253: Why Mindset Beats Strategy in Wealth Building
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Happy Holidays and welcome back to another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast! Today, we are joined by Rod Khleif, a multifamily real estate investor, best-selling author, and host of a top 1% business podcast with over 20 million downloads. Rod shares his journey from growing up with very little, to losing $50M during the 2008 crash, and rebuilding a stronger, purpose-driven real estate business. This episode focuses on mindset, taking action despite fear, and why real estate continues to create opportunity during uncertain markets. If you tend to overanalyze or feel stuck waiting for the “right time,” this conversation is for you.
In this episode, we chat about…
The real reason most first-time investors stay stuck in analysis paralysis
Why mindset and psychology matter more than technical knowledge
How fear, regret, and limiting beliefs stop people from taking action
Why real estate is still full of opportunity during economic uncertainty
The importance of partnerships between analytical and relationship-driven investors
How gratitude and giving back became a core part of Rod’s success
Why surrounding yourself with the right peer group changes everything
Key Takeaways:
Fear regret more than failure. Most people don’t fail because they tried—they fail because they never started.
Mindset drives results. Success is mostly psychological, not technical.
Play to your strengths. Partner, hire, or align for your weaknesses.
Real estate is a team sport. There are many roles beyond finding deals.
Economic shifts create opportunity. The best deals often appear when others hesitate.
Gratitude changes everything. It strengthens resilience and fuels long-term success.
Resources from Rod
LinkedIn | rodslinks.com | The Lifetime CashFlow Through Real Estate Investing Podcast
Resources from Mike and Nichole
+ Read the transcript
Mike: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast. Unless you're under a rock or you've been on the moon, our next guest is probably well-known to you. He'sbeen coaching for a long time. He's been a mentor to thousands of people. He's a multifamily real estate expert.
Rod Khleif. How are you doing Rod?
Rod: I'm good, brother. It's great to see you, Michael.
Mike: Absolutely. So, you know, I love to start the podcast out a little bit about yourself.
Rod: Sure.
Mike: How did you get started? Some of the failures that you've had, and how did you get to where you're at now?
Rod: I've had some big ones. I call 'em seminars.
They're not failures, they're seminars only failures. You don't get up and you don't get the lesson but so I'm a Dutch immigrant. I immigrated to this country when I was six years old with my brother Albert, my mother’s. We ended up in Denver, Colorado, and we didn't have much growing up. I remember we actually shopped at an expired food store.
Believe it or not, they had that and drank powdered milk with our cereal in the morning 'cause it was cheaper than real milk. And trust me, it sounds better than it is. And I wore clothes, hand-me-down clothes in the Goodwill in the Salvation Army all the way through junior high school till I finally lied about my age when I was 14 'cause I was tall and said I was 15 so I could get a job at Burger King, flipping burgers so I could buy my own clothes and ultimately buy a car.
And you know, I know you've got listeners that maybe had it harder than I did. Maybe it 's harder now, but I knew I wanted more and luckily, my mom had an incredible work ethic, so she babysat kids. We always had a house full of kids, so we'd have enough money to eat. And with her babysitting money, she became a bit of an entrepreneur and no formal education, but she invested in the stock market successfully in IPOs and then also invested in real estate. And her first real estate acquisition was the house right across the street from us. She bought it from a family named the Jewels when I was about 14 for $30,000. And then when I was 17, three years later, she told me she'd made $20,000 in her sleep that had gone up in value. I was like, "What?! You made $20,000?" This was when $20,000 was a lot of money, mind you, okay? This is 1977 and you made $20,000. You didn't do anything. Screw college. I'm getting into real estate. So I went out and got my real estate broker's license right when I turned 18. I could have my own office, you could do it back then through education.
Now they got smart. You need some experience before you let yourself loose in your own office. But I was smart enough to go work for another broker, and my first year in real estate I made about, and I was still living at home my first year in real estate. I made about $8,000. My second year, maybe $10,000, but my third year I made over $100,000, which back in 1980 was some pretty decent money.
So what happened between year 2 and year 3 that caused me to 10x my income? Well, what happened was the broker I went to work for, I was dating his daughter and he kind of took me under his wing. He taught me about the importance of mindset and psychology and how really 80% to 90% of your success in anything is your mindset in psychology.
