From the Court to the Condos: Coach Ben's Slam Dunk into Real Estate Development

The episode features Benjamin Julius discussing his transition from coaching youth and college sports to real estate development, emphasizing the importance of treating real estate as a business. He shares his journey of starting with a 13-unit project and setting ambitious goals for his development company; Lionheart Development. Benjamin discusses the challenges of balancing family life with business responsibilities and instilling resilience in his children. He offers valuable tips for building a business, including hiring a bookkeeper early on and establishing a strong personal brand.

About Benjamin Julius

Ben is the founder and CEO of Lionheart Development. His enthusiasm and dedication to real estate have grown the company from a small scale rental and construction business to a successful land development company.

In 2017 feeling lost in the professional world, Ben and his wife leveraged everything they had to dive into real estate. Fast forward to the current day and he now holds $200M assets under management and is continuing to grow. He is the boots on the ground guy and primary contact between planners, construction companies, and the municipalities during the site plan approval process and for all ground-up projects. Ben brings his creativity and philosophy of ensuring the best use of subject sites when he analyzes land and building purchase opportunities, during a due diligence phase, and when collaborating with appropriate stakeholders. Ben’s approach to development is both practical and passionate, in which he deeply values his relationships with investors and fellow industry professionals.

Prior to real estate, Ben spent the first part of his career coaching men’s collegiate basketball. Working in a team environment, adjusting his strategy on the court, and a strong desire to better the lives of individuals in his community, are just some of the transferrable skills that Ben brings to his development company.

Connect with Benjamin:

• https://www.threads.net/@coachbenjulius
• @Coachbenjulius
• www.linkedin.com/in/ben-julius-b7172724
• https://www.facebook.com/ben.julius.9
• www.lionheartdevelopment.co

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Carl Richards, Alfonso Cuadra, Benjamin Julius

 Carl Richards  00:05

Welcome to The WealthGenius Podcast! The WealthGenius Podcast; strategies for multifamily real estate investing, mindset, community, success. The WealthGenius Podcast with your host, The Godfather of real estate, Alfonso Cuadra, who has expansive experience in business and massive success as a real estate investor. The WealthGenius Podcast, let's dive in to today's episode.

 Alfonso Cuadra  00:33

Señor Ben! Benjamin. 

 Benjamin Julius  00:36

Thanks for- thanks for having me here, 

 Alfonso Cuadra  00:38

Benjamin Buttons.

 Benjamin Julius  00:40

That's it!

 Alfonso Cuadra  00:40

I wanted you on the show. I wanted you on the show because we go way back. We go way, way back and I am so excited about everything that you have accomplished, you should be extremely proud of yourself. Just last year, we- you came in presented at one of our events and you know, I just got I really got to see the, you know, from start to finish kinda thing, and to me, it's like so impressive. 

And so I needed you on my show, not just because you're a friend, because I respect the things that you're doing. And I want to know all about it,right? So before we get into the origin story, let's go into like kind of what you're doing now. 

 Benjamin Julius  01:18

Sure! So we've moved from the multifamily, the small multifamily space to the large multifamily space and ground up development. So currently, right now we have just over $250 million of projects owned, operated and under management. 

 Alfonso Cuadra  01:33

Whoa, hold on. Just take- let's take a moment here. Okay, good. Congratulations! 

Benjamin Julius  01:39

I appreciate that. Thank you. And it's right around 400 units through the course of three different projects. So we're really excited, we're really, you know, every day is different, you know, we just get up, wake up, attack the day's problems, move forward and get ready to prepare for the next day's problems. 

And before that kind of just kind of steamrolled into great opportunities and great projects. And just like anybody over the last year, we've just been kind of navigating the waters and keeping our head up and moving forward. So yeah, that's kind of what we got going on. And we're really excited, they're two buildings. One- one building is directly on the Go line in Hamilton in a fantastic location. 

Alfonso Cuadra  02:17

So this is land development. Yeah.

