Welcome to The Accelerated Investor Podcast with Josh Cantwell, if you love entrepreneurship and investing in real estate then you are in the right place. Josh is the CEO of Freeland Ventures Real Estate Private Equity and has personally invested in well over 500 properties all across the country. He’s also made hundreds of private lender loans and owns over 1,000 units of apartments. Josh is an expert at raising private money for deals and he prides himself on never having had a boss in his entire adult life. Josh and his team also mentor investors and entrepreneurs from all over the world. He doesn’t dream about doing deals, he actually does them and so do his listeners and students. Now sit back, listen, learn, and accelerate your business, your life, and your investing with The Accelerated Investor Podcast.

Josh: So hey, welcome back to Accelerated Investor. I’m so excited that you could be with me today, whether you’re at the gym, you’re in your office, you’re working on a real estate investment deal, maybe it’s late at night and you’re in your office getting some things done and you’ve taken the time out to spend with me. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for sharing and downloading these episodes all over social media and I’m really excited today to have an amazing guest as someone who has just been an absolute beacon of entrepreneurship for a long, long time.

Josh: His name is Rod Khleif, Rod is a multi-family investor, his speaker, a philanthropist. He has been around business and entrepreneurship for over 40 years, dealt over 22 companies and today he has massive, massive live events and a huge audience that follow him and learning about entrepreneurship, real estate investing and specifically multi-family property syndication. Rod, thanks so much for joining us today on Accelerated Investor.

Rod: Well thanks for having me Josh. Let’s have some fun. This is going to be a blast.

Josh: You bet. You bet. So Rod, getting ready for this, you know, the first thing that stuck out as, you know, I met with your business partner with, with Robert Ritzenthaler and we talked a little bit about you guys about the crash of 2008, right? And, and your ability to not only build a massive portfolio leading up to 2008 but then famously or infamously losing it and then being able to rebuild it all. So let’s just talk about what it takes to build a $50 million portfolio and just the entrepreneurial, the mindset, what you’re thinking about how to, how to do that internally first because the tactics are important. But really getting your mind around it is the most important thing. So tell us more about that.

Rod: Yeah, sure. Well, if you don’t mind, let me go back further because were kind of, it’ll kind of build on itself a little bit. So I immigrated to this country when I was six with my mother Javantea and my brother Albert, we immigrated from Holland. I’m half Dutch and we ended up in Denver, Colorado where I lived the next 30 years. And we did not have much. In fact, you know, I grew up, we struggled. I grew up wearing clothes from the Goodwill and the Salvation Army all the way through junior high school until I could get a job and get my own clothes. And we, we had expired food because that’s all we could afford and drank powdered milk. My mom thought milk was healthy at the time and so we drank powdered mil, and I know that, that other people listening may have it harder than I did back then or if had it harder than I did, but the thing of it is I knew I wanted more.

Rod: And luckily my mom had a real entrepreneurial spirit and she babysat kids so we’d have enough money to eat. And so we always had a house full of kids. But with her babysitting money, she bought the house across the street from us for about a, I’d say around $30,000 when I was 14 and when I was 17 she told me it had gone up $20,000 in her sleep and she hadn’t done anything and she made $20,000 grand. I’m like, what? I’m getting into real estate. And so I said, screw college. I’m not doing college mom. I’m going to do real estate. So I went and got my real estate broker’s license right when I turned 18 and you could do that back then with education. Now they got smart. You need to have some experience first. But I turned, I was a broker when I turned 18 so I was going to be rich in real estate.

Rod: So my first year I made a whopping maybe $8,000 and in my second year, my second year, maybe $10,000 but my third year I made well over a hundred thousand and so what happened between your two and year three? Well, what happened was I met a guy that taught me about mindset, about psychology, how that truly 80% to 90% of your success in anything is your mindset and your psychology. And so, you know, fast forward to today, I’ve owned a couple thousand houses that I rented longterm, multiple apartment complexes in three states. I’m now in five states. But in 2006 my net worth went up $17 million while I slept. But there’s a punch line and you know, back in 2006 I thought I was a freaking real estate God, okay.

Rod: My head got so big that could barely fit it through a double door, right? And so and when that happens, it’s very often God or the universe or whatever you believe will give you a smack down. And that was 2008 for me. I lost that $17 million and a whole lot more. I $50 million like you said. And so if you don’t mind, let me take a minute and talk about what it took to have $50 million to lose in the first place. And then what it took to get back to the success that I enjoy today.

