How He’s Bought And Sold $5 Million Dollars Worth Of Land

Alufe Maye Ahjose: I always knew I wanted to make millions of dollars. I knew I wanted to be a guy that, you know, is worth 9 figures, 10 figures, so on and so forth. And I always remember you saying, you want a path to create a 100 millionaires? I'm gonna be one of those men. I remember, like, thinking that it would be those 20 years old.

I'm gonna be one of those.

Steve Trang: I say on the show five to seven years, you did it faster.

Alufe: Yeah. A wealthy life or a rich life is possible for anyone. If you're in the right vehicle and you apply yourself, you're going to become a millionaire. Whatever you put your mind to in business, in life, whatever it is, you truly can accomplish it if you're in the right vehicle and if you make the iterations and if you're willing to get punched in the face.

Steve: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors. Today we have Alufe Maye Ahjose with Landverse, and Femi flew in from LA to talk about how he's bought and sold $5,000,000 worth of land. Now, guys, I'm on a mission to create a 100 millionaires. The information on this show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years.

You'll take consistent action. You'll become one. And, guys, if you get value out of this show, please hit that subscribe button. That way, we can all grow together. You ready?

Alufe: Yep. Let's go.

Steve: Alright. So first question is, what was your life like right before you got into real estate?

Alufe: I was an athlete. Pure athlete, day and night, training, eating right, dedicated to my craft, in track and field. Yeah. I ran the 100 meter dash and the 200 meter dash. I ended up going to division one, getting a scholarship at Long Beach State Yeah.

And going to college for it. So my my whole life was literally, like, get to the Olympics, become a professional. And then my plan was, like, maybe after my thirties, I'd get into real estate with the with the money that I make from from sport.

Steve: What money?

Alufe: Yeah. Right. Exactly. Right? Maybe 6 figures here, 6 figures there.

Yeah. Maybe. Right?

Steve: Are there sprinters that make money?

Alufe: There are sprinters that make money. Yeah. But, you know, you have to be top of the top. And so that was my goal. My goal is

Steve: Like you're saying Bolt. Yeah. He's doing pretty well.

Alufe: He $3,040,000,000 a year. Is he $3,040,000,000? In his prime. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Really?

Alufe: I think the last year, he made, like, I think, $60,000,000 during 2016. Dang. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: I didn't know this got the sponsors got that high No. They for for Olympic athletes.

Alufe: They get up there when you're at the top 1%.

Steve: Top of the top.

Alufe: So that was my goal, was to be top of the top, top 1%. Yeah. But then I found I found real estate.

Steve: Alright.

Alufe: COVID happened, and I found real estate. So

Steve: What was, if you don't mind me asking, alright, your best 100 meter run?

Alufe: My best, I run a ten sixty.

Steve: Ten sixty?

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. Yeah. So that's ten sixty, that is, gets you onto the Olympic team. Where does where does that? Because I think, like, you're saying it's, like, 97.

Alufe: No. Yeah. So that's you're saying it's nine five eight. So is

Steve: that five eight?

Alufe: Yeah. Nine five eight is the

Steve: world faster.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. Nine five eight is the world record. I'd say probably a ten one gets you there.

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: Gets you, like, two actually to the Olympics. Mhmm. I think at the time, qualifying times were maybe, like, ten three, ten two. Yeah. So, you know, I was right there.

It was just one season, you know, and then but that was all canceled due to COVID. Right. So

Steve: Okay. Yeah. Like, because it's it's fascinating talking about, like, you know, you you saying Bolt makes that kind of money. Like Mhmm. For me, I thought the only way to make money after you're a sprinter is to become a receiver in NFL.

Alufe: Yeah. That was also a plan of mine too, and it's funny. My brother is actually a receiver.

Steve: Oh, really?

Alufe: Yeah. In high school, but he's got, like, 10 different college offers right now, full scholarship.

Steve: Oh, that's cool.

Alufe: Yeah. But I didn't play football in high school. Like

Steve: Well, what was it? Was it it was, like, Bullet or, I can't remember the guy's name exactly. Right? But, like, he he was, like, he he he was in Olympics. He was a a sprinter.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: He came back. He never played football. I know, like, well, we're gonna put a helmet on you. Yeah. Right?

And you just go outrun everybody.

Alufe: Exactly. And then they end up making $1,020,000,000 dollars a year. And then, yeah, There are guys in the Olympic in the on the pro circuit that do make, like, 500 k to a million dollars a year.

Steve: Really?

Alufe: And those guys are probably running, like, I'd say anywhere from nine nine to, like, nine eight. Yeah. But like I said, like, there's probably maybe 25 guys that are doing that. So it's a it's a very small pull, but if you can get there, then, you know, you can get there.

Steve: So How big and this might be a dumb question. Like, how big is that gap from ten six to ten one?

Alufe: It's one good race. It's one good race. Yeah. Honestly, if you're doing the right training, if you're if you're dialed in on diet and everything like that, and even, like, looking back at my training at the time, it's I'm so far removed from track. I'm so much into the business world now, but there were times where I run a 120 meters, and I do eleven nine.

Mhmm. And this was, like, right before the season. So I was, like, I was dialed in. Like, that was

Steve: I was like That was the season of COVID.

Alufe: Exactly. That was the same season of COVID, so I actually never got to run. So, like, sometimes it's still question like, dang. I know I would have had these times. I know I would have done this, but, you know, what I ultimately wanted out of my life was to make a lot of money and provide for my family.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: That's really what I wanted. And I feel like I saw, track as an opportunity to do that because that was a skill that I had. But I realized quickly that I had multiple other skills in just talking to people and being able to deal make and, you know, speaking well and all those things. It's not just not just being an athlete. So

Steve: Gotcha. So you knew real estate was gonna be in your future?

Alufe: I did. Yeah. Because I've seen so many millionaires and billionaires come from it. But I just thought it it would take a lot of money for me to start doing it.

Steve: How did it catch your attention?

Alufe: My dad actually sent me a video, in 2020. Mhmm. I don't even remember this guy's name, but it was like a wholesale video, like a a webinar. And at the time, I remember I had, like so COVID has started, and I was like, I need to make some money. Like, this is not gonna.

My goal was to, like, get a contract with with, a Nike or a Puma or something like that, run fast, do that, but that wasn't happening because COVID happened. And so I was like, I need to make some money. And I had actually started an Amazon store, and I was selling blue light glasses.

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: I didn't know what I was doing. I was, like, watching YouTube videos. I was like, okay. Let me get the I

Steve: mean, those things are trending pretty popular.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. They are now. But at the time, I'd I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn't doing any ads on, like, social media or anything like that.

Just Amazon. I didn't know what I was doing. So I, like, I think I sold, like, maybe 20 pairs of glasses. And I was like, I don't it's I don't I don't get it. Like Yeah.

And I remember my dad had actually sent me a video. It said, hey. You should check out this video. It's about real estate. You know?

This guy is doing this thing with contracts. I'm like, wow. Whatever. I don't know. I I don't and I remember I watched it, though.

It was, like, maybe 2AM. And, like, my eyes were, like, I was, like, what? Like, 15,000, 20,000 at the time. That was, like, that was crazy to me.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: And he's like, oh, I signed this contract here and I do this. And I I'm like, what? Like, what's going on? And then I remember that next two weeks, I was just locked in studying, like, Jerry Norton, Max Maxwell, you know, all these you I was watching your the Real Estate is Realtors podcast, like, religiously. I remember, like, especially this podcast, I'll watch, like, three to four episodes a day.

Steve: Really?

Alufe: Like, yeah. You know, like, that was a time where everyone was watching, like, Netflix all the time. Mhmm. I was watching real estate disruptors, like, every day. And I always remember you saying, like, I'm on a path to create a 100 millionaires.

I'm gonna be one of those. Yeah. I remember, like, thinking that I'll be those 20 years old. I'm gonna be one of those. One day, I'm gonna be on that podcast.

I remember telling myself that. So, yeah, that's how I found it, and then just just dove in on it.

Steve: That's awesome.

Alufe: Yep.

Steve: So are you a millionaire yet?

Alufe: I am. Yeah.

Steve: Oh, so we didn't plan this properly. We should've got a

Alufe: plaque ready. You're gonna

Steve: have to come back.

Alufe: Yeah. You're gonna have to

Steve: come back.

Alufe: I will definitely be back.

Steve: Yeah. So, talk to me about you're you're you're studying. Mhmm. You're all in on this. Mhmm.

What's the first step you take?

Alufe: First step I take? Gosh. I have to remember. Just getting into groups.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: I started getting into a lot of different Facebook groups, connecting, trying to see what kind of courses I should buy Yeah. And then just started taking action. Okay. What markets?

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Where are people buying things? Because I always know like, I always knew, like, if people are buying something in the area Mhmm. Then you're gonna be able to get that deal under contract and sell it to them. As long as there's demand in any market, even with land, as long as there's demand in any market Yeah. You're gonna be able to do a deal.

You're gonna be able to do a deal quickly.

Steve: Alright.

Alufe: So those are the things I started looking at. Okay. Where's the demand? Where are people buying? Yeah.

And that that that's pretty much it.

Steve: So did you buy a course first, or did you buy your first first piece of land first?

Alufe: First so, actually, in 2002 so I wholesale a couple of deals. I ended up building a buyer's list.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And then I kind of went through a stint of time where I kinda got cut out of deals. So what was happening is some acquisitions people that would send me deals, and then I go connect to a buyer, they would go around me and just go to the buyer.

Steve: Yeah. Really?

Alufe: Yeah. That happened, like, a few times. Like, over a course I remember it was a course of a couple weeks where it happened a few times, and I was like, dude. Okay. Like, this is crazy.

It's terrible. Yeah.

Steve: What market were you in?

Alufe: I was in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. Yeah. Gotcha. Those were the three top markets. Is that

Steve: where you lived at the time?

Alufe: No. No. I've always been living in California.

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: But I just saw there was demand there. And, you know, in 2020, things were, like, crazy. Mhmm. Like, 2020, 2021, things interest rates were super low. Mhmm.

Like, that was a crazy time.

Steve: You got hedge funds. Yeah.

Alufe: Yeah. I I kinda sat and I was like, okay. I need a way to have more control over my deals. Right? So it's like I put it out there.

I put it onto the universe, and all of a sudden, I start seeing these videos about land flipping.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And I remember I saw a video, Land Academy. I'll name drop them. Jack and Joe. Mhmm. They were talking about how they bought a parcel for, like, a $100,000 and sold it for $250,000.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And they said that they didn't even use their own money. And I remember watching them being like, you bought it? So you didn't assign it. Like, that that to me was, like, crazy. So you didn't use your own money?

How? So I just started, like, diving in on them. Every every single podcast they had, you know, they they have, like, a it's like a husband and wife podcast. Sometimes they'll talk about different things. Like, they'll talk about, know, vacations or whatever.

But if you sit there and, like, actually listen to what they're talking about, at the time, that was, like, integral information for me.

Steve: It's Jack Bosch?

Alufe: No. Jack. What's his last name? Steven Jack Butala is his name. And then Jill DeWitt.

Those are their names. That's that's who I first learned land flipping from. Okay. So I bought their course. Mhmm.

I think it was, like, $3, something like that. Yeah. I dove in on that, and then I started sending mail. Mhmm. Once I started sending mail, I ended up getting a deal in Minnesota.

I kinda remember the exact numbers on this. It was 15,000 in, and then I was, like, 60 something thousand out. I think total profit on that deal was, like, $40,000. Mhmm. And what's crazy is that deal actually sold in twenty four hours.

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: Yeah. So I remember that, and I was like, woah. Like, this this works. So that's 40,000 net to me. Right?

And I like, after expenses, broker fees, everything like that, I remember, I actually negotiated that deal from $25,000 down to $15,000. Mhmm. And then we listed on the market on the MLS. Within a few hours, it had an offer, like, full price cash offer.

Steve: And I

Alufe: just remember, like, woah. Like, this is crazy. This is nothing like what I had done before. Mhmm. And so, yeah, that started my land flipping journey, really.

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Join the hundreds of others who've come to our live event and dramatically grown their business. Our event is happening soon and is available for you to join only if you're willing to take the pill. So when was this exactly?

Alufe: This was in 2021.

Steve: 2021.

Alufe: Remember exactly what month, but it was in

Steve: 2021. And so how did you find the property?

Alufe: I sent direct mail. So I think we sent out, like, 10,000 mailers at the time, which I think at the time was, like, $4,500.

Steve: Where did the,

Alufe: Deal? Where was it? Where where

Steve: the where what lists were you using or how were you finding

Alufe: Yeah. So with lists, it is different from

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: With land, it's not necessarily, like, absentee owner or things like that. It's more so what the demand is in the area and Yeah. Who's buying what.

Steve: So just ZIP code Blast?

Alufe: Kinda. Something like that. But I go I think this was 14 acres, if I can remember correctly. And so what I did was I did a minimum offer price. And so I did I wanna go, I think, $10,000 or more at the time.

Mhmm. And I wanna go 10 acres or more within these specific areas because I see that properties are selling in this specific area.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: And then I use a system called PRYCD. I've used that for, like, four years now. Mhmm. And you can go in and, like, tell it exactly what you wanted to do as far as minimum offer price, net profit, absentee owner, in county owner, out of state owner, things like that. Mhmm.

