Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed, Tim Mercer. He is the author of Forbes Books "Bootstrapped Millionaire." He is also the CFO of Cadence Ventures, INC. It is a boutique private equity firm that invests in private mortgage notes and offers "nontraditional" financing to real estate investors, builders, and developers. As a private lender with discretionary capital, we've become a reliable capital partner for real estate professionals needing execution and timely closings. Tim has over two decades of experience in finance, real estate, and government contracting; Mercer is currently the CFO of Cadence Ventures, INC and IBOX Global, LLC, ranked #357 on Inc. 500’s list of the Fastest Growing Companies.
Talking Points/Questions *
1) Phases of entrepreneurship (i.e. solopreneurs, intrapreneurs, business owner, investor)
2) The importance of financial literacy and how to level up your financial knowledge
3) How government contracts can help scale your business
4) Advice to small businesses seeking to get into government contracting
5) Why real estate is the safest and most profitable investment 6) How to invest passively into real estate
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the show. I am Rashaan McDonald, the host
of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to
stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
(00:25):
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald's host the
weekly Money Making Conversation Master Class show. The interviews and
information that this show provides offer everyone. It's time to
stop reading other people's success stories and start living your own.
(00:46):
I'm here to help you reach your American dream. My
guest is the author of Bootstrap Millionaire. He is also
the CFO of Cadence Ventures is a boutique private equity
firm that invests in private mortgage notes and offer there's
non traditional financing to real estate investors, builders, and developers.
Please work with the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Tim Mercer,
(01:08):
how you doing, my.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Brother, I'm doing quite well.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Thank you for having South Carolina, Bornuth, Carolina.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know, you know your book, you know you found
Humble Beginnings. You know, tell us about South Carolina. Well,
umble beginnings.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, four kids, right, four kids, that's right. Yeah, grew
up my mother had four kids. Grew up in a
small town mullin South Carolina. Yes, it's funny because it's
part of South Carolina, which they actually wrote a documentary
on that part of South Carolina. They called it the
Corridor of Shane. Oh why yeah, Well, because my understanding
(01:40):
is that that part of South Carolina had or may
still have had the worst school system in the entire US. Right,
And when I grew up, I was grew up in
the seventies and eighties. So it was a tobacco town, right,
I mean tobacco fields, warehouses and those types of things.
Not much of an industry outside of that. A lot
(02:00):
of great, great people, great humble people. And and but
it helped me, it helped me to really be able
to establish them. I guess the foundation of who I
am today as a man.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
We talk about you know, I come from Fifth Ward
in the city Houston, Texas, and we all come from
that humble beginnings. And then what did you take away
from that that you still like a badge of courage,
I think yeah today.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well number one I think is, you know, treat people
the way you want to be treated, right, you know,
And my faith is one of the main things that
I that I gained from growing up in the humble
beginnings like that, because when you grow up in humble beginnings,
man behave everything we do we rely upon God, right,
And so my mother always taught me to to be
(02:47):
respectful of people, right, treat people the way you want
to be treated. Always taught me to depend on God
for everything because that's the only way that you're gonna
make it. And I still feel that way today. I mean,
I mean every every day when I wake up and
pray every morning, I know that the only way I'm
going to make it through today is vibral relying upon
my faith. So so I think that was the most
(03:08):
important thing for me growing up. You know.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Then you know, uh, Tim Mercier, when would say that's
a simple name, yeah book bootstraped millionaire, now humble beginnings.
Doesn't the associate himself with the word millionaire.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Right, how right?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
How I know that we don't get the real fast,
but how what is your secret of success? To sit
up and tell us that you can author a book
called bootstraped Millionaire.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, you know, when we first when I first wrote
the book, the title was supposed to be bootstrapped Entrepreneur, okay,
and so we wrote we worked with Forbes to kind
of they they published the book, and it was interesting
because the guy that was helping helping me create the book,
they kept using the word millionaire. I mean, I didn't
(04:01):
understand why they kept saying bootstrap me in the bootstrapm
in there. And at first I really didn't want to
title the book bootstrap me in it because I didn't
want to come off and make it seem like being
braggadocious or anything like that. But I felt that there
was an importance in that because the word bootstrap is
(04:21):
the key word, right. If it's somebody from South Carolina
country boy like me who grew up didn't know nothing
about business, nothing about finance and learn it the hard way,
if I could do some things to put myself in
a position where I could, you know, have that title right,
that's so to speak, you know, or achieve a certain
(04:44):
financial success, I think hopefully it's a testament to other
young men like myself to say that if he could
do it, I can do it.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Okay, Okay, I ask you this question. That okay, cause
when you respond, when you look right right there, Charles Swall,
it says two point three million dollars. It's kind of
like that through their surveys. Yeah, millionaire status. When you're
here to term two point three million dollars and the
word millionaire, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Are you rich?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well? I would say, Now the question is is it
two point three million liquid? Right? That's that's that's another question, right,
is it liquid? Or is it you know? I mean
now if you have assets, that's a good thing because
I think a lot of people over time, all of
us touch a million dollars, right, I mean through our lifetime.
(05:36):
The question is how do we manage it? Right? Do
we do we keep most of it? Do we buy
assets that help us to continue to grow? Because Len,
the truth be told, and this is not no offense,
but a million dollars really is not a lot of money.
When you when you break, when you really break it down,
you know, it's not a lot of money. But when
you grow up the way I did, probably how you
(05:57):
did we drive to say, man, I want, I want
to become a millionaire, and then when you get to
a point where you probably have either touched it or
maybe you have assets or things of that nature, you
begin to realize that it's really not a lot of money,
and it actually creates more anxiety for you because you're
trying to figure out, now, how do I how do
I level it up and go higher than that?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Which leads to my next question financial literacy, because that's
where it really comes to because you watch television a
lot and that we're millionaire if you and that, if
you're a person who's tracking in that millionaire million dollar range,
you go.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Brother, million dollars?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
What you Why are you excited about a million? How
long do you expect to live exactly with a million dollars?
That's where the financial literacy comes into place. Why is
that an important part of your book?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Because man, I mean it's everything right if we don't
understand finance. In my opinion, right, I think everybody needs
to understand finance because it's the pillar of everything. Right.
