Financial Freedom Fast
Change Your Mind to Change Your Life w/ Wyatt Graves
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Download my FREE E-Book on Scaling Through Partnerships NOW
CLICK HERE
Apply for mentorship with Matt and the FAST FI Coaching Community:
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Follow Matt online:
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for the first time ever, we weren't living paycheck to paycheck, and so, really, what I'm saying is people need to figure out where they're trying to get. What does their desired future self look like? It's easier for us to remember our past than it is to imagine our future. We think more in terms of our past, which ultimately keeps us tethered to our past and not making the progress and the growth that we can make based on the potential that we have.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Financial Freedom Fast Podcast, the show that teaches you how to buy back your time and live life on your terms. Learn how to confidently leave your nine to five from guests who've done it themselves. Whether you want to lay on a beach, travel the world or focus on your passions, this show will give you the tools to do what you want when you want. Now here's your host, Matt Emmabio.
Speaker 3:What is up? Financial freedom fast fam. Awesome podcast for you today with my man, wyatt Graves. Today, what we dig into is how Wyatt went and built a business at 20 years old and guess what? It crashed. And then he had to build it and continue building and then guess what happened. Again it crashed and then guess what? He had one huge realization that led him into building a successful business for himself.
Speaker 3:I am not going to spoil that realization, because you need to listen to the podcast to see what that realization is so you can have it for yourself and go create the life of your dreams. But, my friends, I want you to make sure that you are subscribed to this podcast, so click that subscribe button. If you're not following me on Instagram, I want you to click on the link that is in the show notes that links to my Instagram, and I want you to go follow me on Instagram and say, hey, shoot me a message saying Matt, what's going on, dog Yo. But without further ado, let's jump into the pod. Wyatt Graves, welcome to the financial freedom fast podcast. What is going on, my man?
Speaker 1:What's up, man? How are you doing? I'm glad to be here today, dude rocking and rolling man.
Speaker 3:I feel it. I feel the energy we're rolling through this stuff today, man, so excited to dive in and to bring some value for our listeners. Man, we connected on your podcast, the Menti, a while back and Dovan got some information and I am excited to have you on mine today, man. So for those of you who don't know why you're going to learn who he is today, I know we've got some experience. Buying daycares is like a big part of what you were doing and you built up businesses and then lost them and then built up businesses and then lost it all again and then kept building up and growing your network and building up for there so many lessons to learn from your failures and successes. Super excited to dig in.
Speaker 3:And just for our listeners, just so we know right off the bat, guys, if you are listening to this podcast and very interested in what Wyatt has done and what he could potentially teach you, just so you guys know, as a little teaser, towards the end of this podcast we'll tell you where you can actually apply, but Wyatt is looking for some people to come to his mastermind out in Austin. It's going to be an amazing event and we will give you the exact details on how you can get into that mastermind towards the end of this podcast. But for now, ladies and gentlemen, wyatt Graves, wyatt, why don't we jump into your story and let's talk about what you do today with the business you've built up for yourself is right now, and then we could dive back to the beginning of your story there a bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, man, last year. So I'm in the real estate business as well real estate brokerage, I've got a joint venture with a mortgage company and I'm still in the childcare business, as you mentioned. But where I'm at today, as a result of the shift last year with real estate sales, is really trying to scale up. Our investment portfolio really shifted away from focusing on real estate brokerage and brokering deals to really just finding good deals to bring inside of our world and to acquire for some appreciation and do the same thing that we're all doing right buying deals out of discount, fixing them up, getting the occupancy raised, whatever it might be, to increase the value and then put them on long-term operational platforms so that we can create generational wealth, long-term wealth, passive income in the future. And then the second part of that we're really actively doing is flipping houses as well.
Speaker 1:In my real estate brokerage world I've always worked with builders and developers and new construction has always been my niche.
Speaker 1:So when the shift happened we couldn't really pivot with our price point and our product soon enough, fast enough to really hit those price points that would sell. So we bought an ugly house franchise and started to get those kind of leads houses that were well ugly and in a bad situation hoarders living there, grown up, abandoned, vacant, flooded and gutted from the 2016 flood in our community all different sizes, shapes, you name it but looking at those, buying those, using our contractors to rehab them and then bring them back on the market and a price point that's still selling strong, which we're August of 2023, recording this, but we've been doing really well with that this year as well, and then still doing the brokerage and the mortgage and the child care world. Of course, I've got the podcast and a mentorship mastermind community to help coach and teach and develop other people, which is a passion of mine. But, in a nutshell, real estate, investing, real estate, flipping, new construction that kind of stuff is where I'm spending a lot of my time and focus right now.
