Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming the odds: Army Vet authored "Bootstrapped Millionaire," and provides government contracting advice.

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Overcoming the odds: Army Vet authored "Bootstrapped Millionaire," and provides government contracting advice. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I am Rashaan McDonald, the host
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald's host the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: weekly Money Making Conversation Master Class show. The interviews and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: information that this show provides offer everyone. It's time to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start living your own.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I'm here to help you reach your American dream. My
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: guest is the author of Bootstrap Millionaire. He is also
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the CFO of Cadence Ventures is a boutique private equity
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: firm that invests in private mortgage notes and offer there's
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: non traditional financing to real estate investors, builders, and developers.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Please work with the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Tim Mercer,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: how you doing, my.
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  Speaker 2: Brother, I'm doing quite well.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for having South Carolina, Bornuth, Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you know your book, you know you found
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  Speaker 1: Humble Beginnings. You know, tell us about South Carolina. Well,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: umble beginnings.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, four kids, right, four kids, that's right. Yeah, grew
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  Speaker 2: up my mother had four kids. Grew up in a
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  Speaker 2: small town mullin South Carolina. Yes, it's funny because it's
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  Speaker 2: part of South Carolina, which they actually wrote a documentary
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  Speaker 2: on that part of South Carolina. They called it the
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  Speaker 2: Corridor of Shane. Oh why yeah, Well, because my understanding
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  Speaker 2: is that that part of South Carolina had or may
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  Speaker 2: still have had the worst school system in the entire US. Right,
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  Speaker 2: And when I grew up, I was grew up in
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  Speaker 2: the seventies and eighties. So it was a tobacco town, right,
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  Speaker 2: I mean tobacco fields, warehouses and those types of things.
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  Speaker 2: Not much of an industry outside of that. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of great, great people, great humble people. And and but
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  Speaker 2: it helped me, it helped me to really be able
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  Speaker 2: to establish them. I guess the foundation of who I
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  Speaker 2: am today as a man.
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  Speaker 1: We talk about you know, I come from Fifth Ward
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  Speaker 1: in the city Houston, Texas, and we all come from
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  Speaker 1: that humble beginnings. And then what did you take away
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  Speaker 1: from that that you still like a badge of courage,
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  Speaker 1: I think yeah today.
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  Speaker 2: Well number one I think is, you know, treat people
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  Speaker 2: the way you want to be treated, right, you know,
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  Speaker 2: And my faith is one of the main things that
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  Speaker 2: I that I gained from growing up in the humble
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  Speaker 2: beginnings like that, because when you grow up in humble beginnings,
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  Speaker 2: man behave everything we do we rely upon God, right,
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  Speaker 2: And so my mother always taught me to to be
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  Speaker 2: respectful of people, right, treat people the way you want
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  Speaker 2: to be treated. Always taught me to depend on God
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  Speaker 2: for everything because that's the only way that you're gonna
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  Speaker 2: make it. And I still feel that way today. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I mean every every day when I wake up and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: pray every morning, I know that the only way I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to make it through today is vibral relying upon
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  Speaker 2: my faith. So so I think that was the most
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  Speaker 2: important thing for me growing up. You know.
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  Speaker 1: Then you know, uh, Tim Mercier, when would say that's
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  Speaker 1: a simple name, yeah book bootstraped millionaire, now humble beginnings.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't the associate himself with the word millionaire.
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  Speaker 3: Right, how right?
