Making the Jump Into Real Estate Investing
On this episode of Next Level American Dream, Abigail and Sean are joined by Vic Thompson. Vic is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy where he played Division 1-A football; he served 6 years in the Air Force as an officer; earned his MBA from the University of Southern California and went on to work a corporate job before becoming a real estate entrepreneur with his long time friends and now business partners Travis and Sam. Today we will talk for about his journey, the ups and downs, and what's next.
Key Topics
How to get started in real estate investing?
How to use a variety of backgrounds to become successful?
What are the challenges and benefits of real estate investing?
Connect with Vic:
Instagram: victhompson_rei
Facebook: Vic Thompson
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, business, American Dream, real estate, side hustle, life, friends, deal, partners, Sam, job, investors, Athens, talk, Mastermind, MBA, Mike, investing, helps, transition
SPEAKERS
Sean Thomson, Abigail Thomson, Vic Thompson
Abigail Thomson 00:00
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean, will discuss how you can take your American Dream to the next level through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father daughter duo who are trying to accomplish our goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American Dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. Today on Next Level American Dream, Sean talks to Vic Thompson. Vic is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, where he played division one football, served six years in the Air Force as an officer, earned his MBA from the University of Southern California, and went on to work a corporate job before becoming a real estate entrepreneur with his longtime friends, and now, business partners, Travis and Sam. Today, they talk about his journey, the ups and downs, and what's next. If you want to learn more about multifamily investing, check out www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com.
Sean Thomson 01:06
Hi, Vic. Welcome to Next Level American Dream Podcast. How you doing?
Vic Thompson 01:10
Thanks for having me. I'm doing great. Sean, great to see you.
Sean Thomson 01:12
Good. I'm really glad you came on. You know, you work with a couple partners too. I guess you've got a third partner now. But hopefully we'll get the guys on to talk to us as well. And then we'll have all you guys come back and talk about your collective story. But today we want to talk to you about your story as an entrepreneur and you know, living out your American Dream. Tell everybody a little bit about kind of where you're coming from your background a little bit.
Vic Thompson 01:35
Yeah, sure. So I'm originally from California, I went off to undergrad, the Air Force Academy and then did some time as a military officer in Texas deployed and out in California. After that, I went back and did the full time MBA at USC, took my jumped into the corporate world, as I separated from the military, worked a little bit for Fortune 500 companies, I ended up getting to sales gig. And then that's kind of when I, you know, was talking to my partners, and we decided to come over to the real estate to do real estate full time, through my camera instance. And we got into the mastermind, I think that's where we met you as well. And you know, we're still working full time when we started. And we've came together, we've now all quit our jobs. And we do this thing. 100% full time. And I'll pause right there for just my background. I know we can dive deeper into it as we get into the conversation if that's okay.
Sean Thomson 02:29
Yeah. So let's talk about that. So you've got, you've got college, you've got military, you've got corporate background, what do you think of those things kind of steered you towards making the decision that you needed to be more independent, more more entrepreneurial?
Vic Thompson 02:46
Yeah, that's a great question, Sean. I think a couple of things that happened that led to that I had a chance in between my junior and senior year to go to an intro to Harvard's MBA program. And forever, I wanted to be a fighter pilot straight up. And then I started learning about Oh, there's not, it's not just poking holes in the guy, you know, there's a lot more to this life and business. And that was a business major. And I got into that, and I said, Oh, if I don't stay in the military, I'm definitely gonna come back and do the MBA thing. And that kind of opened my whole eyes to really, you know, business and like, you know, you're gonna spend so much time working, like, you want to make sure how you make money and provide like that you're doing something you want. So at that point, I kind of became a what want to be, I'll say, business owner, entrepreneur, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. So by going through my time in the military, and then going back and doing the MBA, I just got a chance to try a lot of things. But I still could never, you know, look, no one when you're an entrepreneur, you just go and do it. Right? You know, you stopped going to school and you start doing, I kept going to school because I was my path of like, okay, I don't like this, or I do like this. And then at some point, I was down in Orange County, I had a great corporate job, and I was sitting there running my property, I didn't own any property. And there's kind of this time in your life where real estate kind of comes in. And that's when I was talking to Sam and Travis, my partners, and we're gonna buy, you know, we're gonna just buy a rental property, like, let's all buy one and be landlords together. And that's when we kind of met Mike and some other mentors, and they're like, and you guys, you know, you can maybe do this full time, there's a real you know, there's a real path here to being an entrepreneur and through real estate. And it became an IT is clicked one of their, I think, no worthy piece of information for the podcast at that time. One of our best friends we were at this risk, Ben Carson 30 years old, passed away from cancer. So there was at that point, it kind of like came together. Like I saw the real estate opportunity. And a significant emotional event happened where I said, Hey, man, I think this is what it is. And now's the time to jump and if I don't jump, I'm gonna regret. I'm gonna regret it and I have that knowledge at the time to be like, okay, let's Go for it. And now we haven't looked back since.
