Forged In Fire

Episode 32: Building Empire One Brick at a Time with Joe Fredick

• Nate Pharmer-Eden & Cole Farrell

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Joe Frederick's real estate journey began with a teenage epiphany in a New Jersey beach house. "This is not the family type that I come from," he recalls thinking at 16, discovering the owner built wealth through real estate. That moment sparked a decade-long path from finance student to savvy entrepreneur.

Frederick's tactical approach to building wealth started with house hacking at 22, purchasing a duplex and renting the larger unit while living in the smaller one. Despite being younger than his tenants, he positioned himself as "just the property manager," a clever strategy that established authority while concealing his inexperience. He expanded by systematically purchasing properties with 5% down conventional loans, living in each for a year before moving to the next—until marriage put an end to his nomadic investment strategy.

The conversation takes a powerful turn when Frederick reveals his struggle with authenticity during his private equity career. "I faked every single day of being there," he admits, describing how he felt out of place among Ivy League graduates. A brutally honest call from a LinkedIn connection became his watershed moment: "I will never answer a freaking call from you again... you are inauthentic." Instead of becoming defensive, Frederick embraced this feedback, dropped his façade, and transformed his approach to business relationships.

Now co-founder of Capital Companion, Frederick has built a versatile investment company that handles fix-and-flips, buy-and-holds, and strategic partnerships—including innovative arrangements with retired NFL players who provide capital. His company is expanding into wholesaling and planning a hedge fund, demonstrating the power of authentic networking and complementary partnerships.

For entrepreneurs struggling with work-life balance, Frederick offers a simple yet powerful practice: putting his phone down at home while keeping it on loud. "I want to be tested," he explains, training himself to remain present with family despite notifications. His advice to ask family members about their day creates meaningful connections that sustain him through entrepreneurial challenges.

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Speaker 1:

Forget what you've heard. Forged in Fire is where real entrepreneurs come to share the untold truths of success the late nights, the crushing setbacks, the moments that change everything. No fluff, just fire, ready to step into the heat and unlock what it really takes to build a business. This is where legends are made.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of Forged in Fire. I am your co-host, nate Farm reading Cole. Come on stage, man. I don't even know if you need an introduction at this point.

Speaker 3:

Nate what is happening today, how you feeling, how you doing.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate that, brother. I'm doing well, man, we had this long conference event. It was like a whole family thing and I think the truth is in the pudding or whatever the heck the saying is to, where I know that I had way more fun than the rest of the family because I'm the only one that lost my voice. So I'm struggling like hell, but we're here, I'm excited, I'm fired up. Brother, how you doing?

Speaker 3:

Dude, that's awesome. It sounded like fun. I'm doing good, I'm amped up because irrelevant from real estate, I'm getting a puppy in two days and I am so freaking excited. So here's the question, though, right, I've been kind of battling this in my head. We do a lot of renos and unit turns, right. So if I'm there, do I bring the puppy with me to unit turns and reno stuff or not? Like what do you do?

Speaker 2:

Well, if I had to guess, puppies are part of the family. I bring my kids to all of my stuff. I'm like we got no choice. I'm like you know what. You guys want to know what dad does and why I work so freaking hard. You come with me figure out how to lay this flooring. So I think it's only right that the pup comes, but I don't know.

Speaker 3:

You're right, that's how, like you build the confidence and companion right Like you go through it, but anyway, it's something I'm trying to figure out. So if anybody else does this into this interview, I do have to ask. Though, we have one favor of you guys, just one single thing that we would love you to do, and that is to please leave us a review. You can leave it wherever you're watching, you can leave it on any platform, or whatever it is, but that's how we keep growing, that's how we educate others, and so if you could do that for us, it would mean the world and it lets us keep doing this. So thank you in advance. Besides that, sit back, relax, enjoy.

Speaker 2:

This episode is going to be amazing. Today we are interviewing Joe Frederick, and the long and the short of it was he came up doing some real estate and now he is a partner through Capital Companion and I'm very excited to dive in, hear about his story, hear about his journey. So I guess, without further ado, joe, come on stage, brother. How are we doing today, man?

Speaker 4:

Doing good, Nate, Thanks for having me. Hey Cole, how are you guys doing Doing good?

Speaker 2:

Doing good man. So please, without further ado, tell us what got you here. What brought you here, man? Tell us your story.

