#118: Living Intentionally: How Technology Professionals can Invest Passively in Real Estate
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Pleased to have Matt Fore. He’s a part time real estate investor based out of Nashville, Tennessee. In his professional life he has spent over a decade in sales and sales leadership positions at one of the largest tech companies in the world. When he's not working or investing in real estate, he enjoys reading, training for Ironman triathlons, and convincing his brother that he is the favorite twin. I know that all our listeners will enjoy that.
In this episode, we’re discussing…
[1:34] His background in tech and how he started to do ironman on his training
[5:54] The other steps and those things to succeeding to becoming an investor in tech sales
[8:54] About his eBook and what he has learned
[9:49] His mental challenges, and some of the things he did to kind of switch the mind off
[12:04] His advice on the physical exercise vs. mental side
[13:55] The longevity vs. mental barriers to win races
[15:12] His biggest race he competed in and his experience
[17:02] About his podcast and how he come up with the peculiar name of it
[19:14] His podcast guest and how their expertise in different asset class makes to people realize to invest in RE
[20:57] What kind of investments he’s doing right now
[22:33] About the mindset and importance to get a mentor
Resources from Matthew
+ Read the transcript
Mike Stohler
What if you could be doing something smarter with your money that creates income. Now, if you're wanting to get ahead financially, and enjoy greater freedom of choice, if you want a comfortable retirement, and you know, you'll have more choices, if you can do more with your money. Now, if you've wondered who else is creating ways to make their money work for them, and you want actionable ideas, with honest pros and cons, and no fluff. Welcome to the richer geek podcast, where you here helping people find creative ways to build wealth and financial freedom. I'm Mike Stohler, and in this podcast, you'll hear from others who are already doing these things, and learn how you can too.
All right everybody, welcome back to another episode of the richer geek podcast. Pleased to have Matt for. He's not only a part time real estate investor, but he spent over a decade in sales and sales leadership at a very large tech company. So I know that all of our listeners will enjoy that. How're you doing, man?
Matthew Fore
I am doing fantastic. Today, although I gotta say, this weekend, it was 75 degrees outside I was running, I was enjoying the sun. And then overnight, it dropped 40 degrees. So I'm local today, but I'm feeling fantastic.
Mike Stohler
You know, we get that in Arizona, also it's it was at is playing golf, then all of sudden rain and 50. And I know everyone in the Northeast is, you know, struggling the fake violin, you know, the little violence and you know, well, you know, you know, because they're still in the 10, you know, 15 degree and things like that. But one of the things I want to talk about is you've done a lot you've you've you're a crazy man, you do Iron Man's. I can't, I can't run two blocks. I was more built to run over things instead of running away from things. But let's talk a little bit about your background. You're in tech sales. And how was that? And then did you do some Iron Man wire and tech sales? Was that your stress relief? Did you start running two blocks? And you said, Hey, I need to run a little bit more, and do some other things. So we'll talk about that a little bit.
Matthew Fore
Yeah, absolutely. So like you mentioned, I've spent a decade in sales and sales leadership at one of the largest technology companies in the world. And it's been a fun little journey. I remember first getting involved in technology. And I was not technical at all. And to this day, I'm not technical, my dad asked me to plug up his printer over Christmas holiday. And I said, I have no idea how to do that. So but I've spent over a decade net, and it's been a fun journey. Because one thing about technology is it's always evolving. We'd like to say that the world is moving faster than it ever has been, but slower than it ever will. And so it keeps you on your toes, you're always learning new things and how people are more efficient and things like that. How did I get involved in Iron Man, I grew up playing a lot of sports in high school, played intramurals in college, all that kind of stuff would always go to the gym. And I remember I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro back when I was really young, which is the tallest mountain in Africa.
