In this episode of the Generations of Wealth Podcast, host Derek Dombeck sits down with seasoned real estate investor BJ Gremillion to uncover his journey from buying thousands of foreclosure auction homes to scaling a turnkey investment and property management business. BJ shares insights on market shifts, overcoming downturns, financing strategies, and the importance of staying focused in an ever-changing real estate landscape. He also reveals his lessons learned from land development challenges, creative deal structuring, and the power of masterminds. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, this episode is packed with practical strategies to build long-term wealth in real estate.

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Avoiding Costly Mistakes in Real Estate: Lessons from BJ Gremillion

Welcome to the Generations of Wealth Podcast. I am your host, Derek Dombeck. And today, man, we’re taking a journey. BJ has gone from buying thousands of homes at the foreclosure auctions to land development and now uprooted his family, moved to a different market and is doing turnkey properties along with property management. So awesome journey. Before I bring BJ on, I really, again, I like to tell everybody every episode how much we appreciate you following us, how much we really would love for you to help us grow the Generations of Wealth, help share this and let everybody know.

Anything that you ever need from us, you can always go to thegenerationsofwealth.com and get linked up with us there, or you can just send me an email directly, Derek@globalgow.com. Just shoot me an email and let me help you. So without any further ado, here we go, Mr. BJ Gramellion. And as promised, here we go. Mr. BJ Gramellion, thank you for coming on the Generations of Wealth show. How are you doing today? – Doing great, thanks for having me on. – Absolutely. Man, I would really love to just start with you telling the audience a little bit about yourself and then we’re gonna figure out what is turnkey properties and your property management and everything Property Rush has to offer, but let’s start at the beginning. 

 

BJ’s Background & Early Real Estate Journey

Yeah, so I guess in the real estate realm, I got into real estate in 2009 and what better time obviously to jump right in. Thankfully I didn’t own real estate in 2007 and so I didn’t have to go through that misery, but we were in Arizona at the time and so I got to cut my teeth at the auction. And so we have since then, bought obviously thousands of homes from the auction and fix and flip those. And then we did the short sale thing for a while. We did, it was just kind of rode the wave as every year was a little bit different, but we got into doing some of the traditional real estate. We also had a property management company in Arizona. Then we got into new construction development. Then we got into heavy land development, some larger tracks and it was about that time in 2022, which you couldn’t have drawn it up any worse, but we got pretty heavy in the land and then interest rates did what they did. And that was my first opportunity to experience a downturn. And I knew it was gonna happen at some point. I’d been fortunate to go that long without having a real big correction that I went through and everything seemed to always work and I was the smartest guy in the room until I was humbled greatly in 2022. And so I had a business partner at the time and he ended up sticking with development in Arizona. And about a year before everything hit the fan with the market in real estate, I had ended up starting to look for other areas where we could invest in ’cause Arizona was getting pretty frothy and expensive. And so we looked for other markets and Chattanooga was one of them. Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I’m at right now. And so we started investing out there and I started going there more frequently and my wife started asking when she was gonna see me and why I kept having to go leave the family every single month. So eventually we said, look, we gotta decide which one we’re gonna go with. And so we decided together that Chattanooga had a good future. And so we ended up moving out here full-time and now I’m building up a turnkey business that focuses on, we’re helping investors. It’s something that I’ve done for a long time where I’ve had buddies and friends and family that have been like, hey, I know you’re doing this. I know you invest in real estate. Would you mind picking me up one while you’re out there? Or if it’s working for you, do you mind doing one for me, help me out? So it’s something I’ve always done. It’s just, I didn’t really formalize that business plan until I moved out here. And really this is the perfect market to run a turnkey business just because you can actually buy affordable homes. It’s one of the few areas left, Wisconsin being another one obviously, and there’s a few other Midwest markets and Southeast markets that you can still cashflow and have appreciation as well. So we’re fortunate to be here for that reason.