And then you can tell it what kinds of what kind of land you want. So whether it's residential, recreational, common land, things like that. You can tell exactly what you wanna wanna tell it. And then from there yeah. That's it.

So I don't know. There's not, like, a specific list that I pull, but it's more like property characteristics.

Steve: Okay. So how are you studying which land you wanna target or which areas you wanna target?

Alufe: Yeah. Based upon sole comparables in the area. So what I'll do is I have a specific, I guess, calculation that I use where it's, like, sold to for sale ratio. So if a sold to for sale ratio is point five or higher, then I'm gonna go into that market and do more research due diligence on what's selling. And then, also, I go based upon what kind of profit that I wanna make.

So if I let's say I go into market and say, you know what? I wanna I wanna do a $100,000 on this deal. Right? Or or with this mail, I wanna make a $100,000. So what I'm gonna go try to do is find deals that I can buy for a 100,000 and sell for $200,000.

Yeah. And what I'm gonna go look at is how quickly deals sold in an area. So if I see that this 25 acres in, Boomcomb County, for example, sold within sixty days, and it sold at $200,000, then I'm gonna dig a little bit deeper into that. Right? And then I'm gonna go and see what this whole to for sale ratio is, and then I'm gonna talk to brokers in the area.

I'm gonna talk to locals in the area. Hey. What's the demand like in this area? Do you have anyone that's interested in buying this property? Do you have, like, this tell me the story behind this property.

So those are the things that I'm always asking. We're we're always asking. Like, what is the story behind this market? What's the story in this area? Yeah.

That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Steve: Okay. And we'll dive we'll dive deeper into that. So, you started off in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: And then you kinda got screwed. So you're what were you how are you finding buyers? How how are they circumventing you?

Alufe: So to to clarify, that was when I was I was wholesaling.

Steve: Right. That's land or properties. Right?

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. It is. Houses. Yeah.

So, I was finding them on Facebook. Mhmm. And I think they just start going on HUDs and just going around me. Mhmm. Like, that's what that's what I figured out later.

They're just going on the HUD, looking at whatever number it was, and calling people. Oh, hey. Yeah. I have this deal, but apparently, you know, he he's not gonna be available to do this or whatever it is and this cut around me. Mhmm.

And that happened, like, it happened a good amount of times. So

Steve: and so you go from that

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Anywhere to land. Do you and then that first one you said that very first deal

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Is knocked out of the park. Yeah. So was there prior to that point Mhmm. Doubts, hesitation, like this whole deal is a scam, this whole wholesaling thing that these guys are just lying to you?

Alufe: No. Because I'd seen the results. Right? And so I knew that if I just stuck to my guns and just kept believing in myself Yeah. That I was gonna make money and I was gonna be successful.

Like, I knew that. Like, you're always gonna have trials and tribulations. You're always gonna have roadblocks. You're always gonna be tripped over and fall down. You're gonna have to get back up.

Steve: Alright.

Alufe: And I've always known that because that's how my life has just been. You have to be resilient. If you're not resilient, good luck. You know?

Steve: Talk to me about that. You said you always experienced that your whole life. Mhmm. Where else have you had adversity that you overcame?

Alufe: Oh, man. Going to school. Like, even school, like, growing up, I went to, like, I think, six different schools. Mhmm. Like, just because we're moving around a lot.

So, like, I went to, I think Canterbury, Windrush, KIPP, Saint Joseph, San Leandro. That's five. So five different schools.

Steve: Before college or before high school?

Alufe: Before college. Before college. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So five different schools. I transferred in high school, transferred in middle school.

Steve: Military, or what was the reason why?

Alufe: No. Different reason. So preschool and kindergarten is obviously Yeah. But I remember middle school, my parents had always made a a point of sending me to private school.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Even if they even if they couldn't afford it, they was they would make a point. Even if I just get a scholarship, they'll make a point to send me to private school. But I remember my school at the time, Windrush, they had bought, like, a $15,000,000 building, and they defaulted on it. They couldn't pay it. And so the school had to close down.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: And so then I end up going to a so this was this is a private school in El Cerrito. So I ended up in I ended up going from the private school in El Cerrito to the public school in West Oakland, like, complete culture soccer. I don't know if you know anything about West Oakland, but I don't

Steve: know anything about West Oakland, but Oakland in general doesn't have the most fantastic reputation.

Alufe: So West Oakland is is East Oakland.

Steve: East Oakland?

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. In my opinion, it is. Yeah.

Steve: Because Oak from from Arizona Mhmm. And Phoenix, Oakland's Oakland. But you're saying you get to Oakland. Yeah. No.

There's different parts of Oakland.

Alufe: Yeah. There are. Because there's some nice parts of Oakland. But West Oakland that. West Oakland is not one of them.

So, yeah, West Oakland in the middle of the hood, but it was a charter school. So but that that culture shock to me was crazy. So, I had to be resilient in that. And, like, how do I adapt to these people that are making fun of me, calling me African booty scratcher and, you know, grabbing my head? I I I would get bullied here and there.

Yeah. This is crazy. Right? But just being resilient through those things and understanding that, like, you know

Steve: Why were they bullying you?

Alufe: It's they're all they all look like me, but I have the different name. So they their names would be I mean, you

Steve: were born here?

Alufe: Yeah. I was born here. But my name was Olofemi. Right. So they would they would, oh, you he's African.

Like, leave him alone. I I don't know. But I I did go through that for the first. I remember sixth grade, I went through that. And then seventh grade, I was like, no more of this.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: You guys are not gonna you know, I I started running track, I think, at around that time. It's on my confidence. I started really getting my confidence because, like, that's something that I'm good at.

Steve: So I actually can't remember if this is TikTok or Instagram reels, whatever. Right? But I was watching this, and they're basically saying, like, Africans, like, don't care for African Americans here whenever they visit

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Because they're treated poorly.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. And it blows my mind that that's a real thing.

Alufe: Yeah. It is. Yeah. But it's crazy because we're all one people. So, like, to me, I don't even think about it like that.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: I'm African American because, obviously, I was born in America.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: My mother's side of the family is from Louisiana, so she's a my my mom is an African American woman.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: My dad actually grew up in England. He went to boarding school in England. So I have a very wide range of just Mhmm. You know, family and history and all these things to where I feel like, you you know, I could talk to anyone and do anything. So I've never really thought about it like I'm a black American or I'm African American.

Yeah. I never really thought about it. I'm just I'm just Olofemi. That's who I am.

Steve: Yeah. That's that's that's bizarre. And then you and I were talking before the show. Right? And I asked you, you know, straight.

Right? Like, you know, I'm not great with filters or, like, being sensitive. Yeah. Right? It's like, hey.

You know, like, Olofeme, like, is this Olofeme, is this, a Nigerian? Because I actually went to graduate school

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: With someone that was Nigerian. And, it was just a very different, conversation.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And he was, like, actually from Nigeria.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And so, like, our conversations were very different. And the other thing too was, you know, you and I talked about, like, the triple package.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Like, there was some, Chinese lady who, had a white husband, but, like, she shared, like, you know, Asian kids in general have the triple package where they're, like, overachievers Yep. Hypercompetitive, and grossly insecure. Yep. Right?

She said that, and, like, everyone's blasting. I was like, you're just trying to, like, push, like, Chinese price. Like, actually, no. It's not that because, like, Jewish kids have it. Mormon kids have it.

Nigerian Yep. Kids have it, and then, Middle Eastern times as well. Mhmm. So I was curious, you know, from your perspective, like, how applicable is that to your to what you're familiar with?

Alufe: It's a 100% the truth. Yeah. We talked about before the show just how important titles are to a lot of these different cultures.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Like, I I specifically said, I could be making $10,000,000 a year, but I don't have the doctor title. I don't have the lawyer title, and they don't care. Like, that's just the truth. Right. And that's very true.

It comes from I remember I I was telling you, I talked to my grandmother about why do you think it's so important that, you know, they're a lawyer, doctor, engineer. She said because, all those three, there's a title. So you can say, oh, my son is a doctor. He's a PhD. Oh, my son is a lawyer.

He's a he he's Esquire. This and that. So my son is engineer. You can say those things, but it does come from insecurity because a lot of the time, you know, our our cultures, we come from being, how do you say this? Like, put at the bottom.

Basically, we come from being put at the bottom, and we're we're the lowest of the low. So we wanna show everyone else that we're not and that we can rise above that. And Yeah. As minorities, we can be, the top of the top. Mhmm.

And so that's I feel like that's where that insecurity comes from.

Steve: Yeah. Even my mom. Right? She asked me. I can't remember when this was.

It was, like, it was less than ten years ago. Mhmm. Right? But she's like, that, she's like, Steve, when you go back and finish your PhD?

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: I'm like, mom, what are you talking about?

Alufe: That's a millionaire.

Steve: Yeah. That ship has sailed. Right. Right

Alufe: Just that. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Steve: Right. But, yeah, that the whole status. So, like, did you see like, would you say that, you were overachiever, hypercompetitive, and then at times insecure?

Alufe: Always. Yeah. Always. And even still now, like, I think a big reason why I'm I no longer have that insecurity is because of my family

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And because of things that honestly, though, I think that a lot of the things that we do come from that, come from wanting to prove things to ourselves.

Steve: Right. I don't

Alufe: think there's anything wrong with being insecure as long as you know how to control it. Yeah.

Steve: As long

Alufe: as you know how how to channel that. As long as you know how to channel that into massive success. And then understanding that your success is not really what makes you. Right? You make you.

Your work ethic makes you. Your your family makes you. The way that your your reputation, the way people see you. Mhmm. But definitely, I've always been overachiever, always been hyper competitive, and people even tell me, I mean, you're, like, relax.

You're very intense. My employees will tell me, like, we don't have to make 10,000,000 today. I'm like, yes. We do. You know?

So I've always been like that. Even in track, working out, I would remember before Olympic year, there were times, my girlfriend at the time, wife now, Jasmine and I, we would go, train, like, four times a day.

Steve: Four. Yeah.

Alufe: Four. I do weights early in the morning. I do another session, another, like, I'd say mobility session Mhmm. In the afternoon. I run, and then I run again.

So I maybe do speed work, and then I do, like, you know, conditioning. And that was every day. Like, that summer, every single day I was training.

Steve: So weights, flexibility Yeah. Sprint Yeah. Or speed Speed. And then endurance.

Alufe: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Every day, for You

Steve: must have looked amazing.

Alufe: I was in shape. I was in I've got some pictures maybe. I was in I was in some good shape at the time. Yeah. But, like, every day, we would just, like, train, grind, and, like, I just want I've always just wanted to be, like, hyper successful just so I can prove to myself, really.

Like, it's not really about proving to anyone else. It's it's just about proving to myself, like, how great I can be. Yeah. Like, one thing I've always thought about is, like, I never wanna be on my deathbed and think, damn. I could've done more.

Mhmm. I never wanna be able to tell my grandkids, like, you know, I messed up. Even though I make mistakes, you make mistakes in life, I never wanna say like, damn, I could've given it more. Mhmm. So every day I try to make sure I give my all to everything that I'm doing.

Yeah.

Steve: And one thing we were talking about before the show as well was the meaning of your name.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Alright. Ol, Olofemi. Yeah. Right? You wanna share with everyone real quick what that means?

Alufe: Yeah. Olofemi means God loves me. Right.

Steve: Yeah. This is a different naming structure. This is not like Steve Yeah. And John.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? God loves me.

Alufe: Mhmm. Can you

Steve: talk about the meaning behind that?

Alufe: So means actually, it means god Mhmm. In Yoruba, in the Yoruba language. Femi means love love me or loves me. To me, just it just means I'm blessed. You know?

I haven't really spoken specifically to my grandmother about why she named me that, but to me, that just means I'm blessed. And then I actually have a lot of different names. So Olofemi, Babatunde, Afa Lauren, Alaeyemi, Olayinka, Ajose. Some of them, I don't know the meaning off top of my head. I used to memorize them, but I do know that Babatunde means father comes back.

Mhmm. I'm actually named after my great grandfather, Olofemi Ajose, who's my grandmother's father.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Right? So that that's just the reincarnation of him, and he was a he was an educator. He was a a very well off man in Nigeria at the time. So, yeah, it's I carry that with honor. I really do carry my name with honor.

Steve: Yeah. And the reason why I I like this convention, right, is that you have high standards. Like, coming out of the womb

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: It's like, you better freaking make it. Like, you're we expect greatness, and God loves you. You've been blessed.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: We expect greatness from you.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: You may probably potentially live in different life decisions Yeah. Than, like, you know, you're just a regular guy.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, even when I I remember being a kid, my dad would, like, throw me up in the air and say, king of king, lord of lord, conquer of conquer. He always said that to me.

And so I just I always carried that. Like, it was always like, Olofemi, I don't know what he's gonna do, but he's gonna do something. And he, like, he's the oldest of all the cousins and all the brothers, like, on on both sides of the family. So everyone looks up to me as the example. So it's always been, like, something I have to do to to, you know, carry the torch.

Steve: Alright. So failure is not an option?

Alufe: No. Never.

Steve: Alright. Never. So talk to me about being a d one athlete. Mhmm. How has that impacted the way you run your business?

