CORWYN:

Don’t let fear or limited knowledge stop you. Multifamily is more accessible than you think, guys, and it can transform your family’s future. 

Good morning, good morning, guys, and great morning. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, if you don’t know who I am, I’m about to tell you. I’m your host, Corwyn J. Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Low Country Group and beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. If this is your first time listening to this show, you, sir or ma’am, are in for a treat because our mission here is very simple. That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education, guys, real legacy building. That’s what we do. Gotta give a shout always faithfully to our listeners. Gotta thank Elder Pastor Evans, Vanderbilt Evans Sr. Because that guy will jack me up. He will snatch me up like I’m nothing if I don’t get that senior on that name. So I appreciate you. You know, I love you guys immensely. My mom out there in Monkey’s Corner, y’all, and everybody back to Hollywood was no good. And even my folks in the MnM, Mary Mullins, guys, I love you and appreciate you so much for tuning in. So look, today’s show, you get the opportunity on occasion, right? They say that when you get to sit at the teacher’s feet and get to take in everything that they pour into you, but you also get to experience everything that they take in as well. That is what true learning is. And I’m very fortunate today to have someone who is a leader and we’re gonna call him a teacher today in this space about multifamily. He is a real estate entrepreneur and the entrepreneur thing sometimes will get the best of you, but he is yet holding on with over 30 years in the business, licensed broker and investor with over 300 units managed across multiple states. He is known for teaching investors how to overcome fear, raise capital and confidently move transition, if you will, into multifamily deals. So I don’t wanna do a drum roll. We got a platinum carpet in the back. So we’re gonna go ahead and grab that and make sure we get that out as we introduce none other than Mr. Ashley Garner. He is the founder of ABG Multifamily. That is what he does. So Ashley, thank you so much for taking time out to be on the show with us today, man. How are you? 

ASHLEY:

Hey, Corwyn, I’m great. And I must tell you that that is my all-time favorite introduction that I’ve ever had. I appreciate that. 

CORWYN:

Well, look, we appreciate that. Just so you know, I’m available for hire. If you ever need me to jump to the stage or something. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, I like it. Good. So look, let me set the hook right here, Ashley, and just kind of get into this conversation. For our listeners, guys, too many aspiring investors stop short of multifamily because they think it’s out of reach. And it’s funny, I just talked about this yesterday. Ashley, you’re going to show us today how to break through those barriers and start where you are and build a legacy, if you will, one deal at a time. If you don’t mind, let’s talk about it. Give our listeners a high-level overview, Ashley, of who you are and what you do. Man, you got it. 

ASHLEY:

So first of all, thanks for this opportunity. I love the mission that you have with the financial literacy and educating others and legacy building. That’s close to my personal heart. And so I love the chance to be here. I grew up kind of in this business, but in a very mom-and-pop fashion. So when I was in junior high and high school, my dad started buying large houses near the campus of West Virginia University, and then we would internally subdivide them into apartment units and then rent them out to students. And we actually still own lots of those places today. Unfortunately, my dad is not well. He’s still with us, but he’s pretty far down the road of Alzheimer’s and not down to take a detour, but he bought those houses, you know, was that 35-some years ago? And now those houses are paying for his care. We wouldn’t be able to afford to care for him if it wasn’t for that. So it’s just one of the many, many reasons to pursue investing in real estate because it really can change your life. So I grew up in that literally with a hammer in my hand, and I was doing the stuff, the plumbing, the construction, the renovation, all of it. And it went then to the financing and the acquisition and the management and all those types of things. So then when I got on my own career, you know, when I got to be adult age, if you will, and I got my broker’s license back in 1994, I’ve always been in the real estate industry in one form or fashion. Like when I was in college, I drew floor plans for a real estate appraiser. I’ve always been in that arena. So I got my career going with residential brokerage, kind of like you. I have a small team of people that works for me on a small scale. And it is a wonderful career. It was a fabulous opportunity. I loved every day of it. But I still realized that even though it wasn’t like a W-2 job where I had to go clock in, that if I didn’t show up, take a shower, comb my hair, make my phone calls, write my handwritten notes, do my open houses, then I didn’t make any money. It’s still a job. And what happened to me was I started buying single family rentals, duplexes and triplexes and in pursuit of that financial freedom. And it was working. I read all the books. I studied this stuff like crazy. And it’s working. So I’m thinking now like, all right, I like this stuff. I want to do more of it. And so my financial freedom goal kind of increased. I said, well, if I want to live the lifestyle I want to live without having to clock in, if you will, then I need more units. So I’m going to have to somehow get bigger. So I bought my first one, which was a 10 unit apartment building. And that was in 2013. And in 2013, when I bought that building, that might as well have been a New York City skyscraper to me because it was such a big difference from what I had ever done before. And I remember being scared to death. And so I got that one and then things went real well. And I didn’t buy one for a while. I was kind of still doing my brokerage business. And then in 2017, I guess God had a different plan because I had Monday morning on August 14th, I had a heart attack and cardiac arrest. They had to shock me back five different times that day. And I guess I wasn’t ready to go. I wasn’t finished yet. And it’s because I’m still here. But here’s where the reason I tell you that is because it was at that time when I was kind of in my mental and physical recovery for a couple months that I realized that my real estate investments were that’s what my family was living on. And had it not been for that, I wasn’t making any money. I wasn’t selling any houses. And that’s what kept me going. So it really then proved to me the power of having this, the income from the rentals. And that’s when I decided to try to take it a little bit bigger, even. 

CORWYN:

Let’s take a short break. 

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CORWYN:

So Ashley, thank you for sharing that because you just touched on a number of things that, again, I just had this conversation yesterday with a very close friend of mine, I consider him to be my brother, and just, hey, what’s the plan? How are we going to do this? How you need to get this done? Down the road, he’s a little bit younger than me, but getting to that, I’m going to say this, I’ve not said this on air before, but I’m going to say this because I’ve been internally having this 20 by 10 conversation. 20 new doors over the next 10 years, producing a minimum cash flow per door, if you will. The short of it is getting to where you’re, what you’re talking about, which is that when you age out or aging out or whatever, that you’ve set yourself so that this industry and as an entrepreneur doesn’t give you retirement. You got to build it. That’s right. I don’t want to go too far into the weeds, but because we, I want to make sure we keep this relevant with our audience. So if our audience, please bear with us. But one of the things that I imagine, you said this, so let’s start with a fear. Let’s start with a fear. Okay. How did you overcome it? And what do you tell people that, let’s say they’re mom and pop, onesie, twosie, you know, they got one or two doors, single family houses, townhouse, condo, whatever that may be, scattered site, whatever. And now it’s time, look, for us to really look at transitioning. How do you tell them over? What do you suggest? Let’s go. Gotcha. 

ASHLEY:

Well, I sometimes take for granted that everybody knows real estate as well as I do because it’s all I’ve ever done, right? I think to myself, well, why don’t you just do more of that? But then when you talk, you realize, well, people think that there’s a difference between a duplex and a single family, or it’s more complicated now because we call it commercial real estate or because I can’t go get a regular mortgage from a mortgage banker. I got to go to a local bank or something or start an LLC. So in other words, it adds this layer of complexity, I think, but what it really is just more of the same thing you’re already doing. If you have a onesie or a twosie, a threesie or a foursie is no different except it has four doors instead of two. And that’s what I try to help people understand that it’s the same closing worksheet that when you buy it, it’s the same attorney. You could sit right in the same seat in the same attorney’s office and buy that four-unit property the same way you could buy that one-unit property. And so, yes, there are differences, of course, the different terminology are slightly different when you borrow money or whatever, but it’s all basically the same. And at some point, you can read all the books, you can watch all the podcasts, but at some point, you just got to take the step and give it a go. And if your numbers, I know that you help people understand the math of it all. If the math works, then give it a go. At some point, it’s just taking a dive off the high dive. You got to hold your nose and go or you never get there. 

CORWYN:

Yeah, you ain’t swimming on land. Right. If you’re going to swim, that means eventually you got to get in the water. So you touched on something else in there that just I think makes sense. We overcomplicate it. So we make it more complicated because what I heard you say, you sign the same docs to buy four as you do to buy one. Ain’t like you got to sign four times. You’re going to get writer’s cramp from, if you will. No, it’s the same thing. Yeah. So let’s talk about how you get in. So you made mention of the doors and the industry. Thank you for that point. We sometimes everybody thinks and understands it like we do. What are some options for people to get in? Because people looking at, OK, well, look, I can come up with a loan for to buy this, but getting to this is way more expensive. And how do I get there? So what are some ways and strategies that you would either used or otherwise advise people on how to get that done? 

ASHLEY:

Yeah, well, I’ll tell you that when you’re a hustler, when you’re like, you go out and find a deal and create an opportunity, other people want to be a part of that. And what I mean is this. It took me a long time between my one like duplexes and triplexes to get that 10 unit property. And I look back and I wish it hadn’t taken me so long. And I say, well, why did it take me so long? And I feel like there’s two reasons. One was that fear that I had. I just was it took me a while to convince myself to do it. But the other one was the money. And I thought I had to save up all the money all by myself. And it was not just saving enough, but it was saving enough that if I lost it all, I wouldn’t put my family out on the street. And so those two things took me a long time. Now, since then, I have realized that it didn’t have to be that way, that other people would join in with me and take advantage of my hard work. And what I mean by that is this. The next unit I bought after the 10 unit place was a 32 unit place. So it wasn’t three times as big. And it was about five years after that. But I got it. I found it. I got it under contract. And then I went to the bank and said, all right, how much money can I borrow? And they said, all right, you can borrow this. Turns out I needed $350,000 to buy it. Well, I mean, it might as well have been $350 billion because I didn’t have it. And to me, that sounded like more money than I could ever imagine. And so I called one of my friends, somebody I had known a long time ago, and life has been good to him. And I said, hey, I found this property. Would you like to invest in it with me? You go in with me. Initially set out to do is like, all right, I’m going to raise $50,000 from seven different people. And now I got my $350,000. When I called him and told him about this deal and shared the numbers, he’s like, yeah, I think I’d be interested in that. And I said, okay, well, how much do you think you would like to put in? He said, well, if we did it, I think we just would do it all. And I was like, whoa, what? I make one phone call and now I got all the money. And what I’ve come to realize then is not that he wasn’t doing me a favor. He wasn’t trying to help me out of a tight spot. I was trying to, I was presenting him with an opportunity that was good for him. And now we all win. 

CORWYN:

I love it. So, so that that’s the thing. Cause you’re looking at our approach sometimes in that situation, what I just heard, and I’m going to echo it because I get it. You’re thinking, well, I need help with this. But really and truly what you’re doing is offering opportunity to somebody else. So, hey, look, you gonna make some money. I’m gonna make some money and, and we’ll keep doing this and continue to make more. So that brings me to the cap stack. So what you talked about a syndicate, syndicating or getting either one or two or however many more people to bring money in to show you up. So then you can either, either you can leverage it with the bank for the balance and, or you can bring all the cash in necessary to put the whole deal together. What strategies do you normally employ? I mean, you guys look at, or do you kind of employ them all? We’ve talked about Burr here on the show. The cap stack is important. And if you’re going to do a Burr method, getting in, stabilizing the property, refinancing the cash back out and going somewhere else with it. That’s huge. So what does that normally look like for you as far as trying to put together, if you will, the cap stack? 

ASHLEY:

Well, one of my favorite things about this business is, you can make it look however you want. And there’s no, like in residential, there’s a standard form for everything. And this kind of stuff, you just create your own way. And so I’ve done a lot of them. The Burr method is one of my favorites. In fact, that 10 unit place I told you about, I think I’ve cashed out, refinanced that thing three times now. And that, the money, the equity that I have taken out of that place has bought me millions of dollars of real estate that I’ve used that cash to go as the down payment on something else. And I’ve owned that, then I’ve sold that and bought something else with it. And it just keeps going. And that’s, when you get into that, that’s really where it’s mind-blowing, the power of this real estate investment. It really is a special, powerful tool. So I like the Burr method. I’ve got, then I’ve just got straight partnerships, kind of 50-50 partnerships where I found the deal and the other person put in the money and we go half. I’ve done the syndication model where I’ve been the general partner and I own a smaller percentage of, in this case, 40%. And then the limited partner investors own 60%. I’ve done syndication that on a bigger scale that was where the general partners own 20% and the limited partners own 80%. I’ve kind of done it in all kinds of different ways. 

