The Property Perspective
From hidden gems to billion-dollar deals, this is The Property Perspective - where seasoned real estate pros reveal how they spot value others miss, and industry disruptors share the unconventional strategies reshaping real estate.
The Property Perspective
Building Wealth and Legacy Through Self-Storage: Alex Pardo's Journey from Debt to Empire
Unlock the secrets to financial freedom and discover why self-storage is hailed as the ultimate wealth-building asset in our eye-opening conversation with Alex Pardo. You'll learn how Alex transitioned from the brink of financial collapse with IRS debt to creating a booming self-storage empire. Through candid discussions, Alex unpacks the common pitfalls in real estate investment and the key lessons he learned along the way, particularly from the 2008 financial crisis.
Visit BatchData.io to learn more about our enterprise-grade APIs and startup friendly pricing
Use code "PODCAST50" for 50% off your first month with BatchLeads
Company Links:
BatchService.com - Learn about all products
BatchLeads.io - AI-powered property search and lead generation
BatchData.io - Enterprise-grade property data APIs
BatchDialer.com - Multi-line power dialer for real estate
00:00 - Hope (Announcement)
From IRS debt to million-dollar deals, how Alex Pardo built a self-storage empire. In this episode, he reveals the biggest mistakes investors make, how he bounced back stronger and why self-storage is the ultimate wealth-building asset. If you're looking for financial freedom and recession-proof investments, this is the episode for you. From hidden gems to billion-dollar deals, this is the Property Perspective where seasoned real estate pros reveal how they spot value, others miss and industry disruptors share the unconventional strategies reshaping real estate. Now here are your hosts.
00:35 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Hey everyone. This is Preston Zeller, chief Growth Officer at Batch Service, and I'm here with Alex Pardo today, involved in self-storage industry, also has his own podcast, I'm sure doing many other things. Welcome, alex, how are you doing?
00:51 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Preston, I'm blessed man. It's great to connect with you and be on your show man, so I appreciate it.
00:55 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Absolutely. Thanks for being on the Property Perspective. I'd love to just get a quick intro from you where you're at today, and then we're going to do as we normally do. We're going to go back and just explore your story and all the awesome nuggets of wisdom you've learned along the way.
01:12 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, man. So look, I'll give you the super brief version of born and raised here in South Florida, I've been an entrepreneur for the last almost 20 years. I started October of 2005. And today my business looks very different than what it looked like back in late 2005 when I got started. But I'm primarily focused in the self-storage industry and just love that asset class I happen to. Maybe I'm biased, but I think it's one of the best asset classes, if not the best, for several reasons that we can talk about. But yeah, I own and operate self-storage facilities can talk about. But yeah, I own and operate self-storage facilities.
01:46
Really, where my passion and where I get a lot of fulfillment from Preston is giving, contributing, helping, impacting people, and so I've been coaching real estate investors since 2013. And the last year I've really been focused my coaching efforts on helping people get into self-storage and, primarily, buy their first storage facility within six to 12 months. You mentioned the podcast. I've been, you know, an extension of me wanting to give and contribute, which gives me a lot of fulfillment, is why I started the Flip Empire show back in 2016. And, kind of a side note that not many people know about, it's literally in the process of being completely rebranded. So the Flip Empire show will not go away, but it's going to look very different moving forward. So kind of a fun snapple fact there.
02:28
But uh, but yeah, man, anyways, aside from that, um, I, I I'm not passionate about real estate and that might be a pattern interrupt to some people listening to me. I like it, I feel like I'm pretty good at it, but to me it's just a vehicle to allow me to live a certain lifestyle, to serve and impact others. It doesn't define me, it's not. It's not my identity. And you know, years ago I went through an identity crisis when I was transitioning from wholesaling into the unknown. I didn't know it was going to be storage. So I share that, because I think a lot of people sometimes identify with what they do and what they do doesn't define who they are. You and I were talking about how we're believers and that's at our core, not what we do for a living or what our. You know what our business is.
03:15 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, no, and I really I definitely want to delve more into that because, you're right, the identity crisis is real. I think we can have multiple those in our life. But then also, when you put your identity solely on the foundation of a career man, you're going to, you're going to be so let down. So maybe really often too, just because it's so many highs and lows, yeah, I would agree. It's a tough road. Well, let's walk it back. You know, just you again, wherever you want to start, but like kind of early career, or if there's some part of childhood you want to touch on, that's really you know that you're like, hey, this is a pivotal moment for me.
04:00 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, wherever you want to go, yeah, look, for me, I think self-awareness is extremely important and I would even go so far as to say I think it's underrated. And what I mean by that is, you know, I remember when I was 11, 12 years old Preston, like I grew up playing sports and baseball was like my thing. I had the opportunity to play one year of college baseball and realized I didn't really have the tools to make it to the big leagues. But the reason I mentioned that is because I remember growing up in the baseball park on the weekends and I would.
04:30
I was really into sports cards and trading cards and I remember buying packs of cards and essentially flipping them for 50 cents more a dollar more, and I love the idea of buying something low and selling it a little bit higher, even though it was just 50 cents to a buck. Right, I wasn't making much money, but I I was really drawn to that. And yet when I got into college fast forward eight, nine years later, whatever it was there was something I think it was ego driven that I thought I wanted to climb the corporate ladder and be like the CFO or the CEO of a big company.
04:59
And that really wasn't why I was like that's not how it was designed and built. It wasn't to work in corporate America. And I ended up taking a job with General Electric and their financial management program and I remember I got an offer of $47,000 a year and I was 22 years old, like that was my starting salary back in 2003. And I remember my parents doing backflips like oh my God, that's incredible. Like almost 50 grand a year at 22 years old you're going to go work for GE. Like they were so pumped and I think I kind of fell.
05:29
It fell into that and I quickly realized two, three months into that job that like I don't think this is for me, like I don't want to work for somebody, I want to create, I want to do things for others. Um, I want to be able to travel. I remember having to like others. I want to be able to travel. I remember having to like I moved to Connecticut and I'm from Miami. First time I ever saw snow was when I moved to Connecticut to like. So I'm like, ah, like I don't like the idea of having to ask my boss for time off to go see my parents, right.
05:54
And so, anyway, man, I finished that two year program, I decided to go backpacking around Europe. I was kind of stepping into the unknown of, like, what was I going to do? Right, I knew I didn't want to work for somebody, but I didn't know what starting a business looked like. Nobody in my family at that point had ever started a business. You know, um, I didn't have a rags to riches, you know story or upbringing. I also wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.
