INVESTOR TURNED $12,000 STUDENT LOAN INTO $40 MILLION IN REAL ESTATE

30:41EYL University is the biggest platform for business in the universe. We have over 70 past classes, weekly classes. We have a private investment group on Facebook, which gives you access to our movie club, our book club. We also have bi-weekly real estate calls with MG, the mortgage guy, and monthly financial advising calls with none other than yours truly. So head over to EYLUniversity.com right now and enter promo code EYL for 40 % off of our annual membership. That's right. Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Head over. We'll see you on the other side. Let's do it. You see the gentrification taking place.

31:23You have the moment in the dice game where it's like, and that's a good point that you bring up too, because it's unfortunate, but nobody should have crime brought up from nobody. But you see in neighborhoods, we'll commit crime against each other all day. We'll never commit crime against anybody that doesn't look like us. Even Nipsey Hussle said that we program to actually go and train to hunt and do violence and disrespect people that look similar to you. But when you see somebody that looks opposite to you, you're not even going to play around with that because you're scared, really, of repercussions that come with that.

32:00Yeah, the consequences. Yeah, serious consequences. So you saw that happening in your brain. So you're like, all right, did you want to just double down? Like now I got to actually really double down on my investment strategy and buy these properties before it's too late? You know, it'd be very easy for me to tell you right now that, yo, I had this master plan, right? And I saw that this is how I was going to execute, and this is the plan and this was the roadmap that got nah son you know just happened it's happening you you know like that's the beauty of like um when people come on these podcasts right um everybody chrono you know wants to chronological chronological i can't say the word chronologically chronologically define everything that they did right but nobody highlights all the mistakes and the dumb shit that they did and you know what I'm saying?

32:50Like a lot of mistakes were made. Like it worked out at some point I saw it, you know, like in the last 10 years I've, you know, it's been crystal clear, but I was still trying to figure it out. Still trying to. What's some of the mistakes that you make? Cause you're right. People can learn just like they learn from information. They can also learn from mistakes. What's some of the biggest mistakes that you made? A lot of the cribs that I sold. Too early? Sold them too early.

33:20Like, 184... Oh, you still got the address in your head? 184 Madison, right? So, 184... No, 184 B Madison. I bought that crib for like$400 ,000 when it was worth$700 ,000. And I sold it. I sold it for$900 ,000 in a few months. and at that time I thought I was like the smartest dude in the world you know because I copped that joint and there's a story behind that joint too Is that the one with the you brought it because somebody else wanted it? Exactly. Can you tell that story? I think that's a good strategy. I would listen to that Can you tell that story? Alright I had gotten a phone call about that one particular property right?

34:13That one particular property but you know in just like any other game just like you know what other you know i'm saying what other podcasts are doing and who who the players are and what their targets are so i knew for a fact that um there was a hasidic dude who owned the two buildings opposite of that building right so um i got the phone call on that one just just random somebody who knew you know somebody somebody who knew who knew um somebody's auntie or this that the other blah blah blah i got the phone call so i got i was able to to buy that crib that was worth seven hundred thousand dollars for for four hundred thousand dollars so i bought that crib with no intention of doing anything um with it except to extort the the guy who owned the other two the other because he wanted the whole block because he wanted to plus it just gives him power you know like to have it's monopoly you get three in a row you know like i'm still chasing three in a row like i've got you know i got a couple of joints where i got you know two in a row after four you get the hotel exactly so um i basically use you know i had no i had no desire for that building it was not um within the confine you know it's not it wasn't where i was working at the time but i got it didn't do any work to it and held it.

35:38And him and I just went back and forth for a few months until he gave me the 900 grand. And the thing is, it might seem as if I turned$400 ,000 into$900 ,000. That's not really the case. I really turned$100 ,000 into$500 ,000 in a few months because although the crib was$400 ,000. I came out my pocket 20 % down, which was$80 ,000 plus closing costs, which was$100 ,000, which I put that down, but then I sold it for$9 ,000. So that$500 ,000 profit was made with the$100 ,000. So that is like one of the best G moves. Percentage-wise, percentage-wise, percentage in time was probably one of the best G moves I've made.

36:36You know, better than Tesla. Better than Tesla. So when I heard you speaking about that, it was like, do you have some reasons to buy? Obviously, cash flows, what you were doing, equity. So that was your chess move. Yeah. That was your chess move. Then you said there's some portfolio fits. One thing I found very interesting was like, obviously 2007 affected the real estate game like no other in our generation. But you kept all your properties. By hook and by crook. Like, how did that happen? So, first of all, like, I literally lost everything, right? So, like, 2006, I was like a hood billionaire, you know?

37:18I had a net worth of$3 million. You know,$3 million is like a billion dollars. No, you're a billionaire. It's a fact. Yeah, very close to a billion. Right? Right? So, but like when every, you know, I was over leveraged. I was spending, you know, I was in, I was in, I was in the clubs, you know,$4 ,000 nights, like maybe two, three times a month, you know,$1 ,500 nights, more than that. What clubs were you frequencing at this time? So many, man. From Club Cheetah to Club Amnesia. All of that, yo, all of that. Nice, nice. I don't know I ain't gonna ask you how old but I guess all the Black Diamond parties back in the day and China Club China Club we've been there a few times I was going to clubs when I was a little kid like 12 years old my brother was a promoter and I had a fake ID and I always looked older than I was so I remember these clubs like all of the all of the clubs when I was like 12 years old but that might have like speed I was doing all these all these clubs March 21, 12 March 21, 12 Always close, yeah.