Benjamin Julius  02:19

Yeah, land developments, ground up development. So the one right on the Go line is 10 stories, 132 units, and the one on the other building is on the new LRT Line, right on King Street. And that's eight stories, 145 units. But what I'm really excited about is something within those buildings. And what we've done is we're able to take a 400 square foot, condo slash apartment, and it operates as 700 square feet without touching the infrastructure of the building. 

Alfonso Cuadra  02:46

Wow!

Benjamin Julius  02:47

So a lot of people don't really know that. And we've created a strategic partnership with a company called Ori Living out of New York out of the Brooklyn and what it does, it's movable and expandable furniture. So the bed- it's like a traditional Murphy bed-

Alfonso Cuadra  03:01

Just taking a real use and taking the space and making it functional.

Benjamin Julius  03:05

Totally, totally. So it's like taking a Murphy bed, imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1987; jacked, steroids, all that stuff, right? Like just huge. This is what the Murphy bed is now. So you hit a button from your phone, the bed goes into the ceiling, right? You hit it- 

Alfonso Cuadra  03:21

So you're on your way, you're on your way home, you know, and it's your first date and you know, your bed is messy. And you know, you want to make sure "Okay, I got my girl- my new girlfriend, I don't want her to see-" 

Benjamin Julius  03:33

Right!

Alfonso Cuadra  03:34

"-like how messy I am. Just hit the button. Boom. Everything!

Benjamin Julius  03:37

You know, you don't want to see too forward thinking so I'm just gonna make sure that couches out, button up, right? So and then what we've done is we've outfitted our Bachelor studio apartments with three pieces. So one of the bed that goes up into a couch now you have an entertainment area I live in room two is the entertainment center actually moves to a home office. And three is the walk-in closet that is a six foot galley closets on both sides. So you hit a button and it moves out and you can go in, you know your clothes and whatnot. 

So what we found in this small spaces is you lose a lot of storage and closet space, right?And the nicest thing about this too, is you can set the depth of how far they go. So now everything's wheelchair accessible. So we're really kind of appealing to a niche market. I wouldn't say a niche market but a new market, right? And people who can aff-, it's creating affordability in the marketplace. 

We're not about affordable housing at Lionheart Development, we're about creating an entry level point for people to get in as condo owners or "a sexy product" is your favorite word sexy product for renters, right? At a really nice location. And that's kind of what our mantra has been. So it's been it's worked out really well and it also helps the bottom line because we can market these for 30% more than normal- than a traditional bachelor unit, so.

Alfonso Cuadra  04:58

Does it come with a lot of common areas? Because I'm thinking like, if the unit itself is like relatively small, they're going to spend more time outside of the- outside of the unit.

Benjamin Julius  05:09

The one building we have- both of those we actually have rooftop patios. 

Alfonso Cuadra  05:12

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Benjamin Julius  05:12

So that- that's kind of where we were able to we were able to gain 30% more density in our buildings. But we also create a nice rooftop patio, over the one on the one building, it will overlook the bay. Right? So it's, you know, it's a sexy product.

Alfonso Cuadra  05:27

That's, that's fun. It's like you get to create. 

Benjamin Julius  05:31

Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  05:32

I love designing and land development. I played Legos as a kid. And I remember, you know, building all these Lego structures. And when you're building Lego, you know, the old Lego, you just give you the pieces you right now it comes with the picture on the thing. I'm like, "these kids don't even know what Lego's about." 

Benjamin Julius  05:53

Right? They take the imagination out of it!

Alfonso Cuadra  05:55

I used to love building these things. And now it's lending to the real estate. So as fun as that is, and where you are, it's kind of like surreal to even imagine that you're at this place where you're you're developing and you're creating, designing, and you got the urban landscape, and you got the patio and you got all these things. And did you even know you were going to be in real estate? Was it was this like a dream of yours? Like, like, how did it all start? 

