The Modern Wealth Building Formula

0:05All right Ken welcome to living off rentals hey hey hey how are you Kirby good glad to be here good good yeah I'm I'm super glad to have you it's an honor to have you here just you know for a little bit of background for the listeners Ken went from pretty much starting from scratch with no experience to developing $1 1.35 billion do that's with a B in deals in one of the most or if not the most competitive real estate market in the world New York City and some of these developments were high-end skyscrapers and huge multif family developments so obviously there's a a a deep background in real estate development and all kinds of real estate investing but in addition to a lot

0:53Of qualifications and accolades Ken's also the international bestseller of the book modern wealth building formula of which Jack Canfield the creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul wrote I know a billionaire that used Ken's formula listen to this guy real estate equals success so that's a pretty impressive testimonial there so I'm really excited to have you on the show and dive into your experience and advice for this audience well thank you so much and it's a pleasure to be here and looking forward to you know giving some value you know that's that's all about paying it forward so thank thank you again for the opportunity to have this stage in Mike absolutely absolutely it's great to have you here and you know I just wanted to start off with your background I think it's a good place to start and kind of what led

1:41You to get into real estate in the first place you know if I look back you know I wanted to be become an engineer but I I really only know how to play sports so it took me a few years in college to realize that I needed to apply this the grid iron you know mentality to school and then I created the six-year plan I guess you could say you know I finally graduated with a degree after six years in engineering and when I graduated there was it was in civil engineering and we had a chance to design a subdivision and it was the 13 Acre Site we were given zoning and I I designed this this subdivision and literally in 1985 slam dunk and won the award because we presented it in CAD and nobody even knew about CAD back then but

2:30My partner's dad was an architect engineer who had just bought this program for like you know five grand it was called verat and he was going to start doing little architectural homes in CAD and and we did our project and it planted a seed and around that you know I guess around when I graduated high school the other seed I guess there were these two seeds that I think triggered it the first seed you know Was 1980 when Robert Allen wrote the book no money down and I was like well I can't afford a car so how does somebody buy a house with no money down but I put the book on the Shelf went to college like my dad told me to go struggled a bit fast forward to where I just was created the six-year plan finally graduated New Jersey Institute of Technology and then went on for a couple masters degrees and really learning about building and civil

3:18Engineering and it wasn't until you know late in my career well mid middle of my career say late in my career in my early 30s where I said you know I really should learn this real estate thing cuz you know I a really good job but I have a really high debt and you know I need to put my twins through college so like what's the next step so that's how it kind of started nice and so when you started I would assume it wasn't with a skyscraper what was what were your first couple deals like and kind of where did that lead you yeah you you know so you know my first deal believe it or not was an it was a development and it was an assistant living so it was 113 bed Assisted Living was my first project and that's how I started so I I kind of

4:06Came in thinking wow how can I pay myself the check that you know the construction company was paying me you I was working for L McGovern boas they were restoring the Statue of Liberty so I was in a high-profile construction atmosphere but didn't know anything about the real estate so I went in thinking if I could earn myself some fees on a property that I could buy and because I don't have any real equity and get a little piece of ownership that would be good so that's how I kind of got started it was very unusual start I I kind of called the top- down learning because it wasn't maybe 10 years later until I did my first residential deal got it okay yeah that is I think most people start with single family homes and kind of progress from there but it just shows you like it's it's just a mental thing I think that that people

4:55Have yeah you gota and when I finally got the single family homes I didn't know what I was doing I'm like okay like what's this wood thing you know you know you know we we built with concrete but then you know the funny thing is when I finally like put the puzzle together a little bit I said well someone said well you know how do you build a skyscraper and I said well you know it's one house at a time you just stack them on top of each other and and it really is because in a house you have a you know there's a cycle right you you you build the foundation you frame it you you put the skin on you put the windows in the siding you put the roof on and that's the exact same thing you do with a skyscraper you know it just takes a little longer of course and you're you know it's you know when you when you actually get your arms around

