How Felipe Mejia is Helping 100 People Become Millionaires w/ Felipe Mejia

Felipe Meija: 0:03

what's going on? My brother, Ryan. What's up, dude. It's so nice to be on here. Finally. I hate that Diego went first, but it's all right. I'll take it. Yeah, it's

Brian: 0:11

okay. We did a buy one, get one free rat race special. That's what we did. Diego said, I'll come on, you get Philippe. First before we begin, then before we get into you, we were just having a conversation off camera and I know As a podcast, or now I know that whenever we start having these juicy talks, we just need to go ahead and throw it onto the mic. So hit record. What was I just complaining and whining about? I was just complaining and whining about making the pivot to hiring my first full time virtual assistant for me and my company. You're like, oh, I've got like 120 that worked for me. So I think this is a great place to start, man. Let's walk this backwards, , because give you realize that you just gave to me, you and your listeners are going

Felipe Meija: 0:52

to be like, geez, like he's hitting the ground of hard.

Brian: 0:54

Yeah, let's go for it. I'm sorry. Let me, we can. Are you all here with this people listening? Are you fine with just diving into massive levels of value? You good? Okay, cool. Great Philippe.

Felipe Meija: 1:05

Yeah, dude. So when we jumped on pretty hit the record button that's where the juicy stuff is actually, you were talking about getting a VA and how like you're scared to get your first VA. And there's a couple of reasons. I believe that people are scared of getting their first VA and then I'll talk about why. I think people are chicken shit to get a VA because they don't want to look inside their business and where they have faults. That's the reality because it's not about keeping them busy. It's not about whether they're going to be good or not, because they may not. And we're all human and you might go through three or four before you find the right one. And whose fault is that? It's not the VA it's you? You are you're not training well enough, whatever. So you're sharpening a new sword for your. And that's scary. And as entrepreneurs, we tend to be doing new stuff all the time. So you kinda gotta get used to that uncomfortableness. But what happens with the VA is if you're like, okay, I get a lead that comes in and what's next. The VA puts that lead in a warm lead section and then tells me to follow up. And then it moves to this place in this. And then what happens is you have to take an internal look into your business and where are you succeeding and where you're not doing good. And people are scared to do that, right? It's like looking into your own finances, but now you're looking into your businesses and where you have weak links. So like people subconsciously are like afraid or maybe not so cautious, they are afraid to do that. So they never get a VA because someone's going to look into their business, the nuts and bolts of stuff. Yeah, I was telling you like, yeah, I have about a hundred. , I started a company called REI. Basically we help investors and real estate realtors, investors buy and hold investors, whatever, find off market opportunities that are very affordable rate. And we have about 120 virtual assistants that help with.

Brian: 2:38

Yeah. And the reason that it's such a hangup for me is for me personally, it's going from, and this is why I wanted to be able to say this and start with this with Lisa, because it's something that I am going through right now. So all of you can use me as your chopping block and ask, you're like, your person, that's going out into the wilderness to blaze the trail. And you can use me as your case study in your examples. So for me, I'm going from the corporate mindset, where I just left my job. Actually it was a month ago. So I'm going from being, having. My real estate and all this as a side hustle to now, this is a full time. So , I had a virtual assistant part-time for about 20 hours for the last month. And, sometimes you struggle to figure out okay, how do I keep them busy? What do I give them? But do I give them to keep them busy? And then, so I'm over here and this is my first remote podcast, ladies and gentlemen, I'm over here in San Francisco. Stand up my buddy's house Calvin shin first episode that was on this podcast and he was talking about, , dude, make her full time and figure it out. He's $7 an hour. That's 12, $1,200 a month for me and my scarcity mindset. I'm like, holy crap. That's a lot. But he's like, dude, that's 13 grand a year. He goes, do you think having someone work for you full time, 40 hours a week for an entire year will yield more than $13,000. That's a great way to look at it. Like 10 X on the BA, like 10 X. If she yields me $130,000, like I've, I failed. So that's where we're at right now. It's

Felipe Meija: 4:10

Cool. Because like he or she is going to fail to the level that you train them. And if I, if it was me like personally, I would rather fail on a $7 an hour employee. Than an employee that could have been a rockstar. And I missed out on because I'm not a good leader. So don't even look at it as oh, it's a $13,000 investment. Think about it as a $13,000 investment in your leadership skills. Are you a good leader? Let's find out right.

Brian: 4:36

Extreme ownership, a hundred percent always ask yourself, what can I do? If your employee fails, first person you should look at is. For sure. First person you should look at did I clearly set deadlines expectations how to attack this. Did I do that if nine times out of 10, it's a you problem. Yeah. So I'm excited to go through that, man. And. Yeah. So now it's going to be a change to say the least, and it's going to be huge cause I'm traveling around the world. But anyways, man, . Let's dive into freaking REI call center. . How the heck did you get that started? What was that trajectory and that journey?

