2157 - Empower Your Future in Real Estate & Crypto Strategies with Damion Lupo

0:05Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, influencers, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments.

0:51Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:05With us right now, it's Damian Lupo. Damian, you are the chief investment officer and founder of FrameTech. You're found on the web at DamianLupo.com. Damian, thank you for joining us. Josh, good to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Well, tell us, before we kind of get into your superpowers and the work that you do, what have you been into lately for fun? You know, it's funny. As an entrepreneur, I've been doing this for a long time. I get obsessed about whatever project I'm working on. So people ask me, what else do you do? And I'm like, good question. Do I do anything else? And I think the fixation or the excitement in the last few years has been this whole Taylor Sheridan thing with all of his spinoffs and all of this Yellowstone.

1:45It's like back to my roots where I was born in Montana. And there's this Yellowstone, like there's this really interesting entanglement and just this raw authenticity around real people and the struggles of real life. And so something about that just really compels me to want to be in those storylines. So I love everything he's doing. so the so there was the main and i haven't i've only caught like a couple of episodes so there's they're on their third series now right and so for someone who's never watched the series yellowstone is what they've got like six or seven seasons of that can you can you give me a quick primer on yellowstone because i know that there's now a third uh show and harrison ford is in it yeah there's actually a whole bunch of different not only spinoffs from yellowstone with 1923 and 1886 for these period specific things but then there's talk of one for 1944 with Matthew McConaughey and and then he's and Taylor's done things like Landman about the realities of oil and lioness with these special operations teams all of them but there's there's a unique message it's different than what most people have seen in media and entertainment and he just he tends to connect with people and he connects with me and and there's something raw and like real about you know a real real guy on horses and talking like real people do not just choreograph it's it's very cool because we haven't seen that much.

3:00And so it's kind of like, oh man, there's actually real people out there in Hollywood. Yeah. What, um, of course, but what would be like the lessons that you would see for entrepreneurs, um, that, that they might get? Um, cause obviously, you know, there's a lot of business going on, a lot of dealings going on that, that much I know. What, what could entrepreneurs learn from the season for, from, from the, uh, from the show? I think what you're going to, what you see there and what, what, why it resonates with me is, is business and life is hard as hell. There is no easy hack. There's no four hour work week into millions and success and fulfillment.

3:32Like it's going to be a grind. There's going to be cold winters. There's going to be, you're going to get your teeth kicked in. And if you're willing to push through that and start to take on the pain, you start to say, okay, this is part of the process. And then there's this deep fulfillment about creating something. And I think that a lot of people don't realize, and people that are in business realize that that's true. And this just, it reflects that. It's not smoke and mirrors. It's actual reality of what it is in the real world. And so I appreciate that because I've been living it for 30 years.

4:00Yeah. Well, tell me a little bit about the work that you do. Who do you serve? And we could start with frame tech because I think that that's part of the story, but you can explain for us what your superpowers are. So the superpowers are, I've gone through a lot of processes of making a lot of money and losing a lot of money. I made millions in the 2000s and ended up losing it all in 2008, lost actually 5 million more than I had. And so in that process, going homeless, there's this like revival in my soul of, okay, what am I doing? Am I just a money bee looking for money? And on the other side of that, about five years later, I realized there was an important part of me helping people create financial freedom.

4:39And it was because I saw my dad retire, broke and die afraid of running out of money. And that hit me pretty hard. And it was the regret of not living because he didn't have the money. And I realized most people were in that same space where they're trying to figure out how to not run out of money before they run out of time. So that evolved and led to some businesses being created. And ultimately, frame tech is this idea that we have a huge problem in housing, and we got to solve it. And so all these minds came together, and they said, we want to solve this, we want to create more housing, create more affordability.

5:10And I was like, this is great. This is an opportunity for people to have that solution. And also for investors to be able to be a part of that, creating more freedom for them financially. So it all came back to freedom. And if you don't have monetary freedom, you're always going to be chasing money. And my goal in life is to help people get to a place where they're not chasing money, where we take money out of the equation. That's what all of this is about. Yeah. Well, tell me about, I guess, I don't know if we're talking about just so investments to real estate. And if so, you know, are you talking about, you buying and rehabbing properties?