38:28I was there spending money. Just getting caught up. You know what I'm saying? You were the guy we were watching with our cups. Yeah. And just like when a few years later, I was watching Puff with my cups. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. So it was just like the same way that made me want to go out and do more. Hopefully other people did that as well. But anyway, I lost everything by like 2008. right um and i had a whole bunch of cribs um and every last one of them was just like underwater because i had pulled too much cash out you know i had i had this big house in jersey that i was paying like seven grand a month for um i think i had like a pain a thousand dollars for I had a drop six lease you know just everything you know started good and yeah the dough was you know before we had Instagram models we had the K-Slay models in those magazines straight starting magazine exactly so I had a couple of those on the payroll so literally lost you know what I'm saying Literally pain.

39:51Don't let that go of your head. A couple. Exactly. Two or three. So after that, I woke up one day and I was just like, yo, I went from positive three million to like negative a million when I did the math. And I remember just being in my crib waiting to have them come. you know like I got all the foreclosure notices and stuff like that and that's when I basically got on you know like what I had like um probably like 40 or 50 thousand dollars in cash left and that's when I got on my grind and I I really think that I worked for my like the next two three years without a day off you know like I was doing everything I had stopped gambling by then I had opened this thing called law 676 it was a it was a studio like and I used to rent that out and actually there would be there would be no Brooklyn Bank without law 676 because I was you know having parties in there and stuff like that and so like an event space it was an event space okay so um i did that um for a while um i ended up going to going to india getting a hair connect and and i started a uh a hair company like weaves yeah work yeah like um i had the number three i had the number three um hair indian hair company in new york city for like a year or two little known fat yeah select strands I like strands.

41:33Exactly. So I was doing that. I was, I had a, I had a card game going. Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more.

42:17Earners, what's up? Look, on Earn Your Leisure, we're all about smart money moves. Here's one most people skip, and it starts with Insurify. Most of us never shop our car insurance. The policy renews every year, the rate creeps up a little at a time, and nobody calls you to tell you. You stay with the same company because it's easy, and that convenience costs you real money. That's what Insurify fixes. Real quotes from more than 120 top insurance companies side by side. About two minutes, free, no phone calls, no pressure. And if there's nothing better for you right now, Insurify keeps watching and tells you when that changes, so you're never stuck overpaying.

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44:13Rules and restrictions may apply. They don't realize smart people use smartphones, huh? Seeing through BS they thought was gonna slide. Download TextNow because it cuts out clownery. You can literally activate it from your couch. Nationwide 5G with the same towers the other companies use. Pay what you want or not at all. You're in control. Show these ridiculous carriers we ain't paying for stupid. Because we're way too smart to pay dumb. Free app-based talk and text via the TextNow app requires Wi-Fi or data connection. Data plans sold separately. 5G where available. You know, I had a car. Even though I wasn't a gambler, but I knew degenerate gamblers.

44:51So I was just like, yo, I had this card game going. You know. Call the old folks. Yo, what's up? Yeah, yeah, I'm about to run this game, y 'all. Now I ain't playing. Just bring your money. Exactly. Okay. So you just had to do what you had to do to just get back. Exactly. And you kept them all. You kept the auto crew. But you were able to keep your properties by doing all these side hustles. All these sides, 24 hours a day. I was Airbnb in my crib. This is the early stages. Yeah. That's when it was called Home Away and VRBO, all that other stuff. So I was doing that, letting people stay in my crib for$500 a night while I was sleeping on a friend's couch.

45:34Y 'all do what you got to do. Just did what I had to do. And then you survived. Let me ask you this. As far as the heat lock, let's bring it back. You spoke about the HELOC. We talked about HELOCs before a little bit, but you want to talk about HELOCs a little bit, like the benefits of it and maybe like some things that people may be aware of. There's a home equity line of credit, right? Different from a refund. Yeah. So basically you take a HELOC when you have some equity in the property and it's either a secondary lien or it could be a primary lien depending on how much equity you have. And it's basically like a credit card or a checking account on your crib.

46:15So you're not paying interest when you don't owe them any money. But when you take the money out, you're paying interest on it. So let's say you have a crib and it's worth a million and you have half a million on your mortgage. right and so now you could take up to 80 percent on the heloc so that's three hundred thousand dollars a home equity line of credit so so you you you have a lien on your property for three hundred thousand on on that heloc but um unless you're using it unless you're using the whole thing you don't have to pay you know and that's the good thing as far as for my understanding correct me if i'm wrong um as far as like with the refi it's essentially like a second mortgage on your home.

47:00And you have to pay the interest no matter what. Interest and principal. Interest and principal no matter what, but you get the money where the home equity line of credit, you take the money out. As you need it. As you need it. Exactly. It's just available to you. Exactly. Are the interest rates higher? The interest rates are typically around what the regular thing is. What you normally save on is the closing costs. because there's typically no home force. Right, right, when you refi. Exactly. Okay. So with the home equity line of credit, you always got to just do the math on, all right, I'm going to be paying this much interest on it.

47:40I'm going to be paying this much interest on it. And if I make a decision, it has to cover this interest plus make me more. you know like um earlier this year i took out i i banged out all my um i banged out all my um helix because i didn't want them to um cancel it when you couldn't get it that's something that yeah i'm about mg uh matt has said that before he said that before covid he was like yo yeah he's like um you know yeah take it out yeah because it's like monopoly money like if the value of your home goes down and that's going to affect your refi and your um helix so it's like he said that like we COVID you never know they can just it's not like it's guaranteed yeah they can cancel it so it's like you don't need to use it you don't have to use it but at least you have it locked in and then if you need to use it it's available that literally happened I went to the bank in January because I was going to refile and I hit Matt I'm like yo run me some numbers on the refile and I'll run me some numbers for the HELOC and I went back to the bank in March HELOC wasn't available anymore yeah I was like oh damn so so back in March I had like a million and change your HELOCs and I pulled it all out because I was just scared.