Sean Thomson 05:04
Yes, you were just kind of working you got you got to the military, you're going to college, go to the military, and then come back to college and you're in corporate life. And you were just kind of working trying to discover that niche that you were looking for this whole time. You You knew all along that you want to branch out and be an entrepreneur on your own. Yeah, you just didn't know what what sort of vertical or silo of business you were going to go into. And then just sort of as a fluke, you guys wanted to do like a side hustle as real estate and do real property, right? Yeah, yeah. That's funny. So yeah, you're kind of thinking just listless try and want to rent house, but it ended up becoming this, this whole new path for you?
Vic Thompson 05:43
100%. Right? And is, as I just call it, being a wannabe entrepreneur, like I was trying, you know, I was giving out a lot of effort. I was ready to do stuff I was ready to commit. But I was, I am proud of myself for not to really like trusting that process of trying stuff until you find because I'm sure you know, to write even doing this. There's a point where it just feels it's aligned. Right. It's not hard to wake up every day. And can you just like, Oh, this is why I do. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. And that then I and I feel like I've been a little I won't say pretender. But all the other roles I've had, it wasn't ever 100% me. This is 100%. me.
Sean Thomson 06:25
Yeah, I always knew I wanted to do something. And I always knew that real estate was kind of my favorite thing. I knew real estate was the path I wanted to be on. My problem was always I couldn't figure out how to make it a business, right? I could, I knew how to buy a house, fix a house, sell a house, but I didn't know how to make it a business. So it took me about 10 years to kind of figure out how to get that to become my business. And then once I did that, was it I that's what I wanted to do. But I was I was a want to be like you said want to be real estate investor for 15 years before I made it made it a reality in my life. So I know, I know exactly what you mean. And there's what tell tell me a little bit. So I think a lot of people that listen to the show, are considering becoming investors or entrepreneurs, you know, a lot of people have worked in corporate America. And I like to talk to people about their transition point, right? Because that's really kind of the hardest part, you know, wanting or, you know, being having the desire to be on your own and be an entrepreneur. A lot of people have that. But making that switch and making that transition. It's complicated, right? You have to make sure you're secure, you have to make sure all these things are lining up for you talk about because I know all you guys like you said it started as a side hustle. And I know all you guys kind of trickled into the business pretty rapidly. But you still did kind of a trickle plan. Right? Yeah. Talk to me about your transition from corporate life to where you are now.
Vic Thompson 07:45
Yeah, so one disclaimer, just for me personally, is I'm still a solo guy. So I'm not married, and I don't have any kids. And that's a you know, that's a huge determining factor it can be so I just, you know, don't want anyone to think I want people to know that first. So when we were transitioning, a my corporate job is coming in MBA being, you know, high potential, like, I had a lot of autonomy. So when we started, Sam was living in Athens, Georgia, one of our partners, and we felt like that was the best market that the lowest barriers, right, and he was the most tied to that area, his family's there, etc. So Travis and I, we worked with our jobs to basically relocate. So now we're all under one roof. And you know, bless Sam's wife's heart, Jackie, and their three dogs, they let us come into the house to launch the business and more 30 something at this age, at this time. So, you know, that's, that's also non traditional, but I'll say, you know, going and living your American dream are going to get that it's not a traditional path. It's not always linear. So those are kind of some early hurdles to for us to be successful. We have to make those sacrifices and look, I'll tell you being a California and it's tough to move from LA so cow Orange County to Athens, Georgia, no disrespect, go dogs. So that was kind of the first hurdle. Then the next thing on the transition was, you know, as you build the business, right, there's just this natural, uncomfortable conflict where, you know, I had a great, you know, corporate job and I was I needed to be they counted on me. So I had to do it's like I could it's not, I couldn't just not work anymore. So trying to learn how do I start a side hustle? And you know, in this real estate game, when you start marketing, the phone starts ringing and someone's got to answer it. Right. So luckily, Travis was the first one out of his job full time. There's a story behind that I'll let him tell it but we got a free we got a full time head. And Sam and I were trying to figure out how do we part time do this and there's just challenges there. But I'll fast forward a little bit is there's a point where the business in order to do to grow the business or get to the next milestone You it's very clear, and you'll know what that feels like. And Matt is the point where you have to jump, and either back way down on the job, or quit or leave that job. So I think those are the couple things is there's the initial like, okay, we're gonna get started with a side hustle or this transition. And then there's a point of growth, where it's like, Now is your time to jump. And I know specifically when that was for me, and I can talk about my partners, but you know, not to go on too long. I'll just answer your questions to maybe if you want to probe into that.
