Ken Van Liew, Founder of Global Real Estate Strategies, joins us to discuss his transition from Civil Engineer to developing multimillion-dollar projects. We discuss team building, delegation, investing in different asset classes, and much more.
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Transcript
Devin Elder:
And welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
Ken Van Liew:
I’m doing awesome. How are you, Devin?
Devin Elder:
Hey, doing great, thank you. I appreciate you jumping on today, and spending a little time with me, and want to kind of unravel and dig down on your life and your business, and cram all that into under an hour here. I’m sure it’ll be easy to do.
Devin Elder:
But for those that are not in your universe already, maybe a little background? Where’d you come from and how did you make your way into real estate investing?
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. So, I was born in the New York City metropolitan area and grew up in a little small town called Highland Park next to Rutgers University that you may have heard of. I always wanted to be an engineer, but I wasn’t that sharp in high school. I liked to play football. I was an all-state football player, so I went off to college and played football, and acted like I was studying engineering for the first few years though it was more about beer, and pretty women, and all that kind of good stuff when you go away to college.
Ken Van Liew:
But after three years, I found myself wanting to become an engineer. I transferred to engineering school, and when I finally graduated engineering school, I created this six-year plan. But I had won an award. It was designing and subdividing a lot. It was a 13 acre lot, and I had subdivided it. It planted a seed in college about real estate, but I had trained in college to be a civil engineer, so off I went to start a civil engineering career.
Ken Van Liew:
In civil engineering you have to work in the field for like four years. So for the first four years, I really didn’t like working in civil engineering. I worked for maybe about a year, and I went and got a construction job, and I started building buildings. Next thing you know, I’m doing a high rise on the water in New York City and learning how to build construction, high level.
Ken Van Liew:
When I finally became an engineer, I was making so much money in construction, I just kept it moving. That eventually led to where I learned how to build projects, and had the design experience. I went to back to school late at night when I was probably almost about 30 and got a master’s degree in real estate development.
Ken Van Liew:
Then I went out and jumped right in, and did a $17 million project right out of the box. It was 113-bed assisted living facility in Bridgewater, New Jersey. That’s how I started in real estate. I kind of worked myself backwards, down to doing all kinds of [inaudible 00:02:29], right down to wholesaling real estate I used to do, where I was a CEO of Flipping USA, and we did 137 deals in one year. That’s when I decided to write the book.
Devin Elder:
I love it. So, clearly a lot of different types, lots of asset classes, lots of strategies. This $17 million project that you came into, walk me through how this deal is structured? This is new construction stuff, right, in New Jersey?
Ken Van Liew:
Yes.
Devin Elder:
How did you put the team together, and how’d you put the capital together? That’s, you’re probably looking, at $5 million equity on a project like that, $6 million?
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. You know, it’s interesting because when you do the typical 30% or 40% equity, you’re looking at those kinds of numbers. Not knowing what I know today I think allowed me to figure something out pretty cool, and I financed it through the New Jersey economic development agency, which required me only to put 10% down, so it was interesting.
Devin Elder:
Wow.
Ken Van Liew:
I’ll tell you a little bit about how it started because it was pretty far fetched. It started out with me getting invited to a golf outing. I was working as a big shot executive in New York City. I had the twins, I was making good money, but here I’m wondering, “This isn’t going to work. I need to create a real legacy in my life.”
Ken Van Liew:
My wife says, “Go play in this golf outing.” I’m like, I really should be working. I said, “You know, I’ll go to the golf outing.” In the golf outing, I started daydreaming about, wow, if I belong to a country club, I can tell them my story. I got a good story. I was going to create this empire and I’ll be able to raise money.
Ken Van Liew:
I got home from the outing and convinced my wife to take $5,000 of the bank, join this country club, and literally in my fourth round, I’m talking to some hot shot kid. He’s like, “Yeah, I’ll lend you a $100,000.”
Ken Van Liew:
So, I go home and I tell my wife I’m going to quit my job. She thought I was crazy, and I said, “I have this taxation filtration system. I’m going to live off $5,000 a month. Everything’s going to filter through all these companies. I don’t need any income, and we’re going to make it happen.”