If we don't understand it, then there's no way for
us to really level up. Right, I mean, I learned
how to make money growing up working hard, right, you
(07:06):
work hard, you do do everything people tell you to
go out, they work hard, you study, become smart. So
making money was never really a problem for me, But
knowing how to grow it and to keep it that
was the hard part, right you know. And I and
I learned how to save money as a young young
man and save money pretty well, But that part about
(07:28):
growing money was the hardest part for me because that's
why I made a lot of mistakes trying to grow
the money, trying to invest in things that I didn't
know about, trusting other people with with my money, right,
financial advisors and things of that nature. So I learned
that I had to learn it for myself to in
order to prevent me from being taken advantage.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Of it, right right, right, right, right now, let's let's
talk about this because you military got honored, right okay? Well,
how important was that has that been in your life?
To have went to the military and the army capacity.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It was the most important thing, right, I mean, because
they taught me discipline. They taught me disciplined. It gave
me a purpose and a vision for my life. When
I was growing up in Mallas, South Carolina. I didn't.
I didn't have much. I didn't have much discipline, right,
I mean my mother was a very loving person, so
she she really did a lot of things for us.
I'll tell people I really wasn't. The military taught me
(08:24):
how to be a man. It put me around other
men and helped me to be able to grow and
to see the world in a different perspective. That's when
I started seeing the world differently. I started seeing that
I could achieve different things. If it wasn't for the military.
I don't think that any of this would have ever
happened for me.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Now that that's important for you to say, Tim, I'm
talking to Tim Mercer. He's a CFO of Cadence Ventures,
which is a boutique private equity firm that's investing in
private mortgage notes. Educate me now, when you said private
mortgage notes, what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
So think about like when you go buy a house, right,
you go to the bank and you get a loan, right,
That's that's actually a mortgage note. So it's a mortgage
enough most most of us think that the only people
that could and the bank is investing in that note.
So the bank gives you a loan for half a
million dollars to go buy the house. They you know,
(09:20):
you put a down payment, but you got a mortgage
that you have to pay back to the bank until
that that that that debt is satisfied with. Private mortgage
knows are the same thing, right you and I, all
of us can buy private mortgage notes. I do it.
If someone an investor wants to buy a house, maybe
a fix and flip, or he wants to buy a
(09:41):
house to to rent out, he has to get a
mortgage from someone. So they'll come to someone like me
privately to get a mortgage, the mortgage on it. I
will extend the money to them for for that property
and then they just pay me back a monthly interest.
You right, My money is protected by the asset because
(10:03):
I got because I got a lean on the property.
Pretty much the same thing the bank does. We do.
We can do the same thing as private individuals. And
that's what the private mortgage know.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It's but.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
A special called fd I C that protects the bank.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Right where the fd I C is what fd I
see is the was what protects our money that sits
in the bank right right, you know, And and of
course fd I c they basically govern traditional banks, but
we're not traditional bank.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
That's that I brought it up.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So so why am I doing business with you and
I don't have those famous for letters behind your company?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, because, for one, banks don't land on the type
of stuff that we land on. So if you if
you wanted to go and fix and flip.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
A house right now, or my building that I own.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well, well this building, well, this building, you would probably
get a loan in this building because you you your
business owns this building and you occupy it within your business.
So that's safe for the back.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Okay. Cool.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Now, if you own this building, if you own the
building and you was renting it out for someone else,
the bank probably wouldn't give you a loan for that
because that's more of an investment versus it being owner occupied,
right right, So it's a little more riskier for the
banks in that regard.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So, so the bank would probably give you a hard
time doing that. So you would have to come to individuals,
private individuals. Private equity firms. Think about companies like black Rock, Vanguard,
and although those are private equity firms, they're just large
private equity firms, right, So we're private equity. Were just small.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Okay, okay, we're getting in the game. Yeah, in the
game now. In your book Bootstraped Millionaire, you know you're
talking about phases of being un entrepreneurs. You know, I'm
an entrepreneur. I can't tell you how many mistakes I made.
I tell them on my show all the time. I
didn't have a budget.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I went in have a plan or didn't know how
to scale. It was a comedy club open, a comedy club.
I figured I charged people ten dollars. They feel everyone
that had three hundred and seventy five seats sold liquor
didn't think about the tax I paid on the liquor.
It was a lot of things I didn't think about.
So I was deep in the game, going where's my money.
It was like I was working really hard, but I
(12:20):
was breaking even because I didn't put together a plan.
So I continue to say that I am a person
who made mistakes to my audience to let them know
that it's possible for you to make the same mistake
that I made if you don't listen to the right people.
I con consider you Tim one of the right people
to listen to. What are some of the phases of
(12:42):
entrepreneurship that you were discussing in your book, and also
some of the things you picked up since the book
has come out.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, I mean all of us start out, and for
sure you did too, as a solo preneurs. Yes, we're
in business for ourselves and by oursels, right, I mean
that's how it started out, a solopreneur, and that's great, right,
I mean that's you. You're just you're kind of just
doing this thing on your own. But then you start
to let I think that there's other phases of that, right.
(13:09):
I think that's one phase of entrepreneurship that a lot
of people don't focus on, is being an entrepreneur. An
entrepreneur is someone who works along as I right, that's right, Yeah,
that's that's someone who works with entrepreneurs like yourself. Maybe.
So let's say, for me, I will come and work
with you in your business. Right, it's still your business,
(13:32):
but I'm an integral part of that, right, So I'm
bringing my talent and skills. I may be your employee,
but I'm an entrepreneur because I have the entrepreneur mindset.
But I'm just not gonna take all the risks that
you're taking right, okay in things that nature right. So
entrepreneurs are very can be very successful people. I mean
the with the gentleman that used to work with Bill Gates.
(13:53):
He he I think he used to own the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah,
I think it's Bomber Bomber. I think the clippers, Yes,
that's he started out as an entrepreneur like he worked
with Bill Gates. Bill Gates took all the resks, but
he still became a very successful So so you have solopreneurs,
(14:14):
you have entrepreneurs, obviously, you have your small business owners.
And then the one that I like the best is
just being an investor.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
About the word investor, hit the word investor, tip, I
hear the word money. Now, why are you gonna invest
you don't have no money?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Well, think about it. I mean if you if you,
I personally think that you can become a meionaire without this.
