Why Most People Never Build REAL Wealth (and How to Change That) 💵 EP147

0:05Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special edition of the Money Monday's podcast where we cover three core topics. How to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. Normally, this podcast is done inside of an RV motorhome. I travel around the country. I've been doing over 200 episodes in that fashion. The podcast today is number 40 in the world out of 5.4 million podcasts because of you guys liking, commenting, subscribing, and sharing. So I appreciate you guys for doing that. We've been keeping this commercial free. I'm spending around 70 ,000 months just to keep it commercial free for you guys.

0:36We have a 93 % listen to rate because of this. We keep these podcast episodes short, sweet, and straight to the point. Why is this one not an RV motorhome? Because we are inside the Amerit Bank Arena. Today, we hosted the Mainland Arena Tour Part 2. At the first one, we had an amazing lineup of speakers, including our guest who's here with us today, who then spoke again for us here in Florida today. Literally, a few hours ago, he just crushed the stage. And hopefully, we'll have him at number three, number four, etc. as one of our few repeat speakers. Now, as you guys know, we keep this very focused, very poignant, and the whole point of it is it's not just for you.

1:17This podcast episode might be for your friends, family, and followers. It might be for someone from your past, present, and future. So don't just listen to Raul. The things he said for you, it might be for people around you, again, from your past, present, or future. Without further ado, Raul, can you give us the quick two-minute bio so we get straight to the money? Love it, love it. Thank you, Dan. Man, the 40th podcast in the world. Love it, man. I can't wait for this to be number one. We're going to get it there. So make sure you click on the link, share this podcast, because we're going to continue to bring value into the world.

1:49I don't know if I can beat Joe Rogan, but we're going to try. We're going to try. We're going to try. We like competition. Yep. So my name is Raul Velazquez. I built a brand called The Edge. It's a man empowerment movement. I work with men who somewhere in their lives have lost their edge because that happened to me. I built a real estate company. I made millions of dollars and I went to depression. I started drinking every single day and I knew that I had to find some help. So I spent half a million dollars in my personal development to find my edge back. So when I did that, I went to do a seminar to raise capital for real estate because my back was in real estate.

2:21But guess what? Everybody wanted to talk about. How did you break through depression? How did you find your edge back? So I had all these asset managers, all these investors, picked my brains about how to find your edge. And from there, I built a brand called The Edge, helping men find their edge back. All right. So on the make money side, why do you think that most men are not good at making money? I think a lot of us, we're very good at making money, but we suck at keeping the money. Nice. Because I speak to guys all the time, make millions of dollars. But how do I keep the money? So my mentor, when I started real estate, gave me this book.

2:58He said, Raul, read this book. It's going to make you a millionaire, okay? This book, hands down, we read it from the first page to the last page. You're going to make millions of dollars. That book was the white pages. If some of you guys don't know what the white pages is, you're probably too young. It's where you have all the numbers, phone numbers, names of every person who lives in your city. Because he says, start calling, cold calling. So I was selling real estate, cold calling. So he was right. two years into real estate, I made millions of dollars, cold calling. But I didn't know how to keep the money.

3:31So the second book I read was Rich That Poor That. Nice. And that's when he said, make the money, invest it, and buy real estate. So I bought my first property. I flipped it. I made$100 ,000. I thought I was rich. Yeah, for sure. So I did what most men will do when they make some money, go to the dealership, and get a BMW, right? Exactly, spend it. Of course, I didn't finish reading the book. I was only halfway through. I came back, finished the book, and I said, the worst thing you could do is buy a car. Sure. So I went back to the dealership. I said, man, I'm sorry, I made a mistake. Can I just get my deposit back?

4:05They said, well, we have BMW. We pride ourselves in customer service. Here's your money back. And I went and I bought another real estate property. And that's what we continue to do, buy real estate, flip, hold, and eventually that's where we made millions of dollars. So on the investing side, what do you think holds people back? What are they so scared of about investing into real estate, stock market, cryptocurrency, angel investing? There's so many options. What do you think holds people back from making that first investment? It's fear. Fear. Fear holds everybody back from doing something that they know deep in their heart that they should do.