 

Challenges & Market Downturns

We’re growing that business. And then on the personal side, yeah, I have five kids with my wife and she’s a rock star. She is the rock of the family, love her to death. And so we’ve been married now for about 17 years and yeah, it’s been an adventure. So that’s a little bit about me. – Well, there’s so much that we can pick at right there, which is awesome. And the little dagger to my heart was you started in ’09, I started in ’03 and I got my ass kicked in ’07. So- – So you got out of the way early though, you had to go through that downturn. – Oh yeah, that was a painful time in my life, which all of my listeners know about, I’m very open about it. And that’s quite honestly why I love this podcast and this show because I bring people on that are raw and tell the whole story, not just the fluff. – Oh yeah, you won’t get that from me. – And that’s perfect. Well, let’s back up a little bit before we get into the turnkey stuff. So you’ve got thousands of transactions under your belt and you mentioned the land development in 2022 when interest rates went up, painful time. So were you using all bank financing? And I guess talk a little bit about start to finish, you know, when you started out in 2009 versus where you are today from a funding standpoint. – Yeah, no, great question. So to answer your question real quick, no, for the most part, it was not bank financing. Thankfully, we had brought in a couple partners that were very, very wealthy. And so these are individuals that, I mean, they could sit on that land forever and they probably forgot they even owned it, right? Like they had the kind of money that just it didn’t matter to them. So we were fortunate to be in a position where we could just lean on them to get us through that time.

Otherwise it very well could have, it would have buried it with the amount of money like we were talking, it would have buried us. But, you know, I think that there’s so many takeaways that I have and by the way, I’d like I have a podcast, it’s called Rush to Fail. And so I enjoy talking about failure and, you know, ’cause it’s just the best way for me to learn honestly is just through failure and trying to figure out what doesn’t work. So the reason why I enjoy what I’m doing now is because I can tell people, look, I have literally made, I think every single mistake you can make in real estate 10 times over, you know? So just take, you know, you don’t have to go through what I did. Let me help you just steer you in a couple of directions that I think you’ll be protected and you can go about this much, in a much smarter way than what I did. And so anyways, I think that one of the things that I struggled with during that time was, and I think a lot of business owners, I’m curious to hear about your story as well. But one of the things that I struggled with greatly up until really now is that shiny object syndrome. And so, you know, I didn’t even mention that we had like a plumbing business, you know, during that time, you know, we had a fencing business, we had, you know, the development business, the fix and flips, the property management and that’s just stupid, you know?

Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome & The Power of Masterminds in Real Estate

That’s just, your brain can’t go that many different directions, especially if you’re not, you know, a systems guy. So that’s another pitfall that I would definitely tell people to avoid. Don’t go after the shiny object. There’s plenty of money in real estate. Just pick a lane, stay in it, and stop trying to think that the grass is green or somewhere else ’cause it’s not. – Well, that was our big aha moment, I don’t know, seven, eight years ago when we were kind of introduced into vision, which our mantra on the show is live your vision, love your life, but figuring out a vision for your personal life first, then building a business that serves that vision so that when those shiny objects get put in front of your face, you can weigh it against your vision, right? Does this take me further away from my vision or closer to my vision? And that has saved my butt a lot of times from shiny object syndrome, but it wasn’t always that way, of course. And it’s still tempting to this day. I talk to people from all different parts of the country and the world, and I can get caught up just doing a podcast episode of like, wow, that is awesome. I really wanna do that now. And I gotta pump the brakes, right? – Yep.

Are you part of a mastermind, by the way? – Well– – What is REI Circle? – REI Circle of Trust is the mastermind that I lead and host. – Awesome. – I have a couple of those national groups. And then we, it’s almost like I asked you to plug this for me, but I didn’t. (laughing) – No, keep riffing. – And then we actually host a cruise once a year called the Generations of Wealth Voyage, which is an advanced strategies and networking event. And that’s going to be going out probably just before this episode airs. – Nice. – We’ve been doing that for a few years. So I also belong to a couple other masterminds that I don’t lead. And that’s been night and day. I tell people publicly, one of my biggest mistakes early on is I was a closet investor. I didn’t have a network. And so when we went through our crap in ’07, I didn’t have anybody to lean on or turn to, and it was painful. So– – Yeah. Huge fan of mastermind. – That’s why I asked the question, ’cause I think that, yeah, like our, you know, we took off, like our business was kind of puttering along. It wasn’t until we joined a mastermind that it was like, oh my gosh, like I had no idea the possibilities that are out there. But you know, at that time, it was in like 2017. And yeah, during that time, it was just so much of a, like anyone that was in that space, they would always, it was like the old heads that would be like, don’t tell anyone. This is a hush hush. This is a secret. This is what we do.

