How Eric Cline Went from Drugs to a Multimillionaire Entrepreneur [121]

Dude this one cost us $7 million yeah that's what the point is 7 million and I had no income dude I had to stand in front of aund and some people at that point in my cafeteria and let them all go at [Music] once all right so I am super pumped I'm here with Eric kleene the phone sale guy wholesaling all over the country yeah and and I'm really excited to hear about Your journey your story especially your story yeah I just want to start right there you've got a really fascinating story you want to

talk about where where you came from and where you're currently at of course man how far one thank you for having me yeah man first time in Kansas City I I'm just dude if you guys don't know Eric's a Class Act he flew out here on his own didn't ask me for anything I want I want to come live yeah so that to me that somebody who is a Classy guy wants to be here yeah I like shaking hands and I like looking at people in their eyes honestly yeah me too the conversation's way better

way better yeah so appreciate you having me out here uh the rain sucks but uh just stay another seven hours it changes um so man I can go all the way back to like like the trouble the trouble I used to get in the because the guy sitting here today is not the guy uh that was uh around 14 years ago um yeah So 14 years ago you were a different guy how old are you right now I I just turned uh 43 years old welcome to the club well I'm 46 are you yeah you

got a couple years on me yeah that's right um but from from 13 to 28 years old like I heavily heavily Abus drugs and alcohol uh what was your go-to the the so the one that brought me to my knees was crack cocaine okay what brought me to my knees was booze so I haven't drank in 17 years love it dude yeah so that's why I Was really excited to talk to you because I know the struggle yeah and like you you're tough [ __ ] because people who don't know when he says brought him

to a knees like it takes a like I was weak I I mean I went out quick that the booze I knew it had me and so when you tried a lot of different stuff and it just couldn't take you out dude it at the end like I'll I'll spare everybody the you know where I started and where It ultimately Ended at 28 years old I was renting a room from a cop in Chicago okay I was a union carpenter I was black balled from every job site okay I was I was a massive liability

yeah and the the last job that I got blackballed from I was I was up for like three or four days no sleep smoking crack doing ecstasy and I I was on the job in in my role in the job we we would build highrises downtown Chicago so you're on a highrise I was building Highrise yeah and I was you would wear your harness you had to have a retractable hooked up every high as kite we were 25 stories up okay and I had my harness on but I didn't have it clipped and I had

my retractable you know it wasn't if I would have fallen I would have fallen through my harness cuz I didn't have my leg straps on right 25 uh floors up on the side of the building and my superintendent came up and he was like Eric he was like what are you doing And I looked up at him and again I hadn't been sleeping for days yeah and I thought it was okay for me to reach into my third pocket bust out a bag of ecstasy break a pill in half and ask my superintendent if he

wanted half of it and he dude he looked at me and he goes you get your ass up here right now so I I got up and I remember dude he was disappointed cuz he looked at me in the eyes and he goes he goes dude you need to go get some serious help yeah he was Like you're the best thing I have on this job yeah CU it sounds like you're functional dude I was I've always had people have always saw like a ton of talent in me I just didn't see it in myself

right self sabotage bad dude like so bad I burned every at this point like my my Mo all my family members disowned me not cuz they they didn't love me they literally couldn't they couldn't handle me um you know I was I was getting locked Up I was I got my license at 18 lost it at 22 I had four DUI five driving on suspended like I was a wreck dude yeah you're an entrepreneur yes yes yes and when when he let me go it was the last job I was allowed on and I was

finally black balled so you're 28 I was 28 years old I believe that's when I got sober was it yeah I'm I'm 17 years I'm 46 I believe it was right yeah 2007 I'll be 15 years in August clean and sober yeah so I'm I'm sober not not clean I still Do a little bit of weed here and there but yeah like I the the booze was a thing that just crushed me so I understand so you're in you're in na I was I don't do any meetings anymore okay like uh my wife is Hardcore

na she hasn't done anything she was everything just like you mhm so I'm interested in that too just on a personal cuz I didn't do meetings like I initially I needed that I needed it did you need it too in the beginning I needed it was a must for Me yeah like I I'll I'll I'll tell you the last eight days for me okay and it so I was when he when he let me go I was unemployable at that time because I was a union carpenter right and uh I had gotten I manipulated my

uh some paperwork for my annuity to give me 3500 bucks so I went back home home they sent me a check I had $3,500 I went to a a c check cashing store cuz I didn't have bank accounts yeah um I went and cashed it and then I Went back to a room I was renting he rented the other rooms to college students this is a police officer police officer's house okay that rented rooms to college students they were all gone for the summer so it was me in this house by myself yeah and the

dope man was coming to the back door like clockwork he knew when I needed it and what was your drug crack crack and so what is crack crack is cocaine with baking soda right yeah cooked and you Smoke it and what does it do to you I'm about to tell you okay I'm about to tell you good transition let's go I'm about to tell you so and now is not a time to start trying this stuff everybody you don't want to do it uh I so I when I when I would get jacked up when

I'd get effed up right yeah I was out of my mind yeah I wouldn't sleep it keep me up for days and I I start hearing and seeing [ __ ] oh wow when you know I was sleep deprived yeah and the the dope man would Come to the back door and I got so paranoid that all my light because you had to light it right and at this time I broke my crackpipe and then I looked for a a socket that you uh unloosen bolts with yeah so I took a socket I started stripping

uh um plug-in cords I stripped one of these got the inside of it stuffed the socket and I put the crack on it but I'd have to go out to the the stove and light it off a flame okay well I would have to get so close to the Stove I was burning my face oh wow so by the time I was done dude I had no eyebrows no eyelashes golf ball baseball size blisters on both sides of my face wow cuz I was I was going I you know I'd give one side a break

and i' I'd get close to the fire and I'd burn my face just to get high wow and uh I remember the very last day dude I was down to $8 and the dope man wouldn't give me any more dope and I why doesn't the dope man give you any more dope because of the Money I'm out of money so he's he's gone he's he's done but dude at this point eight days I'm up eight days I hear helicopters swarm in the house yeah I hear them above I can hear the the propellers yeah cops

ambulance Lin in the streets they kick the front door open you can hear them all of this oh they're actually there I thought this was I thought this is the paranoia barking uh and then I hear everyone come down the hallway and I'm in the room in My now mind you I'm pissing in the corner of this room because I'm so paranoid to go out across the hallway and use the restroom like I am locked in a room yeah uh and uh I remember them bringing everything down the hallway I hear the stretcher ambulance all

the commotion my mom's out there crying hysterically okay and she's like leave him alone he's dead just leave him be he's dead he's dead and my older brother which he had he had rescued me from Another house one time and got me out of it but dude I was getting clean for everybody but myself when I tried getting clean yeah and so my my brother was out there just wrestling with the cops and [ __ ] and finally they they got everybody calmed down and and I'm in this room the sheets middle of the day

mind you it's blazing hot I'm sweating my ass off and they they get everybody back and they said on three we're going to go in and and revive him so I'm Sitting there and I'm like [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] they say one two I jump out of bed I open the door and I'm like [ __ ] I'm alive and dude I was standing in a hallway by myself no one was there so I used to say when I when I would tell this story Vis I I got there man

dude it was it was it was that day August 9th 2009 okay is the LA when that happened nice and it was I used to say when I when I would tell this story I hallucinated everything yeah but it was Far from a hallucination tell me about that it was it was a power greater than myself right that opened my eyes and he was like dude you either keep doing this and and this is a real life scenario for you or you get your [ __ ] together and you just start living yeah it's kind

of I would say not as chaotic as my story but when you talk about bringing it to your knees what I remember I'm just going to tell you a little bit on mine cuz I want You to continue but like it was kind of very similar like so I was a realtor but I was not successful in Vegas but I was still a drunk got it and I was a drunk before I was a realtor and I was successful as a drunk and so I go to get my realtor's license renewed I had moved back

to Vegas cuz I ran out of money and I was drinking still and so I had sobered up for a couple months and then I went and took I kind of just fell back in the old routine and I ended up going Back to Vegas to get my license reinstated well I ended up going on a bender yep for like three days like and I ended up convincing the uh real estate company and the people to sign me in I'm sure you know how to do yeah and so anyways I got back home I got

drunk the whole way I convinced the they weren't serving drinks I convinced the stewards to serve me booze just because I was Charming when I was drinking I got in the I dropped picked up my car from the Rental car company well I my parents didn't even know nobody knew that I was a like besides my buddies they knew I was a real big drunk but what happened was the first thing I do coming back from Vegas is I'm living in Washington state for like 10 months I pull back into the bar that I had

been very successful with the ladies at and where I'm getting my ego from at that time of course and uh I remember leaving I called my sister I never called Anybody drunk but I'm sitting next to some guy doing tequila shots at the bar and he's like I work with your sister I'm like let's call her and she like is concerned like what are you okay what's wrong she never I never called anybody drunk on the I was very didn't text didn't call kept it to myself and then so Eric I um anyways I'm trying

to leave the bar another guy who has to drink with who's a drunk looks at me he's like you shouldn't be driving and I listen to Him cuz I knew that he's [ __ ] he's he got drunk a lot yeah so finally I get home and the guy who I'm living with who wasn't a real friend but I was living with him yeah and he records me that night it's like a David Hasselhoff moment if you remember David Hasselhoff eating the cheeseburger so and that night or or so that morning I saw that video

of me and I really made a determination that was the end of it right but what was more important than That is that night I was with two roommates but I felt the most alone and like in fear of my life for myself like I said I I have never prayed to God I said if you get me through tonight I make a promise to you that that's what I mean by bringing to my knees that's what was my moment I said I make a promise to myself that I'll never touch alcohol again that was