Josh: Perfect. Absolutely. Because that’s, my audience loves to hear about the journey, the entrepreneurial journey, right? Not necessarily the tactics they can learn the tactics at a seminar or a workbook or a book. But the journey is what I like to know. Because that’s how I can learn, right? Is the mistakes that other people have made, the mindset that they had. That’s what my audience loves to hear about. So tell us about that.

Rod: Awesome. Yeah. You know, I’ve got this, I’ve got this saying, ask me how I know, because I’ve, and I say this in my live events and one of my students gave me a t-shirts ask me how I know now we have t-shirts that say it because I’ve made every freaking mistake you can possibly make. But so, so how did I, how did I have 50 million to lose? And how did I come back from it knowing exactly what I freaking want and why I wanted it, okay. And this. And so I take my students in my live events through a process and I’ll give you a high level overview of this. So guys, if you’re listening or watching, if you have the ability to take some notes now would be a great time just for like the next five minutes. I think you’d be glad you did. So what I take my students through at my live events is, is a process where, and we do this over about an hour, hour and a half. So I want you to pick an hour when you have a lot of energy and you’ve, and you don’t have any distractions. So don’t do it right after a big meal. Makes sure you’re well hydrated. In fact, on that note, let me take a quick drink.

Rod: Make sure your well hydrated and sit down and write down everything you could ever possibly want in life. Okay? So it’s not just the stuff you want next year. It’s everything. The big things, the little things. Start with the stuff. Write down all the stuff, the houses, the cars, the boats, the jet skis, the planes, you know, where do you want houses, where you know, where do you want a second home? And remember this, take the lid off your brain. Now imagine that if you write it down, you’re going to get it, which is not outside the realm of reality. So just don’t, don’t limit yourself. If there’s big things that you want, you want a private jet, you want a yacht, you want a private Island, write it down. Because what that does is just a simple act of writing it down, and you’ve probably talked about this on the show before Josh, is it triggers something called your reticular activating system.

Rod: And that’s that filter in your brain that subconsciously filters out what it thinks is most important for you to focus on. And like, I’ll give you a couple of examples. One example would be you’re not thinking about what your feet feel right now, but your brain is filtering out thousands of things simultaneously. But now that I mentioned your feet, you’re thinking about your feet. But the greatest example is probably when you first buy a car, you don’t really notice that car before you bought it. You buy the car and you see them everywhere. Where they there before? Of course they were. And so that starts that process when you write them down now. So write down every, all the stuff and in guys, listen carefully more. Most people plan more time planning a freaking birthday party or Christmas than they do designing their lives.

Rod: So take this hour and design your life. You’ll be so glad you did. So write down all the stuff, but it’s not just the stuff. Write down, for example, how much money you want in the bank in three years. How much money you want in the bank in 10 years. Write down how much passive income you want in three years and in 10 years, write down, write down where you want to where you want to go in your lifetime. I’ve got a vision board now just for travel. The places I want to go again. And the places I haven’t been, you know. So write down where you want to go. Write down what you want to do. So it’s not just the stuff. Write down what you want to do. Like, like maybe you want to write a book, maybe you want to climb a mountain.

Rod: Maybe you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane like I did a few months back, which I will never do again. But write down what you want to do to. And then also write down what you want to learn in this lifetime. So this is not just the immediate stuff. This is your whole life. What are you going to stand for? You know what? What are you going to learn? Maybe you’re going to learn a foreign language. Maybe you’re going to learn multi-family real estate, which is what I teach. Or finance, which, which Josh is an expert in or, or raising equity with. Josh is an expert in whatever it is. What do you want to learn? Me, I’m going to learn how to play the drums. By the way, my wife bought me a drum set. It’s over in one of the other buildings in my compound here.

Rod: And I don’t even know what end of the sticks to use yet, but I’m going to learn how to play those damn drums. I want to learn how to fly a helicopter, you know? So what do you want to learn? Write that down. And lastly, and by the way, if you’re analytical, which I’m sure you’ve got a lot of analytical listeners, Josh, guys, please don’t poo poo this. Trust me, this shit really does work. But as you’re writing stuff down, don’t stop and analyze it. Keep writing. You can scratch it out later. Don’t let the pen leave the paper. Got to have a lot of energy around this process. So everything you want to have, everything you want to do, everything you want to become, everything you want to learn, but also write down who you want to help, okay? You know, maybe you want to help someone in your family.

