00:00

Today's conversation is sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor and you want to know about how we're helping other accredited investors keep more of their income, go to firstgencp.com forward slash going long. My friend who's in social work, you know, all of a sudden started making, you know as much money as he's making in his day job from investing in some of my real estate deals. And it was, it was truly incredible to see that like a good friend, make great money, and he's in social work like, real estate's a world he just does not know. You're listening to the going long podcast with Billy keels, the number one podcast for long distance real asset investing.

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00:42

Welcome to the wrong podcast, we're back once again to continue to help to educate you so you feel much more comfortable as well as confident investing beyond your backyard. And yes, I'm your host, Billy keels, and we are back for another one of these exciting conversations. Because today, you get your pen and paper out, I'm just telling you right up front, because it's gonna be awesome. For that, though, thank you so much for continuing to tag us for continuing to share across social media. Really, really appreciate it LinkedIn and Instagram, you're really, really active over there. So thank you for sharing it. If you're looking to leave an honest, written review, gotta just go ahead and do it. It's really, really simple. Just even if you need a little bit of help on the Apple or Spotify platforms, you can go directly to the link in the video, and we have a nice little tutorial can walk you through that. Also, too, if you're looking to check out any of the previous 300 Plus episodes, just go to first gen cp.com forward slash podcasts. Once again, it's first ncp.com forward slash podcasts. And you can find out all of the goodness in the way that we are both having every single podcast that has ever been out. But listen to this. If you are

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01:45

wanting to learn how you can build a successful business, maybe you don't come from a family of entrepreneurs, but you want to leverage the experience of others. And even sometimes when you have to make very difficult decisions in your life, like when everybody wants you to go left you go right. What is that process like? And more importantly, when you are looking to continue to build your portfolio so that it provides you not just the income, but the freedom that comes along with that, then you're really going to enjoy today's guest. Today's guest is the President at Ashlynn capital. We're going to get to the conversation with Alex Cogan. And we're going to do that just after this.

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02:21

Are you a busy high paid professional, someone who's made $200,000 The previous two years and also expected to earn $200,000 This year, or maybe as a couple you file jointly and you've earned $300,000, the previous two years and also expected to earn $300,000 together this year, or maybe yourself or as a couple, you have a million dollars in net worth not including your home. Well, if you meet any of those criteria, then the IRS considers you to be someone who is an accredited investor. And so that probably means you're a top producing software sales executive, or maybe you're a highly paid consultant, maybe you're a lawyer, maybe you're a doctor or a business owner, you may even work for professional sports franchise, but one way or the other, you've done a lot of really hard work to get to where you are, you've done 100% of the work. And nowadays you're continuing to get crushed by taxes and that means you're only bringing home 50% of the reward. If you're tired of doing this over and over and you're looking for a solution to start to keep more of your money, you can go to first gen cpa.com forward slash invest so that you can start to keep more of your money which means that you can start to have the freedom to choose what you want to do when you want to do it with whom you want to do it. So once again go to first gen cpx.com Ford slash invest to see how we can start to help you today. Once again that's first gen cp.com Ford slash invest.

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03:39

So you know what if you want to understand how specialisation and relationship building can supercharge your long distance investing success, then guess what? Today's the conversation you're going to want to listen to until the bear re last word. I promise. I promise I promise I promise today. You know why? Because today's guest not only began his successful career Early on, as the President of a building company, and I think he may have even done something just before that but I'm going to keep a lid on that for the moment. He also today focuses on serving others through value add multifamily, as well as student housing. That's the specialisation key and he takes keen interest in surrounding himself with other positive doers gives me great pleasure to welcome to today's conversation, the president of Ashland capital, Mr. Alex Cogan, Alex, welcome the show. Hey, Billy, glad to be here. Hey, listen, man, I'm really, really looking forward to today's conversation. I'm just realising there's a couple of things that I you know, when you and I didn't talk about but, you know, I think you're gonna be despite on this show. We'd like to ask everybody at least five questions. You're gonna get two questions in the beginning. And then you're going to get three questions in the end. And then between Alex you're going to get a bunch of questions that I don't know. I'm going to ask them but they're going to be based on your responses. But the very first question to help us understand

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05:00

Gonna get to know a little bit more about you as you can help us understand where is it that you reside in the US.