Benjamin Julius  06:23

Well, in 2015, I was a college basketball coach, right? My father was a college basketball coach, University basketball coach, athletic director. So I was always around athletics. And I was always around university sports. So I knew the power of real estate by I always knew that if I ever got into coaching, let's own a bunch of student rentals. So my players can live for free, essentially, right? 

Alfonso Cuadra  06:44

So you were trying to solve a problem. 

Benjamin Julius  06:46

I was trying to solve a problem, right? Because in Canada, we didn't offer scholarships. So we wanted to, you know, work our way- so I did research on it. The first book I read was Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and then that really was like, "Okay-" 

Alfonso Cuadra  06:56

How did you hear about this book? I always asked that question, because it's kind of like-

Benjamin Julius  07:00

How did I hear about this book?

Alfonso Cuadra  07:01

For me, someone gave me this book. 

Benjamin Julius  07:03

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  07:04

Right? And it's so interesting. It's like, ever since I thought about it that way. I've always gifted books to people it's like hey, you know, the right people, right? Your- "Try this book." It's like a recipe. It's like "try this recipe."

Benjamin Julius  07:16

I think it was when I came back from the US when I was working down there as a coach, and I came back to Canada, I think it was the head coach who gave me the book. 

Alfonso Cuadra  07:25

Wow.

Benjamin Julius  07:26

Yeah. And it- and because she was really into alternative incomes, like you can't have one stream of income, or, you know, she was very forward thinking in that regard. And it blew my mind. I remember reading the book, and calling my mom and was like, "Okay, I need to buy property, like now and rent it out. So that money can come into me."And my mom's just like, you know, traditional, union jo- she-

Alfonso Cuadra  07:50

Pay off the house. 

Benjamin Julius  07:51

You know, all these things.

Alfonso Cuadra  07:52

Don't have any credit. 

Benjamin Julius  07:53

Yeah, right. So, my parents, you know, very, very great careers. My dad is athletic director and a teacher, my mom worked her way up from being a nurse to running a hospital. Right. So she very, very affluent parents and hard workers. So, but it was get a mortgage, pay off your house. Have two vehicles, the traditional Canadian- 

Alfonso Cuadra  08:15

Yeah. 

Benjamin Julius  08:16

-Content dream? 

Alfonso Cuadra  08:17

Yeah.

Benjamin Julius  08:17

Well, I never was content with that, right. And I didn't have a lot of money as a basketball coach, because we don't pay basketball coaches in Canada. So I was doing side jobs, here and there. And then in 2015- 

Alfonso Cuadra  08:28

Which is hard, because you're passionate about this thing.

Benjamin Julius  08:30

Totally. 

Alfonso Cuadra  08:31

And people, you know, you hear it all the time. You know, "follow your passion, and everything's gonna work out". You know, but what if your passion, you know, doesn't pay? 

Benjamin Julius  08:40

That's right.

Alfonso Cuadra  08:40

I mean, I mean, the only alternative would be you move to the US.

Benjamin Julius  08:44

Which I started that, but Obama got elected, and he changed all the immigration laws, the first- his first 100 days, so I couldn't get a visa. So I had to come back. 

Alfonso Cuadra  08:52

Wow!

Benjamin Julius  08:52

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  08:53

Wow. 

Benjamin Julius  08:53

So one of the things that, like I always like to say is that "passion-", like you just said, "-doesn't equal money." Right? And- 

Alfonso Cuadra  09:02

It can.

Benjamin Julius  09:02

It can, eventually it's a hard- it's a long road to that, but you got to have something. I mean, I was starting out my coaching career, basically sleeping in a closet at my buddy's house. 

Alfonso Cuadra  09:11

Yeah.

