Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Hey Victors. Welcome to this week's Victory Show. If this is your first time being here, I'm Travis Cody, the author of 16 best selling books. And I've helped hundreds of business owners, consultants, founders to write and publish their own bestselling books. And in my journey, I've discovered a fascinating pattern. A lot of businesses hit a revenue plateau, usually around a million dollars. So on this show, I sit down with some of the world's most successful CEOs, leaders, business owners, to uncover the strategies they use to overcome those plateaus and scale their businesses to new heights and how you can do the same. So get ready for some beach insights and actionable takeaways that you can implement in your business and life starting today. So today's guest, he's a visionary real estate developer who's not just building homes, he's rebuilding communities. Tradien Durr, who likes to go by Trey, is the founder of Dirk Apple Group, a full service real estate development and construction firm dedicated to revitalizing neighborhoods in Jackson, Mississippi and Charlotte, North Carolina. Since launching in 2018, Trey has been on a mission to transform distressed properties into thriving homes and commercial spaces, all while creating opportunities for affordable housing and economic growth. Dirt Capital Group specializes in acquiring and developing undervalued properties, turning them into high quality housing for homebuyers, landlords and commercial tenants. But beyond real estate, Trey is passionate about community impact, playing a key role in the renaissance of these cities and ensuring that growth benefits the people who live there. With a sharp eye for opportunity and a deep commitment to rebuilding neighborhoods, Trey is providing that real estate is more than just business, it's about legacy. So get ready for an insightful conversation on property development, uni, revitalization and what it takes to really, truly create lasting impact. Trey, thank you so much for being here today. I appreciate it.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Yep, that word, I love that word, impact. You know, there's a lot of, I've had a lot of people on the show and people are doing great things in business, but impact doesn't come up with a lot of them. It's usually just a handful because most people are what they start a business for what, revenue to live in life, lifestyle. But it's generally that business only helps them and their family. And I love the fact that you've got a business that, yes, obviously is doing that for you, but it's also providing community growth. So we'll get into that. But let's talk a little bit about about your story. We were, I Was joking around with you a little bit at the beginning of the call. Real estate is very much about. To me, it feels like the people that I know that are very successful with real estate is it sort of shows them somewhere in their life they saw something and that they just got in on that and that became their thing. So walk me through that a little bit. So you're from Mississipp. McGee, is it? McGee, Mississippi. All right. So people don't realize how small that is. 4,000 people. So that's a small town in England. That would be a village.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Right, Right.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: So you were 17, and. And how did you. At 17 years old, how did real estate even come onto your radar?
[00:03:06] Speaker A: So I was just on Facebook, scrolling one day, saw a guy post a fix and flip.
And I mean, just look, the fix and flip look gorgeous. Actually on the street that I really actually knew and messaged him asking could I actually come out and check the fixing flip out. And he told me, just come on down.
And I'll never forget, after he told me, you know, the renovations, purchase price, and then how much he actually made, I think that just really inspired me, just due to the fact that what he actually made in regards to profit was normally most people's salary in Mississippi.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: For a full years. In one day, I made a year salary. So did he talk about how he did that at all, or he was just like, this is what I did. And it. And it was cool. What was it like from that point? Did you stay in touch with him or did you just go home and you're like, that's it. Like, real estate is. This is the game I want to play.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So I didn't really stay in touch with him too much after that. Just really, you know, followed him on Facebook.
But for me, just seeing that, I think that was enough for me to just spark my interest and real estate more. So and then just not even from a, I would say, profit standpoint, but also just realizing, you know, he was changing his community. Like, this street actually looked better just due to the fact that, you know, he fixed his property up and gave it to, you know, some new homeowners, and it was affordable homes. It wasn't like he came in and, you know, just completely tried to. To, you know, make this his house. You know, $300,000 home. He really priced it affordably as well. So to me, that was just a win. Win.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So you give somebody an affordable home. He made the gorgeous, which made the community nicer, and then he also made like a nice Profit as well. That's what, what a fantastic. You know, how can, how can you argue with that model?