Alufe: Honestly, being a d one athlete, I was busier than I am as a as a businessman, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. Because you don't this is these are things that they don't talk about or the things that you don't see.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: But, like, we would have, like, multiple different compliance meetings every week just, like, complying with the NCAA, and we'd be sitting in there for, like, two hours.

Steve: What are you talking about? Like like, don't accept money, don't do drugs. Like, what were we talking about?

Alufe: Stuff like that. Like, title nine, things like that. And there will be times where, honestly, Steve wasn't paying attention. Because it it was like so it was just such a long meeting, and then you have class. It's a full time job.

You got class. You have study hall. You have all these obligations that you have to uphold to before you even run or before you train. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: You have to go to the training room every day. You have to meet with your coach. You have to, like I said, go through your classes, do your homework, study, do your test. All it's a full time job. It really is.

So just like the organization in that schedule, I feel like that's really what's helped me just run my business, honestly.

Steve: So one of the things that we look for Mhmm. In our in our applications. Right? Like like, ideal applicants for our salespeople

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Is college athletes. Because our belief is that if you're a college athlete, you know how to achieve Yeah. Your goals.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And you know how to deal with setbacks and adversity. Yep. Right? And you shouldn't have any kind of confidence challenges. Mhmm.

Right? If you're a d wanna ask. And we even said we kinda joke. Maybe even, like, maybe not d y. Like, maybe d two.

Someone's got even a bigger chip on their shoulder.

Alufe: Like Right.

Steve: I should have been there, and they're still putting in the work.

Alufe: Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So that's the reason I was asking about that. There are two types of salespeople out there. They're the convincers, and they're the sales professionals. For the first nine years of my career, I was the convincer. Convincers are always out there trying to convince people to meet with them and buy from them.

Their strategy is to try to push hard and never take no for an answer. And by focusing on this strategy, they spent a lot of time on cold calling, the next marketing gimmick, features and benefits, how they and their company are the best, following up until the prospect buys or dies. All of this requires time and energy. The problem isn't the model itself. It's that their approach pushes prospects away.

And this is the same exact thing that happened to me before I figured out the close more sales formula. The solution? Sell customers exactly what they want to buy. That's right. I said it.

We sell customers exactly what they want to buy. Because I would rather get an easy sell with with a happy customer instead of a difficult sell from a customer who felt sold. No. Thanks. I did that before, and it sucks.

So here's the deal. I explain everything in the closed more sales course. It's an 11 module course that shows you everything you need to know to close more sales. The best part, you can use this in any industry, not just real estate. So no matter what you're selling and to who you're selling to, this formula will lead to easier sales.

Go to closemoresales.com/salesmasterclass, one word, closemoresales.com/salesmasterclass. So tell me about some of your biggest victories.

Alufe: In life or just in business?

Steve: Both.

Alufe: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I would say, like, just going d one, and and that was a big thing for me. Like, I really wanted to be a division one athlete. That's a that was a big victory for me at the time.

I'd say my biggest, I guess, business victory so far, I wouldn't say this is the biggest, but I did net $250,000 on one land deal.

Steve: Pretty remarkable.

Alufe: Yeah. And so that's something that I always hold, like like, that that was pretty cool.

Steve: That goes on the on the fireplace mantle?

Alufe: Yeah. For sure. Yeah. That deal actually took way longer than it was supposed to, though. It took six months.

It should've took, like, two months. Mhmm. But we priced it wrong. So I priced it at $8,875,000. We were in at $3.50, so I was like, damn, we'll make half $1,000,000 on this deal.

And that's one thing that I always try to make sure I tell my students on my Discord. Don't count phantom profits. Mhmm. I'm sure you tell people that too. Like, phantom profits, they're not real profits until you price it correctly, and it's sold, and money's in your account.

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: So we ended up dropping that price, like, all the way down to 600,000. By the time we did that, it sold, like, within a week. Mhmm. So with mind flipping too is just a lot of stuff about pricing right and pricing aggressively so that your property sells quickly.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: And and, honestly, just my family. That's a that's a big one. I got married at the age of 21 years old to my college sweetheart.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: That's one of my biggest wins because, you know, she she's been everything to me. Honestly, just in supporting me through my goals, my dreams, everything that I've told her, like, the life that I said where I wanna have and Mhmm. Ever since we've been 18 years old, and and those things are starting to come to fruition. It's just beginning, but Mhmm. A lot of those things come into fruition.

So I honestly say, like, you know, out of anything material, you know, those things are really they're cool. They're cool to have. They're cool to talk about, but, like, my biggest thing is my family and and most importantly, my wife.

Steve: That's cool. She was an athlete, you said, as well? Yeah.

Alufe: She was actually, on the cross country team. She ran the 800 and the 1,500. Yeah. We So who

Steve: who wins in the 1,500?

Alufe: Her. Her? Yeah. Sorry. I'd say me with it was just me and her, but she wins.

Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Because it's a different run.

Alufe: Oh, completely. And she's fast. Like, she runs a mile in, like, five minutes or something like that or less, I think. Yeah. And I think if I actually said five minutes, she'd get upset with me.

Yeah. So, yeah, she she's quick.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, that's I'm not fast. Right? Or cardio or whatever. But, like, between the two.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? When I was track and field, this is, like, not even, like, legitimate. Right? This is, like, middle school.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? But, like, I was always they had, like, this event. It was a fun event. It was, like, the strong man runs.

Alufe: Uh-huh.

Steve: And so, like, alright. All you shot putters and discus guys, like, you get to go run.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: So

Alufe: It's a completely different muscle group. Like, between sprinting like, I probably couldn't like, running a mile for me, I can do it, but, like, it's a completely different muscle group. And then the same thing for, like, a long distance runner, they're not gonna be able to run a 100 Mhmm. In a in a certain way that I can run it

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Or I could.

Steve: Well, I know it's a completely different group. That's why I was asking who runs that one.

Alufe: Yeah. Right?

Steve: Because she's the endurance one.

Alufe: Yeah. The 100 I a 100 meters, I'm blown her away. But the 1,500, she's she's she's got me all there. Yeah.

Steve: So you got into real estate in 2020. Mhmm. But you've been doing business since you were 13 years old.

Alufe: Yeah. Actually, I started at my uncle's car wash, washing cars. And I remember, like, I think at that week, I my first week ever making money, I remember this. I'll never forget it. I think I washed, like, 20 something cars that week.

Steve: Mhmm. Right?

Alufe: And this is on my like I said, my uncle's car wash was a family business kinda thing. But I remember at the end of the week, I actually wasn't expecting to get paid. And then they I remember they had, like, a, like, a mobile truck or something like that. And then I hear him through the window. He goes, Olufemi, come here.

And I was like, what? Like, I'm getting ready to leave. And then he hands me an envelope. Mhmm. I opened the envelope.

There's $550 in cash on the envelope.

Steve: For a 13 year old?

Alufe: Yes. Yes. But it's because of his nephew and whatever. And I was I've credit to myself. I was working very, very hard as I was.

But I just remember, like, looking at it and being like, are you serious? Like, at the time, that 550, that was, like, that might as well have been $500,000,000 to me at the time. Yeah. Because I didn't you know, I never earned money before. So I remember that feeling like, god.

This is cool. Like, I I remember I I remember counting the cash, and I called my dad, and I was like, yeah. You know, I just got paid.

Steve: No big deal.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And he was like, yeah.

That's that's like, when you work for something You

Steve: had to look at me differently now.

Alufe: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So that was my first understanding of business. Mhmm.

Just from, like, wow. So he has a business that he can pay me this, and and, like, I wonder how much he's making. So I that's when I started thinking about that kind of stuff. I wonder how much he's making. So how many cars came through here?

Each car was $40. Okay. And I just got paid this. So I wonder how much he made. Like, I started thinking about all that.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: How can we maybe run the car wash better? Mhmm. Right? How how how long does it take you guys to wash your car?

Steve: All the gears are spinning.

Alufe: Every single gear. Every year. So I I became obsessed with it then. But I feel like my thing as I kinda got older, I realized that I was fast, and I realized that I could run track. And I was like, my my original plan, like I said, was just to run track and kinda create businesses through that.

Mhmm. But, you know, no got it.

Steve: So what'd you do with that information?

Alufe: So when I was 15, actually, 15, 16, I started getting into clothing brand, and, like, building my personal brand, like, on or I guess at the time, personal brand on Instagram. I think Yeah. The most I ever had was, like, 12,000 followers at the time. And then, by the time I was a senior in high school, I had a podcast, and I had a clothing brand.

Steve: You had a podcast Yeah. Senior high school.

Alufe: I did. It was called, connecting with FemTime. I think there's still some episodes up there. That's that's what I call myself. It was FemTime, FemTime Fast.

That was everything that I

Steve: was brand? Yeah.

Alufe: That was the brand. Yeah.

Steve: Femme Time.

Alufe: Yep. Femme Time. And I had the first shirt I ever sold, and people still wear it today. It says, I am powerful on it.

Steve: Uh-huh.

Alufe: So gold it's a black shirt. It has gold text on it. And I remember, like, I would just walk around the Bay Area, and I'd see people wearing that shirt. I sold that shirt for, like, $30. It cost me, like, maybe $7 to

Steve: make. Yeah.

Alufe: And so that was my first, like, business experience, like, running my own business. And by the time that I graduated from

Steve: high

Alufe: school, I think I had, like, maybe 12 podcast episodes. Mhmm. But then I went to college, and at the time see, now it's different. Now NIL, they allow you to make money off your name and likeness and brand, everything like that. At the

Steve: time, you couldn't do that. Stop.

Alufe: Yeah. So they they I remember they called me into the office and said, you can't do this anymore. Like, you're making any kind of money from this. We'll suspend you. You're not gonna be able to run.

So I just shut that down. But, I mean, I was selling shirts. I was selling jackets, hats, sweatpants, everything you think about.

Steve: This is crazy to think about in high school.

Alufe: Yeah. In high school. So it's it's crazy now. Like, people do it, and I'm like, you know, not to say I was the first to do it, but, like, I had my own brand, and I it was doing quite well.

Steve: When did you graduate high school?

Alufe: 2018.

Steve: 2018. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's just crazy. Right?

Because, like, I was doing stuff when I was a kid Mhmm. But it wasn't a podcast.

Alufe: Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Steve: And this this this brand thing, like, it it's just it's very fascinating, like, selling shirts and stuff because, like, that's one of the hustles that we see. Like, someone that applies wanna work with us, like, what what have you done? It's like Yeah. So sure. It's like, what do you mean so sure?

Right.

Alufe: Right. And

Steve: you go through the answer. It's like, man, like, they've done something. They actually have a business.

Alufe: Yeah. I it's funny. I actually just took that. I wish I still had it up. I just took that page down, but I remember so I I took that page down, then I turned it into the Land Verse page.

So I used the same following. It just turned into my Land Verse page. But I remember I filmed an advertisement, with one of my closest friends, and it was like, you know, I'm powerful. I can do anything I put my mind to. I'll be the greatest of all time and all these things.

I'm just, like, looking at it, like, wow. Like, you had the mentality at 17. Mhmm. And then I'm I'm promoting the I had a quarter zip. It was a great quarter zip.

What? A quarter zip. You know, like, a athletic kind of

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: Thing. So I was promoting that. And that advertisement, I think, ended up being, like, 28, 30,000 views.

Steve: Mhmm. I

Alufe: sold a bunch of those quarter zips. Mhmm. So, yeah, at a young age, I was always, like, entrepreneurial minded trying to get into business, trying to, you know, because I knew that was the only like, I always knew I wanted to make millions of dollars. I knew I wanted to be a guy that, you know, is worth 9 figures, 10 figures, so on and so forth. And so I knew the only way to do that was was through business.

Alright. So

Steve: No. That's that that is incredible. So, you dove head first into land flipping. So we talked about the first one. Okay.

So going back to the story then. Yeah. You were, you you were doing direct mail

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And you're looking at you were saying a sold to list of 0.5.

Alufe: Sold to for sale ratio. Yeah. Yeah. So, basically, sold to list, yeah, of 0.5.

Steve: What's the what's the significance of 0.5?

Alufe: I'm very visual, so I'd have to actually show you. But 0.5, basically, it means that at least half of those in that area have sold to the point where you're gonna be able to have properties that sell on the market. Right?

Steve: Okay. So you're looking at, like, the, so not a price, but, like, a a supply. Right? If I if there's a 100 pieces of land in this area, 50 of them are sold.

Alufe: Yeah. It's supply and demand, basically. So, like, I always look at demand first. Mhmm. Like, what is the demand in this area?

Who's making offers? What's pending? What's

Steve: sold? Wanna know if I'm in this area that people are buying?

Alufe: Exactly. Yeah. I don't wanna be in an area where you have it. That's the worst thing. It's to be in an area where you have inventory

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And nobody wants to buy it. Mhmm. So you gotta know, like, okay. Who's buying what and how quickly is it moving?

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: What kind of property is it? How many acres is it? What does the marketing look like? What does the average marketing is that if the marketing is trash, this is the best kind of market. If the marketing sucks and the properties are still selling fast, which is like, that used to be a lot more, common in that in that day.

