3 Degrees of Freedom

Ep 144 - Focusing on Processes For Success From the Inside Out in Business with Christopher Levarek

• Derek Clifford • Season 3 • Episode 144

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In this episode, we're joined by Christopher Levarek, a full-time real estate investor and Managing Partner of Valkere Investment Group. Christopher, a former US Air Force firefighter and Arizona State University graduate with a background in banking technology brings a wealth of experience to the table.

As Operations Manager at Valkere, he oversees the company's management, technical infrastructure, and daily operations. Christopher's expertise lies in developing efficient business systems and nurturing partner relationships to identify investment opportunities.

During our candid conversation, Christopher discusses the three degrees of freedom and their impact on his life and business. We explore his transition into full-time entrepreneurship, the challenges he faced, and the mindset shifts that drove his success. Christopher generously shares the processes he built to streamline his business operations, offering invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Moreover, we delve into the unique dynamics of running a family business, as his wife and brother are also involved in Valkere. Join us to discover the secrets of achieving success through effective internal processes and thoughtful partnerships.

Connect with Christopher using the links below and learn more about his business:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-levarek/

Unlock 3+1 degrees of freedom (time, location, financial + health) with our 5-Point Blueprint! https://elevateequity.org/podcastgift

If you really enjoyed this content and are looking for more, you can continue to learn more about us in several different places for free!

If you'd like to have a FREE copy of our 7 Ways Commercial Real Estate Syndications Protect and Build Wealth, simply click the link below. We are here and vested in your long-term success! elevateequity.org/7waysEbook

Unlock 3+1 degrees of freedom (time, location, financial + health) with our 5-Point Blueprint! https://elevateequity.org/podcastgift

If you really enjoyed this content and are looking for more, you can continue to learn more about us in several different places for free!

If you'd like to have a FREE copy of our 7 Ways Commercial Real Estate Syndications Protect and Build Wealth, simply click the link below. We are here and vested in your long-term success! elevateequity.org/7waysEbook

Derek Clifford:

All right, and we've got Chris Lever on the call. Chris, how are you today man?

Christopher Levarek:

Hi. Awesome. Good to be here. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Derek Clifford:

Absolutely. We're excited to have you here. For those who don't know Chris, he's a full-time real estate investor and managing partner of Valkyrie Investment Group, and he's a former US Air Force firefighter. Arizona State University graduate with experience and information technology for the baking sector and operations manager for Valkyrie Investment Group. He's responsible for developing and managing the Valkyrie team, implementing efficient business. Pro processes and systems, which we're gonna be talking about a little bit, and working with the marketing and sales team to cultivate partner relationships and identify investment opportunities. And Chris is in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife, two sons. And he has hobbies like playing the guitar, spending time with family, and then reading in his spare time. So those are very fruitful activities and I know that you could be enjoying any one of those things, but instead you're on here with us. So thank you very much for coming on the show, man. How are you today?

Christopher Levarek:

I'm doing pretty good. Doing pretty good. Yeah. Good to be here.

Derek Clifford:

Awesome. Very cool. Let's go ahead and start off with talking about the three degrees of freedom. As we like to talk about location freedom, time freedom, and financial freedom. Do you mind if I ask you, and I guess for both you and your family, which of the three degrees of freedom do you guys find that you have the most flexibility in right now? And which ones do you want to work on the most next?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah, so probably location freedom. We work from, home and have for the last year and a half and even when I had my w2, we were working from home. So probably a lot of location freedom. We're going to Cancun next week or on Wednesday. Just get to pick our own time. But probably would like to improve time freedom. Building a business. I got two kids under four times valuable. Let's do that.

Derek Clifford:

That's great. I'm, glad that you said that. A lot of people say that they have their financial freedom, but they're trying to like, break away from their work and everything, and they're trying to work on location freedom or time freedom. So time freedom is very common because that ultimately in the end, that is the common denominator between what people are trying to create for themselves, right? Location, freedom's one thing, but it's definitely the ability to do what you want, when you want it. Let's talk a little bit about your transition into your business or doing this full-time. You mentioned to me a little bit before the recording started that you did this back in March, either I think last year, right? You transitioned from your full-time it job into, real estate full-time. Can you talk a little bit about what that was like for you? How you were able to. Jump into something that's, so different, right? Leaving the full-time job and going into an entrepreneurial venture where it's just you is definitely a different mindset and there's a fear, there's things you gotta overcome. Can you talk us through what you had to do to, get there?

