82. Massive Action and Drive to Achieve Success with Rod Khleif

Average Joe Finances: 1:00

Hey, welcome back to the average Joe finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike, Kevin Joanie, and today's guest is the man, the myth, the legend Rod Khleif. I am super excited to have him on. I was talking with him before we hit the record button. How he's one of my top five dream guests to have on the show. And, I'm not going to go through his background. Cause most of you that listen to my show, know who he is and know what he does. So, Rod, I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to come and join me on the show.

Rod Khleif: 1:28

I love it. Average, Joe, I love it. Your, your, your, your resonate with, with anybody with that, with that title. And we're all average Joes, you know, I love that title. Thanks for having me on brother. Let's have some fun today.

Average Joe Finances: 1:39

Absolutely. That's what I'd love to do. because I'm not going to go, all up into your background because, we know who you are, but I'd like to hear your description of your story. So if you could just share with us. Who is Rod Khleif? How did you get started and what motivates you to just do what you do every day?

Rod Khleif: 1:58

A great, great question, actually, especially the last part, but, well, listen, let me, let me go way back. So I immigrated this country when I was six years old. Uh, I was born in the Netherlands, you know, wouldn't shoes and windmills Holland, and, uh, came across when I was six and my brother Albert, my mother's Vancha. And, um, we ended up in Denver, Colorado, and, and I'm going to tell you, we didn't have a. Starting out. In fact, we had very little, uh, I remember, uh, my mom bought clothes for us at the Goodwill and the salvation army. And, you know, we, we ate expired food. There was an expired food store. We drank powdered milk with our cereal in the morning and it doesn't, it's not nearly as nice as it sounds. And, and, you know, we really struggled initially now. Um, luckily. My mom had an incredible work ethic. And so she babysat kids. So we'd have enough money to eat and be able to do some things. And, and, um, with her babysitting money, she was a bit of an entrepreneur and she actually invested in the stock market and made money, but she also invested in real estate. So the first house she bought was directly across the street from us, from a family called the Juul, and she paid about $30,000 for it. And then she told me, and this was when I was about 14. When I was 17, she told me she made $20,000 in her sleep. And that, that had gone up in value 20,000 a night. You didn't do anything back then. This is okay. We're talking 1977, 20,000 was a lot of money. I'm like, shit, mom, I'm not getting into real estate. I mean, I'm not going to college. I'm getting into real estate. So I went out and got my real estate brokers license, right? When I turned 18, which you could do back then with education. Now, they got smart. You need some experience before you can be a broker, but I was a broker literally, right when I turned 18 and I was going to be rich selling other people houses. Listen, it's a great place to start, but most people don't get rich from selling other people houses. And, uh, you know, my first year in real estate, I may be made about eight to 10 grand that's that's 1978. Um, my second year, maybe 10 to 12 grand. But my third year I made over a hundred thousand dollars, which again, back, you know, 19, what does that? 1980. I was some decent change. So what happened between year two and year three? That caused me to 10 X my income. Well, what happened was I met again. The taught me about the importance of mindset and psychology, how really 80 to 90% of your success in anything is just that your mindset and your psychology. Fast-forward to today, you know, I've owned a couple of thousand houses that I rented longterm. Um, I've now owned thousands of apartment units in 2006. My net worth went up $17 million while I slept. And if you want to do the math on. It's about $8,300 an hour over a 40 hour work week. Which of course I did. And anybody that holds still long enough heard that. And you know, my head got so big. I could barely fit it through a door. I thought I was a freaking real estate. God. And you know, when that happens, God of the universe will give you a nice little smack. Well, that was 2000. I lost everything in 2008, I lost $50 million conservatively. And so, you know, one of the things I like to talk about is the mindset. It took that 50 million to lose in the first place, but really, maybe even more importantly, the mindset it took to recover from losing $50 million. And so, you know, if you'd like, I'm happy to drill down on that conversation and, and, and how that has.

Average Joe Finances: 5:10

Yeah. So, before we get to that, I just want to know what was that initial, I guess, shock factor, when, when the market crashed back in 08 and you saw that your net worth just plummeted $50 million, what was your first reaction? What went through Rod Khleif's head?

