tech, anybody that wants to work together, let me know. So this gentleman actually sent me a list the upload or import into my SMS system. Excellent. Which I use batch Lee Just like you mentioned, he gave me the list already, you know, with the contact information on there, what we call skip trace, and the wholesale community. I imported there. And then I just I configured the batch. So to be sent out. And that's it. That was it. I just, like putting myself out there saying, Hey, I have this system in place. I'd be happy to work with anybody. Let me know. That gentleman reached out, Hey, I have a list put into your system. Let's get some deals done. It was that simple.

Ariel Herrera 20:35

So before going into more of the automation piece, for someone who at this stage is saying, I'm interested in real estate, I like the tech aspect of it as well. Wholesaling seems like a barrier, like a low barrier to entry that I could possibly get into. But you're talking a lot about SMS getting leads, software's is something that's going to cost me 1000s of dollars to get into? Or could you start wholesaling with less than $500 in your pocket?

Speaker 2 21:04

Absolutely. You can, you can, you can start wholesaling with $0. Now, here's a caveat, right? How automated Do you want to make your systems, right? The systems you put in place, they're there to, you know, free up some of your time. But in order to free up some of that time, you're gonna have to invest a little bit of money into it. But if you're getting if you're just getting started, and you have no budget whatsoever, what you have the time, it's as simple as getting a Google Voice number. Going through county records, right, if you just go to your state's and you just type in state county records, pre foreclosures as an example. That's those are your leads, right there, what you would do is you would track down the contact information for those folks. You know, you can use websites like fast people search, or true people search.com, all free. And just get on that Google Voice number and dial and just talk to people that cost $0. So something else that I do want to mention. So that's if you're going after what they call off market leads, meaning people that haven't publicly advertised their their home for sale on the MLS, the Multiple Listing system, which is what most realtors use. That's one way to go about it. Another free way to go about it is you can also call the listings that you see on Zillow. Right, that information is there for you already, you just have to work with the agent in that case. And there's strategies that are a little bit different. When it comes to dealing with agents, I haven't gone down that path myself, but something I do plan on exploring. In the future, since I do have my license, I want to leverage that. But there's three ways to go about it. With 500 bucks, though, just to use that example, that number, you could pay for a couple of subscriptions to some of these platforms that will help you, you know, send out text messages. In my case, you know, that's the marketing method I use, because what I'm most familiar with and what I researched on, and it's what works for me. That's the other thing. What works for you, that's what you have to go with. So for me more, texting is what worked for me, for my situation and for 500 books, you're not going to do high volume, but you could definitely automate a lot of what you need, so that you don't have to be constantly sitting in front of a computer answering text messages.

Ariel Herrera 23:52

Excellent. And what do you suggest for that person who is starting out to look out of state when they're looking for leads or try their backyard first?

Speaker 2 24:02

So it depends, right? I live in Miami, Florida. hot market burning hot. I believe you're out in Tampa too, right? Yes, Tampa Tampa is blowing up as well. It's very competitive. Now, I'm not wanting to stray away from competition. But if I want to get into like the SMS game into the cold calling game, I'm gonna have to invest a lot more money to be able to compete with these other folks money that I don't have right now. And which is why I kind of focused on the virtual aspect of it. So right now I'm and I'm working with that JV partner I mentioned. His name is Buddy. I want to give a shout out to buddy. He's in Alabama. Right so we decided to focus on the Alabama market. And that's what we're focusing our marketing efforts on. But I'm just to go back a little bit. Look at your situation. Look at your situation. What I would say is do a little bit of research in your, in your, for your backyard, where you are, see what the average home of a, what the average price over the sale of a home is in your market. And if it's over half a million bucks, chances are you live in a, you know, in a pretty hot market. So try to focus on something that's not as expensive, where there's still activity, but not so much. And you can just Google all this, right? You can google or you know, hot markets, for wholesalers, etc. Right, and just jump in, just jump in. Do a little bit of research on your on your own. But then also, like I mentioned, don't try to do by yourself. Try to join these communities. Put yourself out there, the value that you bring, and then just work with somebody. You don't have to sign any paperwork, no contracts, just work with somebody out there that you know that's in the game already. A lot of folks out there are looking for, you know, somebody to bring onto your team for help. You just got to put yourself out there, you got to get yourself out of that comfort zone. and good things will happen. I