Speaker 4:

Quick and easy story. Man, I remember 16 years old and I was dating a girl at the time and we went down the shore Vettner, if you're familiar with New Jersey at all and it was a gorgeous house. It was her uncle's house. And I remember asking, gosh, what does this guy do Because this is not the family type that I come from right Looking at this house and having a beach house. So I asked him and the first thing he said he does. And the only thing he said he does is real estate. I didn't care what he meant. I didn't care if he was an agent, I didn't care if he was a developer, a flipper, whatever it was. At 16 years old I knew I want to be in real estate and as I did the research, you know, following that, you know time down the shore, I see if you want to make money, be in real estate. Every time you read something, the real millionaires and billionaires own real estate. It was very easy for me to fall into real estate.

Speaker 3:

So it all started at 16 years old and hasn't changed since. That's awesome, so give us some more context. So when you were young, it sounds like you got into real estate and you kind of started figuring out, but what did you gravitate towards and kind of, what were your first couple steps? What happened after that? So what did the real estate journey look like?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. So at 16 years old I obviously wasn't investing in my first deal, although you hear that nowadays it's pretty impressive of people. But I'll fast forward all the way to being 22 years old. I just got out of college. I came back home. Real estate was always in my mind, but I went to school for finance. So as I graduated West Virginia University I came back and I didn't want to live with my mother because I kept hearing you know you don't want to live back with your parents.

Speaker 4:

So I came across a duplex and I fumbled into house hacking. So my aunt's friend had a property listed in Norristown, pennsylvania, and if you know anything about Norristown, it's a little lower income area. It's not where college kids typically would want to move into right away. But I saw the cash side of it. I saw the cash flow, so I put in my offer on the duplex. I rented out the unit above me, which was a three bedroom one bath, and my floor was a three bedroom one bath and my floor was a one bedroom one bath.

Speaker 4:

The interesting part here is that the family was older than me. Their kids were even older than me. I was 22 years old. So I lied and said, I'm just the property manager here, so everything I say carries a lot of weight and it's coming from the big guy upstairs. So you have to listen to me because, as their kids were maybe 28 at the time, living with their parents, they're not even going to listen to me. How about a 50 year old? No one's going to listen to me.

Speaker 4:

Interestingly enough, this was kind of a triplex, so it also had a commercial space in the back, a garage, if you will. That I rented the car out to from a woman that had her husband pass away and she just kept the car out to from a woman that had her husband pass away and she just kept the car up here in Narsetown, pennsylvania. She was from Charlotte and just kept it there. So my entire two years of owning that learned real estate and from there, interestingly enough, I feel like I took advantage of the man, if you will, where I saved up money working in finance and then kept buying properties and moving into them, putting 5% down and then leasing them behind me living there for a year, buying the next property, 5% down, saving up the money. I never cashed out, refinanced and never did anything like that in the very beginning, but I collected the cashflow, saved $2, and then just kept buying real estate and renting behind me. I stopped doing that obviously because I got married and my wife didn't want to move all over the place.

Speaker 3:

Wait, quick question. So you said you would not do a refi. So the loans that you were getting I'm assuming they weren't FHA or anything like that they were just kind of conventional 5% down. That's right, gotcha. Okay, sorry, keep going.

Speaker 4:

That's all right. So, again, after buying a few properties down the line, leasing them out behind me in popular areas, that is when I met my wife, and if you guys saw the amount of stuff that she came with moving into one of the houses, you'd also agree not to keep buying and moving every year. So we stopped doing that and then at that point, that's when I started to learn more about real estate. Instead of actively move around, I thought I was doing a great job as a young single guy moving around, but now I realize I don't have to do that. So I'm 32 now. I was 22 at the time when I started, so 10 years in the game, and it's been about three years since.

Speaker 4:

I've co-founded Capital Companion and we're a real estate investment company. So we invest in buy and holds, fix and flips. We do some wholesaling, and what's interesting about us too is that we do a lot of off the cuff partnerships. So we'll partner with homeowners as well that are looking to sell but not getting the number they want. If you've seen the TV show, I forget the name of it but they come in and they say I'll invest my money in this, but I'll get a piece of equity when we resell it. Now it's real estate, it's two sisters. They come in, they design it and they also invest some money into rehabbing the property. So then, so we've done. We've done a couple deals like that and just making interesting connections along the way.

