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Episode 30: Mentorship and Rentorship with Kevin Bourke
178 Plays7 years ago
Owning one rental unit can help your cash flow. Two is better. The more you rent, the more money you have flowing through your economic engine. But there are challenges too. Buying an 8-plex rather than 6 to 8 separate units creates economies of scale that are hard to ignore.
That’s what happened with guest Kevin Bourke. As a coach for Iowa State University in Ames, he was looking for some side income to augment his coaching salary. Coaching track in the ’80s and ’90s was not a huge money-maker.
On our most recent episode of the Uncommon Life Project, we talk with our good friend Kevin Bourke about rental dos and don’ts, finding faith, and finding ways to provide mentorship to young people who are interested in business and looking for guidance. We even have an announcement about a joint venture with Kevin at the close of the podcast, so listen in!
When he is not managing his properties, Kevin Bourke serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Iowa Games, a statewide Olympic-style competition that is one of the biggest in the country. Prior to this, he spent years as a track and field coach at Iowa State University.
What You Will Learn in this Episode:- How you could leverage the equity in one property to purchase another
- How to manage side gigs along with your main gig
- The importance of mentorship for young entrepreneurs
- How to stay sane while having a hand in multiple projects at once
- How faith can bring your purpose into clearer focus
- Leveraging other people’s money to grow wealth
- How to build wealth through the cyclical ups and downs of the economy
- News about a really exciting venture
Recommended
Transcript
Living an Uncommon Life Introduction
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
A life worth celebrating and savoring.
Hosts and Guest Introduction
00:00:30
Speaker
Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Uncommon Life Project. My name is Philip Ramsey. And I'm Brian Dewhurst. And we have a fun show like we had, The Bumper, Kevin Burke. But really, the whole bio is amazing. But really, why do you want to have him on the show, Brian?
00:00:47
Speaker
Well, I think Kevin's been instrumental in our career path. And I think he highlights a vein that we want to talk about where not everybody's going to make a massive transition or change the scope of their life. And so I think Kevin has a great story. I think he has a great God story and how he's used real estate to kind of amplify and enhance his
00:01:10
Speaker
you know, as well.
Kevin Burke's Background and Early Real Estate Ventures
00:01:11
Speaker
If I can sum that all up, he is so relatable. Kevin Berg, thanks for being on the show. Welcome. Well, thank you guys. I'm really glad to be here and it makes me really proud and humble to hear you say that I've helped you guys in your career. Absolutely. In full disclosure, we've known Kevin for about six years now and it's been fun to see his uncommon path unfolding and it's been a blessing and
00:01:35
Speaker
humbling to be a part of that. So, let's get right into it, Kevin. Tell us about what got you here today and kind of this uncommon path for you. Wow. Well, you know, really, growing up, I came from a family that
00:01:52
Speaker
They had my parents had just general careers. My mom was a teacher. My dad had a couple of different careers, but they weren't real entrepreneurials or business minded. And I'm not really sure where I kind of got that from. But when I first came to Iowa State to coach at Iowa State,
00:02:13
Speaker
one of the coaches had his own side business aside from coaching at that time. We didn't make the money that these coaches today make at colleges. So we're always looking for ways of making a few extra bucks. So really when I got into real estate,
00:02:29
Speaker
It was just kind of a whim. I always had an interest in it. Growing up, I had an old friend that had some apartments. So I used to help him do some maintenance and cleaning and that kind of stuff. One of my part-time jobs was cleaning common areas of another building in high school. So I always had an interest in real estate. But I had an opportunity to buy a property in 1992 as a duplex just a block away from where I live.
00:02:58
Speaker
know what I was getting i enough that it worked out was that duplex in 1992, it w for both sides for both you doing at that point I was coaching at Iowa State
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. The only nervous part was just making sure that I had it rented. I really hadn't thought about maintenance or upkeep or anything like that. I was just making sure that I had somebody in there. I figured I could figure the other things out, which I kind of did. A lot of it learned by doing. But when I bought that property, I got an interest rate of nine and a half percent.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that I got it under 10% interest and I thought that was phenomenal. Where you did you own your house where you're living then or are you renting. Yeah, we had, we own our house not outright property though.
