006. Darnell Leslie | Gratitude, Patience, Consistency

Sal interviewed Darnell, a former football player turned real estate investor and realtor. Darnell shared his inspiration for pursuing real estate, which stemmed from reading the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" while playing football in Canada.

Sal and Darnell discussed the importance of diversifying oneself and not being limited by societal expectations, as well as the value of hard work and enjoying the process. They discussed the importance of hard work over talent in achieving success in sports, business, and life. They also talked about the role of mindset and being rooted in something to overcome obstacles and setbacks.

Darnell discussed the importance of passion over motivation, and how having a routine and small wins can lead to success. He also gave advice on how to improve by taking small actionable steps every day and stacking small wins.

Connect with Darnell:
https://linktr.ee/Darnelljamar
https://www.instagram.com/darnelljamar2_

Connect with Sal:
https://908enterprises.com
http://linkedin.com/in/salliberato

Transcript

Sal  
Welcome to 908ent the podcast. I'm your host, Sal Liberato. We're here to help you take another step towards success. Now let's get ready to learn the basics from the best. What's going on everyone, thank you for tuning back in to another episode. Today our special guests is Darnell, Leslie. Darnell, thank you for coming on today.

Darnell  
Thanks Sal. Pleasure to be on, man. Glad we get to do this man so thanks for having me.

Sal  
Yeah, definitely. So Darnell, was a standout football player at the collegiate level, then went on to play in the NFL with the cowboys and Steelers. Now he's bringing his skill set to real estate as an investor and a realtor. But you know, this is all public info, anybody can Google that type of stuff. Darnell, what do you want our listeners to know about you today? 

Darnell  
Yeah. You know I'm nobody that's super spectacular out of the ordinary to myself, you know, I think highly of myself. But I also understand that I came from humble beginnings, right wasn't given anything wasn't spoon fed. And I'm just, you know, your average guy that's trying to make a living in the world, and do things above average, to get to a place where I can, you know, set my family up for life. So be grateful to be around and have an opportunity to do things I can have the free will to live in a world where I'm able to do those type of things. So that's just a little bit about me.

Yeah, that's great. So to kick the show off here, I like to ask everybody, what are the three simplest things that lead to success?

Yeah, man, that's a tough one. Because it's all kind of subjective to everybody's understanding and definition of success. For me, success pretty much means, you know, time and financial freedom, right. And to get that, in my opinion, and what I've learned so far in life is you have to be grateful for where you are right now. Understand that, you know, your current circumstance isn't always gonna be forever, as long as you understand what your end goal should be, and where you want to be in life. So I'll say gratitude, I'll say, just having patience, and trusting in the process. And again, understanding that things will change and come into your time into your play when you consistently take the action. And the last thing was just consistency. Right? So patience, consistency, and just gratitude coming in all around. 

Sal  
Yeah, those are great. I mean, they all go hand in hand, too. So those are definitely three solid ones. So you're into the real estate industry now. Can you share a moment or experience that inspired you to pursue that? 

Darnell  
Yeah, actually. So it's kind of cliche, but I feel like every real estate investor, I've heard speak on a topic like this, they've always mentioned the same book around Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And for me, that moment was my last year in Canada playing balls with Hamilton Tiger-Cats out in Ontario, and might have been like 2018, end of 2018. And I was literally sitting in my dorm room scrolling through Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I finished that book in like, maybe four days, it was an audible book. And when I got done with book Sal my out my entire mindset on money changed, my entire mindset, wealth building changed, entire mindset on, you know, just how to acquire wealth and money itself changed in general, was just Robert Kiyosaki preached about right, don't work for your money, let the money work for you. And find ways to always leverage that money for more. So for me that route was real estate from there, he had, you know, a crap ton of examples in that book around how those things can change your life, how it's changed his, and then the other millionaires that he knew in his personal life. So when I was done with ball, I dove right into IT and the technology school, which I got my degree in from college at Monmouth, but then also dove into real estate. So I started as an investor in real estate for the last two years. And then most recently, I got my license to sell the retail side of real estate back in like November of 2022. So for me, that's kind of, you know, how I got my inspiration to join real estate and to be in the market as a realtor and as an investor, man. But for me, that's like my endgame. And that's where I'm going for the rest of my life is real estate.

