EP 121: Crypto & Commercial Real Estate With Greg Dickerson

Transcript

all right we're here with uh greg

dirkerson out of virginia and i have my

co-host frank spalding um we're gonna

cover commercial real estate contracting

who know who knows we're gonna cover

today i like i like free flowing because

i like having a conversation and i like

answering i like asking questions i want

to know that's the video about this

um greg can you tell us a little bit

about your background as far as who you

are what you've done kind of give us the

hierarchy because i like i like painting

a good picture as far as so people

understand who you are and where you

come from you know yeah yeah i'm a

serial entrepreneur real estate investor

and developer i started full time as an

entrepreneur in 1997. started a little

remodeling handyman company didn't go to

college i went the navy right out of

high school and after i got out of the

navy worked a couple of jobs but in 1997

was when i began my full-time

entrepreneurial journey i left the w-2

world for good and started a little

remodeling handyman company did 250 000

in revenue the first year just me my

truck and tools built that into a 30

million dollar building company in seven

years started 12 other companies along

the way built them all up sold them all

off reinvested all the profits into

other assets learned how to become a

real estate developer so i started doing

um spec houses that i got into

subdivisions and i got into commercial

development and just kind of scaled

everything from there and

i've been an investor ever since i

invest in companies i invest in real

estate i invest in stocks cryptos just

you know i'm just a serial entrepreneur

opportunistic investor looking for value

anywhere i can find it so that's that's

kind of me in a nutshell

man that is that is such a

huge like i wouldn't even call it a

resume because like that's an employee

talk

i figured i don't know the word you call

that but that's amazing i think we have

to do another one just off of that

because i'm yeah it's resume you know so

in our world you know we just call it a

you know resume investment portfolio you

know whatever you want to call it but

yeah it's you know i've done a lot of

different things you know but there's a

common thread to everything number one

you know even though i didn't go to

college i went the navy and took some

classes in the navy i did retail so we

ran all the ship stores and barber shops

and laundry and things like that so it

was retail is what i did in the navy so

i learned accounting and basic business

there then when i got out i worked in

restaurants and construction i always

had a side business but the biggest

thing was i was always developing myself

always pouring into myself reading self

you know development books professional

development investing books real estate

stocks you know all kinds of different

things along the way

and you know but more importantly i was

taking action on what i was learning so

the first book that i read that was

transformative to me was rich dad poor

dad i'm sure you've read it you know

almost everybody

in the game has read it when i read rich

dad poor dad you know so i'll just ask

you when you

read that book what did you get out of

it what was your big tech away from

richard poor dad

um for me it was uh

it was that i didn't have to

conform to everybody else i could do my

own thing because he kind of talked

about his rich dad and how rich dad did

certain things a certain way and then

his poor dad did certain things like

everybody else so it's like it kind of

opened your eyes to like hey i can do

i can be different and excel at it

frank what about you

for me it was more of an affirmation

that everything i was doing was correct

i was in the junior achievement in

school and grew up in a family of

business owners

uh so you know it was get out there and

do for oneself

i felt all of a sudden a lot less bad

about getting fired from every job i'd

had up to that point

typically within 30 days or less

because i would get in there and

you know

i think and i you know i see ways to do

things better

and uh you know the big corporations

they're not going to change so then you

know small mom-and-pop type places

surely they'll see the value in what i'm

offering and that still just didn't work

uh i'm just going off and on my own and

then you know just you know learning

that real estate was an option uh and it

suddenly validated all of the uh

purchases i'd made

from the late night infomercials for all

the get rich quick schemes and real

estate

you know back in the day dave del dotto

and carlton sheets and john alexander

way back in the day stuff like that so

yeah yeah so you're you know that's the

trait of an entrepreneur right you're

unemployable you know so that's me i you

know i'm not a good employee so i carve

my own path but so my i didn't come from

a family of entrepreneurs business

people my dad was career military and

then after that civil service you know

which is a job working for the

government um

and then my mom was career with blue

cross blue shield started as a secretary

and you know was in sales and was a

government rep you know after that just

a regular middle class type you know

uh family up upbringing

and you know so neither one of them you

know we're entrepreneurs but what my dad

taught me when i was young and i'm a

natural born entrepreneur when i was

young if i wanted something he wouldn't

give me the money he would say well you

go you go figure out how to pay for it

you go earn money and i was like well

how do i do that he said go knock on the

door and see if they need anything done

so that's what i did so i would go to my

neighbor's house and knock on the door

boom my name is greg i live down the

street i need 20 bucks for my next

martial art testing so i can pay for the

the test and buy the belt if i get it

and uh you know i'll cut your grass i'll

rake your yard i'll wash your car walk

your dog babysit your kids what do you i

need to make some money what can i do

you know that was me and i wouldn't

leave till you hired me for something so

you know i'd be i was being you know

making 100 bucks a week when i was 10

years old 12 years old doing that kind

of stuff

um so you know fast forward into what i

was talking about rich dad poor dad so

when i read that book i already knew the

entrepreneurial thing that's what i

wanted to be i wanted to carve my own

path

i knew the difference between an

employee between being self-employed and

between you know being an owner of a

business and an entrepreneur right a lot

of business owners are just

self-employed they just basically own