Portfolio Growth and Reinvestment Strategies
00:03:59
Speaker
Right, right.
00:04:01
Speaker
And I was fortunate that I had some family that was loan me some money to be able to help with the down payment because you have to come up with 20% for no questions asked. I was 11. I don't know why I'm back doing that. I don't know what I'm talking about. But slowly I was able to pay them back.
00:04:25
Speaker
you know, it went well. And after about five more years, had another opportunity to buy another property and another duplex, an old house that was converted into a duplex and bought that as well, about $89,000. Okay. And then, so you're two properties in, but four available renters, right? Right. Okay. What were you getting for monthly cash flow?
00:04:51
Speaker
Oh, total income, you mean? Yeah. About 1000 bucks. Okay. Okay. Well, it was definitely doing well. Yeah, it was doing pretty good from a capric perspective. So about five years apart between properties, you said? Right. Yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
That was like working up, building equity in one, saving probably on the side, trying to get. I think that also just learning what I was doing. I did a lot of plumbing and plumbing is the one thing I hate to do because I'm no good at it, inevitably it leaks, but I learned a lot. Actually, I can change out the insides and guts of a toilet without any problem anymore.
00:05:36
Speaker
So how did that money help you and your life as a family? Did that help provide income or did you just circle it back into the
Consolidation and Leveling Up in Real Estate
00:05:46
Speaker
business? Everything was going right back into it. I always had hoped that we would have additional income because I always thought oh a few extra hundred dollars a month you know that's going to be great but
00:05:58
Speaker
inevitably I always just kind of I'm a saver so it always kind of went right back into it and held on to it and that's why I was able to then buy another property within a few years and then after that bought another old house that was converted into a duplex actually a three-plex one of them was just a one-bedroom studio apartment yeah
00:06:24
Speaker
College kids don't need much. That's right. How much was that for? Roughly 71,000. Wow, three units for 71,000. After that third unit, then since two of them were converted, it became a lot of work. The upkeep on those units was pretty difficult, not time-consuming. It's the biggest thing.
00:06:51
Speaker
And there was always development going on in Ames, Iowa, you know, with the university here, there's always apartments being built. So there was a lot of competition. So I finally got to a point, had a good friend of mine that was doing some developing and he agreed to help me sell the three apartment buildings.
00:07:11
Speaker
and build an eightplex, a brand new unit that I wouldn't have near the maintenance and upkeep of, a little bit easier to rent. And so in 99, that's what we chose to do. So all three properties and made about, oh, roughly around 50,000 off of all three of those properties, which obviously was used for the down payment. Each or total? Okay, total.
00:07:37
Speaker
let's talk about that i want brian to talk about so in uncommon talk we call that leveling up where you cash in your houses to get a hotel that makes sense so i don't believe so talk through that why do we call that leveling up why is that so important and just kind of walk through that well i think it's like multiple points you know you're you're it's just everything is economies of scale i think and
00:08:00
Speaker
and to take multiple separate units and to roll that equity into one unit, just probably made a lot of sense from a cashflow perspective and maintenance. And then not only that, but now you have an asset that's worth hopefully potentially a lot more than the sum of the three. And then not only that, you're getting all of that under one mortgage payment as opposed to three separate mortgage payments.
00:08:26
Speaker
And so I think it's interesting because a lot of people build real estate or businesses and they get emotionally attached. And so I think one of the things in this season too that I want to highlight is that thought process to like, I'm going to sell this to get something bigger. Because I think it's hard when people start out on this path to like, or you see them on Shark Tank a lot of times, you know, they want, I want to retain 90% equity.
00:08:53
Speaker
I want $10,000,000. I want $82,000,000. That thing is their baby, and they can't think about anything beyond that. I think it's incredibly important to talk about those things because when you look at building wealth and the cyclicality of our economy, these people that have a lot of money, they're buying and selling things a lot.
00:09:18
Speaker
and taking gains and consolidating those gains into other bigger assets. Was it tough emotionally to do that? Let go of those three or were they just bleeding you dry maintenance wise? I wouldn't say they were bleeding you dry but time-wise it made up a lot of my time.