Rod Khleif: 5:25

Well, it was, it was, it would happen over a few months and it really wasn't so much that I lost the money. It was the fact that I was losing everything. I didn't, I didn't quantify it yet. I thought I was set for life. You know, I, by the way, I was only at a 30% loan to value when it crashed. Okay. I only owed 30 cents on the dollar and I still crashed. And here's why people ask why. So I had 800. And I had several apartment complexes. It was the houses that pulled me down. See, I had houses two hours north of me to our south of me and everywhere in between, along the Gulf coast of Florida and Florida has no state income tax. Okay. So the property taxes are higher, which impacts cashflow. Right? I had properties in wind and flood zones. So I had higher insurance, which impacts cashflow, but what killed me was the legit. If I sent somebody to one of my apartment complexes to fix something maintenance related, you know, we can stockpile parts. Everything's the same, the plumbing, parts of the same, the locks, the appliances, the windows, um, you know, the HPAC it's all the same. And so you can stockpile parts and they can be in and out in an hour. Well, if I had to send someone to one of my houses, An hour and a half away, then they'd have to, every house is different. They have to go see what's wrong. Then they, once they see what's wrong, they got to go find a home Depot or a Lowe's where we have an account, which could be another hour round trip. And I don't know about you, Mike, but anytime I go to fix something, rod ends up back at home Depot or Lowe's for a second trip. Cause I miss something. And you know, that, that happens in what took an hour at one of my apartment complexes could take all day at one of my house. You know, one of these 800 houses, these were C class. And so, you know, those, those get beat up a lot more than an a or B class property. Okay. Even in the apartment communities, a C class apartment community, you gonna have a lot more maintenance for a lot of reasons. One is the demographic that lives there, but also the age of the asset. So a lot more maintenance. And so that killed me. And, but then the coup de Gras, as it were the, the, the final straw was, I didn't really pay attention to demographics back then, you know, if somebody had good credit and a decent job, um, I let them rent my place. A lot of my tenants were, uh, were in retail or they were contractors, plumbers, electricians, dry wallers, roofers painters, which fell off a freaking cliff in 2008 and nine, nobody had work. And so, you know, now, for example, we just bought a 296 unit asset in San Antonio a few months ago. And I literally. Where every single tenant worked to see how recession resistant their employment was. And, and, and so now I take it very serious, you know, hit me once, shame on you hit me twice. It's my own damn fault. But, uh, you know, so, so that's why, you know, I imploded and, and literally what's interesting is I, what is the 30% loan to value in 2007, by 2009? My portfolio value had gone upside down. Okay. It dropped more than 70% where I live here in Florida, which is just astounding, but, you know, and then. Then I crashed and burned, but what went through my mind? Uh, kind of, uh, oh shit. And, uh, you know, I hit under a rock for a few months and, and you know, it's one, a little eyeball poking out and hit, you know, if I hadn't done that though, I would have capitalized on that crash and, and I'm kicking myself because the biggest money is made in a situation like that. And I could have bought assets for literally cents on the dollar, but I was licking my own moons. You know, in recovery. Now I built a company out of the ashes of that. I built a company that turned into a $10 million company with 660 employees. But, you know, I wish I had just stuck with real estate and, uh, you know, and I, and, and, and, you know, before we move on, uh, to, you know, more mindset conversation, I want to say this, I believe a is coming at some point and, and real estate goes through cycles. I've been through several of them. Um, You know, we've been in, in high growth for a long time and, and at some point there's going to be a catalyst and there's going to be a contraction. And I don't say that to make you fearful if you're listening or watching, because with crisis comes opportunity. There was incredible opportunity in oh eight and nine for the people that capitalized on it. Uh, but, um, You know, like I'm getting in a lot of cash right now. I want to be very cash heavy right now, and access to cash as well, just to, you know, I'm telling my investors, you know, when the quote unquote blood is running in the streets, then that's when we're really going to pounce so that they're not afraid of it because, you know, the news will be, oh my God, real estate is going to be terrible for 10 years. Don't, don't invest in real estate. You know, they're not the news. Isn't there to inform us it's there to startle us. And we won't go down that rabbit hole about fake news. But, but anyway, but the. Don't be afraid of a contraction, you know, because again, with crisis, there'll be incredible. So long answer to your question.

Average Joe Finances: 9:56

No, I love it. That's fantastic because that's huge. Right. You know, any type of crisis is going to cause some type of opportunity. I mean, you even see it in the stock market as well. Right. It's not just in the housing market. What was that famous saying? That that Warren buffet said, right? Like if everyone else is like getting out the trend, right. So that's. If the guys that are, that are doing really well in the industry are saying to do that. And that's what they do. And they practice what they preach. It's probably good to follow, what's going on there. And with where your thought process is right now, when you think the contractions going to be coming and you're, you're prepping for that. And, you know, I guess like the big thing is, is it, is it what happened to you in 08? Like, did this, did this do something to shift your mindset, to really focus on, on how you look at situations like this versus.