But now so many people are doing this, so the marketing is good Mhmm. And the areas are good. So you have to really look.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: But also, I just look for quality assets. Like, when you find, like, really good quality rural recreational assets, I'd say 10 acres or more, you're in at, like, $5,060,000 dollars, and you're selling for double. Mhmm. You're gonna be able to make a business out of that consistently.

Steve: So, you know, we had, Jack Boss here a couple of times.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? We have Ray Jang here. You were mentioning, the Land Academy. Right? Yeah.

And then we've had other guys like Brent, Bowers. Right? Like, there's a lot of guys teaching land. Have you felt like the land market is getting saturated in any way?

Alufe: No. Only because there's so many parcels all across the country. I mean, you got, like, what, 50 or 60,000,000 parcels all across the country.

Steve: Yeah. You could do a

Alufe: 100 deals. I could do a 100 deals, and there's still millions more deals to do. Right. Well, you and I could both walk away from the table and make $1,020,000,000 dollars, and there's still millions of dollars worth of deals to still do. Yeah.

So I really don't think about it like that. It's like, people ask me that, oh, do you think it'll be saturated? Then I think, like, well, is is the is law ever gonna get saturated, or is the medical field ever gonna get saturated? I I don't think like that. You know?

It's really an abundance mindset when it comes to it. I think that there are gonna be different ways that you have to iterate over time because more people are gonna try to do things like double close and try to do the same strategies and things like that. But I also think that, like, there's so many deals out there to do that it's, like, it's impossible for it to get saturated and for you not to make $6.07 figures a year with the with the business model.

Steve: And then is your exit so what we see quite a bit is, or we see some of the land guys. Right? You buy it Mhmm. And then you sell it on terms so that you can get recurring revenue.

Alufe: I've never done that. I always I like cash. I, actually, no. Correct. Correction.

I've done that one time on a 680 acre parcel in New Mexico. I think we collect, like, $1,200 a month from that. Mhmm. But that's the only thing I've ever done like that. Everything else has been cash.

Okay. Just because I like I like quick cash. I like to sell quickly and just be done with it and move on to the next one.

Steve: Okay. So this might be a dumb question. Right. So how are you, what are you doing to lock up the land that you can turn around and list it to sell for cash?

Alufe: I'm buying it at 30 to 50 percent below the market

Steve: value. Right.

Alufe: Yeah. Based upon comparables.

Steve: But you're not marketing to distressed owners. You're marketing to land owners that maybe have the stress. Yeah. Is that what it is?

Alufe: Basically. Yeah. And you so I've sent out over half a million mailers. So I spent around $250,000 on just mail

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: In the past few years. But you're marketing to the asset. Right? Right. So in the in the asset, you always have situations come back to where it's like, hey.

You know? I'll give you an example. I bought a property for $40,000 in Colorado. I sold it for a $160,000. It took two months.

Mhmm. The guy that I bought this from, he had never seen the property. It was in a trust fund. Right? He had never seen it.

So his wife called. She was like, hey. You know, I got this offer. I don't know what this is, but, we're interested in selling it. You can pay $40,000?

Yes. I can. Okay. It was that simple.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Right? And so the more mail you send, the more marketing you send out, you end up getting yourself into more situations like that.

Steve: You have what sounds like more grand slam opportunities.

Alufe: Oh, yeah.

Steve: We're not talking about singles and doubles.

Alufe: No. Yeah. These are these are life changing deals that I've been able to do.

Steve: So you sent out enough mail Mhmm. To the right areas, and the areas we're defining are places that, have at least 50% list of sold ratio. Yeah. You send out enough.

Alufe: Mhmm. You're gonna

Steve: have to go, like, yeah. If you can pay this, I'm good.

Alufe: Exactly. But there are times I I don't wanna make it seem, like, too easy because sometimes you do have to deal make you have to work the deal a lot more. You have to be able to negotiate. You have to follow-up with them. There's still all the standard processes that go into making the deal happen.

But the more mail you send, like I said, the more opportunities you're gonna have Yeah. Always. Or just whatever marketing channel you choose. Mhmm. But I like direct mail.

That's what I've become a master at.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, it seems like a lot of the the land guys like direct mail.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Do you like to send postcards? Do you like to send letters? Do you like to send offers? Like, we've seen we've seen oh, what do you what's your preferred?

Alufe: So the most I've ever done is a two page letter. First page explains who we are and what we do. So it explains the company, where we're from, how many deals we've done, things like that. And the second page will actually have a offer letter. Mhmm.

Right? So it'll have a offer letter and a purchase agreement on there. So it's always been an option for people to sign the offer letter and send it back. What's crazy is I've made multiple 6 figures just on people signing it, sending it back, and I haven't even heard from them.

Steve: Mhmm. Right?

Alufe: I remember one specific

Steve: crazy when that happened.

Alufe: One specifically in Maryland, I made, I think, $80,000. It was in Maryland. It was a six acre parcel in Maryland, and, they signed it, sent it back, and we listed the property and it sold.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Obviously, there's some things we had to do. Title, you had to clear title. You gotta go through all those things. But I remember just, like, I didn't even talk to this guy.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: Right? So that's been the most. Lately, I've been split testing with a check. Mhmm. So, it's a one page.

It just has a check on it. So when you get it, you think that, oh, is this a check for $40,000 or whatever it is? It's addressed to you, so you end up opening it. And that actually increases your open rate. So since there's been so much more mail going out and more people are doing this, I try to split test between a lot of different things.

Yeah. And try to how do I especially for the asset type, how do I create a higher open rate, for a specific kind of seller profile? Right? How do I do that? Because the the sellers that I'm going after now, these are sellers where I'm trying to make a $150,000 or more on one deal.

And so the profile of that seller is gonna be very different from the profile of the one that's making 20 or that I'm making 20 or $30,000 on the deal. Right. Right? And I don't I mean, I heard you say this before. I've heard this on the podcast.

The big deal is actually sometimes a lot easier to do than the small deal. Mhmm. So I allocate a lot of my time, energy, and resources to just doing the bigger deals

Steve: Right.

Alufe: And making sure that I'm allocating the resources and putting in the time to increase the open rates and increase the things that are gonna make those kinds of people respond and respond well to my marketing.

Steve: Gotcha. So are you then doing, you're you're you're you're doing this as far as, like, sending mail and doing land and selling for cash on on market and so on. Mhmm. One of the things that seems to be really, popular, I wanna say in the last twelve months, way more, like, prior to the last twelve months, I didn't I don't think I heard him for over ten years, is entitlements.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Are you in that space as well?

Alufe: Minor subdivides. So there's actually one deal I'm working on right now. It's a minor subdivide. It's a 121 acres.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And at $400,000, I think exit could be $9.50 to a million dollars. Yeah. But that's a much longer process.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: I really like to do the flips where I'm buying for a 150. It's only for 300. Yeah. And just the only thing I'm doing is maybe clearing a road or, you know, I'm just really good marketing. Mhmm.

And sometimes, like I said, like, the more mail you send, the more opportunities you get. Yeah. So there's a lot of times where it's literally, like, you're buying it for undervalued because this person has a situation where they need to sell it quickly or they just need to sell it, or they're tired of the property. So I'm much more like those situations, just because I feel like that's that's scalable, and I understand that a lot more. Yeah.

Like, the seller financing model, I like it, but I much prefer to just net a $150 in my account.

Steve: I mean, a $150 is pretty good too.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Steve: What's your team like?

Alufe: So right now, I have one VA, and I have two interns. So I have a VA that basically runs operations, so, due diligence, everything like that. And then I have two interns that do sales, like, on the phone, acquisitions, things like that. So it was a very lean team.

Steve: Outbound or inbound?

Alufe: Inbound. Yeah. So so I guess it's they'll so I'll explain the funnel. So when we send out mail, we actually get calls back from sellers. Mhmm.

Right? So, technically, it is It's just inbound. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But they're they're cold calling them back. Mhmm. Like, so what I have is an answering service. Right? So, like, PetLife.

I have an answering service that answers the phone. Oh, you don't like PetLife?

Steve: Using PetLife?

Alufe: Yeah. I am using PetLife. I I've been thinking about actually switching over to something else. Should I? Yeah.

Okay. Have

Steve: you called it? Have you called them?

Alufe: I haven't. I haven't, but I've I've been thinking about it. Yeah. Because sometimes I've had to do a lot of iteration with MATLAB over the years. And it's it's solid now, but at first, you know, you get something, like, hello.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, what what is this? Like, this is a these leads are, like, $10,000 a lead. Like, this is expensive.

Steve: Yeah. We've had, not it's not it's not been my own personal experience. I've been Pat Live watching this. I'm sorry. Right?

It's not it's not my own personal experience, but I've had a lot of colleagues that hired and fired PetLife. Right?

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And it's it's not really PetLife's fault. Mhmm. It's, are they American overseas?

Alufe: American.

Steve: American. Yeah. So in my own experience with American call centers, right, and it sucks for Americans, But my experience with American call centers, like, you're making $810 an hour. Like Yeah. How much do you care Right.

About the quality of work you do?

Alufe: Right. Right?

Steve: And if you care, you're gonna move up or you're gonna get become cancerous like the rest of your colleagues when you move down. I don't know. Right? So, like, yeah, the I'm not saying go to VAs because VAs, they'll work harder

Alufe: Right.

Steve: But they might not have the same finality Yeah. Same culture, this and that. Right. Yeah. You might be leaving somebody on the table at PetLife.

Alufe: The only thing I like about PetLife is just the fact that it could be Christmas day and they'll answer the phone. Yeah. And the only thing I have them do is just the the intake form. So I have PetLife do the intake. Well, that's still the first.

You're, like, don't even do that. Yeah.

Steve: Like, I'm this I'm this person. Right? I'm old, 70. I get this something in the mail, and I call it. I got someone that's, like, barely giving me a time of day.

I don't know. Like and, again, it's not I don't think it's it's not indicative of the company. It's indicative of the kind of people you can attract

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: For the company. Right? Like Very true. I worked at a call center

Alufe: right

Steve: right after I graduated high school.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: I was 18 years old. I work and when I worked there, like, it's not they weren't bad people.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: But they weren't great people either.

Alufe: Yeah. No. It's hit or miss. And luckily, like like I said, we've I've had the account for so long now Yeah. That, like, usually, it's a hit.

But I'm always analyzing and trying to figure out, okay. How are you guys on the phone? What's going on here? And the good thing is that they they're good about it when a call goes wrong.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: But the thing is, like, that call that went wrong could've just cost me $50.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: So it's like, even though you're gonna fire them, it's like, you know, so I have been looking into other alternatives.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: With VAs, though, you'd you have to have them on call, like, pretty much $24.07

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Because I don't ever wanna get it. And that's no problem. But I don't ever wanna get a call, and then we just don't pick it up.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: So is that what you do? You have them on just on call?

Steve: So we've gone a few different directions. Mhmm. Right? So we've had, we've had a call center in that call center or whatever, you know, that that that receives the calls. We've had it a route just between all the acquisition managers and lead managers.

I think that's where we had the most success. It's just, like, if they call in, it just ring everyone's phones.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And whoever answers it, that's their lead.

Alufe: Right. So are your people is it intake manager to acquisitions manager to or is the person that answered the phone, are they able to close to?

Steve: So when we had acquisition managers there, they could I mean, they weren't generally buying it over the phone. Like, they would still book an appointment. But, the theory is that if you call me and I'm a closer, I should be able to give you the confidence on that phone that when we meet tomorrow, your problem's solved.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Whereas with lead manager, someone's younger, they they might not be able to convey that same confidence because they're not as confident.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Like, they don't know. So, like, they can act confident, but they don't know. Right? And, like, people can sense the energy.

Alufe: Yeah. 100%. Right. I've seen that, at least you mentioned appointments. Appointments skyrockets your sales Mhmm.

Like, 100%.

Steve: Like, if

Alufe: you're just trying if if it's not official, if it's not like, okay. Book an appointment at this specific time with the senior managing partner or whatever it is, it doesn't quite quite close the same. Because then even in the in the seller's mind, they're like, oh, an appointment. Okay. So this is a real company.

This is a legitimate company. A lot of the time you have sellers that are skeptical

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Of you. They're like, oh, is this a scam? Are you really gonna give me $50,000? And so the biggest thing in, like, acquisitions especially is making them feel comfortable.

Steve: Mhmm. Yeah.

Alufe: I don't really try to sell any of these people, like, super hard. Mhmm. I just make them feel really comfortable with the fact that I'm gonna perform when it comes time to close. Exactly. Whatever price I told you, whatever price we agreed to, I'm going to perform on that, and we're going to close when it comes time to close.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: And if you can instill that confidence and that trust in your sellers, you'll become a millionaire from this game. Exactly. 100%. Yeah.

Steve: So that's why I was like, when you said Pat Live, I kinda made a weird face.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So okay. Alright. So Pat Live intake call. Mhmm. And then what does what what else does the rest of your organization look like?

So you had, you know, two interns Yeah. PetLife, VA.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: That's it.

Alufe: Yeah. That's it. To sell properties, we use local brokers.

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: Right? So we use local brokers and realtors in the area based upon their sole comparables Yeah. Based upon their marketing, based upon their experience. And I try to make sure that I use land specific brokers and realtors. A lot of people, when they get into this game, they try to use people that are not land specific and that I mean, you It's

Steve: a different breed.

