3 Pay Day Deals with Chris Prefontaine

 Josh
 Good day, everybody. Welcome to the deal scout on today's show. I'm excited. This guy is a legend. You might've seen him all over like YouTube and all these videos of what he's doing, but want to welcome Chris to the show, Chris, welcome in. 

 Chris
 Thanks Josh. You sent me up by saying that, but I appreciate it. 

 Josh
 Well, I tell you if anybody's been in the deal game for awhile, they've they probably seen your stuff. Kind of give us an idea of who you are and what are you focused on? 

 Chris
 Yeah, I'll give you the 10,000 foot view because I'm going on 30 plus years here I have, since 91 touched on a lot of the niches. I was a broker for 18 of those years. Built hundreds of homes did some flips, a lot of the niches, not syndication, some the other things by choice, but a lot of niches I've touched coming into the crash or out of the crash. I should say about eight. That was nasty. I know, not just for me, so I don't need to, there's no pity party here, but it was nasty. As a result, what we're doing now, we be my son-in-law and my son, and a great team. We bind, sell in the new England area and we do so on terms, meaning we don't use banks, we don't put up money. There's exceptions to that piece, if it's a great deal, but bylaws, we don't put up our own money. 

 Chris
 We don't sign on loans. It didn't for me coming out of the crash. It was a necessity. My credit when the toilet and I had liquidated everything. We do buy on terms and then we go ahead and teach that all around the country now. We're in the trenches doing it and we hold people's hands very interactively and do deals out there now. 

 Josh
 Yeah. As you're doing this, what is the perfect deal look like as your son and son-in-law which that's probably an interesting story there too. What, you know, what's a perfect deal. Look like for you. 

 Chris
 This is good because no, one's, I've asked Matt and we do, we set up our avatar, right? For our personal family deals. Typically for us, it's someone that's out of state and appreciates the structuring of terms. After that deal is made at the very beginning, it's hands off for them. What, who is some sellers that make that up? People relocating people, sadly, who got hit by not be able to pay their mortgage. COVID put that on hyperdrive, right? But that's always been around. The third niche totally different is the seller who's free and clear. It's about a third of the properties in us right now. They're awesome to deal with. There's a certain call it financial savvy they're debt free. They're there for a reason. The building I'm standing in today talking to a is a mixed use building that we bought in 18 on terms for it was free and clear. 

 Chris
 Didn't have to go to the bank, didn't have to go through the grueling underwriting and all that. That's a highlight, but I mean, there's all niches within the niche, but that's a highlight for you. 

 Josh
 Sure. What, what does the bad deal look like now? Obviously, if the numbers don't line up, we'll call that a bad deal. What are other areas or other things that you see, whether they're dealing with the seller or the property, what are, what's a bad deal for you? 

 Chris
 Yeah, this is good too, because I think if you asked me to look back and what were the bad deals that we either were either that we rushed into. Or at the time we didn't have our avatar spelled out. Like I just told you, and were grabbing deals to grab deals. Everybody's done it in real estate and come out of the crash where I was super aggressive. I did some of those. What are the, what specifically putting a buyer in a home that shouldn't have been in a home, we do rent to own program, so we want good, good, strong buyers entering a deal with a cell that you knew was a pain in the ass day. One, whether they were questioning everything you did or whether they were haggling right through the whole, like, this is a very simple process. If all those red flags and up at the beginning, we shouldn't have done the deal. 

 Chris
 We don't now, but after 31 years, I'm brain dead to it. But, but at the beginning we did and it causes headaches and sometimes loss and sometimes relationships. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Sometimes the best deal is the deal you don't do, right? 

 Chris
 Yeah. A hundred percent to tie those two together. 

 Josh
 Yeah. If you could go back in time, you and I, go back in time and you could remove one deal. Just one. What was the worst deal you ever did that? You're like, I wish I could erase that from the memory. 

 Chris
 Well, it would have to be pre-crash cause post-crash, I can control them and you can pivot so many ways, but pre-crash, it would have been raising some funds to do a condominium conversion was a six unit building in Providence, Rhode Island. There was a bunch of errors in hindsight error, number one, raising private money right before the crash. Not that I shouldn't know the crash, but I should've known to keep the LTV down for other. Problem, number two, with that deal is raising money with someone I knew. Not only do I not borrow money now, I don't borrow money for someone I know. Cause that caused the relationship to go sour. And that's awful. Cause that's more important, right? 

 Josh
 Yeah. In 2006, my group and I, we built 20, no 40 maybe 40 spec homes. Bad timing. Right. 

 Chris
 Oh, so you are, you were in the lovely time is as the same as I am. And I appreciate and respect that. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Yeah. I got, I get my real estate license in 2000, maybe 2000. I was 18 years old. My dad was in construction. I couldn't wait to stop working for dad. My thoughts though. He could build it. I could sell it. Went on a build in multifamily and such like that. When I built some spec homes, yeah, I got burnt pretty bad. And a lot of people did. W what do you is going on in the market today? Are you seeing 2006 all over again? Like, what are your views and thoughts on this? 