Rod: I bought my parents a house when my dad was alive here in Florida on a canal I bought him a car, took him on cruises. Who do you want to do something for? Write that down, okay. And so once you can’t think of another thing, it’s not real until it’s measurable. So put a time limit on each goal. Put how many years it’s going to take you to achieve it. And don’t overthink this either guys. Those analytical ones. Just put a one, a three, a five, even a 10 or a 20, recognizing that as human beings, we will overestimate what we can do in a year and massively underestimate what we can do in 10 or 20 years. I’ll give you an example of that. So when I was in Denver, a young, 18 year old punk. I knew I wanted to live on the, I saw pictures of the beach, I saw Palm trees and I visualize living on the beach for 20 freaking years.

Rod: And I ended up building this $8 million, 10,000 square foot house on the beach where I own the beach on one side, I had the, the my boat lifts on the backside of the, of the Island and it was, I had this slice through this Island, which was unthinkable when I was 18. So please don’t limit yourself. Take the lid off your brain. If you want it, write it down because I’m going to tell you it, your chances of getting it are so greatly enhanced when you do that, the more clear it becomes, the faster it comes into your life. So put a time limit on each goal and then the next thing I want you to do, just a couple more pieces here, I want you to pick your number one goal. That goal that when you get it your like, Oh my God, I cannot believe I did this, that freaking goal.

Rod: Put it on another piece of paper. Now if you’ve got two or three that are equally exciting, just pick one because it won’t matter for what we’re going to do next. So pick that number one goal or the top one of the three or four. Then I also want you to pick your top three one year goals, okay? And put those on a separate sheet of paper and leave some room in between them. Now this is where most people stop. In fact, most people won’t even get this far. You’re already ahead of 99.9% of the people on the planet. And, but the goals are important. They will pull you, they will push you, they will propel you. But what’s the real fuel is knowing why those goals are an absolute freaking must, okay? Not a should. They have to be a must.

Rod: You know, we so often go through life saying, Oh, I should be a better parent. I should work harder. I should start a side hustle. I should buy some real estate. I should focus on my health. We should all over ourselves, guys, okay? It’s got to be a freaking must. And so write down why it’s an absolute must and use emotionally charged words like incredible, amazing, passionate, beautiful words are so freaking powerful. Use them when you’re writing a description of why it’s a must under each goal so that I can, you know, so that my family and I can be free. So we can go be free to do whatever we want and go wherever we want and bring whoever we want doing whenever we want. You know, whatever it is for you, write that down so I can show my kids what success looks like so I can show my wife or husband what it means to be successful so we can live the life of our freaking dreams, okay.

Rod: So use emotionally charged words. Now once you’ve got some of those down under each goal, I want you to put some pain in there because as human beings, we will do more to avoid pain than gain pleasure. You want to use this guys, so put it in there. So I don’t feel like a failure. So I don’t live a life of regret. So I don’t fail my children, so I don’t fail my spouse. Make it freaking painful because again, this is the fuel. This is what’s going to get you to get up early and work your hustle, stay up late, work on weekends. You’ve got to have this fuel to push through those limiting beliefs that we all have from childhood. Those fears or even worse to get uncomfortable. Many of us are comfortable and the comfort zone is a warm place, but nothing freaking grows there, okay.

Rod: So this is the fuel. So you’ve written your positive and your negative reasons why. Let me tell you why the negative so important guys. There was a nurse in Australia named Bronnie Ware and she was a hospice nurse and she counseled people at the end of their lives and she asked them a question, what regrets do you have? And she even wrote a book about it. It’s called the five regrets of dying. You want to know what the number one regret was, Josh? It was people not living up, living in someone else’s life, not living up to my potential, not living a life I could have been. Screw that guys, we don’t want any freaking regrets. So you create this fuel for yourselves because again, this is 80% to 90% of it, the real estate or the entrepreneurship or the business operations and all that stuff.

Rod: That’s a small piece, that’s an easy piece. You got to be able to actually take action with what you learn. So you’ve, you’ve put the positive and negative reasons why. I want to give you one last really important tool and I know you’ve had Jack Canfield on the show and he’s really, really powerful on this conversation as well. And that is you need to incorporate visualization into your life. Now let me give you some examples of this. I’ll give you some personal ones and I’ll give you some public ones. One great one is Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey wrote himself a check for $10 million when he was flat broke. And he put on the, you know, on the low, those of you that are millennials, a check is something we used to use to pay people with.

Josh: Right. What is that? What do you mean?