5:43That because it's like kind of like a 1,200 pound gorilla like what did he just say yeah yeah well the thing that I've never you know developed a skyscraper I've done some commercial multif family projects I've done some you know luxury either you know like either ground up builds or flips single family houses and it it felt like the complexity level was much higher you know maybe it was just because I was just used to your typical you know single family Flip or or rental but I would imagine on a project especially in New York City where there's layers of bureaucracy that you're working with as well in so many different Subs designers Architects like how

6:32Do you manage all of that complexity and still have any shred of Sanity at the time you know I love you finally got you really got that because it was a point in my life I'm like you know how am I gonna get through a day and I realized that the what so of my life was kind of in was kind of insanity you know it was like it was constant problem solving and I really had to say like you know what you know as the leader of you know six guys scrapers at once concrete company 300 employees your life is just you know problem solving and that's the what so and it's okay and you know when you kind of have that mentality that there's so many moving Parts and you have to you know really delegate you know it's it's eliminate delegate automate right so where

7:21Each skyscraper started in my lap with a design team you you mentioned some of the there's several design principles each week you have a design team meeting with the owner and design you have you know contractor meeting you know you're always moving the design forward their shop drawing process the architecture meeting there's really like three meetings you piggy back the owner architect meeting together then the trade meetings you're constantly on a weekly basis following through you know to just follow up on those moving Parts but it's it's like anything else you have to put systems in place you know and and if the systems in are in place and the structure for fulfillment is in place you know in anything you do in life most likely you're going to be successful got it yeah no that makes that makes a lot of sense

8:09It's just I guess bigger systems than most of us are probably used to and I think you know for most I like what you said that it's just kind of like one one house after another until you eventually have a skyscraper for most people listening to this I think their goal is Financial Freedom it's it's you know just getting to a point where their passive income exceeds their their expenses so for you when you're doing projects like this at this time what what was your goal I mean what was the outcome you're after because obviously yeah projects of this size you're you're probably going to get to Financial Freedom and then some so what is it that that kept you driving what were you trying to achieve yeah and and I want to just say that you know the most important thing in this call is you

8:57Know I was just a normal guy put my leg you know pants on one leg at a time and I went and took on this career and I fortunately lived near New York city so after you look at enough skyscrapers you go wow I wonder if I can build one of those you know so you know it was one of those things where you know I just went out there and gave it a shot it wasn't you know anything that normal people do and then I learned that you know that doesn't necessarily make you happy you know and yes you can achieve all these goals and become the number one best-selling author and yes it made me delightful but you know at the end of the day what I really enjoy now is you know enjoying my twins you know they're they're they're going to be 30 they're you know they're both get they're get one's married to a doctor you know we got grandkids on the way I have 75 acres under development which you know

9:46Which is fun but you know I think what I teach my students now is like you just said you know what is it that you need coming in each week to be happy right you don't need to make you don't need need to Bill a billion dollars you don't you know you don't necessarily have to have a million dollars in the bank it makes things a little easier but if you have if you have $10,000 in expenses per month and you're making 20,000 you're in pretty good shape you're living a good life you know so you know I I didn't realize back then like you know what did I really want I was more like like in a panic like how am I going to pay for my kids to go to college you know you know you know my dad climbed telephone poles and was a hard blue H worker went to you know pump gas at night two jobs worked at a synagogue on the weekends

10:34You know he was he hustled you know and I just took a little bit different approach you know yeah yeah yeah and and obviously it it paid off for you you know you you built a ton of success I was listening to another interview that you did and you talked a bit about how the the 2008 financial recession hit you and hit you pretty hard can you can you share a little bit about that as well and you know yeah maybe some lessons that you took away from that yeah yeah so you know so the so the one thing lesson is that you know when when something happens to you don't don't fall down a rabbit hole and and think in your head that you caused the collapse you know cuz you know when when something hits you like that and you kind of get you know crossbody blocked or you know you being an