I think it's a myth when people feel that the
only way you become financially successful is being an entrepreneur.
I know a lot of people who work in work
for companies, work in corporate who have done very well
(14:53):
if they saved their money properly, properly got you mesa
dollars in assets and things that for one k's and all. So,
if I got a million dollars in the full one K,
if I know how to invest that money properly, think
about it. If I got a million dollars in the
full one K, and if I can invest it in
something that allows me to make ten percent a year
(15:14):
in a your return, all while preserving my principal, then
what I'm turning, I'm flipping that money over and over.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That famous words compound interest.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Who more?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
If I known is exactly if I know? If I
compound interest, boy, I wouldn't be seeing that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Talk with you.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(15:56):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
That's where financial literature come from.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
That's why it's important for people to open your book
and understand it's a journey. I like the fact that
you you share with us your journey, share the fact
that your mom was single. Mall. You know what I'm saying,
there's nothing, there's nothing, there's no fluff. You know, there
was no golden spoon or opportunity to deliver to you.
That means that you're you are a person who served
(16:23):
in the military. But along the lines, how did you
make that transition? Because you the CFO of Cadence Ventures
and we're gonna get the government contracts in a minute,
because I remember when I saw it. I said, I
got to talk about that because of the fact that
you get all these emails talking about government contract com
contractors Sam Sam Sam from Sam Dota, Go get that
(16:44):
a minute. But I want to get to that moment
of transition that you felt that I was different.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It took me. It took me in my.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Forties to appreciate what I had accomplished because I used
the words like lucky, right place at the right time.
And I may have put too much in faith because
it's hard work is.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Tied to faith. Absolutely, So when did you realize it?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Well, my journey is and you probably read it in
the book. Right when when I first got out of
the military, I came back to Atlanta went to school
at the RITE and that's when I got into tech.
And this was at the time when the Internet and
all that type of stuff was just coming out, right,
And so I ended up getting a skill, right and
that and that at that time, it was tech skills.
(17:29):
So I truly believe everything starts with a skill, right,
getting a valuable skill that somebody would pay money for.
And I started working at the height of the tech boom,
started working and made a lot of money at that
point in time, and of course at that time, I
really didn't know what to do with them. And I
(17:51):
actually saved a million dollars. I mean literally had saved
a million dollars cash and this was like late nineties.
Didn't really know what to do with it because I
was illiterate, right, and financially, financially literally, that's why financially
literal ended up and I lost it all, right, I
lost all the money after me and my wife had
got married and all that type of stuff. It just
(18:12):
everything just went downhill. But that taught me a great lesson.
That's when that's when I realized that, Okay, you know,
I was able to make that money back then. The
only thing I have now to do is I got
to go back to the roots of what got me
there and start all over again and build it back
up again. And fortunately I was able to do that. Right,
(18:34):
you know, several years later, that's when it became to
me and realized there's a Bible speaks to the point
where they says God has given you the ability to create. Well,
that's when that became real for me. Yeah. Right, that's
when it became.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You know the interesting part about it. You know there
are different phrases because I'm going through that same thing.
I had to twenty twenty three, I had to make
a layoff staff. Yep, because when I realized the plan
that I in place, I was just losing money. That's
you know, the savings was going this way. The income
wasn't going That's why the savings was going shrinking. And
that's a tough decisions. That's probably the most honest point
(19:12):
that you have to make from being a person who
has turned the corner realized their flaw or being homeless. Yes,
it is a point where you have to humble yourself
and realize that you have the publicly admit you're failing.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Yeah, and a lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
People don't do that, whether in personal life or as entrepreneurs,
talk about that moment of realizing that this plan is failing.
How do I admit it and know how I turn
it around?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's a matter we all have to pivot, right. You
had to pivot in twenty twenty three. Right in twenty
twenty a lot of people probably ran into a lot
of things with everybody. I think as entrepreneurs or if
you in business or in high professional you have to.
You're going to have to pivot sooner, like something is
going to happen in your life that's going to cause
(20:02):
a shift. Right. You know, good days don't always last
all the time. That it's peaks in valleys, right, So
when you go into those peaks, you have to be
mindful and tell yourself. At least I had to tell myself, Okay,
I now have to adjust to this. I may have
to change. I may have to realize that I'm going
to have to give up some things. I remember me
and my wife we had to give up our home
(20:24):
right because we were in a situation where we were
about to get foreclosing. We had to go by a
smaller home, and I had to bring down my salary
to accommodate me being able to pay for that smaller home.
Leave the big fancy house, go to the smaller home.
But that was what we had to do to be
able to reset. So I just think we have to
(20:46):
be humble enough to know that that's the word to
keep work.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Because arrogance, you let arrogance win. You're homeless. Yes, you know,
humble will allow you to sit back and take a breath, Yes,
and also be able to evaluate yes, Because I'll tell
you when COVID hit the twenty twenty, I ignored it.
You know, I had money in the bank. You know
(21:09):
I had employees running up and down, and you know
you weren't wasn't nobody making money in COVID, But I
still was paying people instead of saying, hey, lay off
people because the government's going to take care of these people.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I layoff.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
But arrogance, then, the blindness of arrogance was on me
and I That's why I was That's why I wanted
to bring you on the show to be able to
have this conversation, because you can't have this conversation with everybody,
because that moment of being able to testify this is
some more to testifying the people that I've experienced experienced
it this way, you've experienced it another way and gets whey.
(21:44):
Guess what the key to it was not let arrogance
win talk to it.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I like that. Yeah, yeah, because arrogance, I mean what
those things that pride comes before the fall, right, You've
heard that before? Yeah, And I truly believe it, pride
becomes before the fall. I remember when I was the
first time I had was doing had to achieve financial success,
I became arrogant. I remember my wife would tell me,
(22:09):
she was like, look, you're getting a little too too
arrogant for yourself. And and that's what led to my
my demise, right, because she things that I was doing financially,
decisions that I'm making about investments. She would tell me
that I should question those things. But I felt arrogant
(22:29):
and felt, well, you know, I know what I'm doing.