Speaker 2:

Holy cow, I love it, I love it. I love it. I love the story. I resonate heavily when it comes to doing the house hack. I went. My story started in 2017 when I first house hacked my first duplex. But I went FHA and so many trials and tribulations and stories and like there's golden rules of thumb that you're never supposed to do. I didn't read a single book about real estate so I fucking failed at all of them, like moving family and moving in friends. It didn't work out for me, so I'm glad it worked out for somebody. With that being said, talk to me a little bit about some of the struggles, some of the trials and tribulations. Rather, you want to go all the way back to age 22, when you first started doing this. The strategy of buying and then continuing to buy and move out. Also growing the company. You kept using the term we so much in the most recent of your sentences, so clearly you're not the only person inside of the business. What does that look like as well?

Speaker 4:

man. Talk to us about the growth, talk to us about the struggles. I want to know, man, fill me in. So yeah, about the personal struggles and being an entrepreneur and fitting into the world. Where I felt like I fit in, the biggest struggle was and I'll tell you a great story behind it, and I feel like everybody needs to have this conversation I came as I was working in finance and still buying properties and not co-founding this company.

Speaker 4:

Three years ago, I was working in private equity and private real estate for W2. And I faked every single day of being there. I didn't fit in. There were a lot of Ivy League grads, a lot of Villanova grads really awesome guys, but they played golf more than they worked almost, and I am a terrible golfer. I enjoy it from the drinking aspect of it and hanging out with buddies. Never at all for the. I couldn't tell you what my handicap is. I just learned what that was a couple of days ago actually. So I didn't fit in at all and I faked my way through the entire four years that I was with the private equity company and then one day I realized that this is not where I want to be and, in exchange for them helping me find a new real estate company to work for solely real estate, not private equity. I gave them six months instead of two weeks instead of two weeks. So as I gave them six months, I was prepared to collect my W-2 and try to find a new job. And we got pregnant. My son was going to be born in May of that year. It was my second and they got acquired during this time. So not their decision, but the acquiring company's decision to trim the fat cut me off within a month of me telling them that. So that was really rough. And a month later my son was being born. So I looked at it like, oh my God, I'm afraid I don't have any income coming in. My son's about to be born. We all heard about how expensive babies are, even the second. So I was really pinned against the wall here. So I'll get to a point where I'll tell you the story as well.

Speaker 4:

But after that that's where I found my business partner through networking. I went out and I spoke with as much people as I possibly could, had coffees, phone calls, just telling them what I wanted to get into, because obviously the private equity company dumped me off. They didn't really care anymore, not that they should have. It's a business they have to operate. So that's where I met my business partner and then we grew the company from there. But what I'll tell you about that changed my perspective.

Speaker 4:

To stop faking who I was In one of those outreaches during the time when I didn't have a job or a company. I was reaching out to people and I reached out to a guy named Brian on LinkedIn. Brian operates a private equity company and private real estate company and I just wanted to ask him simple questions of hey, what's going on? What should I be looking at? So I had to start the conversation over the phone. Everything was going okay in my mind, telling him who I am and why I'm calling, and I asked him. I said, okay, like any feedback or anything to give me on where I should go. And he said Joe, do you want me to be honest with you? I said yes. He said I will never answer a freaking call from you again. He said it's been 20 minutes and I've just listened to you elaborate on things I don't care about. No, asking me any questions. And if you did, they didn't make any sense. I don't know why you called me still 20 minutes later. I don't understand why we're on the phone, so I will block you.

Speaker 4:

After this phone call I was like holy shit, where did this come from? What am I doing? And he said you are inauthentic. I could sense that you're not being the person that you are on the inside and again, you're not coming across with a point here. I don't understand why I'm talking to you. And right then, and there guys, I'm telling you in this exact office I'm sitting right now.

Speaker 4:

I said you know what and excuse me, I have to quote it Fuck this. You're right, brian, I am faking everything I've been. I said I'm I'm freaking scared. I said I'm calling you because I see how successful you are. If you're not going to be a mentor towards me, I want to know this. I want to know if you're still scared. Tell me everything I could. I just want to listen. I have nothing to give you and I'm admitting that. And you know what. I'm not sorry I'm taking your time.