their own job

um but i knew that i wanted to be you

know the investor i wanted to be the

entrepreneur so i wanted to be rich dad

right a lot of people read rich dad poor

dad and they want to be robert kiyosaki

they want to get into real estate i

wanted to be rich dad that was the guy

that owned everything that was mentoring

everybody and that everybody came to

with opportunities and you know when

they needed help and i'm just wired that

way i love to help people i love to

coach people i coach and mentor people

all over the world doing all kinds of

different things

and when i read that book that hit me

i'm like i want to be rich cats that's

what i did i went out just like rich dad

i built a bunch of businesses and

generated cash flow to invest in other

assets that would pay for the things

that i wanted out of life and i wanted

to do in life so that's what i've done

ever since and it's just the classic

story of the little green houses into

the red hotels and that's just what i've

done

and it's been it's really was that

simple but the key was i had to get out

i had to do it i had to take action

and you know i had to be confident that

i could do it and i learned along the

way the hard way you know again i'm

self-educated um you know i took uh read

a lot of books took a lot of courses

went to a lot of seminars and i've spent

hundreds of thousands of dollars on my

education

but not in a formal institution so uh

it's been it's been a journey and then

you know i've spent millions you know

making mistakes uh along the way as well

that that have been the best educators

you know of all so that's me in a

nutshell

so i have a great question so

with you you being overnight success

over the past 24 years

how

this is a great question for you because

you've transitioned and ebbed and flowed

in the up and down markets because

you've probably been through two heavy

transitions how do you

how do you find the right time to pivot

and what do you pivot into as far as

like how do you make that how's that

process look for you because you know so

you know 2009 was the big one right so

that's that's when the first big

um recession almost a depression that i

went through when the real estate market

crashed and i had to pivot so i was a

builder

uh back then i had a building company i

just shut it down there was no work you

know in my area anybody who was a

residential builder commercial builder

we went out of business basically

overnight we were just slammed put out a

business i was in a resort rental area

the outer banks of north carolina where

we were building multi-million dollar

beach houses building commercial

developments things like that in that

area that was my primary area then i was

doing projects in virginia as well

because it's kind of right there in that

region where i'm from from dc into the

hampton roads area

um so yeah i mean instantly overnight

everything i'd done from 1997 until 2009

stopped you know it's like being a

surgeon and you lose your hands so what

do you do so you have to you know

reevaluate so you know shut the company

down

and then i pivoted

into doing smaller spec houses and

hiring other general contractors who

were looking for work because it became

you know more efficient and cheaper just

to hire other builders to do the work

for me because everybody was looking for

work

i was still able to borrow money i had

good you know i had assets i had cash in

the bank so i didn't get wiped out but i

didn't have a business anymore day to

day and i had a real estate license so i

was you know doing doing my real estate

thing buying and selling properties and

things like that i never really did you

know retail real estate i had a

brokerage at one time and had agents and

all that but you know i had to make that

transition and reinvent what i was gonna

do and then i went and opened some

restaurants and did you know did that

for a while and you know those were you

know a lot of fun and and you know

during that season but that's really

what you do is you just you just have to

look at what are the opportunities now

what can i do now and then reevaluate

and i went from building multi-million

dollar beach houses to building little

beach houses that were costing less than

what the kitchens were costing in the

houses i was building you know and

and selling them and making you know a

good chunk of change on them so it was

it was a really interesting time

now do you operate now more

kind of sitting back and

just contracting out a lot of the work

as opposed to working

in the business constantly are you more

focused on the business now

yeah ever since then i moved into the

investor role investor developer role

where i hire you know general

contractors architects engineers i don't

do anything in the house it's all

outsourced it's all hired out contracted

out

so that you know i don't i'm not locked

into anything day to day

uh you know my my

what i do is i find the opportunities

bring the team together to execute on

the on the opportunity and the idea and

that could be real estate could be a

company uh it could be you know any

number of things and and then i just

invest you know in stocks and crypto and

things like that so yeah much you know

more laid-back lifestyle i have my

education business you know where i'm

teaching people entrepreneurship real

estate investing things like that kind

of building my little school of

entrepreneurship and then like i said

mentoring people around the country but

yeah everything is outsourced everything

is you know turnkey and you know i'm not

in the mode of building you know those

types of companies anymore i've kind of

done that

so you've achieved your rich dad dream

yeah i did what i wanted to do you know

it's been a journey it's been 20

something years and you know you get to

a point to where

you know i like doing deals i like

staying active but

those things aren't as important to me

as other things at this point in my life

which is impact you know i'm after

impact trying to help share what i've

learned what i know and help other

people you know do what i've done and

it's you know it's a lot of fun it's a

lot more fulfilling than than any deal

you can do and i've done it my entire

career all the businesses i've been

involved in i did them through other

people so

i really stepped out of the day-to-day

of running a company in 0.405 you know

that was the last day-to-day that i

really operated a company i had people

in position that were either partners or

they worked for me that ran the actual

companies so yeah i've been kind of

operating that that way um

you know ever since 2004 2005.