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah, you can't, you can't, you can't.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: So where did you go from there? So you're still a senior in high school at this point. Did you think you were going to go to college and study real estate in college or where, where did you head to from that point?
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah, so didn't think I was going to study real estate in college. I kind of just, I would say more so influence influenced my family to go to law school. So, you know, majored in, in pre law and all that good stuff. I'll say my senior year, just realized after reading so much, I didn't think, you know, law school was the best route for me.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Four years into it, you're like, I'm.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Already tired, you know, still seeing this guy post at the, at the time, you know, on, on Facebook about real estate. So now I'm like, okay, you know, he's been at this for four years. It has to work, right? I mean, you know, like I said, he did show me the profit made four years prior. So at this point I just strategically was thinking like long term, how can I really get into real estate? Because I knew, you know, you had to have the capital to actually purchase first place. I need to be a credit worthy applicant when you're going to these things. So for me, I strategically thought, what is a, you know, a good career for me to have, but also at the same time, you know, travel the world a little. I'm really gaining leadership experience as well. And I came to the conclusion to be an army officer. So I did that for five years.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: That's interesting because usually people will do army and then go to college. And you went, you did the backwards route.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Right, right, right. So I was doing Army ROTC also while I was in just, I would say more. So I really enjoyed it. I really like working out as well. But I also knew I could go active duty at the end of everything if I was selected, which I got selected. And it's made a lot of sense for me from a salary standpoint as well at that time.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: So you were looking, so you're done with school and you're looking at military. So you're looking around going, what are my options to be able to get 40, $50,000 in place that I could then invest my first real estate. And for you, the military, that was the, so salary made sense. And then at the time, you know, obviously got a lot of stuff Going on in the Middle east, were you factoring in, like, oh, if I deploy for six to eight months, my bonus pay from that is going to be pretty decent. Exactly where did you end up going when you went to the. Did you tour?
[00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I went to Kuwait and Iraq Union 3 specifically to grade the port deployment. Learned a lot well and it was a great opportunity to serve my country.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Well, thank you for your service. You were definitely in the thick of it.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I definitely.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: I know this is going to be a little bit off topic, but what are. What was one or two big insights that you had living in either of those countries, just being in the Middle east and spending time there?
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I would, I would say for me, it was a big culture. Culture shock. I would say, especially just venturing off the Basin in Kuwait, you know, from the food, women being covered up as well, shaking hands sometimes. It was. It was definitely a culture shock. Was.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Was Kuwait a little bit more friendly than Iraq?
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Kuwait was more friendly. One of the other big, big things was the heat in Kuwait. I mean, it's almost like a microwave going.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Really?
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just like you walk outside, you actually can't bear to be outside from normally from 10:00am to 6:00pm you.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Know, it's really interesting. I did Egypt a couple years ago and we were there in the fall and it was. The temperature was like 105. Now I live in Vegas, so I'm going. Coming from 115, 110, going 105. No big deal. It was so much hotter. Even though it was 105. My brain is like, I don't. It's not this hot in Vegas. Then the other part of it was just stepping into the shade, how much quicker the. The temperature change was just in, like going in the shade into direct sun. In Vegas, we don't have that. You're in the shade or in the sun. It's the same temperature. So your point to the sun feeling like a microwave? That's a really good point because as soon as you got out of it, it just. The temperature dropped so much.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So it was definitely, yeah, pretty, pretty intense living.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: How. So you were there now this whole time. You were there for the, like, not there, but in the, in your four or five years, were you saving pretty much just shoveling all of your money into the side, knowing that that was going to be.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: So I was, I was saving substantially. A lot of other officers, you know, they were buying cars, just Amazon boxes for the day. Every paycheck that I got, I was just you know, sending to my savings, I wasn't probably spending max, maybe 250amonth.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: I was on the, I was living on the, on a thread. I was just eating at the defect and was only buying accessory necessities that I actually. Things I actually needed, so.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Well, what I mean, first off, just the discipline to be able to do that. But it's also, from my perspective, the patience most people don't have. The patience of going, I'm just going to chill for three or four years and put on my money and then, then I will be able to. Most people, you know, that, that four or five years seems just way too long for them to be able to do something like that. So where did you get that discipline from? Is that just inborn? Did you get that from your parents? Something you learned?