We’re special. No one else knows this. You know, we’re smarter than everyone else. And so they would have a lot of that mindset of like, you know, we got to, it’s a scarcity mindset. And it wasn’t until I went to these masterminds, I was like, oh my gosh. Like, and everyone was just pouring into it and just saying, here, here’s everything I have. Like, here’s our entire business. And they were completely open. And it was at that time that I was like, oh man, we are, there is so much more that can be done that we haven’t even scratched the surface on. But it took getting into a room like that where you’re by far the dumbest person there. And you’re like, cool, this is where I want to be. So that’s cool. I’m glad you do that. – Well, and the challenge is, anybody listening, there are masterminds that are, you know, designed to just help you grow a huge business, but that may not be what you want for your personal vision. So they’re not all created equal and it does depend on what you’re seeking. – Yep. – And anybody interested in the REI Circle of Trust, it’s simply reicot.com. I’ll tell you exactly what we do, whether you ever join us or not, it is always, it’s always interesting to make sure that you get either referred into a group or you know somebody that’s got experience with that group, in my opinion, because again, you can get shiny object syndrome really fast at a mastermind if it’s not controlled. – Yeah, yeah, that I would say is the one major downside to a mastermind, especially if you go into it not knowing what your vision is, you know, what you’re looking to do, is yes, if you have a trouble, if you have a problem with shiny object syndrome or you’re a squirrel, right, that can get, that’s like giving crack to a drug, you know, addict, like it’s just, ’cause you look at all these things, you’re like, oh, I don’t wanna do it all.

Finding & Funding Real Estate Deals: Auctions, MLS, & Turnkey Investing

You know, like now I’m gonna do everything and you come back and everyone’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Like, what’s going on? Why are you wanting to implement this, this, this, this? So yeah, that took some time to figure out as well, but your eyes do get opened. You do have to be careful to put the blinders on though. – Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So, see, going even before the land development, when you were buying houses, they start at the auctions. I imagine the competition was fierce during the 2009, 10, 11, 12, then auctions started to slow down. What did it look like? Were you always able to buy at the auctions or were you covering every avenue you possibly could to market and find deals? – Yeah, you know, back then it was the inverse of what it was like in 2021, for example. It was the exact opposite. So the trouble was not finding homes ’cause there would be thousands of homes hitting the auction block on a daily basis. And so it was just a matter of, you know, which street do you want? ‘Cause you’re gonna get 20 in that subdivision that day. Like it really was, Arizona, to their credit, they let the free market do its thing. And so it was ugly for several years, but I will say that Arizona got through it probably faster than any other state. They got hit hard ’cause they were completely, their economy was very reliant on construction. So when that got hit, it devastated them. But again, they worked through it fairly quickly. So then, you know, we did though see the writing on the wall in 2009 through ’12, it was very easy.

And we were, all of our eggs were in that one basket. It wasn’t until 2000, you know, end of 2012, ’13, that I started looking a little bit more into like short sales as well as MLS. So my thing was, you know, people weren’t buying on the MLS for whatever reason for investments. And so I was finding flips that way. So that was my job for a long period of time was finding deals in the MLS. And so we would do roughly, you know, five or six off the MLS on a monthly basis in addition to the auction. And that’s something that I still do today. So it’s interesting because now obviously the auctions are essentially dead. There’s a few here and there that we pick up here, but very few and far between, but we still buy on the MLS. And again, I just think it’s one of those areas for some reason investors don’t pay as much attention to, but you can still pick up stuff on market even today. So it hasn’t gotten lost from me even now, even though yes, it is not nearly as easy as it was back then. Back then I could write, you know, I would write on average about 15 offers a day on the MLS and we would get probably, honestly, we’d probably get about four or five accepted.

