Pursuing Purpose Over Passion | Mikey Taylor

Justin: What is up? Entrepreneur DNA family, as always, I have a high powered guest with me. He’s a friend of mine. He’s been in my world now for probably going on almost a decade. Very close to it, he is an incredible real estate investor. He’s a business owner, he’s an angel investor, he’s a professional skateboarder. Mikey Taylor, in the house, what’s up brother?

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Mikey: Hey, what’s going on? Good to see you. I mean, I wish it was in real life, but I’ll take the digital version.

Justin: We’ll do it. We’ll figure it out. I mean, we are coast to coast, so we will, we’ll find a way to get together and knock some more of these things out. Dude, I’m gonna jump in. I think you’re one of the more dynamic people that we have in the space of being an influencer, being a business owner, being in real estate, my audience is here to learn how to start, grow and scale businesses. Is all about entrepreneurship, regardless of the vertical. You’re now a politician. Forgot to mention that in your intro. So that’s fun.

Mikey: Don’t turn the show off once you hear that.

Justin: But dude, listen, you started out as a skateboarder turned pro, followed your passion, and here we are with the accolades that I just kind of mentioned. Let’s start with your passion, the skateboarding. And then how in the hell do you take something that is the passion of your life and say, You know what, I’m going to flip it and we are going to get into business, and I’m going to go this route and become wildly successful?

Mikey: So it I kind of lucked out. I’m not gonna lie like it’s very rare for a passion to turn into a career. And I would have probably told you 10 years ago, find the thing you love and then figure out how to monetize it. I’ve completely flipped my stance on it. So I started skateboarding. I fell in love with it. I didn’t want it to end. Luckily, I had a pretty big entrepreneurial spirit in me that I wasn’t even aware was a thing. And then I just went out there and sold like I tried to get, you know, sponsors to give me free product. I took the product, sold it to my friends in the neighborhood. Then I started getting recognition in the magazines, then I had demand, and then I created product to sell off that demand. It was kind of the perfect storm. But now, if you ask me, I actually don’t think you should make a passion your career. I think actually purpose is more important, figuring out why you’re on this earth and what you’re meant to do, and then tie in business opportunities to that, because it’s too easy for a passion to turn into a hobby that doesn’t generate any money. And so I’ve kind of now separated the two. I do the things I love, I don’t even worry about making money, and then I try to align my purpose with, you know, what I’m spending my day to day time on

Justin: You know? So, I’ll add a layer to that. To me, it is the same when people ask me, you know, should I go into business with my loved one, my wife, my husband, whatever, my brother, my sister? My answer is no, for kind of, probably the same reason that you kind of say, don’t follow the passion and turn that into a business go, you know, have fun with your passion same thing. Like, I don’t believe in now, that’s just me. Like, I don’t want to have my wife be my business partner, because then we have to have these terrible dinners where we have to go over P and L’s and tough months and great months. And I’m like, God, I just want to love on you and let you be my light at the end of the day, not like crap. We still have to knock out this meeting, but I’m saying that just to say I also agree with you. I’ve seen too many people that go after passion. They lose their passion, because now it becomes work. Now they don’t have the thing of passion, which leads to your purpose, comment, and now where’s their purpose? Because they lost their passion, and I tend to agree with you wholeheartedly. Now was the transition from sports skateboarding, going into business just a brutal grind? Was it just kind of, you know, throw it against the wall, see if it sticks type of idea? How did that transition happen?

Mikey: Yeah, so it the transit, the first transition. So I went from being a pro skateboarder to starting my first business, which was a craft brewery. So two completely different spaces. The transition wasn’t as hard as I thought, and I think that’s because of two factors. One, I was naive. So I just believed that, like anything was possible, and I didn’t totally know how hard the business was going to be. So I went in it willing to get it done. And then I would say, probably the second factor is skateboarders and maybe just pro athletes in general. You’re competitive like you are used to putting everything on the line to succeed and looking at the person next to you who’s trying to do the same exact thing and trying to get one up on them. Right? That environment makes maybe difficulty and challenge very familiar. It’s a very common feeling for us, and that’s what business feels like, like business truthfully feels like nothing’s working. It’s an emotional roller coaster. You feel like you get a win one day and then the next day it’s a total L. Yeah, it’s just, (Yeah), it’s a little bit psycho, and that was normal for me, that that’s like what I experienced on a daily basis. And so the transition wasn’t that bad. The biggest thing I had to learn was working with people like coming from a from being a pro athlete, I was in charge of myself. I negotiated all my deals. I went out, you know, lined up a filmer and a photographer. It was me. I was in control of my, you know, success in a sense. So maybe if you’re in business, I would be the solopreneur. And then when I started my first company, you know, we brought a team on from the beginning. And so I really had to learn how to manage people. And really what that meant is I had to learn how to be a good leader, and I wasn’t a good leader prior to that.