Benjamin Julius  09:13

That's how my coaching career really started. And you know, I move forward with that and but you have to have something to pay the bills or you can't live. So I was doing sales, jobs and whatnot. And my numbers were great in the summer, and you know, December, but soon as September hit, all the way to the end of November and then through till March. My numbers were brutal. So I always struggled to keep the jobs or, or you know, on probation up- because I didn't care because my passion was basketball. So 2015 I wanted to win. I wanted to win a championship. We were ranked top 10 in the country. I think we were ranked top five and a country at that point. And we were slated, we were hosting the provincial championships, we were slated to go to Nationals. And I wanted to win more than my administration did. Right. And I and I had a falling out with them and we parted ways. A lot of it was because of me at that point the things that I did off the court or my lifestyle wasn't conducive to what they wanted. And so we left- parted ways and I was devastated like I was broken inside and moved back. Thank God for my parents are else I would have been homeless. They took me in, they allowed me to get my feet on the ground on the ground. I met my wife a couple months later, and she literally grew flowers in the darkest parts of my soul and saw something to me that I didn't know existed. 

 Alfonso Cuadra  10:30

Wow! I like that visual, she grew flowers in the darkest part of my soul. 

Benjamin Julius  10:34

Yeah. 

 Alfonso Cuadra  10:35

Beautiful. 

 Benjamin Julius  10:35

Yeah. So I don't give her enough credit for that sometimes.

 Alfonso Cuadra  10:40

Shout-out. 

 Benjamin Julius  10:40

Yeah, there you go. Shout-out Samantha. So, in 2000, after six months of being together, we knew that we were, like, I didn't want to be with anybody else. So we bought our first house. Really, she bought the house and I contributed a little bit, but I couldn't contribute very much at the time, I still didn't have- I still wasn't in real estate, I was doing a sales job, didn't really like it was coaching on the side back here in Ontario, some high school stuff and wasn't making any money really just enough to survive. 

So we Airbnb-ed the top four of our two and a half story. And that was kind of our journey. And then we're driving on the radio, or driving along on the radio, we hear a voice and we go to a two hour seminar. And then from there, we go to a three day workshop. And lo and behold, who comes out? You.

 Alfonso Cuadra  11:30

Who's this crazy guy? Who's this crazy guy?

 Benjamin Julius  11:33

I mean, you know, you're very, you have such a big personality. And I really related it to that. And I related to your story, your story is very unique. There was parts of it that I could relate to, because of where my mentality was at a certain point where it was, you know, crap or get off the pot. Right? 

So, and then we started out, we bought a proverbial turnkey duplex, it wasn't turnkey. So we learned, right? From that point, we learned through your workshop that you put on, we learned the power of leverage. And we started to leverage different things and grow our portfolio. And we know we quickly went from one door to seven doors in like one year, right? And- 

 Alfonso Cuadra  12:13

Tell me what's happening in your mind right now. For you and your wife? Like, what are you guys saying to each other? Like, now you have seven doors, right? I remember just, you know, saying this to my wife, like, "you know, we're responsible for like all of these people." Like it's like so surreal, right? 

Benjamin Julius  12:31

Yeah. So because when you're coaching, an athletic event, or athletic sport, your end goal for that year was built in for you. It's championship or bust, right? So you have that goal. So every day you work towards that, and you get better every day. And so, you know, my wife and I, we had great conversations, she pushed me, she kept me accountable. Because I'm the dreamer. Right? I dream big, I see big picture, I see, you know, five to 10 years down the road where she was like, "bring it in. This is what needs to be done-" 

Alfonso Cuadra  13:04

Today.

Benjamin Julius  13:05

-Today, right? So she really helped me learn how to, you know, attack the day and get that stuff done for the day, and move forward. So we didn't even know what we were doing in terms of how much we were amassing and the pace that we were going at, because we just attacked every day, the same. It was wake up, do your thing, attack your problems, solve your problems, get ready to do it again the next day. 

And then when you look back, you all of a sudden have four more properties when you start out with one and you're just like, how the heck did that happen? And it was because we put out there that this is what we wanted to do. And, you know, then we got ambitious. And you know, I hate- I didn't like being a landlord, right, we were too small for me to hire a property manager because we wouldn't have had any money. So our goal was to get to 100 doors as quick as we could so that I can hire my former strength and conditioning coach to be my property manager. 

