Welcome to Action Solves Everything, the show for those who want to stop overthinking and start producing. I'm your host, Alex Montagu, broker leader and founder of Lockstep Realty. Around here, we believe movement creates momentum. Clarity comes from doing, and the agents who take action are the ones who win. Every episode is built to help you grow your skills, your confidence, and your career. Now let's get to work. Welcome to another episode of Action Solves Everything. I've got a friend I recently met at a mastermind in New Orleans, Andrew Bosco. Andrew is a special dude. He is the CEO of the Candor Investment Group who just came over to exp in January of 2026. They were previously at a mom and pop brokerage, made the move. They've got 73 agents, all investor operators, and that's something I have not connected with anybod on. It's a unique value prop for their brokerage team. Portfolio value north of $300 million in investments. The education and the knowledge that I've gained from Andrew in a short window of time is something that I'm certainly appreciative of. One more thing, all of this has been done since he got licensed in the industry in 2023. So in his first year and a half in the business, he did over $23 million in real estate production. Andrew, you have covered a lot of ground fast, my man. What's going on? Not much. Thanks for having me, Alex. It's fun. It's funny. Yeah. Just meeting in New Orleans. We were having some food and it's amazing how it all kicks off. And here we are, man. Yeah, it's. I love going to those things. I used to go to those masterminds with a partner for my team, and the last couple, he hasn't been able to make it. And it's amazing what happens when you do. You don't know anybody at the table and what kind of conversations start. And I think, you know, I remember sitting next to Josh and hearing everything that you guys are doing. It's like I came back and was like, holy smokes. There's so much we can change and get better at as a brokerage. But I would love for you to jump in and talk a little bit about you and your journey as well as, like, tell us, like, what's going on at the Caner Investment Group. Yeah, no, happy to, man. I mean, I. I come from a very strange background. I think, like everybody else in the world, I feel like at this point, everyone has that journey when they're in high school, they're like, all right, I gotta go to college, get a job, get a car, family, have a house and like live the American dream. And you know, reality kind of sets in I think at times. And so I did that, you know, worked the corporate route. I actually had a quarter life crisis and there's a long story to it. And then I actually end up quitting my job, moving overseas. My parents wanted to kill me actually when I was like 21. Enjoyed my time overseas. I was working as a teacher for biology and chemistry. My wife and I, who, you know, she came over with me as well, got married years later I worked back in corporate thinking I could enjoy it again and was like, man, I gotta do more than this. Got my real estate license. And then I met the people at Candor. I met John, who's the founder of Candor and now co owner with him at the Candor Group. And we basically it's been off to the races since, you know, I left biotech a few years ago. I did the part time agency job in biotech and transition. Went after agency full force. I never had a job ever that I could. Just how hard I worked and how smart I worked indicated my, my payroll and that was just like eye opening as heck to me from like a sales perspective and then the rest of history, you know. Fortunately, John later asked me, he's like, do you want to do this with me and like be the co owner? Let's do it. And we just. Here we are. That's the story. That's the abbreviated version of the whole story. Can you talk a little bit about like the early stages for you, like transitioning? Because you, you know, you just shared with me that there was a part time window for you where you're doing a corporate job and your part time agent and you did 8 million bucks doing that. And I think what's so interesting is like at our, on our team, we don't do part time and simply because very rarely can an agent be part time in this industry and give the effort and the attention that it deserves as well as like the craft, but also the clientele. So like 8 million bucks, like what is an average price point for you guys in your marketplace? And talk about what that all looked like for you. Average sale back then was like 465. Now it's 515, 520 typically for single family, but that's single family. I will tell everybody that 8 million, 6 and a half or 7 million was investment properties. And that's that was sort of our niche. And I knew that. So being the part time agent that I was, I. My wife laughed because she's like, you're going to help people buy a single family home? She's like, dude, it's like it was your choice in this house. We'd have like a box with a TV on top of it, a couch, and like, that's it. Like you're going to go into a home and tell someone that they can buy this place. And I, you know, my dad being a plumber and electrician, having that background, really big trades, my mom as well, you know, I knew a little bit. I knew enough to be dangerous about what houses they needed, but not a contractor myself. But I found my niche was really investment properties. And I, you know, meeting the Candor team, we run these free real estate meetups. John is a giver. He gives to people all the time for free, like without charging anything. You know, one of the things he gave was these free real estate meetups. And that's where I met him. And they were very investment focused. And I was like, I think I could do that. I learned it's a numbers game. And so being a scientist at the time, I was like, well, I kind of understand numbers. Like as a joke, I'd be like, I know numbers. I could do this. Looked at some properties and I said, well, one of these numbers make sense. What's your return on investment? I kind of got obsessed with it. Spent a lot of time learning