CORWYN:

I love that because what you said in there is oftentimes we find limitation where opportunity exists. So what you literally have done is you get the first deal done and then from that point on, technically you’re playing with house money, so to speak. There you go. You get your, however you do when you’re playing and sitting with house money. And sometimes we as investors, new investors, we miss that because in our mind it is, the objective is to pay off the debt, right? But if you leverage the debt into additional property, then for an investor, oftentimes it’s about cashflow. So if I can leverage the debt and get into more properties, more doors, if one, I’m lowering my risk by going to more doors because if I got one door and it goes vacant, I’m toast, right? If I got 50 doors and one goes vacant, we got 49 more. So how do you have this conversation? Because I mean this, you talked about it in the beginning, your dad, prayers for him, you and the family because I can’t imagine what you guys going through. But dad had the vision early and looked down the road. So how do you have these conversations or this conversation with other potential investors about, hey, this side of this thing works, this is why you should do it. This was because you just shared your experience, your dad, as well as your own personal, how they can structure this for the long term, essentially our legacy piece. What does that look like? 

ASHLEY:

I think that’s a tough conversation because everybody has that desire to be safe and secure and to leave something for the future and know that their finances are going to be okay no matter what happens. But sometimes it seems like it’s such a big mountain to climb. Where do I even start, man? I can’t, I buy one little house, what’s that going to do for me? And you buy one house and you rent it out and maybe you make $200 a month cash flow from it. And that’s a lot of money, but it’s not going to leave a legacy for your kids, right? But what the real power of it is, is that you get in and that you can do it and that it does work and then you get interested in it and you learn more and more and then you start hanging around people like Corwyn and you talk real estate and shop and then it just grows from there. To me, that’s the real power of it is to get started. And once you get started and you start hearing more people like me and you talking all the time and hearing our experiences, then that’s how you get to that next level. I don’t know. See, I’m not even close to being the smartest person in the room and I know I’m not the smartest person on this radio podcast right now. But what I realized also is I see other people out there doing this and being successful. And I’m like, man, that guy, I’m not ripping on him, but I know he’s not that much smarter than me. And if he can do it, I know I can do it. And so it’s more it’s the action that separates most people. It’s taking the action that it is having the knowledge. Most people have more knowledge than they’ll let themselves believe. It’s just that you got to walk in in that day and say, all right, I’m going to do this and not give up. Time goes fast, man. Five years goes by in the blink of an eye. And if you’ve owned a rental property, for five years and you look back and now it’s double in value, that’s pretty powerful. But if you don’t do it at all, five years goes by and you’re right back where you started. 

CORWYN:

It makes perfect sense. So what you hovered on right there was mindset. And we talk about that on the show a lot, Ashley, about people and their mindset. How do they do things and their motivation and their commitment, level of commitment. But one of the other things that goes with that is you talk about the room. As I framed it yesterday, and you’ve heard this, your circle is either a circle or a cage. The people that are in it and the people that you spend your time with and that you glean and lean to and from is either a circle or a cage. And you’ve got to make sure that you focus on that. So education. And let’s kind of get to the wrap on this piece. Education. When I say that word to you in this field, in this space that you operate in, what does that resound for you? What does that mean for you? 

ASHLEY:

Well, I think it’s easier. You know, it used to mean when I was starting out, it used to mean reading a lot of books. And I would read whatever book I could get my hands on and learn the math and the terminology and things like that. So I felt comfortable. So I didn’t feel like I was sounding stupid in front of people talking about it or asking questions. And then nowadays, it’s so much easier to educate yourself, which you can go on YouTube and basically take a whole college course on real estate finance and multifamily or whatever, just right on YouTube. But I listen to a lot of podcasts like yours and other people’s. I do a lot of, you know, I’m always running a spreadsheet or looking online how to run, how to calculate this or try to learn about the 1% rule or all these other things that investors will learn about. So I think education is easier now than it’s ever been. I also have been participant in local real estate investment associations through my being a broker. I was kind of always around the real estate, but by the way, on that one, I know a lot of brokers because that’s what I do, right? So I spend a lot of time educating residential brokers on how, because like you said before, as entrepreneurs, we don’t have a retirement, a 401k. There’s none of that. And I was like, look, guys, when you hang up your real estate license one day, either because you got sick or you just didn’t want to work anymore, I said, you stop selling houses, then guess what? You make zero more money. And so you need to do something like this to take care of yourself and your family. And even people that are in the business of real estate think that have a hard time making that transfer into owning an investment for yourself. When we help other people all the time with their closing statements and their inspections and all these things, and it is exactly the same to buy an investment property as it is to help a client buy a residential house. 

CORWYN:

So let me ask you this, and I’m going to ask this as, one, let me get your information out. So as our listeners reach out to you, quote unquote, to come subscribe to sit at the feet of the teacher. 

ASHLEY:

Yeah, I think the easiest way is just to go to our website, which is abgmultifamily.com. And once you get on there, you can find phone numbers and emails and LinkedIn and Instagram and all that stuff. But it’s abgmultifamily.com. 

CORWYN:

Awesome. Awesome. I sometimes like to frame this as that hindsight question, which is if you had to do this thing all over again, knowing what you know now, I’m pretty sure I know what your response might be. But if you had to do this thing over, what would you have done differently? 

ASHLEY:

I would realize that I didn’t have to do it all by myself. Growing up in this business, like I said, a very mom and pop hands on. My dad was like, look, if we need to paint the house, then grab a paintbrush. If you need to type up a lease, then grab your typewriter. So I got that mindset of doing everything myself. I carried that on to thinking that I had to raise all the money by myself and I had to do the whole transaction all by myself. And that kept me smaller than I could have been had I said, hey, Corwyn, I found a property. Would you like to go in half with me? I don’t have all the money, but I found it. It’s a good deal. Would you like to be a partner? And had I done that sooner, I feel like I could have gotten farther down the road sooner. 

CORWYN:

I like that. I like it. That’s real, Ashley. That’s real. So I want to thank you for taking time out today to be on the show with us, man. And most importantly, for your insights and for telling the story, man, because it’s a very common story. I know you see it because you’ve lived it. I know you see it repeatedly as you seek to educate others on how they too can transform their lives. So I appreciate you taking time. 

ASHLEY:

Yes, sir. It’s a great opportunity. I appreciate it. Keep doing what you’re doing. Thank you. Thank you. 

CORWYN:

Now for our listeners, guys, look here, let me give you your action item. You’ll take away what you can go do outside or going outside just to play. Guys, look here. Don’t let fear or limited knowledge stop you. Multifamily is more accessible than you think, guys, and it can transform your family’s future. So I want you guys to take that with you and do something with it. Don’t let it fall, quote unquote, as a pastor will say at times, not let it fall on deaf ears. Let it be heard. Let it be worked upon. Guys, you know how I feel. You know what I say. You know, I always put the two of those things that I give it to you this way, which is to tell you that I love you. I love you. And we got to see you guys out there in those streets. 

CORWYN:

Our show is about solutions. We got questions, but we need answers. So today we have the answer to this particular dilemma. So let’s say you spent years building well, either through real estate or your business or combinations thereof. And in that scenario, you don’t want to leave your legacy just a chance, whether you own a single business rental or properties or portfolio businesses, what happens next should not be by, or is oftentimes not by design, it’s by default. And we want to fix that. So today’s episode is all about protecting what you built and ensuring it benefits the next generation on your turn. 

Good morning. Great morning guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of the Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I’m your host. Corwy J Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Low Country Group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. Yeah, that’s where we at. We down here in this crock pot. If y’all know what I’m talking about, we down here cooking, but look here guys, we’re off to an amazing start today to a fabulous episode, and I cannot stress to you enough guys, make sure you’re buckled in strap and that you tie yourself down. Cause there’s going to be a lot of great information going by you today. And we want you in a position that you’re able to gravitate, that you’re able to grab on to it and hold on to it because it’s going to be relevant to you and your future endeavors. Guys, we want you in place. We don’t want you to get away. I want you to fly away. We want you to get this information. So for our listeners that listen to it faithfully guys, you know what our mission here is about is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. Shout out to those who listened to us all the way from muddy Mullins, all the way back down to Hollywood, what you know, no good. I’m mom in between there y’all and monkey’s corner and elder and pastor Evans that listened to us faithfully. You guys rock. I really appreciate you. And y’all know that I love you. So look here, I’m going to pose this because our show is about solutions. We got questions, but we need answers. So today we have the answer to this particular dilemma. So let’s say you spent years building well, either through real estate or your business or combinations thereof. And in that scenario, you don’t want to leave your legacy. Just a chance, whether you own a single business rental or properties or portfolio businesses, what happens next should not be by, or is oftentimes not by designers by default. We’re going to fix that. So today’s episode is all about protecting what you built and ensuring it benefits the next generation on your turn. So the answer to that is none other than Kevon Sabre. Now Kevon is like the guy, right? Cause he is a co-founder. That means he was there at the beginning of legacy outcomes. So Kevon, welcome to the show. Corwyn, so glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Well, you’re quite welcome. Quite welcome. Now look here, I’m a big fan advocate of people, you know, telling their own story, their own narrative. I may have my version, but look at your version is best because you know it better than anyone. So if you don’t mind Kevon, give us that high level overview of who you are and what you do. 

KEVON:

Absolutely. So Corwyn, I’m 45. When I was about 20, I went through a really powerful spiritual transformation that made me ask a question. The question was, how do I make the biggest possible difference with all of the blessings that I’ve had in this life? And I thought it would be entrepreneurship because as an entrepreneur, I could create, I could influence people, I could generate wealth that I can use to help the least of these, right? I can affect a culture inside of a company. I can make an impact on customers. Solving whatever problem I think needs to be solved, whatever problem I don’t think other people are solving. And so I built and scaled and sometimes sold businesses and it’s 2017. So I guess that’s seven years ago. I had an opportunity to restart a medical technology company that was the first low cost method to catch vision diseases in children. Vision diseases affect one in five kids in the US. It’s the most common disabling condition. And if you’re not seeing well, you’re not learning well. If you’re not learning well, it affects your whole life, including your income, right? And so I did that for five years and it was absolutely motivating, fulfilling to get these calls from moms and dads and doctors saying you saved my kid’s sight, or in some cases you saved his life because eye cancer will spread from the eye to the brain, right? I did that for five years. It was incredibly fulfilling. Like I said, and one thing was really obvious. My health was negatively being affected. My marriage was going the wrong direction and I just wasn’t as close to my kids as I wanted to. So I took a sabbatical and just spent the next six months reading, reflecting, working on those three areas, health, marriage, and my family, my kids. And then I decided, well, I don’t really know yet what I want to do. I haven’t found that next big challenge, that next big hill I want to climb. And so I began just investing, sitting on boards of businesses and nonprofits. I’m on the board still of a glazing company in Southern California called Denali, like the mountain D-E-N-A-L-I. When one of the other board members said, Kevon, I know what you should do with your professional life. There’s a joke that God loves us all, but someone else has a plan for us. My friend said, Hey, I got a plan for you. Why don’t you dedicate your professional career from this point forward to helping business owners exit their businesses without regrets? And as he explained to me how, depending on which study you look at, 70 to 90% of business owners have regrets over how they sold and how most business owners bring assumptions that are not founded on reality and how most representatives, the brokers and other M&A firms out there are not doing the business owners and their legacies justice. And then ultimately how the buyers are pros, 4.7 trillion of private equity in the U.S. is buying businesses. They buy businesses all the time. When someone’s selling their business for the first time, they’re not prepared. They don’t have the same level of expertise. Well, I left money on the table twice when selling my companies. So I recognized that the market was rigged against midsize business owners. When I say midsize, I’m focused on businesses that are in the 20 to 90 million in enterprise value range. But this market being rigged against business owners also applies to smaller businesses. And so after reflecting and realizing how many regrets I had over how I sold my companies, I decided to join this other board member in taking the 30 years of refined process that he had created after borrowing an initial playbook from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lazard, and adjusting it for the lower middle market and middle market so that ultimately we could protect the legacies of business owners across the U.S. in a much bigger way than he was already doing. 

