Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, everyone. It Adrian, Penoza here with the more to life real estate investing podcast, helping you get more to life. So you can start living your dreams like me through real estate. Investing our guest today is none other than Billy keels. Billy, I'm gonna run outta fingers here, but Billy is a international real estate entrepreneur. First and foremost, problem solver, author, coach, mentor, and the list goes on and on. He is on a mission to share his 25 plus years of experience. And more importantly, his passion for the sales industry he had has had the opportunity to work in over, get this one. Guys, he's had the opportunity to work in over 86 countries. Now, who do you know, that's done? Uh, wow. Learn and fluently speaks five languages. And he currently calls Europe as home. He is also the host of the going long podcast, which is coming up to a full two years in June. Billy loves speaking with his clients on how to improve their current business situations, engaging with his investors and creating a winning strategy to maximize the control over their lives is which we always want. Yeah. So drum roll none with, with very much weighted, uh, suspense and, and excitement. I introduced to you Mr. Billy keels, welcome to more to life, Billy
Speaker 1 00:01:48 ARA, man. I absolutely love it. You're making me smile. I just love seeing what you're doing, the continued evolution, the lives that you're impacting, and I'm very, very humble to be here and be able to share another conversation with you, man, looking forward to it.
Speaker 0 00:02:04 Yeah. So I was a guest on your podcast, I don't know, month ago or so ago. And, uh, yeah, it was a good time then. And uh, obviously there's a connection there and uh, we reached out to you and wanted obviously like a ton of a ton of information, a ton of experience, a ton of life experience. I mean, working in over 86 countries. Yeah. Like you've seen the world from crying out loud.
Speaker 1 00:02:31 I've been pretty fortunate, man. I've been very fortunate, Adrian, and you know, one of the things I would rec well, two things I would like to say even before we get started first and foremost, when we were talking the first time and you were on the going long podcast episode 1 76, so everybody go check Adrian out. He crushed it over on going long podcast, episode 1 76. And you know, I know that you have since started the podcast and I know you do this and you are really focused on bringing in lots of value so that people understand that there's more to life as you're already a viewer, a listener, make sure that you take just a couple of seconds to leave Adrian, an honest written review as well as a rating. That means so much, uh, and from one podcaster to the other would just ask if you have not done that yet, if you could leave him an honest written review as well as a rating. So he can all continue to bring, uh, guests that are gonna help you get closer to your goals and, and have more control over your life. And as you understand very much that there is more to life and just, uh, going to a job every day. So you can take a couple seconds. That'd be great.
Speaker 0 00:03:31 Thank you. Uh, yeah. Thank you for that push there. Uh, Billy muster. Appreciate it. So welcome to the show and we got a couple very easy questions, but I think they're important because it's gonna tell us a little bit about you and, and your journey and where, where you started, where you came from and so on and so forth. So I'm gonna leave it open ended for you, Billy, give us the, start, the middle, the end, uh, of your journey and where you are today.
Speaker 1 00:03:59 Yeah, sure, man. And I there's, there's so many different things as I listen to you. And I talk about the, how fortunate I have been in life. I mean, just to take a lot of experiences and make a lot of mistakes along the way. And if I, if you think about the, the kind of the Genesis, you know, I, as you're born, you're, you're, you're born in a different type of family. And I was born into a family, was very blue collar. Uh, my parents both worked two jobs. They, um, many times I saw them as a young man growing up, they had to make some very difficult decisions. And many times Adrian was like, do we pay this bill? Or we do. We pay that bill. And it was a constant struggle just to get to the end of the month. Now we always had food on our table.
Speaker 1 00:04:35 So it was not a kind of a destitute or any of that kind of stuff. But I just, I watched my parents have really, really challenging, uh, issues as it related to, uh, finances. And then of course that affected their relationship that affected what was happening in the house, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so by the time I was 12, I'm originally from Columbus, Ohio in the, in the Midwest of the United States. And by the time I was 12, we'd lived in three different states. We went from Ohio to Colorado, my brother and sister were born there. And then eventually we ended up in Texas. My dad got into the oil and gas industry. My mom was also a, uh, mother who was working. I mentioned multiple different types of jobs and things like that. And along the way, those kind of relationship issues continue to stick around for my parents.
