August 6, 2024 • 46 mins
Embark on a transformative journey with Jesse Ray and myself, Dwan Bent-Twyford, as we explore the innovative realm of Growth House—a co-living ecosystem tailored for entrepreneurs aiming to scale their financial heights without the corporate noose. Jesse's unique vision reshapes the fabric of community living, ensuring that success isn't just a solo race but a collective sprint. Tune in to discover how this real estate marvel is rewriting the playbook for communal growth and success, and how you might just find the key to unlocking your own financial liberation.
Finding harmony in the hustle is an art form, and in this heart-to-heart, we navigate the tributaries that blend health, travel, and relationships with entrepreneurial ambition. I open up about my personal quest for equilibrium, offering a treasure trove of wisdom on staying wholesome amidst the whirlwind of global escapades. Hear how Jesse and I tackle everything from the symphony of hip-hop's evolution to the nitty-gritty of dietary challenges, threading the narrative that true wealth is a multifaceted gem, extending far beyond the reaches of bank statements.
As we journey through this episode, the spotlight shines on the profound impact of relationships in nurturing both personal and professional growth. I share the exhilarating pursuit of guiding a hundred souls to financial independence within the next year, through a medley of mentorship, masterclasses, and our vibrant Growth House community. Share a laugh with us over high-end dining escapades and the playful game of credit card roulette, all while savoring the essence of a life truly lived—one where the aim is not just to survive the game but to play it with gusto. So come, be part of an experience that celebrates the spirit of generational wealth creation, mentorship, and a zest for life that knows no bounds.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (00:02):
Hey everybody , welcome to The Most Dwanderful
Real Estate Podcast Ever.
I'm your host, DwanBent-Twyford.
I'm America's most sought afterreal estate investor and I am
so excited that you are herewith me today.
As you can see, I have a veryhandsome man over here.
This is our wicked smart manand we're going to see what
Jesse has to share with us today.
(00:23):
But if you're new toDwan-der-ful, I took my first
name, Dwan and wonderful, and Imade a new word.
So at Dwan-der-ful our motto ispeople before profits.
So if that's something thatresonates with you, I'm your
girl.
If you'll go to Dwan-der-ful.
com and opt in, I'll send you afree book how to flip your way
(00:45):
to a fortune and some all kindsof fun free things and training
and videos and just all thestuff.
But first I would like to nowwelcome my guest, Jesse Ray.
How are you?
Jesse Ray (00:58):
I'm amazing, you're already making me blush.
I appreciate the intro.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:01):
No, I didn't intro you yet.
Jesse Ray (01:06):
You said I'm handsome , so I appreciate that.
Wow, I mean, look at that faceand that smile.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:09):
It's like all the girls are going to be
crushing on you.
I love Jessie Ray.
My family is from Tennessee, mydad's first name is Jessie and
that seems like a southern, likeJessie Ray.
Jesse Ray (01:23):
Yeah, it does.
It has that little vibe to it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:25):
It does, it does.
I was like, oh, I immediatelyloved it.
Okay, so how are you today?
Jesse Ray (01:30):
I'm doing amazing.
I'm so glad I'm able to talk toyou and be on the podcast.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:33):
Yeah, me too, me too.
So we like to start off.
We're going to have a toast.
Everyone knows I drink.
I'm drinking my live enzymes.
What do you have?
Um, yeah, shout out to thewater, all right, cheers,
everybody watching cheers.
Get your drink and everybody.
Take a deep breath and, like,stretch out whatever is bugging
(01:58):
you so you can tune in and youcan have fun with jesse and with
me today.
Now, if you are, you're anaudio listener.
You're going to love it.
But if you want to see all thisgoodness in person, you need to
go to my YouTube channel it'sjust a wonderful real estate and
watch us.
These videos are up on YouTubeand I mean honestly, Jesse, who
(02:19):
doesn't want to watch us and getinvolved and be in the moment
with us?
Jesse Ray (02:23):
It's so much more fun we to watch us and get involved
and be in the moment with us.
It's so much more fun weactually get to watch it live,
you get a yeah, it's more energy.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:29):
I feel like, too, I do, too, I love to, I
watch, I I all podcasts,everything I do, I watch
everything.
And there are people like, oh,I listen when I'm running.
It's like it's not the same.
Jesse Ray (02:37):
You don't get to see all this awesomeness so true,
and able to take notes whenyou're actually just focusing
watching.
So I totally agree.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
So, Jesse, we just throw ourguests straight to the wolves
over here.
So here's what I want you to do.
I just want you to obviouslysay I'm Jesse, right?
I want you to tell us who youare.
I just want you to share yoursocial medias and you just tell
(03:08):
me, in like two sentences, whatyou do.
And then I have a couple of funquestions and we're going to
find out how you became JesseRay, who's on the most wonderful
real estate podcast ever todaylet's do it so.
Jesse Ray (03:17):
Socials, uh, instagram at the jesse ray.
And what I do?
I help people escape thecorporate rat race and achieve
financial freedom and also, withfurnished co-living homes,
created growth house.
We could dive into that if wewant.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:34):
Wow, that was the best shortest.
I love that, that quick, shortanswer.
So the jessie race.
I will be following you todayand I just followed you, so
perfect.
Yeah, I always, I followeverybody and I know a lot of
people like, oh, here's thequestions and here's that, and I
appreciate that people do thatfor me, but I don't read any of
(03:56):
it because I just want to get toknow you and ask you questions
Like, if you and I were sittingdown having a drink, what would
we be talking about and wewouldn't have these intros and
so?
but after I interested someone,then I'm a stalker, I I'll be on
all your instagram, all yourstuff, liking all your stuff,
sharing all your stuff.
So love it, love it you'regonna be sucked into the vortex
(04:17):
over here, all right, so, uh, sotell me that little part that
you said at the end about um,growth house.
Jesse Ray (04:26):
Yeah, our community tell me what that means yeah.
So when I finally ended upescaping the corporate you know
rat race, I got into real estateand I kind of had a niche of
creating these co-living homes,which co-living essentially is
you buy a house, you have haveextra bedrooms started by house
hacking, popular term in realestate lived in one of the rooms
(04:47):
and rented out the other rooms,and so the goal is to live for
free.
But at the same time, I wasvery intentional who I rented to
?
Because I was living in thehouse.
I get to choose.
Who do I wanna surround myselfwith?
And for me I was aspiringentrepreneur, aspiring real
estate investor.
So those are the people I wastrying to attract.
So within six months of gettingmy first house, having amazing
(05:10):
fun, people live with me.
After I lived for five years bymyself, saying I hate roommates
, I'm now in a house with fourother roommates and loving it,
and everyone else also wasloving it as well.
And that's when the concept ofgrowth house.
Okay, how do I make this into abusiness where we have more
co-living homes and allsurrounded with growth minded
(05:30):
people?
So that's essentially what weended up starting and that's how
I got into real estate.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (05:35):
So I love growth house.
So I know people that buy maybea four bedroom or five bedroom
house, like near collegecampuses, and they rent and all
that, and I know people that doand maybe this is the word, but
I've heard the term pad splitwhere you like have a and you're
split.
So you know, when you saidgrowth house, I, so I'm based in
(05:58):
colorado.
So since you said that, Ithought does he grow weed A?
Jesse Ray (06:04):
lot of people said that.
So wait, what's this?
Grow house?
No, no, not grow house.
There's no operation.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:12):
Living in Colorado.
If anyone says anything aboutgrow house, we're all like, oh
okay, they grow weed, cool, andyou know nothing against that.
I mean people are makingmillions of dollars off of it,
but no, I know your real estatebase.
Jesse Ray (06:25):
So I was like growth house okay, I'm from portland,
so yeah you, probably peoplewould assume the same thing yeah
, well, yeah, so you're inportland now no, actually that's
when I moved to arizona, so Ilived in portland most of my
life I'm sorry, now in arizona Igotta tell you, portland, uh,
used to be just such a beautifulcity.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:41):
I used to love to go there.
My daughter lived there for aof years and it is like such a
hell hole right now with justthe tents and the people and it
had one of those beautifuldowntown.
I loved it.
And now I was there not too acouple of years ago and I was
just like what happened to thisbeautiful city?
I mean.
Jesse Ray (07:02):
I left in 2021 when I bought my first house here in
Arizona, have not been backsince, so it is sad.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:10):
I love it, it'll break your heart.
Jesse Ray (07:14):
So and also the cool thing about moving to like a
city like Arizona or Scottsdaleis people want to come see you
because it's a place wherepeople want to vacation to.
So I don't feel bad because allmy friends are reaching out to
me.
Even my immediate family movedout to arizona so I'm like, oh,
I'm good now yeah, yeah, well,you're where it's warm.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:31):
So I'm all for the warm weather, although
I'm in clinton, iowa, right nowand in the winter here, so I've
never actually spent a wholewinter here.
But we were.
We bought a bunch of I guessI'll tell you in your show but
we bought a bunch of buildingsand the temperature gets like
actual temperature, gets like 30below like not with wind chill,
like real temperature.
It's like, oh my god, who livesthere?
(07:53):
Like why did?
Why do you all live there?
It's so, but now in the summerit's great.
They have music outside everyday.
People are out, there's likestuff going, it's like so fun.
But man, when that that fallweather comes, it's like stuff
to go and it's like so fun, butman when that fall weather comes
, it's like no, I'm tapping Allright Now, growth house.
So I love the idea of whatyou're saying and so if someone
(08:13):
is like new to this concept, solet's just say so.
Are you one of the places thattakes a house and maybe takes
any extra living area and turnsthem into bedrooms?
Do you have one where it's likeshared kitchens?
Like what is your growth house?
Because a lot of people arereally super new to this concept
and I'm a huge fan of it 100%.
Jesse Ray (08:37):
And when I talk about growth house we kind of niche
down into business professionals, entrepreneurs, but we kind of
take a step back and just lookat what it looks like on a
normal term of real estate.
It's co-living.
A new company out there that'sdoing amazing things, like you
said, is PadSplit.
So they're doing somethingsimilar and essentially is
taking a house.
It has maybe four bedrooms andyou add at least two or three
(09:01):
bedrooms to really maximize.
It's really looking at a house,a single family home.
What's the highest and best use?
So you have individual rooms,you can furnish them, you don't
have to, and you rent by bedroom, with all the common areas are
shared and typically to createmore bedrooms in a house you do
have to get rid of some of thecommon areas.
So typically what's left is akitchen, maybe a dining room,
(09:25):
and for us we have a littleminiature living room, but
besides, that it's mostly rooms.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (09:30):
So I'm living in a growth house and I'm
paying.
What am I paying for rent?
Jesse Ray (09:36):
Yeah, we're in Phoenix, so it's pretty much, I
would say, a few hundred dollarsless than if you actually
probably more, about six toseven hundred dollars less than
if you want to get a studioapartment somewhere.
So you're paying about ninehundred to a thousand dollars,
furnished room.
Almost think of it as an airbnbexperience where you don't have
to go in there and furnisheverything.
It's like oh, this is anamazing place.
(09:56):
Uh, for us, we typically liketo do six months minimum and
that's kind of our concept andmodel.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:03):
Now.