4:37We all know that we should invest. We should save money. But the fear, when I look back and I teach my son this, he's 19 years old. I said, if you broke in your 20s, that's fine. As long as you take risks, you got to take risks. I see these young kids. They're just waiting for the new opportunity. Everybody wants to have a safe risk. Risk is risk. The way I look at it is like at the end of the day, if you are a producer, if you make money, take the risks. But at the same time, don't take a risk that you're not going to come back from. I made that mistake. So that's why I'm speaking from experience.

5:14I put everything on real estate. I thought I was the man. I got a letter from my account when I was 30 years old. I said, Raul, you're a multimillionaire. Congratulations, you made it. And then a year later, I was foreclosing on my property because the market crashed. So because I thought I did everything right, but it was the wrong timing. So that fear of losing is what holds people back. Those stories, they hear it like, I don't want to be like Raul. Why don't I want to be like this guy? So that holds them back. So there's so many different options to invest into. You've chosen the real estate path.

5:48But within real estate, there's Airbnbs, fix and flips, multifamily, commercials, storage, RV parks, mobile homes. So many options in the real estate space. How can someone study and try to figure out what part of real estate they should dive into? Again, like I'm teaching my son right now. He just bought with me his first multifamily. Cash flow properties. I know you probably hear this all the time, but multifamily is the safest investment in a way because you depend on tenants to pay the rent. So for me, I always look at a property that if it's cash flowing, I can maintain it through the recession, through the depression.

6:25People are still going to need to live in a property. So the mistake that I did when I lost millions of dollars is because I started developing properties. I had my cash flow on properties. They were paying the bills, but then I got too greedy, and I started building properties, commercial, and I got out of my lane. If I were to stick to multifamily, it wouldn't happen. All right, so what about the charity side? Why do you think it is important for a household, let's just go with fathers in particular, why do you think it's important for them to have some type of charity component for their wives, children, parents, friends, community, and employees to see them doing some philanthropy?

6:59be? The most important thing that I teach my kids is the value of money. I teach them that money is not meant for you just to keep. Money is meant to circulate. That's why it's called currency. The value of money is necessary for them to learn early age. So my son, when he was eight, nine years old, he came to me, dad, my friends are having allowances. Should I not have an allowance? How much is my allowance? Interesting. So what are you talking about? I'm allowing you to live in my house. Right. That's your allowance. I'm allowing you to eat my food. Right? So I said, but if you're talking about making money, I could help you through a transaction.

7:43Bring value. So my kids have always, I've never given them allowances. They always brought something to the table. What are you going to do in order for you to earn money? We also told them, you also have to give back. So every holidays what we do is we could do around around our properties. We look for the tenants who don't, you know, they're not doing so well. We look for other neighborhoods and we go for a run. Thanksgiving, we actually, that's one of the most fun times for us to actually give back to the community, giving gifts and then once you learn what they want, we also go back in Christmas and we give the kids gifts.

8:21And we were doing that since they were 9, 10 years old and they remember that from all the holidays. That's the magic moment. That kid, when we give him that bicycle, when we give him that scooter, it lit up. They actually love doing that as opposed to just receiving presents. So I think part of it as a family, it's so important for you to teach your kids that money is not just meant for you to keep. Money is supposed to circulate. You have to give back. What about as a business owner or a brand? Why do you think it's an important component to have some type of charity philanthropy tied into a brand?

8:56Or just for the employees, the clients, the vendors, the customers to see you as a leader of this company have some type of charity component? You know, at the end of the day, every entrepreneur is focused on making money. But if that's all you want to do, you're going to have a short-term life. the biggest opportunities that I've had to be in rooms. Actually, my first event, I was in a fundraiser, and there was a movie producer. I don't know if you know the author Eckhart Tolle of the book, The Power of Now. I've never heard of him before, so for me, everything was brand new. But they were raising capital to raise money for the movie.

9:38So the guy comes out of the stage having this conversation, and he tells me, so what do you do? I said, I want to raise the company, but I'm putting on a seminar. Maybe you want to speak at my event. I could help you raise money. He said, absolutely. Here's my card. I had no seminar. I don't know where that came from. I looked at my wife, and she was like, what are you talking about? I said, I don't know. I just came. I put a seminar. I got a seminar. So I said, you know what? I'm nobody. The guy probably just forgets about me. He's a big producer in Hollywood. And then he calls me, hey, Raul, we met.