And I came back from that and arrogantly said, Well, that wasn't that hard. What else could I do? And I looked at two different options. I looked at climbing Mount Everest, and I looked at Ironman and when I saw the price tag of how much it costs to climb Mount Everest. I was like, You know what, I think I'll go into Ironman. So for your listeners that don't know what that is, it's a 2.4 mile swim. 112 mile bike. 26.2 mile run. Yes, it's all in a single day. Yes, it's all in a single event. But it's given me a lot of life lessons, investing lessons. And one of the things I love to say about Ironman is it keeps you humble. Right? LeBron James is 682 115 pounds solid muscle jumps out of the gym. That dude was born to be an athlete doing something, an Ironman, nobody was born to go those distances you got to put in the work every single day. And when somebody beats you on race day, chances are they just been doing it longer than you and and have a lot more experience doing it. So happy to take that part of the conversation wherever you want to take it but that's kind of me in a nutshell.
Mike Stohler
Yeah. So what does it take? And what do you start? You know, you start Okay, I'm gonna run five miles I'm gonna run 10 But then oh, women I also have to bike five miles and biked. I mean, where do you start when you're doing something that crazy?
Matthew Fore
Yeah, I so I was always kind of an athlete growing up so I was I was already moderately fit but being Ironman fit is a lot different than being basketball or football fit or something like that. The first thing I had to do is buy a bike. So I signed up for a race before I ever bought a bike. And I will tell your listeners that when you ride a bike, and it's got three wheels on it, and you're a tricycle and you're five years old, and riding a bike when you're going 112 Miles locked in an arrow position are a little bit different. So I definitely had to learn how to do that again. But ultimately, what does it take? I think it really takes understanding where you want to go, and what is the goal. So I have a little four step process that I have that how I have achieved Iron Man's have achieved investment goals have achieved work goals, and the first step, and the most important step is clarity. Because I think you have to be clear on where you want to go. Or else the the the squirrel effect, the red pill will take you down these different rabbit holes and you you will have no direction in life. So once I knew that, hey, Ironman was the thing that I wanted to go do, I wanted to go do a race for that, I knew I was clear on where I wanted to go. And then it just brought me to my next part of my journey.
Mike Stohler
So you've talked about, you know, the four steps. And you know, I can imagine that once you've accomplished something like that, it's kind of like, for me at the military boot camp, then it just kind of changes your mentality, and it changes you as a person. So that you can take that type of strategy and any segment in your life going forward. So talk about those other steps, and what the those things have meant to you in succeeding in becoming an investor in tech sales and the other things in your life. Yeah, sure.
Matthew Fore
So those four steps are clarity, consistency, efficiency, and then compounding. So we already talked a little bit about clarity, clarity is knowing where you want to go, if you don't know where you want to go, then any road will take you there. So once you have that end game in mind, then you have to start doing those little consistent actions every single day. And what I would tell your listeners out there is in this face of being consistent, it's about doing something every day that marches you towards your goal, it's not necessarily about doing the right thing every day, that marches towards your goal. So we were nerding out about podcasting, you were on the show a couple of weeks ago, and that whole process of learning how to podcasts, learning what your voice is learning the equipment, all that kind of stuff, you can watch it every day, but until you start doing the process, you're never going to see the hiccups or the things that are going to get in your way. And that's the same with investing, right, you can't start your investment journey unless you start putting $2 A day into a savings account $5 a day a portion of your income into something that's not just going to shoes, cars, gas, things like that. So happy to continue down this rabbit hole. But I'll stop there. Once your clarity Once you're clear, clear on where you want to go, then it's about being consistent and starting to do something everyday that marches you towards that action.
Mike Stohler
And I think that's very important for everybody to learn. And, you know, I've read a lot of books have been a lot of different seminars, and man, manager, consultants, all that sort of stuff and coaching. And they all kind of talk about that where you have to start somewhere, and then you can't be swayed with, oh, my gosh, I want this, you know, I want the greatest thing of this seems it's, it's do I need that? Or do I want that? You know, that's kind of the biggest thing is, is there's so many things when I was young in life, it's like, I need that. It's like, No, you don't you want it. But you'll do fine, and you'll survive without another TV or that other type of car, you know, the car that you have is fine, you know those types of things. So I think they're very important things. Life lessons in that. And you believe in it so much that you are creating an ebook. Is that correct?