Speaker 1 00:05:14 And they kind of got together. They reconcile, they separated, they reconciled. And, uh, they also started up their own business, uh, their own business. They started up a small barbecue business. I watched them get that started. And, and because there was a lack of financial intelligence or understanding or education, I watched that they had a lot of love and a lot of passion. And at the same time that love and passion, if it's not, uh, substantiated with really strong financials and understanding and things that should happen well, it eventually, uh, collapsed. They got outta their business and things like that. Um, because my parents had two different jobs. You put a lot of focus and they put a lot of focus on, on education. And so, although they didn't have the formal education, the, the titles in college, they really wanted us to have that.
Speaker 1 00:05:54 Me and my brother and sister. And so I was a really hard working student. I got really good grades and I was an ACE student. And, uh, I got that recognition and that made me feel good and feel valued. And that went through college. I went to college, had two degrees, went to college in the Southwest of Ohio. But one of the things that happened Adrian is when I would like, as an, a student, I was used to studying for the test getting an a right. I, and that was the validation and things kept going forward. And so I did the same thing in college with the exception of, uh, economics. I, for whatever reason, I wasn't really good at that in college I've since taken a real love for it. But the thing that happened was I was really set up for my dream job.
Speaker 1 00:06:31 My dream job was to get a job and go and work for Proctor and gamble. And, um, I went through the process in my first year when I was getting ready to get my first degree. And, and, and the thing that happened, I got rejected from my dream job. <laugh> that crushed me. Cause I didn't know how to deal with that as a, as an a student, right? This was kind of like the first major thing in my life that I, I wanted to get, but it was not able to get, but I decided I wanted to, I had a really great teacher and positive, really positive influence on my life. And I ended up going back and getting a second degree a fifth year. The first year I spent overseas and sorry, the first semester I spent overseas, the second semester I came back and what I had in my mind, Adrian was, Hey, listen, I didn't get the job the first time.
Speaker 1 00:07:08 So let me go back and I'm gonna try again, I've got this international experience, I'm gonna get another degree. It'll be perfect to get my perfect dream job, which was P and G. And as I went through that process, I went through the first run of the process and I got the same rejection letter. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is just, I don't know how to handle it. Not once, but twice I got rejected and as good fortune one have it. I was on a student body, uh, student government body. And the co-chair of that weekend that I was a part of, is a big thing in student government in the, in the states was from St. Louis, Missouri. And he told me about this job of people that were traveling around the world. And there were, it was right before the 1996 Olympics were probably about five, 6,000 people that had applied for this role. And I was one of 26 that, that got the job. And so in five years I had the opportunity to work and travel throughout some 58 countries. Right. Just to put it in perspective, like from like 21 to 26, I was staying in five star resorts, five star hotels. I was interacting with fortune 500 CEOs. It was pretty amazing. Say that
Speaker 0 00:08:04 Again, five years you had the opportunity to what?
Speaker 1 00:08:07 To work and travel throughout 58 countries. Yeah. 58 countries. Wow. Yeah. I mean, it was just amazing. Like some days I would, I would wake up and I would, um, oh, we never went to, um, I personally didn't have a chance to go though. Only chance I had to go once was in, in Canada was I, there was a chance, a trip to Whistler, but, um, I got canceled and moved somewhere else, but, um, but if you can imagine, like I was in Chicago and then I would fly from Chicago to Buenos in, in Argentina. And I was there for like two weeks and then I would fly to Beijing and I was there for a week. I mean, it was amazing at 21 to 26, but eventually, like, I got tired of that and I got a little bit jaded and decided I needed to kind of, I missed too many weddings.
Speaker 1 00:08:47 I missed birds of friends and, you know, nieces and nephews were born, stuff like that. And I decided to take a one year sabbatical and that one year sabbatical, uh, basically I, I got accepted at university at, in Paris and I was moving. I got accepted to university. The Soone, uh, actually, and I wanted to go there, learn French language and culture. I wanted to learn more about wine and I wanted to learn how to salsa dance. And so that was actually pretty awesome. And the thing is, I'd gone through a lot of trials and tribulations. Cause when you just get to a new country, you don't speak the language. You don't know the culture. I mean, there were days in the very beginning where I just wanted to give up. I was like, what am I doing here? I didn't know anybody. Um, and so I got about six months in and, and then I decided, Hey, listen, I really, I'm starting to learn the language.