48:47I didn't want to wake up one day because that happened to me back in 2007 where I woke up one day and my HELOCs were gone. I took this cash out but I didn't want to just sit with it in the bank so I ended up putting it in the market at that time when the market was at its lowest. In March? In March. You put a million dollars in the market? Yeah. What stock did you put it in? Amazon, Tesla. Apple? Nah. Amazon Tesla, this VGT. VGT. VGT, yeah. That's a good one. That's solid. We talk about that a lot. Yeah. That's a solid one. V-F-I-A-X, which is a Vanguard. Which is a Vanguard. ETF, I think. Yin, which is a Chinese one.

49:33Y-I-N-N. That one ain't making no real money. And I put in Baba. Ali Baba? Yeah, I ain't making no real money on that. because I got that in about$200 and it's like at$250 now. But that Tesla's a little different. Yeah, that Tesla hit a little different. So, all right. This is important for people to understand because you always got to plan for a worst case scenario. So when you saw the COVID's hitting, it's about to get crazy. Don't panic. Let me gather as much money as I possibly can out of my house before they shut this HELOC thing down. You get a million dollars, You say, okay, stock market crashed, literally crashed.

50:19Probably a good time to put money in the market. It might be a bottom. You put it in at a low point. It skyrockets over the next couple of months. What did that million turn into?

50:32Wait, wait, wait. He said my CPA might advise me not to. How about this? How about this? How about this? Not what it turned into. did you allocate the million equally throughout those assets? No. Or you just dumped like, yeah, I'm putting$100 ,000 in Tesla? No. Tesla, I'm mad at Tesla because I only put, I think, like 50 grand in Tesla. Okay. You know? And I had put like half a mil in. Amazon? Amazon. Right? And that one did well. That did great. but I'm just, I'm running the numbers for if that half a million would have been in Tesla. Yeah. After it ran up to like 1 ,400 and split. I know, I know, I know.

51:23But, you know. What can you do? You made money. Part of the game that I've learned is, you know, you got to keep looking forward to the next thing. And, you know, like there's always opportunities and you'll never, you'll never ever get all of them. It's impossible. Exactly. you got a handful you know what I'm saying to pick something up you always have to let something go to pick something up so you're hoping that what you're picking up is greater than what you're letting go and you leverage, a lot of times people say which one is better, real estate, stocks but you leveraged both, you could do both you leveraged your real estate to put money in stocks and then you could take the money out of stocks and buy more real estate and it's like, it's a combination it's a one-two punch, it's not like only do real estate, only do stocks And that's a perfect example.

52:12You leveraged money in real estate, put it in the stock market, made a bunch of money in the stock market. And then, you know. Yeah. So, like, things kind of cooled off. Like, Amazon has cooled off. Like, I've been waiting. I'm just like, yo, come on. Come on,$4 ,000. Come on,$4 ,000. The dice rolling. Back to the dice game. Old habits die hard. Exactly. But we stuck at that 32, yo. Like, we've been stuck at that 32 for like three months. This is the season, though. This is the season for Amazon. So, you know, sit tight on that one. So let's talk about SRO? SROs, yeah. I was actually going there.

52:47Yeah, SROs, because you got an interesting story about that. What is an SRO, first and foremost? Single room occupancy in New York City where it's a Class B apartment. So it's not like a Class A apartment. There's a lot of rules and regulations that the city pretty much comes down and tells you what you can do, what you can't do. the HPD the housing preservation department tells you all the things you can and can't do with your SRO initially the SRO program was initially a program for like the dudes who came back from war so they could have a safe place to stay and stuff like that and over the years you know the city is mad late to always change these old things so all these old rules still apply so the the class a in what sro the difference what are some of the differences is it like it has to have a full bathroom or a half bathroom what are some of the differences well an apartment an apartment you need a bedroom and a bathroom and a kitchen okay in a class a apartment in a in an sro you need a you need a bedroom and you need access to a bathroom and access to a kitchen.

54:08Okay. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So you don't necessarily have to have your bathroom and your kitchen in your unit. So this feels almost like college dormish. Exactly. Okay. So it's like we could have a quad with bedrooms and a shared bathroom, shared kitchen. Exactly. Single room occupancy. Okay. Got you. And the thing about it, so now over the last decade, when the market has gone crazy and the values of these brownstones and buildings and stuff like that has skyrocketed, the city has put things into place to protect the people, protect the tenants, because we're living in a blue state.

54:55you know um out out in texas california i mean texas arizona and stuff like that florida arizona's blue now oh all right but typically all the red states yeah um you don't pay your rent gotta go yeah right but you know new york is not it's not that type of place not that type of party so there's a lot of laws that protect them so um one of the things that protects sros right now is something that they call a certificate of non-harassment. Whereas before you can convert an SRO into a class A apartment or into a house or anything like that, you have to get a certificate of non-harassment where HPD does an investigation to find out if the tenants were harassed on their way out or anything like that.

55:48And if that's the case, you're pretty much stuck because they'll put like a three-year penalty on you before you could apply again. So I purchased an SRO. A building, right? Yeah, I purchased an SRO and the tenants, you know, thought that they were doing the seller dirty by telling HPD that they were harassed. And seller don't care. Seller got their money. Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. Chat GPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in Chat GPT.