It was just, it was so easy to get them. It was harder to sell them though. So, ’cause there were fewer buyers, but way more sellers. So we’ve seen both sides of the spectrum for sure. The extremes on both sides. – Absolutely. And what do you see right now with the market both in, well, I don’t know if you’re still watching Arizona or not, but in Chattanooga, are you seeing more MLS deals coming up now than you did a year ago? – You know what I’m, yes. Like what I have realized is perspective is everything. Right? So I had the luxury of coming from Arizona where if I were to look at these prices without knowing the history of Chattanooga, I’d look at these prices and I am like a kid in a candy store. I’m like, this is awesome. These prices are phenomenal. I love it. But then if you talk to anyone in Chattanooga, they’re gonna say the opposite. They’re like, man, can you believe these prices are so expensive? Like who would pay that? I’m like, I would. And I’ll tell you why, because, you know, we’re still, our goal is to buy between one and two properties every week. And so some of them come from the MLS, some of them, but we don’t pay for any marketing. So a lot of it is just referral based. We get it from wholesalers. We also get it off the MLS. And so we are buying very heavily right now. And I think the fundamentals for real estate, and again, I know it’s very specific to your area that you live in. So it’s what my advice is gonna be, is gonna be different than, you know, someone in Wisconsin or someone, you know, in Texas or whatever. But for our market, I feel like the fundamentals over the long term, we look at long-term ’cause we are a buy and hold company. I just, I have a hard time seeing any negatives, you know, like as far as like, hey, is there gonna be some black swan event where prices get hit or whatever?

I don’t really see that happening. Just when you look at the inventory, when you look at the supply, when you look at, you know, the demand, the affordability is still pretty strong here. So we are still buying heavily, but I will say that the majority of the folks here that were fixing flippers, you know, years ago, or, you know, that have been doing it for a long time, a lot of them have scaled back, you know. So maybe we’re crazy, like, you know, who knows? I don’t know how it’s gonna play out, but every property that we get, we seem to be able to sell pretty much right away, you know, so we are not having a hard time finding investors interested in this product. And we sell to a nationwide, you know, buyer pool. So again, perspective is everything ’cause these are LA, New York, you know, West Coast, and they see these numbers and they don’t think that they’re real. They just can’t believe it, you know. So even with interest rates where they’re at, there’s still a massive appetite for it. – So let’s talk about the model then with the, you know, the turnkey. – Yeah. – You’re essentially putting it under contract. Are you having to close on it yourself and then sell it again? Or are you bringing people in and they’re table funding your deals? Or I guess let’s just walk through it. – Yeah, so we have a, essentially like more or less a line of credit with Kiavi. I’m sure you guys have heard of Kiavi. So they’re based out of California, but there’s other companies that are large similar to them. But we have like roughly, let’s say 6 million credit with them. And so we utilize that funding quite a bit and it’s more or less 100% financing for both the purchase and the rehab. So it allows us to be able to do what we’re doing at scale. ‘Cause on average we do about 15 homes that we’re remodeling at a time. We have three crews that are working those jobs. And so, you know, it’s pretty capital intensive, but you know, we’re getting reimbursed after we do the work, you know. So that’s kind of how we keep that going.

And so that’s the funding. Is that, sorry, I lost track of my thought. Was that an answer to your question or? – Yeah, well, that’s the beginning of it. I guess the whole step by step, right? You get the property, you get it rehabbed. – Perfect, so yes. What I tell our investors is look, like I wouldn’t trust anyone that’s not investing, you know, and putting their money where their mouth is. Right, so I am right alongside all of our investors. So every single property, yes, we are purchasing with our own capital. We’re remodeling it with our own capital. And then we also are, like I tell them, hey, if it wouldn’t behoove me to buy a crappy property that I don’t think is a good, you know, investment, because if I can’t sell that property, well, guess what? Like I own that property, so now it’s mine. And so why would I buy this dud of a deal? It’s just not in my best interest to do that. So we really focus on, and again, this goes back to my history of having to make all the mistakes, but I don’t chase homes that are super cheap in rough areas, like D-class areas, or even C-class areas.

Like we stick to B, C-class neighborhoods, very blue collar, you know, entry-level pricing, anywhere from like 150 to 300,000 is kind of our sweet spot. And so, you know, that’s, and what we do for our investors is we just say, look, a lot of our investors are busy professionals. They want to get in real estate investing. They have no idea how to get into it. And they don’t want to have to figure it out. They don’t wanna be like, well, where do I buy? How do I buy? How do I rehab? How do I get tenants? How do I market? How do I then manage that rental? Then what happens if they need to get evicted? Like there’s so many things that you have to know in real estate that maybe a lot of us take for granted that do it all the time.