And so that humbled me to where I'm today. I mean,
I trust me, I've I've been humbled to the point
where I know now that hey, look, you you can't
trust just yourself, right, ible said, lean lean on God's understanding, right,
(22:50):
And that's what I believe in now, is that hey, look,
that's why I pray every morning and make sure that hey, look,
God come to me watch my blind side because I
can't see. But on on blind side I need to.
You know, especially in business, you just don't know what's
coming down the road and you need that protection. So yeah,
I mean it gonna be this. You know they're gonna
(23:11):
be this type interview. Did you tell me that's true? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Well, you know, I've been blessed man because I can
sit up here and have these conversations and and uh,
God just putting me in a position to be able
to accommodate information that I'm receiving and then sharing it.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
But one question before I get to the government contract,
what exactly is Caden's venture?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So Kayden sventure's again small private equity group. Me and
my wife started his company a few years ago because
we started realizing that when we get older sixty five,
we're not gonna have a retirement. Well we know, so
security is't gonna be there for us. Right. My wife
had some money in a four to one k with
(23:55):
the current with previous imployeries she had, and it took
me some time, but you know, I kind of convinced her.
I said, listen, let's let's take the money out of
the four and k let's start this business use as
a seed, and let's start a a financial company where
we start lending money to real estate investors. That's that's
really what the whole, the whole premise came about. I said, look,
(24:17):
we can lend money to real estate investors. We can
help them get their projects off the ground. Our money
is safe because we can collaborterize our money with the
projects that they're doing, and we can get a better
return than what we're getting by leaving it in the
stock market, because of the stock market is up and
down for that, right. And that's what we started doing.
(24:40):
And I mean, I mean, since we've been doing I've
probably grown her portfolio probably about twenty five percent a year,
you know what, you know, just investing it into real
estate projects, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Because you just CFO of case, that's right, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Investing in real estate projects. And so now you know,
we we did that for a couple of years, just
with our own money. But it was very difficult because obviously,
you know, our money would get stuck in these projects
for six months, twelve months and things of that nature.
But then when we learned. We eventually learned how to
start you know, selling the selling the mortgage notes. Right,
(25:16):
so we so we would you know, we sell those
marketing notes to insurance companies, right because they'll they'll buy
the mortgage notes from us at a premium, right, And
so it allows us now to just keep taking that
same capital stack.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Right and just keep rotating right now.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You know, when I saw your information come to me, Tim,
I'm talking to Tim uh CFO for Cadence Ventures. It
was talking about government contract and more. I get so
mad when I see stuff by government contry because you
get a thousand emails and by sam dot government. It's free.
You don't have to pay anybody to upload your information
(25:55):
on sam dot go. But they have these contracts. These
emails come through, say pay me a fee, pay me.
Do you have all these other people talking about how
easy it is to do business, talk.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
About all these millions and millions of dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That you can make with government contracts. I'm not saying
as a scam, but it's not easy. It's not talk
about the process. Everybody's process is different. Because I have
experience with it, That's why I was excited when I
email I said, can we talk about how did you
get involved with government contracts?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So I got involved in government contract in twenty twelve.
I was this was coming off the back end of
me losing all the money, trying to find my way,
trying to get my way back into business. And as
actually I was working on a contract with a good
friend of mine who kind of helped me to get
back into it because I had gotten out of it
(26:46):
for for many years. Good friend of mine kind of
helped me get back in. We was doing some international
work and I would come back home because my wife
was still here in Atlanta, but her girlfriend was telling
her about government contracts, and so I just started looking
into it. I didn't know much about it, and started
looking into it and started learning about it. Georgia Tech
has a great program called GT pack that that kind
(27:06):
of teaches people for free how to get involved. Free.
Yeah free, that's real.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah it's free.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But I'm telling you it is. Government contracting is very complex.
It's very complex. It's very a lot of compliance. You
gotta DoPT your eyes across your t's And the first
thing I did is I got into the eight eight program.
I mean, you know, you've probably heard of the SBAA
a program.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Right, that's when you make under two hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta have, yes, sir, yes, a
certain threashold. Yeah, But the program was designed to help
small businesses minority on small businesses scale up right, that
can call it a development program. So I got in
that program. But I'm tell you, the first couple of
years I was in the program, I didn't I didn't
make any money, right because I didn't know how to
(27:52):
do government contract And it took me about three and
a half almost four years. Now I was in just
a nine year program. So for the first three to
four years, I'm just trying to figure out how to
do this thing right because there was no one that
could was telling us other than like I said, GT. Packing.
But you know there's a lot of its theory, right, yes, yeah,
(28:14):
So it took trial and error, I mean, but STAKES
made money loss the whole nine to really learn it.
But when I started learning how to leverage the eight
eight program in knowing how to work with the government.
Then a few years later, I think it was like
twenty fifteen, that's when things started changing for me. But yeah,
(28:34):
the government contract. It can be very lucrative, but I
will say it is a very difficult space to navigate
if you don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Got to be persistent, you got to be patient. Yes,
and got it like you said, gotch across your teach absolutely,
because once you get the opportunity what a contract, you
gotta have your eys doted and your teas cross absolutely,
because they will come at you for an audience. Absolutely,
and that's important that you understand that. You know, I
want to thank you Jim for coming on.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
The show man.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Believe me, it was.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
It was a friendly interview from a standpoint of we'll
like minded people who have stumbled yes okay, and and
we've admitted on money making conversations master class that you
like Like I said, uh, you know you can fallow,
well you can get up.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah, we fall down and we get up. Okay, that's right.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Uh and uh.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Dony mcclarkin's famous song game out now I think about
two thousand, two thousand one. But the bottom line and
writing Bootstrapped Millionaire, what you want to do? What you
want to leave my audience with?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I would like the audience to understand that Again, if
someone like me a country boy South Carolina didn't have
a lot of you know, mentors anything like that. Right.
I think that if you focus and and and really
truly want to achieve financial success, I think that you
just gotta you gotta lock in, right, you know. I
(29:59):
think first of all, we have to.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Get a skill, right.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I mean, and I almost like I was telling my
nephew this, right, I'll be talking now, say, first you
got to get a skill, right, because you got to
have something to monetize.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
You get a skill, learn that skill, work that skill,
and you don't necessarily have to go out and be
an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You can work within corporations or work with other business owners,
help them to scale and grow. But you're learning at
that point in time knowing how to save money, which
is very important, right, and then learn how to invest
and grow the money. It's really it's really a three
simple step process, right, the skill to earn, saving money
so that you can invest, but then learning in what
(30:41):
to invest in. And I think if people put that
focus in doing those things and become more financial literary,
I think that we all can achieve what we're looking for.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Thanks thanks for the financial literature, brother, I love it
on money Making Conversation.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
My Pleasure, My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
This has been another dish of money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you for listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(31:20):
your gifts.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Keep winning.