Ken Van Liew:
She thought I was crazy, but three months out of a box, I took $25,000 of that $100,000, and I locked up, it’s probably about a six acre lot. It was in Bridgewater. The way it happened, because I don’t really know much about real estate, but I knew engineers, architects, and I knew they’re on the drawing board.
Ken Van Liew:
So, I’m calling engineers, architects. It leads to a dentist. The dentist starts telling me about a certificate of need, and I didn’t really know what it was. He’s like, “That’s a piece of paper from the state. I can build 113 beds.” I’m like, “Really? Assisted living, what’s that like?” He’s like, “It’s a little bit like nursing, just before nursing.” I’m like, I can do that.
Ken Van Liew:
I literally hand wrote … We did a letter of intent on the spot that I would pay him 10,000 a unit however I got it approved. If I got 113, 120, he’d make a little extra. I literally structured a deal where, he was a member in an entity called Bridgewater Assisted Living Adventure, and he brought in the development rights, had a very small ownership percentage because I paid him what he wanted. But I kept them in the deal.
Ken Van Liew:
I then brought in 20 people, syndicated it out, pre-fabricated this building in between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Literally 13 months later cut the ribbon on 113-bed assisted living. So, I kind of fell into it. People are like, “Why did you start with that asset class?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I don’t know why.”
Devin Elder:
Hey, it sounds like the stars aligned. The pre-fab thing’s interesting. I mean, that’s a pretty quick turnaround time on that project. The pre-fab is a big part of that, right?
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. They probably build them in about a year if they get out of the box pretty good and you get in an army of people. But one of the challenges I had is that I was paying a prevailing wage.
Ken Van Liew:
I figured if I could cut a portion of labor out, or reduce that time of erecting the building … Literally in three weeks we had this building standing up because it was [inaudible 00:06:44] stud walls already pre-fabbed, dropped planks, studs, plank, and it went up pretty quick.
Ken Van Liew:
So, the aspect had a little method to the madness because back then, it was always the union trying to squeeze you. Prevailing wage, it was about the union rate, and I was trying to do a non-union project.
Devin Elder:
Right. Yeah, Jersey. I mean we’re down in Texas, it’s got to be a whole different ball of wax up there, no doubt.
Ken Van Liew:
You guys have unions in Texas?
Devin Elder:
Not really that we interact with. I mean, maybe if you’re an electrician, you’re a part of a union. But the stuff we do is so simple. We do some land stuff, we do a lot of multi-family, and this is buying it and renovating it. So, super basic stuff. I mean, we’re talking like kitchens, and baths, and new paint and flooring in units and stuff and try and get a little rent premium.
Devin Elder:
So, as real estate construction projects go, that’s about as basic as it gets. Even if they’re big 400-unit buildings or whatever the construction aspect, remodeling aspects pretty basic. So, did it do anything, I guess, to your head, to your vision? You go, “Hey, I did a $17 million project. It went well.” Was that a new plateau for you? Did it open your eyes, validate some of your abilities? What were you like after that project versus kind of right before?
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah, so right before, I was 27, I think it was. I just wanted to get out on my own. I was building a billion dollar project for a huge CM firm in Brooklyn, Bruce Ratner, he owned The Nets. So, I didn’t sleep much. I’d work all day, I’d go to school at night, and I just really wanted to be an entrepreneur and on my own.
Ken Van Liew:
You always work for somebody, regardless if you’re on your own or not, but I wanted to have time with my family. That’s really how it started. When I transitioned, I had the ability to find some time. I was able to start a little routine instead of running out of the house, take my kids to school once in a while, get involved in scouting at night, and get a life back. Because literally, I didn’t see much light. I’d leave five in the morning, get home at midnight, after going to school three, four nights a week studying for my PE license.
Ken Van Liew:
After that, life started to settle, kind of get closer to my family again. Because found that I had to sacrifice a little bit, which I wasn’t realizing when I was in it. Then after that, it led me into a geriatrics facility that then led me to a waterfront development.