So I'm going to probably askyou all the questions that you
hear all the time.
But now I am a woman and if I'mlike, hey, I found this growth
house, I'm going to be inArizona.
Are you in Phoenix?
Jesse Ray (10:18):
Yeah, phoenix, we have houses in Phoenix and Tempe
, which is a local near theuniversity, out here at ASU.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:23):
And I'm like okay, I want to rent one of
these, I'll have some roommates,I'm not living alone.
There's safety in numbers, butdo you have men and women?
Are they in the same house?
Jesse Ray (10:33):
We do have some co-ed .
Yeah, go ahead.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:35):
So if they're co-ed, then how am I safe?
Jesse Ray (10:40):
Yeah, so we do have co-ed houses and then we also
have right now, all male houses.
I've been trying to do an allwoman's house but for whatever
reason it just hasn't lined up.
So we're still working on that.
But as far as like the safety,what we do like to do is have a
private bathroom or sharedbathrooms with you know one
gender or the other.
(11:30):
No-transcript negativity is notsomething we want in our house.
So we got to be kind of anuplifting, positive person.
We tell you hey, you're goingto live with six other people.
We almost make it seem likeit's like chaos, but in reality
if you went by any of our housesyou're like this is the
cleanest house ever and oh yeah,everyone's like you know either
(11:51):
out working or working in theiryou know rooms or you know just
doing stuff.
So it's not like it's a crowdedhome.
But we kind of make sure to letpeople know are you okay with
sharing a space with otherpeople?
Are you a clean person?
This is kind of our guidelines.
So after that first call, thenit's the credit background check
and then after that youactually FaceTime tour with one
(12:13):
of the current roommates.
So you now have a co-sign frommyself or my assistant, one of
the roommates, and if thatroommate's like, yeah, I think
this person is a great fit, thenat the very end you do a
FaceTime call with the wholefamily in that current house.
So you actually get it.
I don't make the decision.
The house is actually the onewho cosigns for the next person
(12:34):
to move in.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (12:35):
See, I love that.
I don't know anybody else thatdoes what you do, that does that
extra factor like that I wouldfeel like I would want to meet
and I don't care if it's guys orgirls either, personally but I
would want to meet the peoplebecause you do get a sense of
people's energy and you get asense of someone's a good person
or not.
And you know I wouldn't want tolive with like a bunch of rowdy
(12:59):
partiers, nothing I haven'tdone or do any of those things I
would sort of want like niceprofessional.
You know we all get along andwe can all sit around and have a
kumbaya once in a while, maybecook in the backyard, and you
know you don't have to getattached to all the people
either.
Jesse Ray (13:18):
Exactly Now.
You're so on point and that'swhy we have, you know, some
house rules and at the end ofthe day, it's really to create
harmony in the house.
It's not to have rules, youknow.
It's just like, hey, personalbelongings are not left in
common areas.
That's why you're like how dofive, six people live together?
And it's spotless because weclean up.
And, you know, another rule islike hey, here's our quiet hours
(13:39):
.
We're all working professionalsor entrepreneurs, so this is,
you know, the time that we'reprobably going to be going to
sleep and most of us like towake up early at six or seven to
go work out.
So there's just kind of like avibe to the house that attracts
the right people.
So there is no parties, thereis no, you know, guesting
overnight all the time.
It's just like a very kind ofstructured house for people who
(14:01):
are looking to really expeditetheir career and success and
growth.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (14:06):
And if I was traveling somewhere because I've
stayed in a lot of those hotelsthat are like the residence
ends, where they have a kitchenand they have this and that
which those are fine too.
But if I was in a decent placefor like six months or you know,
like working entrepreneur, andI didn't know anybody, I feel
like I would like that because Icould meet some people and,
like have someone to talk to andmaybe like hey, you know, can
(14:27):
we grab a drink and you know,not like buddy, buddy, but but
you know, like you know just ina hotel, and every night you're
sitting in the room by yourselfall the time.
Jesse Ray (14:36):
Exactly.
Yeah, it's really a plug andplay for someone who's an
aspiring or a currententrepreneur.
Where you come in, you have thecommunity already built within
the house and what we doespecially, we kind of have
cohorts.
So some of the times where thehouses are just business
professionals and entrepreneurs.
And then we have times where wehave a dedicated three-month
span where, hey, these are ourstartup founders and
(14:58):
entrepreneurs living in thishouse and that's when we go
extra.
We have weekly accountabilitymeetings, we have masterclasses
that we host at the house everysingle month.
We bring in top speakers, coldplunges, we have beverage
companies sponsoring us and thenext time we do this, in 2025,
we actually have a productioncoming out.
We're having a YouTube showaround these entrepreneurs and
(15:21):
following their journey,documenting everything that
they're doing, and also we havea board of angel investors.
So there's a lot more levels toit.
If they want to get intoco-living, you know, just do it
more of the simple way, like Isaid, if you just want to have
(15:44):
business professionals.
But yeah, we do like intensethree months sprints where we
have a program and everything'sset up.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (15:47):
So when you do, I like that.
So when you're doing the threemonths sprint, is that your
program?
Jesse Ray (15:51):
Yeah, it's a program that we're we created along with
a lot of mentors and coachesout here in Arizona, so this
also depends on who's moving in.
Like this next one, we'reprobably gonna do real estate
focused, so we're gonna be likeall right, who's our key mentors
, who are gonna come do themasterclasses, teach, et cetera.
It's almost like having amastermind for three months for
(16:11):
these people, which is, you know, can be invaluable with all the
connections and resources theyhave through the house.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (16:20):
Oh my God.
No, that sounds amazing Becauseyou know people that are new,
like when I was doing investing,there was nobody to teach,
there were no, like I startedbefore the internet, so there
was no YouTube watching videos,seminars, there was no HGTV,
there was like nothing.
You just I figured it out.
I took classes at Home Depot tolearn how to fix things, like I
(16:40):
really see it in my pan and I'mall about trying to help people
you know get from being new tolike someplace else as fast as
possible without all of thethings.
Maybe if someone came in likein the three months like they
were in there, that would beamazing well with the one you
might have to come fly out.
Jesse Ray (16:59):
I come hang out with us, I know.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:01):
I'm thinking like I want to come do that for
a minute.
That sounds super fun.
That sounds super fun andeveryone's kind of working on
the thing.
So then you also teach peopleand show people how to do and
have these co-living properties.
Jesse Ray (17:17):
I mean, yeah, that's the benefit of being in our
community, even if you're justdoing it during you know our
kind of I guess you call itregular residency, when you're
just a business professional.
Our goal is for you guys tostay in our community for as
long as you want, and then thenext step for you is go buy your
own house and we want to helpyou do that Exactly, and a lot
of the people are in thatprocess now, where we've been
(17:38):
doing this for about two and ahalf three years and so, like I
said, some of the houses we keepas those business professional
houses, and then one of thehouses we say, hey, three months
here, we're going to do thisentrepreneur, startup, founder
sprint.
So that's the whole goal is wewant to be those people to push
(17:58):
people to go into homeownership,because, I mean, I'm a real
estate fan.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (18:05):
It changed my life and I wanted to help
change.
I want a cold plunge with theother entrepreneurs.
I was like, when you said that,I was like that would be like
my dream have a couple months, abunch of entrepreneurs and
we're cold plunging and we'relearning and you're like all in
it.
That would be so that to me,that's like that's an amazing
way to learn too.
100.
Jesse Ray (18:18):
A hundred percent.
And I'm actually super excitedbecause someone just texted me
and I've been working on a coldplunge, sponsored, and we just
got one and they're going tocome out to our mastermind at
the end of this month and I'mjust super excited because, yeah
, cold plunges, working outhealth and wellness, big part of
my life.
I think a lot of people thinkit's all about business, all
about business, all aboutfinances, but for me it's the
(18:39):
holistic, like what other areasof your life?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (18:42):
Let's lift it all up together.
Yeah, I do Part of when I'mworking with people.
It's like, listen, there's likefive equities of your life.
You've got your business, butyou got your spiritual, your
mental, your physical, yourfriends and family.
And a lot of especially newerinvestors will tend to like
focus all on the money and then,you know, maybe their health or
(19:03):
their mental well-being takes abackseat and they focus on
whatever, and it's really easyto get out of balance and get
out of whack and even, like,lose touch with people because
you're just like you know,you're in the grind.
And so I am always tellingpeople like listen, listen,
you've got to make time for allthe things, because if you don't
, you're going to get superburned out.
(19:23):
First of all, you're going toget super burned out, but you
have to take time for your body,you have to take time for your
mindset.
Like you have to do thosethings because if you don't, you
know what's that old sayingthat when you're young you spend
all your health getting yourwealth.
And then, when you get older,you spend all your wealth trying
to get healthy again.
Like both at the same time.
(19:46):
So when you do get older,you're wealthy and healthy.
Right, yeah, that's just havingthose non negotiables in your
life, and for me, that isworking out five times a day,
eating healthy, and so, yeah, Ithink it's so, so true you know,
my husband and I, um, a coupleyears ago we're we're pretty
healthy in general, but wetravel a lot, I do a lot of
(20:07):
workshops, I do a lot ofseminars and like we really
still like to do that.
We enjoy going, we teach, we'rein hotel, but I don't know,
maybe five or six or seven yearsago we're like, you know, when
we're on the road, like andbefore covid, you could go to
like a marriott and they'd bringyou nice room service and it's
on the big table and you haveall the bread and the butter,
(20:29):
all the stuff.
And then we get back home andwe'd be like tired mentally and
physically, like you know whatwe really have to start taking
better care of ourselves, likewe do at home, out on the road.
So now we have a suitcase thatwe travel with and it has my
Vitamix juicer, because we liketo juice.
It has the grounding mat, ithas the heated blanket, it has
(20:54):
all the stuff.
And I was like, yeah, and wetake our own pillows.
And I was like, okay, now we'relike those people, you know,
like the people that you think,like the crazy health nuts.
I'm like, oh, yeah, and we takeour own pillows and I was like,
okay, now we're like thosepeople you know, like the people
that you think are like thecrazy health nuts.
I'm like, oh well, we're thosepeople, because we have one bag
that just has things to help usstay grounded and healthy while
traveling, because you know it'seasy, especially when you're
(21:16):
younger, like even, like, youknow, 20 years ago we'd like, ah
, you know, we're here whereverwe just go, eat or drink, like.
But you know, after a whileyou're like you need to take
care of yourself all the wayaround.
So, yeah, so now we come, we'relike we have our own pillow and
then we use a differentsomething that's not white, so
the maids won't like toss itinto laundry.
And then we like, hey, can youwash our sheets without bleach?
(21:37):
and oh, you're one of those highmaintenance people that we've
got a vitamin mix that's thisbig and I've got the grounding,
the heated blanket, and I havemy aromatherapy, all my stuff,
but we both use it when we'rehome.
So when you're traveling, Ifeel like each time we stay
(21:57):
somewhere, that it's ourtemporary home, so we need to
treat ourselves the same way.