Justin: Well, that’s because you were being a skateboarder as a solo sport, right? And so you don’t have the team, you don’t have the leadership. But you were, you raised yourself within skateboarding as being the solopreneur in skateboarding, right? And so, you hired everything. You were the dishwasher, you were the CEO, you were the plumber. And so that transition is probably pretty normal. And by the way, you would probably agree this. I think that’s everyone’s start of business, and it should be, you need to be, quite literally, everything. You need to be the plumber, you need to be the CEO, you need to be the accountant, you need to be the, you know, dishwasher, because that’s the only way for you to really start a business. The question becomes, when you were starting the hustle while still skateboarding, how did you find time? How did you make that work? I asked because I think a lot of our listeners and people that are watching on YouTube and everywhere else are they probably have a W2. They’re trying to, trying to either figure out how to break into entrepreneurship, or they are an entrepreneur and wouldn’t need to figure out how to scale it. So how did you make that work with a full time, crazy ass schedule, like skateboarding?

Mikey: Okay, so you know, I’ll start by telling you my model of success and what I really drove while I was skateboarding, which was just out work, like my whole thing was, like, if the person next to me is willing to put in five hours, I’m putting in eight, like just be more than everyone else. And when I got towards the later half of my career, maybe I had four or five years left, I made the decision that I could give up some of the time that I was putting into skateboarding and allocate that into a business. And I felt like the time I was still putting into skateboarding was somewhat competitive with everyone else, but I wasn’t able to run the business by myself, so I had to bring people in from the beginning, right? I had limited time. So I guess the best way to say it is this, you can either hire the help, or you can educate yourself and do everything you. And I made the decision to leverage people and have them cover the time that I didn’t have. I had to give up equity to do that. We had to give up revenue to do that. But that was my plan, so that I could create a business and spend, let’s say, 50% of my time there and still have, you know what would be the last four years of my skate career, and put time there. So I brought in people and leveraged people.

Justin: You bring up a great point that I mentioned a lot. You can spend time or you can spend money, right? And sometimes you spend both, but my guess you probably didn’t take a very big paycheck for the first couple years of that startup business.

Mikey: I didn’t. I paid myself zero.

Justin: There you go. That’s what I wanted to hear. Because I think a lot of people don’t even understand that. They don’t understand the sacrifice, right? Is to start a business. It takes so much sacrifice to your point, it’s basically crazy. I told my wife the other day is like, are you ready for me to just go be a bartender on a beach? Like, no brains, no headaches, no worries. Like, we’re out. Like, you ready for this? Because that’s the reality is, like, what we do as entrepreneurs, it is a special breed that can really make it, in the sense that you’ve been able to make it, and part of that is the sacrifice of even income, right? I would say, for the first year, I didn’t take $1 out of my real estate investing business because there was no money, right?

Mikey: Yep, that’s right. So, you pose the question about, what do people do that have a W2 job and want to create something? It’s actually a perfect segue, right? Bring people on to help you build it, and don’t pay yourself, right? You’re, you’re paying yourself on the back end with your equity, right? Just keep in mind, there’s two times to get paid on the front end or on the back end, and the back end is always the highest potential for it to be much greater. And so you have a perfect scenario where you have income coming in, you’re going to have to put some time, extra time, into the business, but it’s not going to be enough for you to build the thing on your own. So bring partners in. I’m actually a big believer in that.

Justin: Yeah, I actually more and more and more a big believer in that the older I get and the more opportunities I have. The starting a business to sell you were able to exit that right and have a nice payday there. Was that by chance or was that, like, fully intentional? I’m gonna build this Brewer company to a place where a bigger distributor type company, I forget you sold to but Anheuser Busch or (Something we sold to Coors, no, course, Coors) Yeah. So, Coors bought you. Like, Was that intentional? Or did you just kind of catch the wave of momentum and just kept riding it?