56:50This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using Chat GPT for Work. Download the Chat GPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. Earners, what's up? Look, on Earn Your Leisure, we're all about smart money moves. Here's one most people skip, and it starts with Insurify. Most of us never shop our car insurance. The policy renews every year, the rate creeps up a little at a time, and nobody calls you to tell you. You stay with the same company because it's easy, and that convenience costs you real money.

57:26That's what Insurify fixes. Real quotes from more than 120 top insurance companies side by side. About two minutes, free, no phone calls, no pressure. And if there's nothing better for you right now, Insurify keeps watching and tells you when that changes so you're never stuck overpaying. Millions of people have used Insurify to shop for their car insurance. So insure with Insurify. Go to Insurify.com. That's I-N-S-U-R-I-F-Y.com. Insurify.com. We talk a lot about ownership and one of the most important assets you can own is your digital real estate. Too many entrepreneurs rely on social media platforms they don't control.

58:07Your website should be the center of your business. Framer helps you build a professional website without all the friction. It's more than a website builder. It's a complete website platform. Your entire team can collaborate in real time, make changes instantly, and publish updates in minutes instead of days. Framer's AI agents work alongside your team to create content, refine pages, manage your CMS, and optimize your SEO all in one place. And because everything stays editable on the same canvas, you maintain complete control over what goes live. That's why everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies and brands like Perplexity and Miro trust Framer to power their websites.

58:48Learn how you can get more out of your site from Framer specialists or get started building for free at Framer.com slash earn for 30 % off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's Framer.com slash earn for 30 % off. Framer.com slash earn. Rules and restrictions may apply. They don't realize smart people use smartphones, huh? Seeing through BS they thought was gonna slide. Download TextNow cause it cuts out clownery. You can literally activate it from your couch. Nationwide 5G with the same towers the other companies use. Pay what you want or not at all. You're in control. Show these ridiculous carriers we ain't paying for stupid.

59:25Because we're way too smart to pay dumb. Free app-based talk and text via the TextNow app requires Wi-Fi or data connection. Data plans sold separately. 5G where available. So they put that three-year ban on me. So I basically paid this, you know, I paid a million plus for a brownstone. And I can't do anything with it. I couldn't do anything with it for three years. So I'm just sitting on this thing, paying hard money on it, paying hard money on it until September of 2021. That's when you could maybe do renovations to it. I could renovate it, flip it, do whatever. Is it going to be more lucrative?

1:00:03Because I'm thinking less, I mean, I'm sure there's like a square footage requirement that they need to have for the SRO. And so I'm thinking like maybe an apartment that you could get$1 ,200 for, right? I can't bring more people in because if I bring people in to rent it now, I'm risking. I'm saying in 22. Yeah. But where the money's at in New York City right now is getting these brownstones and converting them into luxury townhomes where people could spend big money on them. So I could turn around and sell it for$3.5 million,$4 million. Yeah, so you're not looking for the rental income of more units.

1:00:45You're looking for the, like, yo, somebody's coming in to buy this for$1.1. Exactly. Okay. No, somebody's coming to buy this for$4 million. $4 million, I'm sorry. Exactly. What was I talking about,$1.1? No,$1.1 is what I paid for it. So now I'm sitting here and I'm paying, you know, like$10 ,000 a month on a property that I can't do nothing with. but it's a decision that I'm making. I'm saying, all right, I'm losing 10 grand a month but I'm losing 10 grand a month but I know when the time comes I'll be able to sell this for 4 mil. So it's just another version of your chess move. Exactly. You said tax.

1:01:29It's a tax loss. So now I'm paying interest. That's 120 grand in interest that I'm paying every year. So if I sell a property, if I sold a property or if I sold my Amazon stock, so instead of paying capital gains on X, it'll be X minus$120 ,000. Because you're taking loss and you're depreciating the asset. Exactly. Because you're losing money on it. I'm losing money on this end. Well, not even losing money. It's a business expense. so you know you're taking your deduction from your business expense and um so that brings that brings your taxable income down which it's what keeps what keeps money in your pocket so and that you know i always say like there's there's four different ways to get paid in real estate the game you wear many hats yes um and that obviously has happened over time right so your initial one was you're the landlord yes so at some point you decide to become the developer then you become the broker and then you also become the contractor.

1:02:34Yeah. What was that process? What led you? And at one part, I was a mortgage broker like your man, Matt. Shout out to MG. So what was the thought process that inspired you to say, you know what? I can do this. I can do this. Let me do this too. Just trying to keep as much money in-house as possible. Once you get the team together, get the team and everybody's working for the common goal, it doesn't make sense to pay somebody to do something that you can do yourself. It's cheaper. And the more people you interact with and you connect with on different levels, the more opportunities that come about.

1:03:19And it also gives me a better way to look at every opportunity. because now when I come to you, when an opportunity presents itself, am I going to try to sell this for you or am I going to try to buy it for myself? Am I going to sell it for you as a broker? Am I going to try to buy it, buy it for myself as a developer? Am I going to say, hey, I'll tell you what. You could buy it, but I'll be the contractor for you. I could bring it to you and say, yo, I got this great opportunity for you. You should buy this building and let me fix it. So it's just different ways to make money. So every time you saw another position, it was like cut the middle man, cut the middle man, cut the middle man.