Christopher Levarek:

Sure. I don't think you're ever very adequately prepared to just up and give up an identity you've had for 20 years, 12 years, 15, whatever it is. So I actually did this twice in my life so far. And I should say we're always transitioning at some point in our life, transitioning identities. But really, I was in military for four years and they really develop an identity around you being in a military. And so when you quit military, it's very similar. It's like this breaking, breaking who you think you are. Breaking away from it. And the same happened when I left my job last year in March. I was a IT engineer for 12 years. I used to build data centers and servers and networks and so that's who I was. So when you quit and you go become someone else, It's it's freeing because you know that's what you wanted to do and you're, you finally realized whatever your new dream. But then it's also very scary because again, like I said, you're letting go of this idea of who is Chris, and that's me. Like who I am an IT engineer. I do this, I get up at eight, I work till five. So you have this structure around your identity. So when you give that up, you're who am I now? And so that's what I had to deal with, I'd say the first three months, if I'm gonna just be like the first 12 months, the first three months, you're kinda like, woo, I've done it. And you're just kinda not sure what's going on, just living day to day. And then, it hits, you're like, man, I need to I need to keep working. I need to do something. Make something my life. And then you hit your rhythm around month six and figure out systems and figure out time blocking and, get into a mode there. But it's been fun.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, that's awesome. And obviously it there's, a lot of change that happens when you go from W2 to full-time in your own business. There's a fire that gets lit under you because it's like, it's your family's dependent on you now, right? It used to be the W2 and you could like work from the safety of that and have your side hustle going on, the side, but you'd always have the stable income coming in. But now everyone's dependent on you, so I completely understand that. Yeah. Can you talk us through your mindset, how it's evolved over the years? I know you touched on it briefly because in the military there's a certain mindset there. There's a certain mindset as a student. But can you talk about how your mindset has grown or how you've had to change maybe over the last couple of years?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah, it's Something an entrepreneur goes through is, changing that mindset, changing that identity, changing what's possible because that's the only way a business grows. And we know if a bus business isn't growing, it's typically. Declining or it's like stagnation, which is death for a business. So you have to think about what is possible and, to do that, you have to do that as a person. You have to shift that mindset from, a lot of the negative, or I can't do this to more of a, how can I do this approach in everything and be a little more positive in your thinking day to day. This is gonna work out. I made this decision, I have to go with it because You, don't get to go back or you don't get to fall back on things a lot when you're running your own business. You've made the decision run with it. So the mindset shifts and what I've done a lot is, lately and even this last year has had to change my networks. A like I said, you change your identity so your network goes with the identity. I no longer am talking about it all the time. So those IT guys I used to talk about with are, not in my network anymore. That's just a natural way. But now I had to transition into finding things that were gonna help me be a better entrepreneur. And that means networking with other entrepreneurs and other people doing what I'm doing possibly farther ahead. And that's, been key to me, changing my mind and, changing who I am, becoming a new version.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah. That's awesome. So it sounds like you've surrounded yourself with people who are like-minded to you so that you can get inspiration from them and basically work from your network outside. Yep. Now there's, but there, there is a change. I have to give you more credit as well because I don't think you can just give all the credit to your network because There's something inside you that made you want to do something on your own back when you started, this is a side hustle, right? You were working under in it and you're probably, maybe you even had this spark, as in the military or even in school, or maybe both. Can you talk a little bit about where that came from? Where did you get your inspiration to do something and on your own? And try to make some mo some money on the side or try to build something more exciting cuz you're a busy dude. You got kids, you got a wife you got family. Like all of this stuff takes time and energy. And, why did you pursue this also?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah. I think you just, things happen in life where they call 'em life-changing events and a lot of times they're associated with trauma or they're associated with something big in your life that you, your mother passing away or something that, that really causes you to go and make a big change. And it's interesting. My dad ran his own businesses when I was a kid, and he had some good ones and he had some really bad ones. And I remember always we were having like we lived in good places, but we'd have like ups and downs as far as cashflow and income for the month. Depending on a good sale, and so I grew up with that and I was like, I never want that. I want stability. And so I chased the paycheck for a while. And when my first son was born 2018, somehow it coincided with this, realization that my 401k wasn't getting bigger. In fact it dipped in 2018 cuz they actually fiddled with the fund rate or the fed rate. Most people don't remember. But and that kind of spurred me into this man, I thought this was stable, but it seems to actually just be safe for now and un and risky later on. So I said let me be risky in my thirties and then I'll be safer in my sixties. And that was the what got me started. And then having my son born was almost. An incentive to really create something, legacy and, build something that lasts farther than just if I get laid off of my job. That's pretty much what, started the journey? What started the incentive? I like to credit my dad with his businesses, and that's where it all started, but really that made me most scared and conservative and, try to avoid risk with seeing all the the, instability at home when I was younger. And I wanted a more stable future, but then I, realized why people do it and, so I changed later on.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, I love that, man. The, thing that I picked up from this is that you started more or less from maybe a fear-based driver, right? Or from early on it was like, man I, don't want that. And then I can tell like through your language that as time went on, you shifted into like more of a legacy building, like proactive kind of approach. And I think it's always the fear that gives us the attention first, right? We're always looking at. What we want to push away actually can be stronger than what we want, right? I'm sure you've heard of like the thought experiment before where there is I think it's the pain of losing something is worse than you trying to get something new, right? If you, already have let's say that you're wealthy the pain of you losing that wealth, Is much greater than if you were already not wealthy and trying to get that right. There's pain there associated with that change. And so that fear of loss rather than the fear of trying to become someone different to gain something is always where we start. At least that's, how it was for me and for the listeners that are out there. Maybe you're at this point right now, just know that things will change and know that you're going to eventually. As you go through this, go through that eventual mindset shift where you're going from fear-based motivation to eventually achievement based motivation, right? Where you want to leave something behind for your kids, for you and, also inspire and teach other people what you're doing. And so I can tell if that's what you're doing right now, especially through your social media posts too. You got some good stuff out there. Thanks, man. Yeah. So I want to back up a little bit and talk about what you're doing right now. I know that vacation rentals is a really big part of your business, but now you're shifting into multifamily and maybe some industrial or triple net or maybe some other commercial type investments on real estate. Before we do that, I'm really big on processes and time freedom. That's something that's really, important to me. And that's something that I try to help people with a lot on, my end as well. It sounds like you, in your firm help build processes to make things move more efficiently or you identify them. Can you give us a little bit of insight as to what you do there so we can go from that point and start to leverage your knowledge there.