Speaker 3:And real estate investing. I have no idea what that is. Now. That is the majority of the guest that we bring on this podcast to dive into what we're doing in our spaces and what makes us different, what makes our stories different and how we are differentiating ourselves in the market. So really excited to dig into that and what you're doing about. How much real estate do you currently own? How many flips have you done at this point?
Speaker 1:This year we've probably got about 25 flips on the books. We've already bought, rehab and sold, I would say, around eight to ten of them, and then we've got the rest that are in the pipeline. We are currently under rehab or they're under contract to sell to the end user and we're trying to hit about five a month, five purchases a month. We could buy five a month and then sell five a month. That means that we're with the time that it takes us to rehab the average house. We end up carrying somewhere around 20 to 25 houses on the books at any given time while we're buying five and then selling five per month. The goal is 60 to 72 a year.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's awesome and that's a good way to track yourself and see how close to your goal is. When you have an actual goal of doing 60 to 70 per year, then you set that number of five per month and if you're doing two per month, then you need to buy three more. So that's a great way to track it and a great way to watch what you're doing. Let's jump back wide. I think you've got a really cool story in the beginning of your career, buying these daycares in these facilities. I sure you started off at LSU, if I'm not mistaken, and then went on from there. Let's jump back to the beginning of the story, where you think your first relationship with money investing and business ventures starts up.
Speaker 1:Man, I grew up in a family that was paycheck to paycheck. It's the way I like to start my story off. The arguments that happened in my household were always around money and, as a young kid just learning and observing and seeing our experiences as a family, the shame, the insecurities that I had in school always pointed me towards the lack of money. If we just had more money, then we'd have a different house, or we'd have different clothes or different shoes, or I'd be able to do different things and live in different neighborhoods and have different friends and the stories that I guess our mind always tells ourselves when we're young. And so I always set out with a goal that I would never be poor and I would never be broke as an adult, and that as soon as I could get out and earn a living for myself, that's what I would go out and do. I would just go out and be wealthy, and that it would solve all of my internal problems. So toward that end, graduated high school, I went to a college in North Louisiana for one year, but that's where I found and in that season I discovered, you know what I'm really going to execute this goal to become a real estate agent.
Speaker 1:In high school, I had seen a real estate agent that was local to the community. Back then, which is the 90s, she was driving a black loaded out Nissan Altima with a Vogue trim package. Wow, it was fun, wow. And so I remember asking what does that person do? I knew that she was a realtor, so that's how I learned what a real estate agent did, and so I thought you know what, if she's driving this kind of car and she's living this kind of lifestyle, they must pay to be a real estate agent. I need to be a real estate agent. So I moved home, enrolled in the Nissan Altima.
Speaker 3:It was just awesome. Oh, I love that man. I've got my Honda Civic outside and that is my 2005 Honda Civic.
Speaker 1:I like that dude, but that's this is like a 1995 version Dude, so I'm only 10 years later than you.
Speaker 3:Man, that's right.
Speaker 1:Man, that's right, Dude awesome dude, keep Keeps doing what's fun, right? So the car was fun. I just remember thinking, god, I want that, I need to be able to buy that kind of car. And so I moved back to LSU and I took the real estate course in two weeks because I enrolled in summer school. I did not like college, didn't want to be in college, I thought it was a waste of time. But I was on a scholarship and I wanted to take advantage of the scholarship that I had. So I stayed in college but I did the two weeks. Real estate school took a week to study. The next week I was a licensed real estate agent at the brokerage where the realtor who drove the black Nissan Altima worked. So I was working at the same brokerage with her and her mom actually owned the firm. But it just so happened that they did a lot of new construction back then and they were representing a builder that was just starting out in the infancy stages of building what is now a 3,500 unit per year machine. I didn't know that back then, but that's where I landed with becoming a real estate agent. Anyway, long story short, continued college In 1995, my mom had opened a childcare center onto family property that her mom gave her.