Rod: And anyway, so he put it in the remittance for services rendered with a little smiley face. And he and he was, he’d go up to the Hollywood sign, he’d look at it and he would visualize cashing it when he was flat broke, and that’s how much money he made for Dumb and Dumber. Now, I’ll give you some other great examples. In fact, this is an awesome one. There was this millionaire in new Orleans and he, decided to adopt a classroom there and try and experiment. And this was a classroom in, I don’t know, it was the ninth ward or where, but it was their average people. The average number of kids that went to college was in the teens. It was under 20% okay. All he did was he paid to bus those kids to a college. I don’t know if it was Loyola or somewhere in New Orleans, and they paired the, each one of those kids in this from a rough neighborhood with a college student, and they spent the day with the college student.

Rod: They went to classes, they went to the cafeteria, they walked around campus, they went to the library. They got to feel what college was like, and then they bused them back to home. All they did for the next few years was every day for a few minutes, they would close their eyes and visualize themselves going to college. Over 80 freaking percent went to college. That’s the power of visualization. Olympic athletes, they visualize a race now before they do it, the Russians started this because it’s been proven to enhance performance. Another great example I love, a public example I love is a Disney when Epcot Center was built, which was the last big park here in Disney World in Orlando or Florida where I live, and Walt Disney had already died. And so at the grand opening of Epcot Center a reporter went up to Roy Disney and said, you know, it’s a shame that Walt didn’t get to see this.

Rod: And Roy turned and looked at him and said, the only reason you’re seeing this is because Walt saw this. Okay, I’ll give you some personal examples. So back when I was 18, and I don’t even know what it was I was doing until the movie The Secret came out. So, you know, I don’t know if you haven’t seen the movie The Secret or read the book, it’s about the law of attraction and it’s freaking awesome. Just do it. I’ve given away hundreds of copies of that DVD now it’s, I think it’s free out there, but anyway, I was 18 and I’m going to sell real estate, right? I’m going to be a real estate broker and sell people houses. And so I had to buy a four door car and I bought this Ford four door Granada ugliest piece of crap you ever saw.

Rod: I had a bench seat in the front, but I had to have a four door car to show houses. And what’s interesting is I worked with a guy that had two Corvettes and he had all kinds of money. I dated his daughter but he let me drive one of the Corvettes. And that’s the key piece, that experiential piece. If there’s something you want, you want a car, go test drive it for God’s sakes. If you want to live in a certain type of house, go to the open houses of houses like that you want to experience. In fact, one of my bucket list items now is I took my wife to the Amalfi Coast in Italy and they have all these yachts there and I want to rent or buy a yacht and go from Barcelona and go all the way around the boot of Italy and do Greece and Croatian.

Rod: So I’ve got pictures on walls of yachts. I went to the Fort Lauderdale boater show literally a few weeks ago and I bs my way on some big yachts and I sat in the captain’s chair and I laid on the bed and I visualized myself owning this freaking amazing piece of equipment because it freaking works. Now let me give you some examples. So I went in that car, in that Corvette and I’m thought, I’m like, oh my God, this is amazing. So this is before you could even spell the word internet. So I went in a magazine and got a picture of a Corvette and I put it on the underside of the visor of my bone ugly, four-door Granada of a picture of a Corvette. Within a year or two, I had a Corvette. I’ll give you a couple more examples, but I want to say this and pre-frame this.

Rod: This is not me bragging, okay? I, this stuff that I’m going to explain to you doesn’t even really interest me anymore, but, but they’re great for hopefully to inspire you to recognize the power of this. And so, um, this is back when the TV show Magnum PI was out. And the guy’s name was a actor, was Tom Selleck he was the detective and he drove this awesome Ferrari 308, this red Ferrari. And I’m like, Oh my God, that’s cool. So I got a picture of that actual car. I have a magazine, put it on the visor, my Corvette. Within a year or two, I had a Maserati looked just like it. Last example, another car example. I’m the guy that always wanted a Lamborghini okay. I had the pictures of posters in my room with the Lamborghini Countach, which was the car that I thought I wanted back then.

Rod: But what’s interesting is my son collected models of exotic cars and he had them, he had about 30 of them. You know, everything from, you know, McLaren’s to Ferrari’s. But he had a model of the exact same Lamborghini that I ended up, same color, same style, everything that I ended up getting. Guys, this stuff works, these pigs, so get pictures of your goals. I use vision boards now, but I’ll share one other thing with you, because I know you put this on YouTube. I use a paper planner okay, I’m a dinosaur. So here’s my paper planner. This is on today. Now I’m in the back of this thing. I’ve got pictures that have been in here for 20 years. Not exaggerating, they’re all dog-eared. You can’t, I don’t know if you can see. But yeah, so the first pictures are pictures of my kids.