11:23Officer you know or even a football player you get your bell rung you know and and then everything you ever studied in your whole life doesn't kind of work you know and you know and I guess you know the the lesson I learned is is you know you can recover like because that day I thought the world was coming to an end because everything I learned wasn't applying that day but you know this the skill sets that you have in the career you do today or what you know whether you move into real estate everything's applicable right so when when the pieces all fell apart it it it was really like go back to the basics like how did you get to where you are today today you know if if 500 cranes have stopped in New York City you know and and things are going to be on pause you know there are other businesses you know I I actually and and the way that brought me to my

12:11Sex success today is growing up I was a magician and you know when that market crashed there was a picture in real estate weekly in New York City wrote they took a picture of me performing magic in Jacob Javit Center I was hustling to make money yeah you know my whole world went upside down you you lose $300 million in one day all your projects sto they didn't come back you know we lost the toy building St Vincent hospital and a city block on Sixth Leman had mezzanine loans and you know we never saw it again you know it was like pretty much you know I I don't know what we eventually got I mean I I had to exit that partnership because I was just so emotionally distraught on what what had happened you know I didn't know really what I wanted to do you know it took me a couple years to

12:59Kind of get back into it I got back in at 12 by 15 I was you know we were pouring concrete Towers in New York City and we were back strong but it was crazy and I guess the biggest takeaway is you know the the Tony Robbins training I had in 2001 when the towers collapsed you know I thank God for having that cuz you know that didn't kill me then it made me stronger but you know really going back to that personal development going to the New York City Power teams hanging out with you know like-minded people you know rolling again you know but it it was a it was a it was a an interesting time that you you just got to have some Faith you know you'll work it out you know you will work

13:48It out you know just never give up that's what that's what I that's what I took out of that never give up man yeah never give up yeah and I think a lot of people you know haven't experienced anything like that I mean if you got in since 2011 all you've experienced is an up Market so it's like hard for people to wrapped their head around that that it could change and it could change very quickly like you said one day $300 million I mean that's just like so hard to even believe but yeah and I and now I think back like you know was I leverage with with with Leman Brothers you know back then that probably wasn't you know wasn't a lot you know like you know we we had a bunch of equity but you know they they lent billions of dollars back then you know like and they were around for a hundred years so to

14:36Think that they would vaporize I was like I have yeah it was tough yeah so what do you do differently now if anything that that you feel like I mean do you feel like you could you're in a position where that that couldn't happen to you again or or it's just like one of those things that just happens or like there something different you do now you know I mean it's interesting so do I ever think it would get to that point again I mean it could you know I mean there's there's some interesting you know and I and we knew about it it was you know on 60 Minutes last night you know talking about you know how you know the black rocks are coming in and you know couple big companies as such you know have 70,000 single family homes 880,000 single family homes you know anytime there's you

15:24Know that type of conglomeration I guess you know there could be you know some sensitivity to a collapse I I guess the the thing that that's different now is that there's such a demand for housing you know I I don't know that that the market will ever crash again the way it did you know there was a lot of Wall Street corruption back then that kind of lit people up I think and people have some second thoughts you know so as far as do do I you know do I look different I guess you know I just by Nature you know I'm not putting stuff in all eggs in one basket CU I'm on different states now and yeah I guess I'd probably never do it again I haven't been in a situation that I'd even consider that you know because there's just New York was kind of like a was almost like a vacuum you

16:13Know you you could raise money really quick in like a small block radius and and things went really fast and you know and it's not like that anymore you know and you know Leman was the biggest thing like if you could do business with Leman you know you were golden you know you had nothing to work about so hey you know just you know like anything else calculate your risk yeah yeah yeah and I I heard somebody talking about this right after covid hit you know where everyone was like talking about how the world was about to end and you know and and this person had been around for a long time and they said you know this is another example like it never comes the same way it's come in the past you know whether it was the Savings and Loan crisis or the do com bubble or the 2008 or Co you know you

