The Abundance Mindset of a Real Estate Wholesaler w/ Jessica Geisler

[00:00:00] Patrick McGrath: So after a year of wholesaling with your initial $3,000 investment, how did you end your first year wholesaling? Real. 

[00:00:09] Jessica Geisler: Yeah, we, so I do have a partner. So we ended up our business made $200,000.

[00:00:16] Intro: You're listening to the real fi podcast where we discuss time, tested tricks, techniques, and strategies for pursuing financial independence today so that we can enjoy.

A better tomorrow financial independence. Isn't about getting rich quick. It's about cultivating a foundation to grow financially, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Let's figure out how to kick the nine to five. Here are your hosts, Patrick and James. 

[00:00:47] Patrick McGrath: How's it going everybody. And welcome back to the real fi podcast.

[00:00:51] I'm your host Patrick McGrath with my co-host James Ripon. How's it going today? James going 

[00:00:56] James Rippeon: good, Patrick. Can't. Excited to get into. 

[00:00:58] Patrick McGrath: So we've got a, [00:01:00] we've got a great guest today. We don't edit. So bloopers in, we got a great guest today, Jessica Geisler. She is a wholesaler and I believe that she is going to bring a ton of great value to the podcast today.

[00:01:14] Jessica, how are you doing? 

[00:01:17] Jessica Geisler: I'm doing awesome. Thanks for having me guys. 

[00:01:21] Patrick McGrath: We're super excited. We are super excited. All right, James. You know the deal, let's 

[00:01:26] James Rippeon: kick it off. All right, Jessica. So happy to have you on the podcast. I know you're gonna give a lot of value to our listeners. We're gonna really crack this open and get some value from you.

[00:01:35] Before we get into things you're doing now and all the exciting things you're doing in real estate. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, where you came from, the things that you were doing before you made this big shift into doing what you're doing today. 

[00:01:46] Jessica Geisler: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:01:47] A little bit of background on me is I was in corporate America for 13 years. I went to college, got a master's degree. thought that I would just climb my way up [00:02:00] through the corporate ladder. And pretty much from the GetGo realized that it was just not for me. Back in 20. My husband and I had just gotten married.

[00:02:10] We had a small child and I, so I started researching how to buy make sure our first house was a good investment property. And that actually led me to the world of their pockets, which completely changed the course of my life. I was obsessed. I like listened to every. Has read every book that they had.

[00:02:34] And I basically just immersed myself into the world of real estate investing. It just I didn't even know that a normal person could own rental property. You always think it's like millionaires and, things like that. So it really just planted that Stege for me. And it gave me like this lighthouse to escaping.

[00:02:52] The rat race. And so 2015, we bought our first house with the intention of it becoming a rental [00:03:00] property. It was like a fixer upper and this and that. And so we bought our first house and even in 2015, the market was. Still a seller's market, like the whole 1% role in all these things that I was learning on, bigger pockets.

[00:03:15] It really wasn't like applicable in the, in like where I lived and stuff like that. So I was like frustrated. And so we ended up staying in that house for a few years. I was still just working. Five, my husband's working hit in his job and so had another kid. And so we were on hold for a few years, but I kept, the whole just educating myself and just learning as much as I could in that timeframe.

[00:03:37] 2018, say three years later, we ended up buying two more properties. We rented out our first one that we bought. Which was always the plan. We found another rental and then we ended up moving into another primary that we completely gutted. So we had three properties at that time and I was still super miserable in the corporate world, but I just kept [00:04:00] climbing the water, making more money.

[00:04:01] And it was one of the things where. Like I started making six figures and in my mind oh, maybe I should just stay here and just try to make money and try to do real estate on the side. And I was still just miserable the whole time. But anyways, so we, so at that point we had three houses.

[00:04:19] Go to 2020. I had March, 2020. I had another new job that I had just started the year before most money I was ever making, just thinking, okay, I'll just have to stick this out, whatever. But I ended up getting laid off March of 2020 with COVID and luckily. We had just did a cash out refinance on our primary that we bought it as a bur that we were gonna live in it.

[00:04:46] So we had just did the cash out refinance with my W2 and my husband's income right before I got laid off. So we had 45, 50,000 bucks, like in the bank. And so I was like, all right, I'm never [00:05:00] going back to corporate America. I'm done. I'm done. I don't care if I starve. Luckily I'm married, so my husband was working too.

[00:05:07] It wasn't like, so I was in a good situation, but 2020, my kids were home from school. Nobody was going to school. So I just took that time to just keep. At that time. I really didn't know what I was gonna do in real estate. I hadn't zeroed in on wholesaling yet. I just knew that I, we wanted rental property.

[00:05:27] Are we gonna do flips? What are we gonna do? And so I was just 2020 was like self reflection, finding myself. Trying to figure out. I knew that I wanted to work for myself. So I ended up joining a coaching program towards the end of 2020 and just. Wanted to be around people that are doing what I'm doing and have, I think having a mentor is always really good.

[00:05:52] And so joined that and then January of 20, 21. So last year I I had [00:06:00] already been learning how to find my own deals. And so I was like, you know what? A really awesome source of active income is wholesaling. Like, why don't I just sell the deals that I'm already finding? I was already cold calling.

[00:06:15] I was already door knocking. Why don't I just sell those? And then I can still keep the best deals for myself. So January is when I figured out, okay, I'm gonna do wholesaling. And so I did that all last year. Still doing it and that's where I'm at. . 

[00:06:30] Patrick McGrath: All right. There is a lot to unwrap there. She gave us the synopsis in three minutes, a long 

[00:06:36] Jessica Geisler: synopsis, 

[00:06:37] Patrick McGrath: but, I love it.