Jesse Ray (22:01):
Yeah it's keeping that same routine and that's
something that I'm actuallyabout to go to europe for three
months.
So I'm gonna be like trying tofigure out how do I eat healthy,
because I'm meal prepeverything like I'm the most
basic, like chicken or rice,turkey and rice, and like I
can't do that on the road.
I don't know why you thinkyou'd be surprised, though.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:22):
I've been there backpacking when, uh, each
of my kids graduate high school.
I take them for a month.
I'm like put whatever you canon your backpack and we're gonna
go, and we're just gonna stayand travel and take the train
and we're gonna go where thewind leads us, and all the times
I did that we actually ended upeating pretty good, because we
would eat like the real, actualfood of that country and, you
(22:46):
know, find like the littleplaces more off the road where,
like, there's some grandma onthe back that's making things
and we actually ate reallysurprisingly healthy.
Jesse Ray (22:57):
So that's what I keep hearing.
Everyone that goes to europe'slike jess, you're gonna love it
because everything's like nopreservatives, like it's way
healthier than the states somuch better.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (23:06):
It is even like.
I remember when we were initaly people like have like you
know a thing of bread and somebutter and some wine, like at
lunch they're just hanging outand I was like, oh my god, if
you know that bread, I'm gonnaget so fat.
But then when you eat the stuffor the pasta, it's different.
It tastes different, it settlesin your body different.
Everything's not full ofpreservatives and gluten and any
(23:28):
place that's like just a smidgeoff of the main path, you all
the food's really good.
I was always surprised.
I was like, okay, I'm diggingit.
Because I was thinking like, ohgod, I'm gonna gain.
Because I was thinking like, ohGod, I'm going to gain 20
pounds Because I'm going to eateverything in the world.
And I ended up not gaininganyway and loving all the food
and meeting and going into theplaces where the locals go.
Jesse Ray (23:52):
That's my big thing.
It's like, yeah, it's cool tohave a vacation and really be in
the tourist area, but for methe whole point about travel is
experience, the culture, get toknow the people, get to really
know what the vibe of that cityis like.
So I'm with you on that.
I like to go to local spots.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (24:08):
We do too.
That's how we travel, even now.
Like you know, we were just inOhio recently and we're like,
okay, what's the best littlerestaurant that like only the
local people go to downCincinnati, like only the local
people go to down cincinnati,went to this little place and we
ended up going back there threetimes in the same week because
the food was amazing.
It's like, yeah, good.
So I'm like, I mean, I'm allfor being touristy too, but if,
(24:28):
for months, I want to feel how Ilike to feel how it would be to
live there 100 that's my ideaof like enjoying in places how
it feels to be there, not justto be the tourist.
But if you live there for sixmonths, how would it feel?
Because that's how I think youget to know the people and the
cultures and, I don't know, youget to learn like a little bit
(24:48):
of the language everywhere yougo, if you kind of hang out in
places like that.
Jesse Ray (24:52):
So I don't know, I'm a fan yeah, yeah, this will be
my first time like doing abouncing around quite a bit,
because usually I like to dothat.
I like to be like one monthminimum somewhere.
So I go one month puerto rico,one month, you know, medellin,
colombia.
But this europe trip is kind oflike all right, portugal to
spain, to france, to here tothere.
This is my first time in europe, so I think this is a good way
(25:14):
to kind of get the feel and thengo back for that month or two
where they're like oh, I've beenthere for five days.
I kind of like that vibe, letme go back for a month.
So that's kind of my game planthat I want to do this summer
yeah, I love that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (25:26):
So we got a year round pass and people are
like oh, why do you take thetrain?
Everyone flies now it's becausethe train takes you through the
country and on the trains arepeople that live there and on
some of the trains dining cart,everyone's eating and drinking
and they're all tourists andthey're hanging out.
You know, and we took a coupleof night trains.
Oh my God, the night trains arethe most fun I've ever had.
(25:47):
And from the dining cart eatingand they're drinking and they're
from all over the world andeveryone's talking and it was
the most fun I ever had wastaking night trains.
Jesse Ray (25:57):
I appreciate that advice.
I'm going to have to do that,if you feel like I'm here to
hear.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:01):
It's like eight hours, do it at night.
Oh my God, the people are somuch fun.
I never had so much fun in mywhole life.
We ended up being over thereone time in the World Cup and a
few of the people that are partof the team were taking some
kind of a break and they were onthe train and we were all in
like the the cart, like thedining cart.
Oh my god, I never had so muchfun in my entire life.
(26:23):
I was like people over here,rock man, I love it that's
awesome.
Jesse Ray (26:28):
I'm excited to do that.
I was excited to do that I waslike fly.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:32):
It's like I don't want to fly from here to
there, I want to go see thecountry.
I can fly anywhere.
I fly all the time.
I want to go see and you canget everywhere by train, like
everywhere.
We even got off a couple ofplaces, One by accident.
We got off on this stop and wewere like two stops too early
and it let you out in a fieldand I was like and then everyone
(26:52):
starts coming up out of nowhere, getting on the train, and
we're like, OK, well, we'll justgo that direction.
We ended up in this tiny littletown.
No one even spoke english.
We have the same for like fivedays.
It was the most fun I ever had.
Jesse Ray (27:03):
I love that oh, fun.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (27:07):
So so see, folks, that's part of investing
is to be able to do the thingsand grow your well, take care of
yourself, have a good time,because you know what it's a lot
of work being an entrepreneur,you know, and you know
everyone's like, oh, I want towork being an entrepreneur, you
know and you know everyone'slike, oh, I want to do, I want
to be my own boss.
But then I think they get sohard in on the working part of
(27:28):
it.
People don't take time toactually enjoy what all that
money does for you.
Jesse Ray (27:32):
So true, Cause that's the whole point of why I did
this, why I started this youknow, growth house, co-living
houses and guidance real estatein the first place was to be
able to leave that corporate jobthat I was in golden handcuffs,
making six figures plus, but atthe end of the day I didn't
have that freedom.
So for the first year so Ithink I was guilty of that where
maybe first two years I didn'treally get to go experience and
(27:55):
travel that much.
And then I'm like, wait, Icreated this lifestyle and my
business around a lifestyle, butI'm not living that lifestyle.
So now I'm like, all right, letme go out there, explore,
travel, because that's why I didit.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:06):
Yeah, how old are you?
Jesse Ray (28:08):
I'm 30.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:09):
30.
Well, you are just a youngin.
Well, that's amazing.
I didn't start till I was 30and I didn't have that exact
mindset yet.
It probably took me till I was40 to be like I need to do more
things instead of just alwaysworking all the time.
But I was a single mom, but youknow I had a lot of extra stuff
going on.
But now I tell people likelisten, take the vacations, take
the time, take time off, go.
(28:31):
But when you're doing otherthings, see what's happening in
those real estate economies likeit's a worldwide industry that
we're in.
You can do this everywhere inthe whole world.
Jesse Ray (28:41):
So true.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:43):
So true, yeah , I love it.
Now, what made you getinterested in, like I'm going to
do the growth house?
Like, did you stay on one, Didyou visit one?
Or did you see and just thinkI'm going to give it a shot?
Like what was your first thingthat you're like that's what I
want?
Jesse Ray (29:00):
Well it's, the concept of house hacking was the
original thing, so I knew thatwas the easiest way to get into
real estate for me, low likepercent down, and I was able to
get into a house, multiplebedrooms, like I can make some
money and live for free.
That was the idea.
And then it turned into if Iwant to live in a house with
other people.
Already in my head was like Idon't like roommates.
(29:21):
That was just a conception Ihad.
And then I realized, well, if Ilike the people I live with and
they're all like minded andwant to be in this growth minded
community, then I'll love thepeople.
That's what ended up happening.
At the same time, I will say Iwas seeing these houses pop up
in California and they were likethese creator houses, these
(29:42):
houses, these YouTube houses,these video game houses.
I'm like that's not what I wantto do, but that is an
interesting concept the power ofproximity, especially when
you're all trying to strivetowards a certain goal.
And so for me, I was just likewhy don't I do that with
business professionals,entrepreneurs and curate that
(30:03):
type of environment for ourhouse?
And so that's really where theconcept started.
And then we just said, let'sjust see what happens.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:11):
I love it and , you know, I only learned about
, like those creator housesmaybe I don't know, maybe like a
decade ago, and I thought youknow what a really great idea.
Everyone out of the same groupis doing the same thing, and I
thought you get a lot of ideaslike what a good thing, though,
so I love to see it being doneon the entrepreneurial side,
because I don't think enoughentrepreneurs probably think
like that yeah so what's your uh?
(30:34):
so let's jump topics for aminute.
Tell me, uh, what's yourfavorite band of all time?
Jesse Ray (30:38):
My favorite band of all time.
Oh man, I grew up on hip hopand R&B, so I'm going to say J
Cole is my favorite artist ofall time.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:51):
I like the original, the old hip-hop like
from the 90s.
Before it was like so full ofcursing and all the rappy stuff.
It's like I have a playlist.
Jesse Ray (31:00):
It's all like OG hip-hop oh yeah, you put me on
what's some of your favoritesthat's it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (31:06):
Oh, I like stuff like, uh, gangsta's
Paradise and diggity and uh, Ijust all like I don't know all
the yeah all the classics I'mtrying to think I like the names
(31:27):
.
I just listened to my entireplaylist about two days ago and
I was like, oh, I forgot aboutthat song and it's got stuff
like Ice Ice Baby, what's hisname?
Oh, ice Ice Baby, what was hisname?
Jesse Ray (31:43):
Oh Ice, he's on there .
Dwan Bent-Twyford (31:48):
He's not gangster, but I have some stuff
on there from Tupac.
I don't know, I just like theoriginal.
The original was more dancey,opposed to now.
It's like super rappy andthere's so much cursing.
Jesse Ray (32:00):
Now just like oh my god, like my ears all up the
side of my head it isinteresting because there's like
the mainstream rappers and thenthere's the more underground
and there's like multiple, likedifferent genres of rap now.
So that's that's where, likethe, the, which is unfortunate,
but what gets pushed andpromoted is that like just kind
(32:20):
of ratchet gangster rap and alot of cursing.
But there's a lot of goodartists, like an artist named
Russ is one of my favorites.
He talks about manifestationand, like you know, he shouts
out Napoleon Hill in his song.
So there is some artists thatare like okay, you're actually
having some substance behindyour music and I love that and I
actually used to be a ghostwriter, so I used to write for
(32:42):
artists coming out of college ohfun, and I've got those songs
like jump, jump, just all thisstuff yeah so in my age for sure
, my it's all fun, it's all likeearlier hip-hop, that's all
everything you can dance to.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:56):
That's kind of my exercise Put on my music
and jump around and just besilly.
I love it.
So I'm teaching my littlegrandkids that kind of stuff and
my daughter-in-law is like nowyou have to watch.
I'm like listen, I listen towhat they, I pay attention
because I know there's a lot ofstuff out there Now it's like oh
(33:18):
, you would not want any of yourkids to know.
Jesse Ray (33:20):
All right, what's your favorite food?
Mr Jesse Ray, you know what?
This one's funny because myfavorite food of all time is
sushi.