Ken Van Liew:
Then when the Towers collapsed, I had a beautiful waterfront property looking out at the World Trade Center. That day I was with Tony Robbins in a life mastery event, and lost my first $500,000. But we came back out of that. My best friend worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. We lost him that day. I just I just kept plugging. I never gave up. After that, I came back. I didn’t watch the Towers collapse on TV for 10 years until the anniversary.
Ken Van Liew:
Then it happened again when Lehman Brothers crashed. We were partners with them, and on three deals, we lost like $300 million in one day. Then I built up again, had a concrete company in New York City. So, I’ve always hustled a lot.
Ken Van Liew:
Then it was probably ’17, I was doing the concrete, I built 300 units with this CM company that I was with. I was director of operations. I had my own concrete company with the CM company, so we used to do all kinds of stuff. I was just, “I really don’t want to work this hard like this anymore.” It was a little harder because going into the city every day, it never wore me down, but it just takes longer because you got to commute.
Ken Van Liew:
I wanted to go back into development, and I wanted to write the book because my head was full of all this stuff. I’m like, “Wow, this thing works.” I did it when I started, I did it on a skyscraper. I then founded, around when I left the concrete company. Took a buyout, we actually shut it down in ’16. I went and founded Flipping USA. It was a small group. They flipped in New Jersey, and I was like, “Wow, maybe I’ll take this model national.” But I really did it because I wanted to test the formula on residential.
Ken Van Liew:
I was there about a year and a half, built Flipping USA, and then I decided that I was going to create global real estate strategies, and kind of step out of it, write the book, the Modern Wealth Building Formula, and really try to pay it forward. Because I got to the point just from after studying with Tony Robbins for many, many years, it comes down to, it was time for me to contribute, and that was going to give me total fulfillment where I could pay it forward, and write the book, and all that kind of good stuff.
Devin Elder:
Was that a natural progression into coaching, and sharing knowledge, and building that out? Or was that more of a kind of overnight thing, jumped into that? I mean, how did that progress for you?
Ken Van Liew:
Regarding the Modern Wealth Building Formula?
Devin Elder:
That’s right, the Modern Wealth Building Formula, the program that you have now?
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. It’s the most unusual path that you’ve ever believe. So, in 2008 when the market crashed, I literally said, I’m done with real estate. I don’t want to do this anymore.
Ken Van Liew:
Since I was a kid, I’ve been a magician, where you can produce coins, make stuff vanish. So, I’ve always loved magic, and I literally started doing trade show magic. I went and studied under a guy named Joel Bauer.
Devin Elder:
This is in 2008, you decided to transition to magic?
Ken Van Liew:
2008, yeah, because I said, “You know what? I don’t want to do real estate right now. I’m going to start doing magic,” because I was a really good magician, and my buddy Joe Bauer, I became friends with, was a trade show magician. We did cruise ships, and I went and studied with him. He’s like, “Yeah, I do a million dollars a year doing trade show magic.”
Ken Van Liew:
I’m like, “Really? I can get into just doing magic. I love doing magic.” So, I started doing magic, and as I got friendly with him, he’s like, “Ken, let me show you what I really do, also, on the side. I’m a platform closer.” I’m like, “What’s that?”
Ken Van Liew:
So, I go watch him, and he’s teaching for these two professionals and mortgage origination, and Joel’s the stage guy. Anyway, make a long story short, at the end of the seminar, I watch like 40 people stand up and write a check for 12 grand. I’m like, “Wow, they just did like a half a million dollars in an hour.” I said, “Whoa, can you show me how to do that?” He goes, “Yeah, put people in a room, and tell them what you did.”
Ken Van Liew:
So, I went to this thing called cashflow quadrant in New York City, Robert Kiyosaki. It was a game. All these people are playing a game in a room, and I’m like, “Could you put all these people in a room in seats? I want to tell them what I do.”
Ken Van Liew:
So, I show up, there’s 100 people in the room, and I get up, I do a presentation, and I sell people into eight-figure deals with no money down, into a seminar. This is right after crash, boom, everything gone. I’m like, “Wow, this is pretty cool,” so I teach 40 people, I then do it again, and then I sell some coaching, and literally the market crashes.