Rod: They’re my gratitude pictures because everything starts from a foundation of gratitude. So these are pictures of my kids when they were very young. They’re 28 and 25 now. Again, I’ve had these pictures in here 20 years, but then I’ve got pictures of things that I wanted. Now what’s crazy is these were before I’d built that house on the beach, these, this picture on the top looks just like my living room on the house on the beach. I had 10 I had 80 foot of glass, 10 feet high, the same travertine flooring just like that and what’s even crazier and I lost that house okay. And all the pain and suffering that I went through and no complaints. But so now I live in a compound and, and I’ve got six buildings. I’ve got a giant main house. I’ve got a beautiful guest house on the water.

Rod: In fact, the view behind me, if you’re watching this on YouTube, is my backyard and it’s a green screen, but it’s a picture of my backyard. What’s crazy? These bottom pictures, you see these, I don’t know if you can see these railings, Josh, down here at the bottom. There’s like these stone railings look behind me and this is what I have now, okay. It’s the same freaking thing. And then I’ve got, you know, other things like pictures of I’m, stupid shit. Like I’ve got a few hundred thousand dollars with watches, the Lamborghini picture before I ever got it. Okay. The Rolls Royce, the Bentley, all this stuff that I got because I had pictures. Guys, this stuff works. I know some of you analytical ones are gone. Oh God foofy foofy I’m telling you big mistake because this stuff you agree with me, Josh?

Josh: Absolutely. Well, you’ve got to know where you want to go in order to get there, because…

Rod: If you don’t know what you want, how are you ever going to get it?

Josh: If you’re not, yeah. If you’re in and if you’re not clear and specific about where you want to go, the world has a funny way of pushing you wherever the world wants you to go. So many people that I’ve met, they’re like, wow, I haven’t accomplished this or I haven’t accomplished that, so what do you, well, what do you want exactly? They’re like, well, I don’t really know, and for all the bitching and complaining and crying and moaning in the world that we have today, when you ask people and Rod, that whole example you just gave, you obviously know this well, it’s so many people that I’ve asked, well, what do you want? They don’t have an answer, and I’m like, well, that’s exactly why the world is pushing you wherever the world wants you to go. It’s like if you’re in a boat and you’re going down the river and you’re going toward Niagara Falls, if you don’t make an effort to go one direction or the other, the world is going to take you over Niagara Falls, which is not really where you want to go.

Rod: Or you stay stuck in hell or you stay stuck in hell and hell can be the comfort zone. Now I will tell you, clarity is power guys. Those you listening, clarity is power. And that’s why you should do your goals regularly because that’ll evolve as well and you’ll get more clarity around them. I’ll tell you before I met my wife and I have the most beautiful, extraordinary creature for a wife you could imagine. In fact, if you Google my name, the auto-populates wife is the most common, I made the mistake of telling her that. Yeah, it’s hilarious. But anyway, um, and before I met her, I clearly wrote out exactly what I was looking for in a woman. I mean with exhaustive detail and that’s why the minute I met her, I knew it was her. Literally and the same thing or applies to a financial goal, to a material goal.

Rod: The more clear it is. And I’ll tell you this, Josh, I do a little morning ritual, you know, my students know my love languages, gifts. If you have guys, if you haven’t read The Five Languages of Love, read it. If you love anybody, trust me, you want to read it. But my love language is gifts. I give gifts to my students and they get lots of books. But one of them is a book called, Hal Elrod’s book The Miracle Morning. And I do a little version of that. And Hal tells you to, you know, to meditate or pray, which is kind of what I do. To journal, he calls it scribing to exercise, which you must do. And what was the fourth thing? Oh, I’m forgetting one. Forgetting. No, he’s big. Oh, to read, a good book for a few minutes.

Josh: Read and hydrate, right? Get up and drink lots of water.

Rod: Hydrate for sure. Sure, sure. But, but so every morning, one of the things that I do is I’ll sit in a recliner that’s behind me and I’ll, in fact this is a green screens for those of you who are wondering where the real liner is, it’s back there. But anyway, I’ll sit in there and I’ve got my vision boards and, but the first thing is I do is I close my eyes and I do gratitude for the things that I have in my life, my amazing wife, my kids, my coaching students, my foundation. And I’ll do gratitude for those things. And then I’ll do gratitude for the things that I want is if I already have them. And sometimes I’ll get emotional over things I don’t even have yet.

Rod: Okay. Because it freaking works. So I know I lost a few more of you analytical ones, but I’m telling you if you want, if you want more out of life, trust me, this process works. But I do want to share, I want to share one thing before I forget Josh around goals. Forgive me. I know I’m kind of stealing the mike here.