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05:07

So I live in Chicago live in a suburb of Chicago, called Wilmette, and we office out of the north side of Chicago. All right, fantastic. Chicago, I always like to.

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05:18

Well, I've got a number of friends that are there in the area. So Chicago, Illinois, a fellow midwesterner question number two, something that I'm a big fan of positivity, Alex, and I always want to find out from our special guests, and today, you're our special guest, what's the most positive thing that's happened to or for you in the last 24 hours?

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05:39

last 24 hours,

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05:42

my kid won back to back basketball games. And I've never seen him with as much confidence as I have yesterday, when he did that, that was pretty amazing. I have an eight year old, who is obsessed with basketball.

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05:59

I've got it. I've got two older kids, too, that are absolutely obsessed. I know what that feels like. And so thank you very much for sharing that positivity. And when you see your kids, and they're just on top of their game, and emotionally and physically assists absolutely fantastic. So really appreciate you sharing that with us. Alex, I'm going to share a little something about myself with you. And that is, I'm a recovering perfectionist. And what that means is sometimes it has me do things that are really unrealistic, because I like to set the bar really, really high. So trying to tell your entire backstory in like a one and a half second opening is something that's absolutely impossible to do. So I was really hoping you could help me out by sharing your backstory, in your own words. And also, if you could help us to understand what are some of the major decisions that you've made to get to this point in your journey, and then we'll see where you and I take the conversation from there. But I will say one thing, I kind of set you up to share something maybe very special that most people don't know about you. But I'll just kind of leave it there. So please help us understand your backstory and talk about some of the major decisions, please. Sure.

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07:08

You know, I think it's good to start with, I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family. So what I saw every day is my parents, my brother, everybody as an independent entrepreneur hustling, starting their own businesses, and never having, you know, it would most was called conventional jobs working for a corporation. So I think that's where it starts. And in a way that built tremendous amount of confidence in me to be able to do that. It seemed like a natural, although I did have a pivot that you so graciously set me up for. And, you know, I think because I saw that, and I saw certainly the benefits and the cons of that lifestyle. I was I was the kid who, you know, not kid, I guess I should say, but you know, young adult at that point that said, you know, maybe I don't want to follow in the family footsteps, maybe I don't want to be in real estate construction development, which is what my family did. And maybe I want to do something that's more rewarding, at least on a, you know, spiritual and giving back sort of

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08:16

dynamic. So I decided to teach high school and, you know, they travelled a bit taught overseas, but ultimately landed teaching high school. First in, in Chicago as a student teacher, and then a Navajo Reservation.

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08:34

In, in, in Arizona, so almost like a Peace Corps experience teaching high school, as you can imagine, a Navajo reservation was not your, your typical, typical job. So I did that, that for a year and a half and had, you know, a great experience. But ultimately, it was not the life that I wanted. You know, it was it was rewarding in many ways, but challenging, in as many ways. So

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09:01

I, you know, I was I was trying to figure out, you know, who and what I wanted to be. And although I wanted to save the world and have that kind of young, dumb romantic vision, I decided to actually go back to the, to my my roots, and started a construction development company in 98, after I quit teaching after about a year and a half, so that that's, that's when it started. So I went, you know, I sort of

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09:28

had the confidence, you know, started my own businesses went a different direction, and then ultimately had the confidence to say, you know, I really do want to work for myself, and just jump right in. I went to work for somebody else for a year, and then started my company.