Christopher Levarek:

Sure. Yeah. So as an IT engineer for the past like 12 years the big on systems and automation, so it came very natural to me in my business. And a big piece of that, when we say system, we don't just mean go. Go buy some app that does it or whatever. It's really just designing even a checklist as a system. It's something that improves the flow of the work. And then you can also take that system or that flow, that checklist and now give it to someone else and they can run it. And that's how businesses grow. And I, love when people are good at this. I wish I could find more and put 'em in my business because I used to do a lot of it, and now I end up doing a lot of the this, managing the people and managing the, business itself. But some of the things we've done as using tools like Zapier, of course people are familiar which just ties applications together. So if an email comes in. To a certain account, we get Slack notifications that let us know something happened. And that's really cool to get instant messages or instant feedback on how your systems are performing. And you can then you can have your VA or whoever go look up in Slack all the times. This came in during the month this notification versus hunt down five emails or whatever So there's different, what that does is it gives more time back to my va, it makes it cheaper for her to do her work, and she can get me the data I need quicker. So system is really just improving some kind of repeatable action in your business that lets you work more efficiently and possibly more effectively and more cost effectively. We've done stuff like that. We do also time blocking. I'm big on time blocking, so that's creating a schedule on a Sunday for my work weekly week making sure I prioritize my priority items that are based on say, a 90 day goal. Make sure those priority items are in the morning cuz I work better in the morning. And then my like I don't know. Maybe working on systems, which is whatever. Or working in Zapier for example. Maybe I do that at 12 o'clock or one o'clock where I have some time. And it's not essential that I get that done that day. It's like a secondary task. So that's how we do time blocking. We work in green zones and Yellow Zones and Red Zones. And Red Zones is I'm really tired. I'm gonna do a poor job. I better not talk to a customer or something like that. So that's a lot. We do a lot of time blocking. We have VAs, we have four VAs, so it's big on loom. We record a lot of things. And then they can look up in the library creating SOPs for the VAs. So if it's a marketing strategy on LinkedIn, this is the five things you do every day. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and record video on how to do it. That kinda thing.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah. That's awesome. This is wonderful. This is exactly what people think and about processes. At least that's what I think of as processes. It's not buying the app, it's it's, finding a way to integrate them into your business to make a. To make things more standardized. And to make it run smoother so that instead of you needing to be there for every little decision, the decisions are being pre-made. And so all it is, you're feeding input into the machine and then there's a specific output that you're looking for. And it works great when you have all of these different systems in place because then if you grow so much, Chris, like. All you really are doing is you just add more people to the same process, right? Like the s o p is there, you can just do more of the same thing and every time you want to tweak it, then you go back in and change the s o p a little bit. You rerecord the video or you add another video to it and there's a library where everyone can go to, to go check it out, right? And so that's, what. That's like the epitome of having great systems in place. And so I find it really interesting that with you understanding that and you coming from a background of it and knowing what's possible with internet and all these tools, that you're still looking for time freedom. Everyone is always looking for time freedom and I completely get it though. Because things like add on layer on quick when you're trying to grow a business. So I completely understand that. Now you, have a unique IT background and you're a real estate investor and you come from the W2 world. What advice can you give for those who are trying to build processes like that? If they're trying to build some form of of, time freedom or systems. You, it may come naturally to time block, but how do you back up and advise people to start thinking about standardizing stuff for themselves, even if it's personal stuff?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah, I think it, it does start with the original goal. So recognize like you have only so much time and you probably have certain skills that you're good at. So focus on those skills and then focus on the priority or goal that you set for the next quarter or whatever. Recognize that. You only have the time you have. As much as you wanna put 15 goals under your work. But for, a quarter, you should realistically know it probably won't happen. A cuz maybe you're not good at it or B, you just don't have the time for it. So set the one to two and then really focus on getting those done, maybe in a 45 minute sprint and then a 45 day sprint. And then. Set another one to two in a 45 day sprint. But I find a lot of people and it's just natural. We go, oh, I have all these big ideas for the quarter, let me throw 'em all in and we're gonna find a way to do it. And typically you do one to two anyway and you're stressed out because you had five you were aiming for. So I'm a big believer like go for the one to two, really prioritize them. And if you have 'em set for that 90 day or that 45 day, then you can really associate, okay, I got. I don't know, four or six weeks to do this in. I'm gonna work Tuesdays on Thursdays from nine to 11 on this task related to this goal. So you got six weeks to do that in you got 12 days I believe that's at, to do those tasks. So when you break it down like that, you really see okay This should work or it shouldn't work, but I don't, I can't fit any more priority items in here with my given schedule, so this is what I'm gonna do. So working backwards to know what time available is and, what you're good at, like how fast you can do it. That's how I think you should set the goal. That's how you should really like work into it and not try to overly 10 x everything. Like some people try to jam so many goals into a quarter, it's unrealistic.

Derek Clifford:

That's right, man. I love that the having a 90 day sprint has been a game changer for our business, but I love the fact that you're doing a 45 day sprint. Yeah. And I like 90 days because 90 days is just long enough to establish a habit and also make a huge impact on your business. Especially if you're working on internal processes. You can do a lot in 90 days, like even in your personal life. You can transform your health. You can transform what your business does. Within a 90 day timeframe. Oh. Did I lose you? Yeah, just a little. Okay. All right. Hopefully that, that goes through. Either way it'll be edited, so No worries. You bet. All right, cool. But yeah, no I like your approach of having a 45 day sprint because 45 days is like a it's a teaser to a quarter. And it allows you to plan effectively. And most people can do something for 45 days. It's very achievable. And having something that's sustainable is more important than achievable than, seemingly achievable. And so I love that approach of saying, okay, what can I do in 45 days to make the change and move the needle? I like that a lot. Did, is there a point in time where you actually use this approach for your own business?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah we use that, approach. Actually we used to do 90 day goals. We, follow the e os model. Now we're, not the best at it, but it's, it is from traction. And later on we'll probably hire someone to come in and revamp our business. But we did follow that model when we got started right out the gate. And a lot of it is setting those goals every quarter revisiting the goals that you hit or missed the previous quarter and having a four to eight hour day where you just discuss with the team on. What the business is doing, the values, how people did for the last quarter, and where we want to go and that kind of thing. So we do that. We did add a 45 day check-in because we did find that 90 days, sometimes some goals, we'd knock 'em outta the park. But people tend to drift around the 45 day mark. Or even as you get towards the end, people lose ambition ish, forget why they're doing something. Forget the purpose of the goal, that kind of thing. So having a 45 day check-in has been pretty big. And we can insert a goal in there if we knocked one out already. Sometimes you have really quick goals too. Like maybe your goal for the quarter is higher. VA that does all my YouTube. Okay. That you can probably do in 45 days. It might not be a 90 day goal to find a person. That doesn't mean like, I said, don't have five to six goals. If it's overwhelming, but maybe you could have three in the first 45 days and then three in the next 45 days.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah. I'm gonna self, I'm gonna selfishly ask this question. How do you guys do your, do you do daily goal reviews or is it part of a dashboard? I know I'm just now getting started with the traction EEO s process as well. But because I'm, fairly new to this, I'm just wanting to gain some insight into what you guys do there. Yeah.

Christopher Levarek:

So we have Monday.com board. So it's, you can have Asana, Monday.com or Trello. I know people do. And so we have a board or dashboard that's called the Weekly. So in EOS it's called the L 10 or level 10 meeting. So, we do it every Monday. And every Monday it's a standard process. We've modified ours, you can do it how they do in the book if you want to. But every Monday we review our rocks or our 90 day goals or 45 day goals. And we say, is it on track? Is it off track? If it's off track, we'll throw it in an issue and we'll talk about it in that weekly call. Our weekly call takes about 30 minutes unless there's some big issue come up. And that's traditionally how we do it. But having it just take a column with all the different goals listed. And there's usually, like we were, in the beginning, we fell into the habit where we do two, five to seven per liter, two to five per liter, and all of a sudden you got like 15. And what we found is different people are better at. Managing people and managing goals. And so sometimes those people need assistance from other managers. So it's actually better to have two to five goals really get 'em done. Everybody's working together if they need to. Especially in small companies, you have a big company. Then maybe having, cuz in the book they say have five to seven goals per manager. Maybe in a big company, but a small company, you gotta like work together.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I, totally get that. Cool. So as far as daily practice for you do you go in and review those, rocks every single day? You as a, as an owner of the company? And do you have a dashboard where all the data's coming in day to day, or is it like weekly that it gets reviewed? What's the resolution of the data that you're looking at?