Alufe: It's a completely different breed because you need someone that's like, okay. Actually, yeah, I sold the 15 acres down the street. So I know exactly how to market this. And, actually, I have, Jimmy who lives a few blocks away. He wants to buy this property.

Mhmm. Like that, you need the local land brokers and the people that are gonna go boots on the ground. A big thing too is I always make sure we have, we do drone shots. Mhmm.

Steve: And

Alufe: I always make sure that the people walk the property.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And I'll tell you a story. I almost lost, I think, like, $70 one time because I thought we were gonna buy a property, sell it for a bunch of money, and then the woman end up the agent end up actually going out to it. This is a property in a subdivision. All the houses in the area were, like, $34,000,000. And there's one parcel sitting like, one odd parcel sitting out.

And, like, I was like, this is gonna make us a lot of money. This is gonna be great. She walked out to the parcel, and, like, it was flat. And then right where, you know, you'd build a house, it just sloped. Mhmm.

And so it's very important to make sure you have people actually go out to the property. Don't just look at the topography map. Like, have someone walk it. I had another one in Georgia. I actually was gonna close that day.

The agent ended up going out that day. She said, you know, there's trash and things burned and buried all over this property, and there's environmental protection agency violations and all these things on it. You gotta make sure you walk to your properties. You have to because that's not a problem I really wanna deal with. Right?

Steve: Right.

Alufe: I have to always think of myself as the end buyer. Like, what is the end buyer going to buy? Are they gonna buy something that's, you know, covered in flood plains, environmental protection, trash over the property? Mhmm. Like, you wanna sell quality assets.

Yeah. So that's that's pretty much my process.

Steve: And then you mentioned sometime like, sometimes you might have to clear a road.

Alufe: Yeah. What? So I've done that a couple of times. I did that on the parcel I mentioned in Sonoma County that I made $250 off of. Mhmm.

We took an excavator out there and cleared it. There was a gate. So we cleared all the bushes, shrubbery, and trees from the gate, all the way down the path line to the actual property itself. That property was 40 acres, and then I did that in Virginia. I cleared a pathway because it was grown overgrown.

That adds value to the property.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: You have to you have to add quality, add attributes to the property so that, you know, buyers are more interested in it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: So, yeah, I've cleared properties a few times. That's the most I've really ever done. I'll do perk tests if if necessary, but now I just really have the buyers carry the the perk test.

Steve: Elaborate what the perk test is.

Alufe: Perk test is just basically to see if a property can hold sewer septic Mhmm. Sewer septic tank. Yeah.

Steve: Gotcha. And then it sounds like you're doing this nationwide.

Alufe: Yeah. I've done deals on 40 different states across the country.

Steve: 40? Yeah. Yeah. So go back it goes back to one of my first questions. How are you picking what areas you wanna do land in?

Alufe: Like I said, just, like, what's selling? Like, that's the biggest thing. It's, like, I need to figure out what

Steve: Is there a tool to find, like, where, where land is most popular?

Alufe: I always start in the South and the Midwest. Mhmm. That's where I start. Because I know that things like, that's where I've always done. And you wanna go rural recreational land.

So any beginners, all of my students always tell them, you wanna go rural recreational land, 10 acres or more. Mhmm. You can make a whole business out of just that, because people are always gonna be buying that kind of property, especially in the South.

Steve: Elaborate what rural recreational land is.

Alufe: Rural recreational land is primarily hunting land or ATV, just recreational land for, like, recreational activities.

Steve: Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. I got a lot of friends who love to hunt.

Alufe: Yeah. See, there's demand for that. Like, people love to hunt. People will always love to hunt. It's it's a pastime.

So that'll go on for hundreds of years.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: You're always gonna be able to sell that kind of property.

Steve: Okay. Yeah. So that's the, that's the first thing you're looking for.

Alufe: And you

Steve: said you always start at South you're you're 30 soon as South and Southeast or, Midwest.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: But, like, so, you know, there's for us, you know, in the house buying side. Right? You got, like, this is the city I live in. And so, like, you know, I'm just gonna pull a list, Audantic, PropStream, InvestorLift, not InvestorLift, Investor Machine, 8020. Like, there's all these different

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Lists we pull. Right?

Alufe: And we're

Steve: like, okay. I want person that's got this level of distress or this person has got this, this, and this going on in their lives. Right? So, like, the process, right, for, like, looking at, a city

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Or, you know, you got someone like RJ Bates, our friend. Right? He just like, I don't care where it is in the country. If they watched a YouTube video and they clicked on the ad and said, I want to sell my house

Alufe: Right.

Steve: That's a lead.

Alufe: Right. Yep.

Steve: Right? And that's, like, the opposite end. Right? So we go one is a hyper focused machine learning.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: One is like, I don't care where you are.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: I wanna buy your I wanna buy your property. Right. Do you have a process that, you you know, you have, like, your students, you start off like, okay. Right. Like, either use this tool Yeah.

Or, like, proximity to where you live.

Alufe: Yep. So what I always do so like I said, I have multiple different strategies. Alright. But the easiest one is I always start on I'm a take you through the process. I start on Whitetail Properties website, actually.

Whitetail? Whitetail. And Whitetail is a very large brokerage for specifically rural recreational properties.

Steve: Okay.

Alufe: So I look to see what is pending and sold in those specific areas and in specific states, and I look to see, like, hot spots. So, like, where can I find a lot of red and a lot of yellow? Yellow is pending. Sold is red. Okay.

And so where can I find those things? And I kinda zoom in, look at the counties, and I love that website specifically because it shows you where counties are. Mhmm. I'll identify hotspots. I'll see how quickly they sold.

I'll see how quickly they went pending, and then I'll take that same information, that same county. I'll take it over to Redfin, Zillow, realtor.com.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And then I'll I'll look even closer. Okay. What kind of marketing is in this? How long does this property take to sell? Let me call a few brokers.

My team does this now, but I'm just this is the process. Let me call a few brokers, and now I'm gonna take this county and put it into priced.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: From that, I put it into priced. And then

Steve: I spell priced.

Alufe: P r y c d. Okay. Yeah. I have an affiliate code for that too. So if anyone wants to use that

Steve: Alright. I'll put that in the in the show notes. Send it to me. We'll put it in

Alufe: the show notes. Definitely. So, yeah, I put it in the price. And then from there, it's like I always go 10 acres or more. Mhmm.

And this really depends on the market. Usually, I go 10 acres or more, minimum purchase price anywhere from 30 to $40,000. And then I will do nothing that has sold within the last four years, or nothing sorry. Nothing that is for sale within the last four years. Like, nothing is that's gone up for sale, just so I don't get anything that's currently for sale right now in the dataset.

I will scrub out open space and common land. I'll scrub out, wildlife refuge. I'll scrub out anything like with wetlands, floodplains, anything like that before I pull the list. And then you on price, you can actually just kinda pick your acreages Mhmm. And what you're offering.

And the price actually allows you to offer anywhere from, you know, like, 30 to 50% of the market value, which sometimes it can be a little bit off. Mhmm. One thing that's very important, I only price based upon what's sold. Some people price based upon what's for sale and was sold. You can't do that.

The market yeah. The market has not decided what this property is worth. Yeah. So you you have to go based on what's sold only.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And then even from there, after after, you know, you download the dataset, I even look a little more closely and see, okay. Is this priced correctly? A lot of people get really, like, nuanced on their pricing. Mhmm. But what really matters is acquisitions.

I think if you're in the ballpark and you get on the phone, you're able to deal make, you're still gonna be able to do your do your deals Yeah. Like, consistently. Like, talking to the seller and explain to them what you do and what the value that you add Mhmm. That's a lot more important to me than, like, making sure that you like, I get this perfect price. Because, ultimately, like, we're offering 30 to 50% of the market value anyways.

Yeah. So it's like, you know, you're not gonna if they want the market value, they're not gonna accept your offer. Right? So we're looking for people that are in specific situations that need to sell their properties. Now.

Right. Exactly.

Steve: Yeah. And so the mechanism. Right? So you got this list from YTel. Yep.

Which platform are you using to go print everything?

Alufe: To take to get the actual dataset?

Steve: To actually send the mail to them.

Alufe: Oh, okay. So, PostcardMania. That's what I use.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Yeah. So I've sent out over half a million mailers with PostcardMania Mhmm. In the last few years. That's what I use.

Steve: PostcardMania. I'm I'm not familiar with them. Yeah.

Alufe: They're they're great. You get an account manager. You get they do your mail merge for you. They literally do everything for you. Yeah.

You get to approve it. You just give them your dataset. They do the mail merge. You give them your your template. They even have their own templates that you can test out too.

Yeah. So they're great.

Steve: That's pretty cool. You spent countless weeks going back and forth with the homeowner only to lose a deal because the seller changed their mind, another wholesaler made an unreasonable offer, or what the seller needs from the sale, you just can't pay. Now imagine you've got the ultimate control on a property that you just locked up, meaning you're on title and every decision has to go through you, eliminating virtually every external threat. That's why the installment method was created. Through installment payments, you have full control of the property as your name is now on the title.

Any decision the seller wants to make now has to be approved by you. No longer can they pull out equity, go with another buyer, or change their mind. Imagine combining the best creative financing with the flexibility of marketing the property on the MLS to collect the most amount of revenue possible, all while having total control of the property.

Alufe: This is

Steve: just a tip of the iceberg. The concept here is simple, but implementing is challenging. So visit wholesale2024.com to learn more so that you'll never have another deal blow up. Alright. So you send them out.

Sometimes you just get a signed contract back. Mhmm. Sometimes they call you Mhmm. And say, yeah. You'll pay this price.

I'm good. Sometimes you negotiate. Mhmm. From there

Alufe: Sometimes they say f off. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Whatever. It's we're

Alufe: we're in

Steve: the real estate business.

Alufe: Part of the game. Yeah.

Steve: So your preferred strategy is always MLS.

Alufe: Yeah. To to find sole comparables. Yeah. Yeah. Or to to sell the property.

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

Steve: So then are you buying these properties cash?

Alufe: Yes. Okay. You never bought on terms or financing. Okay. Always cash.

Steve: So you always bought cash?

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Is this hard money, private money?

Alufe: Yeah. So at first so in the land flipping industry, we actually have, like, JV funders. You can just go find a a money partner to do deals with. Now I actually am a money partner, so I do fund other people's deals.

Steve: That's the dream. Right?

Alufe: Yeah. It it's crazy. Like, there was a stint of time where I was doing deals, like, 8020, and then I started getting stuff for 9010. I was like, let me just start funding my own stuff. Mhmm.

And so I started doing that. And then you're able to cut out way more out of the pie for yourself. Right?

Steve: Right.

Alufe: But usually in the industry, it's standard, like, you know, you start at $70.30. Usually

Steve: $30.30. They fund it, and then they keep 30%.

Alufe: Yeah. Exactly. It used to be fifty fifty, but,

Steve: That's not gonna last.

Alufe: No. It's not gonna last. So it went to $70.30. If you're a really good operator, you can get $80.20 or even $90.10. I have yet to give someone $90.10 yet.

Mhmm. A lot of my operators are are newer. But as time goes on, I'll definitely start giving them those kinds of terms because Yeah. The returns on this on land Mhmm. Is insane if you're buying right.

Right? Like, you're talking about you're making a $152,100,000 dollars within sixty to ninety days on one one deal. Right?

Steve: So I got a deal locked up. Right? I call up my friend, Femi. Right? And I said, hey.

I got this piece of property. Here here are the sole comps that, you know, we can verify as accurate.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: I've got this at 50 percent.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: You'll fund my 50% at a 100%. Yep. And then you just want 30%.

Alufe: Exactly. Based upon time, though. Mhmm. So let's say that the deal takes six months to sell, then we have it stacked in our contract that there's a there's a JV contract between the two of us. Right?

So it maybe says, okay. If you can sell within thirty days, we get it at $70.30. If you sell it within sixty days, it's, $60.40. If it's longer than sixty days, it'll be $50.50.

Steve: Gotcha.

Alufe: If it goes past a hundred and twenty days, then the capital stack starts to go my way. Mhmm. So it really is speed. Like, I want my things to sell as quickly as possible.

Steve: You wanna price it

Alufe: right? Of course. You have to price it right, and you have to price it aggressively.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So define aggressive.

Alufe: Usually, I'm pricing any anywhere, like, 80% of the actual market value based upon comps.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: So let's say if if things are at $200,000, I wanna price mine at anywhere from 170 to a $180,000 on the market. I want buyers to look at it and be like, woah. This is different. I need to hop on this. Right?

I wanna create the demand. So I I'm always going a little bit under what, like, top of the top market value is, and that always, creates a lot of value in it.

Steve: Getting in and out. Particularly with your your borrowing, it sounds like you're incentivized

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: To move it fast.

Alufe: Of course. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. But, yeah, I've always been in the mindset of getting in and getting out. And, like, I've had people I mean, when I've listed for investors in the past, I was like, why are you guys, like, trying to get the most out of this? Right? But for me, like, I think, you know, a lot of investors would probably enjoy listing my properties because my rule is, like, we wanna price it what I think we can sell for Mhmm.

And just drop a 5 k every two weeks. Don't even call me. Yeah. Right? Just drop a 5 k do two.

Every two weeks until it sells.

Alufe: Yep.