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09:46

Wow, there's a lot that we can unpack from just, you know, getting to the point where you started your own company, and I know there have been different versions of that as well. Right, different ventures, but I'm just curious, like, I just want to know because Inquiring minds want to know. So you're sir

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10:00

roundabout entrepreneurs growing up, like you said something that it gave you the confidence to go and go out and do that. Whereas I'm thinking probably the majority of people are listening are gone. That just completely would have scared me because you had no experience, you had nothing, even though you'd been surrounded by it. And so I'm curious.

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10:22

I'm not just about that. Well, actually, that's kind of setting up the question. I'm more interested, because you were surrounded by entrepreneurs, which is not the quote unquote, norm. What in the world did the family like, you're not the family, but you're the people you were surrounded by when you decided to go into education? Because that's literally at the other end of the spectrum. Yeah, well, there was a split decision.

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10:47

But my dad was disappointed. Because my dad is a true was his past and what a true, you know, capitalist and, and there's another layer to this. So my family actually emigrated from Russia.

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11:02

Eve, to be more exact today, it's kind of crazy.

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11:06

But back then it was the former Soviet Union. So my dad brought us so that we can have opportunity. So we can be entrepreneurs, so we didn't have to get stuck, you know, in what was back then former Soviet Union.

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11:20

So for him, when I told him, I wanted to be a teacher, it was a bit of a letdown, you know, my dad,

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11:26

you know, in his, in his Russian accent was oh, you could be lawyer, you could be doctor, you could be this good. You know, so he wanted that for me. And a lot of sort of his view on success was monetarily driven. Of course, my mom, on the other hand, she is the more sort of compassionate and, you know, so she, she was excited from you said, this is great, you know, if this is what you want to do, and this is going to make you happy, fantastic. With the caveat, I hope you can make enough money to live.

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12:03

So, so really, that that was a response. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate that, because it's one of those things where, you know, you go you make decisions in life, and

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12:14

typically others are affected by the decision that you make, but

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12:18

very few times are we saying, Well, okay, well, how did that influence you one way or the other? Ultimately, you made the decision to do that. I find it very interesting, Alex, that you

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12:28

that when you were teaching you, did you, you taught at a Navajo Reservation you taught internationally. And in Chicago, so you brought in also very unique perspectives to this very classic, what I would say type of overall, what was your motivation behind to kind of do that, especially in Navajo Reservation? And internationally? Yeah, no, good question. So I guess what I left out is,

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12:53

through my early and mid 20s, all I do is travel around the world, I was, you know, obsessed with seeing the world and having experiences. So I taught in Taiwan, I would spend six to 12 months overseas, you know, backpacking, but it was it was more than, you know, I mean, just sort of like leisure, it was like, I really wanted to immerse myself in the culture, and take, you know, language classes and drumming classes and everything, you know, to really experience a culture. So

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13:24

when I realised that I wanted to be I was ready, so to speak, to start on my career path. You know, it seemed like, you know, teaching at a reservation was a combination of both, it was a cultural experience, but it was starting on my path of being an educator. And, you know, truth be told them a little bit of off the beaten path kind of guy, you know, everybody's going left, I'm going right. So it felt right. To me, it felt a little bit of a, this is back to the young and down perceptions, but it seemed to me to be a sell out to go, you know, teach in a middle class suburb of Chicago or wherever. So I had to do something a little bit more different.

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14:07

Something that's different, something that was more in line with your values. And it's interesting, I hear you, as I, as I hear you saying these words, I'm thinking, Well, I'm a guy who's originally from Columbus, Ohio have been extremely fortunate worked and travelled throughout 86 countries. You know, I've spent the last 22 years living in Europe, between France, Italy, and Spain. And there is something about having that international experience that really give really opens your mind to the creating the new art of the possible, right, because if you're going doing the same thing that everybody else did all the time, well, then that starts to form your worldview. And when you take these different forms of different points of view, and at least it challenged your mindset a little bit and helps you to grow.