CORWYN:

So Kevon, thank you for that. So I want you to get back to just a basic, but then accelerate this conversation very quickly, because I want you to emanate. Some people know what it is, some people don’t, but if you could define that and then let’s go much quicker, further along to discuss how that plays out in today’s world. 

KEVON:

Yeah. So mergers and acquisitions, right, is simply the market of buying and selling companies. Of course, there are family offices that are buying companies, private equity firms, strategic buyers, or corporations that are going to buy a company that has some sort of synergy with their existing business. If the businesses are about equal in size, whether that’s enterprise value or revenue or employees, we’re more likely to call it a merger. Where one company is a lot bigger than the other, we’re typically going to call it an acquisition. So mergers and acquisitions are basically the changing of ownership of at least one, if not multiple companies. 

CORWYN:

So why should someone start planning this now? Oftentimes people start a particular endeavor and they don’t think about what they want it to end, what do they want this to look like, et cetera. So why should people start early in that process? 

KEVON:

Well, you want to start early because you don’t have time, right, to start late. If you try to do it at the last minute, you end up suffering. Either your valuation suffers, your terms suffer, your sanity suffers, or your team or culture suffer. Usually most of those will suffer if you wait till the last minute. At the end of the day, right, most of the same investments that are going to make your business successful before you sell it. I’m talking about an A-plus management team, very clear and defined responsibilities, documented processes, high margins, repeatable revenue from customers that can’t imagine either living if they’re people or doing business if they’re companies operating without your solution. Those are the same things that a buyer cares about when they’re buying your company, but they’re also the same things that make your business an enjoyable experience for you and your team and ultimately enables your business to grow at the rate you want it to grow. So I’d say the first reason is you don’t have time to do it at the last minute. The second is you’re going to suffer if you don’t start early. And the third is you’re going to have a much better experience that fulfills your reasons for starting the business if you start early. 

CORWYN:

Let’s take a short break. 

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CORWYN:

So you kind of touched on this earlier when you made a statement that the system quote unquote is rigged or potentially, I’ll say potentially, but if you don’t mind, let’s go deeper into that. I mean, do you feel, believe, and what supports that belief if it is or isn’t that it’s rigged against smaller business owners or midsize business owners? 

KEVON:

Yeah, I’ll give you a few different angles on that. The first one is the stat I mentioned earlier, depending on which study you look at, 70 to 90% of business owners have regrets over how they sold. And so if the proportion of business owners who are unhappy about how they sold is that high, that tells you there’s something that is not serving them in the market. When you look at every hundred business owners who try to sell, 60 don’t even get an offer, right? 40 will get an offer. And the number is going to vary a little bit if we’re talking about a $15 million enterprise value business versus a $40 million enterprise value business versus a $90 million enterprise value. But I want to average out the numbers just to keep it simple. So for every hundred business owners that don’t sell, 60 don’t get an offer, 40 get an offer, but only 19 of those will actually close. Meaning about half of the signed letters of intent that sellers sign don’t actually materialize into a deal that has cash go in the bank. There’s a lot of reasons for that. We can cover them if you want to. Of those 19 businesses who actually do transact, out of the hundred, depending on which part of the market you’re talking about, one, two, or three will sell at the high end of the valuation. So 19 will sell, some of those at the midpoint, and only one to three of those at the high end. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like leaving money on the table. And when the stats are that bad, I think it’s fair to say that it’s rigged. It ultimately comes down though to those three things I mentioned earlier. Sellers have untested assumptions. Their representation, usually brokers or M&A firms, are bringing knives to gunfights with the buyers. And thirdly, buyers have an incredible set of tactics and maneuvers to outsmart the sellers who are doing this for the first time. 

CORWYN:

So thank you for that, because that definitely gave some insight and leads me to probably a few other questions. Because ultimately what I’m seeing is or hearing is that because it wasn’t planned far enough in advance, now at the critical moment of we need to do something, we have a situation scenario which is, well, if you need to do something that desperately, then I’m going to give you this low ball off and they’re kind of stuck or caught with that. Now, you also mentioned in there the difference between, well, you said they’re bringing a knife to a gunfight, which I appreciate that analogy. So question for you, the advantage of bringing someone to the table early. So your company, what you guys do, you operate as a team versus a single person. You guys are a team that has this. So how does that allow your outcomes to differ? And that’s a good play on your company name, Legacy Outcomes. How does that allow the outcomes to differ for those business owners? 

KEVON:

Yeah, you nailed it, Corwyn. Let’s talk about that specific example you gave, a single business broker compared to a full M&A team. A solo practitioner is going to be juggling valuation, forecasting, buyer outreach, negotiation, diligence. I don’t know about you, but most football players cannot be a great running back, quarterback, wide receiver, offensive lineman, hunter, et cetera. So when one person tries to do everything, they’re going to have a bunch of blind spots, usually going to have a bunch of cookie cutter documents. And that’s not how you win championships. The buyers are fielding full M&A teams across the deal. So the sellers need a robust M&A team that is going to be a specialist at every position. A transaction architect is like the quarterback and the coach, looking at your objectives as a business owner and then creating the strategy, the plan, and adjusting the playbook to get that championship. Think about, we have buyer experts that are specifically looking at earnings calls, the annual reports, the communications between PE general partners and their limited partner investors, and then finding the small handful of unicorn buyers who will pay the most for your business because it’s a transformational and indispensable part of their strategy. We have valuation specialists that are looking at the strategic, operational, and financial building blocks of your business to see the positioning opportunities that those unicorns, again, can’t imagine operating without. And so specialization sharpens every play, driving the peak outcome that you deserve as a business owner. 

CORWYN:

So you guys have built out like this entire platform. That’s the best word I got for right this moment. 

KEVON:

That’s very accurate. 

CORWYN:

Okay, perfect. So you guys have built out this platform to kind of guide people through. So essentially, oh, we got you on deck and we want to get you across and we want to raise you kind of like Panama Canal, going to kind of raise you and get you the way you need to be. That’s all the material you can use that wherever you want to, Kevon. But this platform that you guys have built, please give our listeners the name of, and let’s talk about when is it right or when is it not right for a particular business? 

KEVON:

Absolutely. So I would say our firm, as you know, is Legacy Outcomes. And what is really unique about what we do for these mid-sized businesses is take them through a methodical process to go from, hey, I’m thinking about selling or I have a first offer to sell my business to Legacy, to them being able to lift that championship trophy above their head and say, I have no regrets. This was a perfect capstone to the years or decades or even generations of hard work, the sweat and the tears and the sleepless nights and the stress and the risks they took in building their company to that point. So first we prepare, right? We’re looking at their objectives. We have 15 different objectives. We literally lay out these 15 cards on a table and we say, all right, let’s sort these cards into high, medium and low priority. Because again, that transition architect is going to create the strategy and the plan. They’re going to refine that playbook to meet your objectives. Then we go to the next part of our preparation phase. You used that word earlier, Corwyn, and it’s the perfect word for it. Preparation is looking at the objectives. It’s doing a bulletproof forensic valuation. Again, identifying those building blocks of value that a buyer will care about. We’re recasting the financials so that they’re assembled through the buyer’s lens. If you’ve been purchasing boats and Ferraris and extra real estate through your business, that’s okay, right? There’s nothing that we’re going to say about that, except those are extra expenses that a buyer’s not going to have. We’re going to add those expenses back and therefore your EBIT dollar net income is going to grow, which means your valuation is going to be higher, right? This is all part of our prepare phase. After the prepare phase, we’re going to go to create. That’s where we’re building specific narratives. We’re doing storytelling that are for different buyer types that are the right fit for your business. We’re selling a medical distributor right now and we are creating one story for search funds, one story for private equity buyers and one story for strategic buyers. Each buyer cares about something different, so the storytelling and the financials, the assumptions in those financials are going to be different, right? We want them to look at it and say, wow, this is exactly what we need or wow, we don’t have to do a lot more work because the legacy team already did so much, not, oh my gosh, I don’t see how this is relevant. Delete that email, right? The buyers are going to build their own story if you don’t give them one, so let’s give them a good one. The other thing I say about this is we don’t just present the business, right? We craft what it could be in the hands of the buyer. The next stage is attract. This is where our positioning specialists are taking those building blocks that were already identified that are uniquely positioned for each of the buyers and describing to the buyer in a summary form, this is why you should look deeper at the business. This business that you could buy unlocks massive value for you. I already talked about looking at the annual reports and earnings calls, so that’s where this comes in handy. The next stage is, wow, we have all these offers. So we sold a company recently, we had 36 offers, 23 of them conformed to the original objectives of the seller. We need to evaluate those, all the terms, and then what is the probability that each of these buyers is going to actually close? What is their track record? Do they end up retrading the sellers halfway through the transaction? For example, hey, we’re going to offer you $35 million, but after we got you into a contract where you’re not going to be talking to any of their buyers, we’re going to discount that by 30%. I went through that, Corwyn. It’s painful. That’s why we do diligence to make sure we’re not talking to buyers who have a history of doing that. We also make sure that the buyer’s not pushing unfair liability on the sellers post-closing. When you sign that paperwork and that money hits the bank account, you want to think about, okay, how do I now shift from the financial piece of my business legacy to my family’s legacy, to the generations and generations and generations after me, right? How do I impact the charities that I care most about? Which ones do I want to prioritize? You don’t want to be thinking about liability and having trouble sleeping over that. After the evaluate phase, obviously we are down to a few offers and now we’re driving each of those offers higher. We’re trading them up while pushing the weak ones aside. We’re driving the pace. We’re holding the line. We’re ultimately keeping the buyers competing, like you said earlier, on the terms of the seller. That’s where all the plays, all the planning, all of the work thus far is culminating in a negotiation with multiple buyers that ultimately leads to legacy, which is our last stage. Financially, you feel great about the outcome. You feel great about the custodian or steward of your business that are now taking care of your employees and the career ladders that they have. And you feel great about your reputation because you know that that buyer is not going to do something that’s going to hurt the customers or anybody else.

CORWYN:

So you touched on something in there. So, you know, family, how important is it? I mean, I have an idea, but how would you say important is it for people, business owners to have the family, if you will, engaged in the conversation early? 

KEVON:

You know, it really depends on a few factors. The first one is how mature are each of the family members? Okay. We have relatives that are mature and I have relatives that are not mature and I don’t need any clowns in this parade. And so the second question is what role do these family members have in the business? Are they co-owners? Are they employees? Or are they just people who might get a check someday because my wealth is no longer totally locked up or mostly locked up in the business. And now it’s actually in my bank account available for real estate investing or donations or otherwise. And so if you have family members who are owners, let’s say that, let me give you an example. You got a husband and wife who are co-owners. They’ve been building this thing for 30 years. You know what? We’re going to sit them both down in separate rooms and ask them about their objectives. And in all of our key meetings after that, we’re going to have both of them. So it really depends on the situation. 

CORWYN:

Okay. That makes perfect sense. And for our listeners, guys, as part of this conversation, Kevon, just so you know, we talk about generations yet to come. We talk a lot about this on the show. And oftentimes when we’re building things, we think we’ll build it as far as we can. Then we’ll leave it for our children for them to build it further. But the reality is, and I’m very open and honest about this. My children told me repeatedly, they don’t want to do this. I got one that might. So we got a little bit longer before. But after that, I got to figure out the way out. I got to have that exit strategy to get out. So short version is for those who may have similar, maybe you don’t know what you’re building. You have that in your mind. This is the conversation to be having. And you want to be having this conversation with Kevon because, hey, this is what he does on a day to day. So how often does it just go completely wrong? 