 Chris
 Yeah. Please let me do a disclosure here. Like this is only my views. If someone tells you they can predict what's going on, it's just, there's no one in the predictable hall of fame show and it just doesn't exist. My opinion is no it's different than 2006, because 2006 was not driven by like a national, COVID or anything like that. International. So I just think it's different. The, the economy was booming right now versus through all that crap versus what happened in oh six and seven and eight leading up to eight, I think it was entirely different. What I think is going to happen, obviously, I don't know you and I would be on the beach somewhere. We wouldn't be on the show together, but I here's what I said just recently on the show this morning, chaos in general, in the market. I would consider chaos right now to be happening because people are worried about interest rates. 

 Chris
 People worried about Russia. People worried about COVID still this chaos, when this chaos in your position properly to be the guide to so many consumers, like they yearning for that right now, someone please tell me what to do with my house. Someone, please tell me how to like, they need that when this chaos, and you can provide that. It's not only a healthy relationship because not to taking advantage of it's a healthy relationship, a win-win, but it's also very lucrative for you if how to position it. That's what this niche that we're, where we've been in, is built to do is built a thrive after oh eight. I didn't know Kobe was coming. When COVID hit, we boomed why it was built to do that. It's about is recession resistant is the word I'll use not proof as you can get. So, sorry. Long answer to a really good question. 

 Josh
 Oh, thanks man. So, all right. You said that it's, recession resistant versus proof kind of give us what do you mean by that? Like give it and then break down. Like, why do you choose this niche versus something else? 

 Chris
 Yeah. Okay. So resistant. Why? Well, first and foremost, I don't think anyone could say recession proof again, I think that goes along with the predictability. Like you can't say that. I, in my opinion, this is just all Chris's opinion today. Nothing's 100% recession proof. How do we make it? Recession resistant. Ideals are such that and no particular priority order one, we're getting massive principal pay down on our deals. One of our ideals in particular, when we deal with free and clear owners, we're making 99% of the deals. We're making principal only monthly payments that is hammering principal over just a few years versus an inverse relationship going again and alone. That's one resistant factor we have in second, all our agreements are built in to be able to pivot. I mean that in a positive way, not a hidden way in an agreement. If, if the market was to crash tomorrow, there are pivots I can make on every single one of my deals with the seller. 

 Chris
 Third, I'm not on any. When I say meet the way our system is built, any investors, not on any loans personally, in 2008, I was on about 23 of them. I learned the hard way that bankers don't care about me. They got a personal signature while out they come coming after you. We control, I don't know, at any one time 30 to 70 properties as a family company, not counting the student deals we do. We are not one single solitary loan. Josh, not one. So, so I can sleep much better at night knowing that then among all these loans and what's going to happen tomorrow. Cause I would be thinking that now, if I had those, as far as this niche, why? In addition to where I said, why this niche compared to others? Cause I've been in so many and this is the track laser-focused since oh eight, because it was built to do what I said earlier. 

 Chris
 Weather, all storms and performing all markets. Like it literally doesn't matter what the market is. My wife always says, when is something on the news? Okay. How about how's that going to affect you? How's Cobra to how does I always say when there's change in chaos, this niche is built to handle that and we've proven it over and over again. That's why the second reason is you and I both have, I'm sure I've gotten nice paydays on deals. Like real estate has been good to us despite the crash, other than that really good to us. But there are one payday deals, right? Yeah. You build a kick-butt home. You get, you got a deal. When I was a realtor, you gotta deal you all these one payday deals. And so in January would come along. I'd be like, Aw, man, I got to do it again. 

 Chris
 If I want to produce that, we create and we trademarked federally in the United States, we trademarked three paydays. An investor can come in and this is a good business model for anyone nevermind real estate. They get paid. You get paid. Now when you do a deal, you get paid monthly. When you do a deal and you get paid, long-term when it cashes out. That's the ideal cashflow model. So that's what we've built. That's your beats getting paid once and having to stay on a treadmill. 

 Josh
 Yeah. When there's a cash out event, is that what I hear? 

 Chris
 Yeah. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Okay. And trademark, that's interesting. On the three pay day approach, right? If something lines up and is this across all your projects or is this on project by project base? 

 Chris
 Good question. Because I teach what I just said. The three pay days, I teach it on lease purchase, owner financing and subject to existing financing, those three deals. Everybody says to me, well, can you buy commercial? Can you buy a multi's? Yes. I'm standing in the building. As I said, it's very lucrative building. Just got to praise for, I don't know, 400 grand more than I bought it a few years ago. Yeah, it's very lucrative, but that's not a three pay idea, right? This is, this was an investment that I happened to buy on terms that has just your regular run. Try to get the NOI up, et cetera. Can you buy multi-families on a Francine? Yeah, we did a six and a four recently cashed out. They were bought because they were free and clear and they all bought owner financing with principal only payments while the tenants paid it down very rapidly. 

 Chris
 Six figure deals. Those on three paydays was the ones, but 95% of our personal deals are all paid at threes. A hundred percent of, I teach a payday threes, one twos and threes. 