Felipe Meija: 5:12

Yeah, so it all started like most of my businesses that have been successful I've started, it was like 11 1 11 or. I'm just winding down situation laying in bed getting ready to knock out. And I have this idea of we had just gotten a VA from one of my members at rat race defy in my mastermind. And he had gotten a virtual assistant to help him cold call for his real estate business. And he gave me one and it didn't work out. And then he gave me another one. It didn't work out and he gave me a third and it finally worked out with that person. And I was like, okay, this is awesome. And I was like, wait a minute. And his name is Anton. He's our CEO. I was like, Anton, are you doing this for other people too? He's yeah. Like people reach out to me all the time for VAs. And I don't mind handing them off. I'm like, awesome. That's great. And then we were running into the, and then he was selling, he was running into the issue of like, where people, I don't want to say the were complaining, but they were like, yo, can I get another one? And it's yeah, cause I don't even work. So Anton started because he's a really good guy. So he just started giving these things away and he would hire them, train them and then give them, and they would. And I was like, Anton, we need to make this into a business if we're going to be like more involved, if that makes sense. And that's what happened. Like I reached out to Anton, I was like, yo, can you find the VA's I'll put it, I'll put branding and the business behind it can we do this? And he goes, yeah. I was like, all so I reached out to Diego cores and my business partner. I don't do a lot of any, I don't do hardly any businesses without him. And I'm like, yo, what do you think about this? And he was like, great, let's do it. And I'll help you through it. I'll do all the logistics and all the behind the scenes stuff. I was like, great. Perfect. Yeah. I got us together on a zoom and I added one more business partner, Adam and I gave Anton 40% of the business. I gave myself 20 Diego, 20 and Adam 20. So at any point we could veto if we don't like something that he's doing, but he also does a lot more work than we do. So we gave him majority stake in the business, but all they would take is me and one other person that, and that's like checks and balances for myself that it's not just me. Wanting to do something different than my CEO. It's I would have to convince Adam or Diego who are also vested in the business to change something. If anti forever, for any reason to Anton didn't want to do something, but that's how it started. And now Anton runs the business. The day to day, we have about 75 closer to 85 clients. There were some. Almost at a hundred. And what we do, like I said, is we help real estate professionals find off market opportunities without having to spend thousands of dollars a month. That Ari I call center, I can basically guarantee that you'll get off market deals for less than $1,500 a month in any market

Brian: 7:20

I feel 99% of people would be jammed in that equity split because they couldn't get past giving up control and giving up an ownership position in there in the company that they're deciding to air, quote, start, talk a little bit about your strategy there and how you're so willing to give up equity to the right people to make this thing happen.

Felipe Meija: 7:40

Yeah. I'll start from the top and then I'll explain why. So I heard Jeff Bezos one day, one time, say there's two things in the interview. They asked him, dude, you're like a bajillion it, it's super billions of dollars. Don't you feel terrible about that? And he goes, no, that just means I've made more millionaires than any person in history. And that blew me away. And then the second thing that was asked was like, oh, how do you feel about owning a majority stake in Amazon? That's too much power. And he's I own 11. And like that also at 11 or 13%. Yes. I'm like super, super low someone should cross check me on that, but I'm almost a hundred percent sure that's exactly what it is. But I read that and I was like, that resonated with me. That means dude, he's got a lot of, have to have a lot of competence in the P other people that whatever. But what was interesting was like Anton. I was like, dude, you're going to do a lot of the work. You're going to be face first. You're gonna take a lot of the slack. So you know you gotta run the day to day and I wanted to check some balance myself. Cause I know how I am. I'm , very like loud or whatever. And I was like, okay, I don't want to make a decision out of an emotion. That's not best for REI call center without someone else. Cross-reference. That was me putting trust in Diego and Adam. So if Diego was like, no Felipe, I don't think that's a great idea. Then I would go to Adam and if he was like, yeah, I think that's a great idea then between us too, we have enough say with Anton to, to like where we can have a meeting. So I would have to convince another partner or whatever. Now, if both of them say no, then my decision is void, right? And we've had that. We've had a situation. I want you to go into specifics where I was like, I don't think we should do that. I don't agree. And Diego and Adam both agreed that we should. So I was like, okay, great. That's what we're going to do if that's what's best for the business. And like you said, that was just me like being across, making sure that I don't have too much power because I love our business. I know what we're doing. And I want to even protect it sometimes from myself.

Brian: 9:21

And what you're saying is so powerful because it's the conversation and going from playing a MI game to a week game, we talked about this all the time. And a lot of people don't realize this until further down the road and further down, maybe they're in their forties after a couple of failing businesses. And they're realizing that, while you have success on your own, go fast, go alone, go far, go together.

Felipe Meija: 9:42

Yeah. I'm sure it's something to say about that. You mind if I hit it jump in first off, I just checked. Jeff Bezos owns 10% of outstanding all shares of Amazon in 1% in a I can't, I don't even understand that big word, but 11%.

Brian: 9:55

So basis

Felipe Meija: 9:56

terminology. Yeah, some bayzos terminology. Second thing I don't always agree with that statement. What you just said go to go fast alone, go far together. I think if you get the right team together, you can go fast and far, if you have the right,

Brian: 10:10

I agree. A hundred percent. So we're seeing right now, we're seeing like a polished version of you that understands this at a high level. And then it's a no brainer for you to just be like, okay, cool. I know the people I have the relationships I'm going to give up these equity positions. Whenever we're creating a business, I'm going to make the assumption that it wasn't always like. yeah. So walk us backwards from that position and kind of what events material-wise maybe it was just , mentors and coaches that helped you make this realization because now that you have, you're going to tend to 100 X, what your net worth would be. If you just try to muscle this out by yourself. So what were some of the, the game-changing events that led you coming and realizing that this is the best way to operate this?