Welcome to the show. I am Rashaan McDonald, the host
of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to
stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
(00:25):
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald's host the
weekly Money Making Conversation Master Class show. The interviews and
information that this show provides offer everyone. It's time to
stop reading other people's success stories and start living your own.
(00:46):
I'm here to help you reach your American dream. My
guest is the author of Bootstrap Millionaire. He is also
the CFO of Cadence Ventures is a boutique private equity
firm that invests in private mortgage notes and offer there's
non traditional financing to real estate investors, builders, and developers.
Please work with the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Tim Mercer,
(01:08):
how you doing, my.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Brother, I'm doing quite well.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Thank you for having South Carolina, Bornuth, Carolina.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know, you know your book, you know you found
Humble Beginnings. You know, tell us about South Carolina. Well,
umble beginnings.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, four kids, right, four kids, that's right. Yeah, grew
up my mother had four kids. Grew up in a
small town mullin South Carolina. Yes, it's funny because it's
part of South Carolina, which they actually wrote a documentary
on that part of South Carolina. They called it the
Corridor of Shane. Oh why yeah, Well, because my understanding
(01:40):
is that that part of South Carolina had or may
still have had the worst school system in the entire US. Right,
And when I grew up, I was grew up in
the seventies and eighties. So it was a tobacco town, right,
I mean tobacco fields, warehouses and those types of things.
Not much of an industry outside of that. A lot
(02:00):
of great, great people, great humble people. And and but
it helped me, it helped me to really be able
to establish them. I guess the foundation of who I
am today as a man.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
We talk about you know, I come from Fifth Ward
in the city Houston, Texas, and we all come from
that humble beginnings. And then what did you take away
from that that you still like a badge of courage,
I think yeah today.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well number one I think is, you know, treat people
the way you want to be treated, right, you know,
And my faith is one of the main things that
I that I gained from growing up in the humble
beginnings like that, because when you grow up in humble beginnings,
man behave everything we do we rely upon God, right,
And so my mother always taught me to to be
(02:47):
respectful of people, right, treat people the way you want
to be treated. Always taught me to depend on God
for everything because that's the only way that you're gonna
make it. And I still feel that way today. I mean,
I mean every every day when I wake up and
pray every morning, I know that the only way I'm
going to make it through today is vibral relying upon
my faith. So so I think that was the most
(03:08):
important thing for me growing up. You know.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Then you know, uh, Tim Mercier, when would say that's
a simple name, yeah book bootstraped millionaire, now humble beginnings.
Doesn't the associate himself with the word millionaire.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Right, how right?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
How I know that we don't get the real fast,
but how what is your secret of success? To sit
up and tell us that you can author a book
called bootstraped Millionaire.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, you know, when we first when I first wrote
the book, the title was supposed to be bootstrapped Entrepreneur, okay,
and so we wrote we worked with Forbes to kind
of they they published the book, and it was interesting
because the guy that was helping helping me create the book,
they kept using the word millionaire. I mean, I didn't
(04:01):
understand why they kept saying bootstrap me in the bootstrapm
in there. And at first I really didn't want to
title the book bootstrap me in it because I didn't
want to come off and make it seem like being
braggadocious or anything like that. But I felt that there
was an importance in that because the word bootstrap is
(04:21):
the key word, right. If it's somebody from South Carolina
country boy like me who grew up didn't know nothing
about business, nothing about finance and learn it the hard way,
if I could do some things to put myself in
a position where I could, you know, have that title right,
that's so to speak, you know, or achieve a certain
(04:44):
financial success, I think hopefully it's a testament to other
young men like myself to say that if he could
do it, I can do it.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Okay, Okay, I ask you this question. That okay, cause
when you respond, when you look right right there, Charles Swall,
it says two point three million dollars. It's kind of
like that through their surveys. Yeah, millionaire status. When you're
here to term two point three million dollars and the
word millionaire, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Are you rich?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well? I would say, Now the question is is it
two point three million liquid? Right? That's that's that's another question, right,
is it liquid? Or is it you know? I mean
now if you have assets, that's a good thing because
I think a lot of people over time, all of
us touch a million dollars, right, I mean through our lifetime.
(05:36):
The question is how do we manage it? Right? Do
we do we keep most of it? Do we buy
assets that help us to continue to grow? Because Len,
the truth be told, and this is not no offense,
but a million dollars really is not a lot of money.
When you when you break, when you really break it down,
you know, it's not a lot of money. But when
you grow up the way I did, probably how you
(05:57):
did we drive to say, man, I want, I want
to become a millionaire, and then when you get to
a point where you probably have either touched it or
maybe you have assets or things of that nature, you
begin to realize that it's really not a lot of money,
and it actually creates more anxiety for you because you're
trying to figure out, now, how do I how do
I level it up and go higher than that?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Which leads to my next question financial literacy, because that's
where it really comes to because you watch television a
lot and that we're millionaire if you and that, if
you're a person who's tracking in that millionaire million dollar range,
you go.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Brother, million dollars?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
What you Why are you excited about a million? How
long do you expect to live exactly with a million dollars?
That's where the financial literacy comes into place. Why is
that an important part of your book?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Because man, I mean it's everything right if we don't
understand finance. In my opinion, right, I think everybody needs
to understand finance because it's the pillar of everything. Right.
If we don't understand it, then there's no way for
us to really level up. Right, I mean, I learned
how to make money growing up working hard, right, you
(07:06):
work hard, you do do everything people tell you to
go out, they work hard, you study, become smart. So
making money was never really a problem for me, But
knowing how to grow it and to keep it that
was the hard part, right you know. And I and
I learned how to save money as a young young
man and save money pretty well, But that part about
(07:28):
growing money was the hardest part for me because that's
why I made a lot of mistakes trying to grow
the money, trying to invest in things that I didn't
know about, trusting other people with with my money, right,
financial advisors and things of that nature. So I learned
that I had to learn it for myself to in
order to prevent me from being taken advantage.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Of it, right right, right, right, right now, let's let's
talk about this because you military got honored, right okay? Well,
how important was that has that been in your life?