And because of these allergies,I went to the allergy doctor.
It's like two days ago they didthat scratch test on my back.
It was all red.
He's like you're allergic to alot, lot, but he's like there's
one thing we got to figure outwhat this is.
He comes back.
He's like what happens when youeat seafood?
I'm like, well, I love sushiand like lately and it's kind of
(33:41):
hard to breathe, but you know,I like it so much I don't really
worry about it.
He's like yeah, don't ever dothat again because you're highly
allergic to seafood oh no, I'dbe devastated if I couldn't eat
sushi I know right.
So now I'm like my favorite foodmight just be like a good steak
, so that's probably how toswitch from seafood to steak hey
, listen, I had steak for dinnerlast night.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:02):
I ate a lot of steak.
My husband ate a lot of he's asteak.
He's a steak and potatoes guyand he does not like sushi at
all.
So whenever I go with any of mykids or my friends I'm like
we're gonna go eat sushi.
So maybe once in a while, liketake a a little EpiPen and just
like have like one of thosegiant like where you're like,
okay, I'm going to eateverything, so I can't move, and
then I'm just going to EpiPenmyself because it's worth it for
the minute.
Jesse Ray (34:24):
Not going to lie.
I've thought about that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:27):
I swear to you I would have to think about
that.
If I couldn't have it, I'd belike, oh, I don't know how bad
do I want it once in a while,once in a while.
What's your favorite part ofthe day?
Jesse Ray (34:39):
Favorite part of the day.
You know what?
It's at night, for whateverreason, that's when I get in my
flow state.
So it's at night and then itkind of messes up my morning
routine, cause I like to wake upearly but I just get most
productive it's locked in thatnight, so probably like after
nine o'clock.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:52):
You know it's funny.
I ask everyone that andeveryone always says more.
I get up in the morning andwork out at 5 am and I'm just
like does nobody like thenighttime?
I love the nighttime.
Like it gets late, the sun goesdown, it's like everything is
sort of like mellowed out.
I am 100% a night owl, and I'veprobably only had 10 people say
(35:13):
that they like the nighttime.
Everyone else is like, oh, I'mup at 6 am and I was like why,
though?
Like why you have the choice.
Why do you do that?
But you know, teach the realm,that's all good.
I'm 100% a night owl.
So what is your biggest goalright now that you would like to
accomplish, and how can theD'Wonderful family help you
(35:34):
accomplish that goal?
Jesse Ray (35:37):
Well, I love this question.
So right now I'm on a missionto help a hundred people in the
next 12 months achieve financialfreedom, and so we're doing
that through a lot of ways.
One of the main ways is ourpodcast.
So Growth House Podcast we'rejust getting the word out there.
It's literally been blowing upall over social media and it's
really fun to watch because, asyou know, there's not like
(35:59):
virality with podcasts.
It's really hard to market,it's really word of mouth is
like the best way to do it, oremail list, and so for us, it's
getting the podcast out thereand then you get to learn more
about our community, you get tolearn about the growth house and
then from there take a stepinto, you know, our ecosystem.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:15):
Nice, okay, I love it.
So over and I call all mypeople there.
They're all my family, we alltalk we hang out.
We have drinks, like you and I.
Everyone becomes part of myfamily, and one of the things
that I really like to try to dois help people reach their goals
.
Because you know, Jesse, whenyou help other people, then that
(36:37):
ends up coming back around toyou.
So I'm always like listen, ifthere's a goal, if there's
something we can do, is thereany way that we can help you?
I'm here for it.
Jesse Ray (36:42):
Love it.
Yes, the podcast.
You know, being a guest onother podcasts have been huge
for us as well.
Just kind of getting the wordout there.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:49):
Nice and your podcast is called.
Jesse Ray (36:52):
Growth House.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:53):
Growth, called Growth House Growth.
Jesse Ray (36:55):
House, just Growth House.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:56):
Okay, yeah, and then Jesse Ray, you know,
pop up, yeah, so everyone youknow this will be in the show
notes and stuff like that.
And then when we do you knowthe little 60, 30 second clips
of each of the shows, I put allthese little like sneak peeks
out there.
I'll make sure that we put outone that talks specifically
about about your podcast andwhat you do.
I am here, I know I have notactually done a growth house
(37:20):
type of thing and Bill and I'vetalked about it a lot and we
just haven't quite done it yet.
But I'm like you know what Iwould like to.
I think I'd like to get acouple and just to do it and
experience it.
And because everyone that doesit loves it, they do.
The people that I've met theylove doing it.
(37:42):
So I'm going to have to sendpeople your way because I have
people asking a lot of questionsabout stuff like that and I'm
like, listen, I can help youwith probably most of it as far
as the real estate and thebuilding and this and that, but
I can't really guide you on therest of it because I've never
done it and I'm not one of thesepeople that's like oh, I did
one deal and I wrote a programand now I'm a national speaker.
You know, because you know, weknow those people.
(38:02):
I was like I would have to say,if someone wants that I have to
send them to somebody else,because it's like I'm not your
person, I can't do that.
Jesse Ray (38:18):
Yeah, anything, co-living anything, uh kind of
pad split like um help a lot ofpeople in that realm.
That's kind of what we'reexperts in.
Over the last three years ofhaving so many people come in
and out, you know we've had somemistakes.
We learned, and then we havethe sops and now kind of correct
all that wow, you're myfavorite co-living person that
I've met so far.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:32):
I just I love your spirit and your heart, so
you're the guy.
Guy, I'm going to be sendingall the people to.
Jesse Ray (38:37):
Let's go Appreciate you, Duann.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:40):
You've got that heart.
It's all about.
You just got to have a goodheart for people and the fact
that you're out trying to helppeople reach financial freedom.
That's always been my goal isto help people get out of, like
you said, the corporate.
What do you call them?
The golden handcuffs orsomething?
Golden handc what'd?
Jesse Ray (38:53):
you call them the golden handcuffs or something.
Golden handcuffs, yeah,especially when you're making
some good money, everyone'stelling you like how would you
ever do that?
And then you have the benefits,and then it's like kind of
stuck for most people until youbreak away and you realize
there's a whole world out therebut most everyone stays stuck
till they retire.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:10):
You know you just you don't, don't have to
just give your life to somebodyelse.
Do you're going to work anyway?
Do it for yourself and yourfamily and your kids and build
some generational wealth.
Like it's, I don't know, I justcan't imagine.
I'm 65.
So my family?
I'm probably-.
Jesse Ray (39:26):
Dawn, you are not 65.
Don't lie, shut up.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:29):
I turned 65 this year, but I'll take that.
No.
I know I'm like hey, but I'lltake that no.
Jesse Ray (39:34):
I know I was saying you got to be mid-30s.
No, no later than that, honey.
Okay, if you're listening tothis on audio, go on YouTube so
you can, uh, you can see whatI'm talking about.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:46):
But a lot of my uh, cousins and people I grew
up with they're all likeretiring but they all work for,
especially because we're allfrom ohio.
A lot of them worked forfactories and people and they're
retiring.
It's like like, when are yougoing to retire?
I was like retire from what?
Well, you know working.
I'm like, but I built mycompany and it's my company and
(40:08):
I love doing it, so I'm nevergoing to retire.
I I this is what I do, that I'mgoing to do this forever and
ever and ever.
I mean, you see all these older, older, like the Forbes kind of
people and all of that, andthey're all what are they?
In their eighties?
They're all still out there,warren Buffett, they're all out
there still doing their thingbecause they built it and they
like it.
Jesse Ray (40:29):
And I think, a misconception I had, which
people realize this.
Once you do hit this financialfreedom number, for me it was
just how do I replace mycorporate salary, which was
about six figures at the time,so how do I make six figures in
passive real estate investments?
And once I hit that I was likeokay, cool.
And then I was like wait, thisis not the end game.
This is when life actuallystarts, this is when I have the
(40:50):
freedom to play, to win, notplay, not to lose and that's
when it gets fun.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (40:55):
Yeah, I'm with you.
Amen, All right.
So first I have one morequestion for you before we hang
up, but everyone that'slistening I want to thank you
for being a part of the mostwonderful Real Estate Podcast
ever and being in the world withus today, and I want you to do
me a favor If you enjoyed theshow.
You laughed, you learnedsomething, you had a good time
(41:15):
with us.
I want you to do me a favor Ifyou enjoyed the show you laughed
, you learned something, you hada good time with us.
I want you to subscribe.
I want you to leave me afive-star review.
On the days where I teach justby myself, I read some five-star
reviews, so if you'd like tohave yours read, you got to
leave me one and follow me onFacebook, youtube, tiktok, all
the stuff.
And if you want to watchpodcasts really are so much more
(41:38):
fun to watch Go to my YouTubechannel, dowonderfulrealestate,
and just watch.
I have amazing guests.
I don't know if I have onequite as handsome as you, though
.
I mean, I'm telling you girls,are you single?
I am single All right, girls,I'm telling you, right here, you
got to check this guy out, thisis a keeper.
Telling you hey, listen, realestate.
You know, I met my husband at areal estate seminar, so we were
(41:59):
married.
There you go, it's possiblelike not only is it my business,
it was my dating pool I love it.
Jesse Ray (42:06):
I love it.
I'm always thinking about that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:08):
I'm probably gonna probably meet my future
wife at a conference, amastermind, or something like
that that's why I'm at bill andI had a rule I did not date
investors because I don't wantto date someone.
I always just talk about realestate.
And I was single for a decadeand I met Bill.
It's like all that went out thewindow and we got married and
that was the end of it.
Jesse Ray (42:26):
Love it Happily ever after.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:28):
Yeah, for real Okay.
Jesse Ray (42:36):
Now, I do want you to give us a parting word of
wisdom, but just a single word,a single word of wisdom.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:41):
I'll say association.
So everyone that listens, theyall know that the goal is to
write association on a littlesticky.
Put it on your mirror, andevery day they go, association,
that's the word of the week.
So what does it mean to you?
Jesse Ray (43:00):
For me it goes back to our motto you become who you
surround yourself with, andthere's even Harvard studies
that are like 25 years of.
A Harvard study said 95% ofyour success is going to be
dictated by the five people youspend the most time around.
That's just really it.
At the end of the day, you gotto watch who your inner circle
is and surround yourself withgood people.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (43:20):
All right.
So there you have it, andthat's a really good word of the
way.
That's what I think it is too.
You are, you become who yousurround yourself with.
I agree 100%.
So I always just like to knowwhat my guests, what that word
means to them, because differentwords, you know, mean different
things to all of us.
So, guys, y'all have your.
I give homework, so y'all haveyour homework association.
(43:40):
And you know, really, thinkabout who are the five people
that you spend time around.
Are you outside, like yourfamily?
Like who are you hanging outwith?
Are you hanging out with peoplethat are partying and up doing
drugs all night and run aroundand doing that?
Are you hanging out businesspeople?
Or who are you hanging out with?
Because you really are the sumof who you spend your time with,
and you will find that as youmake more money, your inner
(44:03):
circle completely changes andone of these days you look
around and go dang, everyone Ihang out with is like successful
, every single person, likethat's so cool.