[00:09:44] Speaker A: I would say it's a mixture of it all really. Seeing my grandmother work so, so hard so early on in life. My great grandmother, she was a maid. My grandmother, when I was seven years old, I was out in a pea field picking peas. So I feel like I've always been super disciplined, just hard working. You know, a lot of kids at the time, they weren't doing jobs like that. For me, I just always had a super hard work ethic, no matter what I was doing. But like I said, I really got up my family. Seeing them, you know, helped afford me opportunities that I, you know, potentially wouldn't have had. Even just from, you know, college. First, sure, year or two, I didn't have to work in college. My family just made me focus on college classmates. At the time, they're working two, three jobs just to pay for tuition. But I'll have money outside of paying for tuition as well to just have food some days. So for me, I realized my family did give me that luxury. So I really wanted to make sure every opportunity they gave me, I really, you know, took advantage of them all.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: What a gift. So walk me through your first real estate deal. You're out of the military, you got your money saved up. And so, and one of the things we were talking about before, I like highlight, is that when you were, when you were over in the Middle east, you were doing your shift, working out, and then you were studying, but you, the whole time you were just reading books on real estate.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Yep, yep. Yeah. I mean, reading those books and it's weird to say this, you know, a lot of people say you really have to have experience to, you know, really execute really well. Those books really just changed my thinking. Some of those books I Mean, everything that I read essentially has came true today. Some, you know, in some type of form of fashion. My first deal was a, it was a duplex. And for me, my thought process was, you know, why don't people really buy, you know, single families? I mean, let's say if the deal does mess up, right, and you have to put a tenant in place, you're still paying for one roof, you know, one H Vac, all of those, all of those big items, right? A duplex of multifamily. I'm paying for one roof, 1H vac, but I'm getting two tenants, so I'm getting two now. And that was my whole thought process going into real estate. A lot of people do not think like that at all, but that was my thought process. And I was like, I'm going to bet all of my money on this, on this strategy. I studied enough.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Now, did you get that from one of the books somewhere or that just.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: Reading it, reading that book in detail. And to me it made so much sense to take that approach and just execute that strategy. So my first deal was a duplex. And I'll never forget for doing that duplex. I went and purchased it and like I said, I got, got those two, those, those two incomes, those two rental checks and I had one mortgage. I never forget after paying everything, you know, taxes, insurance, specifically for that month, I had 650 remaining.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: I was like, okay, 600amonth in profit.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: 1. I was like, if I buy 10 of these, I could be financially free.
Everything went up. So, yeah, and I'm also in Mississippi still. I'm still living in Mississippi now. So everything's around me super cheap. And I still have a, you know, majority of those savings that I had.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: So I just, you know, Schwarzenegger in his book Total Recall, he talked about he would just, he got interested in real estate because, you know, he was a bricklayer. And he ended up doing some walls for the same guy, like five different houses. And he was like, how does this guy have five houses? And that guy told him about real estate. And so he, he went to college and studied about that. But he was saying that the same thing. He's all, I'm watching all my friends and they're saving up their money and then they're buying their first house. And he's like, and I saved up the same amount of money and I bought a four unit apartment building. And he's like, I paid the same amount they did. He's like, but now I lived for free. And the Other three parrot covered the mortgage and he's all. A year later, an investor came and offered me money that was at a profit. And so he sold it. And with the profit he went and bought a 12 unit apartment building. And then he bought, sold that and then he went to a 36 unit. And then, you know, eight years later he owned half of Main street on Santa Monica.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: It's actually very simple. You just have to have the discipline, the vision as well to execute.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: So, all right, so that was your taste of it. So where did you go? Where did you go from. From there? And at what point did you, you know, decide that it was time to make your own capital group from that? So was the first five or six years you're just buying individual properties?