Sean Thomson 10:31
Yeah, let's do that. So one of the things I want to talk to you about and elaborate more on that question is, what did you specifically do to prepare? Did you have to do you have to get your finances in line? When did you make sure you had this much cash in the bank? Did you? I mean, some of the technical issues? Did you did you have to? Did you have to kind of get a comfort level of where you were to feel good about making that final? that final transition to 100%? Right? Because you were going 7030? Right? 7030 You're still corporate job. 30% side hustle. Right? And so when you had to go 100% was there any special things that you're like, I'm I want to make sure I've got these things lined up in your life.
Vic Thompson 11:11
Yeah, yes. And no. So that's what I'm saying. It's gonna be very own traditional my role, but I'm going to share it anyways.
Sean Thomson 11:18
You just kind of jumped in, I guess?
Vic Thompson 11:21
I can't tell you how many times I jumped in. Because the hardest thing for me was deciding to move to Georgia, and we're gonna start to sell on the side, like that was a huge, that's a way bigger commitment than I even knew at the time, right? Because I have that top cover with a job. Yeah. And I'm getting paid, you know, California salary in Georgia, which they're not the same, right. So I felt like I had a top cover there financially. And we'll just talk to the financials, because I think that is a big hurdle for most people. So, you know, in my early role, I was putting a lot of my money into the business. So by the time it was time to jump, you know, the partners and I, we've made financial commitments, and you know, when you invest in your business, you know, it's gonna make a return, but you don't know when you're going to see that back. Right. But by the time it came time to jump, all my money was in the business, but I wasn't in the business. So I said, Okay, that's the next hurdle. And like I said, without having a partner or kids, it was easier for me to jump. And the other key disclaimer is, I don't just have partners is a brotherhood, okay? We put everything on the line. If you look at how you're supposed to start a business, and do all these things, we did not follow that owner, the operating agreement was, you know, whatever it was, there was handshake deals, and we had all those belly button to belly button conversations in the first two years, because it was stressful, it was really stressful on the relationship, but we made it through. And we could have packed up and went home a couple times, at least, but we had really risked it all. And we said, we're going to become so tight through this. If we make it, that all the rest of the stuff is going to be easy. So the biggest risk where I risk, these are really close friends at first. And I put that relationship on the line, which was risky, I put pretty much all of my money into the business that I could, when you talk about backup money, there's some retirement stuff that was you know, locked up, it wasn't liquid. But until I, you know, when I got real comfortable is when I started, we started seeing the money come in, like years two and three. Like we couldn't we didn't have it yet. But like, Oh, we know what we're doing. If we can just figure out how to do this consistently, the money will come. And I think as that started to happen, that's when I got, I guess a lot more confident. I was never like, there was never no risk. But I was like, okay, we're actually generating revenue. So it's like in order to generate revenue, you have to put in time right if you don't put in any time revenue is not coming but if you put in time it's like whoa, it comes back like that. So those are the big things there is making deciding on committing to starting the business making the move, committing the funds and then committing the time once you figure out how to make the money.
Sean Thomson 14:06
Yeah, so it's it sounds like you kind of really got your your side hustle to a point where you were really confident that if you just gave it the energy that it needed Yep, you'd already made a financial commitment to it you just gave it the energy it needed that it was going to take off because you could kind of see that was happening. So for you it was mostly it wasn't about repairing your personal life necessarily. It was more about preparing your future side hustle to become a real business and and being comfortable in that transition. Is that right?
