How Losing Loved Ones Early Propelled Real Estate Investor Chris Larsen to an Abundant, Impactful Life

Speaker 2

00:00

 On this episode of the form adversity, to abundance podcast. I interviewed Chris Larson of next level income. Chris is a friend of a friend, kind of thing. I have become friends with Matt for, who was on episode 4 and Matt is pretty close with Chris Larson. And so that's how we got connected. But Chris has a, he really gets vulnerable and I really appreciate that on this episode. So we talked about the death of his father, the death of his mother, and the death of his best friend. And when I say best friend, it sounds like, you know, that's, they were extremely close. Like the kind of friendship, almost, like, just brothers, where you just can't even, you know, replicate that with someone else. And so, we spend a good bit of time, focusing on that adversity. And then we kind of pivot to how he got to. To where he is today, which is he's a real estate investor, he's an educator. He runs with business partners, he runs multiple funds. He they focus on multifamily. I believe it's multiple different funds, but they purchase multifamily assets. Self-storage, car, washes, they operate at a very high level, no pun intended, with the next level income. He also does use version of infinite banking. We didn't talk too much about that, but he's a very successful guy financially, and we get to his wife or that ton of really inspirational material is touched on here, and we, you know, we cover a lot of ground. The human element is front and center with this one. And again, it's it really boils down to he just appreciates the value of time and the limited amount of time that we have on this Earth. And, you know, the more Resources that one can have access to the greater the impact that person can have. And so just very inspiring you know Chris didn't come from a ton of money, and he's just been a hustler was in the medical field before and now has been in real estate I think for the last 15 years something like that. So I really enjoyed this episode and again Chris is he's got his own podcast he's got a big following, so I do appreciate him taking the time out to chat with us, you know. Especially since this we're just getting this thing launched and but this is he's the ideal. Just went through a ton of adversity, use that adversity to get to a point of, you know, an abundance mentality, and he's definitely living an abundant life now. So I know you're going to like this one.

Speaker 1

02:56

 Inspiring stories of real people overcoming incredible odds to live life to the fullest. We are all guaranteed to face. Hardships, how will we handle the adversity? Join us to be moved by every hey, people who have turned poverty into prosperity and weakness into wealth Be Inspired as these relatable Heroes, get vulnerable and former counterintelligence investigator Jamie Bateman puts his interviewing skills to the test, restore your faith in humanity as you experience. True Cinderella stories of average people turning surreal struggle and deep despair into booming, businesses and financial Fortune. Take ownership of the life. You are destined to live and turn your adversity. To abundance.

Speaker 2

03:46

 Welcome everybody, to another episode of from adversity, to abundance podcast. I am your host Jamie Bateman, and I am super excited. Today as I am joined by Chris Larson of next level income. Chris, how are you doing today? Jamie, I am doing great, awesome! So I know you were somewhat familiar with each other and do you have your own podcast and you have a bunch of, you know, Investments you have a several funds? I think that you run and you have a lot of going on. I know you're a busy guy. So again, I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your The schedule to chat with us, for those listeners who are not familiar with you. Once you give us kind of high-level overview of who you are. Today, what you have going on? Yeah, thank you for that. Look, I love this podcast because one of the big things that I talk about is the abundance mindset and it's so important. The number one thing I tell people that they can do is surround themselves with people. With the abundance mindset versus scarcity. You have to eliminate those people from your life and you really have to be ruthless. Unfortunately, when it comes to that a spending time around the right people and also if you're listening today, you can grab a copy of my book. I will send you a free copy next level. Income.com just click on the book link and it talks a lot about the things that we're going to talk about that today. Jamie. But yet today, we have next level income, we focus on two things. Number one is education, helping people become financially independent and giving them the resources to do it. And then yeah, we also have investment opportunities for investors and work mostly with accredited investors. And what we do is we search for institutional quality assets. We're looking for, you know, hundred-plus actually more like two to three hundred unit apartment. Complex is at this point Hotel self-storage units, mobile home parks. We started buying car washes this year after building out a team four. Carwashes, I have actually just in Nashville, right around the corner. From our friend, Matt, who I believe is on, yeah, episode of suggest your research for Matt. For, yeah, that for episode 4 can't handle. Shout out to you there, buddy. And fascinating industry, that's very