00:09:34
Speaker
It was hard to get letting go of the first one, you know, because the first one I had had that the longest and it was a true duplex. It wasn't converted. That was the one I had the least amount of maintenance problems with. But also that was the one I had the most equity in too. Because if I, in 92 it started, you had two renters, you have duplex there, and then you got another one duplex. There's four, and then you got the 71,000 one. That's three, that's seven units. You just kind of
00:10:00
Speaker
cashed it in for just a nicer, newer building, and then one more tenant to be able to manage. But cash flow wise, in bandwidth time, oh my, far better. So much better. So much better. So yeah, and you know, and when you consolidate now, if you have a problem, you're always going to the same place, you're not going to different parts of town and driving all over the place, trying to do maintenance on stuff. So
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, it was such a relief and stress reliever of being able to consolidate everything into a brand new building. Good. So walk us through, so 99 that gets built, brand new, gussied up, polished, looking so good, little shine. And then 2001 hits and the economy contracts. How did it perform? How did it? Great, great. Walk us through that.
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, it actually did well. The location where this was built was just a mile away from campus, north side of town, brand new development, the whole area was new. So it was a real desirable and still is for the most part a fairly desirable location. So when they talk about real estate, you know,
Strategic Investments and Challenges
00:11:09
Speaker
what's the most important thing is location, location, location. Well, there's a lot of truth to that. Right.
00:11:14
Speaker
And so I didn't really feel any pinch during that period of time. But I did get an opportunity to purchase a nine hole golf course north of town. And I use the this building as my investment into that venture. Sure. So did that for three years, four years. How does that work? You using the building? I want to walk through that. Like, how do you use the building to
00:11:44
Speaker
secure your 33% or whatever the percentage was? Well, my partners at the time didn't have as much freedom as I had. Even though I was coaching, I had a lot of time off in the summers. Obviously, that's golf season. I had a little bit more flexibility with my schedule than they did. So,
00:12:05
Speaker
It was more of an investment in me and wanting me to be a part of it. So that's where we put the building into it as my investment. And so that became part of the golf course. Exactly.
00:12:21
Speaker
It's kind of like you're collateral as opposed to putting up cash. Are you still the track coach at this point, 99? Yes. Actually, that was 2000 when I put that into the golf course. Interesting. I stayed into that for three years. The building was we were still involved, but at this point, this is when I turned everything over to a property manager to allow them to take care of that because I was doing more things at the golf course. Sure.
00:12:50
Speaker
And, you know, that was great for the first year, the golf course. And after that, things turned south and we struggled to cash flow at the golf course. And after four years, I decided that I wanted to opt out of the golf course. Our hope was to eventually manage the the golf course long enough to be able to develop it in to some kind of homes or, you know, multi living property, whatever it might be. And
00:13:20
Speaker
We knew that that just wasn't going to happen for a period of time and my pockets weren't very deep. So I opted out of the golf course and basically took my building back, which I still have today. Yeah. So I want to talk about that because I think some of your best assets are the times when you're struggling going through challenges. What would you have done different in that period? Boy, probably gotten out of it sooner.
00:13:44
Speaker
would you say never go out pretty cool. Your kids are all great golfers. My kids are they are good golfers. So it didn't help my game at all.
00:13:59
Speaker
But when I was looking to get out of it, I made sure that I talked to other people in the community just to get their take on how long they felt it was going to be before we could develop the golf course. And it did ultimately get developed, but it was quite a few years later.
00:14:18
Speaker
Um, I felt like I just
The Power of Networking
00:14:21
Speaker
probably should have looked into that sooner. Otherwise, you know, I, I felt like I made some pretty good decisions. I got lucky. Yeah. Yeah. Especially break even in something like that. You've had some nightmares on that deal. So one of the things I think, you know, as we looked at your bio and the things that you talked about ahead of this, you know, you wanted to talk about one of those points on a, on the sheet was just being connected to lots of different people and lots of different industries. And I think,
00:14:46
Speaker
one of the things that I think you know just outside looking in you've done a great job with is networking in the community. Can you kind of talk about how that started for you and and you know what you do actively to to pursue other people within the town and community here?
