048: Real Estate Investing and Helping People to Own a Home and Fix Their Credit with Bobby Diehl

#00:00:43-3# Neil: Hello, it’s Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey, the vision, the mind-set, the commitment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Bobby Diehl, but before I introduce you to him, I have a quote for you, James A Baldwin said, ‘the questions which one ask oneself begin at least to illuminate the world and become one’s key to the experience of others.’ The entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. Bobby welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

#00:01:32-3# Bobby Diehl: Yeh Neil, thank you for having me.

# #00:01:34-7# Neil: It’s a pleasure, thank you for coming on the show Bobby. Bobby Diehl is an entrepreneur who has spent almost ten years in the financial and insurance business. Bobby was a six-figure income producer for two fortune 500 companies, and has grown his real estate investing company from zero to 1.2 million dollars, in assets generating six figures in income, all in one year. Bobby focuses primarily on single family homes, he does wholesaling, rent-to-own, and is working on a few fix and flick deals as we speak. Bobby is married to his lovely wife Tonya and has been married to her for almost 11 years. They have two boys, Parker who is 8 and Griffin, who is five. Bobby, can you provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life to allow us to get to know more about what you do and who you are?

#00:02:34-0# Bobby Diehl: Sure, I spent about ten years in the financial and insurance business, and I had a client approach me, he became a good friend and he approached me and actually told me I was in the wrong business, and I proceeded to ask why he said that. And he elaborated on a few different things, real estate investing being one of them. And I had always wanted to be in real estate, but I never knew how to really go about doing that, and so he kind of took me under his wing, and taught me the business so to speak and I hit the ground running and made a choice, a conscious choice to resign from all of my endeavours in the financial insurance world and focus 100% of my time, into this business. And I would say that, I have never looked back, and I am having the time of my life, and for the first time, I actually enjoy what I do when I get up, every single day.

#00:03:45-4# Neil: And you also mentioned to me earlier that you have a website, can you tell me about your website please?

#00:03:52-2# Bobby Diehl: Yeh I have a website that is www.bobbydiehl.com and at that website, we do blog posts, that are motivational, uplifting, they may be sports related. I am a huge sports fanatic. I have a coaching business, and a speaking business that are all accumulated into that one website. The coaching business is really offline at this time, we market it on the website there, but it’s really offline in terms of what we are doing in our coaching sessions. The clients across the country, and the speaking obviously is nationwide, I really had just started branching out into that to be quite honest with you. I started speaking actually through my church, and sharing a few testimonies and then one thing has led to another, and I have talked with a few other companies and so we are getting that off the ground and running. I don’t really have a plan, as to where that is going to go, I am kind of letting it go, where it takes me, the one thing I am really really excited about is that I also am launching a pod cast, we are in the middle of securing people to come on, to our show, and that will probably be launched with the first pod cast live will be sometime in March. So, you can get all of the updates via my website at bobbydiehl.com.

#00:05:39-2# Neil: And can you just tell me a little bit more about how you make money out of your real estate business because you have obviously started from zero and built it up, so you have obviously had to fund these properties and in some way or other and you have to pay for your day-to-day living expenses and things, so how is it, how are you actually making money out of what you do?

#00:06:02-9# Bobby Diehl: So there is what they call a spread, in the real estate business, is to what you buy a property for, to what you sell it for, and that is your profit. So if I purchase a property, via in wholesale that, to another investor or somebody, our spread is we try to function that to be between $5-10,000 dollars in profit. So buying something at a discount, marking it up, I may not touch that property, I may go in and do a little bit to it, and then sell that property on the back side, and make that profit. One of my main bread and butter revenue streams, really is what we call the ‘rent-to-own’ revenue stream and so we sell homes that we buy, on terms. So we give our clientele the opportunity to purchase a home through us, and get into our programme. They put a down-payment down, what’s called an option deposit, and then they have the option to purchase the home over a period of time. That has been the main revenue source, that has allowed us to grow, really really fast, and I think that was what my client was telling me when he approached me about getting into the business, and teaching me the business was that there are a lot of people, that are good people, they don’t have all of the criteria that the banks are wanting them to have since they have kind of squinched down their requirements and what they need. But then in the same breath, these people do not have all of the money that the banks require or the credit, so where we come in to play is we can fund those deals for them and they can pay us so we act as the bank.