Alfonso Cuadra  13:57

Casue he's not making any money, either. 

Benjamin Julius  13:58

He's not making any money either! So it was like we had this whole plan. 

Alfonso Cuadra  14:02

And by the way, I want to make sure if you can support Canadian basketball in any way. Yeah, I want you guys to can we all like donate somewhere? 

Benjamin Julius  14:13

I always tell people, the best way to donate is just donate for youth sports. 

Alfonso Cuadra  14:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benjamin Julius  14:18

But the problem is, we don't operate, like the US does in terms of the sports arena as a business. Right. And I spent a lot of time down there. So I always tried to do things as a business. And that really tailored what I was doing in the athletic world. And now I got into this real estate world and I was my own boss. 

So any idea that I had, I could put forth. Any fundraiser- any, you know, opportunity that we wanted to use to raise funds and capital raise. I could do that. You know, so we began doing that. And then one of our- one of my colleagues, I would say, you know, one of my greatest, not a competitor but he drives me and I can call them and we talk all the time about just different things, he ended up saying, "Well, why don't we do this together." 

And so we went, we had a 13 unit that we sold, we had a crack house, we were going to turn to a 13 unit. And then we got another one from the relationship I built on the 13th unit to do 30 units. And all of a sudden, now we were at 50 doors. However, my architect said, "Why don't you get this piece of land that's right here." And you can get 60 doors there. 

So we did that. And then when it was like there was two in between? Well, if you got the two in between, you'd be able to get 120 doors. All right, let's do that. And I think part of this whole scenario was nothing really scared me what I was getting into. And I think that comes from coaching. And like, you cannot be afraid to fail. But you have to be afraid of failure. 

And what I mean by that it's such a, like a cliche term. But I enjoyed losing games, because I knew we were going to get better from it. Right? If you lost the game by four points, that was probably my fault as a coach. So now I'm gonna go back to the film 15 different times, and see where I screwed up where I did wrong. So I took that into my real estate, and I wrote everything down. Right. 

So what did happen? Well on this deal, and this deal and this deal, and so what also kind of creating your own playbook. That's right. So what has happened throughout this process, is you gain the confidence, right? The only way that you have confidence is by doing it. Like you can't just say, I can't go read a book Rich Dad, Poor Dad say, "oh, okay." 

Alfonso Cuadra  16:24

"I'm good! "

Benjamin Julius  16:24

"I'm good. Let's do this. I can do all this stuff." You may have that motivation to do that, but the confidence is going to come when the discipline is there, when you fail, and you learn from your failures, and you learn from your mistakes. So that was always kind of what how we did things. 

And we just kept moving forward. And opportunity came up here. And opportunity came up there. And we took the opportunities. And this is where we're sitting now and our- Lionheart Development, which is my development company, we have a goal by the end of 2025 to have a billion dollars of assets under management. 

Alfonso Cuadra  16:55

Let's go. I love that. Let's do one second. Yes, yes, yes. I want to congratulate you for that-

Benjamin Julius  17:02

I apreciate it!

Alfonso Cuadra  17:02

-because she thought it's the ambitious people. It's the dreamers that actually propel everything forward. Right? If it wasn't for one man, putting in his mind, that he's gonna- we're gonna have 100,000 people on Mars, we wouldn't have this race to the moon!

Benjamin Julius  17:16

Exactly!

Alfonso Cuadra  17:17

Right? Like now everyone's like, "well, I want to go to the moon. Like, you know, of course, we want to go to the moon."

Benjamin Julius  17:21

Right, why wouldn't we?

Alfonso Cuadra  17:22

We didn't- we go to the Moon since the last time we went to the moon is because people stopped dreaming. They stopped being ambitious. 

Benjamin Julius  17:28

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  17:28

And that's kind of what moves everything forward. And, you know, this is amazing. What's your favorite part about real estate?