[00:06:38] I love it. I'm pretty sure James wants to rewind a little bit. So James, go for it and let's dive into all that, cause that was a lot. So you seem. 

[00:06:47] James Rippeon: I don't know where to pick it up from you did a lot of great deals. I wanna focus on the wholesaling aspect of it. Yeah. But you seem to have, done a whole bunch of small rental deals and some refinances.

[00:06:56] Your experiences. Are there. But let's talk about the [00:07:00] wholesaling. You came into it as an investor and a wholesaler at a crazy time, 20 twenty's hitting, at first, prices are going down, people, are selling everything. Cause I don't know what's gonna happen.

[00:07:10] Yeah. 20, 21, 20 22 comes around. Prices are skyrocketing. Things are, flying off the. I have a couple relationships with wholesalers locally. They don't seem to be, sending me the same deals that they did pre COVID. Why don't you talk to us just generally about the market that you're experiencing and coming into it at the time that you did?

[00:07:30] Jessica Geisler: Yeah, so I, I don't think that I didn't, I wasn't really on the wave of the people. Getting out of their houses in 2020. I don't know if I just was like, not having the connections or just not like able to reaches people. I was still figuring it out. So I have never had the experience of like people needing to sell their house.

[00:07:56] Like I just I can't wait for that day. Not like in, I don't want anyone to like [00:08:00] struggle or. Like that, but as a wholesaler, I have really only found it hard to find deals. Maybe I don't have anything to compare it to. I don't know. So in 2020, it took me six months. It was so I a full-time started wholesaling in January.

[00:08:16] Full-time meaning. 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. When my kids are in school and it took me until July to make $1 and we made 10 grand, but it took me six months of paying for leads, paying for skip tracing, driving around, sending mail before I made any money. And people do it faster. People take longer.

[00:08:38] That's how long it took me. And then after that I got a partner, we started getting deals. So for me, it's always been really hard to find deals. So it's always been hard. It like, so 

[00:08:51] James Rippeon: I know let's, let's talk about that first investment that you made. You're saying you're gonna have to wait six months in your case specifically before you saw that return.

[00:08:58] I think a lot of people, when they [00:09:00] look at wholesaling, they at first think it's gonna be this easy way to make quick money. Yeah. But as anything goes in, in real estate, it takes time, you gotta develop leads, you gotta develop relationships. You're gonna send mailers out and get, no.

[00:09:13] Feedback, and then you're gonna send some batches and you're gonna get a lot of answers and responses. Talk about, you deciding to make that initial investment and getting over the mental road block of maybe not seeing an immediate 

[00:09:26] Jessica Geisler: return. Yeah, absolutely. So I went into this. Saying, I'm gonna build a business for myself.

[00:09:35] I never, I knew that I wanted to build a wholesaling business. I wanna build a two, $3 million a year wholesale business. So for me, this was never going to be just a one off deal here and there. You can certainly do that, but I went into it saying that this is gonna be a business with that in mind. I also said.

[00:09:56] For to build a business, it takes an initial investment. [00:10:00] So I took, I don't know, two to $3,000 and just put it in my own little bank account and said, this is for me to build my business. I just, something about that mental switch of allocating those funds for your business makes it a little bit easier than trying to take out of like your family, budget for.

[00:10:20] $500 for your leads and skip tracing. And then another 200 for a dialer. It just felt to me like, okay, if I'm just gonna earmark this for initial investment for my business, then you know, it works. So I went into it and I actually tell everyone that it takes money to start. There are a lot of people that say, if you don't have any money try wholesaling and you can drive around and look for a house, but.

[00:10:48] It is gonna take in this market. It. You gotta be so freaking lucky but so I tell everybody, just go deliver pizza, do whatever you need to do to put away two to [00:11:00] $3,000 and just allocate that and say, I'm gonna spend $500 a month on this business and I'll get a deal. And my first deal was 10 grand.

[00:11:10] So it three times paid for my initial investment. And then since then, we've just continued to make money. That's the mindset that I would advise people go into it as I 

[00:11:20] Patrick McGrath: think that's huge. I love the fact that you said you allocated the certain amount of funds to start the business.

[00:11:28] You dedicated the time to do that. And. It paid off. It took five, six months, but once you got that first one, you were like, okay, this works, I can do this. Yeah. So that's huge. I love that. I would really like to get into. What were you doing? Were you sending out mailers? Were you writing hand written letters?

[00:11:52] Were you doing text messages? Were you making phone calls? Maybe all of it, but there's so many different ways people [00:12:00] do wholesaling. I know for me, I've sent out postcards and I've gotten, two deals from postcards. Yeah. But I haven't. Took the time to start actually calling or doing text messages or some of these other, ways to do it.

[00:12:12] So I'd really love to see, how are you doing it now after a year and a 

[00:12:17] Jessica Geisler: half? Yeah, that's a great question. So the answer is yes, all of the above. So this is my step by step process. I'll just break it down. I get on. One of the main sources of leads. Okay. That's out there. Pull a list.

[00:12:34] There are tons of get on YouTube and just see what other people are doing. There's a variety vacant absentee owner, tax lanes, probate. Okay. Just filter down a list. I like to make sure they've owned the house for 15 to 20 years. I like to make sure that the house is. In my area like 1980 and older, these are things that are going to up your chances that the house needs work.

[00:12:58] I don't want someone that just [00:13:00] moved in a year ago. I don't want a house that was built in 2015, because it's not gonna need any work. And in this market they can put up for sale, sign out front, and that, I'm not gonna be the right fit for them. So I pull a list of five, 500 to a thousand. Skip trace it.

[00:13:16] So get all of their phone numbers. And then I start calling. The list. I recommend that people use a dialer. It is going to change the game. If you can, pay it's 200 bucks a month, I think on some of 'em, but you it'll take you from calling 40 leads a day to 300. It's a game changer.

