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Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I am Rashaan McDonald, the host

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Speaker 1: of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to

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Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.

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Speaker 1: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,

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Speaker 1: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running

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Speaker 1: their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making

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Speaker 1: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and

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Speaker 1: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on

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Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald's host the

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Speaker 1: weekly Money Making Conversation Master Class show. The interviews and

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Speaker 1: information that this show provides offer everyone. It's time to

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Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start living your own.

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Speaker 1: I'm here to help you reach your American dream. My

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Speaker 1: guest is the author of Bootstrap Millionaire. He is also

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Speaker 1: the CFO of Cadence Ventures is a boutique private equity

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Speaker 1: firm that invests in private mortgage notes and offer there's

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Speaker 1: non traditional financing to real estate investors, builders, and developers.

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Speaker 1: Please work with the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Tim Mercer,

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Speaker 1: how you doing, my.

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Speaker 2: Brother, I'm doing quite well.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for having South Carolina, Bornuth, Carolina.

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Speaker 1: You know, you know your book, you know you found

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Speaker 1: Humble Beginnings. You know, tell us about South Carolina. Well,

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Speaker 1: umble beginnings.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, four kids, right, four kids, that's right. Yeah, grew

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Speaker 2: up my mother had four kids. Grew up in a

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Speaker 2: small town mullin South Carolina. Yes, it's funny because it's

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Speaker 2: part of South Carolina, which they actually wrote a documentary

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Speaker 2: on that part of South Carolina. They called it the

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Speaker 2: Corridor of Shane. Oh why yeah, Well, because my understanding

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Speaker 2: is that that part of South Carolina had or may

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Speaker 2: still have had the worst school system in the entire US. Right,

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Speaker 2: And when I grew up, I was grew up in

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Speaker 2: the seventies and eighties. So it was a tobacco town, right,

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Speaker 2: I mean tobacco fields, warehouses and those types of things.

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Speaker 2: Not much of an industry outside of that. A lot

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Speaker 2: of great, great people, great humble people. And and but

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Speaker 2: it helped me, it helped me to really be able

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Speaker 2: to establish them. I guess the foundation of who I

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Speaker 2: am today as a man.

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Speaker 1: We talk about you know, I come from Fifth Ward

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Speaker 1: in the city Houston, Texas, and we all come from

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Speaker 1: that humble beginnings. And then what did you take away

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Speaker 1: from that that you still like a badge of courage,

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Speaker 1: I think yeah today.

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Speaker 2: Well number one I think is, you know, treat people

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Speaker 2: the way you want to be treated, right, you know,

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Speaker 2: And my faith is one of the main things that

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Speaker 2: I that I gained from growing up in the humble

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Speaker 2: beginnings like that, because when you grow up in humble beginnings,

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Speaker 2: man behave everything we do we rely upon God, right,

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Speaker 2: And so my mother always taught me to to be

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Speaker 2: respectful of people, right, treat people the way you want

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Speaker 2: to be treated. Always taught me to depend on God

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Speaker 2: for everything because that's the only way that you're gonna

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Speaker 2: make it. And I still feel that way today. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I mean every every day when I wake up and

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Speaker 2: pray every morning, I know that the only way I'm

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Speaker 2: going to make it through today is vibral relying upon

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Speaker 2: my faith. So so I think that was the most

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Speaker 2: important thing for me growing up. You know.

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Speaker 1: Then you know, uh, Tim Mercier, when would say that's

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Speaker 1: a simple name, yeah book bootstraped millionaire, now humble beginnings.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't the associate himself with the word millionaire.

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Speaker 3: Right, how right?

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Speaker 1: How I know that we don't get the real fast,

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Speaker 1: but how what is your secret of success? To sit

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Speaker 1: up and tell us that you can author a book

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Speaker 1: called bootstraped Millionaire.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, when we first when I first wrote

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Speaker 2: the book, the title was supposed to be bootstrapped Entrepreneur, okay,

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Speaker 2: and so we wrote we worked with Forbes to kind

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Speaker 2: of they they published the book, and it was interesting

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Speaker 2: because the guy that was helping helping me create the book,

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Speaker 2: they kept using the word millionaire. I mean, I didn't

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Speaker 2: understand why they kept saying bootstrap me in the bootstrapm

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Speaker 2: in there. And at first I really didn't want to

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Speaker 2: title the book bootstrap me in it because I didn't

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Speaker 2: want to come off and make it seem like being

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Speaker 2: braggadocious or anything like that. But I felt that there

