Mindy: Today’s episode is about the power of starting young, of exploiting the unique circumstances you have available to you specifically. It’s about taking advantage of starting with a safety net. You are going to be inspired and amazed by Gloria and Ben, two young people who are making massive progress so early in life. And it might just make you think about the way that you approach financial freedom for yourself.
Scott: Yeah, there’s something to be said about the almost unfair advantage on the wealth building journey for that that those who start at 16, 17 or 18 years old uh seem to have. But while it’s always best to start at 18 years old, there’s nothing stopping you from beginning or accelerating the journey to financial freedom today and learning from the examples of these two wonderful role models.
Mindy: As you listen to today’s episode, think about the young people in your life and who might benefit from listening to these stories. Then share this episode with them. All right, welcome, my dear listeners to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast, where we interview Gloria Stonelake and Ben Carver from Dan Sheek’s online community, Sheek’s Freaks. Dan Sheeks is the author of a book called First to a Million, and Sheek’s Freaks is dedicated to helping young people learn financial management skills, start investing in real estate, and pursue early financial independence. Today, we talked to Gloria and Ben about how they started their individual paths to financial independence at such young ages and what their financial futures hold. Hello, hello, hello. My name is Mindy Jensen, and with me as always is also started his FI journey at a young age, co-host Scott Trench.
Scott: Thanks, Mindy. Great to be here with my crushed her journey to financial freedom in 1500 days co-host, Mindy.
Mindy: Scott and I are here to make financial independence less scary, less just for somebody else. To introduce you to every money story because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you are starting.
Scott: That’s right. Whether you want to retire early and travel the world, go on to make big time investments in assets like real estate, or start your own business, whether you’re 16 or 60, we’ll help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way so you can launch yourself towards your dreams.
Mindy: Scott, I am so excited to bring this episode to our listeners. So without further ado, let’s bring in Gloria. Gloria is the founder of a social media marketing agency. At just 18, she’s been able to grow her business to an annual six figure revenue all while still being a full-time student. Gloria, welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today.
Guest: Thank you for having me.
Mindy: This is going to be a great story. I was chatting with Gloria right before we started recording and I can’t wait to share it with our listeners today, Scott. Gloria, let’s jump right in. Can you give us a little bit about your background and your business?
Guest: Yes. So, my name is Gloria Stonelake. I am from right around Minneapolis, Minnesota. Um, I am currently in still in high school. I’m a senior technically in high school still, but I do an online college thing on Saturdays. So I don’t attend high school so I can focus on my business. I started my social media marketing agency about over a year ago. Um, maybe 14 months ago, and I have been scaling it and learning sales and learning marketing and learning leadership ever since.
Mindy: And what is social media marketing?
Guest: Social media marketing, I mean, there’s so many different aspects to it. For me and what I do with my clients is I just run ads, whether it’s on Facebook, whether it’s on Tik Tok, Instagram, to generate more leads and then appointments and then clients for, you know, my clients. But I mean, I’ve tried short from content before, but really what stuck with me and it makes more sense for me and my company is Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok ads.
Scott: And so, so how did you get into this this this business? What what’s your background that led you to start this and and get going?
Guest: Yeah, yeah. Um, so I was, I mean, I was an antsy teenager. I was antsy. I’m like, I need to start something. I need to do something with my energy. Entrepreneur at heart, of course. So I’m like, I need to do something. I scrolled on YouTube for a while, found a bunch of videos about social media marketing and how I can make money as a teenager with my own business. I’m like, heck yeah, this is amazing. So I kind of watched, I binge videos for a while for a couple months there, and then I finally started my agency, uh, September, October of 2022. Um, and then that’s kind of how I got into it. I found a coaching program a couple along the way that’s taught me a lot about running a business and how to actually run a business, especially when it comes to social media marketing. So that’s kind of, that’s kind of how I got in here.
Mindy: And who is your client base?
Guest: Yeah, so I help mortgage loan officers and brokers all all around the United States. So, really anyone, I help them find purchase business. Um, primarily purchase business, uh, sometimes refinance, you know, depending on the market, but that’s that’s what I help.
Scott: Can you give us an idea of you said $100,000 in revenue or six figures in reven- in revenue, sorry. Um, how much of that what’s the profit margin on this business? Are we talking, what’s like how what how do we understand like the take home for this?
Guest: Yeah, so that’s a toughy and to clarify, I haven’t hit like 100,000. Um it’s six-figure run rate so far. So my highest month in revenue so far um was about 16k. Um and that’s a tough question because my parents are said like, Gloria, you should be taking more home. You should be keeping more. But I’m like, Mom, I I want to reinvest back in the business. So my profit margins about roughly like um, I’d say 50 to 70%. The rest is take-home for me, but I want to reinvest that into overhead, put that in more ads for my own company to reinvest and build because I’m I’m 18. I just turned 18. Why do I need so much cash in the bank? Why do I need that? Why not just reinvest in my education, my business, who I am, becoming a better person in general. So I can, you know, acquire the skills to build the businesses.
Scott: So you made $16,000 in a month and could bring home 50 to 70% of that is what I just heard there. Is that right?
Guest: Yeah, that’s right.
