From Wholesaling Houses to Building Apartments – How Mentorship & Profit First Helped Casey Ames Scale Multiple Businesses

Episode 77: From Wholesaling Houses to Building Apartments – How Mentorship & Profit First Helped Casey Ames Scale Multiple Businesses

THE PROFIT FIRST REI PODCAST

MAR 04, 2022 

David Richter

Maximizing your profit in real estate will amplify your business to a whole new level!

Casey Ames is the President and founder of Taylor Jene Homes. The journey to his career began when his parents started their own real estate business. At first, he thought that he wasn’t exactly the right fit for the real estate world, but he tried anyway. Now, Casey is doing great things in the field and is always one step ahead in coaching his students to pursue their real estate dreams. His upbringing, morals and drive to inspire others make him a force to be reckoned with. 

Today, we get a chance to sit down with him as he brings valuable insights to the table. 

Key Takeaways

[1:39] An overview of Casey and how he started his real estate journey?

[8:12] How can you maximize profits within a good amount of time?

[19:27] His take on making sacrifices to get to your end goal

[19:47] How can we leverage time to get the most dollars?

[29:47] Why is it important to stay hyper focused on what you are working on to make more impact in your life?

Quotes

[5:07] “Build value for people.”

[5:32] “To create value, you have to give more than you expect in compensation.”

[22:48] “You talk your problems up a ladder, not down the ladder and not across the table.”

[32:42] “Don’t get caught up in the scale. Get good at what you are doing and amplify it as you move forward.”

Links

Want to make and keep more money in your business?

If you want help implementing Profit First in your business, you can go here to book a no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you worked so hard to make. 

– David



Transcription


David Richter:

Hey everyone. It is David Richter here again on the Profit First REI podcast. Have another special episode. The client episode series here of SimpleCFO, and I’m excited to have Casey Ames on here today because he is an incredible real estate investor. I think doing something where I’m not sure if we’ve had anyone on here before that’s in luxury homes and doing those, and it is incredible. He just got done with one about a month ago, I think, where it was basically a castle. I mean, it was awesome to look at, and I’ll have him talk a little bit about that and his journey there.

 

But the other thing about Casey is he’s a family man. This is something that resonates with me to my core because I love my daughter. I love my wife. I love my family and he loves his family. It’s evident on social media. But then I’ve seen him behind the scenes too, at actual events and stuff with his family. He brings his family. They have a great time together, and just awesome to see they’ve got such a great tight-knit there. And Casey, really excited to have you on today.

 

Casey Ames:

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it.

 

David Richter:

Thanks for being here, man. So let’s talk about this. I mean, let’s talk about your real estate journey. Tell people who you are, how you got into the luxury homes. What were you doing before? Just give us the high-level journey there.

 

Casey Ames:

I was serving tables. No joke. So I mean, I think everyone has a path and we all start out doing our hourly jobs or whatever it is with these hopes to do something bigger. And I never really knew what it was. Everyone always pressed me to go work in the corporate world and I just am not a good employee at the end of the day. I could do good. I would do good for the companies. I would do well for the companies and stuff, but I just always felt stifled, I guess, is a great way to put it. I just felt like I just was wasting time.

 

Casey Ames:

I’ll try to make this quick just so we can cover a couple of things. But the short of it is this, is my parents went through… Well, we all went through some stuff with our family and we had lost a couple people, and we came together. Well, my parents moved to Phoenix, Arizona and started on a real estate journey. They were in insurance. And I was in Boise, Idaho at the time and my mom calls me and she’s like… They were cold calling. They were wholesaling and cold calling and she’s like, “You’d be really killer at this, da, da, da, da, da.” And I’m like, “Okay, mom. I’m good. I know I’m not leveling up the way I should or whatever.” She has these big aspirations. I think parents always do.

 

Casey Ames:

And anyway, I started doing it and I was decent at it. And Brent Daniels and Tom Krol have a lot to do with that. This was back when he was just starting. I think my parents were Brent’s second… We were on Brent’s podcast a while ago. He had said that they were like their second student or something.

 

Casey Ames:

So I just think that’s important to mention because I didn’t even really know that. But it shows where Brent was at in his process. And so really a lot of people hadn’t seen wholesaling at its highest level yet. Trey was doing it and Brent was doing it and I’m sure Pace was doing it and stuff, but they were all learning to be what they are now. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yes.