Ken Van Liew:
I realized that this coaching thing, and course thing is a business. I went and I met some of the gurus, and I’m like, “The last thing I want to do is start this business right now.” So, I literally go out and I try to buy Stewart’s Root Beer, and this other car [inaudible 00:14:38] company. I was kind of lost for a few years.
Ken Van Liew:
Literally through creating the eight-figure deals with no money down, it kept me in real estate because I literally was in a room for 14 hours teaching how I developed this $17 million project. Fast forward 10 years because I got my head out of my rear, I went back into the business like around 2011, did the Lehman mansion on 54th Street on millionaires row, restored it. Then did some stuff in Saddle River, did some land stuff, then got a brownstone, I think I mentioned to you.
Ken Van Liew:
But that’s when I put the education thing on the back burner. Fast forward now to when I finished the book in 2019, I’m like, “Wow. I created that course, its way into the stratosphere.” That guy told you, “Ken, it’s only going to reach 3%.” On that day, I said, “You know what? I’m going to have the full gamut of real estate education one day.”
Ken Van Liew:
So, on that day I was you know what? I’m going to create Real Estate Mastery University, which actually comes out next year, but I grabbed the website. I create a financial freedom protocol, which is how to start and accelerate your residential real estate business. I then have the Modern Wealth Building Formula, which could do commercial, residential, development, it does everything. It tells you how to find, fund and facilitate and syndicate. Then we have Real Estate Development Made Simple.
Ken Van Liew:
So, now I decided since I have all this, what do I do and create that’s really cool? So, literally a week ago I was like, bing, came through me. Global Real Estate Investment Academy. So, I’ve now created that, it was launched literally last week. I got my first group ready to kick off next week.
Ken Van Liew:
They basically get everything I ever created in my entire life, because what’s going to make me happy is if I could pay it forward, it was my favorite movie, create more power, freedom, self-expression, peace of mind in everybody that I meet, and make a difference in their world, then that’s what’s going to make me satisfied.
Devin Elder:
I love it. That’s the full cycle deal, go build it, do it, and then share your knowledge, and see somebody else do it. That’s pretty fulfilling stuff, I mean, when somebody else can take what you’re showing them, and they can go do it and change their life.
Ken Van Liew:
Yes, sir.
Devin Elder:
I love it. I love it. We were talking a little bit before we started recording here. What type of projects are you into today? We’re talking kind of mid-2021. Are you in a million different types? Are there a few that you like to do personally with your company? What floats your boat these days in terms of project types?
Ken Van Liew:
Like everybody else, we always look for multifamily. But I’m always looking to build multifamily, so I’ll buy shovel-ready projects. In the last year and a half, I’ve really put a lot of focus on a famous site in Chester, New Jersey, called the Larison’s Turkey Farm. I picked that up right at the beginning of COVID in a foreclosure that I was able to maneuver. It came with a settlement, and I signed 20-year lease with a CVS pharmacy, so I’m going to be breaking ground on my first CVS in about three months. It has the old Turkey Farm Restaurant, which the pad is for sale, but that’s going to be restored into a phenomenal restaurant that we’ve rendered out.
Ken Van Liew:
We’ve also worked with the city, and we have affordable housing as part of the project, which is really, really exciting. Part of that, they allowed us to do some market rate housing, which is really, really exciting. I have a 20,000 square foot pad to do medical office, so we’re in the medical office business. It’s the one office sector that’s that’s doing okay.
Ken Van Liew:
Then I just got 28 acres where we’re wrestling now with the concept that’ll have, same thing, residential, some flex office, some self storage, which I’m really excited about. I’m going to try to get a Starbucks on the corner, and an urgent care.
Ken Van Liew:
Then we’re going to go with our medical office prototype. We have a very unique medical office prototype where the doors are eight feet when you walk in, ceilings are nine feet. You get feel of a class A office building when it’s really just a country-type setting.
Devin Elder:
Right. I love it. Are these new build projects, medical office, self storage, is this a build, a lease and then refi, and kind of hold it for a while? Or you just build them, and sell them, and cash out?
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. So, exactly that. Most typical procedures, after we get it approved, we try to create the first event where we’ll sell it to another entity that we control. We’ll develop it.