Rod Khleif: 10:43

Sure. Let me address that. Let me address that. So, so listen, um, you know, a lot of my podcast, I have lots of guys with five, six, 7,000 units, and many of them started in oh nine, 10 and 11, so they didn't get, they haven't been through a crash and you know, everything looks great until it. And I'm seeing some deals where we get invest in final and they trade at a price that just floors me. Okay. And I'm, and I'm going to tell you if there's a hiccup, some of these deals are going to fail and you know, I'll be there to buy them. But the point is, you know, right now is not a time to be super aggressive. It's a time to be super conservative and. And, and it's, it's going to mean you kiss a lot of frogs. I mean, seriously, you could be looking at three, 400 assets to find one right now. That makes sense. Um, but, but that's prudent. And the, and, and that's why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have pulled back in a lot of markets they've lowered their proceeds, you know, like, um, um, in San Antonio, for example, you're at about 55, 60% loan debt. It's all you're going to get because, you know, uh, uh, these markets, you know, certain markets that they, that they, that they quantify, they're not going to do higher leverage on. Um, but you know, almost the entire country had big rent increases this last year. And, you know, uh, Tampa, for example, I think 20% San Antonio, I just mentioned because that's where asset, that one asset is 18% in one year. That's rent growth, just astounding, but that's not sustainable. And you know, and you'll see, some of these operators will throw a, a proform out there and they'll have, you know, 5% growth a year for the next three years. And that's just unrealistic because you know, there's gonna, it's gonna, there's going to be a pullback here at some point. It's just the way, you know, real estate goes through cycles. I've been through several of them. I'll give you an example of one, uh, one in the late eighties, I, I give a personal example of a house. This is on a house. So I bought this house. Back in 987, 88 for say 56,000. These are rough numbers, but I, and I, and I flipped it solar for 76,000 made a nice chunk. Well that the market crashed. I bought that same house back for 18,000. Okay. Bought it for 56, sold it for 76, bought it back for 18. Ultimately sold it for one second. Now to really add pain to the story, that area gentrified, and it's now worth around a million. Okay. It's on 30th and federal in Denver if you know Denver. But anyway, so, so, you know, that's, that's an example of what can happen and, you know, hopefully we won't have that dramatic of a contraction again, like in oh eight and nine, but it's inevitable. It's like life like life and like web. Real estate goes through seasons and we have been in summer for a very long time. We were absolutely in fall and

Average Joe Finances: 13:22

winter is coming.

Rod Khleif: 13:23

Winter is coming , not something to fear, right? Exactly. Not something to fear, something you'd be ready for and cognizant, and frankly get excited about honestly, that's the. So to frame it.

Average Joe Finances: 13:35

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to, I want to touch back to that property that, that you talked about, that you flipped back in the eighties. Cause I, I just have to know. I'm just curious. So the, the person you sold it to, right. And you got that nice little chunk of change and they lost repurchased it in eight for 18,000. Did you repurchase it from. Or was it?

Rod Khleif: 13:51

No, no, no. It was a bank repo. It was back to the bank. Yeah. Had gone back to the bank.

Average Joe Finances: 13:56

Okay. Okay. I was just,

Rod Khleif: 13:57

it was another one I sold for 56. I bought back for 12. I mean, what's the same house. Yeah. Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 14:02

Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. So, you know, a lot of this, what we're talking about here, especially with the, you going through this a few times, right? Where some people have not gone through it at all. And this is where we have these opportunities to learn from somebody who's experienced. Who's been through this, right? This is an opportunity for those of us who just started not too long ago, we're still wet behind the ears. So to say, right, this is an opportunity to learn. And with that being said, part of that learning process is also your mentality and your psychology. And we've been touching a lot about that on this. So why would you say someone's psychology is more important than any type of like technical knowledge, when it comes to this type of investing or just entrepreneurship in general?