17:01Have some maybe similar results or you're always going to have the market Cycles as a result of these things that happen but it's always going to be something different that causes it you know so I think people are like bracing for another 08 to potentially happen the same way and it's like that's that's not going to happen because you know most likely we have subprime mortgages figured out a little bit more these days but but there's there could be there's there's going to be something that comes up there's definitely going to be some blow up you know because you know people are leveraged you know as soon as the value you know drops a little bit they'll be underwater there there will be another foreclosure frenzy you know I just don't know and don't believe not that I don't know but I don't believe that they'll like the residential markets the

17:50Values are going to you know drop excessively but you know it really comes down to just like like you talk about like it's the fundamentals if someone's trying to stretch themselves the market fluctuates so you know if your property goes down in 10 years it's probably going to be up again but you know if you get stuck in a pickle and and then you you know and you have a cash flow crunch I mean you know and I own you know lots of property but everybody has cash flow crunches you know there's just cash flow crunches you know you got to be able to weather the storm you know yeah yeah and I think that leads well into your your book The Modern wealth building formula can you just give kind of a overview of I guess why why you wrote the book and then what the premise of the book is yeah

18:40You know the the premise really was around how I developed a $17 million project using other people's experience and other people's money and and how you know it's it's a bit of a game you know in the sense that you know I looked at it I mentioned earlier when I finally applied my grid iron experience of you know playing football being an all State football player playing baseball you know winning state championships and sports you know I looked at it really as as kind of a game you know there's like a pregame warm-up you know you have to kind of size yourself up and see where you're at in the lineup and what you really want to achieve and you know then it's broken down into you know as simple terms as I can say in real estate is you have to find deals you have to fund deals and you have to facilitate deals you know so I've always looked at it from from

19:28A Fine fund and facilitate approach so you could break it down in the sense that you know you're always going to be learning on how to find deals a little bit more effectively and then you'll have your systems where the deals just come into you and you're always learning about creative funding and the different types of funding and you know the different private funding and the different secured funding and you know all kinds of stuff there's just funding is a journey you know and facilitating real estate you know you mentioned it you know are you getting into large amount of units can you you know are you just you know creating a portfolio in your hometown you know are you do you need property managers do you want to be a property manager do you want to be passive active how do you want to manage the process how do you want to facilitate the Acquisitions do you want to do what as a business you know so with all these

20:16Thoughts in my mind I tried to keep it simplify and say hey guys you know real estate's like an ice cream store go in start tasting the flavors see which ones you like narrow it down make a game out of it have some fun you know see where your skill sets are where they fit in and and just give it a shot you know that's kind of where it came from you know like I did you know I didn't really know what I was doing but sometimes you don't know how your success looks you just have to take that first step yeah and it seems like you do a great job of taking your experience on these massive projects and maybe more complexity than most beginners can understand and relating it and breaking it down to the first steps for someone to take and so I'm curious what what do you what would be your advice to someone who's listening to this

21:04Who hasn't started yet but you know around like what what are the best first steps to take yeah yeah the I mean the first best step you know if you're interested in real estate because you you get and the way I started was you want to start a company and you know you can open up a company for a couple hundred dollars form an LLC and you will immediately excuse me have about $10,000 that you could write off instantly and then you get the benefits of of having a company and being an entrepreneur and really that's the first step because you know real estate you should treat from the beginning as a business even if you're going to be an investor and just you know start you know educating yourself whether you go to a YouTube channel and start you know listening to

21:53People in real estate or Googling things you know you'll realize that you know real estate is a little puzzle and then you may want a mentor but you know get started with finding a mentor you know pick a couple books and and try to keep it simple you know got it yeah yeah I think that's great advice and and you also mentioned in the book that now you feel like now is a great time to be investing in real estate and I hear a lot in you know different Facebook groups and stuff people are always saying oh prices are so much high and you know it's so competitive like should I just wait so why is it that you feel like right now is is a good time to be getting into real estate yeah well you know like anything else you know real estate is a speeding