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think that I was fortunate in my younger years that I just came across the right people at the right time. I don't know if it was necessarily my doing or seeking them out, which I think now is more I seek those type of people out. But, you know, I think just being connected, whether you're in a big community or community, the size of Ames, which is only 60,000 people, I think just getting to know the right people of all walks of life.
00:15:31
Speaker
because you just never know when they can help you. And whether it's a banker or an insurance guy or a plumber.
00:15:43
Speaker
So I think that just being able to lean on people that you can trust them that they're not going to gouge you and that they're going to educate you. If I did have to hire a plumber after trying to fix something multiple times, then I'm looking over their shoulder watching what they're doing.
00:16:01
Speaker
So that way I learned from them, but you know, there's, I've gotten to the point in my life where oftentimes I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm going to let them do it, but I know who to call now because I consider them friends. So I think that makes a big difference in just knowing different walks of life. Again, like I said, you know, bankers even, you know,
00:16:26
Speaker
My most recent purchase was because I had a friend of mine who was a banker that had a loan on another eight plex and just said, hey, you know, he didn't want to lose the loan. He brought it to me and brought the idea to me. So that makes a big difference. Yeah. So kind of bring that full circle, because I think it's really important. So you had these multiple kind of duplex in the house. You kind of consolidated that. You got the building. Building helped you kind of get a stake in a golf course. You walked away with that, kept the building.
Property Management and Financial Strategy
00:16:55
Speaker
In 2007, which I think is important, that in that process, you realize that you needed a manager for the Aplex, which I think is interesting. Then after the golf extravaganza, then you pulled back, had your own building, and then you kept the manager, right? Because you saw the value of that. What was that thought at that point?
00:17:17
Speaker
Well, my thought process was that if we, if I had one unit empty for a year, you know, so roughly 80% occupancy, which is the national average, which, although in Ames, it's never been that low. I felt if I had one unit empty for a year, because I couldn't get it rented, that loss would equal about what I'm paying the property manager. So I felt by having the manager and them
00:17:46
Speaker
working to get it rented, that it was worth having them do it. Not only getting it rented, but then also they're overseeing the property, doing all the maintenance, they're showing it, they're doing everything. So I felt like it was worthwhile. Sure. Okay. So then your building, there was kind of almost like a sister building, right? Or close one close to your building that you didn't own. That goes up for sale. The banker's got the note. He comes to you because he had kind of your note.
00:18:14
Speaker
and said, hey, we can just shift some equity, you got a second eplex. Exactly. That was in 2016? 15. Yeah. And that was actually very nerve wracking, believe it or not, buying another building and not having to pay a dime. I mean, I think about that. I had enough equity in my building that they use that as the collateral to be able to buy another building, exactly like it.
00:18:51
Speaker
But yeah, it was definitely eye opening, but it was a little nerve wracking as to whether I should do it because obviously when you're buying a building and you're not putting anything into it, you're having to take out a loan for the full purchase price. And so the mortgage on that is pretty high. So it really wasn't cash flowing and barely cash flows now.
00:19:06
Speaker
I wish I had thought of it soon. OPM, where were you guys?
00:19:16
Speaker
but it's building equity obviously and it has still allowed me to continue to to do things in the original aplex you know making sure that's taken care of so brian walks the listeners through how he could get that was zero down because obviously he's using equity from the aplex but i think it would be interesting just to talk
00:19:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, so I want to use round numbers just for the listeners. These aren't exact numbers, but, you know, he had you had so much equity in the first building. Let's just say it was worth half of my dollars for for to round off or whatever. But, you know, you had over, I think, 50 percent equity in that building, meaning your debt on that building was less than two hundred and fifty thousand.
00:19:58
Speaker
Typically, these buildings, they want 20% down, sometimes 25% down. And so what your banker presented to you was, hey, we can pull some equity out of this one building or basically use that as collateral to more fully finance the second building. And the collateral between the two, you still had enough equity that the bank felt comfortable because they had both notes.