straightforward, but really has a lot of opportunities going forward. So, yeah, we got a lot of different things that we have done, and we're doing today and you have excited to talk about all that as well as kind of what brought me here. Yeah, now, that's awesome. I mean, that seeing a saw a couple things then in the headlines today, as far as the stock market, I don't know. I am not happy about it but you know, I am in, I am in. Real estate in notes, mortgage notes. And, you know, I think if nothing else people are going to be looking for something else that may be a little more stable and recession resistant, so, I would guess it. Just, you're in some pretty good asset classes there and, you know, looking pretty good going forward as far as your backstory. Let us get into that a little bit. I have heard you on a couple of other podcasts and again I know you have a good following with your own show as well but you know refresh my memory and for the listeners unfamiliar with you if you don't mind dive into some of the adversity you have been through and again for the listeners out there, this is not we're not trying to you know pry or get into topics at the guess is uncomfortable with. I am not a therapist you know but the real whoa I thought that's after this. You know. I will just take some training online. Real fast and send you a bill. But now Yeah, you know, the fact is, we all have, we all have adversity, we go through it, just takes on different, different forms. And we talked a little bit about this last week. I think it was, you know, and everybody's stories different. Everyone's born into a different situation, different circumstances. So once you tell the listeners kind of some of the hardships that you faced in your life. Yeah, I just look I just finished up a lunch with the friend. Stir. And they were looking at my book, and they said, man, I really I am sorry you lost both your parents. So and I said, you know, we all have challenges that we have been through in our own lives and it's different for all of us. But I have kind of different take on this Jamie. And I think, you know, look if you're listening to a show like this, maybe you already know it yourself, but I think the earlier in life that you face a challenge, the stronger, you are in the latter part of your life. I think that's, that's There's actually some research out there that shows children that have lost parents end up, being more successful later on in life, and it's an uncomfortable reality, it's not one you but I lost my father. When I was five years old, he was only 41. I am not too far from that past. That just here a couple of years ago. My mother passed away 10 years ago but the biggest impact in between those two is my best friend died when we were in college, and he was like a brother Her to me, use my training partner, he was my roommate. He's the kind of person that, you know, you just look at and you know what they're thinking and you laugh at the same things but you're the only two people in the room laughing because nothing's been said, but you guys just you just know the see how it was. Yeah. And I mean we spent a lot of time together on the bike training traveling to races. Yeah. It was, it was very impactful and I put my head down and my therapy at that time was racing my bike, I race bicycles. I did that for about 12 years and I raised for another year and I came out the other side and I just thought like, what am I doing? You know, I meant for more than this and that's really the start of my journey into the financial space because said, well, I need to live life to the fullest and I need to honor the life. That my friend Chris is name was Chris as well. Didn't have the chance to live and the do that. Jamie you need financial resources in this world. So, you know, I went to look I am not, I am open. Like I said, I am an open book here. I have been to, I have been to therapy. I have explored these issues and how it affects my current relationships. And I think one thing that's interesting, and this might not be, we're talking about here today, but look, we hire coaches, like we hire real estate coaches. We have trainers. Like, you know, Michael Jordan had a trainer. In addition to, you know, his coaches, we do this in every area of our life. Yeah, when it comes to things like relationships, so we can't shy away from it. Yeah, no. And the reason I am chuckling is my wife and I were literally talking about this last night, this exact topic. Yeah. But uh, yeah and I do want to get back to that. So and again, not trying to drill down to too far into painful topics but bringing on either with your parents or with your friend, your best friend, Chris speak, a little more about that as far as just kind of what were the causes of death, or what was kind of the surrounding situation at the time. And your mindset at that time. Yeah. It was my father was a pilot. He actually died in a plane crash in a single-engine plane, and he's from Wisconsin, and I was actually supposed to be with him on that plane, and he was flying up to Wisconsin to meet my mother, my sister and myself, in Green Bay, which is where the airport is there, and he was coming in around dusk in his engine failed about 10 miles out from Shore, and if anybody's been to a like Michigan or flown over it, you know it's like the ocean. I meant its miles wide it's you know super deep hundreds of feet deep and yeah they weren't able to find him, not me, a reasonable amount of time, so it was really tough on my mom, my