22:41Train and you know it's it's preparation meeting opportunity and you know it's it's continuous and never-ending Improvement of learning how to find deals better you know fun deals quicker and facilitate deals you know you know where you you know might may UL L you know be vertically integrated and everything you know so you know like any crazy Market where everything's out of control there's always Fallout and it really comes down to you know relationships and building a deep emotional Rapport because you know there's deals that I get that people are like yeah I want to I definitely want to make sure that this guy doesn't buy it right you know and it's like my competitor because you know I have a rapport with the guy and and you know I'm I'm more concerned about you know his purpose in life and not just

23:30You know about you know something else so I mean I've just taken a slightly different approach you know yeah yeah no I think that's yeah that's there's a lot of intangibles that go go into it like you said like you get deals that other people maybe might not and it's it's based on those relationships and things that that you built over time and then if you're not in it you know not inter if you're not in it then you you may lose out so I mean I guess it's like you know I look at everything like sports you know so you know you can go in the stands and watch the game a little bit and then you go get on the field but you you shouldn't leave the stadium right so you know get into the stadium if if you have an interest in real estate you know and you know keep in mind that you know nine out of 10

24:19You know millionaires you know you know earned a lot of it through real estate you know so if you're playing an odds game and you're in this for the money or at least the Financial Freedom that you mentioned you should have some type of real estate in your portfolio yeah yeah and it's one thing to listen to podcasts about it and it's another thing to actually practice it yeah that's what I call living in a world of performance it's black or white you know you're either in action or out of action you that's a good point after all your experience doing so many different deals and different markets what do you invest in now like what's what's your ideal deal you mentioned the 75 or 7 yeah 75 acre development correct yeah so is that like an ideal deal for

25:08You or is just like it's kind of it was one that was opportune yeah so yeah so great question so like for the last two three years I've been buying land and and then creating like bunch of like mini developments within the development right and then that's leading to like in Lewisburg on 45 ACR we have you know over a 100 Town Homes I was just on the phone with the with the attorneys trying to figure out the associations within the associations we have some residential on top of retail similar to like you know New York City we have Flex office we have retail site where I could put a Chick-fil-A I have a hotel site we have a Wellness Center medical office so these are all little what's that sorry where where is that located it's in Lewisburg North

25:56Carolina okay and by going in you know and kind of doing this you know now it led to a conversation with planning and administration we've now helped them work with their master plan downtown the 2030 plan it could lead into some more development so we've you know i' I've kind of really I guess went into more entitlement and you know that's what the fund that I'm creating you know and there's people out there buying land like crazy but you know there's probably more people buying trying to buy multif family M and you know the the I saw something today you know somebody in the residential Market said there's like you know 35 people looking for one house now so you know there's such a shortage you know it's it's going to be interesting like anything else it really just comes down to like

26:44I said you know get into the game you know it's about building deep emotional Rapport it's about merging ecosystems with other people you know which creates you know what I call is relationship equity you know my whole philosophy early in life was you know oh I have to horizontally innovate I call it you I got to meet everybody you know it's six degrees of separation you know eventually it gets down to two degrees you know you know everybody but you know you know it's the it's the vertical Innovation and the in-depth deep emotional Rapport relationships and the few people you have those relationships that'll essentially set you free you don't need to work so hard it's you know look at what you have you know and and get and and and and get into deep thinking and deep work and

27:33Focus on on you know what you really want and get clarity because Clarity gives leverage and you'll achieve pretty much whatever whatever you put your mind to that that I mean leads me perfectly into the next question that I I had for you I was curious you know after I've interviewed about5 different successful Real Estate Investors on this show I've noticed that almost to a person that real estate success and their personal development it's almost like they're inextricably linked and I know you've been a lifelong learner you mentioned you worked with Tony Robbins closely is there a a practice or philosophy or a model that you might have learned along the way that kind of stands out to you that that you feel like made a big impact in

28:21Your personal development and then obviously most likely in turn in in your business as well yeah you you know and and not that you know I don't want to you know repeat things that other people may have I mean Tony was all about you know take Massive Action and you know you know and I you know was always you know an early riser I remember him saying you know if you if you work three additional hours you know and start at 5: you know everybody else starts at 8 at the end of the year you know you have like you know 30 extra weeks of progress you know so you know I I had been taking that approach early on you know know it you know when I finally realized you know it was about you know health and fitness and about energy and you know it came down to you know discipline you know I'm speaking preaching to the choir here