17 years ago that was 17 years ago grats bro yeah so when I so what was that the reason I wanted to say That share that with you is what was that what was that conversation that you had with yourself and with God that brought that that that cleared the moment cuz it wasn't it wasn't the people coming in no it wasn't your mom Reviving you was all this stuff in your head yeah it was it was just so clear it was so clear like when I tell you everything I just said right there I

heard it all I heard the voices I heard like it couldn't have been any clear for Me that I was I was close to death I mean dude at this point I'm I am 135 lbs I was going to ask your weight were you like a total crackhead dude I was bad like I didn't get to the point I was homeless but I my next step was homeless yeah you know because my mom wasn't letting me and thank God for my mom she showed me like the toughest love you could show somebody yeah and it

wasn't cuz she didn't love me she loved me but like she showed me tough love love Yeah Like real tough love and I needed that [ __ ] um but for me like I just didn't like I truly didn't want to die and what I saw and heard that day was me was me dying so what was the next steps I had eight bucks I walk out of when I'm in the hallway and I see no one there it was the aha moment for me it really was yeah like people always ask me what you

know how did you get clean dude I hit my bottom yeah like I saw death uh everybody's Bottom's different Everyone's Bottom's different man and there was a pine of vodka sitting out on the the uh table in the kitchen because I didn't have the courage to go outside yeah so I I took this this this little thing of vodka poured it in this Gatorade bottle and I slammed it which gave me enough courage to walk to the train station I got on a train had eight bucks and I went back to my hometown Rockford Illinois

and my my aunt and another guy that I used to smoke crack With at that point had three years clean he let me into his home for 28 days to to keep me clean and in that 28 days there were many many days where I was on my hands and knees in the shower balling my eyes out yeah because I wanted to get high so bad yeah and it was the first time where you wanted to get higher where the withdrawal is terrible dude crack is mental okay it's not physical right it was mental withdrawals

yeah like I you you don't feel when you're When you're coming off crack it's not like you got the shakes or the shits or anything like that no it's just it's not there's no mental right and I was smoking it for six years pretty heavily what's what's pretty heavily every chance I could get is that every day if yes okay I was smoking crack like well I say not every day because I'd get a check on Thursday and it'd be gone by Sunday you know I would smoke yeah it's you burned through it yeah I

wasn't even Living paycheck to paycheck I would you know cuz my check was gone within three days and I was mooching and you know stealing on job sites I was taking guys lunches and [ __ ] like I was that dude yeah man sucked well I mean I think the be best thing to hear from that story is where we're about ready to go right now because I think that one thing that that I know you realize is that when you're suffering with this type of thing you feel alone B and that that was a

thing For me I had three people myself and two other guys that were in the room that night and I felt more alone than I had ever felt in my life and I said man and I and that those conversations had happened before like I should probably not drink anymore you I'm sure you had those conversations I tried for years yeah and then it just took enough where it was like and then the for me the minute I quit drinking Success and it was like holy crap it was nuts was that what happened to you

so tell me about like what were the next steps so you got with your friends they helped you get clean they put me on a plane flew me down to Fort Lauderdale okay I had 60 days left on my insurance through the annuity okay and that got me into a treatment center down in Fort Lauderdale okay and uh Fort Lauderdale or Florida there's no unions okay right and I was a Union carpenter so in my head when I went down to Fort Lauderdale and check myself into treatment I was going to go down there get

clean come back to Chicago right right that that's the way Eric planned this whole thing yeah and I go out I go down there get get into treatment and I'm in treatment for 60 days and I'm starting to gain my weight back I'm going to NA meetings and like I was I was a gun ho na guy yeah like in treatment they put us on the white buses And bring us to the We All or Nothing yeah all or nothing and like I was the guy that wasn't talking to girls and like I was writing

in my book and journaling and all that stuff 12 steps didn't dude everything yeah and when I got right before my I was getting ready to get out of treatment they were like hey we think you should go to a halfway house I was like all right that's when I first started taking suggestions from people that were doing things that I Hadn't done before right and I still do that today in business you were getting mentors yes 100% guys say hey you should go to a halfway house I went to a halfway house I stayed

in a halfway house for 6 months and when uh there was a a piece of paper my first job out of treatment was a bus boy like there's a story behind it not a big deal worked at a a restaurant for two weeks because I I literally couldn't find a job like all the tattoos you see I had a lot of them When I got clean yeah so nobody would employ me right and I was stuck being a bus you have a criminal record I did not have a criminal record yeah DUI and stuff like

that but I didn't have a criminal record um and I ended up getting a bus boy job two weeks working there they handed me a check for 146 bucks and I'm like Jesus Christ dude 28 years old work for two weeks I just made it wasn't even enough to pay my bed rent at the halfway house Yeah so my my now wife which was my girlfriend at the time she drops me off at my halfway house there was a piece of paper you meet her dude 3 days before I got out of treatment she walks

in the NA meeting that I'm in uhhuh and there was like this glow glow about her sh you not we I thought she was a lesbian when I first met her I called her the wrong [ __ ] name like all this [ __ ] it was I was a train wreck you were just getting your marbles going she had four and a/2 Years clean which she 13 stepped me because you're not supposed to to go get the newcomer yeah and dude she picked me up the day I walked out of treatment and we've been

together ever since well that's cool I mean I think it's important to uh surround your I mean it's hard like for people who I know who are like using and or like still in like some sort of thing to try to get into a relationship they're usually going to end up with a drunk or a user and you Can't stay clean that way and D we we're not she just celebrated 18 or 19 well I'm coming up on 15 she'll be almost 19 years here yeah and uh D we're partners in crime man we're business

partners we're life Partners we're uh you know husband W everything and it's worked out and we've been through some [ __ ] together man well yeah you started with it right like she St saw you at your worst my lowest living in a halfway house she was with me six months While literally the day I walked out we went on our first date yeah that's cool yeah so after getting that check this this piece of paper hanging on the door it said telemarketers wanted $15 an hour that was my step into a call center that's

where we need to market for telemarketers dude yeah I've had a lot of telemarketing centers yeah that's a great place and I I I jumped into this company as a appointment setter became Their number one closer and what are you what are you setting appointments for do we so it was a company in South Florida that test piloted campaigns and then started companies off of it okay so I did ADT Home alarm system Auto uh warranties credit repair debt consolidation like all these different campaigns now are you studying how to be a good telemarketer or

is this already ingrained because you just knew how to like cajo and you know what I mean like You already knew how to you had a good mouthpiece already as a you know what I mean I don't know man cuz when I when I got into the call center I was I had the worst phone fear I was full of anxiety I had low self-esteem like I wasn't good at sales like I was probably one of the this was a call center with two 300 people in okay gotcha so I was surrounded by absolute Killers