Felipe Meija: 10:56

Um, I think he comes from trial and error burned relationships or burned bridges that I might've messed up. I'll just, I'll also books. Like books are huge. There's one of my favorite books is called memoirs of an entrepreneur. But basically it's 10 stories of entrepreneurs and lessons that they learned in success and it was in one of those lessons. I think it's also a lesson in the richest man in Babel. And there was one more book, probably biblical as well. I'm sure it's somewhere in Proverbs where it talks about that situation like with many councils creates a great something. I'm not great at quoting scripture. And then in, in the movie 300, the dude said the same thing, right? It's it's about getting your best warriors together. Where he was being asked the guy was like, oh, we have 3000 men and he's okay, what do you do? And the dude was like, oh, I'm a gardener. I'm this. Spartans, what are you? And they go, oh, oh yeah. It's like thinking about that. When you said that it's the same concept, right? So I get the right people around you and you're gonna to. And honestly, if let's say the business fails because I gave up too much equity to this person or that person or whatever the thing is then back to extreme ownership. And it was my fault because I didn't put the right team together and I deserve not to be part of that business. Cool.

Brian: 11:58

Let's talk about some of the checks and balances here for someone that's beginning of their journey, because me and you can look at this and we have enough skin in the game to where we understand like our checks and balances in forming a team because of our networks and connections that we have, but that's not all. That case sometimes, when you're first starting out, maybe you don't have that network and community yet to be able to choose people to partner from. So my question to you is what do you look for in a partner and what do you, maybe on the flip side of that, what do you look to avoid in a partner? What are some red flags that you are like, whoa, this guy's not gonna.

Felipe Meija: 12:36

Yeah, that's a great question. I just think you're asking it wrong. And this is something that I learned. If you don't have any great partners in your immediate like ecosystem, then you don't need to focus on finding a good partner. You need to focus on becoming a good partner because you, you came

Brian: 12:51

right. Damn it. Philippe. Sorry. I was good. I

Felipe Meija: 12:56

was good. Yeah. If you don't have good partners in your area, you're like, oh, I want to find good partners that doesn't need to be your focus. Your focus needs to be on becoming a good partner. And that is what's going to attract the right partner. And I'll explain that this way, when you are looking for a Ford truck, like you, you go to the lot, you try to find it, or the truck's not available, or like it's not there tomorrow. What happens? The moment you buy one,

Brian: 13:21

you see them everywhere, reticular activating system, because you've

Felipe Meija: 13:24

become a Ford truck. So it's the same concept with being a business partner. When you become a good business partner, you're going to see good business partners.

Brian: 13:37

Yeah, we'll just drop the bomb right there. Yeah. This early, you're going to do this to the people without even getting them warmed up. We're just going to come out like this and just slap that, bro. That's it, man. Oh my God. All right, everyone. Five-star rating and review . Thank you. This has been the action academy podcast signing off. No, this is just

Felipe Meija: 13:52

the beginning. This is bro. Like this is just the beginning. That's just how we run it. And

Brian: 13:58

I love God. I love that. You said that. And that's why I love doing this show because I'll have a quote or something that I hear from someone and just like Gino, Barbaro, he Jake and Gino, he came on, he said he said, there's two ways to get coaches and mentors pay to play, seek to serve. And so quotable is like, yeah, right back at you buddy. Oh, but I wasn't going to bring heat back to. God, that was Gino Barbaro. Okay. Gino, Barbera. And I will give you do, and just credit whenever I referenced you as well, but X I'm going to reference you with that quote. Cause that was fantastic. Is that a bomb drop? Oh, the bomb drop. Absolutely. So let's walk. I guess let's introduce yourself, man. Yeah, that would be helpful. But no, from my experience and for people listening to this show, I know that this show is going to be an absolute smashing success because whenever we jump out the gate like that and just deliver as much value as possible now we've every single minute it's. Earned at this point because it's already there. So let's so flipping me here. Who are you

Felipe Meija: 15:01

brother? Yeah, that's a great question. Do you, I'm a father to Armando, my amazing son, a husband to Christina, my beautiful, amazing wife, a real estate entrepreneur. I love and have a passion for teaching real estate. I'm not in love with real estate. I'm in love with teaching it, but I'm not a good teacher if you don't do it. I'm like I said, father, husband. Entrepreneur. I'm a believer. I was saved when I back in back right after high school in between college never been able to clean up my mouth. I wish I could do. But lo love the Lord. Love everything that, that stands behind as a Christian, I always try to do the best I can give back where I can and lead my family in that direction. Like I said, definitely not perfect. Probably the back of the line. I'm sure when I get to heaven there'll be people saying, I can't believe he got in, so