in those early days. And then I realized when I got my license joining Candor, I asked a bunch of the top hitters, I said, what's the number one recommendation you would make? And they all said, find your lane. Find what you're really good at and just crush it in that market. And I realized in our market, I didn't really meet another good agent that was really strong in investments. And that sort of propelled me to be like, I'm going to go do this thing. And so I'd have like these newsletters that I'd post. I'd have like LinkedIn posts. I would analyze a property every day and I would tell everybody about it. And the property wasn't always good. That was the funniest part. A lot of times they were terrible. And I finally, I had this like weird organic following over time. And people began to know me for that. They were like, that guy knows what he's talking about. Like, I would just tell people like, this, this feels garbage. You don't want this. Like other agents Jokingly feared me because they'd be like, he's going to. He's going to deter all these people from going to this property and like, and whatnot. So it kind of. I had a funny reputation for that, but it took it. When it took off, people found me without me ever finding them. They're like, this guy knows these properties really well. You should go meet him. For multifam, this area, I think what I love about that is, like, you know, we're based out of Indianapolis. The Midwest has, like, a lot of folks have gravitated to the Midwest since COVID as just with the affordability, it is sought after and desirable for investors from the coasts too, as like a safe place to plant money. And what is so interesting is, you know, I. I bought my first investment property in 2016. I house hacked a multifam family duplex, having no idea what I was doing. Like, most of us, yeah, my parents walked in, started crying, and they're like, you have no idea what you're doing. You are way out over your skis. And I was like, oh, yeah, I know. Like, I have no idea what I'm doing. And it was like, every dollar I had went back into the house. Every dollar I went had went back into the house. And Look, I paid 250,000 bucks for that house. Today it rents for $4,500 a month. I owe 100, and I think I saw recently 170,000 on it. And it's. I bet it's worth 600 grand based on where it is. And look, I tell that story because people today come and say, hey, help me find an investment property. And it's like, look, if you buy the wrong deal, it is detrimental. Like, you shouldn't. Just because people say to invest. Like, good deals are hard to find and you need to vet them hard. And you need to understand what you're looking for. So talk more about, like, what that journey is like for you and like, how you define winners and what identifying winners looks like. Because so many consumers in the marketplace over the last handful of years have used real estate incorrectly just because of the conversations on TikTok and Instagram, things like that. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, and I think that's a great point that you may be like, what are winners? Right. So across all of our agents, our agents are different. You know, we have different cuts of cloth here because we have people that are trying to do house hacking. You know, when you live in one unit and rent out the others, others are buying strictly investment burrs. Others are buying flips. Depending on the buyer in the situation. You're going to have your own class of what's a winner? A house hacker. A house hacker winner does not always equate to an investment property winner. They're not synonymous in my opinion. And so when I identify winners and when I was analyzing these deals, I'd always have a brief, you know, who's this deal good for? House hacker investor, a flipper. And it'd be like, yes, yes, no, yes, no. Like it would go through the list. So I'm going through. Let's just use a house hacker for an example. Someone in that. Because that's how I started. Much like you, Alex, I started with a house hack. No idea what I was doing, in over my head. But now that house, I generate $2,000 a month in cash flow. Now that I've left it, which is, which is awesome. I mean, people, it's insane. It's insane. I mean, I put, I think I put in $25,000. And I just, I cash flow like crazy. And I'm like, I'm never going to sell that house. There's no way. And like, there's just no way. I say the same thing about it's like my first house and it's my baby. So there's like, well, emotional. Yeah. Very few of what I own is like, do I share that sentimental value around? Sure. But it's like, it is such a winner. And it. Those are. Yeah, it. Those don't exist anymore. At least like not right now. And it depends. Right. Because you had a lower interest rate. Like, that's what I would tell everybody. But like, you know, going back to the winners part, because I still find winners in this market and like, you know, there's a 600,0003 family and everyone's like, that kind of stinks. And I'm like, well, let's do the math. And like, so we're looking at it. I'm like, if you're gonna go rent a two bedroom, talking to a house hacker, I just helped like a young couple with a client, with an agent of ours. I said, I'll show you what I do and make it a lot of sense. This young couple's like, we want to live rent free. I'm like, that's a solid goal. I get that. Let's live rent free. I said, how would you feel if you, if you lived at a place where your rent was less than half of. If you were renting on the market, meaning if it was $2,000 to rent a two bedroom, you're paying $1,000 or less every month. And they said, oh, we could do that too. I was like, oh, okay. So we got a range. I can do $0 to live rent free to a thousand. So we looked at some properties, we went through the bedroom count and the winner identified, I think I went through 12 losers until we found a 13th winner. And then they looked at it and they were like, it's kind of a dump. And I was like, yeah, it is a dump, you're right. But this is what you wanted. It's. You're going to cash