The Innovators Den Episode 10 Unveiling the Renaissance Mentor: From Richie Riche to Real Estate: A Journey of Financial Literacy and Passive Income

You ever watch a movie that changes your life? For our guest, Marcus, that movie was Richie Rich. Inspired by the young mogul, Marcus embarked on an entrepreneurial journey that led him into the entertainment industry and later to real estate investment. After a business flop, he vowed to teach others about financial literacy and the power of passive income, starting with kids. Tune in to hear his experiences, failures, and lessons learned along the way.

This episode is packed with practical wisdom and insights for anyone interested in real estate investment or financial education. Marcus shares the importance of due diligence, the role of a good property manager, and how to navigate tenant background checks. More than that, he shares the mistakes he made early on and how he overcame challenges. We also delve into how our mindset and the company we keep can affect our success. A noteworthy tale he shares is that of G Gatson, a multi-millionaire in the 1930s KKK era, proving that resilience can overcome the highest odds.

Ever thought about launching a social media page but didn't know where to start? Marcus also discusses his experience of launching the Ascension Team on Instagram, providing a roadmap for those who want to establish a social media presence. He emphasizes the power of ascension and the importance of teaching kids about changing their mindset. If you're eager to learn more or even work with Marcus, he generously provides his contact details. Make sure you hit that subscribe and alert button so you don't miss our future conversations. This episode is sure to inspire and inform those looking to up their financial literacy game and dive into real estate investments.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

Let's happen and everybody welcome to the innovators then. I'm formerly known as hashtag Danny Silverio and I'm here with Steve all business and we have a special special guest.

Speaker 2: 0:28

We got Marcus here. What's up, marcus? What's up everybody, how you doing we're doing great, man, and so it's a pleasure to have you here, because you've been doing something great with the community. First and foremost, marcus been going school to school talking about financial literacy to kids, right, um, we did something similar, we did something with. You've built, and I think you you got the opportunity to work with them at one point and you're also communicating the, the book that you got coming out, because even a fifth grader could invest.

Speaker 3: 0:59

Even a fifth grader could learn how to invest in real estate, right.

Speaker 2: 1:01

So it's interesting because the youth is the future. So you know, just let the let the world know what you got going on. Tell us about the book and the course and and where you from. You know that what's up. Well, uh.

Speaker 3: 1:14

I was born in Harlem raising the bra all of all day and um. What got me inspired to to go down the entrepreneurship route? I saw a movie called Richie Rich by McCauley Culkin it was one of my favorite movies, favorite movie all time.

Speaker 3: 1:28

So when I saw him have like a McDonald's in his crib, I'm like yo, I gotta get that at a young age. Yeah, so I knew it was a. It was possible to achieve something greater, because if you're in the Bronx, all you see is buildings and basketball courts. That's all you see.

Speaker 3: 1:41

That's probably all you know right so when I saw the movie I said I know it's something more out there. So, long story short, I got an opportunity to be in a modeling industry from the age of 10 to 20, so I saw a range of cultures, fashion crazy a a shitload of experiences and that amazing time. So long story short. I used that platform to intern at Atlantic. Records. I learned the business uh industry behind the scenes got it and it was amazing, like the the celebrities, how music is really uh done behind the scenes, the business, everything like that.

Speaker 3: 2:17

So from that experience I started my own entertainment business and I did business with trade songs and fab lists and stuff like that. And the first major project I did was, uh, a B-scene being green music concert and the whole purpose of that was to promote green awareness but through music. So for example, we won a fab and trade songs to travel on a tour bus that was electric, stuff like that to create some type of movement.

Speaker 3: 2:43

I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but I'm like it's something. And our first concert was in Miami and it was a huge success, my first ever. I never had, um, promoting experience, nothing. Right after that it was, uh, the business flop. So I lost over six figures and I had to go through a whole process of starting all over. Hey, rock bottom. I had to pay people back and I learned throughout that process, like if no one, if no entrepreneur, like if no entrepreneur ever went through anything, especially not do business with them at all, because you don't know how they're gonna act or how react to stuff, how they'll handle it 100% from that experience, um, I started working with kids at the boys and girls club and I had to start from scratch.

Speaker 3: 3:25

I had to learn who I was. My temper meant everything, so fast forward. I went to a? Uh, a conference where Robert Kiyosaki was the guest speaker. That's a great book. Bridge that board down, yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:38

So, um, he was talking about how he was 300 million dollars in debt, but when he was saying he was so happy about it, I'm like, damn, why is he so happy? Because in school they was talking about, like, stay away from debt, stay away from credit cards. But he's saying the total opposite. I was so intrigued I bought wrist that poor dad. And when I read that book I'm like game over.