Scott: And what do you invested in? What what are these investments you’re making in yourself or or education? Is this education? Is it more staff? What are what are you putting that money to?
Guest: That cash is going into a lot is going into overhead. So a lot of that is going into the Facebook ads I run for my own company and a lot of the education, like some of the cash I allocate towards my education is going towards um, a coaching program I joined. It’s like a coaching mentorship program for agency owners specifically and it’s teaching me about um, money, it’s teaching me about, um, how to allocate funds. It’s giving me, you know, so, so many friends, you know, so I’m allocate, I’m, I’m allocating that cash towards myself, growing as a person and finding connections, um, especially in this lonely, you know, this lonely place of entrepreneurship, especially as a teenager.
Scott: And so what, can you can you give us an idea of like what what do you spend to acquire a customer? What are those customers worth doing if you’re if you’re putting all this money into Facebook ads?
Guest: Yeah, so I spend about $50 to $100 a day in Facebook ads. And what those stats look like is I get maybe three to five appointments a day. So my book appointment on average is about maybe $20 to $30 per booked appointment. So what that looks like more specifically, um, I’m working on my close rate as well. So I’m I’m trying to I’m trying to learn sales better. I’m not amazing at sales right now. I’m getting I’m allocating some funds towards coaching as well, private one-on-one sales coaching to get stuff together to increase my close rate. But that’s kind of what it looks like.
Scott: Uh and then one last question here before we go back to your your story here on this. Uh, you’re a full-time student, so what how much time are you spending,
Guest: With school, I do school only on Saturdays. So all my school is completely online because I enrolled in a local college, um, to finish my high school. So it’s like a dual enrollment type of thing. So, I do my school all on Saturdays when I don’t typically take sales calls Saturdays and Sundays. And then throughout my whole week, all day every day, I am saccing, which is setting and closing appointments, purely sales and client acquisition to scale my business. And then at, I like to section off a few hours at the end of the day to focus primarily just on service delivery, um, adjusting ads, you know, doing all those technical things.
Mindy: I’m going to come in here as a mom and say on the one hand, I think this is fan flippin’ tastic that you already have a job in a career that you’re clearly excited about and knowledgeable about. And also I’m like, oh you’re only doing school on Saturdays. Shouldn’t you be spending more time on your school work? But also why? Why should you be spending more time on your school work, so that you could get a job? I mean, what does high school prepare you for? It prepares you for college. Do you want to go to college or do you need to go to college? Because here’s a here’s a little hint. Social media isn’t going away. So this job is only going to get bigger. We’re in like the beginning stages of social media marketing. I’m so excited for your experiences right now. I call Scott a kid on this show a lot, not out of disrespect, just because he’s so much younger than me and you’re even younger than Scott. So I’m looking at you and I’m listening to your story and I’m thinking, holy cow, she’s so smart and poised and like she’s got answers for kind of Scott’s, Scott can be a little intense. Well what about this, what about this? And you’re like, here’s the answer. Maybe she’s 15 years younger than me. Like I’ve just I’m so delighted by this whole story and I want to know what your parents did right to raise you. What was your upbringing like when it came to money and finances? And like did your parents talk about this all the time? Cuz I am bombarding my kids with finances and they’re always like, we don’t care, mom.
Guest: Yeah, yeah, that’s a great question. Actually, no. Not at all, actually. My parents, they, they taught me growing up, they’re like, Gloria, don’t talk about money. Don’t talk about money with your friends. We’ll not even talk about money in front of you. We just we’re not going to talk about money at all. And I’m like, okay, interesting. I’ve always had that, I know, like a spark or a drive to become successful, to become, like I knew, I knew I didn’t want to, you know, 9-to-5 it for the rest of my life. I knew that. Um, but no, I wasn’t surrounded by a lot of money. I live in a middle class, you know, we’re middle class here. Like, I wasn’t surrounded by a lot of money, I just have a drive, you know, a drive to succeed, a drive to do something different, a drive to, um, build something.
Mindy: So then what made you want to start your own business? I mean, the drive, yes, but if they’re not talking about money, do your parents have traditional jobs where they work for other people or are they entrepreneurs as well?
Guest: They work 9-5 jobs. Um, and I I feel like that motivation came from seeing that and it’s totally okay that you work a 9-5 job. That’s totally okay. Just seeing that in general, I’m like, maybe that’s not where I want to be. Maybe that’s not where I want to be. Respect, but I don’t I don’t want to do that. I want time, location, financial freedom and that’s not going to get me there.
Mindy: Where did you come up with the idea of financial freedom or where did you hear about this? Not come up with it. I I would love to say Gloria invented financial freedom and we’re talking to her today, but like this isn’t something that’s really part of the vernacular in in middle school and high school.