flow. And they heaved and hawed and they said, well, we could like paint this room and do this. And I looked at it and said, did you think you were going to get a turnkey? Perfect cash flowing asset. Because if it's going to be that, guess what, guess what it would be. It'd be $200,000 more expensive. So do you want to pay that and get it turnkey or do you want to put the sweat equity in? Most people go, oh, it's just a little bit of paint. I'll put the sweat equity in and do it. And that's how we identify the winners. And they end up. Now to this day, I think they closed like a month or two months ago. They were like, hey, we're only paying $300 a month to live. I'm like, how old are you? They're like 24. I'm like, I'm like, I want you to go ask all of your other friends that are 24 what they pay in rent. And then just remember that you're pocketing that every month. And the realization, I think they messaged like a week ago. They're like, dude, we just saved like $3,000 in two months. I've never saved that in my life. And I was like, yeah, that's the power of reducing your monthly. Your largest monthly expense is living. If you reduce that, you're going to change your life more than everybody else, man. I love that. I mean, I remember when I did this on that house particular, I was just talking about the first deal I did. The rent that they said when I bought it was 1450 and 1125. I moved into the 1125 side and fixed it up. So I made a small investment in it, put the other side up for rent, got 1600. My mortgage payment was 1690, so I was living for 90 bucks. Had separate water meters. So like they were paying all their own utilities and everything. But I Looked at it from the standpoint of like, my friends that were owning homes, yes, owning was great for them, but they had a mortgage payment every single month of $2,000. And so the delta between what I was doing and what they were doing was 1950. And so, like, shortly after this, I'll never forget this, I was a single dude. And my brother's like, you should become a member at a country club. He's like, you will make a ton of, you know, you'll meet a bunch of people. You could golf, you can connect with people, you enjoy all that stuff and it'll be good for your business. And I looked and the country club membership was like 600 bucks a month. Well, I went and bought. I had moved over to exp. I was saving 600amonth on my like monthly bill. I went and used the money for a down payment on a rental and I turned. Instead of a six hundred dollar a month expense for a country club, I got a rental that paid me another like 500 bucks a month. And so like, I started doing the delta of like what I would owe versus what I was getting inbound. And it was incredible how fast my life changed.$2,000 a month is 24 grand a year. And I always ask everybody, like, what does 24 grand mean to you? And like, that's the reality. It's like the small sacrifice for freedom to do that. Now, this is the easiest class in house hacking to talk about. The hardest people I've always found to work with, and this is out of kindness to them, is they already have a home, a single family, they have kids and they're established. And I'm like, okay, like, if you're not willing to move, your choices are limited. Here's what we can do. It doesn't mean it's hopeless. And I think that's a big thing that people come across is they're like, oh, I started to wait. I'm just not going to bother. I'm like, no, no, no. Like, it's. Change your direction. Either save up and figure it out or find a partner, bridge the gap together and see what you can do to get there. And when you're talking about winners, like, that's, it's. Everybody's story is different. You have to find the story, read the chapters and say, how does this play out and how can I get to the end to help you out? Well, I love the context of what you provide earlier too, is like, well, what are you willing to, like, what kind of sacrifice are you willing to make and look, if I could have a single family home on three acres and a white picket fence and all this stuff for 90 bucks a month, I would love that. But I had to share a wall with somebody and come home to a house party one day and all sorts of stuff like that. And so there's like, there is a sacrifice that you make. And look, when you live next to your neighbor like that and there's a problem, they just knock on your door and look, there's some challenge with that. But those sacrifices are to set you up for the long term financial freedom, which is the whole intention behind it anyway. And like you said, it certainly is not for everybody. But I think it's become this thing that's sexy to talk about and few have executed behind the success. Especially like, like you guys and your whole group. So talk about that. Like, I mean, gosh, 73 agents, all investor minded. Like, what are those conversations like and how do you grow to that? God, it's a great question and I'll give credit every single time to this guy. I think John had a really good vision like a handful of years ago, was like, this is what I want to grow. And I think people just gravitated towards it. Slow organic growth, right? And so including myself, I gravitate towards it. And obviously here I am working with them side by side. And so I would say for most people growing that network as being in super niche, those conversations are always a little bit different. There's lots of talks about self improvement, the tribe, you're not. The conversations are just not your same every day. Like, oh, what sports are you watching? This and this. A lot of it's like, I think the first question we always ask at every meetup and everybody says it, hey, so what project do you have going on right now? How was your trip to go here? Was that fun? Oh, you know, they'll talk about business and I'll tie it in together. But a lot of these conversations with our group and people across the board is, a handful of them are super humble. They show up in like Nike shorts and a T shirt with flip flops and like, I'll laugh and I'll look, I'm like, that guy's worth like $60 million. And like he just doesn't care. And that's, that is freedom. Like, that's the conversation all the time is, you know, everyone's goal in our group is getting out of the rat race and what that looks like, you know what it looks like to them especially, like, is that going to an out of five and reporting to a boss, is it owning your own assets? Everyone's got their own reality and I'm really proud of the team. Everybody across the board, I, you know, they're, it's like, it's like watching warriors incarnate. In my opinion, they're all people don't understand the grind that it goes into being a high level investor. I think the more the early mornings, the late nights, the critical analysis, get to have the guts and the decision making ability, trusting yourself and trusting your judgment, those are, those are things that are guarded that you only get through just repping it out, just every single day. I used to analyze a deal a day. A lot of those guys do five deals a day and that's just how it goes. Those are the conversations and the big highs and lows. I think something you said there, the concept of the guts that you have to do this. And look, we went through a window of time. I mean I got in the business in 2012. So from 2012 all the way to 2022, the market got better every single year in our market, every single year, we didn't go backwards ever. And then 22, 23, 24, 25, it's been different. But like you could buy a house and in a year say I don't want it and make money. And so we've trained the consumer poorly. Whether it's an investment property, single family or anything. Real estate's automatic and let me tell you, it is not. And what I appreciate most about the timing of this conversation is like I've run fast and loose with my strategies and my business because I could identify a winner. And it's just how big is this thing going to win at the end? And over the last like six months, a couple of things that I thought were total home runs are shaking out to barely be base hits. And it's like the hard lessons to learn about what has happened or why things have happened. But it's like unpredictability of a crew that you work with a market change, so your cost of money changes. Or you put a house under contract and then learn six months, you know, six, 60 days later before you go under contract that the crew that was going to do the work isn't going to do the work, so you try to get out a deal. And so it's like there are all these risks and there is nothing that is a guarantee in this business. And I think like when you talk about the guts that it takes being an investor, it's like, the first one will terrify you, the second one will scare you and a little less down the line, but you just get more and more calloused and stronger to essentially what the idea of risk tolerance is. And on one of my previous episodes, I talked to Mark Nottingham about this. He's a broker, owner of an app, properties in Indianapolis. I think you and I would agree with there is risk in not moving, there is risk in not buying these properties. There is risk. You know, look, this, this to me is funny, but it's like I see risk in cash, in like reserve accounts. It's like, I don't need a reserve account. It needs to be parked in something that's working. Otherwise it's not working and it's wasting. And so like a lot of this is like identifying what risk means to you and the beholder and having the guts to sort of push the chips in the middle. I would say for anybody listening to this podcast and any platform, you have to ask yourself, what is risk? And then say, am I being risky? Some reflection time here. When I worked in biotech, I remember thinking this exact thing. My parents were nice enough to be like, hey, you can see her for a few months for free and just save up and do your thing. And I was like, oh, thank you so much. So we're sitting there living for free and the biggest risk to me, anybody listening should think this. If you are a dual income household or single income household and you have a mortgage and you have bills and a car payment, ask yourself if that's risky. And a lot of them are going to say, no way. My company is never going to go under. They're never going to get laid off ever. Look at the AI boom that's just happened. Facebook just laid off 7,000 people. Imagine having a payment of anything and then you're let go. Well, I have cash reserves for 30 grand, 60 grand. I'm like, that's really cool. Do you know how long it takes the Great Depression to get back? Or 08. It took them two years. Do you have two years saved up? To me, that's risk. There is nothing more terrifying to me than a single income home or dual income home and you're dependent on that income and you're one or two paychecks away. That's, that's legitimate fear to me. And so the story I'll tie into this is I was house hacking and this is a true story. I was house hacking on my. I don't know if I my second property in house act and I had cash flow from the first, I think on the second House act, I was paying 500 bucks a month to live. All of our, I think all of our bills, everything. I was 500 bucks at the end of the month. My wife had a job, I had my corporate job. And then we had, I was. My agency business. So I had some, I had some assets, etc. In the, in the multi job route. And I remember my company said, they looked at it also and said like, hey, like your department's going to be let go and like you have a few weeks. And I remember not even being scared. And I was like, well, I guess I'm gonna go for real estate now. And like I went all in. And you know, obviously you get the packages, you get the V left and everything. But like, I remember thinking, wow, if we weren't house hacking and if I just stuck on the corporate route, like this would. And I bought a single family, this would terrify the living hell out of me. And so that to me is the risk observance that I always make. Look, I think there's so much truth behind this. Like my dad was insanely loyal to his business. And you don't know this story, but some of the listeners may. My