 

Casey Ames:

And they’re still learning. So really no one had blown up the market with wholesaling. And so I was calling into Phoenix from Boise and then I basically was just like, “I’m going to do this in Boise. No one’s doing it here.” Because Phoenix did have some people doing it. There was people cold calling in Phoenix. I don’t mean to say the beast hadn’t woken up yet, but it just fully hadn’t reached that. And Brent opened up TTP. Phoenix got a little hairy as far as the markets was concerned. There was a lot more competition. Right?

 

David Richter:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Casey Ames:

And I was like, look to my parents. I’m like, “I think I want to open one in Boise.” And I caught traction. The company started growing very quickly and I talked them into moving here. And so then we brought the family business here and it is what it is today, which is, I mean, we still have the wholesale company, but now we do all sorts of different stuff.

 

David Richter:

Yeah, but talk about that transition because not every wholesaler goes from wholesaling to luxury homes and some of the builds that you do and some of the coolest stuff that you’re doing now. So why don’t you talk about that journey a little bit? What made you go from just wholesaling properties to doing some of the stuff you’re doing today?

 

Casey Ames:

Yeah. So I’ll say this. Build value for people. Just do build value for people. So I usually have a stack of them. All my students, I buy The Go-Giver. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yes.

 

Casey Ames:

When they come on board, I give them The Go-Giver. I give them The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity and Never Split the Difference. And now you got yours. So I’ll give them Profit First. And I have given some of them the other Mike Michalowicz Profit First. But in The Go-Giver, Bob Burg, he says, “To create value, you give more than you expect in compensation.” And I did that with my wholesale company. I mean, we gave tremendous deals. We gave people value. I always performed. Well, what that allowed me to do is it allowed me to leverage my name at that point and people trusted and respected the brand.

 

Casey Ames:

And so you always just want multiple revenue streams. Talk to anyone that is financially superior than I am. They will always have multiple revenue streams, 6, 7, 8, 10, whatever it is. And so I knew we needed to pivot when the wholesale company we started doing about around 100 a year, which is a good number. And it was a family… Well, not that time. We did have some employees. But anyway, the gist of it is that we just needed to open up revenue streams. And I knew that. And so I said, “Okay, well, I’m going to flip houses.” And I started with three at a time, which is not normal. Most people start with one. I just was on a warship. And so I got three and then we ended up having to tear one down, which is I think God just works in mysterious ways. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

And so one of them just wasn’t what we thought it was. And I got a killer deal on it. And so I was like, “Tear it down. Let’s build a house.” So I ended up doing that. And then on the fourth one too, there was a huge value add. It was in… What is the east end of Boise? It’s just a really prestigious area. And the house was just… You would never maximize the profit. And so I was like, “Well, let’s just build a fatty on it.” And so really quickly from going from never flipping a house, I was building houses. And when you do that, you have to seek counsel be because you can’t just go build a house and not know what you’re doing. Probably not the best for the buyer. Right?

 

Right. And so I sought counsel, and I got with some of the older people that build and have a really good name, and they taught me how to do it the correct way. And in that, I had learned to systems within our wholesale business. I understood that there needed to be systems and processes. And so I very quickly implemented those into what is now a fairly large construction company that does a lot of homes a year. We build spec homes and luxury homes and do subdivisions, single-family subdivisions from the ground up. So we do all the horizontal and the vertical.

 

And then just to burn through it. We build apartments too. So I build a lot of apartments, and we love that because how can you maximize profit with a good amount of time. What is the time I can put in to really maximize my profit, which is the concepts behind a team and the concepts behind all these other things, investments and… We love apartments because I’m not the dude who builds apartments.

 

I’m good at what I do. I can build a mean house and I can make it look killer. I’m not the dude who’s been here for 10, 15 years and has these long-term relationships with economy and scale and stuff and can really move teams and has sub-vendors and stuff. And that’s the other thing that’s important to mention is I have a team with my luxury homes. You can only do so much. It’s the same concept as what I was just saying. With the time, it’s like, your bandwidth is only so big. I can’t build as many apartment doors as I want with my team.

 

And so we have a developer that we treat really well, give more than you expect in compensation. And we treat him well and he treats us well. And so we’re just building as many apartment buildings as we can right now. And keep in mind Boise’s on fire right now. Virginia’s on fire right now, too. Isn’t it?

 

David Richter:

Yeah. I live in Florida now.