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Speaker 2: was an importance in that because the word bootstrap is

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Speaker 2: the key word, right. If it's somebody from South Carolina

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Speaker 2: country boy like me who grew up didn't know nothing

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Speaker 2: about business, nothing about finance and learn it the hard way,

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Speaker 2: if I could do some things to put myself in

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Speaker 2: a position where I could, you know, have that title right,

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Speaker 2: that's so to speak, you know, or achieve a certain

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Speaker 2: financial success, I think hopefully it's a testament to other

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Speaker 2: young men like myself to say that if he could

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Speaker 2: do it, I can do it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, I ask you this question. That okay, cause

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Speaker 1: when you respond, when you look right right there, Charles Swall,

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Speaker 1: it says two point three million dollars. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: like that through their surveys. Yeah, millionaire status. When you're

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Speaker 1: here to term two point three million dollars and the

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Speaker 1: word millionaire, what does that mean to you?

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Speaker 3: Are you rich?

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Speaker 2: Well? I would say, Now the question is is it

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Speaker 2: two point three million liquid? Right? That's that's that's another question, right,

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Speaker 2: is it liquid? Or is it you know? I mean

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Speaker 2: now if you have assets, that's a good thing because

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Speaker 2: I think a lot of people over time, all of

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Speaker 2: us touch a million dollars, right, I mean through our lifetime.

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Speaker 2: The question is how do we manage it? Right? Do

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Speaker 2: we do we keep most of it? Do we buy

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Speaker 2: assets that help us to continue to grow? Because Len,

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Speaker 2: the truth be told, and this is not no offense,

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Speaker 2: but a million dollars really is not a lot of money.

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Speaker 2: When you when you break, when you really break it down,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's not a lot of money. But when

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Speaker 2: you grow up the way I did, probably how you

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Speaker 2: did we drive to say, man, I want, I want

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Speaker 2: to become a millionaire, and then when you get to

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Speaker 2: a point where you probably have either touched it or

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Speaker 2: maybe you have assets or things of that nature, you

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Speaker 2: begin to realize that it's really not a lot of money,

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Speaker 2: and it actually creates more anxiety for you because you're

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Speaker 2: trying to figure out, now, how do I how do

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Speaker 2: I level it up and go higher than that?

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Speaker 1: Which leads to my next question financial literacy, because that's

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Speaker 1: where it really comes to because you watch television a

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Speaker 1: lot and that we're millionaire if you and that, if

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Speaker 1: you're a person who's tracking in that millionaire million dollar range,

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Speaker 1: you go.

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Speaker 3: Brother, million dollars?

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Speaker 1: What you Why are you excited about a million? How

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Speaker 1: long do you expect to live exactly with a million dollars?

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Speaker 1: That's where the financial literacy comes into place. Why is

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Speaker 1: that an important part of your book?

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Speaker 2: Because man, I mean it's everything right if we don't

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Speaker 2: understand finance. In my opinion, right, I think everybody needs

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Speaker 2: to understand finance because it's the pillar of everything. Right.

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Speaker 2: If we don't understand it, then there's no way for

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Speaker 2: us to really level up. Right, I mean, I learned

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Speaker 2: how to make money growing up working hard, right, you

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Speaker 2: work hard, you do do everything people tell you to

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Speaker 2: go out, they work hard, you study, become smart. So

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Speaker 2: making money was never really a problem for me, But

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Speaker 2: knowing how to grow it and to keep it that

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Speaker 2: was the hard part, right you know. And I and

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Speaker 2: I learned how to save money as a young young

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Speaker 2: man and save money pretty well, But that part about

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Speaker 2: growing money was the hardest part for me because that's

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Speaker 2: why I made a lot of mistakes trying to grow

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Speaker 2: the money, trying to invest in things that I didn't

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Speaker 2: know about, trusting other people with with my money, right,

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Speaker 2: financial advisors and things of that nature. So I learned

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Speaker 2: that I had to learn it for myself to in

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Speaker 2: order to prevent me from being taken advantage.

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Speaker 1: Of it, right right, right, right, right now, let's let's

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Speaker 1: talk about this because you military got honored, right okay? Well,

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Speaker 1: how important was that has that been in your life?

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Speaker 1: To have went to the military and the army capacity.

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Speaker 2: It was the most important thing, right, I mean, because

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Speaker 2: they taught me discipline. They taught me disciplined. It gave

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Speaker 2: me a purpose and a vision for my life. When

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Speaker 2: I was growing up in Mallas, South Carolina. I didn't.