[00:13:35] If you 

[00:13:35] wouldn't 

[00:13:35] Patrick McGrath: mind, that's all fantastic. But I really like to know what is your batch? Skip tracing. And what is the dialer that you're using? Oh, 

[00:13:47] Jessica Geisler: it's batch. We use batch leads. We use batch skip and we use batch dialer. My promo code is invest. So I think that gives people like half off the first month or something like [00:14:00] that to try it out.

[00:14:01] But. Yeah, it's a game changer and bash leads even has a triple line dialer. So it just gets you faster through like voicemails and things like that. So 

[00:14:11] James Rippeon: we're gonna, we're gonna include Jessica's promo code in the show notes for anyone who wants to click on that and go get a good deal.

[00:14:17] Thank 

[00:14:17] Jessica Geisler: you. So pull your list, skip trace to get the contact information and then upload it into a dialer. Okay. You can do this on your lunch break. There are people that do it from six to seven at night. Things like that. Start calling, just start calling. I cannot emphasize how many people ask me, how do I find a buyer?

[00:14:36] You know what happens if I have to cancel, I'm like, just start talking to people. Get in contract. Then worry about the rest of it, but people are like, do I need an LLC? Do I need this? And I'm just like, refocus, get your list and start calling. 

[00:14:53] Patrick McGrath: I love that so much. I love that so much people try to put the cart before the horse all the time.

[00:14:59] You're [00:15:00] like, Hey. Just get a deal. Yeah. And then figure it out. Someone's gonna buy it. Yes. You'll figure that part out first. Exactly. Don't think about how you're gonna pay taxes on a deal. Exactly. You don't even have and a seller you haven't even started talking to yet. 

[00:15:14] Jessica Geisler: Exactly. A thousand percent.

[00:15:16] All right. Yeah, go ahead. 

[00:15:18] Patrick McGrath: I was gonna say, all right, so we've got the list. We've skipped traced. Yeah. We started making phone calls. Now someone answers the phone oh crap. what 

[00:15:29] Jessica Geisler: do I do now? OK. So so this is why I would definitely advise I don't have a script. Okay. So I'm in a coaching program.

[00:15:36] So they, they did provide a script for. That I paid for. Okay. I would advise there are scripts online get ideas. I obviously can't share a script from another like guru out there, but there are scripts online. My recommendation would be to find a script. Write your own script study, certain questions to [00:16:00] ask and things like that and get it like memorized something, get it to practice with yourself, practice with a friend.

[00:16:06] And because you have to sound confident, like you have to sound. This was the hardest thing for me starting out, be before you ever do your first deal, you really have like doubt. Am I even gonna be able to solve the deal? Like you just have all these, this hesitation and people can smell that from a mile away.

[00:16:23] So practice and you have to. Really work on your mindset. Mindset is like a whole other conversation, but you have to be coming into that conversation with every seller. Like you are going to sell that deal for them. You are, it's it's a dent deal. You're gonna help them out. And they're looking for somebody that is gonna help them.

[00:16:44] Okay. So you can't be hesitant. You can't be like doubt doubting yourself and stuff like that. So get a script, practice it and. Just trick yourself into thinking that you're already like who you wanna be, if that makes sense. Like just [00:17:00] a thousand percent. Yeah. That's where the whole fake till you make it comes from, obviously you wanna be genuine, authentic with people don't lie, just say you're a local investor, things like, which is true. Things like that. And so get a script and I know what I, there's a whole nother conversation around closing and like talking to sellers, but I would just recommend that people get something organized so that you're prepared when you're talking to people.

[00:17:27] James Rippeon: And I think it's important to say that it's okay to fail your first couple calls and not maybe live up the expectation that you had originally set for yourself because, learning these new skills is not a comfortable experience. I would equate it to public speaking. Like most people are terrified of that.

[00:17:42] When you're getting into this business and starting these experiences, like you're gonna face some things that aren't comfortable emotionally. And you're gonna have some self-doubt of course, but like you're saying, you just gotta push through it and make those first. And then once you have those embarrassing experiences you're gonna not hopefully repeat those same mistakes over and over, and [00:18:00] that's learning, that's developing and that's how you're gonna improve upon yourself and your skills.

[00:18:04] Yeah, 

[00:18:05] Jessica Geisler: exactly. 

[00:18:06] Patrick McGrath: That's huge. All right. So let's say we have talked to the seller, we've got an agreement, we've got a, we've got a contract. And it's a good deal, but you're not gonna keep it. You're gonna, you're gonna go and assign it to somebody else. So everybody always wants to know where do I find my buyers at?

[00:18:27] Yeah. Like where do I find the people that are, that want to flip this house or use it as a rental, walk us through that. 

[00:18:33] Jessica Geisler: Yeah. So a huge place, like our main place that we use is Facebook local Facebook investor groups. Okay. This is what I tell everybody you should be in, in my area, in the Dallas area.

[00:18:48] There's probably six or seven at least of different real estate investor groups that are just in the Dallas area. There's multiple all over the state. You should be in those [00:19:00] groups. Okay. That's our first thing. Get in there and other people are posting deals. Okay. And they're saying drop your email. If you're interested, go in there and scoop up every single email you can.

[00:19:11] Start an Excel sheet and just start building a list. Okay. That's the first thing. Second thing is that's where you're gonna post your deal when you get a deal. So you gotta get the pictures and you gotta have the numbers and do not put up BS numbers, but put up realistic numbers. And that's where you're gonna post your deal.

[00:19:29] Okay. So you're gonna get interest that way as well. The third thing, and this is what I did on my very first deal, because Being able to sell the deal was a kind of a mental roadblock for me. I felt like I was almost subconsciously like blocking myself from getting a deal because I was like, eh, I don't know what I'm gonna do with it if I do get a deal.