 

Casey Ames:

Oh yeah. You live in Florida now. Florida’s always on fire

 

David Richter:

Everywhere’s on fire. After hearing that and your journey there and all the different things that you’re doing, what would you say your superpower is? What is that one thing that you just, “I know I’m really good at this.”?

 

Casey Ames:

Dude, it’s God is the superpower. It is what it is. I could tell you I’m really good at vision. I’m a pretty good CEO in the aspect of visionary. I have wild ideas. And you know what’s the coolest concept? You were at family. What a cool concept was when… I can’t remember the guy’s name, which is going to kill me because I know he’s been around for a while, but he was talking about the concept of Disney. Do you remember that?

 

David Richter:

Yes.

 

Casey Ames:

And so he was talking about the engineers and the Imagineers and the implementers, and they never sit in the same room because they didn’t want the engineers to stifle the Imagineers and they didn’t want the implementers to crush the… And so I’m a captain on the Predictive Index. And so I do have some integrator in me. I can build the system and I can build the processes, and I usually will do that. But then I hand it to Zeb, and he’s the smart one. So I get on these things and look pretty, and he makes it all work. So it is what it is. I think probably visionary is probably what I’m the best at. But once again, we’re created in His image and God was the master of all creators. And so I am just in His image and I’ve been blessed to be able to create well, whether it’s design on the houses or business ideas or whatever.

 

David Richter:

I have an observation just from what I’ve heard from you. I think one of your superpowers too is getting around the people that have done it before, getting that mentorship. I mean, even referencing God as your superpower as like, “I go to Him because He’s the ultimate creator. So I need to make sure that I go to the people He’s placed in my life, know that I can follow what their direction is and then do it.” Because I think that’s another thing that sometimes gets in our own way is we sometimes get around people, but then we don’t follow that direction or we don’t go… I think that’s another thing that’s really big.

 

Casey Ames:

Yeah. I was talking to a guy yesterday. I’m not being rude in text messaging. I’m going to actually pull up a text message because I was texting Jason Medley a couple of days ago, just basically telling him, “Kill it Steve G and love him and all that he does and stuff.” Oh, nevermind. I did it on a post. But it’s in Proverbs and it just basically says, “Seek counsel.” Right?

 

David Richter:

Yes.

 

Casey Ames:

And that’s massive. And there is something to being a good student. There is something of a strange nature with humility. And I was talking about this guy who he was trying to get me to… Well, I probably will end up actually coaching him. He’s a stud. But he was really hungry. And I remember back in the day, bumping into him in the markets, and he did have an ego, and he was very stubborn in his ways. And I don’t say that in a negative way. I’ve been like that too at times.

 

But I saw him on a platform that I’m in, reach out and say, “Hey, look. I’m really struggling with this idea of business and I really need help. Does anyone have any suggestions for a strong mentor?” And he had already asked me… Well, he had insinuated to me. He didn’t come out and ask, but he had insinuated to me, and I just don’t take on a lot of students. I have my number, and I like my number, and I really am focused on them doing well. And so I just want to give them all my attention. But there’s something to going in a place like CG for me is an example, and walking up to, let’s say Jason Lewis and saying like, “How do you run good KPIs?” Or walking up to a Roddy or walking up to any of these guys that are just super dialed-in and saying like, “How are you building your KPIs?”

 

So rather than do that… Because Roddy’s only going to be able to give me what Roddy’s going to give me until you go sign up for the Rehab Depot. And in full transparency, a lot of my students I’ve sent to the Rehab Depot. And this isn’t a plug, but the point is that Roddy’s good at what Roddy’s good at. And I’m good at what I’m good at. And David’s good at what David is good at. So we have SimpleCFO in our company. We have Michael Hansen that does our books in our company. And so we go to who is… Well, I’ve always gone to who’s the best in the market at what they do. And it’s served me really well because if I need advice about fatherly stuff, I’m going to call Mike Baird. And that’s another conversation that I want to have with you. But the dude’s taught me everything. He taught me the concept of hanging your hat at the door. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

So the concept is you can work hard, grind hard, do your thing hard. But when you come home, you’re a dad, you’re a husband, you are whatever you are at home, and you hang your hat at the door, and then you pick that hat back up when you go to work. He taught me concepts like that, right-