And since then, I've spent probably 23 years following Tony Robbins around the planet. Yeah. He's the best in the world at mindset and psychology.
Fast forward to today, I've owned over 2,000 houses that I've rented long term. I own thousands of apartment units and I'm now buying senior housing actually as well.
In 2006, my net worth went up $17 million while I slept. And you might say, "Wow."
And I said, "Wow."
And I got a head so big I could barely fit it through a door. I thought I was a real estate God. You know, when that happens, God or the universe will give you nice.
Mike: That's right.
Rod: Smack down. Well that was 2008 and 2009, I conservatively lost $50 million in 2008 and 2009 and you know, so what I'm known for talking about on my podcast. And at my bootcamps and so on and so forth, is really the mindset it took to have $50 million to lose in the first place, and maybe more importantly, the mindset it took to recover from that to the success that I'm blessed to have today. So, you know, happy to drill down on some of that stuff with you Michael, if you'd like.
Mike: I'd love to because there's a lot of people you hit on one thing, which is analysis paralysis, you know? I teach at some seminars and I keep seeing the same people. "Have you made your first deal yet?"
Well, you know this excuse or that excuse? Well, you know, one more seminar, maybe two. Talk about, number one, the advice that you would give these first time investors?
Yeah. Mindset. No, absolute.
Rod: Your audience very, you know, very, I mean, the word geek okay, means that you're analytical, okay?
Mike: Yes.
Rod: And I love you.
You're some of the most successful people in my business, in my coaching program. You know, my warriors, my coaching students own, I believe, close to 300,000 units. We're at like 270,000 we're counting. We were just talking about that today. We just had a meeting. We believe it's a lot more than that 'cause a lot of people just stopped telling us.
And a lot of analytical people in that group. And you know how you have to check off every box before you make a move. You have a fear of failure. What I'm gonna tell you, and I'm gonna say a couple of things to you here, "Fear regret more than failure," okay? I have failed my way to success.
I call 'em seminars. You know, that was a $50 million seminar. That was an expensive freaking seminar. Don't get me wrong. But I have built 29 businesses so far in my career, I was shocked when I counted them. Several worth, tens of millions of dollars. However, most were spectacular flaming seminars, okay? You know, we fail our way to success. Don't fear failure, fear regret. You know, Michael, there was this nurse in Australia who took care of patients when they were about to die. She was a hospice nurse. Her name was Bronnie Ware, and she asked him a question, and the question was, "Do you have any regrets?"
And she wrote a book about it. Something like The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. It's a bestseller. The number one regret in that book was not living this life. I could have lived living someone else's life, not doing what I know I'm capable of. Fear that my friends, okay? Don't fear failure, okay? Failure is just a setback.
Now, let me say something else to you. I quote "geeks", okay? IT people, specifically anybody that works in front of a computer. I don't know if you've heard Elon Musk's latest interview with Joe Rogan. I encourage you to go listen to it.
You have to admit, he's a very, very smart guy.
Whether you love him or hate him. He basically came right out and said that most IT jobs, most jobs in front of a computer will literally be gone in about three years. Now, I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just trying to tell you that you need to be proactive right now, if that's you, if you're listening. And I would tell you to think about how you're gonna reinvent yourself, okay?
And there's lots of vehicles you can utilize. You can do real estate. If it's real estate, get your butt to one of my bootcamps. They're like $47 and I don't sell anything, so there's no excuse. I'll tell you about that later.
But figure out what your vehicle's gonna be. Maybe you're gonna buy businesses.
There's gonna be an opportunity to buy businesses. That's 10,000 people a day turning 65 in this country. And a lot of 'em wanna retire. I turned 65 in January. I'm one of them. And so I'm about to turn 66. You know, think about how you're gonna reinvent yourself. Do not wait for the freaking shoe to drop, especially those of you that are analytical, that have to check off every single box.
Here's the thing I wanna tell you about, okay? You've gotta take that first step. Dr. Martin Luther King says, "You take that first step in faith, the next step will be revealed."
But you gotta take that first step and you may not see the whole pathway, and that's okay. You have to have some faith.
