He Quit His Job With 3 Airbnbs... | Michael Elefante | DSH #1965

In business, I'm always trying to get the best outcome for the best price. So it's kind of crazy, I haven't looked at my life insurance in years. I don't even know if what I'm paying is competitive, or if I have enough coverage with how things have changed. That's why I started looking into select quote. For over 40 years, they've helped more than 2 million Americans secure over $700 billion in coverage. Their whole model is simple. They shop around to find you the right policy for your specific needs so you're not overpaying or undercovered. Their licensed agents work for you in as little as 15 minutes. They compare policies from top-rated carriers to find something that fits your health and your budget and they do it for free. No medical exam, no problem. You could get same-day coverage up to $2 million. If you've got pre-existing conditions, they've got options for that too. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% as select quote .com slash dsh. Save more than 50% on-term life insurance as select quote .com slash dsh to data get started that's select quote .com slash dsh. Oxford Montessori School is now Oxford Millwood School. A new name, the same genuine care, academic ambition and belief in every child. Set within a beautiful rural campus, just 20 minutes from Oxford City Centre. Our small classes, personalised pathways and strong send expertise give pupils the support, challenge and confidence they need to succeed, especially those who may not have thrived in larger settings. Find out more at our open day on May the 21st. Search Oxford Millwood School Open Day. Nobody knows Vegas like Bet MGM and we know just how loud it can get. So sometimes it's important to turn it down or take a break. Because a little pause keeps the fun in play. To find out more about Bet MGM's tools and how we can support you to keep your play safe, visit the safer gambling area of our app or website. Bet MGM. 18 plus please gamble responsibly. Right now a guide dog puppy is taking her very first steps. One day she'll help someone with sight loss live a full and independent life. Find the crossing best. Good girl. When you sponsor a puppy with guide dogs, you're there for it all. Her wobbly walks, her first harness, the life-changing partnership. It's more than a donation, it's the start of a life-changing story. Search, sponsor a guide dog puppy and be part of a story you'll be proud to share. Guide dogs. The quiet when you finally switch off. The calm before the city wakes up. That's where great days begin. The best days start with a good night and a good morning. At Leonardo Hotels, if it's important to you, it's important to us. Save 10% on your stay with Leonardo Advantage Club at leonardohotels.co.uk. One sketch used place was actually up this random road near Olympic National Park and there was like needles. We got to get out of here. I think we're going to get a lot of disappearances in the international park. Sometimes when you're hiking that far in your lake, a lot of people go missing like you'd be dead. Okay guys, got Michael on today. We're going to talk about saving money on taxes, scaling business and all that fun stuff. Thanks for talking with me, man. Yeah, brother. Thanks for having me. How's Vegas been so far for you? It's been fun. Some good food. I got in late last night, but had a good breakfast and walked around a bit and then been on a couple other podcasts. We're hosting an event this weekend. Oh, nice. For our clients. That'll be fun. You went on the circuit, I saw. You went out Bradley and Panada. Those are all the biggest business shows in Vegas. Planned it well, man. What's your event about this week though? All things short-term rentals and scaling. Scaling investments, scaling business. These are all my paid clients that already have one or multiple properties that are going to take you to the next level. Not in really scale. Tax savings, like the whole nine yards of that. Let's get an update on the rental business because I haven't had a real estate guy on in a while. What's going on with Airbnb, short-term rentals, all that? Yeah. Generally speaking, still really, really good investment to make for many different reasons. More competitive now. If you want to do well, you have to build an experience. I think people are craving experiences more now than they ever have. Everyone's inundating on their phones and with AI. It's like you lose touch with just being outside and even with people doing things, putting your phone down. If we're able to curate an amazing experience, that's what people will pay for. Agreed. Because I'm a customer of Airbnb. When I'm spending thousands on a property, I want an experience. You know what I mean? Yeah. Always unique about this property. Yeah, for sure. We've gone as far as I've built turf golf courses on my properties. Turf with a ball field. That's expensive. Crazy stuff. Yeah, expensive, but the ROI is there for it because it's one of one. No one else has that in that market, let alone very few in the whole country that have that type of amenity. Then you stack it with other things. Now we attract micro weddings, corporate retreats, multi-generational travel. We're not competing with hotels or most of the market, frankly, because they're getting on one of a kind experience here. It gets you experience things that they wouldn't get to experience at home. Yeah. You got over 650 properties right now. Under management. Yeah. I own 14 properties worth $30 million or so. A lot of them are the higher tier properties, higher caliber properties, but 650 plus properties under management with our management company and pacing to do between $80 and $100 million this year in bookings. It's insane. Airbnb is definitely not dead. Now it's not just Airbnb. We have direct bookings, Verbo, Booking.com, all these other OTAs. Airbnb just has the market for the name. Yeah, I kept hearing it was dead. It was dead, but that's probably for the lower tier markets. Yeah. When you're playing at this level, I feel like the margins are higher. You could take more of this. I mean, people will always travel. People want the optionality to stay in a nice home instead of a hotel, but it's getting more competitive, but there's a lot of average properties that would have worked 10 years ago. They don't work now. Right. The more properties that enter the market, especially in that middle tier, well, they're getting compressed, so they have to compete on pricing to get booked. That makes sense. That's the worst place to be in any business, right? You never want to be competing on price. I learned that from Hormozzi. Never. That's how you, it's a race to the bottom. Yeah. You definitely want to sell on premium, and then I could own less of them too. Yeah. I'd rather own less properties that are higher quality. I get better guests. They pay more at a yogurt tax. Absolutely. Yeah. Certain cities also, I just feel like they're better for houses versus hotels. Yeah. Is that what you focus on? Yeah. My personal investments are now mostly in traditional vacation markets, and I really focus on places that are drive to from growing metro areas. So, multiple cities, like a good example is the Southeast. Because Tettestine, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia all growing tremendously over the past decade. So, when people move there, what are they going to do? Look upward to visit. So, they go to the mountains, they go to the beach. So, if you can set up a great property there, well, that creates sustained demand over time, increased demand because the populations are growing. Yeah. When it comes to getting properties, I know there's all sorts of methods, creative financing, putting down a certain percent. What's the approach you like to take? I've done a little bit of everything, but most of them are just traditional financing. Will be conventional loan or a DSR loan. 20% to 20% down. Okay. Nothing fancy there. I think what you're known for is saving on the back end, right? Yeah. How you can save money that way. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, what I love about short-term rentals is it's a great cash flow vehicle. You can make 15, 20 plus percent cash on cash return on the money invested, but what most people don't know is it's pretty much the only investment vehicle for a normal W2 earner or business owner where they can have a massive tax write off year one and carry over those losses against their active income. Ordinarily, those losses only kind of gets passive income, IE, real estate income. So, here's where it gets interesting. If you're making $100,000 a year and you're paying $20,000 in taxes, well, you can go buy a property, put it on your BNB. The average length of stay has to be seven days or less, and you have to materially participate in it at least 100 hours a year. As long as it's more time than anyone else or 500 hours a year total, and then you could accelerate that appreciation and take a massive loss of like $100,000 plus and reduce all of your income and wipe out all of your taxes. So, think about that. The second part to that is you're not just saving 20 grand. It's, taxes are the single thing that kill most Americans' ability to accumulate wealth in their lifetime. If you save 20,000 and invest it into the market at 10%, that's a million bucks in 42 years. So, if you did that multiple times the next several years, that dramatically changes the trajectory of your wealth, but in relation throughout life. We got to talk after this. I just paid 400 today. Yeah, it's tax season. I heard a lot. Yeah, it'll get you into a big property, man, because one property last year, I had five set up last year, one $1.7 million in depreciation. The first year, it saved me 700 grand of taxes. Holy crap. Just for buying it. I did that five times last year. Wow, so you can stack it. Yeah, so I saved well over a million bucks in actual taxes on my active nuts, nuts, and it's an asset. And it's a cash flow and I appreciate over time. So instead of just burning the money, you're actually using it towards something productive too. It's like a win-win. Yeah, that's unbeatable. Do you ever look at your bank account and feel like you're getting hit with fees for no reason? Like overdraft fees, monthly fees, ATM fees, just for using your own money? That's exactly why I want to put you onto something better. Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional banks that nickel and dime you with random charges. Chime gives you access to thousands of fee free ATMs. And here's where it gets interesting. Chime members can earn up to 1150 annual rewards completely fee free. If you set up direct deposit, you unlock the most rewarding way to bank with Chime. They've also got 24 seven customer support with real humans and they've rated five stars by USA Today for customer service. Get 5% cashback on your Chime card in categories you actually use like gas or groceries. You also get premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24 seven concierge plus with my pay, you can access up to $500 of your paycheck early. And if you ever need a cushion, spot me lets you overdraft up to $200 fee free. Honestly, my younger self would have benefited from something like this. Go to chime.com slash dsh that's chime.com slash dsh. Chime is a fintech not a bank banking services for my pay and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges stated annual percentage yield and cashback for Chime Prime only no minimum balance required checking account ranking based on a JD power survey published October 20 2025. For more information on APY rates, my pay, spot me and travel perks go to chime.com slash disclosures. You've got weight loss goals but hitting them is another story. If you want to know what's really worth your time when it comes to losing weight, skip the guesswork and get weight loss by Hymns. It's designed to support you in losing the weight and keeping it off and Hymns now offers access to an affordable range of FDA approved GLP one medications including the Wagovie pill and the Wagovie pen plus lifestyle tips to support you along the way with Wagovie at Hymns you can lose up to 20% or more of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. It helps you regulate your appetite and eat less. So success is within reach plus Wagovie is the first GLP one pill for there are no needles needed ready to reach your goals visit Hymns.com slash DSH to get a personalized affordable plan that gets you that's HIMS.com slash DSH Hymns.com slash DSH weight loss by Hymns is not available in all 50 states. Wagovie is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS to get started and learn more including important safety information Wagovie clinical study information and restrictions visit Hymns.com in business I'm always trying to get the best outcome for the best price so it's kind of crazy I haven't looked at my life insurance in years I don't even know if what I'm paying is competitive or if I have enough coverage with how things have changed that's why I started looking into select quote for over 40 years they've helped more than 2 million Americans secure over 700 billion dollars in coverage their whole model is simple they shop around to find you the right policy for your specific needs so you're not overpaying or under covered their licensed agents work for you and as little as 15 minutes they compare policies from top rated carriers to find something that fits your health and your budget and they do it for free no medical exam no problem you could get same day coverage up to 2 million dollars and if you've got pre-existing conditions they've got options for that too get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50 percent as select quote dot com slash dsh save more than 50 percent on term life insurance as select quote dot com slash dsh today to get started that's select quote dot com slash dsh right now a guide dog puppy is taking her very first steps one day she'll help someone with sight loss live a full and independent life find the crossing best good girl when you sponsor a puppy with guide dogs you're there for it all her wobbly walks her first harness the life-changing partnership it's more than a donation it's the start of a life-changing story search sponsor a guide dog puppy and be part of a story you'll be proud to share guide dogs the quiet when you finally switch off the calm before the city wakes up that's where great days begin the best days start with a good night and a good morning at Leonardo hotels if it's important to you it's important to us save 10 percent on your stay with Leonardo Advantage Club at leonardo hotels dot code at uk holy crap yeah that hurt bad no one teaches this stuff though yeah i think it's it's hard for most people because the ordinary income earner has withholdings on their taxes so they don't see it they just get what's left over right when you're a business owner like yourself it hurts a lot worse when you got to go stroke a check quarterly right or at the end of the year or april 15th when the time comes around if most americans had to do that i think they'd be much more keen on how how painful it is to pay that much in taxes because most people don't even realize it it's just like oh it's yeah held and this is how much i get on that makes actually i've had a job before you don't you don't even think about it yeah you know you just see the bill you're like oh but yeah when you're actually running stuff you notice it oh yeah night and day difference yeah um do you pay off your mortgages earlier do you let them so not right now probably ransom model i'm not right yeah we've actually tapped back into the equity and done refinances to take on bigger mortgages because we had a ton of appreciation that we've either forced in the property or the market went up so something i look at is return on equity because usually the return on equity goes down because your cash flow is not going to increase at the same rate that the home is appreciating got it and also when you do a refinance and you pull money out of the deal that's tax-free because that's debt not income so this is where i think the jeff bezos mark zuckerbergs of the world elon musk they can borrow