[00:19:50] So I personally reached out to a couple of local wholesalers and flippers that were all over the Facebook groups. You knew they had a ton of [00:20:00] experience. They were even mods in the Facebook groups. And I just said when I find a deal, will you help me sell it? And we can split the fee. And they were like, of course.

[00:20:09] So I ended up partnering on my first deal because my partner like verified the comps for me. He, when you're new, you just don't know okay, is this a deal? I think it's a good deal. He helped me verify, Hey, if we get it for this, we're gonna sell it for. So I split the fee with him and we've actually been working together ever since, but there's nothing wrong with partnering on your first few deals with experienced wholesalers.

[00:20:35] Now make sure that you're getting it under contract. Okay. You gotta trust the person, but also, CYA. So don't just be like, oh my God, this is the house, because they're wholesalers have a bad reputation for a reason. There are a lot of shady people. And especially in this market, it's very hard to find deals.

[00:20:53] So just be, be careful, but I would definitely recommend partnering JV with somebody on [00:21:00] your first couple deals, if that's just gonna make you feel. Cause I know once I talked to a couple, I was like, oh, I'm getting a. Done. I'm getting a deal. And I did. 

[00:21:08] James Rippeon: I think I, I wanna highlight something that I'm hearing a consistent theme of.

[00:21:13] It's the abundance mentality and not the scarcity mentality, 50% of a good deal is better than a hundred percent of no deal. And if you have no idea what you're doing, there's no shame in going to seek help guidance counsel from somebody who knows what they're doing and getting that deal done.

[00:21:27] It's gonna put you way ahead of the curve. When it comes to doing these transactions and this kind of relates back to the investment part of it too, investing 2, 3, 4, $5,000 into your business. Yep. You have to have that abundance mentality, that expectation that you're gonna succeed. You're gonna make these calls.

[00:21:44] You're gonna partner with people, build these relationships and just not think that this last deal is gonna be. The final deal you ever see? So I think there's a lot of value to be found there. Let's talk about these buyers a little bit. What is your ideal buyer as an investor and what is a buyer that try to stay [00:22:00] away from?

[00:22:00] Do you have people that you interact with that you're like, I'm not gonna sell this deal to you? Do you have certain buyers that you love working with? Describe that ideal buyer that. 

[00:22:09] Jessica Geisler: Yeah, it's very interesting being on the wholesaler side. It, cause back in the day when I was trying to find rental properties and stuff, we all have worked with wholesalers and stuff and you're like, God why can't I get a deal?

[00:22:21] Why won't they send me like an awesome deal. And me who had never bought a deal before. Okay. Okay. As a wholesaler, I. All we want is somebody who is going to close the freaking deal. Okay. I don't care. So experience helps the I ideal cash. Fire is somebody that is experienced that I know is gonna close the deal that is not afraid of a project because the, most of the deals these days literally can't be listed on the market because they're in such bad shape.

[00:22:54] So it has to be someone that. Can make the numbers work and, has a crew and stuff like [00:23:00] that. For us, we will take a little bit less money for someone that we know is gonna close than, Sally who has never bought a whole set, never bought a rental property. She was very nervous.

[00:23:13] She like, because we've had two times where we got the earnest money. Because they didn't end up closing and we don't want the earnest money. We want to sell the deal because the seller is waiting to close. We wanna close the deal. So I think the most important thing as a wholesaler is we have to have the confidence that you're gonna buy the deal.

[00:23:33] Patrick McGrath: That's huge. And for everyone out there that listened to an episode from a week or two ago, but by the time this comes out like a month ago, We talked about this with wholesalers and James and I both agreed. And I'm hoping that you conf you would confirm you probably have. One or two people that every deal that you're not gonna buy goes to first and then probably two or [00:24:00] three more people.

[00:24:01] And then it goes out to the email list. Is that 

[00:24:03] Jessica Geisler: how that works? Yeah. Yeah. We definitely have people that we will go to first. And it's like the chicken and the egg, I've been the new investor who used to reach out to people. Oh, can I pick your brain and blah, blah, blah.

[00:24:14] And now. I'm so humiliated for myself, but. It's hard when you're trying to get in the game and you can't get a deal and wholesalers are sending you crap and whatever else. You have to, but also at the same time, even when I was a newer investor I would buy a deal without getting the inspection without getting the, because I, you have to get.

[00:24:37] Experience. So my advice, if you're new, you have to, you can't be scared of like making a mistake, losing money, obviously mitigate your risk. But if you're going into, with a wholesaler or to look at a property as a buyer, and you're like, timid, you're nervous. You don't know you're we're not [00:25:00] gonna sell that deal to you because.

[00:25:02] You need more experience and I don't want you backing out at the last second 

[00:25:08] Patrick McGrath: I totally agree. And I think that's awesome. So for everyone out there, that's thought about wholesaling rewind all that, listen to it like five times, because she just gave you everything. You need to start a wholesaling business.

[00:25:24] And for me, I am gonna go and follow that lead. And go to batch leads because I've been putting it off for a while. And now that I've spoken with you, like I'm so happy. So we have, now we know how to wholesale. You've been doing it for a little over a year now. So after a year of wholesaling with your initial $3,000 investment, how did you end your first year wholesale in real.

[00:25:52] Jessica Geisler: Yeah, we, so I do have a partner. So we ended up our business made $200,000. And really it was [00:26:00] all at the back end of the year. We've done a few deals this year and we're, we got lots of stuff in the pipeline, but yeah, we're just gonna build this thing up and just keep it rolling. That's amazing.