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Yeah, sort of. I would say the first two years I was just buying individual properties. And so I did, you know, like I said, did duplex. And right after that I did a four place. After the four places, eight place. So I was, whatever I was buying for me, I was doubling the size each time. It made more sense for me to, you know, buy and keep them for a year. Didn't sell because I knew I could grow quicker that way versus just buying and holding. The one thing about real estate, you'll always find deals, but you'll always run out of capital as well, no matter how big, how big you get. And that's when you even look at these guys, you know, that are billionaires, at the end of the day, they still use debt because it makes more sense to be able to leverage because you're, it's just, it's too much real estate out there. You'll never be able to buy, you know, buy all of it without, you know, either selling or leveraging more. So for me, the easiest thing was just to sell more and also protecting my downsize because a lot of deals I was, you know, purchasing with cash or 50% LTV loan at the same time. So for me it made, it made a lot of sense just to grow organically like that. So yeah, I did, did all that in Mississippi in 20, 20, 19, I would say most of the end of 2019. That's when I came to Charlotte. And as you know, that's when the world essentially appeared out of that real estate prices just, you know, went, went.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: How many properties did you have in your portfolio when that all happened?
[00:15:17] Speaker A: I had 55, Dan. And when I was moving to Charlotte and I sold this.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: So the start of 2020 you had around 50 properties.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: And I sold all of those during.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: That following year or just.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say during that following year and midway, midway through. Because for me, I also realized that I felt like Mississippi was more so on a downward spiral. I felt like Charlotte was one of those cities. It was a, you know, a bigger city, but not a major city. And I felt like a lot of people eventually really want to move there as well. I mean, same time they had a real estate development school that I found out about. Really for me, I wanted to go to real estate development school to learn more, really grow my knowledge base. And at the same time, I was going to move to a great city because when I. When I look at opportunities, I think if you can park yourself in the right city, you can really amplify your life, amplify your opportunities, because you right people, but you're also in a city as, you know, great economic growth at the same time. So that was super important to me. I mean, you know, someone being in New York in the 70s and 80s, just the right place, the right time. So that was a big turning point economically looking at Charlotte.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: So for people listening who may not understand what the difference between a real estate investor and a real estate developer is, you want to walk, walk them through that?
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So a real estate investor is more so someone who just buys properties, updates and flip some buyers rentals as well. Their main goal is they could be a doctor, a lawyer, but they want to park their money in a real estate majority of the time. And they're normally trying to be more so passive investors versus an active investor. Real estate developer is primarily active investor. And that's someone that they could take a piece of land, get it entitled and actually build on it. When I say build on it, they could build a single family house, they could build a duplex, or they could build an apartment complex. Just depends on that developer's niche.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Slightly different risk profiles.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: The risk of reward is definitely greater in both as well. The developer is more. Just more. More high stakes, I would say, at the end of the day.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: So what, what is that? What is it about the development that's appealing to you that you're really liking?
[00:17:28] Speaker A: A lot of people don't understand development. It's almost like a foreign language. It takes time to become a good developer, but it also takes time to even get into development.
There's so many roadblocks, I would say as well, from a government standpoint. Every state is different, every city is different. So you really have to, you know, understand what you're getting yourself into with development, have mentors have sponsors. It's a lot that goes into development. But the first thing I think you need to have is the knowledge. Right. And for me that was my main reason. Development school.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: Was that a, was that like a year long program?
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Correct program. And it was phenomenal to get in that program. I actually met my, my business partner in that program.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Oh really?
[00:18:09] Speaker A: We've done, we've done a lot of deal.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: So was most of the people in the development program, were they all real estate investors that had some success and were like how do I get to the next level? Or was there just some people going like I want to start, start, start the ground and work my way up?