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14:50

Speaking of which, I don't know if many people have asked you this question but because of the because of who you are, and because of the the impact that you're continue

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15:00

didn't make on others. I'm just curious, like,

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15:03

a lot of the outputs that we get are due to the inputs that we receive. And so where do you typically like to bring your sources of?

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15:13

Let's say your sources of the new reality or your sources of truth? What are those typically come from for you?

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15:22

You know, they come from several different places. I mean, I'm part of some professional groups, where I'm surrounded by super successful entrepreneurs, and in mostly, you know, incredible people. In fact, the group, I'm part of what's called Tiger 21. And when I was introduced to it, I was very intimidated, because it's, it's really super ultra high net worth

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15:47

group of guys. And I said, you know, like, I'm wealthy. But you know, when I heard there's billionaires in the group, I'm not at that level. And frankly, I don't ever want to be at that level. So

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15:57

I was really intimidated. But there is one thing that the chair person said, and he said, we don't let I mean, yes, there's a minimum sort of net worth criteria, but we don't let the typical rich jerk into the group, we're really focused on just really humble quality people that want to give back that want to support all the members and build a tremendous community of friends and mentors, and just a great network. And that's, that's ultimately what what

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justified me, you know, committing the resources and time to do it. So that's a group that that really serves me well. And, you know, it's basically a board of directors, that, whether it's business or personal looks you in the face and say, Hey, I don't think you're holding up your end of the bargain here, like you need to do XYZ, or on a personal front, you know, you keep saying you want to spend more time with your kid, you got to do it, you can't talk about it. So those are the kinds of inputs, as you phrase that really served me well. And then, you know, I think,

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17:03

on a more informal level, it's, it's your friends and your family, you know, that wants to turn the mirror on you and say,

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17:12

are you doing what you really want to do here.

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17:16

And so I want to go on long family to really pay attention to what Alex just stated, he gave me two different sources of inputs, right, and he's giving his own example.

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17:28

But what I'm also taking from is they both are based on relationships, people were probably thinking you were gonna say, some kind of news source or some kind of website. But at the end of the day, the things that we do,

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17:41

are heavily influenced and based on the relationships that we have, that we create, and that we nurture. And so I appreciate you sharing that with us in terms of the inputs, that you that you also have it to help you create your source of, of your truth. So

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18:03

another thing I want to pivot a little bit Alex and I know you are helping people, and we talked about specialisation in the very beginning, and you've chosen to not only nurture relationships, and that's something that's very important for you both with family and externally.

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18:17

But also to your helping people I know specifically, you've got an area where we're where Ashley capital is, is helping others kind of in two different areas of specialisation. Today, you talk about that, and kind of how that is evolved in why you've chosen these two areas of specialisation. Sure.

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18:37

You know, in terms of helping people that's truly the way it started. I mean, I was helping myself by investing in real estate and I, as soon as I started my construction and development company, you know, we were building for people, we were developing real estate. And then with those funds, I was buying any kind of rentals that I can get my hands on and back then we call the college rentals. I was in Colorado for 20 years. That's where I started my company.

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19:03

Fort Lewis College was there. So it was a natural for me to rent to college students. And I had a really great experience doing that. And over the course of the years, you know, a few friends were like, hey, you know, you know what you're doing, obviously, can I invest with you, and let's buy a rental. And I really resisted resisted it for many, many years, just because I didn't want to cross that line between friends in any kind of business. I've had some intersections of that throughout the years with working with with my own family, and you know, there was good and bad, so very conscious of that. Anyways, I fast forward 20 years and I had bought a bunch of real estate built my own portfolio, we self managed it, it was a bunch of scattered sites, smaller assets, and it just became very challenging. But towards the end of that run, more and more people kept asking, can we invest? And as long as you know, they recognise that I was the lead. I didn't have you know

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20:00

maintain active daily partners. I started taking in a few bucks here and there, so to speak.