 Josh
 Awesome. Now, what were you doing before real estate? You said you've been doing this 30 years. 

 Chris
 Yeah. In 91, the fall of 91, I started and prior to that, I was in a, nothing new real estate, but that was my tie to real estate. That was a family company that my father built took over from his father. It was a welding supply business. It was nothing in estate, but the tie was, he built up from one little tiny branch. He took over from his dad to be in the largest, in new England with like five or six branches, brick and mortar branches. It would delivery trucks and all kinds of overhead. I learned that he built his own buildings personally, and then he leased them back to his company. That got me seeing him do that. Got me, seeing him do land and things like that. Even though he did it on the side that got my interest now, that's what kind of got my head wrapped around real estate. 

 Chris
 As a kid, I couldn't understand what do you mean? You build it and you lease it to you. Like, I didn't get that, but now I do at least do his LLC and his tax advantages and all these things. I didn't get it back then, but that's what got me into real estate. 

 Josh
 Yeah. You got into real estate, like when I first got into real estate, they hand you a phone book, you start making phone calls, you list, whatever, you could get, grab whatever deal you could get listings, which bring more listings. And I hated it. I, I listed a mobile home in the national forest, made 35 minutes to get there. I made 300 bucks after a month of driving back and forth, showing people, right. It's terrible. I started working with investors and and I got my butt kicked, but what was your journey? Because in real estate, how did you get to where you are today? 

 Chris
 The initial ones. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. In 91, I started, I had this, I was listening to an old Nightingale tape, driving to one of my family branches back then. He said something about a guy burned, the depression that when nobody could buy or herself would go around and talk to landowners and talk them into putting his sign out front. If he sold it, then he would buy it and make the spread. So I literally got home. Now this is going to date me, but I set up the recorder, my basement, literally it was the phone recorder, right? Came phone calls, come in and went onto the recorder. I put signs out and I started doing that and partnering with a builder. That builder and I ended up becoming partners in our own company. We built hundreds of homes in 94 and 95. When things slowed down, I bought a Realty executives franchise, and I put my realtor hat on, never was a realtor sold that call banker in 2000. 

 Chris
 That was the intent. I never wanted to do that. Long-term as a broker because like you, I was like, eh, I just, I wanted to build something. I sold a Coldwell banker in 2000, started coaching people and running my own investments. My own investments ran me into the 2008 crash. So that was kind of the journey. And then the rest is history. Literally not to be cliche, but because of the crash, you couldn't have convinced me then. Because of the crash, it's what we built now. We're loving it. It's created besides the three pages, it's created some amazing lifestyle for a bunch of people and our purpose as a company and the coaching side is to help individuals and families to create the life of their dreams. We're doing that like literally left and right as they go, full-time in real estate. It's pretty cool. 

 Josh
 Yeah. About how many deals a year do you guys do now? 

 Chris
 As a family company was still in the two to five range per month. As a community, the community we call the wicked community still does another 15 to 20 a month. All total we can do 30 plus deals between family and students. Cause we rev share on all these deals, Josh, meaning I think there's an enormous gap right now. It's always been in real estate training where someone takes a course or a seminar from that point to when they do their first deal. Some never do a deal, which is mind boggling to me because someone really a good marketer sold them on a product, good for them, but they don't have any follow-up. So our coaching is very interactive. We're in the trenches because reality is you go to the seminar and you go out in the real world. There's a lot of stuff you don't know. 

 Chris
 As robust as our courses, if they want to get more aggressive, we stay with them and do deals with them. That has us right on their shoulder, literally talking to buyers and sellers, showing them how to do the deal out to 10 deals. You kind of get it like, you learned a lot of mistakes with us versus by yourself. 

 Josh
 Yeah. No, that's super cool. Wicked smart. That that's what that is right now. 

 Chris
 You're sure it's coming. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. I'll wear it. Wicked smart. Like why that, why did you choose that name? Like, that's a very Northern thing to say wicked, right? Yeah. 

 Chris
 It is a we, okay. My wife named smart real estate coach back in like 14 when we were official. Cause I was coaching before that, but we smart real estate coach. My real estate coach really took on a life of its own, has a great brand. We hired our media and now I see a Mo marketing guy, Ryan, the wicked started coming up just cause we live in new England. And then we actually trademarked ass. We trade my real estate coach in wicked. Smart is in the process and that's not easy to do in new England. Like that's why I can't even get the site, but I can get the, but I trademarked the name. It was just a new England thing and it fit the smart real estate coach. 

 Josh
 Very cool. Very cool. Now you work with primarily your son and son-in-law right. Every, 

 Chris
 It started with them in my daughter who now has kids, so she's not active, but yeah. Start with the four of us. 

 Josh
 Okay. There any family drama that ever pops up at added this because you got sun, right? You've got son-in-law and there's probably a lot of personalities for dealmakers, right? 