1:04:11And there's more opportunities. And more opportunities. More opportunities. And each hat that I wear, I have a whole network in. So I'm talking to people and that's where the opportunities come from. like in in the last 20-something years I could probably you know I've done a hundred million dollars in transactions I could probably tell you that only two times that I've ever purchased something that didn't come from a direct connect you know like somebody called me and said hey Jude I got a deal for you you know wait for my pitch that that's my that's my line you know I always wait for my pitch like if if it's on Street easy if it's on if it's on the MLS and stuff like that and everybody else could see it it ain't my deal so at this point are most of your deals what kind of financing are you cash or you doing traditional financing hard money how how are you financing your deals whatever makes sense you know like if if it's a like i always do the math all right so um if it makes if it makes sense for me to use cash i'll use cash if there's enough if there's enough meat on it where I can can use hard money I'll use hard money you know if I if if time is not a big deal and I could go get traditional financing and it'll you know like this is a house that's gonna praise and and there's a kitchen in the bath and all that other stuff and and I could go to a you know to go to chase or somebody like that I'll do that those are those are my favorites you know but most of the time when there's deals and opportunities there's usually a reason why you're getting a deal an opportunity and nine out of ten times is that that it's it's a deal because traditional financing won't do it so you either stuck you have a decision to make you're either going to use hard money guy you're going to use your cash or um or a mixture what I like to do is I like to take investors um where where um let's say the hard money the hard money guy is giving me 80 percent or 80 percent and I'll take a couple of investors that that give me that give me the give me the 20 percent so I'm literally just coming out of my pocket nothing just you know everything is all sweat equity so oh yeah uh Rick Ross is famous for having three C's, right?

1:06:44Color, color, clarity. That's his thing. But you have an interesting analogy for your four C's in real estate and why they're important. Can you go over it? So you had credit, collateral, connects, and character. Why are they all important? Credit. You know, like, if the banks ain't messing with you, you're dead in the water. You know, like, you need that money. You know, you need your credit. it's like one of your most valuable assets you know you're able to leverage right mm-hmm collateral you need either cash or something you need you need to be able to prove that you have a track record you have you have skin in the game you know like I had lost I've lost money in business dealings where I was messing with people who didn't have any skin in the game so they just walk away so it's very important that that you have skin game was the credit cash

1:07:50connects like it's not it's not it's not BS when they say your net worth is your network you know it's just like the more people you know the more people the more the more deals the more opportunities the more things that come your way right that's like to me that's the most important thing the your connects you know your ability your ability to get it done your ability to know who who you could call the the resources that come to you and so forth and the last one is your character if if your name is mud you're dead you know like streets talk like in the in business everybody talking so you do one person dirty everybody's gonna know ain't nobody gonna mess with you like one of the things I'm really proud of is that I've been in this game 20 plus years like I've never I've never jerked anybody on a deal I've never lied to anybody I've never I've never taken anything that that didn't belong to me and and I could even say I've never lost anybody money well I lost one person money but I made it back for.

1:09:01But there's been times I've had investors invest in something and I promised them a return and it didn't happen. And I paid out like it did. Everything went cool because I didn't want to burn that bridge. Like, oh, yo, we invested in this. You're going to make X out of this you know and i'd rather pay him that knowing that i could go back to him one day then come back yo it didn't work out yo you know what i'm saying it's not gonna be working yeah yeah so yeah well i think that's carol city cartel if i'm not i know but then he says i mean when you talk about diamonds okay yeah um let me ask you this as far as the um because you're a developer landlord You're a broker, contractor.

1:09:51So how important is it for people to learn all aspects of real estate? Or do you think it is important for people to learn all aspects of real estate? You know, back when I was doing here, right, I went to India. I went to India and I learned. How did you get to India? In my mind, all I can think about is American Gangster. When Frank Lucas went to Vietnam. How did you go to India to get here? How did that happen? All right. So I told you things were really bad. So things were really bad. So what do you do when things are really bad? You're fine. No, you have a big-ass party at your house. That's an option.

1:10:37That's an option. That was my next guest. Remember, I still had this big-ass house out in Jersey. Might as well. Why not? If you lose it, at least you got some good memories. Exactly. So I have this pool party, like 200 people at my crib, this, that, the other people in the pool, this, that. And the next day - Straight stunting edition. Straight stunting. The next day, I'm cleaning the filters out and I'm pulling out - Hair. Hair. All over. All over. Right? And I'm just like, yo, who did this? Right? So I'm like looking at the pictures to figure out what girl - Left without her hair. what girl you know shed in my pool and then I realized it wasn't one girl it was a whole collection it was every girl in there I was just like yo how does that's what they doing apparently that's where the money's at shout out to all our women who wear weeds no disrespect thank you we love you thank you saved your life saved my life but so I ended up like doing a little bit of research about this yeah And this was around the time Chris Rock had that good hair thing.

1:11:44Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then so I'm trying, like the internet wasn't popping, popping like it is right now. Like you could get anything like that no matter. So I literally had to go to India to get me a connect, to get me a good connect. I basically have to buy retail and pretty much make a small margin. So sight unseen, you just went to India and just like figure it out when you get there? Yeah. Where'd you go? Chennai, hair capital of the world. The hair capital of the world. You know? You got to meet somebody there. Yeah. And they speak English. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, they speak English. Yeah, they do.

1:12:22Okay. So I got the, so I basically got the connect, got a couple of connect. So you're like Frank Lucas. Yeah, that's what I said. I'm thinking he's going to Vietnam right now. So I go out there and, you know, I start buying from somebody and that didn't work out and bought from somebody else, you know, until, you know, like, you know, my first shipment was always great. And then I sent, you know what I'm saying? I had a first shipment for like, you know, 10 keys or something like that. And that's great. All right. And then so I'm just like, all right, send me over 50 keys. All right. That's right.

