Entrepreneurial Appetite

From Air Force Veteran to Real Estate Entrepreneur: Bill Huff's Journey of Resilience, Mentorship, and Financial Growth

• Bill Huff • Season 5 • Episode 49

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Bill Huff, a United States Air Force veteran turned real estate entrepreneur, joins us to share his compelling story of resilience and reinvention. From choosing the Air Force over the Marines to navigating life overseas, Bill's experiences laid a strong foundation for his ventures in real estate and authorship. His military discipline and adaptability have been pivotal in his successful transition, offering valuable insights for veterans and aspiring entrepreneurs alike. Bill's story is a testament to the power of persistence and the importance of embracing change.

Our conversation highlights the crucial role of mentorship in entrepreneurship, especially for those shifting from military to civilian life. Bill opens up about the impact of a mentor who served as a father figure, guiding him through early setbacks in real estate and instilling a mindset of growth and adaptability. We share personal stories that underscore how mentorship bridges knowledge gaps and inspires continuous development. The discussion also touches on the challenges and triumphs in the world of real estate investment, illuminating the strategic advantages of focusing on multifamily properties and the enduring lessons from past economic downturns.

In a thoughtful analysis, we explore the evolution of financial mindsets and the significance of aligning one's financial strategies with life goals. Bill challenges conventional views on wealth, advocating for a nuanced understanding of financial wellness stages. The conversation also shifts to the untapped potential of individuals in their peak earning years and the opportunities that exist for them in real estate investment. Rich with educational resources and insights, this episode offers a blueprint for those looking to embark on a path of financial freedom and personal growth through real estate and entrepreneurship.

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Langston Clark :

Hey everyone, thank you again for your support of Entrepreneurial Appetite. Beginning this season, we are inviting our listeners to support the show through our Patreon website. The founding 55 patrons will get live access to our monthly discussions for only $5 a month. Your support will help us hire an intern or freelancer to help with the production of the show. Of course, you can also support us by giving us five stars, leaving a positive comment or sharing the show with a few friends. Thank you for your continued support. What's up everybody?

Langston Clark :

Once again, this is Langston Clark, the founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting Black businesses. And today it's my honor to have a conversation with Mr Bill Huff, who is a United States Air Force veteran, a real estate entrepreneur and the author of Five Stages of Financial Mindset. And I know Bill from just being here in San Antonio. I can't even remember initially how we connected somehow some way. Maybe it was on LinkedIn or something like that years ago, but even before COVID we had been connecting online and Bill has made several posts on social media and even I think I'm on his listserv talking about real estate and things like that. Actually, I think I remember, because at the time me and my wife were really really close to thinking about actually I think this was before I got married.

Langston Clark :

It is, it is yes. I remember that, yes, as before I got married and I was thinking about getting into a multifamily unit before getting into my single family unit, and then I got married and life changed and all of that stuff. So I have not gotten my duplex yet, but I do intend to get one one day, and so Bill and I have interacted a few times and he's a really good dude, always gracious with his time, and one example I'll share is that where I work my main job as a university professor I was advisor to this group of young men called Men of Honor and during COVID-19, I had a session where we had some older brothers come talk to these younger brothers about being successful and all of that stuff, and so it's just an honor to have you here talking about you know where you are in life right now and the transition from being someone who's in the military to being an entrepreneur and all of those things. So thank you for being here.

Bill Huff:

I appreciate it. It's an honor to be with you, man, and I, like I said, I love all the work you're doing and want to participate more actually, and so, yeah, no thanks for inviting me.

Langston Clark :

So, Bill, let's start off, because we're couching this conversation in a series of conversations related to men and women in our community who have made the transition from their military careers into entrepreneurship. So why don't you just start off by telling us what's your journey into the military and then what was your journey out of the military? Did you start your journey as an entrepreneur while you were in the military, like, how did that, how did that evolve? But just give, give us your history of of service in the armed services and then into to entrepreneurship.

Bill Huff:

Both my wife and I served. She did 20, retired, I did seven and separated out of high school like thousands of kids, you know, I was like, well, I can't afford to go to a four-year institution. So the only way out was military. So I enlisted in the Air Force, actually at 17, went in at 18, went kicking and screaming overseas. But that was a blessing in disguise because it, I tell you, it exposed you to, you know, the world. And I started school pretty much right when I got in. So I finished a four-year degree in five and a half years. That's including multiple duty stations, work shifts and everything. I was focused and I was locked in and I'm thankful that. You know, at the time I didn't have family, it was just me. So I had no excuses.