 Chris
 Yeah. Everybody asks us about the families. Okay. So, because I wish I could say to you, yeah, you orchestrated this. I knew this org chat was going to fill out in this, but I didn't, I want to do was I started working by myself after the crash. Nick happened to share my son and office with me as a realtor. I asked him to help me do the buyer side of things. And that started growing. Zach and Kayla were in the bartending business and personal training business. Cause that's the type of area we're in very touristy in transit. He said, Hey, can we come in? Like, is there a room? This was like 15. I said, yeah, I mean, there's no salary. We do deals. We get paid as we do deals. After that happened, everybody fell into their roles organically. Like Nick loves the buyers and crushes it with them. 

 Chris
 Zach wanted to do more of what I do. Kayla was more of the general manager at the time. We all just organically fell into our roles and then to fit, not as a fix to make sure we operate to your point where there's not drama or conflict. We then just simply established in 17, the mission, the purpose and the values. And it wasn't top down. It wasn't me saying, this is what we're going to do. And then you got to buy in. It was, we voted on it. We built it together. We S we structured a five-year mission, which coincidentally ends this year 22. A decision comes up, Josh, it's not opinion at that point, right? To your point of personality it's well, here are the values. Does it fit? Does it fit the mission? Does it fit the purpose? No. Okay. There's no personality that doesn't fit. 

 Chris
 If it fits, it's a go, you guys decided this. We all decided this as a team, it fits great. So we go, we live by that. The mission value and the purpose. Very key, because without it, you get all kinds of opinions and conflict. 

 Josh
 Did you, did you pull that from like Gino Wickman's traction and EOS? 

 Chris
 No. I've heard of the traction. Very similar. No, we've been with the lead entrepreneurs. Similar. You get a lot of crossover lead entrepreneurs out of Arizona, the founder, what used to be with he's scaled very successfully with Infusionsoft, the company Infusionsoft. Who's huge now. A lot of companies started going to them saying, can you teach us? They branched off and they started to lean entrepreneurs. We actually now have one of their JV partners who teach for them, runs all our off sites facilitates that teaches a leadership class for our team. Like lots of stuff going on with that. Cause it's all about the training of the people. Right? 

 Josh
 Very cool. So mission, purpose, values. Let's peel one of those, back and, share that. Which of those mission purpose values, which one is most important to you? And then let's talk about, 

 Chris
 Well, the purpose will live with us and the values will live with us. So, so the purpose, we can talk about that because that was the one I said, we help individuals create the life in families, create the life of their dreams. Like when a decision comes down, are we doing that with someone? Like, are we're encouraging someone to go full-time and giving them a plan? Is that doing that? Yes. We kind of match it with that. Does it have to line up with the values? Yeah. Like we won't go through all of them, but like one of them, because we're renewing, when is Claire blunt and to the point, no gray area that doesn't give you the permission to be rude. It's open communication so that people can grow together. Transit Altrinsic conducting all transactions to the highest integrity is another value comes up a lot. 

 Chris
 There's been applicants, Josh that apply to our programs. Literally. I don't know any coach that will do this. There's been applicants every year for the last five years that apply that we've had to say no to, even though they want to give us money because it didn't a lot, they didn't align with the values or the purpose of the mission. It's just, we know it's going to pollute the community. So we say no. We probably turned around, I don't know, 200 grand last year, 21 to know to applicants. And so we very strict with that. We hire fire and accept students by those. 

 Josh
 Nice. How do you know when interviewing a student, if they're going to like buck up against, you know, Michigan does her values, how do you know that. 

 Chris
 Simple questions? The integrity, one's a great one. They might give you an example of how they handle the situation. They might be rude to our staff. They take that open blood communication to the wrong level right away. We know, and this is just going to be hard situation. Anything like that, w we tend to be very family oriented. We tend to attract that type of person. If that's going to not be comfortable for someone we usually know right away. So just things like that. On the higher levels, they have to submit a video saying why they think they'd be a good fit for our community. And we usually can tell they're too. 

 Josh
 Yeah, that's pretty cool. Now let's just say I apply. You're like this Josh has massive ego, or, this guy is going to be a pain in the ass. How would you say no to me? We're on a phone and I'm not a good fit for the community. How do, how would you turn me away? 

 Chris
 Pretty much along these lines. W our course is for anyone, it's an online academy and it's cool. You can do your own thing. You will go do deals. No question about it. Josh right now, because we're limited availability. It doesn't seem like it's a great fit for our community. Right? Right. This second, we can revisit this with you in six or 12 months, because people change. Some of these guys who are super young and guys, and gals were super young and maybe things would change over time. We left that door open because sometimes when we do it, they're like, no, no, no. I, I'll do whatever it takes. So it just, sometimes a timing thing. We all mature. Right. I, gosh, w in my twenties, I, you probably won't want to deal with me. So everybody changes. 

 Josh
 I'm trying to mature. I'm 40. 

 Chris
 The s**t out. You and me both. I got a few years on you, but you want me to bow? 

 Josh
 Yeah. How old are you, man? 

 Chris
 I'm 56 tomorrow. Actually, as of this training, the district cording, 

 Josh
 No kid in 56 tomorrow. Huh? What are you going to do to celebrate? 