Ken Van Liew:
A lot of times when we have those multi pads, the first objective is to sell off one of the two pads that get our money back on the acquisition, and all the other pads are kind of gravy. We’re just bringing in fresh equity. It’s kind of like a standalone investment.
Ken Van Liew:
We follow that same procedure on every deal. That’s how my family and in-laws accumulated a lot of their real estate, just kind of carving out a piece at a time, and then if a model works, just follow it.
Devin Elder:
Yeah, just keep repeating it if you find one that works.
Ken Van Liew:
Don’t want to reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.
Devin Elder:
Yeah, that’s right. How was last year for you guys? COVID hit in March, kind of jammed us up, jammed a lot of people up, everything was on pause. Big impact for you guys? Lessons learned from that kind of last event?
Ken Van Liew:
I was talking about it. I mean, we didn’t get killed. Fortunately our office portfolio was medical, so it was the one business that didn’t have its whole fallout when there was a lot going on. But we had to cut some deals.
Ken Van Liew:
Fortunately, I was saying, a lot of my stuff that I had done in the city was always condos, and we sold out. So, I’m not dealing with a large rental portfolio. I have a couple pieces in North Carolina where we the rents are cheap enough where you don’t get hurt too bad. But I was fortunate.
Ken Van Liew:
I guess the only impact we had is, we have a few projects through the approvals process, and that whole thing got shut down. So, we had, what they called, was focus group meetings, and planning board meetings were dysfunctional. But I guess the whole planning process has just been painful.
Ken Van Liew:
State agencies like DEP, it’s like, you want to just get sick. It’s horrible. You can’t get anybody on the phone, and don’t even know if they’re back in the office yet, they work out of their house. They were bad initially. Now it’s just horrible.
Devin Elder:
They’re bad to start with, yeah. Didn’t improve, right?
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah.
Devin Elder:
What does the team look like today that you’ve got? Obviously a lot of projects here. Are there partners? Is there an office staff? Is it pretty lean? How do you structure things these days?
Ken Van Liew:
I run very, very lean. I think we have a paralegal, we have a bookkeeper, we have supers, some handyman. I’d say maybe it’s a dozen total. Lot of stuff is outsourced. I learned that without incentivizing someone, it’s hard to keep them, get their attention, and get them to understand the result, based on the one-minute manager approach.
Ken Van Liew:
I’ve had too many deals where I got to babysit, and then there’s unfulfilled expectations, then you have employees … I’m not saying I’m [inaudible 00:22:50] about it. I’ve built some organizations, and I like working with people, but at this stage, it’s just a little bit different approach that I found beneficial, because then you get people to really grow into who they want to be.
Ken Van Liew:
I told people what to do for so many years. I had to force myself to stop telling people what to do. When you’re running big projects like that, I was like, “Wow, why am I like this?” My wife’s like, “You always got so much to stay all the time.” I think it’s just because since I was like 18 years old, I was managing 600 people on the job. All day, I would like, “Do this, do this, do da-da-da.”
Ken Van Liew:
It’s hard to shut the switch off when you come home. Like, “You’re talking to me now.” Then at night I’d be like, “Hey, can you grab that broom?” She’d say I’d be dreaming about something. Or “Grab that shovel.”
Devin Elder:
That’s funny you say that. This last couple of months, I’ve started intentionally delegating things to my kids, especially my sons. I got young sons and I told my wife, “They’re going to do everything. Anything they can do, you make them do it.” So, it’s just kind of funny trying to delegate, and watch them fail on stuff. But I’m enjoying that process of maybe telling people what to do more around the house.
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. During that, yeah, there’s no question. My son didn’t become an Eagle Scout because I wasn’t telling him what to do. Now he’s a US Intelligence Marine Officer and he teaches me. So. I love that kid.
Devin Elder:
That’s great. That’s a cool career. I love it. I love it. Looking back on all your ventures,, and companies and ups and downs, what are some of the handful of attributes for success that you’ve seen in people? Obviously you have your own attributes to be successful. But what is it that you recognize and others that you think contributes to their success?