Rod Khleif: 14:48

Life honestly life period. Life is 80 to 90% psychology and mindset. Success in anything is 80 to 90% psychology and mindset. Listen, if it was just the mechanical information, there'd be a bunch of wealthy librarians and college professors out there. It's the do. And it's the keep doing. Most people have limiting beliefs. They have fears. They are maybe they're comfortable. And the comfort zone is a warm place, but nothing freaking grows there. Right. And so you've got to have, um, enough Uh, umph as it were burning desires, what Napoleon hill calls in his book think and grow rich, you've got to have a burning desire. So how did I recover from losing $50 million? I reassociating with my goals, with what I wanted more importantly, why I wanted it, because the goal is doing your goals is what creates that burning desire. And so if you come to one of my boot camps, I just had 800 people in Orlando a couple months ago. I do, I do a couple of bootcamps a year. I do a two live ones and two virtual ones. I happened to have one coming up here, uh, in a couple months. Uh, but uh, bottom line is the first thing we do there is we do a goal setting workshop. You know, how the hell are you going to get anything? If you don't know what it is, you've got to know what it is you want and why you're doing it. Again, that's the first thing we do at my events, because it's the most important piece. Um, you know, again, so many people and a lot of people in this multifamily business are very analytical. Okay. There they come from an it background engineering background, a technical background. And of course they are very often they're introverted, but they're certainly analytical. And very often they get caught up in analysis by paralysis and they don't take action. And so it's so important to associate with what you want. And that's, again, this is how I recover. This is how I had 50 million to lose in the first place, because I had these goals that I went through. And then this is how I recovered by reassociating with those goals. And so, you know, uh, and, and, you know, initially my goals were all materialistic. I've got this, like, I'll show you something. This is my planner in the back of this thing. I've got goals that I've had for 20 years now, the first, the first picture I've got these pictures. If those of you that are listening, you can't see this. Uh, I use a paper planner. I'm a bit of a dinosaur, but I've got plastic covered pictures in the back of this thing. And the first pictures of my gratitude pictures, the pictures of my kids when they were very young, my kids are 30 and 26 now. So these are when they were kids and baby. Um, and because everything starts from a place of gratitude, you've got to, you know, to manifest anything. You've got to know what it is you want. And then you've got to visualize it with gratitude as if you already have it. So I've got my gratitude pictures here. Then I've got pictures of the things that I wanted. Which I thought were important. I've got this, you know, I built this $8 million house on the beach, which I thought was important at the time. Um, and, uh, uh, you know, and that looks just like it, that top picture, the bottom picture looks like the compound that I have now. I lost that house on the beach that I built, you know, and all the craziness with my divorce and everything. Uh, now what's kind of funny is I live in a compound, I've got six buildings and, uh, right out right across the bay as the old house that I used to own is literally right on my backyard. Hilarious. Other pictures, you know, stuff that I thought was important. I don't, you know, watches, I got a few hundred thousand in watches, stupid shit. You know, the cars, the Lamborghinis, the rolls, Royces, the Bentleys, all the stupid stuff I thought was important at one time, but I have pictures and I made them happen. Um, and, and again, you may not have any interest in this materialistic stuff and I don't even anymore that much, you know, I occasionally I'll buy a nice watch for myself, but that's about it. But the point is you need these things to get that burning desire, maybe for you it's freedom, maybe for you. It's a house, you know, on a farm, on a farm. Maybe it's on a lake, maybe it's on the beach. You know, maybe it's in another country, a second home, whatever, whatever yours is going to be, the drive, maybe it's doing something for someone else that's hugely important. You know, we'll do more for others than we'll ever do for ourselves. So defining what is going to drive and defining why it's going to drive you as the most important piece of this, because you've got to have that burning desire to push through the fear, to get out of analysis paralysis. I just interviewed this kid on my shows in my coaching program. He's been, he joined in June of last year. He has 35 million in assets. That he's purchased in the last seven months. Okay. And he's analytical, he's an it professional. And I'm like, you know, how did you do that? You know, push through that analysis. And he's, you know, he listened to me and he pushed, took massive freaking action, made a decision and, you know, did everything he did to get to, could do, to get the first deal done, which has always been. By the way there's that law, the first deal at the hardest, it's the most stressful it's the scariest got that done. And boom, you know, I was in six and seven months. I mean, it's just extraordinary, but you know what else is extraordinary? And I've got to give him a shout out. His name is Lamont. He has donated 90% of his wealth so far. Two to 2 24 kids that were, that were in sex traffic and he's adopted seven families. I was just so blown away. This literally this interview is just right before this one. And so it's fresh with me, just extraordinary, you know, power moves to those who serve in the sky, gives back in a huge way. And it's just so impressive to me is one of my coaching students, my warriors, and, you know, just to brag a little further. Um, you know, I've been teaching for about four years. My warriors now own over 50,000 units and I'm really freaking proud of that, you know? Um, my greatest achievement next to my kids, my greatest achievement in life. So anyway,

Average Joe Finances: 20:08

Yeah, that's one of, that's one of the things I love, like when, so I listened to your show, right? So one of the things I love is every time that updates and that those numbers go up, in your intro and stuff, it's, it's just absolutely amazing. And you know, this young man that you say you interviewed, uh, recently, I mean, that, that is phenomenal, right? Incredible.

Rod Khleif: 20:25

Oh, I couldn't believe it, man. When I read that on his bio, I'm like, shit, I didn't know you. He said he never told anybody that he's 90% of his money has gone to these 24 kids that he's supporting. And I'm like blown away. Sorry. Seriously blown. I mean, I do charitable things. I've done a lot of cool stuff that I'm really proud of, but man, that just blew me away honestly.

Average Joe Finances: 20:45

Absolutely incredible and I want to, I want to rewind back to a little bit to what you were saying about, you know, having that burning desire. Right. And, and a lot of it, you know, some people will just sit here and they get caught up in that analysis paralysis. And one of the things I hear you talk about. All the time on your show is taking massive action. Right. And that's super important. And, but to, to top that off, you can't take that action until you know your why, right. You need to know why it is, you're doing what you're doing. You have to have that, that end goal in sight. Because if you don't, I mean, you could move the goalpost. That's fine. You know, you set the standard where you want to set the standard, but if you don't set some type of standard or set some type of goal, You're you're just out there floundering around.