KEVON:

If you take this discipline process, it starts with preparation. It doesn’t go wrong because we mitigate let’s define wrong. First of all, because there’s different kinds of wrong, right? There’s the kind of wrong where the buyer gets one over or multiple ones over on the seller. There’s the kind of wrong where the seller doesn’t really know what their objectives are, and therefore they can’t decide between the various offers. And eventually the buyers will walk, right? There’s a kind of wrong where your competition finds out that you’re selling and they come in and steal your customers, poach your employees, talk to your vendors who end up tightening terms on you. Those are common ways that it goes wrong when you don’t take a discipline process. So with our discipline process, we’ve never had it go wrong. 97% of the companies that we’ve tried to sell, we’ve sold. There are some times where things were out of our control, such as when those kids ended up fighting over the business and dad didn’t have the heart to step in and say, no, y’all can’t handle this. I’m selling. Well, in that case, in that particular case, the business went from $24 million in enterprise value down to $7 million in enterprise value over the next few years. So you can be sure that everybody had regrets in that situation. So yeah, it doesn’t go wrong on the things you can control. If you take the discipline process, we’ve refined this process over 30 years to mitigate the different risks. Now, if you don’t take a discipline process, depending on how large your business is, you have a 70 to 90% probability things are going to go wrong because your assumptions are not validated and those buyers are fierce. 

CORWYN:

That’s interesting. And I literally had the vision of how the disputes, because we see that in other areas in real estate where the inner family dispute ruins a situation or what have you. Kevon, I want to take this as an opportunity here. Where can people reach you? Where can people find out more about your company? Where can people connect to ask questions and those who are so inclined with it, can they connect with you so you can help? 

KEVON:

Thank you so much, Corwyn. legacyoutcomes.com is our website. There they can find various field notes on everything we’ve talked about today. What are the different seller objectives? What are those deadly seller assumptions? What is the path to regrets actually look like? How do I avoid that? What is the seller’s power path? How do I think about M&A team selection, like an individual broker versus a whole M&A team? So we have a field note on all those topics and many more. I’m also on Twitter at Kevon Saber and on LinkedIn at Kevon Saber as well. K-E-V-O-N, like Kevin with a note. Saber, like Sabercat. 

CORWYN:

I love it. So for our listeners, guys, look, our question really for today was what do I want to be remembered for and how do I protect that now? And Kevonsaber, Legacy Outcomes, their solution, their answer to that question. So Kevon, in closing, what advice do you have for all of our listeners today? 

KEVON:

Do you want me to stick to M&A or do you want me to go broader than that? Go broader than that. All right. So what I’d say is that we all have one life to live. We only get to trade our hours for something, right? Life is sort of like a buffet table. Our stomach can only fit so much. And so I would just say be intentional. What do you really want? And go after that. 

CORWYN:

Wow. I like that. That’s profound. So Kevon, thank you so much for being on the show with us today. I appreciate you taking time out of your business schedule to be a part of the Exit Strategies Radio Show family. Really appreciate it. 

KEVON:

Thanks for having me. And thanks for all the ways that you support entrepreneurs and investors across the country. 

CORWYN:

Well, thank you. So for our listeners, guys, look, y’all know what it is. Y’all know how I feel. Y’all know what I say. You know, I put the two of those things together and I give it to you this way, which is to tell you that I love you. I love you. I love you. And we’re going to see you guys out there in those streets. 

SPEAKER 3:

Welcome back to part two of our 2026 kickoff with Gary Harper. In the first half we built the framework, now we’re tackling the heart. We’re diving into the paralyzing power of fear, the three pillars of purpose, and what to do when your season of success is stuck on wait. If you’re ready to lead yourself first so you can lead your legacy, stay tuned. The conclusion starts right now. 

CORWYN:

Good morning and welcome to another episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. I am your host, Corwyn J. Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Low Country Group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. If this is your first time listening to this show, you sir or ma’am are in for a treat because our mission here is very simple. That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. We’re legacy building. That is what we do. So if you’re out there making things happen with your family, for the generations yet to come, our word teaches us to leave a legacy, to leave an inheritance for our children, our children’s children and so forth and so on. We want you to put a hashtag on that thing that says that you are legacy building because that is what you are doing. You can find us on Facebook, YouTube, Anchor FM. You can also find us on Instagram, at our website, exitstrategiesradioshow.com. You can catch us in a number of different places on your favorite podcast applications. We appreciate you listening. Please share this content with your friends, your family, your coworkers, even those in your groups, your church groups, et cetera, guys, because sometimes the message and the word that we are speaking here today is for you. Sometimes it is for someone else that you know. Again, we appreciate you listening. Let’s get started. So along that, because again, as you may mention up, Gary, all of this is interchangeable. People oftentimes want to make this thing, this and this thing that, but when you look at it as a whole, the commonalities are equal among all. You want to do something or fulfill some personal goal. You want to fulfill some business goal or whatever it may be. They all work the same. If you do this, this, this, this, then you will achieve it. So let’s put the spin on it a little bit, but let’s talk about the mistakes because the mistakes are common. The mistakes that people make in either facet, whether it’s their personal, hey, I want to have a family, I want to this, or hey, I want to build this business. What have you, what are the common mistakes and pitfalls? And what are some of the methods that people can employ to avoid them? 

GARY:

Well, I mean, I think probably the biggest reason why I don’t think people accomplish their vision and goals is fear. They lay out the mistake of fear to show what’s ugly. The Bible says, do not fear over 300 times in the Bible. I think I was told one time off. It’s true, but they said it’s 365 times. Well, that makes a lot of sense if that’s true, because that’s how many days are in a year, right? So God’s trying to give us a little bit of a hint here of like, fear is not, Bible says, he’s not the author of fear or confusion, right? And so if he’s not the author of fear and confusion, then who is, and then why do we allow it to affect us so much? But I will tell you, I mean, I find fear is probably one of the biggest things. Like people have fear. And so like the way to overcome fear, because I have a lot of fears, right? I have my biggest fear in the world is flying, but I’ll be doing it today at one o’clock. You know, I fly five times a week. How did I overcome that? How do you overcome your fear? Well, I always tell people overcome fear with knowledge. The Bible talks about God being the author of knowledge, not confusion. So we always have to overcome fear with knowledge. One of the reasons I’m on your podcast today, and one of the reasons why it’s so popular is you do a phenomenal job, Corwyn, of what? Delivering knowledge. And what does that give people? It gives people the ability to overcome fear. And so fear has to replace with knowledge and sustain with faith. That’s what we have to have. You know, I talk about when I’m using this analogy, I think it resonates most with people. I say, you know, in 2020 COVID hit this world in a big way and people had a lot of fear. We shut down baseball, we shut down, let’s stay home in 14 days of slow spread and all the other, and even some of it nonsense that’s, you know, was driven out of fear. But today I’ll get on a plane and there’s nobody wearing a mask. And, you know, you think about it and you’re like, I would have been ridiculed if I got on a plane, maybe even kicked off the plane four years ago if I got on without a mask. Why? Well, because people have fear. And today we have knowledge of the virus. So we’ve overcome the fear, right? And then we have faith that if we do get COVID, it’s not going to be so bad. And so that’s how the approach we have to take in making mistakes and how we overcome. First of all, it’s don’t let fear stop you. You got to keep going. Number two, I always tell people is mindset. One of the biggest reasons why we make mistakes and things hold us back, not only in life, but in business, is people make statements, Corwyn. They make statements that stop them. They stop their mind. And I always tell people, when you make a statement, you close the mind. You’ve resolved to the statement versus, and I’ll tell you, some of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met are people who run podcasts. And the reason why is because you spend your day doing what? Asking questions. And when you make a statement, you close the mind. But when you ask questions, you open the mind. And opening the mind allows you to receive and be a conduit of information that allows you to enhance your abilities to grow. And so I always warn people, if you’re held back, if you’re struggling, you’re not moving forward, you’re stuck where you are, then start asking questions because questions open the mind. And what we find, Corwyn, is people don’t. They make statements. They go, I can’t do this. He did it, but I can’t. If I got out and run a 5K today, I’d have a heart attack. Well, is that true? I mean, maybe it is. If you believe it is, play it. I mean, it probably is. I mean, you can manifest. My mommy used to tell me all the time, Gary, be careful what you say. It might just happen. We grew up in the South and my mom had the sweetest disposition. She’s like, boy, you better be careful what you say. It might just happen. And I thought about that for years, but my mom was using it in a way of not being negative. But that resonated with me. I’ll tell you what happened one day, Corwyn. I woke up and I’m like, what happens if I say it and I want it to happen? So maybe I should start saying things I want to happen. And maybe I should start asking questions about the things I don’t think can. And that changed the mindset, opened me up to more possibilities. Listen, man, there ain’t no reason in the world a ninth grade dropout GED high school graduate should have built over 10 businesses, written six books, helped over 5,000 businesses around the world in nine countries. Ain’t no reason at all for me to be executed by the age of 22. There ain’t no reason for that success other than I didn’t let stuff stop me and I asked questions. 

CORWYN:

Let’s take a short break. 

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CORWYN:

But God, nothing but, because it doesn’t fit the traditional paradigm, norms that man has established that we oftentimes establish. That’s where our fallacy is right there. That’s what hinders us because as you made mention of earlier about people pursuing somebody else’s vision. That’s not your vision. God didn’t give that one to you or you didn’t bring it to him and say, Lord, look here, what can I do with this? Help me. You just, okay, what they had, they doing this. Let me try to do this too. 

GARY:

Yeah, a hundred percent. I think it goes back to that. It goes back to our purpose. I feel God gives us purpose through our life. Life comes from three categories of life. It comes from your past. God’s giving you a love for something based on an experience you had. He’s giving you a future. The first area of our purpose comes from your past, which is what we love to do. The second area comes from your future, which is what do we want to be remembered for. When it’s all said and done, you know, Corwyn, at some point in your life, someone’s going to write your eulogy speech. Someone’s going to rock by your coffin for the final time. And they’re going to hope, and you’re going to hope that they look down and say, I’m sure glad that man lived his life. Because this is the change, the impact he made in mind. And so what do you want them to say? Because you have the opportunity to write that speech for them. There’s nothing sadder than going to a funeral and somebody saying, hey, does anybody know him? Anybody have anything they want to say? Nobody says anything, right? Well, I’ve been to funerals on the other side of that where people have a thousand things to say. Why? Because somebody chose to write the speech for them. And then the third area of our life that we give to our purpose is the present. So the past is what we love. The future is what we want to be remembered for. But today, the present comes from what gifts we have that we can give back to the world. And when we answer those three questions, what do we love to do? What do we want to be remembered for? And what gifts we have, we can give back to the world. That’s our purpose. And that should be the thing that spokes the vision or sparks the vision for our future. And that’s what we have to live intentionally for and create accountability around to make sure we fulfill it. Because I’ll tell you one thing, man, there’s nothing more disheartening than sitting in front of a doctor at the age of 35 and not know what your life’s purpose is. And to think to yourself, oh, dear God, what did I do with my life? Did I fulfill my purpose? We have to live life with intentionality that allows us to fulfill that purpose so we feel fulfilled when life’s end comes our way. And that’s a beautiful part. I mean, you think about Moses in the Bible, what did he have? He had a purpose, he had a vision, he had a path, he had a goal. And, you know, it started off, it didn’t start off with leading the Israelites out of Egypt, but it started off with building cities for Pharaoh. And it wasn’t until God came to him and he says, hey, listen, Moses, I need you to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And he says, I ain’t your guy. And just like me, Corwyn, I didn’t feel like I was qualified to be where I am today, but God is glorified in our weakness, not our strength. And that’s what happened for me, same thing happened with Moses. Moses said, hey, what am I going to do? I’m not your guy, I don’t have the tongue, I’m not a leader. The guy says, I’m going to give you a new gift. And that’s when our purposes shift, right? Because he still had a love, he still wanted to be remembered, but the new gift came in and shifted his purpose. And I’ll leave this with your listeners and for you today too. At any point in your life, you feel downtrodden, you feel downhearted, you feel like life’s not where you want it to be. Take a long, deep look at your purpose, your past, what do you love to do? Your future, what do you want to be remembered for? But more importantly, has God given you new gifts? That’s changing your path. Because if he has, and you’re still chasing the old vision or somebody else’s vision, you’re never going to feel more despondent than you do in that moment. 

