Going on the Offensive: How Robert Napolitano Crushed Bankruptcy and Helps Others Build Wealth with Alternative Assets

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 Wow, this episode is fantastic. Robert Napolitano did an amazing job. He brought an element of passion and truth and wisdom that you're going to just learn from its really, really good. Episode. Robert is a mortgage.

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 Note investor real estate investor.

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 With he founded, grit Partners. G RIT, he hit rock bottom in 2008-2009 that read when.

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 He ended up having to, he was being.

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 Foreclosed upon after, he thought he was killing it, in real estate thought he was, you know, he was sitting pretty making all this money and ends up being foreclosed upon and then ends up filing for bankruptcy, two days before his wedding, the big lesson with this one is how you turn you embrace your failures and how he embraced his failure and turns it into gold. You have to listen in for the how, the bankruptcy turned out because that's a fascinating part of the story. But man, it's a, this was a really, really good episode for anybody who's been through financial hardship. He's also been through a divorce which we talked about and really just kind of dealing with that ego and setting it aside and piecing things back together and using your strengths to serve others and really rebound. Robert had a post on LinkedIn that really brought That I found and that's why I reached out to him. And he and I know each other a little bit, but honestly, I didn't realize the episode would be this good and you're not going to want to miss it. Welcome to the form adversity, to abundance podcast. Are you an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur? Then this show is for you. Each week, we bring you in Paxil stories of real people who have overcome painful human adversity to create a life of abundance. You are not alone in your struggle, join us, and you will experience the power of true stories and gain practical Knowledge, from Founders, who have turned poverty into prosperity and weakness into wealth. This podcast will encourage you through your health relationship and financial challenges, so you can become the hero in your quest for freedom. Take ownership of the life, you are destined to live, turn your adversity into To abundance. Welcome everybody, to another episode of the form adversity, to abundance podcast. I am your host Jamie Bateman, and I am thrilled today to have with us, Robert, Napolitano Robert, how you do today doing? Awesome. Jamie, thanks for having me on here, absolutely.i. This is going to be a fun one. You are the founder of grit Partners. I know you already told me, you don't want to focus too much on title, but we're going to get into that and the kind of the meaning behind the name of your company Grit. Partners. But for the listener out there, take a minute or two and tell us who you are today and what you're up to. So I am I have been in the mortgage banking industry and real estate industry for 20 plus years. I started as my own private lender, I have been through Mortgage Banking or right into the great financial crisis that we had in 07 08 and 09. I have since then moved from real estate investing to buying notes. I started my first private note Fund in 2014 currently winding that down. Starting another iteration of that. And I also have another fund buying Life Settlements, but we will get into how that to play is with the whole thing, as well. But I have touched over a billion dollars worth of debt, whether it be originating it, modifying it, buying it, trading it. I mean, I have been doing this for so long, and I noticed, but every part about this business, love this business, I love the benefits. It brings to myself. My investors and the positive impact we have on homeowners out there as well-known as any other business like it that can you know serve all three of those facets in a positive way. Love it. Yeah that's awesome. There's a lot of the you touched on some of the reasons I got into the note space as well and I don't have as much experience on the mortgage side of things but I did work for mortgage broker and a title company back in the day, but it the mortgage note space as far as buying day, Residential debt specifically is a very Niche space that I know some of our listeners are familiar with but you know, a lot of people even who are familiar with real estate investing have no idea what we're what you're even talking about, but we will get into that. So it before we jump into your backstory, what is what, does a typical week or month? Look like just briefly. Give us a little bit more context about kind of your, your daily routine if you will my daily routine. So I am a father at first and foremost will get part of that story as well. How you go through life stages, and I am at a point in my life now where my time is my most valuable asset. And so, my children are my priority, I shape my day, my business, my tweak around, you know, their needs, whether we bring them to school in the morning. Pick him up later in the day doing activities with them. We just came back from a week. And in the Virginia mountains for a soccer tournament, it was great to get away. Like, I still did some work, you know, still, but it was nice to sit on the sidelines of a soccer game, breathing the fresh air reading a book and doing some phone calls and taking care of some work in my, you know, mobile outside office as well. So the freedom and the lifestyle options that we have accomplished our awesome and my day, really Is dictated by the needs of the kids and providing a good life for them because my number-one duty is to be a good fiduciary of God's children that he's blessed me with. I love it and to The Listener who may be thinking that Robert is blowing smoke and just wants to sound good. He's already given me a hard cutoff hard stop because he has to go pick up his kids here shortly. So you know he's not just saying that. So Robert the reason I reached out I know we have A spaz a couple times before we do run in similar circles. But the true reason I reached out to ask you to come on. Was I saw a post on LinkedIn that you'd put up in it and talked about some of the hardship that you have been through specifically financially, you know? But obviously that crosses over into other aspects of your life you know whether that's relationship, Health Etc. Let us jump into your backstory, you can pick it up where you'd like, but the point here is to focus on adversity, particular type of adversity, you know, period of adversity that you have been