Speaker 1 00:09:30 I'm learning more about the culture. And I'd really like to stick around and stay. And I was fortunate enough to work with a lot of people that had a really influential, uh, like in their companies, um, a lot of influence in their companies. And so I started and I was able to stay in France. I started working in the it industry and the hardware hardware side of the industry. And I left Paris and went down to a town called Monier. I stayed there for about two and a half years along the way I got into leading up a sales organization, but in Italy. And I know you and I talked about that when you were on, uh, episode 1 76, when I was in Italy, it was amazing, learned more the language, the culture, and, and eventually moved back to France. And the reason I say that is because right before I left, I actually met this really cool, cute woman from Spain.
Speaker 1 00:10:13 And eventually I ended up, well, we did a long distance relationship for a couple years and I ended up moving to Spain cause she didn't want to come. She didn't wanna go back to France. And so I moved to, to Barcelona in July of 2005, we got married in September of 2008. Our first son was born in October, 2009 and our second son in, uh, may of 2011. So it was absolutely amazing. I was working in big, large multinational corporations for most of the time or for all of the time. Actually I did that for 26 years. You kind of mentioned alluded to that earlier. And as of December of last year, which is now about four and a half months, I have no longer been working with the multinational. Uh, I've learned a lot of things. And probably the only thing that I have not mentioned is, and I know there's a lot more to life, but one of the things that happened to me back in 2000 Adrian, is because I don't come from a family where we invested a lot.
Speaker 1 00:11:06 I didn't know what the difference was between investing and saving. And once I figured out that once you have money in your account, that's not investing because I didn't grow up that way. I thought that was investing. I later found that not having money in having money in your account and then actually making that money, earn more money that was investing. And so I'd done that. I did that blindly. I gave all the responsibility of my retirement to my financial advisor. And in 2000 I lost a significant portion of my portfolio, which was in my 401k and my IRA, my retirement funds. And then my financial advisor said, Hey, listen, don't worry. Just, just hang on. You know, just do some DCA DCA. And I didn't understood what that meant. And I found out that that was called dollar cost averaging. It's kinda like putting the same amount of money in every two weeks.
Speaker 1 00:11:47 And I did that and I eventually the, the account balance came back Adrian and it came back really, really well. And then 2008 happened and around 2000 later, part of 2008, 2009, I'd lost 33% of the value of my portfolio. And so that's when I started realizing like, I can't just depend on my financial life, in my retirement plan and giving it to somebody else. So I started reading books, I read rich dad, poor dad, like a lot of people. And I went down that whole rabbit hole and, uh, I started listening to podcasts, watching videos and it was amazing. But the thing is, is I kind of did that for about two and a half, three years. Um, but it wasn't until, and, and this was something that I've just recently kind of felt comfortable talking about. Cause I was really uncomfortable talking about it before, but, um, it took me to go from theory to taking action and I missed my oldest son's third birthday.
Speaker 1 00:12:33 Um, and it's one of those things that, you know, you think about when you're in these big corporate roles and you want to tr crowd, you want to climb to the top of the ladder and you wanna do all the things that you need to do. And I kind of, I was in that, in that kind of lifestyle. And the day that I had to wake up at like 5 45 in the morning six, I woke my wife and our one year old up to, to be able to wake our three year old, give him a hug, give him a kiss and then get in the elevator in our, in our flat and, and head to the airport. It was like my, like someone socked me in the gut. And I just remember that, that feeling of, of emptiness and this whole like being torn inside, like, hang on a second.
Speaker 1 00:13:07 I wanna be this great corporate warrior. And at the same time I wanna be this great dad and I'm, I wanna be at my son's birthday party, but I'm going to this business meeting. I don't even remember what the business meeting was about today. Adrian. I just remember being there in the evening, uh, at this, at the meeting at the table and my wife and my two sons and my in-laws they're all back celebrating his birthday. So that's what actually took me from the theoretical stuff of learning all, all of these different knowledge to actually taking action. And so I eventually learned to, to invest long distance, as you know, I looked to buy here in Barcelona, Spain, where I live, but, um, but eventually I ended up buying back in the United States and I've been investing long distance, uh, for the last nine years going on nine and a half years now and was able to really get clear on the fact that I wasn't just here to work forever. And I wasn't here just to build up for the future, but it was actually to live the present. And so that's what I've been doing. I've been focusing a lot of time and energy on, uh, more with the family and, and really building the business. So probably a little bit long winded, but you said I could paint the story and I just wanted to kind of give you an idea of what, um, what I've lived and some of the different trials, tribulations, and, uh, also some of the successes.