Guest: Yeah, no, it’s not. It’s not spoken about at all. I don’t want to call myself a conspiracy theorist, but I’d say a realist. I’m always one for figuring out what’s not being taught? What’s not being actually, what’s behind the curtains with all of this? So, in eighth grade, I did my own research. I decided I’m going to read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I’m going to do a bunch of research, right? Figure out what is the real way, how do I get wealthy? How do I start something? How do I do something? Where do I allocate this energy? So it started with Rich Dad Poor Dad, of course. Um, and then shortly after I found Sheek’s Freaks. Dan found me on shout out to Dan, he’s awesome. Sheek’s Freaks as well. That community is amazing. He found me on bigger pockets because I posted something on bigger pockets talking about wanting to work for a realtor or something, get experience. Um, and that’s kind of where all started. It all unfolded with kind of reading a lot about personal finance from Robert Kiyosaki to um, Think and Grow Rich to all of these iconic books when it comes to finances and wealth. Um, I found communities like the agency community I’m in right now, and then Sheek’s Freaks and all came together with kind of the community finding people that are like me that have the drive like me.
Mindy: I was going to ask about the the the mentorship and the training and, you know, I look back to my 18-year-old self and I would not have paid anybody to teach me anything because I knew everything when I was 18. Um, what led you to look into training and and, uh, connecting with people to help with the, uh, the business coaching?
Guest: The closest five people to you are, you know, a reflection of yourself. So, I wanted to be, no hate to anyone that I’m close to or close to here at home. But, I wanted to be surrounded by people, whether it’s online, in person, whatever, by people that actually think like me, um, so it kind of reflects, does that make sense?
Scott: Look, I I I you can tell I’m just super interested in your business and the and the details of it uh uh with this. So, so with with your permission, I’d love to go back to talking more about it. And I’d love to kind of just go pop out to a more fundamental question of like, what is the objective of your business? Like how do you explain it to new people that you’re talking to, new clients?
Guest: Yeah, of course. So I explain it as seeing a return on investment. Like why invest in marketing if you’re not going to get a return on investment? So what I guarantee is loan applications, because that’s what I can control and that’s what I can send them with my marketing. So I structure this whole thing. Yes, I tie in the Facebook ads, yes, I tie in the advertising that I do, that’s custom to them, you know, whatever works. But I also help them see the bigger vision once you get something like this under your belt, right? You can save time, you can save energy, you can save money, you know, you’re losing more money than you actually are without, um, something like this. So that’s kind of how I frame it because it’s real and it’s true for most of the people I talk to.
Mindy: Yes, so you’ve mentioned that you have a couple of people that work with you. It’s not just you. You’ve got a team in place.
Guest: I do. I had two since like two days ago, I had two people working under me, a call center associate and a cold caller that’s actually cold calling, um, officers underneath me to get me more clients through that direction. Um, I actually let go of the cold caller recently and now I’m just with the call center associate and putting more funds towards my BB ads, paid ads, uh, to kind of scale all that, uh, direction.
Mindy: How old are these employees of yours? I’m I’m just coming at this from a position of most people aren’t going to be younger than you working for you. And some people won’t care that their boss is younger than them, but some people might have a real big problem with this. How do you assert yourself with employees that that are older than you?
Guest: Yeah, it’s it’s people think over Zoom, people say I’m 25, people think I’m 30. People think I’m a millennial. I’m like, I don’t correct them. I don’t say anything. Why people say that is because of how I carry myself over Zoom and how um how I’m acting versus how I’m not acting, right? So if I am very to the point, if I am confident, if I am, um, confident about what I’m saying even and hold myself with confidence, people aren’t going to think twice. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how old you are. My my employees or my employee never asked that question once because I I always gave her direction. I’m giving direction. So I’m a leader. I lead them. So they’ve never that question has never even occurred to them even. I feel like because I’m not even radiating any youthful, you know, kid energy. I’m radiating a business owner. I’m radiating someone that’s leading a team. So there’s a big difference there.
Mindy: I love that answer. Oh my God, I love that answer. And I I’m asking because I happen to know how old you are. So, okay, well, on the other side, do you have any issue with clients? Or is it kind of the same thing? On Zoom, they don’t question you because you’re you’re not saying, hi, I’m I’m 18. I want to work for you. Like I wouldn’t be announcing that either, frankly.
Guest: Age is just a number. Age is just a number in my book. Like my parents are still like, Gloria, you’re just you’re just 18, you’re just 17, whatever they said, you know, you’re just, you’re just, you know, calm down. I’m like, I don’t I I don’t feel like knowle- or, excuse me, I don’t feel like age has anything to do with knowledge like at all. Like you can acquire as much knowledge as you want, how young you are is, you know, so age is nothing to me. It means nothing to me. What you’ve accomplished and what you’re accomplishing matters. So with my clients, I’ve gotten people assuming that I’m 25, 30. I’ve gotten people saying I look like I’m 16. I don’t care because in the end, my if they find out how young I am, it’s a strong it’s a power, you know, it’s a power because Gen Z like knows more about social media than any other generation out there. So I carry as a superpower. Um and I’ve gotten respect when people find out my age, it doesn’t matter to me because I get respect from that. People on these calls are telling me, Gloria, I wish I was like you. Gloria, you remind me of myself back when I was 18. And that’s, I mean, I think that’s a superpower.
Mindy: I think it’s a superpower too. I love that you are in such ownership of your, you’re like, I I happen to be this age. I don’t care. That doesn’t have anything to do with my qualifications. And you’re absolutely right. If I was looking for a brain surgeon, I probably wouldn’t be looking in the 18 to 25 range, but if I’m looking for social media, I absolutely am looking in the 18 to 25 range because that’s what you grew up with. You mastered, I don’t know anything about social media and I am totally fine with that. But if I need somebody to do that for me, I need somebody who understands it and who understands it better than the people who literally grew up with it. What are some of the challenges that you have faced on your entrepreneurial path?