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

… that have served me really well. Tom is a very impactful person in my life. And oftentimes, our conversations are based around spirituality. Most people would die for a moment or an hour with Tom. And they would ask all these business questions and all this stuff. I’m not as interested, although I’m not putting it like he hasn’t guided me in business because he has massively changed my life. But I’m more interested in talking to him about spirituality. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

Because he learned how to be a businessman, juggle the family, and deal with spirituality all at the same time, which is what I have done. So we have done the same thing and on different journeys. I want to know what it was like for him and he wants to know what it was like for me. And, “Oh, how did you handle this?” And “Oh…” We were talking about the other day. We were talking about James 3 and it’s like, “Narrow is the path of the teacher.” And I’m asking, I’m like, “You taught so many people. How do you feel about this concept in this verse?” Because it’s scary. If you read James 3, you’re like, you don’t want to teach anymore. You know what I mean?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

Or you get your stuff right and you teach correctly, which he does. And so yeah, seeking counsel. Man, I mean, I would not be where I am today. So superpower for sure could be the ability to seek counsel.

 

David Richter:

No, I love that. No, that’s incredible because it is. It’s getting around the right people, having them in your life. So let’s talk a little bit about, since it’s the Profit First REI podcast, money and the concepts and whatnot. And you’re a family man and you’ve got a lot of great knowledge on that side of it, too. What concepts around money do you want to pass on to your children, to the next generation? What concepts around that do you want to give to them?

 

Casey Ames:

I think the best one… And in full transparency, I struggle with it. And not struggle with it, but I struggle applying it with my children. And so I’m constantly working on this, because I’m a giver. So if you were to take a love language thing with your wife… And I’m sure your wife’s made you take one at some point in time. So I like giving gifts. I always have. Even when I was poor, I liked giving gifts. It’s that excitement to me. I want to see their face light up when I give them the gift, where my wife, receiving gifts, she doesn’t care. It’s a selfish thing that I do for myself to give her something. If I buy her a ring or I was to buy her a jacket or some shoes or something, she’s going to appreciate the gift and she’s going to be grateful for it and receive it, but it’s not going to do that thing to her. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

And I get excitement by doing that thing. So I have to love her the way that she needs to be loved and give her hers. But for me, I’m stoked to give gifts or like, “Let’s go to Mexico and I’ll take care of it,” or whatever the case is. And so with my children, I have to be really careful that I don’t do that too much because I want them to appreciate what the dollar is, and especially now. And so once again, I’ll just go back to something that I learned from seeking counsel was teach your kids to negotiate. You want to teach your kids about money, don’t give them money. Go to teach your kids how to negotiate a quarter at a garage sale. And I’m sure you’ve heard that. Right?

 

David Richter:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

Have your kids negotiate a quarter at a garage sale. You want to teach them about money, that’s going to serve them way more than giving them the extra quarter to go get it. Right?

 

David Richter:

Right.

 

Casey Ames:

So that is the concept within the family is that I’m consistently trying to teach them what is the equivalent of what we sacrifice for the dollar. And to me, I measure everything in time. So you remember two… And this is a conversation with them. It’s like you remember two, three years ago when Daddy was grinding really hard and working 17, 19, 20 hours a day and falling asleep sitting up on the couch to get these businesses rolling. And there was a lack of Daddy in the home. And now I’m super present. And so it’s like I had to sacrifice a couple of years to get what I have now and that’s fine, but I try to teach them there are smarter ways to do it because looking back on it now, I didn’t necessarily need to do it that way. I just probably needed to take a step back and not run so fast. And I probably would’ve been able to accomplish more.

 

Casey Ames:

So teaching them that, that the dollar cost time. And how can we leverage time to get the most dollars. And I think that’s really important. And the other thing is I could care less about money, in full transparency. And I know that it serves the purpose and I know that we need it, and I know that we need to be good stewards of it. And that’s essentially all we are is stewards, and we’re either good or bad… Or maybe not bad, but we’re either good or really good. And so my conversations with God are like, “I want You to trust me with the world. I want You to trust me with the power of abundance in Your kingdom. And what can I do to show You that I will be the ultimate steward for You?” You and I have to act on that. Right?

 

David Richter:

Right.