Brian: 15:42

I

Felipe Meija: 15:42

let him in. He did. Okay. I love to work out. That's how I get like my stress, not stress. Cause I don't really have a lot of stuff. That's kinda like me time. I don't like to answer the phone. Like even my wife knows unless it's an emergency, don't text me while I'm at the gym. I try to other than that, man, I, like I said, I run rat race to fight. It's a mastermind where we teach other people how to do what we do, my big, what is it? Big, hairy, audacious goal or whatever it is to create a hundred millionaires in the next 10 years. On my way to do that through rat race, as well as helping others through REI call center and all that, I've always been, I've always set out to me. I call myself like the Robin hood of real estate education. Cause I go in and learn and then I'd come back and give it away at like half price or even less. So I'll give you an example. Wholesaling, everyone, and their mom is charging thousands of dollars a month to wholesale. I learn how to do it. Hire cold callers, do all this stuff. And we literally undercut the market by half. So you will not find a company. I don't think you will. I don't. I we looked, you won't find a company that's less than $3,000 a month. To wholesale. Some of the most expensive are like on the Snickers Schnuck gets podcasts. I want to say it that way that are like closer to 10 grand a month. Was that funny? I try, I gotta keep myself safe and we found the most expensive. We found that we found the cheapest and then we cut that in half because we learned the systems and processes and then created a business around it so that the average person can be successful. Cause dude, I got calluses on my hands and we're still asking about. Yeah I, and those will never go away. Like I used to be on the construction site, like six years ago, cleaning construction sites with the broom that wasn't even like smart enough to swing a hammer. Not that I wasn't smart enough. I just didn't have those talents. So yeah, I just, I, I. Go in, I learned people, systems and processes, reverse engineer them, and then make them affordable for the regular person. That's 1500 bucks. You should be able to afford. I think if you don't, you probably shouldn't be investing in real estate to be honest, but asking someone to sign up for a course or something to learn how to wholesale for five grand. Does it work? Yes. The answer is yes those things work, but you shouldn't pay five grand to learn like 1500 bucks is affordable for a family or like a dude that's just like broad, just had a kid. Like I was trying to make some more. Like I can't afford five grand. Like I know you can't so are they call centers 1500 bucks? And that includes everything. Let's a to Z everything. You're not going to spend more than that. So that's why we created that. And that's who I am, dude. That's why I said didn't say this earlier. People either love me or hate me. There's nothing in between, because you're either the guy that I took the idea from, and I gave it to like the poor, not the poor, but you know how Robin hood works. You're either that guy and you're totally hating on me or you're like, dude, you. I love

Brian: 18:08

it, man. I love it. I got another phrase for you. Yeah, but I wouldn't get one free, special, but yeah. So here's another one that I, that DJs avoid told me and GoBundance guy and he, PJ was on the show too. So DJ says, you've got your cup. So it was like your cup of you talk about having your cup full and like filling up your cups so that you can pour into others. So instead, that's what I thought it always was because my girlfriend is so giving, she just pours into other people and then she doesn't have anything left in our cup. And I'm like, yo, you need to be honest. Yo girl, you got to give yourself some self love before you give everything away with other people. My friend DJ changed my perspective on this, and now he has changed my life with this one quote and the quote is instead of focusing on filling up your cup and pouring into others, cut the bottom off the cup.

Felipe Meija: 19:02

Bro. That's huge. I'm totally still in that tomorrow on Instagram and not giving you credit.

Brian: 19:07

I love it. That you should. You should absolutely still not give me any credit whatsoever, but the bottom off the cup. So now abundance.

Felipe Meija: 19:16

That's going viral, dude. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm going to red solo cup that I'm going to give it as an illustration, dude. I'm going, I just got a Robin

Brian: 19:23

hood, bro.

Felipe Meija: 19:24

Just got rock. I'm telling you Robin

Brian: 19:26

hood, bro. I got Robin hood bro. Nah, man. It's abundance flows through, through you, not to you. So now, if you're talking about it from a chills, right? If you're talking about it from an analytical perspective you're talking about. Obviously you're helping people like and like you said, you want to create a hundred millionaires in 10 years. So it's like, how do you get what you want this executor, how to get anything that you want, help enough other people get what they want. So with you having that goal, you'll go 10 times further. And so you're already operating like this, but now it's just it's just flowing through you. I love that.

Felipe Meija: 20:02

Man it's interesting because when you said that about the cup, it's absolutely true. Learning to give through, you never hurts you because like, when you're trying to fill up a cup, even though there's a hole at the bottom, it's still gonna, it's still gonna fill up. But if you create systems and processes around you to never stop giving you water, then you're able to continuously give. And here's the other thing that I realized is you shouldn't stop helping somebody because you're. Is running low and you have a fear that says silly, in my opinion, is that you don't have the system set up yet. And if anything, that should open up your eyes to okay, what do I need to do in our business to continue that waterfall? And I learned that lesson from who moved my cheese, that little bitty book. Have you read that book? Who moved my cheese? It's such a good book.

Brian: 20:42

And it's like in general. Yeah, it's great. But yeah, now you're operating from a place to where you have. Now the universe, God is what we believe in. But if you don't, if you're not a believer that we call it the universe, but for us, God is going to pour abundance into somebody. He's it's common if you're not getting it, somebody else's getting it. And abundance just flows always. So it's almost like being like that lightning rod right in the sky to where you're just going to attract all of it, because he's Hey, if I give it to this guy, I'm really giving it to a hundred other people. And then it just flows in there. This podcast is a perfect example, as soon as I started doing this. And because before I held on to all of this stuff, I held onto it. And I was like, all this advice from coaches and mentors. I'm like, oh, this is going to give me the edge over others. And now that I just, every single thing I learned, I'll learn something and I'll literally go record a podcast episode on it and teach it to others for free. And that's awesome. It's night and day, man. So I want to talk about identity changes and identity shift, because you were working on the construction site. There's the leap. From construction to where you're at today. Yup. Let's talk about that transition.