 Chris
 I am actually going to hang with my grandkids in the morning because my son-in-law and daughter is two kids. Because that's my, why Josh has been that way for awhile. Do the things in the businesses that create the money that do the things that money can't buy, create the money to do the things money can't buy. That's experiences with the kids in the family. 

 Josh
 Yeah. How many grandkids you guys got. 

 Chris
 To? Yup. 

 Josh
 Awesome. I, our grandkids are a lot better than the actual kids. 

 Chris
 Well, cause you can do everyone and have a blast. Like, I'm going to the house tomorrow to have breakfast, raise heck let them do what they want. And then I get to leave. 

 Josh
 Yeah. It's handed back over to mom and dad say peace out. 

 Chris
 Good luck. 

 Josh
 As you're building out this real estate, why did you start teaching it? Right? Like if it, if it's working so well for you, why share the secrets with other people? 

 Chris
 Everyone asks us to two reasons for us. One general coaching reason. Second more of a business reason. The general coaching is this any person that has done any coaching would agree with this. That is once you coach two things happen. One, you have to have to have your sword be sharp all the time. You gotta be on the cusp or no, one's gonna want to follow you. I'm always trying to stay one step ahead. One step ahead. One step back. Cause we're doing the deals in the trenches. So there's actually three reasons. That's one second reason is when you're coaching people, we're now all over the country. So we're like a microcosm of society. If you will, does a tweak in the market and more seller call stock coming in, I'm hearing it in every market. We get to as a team, as a community, learn from each other it's hypergrowth. 

 Chris
 You do your own solo choppering then you have hyper-growth because everyone's talking about the markets that they're in. Third is from a business standpoint where we're dominating the real estate market by showing people actually how to do deals, which I think is missing. At the same time, we're spreading ourselves out versus doing our own deals liability wise, because we're doing deals with a bunch of different people. That spreads out not only a profitability and a variety of leads and a variety of markets, but our liability. It's pretty neat. Win-win for everybody. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Have you ever had a student like, so you spend a lot of time, you're teaching them, coaching them and then they go off and build their own coaching program. That looks very similar to yours. 

 Chris
 We haven't had a direct yet, but I know that's reality in real estate. It is, my wife asked me this all the time, but I I'm more on the line with morally and ethically. If we treat people right, that they won't go out and step on toes. That's my opinion. My second opinion is I come from the prosperity mindset versus I go, like, I have people Joshua then w an hour of this office that we teach and they, and people go, why are you teaching? You do deals there too. I said, yeah, how many millions of deals around them are like, have a prosperity mindset. If they want to go out and do some stuff on their own, God love them. We've worked hard to get to where we are. It takes years to do that, but I'm not going to step on anyone's toes. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Now you mentioned sharpening a sword, right? Like why did you come up with that? Like metaphor to describe like staying sharp? Like why you know, why a sword? 

 Chris
 Yeah. A guy, one of my Mentos, I've always said a mental almost all the time. One of them in like 2000, I was doing some speaking for it for drug sales company actually traveled the world. This guy said, Chris, we'll go into some frustration. And he said, okay, that's normal. If your ax is not against the grindstone and sparks are not firing, then you're not growing. That, so that's why I guess I started using that. No one ever asked me, but I think so he used to always say that Spock's gotta be fine. You're going to be against the grindstone. You'll be learning and growing constantly. Oh, you're going backwards. 

 Josh
 Very cool. I, for some of my coaching clients that, graduate, whatever, like I, I, I used to send them a, a gladiator sword. Cool. Yeah, it was super cool. I went to go buy my own and they discontinued it. It's like the coolest sword from like, I think it was cold steel or something like that. It's bad-ass me. And in school. 

 Chris
 We bought, it's funny. We bought our coach. He passed away this past year, but one of my mentors who I'll never forget Tim out in California when I was a realtor, this is my real today's. He coached all like five of us. We all do like a hundred homes a year. We got on the, a man, Mel Gibson, what? We would paint his face. Heart. Yeah. We got on set up on a stage and we, he painted his face up and everything. So it's funny we had similar paths. You and I. Yeah, 

 Josh
 Yeah, yeah. Super cool. I love that movie. That is a cool movie out of all the movies you've seen, are you a fan of film and cinema? 

 Chris
 Yeah. I hand pick them, but yeah. Okay. 

 Josh
 What's one of your favorite movies. 

 Chris
 This is like the answer to the books because it's where I am mentally. Where I, where my favorite movie was in eighties might not be now. Right. So, so recently, any true story that's inspiring in any shape, form or fashion, or it can learn from, so the McDonald's. 

 Josh
 Ray crock. 

 Chris
 When it came out, it was it behind the arches or whatever it was. 

 Josh
 I thought it was founder with, 

 Chris
 Sorry, the movie was founder. Yeah. The book and the movie to me were great because it hit business, building, it hit the whole grit thing. It hit real estate, it hit everything, it hits struggle. I, that was one of my more recent favorites. Again, it changes by where my brain is, where do I want to go learn next? You know? 