Jesse Ray (44:13):
And when someone goes , hey, let's go eat at a
restaurant that's 500 bucks aplate you're like sure I can do
that right 100, and I think it'sfun also when uh, you know,
even when you're eating at arestaurant, you get to play
credit card roulette, where yougive the person all the credit
cards and you don't care whopicks up the tab, and it's fun.
That's the people you want tohang out with.
(44:33):
It's a lot more fun, fun You'reable to go travel with them.
So, yeah, keep listening to thispodcast reach financial freedom
.
That's when life starts.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (44:41):
Amen.
All right, everyone, we'll beback next week, same bat time,
same bat channel, and rememberthat the truth is in the red
letter.
All right, jesse.
Thank you everyone.
Ciao, I'll see you guys, nextweek.
Hey everybody , welcome to The Most Dwanderful
Real Estate Podcast Ever.
I'm your host, DwanBent-Twyford.
I'm America's most sought afterreal estate investor and I am
so excited that you are herewith me today.
As you can see, I have a veryhandsome man over here.
This is our wicked smart manand we're going to see what
Jesse has to share with us today.
(00:23):
But if you're new toDwan-der-ful, I took my first
name, Dwan and wonderful, and Imade a new word.
So at Dwan-der-ful our motto ispeople before profits.
So if that's something thatresonates with you, I'm your
girl.
If you'll go to Dwan-der-ful.
com and opt in, I'll send you afree book how to flip your way
(00:45):
to a fortune and some all kindsof fun free things and training
and videos and just all thestuff.
But first I would like to nowwelcome my guest, Jesse Ray.
How are you?
Jesse Ray (00:58):
I'm amazing, you're already making me blush.
I appreciate the intro.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:01):
No, I didn't intro you yet.
Jesse Ray (01:06):
You said I'm handsome , so I appreciate that.
Wow, I mean, look at that faceand that smile.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:09):
It's like all the girls are going to be
crushing on you.
I love Jessie Ray.
My family is from Tennessee, mydad's first name is Jessie and
that seems like a southern, likeJessie Ray.
Jesse Ray (01:23):
Yeah, it does.
It has that little vibe to it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:25):
It does, it does.
I was like, oh, I immediatelyloved it.
Okay, so how are you today?
Jesse Ray (01:30):
I'm doing amazing.
I'm so glad I'm able to talk toyou and be on the podcast.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:33):
Yeah, me too, me too.
So we like to start off.
We're going to have a toast.
Everyone knows I drink.
I'm drinking my live enzymes.
What do you have?
Um, yeah, shout out to thewater, all right, cheers,
everybody watching cheers.
Get your drink and everybody.
Take a deep breath and, like,stretch out whatever is bugging
(01:58):
you so you can tune in and youcan have fun with jesse and with
me today.
Now, if you are, you're anaudio listener.
You're going to love it.
But if you want to see all thisgoodness in person, you need to
go to my YouTube channel it'sjust a wonderful real estate and
watch us.
These videos are up on YouTubeand I mean honestly, Jesse, who
(02:19):
doesn't want to watch us and getinvolved and be in the moment
with us?
Jesse Ray (02:23):
It's so much more fun we to watch us and get involved
and be in the moment with us.
It's so much more fun weactually get to watch it live,
you get a yeah, it's more energy.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:29):
I feel like, too, I do, too, I love to, I
watch, I I all podcasts,everything I do, I watch
everything.
And there are people like, oh,I listen when I'm running.
It's like it's not the same.
Jesse Ray (02:37):
You don't get to see all this awesomeness so true,
and able to take notes whenyou're actually just focusing
watching.
So I totally agree.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
So, Jesse, we just throw ourguests straight to the wolves
over here.
So here's what I want you to do.
I just want you to obviouslysay I'm Jesse, right?
I want you to tell us who youare.
I just want you to share yoursocial medias and you just tell
(03:08):
me, in like two sentences, whatyou do.
And then I have a couple of funquestions and we're going to
find out how you became JesseRay, who's on the most wonderful
real estate podcast ever todaylet's do it so.
Jesse Ray (03:17):
Socials, uh, instagram at the jesse ray.
And what I do?
I help people escape thecorporate rat race and achieve
financial freedom and also, withfurnished co-living homes,
created growth house.
We could dive into that if wewant.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:34):
Wow, that was the best shortest.
I love that, that quick, shortanswer.
So the jessie race.
I will be following you todayand I just followed you, so
perfect.
Yeah, I always, I followeverybody and I know a lot of
people like, oh, here's thequestions and here's that, and I
appreciate that people do thatfor me, but I don't read any of
(03:56):
it because I just want to get toknow you and ask you questions
Like, if you and I were sittingdown having a drink, what would
we be talking about and wewouldn't have these intros and
so?
but after I interested someone,then I'm a stalker, I I'll be on
all your instagram, all yourstuff, liking all your stuff,
sharing all your stuff.
So love it, love it you'regonna be sucked into the vortex
(04:17):
over here, all right, so, uh, sotell me that little part that
you said at the end about um,growth house.
Jesse Ray (04:26):
Yeah, our community tell me what that means yeah.
So when I finally ended upescaping the corporate you know
rat race, I got into real estateand I kind of had a niche of
creating these co-living homes,which co-living essentially is
you buy a house, you have haveextra bedrooms started by house
hacking, popular term in realestate lived in one of the rooms
(04:47):
and rented out the other rooms,and so the goal is to live for
free.
But at the same time, I wasvery intentional who I rented to
?
Because I was living in thehouse.
I get to choose.
Who do I wanna surround myselfwith?
And for me I was aspiringentrepreneur, aspiring real
estate investor.
So those are the people I wastrying to attract.
So within six months of gettingmy first house, having amazing
(05:10):
fun, people live with me.
After I lived for five years bymyself, saying I hate roommates
, I'm now in a house with fourother roommates and loving it,
and everyone else also wasloving it as well.
And that's when the concept ofgrowth house.
Okay, how do I make this into abusiness where we have more
co-living homes and allsurrounded with growth minded
(05:30):
people?
So that's essentially what weended up starting and that's how
I got into real estate.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (05:35):
So I love growth house.
So I know people that buy maybea four bedroom or five bedroom
house, like near collegecampuses, and they rent and all
that, and I know people that doand maybe this is the word, but
I've heard the term pad splitwhere you like have a and you're
split.
So you know, when you saidgrowth house, I, so I'm based in
(05:58):
colorado.
So since you said that, Ithought does he grow weed A?
Jesse Ray (06:04):
lot of people said that.
So wait, what's this?
Grow house?
No, no, not grow house.
There's no operation.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:12):
Living in Colorado.
If anyone says anything aboutgrow house, we're all like, oh
okay, they grow weed, cool, andyou know nothing against that.
I mean people are makingmillions of dollars off of it,
but no, I know your real estatebase.
Jesse Ray (06:25):
So I was like growth house okay, I'm from portland,
so yeah you, probably peoplewould assume the same thing yeah
, well, yeah, so you're inportland now no, actually that's
when I moved to arizona, so Ilived in portland most of my
life I'm sorry, now in arizona Igotta tell you, portland, uh,
used to be just such a beautifulcity.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:41):
I used to love to go there.
My daughter lived there for aof years and it is like such a
hell hole right now with justthe tents and the people and it
had one of those beautifuldowntown.
I loved it.
And now I was there not too acouple of years ago and I was
just like what happened to thisbeautiful city?
I mean.
Jesse Ray (07:02):
I left in 2021 when I bought my first house here in
Arizona, have not been backsince, so it is sad.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:10):
I love it, it'll break your heart.
Jesse Ray (07:14):
So and also the cool thing about moving to like a
city like Arizona or Scottsdaleis people want to come see you
because it's a place wherepeople want to vacation to.
So I don't feel bad because allmy friends are reaching out to
me.
Even my immediate family movedout to arizona so I'm like, oh,
I'm good now yeah, yeah, well,you're where it's warm.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:31):
So I'm all for the warm weather, although
I'm in clinton, iowa, right nowand in the winter here, so I've
never actually spent a wholewinter here.
But we were.
We bought a bunch of I guessI'll tell you in your show but
we bought a bunch of buildingsand the temperature gets like
actual temperature, gets like 30below like not with wind chill,
like real temperature.
It's like, oh my god, who livesthere?
(07:53):
Like why did?
Why do you all live there?
It's so, but now in the summerit's great.
They have music outside everyday.
People are out, there's likestuff going, it's like so fun.
But man, when that that fallweather comes, it's like stuff
to go and it's like so fun, butman when that fall weather comes
, it's like no, I'm tapping Allright Now, growth house.
So I love the idea of whatyou're saying and so if someone
(08:13):
is like new to this concept, solet's just say so.
Are you one of the places thattakes a house and maybe takes
any extra living area and turnsthem into bedrooms?
Do you have one where it's likeshared kitchens?
Like what is your growth house?
Because a lot of people arereally super new to this concept
and I'm a huge fan of it 100%.
Jesse Ray (08:37):
And when I talk about growth house we kind of niche
down into business professionals, entrepreneurs, but we kind of
take a step back and just lookat what it looks like on a
normal term of real estate.
It's co-living.
A new company out there that'sdoing amazing things, like you
said, is PadSplit.
So they're doing somethingsimilar and essentially is
taking a house.
It has maybe four bedrooms andyou add at least two or three
(09:01):
bedrooms to really maximize.
It's really looking at a house,a single family home.
What's the highest and best use?
So you have individual rooms,you can furnish them, you don't
have to, and you rent by bedroom, with all the common areas are
shared and typically to createmore bedrooms in a house you do
have to get rid of some of thecommon areas.
So typically what's left is akitchen, maybe a dining room,
(09:25):
and for us we have a littleminiature living room, but
besides, that it's mostly rooms.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (09:30):
So I'm living in a growth house and I'm
paying.
What am I paying for rent?
Jesse Ray (09:36):
Yeah, we're in Phoenix, so it's pretty much, I
would say, a few hundred dollarsless than if you actually
probably more, about six toseven hundred dollars less than
if you want to get a studioapartment somewhere.
So you're paying about ninehundred to a thousand dollars,
furnished room.
Almost think of it as an airbnbexperience where you don't have
to go in there and furnisheverything.
It's like oh, this is anamazing place.
(09:56):
Uh, for us, we typically liketo do six months minimum and
that's kind of our concept andmodel.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:03):
Now.
So I'm going to probably askyou all the questions that you
hear all the time.
But now I am a woman and if I'mlike, hey, I found this growth
house, I'm going to be inArizona.
Are you in Phoenix?
Jesse Ray (10:18):
Yeah, phoenix, we have houses in Phoenix and Tempe
, which is a local near theuniversity, out here at ASU.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:23):
And I'm like okay, I want to rent one of
these, I'll have some roommates,I'm not living alone.
There's safety in numbers, butdo you have men and women?
Are they in the same house?
Jesse Ray (10:33):
We do have some co-ed .
Yeah, go ahead.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:35):
So if they're co-ed, then how am I safe?
Jesse Ray (10:40):
Yeah, so we do have co-ed houses and then we also
have right now, all male houses.