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Great question, great question. I would say it was maybe 60, 64 and 60 were just trying to get into real estate and the other 40% were already in real estate. They're really looking for those know, mentorship. There's a lot of professors. I mean we're, you know, doing really great things.
And then the real estate program that I was a part of, we had a board of directors and the board of directors, I mean within Charlotte, they were, you know, the largest firms, the CEOs of the largest firms.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Being, you know, I'm 25, being able to send them in an email to a CEO at a, you know, at a, at a super, super enormous rate. And he responds back to me in five minutes and say let's, you know, let's go get lunch tomorrow. So for me that having to access that network was also a critical point. And I, I would say my trajectory and growing my real estate company. Well, yeah.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: So what does this last, you know, four years after, after you sold everything off, went through roulette? Like what does that, that, you know, the last four years look like from you now? Are, have you still continued to, to do what you're doing with the investing and now the development is an arm of that. That you're going after like bigger projects or.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Great, great question. I would say now we're. The development is definitely arm more so now developing single families for the most part looking at a few apartment complexes. But the environment we're in right now has definitely made that more difficult. With interest rates as high as they are.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Kind of scale back a little. Make sure we're very risk averse on you know, our, this, this next year I would say definitely just 20, 25. Right. Right now the last four years we definitely, you know, develop these four. Focus on commercial properties also like retailing. We still have been focusing on retailing. Office still A lot of single family clips. But our, our main focus has been acquiring apartment complexes versus, you know, developing apartment complexes. Right now, just from a replacement cost standpoint, it makes more sense to go, you know, to try and go buy something because we can buy a 7 cap or we can build, you know, a 5 cap, but while we build a 5 cap, we can buy a 7 cap. Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: We've had a couple of people on the show that they're, you know, they're really smart business guys, but they've all admitted to, like, I don't like to buy, build stuff from scratch. They're like, they go identify smaller companies they can buy because they know they can build them and then they'll sell them. And they're like, it's so much faster just to buy something already running than it is to try to build from scratch. So that's funny that that's even in the real estate niche. So as you've gone along this process, like, at what point did you, I'm assuming you have a team now that's working for you and what did that look like as you start to realize, like, oh, wow, like I need to start develop, developing the team here. And this is like, you know, we've gone beyond just a real estate investor to now you have this, you know, a capital group and you've got a, you know, a business you're building.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I would say, and it was very, it was so hard for me to let go. I would say that was probably one of the hardest things about me really realizing, okay, you're a CEO now. You can't do everything yourself. You have to.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: But it sounds like you really get love getting in the dirt and getting in the numbers though, too. That sounds like it's a. Yeah, that's been my.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: I've always loved that thought. Like, I've always just loved.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: There's, there's a word for that for those guys are called nerds.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: It was always. I just enjoyed the work. But I think I realized that after we bought a script center and I just realized I couldn't do it all by myself. And it was ironically, a majority of my employees now that work for me, they reached out to me. Like, I never went out and recruited or anything. They actually reached out to me and was saying, hey, it's similar to, to, you know, how I got in real estate myself. Reaching out, seeing someone on social media and, you know, just DMing them and messaging them, asking, hey, I see what you're doing. How can I help? Can I learn from you, you know, some type of way I want to be involved. And that's essentially how I got all of my employees. And my first employee, she reached out, he was asking, could she help? And I'm like, okay, it may be, you know, a good idea. Let me just, you know, see bringing her on, I mean, it took away, I would say, like, so many of the tasks that I was actually doing. I would say around 35% of workload that I had. So that freed me up. Now I can, you know, focus more on the acquisition side again, and I get bogged down with these other tasks. And that's when I think a light bulb went off in my head. This is how I strategically would grow more people that can do some of the. Some of these other things, but people that are skilled at doing them, and they want to do them as well.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: So what have been. What's been a couple of the, you know, I guess, challenges you've had stepping away from being an investor into CEO. And at the same time, what are one or two big lessons that you've had along that, that path?