Felipe Meija: 21:56

Yeah. So first I got to give all the credit to my wife for that one. I've never like I'm this really alpha open guy and all that, but obviously I have my insecurities and like one of the things that I always tell people

Brian: 22:07

to have insecurities, oh man,

Felipe Meija: 22:08

look at that. I've always, and it's funny. Cause like I always feel weird about when people are like, oh, I'm so awful. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Like that guy is definitely so now I'm going to stop saying that. Thanks, Brian. See, I have insecurities. No, that's okay. I was talking to my, so my wife is a huge believer in me. Like she believes in me more than I believe in myself. And she sent a DM to David GRA or to Brandon Turner and was like, yo, it's my husband's birthday. He's got this many rentals, yada yada, he'd love to be on your podcast. And that's what got me onto the podcast on BiggerPockets episodes. Yeah. My wife's like straight out, just slid in Brandon's DMZ. And the only reason it resonated with Brandon is cause I don't know if he cares, I won't say the dates or anything. So his wife is on the same birthday as mine. So we connected the day after. Anyway, so I got an interview with him and it was great. And then I got on the podcast. It was awesome. And then from there it gave me like more confidence to believe in myself and I just went all in. So I was still working on the construction site and I was able to hear the conversations that contractors. And like how stupid of me when I first started, like being on that or wanting to invest in real estate, this is, this was literally my mindset and your face will change. As I say this out loud, like I was literally on the construction site thinking to myself, man, this, I don't have any money or any knowledge in real estate. There is no way that I'm going to be successful in. I say, all I know is plumbers, framers, drywall flooring installed. That's all I know. And I was what an idiot. I'm like, dude, that's the team you want. That's when people can't find. Yeah, exactly. So once I started leveraging that like once I started in Kuda or, a huge shout out to Diego, he always says, it's you gotta use your unfair advantage. And that was mine. That was my unfair advantage. It was like the people that I knew and who I Surenos, I didn't know. Rich bankers. I didn't have a rich parent. I didn't know, hard money loan money, five foot eight Hispanic dude in the south. I don't have a lot of connections, but I knew a bubble. Like I used my unfair advantage was like the people that were around me at the moment. And that really helped me out a lot. So like I could flip a home for a third of the price that other people could, if that makes sense.

Brian: 24:02

Yeah. Because you a part of their tribe and their community, and they already knew you and you had your guys. Oh, man. I love it. Let's talk about, so that's so huge. And then you get into this world and then that's so cool about here life. That's going to be the only, okay. I will, we will go down in history as the only instance in a wife sliding in another guy's DM speed. It was okay. I know. That's so funny. This is it

Felipe Meija: 24:28

right here, doctor. That's the only time where it's okay

Brian: 24:30

to slide in another, my life changed because my wife's lit another guy's DMS. Oh, divorce. No life changed. No, it was Brandon Turner. Yeah, he's a, he's an okay guy. But man, let's talk about race. Let's talk about race, the five because Diego was on him, man. I know it's something that you are so passionate about and fired up about. And if you're listening to this, I know we have a lot of new listeners. If you go back Diego chorizo, he's got an episode with this show and it's phenomenal. He has an incredible story and he's fully based partner here. And this is how we got connected. Yeah. Talk about the origination of rat race, defy, and then the birth of it and the way you see it going in the future.

Felipe Meija: 25:10

Yeah. So rat race, if I started because are you sure you want to ask this question? I don't know.

Brian: 25:16

This is good. What are you going to hit me? Yeah. It's did y'all start as a drug cartel and then decide no

Felipe Meija: 25:23

legit dude, your listeners. Are you going to stop listening right now or be like, oh, this is. We saw an issue in the educational space in regards to real estate investing. So for example, the biggest real estate podcast in the world episode one to like episode, basically me episode 3 29, which that might be a lie. There might be somebody else, but it's basically like the history of our presidents white, old, white, rich man, old white, rich guy old. Which, and I was like, dude, that is not an accurate representation of real estate. Like investors. Like there is a lot of black, white, Hispanic, white there is a lot of real estate investors out there for it to just be focused. And what do you tell the 16 year old kid that wants to get in real estate? And all he hears is like rich, old white men that are getting rich off real estate. Like he's like this, I'm not part of that. So we actually started rat race, defy to have a community where everyone in anyone could have a platform and it would be represented. And. Diego. And I were like, dude, we're probably the best picture for that. He's a DACA recipient, right? He still struggles daily. He pay six figures in taxes cause he can't get some of the tax breaks. He's a great guy, he's DACA. I was born here. My parents came over, they immigrated here in 1988 or something or 19, oh gosh, I don't remember anymore in 1990 or a year before that

Brian: 26:32

parents, you heard it here first.

Felipe Meija: 26:33

Oh my God. Shut up, Brian. Yeah, so we were like, all right let's see what we can do. And it's not like we're like starting a company to like, for diversity. Like we just wanted everyone to be represented. That's to give those people platforms still or hear from other people of color to look we're real estate. And we have everyone in our, in rat race to fight. So that's why we started at plus making it a, an educational space that was affordable. It's like rat race. Defy is I think less than $4,000 for a year. To be in our mentorship and you get, this is crazy. You get two live zoom calls with Diego and myself every week, Monday and Wednesday, all year. That's more than a hundred like calls with us every single year. That's a lot. And so that's what rat race is, man. And we have a really large company. We're not numbers based. So we cap our mastermind at 75. So it's not Hey, anyone and everyone can come in. It's like you come you're interested. We'll talk to you. We have micro tribes also. So if let's say you're like, yeah, I want it on the real estate, but I really want to focus on Airbnb. Then we have an Airbnb micro tribe called the rat race to find micro tribes. And you can surround yourself with just people that are doing just Airbnb. So like super locked down your niche. And that's, that's the other thing we have and that's rat race in a nutshell.