And so what we say is like, look, just get the funding for it, which we can also help you out on that side as well. As long as you get that part, we’ll do everything else for you. And we’re very transparent. This is what you’re getting. You know, we make sure to do all the things that we can as far as like multiple actions. You know, we really try to deliver a product where our biggest thing is I hate CapEx expenses, especially in the first year or two. So, ’cause I know that if you bought a property from us and in the first year, I’m like, well, guess what? You know, the roof just went out or the HVAC went out. If you have to pump $5,000 into the property the first year, which means you didn’t make any cashflow, chances of you buying a second property from me are pretty low. And so we always go into it with the mindset of like, let’s see if we can get everything done up front, make sure it’s a good product so that the first year is a good experience. And then after that, you know, it’s just kind of like they call us when they’re ready for the next one. So that’s, it’s a relationship-based type business. – What’s the investor expecting to get as far as cash on cash return or IRR? – Yeah, we have based it off of like the cap rate is kind of been like our, I guess it’s equal ’cause it takes out the question of financing, right? So what we shoot for is generally about 7% or higher on the cap rate.

Building Equity & Cash Flow: The Turnkey & Creative Financing Advantage

And then we also tell everyone that I have to make sure there’s equity in every deal day one as well. So generally they have about 10% in equity because the way I look at it is I do not enjoy selling it, selling homes to first-time home buyers or working with realtors. I just, I don’t enjoy it, it’s not for me. I just, it’s, I don’t have patience, you know, anymore. So I enjoy working with investors that a little bit more understand, like they’re not emotionally attached to the property, it’s more about the numbers and I’m just a very black and white person. And so I can talk numbers all day, but I don’t talk emotion and feeling and stuff. So what we do is we just say, look, if I were to list this on the MLS as a flip, I would mark it up probably another 10%, but I have to pay for all the commissions and all the junk fees and repairs and stuff. So rather than do that, I’m gonna just, you know, give you a discount on it. We don’t have to worry about all that other stuff, you know. So they win ’cause they get a product that has equity in it. They won. And then for me, it’s more or less the same as I would make if I were to list it on the MLS with an agent. So it’s kind of win-win. – And then you’ve got the property management in place as well, or do you outsource that? – Yeah, we have the property management. We tried to find another management company out here that might work with us, but you know, at the end of the day, I think a lot of people like having a one-stop shop. And so we know the property, plus I couldn’t find anyone out here that would do a flat fee.

So we do $100 flat fee is what our property management costs is most people are a percentage model, like eight to 10%. And so again, we’re just trying to help people ’cause at seven, seven and a half percentage rate, I mean, everything’s so expensive with insurance, taxes. So if we can help them out by giving them a little bit of a discount on the, you know, property management, it helps. – What’s that 150,000 beginner level house, what’s that renting out for in your area? – Yeah, so for like $150,000 house, it would probably run up anywhere between like 1100 to 1250, you know, in that range for year one, that’s pretty conservative. One of the things that really attracted us to the Chattanooga market, and again, real estate is so dependent on location, but like for us, the reason why we were drawn to this location was it has very low taxes, some of the lowest property taxes in the country. And then our insurance hasn’t really gone up, like property insurance for a lot of the nation is obviously a big deal. We all know what’s going on with LA and, you know, the hurricanes that have happened in Florida.

So fortunately, you know, we were talking about this before, you know, like there’s not a lot of natural disasters in our area, but there’s even fewer in your area where you live. We still get quite a bit of rain. So I think that definitely is a risk out here, but yeah, we’ve just been fortunate that a lot of those costs are low on top of the fact that the home prices are low. So people are still finding a way to cashflow, which again, it’s just hard to find. It’s crazy to think that it’s hard to, so hard to find when, you know, four years ago or whatever, like you could pretty much pick anywhere in the US and you can make money, you know, ’cause the loan amount was so low. – Well, and that’s— – Mortgage rates. – The fun thing, like with my model and my listeners know this about me, I love creative deal structuring. – Oh yeah. – And I don’t use institutional funding. I owned a hard money lending company for 10 years with a former business partner. And, you know, we just built relationships with private people over all these years. And currently we have a property under contract and the seller was, it was on MLS. And wasn’t getting buyers. And he was just, he was stuck on his price, but it was a free and clear property. And we actually closed on it. Well, we’ll close on it before the show airs, but he wanted 260 or $285,000 for the house. 