through, and then we're going to pull out some lessons learned. As we walk through chronologically back up to today. So where would you like to start Robert? That's easy for me to start because I was gone back down to my core. The people that know me know that I can be somewhat abrasive, that's one of the tenants of the name of grip partners because I can be somewhat gritty abrasive and I really don't care type of attitude for what people think about me. So I am going to tell everybody who's listening that I enjoy the f word, many F works. I am going to start with an F word that I embrace. I have learned to embrace and it took me a long time to embrace and The word is failure. One of my favorite word's is failure and I have been through many of them. But I have learned over time that unless we embrace our failures, we're not going to be able to move forward. And what I have learned is that failures is nothing more than the mileposts that we used to measure success, and he's successful entrepreneur, anybody that's been successful in anything extremely successful. And you ask them how they did it. They're always going to tell you about how many times they fail. And so, we measure our success in Failure, so I don't subscribe to the mindset of If you know, don't do things wrong, don't take risks. They way from failure. No, no, it's okay to fail and Brace, it learns from it. Sure, I love that. In fact, there is in the, in the Asian culture, something they call kansuke, okay? Sookie, most people don't know this, but I will give you the visual, think of a porcelain Vaz shattered, and then welded back together with gold. You have seen these items before, okay? And they, and it's very valuable art. And what they have done is, taken the broken item. Sure. And wield it all back together with gold and it creates a lot of value. Yeah. And in a sense, that's who we are as humans as well. We are broken people. We screw a lot of things up, and then less, we can mail those things back together, that make us who we are back together with gold. We're not going to find our true value and so it always starts with our failures because I have been at the top of the world at the bottom of the world at the same time and what I had at the top that I also have the bottom is my failures. They follow me everywhere, but if you knew how to embrace them and build upon them, then you can get anywhere you want. Well, that's awesome. So my, so I assume so yeah, those that's awesome. I mean, it's a lot of tweetable, a lot of quotes there. Let that you just a lot of gold nuggets. You just dropped, but that came out of somewhere. You didn't just read all that in a book. No I didn't check. Is it comes out of my core and that's right. So I am going to have to tell you a little bit of my story. Yeah, but the underlying driver behind there is embracing the failure. So I am here Are my parents I am Italian, I am been born in New York and my parents are, you know, off-the-boat Italian. There you speak broken English didn't finish High School came here to this country for a better life for their kids and my father drove a bus in Manhattan and my mother cut hair. Okay. We didn't have a lot of (Education). We didn't really have a lot of guidance growing up in the matters of business, and we had to learn pretty much what we learned from the streets, you know, those I was back in New York and late 70s early 80s and through the 80s. You know what was real. The news is everything about the mafia and the five families all and I stopped and so you kind of get your rules of how life happens. You know what, you see and all around. It is in fact, my family, as I understand that my grandmother and her side of the family was part of one of those families, and they moved away from that element to the United States to get away from break away from that. And so somewhere, back in my roots, I am Possible that I never knew any of them but, you know, I guess it's cool. It's never known anything. I guess, you go back to those memories. Remember seeing that distant Uncle cousin of that makes sense. Then we say connecting some dots in hindsight. Yeah. So you know they made they came from humble beginnings. They became self-made millionaires buying real estate. And the old-school way of saving and working hard and after our soccer games on the weekends, you know, we have to go and cut the lawn on the multifamily that my parents had or, you know, bring the Hot water heater to the basement, but my father, you know, try to do the welding and the sweating and the Pikes himself stuff. And so we learned as we went along and I always wanted to do thing like them, and they made did well for themselves, but I always knew there was a better way of doing it. So you know I learned how to do real estate for those traditional gurus. You pay your fee and you get your traditional education and that's how most people get into this business. Sure. And I thought was really good at it. I was good at it. You know, and so I was again and 08 and 09. I ran my own mortgage company. I was driving around in a convertible Porsche lending money single. You know, I was on top of my game and then I got hit by the, the great financial crisis. And it turns out that I sucked at real estate investing and what I was doing because I had no idea what was going on. And, so I actually lost everything because I was actually robbing Peter to pay Paul, and I was, you know, Seeing some of my mortgages with credit cards and trying, it can't be happening. To me, can't be happening to me, you're into the spiral and it's just, you know, it's crazy. What goes through your mind. All the stresses that come and I had no confidence and I started getting depressed and I don't know if I was ever going to be successful again and I got, you know, buried in debt, then the mortgage industry. Just, you know, collapsed had no more income coming in, so, how can I pay for any of this stuff? So, tell me before. I am sorry. Did we jump into that? What was Your real estate investing? I know you had your mortgage brokerage so you're lending money and doing transactions that way, right? But what was your investing? That rental properties, what did that look? Yeah, a little bit rental properties, I was doing some private lending and then small fix and flips. I was doing guy. So I started, you know, I started where everybody else starts to write. We all start either wholesaling, you know, trying to make money in real estate without using your own money or credit. That type of thing. You know, I didn't I skipped over that part and I started using My money parents, money, friends and family this summer rentals. They somehow I parents are doing the rentals. They were doing it figures, if they can do it, I can do it. So I didn't that, you know, and I wanted to