5:42Are you talking about investing where everybody kind of pools their money together? Why is that word escaping you to me right now? What are your main vehicles that you're a fan of? So my main vehicle that I'm a fan of is people actively engaging in their investments. So boiling this down, a lot of people just handed their money over in general in investing. They hand it over to a financial advisor or they throw it into maybe a rental property or something. And then they just hope it grows and hope isn't really a very smart strategy. I call it smoking hopium. And if you do that, you're going to wake up one day really high and really broke.

6:17And, and so there there's a shift where people actively engage. And so like what I've been doing for years is creating, creating investment vehicles for people. Frame tech is the biggest one. It's, it's a billion dollar company now, and it's, it's created the space where people can actively be a part of it, where they get to show up and touch the thing. They get to be a part is something that's solving a big problem. And it's so big that it allows people to say, okay, I'm going to invest some money and I can see how I'm actually not going to have to focus on money because this thing is going to turn into four or five or 10 times what I put in.

6:48And it's because we're solving a huge problem. That's the message here. When people are thinking about their money, if you're going to invest it, ask yourself, what problem am I solving? If it's a big problem, you're going to have some ripple effects of it solving a problem for you, which is taking money out of the equation because you're going to create so much wealth. That's the missing gap. Most people are trying to chase money. How do I get my money to make 20 %? How do I get it to make 10 %? And same with businesses are what business, you know, your business, what are you solving? And if you're just trying to make money, you're on the wrong track, I promise.

7:18What, you know, how might someone have a, you know, kind of a come to Jesus moment with themselves? If maybe that has been what they're chasing. Well, first, before you address that, Can you talk about how chasing the almighty dollar and maybe, again, you're chasing schemes, you're investing in, I don't know. I had a conversation with a friend. He's like, oh, man, are you in crypto? Are you in crypto? I made so much money. I'm like, listen, good for you. To me, it feels like gambling. And to me, it feels like it's so much out of my control that it just doesn't jive with my personality. So there's kind of that side of it.

7:59I can't get excited about returns just for return's sake, right? And so money is just a tool. It's just an energy, right? So I'd love your take on that. I couldn't agree with you more, Josh. I think what you're saying is spot on. I don't think most people have thought about to that level, so I'm glad you brought it up. When I look at crypto, when I look at the things that are out there, all the opportunities, what I see most people doing is trying to make their money be more. And when you're chasing money, it's never enough. I can tell you from personal experience and seeing a lot of people, when I made millions in my mid-20s, I was like, oh, cool.

8:34I made a million, then two, then three, and it was like 90, 10. And it wasn't because it was going to change my life. It was just more. And I thought more would make me happier. And when people are looking at crypto, I look at crypto very differently. I look at it as a way for more freedom for people. I see things where these ideas, these projects, if I'm looking at the project, I'm not looking at is this meme coin going to go up 10 ,000 %? because Elon says something about it on Twitter or X. I'm looking at it saying, is this going to solve a problem? And that gets me excited. And then if it solves a big enough problem, there's a big potential benefit financially.

9:07And that's the difference. Even crypto, like all of these, if you're flipping a house and you're just trying to make some money on the speculation, I don't think you're creating any value in the world. Like what you and I are doing here, educating, this is creating value. When people are selling something, are you creating value and giving something to somebody that's more valuable than the dollars that they have. It's the same with crypto. A lot of those projects are really valuable to speed things up, take friction out of a system, and put more wealth in people's pockets as opposed to in the big banks.

9:35And that's what I like about those. Yeah, what's the difference? And for someone that's just, I'm kind of on the outside on it, right? There's not been enough to lure me in. What is your perspective on what makes crypto different than investing in any other fund? I don't understand the difference. It's because there's a decentralization. What we've seen over time is there's a lot, there's been a lot of centralization of everything from banking to education to whatever, like all the things in the world, there's, you know, there's a consolidation of power farming, big aggregate. But if you have individual farmers, there's more of a connection to reality.

10:07So with crypto, it's putting the power and control in into people's hands, as opposed into a centralized power. And that's, that's the big shift. And that's why it's so exciting to me, because my core premise and value in life is freedom. And the more freedom other people individually can have, the better it is for everybody. Because I think you know better what is good for you and with your money and having me or anybody else tell you what to do, I don't think is really helpful. And I don't think most people want to be told what to do unless you're five and you still don't want to be told what to do.