[00:26:13] James Rippeon: So look looking at your big financial independence pitcher, that's what this podcast cast is. We wanna know, like how does this wholesaling pursuit fit into that long term financial independence vision for Jessica? So why don't tell us what your, pathway looks like as it relates to wholesaling now and where you're gonna be a little bit in the.

[00:26:33] Jessica Geisler: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like I mentioned earlier the way I got into wholesaling was because I wanted to find my own deals. I personally do not want, I would rather cold call than pay a wholesaler of 30 grand for a deal. So I. Number one with wholesale, having a whole selling business, I'm gonna get to keep my own rentals.

[00:26:51] So for the long term, we, my husband and I wanna get probably, I don't know, 15, 20 rentals, something like that who knows they'll probably change. [00:27:00] But in five years I would like to be, I would like to have, a good. Up and running, wholesale company that I am an owner in and other people are doing the day to day business.

[00:27:12] That's my partner. And I both, our goal is not to be in the business every day. So I think four to five years, if we're making a couple million a year, we're gonna pay. Somebody to run a day to day operations or at least the cold callers. So my goal would be to be getting some passive ish income from that business that we got going.

[00:27:33] And then also to have obviously long term rentals and go from there, I guess I'll have to have new goals after that. 

[00:27:42] Patrick McGrath: exactly. Exactly. So do you have a particular, a lot of investors and a lot of people. Going for financial independence have like that first kind of big ish milestone number.

[00:27:55] Do you have that ideal, like monthly number that you and your husband have talked [00:28:00] about and dreamed about that? Yeah. You're trying to ring the bell on what's that number? Yeah, I 

[00:28:04] Jessica Geisler: think it's probably like around 20 grand. 

[00:28:07] Patrick McGrath: That's a perfect number. That's exactly what mine and my wife says as well.

[00:28:11] Yeah, every, I think, you know that around 250 grand a year passive, and a lot of the times tax free when it comes to real estate is massive. Yeah. So that's huge. So we've got the, we've got the money aspect down, tell us about, the personal lifestyle act. Becoming financially independent and financially free.

[00:28:31] And what that really means 

[00:28:33] Jessica Geisler: to you? Absolutely. So it's still a trip to me that I can go on my kids' field trip on a Wednesday. I can be home with my little boy. That's sick with the flu. I can, I don't have to answer to anybody. I don't have to I used to have huge guilt in the corporate world. I used to feel bad because I was sick and had to miss a [00:29:00] day.

[00:29:00] If I had to leave early to pick up my kid from school or something like that. And so the number one thing for me is just freedom, period. I don't have to tell anybody that I am not gonna be at work today. I don't have to answer to anybody about productivity. I do not have to do any of that. I don't have to wait for a 3% raise at the end of the year.

[00:29:21] I have full control of my life. And so for me, The ultimate goal beyond money is abundance. Like James, you were talking about earlier is just, it's really just loving my life, like my entire goal. And this is something that in 2020, when I was like fighting myself, I had a whole mindset journey because when you're in corporate America for so long, you have really a scarcity mindset.

[00:29:46] I had a huge scarcity mindset. We had to live on nothing. We. Save and strength and, for these properties. And so my whole, the only thing I care about now is. Loving my life every single day, getting to [00:30:00] do what I want. Luckily I am inspired to do real estate every day. I feel excited about it, what, if that ever changes, I'm gonna do something different.

[00:30:09] I do not wanna spend another day. Like I did for so many years unhappy thinking that I had to wait to be happy. One day I thought I'm just gonna be miserable till I'm 50 and I retire and get enough rentals and you don't have to do that. You can be happy now. And here's the thing. If you're happy now, the abundance.

[00:30:32] Because you are attracting opportunities, you're attracting like things that you never thought of. Social media. I never, I wasn't even on Instagram until 2020. Okay. Because I thought it was lame, honestly. I'm like, I'm too cool for this, but look how much fun it is now. I never thought. And I'm making a little bit of money on social media.

[00:30:52] I'm. Money from, wholesaling. And when you're just living your life, you attract things you never thought of. [00:31:00] So like the only thing I care about is being happy, spending time with my friends and family traveling and. Like just loving every day. That's that's it 

[00:31:11] James Rippeon: I think that's important cause a lot of people aim to get into real estate investing, especially wholesaling for sometimes for the flashiness that comes along with it.

[00:31:19] The quick check. But I think what you're keying in on is, the money that you're making is fueling your passive income, which is fueling your lifestyle. That you wanna have with your family and ultimately, I think that's where we're all here for. We're gonna have different goals of, what that looks like for everybody respectively, but I think we're all on the same boat there.

[00:31:38] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. Yeah. And I just wanna say we have asked, I think 10 people on the podcast so far. Almost that exact same question. And every single person was all about their time. Freedom. Yeah. It was all about the time freedom and just living their best life, yeah. And. At first it is about the money like James said, but then [00:32:00] once you hit a point where you just realize that you can do it, you can just do it by yourself.

[00:32:05] Yeah. It's such a game changer in your mindset and in your wellbeing, just waking up every day, being passionate about something and knowing that, like you just said, if it gets boring, I can change it. Cuz I know that I can go out and create a business. I know I can go. And do this, I can do these uncomfortable things.

[00:32:25] So that is AB absolutely huge. I felt like you were speaking for me on all of those things, so that was absolutely great. We got this next one. So James, why don't you take it away? 

[00:32:38] James Rippeon: You, Jessica, you've been spending this time past two years, building up your wholesaling business, learn a real estate, getting into it.

[00:32:44] And you've got this goal. You're gonna build up two to 3 million wholesaling business, get to 15, 20 rentals. Maybe more after you get there, you decide that was too easy. We gotta expand our goals cuz we got this abundance mindset. Yeah. Your own on this. What are some of the [00:33:00] obstacles you think you're gonna face on that path to get to where you're going?