I've been trying to do an allwoman's house but for whatever
reason it just hasn't lined up.
So we're still working on that.
But as far as like the safety,what we do like to do is have a
private bathroom or sharedbathrooms with you know one
gender or the other.
(11:30):
No-transcript negativity is notsomething we want in our house.
So we got to be kind of anuplifting, positive person.
We tell you hey, you're goingto live with six other people.
We almost make it seem likeit's like chaos, but in reality
if you went by any of our housesyou're like this is the
cleanest house ever and oh yeah,everyone's like you know either
(11:51):
out working or working in theiryou know rooms or you know just
doing stuff.
So it's not like it's a crowdedhome.
But we kind of make sure to letpeople know are you okay with
sharing a space with otherpeople?
Are you a clean person?
This is kind of our guidelines.
So after that first call, thenit's the credit background check
and then after that youactually FaceTime tour with one
(12:13):
of the current roommates.
So you now have a co-sign frommyself or my assistant, one of
the roommates, and if thatroommate's like, yeah, I think
this person is a great fit, thenat the very end you do a
FaceTime call with the wholefamily in that current house.
So you actually get it.
I don't make the decision.
The house is actually the onewho cosigns for the next person
(12:34):
to move in.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (12:35):
See, I love that.
I don't know anybody else thatdoes what you do, that does that
extra factor like that I wouldfeel like I would want to meet
and I don't care if it's guys orgirls either, personally but I
would want to meet the peoplebecause you do get a sense of
people's energy and you get asense of someone's a good person
or not.
And you know I wouldn't want tolive with like a bunch of rowdy
(12:59):
partiers, nothing I haven'tdone or do any of those things I
would sort of want like niceprofessional.
You know we all get along andwe can all sit around and have a
kumbaya once in a while, maybecook in the backyard, and you
know you don't have to getattached to all the people
either.
Jesse Ray (13:18):
Exactly Now.
You're so on point and that'swhy we have, you know, some
house rules and at the end ofthe day, it's really to create
harmony in the house.
It's not to have rules, youknow.
It's just like, hey, personalbelongings are not left in
common areas.
That's why you're like how dofive, six people live together?
And it's spotless because weclean up.
And, you know, another rule islike hey, here's our quiet hours
(13:39):
.
We're all working professionalsor entrepreneurs, so this is,
you know, the time that we'reprobably going to be going to
sleep and most of us like towake up early at six or seven to
go work out.
So there's just kind of like avibe to the house that attracts
the right people.
So there is no parties, thereis no, you know, guesting
overnight all the time.
It's just like a very kind ofstructured house for people who
(14:01):
are looking to really expeditetheir career and success and
growth.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (14:06):
And if I was traveling somewhere because I've
stayed in a lot of those hotelsthat are like the residence
ends, where they have a kitchenand they have this and that
which those are fine too.
But if I was in a decent placefor like six months or you know,
like working entrepreneur, andI didn't know anybody, I feel
like I would like that because Icould meet some people and,
like have someone to talk to andmaybe like hey, you know, can
(14:27):
we grab a drink and you know,not like buddy, buddy, but but
you know, like you know just ina hotel, and every night you're
sitting in the room by yourselfall the time.
Jesse Ray (14:36):
Exactly.
Yeah, it's really a plug andplay for someone who's an
aspiring or a currententrepreneur.
Where you come in, you have thecommunity already built within
the house and what we doespecially, we kind of have
cohorts.
So some of the times where thehouses are just business
professionals and entrepreneurs.
And then we have times where wehave a dedicated three-month
span where, hey, these are ourstartup founders and
(14:58):
entrepreneurs living in thishouse and that's when we go
extra.
We have weekly accountabilitymeetings, we have masterclasses
that we host at the house everysingle month.
We bring in top speakers, coldplunges, we have beverage
companies sponsoring us and thenext time we do this, in 2025,
we actually have a productioncoming out.
We're having a YouTube showaround these entrepreneurs and
(15:21):
following their journey,documenting everything that
they're doing, and also we havea board of angel investors.
So there's a lot more levels toit.
If they want to get intoco-living, you know, just do it
more of the simple way, like Isaid, if you just want to have
(15:44):
business professionals.
But yeah, we do like intensethree months sprints where we
have a program and everything'sset up.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (15:47):
So when you do, I like that.
So when you're doing the threemonths sprint, is that your
program?
Jesse Ray (15:51):
Yeah, it's a program that we're we created along with
a lot of mentors and coachesout here in Arizona, so this
also depends on who's moving in.
Like this next one, we'reprobably gonna do real estate
focused, so we're gonna be likeall right, who's our key mentors
, who are gonna come do themasterclasses, teach, et cetera.
It's almost like having amastermind for three months for
(16:11):
these people, which is, you know, can be invaluable with all the
connections and resources theyhave through the house.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (16:20):
Oh my God.
No, that sounds amazing Becauseyou know people that are new,
like when I was doing investing,there was nobody to teach,
there were no, like I startedbefore the internet, so there
was no YouTube watching videos,seminars, there was no HGTV,
there was like nothing.
You just I figured it out.
I took classes at Home Depot tolearn how to fix things, like I
(16:40):
really see it in my pan and I'mall about trying to help people
you know get from being new tolike someplace else as fast as
possible without all of thethings.
Maybe if someone came in likein the three months like they
were in there, that would beamazing well with the one you
might have to come fly out.
Jesse Ray (16:59):
I come hang out with us, I know.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:01):
I'm thinking like I want to come do that for
a minute.
That sounds super fun.
That sounds super fun andeveryone's kind of working on
the thing.
So then you also teach peopleand show people how to do and
have these co-living properties.
Jesse Ray (17:17):
I mean, yeah, that's the benefit of being in our
community, even if you're justdoing it during you know our
kind of I guess you call itregular residency, when you're
just a business professional.
Our goal is for you guys tostay in our community for as
long as you want, and then thenext step for you is go buy your
own house and we want to helpyou do that Exactly, and a lot
of the people are in thatprocess now, where we've been
(17:38):
doing this for about two and ahalf three years and so, like I
said, some of the houses we keepas those business professional
houses, and then one of thehouses we say, hey, three months
here, we're going to do thisentrepreneur, startup, founder
sprint.
So that's the whole goal is wewant to be those people to push
(17:58):
people to go into homeownership,because, I mean, I'm a real
estate fan.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (18:05):
It changed my life and I wanted to help
change.
I want a cold plunge with theother entrepreneurs.
I was like, when you said that,I was like that would be like
my dream have a couple months, abunch of entrepreneurs and
we're cold plunging and we'relearning and you're like all in
it.
That would be so that to me,that's like that's an amazing
way to learn too.
100.
Jesse Ray (18:18):
A hundred percent.
And I'm actually super excitedbecause someone just texted me
and I've been working on a coldplunge, sponsored, and we just
got one and they're going tocome out to our mastermind at
the end of this month and I'mjust super excited because, yeah
, cold plunges, working outhealth and wellness, big part of
my life.
I think a lot of people thinkit's all about business, all
about business, all aboutfinances, but for me it's the
(18:39):
holistic, like what other areasof your life?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (18:42):
Let's lift it all up together.
Yeah, I do Part of when I'mworking with people.
It's like, listen, there's likefive equities of your life.
You've got your business, butyou got your spiritual, your
mental, your physical, yourfriends and family.
And a lot of especially newerinvestors will tend to like
focus all on the money and then,you know, maybe their health or
(19:03):
their mental well-being takes abackseat and they focus on
whatever, and it's really easyto get out of balance and get
out of whack and even, like,lose touch with people because
you're just like you know,you're in the grind.
And so I am always tellingpeople like listen, listen,
you've got to make time for allthe things, because if you don't
, you're going to get superburned out.
(19:23):
First of all, you're going toget super burned out, but you
have to take time for your body,you have to take time for your
mindset.
Like you have to do thosethings because if you don't, you
know what's that old sayingthat when you're young you spend
all your health getting yourwealth.
And then, when you get older,you spend all your wealth trying
to get healthy again.
Like both at the same time.
(19:46):
So when you do get older,you're wealthy and healthy.
Right, yeah, that's just havingthose non negotiables in your
life, and for me, that isworking out five times a day,
eating healthy, and so, yeah, Ithink it's so, so true you know,
my husband and I, um, a coupleyears ago we're we're pretty
healthy in general, but wetravel a lot, I do a lot of
(20:07):
workshops, I do a lot ofseminars and like we really
still like to do that.
We enjoy going, we teach, we'rein hotel, but I don't know,
maybe five or six or seven yearsago we're like, you know, when
we're on the road, like andbefore covid, you could go to
like a marriott and they'd bringyou nice room service and it's
on the big table and you haveall the bread and the butter,
(20:29):
all the stuff.
And then we get back home andwe'd be like tired mentally and
physically, like you know whatwe really have to start taking
better care of ourselves, likewe do at home, out on the road.
So now we have a suitcase thatwe travel with and it has my
Vitamix juicer, because we liketo juice.
It has the grounding mat, ithas the heated blanket, it has
(20:54):
all the stuff.
And I was like, yeah, and wetake our own pillows.
And I was like, okay, now we'relike those people, you know,
like the people that you think,like the crazy health nuts.
I'm like, oh, yeah, and we takeour own pillows and I was like,
okay, now we're like thosepeople you know, like the people
that you think are like thecrazy health nuts.
I'm like, oh well, we're thosepeople, because we have one bag
that just has things to help usstay grounded and healthy while
traveling, because you know it'seasy, especially when you're
(21:16):
younger, like even, like, youknow, 20 years ago we'd like, ah
, you know, we're here whereverwe just go, eat or drink, like.
But you know, after a whileyou're like you need to take
care of yourself all the wayaround.
So, yeah, so now we come, we'relike we have our own pillow and
then we use a differentsomething that's not white, so
the maids won't like toss itinto laundry.
And then we like, hey, can youwash our sheets without bleach?
(21:37):
and oh, you're one of those highmaintenance people that we've
got a vitamin mix that's thisbig and I've got the grounding,
the heated blanket, and I havemy aromatherapy, all my stuff,
but we both use it when we'rehome.
So when you're traveling, Ifeel like each time we stay
(21:57):
somewhere, that it's ourtemporary home, so we need to
treat ourselves the same way.
Jesse Ray (22:01):
Yeah it's keeping that same routine and that's
something that I'm actuallyabout to go to europe for three
months.
So I'm gonna be like trying tofigure out how do I eat healthy,
because I'm meal prepeverything like I'm the most
basic, like chicken or rice,turkey and rice, and like I
can't do that on the road.
I don't know why you thinkyou'd be surprised, though.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:22):
I've been there backpacking when, uh, each
of my kids graduate high school.
I take them for a month.
I'm like put whatever you canon your backpack and we're gonna
go, and we're just gonna stayand travel and take the train
and we're gonna go where thewind leads us, and all the times
I did that we actually ended upeating pretty good, because we
would eat like the real, actualfood of that country and, you
(22:46):
know, find like the littleplaces more off the road where,
like, there's some grandma onthe back that's making things
and we actually ate reallysurprisingly healthy.