Steve: Don't call me for permission. Don't call me for updates unless there's something I need to know. Right.

Alufe: Unless I need to sign a contract to sell. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Steve: Or even I don't even wanna sign the contract. Like, when I have my team doing it, it's, like, just

Alufe: Right.

Steve: Just sign for me. Right.

Alufe: Yeah. No. Speed of cash is way more important to me than, like, maximizing every profit on every deal. Yeah. And then you can end up sitting on, like, a 100 properties because you're, like, like I said, counting on those phantom profits that you're not gonna get if you don't price it right.

Steve: So what are some of the challenges you've had building your business?

Alufe: Hiring. That's been the biggest thing. Like, I think last year, I went through a bunch of different acquisitions managers just training them. Remember specifically one guy I trained. I was so excited about this guy.

I found him in Mexico.

Steve: That's the worst. Right? When you're, like, so high on somebody. Oh, man. This is like a first round lottery pick.

Alufe: Yes. Like, literally, like, LeBron James. That's how I felt about this guy.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: And we were on a call one day, and then he he was on I was paying him, like, a thousand bucks a month, and then I was giving him commissions. But then one time he like, I was just training him. We're going through his calls, and then he said, yeah, boss. You know, the only thing I want you to tell me is when my commission check's coming in. But he hadn't closed it.

It was, like, maybe a week or two in. Right? And then I was like, you know, that'll come. Like, you know, it was just gotta go through the process or whatever, and then he left the chat. He left.

I never heard from him again. And so I just like that that's that's been my kinda story with hiring. It's just like, you gotta kinda go through those stories. You gotta go through those things in order to hire people that are gonna be, you know, on your team really, like, for the vision, for the culture of of your business.

Steve: We hired someone last year. Mhmm. Middle of last year. And I wanna say his name was, like I shouldn't say it because he's unique enough, he will know. Right.

But, like, my team were like, okay. This guy's got it. Yeah. Right? He's got the right background, the right skill set.

Like, he's been trained by names we recognize in the industry. Mhmm. Right? Like, not it's not our training program, but, like, it's it'll work. Right.

And then we'll add our flavor to it.

Alufe: Right. Exactly.

Steve: Right?

Alufe: Our pizzazz. Yeah.

Steve: And then he's like, yeah. Like, I don't have to be at meetings. I was like and we're like, what do you mean? They're like, I'm a ten ninety nine. I pick my own hours.

Alufe: Oh, jeez.

Steve: And we were like, factually correct.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: And I can argue with you on that.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: Ten ninety nine. Yes. You do get to pick your hours.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: Well, if you're not in the meetings, what are we doing here?

Alufe: Right. You're not gonna know what's going on.

Steve: Yeah. So yeah. We're and and so, like, yeah. When you quit, he submitted his letter. He was like, yeah.

Like, I just didn't like the way you guys are trying to, like, be forceful and, like, I'm I'm an independent contractor.

Alufe: What position was he? Salesperson. Yeah. It's always them. That's a specific specific characteristic type is just the ego and the salespeople is, like, so difficult to manage.

Yeah. If you're not dealing with the right people, like, they think that they're, like, the sniper. Mhmm. Right? Because, I mean, they are.

They they

Steve: They can be.

Alufe: They can be if you if they're right, but, like, their ego if they close any deals before, if they have any experience before, oh my gosh. It can be very difficult to to

Steve: cultivate them.

Alufe: Excuse me.

Steve: Hiring in a sales role. Right? I mean, we have a whole thing right on on hiring salespeople. Like, that's that's why it's so bad. Right?

It's like, we we did a lot of the the the right things, but we didn't do all the right things.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: But is that hiring a salesperson, you're hiring a person that has to have an ego.

Alufe: You have

Steve: to have an ego.

Alufe: Yeah. You do.

Steve: Because why else like, if you don't have an ego, why else would you continue hitting the phones rejection after rejection?

Alufe: That's very true. Right?

Steve: So, like, you have to have an ego. Right. But you can also reign in a little bit.

Alufe: Right. You you need to be able to do it in a way that cultivates your best success Yeah. And takes away from any hubris that you might have. Right. Because that's like, you have to in order to be at a high level in any game, especially this kind of game business, you need to have some kind of ego behind you.

Yeah. But you have to know how to control it.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: Have you ever struggled with that? Like, just going into success and having a lot of success, is that something you've been like, I gotta I gotta let me pull the reins back on myself a little bit because I might I'm getting a little too I'm getting a little too big for myself. I'm getting a little too,

Steve: My team has said that about me.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: But, I can share with you. Right? So, like, I'm going through a program right now. I hired a coach.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: And, like, I'm doing my own paid ads. You know? And, I was I was losing my mind. And, basically, what was going on was, like, I'm pissed. I haven't, like, mastered this yet.

Mhmm. I just expect. Right. Everything attached should be gold. Right?

Yeah. Right? Yeah. So yeah. Like, after, like, you know, I'm I'm just pissed.

I tell my wife, like, I can't believe, like, I'm still haven't figured this out yet.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: And then I looked at it. It's like, it's not it hasn't been four weeks. It hasn't been four weeks.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: Since I started doing this Right. I'm expecting, like, to become world class, right, overnight. So

Alufe: Same. Yeah.

Steve: So I think, you know, talking about that role, the before I got good with, like, mission and vision and core values and all these other things. Right? Someone asked me, like, who do you look to hire? You know, sales reps. Like, I'm looking for someone that cocky and humble at the same time.

Alufe: Yeah. It's a happy medium.

Steve: Right. I want someone that believes they can just slay it

Alufe: Right.

Steve: But it's coachable.

Alufe: Right. Exactly. Because the worst combination is to be cocky and then

Steve: Not coachable.

Alufe: Yeah. Not coachable because you're not gonna get anywhere. And a lot of people have that talent and that ability and the aptitude to get to the top, but they don't have the coachability. They don't wanna listen to you.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Like, even, like, in coaching people, I found that. Like, I'm telling you to do x, y, and z. This is what you have to do in order to be successful. Oh, but I wanna do it this way. Well, then do it that way then and see where that gets you.

You know? Like, that that that happens a lot of the time where

Steve: A lot.

Alufe: People have the ability to do it, but they don't have the coach ability to do it. Right? You need to be able to be coachable. You need to listen. And that's a big thing for me.

Like, I've always been it doesn't matter how much I learn, how much I know, how much I accomplish in life. I will always have my ears open Mhmm. And my mouth closed. Because if you if you do that, if you're listening to people, if you're if you're learning all the time, you'll never find yourself in a tricky situation ever.

Steve: Yeah. Well, the one of our core values is growth mindset.

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: And the and the day you feel like you've got it figured out is the day you no longer fit in my organization.

Alufe: Yeah. Alright. 100%.

Steve: So salespeople, everyone has issues with salespeople. What what are some of the others, challenges in scaling your business?

Alufe: Scaling. Honestly, that's the biggest thing. It's just it's always been hiring. Mhmm. Everything else is is pretty, like, honestly, pretty dialed in.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Oh, you know what? This was something that I used to deal with, it's just like capital raising. Mhmm. Because I would like I said, I would raise capital, like, I would get it for 80, 20, 70, 30, etcetera. But over time, I was like, I'm I'm giving them too much money.

Mhmm. So I started trying to figure out how do I get more institutional investors, people that are used to getting, like, what, the S and P 500 returns less than 10% a year.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Right? On a land deal, I can give you 15%. Mhmm. Right? So it's like finding people like that.

They're like, woah. 15% on on $70,000 or a $100,000? That's something that I I try to go after and figure out Mhmm. How do I get that capital cheaper? You can get this if you can get the capital cheaper and you can maximize your deals.

Right? If I'm getting a $100,000 at 10% versus giving away 20% equity

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: My capital stack and my cash is just gonna grow that much more exponentially, honestly. Right. So finding investors like doctors, lawyers, and just business professionals Mhmm. Things like that in order to, you know, raise this better capital and cheaper capital.

Steve: Is it you pay only when it's drawn?

Alufe: What do you mean?

Steve: So, like, is it 10%? Like, someone's got a 100 k.

Alufe: Uh-huh. Are

Steve: you paying that are are they giving a 100 k? Are you paying 10% forever, or are you only using it for what you buy?

Alufe: Only for what you buy. Yeah. So it's you're investing into specific deals. So I would say, hey, Steve. I got this deal.

I'm buying it for 60, selling it for $1.60. Yeah. I just need $60,000. I'll give you 10 points back. I'll give you 15 whatever it is.

I'll give you 10 points back.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: And then, yeah, we do that deal. Is that specific deal? You can

Steve: 10 points or 10% per prorated?

Alufe: 10% interest interest.

Steve: Yeah. Right. But, like, are you I if I brought you brought 60, you're just gonna give them six.

Alufe: Right. Exactly.

Steve: So it's not prorated. It's not, like, per year. It's just, like, I'm

Alufe: gonna give

Steve: you 10%.

Alufe: Yeah. And then there is a there's a time stack as well just like how I mentioned with, like, eighty twenty, seventy thirty, sixty forty. If it goes beyond a certain amount of days and, like, the highest I go, if, like, if it took a year, it'll be 15 points. But I never had a deal go longer than six months

Steve: Yeah. Ever. So Yeah. You're generous.

Alufe: Yeah. I need to be a little bit less generous.

Steve: Yeah. You're generously. Yeah. The the 10%. Right?

Because ten ten percent over six months is 20% over the year.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Which is, like, whatever. Right. You know, because hard money is is 18%.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: What are some of the craziest stories you ever had?

Alufe: I'll tell the good stuff. Yeah. I've gosh. I mean, that selling that property in twenty four hours is crazy.

Steve: Does it happen more than once?

Alufe: The twenty four hours? Yeah. I've got an offers in twenty four hours multiple times. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. When I'm closing a deal in, like

Alufe: In in twenty four hours? Yeah. No. No. That but that deal didn't close in twenty four hours.

It took a week. Like, we got the offer in twenty four hours,

Steve: and they

Alufe: closed that. Okay. Excuse me. I'm doing in Maryland, we bought and sold the property. I bought it at a 125.

I was out at $260,000. That was pretty cool. Mhmm.

Steve: I

Alufe: think I was it was actually a 120 and not at $2.60. I made a $125,000. That was a crazy story. What else? I'm trying to think.

I mean, just just doing deals and being in the game and, like, consistently being able to do deals Mhmm. And, like, you know, speaking to the world about it and talking to social media about it, that that's something that brings me a lot of pride and joy, honestly.

Steve: Gotcha. And then you have a Discord?

Alufe: Yeah. I do. There are currently 550 members in it. Mhmm. Yeah.

And I kinda scaled that up through TikTok. My goal is to get it

Steve: to TikTok?

Alufe: Yeah. TikTok. Posting TikToks every day, like, three, four times a day. Yeah. I remember, oh, this is a crazy story, actually.

So my wife and I actually traveled the world for three months. We went to six different countries. We started in Dubai. We finished in London. So we went from Dubai to Turkey to, to Italy to Spain and then to London.

We were gone for three months. Mhmm. And I was running my business for that entire three months Mhmm. Just fine. And, actually, my business did better when I was overseas.

And everyone was like, oh, are you worried about your business doing well? And I was like, no. My business ended up doing way better. And so just being able to, like, travel like that and be we're at the Vatican or we're at the Colosseum or we're we're sand surfing or things like that, and my business is making money, that to me was like, woah. Like, that was a big, like, kinda like an I made it moment.

Like, wow. I'm able to do this for three months straight. Yeah. And her and I just, like, enjoying each other's time. That was that was a life changing experience.

And I've traveled we've traveled together a lot. Mhmm. But doing that for three months straight was like, yeah, that was pretty crazy.

Steve: That's pretty cool. You got kids yet?

Alufe: No. No kids yet.

Steve: All do you?

Alufe: I'm 24. Just turned 24 in March.

Steve: I am I'm envious. I got twenty years on you. Very envious. So, you know, one of the things I have in,

Alufe: went

Steve: to Vietnam Mhmm. Last year, right, spring break. My my my wife and my three girls.

Alufe: Okay.

Steve: And she's like, I didn't post a single story once. I didn't post anything on Facebook. I didn't post anything on Instagram. I didn't post any stories. Mhmm.

And, like, she thought, like, are you sad on this trip?

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Like, what is the story here? And this is when I think I've got some control issues, which is that I'm generally not a a control freak. Right? But, like, here in America

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Something happens. I call 911. Police is here. It's addressed.

Alufe: Yeah. Right? Quickly.

Steve: If I'm in a country where I don't speak the language, my wife does, right, and then her family does and Mhmm. Like, I can get by. Right. Like, I can't, like, I can't negotiate. I can't use my skills.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: Right? I can't, like, press the importance or, like, label or any of these other things. Right? Like, something happens. Right?

Because you don't know who's watching you on social media. That's

Alufe: very true.

Steve: So I was just curious. Like, how much are you posting your business and your success while you're in the in the other country?

Alufe: So, you know, it's crazy. Like, so, actually, I had my Instagram off for five years. So from 2019 to 2023, I had it off completely. I wasn't the only thing I did was TikTok. I think I started my TikTok in, like, early twenty early last year.

So I had it off. So I wasn't posting anything. Nobody had heard. They're like, what happened to Femi? Like, literally because I was on Instagram every day.