Speaker 1:Her mom also, which was my grandmother once upon a time, was homeless, lived in a tent, financed a set of pots to cook on over an open fire Just a resilient lady, her and her sister, which was my great aunt two distinct role models in my life. Nonetheless, they helped put my mom in business and all the things were in alignment and for the first time ever, we weren't living paycheck to paycheck. But, of course, I was in high school and I was already on my way to wanting to be an entrepreneur of some way, somehow, some fashion, got a real estate license and in that journey I found a childcare center for sale. I wasn't looking for it, but it was there, and I was a real estate agent. I had already met bankers and consultants and people that I could go to as a mentor and a resource that helped me get the financing for my first childcare center. I literally thought if this childcare center changed my family's life, then buying one for myself it would change mine, and it did. I did home, bought the school. We can talk about that story in a little bit, if you want to about fate and the power of divine intervention is what I would say.
Speaker 1:But I was 20 years old, I still lived at home and my parents had converted a garage to a studio apartment for me. So I lived on the grounds of my house, but outside of my parents' main house, and I was a real estate agent, full-time college student, and I bought a childcare center for $420,000. And right away, man, I started making $10,000 a month from that daycare. And I was 20 years old and I didn't have any bills, and I was still selling real estate and just trying to get finished with school, and that was awesome. That was a really great season of my life. And so what does most people do whenever things are going awesome? But if this is really awesome, then I should do more. Do more of it. And so I went under contract to build a new school. We built that school.
Speaker 1:Shortly after that, somebody else came to me and said you should buy this school. And what did I do? This must be meant to me. It's meant to be. So. I bought another school and so, overnight, I went from being one school to four and we were approaching the 2008 era, if you remember what happened in 2008,. I don't know if you were in the real estate market in 2008 or not, but I was. I was like 10. That's what I thought. That's what I thought.
Speaker 1:So, man, we were just really in debt with the daycares that we bought, and I was selling the hell out of real estate and using my funds from the real estate world to fund the daycare world. I was young, dumb, inexperienced and just taking risk without really paying a lot of attention to the risk and certainly no idea about the greater economy. My head was in the sand and I was just trucking along and the recession hit. And when the recession hit, it was bad. We were over leveraged with some family issues. My family, my mom and dad and I, were all in business together, and it was a big problem, a big challenge. Of course, we weren't developed emotionally and mentally as wise people. Right, they always say that money doesn't change you. It exposes who you are, and that's what happened to us.
Speaker 1:So we hung on as long as we could through the recession, but ultimately couldn't, and so we had to. We had to file bankruptcy and dissolve a lot of the partnerships and the entities that we had. We were able to manage to keep some of the schools and restructure debt things of that nature and survive. Ultimately, I'm here today. We all survived, but it was rough and it was hard, and it was during this time I was newly wed, I had a young kid. It was working 80, 90 hours a week. One thing I'll tell you that I'm not and that's lazy. I will work and figure out how to survive, and that's what we did Fast forward.
Speaker 1:We were recovering from that valley, working again just to try to overcome all the deficits that we had incurred through trying to finance our way out of the hole, and we were getting ready to have our largest, best year ever in 2016, with new construction real estate sales. It's not an owner at the time, but I was the broker of a brokerage that focused a lot on new construction sales. I worked for a builder developer and it rained for 21 days straight in South Louisiana and all of our rivers and ditches and streams filled to the brim and they couldn't take it anymore. It also rained not only over us, but up north, where it filled the rivers up north. All that water was draining south, where we are and where we are, and all of a sudden, our town started to flood and things that were have never flooded started to flood. Things that weren't supposed to flood flooded. We had to evacuate this, that and the other. Long story short, it was the worst flood in the history of our city. Over 100,000 houses and businesses flooded. Not only did our developments flood, our new construction inventory flooded, but so did the subcontractors and their trailers and their saws, their tools, their trucks, their houses flooded.
Speaker 1:Some of my schools flooded, my house flooded, and the perspective really to paint is that in 2016, I was in a conference and this just goes to how you and I met, through Go Bon Nensen, the people that we get to hang out with these days but I was in a room in August of 2016 full of millionaires, and they were sharing their story of how they became a millionaire, and one of the things they said is that, as their income rose, their lifestyle didn't. They didn't allow the lifestyle creep that so many of us allow. They didn't allow that to happen. Of course, I didn't have my identity rooted in the right things still, and so we were living bigger than we should have been living, even after the fall of 2008, through 10. Nonetheless, I had to leave the conference because oh, the point of that is that I called my wife and I said, hey, I'm gonna arrange to have our house painted, touched up and we're gonna sell it. We shouldn't be living in this house. It's too big, it's too much, we don't deserve this. We need to live smaller while our income is creeping again and then really work towards growing our wealth. And she was on board and we were gonna do it.