We’re buying it for 265, but he’s carrying payments at $800 at 0% interest for eight years. – Yep. – And that’s fine. I said, we’ll give you your price, but we have to have terms so we can cashflow. – That’s right. – And it sounds like we likely are gonna have another one, very similar scenario that goes under contract in the next couple of days. And all of that just comes from having conversations and solving the seller’s problems, right? Like you mentioned MLS, and I have not bought a lot off the MLS in quite a few years. And I would say in the last four months, we have ramped up our MLS activity significantly because the one nice thing about when I was in the lending business, I did all the valuations for every loan that went out the door. And we were lending in the state of Wisconsin statewide. So I’ve always kept an eye on average days on market and all of these things that a lot of investors don’t even consider. – Yeah. – And now when you start seeing realtors, they’re getting hungry, right?

Balancing Business Success & Personal Fulfillment: When Is Enough, Enough?

They’re– – Yep. – And so if I see a property that’s been on the market for 90 or 120 days, that’s not that long of a time on market in the old days. – Yep. – People got so used to having multiple showings and multiple offers in the first few days on market, now they’re panicking. – Yeah. – And that’s opportunity. – No, I totally agree. Yeah, it’s funny, Pace Morby. I know he’s kind of like the face of creative financing now it seems like, but yeah, he’s a buddy of mine out in Arizona. And I remember when he came out with his, you know, he started doing podcasts, but he also did like Instagram lives and Facebook lives. And I remember him talking about, yeah, creative financing. And it was just such a mind blowing experience for me. ‘Cause I was like, man, I’ve never thought that way. I’ve been in real estate for so long. And I never knew that you could do all these things. And then, yeah, it’s so funny to riff with guys like that and yourself and other investors that think creatively, because real estate is amazing. It really is. Like you can, there’s so many different ways you can make money. And so the creative side, man, very few people understand it, but the ones that do, do very well. – Well, and that’s the great part about market shifts. Like I know that 2022 was kind of stressful for you, but I mean, since COVID, we’ve been, I mean, it’s just getting better and better for us ’cause we’re not reliant on interest rates. – Yeah. – And I just see opportunity all over. I like using options as well and controlling with options. And in upper Midwest, I have very little competition. – Oh, I bet. – So anybody listening to this, stay away from the upper Midwest.

It’s terrible. (laughing) – But that’s the thing, there’s plenty to go around. – There is. – Yeah. – Yeah, we were, you know, it’s that abundance mentality versus scarcity mentality. And there is plenty to go around. It really, there really is. – Yeah. Well, BJ, what’s the question that I should have asked you that I didn’t? I pretty much asked every one of my guests that. It doesn’t have to be related to real estate if you don’t want it to be, but what’s something that I should be asking you? – Oh man. Yeah, it’s funny. My wife was telling my kids the other day, I can’t remember what it was, we were watching a show and they’re like, “Oh, that’s totally how you’d be.” And I’m like, “No, I would not. “You clearly don’t know me.” And they’re like, “Really?” My wife’s like, “You guys don’t understand. “He does not talk about himself. “I’m not very good at talking about myself.” And so I enjoy personally learning way more about other people. So when you ask that question, I’m like, “Well, shoot.” I’m usually the one that enjoys asking you those questions. But yeah, if I had to think of what you’re not asking, I guess I don’t have a great answer for it, but I do like talking about business, obviously, is something that I really do enjoy. But what I feel like I need to work on in 2025, and I would love to get actually your take on this too, and something that you’re doing maybe in your own personal, ’cause I know you mentioned you have three kids. What I’m trying to figure out is like, at what point is it enough?

Is there a point where you have arrived? You know what I mean? ‘Cause I almost feel like no matter what, we’re always as human beings chasing after the next big thing. And there’s always something like, when I was 20 years old, if I could fast forward and be like, “You’re gonna have a wife. “You’re gonna have five beautiful kids. “You’re gonna have a home, cars. “You’re gonna have all the things, right?” Like that you always dreamed of. And yeah, we’re there. I’m at that point. But it’s funny because I’m always thinking like, it’s not enough. Like I need what’s next. So I’m curious, you mentioned that you help people with their visions and stuff. How do you balance that? Is there an answer for you? Like where is your destination? Like when is it enough? ‘Cause I almost feel like we get in this trap of just always wanting more. You know? – Yeah, I can tell you part of my journey, it was figuring out our vision was one step, but then actually believing it, right? ‘Cause most people will engineer how they’re gonna come up with their vision while they’re trying to figure their vision out and you self-sabotage. So the start is just dream. And dream as if money is not an object and time is not an object. So when I was going through that, there was a mentor of mine and I was telling him how envious I was of him because he took a month long RV trip with his wife and his kids. And I said, I would love to do that, but I could never do it, right?