so um i i heard a podcast it's probably

an older podcast but you said that um

your team was just you and a secretary

or like an admin is that still the

current status

for you right now you still run really

lean yeah yeah absolutely that's that's

just kind of all it's been you know i

had a chief financial officer full time

at one point but i don't even need that

anymore i just use accountants and you

know outsource any of the higher level

stuff that i need with other

professionals but yeah yeah it's just

lean just me and administrative support

that's it

that's awesome i i

i really like the impact because i think

i think a lot of people overlook that

because the money comes and goes it gets

spent like once you get the money it's

not really a thing like for me doing the

whole podcasting is is making a larger

impact because you don't know

the impact can be can outlive you you

don't know exactly what impact you're

gonna make because you're making such a

big impact you know

yeah well the thing that i learned a

long time ago that that really

transformed my life you know all it

takes is one idea

one idea and that can come from anything

it can come from a book

you know a podcast a youtube uh

video a course a seminar you know a lot

of times you'll go take a three-day

seminar and you and there's one thing

along that three days that hits you that

really resonates that just completely

transforms your life or your business

i've had that happen to me multiple

times and that happens with all of my

you know people that i work with all my

clients and all the businesses i've been

in all the time so that to me is what's

really fun and what's really cool is you

just you just never know

when you put out an episode what

somebody's gonna hear that's gonna

completely change their lives and

uh you know it's fun to hear people

that'll email or you know send a note or

whatever and say you know i heard this

episode and i did this and it's just

completely changed everything i was

doing and i can't thank you enough and i

just i love that and then the people i

work with you know i mean you can you

can hear them on the videos talking

about the things that we've done and you

know even recently just working with

some people helping them structure deals

and like man i never even thought about

that that's gonna save me millions of

dollars and i'm like yeah it's just you

know all you know is what you know

yeah the experience talks by itself

your experience um i'm actually working

a deal on atlanta that i was going to

consult with you with because i'm really

i'm excited because i've worked in this

deal for a long time and that's actually

where i met you a long time ago in my in

my previous two two years of investing

so i don't know if you remember this but

um i called you about

two deals i found in atlanta when i was

in atlanta at the time and that's how we

kind of structured this so it's kind of

cool circling back and like really

bringing on the people that helped get

me to where i'm at even at this point in

my life just to have a conversation

again so yeah awesome it's pretty it's

pretty amazing so i i think i think

you're one of the people that

contributed to everything that i'm doing

now just because you maybe get a higher

level

so i'm excited this is this is a great

interview a great opportunity for hope

everybody listening so let's kind of

dive into

how

how do you find because you you're

you're a small shop you kind of

outsource everything how do you find the

right people to work with is it based

off of like you've been doing this for a

long time in all these areas that you

already have people or you kind of have

to like

you can sense or you have like a sixth

sense of like hey this is going to be

the person i need to hire for the job

well i can go into any market anywhere

in the world for any business and know

whether or not that's the right person

for the job no matter what the job is

just by you know a few minutes of

interacting but number one because i'm

the expert first so you got to know your

business you have to know your craft you

have to know what you're doing and if

you know that then you know

all of the vendors you know partners

suppliers anybody that's in that

business you know what they should know

and what they should be doing the number

one thing that i tell everybody is

whenever you're looking for somebody for

anything

and you ask them you know do you do this

and they say yes i can do that

so there's a huge difference between i

can do and that's what i do so i look

for people that that's what they do

that's all they do they're the best at

it and they're known for it so that's

really the key because we can all do

anything right i can do a lot of

different things but there's only a few

things that i'm really

the best at or an expert at that i would

say that's what i do so that's the main

thing right there and you just look for

somebody with a track record that you

know has the reputation and you know you

do the back check check the references

you know things like that and again it

just all depends on what it is but you

can go anywhere in the world and that

that's just you know how it works that's

how you do it but you got to know your

stuff first

are you looking at them as employees and

are you looking for workers in some of

those situations or are you looking for

you know that take charge you know

if they are an employee that

entrepreneurial attitude or do you want

someone you know who's going to take it

on you know take ownership of that

so it which is different

yeah so it just depends if it's an

independent contractor you know

obviously you want them at the highest

level turnkey that you know that's what

they do

if it's an employee you know employment

situation and i used to have an

operation with a lot of employees and

i've had hundreds of employees

um you know

in my organizations

and it depends on what it is you're

hiring for so there's some that you

bring on you know that you're going to

train to do certain things but the key

is understanding the individual

understanding their personality profile

i used to use disk profiling with all my

employees so i knew what their

personality bent was and what their best

position was going to be and i call it

aces and places you have to put the

right people in the right role

where they will thrive so you know

forget about this you know build your

weaknesses and you know

play off your strengths you focus 100 on

strengths you you you find what

somebody's good at and you put them in

the right role to thrive and to be the

best they can be in that role so the key

as a leader is you know as a leader

delegate or motivator you have to

understand the talents skills and

abilities and limitations not only of

yourself but of the people around you so

you first understand yourself what are

your limitations what are you good at

what are you the best at then you hire

out everything else in an organization