Killers yeah like some you know down in South Florida it's a it's a sunny place for Shady people and uh but there there there's some people that have some some mouth I lived in I lived in a place like that Las Vegas yeah yeah and uh I was just around so many guys that had and women that had so much talent yes but they didn't have a good work ethic okay and your work ethic dude I was hungry yes like when I say I was broke and hungry I was brok and hungry if you're popping

ecstasy on a freaking five story building and still going to work you got A pretty good work ethic whether or not you're being a little bit crazy of course yeah so you had the work ethic yeah man I was starting from the like the bottom and when I walked so this is 2009 is 2009 yeah okay I walk into this call center I see people that look like me walk like me you know some of them were talking like me they had tattoos and uh a [ __ ] ton of them were in recovery like

they hired from recovery places yeah they're marketing There yes yeah and uh I saw for the first time I'm like man I could do something with this okay they had to put a lot of work into me though okay like I did not jump on the phones and I and I had like the gift to G I did not have that yeah like I had to put a lot of work into it they were real strict on scripts and process that's where I learn a lot of this [ __ ] people are like who mentored

you when it comes to sales it was the call centers I worked in yeah in South Florida like I was around I would take something from you I'd take something from her and I morphed it into my own that's what you do process yeah I did say we worked at intercom sales in Seattle Washington which was same type of deal yeah you know you build your own book of business you don't have anything and you watch what everybody's doing right yep which is not M much right then you watch all the guys that are just

falling on their faces and then you kind Get your own yeah so tell me about that so so for a year and a half went from appointment setter to closer and when I say I was the hungriest one there outworked every single person in that building including the owner I was the first one to show up I I would wait every morning for someone to open the door for me and then at night time they would shut the lights off and say Eric we got to go so when I say you got something to prove

you wanted bad yeah Man not only to me but like my mom was skeptical whether or not I was really doing the damn thing still like my family members were where's Dad at in this situation he's he's man my my dad was a drinking buddy and abusive dad like there was days where I I couldn't go to school because I had two swollen eyes really yeah like like swollen because my dad close fist punched me and all that [ __ ] my my mother has since remarried you know I wish my dad the Best but

he's just not somebody I want my life um you got and that's a tough thing to do like people talk about this in entrepreneurialship all the time but just cuz you were born by somebody or want something it doesn't mean that that's going to get you to where you want to go no he he showed me everything I don't want to be as a father and I treat my my kids and my son like uh you know my I didn't grow up in a household where we hugged and kissed and stuff Like that I love

you wasn't a word that was thrown around a lot um today like man I I shower my my daughter my wife had from a previous relationship I adopted her um so it'd be a little weird for me to kiss her and [ __ ] like that yeah but like my my biological son um like dude I he's he's my baby dude I show him so much love um and he's your training partner from what I could tell Dude right we are on a mission right now bro yeah I wanted to that was one of the

Things I wanted to talk to you about let's talk about that so do you have kids I do okay your your own flesh and blood man you want and and my daughter I want nothing but the best for them right right and I will protect him with everything yeah and when you have a son you love to death and his weight is out of control it's a very hard conversation to have with your son it totally is um and for years I've been telling him he's Got a [ __ ] ton of muscles you're you're

strong buddy you're strong you got more muscles than anybody and I've been lying to him for years okay and it was uh it's gotten to the point where he weighed more than I did okay I've never weighed over 200 lb my son got to 208b he's 11 years old yeah and uh I was seeing in his day-to-day where he would go to tie a shoe and he'd come up you know he couldn't breathe and the way he when he Would sit he was constantly pulling his shirt and I'm like this is not okay like I

have to and it was crazy because we were actually out uh I went to a Andy Elliot yeah I've seen the shirts so I like dude I bought my 11-year-old son a VIP ticket I paid $4 or $5,000 for my son to sit front row with me and there was a workout the night before the event and I was out there running you know with Kai and he me and him were arguing because you know a 208b kid we're out There running everyone's getting at it and I just want the best for him and usually

when I try doing that it it's friction between him and I yeah Andy Elliot saw the friction and he pulled me aside and he's like dude I want to I want to talk to your son and I'm like dude I'd love that you know and he goes he can't relate to you you've never been fat you couldn't prove to your son you were heavy and you lost a ton of weight he goes I can show him some pictures When I was 11 years old and I look just like him and he goes I got dumped

by a girl and I I I was sad and I said that would never happen to me again he goes let me sit with your son and have a talk with him that give me goosebumps that's because I think Andy I don't know him personally we've talked on you know about coming on the podcast and stuff like that but I know he gets a lot of hate and and and it's good to hear I because I saw somebody like do something The other day where they were talking about that he tries to emasculate people and

make them feel bad and I'm like I see that there he's just trying to share like that be your best be your best dude I have a whole another level of respect for this dude yeah when I say he took he took a an effort and a interest in your son dude on a whole another level but like he had the talk with my son this was probably a month ago Dude every single Day he asked for my my son's name is Kai he goes let me get Kai's phone number dude Andy Andy has been

texting my son every single day for a month wow see he's wearing the shirt I knew every and and you know I look at it and in in my head I'm like man my it took another it took another man to get my son to do this but who brought him there I did that's right yeah yeah and you knew whatever it was that that was exactly what he% you didn't know how it was Going to transpire but you didn't bring him there to help you in business no you brought him there yeah to for

a transformation and it has me and Kai so connected Ed right now dude we're in the gym getting it he's got this goal uh he doesn't like dude he's willingly going to the gym um and he's on he's on to something here man and I'm forever grateful that uh Andy Elliott did that for my son um because he did something I couldn't do and that just shows the Power of your circle right um I don't give a [ __ ] what anybody says about Andy because people could bring up my past or say some [

__ ] about me everybody's got a past but dude until you can sit with man that's why I like coming and doing things right in person uh cuz I want to I want to have my own judgment on somebody yeah and uh what he dude he said you know we were just out there last week and he was like make sure Kai comes with you bro he had like 12 shirts Custom made for him he gave him his dog tag that he's been wearing and you know he even said he was like dude he posted

something about my son on his social media and it got over five million views and and he's told my son he was like you will be my biggest transformation I've ever done I love that I love that you know and now he's got all this good attention yeah bro like good attention on him trying to change his life versus like probably negative attention that He's had before like you're fat you're this and listen every little boy like I wasn't a skinny boy you know you get these little little boobs and you start getting insecure you're

wearing your shirt in a I mean everybody knows what that feels like as and so you know especially the kidss who are even putting on the the more and more weight it just it it it really beats them up and today you know it's so hard to make Healthy choices for your kids yeah yeah like the decks are stacking [ __ ] everywhere yeah it's like oh let's go here let's go there like even my kids I can see like I tell my wife you got to you know let's you know she's like the best

example I'm like listen to your mom don't listen to yeah on the food thing so that's really really cool man it's been a blessing man it's been super super cool um him and I are getting super super close right now through this Journey which is amazing um and it's it's sparked a a whole another fire within within my family it's yeah it's just everything that's coming together it's because it's one of those things where it's like for you you felt like you were not doing something right yeah man there was a part of me that

felt like I was failing yeah we knew it we knew it as parents yeah and uh again when when it's the relationship is something that you love more than Anything on planet Earth literally for me it's a love I've never felt before and uh to have that conversation with him I've worded it in so many different ways but I could never tell my son look him in the eyes and say buddy you have a weight problem uh and we have to correct this before it gets more out of control I couldn't say that to him

I those words couldn't come out of my mouth and uh it's been a blessing man cuz you know me and my wife are in a good spot right now My family's in a good spot we me and my wife went through hell with our first business trying to do an exit on it what was that what was the first business that you guys did so like going from the call center like building your confidence there what was the next step after the call center so obviously you crushed it you killed it there yeah I became

after I was there a year and a half I realized like my time there was up yeah And I when you feel you care about the business more than the owner does and I truly felt that way I'm like I I believe I care about this place more than he does and I saw everything that he like you said earlier I saw everything that he did that I like but there was so many things I didn't like that he was doing right and I told uh my wife I'm like hey someone brought me this idea

where we can get people out of time shares it was a time share can compan Yeah there's lots of those companies well for 10 years I owned the largest one in the United States nice started it from a bedroom uh me and my wife stack of leads two cordless phones she was my uh appointment setter and I was the closer dude we just started ripping through paper leads all right so this is our viral Tik Tok right here how do we get out of a time share because you know that you know exactly how to

get out of a time share yeah part of my settlement Is I'm not allowed damn it to help a single person out of a time shair ever again makes it makes sense yeah I was that good at at getting people out of them yeah there there's a way to get people out of them if you're good at that technique yeah well there's a website now because we created uh such a large industry uh there's a website now it's called responsible exit.com where you can go on there and the resorts will work with you on letting

you out of Their time chair but prior to that website uh we we were do we were signed in up 650 people a month uh 650 okay so break that business model down I mean doesn't just start with 650 you work your way up to that so like so how did you guys decide that this is the business that we're going to get in literally I knew a guy that knew a guy that knew a guy okay knew somebody was already doing it knew a guy that was doing it but he was doing it where

he Would get a bunch of people in a in a hotel conference room pitch them from a Podium and then they'd break out into tables yeah so I was like if can do that in person I can do it over the phone right again right because again my appearance in the beginning I thought people would judge me that's why I got is that something that it it weighs on you right now or you C but in the beginning because now with with the tattoos and stuff like that it's kind of In now it's it's in

my confidence in who I was back then is not what it is today are those some of those tattoos do you have regrets about them I was getting ready to get some of them removed for my last business when we were getting ready to exit yeah um and my wife was pissed that I was going to remove any of them so your story I had one laser session and she's like dude you ain't removing that [ __ ] you're keeping all that on you so she likes you the way you are yeah Yeah um but

the way way we started the business it was literally in a bedroom me and my wife a stack of leads I didn't even know how to get someone out of a time share but I now I had some skills behind the phones you knew how to caju how to persuade I knew how to do all that yes yes and if you know anything about time shares if you own one you didn't go buy it you were sold a time share for sure right you got a free dinner there you go you Got a free show

but I need 90 minutes of your time I just need 90 minutes of your time and then it's the old we're not letting you go that's it they lock the doors take the keys and they they pressure you into a time share right so I knew that I knew that much about the the product right so I'm like all right I can get someone out of these at Le I can talk them out of it so we stack a lead I like that like I don't know if I legally can get you out but my