Sal  
No, that's great. So you already kind of getting the wheels in motion while you were kind of playing with the with the real estate thing.

Darnell  
Yeah, man. So it was very early, very premature. I didn't know anything about real estate. And initially, I thought you had to be like rich to buy your own house and you have to buy the house all cash or there's no paying finance. I knew nothing about real estate, literally nothing. So when I'm reading his book, and I'm like, how are these people buying these properties, doing these crazy things and buying these 12 unit apartment complexes, things like that, that definitely piqued my interest. So when I had more free time and downtime when football was done, when I retired in 2020, real estate was like the one thing I gravitated towards, right? Learning about real estate, learning about investing, learning about different ways to invest in real estate, both on the retail and the investing side. So definitely try to double dip in both but not as much as I probably could have speaking back on it.

Sal  
So I mean, like being able to know what's next is definitely valuable skill set, whether that is athletics or business, but I feel like a lot of people sometimes get caught up when they do stop being an athlete and they kind of don't know what that next step is. So the fact that you were able to kind of get the ball rolling while you were still playing is definitely great.

Darnell  
Yeah, for sure, man. I mean, you know it being a high caliber athlete, playing D1, right, like we're put in a box almost right away. We tell ourselves but then society tells us you're a football player, that's all you are, right? So when we see you in the streets hey, there's that football player, Sal, there's that football player coming up. When really, that's a small segment of our life, right? You know, I know, everybody else that plays ball knows that this game only lasts for most people up to high school for even less to college and 1% of that in the NFL. Right. So for me, it was just, you know, understanding that that timeline and that window was going to come to an end at some point and I need to find a way to kind of pivot into something else that I can, you know, help my family out and grow our generational wealth that way as well.

Sal  
Yeah. So can you share a valuable lesson that you've learned from whether that was through athletics or just being in the real estate industry now?

Darnell  
Yeah, valuable lesson is to diversify yourself. And I didn't realize that until after I was done playing ball again. Being pivoted, being pinholed into being the quote unquote, athlete, I didn't have an opportunity to dive into a lot of the other fields that I had interest in, right? For me, I'm very interested in arts and crafts, I like using my hand, like breaking things down and build them back up, things like that. So I didn't have that opportunity. I did have the opportunity, I didn't capitalize on that opportunity like I probably could have all throughout school. So for me, that was the one takeaway was diversify yourself, not tell any young athlete, that same thing, right? Diversify yourself, make sure you're tapping into the avenues of life and into things that you find interesting, and not just the things that society puts in front of you based on your quote unquote, title, right? So you can be a football player, you can also be an artist, you can also be a singer, if you want to, you can also be a damn chef, right? Who's to say that you can't have all those titles and still be successful in all of them? So if you know exactly my biggest takeaway, the lesson that I've learned was, again, diversify yourself, find ways to tap into things that you're interested in and not just what society puts that title on you as.

Sal  
Yeah, 100%. And even, that's like a great point. And even just like athletics, in general, like diversify and play all different types of sports, because I feel like now, a lot of people just like, alright, you play this, you play this, you play that, like, that's it. Like with sports, it's like, alright, go and try and play every sport like who's to say you can't.

Yeah and then Sal even to that point, man, like, growing up, I didn't play many other sports dude. I grew up playing football. I put on my first pair of shoulder pads at six, I ran track for two years in high school, and that was literally it, no other sports. Right? And part of that was because my parents just probably weren't, they didn't care too much about sports. And they knew I was happy. I love football, so they kept pouring gas on that, which I appreciate them for. The other side of that was just my friends and my friend group, they didn't play any other sports but football either so I wouldn't expose to much. But to your point, man, I think if you are an athlete, in general, just be an athlete. Let your athleticism bring you to other sports that can gravitate you and bring you to other levels of success. Right? Who's to say that you and me couldn't be awesome baseball players. Right? Right. So to that same point, just diversify yourself in everything you do not just within your sport, not just within your athleticism, but just in your life in general. Right, be as much as you can be because there's no limit to it.

Yeah. So over the years, whether that was athletics or now in real estate, you have any favorite kind of quotes, mottos, Mantra, code, anything you kind of live by?