Speaker 4:

You agreed to this phone call because one of the things he said was don't apologize for my time, because if I didn't want to do this, I wouldn't. I don't owe you anything, joe. So I said you know what? I'm not sorry. I'm going to bend your ear for as long as I possibly can because you're successful. This is the guy. I would save your phone number in my phone. You are real now. So that changed my entire perspective on being who I actually wanted to be and actually am in this life and from there, as I said, met my business partner. I come from private equity background, he comes from a custom home and general contracting background. You guys being in real estate know that that's a perfect marriage. We got together and we've been developing the company ever since.

Speaker 3:

That is amazing. I absolutely love this story with that phone call and I think it resonates with a lot of people and I think you're lucky because I think you did get that feedback. And I feel like an unfortunate reality is most people go through their whole lives and never do get that feedback. And it's funny when a lot of times that you look at people and you talk to people that maybe aren't as far as they I don't use the word should, but could be it might be just because they didn't have somebody, anybody like that random dude on LinkedIn just to tell you how it actually is to wake you up. So an unfortunate event, but it seems like it changed your life for the better and that's really cool. It's so neat.

Speaker 3:

So let me ask you this you came from private equity. You started going to this company. You said your partner came from basically construction in a variety of ways. So what is it that you guys do now and what is it that works? Meaning are you like lenders? You're lending the money to somebody. They complete the project and instead of debt, you're doing equity. Tell me what that looks like.

Speaker 4:

We do a lot of different things. Like I said, we're small and we're agile. We have a team of 12 guys and we call them. They're our field guys, right? So we do local flips around the area that we live in mainline Pennsylvania. We buy and hold student housing as well in some D3 school areas that are just undervalued properties that we can turn around and increase rents, as you will are just undervalued properties that we can turn around and increase rents as you will. Like I said, we'll deal with partnerships for clients of ours that want to flip and then we can come in from an equity piece If they don't have the money to flip. We do perform some loans as well.

Speaker 4:

There was a guy I mean, one of our best returns simply wasn't from a flip, it was from lending money. We had our HVAC guy. This is the most important part of what I'm saying is the networking side of this and what we're doing. We are 100%, always networking. That's our roles in being entrepreneurs and real estate investors is networking. So one of our HVAC guys said hey, I flip properties too, but I'm out of money. You guys want to do this deal and I think we made, you know, 22% in like two months. He was just really in need of money and we had it. So we perform a lot of different things and very agile. One key highlight from us and just a comment on the networking side treat everybody with respect, because you never know when they come back into your life and, you know, give you the golden egg.

Speaker 4:

And if I can tell a quick story about that, I will. The reason I bring it up there's an agent that I came back into touch with. I've never spoken with her before. In my mind she's a real estate agent in this area. We met through me reaching out and just trying to find off market deals or deals that she has in her pipeline. And she says joe, I know you. And I said, oh, okay. And she says you don't remember me, do you? I said no, I don't. And and mind you, she's, you know, in her late 50s or late 40s, something like that. It's much older than me, um, and I said, no, I don't remember you, I'm sorry. And she said you dated my daughter in high school. You used to come over my house. I said, oh my god. So, thank god, I will tell you this one of the only people in high school that I was actually was afraid of the girl and treated her with utmost respect. So good thing I did that because I was afraid of how she would treat me.

Speaker 4:

So lo and behold, this agent. We grew as great friends and she saw a problem with another investor that she worked with and a problem that I had, and my problem was the lack of capital that came in for the projects that we were looking to complete. This other gentleman came in and said he has no ground people, he has nobody to do the job. A general contractor he can trust, a real estate investing partner that he can trust, because it's hard for him to offer any equity to people he doesn't work with or don't come recommend. It Turns out he's a retired NFL player and he has a lot of money and does a lot of real estate projects and now we partner together on almost a lot of the real estate flips and buying holds that we do. So we're fully integrated with his company now and you know working where he needs us and he comes in and funds the deals that we need. So that was my treat everyone that you can, because you never know when they come back into your life. That's awesome.

Speaker 3:

Nate, let me ask a question. I got one more. If you don't mind me jumping in, I have a follow-up to your previous one, which is you went from you and your partner and then it sounds like this person came in at some point. But how did you get to those 12 people that are on your team? Like, are they salary, are they commission? And if their salary, like, how did you afford to hire them? I'm curious like, from zero to a hundred, how did you bring these people?