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Speaker 2: I didn't have much. I didn't have much discipline, right,

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Speaker 2: I mean my mother was a very loving person, so

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Speaker 2: she she really did a lot of things for us.

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Speaker 2: I'll tell people I really wasn't. The military taught me

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Speaker 2: how to be a man. It put me around other

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Speaker 2: men and helped me to be able to grow and

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Speaker 2: to see the world in a different perspective. That's when

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Speaker 2: I started seeing the world differently. I started seeing that

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Speaker 2: I could achieve different things. If it wasn't for the military.

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Speaker 2: I don't think that any of this would have ever

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Speaker 2: happened for me.

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Speaker 1: Now that that's important for you to say, Tim, I'm

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Speaker 1: talking to Tim Mercer. He's a CFO of Cadence Ventures,

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Speaker 1: which is a boutique private equity firm that's investing in

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Speaker 1: private mortgage notes. Educate me now, when you said private

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Speaker 1: mortgage notes, what does that mean?

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Speaker 2: So think about like when you go buy a house, right,

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Speaker 2: you go to the bank and you get a loan, right,

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Speaker 2: That's that's actually a mortgage note. So it's a mortgage

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Speaker 2: enough most most of us think that the only people

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Speaker 2: that could and the bank is investing in that note.

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Speaker 2: So the bank gives you a loan for half a

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Speaker 2: million dollars to go buy the house. They you know,

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Speaker 2: you put a down payment, but you got a mortgage

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Speaker 2: that you have to pay back to the bank until

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Speaker 2: that that that that debt is satisfied with. Private mortgage

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Speaker 2: knows are the same thing, right you and I, all

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Speaker 2: of us can buy private mortgage notes. I do it.

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Speaker 2: If someone an investor wants to buy a house, maybe

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Speaker 2: a fix and flip, or he wants to buy a

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Speaker 2: house to to rent out, he has to get a

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Speaker 2: mortgage from someone. So they'll come to someone like me

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Speaker 2: privately to get a mortgage, the mortgage on it. I

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Speaker 2: will extend the money to them for for that property

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Speaker 2: and then they just pay me back a monthly interest.

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Speaker 2: You right, My money is protected by the asset because

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Speaker 2: I got because I got a lean on the property.

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Speaker 2: Pretty much the same thing the bank does. We do.

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Speaker 2: We can do the same thing as private individuals. And

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Speaker 2: that's what the private mortgage know.

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Speaker 3: It's but.

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Speaker 1: A special called fd I C that protects the bank.

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Speaker 2: Right where the fd I C is what fd I

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Speaker 2: see is the was what protects our money that sits

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Speaker 2: in the bank right right, you know, And and of

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Speaker 2: course fd I c they basically govern traditional banks, but

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Speaker 2: we're not traditional bank.

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Speaker 3: That's that I brought it up.

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Speaker 1: So so why am I doing business with you and

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Speaker 1: I don't have those famous for letters behind your company?

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Speaker 2: Well, because, for one, banks don't land on the type

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Speaker 2: of stuff that we land on. So if you if

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Speaker 2: you wanted to go and fix and flip.

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Speaker 1: A house right now, or my building that I own.

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Speaker 2: Well, well this building, well, this building, you would probably

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Speaker 2: get a loan in this building because you you your

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Speaker 2: business owns this building and you occupy it within your business.

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Speaker 2: So that's safe for the back.

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Speaker 1: Okay. Cool.

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Speaker 2: Now, if you own this building, if you own the

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Speaker 2: building and you was renting it out for someone else,

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Speaker 2: the bank probably wouldn't give you a loan for that

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Speaker 2: because that's more of an investment versus it being owner occupied,

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Speaker 2: right right, So it's a little more riskier for the

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Speaker 2: banks in that regard.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 2: So, so the bank would probably give you a hard

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Speaker 2: time doing that. So you would have to come to individuals,

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Speaker 2: private individuals. Private equity firms. Think about companies like black Rock, Vanguard,

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Speaker 2: and although those are private equity firms, they're just large

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Speaker 2: private equity firms, right, So we're private equity. Were just small.

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Speaker 1: Okay, okay, we're getting in the game. Yeah, in the

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Speaker 1: game now. In your book Bootstraped Millionaire, you know you're

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Speaker 1: talking about phases of being un entrepreneurs. You know, I'm

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Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. I can't tell you how many mistakes I made.

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Speaker 1: I tell them on my show all the time. I

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Speaker 1: didn't have a budget.