1:13:0250 keys of bundles. 50 keys of bundles. They come in a four-ounce package. Yo, Shai, when we title this, please, 50 keys of bundles. 50 keys of bundles. Let that go over your head. Yeah, so what ended up happening was when I bought the 50 keys, it was just like five keys was good, and it was like 45 keys of garbage. It wasn't getting known. They sold you a bad product. Exactly. We got screwed over in India a few times. yeah personally habitually yeah habitually on the merch we uh um app yeah yeah yeah we started we did we did an app and um this guy completely screwed us over ran us for like 20 000 30 had it wasn't 30 30 bands then we hired another indian to go fly from his part of india to the other part of india yeah it was he screwed us over we lost and then they went on holiday for three weeks.

1:13:57Yeah, we lost a lot of money in India. You was on Zoom calls with them, FaceTime and all? Nah, Zoom wasn't popping in. WhatsApp. Like, WhatsApp calls at like one o 'clock in the morning because it's like, you know, one o 'clock in the afternoon over there. And they acting like they don't really speak English good. It was a whole ordeal. When they want to. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough, man. We should have called you, man. It's tough. Jude the plug. Nah, it's real. And it's like all of these stories bring back so many memories because it's like, I always say, hustling isn't a hobby. If you're an entrepreneur, you got to get the job done by any means necessary.

1:14:31And it's like even with us, like dealing with merch in Pakistan and like we interviewed Derek Grayson. His thing was in China and you got to wire these people money and you're like hoping they don't screw you over. And it's like people don't understand. Like this is a real story. Like this really happens in real life. They really can run off with it. What can you do? Nothing. Hop on the plane. You know, one of the my best flips ever was I had gotten a call. It was like maybe 2010. My man somewhere, I ain't going to say where, called me up. He was working at a doxing place and he had a container full of toilet paper.

1:15:16He's like, I'll get you this container full of literally a container full of $2 ,500. it's like something in the system where they he's like yo I've been watching this container it's nowhere like yo you can have all the toilet paper in here for 2500 so that would have been perfect during COVID at the beginning of COVID exactly so I'm just like yo I did the math I was just like yo that's like $100 ,000 worth of toilet paper toilet paper in there so I'm just like alright so So now I'm calling people. So my man told me he has a connect where he supplies all the bodegas. And I could do this and that.

1:16:08I ended up sending the thing to Panama and made$7 ,500 on the deal. right but um i like my whole thing was like so i'm sending you twenty five hundred dollars and i've never seen this toilet paper and you're telling me you're sending it to panama and somebody's gonna send me ten thousand dollars back and he's like yeah and i was just like fuck it.

1:16:46Rolling the dice. But it worked. But love it. Love it. But that's the way you lose money too. That's a fact. Don't try this at home, please. It worked out. But the truth of the matter is the best cons, the best con games is when they put the upside in front of you and all you're looking at is the upside potential without the downside risk. So, you know what I'm saying, Madoff, you know what I'm saying, all of them great scams is like, oh, I'm just looking at the upside. You know what I'm saying? But bottom line is, if it's too good to be true most likely it is you know that one incident you know that one instance it was um it it worked in my favor yeah but um in hindsight like being the man that i am today um i wouldn't have risked it yeah they had a lot of that a lot of stuff going on like ppe like masks like you could buy these masks and it's like it's always history always repeats itself and um there's always an opportunity for somebody to make money, but you got to be careful because like you said, I mean, those kinds of things you hit, but you're going to strike out more times than not.

1:18:14Wait for your pitch. And, and like right now I'm, I'm big on taking risks, but it has to be a calculated risk and, um, it has to be a calculated risk and it has to like, I, I have to have a definite plan to, to control my downside risk. you know gotta have those stop losses in place stop loss that's important that's important in all aspects life stop loss have it in place and as you progress the more you go you gotta constantly adjust your stop losses you know what I'm saying the other day the other day I I'm involved in this business and I rolled up on the scene and it was like a lot of high-risk behavior going on.

1:19:14You were analyzing the location. Yeah, and then I was just like, yo, I'm making money, but I have to shut, I got to remove myself because, you know, one, my reputation, two, insurance, you know what I'm saying? You could just get killed. Yeah. That's an option too. Yeah. It's just like, yo, this is crazy. Dangerous. Very dangerous. High risk behavior. You know, there was nothing nefarious going on, but it's just like you get every - Uncomfortable. Yeah. Every step you take in life, you got to, you know, like, you ain't got to - I think Jay has a line where he's like, yo, I ain't got to be in the projects all day or something like that.

1:19:56Yeah. I don't be in the projects all day. They talking about I be in the projects all day. Yeah. That sounds stupid to me. Yeah. If you were a gangster. So at some point, as you elevate, you can't be doing the same things you were doing and you can't take the same risks. You know what I'm saying? No, it's very true. And rest in peace to one of our biggest inspirations, Nifty Hussle. The great. And it's an unfortunate situation. But sometimes you stay around too long. Jealousy, envy, and just random things happen in certain neighborhoods where you have to elevate. Definitely. And you can't stay.

1:20:31in the same environment that you might have grew up in, that you once felt comfortable in. At some point, one of the things that make you used to feel comfortable make you feel uncomfortable at some point. You should feel uncomfortable. And if you feel comfortable, you have to ask yourself why you feel comfortable. Yeah, it's just like keeping it real or keep, you know, one of the things that I always try to say to myself is I'm not going to be loyal and I'm not going to be faithful to my old self. You know what I'm saying? It's constant evolution. Yeah. It's just like, yo, just because I said it just because I said it five years ago, two years ago, doesn't mean that it has to stand true.

