Stop Trading Your Time for Money: A Profit First Journey With Nick Perry

Episode 104: Stop Trading Your Time for Money: A Profit First Journey With Nick Perry

The Profit First REI Podcast

August 15, 2022

David Richter

Summary:

Our guest for this episode started investing in real estate around eight years ago with little knowledge on his hands. 11 months and 104 failed deals later, he finally landed his first paycheck. What made him successful is that he stayed away from the safe route, applied a systematic investing approach, and followed his mentors who showed him the way to accumulating wealth and success. You may be thinking that real estate investing is hard. But once you crack the code, you’ll eventually realize how simple it is. If he can do it, so can you!

Today, let’s take a deep dive into how to scale a seven-figure business using Nick Perry’s systems and processes. Learn the hacks and tricks of real estate investing by clicking on that play button!

Key Takeaways:

[1:39] How did he get into real estate investing and where is he on his journey today?

[4:08] What is he doing right now in real estate and how does he help other people?

[10:39] How does he make sure to prioritize profit and pay himself first?

[15:17] Are they using KPIs to make sure that they’re on track?

[17:54] Nick’s real estate advice to the listeners

Quotes:

[7:26] “Your business is never going to outgrow you.”

[11:01] “When you pay yourself first, that’s what’s going to allow you to go out and create.”

Links:

Nick’s Instagram-www.instagram.com/nick_perry_rei

The 7 Figure Cartel-https://www.7figurecartel.com/ 

Tired of living deal to deal? 

If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal, and want to double your profits, head over here to book your 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 work so hard to make. – David 

Transcript:

Nick Perry:

But it was that mindset shift that, Hey, let’s stack as much cash as we can first before going in and doing it the other way. And I think most people get in that paycheck to paycheck mentality. They’re living hand to mouth because they haven’t adopted that mindset shift.

Intro:

Welcome to the Profit First REI podcast, where real estate investors, master financial management, eradicate entrepreneurial poverty, and learn to be profitable from day one. Now for your host, David Richter,

David Richter:

Everyone have another special guest today on the Profit First REI podcast, who is a true believer in Profit First. And he has implemented in his business. And I believe this just been a, an impactful book for him and system and process. So we have Nick Perry. You’ve probably heard of him. He, I feel like I see him everywhere in all these different groups and honestly changing and transforming a lot of lives too. He does the real estate investing business, but he also helps other people too get to where they need to be. And that’s what I love to see is people who are doing it and have been doing it for a long time and then helping other people get to where they need to be. So, Nick, thanks for being on the show today.

Nick Perry:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me I’m I’m honor and excited to be here and try to provide as much value as I can.

David Richter:

Well, you always do. So I know that today will be no different and we will just dive right into it. So for people who might not know your background or how you got into real estate investing, or like where you are today, like give ’em just as brief snapshot of where’d you come from, where are you now and give ’em that journey?

Nick Perry:

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I started I grew up in Northern Virginia, right outside of Washington, DC. My family was all federal government CIA and you know, I, in my, in my, you know, journey growing up, I had been playing sports. I was always active. So my first career out of high school, I was a personal trainer. You know, I graduated school and rather than going to college, I started personal training and I, I realized I was like, man, all these people around me that I’m training are really successful and they’re doing really well, is it because I didn’t go to college that I, I messed up and I realized all my wealthy clients, none of ’em really went to college. And they all own businesses in some capacity. Yeah. Or they were in real estate. And so through interviewing my clients, I realized, you know what, I need to find a vehicle that’s gonna help me to create, you know, the, the money I want live, the lifestyle I want.