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 1: I went in have a plan or didn't know how

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Speaker 1: to scale. It was a comedy club open, a comedy club.

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Speaker 1: I figured I charged people ten dollars. They feel everyone

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Speaker 1: that had three hundred and seventy five seats sold liquor

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Speaker 1: didn't think about the tax I paid on the liquor.

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Speaker 1: It was a lot of things I didn't think about.

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Speaker 1: So I was deep in the game, going where's my money.

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Speaker 1: It was like I was working really hard, but I

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Speaker 1: was breaking even because I didn't put together a plan.

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Speaker 1: So I continue to say that I am a person

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Speaker 1: who made mistakes to my audience to let them know

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Speaker 1: that it's possible for you to make the same mistake

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Speaker 1: that I made if you don't listen to the right people.

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Speaker 1: I con consider you Tim one of the right people

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Speaker 1: to listen to. What are some of the phases of

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurship that you were discussing in your book, and also

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Speaker 1: some of the things you picked up since the book

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Speaker 1: has come out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean all of us start out, and for

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Speaker 2: sure you did too, as a solo preneurs. Yes, we're

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Speaker 2: in business for ourselves and by oursels, right, I mean

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Speaker 2: that's how it started out, a solopreneur, and that's great, right,

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Speaker 2: I mean that's you. You're just you're kind of just

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Speaker 2: doing this thing on your own. But then you start

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Speaker 2: to let I think that there's other phases of that, right.

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Speaker 2: I think that's one phase of entrepreneurship that a lot

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Speaker 2: of people don't focus on, is being an entrepreneur. An

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Speaker 2: entrepreneur is someone who works along as I right, that's right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's that's someone who works with entrepreneurs like yourself. Maybe.

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Speaker 2: So let's say, for me, I will come and work

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Speaker 2: with you in your business. Right, it's still your business,

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Speaker 2: but I'm an integral part of that, right, So I'm

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Speaker 2: bringing my talent and skills. I may be your employee,

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Speaker 2: but I'm an entrepreneur because I have the entrepreneur mindset.

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Speaker 2: But I'm just not gonna take all the risks that

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Speaker 2: you're taking right, okay in things that nature right. So

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Speaker 2: entrepreneurs are very can be very successful people. I mean

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Speaker 2: the with the gentleman that used to work with Bill Gates.

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Speaker 2: He he I think he used to own the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I think it's Bomber Bomber. I think the clippers, Yes,

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Speaker 2: that's he started out as an entrepreneur like he worked

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Speaker 2: with Bill Gates. Bill Gates took all the resks, but

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Speaker 2: he still became a very successful So so you have solopreneurs,

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Speaker 2: you have entrepreneurs, obviously, you have your small business owners.

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Speaker 2: And then the one that I like the best is

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Speaker 2: just being an investor.

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Speaker 1: About the word investor, hit the word investor, tip, I

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Speaker 1: hear the word money. Now, why are you gonna invest

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Speaker 1: you don't have no money?

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Speaker 2: Well, think about it. I mean if you if you,

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Speaker 2: I personally think that you can become a meionaire without this.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a myth when people feel that the

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Speaker 2: only way you become financially successful is being an entrepreneur.

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Speaker 2: I know a lot of people who work in work

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Speaker 2: for companies, work in corporate who have done very well

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Speaker 2: if they saved their money properly, properly got you mesa

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Speaker 2: dollars in assets and things that for one k's and all. So,

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Speaker 2: if I got a million dollars in the full one K,

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Speaker 2: if I know how to invest that money properly, think

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Speaker 2: about it. If I got a million dollars in the

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Speaker 2: full one K, and if I can invest it in

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Speaker 2: something that allows me to make ten percent a year

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Speaker 2: in a your return, all while preserving my principal, then

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Speaker 2: what I'm turning, I'm flipping that money over and over.

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Speaker 1: That famous words compound interest.

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Speaker 2: Who more?

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Speaker 1: If I known is exactly if I know? If I

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Speaker 1: compound interest, boy, I wouldn't be seeing that.

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Speaker 2: Talk with you.

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Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more

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Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making

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Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass

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Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making

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Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Speaker 3: That's where financial literature come from.

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Speaker 1: That's why it's important for people to open your book

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Speaker 1: and understand it's a journey. I like the fact that

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Speaker 1: you you share with us your journey, share the fact

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Speaker 1: that your mom was single. Mall. You know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing, there's nothing, there's no fluff. You know, there

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Speaker 1: was no golden spoon or opportunity to deliver to you.