you know if you're talking about

employees things like that so you know

that's how i built organizations was by

identifying the right people putting

them in the right roles and then turning

them loose to do their job so the last

thing you want to do is hire tom brady

to come win super bowls and then you

know micromanage everything he does tom

brady's won seven super bowls before he

ever came to you or six or whatever it

was right tampa bay you don't tell him

how to win a super bowl you put him at

quarterback and say go get it win us a

super bowl right and you support tom

brady and you coach tom brady and you

help motivate him but you don't tell him

how to throw the football that's what he

does

so you know same thing with a leader in

organization you understand your

people's talents their limitations you

put the right you know butts in the

right seat you let them do their job you

coach them to success you give them the

tools training systems and support to be

successful you give them clear direction

and knowing certain terms exactly what's

expected and when you measure that

performance hold it accountable to the

goal you reward good performance and you

redirect poor performance and if there's

poor performance the first person you

look at is the leader

did i give them everything they needed

to be successful did i tell them exactly

what i wanted and when

and you know if if you got the result

you're looking for great you reward that

performance if you didn't then you got

to look back and say well if i gave them

everything and it still didn't work do i

have the right person in the right role

and then it comes back to the first

thing that you hire for you hire for

attitude right skill set you can train

attitude you can't so if you have you

have two kinds of people won't do's and

can't do so if there can't do well you

can give them what they need if there

won't do you got to get rid of them

because there's nothing you can do with

it won't do so

you know that's

how that works in a nutshell

and that's the analogy

yeah that's that's great so um how how

do you solidify culture

in your business or in the past in your

businesses how do you split my culture

and build that that great culture of hey

let's give our best foot forward to make

sure make sure we get the best product

out there

well first of all the leader sets the

pace of the pack right so you lead by

example you make it important to you

it'll be important to them

you decide what is the culture of your

company what is that going to be what

does it look like and then you live it

out in your organization so you can't

just walk in and say you know we're

going to be an organization that cares

about people cares about the community

cares about the environment makes an

impact

and then leave

you know you have to put systems in

place and you have to put things in

place and talk about and cultivate

through action and interaction and

taking action that culture so that's

that's really how that works

you know it's a deliberate thing of

specific steps that you do in order to

do that so for us you know the culture

was um the system that i used for

management was the culture of the

company you know the one minute manager

system of management leadership and the

key to that is helping people feel good

about themselves and what they're doing

within the company within the community

as an organization and a team

and cultivating that you know that uh

you know environment of of leadership

and management and community involvement

and then going out providing

opportunities for people to participate

so you know we would train on the system

we would talk about the system we would

you know ask people hey you know we're

going to carve out x amount of budget to

support the community you know what do

you want to do whatever our kids you

know our employees kids were

participating in we supported those

organizations you know i was on the

board for you know all a lot of

organizations in my community uh

homebuilder associations the parks and

rec you know school board you know babe

ruth softball you know all those

different things so it's not just

talking about it and say we want to be

this it's putting action to the words

and implementing and doing things you

know we would we would say hey we want

to support habitat for humanity okay

well let's go lead that charge and we

would build a house every year we got

literally with our hands we would frame

that house every year for habitat for

humanity and me as the leader of the

company

that would be the one day i would be the

grunt and everybody would be telling me

what to do so i'd go out and i'd carry

wood all day long i'd sweep all day long

while we were building a house for

habitat for humanity and all of my you

know

lead guys you know they'd be telling me

go get this go get that maybe blossom

around all day so it's a lot of fun you

know so i mean that's how you

you know cultivate the culture of a

company it's it's leadership from the

top down and the organization is from

the bottom up i'm there to serve

everybody in that organization is not

ceo you know president vice president

you know it's not that pyramid it's

upside down you know i have to serve

everybody in that organization so it's

leadership from the bottom up that's

that's how you cultivate

a culture of a company that will thrive

and grow and you have people that are

that are committed and take ownership of

what you're doing

great

example i have a question um and it's

kind of a switch uh i'm looking through

your youtube channel here

and just going through uh looks like you

know the first first 10 lines of videos

uh there's over 25 in crypto um you know

what is your preferred you know what is

your interest in crypto

are you just day trading are you buying

and holding on for dear life as the

saying goes

you know what

what what's your quick take you know do

you think it's you know it is the future

do you think it's the future with a lot

of morphing

um you know in relation to real estate

uh and or other ventures uh yeah so it

depends on what it is you know crypto's

a big space so you have bitcoin that's

one thing in and of itself that's very

different than crypto and you know the

whole space in it of itself you have the

metaverse you have nfts you have d5

um you have gaming so there's a lot of

different things that crypto encompasses

so you know

this is an emerging technology you know

the whole space is so you know

all coins and cryptocurrency in and of

themselves you know that's venture

capital so that feeds right into what i

am a serial entrepreneur it's a very

exciting you know new space new

technology you know we're we're at the

very beginning

of what's going to be a major

um force in the economy of the world

moving forward so we're at the very

basic beginning stages of what all

that's going to be especially the

metaverse and where that's really going

and nfts you know things like that