 Josh
 Yeah, yeah. Now if I grabbed your phone and were looking through some of the playlist, right? What's some music that you listened to that gets you, like, you just had a deal go south and you're like, kind of p****d. You're like, but this music always lifts you back up. What, what kind of music do you listen to? 

 Chris
 The only music I have on my iPhone is my two for two reasons, one working out. It's, and I'll tell you what they are in a second. Two, one of them, we play as a theme song at the event after every break. I play on the way in to get my mind straight. When we used to do the events while we still go to that hotel to broadcast. I go to the hotel, I play it and that's thunder. That's the song I used to come into the event and to eat every day, I'll know the participants now, and my kids are getting tired of it. And I said, we're not changing it. I played that and a bunch of other ACDC working out running, or even on the stationary bike while I'm reading, I'll have that on. That's it? I don't, I don't listen to music on my iPhone, 

 Josh
 But, but a major fan of ACDC. 

 Chris
 Yeah. That's dating me too, but I just it's workout music. I. 

 Josh
 Did. You ever have long hair because you have short hair now, like, did you ever rock. 

 Chris
 In college? I did. What, what, you know, the old show. The length. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Nice, nice. 

 Chris
 We'll get married. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Yeah. I used to have long hair too. My wife made me cut it as you're going through, the deals and, your mission, purpose values. Like how do you guys are winning? Like, how do you guys are on the right path? How do if you might be fallen off path? 

 Chris
 How are you winning is a good question, because this is important for your team members too. Right? We define it before each trimester. We pick as a team, the strategy for the year and then strategy for the trimester. Each one of us has a, what we call the big three. These are the things that you own in your role, even me as an owner, you own them and it's defined what it is. It's defined how we know we won every team member because they're always how the heck they gonna know it's a frustrating position to be in. The metric might be for our CMO might be, create X amount of new academy sales. On the coaching front, it might be, help this many students or this many transactions. How do if you want, here's the number? So just trackable reportable items, metrics, KPIs. What. 

 Josh
 Are your big three that you're working on right now? 

 Chris
 Well, because of my role as CEO slash moving into more chairman, it is driving the revenue train is how I wrote it. And so we've got certain revenue goals. I have some metrics around the coaching department, because as my son-in-law said, what we'll work on now is over this next year, he says, getting your brain into the coaches more. He wants me to just because my stuff is more about higher level deal, structuring, our course teaches you the basics. He wants me to get my in his words, my brain into the coaches, more so that we can get that duplicated. Those are my main two, the third one revolves around training the team up because it here's a good thing for any business owner to get to a million. I don't want to downplay it, but to get to a million dollars in revenue in any business, in my opinion, it's about just more email, more fun, more grinding. 

 Chris
 Like everybody can do it technically. If you're not there yet, then there might be some mental blocks, but you can get there. Getting from the million to the three and then three to five is an entirely different journey. One of my big three is working on making sure the team members are coached up and trained up. We spent more and we are this year on training than we ever did, hiring outside coaches and hiring internal coaches for the team members, not just the owners. Yeah. 

 Josh
 Talking about mental blocks, right. Through different phases of your life. Cause you mentioned like I watched this movie because it's important to me at this phase. What are some mental blocks during the different phases of your personal growth that you've had to overcome? 

 Chris
 Well, there's normal ones that go through in business, but let me just go to the bigger one. The bigger one was coming out of the crash. It took me four years, February of oh eight to February 12th to even feel like, oh, I can go do this deal. Like I I'm worthy of it. It was a major, major block because it was failure in oh eight. If this failure, okay, maybe I can't do this. It was unbelievable. It was a matter of getting coaches and getting around the right people who then eventually some of them said to me why, what you went through is not. I went through this, you just got to expose yourself to bigger and bigger and better ideas and people who have experienced a lot more. That's why I say, if you're seeking out mentors in real estate and they didn't go through what you and I went through, Josh, man, I'd be cautious. 

 Chris
 I, I'm not going to say run, but I be cautious because until you're tested, in my case nine 11, my son's snowboard accident. COVID, there's a lot of three to four different markets. Okay. That little bit of a lesson in there. If you, until you go through that, it's tough to, to know how hard that is. It's a mental game. 

 Josh
 Yeah. I'd tell, I tell people, if you just don't do the things that I failed at, just don't do these few things, right. You'd probably be a lot more successful. I've been bankrupt bid on food stamp, worked in venture capital, private equity, and then on the back of a moving truck the next day, it's like, what? 

 Chris
 You gotta, you gotta absolutely come on my show because we have some more stories. 

 Josh
 Okay. Yeah. I'd love to do that, man. It's, it's fun. I, I like you in the fact of after oh six happened, I was like never, ever doing real estate again. 

 Chris
 I said it, at least once. 

 Josh
 I said, it's, I said it for 10 years or so. Like people keep trying to pull me back in and and finally I was, I think for me, a mental block at 2018 is when I was just like, all right, I I'm worthy enough to get back into deals. Right. I might, I might be a little dusty. Might have some cobwebs up there, but I'm getting back in the game. And you know, 

 Chris
 First of all, 

 Josh
 Thanks, Sudan. It was tough, man. 