You know, a great analogy for that would be you can drive all the way across the United States at night with your headlight, only seeing about 50 feet in front of you. You know, you can make it, other people have made it before you. You may have some obstacles, but you know, it can be done. It's the same thing with my business buying, buying multifamily, commercial real estate or any other asset class, my warriors own senior housing, student housing, self storage, mobile home parks, a lot of each one of those as well, mixed use.
If that's what you wanna learn, then again, I've got a solution for you. But whatever it is, you gotta decide what your side hustle is gonna be, and I'm gonna tell you to implement it immediately. Get started figuring that out. Don't wait for the shoe to drop, okay?
Again, not trying to scare you, but Elon's a pretty smart guy and we're already seeing big layoffs at some of the big tech companies already. We've seen Amazon and Meta have significant thousands of people layoffs, so it's already started.
So anyway, I kind of digressed there for a minute, but that's my advice to you, those of you listening. Again, you're some of the most successful people in our business. Multifamily, what we do is primarily empirical. It's primarily numbers. It requires analysis. Some of the best partnerships I see in this business are someone that's analytical like you.
If that's your listening with someone that's the mouthpiece like me, outgoing, you know, that just goes out there and builds the relationships. Now, I've met people that are both, but typically you're more one or the other. But those are some of the best partnerships I've seen. I host the largest really real estate podcast now in the world for commercial real estate and it's called Lifetime Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing.
So I've interviewed some of the best operators on the planet and again, what I typically see is a partnership of an analytical person with an outgoing person, and that's just like a match made in heaven. There's a lot of hats you can wear in this business. You can be the person that finds the deals, the person that underwrites them, if you're analytical, or the one that builds relationships with brokers and investors and sellers. And you can be the one that manages the asset after you buy it. If you've got some management experience or construction experience or project management experience.
It's called asset management. So there's a lot of different hats you can wear.
Mike: How do people, okay, they're sitting there, it's like, "Alright, you know, Rod's getting to me, I'm starting to get fired up. You know, I'm going to go to one of his seminars, one of his bootcamps," and again, everyone,I listen to the podcast, Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing. I look it up a ton of information.
Rod: Thank you.
Let me give you a link 'cause it'll be a lot easier if you're driving text the word LINKS to 72345. L-I-N-K-S to 72345. If you're not driving, go to rodslinks.com. So besides my bootcamp, the website is there, and it's $47.
If it's more than that, just DM me. My social is there too. I'll give you, just let me know. You heard me on this Richer Geek Podcast and I'll get you that price. And it comes with my underwriting software, which of course is crack cocaine for you if you're a geek, right? You love that stuff. You love spreadsheets. So it comes with that and so, you know, in my document library and all sorts of other cool shit. But the point is rodslinks.com has that bootcamp site, but it also has a bunch of free resources if you want to analyze the business. There's some incredible free books there. They're best in class books.
They're not crap. They're really good books and they're free, okay? So that's rodslinks.com
Mike: Yeah. So how do people get started, you know? You're bigger than the multifamily. I did multifamily hotels. It's like, okay, fix and flip, or what do I, how do I get started?
Rod: Well, let me answer the question.
It starts with mindset. If you come to my bootcamp, the first thing we're gonna do is goal setting on steroids, because how do you get anything if you don't know what it is? You've gotta create a hunger so that you push past, you know, that fear of failure and that analytical stemminess and analysis paralysis.