Bill Huff:

But the journey to, to entrepreneurship it wasn't when the military ended and entrepreneurship began, it was overlap. So as early as you know, maybe a few years into my career, I was, I was dabbling and I always had that that kind of business mindset to begin with. You know, for example, I know I'm a little bit bit older, but I've probably heard of amway, right, oh yeah, so that was me trying to do amway and host meetings out of my uh, my uh, my uh dorm room, from that to the start of the internet trying to get websites. And you know this is this is 93 94 time frame, so way back, so it was overlapping. But all that was going on while I was serving, going to school finally finished school. I'm a software engineer by degree and by career. I separated at that time and then went full-time as a software engineer, but still dabbling in entrepreneurship. I had not found real estate by then. I was still dabbling, trying different things, and it wasn't until 2006, 2007, when I started to get into real estate.

Langston Clark :

So I think a lot of people here you started a four-year degree is what you said, but it took five and a half years and I actually think that's pretty good given the circumstances. You were in, right, All the travel and things like that, and most people don't finish in four years anyway. Most people would take six years, and so I also want to hear a little bit about why you chose to do the Air Force as opposed to maybe one of the other armed services. How were you recruited into the Air Force and in what ways did your service prepare you for entrepreneurship?

Bill Huff:

I actually started off trying to go into the Marines believe it or not. Again, this is back in the late 80s. The Marines had a program called the Buddy System, you know, to make it sound good hey, you can go in with your friend, you know. So I was going to do that. The recruiter came and sat down with my mom, raised by my mom. It was just actually just the three of us, my brother and I, and I, raised by my mom, is just actually just the three of us, my brother and I and I didn't like the way he talked to my mom, so that was the end of the my, my, my marine's dream. I chose the air force primarily because I heard that I can go to school and work and have a somewhat of a normal work schedule to allow me to focus on school and and that was the reason I chose the Air Force and it actually turned out exactly like that to some degree. So getting into the Air Force was wasn't as smooth as I, as it should have been. Actually, quick story I actually got.

Bill Huff:

I signed up at the start of my senior year, believe it or not, in high school, the delayed enlistment program. I ended up getting discharged from the delayed enlistment program because, long story short, I had an infection right here and the day I went down to ship out. This was really agitated and the medical professional said, no, you can't go. So I was discharged before I even one day one in the military and that was actually very devastating. You know, I just had graduated high school. All your friends, everyone's, you know, hey, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, and I had for a whole year. And when I signed up, you know, right after my junior year, for a whole year, oh, I'm going into the Air Force and there I was discharged, basically right after I had graduated high school, and that was devastating. I mean, you talk about you're 18 years old and your character I was. That was embarrassing actually, and this is how bad it was. This is the mindset of where I was at that time.

Bill Huff:

For six months I redid all the paperwork, started over. For six months I basically and this is obviously before the internet, before social media, so people can't find you you know that quickly I sat in my home and just was devastated. I was embarrassed. I couldn't even get into the military. Think about that. You know what that does to an 18-year-old. So I started the whole paperwork over, waited to find a slot. It was, you know, like I mentioned, it wasn't for another six months. So I just I hung out and it was embarrassing that actually, you know, believe it or not, you know, looking back, that was that was just fuel to the fire and so that was that fit into my focus for schooling. So when I got in I was, like you know, on a rampage to focus on school because I had to get this degree, yeah, primarily for my mom but not really for me. That was the goal. So it was a painful start but a happy ending.

Langston Clark :

You talked about how you went abroad, kicking and screaming. Talk a little bit about the opportunity that the military provided you to see the world and how that shaped you and influences who you are today.

Bill Huff:

Again, 18 year old mindset. The goal was to go in, go to school and then get stationed at a base close to my home in California. You know the small, small thinking right, you know, stay within your area type mindset. So I graduate basic training, go to my tech school, graduate, and then I look at my orders, I'm going over to Europe, and so this is the mindset of an 18 year old. I was devastated. Yeah, that was not in the plan, and so, you know, I did essentially go over there kicking and screaming. You know, fast forward two years.

Bill Huff:

That was, that was a blessing because it exposed me to new people, new country, you know, new environments. That was a good thing. I was actually over in Italy, kind of Southern Italy, you know, on the Mediterranean, kind of on the Adriatic Sea, right there it's priceless. And so, yes, I'm a big supporter of the military, especially for, you know, young men and women, regardless if you have a focus or not, it just the exposure is what you can't get in formal education. Different languages, you know. Obviously I learned a little bit of Italian at that time. You know I got to travel, not as much as I probably shouldn't, but you know I got to go to Greece and a couple other countries, but that's, that's priceless. That's priceless. You come back and you, you see the world from a totally different perspective. You know, at a young age I came back, at 20 and I was, you know, my mind went from, you know, an 18 year old closed minded to more of an open growth minded. It was priceless.

Langston Clark :

So you went to Europe. You stayed in the military for seven years. You got your degrees as a software engineer. Your wife stayed. You said 20 years, and I'm assuming that because the military makes you move, I'm assuming that at some point you had to follow her, or did she? How did you all manage the balance between your work and what you wanted to do, and then the obligation she had, as you know, an airwoman.