mom. She passed away from cancer fallopian tube cancer, which is very Insidious. Because most times it's not found until it's stage 4, which is when they found it with her. So we were fortunate, we had some time to spend with her. She got to meet my oldest son whose now 12 but my friend Chris died, very abruptly. He had a brain hemorrhage because the aneurysm in the back of his brain, and I was there, I was there that day. I was went to the hospital, and I was the one that identified him in the hospital. And it's, it's really hard when someone's ripped rip from you like that, and it's painful to watch their family, you know, go through it and do that. So, what were you And what were your thoughts at the time? What was going? I mean, I know you have had time to reflect obviously, now, and so, you make it a little bit differently (now) than you did at the time. What was it? Like, at the time? Yeah, I am going to kind of go in reverse order here, share of kind of the levels of pain that I experienced with each one. And my father I was too young to really understand, you know, let us write my great. Aunt would tell me she's like, oh yeah, when I see my dad again and I would, you know, I was raised going to church, we would go to church three times a week for choir. And youth service. And I talked about my father being with Jesus and it was very comforting for me, my mother. We had some unresolved issues when she passed away, but having you know, a couple of years to spend with her and have cop some conversations with her, it's a lot different when you have that kind of knowledge that someone might not be with you forever. Yeah warning or you know some time to prepare I guess. Yeah. But It's, it's hard when somebody like that is that you have, you know, failing relationship with a very strong, emotional relationship, with the things that weren't resolved. Weren't resolved not by my choice. They were because she wasn't able to deal with those and in her, her situation. And that's unfortunate, you know, to have somebody that goes through that. But for me, you know, having your friend, I don't think I have ever I will ever fully recover from that, I think. In you know, definitely inexorably changed me because you never want to feel that pain again and somebody's pulled away from you. So you know it's hard to really develop deep relationships after you have been hurt so deeply and people. Look, if you're listening, you know, people whether you're in a relationship where somebody you break up with somebody or you're divorced or, you know, somebody dies, you are we want to protect ourselves, right? So it's, you know, I think I am pretty good at having relationships and doing that. The same time, you know, it's painful, and it's also hard when you experience that depth of relationship with somebody and it's really not possible to experience that again, what I mean is we were, we were friends through high school and during very formative parts of our lives and I won't ever be able to have that bond with somebody again. Yeah. But the flip side is I am very grateful for the time I got to spend, you know, with all those people in my life. Now, I appreciate you getting vulnerable there. I mean, it's not easy to talk about and relive and it's, oh, yeah, with your friend. Chris, it's like not only did he pass, but you're not like you said, you're not going to be able to replicate or duplicate that. And so there's almost like a double, you know, I don't know. It's a double hardship there so that's really tough. And again, I don't we're glossing over this. Like it's no big deal, but I appreciate that. So then how did you start to get into a little bit? What did your how did you change your mindset or how did you approach kind of the your future from there? Yes. So this is where you look at. Kind of the there's two am I going to settle first. What I am going to say it, it might sound callous, but then I will explain. So this is where like the Silver Lining comes in. And what I mean is if you ever lost somebody, I am sure the last thing that person wants is for you to go. Go through the rest of your life and really put the brakes on anything or live less of a life because you're burdened by that or not having that person in your life. Anyway that loves you once you to go and experience life to the fullest and a lot of my friends say I am lucky and I don't have to go into details but I have had some good fortune in my life, just look things, have happened, things that are kind of unusual and I say that's because I have a lot of people watching out for me because they want me there looking down, I want me to be successful and I believe I feel like I have a positive energy, but at the same time, I feel like it's my duty to do all these things as my duty to live like this. So, you know, the guy said, you know, I said Silver Lining but when you lose somebody and you realize that life is finite, especially as a young person. So Jamie, I crossed 41 years old and I achieved all these things in my life and I realized my father was When he died. And I know that in the back of my head, I had this, this feeling of fatality that, you know, I had those things I had to get done so, when you know that the time value of money has, I am sorry, the value of time, right? As has time on the bottom of the equation. So I am an engineer by training. I think of it that way when you're young, you think you're going to live forever gonna live forever in that number? On the bottoms Infinity, the