Nick Perry:

And you know, it ended up turning out to be real estate. You know, so I stopped trading my time for money. And you know, I moved outta my home city in Northern Virginia. I’d grown up there. I didn’t want to go to work for the federal government and climbed the corporate ladder there. I wanted to go be an entrepreneur. And so kind of on a whim you know, I was just coming up to the end of my lease in Virginia. I decided, well, I’m just gonna go down to Austin with the limited savings I have. I think I have like seven, five or $7,000 to my name. And I relocated and started watching, you know, YouTube videos trying to figure out what my next move was gonna be. I didn’t know it was gonna be real estate, but it was a different opportunity and resonated with me. It’s what made sense. And so that was it. I started putting out marketing and, you know, it was a long road to get where I’m at, that was seven years ago. And that was kind of my journey into into real estate.

David Richter:

Okay, awesome. And then you’re doing stuff to help others today too, and helping others, you know, reach those goals, reach their potential. And so why don’t you talk a little bit about, you know, like where you are today in your business and, you know, cuz like we talked about even before jumping on this call, like that’s, that is your main business, you know, your main business is still the real estate that you do. So talk a little bit about what you’re doing right now in the real estate and then how you help other people as well too.

Nick Perry:

Yeah. So, you know, I’ve been very, very fortunate in real estate. I’ve got a tremendous team. So I live in Miami beach, Florida. My team’s in Austin, Texas. You know, I’ve got you a small lean team full of great people. I’ve got eight people in my real estate company. We do anywhere from 250 to $400,000 a month between flips wholesale you know, cetera. And then we also hold rentals. So we’re actively buying, you know, three to four single family rental properties every month. We we’re purchasing mobile home parks. I just closed on 48 units last week. So we’re you know, doing great with just a, you know, small team. You don’t need a ton of people, you just need the right people. And you know, the it’s allowed me freedom, you know, basically I’m, I’m not gonna stay here and say, I’m doing a lot.

Nick Perry:

My team is doing the majority of everything. I’m, you know, 33 and pretty much like semi-retired, I don’t have to work anymore. So yeah, that was, that was a very pie in the sky. Unrealistic, you know, thought when I first started this, that would be, you know, 33, basically semi-retired able to do what I want when I want travel the world and, you know, have a, a, you know, great, you know, financial income at the same time. Yeah. But you know, it didn’t, it didn’t start off that way. I had to go through a lot of ups and downs and you know a lot of seminars and everything to get it dialed in. So you know, now that hindsight’s always 2020, right, right. Where I’m sitting right now, I’m like, it’s always, oh, well, if I would’ve just known what I’d known now I could have done it in a fraction of the time time.

Nick Perry:

Well, that’s the great thing about, you know, mentorship and stuff like that is you can pay for the, the fast pass and just get to where you want to go in a much shorter amount of time. So we’ve had we have a, a mentorship program called the seven figure cartel where we’ve got students and mentees coming in and we’re helping them, you know, from where they are right now to get to that multiple seven figure a month mark in their real estate business. And because I’ve already been through all the challenges, you know, I’m seeing tremendous results from all the students, cuz they’re all go getters. They’re all wonderful people, hard working. And so I’m giving them the resources and the information and it’s just been great to watch, you know, so many people’s businesses transform.

David Richter:

Yeah. So then I love what you said, you know, being 33 and you know, having this business that you’re kind of like you said, semi-retire like you don’t have to work. What were some of those things that were key along your journey that made the big difference to where you got to today? I know investing in, in, you know, in the education and, but you know, some people say it’s the people that you hire and it’s the systems and whatnot, but like what for your personal journey helped get you to where you are today?

Nick Perry:

In terms of like, you know, tangible things that you can take away. Cause a lot of it was development on myself.

David Richter:

Mm. There you go. Yep.

Nick Perry:

So your business is never gonna outgrow you. You, you have to, that’s

David Richter:

Good.

Nick Perry:

Right. You know, if, if you’re a hundred thousand dollars a year person, you’re gonna be a hundred thousand dollars a year company. Yeah. If you’re a dollar a year person, you’re gonna, you have a $10 million a year company, but your company will never outgrow you. So that’s why it’s very important to not only work on, you know, the business and practical tips, which I’m getting ready to give you right now, but also be continuing to, you know, get better as a person in all areas, your life, because it filters into the amount of revenue you make. So focusing on your your, your mind, your health, your fitness, your faith, and then your finances will, will expand from there. But really what is, you have been, my X factor has been where I’m really good at digital online advertising. So you, in terms of lead generation we do all paper click.