Speaker 0 00:14:15 Amazing, amazing. I can't imagine the life experience that somebody would take by working and traveling in 56 different countries like yourself. Like, I can't imagine what that did to you. Like you saw, you probably saw like you saw the world essentially, and every kind of how it works in different countries and lifestyles, cultures, you name it like, wow. Probably not, probably not. There's probably very, very, I don't know, very few people that could actually stomach and do that and, and have the courage to continue to do that. So. Amazing. Amazing. Let's talk about this long, like you've mentioned it and I know there's probably different moving parts. Yep. But what's interesting to everybody out there let's talk about, um, long distance investing. Talk about that. Tell me what break that down a little bit in more detail as it relates to you sure. Like your, your journey in that.
Speaker 1 00:15:22 Yeah. Great love that question. And so, you know, one of the things that happened was when, when you find something that you love and I found this way that I could have more control over my financial life. And that was investing in real estate. You get on this high. I mean, you know what it's like, I mean, you were, you were in the police force for such a long time and do that thing where
Speaker 0 00:15:41 You couldn't have said it better start again. When you find something you love.
Speaker 1 00:15:45 Yeah. When you find something you love, you just get so excited about it and you just want to live it. And you just want to tell everybody about it because it helps to give you, get you closer to whatever the goal is. Right. And you're learning something new and you are just excited. You want everybody to know how awesome this thing is that that you have, and it was no different for me because I was reading all this theoretical knowledge. Right. And, and then I started taking the, the, the big thing was when that event happened to me, with my oldest son. And then I wanted to finally that gave me the, the impetus to go from theory to action. And so when I went to action and I was sharing all this cool stuff, Adrian, what I, what I didn't know was number one, I was truly not really educated.
Speaker 1 00:16:23 I had the theoretical knowledge, but I didn't have the street cred. Right. I didn't have this real, what really happens. So I started then going out and I was looking here in Barcelona and I thought to myself, well, I wanna buy a property. Cause what it looked like was I, every property I buy is gonna be two, $300 a door, those two, $300 a door. If I get more doors, that's gonna eventually provide enough cash flow so that I have the options to do what I wanna do. If I wanna keep going my job, I keep going my job. If I don't then all that kind of stuff. Um, but, but what happened was I, I got a real, I started getting feedback from the fee, the going from theory to practice. And I realized the location where I was living every single time I would underwrite or I would start to do the numbers on the deals.
Speaker 1 00:17:03 The revenue minus operating expenses gave me my net operating income minus what I was gonna have to pay for the mortgage. And the books had to two to $300. But when I started penciling it out, it was like minus 50 euros, minus 75 euros, minus a hundred euros. And so I didn't understand it. And I got really frustrated, but what I didn't understand Adrian was I was in a, in a location in a market that was an appreciation based market. It's not really a cashflow market. So I got really frustrated and I was like, hang on a second. Well, how can I do this? How am I gonna, you know, I have this, all this theory that I was ready to go to, but if it weren't for a couple of really good friends of mine who are from Spain and they made a couple comments and were like, well, Billy you're you're from the us.
Speaker 1 00:17:43 Like, why don't you just invest in the United States? And my whole thing was Adrian. I looked at them and I was like, do you guys not see that there is an Atlantic ocean between where I live here and back in the United States? Like, how can I possibly manage that? That's not possible, but it was a limiting belief that I had to myself. And then I got to a certain point. I was like, Hmm, maybe hang on a second. Well, if I can just find the location and I just figure out, I'll buy, I've got money in the bank and eventually I'll buy the property. And that would be it. And so that's actually what I did. I like in the very beginning, Adrian, I didn't have a lot of criteria. I just bought a property because I had money in the bank. I wanted to start getting more control over my life because I didn't want to depend on betting in, on the wall street casino.
Speaker 1 00:18:25 Um, and I started like trying to figure out, like, I don't, I don't know anybody, the, the criti the decision criteria, just to kind of share this with you to, to, to purchase my very first property. The only thing I thought about is is there somebody from my family that can be near the property in the, in the event that like it blows up or something happens. And that was the only criteria that, that was my selection criteria. Definitely not what I tell people to do today, because that is not the best way to go about it. But what it did is it got me in the game. I was then taking action. So I asked family members, Hey, listen, I, I know that I need a mortgage, but I don't know anybody. Can you introduce me to some people? And so they introduced me to a couple of people.