06:18
My parents were middle-class, you know, born and raised in Cuba, came over in the uh in the sixties and, uh, just built a great life for my sister and I. But I was taught to go to school and get a good job and that typical mindset, right, uh. So, anyways, man, I went backpacking around Europe and I was, when I was on the train, going from city to city, country to country, I started to really immerse myself into personal development, books and real estate and just business, and I made a decision. I forgot what city I was traveling from and to, but I made a decision, hey, when I moved back to Miami which, by the way, dude, moving back in with my parents at 25 years old. Not a good look. I'm single, 25 years old. I don't have a job. I'm like I honestly like I didn't really feel like a loser, a loser, but I was like, damn, I wasn't expecting things to go this way it's normal.
07:07 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Today, which is the kind of that's crazy to me, I felt like an alien.
07:11 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
I was like this is really weird. Like 25 years old, moving back in with my parents yeah, didn't have a job, and so I had a lot of motivation to start something. And I um a friend of mine, I was in Ibiza and I happened to step in at an internet cafe and a friend of mine I was in Ibiza and I happened to step in at an internet cafe and a friend of mine I had an email from him inviting me to a marketing for deals boot camp and it was $997. And I had financed this entire trip on a credit card.
07:36
I wasn't making money, but for me that was like the fork in the road. I decided to go and fast forward. About three months later, I ended up closing my first deal, which was a short sale, and between myself and that buddy that invited me, we ended up splitting a $44,000, uh check. So that was my entry into real estate.
07:56 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So, um, I love that you took a took a trip, which I I did, uh, I studied abroad myself, um, and that was awesome and I was all over Europe, based in France, but that was, yeah, one of the most formidable things I ever did in my life. Because, yeah, you just, you know, whenever this isn't like hating on people who never travel, but when you do meet people who have got to travel, you're like you get it. When you haven't had a chance, you're like, ah man, you're missing out on so much of just like what's out there. You know, um, everywhere can be kind of a bubble if you stay there too long.
08:37 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
so I agree. I think what it does is it. It opens your, it gives you a different perspective, a different frame, uh, the people you meet, how they think, the culture. So I love traveling men and I'm fortunate and, honestly, that's, that's a big reason I think we do what we do. It's not just to impact people, but to have the ability to do the things that really fill us up because, dude, as cliche as it sounds like, I remember 20, 20, 20, 20 and 2021, I had, like I knew, three or four people under the age of 50 that passed.
09:08 - Preston Zeller (Host)
And.
09:08 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
I wasn't super, super close to them but like I knew them and that really impacted me, man, and it's like sometimes it's unfortunate that it takes a tragedy or it takes like a rude awakening to like open your eyes, to like man, like live life to the fullest because, like the next minute isn't promised to us.
09:25
And I think living, living with regret, is one of the worst things that you could live with. You know, Steve jobs in his, in his uh, in his book, talked about how he wrote the book so that his kids can get to know him and that was man that was kind of sad. And here is like somebody at the pinnacle of their career, like just uber successful entrepreneur but yet didn't have a relationship with his kids and he regretted that.
09:49 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, so, anyway, well, that we'll go off on a deep tangent real quick. But, like you know, when people I've talked about this, my own, dad and other, you know, family members, but it's you know, I think people think legacy is oftentimes like the physical things you leave behind, but not like all those soft things, the relationship, um, the virtues you leave behind, the lessons you teach them, um, it just gets hung up so much on money, you know, yeah, so, and hopefully people listening to this sort of like, I'm building a real estate empire so I can hand over a real estate empire to like, wealth of a generation squandered on the second and third.
10:29 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, it's not about giving money. Money is an important tool, don't get me wrong. Right, obviously, we run a business. It's not. These are not nonprofits. So money's important, but again, it's a tool. It's a tool and I think your legacy is about equipping our children with the wisdom, the knowledge, the experience that we can pass along to them. Not so much. Hey, here's, here's the, the login to a bank account with millions of dollars.
10:54
Like let them give them the tools and principles and the mindset and all that to be able to go do that on their own. That to be able to go do that on their own. No, I'm not saying you shouldn't, you know, leave something to your children, because the Bible talks about, you know, leaving an inheritance for your children's children. But I think to your point, it's much more than just money.
11:13 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, yeah, well, and one other quick thing I want to touch on, and then we'll keep going. But, you know, just in and we're in a similar age range where it's like we're, you know, we're on the cusp of all these technological changes, but also with parents who, you know, came, came out of this era of, like, hey, work for someone for 40 years and, like uber, prioritize stability with the assumption that everything else was sort of stable in life, assumption that everything else was sort of stable in life. And so and it's like we're especially in 2025, it's like it feels anything but that, right, we are increasingly having to be that much more thinking ahead and like kind of safeguarding ourselves in a way. And so, you know, it's just like the degrees and the jobs that like seem to provide more stability for, like, our parents generations, yeah, is not the case anymore, and so I think that's hence why so many people get attracted to real estate.
12:12
But, yeah, yeah, so, so, um, so you got that first check, which, um, I think there's a lot of people probably nodding their head right now going, oh man, I remember my first big check. Um, what happened after that?
12:26 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, I'll fast forward a couple of years. I look, I think, my first year in the business I closed 12, 13 deals, you know, made somewhere between a hundred 150 grand right that year, which was great. It was more than double my salary. I got to do it on my terms, um, and I think it was a. It was a blessing and it was also a curse.
12:43
So, early on in my career Preston I always saw coaches and mentors as an expense and I think, because I had some success out of the gate. And, by the way, I think the reason I had that success is because I've always, once I get clarity about what I want, I decide, I commit and then I just take massive imperfect action and I kind of figure it out along the way. Granted, sometimes I bump my head, I certainly make mistakes. I still make mistakes today. Right, I don't have everything all figured out, but I think the fact that I'm willing to put myself out there and figure things out and get uncomfortable has allowed me to succeed in different areas of my life and business.
13:25
But in 2007, I thought it was a great idea to go take on my first fix and flip project so with a partner, by the way, 2007, so you already know what's coming right 2008, the crash happens. And so 2007,. We bought a half million dollar property in Las Olas, which is a nice neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, and I'll fast forward to the end between myself and a partner. We lost $102,000.