as far as cryptocurrency and bitcoin if

you talk about bitcoin and altcoins

specifically tokens

um you know right now i'm swing trading

sometimes day trading just because of

where we are in the market cycle um

and where the values of the assets are

and where they could potentially go in

the near term so that's kind of what i

do there and

um you know i learned about

bitcoin you know i don't know 2015 2016

when i first heard the word

but you know i didn't really pay much

attention to it just kind of watched the

pricing and it was just doing this so

much it wasn't really worth a lot you

know nobody really explained it to me in

a way that i could really understand

what it was which is a which was a

technology of money

you know which was really interesting

and a technology of of value and things

like that and what we know of it today

it's a risk asset but um

you know it just wasn't really explained

to me where i could understand it then i

watched it 2017 2018 hit 20 000 and it

kind of got my attention like a lot of

other people

it was on cnbc and then i watched it

drop all the way back down almost

nothing again and i was like ah you know

i'm not really interested but i started

following it more and more and then when

the march you know 2020 bottom happened

in the markets and everything i was

looking to make some moves because

that's kind of me i like to come in you

know with the bottom of things and kind

of ride them up so i made some longer

term moves there and wrote them up you

know to the peak and got out of you know

everything at the peak the first time

you know back in you know march april

may in that time frame before we

bottomed out in june july and then i

made some moves in june july and then

i've been a little bit more active now

because there's so much volatility when

a market's going down you know that you

can make some moves in and out so that's

just kind of what i've been doing with

that a lot of people have been asking me

about it so i started making videos

about a year ago and you know i put

something out every day pretty much on

crypto and market updates and stuff and

i put something out on real estate and

entrepreneurship every day as well so

but there's a lot of interest as you can

see you know the bitcoin and crypto

videos get a lot more views than

anything else right now

yeah i'm looking you know just doing uh

the base account uh

and you know not not really all that bad

six hours ago two two point eight

thousand views

just on the question will a recession

start in 2022

yeah uh you know 20 hours ago 10 000

views bitcoin crypto stock market update

will the bounce you know

yeah people are really interested in

what's going on they're tuned in because

there is it is a big opportunity but but

a lot of people don't

understand the space that you know they

don't know

you know anything about it other more

than you know it's something you can buy

into hold and you know maybe the number

goes up and you get rich down the road i

mean that's what a lot of people think

but right now it's kind of tricky

because the market topped recently back

in november uh you know it was funny

around the thanksgiving table you know a

lot of people were talking to me about

it and i'm like markets topped you got

to get out and you know they were still

buying you know they didn't listen and

so it's really interesting whereas a lot

of other people were telling their

family to get in i was telling mine to

get out you know it's really interesting

and same thing with markets and it's all

because again they're risk assets you

know a lot of them and we're going

through a deleveraging right now you

know inflation's a big problem the fed

has to take action we've been on this qe

path uh for you know years really since

2009 but on steroids since march of 2020

a trillion dollars has been injected

into the economy into the financial

markets and you can see the

representation of that liquidity pump

you know in assets stock market cryptos

real estate

so you know we are in a you know super

cycle mega bubble right now that has to

unwind a little bit and deleverage and

um you know the fed is doing the best

they can to land that softly versus just

explode the whole thing so we'll see

what happens you know we're just at the

beginning stages of the deleveraging

definitely

crypto you know that's not a bad thing

that's not doom and gloom

it's a necessity it has to occur we have

to come back to normal values which will

create opportunity for growth moving

forward so you have to go through these

cycles and it's and i've seen it you

know in my career you know

from the 90s into the mid 2000s into the

late you know

2000s i've seen this happen multiple

times you know the last time we went

through something like this was 2018

when the fed tried to pull back and you

know we had a you know a big sell-off in

the markets and things and you know they

came back in and reverse course so we'll

see how much resolve they have this time

and whether they're going to let the

markets actually work themselves out or

not it's it's a big problem

agreed

how much time have you put into looking

into things like dao's decentralized

autonomous organizations uh and you know

in relation to real estate you know do

you see

or how quickly do you see those

industries merging

you know nfts you know fractional

ownership of real estate uh you know

dows that have been formula with the

goal of buying a constitution

or a copy of the constitution i should

say

yeah you know downs are interesting you

know um

you know a decentralized autonomous

organization

you know

those have a place for certain

applications

but when it comes to something like a

business or real estate or something

like that it's going to be very

difficult because you know it's very

difficult to make decisions by consensus

and that type of a thing you know if

you're just going to go buy an asset

like a constitution you know sure you

can just go buy it and do whatever but

then that organization you know has to

agree on what they're going to do moving

forward how they're going to handle it

you know that's that's a difficult thing

to do as far as you know the

tokenization of real estate and real

estate nfts and things like that there's

some experiments right now there's a

company called proppy that is auctioning

off a real estate nft in miami a piece

of property a house single-family home

so we'll see how that goes you know

pretty interesting how that works real

estate's tricky when you think about

tokenizing it or creating nfts because

of just you know all of the you know

real estate's just so unique and

different around you know around the

world with title and you know just all

these different things so i think it is

the future of the space

you know the question is how does that

evolve in terms of

being able to actually make it happen so

we're again we're just at the beginning

stages of all that i think eventually