Ariel Herrera 26:23

completely agree with that. And in terms of strengths of bring, even simple as time time is the strength to be able to tie motivation, attention to detail. These are small, may think small strengths, but can be really valuable in a relationship. Yeah. And when you mentioned being able to search for different areas to possibly wholesale in I actually recently was asking chat GPT on like hot markets and asking like what is the median sale price and it was able to do pretty well. Not just saying major cities but also neighborhoods of in those cities or around the cities?

Speaker 2 27:05

Yes, chat, GBT all the craze right now. Definitely use that sort of Google. And yeah, and median sale price. That's that's the word I was looking for the phrase I was looking for. So thank you for that. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Ariel Herrera 27:16

And I know that you've been exploring some more automation techniques, possibly using Zapier for policies. So could you detail a little bit of that?

Speaker 2 27:28

So I had reached out to you on LinkedIn after I stumbled across one of your your YouTube videos. And I kind of mentioned that briefly already. The on market leads, like the houses you see for sale on Zillow on the MLS, etc. That's something I plan on going into to next, right? I'm exploring a little bit, I'm not gonna jump into it 100%. That's just another avenue to also explore, right? It's not one or the other. It's something else. I also plan on exploring. And what I plan on doing was what I had in mind was pulling that Zillow information extracting that Zillow information. Specifically, for properties that have been on the market for 90 plus days as an example, the more the days on market, the higher the motivation, the motivation increases there. So those are good ones to normally go after. extract that information. Put it on to an Excel sheet, probably use some zaps, from Zapier, right to automate that. And keep a keep a sheet or a Google sheet or an Excel sheet of some sort updated with the properties that come onto market that are 90 plus days old, and then import that into my SMS system that I'm currently using, that my VA helps me with, and then start reaching out to agents to the agents. So I'm extracting the property information, meaning beds, baths, square footage, your bill, etc. Plus the agent information, email, phone number, etc. And then I would send them text messages and also emails. I still have to work on the email piece. See how I can automate that. But that's the idea behind that. Why I reached out to after I came across that that YouTube video of yours.

Ariel Herrera 29:33

Excellent. I think that's a great way to find another source of leads and to be able to automate it through Zapier, sometimes Zapier, they go through both. But what's really neat about Zapier that I love is that it talks of different applications, and you can work with it without knowing how to code so say if you added a new lead into a spreadsheet, you could have Zapier, say trigger an action every single time A new property is added. And it would go and then pull information. So love that you have started to bring this into your own systems. Yes. Yeah. When it comes to the SMS part, do you have the same templates that you use each time? Or do you have that interchange?

Speaker 2 30:20

So it's a diverse, a lot of these SMS systems do require you to have certain wording in these messages that you send out to abide by some of the regulations that they have in place as it relates to TCPA compliance and things of that nature. Basically, it's just a fancy way of saying, Hey, Mike, you can't have these words in the text messages, right? So you have to get creative when you send out these text messages, these cold text messages. And that's part of the reason to why I'm looking to also go down the on market route reaching out to agents, because the agent information is public, the listing information is public, right? Whereas off market, not so much. And that's why there's all these regulations around it. But these platforms, they, they they guide you, they're super helpful in that regard. There's a lot of documentation I've tried multiple SMS texting platforms, and they all super helpful and trying to keep you you know, compliant. And so yeah, you definitely have to use different wording different templates. You have to provide opt out Burbage meaning you have to give the people you're reaching out to an option to Hey, Stop bugging me. Don't send me any more text messages, things of that nature. And, and yeah, I mean, this is all something that I've just, I've learned along the way, it's not something that I just, you know, saw on a YouTube video or read on a blog once and then I'm like, Okay, I'm ready to implement this, bam, let's go. No, there's been growing pains.