CORWYN:

Wow, Gary, man, that was profound. This show kind of reminds me of when you sitting in church and the pastor gets up and they got their sermon ready. And next thing you know, they off script and somebody from the congregation holler, let them use you. Look here, there’s all fire from there. So Gary, my man, thank you for that. I want to share this with you because you are talking to me. My spirit has been worn, has been weak. Let me phrase that. I ain’t going to call it weak. It has been worn and weary because sometimes the statements that you hear are contrary to the desired outcome or what is greater, right? And that wears on you when you are someone who you speak life, but every time they open, somebody else opened a mouth, it sounds like they talking from the graveyard or something, right? And it wears on you. You know it. I know you know it. And sometimes you got to get a reset. You got to get back into that space. And when people who fundamentally get it and understand everything that you just said, which is we have the power of life and death of success and failure and of everything in not only our tongue, but in our faith and our belief and our actions that all coincide, you align all that together and you’ll see a life beyond measure. But thank you so much for what you shared so far today. 

GARY:

Well, let me share this with you real quick because this is something you were saying this and it came down and I actually didn’t even remember this until right now. And this is something I wrote in my notes on my phone in 2011 when I got bit by a tick and I wrote the verse from Galatians 6, 9 it says, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. I said, I wrote this, I said, God knows weariness comes in our life even when we do the right thing. It could be in finances, relationships, my case health, or anything else that we’re praying that haven’t seen an answer to yet, right? And I think, so here’s what I wrote. I wrote five things. One is the Bible says don’t grow weary in well-doing. Number one, we have to do the well-doing. We have to keep going. We have to do that, which is right, even when we’re weary. Number two, we might be doing the right things and don’t see the results, but our due season is coming. Number three, don’t let the devil pull you away from the right thing with temptation. It’s a trick to wear you down. It’s kind of like a bullfighter. When a bullfighter is fighting a bull, he drops darts in the back of the bull just to drain him slowly until he falls. Number four, I find myself at my weakest point physically when I’m not doing the right things. And number five, last, we have to wait. We have to wait on the Lord. And I always say God answers prayers in three ways, Corwyn. Number one, yes. We all love that answer. Bring it on, bring it on. Like Oprah, you get a yes. You get a yes, right? Everyone wants a yes. Number two, no. The answer’s no. We don’t like that one. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being told no. But you know the hardest answer that I have found in that time in my life when I was the sickest that I’d ever been was when he looks at you and says, wait. Because you know, yes, gratification immediately. No, disappointment immediately, but it’s still an answer. Whoa, wait, what, wait? You want me to wait? 

CORWYN:

Look here, then we want a question. How long? How long do I got to do this? You got to do it until I tell you to stop. 

GARY:

But you got to continue to do the right things while you’re waiting. And that’s the same thing in business, man. That’s what the Rise Business Framework’s all about. It’s doing the right way to build a business. Everybody always says they grew too fast. That’s why they failed. Ain’t no such thing as growing too fast. It’s growing wrong. Doing it wrong, that’s what creates failure. Doing it the right way, that’s what creates success. 

CORWYN:

So Gary, where can our listeners go to connect? I mean, the fact that you are connected this way, which tells me fundamentally, automatically, that this is how you structure, how you advise, how you counsel. Because I mean, look here, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. This is you. This is who you are. So where can our listeners go to get more information about you, about the Rise Framework, anything about Sharper Business Solutions, what it is that you do, your company? Where can people connect with you at? 

GARY:

Well, I mean, our website is sharperbusiness.com. We are on TikTok. I’m on Instagram. I’m on YouTube. I’m on multiple platforms, X, all those. So we put out a lot of content. I put out about two, three videos a day, typically, on those multiple platforms. But then you can find me there under official Gary Harper, our business. Platforms are Sharper Business on those platforms as well. But Sharper Business is kind of a centralized hub. If you want to get a copy of our books, you can go to Amazon. I have three books on Amazon. I have the Rise Business Framework, which is a curriculum book. It’s a tactical, take these steps to reach where you need to be. Then we have the Purpose to Rise, which is a fable about a real estate entrepreneur that uses the Rise Business Framework to reach success. On there, I also have, Is Your Business Sick? And so I told you my story of how I got sick. And the book there talks about parasites in life or parasites in your business. Because we have parasites in our business that hold us back. Sometimes we’re the parasite in our own business, by the way. So we can be that. And then I have a really fun book here. It’s right there. It’s called The Penny, the Purposeful Panda. It’s a children’s book on how finding your purpose. And I always think it’s so important to give even our kids purpose in life. Because without it, Bible says, where there’s no vision, the people perish. And I think we all need hope. 

CORWYN:

Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary, look here, my man, you have blown me out of my socks today. Oh, I appreciate that. You probably left them standing in the corner somewhere now because I’m over here and they gone. They gone. This has been an amazing conversation. I want to thank you for not only your time, but your gift, because the time Lord will give it back to you. But there’s no way in the world I could repay you for your gift. I appreciate that. So again, thank you. Thank you so much. So look here, Gary, I’m going to ask you this one, if you could just drop what we would consider to be a takeaway on our listeners today. Because from a legacy perspective, you focus on building, you focus on investing, and you focus on leading. And all those are designed to carry out the purpose. But for our listeners, drop that, if you could, that one takeaway for them for today’s show that they should take with them and carry that into and manifest that into what God has for them, their life, their business, their family, or wherever they wish to apply it. 

GARY:

Yeah, I would say that a lot of people that I work with and a lot of listeners, I think listening to these shows, they’re trying to figure out life in general. And I say, you got to first focus on you and you got to first focus on making sure you’re healthy and that your mind is healthy and your spirit is healthy and where you’re going is healthy. You have no right to lead other people until you’ve led yourself first. And so I think the listeners need to walk away with what they need to do to work on themselves today. And then if they work on themselves and become the proper leaders of their companies, the business will follow, the relationships will follow, the success will follow. But you got to be willing to work on yourself first. And that’s one of the hardest things to do of everything, right? Like people will call me and say, hey, Gary, I’ll pay you $20,000 a day to come in and help my business. If you come to my event, if you could do this, we do that. But I’ll tell you what, Corwyn, as soon as I say, hey, I’m going to have a self-accountability seminar or workshop and I don’t even charge for it. It’s crickets, people don’t want to show up for. And so I think we got to remind people today that it starts with you. Now I’m reminded every time I get on a plane and the stewardess says, hey, listen, if we have turbulence and we lose cabin pressure and the mask is going to drop it and they remind us to put our mask on first. You know why? Because we have no right or ability to help other people if we’re not healthy ourselves. So today I challenge you to refocus, refocus on you, lead you first, the rest will follow. 

CORWYN:

That is powerful. So Gary, again, thank you so much for being on with us today. I really appreciate it. For our listeners, my God, you’ve gotten a playbook. If you do nothing else, I need you to make sure you got your notes and keep them handy, right? Stick them on your mirror, put them on a dash in the car, put them on your cubicle at work. If you’ve got, matter of fact, get your oil and keep your oil with you too and make everything around you greasy. That way nothing bad sticks to you and you are nurtured and taken care of and protected by it. And y’all know what I mean. So thank you so much again, Gary, for our listeners. Look guys, you know how I feel. You know what I say. I always put the two of those things together. You have the two of them things and I give it to you this way, which is to tell you that I love you. I love you. And we’re going to see you guys out there in those streets. 

CORWYN:

Our question for today that we hope And we expect so how about this? We’re going to operate today in expectation Y’all feel me on that what we are going to have what we are going to receive So what if the key to building generational wealth isn’t just what you invest in? But how you run your business? 

So Good morning. Good morning. Great morning guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, y’all know who I am, but i’ma tell you anyhow Corwyn J Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry Group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina, quick shout out to those who listen to us faithfully to tune in got to give a quick shout to my guy Burt McQueen for tuning in. Thank you, my guy for for tuning in and listening to this show Elder Pastor Evans. Y’all folks out there in Muddy Mullins, but all the way back through mont’s corner all the way through over to hollywood what you know, no good guys Thank y’all so much for tuning in So our question for today that we hope Then we expect so how about this? We’re going to operate today in expectation Y’all feel me on that. We’re going to operate today in Expectation what we are going to have what we are going to receive So what if the key? to building generational wealth Isn’t just what you invest in But how you run your business, so i’m super excited because today our guest today using this mantra Transformed his life now. He helps others By doing the same with the framework that builds more than just profit So let’s talk today about legacy driven leadership Our guest today is none other than Mr. Gary Harper. Gary is the ceo Y’all know what I say about that. That mean he the boss y’all. The CEO of Sharper Business Solutions, the creator. He builds he puts something together right there the creator of the Rise Business Framework, he’s a real estate investor, but most importantly he’s a business strategist, you all please give him a warm welcome to this show on today. Gary. How are you doing? 

GARY:

Great, Corwyn? Thanks for having me on today. What a great introduction good energy. I’m feeling it man. I’m feeling I love what you bring  

CORWYN:

Well, look here. That’s what I try to do. So just so you know, i’m always available for hire, all right for those keynotes. 

GARY:

So when you get that next keynote I want you to call me and I will make sure we fire him up Well, i’ve been on stage in caesar’s palace before and not been introduced with that level of tenacity and energy. 

CORWYN:

That’s good stuff But look here, please pass me around treat me like halloween can Give me out So gary look, thank you so much for taking time out of your business schedule to be on the show with us today If you don’t mind for our listeners, we always ask our guests to give their own high level who they are and what you do So if you could please do that, that would be amazing. 

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GARY:

Yeah, so my journey started as a troubled youth. I mean, I got kicked out of schools. I had really hard time Growing up. My dad was in military 21 years spent a lot of time Away and I think with all young men and their dads being gone for an extended period of time you tend to find yourself In trouble a little bit. I had a phenomenal parents amazing parents But still when you’re left to the town times you find trouble So I did and I was in my teenage years. I was in virginia and found myself getting in trouble I ended up being mom and dad just hey, you gotta get out You gotta go out and do your own thing and at 17 years old I left and moved to chicago And I met my brother-in-law and my sister was up here and they really they kept me busy and he got me started in real estate and helped me I was living in his rentals and fixing them up and flipping them and During the day i’d sleep in them. It’s funny He put me in a house in geary indiana and said hey, I got a glock nine millimeter a 38 special and he’s I need you to keep people from breaking in and stealing the copper but you can stay here for free if you do That and i’m like Okay, and I did so during the day i’d rehab the house and at night I Protected and I slept on a bed on the floor walked to the mission for lunch ate ramen noodles as crackers You know from the dollar store and kind of made my way I think for me it started to shift when I got into corporate america. I I started working in corporate in 1997 I got married that year and found myself needing to take care of my my future my generational Legacy, and so I started having kids and I went from 7 15 an hour Buying books in a copy center to becoming an executive And I worked my way up to executive. My title was national manager of business initiatives and development And I was only 22 years old. I was young And i’m not even really sure why I got the opportunity other than I just grinded worked hard and delivered results And you know, they look past the inexperience. They look past the lack of education. I just grinded I worked hard and I think sometimes hard work and heart gets you performance more than knowledge And that’s where it led me So I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth or gold spoon in my mouth I was born working hard with a military family. It moved a lot My dad worked hard and my mom worked three jobs take care of us and just I was taught to work hard And I believed in myself. I believed in myself when other people didn’t and so I worked my way up to that corporate executive level and I stayed there till probably 35 years old and During that time I started making decent amount of money. I had read some books from Robert kiyosaki and carlton sheets that kind of dates me a little bit Most of your listeners may not know carlton sheets, but I listened to carlton sheets and he’s now passed but Learned a lot of things and then obviously being around my brother-in-law and him fixing flipping houses Just got the itch and I started buying rentals and I started holding on to him started a property management company as well And you know, I don’t know about you man, but 2008 to 2010 was not very kind to me It was not a good year for me good years Corporate america perfect did great one executive of the year ate out 10 years Found myself winning all these awards behind my head here and man and just life was good other than the investing side and I don’t assure that I was very Intelligent on how to invest just felt like it was important to do and create passive income. That’s what I’ve been taught But 2010, 2011 came along man, and I found myself on the wrong side of that investments and they reassessed taxes in northwest indiana I found myself way over in payments and under rents And you know leveraged way too deep along the value the property values dropped and I filed bankruptcy. I didn’t have any other way out but erwin that year was tough for me because not only did I lose my wealth that year and all my savings and everything else and Other investors were pocketing the rents and not paying their mortgage, man I I had to pay and I felt like the bible says You know a good name is better to be chosen than great riches and i’m like this is an integrity thing Yeah, I gotta pay my bills all the savings. I had built at that point was gone You know, it’s all gone. And even the lender was like you probably should just file bankruptcy at this point. 