Benjamin Julius  17:37

Whew. My favorite part about real estate, I think is, besides the the revenue generation that you can do the day to day operations of solving problems. I think that's my favorite part. Because if you think you're gonna get into real estate, and it's easy, you're crazy. If you think you're gonna get into real estate and not have hiccups during projects, and not have bumps with tenants. You're crazy. 

But you got to be able to solve problems quick on your feet. And I credit my upbringing. I credit my first career enabling me to see a problem, adjust and move forward. Very, very quickly.

Alfonso Cuadra  18:13

Yeah, so I agree. People asked me, "Alfonso, what's the book that I gotta read? Like, what? Like, what's the book?" And I said, "You know, you want to get- you want to grow your portfolio? Are you really serious?" 

Benjamin Julius  18:14

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  18:17

They're like, "yeah, what's the book? What's the book?" I said, "Read leadership books." 

Benjamin Julius  18:29

Yep. 

Alfonso Cuadra  18:30

"What? Leadership is so boring?" I'm like, "Yeah, but those are the skills that you have to work on. Because you're going to be dealing with if- you want to scale anything, you got to- now you- enters people." 

Benjamin Julius  18:42

That's right. 

Alfonso Cuadra  18:42

Right? And I think you, you have probably built a lot of leadership over the years with your basketball background, where not only as a team player, where you have to, you know, there's got to be a lot of leadership, if you want to, if you want to play with it within a team, you got to you got to be a leader. 

Benjamin Julius  18:58

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  18:59

But with the coaching, you know, like leading a group of, of people getting them to the finish line. 

Benjamin Julius  19:05

That's right. 

Alfonso Cuadra  19:06

And if this is exactly what you're doing.

Benjamin Julius  19:08

Yeah. And I like- to touch on that point, a couple of things that I always said to my players, or their parents when we recruit them, because I'm essentially asking somebody to give me your 18 year old son for a couple of years, and then I help them get through the world. And I always told them, I can't guarantee playing time. I can't guarantee you a fantastic experience. But what I can guarantee you is that when your son comes through my doors, and when he leaves my door- he'll come through my doors as a boy, and when he leaves my doors he's going to be a man. 

So I've approached my whole business like that, my whole team and I always tell people that it's not about the best players. So you can go get the- if you're redoing a unit, right, you can go get the best contract, you're gonna get the best painter, the best plumber, they may not be the right people for you. So stop worrying about the best and go get the right ones because that makes a world of difference, right? In- and I think, you know, you can't just sit there and say, "Oh, yeah, they're the best. So I'm gonna go with them." 

Like on our major developments, we've partnered and hi- hired and partnered with a major development company out of Toronto. But they're very prevalent in the mid-rise game and their family owned business. And when I sat down with them, our morals, our values and our goals aligned, and they may not be the best out there, but they may not- they're definitely not the, you know, they're definitely not the cheapest, but none of them are. But they're the right for my business. And they're going to help my business go from point A to point B to point C to point D. Right? 

And I think we get caught up in accolades versus the actual character of the people you're working with. And that's where the leadership part comes in. You have to with your constituents, you have to find the right ones for you. It's like a puzzle. It's like Legos, right? We don't have it built for us, there's no picture in front of us, we have to imagine what we can build with this Lego set. And it's about the right pieces going together to get up here. And that's kind of how we run our business. 

Alfonso Cuadra  21:02

What was the hardest part about this whole journey for you or something that you had to overcome?

Benjamin Julius  21:09

The time, the effort, right? I mean, when now you're your own boss, and you're accountable to your family, you're accountable to your watch. And coaching, you always had your schedule built in. Your sales, you always had your calls built in. This one is on you, right? So the hardest thing for me, now that I have two boys, is to get on a phone call at night, when they're still awake is to drop them off at daycare, like I just, I love my kids, and I want to be with them. 

And, and you know, my wife and I were really active with her with our family. It's something that we we strive to do on a regular basis, we want to show our boys that there's a world out there that you can go and own. Right? So if you raise these kids, right, I want them to be better than me, like any father tries, right? And I think- 

Alfonso Cuadra  22:04

For sure, for sure. How old are your kids? 