13:50
So I had to come to the closing table with 51 grand out of my own money. And you know I've been fortunate to have done like a lot of real estate deals throughout the years like a lot. And people sometimes ask me, like Alex, what's the best deal you've ever done, thinking I'm going to talk about like a lot? And people sometimes ask me, like Alex, what's the best deal you've ever done, thinking I'm going to talk about like a six figure wholesale or a storage facility or whatever, that is the best deal I've ever done, losing $51,102 total between myself and a partner. Why? Because I knew instantly, Preston, that had I had the right person in my corner, that was a few steps ahead of me, I would have never gotten involved in that deal. I would have been able to read the tea leaves of what was happening in the market at that time and I said, hey, this was an expensive lesson, it cost me 51 grand. This, this coaching experience, cost me 51 grand, when I could have hired my local mentor at the RIA for five grand, right. And so I said, from that moment to today, I have never been, not even a day, without paying a coach to work with me.
14:53
And so I think oftentimes, through our adversity and through the challenges, if you look close enough and if you open your mind and heart to what you're going through, there's a blessing on it, within that.
15:04
It's just a matter of finding that blessing, um, and so I was super fortunate to have gone through that experience. Fortunately it didn't take me under uh, it could have, but uh, but yeah, man, I I just I learned a lot going through that. I think I think Monday morning, quarterbacking things right for the, for the football fans out there Uh, it's a phrase you know quarterbacks on Monday, they watch the game tape of the game on Sunday and they look at what they did well and the defense, and you know, and they use it to get better. And I think, as entrepreneurs, we can take a page out of that playbook to look at deals that we do, look at things that happen within our life and business and say, hey, where was the lesson there? What was I meant to learn? What could I have done differently? How could my mindset have shifted so that I didn't have to go through that pain or whatever it was? So just a few things that I want to share with people that I've had the opportunity to learn through reflection and experience.
16:03 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, I mean I love what you said about you know the coaching thing too, and you know it's.
16:08
It's such a we're in such a an interesting environment for that today too, because of course we know there's a lot of you know wolves in sheep clothing doing coaching stuff, and I think that's where people get hung up, because you know you could have one bad experience and then you go, okay, every coach it's like dating I, you know one bad date, right, sworn off dating. It's like no, it was just, you know, could be your judgment, it was off, could be just like the person was so good they were, were a con artist, and you know. But you do learn from those, right, and it's like sometimes those are expensive, but goodness, I mean, how many of them are $51,000 expensive for most people? I mean, not even, not even that, although there are expensive coaching programs out there. So I think it's great that you're so maybe you touch on that for a moment. Like, you know you have to write this big check and you're like, oh my gosh, you know a good coach could have saved me from this.
17:09
How did you go about finding your first coach? Yeah, yeah.
17:13 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, it's a really good question and I think it's one where people are not spending enough of time and energy. I don't hear a lot of like content on like how do you go out and find the right person? Like content on like, how do you go out and find the right person? I think the one thing that I know now that I don't know that I necessarily knew back then I would look at where I perceived somewhere someone to be in terms of success, in terms of lifestyle, in terms of material possessions and what they show. Uh, and now I could care less about that. It's the first filter for me now is there a core value alignment? There's entrepreneurs, influencers that I won't even mention names because it's just not my style that I can watch their content and, yes, they appear to be super successful, far more successful than me financially and with the things that they flaunt and show. But I can tell by the way they communicate and this is not a judgment on who they are, because I don't know them and that's, and I recognize that but I could tell by their, by the way they communicate, by what they, their values, that there's not an alignment there. And so, yes, could I learn some things from that person? Sure, but that is not the person for me to get coaching and mentoring from. Right, like you can't you can't go swimming and not get wet, and so I think the first thing people need to think about is, like interview the person you're thinking of working with, right, like is there? Yes, there's the technical knowledge, there's, there's the fact that do they have a proven track record? Are they doing the business that they're coaching? And I do think that's important.
18:45
As an aside, I also believe that you can coach somebody in something you've done if you're coaching somebody who's never done it before. So I'm not the one to say, hey, don't coach if you're not doing. And I think it's more valuable when your coach is in the trenches of the business you're looking to learn and grow in. So, yes, there's that. But I think the biggest thing is like is there a value alignment, right? Do integrities align? Do values align?
19:11
And then get clear about what you're looking for, and sometimes you might not know what you need, right, but communicate, like, your expectations on what you're looking for, and I think a good coach will tell you if it's a fit or not right, based on, on, and also Preston. I think it's important that people be open to the fact that, like you don't know what you don't know, so you might think you need X. But sometimes they think it's just betting on yourself and taking a leap. And here's what I truly believe If you make an investment in yourself, even if it doesn't work out, even if it's not the right fit, you're going to learn so much by betting on yourself, because I heard this years ago, dude, like when you pay, you pay attention and you tend to show up as a different version of yourself when you have skin in the game right.
19:58
I've experienced being given valuable things and I know it's valuable, but because I didn't pay for it. Not that I didn't value it, I just didn't value it as much had I stroked the check, sent the wire or swiped the credit card does that make sense?
20:13 - Preston Zeller (Host)
that's yeah, facts 100. Well, and you know, I I think, um, well, I had a good, I had a good, uh, I had a good thought there that just escaped me.
20:23 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Oh no worries but go ahead While it's coming to you. I think here's my core belief and I think if people borrowed this belief or adopted this belief, I think they'd be better, just better served, for it is. You are one insert the blank away from having a completely different life. You're one relationship away. You're one belief system away. You're one nugget away. You're one relationship away. You're one belief system away. You're one nugget away. You're one piece of information away. You're one connection, one opportunity, like.
20:53
So I operate in the mindset that, like dude, you and I could have a conversation and if somebody listens to us and just gets one nugget and they apply it, they implement it, like that could be extremely valuable. And I think about that when I'm watching a YouTube video. I think about that when I'm having a conversation and I don't look at it from the perspective of like, how can it impact my life? In fact, I'm thinking about it like how can I serve and impact somebody else? And if you're just your true, authentic self and you just share openly and willingly, I don't know man, to me it's just pretty awesome that one conversation, one piece of information that somebody here said in a certain way, if you allow it to can alter the course of your life positively. It can also be negative, right, if you're listening to the wrong people. But yeah, man, so I go into pretty much every conversation, every interaction, anything I'm going to consume with an open mind. That all I need is one little thing.
21:51 - Hope (Announcement)
No, matter how much.
21:51 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
I invest here. One little thing can completely change my life or just alter the direction I'm going in.