CORWYN:

I don’t know what to tell you Well, at least they gave you a way out right so at least they gave you some advice some counsel or direction Or gave you an idea maybe you didn’t have and that you weren’t willing to cover So so gary, let me jump right here with the question. You have a mission if you will to create and help people to create Vision driven real estate businesses and I kind of gleaned from what you said here a moment ago When you gave reference to scripture that you help people to incorporate that Into the overall vision and the direction they go. Is that correct? 

GARY:

Yeah, I mean the Bible says where there’s no vision of people perish And without vision we lose hope. Oh Man, look here. 

CORWYN:

So I have a client and she’s listening this morning She just heard that and that probably just fired her up right there because she tells me all the time Corwyn the people like Vision will say that to me all the time. So how do you work with people? With that, how do you work with them? Because I mean people have an idea But oftentimes to be and this is just my observation gary, please correct me or disagree if you do But people have like this idea But they don’t have vision which is where you see it through where you see what happens once you cast it it’s like you throw the like you’re willing to you out there fishing you You cast your reel right and cast your bait into the water, but you can’t envision It getting the fish and coming out. All you just see is yourself throwing it out there So, how do you deal with people with that? 

GARY:

Well, I mean, I think a lot of times what happens in this world is people think they’re shooting after vision But they’re trying to fulfill somebody else’s And I think that’s where we missed the mark is that we’re not casting in our own lines We’re not creating our own vision We’re just we’re taking somebody else’s or mirroring somebody else’s and calling it our own and then there’s no passion and I always tell people like Vision creates purpose, purpose creates passion, passion drives obsession, obsession creates focus and focus gets success and so if it’s not our Vision then we’re never going to chase the purpose And if we don’t chase the purpose and we have a way to measure saying chasing that purpose Then we’re not going to get passionate about it And if we don’t get passionate about it We can’t expect our people that we lead to get passionate about it And I think it’s really important that our passion and our purpose support each other And support our vision but like chasing somebody else’s vision is never going to get you anywhere 

CORWYN:

so Man looking anybody who’s watching this y’all just saw me over here about that I feel like I was about to have a you know as old folks say a fit Yeah, because what you just touched on is some of the stuff that I talk about And that we conversate about on this show, but also outside of this All the time because people don’t care. They’re not passionate about anything other than themselves You see what i’m saying So but gary look so you really focus in this process on systems and scaling But one word and i’ma drop this word and let you pick up whichever one you want to start with But also because we don’t like this word accountability Made my back shiver 

GARY:

You know, I was gonna say Corwyn there a minute ago when I was talking about passion I thought this was gonna turn into a pentecostal podcast, you know what I mean? I thought we were coming out speaking in thousands I said he’s starting to come out of the chair a little bit like you’re on a roller coaster or something I don’t know. I know what’s about that I love it. 

CORWYN:

I love it. But gary that word accountability man, it slays people, you know it because we want to do what we want To do but don’t want to be responsible for making sure that we’ve done what we’re supposed to do. 

GARY:

Yeah, yeah, 100 I mean, I think accountability is the key to getting results and without accountability And self-accountability we can pay people we can hire people We can push other people our spouses loved ones things like that to hold us accountable without self-accountability There’s no commitment. And so first of all, we got to start with a vision, right? We got to figure out where we want to go and self-accountability Is clear and easy when you want to go and when you want to get there and that’s why vision is so important And here’s the thing without the right vision you’re going to struggle you’re going to hit hard times and when that times happen You know, it’s like me for example Corwyn in 2011. Not only did I file bankruptcy I got bit by a tick that year. I came down with lying’s disease Oh, wow, and I went back to a five-year-old mental state for a year I was told by a doctor that I was probably not going to live past That age of 35 because of where it bit me it bit me on my back of my neck went into my brain And to get through that time like I had to be very purposeful in how getting through that I had to envision Myself getting healthy. I had to create a vision That’s honestly when I sat across from that doctor with my head in my hands and the tears running down my forearms I thought to myself. Oh dear god. What did I do with my life? And I said god, what’s my purpose? What’s my purpose? What’s the vision? Where do you have planned for me? And I sat there thinking to myself. Oh dear god, if you give me my life back I’ll give it back to helping other people and that’s when it was born for me And here’s the thing when that kicked in and that passion showed up I become obsessed. I become obsessed in a good way I think obsession can be good and bad But in a good way because the obsession was driving me towards my purpose because of that I got laser focus and that’s when what’s when accountability shows up and not just in business Accountability expands all aspects of our lives, right? And so not too long ago. I lost both my dad my mom and my dad’s little final words He says gary this covid stuff, you know It’s not gonna be kind to you if you get it and he said he says listen I need you to make me a promise. You need to lose some weight in the time girl when I was 320 pounds I was a big boy and i’m only five foot seven So you imagine how many I was pretty good boy, and I was not in good shape and he’s scary I need your promise me being in the military 21 years. He was like you need to take care of yourself And part of the framework that I created for rise with rise kind of came from that Vision of how do I lose weight and here i’ll give you an example So in systems of rise because rise stands for resources inspiration systems and engagement in the system aspect That’s where we create sustainability and accountability Right, and one of the ways we create accountability is in results in metrics metrics. Tell us a story I always say numbers don’t lie people do And so like numbers tell us a story. I went to my doctor and I said, hey i’m losing weight. I’m feeling good I’m doing better and he says oh good. Let’s see what the scale says. So you lost no weight. I’m like, oh, okay Well, I was an accountability moment He said well, let’s get your blood work done. Maybe you’re doing a little better there Maybe the weight’s not coming off yet, but i’m doing better got my blood work done came in a couple days later He says here. Why are you lying to me? I said what are you talking about? He says you should be eating better I said i’m eating better He says your a1c is 7.4 Ain’t no way you’re eating better because that a1c would be in under the six and I was like, all right Well, I mean numbers don’t lie and I don’t that what was that? It was accountability So i’m like, all right. Well, these are results Of my efforts. So what do I need to change? I need to change my purpose I need to change my vision like I need to be more intentional here about achieving this weight loss goal And so what I created was the first kpi which is called what I call my key purpose indicator It’s like how do I measure my purpose my purpose of getting healthy living a long time longevity? Well, the only way to do that is to live a long healthy life, right? So then I created my profit indicators my profit indicators were my gain What do I need to gain to live a long life to fulfill my purpose? Well, I need to gain healthy blood work. I need to gain my numbers and my blood work need to show that i’m gaining health Then I built down to my performance indicators, right? My performance indicators the scales got to come down the weights lifting weights got to go up I got to get the results which is performance But then I built down and what I figured out was probably the most critical kpi to accountability And it’s called the process indicator every day. We perform and do things we conduct processes every day whether it’s taking a bath or walking or drinking water or whatever and those processes Drive us to the performance that gets us the profit the gain that gives us our purpose And so I built down properly from purpose the gain profits down to performance down to process And so every day I had to eat 180 grams of protein I’d have 100 carbs grams of carbs. I have 75 grams of fat and I had to have you know A gallon of water or more I had to have 100 ounces of water I also needed to walk 10 000 steps a day. These are daily tactical process indicators And here’s the thing if I don’t do those every day, then I know that i’m not creating accountability Your business is no different Corwyn. It’s the same thing. You have a purpose for why you started Every business starts with what I call a three piece. You have a passion You have a product that makes profits. Those are your three piece every business, but from that you got a purpose You know, what is our purpose? What are we trying to accomplish in this business? And maybe that purpose early on is just making you some money man, so you can stop working that job And that’s okay. I always say there’s two purposes for our business. It’s either leave a legacy or to make money That’s the only two reasons why people start a company But that purpose has to be defined and then we have to measure it When I first started my investment and looking for that exit strategy for myself in life. I needed to be at 4955 a month in passive income. That was a long time ago, by the way And it’s probably a little higher these days, right But it was a while ago, right? And so I needed to be at that to create freedom now that number is higher now But I had my I had my freedom mark then I had my twelve thousand dollar healthy mark And I had my abundant mark which was twenty thousand dollars a month in past And that abundant mark allowed me to live abundantly and give back abundantly and give up my life and I always tell people life It’s an acronym. It stands for labor influence finances and experience. I want to give up my life to help others My labor my influence my finance and my experience and so that’s what my purpose indicator was And so your listeners today they need to have that mark They need to have that thing they’re driving towards that fulfills life purpose That’s the vision, but we ain’t gonna get there without the accountability of it So now we have to have a game we have to have profits How much money do I need to make in order to cash flow four thousand nine hundred some dollars a month? To give me my purpose and then from that I had to look at performance How many properties do I need to own to create the cash flow three hundred dollars a door that gave me my gain? That gave me my purpose But then down the process, what do I have to do every single day? To fulfill my performance to give me my gain To give me my purpose and part of that was every day It was like how many properties do I need to look at every single day? How many properties do I need to put on contract every single week to give my performance? How many profit per door do I need to have in order to give me my cash flow? And can I hit my purpose indicator of five thousand dollars a month and once I figured out that equation? Accountability became something and I think that’s the key it starts with the vision to create passion Create a session to drive focus to get the success But then you have to build down to that accountability And then you have to want it bad enough to hold yourself accountable to getting it You know, i’ve already run a 5k this morning before we talk, you know, I got out ran why? Because I gotta fulfill my purpose 

CORWYN:

I love it, man. I love it 

Speaker 3

Don’t touch that dial. In the second half of our conversation gary gets real about the paralyzing power of fear and how to replace it with knowledge. He’ll break down his three pillars of purpose to help you find your true calling and explain the oxygen mask principle. Why you have no right to lead others until you’ve mastered leading yourself 

CORWYN:

Guys, that was a great show today and we thank you so much for taking the time to listen to Exit Strategies Radio Show. My name is Corwyn J Melette. Yes, that is me And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for tuning in for today’s episode Exit Strategies is my baby. It is how I give back to our community. It is how I foster goodwill spread good news and trustfully help you get great results. Guys, as I always say to you as I always say to you I love you. I love you. I love you and we’re gonna see you guys. I’ll be in them streets 

CORWYN:

Retirement shouldn’t wait till old age. We ain’t gotta wait till we old When you structure the financials and the financing and the money and all that stuff Early using smart tools protection education. You take control of the legacy And you give your family a chance to thrive well beyond your years 

Good morning, good morning guys and welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show Hey, I’m your host Corwyn J Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry Group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. Hey, if this is your first time listening to this show you a sir or ma’am or in for a treat because our mission is very simple here that is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education The legacy building that’s what we do That’s what we encourage you to make sure that you are focused on and quote unquote your day-to-day activities and so forth and so on So look here We got to give a quick shout out as always to our listeners those who i’m tuning faithfully Got to give a shout out and I saw this go by me not too long ago But a shout out to mac and flo mckellar on their anniversary saw that go by wonderful couple great people Pastor vanderbilt evans senior always have to get that senior on that god name But that dude will jack me up if I don’t and his beautiful bride sandy evans and also my mama Y’all know out there monkeys corner, but all the way back to hollywood what you know, no good and my folks that listen tune in In mullins and mary in south carolina. Thank y’all so much Got to give a shout out to my guy eric troy up there who’s always empowering and making a difference in the community there Keep doing what you’re doing brother. We love you. So look today. Whoo. Yes Now look here. I always tell y’all to get your pen pad paper, whatever it is ready I would be remiss if I said today not to do the same Because we have someone here today who is a phenomenal human being Now we don’t always get to say that about people, but they are a phenomenal human being They’re really focused on doing the work within the community to really help and empower people financially So i’m very excited today to have none other than miss Shateka Husser. She is the founder she started this thing guys and Ceo she is the boss of hustler financial solutions. She is mission driven Determined to help people achieve tax-free Lifetime income. I love those words together I love the free after the tax though. Not before in financial security and early retirement Summarizing her slogan that she goes by which is to retire before you expire. I love that. She’s the number one International worldwide guys best-selling author Certified professional coach holds an mba with a business management background But here’s the thing. I really want you guys to take away. She is a veteran She started by serving people and has continued yet over to serve more She brings corporate discipline to personal finance and wealth building with experience in investing and insurance retirement planning and creating frameworks for people guys Framework for us to be able to get out again to retire before we aspire. So tika, how are you doing today? And welcome to the Exit Strategies  