Vic Thompson 14:36
Yes. One other piece I think is fair to add as so Travis went back and got a job so we're all working part time right and trying to figure this out. So it's a lot of hot potato a shot. Can you take this David, can you take this? Yeah. And then we went on an awesome summer trip and and Sam had been working his tail off for like, you know, he hadn't been on vacation for like seven, eight years. We went on an awesome two week vacation on Greece and came back And he's like, Hey, man, I'm ready to punch, if you guys can, you know, lock the salary up for me for six months, I'll do it, I'll be the first to go. So I saw him, you know, my best friend and brother, Sam, put everything on the line, right and leave his job, we have to pay, you know, his salary, we have to make sure we could do that. And we did that first six to nine months before it was, you know, kind of my turn to do it. So I had seen someone else do it was another I was, you know, front row seat to see and Sam do it. And you know, him one taking the risk. And to us, helping him and the business kind of gets to the next phase, I was way confident in the risks that I was about to take, because I'd seen, you know, appear do the same thing.
Sean Thomson 15:42
Yeah, that's awesome. You know, a lot of people don't have partnerships, like you have, you know, you guys have a unique relationship. And that's, it's a, I think that's a special thing. And that's allowed all of you guys to kind of achieve your dream, right. So a lot of people don't have, they're not lucky that way. But I think that lesson of, you know, getting your side hustle, putting the effort into getting your side hustle going as well as you can be so that, you know, when you do make the transition, it's ready to go. Yeah, that, you know, that can kind of smooth that path out. I think that's good advice. There.
Vic Thompson 16:12
Just one thing on the partnership, like we're lucky and unique, because we kind of all met at this time and undergrad, and, you know, join this fraternity of military and football and we've just known each other for so long. And we've already done all the blood, sweat and tears where most relationships are maybe a little bit more transactional. But what I'm saying about in 2020, is, if you have that opportunity to have a really close relationship with someone, like just make sure that you you explore that is what be my message, you know, as I think people have opportunity more than they know, but are you doing the work to say, hey, me and Shawn, you know, we're gonna go from being friends to being partners or being you know, brothers, like it's available to you too, but it's an effort is what I'll say about that.
Sean Thomson 16:59
Yeah. Well, let's talk about sort of some of the things that that prepared you for real estate, and then and then kind of why you guys, I guess you kind of accidentally chose real estate. Really? how did how did the topic of let's get a rent house kind of come up with you?
Vic Thompson 17:13
Yep. So we're just talking, you know, just catching up like, Hey, man, what are you doing? Or like, what's going on in your business? What's going on your personal life in real estate just kind of investing is like, I'll just throw it in that category, like, what do you invest in? It's like, Oh, I do a little bit of this. And then it's like, what about real estate? And we had kind of, like, stumbled on the bigger pockets, which, you know, they just do a great job for newbies. And we're like, oh, man, like, yo, we could be like, millionaires if we did this, right, because that's the initial thinking. It's not all about that. But that's how it kind of starts. And we're talking. And seems like there's this house here in Georgia, I think it could be good if we all kind of kick in like five K, you know, we could get into that. And then we were going to do that deal. And then another Academy grad we we know, look, the good thing about having a network is you can ask people, hey, Shawn, is this a good idea or bad idea? So we talked to one of our buddies, and we said, Hey, man, what do you think about us doing this deal? He's like, it's dumb. Basically, you should contact this guy named Mike hambright. He's doing he's starting this program where if you want to quit your job and do real estate full time, to be honest, this sounded gimmicky, right? It's like one of those almost infomercials. But we checked him out. And the deal was he was going to do a free like, I don't know anything about real estate to up and running, starting a real estate business and like seven weeks, and he was going to do it free for military veterans. So that kind of made it more legit to us. If you don't do do free stuff for veterans. If you're, you know, if you're trying to dupe somebody, before he went and took that commercial. So we got introduced to my camera, and Stinson. And we applied. And I think I was visiting Sam and I looked at the property. And by the time I got back, we were like, picked to interview. Then we interviewed. And it happened so quick, Shawn, I mean, we were in the program doing the online training. And like in seven weeks, we were running marketing and Sam and Sam's like you and Travis got to come out to Georgia like to have to do this now. Yeah. So it happened so quick. And, you know, I, I don't know how much the your audience knows about my camera. But I would say he's probably leading one of the, you know, he's leading one of the biggest most successful masterminds and that's, what, four years ago now, happily a part of that and, but that's how it got rolling. And once you get in with the mastermind, and the people that are doing stuff, I mean, it's just kind of like a rocket ship. And no, it didn't go like that at first. But once we, we've, I feel like when we started we've had support, like awesome support from day one, as well as the partnership and that's really allowed us to grow and flourish.