#00:07:55-5# Bobby Diehl: And so, in doing that we also offer every client that comes into our programme, we offer them the opportunity to fix their credit, and get them traditional bank financing to where they can essentially pay us off, and have their mortgage through a bank. That way they are building credit, and building things up.

#00:08:18-9# Neil: Mmm hmm and so what do you enjoy most about what you do Bobby?

#00:08:26-5# Bobby Diehl: Neil, I would say it’s a combination of things, if I am writing something positive and motivational and sharing my message, you know I never really thought of that being a business, and it’s really just taken off, and that is really probably super, that’s probably the newest of inventions and creations that we are doing. But I never really thought about using that as a business to profit and make revenue from, but with all the negativity around this world, there are people that need that, and crave that kind of message and content. And so, I absolutely love getting up and doing that, sharing a message every single day, if it’s a real estate transaction or deal that’s going on, it’s one of those things Neil that I never thought I had a creative bone in my body. That I was just a numbers guy, I could sell and talk with clients and call on anybody, and share a message of what we are trying to package and sell them, but in this, I actually have to create a way of how I purchase a property, how is it going to work out good for me? How is it going to work out good for my client? And so that everybody wins in the end, and allows me to be free with how I do things, and that is why I am really for the first time enjoying what I am doing because it’s never the same thing every single day.

#00:09:56-2# Neil: And what is it that drives you?

#00:10:00-8# Bobby Diehl: Oh I would be silly if I did not say that it was you know, that we are not driven by money. But I would say more importantly than money is the opportunity to create real wealth, the opportunity to help as many people, whether it’s my message, speaking or coaching. Or in the real estate of helping somebody achieve that American dream of owning a home, and to see those people and that you are giving them a chance and you are helping them fix their credit, fix their issues while they are still paying for a property that they own, instead of putting money down the drain, in terms of renting and I am not knocking being in the rental business of rental property, because we have a few of those as well, but I take great pride in helping our clients achieve home ownership.

#00:10:49-2# Neil: Mmm hmm, and how do you relax when you are not working in your business?

#00:10:55-3# Bobby Diehl: We are super active with our children, my wife Tonya and I are married of almost 11 years, coming up this May, and our two boys Parker and Griffin are in every sport, whether it’s basketball that we are doing right now, or soccer which is Spring and Fall, or baseball, where both of them play all Summer long, we are going to embark on something new with my oldest boy, and he is going to try out swimming, this spring as well. And we travel quite a bit, my parents have a place in Florida, so we would like to get down there a couple of times a year. We take our kids on a couple of other little smaller trips as well to just childhood places, like the Wisconson Dells, we took them there a couple of years ago, and we have two or three other couples that we are really really close to, and we do a trip with them, that we just started last year. So if we are not working, we are travelling or chasing kids around, at all kinds of sporting events.

#00:12:07-2# Neil: And do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

#00:12:12-6# Bobby Diehl: That’s a loaded question Neil, and I would be remiss if I did not say that my great grandfather, and my grandfather, who are both have passed away years ago, I was fortunate enough to know both of them very well. They are probably two of the biggest role models that I have, if I take away some things from them, I am also taking away in learning from a guy by the name of Gary Vaynerchuk. He is a media mogul in the social media world, he has built multiple businesses, I would not even know where to start with what I have learned from him. And then one of my business mentors when I got into the financial services business, his name is Ben Newman. You can find his information at BenNewman.net. And he is a motivational speaker but I spent four and a half years with him, working for the same fortune 500 company, in the financial world, and have learned tons from him about life and business and sharing your message.

#00:13:30-1# Neil: Ok, thank you for that, and can we now talk about the journey of getting to become an entrepreneur and doing what you have done because obviously it’s quite interesting to learn about this. What difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

#00:13:48-4# Bobby Diehl: Started my business in terms of real estate and the website? or starting my business when I got into the financial world?

#00:13:54-3# Neil: Well when you started the journey of becoming an entrepreneur, so which ever one you pick.