[00:22:57] Speaker A: That's a great question. I would say the big lessons. Big lessons is, number one, you can't do everything yourself. You have to rely on other people, but not only rely on them, trust in other people that they will get the job done. If you, if you hire the right people, you know, they. They will perform well. I was reading Steve Jobs, his autobiography, but also Jim Collins, good degree. And one of the big things, and specifically in Jim Collins book, he. He talked about and referenced was, you know, just hiring great people. When you hire great people, micromanaging constantly, you know, tell them how to do things. If you hired them, you hired them for a reason.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Get out of their way and let them work. And that was probably, I would say, the biggest lesson I. I learned.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Did you have a tendency to micromanage a little bit in the beginning?
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Definitely did. And I think from my military leadership background, you know, in the, in the, in the military, they always say trust but verify. Right. So I'm constantly. I was constantly. I was checking up on people. Even though they told me they did something, I would still follow up. Like, and you don't really realize that by being in the military then making that transition. Right. Because in the military, you just tell people to do something and that's it. Like, there's no.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: You don't wonder if they did it or not. You just assume that it's done. Yeah.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: So. And, you know, also hiring my employees you know, I would tell them to do something, and I would expect it to be done exactly like I said. But, you know, they'll send me an email and it's not done. Like I said, it's done better than I said, oh, wow, more efficient. So for me, that was a. A hard lesson to learn, to allow people to be themselves and let them win the day themselves.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: You know, this is going to be an odd comparison, but that was a big lesson that I had when I was in Hollywood, when I was producing and I directed a couple of things, and I'm very clear in my vision. And you're directing, like, I'm going to do this thing. There was a time I just hit burnout, and I just went to the editors and I told the editors, I'm like, just, you know, here's what I'm thinking. Here's what I want to try to see it. You guys do it. And the next day I came back and was watching the dailies, and what they had edited was so much better than what I had envisioned that I was like, oh, maybe that's why these guys are editors. And. And may. And that was such a realization of going, oh, man, if I just let these guys go free, they end up with something that was so much like 10 times better than what I was. Now, I know in certain. Certain jobs, it's not always the case. Sometimes you got to get somebody on board. But the fact that you. You had that experience is the guy that can make you feel good, too, with your. With your company and your employees knowing that that was. That's going to be the end result. So what is. What is the next five years look like for. For the Dirt Capital Group? Where are you? What are your guys's kind of big visions, and where are you headed?
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Yeah, so I would say our big vision is really to partner with the city. We're most likely going to get a lot of funding support from the city. We actually received funding support last year, but now we're really, really going to.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Specifically to do, like, affordable housing development.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Housing development. That's what I really, really, really want to focus on. Looking at. Just from a. I won't even say it's just TG standpoint, but ensuring that we give back to the community. Right. I think that is super important. And just looking at Charlotte inflation as well, that we have to allow people to have access to affordable homes, that's super big for me. So I would say that's number one. Number two, also focusing outside of Charlotte, too, like Greensboro North Carolina, that's another a great area. But it's an area that also is suffering from rising cost as well. So we really want to focus on Greensboro, North Carolina. And number three, I would say we also really want to start looking into just more single family home developments outside of apartment complex acquisitions that we focus on the last three or four years. We feel like single family homes are definitely going to be needed, especially in, you know, certain, certain metros with homes. Now we realize there are a lot of homes that are super outdated, smaller as well in Charlotte. So, you know, building homes for families, you know, young people, but families that actually need these homes. So that'll be, that would be another my folks really, I love it.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: So if somebody's listening to this and they either want to get involved with what the Dirt Capital Group is doing or, you know, maybe they were, you know, where you were at when you were 17, they're seeing you on social media. How do they, how do they get involved what you do and how do they connect with you? LinkedIn, I'm assuming.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah, link. LinkedIn for sure is Trayvon Dir. Instagram is Travian C. Underscore. And those are mainly, I probably say, the best social media to contact. Contact me and our website also they can fill out a form on Derek.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, I like to end every conversation with, with three questions or just rapid fire. If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be and why?