21:58 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So yeah, I do. That's probably happened to me 10 times in the past month. Easy, but you know. You know there's a couple of things that come to mind what you're talking about. One of my favorite sort of like analogies is, like you know, I used to live in the northwest and we'd go on hikes all the time. But you know, sometimes you go up to you know your hike spot and it's covered in fog and you know you're just climbing through the fog and all you can feel like is at some point your body hurts and you're like I'm never going to make it to the top and what I mean this is literally happened to me, but in a metaphorical way to you could find that, like you are 10 steps away from that peak and the fog breaks and you've hit it. But if you would have just stopped and turned around, you would have you put in all that work and just been like, yeah, you were to learn about the hike, but you would. You did not follow through with um, you know what you're trying to do. Uh, but the the other thing I was going to say. I forgot that. You know, in terms of when you have skin in the game.
23:05
You know, my wife and I'll still do this sometimes this day where it's like, hey, that you know, our big thing right now is we want to go on more vacations, our kids a little older, and every time we think about, hey, you know, this thing would be, it's a nice to have, you know, cost 500, cost a thousand dollars, whatever it is, we'll, we'll earmark that money for vacation, yeah, and start quantifying those like really unnecessary nice to haves in terms of what, if I actually put this into a better personal investment, that's going to make us truly a, you know, give us growth, not just like I like that, you know. Whatever stereo system or the new sub for my car, whatever it is that you're like it's not really necessary, it's a cool little thing to have. But if I put that same two $500 into a course, what is that going to do for me? Well, you know, probably a lot more.
24:05 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
So, anyways, yeah no, no, I couldn't agree with you more, and I think that's a big mistake that, especially like aspiring or young entrepreneurs, make even seasoned entrepreneurs like. Sometimes you're in a season in your life and business where you got to roll up your sleeves and sweep the floors, and delayed gratification is a real thing, right? So I'm not the one to tell you, hey, deprive yourself of every joy of everything. And I will tell you, sometimes there are seasons where you need to like, really lean into it and get real about what's a priority for you, right? It's been said, if you look at somebody's calendar and bank account, you could pretty much, for the most part, tell what's important to them and I think that's really true yep, that's, that is a great observation, okay.
24:45 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So uh, let's get back to you. You stroke this big check, you find your first coach. Um, what, what starts going on from there?
24:57 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
that is such a loaded question because I was about to enter into like the biggest storm I have ever experienced, but I I'll give you the modified story and I, I'm happy, I'm an open book, I'm happy to dig into it.
25:08 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I want to hear the storm for two.
25:10 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Okay by the way, I think part of the reason I just want to acknowledge something really quick that I wish I saw more of in in our space, in our world, is dude sharing, like the storms like hey, I went through it and here's what I. Here's why that happened. Here's what I've learned, because I don't know about you, but like, I feel like I learn more from sometimes people's challenges than I do from the winds, I think the winds are great to celebrate.
25:34
That's important, but sometimes I feel like all we see are the winds and then it. It paints a false reality for people like in this business that like, oh, everybody's crushing it right, but like I'm over here struggling so actually it can be kind of a red flag.
25:46 - Preston Zeller (Host)
If all you see are the wins, you're like whoa, hold on a sec. I don't even know if you rented those successes.
25:54 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
So that's a great way to put it. But man, 2009, um, I wasn't living with my parents anymore, happy to say, I was off living on my own. And I remember, uh, I was living in a condo in Miami and I went to the mailbox, got up to my apartment on the ninth floor and I threw all the mail, like on the kitchen counter, and I remember specifically seeing one protruding from the rest of them and after a couple of minutes, you know like when, when you know something's about to happen and it's like not good. You have that like feeling in your gut and your belly. That's what I had going on and I pick it up and pressing it like this is not hyperbole, I'm not Busing here. The envelope was probably like close to an inch thick and it had a green certified mail sticker. I turn it around. It says internal revenue service. Like instantly, that feeling I had was validated. Like this isn't good. Like why am I getting an envelope that's like that thick from the IRS?
26:52
Well, I opened it up and I come to find out that my 2006 taxes, my 2007 taxes and my 2008 taxes were not filed, and this was probably April, may of 2009. I wasn't in a position to file 2009 taxes. And basically what happened is I told you I didn't come from a family of entrepreneurs. I didn't hire a coach until 2008. So I got into the business and I just I went and I was just doing deals and I abdicated the responsibility of having clean books. I hired a bookkeeper in 2006, thinking naively that, uh, it was his responsibility to not just do my books but file my taxes. And my taxes were never filed and I, I made, you know, I made decent money 2000 and the five, six, seven and eight.
27:42 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Can you explain real quick, just for someone who might not pick up on the nuance there, like where that, like what would have been the proper thing in that situation?
27:52 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Well, I mean, the proper thing first of all is not to ever abdicate your responsibility. Like I literally hired a bookkeeper to handle the finances in my brain Again being very naive early on in my journey Like all I wanted to do was focus on doing real estate deals and bring in the money and I didn't want to do the books. Like that dream, the thought of doing books and QuickBooks and all that drained me. So I went out and, without interviewing a bunch of people, I found somebody. I think it was off of Craigslist believe it or not Like that's how crazy, that is.
28:23
I think I hired a bookkeeper off of Craigslist. Not saying I couldn't have found the right one, but I thought I don't know how this happened. I just thought that person's responsibility was to file my taxes. Little did I know I should have had a CPA.
28:37 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Right, there you go. I should have had a certified public account.
28:40 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
One thing is a bookkeeper keeping your books, Another thing is like who's preparing the taxes, like who's filing, who's doing all that?
28:47
And that was my responsibility. And yet I abdicated that responsibility Like, hey, you handle that, let me know if you need me. I'm going to go over here and focus on doing deals. Handle that, let me know if you need me, I'm gonna go over here, focus on doing deals. And man, I ended up owing the irs somewhere between 124 and 128 grand, and if you know anything about owing money to the irs, um, it's not fun and there's penalties and interest and it's crazy I've been there too, by the way, like I.
29:14 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Actually, I went through a period where I just wasn't making enough and I'm like I can't even afford taxes, um other things too. But yeah, I went through kind of a similar thing. I had to pay, I don't know, it was like 40 grand or something, but yeah, I I once I got it paid off, it made me sick to think about how much in like interest and penalties I know, I know no, it was.
29:37 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
It was such a painful experience for me but, like it ends, it's got a happy ending and I and I learned a lot from it. But look, for a period of a week or two weeks I was in victim mentality. I was blaming the bookkeeper, I was blaming anybody but myself, and that's from that moment on I said hey. Once I went through that process and I really reflected and just grew from it, I'm like it wasn't the bookkeeper's responsibility, it was my responsibility. Right, these are my, this is my situation. And so I just owned accountability and just accepted responsibility. But um, all that to say, man, it's.