Rod Khleif: 21:26

Let's let me talk for a minute about moving the goalposts, if you don't mind, because, you know, I told you about that $8 million house on the beach that I built. Okay. And this place was spectacular. Okay. I mean, truly, I mean, I'll describe it real briefly. Um, it was, you know, I own the beach on one side and I had my boats on the backside. It's called a Gulf to bay, so it was a slice through an island and it's literally right out my backyard here on Casey key. But. Um, I mean the house had a giant spiral staircase that went up through the middle of the house. There was a giant waterfall from a second floor balcony into the pool. You had to walk through the waterfall to get into the pool at pools in magazines. You know, I have wine cellar elevator. Um, on the second floor, I lay on the plane with this on the second floor I had aquariums built around that spiral staircase cost me almost 200 grand. So this gives you an idea of the house. To I worked for this thing for 20 years. Cause I lived in Denver and I knew I wanted to live on the beach and there's no beach at Denver, but I would visualize the Palm trees and the surf and the sand and all that stuff. And, and 20 years later I built this thing and two months after I moved in, so I worked for, for 20 years, two months after I moved in. In my pool at night, I'm looking up at this Testament to my ego, which is really what it was. It was to prove the world that was good enough. And that's the truth of it. Um, and, and, you know, um, that's a, that was a driver for me, was to prove so world that I mattered and that I was good enough. Cause I went through school and I got bullied a lot. You know, everybody has this stuff happened to them, but that actually really impacted me. So I'm looking up at this Testament to my ego that I built two months after I moved in and I got depressed and I don't mean just a little bit depressed. I mean, I was really freaking depressed and I'm like, what the hell? I've just, I've got this $8 million house. I've got the Mercedes and the Maserati and the garage. I've got the boats and the jet skis and the beautiful family. What could possibly be wrong? What ties into what you said about moving the goalposts? See, there were several things happening, but one of them was you should never achieve a big goal without having other goals lined up behind it and that's moving the goalpost. So it's like, what am I going to do next? Because like the good book says without, without a vision that people perish, I didn't know, I didn't have a vision for the future. So that was number one. Number two. It's never about the goals. You gotta have them, you got to have them to do anything, but it's, the happiness comes from progress and growth. If you're not progressing and growing, you're not happy. Okay. That's a critical piece. And so one of the things I teach my students is I don't care if, if you did one little thing for five minutes that week, when you're doing your weekly planning, celebrate it, pat yourself on the back, because you're going to have delays. You're going to have setbacks, but if you're celebrating the progress, we'll be happy. So that was the second. But the third thing was the big one. I had been totally focused on me, you know, show the world. I'm good enough. Show the world. I matter, me, Mimi, rod, rod, rod, rod. I went to a Tony Robbins event that year, actually, because I went out and bought some books and I'm going to get back. I'm not going to go lay on a couch and bemoan my circumstances. I'm going to get some books. I'm going to be back. I'm tough now. I don't, I am now actually an advocate for therapy because I did some after my divorce. But you know, at that time I wasn't and, and. But, um, so I got a Tony book. I'm like, man, I really liked it. So I went and saw him and I saw that he fed families for the holidays. I'm like, what a concept? You know, do something for someone else someday. And I'm, I'm embarrassed to say I had to be 40 to get that memo, but, um, so. Webcam back home. And I called my brother cause I was going to go visit him in Denver. And I said, Hey, let's feed five families for Thanksgiving. I went and visited him for Thanksgiving. And so he went to his church and he got the, he said, who really needs help? We've got a list of five families. And third family changed my life and we bought big boxes of food. We found out if they had kids, we got toys for the kids and, and, and you know, the third family I was in this crappy one bedroom row house. So it wasn't even really a one bedroom because you had to walk through the bedroom to get to the kitchen. And there's a lady in there with five kids. Now, she. She sees this box of food, boxes of food, actually frozen Turkey with toys. And she starts crying and her kids come out. A couple of the older ones start crying. I start crying and I was fricking hooked. And so, you know, the next year I did 50 families a year after that a hundred families, then 200, then 400 and 800 and 1600. And I'm blessed to say, I've now. Fed about 110,000 children here. I've done, you know, and I'm not saying this to brag. There's a message in this. So stay with me here. Um, I've done tens of thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies to local children. I've done tens of thousands of Teddy bear stuff for officers to put in their vehicles. Uh, when they encounter a child that's been traumatized, they can comfort that child. See, I was successful, but I was unfulfilled. Tony, Tony Robbins always referenced him again, calls it the science of achievement versus the artificial fillment and, and, and really fulfillment really is an art. And so here's the thing. If you're listening to Mike and you might be really hungry, you haven't done this shit. You got blood dripping from your teeth. You want this so freaking bad. Well, I'm going to tell you if you're not given. Start immediately. I'm going to tell you almost all my warriors, my thousand mentorship students give back in some fashion. I just gave you an incredible example of that. Why? Because you've been taught and you believe that you have to achieve to be happy. I'm going to tell you if you give back even in a little way, you're happily. Okay. And I know that sounds like a play on words, but it's an important play on words. Okay. Because what you give you get back a thousand fold. There's a reason that kid kid, he's a kid he's younger, quite a bit younger. This Hemanth has, you know, $35 million in assets and joint ventures and syndications that he's done six deals because he gives. Okay. Cause what you give you get back a thousand fold. So again, I don't care if you tell me I'll do it when I have money. No, do it now do something. I don't care if it's just helping one family or one elderly person do it now because you'll be happily achieving. I'm going to tell you, you will get the success much faster. You don't do it for that reason, but you'll get it much better. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that you said move the goalposts and I spent 10 minutes. All right, good.