10:36Okay. So the purpose is then whatever you believe that decentralized cryptocurrency or whatever is going to do for the world. So that becomes then the purpose as opposed to like, if I think about real estate, I think about, listen, I'm creating something. This is going to make a community better. Like this is going to potentially make housing affordable. This is going to be able to allow people to move up. Like if, you know, someone's just working their heart out and, you know, their contract or whatever, and the housing market, like the supply and demand has kind of kept them out. And they're just like trying to do the best they can to feed the family or whatever.

11:13And if I can, you know, rehab a property or something like that, And all of a sudden, like that is making a lot of good things happen. Right. And so I guess when I was thinking about kind of being an active investor or being very active with your money, that's kind of where my brain went to. But again, I guess, you know, what we're what I'm revealing in myself is what you know what my priorities are versus, you know, I still don't get it for the crypto perspective, but that's OK. Hey, let's talk about real estate specifically. Like in terms of like your vision of like purpose and why that's a great vehicle.

11:49Obviously there's tax advantages and so forth. Yeah, so what gets me excited about real estate is not necessarily just the money element of real estate. The reality of real estate is everybody needs some place to live. And real estate is a part of that. So what do we have in society? We have a problem of things being unaffordable. We don't have enough. I mean, in the US, we have five to 10 million missing housing units, whether it's apartments or houses. And when you have a missing amount of supply and we have this problem, things are too expensive. I mean, everybody would agree that whether it's eggs or it's houses, things are too expensive.

12:23So I asked myself, what can I do to solve that, help create more of that thing and do it better? And so that's why I got so excited a few years ago to engage with FrameTech and bring people together to build this company. It was about creating more housing, which is what's going to drive prices down and do it more efficiently. Like we're four times faster for framing than conventional. Four times, not 4%, but four times. What are you doing? So it's a system where there's a thing called on-site or off-site. When you're manufacturing things, you can do it more efficiently in a manufacturing plant.

12:57So all the framing, typically, if there's a guy with a hammer and a board on a slab and he's hammering this thing and a bunch of guys are doing that, super inefficient. and it's the quality sucks. Because they have to go on site and bring all the tools and there's just operational stuff, the weather. So are you talking about, so this is, what's the difference between frame tech and, or is it just like, it's manufactured housing? So the term I know of is manufactured housing. That's what my parents did and it worked out to be a better deal for them. So manufactured housing typically is like, it's like a double wide or it's something where you build the entire house and you literally just plop it down on a slab and it's done.

13:35What we're doing is we're taking the framing element. We do all the pieces that the walls, the floors, the trusses in a manufacturing plant that our team goes over and puts them together kind of like Legos. And then all the other subs, the plumbers and electricians come out and they have a better quality product, 10 times better quality. And it's there four times faster. And here's one of the craziest things that will blow people's minds. We're doing it with 99 % less waste because we're taking all of our boards and sticking them together with like, like we cut teeth. So we have sawdust instead of two foot boards that are filling up dumpsters.

14:07So we're actually helping the environment too. And guess what? If you don't use 30 % extra wood, guess what that does for the cost? It drives it down. So everybody's winning here. It's a really cool way, but it's a completely different way and somebody has to be first. So that's what we're doing. Yeah. So, so how big are these pieces then that are being manufactured? And I would imagine they're being manufactured all indoors, a giant, you know, kind of warehouse facility. And then, and then I'm just trying to visualize what it looks like to transport then these big pieces. So if you ever see, if you ever see a tractor trailer, we have our trucks and our trailers, you'll see them usually moving trusses, which is the roof component, but you'll see those things on.

14:46And that's, there's a lot of truss manufacturing companies. You don't build trusses on site. Typically they're at a manufacturing, a truss facility. So we have this, we have trucks and so we're, it's stacks of walls. And so these, you know, these are 60 foot trucks, trailers that have these things stacked on them and then we bring them out and so and then we put them together so it's it's what people most people have driven by big trailers that have had it that's what it looks like it's just all the framing it's not just the roof trusses it's the walls interior exterior and the floors and so it's it's just a lot more it's i mean imagine things where there's the tolerances are one thirty seconds of an inch so your your walls if you ever look in your attic if you have a house you look up there you'll see things that are very not straight and it's like wow somebody got away with this but that's the norm and we're changing the norm so it doesn't necessarily require oversized loads or any of that nope it's we're not taking down light poles or or going around bridges or like you've seen that where houses are being moved it's like they have to literally rewire the road system to move yeah we just did that that's not us wow and then um do you have then many do you have multiple locations then that these are manufactured or Or you'd tell me about the kind of the logistics.