Speaker 3: 3:56

So I read all his books. Excuse me, I invested in all his uh, I invested in his private real real estate investing course. Water, I invested in his real estate investing course and, um, from there, within three months, I uh got my first property with no money, no credit. Uh, like, literally, I thought it was a fugezi. You know people say it, but I definitely did it. And from that day on, after I got my first property with no money, no credit, once I got that first check. I knew it was real and I knew that exchange in time for money wasn't for me right, so I started to generate passive income. Thank you, I started to generate passive income and without exchanging time for money yeah and then I started learning about credit because, remember, my credit back then was bad.

Speaker 3: 4:45

So for people to say they can't get started because they have no credit or no money, that's just an excuse. They just don't know better. You know what?

Speaker 3: 4:51

I'm saying they don't know what they don't know, mm-hmm. From there, um, I started to work on my credit, to fix my own credit, and then I started to learn the power of credit. It was very powerful guys. It's beyond measure. And at this time I started investing in real estate 2017. So at this time, I'm like wow, if I just found out about this, 2017, this been going on for Eons and we've been in school learning about stuff that probably don't even matter.

Speaker 2: 5:18

They don't even mention credit in school, not even a little bit. Not even mention it.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Jionn, what is that like right, yeah, so as soon as you get to college, you get like credit card offers.

Speaker 2: 5:27

And they don't even mention it there either. Yeah, but I'm saying like you don't know anything about credit and then you get a credit card offer.

Speaker 1: 5:32

You're just like oh, I can swipe this.

Speaker 3: 5:34

No, like when I was in college, they offered me a Amex Gold Card, a charge card but no limit. So college I went bonkers. I ain't know what it was, you know what I'm saying, so it was crazy, but anyway. So once I started learning the process of how to acquire real estate with no money and credit, then I learned about credit. I never looked back and my first property was in Binghamton, new York, and I made a lot of mistakes with that one.

Speaker 2: 5:59

It was crazy. I mean mistakes is your best teachers, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, School couldn't never tell me that Right At all.

Speaker 3: 6:06

So I definitely learned. I made a lot of mistakes with that one. So from that experience I got stronger and honestly, that mistake with the Binghamton property was kind of like a speeding ticket on my wrist because like a slapping on the wrist a little bit, because the entertainment business was a huge, colossal mistake. So by the time I got to this it stung a little bit, but it didn't hurt as much.

Speaker 3: 6:30

So from there, like I said, business credit I started acquiring property Properties with business credit. So now I invest in Delaware, pa and Ohio. So I don't invest in New York because New York is not landlord friendly. I'm not saying don't do it, but from my experience I just don't invest in New York.

Speaker 1: 6:49

That makes sense.

Speaker 2: 6:50

So what is you know? So, now that you did communicate with the kids, you got a book coming out, Right?

Speaker 3: 6:56

So based on my experience of investing in real estate and going through the ebbs and flows, I knew that the kids had no idea what was going on in the real world, not even a little bit. And it was very disturbing what's really going on in the real world and they're not teaching in school. So one day I just started going. So because I went to, because I used to work at a boys and girls club, I started going back to the boys and girls club and say, listen, I would like to do a workshop, teach the kids about financial literacy in a fun way and see how they receive it. Receive it, because financial literacy, if you think about the term, is mad born, it's not enticing, it's not exciting. So they gave me opportunity and I just started teaching kids from third grade all the way to adults and between, like the third graders, third graders and sixth graders. They get it so easily Because when you're an adult you have to unlearn to learn again. Very frustrating. But kids is not so much garbage in their mind. So they easy to adapt real quick. Right, so they adapt real quick.

Speaker 3: 8:01

And then, the more I started to do it and teach it, I started to have fun. I started losing track of time and I was doing it for free. So the one day someone was like how much you charge? I'm like I don't know. And she like yo you not charging them, like nah, she said you're bugging, like you need to charge. And that's when I started like understand my value. And when I get back, because at the end of the day I was having fun, but you can't do it for free all the time.