00:20:22
Speaker
Is that kind of accurate? That's exactly how it happened. And I guess the last thing I'd say is that equity that you had in that building was from all the people that had paid you rent over the years. So it really wasn't your money. It was their money that afforded you that opportunity. But your money initially to get the building started and the vision to
00:20:42
Speaker
Absolutely. You know, to take that risk. Yeah. And the other nice piece that, again, I am so blessed. I am truly blessed. That really helped in this whole situation is that my property manager was also managing that property. So the turnover was totally seamless. Wow. It was just a matter of the tenants were getting checks to me instead of
00:21:06
Speaker
All that really went into play when we were thinking about that decision.
Faith and Legacy Beyond Wealth
00:21:10
Speaker
I remember you were like, this is this, this is that. It seemed like, from our perspective, why wouldn't you use other people's money like you always have? But there is a risk there. I think the other thing I want to touch on with you and kind of the way you bring it up. I would say you do have a deep faith in God.
00:21:30
Speaker
And I think what was it like in that, in your faith to take this risk? And the thing that I've been kind of thinking about just with Philip and I and our business, we see a lot of things, you know, the yoke is like, when like God is with you, these things kind of are like, why wouldn't I do this?
00:21:47
Speaker
you know, versus other points in your life, I'm sure that you feel so late. And I think sometimes as entrepreneurs or something like we, I don't want to say downplay that, but I just, I'm getting older and the more we're seeing deals and things, it's like you can tell when the yoke is light with these opportunities and you can tell when it's not.
00:22:07
Speaker
Can you like just share kind of your feelings on that? Yeah, you know, my faith, you know, I grew up as a Catholic, went to Catholic school, all through high school, but then went through a very dark period in my faith walk where there wasn't any faith. And it wasn't until recently that light bulbs have gone on and God has really,
00:22:35
Speaker
entered my life and it's important to me to look to the future. There's a point in your life where you want to be successful but now God has put me in a position where I want to be significant moving forward and I want to
00:22:53
Speaker
leave not necessarily a legacy to my kids but I want to, I want to leave them. I want to leave them something. And, you know, I, you talk about a leaving a legacy and that's
00:23:07
Speaker
My viewpoint has changed on that too a little bit because I think that God has come into my life and brought Jesus Christ to be the center of why I'm here and that that's what I want to leave for my kids more so than a legacy of money.
00:23:27
Speaker
you know, I'm hopeful that I'm leaving them with the desire to manage their money well and wisely and to look at how they can utilize the resources that God has given them to
00:23:44
Speaker
be able to pass on the same to their children.
Role at Iowa Sports Foundation
00:23:48
Speaker
So, you know, I don't know if that necessarily answered your question or not, but that's kind of where I am with, you know, as I'm making decisions moving forward. You know, and I've heard one of your earlier podcasts, you're talking about now money and then money, and I'm at a point in my life at 57, soon to be 58, where, you know, I'm
00:24:10
Speaker
I want to retire within X number of years. My wife wanted to retire two years ago. Still isn't quite there yet. But we're at a point where we're trying to position ourselves and utilizing this real estate as a way to hopefully bring that to light sooner than later. But also that retirement doesn't mean an end.
00:24:38
Speaker
just means that we shift our focus on other things. Yeah, so we've been talking a lot about your side hustle and we've talked a little bit about your main hustle, the track and field. When did that cross over to Iowa Sports Foundation? Well, in the year 2000 of the current or at that time the current executive director of the Iowa Sports Foundation
00:25:00
Speaker
with Jim Hallahan, former basketball coach for Johnny or at Iowa State. So Jim and I had known each other. We coached both at Iowa State at the same time. And so Jim was looking to hire someone to run events for him. And so I made that
00:25:15
Speaker
decision to move out of coaching and into the Iowa Sports Foundation. And so it's been a great move. When I got out of coaching, I had done it for 17 years. That sounded like a really long time, but I've been doing this for 18 now. You're still kind of coaching, let's be honest.
00:25:33
Speaker
You know, this position now, we're, you know, it's the Iowa Sports Foundation. We do the Iowa Games, the Iowa Senior Games. We do a health and wellness challenge with Live Healthy Iowa. We do adaptive sports for those programming with those with physical disabilities. And we do corporate games. So we do a lot of things, but we're basically event planners. They just mostly happen to be sporting events. Yeah.