Christopher Levarek:

Mainly, it's weekly. I like to get it better where it's, definitely. Better tracked, at least from a daily perspective. We have a scorecard, which is daily. So that's like a Excel spreadsheet that kind of has goals related to those goals, or more importantly, it tells how the company's doing. And some of those factor into the 90 day goals, but that's more on a day-to-day level. But on the weekly, no. The typical thing, what we'll do is we'll review it weekly and at the start of the goal, what each manager is responsible or each owner of the goal, they'll go in and add all those tasks, like I said. So if there's a 45 day goal, Here's my best estimate of things that have to happen. I have to hire this person, train them, and get them in the right seat, whatever, and hand over this process. So that's four things or whatever. So that would be four task items, and we'll try to put dates on those. But so all it should be very easy to go in and go, Hey, none of these are checked off. We're off, off mark. That's how we'll review it every week.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, makes sense. So one last question that I have for you before we ho hop into the rapid round here at the end of the show is it seems in doing some research for preparing on this podcast it seems like your wife and your brother also seem to be, or someone with your same last name. This seems to be also involved in your business as well. And that is a fine line to walk. There's, it's very cool to see that. Would you advise people to have these family run businesses or try to work towards that? What, would you have to say about owning a family business like this?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah, so I started out the gate with my brother. It was me and him, and we bought our first two duplexes in North Carolina together in 2018. And the really cool thing is some people say don't work with family. You were right. So my wife works in the business, my brother's wife works in the business. We became the original four and then we added on to that. But it's been amazing having a weekly call with family. I'll say that like, we've grown a lot closer. You always hear these regrets from people like, oh, I wish I'd talked to my siblings more. I try to give them two calls, two calls a quarter or something like that. I'm like, I talk to my siblings every, week, almost every day. And to be honest though, prior to 2018, that wasn't the case. I might have talked to my brother and my sister-in-law once every quarter, like people, other people are once every year maybe. So it's brought us a lot closer and through hardship and through working together, it's, that's caused us to be a lot closer as well. Is there times where you have frustrations and if things don't go the right way you don't know if you should say the right thing or that kind? Yeah, there's always those awkward moments. But we've, been close. We've been close as a family, we've always been the ability to Tiptoe that line and say what needs to be said. And then if we think we messed up, come back to the next meeting and say, Hey I was probably a little blunt on that. I came off a little harsh. We've always been able to laugh it off and the, hardest part is probably walking that line with my wife, honestly, because yeah. Having to tell my wife to do something. We always wanna be, that's equal when we're married. And, sometimes like I have to Hey, why'd you do that? Like that? Or and then the future, can we do this? Or sometimes that can come off a little different way. So we, have those conversations. And the last part I'll say too is sometimes your wife doesn't want you to talk business. She just wants to talk relationship and, family and kids. And so there is a delicate balance there. But I think it's a lot of fun as well. It, I know I can trust these people. They're not just gonna abandon and quit or leave or take half the company or and, partnerships are great, but it takes a long time to build up the kind of level of trust that you have with a family member versus what you might have with a guy you just met six months ago in a mastermind for example.