 

Casey Ames:

But other than that, you’ve known me long enough now. Money doesn’t have any power over me. I could care less if I’m in a Bentley or if I’m in a Honda Civic. I’m probably going to take the Bentley just because they’re more comfy, but I could care less. If I have a big house, I’ll live in that and I love that. That’s fine. But if times got tough and we were in a 900 square foot house and I had my family there, I’d be super grateful. So I think that, when we’re talking about money… And I don’t know if that’s necessarily where you were going with it. But to me, that is probably the most important principle with money is because…

 

Casey Ames:

Let’s break it down this way. So if you are with an employee, and then you have another employee… Let’s use Michael for example, because I’m sure Michael does pretty well. So you have Michael and then you have this other employee. Rarely will you hear Michael ask for a raise. He’s going to put his work in and you are going to naturally just give him the raise because you’re going to be like, “I want to make this guy a partner.” You know what I mean? “I want him in my business and I’m going to pay him super fruitfully for that.” The guy that will ask for the raise is the one that cares about the money and not the work. Right?

 

David Richter:

Right.

 

Casey Ames:

So he’s going to be like, “David, I’m super valuable, bro. I think I should be getting four more dollars an hour or whatever, or bonuses based on our metrics or whatever.”

 

Casey Ames:

And I teach that to all my employees. And how I do it, who’s my head project manager, but I’m just… Because they’ll always bring up money. Right?

 

David Richter:

Right.

 

Casey Ames:

So they’ll always bring up money in the construction world because they talk so much while they’re working that they’re always just like, “Oh, he makes this and he makes that, and I should be making more,” and so on and so forth. It’s just going to happen. So one of the things that Eddie Wilson taught me is you talk your problems up the ladder, not down the ladder and not across the table. So if you got an issue, come to Zeb. If you have an issue about money, come to Zeb. And if we hear about you talking about money other than to Zeb, then there’s going to be consequences to that because you have to sift out the parasite of the company.

 

Casey Ames:

But I always just use Zeb as the example because I’m like, here’s the thing. It’s like you notice the people in my company that don’t care about money because Zeb doesn’t really care about money in the aspect of it doesn’t rule his life. You notice that they make the most money. Zeb’s never asked me for a raise once. He makes seven figures. You know what I mean? He crushes it and he’s never asked me for a raise. It’s because he’s more interested in the work. And so that’s me to a T. I was always the most interested in designing a business and like, how can we do better? I just want this business to just be flossy and glossy and sit on the shelf and just be super proud of it because I know that it took a lot of sacrifice and we worked out all the kinks and we did all the stuff. That is what moves me. The payoff on the end of it starts to lose its gusto. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

You do real estate too as far as you actually do houses and stuff too, but you remember the first one, you get the check. You’re screeching around the corner to [inaudible 00:24:20] to go pick it up. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

I don’t even pick up my checks now. They get wired. I’m just like, you know what I mean? time to go pick them up and do all that stuff. The money just stops moving you. And I think that comes down to purpose. But that’s our principles, but let’s get to your thing.

 

What could I have done better with money? I think that’s like a really good question that the listeners should be asking themselves is like, “What could I do better with my money?” And one of the things that we struggled with that I think we lost years of profit on is that we wouldn’t take our profit. So we would start with one house or really, it was three, start with three, then we’re at five, then we’re at 10. And at one point I had 22 houses going at one time, which for me was a lot. So you’re doing about 100 houses a year at that point. And then the wholesale company was still doing 100. So it was a couple hundred houses a year almost. And I was just going crazy. I didn’t know what to do.

 

So it was like my money when I made it would always go to provide for the next batch of inventory. And I wouldn’t realize my profit for a year sometimes. And then I’d just be fed up. At some point, I’d be fed up and be like, “Okay, I’m taking X amount of grands out,” or whatever the case is.

 

And that was a mistake. That was a huge mistake because I probably… I mean, my net worth would be substantially larger if let’s say I knew Profit First back then. It would be, because I don’t spend my money really. I spend most of my money on experience or I invest it. And so I’m not out there spending money all the time. And so I would have still been realizing that money probably today. But we just didn’t take much. It was just like we might take 5, 10K off the top or something, but then 40, 50, 60, 70 would go into the next houses. And then for some reason it just disappears. Has anyone been able to figure out what happens to it? Because I know this has happened to you.

 

David Richter:

Yeah. Usually it gets into those projects. You got the budget for the project. Then it just disappears and your money keeps going down that hole until it’s gone.

 

Casey Ames:

Yeah. And I don’t understand that because you keep rolling it over. You would think at some time you would be realizing this big snowball profit. It never happens.