00:26:00
Speaker
Very good. We're big fans of the organization and you know those of you that know Philip and I were pretty active and enjoy the sport so you know we think you guys just do amazing things. I think it's great for the state. I don't think a lot of people even know that you know this is like a national national thing you know there's what like 37 states or yeah roughly 37 states that have state games and
00:26:24
Speaker
We are the second largest amongst those, Missouri being the largest, but we are the most diverse of all of the members of the National Congress of State Games in everything we do with the senior games and live healthy and adaptive sports. So we feel like we're definitely making a difference in the state of Iowa. And Iowa Games has something where all the, I would say the champions and the people who placed in that get a go to a specific event that's held
00:26:53
Speaker
It's like almost like a real olympics for all the state games. They're called state gave us america you won't say it but i will and so aims due to kevin birch's leadership and ios sports donation is that for two thousand and twenty one ok right.
00:27:11
Speaker
So the State Games of America is coming to Ames because of all the amazing things that you guys are doing here, which is a huge testimony. It is like having Olympics kind of come to our state. Right. And so not only is the venue way bigger, if you think of a more national scale, but he has to find different venues all over, you know, the metro area. So kudos to you. Right. Well, thank you. We're excited about it.
00:27:36
Speaker
So I want to talk a little bit more about just you coaching, still coaching just in this area of Iowa Sports Foundation. How do you get a good team around you in this position and in life? Wow. That's a good question. I wish you would have told me that ahead of time. You know, the thing that we have found in recent years of trying to find individuals, at least for our organization is
00:28:04
Speaker
people that are are passionate about what they do. You know having the side gigs of trying to make money here and there and money is important and when you're young it seems like that sometimes is the only focus. But I think having a sense of accomplishment and really
00:28:24
Speaker
Being passionate about what you're doing, and I think that we've been able to develop a team here with the Iowa Sports Foundation of young, energetic, passionate people.
00:28:36
Speaker
And, you know, I don't, there's no real secret formula, but I think that just finding people that really are well grounded is pretty important.
Introduction of 'Uncommon U' Initiative
00:28:47
Speaker
Totally. That's good. And we've covered a lot. We've covered a lot. So we alluded in our first episode of season two that Philip and I are launching a new venture.
00:28:57
Speaker
And, you know, basically, we're launching that venture with you. And so we kind of, we've kind of had this idea for a long period of time. You know, I've lived in Ames, recently moved away, but lived in Ames really since 2005.
00:29:17
Speaker
And from the get-go, seeing the power of real estate, a lot of people that we know own real estate in different capacity, duplexes, single family homes, aplexes, that type of thing. And just thinking about my own story and a lot of the people that we're meeting, coming out of school, having a lot of that passion and drive, but having some student loan debt and not really knowing
00:29:45
Speaker
What to do and I think Philip does a good job and has always done a good job of coaching people on mentorship and the importance of mentorship and.
00:29:52
Speaker
When I got out of school, that was kind of my missing piece. I kind of knew I wanted to be in this business. I had a passion for numbers and helping people. And so it's like putting all that together. And so anyways, in long story short, we are starting a venture called Uncommon U, which is a kind of focus on college students and creating a physical space and experience for them to kind of start to cultivate their uncommonness.
00:30:21
Speaker
And so we're super excited. I think it's an epidemic in our country with what's happening with student loan debt. It's approaching $1.5 trillion. I think almost 30% of it is non-performing, meaning kids aren't making the payments.
00:30:38
Speaker
And I think what a lot of people don't realize is that those payments aren't necessarily on the hook to a bank. They're on the hook to the IRS. And so the stakes are incredibly high for the next generation of our country.
00:30:55
Speaker
And when we look around, you know, Philip and I, there's not a lot of education going on. And there's not a lot of planning at the parent level and the student level. And I don't see a lot of planning at the university level to really go at this.
00:31:12
Speaker
And so this is kind of a, I would say a passion project for us. And, and you have two aplexes in Ames next to Iowa State University. And so what we want to do is create an environment where these kids can actually live.