To have went to the military and the army capacity.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It was the most important thing, right, I mean, because
they taught me discipline. They taught me disciplined. It gave
me a purpose and a vision for my life. When
I was growing up in Mallas, South Carolina. I didn't.
I didn't have much. I didn't have much discipline, right,
I mean my mother was a very loving person, so
she she really did a lot of things for us.
I'll tell people I really wasn't. The military taught me
(08:24):
how to be a man. It put me around other
men and helped me to be able to grow and
to see the world in a different perspective. That's when
I started seeing the world differently. I started seeing that
I could achieve different things. If it wasn't for the military.
I don't think that any of this would have ever
happened for me.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Now that that's important for you to say, Tim, I'm
talking to Tim Mercer. He's a CFO of Cadence Ventures,
which is a boutique private equity firm that's investing in
private mortgage notes. Educate me now, when you said private
mortgage notes, what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
So think about like when you go buy a house, right,
you go to the bank and you get a loan, right,
That's that's actually a mortgage note. So it's a mortgage
enough most most of us think that the only people
that could and the bank is investing in that note.
So the bank gives you a loan for half a
million dollars to go buy the house. They you know,
(09:20):
you put a down payment, but you got a mortgage
that you have to pay back to the bank until
that that that that debt is satisfied with. Private mortgage
knows are the same thing, right you and I, all
of us can buy private mortgage notes. I do it.
If someone an investor wants to buy a house, maybe
a fix and flip, or he wants to buy a
(09:41):
house to to rent out, he has to get a
mortgage from someone. So they'll come to someone like me
privately to get a mortgage, the mortgage on it. I
will extend the money to them for for that property
and then they just pay me back a monthly interest.
You right, My money is protected by the asset because
(10:03):
I got because I got a lean on the property.
Pretty much the same thing the bank does. We do.
We can do the same thing as private individuals. And
that's what the private mortgage know.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It's but.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
A special called fd I C that protects the bank.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Right where the fd I C is what fd I
see is the was what protects our money that sits
in the bank right right, you know, And and of
course fd I c they basically govern traditional banks, but
we're not traditional bank.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
That's that I brought it up.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So so why am I doing business with you and
I don't have those famous for letters behind your company?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, because, for one, banks don't land on the type
of stuff that we land on. So if you if
you wanted to go and fix and flip.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
A house right now, or my building that I own.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well, well this building, well, this building, you would probably
get a loan in this building because you you your
business owns this building and you occupy it within your business.
So that's safe for the back.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Okay. Cool.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Now, if you own this building, if you own the
building and you was renting it out for someone else,
the bank probably wouldn't give you a loan for that
because that's more of an investment versus it being owner occupied,
right right, So it's a little more riskier for the
banks in that regard.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So, so the bank would probably give you a hard
time doing that. So you would have to come to individuals,
private individuals. Private equity firms. Think about companies like black Rock, Vanguard,
and although those are private equity firms, they're just large
private equity firms, right, So we're private equity. Were just small.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Okay, okay, we're getting in the game. Yeah, in the
game now. In your book Bootstraped Millionaire, you know you're
talking about phases of being un entrepreneurs. You know, I'm
an entrepreneur. I can't tell you how many mistakes I made.
I tell them on my show all the time. I
didn't have a budget.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I went in have a plan or didn't know how
to scale. It was a comedy club open, a comedy club.
I figured I charged people ten dollars. They feel everyone
that had three hundred and seventy five seats sold liquor
didn't think about the tax I paid on the liquor.
It was a lot of things I didn't think about.
So I was deep in the game, going where's my money.
It was like I was working really hard, but I
(12:20):
was breaking even because I didn't put together a plan.
So I continue to say that I am a person
who made mistakes to my audience to let them know
that it's possible for you to make the same mistake
that I made if you don't listen to the right people.
I con consider you Tim one of the right people
to listen to. What are some of the phases of
(12:42):
entrepreneurship that you were discussing in your book, and also
some of the things you picked up since the book
has come out.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, I mean all of us start out, and for
sure you did too, as a solo preneurs. Yes, we're
in business for ourselves and by oursels, right, I mean
that's how it started out, a solopreneur, and that's great, right,
I mean that's you. You're just you're kind of just
doing this thing on your own. But then you start
to let I think that there's other phases of that, right.
(13:09):
I think that's one phase of entrepreneurship that a lot
of people don't focus on, is being an entrepreneur. An
entrepreneur is someone who works along as I right, that's right, Yeah,
that's that's someone who works with entrepreneurs like yourself. Maybe.
So let's say, for me, I will come and work
with you in your business. Right, it's still your business,
(13:32):
but I'm an integral part of that, right, So I'm
bringing my talent and skills. I may be your employee,
but I'm an entrepreneur because I have the entrepreneur mindset.
But I'm just not gonna take all the risks that
you're taking right, okay in things that nature right. So
entrepreneurs are very can be very successful people. I mean
the with the gentleman that used to work with Bill Gates.
(13:53):
He he I think he used to own the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah,
I think it's Bomber Bomber. I think the clippers, Yes,
that's he started out as an entrepreneur like he worked
with Bill Gates. Bill Gates took all the resks, but
he still became a very successful So so you have solopreneurs,
(14:14):
you have entrepreneurs, obviously, you have your small business owners.
And then the one that I like the best is
just being an investor.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
About the word investor, hit the word investor, tip, I
hear the word money. Now, why are you gonna invest
you don't have no money?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Well, think about it. I mean if you if you,
I personally think that you can become a meionaire without this.
I think it's a myth when people feel that the
only way you become financially successful is being an entrepreneur.
