Dream Start Own Podcast - The Path to Own Your Time

In Part 1 Monique Pasciak told the story of a stranger on a plane who wrote her a $100,000 check. In Part 2 she breaks down the seller carry method she now teaches, so nobody has to wait for a stranger with a checkbook. What we cover: • How the first person she taught closed three deals in three weeks • Going from teaching one person to building the Seller Carry Accelerator Program • Seller carry...

Pedro Trujillo moved from Brazil to Canada with no English. He washed dishes and did landscaping before he found cleaning. Today he is building toward 500 cleaning locations in two years while running everything remotely from the road. What we cover: • Starting over in a new country without the language • Learning the cleaning business from the inside and growing someone else's company before...

Monique Pasciak was on a plane trying to sell her healthcare software when the man next to her told her he did not want to be sold to. He asked what else she wanted. By the end of the flight he had written her a check for $100,000 with no paperwork, no personal guarantee and no security. She used it to buy her first rental, paid him back with interest she looked up herself and turned one conversat...

In January 2009 Jay Conner's bank cut off his entire line of credit overnight, with deals already under contract. Instead of quitting, he asked one question that changed everything, and raised over 2 million dollars in the next 90 days from people he already knew. What we cover: - The day his bank pulled his credit line with no warning and the one question that turned it around - How he raised...

Oz Konar came to the United States at seventeen with no English and no money. He now runs Business Lending Blueprint, an Inc. 5000 company that trains business loan brokers and connects business owners with funding outside of traditional banks. What we cover: - Growing up in Turkey, separated from his father at 7 for 11 years and what that decade did to him - Arriving in the US, working a security...

Jordan Hirschfeld saves creative real estate deals when they start falling apart, and she is building a transaction coordination business that gives back to rare disease research. What we cover: - How she went from stay-at-home mom and travel business owner to learning creative real estate inside the SubTo community - The first deal that changed everything, and why confidence is something you buil...

Tyrus Shivers built the machine behind ET the Hip Hop Preacher and helped raise over 300 million dollars with Legacy Wealth Capital Group. He does not close the money for you. He makes your business worth investing in. What we cover: How he built a property management company to 1.2 million dollars, then had to shut it down and lost his confidence What makes a business investable and how he took o...

Abraham Gray grew up moving from foster family to foster family before he found martial arts and business. Today he buys around 15 properties a month in Atlanta and has 40 million dollars out in private loans. What we cover: - How he built a martial arts empire, four gyms and hundreds of classes a week - Why sixty five to seventy percent of his deals come from wholesalers and how he gets on their...

Most people think you have to quit your job to build wealth. Deirdre Sommerkamp did not quit anything. She kept the corporate title, kept the salary and on nights and weekends started buying entire businesses from owners ready to retire. What we cover: - Why she finds the operator before she ever looks for a business to buy - How off-market deals from retiring owners beat anything listed with a br...

Some people have done a hundred deals. Some have swung a hammer on a hundred sites. Heather Dimmick has done both. Thirty years as a general contractor, over 1,800 units managed and a team that took down three RV parks in eighteen days. What we cover: - How her four-person team closed three RV park deals between December 28 and January 15, all seller financed, with zero money of their own in the d...

Most people cannot keep one business partner. Christina Lopez and Lea are building an empire together, 5,000 apartment doors by 2030, with sustainable housing for veterans, students, and single parents already at 321 units and counting. What we cover: - How Christina and Lea both walked away from 30-year corporate careers to reinvent themselves - Why the 5,000 Keys mission exists and who it is bui...

Real investors share the moments that moved them from stuck to their first deal. If creative finance, SubTo, or landing that first deal still feels out of reach, this Dream Start Own compilation shows you what actually worked for people who started right where you are. What we cover: How everyday people found creative finance and took over their first mortgage Finding the right community and why t...