Speaker 4:

on. So, luckily for me, my business partner already had a general contracting company that he had started six years prior to us forming Capital Companion. So again luckily, he came in with, you know, I think, two or three guys. The overhead wasn't too expensive. So, to answer your question, it wasn't big coming out of pocket when we had cash flowing assets at the time. But what we did was just expand that. You know, simple, simple. We went into that network of a few guys and said who do you know that wants to work? And it's a really great trusted process.

Speaker 2:

Dude, I love this so much. So so many questions, but this might help frame it up for me personally. So you guys all seem super versatile. You guys are in so many different directions. You're moving, you're grooving, you're doing the thing. What does it look like? Give me, like the next one to three year picture. What areas do you want to focus in? You guys were doing some lending. You guys were talking about doing the student housing. You guys are crushing it and nailing that. Do you guys want to focus on a certain niche or is it? We're really just going to? We see an opportunity. We're going to go in that direction. All 12 of us, no holds barred, just go.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I mean this is. It's an interesting question and, I think, an interesting answer as well, because real estate has been the foundation of our partnership. However, that is not really where we're headed. So we do invest in real estate. Our fix and flips, our buy and holds. They're going to be in our portfolio. That's always going to be a strategy of ours.

Speaker 4:

But we're actually looking at a different direction on kicking off a wholesaling company. So we're trying to extend an arm of our business to start wholesaling and this could, as you guys would know, help find the pipeline for the fix and flips Right. We could take what the best deals are or share those out. And this would deal with a lot of NFL retired guys, because that connection now has brought us many different retired NFL players and ball players that want to earn the same amount of money. They were playing ball but they want to do it in real estate now because they can't run 40 yards anymore as fast as they used to, which I never could.

Speaker 4:

But two of the ways that we're moving forward is we're starting that wholesaling company and then we also have a word is we're starting that wholesaling company and then we also have a strategic hire coming aboard in the next 15 months. So he's going to be our CFO. It was a friend of mine that was in my wedding. He's going to come aboard and start handling our cash position, if you will. So he trades futures and commodities. And the interesting thing that we do here now is I'll tell you we take a project and let's say it costs $100,000 to buy a property which it doesn't anywhere really, but $100,000 and then the carry cost, the taxes, the insurance and utilities everything besides the renovation cost is going to cost you $20,000 or so. Utilities everything besides the renovation cost is going to cost you $20,000 or so.

Speaker 4:

So what we do is that we give this guy that's coming on as CFO, give him $40,000, that we have capital sitting around that we don't need to put into the deal and say, hey, go out there and make us $20,000 to reduce our overhead on this project. He makes 197% average per year with these future trading. He is a CFA. He's one of the smartest people I know. So not only will we reduce the delta of sitting cash, but we're now reducing the overhead expenses on a property flip so that 18% may turn into 37% and that's a flow through and pass through to our investors because then we want to now convert them from that 15 month trial period of him coming aboard to now kicking off a hedge fund. So a long way to explain. Real estate is always going to be in our back pocket. Wholesaling company to now gets more deals in the pipeline but also pay commissions to people that are willing to pound the pavement and then partnerships in the future with the hedge fund creation.

Speaker 3:

I love that. I love that. That is so awesome.

Speaker 2:

Holy shit, cole, you might've jumped in with another question.

Speaker 3:

No, please. You look like you got a question, hit it.

Speaker 2:

I do, I do, I do, I do, pick me, pick me. So when thinking 15 months ahead, bringing this person on and clearly there's going to be some nuances, because he was in your wedding, you know him real well but when thinking of doing a company expansion like that, bringing somebody else in-house in a role of a CFO, what steps actually have to go into it? Because clearly you've got it well thought out on what his role is going to be and you don't have to get into the minute details if you don't want to. But to what extent do you have to go to be able to provide such an amazing offer to say, hey, come and join us, leave what you've got going on, this is what we've got. Because, I mean, it seems like an amazing opportunity. But somebody that's that high up, that's been able to get 197 percent return on everything they've been doing, why would they want to go ahead and transition? Can you fill us in a little bit on that?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it's perfect. Look, and I've known this guy since my finance days. We understand each other, we're best friends, we're the kind of guys that hung out late at night playing N64, drinking beers, right.

Speaker 2:

So this is one of those guys that back when you used to fake it till you made it, you and him were faking it together.