Guest: Taking action and getting uncomfortable. I feel like it’s so it’s hard. It’s hard at the beginning to get uncomfortable. It’s hard to pick up the phone and dial and talk to people when you know, it’s hard when I like I grew up without amazing social skills, like it’s hard to do things that make you uncomfortable. So the number one thing that’s that was just a struggle to me was just talking to people, getting comfortable talk talking over the phone, um, and connecting with people and sometimes I still have a problem with that. Um, but I’m trying to shed that and move forward with that. Um, something funny though, my old job, I used to work actually before I started my agency, I worked at a restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant where around where I live. And I was on the phones. That was my first official job. I was on the phones at all times. So I can kind of allocate some of this like communication, phone communication to that job. So kudos to that restaurant because I probably wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for that or it would take me a little bit longer. So,
Mindy: I am a real estate agent and I work with, uh, a few lenders. I have my favorite, of course. and it is very much a pick up the phone and make a phone call job. It is not, you know, they do text, they do email and I prefer having it written down because I want to be able to, you know, go back and see exactly what we said as opposed to trying to remember the phone call that we had. But they in this industry, in the real estate industry, it’s all about relationships and people want you to pick up the phone and call. So that is uh, that’s awesome that you have those that experience and that you’re working on flexing that muscle because I mean, honestly, what’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’re going to say, no, I don’t want your services. Thank you so much, and then they’re going to hang up and that’s like, okay, next. It’s not, it’s not, oh, they hate me. No, they just don’t understand what you do.
Scott: I imagine that that this the success you’ve had and that the the platform you’ve built is in some cases potentially isolating, right? Where you’re not, this is not what other kids in high school are doing. How have you built community and managed relationships as a CEO and and and, um, an entrepreneur here?
Guest: It’s complicated a little bit because I’m still close with my um friends that I grew up with, but I also have made so many new connections with other entrepreneurs around my age in these other different entrepreneurship groups. So I feel like I kind of am allocating some of that energy over here to build these relationships, but also they’re still, I’m still balanced and it’s still kind of on either side, it’s still kind of the same. Um there’s a little bit of distance with um, you know, what I’m doing. It’s like I’m at the level where I am thinking about business, I’m thinking about my career and future when maybe it’s not the case so much with um um people I used to hang out with so often. So, I mean, there’s no disrespect at all. There’s nothing like that. Everyone grows at different um paces, but it is kind of it’s hard, like it’s still hard navigating this, but I mean, I’m coping, I’m learning with all of this. So that’s that.
Scott: Awesome. And what last question here, you know, I imagine your situation, this puts some conflict into play about what is what should be next? Like should you take a gap year between high school and college? Should you go to college at all just because you have this super profitable business? How how are you thinking about those types of questions and what’s your kind of lean right now?
Guest: I’m not going to college. It’s just, it’s just not in the it’s not in the scope of where I’m looking to take things. Um no, no college for me. I don’t think it’s sitting in a classroom is just not my not my forte. I like taking action. I’m actually in technically in college right now for marketing. So I do college marketing on the side and I run a marketing business over here. What they’re teaching over here with the college marketing, it’s not, it’s not the same and it’s not as like it’s not what I’m saying over here in the real world, the real business. So people say, you know, high school, you know, gets you ready for college, you know, gets you ready and college gets you ready for the real world. I don’t think so because I I’m doing the real world right now and it’s not even similar to what I’m doing in class.
Mindy: What is one piece of advice that you would tell someone like yourself who’s young and wants to start off on their own financial freedom journey?
Guest: You have to get rid of the limited beliefs. We have to unscrew up our mind. Once you understand how much power you actually have, what you can accomplish. It doesn’t matter how old you are, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, doesn’t matter. Everyone has the power to take action and taking action is learning and experiencing. In this day and age, we have so much access to anything online, courses and everything. My question is if you want to become successful, if you’re just like, I just want to make money, why are we going to college when we can find all of that information literally on YouTube university, I like to call it. I think self-belief, taking action and acquiring those skill sets and putting that over just making a quick buck at the beginning. What’s the worst that can happen?
Mindy: What is the worst that can happen? They’re just going to say no thank you and hang up.
Scott: Let’s, I just want to call out one other thing here is you you are basically skipping senior year of high school. Um, essentially, right? With the with the part-time classes here, in order to start your your business. What a great concept for aspiring entrepreneurs to at least think about in the back of their minds. Like this is a this year for you is a free spin, right? You’re you have rent and and probably food paid for because you’re living I think you’re living at home. Is that right?
Guest: Yep, yep, I am.
Scott: So, I mean, what you get a free spin. If this hadn’t worked out, you go to college and continue along with your your education and and and get a job like everybody else. because it did work out, you have now a business that is worth probably multiples of of the revenue that you have currently on the trajectory. You have a great income stream and a super promising trajectory here. I I think that’s a a really powerful thing for parents and students, you know, that that are are thinking about entrepreneurship to consider. This was I mean what and and you can even start it potentially in the summers, right? And part-time at first uh towards the end of junior, you know, sophomore junior year, if you really start plan around it and think, hey, is there a way to derisk this even there and and and actually make sure that there’s something there’s a momentum building before you decide to drop out of the the traditional schooling system.