Mouthpiece is that good that I can get them to do that I I I look at my sales skills the same way so and I knew there were other people out there doing it yeah so in my head let me get contract signed and I'll just go to you and say hey can I I was JV in contracts yeah the same way I okay so first business model is I'll just sell the people that I can get you out and then I'll find somebody who can get you out I'll go find somebody yeah gotcha and

how much do you Want for it boom there you go I worked like that for a year okay and we went from a bedroom to an office my wife and you're learning what they're doing my wife was working with them hand in hand learning what they're doing all the documents what are they saying how are they actually facilitating it how they getting them out everything right and after about a it was probably a year year and a half we ended up taking everything in house okay and then uh so You and her still but now

you got you guys are you know how to get it done we know how to get it done now okay and then that's when I started building the team and we went from me and my wife in a bedroom to a office in Fort Lauderdale with over 150 people in it I had over a hundred guys and girls in my sales pit uh we were cranking from 9 in the morning until 1:00 in the morning six days a week just and and we had let's can we break down the profit model yeah So my my

marketing was all inbound after me and my wife started making some money we didn't do any outbound okay so inbound you're running ads I was running ads where are you running them at Google okay uh Facebook okay and radio we would get endorsements I remember the radio ads so we were heavy in radio we had Laura Ingram we had uh rush limbal I had Howard Stern smart all talk radio all endorsements all endorsements and you how well do endorsements work they work Really well they're the best yeah we were at the peak we were spending

about a half a million a month in marketing holy [ __ ] and we would we would gross three million every month and this is what year uh dude I was ripping from 2012 to 20 uh 20 and 3 years ago you had fake helicopters and ambulance coming into your house and now you've got a 100 employee business rip spending $500,000 a month in marketing that's how if People just understood it came fast that's how fast it can come it came fast okay so what's the what's the average person paying to get out of a

time share what is your profit about uh anywhere so we offered two different Services sorry what is your total revenue and then how does the profit model break down yeah we we we had two different services from some for somebody that owned a time share outright right where they had the the the the note on it paid off right it Was a simple transfer of ownership okay okay and then if they still owed paper on it which you can't go to a bank and get a loan for a time share n it's all in-house paper

yep so they securitize that and sell it on the back end okay interest rates on time share Pap how do they secure it well interest rates on time share paper is between 11 and 21.9% so they just put they just run ear an interest rate and then sell that paper sell the paper okay okay 65% of my Business model was disrupting that paper okay and when we started getting up to 650 clients a month you made some enemies we disrupted their their model yeah bad and uh we so we ran it for the mo up

until year seven was my most profitable year in the business so this is 2016 is yeah me and my wife uh there was one other guy partner in the business um me and my wife controlled 70 uh 67% of the business okay my wife and I were netting 8 million a year wow Netting not not grossing we were netting 8 million a year yeah it's a fantastic business model it was a cash cow and the the crazy thing is is when we say it all I'm sing like I love it I love that and the

reason is so my mom has a time share and I've been telling her I'm like I can get you out of that responsible exit.com yeah and and she's just like well I signed up for she wants to do the honest thing I'm like you don't even use it anymore but I remember hearing Those ads Yeah yeah and and I'm like the only reason I didn't realize though how receptive people so most people don't want to be in time shares no one out of eight homeowners in the United States own a time share and how many

out of those 100% of them want out really yeah dude it's a matter of time it's a matter of time when you realize what you have is not worth the the paper it's written on and who kind of cultiv was it the guy from Westgate that kind of cultivated The time share industry is is that the guy who's building that fancy house in Florida que of Versa qu of Versa David seagull David seagull was he the one that kind of built this whole industry he was one of the pioneers of the industry yeah the the

the two companies that sued me were two of the largest in the world okay yeah which I had a working relationship with them for seven years and they sued me out of nowhere oh yeah Because like I said before you're making a lot of enemies whether you know it or not they might be nicing you to death but they're like we're going to destroy this guy well we know today I am 100% confident we they knew we were getting ready to exit the business and we were going to be the first exit company to exit

to a private Equity Firm okay I hope you enjoy this podcast make sure you give us a five-star review make sure you subscribe make sure you share this Podcast with a friend and make sure that you schedule a call with me and my team we have the millionaire mentorship program this is for newbie and advanced investors to get started investing in real estate and if you're listening to this podcast right now that's exactly what you want right you want to learn how to invest in real estate it's change my life it can change your life

and we have a program that will help you get your first or next investment property Within the next 90 days or I'll pay you $1,000 cash and you don't pay guess what else we're launching we're launching a fund and if you're interested I'll include a link in my bio to this fund where you can actually invest with me on a lot of the properties that we're in in fact I'm in one of my properties right now in downtown Kansas City in a building that I bought using my own money but I started with just one

property and you can do the exact same Thing that I did but you got to get started you got to take action so whether you want to invest with me in my fund or whether you want to schedule call my team both those links are in the bio enjoy the show give us a f star review so at this point in time you guys are making enough money and you've got somebody that's will willing to buy buy you out yep me and my wife uh we we actually which is my dear friend to name uh

dear friend today his name's Don Weir Um he's our financial advisor um he he we went to go get a mortgage at Bank of America for $7 million me and my wife are buying a home on the inter Coastal okay Lauderdale yes love it and he and he goes He we were applying for the morgage and he was like he was like dude what do you do and I was like I own a time share exit company he was like have you ever thought about selling this and I was like what are you talking about

and he goes have you ever thought about Selling your business I had no clue you could sell a business right and he goes bro you got I think you have something special here on your hands so I was like all right tell me some more right so we introduced us to a broker business broker business broker okay that sells businesses and we go and we give them our model and they're like oh wow you guys have something here so we spent about a year structuring our business getting our financials in order the Processes all the

partnership agreement because at this point we we were doing our entire business was on a handshake deal yeah I mean you're just you didn't realize you were going to scale that quick yeah and uh so they go we get everything done we we get our financials done they put the book together right they send it out to over 300 private Equity firms I know the two companies that suit us got their hands on our book but we had offers from 147 million to 97 Million 100% of the business so your you had your lowest offer

was 97 97 million and your highest the highest for 147 bowed out so it it was an offer but after they came and visited our facility they ended up bowing out okay the offer we actually ended up signing an Loi with okay was with a private Equity Firm that already acquired a debt consolidation company and a credit repair company okay because they were interested in our leads right we dealt with time share Owners that were credit card swipers right okay so they could take that lead and sell it multiple times Okay so so the the

LOI that we signed was for 54 million to sell 51% and me and my wife still retained 49% of the business to run it to they only wanted me on board for two years okay to make sure the STA sales stayed stable okay and then they were going to do another exit in five years so it was going to be a nine figureure exit for us And you were going to get some of that action too 100 I was going to get 49% of it okay got it yeah it was going to be a massive

deal for us okay so the private Equity Firm did all their due diligence they they visited our facility multiple times they had their financial guys audit our books everything it was a done deal we were literally waiting for our closing date and 60 days before our closing date I was flying into Chicago to go visit my Family for Christmas okay and when when I'm on a plane I don't get Wi-Fi I just I sleep MH so when the plane gets to that elevation where your phone gets service and your phone starts dinging my phone blew

up and I was like what the hell is going on on Christmas Eve and it was my my lawyers and the broker saying dude you just got a lawsuit and I was like what does this mean and he was like well we need to see if the private Equity firm's willing to Still buy you so first you get you get a complaint you were served with a complaint and summons so you've got litigation from who a massive Again part of my settlement I can't say it but they are the largest time share Resort worldwide okay

and and it they La without dragging this story out the first lawsuit the private Equity Firm goes we're good green light go let's go to the closing table two weeks later carbon Copy lawsuit from the same attorney it was so carbon copy they forgot to take the other time share developers name out of some of the paperwork so attorneys SE a paycheck big time dude they the the industry the time share industry were trying to take our entire industry out because we were canceling their contracts so we just so happy Enemy Number One we were

the big big swinging dick on the Block yeah we were very loud obnoxious we were all over the radio Like we were everywhere we were on billboards TV You Name It We were everywhere like we were you don't realize how many people are actually watching yeah they all saw who we were and uh private Equity Firm said dude we got a bow out we're going to sit on the sidelines till this is done and uh me me and my wife ended up unfortunately because my insurance on the company wouldn't cover my lawsuit yeah so now