Speaker 3: 8:28

So from there I started to create a buzz and a following and then, before you know it, all the after school programs and schools started reaching out to me. I say you know, can you come and teach, and for 90 minutes? I do like a cool curriculum for them to have fun and learn at the same time. And I introduced the cash flow board game and it's like monopoly but it applies to real life, so the more mistakes that you make on the game, it will show in your learning curve. If you continue in real life, you get what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 8:59

And it's an amazing experience and that that had so that led into the book. Now me writing a book. I never saw myself writing a book, never, never in a million years, like never. And I feel like me writing that book. If it wasn't a struggle for me writing a book, I just like one day I was just home bored and I just started typing and then, 25 pages late, I said, man, let me just double spaces to see, boom, you had a book, 50 pages, and I'm like, wow, this is a book and I just kept going and going and going and it felt natural, it was a natural flow and that from that experience, I felt like struggle.

Speaker 3: 9:39

I don't think struggle is normal. You might have challenges, but I don't think I think we make struggle, we complicate things. So we struggle. Right, and I'm only using that because when I wrote the book, I didn't struggle, it literally just flowed through me and out of me and I just it just became a book. Wow. So it's synonymous with the book and the financial literacy that I teach at the financial workshops. I have a curriculum coming out, I have a book coming out and I'm just gonna continue to spread my message, awareness and just have fun doing it. When is the book coming up? The book is gonna launch the end of August. From now, I'm gonna just use that as a platform to do public speaking workshops and get the message out there, because I think a lot of people make real estate Extremely difficult to learn Because they use all these mumble jumble words and they probably don't even know it.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Can you speak on like maybe Four or five markets that you think is are coming up and four or five markets they think is going down, as far as like well from strategies of real estate.

Speaker 3: 10:41

Right, there's buy and hold, there's flipping, this whole sailing and things of that nature. So I really I keep a simple, I focus on cash flow and I focus on states as landlord friendly. Because if you, if you invest them in New York, it's more in favor of the tenant. It takes them, it takes tenants forever to get kicked out. You've picked it. Now I don't want people to get kicked out, but on the land, on the landlord side of things, I can understand it when the tenant side, you don't want to get kicked out, of course. So it's more favor of the tenant. So I invest in like states like PA, ohio, delaware, just to name a few, because they so landlord friendly that there the court is more on your side and they don't play games. So, as far as like, I don't really follow trends like that, because trends come and go mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 11:28

You have to just do your due diligence and know what works for you. You get what I'm saying, so there's no wrong or right way of doing things. It's just you got to figure out what works for you and I just stay in my lane. So do you have?

Speaker 1: 11:40

like a cash flow calculator or something like that.

Speaker 3: 11:43

Yeah. So what I do is I have like a analyzer and I just a plug-in numbers and if the numbers work for me, then I'll go out and see it. I won't work, I won't waste a broken time, the agents time. We don't need to see each other. If the numbers work, then I'll build a rapport with you and then go from there. And it's not. It's really simple, but I think the more and more I continue, to have more experience in it. It's really simple, I think. Just people just making complicated and use big, complicated words and I'm still learning to this day. So I might be at rooms, they might say some long word. I'm like, what does that mean?

Speaker 3: 12:19

And if they can't explain it, then I just can't learn from you. I gotta learn from someone else. So that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 12:26

That makes sense. So you mentioned that you had a lot of bomb hiccups or hurdles with a Binghamton company property, one like what did you learn from those hurdles and what can you teach somebody about?

Speaker 3: 12:38

Okay, so All right. So when I first got the property in Binghamton I was super excited, like you couldn't tell me nothing, so my ego was on a whole nother level. You couldn't tell me nothing, so I was so excited that the first tenet I got I Didn't screen her, so I ain't doing no background checks, I just said she has section eight, come on in easy money. Right, as soon as I did that, it was like a roller coaster from day one from day one. So at the time I was working at the Boys and Girls Club, so Binghamton is four hours away.

Speaker 3: 13:12

So if she had like a, if the tenant had a light bulb that went out, I had to go all the way up there just to change the light bulb I had. Like I was so green, I was just so green, I didn't know anything. So I didn't hire property manager, I was just self managing it. So, and the tenant knew I was a rookie. She smelled it, she saw it. She said, oh, you need to do this, you need to do that. And I went. You know I went with it, but I knew she, she just took advantage and I allowed her.

Speaker 3: 13:43

Yeah, you know, I'm saying but she was my best teacher and I think I like I see it to this day I'll think of because I'm glad it was a two, it was a duplex property. I'm glad it wasn't like a ten unit building.

Speaker 2: 13:54

Yeah she.

Speaker 3: 13:55

She gave me a run for my money and With that property I was stressed out and I had that property taken away. So I hit rock bottom with that one and I bounced back and I got more property and now I make less mistakes, mm-hmm, and I'm just continue to grow from there.

Speaker 1: 14:13

So you would say that for Entry level investor, let's say they come in. How important is to have a property management.