Brian: 27:41

Yeah, I love what you said there, because I feel like this is something that I'm trying to do with this show is come out the gate, man. And it just have like different people with different, backgrounds different races yeah. Every single person can do this. It's accessible for everyone and it's possible for everyone. Is it harder for some than others? Yes, but it's worth it a hundred percent. We have to just give them the hope that they can do it too.

Felipe Meija: 28:07

That's it? Yeah. Just give us someone to look up to and say oh yeah, leave a Hispanic guy, his financial independent through real estate.

Brian: 28:15

Yeah. And it all comes back to the power of America too, man, because my girlfriend is Brazilian and she was born and raised in Bella and in Brazil, there is no middle class. You're either rich or you're either rich or you're in the favelas, that's it? Oh shit. That's crazy. No middle class. And when people graduate, they go in, they have to live with their parents. Because even if you do go to school, your elite there, if you have a secondary education and they can't afford to buy real estate down there, so you have to live with family for a long time because you just can't afford it. So come to America. So many programs and so many different levels of opportunity, man.

Felipe Meija: 28:54

I love it. The happiness, and the keyword there is the pursuit. So I, and that's what I love about.

Brian: 29:00

Yep. So on that note what is your cause I know that you're actively investing in real estate throughout all of this. What's your portfolio look at my current now.

Felipe Meija: 29:07

Yeah. That's a great question. So let's look that up live. Share my screen. Maybe people can go over to YouTube and check it out. We have 33,000 square feet of real estate, 65 doors mix of cabins and all that stuff. And cashflow, net worth is all there too. And then while they're here, so yeah, 65 doors within apartment complexes houses and all that 33,000 square feet, almost 34,000 square feet of real estate. And this is what rat race. You see how we're just a bunch of different people. Yeah.

Brian: 29:35

It's a giant blend of people like this country. That what's the name again? Oh yeah. America just like a giant blend of different people. That's it? Yeah, man. No that's fantastic. So when you were doing that, and I know when we running short on time, , we won't go like deep and it w but you, you have a mixture of like short term multifamily and then just single family, right? Like those year, those are your.

Felipe Meija: 29:57

Yeah. Yep. That's exactly

Brian: 29:58

right. Okay. Out of those, which one do you, if you were to look back and be like, man, if I would've just done this and just gone all in on this one, which one? Which one would you say?

Felipe Meija: 30:09

I guess probably the best ROI would have been like Gatlinburg high-risk high-reward cabins, but honestly I chase cashflow. I don't chase the asset, if that makes sense. It's not like a certain asset that I like more that I've mastered. I really just one the thrill, the hunt and the kill, but just huge advocate of cash flow. And with that using the line of credit strategy over the burst

Brian: 30:32

strategy. There we go. Let's sit on this line of credit. So we were speaking about this before the show as well. Talk about how you utilize that method as opposed to refinancing out, because now we're in a situation, this is recorded in 2022, where the rates are doing up to the roof. And a lot of people are caught with their pants down. Like even for me, I'm not going to be able to. I'm not going to, not that I'm not going to be able to revive, but I've got like a 2.5% rate on my primary right now. I'm just like, there's no point in refund out of that. The test six. No. So talk about your healing strategy.

Felipe Meija: 31:07

Sure. So I'm going to do a little picture here for your people so that, oh, I'm going to have to take off my screen. So let's say that you refinance let me take off my background here,

Brian: 31:18

Take it off.

Felipe Meija: 31:20

This is not the only fans. Alright, so you have a hundred thousand dollars in equity, right? Okay. And you can correct me if I'm wrong. Cause I'm not the smartest dude at the table. So please, if I'm wrong, I beg you, Brian, tell me, is that fair? Yeah. Trust me. Listeners will be like Brian. You should have said something if it okay. Is that fair? Yeah, that's

Brian: 31:36

okay. You've got to paint.

Felipe Meija: 31:38

All right. Cool. Yeah, this is exactly how I run my deals too. I'm not even kidding. Running.

Brian: 31:41

Okay. So for people listening, we got a pink note card out. Okay. We got a hundred thousand dollars equity. Okay. A hundred

Felipe Meija: 31:46

thousand dollars in equity. You walk into the bank, they're going to give you at best 30% of refi of that at best. Am I right or wrong? Like 70%. Yeah. Okay. So 70% of a hundred grand is $70,000, right? Yeah. So you're going to walk out of the bank with $70,000. I don't care. What if you bought it cheap, if you did this, I don't care what you do. If you have a hundred thousand in equity, they're going to give you 30%. You're gonna walk out with a $70,000 check right or wrong. Yep. Okay. So you can walk out with a $70,000 check. You're going to take a cute picture for Instagram, and then you're going to walk right back into the bank. And you're going to deposit that $70,000 check right or wrong. Correct. Okay. So you're gonna walk right back into the bank. You're going to deposit $70,000 and the moment the next month hits, you're going to get a bill for.