get into. I start I started one of my mistake was. I started investing too early on investing out of state and not my backyard. I wanted to be big wave, you know. So I wanted to a state and I wasn't prepared for that. So I lost the money, you know, doing stuff in Arizona on the west coast and place. Is that I want it to be because they're too early. So, so that's a little. Like, from a personal stand by you already. You already gave us some insight, but you know, how well were you doing? You don't have to get too specific if you don't want to, but how well. And then how the hard was the crash for you? I was cheese. I was, I was probably just under making a million dollars in net worth back then. I had a couple of Million worth of real estate lending out of the street and only a couple hundred grand out of the street, and we were doing in loans, 40 million a month. In loans, we were doing it. Come, I mean, back then. I was so easy because you know, they would give him money with everybody, I mean. Yeah, I worked at a title company that have mortgage brokerage after that. I was rates kept dropping. And it's like they can't Any lower, you know. And then they did and then everybody was refined and you got to be option arms. Remember the option of arms the it healthy actually. Okay. Absolutely. There was, I mean just if you could fog a mirror, you could get along. So it's pretty easy to. It was good money back in was easy money back then sure. So we head into then 08-09, the crash happens. Yeah. Sounds like you're Overexposed from, you know, debts. And point. And like you said, robbing Peter to pay Paul and then take it from there. So I have a couple of things happening at that time. So I just In 01. I just gotten out of my first marriage, okay. And so going into that, you know, I have been dating it for a while stuff and everything. And, so I just at that time, been dating my now, wife my girlfriend back then, for a couple of years and I figured I was back on the, you know, making money got a good, a good woman next to me, things are going well and then all of a sudden that rug got taken out from others. So I had one good thing going for me, And a lot of things going before me. And, so I was trying to keep it all together, you know, ego type A personality denial. I can pull as myself out of this, you know, you can't tell me I am wrong. I do this but in the end, you know, couldn't get it done. And then it's hard for me to swallow my practice. I don't want to disappoint her, I don't want to disappoint, my parents didn't want to disappoint anybody but uh, you know, then what I look like that loser but I couldn't do it. I was labeled as a deadbeat. So I struggle me, I couldn't pay my bills. And then my, my last two properties, I was selling stuff off, the pay things off and my last two properties went into foreclosure. And so listen. I thought it was. I remember this distinctly. Always remember this that we were in my condo on the water. We were engaged at the time. Yeah we were engaged at the time, and she wanted to help me to pay some of my bills and try and help me to get organized. You saw that I was struggling and I just lost it on her and I just went off on her. Her to the point where I will never forget this vividly, she started making her cry, her bottom lip, started trembling, and she said, crying to me all I am trying to do is help you. My, it killed me. I was so. So ashamed of myself. That was my bottom right there that with my bottle, and I was saying to myself. If I screw this up with her then, Yeah, it doesn't work, right? You have already lost one relationship. I mean and you know and now you're doing the financial side, which is incredibly stressful. Yeah, but like I said it often we find that list guests on the show and really everyone deals with some level of Health relationship and financial diversity. And you know they're not isolated, right? So the financial stuff leads over to the relationship and vice versa. So what I learned in my divorce was when we went to counseling before, one of the best relationships fail for one of three reasons, money, we occasion or sex. One of those three things, they all tie into sure, and they and money just bleeds into the emotional side of it, the mental side of it, it just, it's all tied together or it happens. So happy that Health, physically, mentally emotionally, and spiritually is totally important. Totally, absolutely. So she tries to She offers to help you, don't take kindly to it. You know, don't respond in a way that you're proud of now, right? And, and, you know, that's your rock bottom. So what happens after that? I met the realization that not only do I suck in real estate but I suck as a man broken at that point. So I had to do so that's when my decision, that's when I was like, okay, does it get any worse from here? Okay. And that's what I talked about before, but in the end when you have nothing but your failures, You embrace them and you start picking up the pieces, start getting that gold and start putting it back together. It was my gold, I was the broken one, let us start putting stuff together. And so yeah, acquiesce I am at the bottom where we build from here, and we went forward to get engaged and get married and I actually filed for bankruptcy, two days before we got married. Okay, but I had that fight in me saying that's happening. So what I was doing at that time, I could give you a little context of what I was doing at trying to make money being that, I knew the banking industry, and if you remember back, then there was a lot of improper foreclosures going on and a lot of things where the bank's didn't have the notes, the merge, the bottle, the robo-signing, all that stuff going on. And, so I have a lot of knowledge on how that works. So I actually started a litigation support company, doing foreclosure defense in New York and New Jersey. And, so I was hired as a banking expert, I did expert reports, mortgage audits, It's I actually have and was credited with an amicus brief in the state supreme court of Massachusetts. Well, so I am in the record books and up there as being an expert on stuff. And, so I was doing okay, we were making some money, you know, wasn't like the money I was making before when I was helping people, stay at home, stop in some illegal foreclosures. I started educating attorneys and how this works and so it wasn't enough to keep up with everything, and so I did the bankruptcy too. Before I got married, because I didn't know if my bankruptcy was going to affect her good credit her job and all that stuff and everything. So I said, you know what, let me just put the firewall here and I will go into b k. So we did a Chapter 13 where we're going to try and restructure everything. And what my attorneys, I told him what was going on inside