Guest: And to add to that, if you don’t mind, like, um, I feel like anyone can just start now. You can just start now. Um, like you don’t need to wait. You don’t need to wait, just start now. Take that first step. 99% of people don’t take that first step. So once you take that first step, you’re good to go and just just sale, you know, cope.
Scott: Well, Gloria, you are absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing this story. Um, I don’t, I will wish you a lot of success. You don’t need it. Uh the wishes there because you are well on your way. You’ve got incredible command of your business here. Congratulations on what you built and I can’t wait to see the enormous business that you build over the next couple of years here. Um love love the way you think about uh approaching business and and life here. Really have high respect for the the total competency and command you have over it and the the learner attitude. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Guest: Yeah, thanks so much.
Mindy: Before you go, Gloria, where can people find this lovely business?
Guest: Yeah, so they can email me um at gloria@glowmedia w m d a.us. And then they can find my website, fill out a survey to see if I can help them, uh loan officers, uh glowmedia.us. And then if you’re interested in, you know, what I’m doing, I’m also building my personal brand. So my Instagram is Gloria entrepreneur and then my YouTube is also Gloriapreneur um if you’re interested.
Mindy: Awesome, Gloria, this has been so much fun. I had a great time talking to you. Thank you so much. And we will talk to you soon.
Guest: All right, thank you so much.
Mindy: Holy cat, Scott. I feel a little bit lazy after talking to Gloria. What an impressive young woman.
Scott: I love the, yeah, I’m not going to college. I would have been a little surprised if she was in that in that situation.
Mindy: I mean, that was just absolutely amazing and impressive. I am so excited for her future because it is uh, she might not know this song, Scott, but her future’s so bright, she’s got to wear shades. Do you know that song?
Scott: Another pop culture reference goes way over my head. So please give me feedback as you always do, dear listeners, in the YouTube comments on a missed pop culture reference.
Mindy: 1987, Timbuk 3. The future’s so bright, I got to wear shades. If just looking at her, I need to put shades on. Her future is absolutely so bright and I’m so delighted to have her on the show today and I am so delighted to be able to share her story with our listeners.
Scott: All right, now let’s talk to Ben.
Mindy: Ben is a real estate agent and investor who got his start in the industry while still in high school. At age 22, Ben has been able to build robust savings and investment funds while slowly and strategically building out his real estate portfolio. Ben, welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. I’m so excited to talk to you today.
Guest: Hi, thank you so much. I’m really honored to be here today.
Mindy: Okay, Ben, it’s I just said that you got started in high school. How did you get started in real estate in high school? What were you doing?
Guest: Um, during high school, my dad started doing investing in all sorts of stuff, stock market. Uh he decided to do a flip with me one day and so we went and flipped a property together. Uh, so real estate’s always kind of been a part of my life, but I started kind of taking an active approach with it in high school.
Mindy: Awesome. So let’s talk about your money history, your, uh, growing up. Did your parents talk about money with you or did they kind of just ignore it?
Guest: Money was never taboo, like it is in a lot of families, but I’ve definitely experienced both sides of the coin. So my parents when they got married before I was born, they were dirt poor. Dirt poor. Um by the time they had me money was very, very tight for us, but it was something we talked about. Um, you know, they were never scared of it. They just didn’t have a lot of it and I watched as my family went from being definitely lower mid-class, you know, not going out to eat, that kind of stuff, to eventually my dad starting his own business um during the first part of high school and eventually, you know, money wasn’t really a a problem for my family. We were able to travel and do all these fun things. So, you know, I had a time in my life where I held on to every dollar and then I had another time in my life where I, you know, alongside my family learned that it’s okay to let go of money and, you know, not be cheap and and invest and all that kind of stuff.
Scott: Can can you can you walk us through, you know, is that is that informed first of all, your relationship with money now and then I’d love to hear about this first flip in high school.
Guest: Yep, so um I’m at a point with money right now where um I’ve learned a lot about, you know, like I said, letting go of money. Um I put most of it towards investments and I’m just really focused on spending my time um in the best possible way, whether that’s you know, using money to free up time to spend time with my wife or um, you know, sacrificing a little bit of money to start and propel my business.
Scott: I wanted to hear about that flip. So I I love that mentality. Yeah, I want to hear about this uh like you you flipped a house in high school. What what was that like? Did you do it over the summer? Did you do it during the school year? How what was your role? How did that how did that come to pass? And what did that teach you?
Guest: Yeah, it taught me a lot. Um we did it over the summer. We went through a wholesaler. It was a really great experience. You know, we tried to rent it afterwards. We ended up just turning it into a flip because the renting part of it didn’t go well. We didn’t get a good property manager. So we learned, it wasn’t, you know, just this amazing perfect situation. Um but I learned a lot about the the physical side of flipping. You know, we worked with contractors and everything, but we also put in a lot of sweat equity and that was some of the best memories that I have with my dad.