I'm I'm fighting two multi-billion Dollar companies out of my own personal bank account a trustee got appointed to my comp I filed the chapter 11 on the company that quick dude I I didn't know what to do I was spooked bro yeah like I I had gotten myself in a position I had no clue what I had no clue how I got at the table I was sitting at yeah I mean it's totally logical I mean like you don't go I mean few years ago you're in a room by yourself with sheets on top of

yourself next thing you're do another a Multi million million dollar and now I'm being sued to be taken out yeah and and and for those you guys who haven't been sued like the first time it's like okay what you're scared out of your pants and then like so it's a big deal like um and I've never had Insurance on a like in a lawsuit so I understand that that money that can come so this one cost us $7 million yeah that's what the point is 7 million and I had no income because I shut I

had to Dude I had to stand in front of aund and some people at that point in my cafeteria and let them all go at once wow so it went from it happened like that wow okay so rough yeah that's rough man I'm sorry to see that happen to you I mean especially like when you're so close so I almost got the Super Bowl or the entrepreneur ring yeah you're freaking uh the San Francisco for Di that years before the Chiefs come and take that Championship you know what I Mean so I mean it but

I mean I mean you know you could get there again because you got there once before so that that attorney that was suing us I remember the day this I just got done with an eight- hour deposition they they whooped my ass dude they were trying to drag me through the mud yeah questioning my Integrity my morals everything everything everything been through plenty of them yeah and after eight I was sitting at the the end of this table Dude just smoked and I remember the the attorney he had this beat red face his eyes were

bloodshot he had to have been a drunk he couldn't have loved what he was doing he couldn't have cuz he knew he was messing with some good people he really did yeah and uh I remember I was sitting there and he goes he goes hey kid he was an older dude and I look up at him and he goes if you can make it through this you can make it through anything and I was like bro you don't Even know what I've been through yeah and I in my head I'm like it's [ __ ]

go time again went back he sparked you dude he didn't shut your mouth yeah it happened he just screwed up went home that night and I I remember telling my wife I said Shila I said Shila let's give them whatever they want I said if we got to go back to zero let's go back to zero because me and my wife's relationship was on the Rocks now like we were going through hell dude Listen anytime you I had to stay in Nevada when I had a towing company try to come after me because the competitors

had them Juiced up yep and uh you know and my wife was like just get rid of it just and I'm like I I don't have the will to stop fighting like and I was in that same position yeah and she was just like you know and so I kept fighting and then I realized I'm just fighting to fight now and like even if I win I lose you lose and so you know eventually that That fight you know it's like the the fight the the will to fight is not dead yep but you're looking

at why am I fighting yep just I had to point my I had to take my energy and put it somewhere else and uh Shila and I agreed we like let's let's let's settle yeah and and uh thank God like the restart this time like after we settled everything me and my wife we walked away with some Millions thank God yeah I was going to say cuz the way you're Protecting that the language you must have gotten paid well we we had in this in the State of Florida there is a um uh what is

it on you put it on your home Homestead Homestead yes and me and my wife just so happen to own a seven million doll home that we had millions of dollars in yes they couldn't touch it yes the O OJ Simpson yes yeah so and then we had a couple accounts structured that couldn't be pierced and uh when we settled everything we walked and I Remember I was looking at a couple and then this is leading into the wholesale industry so you this is around 2016 we settled in 2021 okay so 20 not long ago

Dude no yeah listen I moved out here in 2021 and you so you've been but I mean let me just this is this is this is great so far I've really enjoyed our conversation so and it because it's been so fluid and you're such a good Storyteller so Eric so now having this Massive success now you got self-belief well after that all happened I did have the doubt of did I get lucky that time right I did and was a small period of time right where I was like man did I really contribute enough to

that business where I did that was it my like can I do it all over again was it me or did I just get lucky yeah like I I and my wife think my wife has been my biggest cheerleader since the day I met her always and Danny you know Danny Right here one of the first things he told me when I hired him I said what's your biggest weakness I always ask everybody the same question three biggest strengths three biggest weakness he goes my girls got me wrapped around my finger and then as you

know he's gotten gotten uh a little bit more I guess open yeah he's like you know yeah well if I didn't have her I'd be here you know what I mean and I think that that just goes and everybody I talk to Who's successful yeah they understand that dude she's a beast yeah if you got a beast of a wife you're going to be a beast a bigger Beast 100% cuz we're all little boys chasing [ __ ] rainbows and flowers and yeah disorganized and like I wouldn't be here today if she didn't have my

itinerary like literally exactly what I was going to do yeah I feel you so but um she I remember her telling me she was like I was I was a little bum for a while and she goes Eric you need To get your ass up and you need to you need to figure it out right straight up yeah what what are we how to talk to yeah what are we going to do I I was looking at a couple different Industries these guys keep telling me about the wholesale space and they're like Eric it was

the same model you were doing just a different lead I was dealing with distressed time share owners yeah I'm like all right I can generate leads I have my own custom software like CRM like I have all the pieces I just need another lead to drop in it and uh I made the decision just selling it's selling bro I still today don't say I'm in real estate yeah I don't I'm not in real estate really dude I sold all my rental properties I [ __ ] hate flipping houses all that [ __ ] like I

I flip [ __ ] tons of contracts yeah that's what I do well I'm I'm the guy who loves buying real estate I don't mind flipping contracts so you know yeah I know at Some point like this this point in my life like I I'd rather put my money into building other businesses that I have going on because I'm getting a sh a great return on them yeah like that's just where I'm at in my life at some point I might buy a big ass have a big ass portfolio I don't know what I'm going

to do but I'm just not there yet right yeah if I can offer any um you know I grew up piss broke um and I didn't have a I didn't have a bad Childhood I didn't have a great childhood but I can tell you that um I I I grew up through the you know the Hard Knocks of real estate and the one thing that I really think that like if you're going to make a massive amount of income just to invest in real estate to not pay the taxes is is a reason enough of

it's own especially like for you having an SBA loan getting the 10% down and then being able to buy the building and then offset that and get like this building We bought this building $5.2 million you own the building I own the building so now it's losing $50,000 a month right now cuz we're not occupied at full capacity and there's utilities and all those things I knew I was going to burn burn on this one but I worked my way up it's not like I went from the first property I bought to this one it's

like I have 200 single family houses yeah and then I have this one and then I have this one and so the reason I say that is Because took me a long time to figure out the game like I wholesaled in 2013 that's when I started wholes and now we're teaching guys how to wholesale but I had to like it's changed so much since then with the notion and the this and everybody's out on the thing my point in that is if you're paying any federal income taxes please please please buy some real estate please

please please buy some real estate yeah yeah you know what I mean Cuz you won't have to pay any taxes 100% Z zeroed out I know people hate the [ __ ] land and landlord is not easy yeah I didn't like it it's well it's not fun like I think last year the year before we bought like eight nine 10 homes we were gonna Airbnb one in the mountain and all this stuff like it all sounded good well Airbnb number one it's highly management intensive yeah you should just be buying like with the income that

you're making you should Either be buying big old house big old buildings that you can put your people in and then like rent it out the other side and have that pay for it and then uh bring your tax because I'm sure you're running call centers still for based on what I saw yeah so I have a uh my biggest call center is actually over in Pakistan oh boy God this this might go a while let's talk about that yeah it's it's so we're heading to Panama in three weeks to go try to build ours

out I have uh I I don't because I don't want to fly to Pakistan I have a 10,000 foot office in Pakistan how many callers we right now have 250 250 what are you paying those guys three bucks an hour I charge $6 an hour for my callers that's pretty much standard yep there's they're all trained by our our facility that we just moved into we C my partner just so happens to live in Atlanta but his family is from Pakistan cool so direct flight from Pakistan to Atlanta number One airport Hub in the world

yeah and um we it's it's growing like wildfire it's growing faster than we ever thought it would uh to the point we had to move into a bigger office and we're anticipating in 12 months the office we're moving into isn't gonna cut it for us we're signing up 40 to 60 brand new call uh callers a month it's [ __ ] booming you know why that is because nobody wants to work here for that job anymore Yeah well yeah I agree and you Couldn't afford that's that's you pric yourself out of yeah you well there's