Brian: 32:35

I don't know the people want to know

Felipe Meija: 32:36

you're going to get a bill for your interest. Plus, you're going to get for interest in principle for the refinance right or wrong. Correct. So when I heard that, I was like, okay, wait a minute. I'm not the smartest guy in the tool shed, but you're telling me that I come into the bank and hand you my a hundred thousand dollars equity. You hand me back 70,000. I walk right back in and put it in your bank account. And then I got to pay you back for my own. And I lost 30% now. I'm not the smartest kid. And I made CS and DS in high school. And that college degree should have two people's names on it, but that shit don't add up.

Brian: 33:17

What's the alternative Philippe, let them know,

Felipe Meija: 33:20

boom, drop the mic line of credit. So then I asked my bank, I said, man, I love you buddy. And I've been with you since I'm 16, but I'm not doing that. My banker's awesome. Mr. Kang, huge. He said there is another option. I said, all right, what do you got? And he's I can give you a line of credit on 70,000. I said, okay. I said how much do I owe you? And he's nothing until you use it. And then I was like, okay. So it's my line of credit. He goes, yes. Leverage against what? The rental. Okay. And your second lien? Yes. Second lien. Great. What if I don't want to use it until three weeks from now or three months from now or six months? He goes, I'll put it on a 10 years. When do I got to pay? He's like only when you use it and with a refi, you pay in the next 30 days. What if I don't use it? You still gotta pay me. Okay. So a line of credit, I get the same access to the same money. The only step we're missing is you don't give me a check and I don't get a fancy picture for Instagram. And he goes, yes. I said, all so what if I want to draw $10,000? And he goes, draw $10,000. And you're only going to pay interest on $10,000, not the whole thing. So not the whole thing. So I did it. And then I took out 10 grand and I looked at him, right? You want me interest on 10 grand next month to got another 10 right now? You want me interest on 20,000? I put it back. Is that okay? You just want me to interest now? I think so. I can come in and take $30,000 as a down payment. If I find a deal when, and if I find a deal and I can fund that down, payment myself with that without money. And I'm not paying you interest on 70 grand, just the interest on the, what I pull out. And he goes, yes. So I did, and I've built my whole portfolio on $150,000 line of credit. I've built about $5 million on the same line. Now here's the last question that I'll have a little bit buyers will ask you. They ask themselves and I'll let you answer first. When you refinance a property, who do you pay it back to every single month?

Brian: 35:11

What do you refinance the property? The bank,

Felipe Meija: 35:14

right? When you have a line of credit and you're paying back the, when you're paying back, what you owe, who are you paying?

Brian: 35:20

You,

Felipe Meija: 35:21

that's your line of credit that doesn't like tickle your fancy. I don't know what will in real estate,

Brian: 35:29

Man, the fancies are being tickled right now. Everyone's there.

Felipe Meija: 35:34

The biggest question to that you haven't asked me is how do you pay it back? So let's say you take out 20 grand, you buy a property, great. It's cash flowing five, six, $700. But how do you pay back the line of. So in my opinion, the line of credit is it allows you to become successful really quick because you still have to hustle. You still have to work to pay off the line of credit. So you use the cashflow from the property and your W2 job, or your side hustle or whatever you're doing, and you attack the line of credit as quick as possible. And what's cool is let's say I take out 20 grand. I pay off 10 grand, but I want to use another 30. You can do. So I found another deal and now I have two properties giving me I don't know, $700 each that's 1400 bucks. Plus I add another thousand dollars for my W2. That's $2,400. We pay off line of credit in a year. Next year I can buy two rentals the year after that three rentals, because the cashflow continues to add up. You're not going to buy assets that don't give you money. You use those. That's the strategic you pay off the line of credit. It took me five years to become financial independent. The year after that, I became the. And now we're in year seven and I've hit 5 million. So it literally went from five years to five one-year to a millionaire. Then the next year 5 million. And I'm assuming I'm just going to keep doubling.

Brian: 36:38

So you don't really know what you're

Felipe Meija: 36:39

talking about. Not at all. I have no idea what I'm talking about. I do it on the back of sticky notes.

Brian: 36:43

We do it on the back of the stickiness people. That's the pink sticky note strategy fully payment here.

Felipe Meija: 36:47

I don't understand the refund now. Here's the now let me say this before everyone jumps on my throat jumps down my throat. What do I do? Like people say a lot. What is it? Two in the two in the Bush, one in the hand. What is it? I love that one, but I never know how to

Brian: 37:01

That's not how it is. Isn't it?

Felipe Meija: 37:01

I promise you. It is now two in the Bush. Yeah. I don't even know what that means. Like if If you're on a roll. So there is a place for refinancing. People have just misused it, you refinance assets that are five units or more or so forth, because those are judged on the rental income. Not based on the value of the. Okay. Okay. That is when the refinance happens. It's just that people are greedy and they want their money back. And then they refinance like single family homes. Now you would only refinancing if I'm hoping to get a better interest because you can up your cash flow. So for example, remember I told you that I buy for cashflow. So why in the hell would it make sense to refi a 2.5 to a six to get some money back, but I'm not going to cash flow. That makes sense.