Sean Thomson 19:49
Yeah, so it sounds like you guys just got man that's that's that sounds like you got lucky very quickly. One day you're talking about a rent house. That's no good next day. You're Like in business, because you connected with the right person, right? So just a little background. So Mike, Mike is a trained thousands of people on how to buy houses, thousands of houses. He's a good friend of mine. And it is it's how it's how we met. I don't think you were at the first mastermind that I went to, I think was just Travis and Sam that I met, initially. And I remember, I remember Travis was there. And he was asking a question about a follow up process, right. And no one was answering his question. So I was just like, Why? I just wrote it down. Everybody's kind of given these general answers. I said, Well, here's mine, you know, and I just wrote it down and hand it to him. I think from that day on, he was like, that's a cool guy. He helped me out. So we've had I've been friends with with him and Sam for the whole time. And you and I met a little, maybe a year, year or so later at investor fuel meeting, too.
Vic Thompson 20:53
at that point, I know we didn't meet initially, but I remember you very clearly writing us like, you know, Mike sets up like, hey, write thank you notes and just write notes to other people in the group. And I remember you handed us one or two things happen. I said that handwriting is really nice. And that was really kind I don't even know this guy yet. And he's like, one of our biggest fan so I was just like, caught up to the relationship really quick. And you know, we've been fans of yours ever since.
Sean Thomson 21:18
Yeah, I always I always love people that are that are that are that are hustling right? That are hustling hustling to achieve their American dream. And you guys you guys are amazing guys. You know you're I can you can just sense the the camaraderie and the fellowship you guys have and just you guys being friends and stuff. It's kind of there's an energy to adult group. And as energy each one of you guys, I think, you know, it's you guys inspire someone to want to help you guys out anyway, and be able to be around you guys, too. So anyway, enough of that. But so we will be talking about real estate, right? So you guys really fast tracked with Mike's program. That sounds like that was the best thing and it was awesome thing. You know, Mike, as Mike has an approach to real estate that is business approach, right? It's not, you know, a lot of people sell they pitch these gimmicky things where you know, how to how to be a wholesaler, no money, no, you know, no investment. No, you don't have to work in the business. You just get rich, you know? And that's all not not true. Yeah. So Mike has a very business approach to things. So you guys started to implement his plan? And the business just kind of took off?
Vic Thompson 22:22
Yeah. So we, and Mike will tell you all kinds of stories. When we went to our first mastermind with him, we had just signed up for direct marketing, direct mail, because we're trying to figure out how much do we have to budget. And we literally, because you don't know these things, we signed up for it. And all the mail sent out. It didn't. It wasn't broken up to send out in chunks throughout the month, all of it sent. And guess what? We're at the mastermind when it hit. And that was our first story to my camera is like, Hey, what are you guys doing? It's like, well check out this mistake that we just did. So yeah, and not all our marketing. And then we went to a two three day mastermind. Okay, so we were not doing my I think you'd argue we're not doing what was said. And you know, Mike's program was really geared around wholesale. And what you don't know about that is wholesaling is challenging at the beginning, because, one, you have to be getting the deals deep enough, right. So you can actually wholesale it. And then you have to have a buyer's list of people to sell to. So what we were finding in the market we were in, it was not a great wholesale market. I mean, even now, when we do deals, they're, you know, five, seven grand, something like that. But what we ended up doing, instead of holding, doing the wholesale setup, we just started buying rentals, because the area was progressing nicely. But then we used up our capital and bought a bunch of rentals, and all of our money's tied up in equity, with real terrible cash flow. So that was our main mistake is, and again, usually your mistakes is when you learn the most is we learned Mike's program that we didn't do it. So we spent the next year learning how to actually unwind all that trash that we did, and then moving more into the wholesale and flipping successfully business. And we did that we just did it on our timeline. And we just joke because every time we go to mastermind, we're like, here's a great example of how not to do what Mike is telling you guys to do. And you know, with with some time we sorted out
Sean Thomson 24:20
Yeah, I think we've I think he starts everybody in the wholesaling bucket, because that helps you kind of get some velocity on your on your pipeline, it helps you it helps you get some cash flow going yeah, and then you can start taking advantage of the the more capital rich, right strategies with it with investing, you know, the, the fix and flips which takes more capital and then the rental properties which takes you know, even more capital in cases so, yeah, so you guys, you guys jump to step three, you should have been. That's funny.