Bill Huff:

Yeah, it was. So, basically, long story short, we it worked out to where and we had young kids by this point. When she had to, you know, she she deployed to to all the hotspots at that time Right, afghanistan, iraq. I stayed home with the, with our young boys. I had my career. It was a grind, it was absolute grind. Me dealing with all that by myself was a grind. But you know, more importantly, it was me worrying about her, which is probably the bigger worry, which wore me down. You know it's hard. It's hard for couples. People don't understand when you have military couples serving and they have young kids. It's a challenge. Yeah, that was.

Bill Huff:

Those were some, you know, defining moments. I always look for goodness in anything. The time just with me and the boys. I'll never forget that. That was. That in itself was it was a challenge but it was, I would say, a blessing. You know, fortunately, by that, where my wife was deploying, I had separated, so I was stable. We were here in San Antonio, so we were stable here. So at least we were stable while she had to deploy and do those things. So at least one side of us wasn't having to move around. We were, you know, the boys were stable and they're schooling and home and everything. So so yeah, it was. It was challenging, to say the least, and let me correct, she was actually my wife is in Korea and in Afghanistan.

Langston Clark :

So your wife is doing her service and her duties in your home with your career, raising your sons. I think it's interesting because most of the time we think about the military spouse, most of the time it's the woman and not the father. Talk about how you now, with that overlap from military to entrepreneurship and I know you had mentioned starting with Amway but what's your segue into real estate?

Bill Huff:

It kind of started with my mom. We lived in apartments our whole life, right and so. But she was able, in California, to finally buy a house during my high school years and this was a big deal. Like this house was a brand new construction house, a thousand square feet, and it could have been a castle. To me, you know, you're coming from an apartment your whole life. This was like we had made it.

Bill Huff:

And so, you know, fast forward, my mom's health started to decline and that's when I became aware of real estate. We you know my brother and I had to basically take over the house so we wouldn't lose it. And then we sold it. We split the proceeds my mom had passed by this point and that's when I became aware of the power of real estate. You know, just holding something for a period of time and it appreciated. So that piqued my interest, and it appreciated. So that piqued my interest.

Bill Huff:

And and then I came across a good mentor who was drilling in me not just to own real estate as a primary home but to invest in it. I didn't understand what the heck he was saying, but he kept beating it into me. We would meet like at just back in the day back at you know, denny's or IHOP. I paid for his breakfast and he just hammer, hammer. I'm like, okay, what is this guy talking about?

Bill Huff:

And slowly it started to again, I became aware, I started to notice things, I started to really understand what he was saying, and then it got to a point where, in 2009, we bought our first investment property. It was a condo here in San Antonio. The numbers didn't work, as I learned later, but you know, it was a learning experience and that was that was kind of the start. And then I went, you know, kind of went all in at that point, especially after 2007, 2008,. You had the you know housing collapse, you had the this, the stock market drop, and what really put me over the edge was I had a 401k at that time and with it dropping 50% and you not being able to do nothing, I'm a control freak and that woke me up, like to the point, okay, I need to take control, I can't let this system over here dictate my financial future. And so that that was the, the moment I went over the edge, so to speak. And from, you know, from that point on 2008, 2009.

Langston Clark :

Yeah, it's interesting how oftentimes tragedy is what spurns, you know, innovation People talk about when all these economic declines happen. That's when, like these, super startups turn into world changing businesses. Yeah, but for you, these are personal examples, right, your mother died and then, essentially, her death became your first real estate investment, because, I mean, it was her investment but, like you and your brother, learned the basics of selling the house and the value that gets created over time. And then the same thing happens with you know, the crisis, the recession, and it gave you a sense of wanting to need control in real estate, and so I think those are some, some interesting themes that we think about on a macro scale, but we don't think about that as the individual Cause.

Langston Clark :

Back when COVID was happening, I think a lot of people were like, okay, this is my time to start my business that's going to change the world, but it could be something as far as just changing your world. What can you do? That just impacts who you are as a person, and you don't have to go necessarily scale and be the next founder of Google or Facebook, meta, whatever we're calling it nowadays. Oh, I want to talk about finding opportunities in those moments, but before we do, you mentioned that it was very key and important and that you had a mentor that you would take to breakfast and just get the game from. So can you talk a little bit about the importance of, I think, in particular, folks in the military who are exiting the military maybe in the military now, but just anyone in general the power of finding someone who's a mentor, who might be able to usher you into something different?

Bill Huff:

Yeah, so it's a combination of remember. It was just I'm raised by my mom, it's just me, my mom and my brother. So this mentor was a military veteran and so we spoke the same language, so to speak. But also it's almost, it was almost like a father figure. He was a father figure to some degree and he was a retired military.

