[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to create wealth through franchising. I'm your host, Kim Daley.
Whether you're a CEO, a military vet, a real estate investor, or simply in career transition and ready to take ownership of your future, with each episode you're going to learn valuable insights and hear inspiring stories from within the franchise industry.
On that note, my guest stories are their own. And as a franchise consultant, I do not make personal brand endorsements or earnings claims, but I do educate, motivate, and inspire dreams.
Now onto the show.
Welcome back to create wealth through franchising podcast and Kim Daily TV. I am your host, Kim Daley, and in my studio today, a longtime friend, Jim Piper. Not Pfeiffer and no relation to Michelle.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Welcome to the studio of Kim Daley TV.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's great.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: This is fun to have him in my hot seat because I've been blessed to be a guest on his podcast multiple times and this is the first time he's gracing my studio to share his alternative investing wisdom. So Jim, I want to bring these people into the conversation we're about to have. And I'm going to have you introduce yourself. But let's talk about what I want to talk about today first. So where this conversation is starting from is for years I've been a business owner and I did what I was taught to do. Take my extra money, put it into a self employed pension plan, and wait until retirement to have this nest egg. And then I met some people like you who are doing different things and I started leaning in, paying attention and I decided to do what you were doing. And within four years I was able to create enough passive income that covers my living expenses. And so I am, quote, financially free or retired, which means I run all the businesses I run for freaking fun.
That's awesome. What happens when you show up to do something for fun because you want to, not because you need to. When people come to me and they want to own a business gym, right, there's this I don't want to work, I just want to get to being the financially free part. I'm like, no, it's not that you don't want to work. What you don't want is the resistance in your mind toward the definition of work. Thats where this conversation comes from.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Jim.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: Okay, so with that little setup, were going to come back there. But first tell my listeners how I know you through left field investors and a little bit about your amazing background in alternative investing.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so im one of the founders of left field investors and as a side note, its a community of limited partner investors who invest in mostly real estate syndications. And we can talk about that. But big news in our world, we just got bought by biggerpockets, which is a real estate community. So were super psyched that well have more resources to help LP investors. But my history this is career, I think, number six. So I did a lot of different things, but I was always focused on finance and I was 100% confident that the way to make money was to have a job that pays you money and then you put as much as you can into your four hundred one k, and then you put the rest into the stock market in after tax places. And so I did that for a while and then I became a financial advisor. And at the same time as I was becoming a financial advisor, I was investing in real estate. And like I said, I thought I knew everything about money. And as a financial advisor, they teach you all about money. And as they were teaching me, I was learning new things, but I was applying it to real estate because it made more sense in the real estate world where you're buying real assets than it did in the financial advising world, where you're buying paper assets and hoping it goes up so slowly. I transitioned out of that and became an active real estate investor, which I wasn't very good at because you're dealing with tenants and you're fighting the property manager and all this. And then I found this thing called real estate syndications, where you could actually invest passively, hire someone to manage the asset for you, and your job in the upfront where you're vetting the operator and trying to figure out are they someone you want to invest with? And then you're vetting the deal, then you send them the money and you sit back, there's nothing else to do but collect reports and hopefully distributions. And so that's what left field investors. We got that group together because I wanted to learn how to do it better and I didn't know anybody who did it, so I thought I'll just start a little mastermind. And it eventually grew to 2000 plus members and we built an accidental business. But the key here is to get out of the Wall street mindset that you were talking about, where you're throwing all your money in retirement accounts and then, you know, hoping you can use that at retirement. It makes no sense to me anymore.