against their equity their assets that money's not taxed so they can take their earned income if they have any at all and invest it in other things that give them tax advantages and then they fund their lifestyle by borrowing against their assets without selling them so there's no realized capital gains so tesla keeps going up elon musk is still making money like that uh the money never left his stock but he borrows against it pays a lower interest rate and uses that money to go buy twitter internet banking right yeah yeah it's like a money glitch almost but you need the assets to pull that off exactly so that's why it's important to invest in a hard asset and the easiest hard asset to invest in is going to be real estate because most people aren't going to go start facebook yeah right not now you can borrow against your stock portfolio too we've had a lot of people do that security line to credit and so again they're borrowing against it tax-free now they pay an interest rate on what's borrowed but the stock market goes up they capture those gains they can go invest in real estate get the cash flow get the tax benefit and then they can go back and pay off the wanted credit my buddy just bought a five million dollar house borrowing against his crypto portfolio that's crazy crazy because if he went to sell that i mean cryptos had some crazy gains he would have had to pay fortune millions probably in taxes if he were to sell five million dollars of crypto so when i saw that i was like man there's levels to this game yeah because the ordinary person would just sell it and pay the tax and exactly then take out a mortgage and that's how people create the the tax-free wealth snowball right they're they invest in assets they don't sell them they borrow against them and as it goes up they borrow more they never sell and also if you you know borrow against let's say you do a refinance on a property it's already cash-filling really well like my properties are i know i can take on a higher mortgage and of course i'm still gonna cash flow but even if i was breaking even well now i have less of a tax liability because i'm not making as much cash flow and the money i took out was tax-free now i reinvest into another one and i started again so i added the snowball that's in brazil yeah um so you said you had 12 properties 14 14 and how long of a time period did you buy those uh end of 2019 was our first property it's about two a year yeah the first in the last 12 to 24 months we've really started scaling a lot faster um we bought four in the first 16 months when we first started we were financially free in 12 months of our first investment what yeah just three airbnbs putting 20 down you made that back in 10 so no the income the cash flow from the properties far exceeded our living expenses in lifestyle oh god financially financially free and then within 16 months we got a fourth property and we were cash flowing 30 grand a month and my wife and i both quit our jobs wow never worked again and you were till we started our other businesses of course but financially free quit our jobs and then we lived in a camper van traveled for a year and then you know started having kids so i definitely want to talk about some of those travel stories but what were your jobs were you making decent money yeah so i was in sales making 200 plus grand a year wow and commission only or uh mostly commission yeah so you were good at sales i was okay i wouldn't say i was great it's okay i think i worked hard enough to you know do a good job i think you're humble 200 guy for salesman that's a love that but i started i started in a grade cubicle making 35 grand a year just like pounding the found to be miserable what were you selling selling data center software and hardware that sounds hurt is that their party is terrible now i didn't even know what the hell i was selling i mean i'm calling these people like director of technology cio's cto's and i'm just you know i get hung up on all the time people kick rocks talking to be resilient though but yeah yeah but i think what i did now a lot of people should consider i think people get very comfortable in their jobs or their income so they stay and there's nothing wrong with that but i was once i hit a glass ceiling i was out and networking trying to find another job so i changed jobs and cities in three consecutive years wow 35 grand a year and i got a job at google it's making almost a hundred grand a year and then i was like well i hit a glass ceiling they told me in their their perf system performance review system i was like three to five years away from a promotion and i was like this is i'm not going to wait it's a long time so i only stayed there for a year left got another job and then finally was like okay i'm making more money now i'm in a position where i can actually invest and build a future as a way out of the um used to get those kind of corporate jobs and think it was safer um now i think with ai a lot of these companies are replacing these employees i don't know if you can make that argument anymore yeah i don't think they're safe you know even during covid actually right after i left google um they laid off thousands of people in my department they think they eliminated the entire uh do you ever look at your bank account and feel like you're getting hit with fees for no reason like overdraft fees monthly fees atm fees just for using your own money that's exactly why i want to put you on to something better chime is changing the way people bank they're not like traditional banks that nicolyn dime you with random charges chime gives you access to thousands of fee free atms and here's where it gets interesting chime members can earn up to 1150 annual rewards completely fee free if you set up direct deposit you unlock the most rewarding way to bank with chime they've also got 24 seven customer support with real humans and they've rated five stars by usa today for customer service get five percent cashback on your chime card in categories you actually use like gas or groceries you also get premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24 seven concierge plus with my pay you can access up to 500 of your paycheck early and if you ever need a cushion spot me lets you overdraft up to 200 fee free honestly my younger self would have benefited from something like this go to chime.com slash dsh that's chime.com slash dsh chime is a fintech not a bank banking services for my pay and chime card provided by chime's bank partners optional products and services may have fees or charges stated annual percentage yield and cashback for chime prime only no minimum balance required checking account ranking based on a jd power survey published october 20 2025 for more information on apy rates my pay spot me and travel perks go to chime.com slash disclosures you've got weight loss goals but hitting them is another story if you want to know what's really worth your time when it comes to losing weight skip the guesswork and get weight loss by hymns it's designed to support you in losing the weight and keeping it off and hymns now offers access to an affordable range of fda approved glp1 including the wagovie pill and the wagovie pen plus lifestyle tips to support you along the way with wagovie at hymns you can lose up to 20% or more of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise it helps you regulate your appetite and eat less so success is within reach plus wagovie is the first glp1 pill so there are no needles needed ready to reach your goals visit hymns.com slash dsh to get a personalized affordable plan that gets you that's hims.com slash dsh hymns.com slash dsh weight loss by hymns is not available in all 50 states wagovie is the registered trademark of novo nordisk as to get started and learn more including important safety information wagovie clinical study information and restrictions visit hymns.com in business i'm always trying to get the best outcome for the best price so it's kind of crazy i haven't looked at my life insurance in years i don't even know if what i'm paying is competitive or if i have enough coverage with how things have