Speaker 1:And then the flood happened. We had to leave that conference it was in Austin, texas to come home because everything was flooding. We didn't have flood insurance on that house. We didn't have flood insurance on the schools. We didn't have flood insurance on a lot of the specs. Needless to say, august through December, when I thought we would have the record year in commission income and sales income and be back on our way to achieving success, we were knocked off our feet again and so we had to rebuild our house, basically pay for it again with SBA loans cash. I had to sell some of the daycares to recoup cash just to survive. That was 2016, 2017. 2017, I ended up taking a job for a great company accelerated dental assisting academy, selling and planting dental schools dental assisting schools across the country.
Speaker 1:I did that for 10 months and this is when my life really started to turn around man and change in ways that it had never changed before. In 2017, I met Jeff Woods and at the time, jeff Woods was the vice president of the one thing. Business partners with J-PAP is Ann and Gary Keller. The one thing is a productivity book, a productivity tool. It's a mindset, but he ran an ad that said learn the habits of successful millionaires so that you, too, might become one. I clicked on the ad. I had just moved back into our house. I'll never forget, man.
Speaker 1:I was burning the candle at both ends of the stick again on the hamster wheel inside the rat race of life, just full blown, full time. And Jeff Woods had a podcast and a mentorship mastermind community called the Mint T and the Inner Circle. At the time I joined it, met Jeff, went to a goal setting retreat that August that led to one thing after the next thing started to turn around 2018, I was able to, I'm gonna say, maneuver my way into go abundance cause. At the time, I didn't qualify, but I would have qualified I had the flood not happened, and Tim let me in based on my story and where I had been, and based on my goals and the things that I have.
Speaker 1:I guess the value that I stood for Met David, justin, donald, john, veroman, join go abundance, and just started surrounding myself with people that were way smarter than me, more brave than me, more experienced than me, and one conversation at a time. I learned, and then, as I learned, I evolved and I did things different. One thing after the next has just really stacked, compounded. That's five years ago, which seems like yesterday. Obviously, my world is different today and more change has happened in the last five years than the last 25 years relative to my mental health, my self-worth, my finances, my family, my physical health just winning in a lot of categories. And I attribute all of that to the people that I have been able to surround myself with, the conversations I get to have, which all lead back to Jeff Woods, which he'll always be one of my favorite people in the world because of what he's introduced me to. So that's my story in a nutshell, man, I know this a lot.
Speaker 3:No, it's a good nutshell to have right. So we kind of went through the entire journey there of the first business that you were able to get in there, and then things collapsed and then you just kept towards going and doing what you were doing and then the flood happened, it collapsed again and then you just kept on doing what you needed to do and then you had this moment where Jeff Woods and you're able to meet these powerful people who are doing things that you'd like to do and you were able to put yourself in a room with the people that are doing these things so you could learn the things that other people are doing that can put you in their shoes. And it's funny, david Osborn, big guy, that had an impact on you. I just had filmed a podcast with David earlier today. Had him on my podcast as well and these guys surrounding yourself I say it all the time surrounding yourself with the right people can put you in the best situations and can teach you new things that can accelerate your business and put you into that next stage of your life that you need to get to.
Speaker 3:So I love all these different like the failures that you had, but you kept yourself going and if you didn't keep going, you never would have met the people that you needed to meet to be able to put yourself in this situation that you're now in, which is looking at trying to do five flips every single month, five sold and five buying every single month, moving your business with some velocity right now. So I love to see that, I love to hear that. What are some ways that our listeners can put themselves in the right rooms with the right people?
Speaker 1:Oh man, one of the things that I like to say, which I got straight from Jeff Woods. You say how do our people put themselves in the right room? So what's the right room? The right room is the room that has the conversations that you need to be around, based on where you want to go, and so, really, what I'm saying is people need to figure out where they're trying to get. What does their desired future self look like? Unless you die, you're gonna have a future version of yourself, and I like to talk about that a lot.
Speaker 1:If you look at your life 10 years ago, how different is it? Or who were the musicians that you loved? What was the music you liked 10 years ago? What's the food you're eating? What's your physical health? Look like 10 years ago your finances, your job, key relationships. It's really different 10 years ago. Guess what your life is gonna look that much different in 10 years from now?
Speaker 1:Most people don't think that right. It's easier for us to remember our past than it is to imagine our future, and so we think more in terms of our past, which ultimately keeps us tethered to our past and not making the progress and the growth that we can make based on the potential that we have. When you start to think and imagine what you want your future to look like, then you can start to figure out. What does it look like, what's happening in 10 years from now for my life to be extraordinary? What do my key relationships look like? What do my finances look like? My physical health?