30:12
I remember calling the IRS and you've probably dealt with this precedent. But when you the IRS, it's not like you're getting an agent on the phone like right away. So I remember like numerous times, numerous being on hold for well over an hour and then sometimes a call would drop and I remember just feeling so frustrated and being like how did I put myself in this position, having to call back again, and I was trying to see like I was like, hey, my first deal was a short sale. I'm like can I negotiate this? And there's something in the IRS called OIC offering compromise. But the problem was I had made too much money the previous years where I didn't qualify for an OIC Basically a short sale is the way I would kind of explain it so I ended up hiring a coach, a life coach. Now this is the second coach I've ever hired. The first one, after that debacle with that deal, was a real estate coach. Second one was a life coach, recommended by a friend because I was in such a dark place mentally, right Like I was like man. I just I was in victim mentality and I needed somebody to like, kind of show me a better way of thinking and processing through this. So, man, over a three and a half year period, I worked with this coach and happy to say, man, that I ended up paying everything back to the IRS plus paid off about 40 grand worth of credit card debt, 40 grand worth of credit card debt.
31:35
In the middle of that story that I hadn't shared yet, is I remember at one point feeling like there's no light at the end of this tunnel? By the way, 2009, 10, I wasn't doing that many deals. The crash had happened, I was still in real estate, but it was touch and go and I didn't want to go get a job and I remember exploring the thought of filing BK, filing bankruptcy. And I remember to this day the feeling of driving down Coral Way here in Miami into a neighborhood called Coral Gables to meet with a bankruptcy attorney. And I remember getting a little bit emotional in the car, like feeling like I had just lost, like I'm feeling like I was giving up and quitting and that's not a judgment on anybody that's filed BK, but I, I it just didn't feel right in my core. But I didn't see another alternative. Like I just didn't know how. I was going to few questions.
32:24
He did a lot of the talking and when it came time to uh, to pay and start the process, I hesitated. I stayed quiet and he looked at me and he goes. I know what you're thinking because I've met with a lot of people that have gone through this process. But this is your best route and alternative. You're not going to be able to pay this off. And it was like I just took it on as a challenge. I politely excused myself, I left his office and I remember driving back.
33:03
I drove in, feeling emotional, I drove back with anger and with a level of commitment that like, not only am I not filing bankruptcy like I'm going to figure this out one way or the other. That was the mindset. And so, yeah, man, man, fast forward, probably a couple years later. Sorry about that. Um, fast forward. A couple years later. I ended up paying off the iris, paying off some credit card debt, and it was. It was a painful process. Uh, I remember being at the kitchen counter like trying to get paperwork and statements and documents from three years ago and it wasn't like it was today, like I couldn't just go online and download these statements right, I'd have to call the bank going. Like it was a process and it was not fun. But, uh, anyways, man, it was. Looking back on it, I'm glad I went through that and just grew and learned a lot from it, do you think?
33:53 - Preston Zeller (Host)
the attorney there like kind of I mean I'm sure you've thought about this, but do you think he thought to go? I'm going to reverse psychology, this guy.
34:03 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
No, I think he was being legit. I think in his mind he was like, yeah, he's looking at a. At the time I was 29. So, he's looking at a 29 year old. That's like got you know up the creek without a paddle, kind of thing you know, between credit card debt and irs 170 grand. I I don't know.
34:21
I was maybe making 50 60 grand a year at that time you know, just doing a couple deals here and there, like not a lot um, and so yeah, no, I don't think it was real psychology, I think he meant it. I'm like in his mind, I mean, that's what he does for a living, obviously helps people like basically get bailed out. That's how it felt to me and you know, I've learned now that there's something called strategic bankruptcy, like sometimes people file bankruptcy, they're broke, but it's strategic. In my case it wasn't strategic. I didn't have money, I was broke. I was broke.
34:53 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Just a legit, just straight broke bankruptcy. Well, I mean, statistically, the amount of people are going to pay off that amount of money, you know, and where you are at the time is probably like I don't know what it is, but it's incredibly low, right, yeah, so, but you know, it is, I'm sure, coming out of that. You just think to yourself, man, if I can crawl myself out of this, what else can I do when I'm not? If I can be productive in a situation where it's not, so back against the wall, what does that look like?
35:33 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, yeah for sure. Look, and I think again, I have the hindsight of 2020. Like, I'm so glad I didn't take the quote unquote easy way out, because at some point in my life and in some point in your life for those of you like listening and watching like you're going to be faced with adversity. The question is, like, what are you going to do? And I think, um, you know, you get a reality check when you're going through something really, really challenging, how you respond and how you react to it. Right, do you have the mindset that you're going to figure a way through it, around it, under it, over it, or are you just going to wave in, you know, wave the towel, wave the white flag and just like give up and just feel bad about yourself? Uh, and so I forgot who said it, but that quote of life is not what happens to you, but how you respond to what happens to you.
36:22
Uh, now you know, we, we talk about tying this into, like my faith. Um, I, I've been a Christian since I was a little boy. I was raised a Christian and I think, going through that experience, I felt like started to like open my eyes and heart, to like, just like, hey, man like I. Yes, I have the mindset that I'm going to get through this, but it's not because of me, it's because of, like you know God taking me through this and kind of showing me a better way, and so I think that's when I just started to really open up more, to leaning into, uh, my faith and just you know God and just uh, what can I learn from this? And I've grown throughout the years in that area and I still got a lot of growth to do from being honest.
37:01 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, absolutely Well, I mean, you know that's. I think from a faith perspective, you can certainly be like, hey, this is a moment where it's like God wants me to lean on him, you know, and not be just so. Take things cavalier, right? Um, so, after you paid off all this debt, I mean obviously you went, you went back, did a ton of work. I mean, were you working like crazy hours during this time period or are you working just smarter, or both, or what was it?
37:30 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Both, I was working hard and I start I felt like I started to work smarter. Um, yeah, for sure, I was putting in hours. Uh, I mean just compiling all that paperwork and finding the right people to work with. I mean that that was almost its own full-time job, right, uh? And then again I was the one on the phone with the IRS and going through that whole process and you know it chews up a lot of your time, energy and bandwidth. Uh, no, man, look coming out of that.
37:56
I think it was like 2013 that I finally paid them off. I ended up hiring a couple of people on my team and REOs were a big thing, and so we started wholesaling and flipping a lot of REOs and man, for three, four years, like things really took a turn for the positive and just started to make a lot more money, started to really focus and dedicate myself on growing a business, hiring people, so learned a lot. You know, three years after, that is when I launched the flip empire show, because I had a lot of people coming to me, because I had experienced some success over the last three, four years, and I walked away from those conversations, Preston, feeling like man. I wish this was recorded because I feel like I get these questions a lot and I believe it could benefit and help others. So, yeah, man and I was focused all around wholesaling during that time, from, basically, 2012, 13 through 2020. We were just straight focused on wholesaling.