That was a lot.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Love it. No, and that's a perfect segue back into the whole setup, or why I wanted you to be a guest in my hot seat, because I am on this mission now that I've had this enlightened moment of like, oh, so this is how the truly wealthy get wealthy, because wealthy is defined not just as money, but time to spend your money. And it's that mental freedom of waking up and doing what you want every day. And for me, that's showing up to help people. That's what I love to do. My businesses create meaning in my life. And that what gives me the passion. So that's what I really want for my followers. They're coming to me saying, help me get out of this. W two, I want to buy a business and I don't want to have to work. I want to be the CEO who just sits back and I'm like, look, I want that for you, too. Probably not reality, right? In order to build a successful business, you're probably going to want to be there, at least in the beginning and even after that, right? Because it's your baby, it's your culture. You're the leader of it, you're the visionary of it. So, Jim, where do we start this conversation? Where's, like, a logical place for someone who's in that work? Nine to five grind, putting money in your four hundred one k to help break these habits and try to form a new habit that seems like that's for other people. It's not for me. It's not safe.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: The way I look at it now is there's different kinds of finance, right? There's traditional finance, which is what you learn to when you turn on the tv or your parents tell you, hey, put money in your 401K. It's the stock market or mutual funds or whatever. It's the typical financial product. It's paper assets. That's what everyone's doing. So it's easy. It's not scary at all. Everyone's doing it. So you just do that and you don't have to think about it. But there's a lot of downsides to that money. In your 401K, you are basically partnering with the us government because they own 30, 40 or 50% of that money. So the more money you have, you know, they're clapping. I am too. Perfect. That's more money for the government, less taxes I have to pay, right? So you are deferring taxes. And let me ask anybody, do you think taxes are going to be higher in 10, 20, 30 years when you retire or than they are now? Most likely everyone's going to say yes. Okay, well, thank you. You are saving money now. To pay more to the government later. So that's one issue. So that's traditional finance. Then there's alternatives, right? That's buying a business or investing in real estate. All this other stuff, it is scary. No one else is doing it. If you walk outside your front door and talk to your neighbors and say, hey, here's what I'm doing, they're going to be like, what? You know, you're the weirdo. And because they're all talking about their mortgage interest rate or their 401 ks, and you're talking about buying a business or real estate. So it's scary and it's hard and it's different. But you know what? You get tax advantages. The returns are better. Everything is better in this world. So you just need to find an access point to it. And there's multiple access points. You can talk to somebody like you. If you want to buy a business, buy a franchise, you're the person to go to. If you want to try getting into real estate and investing passively, then you come to some community, like left field investors or passive pockets, and you find the community that can help you. And then all of a sudden, you're talking to people who are doing the same thing as you are and getting out of the typical traditional role, and you're doing something different. You're making more money, you're paying less taxes, and you're happier doing it. And then you can ditch that w two if that's what you want to do, because you'll have financial freedom, and that means different things to different people. Maybe ditching your w two is reducing your employment. You're not working as much. Or maybe it's doing something that you love instead of something that you hate. Once you are financially independent or on that journey, the world just opens up to you.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Okay, the interview's over. Cause the guy's right in the heart of the matter. I mean, whoa. I was like, okay, so is everybody motivated? And like, that was the perfect answer. Oh, my God, Jim, I love you so much. That was so great. But so, okay, I'm joking a little bit, but not really because that was everything you need to hear in this interview. But let's just break that down a tiny bit more. Because, so if this is so good and, like, a better way to do it, why doesn't the world teach this?
[00:09:11] Speaker B: That's a great question. And that's something, that part of it is because Wall street has a lot of money and they want you to come to them so they can charge you a bunch of fees. I was a financial advisor, and financial advisors aren't. They're not evil people. They think that they're selling you the products that make you money, and they probably do. You can make money in the stock market. You can make money having a financial advisor manage your business. But making money isn't what I wanted. Think about all the people you know in your life, whether they're famous people or not famous people. And tell me, how many of those people are super wealthy or even wealthy, financially independent. How many of those people did that working a nine to five job and putting money in the stock market?
[00:09:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: None.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: None.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: None of them. Right. Now think of the people in your life who are famous people that are wealthy. I would bet almost 100% of them either owned a business or were into real estate. So I don't know why more people don't know about it, other than, as I said before, it is hard, right, to, let's say you're stuck. Buy a business. That is super scary. I don't know how to buy a business. I work for a business. Right. And so you have to have kind of an entrepreneurial spirit to buy a business. Real estate. Also, you hear all kinds of nightmares, stories about real estate, and we're not. We just went through a very difficult time in real estate where people lost money, and we're just maybe, hopefully, coming out of that. But the reason I think that people do Wall street rather than this other stuff is because it's hard, because it's different, because not everybody's doing it. And one of the missions that you're on, and one of the missions that I'm on is to show people you can do this. You just said four years to financial independence. Right. One of the founders of left field investors, Chad Ackerman, I met him five or six years ago, and he heard my story that I was getting to passive investing and I had become financially free in five years. And he said, I'm going to do it in four. And guess what he did through a difficult time in the market. Even so, I think it's just that people don't understand.