Mindy: Why did your dad involve you in this flip? Had he done flips before and you were interested and he wanted to bring you into it? Or was he just like, hey, you want to try this out?
Guest: Um, that’s my dad. He’s the hey, you want to try this out guy. So, um, you know, I didn’t grow up in a family where he just, you know, was affluent and knew all these things. I learned alongside him and he was a good dad for, you know, teaching me what he, you know, knew and learning along with me. So, you know, I remember when I was in middle school, we did the stock market game together, like a simulator, and you know, that’s something we did together. And then once he started investing in syndications and stuff like that, he was teaching me what he was doing and letting me sit in on the Zoom calls and all that kind of stuff.
Mindy: Okay, so you started investing in high school and now that you’ve been out of high school for five minutes, what does your portfolio look like now?
Guest: Yep. so we close my wife and I we close on our house hack in like two weeks now. So we’re really excited about that here in the Raleigh area. Um, but other than that, I’ve purely done stocks and REITs, stuff like that.
Mindy: Okay, so this house hack is your first dive into real estate. What does it look like? Let’s run those numbers.
Guest: Yep, so it’s a split level here in the North Raleigh area. I got it for $362,000 once you adjust for seller paid closing costs. Um, so definitely under our market average for sure. Um it’s a single owner 1982 or 1984. They’ve owned it the entire time. Old sweet couple just looking to move somewhere else to retire with family. Um, so they definitely let us get it at a discount. It’s in complete original condition.
Scott: You did your first flip in high school. You got married at 19, uh I understand. Um and you just had a generally earlier start from for for most people, I think your age. I’d love to hear about those years in between the graduation of high school and today. What were you doing? Did you go to college? Did you try your hand at various business activities? What what did that look like?
Guest: Yeah, so I’m the real estate agent who didn’t need to go to college but did anyways. Um about halfway into college, I realized I wanted to be a real estate agent and by then it was like, all right, well I might as well finish this thing up. So I got my degree in marketing. Um I learned a lot, honestly, and that’s kind of where I found out that, you know, I like content and social media and I could actually use that to propel my real estate business, which is what I’m working on right now. Um but all throughout college, um, yeah, I was married all throughout college. I worked all throughout college. Um I tested different side hustles, which is how I found out that I love being a real estate agent. That’s what I was doing.
Mindy: So you just purchased your first house hack. Let’s talk about a little bit more about this property. You bought it for 362. How many beds and bathrooms are in it? You said it was an original condition, but you bought it from the original owners, so I’m guessing that it’s still it’s in well-kept, just well-kept 1984 condition.
Guest: So I uh, I was walking a lot of properties, you know, as an agent, I’m able to get in fast. And I knew from the moment I saw it that they like, you know, they loved the house, they took care of it. It was outdated as heck, but it was, you know, maintained, right? And that was really the important part. Um the one big thing that needed replaced was the HVAc. They had already replaced the roof. Um, but you know, we kind of ran all those numbers before making the offer and um they listed it at 375, so we definitely got them to come down a bit. Um in a market where most people are still asking, uh, getting asking when they’re listing their properties. So it has three bedrooms, two bathrooms. It is a split level, but there is an easy opportunity to add a fourth bedroom, which is what we will be doing to the basement.
Mindy: Nice. And you can, uh, you can rent out all three additional bedrooms once you add this fourth bedroom?
Guest: So we have that option. We’re going to start off by renting the upstairs two bedrooms and then once we move out, we’ll kind of rent it like a basically like a duplex, an up-down duplex. Um but being married, we want kind of our own space and everything, but you know, if the numbers aren’t looking as good as we want them to be and we feel like we want to or need to, we can always rent that third bedroom for sure.
Mindy: Nice. And do you have any plans to rehab it?
Guest: Yep. So the moment we are under contract, I mean, the moment we close on this thing, we are going to send contractors in. Um we are ourselves are going to be put in to sweat equity. Again, uh we’re going to be doing the LVP flooring, which is something I’ve done on a lot of homes. Uh we’re going to be painting the thing. Um we’re actually going to be putting a kitchen at in the basement. We’re going to be tearing down some walls, but then we’re going to hire people to scrape off popcorn, put in the Hback, that kind of stuff.
Scott: Um, you know, you’re obviously living in a house hack here and that’s going to help control your biggest expense. But what what’s your kind of mindset around the rest of your spending? Are you very frugal? Um have you, you know, you talk just through a journey that your family went under. Where are you at personally with with regards to your mentality around spending?
Guest: Uh yeah, I’m very frugal, uh and I’ve always been that way. You know, when I was younger, I knew the importance of every dollar. Um, and you know, I just naturally saved up. I was able to save up a lot during high school and college because of that. Um but, you know, now that we’ve gotten to a certain point in our finances, we can, you know, relax a little bit. We spend money on dates and uh, you know, experiences, travel, but outside of that, you know, both my wife and I thankfully are in agreement that, you know, it’s just not worth spending money to spend money and so we’ve been able to save up quite a bit.
Scott: And what does she do?
Guest: So she coordinates a physical therapy office here in Raley.
Mindy: You mentioned when we move out of the house hack. What are your plans for when you move out? Are you actively looking for another property now? Do you have do you have a timeline for that?