changed that's why i started looking into select quote for over 40 years they've helped more than 2 million americans secure over 700 billion dollars in coverage their whole model is simple they shop around to find you the right policy for your specific needs so you're not over paying or under cover their licensed agents work for you and as little as 15 minutes they compare policies from top rated carriers to find something that fits your health and your budget and they do it for free no medical exam no problem you could get same day coverage up to 2 million dollars and if you've got pre-existing conditions they've got options for that too get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50 percent as select quote dot com slash dsh save more than 50 percent on term life insurance at select quote dot com slash dsh today to get started that's select quote dot com slash dsh right now a guide dog puppy is taking her very first steps one day she'll help someone with sight loss live a full and independent life find the crossing best good girl when you sponsor a puppy with guide dogs you're there for it all her wobbly walks her first harness the life changing partnership it's more than a donation it's the start of a life-changing story search sponsor a guide dog puppy and be part of a story you'll be proud to share guide dogs the quiet when you finally switch off the calm before the city wakes up that's where great days begin the best days start with a good night and a good morning at Leonardo hotels if it's important to you it's important to us save 10% on your stay with Leonardo Advantage Club at Leonardo hotels dot code at UK like department I was in actually what department was it it was like an inside sales role that was part of the overall sales division for google cloud wow yeah my mom's at uh I probably should need to say this but yeah basically big companies are laying off thousands of people and replacing them with AI yeah so I don't think that job security's there anymore no I don't think so and I think what I like about short-term rentals are really real estate in general is it's a hard asset people always need a place to live when they go on vacation they need a place to stay they crave those experiences and I think with AI and technology and phones people are on them so much like we're talking earlier they just they need or crave those experiences yeah and also people work remote now so they have the ability I have friends or even employees of mine that will buddy up and go stay in an Airbnb for a week or a month at a time to stay in a cool new location during the winter where it's warm and they're from Columbus Ohio where they don't want to be during the cold months yeah so there's there's actually a demand for yeah for sure for sure how are you using AI because there's all sorts of ways in real estate someone in the sunny yesterday that I met was using it for wholesaling yeah pulling emails from Zillow and like trying to find out produce yeah there's a lot of stuff we're working on right now in terms of lead generation for property management company or done for you service um where we're finding properties for people so there's different things we're working on where we can basically build a buy box which is like basically what do we look for in a property in a particular market so we can make sure it's a high performing property and then take that data from air DNA or Airbnb other sites and then correlate it with properties for sale on Zillow or the MLS so it can feed us properties that are pre-evaluated which saves our analysts tens of hours in time a week I bet so that's just helping to speed it up and then in terms of like the short term rentals on the marketing side it's really more so like guest communication maintenance issues wagging them image recognition and then like photos editing photos editing descriptions things like that is it at that point where it's communicating to the guests no oh it's been like that for a while really um wow the AI is getting better and better for the guest messaging but before there was a lot of things that could recognize just simple questions like what's the wi-fi or I have this problem I can't find this and it would it would usually solve most of it that's and then what it can do is it can also flag someone on the team if it can't answer the question or if it can there's different softwares out there they'll actually determine the guest satisfaction or how pissed off they are and it will rank it or color code it and so you can rank you know which ones you need to tackle first from an operations perspective that's cool man yeah I had it I had it hooked up to my email now it's crazy it's answering most of my emails it's filtering the spam if it's like if it doesn't know how to answer it it'll send it to my gmail yeah and I'll answer it what are you using for that uh instantly it's called an AI agent yeah do you have any AI agents working for you I don't like for like that use case at all I have six right now are you doing like open claw or what uh no that's that's a different AI agent yeah man is man oh yeah yeah Dan Martell has been talking about a lot um I have one that does research on the guests so I'll watch the recent podcast scroll through your social media pull pull up viral topics that's how I came up with some of these I have one that um email sponsors for the podcast and it's already closed a few which is crazy wow um one that gets guests uh so like one that scrolls through youtube and like pulls the most viral 10 episodes of every day of podcasts summarizes it pulls the guests list out all the sponsors it's freaking crazy it is crazy like where it would have taken what hundreds of hours of someone's time before it would have taken a VA that barely speaks english to do it probably would have cost more to be honest these AI agents are super cheap crazy you know I'm using Hormozies AI not stop right now I know people that have made millions with Hormozies AI there's one in this building that I just met crazy dude AI look at that yes not you should play around with it yeah that's the most expensive one it's like a thousand a month but I think it's worth it yeah I mean if you're a business owner and it can help increase productivity increase revenue yeah there's you know I changed my cheaper than an employee wage ever I changed my whole site based off what it said I changed my old funnel um changed my sales scripts it's freaking insane dude wow tons are crazy yeah but real estate is is tried and tested I don't think AI will impact it as much as our other industries yeah I think you'll be good yeah hopefully unless they start buying up all the houses yeah go terminate your own yeah right vcs are doing that but doesn't really affect you right no not so much they're not they're playing more in the hospitality space now um private equity and other groups but not not as much and they're not doing it at this level with as much you know detail yeah into the experience that we're providing I think usually they're buying like bulk single family homes or apartment buildings is your end goal to sell this to a company I think my business is the end goal would be to exit or have a partial exit and then get a good partner to come in we take chips off the table and that can grow it you know how's that happen I'm just having a space yeah oh and the property management space for sure oh yeah yeah yeah property management companies trade at a really high valuation compared to any most service businesses because they have the recurring in realm on the management contracts that makes it like 10x more valuable honestly right yeah what's what how many properties would you need to get to to start getting some some offers um I mean there's just different levels right if you're under a million dollars in EBITDA you're you know you're trading probably less than 3x on EBITDA but once you get to like five to eight 10 million then it really starts to crank up once you're over 10 million like 10x probably becomes the floor if you have a sound business and you know C-suite in place good operations and they'll trade as high as 15 to 