Like, in 2019, I was posting every day, track practice. I'll post if I got a acai bowl. Like, I was posting on my meals. Like, posting everything. If

Steve: you wanna influencer Yeah. Back in the day.

Alufe: If you wanna know where I was, you would know. And I would even post, like, on location.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Now I'm very private about those things. Like, I I posted about being married, obviously, but, like, I didn't talk too much about those things or certain things that I don't I don't really wanna post family. I don't really like to post money. I don't like to post a lot of flashy things. I think you have to be very careful about that.

And you also have to be very careful with posting on location. Like, a lot some people will be at a place like, let's say we're here right now, and then as we're doing this, I'm, like, talking to you. Oh, hey, Steve. And then I post it right then and there. It's that's dangerous.

Right? Especially when you're traveling too. I don't know if, not to get off topic, but there's been celebrities that have posted on location and gotten things stolen from them because they're posting on location. People saw it. So I say all this to say, I only posted about the trip, like, after I came back.

Steve: And that's the same thing. Right? It's just like, I'll post it later.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? But she so she was like, yeah. Why are you, like I thought you were I thought you hated the trip. I was like, no. I just I

Alufe: love the trip.

Steve: Yeah. I had fun on the trip. Right? We ate good food.

Alufe: It's just Right.

Steve: I am a freak control freak. And, like, if something happens to my kids, I've got, like, no control of the situation.

Alufe: Right. And that's the other thing too is, like it is funny. Sometimes I'll post from trips that I never talked about or said I was gonna do. People are like, oh, are you in are you in this place right now? I'm like, no.

I'm at home. This was, like, two months ago. This is two weeks ago.

Steve: Yeah. It makes sense later on.

Alufe: You're right.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: I I really like to be low key and, like, not have everyone into everything you're doing. I think a private life is a happy life, honestly.

Steve: But you're posting on TikTok now?

Alufe: Yeah. I've been posting on TikTok for around a year now.

Steve: Okay. So what are you posting on TikTok?

Alufe: Specifically land flipping stuff and just inspirational stuff, things about money, things about, motivation, things about making money. I really in the last month, I've I've I've said I kinda blew up a little bit on Instagram. I hit, like, a 143,000 views on just, like, one video. Nice. So that was cool.

My goal is to get to, like like, really build that following up to half a million, a million, so on and so forth.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: And just talking about money, land deals, just fitness, all these things, things that I like to do.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: So and talk about your Discord. So you have 500 people in there. What's what what do you guys talk about on the Discord?

Alufe: Land deals. We're just doing land deals in there. Yeah. So So that's the land versus Discord. We have three coaching programs, I'd say.

Mhmm. The first coaching program is a one on one coaching. That is a six month program a year depending on your goals. The second one is just, you know, our course, with how we do what we're doing. The full landfilling process start to finish, it teaches you how to build the business from start to finish.

And the goal with that is anyone that goes through that makes 6 figures Mhmm. Within their first two years. And then we have our Discord. So the premium Discord is a $129 a month. Then I have people funneling to there.

So that the Discord is the lowest ticket, and people that do that, like, I have resources for them to kinda start on their own and do it. Mhmm. And as you get into different tiers, it it's obviously, like, way more hands on. And one on one is the most hands on program that we have.

Steve: So someone wanted to find out more about that. How will they find it?

Alufe: You go to golandverse.com, or you can visit my Instagram, and you can direct message me, and you'll get all the information for whatever product you want.

Steve: And what's your Instagram handle?

Alufe: My Instagram is the olufemi b.

Steve: May wanna spell that out.

Alufe: Yeah. So t h e olufemi, o l u f e m I, and then b.

Steve: There you go. Yeah. So what would you do if money was no object?

Alufe: That's a good question. I would and this is my plan, just to live on a farm of, or a thousand acres and have 10 kids with Jasmine. Yeah. That's that's Did

Steve: she know that?

Alufe: I think she wants three or four. I always tell her ten, fifteen, so I'm a little bit crazy. I want as many kids as possible. I think that's important. I think I feel like if you're equipped to have as many kids as possible, then you should.

Yeah. I think if you're because there's so many people that I feel like maybe are not as equipped. And not even just financially, but just in in life experiences and things that you could pass on, things that you can teach. Yeah. And it's very important.

I think if you can, you should do it.

Steve: Yeah. What I told my wife, you know, when we're dating, I was like, I don't care how many kids we have as long as we can field the basketball team.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right?

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And she's like, you're out of your mind. Yeah. What about you?

Alufe: If money was no object, what was you?

Steve: What I do? I don't I don't think I'd do much different. You know? And I think some people, like, hear that as, like, maybe kinda sad. Right?

But, like, I see what Patrick by Dave was doing. Right? He sold his company for $300,000,000. Yeah. He's still creating content.

Alufe: Yep.

Steve: Right now, he just has political influence. Yep. You look at Elon Musk. He's the richest man

Alufe: in the

Steve: world depending on the day. Right.

Alufe: Right? He's just screwing around on

Steve: Twitter. Right. Right. Yeah. Right.

Protecting free speech. Like, that I don't think I would do much Right. I might I'll do more. Mhmm. Right?

I would try to do more to impact, you know, entrepreneurship and and capitalism. Right?

Alufe: Right.

Steve: But, yeah, I don't think I would I would do anything different. I would just do it at a higher level.

Alufe: Yeah. Just spread your word more and inspire more people. Because honestly, I I believe that, like, a wealthy life or a rich life is is possible for anyone.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: Like, really, if you're willing to put in the work and you're in the I always say this. If you're in the right vehicle and you apply yourself, you're going to become a millionaire. Like, you will. Right? People don't think like that, but that's the truth.

Like, if you really apply yourself in your vehicle and go as hard as you possibly can and iterate along the way, you're gonna have roadblocks. You're gonna get punched in the face. Yeah. But if you continuously do that, you're gonna become a millionaire. You will

Steve: I mean, I say on the show five to seven years, you did it faster.

Alufe: Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Hopefully, I can hit the $8.09 figures with time.

Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. I think probably the only other thing I would add to that, what I would do differently is I would try to impact more financial literacy.

Alufe: Literacy. Yeah. That's very important.

Steve: Yeah. That I think that's probably the the the last thing I said, teaching entrepreneurship, teaching capitalism. But Yeah. Yeah. Financial literacy because, and who knows if the world wants it, but I think the world needs it.

Alufe: No. It's very important though because you see, like, you'll see these guys with APs and Rolexes, and they're just spending their money. Though, if you make 5,000,000, you're spending 5,000,000. And a lot of people don't understand that that that stuff doesn't last. You know, you could make $510,000,000 a year for a very long time and spend that, and then you end up being at the end of that, and you're not at the earning potential anymore, and you're messed up.

Steve: We saw Antonio Brown. Yeah. Thank you. How crazy Yeah. Is that.

Right?

Alufe: What? 9 figures he blew? I don't

Steve: know if it was 9 figures, but, I mean, I know he walked away from some negotiations. Right? Like, because he was it the was it the Steelers that, like, was he was negotiating with and he's like, now screw you guys?

Alufe: I think he was on I'm not really a super big football fan, but I think he was on the the New England.

Steve: Well, he was he ended in England. Yeah.

Alufe: He was

Steve: on the Jets, I think. Right? He was at the Steelers. Right? There was other one, the, Le'Veon Bell that also, like, walked away from the crazy contract.

Right? But, like, yeah, Antonio Brown is, like, he was the best. Yeah. He was paid like the best. Right.

And he's broke.

Alufe: Yeah. That's what I'm saying. You could be that's the thing. People are always so focused on making money. That's very important.

But when you get it, you need to know how to keep it and how to grow it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Because you can blow through clearly, you can blow through $2,030,000,000 like it's nothing.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: You can't. Like, clearly. Right? And so it doesn't matter how much you have. You need to be able to manage that.

Who do you who are the people you need to have on your team? And, also, when you, like I'm sure you experience this. When you start to make a certain amount of money, people start peeking over at you. Like, I got this idea for you, man. Like, let's talk about this.

Hey. Mhmm. I got this land over here. Hey. Let's do this.

Like Right. You become a target. And so you have to be very careful with what you say to people because everyone's hand is in your pot.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: As soon as you start to rise up a little bit and start to get some success for yourself

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Everyone's hand is in your pot. There there are vultures.

Steve: There are.

Alufe: So I

Steve: mean, it's, the the whole story right when you win the lottery. Hey, cousin.

Alufe: Yep. What? Cousin. Yeah. Exactly.

You know, you know, I don't know who you are. Right. Yeah. Yep.

Steve: What's your biggest, I'm sorry. What is your, epic life goal?

Alufe: To have a a a very big family Mhmm. Who loves, cares, and respects me. That's a that's a big thing. And just to be able to take care of them and and, do whatever I wanna do with my life. Mhmm.

That is, like, personal business. I do wanna have a 9 figure exit.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: I don't know if it's gonna come in real estate. I don't think so.

Steve: Probably What would the exit be?

Alufe: Probably, like it'd probably be some kind of ecommerce store or some kind of brand Mhmm. Sales team, something like that. I haven't really put my finger on it, but that is I've always just said that to myself ever since I was a kid. Like, I wanna have an x a big liquidity event. Like, I really do wanna have that.

I I think that's a part of the ego thing. Maybe the insecurity thing a little bit, but I do wanna have a I

Steve: mean, I have the same problem.

Alufe: Yeah. I I do wanna have a big liquidity event, in my late twenties or early thirties. Yeah. So

Steve: I don't think it's gonna be real estate.

Alufe: No. I mean, if you think about it, like, how many times does that happen? Unless you're selling a portfolio. Yeah. Yeah.

So it'd have to be a portfolio that I'm buying now and stacking up now that, you know, appreciates in value and then, like, that's

Steve: I think we're gonna have to look at, you know, somehow you acquiring PRYCD.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And then that was there was another tool, YTel. Mhmm. Alright. If you can acquire those two Right. Package that Yeah.

Then you get to your ex

Alufe: That would be yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Steve: He's gonna make enough active income.

Alufe: Exactly. To acquire this. Get them. I I know some guys that just bought, droners.io, actually. Mhmm.

That's the drone service that we use. Mhmm. So I don't know what they're doing with that, but I think droners.io was in bankruptcy. Mhmm. Acu Brothers.

They they bought that. I don't know what they're doing with it now, but I I find that really inspiring that they they're able to buy that and, you know, do their thing with that. They just just bought it a few months ago. So Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: I mean, I guess probably the closest thing would be your Discord. Right? If you can somehow figure out a way to get the Discord self sufficient, then it's rely on you.

Alufe: Exactly. Just land risk community, if I can possibly. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: I look at things like people like Patrick McDavid that you mentioned. Like, he was able to sell his insurance company, right, for $354,100,000,000 dollars.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: So it'll probably be something like that. I think that is important. Like, this business, the land flipping business is the best cash generator.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: So it's always been for me to, like, have a certain amount of money to where, like, I can take risk. Right? So having this business does allow me to have opportunities that I can go take risk into Mhmm. To where that $8.09 figure exit is actually possible. It's also allocation of focus.

So if your teams are right, if your employees are right, if your systems are right, and the the business is running kinda like on autopilot, then you can go and allocate your attention and your focus to these other things and these other opportunities.

Steve: Exactly.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle today?

Alufe: Biggest struggle struggle today? Balance. Balance. I'm very, I'm insane when it comes to, like, my goals and just the things that I want for myself. And sometimes I really lose sight and lose focus of the people that are important to me.

Mhmm. That's just the truth. So just balancing, like, being being a businessman, being a son, being a husband, being a brother, being a cousin, being all these things, and and making that into one thing. Being a mentor, all those is balancing that is is sometimes very difficult for me. And just, like, keeping level headed because there are times where, honestly, I get a little bit too like, I that's why I asked you.

You ever felt you get too too big for yourself and you need to slow yourself down? There are times where I do get like that. I'm like, I have this. I could do this. Mhmm.

Right? And just you have to you have to be able to reel yourself back. Mhmm. Because when you get like that, you get into your ego a little bit too much. Ego is the enemy.

Right? You get into your ego a little bit too much, then there's really nobody that can pull you back from that but you. And a lot of the time as men and successful men, it's gonna take, like, detrimental mistake to pull yourself back from that. It's gonna take you failing miserably Mhmm. To pull yourself back from that.

And then you'll be like, like, what did I just do? Like, what have I been doing for all this time? Right? Well,

Steve: I can tell you, twenty years later, I've done that multiple times. Mhmm. So

Alufe: Yeah. It's not gonna just be once. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. And and and the the biggest thing was empowering the team. Right?

Like, letting the team know that they have full authority to call me on my own BS. Yeah. Or they have full authority. Anytime they could say, hey, Steve. Like, you're wrong.

Yeah. Right? And I can still go back if you tell them, but, like, they can say, like, hey. You're wrong. Here's what we think.

Here's what you should you know, here's what we see.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And I'll sit there.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: And I'll listen.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Because, was it multipliers? Or I think it's Liz Eichman, or whatever. Liz Wiseman. Whatever it is, she says, like, you know, no person's ever smarter than the room. Yep.

Right? The room always be smarter than one individual. Yep.

Alufe: As a collective. Yeah. Absolutely.

Steve: How do you stay motivated?