Derek Clifford:

A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Do you find that it's, difficult maybe for you and your brother or maybe your sister-in-law to, switch hats as you mentioned, right? Like you've got the family hat on and then you have to switch over. Do you find that's a difficult thing to do?

Christopher Levarek:

It comes easier for some people. For me, taking off the business hat is, hard. I end up talking a lot of business, whereas my older brother's really good at just, let's have fun on the call. I'm all business, so that's why we make a good team, actually, cuz Yeah. Doing fun exercises on the call or talking about an upcoming trip on the call. Like lightening the mood is something I'm more of the business and taking off that hat can't be tough, especially if I'm just got outta work and I'm going to talk with my wife and I'm gonna dump on her all this business stuff when it's lunchtime and we, should be chatting. So it's, something for me that's a challenge sometimes. But I think it's good to have people in your team of different skillset that. Some more emotional, that emotion into the whole system and make it all thrive so.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah a hundred percent. I think that's a, great point. I, think that cuz I'm, in a similar situation for myself where my wife and I, we work together on her business and I feel like as the person that puts that, does a lot of what you do, which is implements, right? I'm, a natural implementer more than a visionary. As you know from, the book, rocket Fuel and also from Traction, I'm more of an integrator than I am a visionary. And so for me, it flexes my muscle to have to be light at the beginning of some of these status calls just because you, people aren't machines. Yeah. And especially when you have your family involved, is, there's an extra layer of emotion in there that for me I'm learning. It takes some time to be able to do that. There's definitely pluses and minuses and I love that you guys are doing this cuz man, imagine what this is doing for your kids, right? Like they're watching you guys build a business together. And you guys have all these different layers of conversations and skills and these great things that you're bringing over the dinner, over the kitchen table. Whether you want to or not, sometimes there's emergencies and you have to do it right. And they're hearing all this. Yeah. So I just can only project out what it's like to have kids listening to this Ima this incredible legacy building process that you guys are building.

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah, it's fun. They've, seen, I don't know how many notaries come to my house and sign real estate documents and all the conversations we have. And it's funny, my four year old he'll even sit down in front of a fake computer and be like, yeah, I'm making money and, or I'm, doing real estate. And it's just so funny. All the stuff they per pick up and start saying but yeah.

Derek Clifford:

It's really cool. I love that. I love that. I guess that gives an indicator of what their perception of what you're doing is, and so yeah that could even be like an input to how you set your goals, right? Oh yeah. For, the personal side, which then feeds into the business. Cuz that's why you're doing all of this, right?

Christopher Levarek:

Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Very important.

Derek Clifford:

Chris before we head into the Rapid Round here, I wanna do that. Why don't you tell us just real quick about how you guys grew where you guys started. I you, said that you started with your brother on a couple of duplexes locally. Where are you guys at right now and where you looking to grow to?