AI is a giant tsunami. You can get swept under it or you can learn to surf. In Part 2 with Owen Mecham we get tactical on how AI agents actually buy back your time as an entrepreneur, and how everyday business owners can start today. What we cover: How Owen and his wife Mary built My Business Genie AI to make automation simple for regular business owners Using AI agents to underwrite real estate d...

Owen Mecham spent 24 years building tech systems at Carvana. Then a milkshake triggered the most painful condition known to medicine — both types at once, a 1-in-10 million diagnosis — and for almost two years, doctors had no answers. What he built on the other side of two brain surgeries at Stanford is now helping kids do what no one taught him as a child: train the mind before it breaks. How los...

What if you could apply the same creative finance strategies you use in real estate to buy or sell a car with no bank involved? Mike Davis Jr. figured it out. He's the founder of Top Wheels, the nation's leading TC company for creative vehicle deals, creator of the Sellify marketplace and the AIOS Blueprint AI operating system. This episode covers vehicle creative finance and how AI agents...

Most investors walk when a deal gets complicated. Vincent Lanza walks toward it. Known as Uncle Lanza in Pace Morby's Subto community, Vincent has been doing creative finance deals in one of the hardest real estate markets in the country since 2019. In this episode he breaks down how he structures hybrid deals others can't touch, handles sellers who pass away mid-close and mentors complete...

What if your next rental property paid three times the cash flow and changed someone's life at the same time? Jim Boad went from watching 18 of his 20 properties stop paying rent during COVID to running 14 sober living homes with 12 more on the way in a town of just 11,000 people. He breaks down the full business model and what it really takes to get started. What we cover: How one property we...

What does a $20M sales organization, a private school and a co-living portfolio in Phoenix have in common? Karl Larsen built all three. In this episode, Karl breaks down how he transitioned from 15 years in Herbalife to solving the housing affordability crisis one co-living property at a time — and why rent by the room is the most underrated cash flow strategy in real estate right now. What we cov...

What if your real estate portfolio could build wealth and change lives at the same time? Jennifer Breitbach, real estate operator and transformative ecosystem builder, acquires co-living and boarding house properties to create affordable housing for people coming out of rehab, prison and other underserved situations. This episode is for every investor who wants their portfolio to mean something. W...

Most homeowners don't read their insurance policy until it's too late — and insurance companies count on it. Glenis Romero Hargreaves, a senior public insurance adjuster with nearly 40 years of experience, helps fire survivors collect what they're actually owed — not just what the insurance company volunteers to pay. This conversation is practical, personal, and powerful for every prop...

What if your next hire didn't need a salary, benefits, or a Slack account? Raz Mihalyi, fractional AI partner and CTO at AZ Labs, breaks down how business owners are using AI agents to eliminate manual busy work, automate lead generation, and buy back their time — without adding headcount. Whether you've never touched an AI tool or you're already tinkering, this episode makes it practi...

What does it actually cost to learn real estate the hard way — and what can you build after? Jose Cortes, 22-year Air Force veteran turned real estate investor and private lender, gets brutally honest about losing $400K across three fix and flip projects, winning an 18-month court battle, and coming out the other side buying a $500K home in Texas for just $9K using subject-to creative finance. Wha...

What if the best city in the world for lifestyle and real estate appreciation was 3 hours from the Texas border — and most Americans don't know they can own it outright? Greg Gunter, broker owner at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in San Miguel de Allende, breaks down how US and Canadian buyers are safely investing in one of Mexico's most sought-after markets. What we cover: Fee simple ow...

What if you never had to discount again — and still crushed your competition? That's exactly the philosophy behind today's guest, John Dwyer, founder of the Institute of WOW and the marketer who convinced Jerry Seinfeld to become the face of a regional bank. In this episode, John breaks down his proven framework for incentive-based, direct response marketing that gets results fast — no pri...

If your marketing feels busy but not profitable, this episode will help you slow down, get clear, and build a strategy that actually drives revenue. Mike Davis breaks down why most businesses do too many tactics too early and what to fix first. What we cover: Why tactics without strategy create chaos How to connect marketing actions to actual revenue The difference between being busy and being eff...