38:59
Focused on wholesaling and, uh, but 2017, my wife and I were on a cruise and I remember, uh, I had an acquisition manager, a disposition manager, a lead manager, like I had the classic wholesaling structure. But I remember feeling like in my, in my gut, like man, I don't know, that this business no longer aligns with, like, my goals and my purpose. It just, it was so such a transactional business, uh, starting the month from scratch, every single, you know, from zero. Uh, we had big six figure months and then that could be followed by a goose egg, you know, for a month or two, and then a great month, and it was just this.
39:29
And at the end of the year, yes, we made, you know, a lot of money, but it just I was like I told my wife I'm like where's the cash flow? Where are the assets? So, from that, I said, hey, I'm going to start focusing on acquiring assets, not wholesaling everything. So, living in Miami. I was in a mastermind called Collective Genius CG, and a buddy of mine in there owns over 100 single family rentals in Cleveland Ohio and I remember going in there and starting to buy rentals in Cleveland Ohio and I remember I remember going in there and starting to buy rentals in Cleveland and then after about four or five rentals I'm like why do people say this is passive?
40:04
There's nothing passive about owning rentals, even though I had a property management company and during that time, I was running a mastermind with a good friend of mine and I was coaching somebody who owned the storage facility, and that is when the light bulb went off for me. This was like 2019. And I remember saying to myself this is the asset class that I need to be in no tenants, no toilets, no trash. You can automate most of the business. You have time freedom, no trash. You can automate most of the business. You have time freedom, no employees.
40:41
At that time by the way, for context, Preston my monthly overhead was between 40 and 45 grand and I think I had nine people on my team and I'm like. So in 2019, I mentally made the decision I'm going to start to unwind the business, and when COVID came, it was just like a fire starter. It was an accelerator. And that's when I started was just like a fire starter. It was an accelerator, yeah, and that's when I started to deal with a little bit of the identity crisis stuff that I mentioned at the top of the episode.
41:03
You know the thought of like shutting down this wholesaling operation after 1415 years and like how would I look? What would people think?
41:11 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Like that was some of the crap going on in my head at the time, so yeah, well, you know, especially in, I think, this business in particular, where, as you pointed out earlier, there's I mean there's off, you know a lot of authenticity, but at the same time, you know there's like the, the facade that's there, and um so mini warehouses. It's funny you mentioned that, cause actually that's what I my, my dad was a um many warehouse developer.
41:42 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Oh nice.
41:43 - Preston Zeller (Host)
My grandfather. Um, you know they still have some of that stuff, but it's so. I grew up around that. My first job was like sweeping the sidewalk from my dad's many warehouse, so very cool.
41:54 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
What city state? Out of curiosity.
41:56 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Uh, all central orange county, la county, um, yeah, so all California. But um, I, I got so ingrained in that world. Unfortunately, my dad offloaded them in the mid 90s when there was a recession. He's like that didn't see a way out of it. Um, he's kicked himself ever since then. But yeah, when I knew I was going to talk to you, I'm like, oh, this will be interesting because, like I, uh, you know, I still hear about it my dad's 82. He's like, ah, how many warehouses. Because he got into it when they were just like a thing, like starting to become a thing Preston.
42:33 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, by the way, your dad is clearly a wise man. He was well ahead of the curve. But really quick before you keep going with your story, cause I want to hear this. Isn't it interesting how I rarely hear of somebody of like investors and entrepreneurs say, oh, I'm glad I sold that asset way back then. Oftentimes I hear I wish I would have held onto it.
42:55 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Oh, like every time. Well, that's the whole joke. Like when's the best time to sell real estate? Never.
43:02 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Don't wait to buy real estate.
43:03 - Preston Zeller (Host)
buy real estate and wait yeah right, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, no, it's, it's uh. I only bring that up to say like it's interesting because I got into what I would consider digital real estate, because I've been growing software companies and you know that kind of thing. But uh, so much I learned from that because there was actually, you know, somewhat of an emotionality as to why he offloaded, uh, some of those properties. Uh, but, man, like those properties they were in central orange county um are just, I think that I, they, I don't how. I think they sold one of them for like nine million this is in the mid 90s um, over 100 units, um, they're double stacked but I mean they're worth so much, like four or five times. That's all I'm today, if not more. I'm certain.
43:51
Yeah, yeah, but the cash flow they have is unreal and interesting was they were all like city-in-fill lots. They were just taking down janky stuff on them and then clearing the land and then putting a bigger unit up. But we have talked a lot about going and getting the tired mom-and-pop ones and then rehabbing those. So I'm really curious because that market in particular and I know they have the big, you know, mini warehouse convention in Vegas and all that kind of stuff. It's to your point, right. You get the benefit of all the units and the scalability without the people, without the you know infrastructure, the plumbing and all you know, all the, all the things, just people's stuff in a room that they don't touch very often. This is such a US thing, right, but how did you break into it with the popularity of that space, because it has gotten so popular, yeah, as kind of an asset class over the past, you know, 20, 30 years?
45:03 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, it's a great question and observation. I'm going to answer it two ways. Number one even though storage has become a lot more popular over the last handful of years than it was 10, 15 years ago, man, I find that it still doesn't have nearly the amount of competition that I felt I experienced in the single family space. Right, you know, just to give you some contrast here, I remember, at the peak of our wholesaling 2018, 2019, our acquisition manager we would still do belly to belly appointments, would go meet with a homeowner here in South Florida. It was not uncommon, Preston, for that person to have 25 to 40 direct mail pieces sitting on the kitchen counter right In storage. It is a fraction of that. A fraction of that.
45:50
Now, if I'm being, you know, playing devil's advocate, there's obviously significantly more houses than there are storage facilities. There's over 60,000 storage facilities in the in the United States and about 60% of those give or take our mom and pop operated storage facilities in the uh in the United States and about 60% of those give or take our mom and pop operated storage facilities. Okay, okay, so you know, somewhere between 35 and probably 40,000 of those uh facilities are mom and pop operated. But yeah, man, look I. I love the fact that storage is a real business that has the benefits of real estate.
46:25
When we talk about cashflow and appreciation depreciation. I mean it's got all that. I mean, look, my very first storage facility was a 43,000 square foot facility in Mississippi that I bought in 2021. I got a loan for 85% of the purchase price from purchase price from the small business administration, from SBA. Ah, interesting, Now you can't go to the SBA, to my knowledge, to go buy a single family home, right?