29:09You know a graduate of West Point but you know it came down to like you know you did you know you woke up you did your PT you know like you know I wake up I you know I I move you know I do my PT you know I meditate you know and and I I really get into my deep work early you know and I I did that for years I do that now but I guess I call it a morning ritual recently you know probably in the last couple years I started a little bit of an evening ritual where you I was always working till midnight or you know just hustling all the time but I noticed that by you know by toning it down you know at a little bit less hour and kind of like just looking at what you accomplished and thinking about tomorrow you actually manifest a lot of stuff while you're sleeping you know I noticed a a real habit I learned over the years is time blocking which is is all

29:59Reverse engineered back from what you really want in your life we talked about the clarity right because you know if you're going to time block three Mission critical things every day you want it related to what you want in your life typically something related to business something related to relationships and something related to health you know when you have children and business you're always building some relationship there's always something you can do to build a deeper emotional Rapport health and fitness there's always something we can do right you know whether it's about Wellness mental Wellness personal development you know I've always invested annually in myself but these are I guess a few of the things that I still do to this day you know I'm very like Journal where I write down what I'm grateful for each day what my three Mission critical things are morning and evening ritual and

30:48And then time blocking if I were to sum it up you know I was looking for a much easier Silver Bullet you know it sounds like a lot of work you know what maybe I you know what I you want me to just give you one thing no that's that was that was fantastic that and it's all because it it all Builds on itself you know it's it's all these little intangible things that kind of that build on each other what's your what's the goal that you're working toward now you've accomplished a lot what keeps you motivated yeah that's you just yeah what you just said was so important it's the micro distinctions that make the Maximum Impact and you

31:36Know that leads into you know I think what really keeps me motivated is that you know I finally reached a point where this year I was asked to speak and create a documentary with Dennis Quaid we are creating real estate today keys to investing they're actually going to fly in a production crude and in New York and do all kinds of recording so you know I really get to you know say and step into what I believe that I always was you know a national expert just from being fortunate and blessed from going on probably like a class trip when I was a kid you know to the Empire State Building and looking out going like wow I'm going to build one of these buildings one day you know and that's what happened you know and you know that's where we went on our class trips every year and it

32:24Was just so fascinating you know to have this life and to be able to pay it forward so you know it really comes down to how I can you know help people you know get what they want in their life you know and and and you know to have people lean on you know us to you know get over the humps that we've had you know the last couple years has been tough for people and people sometimes don't have the view that they would like right and you know I always believe that if you can change your view you can change your life that's awesome if people want to get a copy or book what's the best way for them to do that yeah on my website I think if you go to Kenan loo.com freebook I believe it is or just go to the website you know you can literally get the book for free I

33:13I ask you to just pay for shipping because it's in some Warehouse where there's a bunch of boxes of books and and another thing I always give to people which I just produced is the 11m millionair secrets.com just some of the secrets that we we're talking about today you know like the mindset and you know how you present yourself you know and and just in respect to not the dress but the certainty of how you present yourself and and those little secrets you know if you go to 11 millionair secrets.com you'll really like what you hear go to the website get the book you know Ken van.com and I think our website's going to get revamped but you know there's a button there that says discover now if you ever wanted to talk to me you know I'm available by phone and

34:01You know that that's it I'm not that hard I put my pants on just like you know everybody else and I got started with $10 a week and you know I appreciate people coming and asking me you know how do you get started because you know it wasn't as easy as it looks I'll tell yeah and and the website too just for people who are listening he's got it's not Lou Lew it's LW so v n l i e w that's how you spell his last name and it's a great website you could check out some of his projects that he's done there too some very impressive projects over the years and Ken's also very active on all the social platforms I saw your YouTube channel he's putting out a lot of content there so definitely check it all out I really appreciate the time today I

34:50I know the the community is really going to benefit from this interview now this was fabulous Kirby thank you so much and it's my pleasure awesome take care