all of that you know is going to be

digitized tokenized and really you know

at the end of the day what i'm studying

and paying the most attention to

is you know the metaverse um the nfts

because you know we're already living

that we're already dealing with that you

know the metaverse is the digitization

of everything

um so

all real estate all assets eventually

will all potentially be tokenized

digitized in terms of ownership

uh and how that works so that's the the

areas that i'm paying more attention to

dow's

you know i don't know that there's a

whole lot of future for those things

it's just

it you know

almost nothing works out successively

that is trying to run by consensus it

just doesn't work

agree it's uh it can definitely get

chaotic especially with that

and you know i was actually just reading

an article about uh the property uh

being auctioned off uh there in miami um

and the interesting thing there is

they're trying to say they're the first

they're not you go back as far as if

it's

either 2016 or 2017 there's been

transactions happening

where it was either paid for with

ethereum bitcoin or something and i

think the biggest thing that it's going

to come down to and each one of them are

trying to claim the first is kind of

somewhat the methodology of how they're

doing that particular transaction and i

think the biggest thing that's really

going to make a world of difference and

really

i think ushering in the age of nfts as

you know the contract of choice you know

the smart contract of choice is going to

be adoption by state and you know state

and county agencies

uh in regards to the title process

and stuff like that where the ownership

you know they they find a way to

integrate

and make that part of the acceptance

process and part of the tracking instead

of having to do a title search you can

just look it up on the chain

you know in 10 seconds and boom you've

got it there

yeah i mean blockchain technology in and

of itself is a whole different thing and

you know eventually you know any kind of

licenses any kind of you know

recordation of title proof of ownership

you know all those types of things can

reside on a blockchain there's a lot of

potential technology there but

you know the a lot of that's too big for

my brain in terms of how to make it work

i just know that it can and that's

that's where it's going and that's where

the future of it is so you know it's

like i said we're just the beginning

stages of all this real estate at the

end of the day if you're looking at a

general piece of property you have a a

plot you know that is recorded and then

you have title that's described with

meets and bounds

you know

what's recorded in a deep book can

easily be recorded on a blockchain you

know from that standpoint what's

interesting about nft

you know the transferability of that and

the non-fungibility of it you know so

that's a whole different conversation in

terms of where that's going with real

estate so you know we'll see i think

it's the beginning stages i know there's

some dows that are trying to do like

there's some real estate development

dowels that are trying to buy

properties you know and

develop them through a dow and almost

like a fractional ownership kind of

thing but again

you know those are

you know when you try to expand that

very difficult to make work you know if

you have a limited number of people you

can it's easier to make it work but uh

yeah we'll see where it all goes it's

just like i said we're just at the

beginning stages of all that

definitely and something to look out for

it's already been shown just recently uh

an article came up on uh another podcast

i listened to

uh that focuses on you know crypto and

nft space specifically

and there are artists who early on were

creating uh nfts and some hackers have

taken advantage of this

and it's a hole that they need to figure

out how to rewrite or you know account

for

indoor plug in the process is they were

early on new artists which open seas 100

dependent upon you artists constantly

making new stuff

and you know slowly growing and becoming

you know well-known artists where people

are paying a lot more

but when you put that contract out there

for sale on openc

it's you know it's there it will always

exist unless you find a way to burn that

you know because essentially you've

created you know that nft you have to

burn that nft almost uh or that contract

in some method and that's the problem

they're having because if you modify the

price well the old one is still there

the original contract you can't change

that you can delete it

but you can't you know and in the

process you have to do something but you

have to you know to delete it you kind

of have to burn it take it off chain

push it into a dead address or something

to burn it there were a lot of people

who weren't paying attention to stuff

like that they would lower the price and

then you know down the road you know

they may have several works that never

sold and then a few that finally sold

and now people start to go back and look

at these others they try to repo you

know republish new contracts for you

know a piece of art that might have been

older one that now they're they've got

the traction they put it out there there

was one for over a half million dollars

that someone bought for three thousand

dollars

because the contract was there they went

and found the contract and now people

are starting to pay attention to that

and they're going back

so that's where it gets risky and stuff

that i think needs to be sorted in the

long run in regards to real estate you

know if you put out real estate as an

nft

you know whether it's a single nft

representing the whole property or

fractional ownership you've got that

risk of

you know if there's still older

contracts out there at a significantly

lower price now it's worth a fortune say

it's traded hands a few times now it's

worth a lot someone can still go back

and find that old contract

and you know it yeah it becomes an issue

yeah yeah definitely something you're

gonna have to look at

yeah and that that's a little different

you know with real estate i mean you're

talking about chain of titles so that

still has to be recorded and respected

it you know even if it's a you know from

an nft or blockchain standpoint a little

bit different than you know what you're

talking about but um you know with it

being

you know a hard asset you know that's a

little bit different than a jpeg

existing you know somewhere and with a

smart contract

and then that's where the trickiness is

currently is

you know even that one you know

happening in miami okay and there was

someone discussing who's been part of

several transactions at the end of the

day right now you still have to step

back to the old technology

for the final recording and apparently

several of those deals that were

supposedly bitcoin or ethereum

before the deal actually transacted in