of the bankruptcy with my last two, Predators with two of the big too big to fail Banks. The big institutions. I said, let us fight up because, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on here. I am a fighter. Let us go 38 adversarial proceedings, and we did And, so I have two lawsuits inside my bankruptcy going on. I will keep the story short, it's all documents about on public record but I ended up beating the banks to the point where the bank's settled with me and paid my entire bankruptcy estate paid all my creditors paid all of my attorneys bills and I walked away with a nice big check out of my bankruptcy and I started my note fund with that because I went through that and it was such a nasty experience Is that people need to be treated better. This way, what these banks are doing. It is just so, you know, nefarious, it is just, it's terrible with it, but people through and I wanted to do it better and I saw how they were trading notes and how the mortgage backside worked and all this stuff work, that's I can get into this business. I know this business went to law school, become a paralegal back then to as I wanted to learn the lead system and have us works as a lot of this happens inside of the legal system. So I did So myself. So you took a, I mean, you obviously took your strength and your experience that your expertise, right? And you apply that and then you took your own pain that you felt and experienced through this. And that was some of the that was those two elements were some of the goal that you're talking about and to put these pieces back together and start rebuilding. So for the listener you're talking about, you were getting foreclosed upon right by these Banks. So, you know, we ideal in the non-performing notes space, we do foreclosures and so kind of briefly compare and contrast, what should have foreign foreclosure have looked like and what were they? These Banks actually doing. So, that's a great question because I do I see both sides of it and it's unfortunate because I like to help people where I can, you're not going to be able to help everybody. Now. So what I, what I have reconciled in my head and my heart is and I will do everything that I can, as the no donor to help people stay in their homes. Try to find the payments, make it very affordable. You know, I can take, you know, we get very creative and how we do some of the stuff I can take over payments. And keep people in homes and still be profitable if it makes us. But the one thing I can't do never could bring to the table is the income. If they can go and provide an income on the other side of the table, I can work with them. I can take care of the rest but I could not provide the income and so when we did a lot of the Foreclosure defense, I was there to help because the banks were illegally foreclosing will do the proper procedure and stuff. But then you see people take advantage of System as well. I saw the ugly side. I was like, okay, so I see this side of it to that's not why I am here to help you take advantage of the system. So to know that they are out there too. And so you try to pick and choose who you can help that comes down to the income who's being open honest. Look, I want to stay in the house but I want to be accountable and I want to make payments great. I am happy to work. Yeah, I am previous podcast. I have previous episodes as well as previous podcast. I have you know talked about this as far as just it's almost like parenting. It's like you can only do so. So much. I mean, you have a play a large role in influencing your child's behavior and their decision-making and things. But at the end of the day, if there's no communication, there's no effort or there's no ability on the borrower's part 2, like you said, producing have income and make these payments, there's only so much you can do. So yeah you have people taking advantage on both sides if it that's for sure. Absolutely. Yeah and like you, we don't we're not out to 4 Clothes, that is not our intent. We do try as good as possible to keep everyone in their home. At the end of the day that property is the collateral, you know, on that debt though and that's your recourse when compared to buying stocks and things like that. But that's for another episode. So let me say something about that, do because you're right because I agree with you. So my foreclosures my last thing that I want to do but for a different reason though, see when I was doing my, what I learned was when I was doing the Mortgage Banking, do it. Well you know, you get paid on a transactional. Asus my used to say back then you know you're only as your net worth was your pipeline and even that deals didn't close. Your pipeline wasn't really worth much. But the day you close is the pores day of your life. Because looking forward, you got no paycheck. How many you got to work for the next want to chase the next level? And so you're always chasing the next closing, and chasing the next closing until that pipeline closes and the rugs get pulled out from under you. So From there, at that moment, I never want to get back into a business where my check and my income was dependent upon pipeline or transactional based. So, going into these loans and modifying is my biggest priority, because once you do and modify the loan, I now get paid with no effort. Sure I get that makes no effort and so that passive income that much money is what I want to do to build. So I don't necessarily, I don't want to foreclose. Yeah. Because it's the best thing to do anyway, I want to build my portfolio more and more, and more of this passive income coming in, because I was in that spot where it was Reliant upon me to go to work every day. They're flipping our we have flipping wholesaling or prank, it's transactional. And but that, so this change in Europe, Approach to your business is what has now allowed you to go to the mountains in Virginia, no work. A little bit here and there, but it's more and more passive as time goes on because you're being intentional about that. So, I love this. That's awesome. Yes, I know you make, you make the money, go to work and the dollars, go to work, so that you can recapture your time. Sure, that's different Minds. Yeah, no, I mean, we have had some big wins in our npl fund or non-performing Loan Fund. But then what, you know, like you said, it's it. Now I got to do it again. I got to put this money to work, you know. There's a lot of pressure, a lot of work associated with that. So, so then, so pick it up, where how's the story continued from there? Weird. I leave off that was in the oh, I guess I got so. So, one of the other things that so the second property inside, the bankruptcy actually got foreclosed on. So we ended up going to get that for Was your undone that was a big mess