Mikey: Yeah? So, when we started the brewery, myself and my enough money to start it ourselves, so we had to go basically raise money from investors. It’s the first time I’ve ever raised money, and I learned very quickly that every single investor is going to ask you, how do I make money? How do I get paid back? And you really have two options to present to them. It’s either one, you’re going to drive at an exit, or two, you’re going to build a cash flowing business, right? There’s going to be dividends and potentially a sale down the road. The strategy that we presented is that we were going to build something to sell, and so from the beginning, you know, and we had multiple capital raises along the way. It was us stepping on the gas. It was raise money to build out our infrastructure, to build more, you know, bigger team, to get more product on the market. And that was it. We stepped on the gas for three and a half years. And then because of that, and I think our thesis and our philosophy of of what the opportunity was, we were very desirable. I mean, it was, you know, Budweiser and Miller Coors weren’t a bidding war for us, and it just kept going like this, right? So to answer your question, we built it to sell. We had the right idea at the right time, and we executed on it.

Justin: What? Just out of pure curiosity, what makes a beer company buyable, right? Like, besides the flavor of the beer. Like, I you know, is your label better? You have a cool label, and they just want it, like, what makes that beer besides the actual taste?

Mikey: Okay? So you have, there’s two different viewpoints on this one, right? I would say, for most of the buyers, like, when you’re talking about a Budweiser or Miller Coors, you could take it to any other industry. What they’re really looking for is how much demand does your company have, and what’s our ability to scale it, or what? How can we add distribution on top of your machine? Right? For us, this was the thesis at that time, every brewery was, it was all about, like, high alcohol beers. It was like a double IPA that you would drink one beer put you like, it felt like you had a steak dinner, right? And all of the emphasis was on the beer. And so we came in and went, you know what? Let’s flip the script, like, let’s make beer easy to drink, which was suicide for the craft beer industry, because the craft beer industry looked at beer as a specialty. And if you created a beer that was easily drinkable, that felt like it was no longer a craft beer, you were one of these, like Miller, Coors, like light, you know, lagers, sure, but our view was no you could still make a good beer that’s easy to drink. And then on top of that, we put more emphasis on the brand. So we didn’t want the liquid itself to sell. We wanted to create a community and an experience, so that when people drink our beer, they felt something about it. You know, the message that we were communicating is when you’re drinking a Saint Archer, that was our beer company, you are a part of California, but you’re a part of California through the lens that we see it, which is surf, skate, snow, music, art, culture, that’s our lane. That’s our vibe. If you’re one of us, you’re about it. And so what that ended up doing is it created a ton of demand, and we held it in California. So, our idea was, if we own California and create demand throughout the entire country, then when a company comes to acquire us, they’re gonna go, Wait a minute. You guys have demand in every other state, and you don’t offer it, okay. We’re gonna get behind you. We’re gonna buy it, we’re gonna open up distribution, and that’s how we’re gonna make our money. So that was our thesis. It worked. (It worked). And yeah.

Justin; How many years did you have to be in the trenches, 36 months?

Mikey: It was about three and a half years in the trenches. And then we all lasted about a year after they bought us, and then we all left.

Justin: You left or they, they said, Goodbye?

Mikey: Not a good fit. It was, no, we all left. It like, look, selling a business is awesome. It’s really awesome if you have investors. But no one can run your business like you can. And it’s it’s hard to find a buyer that’s gonna allow you to do your thing. Very common, the buyer comes in, and all of a sudden they run your business like they run every other business. And then you ruin the thing that got you there, you know. So unfortunately that happened.

Justin: All right? So you have this, this crazy life faltering event. You have an actual exit, which is very, very hard, as you’re well aware. What’s the next step? Now, do you kind of go off in the wilderness for a little bit and do some soul searching? Or where do you go from here?