Speaker 1 00:19:06 Uh, I finally went with one retail banker that helped me with the mortgage. They introduced me to a general contractor. The general contractor introduced me to a broker in the area, a real estate broker who then introduced me to a real estate agent. And so that is kind of how I got started. And what I realized is when I got started and I bought that property, I didn't have any systems in place, Adrian. And so while I'm living in Spain and things start breaking, the residents didn't have anybody to call. Like they didn't have a way to get in touch with me. So then I had to scramble to actually get a team who would be like managing the property. And we got an answering service in that was 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And then it was kind of like going back and forth, back and forth and figuring out what was breaking and then fixing it.
Speaker 1 00:19:47 But the positive part that was happening for me was the cash flow continued to be positive while I was learning along the way. Now that's how I got started. That's definitely not what I talked to people about or what I teach people. Now, it's kind of just the opposite of what I did. It's basically being clear on what it is that you want to do, why you want to do it, meaning like you're looking for some type of benefit. Is it cash flow? Is it, um, is it tax benefits? And, and, and why are you doing that? Is it because you wanna spend more time with your family? You wanna feel safe. You wanna feel that your bank account's moving up, you wanna take a trip around the globe. Uh, you wanna start saving even more for your children's college fund, whatever that why is get in touch with that, understand that, and then go to the location that gives you the highest probability of achieving that benefit or that goal.
Speaker 1 00:20:28 And then after that, and you know, this a lot, that's when you really have to focus on how do you build your team and making sure that you have the right members of, of your team together, your general contractor, your asset manager, whoever that team is, you're legal people, your, your, your finance people. And then lastly, this is when it that's, when it makes sense to make your purchase of your, of your asset, your opportunity. And that can be a single family house. It could be a small multi-family, it could be a large multi-family, it could be energy equipment. It doesn't matter, but at least what you're doing and why you're doing it is aligned with the location. That's gonna give you the highest probability to do, achieve that goal. You're built, your team is already built. They understand the location, they understand what you're you're trying to do, and then you just find the right asset. So that's kind of the foundation of the long distance investing, which is pretty similar to being able to build your team successfully.
Speaker 0 00:21:16 Amazing. So what do you like, I guess now with respect to your portfolio is, do you have, have you built a few properties up in Barcelona? Like where are you, where are you putting your money or where have you putting your money since you've been living out there?
Speaker 1 00:21:30 Yeah, sure. So there's a couple different things. So since, so I've still not invested in Europe or in Spain, uh icontinue to invest in the United States exclusively to date and, and basically what I've done. And what I realized is everybody's destination is different and there are a number of different tools, or sorry, a number of different vehicles that you can use to get to the destination. Right? And so the thing that I continue to do is get closer to the why that I'm looking for the investing and, and what I'm doing and, and why I'm doing it. And then I continue to go to different locations and build teams, right? And, and working with the best of the best in the teams, in the, in the locations where they are. And I've continued to invest in, uh, invested in smaller multifamily. I did a lot of things, really actively myself, Adrian, in the very beginning.
Speaker 1 00:22:20 Now I got my portfolio up to about 30 different doors. I bought small multifamily. I bought a mobile home park and those things worked really, really well. But then later I found out that I could actually, and you know, a lot about this, I could actually find someone who is actually a world class operator in a specific location. And I could give them my capital. I invested time getting to know them. And then I gave them my capital and invested passively with them. Right. And so, as you start to look at the different opportunities, you start to understand who the operators are. You get to know them, their values, how their businesses work, whether the operations like, and then at that point, it could make sense to, you know, you just give somebody else two, $300,000. They do the investing for you. You get to know them, you get to meet them.