Darnell  
Yeah, I got kind of two man.  So my mom growing up will always tell me, do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do. Right? That was one of those things, I was a kid that always loved to go outside after school, like do my homework and want to go outside immediately after being home for 30 minutes, right? My mom on the phone, Yeah, Mom, I got my work done, let me go outside and play. She knew I wasn't geting my work done my homework done. So she would always tell me do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do. And that spin and that took me all the way throughout college then because as an athlete, in the collegiate athlete, you have responsibilities. You can't just ditch school, and expect to get a deal on scholarship, you have to be in the classroom, you have to be in the weight room, you have to be in the community and you have to also be good on the field, do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do in life. And that I still carry that with me to this day because the older you get man you know that there's more responsibility that gets put on us. And if you want to enjoy life, we have to do the little things every single day that we have to do to get to where we want to be to relax in life and the other one is just enjoy the process shout out to Embiid, right? Just trust the process itself like because that's the only way you'll learn and understand and gain that passion for what you are doing. You take the consistent little steps every single day and fall deeper into what you're doing as a passion.

Sal  
Yeah, I like the first one, I like your mom's quote. That's good. I like that a lot. And then to your second point, I feel like being an athlete does help you with that because the season is only you know, so long, but the offseason training is literally the entire year so you're literally training the entire year for a very small amount of time. So doing that year after year you develop that and then it can carry over to business or life or kind of whatever you have to do so if you can develop that skill early on, it's definitely very beneficial.

Darnell  
100% and I mean you hit it on the head bro like the sport that we play is not just a three month sport during the season. You have to stay consistently in shape like we were going through 5AM workouts in the wintertime, we didn't want to do that but we had to to get to where we were to be a successful team and successful players and so I think that ties into every aspect of life really you have your responsibilities. Take those by the horns do those things every single day so that you can reap the benefits of what you want in your life.

Sal  
Yeah, that ties right into the next question. So does hard work beats talent and just talent beat hard work?

Darnell  
Oh that's hard. Does hard work beats talent or is this talent beat hard work?

Sal  
Yeah, I know there's technically a full saying to it but I left the end off for everybody because I wanted it like to be open ended so people can kind of, there's no one answer for it.

Darnell  
Hard work beats talent man. Hard work beats talent any day. Why? Because if you can work you can be as good as you are, as you want to be the best in your classroom, the best on the field, the best in whatever you do. But if you're not consistently priming that trait or priming that skill, you will get beat out by the next man that is doing that. And he probably wasn't as blessed as you, as tall as you, as strong as you, as fast as you. But if he's consistently doing the little things every single day to get better at those things; hitting the track, getting on the field. In my field on in real estate, right? You can be a great salesperson and sell and buy people's houses left and right but if you're not consistently winning your comps, right, which is a hard work if you're not consistently doing an outreach reaching out to different clients and agents in the field, which is the hard work you miss out, right so I will say I think hard work beats talent any single day because hard work that's just kind of built in you right you're talented you're blessed with, which God gives you and we've seen it on a daily basis in sports right people they lose their talent and their blessing because they don't steward well. Right hard work, you can out steward anybody because you're that's in you that's that passion in you, that's the drive, the grit, the determination and people can't really teach that or take it from you.

Sal  
Yeah, honestly, almost everybody says hard work beats talent. I mean, like I said, you still got to have some skill, but everybody goes with Hard work beats talent, no matter what it is sports, business, life, anything. 

Darnell  
Agreed man, agreed. I mean, the prime example is sports that we, sports stars that we see on TV, the ones that draft bust how are you? How do you become a draft bust dude, like you obviously were the best coming out of college? You probably did something that you weren't supposed to be doing in the league or you didn't prime yourself like you should have because you felt you were at the top of your game or you're the sh** and you weren't, you got beat up by your competition. Prime example of how hard beats talent any single day and even at like the highest scale man like playing in the league, the difference in talent is so marginal Sal hard work has to be the same. Right? Obviously you have your Tom Brady's you got the you know, your Randy Moss', and the Warren Sapp's, those guys that were just blessed, and they worked their asses off as well. At the same time, their backups really weren't, they weren't too much worse than they were. Right. So who's to say that given the right game, against the right opponent,  and the right circumstance they wouldn't beat out that starter, they wouldn't beat out that Tom Brady, they wouldn't beat out that Warren Sapp, right? So hard work definitely is political key surrounding you have to steward that talent or else you'll lose it.