Mikey: I took about eight months, and it was soul searching. It was absolutely soul searching. You know, I had to work through some emotional issues that I just wasn’t aware of. It’s very common for pro athletes, but you know, for us, our sport becomes our identity, right? Like I always viewed myself as Mikey Taylor, the skater, and then, you know, to take it even further, the pro skateboarder. And so when you lose that, you know, very often, we feel like we lose ourselves. And so I had to kind of find myself. I had to discover who I really was. And you know what the point of all of this is? And that took about eight months. And then after that, I felt like I was finally in a position to create the right business that complimented my purpose, as opposed to trying to start a business to become my new identity. And that business ended up being a private equity real estate firm. So I started a company where we were going to go out and raise money from investors who wanted to invest in real estate and earn passive income, and, you know, build their wealth through appreciation and get some, you know, tax help. But didn’t want to do the work. And so we started that the two asset classes we focus on are similar to, you, multifamily and storage. And it’s been, you know, again, stepping on the gas,

Justin: Yeah. It’s, it’s been a fun road. I mean, you know, listen, I think it’d be interesting to hear, you know, your projections of what’s going to happen next 24 months. But building a company like that, where did you start? You kind of have this idea now, what’s your starting box? Where do you go from there? (On the new company?) No, just the when you started the?

Mikey: Private equity firm, Commune, yeah, private equity. Okay. So basically, like, I know what I’m good at, like I know my skill set. I know what I’m not good at, and what I am not is I am not an operator. I am not the person who’s going to make sure we’re being efficient and creating systems and managing those systems, not me. And so whenever I start a business, my first person I’m bringing on is going to be, ultimately the COO I need to find the person that’s going to keep my ideas and my energy moving in a straight and forward path. And so I looked for that person, and then the second person I looked for was the analytical type. I wanted somebody who was a monster when it come to, you know, underwriting deals, creating, you know, complex structures, that was going to be another key component to this. So I went out and found those two and then I looked for somebody that was going to manage all of our development. And then from there, we started building the business. And then the second we could bring people on to help, we started doing that.

Justin: And you were just acquiring assets at the point apartments, storage.

Mikey: Well, what, what we look for? And I think this comes back to the entrepreneur. I mean, I want to build stuff like I like creating. And so our thesis on multifamily, we want dead assets that are not producing revenue. We want to scrape them, and we want to build new apartments. On the storage side I want something similar. I want a big box retailer like Kmart, or a Bed Bath and Beyond that went vacant that doesn’t have any revenue coming in. I want to buy it, and I want to repurpose it into storage. So we’re a group that is very willing to do the hard work, because, quite frankly, I want bigger returns than the market has to offer.

Justin: Oh, there’s no doubt in that that, again, Toys “R” Us, or Walmart or whatever. What a great model where you in, you build out the interior of those stores to be storage facilities. I just think that model is incredible. But to your point, you know, a heavy financial lift out of the gate. I mean, you’re, you’re not raising a million or two, right? You’re really going for it. Oh, yeah, big raises. What’s, what’s been your most fun, enjoyable project for your private equity so far?

Mikey: Good question. We had a really hard one. It’s always the hard ones that you remember. It’s never the easy ones.

Justin: That’s a funny I answer the same way a lot of times.

Mikey: Yeah, we had one a few years ago that it was three vacant apartment buildings right next to each other in a really desirable, like high end market. And we came in, we were gonna, you know, we worked out a deal to keep the owner in the deal, and we’re gonna scrape the apartments build, you know, one big structure on it. And in the ninth inning, it looked like it was all gonna fall apart. And so, you know, we looked at the partners and went, What the heck are we gonna do? We were up all night with our attorneys, which. Meant a very, very expensive night, and we got very creative with the financing, and we ended up basically getting the deal done. We got all the investors in. We started building it. We’re about four months away from completion, but that was one of those deals that reminded me why everyone doesn’t do this like the it was, that was a hard one. So I remember that one, and then we have one deal right now that I’m really excited about. It’s a it was a boat yard in a market called Ventura. It’s, you know, one of the most undersupplied cities in the entire country, and it’s just now starting to blow up. And so we have a couple projects out there where I think we’re perfect timing. The demand is super offset on where supply is. The city is finally going, please build. And it’s close to my backyard. It’s 20 minutes away. So we have a handful of stuff out there that I’m really excited about. But the project we did in Mar VISTA was one of the more complex and difficult deals to do.

Justin; That’s always the best answers is when you go and you say, well, it was probably the one where you know whether you lost money or more complex or is just the toughest one those. That’s the reality. Kind of, getting back to this entrepreneurship, everyone who’s in business right now knows those days, the dog days, the days are long, the years are short. Type of concept, what is, what’s your big push right now? And by the way, if you guys are liking Mikey, you need to be liking him. You need to be following them all over Tiktok, big following on Tiktok, big following on Instagram. He puts out incredible content, so make sure you do that. Where else do they want? Where else do you want to drive them real quick?