I know a lot of people who work in work
for companies, work in corporate who have done very well
(14:53):
if they saved their money properly, properly got you mesa
dollars in assets and things that for one k's and all. So,
if I got a million dollars in the full one K,
if I know how to invest that money properly, think
about it. If I got a million dollars in the
full one K, and if I can invest it in
something that allows me to make ten percent a year
(15:14):
in a your return, all while preserving my principal, then
what I'm turning, I'm flipping that money over and over.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That famous words compound interest.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Who more?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
If I known is exactly if I know? If I
compound interest, boy, I wouldn't be seeing that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Talk with you.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(15:56):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
That's where financial literature come from.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
That's why it's important for people to open your book
and understand it's a journey. I like the fact that
you you share with us your journey, share the fact
that your mom was single. Mall. You know what I'm saying,
there's nothing, there's nothing, there's no fluff. You know, there
was no golden spoon or opportunity to deliver to you.
That means that you're you are a person who served
(16:23):
in the military. But along the lines, how did you
make that transition? Because you the CFO of Cadence Ventures
and we're gonna get the government contracts in a minute,
because I remember when I saw it. I said, I
got to talk about that because of the fact that
you get all these emails talking about government contract com
contractors Sam Sam Sam from Sam Dota, Go get that
(16:44):
a minute. But I want to get to that moment
of transition that you felt that I was different.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It took me. It took me in my.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Forties to appreciate what I had accomplished because I used
the words like lucky, right place at the right time.
And I may have put too much in faith because
it's hard work is.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Tied to faith. Absolutely, So when did you realize it?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Well, my journey is and you probably read it in
the book. Right when when I first got out of
the military, I came back to Atlanta went to school
at the RITE and that's when I got into tech.
And this was at the time when the Internet and
all that type of stuff was just coming out, right,
And so I ended up getting a skill, right and
that and that at that time, it was tech skills.
(17:29):
So I truly believe everything starts with a skill, right,
getting a valuable skill that somebody would pay money for.
And I started working at the height of the tech boom,
started working and made a lot of money at that
point in time, and of course at that time, I
really didn't know what to do with them. And I
(17:51):
actually saved a million dollars. I mean literally had saved
a million dollars cash and this was like late nineties.
Didn't really know what to do with it because I
was illiterate, right, and financially, financially literally, that's why financially
literal ended up and I lost it all, right, I
lost all the money after me and my wife had
got married and all that type of stuff. It just
(18:12):
everything just went downhill. But that taught me a great lesson.
That's when that's when I realized that, Okay, you know,
I was able to make that money back then. The
only thing I have now to do is I got
to go back to the roots of what got me
there and start all over again and build it back
up again. And fortunately I was able to do that. Right,
(18:34):
you know, several years later, that's when it became to
me and realized there's a Bible speaks to the point
where they says God has given you the ability to create. Well,
that's when that became real for me. Yeah. Right, that's
when it became.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You know the interesting part about it. You know there
are different phrases because I'm going through that same thing.
I had to twenty twenty three, I had to make
a layoff staff. Yep, because when I realized the plan
that I in place, I was just losing money. That's
you know, the savings was going this way. The income
wasn't going That's why the savings was going shrinking. And
that's a tough decisions. That's probably the most honest point
(19:12):
that you have to make from being a person who
has turned the corner realized their flaw or being homeless. Yes,
it is a point where you have to humble yourself
and realize that you have the publicly admit you're failing.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Yeah, and a lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
People don't do that, whether in personal life or as entrepreneurs,
talk about that moment of realizing that this plan is failing.
How do I admit it and know how I turn
it around?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's a matter we all have to pivot, right. You
had to pivot in twenty twenty three. Right in twenty
twenty a lot of people probably ran into a lot
of things with everybody. I think as entrepreneurs or if
you in business or in high professional you have to.
You're going to have to pivot sooner, like something is
going to happen in your life that's going to cause
(20:02):
a shift. Right. You know, good days don't always last
all the time. That it's peaks in valleys, right, So
when you go into those peaks, you have to be
mindful and tell yourself. At least I had to tell myself, Okay,
I now have to adjust to this. I may have
to change. I may have to realize that I'm going
to have to give up some things. I remember me
and my wife we had to give up our home
(20:24):
right because we were in a situation where we were
about to get foreclosing. We had to go by a
smaller home, and I had to bring down my salary
to accommodate me being able to pay for that smaller home.
Leave the big fancy house, go to the smaller home.
But that was what we had to do to be
able to reset. So I just think we have to
(20:46):
be humble enough to know that that's the word to
keep work.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Because arrogance, you let arrogance win. You're homeless. Yes, you know,
humble will allow you to sit back and take a breath, Yes,
and also be able to evaluate yes, Because I'll tell
you when COVID hit the twenty twenty, I ignored it.
You know, I had money in the bank. You know
(21:09):
I had employees running up and down, and you know
you weren't wasn't nobody making money in COVID, But I
still was paying people instead of saying, hey, lay off
people because the government's going to take care of these people.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I layoff.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
But arrogance, then, the blindness of arrogance was on me
and I That's why I was That's why I wanted
to bring you on the show to be able to
have this conversation, because you can't have this conversation with everybody,
because that moment of being able to testify this is
some more to testifying the people that I've experienced experienced
it this way, you've experienced it another way and gets whey.
(21:44):
Guess what the key to it was not let arrogance
win talk to it.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I like that. Yeah, yeah, because arrogance, I mean what
those things that pride comes before the fall, right, You've
heard that before? Yeah, And I truly believe it, pride
becomes before the fall. I remember when I was the
first time I had was doing had to achieve financial success,
I became arrogant. I remember my wife would tell me,
(22:09):
she was like, look, you're getting a little too too
arrogant for yourself. And and that's what led to my
my demise, right, because she things that I was doing financially,
decisions that I'm making about investments. She would tell me
that I should question those things. But I felt arrogant
(22:29):
and felt, well, you know, I know what I'm doing.
And so that humbled me to where I'm today. I mean,
I trust me, I've I've been humbled to the point
where I know now that hey, look, you you can't
trust just yourself, right, ible said, lean lean on God's understanding, right,
(22:50):
And that's what I believe in now, is that hey, look,
that's why I pray every morning and make sure that hey, look,
God come to me watch my blind side because I
can't see. But on on blind side I need to.