[00:33:02] And what are these, some of these big things that maybe you're thinking through, or that just come to mind when you're thinking through that business plan and getting to where you're going, not only with your wholesaling deal, with your rentals and also that family lifestyle that you wanna.

[00:33:16] Develop. 

[00:33:17] Jessica Geisler: Yeah. Okay. Obstacles. I think, just unknowns that pop up. Like I've never built up a business before. I'm still new to wholesaling, relatively to other people. So I think just for example, we outsourced our cold calling to a company that really. Was horrible. Okay.

[00:33:39] And so our pipeline just went for three months. So we had no lease. And so we're in the process of building that up. So it's things like that. Like the thing I love about real estate is that there's so many options, but then it's also that kind of makes it harder because what works for somebody.

[00:33:55] Doesn't work for somebody else. And so it's like all these unknowns that, that [00:34:00] you just have to work through and you just have to really like, go with the flow and, know that everything is just a learning experience and things like that. And it really has helped us zero in on some values that we're gonna, keep our focus on in our company going forward.

[00:34:17] For example, just quality, just keeping. Quality staff quality people working with us and things like that. So just the unknowns that come with, like not knowing what your business is gonna do. No one knows what the market's gonna do. And things like that. And so like for the whole selling business those are our biggest challenges is just.

[00:34:39] On just a more like detailed level, it's just keeping the leads low. Like it's hard. And going back to the mind, the why of like time freedom is I really would wanna just tell anyone that gets in a wholesaling cold calling and text, even texting is brutal. People are.

[00:34:58] Angry. [00:35:00] They don't like getting spammed. They don't like getting, and so like literally I was cold calling and sitting on text messages just today. And I felt like I was getting punched in the face every five minutes because people are just, they don't know me. And so they just it's brutal. And so you have to just go back to your why.

[00:35:18] And so those are just everyday challenges of being told F you every day. . And those are the challenges on the whole selling business on the on the rental business. One of the challenges is that we've come across is and this is the thing that I think flippers face as well is do I want this 30 grand right now?

[00:35:37] Or 50 grand or whatever, or. Really could this be a good bur for me to hold onto ? So it's really trying to stay focused on your long term goals and not just get that quick cash all the time. So that is something that we're working through and our whole selling business is really.

[00:35:54] Prioritizing. Okay. Let's get this, monthly goal in the [00:36:00] business. And then we can look at, holding onto some stuff, things like that. And I don't know. I think the hardest thing is just finding good deals right now. That's just the hardest thing 

[00:36:09] James Rippeon: I'll tell you. I know the exact time that wholesalers and flippers decide that they'd rather do buy and hold in burs.

[00:36:16] It's April. Each year, when they have that short term capital gains bill then you know, they pay that once and then they learn. Yeah. Hopefully they kept some cash on the sidelines and if they didn't, they learn real quick, the advantages of long term investing. Absolutely. So sometimes it takes one of those.

[00:36:32] Patrick, you got anything else you wanted to ask before we get to our next segment? 

[00:36:36] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. So I just wanted to say. Tagged along with James, there is one of the beautiful things about doing the Burr is you're still gonna get that 30 or 40 grand. Yeah. It's gonna take six months, nine months to get back, but that's gonna be tax exempt and tax free.

[00:36:59] Yeah. Which is [00:37:00] huge. So I would a hundred percent look at that also, if the market turns. And things flip, flip, or stop flipping those checks are gonna stop rolling in and that monthly income generated from, your rentals are gonna be, what's gonna keep the business afloat during those down times.

[00:37:19] So I'm sure that you are well aware of that, but for anybody out there listening you gotta think about that as well, especially when it comes to any of your businesses. So all in all my gosh, you've been dropping some serious nuggets on us, so we are gonna get into our last segment here.

[00:37:39] And I think James and I decided we are calling. The big four. Is that right, 

[00:37:45] James Rippeon: James? I think that's what we're going with. It seems to change every week, but we'll see what sticks. I like it. 

[00:37:50] Patrick McGrath: yeah. The big four. So kick it off James, 

[00:37:53] James Rippeon: almost like the final four we're in the midst of March madness. So we'll call the final four for this week, big four next week. [00:38:00] So our first one has to do with your financial independence. What is something that you do in your financial life that feels like a cheat code or a hack? It could be something very simple that, and obvious, or just things that you do in your personal life or your business life that kind of help propel you in the direction that you know, you're going for financial independence.

[00:38:20] So what feels like a cheat code or 

[00:38:21] Jessica Geisler: a hack? Oh, my gosh, this might be like a lame answer, but my husband and I are, we just live way below. Our means like we just, we're very conservative and we literally, we just live way below our means and we always have, since we got married, so that. It, it has so many, like we just keep tens of thousands of dollars in cash in the bank, not too much, obviously inflation, blah, blah, blah.

[00:38:48] But it just keeps us in a position where we can buy whenever we see something, we, it doesn't matter if I lose my job, it doesn't, whatever it is. And it just keeps when, [00:39:00] It doesn't matter what the world does. It doesn't matter what happens and you have that security for me, it helps me with that abundance mindset and it helps me just have confidence going out in the world and starting a business or whatever it is.

[00:39:13] So I know it's not like the most exciting like answer, but we just live below our means. What's 

[00:39:22] James Rippeon: this, I think that's huge. It's easy to say. It's very difficult to do. Just like we were talking about earlier with making those calls, just taking action, easy to say, hard to do, and the hack can be slapping you in the face for financial independence and financial freedom.

[00:39:37] You just gotta take the steps to do it. And, we all know that starts with, saving your mind. That's the first. 