So you get past that, you gotta create that hunger. So you gotta do your goals, okay? So that's the first thing we do at my bootcamps. Now, if you don't wanna do my bootcamp, no problem. You wanna do something else, go to rodslinks.com at the bottom is my Goal Setting Workshop, okay? And there's a guide you can download. I'm not gonna try to sell you anything. Do it. Have your spouse do it. If your kids are over 10 years old, have them do it. Here's the thing, Michael, people spend more time planning a freaking Christmas party than they do designing their lives. That's designing your life, okay? And you know, you gotta want it. Because that's how you push through fear. That's how you push through limiting beliefs. Maybe you're comfortable in your nice IT job, but your IT job is ticking, okay? And so maybe you're comfortable but that comfort zone's a nice, warm place and we all know nothing freaking grows there, right? The point is, do your goals. Once you've done your goals, then you gotta make a decision. I don't mean dip your toe in the water. I don't mean one foot in, one foot out, I mean, it is done. You decide you're gonna go do this, whatever side hustle you decide on, you're gonna pick a vehicle to have, you know, an insurance policy. If Elon's right. Pick a side hustle. And once you make that decision, you're like a train on a track. You're committed. If you just sit there and waffle an indecision, you're gonna be knocked off track and you're gonna have a seminar, okay? I don't wanna see that happen to you. So again, I'm not trying to scare you. I don't care if you work with me or not, but pick something to have a side hustle that you can fall back on just in case, okay? And then once you make that decision, you've gotta take action. You've gotta take that first step. Dr. Martin Luther King says, "You take that first step in faith, the next step will be revealed." You know, Lao Tzu said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," but you've gotta do it. And you've gotta recognize the fact that, you know, you can't get caught in analysis paralysis. Now, I see it with my students, my warriors. Sometimes it's, I call it the law of the first deal. It's the scariest, it takes the longest, you know, and it's, they're three months in, four months in, six months in, and I'm kicking 'em in the ass.
You got this. Don't stop complaining. You're gonna get this. Then they get one, and next thing I know they have three. I'm like, what the hell just happened? And they realize that it's all between their ears. But you gotta take that first step. We talked about fear and you know, again, what is fear of everything and running, you know, that's what a lot of people think it is.
I like to think it's false evidence appearing real. 'cause most of the time it is. You think you're more afraid of the emotion of fear than what's causing it. But you know, the smart people think that it's face everything and rise because everybody has fear. Michael, you have fear. I have fear. We call it stress. That's what us achievers call it, but it's fear.
Sometimes I wake up at three in the morning, I'm like, oh crap, but here's the thing, action mitigates fear. So if I get woken up at three in the morning, I get up and I write some notes down and I've taken some action, it mitigates it. Gratitude also mitigates fear. Limiting beliefs is another problem, okay? You know, when I immigrated this country, I love to tell this story. I didn't speak English. I found out what bullies were for the first time, so I got my ass kicked occasionally, and then my mom, proud Dutch woman that she is, thought it'd be a great idea to send me to school in wooden shoes and those leather shorts, the Germans wear for October Fest, which was like fricking crack cocaine for the bullies.
So I got my ass kicked again, and then, you know, the bullies would chase me home and she chased 'em off with a fly swat, ass beaten, you know? And I came up with this belief system, I wasn't good enough, you know? I used to ask myself, how can I show them I'm good enough? You know, which of course presupposes that I wasn't. And a lot of people have these limiting belief systems. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not courageous enough. You know, here's the thing to remember. There's a reason the acronym for Belief Systems is BS 'cause 99.9% of them have no basis, in fact, but we believe they're real and they impact our entire life.
So if you're listening and you're consciously aware of one of these limiting beliefs, what I'm gonna suggest you do is consciously, consciously, that's the operative word, consciously drag it onto the daylight, look at it with your adult rational mind, recognize that it's BS and it will start to diminish. I'm gonna tell you, I used to be afraid to raise my hand in front of 10 kids in a classroom, and now I speak in front of thousands of people a year, typically in flip flops, okay? Because it's freeing to become free from the opinion of others. I'm gonna tell you. I came to the realization, anybody that would reject me just didn't know me, okay?. Period. I'm a gift from God. Just like everybody listening is. You've gotta come to that realization as well. So I hope that helps in that regard.
Mike: Yeah. That is the biggest thing. All the fears, all the excuses are in between you know, they're true inside our head, but it's not reality.
Rod: It's a story. See, everybody has a story. They tell themselves why they can't do something, why they shouldn't do something, you know? And a story is a softener, okay? So you don't get disgusted with yourself. We've all got 'em. Listen, I've got 'em about certain things in my life and everybody's got 'em. But here's the thing, with my warriors, my coaching students, I've seen the most successful ones. It doesn't matter if they have money, it doesn't matter if they have an education. It's the ones that change the freaking story and then just go kick ass and take action. Massive freaking action. Those are the ones that succeed. Those are the most successful students I have. They lose the story or they change the story and they go do it. You know, another piece that's really important is focus. The most successful people on the planet have the highest degree of focus. I mean, look at people like Elon, incredible focus equals incredible success. But here's the thing, whatever you focus on gets larger, okay? Both positive or negative. People call me and say, how do I get outta student loan debt? And I reply and I say, wrong question. How do you make so much money that's irrelevant, is the question you want to be asking.