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20:07

And it was great because they're like, Man, this is amazing, you know, my friend who's in social work, you know, all of a sudden started making, you know, as much money as he's making in his day job from investing in some of my real estate deals. And it was, it was truly incredible to see that, like, a good friend, make great money, and he's in social work like, you know, real estate's a world he just does not know. So that's how it started. And,

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20:33

you know, I could tell you more details of how that pathway but but that's how it started. Okay. And that started you down the path both in the student housing and then from the the multifamily value add was just was it just a build on from that? Or was it just because you had taken, you've seen that you could take it to the next level.

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20:52

It was both simultaneously. So I had college, I had, I had apartments, I had single family homes,

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20:59

commercial, so I had a bunch of different real estate, I think, the real pivot happened in about 2017 18, where I decided to sell the entire portfolio. And then I really started buying larger institutional assets. And that's when I got comfortable with taking in truly outside money, where all the sudden, your friend is referring a co worker, and their friends and family, etc. And that that's when sort of the official syndication model started. Okay. And it's different levels, but I kind of watched the smile, and hopefully you see the smile on Alex Alex's face when he mentioned that, you know, for a while, and it was very similar to me, Alex, I didn't feel comfortable. Because I didn't grow up with money. So I never usually I saw people fighting over money. And so the last thing I wanted to do in my life was mixed family, friends, specifically friends and money. I was like, No way. I'm absolutely doing that. Not even close. And when people continue to come back and say, Hey, listen, like you're explaining what you're doing. You seem to have a lot of control over this. And you know what's going on, and I've got this money is sitting there in the bank. I know you I trust you. I like you, but I was like, Sorry, man, I can't do it. And so it was a years of saying no, no, no. And eventually, you get to a point where you say, Okay, well, yeah, I want to professionalise this, I want to make this something that can can truly add value to others.

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22:24

Trusting that you're enjoying today's conversation. And you know, if you're tired of getting crushed by taxes, and you're looking for greater freedom, to be able to choose what you want to do, when you want to do it, make sure that you go to first ncp.com Ford slash going long, and see how we can help you today, let's get back to the conversation.

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22:40

Maybe you could expand a little bit on that, because I know that as you are helping others the approach to that really busy like the person I used to be right I was a super busy exec and, uh, you know, flying all over Europe, Middle East and Africa managing $100 million business. It felt good, but I knew that that was going to like, there was a certain moment that that was gonna have to stop, because I couldn't keep I didn't want to keep doing it for such a long time. But that person who's so used to having so much control during the day, and then an outside they weren't looking for something new. But as a passive investor is a portion of control you you lose. But they're feeling trapped in between, like they want to do it, but they they're still the day jobs pulled, how do you help that person to get clear on, you know, what would potentially be the right decision for themselves?

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23:28

You know, there's no right answer. You know, I think what I try to do when I when we have an investor call and somebody wants to know, you know, should they continue owning, you know, a handful of rentals, or should they invest in multifamily? I give them my story of where I was that guy, I had a handful of rentals that I had a handful more, a handful more, and I got to where I got, but you know, the the process was painful, you learn what to do, you learn what not to do. But at the end of the day, when I look back, I wish I would have started with larger institutional assets a lot sooner.

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24:03

I don't like to look, look in the rearview mirror. But if that's one takeaway, I wish I would have done that. So I try to explain to them that it's, it's just another option, it's an option that provides them a great tax advantage, it's an option that provides them that eliminates the headache factor. They're not because they're not the ones that are going to get the phone calls, you know, the toilets running and this or that. So, you know, once you start talking through the pain points of what doing it themselves means and then the time that they're taking away from their day job or their business, whatever they're doing, it starts to resonate, and that that ultimately are all the things that I went through, you know, if I would have created a roadmap and strategically strategically said this is the way you should allocate your time from this business to that business, I would have been much more efficient in growing faster but again, I'm I'm extremely grateful for where I am but but that's