[00:39:41] Patrick McGrath: Yeah, absolutely huge. Every. Save live below your means. We know we've been talking about this before. Everybody's got 10% to save for a rainy day. So go out there and do, 

[00:39:54] Jessica Geisler: just to add to that.

[00:39:55] Like we're in our we're in our thirties, but we, all of our friends, we went [00:40:00] through the phase where everybody's buying a brand new house. Everybody's buying an $80,000 car, everybody. And we are the ones over here. We're like, we're broke, sorry. Meanwhile, we have 50,000 in the bank, whatever. But like we just live and it's very hard to do that when you can afford a bigger house or you can afford all the stuff that the world sees, but when you're sitting back, I just know with my faith and with everything else that like, God sees that, and God sees that you're being responsible with money.

[00:40:33] Like he knows that. Like we're gonna leap frog. Not that it matters. I'm not trying to compare myself, but we're gonna leap frog. We are on such a path to just be millionaires when everybody else is like has $500 in the bank and has to charge like a car repair, things like that. So I just really, anyone listening to this do not worry about what your friends are doing because they're broke [00:41:00] 99% of them.

[00:41:00] Okay. Stay focused, make a plan and stick to it. And that's what we did back in 2015, when we bought this old fix house and all of our friends are buying new builds and I'm sitting here, like we're making like 2000 a year, but we're living in this like little house, and so I just I'm super passionate about.

[00:41:20] Like the long game. So I just had to throw 

[00:41:23] James Rippeon: that in there. I relate to that so much. I'm recover. I like to say recovering attorney yeah, in former life. And my wife's an attorney as well. So like we went to school with bunch of attorneys and they making a lot of money, but they spend as much money as they make.

[00:41:38] And first, when we graduated, we didn't have an appreciation of where our frugality was gonna take us. Yeah. Now, I would almost. Very comfortably bet that our net worths are more than those attorneys. Yeah. Doing, you know what they're doing, spending the money going out, trying to live that lifestyle.

[00:41:54] And you're not gonna see the benefit of that sacrifice right away. You're not. And it takes daily consistent [00:42:00] action, every long term, and it's gonna suck and it's gonna feel bad cuz you're gonna see people flaunting their material goods and their cars and their houses. But just like you guys, my wife and I, we bought, tiny houses with projects and ugly kitchens.

[00:42:12] Yes. But we turned them into to value. And so I just wanna let everyone to know that's the lesson that we learned 

[00:42:20] Patrick McGrath: it is. My wife and I, we bought our foreclosure as our first house. We lived in it for eight years. Yeah. Our we just renovated our kitchen. We lived in our house.

[00:42:29] We bought three years ago. We just renovated it. And we did, I did the bare minimum, yeah. To make it look nice. Yeah. But not spend 50 grand on a kitchen. Like I, I could pay cash for it, but I'm like, absolutely not. So I totally love that. I totally love that. All right. We got question two, which is, are there any books, podcast, or other resources?

[00:42:52] That really shaped your financial independence journey, your mindset. That is not [00:43:00] rich dad, poor dad, because everybody knows that's the greatest book out there. So you cannot name that one. 

[00:43:05] Jessica Geisler: I 

[00:43:07] Patrick McGrath: podcast YouTube guy, whoever, wait back for all the listeners out 

[00:43:10] Jessica Geisler: there. OK. So I have to go back to bigger pockets like that.

[00:43:15] I literally that podcast. It just, I had no freaking clue that this was even a thing. And there are so many people that I talked to that they have no idea. So that's where it started for me. And my whole life changed. I read all their books. I listened to every single podcast. And so for real estate, obviously y'all's podcast is awesome.

[00:43:39] And Biggers that, that's the main one that I can recommend. I did read a book one time on wholesaling. I think it was called, if you can't wholesale after this, I got nothing for you or something like that. And I can't remember the author. It's it had to be 200 page or like little, it wasn't very long.

[00:43:56] I read it like in one day this was like actually a few years ago. I think that was [00:44:00] the name of it. That's what taught me about wholesaling, but bigger pockets. And then for mindset. Oh my 

[00:44:07] James Rippeon: gosh. So that it looks like it's by Todd Fleming, if you can't wholesaler. So I've got nothing for 

[00:44:13] Patrick McGrath: you. 

[00:44:13] Jessica Geisler: It's a thin book.

[00:44:14] I have people ask me so many times, like what book to read. That's the only book I've really ever read on wholesaling specifically. And it really is step by step. Now it might be a little outdated. Like some of the things on wholesaling were written like back during the recession and stuff like that. But it still will give you a step by step how to do it.

[00:44:33] And mindset. Okay. There's a book called being the solution. It's like an old school book that my mentor recommended. And I can't remember the name of it. James, maybe. I dunno. I'm on the Google machine. Let's yeah, it's called being the solution and it. It is mind blowing because it goes back to what I was talking about earlier, how you have to become in your mind.

[00:44:59] You [00:45:00] have to believe that you are the person that you wanna be now. You have to embody that person. So if you wanna be a millionaire, someone who's making a million dollars a year or whatever it is, you have to believe that you are that person and that, that is coming to you. And that you're already there.

[00:45:20] You, I think just the mindset thing that so many people, even me, that I struggled with is that you don't believe it's possible. Like until you get that first deal, you question, you don't think that you're someone that can make a million dollars a year or $20,000 a month or whatever it is. And so working on your mindset every day, like I work out every day and meditate every day.

[00:45:42] I read every day because my, it starts with your mindset. If you don't believe. That you can do it. No one else is gonna believe it. No, one's gonna work with you. Things like that. So being the solution is one of 'em. That's just the one that comes to my mind. That's a great place to start so that one's 

[00:45:58] James Rippeon: by Dale Rutherford.