#00:13:56-6# Bobby Diehl: Ok perfect, so I have always had that bone in my body, I have always wanted to be my own boss. I have always wanted to write my own ticket, and I had the opportunity through my great grandfather and grandfather that there was potential that I was going to go into their business. They owned and operated multiple Macdonald’s franchises, in Illinois, and I chose to go a different route, and got an education and just decided, I am going to do investments. I am going to wear a suit to work every single day and carry a briefcase, and that’s what I thought was the way to make as much money as you possibly could make. And after getting into that business, obviously I just shared with that shifting, but I think the entrepreneur in you, isn’t something that is just, you don’t create an entrepreneur, an entrepreneur is born that way, and so that’s how I think of it, and I never ever wanted to punch a clock 8 to 5. You know, I did, I had jobs along the way, but the ultimate goal was for me to create something that I could build a business around what I wanted to do, and it started out as selling investments and insurance, and has morphed into getting to the real estate investment business and also sharing my message of positivity with people that want to hear that message and get paid for it.

#00:15:47-7# Neil: Mmm hmm.

#00:15:47-7# Bobby Diehl: So, a lot of it’s chance, a lot of it is taking a chance, if my wife was sitting right here, she was scared to death when I told her that I felt like I was just going to resign and cut loose and sell my investment insurance business and move into real estate. She was scared to death, but as time has gone on, she knows who I am and knows that there is no way I am going to do something without being able to provide for our family and find a way and that actually helped her in launching her business. She has now been open for about 14/15 months now.

#00:16:27-5# Neil: And did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

#00:16:31-6# Bobby Diehl: Yeh I mean, the delays were multiple conversations with my wife, and selling her on the idea of what I spent the first ten years in my career after college doing to, you are going into something that she thought, you know nothing about. An entrepreneur I think just figures it out as they go. It’s never going to be perfect from point A to point B. There is going to be a lot of mess in between, and yeh there is a lot of mess every single day, but at the end of the day, we are achieving what we set out to do, and so I would say the delay really was not anything to do with working with banks or working with finding properties or any of those things. It was more the delay of selling the idea to my spouse.

#00:17:29-2# Neil: And what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

#00:17:35-0# Bobby Diehl: I would say you can always make a mistake in a real estate deal but there are also about five or six different ways that you can get out of that real estate deal. So I have purchased a couple of houses, pretty early on in the wrong areas, they were not the best of homes. We had pretty good intentions with what we were going to do with them. But after a few months of paying for something, it’s not producing a return for us, I was able to get out from under that property and I think I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I did not study that market that well, I was just hungry for any deal I could just get my hands on, and after studying markets and where things are at and what people do and what towns have to offer, because we cover all of Southern Illinois all the way up to St Louis which is about an hour and a half north of us, and so studying those areas really really helps but it’s not a perfect science. I have purchased a couple of others that were created the same kind of thing but I ended up turning around and making a little bit of money on those, so it’s never you are dead to the world, we can always get out of something.

#00:19:04-8# Neil: And what are some of the things you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips to some of the listeners who have not yet taken their first step on the entrepreneur way?

#00:19:14-2# Bobby Diehl: Neil I think that one of the things that you can probably in today’s world, you can get on social media, and you can search whether it’s via twitter, via Facebook, or just go to google, and find those people out there who are doing what you are wanting to do. And you know I never knew who Gary Vaynerchuk was, I never knew who another one I forgot to mention was Andy Fersello who is actually based out of St. Louis Missouri. The stories that are out there, of just average guys like myself, that are doing what they love doing, were everywhere. And with social media, people are posting about all of those things and they are sharing their life and they are sharing their business, and they are sharing their message, that if you have not really embarked on, what it is you want to do, learning and listening to how these people do things, is the way to wrap your head around that scary, big, hairy idea of taking on something, and creating your entrepreneurial way, so if you don’t know what you want to do, or you have an idea but you are scared to death about how to go about doing it, is just obviously do your research, I am never going to tell somebody to jump in head first because I did not do that with the real estate business for sure. I learned from a mentor for a good two or three months, before I opted to start doing deals.

#00:20:53-4# Bobby Diehl: My financial business, I was allowed to be an entrepreneur in that, but there was tons and tons of education that went into it. But you never know everything about everything and you learn every single day, so if you are not learning something every single day, the you know I don’t think that you are progressing and moving forward but I would say if you don’t know what you are going to do or you have that idea but you don’t know how to execute on it, is with today’s world social media is the avenue that you can learn from other people and hear what they are doing and how they failed forward and your show alone is going to show the message with people doing different things.