Vic Thompson 24:51
That's how it goes though. What I will say about that is back to the American dream, if you believe that you have the right people, you're gonna accomplish it and you're willing to do the work. You can you can get out of jam. It's just like hitting the shot in the sand when you play golf, you know, you're not it's not over, you can get up and down.
Sean Thomson 25:10
Yeah. Let's talk about that, you know, the podcast is Next Level American Dream, right? So I like to have people on that that are that are shooting for the American Dream are working on their American Dream. Yeah, and you guys are definitely doing that. And that specifically you? So tell me a little bit about what does the American Dream kind of look like for you and your life? And what do you think that is for you? And then I always like to ask, too. Are there a couple things that you think you do that that may help somebody else that kind of helps you level up your American Dream?
Vic Thompson 25:39
Hmm. Well said so yeah, just on definition terms? I don't know, in this world, he looks like he said earlier, the nine to five, you know, American Dream, I think has sailed. I think there's maybe still that for some people. But now it's like, are you living the lifestyle you want? Are you living the lifestyle you want. And that's kind of how I think of my, our American Dream, or mine specifically is like, hey, when I look at a week did I get to do everything that I want to do. And that real estate, being a full time real estate investor allows that, right? I'm doing deals we enjoy what we do, you know, our job is to provide safe, clean and affordable housing for other people, make our investors money, and do whatever it takes to grow our partnership. And that's, that's my American Dream. And I'm living that. So the thing that I think makes that dream worthy is I have complete autonomy in my schedule. I can live wherever I want. I'm going to do deals where it makes sense. But I'm probably going to live in California. And that's it. And, you know, to be able to do all those things to see to help a seller out to help a buyer getting their first house. I mean, it's a there's an invisible check, as Stinson would say there's a there's a hit of fulfillment that comes your way, when you write a check for your investors. And you know, they'll start out with friends and family, and that that's a fulfillment pop, you know, when you get, oh, we write our own checks. I'm not I'm not dependent on any company, government, we make all of our own money. And then to have this partnership, I work with my best friends. Right? Yeah, what a job. You just work with people, you know, no disrespect, but it's like I don't, I don't go over to their house, take my shoes off and eat dinner with them. You know? So when it comes to the, you know, so I would say I think that answers the first part of that question. Like, that's, that's my current American Dream. I think, you know, how can we help other people with that? Well, one, I think, you know, what I'm realizing is by sharing our story, you know, kind of like we're doing today is you kind of, for other people that want that, because not everyone wants, you know, this life, right? Or like, their American Dream is like, you may say you want it but it's very easy to tell over time by the behavior. And I think one thing that we're moving towards is trying to be a lighthouse is, hey, if you want to pursue that American Dream, but you don't know what it is yet, like, here's an example. Like, we'll share, we'll share what we're doing. I don't think anyone has it figured out. But to be able to do all the things that I mentioned that I wanted to do, I think now it's time to share that story. A little bit more intimately. And, you know, we have our meetup, too, that we have, you know, newbie investors, real successful investors, you know, we're small but mighty. But I've seen people come in off the street never did a deal. And they come back to the next meeting, and they've done a deal. And now they see their path, right? It's a matter of, or even they say, I don't like this, I'm gonna go, I'm really excited about biochemistry and plants, I'm going to go do something with that. So I think when you are living your American Dream, other people, you can motivate other people to find out what theirs is. I know when we got our fourth partner, Hunter, is I remember, he's in the military. And I'm sitting there in the car with him saying, I don't care what you do, I don't care if it's real estate, I just want to make sure that you do what you want to do. And what ended up happening there. Funny story. He called me about a month later, he's like, I dropped my paperwork to separate or move into the reserve. And then he moved up from Florida, to Athens, Georgia, and join the team like that. So and now he gets to skip all of the mistakes we made come right into a pretty partnership. Right? We don't let anyone mess with him. He leads our acquisition team. Right. So that's all he does get contracts. And we make all that we handle all the other problems. So I think you know, being able to help that person, one have a close friend, and another brother put him on a path to partnership is is super fulfilling, but now seeing it hit other people that are maybe outside of our business and they're like, man, we want to work with you. More we have questions and and it's our pleasure to answer those and help now.