1:21:21you know and you know not for nothing never give my heart to something like whatever and it's just like you grow and now he's married yeah you grow evolution but it's in that same lineage of the growth of him and just us listening to the music it was like we watched him at that point we watched him become a mature husband and father and the same line is like yo I ain't worked that hard to be the same Yeah, you can't be scared to contradict yourself. You know what I'm saying? For the betterment of yourself. Exactly. Right, right, right. That's hustling backwards. That's also true. And you can do that the next day.

1:22:02If I don't feel the same way I felt yesterday, I change my mind. You does it all the time. At any point in time, you can reserve the right to change your mind and completely become a different person. Yeah. That's why I don't really get into politics too much because the whole thing that you said 20 years ago, like you said this. 1984. I'm a different person now. You can't be held accountable for things that you said 30 years ago. It's like Dame said. I was pouring champagne on girls. I was out of my mind. 50 years old now. I wouldn't do that now. You can't hold me accountable for what I did when I was 28.

1:22:41It's wild, man. If you ain't growing, you're staying the same. So let me ask you this. Speaking about growing, let's end it out on this. You have a nonprofit, the Brooklyn Bank. What is the Brooklyn Bank? The Brooklyn Bank. The Brooklyn Bank is like my give back, right? So here I am and keeping it real, 100%, right? Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. Chat GPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in Chat GPT.

1:23:23This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using Chat GPT for Work. Download the Chat GPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. Earners, what's up? Look, on Earn Your Leisure, we're all about smart money moves. Here's one most people skip, and it starts with Insurify. Most of us never shop our car insurance. The policy renews every year, the rate creeps up a little at a time, and nobody calls you to tell you. You stay with the same company because it's easy, and that convenience costs you real money.

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1:25:21Learn how you can get more out of your site from Framer specialists or get started building for free at Framer.com slash earn for 30 % off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's Framer.com slash earn for 30 % off. Framer.com slash earn. Rules and restrictions may apply. They don't realize smart people use smartphones, huh? Seeing through BS they thought was gonna slide. Download TextNow cause it cuts out clownery. You can literally activate it from your couch. Nationwide 5G with the same towers the other companies use. Pay what you want or not at all. You're in control. Show these ridiculous carriers we ain't paying for stupid because we're way too smart to pay dumb.

1:26:02Free app-based talk and text via the TextNow app requires Wi-Fi or data connection. Data plans sold separately. 5G where available. I make my money buying properties cheap and selling it to people high. And unfortunately, most of the people that I sell to, they don't look like me. So I love my people. I care about my people. So what I did was I went and I actually bought the building, the Brooklyn Bank. Where is it at? 896 Decal, Bed-Stuy, real Bed-Stuy, not what Ben was talking about. Real Bed-Stuy. Robo stuff. Right? So basically, I started this nonprofit where I have a building where I do financial literacy programs.

1:26:54Like tomorrow, we're giving out toys to the kids. Thanksgiving, we literally gave out 1 ,000 turkeys and 1 ,000 bags of groceries and stuff like that. So that's my personal give back, you know, my opportunity to kind of even it out. Like the Brooklyn Bank, what it's really about is about financial literacy, financial empowerment, economic empowerment. So I'm really big on teaching, you know, whether whether it's budgeting, whether saving, whether it's credit, whether it's real estate, whether it's stocks, just trying to share the information because, you know, like you guys do a really great, great job on this platform of making the information available to those to those who probably could not get it elsewhere.

1:27:51You bring the right people on where it's not foreign. And that's the problem. A lot of times people think that these things are out of their reach. So I basically wanted to provide a space, a community, a mindset, an organization where we're focused on letting people know that, yo you could do this you know this whole like my whole real estate thing right my real estate my business and all that other stuff I didn't invent anything right like I've made tens of millions of dollars like I didn't create anything I didn't make anything better I didn't revolutionize anything I'm just following the blueprint that you know that Andrew Jackson was doing back back in the back in the 1700s mm-hmm you know like you buy you buy land and you take take that value and you reinvest and this that the other and you know you you practice discipline practice delayed gratification you know all these little things like these are all the little things that people have to learn so that they could elevate themselves so is it is it an event space or is it like almost like a community center where any more of a community center people can come in yeah we were doing events um we kind of put that on pause um like like right now i'm focused 100 on doing doing community things and we're going into schools and you know bringing in financial literacy stuff yeah like so you just partnered with a school yeah yeah yeah we partnered with a school the other day uh i did some researching you guys.

1:29:41I saw you guys have been in the school for years. Yeah, yeah. I'm a teacher. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that's dope, but that's really what I'm trying to do. You know, like, there's a, in regards to money, right, like, whether you have 10 million, 20 million, 100 million, or a billion dollars, right, the price, the price of the steak is the price of the steak. So, everything else is excess. Right. It's like so that's kind of I'm, you know, I'm blessed that I'm at a point in my life where like another check does not change my life, you know, not not change the life that I that I enjoy leading.

1:30:27You know, you had a dude up here. I was watching the episode and he said, yeah, well, I got a bigger plane now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Dale Freeman. Spoke to him. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And shout out to him. OG, free. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out to him if he wants a bigger plane. But it's just like I'm at a point in my life where I'm comfortable. You know? Like I don't want to be the dude in a Ferrari if everybody can't have a Ferrari. You know? Because then you're looking crazy. You're looking like lunch. They're going to put you on the menu. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know. Not if you're in Atlanta. Everybody got Lamborghinis in Atlanta.