15:54So you have like how many locations and then where does that ship to? Yeah. So you can imagine if you're trailering houses and stuff, there's a logistics component that can be a little bit scarier. We typically are working within a 200-mile radius. So we've got two locations. One's online, one's under construction in Arizona. And then we're rolling into Texas right now to have multiple locations there and probably have about 20 plants when we finish there. And there's a target. If you look at frametech.com, you'll see where we're going around the country. And it's really coast to coast because this problem exists everywhere.

16:28We need more housing and we need it faster and we need better quality and we need it more affordable. So they're going to be everywhere right now where we've got these three main locations and the whole country is paying attention. Pretty big excitement for it. Yeah. Who would be a great partner for Frametech? Like, I don't know if you're working with builders or like, where do those, where do the big deals happen for frame tech? Yes, typically it's funny because technically we could build a dog house or a shed or a house or an apartment. Right now we're building a couple of hotels. Our typical relationship is builders where we're building 100 to 500 houses or 500 unit apartments.

17:06There's a scale there because we can go in and we can build anything. We get plans and then our system and our robots and our automation takes over. It's like the Pareto principle. There's an 80-20 rule. You want to stay where your niche is. And if you go outside that too far, it's a big jumbled mess. And so our efficiencies are in 500 units at a time. That's kind of the sweet spot. And so we tend to do that. And we can have the biggest impact on society doing it that way. Yeah, yeah. And then what's your map? Where do you serve? So where we're at now, our first manufacturing plant is in central Arizona.

17:40So it'll cover anything from Phoenix to Flagstaff. And so that's, those are about a hundred miles apart. And we can go 200 miles. Technically we could, we could ship anywhere. We have people in Montana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania saying, can you ship me all the wood for my house? And we say, well, technically yes, but you know, there's a logistics where you're driving three days with a truckload of stuff. So it's, it's kind of like how mattresses used to be Josh. Their mattresses used to be a manufacturing plant in every major city. Now we send it, they're shrunk down into these wraps and that we ship in UPS.

18:12So I don't think we're going to shrink down trusses and ship them, but that's, I mean, I'm just guessing. Dehydrating wood is probably not a good plan. Just thinking. Yeah. Or inflatable wood. So Damien, I know, you know, again, we kind of talked about, you know, kind of two sides of your impact here. Your personal website, DamienLupo.com. When somebody goes there, who do you, like, who do you connect with? Like who really resonates with the work that you do. And also, you've got a podcast, Financial Underdogs. Yeah, it's a big FU podcast. And that's a big middle finger to the system, if you will, because I believe in people's responsibility, taking ownership for their life.

18:54And so it's all about the way that I think about stretching and growing and building and creating. It's a very positive focus on empowerment. It's about you. It's not about bitching at a system. It's literally about, hey, here's what I'm thinking about. And here's what I think is a good option. One of the things that I focus a lot of time on is the thinking about money and making sure that we're not using old thinking. I don't know if you remember this as a kid, but the idea of a millionaire and having a million dollars was a cool thing. And now you can almost stumble into a million if you go work 40 years and have a 401k.

19:26It's not really freedom. And part of what I think I talk about is doing a lot of 10X thinking. So there's a plan that I have and I have a download on there. It's the 10 steps to 10 million because I think, and I'm actually relatively certain that But$10 million not only is a right number to give you freedom, it actually forces you to stretch and become more confident in your abilities because you have to grow your muscle around creating wealth. So if you go, oh, well, all right, how do I do that? Well, you're talking to somebody that's done it multiple times, and it's not a theory. I didn't take a weekend course and say, here's how you make$10 million.

19:59I've done it myself. And that's what I think is really important for people to become financially free and not chasing money, but to have to understand it and then build themselves. They have a confidence. So they never wonder, crap, if I lose my money, I'm screwed. It's I know how to do this and I could do it again if I lost it. Damien Lupo, your websites are frametech.com and damienlupo.com. The podcast is Financial Underdogs, which you can search for in your podcast player right now. Damien, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Josh. Good to see you.

20:35Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

21:16I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

21:58I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.