 Chris
 I agree. The. 

 Josh
 Hardest thing I've ever had to deal with is that thing between my ears. Right. Not, not any other challenges except my own mindset. How do you stay with, I assume a positive mindset. You talk about abundance, you talk about prosperity. Like how do you stay in a right mindset? When life's coming at you, kids sick, friends dying, like how do you stay positive. 

 Chris
 Exposure again, I'm going to use that again. Meaning you self brought in exposure to people. In my case, reading certain material in the morning, meditating, sir, I'm not talking hours, I'm talking 10 minutes guided meditation, working out in and reading certain thoughts. Now I also have what I call future, end of the year statements. In this case, 12 30, 1, 22, what does it look like? Once I get those dialed in, I then write them and then I read them into my iPhone. Those are getting listened to every single day because you got to do that like a muscle or you're going to get beat up. Yeah. Of course the people you're around. I make no doubt about it. Like the people you're around are going to affect where you go in the next few years. No question about it. You got to choose wisely. 

 Josh
 Yeah. How do you break up with a friend if they're starting to get negative or start going down to a naughty path, 

 Chris
 You know, knock on wood. I can't say I had to do that in the last few years because I just don't get around it. I, I don't want to sound rude, but I guess if I had to just that it would be evidence. I wouldn't be calling back or making effort to get together. Right. Yeah. 

 Josh
 True. 

 Chris
 Yeah. I mean, I just don't, your brain just doesn't need it. It's like, would you pour gas down your throat? You wouldn't do it. So why would you get around it? I don't know. I just don't choose not to. That's all. 

 Josh
 Sure. When you do a deal, like how do you guys typically celebrate around the office or when you guys hit a goal, one of the big rocks is accomplished. How do you guys celebrate? 

 Chris
 Yeah, it's funny. It brings back a memory. The, our old office building my son and son-in-law would ring this cow bell. Every time they get a lead, it was hilarious, but then it got to be obnoxious. Cause it was all the time. Now it's just with our regular rhythm meeting with them and we live on slack. We live on slack as a family team. As a community, there's a hundred plus of us on there. We do a lot of recognition on that together. 

 Josh
 Yeah. The Cal bell did the, did your boys dance around like will Farrell. 

 Chris
 A hundred percent? We used it one year to get people back in the room after the breaks and the event. Some of the students said that was a little much, so we didn't do that again. 

 Josh
 Got it. Got it, Cathy. All right. What I like to do on my show because my brain sometimes is limited in the questions that I could ask. I bought cards that have questions on it. So you're going to pick a card. Tell me when to stop, 

 Chris
 Stop. 

 Josh
 All right. So we're going to read this question. If you could give your parents advice on how to raise you, right? Maybe as a kid or teenager or any area in your life, what advice would you tell your parents on how to raise you better? 

 Chris
 I actually think this is a simple one, sorry, because I, I would say introduce outside mentors sooner and more often. I really would. Yeah. Cause I did that where that kids and I think it's important. 

 Josh
 Yeah. I think so too. That's yeah. That's a good one. Out of all the mentors you've had, which one was like, this is my favorite. I know that they're going to be listening there. They're all probably going. What about me? What about me? Yeah. In your, in your experience, like, what was your favorite mentor? 

 Chris
 I don't know. As though I could say a favorite mentor. I could say more of a, at a pivotal time was the best person to be around. I got to say in the 30 years it'd be my father, because I could say to you this year, it was this one, four years ago. Is this one at that time? Right? Cause I picked yeah. Pointedly where I am, but my file started the whole thing back with his company. Now, still to this day, I'm talking about ideas as recent as yesterday, so, and he's 82. So that would be him. 

 Josh
 Very cool. All right. House catches on fire, all your kids, family members, pets, everything that has a heartbeat goes out, but you could only run in and grab one personal item. That's important to you. Like what would that personal item be? 

 Chris
 No, that's a toughie. You thought the last one was a toughie. 

 Josh
 That was a softball pitch. 

 Chris
 One item. Everything's gone either a book that I had a reason to be in or if the money wasn't burnt, I'd have to go start something I suppose tomorrow. I need at least on a box, one of those items. I don't know. I haven't thought about that. That's a good one. 

 Josh
 Yeah. So, all right, so you'd grab a book. 

 Chris
 Or if everything's gone as a toughie. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Okay. Well, what book would you grab? You get. 

 Chris
 Whatever I was in, there was a reason I was in it. That's my point. Like I pick up books for what I'm working on right now to get accomplished. And then I'm done it. Like my wife has said, you going to be done that by Sunday night, ? Cause I want to get something out of it. There's a reason I was in it. I got to get somewhere with it. 

 Josh
 W what are you reading right this minute? 