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Speaker 1: That means that you're you are a person who served

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Speaker 1: in the military. But along the lines, how did you

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Speaker 1: make that transition? Because you the CFO of Cadence Ventures

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Speaker 1: and we're gonna get the government contracts in a minute,

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Speaker 1: because I remember when I saw it. I said, I

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Speaker 1: got to talk about that because of the fact that

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Speaker 1: you get all these emails talking about government contract com

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Speaker 1: contractors Sam Sam Sam from Sam Dota, Go get that

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Speaker 1: a minute. But I want to get to that moment

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Speaker 1: of transition that you felt that I was different.

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Speaker 3: It took me. It took me in my.

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Speaker 1: Forties to appreciate what I had accomplished because I used

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Speaker 1: the words like lucky, right place at the right time.

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Speaker 1: And I may have put too much in faith because

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Speaker 1: it's hard work is.

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Speaker 3: Tied to faith. Absolutely, So when did you realize it?

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Speaker 2: Well, my journey is and you probably read it in

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Speaker 2: the book. Right when when I first got out of

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Speaker 2: the military, I came back to Atlanta went to school

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Speaker 2: at the RITE and that's when I got into tech.

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Speaker 2: And this was at the time when the Internet and

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Speaker 2: all that type of stuff was just coming out, right,

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Speaker 2: And so I ended up getting a skill, right and

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Speaker 2: that and that at that time, it was tech skills.

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Speaker 2: So I truly believe everything starts with a skill, right,

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Speaker 2: getting a valuable skill that somebody would pay money for.

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Speaker 2: And I started working at the height of the tech boom,

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Speaker 2: started working and made a lot of money at that

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Speaker 2: point in time, and of course at that time, I

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Speaker 2: really didn't know what to do with them. And I

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Speaker 2: actually saved a million dollars. I mean literally had saved

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Speaker 2: a million dollars cash and this was like late nineties.

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Speaker 2: Didn't really know what to do with it because I

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Speaker 2: was illiterate, right, and financially, financially literally, that's why financially

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Speaker 2: literal ended up and I lost it all, right, I

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Speaker 2: lost all the money after me and my wife had

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Speaker 2: got married and all that type of stuff. It just

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Speaker 2: everything just went downhill. But that taught me a great lesson.

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Speaker 2: That's when that's when I realized that, Okay, you know,

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Speaker 2: I was able to make that money back then. The

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Speaker 2: only thing I have now to do is I got

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Speaker 2: to go back to the roots of what got me

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Speaker 2: there and start all over again and build it back

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Speaker 2: up again. And fortunately I was able to do that. Right,

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Speaker 2: you know, several years later, that's when it became to

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Speaker 2: me and realized there's a Bible speaks to the point

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Speaker 2: where they says God has given you the ability to create. Well,

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Speaker 2: that's when that became real for me. Yeah. Right, that's

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Speaker 2: when it became.

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Speaker 1: You know the interesting part about it. You know there

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Speaker 1: are different phrases because I'm going through that same thing.

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Speaker 1: I had to twenty twenty three, I had to make

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Speaker 1: a layoff staff. Yep, because when I realized the plan

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Speaker 1: that I in place, I was just losing money. That's

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Speaker 1: you know, the savings was going this way. The income

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Speaker 1: wasn't going That's why the savings was going shrinking. And

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Speaker 1: that's a tough decisions. That's probably the most honest point

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Speaker 1: that you have to make from being a person who

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Speaker 1: has turned the corner realized their flaw or being homeless. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it is a point where you have to humble yourself

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Speaker 1: and realize that you have the publicly admit you're failing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of.

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Speaker 1: People don't do that, whether in personal life or as entrepreneurs,

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Speaker 1: talk about that moment of realizing that this plan is failing.

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Speaker 1: How do I admit it and know how I turn

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Speaker 1: it around?

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Speaker 2: It's a matter we all have to pivot, right. You

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Speaker 2: had to pivot in twenty twenty three. Right in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty a lot of people probably ran into a lot

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Speaker 2: of things with everybody. I think as entrepreneurs or if

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Speaker 2: you in business or in high professional you have to.