Bill Huff:

What I do want to say about the military is we we have a lot of the skill sets needed for entrepreneurship right off the bat. You know, in the military, basic training and all the training that you get throughout your career, you're constantly training and planning and adapting to situations and whereas the average public they're focused on, you know comfort, staying the same and just you know that path. Whereas military, you're having to adapt constantly. You're changing job locations. You know relocating to a different base, meeting new people, having to take leadership all these things at a young age that you're. You know in charge of multimillion dollar equipment you're reporting to. You know high level officers.

Bill Huff:

So all these skillsets you come out of the military, those man, those apply big time over into entrepreneurship that the average person is not going to get from. You know going the to. You know out of formal education, you know, through a four-year degree, and so you take that, you know I had that. And then I had this mentor who was pushing me and, you know, just kind of beating it into me, so to speak, over a number of years. And you know, all that combined, you know I was already going into the military. You know kind of an organized person, it just the military accentuated skill sets I already had.

Bill Huff:

Yeah, so so I came out, you know, kind of probably OCD to some degree. I'm already a, you know, a disciplined person already. You know a disciplined person already. So I came out more disciplined, meaning you're gonna stick with something you know and see it through, whether it's, you know, success or fail, and so all, like I said, all these skillsets that you pick up in the military apply and feed right into entrepreneurship. So I think you know that's why I'm really a big proponent of entrepreneurship for military veterans. You, you you're exposed to the world, you see things from a different perspective and entrepreneurship is, is not steady, and so, yeah, it's so you know. Kind of. Going back to my mentor, yeah, he, he was, he played a big role in my life, not just in real estate, in general role in my life, not just in real estate in general and there are many kids out there like myself who were, you know, didn't potentially have a father figure growing up and mentors men.

Langston Clark :

They play a big role outside of real estate in general, it seems like to me that you, you had like a real life rich dad, poor dad experience where, in some ways, you had someone operating as a father figure in terms of business and wealth that I think a lot of us don't get.

Langston Clark :

You know, you know my father would say certain things like incorporate yourself, do this and do that, but he just he didn't necessarily give me all the game. You know, and I think I think for a lot of people, recognizing that we all have gaps in our knowledge and finding people who can fill those gaps or being available to people who are willing to fill those gaps, are, like, tremendously important. And so what I want to do now is I want to talk about, because I know you had the condo and the map didn't work and it was a learning experience for you, and then we had the recession. So let's talk about what you're doing now, right, because you know, as I mentioned earlier, every week I get an email about a new property here, a new property there.

Bill Huff:

So like what has been your transition to more of a scaled version of your investment and what you do in real estate now. So we have we have a portfolio primarily duplexes, because that's my focus. I love that niche market. I think it's a phenomenal niche market. I love that niche market. I think it's a phenomenal niche market and, in fact, I'm one of those people who recommends buying a duplex versus buying a single family home. I think it's just. You know, it's so many. It's versatile. So, yeah, so our portfolio consists primarily of duplexes. I'm a real estate agent as well primarily work with investors. A real estate agent as well, primarily work with investors. And then in the last two years, I've tried to capture my knowledge and put it into the first two eBooks that I do have, and then I'm in the process of completing courses that are based on those eBooks. So that's where I'm at now. It's been an interesting journey. One quick story, kind of back in 2012, is when I first got into multifamily.

Langston Clark :

Yeah.

Bill Huff:

I bought two duplexes at that time and then I the light bulb kind of went off. For me immediately after that I may have talked to you about this before is, instead of going vertically, I went horizontally and I said, okay, I want to buy another business, and I wanted to buy either a car wash or laundromat. And the key criteria was that I had to own the building instead of just owning the business that was leasing the space, and so I bought a laundromat with the building, the land, everything. Long story short, I went from A to Z. I went from A to Z, brought up a business plan, shopped it around, got a small business, administrative SBA loan, bought this laundromat and my actual projections actually were very close to actuals. So I was like, wow, this actually worked. I actually did this.

Bill Huff:

But I didn't realize at that time 2013, 2014, and this laundromat was down south in South Texas, was at, if you remember, back at that time, that was during the fracking boom. So what I didn't realize was how connected the customer base was to that industry. So when the fracking dried up, essentially overnight, so to speak, I learned good 50% of my customer base was tied to that industry. So I went from a very cashflow positive business to a very cashflow negative, cashflow negative business instantaneously. And so for a period of time I was taking my cashflow from my real estate to prop up this laundromat. So when you're in a situation like that, you're reacting, you're trying to solve the problem to get to the next day, and then you start to think, man, if I don't fix this, it's not only going to take me down, the business down, but it'll take my family down. And then that's when the stress really starts right Again. Think about this I was taking my cash flow from over here and putting it over here just to keep this, the numbers, working.