10:09I'm interested in knowing more about your seminar. All right? I ignore him. He calls me every single day for a week. Come on. And I'm like, I was so embarrassed. I called him. I said, oh, you're probably not interested. A bunch of real estate guys, very unconscious behavior, not like a cartoli. We drink. We talk about money. He goes, when I met you, someone told me I have to support you. So whatever you do, I'm there. Wow. So I had to put out a seminar. Yeah, for sure you did. Now I can't look bad because that's what I told this guy. So I looked around and I said, well, where does everybody go to put seminars?

10:44Las Vegas I said great Las Vegas I called the way and I said do you have these dates I looking back now I was constantly trying to sabotage my my first events I picked two weeks before Christmas oh boy they actually had it available I called I got back said hey these are the dates he goes I'm in I'm in fuck so now I have to come through December 15th there we go so now I have to get speakers because I've never spoken before so guess who I call who was my first speaker do you think now knowing me in this in this arena who do you think I called first to be a speaker. I'm hoping it was Garrett J.

11:17White. Garrett J. White. Really? I just met Garrett about a couple of weeks before that event in a stage. Come on. And I said, hey, maybe this guy wants to speak at my event. I called him up and said, hey, I'm going to have an event in Las Vegas. Would you come down to speak? He goes, you know, it's just so happened. I have an event there, so I'll be there too. Wow. Fuck. So now, see, all these words are colliding, right? Serendipitous, yeah. So at that event, one of the things that we had to do is I took them, the attendees, to a hospital for Christmas to visit kids that had cancer, that had an illness, that they were hospitalized.

11:57That was the most impactful thing that we could have done. We took a couple hundred people into the hospital giving gifts. Wow. Imagine Garrett. Yeah, for sure. Interacting with kids, all the speakers. and that event created such a magical pivot in our lives that every speaker wanted to support me because I had that component, the component of giving back, the component of actually doing something, not just a seminar, not just like listening to our lives, but now we're actually going to do something for the community wherever we went. All right, so there's only one question I've asked on all 200 plus episodes and I've never gotten the same answer before.

12:37hopefully it's not until 100 or 200 years from now when you finally pass away what percentage of your net worth do you leave to your children i look at net worth not just in money my net worth that i like to think that the value is more the time um we're empty nesters now my wife and i we look at each other like we're like people say i'm empty nesters because my kids are in college, they moved out. But I feel like a full nester. I don't know if that's even a word. Because we gave time to our kids. We spend time with them. But I want to let my kids know that they can depend on me to provide for them.

13:18They have to go there and create. I'm going to provide opportunities. I'm going to create, I'm going to live on an opportunity for them to create. But I cannot stop them from stopping from doing their own lives. So my kids know. Like when my dad leaves, that's it. It's done. That's it. I want them to know that they have to work to create their own legacy. I want to create my legacy, but they have to create their own legacy. So ideally, I would like to give my kids the net worth of knowing their value, their capacity to produce, but at the same time, the opportunity to provide for themselves. So where can people find you on social?

13:59Where can they find the edge? where can they find everything about your ecosystem? I'm very active in Instagram. They could just send me a DM on Instagram, Raul The Edge. We also have a podcast. We did a podcast actually a couple months ago. Great, great feedback, the Kings Code podcast. But right now we're focusing on supporting the movement of the men in the arena. I want to see this event with 10 ,000 men. That's my vision, 10 ,000 men. So I know it's coming. And I know we're going to need every single one of you to start supporting because it's not about competition. There is billions of people in this world.