#00:21:35-4# Neil: Bobby, can we just talk about the entrepreneurial journey a little bit more. Can you tell us, do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

#00:21:48-6# Bobby Diehl: I think culture is important, no matter what. I would say that I don’t have anybody that works for me on a full-time basis. I have my own office that I operate out of, and with the real estate business I have people that, a couple of guys that work for me, on the construction side and they hired their own people on those kinds of things. But I would say that your culture, coming from the fortune 500 world, culture was everything, becoming a family with the people that you are working with every single day and when you are having a bad day, that those people are there to pick you up. And when you are having a good day, that you are there maybe to pick somebody else up. That’s probably one of the things that is a little bit different in maybe my business is that, I run my website, and I run my real estate investing business, and my message is bounced back and forth with good days and bad days and culture between my wife and I do talk to other mentors and business colleagues and people in those kinds of things, so I think that the culture of buying and selling real estate with another investor. You know, we build a good rapport and those kinds of things but culture I think is a huge key to anyone’s success.

#00:23:20-7# Neil: Mmm hmm, knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

#00:23:30-6# Bobby Diehl: No, I don’t. Knowing what I know now, I would have got into real estate investing a lot sooner. Maybe while I was in college or right out of college, it is truly one of the only ways, having been on the other side now selling investments to people, is one of the only ways that you can make really good returns and protect your assets, and make a lot of money doing that. So I would say, I am never going to apologise for being in the financial insurance business because it taught me a lot about who I am. I taught me a lot about how this world works and how the financial systems works, but I would have started investing a real estate a lot sooner.

#00:24:23-0# Neil: And how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

#00:24:30-1# Bobby Diehl: Almost a 100% of the time. If something does not feel right, I am not going to do it, and there is no way you are going to sell me on it. You are right, I feel like anybody, I think people are right a 100% of the time if your gut does not feel it, you should not do it. And I was encouraged for some time to start speaking and sharing my message aside from the real estate investing business, simply because of my story. My story Neil that we have not really talked about, and my dad passing away when I was 13, from a rare form of cancer, that I chose to be positive, I chose to stay in school and finish high school, and go on to college, and get a golf scholarship. Those were all choices. I could have easily thrown in the towel and said, ‘I have nothing to live for.’ But I chose to be a different person, than what some other people that were in my growing up in my class did when their parents and family members, they made some bad choices.

#00:25:55-3# Neil: Life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not, and some would say the only constant is change. Bobby, how do you try to keep up with change?

#00:26:10-2# Bobby Diehl: I study this business of real estate investing, every single day whether I am in a deal or analysing a deal, I am reading about the markets across the country even if I am operating really and one small snippet that may not even be on a lot of people’s maps. I am studying and learning, and learning how to market. Something as simple as we don’t have professional signs out for when we are trying to sell a property actually, all of our signs are hand-written on a white poster board, staked in the ground. Because people do not feel intimidated, when they see a sign like that as opposed to like a relator sign or a professionally made sign. And those are all things that we tested to keep up with what was going on and how things were working. I think that the world of the computer, the internet and social media has changed the game, for how you market and how you do things so much that I am constantly having to study that. How do I market on Facebook? How do I market on twitter or Instagram? and get people to go to my website? Or get people to call about properties that we are selling or marketing that we are trying to buy. So in today’s world the game is moving faster and faster and faster and the only way is that you have to consistently be studying the business that you are in.

#00:27:54-4# Neil: And what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? And can you tell us why you have chosen it?

#00:28:06-2# Bobby Diehl: I would say my favourite book on entrepreneurial mind-set working is a book by, I am totally blanking on this Neil,

#00:28:28-6# Neil: Do you know the title?

#00:28:28-6# Bobby Diehl: I don’t, it’s he is the CEO of ViSalus, it’s a network marketing nutrition company and his name is Ryan Blair and the book is titled Nothing to lose, everything to gain. And this gives you a full scope of a human being who was troubled as a teen, and how he chose a different life for himself. Came from nothing, and has built multiple businesses, the latest one is ViSalus, he has owned and operated that for quite some time now, but that book spoke to me in multiple ways, not because I grew up as a troubled teen and had the same kinds of issues that he had, but what it taught me was when you are nice to people, and you are aggressive in your beliefs, and you believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts, that’s going to take you a long way, and the communication and the way he conducted himself is one of the ways that I try to operate today. And treating people with respect, being nice and but still it is ok to be a tough business guy. It’s ok to keep business business, and personal personal.