Bill Huff:

This went on for a couple of years because I couldn't. You know, I'm again going back to I'm disciplined to the point where I can fix it, and that was the mindset. I could fix it, I could fix it. And so it finally got to a point where I finally listed the business for sale and I finally found a buyer, and I came out of that with some negative numbers. But, quite honestly, that's a master's or a PhD level experience. Over those five years that I'm running a business, I had employees. I was in the process of modernizing it before the whole situation changed. Over those five years that I'm running a business, I had employees, I was in the process of modernizing it before the whole situation changed you know, getting in a line, all those types of things before I had to go into defense mode, and so yeah, yeah, I take away again a negative experience. I take away what I can so I can become a better, apply it to my business and become a better person.

Langston Clark :

So, yeah, yeah, so journey, you were just talking about the PhD, the real life PhD.

Bill Huff:

Yeah, yeah, so terrible going through it when you're on the verge of bankruptcy. Entrepreneurship it exposes your true character to the world. To see which most of us character to the world. To see which most of us we ain't built like that, right, you know, and so that's what it did. Okay, so say you have a business that's on the verge of bankruptcy, well, what will your friends say? You'll be embarrassed, right, you start to think about stuff like that and that, unfortunately, that's that prevents people from you know that comfort zone circles you've seen in a shark, right, that keeps people here. Right, and that little, you never get out here because you have to go through that character exposure part. So I went through all that you know and I, you know, I tell my wife I don't care, you know, I'm focused. I've got to stay focused on what the mission is, not what you know. So, yeah, yeah, it's, it's. It will expose your character and good and bad you know, uh, traits.

Langston Clark :

So what's interesting to me is is that you know you have all these ebbs and flows of these negative experiences that you learned from, but you're still in real estate. And so how did the laundromat experience cause? You said you, instead of going vertical, you went horizontal, Did, did you invest in some other type of business and real estate before going into more duplexes and things like that. So how did you apply what you learned from this experience to what you did next and what you're continuing to do?

Bill Huff:

Yeah, I mean vertical instead of buying. You know, at that time, 2012, keep buying duplexes. I said, ok, let me try to fill out this skeleton of our portfolio, which included other businesses. So this was the thought process back then I came out of the laundromat and went back to focusing on, you know, kind of building the vertical and building, you know, buying more real estate and, like most mom and pop real estate investors, you back into the business part. You know you start to build your framework. You start to build as you scale that. You know that comes later and that's what happened for me. As you start to collect more properties, you need to build a business framework which is bigger than just buying. You know a few properties and, you know, go from there. So you kind of back your way into it.

Bill Huff:

And that's kind of what I've been, you know, working on and you know they mentioned about two or three years ago. I wanted to put what I knew into to help educate. You know, get into that space as well. Everyone has something that they know that can help other people, and so I thought I need to capture what I know and document it. Now that's what I'm attempting to do, you know, with my eBooks, you know I want on mindset and went on duplexes, those are the things I do, and then you know kind of the courses that are that are behind those, but uh, but yeah it's. You know, it's a journey and there's no one right way to do it in regards to you can watch all the courses and watch all they take classes in it, formal classes until you get out there. You know the old Mike Tyson line, right? You're, you're finding it till you get punched in the face, and then you're now you're freestyling, right. So that's, that's the reality of it.

Langston Clark :

So, since you mentioned them, let's talk about the books. So you know, when we scheduled the interview, I only, I was only aware of one book. So I'm, I'm, I'm glad that you have two. So let's talk about the first one, that I'm familiar with, the five stages of financial mindset, and just give us like a quick overview of the book. Zoom out and look at the bigger picture, like you back into a business and for at least for me, I'm backing into.

Bill Huff:

Okay, where am I going? What is my purpose? You know, how does this connect with what I'm supposed to be doing? And that was kind of the genesis for developing the five stages of financial mindset.

Bill Huff:

I disagree with this model of, you know, poor, middle class and rich. I think that's an outdated, arbitrary garbage model. Actually drives me crazy because it's getting people. People are responding in a in the wrong way. It is, you know, based on what is the metric is based on salary, right, income Well, that changes. Based on inflation, right. So it's a constantly changing model. So how is it helping?

Bill Huff:

And so that you know, plus a lot of other things, I, you know, looked at my own picture and I said you know the five stages. You know we go from financial poverty to financial survival, financial security, financial freedom and financial abundance. Survival, financial security, financial freedom and financial abundance. I grew up in financial survival, meaning you're on the edge, you have no assets. This model is tied to your financial statement, not to some arbitrary Growing up there. You're just surviving, and so you're not going to be trying to have an emergency fund or putting away for your kid's college. No, you're surviving. All that goes off the table. Not all financial mindsets are the same and I, the industry either doesn't want to focus on that or intentionally, you know, leaves that out because it's not all the same and there are different assets associated with these different mindsets. The picture is a lot more, you know, they make it sound so simple and that actually is to the detriment of most people. Going into the military, my wife and I had a benefits, so we go from financial survival, both of both of us. You know, my wife is also from a single parent household, so we both go from financial survival to financial security, which is that's a good thing. So here we are. I'm like man, this is great. I'm, I've, I'm raising my kids in a better environment than what I had, and that's the dream of all parents, or should be.