Christopher Levarek:

Sure. Yeah. So we got started in small multifamily. We did duplexes, quads we did a 13 unit, 16 unit. Our first syndication was a 16 unit. And then we partnered up and we did bigger apartment deals. So we really only got into short-term rentals in about 2020. And now we help people invest in short-term rentals and multifamily mainly. And then we also coach how to go do it yourself with a short-term rental, how to go buy your own short-term rental. So I have a course, I have a coaching program, that kind of thing. And that was really to give people who. Didn't have 50 K just lying around to throw out a passive investment in something. So I wanted to give them an option. But yeah, so it's been really cool. And, now we have that model. Invest with us. Learn with us. We have a fund. Invest with us in short-term rentals and multi-family with proven operators. Or go do it yourself and learn how.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah. That's, great stuff, man. It looks like you're serving at every single level. And that's, awesome. And I'm, sure that the audience is glad to hear that and pick up some of your wisdom and maybe even work with you in the future. We will get to that at the end of the show to find a way to get people to. Touch, touch base with you or connect with you and learn more about what you have going on. But before we do that, I wanna make sure that we hit the rapid round, which is the same five questions that we ask, five or six questions that we ask every one of our guests. And they're meant to be answered in about 30 seconds or so. If you're ready, we're gonna just rapidly ask them to you. Let's do it. All right. Number one, name any resource that was or is essential in your journey to pursue this freedom you have now.

Christopher Levarek:

Sure. BiggerPockets was essential for me, gave me to start with all the podcasts and forum and information.

Derek Clifford:

That's right, man. I have heard that so many times. A lot of people mentioned BiggerPockets, not because of the the, resources that are there, but the interaction being able to see people talk with each other and like see real people that are crushing it in their business or that are experts, see them interact with people who are new just like you. And so it's all open. Good stuff there. Totally. Number two. If you woke up and your business was gone and you had $500 a laptop, place to live and food, what would you do

Christopher Levarek:

first? That's a pretty good question. I'd probably look around me, see who's, doing really good and, copy what they're doing.

Derek Clifford:

I love it. Very cool. Number three, what does your self-reflection and goal setting practice look like daily?

Christopher Levarek:

So I, yeah, I have a distinct morning meditation that I do. So I meditate about 20 minutes every day. And I'm not a big journaler or writer, but I am a big believer about channel writing down your wins. So I actually put it on my phone. Just three wins a day. It's lot to recognize the positivity in what I'm doing. So that's my routine really. Coffee, meditate, three wins LinkedIn post.

Derek Clifford:

I love it, man. That's, very cool. And do you use Notion or do you use like a handwritten app? I'm just curious for my, own sake.

Christopher Levarek:

Actually, I forgot one. I used something called Goal Wizard for checking off my goals. So like I, I set 90 day goals, both personal business and then I chart 'em out. 60 meditations I check'em off in my phone. Three wins. It's an app from I, Dan Sullivan's book. It's some free app he's got on there. It's really easy just to mark down three. And those are the two apps I use. And then Insight Timer for meditation. So I'm a phone guy.

Derek Clifford:

I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Insight timer's. Awesome. That's good. Yeah. Sam, Harris's Waking Up app is really great and well worth worth the, I think it's $200 for a lifetime membership. But something, like that. But it's very good if you want a daily meditation with that's guided. That's awesome. This is really, good stuff there. Highly recommend that. Number three. What does, I'm sorry. Number four, what are your core work habits that you attribute most to your success currently?

Christopher Levarek:

So I'll get back. For me, I think everybody's gonna be a little different, but for me it's been really the the time blocking, breaking up a goal. I feel lost if I don't set down some kind of a map out my goal in tasks or timelines. I'm not sure if I've moved forward or move backward or making progress. So that's been really big for me is understanding how to time block and how to use my day most efficiently. Yeah, really big. Yeah.