#00:30:10-5# Neil: Thank you for that. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing, to choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com. As long as you have not already signed up, then you will qualify. Bobby, what I would like to do now is speculate about a few things with you for the future. What one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you could not fail?

#00:30:49-7# Bobby Diehl: I would take my business, on the real estate investing side, I would take it nationwide as opposed to focusing solely on what I can control right here as one guy. I haven’t, being completely transparent here and candid, I haven’t figured out a way to scale the business to be able to spread it any further than what I can put my thumb on. The website and the speaking and coaching and the blog posting, I think that if I could just figure out a way to reach as many people as possible to put a positive note in their ear because there is just so much negativity, and figuring out a way to get that message across, I think that I am still trying to reach out and expand that as much as I can and there is a lot of trial and there is a lot of error, in doing so. I think the message of positivity in sharing your message, will inspire people so I would say that if I could not fail, that’s what I would do.

#00:32:17-7# Neil: And what skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business?

#00:32:27-0# Bobby Diehl: I would say that I am pretty good with the real estate investing side of things, because I am a numbers guy and I am numbers oriented, so that kind of comes easy to me. But I would say that social media is a challenge, I love it. But there are also times that I hate it as well. Trying to figure out what is going to gain me the most traffic, what’s going to drive people to my blog and reaching out to want me to come and speak to them, or wanting me to coach them is getting my message out to that, but I don’t let it keep me down, I keep doing what I am doing and reach as many people as I possibly can, even if I get that one like or that one share, or that one re-tweet. At some point it’s going to happen and we are going to blow the roof off of this.

#00:33:20-9# Neil: Mmm hmm, in five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

#00:33:28-6# Bobby Diehl: I would like it to say that Bobby Deal is a fine businessman, he’s true and honest, almost to a fault. And his message is to help as many people believe in themselves when nobody else may believe in them. That they too can achieve greatness if they just put forth the work.

#00:34:00-3# Neil: We are now at the part of the show, where you share three golden nuggets with us so the first one of those is, ‘what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?’

# #00:34:09-2# Bobby Diehl: Phillipines 413 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

#00:34:16-1# Neil: Ok and how have you applied that?

#00:34:16-1# Bobby Diehl: I have that with me at all times, and there were many times in the financial insurance world where there is a lot of ups and a lot of downs. And I would have to read that multiple times a day, to keep me to remain focused and balanced on the tasks at hand.

#00:34:47-7# Neil: And do you have any favourite online resources that you can share with us?

#00:34:56-3# Bobby Diehl: My favourite online resource for just business and for life and for anything that I can take away from this human being is Garyvanachuck.com, his message is kind of in your face, but it is one of the most honest and truthful things that I have ever been a part of and read and watched videos, YouTube videos of him, and those things can be applicable to anybody in any business. And when you are hearing it from somebody who does not sugar coat anything, tells you just like it is, and is right, that goes a long way than somebody who is trying to sell bullcrap on a website. Just to drive traffic and make money and so I have grasped to anything that he puts out content wise about every one of his books, and they all speak differently to me. The website, the videos speak differently but I would say that if you can follow one person that’s not me, he is your guy.

#00:36:15-4# Neil: And what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

#00:36:21-1# Bobby Diehl: My best advice to other entrepreneurs is stay humble, stay true to yourself, trust your gut, and you have to study the business that you are in all the time and you also have to re-charge your battery, you cannot work at something I don’t care what anybody says, you cannot work at something 365 days a year, and just be all in, all the time. Because it does not work that way and you will be burnt out. I am not saying don’t work hard, work hard when you are working, but when you are not working, be present with your family, and your children if you have them. And you have to take some breaks and just enjoy what life has in front of you.

#00:37:09-8# Neil: Everyone, if you did not manage to get a note of Bobby’s favourite resource or his favourite book, then you can find the links on Bobby’s show notes page, just go to theentrepreneurway.com and search for Bobby or Bobby Diehl in the search box. Bobby, is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

#00:37:25-7# Bobby Diehl: I don’t think so Neil. #

#00:37:30-6# Neil: Bobby it’s been a real pleasure having you on the show, thank you so much for coming on here, you have given us some great thoughts and inspiration so thank you.

#00:37:39-2# Bobby Diehl: Thank you for having me Neil.

#00:37:40-5# Neil: You are welcome, thank you.