46:51
It's not a house, it's not a business, right, yeah, uh, but a storage facility is a business and I just started to look into the asset class and I love the fact that, like, again, I sucked as a rehabber, like I was not good. I mean, I lost 51 grand on my first fix and flip, right, and I just never liked it. So I liked the fact that storage is like three concrete walls and a metal door and you get the economies of scale and you get to do something called forced depreciation. So you know, by increasing the rents, by adding fees like late fees and auction fees, that significantly increases the value of the facility. It has a multiple effect when you apply something called the cap rate and, man, I love it. So, like, up until five, six months ago, I owned 838 units.
47:39
I've since sold off a portion of that portfolio, but zero employees, zero employees to have that portfolio and maybe I would spend an hour to two hours a week on that portfolio. When I had it Again, I sold off 80,000 square feet. Uh, but yeah, man, I think about one storage deal would have equated to probably 15 to 30 houses, you know, particularly if you find the right storage facility. I'm not saying they're all like that. But yeah, man. So I just I think it's a powerful asset class that can you don't need that many of the right storage facilities to live a nice life off of these things and it just I think it's a great asset class that can give you cash flow, allow you to build wealth and live free, just experience freedom.
48:30 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So what you mentioned getting the SBA loan was that on the very, that was the very first one you did.
48:35 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
That was the very first one. So, yeah, every single storage deal I've done, by the way, I have yet to use any of my own money. Now hear me loud and clear. I'm not saying you don't need money, it just doesn't have to be yours. So my very first deal we bought it for $1.592 million, so just under $1.6 million. I got an SBA loan for 85% of it. But that left me with a little problem. I needed about $300,000 to $350,000 to get into the deal, the 15% plus some money to improve the facility. And so, because of relationships, I'm really really big on building the most valuable capital, which is not private capital, it's relationship capital. I brought in somebody who I have a friendship and a relationship with, that I've done business with, and he became my equity partner. He funded the 350 grand and I found the deal. I was the sweat equity operator in the deal and was able to get into that deal with none of my own money. Well, that's the one that we just sold, october 31st of 24, sold it for 2.495.
49:36 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Nice. So, um, it was like two and a half, something like that.
49:41 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, so we bought it for just under 1.6 and we sold it for just under 2.5. So okay, about about 900. Yeah, okay, okay yeah, yeah, awesome.
49:51 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Um well, congrats on that. So are you rolling that into other ones or just kind of a?
49:55 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
yeah, no, I, I decided I'm gonna, I'm not gonna 1031 exchange. I decided to pay the piper on this one. So I you know, yeah, april's gonna be interesting, but yeah but you have your ducks in a row now.
50:06
Yes, yes absolutely absolutely yeah, that's for years now, by the way, I've had a bookkeeper who like just man, the freedom and peace it gives me that at any point I can log into my quickbooks online and just my books are in order, like I know where every. I mean it just gives you a certain piece. I still have friends that run low seven figure a year, businesses that scramble January, february, march to try to get their taxes, like just to file an extension, and like I'm like dude, what are you doing? Like don't, don't do that. It's just a stress. It causes, not fun. Yeah.
50:43 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Like don't, don't do that, it's just a stress it causes, not fun. Yeah, I, you know, I've personally seen that too, and variety of contexts for sure my own at some point but yeah, I mean big businesses where I was like what's going on here, yeah, so yeah, I think that's if, if you take away nothing else from this whole podcast today, I would say like, yeah, make sure you are not neglecting your financial integrity books, taxes, all that stuff.
51:14 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, man, yeah, for sure, For sure.
51:16 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So okay, so you've we kind of we jumped around a little bit to today, but how many units are you at today now, or square footage, however you measure?
51:27 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
So I have, uh, I have a 24,000 square foot facility in Amelia Island, Florida. Um, my very first storage deal. I don't consider it my first because I ended up wholesaling it and, ironically, like I got away from wholesaling cause I didn't want to do the transactional Yet, my first deal was an opportunity to wholesale it. It was $99,000 assignment split between three people, so I made 33 grand. The reason I mentioned that is because I still have some equity in that deal. We retained 15% equity between the three of us in that project, so have that little piece.
51:59
And then we just went under contract on a facility in Tennessee and another facility in Illinois. So now I'm really focused on the 80,000 square feet that I sold was in a rough part of Mississippi and even though we did well financially, I realized the importance of being in the right market, a market that has job growth and population growth, has a certain like medium household income. Uh, because I got into storage, because I wanted to be more hands-off and that first deal was a little bit more hands-on that I anticipated because of the area it was in sure, did you have you run any auctions?
52:39
everything is done online through storage, so we have a boots on the ground that takes pictures whenever you know customers don't pay over a period of time and they've been notified so you guys serve.
52:49 - Preston Zeller (Host)
It is like a service, the third party service that comes out and does that, or no, nothing.
52:54 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Nobody goes out there physically. We take pictures, we upload it. People bid looking at the at the like. It's not like storage wars. People are not going on site and then opening the garage door and looking. People go on storage auctions right the website. They see the pictures, they bid on it and then they have like 72 hours to go pick up the contents.
53:13 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, yeah, I actually I had a friend of mine who got into the online uh auctions for a while. Um, he was trying to do a bit of the storage war stuff. Um, I think he got out of it pretty quick because it's a little hit and miss.
53:28 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
But yeah, it's interesting man. Yeah, people sometimes ask me like oh, what's the coolest thing you've you found or kept from a storage? You know I'm like nothing, dude, like I have nothing to do with that. I have no dude. The biggest expense for a storage owner operator is a vacant, empty unit. Yeah, right, like because of the opportunity cost of being able to rent that. So whenever, like, we auction off, like our goal is to for the boots on the ground to sweep the unit, get it rent ready and online so that you know we can rent it and generate revenue from that vacant unit are you, um, I aside from a like website you may have for that property, is there any other way?
54:07 - Preston Zeller (Host)
you sort of like you know part over the power complexes, like what are you doing there?
54:11 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, man. So I mean there's a couple of different ways. I'll answer that question. So we run what's called an unmanned model, so you know how, like when you go to like a public storage or an extra space storage, you walk in and there's a nice office and you're going to talk to somebody behind the counter. We don't have that. Even though at our facilities we have offices, they're closed, like you can't go in and speak to someone. It's called an unmanned facility, which means that the tenant or the customer, I should say, rents their unit on their mobile phone. They get access to the gate code on their mobile phone. We have a phone number that they call. That's a call center.