Matthew Fore
Yeah, yeah. And one thing I would touch on to there and consistency is mood follows action. And so I get a lot of questions like, oh, well, you're just very passionate about Iron Man, or you're just very passionate about investing or technology or these things. And I didn't come out of the womb or like in fifth grade decided that I loved all these things. I started doing something that I thought was interesting at the time, every single day, and over two months, it started becoming a habit. And after four months, it started becoming a hobby. And after a year it started becoming a passion. And so that's what I would encourage your listeners out there that might be struggling through this transition of 2020 through 2022 here and going through their their journey of life is mood is going to follow your action. So start doing something every day that's going to scratch an itch and see where that leads you.
Mike Stohler
What are some of the mental challenges you had? I'm sure once you got to a certain mile. Then it's kind of like I mean They're gonna like you gotta dig. I mean, there's people always talk about running marathons at mile 15 or so all of a sudden, you get that I'm really gonna break Are you just kind of they call powering through it? What are some of the things that you did just to kind of switch that mind off? To power through it once your body and your brain saying what the hell you're doing to me?
Matthew Fore
Yeah, yeah. It's funny you say that because I like to tell people like, now that I've been doing the sport for almost a decade, the sport doesn't get easier. I just get faster, right? Like, it doesn't get easier to go bike 100 miles, 100 miles, frickin sucks. Regardless of how many times you've done it, it's it's a difficult process. I think though, like one of the things that I've always tried to do during races, during practice sessions during work, when I'm trying to plow through something that's a difficult task is keep little reminders of kind of what started me down this journey, right? So there's a part of each Ironman where halfway through the bike, you get a chance to have a bag of your goodies of whatever it is to refuel, reenergize all that kind of stuff. Same thing on the run. So I remember my first Ironman, like, I slid in a picture of my family in there. And I knew I was gonna throw away that that picture. But it was a picture of myself, my mom, my dad, my brother, and they were at the race. And one of the things about Ironman races is no matter how many people you have at the race, you barely see them. Because it's a pretty long day and a pretty long course. And that was just a little reminder, like, Hey, I'm, I'm here to complete it for them to show that they made this son or in this brother that can get through difficult times. It's the same with work, right? Like everybody works out there for money. But money is a tool to get you the things that you want in life. So how do you put little reminders around your environment, whether it's at the office, or at your house, on your computer, whether it's a mood board, just something like that, that always pulls you back in to remembering why you got started in the journey in the first place?
Mike Stohler
And would you say is it a 5050 5050 on the physical and mental side? Or is it more mental? What you know, I'm just curious, because I will never do a
Matthew Fore
I will, I will definitely say that of the people that get to the starting line of the race. It is 90% mental from there. It's like graduation day, all you are doing is walking across the stage and grabbing your diploma. At that point. The hard part about doing Iron Man's is the 3am Wake up call on a Saturday to drive an hour away to ride your bike for 110 miles and then get off and go run for an hour drive an hour back stretch shower, it's four o'clock you got to eat and then wake up the next day and you got to do something very, very similar. Like if you can do that day in and day out of consistent grinding, then showing up is just graduation day. And for most of your listeners out there that if they're consuming this type of content, right, they've done a lot of the mental reps to prepare themselves to doing investments in real estate and different forms of investing and things like that. At that point, it's about mentally going over that hurdle of passively getting involved with investment or actively getting involved in investment. But if you've done all the legwork up to that point, man, you're going across the graduation stage, there's definitely going to be anybody that shows up to a race for the first time I tell them it's a long day, you're going to have a lot of ups and a lot of downs and when you're up I want you to remember that humility is about to smack you in the face and you're gonna feel awful and when you're down slow down, grab some coke grab some water grab something to eat and know that you just got to keep moving forward and you're going to have a high again it's no different than life no different than like a long distance endurance race like that.
Mike Stohler
I want long do you think you can do this? Ironman is it something is like okay, I'm it's kind of like regular professional sports, you know, hey, I'm 3540 I'm done. Or do people is their longevity?