14:35Men are dying every single day because they don't have a brotherhood. They don't have connection. I am convinced that the reason that God put Garrett and I together is for moments like this. We're creating a movement, a global movement, a man going into the arena to find their edge, to get this shit together. Because I believe that this is the moment that men need to fucking step up and lead. Because you are the fucking problem, but you're also the solution. appreciate you for being here as you guys know these podcasts it's very important for you to like comment subscribe and share when you hear the things today there might be someone in your life that you should forward this to and it might not just be today you might think back on this episode two three weeks from now two three months from now and want to forward what Raul said so check him out on social media Raul with the edge make sure to like comment subscribe and we will see you guys next Monday here at themoneymondays.com

15:30Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very special edition of the Money Mondays podcast, where we cover three core topics, how to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. Normally, I do this podcast inside of an RV motorhome that I travel around the country in. And normally, I only have one guest at a time. But tonight, we are inside of an arena, a Merritt Bank Arena. We just finished the Man in the Arena tour. We had Tim Story, Trent Shelton, David Goggins, so many amazing speakers. This is the event I do with Garrett J. White. This was the second time we've thrown it. First time Salt Lake City, this time out here at the Merritt Bank Arena in Florida.

16:04So as you guys know, these podcasts are typically around 30 to 35 minutes because the average workout is 35 minutes. The average commute to work is around 40 minutes. So we keep these episodes to around 35 minutes for your listening pleasure. Without further ado, can I get both of the guests to give a quick two-minute bio so we get straight to the money? Right on. Well, thank you. Appreciate you letting me come on here. My name is Aaron Chapman. I am an author. I'm into the real estate finance game. Been doing that since 1997. Also a grandfather, which is an interesting environment to be in. Husband and now author, published author.

16:37And I'm excited to come on the show and talk about business, talk about the book. And also introduce my brother, Eric Chapman, who illustrated this piece of art. Brother, tell us. Yeah, my name's Eric G. Chapman. and father, husband, illustrator, now book illustrator. I'm a fine, I find an oil painter is more what I do, but this opportunity came to me and it's been an amazing experience to do so. So Les, you sound busy. You got a lot of things going on in your world. Why decide to write a book? I was at an event, much like what we had here, and Robert Allen spoke. We all know who this man is, a powerhouse in real estate, author.

17:18uh one of the you know new york times bestsellers way back when you couldn't manipulate it right and he was speaking not on real estate like he normally did he was talking about books and how to write a book well i had published other books but everything he said you shouldn't do i did on the other books so i cornered him so okay i'm gonna need your help i'm gonna pull these back from the publisher i'm gonna finish them he's like no you're not and the longer we talked because you're gonna write another book from scratch from scratch i'm like i don't want to write another the book I've already written again.

17:44I've already got 800 pages that I need to correct. No way. So I had this crazy idea. I had my 800 pages. Another publisher read it and said, nobody gives a shit. Make something that somebody will give a shit about. And I was on a call with my brother-in-law and he said, hey, you should actually break up your chapters into individual little books. So I published those, kind of like the dime novels of the 1800s. They were kind of cool. But Robert, when he described what I did, I did it wrong and I asked him to fix. He wouldn't let me fix. I said, okay, then what am I? So what's this book going to be about?

18:15Because you tell me. Well, I'm not the one wanting to write it. So then we got talking, talking, talking more, and then we hit something. And he said, I'll help you with the outline, but you go from there. So after we did the outline, I just started writing and it started to just flow. And in five months it was done. And I would send him a chapter at a time and he had said, this is perfect. Keep going. I'm like, what do you mean perfect? You're Robert Allen. You're the most critical sumbitch I've ever met in my life. When he sees a book that's crap, he'll tell you. This is crap, he'll throw it.

18:43He goes, perfect, go. Hit another one, hit another one, then we're 13 chapters in. He says, you need to illustrate this book. I'm like, how am I gonna illustrate this book? Who do I get for an illustrator? Do you have an illustrator? He goes, no, I've never illustrated in my books. Like, okay, so what do you think I do? He says, call an artist. I'm like, I only knew one. So I called Eric up, said, do you illustrate books? He's like, no, I don't illustrate books. but yeah illustration was i mean i did i did one book before i mostly do you know oil paintings for people's homes and whatnot portraiture and landscapes and all that but uh i kind of didn't like the process when i did it the first time it was all right but uh after i kind of got aaron's vision of what was going on it really intrigued me uh this was going to be a different approach than anything i'd ever done and um and you know how could i say no to that right i love a new experience.