Derek Clifford:

That I, heard that mentioned a few times and I, couldn't agree more. I think having a set process for your focus time, your office hours, and then your flex time. Which is either, or, and then being very mindful of the amount of energy you have throughout the day. Really important to understand that flow, that ebb and flow, so I love that you mentioned that. Totally number five. What books do you recommend for people to help jumpstart their success?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah. I got a lot of books behind me, so it just depends on what your goal is. So decide if it's real estate or, mindset going those kind of things. I think a great one for everybody is the one thing. What's the one thing I can do because I try to read that book every, year. I. At a minimum, simply cuz it's so simple, but it's something so missed. We're all jumping at shiny objects and we're distracted by all the, dopamine hit out there, all the TV shows. And so coming back to always what's the one thing I could be doing right now? What's the one thing I could be doing this year? What's the one thing just keep asking that question in that book. That was pretty helpful in my journey. Something good to read.

Derek Clifford:

Yes. I love it. I, think I would expand on that and, have two things. First is if you're having that question, should I be working on real estate and should I be working on mindset? It's usually mindset. Usually mindset. Yeah. Because, I think that that's what precedes a lot of all of this. And then the other thing that I would mention, the second point I got from what you just said is that great people and good business people reread books. So don't just read a book and then keep it there, right? Yeah. You say you like to read it every year. I think that's really insightful. And I need to be better at that because my favorite book is Gap in the Gain, and I said, man I need to read that book every six months and I have not done that. I appreciate you doing that, man. I'm gonna be holding myself accountable and, hitting up on my list now.

Christopher Levarek:

I should reread too.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, it's all good. Okay. Bonus question here. What tool or process has become one of your most important time, money, or energy saving ninja magic tricks that you use every day?

Christopher Levarek:

Ooh. I love Slack and I love tying Zapier to Slack. So I've got that down now where so I get my dopamine hit from Slack. Slack. Let's say that I have Zapier tied to Calendly calls. I have Zapier tied to course purchases. I have Zapier tied to emails or big things that they'll let us know of investor invested with us. And it's just great things that give you a little positive hits throughout the day and, not accept something like that. But And like having someone be able to look at your schedule and be like, this works for me so big. I don't know where that, before that, how people did anything. But it's a great tool.

Derek Clifford:

So yeah, no, the automation thing is amazing and I love Slack as well. It's one of my favorite tools. One thing I would recommend is if you have, you heard of I F T as well?

Christopher Levarek:

I have, yeah. If this, then that. Yeah.

Derek Clifford:

Correct. Yeah. I was able to get it to a point where you can get a Slack notification if someone is geographically, goes within a geofence. It's really, cool. There's some extra stuff you can do. That, and you can't even tell that it's I F T T And so I would I'd take a look at I T and see if you can play with some extra some extra tools there for, automation.

Christopher Levarek:

But when's your course come out? Let me just take that.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, exactly. I think we have a lot to talk about. And so I'd love to explore building systems and stuff cuz I have a feeling I could learn just about as much as you know from you that, you could from me. Definitely. Definitely. So I feel like this might be another conversation later on, but before we end the call, this has been an amazing podcast. I really appreciate you having, you on and talk about systems, processes. Family businesses growing from W2 to entrepreneur. Where can people find out more about you and your world and what's happening with you?

Christopher Levarek:

Yeah, perfect. So I really like to think that it comes from just connecting with me. So I'm on LinkedIn a lot. I post there almost every day every weekday. And I help people invest in short term rentals. Just wanna connect. You got some questions about the podcast. I gotta book a call link in there. It's 15 minutes about your time and mind. Let's just connect and talk. So check me in.

Derek Clifford:

That sounds good. And for those listeners who are on the call right now or on the, podcast listening in we will link to all of Chris's socials and any information that he provided us before the call or before the the podcast was recorded inside the show notes. As well as the transcript, that'll be up on our website. You can access the, audio recording and the transcript there. So we'll be linking to that wherever you guys are consuming your podcast. So Chris, thank you so much for coming on, man. This was awesome.

Christopher Levarek:

Man. It was great. Thank you for having me. I learned a bunch.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah. No me too. I, always learn something from every one of our guests and you have been no exception there. So all the listeners, thank you guys so much for listening. And wherever you're listening or watching this, please subscribe or comment. Just engage with us so that we can figure out what we're doing here is adding value to you and we can also get more eyeballs and more, ears. Ian on these podcasts so that we can get more incredible people like Chris on the show. Thank you guys for listening and please do engage with us. We're here to help. And Chris, once again, really appreciate having you on. Thanks everyone. Have a wonderful day.