Average Joe Finances: 27:08

Oh yeah. Why that's important because it is important. Right. And then celebrating when you do achieve these victories and you achieve those goals because you know, important when you're talking about how you got to that point where you had the $8 million house, you had everything that you had set out to achieve and get, and now you're laying there like. What's next. Yeah. Well, you didn't know what was next at that point. Right? So it was just like, what do I really have? Because if you don't have a goal, you don't have anything because, how do you live a life of a foundation when you're not exactly when you're not consistently moving forward. Yeah, absolutely love that. And then, you know, your philanthropy too, I mean the, the way it started off just five families, right. And then how it grew, grew and blew up into to what it is today is just absolutely amazing Rod. And I, I thank you. I want to say thank you for everything that you've done for multiple communities. Not, not just, th the things that you've done in the local area, but you've, you've done things for multiple communities and, uh, you know, I follow some of that stuff that you do. It's just absolutely amazing. Just right away,

Rod Khleif: 28:08

by the way, I do a lot of stuff for veterans as well. And, and, and thank you for your service brother. I mean, honestly, we live in the greatest country on earth because of people like you. And I know you're close to retirement in the Navy and that's extraordinary. And you know, I, I've done quite a bit for veteran suicide and veterans, how veterans housing and so on and so forth. Um, um, yeah, in fact, my mastermind just raised 25,000 for, um, for veterans housing, these little mini micro houses, uh, uh, So anyway. Yeah, he did that with

Average Joe Finances: 28:38

Eric, right? Eric? Yes, sir. Yes. Yep. Awesome. That's fantastic. I've been following that for, for awhile. Uh, what, what they're doing with the active duty passive income guys are doing is just absolutely amazing, especially for veterans. And, you know, I want to touch on something and, and I want to thank you again for what you said about the, you had mentioned that, you know, you, you just toughed it out in the beginning. You were like, Hey, I'm just gonna get a couple of books. Go, go figure this out on my own. Cause you know, I'm, I'm a man. Right. And, uh, The mentality for a lot of people that I've served within the military as well, myself included. There's a lot of times where you're just like, I don't, I don't ask for help. I don't need the help. So I just want to point that out for, for those that are listening right now that Hey, if somebody who had lost $50 million bounced back from that to get to where they're at today can say, and, and just run all these successful businesses and help so many people. But can still turn around and say, I need help when I need help. That's that just shows that that goes to show you the character of who Rod is.

Rod Khleif: 29:36

Well, thank you. Thank you buddy. For that. Now listen, we're learners are earners, you know, and, and I, I share this a picture of, with me with hundreds of lanyards around my neck and on my arms, my arms are extended. You know, these bootcamps cause I, I learning every year. I remember my son, when I had 800 houses, I told him I was going to. You know, a single family house bootcamp, and he's like, but you could teach it. And I'm like, yeah, I could, but I'm going to learn. And so, you know, this was decades ago, but I remember that conversation vividly. And, and, and so guys, you know, the learning doesn't stop. Okay. And again, it's, it's about growth and, and, and, and, and moving forward and, and that's, uh, it relates to that conversation. You want to be happy. Keep, keep growing. You have to keep growing. You have to be, keep becoming better. You stop growing. You're. You're have to plateau. You actually start dying. So I'm glad you brought that up.

Average Joe Finances: 30:24

Yeah. Fantastic. I'm glad you brought that up. I mean, just, just awesome, amazing story rod. So, I'd like to move on to the next segment here. It's called the final round. I've got four questions that I'd like to ask you. It's something I started doing that I ask everybody that comes on the show, and I'm pretty excited to hear your answers because this is. You know, you may have actually touched on some of this stuff already, but this is something that really, uh, for me being a podcaster, it's one of the things I get to do. That's a little bit selfish. I get to ask you the questions that I want to ask you and pick your brain. And these are four questions I like to ask everybody because I really feel like it gets, some good, honest things coming out. if you're ready, we'll get this party started. Okay. Uh, so the first question, what's the biggest mistake you've ever made.

Rod Khleif: 31:06

Well, I th one of them was, was hiding under a rock when oh nine happened when I could have, I mean, I had the experience to go out there and literally, you know, join a team and buy thousands and thousands of properties. Um, if I hadn't been, you know, licking my wounds. So that was a huge one. Um, Yeah, this one, this is off real estate, but staying in, in my previous marriage longer than I should have, because I thought it was the best thing for the kids. I I'm, I now have, I'm married to the most beautiful, extraordinary, I mean, literally physically supermodel, beautiful woman, but she's more beautiful on the inside than the outside. And if I, you know, I probably wouldn't have met her though, if I'd had done it quicker. So, you know, things work out, but, but I did stay in that relationship too long. So that was a big mistake. Um, my kids, you know, are, are incredible. Um, you know, I wish I hadn't done that. Let me think. Let me give you another one. Um, you know, probably not going bigger, faster, and I asked that question of my guests as well. If you tell your 18 year old self something, what would you do differently? And I I'm expecting the answer that I just gave you, which is go bigger, faster. You know, people have these mental limits, they placed on what they're capable of. Um, and I would just tell you to push those limits if you're about to get into this business. And you're looking at a duplex, look at it today. If you're looking at a 10 unit, look at a 50 unit, bring in money, bring in friends, do what you have to do. Come to my bootcamp for God's sakes. You know, my virtual boot camps around a hundred bucks, and I don't sell anything there. And give you the website. It's multifamily virtual bootcamp.com for my virtual events. My live ones is just multifamily bootcamp.com. But you know, if you. Multifamily to 7, 2, 3, 4, 5, whatever event, whenever you post this thing, whatever event I'm doing next will come up. So it's multifamily to 7, 2, 3, 4, 5, and you know, um, I've had thousands of people attend. The only complaint I ever get that the breaks are too short or the room's too cold or the food sucked or something. It's never about the content because I massively over deliver. But if you're serious about learning this business, I hope you'll come check one of my events out. I promise you. I promise you. You'll be glad you came. Um, but, uh, Yeah. So anyway, mistakes done with that.