Speaker 1 00:23:02 And then that way you are not only actively investing, you're passively investing. You're letting somebody else do the work. You are doing the due diligence, making sure that you understand what they are doing. And I've invested in large multifamily. As I mentioned before, I've in development projects, hotels, uh, and ATM machines, uh, I've invested in energy equipment. And today the thing that I really focus a lot on, uh, for us based investors, those people that are, that, that meet a, an, a net worth as well as a, an income criteria is helping them to mitigate their, their tax, uh, obligation for W2 income, as well as providing consistent returns and doing that in energy projects. So, um, I've looked at a number of different things. And so depending on how you want to get to your destination, are you selecting the right vehicle? That's gonna get you there the fastest. And, and I've been doing that long distance, and we'll continue to do that long distance. So hopefully that answers the question.
Speaker 0 00:23:55 Yeah. So you're still putting all your investments essentially in, in the USA.
Speaker 1 00:24:00 That's correct? Yes.
Speaker 0 00:24:02 And from a broad, obviously you're in Barcelona. Great. Yep,
Speaker 1 00:24:05 Exactly.
Speaker 0 00:24:06 Yep. Talk to me about, um, as I mentioned in your intro, are you still actively involved in mentoring and coaching or have you just, is that previous stuff, are you still working in that field now?
Speaker 1 00:24:18 Well, well, yeah. You know what I, I do. And so I mentor, I mentor in coach, um, and the, and the way that I do it. So it's like through, you can have formal programs, things like that, but, you know, even this morning I woke up and I, I had a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile and it was from someone that, um, I just, you know, when you've had the experience of working 26 years across 86 countries and, and speaking five languages and understanding multiple cultures and having had, you know, I've, I've negotiated very large eight figure negotiations in different language, different cultures. And so all of those things, I went through a lot of challenges to be able to get to the point that I am today, and I enjoy helping others move forward faster. So mentoring, I continue to do coaching. I continue to do, I don't have a formal program. And I do that really nowadays. I've done that in the past. Just, I prefer to use my time in different ways. Uh, but I do enjoy mentoring people that are moving along, uh, or they feel stuck. They're blocked and, and being able to provide them with, uh, with guidance and input. And really a lot of times it's just about helping them see themselves with the, with the mirror in front and what are the next, probably most appropriate steps for them to take.
Speaker 0 00:25:26 Amazing. Yeah. Awesome. Um, I got a couple other good. Yeah. Here for you. Um, I didn't ask you this, but I'm, I'm actually pretty curious. So what are the five languages?
Speaker 1 00:25:44 Yeah, so I speak, um, American English. Yeah. Uh, Spanish, I speak Catalan, which is the language that they speak here in this region of Spain. And it is a, it is a language and I also speak French and I speak Italian. So those are the five languages. And I've been very fortunate cause I've lived in each one of those countries. I know what it's like Adrian, to be in a country and not speak the language, not understand the culture. Um, I've been in moments where it was very uncomfortable. Uh, you know, I, I cried, I wasn't happy. I didn't know how to move forward. Didn't want to call back family or, or move back or, um, but, and you have to continue to work through it. You gotta, you know, be clear on why you wanna do things. And learning language for me is a part of it, but it's understanding the culture and that's, what's the really big thing.
Speaker 1 00:26:34 And I think for me, it's, the language is one thing. But understanding the culture, um, is something that's, it's very different. I was on the phone earlier with a guy whose, whose parents from come from Guatemala. And, you know, it's really interesting because I speak Spanish and I speak Spanish fluently. My Spanish is very much a, a, a European Spanish. Right. And so, although I speak the same language, I don't have the same cultural awareness because I've never been to Guatemala. Um, but these are just those like kind of small. And you and I, I remember we talked about it on the, when you were on, on my podcast, it's the small Fu as they would say in, in Italian, like just the little things that are, make things just a little bit different, even if you speak the language. So
Speaker 0 00:27:14 <laugh> yeah. <laugh> yeah, yeah. You inspire me, man. Like that journey is incredible. Honestly, it's, it's, it's really incredible. And the fact that you, God knows the life experience you took from that. And, um, obviously you've been successful in real estate investing abroad, uh, given you're there and you're putting your eggs in the basket of the USA still. So that's, that's pretty cool in itself. Um, lots of stuff there. Um, we're coming towards the end here, uh, Billy, but, um, I want to get to our end round here where we ask some really cool, quick questions in relation to, um, the more to life podcast. But first one is, what is your, why, what do you do? What, why do you do what you do and where you are today, Billy?