dad had a perfect industry record for 37 years. Two companies, 26 for one, 11 with another. The tail end of his, of his second company that he was with. He dealt with a lot of health issues and look, in his control, out of his control, whatever you want to think. They walked in and popped my dad. Perfect industry record. One of the most reputable guys nationally across the entire railroad industry. And it was 2009 and my dad was out of a job and when he wanted to fight, he got sick and he went and checked into the hospital. And that's what he dealt with because that's what he was dealing with at that point of his life. And I think so much of this is like, when I started doing this, it was like, well, how, how. How do you, why do you want to build this? And it was like, nobody will ever take away what I'm going to build. And this goes back to what you just said about identifying risk. And it's like, I will continue to build moats and moats around my family and my family's future so that you can shoot whatever you wanted it, but you will never reach it. And I think like hearing you identify, like what is risky and then understanding what you faced and like remembering 2009, like we didn't know in the moment. How shitty 2009 was? I just graduated from college, dude. I had $90,000 in student loan debt and my dad comes home without a job and goes to the freaking hospital. It's like, rewind perspective. Yeah. So it's like, what is risk? My dad gave his life to an industry that the first opportunity they could, they nixed him. And so it's like, hey, how do you have the appetite for this? It's like, well, because I'm never doing that. And look, I remember what corporate America was. You worked in it, I worked in it. It's like you have a front row seat to it. It's like, you'll turn your back on me the second you need to turn it back on me and treat me like a number in an expense. And that's just the reality. Yeah. And I'd say, like, for a lot of people, like, they're like, all right. So Andrew, to counter you, like, I'm really invested in options trading and stock market. I'm like, that's great. You literally can't control that. You know what? I can control how nice my apartment is. Sure, economics. People may be immigrating or immigrating or immigrating into a place, regardless of whatever it is, but I can control a tangible asset and that, like, within reason, of course. And so I would always say, like, to anybody out there listening, like, I would absolutely advocate, like, have, if you have a single or dual income, have something else because you never know. The U.S. is a wonder. I love the U.S. it's a wonderful country. I've been to parts of the world where I've seen not so great places in the world, my hands down. The favorite part about the US is that it's a place where entrepreneurs are born, raised, they can be kicked down a little bit, but they're always there to fight back and do what they can. A lot of places don't allow that. They don't allow that free capitalism, that free capital, world trading. And that's the best part about the US you can grow what you want, but you have to have one thing and one thing only, A vision. And if you have the vision and then you can use your resources and everything, you can build that whole freedom that you're looking for, which is what we preach to people. I want them to be financially free and whatever that means to them. I. I had a client that worked for Eli Lilly and they flew here from Italy. They landed in Indianapolis. The husband drove straight to the reMax that I worked at and he walked in and I was closest to the front desk, and somebody's like, hey, can you go help that guy? So I meet him, and he's like, yeah, we just came from Italy. My wife works for Lilly. We want to rent a house for five grand. And we talk to him, and he ends up buying a house. And a couple of years later, I go to Italy on a vacation, and I text him and I said, why the hell would you ever leave this place? And he said, because I can't be the entrepreneur I want to be, that I can be in the United States. He's like, you have no idea how hard it is to operate anything or get anything approved in Europe. And it was like, wow, that's like something I would never think of, but it is what makes America special. And I just want to highlight that. But I want to talk a little bit about what operating a room of 73 agents and educating on the investor front and what standards you guys hold and how that looks while operating a team. I would love to hear that. Just for the team leaders and the listeners on that front. Sure. No, and I think it's a great question, because I think there's. There's a few approaches here. And the caveat here that I'll give everybody is I don't have to figure it out. It's just a reality. I don't have. I don't have the. I'm making it up as I go, and I'm gonna. I'm not gonna tell everybody that just perfect architect type. I haven't talked to an AI and been like, this is perfect. 100%. It's not. It's working in progress, and it's a lot of test for 30, 60 days, retest, and go forward. So the perfect avatar for our company is pretty simple. Two things. One, somebody has done at least one deal so that they at least know how to use the mls. Pretty good start, and they always know the process. The second is that they're probably somebody that has investment property or wants to buy one, because I can teach you how to buy an investment or if you own one. Now, that's kind of our perfect layup here. That's. It sets the stage. The standard we hold to them is like. And I says, all the agents, you either own something or you commit to buying something. In 12 months, if you don't own something, you and I are going to sit down, we're going to have a strategic call. 12 months. And most agents are like, I don't have the money to buy it. I'm like we can get you the money. That's not a problem. We can figure that out. Find the deal first, we'll make it work. I then work them back. How many deals you have to do. So how many clients does that take? How many leads does that take? How many conversations is