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25:00

That's the, that's the message. So if if that resonates with people, great, they invest with us, and they get addicted, they, you know, refer their friends. But I'm not one to try to convince anybody of anything if it resonates great, you know, in this as such, this is what I should have just like the hair standing up on the back of my neck. Like, that's perfect. Because

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25:24

I would say it's about how do you help someone make an informed decision, because there is no, you don't convince people of stuff, right, you just give them share your story, the things that have happened to you. And one of the things that you also mentioned, and I think we tend to under estimate, especially when you're in the in the in this, in these high paid roles, working in big companies, which I am a big fan of big companies I was there 26 years and got a lot of really positive things out of them is we tend to under value, our time, and the amount of time that it would take you to have and speaking from experience it takes to manage 20, some odd properties and you're getting calls all hours of the day in the night, and you're getting a you know, $40 or 40 Euro issue fixed. But your time is worth probably 10 times more than that. And you tend to underestimate like, hang on a second, you just took an hour out of your time to go fix a $40 problem. But if you look at it, what is your dollar per hour, and that was just something that doesn't work. So it's not convincing. It's just helping people to have a different perspective on the way that they are most effectively in this what I really loved about what you said is how are you leveraging your time to be able to do the things that are the most important? Yeah, absolutely. It's amazing how many doctors and lawyers that are making half a million to a couple million a year, are collecting rents, and they're doing these things and, you know, they don't really stop to realise that they couldn't be spending that time with their, with their family, which is invaluable. For they could be, you know, reading another contract and at $1,000 an hour. So that's it. That's it? Well listen to appreciate you sharing that I wanted to come back, like on this distance thing. Because I know a lot of times people are like, Well, you gotta live in the same place. And yeah, I'm not saying you can't do that. Because I know a lot of people are extremely successful, they have one location, and they are the master of that location. And that's it. But like, if I just go to someone goes to your website, they say, well, you're very active today, in 11 different, I will call them locations, and you have 15 other target locations. So you're actively looking to go into other geographies. And sometimes people may think well hang on a second, you got to just be the master of the area that you're in. Talk to us about that whole geographic freedom in terms of where you're investing in. I mean, as for your company, but also for that person that maybe has always heard real estate, even if you invest with somebody else, it's gotta be right where you can drive by and see it.

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28:00

Yeah, I mean, I think if you have a structure, and you're not a solopreneur, and you have staff, and you have systems and processes, and the key here is and you have the right partners, whether that be a property management group that really know the market, we don't just dive in, I mean, we may have a target market, that means publicly, we're open to looking at a deal there. So if a broker or somebody off market sends us, we'll look at it. But we're very careful how we enter a market, we need to know that, for example, that our property management group has a presence there, we vet the market, we study the market. There's so much data out there, that, you know, we can understand the trends, the demographics, the rent comps, the employment drivers, the population growth from our computer, of course, there's nothing like being on the ground, which we do, but we feel comfortable doing it. We've got great partners in our property management groups. I have guys on my team that came from property management.

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29:07

I've got guys on my team that came from Blackstone, that are used to just mining data, and crunching every possible metric, you know, really sophisticated models and aggregation of that data to figure out where should we invest. So from a distance standpoint, we're comfortable. But, you know, as you said, it's important to be on the ground. So my guys are on planes, I'm on planes, and we visit our properties regularly. So we have a really good pulse. So it can be done is done by many, many people. And so,

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29:43

you know, it's very similar to what you said before, at the end of the day. It's not just through theory, it's from actually being on the ground, and it's having the right systems, the right, the people and the right processes in place in order to to once again

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30:00

leverage a geography provided that once you set it also, it's really about the relationships, do you have the right relationships, the right experience for the specific model that you have, and also that you're ultimately your your investors will also feel comfortable with and be able to make informed decisions around that. So,