Bill Huff:

The only downside of that is, you know, the mindset, emotion that's connected with financial security is comfort. Comfort, it can be your enemy, right, because it'll lull you into a false sense of security, right, and you become oh, I made it, so to speak, and so you become trapped in financial security, which I think that's where the bulk of America is. All these mindsets has different financial statements, they look different. That's the metric that people need to be focused on, not some arbitrary income-based changing model that has no bearing. Arbitrary income-based changing model that has no bearing, only to force you to or try to change your mindset to keep up with the Joneses, which is there's nothing good that'll come out of that. This model that I have is tied to financial statements and you know you can actually I'll send you a copy just so you can look at it. You can see the different patterns of financial statements tied with each mindset.

Bill Huff:

A person that's at financial abundance has a totally different mindset, financial mindset than someone in financial security. They're not the same and they're not. They shouldn't be the same. So, yeah, it's, that was a, it's a, it's a quick read, but that's that is to me provided clarity for my purpose, because your mindset stage is should be aligned with your purpose. Right, and most for most people it's not. So when it's not aligned, that means they're kind of one, they're wandering financially.

Bill Huff:

I get a little heated when you know, when discussing some of the mainstream ideas and philosophies, because I don't agree with a lot of them, but honestly I think they're outdated. They had their time. Not everything stays the same. As the economy evolves, finances evolve, and so the model that model is outdated, quite honestly, and so, yeah, I think it's a great read and it'll definitely give people a good foundation to base their financial journey on. This is financial wellness. So wellness is mindset conceptualization, not implementation, not budgeting, not investing. That's a whole different world. You got to fix your mindset right before you get into investing, and so that's what that ebook is based on.

Langston Clark :

You know it's interesting. I was thinking about what you said, you and your wife. Tell me again the level that you and your wife were on before you entered the military. What was it again? Financial survival, financial survival, okay, and you mentioned benefits. So I think about somebody who makes $20,000 a year right, working an hourly job and this is a hypothetical okay who doesn't have benefits. That comes with you having benefits. Exactly, it's the total. You just can't look at the fact that you made 20 and you made 20. Well, the job that you have, where you're making 20, has all of these other things that benefit you that the job is paying for, that you don't have to pay for, yeah, which probably gives you a different sense of security as opposed to somebody else who actually might make the same amount of money that don't have the same amount of benefit. That who?

Bill Huff:

actually might make the same amount of money, they don't have the same amount of benefit. That's it. Like I can go, like, let's take fast food, right, I can go on, most fast food places offer 401ks. Right, that's great for most people, but the reality is at those hourly jobs there's nothing extra or whatever's extra is limited, right, yeah, so they're on the edge. And, just like you said, there's a whole mindset shift between someone who has, like we were in the military, so we got this benefit structure that the military gave us. That's a whole different mindset. I can even begin to how that affected me. Right, that's a game changer versus living on the edge.

Bill Huff:

The mindset, emotion tied with financial survival is fear and fear of. In my case, watching my mom, you know she used to take the back which I write about in the ebook, the back of an envelope moving our art of moving ones to try to make sure money lasted to the end of the month. That's fear, fear. And so I went from fear to security and even to this day I still have fear. You know my wife gets on me sometimes about that. Stuff is so burned into my brain it's hard to get away from that and to grow from that and so, yeah, yeah, I agree what you said.

Langston Clark :

It's really interesting my wife and I were listening to I think it was like something on NPR, and it's something about your money script. Your script that you have about your relationship to money oftentimes comes from the situation you were in when you grew up. It's interesting to hear you say that the moment you joined the military you were in a totally different situation, but there are still shades of what you were, your money situation as you were developing this, still informed bits of how you are today. That's something that you have to manage with, and so I think it's a beautiful thing that you started off talking about the first book being about financial mindset before you talked about, in the second book, getting into the nitty gritty about the duplexes. So share with us a little bit about the second book and how that works in relationship to the first book, maybe.

Bill Huff:

Yeah, yeah. And so remember, in in the mindset, there's certain assets associated with each level, and you know it's not a matter of right or wrong, it's just the way it is. And so, as you get up to financial freedom and financial abundance, that mindset is, those mindsets are going to be more focused on assets such as businesses and real estate. And and so, being a, you know, duplex person, I, I, there's a I understand the connection between the assets and the mindset. Now, the ebook on duplexes you know the title is why I said, why I say just buy a duplex and that's kind of my catchphrase just buy a duplex. You don't need to join a syndicate and buy.

Bill Huff:

You know, invest in these big apartment buildings, a duplex, maybe a couple of them can man. Those can go a long way towards building wealth. You know you're familiar with house hacking, where you live in one side and rent out the other. Just think about that. Someone is cost sharing your asset. If I would have known that when I was in my early 20s, it would have been game over by this point. I may have not been talking to you because you'd had to go through three layers of my organization just to get to me. Think about that. Someone is, so someone is cost sharing your asset. That's just like okay, typically and I talk about this in the ebook and I call it like a cost sharing factor somewhere between, you know, 30 to 40%, that's me to tell me someone's going to pay 30 to 40% of my asset every month. And now I haven't even gotten into.