two things so as a guy who's run call centers for years like my own small ones you know five six people at the tops yeah but you know you started with your uh like talking about those people fresh out on bus stop people you know and they're going to last for a little bit not super duper reliable but what I have found out is that if you're going to Pakistan or you're going to other Countries you're getting the top talent in that country doctors lawyers Bankers CEOs for the worst Talent we get in the US

half price a quarter price of that 100% it's labor Arbitrage at its best yeah and and the big companies figure this out a long time ago and we treat our people good dude we have two full-time English teachers in our building we have drivers bringing the uh the women to and from their houses we cater lunches every single day like so Work environment is like outstanding yeah we're we're we're tricking out our brand new office right now so how' you start it cuz you okay so let's let's go into the wholesale and then we'll Circle

back to this wholesaling man listen at the end of the day I I knew what I was doing when I came in here I never I people like don't ask me about my first deal cuz I don't know it okay like I burn and turn contracts I couldn't tell you I I have $3 million in my pipeline Right now uh we'll probably do we'll fund on 400 plus thousand this month uh we do volume I do volume I don't know addresses for me it's it's I get it I understand it's just the same thing as

slinging the the paper on the 100 you probably don't know the time share person that yeah no and it for me it was sales and marketing y it is my first 12 months in the space I did $2.6 million I netted 1.5 okay and uh I'm like all right cool I can scale this thing yeah And right now I have it the the the business I have a full office in Raleigh North Carolina I've stabilized it uh we'll probably do about five five and a half million this year in assignment fees so what happens in

Raleigh I have Acquisitions dispositions TC closing coordinator uh I five five closers four dispositions a full-time uh girl that lists stuff on the flat Fe MLS for us I love the flat Fe with Congress Freedom yep we we do right now I think we're at 2.6 contracts a day I I signed two contracts on the way over here fast I think we're at four uh I think it's all inbound 100% inbound okay from my call center all right okay all inbound via outbound okay yeah so cuz I'm I've always been an outbound guy and it's

been so hard you know we're having a couple guys that you probably know in the space talk about PPC and this and that the other thing but I was always like let's go get it dude I do PPC but Uh cold calling has been a 10x return for me since I started and what's your PPC 4.7 okay so it's way better for the so so so what about your list what kind of list are you pulling yep bread and butter is absente owner data home values 350,000 and under Equity 20 to 100% I pull the

all the major markets Metropolitan and uh an hour outside of them so you guys basically use you use prop stream you use I we now have at my call I actually sell data now okay I Have 20 agents sourcing data all day long six days a week so you're build you're building out your own data which skip tracing platform are you using kind to load them in there you using of them we we do it all at my call center okay so break that down for me yep break what down like how are you doing

it like are you are you skip tra so are they individually skip tracing them are you using like a a bulk skip tracing bulk skip tracing got okay yep so um how did This whole call center develop like how did that whole situation get there yeah so I am somebody in the wholesaling space that's very loud and obnoxious I show my numbers I like calling people out without saying their names and all that like that's just kind of The Stance I've taken who have you called out without saying their name all of them are there

are there some fakes out there you're saying I am I am disgusted by this industry yeah disgusted yeah I've went and spoke at guys events that have asked me to fly out and I did and I was in a room full of probably 40 to 50 people I think we'd love to have you come out to our event we pay for our like podcast I never expected it but we we always take care of our people when they come out I I there was a guy that I res thought I respected yeah and he he

stood in front of a room full of about 50 people and he he's been on some some pretty big stages and [ __ ] like that and I've I this has happened multiple times nothing surprises me what you're saying right now but it's happened multiple times and that's why I told my wife was like Eric you're you're you're probably not going to make a lot of friends in this industry and I said I don't give a [ __ ] I'll make my own stage yeah I I said I refuse to get on these types of

stages yeah and it's going to be a hard way for me to build my brand but I'm building a loyal following and people Respect what I'm doing what I what I was getting at is there was a there was a guy standing in front of 40 people and his he he was talking about doing 20 to 30 deals a month yeah and he had his partner sitting in the back and I was sitting back there and he was like 20 30 deals a month x amount of dollars and his partner looks at me and he

goes I can't keep up with this guy's lies he's like cuz after he's done saying all that these people come up to me and asked me How many closers how many leades and he goes we ain't doing a deal and I was like I looked at my wife and I said I I won't show up to [ __ ] like this no more I was like I won't put my name on this I won't attach my brand to it the guy like comp I couldn't believe it cuz I believed him yeah why wouldn't you because

I I'm the same way we were a lot in common besides the past yeah but like I usually just take people on face like why would you go on the internet and lie I couldn't believe it it's scar me no it's not even that but it's like it's so easy to trace it back for but it's not easy for your average guy that don't know how to trace it back yeah but like I mean I won't say names either but I might say a few things but like you guys got a guy in Florida there

you know I don't know I don't know dude I I I don't even know you know some of those influencers yeah like guys maybe who have Yachts oh yes yes yes yes I mean I've done the math I'm like dude there ain't no way like I I know you know what it takes to scale rental property wise to go from 0 to 700 is like I'm at 350 and I've been going hard yeah so you know who I'm talking about now I do and I just recently came across him I think and I can't say

for sure I can just say I've been asked by a bunch of people and I'm like if it sounds too good to be true so where do you do it all over the us or do you have maret so let me tell You exactly where we're at right now so when I came to so I in 2007 we just figured this out the other day I had identified that where I was at in Vegas so I had just uh started kind of slow I guess I would say like I didn't do my first wholesale deal

into 2013 or my first flip into 2013 my first wholesale into 2013 okay and so I always kept it small three or four callers like that I never tried to scale this has only become big in the last three or Four years okay yeah so when we moved here all of my Acquisitions went away in fact I Dave my my buddy who does $4 million a year is one of probably the top wholesalers like legit all self sourced no anything Casey Ryan I gave him my callers I'm like I'm moving to Kansas City and I

bought had bought 100 houses so I had to keep myself occupied for the first little bit here getting all CU everything we bought was a [ __ ] hole and then we bought a 31 unit Apartment building and then we bought this and so we are just now starting to build our Acquisitions Department again got it Danny and is helping me build out my street team and we're a little bit more aggressive and I don't want to go Nationwide right now I I'm not Nationwide yeah so I I will probably go hardcore Midwest I believe

in this market out here a lot and uh probably go where I'm also active in Mississippi but I've got I've been at it so long that I Have enough flips going on at any point in time and I've never been a big wholesaler yeah so like I said I did that in the past it was a way to get to the Future I've been a big rental buyer got it okay always a big rental buyer so I've stacked it one at a time one at a time one at a time so where we're at right

now is basically we're building our street team and I'm working with my students and Danny and some of the other guys to build in the Acquisitions and Build out the CRM so we have go high level I'm not sure if you're familiar with that platform that but that's what we use and and I feel like from launching the coaching program that's the other thing is that took me my last two years I'd never done a coaching program before so when I got into the coaching program I'm like okay probably should work on my Acquisitions again

so that I can have more deals flowing and more like that it's not that I need to Because honestly flipping houses for me is a pain in the ass yeah I like to prefer to buy rentals but I got if I'm teaching it I got to be active in it and doing it too yeah yeah yeah so um I'm still not going to go I know that I can do $3 $400,000 a month with probably four to six people got it and and one transaction coordinators cuz when I just to let you know know why

I know that is I sold 2200 homes in 5 years as an agent love it you're just doing you're just Slinging paper that's all agency is is right once you get and it's way quicker CU and and when you talk about listing I know how to list I've sold I sold 2200 homes in 5 years 3,000 homes in at my whole license time so I know how to do 80 plus transactions 90 plus transactions in a month with two transaction coordinators and one of them still here she's been working with me for 17 years love

so for me my goals are completely different my goals are Actually Eric to continue to do more projects like this and raise capital from um all the digital marketing techniques that I've used and to do bigger bigger projects I don't want to be part my ego wants to compete with all you guys who are doing major numbers yeah but I'm I don't need to do that I want to I have a different purpose I I want to build [ __ ] I want to do really cool stuff like for me to do you know say