the office they had to convert that to

fiat cold hard cash for the actual

transaction to happen because the title

companies

still weren't allowing it to happen in

the actual token you know in of any form

yeah yeah and you know the nft space

isn't always going to be tied to crypto

you know so there are platforms out

there that where you can buy and sell

nfts just with cash you know so it's

just an app and you know you're creating

those images there and

you just load dollars and whatever

currency you're using and just buy and

sell so

as far as you know the nft space

you know needing crypto in order to

function i think is going to be

you know a thing that you know is a

thing of the past it's not really and

again that's where you you separate the

spaces all coins cryptocurrency ethereum

tokens from nft from you know metaverse

those types of things it's

you know those things aren't mutually

exclusive

yeah that's that's a it's very very

interesting as far as where it's going

adaptation how to implement

i think i was laughing because uh you're

talking about county adaptation the

county is still you some uses paper i

still use paper paper uh paper recording

and all that stuff so

well you know if you're doing closing

nowadays you know it's still not fully

digital you know you still have to

actually sign title

so you still have to use wet signatures

you can't even you know docusign the

final document so we're still not fully

digitized yet

uh but eventually it's moving that

direction but the problem is not

everybody even in the united states and

you know um

you know developed countries have access

to technology not every citizen does you

know that not everybody has a smartphone

still not everybody you know has the

ability to use that so until we get to

the point to where

pretty much everybody does you can't

digitize every single thing so

there's still a bit of that has to be

overcome and

you know it's uh you know that's what

i'm saying it's just exciting times

where we're at now and when you look

back i mean a lot of this has only been

the last few years you know bitcoin's

only been around 10 11 years yeah and

you know think about the iphone i mean

how long has that been around you know

not even 20 years i don't think when the

iphone you know 2007 i think it was yeah

so i mean it's really amazing how fast

you know

technology has grown and how far we've

come and yeah like i said i don't think

we can even comprehend where it's all

going i mean maybe there's somebody out

there that can but i don't even think we

know the full capabilities of where all

this is going

yeah

we uh

it it's it's beautiful to see like i

like i like talking to people that see

different stages because you get a

different perspective and like for like

for me like i'm i'm not even 30 yet

i kind of hit the i was on the back end

of the industrial and then it turned

into cell phones and i'm seeing like all

this all this progression super fast

so i'm like if the progression over the

last 30 years have been so much is going

to be huge when i get to another 30

years when i hit my yeah yeah and you

know yeah for you you definitely need to

be studying it be on top of it

understanding the trends of where it's

all going for me i can ignore it all and

be fine the rest of my life yeah you

know but

you know anybody who's a millennial you

know definitely needs to be aware

because that's just where it's all going

and you have to be able to use it and i

mean i have you know i'm only 54 so i'm

not even a boomer a lot of people think

i'm a boomer but um i missed that cut

off by three years but um you know

there's a lot of people my age that

don't use cell phones you know or won't

use a computer you know my age or even a

little bit older i didn't send my first

email myself until like 2001 probably i

think it was i had a secretary that i

would dictate emails to i didn't even

know how to turn the computer on or off

i was afraid to turn it on or off i

didn't know i was going to crash it so i

i started really learning

technology 2000 2001. i didn't have a

smartphone until 2012. so i've

you know gotten up to speed really fast

you know in my professional career with

technology and things and uh you know

i'm very good with technology now and

and you know can use computers and i'm

the guy that everybody goes to for tech

support around my family and you know so

it's uh it's it's interesting but i like

it i enjoy it i'm into it i was always

good at games as a kid video games and

all that so i've always enjoyed

you know technology i just you know i

wish i would have

learned a lot more of it earlier and

been able to take advantage of board but

earlier versus you know i went the

physical route using my hands instead of

my brain for the most part you know

building my career and uh you know

really ignored a lot of the technology

until i had to and i couldn't ignore it

yeah i i commend you i commend you for

you for you said not getting a cell

phone 2012 like you're

you've gotten leaps and bounds of

information yeah i bought it man you

know even text messages i didn't even

want to i hated that when text first

came out it was the blackberry

and then the the flip phone i had a flip

phone and people were trying to text me

and i just i hate it i want i'm a guy i

want to talk you know i want to

communicate but then i finally you know

embraced technology and got the

smartphone and i've been off to the

races ever since and now

now yeah i'm text with the best of them

i actually had smartphones uh all the

way back before uh windows came out or

before apple came out with them i recall

at that point i had a windows uh like

slid and had a giant keyboard on there

yeah yeah my kids they like looking up

attack phones and stuff but you know and

in my company my construction company so

we were ahead of the curve with

technology and i wanted to be

so like all of my superintendents had

laptops i put laptops in their trucks

and they had the little key that they

could plug into it so they could tap in

to the sell signal to use the laptop in

the field and stuff like that and they

all had cell phones and we had mobile

installs in our vehicles with pagers and

then then it went to the cell phones

that were that you could carry around

then it went to you know all of that so

we were always trying to embrace

technology and use it as much as we

could in the company but

me myself it took a little bit of time

to adapt but like i said from 2000 2001

i embraced it and just learned it and

got good at it and never looked back

so what is a quote that's yours or

somebody else's that you resonate with

a quote that's mine or somebody else's

that i resonate with yes

i guess the biggest thing is

you know one of the one of the most

interesting things is you always want to

be curious but

um you don't know what you don't know

and all you know is what you know and

and i mean i don't know i could just

spit out a ton of them but