Speaker 3: 14:23

Our property manager is extremely important because it can make or break your deal. Like, even if you get the property, if you get, if you hire a bad property manager, you can lose money and lose the property completely. A lot of people think that Because if someone is a lawyer and they might say something that you not agree with, but because that person's a lawyer, they're not gonna question it because of the title. Not all lawyers are created, created equal, same for property managers. So what I do is I interview three property managers to see if they qualify to manage my property and they fit all the checklists.

Speaker 3: 14:59

Then I'll work with them so that's how so that's how you want to like prevent from going through what I went through, and and Because I self-managed for eight months, so it's tough. But after eight months I did hire property manager, but after I hired them it was too late. But to piggyback what you're saying, I think I highly suggest whoever starts, hire a property management team that knows what they're doing, and you just have to do your background checks on them to make sure that they qualify and it makes your job so much easier Now if someone's taking your course.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Do you provide like a list of the top property managers?

Speaker 3: 15:41

Well, I give, I give a few. I give a few Contacts as far as brokers, agents, because at the end of the day, it is a relationship business. No matter what industry you went, it is relationship base, right. Everything is everything, can't escape it. I tried. It's not fun, right. So I do give a contact Brokers, property managers, banks, who to go to have some contact with some lenders that could give you some funding. I Teach people the basics about how to get your foot in the door. I don't get the property for you. I teach you how to get it on your own and I'll just walk you through that process.

Speaker 1: 16:16

And it doesn't need some help.

Speaker 3: 16:18

I got some contacts and from there, once I give you my contacts, you build that rapport and I'm not like oh, that's my content, no, I Give you the contact, you build that relationship and you're on your own. I'm always here to help, but that's what the part you know, that's what the the course is and when does like?

Speaker 1: 16:37

is this active right now? Are you actively like?

Speaker 3: 16:40

so I'm actively. I am actively teaching people on the course side, okay, and that is separate from me teaching the kids. So how much will that go for?

Speaker 1: 16:51

if someone.

Speaker 3: 16:51

So for the course is A twenty five hundred. Okay, and I teach you for the whole year. Pretty much the twenty five hundred locks you in for the whole year, but at the same time it's like unlimited access, even if you're still running into trouble after that year is over. It's like a lifetime membership, got it? So that's what I'm doing, right now Awesome.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Can you speak a little bit more about, like the book, any concepts that you go like in detail in yeah, so the book actually is alright.

Speaker 3: 17:20

So half of the book is the fictional story and the other half of the book is a Educational part of real estate that you could learn and apply. And the fictional story is actually my story, but I just can't use other names for you know, because you got to go through loops and holes and stuff like that, mm-hmm. So it basically tells my story of how I got started and and the basics of what's the difference between a broker agent, a flipper, a wholesaler, taxes, just the basics. And if you want to dive deeper into the education of real estate, then I I give you the opportunity to do your own due diligence, but I just give you the basics, right, and In this in the story in the book is just a story of how he got started, the pitfalls that you might run into. So you won't have to run into it because, if you think about it, all fictional stories have a story within the story and this for you, it will be wise for you to like, pick up on it, learn from it, so you won't make the same mistakes those characters you know went through in the story and on the other side of the book is just practical Information that you could also learn and ask some spiritual concepts to it, because I'm real big on the mindset who you surround yourself with, mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 18:38

It plays a huge part and I also mentioned that a lot of people from from my experience, a lot of people allow their color to hinder them from moving forward right. And In the book I explained is a guy named a G Gatson and it was a guy from Mississippi in the 1930s and he was a multi-millionaire in the height of a cake, the KKK era, and he was, you know, a colored person, but he was a multi-millionaire in that era back then, mm-hmm. So I'm like if he could do it back then, there's no excuse why anybody which allowed them to like there's pretty much information and you don't know where.

Speaker 2: 19:19

You don't know, Right, right.

Speaker 1: 19:20

So talking about, like you know, talking in schools and talking to the youth. Sometimes you don't see that I think I think a cell mentioned that that you know like we look into music and as as our like teachers, right, like rappers and artists, as our like teacher.

Speaker 2: 19:37

So yeah, then we looking at them as a figure of like aspiration. Right, but sometimes they might not be the right person to teach us about credit. Ain't no rappers teaching us about credit and business credit and how to set these things up for ourselves? I?

Speaker 1: 19:50

think they had like MTV Cribs back in the day and they would rent some of those homes. Yeah Us, as kids, we're like, oh my God, I need to. Not understanding the logistics of the music industry. Not understanding like the hurdles of that. You know what they go through to just be artists every day 100%.