Nick Perry:

So I don’t do any cold calling or direct mail or texting. I do all online. People go to my website, fill out my form and we reach out to them. So that’s been huge because those leads convert at a much higher rate than like a direct mail lead or a cold calling lead. It only takes this 11 leads to get a deal here. Wow. As opposed to, you know, some of the traditional forms of marketing work could take you 40 to 60 leads to get a deal mm-hmm <affirmative>. So you just look at that, you know, that that completely changes a business, you know, you’re way more efficient. My guys only have to make 11 talk to 11 people to get a deal where, you know, other companies are having to talk to three, four times more people. Oh yeah. We’re locking up contracts three or four times faster and we’re getting three or four times more deals than, you know, our, our competitors. So that’s, you know, a big tangible takeaway. And then, you know, the people that I have on the on my team are, you know, topnotch a players, you know, I’ve been, I’ve hired and fired a ton of people and, you know, have got really good at, you know, being able to identify eight players and hire and retain top talent.

David Richter:

Yeah. Those are that’s usually what we hear is the people that are doing it at a high level are not just going after anyone they’re going after the right people. And, and I, someone said a really, really well on a podcast, they said, I’m hiring thinkers, not doers anymore. Like I want someone who’s gonna think through the problems and implement and get the, you know, like the high level. So I don’t have to, like you said, semi-retired, you don’t have to be there because you probably don’t have to make a lot of the day to day decisions anymore inside of the business. And that comes from hiring those high level people. So now that’s awesome. And I think that’s a lot of value there if you just rewind the podcast a little bit, just to listen to those, those practical advice, but what he said too, about working on yourself, that’s the biggest thing.

David Richter:

And I think that’s probably one of the biggest things with Profit First, as well, too, going into that and really understanding who you are and how you, how you interact with your money and how you interact in the mindset you have behind it, of, you know, are you paying yourself first? Are you making sure that profit’s a priority? So that way you can carry those out. So I guess, can you speak to that? How the transformation, maybe in the business or in your life came when you read that book and then you started implementing, you know, that system.

Nick Perry:

Yeah. You know, it became a lot clearer because you know, when you pay yourself first, that’s what allows you to go out and create additional opportunities for yourself. If you’re just paying bills first, you know, whether that’s business bills or personal bills, you’re never giving yourself the ability to go beyond, beyond that. Right. Cause there’s hardly, it’s never that you’re, you’re always gonna spend to your capacity. So I wasn’t able to really create additional streams of revenue for myself until I implemented Profit First. Hmm. Once I was started paying myself first, putting that into, you know, separate account that grew pretty quickly cuz I’ve got a really good real estate organization. And then, you know, next thing you know, I’m looking at all this money and I’m saying, okay, well what do I do with it? I need to invest it into assets, rental property. I need to buy you know, I, I own oil and gas Wells here in Texas. I have commercial property, mobile home parks. And so that’s what it’s allowed me to do, but it was that mindset shift that, Hey, let’s stack as much cash as we can first before going in and doing it the other way. And I think most people get in that paycheck to paycheck mentality. They’re living hand to mouth because they haven’t adopted that mindset shift.

David Richter:

Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s, that is huge. Cuz it is hand them out the deal to deal cycle. It’s like, it’s not why you start real estate wasn’t to go from one rat race to another, you know, in a worst one. So yeah, I totally understand that. And that’s awesome. And I love what you’ve done with your business, how you’re helping other people and how you’ve grown, you know, and like that’s awesome. 33 years old semiretired. I think a lot of people can just learn that what you said there, working on yourself, working on your business and then hiring the right people, getting those right people in there mm-hmm <affirmative> and where you want to go too. And I think it’s a, I don’t know if you would agree with this, but I think it’s something that you need to sit down and have that personal conversation with yourself too, of like, do we wanna scale and grow? Like, do I want a team of eight people or whatnot? Or do we wanna stay small? Or like, is that something that you had to sit down at one time and say, you know what I wanna, this is where I want to go.