How much financial education do you get in school? None. They teach you, you go to college, they teach you how to be a doctor and make a ton of money or whatever your career is. But none of them say, have a class for financial education. And if they do, it's going to be taught by a financial advisor who is incentivized to tell you to put it in this other stuff. And as I said, financial advisors aren't bad. But you know why they don't recommend real estate or buying a business? There's two reasons. One, they don't know anything about it because they're only trained on finance. And two, they're not compensated for it. Right. And so it's very rare that you find a financial advisor who hears that you're in real estate and says, yeah, you should put more money into real estate. If you find that person, they are a quality financial advisor. Right. Because everyone should have a piece. Now, it doesn't mean you don't do anything in the market. The market offers great liquidity, but I wouldn't put any more than my match in the 401K because you're just begging to pay more taxes later and that just isn't efficient. The greatest eroder of wealth is tax. Right. And who gets tax incentives? Business owners and real estate people. Right? Who gets taxed the most high w two earners. You have buckets of money. Shift some buckets into the stuff that's less taxed and you're already winning.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: I just want to be like, boom, my drop perfectly said. Okay, so I want to go back to one of the key things you said initially and you just repeated it was the community of people that you surround yourself with. I think the reason these conversations are scary is because they're not the common conversations that people are having. Right. We were taught to go to college, get a degree, go work for a company, put your money in a 401K. So that's the normal way. Thats the way that were raised to think, is it right? I dont know. Only you can decide. When I woke up and met people like Jim, and actually it was one of the left field investors that I met who had the greatest impact on my life. I ended up helping him invest in a franchise. But I call him my goat. He was my greatest of all time because through his conversation with me about what he was doing with his wife, and I looked at his age and I
[email protected] worth. And I thought to myself, and I even asked him, did you inherit some money?
Poor Ryan.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that's funny.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: He was like, no. And then he told me his story, and I got so sucked into that man's story, I was like, are you flipping kidding me?
[00:13:43] Speaker B: Right?
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Like, you know, how much does your net worth grow if you're doing it the traditional way, like not even 10% a year, you know, maybe not a good year, but then you're going to slide back and you have no control.
So that's what prompted me and in coming back to, like, the community of people that you surround yourself with. So if you want to have this uncommon conversation, seemingly uncommon, you have to change your peer group. You have to find people. So if we're talking about the scary subject of starting a business, you want to come to Kim Daley, who's going to make it the most comfortable, easy conversation ever. Because I've been doing it successfully for 22 years, and I'm going to show you how you can do it successfully quite easily. I'm going to demystify all of the things that make it scary and help you learn how to mitigate those risks. And then you can carry forth this new gospel that you're going to carry to your common friends and help them see the light, too. But we got to start one at a time. Now, when it comes to this real estate conversation, I think it's also natural when people think of, okay, real estate, well, I'm just going to go buy some property or ho, how about if I just get into Airbnb, right? And they go out and they try to do it on their own, and what happens? They make a lot of mistakes. Same thing. If you try to go it alone and owning a business, you make a lot of mistakes that cost you a lot of money. And sometimes you never recover financially from those losses. And so you shrink back to your safe paradigm, which is the habitual pattern. You were taught to save money, put it in your 401K, it's just better. All these other things are scams, and then that's where it ends. And I hope you're out there listening, shaking your head, because that's what happens. So when you can connect yourself to communities like the daily coach for franchising and business ownership and to people like left field investors, and there's many others, I've interviewed them right here on this podcast that have communities where people are trying to get educated and learn and come together to put their money into a safer, mitigated risk investment in real estate. You can learn how to do it through the help of other people, through the mentorship in community with other people. And that's what helps to demystify it. I already used that word to lower the risk and help you dare to do it. It's not a conversation. It's going to be one and done. Because this is a lifelong pattern for most people. It's generational, never mind lifelong. Right? So changing that paradigm, that's the hardest thing. I'm all about paradigms, Jim. Right. Like that's how we habitually think. I'm a big personal development person, always reading books on personal development. And the great people like Bob Proctor and Earl Nightingale and Napoleon Hill think and grow rich. And they say that most of how we talk and think every day, it's from habit. In 95% of the thoughts that we think are the same thoughts we thought yesterday, which is why most people's lives never change. So in order to change, you have to become aware of what you're thinking about and then be willing to do something about it.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: He's habitually until you form a new habit, which is why changing your habits is so hard.