Speaker 1:And if I could only pick one of those, which one is the category that, if I focused on every other category, would become easier or unnecessary? When you figure out what that is, then you can identify what the rooms are and what the conversations are and who the people are that you need to get around. Then it's simple, man. It's a matter of finding podcasts. It's a matter of finding local meetups. It's a matter and podcast and a local meetup, and maybe even a regional meetup, will lead to a goldman of the people and the relationships that will change your trajectory.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it really is about getting clear on who you actually want to become as a person, and then what are the rooms that you need to put yourself in to find the people that are who you want to become, and then go find out how they did what they're doing so you can become like them. They obviously know the steps that they've taken to get to where they have been, so you can listen to the podcast and hear the stories of people who have built up these massive amounts of wealth or these massive portfolios whatever you're looking to do and then follow their steps, follow their path. What have they done? How can you reach out to them and get help from them, or ask them what they need help with and try and help them, maybe even work for them and build your knowledge base from them? What have they done? And their stories attribute to the story that you are trying to build for yourself.
Speaker 3:I love that. So how can some, how can our listeners really get clear on what they want for themselves in the future and what they're trying to create themselves? I think that's something that's really hard to find out is what do I actually want my future to look like? Do you have any tips or tricks on digging back into deciding what you actually want your life to look like in the future and not modeling it after someone else's current scenario?
Speaker 1:Sure For one, you can always borrow somebody else's model, right? So until you have your own, you can borrow somebody else's. That's number one. Number two the desired future self that you come up with is not in concrete. It's always evolving, right.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I learned I always talk about the two things I learned in college and nothing else, literally One was how to write a paper. The second is this phrase, and I still talk about it today People don't know what they want, they only want what they know. So your choices and your options, they're limited to what you've already been exposed to. So the key to expansion of choices and growing the options that you can use to decide what kind of future you want is to expose yourself to new stuff, to new people, right, new conversations, new communities, be open-minded, be a learner and figure out. Golly, I was only thinking 10X, but I didn't even know that 100X existed. I didn't even know that opportunity existed, like Go Bundins, for instance, where selling houses were building houses. I didn't know that there was this whole government contract world. Well, I met Justin in Go Bundins and he introduced me to government contracts and how those work, and he introduced me to this formula and I had no idea that existed until I had that conversation with him.
Speaker 1:Physical health I had no idea that we could learn our inner age until I met the guys in Go Bundins and we talked about Davidson, claire and this, that and the other, and Inside Tracker. And now here we are I'm measuring my inner age, and physical health is longevity is a goal that I have. So you have to put yourself out there. You have to go have conversations. You have to go meet new people. You cannot be a spectator, right, you have to be a participator. Go have other conversations with other people. That's the other thing. But then, ultimately, you have to stop, tune out the noise and you have to just dream. You have to just dream, you have to just think. The question that I ask all of the people inside of my community, the people, the question I ask when I hire somebody, when I'm trying to help somebody I want you to fast forward. And this is simple close your eyes and fast forward. 10 years from now, you put yourself in a time machine and it's 2033. You wake up and life is freaking, extraordinary. It's unbelievable. It's so good, you're having the time of your life. What's happening? Look around? What's happening? What does your physical health look like? Can you still bend over entire shoes? Can you bench press your body weight, half your body weight? Can you run? Can you walk? Are you healthy? Are you vibrant?
Speaker 1:How about your income? Are you W2 employee? How much is your W2 income? Is it 100,000, 500,000? Or have you said to hell with W2 income and give it up and you're self-employed? Do you have passive income? How much Do you have credit card debt? How much Do you have bank accounts full of? How much money? What's it look like? What does your job look like? Your finances, your spiritual life, your charity?
Speaker 1:There's guides that are all over the internet. We teach it at the mentee. The one thing teaches it. Lots of communities teach it right. But there's guides that you can go through to just start, to get your roadmap, to start answering those questions and be forced to ask yourself those questions and start answering them.
Speaker 1:I think to your point of getting around people like David in the podcast and the right rooms and the right conversations. What you learn is just little nuggets here and there. What's most masterful about those conversations is that motivation is not permanent in any of us. It's just like eating. You can eat a glorious meal and overeat and about to throw up because you're so full and swear you're never going to eat again, and four hours later you in the pantry looking for a snack because it didn't last. Right, you got to eat three, four meals a day, every day.
Speaker 1:Motivation is the same exact thing.
Speaker 1:It's the same way as eating.