54:46
And then we have a boots on the ground that is responsible for being on site one or two days a week. By the way, we usually pay boots on the ground between five and $600 a month, so it's really, really cheap. And then we have a third party management company that handles the day-to-day operations. They have the call center. Now I think what you were also asking, like do we partner with apartment complexes? Yeah, we, we implement offline, grassroots marketing and then sometimes we do flyers and billboards and not like big billboards, but, like you know, we do like road signs and we partner with apartment complexes and let them know about our storage facility. And sometimes, you know, we'll connect with the management office and offer them a highly discounted unit in exchange for being able to market there. But, dude, most of our customers come from some type of online marketing, whether it's pay-per-click. You know Google Ads or search engine optimization, seo, and then Google my business. Those. That's how we get, honestly, the the bulk.
55:51 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Sometimes we get drive-ins or drive-throughs, but for the most part, it's online. Nice, Nice, yeah, Um. So what's the? I mean you got two under contract right now. What's what's kind of the? Looking further out, whether it's, you know, three, five, 10 years, however, you're doing that.
56:05 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Yeah, man, yeah, I mean. Well, the cool thing is is that you know now I run a coaching program called Storage Wins that the singular goal of that program is to help people buy their first storage facility within six to 12 months max. And the way that it's structured is I get to partner with them on their first deal. Now they get the lion's share of the deal. Um, but yeah, the vision is is, every single year, to continue to pick up anywhere between two to five really really good storage deals and um, and just continue to grow the community with the right people. Uh, cause, again, man, I truly believe man, people are. You know, we talk about that one thing earlier People can be one good storage facility away from just it having a big, big impact on your situation financially.
56:54 - Preston Zeller (Host)
No, that's, I love that, and so it's a course for taking people through. I love that, you know, gives you an opportunity. It's kind of like a you know lead gen vehicle for you too, right, yeah, for sure Cause.
57:07 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Look I I back to what I said early on. Like I'm not passionate about real estate, I like storage. I think it's a phenomenal asset class. But do I wake up in the morning saying, like I get to go operate a storage facility, right, like. No, I'm not particularly like jazzed by the operations of a business per se, but this gives me the opportunity to lean into, like, my strengths and, I think, the gifts that God's given me, um, coach people while at the same time participating in the success of of their deals. Um and so I'm a big uh whenever you have the opportunity to vision stack. Right.
57:42
Vision stacking is like when you're clear on your vision and you're able to combine things that you enjoy doing or things you're good at, things that are mutually aligned. To me, that's a vision stack, and this is an example of me vision stacking Like. I know I want to serve an impact and contribute to people's lives. I know storage, I like real estate, I'm good at it. Let me combine those two. I know I want to continue to do storage, but do I want to be the operator on every single deal? Not necessarily.
58:11 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, I love that you brought that up because I think people are used to hearing. I mean, value stacking is. You know we're given that all the time in the sales process. But then there's habit stacking, I think, is the other one Probably a lot of people who are listening are used to. You know I drive, listen to an audible or you know things like that. You know make multi-use of time. There you go Atomic habits.
58:38 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
They talk a lot about like habit stacking.
58:39 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, but then vision stacking. I don't think I've heard that before, but I immediately understood the concept. I don't know, did you make that up?
58:50 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
No, I learned about vision stacking. I got to give credit to an organization called Life and Air. In fact, we talk about coaching the founder of Life and Air, steve Cook. He's somebody who's still a coach in my life today. And yeah, look, here's another quick example of vision stacking. Years ago, myself and a friend started something called the Holiday Mastermind, and Holiday Mastermind was like I love to travel right, we talked about that. I really have a desire to impact people's lives and I also want to mastermind and grow and be surrounded by entrepreneurs and people that inspire me. So, holiday mastermind once a year we would go to an exotic tropical vacation, we would mastermind and a hundred percent of the proceeds went to charity. So now this gives me the ability to travel with my family, mastermind with awesome people, build relationships and give back and contribute. So to me, that is an example of vision stacking. Those three elements were on my vision, I just combined them.
59:52 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yep, awesome, I love it. Um, I'm a big proponent of that too. I don't definitely never called it vision stacking, but I am going to start using that. Yeah, I love it. I'll just credit it to you.
01:00:05 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
And I'll pass the credit along to life in there. So there you go.
01:00:08 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, Um, real quick, uh, just cause. Uh, we did talk about the travel. What's the, what's the next place that you're itching to go to?
01:00:15 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Croatia. So my wife is turning 40 next year, so we're planning every other year we usually do, at least for the last, I don't know, five, six years we like to go to Europe and travel for three weeks. Yeah, so I don't know. We did Greece, the Greek Isles. We did that, I don't know, four years ago, last year or three years ago last year. We did Italy, and so Croatia is coming next year. And then in between between now and then, we like to do little micro trips. And like then, in between between now and then, we like to do little micro trips, and like we just got back from blue ridge, georgia about a month or so ago, and so, yeah, man, again, traveling is just uh, I come back energized and refreshed when I travel.
01:00:53 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, I think people underestimate too. Even like a three, four day trip is like, oh, it's huge. You just um, yeah, you get enough to recharge. Doesn't have to be some extravagant vacation. Like you know, reset your brain a bit yeah, man, yeah, for sure. So yeah, so where can people find you, alex?
01:01:10 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
uh, thank you, man, I again I this was a fun uh conversation. I I trust and hope people get a lot out of it. Um, but a couple different ways. So if you go to alexpardocom, just my name, alexpardocom, uh, and then also the my podcast, it's currently called the flip empire show, but it's in the process of being rebranded. So I would suspect in the next probably two to four weeks um, the new name will be revealed. But yeah, uh, currently the flip empire show. Uh, I've been doing that for man. In june it's gonna be nine years, so almost almost 800 episodes in which is pretty crazy.
01:01:45 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Well, yeah, we'll make sure. I think by the time this goes live, you can look in the show notes and we'll have your new link to what the new name is so cool. Well, alex, I really enjoyed this. I'm looking forward to connecting more in the future, but thanks for coming on. The podcast Appreciate it.
01:02:01 - Alex Pardo (Guest)
Thanks so much, man. I really appreciate the opportunity to just kind of share my story and if I can help anybody in any way, just reach out.
01:02:09 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Cool. Thanks a lot.
01:02:10 - Hope (Announcement)
Thanks for listening to today's podcast. Please make sure to subscribe on your favorite service to get notified every time a new episode is released.