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Oh, it's a good one. That's a really good one. I have to give myself some my younger self advice. I would say dream, drink and outwork everyone. I think I saw a quote not too long ago and it was more so just really specifically saying that. Let's say if, you know, I meet a guy, he's on a treadmill and we, we know he can, you know, he's a marathon runner. Let's say he's on a treadmill and he's just running away. I mean, not a triple sweat. And I'm, you know, I'm on a treadmill as well. I think the big thing for me to do is not to quit. I mean, I can die on that treadmill, but as long as I don't give up. I think that's one of the most important things that you need to instill in yourself in your early days. You just never giving up, never quitting. Because in business you will fail eventually. But when you fail, you have to pick yourself up.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: I love it. You know, I saw a quote One time that I thought was really interesting where it was talking about, you know, the different speeds of animals and like how humans are in the scheme of the animal kingdom are so slow and squishy, like pretty much everything could eat us. But there's not an animal on the planet that can walk longer than a human can. And so they're saying everybody gets all caught up on the sprinting and the whatever and they're like, but the reality is if you just keep walking, there's no other animal on the planet that will be able to keep up with you because they'll eventually get tired and have to stop and humans can keep walking. And I thought about that. I'm like, that is actually true. So it's not necessarily about the speed, it's about the staying power. It's about just the consistency of just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: So what belief or mindset shift has had the biggest impact on your success and your happiness?
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say for just in regards to my set shift, just really confidence, believing in myself, really believing in myself. I think, you know, one of the big things I do is now I get up, you know, 5am in the morning and I visualize my life and I write out my goals as well. But I write out, you know, that I was going to be successful. I've been doing that the last four or five years. You know, eventually you talk to yourself, you write out your goals and your dream, eventually you'll believe in it, right? And then it'll also happen.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: I love it. That's fantastic. I think people definitely underestimate the power of writing things down. For sure.
The final question is, what's the best investment you've ever made in yourself?
[00:30:17] Speaker A: The best investment I've made in myself probably just two, two things and they're really, really small things. Just a, you know, a great gym membership is, is ones I think people really don't realize like you know, you can make as much money in the world but health is one of the most important things out there, right? Like really taking care of your, your and not just your body but your, your, your mental well being too. So even like the app talk space being able to talk to someone just about mental health mentally. So I would say those, you know, from a health standpoint and mental standpoint and then number two, just eating, eating right as well. Invested in a shelf also and just having you know, meal preps every week.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Versus eating junk makes a big difference, doesn't it?
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Completely 360 for me. I feel like I'm more focused. I feel better as well. So those two things are very small things and things that really, you know, look into or think they matter, but I mean, they can. There's such a big return on investment in reverse. Investing yourself and trying to get better. You.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: I love it. You know, one of my main mentors, he told me this story when he had. He'd sold his first business and became a multimillionaire. And he was young, he was in his mid-30s. And he said it was funny because he lived in a building in Dallas. It was like a 30 story high rise. And there was a maintenance guy there. They always saw him. He was there every day. And after he sold this company, he was getting ready to move out and he actually discovered that the maintenance man was the guy who owned the building. And he had started as a maintenance guy and had started building and slowly, you know, until he had this high rise. So when he went up to the guy the last day he was there and said, hey, I understand, you know, you're really successful in business. And I just sold my business and I'm just wondering if you have any. He said the guy was in his 70s. He's like, do you have any advice for a young pup like me? And he said, the guy looked. Took the mop and leaned on the mop and looked at him and said, son, you spend a third of your life on your feet and a third of your life sleeping. So don't over go cheap on your shoes and don't go over cheap on your mattress, right? And I'm going to add and add, you know, Jim and the chef, and you're all set. Trey, thanks so much for your time today. It's been a fantastic conversation.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Oh, no problem. Thanks for having me as well.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: Cheers.