[00:45:59] So [00:46:00] yes, 

[00:46:00] Jessica Geisler: everyone, small book too. Oh, there's also another one. That's really good. And this is an also skinny one. It's called U squared. Okay. It's called U squared and it's by price Pritchett. And it's literally like 35 pages, but it's all about quantum leaps and how you, how like things that are possible.

[00:46:21] Like for me in my business, just think about this. I read this book and I went from making zero. Dollars for six months, we made 200,000 in six months. That is a quantum leap, like believing that, you can quantum leap yourself and your business just by taking inspired action and just by working on yourself, if that makes sense.

[00:46:43] So this is an awesome book for anybody. I Each chapter is like two page. 

[00:46:48] Patrick McGrath: Awesome. I absolutely love it. I'm gonna check that one out. Yes, for sure. Tell 

[00:46:53] Jessica Geisler: me, I wanna hear what you think about it. 

[00:46:56] Patrick McGrath: Read it. I will. I'm gonna get, I'm gonna hop on Amazon after [00:47:00] and go check it out. But one of the things about the mindset that I think.

[00:47:06] You were hinting at multiple times. And that I know is that you also need to get in a mindset where you deserve yes. To make that money. You deserve to be a millionaire. You deserve to make 20 grand a year. Yeah. It's the fear, it's the unknown, can I do it? Am I gonna be able to do it?

[00:47:24] But a lot of the times what you're saying is I don't think I deserve it. Yeah. And you have to get into. That mindset of putting in the work, waking up early, working out every day, putting all of that positive information, and doing, taking the action. Like we said, decide, commit, take action. Yeah.

[00:47:43] And that will get you in the mindset to where, you deserve it because you're putting in all of the work. So that's huge. 

[00:47:51] Jessica Geisler: Go right ahead. Yeah. I wanna just, you just really brought up probably one of the most important things for people that want to [00:48:00] wholesale is believing that you deserve that 20,000, $30,000 fee.

[00:48:06] That's something that I was like, oh my gosh, you have to know the value that you are bringing to the seller and to the buyer, cuz buyers will try to negotiate and whatever else, but you have to know. The value that you're bringing and you have to know that you deserve it, just like you said.

[00:48:24] So that's why I always tell people, just like you said, your mindset is where it all starts. So I just wanna say that's, that is particularly important. I think for people that wanna wholesale. Perfect. 

[00:48:38] James Rippeon: Springboarding off of that. I think you're gonna really enjoy this next question. It's all about mindset in abundance.

[00:48:43] It's the future. You it's five years in the future. Everyone has these dreams of where they're building their life. We hinted at this a little bit. Why don't you summarize what your future you life looks like. You could take this in a personal direction. You could take this in a business direction, but put us five years in the future and, and tell us what [00:49:00] does Jessica's life look.

[00:49:01] Jessica Geisler: Okay, so I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do this little exercise that, that you can do that it really helps plant those seeds. Okay. So what you do is you talk like it's already happened. Okay. Alright. Five years ago, I was on an awesome podcast. All right. And I was just talking about my goals and I'm so excited that in five years I was able to build my wholesaling company to 3 million a year.

[00:49:28] I don't even, I'm not even in the day to day operations. I check in once a week with my team to see how everything is going and see how I can help. I am getting. 20 to $30,000 a month just in passive income from my wholesaling business. I have a great partner that I work with. We have a smooth, easy company that we're running.

[00:49:49] We also have 20 rentals that are, fully occupied. They all are wor have all increased in value a lot. And [00:50:00] so I'm making, anywhere from. 30 to $40,000 a month working. 10 to 15 hours a week. I'm in my dream home. It's on the water in my area. It's on our lake and it's big enough so that my special needs brother-in-law can stay with us on the weekends.

[00:50:20] My in-laws can visit. My kids can have people come over. And my husband's business is thriving. He gets to play golf three days a week. . And we're traveling, we're skiing twice a year. We're going to the beach once a year and we're able to pay for our family and friends to come with us. And all of this abundance is coming to, to us is flowing to us effort effortlessly, easily, and I'm just living in the present moment.

[00:50:47] I'm able to be with my kids on their school events and yeah, it's been an awesome five 

[00:50:52] James Rippeon: years. Wow. That's awesome. You nailed it. I think I think that's been one of the best way someone's described the next five years. Cuz everyone normally [00:51:00] talks about yeah, in the future, I'm doing this, but you're owning it.

[00:51:03] You're taking that abundance right now and putting it into the present. So I think that's super powerful. 

[00:51:09] Patrick McGrath: I loved it. The final question is how can people get in touch with you? If they want to tell you they love the podcast, they hated it. They thought your advice was garbage. They thought it was the best they want to partner on a deal.

[00:51:27] How does everybody get in touch with 

[00:51:29] Jessica Geisler: Jessica? Yeah. So first of all, we have buyers all over the country. If you are one of those people that you're excited to find a deal. You're just worried about selling the deal to a cash buyer. We partner with people all the time. So just reach out to me on Instagram, it's at invest.like a girl TikTok.

[00:51:50] It's the same one. Those are the best places to reach me. Yeah, start there. And yeah, so we partner with people and yeah, that's. [00:52:00] Everybody 

[00:52:01] Patrick McGrath: go give her a follow, be the person that gets her to 23,000 and we had a fantastic time get too out. And guys, we'll see you when the next one, please make sure to follow, subscribe, apple, Google, Spotify, all that stuff.

[00:52:20] And YouTube. We'll see you next. 

[00:52:22] James Rippeon: See you guys. 

[00:52:24] Outro: Thank you for listening to the real fi podcast where you learn from the investors that have lived, the hard lessons for you to connect with us during your pursuit of financial independence. Be sure to join our community by following us on Instagram or emailing us at info@therealfi.com.

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