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  Speaker 1: How I know that we don't get the real fast,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: but how what is your secret of success? To sit
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: up and tell us that you can author a book
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  Speaker 1: called bootstraped Millionaire.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, when we first when I first wrote
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the book, the title was supposed to be bootstrapped Entrepreneur, okay,
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  Speaker 2: and so we wrote we worked with Forbes to kind
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of they they published the book, and it was interesting
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  Speaker 2: because the guy that was helping helping me create the book,
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  Speaker 2: they kept using the word millionaire. I mean, I didn't
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  Speaker 2: understand why they kept saying bootstrap me in the bootstrapm
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  Speaker 2: in there. And at first I really didn't want to
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  Speaker 2: title the book bootstrap me in it because I didn't
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: want to come off and make it seem like being
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: braggadocious or anything like that. But I felt that there
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  Speaker 2: was an importance in that because the word bootstrap is
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  Speaker 2: the key word, right. If it's somebody from South Carolina
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  Speaker 2: country boy like me who grew up didn't know nothing
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  Speaker 2: about business, nothing about finance and learn it the hard way,
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  Speaker 2: if I could do some things to put myself in
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  Speaker 2: a position where I could, you know, have that title right,
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  Speaker 2: that's so to speak, you know, or achieve a certain
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  Speaker 2: financial success, I think hopefully it's a testament to other
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  Speaker 2: young men like myself to say that if he could
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  Speaker 2: do it, I can do it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, I ask you this question. That okay, cause
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  Speaker 1: when you respond, when you look right right there, Charles Swall,
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  Speaker 1: it says two point three million dollars. It's kind of
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  Speaker 1: like that through their surveys. Yeah, millionaire status. When you're
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: here to term two point three million dollars and the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: word millionaire, what does that mean to you?
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  Speaker 3: Are you rich?
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  Speaker 2: Well? I would say, Now the question is is it
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  Speaker 2: two point three million liquid? Right? That's that's that's another question, right,
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  Speaker 2: is it liquid? Or is it you know? I mean
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  Speaker 2: now if you have assets, that's a good thing because
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  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people over time, all of
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: us touch a million dollars, right, I mean through our lifetime.
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  Speaker 2: The question is how do we manage it? Right? Do
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  Speaker 2: we do we keep most of it? Do we buy
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: assets that help us to continue to grow? Because Len,
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  Speaker 2: the truth be told, and this is not no offense,
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  Speaker 2: but a million dollars really is not a lot of money.
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  Speaker 2: When you when you break, when you really break it down,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's not a lot of money. But when
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: you grow up the way I did, probably how you
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  Speaker 2: did we drive to say, man, I want, I want
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  Speaker 2: to become a millionaire, and then when you get to
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  Speaker 2: a point where you probably have either touched it or
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  Speaker 2: maybe you have assets or things of that nature, you
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  Speaker 2: begin to realize that it's really not a lot of money,
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  Speaker 2: and it actually creates more anxiety for you because you're
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  Speaker 2: trying to figure out, now, how do I how do
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I level it up and go higher than that?
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Which leads to my next question financial literacy, because that's
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  Speaker 1: where it really comes to because you watch television a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: lot and that we're millionaire if you and that, if
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  Speaker 1: you're a person who's tracking in that millionaire million dollar range,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: you go.
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  Speaker 3: Brother, million dollars?
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  Speaker 1: What you Why are you excited about a million? How
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: long do you expect to live exactly with a million dollars?
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: That's where the financial literacy comes into place. Why is
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that an important part of your book?
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  Speaker 2: Because man, I mean it's everything right if we don't
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  Speaker 2: understand finance. In my opinion, right, I think everybody needs
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: to understand finance because it's the pillar of everything. Right.
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  Speaker 2: If we don't understand it, then there's no way for
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  Speaker 2: us to really level up. Right, I mean, I learned
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: how to make money growing up working hard, right, you
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: work hard, you do do everything people tell you to
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: go out, they work hard, you study, become smart. So
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: making money was never really a problem for me, But
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  Speaker 2: knowing how to grow it and to keep it that
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  Speaker 2: was the hard part, right you know. And I and
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  Speaker 2: I learned how to save money as a young young
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  Speaker 2: man and save money pretty well, But that part about
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  Speaker 2: growing money was the hardest part for me because that's
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  Speaker 2: why I made a lot of mistakes trying to grow
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  Speaker 2: the money, trying to invest in things that I didn't
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  Speaker 2: know about, trusting other people with with my money, right,
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  Speaker 2: financial advisors and things of that nature. So I learned
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  Speaker 2: that I had to learn it for myself to in
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: order to prevent me from being taken advantage.