Jesse Ray (22:57):
So that's what I keep hearing.
Everyone that goes to europe'slike jess, you're gonna love it
because everything's like nopreservatives, like it's way
healthier than the states somuch better.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (23:06):
It is even like.
I remember when we were initaly people like have like you
know a thing of bread and somebutter and some wine, like at
lunch they're just hanging outand I was like, oh my god, if
you know that bread, I'm gonnaget so fat.
But then when you eat the stuffor the pasta, it's different.
It tastes different, it settlesin your body different.
Everything's not full ofpreservatives and gluten and any
(23:28):
place that's like just a smidgeoff of the main path, you all
the food's really good.
I was always surprised.
I was like, okay, I'm diggingit.
Because I was thinking like, ohgod, I'm gonna gain.
Because I was thinking like, ohGod, I'm going to gain 20
pounds Because I'm going to eateverything in the world.
And I ended up not gaininganyway and loving all the food
and meeting and going into theplaces where the locals go.
Jesse Ray (23:52):
That's my big thing.
It's like, yeah, it's cool tohave a vacation and really be in
the tourist area, but for methe whole point about travel is
experience, the culture, get toknow the people, get to really
know what the vibe of that cityis like.
So I'm with you on that.
I like to go to local spots.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (24:08):
We do too.
That's how we travel, even now.
Like you know, we were just inOhio recently and we're like,
okay, what's the best littlerestaurant that like only the
local people go to downCincinnati, like only the local
people go to down cincinnati,went to this little place and we
ended up going back there threetimes in the same week because
the food was amazing.
It's like, yeah, good.
So I'm like, I mean, I'm allfor being touristy too, but if,
(24:28):
for months, I want to feel how Ilike to feel how it would be to
live there 100 that's my ideaof like enjoying in places how
it feels to be there, not justto be the tourist.
But if you live there for sixmonths, how would it feel?
Because that's how I think youget to know the people and the
cultures and, I don't know, youget to learn like a little bit
(24:48):
of the language everywhere yougo, if you kind of hang out in
places like that.
Jesse Ray (24:52):
So I don't know, I'm a fan yeah, yeah, this will be
my first time like doing abouncing around quite a bit,
because usually I like to dothat.
I like to be like one monthminimum somewhere.
So I go one month puerto rico,one month, you know, medellin,
colombia.
But this europe trip is kind oflike all right, portugal to
spain, to france, to here tothere.
This is my first time in europe, so I think this is a good way
(25:14):
to kind of get the feel and thengo back for that month or two
where they're like oh, I've beenthere for five days.
I kind of like that vibe, letme go back for a month.
So that's kind of my game planthat I want to do this summer
yeah, I love that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (25:26):
So we got a year round pass and people are
like oh, why do you take thetrain?
Everyone flies now it's becausethe train takes you through the
country and on the trains arepeople that live there and on
some of the trains dining cart,everyone's eating and drinking
and they're all tourists andthey're hanging out.
You know, and we took a coupleof night trains.
Oh my God, the night trains arethe most fun I've ever had.
(25:47):
And from the dining cart eatingand they're drinking and they're
from all over the world andeveryone's talking and it was
the most fun I ever had wastaking night trains.
Jesse Ray (25:57):
I appreciate that advice.
I'm going to have to do that,if you feel like I'm here to
hear.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:01):
It's like eight hours, do it at night.
Oh my God, the people are somuch fun.
I never had so much fun in mywhole life.
We ended up being over thereone time in the World Cup and a
few of the people that are partof the team were taking some
kind of a break and they were onthe train and we were all in
like the the cart, like thedining cart.
Oh my god, I never had so muchfun in my entire life.
(26:23):
I was like people over here,rock man, I love it that's
awesome.
Jesse Ray (26:28):
I'm excited to do that.
I was excited to do that I waslike fly.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:32):
It's like I don't want to fly from here to
there, I want to go see thecountry.
I can fly anywhere.
I fly all the time.
I want to go see and you canget everywhere by train, like
everywhere.
We even got off a couple ofplaces, One by accident.
We got off on this stop and wewere like two stops too early
and it let you out in a fieldand I was like and then everyone
(26:52):
starts coming up out of nowhere, getting on the train, and
we're like, OK, well, we'll justgo that direction.
We ended up in this tiny littletown.
No one even spoke english.
We have the same for like fivedays.
It was the most fun I ever had.
Jesse Ray (27:03):
I love that oh, fun.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (27:07):
So so see, folks, that's part of investing
is to be able to do the thingsand grow your well, take care of
yourself, have a good time,because you know what it's a lot
of work being an entrepreneur,you know, and you know
everyone's like, oh, I want towork being an entrepreneur, you
know and you know everyone'slike, oh, I want to do, I want
to be my own boss.
But then I think they get sohard in on the working part of
(27:28):
it.
People don't take time toactually enjoy what all that
money does for you.
Jesse Ray (27:32):
So true, Cause that's the whole point of why I did
this, why I started this youknow, growth house, co-living
houses and guidance real estatein the first place was to be
able to leave that corporate jobthat I was in golden handcuffs,
making six figures plus, but atthe end of the day I didn't
have that freedom.
So for the first year so Ithink I was guilty of that where
maybe first two years I didn'treally get to go experience and
(27:55):
travel that much.
And then I'm like, wait, Icreated this lifestyle and my
business around a lifestyle, butI'm not living that lifestyle.
So now I'm like, all right, letme go out there, explore,
travel, because that's why I didit.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:06):
Yeah, how old are you?
Jesse Ray (28:08):
I'm 30.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:09):
30.
Well, you are just a youngin.
Well, that's amazing.
I didn't start till I was 30and I didn't have that exact
mindset yet.
It probably took me till I was40 to be like I need to do more
things instead of just alwaysworking all the time.
But I was a single mom, but youknow I had a lot of extra stuff
going on.
But now I tell people likelisten, take the vacations, take
the time, take time off, go.
(28:31):
But when you're doing otherthings, see what's happening in
those real estate economies likeit's a worldwide industry that
we're in.
You can do this everywhere inthe whole world.
Jesse Ray (28:41):
So true.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:43):
So true, yeah , I love it.
Now, what made you getinterested in, like I'm going to
do the growth house?
Like, did you stay on one, Didyou visit one?
Or did you see and just thinkI'm going to give it a shot?
Like what was your first thingthat you're like that's what I
want?
Jesse Ray (29:00):
Well it's, the concept of house hacking was the
original thing, so I knew thatwas the easiest way to get into
real estate for me, low likepercent down, and I was able to
get into a house, multiplebedrooms, like I can make some
money and live for free.
That was the idea.
And then it turned into if Iwant to live in a house with
other people.
Already in my head was like Idon't like roommates.
(29:21):
That was just a conception Ihad.
And then I realized, well, if Ilike the people I live with and
they're all like minded andwant to be in this growth minded
community, then I'll love thepeople.
That's what ended up happening.
At the same time, I will say Iwas seeing these houses pop up
in California and they were likethese creator houses, these
(29:42):
houses, these YouTube houses,these video game houses.
I'm like that's not what I wantto do, but that is an
interesting concept the power ofproximity, especially when
you're all trying to strivetowards a certain goal.
And so for me, I was just likewhy don't I do that with
business professionals,entrepreneurs and curate that
(30:03):
type of environment for ourhouse?
And so that's really where theconcept started.
And then we just said, let'sjust see what happens.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:11):
I love it and , you know, I only learned about
, like those creator housesmaybe I don't know, maybe like a
decade ago, and I thought youknow what a really great idea.
Everyone out of the same groupis doing the same thing, and I
thought you get a lot of ideaslike what a good thing, though,
so I love to see it being doneon the entrepreneurial side,
because I don't think enoughentrepreneurs probably think
like that yeah so what's your uh?
(30:34):
so let's jump topics for aminute.
Tell me, uh, what's yourfavorite band of all time?
Jesse Ray (30:38):
My favorite band of all time.
Oh man, I grew up on hip hopand R&B, so I'm going to say J
Cole is my favorite artist ofall time.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:51):
I like the original, the old hip-hop like
from the 90s.
Before it was like so full ofcursing and all the rappy stuff.
It's like I have a playlist.
Jesse Ray (31:00):
It's all like OG hip-hop oh yeah, you put me on
what's some of your favoritesthat's it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (31:06):
Oh, I like stuff like, uh, gangsta's
Paradise and diggity and uh, Ijust all like I don't know all
the yeah all the classics I'mtrying to think I like the names
(31:27):
.
I just listened to my entireplaylist about two days ago and
I was like, oh, I forgot aboutthat song and it's got stuff
like Ice Ice Baby, what's hisname?
Oh, ice Ice Baby, what was hisname?
Jesse Ray (31:43):
Oh Ice, he's on there .
Dwan Bent-Twyford (31:48):
He's not gangster, but I have some stuff
on there from Tupac.
I don't know, I just like theoriginal.
The original was more dancey,opposed to now.
It's like super rappy andthere's so much cursing.
Jesse Ray (32:00):
Now just like oh my god, like my ears all up the
side of my head it isinteresting because there's like
the mainstream rappers and thenthere's the more underground
and there's like multiple, likedifferent genres of rap now.
So that's that's where, likethe, the, which is unfortunate,
but what gets pushed andpromoted is that like just kind
(32:20):
of ratchet gangster rap and alot of cursing.
But there's a lot of goodartists, like an artist named
Russ is one of my favorites.
He talks about manifestationand, like you know, he shouts
out Napoleon Hill in his song.
So there is some artists thatare like okay, you're actually
having some substance behindyour music and I love that and I
actually used to be a ghostwriter, so I used to write for
(32:42):
artists coming out of college ohfun, and I've got those songs
like jump, jump, just all thisstuff yeah so in my age for sure
, my it's all fun, it's all likeearlier hip-hop, that's all
everything you can dance to.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:56):
That's kind of my exercise Put on my music
and jump around and just besilly.
I love it.
So I'm teaching my littlegrandkids that kind of stuff and
my daughter-in-law is like nowyou have to watch.
I'm like listen, I listen towhat they, I pay attention
because I know there's a lot ofstuff out there Now it's like oh
(33:18):
, you would not want any of yourkids to know.
Jesse Ray (33:20):
All right, what's your favorite food?
Mr Jesse Ray, you know what?
This one's funny because myfavorite food of all time is
sushi.
And because of these allergies,I went to the allergy doctor.
It's like two days ago they didthat scratch test on my back.
It was all red.
He's like you're allergic to alot, lot, but he's like there's
one thing we got to figure outwhat this is.
He comes back.
He's like what happens when youeat seafood?
I'm like, well, I love sushiand like lately and it's kind of
(33:41):
hard to breathe, but you know,I like it so much I don't really
worry about it.
He's like yeah, don't ever dothat again because you're highly
allergic to seafood oh no, I'dbe devastated if I couldn't eat
sushi I know right.
So now I'm like my favorite foodmight just be like a good steak
, so that's probably how toswitch from seafood to steak hey
, listen, I had steak for dinnerlast night.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:02):
I ate a lot of steak.
My husband ate a lot of he's asteak.