Mike: Wow.
Rod: You know, they asked Mother Theresa if she was anti-war. She said, "No, I'm pro-peace."
I mean, you get the metaphor there. It's super important that you pay attention to what you're focused on and enhance your focus. You know, my podcast is probably pushing 30 million downloads, which doesn't sound like a lot in our world today, but for a podcast, it's not bad. And I listen to two podcasts. I listen to Joe Rogan and I listen to Tim Ferris. I try to stay on both sides. I try to listen to both sides of the aisle.
I'm definitely on. On one side. Now on the other side is Tim Ferriss and I love him and he interviews the best of the best in the world. The best athletes like Michael Phelps, the swimmer, NFL, NBA players and actors like Hugh Jackman, Ed Norton, Jamie Fox,Arnold, billionaires like Ray Dalio, heads of the biggest companies of the world like Zuckerberg and are fascinating, intelligent conversations.
But he deconstructs their success, like their path to success. But I started a pattern here. I actually evaluated it. 85% of his guests meditate. What does meditation enhance? Focus, right? So pay attention to focus. Focus is fricking power. You know, another piece of this business, Michael, and I'm sure you've seen this, because this business is a team sport and there's a lot of different hats you can wear, it is critical that you play to your strengths, okay? So if you're listening and you're analytical, that's a huge need for that in a business, okay? But play to your strengths. Your strengths to your greatest assets, okay? Yeah. Don't try to maximize your weaknesses. Success is so much faster when you maximize your strengths and then you hire, you align, or you partner for your weaknesses.
And like I said, those are the matches I see. and so, you know, and when you're playing to your strengths, you are enjoying what you're doing. So work is play. You never work another day in your life, right? and you're also passionate when you're playing to your strengths. Okay? And passion is required to influence people. I mean, maybe you can feel my passion. I freaking love this. you know, passion's required to influence and passion also. is kind of like the fuel, right? You know, so don't settle, don't play small, you know, do what you love and you're strong.
Because if you're playing in your strengths, you're gonna be doing something you love. Hire a partner for your weaknesses, because that passion, breeds creativity, breeds innovation. You know, it minimizes or even eliminates fear. So, you know, but you also, you gotta get around people that are doing this, okay? So if you're gonna get into anything, you wanna get around people that are doing it, because a rising tide lifts all ships. When I think about my Warrior program and those hundreds of thousands of units that they own, we did an analysis and the ones they've submitted. Like literally almost 90% of them are done between warriors, between coaching students.
Yeah. So get in a group. If it's not mine, go to your local meetup groups. Meet people that are doing what it is you want to do. If it's real estate, if it's buying businesses, if it's whatever it is, stocks, crypto, whatever. Go get around people that are doing it. Get around people that think what you think is hard, is easy, okay? Because your peer group is critical. And you know this Michael, people default to a peer group they went to school with or they work with. And those people may have their own limiting beliefs and fears and they may hold you back out of fear of losing you or fear of feeling less than if you succeed.
Sometimes it's family, okay? So I'm gonna tell you, you know, love your family, but proactively choose your peers, who you allow to influence you, okay? I mean, you show me your three best friends. I'll show you who you are in every aspect of your life, your health, your happiness, your relationships, definitely your finances.
So choosing carefully is my point. You wanna be around people that push you and hold you accountable. That's one of the benefits of being in a program like my Warrior program, not to sell it. I mean, you can find other programs that do that, but that's what you wanna be, you know, I'll tell you something, I'll tell you something funny.
When I was losing everything in 2008 and 2009, I was in the Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership. It's a mastermind group, very expensive. It was like $130,000 and we traveled all over the world, and I was around people that were killing it. I mean, killing it in that crash. And then I was crying and moaning and they're like, "Get up, you puss, $50 million.
Go make something happen. And you know, that's who you wanna be around, right? You wanna be around, people that think what you think is hard is easy.
Mike: I never want to be the top dog in the room when it comes to masterminds. I'm in a couple masterminds. I just love it. And ladies and gentlemen, that is it. I've been to a lot of masterminds and I was like, okay, I'm talking to a bunch of these. I'm not learning anything because they're not better than me. They're not more successful than me. One of the best things that I heard was to find your why.