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  Speaker 1: Of it, right right, right, right, right now, let's let's
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  Speaker 1: talk about this because you military got honored, right okay? Well,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: how important was that has that been in your life?
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  Speaker 1: To have went to the military and the army capacity.
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  Speaker 2: It was the most important thing, right, I mean, because
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  Speaker 2: they taught me discipline. They taught me disciplined. It gave
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  Speaker 2: me a purpose and a vision for my life. When
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I was growing up in Mallas, South Carolina. I didn't.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't have much. I didn't have much discipline, right,
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  Speaker 2: I mean my mother was a very loving person, so
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  Speaker 2: she she really did a lot of things for us.
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell people I really wasn't. The military taught me
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  Speaker 2: how to be a man. It put me around other
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  Speaker 2: men and helped me to be able to grow and
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: to see the world in a different perspective. That's when
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I started seeing the world differently. I started seeing that
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  Speaker 2: I could achieve different things. If it wasn't for the military.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think that any of this would have ever
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  Speaker 2: happened for me.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Now that that's important for you to say, Tim, I'm
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: talking to Tim Mercer. He's a CFO of Cadence Ventures,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: which is a boutique private equity firm that's investing in
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  Speaker 1: private mortgage notes. Educate me now, when you said private
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: mortgage notes, what does that mean?
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: So think about like when you go buy a house, right,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: you go to the bank and you get a loan, right,
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  Speaker 2: That's that's actually a mortgage note. So it's a mortgage
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: enough most most of us think that the only people
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: that could and the bank is investing in that note.
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  Speaker 2: So the bank gives you a loan for half a
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: million dollars to go buy the house. They you know,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: you put a down payment, but you got a mortgage
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: that you have to pay back to the bank until
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: that that that that debt is satisfied with. Private mortgage
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: knows are the same thing, right you and I, all
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: of us can buy private mortgage notes. I do it.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: If someone an investor wants to buy a house, maybe
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: a fix and flip, or he wants to buy a
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: house to to rent out, he has to get a
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: mortgage from someone. So they'll come to someone like me
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: privately to get a mortgage, the mortgage on it. I
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: will extend the money to them for for that property
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: and then they just pay me back a monthly interest.
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  Speaker 2: You right, My money is protected by the asset because
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I got because I got a lean on the property.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Pretty much the same thing the bank does. We do.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: We can do the same thing as private individuals. And
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: that's what the private mortgage know.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: It's but.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: A special called fd I C that protects the bank.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Right where the fd I C is what fd I
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: see is the was what protects our money that sits
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: in the bank right right, you know, And and of
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: course fd I c they basically govern traditional banks, but
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: we're not traditional bank.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: That's that I brought it up.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So so why am I doing business with you and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I don't have those famous for letters behind your company?
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Well, because, for one, banks don't land on the type
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: of stuff that we land on. So if you if
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: you wanted to go and fix and flip.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: A house right now, or my building that I own.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Well, well this building, well, this building, you would probably
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: get a loan in this building because you you your
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: business owns this building and you occupy it within your business.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: So that's safe for the back.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Okay. Cool.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Now, if you own this building, if you own the
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: building and you was renting it out for someone else,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: the bank probably wouldn't give you a loan for that
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: because that's more of an investment versus it being owner occupied,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: right right, So it's a little more riskier for the
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: banks in that regard.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: So, so the bank would probably give you a hard
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: time doing that. So you would have to come to individuals,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: private individuals. Private equity firms. Think about companies like black Rock, Vanguard,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: and although those are private equity firms, they're just large
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: private equity firms, right, So we're private equity. Were just small.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, we're getting in the game. Yeah, in the
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: game now. In your book Bootstraped Millionaire, you know you're
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: talking about phases of being un entrepreneurs. You know, I'm
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. I can't tell you how many mistakes I made.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I tell them on my show all the time. I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: didn't have a budget.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I went in have a plan or didn't know how
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to scale. It was a comedy club open, a comedy club.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I figured I charged people ten dollars. They feel everyone