Tossing it back to you now. So. Okay, all right. I'm getting piqued about this. I'm curious. Now, you've said some great things. Tax advantages. The wealthy people aren't doing it the way I'm doing it. I need a community of people. So what is the biggest deal with the community in real estate? Syndication? Over. Just, you know, hey, I'm going to go buy a home and put it on Airbnb. Hey, daily coach fans, if you're ready to begin your own journey to find the perfect franchise, please email me right now at enquireimdaily TV. My services are totally free for you. That's inquire at Kimdaily TV. Now back to the show.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess if you're listening to this podcast, you're already looking for something different, right? So I think there's a couple things about community. Finding a community. It needs to be one that fits your personality, right. It has to be where the culture is, something that you want to learn from the other people in it. And real estate syndications are different because, yes, it's very passive, but there's a lot of work you have to do upfront. I think there's so many similarities between what you do, right. Because there's a lot of work you have to figure out, is Kim the right person to work with? Yes. Okay. Now I got to find, you know, she's going to give me ten different things to look at. Ten different franchise. Okay. I got to look at that. And then once you pick it, that's when you've made your decision. Right. And it's similar to when you're investing in real estate. When you vet the sponsor, then you find the deal, you analyze the deal and then you invest in the deal, and then you're kind of on cruise control. Right. And I know franchise is different because you're still working hard, but you have a plan that is put together by somebody who's already been successful. And that's similar to real estate syndication. So I think just getting out of the normal Wall street world and finding one of these communities, like there's, I don't know, there's a bunch of people in our community who invest in syndications and also are want to be business owners and so they end up investing in franchises. So theres a lot of overlap there. But I think the syndication is as passive as you can get, I think, in the investing world because everythings done upfront, right, and there is a lot of work and you have to make sure that youre picking the right sponsors and youre picking the right deals. But once you do that, then youre just really sitting back and collecting the money. And I think the one of the big challenges for people is, you know, the price tag of one of these things to invest. The minimum is usually 25 or $50,000, maybe even $100,000. And most people are like, oh my gosh, nope, can't do that. That's too much money. Well, you're already probably putting what, $2,000 a month, maybe $4,000 a month into your 401k. But because it's coming out in little drips and drabs, you don't notice it. And it's different than cutting a big check for sure. But if you just said, you know what, I'm just going to do the match on my four hundred one k and I'm going to put the rest in a bucket in a bank somewhere and I'm just going to hold it there until I have enough to invest in a syndication, you will be shocked how fast that money accumulates. And then once you start investing in these syndications, how fast your snowball grows until all of a sudden four or five years later, you're like, I guess I don't have to work anymore. It's amazing. And then once you're financially free, you can do what you want, whether you want to own a business or you want to work part time, you want to volunteer, then the world's open to you, right? Financial independence is not about money. It's about time, freedom, location, freedom, what you want to do, freedom. That's how I look at it.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Yeah, the who, the what and the where. So I want to say this, I probably should have said it at the beginning. This interview is by no means like any kind of financial advice at all, right? We're not trying to claim you can do anything in any amount of time and like, change your life. Like, this is all on you. The conversation is to stimulate and inspire some thought in you to think a little bit differently, and for you to go do your own due diligence. And I want to go to this real estate syndication and picking the right people, this is a critical thing. So I didn't know much about real estate syndication. I met some people who I thought seemed like good people and didn't even know what kind of due diligence to do. But I believed in the people because that's my personality, and I gave them some money. Well, I made some bad deals that way. Now I've also made some good deals. So it was through trial and error that I figured out, ooh, this is what I don't want to do again. And this is what I do want to do again. And you're shaking your head, Jim, because you probably get it, you know, like, so right now, with the interest rates as they are at their time of this recording in 2024, what I've learned is that some of the real estate syndicators I was with, who are overly leveraged, right. And then the interest rates went high, and they had to stop paying me dividends. Well, that sucked, right? But others who structured the deal better because they had more experience, perhaps they went through the recession in 2008, where they already figured all these lessons out. And so this time, their deals weren't structured like that. Well, they haven't missed a beat. I've continued to collect those dividends. Now, even with those losses, as I mentioned, I've already been able to retire myself. But for me, most of that passive income, what's funny is, comes from businesses that I was offered equity in. So it's kind of funny because my point of attraction, my awareness, is business ownership. So when I started thinking differently about how do I want to build passive income, I never got offered opportunity to be equity investor in businesses until I started thinking like that. And it was like my awareness of it attracted opportunity to me. Check that box. So I've dabbled in real estate. I've learned the hard way. I'm getting to the point of the question. So I really would encourage people to do more due diligence than Kim Daley did, for sure. But where does that due diligence even begin? When you say to know the right questions, how do you know what the right questions are if you've never dabbled in real estate, syndication, and trying to.