Mikey: You can find me at any platform. Just Mikey Taylor. Our company is Commune Capital. We’re on all the other platforms as well. So if you want to learn about investing, we put out a lot of content that’s educational. And if you’re looking for a group to invest with, do your research on us. See if we’re a good fit. And you know, I’d love to tell you about it so you can find us through any platform as well. You know, what’s the what’s Why am I driving so hard right now? That was the question?

Justin: Yeah, four kids, multiple businesses, just going for it in politics.

Mikey: So, I have this, I have this personal view that we were all given our talents by God to go out and use and I think he has this idea of what we look like when we capture as close to our potential as possible. And so I don’t know I want to finish the race and go I got as close to that example as I possibly could. It’s exhausting. It’s hard. I would say, out of everything I’m doing, the hardest thing is probably the parenting. It’s difficult being a dad. You know you’re building up the next generation, and they catch some of your qualities, and they catch all your flaws. And so that’s humbling by nature, I would say, for the business, this is probably the most unique opportunity I have seen in my investing lifetime. In the last 20 something years, I’ve never seen anything like this. And you know what that means, specifically to what we’re doing, there is the most extreme housing shortage that many of these states have ever seen. That is not normal. And you know, 2008 I was investing looking back, I wish I could have gone back to 2008 and went after it as hard as I possibly could. And so not knowing how long this moment is going to last, where supply is so below demand, it’s difficult to get deals done. I want to finish this race and go, Oh my gosh. We went after it as hard as we could. We got 20 new properties at a discount, as opposed to five. And so we’re really trying to capture the opportunity. We’re doing more deals than we’ve ever done. It is difficult to do them, though, in the moments where it’s challenging, it means deal flow is up and it means it’s hard. It’s never easy in the good opportunities. So our heads are down. We are as a firm, really, really going for it right now.

Justin: No, I’d love to hear that. I think I feel the same way. You know, it is. I’d actually the secondary question to that is, where do you think the real estate market, the financial market, the interest rates? Where do you see them? And no one has a crystal ball. I get that right, (Yeah). Where do you see them going over the next let’s call it 24 months. What do you think it looks like?

Mikey: Okay, so I, I have never been, the interest rate thing. I think interest rates are staying. I don’t think they’re coming down like everybody thought. If I were to guess, and I could totally be wrong, I’m not sure we’ll see the interest rates we saw in 21 ever again. I think that was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity. I think interest rates of 4 ½%-5%. What’s the real estate market going to look like? It depends on the sector. If you’re in office, I think you are smoked. I don’t think there’s any. I don’t think there’s anything in the near future that looks like we’re going to get it get out okay. I think it’s going to be a decade of trying to figure out this asset class, if you’re in storage, if you’re in multifamily, even single family, right? I think we’re totally fine, as long as you know how to do this. If you’re a group that understands that things don’t go right, and you’re planning for the unexpected, and you’re removing as many of the options that are going to force a sell you are going to do so fine. I mean, look at, look at Blackstone. Blackstone just committed, what, 10 billion into multifamily like, if you have a long-term outlook, and you know how to do this, I think you’re going to make a lot of money for a long time.

Justin: Yeah, I think at the end of the day, the, you know, Wall Street money is gonna keep coming. I know. I just, I just posted a real deal article that said, like, the House or the Senate or whatever, is trying to stop them from being able to buy single family homes and and that, just, in my opinion, anything could happen. You’re in politics, you would know, but like no chance they have the checkbook, they keep the people in office, so they’re gonna be able to buy as much as they want of any asset class, because that’s how those people stay in office. So they’re gonna say, no, we want 10 billion worth of multi family. So we’re gonna go get it. (Yeah, that’s right) But I follow that money. Go ahead.