Speaker 4:

In fact, he's the one that showed me how to trade options or use options as a strategy, because I failed the series seven, working in finance originally, and met him because he was my tutor. So he's been smart my entire life that I've known him, of course, and as I say that, it's interesting he is the smartest guy I know, really talented in this space. But the one thing he's not great at is conversing like this, and you'll kind of find that when people have their niche they're so buried in it, they're so focused on it. I know what he's really good at and he knows exactly what I'm really good at. So what this comes down to is hey, I've always believed in you. His name's Steve. I've always believed in you, steve. I know that if I ever had the amount of money, I would invest it with you, and through my career I've seen myself evolve and say you know what? I can raise capital. It's not too hard for me to raise capital, especially if the product's great.

Speaker 4:

So he's missing that capital raise side. He's missing his compensation, how he's going to get paid, what that looks like. He can't operate a hedge fund just based on the returns and take distributions from it and destroy it, right. So we have to raise that. So our deal is hey, 15 month trial period, let's do three months. We'll check in every three months with the balance that we give you to trade. So we gave him half a million to trade of our own capital and we'll check in three months where your progress is at six months, nine months if you're still aboard. Here's where we start to in three months, where your progress is at six months, nine months If you're still aboard. Here's where we start to transition. Here is where Capital Companion starts to look at hedge fund creation. We'll look at all the documents, the legality behind it, get everything filed with the SEC and then, a year later so at that 12-month mark is when he starts to transition from his current W-2 role.

Speaker 4:

In 15 months, we're basically off and running and hopefully the performance stays what it is, but obviously, asterisk, you can't say that it's indicated of what the future holds. But yeah, I mean just staying close and he's providing us performance reports. We have an investor email list that we sent out and just said look, this is our own money. We're putting into it. This is a test phase, a due diligence period. If you will, If you want to stay on this email and you're interested, let us know. If you'd like to be removed, no problem. If we have 10 investors that last that entire 12 months, we know those are the ones that want to invest in this in the future. So it's great for us to plant that seed right now, while we're testing it with our own capital, and we're lucky enough to do that right. We're lucky to have our own capital to do it. Some people aren't in different situations, so their capital may be expensed somewhere, but that's kind of where we see it going.

Speaker 3:

I love that and I love that you gave us the nitty gritty and kind of how that transition process works, because I think a lot of people go like, well, that sounds great, but like how are you doing that? So thanks for explaining that, because it makes such clear sense and it's a great strategy. Like you said, test it yourself, see how it goes and then, based on XYZ, you do the other thing. So that's great. One last question before we go to our next segment is you? One last question before we go to our next segment is? You mentioned a few times now that you raise capital or are able to raise capital, and I want to dive into just kind of your thoughts on how do you raise what's working right now, and I'm asking this from the lens of we do this as well. We've done a lot of raises and we've seen the good, the bad and a lot of people right now are struggling.

Speaker 4:

So if you are raising for your first time, what would you tell somebody, especially right now with the chaos we're in Raising for your first time and what I've been through, and I have another brief story about this. So, again, when I worked on my W-2, I would try to raise capital from different people in my family and my friend network, but there was a one huge roadblock in the way for me raising their money or borrowing their money or taking their money. I wasn't fully in the business. How could they ever trust somebody in my position, getting paid from an external source, to manage their money properly with something I'm not currently doing, at the moment full-fledged. So my story is when I came, when I was released from work or fired but you know better said or let go, I had. My aunt actually was crying. I was waiting for you to do this. I was waiting for you to start your own company. I was waiting for this to happen. Here's money Didn't even ask, didn't ask. And the other people came out of the woodwork too. It was people that I annoyed and bothered in the past.

Speaker 4:

So my recommendation if it is at all possible, be fully in and immersed in what you're doing and prove that to the people that you're asking for the capital from. Can't be a nonchalant. This is what I'm looking for, because I think it'll work it's. I know that I'm going to have this capital back to you by X date. I know I can personal guarantee it. I can do whatever, but I know that this strategy is it because I am dedicated to do it. Do you see me taking money from anybody else? Do you see me getting paid from anybody else? I'm not. This is my livelihood.