values 0, right? Right. As soon as you put in value or is yes, as soon as you put an actual value in that time, whether you live 10 days. Or 10,000 days were, you know, fifty thousand days, whatever that number is the value of your time goes up exponentially. Sure. And that's what I think happens subconsciously in my mind and as soon as really once, you know, when I was an adult and Chris passed away, I thought Hang on a second. I got stuff to do, like I got stuff to do, I am a serious person, I am going to get things done. And, you know, some people like why do you work so hard? My neighbor was like, if you don't have to work anymore, why do you still work? Yeah. Like one, I enjoy it. And it energizes me. Yeah. Into it's my duty. I have an impact that I am here to make on this planet, right? It's not all about you to collect as many cool toys as you can or whatever. And you know, The wrong with cool toys and that's sad, but it's bigger than yourself is what it sounds like Ali. Absolutely. And look, also again, like it's being on Earth and being successful, you know, and having that abundance mindset means, you get to enjoy the things that you experienced, you know. So I flew to Mexico for a meeting. I bought a first-class ticket. I really enjoyed it. And you know what, I really enjoyed the conversation with the gentleman that I sat next to on the plane and That, you know, it's fun. It's fun to do things like that or you know people by nice cars and whatever you're into, you know. But it's about the experiences and enjoying that not feeling guilty, you know because of your success necessary. Yeah. So then talk about kind of your business a little bit and you know do you come from money or how has your financial picture changed over the years? Yeah, so you know, it's funny I was in college, and I was dating this girl, and I had a used car. It was a Honda Accord it was Yes, but it wasn't like anything amazing. There's a stick shift. It had liked I think 40,000 miles on it when I bought it. You know again its nice car but it wasn't super expensive. Anything, and I paid for with my own money actually took a loan out for my grandfather and I paid him back 1 K. So this is a car loan. Just happen to be to my for my grandfather said enough shredded at the time. So, I had this girl says to my car, and she's like, oh, it must be nice to have parents that by you. Such a nice car and I didn't kick her out of the car, but that was the last time we went on a date because having somebody make that assumption, you know, I had a loft business, I bought loft beds, I had I sold Herbalife, I race my bike and made money when I raise my bike, I had all these things I opened at a gym, so I would open the gym at 4:45 in the morning, you know? So it's like, okay I don't need you to, you know, make this assumption about me. And look, I was raised very middle-class after my father passed away. It was my grandmother made my clothes, and we Stumble out of cans we hardly ever went on vacation. I mean, I never left the country until I met my wife. Who's from Canada? I mean, it's the guy had a very, very comfortable yet, very modest lobstering. So you know, just to kind of translate that into where we are today. I bought my first property in Blacksburg Virginia where I went to college with three thousand dollars and my mother did cosign on a loan for me. So not to my parents. Never gave me anything or didn't help me on my journey, but a ninety thousand dollar townhouse and having the mom co-signed on the loan. That was, that was a nice kick start. Now, the flip side is, I mean, I had to like hitchhike basically like with my, from a have the hitch rides for my friends, when I was racing my bicycle because my parents wouldn't do't really support me. I bought my first bike with my own money from my paper out that I had they would help me. I have requested it, but they wouldn't give it. I flew to the national championships. They didn't come with me and I slept on the floor of a friend's hotel room and I got them to drive me to the race. So the flip side of all that you know which that's light adversity. Like in stuff that we can talk show. Yeah but what it taught me was you have got to go out Chris and make your own luck. You have got to decide what you want in your life yourself figure out how to get it. I was out getting sponsors for our Cycling team to pay for our clothing, and our races, and all these things at 15 years old. So you think that experience of talking to people to quote, unquote, invest in our cycling team? Didn't help me today, when I talk to investors about resting in our deals, that was amazing. But at the time, I sure, I sure was jealous of those kids that were showing up in their brand-new Volkswagens with their five thousand dollar bikes on the car. Sometimes the two or three bikes with carbon wheels, and it took me three years to buy Stuff from saving up money and Javelin driveways and snow. And yeah, so it's mean. Could you have grown up in more poverty than you did? Yes, I mean, it sounds like you, you know, had a relatively comfortable life, like you said, but what did you did do? Did you learn and appreciate the value of a dollar? Absolutely. And it sounds like you have been a kind of hustler for quite some time. So, yeah, that's really good. And I think, you know, it was for me, it was kind of Sweet Spot Jamie because I had enough so that I had the ability to, you know, to have up like the opportunities were there. I wasn't prevented from opportunities. Right? Also, wasn't given. Yeah, a lot. Yeah, to make sense. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I don't know if I believe that anyone is truly self-made sure, you know. So, you know, we can get into. You can argue that all day long and well, you know, so did you have certain advantages? Of course, I mean, We all do. That's and that's where if I may, I think this is really, this is like this probably is the most important point I would like to make today. Okay. So a lot of people like that, girl. I dated in college, right? You look at somebody and you make an assumption about somebody, you don't know what brought them to that place. If you knew that losing a parent increased, your chances of success in your life, would you wish that on somebody? D. So whenever you look at somebody, if they're successful, you know if you're out there and you know there's they the politicians unfortunately play this game where they say oh you can't you know you don't have the same advantages of this person, or we need to you know, help these people out. You have to be very careful. You have to be very careful because it's like the wild animal that you find. And you say, wow, I am going to help this wild animal and you helped it out. And sometimes you can't, that animal won't ever be accepted. It's in its native environment, more? Yeah, yeah. So we have to be careful with the assumptions we make with the always question the assumptions, right? And we have to make sure in my opinion that we provide as many opportunities as possible. But be careful not to blunt the motivation and the full potential of individuals by doing something or taking something from, from one group, or giving it to another group. That's got to be very careful about these things. Yeah, and I think it's also just It's a good reminder. Like you said that, you don't want to make assumptions about people's lives. Like my, my wife, they grew up with some money, and she won't want me to go into too much detail, but so there were people kind of like back, you know in school and things that would make assumptions. Oh, must be nice. Must be nice to have all this money. Well and this is where I am not going to go into detail, but they had a lot of adversity growing up as well from a, you know, Emily perspective. And so would she have traded the money that they had growing up? You know, for not having to experience what she had to absolutely in a heartbeat? I mean, you know, so well, from the outside, oh, must be nice. And so, I just think that's where it gets to look. I can't control how you were born or what your circumstances. I mean, we all just have to do the best we can with what we were given. And look, I was blessed with a lot of talent in different areas. I was not blessed in other areas and, you know, and, but we all, we all have an opportunity and, you know, I think I have said it earlier, you know, but it is my duty in mind to get the most out of the life that I have been given and that's what I stretch and you said impact to. So it's, you know, the more, let us be honest, the more money you can make more resources, you have at your fingertips, more of a positive impact you can make in the world. So I think That's important as well. So how did you before we get into some kind of Rapid Fire questions? How did you get into, you know, real estate and self storage and car washes? You talked a little bit about it but how did you make that transition into where you are today? Yeah. So I talk, I talked in my book a lot about why and how I went from just buying single, family, rentals and doing those starting to 21 to in my 30s and I say, hey read my book. Go to our website, don't spend 15 years like I did make mistakes like take the shortcut, right? You can learn in 15 minutes or maybe, you know, 15 months when it took me 15 years to do. But we transition to commercial real estate Jamie because it's scalable the returns were better and you know it's a lot less hassle multifamily. I called the Holy Grail in my book. Now multifamily had the best year ever in history. Last year in 2021, amazing year. There's a lot of other great areas. In commercial real estate out there, we have moved from older, you know, 70s and 80s. Build value. Add properties to newer Class B + + + a value-add properties. Like we're buying a deal right now. In Savannah, Georgia, which is built in 2016. We're putting about twelve thousand dollars a door into that property. It's a value at property, if it's a very nice value of property and Self Storage is always been on my radar. We actually looked at some self storage and mobile homes before we bought our first multifamily deal. So, it's always been Then in my mind to add those back into the portfolio, which we have done, they're complimentary, they're different. There're some similarities but really my whole strategy and our group strategy is around the value-added model which I call the Warren Buffett strategies. We're looking for businesses or real estate. It has the opportunity to improve the value. Improve the net operating income in a controllable fashion. So we can increase the value of that property, but I also like cash flow properties. So you take cash flow plus value. Add Some of our other rules, like, you know, low, low loan-to-value, you add all those together and all of these, all of these areas make good sense because cap rates and what's happened. We have expanded our net a little bit and considered other things that are, you know, a little bit more work by car