that? We kind of work in that transition and that's just like lead generation, one on one. The second thing is I actually run a free school program, skool people that know it out there. And it's basically called the Candor Investor Accelerator. I just, I make modules every single month. So I've done it for six months now. We have 250 members, agents and clients and it's a free platform for everybody. And I tell them, take this course, take this one in foundation courses to teach you everything you have to know. One of the courses is how to be an agent investor. What does that mean? And it means you're servicing clients with a fiduciary responsibility. You, you find a deal, you analyze it may or may not work for you. You can pass it to a client or partner with them. That's why we're in this business. A lot of our agents have partnered with our clients because some clients are like, man, like, you're pretty smart and savvy. I got the money. Do you want to run this? Sure, let's do it. So, and that's kind of the standards in which we hold. We just tell them this is pretty much it simple. Be an investor yourself, have a fiduciary responsibility. If it comes across that way to a client. You know, some of our investor agents obviously work with investors. Many of them will work a single family as well. And so that's kind of the reason we pull them in. And really the last thing that I've done for the team leaders out there, and I have found this to be super helpful, is accountability. I have started cohorts with our team between five and eight agents or so. These cohorts are basically pods. We meet on a weekly or bi weekly basis. We go over goals. What are your struggles? What's your goal? It's almost remarkable because every single new cohort somebody is really has a relation to that person in some category. Like two guys that have never met each other have been just trying to cold call like banshees. And they're, and, and during the cohort they're like, hey, do you want to get together and like figure this out together? Like that's, and they're brand new agents. So they already have somebody that they've connected with those cohorts, have paid dues because I found out in the last 30, 60 days that those agents, I. A lot of our agents are just doing partners together. They're working together. One guy's emailing, one guy's cold calling or whatever, whatever it is. But I think cohorts is easily the single most important thing that we do at this point because people find community. That's honestly why they join our group. Our team is different than other brokerages because we have a community of like minded investors and they want to get to where they're going or they want to get there together. A couple things. Just a question. First, on your cohorts, is the five to eight agent cohort consistent for a window of time? Is it a forever thing? Does that change? Super good question. So I start with the first six weeks and I say like, I'm going to own this group. I'm like the sergeant in this case. I'm going to run you guys. And then later I say, do you guys want to keep this going? I haven't had a group say no. And I'm like, okay, great, I'm not going to run it now. Who wants to own this? And someone will almost raise their hand. They're like, oh, I'll run it. That sounds great. I'm like, good. Rotate every two weeks and switch somebody that runs this cohort. Keep it going, keep yourselves responsible. So the agents are educating and supporting each other. That's the whole point. Yeah, for sure. They joined us for the community and the network. If you every broker out there, and I think that a lot of team leaders and owners, forget this. Why are you different? What makes your team different? Well, I think, goodness gracious, like, I sit here and I have this question in my back pocket. I'll answer it, I'll ask it. Now, let's say hypothetically, you had a $25 million agent walk in the door that doesn't have a, that doesn't have an interest in investing, that says, andrew, I like you. How do you handle that agent? I had that happen three weeks ago. All right, so this guy joined, he called me and he's like, I like you guys a lot. I want to join. And I was like, that's cool. His name's, his name, let's say Matt, for example. I'm like, all right, Matt, do you own an investment property? He's like, nope, I don't have an interest. Looked at him straight in the face and I said, you know what's cool? You should go to ReMax or Real or somebody else or join Exp Direct. Like, I just don't think you're good. I don't think you're a good fit for us in this case. And he's like, no, no. I like you guys. And I said, I hear it. I understand my. I. Your personality. You as an individual. I'm not willing, if you're not willing to think like an investor like the rest of everybody and be part of the group in this regard. I don't think you're going to be a good fit. I think you're going to leave within six months. I'm trying to help you. I don't think you're the right fit. You know, it would be a good fit. You could be a solo agent at exp. I think it's a great organization. You could join, but I personally don't think you should join Candor. He pushed further and said, yeah, but I actually think I could add a lot of value. And I said, that's great. How? He's like, well, I could take all their retail clients. He was thinking it was a good way to build business. And I said, that's awesome. They're going to do their own deals. And I was like, I'm telling you, man, like, I don't think you're the right fit. Join EXP Direct. They would love to work with you directly. And we're still talking. He's like, well, what if I get an investment property? And so he's pushing now. And I said, if you're doing it to join us, just to say that you're going to join us. And I was like, I don't think you're here for the right reason. Well, yeah, this is unreal. I mean, look, as somebody who runs a team, one to have the go back to the word guts, it's like, to make that decision. But also, I wrote something down earlier while you were talking. It's clarity in the mission. So your avatar