Speaker 4:

So, fast forwarding into today's strategy to working with a few of the retired NFL guys. A couple of their questions in the onset was if I'm the funding partner, as the NFL guy and I'm working with you, how can I really trust that you're going to get this done or whatever? My simple answer is this is my livelihood. I have two children at home. You think I'm wasting time on the phone with you to get a $200,000 check or $800,000 check from you, to just spend it all and not ever give you an investment back, and I'm risking everything just on this one conversation. This is how I feed my children. So, all in all, I mean raising capital. You just have to prove to all of your potential investors or LPs, that you are fully immersed in what you're asking for.

Speaker 3:

I love that so good. So many good tips.

Speaker 2:

Wait, can I do one more thing before the next segment? Cool, cool, cool, cool cool. So take me back just a little bit as to like where we're sitting right now, plus maybe like go back three months. What does it look like from a KPI standpoint? Because you guys are in so many different directions and you guys are handling and crushing it in so many different directions when you guys come together, whether you have your weekly, monthly, quarterly meetings, what is it that you guys track to be able to say, okay, we're actually moving the needle forward?

Speaker 4:

It's an interesting question. So, being three years in the business, we just started working with QuickBooks. You know to us for being super late to the game, but we're just starting to track that now. So, from a strategy perspective, that's why my business partner, mark you know he really leads the strategy we call me the tail wagger here, but you know, from my perspective, kpi is simply just how many people can I stay in touch with? Because you never know what a conversation is going to come across to lead you to the next position.

Speaker 4:

So if you're talking about intricate business, wise, I don't really have a great answer for you because I fully stay out of it. I am not in the tracking this side of the numbers and all the situation, even though it's funny because I come from the private equity background. So you think I'd pay attention to that more. But my personality is just so much better used out and gravitating towards the agents, towards the brokers, towards the deal flow and just bringing that all in. So, personally, for me and in business and in life, my KPI is always am I sitting right with this person today?

Speaker 3:

Love it, love it. It's so interesting, go ahead.

Speaker 2:

That was a beautiful answer. I'm with it. I like it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, if it makes you feel any better, I just started QuickBooks and converted literally I don't know a week ago, two weeks ago, and it's a shitstorm, but it is a necessary change. So it's just so funny you say that, because we're going through the same thing. Yeah me too. All right, joe, I think we're going to go into our last segment with you.

Speaker 2:

Nate, how are you feeling? You ready? I'm feeling good, but it's not about me. Joe, we got a surprise for you. Are you ready for this?

Speaker 4:

I guess, so yeah sure.

Speaker 3:

It's going to have to be All right. We asked these six questions to every single guest and we're just going to kind of hang back and ask and not respond. And you can answer short at length whatever you want to do, but here we go. What separates top performing?

Speaker 4:

entrepreneurs from the rest of the crowd.

Speaker 2:

Being backed into a corner.

Speaker 4:

So good. What is a daily habit that's contributed to your success? Not taking the stress of entrepreneurship home to my family?

Speaker 3:

What is a piece of advice that you'd give to yourself if you were starting again?

Speaker 4:

Remain true to who you are from the gate. Know who you are from the gate and lean into that person. People will like you for who you are and that people that don't like you for who you are from the gate. Know who you are from the gate and lean into that person. People will like you for who you are and that people that don't like you for who you are you don't want in your life anyway.

Speaker 2:

Do this every freaking time. Eventually, I'm not going to have to do this, but if you're listening to this, that was a mic drop moment. Stop it. Play this thing all the way over, rewind it. So many nuggets have been dropped, so many gems. Just do yourself a favor. Relist everything, okay. Next question what is your favorite business book?

Speaker 4:

I think, I have it right here. Actually, let me pull it up there. It is dirt rich.

Speaker 1:

I don't know that one.

Speaker 4:

How one ambitiously lazy geek created passive income in real estate without renters, renovations or rehabs. Highly recommend it, Still reading through it.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to order that on Amazon right now. All right, awesome. What is your favorite part of owning your business?

Speaker 4:

Freedom to enjoy life as it is around me. I think the big issue that I had was always hearing about how kids grow up too fast and life passes you by too fast. Entire stressors of entrepreneurship and real estate investment and private equity and BC investing. I'm still so happy that I don't have somebody calling my phone demanding them of my time.

Speaker 2:

And outside of QuickBooks, because I knew that was going to be a quick answer, no pun intended. What is something new that you've implemented into your business that's helped drive success?