Alufe: Wow, man. It just comes from within. Like, it's just like it just comes from I just wanna be as great as I could possibly be. Like I said, like, I I always think I every day, I think about what would I say about myself today on my deathbed. Mhmm.

Every single day, that's how I think. Like and what I regret today, what I regret what I'm doing today. So I always live as if, like, I'm on my deathbed, and I'm, like, looking back at my life. That's how I stay motivated. And, like, I wanna be able to provide everything under the sun for my family and my children.

Everything. Like, I don't want them to dad, can I yes? You can. Dad, can I do the yes? You can.

Like, everything. I wanna be able to provide. So that's a big thing to me. It's just just being being the provider, being the rock of of my family, and being the the the catalyst for everyone else's success. Yeah.

That really motivates me. Like, being able to provide opportunities that you otherwise wouldn't have had, if not for these resources.

Steve: Yeah. And how do you measure success?

Alufe: Not in dollars. I used to measure success in dollars, but, like, you get to a certain point where that doesn't really really matter, I guess. You you kinda do kinda what you wanna do. Respect. Mhmm.

I think respect and, like, how people see you. Yeah. Perception. Not perception, but, like, really, like, genuinely as a person. Like, how does a person see me?

Mhmm. How do they respect me? How do do they listen to what I'm saying? All those things. That's how I measure it.

Like, people taking heed of my advice, people being able to to to ask me questions and vice versa. Like, that's how I see it, in your your network, in your village, how your village sees you. I think that's that's a big measure of success.

Steve: Gotcha.

Alufe: What about you?

Steve: How do I measure success? I mean, I mean, I feel like I'm living in it. Right? Like, I get to do whatever I wanna do Yeah. Every day.

I mean, it's not I can do whatever I want to know to know limit. Right? So, like, you know, the the definition I got, you know, from a mentor, Larry Atch, which was, you know, the ability to do, to live the life you wanna live

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Every day, sustainably.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: And the key is sustainably. Right? Because, like, you could I mean, I wouldn't. Right? But someone could, like, go and just stay Like, I'm I'm a poker guy.

I could just go and just play poker all day. Right? It's like, that's not really sustainable.

Alufe: No. Yeah.

Steve: Right? So be able to do your thing every single day

Alufe: Right.

Steve: Without burnout, without requiring external coping mechanisms and that kind of deal.

Alufe: I think the power in calling your own shots is like nothing else. Yeah. Like, just being able to, like, wake up and, like, do whatever I wanna do. Mhmm. Like like, it it's crazy.

I have always wanted to excuse me. I've always wanted to be the shot caller and always wanted to call my own shots, but, like, actually to be living in that space

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And not have to answer to anyone ever.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: That's, like, the except for my wife. Mhmm. But, like, not the like, but besides that, like, I don't have to answer to anyone ever. Right? And that is, like, you know, bar none.

It's like, it's something that you can't trade for.

Steve: It's a drug.

Alufe: Yeah. It is. It is. And it it only gets bigger as you you grow and as you get more success, as you do more deals, as you make more connections, it only Right. Happens more.

So, yeah, there is that keeping yourself in check as you're like because you don't ever wanna get to the point where you just feel, like, untouchable. Mhmm. Right? Because you can always be knocked right back down lower than you were before when you started.

Steve: Yeah. And

Alufe: so it's very important. Like, for me, I always remind myself of that, like, you need to keep yourself humble. Mhmm. Because one mistake, like and I'm sure you know this. Like, I'm sure, you you know, you're running an empire.

You're doing these things, but, like, I'm sure you know, like, one false move.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: You know, like Biggie says, you get, Swiss cheesed up. So

Steve: what is your superpower?

Alufe: My superpower is speaking to people and connecting with people. I'm sure. Yeah.

Steve: Where do you think that came from?

Alufe: Being around so many different people, so many different areas, groups growing up. You know, like I said, I went to a private school to public school, very different demographics of children or kids, people. My mother would send me all over the place for, like, camps. When I was, I think, 11, my mom sent me to Massachusetts for, like, two weeks. And my my mother I wanna give a credit to my mother because she always made sure that I had those experiences.

She always made sure that I stayed overnight at at certain camps so that I could get used to, you know, different people.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Right? And, like, even, like, by the time I went to college, I I didn't get homesick because she would send me to camps like that.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And so just talking to I remember specifically this this camp in Massachusetts, it was, called Eagle Brook. That was a school. It was in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and there were kids from all over the world there. My roommate was from China. At the time, he was 10 years old, and he was studying, like, like, algebra two trigonometry.

Or no. It wasn't even that. It was calculus. He was 10. He was studying calculus.

And so and, like, he spoke a little bit of English, but I was even able to connect with him. Yeah. I remember his name. Anthony Lowe was his name. I don't wanna name drop you, but I remember that.

Like, just being able to connect with all different kinds of people and, like, really, like, no matter where you come from, no matter where your background is, I can talk to you.

Steve: You know?

Alufe: And we can we can form a bond, and that's something that I really feel like my that's where my superpowers are.

Steve: That makes a lot of sense.

Alufe: For sure.

Steve: What's your biggest regret?

Alufe: I don't really know that I live with regrets. I think that everything that has happened to me has happened for a reason. Mhmm. And, you know, I carry on in life and and learn from any mistakes that I've made.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: I don't think that I have any regrets.

Steve: Which failure did you learn the most from?

Alufe: There was a time in high school Mhmm. I remember I was I was a junior in high school. And I remember having in the beginning of the season, the coach was talking to me. He was like, yeah. You're gonna go to state.

You're gonna make the final. You're gonna you know, you're the fast person on the team, so you don't have to worry about this and that and this. There was another kid that, you know, I never even thought about. He was a senior at the time. It'll be cool if he watched this.

He'd remember the story. I was the fastest person on the team, everything like that. The first race, I remember, he ended up running, like, a point point o one second faster than me. Right? And that, like, broke me mentally because I was so arrogant.

Like, I was like, these guys, I'm going to state. I'm gonna make the final, be state champion, all these things. That year, I didn't end up making state. I got hurt that year. I got hamstring strain, all these things.

That kid went on to make the final in the 100 meter dash and all those things like that. But I learned from that in that hubris. I learned from, like, okay. Don't ever think that's why I keep going back to that. Don't think that you're always at the top of the mountain.

Somebody's always right right there looking at you, like, always. The very next year, I ended up making the state final in the hundred and two hundred, and I was the only person in that area and still to this day, in the Bay Area to make both finals, I think, like, still now, like, in the last twenty years

Steve: Yeah. To make Michael Johnson type of stuff.

Alufe: Yeah. Not exactly. A little bit below, but yeah.

Steve: Well, he was one, two, and four. Right?

Alufe: Yeah. He was I think he was two and four, but he also run a 100. Yeah. Yeah. He ran a 100.

He's he's a nice second guy too. Yeah. Yeah. So just learning from that, though, like, just being, like but I would say that I turned that that failure into a success a year later. Just learning from that.

And I've had, like obviously, I've stumbled. I I had the time where I put a lot of money into some cryptocurrencies that I didn't do a lot of research on and You're

Steve: not alone.

Alufe: Lost a lot of my my money, and kinda had to start over again. So and that's all before the age of 24. Mhmm. So I've had a lot of, failures and and slips where I've had to learn from it, but I think the biggest thing is, like, how you bounce back. Right.

Because, you know, you're always gonna have failures. You're always gonna have that embarrassment from, like, damn it. I messed up. But, like, how do you return from that?

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: How do you get back from that? How do you redeem yourself? How do you make yourself a better person because of those failures?

Steve: Yeah. I mean, I think that's the the most important part.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: What book have you gifted more than any other?

Alufe: A few. To my, like, my brother, there's this book called, Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? It's by, and, you know, but it's it's by Reginald, Lewis. Uh-huh. He's a guy that had a $900,000,000 exit, in, like, the eighties, like, a long time ago.

And that just always inspires me. Like, man, $900,000,000 exit. He was a black guy on Wall Street, the only one on Wall Street. So that one, I gift out a lot to, like, people that look like me and specifically my brother just as, like my brother's an athlete, like I said. So there there's other paths.

You wanna make eight, nine figures, other paths to do that. Mhmm. Atomic habits

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: How to win friends and influence people. And, I love the 48 laws of power. Yeah. Those are the the three staples.

Steve: How often you read the 48 laws of power?

Alufe: I read it twice.

Steve: Yeah.

Alufe: Yeah. But here and there, like, I read the laws. There is a lot of, like, controversy with that. Like, people say, oh, it's for manipulation. If you read that, that's a red flag.

Mhmm. But it's more about how you're able to deal with people that like, just so you know, people in life are gonna try to use those tactics on you. Mhmm. So you need to yeah. So you need to be equipped with those tactics so you know what's going on.

Mhmm. I think that people have a very skewed version of the world.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: And, unfortunately, the world's a very mean place. You know? People are always gonna be trying to get things from you. People are always gonna be trying to get one over on you.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: Most people are, like, luckily, I don't really have a lot of people like that around me.

Steve: Right.

Alufe: But just going through life, you're gonna find people like that, and you have to know how to manage that and deal with that.

Steve: I got three daughters. Right? Yeah. And so what I've taught them is that we live in an evil world

Alufe: We do.

Steve: With kind people.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Like, it has kind people.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: Right? It's not like a kind world with some evil people. Like, we live in a world where it's you go get for yourself what you can't get for yourself. Like, it's this this is still the animal kingdom. We're just the smartest animals on the planet.

Absolutely. Right? So that might sound cynical to some people, and I I might come across as, at times, like, very optimistic and trusting overly trusting.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: But in the day, right, everyone's looking out for themselves, looking out for number one. So Yeah. First, I wanna say, you know, why should wipe people out of the I love that you're giving out that book. Right? It's an inspiration because I think that's that's honestly one of the my the things I I I like the most about Max Maxwell

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Was he gave inspiration to a group of people that felt disenfranchised. Yeah. That's my favorite thing about Max. Right? That he was giving inspiration, instruction, like, hey.

You don't have to settle for your current situation. Right? Mhmm. You're unhappy where you're at. Do something about it.

Yep. Right? And he didn't care if you disagree with him.

Alufe: Yeah.

Steve: He was just, like, in your face, I've got to I've got a chance to hang out with him multiple times. No one else's opinion matters. Right? Like, this is what you should do.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: And that's it. Right. So I love that about Max. I also I love that you're giving out that book. 48 Laws of Power, I read it many, many, I read it, like, maybe, like, ten, fifteen years ago.

I remember the first time I read it, I was like, I just felt dirty. Like, I need I need a shower.

Alufe: Mhmm. Alright.

Steve: Like, this is, like it's just such overt manipulation. Right?

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: But if you guys are listening and you guys are, like, reluctant to listen to it, I still think you must listen to it Yeah. Because you might violate one of the laws. And now you're hosed. Yep. And now you're outside the circle.

Yep. Right? So it tells you how to manipulate so you gain power. Yep. It also tells you what not to do Yep.

So that you're so you're an outcast. Like, you might wonder sometimes, like, what happened?

Alufe: Yep.

Steve: Well, clearly tells you things you do, that'll completely screw you, and in the old days, decapitated.

Alufe: Yep.

Steve: Right? Yeah. And then another thing too. So I read it again recently because I had multiple people, like, you know, they kept signing it. I was like, alright.

Well, let me read it again.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: And reading it again, with more experience in business and life, it's all true. Right?

Alufe: It is.

Steve: It's all true. And so, the one that I teach or I quote, in our sales training

Alufe: Mhmm.

Steve: Is number four. Law of power number four was just say less. Yep. Right? If you feel like, hey.

Like, family, like, here's the thing. I gotta do this because this, this, this, and this, you're like, what's going on? Mhmm. Like, hey, Femi. Here's the way it's gonna be.

Like, okay. Well, that's the way it's gonna be.

Alufe: Right.

Steve: So oh, yeah. Great, great recommendation. So, I want you to think about some last thoughts I wanna leave all the listeners with. Guys, if you got value today, please subscribe. Do not keep us a secret.

We are on a mission to create a 100 millionaires. The more people that we tell YouTube and iTunes and Spotify this is good stuff Yeah. The more people we can help. What is the last thoughts you'd like to leave all the listeners with?

Alufe: I just want everyone to know that whatever, like, truly, whatever you put your mind to in business, in life, whatever it is, you truly can accomplish it if you're in the right vehicle and if you make the iterations and if you're willing to get punched in the face. Mhmm. Like, I think that a lot of people, they see the highlight tapes on social media. They see the the HUDs. They see the the flashy stuff.

They see all those things, and they think that it's just gonna be a to b to z. But, no, you're gonna zigzag.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alufe: You're gonna zigzag a lot, and you have to be able to go through that in order to get to where you wanna go. And whatever goal, whatever vision, whatever dream that you really have in your mind, you can have it. But understand that it's going to take time. It's gonna take iteration. It's gonna take being in the right vehicle, having the right people around you, and it's gonna take a lot of dedication and commitment.

Yeah. And that's the recipe for success.

Steve: Yeah. It takes work. Yeah. It takes work. It does.

But it's worth it. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Alufe: Thank you, Steve. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

Steve: Appreciate you guys for watching. See you guys next time.

Alufe: Shout out to Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.