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: that had three hundred and seventy five seats sold liquor
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: didn't think about the tax I paid on the liquor.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: It was a lot of things I didn't think about.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: So I was deep in the game, going where's my money.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: It was like I was working really hard, but I
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: was breaking even because I didn't put together a plan.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: So I continue to say that I am a person
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: who made mistakes to my audience to let them know
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that it's possible for you to make the same mistake
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: that I made if you don't listen to the right people.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I con consider you Tim one of the right people
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: to listen to. What are some of the phases of
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurship that you were discussing in your book, and also
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: some of the things you picked up since the book
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: has come out.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean all of us start out, and for
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: sure you did too, as a solo preneurs. Yes, we're
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: in business for ourselves and by oursels, right, I mean
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: that's how it started out, a solopreneur, and that's great, right,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: I mean that's you. You're just you're kind of just
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: doing this thing on your own. But then you start
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: to let I think that there's other phases of that, right.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I think that's one phase of entrepreneurship that a lot
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: of people don't focus on, is being an entrepreneur. An
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: entrepreneur is someone who works along as I right, that's right, Yeah,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: that's that's someone who works with entrepreneurs like yourself. Maybe.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: So let's say, for me, I will come and work
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: with you in your business. Right, it's still your business,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: but I'm an integral part of that, right, So I'm
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: bringing my talent and skills. I may be your employee,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: but I'm an entrepreneur because I have the entrepreneur mindset.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: But I'm just not gonna take all the risks that
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: you're taking right, okay in things that nature right. So
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs are very can be very successful people. I mean
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: the with the gentleman that used to work with Bill Gates.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: He he I think he used to own the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I think it's Bomber Bomber. I think the clippers, Yes,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: that's he started out as an entrepreneur like he worked
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: with Bill Gates. Bill Gates took all the resks, but
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: he still became a very successful So so you have solopreneurs,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: you have entrepreneurs, obviously, you have your small business owners.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: And then the one that I like the best is
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: just being an investor.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: About the word investor, hit the word investor, tip, I
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: hear the word money. Now, why are you gonna invest
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you don't have no money?
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Well, think about it. I mean if you if you,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: I personally think that you can become a meionaire without this.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: I think it's a myth when people feel that the
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: only way you become financially successful is being an entrepreneur.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I know a lot of people who work in work
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: for companies, work in corporate who have done very well
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: if they saved their money properly, properly got you mesa
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: dollars in assets and things that for one k's and all. So,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: if I got a million dollars in the full one K,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: if I know how to invest that money properly, think
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: about it. If I got a million dollars in the
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: full one K, and if I can invest it in
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: something that allows me to make ten percent a year
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: in a your return, all while preserving my principal, then
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: what I'm turning, I'm flipping that money over and over.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: That famous words compound interest.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Who more?
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: If I known is exactly if I know? If I
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: compound interest, boy, I wouldn't be seeing that.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Talk with you.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: That's where financial literature come from.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: That's why it's important for people to open your book
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and understand it's a journey. I like the fact that
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: you you share with us your journey, share the fact
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that your mom was single. Mall. You know what I'm saying,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: there's nothing, there's nothing, there's no fluff. You know, there
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: was no golden spoon or opportunity to deliver to you.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: That means that you're you are a person who served
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: in the military. But along the lines, how did you
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: make that transition? Because you the CFO of Cadence Ventures
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna get the government contracts in a minute,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: because I remember when I saw it. I said, I
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: got to talk about that because of the fact that
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: you get all these emails talking about government contract com
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: contractors Sam Sam Sam from Sam Dota, Go get that
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: a minute. But I want to get to that moment
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: of transition that you felt that I was different.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: It took me. It took me in my.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Forties to appreciate what I had accomplished because I used
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the words like lucky, right place at the right time.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And I may have put too much in faith because
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: it's hard work is.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: Tied to faith. Absolutely, So when did you realize it?