Average Joe Finances: 33:08

Awesome. No, fantastic. And one of the things you said, kind of ties into what the next question is, and that is what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started?

Rod Khleif: 33:18

Well, this is, this is, you know, I've, I've built 27 businesses and I don't call my failures failures. I call them seminars. And that was a $50 million seminar. Well, out of those 27 business, I had several that were worth tens of millions of dollars, these businesses, but most were spectacular flaming seminars. And one of the reasons was. I looked for the cheapest help I could find to conserve capital because after I lost my first business, I'm like, man, I got to save money and be careful with it. And I got to tell you that was a mistake. Look for the best people you can possibly find and pay more because they'll, they'll massively overdeliver, uh, compared to two or three weeks. And so that was a, that was a big mistake. I made trying to save money on human resource, you know, on people, big mistake. And I've come to that realization. I just hired a COO at a significant salary today, actually. And I've, I've finally got that memo that you want, the best people you can find either hire or work with or partners.

Average Joe Finances: 34:18

That's fantastic. I wrote that one down because you know, even, even on smaller projects too, you know, I outsource some things. I've got virtual assistants that I use for different projects. And I find that, if I, if I spend a little bit more on the budget, I get a lot more bang for the buck in the, in the long run. So that is absolutely key. A hundred percent. Okay. Next question. Do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started today?

Rod Khleif: 34:43

Well, first of all, to succeed in anything. You need to be passionate, to be passionate. You have to love it. Okay. And I tell my students, if you can't love real estate or learn to love it, now you can learn to love anything. You associate pleasure with it. Okay. And you can associate pleasure, anything, exercise, whatever. But if you can't learn to love it for God's sakes, go do something else. Because if you're not passionate, you're not going to influence people to invest with you and work with you now to be passionate, you have to be connected. Okay. So I'm backing into this and to be confident, you have to be competent. So it starts with competence. You need to learn this. This is my, again, come to one of my bootcamps or that it's a song and a dance to come it's that I don't make hardly anything on the ticket prices. If you come into my coaching program. Yeah. It makes some money there, but I don't push that hard. I don't sell it. Actually. I don't even sell it. You know, if you want to talk to my team. Great. But. Come to my bootcamp because I'm not one of these things. One of these people that'll tease stuff and tell you a little bit, you it's drinking to a fricking hose. So if you're interested in multi-family for God's sakes, come to one of my bootcamps. I promise. You'll be glad you came now, whatever the, if it's not multifamily, go out and find an expert in. You know, sector of this business, you're interested in, if it's self storage, mobile home parks, you know, go find the expert and learn from them to become competent because to influence you have to be confident and passionate. And that only comes from competence from knowledge. Now don't, don't those of, you know, you know who you are, you analytical ones, you don't have to know every single step. You know, you don't have to see the entire road, but you have to have a beginning level of competence. Okay. Um, You know, you can drive all the way across this country at night, seeing 50 feet in front of you. And, you know, you'll make it, other people have made it. You may have some roadblocks and some setbacks, but you know, you'll make it, it's the same way with your goals. So don't hang your hat on the fact, you have to know every single piece, you know, analytical people will have to check off every single box, but they're the most successful in my business. By the way, if you're analytical, you are, you know, the poster child for success in multifamily because there's a lot of analytics involved, but. Don't use that as an excuse, not to take action, which is what we see, you know, check off every box. So I forgot what the question was, but hopefully that,

Average Joe Finances: 36:58

no, you definitely answered it. I just, I want to, I want to tell a quick story about that. That that's very relatable. This is going back into my Navy days here, right? When I was getting qualified as officer of the deck, this is like the pinnacle qualification you can get on a ship. You are in charge of the safe navigation of the. Wherever you're going. Right? So as I was going through my qualification that the CO had this one question that he said, pretty much, everybody fails. Everybody fails this question. It puts you in this absolutely insane scenario where you have multiple contacts, which is like other ships or other boats in the water that are all going to come across in a way that like collision is pretty much imminent. And most folks that answer this question, get it wrong because they're, they're focusing on one little problem at a time trying to figure it out. And by the time they get to where they think they're at another ship or boat collided with them. So the very first thing I said, when, when I was asked that question, I was given the scenario, I'm looking at it. And I said, well, the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to slow. I'm going to slow the speed of the ship. I'm going to slow down. So I have more time to assess what's going on here. And I think it's just what reminded me of that. What triggered that for me is when you were talking about, you're driving down that highway at night, only seeing 50 feet ahead of you. Cause you, you know, you talked about during the daytime, you can see all the way down, right. But at nighttime, you driving 50 feet ahead of you and there's going to be roadblocks. It doesn't mean it's going to stop you. You just need to assess that situation and figure out a way to navigate around that roadblock. So, I wanted to touch on that because that, I think that's absolutely huge. Absolutely.