Speaker 4:

That's a tough one. I would say QuickBooks is that answer, but I won't give you that right Implemented into my business, I don't know. I mean, I think, well, I'll say this, at year end 2024, my business partner and I prior to that, our company and put me back into the role that I was supposed to be in the entire time, and again, that's what being a tail wagger is. So he said you are the reason that this business grows, I'm the reason that it remains sustainable and keeps operating. So at the end of 2024, I wouldn't say it's a new system or process, but the reminding yourself of where you belong in your business was absolutely important for us and very pertinent.

Speaker 3:

That's awesome. That's awesome. This has been so good. I mean going back from your whole story of going to Vintner, seeing this beautiful house and going how at 16, and hearing it's real estate and going, okay, I got to get into this one way or another. Then you started house hacking at 22. And you kind of got into the PM in quote roles you know, just the manager, and I love that little tip. It's so helpful. I do the same thing now. And then you did the house hack again and again and eventually you had to upgrade for your wife, and I think that's awesome because that's such a life upgrade. And then you started partnering with others and creating this business. Of course, you had that crazy phone call which, seems like you know, changed your life in a way, and now, with a team of 12, growing forward. So that is so awesome all of it. I have two actually three in this case final questions for you. One where can people find you? And then I'm going to ask you the other two.

Speaker 4:

Sure, we're on Instagram under Capital Companion LLC. You'll see some of the highlights of our projects, and then we have a website as well capitalcompanioncom.

Speaker 3:

Love it. My last two questions are one that you mentioned that I just want to get an answer to because I think it's so relatable, is a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with that not bringing it home piece. And you said that one of the things that helps your success is not bringing your entrepreneur struggles, feelings, et cetera, home to the family. So one, can you answer? What does that look like for you? How do you do that, Whether it's mentally, physically, whatever it is, how do you step out? And then two, any final advice in general?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, Number one, it is a physical thing for me. So I put my phone down. I'm sure people say this all the time, right, but it's about remaining strict through it. So, phone face down on the kitchen counter, away from the kitchen table, away from the den, and I do keep it on loud. And the reason I keep it on loud, though, is because I want to be tested that if I hear this go off and off and off and off, that I can remain sound in what I'm doing. Because if I don't and then the one day I do keep it on loud then I hear something and it completely changes my direction.

Speaker 4:

So, physically, I will put my phone down, I'll keep it on loud, I can keep tabs in the back of my mind on how many people are reaching out at the moment, but definitely stay focused on my family and care about what they're doing in their life. The one question I guess this could answer your second part too your second question is the one piece of advice I would give this is family entrepreneurship sales is tell me about your day today. So I asked my daughter that. I asked my wife that my son's too small to know what I'm saying to him, but he'll smile at me when I ask him and that's a good day. So the reason I say that is it creates interest in other people's lives and you make the connection every single day if you're with them, and I think that's very important to nurture relationships.

Speaker 2:

Yo, this has been amazing, brother. There has been so much that we covered. There's so many commonalities and similarities between your story and our stories as well, and I don't know if you knew this, but I'm also a father. I've got a son who's going to be 12 in the next couple of weeks, and then a daughter who will be four in the next couple of weeks. So, hearing from your perspective, and then especially figuring out a way that systematically works, that you can compartmentalize work and then home life, and being able to keep that balance and being able to still be able to every day operate at full capacity but then go home and be able to still pour into the entire family to help energize them and be able to help them keep going.

Speaker 2:

Dude, hats off to you, brother. This has been amazing. Thank you so much. Our house is your house. I would love to be able to see in the next couple of years how much your company has thrived. We want to have you back here, back on stage, in Forged in Fire. But again, we appreciate you, man. Thank you.

Speaker 4:

Sounds good guys. Yeah, I had a great time. Thank you so much for having me both of you Awesome.

Speaker 2:

Anytime. Well, if you are listening and you are driving, get home safely. Thank you guys. So much for tuning into Forged in Fire. Until next time. We'll talk to you guys soon. Take care time.

Speaker 1:

We'll talk to you guys soon, take care. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Forged in Fire. If you enjoyed today's raw, unfiltered stories, don't forget to like, subscribe and leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more real-world insights to entrepreneurs like you. Be sure to join us next time for even more lessons, struggles and breakthroughs on the road to success. Keep forging ahead.