1:31:10Yeah, exactly. That's the best. That's going to be tough. There's no COVID in Atlanta. It's popping. That also might be true. That's a fact. That is a fact. So that's the Brooklyn Bank to me. You know, like it's a community. And it's funny because like when I talk to Brooklyn Bank, a lot of times people just think about the physical location, which is cool. because I'm sometimes still in awe of it. It's just like, yo, dude, you own a bank, yo. Was it a church first or was it a bank, church, then bank? It was a bank. It was built as a bank. The whole thing is like 16-inch cement and concrete and bricks with a vault and everything.

1:31:53And then in the 80s, they started using it as a church when the bank went under. Shout out to Reaganomics. When the bank went under, they started using it as a church. And then I took, you know, I got that deal. And originally, like, my line brother had hooked me up on that deal. Because I got, you know, like, there was mad people trying to get that building. You know? And one of the caveats of how I got it and how they accepted my bid instead of some other bids that was higher is that I promised that I would keep doing good work in there. I wouldn't turn it into a strip club. Or I wouldn't knock it down and build condos or anything like that.

1:32:45More employees. Atlanta might argue that that might be good work. Shout out to Blue Flame. Shout out to Blue Flame. Shout out to Magic City. Shout out to - 112. Support Black Business. Exactly. Support Black Business. I digress. Cub Rolex. I see you. Onyx. I tell her to look up because it's snowing in Tootsies. Digressing.

1:33:16Okay. Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Nah, Julie, it's been a pleasure, man. And once again, thank you for teaching that class on EYL University. That was dope. And tell them about that, your experience. I know you answered questions for like an hour and a half. Like, how was that, teaching it? It was dope because, like, prior to, like, I kind of have it in my head how I go about analyzing the deal. So prior to that, I've never really written it down, written the formula down, and wrote it down. So I'm like looking at it, like, hey, this is real. You know, this is what I do. And it was very, it was pleasing because like the, sometimes I talk to people and it's just like, they don't get it.

1:34:07But it was good to be in a platform where your earners, like this is what they do and this is what they're trying to do and they're not, the questions were intelligent questions. And they, you know, you as a teacher, you know how it feels like when. Every question is a good question. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I understand. Because like sometimes when a question is phrased, you can tell somebody's been critically thinking. And that's important, right? Because it's like, all right, I know that that's coming from a place of wanting to know, not just I just wanted to say something. And so shout out to all the earners that asked all those questions.

1:34:48We watched the presentation. It was pretty dope. I didn't get a chance to watch the whole question and answer, but they told me it lasted two hours, which is longer than usually. So I know that there was a bunch of question and answers. So that's dope. He said Jamal said everybody got their question and answers. So that's dope. Yeah. Like, you know, my goal, my goal, my personal goal is, like I said, I've made a lot of mistakes. you know like there's there's no reason why I'm not sitting you know sitting on nine figures right now I accept that I made a lot of mistakes and you know my goal is to make sure that people don't necessarily make the same mistakes that I made you're gonna make your own mistakes but there are a lot of there are a lot of mistakes that I made that could have been avoided if somebody had just pulled me to the side or if there was a platform like yours where where I could get the knowledge.

1:35:42That's a fact. So how can people contact you, social media handles? What's the information, Brooklyn Bank or any other initiative that you want to make the public aware of? Two places you can get in touch with me. You can get in touch with me at the Brooklyn Bank. That's the Brooklyn Bank as it's spelled. And you can hit me on IG at MrJudeBernard, M-R-D-J-U-D-E-B-E-R-N-E-R-D. Thank you. Troy, housekeeping items? Yeah, shout out to everybody on Patreon.com. Y 'all know that's our Proud to Pay program. We referenced NIP, and that's where we got the idea from. So, again, rest in peace to NIP. Shout out to everybody in Crenshaw.

1:36:18Shout out to everybody that showed us love out there when we visited the West. And obviously, you know, tier five members, you get access to EYL University, where you can get some good knowledge from some solid professors, man. Exceptional professors. Exceptional. It's top of the line. So we appreciate all the support. And shout out to everybody that has been copying the new merch. I know y 'all saw that varsity jacket that my boy had on looking crisp out there, man. So shout out to everybody that's supporting that, man. We are very excited to have it. And seeing everybody wearing it is a testament to hard work, man.

1:36:51So salute to all y 'all. Yeah. And once again, shout out to you, Iowa University. And people ask, like, what's the difference between this and the podcast? And it's like our question and answers with somebody that, you know, has$40 million in real estate. It's not something that you get to do every day. and to have a PowerPoint presentation and stuff like that. So these are different things that we bring to EWI University. And we're very, very proud of that platform. So shout out to all the earners out there. Thank you guys for rocking with us. We'll see you next week. Peace. Peace. Peace. My graduates from my school being Forbes.

1:37:24Backdrop. Backdrop. F*** a mic drop. Backdrop. Backdrop.

1:37:40earners what's up look building wealth isn't just about making money it's about knowing where your money is working for you that's why we partner with empower empower is all about helping you invest well so you can go out and live a little their free empower personal dashboard gives you a complete view of your financial life in one place track your net worth monitor your budget analyze your investments, set retirement goals, and more. You've worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower personal dashboard or visit Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored.

1:38:17Before you sign off, you tuned in for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for Work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. Earners, what's up? Look, on Earn Your Leisure, we're all about smart money moves.

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1:39:34Prices can change throughout the day depending on traffic, weather, and what's happening in the city. If you're headed to a concert, out to dinner, or catching up with your friends on a Friday night, taking a few seconds to check Lyft could leave you with more money to enjoy the experience. Save money. Check Lyft. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.