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30:22

you know,

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30:23

the only other thing I just as I guess, would say, is there anything else that you would like to share about what you've got? What's happening at national capitol that that you haven't talked about that you kind of like, you know, what, Billy, I think, based on this conversation is something else I'd like to share with you. Before we get into the final three. Sure. I mean, I think I'd like to just add that, you know, we are, you know, there's a whole craziness and disruption of the debt markets and real estate going on. And a lot of people are scared, which, which, you know, there's sort of justification to be concerned and look at your portfolio and understand what's going on. We actually see as an opportunity, when we think there's great opportunities, we have a deal under contract and Phoenix and unfortunately for them, it's a forced seller because they made some bad decisions. And they're younger sponsors, and we're not well capitalised, we're buying at a great basin. So that's an example of what's happening, right? We want to be on the, on the right side of that we want to be well capitalised, we want to find those opportunities. And instead of them going to the bank, we want to buy them. So we're, we're super excited about I think, what's to come. And I think it would be a small window.

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31:34

And then our student housing, you know, a lot of people over over the pandemic thought, well, you know, people can go to school online, or if you don't need higher education. Well, if you look at the data, it's amazing that

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31:48

enrollment is growing tremendously at the right schools, rent growth is off the charts at the right schools. So the fundamentals and dynamics of student housing couldn't be better. There's a consolidation with a smaller schools with less emphasis on education and athletic programmes they're suffering, and those students just pivot and go to a larger school. So there is that kind of reshuffling going on. So, you know, that's, that's what we're excited about today are our student housing in conventional portfolio and the opportunities that disruption in this market could provide, you know,

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32:27

to your point, I mean, whenever there is disruption, there is, of course, the the chaos that comes along with that. And it also creates opportunities and being able to have the clear focus, the teams, the processes and the systems in place, then you put yourself in a position to be able to positively take advantage of the current situation. So I think that makes things it makes a lot of sense. Then Alex, you know what the thing is, we kind of have to get to the goal along final three. And I never asked any of our special guests today are our special guests. The Golden final three, unless you tell me that you're ready. So are you ready? Let's do it. I mean, everything about you is like, Dude, I was born ready. Of course, let's go ahead and do this. So it's really, these three are all for you. They're gonna be super simple, because you're extremely well travelled. So we started with you over in Chicago. And although I'm from the Midwest, I've been calling your home since 2001. So depending on when you're listening to this, you'll know how many years

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33:29

I would really love for you to share with us. What is your favourite European city that you've either visited or still on your bucket list to visit Alex?

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33:39

White won't call it a city, but I'll call it a region. Tuscany is one of my favourite places I spent.

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33:47

I spent on page eight myself here, but I spent my 50th birthday recently.

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33:52

biking through Tuscany in a

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33:55

perfect combination of biking, culture and food. Yeah, I'm assuming there was probably no glasses of one.

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34:05

Ever. Never zero. Yeah. Okie dokie. So that's number one. And well, I'll let you go with the region. So we can go with dusk and hit the scanner?

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34:14

Second question is I usually have a like a big thing around this, but I'm just gonna ask you directly because one of the things that happens as we are taking more action is we tend to either and it depends on how you look at it. You may say you made a mistake, or you had a learning opportunity or you had a seminar, you had something like that, right? But whatever you were trying to do, it didn't actually work out. So in between that there was a lesson that was learned. So I don't want you to think about what the mistake was. I really want you to think about what was the lesson that you learned from an action that you took in the past? That you know by sharing that lesson today that you're going to help so many people moving forward? What's that one lesson you want to share with us?

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34:55

You know, for me, it goes back to something we touched on earlier in the episode

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35:00

And that is not mixing family and business. And in many people, Ken and I love the romantic sort of sentiment about having family businesses. But for me, I think it's a risk and not a risk worth taking. And I've taken it and we've navigated through it well, but when you're in it, it's not good. And for me, that's the biggest lesson is just don't mix the two, don't mix it to.