If you do my goal setting,I spend time on that, okay? Go to Rod's links or text LINKS to 72345 and do my goals, or better yet, get your ass to my bootcamp if you're interested in real estate. But go there, do the Goal Setting Workshop, because I will have you decide why those goals are a must. Yeah.
Rod: I'll also have you put in some pain if you don't achieve the goals, okay? We do as human beings, we do more to avoid pain than gain pleasure. So do it. It's an hour, it's a fricking hour. It's the perfect time of the year to do it. You know, have your spouse do it. Have your kids, if they're over 10 years old, do it. Have them design their lives. Tell you it's in, you'll leave so motivated, you'll be coming outta your skin. I promise you that, okay?
Once you've done your goals, I wanna talk about gratitude for a second, Michael, if you humor me.
Now, I may lose some of you on this. You're gonna think it's too foofy, but you would ignore this at your peril. That's all I'll tell you because you'll see why in a minute. See, gratitude is the most important foundational emotion we've available to us, okay? It makes us stronger when we face adversity, makes our heart stronger, strengthens our immune system, lowers our blood pressure. Gratitude is just extraordinary, the most important emotion in our lives. But it's also, it brings us closer to our spirituality, but it also is how you manifest everything you want in life. Most mornings I will sit in my recliner and I've got my vision boards next to me. And I'll just do gratitude for the people that I love.
I'll do gratitude for the students that I have, my foundation, things that I'm proud of. And then I'll be grateful for the things that I want as if I already have them. Now I have gotten emotional, being grateful for things I don't even have yet. And now you're like, "Oh, good Lord."
Well, this is how I had $50 million to lose in how I got it back. So ignore it at your peril, my friends, okay? 'Cause it freaking works. So incorporate gratitude. If you start your day off that way it changes your whole world. If you focus on gratitude first thing in the morning, it's extraordinary what it'll do for you. The last thing I wanna mention, when I immigrated, we ended up in Denver where I lived for 30 years, but I knew I always wanted to live on the beach. You know, my dad worked for Continental Airlines, so I was able to fly to Hawaii a couple times, and I saw the beach. I'm like, "Oh man, this is so freaking cool."
And so I visualize that and 20 years later I built this incredible. What's now probably about a $10 million mansion on the beach. I own the beach on one side. I had my boats on the backside. It was called a Gulf to Bay. It was a slice through an island on Casey Key.
Mike: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Rod: Which I know you're familiar with. I built this amazing house there which was unthinkable when I was 18, but I manifested, it took me 20 years, okay? So again, and I'll tell you this, if you do my goal setting workshop, either at my bootcamp or at Rod's links, I'll tell you this.
Don't take the lid off your fricking brain. If you can imagine it, you can make it happen. I mean, look at Elon. What is it like $5 billion? You know, there's nothing, you can't do it, you just gotta go do it. Two months after I moved into that big waterfall from the second four balconies into the pool. You had to walk through the waterfall to get to the pool pools in magazines. It was spectacular. It had a giant spiral staircase up through the middle, and a wine cellar elevator on the second floor. I had aquariums built around the spiral staircase that cost me almost $200,000. So this gives you an idea of the house. I worked for this thing for 20 years, two months after I moved in, I'm floating in the pool at night. The pool's changing colors. It's got fiber optic colliding.
And I'm looking up at this testament to my ego, it was to prove to the freaking world I was good enough. I mean, if that didn't do it, forget it. I mean, I'm gonna hang it up, right? You know, I just achieved success like times 10,000 and I got depressed, Michael, and I don't mean a little depressed. I mean, I was like, holy shit depressed. And I'm like, what? Just what's going on here? I just achieved this amazing success. My beautiful family's inside sleeping. I had all the toys, the Maserati and the Mercedes, and the boats and the jet skis, and all the stuff I thought was important. When I looked back on it, there were three things happening.
One is you don't achieve a big goal, like a lifetime goal like that without having other goals lined up behind it. Because like the good book says, without a vision that people perish and I didn't have a vision for the future. I didn't know what I was gonna do next. So that was one piece. The second piece is, it's never about the goals.