Brian: 37:45

Yeah, that makes sense. So what do you do? So here's something that I've run into. It's a little bit more difficult to get lines of credit from my experience, at least on rental properties, as opposed to a

Felipe Meija: 37:54

primary resident asking for a case of Deanna burger joint. Okay. Keep going. Okay. So you don't go to a Mexican restaurant and order a burger. Do you know? That would be weird unless you're very white, unless you're very white. Yes. You're so dumb. You go to a Mexican restaurant, you ordered a case today. Yeah. Okay. So banks are the same way. Banks either make their money on credit cards or loans or home loans or lines of credits or revise. They're just not going to plaster it on their wall because unless you wanted it refi, you're not gonna go to that bank. So they want, they, they want everyone to come in, right? So you it's up to you to find the right bank. That's going to do it. And part of that is knowing what to ask a he lock is on your home, where you sleep a line of credit leveraged against an asset is going to be called a line of credit. And those two letters make a big deal.

Brian: 38:42

So what lenders would you say might be the best

Felipe Meija: 38:45

case and the asset is located? So in Nashville, Tennessee is where my rentals are. I go to banks that are local to Nashville, like for city, for state, the third pinnacle, whatever. And then you just

Brian: 38:57

ask him for a line of credit against your

Felipe Meija: 38:59

asset. Correct. And they'll do it against the equity. Yeah. That's the time you're not going to call one, you'll call five or six to find the right one. Okay,

Brian: 39:07

cool. So walk someone through that is listening to this right now. Maybe they have primary. Maybe they have a rental and they've got some equity in it. They know that's there and they've been racking their brain on how to compete in today's housing market. And now they hear this and they're removing the first two letters from the line of credit. They're taking the heat out, the heat loss. What does that conversation look like when they're calling the bank?

Felipe Meija: 39:30

Yeah. So if it's an asset, like not your house, if it's rental property, 1, 2, 3 main street, you're gonna call the bank and you're going to say, Hey, Brian, it's this Philippe I'm I own 1, 2, 3 main street. And my properties, it's appreciated, it's worth 400,000. I have a $180,000 mortgage. Would you be interested in doing a line of credit on my on the equity of my home at 70%? And then they'll say yeah, or no. And typically you're going to rule of thumb if they're like, yeah, let's talk about it. Or I have someone in the office. That's a good sign. A bad sign is when oh, okay. Yeah, let me get my manager to call you back. Which means I need to figure it out or I've never heard of it, or we don't have that person in this office, but let me forward you to somebody that does, they don't have a person in the office. They don't know what the hell are you talking about? So those are some of the things that I listen to when I'm talking, when I'm calling it conversation, just so I don't waste my time on. If they don't have someone basically in house that can handle it, then just move on to the next bank. Yeah,

Brian: 40:26

that's fair because diamond doesn't, we're just going to have to find them the best bank for us.

Felipe Meija: 40:31

Okay. Like I literally went to the bank before this call, actually. It's pretty funny that we're talking about this. Went to the bank and I paid off my $30,000 line of credit that I had. I have 150,000. The house is now worth like. Or maybe three 50. I haven't run the comps on it in a while. But I asked her friend for a, like a higher line of credit and she'll literally bump it up to like maybe two 20 to 25.

Brian: 40:50

And then you can just use that to take down bigger deals.

Felipe Meija: 40:52

I'm man. That's why I say line of credit is super safe because it doesn't let you out do yourself.

Brian: 40:59

Yeah. Because you're not leveraging your down payment. You're letting you're using your down payment to leverage. Love it. All right. Hell yeah, brother. That would go for cooking or cooking. Now, man, this has been, it's been fantastic. So two, two questions to finish out Eddie. The first question is so what's the next, what's the next mountain top for you? What if you fast forward three, three years, five years vivid vision. What's going to be your next Mount Everest.

Felipe Meija: 41:25

Dude, like I said, my goal is a hundred millionaires in the next 10 years. So that's, I'm focused. I don't really have anything else. I focus on my family and my wife and my kid. Those are just non-negotiables. But my biggest mountain is I want to make a hundred millionaires in the next 10 years and that's I can't do that one at a time typically. So I have to create systems and businesses around helping people to do that.

Brian: 41:43

Okay. Awesome. So if somebody's listening to this and they want to be one of those hundred millionaires, what do they reach out to?

Felipe Meija: 41:49

There's only three places. So either rat race, REI call center, or become a one-on-one client, the one-on-one clients, I'm super, super selective. It's not about the money. It's about do I like you? If I'm just being a hundred percent honest, I got to be with you for a year. And most of my one-on-one clients didn't become millionaires in the first year that we work together. Probably all of them. I think I have a perfect track record.

Brian: 42:08

Yeah. Okay. And there are they, but where are they starting from? They start from square.

Felipe Meija: 42:12

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like I have debt type of square one.

Brian: 42:16

This man swinging for the fences. I love it. I love it. And then if people are looking to connect with you on social media, where do they go? Oh dude

Felipe Meija: 42:22

R E I dot or that's it just fleet at fleet by Mihir REI.

Brian: 42:27

Got it. Last question. What is one thing about you that you or your business that you're most proud of? That most people don't know

Felipe Meija: 42:38

what is something in my business that I'm

Brian: 42:40

most. Yeah. What is something about yourself you purchase like just yourself or your business? That's, you're most proud about that? Most people don't know about you.

Felipe Meija: 42:53

I have mentored four people into millionaire status in six months and didn't charge them a dime and no one knows who they are.

Brian: 43:03

I

Felipe Meija: 43:03

love that, man. No one knows

Brian: 43:05

who they are. We'll end up. We'll end up. They can't, you can't outpower that statement. We will leave it with that. And with that is for lipedema here and the host of the action academy podcast. Your man, Brian Lubin signing off.