Sal  
Yeah. I mean, that's great insight, because you know, not everybody can have that insight, like you do. So to be able to see that. That's yeah, I mean, that's the highest level of athletics you could talk about. And you literally gave a great example right there. So moving into the next question, it kind of segues right into it. What's the best way to overcome an obstacle or setback?

Darnell  
The best way to overcome an obstacle or a setback? Again, that's kind of it's subjective to the person.

Sal  
100% percent.

Darnell  
Right. To me, I'm gonna say it all comes down to your mindset. Man, I think you have to kind of be grounded in something before you even get into that adversity or that setback, so that you don't fall into a place of you know, depression, or which everybody probably goes through, I can't really speak too much because I've non professional there, but you kind of have to have some sort of background or some footing to fall back on you have to be rooted in something in my opinion as to how you can get out of that adversity or that setback. Right for me prime example, man, I don't have been at Monmouth when I was there when I broke my foot. I broke both my feet, actually back to back years. One was I broke my foot spring ball 2015. And then I broke my foot I again, that next three months, when I came back from rehab, fall of 2017. Right back to back. I easily could have fell into a place where I didn't want to play ball anymore, easily could have fell into a place where I was depressed, walking around school hating life, hating to be around anybody and be a part of anything. Right? But I thank God that I was rooted in Christ himself right now. But that's what my backbone is. My backbone carried me through because I knew that at the end of the day, that adversity of me breaking my foot would only make me stronger? Face that adversity the next time I go through it, right, because it always happens to us. We're not gonna go through one adverse time in life. It happens on a daily basis for some people. So I think that you have to be rooted in something for you to get through adversity and excel it. I think there's a bunch of different ways you can kind of come out of that one for sure.

Sal  
Yeah, but like you said, having that foundation I mean, that's, that's kind of what it's all about.

Darnell  
You gotta, you have to be rooted in something so that when you do get in those places, you can dig yourself out. You know exactly where to turn, where to go to get you out of that slump.

Sal  
Yeah 100%. So then moving on we got another you know this or that question, what do you think's more important? Passion or motivation?

Darnell  
Passion 100% dude. Motivation is fleeting to me because I can watch a YouTube video right now and be motivated. 44 hours, right? Like I can watch ET the preacher video or I can watch a Goggins video and be motivated for the next 24 hours. But once I forget about the quotes that they talk about in those videos and those, you know, the highlights of that video, then where am I? So we need motivation is very simply, I think it's important to have motivation, to have motivational people around you, and aspects that can boost your drive. But I think an all man, passion has to be there because again, that's kind of in you. And that's something that people can't really take from you. People can't teach your passion. People can't teach you how to be devoted to something and sacrifice and want to give your all to something, right?  People can show you that which is what motivation is, but people can't teach you and ingrain that in you that has to come from within. So, for sure I think passion over motivation any single day.

Sal  
Yeah. And what you talked about, I mean, that's so common now. Like anybody can see a motivational video, motivational quote, or, you know, listen to this song, that song like, Oh, I'm hype, I'm ready to go. Like, I'm gonna start this, I'm gonna start that. But like, it wears off like you said, the passion is literally what drives you to do what you love. So at the beginning episode, you talked about Rich Dad, Poor Dad, how do you continue to stay updated and continue to learn? So you talked about that book? Is there any other books, trainings, podcasts, videos, kind of things you do?