19:33So on the painting side of life, some people paint for money, some people paint for passion, some people paint for their livelihood and to pay the rent, some people paint and make extravagant prices, and some people make it for 50 bucks and 500 bucks or a thousand bucks. How do you decide as a painter what to charge for your work when it's typically up to the value that either you perceive or your customer perceives? For me, I charge based off of size and medium. And there's a certain element where, you know, over time I've kind of developed an idea of how long something's going to take, how much effort is going to be involved in there.

20:11But so as to not feel like someone's getting, like if you had two paintings of the same exact size, same exact medium, and one costs more than the other, you know, clients, you know, they scratch their head about that. So I try to keep it that way just based off of that. And it also started out to be a lot cheaper endeavor. I mean, we were going with 14 paintings. It was 13. Just because of 13 chapters. And then after he read Robert's Ford, because after Robert finished the book, he wrote a Ford that was unbelievable. I still can't believe that a man like that would write a Ford like this. Wait, he wrote the Ford?

20:45Robert wrote the Ford. Dolph de Roos wrote my afterwards. He's illustrated the book. So then, Eric, we were driving down the road to my dad's place. I said, you should illustrate the forward. He's like, what do you mean? I said, no, do the same thing you did with the chapters. He took like the illuminated manuscripts from the 1300s, you know, the religious books, and he rednecked it up for the cover of every chapter. So every chapter in your read it, it's painted into the cover art for the chapter. Well, then I wanted the book to look like something you'd pull off the Vatican wall, an old beat up leather bound book.

21:14And I said, you should actually illustrate the forward too. So after reading the forward, he painted what his mind had for the forward. Well, then we went to find an editor. And his wife is a professional editor. She was too busy. She says, hey, call these three guys. I reached out to them and said, hey, I've got a book that Robert Allen wrote the forward for, and I need somebody to edit it. They're like, oh, Robert Allen wrote a forward. We'll take a look at it. But then they started bastardizing my book. They would rewrite it to now they would write a book. I'm like, that's not my book. Well, that's how I edit.

21:42I'm like, well, then you're not my editor. So I called another guy. You may know him, Allen Stein Jr. He wrote Raise Your Game and Sustain Your Game. I'm like buddy I need some help I need an editor whose balls are attached and not there for decoration he's like what do you mean I said every editor I've talked to wants to bastardize my work I need somebody who will dig in and just do it how I did it he gave me a name so I reached out to this guy he goes send me the manuscript the guy read it within a week got back to me he goes I'll publish your book he's like what do you mean publish my book I'm gonna get an editor he goes and then he sent me his information he was the CEO of a publishing company says this book needs to get published Not everybody's going to like it.

22:19Not everybody needs it. But the people who do need it badly. What's the title of the book? What's the name of it? Redneckonomics. Explain. It's basically the economy of an ass beating. Just like Goggins talks about, just like White talks about, just like what you talk about. Life is a series of beatings. And it's going to sort you. You're either going to step up and take the beating and get what it's going to give you. and then plan the next beating you're willing to take to achieve what you want to get, or are you going to let it just push you down into the ground and you're going to fade into nothing?

22:53This is me giving people the formula to plan the beating you're willing to take. And being that I grew up, we both grew up cattle ranching together, we've been through the beatings and how it is to be successful in that type of environment, really any environment. It was me taking those values and applying this here. And then other people putting their name behind it. Robert Allen, Dolph DeRusse, that publisher, and other people who have read it and put their endorsements on that, to me, is a monster. And I still sometimes can't believe that they would put their name behind it. But now we're out trying to, and yourself, allowing us onto your podcast to talk about our work that we pray has a dent just in at least one listener's life.

23:37So we talked a little bit about the making money side. Let's talk about the investing side. Once someone starts to make money in their career and they want to invest into real estate, how would they decide, I'm going to invest into Airbnbs or I'm going to buy short-term fix and flips or I'm going to buy multifamily or commercial or storage units or RV parks? There's so many options. What would you say to someone how to figure out what might be right for them? See, I'm talking to the individual to find out what's the point. Why do you want to get in investing? What's investing going to do to you?