washes, we had to build out a team to buy those, but there's more opportunity because there's a lot more in efficiencies out there, that makes sense. Yeah, we have expanded our by box, if you will in the last few years are Elves, just because deals are harder to find and there's a lot of money out there, chasing yield and chasing returns. That's right. Makes a lot of sense and you have what a couple other partners you work with is that, right? Yeah, three main partners that I work with, okay? Got you in most of those spaces, you have and I look I do some smaller projects. I got a development. I am doing here, I am just outside of Asheville. Yeah, you know my wife's an architect were working together on that so there's some other little things I do to Scratch my creative if you will down in the real estate space. Cool. All right. Well I am going to fire off some questions, and we will see where it goes. Bring it on. What do people misunderstand about you? Well, I recalled the story about the car and being given some overhead was so aside from that I think, you know, this isn't as deep as some of the conversations we have had, but a lot of people say to me, hey Chris, when did you start investing in real estate? You know, this is people that know, Oh me in the medical device space. When I tell them is I have actually always been an investor when I bought my property at 21. I wanted to be investor. I ran out of money though. Jamie because like I said, I didn't have a bunch of family money. Try to go make money in the space. So a lot of people assume that I became a real estate investor after I was a professional after. I was a sales professional. The truth is I did that out of necessity to be an investor interesting. That's a good, that's a good one. So you weren't an overnight success. I say. Real estate agents. Get rich slow. Yeah, absolutely overnight success built 116 day at a time and went on call night in the hospital is on. So let us see what was one of your biggest failures or however, you want to frame that something that you wish, you could go back and change decision you made or an action you took or something that maybe you wish you could redo. Yeah, I mean it's easy. It's easy to say, hey, everything's worked out great, you know like here's the plan but The fact of the matter is, it took me way too long, like if I knew what I knew today wouldn't have taken me 15 years, you know where to take it, maybe five years to get where I was. So, I made a lot of mistakes. I didn't sell properties as fast as I would have, you know, leading up to 2008. Actually started the list properties for sale, but I didn't quite time the market just right? So I think, you know, we're getting to a similar point in the market cycle. We have to be careful. And, you know, I think that what I would do Going forward or what I am doing. Going forward is you know, block prophets. And you know stay conservative. If you can make money every day and you get a little richer every day and don't take steps back. That's what the ultra-rich do. That's what family offices do. That's what you know, avoid those setbacks sure. Yeah, I know you did read. I read most of your book. I think it's really good. I got to finish it up, but I think you talk about infinite Banking and I do some of that as well. Also, absolutely. Yeah, that's I would have started doing that in a much, much bigger way. Yeah, f****** years. I was actually very upset with my agent when I found out that he who what I was doing and didn't advise me on it. So that's why we put together. Our educational materials that's on our banking link on our website that people can check out. Yeah. That's one thing I would definitely do myself. Start that start our policies, a lot earlier. Amen. Amen to that. Oh let us see if you could have coffee with any historical figure. Who would it be? Who Be, and why? Pissed. If you drink coffee here, I do drink coffee. Let us see, historical figure. I would pick one of the founding fathers and I won't limit it but I would pick one of the founding fathers and the reason is there's a lot of debate today. You know, and you know we're there's some supreme court stuff and it doesn't really matter which side you fall in but I would be very curious to see what their perspective was on the future because you have a lot of people they're like, oh, the She needs to be changed, you know, these old guys have figured this out, you know, 300 years ago, didn't really I think still relevant, like it, right? Is this so wrong? I think, you know, I think we really interesting to get the perspective, you know where they were at that time because I believe that America is the greatest country on the planet within. We're just very fortunate to be where we're starting to take a lot of things for granted, I think. Yeah, yeah that question is kind of like Matt Forest ice cream. Erin, I guess. But, yeah. And so, let us see if you were given. Actually, let us go to this one. If you had to write another book, what would it be about? Well, we just came out with a book on infinite banking. So it's actually, if I got a, if anybody's watching here and if you email me, I will send a copy to you for free since it's not officially launched yet but it's called money insights for sales professionals and what it is Summary. And this is a very short book. So my books about 100 Pages. This is less than 50 it and it's written by myself and my partner's ill crafted, the first version. But it's about the specific strategy that I have been