I got to be my own boss and although I worked absolutely crazy hours, I never felt the stress of a crappy boss or pressure to act under some artificial timeline. Be there for your families. And its interesting, you know, as you and a stressor might be, I come in every day, and I look at emails for three or four hours, and Im stuck in email. It is always interesting to see what kind of things come up when you search for yourself online. And so I think for a very long time I ran my life, you know, moment to moment and its through conversations with folks like Brandon, you know, lots of, Ive got some good friends who think real deeply, to reading a lot, reading a lot, listening to some, you know, thought leaders in various spaces, you know, my transformation really, I think began from the moment of that I went to my wife, year eight of the company, and I was in tears. This happens so often where and you mentioned it, its at the SEO algorithm, is it, its almost like youre manic because one day you just closed a really large client, youre all celebrating, and then the next day, all of your servers crash. As you can see in the image below, every time you shop while using the smile subdomain, Amazon will show you your charity of choice (in this case, you can see that we support Childrens Hospital Colorado Foundation). So there you go. And everybodys at each others throats and stressed and tense. &i(y`ryG|29#4#Gj9F){(B;y@OJO,4f7Q$t8*>]SvC,:: Fr9BoQhF8E \lNr)#@ 4S9> HZ)9zve'qQE!Q@Q@Q@Q@Q@Q@JLQ_\h? 5o5IJStAmaMb ; +xWjoI:_g#r3/\)T Moi_9}/?i)me 6Oki!h(pf_ x_V{(n5[Y%{c-Iy,Y^a3{W ?5?m,|W"S*B'D]>V^1_7=|V~ I was teaching high school in Los Angeles. 95 0 obj <> endobj 100 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[]/Index[95 7]/Info 94 0 R/Length 36/Prev 376417/Root 96 0 R/Size 102/Type/XRef/W[1 2 0]>>stream (Where the hell have you been Josh?!? I realized that over the past fourteen years as CEO and sole founder of BiggerPockets, I sought out success, fame, fortune and accolades, as most people do, but despite achieving all of those things, I just wasnt fully happy. . But I wanted to be healthier. Do I hire? Im on the board. And Im excited to have you on board to really tell the story of how you went from zero to an exit without ever raising a single dime of outside capital. I choose to deal with them as they come using logic and working through like I would any game or problem. On Pivoting and Maintaining Control of Everything, Finding That Moment of Time Each Day to Live and Be Present, The Evolution of Business: From Bootstrap to Semi-Retired (Video), How to Support Your Favorite Charities (for Free) Every Time You Shop on Amazon, 50% change youre shopping there once a week, The Return . Joshua Dorkin is the founder and former CEO of BiggerPockets, launched on October 22, 2004. I didnt do a lot of that, you know, I didnt want to share my feelings necessarily, in those early years, because I thought it was a sign of weakness. I kept this pace up for over 8 years . I think its one of the top hundred podcasts in the world, give or take. Instead of getting my hands dirty building product or testing some new landing page or campaign, I was overssing someone else that was. Join us today to talk about real estate investing and specifically how to get started. If you're not satisfied with your purchase, you can return your book for a full refund within 30 days. . Did you feel, I mean, Im sure you had lots of times where you just wanted to quit or push through. Explorer. This was not like, something that everybodys like, Oh, this is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. . and what what happen if things went wrong. In the early 2000s, Dorkin bought rental property in St. Louis andafter adding up what he could charge for rent and subtracting his expected expensespredicted hed make a tidy profit. Horrifying, scary. And for me in that period, you know, when I realized I wanted to be healthier for example, and by the way, I didnt have to lose weight. Where else can we dive into this? Ill argue that all of that stuff is bullshit. Josh Dorkin: Absolutely. Like, I mean, you wouldnt know the difference between her and any other kid. Press the space key then arrow keys to make a selection. I wasnt, however, happy with what I had spent my time doing. As I sat there trying to relax, things didnt improve and I knew I needed to go in. We all KNOW what we need to do, but more often than not we let our fear of the unkno. BiggerPockets founder Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner from the BiggerPockets Real Estate Investing podcast. Thank you so much, Josh, I want to have you on again. I kind of just glazed over it and just put my head down into work, so I didnt feel depressed anymore. Dan Daugherty: Ah, I love that. Josh talks about what he did to get to a place of happiness and how big changes in his life became catalysts that helped him, his family, and the business grow. Plus, he doesnt own any rental properties outright anymore, simply because BiggerPockets requires too much of his attention. This terrifying situation broke us, but didnt defeat us. She went through something called conversion disorder, which basically the brain kind of shuts the body down. We grew the community. Once I realized this, I instantly knew what I had to do. Oh, and were living on a rock in the middle of the ocean during a pandemic, which means that getting your hands on materials that arent here in Maui, is a game of patience. I need to move more, cool. Just work, keep working, be dynamic, pivot and you know, a lot of luck out there. You know, we were living pretty tight on what we were making, where we were, as you know, Denvers not inexpensive. Josh Dorkin's Blog BiggerPockets Turns 18 Years Old! Along with a team that we put together including physical and occupational therapists, we began to see the wins rack up and by February/March of 2018 she had progressed from her wheelchair to walker to finally