In this episode of The Tactical Empire, Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider explore the deep connection between discipline and manifestation. What starts as light banter quickly shifts into a powerful discussion on willpower, mental focus, and how your thoughts shape your reality. Jeff shares the role of stillness, self-awareness, and intentional work in creating the life you want—while highlighting the danger of letting negative thoughts take root. If you're navigating setbacks or striving for high performance, this episode delivers practical insights and recommended reads like The Four Agreements and Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.
In this episode of The Tactical Empire, host Jeff Smith is joined by guest Shawn Rider for an intriguing discussion on creating a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. The conversation begins with light-hearted banter about wardrobe choices before delving into more profound topics such as the power of stillness, the importance of envisioning your goals, and the impact of your mindset on manifesting your destiny. Jeff emphasizes the role of mental clarity and focused energy in attaining success, sharing personal anecdotes and practical strategies. The episode concludes with a discussion on the significance of accepting setbacks as opportunities for growth and the necessity of continuous self-improvement. Recommended resources include 'The Four Agreements' and 'Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.'
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:34 Wardrobe Malfunction and Banter
03:17 Manifesting Your Destiny
08:28 Practical Applications of Stillness
21:28 The Role of Response in Outcomes
25:54 Resources and Closing Remarks
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[00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of The Tactical Empire. I'm joined by none other than Sean Rider. How are you, sir? I'm good man. Just gonna, uh, throw up in my mouth a little bit reading some of these, uh, nil name image likeness headlines from the transfer portal. That's going on. Oh, in ILI appreciate. Okay. Yeah.
I was like, what? Yeah, I can appreciate, I can appreciate people getting the bag, as the kids say nowadays, but what just went down with like Tennessee and UCLA, um, I don't know if you've been following it, but the new information, you know, you have this, this young kid at Tennessee making 2 million whatever leaves go now he signed with UCLA.
Right? But the, the second part to this is. The quarterback that was at Appalachian State the past two years, which is my alma mater. Okay. He went to like a juco. He went to a JUCO in California, transferred to App [00:01:00] State, okay. Was at App State for two years. Picked up his, you know, uh, a little bit of money there.
Improved his skillset got better. Then he transferred after last season to UCLA to be the starting quarterback at UCLA. I don't know what his nil contract was there. Okay. But he's been there five months. Okay. Now Tennessee's quarterback transfers to UCLA. Yep. So obviously App State, former app State quarterback's not gonna be the starting quarterback.
Correct. So now he's now he's transferred to Tennessee. Yep. And he's gonna. He's gonna make a million dollars at Tennessee. Yep. So this Tennessee quarterback downgrades the UCLA, the former app state, UCLA quarterback TR upgrades to Tennessee for this. This was a trade in college football without it being called a, called a trade.
And I'm like, dude, three years ago this kid was in juco. Now he's at Tennessee making a million dollars a year. It's crazy. [00:02:00] Yeah, yeah. It's wild. I just can't. So the headline says that the, the, the, the former app state quarterback from UCLA, right? He hasn't even played a game at UCLA, but he transferred on nil.
While he's been at U-F-C-L-A for the past five months, he's made $200,000. So a university paid this kid $200,000 over five months to do winter gym and spring practice, and now he's leaving UCLA without ever playing a game there. And he is gonna make a million dollars in Tennessee like. What the hell?
Yep. Yep. I, it's, it's wild out there. It's, it's, it's gonna be interesting to see the crazy stories that come out of it, but I mean, it's just like everything else starts without regulation and you don't know what you don't know, but Yeah. Yeah. It, it's, it's the handlers, the handlers that were involved in that particular situation at Tennessee were a little crazy, [00:03:00] and they were giving that kid bad advice and just like you'd expect And, yeah.
Stick with us 'cause we're gonna talk about how you can make money. But could you imagine being 20 something years old, college football, making $45,000 a week? I could, I I would've been, uh, an absolute mess monster. Yes. It would not have been good. It would not have been a good thing. Could you imagine how they act if they even go to class?