I did another 100 wholesale deals or Another 200 flips I'm not going to learn anything that I don't already know but this building is teaching me a ton of course yeah the next one's going to teach me a ton and I'm really I enjoy the learning process so I hope that helps tell you about where I'm at but yeah I still I Danny will tell you I still enjoy the freaking clothes like I like getting in front of the sellers we we door knock on foreclosures do you really yeah I don't Danny's doing the Door

knocking but I don't have a problem showing them how to do that and then I'll close it yeah so for me um that keeps me sharp of course my my motto is stop stop knocking for dollars and Dialing for Millions yeah because my my my whole virtual sales thing I think it's a listen I think we have tried to build out the VA system and I I'd love to talk to you more about that I've got a guy who's speaking at one of my events who's also got a a lot of guys are in The

the wholesaling space are moving into the we're going to give you your VA space that's why I'm headed into Panama because I I've tried working with other people and I'm just like I probably need to build this thing on my own yeah yeah and so we're and and the reason I picked Panama cuz I really was going to go Egypt or Pakistan cuz I have Pakistan of vas right now but I like going to South America I don't have a desire to go to Pakistan you guys are going to get a Brick-and mortar office if

we have to yeah yeah if we have to we will for sure and Panama is got great rules you know it's where all the CIA uh launders money and stuff like that and you know it's all the big drug trade so you have huge massive buildings around there you're close you have the most direct flights in it's like Atlanta you have the most direct flights into Panama and then you're close to Columbia you're close to Brazil you're close to uh El Salvador Nicaragua Mexico all of these places and I don't want to go to freaking

Egypt yeah like and it's the same about the same money and arguably I need people that speak Spanish versus people that speak Arabic or Urdu or whatever the hell they're speaking agree I agree so do I think there's I think there's more talent in Egypt yeah because they just disbanded a bunch of call centers out there Pakistan that accent's a little bit tough I know you guys are working on That but you can pay a little bit more to get the good English yeah no I think I think that model's solid like I went to

Collective genius uh a couple weeks ago or a month ago and I I had there were so many guys there they're like I got my own call center company and I was like okay but a lot of these guys are just white label and [ __ ] are they 100% they don't own explain what a white label is for those who don't understand yeah you come to me and you're like hey Man let's work out a deal I'll give you a MX you go and sell it at at whatever price you want yeah so yours

is six I say hey you're getting it for three I'll do it for $450 you get a buck 50 I get a buck 50 my the name of my company is run it remote that is the name of our call center right but you would white label it as ABC call center uh uh millionaire mentorship call center there you go there we go and people you now tell everyone you have a call center well you Really don't you're just leveraging my call center yeah most these guys out there that say they own a call center

do not own a call center and I know that for certain I I I would believe that I own a real call center my name's on the lease my name's on the company I have a how many times have you been to Pakistan me zero cool my my partner goes multiple times a year I am going for the first time are you yeah that's going to be cool though yeah I can't wait do you Like to travel I don't like traveling out of the United States dude why I don't know my wife says the same

[ __ ] you got to I I I promise you we have a Pakistani guy who's on been on our calls for like the last year and stuff they're really nice people I love all everyone it's cheap as [ __ ] to go out I mean when you start traveling abroad you realize how much money we're paying over here we could be living like kings other places I know so that's awesome so is that kind Of your are you trying to transition out of the wholesaling in more into providing callers so wholesaling is my least

profitable business why I make over a million dollars a year wholesaling okay like last uh last year over a million and a half okay but it's my least profitable and it's a lot of [ __ ] work and I spend most of my time on it yeah I thank God we've gotten it to a point where we we brought in a a manager That manages everything we've put in place yeah um I'm really good at teaching people how to how to get this thing systematized so I I do I started about a year ago helping

people out if you want to call it coaching coaching and just by accident and when I say by accident I didn't spend a dollar on ads I didn't do anything it was through my sales coaching and masterminds at my office I did over $2 million in coaching wow without a single dollar spent on Advertisement that's pretty impressive me and my wife were like I don't have those same numbers on my first go around it was over $2 million that's awesome and me and my wife were like all right listen there's something here you're not doing

a whole lot of work over there but you're making the most money and then our call center is a seven figure a year business and I spend 5% of my time on it yeah that's the one that needs that's the one you just keep leaning into and The the call center I believe is a sellable business totally it is and the wholesaling business is not a sellable business I thought it so when I first stepped into it my mindset coming into the wholesale industry was I'm gonna I'm going to do it all over again and

I'm going to sell it yeah I really did yeah I was go into all these masterminds and I was like watch I'll be the first one to exit a wholesale company that was my my my train of thought coming into this Space yeah you already tasted it you wanted to taste it again three years cuz I'm just now coming up on three years of being in the space yeah it's not it it I I don't think selling this is it put it this way I don't want to say I couldn't but man it's going to

be a lot of work to try and sell one of these things yeah and the asset is attached to the call center you know and it's just yeah I think your best thing is to do it as far as and the laws are changing too and There's a lot of different things changing it sounds like you're very capable of Reinventing yourself Eric so yes I'm good to go man and and and for those I think I've heard a bunch of influencers say this online and saying like if you're going to if you don't have anything

to do and you're trying to figure out way to make money get into sales sales that's the first thing that you did changed first thing that I did I Had when you when I sold radio advertising I love it an immeasurable result yep I had to walk into all these car dealerships and this and that they didn't want to see me they didn't make an appointment with me didn't want nothing I haded to sell but you build those relationships instantly and people see how tenacious you are like you are tenacity they admire those traits and

then they buy you yep 100% yeah so that's cool man so let's talk about like What's next for you and like your life everything like that I mean I mean you've got feel like you're reborn like you know 15 years ago right and on fire again yeah you're on fire again so so so where do you see yourself you're life headed good question so I closed on a house in uh Paradise Valley in 30 days which is Scottsdale pretty much right next to Scottdale uh I was out there I've been in Raleigh North Carolina for

3 years uh the reason we wound up in Raleigh North Carolina me and my wife were at the tail end of that that lawsuit and I needed out of South Florida like I needed a fresh slate we moved to Raleigh North Carolina I started the wholesale company there yeah and uh it's been an amazing experience we've built something awesome we have a great team and uh it's it's what I needed in my life I needed to get away from all the noise to where I could focus again and get in build mode and Really find

out like who I was cuz I I lost my identity losing that business so I thought so I found can you explore on that because I don't think a lot of people understand I said the same thing like like well I didn't say I lost my identity but when I gave away my real estate license I got my new identity Yeah man cuz my identity was an agent I I'm an investor when I lost that business I everyone knew me as the time share exit guy yeah like legitimate yeah And uh when I went from

having this big old call center in South Florida that everyone knew about and when I didn't have it yeah I was like God damn who like who am I really at that point ego right 100% when back then when I when I was getting ready to exit dude I was on I me and Grant Cardone were like this okay he was calling me saying hey come speak at come down and talk to my guys at my sales boot camps he would have his camera crew come out to my office do a Skit on me and

put me on the 10x stages like and when it it seemed like it all went away overnight and I was I was like [ __ ] what am I going to do I needed to go find out and that's what Raleigh did for me yeah I didn't know any me and my wife knew nobody there that was our Kansas sounds like Raleigh was your my Kansas City it was and I am now I I proved to myself I could build another multi-million dollar business in anywhere in literally 12 months I did it Any without knowing

anybody right yeah and uh I built uh my call center another seven figure business within 12 months my coaching business and I'm like man I I'm finding out who I am for the first time and what I have found is my skill set is virtual sales virtual sales leadership and building teams yeah and I went out and uh me and Andy Elliott you know I sat down with him like this I did a podcast with him the conversation went a Little bit further and uh him and I are going to be collaborating for the next

12 months and he goes he was like man you're in Raleigh North Carolina this works a lot better if you're in in Scottdale I had a feeling that might have something to do with it it seems when I saw the Elliot shirt on the sun and then you're talking about that seems like you guys and you saw how much you put into your son like why wouldn't you want to be around do you know Robert Winsley investor lift yes I met him at the uh at the yeah I met he I flew out there with

my wife and son a few weeks ago and my wife was sitting on a couch where at Robert Winsley is getting ready to do a podcast Robert looks at my wife and she goes Shila you're not GNA like what I'm getting ready to say she goes what Robert she goes your husband needs to be here and she Shila did not say uh-uh yeah she didn't say anything and I was Like whoa wait a minute here's my chance I'm like let's go the doors cracked yeah exactly so I I I paid attention to that we were

there for four days the the deals I was able to make the hands I was able to shake in the podcast and networking I was able to do in four days sold it I couldn't have possibly have done it where I lived yeah and my wife saw that and by the end of that 4 days we had made the decision we were moving yeah I think you know what I Mean I think that's a smart move and if I look at Scottdale or Phoenix that whole area there's a lot of guys doing like you got