SHATEKA:

Amazing. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. I appreciate the opportunity 

CORWYN:

Now look here I don’t told them people what you do But I want you to tell them too So you tell them what it is that you and you frame it your way because I done gave mine 

SHATEKA:

Okay, so I like to introduce myself as Shateka Husser, you know founder of Hustle Financial Solutions will be help you retire before you expire. So if that’s what you desire what you aspire We are the ones you hire Our goal is always to get your bank account or fire with a whole lot of lifetime tax-free retirement income that you will not outlive Listen, I understand we got a lot going on but at the end of the day we have got to get these finances, right? So born into poverty I say I might not have been born into a family of wealth But a family of wealth will come from me and that may not necessarily be for me personally But I want to have an impact and influence in my city country nationwide We’re actually in 21 states right now And so we’re just looking to help people level up in the space of positioning for retirement because most people know the traditional methods For retiring, but they don’t understand that there’s actually some non-traditional Unconventional wisdom that it could possibly follow so that they can have not only just retirement accounts but also have income and benefits and Definitely all these different types I didn’t understand what I did not know making all the money that I made in corporate Having made a couple pivots from army officer as you can see back behind me on the wall To a corporate high level leader to now entrepreneur business owner Now I realized that it’s all about how much money you can keep It’s all about making money while you sleep passive income And so I love what you do corn because you know, I was a real estate investor for quite some time I bought you know half a dozen properties But at the end of the day, I didn’t understand what I did not know as it relates to money And so my goal is to just to help empower people that make a lot of money But just like my gosh i’m paying people salary and taxes How can I get around that when it comes to income and retirement because at the end of the day? That’s eating it into my retirement account. And so that’s where I come in at and I just help educate people around that Let’s take a short break. 

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CORWYN:

So look here i’m gonna have you start like we talk a lot on this show about mindset like Legitimately if you don’t get this piece here, right? Then nothing else follows correctly after that I mean it was like quote unquote marching into the water before moses said hey, let there be land You know i’m saying like serious all you’re doing is just going where you shouldn’t be going So let’s start this from i’ma say a fundamental I want you to kind of walk us through if you don’t mind you talk to a client but to perspective client Someone reaches out to you says hey Look, I need to get my stuff together because it’s all over the place and it don’t look like it’s supposed to look At least not in my eyes. What’s the first thing that you do? 

SHATEKA:

First thing i’m going to do is have them to fill out what’s called a needs analysis I need to understand their financial situation what they have going on. What are their liabilities? What are their assets? What is their vision? What are they trying to accomplish? How much income do they want to have? There’s a lot of questions So i’m just deep diving into who they are and what their desires are And then we’re going to rule map around that to figure out what’s the best course of action in terms of how we’re going to Get them there. 

CORWYN:

So a lot of people depend on or me phrase that well No, i’ma say depend on let’s be transparent and real a lot of people in our community. We depend on social security, right? We look at social security as being the end all be all we look at as being our retirement Tell people what they need to know because I know you’ve got a lot to say about that. 

SHATEKA:

Let’s go That’s such a myth. We were just talking about that again Is this so much out there in terms of what’s going to happen with social security? No one really understands and knows for sure Economists have been saying for years that it wouldn’t be around between 2025 and 2034 2035 and so we don’t know what’s going to happen with social security But should something happen with social security you need to have a plan in place You need to have a supplemental plan in place and that’s where we come in at to help you understand What it is that you need to do backward planning So we know that the average person if they are w-2 not someone that’s a business owner an investor Someone that’s a w-2 the average person is going to have a 60 percent decrease in their income when they retire They’re going to work 40 years of their life for 40 hours a week to retire on only 40 percent of their income So a 60 percent gap. So how do we close that gap? That’s what we backward plan. Okay, and to understand Okay This is how much money we have got to put into something To try to see a certain amount of income to come out of that now. It just depends on people’s risk tolerance There’s a myriad of different sequence returns that can happen as you well know 2008 the housing crash 2020 with the pandemic things can happen. So we base it based off of historical Outcomes and in terms of how the money has been growing in different accounts and we structure it based on that But really it’s about what do I need to do? How much money am I going to need in order to supplement social security if it’s still around? And it’s looking at the last 10 years that you’ve been working And what you paid into it So if you didn’t put anything into it, of course, you don’t really have one And so that may look different for a business owner They have to totally do something different because they have nothing paid into it and so that’s the reason why we’re saying that so security’s probably not going to be here because more and more people are leaving w2 they Are pivoting and becoming business owners because they’re becoming wiser because they read the book rich dad poor dad where rock talks about the four quadrants the cash flow quadrant and how it is that 95% of people are on the wrong side of money only 5% of people Understand how money works in terms of investing and taxation and things of that nature And that is your business owner and your investor. That’s the 5% the other 95% They are paying too much in taxes because w2 is the highest tax bracket In other words, they pay the most amount of taxes. The tax code is not written for the w2 employer, right? So let’s look at that everything that starts with a four everything full 1k 403b 457 Tsp ira, they all are tax codes. You’re going to pay taxes So what if we could find figure out a way to get around like the wealthy do and learn irs code? 7702 irs code 7702 tells us I’m, just going to put it out there, please. Let’s go the elephant in the room a permanent cash value policies A permanent cash value. Listen, everybody’s not able some people don’t have the health things of that nature You might have to go a different route, but we have all types of strategies for people whether it’s real estate, whatever But at the end of the day Stocks, whatever you can figure out a way to not have to go into your account All right and take your money out and now you’re depleting it. You need to be able to borrow against it So the wealthy are borrowing against it because they realize that because they have something like a permanent cash value policy They can dig into their account put their hand in a cookie jar eat up all the cookies And it’s still be growing and counterpounding while they sleep even though they already took the cookies out Where do they do that at only in a permanent cash value policy, right? It doesn’t matter what type It just has to be a permanent cash value policy. It could be a whole life. It could be an iul We’re not gonna dig into the weeds, but it’s end of the day Where else could you have your money grow for you while you’re sleeping? So you have the money on another whole asset Like a business like a car that you put on toro like a home that you’re putting on airbnb the list goes on So your money is compounding inside your permanent cash value policy and it’s over here on an asset not a liability We don’t want to listen We don’t want to flog them just buy cars that look good It need to be a car that you put on toro and make some money with okay But at the end of the day you got another stream of income from your asset You got another stream of income coming in the future from what? Your permanent cash value policy if you have it in a 401k 4-3b 457 all these other things, right? All the traditional ones that they taught us That we thought was okay that we didn’t understand because we thought to your point was a catch-all be-all social security Those things fail us, right? I have a case study that I talk about all the time in my master class with Brother a brother b brother a ends up going back to work and his 70s like most people do I mean, that’s the reason why I go hard because I need people to understand that money’s going to run out All you have is all you have and you have no leverage If all you have is some type of traditional employer plan that starts with a four or an ira people They oh i’ll get it in the roth ira You think that’s a plan but a roth you can still lose money in you can still lose money in the market with a roth Ira, you cannot lose any money in an index type of account. So an index annuity an index universal life policy Something that’s indexed this gives you the best of both worlds You can gain when the market goes up. It will count upon and make interest for you But when the market crash you can sleep at night Rest assured you’re not going to lose a penny in the market And so at the end of the day some people they don’t want the rest, but they want the gain So an index would work for them some people like might be a little bit like me I’m, very aggressive when I put my money personally and if you’re aggressive, then you might want to be okay with that But at the end of the day, I tell people do not invest what you cannot afford to lose If you can’t afford to lose it, you should not be investing and you should not be investing anything Until you have your what emergency plan in place You don’t have an emergency plan, but you’re investing. Come on now We cannot do money that way and I know people are out here doing it. So i’m going to Look at you. 

CORWYN:

You’re putting it on the carpet I love it There’s levels to this so you touched on the infinite banking concept, which I’m three with it. Love it I’ve read the book or several books, right? A number of times so let’s delve into that because that is just a strategy That works so I never thought about what you just said Which is all the things with force because Roth and traditional one you pay taxes on the money before it goes in The other you pay taxes when it come out I mean, so you’re gonna wait and tax me on the money I make Off of it and the other one I got to pay the tax on the money I would have made to put in there to start with regardless you’re still getting taxed on it period So this concept how often do you advise people to pursue this? And especially younger folks. I mean our listenership is very broad. So let’s get into that What does that look like and how can people make a difference in their financial future? 

SHATEKA:

Yeah, absolutely So I often tell people I need to understand what’s your budget? That’s the first place we’re going to start and that is the reason why we start with the needs analysis Somebody’s selling you something without a needs analysis. They’re a salesperson. I’m not a salesperson I educate like I just did that’s why I can just rattle it off because i’m always having these concepts that we’re talking about At the end of the day i’m going to push for that because I realize that people need leverage Whether they understand leverage or not And so i’m always going to advocate for the infinite banking concept You don’t need too much insurance because you need to understand the dime method and that’s how much insurance you need to have and nothing More nothing less but at the end of the day when you come to me and you say well I want to do something with retirement I’m going to find out like I said before what is your goals and then we’re going to back with plan But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that you understand The products that are at hand. So if you have a whole lot of debt You don’t need say for example an iul It’s not going to work for you because you can’t access your money for 10 to 13 years Depending on what carrier you work You need something like a whole life because you need to have access to your money right now Because you want to basically use a whole life to funnel your money through the policy In other words, you’re not necessarily putting too much more than what you’ve already been putting in terms of paying into something You’re putting it into your whole life But you’re going right back and taking like 80 percent of it back out to pay off your bills So it’s kind of like getting a term policy, but do a whole life policy if that makes sense So because for example quick math say six hundred dollars, okay, that’s what you’re putting in it every month You’re going to go back and get four hundred and eighty dollars back out of it Right because that’s eighty percent of it and you’re going to put that four hundred and eighty dollars on your bill While the other amount of money is keeping the policy alive until you can do better later on in life What you’re doing is locking in your insurability at your youngest age possible and at your best health possible We don’t want you to get diabetes dementia heart attack cancer these types of things because now You may not be insurable if very high insurance or very low insurance in other words You might only be qualifying for a final expense type because that’s all you can get because you have these chronic critical internal illnesses That has now caused you to not even be eligible for an insurance. So we want you to get that beforehand So the first thing I want to do is make sure do you have that already inside of your portfolio? Because there’s steps to freedom financial we talk about financial freedom financial freedom. But what is financial freedom? What are the steps the steps making sure that you have cash flow making sure that you have an emergency fund Making sure that you pay off your debt making sure that you have protection against the market volatility protection against taxation protection of lawsuits Making sure that you have a legacy in place. There is no other financial asset out here Nothing else out here that will give you all steps to financial freedom except for a permanent cash value policy You look at stocks you look at crypto you look at real estate you look at eft all these other things They don’t give you all the steps the only one the only product It’s going to give you all steps to financial freedom You got to have as your foundation is a permanent cash value policy and that’s why i’m so passionate about it And that’s why I want to make sure that when I talk to somebody to your point your question Is this something that’s already inside your portfolio? And if it’s not let’s start there first because that is the foundation for your freedom 

CORWYN:

so it’s something for our listeners and i’m definitely gonna Sometimes we think about financial freedom as the freedom to spend Freely if that makes sense and a lot of people focus on spending freely versus Building what you’re talking about what we’re talking about which is making sure that you not only have Emergency funds but also get into how can I strategize so, you know I’ve seen this concept And action at play where people take money out and go buy they got a you know car they essentially borrow from themselves So instead of borrowing from the bank and paying interest to them I take the money off go buy the car cash and make the payment back to my policy which continues to build a cash value I get to recycle the money over and over and over again. Yes, that’s a win right there and people in business in the business realm Do that to buy equipment and to grow and build their businesses. So let’s get past Well, let’s go to next step is one of the things again. I’m how to retire before you aspire. I love that There’s a story behind that. Well, let’s go. Let’s what’s the story? 