Josh: I love it. I want you to roll because you’ve got a great message and the listeners love to hear it.

Rod: Alright, thanks. Love to hear it. Alright so back to goals for one minute because this is really important. So I told you about that house I built on the beach and I mean it was magnificent. I had a giant waterfall from the second floor balcony into the pool. You had to walk through the waterfall to get in the pool. I had tens of thousands of dollars with the trees that actually bent out over the pool the pool was in magazines. It was spectacular. So about two months after I moved in, I’m in my pool at night. It’s changing colors cause it’s got fiber optic lighting and just magnificent. I’m looking up at this giant house, this testament to my ego, which is really what it was. It was to prove to the world I was good enough to prove the world that I mattered. And that’s truth of it. And when I look back on this, I realized that’s what I was doing. I was trying to prove that I mattered and I’m looking up at this thing and I got really depressed and I’m like, what the hell? I’ve just achieved success times a thousand societal standards. And I mean I was really bummed, not just a little bummed, really bummed.

Rod: And when I look back on it, I realized there were a few things happening. Number one is the goals are important, but it’s never about the goals. Happiness comes from progress and growth. It’s why it’s so important when you’re doing your weekly planning to celebrate anything you got done because you’re going to have setbacks, you’re going to get your butt kicked, you’re going to, you know, things aren’t going to happen as fast as you like. But if you’re celebrating your growth and your progress, you’ll be happy. And the other piece of that is you should never achieve a big goal without having other goals lined up behind it. Because it was like, for me it was like, what the hell am I going to do now? I’ve done everything. I have no vision for the future. The good book says without a vision, the people perish.

Rod: You need a vision for the future. And I didn’t have one. So that’s number one around goals. But there’s a bigger thing I want to share here, Josh. And that is, I was successful but I was unfulfilled. I had been totally focused on Rod, prove the world wrong. I’m good enough. Prove the world I matter. Rod, Rod, Rod, Rod, Rod that’s all that mattered to me was, was just proving myself because, you know, I had the childhood crap where people picked on me and stuff and I had, you know, that everybody goes through, but it impacted me in a negative way that I had something to prove now. So I got some books and I was going to get back because I was depressed. I wasn’t going to stay there. So I got Dale Carnegie, I got Jack Canfield, I got Tony Robbins and I just went in about halfway through Tony’s book.

Rod: And I’m like, man, I’m really liking this. So when saw him live that year, and this is like 19 years ago and I was so impressed by the way, shout out to him, if you go…

Josh: I was just at UPW, Unleash the Power Within a month ago down in Miami was the second time I’ve been there. It’s amazing.

Rod: Yeah. And I mean I followed him around the planet for 20 years now because I just love the technology. In fact his Date With Destiny event is this weekend and this would be one. I’ve gone probably 17 times because I’m always working on something new and I want to be a better version of me, but, but I’m not going this year. But the point is, the point I wanted to make here is that I found out he fed families for the holidays. He’s done millions and I’m like, you know, that’s really cool.

Rod: And I was 40 before I got this freaking memo okay. And I’m like, you know, do something for other people. So I go back and I decide I’m going to feed some families for the holidays too. He calls it as basket brigade and that’s what I call it too. And so we went back and fed five families and I, you know, we called a church, found out who really needed help. And the third one changed my life. I mean I we went up to this house. It was that, this was actually in Denver. I was in Denver with my brother. I said, Hey, let’s go feed some families. So, which is where I’m from originally. I’m in Florida now, but we go up to this house and it is a shit hole okay. You walk in, it’s one of these row houses where you, it’s like a one bedroom but it’s not even a one bedroom.

Rod: You walk through the bedroom to get to, I’m sorry, you walk into the living room, you walk through the bedroom to get to the kitchen, which has the bathroom off of it. So you actually have to walk through the bedroom to get to the kitchen. It’s not even a one bedroom. There was a lady in there with five kids. It was just her and her kids and she and we bought toys for the kids. We found out if anybody had kids and we bought a frozen turkey and this was for Thanksgiving. We decided to give a holiday meal. So it was boxes of food and she comes out, she sees the boxes, the food and the toys and the turkey and she just breaks down and then her kids come out and the older ones break down. And then I start crying and I’m hooked.