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Well, my journey is and you probably read it in
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: the book. Right when when I first got out of
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: the military, I came back to Atlanta went to school
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: at the RITE and that's when I got into tech.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: And this was at the time when the Internet and
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: all that type of stuff was just coming out, right,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: And so I ended up getting a skill, right and
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: that and that at that time, it was tech skills.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: So I truly believe everything starts with a skill, right,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: getting a valuable skill that somebody would pay money for.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: And I started working at the height of the tech boom,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: started working and made a lot of money at that
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: point in time, and of course at that time, I
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: really didn't know what to do with them. And I
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: actually saved a million dollars. I mean literally had saved
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: a million dollars cash and this was like late nineties.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Didn't really know what to do with it because I
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: was illiterate, right, and financially, financially literally, that's why financially
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: literal ended up and I lost it all, right, I
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: lost all the money after me and my wife had
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: got married and all that type of stuff. It just
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: everything just went downhill. But that taught me a great lesson.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: That's when that's when I realized that, Okay, you know,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: I was able to make that money back then. The
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: only thing I have now to do is I got
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: to go back to the roots of what got me
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: there and start all over again and build it back
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: up again. And fortunately I was able to do that. Right,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: you know, several years later, that's when it became to
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: me and realized there's a Bible speaks to the point
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: where they says God has given you the ability to create. Well,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: that's when that became real for me. Yeah. Right, that's
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: when it became.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: You know the interesting part about it. You know there
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: are different phrases because I'm going through that same thing.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I had to twenty twenty three, I had to make
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: a layoff staff. Yep, because when I realized the plan
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: that I in place, I was just losing money. That's
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: you know, the savings was going this way. The income
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: wasn't going That's why the savings was going shrinking. And
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: that's a tough decisions. That's probably the most honest point
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that you have to make from being a person who
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: has turned the corner realized their flaw or being homeless. Yes,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: it is a point where you have to humble yourself
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and realize that you have the publicly admit you're failing.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: People don't do that, whether in personal life or as entrepreneurs,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: talk about that moment of realizing that this plan is failing.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: How do I admit it and know how I turn
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: it around?
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: It's a matter we all have to pivot, right. You
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: had to pivot in twenty twenty three. Right in twenty
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: twenty a lot of people probably ran into a lot
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: of things with everybody. I think as entrepreneurs or if
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: you in business or in high professional you have to.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: You're going to have to pivot sooner, like something is
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: going to happen in your life that's going to cause
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: a shift. Right. You know, good days don't always last
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: all the time. That it's peaks in valleys, right, So
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: when you go into those peaks, you have to be
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: mindful and tell yourself. At least I had to tell myself, Okay,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I now have to adjust to this. I may have
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: to change. I may have to realize that I'm going
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: to have to give up some things. I remember me
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: and my wife we had to give up our home
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: right because we were in a situation where we were
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: about to get foreclosing. We had to go by a
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: smaller home, and I had to bring down my salary
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: to accommodate me being able to pay for that smaller home.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Leave the big fancy house, go to the smaller home.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: But that was what we had to do to be
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: able to reset. So I just think we have to
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: be humble enough to know that that's the word to
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: keep work.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Because arrogance, you let arrogance win. You're homeless. Yes, you know,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: humble will allow you to sit back and take a breath, Yes,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and also be able to evaluate yes, Because I'll tell
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: you when COVID hit the twenty twenty, I ignored it.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: You know, I had money in the bank. You know
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I had employees running up and down, and you know
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: you weren't wasn't nobody making money in COVID, But I
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: still was paying people instead of saying, hey, lay off
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: people because the government's going to take care of these people.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: I layoff.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: But arrogance, then, the blindness of arrogance was on me
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: and I That's why I was That's why I wanted
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to bring you on the show to be able to
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: have this conversation, because you can't have this conversation with everybody,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: because that moment of being able to testify this is
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: some more to testifying the people that I've experienced experienced
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: it this way, you've experienced it another way and gets whey.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Guess what the key to it was not let arrogance
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: win talk to it.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I like that. Yeah, yeah, because arrogance, I mean what
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: those things that pride comes before the fall, right, You've
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: heard that before? Yeah, And I truly believe it, pride
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: becomes before the fall. I remember when I was the
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: first time I had was doing had to achieve financial success,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: I became arrogant. I remember my wife would tell me,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: she was like, look, you're getting a little too too
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: arrogant for yourself. And and that's what led to my
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: my demise, right, because she things that I was doing financially,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: decisions that I'm making about investments. She would tell me
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: that I should question those things. But I felt arrogant
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: and felt, well, you know, I know what I'm doing.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: And so that humbled me to where I'm today. I mean,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: I trust me, I've I've been humbled to the point
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: where I know now that hey, look, you you can't
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: trust just yourself, right, ible said, lean lean on God's understanding, right,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: And that's what I believe in now, is that hey, look,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: that's why I pray every morning and make sure that hey, look,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: God come to me watch my blind side because I
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: can't see. But on on blind side I need to.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: You know, especially in business, you just don't know what's
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: coming down the road and you need that protection. So yeah,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I mean it gonna be this. You know they're gonna
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: be this type interview. Did you tell me that's true? Yeah?