SHATEKA:

So in 2018, I had a couple of my friends imagine your two closest friends right now Who are your two closest friends? You have to say it but imagine both of them passing away within four days Suddenly and unexpectedly that’s what happened to me in 2018 So that’s a real thing for me. The one friend was 50 years old The other one was 46 years old had just flown from baltimore to atlanta to visit the one for her 50th birthday Drove from atlanta to charleston to see the other one because she got diagnosed with cancer a month later They both passed away from what they said was the flu, but it probably was good that nobody knew about So that’s what happened. So when I say retire before you expire I lost my two closest friends in that season while living in baltimore because they Had the flu and so they never really lives what I like to say in terms of having that lifestyle of freedom And because they had been working one was an entrepreneur The other one was an executive that works downtown here in charleston for hr and but at the end of the day I want to make sure that people can live more of their life and not have to work all of their life because they have A plan in place. They should have options if you want to work because you love the work That’s one thing But if that’s not your calling and you’re just in a career and that’s not your calling And you’re trying to pivot until you’re calling and let’s get you into a position to where you can now have enough money So that you can do what you need to do and go ahead and pivot sooner than later these young people They want to retire at 25 and 35. They’re not trying to wait to 65. Let’s just be clear A gen z is not waiting to 65 all day. I got to get a quick plan for them. But yes, let’s talk about it.

CORWYN:

Wow, so that’s heavy But that also gives like some background as to the foundation if you will of the ministry if you will in the work that you do So getting back and coming back around the mindset a lot of this stuff Shateka is it’s high level. I’m not going to say it’s over anybody’s head It’s very attainable understandable at least in my opinion But what fears what objections what things that do you work to overcome with clients? What have you encountered in trying to get them to understand these concepts and seek to move forward? 

SHATEKA:

Yeah, so most people get it by the time they watch my video the master class and everything they get it they understand the Situations and where they are currently and where they’re trying to go because I talk about the traditional accounts and how they fail people Because they just don’t have the long-term care. I think that’s something I look at the hit list and people need to understand that with their retirement the hit h i t h health care I inflation t taxes if your retirement account does not have a strong hit component to it Then you need to relook at it, right? and so 75 percent of people will not be able to use all of their money for retirement because they’ll end up having some type of challenge Medically and so they gotta have long-term care and so people overlook that but that’s like the number one termite in retirement that people overlook So it’s like paying all your money into a medical bill or to a facility because you’ve been hit with health challenges And so the main thing I want to do is when they come to me I want to back our plan that too because some of them have families with different types of medical history And unless their health is where it needs to be They need to start looking at that as well. That needs to be a part of the plan So health care inflation does your account grow and compound while you sleep and do you have if you say for example annuity Does it have a cost of living allowance for rider attached to it? That’s going to continue to grow no matter what because of the economy because we know year over year is about three percent Okay, we need to factor that in and so when I meet with people and they come to me I think the biggest thing for them is do they have the finances? A lot of people come to me and they say oh, I don’t i’m not even right. I haven’t made it right now I’m not ready and i’m 40 years old these people come and they’re not they don’t have anything sometimes And so as a matter of discipline, how do I discipline? Where can I and it’s on me to help them find the money because like you have all of this You have your money going to this and this if you restructure that you can do this So basically understanding again going back to that needs analysis That’s why I can’t just sell you something I need to see what you have going on and see how we can leverage what you already have Because at the end of day it’s really about structuring. How do we structure your policy? How do we structure how your finances are coming out? What’s going to hit what first? And then be able to give you the output that you’re looking for ideally But if you say that okay, I need to have long-term care Then that’s going to be something that needs to be a component instead of an iul You need to add that to your whole life For example, if that’s something that you need to have if you don’t already have that already I just want to put that plug in there because people a lot of times overlook that and then you know You’re aging parents Do you have it on them? So that your retirement isn’t trying to help them because you still got to work But now you got to pay into a facility to keep the care because you can’t care for them, but you got to work So these are some of the conversations that i’m having with people some of the challenges that they are having But at the end of the day We got to find the money and we got to figure out some passive income strategies for you And I actually just started helping partnering with an organization to help people with understanding how they can use AI And other types of wealth building strategies by doing a course in this community this community that I have that’s a part of I should say to just to help people that are Did I realize that i’m called to the wealthy as well as to those that are disadvantaged? I’m, not just called to just the wealthy or just a disadvantage. I can’t don’t put me in a box That’s all i’m saying because i’m multi-dimensional I can work with both of them, but I have products for those that are disadvantaged that need the extra help How do I get more passive income please? What could I do? There’s so many different ways that you can make money today If you’re not making money online What is wrong with you like for real like and so that’s where that community comes in at because it has different opportunities of passive income plays So that they can now have another stream of income that they can now put towards their retirement because they realize okay I need to do drop shipping or I need to be doing trading or whatever. I’ve done it all you listen. I’m like a johnny So I help you understand what you need to do passive income wise So now you have these other options that you can tap into now. You just gotta do the work And then also funding we started adding that on to our business as a not a new our newest service is funding Helping people that have personal or business loan challenges getting them to funding or they may not even have challenges It’s need funding and they want to do a new startup a new business because we realize that business Is how you get around paying taxes, right? That’s what the i’m just gonna put it out there It’s a legal way of getting away getting around paying taxes. Okay Because if you understand that you’re going to have a business if you make six figures I’m going to use that business for leverage. You want to make sure that you tap into what was before the pandemic 495 deductions, but after the pandemic 675 Deductions you’re going to tap into that So make sure you get your piece of the pie like everybody else and make sure that money that you’re able to keep is Going to be now be used for your retirement 

CORWYN:

Makes perfect sense makes perfect sense So Shateka, I want to make sure we get your where can people reach you because 

SHATEKA:

Shateka.com Simple my name is right there. It’s spelled properly Shateka.com. Everything is there for you I have my business card on there for you Listen everything even the communities a little inexpensive community that’s on that AI and wealth community the top one the top two links on there when you go into it’s like a link tree different links to be able to See what I have to offer. I work primarily with executive military and Federal employees, but I work with business owners truck driver I work with a lot of different types of people but that’s primarily who I work with 

CORWYN:

So, you know, I appreciate what it is that you do. I mean I see you doing it and I appreciate That you see the serve first you speak So passionately about the things in this financial realm and about helping people to create financial security And retirement freedom that whole retire before you aspire thing that’s embedded for me right now And it’s not just about the income. It’s about protection. It’s about peace of mind It’s about those things that are intangible Which is the ability to be able to rest at night and not have this fear this worry or whatever it is that exists So if you don’t mind as it relates to how you assist and help people We talk a lot about legacy on this show again What we’re trying to do is get people educated and help them to establish So that the generation that they leave behind them is educated And in turn can do the same and so forth and so on that we’re adding to and not just consuming and taking away because we see people try to take care of their parents because they don’t want to place them and they Deplenish anything that mom or dad may or whoever may have everything is consuming versus adding to so Your strategy is what you advise. How does that play out into helping people establish and build their legacy? 

SHATEKA:

Sure, so basically it’s going to be around making sure that they have that long-term care in place based on what you just said So they’re looking to have something that’s going to help them to be able to supplement their income or their aging parent That’s going to be something that they need to put in place now, right? Like already have a long-term care plan on them Some people that may look like an iul or somebody may look like that’s a supplemental plan or they might have say another Actual Long-term care plan in place so that they don’t have to dig into their wallets But also on them and their husband so that they don’t become a burden for their child Later on in life when something happens medically, so I hope i’m answering your question. No, you are okay. 

CORWYN:

So yeah, okay So Shateka we have quickly gotten to the end of today’s show. I look I definitely want to make arrangements to get you back in I can’t wait For our audience to get this information and reach out to you because that’s what they should be doing But I want you to do one more thing for you the master class. What is it? How can people get connected to it? 

SHATEKA:

Absolutely. So basically on that link they can number one i’m gonna add it on there again because I don’t have it all the time live So they can actually message me So they can message my team and I as staff at winning and wealth.org if they have any questions Or they want to get into the master class if they don’t see it on shateka.com But I am going to put it on it right after here. So they’re going to say master class basically they can sign up for that and that would be a great way for them to be able to to come on board because I Haven’t primarily like once a month live something like that But my goal is to make sure that they’re in that class because I always say that retirement is not an age Retirement is an income. It’s you having an income that is going to be able to sustain you Beyond your work as a w-2 or even as a business owner, right? So how have you structured income so that you can now alleviate having to work at the end of the day people jump off their jobs They say i’m stepping out on faith. I don’t I advise against that Make sure that your passive income is meeting where you are now before you just jump off on the job. I think there’s wisdom Because people are doing it wrong and they have no retirement and they have to work for the rest of their life Because they didn’t allow their job to be their sponsor for their business before their business blew up because the business doesn’t always take off That might look like one person But that might look good for you and your work habits and your knowledge level your skill sets and you know Just so much and so wait till you see that your business is at least doing half of what you’re doing In salary before you even start to think about leaving your job a full-time job is paying you Benefits and all these things right? I would just advise against it when it comes to that because you need to make sure that you have something for your older Self your older self is going to thank you take care of your older self At the end of the day, I mean you all you to make sure that you have enough money Don’t just look at what the joneses is doing. Oh, they did it. I can do it Yeah, you can do it. You’re gonna do it right on your job until you see that you’re doing it That’s what we’re going to do I just believe in using wisdom when it comes to money because even the bible says that a man and money money was a fool And money would soon part And so I don’t need you to part with your money i’m gonna need you to keep your money because you used wisdom and you went to the Whoever your creator is and you said do I need to jump off my job yet? Do I really need to move right now? Maybe that person might be your wife or your husband or your children. What’s your why why are you doing what you’re doing? Because if your wife’s not great enough, you know, it’s not going to sustain you Anyway, you can’t just social nothing is about money. It’s about impact. It’s about income. It’s about retirement It’s about really moving from career to calling What are you called to do and I want to help people from a career to calling and live their best life because you have A sense of fulfillment where you’re doing what you know, you’re called to do you can’t go and work Because you know, that’s not what you’re called to do. That’s why you hate That’s not what I was called.

This is not why I was created. This is not why god made me You know what? I mean? So no, that’s what we’re talking about today I love it.

CORWYN:

I love it. So Shateka, again Thank you for being on with us today. Take your time out of your busy schedule to be here now I’m gonna hit a couple of takeaways guys for our listeners. Let me start with legacy guys isn’t Built only on making money. I think you just said that it ain’t about the money It’s built by protecting planning and positioning that money wisely so future generations can benefit It’s about freedom security And attentionality guys, we got to do that got to do that and Shateka final takeaway I have from what i’ve overheard with you today Retirement shouldn’t wait till old age. We ain’t gotta wait till we old We don’t when you structure the financials and the financing and the money and all that stuff early using smart tools protection education You take control of the legacy And you give your family a chance to thrive well beyond your years Shateka. Thank you so much again for being part of the Exit Strategies Radio Show family and for being on the show with us today

SHATEKA:

Thank you for having me. I’m excited to see how we can work together some more.

CORWYN:

Awesome awesome so for our listeners guys, look y’all know how I feel, you know what I say You know, I always put the two of those things together and I give it to you this way Was to tell you that I love you. I love you and we’re gonna see you guys out there in those streets