And he said, why not? Do you have it? Number one, is it written down in your vision? And number two, why not? So we had no idea how we were gonna pull it off, but that was during 2020 when he challenged me with that. The summer of 2021, we took a five week RV trip. And I will tell you the first week I had the shakes. – Yeah. – Week two, I started to calm down realizing my staff was doing just fine. I didn’t have to micromanage them. Into weeks three and four, I really started to relax. And by the end of that five week trip, we changed a lot of our business model to where I wasn’t chasing after all the extra deals I really didn’t need, right? That the time with my kids and my family was unbelievably precious to me.

 And so we’ve been able to do that every year since. So I challenge anybody, including you, BJ, take a month off. And if you take a month off, and I’m not saying I didn’t work at all. I typically had like two hours blocked off in my calendar and we happened to take a road trip to the West. So we were in time zones that were behind the central time zone. So I could deal with my staff and everything I had to do before my wife and kids were even really up and going. But if you do that, the clarity you get from that, it’s remarkable. And almost nobody ever does it because they don’t believe they can. And that’s what I would challenge anybody to do. – I love that answer actually. And it’s something I remember hearing that several years ago. And of course I didn’t do anything about it, obviously. But you’re right. I mean, like that’s the ultimate stress test in multiple ways, but it’s like, okay, is your business really viable? Like, can it operate without you getting in the weeds and getting in the way?

Building a Self-Sustaining Business: The True Test of Entrepreneurship

What better way too for your team to be like, oh yeah, we actually don’t need him. Like we can operate without the need of having to go to the boss to ask him questions. So I love that. That was a great answer. See, like that’s why I love asking people questions because that’s my takeaway. Like I feel like that’s what needs to happen. You’re right. – And the flip side of that is if you’re truly building a business instead of being self-employed, it should be able to run without you. And if you ever want to sell your business, it needs to run without you, or it’s not going to be saleable. And so that’s just another lesson that I learned. And I won’t say that I’m there yet, but we keep that in mind as we grow and as we decide to take different steps. I want to be able to have something that I can either pass on to my kids if they want it, that doesn’t require me or sell. – I love that. Style, that’s so smart. How many people, if you want me to ask, are on your team? – I got four VAs in the Philippines, a full-time project manager and a full-time assistant that is here stateside. And then my wife. – And I love that business model too. We’re starting to see the beauty of VAs in like, hey, that can be a VA, that can be a VA.

So yeah, you’re definitely multiple steps ahead of me. – Well, and as my VAs are editing this episode and doing all the work after you and I have the fun of talking, thanks guys. You guys do a great job. – Yep, they do a great job, by the way, too. They have a great follow-up and everything. – Absolutely. Well, BJ, I really appreciate you taking some time out of your day and sharing your journey with us. – Absolutely. – If we can do anything to serve you, we’re always here to help. And anybody that’s interested in the turnkey model, obviously can reach out and get ahold of BJ. Man, any last thoughts before we shut this one down? – No, this has been great. Yeah, like I said, I think that that was a kind of an aha moment for me that, yeah. And it’s just one of those things that I feel like it’s time to, ’cause we’ve got an amazing team in place now. I’ve been in business now for 16, 17 years and hired a lot of people, worked with a lot of employees. But for the first time, I can say we have a team that I am totally confident in.

There’s not anyone that’s a weak link or anything like that, where sometimes you have that issue going on with the company. So we’re super grateful to be where we’re at. But I think, yeah, the ultimate test to see if you’re a true businessman is if you can actually leave the business and have it operate without you. So appreciate those words of wisdom. But no, I love being on the show. This is always fun to talk to other super successful entrepreneurs out there. So thanks for having me on. – Well, awesome. We appreciate you being here. For everybody else, we appreciate you listening and following the Generations of Wealth week after week. Please do everything you can to spread the message.

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And until the next show, go out, live your vision and love your life.

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About BJ Gremillion