Bill Huff:

So I have a list of 10, what I call 10 benefits. When I compare duplex to a single family home and yes, I understand the single family home, I had plenty of those, but there's really no comparison, especially in today's market where inflation is driving up the prices of single family homes. We have to use strategy. We can't just do what the last generation did, and so I think, yeah, can't just do what the last generation did, you know, and so I think, yeah, duplex is a great option.

Bill Huff:

And I kind of walk through those 10 benefits and then at the end of the ebook I have a whole section on the business side of building a business around your portfolio. So this is, as I mentioned earlier. I said I said a lot of the mom and pop, uh, estate investors, we back our way into a business. Well, you think about it. You're essentially your business is your real estate, so build the framework and all the regular things you would have with the business around that, and so that's what the kind of the ebook the second half of it talks about.

Langston Clark :

Yeah, I think that's interesting, because I think there's a lot of real estate entrepreneurs who are personalities, who provide lots of advice and insights about how to buy and why to buy, why to do this and why to do that. They don't talk about the stuff you don't see, the backend things about how to transform your investments into the actual business. And we've had and I think I introduced you to kendra, yeah, um oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, so.

Bill Huff:

So she, uh, she wrote the foreword from the financial mindset, the five stages of financial mindset. I learned a lot from her, actually, because you know, at this time this is a year, year and a half ago and she's in this digital space, I'm new to it, and I told her that I'm feeling my way through this. She was giving me a lot of great information. You know about even pricing. You know, she was right and I was early in learning, and she's like this is education, this is not transformation. Price it this way for education, price it this way for transformation. I was like this is no, she's phenomenal.

Bill Huff:

Let's talk about scaling, for example, not just scaling in units, scaling in your business. So the number one issue most small businesses have is how do I bring on a new person and where do I get the revenue to fund that? Right, so that's why. But they never. Most people, most small businesses, are good at the skillset, but not scaling a business and not the business part of it. So that is why they never get to the point of being able to scale and take themselves out of the center Right. And so, for example, I tell you a story about my, my stepmother and a great lady lover. She's a physical therapist, she's great at her skill, right, went to school for that but. And so she opened up a clinic, just hammered it.

Bill Huff:

You know, great customer base, but if you don't structure the business side of it out to where you structure it, so you're not in the middle it's going to be hard. You know, down down the road when you okay, now I want to retire. Well, you're in the, you're the cog in the engine. So how the business is built around you, so if you leave, it collapses, right, that's. That is.

Bill Huff:

That is probably the number one issue with small businesses, and it applies to even real estate businesses too. You know, a lot of us we're in the middle, we're trying to. You know, if I hire someone to do this, then that's taking away from my cash flow. Well then, maybe you need to figure out a way to generate more income to then pay for so you can back up. You know that's. That's what the back half of the e-book talks about. It's from my personal experience. I'm not saying it's the right way to do it, I'm saying all the two e-books are based on what I experienced. I have no certifications as a psychologist, some mindset coach? No, I have none of that. I got decades of actual practical application experience, so I do think there's a lot of meat on both e-books that a lot of people can benefit from.

Langston Clark :

You know, it's interesting that you bring up the idea of scaling your business, not necessarily the portfolio of scaling your your business, not necessarily the portfolio part of it, but like the internal, the internal part of it, right, hiring people and all of that stuff. And you know that one of the issues with a lot of black businesses is that we don't employ people Right. And I like what you're saying because I think that that you're providing a perspective on real estate, like I was saying before that, like I haven't really heard, how do you hire people to help you? You know, run the business side of your risk. I'm not talking about, you know, just you hiring the contractor out to make repairs and all of that stuff. You actually hire this person and you have taxes and all of that stuff that you have to manage and make sure they're W-2 filled out and all of those things. And I don't know that we always think about real estate in that regard, you know.

Bill Huff:

Yeah, number one is we get, especially in real estate, we get so focused on the cashflow and it's so hard to make, so you're like I'm going to hold onto it. I went through that phase and I'm not saying I that took a long time to get out of that. I need to take that money and give it to scale, cause you're like you're so proud of yourself this is all psychology, right You're like you're trying to squeeze let's say, you know a couple, you know a hundred dollars out of a property. That's like gold, cause you did it and you're like I'm holding on to every single penny. But at some point you have to realize you're like I'm holding out to every single penny, but at some point you have to realize you have to take yourself out of the middle.

Bill Huff:

In order to do that, you have to bring other people in, and that's something we struggle with as a people, right? And it really doesn't matter what industry. That is a cross-business issue. We have to get better at scaling so we can employ more people, and then it's a win-win. We employ more people, and then it's a win-win we employ more people, we get our time back. You know it's. It's taken me a while to graduate to that level myself. So I'm not saying it's easy, it's a process.

