The Hard Truth Of Building A $30M Portfolio
The Hard Truth Of Building A $30M Portfolo
If you're short on time, here are the Cliff Notes 👇 Summarizing the lessons from this weeks article:
🗣️ Networking Value: You never know who you might sit next to at a conference. Introduce yourself and then LISTEN to what they have to say.
💤 Sleeper Success: Along the lines of the first one, but talk to everyone. You already know who the social media influencers are, skip over them and introduce yourself to the quiet person in the corner.
🔥 Don’t Burn The Boats: Travis and Teresa stay in their W2 job (excavating business) while building their empire. They are able to build BECAUSE of their W2. It’s hard to see it at first, but that W2 you complain about right now is keeping you above water enough to do everything else.
💸 You Need A Side Hustles: Unless you’re a doctor or have a killer W2, wealth isn’t built from 9-5, it’s built from 5-9.
📈 Long-term Mindset: It’s all about the long play. Stop chasing the quick cash. Get your hands a little dirty, lose a little sleep and embrace the grind. Take that cash and invest in other ways to build your wealth.
🤝 Empowering Others: Travis and Teresa’s approach extends beyond personal gain; they want to grow and empower their employees as well. This is the essence of providing value. If you do ANYTHING, just figure out how you can provide the most value to the world. The great thing about that is that value is most often measured in 💲💲 If you truly go about it to create that value, the 💲💲 will find you.
⚖️ Choosing Your Hard: Life is hard whether you’re broke or building wealth… Easy decision to make, but few are willing to make it.
This weeks Brain Dump
< 4min Read
When you go to a conference and sit down at a table to eat or hang out in-between presentations, you’re playing Russian roulette with who you end up sitting next to.
The intention is always to meet someone new and figure out how the connection can be mutually beneficial. As Pace Morby likes to say;
“why aren’t we doing business together??”
Those networking table connections are really what you make of them, but sometimes you completely luck out and sit next to “sleeper gems💎”. You wouldn’t expect it, they didn’t roll in with an entourage, they’re not insta-famous, they don’t have a podcast or a following of any kind, but they are quietly CRUSHING it in the background while everyone else is spinning their wheels.
I was lucky enough to find these Sleeper Gems💎 at a conference I went to the other month.
Travis and his wife Teresa humbly have a 70M with another large expansion) with flex space, residential and commercial real estate, including self storage. Flex Space is brilliant and a great investment. It’s a combo of both warehouse and office space for businesses to operate out of.
But Travis and his wife don’t just invest in it, they build it. For the last 24 years they have run an excavating business and have taken those skills into a business building industrial buildings. The excavation has been the W2 grind that they live off of. Everything else has been bonus, with the intention of building their empire.
Immediately the room went blurry and I was completely engaged in what Travis and Teresa had to say. You don’t always have the chance to speak in person with people living the life that you are trying to build yourself. When you DO find those people and those opportunities, soak every second of that time up…. And I did.
What amazed me the most out of all that Travis spoke of, was how well they live within their means. Their W2 takes care of most everything for them and their side hustle is truly that; on the side. When I asked him about about the importance if having a side hustle, this is what he said
“To build up extra cash so you can invest in rental properties for long term cash flow to achieve financial freedom. I remember what broke was like, and I have no interest in living a life of being broke again.”
And with that long play mindset, Travis and Teresa do just that. They have continued to work the excavation business while steadily growing the flex space portfolio. They have had the end in mind from the start and have given employees of theirs the opportunity to take over the excavation company by essentially seller financing it and then after 10 years the employees will pay a balloon payment.
Their impact now expands to another level. It’s not just about them, they have now given the opportunity their employees to build a different life and change the trajectory for THEIR family.
That stood out to me, so I pressed some more. Travis and Teresa believe in the power of hard work, keeping your head down and the fact that we are all in control of our income. We have the choice between two options. This is what Travis said about those options:
“I believe everyone that wants to get ahead in life needs a side hustle, unless you are a doctor or someone with a high paying job you wouldn’t need a side hustle.Most people don’t have the degrees or skills to be a CEO of a big company so they need a side hustle, an idiot can have a side hustle and make more at it than there day job.The problem I have seen is most people don’t want to do more to make more, so they complain they are broke, and are not willing to put in the work to work a side hustle nights and weekends for as long as it takes to get financial freedom.They give up to soon. I say if you are not willing to die trying you will never make it far. Life is hard being broke and it’s hard building wealth, so choose your hard.”
Travis, Thank you for all of those gems 💎
FINAL NOTE:
Your side hustle is not necessarily going to be what you love doing most in the world. BUT by having a side hustle, building your empire and grinding for a bit, you will create the financial and time freedom to actually do the things you love doing the most.
Everyone says ENJOY THE JOURNEY... and while that is totally true, it's not about enjoying the journey YOLO style and chasing the shiny objects and exciting pursuits. It's about enjoying the process, the grind, the suck, the hustle, the failures, the losses, the ups and downs of the long road that leads to your mansion.
Forget the vehicle that takes you there, thats not important. There are a million different vehicles that will get you there. You just have to be ok with the bumpy ride.
Stay in the fight.
Kev