Sean Thomson 30:06
Yes, you're you're essentially living your American Dream. So it's, it's about the freedom that you have the partners that you have around your friends, the friends, relationships you have around you, the, the control of your just the life of your living. And you've kind of you've kind of engineered a lifestyle that that you that you dreamt about, I guess is or that you're dreaming about every day, right? So you're able to, to do those things in your life that you want to do to make it fulfilling for yourself, right?
Vic Thompson 30:34
Yes. One caveat on that when you start living the American Dream, I don't think you even know how good it can be. Yeah, as I thought, like, Okay, I'm gonna, like move to Georgia. And I'm gonna have to slog it there. And, you know, and we did, I did that for three years. But now I'm like, Oh, wait, I can live wherever I want. It's like a weight we can. Or we can add, like, if you went to the Academy, and I know you and or I just know that pedigree like, we can find a spot for you. And all these other things. It's like you can help people I that's why I said I never. I knew there would be fulfillment and doing this kind of work. But I didn't know that feel like this. Yeah, it opened up so many opportunities.
Sean Thomson 31:17
So you're really enjoying now sharing those experiences with other people and trying to help them do what you've been able to accomplish. That's that's kind of what you're liking. But that part now?
Vic Thompson 31:27
Well, I just know, I'm a better person to everyone in my sphere, when I'm like living the life I want. And look, I know, some people might be in a tough spot or unhappy with some things. And that's fine. But I would say a lot of that is due to like, are you doing what you really want to do? And as soon as you start learning that you're like, a better person. And I know that's a little bit woo. But like, you know, you've seen people in good spots and bad spots, it's just better for the environment when people are doing what they want to do.
Sean Thomson 31:57
Yeah. So what are a couple things that that kind of helped you level up your your life today? I mean, are you doing? Are you reading any specific books? Are you are you are you? Do you have a lifestyle plan? Are you? Are you working on physical fitness, or any of those things that you've kind of? Yes, at some point in your business, I've done the same thing recently. And in, I first started my business, I just kind of neglected my health. You know, in the last couple years, I said to myself, look, I can't this can't, I can't allow this to happen anymore. You know, so I've focused on, you know, healthy lifestyle as much as I can. I'm still I still struggle with sleep and diet. Those are my two, like, moms for me, but are you doing anything like that? That's sort of that you would say, Hey, you got to try this. It'll help you be better with your business or help you kind of click get clarity on your dreams or anything like that.
Vic Thompson 32:46
Yeah, so 100%, I would say I'm like, right in the middle of, like, if I was saying, like, if my plan, like my actually working my exact plan, kind of, you know, I'd be honest, the first couple milestones were, hey, start a business with your best friends, and happens to be in real estate. The next milestone was, Hey, be financially, um, you know, independent from like anyone else, right? We're not, I'm not financially free as they would say yet. But you know, we, we now pay ourselves through our business. So that was a huge milestone. I think when you talk about the whole life, right, like mind, body, spirit, health, all those things, relationships, I would say we're doing pretty good, I can highlight a few things that are happening currently, and maybe some gaps and where I'd like to go. So we've a lot of like our partners, we've all played sports and fitness as a part of the work day. So that's like, Hey, if you're a call shawnees at the gym, fine. You know, I know he's gonna get back and do that. Because if you without your health, you're just you're screwed, period. Right. And your health could be, you know, emotional, mental, physical, sleep, diet, all that it's like, it's a huge, we just hold on to the podcast, right? But I would say is, as far as like, what, what helps me with that is one I'm just naturally goal oriented. That's kind of in my DNA and personality. It's been in all my previous jobs. You know, there's always kind of a target and a scoreboard a monitoring. I will say, two big things that have helped me tremendously. I'll say books and people. So books, some I think game changers there must reads are the power of now just being in the present moment, as much as possible. Miracle Morning, that changed my whole morning. We've talked back and forth about some Wim Hof stuff and getting high and your own supplies to do breath work. These things they just shift how you think about things and as you get older, you know, those are more noteworthy because you know some things so I would say those are just a couple books to get started. You got to read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, come on, that's like a guaranteed one. So you know, I could I could go through the books. So the other thing is people, right? And I think about like you are who you surround yourself with, right? If you want to be good at golf, hang around with people that are really good at golf. If you want to be good at real estate, join a mastermind with a bunch of people that have made seven figures in this racket. You know, if you want to be really healthy, one of my other best friends owns a CrossFit box. So it's like, I think of all the things that I have that are really rockin in my life. And I attribute those to, I hang out with people that are naturally better than, than me at them. And I just catch a little residual, you know, I'm not the best golfer, but I'm getting better. I'm not the best crossfitter getting better, not the best investor, but I'm getting better. So I on the people side, I would say, you know, and you got to be willing to take some risks here, right? It's like, hey, Sean, man, I really like what you're doing, you know, you got to kind of put yourself out there and no one's gonna do the work for you. But you can be aligned and share your goals with other people. So they know how to best support you. And I've been very clear on those things. With the people that are close, within my inner circle.