Speaker 1 00:28:06 Well, there is a couple things I, I want to continue to contribute to others, right? I mean, we just mentioned it. So I, I enjoy being able to help others that are on the path to becoming that's something, the contribution aspect for me now, because I was, as I was, when I was younger, I was that person who was really curious. I was asking, taking, taking, asking, and now I'm at the point in my life where I wanna be able to give, uh, I, I am inspired, uh, daily by my two boys, uh, because they, I know that they look to me for lots of inspiration and I work on being the best version of myself. Now, I don't always get that right. But I'm constantly working to be the best version of myself as a father, uh, as well as a husband. So, but, uh, but at this point in my life, I'm really looking to contribute and, and help others along in their journey.
Speaker 0 00:28:52 Cool. So obviously you're very successful now, Billy, and we say that relative to how the world views success. Yeah. Um, but do you think, um, do you think more to life for Billy keels and when you picture more to life, when you picture more to life, what do you see,
Speaker 1 00:29:19 Man? This is something that's actually, um, it's, it's something that's close to my heart. So first and foremost. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, there's more to life. I, you know, one of the things that happened to me, Adrian, towards the end of last year, um, you know, I've been driven most of my life I'm and I'm far from a, you know, I've, I've made lots and lots of mistakes. I continue to make state mistakes every single day. I love getting feedback. I love understanding the things that I can improve on, but you start to realize that no matter how much quote unquote success is, and I agree with you, that's measured different ways by different people. Like to me, I measure like how much I can play video games with my sons. And they beat me like that's success because I means I can just be hanging out with them and play video games, try to get better quality time with my boys.
Speaker 1 00:30:02 Whereas in the past, I, I didn't do that. Cause I was really, really busy working and traveling and, and all that kind of stuff. But towards the latter part of, of last year, my dad had a really challenging health condition. And no matter what you're doing, how much success, quote unquote you've had and the things that you've been able to do and the experiences that you've had when you have someone that you love, that is in a position that's life critical. You know, they're on, I they're in the ICU, they're on life support systems. It really puts things into perspective. It put things into perspective for me, where you start to realize that this, this game doesn't last forever. Like none of us are here, uh, for the rest or like, or for here are forever. And so there's definitely more to life. It's one of the things that when I left the corporate world, knowing that I'd done a lot of the work in advance, I don't have to think about going back to the corporate world.
Speaker 1 00:30:55 You did the same thing, Adrian. I mean, you left what you were doing and you've never looked back. You continue to go out, you continue to make an impact. You continue to, um, to affect others' lives because you too know that there is definitely more to life than just working a job and trying to get as much money as you can. That is not success. In my opinion, it's being success is being able to use the most valuable asset that any of us have, which is time being able to use that time, how you want when you want and with whom you want. And, and, and yeah, and so today it's really about helping other people understand these things and understand it sooner. And if I can share just a bit of my, my story to help someone else understand, you know, that life is not infinite and there's definitely more to life than making money. And just trying to chase after some title or AMAs, a bunch of money. It's, it's about a lot more than that.
Speaker 0 00:31:45 Amazing. Couldn't agree more with you. Couldn't agree more. Yeah. Amazing words there, Billy. Thank you so much. So, um, if, oh, you didn't answer this part when you picture more to life personally, when you picture more to life, what do you see for Billy keels? And maybe you touched on it more time with your boys, more time with your family. What do you, when you do you picture, and I think you said this, do you picture you owning and in your jet and flying around the world like grand Cardone and your own jet or more to life is you and your family.
Speaker 1 00:32:22 Yeah. You know, not nothing against jets and people that own 'em and flash 'em and all that stuff. That's, that's not me. Uh, I want to be able to, and, and not that I want to, but I am going to, and, and am doing, which is using my time in the way that I want. And that's with my family. Uh, it's getting better about that because remember I'm a recovering perfectionist. I was that a student and I got a lot of validation from being in the corporate game. And so now I realize that it's really about the family and using my time, that asset in the way that makes the most sense for me. I love also continuing to build up our community of investors because I left, I left the corporate environment where I was very fortunate. I was highly paid and I've now moved into another space where I I'm not chasing behind currency what I'm chasing our relationships and build, being able to build lifelong lasting relationships.
Speaker 1 00:33:13 And so I take a lot of time getting to know people, getting to know, uh, our investors and, and, and spending time with my boys. I mean, you and I even talked about it today. Like one of the things I love is I, I got a chance to go pick up my sons today and they get to hang out here with me. So, um, it's being able to use, use the time in the way that I want with whom I want and, and also be able to affect others' lives or impact others' lives PA P positively. So hopefully that makes sense.