because the bank at that point had already sold it to another family, if that's, wow, it's a property. And I think actually just did this myself for the first time was I undid a foreclosure last month, but I will save that. So that's. So they try to do that. Yeah, so they tried to do that. But they couldn't, you're saying because the proper they did. They did, they did sell it, somebody else. And so at that point, Point. You know, I was going to our lawsuit continued and, you know, we had to get it on my own again. They decided to settle with me because I knew I held all the cards and I didn't hold out. It's even interest more interesting that we had such a big seller with that my attorney turned on me, and he want to get paid more. So, even he, so it's amazing. Has nobody believes you can do any of this stuff and, you know, I mean all of a sudden it shows up magically because you drive and the grit to do as most. Everybody wants to take a bite out of you, all of a sudden they were In your corner of the whole time, right? All the whole time exactly how much she was going to get out of and I won that as well. So it's been, it's been a long journey. So after that, Got married and went through, I went through all this in the court, those years. But here's what I found, I found that, you know, we were blessed enough, whether the birth of my first child, came a couple months after we were married and that is it. We got a picture somewhere to be posted on LinkedIn as well. I got a picture. Someone took me of the first Day to my daughter, was born in me, nose to nose with her, and that's when I made my promise, that's what changed made that, it wasn't about me anymore. Now, it's about, you know, No, being that responsible person for somebody else's life. And that's when I had my renewed Faith with God and myself, because God doesn't think I am a deadbeat, otherwise he wouldn't have given this responsibility to me. He actually thought I was worth something. Say, hey, you know what? I think you can take care of my child, and that's a big responsibility when I take very seriously. And so, that's been another foundation. So, you take your failures, and then your faith in yourself and your faith in God, that gives you your fortitude, your focus. Brings it to a good family to have some fun and you work the finances on top of it and that helps you become a great fiduciary. For other people's money. Those are like those at Ford's. Yeah, that's a lot of words. That's awesome. I love it. So okay. So you now you have got children and you have got a family that's growing. And, and what is your, what's take us up through today? I know there's a lot of ups and downs, but from the birth of your daughter through today, what did things look like? So, so build in my fawns, 25 million dollar fund, we raised most of that we got we're almost to our goal of 25 million and this was 2014 2015. You so we started in 2014 is when we start at. Yeah, okay, so I got out of the bankruptcy, we finally closed out the bankruptcy in 2012. 2012 2013, right around there, we finish that up, and so I took my settlement and then you know started with the real estate note fund at that point. So at that point, when you just curious because I have a couple funds but I have only been doing it for, you know, a couple of years as far as the funds go. You'd already had a lot of exposure to that or at least that world in general, right? The fun side. Well, at least seeing people with funds or I guess my question really, okay? So how did you decide to start a fund and who did you model? How did you learn what? You know, it's kind of, a big, big thing to just start off with in the Note space. So I think I tried, so I try to look for signs that God sends me and all of a sudden at that moment in time the jobs act that come out and everybody want to do this tablet phone. So he dangles, this in front of me. Well, I am with my Egos and you want to do, with fund manager, went to be a fun picture. All the stuff is going like, oh, this sounds cool. Why not? So being the risk-taker that I am. Embrace your fails. When I just been through. I could use a break and go get you another screw up the else. So let us go. Try beautiful. Nice. Why not try? Why not? So I went I don't know how I found them. I found an advisor at that point. There was a group. Who was helping emerging managers put their funds together, do training on it, and then they were also put you on a stage in front of a credit investors and you can pitch your detail and get your first money in it. So I did that whole thing got some money out of that and then moved on and started raising money ever since and it grows in there. So I started with my own money friends and family and It's scary. It's especially when it's not your money and other people's money. It scared. You don't want to screw it up even though absolutely, you know, we're nothing but a bunch of screw-ups, you know, we hope that people don't, you know, look at our flaws even though we are all flawed but I knew enough of the business and I have been through enough of the battlefield. I mean going through what I went through in the legal side I felt strong enough that what really can happen to me that's worse than that. So I felt that I was prepared for the worst-case scenarios and so you know at that point back then I said going into this and it's been building back up again. I didn't want to play off as I want to play offense and defense simultaneously and so that was different and one thing That I didn't I always had it back of my head when I started my funds that coming out of the bankruptcy, one thing that I saw that I was always amazed with was how these Banks put these mortgage-backed Securities together, and they had this thing called a credit default swap with ultimately acts, like an insurance policy that any risk that they take the insurance policy government, and I said coming out into doing our funds. What's out there like that? That can help me and cover my screw-ups and pay. When I screw it up, there's nothing out there but insurance. C. So if I am going to have other people come into my funds, and I know that I am a little bit of a scrub, how do I protect him? If I get the screw up, there's nothing out there. I am sorry. I was always on the search for that. And so that's where my life settlement fund comes in. We started a couple of years ago. It's around life settlement fund that we put together acts as our insurance to help take on some of the risks that we do on this dress real estate side. So and obviously we're not going to have time to get The too many of the Weeds on that but that's entirely separate. I mean the two things that's entirely separate, right, but few months it all comes under the, the brand of grip partner's got it that it's one