Pace down there you got Andy down there Robert kosaki is down there Tom Wright's down there I mean Cody sperber Grant Cardone has an office down there like Brad Lee's moving there oh yeah he's getting Vegas yeah he's moving to Arizona you know Vegas is interesting um I mean it's getting so violent we I just had a I'm still on I Started my neighborhood chat through WhatsApp and like they we're in a gated community nice here there's like SWAT in there yesterday it's just getting so nasty over in Vegas um but that I me I

I really appreciate you sharing sharing your journey so far what I want to kind of share with the audience right now is like what would you tell somebody who's listening right now that maybe doesn't believe in themselves cuz you've been so vulnerable and like and I I don't think People can really identify when they're like oh man well I haven't been down on my luck on crack or I haven't done this or I haven't done that but like there's somewhere there's some self-doubt because we know from doing our survey here is that number reason number

two reasons people don't take action number one is fear of losing money of course and number two is fear of themselves yep what would you tell somebody who might be thinking that right now to like get Started doing something else yeah that's a that's a good question and I always dis relate it to myself right is and a lot of the [ __ ] that I say may just be real simple is your feet don't where your feet are today they don't have to be there tomorrow they don't uh and they you know your life

that you are in right now is always going to be there like the job if you were to I always tell everybody sales has changed my life right sales I Know today I am Recession Proof yes I'm I trly say that with confidence I'm Recession Proof because if the economy is good people are buying [ __ ] cuz they got money when the economy is bad they're buying or selling [ __ ] because they trying to make themselves feel good or get money yeah and so anybody that doesn't believe in themselves man one thing that's

really worked for me is I write I write on my bathroom mirrors with dry eraser markers until I started Believing what I was writing so you're doing affirmations literally on my bathroom miror right now at home I have you're an amazing person you're successful you're I have dollar figures up there I have and I've been doing that for 14 years the biggest sale you're ever going to make in your life is selling yourself that you can do it and the only way you can make that sale is get around people that believe in you yeah

I I think that's very very [ __ ] Powerful right there because you know it sound when you when you think about affirmations you go back to the Stuart SMY from SNL it's like I'm good enough I'm smart enough and don't G it people like me yes but the reality is is you're the the tap that's being played in your head is so negative yep and it's based on past events not future events and there's a guy named Dr Joe despenza who actually was a chiropractor and he's got a great book called breaking the habit

Of being yourself and what he talks about is exactly what you're saying there is rather than talk about what did happen program what is going to happen it's almost called like habit stacking or habit changing because we all have habits like we might you might get up in the morning take a piss get on the phone drink a cup of coffee whatever that is it's like why not go and read those affirmations to yourself about who you're going to be like I did a little Bit of the Andy uh Andy Elliott today cuz I was

on the pelaton and I know you know he calls out those people he's like take off your shirt like yeah [ __ ] you that's what they're really thinking like I hope you don't call on me 100% but I did that I was like you know what I think I'm doing good on the pellets and I'm like I'm not doing good you know what I mean but why focus on the f Fus on the path and the journey and like what you're trying to become not on who You're at right now right yep because when

you were in 2009 with eight bucks in your pocket P slammed a a pine of vodka to get on the train you are not who you are right now no man but you are it's the same guy same guy this has changed a lot mindset is it's everything dude I still in in my uh bedrooms my wife is always had a massive mirror in our bedrooms dud I I like her my yeah dude I I know what that's all about I stand in front of that thing people would think I was I'm out of my

mind but I'll stand in front of that mirror and I I get my son to do it sometimes and I'm like you're the [ __ ] man dude like you're gonna go crush the DAT like because if I don't believe it I ain't gonna get anyone else to believe it yeah you know what I mean so like I always say the biggest sale I've ever made and I got to continue to close that deal every day I I can do whatever I'm trying Like I'm getting real uncomfortable right now in this transition in my life

yeah because I got comfortable in in Raleigh cuz I was the big swinging dick my circle of friends I made the most money I drove the nicest cars I had the nicest house I all of that and I'm like I I I you're about ready to be I want to be I read a uh my wife sent me a quote the other day and she goes if if if uh what it something about if you're if something about your circle Five you're the sum of the five people closest to you yeah but it was something

about your if it's not a circle it's a cage like if the people around you in your circle aren't pushing you doing better then all this stuff you aren't in a circle you're in a cage and that's where I ultimately feel I am in Raleigh I don't dislike Raleigh no I I dislike where I'm at you just I I think what I don't even even think it's that I feel like you feel like you need to be there Because all the people that you feel like you could grow the fastest with are there man and

it's just like anything is like when I was drinking I hung out at the bar yep that's where I wanted to be yep you know for me Kansas City wasn't a plan but I saw opportunity I think you just see opportunity 100% I do and I'm going yeah and and if you don't see if you see opportunity and you don't jump on it guess what you're going to think about that for the next three freaking Years watching these guys do their thing and going I could have done it and because the worst case is you

go back 100% Raleigh ain't going nowhere rally ain't listen Vegas wasn't going nowhere Seattle wasn't going nowhere every time I made a move and got uncomfortable yep it sucked for a little bit yep and then things started to change and that's where I'm at I got those nervous butterfly feelings and I even told my wife I was like this is exactly how I Got to feel I'm growing right now yeah like I'm growing yeah well I I think you know I heard Mike Tyson say this the other day and it was so profound he said

anything I'm afraid of I do and I was like I don't like I was thinking I was like no I I I like he's like if I'm if I'm afraid of it I do cuz they're like you know you were known as one of the toughest most feared opponents he's like how was he goes I was scared shitless he goes but if I'm afraid of it I'm going To do it he goes That's why I'm fighting Jake Paul cuz I'm afraid afraid of losing I love it you know what I mean and so man it's

been a a absolute Delight having you on I'm so like you're the first guy to ever fly out here and uh like you know on your own and say like hey and and I I just at first I was a little bit taken back I'm like that's that's cool I've never had anybody do that like he just wants to come I'm like let's do it he's just coming for the Podcast Y and so I just want to say thank you number one um and I think that your story is so genuine and impact ful that

I just hope for your success to continue to go and affect so many people's lives cuz that's the other thing that people don't talk about like sure you're doing great but how many people have you helped along the way or how many families are you feeding right now because you decided to go out and get uncomfortable yep not enough not Enough better answer not enough awesome man anything else you want to say That's it man I appreciate you having me out how do you follow Eric kleene the Eric Klein on Instagram Eric ER r i

c c l i n e so no YouTube no I'm on I'm on all of them it's the Eric Klein though the Eric Klein c l i n e for Klein not with a K it's with a c okay how do they get if they want to get some virtual callers how do they hook up with you D DM me cool yeah DM me on Instagram um I'll I'll either someone on my team or I'll personally reach out to you awesome man I think that's funny that I think the Instagram is it should be used

by the like the guys I talk to they're like yeah I work my Instagram all the time yeah it's like one of the best sales Tech Techni yeah I I I literally last year when I say it I did through DMs and stories I did $2 million bro work in the work in the Instagram the the money's in the DMS it is in the DMS the money is in the DMS that's that's true you want you want to run paid ads or you can answer your DMs or answer your DMs show them there's a real

human yeah awesome man well peace so I wanted to interrupt you in this podcast and just take a quick moment to tell you two things number one we do this for free for you I haven't made a nickel on social media at all I'm doing this to provide you enough value so all I'm asking for you to do is share it and Give us a five-star review it'll totally help us out and I really appreciate it the other thing if you want more free resources like our free Facebook group it's millionaire mentorship real estate investing

on Facebook all you got to do is join it it's free it doesn't cost anything and there's lots of resources there and we'll definitely give you those for free no charge here's the other thing if you're serious about investing in real estate and you're Ready to take action I have a program no matter where you're at in your real estate journey I can help you out I don't care if you've got five houses 10 houses no houses 100 houses I've got something that I can share with you that's going to make you a lot of

money and if you want to become financially free and you're brand new to real estate investing this is the absolute thing you want to do and here's the thing what I've learned from most of my students Right now is is that it's not just an investing program it's a mindset program we're going to change the way you think about money if you want to start investing make sure you schedule a call with me and my team and let's get the ball rolling guess what else if you are like man I don't got the time and

I make tons of money I just enjoy listening to what you're going to say that's cool too we actually have set up a fund where you can invest with us but you got to be an Credit investor if you want to find out what that looks like all you got to do is click the link in my bio fill out the form takes you about 2 seconds and then we'll let you know about the deals that we're doing we're doing big deals in Kansas City and this year I think we'll do two huge deals in

Kansas City I'm looking at a few right now and I want you to be a part of it if you've got more money than time then that's what you should do if you got more time than Money then schedule a call with me and my team and we'll get you into our coaching program so that you can have more money than time