Ariel Herrera 32:14

I think that's the value that you also bring as someone who someone could JV with or receive mentorship from is that you're still early enough in the phase where you can explain certain terms, while still like high level enough that everyone can understand and explain some of the pain points that someone may have early on. Whereas sometimes those very deep into wholesaling years of experience, it sometimes could be unrelatable of like those just getting started points. And talking about getting started, what would be the main aspects you would say someone should focus on when building their brand, within wholesaling, or just generally, as a newbie investor?

Speaker 2 33:00

Like I alluded to earlier in the conversation, just put yourself out there. Right? Put yourself out there. And like you mentioned, right, some of the value that you could bring to the table is just having time, right? Sometimes that's enough to be like, Hey, I have little experience and, and in real estate in general, but half the time, how can I help you, you know, either, you know, go through your list of leads, or follow up with some of your leads, cold calling, etc. And just get started just like get your feet wet, somehow, and then you will connect with somebody that you vibe with, that you resonate with. and good things will happen. Like I keep coming back to that saying good things will happen. Because it's true. Because if I am the analytical type, I tend to overthink a lot of things. And something I've come to realize a little by little is that I just have to take action instead of you know, consuming more content. Because I suffer from shiny object syndrome a lot. So I see something cool and something new, like I want to jump to it. Right. So I've actually made it a point to just stop listening to a lot of real estate related podcasts. Because I always hear something new and something cool on there. So I just focus more like on the business aspect of it now. I listen to a lot of business podcasts now. Because I just want to focus on things, but somebody that's just getting started. If I had to go back to my past self and tell him something I'd be like it's fine to listen to podcasts, right? It's fine to listen to podcasts, stop listening to Radio altogether and just listen to the real estate podcast. But after a couple of weeks or so thing to the podcast, like, jump into the communities and put yourself out there. And just say, introduce yourself what you bring to the table and go from there. If I were done that from the beginning, I probably would have been a lot further along than I am not for sure.

Ariel Herrera 35:20

I completely agree with that. It's all about taking action, not going to be perfect the first time, but you're going to learn along the way and give yourself more of a runway to do. So. When I first started real estate investing, I did one full year of just diving into content, reading everything, and I told myself, at that year mark, I need to be under contract for a property. Otherwise, this would all be for nothing. So I think I gave myself probably too long of a runway in that sense, like now, because of me putting a lot of milestones ahead of myself. I tried to action a lot more quickly. And I think another point to kind of emphasize like, what you just spoke on, is maybe getting yourself out there, you put many milestones, which is let me first join the Facebook group within the next three days, let me message three people that are on the Facebook group within the next two days, that could really help to break up one large task of finding your first deal into these mini milestones that you can accomplish.

Speaker 2 36:24

And yeah, and just add to that, and Facebook groups is just one avenue, right? I just don't want to make it sound like Facebook group is the end all be all. Reddit, that's another social media platform. That's, that's pretty active in terms of like wholesale, they have like little sub Reddits is what they call them little sub communities within there. So Reddit is another place that you can definitely find the JV partner. And I've spoken to a few folks there that have reached out to me, right, and I've helped them out how I can. Discord, Discord communities, same thing, right? If you search them up, you'll find them there. Facebook is just one of many, put yourself out there on all of them, and see and see what happens.

Ariel Herrera 37:10

Excellent. So Drew, thank you so much for sharing your background, as well as your current journey within wholesaling JV and adding some automation to your processes at this stage would just love to know a little bit more about you through your success. And I know you're super busy with being newly married, having new baby. And I just love to know what are some of your daily habits if you have any or use to have the healthy community or success.

Speaker 2 37:41

So, three baby, I used to wake up every morning at 5am. And I would meditate for about five minutes, I would read for about 10. And then I would work on my business for like another 45 or so until like six o'clock in the morning. And then I would work out shower and then you know begin my day. So that was pre baby post baby now. I'm definitely hitting the podcasts, listening the podcast a little bit more. That's my daily routine, I listen to podcasts for everything, you know, feeding the baby walking the dogs driving, I still keep that going reading, I definitely want to get back into the habit of that. Like I used to seeing as how time is very limited for me now with with with a baby. What I found myself doing is whenever I wake up in the middle of the night to feed the baby because he wakes up at least once a night once I feed them and I put them back down at work on my business for a little bit. So like 3045 minutes, and then go back to bed. Because that's really the only free time that I have that and during lunchtime at work. But that's not always a given. But if I have free lunch time at work, you know, then I dedicate some time to working on the business then. So right now it's not very, it's not structured. Right? I there's one thing that I've learned now that I have a baby is that you have to be intentional with your time. The calendar is my best friend, my wife and I's best friend. Because if it's not on the calendar, it doesn't exist. It's not gonna happen. So that's, that's something that I've learned, you know, being a new dad and all that and a new business owner, that you have to be intentional with your time. Yeah.