Guest: Yep, my goal is to do one per year. So I think at the nine month mark is when I would start actively looking for the next one. But of course, Mindy, I’m looking at properties all the time. So chances are I’ll see the house hack because I’m already on the MLS looking at it for other people. So,
Mindy: I do the same thing. Um I’m also an agent and I am always, you know, every morning I wake up, I have my coffee and I go through all the listings that came up for all of my clients every single morning because they’re sent to me and to my my clients. And then I’m like, oh, that could work. That could work.
Guest: That’s exactly how it happens.
Mindy: So we met you through Dan Sheek’s community Sheek Freaks. How has the Sheek Freaks community helped you with your real estate investing?
Guest: Yeah, so I was on their first phone call or their Zoom call four years ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. Um and he found me through Bigger Pockets and Dan’s an amazing guy. Um if you guys haven’t, you know, read his book that they published through Bigger Pockets, definitely go read that. First to a million, great book. Um little shameless plug there, but this group is great. It’s a bunch of people like me and you know, when you’re our age, you don’t think that exists to be honest. So, you know, back in high school I didn’t have any friends that were interested in this kind of stuff, would understand this kind of stuff. And so, you know, this group opened up people anywhere from ages 14 to 27, um who have similar interests in business, entrepreneurship. Some are real estate agents, some make content, but everyone has that shared passion of of reaching early financial freedom.
Scott: Awesome. What what’s like kind of the best piece of advice or or most kind of useful connection you’ve made through that group?
Guest: Two two answers to that question. First of all, I’d say that um being able to be on this podcast was a pretty great connection. So, but um I’d also say that we get guest speakers a lot. We’ll usually have like two guest speakers a month and so Scott, you’ve spoken on there. Um I think Mindy’s spoken on there too. Oh my goodness. Yeah, and we’ve heard from uh Brandon Turner as well. So we get a lot of really great smart people on there just sharing wisdom with young people which is so cool.
Scott: And like what what how would someone who wants to replicate the success you’ve had in starting your career with such such a promise, having this first awesome investment almost under your belt uh and almost being closed on it. You know, what what advice would you give to somebody who wants to follow in your footsteps and also go on that journey?
Guest: Um biggest piece of advice is to take small daily steps. Uh before I started investing or started this business or anything like that. I mean, I took my first job at 14. I was scooping ice cream. That was the state minimum age. Um the moment I turned 14, I applied to the only place in town that would even hire a 14-year-old kid because I looked like I was like 10 and I was serving people ice cream and um but I worked, you know, all throughout the end of middle school and high school and college, I put in all that work before I even started putting money into stocks or started, you know, going for a house hack. So if if you’re just starting out and you don’t have anything saved up, um, just take the small daily steps, figure out, you know, how to kind of live that frugal lifestyle or how to get your income up, um and start learning and talking to people who have done what you want to do, you know, every single day and the connections alone will help get you where you want to go because I didn’t know anything when I joined Sheek Freaks four years ago, but and same with bigger pockets. Over those four years, I’ve been around people who have literally become millionaires, um who have started businesses and gotten all sorts of properties.
Scott: You started working at 14 and have had a number of jobs, experiences like the flip, those kinds of things. How much were you know, can you give us an idea the magnitude of what you were able to accumulate after graduating college?
Guest: When I finished high school, I had 19,000. Um and yeah, I just I just saved every dollar I made. um to be honest, I just didn’t have a desire to spend it and I didn’t even know where to put it. And so once I entered college, it was 2020, the stock market crashed and per the advice of my dad who didn’t have any experience with investing in stocks, but all of a sudden he was interested in it. He said, you know, what? Why not just throw your money in there? You know, and so I did and you know, you can call it dumb, you can call it lucky, you can call it dumb luck, but uh I was able to grow that money substantially throughout college and um that definitely helped our financial position.
Scott: Awesome. So hard work and good timing uh from from an investment standpoint, probably means you have ample for the down payment on this property, plus plenty of reserves, plus you’ve been accumulating after college. So you’re you got an incredible start here uh in terms of your financial position just less than a year after graduating college.
Guest: Yeah, I’d never thought that I’d have this much at this age. Um I remember it was getting really, really close to being my uh my 21st birthday and then like a week or two before I turned 21, we hit 100k and I thought 100k by 20. That’s that’s pretty awesome. I I didn’t even know that was possible. It just it’s just crazy. It’s just happened really fast.
Mindy: What is your 10-year plan and your 10-year investing plan.
Guest: I definitely want to accumulate at least eight house hacks. You know, kind of running the numbers the way I have, I think eight house hacks would be more than enough to take care of our major living expenses and then some. And in that same amount of time, I I don’t have a number but I want to grow my real estate agent business. Um in 10 years, honestly, I’d love to be running a team myself and getting most of my leads through social media, um and other platforms like that.
Scott: Have have you made any mistakes so far? I mean, you’ve you’ve actually got a lot of five, four or five years of experience at this point investing and working. Um despite your your young age, you’re relatively experienced in a lot of things. Any any any lessons learned or things you take back?