Like y They wouldn't, they, there's no way these kids respect professors if they're making that type of bank in college. Like, get outta class. I don't need this class. I don't need my intro to health class or my, his as my, my first college class was history of jazz music. Well, when you make more money than the professor makes in 10 years, it's probably hard to listen.[00:04:00]
Very much so. Very much so. Alright. I always had those problems in college anyway. When you take a, like, if you take a business class, I'm like, what business have you run? You drive a chevette, like, that's right, you, you're not telling me how to run a business. I mean, I don't know yet. But does, it's the same thing.
All right y'all. So now we're gonna teach you how to make money. Maybe, maybe not $2 million a year to throw a pig skin, but, uh, we're gonna get you there. So last episode, we talked about someone's particular, uh, situation with their first real estate investment property if they take action on it. This episode, we're gonna talk about one that involves.
My dad and maybe me, and then mm-hmm. Next episode will bring in one more situation from another guy that has a particular skillset in regards to being bilingual and how he can leverage that with real estate investing in his area in the country. So for me, here's my dad's situation, right? My dad is 64, 65.
He [00:05:00] retired from his career job. Uh, he was a factory worker for his whole life, so he retired from that job, uh, eight years ago. Started a little bakery with my mom for a few years. Um, and then when they closed that down, uh, just did some, uh, bartending at, at the club that he was at. And, uh, made really good money, uh, doing that.
He almost made more money doing that than he did working for a, a global company in a factory. So, uh, enjoyed that. But he is officially retired as of the start of this last month. Again, 64, 65. It's time for him to enter. It's time for him to enter distribution phase of his life. He's done, he's been a really good saver.
It's how I learned the value of a dollar. Um, and, uh, you know, he's got different avenues for income now. He's got a pension from the first company. He's got a 401k that he's not gonna tap into for probably a few more years. I'm trying to change his mind on that. Um, he lent some money out. He's got some money coming in from that.
And then ultimately. Um, my mom [00:06:00] passed away a couple years ago. He does have a new wife, and the house that she owns is, you know, 30 minutes from his current house. It's in the woods. He can wake up, drink coffee, watch deer on the front porch every single day. So now he's got a paid off home. He's gonna sell that house.
Okay, he's gonna sell it for about 225,000 without real estate agents involved. So he's gonna walk away with about 220. Mm-hmm. That's gonna be tax free money. That's gonna be tax free money, uh, $220,000. Mm-hmm. Um, and you know, he's, he's got plenty of options, but one option that I've discussed with him is one, becoming a private lender in my.
Real estate partnership, um, and getting 10 to 12% lending money. And so me and my partner can buy and, you know, he'll make, he'll make good money doing that as supplemental income. Another option, which I want to talk about today, 'cause that [00:07:00] first option's pretty straightforward. We talked about private lending on, on other episodes, the next option, and it involves what choice he would make, but it also involves like, is this a silly idea?
For me personally, we went from having three short term rentals. We're gonna close on the sale. We sold one last year. We're gonna close on the sale. Hopefully by the time this episode drops next week, that leaves us with one short term rental that is the short term rental in North Carolina that we use two to three times a year.
The, the financials of that property is last year. This property was worth in September of 2023, this property was worth $705,000. Okay. I was told by a real estate agent in that area that right now it would be worth about 7 75 to 800. Okay? We got A-D-S-C-R loan on that property for $550,000, but it's at like 9.1%.
Mm-hmm. [00:08:00] Okay. Yeah, the mortgage. The mortgage on that property is a little over $4,000 a month. Last year, the property did $93,000, but we were closed for 60 days after the hurricane, and those 60 days were September and October, which are football season for the university in that town. And so we probably would've pulled in another 20.
So that property would do 110. Okay? Mm-hmm. So 48 of that goes to a mortgage. 15% of that goes to our, our property management group, which is just a, a, a married couple and they do a fantastic job. I don't wanna get rid of them. So that 15% off the top is there, would it be an option and smart. Once I sell this second to last short term rental, I'm gonna have one LLC now holding [00:09:00] one property.