of our offerings that we do the, the non-performing notes, the private lending and then the Life Settlements as a suite of offerings. And so it becomes safer that way. So going back to, you know, when I was given my children and to be responsible for them, it kind of it into my investors will, how do we play it safe for them to as you want nothing to happen to them and their money. So it was always a couple Focus tuna a couple of cookies. First did the, did the bankruptcy, you're in your history have any? It sounds like you were able to raise a lot of money pretty quickly. So did that become a problem from an investor standpoint? Did anybody ask you about that? So I have to disclose it which I did in my PPM, so it was always this close that my PPM In fact, the attorney that did my documents and see how to write it all up, out of tell him the whole story. He was so impressed. He helped raise some money. So he goes, 30 years I have been doing this. I have never heard of such a story. Yeah, they thought you don't like to fight back and win, right? Get that settlement. That's awesome. And yeah, I mean, the like you said, everyone's a screw-up. I mean, there's no there's risk in every investment, right? Right. And so, as an investor passive investor, I might say well Robert has been through hell and back. I trust, no one more than him because he's been there, right? Whereas you know, somebody else who hasn't been there that we don't know how they would handle it. I totally agree. That's absolutely right. That when people ask, you know, about your wins I am like I want to know about your losses. Tell me what you like, what you do. So it's not about avoiding risk. It's about fair, you handle and mitigate the risk. Risk is there? Sure. Absolutely. And so, how do you handle a? How do you manage it? And I think that's the better question for investors. Yeah. As you slowly and then the second question, the, the life settlement part of it. Again, I personally, you know, love to spend a whole episode on that. But what is that just high level? What does that look like for an investor? What is that? It's similar to buying non-performing notes? I actually call it the cousin of npls could still buy paper, you still buy a future. A payment you're buying it up today. Its value in today's discounts the difference is you know the trigger events upon the maturity of the policy. You get paid a large sum of money as long as you keep the monthly payments going it. So it's a simple mathematical equation, how to do all that. And so with very little overhead, honestly monetizes time and so it acts as a great hedge and what we call The shock absorber of all the risk and absorbs a lot of risk with very little overhead. So these are life insurance policies where you're the person that the policy expires before the person does, you know, know so it goes like so, so, so, let me give you an example. So, there's many of these policies out there that people use for State planning, let us say, for generational wealth transfer, where they the policy is still a valid policy, but they get abandoned. So we look for the these abandoned policies. There's okay in policies if there's a company that goes into a bankruptcy or becomes insolvent. These policies are assets, and they can be sold and Abandoned and boarded a big discount and so you continue to make the payments on these policies, and they become very, very valuable. I saw pick him up at a big discount right? So these are all these are Whole Life policies but yeah have cash value, yes. Understood I see I learned things along the way to, but yeah. Okay, got it. So, you have got three primary kinds of offerings within your within great Partners. Talk to us a little bit more about grit Partners. Why is it called great partners and, and again, just what is the business look like? Yeah. So again, rip Partners is just our branding piece that we have the three verticals that the stress side the private lending and the end the Life Settlements. And so we don't really do much in the private lending. We do private lending where it helps one of our internal deals, whether it be on the distress, real estate site, or that life settlement side. We don't make it a primary Core Business. There's so much going on out there. There's so much competition, there's better ways of making money the point Capital my opinion, but we haven't but it's you know, as we need it we will put it out there and do it. But you know, the distress side like I said, we're winding down fund one, we're going to be starting up fun to, that's a seven. That's a little over seven years now where we have had a. So we're going to win that down, and then we do that for a number of reasons, some of, which is to, you know, gentrify some of our capitals back and send some people along their way, which he did that people in your lives. But at least with your investor base, you can do some of that and That's right. So you. So speaking of you said, yeah, I think you alluded to the fact that you're going to start a new fund or you're in the process. What do you foresee just in general? I know no one has a crystal ball, we're not looking for Porsha, no Market predictions, but what are you how are you changing your business based on market conditions and what you see in the future? So I am doing a couple of things. I personally think we're about to see from the distressed note space. I probably go to see some of the best opportunities will see in our Lifetime. I think that we're going to and it's not hard to conclude some of this looking at where we are on the world with our leadership, where we are in a global stage on a domestic stage. You know our leadership is taking us down some, some pretty chaotic paths, I am with that creates a lot of uncertainty. A lot of the stress I think you're going to see a lot more bank failures commercial real estate failures which are going to lead. Unfortunately, a lot of jobs loss more loss in the stock market, and more opportunity for these distressed assets to come onto the market place. We will be able to pick up a bigger discounts. I think this industry and participants like you and I will become more valuable because of the leveraging process that we become a part of and being a part of this to leveraging process for people, and the homeowners is so important. And doing it in the manner in which we do is of great importance. I think there's any fewer people doing this and more opportunity for us to grab our piece and I think that the best days for this business or just ahead of us are not that far ahead of us, I have been doing some advising to be a paid advisor for some younger groups who want to get into this business and graduate from the traditional real estate, investing. And, so I have been taking some positions and