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35:29

Well, we'll have to talk about that one, that one, but we'll do that one off camera.

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35:34

And then lastly, and this will be easy for you as well. I always like to fill our minds with knowledge before you go. And I would love for you to share just one book, like what's one book recommendation can be whatever you want it to be that, you know, be helpful. So I'm not going to give you a book, but I'm gonna give you what what I'm doing, you know, outside of real estate and business. And that is a lot of nutrition and exercise. Education, so listening to a lot of books, and a lot of podcasts on supplements on exercise, and diet. And, and that's not something I've consistently done. And it's something I've done in the last few years. And it's been a game changer for me on so many levels. So

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36:20

my my my comments are just don't get stuck head down, building a business. Don't forget, you need the biggest best tool you have is you in a healthy, healthy state of mind and a healthy physical state. So

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36:36

that's my, I did enough. But right now, I appreciate that. And so we'll take, we'll take that on board, because it is something that is extremely important.

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36:47

And it makes me well also just make me think about the very beginning of this conversation where you're telling us about being a member of an entrepreneurial family. And you're seeing all of you know, family, friends go down that path, you decide, hey, look, you know, they're hustling, they're doing all this stuff. And well, you kind of get started and then you're like, you know what, actually, maybe I want to do something completely different. And not only do you travel around the world, but you decide that you want to do something that is completely at the other end of the spectrum, which is being a teacher, but not just a teacher in any place, but decided to do it internationally and decided to do it in Chicago. And then you also decided to do it in a Navajo Reservation. But, you know, kind of pulled you back to your roots, you say, hey, look, I tried it, at least I tried, it doesn't work for me, got back into your groove into the hustle and into the business building and into leading teams of people. And you know, you get to a point even when you're in Colorado, they thought okay, well, you're gonna continue to buy up your own assets, you're gonna get this business started and come through, you're hustling, you're doing all this stuff. And then you realise like, hang on a second. There's a lot of different things going on a lot of different assets, how about I pack this whole thing up, get started a new way and go bigger, and make a larger impact in other places. Always at the base based on the conversation that you're sharing with us today. It's the thing about being able to have continued specialised knowledge. And also being able to focus on building relationships and investing your time in the place that makes the most that makes the most sense. And whether it's the way that you are learning and growing and giving to others, as you talked about today at Tiger 21 As a member there, but also, more importantly, what you're doing to Ashland capitol, helping to educate others to be able to, you know, free up more of their time. So ultimately, they can do the things that they really want to do. And so I know that my entire going on families thinking to themselves, Billy, just ask him the question, please. So I want to ask you the question, Alex, how is it that the going long family can find out more about you and more about what you've got going on at Ashland capital?

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38:43

Yeah, reach out anytime. So my email is Alex with an eye al IX at Ashland capital fund.com. And our website, of course, is that Ashland capital fund.com, National Capital fund.com. So check him out. He's even giving you his email address. So

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39:02

feel free to reach out and connect with Alex. So in his team, Alix. So listen, Alex, on behalf of the entire going long family, man, I really would just like to say thank you very much for deciding to invest your time with me with us today. So thank you very much. Yeah, no, thanks. Enjoy it. Alright, perfect. If you can give me like 15 seconds, I'll have you out here. Listen, go along family, Alex shared it all he shared, you know, the his life experience, how he's helping others the things that he's doing to continue to grow, to leverage time, even in this chaotic environment that we're living in today. He's recognising that by having the right people, processes and systems in place that there is an opportunity to continue to add value to others. So take today's conversation, share it with a couple other people have the conversation go from the theory, put it into practice, heck, reach out to Alex and his team. And while you're doing that, I'll be here preparing for the next conversation. So until then go out and make it a great day. And thank you very much

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40:00

Trust did you enjoy today's conversation and once again, today's conversation was sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor and want to find out more about how we're helping accredited investors to gain their personal freedom even faster, go to firstgencp.com forward slash going long.

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