Rod: And I’m blessed to say brother in the last we fed a thousand families this like three weeks ago for our, two weeks ago for Thanksgiving in the last 19 years now we’ve fed 75,000 children and people, we’ve done thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies for local kids. We’ve done thousands of teddy bears to local police departments for their officers to keep in their cars. And that has been fulfillment. And I’m not saying this to brag, I’m saying this to inspire you guys that are listening that I know you want success. Some of you got blood dripping from your teeth. You want it so freaking bad. And if you do it without this piece, it’s not success. I’ve interviewed people on my podcast, we just broke 7 million downloads this week and I’ve had billionaires on there. I’ve had mega millionaires on there.

Rod: And I can see if someone is like I was then, because I recognize it. They’re totally focused on themselves and they’re not focused on making the world a better place. They’re focused on themselves. And I feel sad for them because they may have financial success, but they don’t have fulfillment. They’re not happy. And so guys, if you want success incorporate giving back in some fashion, it doesn’t have to be grand deals. Like I just said, pick a family and help a family. Help an elderly person or pick a cause, animals, the environment, whatever, and give back because that’s the true definition of success.

Josh: Not only is it the true definition, but it gives some feeling right behind the money. The grit, the grind, the long days, the getting kicked in the teeth and all of a sudden the success is there it makes, yeah, the success is there and then it’s like, well, what was all that for? And if it was just for that, oh, I have more money in my pocket. I have a nicer car, a bigger house. Man that wears off fast, like we bought the big house, we have the nice car. It’s like that only lasts, the car ages, right? The house becomes a pain in the ass. It’s like a too big to clean. Who cares about this house? I just had this conversation with my wife the other day. Let’s downsize. I don’t care about this house. I don’t need 7,000 square feet. This is ridiculous. Let’s move because why?

Josh: It was just a freaking house. But like tomorrow, Rod, we’re going out to shop for needy families for Christmas. Our employees are going. We’ve got a bunch of like people that we’re sponsoring that can, I can already feel the office and the people around and everyone going and going out in the field and buying this and then delivering it. And man, that already feels so good and Hey, we haven’t done it yet and we’re already looking forward to tomorrow. That’s really what it’s about man. So I was going to ask you Rod about, you know, some habits and routines about elite and successful entrepreneurs. That’s what I really wanted to get out of you today.

Josh: But you covered that. I never even had to ask the question. You already answered it right? It was all about goal setting and visualizing and then giving back because if you want to be a super successful real estate investor, entrepreneur, syndicator, all of that is great. But then when you, let’s say you have a hundred units or 500 units or 2000 units, then why, like what is all that for? And really that’s ultimately where we got to right at the end, the five, the families, the five kids, all the things you’ve done to give away, it’s absolutely phenomenal, Rod.

Rod: It’s what life’s about. Everything in this universe, everything in this, in this world. If it doesn’t contribute, it actually gets eliminated. And as you learned with Tony, one of the human needs is contribution. It’s actually a need. We have a need to contribute okay. And, you know, and it took me until I was 40 to get that freaking memo, but I got it thank God. And so those of you that are in your twenties, in fact, I had somebody, I spoke at a keynote literally the night before last in Phoenix, and, and this young kid came up to me and said, you know, I hear you talk about that message, but I want to focus on the money. I’m like, dude, you want the money, incorporate that into your life and it’ll happen much faster for you.

Josh: That’s right. So one of the things, Rod I thought it was like just we’re recording this with you today and having fun right now. I thought about this morning, right? And one of the things that really resonated about what you said was not only setting the goals but then reviewing them, looking at them on a daily basis. I’m old enough now to recognize the difference in my day when I get up, get to the gym and full of gratitude, take care of my body, eat something healthy, and really know why I’m doing it. So the first thing I do when I get to my office, right at this very desk is review and look at exactly the bigger stuff, the bigger picture, the bigger goals, the contribution, the giving back, being healthy, wealthy, and wise. If I do that first in my day, then the rest of my seems to be full of energy, full of purpose.

Josh: I’m going to have a longer day, get more done. The days where I skip that and don’t like remind myself why I’m here, the day sort of becomes a little bit of a grind. It feels a little bit long for the wrong reasons. That little thing I’ve learned to, you know, and it comes with age, it comes with time. Sometimes it’s that one little thing that you do to remind yourself, why are you here? Why are you sitting at the desk today? Why are you doing this podcast? Why are you raising money? Why? Why, why? It allows you to give you the energy and ride.

Josh: Obviously Rod, you’re full of energy. I love the speed that you talk because I’m full of energy. I love to talk fast and but you can tell there’s a difference between that type of energy, which is true, authentic energy working towards a purpose and somebody who’s faking it because while it’s another long day, I don’t know about the money, like it’s not worth it, right? Because you have so much purpose behind what you do. You have so much energy flowing with it. And I think that’s what people miss is the energy that comes from having the purpose. Because the days where you don’t have the energy, you’re not going to want to stay longer you’re not going to want to stay later.