using to. You use life insurance as a funnel to invest in cash flow producing properties. So that's a little bit cheating there. Jamie. Yeah, but that's alright, I had that. I had that in my back pocket so that Was a, that was a PDF of that one, you absolutely did. So, let us see, what's a challenge that you're facing in your business right now business or life, however you want to run? Well, yeah, well, do we want to talk about the issues I am facing is apparent dealing with my children? Now, let us not talk about that. Devil will do its second episode of therapy session 3. Yeah, no, no, I haven't kids. If you listen, you know, like it's the most amazing thing. And also, some days I am just like, I don't know if I am I don't know if this child is going to make it the rest of the day. And yes, we have. We have two kids in its, I mean, it is yeah. Challenging. Yeah, but it's listen. It's a, it's a learning experiment, are learning experience, I should say, and it's somewhat of an experiment to experiment. Yeah. But it makes you, you have to be a better person, right? Yeah. Children force you to analyze your assumptions and your actions and become more rational and better. But when it comes to my business scaling. So how do you scale? And I mean, just You know, like I was talking to my coach the past two weeks here, we're going through my schedule and everything, he's like you're doing everything right, basically? Like you're getting to the you're just stretched. Like, so bring on the right, people in the right places, we have done a terrific job with the team with Acquisitions and all that but there's a couple other areas that I need to scale in and need to really make sure that we're bringing in the right people. What does your team look like? Is it mean as far as you know do use Virtual assistants? Do you have how many employees? You have what is put as your business look like? Yeah, yeah. So our operating company that I work with. There're 30 employees and that's everybody from Asset Management to Acquisitions to investor relations when it comes to next level income and putting on the education stuff together. I have a team that does all my podcast for me. I have a booking agent to help. Get me in front of the right people. I have virtual assistant who helps you know, with a lot of my data. Today. Communications if you put your information in there, put your address in to get a free copy of my book. She will send you a copy of my book today. When you put that in there, so she keeps the wheels turning even if I am on the road. So sorry, I might not sign the copy. But if you requested I might, and then we have a social media team. I have a team for my website. So some our employees, some are not, and then probably one of the key components of my team is we have a nanny now, and she helps out in the afternoons with our kids, shuttling them with them. Down picking up groceries. It was hard. It was hard to come to grips with hiring somebody that's going to spend time with our children. But what I found Jamie is, it's really helped us have more quality time as a family and not just crappy time when you're, you know, run around in the car and half the time not even with them. Right? That's good. Are you mentioned a coach business coach? I presume. Yeah. Are you a part of any other any masterminds or anything like that? Yeah. So one of the big masterminds that I was a founding member of is called the passive income Mastermind happy to share information with that with anybody that's interested. So, our goal is a mastermind is looking at different opportunities, different strategies, different education. Like even though life insurance tragedy we're talking about, that's part of the puzzle that we used to increase our passive income to two hundred percent or more of our expenses. So that's kind of the goal of that Mastermind and I have seen other masterminds, I participate in. I have a mastermind My coaching clients. So we do to monthly calls. We have our monthly Mastermind called in an expert called where we bring in people like this. This past month was oh yeah for tax day. We had an accountant. Come in, talk about specific strategies for w to employees, you know that are looking for ways to optimize their tax situation. For example, got it, it's sounds like you're very active in them in the Mastermind space. So that's Hey, listen, I coach. Each people. But I spent I spend more on coaching I made the first year. I was out working for Pfizer on an annual basis. So yeah, I am a big believer and I think you have to, you know, constant development putting people around you that are a higher level and having that accountability is so key to achieve ultimate success. Yeah, that's been a theme with these episodes we have done so far for especially the honestly, the more successful people tend to at least this is anecdotal. It's not a Double blind, Placebo, Placebo testing or anything. But yeah, that they the guys and girls who are making a lot of money tend to be plugged into they're constantly being challenged by, you know, somebody at the next level. So that's really yeah. It's I think it's more common, I am sorry. I think it's less common to find somebody that I talked to. That's kind of, you know, at this level Jamie does not have a coach. I mean, I talk, I very rarely find people. Yeah, that don't have a coach, or some sort of accountability, you know, this level? Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. All right. How about a movie you'd recommend for our audience to watch movies? I love movies and when I was racing bicycles, you know, I would, I would watch a movie every evening. So I would, I would ride. I would come home and I just like, lay on the couch and watch a movie. There's a great. It's, it's got to be 30 years old now. Maybe 20, 20 plus years old Gattaca. It's okay, Ethan Hawke and what is his name doesn't really matter, but it's vatt ACA and there's this scene in the movie and I urge you to go watch it. So, this is two brothers and this talks all this basically brings together. Every, this is not a setup, this is everything we talked about today, but this just popped into my head because this is how important is this. To me? One of the brothers was born naturally, like he just his parents had a baby The other one is this designer baby, but they optimized in genetically, the younger brother and sorry, I am ruining the movie. But the younger brother Ethan Hawke. He Ends up becoming an astronaut, which is like, you know, you have to be. You have to be one of these like designer kids, but he bust the system. You run into his brother who is the inspector or like, off the police officer? That's investigating this situation and catches him. Well, when they were younger, they would swim out into the ocean, and they would see who could swim the farthest before getting scared and turning back. And the older brother won every single time. Except one day I am getting chills thinking about it. Younger brother, eat sea. And Hawks wins out in the ocean and his older brother begins to drown, and he pulls him back to shore. So they meet never talked about it for the rest of their lives. They actually didn't see each other after that, until that day. And he said, they end up at the ocean again because they're like, let us go to the ocean. Like, this is this whole thing, and he looks, and he's like, how did you beat me? They're swimming out in the ocean, and he's yelling at him. Stop, stop and go stop. I can't see the shore, and he's like, we need to turn back. He's like, it's we're close to the other side at this point, and he goes, I don't understand. Like how did you do it, and he's like, how did I do it? He's like you figured out, you caught me. Figure it out. He goes. No. How did you beat me that night swimming? He said I never saved anything for the trip back. He put 100. The point is in this life. Yeah, you have got to take what you have been given and you give 100%, and you can't keep looking over your shoulder. You can't worry about what other people think. You can't have a scarcity mindset. You have to know and believe you're going to be successful with every cell in your body. And use everything, you have been given to be successful. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I would like to take credit for, you know, setting that all up with that question. I am kidding. I am kidding. That was really good because you really brought it all home. I mean that's, that's fantastic off to have to watch that there. Anything else you want to add? As we wrap up here any other kind of parting thoughts? I mean you if this has been really good anything Come to mind. Thank you. Listen. I think again, that scene, you know, just again I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here, Jamie grateful for everything that me given and that's what I would say. You know if you're having a tough day, if you're having a tough time, begin your day with a gratitude practice and just yeah, think about what you're grateful for. Because no matter, you know, I learned this from being in the or a lot of days. A lot of times I would be like, man, I am having a crappy day and I would be upset, I am tired and slept this and that But I always remembered there's somebody on the table that I was there for to help get the best outcome for them on that day. And I would say, you know what, no matter how bad the day is, I am not laying there on the table having surgery today. So again, no matter what you're going through today in your life this year. Remember, there's always somebody out there that's in a worse position, focus on what you have to be grateful for and use that as fuel to move forward. That's fantastic. You have dropped a lot of inspirational. Ideas and not just ideas but truths and I really do appreciate you spending time and talking about some difficult topics and some, you know, genuinely challenging circumstances that you have been through for sure. And I know that our audience is going to take, take a lot of value from this. As we wrap up here, remind our audience where they can reach out to you. Yeah, real easy. Next level income is the company NeXT Of income.com is the website. And next level income is the book that you can get for free. If you click on the book link and if there's anything that we talked about today, you want to learn more about or that I can help you out with in your life. Reach out to me at Chris next level. Income.com awesome. Thank you so much Chris. It's been awesome. I really appreciate you spending your time. Like I said, I know you are busy. So thanks a lot and what has been the highlight of my day? So far. Nice to our listeners out there. We also appreciate you spending your most valuable asset with us which is your time And we do appreciate ratings and reviews and please help us get this podcast off the ground and share, share it with as many of your friends and colleagues. As you can, thanks all take care.

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