Speaker 0 00:33:38 Absolutely. So if you could give one parting word, one piece of advice to everybody listening out there in your journey, in all the life, uh, lessons you've learned, not only on a personal level, but in the space of real estate investing as well. If you could give one piece of advice leaving from today, what would that be?
Speaker 1 00:33:59 So I think back in my life and the things that have happened positively, the experiences that I've had positively, uh, they didn't come from just reading books. They didn't come from just studying. They actually took place because I was doing. And, and one of the things I would say is as someone who is, once again, I'm an, a student and a lot of times it was about trying to get it right. And I fight, I struggle against that today about saying, Hey, I gotta get everything right. And, and no, like, I, I didn't learn five languages because I was a native speaker in any of them. I was only a native speaker in American English. And so the others I've actually learned and perfected as a result of doing. And as a result of surrounding myself with people who are native speakers, who are further along in their journey than I am and being willing to do.
Speaker 1 00:34:47 And so the, if I would, if there's anything I would, I, I would say, or the thing that I would would, would pass forward is number one, doing overthinking and spend time in giving. Um, I came from a home where I, we didn't have much, it was very scarcity mindset. And so we tried to the very little you had, you wanted to keep onto it and hold onto it. I, I, on a daily basis, I work against that too. Give to others, give freely, don't give and think you're gonna get something in return when you can do those two things you're doing over just thinking or contemplating, and you are also focused on giving, but giving, without expecting anything in return, amazing things will happen for you. Absolutely happen for you
Speaker 0 00:35:30 Give without expecting anything in return. Bingo. I, I buddy <laugh> words of wisdom and I couldn't agree more. Uh, yeah, I, I bang on bang on and you know what, that's amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much, Billy. It's, it's been a, it's been a, a, just a slice being able to spend another half an hour together on my podcast. And, um, how do people reach out to Billy keels from today?
Speaker 1 00:36:02 Yeah, Adrian, I appreciate that, man. And, and, um, it's a pleasure being able to speak to you, connect with you. Like I said, in the beginning, man, I just love what you're doing. I love that you're gaining even more and more momentum positively impacting others' lives. The best way to, to, I guess there are kind of a couple different ways to find me, but I'll keep it really simple. There are a lot of people that, uh, wanna find out more about what it is that we're doing the best way is to go to first G cp.com/invest. Uh, that's the best way to go. You can find the website there. First gen cp.com/invest. If you wanna just check out the website, you can do that first gen. Um, you mentioned before as well, uh, the going long podcast with Billy keels, as I mentioned, you've been a guest, an awesome episode, 1 76, everybody go check that out. Adrian was awesome. You really crushed it. Uh, and, and I would say if I love connecting with people as well, just like you on LinkedIn, mm-hmm <affirmative> if you like LinkedIn, I think I'm the only Billy keels in Barcelona, Spain. So I should be pretty easy to find if you wanna connect there and just let me know that you heard Adrian, I speaking here and, um, listen, man, I really, really appreciate the opportunity to share a bit of my story with you and, and your audience. Thank you.
Speaker 0 00:37:05 Awesome. Well, it's Friday. It's uh, what's the temperature there? What'd you say? 22, 24.
Speaker 1 00:37:12 Yeah. 20, 22 degrees Celsius. Yes. It's
Speaker 0 00:37:15 Wonderful. It's big deal. No big it's
Speaker 1 00:37:17 Awesome deal.
Speaker 0 00:37:17 <laugh> I think we're pushing, uh, we're pushing about six or seven degrees here. At least it's nice and sunny here today. It's a little cool, but it's, uh, we're on our way up, but it is a beautiful sunny Friday. So on that note, Billy pleasure was all ours pleasure was all mine. It's been another half an hour, uh, with you today and, and dive a little deeper into your story and your life. Appreciate the words of wisdom, guys. If you have any doubt, reach out to this man, he is the man. And on that note, thank you everybody for tuning in and thank you for your support. Don't forget to like us. Don't forget to like us, as Billy asked you
Speaker 1 00:37:55 To do, uh, do it, do it
Speaker 0 00:37:57 Go. I much appreciate it. And, uh, yeah. Take care of you all the best.