walking by herself. All rights reserved. For us, it manifested in my little girl becoming neck down paralized amongst other things. Joshua Dorkin is the author of The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down (4.20 avg rating, 1854 ratings, 108 reviews, published 2. And Im, you know, Im trying to figure out whats next, you know, looking at ideas. Weve climbed mountains, traveled, explored and journeyed, surfed, skied and have never stopped seeking out a full and rich life. Joshua Dorkin is the founder of BiggerPockets, as well as a serial entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, publisher, and educator. Where previously competitors were weary of one another, we helped people learn that coopetition was a better model - one where people could compete AND cooperate for mutual benefit. Dan Daugherty: And you have that almost daily and you have to have that type of growth mindset. Josh Dorkin: Absolutely. Thirteen years ago, Joshua Dorkin's friends teased him about starting a website that seemed to have no future.\r\r \"I would get calls from my buddies who would literally call me on my cell phone [and say] 'Hey Josh, we just walked past a penny on the ground. Because, man 2020, nobody feels good anymore, man, we dont feel good anymore. Theres a lot of, you know, Colorado just, you know, still a lot of chaos. All things Colorado delivered straight to your inbox. The days of building product, building community, marketing, growth hacking and being creative were replaced with days managing people. Fast forward to yesterday, I had some of those symptoms. So we went and we hired an investment bank, I mean, cutting a long story short, Im sure youre going to have a ton of questions and sorry for ranting, but we hired a bank, went through a process, and, you know, six, eight months later, I had an exit to a private equity company, still own a significant piece of the business. Zf|Gy}dN1,2,qY\ s#sK~?>#W]CYq~Z6btV37 g)v3[# kG:_jJ/0Cr[-I\7{\t_LkL,K'4'Mm+"Pd60|q!?jO7S9h,P-WwS/. Find which one works best for you, your resources . All rights reserved. \"I was working a full-time job making no money as a teacher,\" Dorkin says, \" and then [I] quit that job, reliable income, to blindly create this platform for other people. Sarahbeth Maney is a Washington, D.C.-based photojournalist and a photography fellow for The New York Times. Of course, it took many more months of work and ultimately several years for her to get back to 100%, but with time, energy, an amazing team, and unlimited love, she has since fully recovered from the incident. And the platform itself, your business, whatever it is, is not going to be able to blossom. You know, part of my job and one of the things that I pressed upon my staff was, you know, if youre not spending significant time every day learning, youre not going to grow, youre not going to get better, youre not going to be competitive with other people across your area of expertise. And that goes into to do lists. So Ive got a book journal where Ive literally broken my life down into segments, physical fitness, health, I separate them, physical fitness and health, business and work, wife and love, my kids and you know, some people may put faith in there, whatever it is. How do we make a change, change the way we operate the business so that we, so that Googles algorithm changes become less of a significant impact on who we are and what we do? And you know, continue to love Bigger Pockets and love how its impacting peoples lives. I didnt, you know, if there was emergencies, youd deal with it, but like, that was it, that was what that day was about. The company is one that I founded almost 18 years ago and left back in November 2018. Is it all the hustle and grind? Rethinking my decision to leave Wordpress. So, without spending any more money or giving up any of your time (both of which I recommend you do in support of great charities around the world), you can be a philanthropist! You may fail, but at least you will have taken your shot.Good luck! But Im not currently on it. And in order to do that, we were going to have to penny pinch at home because my wife was not working. Startup / real estate investor. All you need to do is go to https://smile.amazon.com/ and youll have the option to select a non-profit of your choice to give to. So I want the opposite. But, you know, Ive written a book before with Brandon on real estate. After about six months since transitioning out of the role of CEO of BiggerPockets to advisor, I thought it was time to kick off my own personal platform, this site. Lets just do it. Given the choice, I decided to pivot and change course. Today, BiggerPockets boasts more than 725,000 members, produces the top-rated real estate podcast on iTunes, and last year raked in $7 million in revenue through advertising, premium memberships, and partnerships with companies like credit-rating agency TransUnion. What you may not know is Joshuas journey in founding, building, scaling, and finally leaving BiggerPockets. It was a blast, but by year 12, 13, 14 my job changed. 