You gotta have 'em to create that hunger. Get off your ass and go make something happen. Get outta comfort. Be a little uncomfortable to get the freedom you and your family deserve. You've gotta have goals for that.
But it's never about them. You know, what do they say are the happiest days? A boat owner's life. The day they buy the boat and the day they sell the boat, right? But you gotta have 'em but happiness actually comes from progress and growth, okay? And we'll talk about this if you do my goal setting workshop, because at the end of it, I do a weekly planning process, which is how I manage two large companies at the same time.
And one of the pieces of that is acknowledging your progress 'cause you're gonna have setbacks. You're gonna have delays. But if you're acknowledging your progress. You'll be happy. So that's the second piece. I didn't know how I was gonna progress beyond that. But the big one, another big one was I was totally focused on myself. "Rod, Rod, Rod. Show the world I'm good enough. Show the world I met, blah, blah, blah." Well, that's the year I met Tony. I went and saw Tony. I bought a bunch of books. I'm like, I gotta get this back. I got Dale Carnegie, I got Tony Robbins and I read half of Tony's book. I'm like, man, I like this. So I went and saw Tony live, it was in Fort Lauderdale 25 years ago, and I saw that he fed families for the holidays.
And I'm like, Hmm, what a concept. Do something for someone else. I'm embarrassed to sad to be 40 to get that memo. So I called my brother when I got home and I said, "Bro, let's feed five families." 'Cause I was going to see him for Thanksgiving in Denver. And so he called his church, found five families that really needed help.
A third family changed my life, Michael. We bought food for them. We bought a big holiday meal, frozen Turkey, roasting pan, toys for the kids, everything. So we get to this shack. It was literally a shack, and there was a Hispanic woman in there with five kids. She came out and she saw the stuff on the porch and she started crying. Her kids came out and the older one started crying. I started crying and I was hooked. Now don't tune me out here, guys, okay? What I'm gonna share with you, if you want success, financial success. Stay with me, okay? This is not ego what I'm sharing with you right now, but in the last 25 years, I've fed over 150,000 children at risk in my area.
For the holidays, I wouldn't have a holiday meal. I've done thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies to local kids. We don't have the basic supplies for school we did 2,000 couple months ago. I've done thousands and thousands at Teddy Bears local police departments for their officers to keep in their vehicles.
And here's the thing. Tony Robbins calls it the science of achievement versus the art of fulfillment achievement is a science. If you wanna learn multifamily or commercial real estate, get your ass to my bootcamp. I'll give you the blueprint.
You just have to do it. It's a science, it's proven. But fulfillment is an art. You gotta figure out what juices you. For me, it's kids. It's also the elderly. I'm doing senior housing now. Maybe for you it's animals. Maybe if it's the environment, give back right now.
That's how you get it. That's the way God works, the way the universe works. Whatever you give, you give back tenfold. Power moves to those who serve. So give back now. Don't say, well, you add money. That's why you gave back. Yes, you want the money, give it back. I don't care if you have it or not.
You agree with me, Michael?
Mike: Absolutely. It is 100%. I mean, it's in the Bible and number one, you tithe. The number two, you take care of other god's creatures, whether it's humans or pets. You can see in my shirt, I'm a big Rotarian.
Rotary International, we give back. We do a lot of different things and ladies and gentlemen, whether it's, like you said, the Build-A-Bear's, we find an organization that gives back and you know, there's the Lions Club, the Rotary Internationals, there are churches, there are civic organizations.
It is wonderful. And that's when you finally get fulfilled.
Rod: Again, it's the science of achievement versus the art of fulfillment. Fulfillment's an art. And I'm gonna tell you, I've interviewed people that are very wealthy in my studio in Sarasota, and I can tell if they're like, I was before that epiphany and I feel sorry for them 'cause they're truly not fulfilled. They're egocentric, focused on themselves, you know? And I hope they get it, they have to evolve into that themselves. I've seen it and I'll tell you, I did an award for some of my warriors, some of my coaching students at my live event last year.