It used to hold three, now it's gonna be one LLC holding one property. Okay? Yep. Tracking. We have 200. 200? Yep. This is a lot of information, but I see you writing it down, so you're tracking with me. Yep. We have about 200 to $250,000 of equity in property. It's got half a million dollar mortgage at 9.1%, $4,000 a month.
Is there an argument to be made? That my dad sells his house tax free, 220,000. He's got a little extra cash on the side making nothing in the bank. I have access to another half of that. Would it be, would it behoove us to bring my dad on as a 50 50 partner in that single LLC with the single property we pay off?
The 9.1% mortgage, we now no longer have a $4,000 payment a month, and then we just take distributions moving forward. We would have property management fees, we'd have utilities. Mm-hmm. But this is a six figure producing property. [00:10:00] So from an ROI perspective, I mean, you're gonna be looking somewhere between eight to 15% are cash on cash annually.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And the appreciation is gonna be there too. I mean, that'll be a $1.1 million property in five years. Um, that's what that, that actually, that's a good point you bring up and you brought that up without me even mentioning it. I mean, that's ultimately why we don't want to sell this one and recapture the equity in this one like we've done the other properties because I know hands down this property will be a million dollar property in the next few years.
Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of, but we also don't need capital though. We also don't need the money. Right. Like, we also don't need, we also don't need to bring on a partner. But I have, I do have, I, I don't know, I, it doesn't cash flow well because it's got a $4,000 mortgage on [00:11:00] it. Sure. You know? Sure. Either way though.
I mean, if you've got a chunk of change that like. I mean, if you could throw a hundred grand on it and then refinance it for a point and a half less, which is where you'd be at now, like, I mean, you'd be looking at 7.8, maybe less. From nine something, right? So like you might be able to knock 2000 bucks, 1500 bucks a month off of that payment through interest deduction and principal reduction.
And then, and then just tell your dad, you'll give him 1500 bucks a month. Like if you, if you threw his 200 on it and you just refinanced it and you left your cash out of it, like, then you hold what, a $350,000 note on it or something, and then you lower the interest rate by a point and a half or two.
Like now you're talking about like, then you could just give your dad 1500 bucks a month and, and, and then [00:12:00] you guys are writing the appreciation. He's essentially giving you a gift of. I mean, you already have the property, but it, but you wanna make it mutually beneficial for you guys. Sure. And at, at that point, he's giving you a little more cash flow.
You're giving him a secured rate of return on his cash flow, and then you can ride out the, the 350 $400,000 gains too. Mm-hmm. It just, it changes the cash flow dynamic by doing that. Yeah, I was also thinking the, the property we're selling, that was the first STR we bought, so we did a second home mortgage on that at 90%.
Mm-hmm. This North Carolina one is DSCR, but the deed is in the LLC, so I don't know. I know there's pros and cons. From a liability standpoint, this was the only one. The North Carolina part was the only one that was pure LLC on everything. And so is there an argument to be made to deed transfer it back?
To me [00:13:00] personally and then refinance with a traditional mortgage to get an even lower rate. And potentially, if I could find someone, yeah, if I could find someone doing 85% to 95%, I may not even like include my my dad on that. If I can make the economics even better without it, I just like helping. Like again, mutually beneficial.
If it gets my cashflow better and it helps my dad make money in retirement, I'm open to that. But. Yeah, I mean, it, it depends on what you guys are doing it for. Like, if you wanted to set up like a, a pseudo, I mean, if you, if you just rolled his money in to say, Hey dad, I can give you for your 200 grand. I can give you fucking whatever, $18,000 a year for the rest of your life.
Um, like, and, and he's like, cool, that's fine. Um, then, then, I mean, that's kind of up to you guys. I don't know about going 50 50 on the property 'cause you've already got it. You, I mean, like, I don't even know if I'd mess with the LLCI mean, you [00:14:00] could bring him in as a, like a 1% like silent partner type thing, but then guarantee him the profit share that he's looking for.