17x wow who would have thought from my sales room you'd be here man yeah well done already making 35k here do you ever look at your bank account and feel like you're getting hit with fees for no reason like overdraft fees monthly fees ATM fees just for using your own money that's exactly why I want to put you on to something better chime is changing the way people bank they're not like traditional banks that nickel and dime you with random charges chime gives you access to thousands of fee-free ATMs and here's where it gets interesting chime members can earn up to 1150 annual rewards completely fee-free if you set up direct deposit you unlock the most rewarding way to bank with chime they've also got 24 seven customer support with real humans and they've rated five stars by usa today for customer service get 5 cashback on your chime card in categories you actually use like gas or groceries you also get premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24 seven concierge plus with my pay you can access up to 500 of your paycheck early and if you ever need a cushion spot me lets you overdraft up to 200 fee-free honestly my younger self would have benefited from something like this go to chime.com slash dsh that's chime.com slash dsh chime is a fintech not a bank banking services for my pay and chime card provided by chimes bank partners optional products and services may have fees or charges stated annual percentage yield and cashback for chime prime only no minimum balance required checking account ranking based on a jd power survey published october 20 2025 for more information on apy rates my pay spot me and travel perks go to chime.com slash disclosures you've got weight loss goals but hitting them is another story if you want to know what's really worth your time when it comes to losing weight skip the guesswork and get weight loss by hymns it's designed to support you in losing the weight and keeping it off and hymns now offers access to an affordable range of fda approved glp1 medications including the wagovie pill and the wagovie pen plus lifestyle tips to support you along the way with wagovie at hymns you can lose up to 20% or more of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise it helps you regulate your appetite and eat less though success is within reach plus wagovie is the first glp1 pill for there are no needles needed ready to reach your goals visit hymns.com slash dsh to get a personalized affordable plan that gets you that's hyms.com slash dsh hymns.com slash dsh weight loss is not available in all 50 states wagovie is the registered trademark of novo nordisk a s to get started and learn more including important safety information wagovie clinical study information and restrictions visit hymns.com in business i'm always trying to get the best outcome for the best price so it's kind of crazy i haven't looked at my life insurance in years i don't even know if what i'm paying is competitive or if i have enough coverage with how things have changed that's why i started looking into select quote for over 40 years they've helped more than 2 million americans secure over 700 billion dollars in coverage their whole model is simple they shop around to find you the right policy for your specific needs so you're not overpaying or under cover their licensed agents work for you and as little as 15 minutes they compare policies from top rated carriers to find something that fits your health and your budget and they do it for free no medical exam no problem you could get same day coverage up to 2 million dollars and if you've got pre-existing conditions they've got options for that too get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% as select quote dot com slash dsh save more than 50% on term life insurance at select quote dot com slash dsh today to get started that's select quote dot com slash dsh right now a guide dog puppy is taking her very first steps one day she'll help someone with sight loss live a full and independent life find the crossing best good girl when you sponsor a puppy with guide dogs you're there for it all her wobbly walks her first harness the life-changing partnership it's more than a donation it's the start of a life-changing story search sponsor a guide dog puppy and be part of a story you'll be proud to share guide dogs the quiet when you finally switch off the calm before the city wakes up that's where great days begin the best days start with a good night and a good morning at Leonardo hotels if it's important to you it's important to us save 10% on your stay with Leonardo Advantage Club at leonardohotels.co.uk you're now this yeah it's crazy it's crazy you and the life too yeah wife was a autopsy technician what yeah first dominoes her dominoes was her longest standing job then she got into doing autopsies at the morgue so she worked in north carolina dallas and austin texas morgues so she's seen some shit man oh oh she's seen some stuff it's funny in dallas texas she had me create a spreadsheet for her to track all the different cases that she was doing not so much the cases but like the different intricacies of each case and which doctor did it she was for herself she just wanted to like build this thing so here i am building a spreadsheet for how much she's cutting up dead people holy crap dash but she's got some wild stories she'd come home and tell me to you know hey smoma here do i smell like decomp and i'm like get away from me by decomposition like yes exactly that yeah i get in the shower might have to get her on next yeah she's got some wild stories and so yeah dinner conversations were always more interesting with her well how was your day she told me all this crazy shit how's your day i'm like just pretty boring sad sold people on whatever you were selling at the time what uh you said you traveled for a year yeah was it planned out to the tea or were you spontaneous with it a little bit of both my wife's very type a planner so she we more or less had dots on a map we actually had a map at the bottom of our stairwell the year before and we said our goal is to scale this business our properties and once we quit our jobs we're gonna plan a route on the pins on the map it's awesome and we actually did it which was cool so we most of the travel spent on the western half of the u.s because we grew up on the east coast and hadn't traveled much on the west so we traveled i mean pretty much every state on the western half hiked over 400 miles visited over 20 national parks uh if you weren't working at all you were just living it up yeah just had our properties but like maybe an hour a week to manage from our phone that's cool see any ufo's or any crazy stuff yeah not all crazy there there's some sketchy places we slept in i but we're off off grid a lot uh but where was the sketchiest uh there was one walmart parking lot that was a little sketchy one sketchiest place was actually up this random road near olympic i think it was olympic national park and we could not find a place to pull off and it was late at night and we finally uh finally found a place to pull into and we backed in and there was like needles there was a whole fish just sitting there like someone was about to like eat the fish i guess and it was just and trash everywhere by the water like i was like we got to get out of here i think we're gonna get murdered yeah that sounds awful very sketchy we were not near waters it's like up on a hill like on a mountain and there's just a there's just a giant fish yeah that guy might eat people yeah they say in these parks in these national parks there's some like what they call them a certain word yeah there's a group of people that eats people a lot of disappearances in these national parks yeah i don't doubt there's some crazy people out there yeah sometimes when you're hiking that far in you're like dude i think a lot of people go missing yeah i could die around like if you break your leg they say or your foot like you'd be dead yeah if you're like 10 20 miles in yeah you know and you're by yourself i mean you have your wife so like a horse you gotta get put down yeah you'd be fine damn a year off