Darnell  
Yeah, man. So I don't even listen to music anymore. Honestly, in the car, I do music I lied. In the car, I don't listen to music when I'm driving to work or when I'm just driving around or just sitting at home. I'm listening to a podcast to be completely honest. And most of times, it's the BiggerPockets Podcast. It's either the real estate rookie show, or it's just the BP regular OG podcast, right? Just again, finding ways to get more ingrained into my network, finding more ways to get ingrained into the pool that I'm in. But then also, it's partly networking because I will hear about people that are doing big things in real estate and I'll follow them on IG or I'll, you know, I'll DM them, or stuff like that. So that's just a way for me to stay tapped into my field. Outside of that, one of my favorite books is Atomic Habits by James Clear. When I read that book, like two years ago, man that completely changed and shifted my mindset from what it was before. I would use, I used to wake up in the morning, have no real routine, go brush my teeth, use the bathroom, and just go about my day as I felt like I needed to. And that can be very dangerous, because you can wake up tired, you can wake up unmotivated, like we just talked about, you can wake up feeling crappy or in a bad mood. And that'll kind of dictate your day. And that's a very dangerous place to be at, especially if you want to be successful, because we've talked about it before, success in my mind is driven by consistency and taking the small actions every single day. So if I'm going to hold myself to a standard of being consistent and successful, a routine is critical. Right? So for me now, as opposed to waking up doing what I wanted to do based on how I felt, I wake up and I have an intentional routine every single morning, making sure that I don't deviate from that, those tasks on a daily basis. Because I know at the end of the day, I can check off the box to say I did XY and Z. And I did this, this and that. So even if I don't feel the best, when I wake up, I can still look back at my day and say I got so much stuff done today that I feel better, right? I know I did better by beating my competition. So I will say Atomic Habits was a book that changed my entire mindset on just ways to find small wins within your day, but just ways to be 1% better than you were the next day or the day before. Right? So it's the small marginal gains that compound day after day by just being consistent and having those set routines, rules, and regulations in play for your life.

Sal  
Yeah, I read it too. I mean, a few people have talked about it. I mean, it's really a great book. But it's like so simple too because like the big thing I got was like the habits, like how to stop a bad habit or how to start a good habit. Like, okay, you want to stop a bad habit, just make it harder to do it. You want to start a good habit, just stack it was something else you already do. Like do it when you brush your teeth or do it with something that you do every single day. Like it's really not that complicated, but when he breaks down like that, I'm like, Oh, I'm like, alright, well, that's not that hard and it's actually not people make it so much more complicated than it needs to be.

Darnell  
Yeah, dude he breaks it down to a rudimentary sense. And to your point, like those two topics that he hit on are one of my favorite in the whole book. Because for me, I'm low-key a fat kid at heart. I love cheese, I love chips. I love salty a** food. I love all the stuff that's not good for you. So for me now that I'm living on my own, and I'm not with my parents, I don't buy that sh** anymore. I buy a lot. I will buy a carton of ice cream. Right? But I'm not buying that stuff every day. I'm not buying chips every day. I'm not indulging in the sweets and the snacks and stuff because I understand that that's something that I don't want to continue doing with my life so I can keep my physical being, and my mental mindset, and things of that nature. So I make that stuff hard by not buying it anymore. I do stay away from that stuff I can do when I go home to my mom's house, I kind of indulge I'm not going to lie, right? But so finding ways to your point to make stuff hard is the key. Because that's how you learn, you just timebox yourself, you seclude yourself from doing the stuff that you know you shouldn't be doing.

Sal  
Yeah, definitely. And then even like a business example, like, let's say you want to write thank you cards to clients or people of importance in your life, you're never going to do it if you don't have those thank you cards, so you gotta go by them and have them there, then you're going to do it. If you don't have them, it's never gonna get done. It's just small, simple stuff like that. That is like, wow, like that really is the game changer.

Darnell  
Yep. And even to that point, it doesn't even have to be a habit. So you mentioned buying the business card. That's nothing people do on a regular basis. But because you have it that one time, you'll be able to force yourself and focus on. Another example man, after put my recycling out every single Thursday. And when I first moved into my house, I completely forgot about it for like the first month and a half. So now every single Wednesday night, I take my recycling bin out of my trash can, I have a recycling bin, I'll take it out of my trash can and and put it next door. So every Thursday morning, when I get up to walk to work, I'm taking the bin with me and I'm throwing in the recycling bin and putting the trash can back inside the house. Right? So again, finding a way to make the habit easy to your point, right? It's just doing the things that you know you have to do it by making it obvious to you.

Sal  
And then what you talked about to the 1% better every day. It definitely works. Whether that was you know, athletics or business now, like even, let's just say like cold calls or reaching out to people. Even if you just do one. You did one more than you were going to do that day. So just small stuff like that. It starts to add up.