Speaker 3: 20:08

So I think it's important for the youth to see someone that looks like them. It definitely helps Right. At the same time, I don't think it should stop there. You get what I'm saying. So I think it's a it's a dope place to start, but it shouldn't be a wrestling place to depend on. So what you guys are doing for people to see you guys, it's an amazing accomplishment and it's inspiring Right At the same time. Once you give them the alley you they got to learn how to slam dunking on the own. But I you know what I'm saying. It's out there. It's out there. There's like there's so much information out there. There's really no excuse.

Speaker 2: 20:44

Yeah, you, really you can. You can map out whatever idea. You want to drive planes, you want to buy planes? Yeah, the information is there and you can go intern and you can go to the airports and you could do whatever you need Bouncing on what Steve said, I think, in a previous episode.

Speaker 1: 20:58

You're like educate yourself, like you have to educate yourself. You have to In whatever market you're going to. That said, five pointers. If I wanted to start tomorrow to purchase something, if you wanted to start it tomorrow, yeah. If I wanted to invest in the property, no money down.

Speaker 3: 21:15

So one thing you would have to do is figure out what strategy you want to get into. Right, so there's flipping, wholesaling, buying, selling, things of that nature. So you have to figure out which category you want to get your foot in the door with. Okay, so that's, that's first and given. So once you figure out what works for you let's just say hypothetically, you want to do buy and hold.

Speaker 3: 21:37

I went to Craigslist and in Craigslist you could type in key words to narrow down your search to see what properties are available. So, for example, I typed in a keyword called seller financing. Seller financing basically is a property owner who doesn't want nothing to do with their house, no more. And they probably have tenants in the house and they don't want to be a landlord. So what they do is they put ads out there like listen, I want to get rid of this house, does anybody want to take over? And it's ads like that on Craigslist all day. But you really have to do your homework and do your due diligence and find those type of properties. And once you find those properties, you can I can help you, but basically I'll help you, like structure, reach out to the seller and know what to say so they'll be willing to hear you out and see what type of offer you got.

Speaker 3: 22:31

So, for example, the first I've gotten two properties with no money, no credit. So I found a problem, like there was a woman. She was an aversion foreclosure, so I was a solution to her problem. So it was on Craigslist and I reached out to her. I said listen, I could take over your property. This is my offer. Are you willing to hand me out? She was willing to hand me out and I literally put $0. And I took over the property and all the cash flow came in me and I continued to pay the mortgage for her and after the end of three years the deed and title was transferred to me. Wow, that was no money.

Speaker 2: 23:08

That's a gem. No credit.

Speaker 3: 23:10

So a lot of people think you have to have a buttload of money to get started.

Speaker 1: 23:15

Or extremely high credit.

Speaker 3: 23:17

Or high credit, and you don't Now does high credit and Could help lawyer mortgage interest right it does.

Speaker 2: 23:23

It opens up more in dollars.

Speaker 3: 23:26

But I think when you start with money, in most cases you get lazy Because you have the attitude you do bigger mistakes. You don't have to be creative in most cases, but if you don't have no money, you have to be creative. You have to be so like, you have to think outside the box, and I think everybody has the opportunity to be entrepreneur, whatever endeavor they choose to get into, whether it's real estate or any other industry. You could literally start with no money and eventually the money will come if you put the work in, meet with the right people, and it's probably a dream that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 24:02

That's amazing. So where's the best places that people can find you right now?

Speaker 3: 24:07

So right now my guy Moses, is helping me with my social media page that's launching the end of August, so it's Ascension Team on Instagram. So it's A-S-C-E-N-S-I-O-N team and the reason why I named my company Ascension Team, because when you started to ascend like a butterfly, you swung like your wings. You're ascending. So anytime I teach the kids, the goal is to shift their mindset from level one and ascend to the highest level as they ideal self. That's why I chose Ascension and if you need to get in contact with me, my contact info is info at ascensionmanagementcom.

Speaker 2: 24:48

Excellent. Well, it was great to have you, marcus. I think it was a great segment. We learned a lot about the process and opportunities in the real estate space. I think there's a lot to work on. Absolutely, we got to have a conversation outside of the show.

Speaker 1: 25:01

Yeah, I'm so grateful.

Speaker 3: 25:02

I appreciate the opportunity.

Speaker 2: 25:03

Thank you, yeah, thank you. So don't forget to subscribe. Follow us on the Innovators Den.

Speaker 1: 25:09

Hit that alert button.

Speaker 2: 25:11

It's a wrap. Hey, hey, hey.