Um. Mm-hmm. And, and then take it from there. 'cause I mean, at the end of the day. Our parents are gonna pass away and you're gonna have to do something with that asset, right? Like you, right? So like you wanna look long-term, but like what can you do for him today? Probably two grand a month is gonna make his life a lot better.
Like then Hell yeah, certainly. Certainly it being parked in that fucking house that he's currently got, but also like, Hey, I'll give you $2,000 a month for it forever. For that money. Like, I, I don't know. It depends on how you wanna structure it. I would get a little creative about it based on who needs what now and who wants what out of it.
Um, but it, it's a good thing to look at all the options. I don't know that I would want $800,000 tied up in the fucking thing though. Yeah, that's a lot of money that you could put to work [00:15:00] today. Sure. But for him, $200,000 tied up in it, in his, in his stage of life is, is super fucking smart income. Yeah. He just wants the income.
Like if you're saying 18 to 20 grand a year for 200,000, that's, that's nine to 10% returns. Um, and again, he's, he's got money in a 401k. So arguing, putting that in the market when you're entering retirement, not the smartest. So if you're gonna do a conservative investment, you're looking at 4% returns. So if he can get.
You know, cash on cash return of 18%. Um, that's better. Yeah, I definitely, you know, my opinion, I'm not a fan of having all that tied up equity, but I'm also looking at ways to decrease my expenses. And if that property can do a hundred thousand and I don't have it mortgaged, or I use my life insurance loans, I use my life insurance loans just on that property and just let that, well, here's, here's another argument then.
If I can use all my [00:16:00] capital to pay off a 9.1% and have half of that and open up the free and clear cash flow and not feel like I need to pay down my outstanding personal loans and hold it and just hold it straight for three to four more years and let it appreciate, and then at that point sell. Pay down the loans with accruing interest That mm-hmm.
May be good for my current situation as we build businesses to offset the cash flow. There's an argument, but I'm not sold on that idea either. But that's definitely a potential just to cut down on. You know, higher rate interest debt. Yeah. Which I'm not honestly comfortable with for a year and a half.
You gotta, you gotta figure that out though, because like you just are coming off the back of a hurricane. And so if you, if you put a million dollars of equity into one single property that's supposed to generate you 120 5K [00:17:00] and then something else happens, like if you take 120 5K to zero, like, is that problematic?
Probably, but Right. But if it's paid off, you only owe the taxes. So like, it it, yeah. So it's a risk assessment on that front too. I'm super comfortable in the position we're in, so I don't need to do anything. I'm just, you know how my brain works. As I see family members come into me, I'm like, how can we both benefit?
Um, but like the current situation we're in is like, Hey, it'll cash flow, but in, in down months it won't. So on the month that it doesn't cash flow as a standalone. Because on the months that that property didn't cashflow well, my other properties would make up for it. Yeah. So I've never had to put money into it, but with with it now going down to one LLC one property, I'm not gonna keep a ton of money in that LLCs bank account.
I never did to begin with. But now on a down month, I might have to throw, let's say, a thousand dollars to it in the off [00:18:00] season. On the down months. But I'd rather throw a thousand dollars life insurance loan on an off month to it than throw 500 or whatever the number is, and, and mm-hmm. Have it all track again.
So I'll probably stick with what I'm currently doing. I just wanted to see what your opinion was if you could own that property. 'cause we, we, we, we have talked about on other, on other episodes like. Going from a hundred properties, that cashflow a hundred bucks to going down to five, that might cashflow 10,000.
Yeah. Well if this property does recover, I mean the town has recovered. Boone and Blowing Rock is different than Nashville right now. Yeah, and we do have a football, we do have a football season starting, so I do, I do, uh, anticipate that'll be at least 80, 90, hopefully a hundred thousand dollars. You know, there is an argument to be made that.