their management company as well. So I am doing a couple of things where I am still staying active but at the same time becoming more passive LP as well at the same time. I think I can create my own portfolio and help others to build their portfolios of the same time and have a greater reach. And that's what I am trying to do now is a little bit of both. And then, you know, Life Settlements will go across all sorts of asset classes. I can put out there as well. So I am doing my part to really scale, we're partners and what I think is going to be a huge windfall for this industry and it's needed because you know, a lot of these fires when you a lot of firefighters and that's what we are. And there's not enough of us out there. You can't just artificially prop things up for forever. I really can't and some point. Now, do you. You don't mess with the commercial debt space. Ace is all residential I do mostly residential. I don't really touch commercial. They are different beats, they're not different Beast. I just, you know, I am so busy in the one side. I have no need or desire to go to that side with the learning curve is there? I just know desire to I could. But, uh, yeah, no, I am gonna stick with what I know and I have got exactly plenty to do already. So exactly what it is doing this side. Yeah, awesome. Well, I have got some, some rapid fire questions here. If you're ready. I think, I think you're ready. Robert. What's one thing that people misunderstand about you about me? Yeah, you personally. That's a good question. You know, they say that a jar can read its own label and you're asking me to read my own label. That's a good question. So no matter what I say, I am going to be wrong, I am going to. So I do have a I do when I am in the public and out and work and business mode, I do have more of a tight collar stickler and abrasive side to me more businesslike, but behind that, on the biggest kid you will ever meet my kids and I think, I am a bigger kid than they are and it's imperative for us to have a laughter in this house, and we wake up till after every morning. But I don't show that out in public as much. So that's one thing I guess people could misunderstand about me. So you have forced family, fun. I am just kidding. Now, the other way around. It's forcing its Force, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Got it forced seriousness on the business side. Yes. We already talked about your failures and embracing them. Is there anything you want to add there? As far as Lessons Learned From embracing your failures? I wish everybody a Successful Failure. That's right with everybody because pathetic failures don't have to stay as failures. There are successes if you look Beyond them so don't let it go to waste. Don't let it go to waste. You need to look through these roadblocks and this adversity to see the solution on the other side. As long as you can keep moving forward, you will get to the other side. Always So this might be ties right into the next question, but if you could go back and give your 18 year old self some advice, what would that be? To learn quicker as we have learned the lesson, but I wish you would have done. It sooner is not to be the kinetic. Learner, if you tell me that pot is hot, I still got to touch it. And still get burned, you tell me that, you know, because or if I can see the smoke and steam coming off the boiling water, but I shouldn't touch. I am still going to touch it. So but I have learned that later on to learn from other people's mistakes, I just wish they would learn. That sooner got it. It's a good answer. If you were given ten million dollars tomorrow, what would you do with it? So, not for an investment and not from an investor for your fun, but just somebody writes you a check, what would you do with it? 20% of it. I am giving away, 20 percent of it. I am investing and 40% of it. I am spending with the family. Nice awesome. What's one challenge that you're facing in your business right now? So interesting, the challenge that I am currently facing is, I think a channel is that everybody is facing, that's since we're on the back, end of a pandemic. Now, the way the world operates and does business have changed and a lot just like we're having this meeting now in digital the digital platforms. So coming from, you know, a business that I have done for 20-something years when we shake hands and look people in the eye, get to know them as a character before I Did was with them learning how to do that and showing. So this is how you got me too, because I am being forced to show are vulnerabilities on LinkedIn, which was tough for me, not so much to tell the story, but getting a LinkedIn stuff going and getting the marketing going. And now integrating social media and social platforms into my business, to go along with my messaging of what it is that we're doing. Is my biggest challenge. I am getting there making forward progress obviously since we're here talking about it now it's starting to work but that's my biggest challenge. I think a lot of people face that now. You know, dealing with the new technology and doing business, in a social environment, is a little bit of a, an uphill battle, wonder, how that has affected the mob in their operations, and I am just, you don't have to respond to that one. Let us play. Let us see what's one occupation that you'd like to try that's entirely Off the Wall, totally separate from what you actually do. Occupation. I like to try. Why did you get questions? Honestly, when I think about stuff like that, I like going to vary very, very occupations or roles that don't get enough attention or credit. So, you know, back in the day, when they were collecting tolls on the bridge, I am going to be a toll collector. Hmm. Okay. You get to meet people and just read people, and they're on their way and you just Nice. No one's answered like that before. So that was original. How about a book that you can recommend for our listeners out there could be on you know, Failure or business or whatever? You'd like I have a couple of the reading. Okay, they're outside on my deck that I have all them file. The one that I always go back to is thinking Grow Rich is always a great one, that's very popular from the sale side. There's a book called tell to win is a great book. I am reading one now called free suasion. She will -she will Deanie Dr. Child anything is cause name. He's been unheard-of it. Ray down those principles. Hmm. Yep. The bankers code by George Antone. He's got the bankers code, the millionaire debt and the wealth code. Awesome. It's there's a think 55 really good ones. So nice. Robert. What how do you like to serve others? Put you on the spot here. It's a good question. To good.

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 Question.