Mikey:  I do the same thing. I follow the money, right? Like, you know, look, look, we talked about smart money and dumb money, right? The smart money is long term. They don’t look at things on a five year hold. They’re gonna look at things at a 10 year hold, right? They’re looking at a 20 to 30 year outlook when you’re playing the long game, like a legacy Outlook to it is very hard to lose, or, I should say it’s much harder to lose. So, you know, you talk about some of the people getting impacted right now, because I think this is a great opportunity. It does not mean everyone is winning in real estate. You have a lot of syndicators right now that were buying product on bridge debt that had some type of value add. They were in, you know, these Midwest or southern markets, because they were hot, they are getting smoked right now. They are no longer doing distributions. They’re doing capital calls. They’re having to restructure their debt. I mean, you are that’s a very different experience for investors that went there than what I think a lot of the smart money is doing. So just keep in mind that because there’s an opportunity. That doesn’t mean everyone’s making money. It doesn’t mean everyone’s doing well, like, it’s usually the short-term outlook, which we all fall victim to, which brings on a lot of risks, and which ultimately means you have the potential of losing money.

Justin: Yeah. I mean, listen, starting a business in general, you have the potential losing a lot of money, right? Lot of money, energy and time, and so whether you’re in real estate or otherwise, you always have to know the risk. And what I think is what people should be hearing, that he’s not saying directly, is just don’t have the microwave society, immediate gratification outlook on this. If you have the longer-term outlook, and in the single family space, that would be more of a BRRRR model, buy it, remodel it, refinance, rent and refinance, right? You’re just gonna hold it for a long time, but you forced appreciation through the renovations. That is a better business model than, you know, just a hope and a prayer, right? I love fix and flipping, but, you know, at the end of the day, if you can withstand slowly building and accumulating wealth. Then there’s your model. I have something that I try to do, which is I try to accumulate the smaller priced assets for an exit, to go into the bigger assets, to go exit those, to go into even larger assets. But it’s because it’ll have the equity. So would you agree that some of this smart money is because they can create the equity, because then you don’t have to get forced to sell, regardless of the economy, is get something that has a lot of equity.

Mikey: I’m a look, I’m a big believer in that. I mean, the if you can create value, you can create wealth, right? Whether that’s business, whether that’s real estate, I’m a huge, huge believer in that. So, yeah, the more equity you have in something, the less the market has no the more the market has to drop for you to lose money, right? I mean, you have 50% equity in a deal, the market turns by 10% you’re not tripping at all. So it is always safer to have more equity 100% and I think, you know, you touch on something important, like, you know, for you, for example, you’ve been doing this a long time. Do things go wrong on a deal?

Justin: Of course.

Mikey: Of course.

Justin: Every time, just every time.

Mikey: So, when you move forward on a deal, you’ve been doing this long enough where you’re going to look at all the potential factors, and you’re going to plan for them, right? And if you still have a project that can succeed or survive with adversity, you move forward. The challenge is, for a lot of new investors, they look at the market, they look at people making money, and they go, I have to get in. And the fact that they’re not in yet, there’s an extra emotional push to make you basically get your first deal. And a lot of times they buy a crappy deal, which means everything has to go perfectly, right or you’re losing money. And that is a one in a million type of shot. And so that’s more what I’m referring to. It’s it’s just the, unfortunately, the newer, inexperienced investors that don’t know that things go wrong and don’t have the discipline created yet to say no.

Justin: Yeah, you know that is the hardest, even for myself, saying no, is that one of the harder things that I have to do? I have a great deal like today, for example, I get sent to deal in West Palm Beach. The numbers look great, but it’s a stick built, not a brick built. And I’m just like, that is the one thing I didn’t want to see on that property, right? And so you go, God, okay, well, what is the biggest downside and what is my downside risk? And you have to figure out if I’m going to say yes to that. I have to be willing to take this downside risk and to be able to willing to have this lower return, or whatever the case may be. What’s next for Mikey Taylor, where are you going, like we just joked about, but you are actually in politics. You have a city council role, but what is the next, you know, finishing out this decade? What are the 2020s look like for Mikey Taylor?

Mikey: Okay, I have three factors, I guess. I have the dad, the business owner, and then the, you know, Councilman on the dad side, my two oldest girls, which are nine and 11, I’m going to be entering the teen stages, you know, in the next 10 years, my oldest is going to be 21 and so, yeah, it’s going to be a lot of emphasis on, on making sure we’re instilling the foundation that is going to put them in a position where when they get thrown curve balls, or they get any factor in life that’s going to basically be difficult that they can get through that. So parenting on a business side, we have a goal. We want to get to a billion of AUM in the next five years. That’s our company goal. I really want to do in three years. If nothing changes and it’s just business as usual, we’ll get there in about eight so that’s kind of my more current business goal. We’re at. We’re getting close to about 300 million right now for concepts contact, so I still have a little bit of room. And then on the city council goal, I want to, ultimately, I want my kids to have the option to stay here, right like I live in a city that is a little bit more fluent. It’s an older demographic. We’re aging and so a lot of like 18 to 35 year olds leave, and then they don’t come back. So I want to create a place where, you know, our kids and the next generation actually want to live here and create business here, create families. So I would say that’s my city goal right now.