Rod Khleif: 38:29

It's it's, it's, it's how you're going to get anything in life is, is recognizing that, you know, on your path to those goals, um, you may not know, you won't know the whole path like Dr. Martin Luther king said, you take that first step in faith. The next step will be revealed. Um, Lowel to thousands of years ago said the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but you've got to take that first step. Okay. You don't want to get stuck in analysis paralysis. You freaking go do it. And you'll be glad you did

Average Joe Finances: 38:56

that. So that's one of my favorite quotes too.

Rod Khleif: 38:59

People, people, people are fearful. They don't realize that action mitigates fear. It's counterintuitive. You take action in the fear just dissipates. So action is it's critical.

Average Joe Finances: 39:10

Yeah, absolutely. So love that. Love that. Okay. Final question of the final round here. And, beside your own Rod, do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both?

Rod Khleif: 39:23

Well, let me give you some books. So my love language is gifts. Okay. And there's a book called the five love languages. And by God, if you hit don't haven't, haven't read it. You need to go get it. I was blessed to have the author on my show, super, super nice guys in his eighties, but, uh, you know, everybody feels love a certain way and they give love a certain way, man. My way of giving love as gifts. I know it's kind of weird, but I, my, I love giving my wife gifts. She never expects them. But that's my way of showing her luck. Well, so my students get lots of gifts. Okay. And they literally get a book almost every month or some sort of a gift. And so let me give you some of the gifts, some of the books that I've given them, the first one I'll, let's talk about as the slight edge. It's about those little decisions you make day in and day out, the little ones that don't amount to something that much, right. When you make them, but they accumulate and they traject your life up or down. Another one is turning pro by Steven Pressman about, about, you know, if you're going to do something, stop being a freaking animal. And be a professional. Okay. Turning pro. Another one is, uh, of course, uh, Gary Keller's one thing. Uh, I was blessed to have his co-author Jay Papasan on the show and that's a fantastic book. Another one is how LL rods miracle morning. Okay. About the, you know, how you start your morning with some meditation, some prayer, some journaling, some exercise. And, uh, and, and it's extraordinary what that does for you. I have to think if I got any more that's enough. There you go. I've got a few,

Average Joe Finances: 40:42

you cheated, you cheated, but that's okay. Because those are all fantastic, but oh, okay. I said, I said one,

Rod Khleif: 40:49

do you want to know? I wanted to over-deliver okay. You want to be

Average Joe Finances: 40:52

always, always, over-deliver always under promise and over deliver. Fantastic. You know, and I hear you say that on your podcast all the time. So, that's just a Testament to who Rod is, right. Over-delivering even here in the end. Absolutely love it now Rod. That was the final round, but I do have one more question for you. And it's probably the most important question of all, because we've talked about your amazing background and story. Just everything that you've done to the culmination, to where we're at right now. And people listening to my listeners are going to want to know more about you. Why don't they want to know who is rod cliff, uh, and they want to know where they can find more information about you. So

Rod Khleif: 41:29

thanks buddy. I appreciate that. Uh, website social media. I've got my podcast. Of course, you know, it's called lifetime cashflow. We just broke 12 million downloads, which also proud of so, uh, lifetime cashflow. Um, if you, if you want to go online and find me, just do real estate with rod and it goes right to my website, nobody can spell my name. It's rodkhleif.com is my website, but real estate was bottled. Take you there and you'll see my events that are coming up. You'll see hundreds of videos, uh, books, free books. I've got books on every topic in this business you can get for free. Um, just a lot of articles, a lot of incredible resources at my website, but you know, if you're serious about this business for God's sakes, come spend a couple days with me and my live events for three days. My virtuals are too. I cram them into two, but, uh, you know, you'll get a crash course in this business and, and start that start that level of competency that you need to go kick ass in this.

Average Joe Finances: 42:23

absolutely love it. So, Hey rod, , I'll make sure I have all the links to, to, you know, to make it easier for people to find you, if they want to practice their Google food, that's fine, but I'm going to try to make it as easy as possible. So everybody that's listening, you'll be able to find all the links on. In the show notes, go check it out, go check out his podcast. I'm telling you right now, it's on my weekly. Listen. I listened to it on my commute to work every day. , so it's absolutely phenomenal. , rod, this was truly a treat and a pleasure. , I'm so humbled and thankful that you took the time to chat with me I know it's a little bit later over there, so I appreciate you taking the time being on the east coast. I'm over here in Hawaii. So I do really appreciate always you. Whoa. Hey, we both enjoy the sun and the beach. So there you go.

Rod Khleif: 43:07

That's right. Thanks brother. It was a lot of fun, buddy. I'm really, I'm really impressed with you and what you've accomplished and, and, uh, and really you, you came well, you did some incredible questions that I don't always get when I'm interviewed. So it was a real fun for me as well.

Average Joe Finances: 43:20

Awesome. I appreciate that. And Aloha from Hawaii.