 

David Richter:

Right.

 

Casey Ames:

And I think scaling, you could break it down. I think scaling is one reason, right?

 

David Richter:

Oh yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

So you grow your business and now it costs more. And so the money did serve you to build your business to what it was. But anyway, we didn’t take the profit, and I think that’s huge because now, we do. And we’re not even the best at the Profit First model. We’re still trying hard on it. I think with us, we have so many projects going that it’s hard to have accounts and multiple accounts for all of those. It means somebody’s transferring money all day, essentially. So we are finding our groove on what that looks like, and Michael’s helping us do that, which is another thing. We seek counsel through you guys on our fractional CFO. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

And so Michael’s good at money. We’re not necessarily great at money the way Michael is. And so we just put the power in his hands and he does his thing, which-

 

David Richter:

Yeah, no. And I appreciate that because it is. It’s just a lot of people’s situations are different, but getting those concepts down. Can we take a profit first? What does it look like for a bigger company to make sure that you actually feel this and you are growing that net worth? Because like you said, a lot of the CEOs that we work with are like you, where they don’t… They’re not just bowling the money or whatnot, they’re actually being able to do this, either invest in experience, invest in themselves, invest in their family or whatnot. And it’s like, “Yeah, you deserve to do that. So make sure that you’re doing that while you’re building this business as well too.” And I thought that was a great point.

 

David Richter:

I just have a couple last questions here. Do you have any more general advice for the real estate investors listening to this podcast? It can be money-related, not money-related, whatever you want to give to the world here.

 

Casey Ames:

Seek God. And I would say seek God even if you are not a Christian, or I would say seek it for the experience to go through something and then make your judgment on that thing after you’ve sought. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

One thing that I’ve learned about the Bible is that it’s alive, A. B, there’s so much good advice in it. You want to be a good person and feel good about yourself, then do the stuff that’s in the Bible. Even if you are not a Christian, it works for everybody. It is. So I would just say seek God because the reason that I say that… And I’m not trying to come off preachy, but the reason that I say that is because what I’ve found is that if your spiritual life is fruitful, your business life is fruitful. And if your spiritual life is bankrupt, usually your business is bankrupt, and emotionally you are bankrupt. Right?

 

David Richter:

That’s really good.

 

Casey Ames:

So I think that’s important. The other thing that I would say is hyper-focus on what you are working on. I think a lot of investors make the mistake that… I often sound hypocritical because I’m like singularity of focus and just get good at one thing. And then I build apartments and luxury homes and subdivisions and have a wholesale company and all the stuff. But I spent time on each of those. I had to build each of those and hyper-focus in each of those. But what I see out of my students even too, is that like they say, you learn the most by teaching. And I really truly believe that is true if you’re paying attention. But I see my students consistently trying to tackle finances. So what they do is they go out and do this and they go out and do that, and they’re trying to run a property management company, and then they want to flip houses, and then they want to do this.

 

Casey Ames:

And oftentimes I have to wrangle them in and say like, “What is it that you’re trying to achieve?” Or like, “Are you trying achieve more money? Because you could just do bigger projects but then really focus on that. And then what would be the equivalent of that? You would have more time to spend time with your family.” Because often the argument is that they’re trying to spend time with their families. So they want to make a whole bunch of money so that they can spend time with their family, and it doesn’t necessarily work that way. But if you hyper-focus on something and get really good at that one thing and that craft, then you can usually leverage that thing to be really impactful in your life. And that could be more time with your family. So an example would be building a team, right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

You do everything yourself. You’re stuck to your bandwidth. You focus really hard on building a team and hiring a COO and hiring project managers and hiring assistants and hiring consultants and construction coordinators and all these things. Right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

And you can slowly remove yourself from the company. And now what have you done? You’ve leveraged time. But you have to hyper-focus on that one thing because if you’re not, you’re going to miss a whole bunch of details. And then who is the… I have it up here somewhere. Anyway, the concept is a leaky bucket, which is that oftentimes, with volume, we’re running so fast and we’re throwing so much water in the bucket that it has holes in it. And it’s shooting water out the bottom as we’re pouring it in the top. Well, that’s your money. So your money’s the water and you’re stuffing all this money in this bucket by working super hard, and it’s just pouring out the bottom. Right?