Sean Thomson 36:04
Yeah. So I educating yourself, read as much as you can educate yourself on on what it is that you want to achieve. And not only not not only do the things you specifically want to achieve, like you don't have to read real estate books all the time, but you want to you want to look at books that are going to just help you perform better, physically, mentally, all those other things as well. And then the second thing you said I think is network. So make sure you're you're tuning up your network to have people in your life that are that are pushing you towards your dreams and towards your goals and not pulling you back. Right and and have people that maybe are in those specializations of those areas that are helping you be better for yourself and sort of get get those people in your network so that you're exposed to those things. That a good summary?
Vic Thompson 36:46
That's a great summary!
Sean Thomson 36:49
Good. Well, I know you've got I know, you've got another call going or you got a closing coming up. So I won't keep you any longer. I want to say thanks. I really appreciate you coming on Vic, you guys. I'd love watching you guys kind of grow through the business. And you know, you guys are cool, guys. So it's been fun for me. And I've tried to help as much as I can. I don't I don't know if any of my advices has been helpful. You guys have helped me actually, you know, I'm an older guy. So for me being around young guys, it gives me that energy. You know, I like that energy, it helps me kind of be inspired. So, you know, when you're an old dog you get you kind of get in a rut sometimes. So I try to be I try to be innovative in my own life as much as as much as I can. And seeing you guys kind of do that in your life. It helps me it's inspires me to do the same thing. So But anyway, yeah. Appreciate it for coming on the show!
Vic Thompson 37:37
Yeah, thanks for the kind No, and I'll just throw that back. You have helped us out in many ways, probably more than you think. Right. Because when we're looking at your words, old dogs, it's like we're trying to become those guys as we get older. And as we get more experienced. So we're happy to bring all the energy and fire at this point. And then hopefully, you know, as we kind of get further down the road, we can surround ourselves with that next generation too. And they can provide that. So it's kind of a circular. And I appreciate you having me on the show individually. But I can't wait to come back with a whole group. Yeah, talk about you know, this kind of collective American dream because the last little teaser, I'll leave on us, we decided to move out of Athens sold or rented our properties out. We're all getting our V's so there's gonna be a caravan of runway properties kind of tooling around America because we can't travel because COVID for our next chapter, so I think that's pretty America. I think that's about American dream as it gets.
Sean Thomson 38:30
All you guys are doing the van life thing?
Vic Thompson 38:34
I got a 36 foot 2007 Fleetwood Jamboree. So it's not like a little van. I mean, we're doing it right! So more to come on that maybe we could talk about it next time.
Sean Thomson 38:46
What the one that sticks. So I know you have a meet up there in Athens. tell tell everybody kind of if they want to get in touch with you guys and get find out more about maybe investing in your business or joining the meet up and learning about how to do this themselves? How can I kind of reach you?
38:59
Yeah, so you can find us all over social. I mean, myself, I'm @VicThompson_REI. You see we have some gear here. It says Zero Gravity REI, and that's our investor focused arm. So for noobs or, you know, people that are experienced investors or just want to, you know, learn more about what we do our deals or have questions that started in Athens, but we've taken that virtually. So we, you know, all of I invite all my investor friends or anyone else, it's open, it's on bigger pockets. That's also on Instagram too, @ZeroGravity_REI. Those would be the best kind of places to get us.
Sean Thomson 39:37
Okay, great. Well, thanks a lot, Vic. I appreciate it. It's good to see you. Good to talk to you. I'm glad we got a chance to catch up. And hopefully we'll have you guys all back on at the same time. And yeah, hear the whole collective story. Okay?
Vic Thompson 39:49
Yes, sir. Well, it's nice to see you, Sean. Thanks for having me on!
Sean Thomson 39:51
Yeah, for sure. Appreciate it! We'll see you later.
Abigail Thomson 39:54
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you would like to learn more about what we talked about today, want to contact the team directly, or are interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room, head over to our website at www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com. Before you go, please leave a review! Your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.