You know, especially in business, you just don't know what's
coming down the road and you need that protection. So yeah,
I mean it gonna be this. You know they're gonna
(23:11):
be this type interview. Did you tell me that's true? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Well, you know, I've been blessed man because I can
sit up here and have these conversations and and uh,
God just putting me in a position to be able
to accommodate information that I'm receiving and then sharing it.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
But one question before I get to the government contract,
what exactly is Caden's venture?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So Kayden sventure's again small private equity group. Me and
my wife started his company a few years ago because
we started realizing that when we get older sixty five,
we're not gonna have a retirement. Well we know, so
security is't gonna be there for us. Right. My wife
had some money in a four to one k with
(23:55):
the current with previous imployeries she had, and it took
me some time, but you know, I kind of convinced her.
I said, listen, let's let's take the money out of
the four and k let's start this business use as
a seed, and let's start a a financial company where
we start lending money to real estate investors. That's that's
really what the whole, the whole premise came about. I said, look,
(24:17):
we can lend money to real estate investors. We can
help them get their projects off the ground. Our money
is safe because we can collaborterize our money with the
projects that they're doing, and we can get a better
return than what we're getting by leaving it in the
stock market, because of the stock market is up and
down for that, right. And that's what we started doing.
(24:40):
And I mean, I mean, since we've been doing I've
probably grown her portfolio probably about twenty five percent a year,
you know what, you know, just investing it into real
estate projects, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Because you just CFO of case, that's right, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Investing in real estate projects. And so now you know,
we we did that for a couple of years, just
with our own money. But it was very difficult because obviously,
you know, our money would get stuck in these projects
for six months, twelve months and things of that nature.
But then when we learned. We eventually learned how to
start you know, selling the selling the mortgage notes. Right,
(25:16):
so we so we would you know, we sell those
marketing notes to insurance companies, right because they'll they'll buy
the mortgage notes from us at a premium, right, And
so it allows us now to just keep taking that
same capital stack.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Right and just keep rotating right now.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You know, when I saw your information come to me, Tim,
I'm talking to Tim uh CFO for Cadence Ventures. It
was talking about government contract and more. I get so
mad when I see stuff by government contry because you
get a thousand emails and by sam dot government. It's free.
You don't have to pay anybody to upload your information
(25:55):
on sam dot go. But they have these contracts. These
emails come through, say pay me a fee, pay me.
Do you have all these other people talking about how
easy it is to do business, talk.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
About all these millions and millions of dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That you can make with government contracts. I'm not saying
as a scam, but it's not easy. It's not talk
about the process. Everybody's process is different. Because I have
experience with it, That's why I was excited when I
email I said, can we talk about how did you
get involved with government contracts?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So I got involved in government contract in twenty twelve.
I was this was coming off the back end of
me losing all the money, trying to find my way,
trying to get my way back into business. And as
actually I was working on a contract with a good
friend of mine who kind of helped me to get
back into it because I had gotten out of it
(26:46):
for for many years. Good friend of mine kind of
helped me get back in. We was doing some international
work and I would come back home because my wife
was still here in Atlanta, but her girlfriend was telling
her about government contracts, and so I just started looking
into it. I didn't know much about it, and started
looking into it and started learning about it. Georgia Tech
has a great program called GT pack that that kind
(27:06):
of teaches people for free how to get involved. Free.
Yeah free, that's real.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah it's free.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But I'm telling you it is. Government contracting is very complex.
It's very complex. It's very a lot of compliance. You
gotta DoPT your eyes across your t's And the first
thing I did is I got into the eight eight program.
I mean, you know, you've probably heard of the SBAA
a program.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Right, that's when you make under two hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta have, yes, sir, yes, a
certain threashold. Yeah, But the program was designed to help
small businesses minority on small businesses scale up right, that
can call it a development program. So I got in
that program. But I'm tell you, the first couple of
years I was in the program, I didn't I didn't
make any money, right because I didn't know how to
(27:52):
do government contract And it took me about three and
a half almost four years. Now I was in just
a nine year program. So for the first three to
four years, I'm just trying to figure out how to
do this thing right because there was no one that
could was telling us other than like I said, GT. Packing.
But you know there's a lot of its theory, right, yes, yeah,
(28:14):
So it took trial and error, I mean, but STAKES
made money loss the whole nine to really learn it.
But when I started learning how to leverage the eight
eight program in knowing how to work with the government.
Then a few years later, I think it was like
twenty fifteen, that's when things started changing for me. But yeah,
(28:34):
the government contract. It can be very lucrative, but I
will say it is a very difficult space to navigate
if you don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Got to be persistent, you got to be patient. Yes,
and got it like you said, gotch across your teach absolutely,
because once you get the opportunity what a contract, you
gotta have your eys doted and your teas cross absolutely,
because they will come at you for an audience. Absolutely,
and that's important that you understand that. You know, I
want to thank you Jim for coming on.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
The show man.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Believe me, it was.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
It was a friendly interview from a standpoint of we'll
like minded people who have stumbled yes okay, and and
we've admitted on money making conversations master class that you
like Like I said, uh, you know you can fallow,
well you can get up.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah, we fall down and we get up. Okay, that's right.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Uh and uh.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Dony mcclarkin's famous song game out now I think about
two thousand, two thousand one. But the bottom line and
writing Bootstrapped Millionaire, what you want to do? What you
want to leave my audience with?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I would like the audience to understand that Again, if
someone like me a country boy South Carolina didn't have
a lot of you know, mentors anything like that. Right.
I think that if you focus and and and really
truly want to achieve financial success, I think that you
just gotta you gotta lock in, right, you know. I
(29:59):
think first of all, we have to.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Get a skill, right.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I mean, and I almost like I was telling my
nephew this, right, I'll be talking now, say, first you
got to get a skill, right, because you got to
have something to monetize.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
You get a skill, learn that skill, work that skill,
and you don't necessarily have to go out and be
an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You can work within corporations or work with other business owners,
help them to scale and grow. But you're learning at
that point in time knowing how to save money, which
is very important, right, and then learn how to invest
and grow the money. It's really it's really a three
simple step process, right, the skill to earn, saving money
so that you can invest, but then learning in what
(30:41):
to invest in. And I think if people put that
focus in doing those things and become more financial literary,
I think that we all can achieve what we're looking for.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Thanks thanks for the financial literature, brother, I love it
on money Making Conversation.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
My Pleasure, My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
This has been another dish of money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you for listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(31:20):
your gifts.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Keep winning.
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Thomas "Nephew Tommy" Miles
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