Nick Perry:

I had 22 people for a good period of time. Yep. And you know, what I realized was we were making a lot of revenue, but we’re spending it all too. My margins were very slim cuz my overhead was through the roof. So I went in basically cleaned house. I got rid of all of my people except for my top performers and you know, what happened, my business, the revenue and the amount of contracts and the amount of closings we had with fame. But my expenses were down here. Yeah. So I had all this extra money with way less headache because I’m only dealing with my top guys. And you know, that was something that was a big shift for me was, you know, more leads plus more people doesn’t equal more money that you’re taking home to your, your family. Yeah. And that’s why we got business at the end of the day was, you know, for the freedom and lifestyle that it provides. And so I’m all about, you know, bottom line net profit, that’s all that matters. Right? Yeah. Going big gross numbers doesn’t mean anything. How much are you bringing home?

David Richter:

Yep, exactly. And I think that’s where the Profit First mentality is like that is we, we hear it all the time too. We’ve heard those cliches, you know like revenue is vanity profit is sanity. You know, like we hear some of those like sayings and it’s like, we gotta make that real to us. And that’s why I like the system too. Cuz it gives you a system to, to put that in place and an actual practical way to say like, okay we are profitable. We are focusing on that bottom line and it like, like we go to these events and you hear it all the time. Like, oh we’re a $6 million business or whatever. And it’s like, okay, but do you have 22 people on the team? And it’s just all, you know, you’re making six and you know, six and a half is going out the door, you know, it’s like, you gotta make sure you’re in the right space.

David Richter:

So yeah, definitely resonate there have heard a lot, you know, of that going and wanna make sure that we get this message out the door. So now that’s awesome. But now with your business and with the seat that you’re in, do you still manage it from a numbers perspective? Like are there KPIs that your team brings to you to make sure that you’re on track still? Are you like in that, to where that’s basically your role now inside of the business is just managing those numbers or do you still meet with the team? Yeah. Or like what do you,

Nick Perry:

Yeah, I mean it’s, it’s just one of my companies. Right. Okay. So the risk is just one of my companies. So you, I keep an eye on it. Just like I keep an eye on all my other companies, but I’m not getting in the way. I don’t know what’s going on with, you know, a lot of the deals we have working. Yeah. I’ve I know I got 14 fixed and flips going on right now. I couldn’t give you a single address for one of them. I got probably like 20 wholesale deals. I’ve got multiple rentals I’m buying right now. And I couldn’t tell you an address on any of ’em. I couldn’t tell you how much I’m buying for or anything like that. But I do, I do look at, you know, P and LS. I’m looking at, you know, our weekly scorecards with my, I have a CEO that sits on top of my real estate company and runs the entire. And so he reports to me. Yep. You know, that’s the extent of it, you know, I’m actually here in, you guys called me, I’m in my office, my real estate office today. I’m usually in my, my home in Miami beach. But you, I do like, I still like to come to the office, like I’m not here cuz I have to be here. I’m here cuz I want to be here. So

David Richter:

Yeah. That’s awesome. And that’s where we’ve seen a lot of the successful owners are in that box. Like they have a CEO and that manages the day to day and the CEO and then they’re reporting to you like the scorecards and the numbers and making sure we’re on track because as the owner you wanna make sure, you know, like, yeah, I’ve handed it off to the right people and everything’s still going well and that’s awesome. And I think that’s where most people, when they think of entrepreneurship and real estate investing and the Robert Kiyosaki stuff and like, they think of exactly where you’re sitting right now of like, okay, I’ve got good people in place running 15 rehabs. I don’t know the addresses and you know, knowing that things are going well. So that’s awesome. If you can if you could just listen to one thing from this podcast, it is that it’s those things that Nick was talking about, those key points in his business that he got in place in the right team, getting the lean, not, you know, that’s where our business, a long time ago we were doing like 25, 30 deals a month, but had like 25 people on the team.