Darnell  
Yep. It all compounds man. I think people, people like they shy away from that because they're not getting that big homerun, win, that big homerun win. Sorry for that. You know, that's big result on that next day, when that's not how it really is. Yeah, you have those one off people that can do that type of thing and get those crazy results. But for the majority of the world and people that live your small bite sized chunks, to prove to yourself that one this is possible, but two that you are making the progress. And I think the more people understand that the large cumulative goal is better than just that one big win, or that one big profit day, then I think the more better off.

Sal  
Yeah. So with real estate, can you give any type of insight or little, you know, tidbit, if somebody is looking to maybe invest in something or just even get started with somebody else? Like, can you just give a tip on maybe like the first thing they should do? Or kind of how they should go about it?

Darnell  
Yeah, I would say first thing is call your local realtor, right? If you don't know anything about real estate, or you have no idea where you want to start, I'm going to rephrase that calling investor friendly realtor, right. If your goal is to become an investor or your goal is just to buy your first property call a realtor, and they can walk you through the process, they can show you comps, they can, you know, get you pre approved with your bank, and things of that nature. But if you if you want to be an investor type of real estate investor, call an investor friendly realtor, right? And then go from there. Call a lending company, call a loan officer, reach out to a contractor that you find online or that you find on Facebook, from a group chat that you're in, right, ask questions and find ways to just be actionable. I think that was the biggest thing that I did that got me to where I am in my career. I just found ways to ask questions and talk to people in the network. Right? If you also want to go to a local real estate meetup, that's a great way. There's a lot of people that real estate meetups that are in the business. Real Estate meetups are typically free, do not go to a paid real estate meetup because it's probably BS. Go to a free real estate meetup, you will meet the agents, you will meet the loan officer, you will meet title agents, you will meet the contractors all there in one place, you will meet the private lenders, you will meet the hard money lenders all in one place for free. Shake people's hand, get your name out there, and get some business cards.

Sal  
Yeah, that's definitely great. Because I feel like people might be turned away or just like, oh, it's like so much. I don't know, you know where to start. But just breaking it down like that, you know, if it helps one listener, I mean, that's great.

Darnell  
I think people they shy away from that type of stuff, too. Because it's a very people business, real estate, not about the properties. It's about people shaking hands and getting to know people. That's what it's about.

Sal  
Yeah, I mean, building that, building those relationships, and then you know, building your network. I feel like that definitely helps a lot. I mean, I'm not I'm not into real estate, but I feel like that definitely helps the whole picture.

Darnell  
For sure man. Yup, very actionable, very easy to do and it's free. So you have to kind of have to do it. 

Sal  
Yeah, definitely. So as we come to, you know, close here, what's one final piece of advice you would give our listeners to help them take another step towards success?

Darnell  
Yeah, again, I'll harp back on what we just kind of talked about right? Find small ways, actionable and get 1% better every single day. Again, if that's, you know, talking to a realtor or talking to an agent, talking to a loan officer, whatever the case is, whatever your field is right? Find a way to get 1% better, if you're a barber, find a way to go to a barber convention. Just get out there, get seen and take actionable step that's tangible, not some BS watching YouTube videos and all this other BS, taking actionable steps and you can tangibly say I did this, I talked to this person, I met that person, I did this one thing and repeat it the next day and add something on top of that, right? Just stack those small wins every single day. And you will be successful. You look back at your life in a year, you'll see a leap and a bound compared to where you were when you first started guarantee.

Sal  
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's great advice. Thank you very much. So Darnell, thank you for coming on today. I feel like this was very insightful. And this provided a lot of value to our listeners. So I appreciate that.

Darnell  
Yes, I appreciate you having me on, man. This is awesome. Hopefully people got some value from it and I'm, you know, excited to talk to you again, man.

Sal  
Yeah, definitely. So if anybody wants to connect, feel free to reach out and then if you would like to reach out to Darnell. What's the best way for anybody to connect with you?

Darnell  
I'll say social media. I'm on Facebook. I'm just Darnell Leslie, on Instagram I'm DarnellJamar2_ and feel free to shoot me a DM, voice message, whatever the case is I'll do my best to get back to you guys.

Sal  
Yeah, definitely. Thank you. And if like I said anybody wants to reach out feel free to connect.