He's a steak and potatoes guyand he does not like sushi at
all.
So whenever I go with any of mykids or my friends I'm like
we're gonna go eat sushi.
So maybe once in a while, liketake a a little EpiPen and just
like have like one of thosegiant like where you're like,
okay, I'm going to eateverything, so I can't move, and
then I'm just going to EpiPenmyself because it's worth it for
the minute.
Jesse Ray (34:24):
Not going to lie.
I've thought about that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:27):
I swear to you I would have to think about
that.
If I couldn't have it, I'd belike, oh, I don't know how bad
do I want it once in a while,once in a while.
What's your favorite part ofthe day?
Jesse Ray (34:39):
Favorite part of the day.
You know what?
It's at night, for whateverreason, that's when I get in my
flow state.
So it's at night and then itkind of messes up my morning
routine, cause I like to wake upearly but I just get most
productive it's locked in thatnight, so probably like after
nine o'clock.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:52):
You know it's funny.
I ask everyone that andeveryone always says more.
I get up in the morning andwork out at 5 am and I'm just
like does nobody like thenighttime?
I love the nighttime.
Like it gets late, the sun goesdown, it's like everything is
sort of like mellowed out.
I am 100% a night owl, and I'veprobably only had 10 people say
(35:13):
that they like the nighttime.
Everyone else is like, oh, I'mup at 6 am and I was like why,
though?
Like why you have the choice.
Why do you do that?
But you know, teach the realm,that's all good.
I'm 100% a night owl.
So what is your biggest goalright now that you would like to
accomplish, and how can theD'Wonderful family help you
(35:34):
accomplish that goal?
Jesse Ray (35:37):
Well, I love this question.
So right now I'm on a missionto help a hundred people in the
next 12 months achieve financialfreedom, and so we're doing
that through a lot of ways.
One of the main ways is ourpodcast.
So Growth House Podcast we'rejust getting the word out there.
It's literally been blowing upall over social media and it's
really fun to watch because, asyou know, there's not like
(35:59):
virality with podcasts.
It's really hard to market,it's really word of mouth is
like the best way to do it, oremail list, and so for us, it's
getting the podcast out thereand then you get to learn more
about our community, you get tolearn about the growth house and
then from there take a stepinto, you know, our ecosystem.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:15):
Nice, okay, I love it.
So over and I call all mypeople there.
They're all my family, we alltalk we hang out.
We have drinks, like you and I.
Everyone becomes part of myfamily, and one of the things
that I really like to try to dois help people reach their goals
.
Because you know, Jesse, whenyou help other people, then that
(36:37):
ends up coming back around toyou.
So I'm always like listen, ifthere's a goal, if there's
something we can do, is thereany way that we can help you?
I'm here for it.
Jesse Ray (36:42):
Love it.
Yes, the podcast.
You know, being a guest onother podcasts have been huge
for us as well.
Just kind of getting the wordout there.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:49):
Nice and your podcast is called.
Jesse Ray (36:52):
Growth House.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:53):
Growth, called Growth House Growth.
Jesse Ray (36:55):
House, just Growth House.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:56):
Okay, yeah, and then Jesse Ray, you know,
pop up, yeah, so everyone youknow this will be in the show
notes and stuff like that.
And then when we do you knowthe little 60, 30 second clips
of each of the shows, I put allthese little like sneak peeks
out there.
I'll make sure that we put outone that talks specifically
about about your podcast andwhat you do.
I am here, I know I have notactually done a growth house
(37:20):
type of thing and Bill and I'vetalked about it a lot and we
just haven't quite done it yet.
But I'm like you know what Iwould like to.
I think I'd like to get acouple and just to do it and
experience it.
And because everyone that doesit loves it, they do.
The people that I've met theylove doing it.
(37:42):
So I'm going to have to sendpeople your way because I have
people asking a lot of questionsabout stuff like that and I'm
like, listen, I can help youwith probably most of it as far
as the real estate and thebuilding and this and that, but
I can't really guide you on therest of it because I've never
done it and I'm not one of thesepeople that's like oh, I did
one deal and I wrote a programand now I'm a national speaker.
You know, because you know, weknow those people.
(38:02):
I was like I would have to say,if someone wants that I have to
send them to somebody else,because it's like I'm not your
person, I can't do that.
Jesse Ray (38:18):
Yeah, anything, co-living anything, uh kind of
pad split like um help a lot ofpeople in that realm.
That's kind of what we'reexperts in.
Over the last three years ofhaving so many people come in
and out, you know we've had somemistakes.
We learned, and then we havethe sops and now kind of correct
all that wow, you're myfavorite co-living person that
I've met so far.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:32):
I just I love your spirit and your heart, so
you're the guy.
Guy, I'm going to be sendingall the people to.
Jesse Ray (38:37):
Let's go Appreciate you, Duann.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:40):
You've got that heart.
It's all about.
You just got to have a goodheart for people and the fact
that you're out trying to helppeople reach financial freedom.
That's always been my goal isto help people get out of, like
you said, the corporate.
What do you call them?
The golden handcuffs orsomething?
Golden handc what'd?
Jesse Ray (38:53):
you call them the golden handcuffs or something.
Golden handcuffs, yeah,especially when you're making
some good money, everyone'stelling you like how would you
ever do that?
And then you have the benefits,and then it's like kind of
stuck for most people until youbreak away and you realize
there's a whole world out therebut most everyone stays stuck
till they retire.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:10):
You know you just you don't, don't have to
just give your life to somebodyelse.
Do you're going to work anyway?
Do it for yourself and yourfamily and your kids and build
some generational wealth.
Like it's, I don't know, I justcan't imagine.
I'm 65.
So my family?
I'm probably-.
Jesse Ray (39:26):
Dawn, you are not 65.
Don't lie, shut up.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:29):
I turned 65 this year, but I'll take that.
No.
I know I'm like hey, but I'lltake that no.
Jesse Ray (39:34):
I know I was saying you got to be mid-30s.
No, no later than that, honey.
Okay, if you're listening tothis on audio, go on YouTube so
you can, uh, you can see whatI'm talking about.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:46):
But a lot of my uh, cousins and people I grew
up with they're all likeretiring but they all work for,
especially because we're allfrom ohio.
A lot of them worked forfactories and people and they're
retiring.
It's like like, when are yougoing to retire?
I was like retire from what?
Well, you know working.
I'm like, but I built mycompany and it's my company and
(40:08):
I love doing it, so I'm nevergoing to retire.
I I this is what I do, that I'mgoing to do this forever and
ever and ever.
I mean, you see all these older, older, like the Forbes kind of
people and all of that, andthey're all what are they?
In their eighties?
They're all still out there,warren Buffett, they're all out
there still doing their thingbecause they built it and they
like it.
Jesse Ray (40:29):
And I think, a misconception I had, which
people realize this.
Once you do hit this financialfreedom number, for me it was
just how do I replace mycorporate salary, which was
about six figures at the time,so how do I make six figures in
passive real estate investments?
And once I hit that I was likeokay, cool.
And then I was like wait, thisis not the end game.
This is when life actuallystarts, this is when I have the
(40:50):
freedom to play, to win, notplay, not to lose and that's
when it gets fun.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (40:55):
Yeah, I'm with you.
Amen, All right.
So first I have one morequestion for you before we hang
up, but everyone that'slistening I want to thank you
for being a part of the mostwonderful Real Estate Podcast
ever and being in the world withus today, and I want you to do
me a favor If you enjoyed theshow.
You laughed, you learnedsomething, you had a good time
(41:15):
with us.
I want you to do me a favor Ifyou enjoyed the show you laughed
, you learned something, you hada good time with us.
I want you to subscribe.
I want you to leave me afive-star review.
On the days where I teach justby myself, I read some five-star
reviews, so if you'd like tohave yours read, you got to
leave me one and follow me onFacebook, youtube, tiktok, all
the stuff.
And if you want to watchpodcasts really are so much more
(41:38):
fun to watch Go to my YouTubechannel, dowonderfulrealestate,
and just watch.
I have amazing guests.
I don't know if I have onequite as handsome as you, though
.
I mean, I'm telling you girls,are you single?
I am single All right, girls,I'm telling you, right here, you
got to check this guy out, thisis a keeper.
Telling you hey, listen, realestate.
You know, I met my husband at areal estate seminar, so we were
(41:59):
married.
There you go, it's possiblelike not only is it my business,
it was my dating pool I love it.
Jesse Ray (42:06):
I love it.
I'm always thinking about that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:08):
I'm probably gonna probably meet my future
wife at a conference, amastermind, or something like
that that's why I'm at bill andI had a rule I did not date
investors because I don't wantto date someone.
I always just talk about realestate.
And I was single for a decadeand I met Bill.
It's like all that went out thewindow and we got married and
that was the end of it.
Jesse Ray (42:26):
Love it Happily ever after.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:28):
Yeah, for real Okay.
Jesse Ray (42:36):
Now, I do want you to give us a parting word of
wisdom, but just a single word,a single word of wisdom.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:41):
I'll say association.
So everyone that listens, theyall know that the goal is to
write association on a littlesticky.
Put it on your mirror, andevery day they go, association,
that's the word of the week.
So what does it mean to you?
Jesse Ray (43:00):
For me it goes back to our motto you become who you
surround yourself with, andthere's even Harvard studies
that are like 25 years of.
A Harvard study said 95% ofyour success is going to be
dictated by the five people youspend the most time around.
That's just really it.
At the end of the day, you gotto watch who your inner circle
is and surround yourself withgood people.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (43:20):
All right.
So there you have it, andthat's a really good word of the
way.
That's what I think it is too.
You are, you become who yousurround yourself with.
I agree 100%.
So I always just like to knowwhat my guests, what that word
means to them, because differentwords, you know, mean different
things to all of us.
So, guys, y'all have your.
I give homework, so y'all haveyour homework association.
(43:40):
And you know, really, thinkabout who are the five people
that you spend time around.
Are you outside, like yourfamily?
Like who are you hanging outwith?
Are you hanging out with peoplethat are partying and up doing
drugs all night and run aroundand doing that?
Are you hanging out businesspeople?
Or who are you hanging out with?
Because you really are the sumof who you spend your time with,
and you will find that as youmake more money, your inner
(44:03):
circle completely changes andone of these days you look
around and go dang, everyone Ihang out with is like successful
, every single person, likethat's so cool.
Jesse Ray (44:13):
And when someone goes , hey, let's go eat at a
restaurant that's 500 bucks aplate you're like sure I can do
that right 100, and I think it'sfun also when uh, you know,
even when you're eating at arestaurant, you get to play
credit card roulette, where yougive the person all the credit
cards and you don't care whopicks up the tab, and it's fun.
That's the people you want tohang out with.
(44:33):
It's a lot more fun, fun You'reable to go travel with them.
So, yeah, keep listening to thispodcast reach financial freedom
.
That's when life starts.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (44:41):
Amen.
All right, everyone, we'll beback next week, same bat time,
same bat channel, and rememberthat the truth is in the red
letter.
All right, jesse.
Thank you everyone.
Ciao, I'll see you guys, nextweek.
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