Rod: Let me interject something to guys, if you don’t love real estate then you either associate pleasure with it and you learn to love it, or for God’s sakes, go do something else. Because especially in the multi-family space, it’s a team sport. Yeah you can flip houses and wholesale by yourself, although to be effective, in my opinion, you build a company and you set up systems and teams and you do it there too. But the only way that’s going to happen for you is if you can inspire other people. And the only way you’re going to inspire other people is through your passion. And the only way you’re going to have that passion is if you freaking love it. So learn to love it or go do something else.

Josh: Amen. That’s awesome, Rod. Listen, I wanted to give you an opportunity to tell our listeners where they could get more information. Upcoming seminars. You’ve got amazing books. Tell us where they can get more content around your stuff.

Rod: Yeah, thank you. So yeah, I wrote a book and I gave away 20,000 copies of it. It’s, and then my team is like, Hey, stupid, put it on Amazon. Let’s make some money with it. So it’s finally on Amazon. But, and it’s really good. I’ll say that humbly, but because I don’t give it away for free anymore on my website, if you’re interested in multi-family at all, I’ve got this tool book and it’s on RodKhleif.com K H L E I F.com. And actually I think you could just text my name Rod to 41411 that’s right. Just text Rod to 41411 and we’ll get you a copy of this thing. It’s 70, it’s almost 70 pages.

Rod: I think it’s like 68 but there’s no fluff. It’s not like one of these fluffy pieces to try to sell you shit. It’s got every question you could possibly ask when you’re doing due diligence on a property, it’s like Due Diligence checklist on steroids okay. We use it every day. It’s really good. Big hitters in the space. Ask me for it and use it okay. And because it’s that good, it’s about the best I’ve ever, I think it’s the best I’ve ever seen for a due diligence checklist and it’s free the price is right. So get that. Yeah I do four live events a year. I’m going to be an LA, I don’t know when this episode will air. I’m going to be in LA in January and then I’ll be in Orlando after that. Bu, I’ll tell you what, Josh if, I’ll give your listeners a hundred dollars off, what would you want them to put in as a code?

Josh: Just Rod.

Rod: No, can’t do Rod because that…

Josh: How about Josh?

Rod: How about Josh? Yeah. All right. So we’ll use Josh. If you use the code Josh, he’ll give you a hundred bucks off and the tickets are already ridiculously cheap. They’re like in a few hundred dollars, so you can get probably come for about $200 bucks and it’s just me for three days teaching you this business. And I don’t bring in outside speakers to sell you stuff like everybody else, it’s just me. And we also spend time on mindset, which is so freaking important as you know. Because I, you know, the sad reality is 90% of the people that go to a course or an event, they don’t do a damn thing with it. Not on my watch. So I hope you’ll come see me and that’s RodsBootcamp.com and lastly, I’ve got a Facebook community, so largest multi-family group really in the world for multi-family, it’s 30 almost 31,000 people in it. If you go to MultifamilyCommunity.com it’s a direct link to that Facebook group because you guys know you are the five people you hang around with. You want to be around people that want more, they can uphold you to higher standard going to pull you up. And so peer group is everything and that’s an incredible peer group or a place to find those peers.

Josh: Absolutely love it. And I saw like on Facebook, some of my friends are in your mastermind and they’ve got that really tight nit, small mastermind, 60 people or so you guys are out feeding families and doing it together. It is all about the people that you associate with your income, your advancement, your experience is going to be very closely tied to those five or six closest friends that you have. So starting that multi-family community group, check out Rods events, and also Rods Due Diligence package, phenomenal tools. We’ll put those in the show notes. Rod Khleif, you’ve been phenomenal guest today. Thank you so much for your time, your energy. I’m so grateful for you. I know you just landed last night, two, three in the morning and made time to be on with me today. I really appreciate you. Thanks for bringing the thunder today.

Rod: Thanks brother has been a lot of fun and pleasure to meet you and get to know you a little bit.

You’ve been listening to Josh Cantwell and the Accelerated Investor Podcast. Leave a comment on our iTunes channel and let us know what you want to learn next, or who you’d like Josh to interview. While you’re there, give us some five star rating and make sure to subscribe so you can be the first to hear new episodes. Follow Josh Cantwell and his companies, the Strategic Real Estate Coach and Freeland Ventures on all social media platforms now and stay up to date on new training and investment opportunities to start your journey toward the lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of. Apply for coaching at JoshCantwellCoaching.com.