Ariel Herrera 39:41

I completely agree with that. And I really resonate with your habits that you had prior baby to waking up early in the morning and starting your day off that well that way because that's the one opportunity of the day before everyone starts maybe emailing you or you get and I can see different things you could really Focus, and hone in on a particular maybe skill or mindset you want to be in. So you did mention as well, not just not just podcast, but also reading books. Do you have a favorite book, perhaps business or life.

Speaker 2 40:16

So the one that kind of made an impact on me. It's not like my favorite favorite, but the one that kind of like just stuck with me was, and it's one that probably everybody go on mentioned, it's Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Right? That's the one that impacted a lot of folks. For me, it made me realize that there's more than just being an employee. Right, because he breaks down the the four quadrants employee, self employed, business owner, and then investor, I eventually want to get to that investor phase, I am slowly working towards that. Right now I'm dipping my toes into like the self employed stage. But that's the one that made me realize, hey, I can, you know, I don't necessarily have to be an employee all my life, I can also, you know, dip my toes into the entrepreneurial world, even if I don't have any experience in it. Because a lot of folks, you know, you, you just have to be comfortable enough to get out of your comfort zone, you have to be brave enough to get out of your comfort zone. If you have that courage. I think that's all you need to do. Not all you need. But one of the big things that'll help you jump into that entrepreneurial world into the entrepreneurial side of things. They say, you know, people are either born entrepreneur or not. I don't agree with that I think people can become can learn to become entrepreneurs. I'm doing it now. I got a long road ahead of me, I started kind of late, but better late than ever. But, but yeah, that's the the one book that kind of left an impact on me, that made me realize I can be more than just an employee.

Ariel Herrera 42:13

Excellent. I love to see that you took action after reading that book, as well. And if you were to provide any piece of advice, for those out there, maybe looking to make that transition to employees, either self employed or entrepreneurship and they want to get their feet wet and start that process. What piece of advice would you provide?

Speaker 2 42:36

That's a good question. And one that I actually have an answer for. I recently came across a tweet from he considers himself a solopreneur. His name is Justin Welsh. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him. I came across his his Twitter account. And he had a tweet that said, in order to find your, your your niche, or niche, I'm not sure how you pronounce that, in order to provide in order to find something that you're really interested in. Imagine that somebody pulls you aside randomly, and tells you, hey, talk to me about something that interests you for 30 minutes unprepared. If you know what that answer is, I think that's something that you can explore, and then dive deeper into and make a business model. That that would be my advice. Go through that thought exercise. What can I talk about 30 minutes without preparing for it. 30 minutes straight? Go through that thought exercise? And then I think that that would be your answer.

Ariel Herrera 43:55

Excellent. I think it's an exercise. Yeah, that everyone looking to be an entrepreneur should take and really find your passion just by doing exercise like that, or similar ones to it. So with that true, it's an excellent to have you on the tech and real estate podcast. I feel like I've gained so much knowledge about wholesaling and the strength of partnerships, as well as how to make that shift from entrepreneur to building your own business and your own brand.

Speaker 2 44:24

All right, so I have and maybe we can put this on the show notes. Yeah, I have an Instagram where I'm more active on that and on any other platform. And the handle is deals with drew our EI and on there I have like a link tree link that you know Cole will send you to my Facebook to my LinkedIn to my Twitter, etc. So if people just want to look me up on Instagram, at deals with drew our ei you can find a little bit more about me and my journey.

Ariel Herrera 44:59

I Slynt so feel free to reach out to Drew directly and ask any questions away so thank you so much drew for your time really appreciate it

Unknown Speaker 45:09

thank you Ariel