Matthew Fore
Oh, yeah. Here's here's the thing I love about Ironman is the people more than anything. Because I have raced with people that are WAM booties. I have raced with a guy that had ALS. I have raced with our I haven't raced with but I follow a guy who's deep and close to my heart who has Down Syndrome who finished a race and he was the first person to finish a race with Down Syndrome and my sister had Down syndrome. And she tragically passed a couple years back but it just shows you that she and him both had the same view on the world that they could do anything and they didn't have the mental barriers that sometimes because we're quote unquote normal we put in front of ourselves so your your question around longevity, man, I'm not going to be out there trying to try to win races. is when I'm 65 or 70, or anything like that. But there is a lady out there that still competing at 84. And she's still finishing races. So there's definitely longevity and if you want it to be
Mike Stohler
wow, I mean, that's, that's absolutely amazing. I just, you know, what are what's like the biggest race of you know, I know everyone knows the Hawaii, the one in Hawaii. I don't know if you've competed in that one. But what are some of like the big ones that you've competed in?
Matthew Fore
Yeah, the one in Hawaii is the mecca of them all. It is a qualifying race and out assimilate it to Boston, most people that run want to run Boston. For Boston, there's 150 200 races around the world. And as long as you hit a specific time, regardless of the course, if it's a hilly course or a flat course you can go, well, you're basically qualified, they still have cut offs and things like that, because they have to only can take so many people. Why has 20 races across the world, and you usually have to finish in the top two and your age bracket on that day. Which means that no matter how good a day you have, somebody could have a better day. And no matter how bad a day that you have, the people that showed up that day could have had a worst day and you can still win. So it's not really time dependent. And I think that's some of the mental challenge when you're going through these nine hour 10 hour races. That you're you're never know where you're at comparatively. You just got to race, the best race you can race. So the one in Hawaii is obviously the Mecca, I got an opportunity to race in the world championship at the half distance in Austria, Austria, Xlm, Z, Austria. And it was the day after my birthday. My mom took me traveling a lot when I was a kid. So I got a chance to return the favor and take her to one of our most favorite parts of the world, which is that Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland Alps region got to pay for the entire family to go and they got the chance to watch me compete. So that's definitely one that sticks out in my mind.
Mike Stohler
Very cool. Now let's make a kind of a switch. For everybody out there. Matt has his own podcast. And I was lucky enough to be a guest of that. It is called ice cream with investors. And talk to us about number one, how'd you come up with that name? And tell us a little bit about your podcast.
Matthew Fore
Yeah, so how I came up with the name is I'm actually an internal fat kid. The only reason I do all these these long races is so I can get a chance to eat pizza and ice cream and things like that. So no, I mean, really the the idea spawned in 2020. So I work a W two today. I'm a sales leader at a fortune 50 company. I absolutely love the people I work with. It's a cool industry to work in. And and I had a lot of folks that were coming to me and 2020 when they were seeing what was happening in the world, asking me about finances and asking me like how did you do real estate and they know about my passive income and things like that. And I just thought, hey, instead of having these conversations in a one off basis, every every day, why don't I record different niches out there things that you can do real estate, because when I first got involved in real estate, I thought it was the fix and flip that you see on TV, I had no idea it was so much more than that. So I just figured like let me get different people that are experts in different niches. And that way when I'm having these conversations, I can point people back and say, Hey, if you like hotel investing, then this is the your episode. And if you want to chat further, I'll I'll have a conversation with you. And if not, I'll I'll point you to those expert resources so they can help you along the journey. But in 2020, I felt like we are in a very pessimistic time. And I don't believe in that I believe in a can do attitude optimistic and I thought, who's pessimistic when they're thinking about and talking about ice cream? So the show kind of spawned off starting calling it ice cream with investors. And I'll tell you right now, my number one goal is that I'm at the investment conference circle. When we get back to having these investment conferences again, and somebody comes up to me and it's like you're Matt for from ice cream with investors. Can I buy you a bowl of ice cream? And that that is how I'm gonna get free ice cream for the rest of my life.