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I've been blessed man because I can
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: sit up here and have these conversations and and uh,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: God just putting me in a position to be able
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to accommodate information that I'm receiving and then sharing it.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: But one question before I get to the government contract,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: what exactly is Caden's venture?
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: So Kayden sventure's again small private equity group. Me and
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: my wife started his company a few years ago because
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: we started realizing that when we get older sixty five,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: we're not gonna have a retirement. Well we know, so
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: security is't gonna be there for us. Right. My wife
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: had some money in a four to one k with
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: the current with previous imployeries she had, and it took
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: me some time, but you know, I kind of convinced her.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I said, listen, let's let's take the money out of
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: the four and k let's start this business use as
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: a seed, and let's start a a financial company where
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: we start lending money to real estate investors. That's that's
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: really what the whole, the whole premise came about. I said, look,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: we can lend money to real estate investors. We can
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: help them get their projects off the ground. Our money
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: is safe because we can collaborterize our money with the
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: projects that they're doing, and we can get a better
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: return than what we're getting by leaving it in the
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: stock market, because of the stock market is up and
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: down for that, right. And that's what we started doing.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: And I mean, I mean, since we've been doing I've
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: probably grown her portfolio probably about twenty five percent a year,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: you know what, you know, just investing it into real
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: estate projects, you know.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Because you just CFO of case, that's right, Yeah, yeah.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Investing in real estate projects. And so now you know,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: we we did that for a couple of years, just
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: with our own money. But it was very difficult because obviously,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: you know, our money would get stuck in these projects
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: for six months, twelve months and things of that nature.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: But then when we learned. We eventually learned how to
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: start you know, selling the selling the mortgage notes. Right,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: so we so we would you know, we sell those
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: marketing notes to insurance companies, right because they'll they'll buy
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: the mortgage notes from us at a premium, right, And
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: so it allows us now to just keep taking that
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: same capital stack.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Right and just keep rotating right now.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: You know, when I saw your information come to me, Tim,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I'm talking to Tim uh CFO for Cadence Ventures. It
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: was talking about government contract and more. I get so
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: mad when I see stuff by government contry because you
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: get a thousand emails and by sam dot government. It's free.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: You don't have to pay anybody to upload your information
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: on sam dot go. But they have these contracts. These
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: emails come through, say pay me a fee, pay me.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Do you have all these other people talking about how
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: easy it is to do business, talk.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: About all these millions and millions of dollars.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: That you can make with government contracts. I'm not saying
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: as a scam, but it's not easy. It's not talk
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: about the process. Everybody's process is different. Because I have
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: experience with it, That's why I was excited when I
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: email I said, can we talk about how did you
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: get involved with government contracts?