Ken Van Liew:
I guess the first thing that came to mind is most of my mentors had mentors. So, I’ve always, since I can remember, my first Dale Carnegie class shortly after I got married, just trying to get over the fear of public speaking like everybody has. But I think mentorship is key. Other attributes I think is really just self-mastery in itself. There’s a lot of components of self-mastery. Just one thing that took me years to do is just control the emotional state. Because you can unravel quick, especially when you’re swimming with sharks in New York City.
Ken Van Liew:
I guess a few attributes that I’ve learned, and one of the things that have kind of gravitated to me that I didn’t have, and I may have mentioned is, is a morning routine. For years, I didn’t have it. It was always, run out the door by 5:30 so I can get through the tunnel before 6:00. Because five minutes made a difference with the traffic.
Ken Van Liew:
But the morning routine of now getting up, and I have a little get ready, and then I work out, and I meditate, and pray a little bit. And fuel the body. I think that that has really made a huge difference in getting clarity on what I want to achieve. Because my billionaire philosophy is, you have to have the product, have the outcome, and be 100% clear, and then hire the best people to execute that, and you spend your time on the resources to make them successful.
Ken Van Liew:
So, I really, not that I’m a billionaire, but I sit back, and I’m in a lot of deep thinking, and I figure out who could take now the global real estate investment academy to the moon? I have someone in mind who I started talking to, a couple of young guys in their 20’s, and just support that. But those are some of the attributes that I got. Wake up early, a little bit earlier. Even if you don’t have a morning routine. Just one extra hour a day gives you about six or eight extra hours for that year. You can do a lot of stuff in six to eight weeks.
Devin Elder:
Right. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. I love it. That’s great stuff. I love the concept of having the really clear vision, putting the people in place, and then really kind of getting out of that process yourself. I think that’s a really hard thing for entrepreneurs to do, is to build it, and then step out of the way of the mechanism that they’ve built.
Ken Van Liew:
It really is, the micro distinction is, resources versus sources. So, when you hire the best of the best, that’s the source. Sometimes when you’re in the trenches and in the source, you lose some sensory acuity to the resource. So, the big picture person, or myself the visionary, has to say, “Okay, well, what resources are missing?” There’s nothing wrong. Always look at what’s missing.
Ken Van Liew:
I always tell the story, which I learned through my training, Michael Jordan was the best basketball player in the world. He had won every accolade, highest points, assists. But what he did was, he kept asking what’s missing? Because he hadn’t won the championship. As he watched films, film after film, he started to realize that he had Pippin, and the other hot dog Rodman. Here, Jordan’s flying through the air, just hogging the ball, dunking the ball.
Ken Van Liew:
All of a sudden he had this epiphany that there was nothing wrong, but what was missing was teamwork. Then once he put teamwork into the formula, he had the three-peat. He won the championship three times in a row. I kind of use Michael Jordan as an analogy in some of the training that I did that, that told me that little story. It’s not about what’s wrong in the operation. It’s what’s missing in order to make it better or more effective.
Devin Elder:
Love it. I love it, making it better. I was watching that series, it’s like a 10-part series with Jordan and the Bulls, and kind of chronicling that, reliving that period of history. That was a magical time in the NBA. There’s no question about it.
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. I’ll tell you that was a great time. When I was growing up with the New York Knicks, just going to the Madison Square Garden and watching Chamberlain come, the big the tall guys, Lou [inaudible 00:29:56], all those guys, and Wilt Chamberlain, and Willis Reed, and Wall Frazier. I mean, it was just amazing. But nothing like a good basketball game, right?
Devin Elder:
That’s right, that’s right. It’s good, I think we’re all kind of getting back to them now, which is awesome. What do you see ahead for the next year? Like I said, we’re kind of mid-2021 talking right now. What’s kind of goals and plans for the coming year and the year ahead?
Ken Van Liew:
This year, I’m going launch officially the Global Real Estate Investment Academy. I’m going to try to help as many people as I can, and not put a lot of time into it. So, I’m building a little organization around it, where I’m going to spend probably 10 hours a week in building that, and try to work with maybe 100 to 200 people and really just creating something extraordinary in their life. So, on the educational side, I plan on spending maybe about 10 hours a week.