is a couple of check marks that are very simple and very clear. And it's hard. You're either in it or you're out of it. And, you know, we've done the avatar thing internally a couple different times, and you make modifications and you evolve it as you grow and you learn. But I think what's so interesting is when you have like. Like you have definitive yes or no, like, hey, are you coachable? Like, that's an ambiguous thing that you're gonna. Like, somebody can interview their way around that. Yeah. So look, I think clarity in Your mission, the other side of it is like your room polices itself because everybody is like minded. So the idea of cohorts and, you know, 73 versus 173 won't feel much different because everybody is on the same side of the rope. And that's something. Look, hearing this stuff, I'm sitting here, I'm like, man, that is. It's powerful. It's special because it's hard to get there. But in a sense, it's easier because it is a yes or a no. And it is like, either you do this or you don't. Which. Good for you guys. That's amazing, man. One thing that definitely happens is our agency prefer other people to our group. That's a very common thing. I don't promote, like, sponsoring and bringing recruiting agents. I'm like, hey, if you guys think someone should join, just. Let's have a call. Yeah, I had a call two days ago. The guy named, let's say, Pat in this case, one agent's like, you should call this guy. Like, he's like. And I was like, well, if he wants to meet, like, you know, he's like, no, I'm telling you, he's a really, really, really good fit, this guy. A few properties. He just got his license because he thought it makes sense. Like, you know, I think he should join us. I had to call the guy. And he's like, dude, I don't need to hear anymore. He's like, I've looked up you guys. I've gone to your meetups there for free. He's like, I'm in. Like, he's like, I'm like, let's do this. Like. And he's like, I want to be around. Like, there's the guy that he went to. His has $100 million to his name. He's like, that guy. I want to be around that other person. They got 20 million. I want them to like, I want to be around this group of just killers. And I was like, yeah, man, don't forget they got there because they sacrificed. Are you going to sacrifice? Do you want. And he's like. And it's. You see it, the face in their eyes. Like, you know, their eyes are magically. They're popping out. They're like, I will do whatever it takes to get there. I'm like, okay. Like, these guys sacrifice. You got to show that you can do that too. And now he's, you know, he's already in. He found a partner. They're already trying to do some flips. Together. And like that's what it's about. They're growing themselves. I think that's what matters. Yeah, I, I just did a mastermind this morning on building a powerhouse brand. And look like your brand is what people say when you're not in the room. And I think so much of our industry is like we operate from a position of scarcity. So it's like, would you take my listing an hour away? Well, I need the money and I don't know when I'll have the next opportunity. And this is how much it paid. Like this is what realtors do. They take their 3%, they tack it on, they do their math and they operate from that position. And the reality is the realtor makes that decision for themselves, not in the best interest of the client that they represent. And I think from your guys seat, like there is true identity in who you are, what you do, and how the operation runs and what the mission is. And I think like somebody coming to you is coming to you with a position of yes, not. It's because they already know who you are, what you do and why you do it. And you don't have to sell that to somebody where so often, I mean, look, we've had to do this where it's like you feel like you may be trying to convince somebody to come work for you. And it's like when you get clear about your mission, it makes it a whole hell of a lot easier to just go, hey, this is actually pretty easy. You're not a fit. And look, it protects your room and it's better for the people that are already there. Yeah. And I'd say that the metric that we all talk about the most, which is, it's sort of funny because it's ambiguous to anybody, which is our goal is to help a million people reach financial independence. Cut and dry. Like help. Help 1 million people reach that goal. And everyone's like, how are you tracking that? What are you doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a good, it's. And it's something we've talked about a lot. So the first, you know, we've been talking about it for years, but I was like, we gotta visualize this. I want, I want to see this. And I just entered this seat not that long ago as a co owner here. And one of the things I'm telling our marketing team is I want this. I want this everywhere. I want to show a toolbar and I want it to show the number of where we're at. I don't care if it's just 100. I don't care if it's just a thousand. I said, we're going to show that that's going to grow over time. And that's the mission. And so the way we're tracking it. Few different methods here. One is you can always tell because if somebody hit a million dollars in net wealth, that's a pretty good start. If I help a million people return. Independent dependents. Let's start there. We started internal. So how many agents are millionaires now? And I think we're up to 30. Wow. So, like, it's. Which is bananas, right? So then of those 30, I've always at, hey, how many partners do you guys have? And some of them are like, I think 15 of them are like, oh, five or 10, whatever it is. So I'm like, okay, let's. Let's extrapolate. So we started internal. Then it goes to clients. How many clients have owned a million dollars worth of real estate because of us? How many of them. How many of them have done more than one deal with us? So we look at those numbers. The new thing that we're trying to figure out is if we track all of our socials, school, YouTube, LinkedIn, whatever, how many people are retaining our content, how