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Speaker 2: You're going to have to pivot sooner, like something is

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Speaker 2: going to happen in your life that's going to cause

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Speaker 2: a shift. Right. You know, good days don't always last

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Speaker 2: all the time. That it's peaks in valleys, right, So

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Speaker 2: when you go into those peaks, you have to be

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Speaker 2: mindful and tell yourself. At least I had to tell myself, Okay,

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Speaker 2: I now have to adjust to this. I may have

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Speaker 2: to change. I may have to realize that I'm going

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Speaker 2: to have to give up some things. I remember me

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Speaker 2: and my wife we had to give up our home

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Speaker 2: right because we were in a situation where we were

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Speaker 2: about to get foreclosing. We had to go by a

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Speaker 2: smaller home, and I had to bring down my salary

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Speaker 2: to accommodate me being able to pay for that smaller home.

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Speaker 2: Leave the big fancy house, go to the smaller home.

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Speaker 2: But that was what we had to do to be

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Speaker 2: able to reset. So I just think we have to

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Speaker 2: be humble enough to know that that's the word to

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Speaker 2: keep work.

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Speaker 1: Because arrogance, you let arrogance win. You're homeless. Yes, you know,

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Speaker 1: humble will allow you to sit back and take a breath, Yes,

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Speaker 1: and also be able to evaluate yes, Because I'll tell

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Speaker 1: you when COVID hit the twenty twenty, I ignored it.

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Speaker 1: You know, I had money in the bank. You know

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Speaker 1: I had employees running up and down, and you know

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Speaker 1: you weren't wasn't nobody making money in COVID, But I

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Speaker 1: still was paying people instead of saying, hey, lay off

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Speaker 1: people because the government's going to take care of these people.

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Speaker 3: I layoff.

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Speaker 1: But arrogance, then, the blindness of arrogance was on me

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Speaker 1: and I That's why I was That's why I wanted

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Speaker 1: to bring you on the show to be able to

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Speaker 1: have this conversation, because you can't have this conversation with everybody,

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Speaker 1: because that moment of being able to testify this is

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Speaker 1: some more to testifying the people that I've experienced experienced

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Speaker 1: it this way, you've experienced it another way and gets whey.

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Speaker 1: Guess what the key to it was not let arrogance

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Speaker 1: win talk to it.

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Speaker 2: I like that. Yeah, yeah, because arrogance, I mean what

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Speaker 2: those things that pride comes before the fall, right, You've

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Speaker 2: heard that before? Yeah, And I truly believe it, pride

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Speaker 2: becomes before the fall. I remember when I was the

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Speaker 2: first time I had was doing had to achieve financial success,

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Speaker 2: I became arrogant. I remember my wife would tell me,

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Speaker 2: she was like, look, you're getting a little too too

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Speaker 2: arrogant for yourself. And and that's what led to my

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Speaker 2: my demise, right, because she things that I was doing financially,

435
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:25,560
Speaker 2: decisions that I'm making about investments. She would tell me

436
00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:29,399
Speaker 2: that I should question those things. But I felt arrogant

437
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:32,440
Speaker 2: and felt, well, you know, I know what I'm doing.

438
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:37,919
Speaker 2: And so that humbled me to where I'm today. I mean,

439
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 2: I trust me, I've I've been humbled to the point

440
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:44,200
Speaker 2: where I know now that hey, look, you you can't

441
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:50,479
Speaker 2: trust just yourself, right, ible said, lean lean on God's understanding, right,

442
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:52,800
Speaker 2: And that's what I believe in now, is that hey, look,

443
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,440
Speaker 2: that's why I pray every morning and make sure that hey, look,

444
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,119
Speaker 2: God come to me watch my blind side because I

445
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 2: can't see. But on on blind side I need to.

446
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 2: You know, especially in business, you just don't know what's

447
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:08,280
Speaker 2: coming down the road and you need that protection. So yeah,

448
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,280
Speaker 2: I mean it gonna be this. You know they're gonna

449
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 2: be this type interview. Did you tell me that's true? Yeah?

450
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I've been blessed man because I can

451
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 1: sit up here and have these conversations and and uh,

452
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:24,400
Speaker 1: God just putting me in a position to be able

453
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:29,000
Speaker 1: to accommodate information that I'm receiving and then sharing it.

454
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 4: You know.

455
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:32,679
Speaker 1: But one question before I get to the government contract,

456
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:34,720
Speaker 1: what exactly is Caden's venture?

457
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:38,440
Speaker 2: So Kayden sventure's again small private equity group. Me and

458
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,719
Speaker 2: my wife started his company a few years ago because

459
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 2: we started realizing that when we get older sixty five,

460
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 2: we're not gonna have a retirement. Well we know, so

461
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 2: security is't gonna be there for us. Right. My wife

462
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:55,200
Speaker 2: had some money in a four to one k with

463
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:59,440
Speaker 2: the current with previous imployeries she had, and it took

464
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,639
Speaker 2: me some time, but you know, I kind of convinced her.