of work i don't know if i could do that it's like a sabbatical yeah kind of yeah i mean then we started investing in it she got pregnant like might as well settle down i didn't need a bigger van or a house so then we got a house and i during that year i also started my first online business as well teaching people how to invest in short-term rentals which has been great so over the years i've that's grown and grown so i've taught over 3 000 people wow across the world how to do short-term rentals with over one billion dollars in real estate acquired yeah i'm sure you got some great case studies and testimonials oh yeah yeah that's great it's really cool to help people get into something like i mean it's real estate but it's also hospitality so it's really their first business and most of them are just w2 earners yeah so to give them something of their own not give them but teach them how to build something of their own and they get the cash for the tax benefits and a lot of them have you know replace their jobs or their spouse's jobs so they could stay home do whatever travel spend more time with their kids so that that's really fulfilling for me to help people do it and succeed and then it's also a great business to be in yeah what do people struggle with the most when they're getting into this uh understanding how to find and evaluate deals that's really it yeah i'm teaches you how to do that other than you yeah and then the secondary thing to that is how to set them up to be an experienced rental because most people will buy a property that looks nice or something they want to stay in and then they skip maybe they buy a bigger property and they they lose some of their budget on a higher down payment and they can't put the right amenities or design it well enough and then it struggles and they're like oh this sucks everything's dead oh it's not the case you should have just bought a two bedroom place made it a badass top one percent performing property and you'd be making a ton of money yeah it's kind of like monopoly right you don't just buy park place or boardwalk and you know charge base rent because you ran out of money you have enough money to hopefully build the houses and put the hotel on it so you can charge a shit ton of money and win the game class so think about the market as the monopoly board it doesn't matter which card you want on the board you want the ones that you can build a hotel on yeah one of the best board games of all time yeah teaches you a lot about real world yeah more fun to play in real life yeah yeah definitely you're making actual money in real life um so they get their first property and then do a lot of these guys get more for that or do you kind of oh yeah yeah they get they get the bug you know you get one yeah once you get one and it's doing well and people are surprised all the time we'll get text messages from our clients like I just listed I got five bookings 20 grand it's like this is real life yeah it's crazy because they're not used to that they're used to trading their time for money I go to work I work a number of hours and I get paid but when you set something up you work hard to set it up right and then money just starts flowing in then we have people that take their first vacation since they have their first property and they're like I'm making money on vacation that's the best it's life changer I remember then they get the tax refund yeah that's crazy so my client first property was bought last year do you ever look at your bank account and feel like you're getting hit with fees for no reason like overdraft fees monthly fees atm fees just for using your own money that's exactly why I want to put you on to something better chime is changing the way people bank they're not like traditional banks that nicole and dime you with random charges chime gives you access to thousands of fee-free atms and here's where it gets interesting chime members can earn up to 1115 annual rewards completely fee-free if you set up direct deposit you unlock the most rewarding way to bank with chime they've also got 24 seven customer support with real humans and they've rated five stars by usa today for customer service get 5 cashback on your chime card in categories you actually use like gas or groceries you also get premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24 seven concierge plus with my pay you can access up to 500 of your paycheck early and if you ever need a cushion spot me lets you overdraft up to 200 fee-free honestly my younger self would have benefited from something like this go to chime.com slash dsh that's chime.com slash dsh chime is a fintech not a bank banking services for my pay and chime card provided by chime's bank partners optional products and services may have fees or charges stated annual percentage yield and cashback for chime primally no minimum balance required checking account ranking based on a jd power survey published october 2025 for more information on apy rates my pay spot me and travel perks go to chime.com slash disclosures you've got weight loss goals but hitting them is another story if you want to know what's really worth your time when it comes to losing weight skip the guesswork and get weight loss by hymns it's designed to support you in losing the weight and keeping it off and hymns now offers access to an affordable range of fda approved glp1 medications including the wagovie pill and the wagovie pen plus lifestyle tips to support you along the way with wagovie at hymns you can lose up to 20% or more of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise it helps you regulate your appetite and eat less though success is within reach plus wagovie is the first glp1 pill so there are no needles needed ready to reach your goals visit hymns.com slash dsh to get a personalized affordable plan that gets you that's hyms.com slash dsh hymns.com slash dsh weight loss by hymns is not available in all 50 states wagovie is the registered trademark of nobo nordisk a s to get started and learn more including important safety information will go be clinical study information and restrictions visit hymns.com in business i'm always trying to get the best outcome for the best price so it's kind of crazy i haven't looked at my life insurance in years i don't even know if what i'm paying is competitive or if i have enough coverage with how things have changed that's why i started looking into select quote for over 40 years they've helped more than 2 million americans secure over 700 billion dollars in coverage their whole model is simple they shop around to find you the right policy for your specific needs so you're not overpaying or under covered their licensed agents work for you in as little as 15 minutes they compare policies from top rated carriers to find something that fits your health and your budget and they do it for free no medical exam no problem you could get same day coverage up to 2 million dollars and if you've got pre-existing conditions they've got options for that too get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50 percent as select quote dot com slash dsh save more than 50 on term life insurance at select quote dot com slash dsh to data get started that's select quote dot com slash dsh right now a guide dog puppy is taking her very first steps one day she'll help someone with sight loss live a full and independent life find the crossing best good girl when you sponsor a puppy with guide dogs you're there for it all her wobbly walks her first harness the life-changing partnership it's more than a donation it's the start of a life-changing story search sponsor a guide dog puppy and be part of a story you'll be proud to share guide dogs the quiet when you finally switch off the calm before the city wakes up that's where great days begin the best days start with a good night and a good morning at Leonardo hotels if it's important to you it's important to us save 10% on your stay with Leonardo Advantage Club at Leonardo hotels dot code at UK and he just sent a screen I actually posted on his own social media got a 42 000 refund 40 grand from the IRS and $2 000 from the state