Langston Clark :

So, bill, you've written two books. You have a real estate portfolio. Before I get to the next question, we're going to talk about the classes. Let's talk about the courses, because what I like about what you're doing is you're not just building a portfolio for yourself. You have these educational materials to share with others. So you have the two books, but then you know, let's talk about the educational part of what you're doing in terms of the coursework.

Bill Huff:

Yeah, sure, sure, we have. So we have the five stages of financial mindset ebook and then the course behind it is called the level up. So what it's based on is leveling up those five stages right. How do you go from financial survival to financial security? It's a process, right, and so that's. It's called Level Up and it's focused on getting you from one stage to the next, and so that course is like 98% complete. I'm trying to wrap it up and get it, get it, get it out there. And then, on the other side, I have, behind the Duplex ebook, I have a course that essentially walk through the same material that's exploded and expanded in a course the business side and the portfolio side and I focus on each side. The courses are extensions of the ebooks and go into a lot more detail. As they always say, if you're going to go into that space, do something that you know, don't make something up. These are right, in line with what I do and what I have done, so it was a natural extension for these courses.

Langston Clark :

You have the courses, you have the books. Where can people the audience get access to these materials?

Bill Huff:

Yeah, yeah, they're on my website at the grouphuffcom. You go to coach and you'll see the eBooks, you'll see the courses. Um, I got other stuff that I'm working on and I'm really excited, actually that. So let me just say, say this at some point, you, the real estate investor, has a, has a, has a cycle. You go from acquire, acquire, acquire, acquire, acquire to a steady state, right For me, where I need to be. I'm in this steady state and that's a different approach to managing the portfolio. I really want to focus on the education side. I had a mentor for me and I want to be that person for other people. That's where I need to be. I want to be that person for other people. That's where I need to be, and so it's a new space for me, but it's like very exciting because I'm doing something that I know that I've done and I get to help, you know, educate and illuminate the light for other people.

Langston Clark :

So we have origins as a book club, and so I'm going to ask you two questions to end. The first question is what are some books that you've read that have inspired your journey as an entrepreneur? And the last question is if there was an additional chapter to either one of the books that you would add, what would that chapter be?

Bill Huff:

I would say two books that inspired my business entrepreneurial journey. Obviously, one is going to be Rich Dad, poor Dad. Read that in 2006 and that was never the same. After that, the second book. I'm going to kind of go a little off the beaten path and I'm a big history person and I would say I'm going to give you a book. I don't know if you've read it before. It's called Before the Mayflower. I haven't. I haven't read it though. Oh, my goodness, that's, I think, lerone Bennett. He's made several. I read it 20 plus years ago. He's made several revisions to that book, but that you talk about a life changing book, that's a life changing book, yeah.

Langston Clark :

A little bit, not in the business side, but it's a. It's a. It's a, it's a life changing book. Yeah, definitely, I'm familiar with it. I'm familiar with it. It's definitely something that can inspire you and make make you think that you can do more than what you know. Society has told us that we're we're capable of. For sure, Absolutely. And if there was an additional chapter to one of the books that wasn't included, or or maybe a section, what, what, what would that be Wow. Or if there was another ebook, you were right what might that be about?

Bill Huff:

Well, quite honestly, I have have, I have like 10 that I want to write, but oh, okay, yeah, for example, I'll give you one. I'll give you one of my titles investing in real estate over 50. That's that you talk about psychology, because by that point we made it, we're settled, we're, so to speak. You know we're not trying to do something new, so it's a totally different mindset from someone in their 30s. That's one of the titles on my list that I'll get to.

Langston Clark :

All right. I think that's interesting because maybe it's because I'm in my age, demographic and the algorithm online knows who I am. But most of the people that I hear talking about real estate investment are targeting, you know, people who are millennials or younger right People in the midst of their career, the beginning of their career, building their wealth, but not people who, because they say, at 50 is when you make peak, it's peak earnings years, and so we don't. We don't see those folks as a target group, at least from my perspective from the influencer. So I think that that's a wonderful addition to you know, the people who maybe need some of this education about real estate investment. So, Bill, thank you for being here on the podcast and sharing your knowledge and your wisdom and, again, I encourage all of the listeners to check out Bill's books and his websites and get some more insights about, you know, the educational opportunities that he is trying to provide for us as we change our mindsets financially and maybe even think about investing in multifamily units.

Bill Huff:

Thanks for the invite. I appreciate it, and one day we're going to meet in person.

Langston Clark :

Yeah, we will Thank you for joining this edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite. If you liked the episode, you can support the show by becoming one of our founding 55 patrons, which gives you access to our live discussions and bonus materials, or you can subscribe to the show. Give us five stars and leave a comment.