many of them are consistently coming, who is viewing and who's watching, who's doing what. So they can get a feel for this number. And then we can figure out, like, okay, what's a soft approach that we could take? So I think we did a. We did like, a quick approach the other day, and I think we're up to like a few thousand. I think we're between three and 4,000 people. And in some regard, you can't get to two if you don't get the first one. And so you'll never get to a million without the first thousand. And look, I think it's an incredibly selfless goal, and I think it's like, it oozes through the conversation right now of how passionate you are about this. This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the consumer on the other end that you guys get to help every day. And look, it's a incredibly respectable mission. It's impressive as hell, man. Thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah, there's an analogy. I don't know where it comes from, but it's like, plant the seed for the tree of the shade. You're never going to feel. And it's like, I'm okay with that because it's like, if I Could, you know, at times, especially right now, I think especially in the world, you know, economics, one on one, people are feeling pain, but it's like, it's pretty cool to think that, like, a client recently, like, we helped them become a millionaire, like, of like a week ago, they were like, holy shit. Like, I'm worth a million dollars. This is. This is crazy. That. And look, it's expensive to do anything right now, but you have somebody. You put somebody in an asset to own for 300 bucks a month when it's occupied. And look, it's not always going to be occupied, but, boy, did you help make their life a lot easier in a time that's pretty financially challenging for everybody. 100%. What else you want to talk about? This has been a fantastic conversation. No, I mean, I think this has been great. I mean, honestly, I'm grateful to be on your show. It's funny. I think for people, the biggest thing I would tell them is, no matter what, and this is my biggest piece is we run these meetups because. And I think I've kind of coined the phrase people make the joke at this point. But you're one conversation away from changing your life. If you're sitting at home and you're like, just in a rut, stuck on what you want to do, the number one thing I would tell everybody is like, get out and go meet people. Go look up a free real estate meetup if you want to get into the game. And if you're like, I don't know what to say to people. There's two things you can always say. Why are you here? What project are you working on? You're one conversation away. That could change your entire life. And I generally believe that to most people, just. Just get your. Put yourself out there. Yeah, I think about. I just lean into, like, what the show is called. You know, action solves everything. And it's like you're. If you're not where you want to be, the only way to get from where you are to where you want to go is the work that you'll do in the middle. And it is the action that you take. It's the work that you do. And there's so much truth behind that. But, dude, I love this. This conversation has been fantastic. We always close this with two questions. The first one is, where can folks find you guys online? So people can always find us online. You can look up Candor's Candle investment group. You can find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, et cetera. You can also look at my Name? Andrew Bosco. You'll see it. I'll give your team the social media kit. You guys can always find everything that I have just to make it a lot easier. So you could track and, you know, actually tag the socials and the notes and whatever you need. Love it. Yeah, easy money there. And then the last question we ask everybody is, you know, leaning into this concept of action solving everything. You're somebody that's gained a ton of ground in a short window of time, making a substantial impact for so many. I would love to know, and the listeners, if you could share, what does taking action mean to you? Hmm. Taking action to me means that no matter how small, no matter what it is, big, big task, small task, doesn't matter. You're just doing it. Don't stop. It could be for when I worked part time, it was an hour a day. One hour is all I did it. And people are shocked when they think, okay, eight million. I said, no, no, seven days a week. I did an hour a day minimum. If you just do one small workflow hour, take that action. Pick, pick the thing that actually generates money. Don't do the BS of like, well, I did my LLC and I, I set up the bank account. I'm like, that's awesome. If you're an agent out there and you're listening or if you're in sales or if you own a business, there's one thing you can do every day, one thing, and it'll change your. I promise, in two weeks it'll change. Your business is prospect. One hour every day, actually, prospect. I don't care what it's not. It's not looking up the phone numbers to call. It's not trying to find the person. It's no physically dialing the number, physically texting, physically emailing. If you do it one hour every day, your business will 100% change. I guarantee it. Consistent action, baby. Andrew, I love this. Thank you so much, man. This was fantastic, man. There's so much good stuff here. I can't wait to get this released. But thank you so much, my friend. Congrats on all your success and we'll talk you for having me, man. Thanks for listening to Action Solves everything. If today's episode pushed you, challenge you or help you even take one step forward, send it to someone else who needs that same nudge. We all get better when we grow together. And if you're looking for a partnership that actually believes in coaching, collaboration, accountability, and actually becoming, becoming the best version of yourself, shoot me a message online at all social handles at Alex Montagono. That's a L e x m o n T a G a n o. Remember, success rewards the ones who move. Take action and I'll see you on the next episode.