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: So I got involved in government contract in twenty twelve.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I was this was coming off the back end of
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: me losing all the money, trying to find my way,
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: trying to get my way back into business. And as
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: actually I was working on a contract with a good
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: friend of mine who kind of helped me to get
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: back into it because I had gotten out of it
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: for for many years. Good friend of mine kind of
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: helped me get back in. We was doing some international
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: work and I would come back home because my wife
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: was still here in Atlanta, but her girlfriend was telling
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: her about government contracts, and so I just started looking
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: into it. I didn't know much about it, and started
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: looking into it and started learning about it. Georgia Tech
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: has a great program called GT pack that that kind
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: of teaches people for free how to get involved. Free.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah free, that's real.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah it's free.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: But I'm telling you it is. Government contracting is very complex.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: It's very complex. It's very a lot of compliance. You
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: gotta DoPT your eyes across your t's And the first
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: thing I did is I got into the eight eight program.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you've probably heard of the SBAA
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: a program.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Right, that's when you make under two hundred and fifty thousand.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta have, yes, sir, yes, a
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: certain threashold. Yeah, But the program was designed to help
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: small businesses minority on small businesses scale up right, that
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: can call it a development program. So I got in
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: that program. But I'm tell you, the first couple of
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: years I was in the program, I didn't I didn't
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: make any money, right because I didn't know how to
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: do government contract And it took me about three and
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: a half almost four years. Now I was in just
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: a nine year program. So for the first three to
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: four years, I'm just trying to figure out how to
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: do this thing right because there was no one that
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: could was telling us other than like I said, GT. Packing.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: But you know there's a lot of its theory, right, yes, yeah,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: So it took trial and error, I mean, but STAKES
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: made money loss the whole nine to really learn it.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: But when I started learning how to leverage the eight
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: eight program in knowing how to work with the government.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Then a few years later, I think it was like
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, that's when things started changing for me. But yeah,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: the government contract. It can be very lucrative, but I
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: will say it is a very difficult space to navigate
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: if you don't know how to do it.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Got to be persistent, you got to be patient. Yes,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and got it like you said, gotch across your teach absolutely,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: because once you get the opportunity what a contract, you
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: gotta have your eys doted and your teas cross absolutely,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: because they will come at you for an audience. Absolutely,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and that's important that you understand that. You know, I
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: want to thank you Jim for coming on.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: The show man.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Believe me, it was.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: It was a friendly interview from a standpoint of we'll
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: like minded people who have stumbled yes okay, and and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: we've admitted on money making conversations master class that you
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: like Like I said, uh, you know you can fallow,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: well you can get up.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we fall down and we get up. Okay, that's right.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Uh and uh.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Dony mcclarkin's famous song game out now I think about
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: two thousand, two thousand one. But the bottom line and
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: writing Bootstrapped Millionaire, what you want to do? What you
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: want to leave my audience with?
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: I would like the audience to understand that Again, if
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: someone like me a country boy South Carolina didn't have
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: a lot of you know, mentors anything like that. Right.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: I think that if you focus and and and really
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: truly want to achieve financial success, I think that you
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: just gotta you gotta lock in, right, you know. I
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: think first of all, we have to.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Get a skill, right.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, and I almost like I was telling my
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: nephew this, right, I'll be talking now, say, first you
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: got to get a skill, right, because you got to
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: have something to monetize.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: You get a skill, learn that skill, work that skill,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: and you don't necessarily have to go out and be
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: an entrepreneur.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: You can work within corporations or work with other business owners,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: help them to scale and grow. But you're learning at
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: that point in time knowing how to save money, which
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: is very important, right, and then learn how to invest
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: and grow the money. It's really it's really a three
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: simple step process, right, the skill to earn, saving money
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: so that you can invest, but then learning in what
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: to invest in. And I think if people put that
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: focus in doing those things and become more financial literary,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: I think that we all can achieve what we're looking for.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks thanks for the financial literature, brother, I love it
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: on money Making Conversation.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: My Pleasure, My pleasure.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: This has been another dish of money Making Conversation Masterclass
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: hosted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: on the show today and thank you for listening to
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I want to be a guest on the show, visit
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: your gifts.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: Keep winning.