Speaker 1:It's not permanent, and so when you create those relationships or form the habits of listening to the podcast or getting in the rooms of other people, it's a continual shot of motivation and inspiration.
Speaker 1:It's a mindset game, right? It quiets the drunk monkey that lives on everybody's shoulders that says you're a failure, you're never going to achieve what you think you're going to achieve, you don't have the right resources, you're not meant for this, you didn't come from a family with this, that and the other. If you get involved with people, podcasts, communities, to constantly get your dose of motivation, and then you're constantly answering those questions, what does my extraordinary life look like? Then clarity comes, so does the inspiration. You start to take action and then, little by little, one by one, you wake up and things have changed and that's how we put together this life that I call the good life, which is just the life of intentionality not letting the wind blow you around like a leaf right being tossed to and fro, but you taking the behaviors and the actions in your own hands and being intentional with where you give your time and focus so that you can bring that desired future self into fruition.
Speaker 3:Dude, it's beautiful and that's all about really having clarity on what you actually do want. So when you ask yourself the right questions, then you put yourself into that future version of yourself where you are super happy, you're super excited, you love life, you're super motivated. What does your life look like? What are you motivated about? What are you waking up every day and getting excited about? What is your bank account look like? What are you using your money for on a daily basis?
Speaker 3:And then that creates a clear target for you, whether that is exactly what's going to happen or not. You create a target for yourself to push towards and what you need to do. You're creating a vision. You're creating something that you are pulling yourself towards because you could clearly see it every single day and you, at least, are motivated to go out there and take the steps that you wanna take to go and create the life that you are working on creating. But you first need to clarify that goal and clarify that vision for yourself and what you are exactly looking for.
Speaker 3:I love that and I love it. If you guys are curious more about digging into something like that, digging into why its community would probably be a good start to get that going. But before we get into some of where my listeners can find you and some of the final questions that we have here, you mentioned something about government contracts that Justin talked to you about, so let's hit on that. What exactly is this strategy that kinda made you realize that there's some more profit potential out there? What is this about?
Speaker 1:Justin is a roofer right, and what he brought to light is he talked about the number of licensed contractors and then the volume of construction business that's out there. So if you look at the ratio of licensed contractors to the number of dollars worth of projects that are not government related, there's a whole lot of contractors to a little bit of work that's out there, and I'm being exaggeratory or I'm exaggerating when I talk about the whole lot and the little. It's still a lot, but it doesn't compare to the few amount of contractors that are approved for government work relative to the amount of government work that's out there to be had. So if you wanna be a person that has fewer competitors in a larger bucket of business, then go look into being a government contractor. He shared a story of an example. A community had a pool that they needed to have filled in. The job was about $15,000 to get the pool filled in. The government authorities came out and put out requests for proposals and only one person applied for the job and the budget was $110,000. There you go.
Speaker 1:It's those kinds of things that are within the legal realm of all the laws that exist, but they just pay a lot more right Whether that doesn't matter where you stand, these things are happening and people are taking advantage of it. There's just those kind of jobs everywhere, and so exploring the idea of becoming a government approved contractor and being able to get those jobs they pay more and there's less competition I never knew that. How have you used that in your business? We haven't taken full advantage of it yet. That was something as an example that just got introduced to me just a few months ago. Justin's got a great system of getting approved this, that and the other, but we have so many hours in the fire that to just pivot doesn't happen overnight. So it's on the drawing board of how can we get more involved in governmental projects that have higher margins, fewer competitors and to be able to get into that business and service it as well.
Speaker 3:I've got a question that pops up into my head and a hypothetical here, actually completely a hypothetical, unless you are actually the king of the world. If you were the king of the world and you were also magic, and you had a magic wand and you could wave that wand and you could say that everybody gets this one realization, this one mindset tactic that pops into their head and it makes them realize something. What would that mindset or that tactic be that you would pop into everybody's head and make them realize?
Speaker 1:I struggle with the articulation of it. Everybody is worthy, everybody is a superpower, doesn't matter your past, it doesn't matter your circumstances. Everybody has purpose. Whether you want to have a purpose or not, you have purpose, and so I think people are kept from their full potential because of limited beliefs that they have from past experiences and past programming. So if I could instill in someone or everyone a superpower or something that would change how they approach life, it would be the belief in themself and the courage. That's what I would say. It would be courage. I would give everybody courage, because courage is acting towards a goal that isn't guaranteed, and most people don't live with courage. They live from fear, scarcity and all the things that could go wrong, and then they stay average or below average. They don't ever reach their full potential, and I'm really passionate about helping people reach their full potential, and that only can happen when people exhibit courage. So I would give everybody courage.