Benjamin Julius  22:05

Three and a half and one and a half. 

Alfonso Cuadra  22:06

Oh my god, they're just babies. 

Benjamin Julius  22:08

They're babies, they're babies, but we want to show that we're active and that they're active, because it's important, but it's leaving them. And then, you know, like, a lot of real estate meetups are at night, and on weekends and stuff. And it's hard, it's hard to leave them it's hard to, especially now my four- my, he's almost four, he knows when I'm gone. And he asks me to come home and do these things. And it just like I'm sure you've experienced it.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:08

Oh yeah, it melts your heart.

Benjamin Julius  22:11

It's like, "oh my God", but- but then I look at you, right? I look at your kids and what you've cultivated with them the relationship that you have. And it's inspiring, that you know, what your daughter's doing and what they're what your- both your daughters are doing. And it's something I'm like, I want my kids to want to do that. And I don't know, my dad never pushed us into basketball. My brother ended up being a professional basketball player. He's a professional coach, right? 

You just want to- when you raise your kids, right, they want to be like their dad. Yeah, it's just the reality of it. Right. And so I'm really excited for that I want to show my kids proper, but that's the hardest thing is to balance the family life. Because to me, the family life is more important than the professional life. Because without a good home to go to. And a good family. You're going to struggle in that avenue. But if this house is taken care of this one will take care of itself.

Alfonso Cuadra  23:20

And what are you teaching your kids? Like, you know, I know they're three and one. How are you setting it up for this generational tran- wealth transfer, right? 

Benjamin Julius  23:31

Right so, you know, you mentioned the Legos earlier, right? So we do a lot of blocks and building blocks. And even my, my one and a half year old is starting to build blocks. We challenge our kids, right? We don't you know, we're not the type of parents I think it's called gentle parenting. That's not me, right? It's just not my, my, my style. You know, I'm hard on my boys. They fall, get up, you're okay. Unless you like- unless they fall and hit their head or something like that. But if you fall get up, you're good, right? So we want to build in resiliency, because I really believe that this next generation, if you raise warriors, they're going to destroy this next generation.

 Alfonso Cuadra  24:07

Oh, absolutely. Especially when you have the AI overlords coming for us. 

Benjamin Julius  24:07

Yeah! Starnet, Skynet!

Alfonso Cuadra  24:07

The, the Starlink!

Benjamin Julius  24:09

Starlink, yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  24:09

When you have- and the- I heard now that they worked on the microchip in your brain.

 Benjamin Julius  24:24

Oh my goodness. 

Alfonso Cuadra  24:24

So the young people that are learning skills, like those soft skills, you know, very young, and the parents that are going to be present and, you know, guide them towards a different path that has been taught in the past. I think those are the young people that I think were- are going to be very successful in the future. 

Benjamin Julius  24:45

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  24:46

So turning to real estate again, and land development and everything that you're doing. Obviously, you've built the business. So what are your your tips for building a business?

Benjamin Julius  24:58

I think if I could do it all over again. I would have hired a bookkeeper slash assistant right away!

Alfonso Cuadra  25:04

Oh my God, thank God for saying that. 

Benjamin Julius  25:06

Right away, right? Like right away. So, you know, we're going through our books right now. And you know, end of year- 

Alfonso Cuadra  25:13

There's something to be said about the entrepreneur. 

Benjamin Julius  25:15

Yes. 

Alfonso Cuadra  25:16

Right? And we're the visionary. Your books are always a mess.

Benjamin Julius  25:20

Oh, God. Right. So that would be if I could start all over again, I would pay and just even just contract it out. Just contract somebody out, two, three hours a week, you can drop them everything off, and you can move forward. And we did a lot of flips. We had like four flips going on, and four BRRRRs going on at once. So you can imagine, and you're like, "Okay, I'll get to it later, I'll get to it later."