 

Casey Ames:

So it’s usually because of a lack of focus on that thing which is your business, which is the lifeline, which is the blood of that money. And so if we just slow down a little bit and hyper-focus on not making mistakes, we don’t need to run a million miles an hour. We just need to get really good at what we’re doing. And so I think that would be one of my messages is don’t get caught up in the scale. Just get good at what you’re doing. And then you can amplify that as you move forward.

 

David Richter:

Awesome. So if your spiritual life is in tune, most other places in your life are in tune. I love that. And then hyper-focus on one thing. Get good at those one things, build those verticals, and then go out and do something else once you’ve got those nailed down and you’ve got the team in place. Love those concepts. Love those truths. This has been awesome. So Casey, you provide a ton of value here today. How can people provide value back to you? Whatever you want, followers, lenders, whatever, students, what are you looking for that we could provide back?

 

Casey Ames:

Yeah. We’re just looking for creative ways to give back. So if there’s something that I said and you’re really good at something that I said, and you want to reach out because you think you could provide value, we’re always open to have conversations, and I love to learn, and I love relationships, and I’m cool with that too.

 

Casey Ames:

My biggest want right now is just we’re trying to give back what was given to us, and we’re trying to be the best stewards that we can and shepherds that we can. And so we’re looking for ways like core missions with Kimmel and Josh Kohler. Those guys are doing a big part and we’re really grateful that he introduced me to TJ. But just avenues and ways to be of service. And whether that’s going to Guatemala to help build a little village or it’s some urban city kid project or whatever it is, we’re just super into it right now and are going to continue that. And we’re trying to build our ministry around leveraging people that are already good in ministry, right?

 

David Richter:

Yeah.

 

Casey Ames:

I’m not the dude who’s going to tell you every Bible verse and be able to break it down. I just haven’t studied it long enough. I’ve been reading the Bible for the five years now. You could read it for your whole life and still miss stuff. So I’m not the dude who’s going to teach you about that. I’ll teach you what I know in it. But I want to be the dude that helps you if you are that teacher. I want to leverage your spiritual superpower and do that. So if you know anyone that has a really cool project, bring it our way and we’d love to check it out and maybe be a part of it.

 

David Richter:

Awesome. No, that’s incredible. So how would they bring it to you? What’s the best way to contact you to get something like that rolling?

 

Casey Ames:

Yeah. So you can just find me on Facebook or on Messenger. And I know I’m not the technical guy, so I know everyone’s got all these handles and all this other stuff. I’m just not that dude. Josh Kohler’s actually helping me be that dude, but we’re not there yet. So I would just reach out to me on Messenger and say what’s up, or you can email me at Taylor G… or it’s Casey, C-A-S-E-Y at Taylor Jene Homes. So it’s C-A-S-E-Y at T-A-Y-L-O-R-J-E-N-E homes, H-O-M-E-S dot com. And I can get it that way too, or just reach out on Messenger and we can go from there.

 

David Richter:

Awesome. Well, there you go. That’s how you get a hold of Casey. Thank you so much for being on today and for providing all that value. Really appreciate it.

 

Casey Ames:

You’re the real MVP.

 

David Richter:

Thank you.

 

David Richter:

Thank you so much for listening to today’s show. If you found this episode valuable, could you do me a quick favor? Can you give us an honest rating within iTunes? And be honest. You could say whether you liked it or not. And obviously, with iTunes, the more reviews and ratings we have, the better it is for other people that are searching for Profit First and a podcast. So we’d love to be ranked on there, and that’s thanks to your help. So we would really appreciate that if you would like to go give us a rating.

 

Also, if you’re looking to connect with us further, I would highly recommend checking out our Facebook group, Profit First for Real Estate Investors. And that’s literally what it’s called. So you can type in Profit First for Real Estate Investors, and you’ll be able to find our Facebook group right there.

 

So come join active real estate investors who are supporting each other and growing their businesses and profits together. That’s what that group is all about. The links should be in the description below. And if you’re interested in working with us and implementing Profit First in your real estate business, we offer coaching and guidance. 

So if you want to work with someone who’s actually Profit First certified and who works right now currently with real estate businesses, you can actually go start your application process by going to www.simplecfosolutions.com/apply, or just go right to www.simplecfosolutions.com. And there’s an apply button right on there if you want to actually start your Profit First journey with someone who can actually walk you through those step-by-step and help and grow your cash flow. Thanks again for joining us for another episode on the Profit First REI podcast. See you next episode.