465
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 2: I said, listen, let's let's take the money out of

466
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 2: the four and k let's start this business use as

467
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 2: a seed, and let's start a a financial company where

468
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 2: we start lending money to real estate investors. That's that's

469
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 2: really what the whole, the whole premise came about. I said, look,

470
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,639
Speaker 2: we can lend money to real estate investors. We can

471
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,120
Speaker 2: help them get their projects off the ground. Our money

472
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 2: is safe because we can collaborterize our money with the

473
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 2: projects that they're doing, and we can get a better

474
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:34,960
Speaker 2: return than what we're getting by leaving it in the

475
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 2: stock market, because of the stock market is up and

476
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:40,160
Speaker 2: down for that, right. And that's what we started doing.

477
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,960
Speaker 2: And I mean, I mean, since we've been doing I've

478
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:47,000
Speaker 2: probably grown her portfolio probably about twenty five percent a year,

479
00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:50,400
Speaker 2: you know what, you know, just investing it into real

480
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:51,960
Speaker 2: estate projects, you know.

481
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 1: Because you just CFO of case, that's right, Yeah, yeah.

482
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,560
Speaker 2: Investing in real estate projects. And so now you know,

483
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 2: we we did that for a couple of years, just

484
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:04,880
Speaker 2: with our own money. But it was very difficult because obviously,

485
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,360
Speaker 2: you know, our money would get stuck in these projects

486
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 2: for six months, twelve months and things of that nature.

487
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,560
Speaker 2: But then when we learned. We eventually learned how to

488
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 2: start you know, selling the selling the mortgage notes. Right,

489
00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:18,520
Speaker 2: so we so we would you know, we sell those

490
00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 2: marketing notes to insurance companies, right because they'll they'll buy

491
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,680
Speaker 2: the mortgage notes from us at a premium, right, And

492
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,639
Speaker 2: so it allows us now to just keep taking that

493
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 2: same capital stack.

494
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,639
Speaker 3: Right and just keep rotating right now.

495
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: You know, when I saw your information come to me, Tim,

496
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:41,879
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Tim uh CFO for Cadence Ventures. It

497
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,440
Speaker 1: was talking about government contract and more. I get so

498
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 1: mad when I see stuff by government contry because you

499
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 1: get a thousand emails and by sam dot government. It's free.

500
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,959
Speaker 1: You don't have to pay anybody to upload your information

501
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: on sam dot go. But they have these contracts. These

502
00:25:58,040 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: emails come through, say pay me a fee, pay me.

503
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: Do you have all these other people talking about how

504
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 1: easy it is to do business, talk.

505
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 3: About all these millions and millions of dollars.

506
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,520
Speaker 1: That you can make with government contracts. I'm not saying

507
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: as a scam, but it's not easy. It's not talk

508
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: about the process. Everybody's process is different. Because I have

509
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:19,920
Speaker 1: experience with it, That's why I was excited when I

510
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:22,720
Speaker 1: email I said, can we talk about how did you

511
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 1: get involved with government contracts?

512
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 2: So I got involved in government contract in twenty twelve.

513
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 2: I was this was coming off the back end of

514
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 2: me losing all the money, trying to find my way,

515
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:39,680
Speaker 2: trying to get my way back into business. And as

516
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,239
Speaker 2: actually I was working on a contract with a good

517
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:43,920
Speaker 2: friend of mine who kind of helped me to get

518
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 2: back into it because I had gotten out of it

519
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 2: for for many years. Good friend of mine kind of

520
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 2: helped me get back in. We was doing some international

521
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,400
Speaker 2: work and I would come back home because my wife

522
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 2: was still here in Atlanta, but her girlfriend was telling

523
00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 2: her about government contracts, and so I just started looking

524
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 2: into it. I didn't know much about it, and started

525
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 2: looking into it and started learning about it. Georgia Tech

526
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 2: has a great program called GT pack that that kind

527
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 2: of teaches people for free how to get involved. Free.

528
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 2: Yeah free, that's real.

529
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 3: Yeah it's free.

530
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 2: But I'm telling you it is. Government contracting is very complex.

531
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 2: It's very complex. It's very a lot of compliance. You

532
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 2: gotta DoPT your eyes across your t's And the first

533
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 2: thing I did is I got into the eight eight program.

534
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you've probably heard of the SBAA

535
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 2: a program.