Alfonso Cuadra  25:40

The biggest pill to swallow is when you go to some of these people that are good. And they give you the price. You're like, "Oh, I'm not gonna pay that." 

Benjamin Julius  25:47

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  25:48

And then you end up paying double because you're, you're a mess. That's right, right. And so I love that piece of advice.

Benjamin Julius  25:54

Yeah, that's the best if you if you're getting into real estate, whether you have one property or not get a bookkeeper that knows real estate, and that can run QuickBooks. I know people use other softwares. But most accountants use QuickBooks. So just get somebody who's familiar with QuickBooks, let that go. 

And the second thing, find, in terms of building your business, find a personal brand. Because I'm Coach Ben, I'm loud, I'm not obnoxious anymore. My wife has kind of tamed to that part of me. But I love the sound of my own voice. Alright, so I'm out there, I want to speak, I want to help as many people as I possibly can. Because I've come up through a system like from you, who is all about give back, right. And the best way to give back is to just tell your story. 

So, but have your personal brand, and own that personal brand, and move forward with that, and then your business will follow that.

Alfonso Cuadra  25:57

Love it. Love it so much. Thank you for coming here.

Benjamin Julius  26:52

Oh my god. Thanks for having me.

Alfonso Cuadra  26:52

I knew- we needed to do this, I need to do this. Lastly, and I don't want to forget, but everyone has like a mantra. Everyone has a quote that they live by. And, you know, for me, it's "Success is what you attract by the person you become" Jim Rohn. It's this has been, you know, evident in my entire life. But what's what's that quote for you?

Benjamin Julius  27:14

So it's kind of similar to yours, but it's something that I was I kind of came up with, and it's been a bit of different different things. But when I was coaching, I had a really high level player, and he was trying to make a decision on where to go to- to take his next step. He ended up actually going to the Olympics. And- 

Alfonso Cuadra  27:31

Wow. 

Benjamin Julius  27:31

And yeah, last year, last Olympics. So I said to him, I said, "Listen, man, at the end of the day, Phil, you got to do what's best for you. So when you look in the mirror, like you can dissa- you can disappoint your girlfriend, your parents, your brother, your sister, your loved ones-" 

Alfonso Cuadra  27:47

Your dog.

Benjamin Julius  27:47

"-your dog, right? They will always love you. Will they be disappointed in your decision for sure. But two weeks, three weeks time, you're healthy, they're gonna love you. Alright? The person you cannot disappoint is a person looking back at you in the mirror." And that has always stuck with- once it was said to me it's stuck with me. 

It's kind of been my whole thing. It's like, I can disappoint my wife. I may do it frequently, right? I think we all do, but, but you know, I can disappoint my parents, my dogs, my kids, they're gonna love me, but I can't live with my own disappointment. I can't live with my own. And we're gonna we're all gonna have regrets. So, but you got to be able to say in the mirror that you're proud of yourself, right? 

You got to be able to say I'm going to move forward so; "You can disappoint everybody in your life, but you cannot disappoint the man or the woman looking back at you in the mirror."

Alfonso Cuadra  28:36

Love it. You have inspired us and all your information will be down below so-

Benjamin Julius  28:43

Perfect!

Alfonso Cuadra  28:43

-You know they can get ahold of you.

Benjamin Julius  28:44

Yeah!

Alfonso Cuadra  28:45

Thank you for coming. And I think we're gonna do a part two.

Benjamin Julius  28:48

I love it 

Alfonso Cuadra  28:49

Oh, we got to do it!

Benjamin Julius  28:50

I love it!

Alfonso Cuadra  28:50

 Alright guys, that was it. Let's go!

Benjamin Julius  28:53

That was good!

Alfonso Cuadra  28:54

Yeah!

Carl Richards  28:55

Thanks for listening to The WealthGenius Podcast. If you have a question or comment about something you heard today. Reach out to The Godfather via social media or email him anytime all that information is in the show notes. And of course, don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of The WealthGenius Podcast. The WealthGenius Podcast, until next time, see you at the top!