David Richter:

It’s like, there’s just too much there. You know, it’s like getting to the right place of what is the right size team for you? What is profit? What does that mean to you and getting to that place? So thank you so much. There’s just a, I just got a couple last questions here. What general advice would you give to the real estate investor listening to this podcast right now? Just, you know, last minute advice here before the podcast.

Nick Perry:

Yeah. My advice is really the, the biggest thing. If you guys are trying to, you know, get to where you’re trying to go the fastest. And I wish I would’ve known this earlier on is, you know, just find who’s already doing it, find who’s in that position already and whatever it takes, you know, go work for them, pay them if they got a mentorship sign up for it. Because I don’t know about you, but I, I don’t want to, I like to pay for speed. Like when I go to Disney to get the fast pass and just like do what I need to do so I can get it done. So if you’re committed to your success you know, I’m a byproduct also a lot of great mentors that poured into me. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative> hate ’em for their knowledge. And I continue to pay for knowledge.

Nick Perry:

I continue to, you know, go to seminars to learn. So, you know, continue to learn. And you know, the biggest thing is also focus, right? If I had to give you guys one piece of tangible advice, especially now we live in an Instagram society where our attention is everywhere. Stay laser focused. If you’ve, if you’ve, you know, if you’re listening to this right now and you’re a wholesaler, well be the best wholesaler before you start jumping into Airbnb arbitrage. And now you’re doing you know, owner finance and now you’re doing you know crypto and next thing you’re doing e-com and like, you’ll just never get good at anything. If you, you can’t stay laser focused. Like one thing that I did that was beneficial was I didn’t touch any other industries for the first, let’s say five and a half, six years. I was later focused. I’m talking, you know, 60, 80 hours a week just doing single family, real estate, nothing else was just became, you know, an expert at that. So get, become an expert in one lane and you’re gonna go much further. It’s gonna open up doors for all of that other stuff in the future, but don’t put the car before the horse.

David Richter:

Bam. That was awesome. That was good stuff right here. And make sure you find someone who’s been where you are, where you want to be and then follow them, figure out how to work with them or provide value to them. Whether that be through the mentorship, if they’ve got it formally or working for them for free or whatever you have to do to get in the door there, like Nick said, and then being laser focused, that is so important, such a relevant message for today. Like you said, we live in that just very unfocused society and just notifications going off everywhere from every which direction, giving everyone access to our most precious commodity time all the time. So just be very laser focused there. So Nick huge value today. How could people provide value back to you, the listeners and what do you have going on the sevenfigurecartel or how, what do you want them? How do you wanna connect with people?

Nick Perry:

Yeah, man, first of all, thank you so much. It’s been, been an honor, but shout to me on Instagram you know, pretty good there, it’s just, you can find me. It’s just my name, Nick Perry and then REI like real estate investments. So nick_perry_rei I’m always putting out content on there. I try to, you know, provide as much value on I as I can. And then if you guys are, you know, interested in joining the mentorship, you can click the link in my bio and learn a little bit more about it. If you have any questions on it, just let me know.

David Richter:

Cool. Well, there you go. And Nick’s worth following. And Nick is worth working with, if you want to get where you need to go in real estate investing and getting to that next level. And Nick is that next level investors. So make sure to follow his content, always providing value. Nick, thank you so much for being on today. It was an absolute honor to have you.

Nick Perry:

Thank you just to see you soon.

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? Could 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 a Profit First REI 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.

David Richter:

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 link 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 wanna 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 simpleCFO.com/apply, or just go right to simpleCFO.com. And there’s an apply button right on there. If you wanna actually start your Profit First journey with someone who can actually walk you through those step by step and help, you know, and grow your cash flow. Thanks again for joining us for another episode of the Profit First REI podcast. See you next episode.