 Chris
 I actually am reading a Tony Robbins wrote about, I forget the gentleman's name, but the company is called creative planning. I met with one of their reps recently, cause I I've always been against the stock market and these guys are brilliant and it's called the five common mistake and investing makes or something like that. Guy's name is, oh, it's Peter. Maloof. I'm reading that right now. As a, I got to know this now item, and then I'm reading God spiritual, something about a breakthrough with Dr. Joe Dispenza dispense. I love it. I just saw the name's escaping me, but I'm reading those too. I try to vary it because one's very textbooky and one's mind. 

 Josh
 Yeah. W w what is the one on the mind? What do you remember? What it's called? 

 Chris
 Dr. Joe Dispenza. He has a whole bunch of red, but this one, I love a lot. It's something about a supernatural, the word supernatural in the title. It might be the only thing that the title, a supernatural Joe, Dr. Joe Dispenza, because it's, it's work. It's really working on the mind, big time and meditation. And I have it. I have the app too. He's got a great app. 

 Josh
 Yeah. You gotta, I got to find that. Maybe you can ping me with that. 

 Chris
 Yeah. When we get off I'll you can text me quick before my next show and now, and actually I probably have your info, but yeah. I'll get it from you. I'll get it for ya. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Oh, sweet. Thanks, man. You're you're really generous. Like, you're like, Hey, I'm going to get your shirt. And, and this like, generosity seems like it's important for you. Is that, is that your love language? Like, like giving, is that a part of your, 

 Chris
 Yeah. And then I'm going to ask that. 

 Josh
 What I said that. 

 Chris
 It feels good. Yeah. Yeah. It feels good. It's fun. Yeah. You never know what comes back. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Yeah. That's true, man. In this interview, I always want to get people, a place to do a plug, for people out there who, want to learn about real estate, do some deals and maybe have someone sit over their shoulder and do deals with them. Maybe some rev share JV opportunities. What's a good place for people to like, start, get connected with you and maybe do a deal with you. 

 Chris
 I'll give you two things for your audience. Hi, this was the most unique questions I've ever gotten. I enjoyed it. I'll give you two. Thanks for listening. As instead of one is I want to give you the best seller and, but I don't want to do it. Most people don't say it's free. And then give me a credit card. I'll charge you six bucks for shipping. We'll ship it out of this office. It's hardcover. It's an Amazon bestseller called real estate on your terms, go to wicked smart books.com forward slash Josh Wilson. And you'll get that book for free. There might be some other goodies in there, but if you want to do something now, because I hate people going, okay, I got to wait a week or two go to you. If you don't mind dealing with me for 55 more minutes, go to a free class. 

 Chris
 It's it's at smart real estate coach.com forward slash masters with an S class. You'll get more of an overview of what the heck it is that we do. If you like what you see for free reach out, we'll tap. We'll chat with you. 

 Josh
 Very cool. Very cool. Now, what question do you wish someone would ask you, right? Like, you've been on hundreds of interviews. You guys have your own stuff going on, but like a question personal or business that you're like, I wish someone would ask me this. 

 Chris
 There's a whole blind spot. I just, one of the things I didn't say here now, so I'll use that is, and this could be for any business. I don't care if you're on a hot dog stand or a restaurant or you're in real estate. That is first find a niche or an activity business-wise you can get behind, like, it just lights you up. If it's this great. If it's something else, great. Second. Find someone in that niche or industry that is where you want to be. I mean, like Josh and I just talked about like, not just money wise, cause that's crap, but their family, their values, everything you go, that's kind of what I want to do. And then third is a tough one. Put the blinders on for at least 36 months. Don't go looking for a shiny object in any other business or any endeavor and just do what they tell you to do. 

 Chris
 You will have the most amazing experience, the challenges. Number three, always. 

 Josh
 Yeah, dang it. I was like, check number three. Oh s**t. You know, that's tough, man. Especially for visionaries, dealmakers, you know, 

 Chris
 It's an attitude. 

 Josh
 It's an that yeah. Holy moly. That is a channel that is very challenging for me. But I'm going to consider that challenge. 

 Chris
 I'm going to follow up with you on that because we're going to connect again on some other things and you're going to come on our show. I hope. So, yeah, we'll connect again on that. 

 Josh
 Awesome. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming on the show. Any final thoughts or one last piece of advice for the audience of dealmakers out there? Yeah. 

 Chris
 Bias I have for real estate people or want to be real estate people is you've got an opportunity in my opinion, here in the next nine months with all this chaos going on to create potentially for some of you, depending on how hard you want to work a decade of income with the three paydays, literally. Let someone show you how to do that. If it's not me, let someone try to do that because don't get caught a year from now going, I wish I caught that one. This is one of those times where you've got to get in front of it. 

 Josh
 Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Awesome. What we'll do is ladies and gentlemen in the audience, we'll put those links in the show notes. As you guys are listening and driving such like that, just click on the show notes, you'll connect directly with our guests as always reach out to our guests and say, thank you. The purpose and mission vision of this show here is to connect deals and deal makers, right? So connect with our guests. Say thank you into a deal with them. If you're working on a deal, looking for a deal or maybe want to get on the show, head on over to the deal, scout.com, fill out a quick form. Maybe get you on the show next till then talk to you all next episode.