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Pick an operator, that's the hardest part. And to be honest, that's why I started left field investors, because I went to a conference and they had some operators there that had real estate syndications I could invest in. And I was pretty confident, like, whoa, well, if they're at this seminar, they must be the best ones. So I'll just invest with them and not ask any questions. Right. Big mistake. What I found. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was terrible. Stupid. But what I found is. So then I said, I need help. So I started a community, right? And now I don't invest in the new operator, to me, unless somebody in my community has already invested with them, has been there doing it for at least a year. So we know. Are you getting distributions? Are you getting reports? Are things working out, at least initially? Cause these are long term. All right. Illiquid investments. It's five, seven years. And so there's a lot to do with the vetting of the sponsors. It's the most important part. So how do you do it? One, join a community. It doesn't have to be left field investors or passive pockets. One that fits you and then leverage that. Use the knowledge of other people. And like left field investors, we have all kinds of tools, questions to ask, operators, all kinds of things to help you learn, and those are great, and you should use them. But the number one thing is find your people. Find other people who are doing what you want to do and learn from them. Right? That is the shortcut. That is how you avoid mistakes. Now, one of our founders, Steve sue, he wrote a book, avoiding rookie errors, and it's 20 mistakes he's made over his 14 years as a passive investor. Why did he write that book? So that you could look in there and go, okay, here's 20 mistakes, and check them off so you don't make them. Right. I've made a lot of those mistakes. You've made some of those mistakes. Steve made all of them. So what better way to learn? Avoid that and then work with people who know what they're doing. And that's how you find the good operators. And one comment on interest rates, right. Just because they've struggled during these difficult times, that doesn't mean that they're bad operators. If you look at it, when interest rates in the eighties went from 5% to 10%, that doubled it. That doubled. So if you had a. Your mortgage payment might have doubled and all of that, right? But now, if it went from 0.25% to 5%, that's 20 times. That's not doubling, that's 20 times. So that increases your cost or part of your cost by 20 not by two. So the number of operators that got caught is large. And I think that if you're evaluating now, the evaluation of operators gonna be so much easier now than it was two years ago. Right. Because if they made it through this difficult time and can explain themselves and, you know, they're gonna be okay. But if they didn't, you run. That's how I'm looking at it.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: Oh, my God. What a way to bring this whole thing full circle. Jim doesn't even know the magic of everything he just said to Kim Daley. So to wrap this up, up in totality, he's telling you to find your people. What is Kim Daley say when you're investing in a franchise? This is not about what it's always about. Who.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Synergy there. And then the same thing about the interest rates. People are like, oh, my God, you got an SBA loan now? I'm like, no, if you can afford an SBA loan now, when it goes down, maybe you are in the money. So now is the time to be applying for the SBA loan. An amazing, amazing point. Shopping for these, you know, the right real estate syndicators today in 2024. It's better in a hard time than it is in an easy time, because you see who was caught when the tide went out, who was caught swimming with their shorts down.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: That's an amazing point that I didn't even think of. You're amazing. Jim, thank you so much for just sharing your awesome wisdom. You're just, like, relaxed, calm personality that just makes me smile. It's such a pleasure to have you in my studio. Thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, as always, I enjoy our conversations, and thank you so much for having me on.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: It's such a great pleasure. And I know all the people you mentioned today. I just want to celebrate the success with you on the sale of your community. It's awesome. So, for those who are inspired to begin a deeper conversation, if it's about franchising, well, you know that I want to be your franchise consultant and your daily coach. And even if you're out there and you're thinking, wow, I love this alternative investing conversation, can you help me get to the next level? Kim Daley? I can help you get to the next level. I can lead you to some key players who could be your who. So, if you're ready to begin this journey, please follow the email in the description right now. Don't hesitate. Don't talk yourself out of it. Just follow the email in the description. And let's go step by step because I can't wait to meet you and to be your daily coach.
You can find more content just like this on my YouTube channel at KimDaily TV. And if you're inspired to take the next step to explore franchises matched to you, please email me right now at enquireimDaily TV. That's enquiremdaily TV.