um you know the biggest thing is just

always be curious always be learning

always be a seeker of wisdom i don't

even know where those quotes came from

but probably one of the biggest ones is

mark twain you know the most dangerous

thing is to think you know

um when you don't you know or to think

you're correct when you i can't remember

the exact quote but it's something like

that

no it's good it's good so let's let's

talk i kind of i kind of i'm curious

about because like you you feel like um

i feel like you've already found like

your purpose your purpose has changed

over the years but i don't i don't i

don't know if you're

what what do you foresee in the future

is like do you foresee like

how big of an impact do you want to make

like how many millions of millionaires

have you made is that a personal goal

for you is it like do you want to change

a multitude of lives like what's what's

your impact as far as your your goal i

don't really think in those terms so my

purpose hasn't really changed once once

i embarked in my on my entrepreneurial

journey it was always to build things so

build people build buildings build

companies i'm a builder and when i

impact an individual then they in turn

impact their world and around so it's

just not quantifiable it's that

butterfly effect so

you know i don't have a number like i

want to make a million million errors or

i want to do this or that what i want to

do is impact the most people that i can

while i'm here so that they can in turn

impact their family their community the

world in their way around them however

they feel that that is what they want to

do so

to me that that's what it is and it's

just one person at a time one day at a

time and

the youtube channel that i have now is

impacting tens of thousands of people

every single day to probably hundreds of

thousands and that's just the business

world and i do a lot of things outside

the business world um you know aside

from that in the faith community in the

nonprofit world uh

you know supporting different

organizations doing different things

that that are impacting that's the funny

things like people don't know my private

life but i do the same thing

in my personal life that i do in my

business world uh you know and it's just

the way i'm wired it's what i've always

done and i just you know that's what

fills me that's my golf that's my hobby

is you know impacting the world in

different ways outside of business as

well as with business

so you mentioned rich deadpool dad you

know as you know which is obviously a

seminal book for a lot of investors and

entrepreneurs

what is your current favorite book or a

couple of books that you like to

recommend to new entrepreneurs you know

beyond rich dad poor dad or what is your

current favorite

you know i'd have to look at what i'm

reading right now there's just there's

just so many out there but the go-to

books are anything yeah i read all of

robert kiyosaki's books early on think

and grow rich was a huge one power

positive thinking is a huge one

of course the bible you know from a

faith standpoint

the the book of proverbs is huge that's

probably the best business book in the

world out there tons of wisdom in that

book it's all very relatable and a lot

of the quotes that you hear will come

from that uh in terms of favorite quotes

and things like that but

you know nothing you know i really don't

know the titles right now i'm just

reading so many books i'm one of those

guys i've always got a bunch of

different books going because you know

i've got the kindle and they're all in

there and i'm always you know watching

youtube and listening to different

things but

um i'm not even sure what i have open

that i'm working on right now

yeah like you i've always got at least

two or three uh that i'm in the process

between hardcover books and

uh something on audible at all points in

time if i'm in the vehicle traveling so

yeah i mean you know simon sinek malcolm

gladwell you know all their all their

pieces um you know zig ziglar one of my

favorite tony robbins read all his stuff

you know read grant cardone's book i did

an interview with him you know my

youtube channel um yeah i've read a lot

of his stuff

you know tons of sam zell i've read his

books steve schwarzman

uh read his book recently bob iger so

yeah i like to read a lot of biographies

i'll tell you tillman fertitta he's a

good one i'm a restaurant guy got a

restaurant background read his book

that's phenomenal um

you know you start naming them but more

of individuals than anything else i read

business you know successful business

people in their biographies read all

donald trump stuff don't necessarily

agree with him philosophically but from

a business standpoint in terms of the

technical aspects of the business you

know he's done some pretty phenomenal

stuff along the way um

so yeah

great questions

where can people find you online i know

you have a youtube channel what's your

youtube channel called do you have any

books that you've written yourself like

kind of where people find you on on

socials

yeah i haven't written any books yet i

have produced video courses so those are

my books in progress they're the video

audio version of

that will eventually become books but

yeah greg dickerson.com all my info is

there that's my youtube channel easiest

way to find me is gregdickerson.com

well um we appreciate your time we

appreciate what you're doing for the

community and i hope i see your impact

through my generation too so i hope i

hope to shake hands with the people

you've affected as well so it's kind of

amazing to really to really talk about

impact and what you can

what you can even what what can even

happen from the impact you create so

it's awesome and we hope you have too

much success in your your contributors

much success as well um we appreciate

your time appreciate frank for hopping

on here um any final thoughts frank

i know i you know like you just said you

know i look forward to watching more of

your videos and uh you know so some of

the stuff fits in with stuff that i want

my boys

you know i've got you know at home 14 10

and eight

and they already play rich dad or what

is it the cash flow 101 with me we go

out driving for dollars you know looking

for properties and stuff so

i want to you know the same way my seven

several of my family members instilled

that up entrepreneurial bug into me i

want that in my kids as well

yeah that's awesome that's how my kids

grew up they grew up riding around with

me in the car doing deals talking to you

know contractors clients customers

vendors

every day just riding around listening

to me do deals do business that's how

they learn

that's amazing well we appreciate your

time thanks for coming on uh hopefully

we might do it again who knows we

appreciate it have a great day thanks

thanks for having me thank you

appreciate it

EP 121: Crypto & Commercial Real Estate With Greg Dickerson

Frank Spaulding