of Utah let's say he sent the screenshot and he was like this is crazy that's a lot of money you learn about from listening to me and in the culture program or on social media but when it actually happens and that money comes back into your account you're like holy shit so that money reinvested you know turns into millions of dollars over your life compound yeah absolutely yeah I believe in passive income I know that's like a controversial take but yeah some people don't think it exists but I think if you put in the time up front and then you start making money off the back with no active time invested that answer to that kind of passive yeah yeah I think there's like compound income where the bigger it grows like usually you should be able to remove yourself from any type of operational work there is true passive income but you know a lot of the big income is going to be active for most people yeah I agree I mean my buddy just invests he invested into prize picks I think it was have you heard of that company they just exited he made 20 million dollars so like I consider that passive because yeah he got in when they were worth 20 million they sold for four billion that's insane insane um made me want to start investing into VC stuff but yeah see that's that's that's the tough part a lot of listeners are probably like well I can never invest in something like that because how do I have access so that's part of the reason why a lot of rich people get richer is because they have access to connections so that's why I love real estate is because it's one investment vehicle that levels the playing field you get the cash flow you get the appreciation anyway average and you get the tax savings and you can you can play the same game as they're playing yeah there's no gatekeeping I guess real estate right unless you're going for like some crazy properties yeah sure I get you can always raise money for it then you're gonna have to learn how to raise money or do a fun I'm sure you consider that at one point yeah yeah we we went down that rabbit hole but then we ended up pivoting to doing our b&b turnkey offer which is a bit different so we thought about doing a fund which is raising 20 million 100 million dollars whatever and then going in buying hotels or buying short-term rentals but instead we're like that's what everyone else does what if we offer to service where the individual buys the property they own 100% of it there's no profit or equity split and we just do as a service and they get 100% of the tax benefit in the cash flow and they have a place that they want to visit a badass rental it's theirs to stay with it whenever it's more scalable that way yeah so that that service is blown up typically for higher income earners because it's a white glove service we're going after bigger properties yeah but we've worked with entrepreneurs high income earners professional athletes a lot of NFL players have used this service which is really really cool so I guess something that's theirs because most things that their financial advisor place that puts in front of them are on their plate are going to be syndications funds mutual funds individual stocks or other investment strategies maybe start up companies like get into like yeah that's like a small percentage of what gets pitched but so this is like something that they own and they have what they can kind of be more more into it yeah hey this is what I want the property to look like they have more say which is really cool funds never appeal to me to be honest you have no control no control no liquidity it's usually 8 to 10% 12% there's a lot of hidden fees big into funds lot people are not aware of yes you're actually not even making 10-12% yeah so but the liquidity to me was the biggest issue with it like that's something I've run into lately because I invest so heavily into real estate which is an illiquid asset I can't just place a sell order and get my money back in two days I got to list it for sale and then pay you know taxes or recapture if I did the cost-execute study so as a business owner I make high income and I want to avoid paying taxes so I invest so heavily into real estate which cash flows which is great but let's say there is a downfall in the economy or my businesses took had a really bad quarter why I still got to pay employees and everyone else I might not get paid so my illiquidity can be a problem so I'm shifting some of my investments to more liquid assets to kind of safeguard that makes sense to my family and my businesses in case of a rough yeah yeah that makes sense if another 08 happens yeah that'd be rough yeah you were young during that recession yeah I was in elementary school yeah how old were you uh 08 I think I was a freshman in high school yeah you didn't really experience it from a business point of view no yeah I always wonder if that happens again what the hell would happen that was crazy I have like childhood memories from that like sounding people getting screwed yeah I had some friends that at the time I was like why are they selling their house and like a lot of things were tightening up yeah and looking back it was like I was 08 or 9 yeah but I don't think real estate's not in that position right now that was built on terrible lending the loans right loans were awful now people were hard to get a loan it's hard to get a loan yeah very hard well especially for entrepreneurs yeah because we hide or not hide but like we do a lot of loopholes so our income is low on paper one yeah business owners yeah so for me getting a loan was hard yeah you know did the bank I'm like what did you end up having to do bank statement I had to do bank statement yeah because my income was low but my cash flow was solid yeah so um I couldn't qualify for my house basically off a regular loan yeah because my income was too low yeah but I feel like that's a common issue for entrepreneurs yeah yeah a lot of people end up doing that bank statement loan submit a bunch of P&L's a lot of it's like 20-40 months of bank statements yeah I'd be organized we just qualify for a few of those similar ones for investment properties and for a new primary residence and my system hates me but I mean every time it's like well over a hundred statements oh my because I have different bank accounts for each one of my rentals and multiple bank accounts for my different businesses so you're talking 12 months plus a bank statements for every single account that's crazy yeah that's a mess bro yeah she did great yeah shout out to shout out to Melissa Melissa you're the best assistant of all time man until AI replaced not I'm just kidding you know she's she's irreplaceable she's amazing yeah there's certain things that are irreplaceable yeah you know I think what you do is going to be hard to replace same with podcasting yeah investing people are using it for stocks and stuff now and I will see it's better but yeah I feel like that can get dangerous though very I think oh I just woke up and I lost a hundred thousand dollars because of a glitch it happened to me yeah I had an AI trading 4x for me like years ago really lost like six figures it was making solid money for a while like four or five months what happened when it lost money lost it all but like what what would caused it um I still don't know just that day something it could have been a news cycle that just a lot of fear in the market and it screwed up the algorithm but it was making like eight percent a month for four or five months straight which is crazy yeah and then um lost it all in one day that's crazy wrecked that hurt you know I don't know if I'll be using AI trader anytime soon yeah I'm sure they've gotten better um how could people watching this get involved with you if they're interested there's a lot of different ways just various businesses I'd say if you want to get into short-term rentals especially for cash flow and tax savings there's really two rounds you know I can do it with you I can do it for you if you if you didn't want to do it on your own so B&B Invest Academy teaches you how to do it very hands-on very high success rate and then B&B turnkey typically