Justin: Can you get to that billion dollar mark faster?

Mikey: Yes. I mean, the answer is yes. It just it all comes down to really deal flow and capital, right? Do you have access to deals? And then can you fund them? And then the timeline of it, because we do development, and I’m gonna get a little bit into the weeds here, you’re holding at cost until you get your project reappraised. So, you know, for example, we have one project right now that’s gonna cost us about $40 million to build, right so we close on a deal. We bring investors in $40 million total cost takes two years to build, another six to nine months to stabilize. Then you get it, reappraised and refi, so you’re three years out from having the opportunity of turning that $40 million cost into a $75 million value. And so, you know, we have a handful of projects that, you know have that type of growth potential. It’s just the time you can’t speed up the time on development.

Justin: Yeah, there’s no, no doubt. I mean, that’s kind of, do you buy something turnkey, more the Grant Cardone style, where you go buy that?

Mikey: Yeah, it’s a different. Yep, and it’s a different story. Then you just find deals, raise money and close. But where we’re at, which is, I want a bigger return, you just have to be willing to put in the time. And so I think it’s going to be, it’ll probably land at four, if I’m ready, if I’m gonna guess I wanted three. Goal for the company is five. I think it lands at four.

Justin: Well, so listen, you’re talking about creating value in these properties. But I think that’s something all business owners need to understand, is you want a bigger return. So you’re creating the value in these properties, you’re buying, you’re developing, creates the value you are, your income, what you earn, the wealth you accumulate, is in direct relation to the value that you’re providing the marketplace, and you are providing the value by buying, scraping and building, and maybe you’re not scraping all of it and whatever. But the point being is you’re you’re increasing the value of the marketplace so you will get compensated as such same place for some of you people trying to buy rentals, single family rentals, I love single family still. Great asset class, great dollar amount. People always need someone to live. So, you know, run the BRRRR model, you know, force appreciation, create the value, refinance out. It’s all the same thing. But if you’re listening to this and watching Mike Taylor on YouTube and all these different things, understand what value are you bringing to the marketplace? Yes, you have to ask yourself that I don’t know. I know what Mikey brings. I know what I bring. What value are you bringing? If you need to, you know, do some self soul searching, then do it. Because I almost guarantee you you’ll make more money and create a better life if you do that. Dude, any parting words, this is this has been great. We’ve hit all sectors here. We got family, we got work, we got business, we got sports, we got politics. Any parting words for the people out there listening to Entrepreneur DNA?

Mikey: I’m going to end on this one, and it’s going to be kind of a side ball, but if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re going to have a different type of challenge when you get into the field of getting married and having kids, and this is going to be the advice I would give you from the last 14 years of being married. When you are with your wife, when you’re with your kids, give them all of your attention. It’s difficult for us. We’re wired a little bit differently, but put them as the priority. And then here’s the second part. You’re going to go through challenges in a marriage. It’s inevitable if you’re willing to get through them. What my experience is is you have a refining fire moment where everything sucks. You work with your wife or your husband to get everything better. And going through that type of challenge together, what you experience on the other end is more powerful than what you had prior to the challenge, and once you go through it, once your outlook on the future for upcoming challenges actually becomes pretty encouraging, because you no longer look at, you know, a winter season in your life as the thing that’s going to break you up. You look at it as another opportunity for you to become even closer with this person. So entrepreneurs, keep that in mind. Having a relationship and building a business is tough. Treat it like you’re dating constantly. Date your partner, take her or him out and work through the conflict. You’ll be completely blessed if you do that.

Justin: My man, that was a hell of a way to end this episode. Everyone needs to go find Mikey Taylor on TikTok, Instagram and all the social medias, brother, I appreciate you being on and we got to stay way closer connected. That is for damn sure.

Mikey: It’s good to see you. I miss you. My man.

Justin: Miss you too. Brother, appreciate it All right, y’all that’s it. See you on the next one.