I've done it a couple times now, but Orlando, we had a thousand participants and we gave them an award. It was called a Hall of Fame Award. It wasn't the ones that had the most units, it was the ones that contributed to the community the most. And, we did a slide for each one of them, and I started to notice a pattern. Every single one of them did something philanthropic. Schools in Latin America, schools in India. Veterans suicide, veterans homelessness, sexual trafficking, every one of them. And I looked at the crowd, I said, and I pointed to the PowerPoint. I said, that's what we call a freaking clue. Power moves to those who serve.
Anyway, I pride myself on not being the guy that cries, but then you get me in some of these situations where you're giving you see, it's addictive. I think giving is addictive once you start doing it, and once you start seeing the results, it is the most wonderful addictive thing. I will tell you the way the universe works, anything that doesn't contribute ultimately gets eliminated through evolution. There you go.
Mike: Absolutely. So, you know, before I let you go, one more question. You people think it's like, okay, all this sort of stuff. They're kind of worried about the economy. What are you seeing?
Rod: There's incredible opportunity with Crisis Comes Opportunity. I mean, we're seeing incredible deals right now. I've got a 200 unit asset, 200, we call 'em assets apartment complex in San Antonio. It's got a 300 unit next to it that sold for $43 million a few years ago, like three years ago. It's bank-owned now, it's down to 28. We're interested if it gets down to 24, okay? I mean, that's what's happening right now.
There's incredible deals. I'm doing senior housing. You know, COVID decimated a bunch of senior housing facilities, but there's 10,000 people a day turning 65. I mean that's like a tidal wave. They call it the silver tsunami guys. There are 10,000 people a day turning 65 that own businesses.
Figure out your vehicle and decide what it's gonna be. Get around people that are doing it. Learn it as fast as you can. Do it as a side hustle. Don't tell me you can't do it. I'm busier than you are, and I could do it. So just get out there and make no excuses. Just go do it. Success is inevitable.
There's so much opportunity coming. I mean, I think we've got a trillion dollars worth of debt coming due by the end of next year, and those operators either have to sell or refinance. Sales are down 90%. Refinancing is very challenging because you've gotta meet debt service requirements and properties ability to service the debt and the rates aren't low enough yet. Again, opportunity is here, but you gotta get off the fence. You gotta make a move, you can learn it, whatever it is. because it could be the greatest opportunity we've seen in our lifetimes, and I don't say that lightly.
Mike: Yeah, I completely agree.
The truly wealthy people that have done wonderful and what I don't care what it is, stocks, bonds, real estate, you buy when people are scared.
Rod: Contrarian investing. Warren has a quote about this. You get excited when people are fearful." Get fearful when people are excited or something like that.
Mike: That's it. Rod, how can people get a hold of you?
Rod: Yeah, Lifetime Cashflow Through Real Estate Investing Podcast. But the best place is my LinkTree. It's rodslinks.com, rodslinks.com. If you're driving, it's text LINKS to 72345. But there's so much free stuff there. My bestselling book is there. I've never had a critical word about it. I've given away tens of thousands of copies of that. You gotta pay like $7 or something to have it shipped to you, but it costs me $30. I hope you do business with me sometime, which is why I do that.
But there's a ton of other free books that are PDFs. My bootcamp site is there. If the price is more than $47, it's two days of training, nothing being sold for $47. So tell me your excuse, okay? And you get like $3,000 worth of bonuses. So there's no excuses. So the bootcamp site's there, my social media's there, my goal setting workshops there.
If you just want to do that, have your, like I said, have your family do it. You'll thank me. It's very powerful. And I hope I see you in my ecosystem. If not, I wanna wish you the best.
Mike: Absolutely. Everybody's Rod Khleif. Why would you not go to Rod's links?
No excuses, everybody. Thank you so much for coming on The Richer Geek Podcast and I hope you have a wonderful afternoon.
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ABOUT ROD KHLEIF
Rod Khleif is a Sarasota-based multifamily real estate investor, best-selling author, and host of the top 1% business podcast Lifetime Cashflow Through Real Estate Investing with 20M+ downloads. After losing $50M in the 2008 crash, he rebuilt a thriving real estate empire and now leads one of the largest multifamily investing communities, with over 260,000 student-owned units. Through his Tiny Hands Foundation, Rod has helped feed more than 160,000 children. He’s known for his practical investing insights, mindset-driven approach, and honest guidance on building recession-resistant wealth.