people who have $250,000 or more in cash flow liquidity that are busy with jobs family profession and they just want to someone else to find the property set it up do all their construction and then manage it on the back end for them nice well you got links for those we'll include those in the video description yeah and um Instagram could people hit you up there oh yeah yeah I'm very active on Instagram yeah that's what I found you yeah yeah you're very active man I used to see your ad all the time yeah yeah there you go yeah I'm targeting the right people yeah you got to show me who you're targeting because I need that list I'm running ads right now we get some interesting calls oh I bet you do yeah I'm sure you get those too yeah oh yeah someone was in uh rehab called us interesting yeah I'm having a great story to tell yeah that was a fun one that's different marketing for a podcast guess yeah you probably get all sorts of all sorts all sorts yeah everyone thinks they have the greatest story of all time too so yeah deal with that but it's part of the game then what's next for you though uh right now just focusing on business stuff family I got two little kids at home I just try and maximize life nice and not life maxing like you see on Instagram or like yeah let me go buy a bunch of cars and do all this crazy stuff but it's really more like the quality of life I want to live the highest quality life possible so setting ourselves up for that we're working on building a breaking ground on a new construction for our primary home which will make us forever home congrats which is cool we have 50 acres through holy three bodies of water let's go yeah three bodies of water that's a flex yeah so it'll be fun so that's that's what's up there and then the business stuff it would be interesting we'll entertain putting our business or collective of businesses out to market depending on how things are going and just kind of see what kind of interest we get that's cool man you think you'll ever retire again yeah I mean ish you know I don't I don't work a ton of hours now how many it fluctuates on average you get a different answer if you ask me or my wife but I would probably say like 20 20 yeah it's working hours active especially some people like consider this work or they don't like yeah watching the youtube videos I'd say if I'm like in front of my computer or on calls or doing something like active recording videos yeah add stuff like that 20 hours that's nothing dude yeah well done so you've really outsourced all the yeah it comes with great employees too to order to hire great people and retain them very but we pay our employees well um and we have low attrition across all of our companies because of that well done yeah that's that's a dream man if we don't have that it's really hard to go from solopreneur to entrepreneur because a lot of people think like I'm a entrepreneur you know but if you're you are sales marketing your operations your everything like if you go away your business goes away and there's nothing wrong with that yeah it's usually your margins are crazy high but at some point you have to hire someone on your team even if it's an assistant or you know operations manager ton of percent yeah I was stuck in that solopreneur phase for almost a decade and this pod is where it got me out of that and I've outsourced as much as I can obviously it's hard as a podcast I still need to physically shoot but you could build up a backlog and outsource a lot yeah but like the editing and all of its getting people on the podcast you know yeah the funnel I just do the prep and the filming yeah everything else is pretty much outsourced which is great because then you have location time freedom what was the third freedom I forgot but I could basically travel wherever I want whenever yeah it's great dude I'm not bound you know a lot of people are bound physically or time on a schedule I'm gonna wake up usually whenever I make my own schedule yeah it's the best dude yeah definitely could not imagine going back to a nine to five especially an office job hell no I've never worked at traditional nine to five I did have one job because I sold my company a few years ago and it was an aqua hire and I won't talk too bad on that because he watches the podcast but it wasn't my favorite setting you know yeah working traditional hours being on a desk yeah it's tough it's tough man but dude this was great we'll link everything below anything else you want to close off with your now I am appreciate you having me on absolutely I'll buy some real estate next year yeah yeah well healthy out man yeah I need to save you some money no more four hundred thousand dollar change the I got more in tax than Trump and Elon and you and everyone else man check them out guys peace thanks for watching all the way to the end guys please hit like and subscribe it helps us grow the show and helps us get bigger guests thank you so much I don't know who needs to hear this but a lot of people are still getting wrecked by their bank monthly fees overdraft fees paying just to use your own money it makes no sense that's why I've been looking into chime chime is changing the way people bang it's fee free banking built for you not the bank no overdraft fees no monthly fees and access to thousands of fee free atms like why are you paying to get your own money and it's not just about avoiding fees there are real benefits with direct deposit you unlock the most rewarding way to bank with members seeing up to a thousand one hundred fifty dollars in annual rewards you could get five percent cash back on everyday categories like gas or groceries and savings that grow way faster with the three point seven five percent APY they've also got features like spot me which lets you overdraft up to two hundred dollars with no fees and real customer support actual humans 24 7 honestly my younger self would have benefited from something like this chime is not just smarter banking it is the most rewarding way to bank join the millions who are already banking fee free today head to chime.com slash dsh that's chime.com slash dsh it only takes a few minutes to sign up in business i'm always trying to get the best outcome for the best price so it's kind of crazy I haven't looked at my life insurance in years I don't even know if what I'm paying is competitive or if I have enough coverage with how things have changed that's why I started looking into select quote for over 40 years they've helped more than two million Americans secure over 700 billion dollars in coverage their whole model is simple they shop around to find you the right policy for your specific needs so you're not overpaying or undercover their licensed agents work for you in as little as 15 minutes they compare policies from top rated carriers to find something that fits your health and your budget and they do it for free no medical exam no problem you could get same day coverage up to two million dollars and if you've got pre-existing conditions they've got options for that too get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% as select quote dot com slash dsh save more than 50% on-term life insurance as select quote dot com slash dsh to data get started that's select quote dot com slash dsh right now a guide dog puppy is taking her very first steps one day she'll help someone with sight loss live a full and independent life find the crossing best good girl when you sponsor a puppy with guide dogs you're there for it all her wobbly walks her first harness the life-changing partnership it's more than a donation it's the start of a life-changing story search sponsor a guide dog puppy and be part of a story you'll be proud to share guide dogs changes in sexual performance are more common than most people realize and support doesn't need to feel awkward with med express everything happens privately online start by completing a short consultation reviewed by uk registered clinicians if eligible treatment is delivered discreetly to your home with ongoing support whenever you need it you're not alone in this visit med express dot code dot uk slash podcast to learn more