536
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 1: Right, that's when you make under two hundred and fifty thousand.

537
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta have, yes, sir, yes, a

538
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 2: certain threashold. Yeah, But the program was designed to help

539
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:43,440
Speaker 2: small businesses minority on small businesses scale up right, that

540
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 2: can call it a development program. So I got in

541
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 2: that program. But I'm tell you, the first couple of

542
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 2: years I was in the program, I didn't I didn't

543
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 2: make any money, right because I didn't know how to

544
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 2: do government contract And it took me about three and

545
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:58,560
Speaker 2: a half almost four years. Now I was in just

546
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 2: a nine year program. So for the first three to

547
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 2: four years, I'm just trying to figure out how to

548
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:06,639
Speaker 2: do this thing right because there was no one that

549
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,679
Speaker 2: could was telling us other than like I said, GT. Packing.

550
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 2: But you know there's a lot of its theory, right, yes, yeah,

551
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 2: So it took trial and error, I mean, but STAKES

552
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:20,600
Speaker 2: made money loss the whole nine to really learn it.

553
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 2: But when I started learning how to leverage the eight

554
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,959
Speaker 2: eight program in knowing how to work with the government.

555
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 2: Then a few years later, I think it was like

556
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:34,400
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, that's when things started changing for me. But yeah,

557
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 2: the government contract. It can be very lucrative, but I

558
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 2: will say it is a very difficult space to navigate

559
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 2: if you don't know how to do it.

560
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 1: Got to be persistent, you got to be patient. Yes,

561
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 1: and got it like you said, gotch across your teach absolutely,

562
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 1: because once you get the opportunity what a contract, you

563
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 1: gotta have your eys doted and your teas cross absolutely,

564
00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 1: because they will come at you for an audience. Absolutely,

565
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 1: and that's important that you understand that. You know, I

566
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:01,040
Speaker 1: want to thank you Jim for coming on.

567
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 2: The show man.

568
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 3: Believe me, it was.

569
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 1: It was a friendly interview from a standpoint of we'll

570
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:12,560
Speaker 1: like minded people who have stumbled yes okay, and and

571
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: we've admitted on money making conversations master class that you

572
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 1: like Like I said, uh, you know you can fallow,

573
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: well you can get up.

574
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, we fall down and we get up. Okay, that's right.

575
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 2: Uh and uh.

576
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: Dony mcclarkin's famous song game out now I think about

577
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: two thousand, two thousand one. But the bottom line and

578
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,400
Speaker 1: writing Bootstrapped Millionaire, what you want to do? What you

579
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 1: want to leave my audience with?

580
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 2: I would like the audience to understand that Again, if

581
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 2: someone like me a country boy South Carolina didn't have

582
00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, mentors anything like that. Right.

583
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 2: I think that if you focus and and and really

584
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 2: truly want to achieve financial success, I think that you

585
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 2: just gotta you gotta lock in, right, you know. I

586
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 2: think first of all, we have to.

587
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 3: Get a skill, right.

588
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 2: I mean, and I almost like I was telling my

589
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 2: nephew this, right, I'll be talking now, say, first you

590
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 2: got to get a skill, right, because you got to

591
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 2: have something to monetize.

592
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 4: Right.

593
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 2: You get a skill, learn that skill, work that skill,

594
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 2: and you don't necessarily have to go out and be

595
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur.

596
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 4: Right.

597
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,840
Speaker 2: You can work within corporations or work with other business owners,

598
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 2: help them to scale and grow. But you're learning at

599
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 2: that point in time knowing how to save money, which

600
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 2: is very important, right, and then learn how to invest

601
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 2: and grow the money. It's really it's really a three

602
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,720
Speaker 2: simple step process, right, the skill to earn, saving money

603
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,880
Speaker 2: so that you can invest, but then learning in what

604
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,720
Speaker 2: to invest in. And I think if people put that

605
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 2: focus in doing those things and become more financial literary,

606
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 2: I think that we all can achieve what we're looking for.

607
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: Thanks thanks for the financial literature, brother, I love it

608
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: on money Making Conversation.

609
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 2: My Pleasure, My pleasure.

610
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,959
Speaker 1: This has been another dish of money Making Conversation Masterclass

611
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: hosted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests

612
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 1: on the show today and thank you for listening to

613
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 1: audience now. If you want to listen to any episode

614
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 1: I want to be a guest on the show, visit

615
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.

616
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: Join us next week and remember to always leave with

617
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: your gifts.

618
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 4: Keep winning.