Speaker 3:Yeah, courage and the ability to go out and try something that you don't actually know what the end goal is, and like something that a lot of people think. A lot of people think that to be successful you've got to be confident. Right, but really to be successful you've got to be courageous. Amen. If you're courageous, you can go out there and try different things, that eventually you'll get success in something, and then success in that thing and doing that thing multiple times. That will breed confidence. That's right. So successful people they've got to be courageous because they've got to go do things that they don't know exactly what the outcome is going to be, but they damn sure know that they're going to give themselves their best shot At it. That's right, I love that. Wyatt. I'm going to jump into our final questions here on the podcast today. What is one step our listeners should take? What is the first step our listeners should take on their path towards financial freedom?
Speaker 1:I think that things that I teach always start with clarity of desired future self right. So financial freedom you got to clarify what that means, right Is that? I know, in the world of financial freedom, and where we talk about finances all the time, there's levels right Level one, two, three, four, whatever it is. But first, what is financial freedom? And really quantify, qualify what that means to them. Is that not having to work but getting to work? Is that just making sure that your house note is paid, or is it your house note, your car and car insurance and food, right?
Speaker 1:What does it mean? How much does it cost to get there? Or what is a number of dollars that need to be generated to achieve financial freedom? You gotta start with the end in mind, and so what is it? You gotta clarify that. I think a lot of people love the idea of financial freedom. They like to talk about it, but have they ever put the pen to the paper and determine it's 60,000 a year or 80,000 a year, or 120,000 a year, or $30,000 a year? What does it mean? I think people need to really take time to clarify that, and that's the first step, yeah crystal clear criteria, man, like just get clear on exactly what you want.
Speaker 3:Because once you've actually quantified what you need, if it is financial freedom and let's say you're saying let's just use that first number, you said there's $60,000 a year. Okay, that's $5,000 a month, okay, if I can just find a property that'll cash flow me $500 a month, then I need to find 10 of those properties and then I get there as long as I have the criteria $500 a month. So there's the criteria. This is what financial freedom means to me, and there's the criteria of the means for you to get there. Or maybe it's just finding one business that cash flows you $5,000 a month. Whatever it is, but at least you know your goal, you're clear on what you need and you have a pathway for you to get there. So I love that. The final question I've got for you today why it is what is one question that you wish I would have asked, or one topic that you wish I would have covered, and how would you have expanded on that topic or how would you have answered that question?
Speaker 1:Man, I like to tell everybody about the good life and what is the good life. So maybe that's the question you could have asked me what is the good life? Why you talk about it all the time on the shows in your community. The good life there's, the good life that. What is the good life? And the way that I describe the good life is if you had all the money in the world and no time to do anything with it, it's probably not the good life. And if you had all the time in the world but no money, it's probably not the good life either. If you had the time and the money but no physical health and no key relationships, hell, that probably ain't the good life either. So what is it? And the good life is unique to every individual.
Speaker 1:What you would define as your good life is maybe not what I would define as mine, and what I would define as mine is not what my wife would define as hers. My passion is helping people to define what their good life is, and through all of it, I do think you need time, I think you need relationships, I think you need physical health, and the way that you achieve those things is through passive income or semi-passive income, which is why I love real estate, because it's the best vehicle, in my opinion, to help us achieve cash flow without trading our time for it Direct right, direct end, direct out. So you have to define what your good life is so that you can make intentional decisions on a daily basis as a filter towards moving in the direction of your desired future self. That's what I love to help people achieve and basically, at the end of the day, it's just a life of intentionality.
Speaker 3:So if people want to define their good life and I think your mastermind might be a good place for them to go do that and get connected with you. Also get connected with some other high-influenced people in the space. Tell the people a little bit about the mastermind that you've got going on in Austin. Who's gonna be there, what are you guys doing, what's it look like and where can they reach out to find out more about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, this will be our second one this year. It's November 5th, 6th and 7th. Let me make sure of those dates. See, they're 5th, 6th and 7th. They're 7th. Let me see, it's November. Yeah, November 5th, 6th and 7th. It's a Sunday.
Speaker 1:Monday and Tuesday we have rented a resort house on Lake Buchanan. It is a fine, beautiful, gorgeous retreat house, resort house. It's unbelievable. It's huge, lake, gorgeous views and it's only open for 15 people. So it's a very small. It's not like a conference. It is a true mastermind in all shapes, and just the true definition of a mastermind is what this is. So we've got just 15 spots.