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 If I gave you an answer, it wouldn't be a real answer. Because the first thing I would need to know is person I am talking to, how can I serve them? Hmm. I had a one-size-fits-all, that wouldn't be authentic. Okay, I love that. So, I would say by listening. Yeah, let us go. Perfect hands. Yes, so by listening, oh, there's my answer by listening. Thank you. Oh, that's really good. Have we had, I missed anything? What should we cover before? We get out of here? Oh my goodness. So how did I start playing Guitar? I do. I can't read the music. I can't read music. So I played by ear. That's awesome. My guitar is like my it's like my pet that my guitar was always there for me in my darkest days, always there to help soothe me. Always help there to help cleanse me emotionally. I am there were plenty of times that I was, you know, moving whether it be, I lost my place. Got out of a relationship. Divorce, is that my guitar always have the front seat with me because I was my best friend that's been replaced in the last 14 years. Now actually more, unless we're married for 14 together. Another four years so you let her sit up front, you don't make it in the back well and now the kids fight who sits up front, how so. So I am lucky enough to have two kids and the wife and then the car, that's where the guitar sounds, I am going to warm up because that's where it ends up, which is fine. But it's taken me, bridged, me long enough to get to, you know where we're fighting over the front seats now. But I will tell you how I learned in high school buddy of mine. Very popular kid. And Joe acaba was named was a very good guitar player had an illness, didn't come to school for a month, went to go visit him at his house and when I got there, the mom started crying saying you're the only one that's come to visit him. I said really be so popular. There's no one, and he's so depressed that he thinks everybody forgot about, and he's in the basement. So when the baster, and he had his guitar on his shoulder, it was really good to tourist. I think all that's cool thing I do you want to try, I was like Sure, put it on my shoulder and at that point it's like he crowns me, that was his best and only friend in the basement that was with them through this hard time, and he showed me a c chord and I play AC chord. And then from there, I was hooked. I went home, listen to my Bon Jovi, records. I had a little broken guitar, my closet with two strings that were Out Of Tune. And I play just on the strings, trying to be, you know, Bon Jovi and all that rockers back then like who in my ear and I can pick up a song and Play. But not verbal still plays. Still served its purpose. That's a really cool. Cool story. Yeah, we I can tell you everything, you know, has a purpose. You obviously, I mean you have very a lot of intention and the background for those watching on YouTube and you know, you obviously take a lot of very intentional with your life. I love that. So Last question. What second to last question? What do you know we talked about some of the financial hardship? You have been through and again not trying to pry too much but what does Financial abundance look like today for you? And what does it mean to you? So actually, we just so part of my advising and I do some, some training. I was on actually, one of my sessions and modules today, and we talked about that and it goes right back to what you see here. Best for freedom, freedom. That's what everybody wants. When you move up the scales of society, the economic scale a society, and moving up that economic ladder, it's because you want more freedom or freedom of Choice, more freedom of movement, more freedom of speech, more lifestyle options, more freedom of where we're buying our Essentials every day, more freedom of where we live more freedom. When we want to go on vacation more freedom and have, you know, get released from this debt prison that we're in these emotional prisons that were in these mental prisons that were in, you know, everything on TV today, is there to fear monger and saber-rattling to scare everybody into submission. It's so old Of our freedoms and every level is being attacked. And so what Financial frequent financially success means is the more you can rise above that, the freedoms that you have. That's when you are financially successful is the more freedom that you have. And that's it going back to. That's why I love this business to because where you can put your money to work, free up your time, the more financially for you become. So I look at it not so much as a dollar amount. But how much time you have to do what it is that you want by? Choice her. Well, you already said at your time, is your most valuable asset most valuable resource, which I normally say. At the end of every episode, I may have borrowed that from another podcast host. But it's so true though it really is so you can't replace it, right? Can't replace time. So, so Robert man, this has been awesome. You have been vulnerable and you know, talked about embracing your failure and if you have got a Very inspirational story. So, thank you so much. Where can our listeners find you online? Oh, so I am just, I have a presence only really on LinkedIn. You can, you know, search for the real Robin app. You will find my profile connect with me there. And we're also, we're also pushing forth this concept of capturing tomorrow where we want people to look forward. Look. Towards the abundance of the future. Look towards the next Generations. And, and taking what time we have today, they capture abundance for our future and our children tomorrow. So capturing tomorrow, people can email me a brilliant at capturing tomorrow.com, because you want everybody to be brilliant at capturing their tomorrow. So brilliant that capturing tomorrow.com, that's their first affirmation of doing. So is by writing it with their fingers. They want to become brilliant of capturing tomorrow. Awesome. And your Website is great, trust Dr. Yar I trust that calm. Yes. Itís. Got it won t well to tease total when Tina website. Yes. Why Trump's the end of trust? But yes. Robert thanks. Thanks for time, man. Has been fantastic. I know our listeners are going to get a ton of value from this. So really appreciate you taking the time. Any time. Jamie, I appreciate you. Inviting me on here. I really appreciate it. I know you gotta go pick up your kids, so we will get out of here. And thanks to the listener out there for spending your most valuable resource with us and that is your time. Thanks everyone. Take care investors. Have you ever experienced challenging communication or the headache of tracking taxes and insurance meet by Phi a Loan Servicing Company founded by investors for investors with an expert team and best-in-class vendors by Phi will partner with you to service your loan from start to exit visit by Phi l an S.com to see how you can get started today. That's bi fil s.com. Thank you for spending your most valuable resource with us your time. If you like the show, please share it with your friends and fellow podcast listeners. One entrepreneur at a time. We can change the world. See you next time.