Ken Van Liew:
This year I’m going to really focus on two big developments that we have. It’s over 50 acres of developments, and what I say, build that on paper so I can kind of pass it off, delegate it, like we talked. It’s all about eliminating hat you shouldn’t be doing anymore, delegating it, and then automating it. So, this year I’m really working on a lot of my automation.
Ken Van Liew:
We’re going to have a big deal feeder system coming in, just with the Global Real Estate Academy. So, we’re just going to serve projects and we’re working with some institutional money now, I guess I can call it that, but more on the family office so we could start connecting money to projects. Just kind of moving the ball forward.
Ken Van Liew:
Because I think everybody’s skeptical. There’s a lot of question with demographics, like where do people work now? [crosstalk 00:31:55] corporate headquarters anymore. Where’s the capita income? Have people have been paying their rent? What are the real ROI’s? What’s going to happen in the office industry? Will retail pivot again? We have all kinds of dynamics, many variables to the equation. I’m not saying people, sit on the sideline at all. I’m saying to get out on the field right now because it’s like, Showtime. It’s game time. There’s a lot going on, and if you’re ready, there’s going to be deals that are going to fall on your plate fast and furious. You just got to be able to move on it.
Ken Van Liew:
So, me, just a normal guy, putting my pants on one leg at a time, I’m always raising money. I’m always looking for money. It’s just a constant process. We’re kind of all in the same boat. I realize that I came from, my dad climbed telephone poles, pumped gas at night after, working for public service electric and gas. My mom was a bank teller, she made, if it was $12,000 a year. I think my father started at $2,200 a year or something like that, and ended up at 40.
Ken Van Liew:
But I was just given a lot of love and enthusiasm, go to school, work hard. Then fortunately, working in New York City, I met a couple of sharks, and then they turned into mentors. The sharks went with the other sharks, with my wallet. But I learned a few, but fortunately I grew up.
Ken Van Liew:
Some of my cousins were tough guys, and I learned about the street and I didn’t get taken advantage of. I was able to swim with the sharks, and create something for myself. But like anybody else, I had to overcome fears and figure it all out. Those sleepless nights when you’re not paying yourself, you’re like, “Okay, now what’s going to happen?”
Devin Elder:
Yeah, that’s right. You get paid last, right? Hopefully you get paid, and if you do get paid, you get paid last.
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah. Somebody was joking with me yesterday. “Yeah, you’re that entitlement business.” It’s like the zero cashflow business in the world, just keeps going out, and out, and out.
Devin Elder:
Yeah. That’s right. You just write checks, and write checks for a long time. Hopefully there’s one last check at the end to make it all right. But this there’s no guarantee of that.
Ken Van Liew:
Yeah, yeah.
Devin Elder:
Well, this has been great, Ken. I really appreciate you sharing the story. Obviously there’s a lot more here, but if somebody wants to connect with you, learn about what you’re up to, learn about what you’re offering, what’s a good avenue for them to do that?
Ken Van Liew:
The easiest way is to go to Kenvanliew.com. There’s a discover how button. If you click that, and you’re interested, it will lead you to a scheduling software that you could schedule an appointment with me.
Ken Van Liew:
I give away 45-minute free strategy sessions, so if you’re thinking about getting started in real estate, if you have a project on the hook that you can’t get your arms around, if you are in residential and you want to go to commercial, if you’re in commercial and you want to go to development, if you’re in development and you’re getting hassled by the planning board, or if you’re in development and you want to learn how to raise money, there isn’t anything that I don’t believe that I can help you with. If I don’t have any answer, I can reach out and get it for you.
Devin Elder:
Love it. Listen, a 45-minute strategy session is nothing to sneeze at. That is serious opportunity for somebody that’s looking to get to the next level. I cannot underscore enough, my resonance with your idea around mentors. I mean, I’ve been a part of groups since I first started as an entrepreneur. It’s absolutely been the fast forward button for me in so many facets of my life and business.
Devin Elder:
So, we’re going to link to the website in the show notes, and there’s a ton of value there that you offer. So, thank you for putting that out there, and thanks for joining on the show. I wish you continued success, Ken. Thank you very much.
Ken Van Liew:
Devin, thank you. Been a pleasure.
Devin Elder:
Alrighty. Have a good one.