4.6 208 Ratings; $11.99; Listen $11.99; Listen . Dan Daugherty: I just might, well, offline, lets catch up, because maybe theres something we can do together. So I know how to do it, I just, I dont know, Im torn. Theres so much. I LOVED the first few years of hiring and scaling. While teaching, I began to build a directory of resources and a forum which were the roots of todays community and platform. But, yeah, no, its been a very, very long journey. Lifes too short, man. ChatGPT disagrees (see image) What say you? What lessons did he learn along the way? You are also, obviously Bigger Pockets continues to grow, still the top everything, the community, the podcast. Denver, Colorado, United States. Stop making excuses and focus on those things as your priority because in an instant it can all be over. If thats the case, figure out what you need to do to change. Right? Have you had additional clarity from just taking a step back? You know, I was in an industry where there were entrenched interests that wanted me destroyed from the get go. I could still make things out, but barely. I mean, nights, weekends, you name it, seven days a week. Denver, CO 80202. the health, for example, instead of like, hey, I need to lose weight. Dan Daugherty: And well, first off, Im so happy that your daughter is healthy now. vMs=+C>xZ_/>iZg>XA~! And so, back in 04 I was living in Los Angeles, I was teaching special ED high school. On October 28, 2015, the couple released a book named "The Book on Managing Rental Properties." Children In May 2016, they welcomed a daughter, named Rosie. Over the months and months that I spent caring for her, I had something I had never previously had in my adult life - time. +(((Bp3G' $('4 )GNh!NA< But I look at the cycle as a multi stage cycle. And my idea, you know, was one where, you know, VCs and angels thought it didnt have a chance. But, you know, I didnt do a lot of that, you know, I didnt want to share my feelings necessarily in those early years, because I thought it was a sign of weakness. Dorkin, 41, won't be hacking houses anytime soon. Josh is also host of the BiggerPockets Podcast (80 million . Yeah. Dan Daugherty: Yeah, theres no shortage of chaos in the startup world and those that cannot adapt to change will inevitably fail and close shop. There had been ups, there had been downs. Accept the New Rules of Life or Suffer in Misery. But just know that theres guys out there like me and Dan and, you know, countless other people whove tried it, whove been through it. So, in 2004, Dorkin launched BiggerPockets, a website for real estate investors to ask and answer each others questionslike a Reddit for property owners. I built at my own pace and designed a business with a mission and values that were important to me. You know, these little things allowed me to continue to work, do my job and stay healthy at the exact same time. But its so easy for us to try and ignore things and hopefully itll go away. It was a hard decision for Joshua to leave, but thanks to his amazing team, he was able to (even during a time of tribulation in his personal life). On show 313 of the BiggerPockets Podcast, we interviewed Jesse Itzler and what most struck me was our conversation about how short and precious life really is. How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started is written by Brandon Turner; Joshua Dorkin and published by BiggerPockets. And you know, the kids can go out and do physical stuff. As Founder and CEO of BiggerPockets, I created the vision and strategy for the business and bootstrapped the company until . I you know, I think another way of saying is, you know, putting yourself in a position to dot dot dot. You know what, Im going to get a fitness watch, and Im going to walk 10,000 steps a day. Proud parenting moment: Tonight while eating dinner, my daughter started to sing Freewill by @rushtheband and followed it up with her rendition of The Trees. I immediately stepped back from the day to day at work and handed charge to my number two at the time, Scott Trench in coordination with Brandon. It was a hard decision for Joshua to leave, but thanks to his amazing team, he was able to (even during a time of tribulation in his personal life . |8{'t o`7p\2K`0rS%O|>. Z|\ ~kqCi\hPmskwJLP5|/(X.T And yeah, so were here. And in that stage, I moved to. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. By the time I exited, we had over 40 full time employees, and around a dozen contractors - close to sixty people working for the business. And after about two years, I quit my job teaching and I went full time. He was wrong. After spending an amazing day with my girls, out of the blue one of my eyes went blurry. JoshuaDorkin.com linktr.ee/jrdorkin Posts Reels Videos Tagged Show More Posts from jrdorkin Dan Daugherty: That is, as you know, I have two little ones of my own and that is, that changes everything, and Im glad that you priorities that over anything else. You know, dont keep doing things that keep you super stressed out. It is my mission to continue to better all of these until my time comes - hopefully when Im much older, but I wont allow myself to let the other nonsense get in the way of that mission. He started BiggerPockets to help democratize the real estate investing landscape for himself and others, aiming to make it . very much oversimplifying it. And I immediately thought of you, because youve bootstrapped Bigger Pockets from I remember your Washington Park house where we met to really a multi-million dollar organization. And really, quite frankly, I did not do a good job of understanding when Im depressed, or who to call, if Im depressed. And, you know, were in a position where we have an opportunity to do something like this, like, do it. Brandon Turner & Joshua Dorkin. In the early years, that was mostly strangers, as most of my friends thought I was nuts, but the coolest part is that today, many of those strangers are my closest friends.Finally, if youre dreaming about starting some crazy idea - whether it be a small business, a startup, a real estate investment, or anything else, I encourage you to take a chance.Life is too short to life without taking some risks.And no one wants to live a life full of regrets.Besides, youll never know if that hobby or idea can become a success if you never give it any real effort. You know, thats, surprisingly a significant boost to your health. But that's OK. Not the way I wanted to spend my Saturday . This keynote speech goes deep into what really matters most. And I realized that I was unhappy. But cool, you know, and you move from drinks to water, you start losing weight. The book teaches readers how to limit spending while increasing income by using techniques like house hacking: buying a multifamily property, such as a duplex, and living in one unit while renting out the other(s).