Guest: Yeah, um when my dad and I were investing in many different things, we were trying to diversify. and so, you know, we at one point for fun put our money into a robo-investing website that went to zero and, um, you know, played around a little too much with Bitcoin. Uh there was one point in 2021 where, you know, that 19,000 turned into 60,000 and I thought I’d made it. And I remember thinking, this can’t last forever. I need to sell, you know, and I think at the time the market had even turned a little bit and at that point I was watching it every day, which is dumb. You shouldn’t do that. Um you shouldn’t get emotionally attached to your investments, which I definitely did because my gosh, I have $60,000 and I’m, you know, whatever, 19. And so I I sold everything and then things kept going up and then I ended up buying later at a higher price and, you know, I’d not that I need it, but I’d be even further ahead if I hadn’t acted emotionally and that’s one thing that I definitely learned.
Scott: Some people learn that lesson 30 years from from from your from your point with a much larger dollar amount. So I think it’s great. Um what a great great lesson there and and I think uh yeah, yeah, that that’s not going to hold you back very much at all. But thanks for sharing it.
Mindy: Where can people find out more about you if they want to follow your journey or potentially work with you as an agent?
Guest: Sure, yeah. So, um if you’re on any social media platform, it’ll be @itsbenjamincarver. Um on YouTube, it’ll the name of the channel is Living in Raleigh-Benjamin Carver.
Scott: Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing sharing your journey. Um amazing what you’ve accomplished, uh, you know, less than what eight months following graduation from college, a six-figure net worth at 22 years at 22 years old, 21 years old, a house hack under your belt, a career that looks like it’s poised to take off. I can’t wait to see where things are going to go in the next couple of years for you, Ben.
Guest: I really appreciate it. Thank you, Scott and Mindy.
Mindy: Thank you, Ben. And we will talk to you soon.
Guest: Awesome.
Mindy: All right, that was Ben. Mindy, what’d you think?
Scott: I thought that Ben had a very impressive story. I mean, you don’t just flip houses in high school without having drive behind you. You don’t become a real estate agent at age 22 without drive behind you and that’s the that’s the underlying story behind Ben.
Scott: I love Ben’s story. um and here, you know, I look, Ben’s an example of like, you don’t have to build a crazy business at 18. You can just do the the very basics right. Study hard, get good grades, save your pennies, work a good job, uh be financially responsible, buy that house hack at 22. This guy’s got a six-figure net worth right now. No way, I’m calling it right now is he not a millionaire by 30 if he continues on this trajectory because of the compounding nature of of uh his career trajectory and um and the investment investment decisions he’s making right now. So absolutely love to see it and cannot wait to see uh where his career and and and investments go.
Mindy: All right, Mindy, I got a question for you. What what’s one piece of advice you give yourself in your teens or early 20s? If I could go back in time a couple of years to my teens and 20s, I would have gotten my real estate license. I have had a license for 10 years and I wish I would have had it for, let’s see, I was a teenager 40 years ago. So I or 35 years ago. So I wish I would have gotten my license 35 years ago. How about you, Scott?
Scott: I would have I’m going to go with a complete opposite tact to everything we just talked about in today’s show and I would have said in my early 20s, I would have lightened up a little bit and I would have spent a little bit more, you know, there there were times when I was so focused on building wealth and that I I I still went but I I almost resented certain trips that cost a lot of money, for example, uh with that instead of just fully enjoying them as experiences that you know, you’re never going to, you know, now at 33 I’m not going to go back and have that same type of trip, um with friends and and be that rambunctious, for example. So that that’s what I would have done is I would have, I would have said, look, I didn’t need quite the amount of wealth I have now at 33 and I would have traded, you know, some of that for a couple more of those adventures. Still would have house hacked, still would have done all the basics right, but just that that’s that would have been mine.
Mindy: No, I completely relate to what you’re saying and there are a lot of things that I gave up. I didn’t want to spend the money and you know, if you only have $100, you don’t spend 99 of it on a vacation. But they’re there are things that I could have done that would not have had a negative impact on my financial future that I just said no to simply because of the cost. I never even considered because of the cost. So I think that’s a good one too.
Scott: Uh we would love to hear the advice you would give yourself in your 20s. Um I think that’s a great way to frame it because you’re not giving advice to other 20-year-olds who don’t want to hear your advice frankly. Uh but you’re giving advice to your own 20s stuff. I would love to to see it and maybe we’ll inspire some folks to go and read that uh and take it and take it to heart if we post it into the Bigger Pockets Money Facebook group. So, let’s hear it. Let’s get some advice uh to your former 20-year-old self and I would love to see what other people think.
Mindy: That is facebook.com/groups/bpmoney. If you have not joined, please join. We would love to have you and have you join the conversation. All right, Scott. That wraps up this episode of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. He, of course, is Scott Trench. I’m Mindy Jensen saying goodbye Moon.
Scott: If you enjoyed today’s episode, please give us a five star review on Spotify or Apple. And if you’re looking for even more money content, feel free to visit our YouTube channel at youtube.com/biggerpocketsmoney.
Mindy: Bigger Pockets Money was created by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench, produced by Calen Bennett, editing by Exodus Media, copywriting by Nate Wineb. Lastly, a big thank you to the Bigger Pockets team for making this show possible.