Speaker 1:It's all inclusive. You're lodging the food, we have a shuttle that takes you from the airport to the retreat house and, man, I've got oh man, just incredible guests lined up. I've got. I'll just tell you I've got. No, I'm gonna keep it a secret, I can't. Let's just, if you're interested, you gotta go to the website and see I got a mindset and performance coach that's coming. It's actually my mindset and performance coach. He's coached just phenomenal people. So I've got an incredible mindset and performance coach. This guy's got all the wisdom, all the years of experience coaching some of the top level people, ultra successful people, and he's helped unlock so much opportunity and potential in my own world. So he'll be there.
Speaker 1:I've got a best selling, a New York Times best selling author, several books, marriage coach, psychologist counselor. He's coached me and my wife. He's been a several of the Go Bunits meetups. He is a phenomenal, phenomenal person that helps us unlock our true self and calls up the courage within ourselves to live a life that's true to ourselves. So we've got him. That's coming.
Speaker 1:And then I've got a husband and wife team. They're both entrepreneurs and their own businesses. She's an author, he's a business owner. They're both in the real estate world, real estate investment world, and they live together. They're married, they've got kids. How do they do it? They're gonna be sharing behind the scenes secrets on how they've managed to get from where they were 20 years ago, which was nowhere near where they are now, and how they did it. So they'll be there.
Speaker 1:And then I've got three other millionaires that are going to visit us and hang out with us and they're all in real estate sales, real estate brokerage, real estate investments, construction flippers, holders, all things about the tactical side of real estate. They're gonna be there and then you just can't top what it's like to be in a room with 15 people who are willing to put it all on the line, pay the money, buy the ticket to separate themselves from the noise and the distractions of our world, to come together to find like-minded people, lifelong relationships. That's where you get flow and that's where you get group genius. And to top all that off, I've got Josh Freberg, who's gonna be my facilitator, alongside me. We're both trained in some really cool facilitation skills that help us unlock the collective wisdom in the group, and that's really the biggest thing that we like to talk about in our community and at this mastermind is.
Speaker 1:But this ain't just a Wyatt show and ain't just the Josh show. This is asking the 15 people hey, where have you been? What are the experiences that you've learned from? Where do you wanna go? We ask the same questions from our guests and our speakers and then we design the conversation so that the conversations and the questions that we answer in the event accelerate the breakthroughs, the epiphanies, the relationships, the bonding, and it's just freaking awesome. It's fantastic and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:Dude, I love it. So you mentioned the website. What's the?
Speaker 1:website? Oh, it's thementicom, wwwthementicom. There's a button on there that you click for the mastermind event and there you'll find videos, testimonials, all the information and an opportunity to schedule a phone call with me so that we can see if you're the right fit for the event. And if you are, then we give you the link to buy the ticket and you secure your spot.
Speaker 3:I love it guys, so definitely make sure you go and check that out. And is that the best place for people to find out more about you? Where online can they watch and find out more about you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, thementi is really my. I've got a personal page as well, yiyatgravescom. That's just my name, yiyatgravescom. If you wanna go there, you can also find me. You know what's interesting man Is? I give out my cell phone on podcast. This is, we'll test your audience too. Nobody ever calls me, nobody ever reaches out, and to very few, and I learned that trick from Jeff Woods. He did the same thing. So it's always awesome and interesting to see who sends you a text, because those are the people that are really courageous, committed and action takers. I'm gonna give my cell phone number out. We'll see who texts me from your audience and, hey, we'll go from there. How about? That? Sounds good. What is it? It's 225-235-7223. 225-235-7223.
Speaker 3:There you guys go. You guys just got access, direct access, to a millionaire real estate investor and is someone looking to put a mastermind together. So you guys have got all that information. Wyatt, so thankful for all the information, the mindset's, the tips, the tricks that you were able to share on today's podcast, man so valuable, so great for our guests to hear man. And from the Financial Freedom Fast podcast, I'm your host, matt Amobile. Today we had on Wyatt Graves and we are signing off. Thanks a lot, wyatt, thanks man.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to the Financial Freedom Fast podcast, the show that teaches you to buy back your time and live life on your terms. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and follow us online at Matt Amobile. That's Matt AMABILE. Be sure to tune in Monday, wednesday and Friday for our weekly podcast drops. Thanks for listening. Let's retire together. Music INSIDES.