00:31:29
Speaker
and would still pay rent, but be in an environment where we intentionally invest in those kids. And that's where you kind of come in, Kevin, of cultivating speakers on a monthly basis, creating that kind of curated type environment where these kids can be like-minded with their peers, and then also network with local professionals, local entrepreneurs, and start making those connections into the community.
00:31:58
Speaker
And so that is kind of what we're working on. Do you kind of want to share anything? Yeah, you know, I what I wish it was something that I had when I was in school to have that opportunity to the mentorship is really important. I think that a lot of young professionals are missing out and they don't have that.
00:32:19
Speaker
because there's a lot to be learned from those with more experience like the three of us sitting here. So, you know, I think that being able to cultivate a community of young like-minded, business-minded, entrepreneurial-minded individuals
00:32:39
Speaker
that we can assist mentoring-wise, networking-wise. I just think that it really creates an opportunity for them to grow, whether it's starting their own business or seeking out employment. And I think it can be a real benefit to them
00:33:03
Speaker
by living in this environment to be able to advance their career, whatever path that might be. And I think, you know, we just see a lot of people renting. There's a lot of people that we know renting. And for me, having been in that space,
00:33:20
Speaker
And I think what you're seeing with Airbnb and being able to cultivate new ways to kind of monetize real estate, I just think that there's a massive opportunity to do the right thing and come alongside these kids and give them more value than just the bed and four walls to live in while they're in college.
00:33:39
Speaker
And they're coming out with $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 in student loan debt. And we're wondering why new home sales and why this economy coming back from 0809 was the longest trough to getting out of the recession we've ever had. It's because these kids are enslaved to student loan debt. And so I'm super excited about it. I think the other thing about it is partnering with you that we've seen is
00:34:09
Speaker
You know, you have, you have, I don't want to say perfected, but really had to master bringing new people into the foundation and hiring new waves of interns each and every year and what they get exposed to through your leadership and through the opportunities of the foundation meeting, you know, pretty big name people in the community that have a vested interest in the foundation.
00:34:30
Speaker
organizing events all over the state. And then taking that experience and going on to, you know, a new job. I think you bring a lot to the table for these kids and putting them in a position to learn and network and grow, you know, while they're living in your building. And so we're just super excited to be able to partner with you in that. So
00:34:52
Speaker
Well, I'm looking forward to it. You know, I've mentioned it to a couple other people and their their first reaction was I wish I had something like that when I was in school because I feel like there is a missing piece in college and that mentorship.
Creating a Supportive Student Community
00:35:03
Speaker
And so people go into college not knowing exactly what they want to do. They get to college trying to figure out what they want to do, have a bad professor realize that that's not what they want to do.
00:35:11
Speaker
But really, isn't that exactly the right path? Or is it that in high school they have an idea of what their gifts and strengths are? They get hooked up with a mentor. The mentor then says, come job shadow me and see if you even like it. Does that make sense? And once they do, then, okay, that mentor says, okay, go to that college, take this kind of classes. And at the end of that whole trajectory, then saying, after you got a job or after you got a diploma,
00:35:37
Speaker
having a job for that person or be able to vouch for that person that I've watched them for the last four years doing exactly what I told them to do. This guy's the real deal. So that's what we're trying to kind of, I guess, cultivate in this is mentors to pour into people that are understanding at a level that just need a little help and direction. Doing that's going to catapult not only them, but I think us and then everybody around in that NCLEX. And so, man, the sky's the limit. You see that a lot in, you know, just,
00:36:07
Speaker
Everywhere that you go is just getting surrounded by like-minded community.
00:36:11
Speaker
propels everyone even further. And so I'm super excited about seeing what happens with that. And me too. Thanks for your leadership in that. So this has been a great interview. Thank you so much, Kevin, for your wisdom and being able to articulate that. Well, thank you, guys. You guys have been awesome to me and mentoring me, believe it or not. Well, it goes both ways. So thank you so much for listening. You've been listening to the Uncommon Life Project. Take us out, Patricia. Thanks. Goodbye.
00:36:38
Speaker
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