From a cashflow perspective, it would be better not to have that mortgage. But from a liability perspective, and a, how many times can I turn it over? But like you said, it is in the next couple years, be a a million dollar property. So I can, I can, but if, I mean, if it's an [00:19:00] $800,000 house and your dad's got 200 grand and you've already put the team in place and know how to run 'em, just, I, my mind says, go buy another one.
And then you're hedging your in the same area and then, and then you already know. The same, the, I mean, we have, and, and for you, those of you that don't know this problem, this is a modern luxury cabin in Boone when most of the other properties are like 40, 50-year-old cabin. So they, they're old. There is an, that argument right there, one of the other properties that the same builder built, it's basically like a miniature size of what we have.
It's a, it's a about 750 square feet, but it's essentially the same damn house on the other side of the, the highway. And it's listed. Someone lived in it. It wasn't a rental, someone lived in it. That's now actually for sale. It's been on the market for 60 days and it's for sale for 550,000. So that's what I would do.
200,000 damnit, because you've, you, [00:20:00] the, the whole machine is already there. All you've gotta do is buy the thing and throw it over the wall. And then you can still give your dad the same rate of return that he's looking for. Go 50 50 on that one with him. Mm. Son of a bitch. Yeah. Am I gonna go from three, three str to two to one, back to two?
Yep. Yes, you are. But yes you are. But the good, but the good thing is, is, uh, the good thing is, is I do have a really good team in place, uh, down there. Yes. So. It's not like I did the, the, when I built a three, the first time, it was three in three different towns. Yep. One team did bounce between two towns, but it was like a 40 minute drive, so it did cause some issues.
Um, okay. You've done 80% of the hard part already, man. This is exactly kind of what I'm doing while I'm on the road. Like if my, if my team back home identifies deals or I [00:21:00] hear about a deal and I can just snatch it up and throw it over the wall to them, it's zero work for me except arranging the financing and putting the money up for it.
So like, you should probably be open to something like that too, because I, I mean, why not? Right, because then you're, you're snatching up another property that you know is gonna appreciate similarly as well. And so the upside is, is much higher with multiples and, and now you're starting to put together a little portfolio in one single area that then could be bundled and bought together too.
Right. Because let's say you go back to three in that same area, now you've got three properties, same area, same team. The value becomes exponentially greater for an investor because now I know that it's a passive investment, pseudo passive investment because it like I see these predictable results [00:22:00] and everything's in place 'cause I'm not doing it.
So, yeah, we'll leave you with that.
So probably. Work that down a bit. Alright, well I need to get off this episode 'cause now I'm gonna be thinking about this for the rest of the day because it is the opposite of what I've been doing for my short term rental portfolio. So Jeff Smith, as always, I appreciate you and as you, I know you're probably gonna think about this 'cause that's how your brain works.
Problem solver, uh, strategy creator Jeff Smith. So feel free to text me any other thoughts on this, but I thought it would be fun for people to hear. How my brain works as the, the lesson here though is to like, if you've listened to our, our, our, our podcast, I've been very open about what I've been trying to do.
So it's interesting to bring this situation and see that even though we have strategies in place, see how quickly we can be fluid. Based on what the [00:23:00] market is presenting to us and what other people are coming into our life now, my dad's my dad, but I didn't know my dad was gonna sell his house. Right?
Like yeah. All of a sudden he in, I, I didn't, you know, I didn't know this other property that the same builder built was gonna be put on the market. Right. You know, right across the highway from the one that we own. That does really, really well. So. I maybe when I was in town last week, I should have went and looked at it.
Now I'm gonna have to drive back to North Carolina by myself and take a look at it. Alright Jeff, thank you for appeasing me in my life situation if you want. I love it, bro. If anything else, if not, send the people out. Guys, thanks for listening. Join the, uh, free Facebook community, the Tactical Empire Community.
Uh, if you have questions like this, we can break down your scenarios. Send us DM on Instagram. That's the best place to get ahold of me and Sean, probably to have a conversation. But thank you for listening. Send it to a friend that this may be beneficial for, and have a great week. Kick ass. Thank you for listening as always, [00:24:00] and we'll see you next week.