Mike Stohler
There you go. Yeah, it's you know, once you get to that part, I've I just got back from Scott Irek. And it's an intelligent real estate conference in California and it was awesome. But yeah, I hope you get to that point. And I hope people say you know what, we need you to speak about this and but you know, one of the things I really like about your podcasts and I've listened to a bunch of them is is the fact that you get people with expertise in all these different types of investment asset classes, and they have strengths and different things. And it makes people realize that investing in real estate is not the same as in an episode of HGTV, right? It's, it's a little bit more difficult. And so you know, we really appreciate that how many episodes yet now.
Matthew Fore
So we are at 72, I think at the time of this recording, but already have 76 recorded and, you know, it really just started out like, Hey, I'm just going to make sure that I do one a week. And now I talked about the four things clarity, consistency, efficiency, and compounding now and then that efficiency stage, I figured out that my sound that the first part of me doing this wasn't the top quality, some would call it cringe worthy. And I've learned how to structure the interviews and kind of my voice and my message. And that's just been a fun process for me to kind of see my evolution and myself, but also look for those incremental gains on how you can get better with the with the whole process.
Mike Stohler
What kind of investments are you doing now?
Matthew Fore
So I have a couple of different investments, I started my real estate journey. Well, let me back up a little bit, I got into real estate because I was working for a previous company, previous employer, and we want a $10 million net new logo. And I saw the commission check that I was about to get. And I was like, Man, I'm gonna have to find something to do with that. And so I heard everything from equities, to Bitcoin to bonds to annuities. I had a mentor at the time that was like you should get involved in real estate, cash flows, appreciation, leverage tax benefits, like all the great things, I was like, let's do it. And then I got the call. And again, this isn't the employer I work for today that said, Hey, you're not going to get that check, you're actually going to get two cents on the dollar. And when I asked why the response was, haven't you made enough money this year. And it was at that point where I realized that I needed to get involved in building my own financial future, if I wanted to achieve the goals that I had. So I started getting involved with single family, I got to the point where I hit the 10 single family limit which Fannie and Freddie, you start following outside their box, they don't like that. And so I was looking for things to do. And that's where I stumbled across cross multifamily. So I've got a number of different I'm a GP, and 120 units, a limited partner and 250 units. And then I also lend out money for fix and flips. So I'm involved in a couple of those. And I also own a couple real estate notes. Because there for a while before all this inflation really started heating up, I was big into the note space, trying to learn as much as I could on that. So that's kind of my nutshell of how I got involved in real estate and my portfolio is a snapshot there.
Mike Stohler
Well, it's, it's, you're invested into a lot, you know, in a relatively short period of time. So again, it goes back to that mindset, right? Just, there's so many people, and it just it makes me so upset that I talked to him that I mentor, that they're either seminar junkies, or they always have an excuse, you know, on why they're not in real estate, you know, and now it's like, well, the prices are too high, you know, I can't You can't make any returns and, and I'm like, well, aren't the rents going up? Also, you know, I think, I think it's just another excuse. And one of my mentors said that all the stuff that's floating around in your head, it might be real to you. Because it's inside your head, all these excuses, but it's not the truth. You know, it's, they're just different ways, you know, as well, if I go through one more seminar, I'll be ready to make that jump. And it's just, you're excusing yourself, and pretty soon, you're just, you're never going to be there. So I appreciate what you've done.
Matthew Fore
I think one thing that really helped me though, was I had that traumatic event, right, I had the sense where I lost a life changing amount of commission check. So I knew that hey, spending $42,000 on a down payment for a house, single family house or whatever, like I had just lost that many times over. So if I lose $40,000, at least that's cheaper than an NBA program, right. And another thing that kind of happened at that same time is my dad had triple bypass surgery, and I lost my sister with Down syndrome. And so what I realized is that I have bigger goals than sitting at the desk until I'm 65 and a half, and then taking whatever's monies left and doing living my life I want to give to the causes I care about continue down this endurance Ironman route that I'm on, help others figure out what they want to do in their life, and then their investment journey. And if I really wanted to do that, then I was going to have to figure out a different way. So I would encourage folks to kind of look at their life and say, what are the painful moments in my life and you can view them as painful or you can turn on a different lens and say those could be really motivating factors for you to go be the person that you were always meant to be anyways.
Mike Stohler Yeah, very good. And you know, listeners, you know, this just another example with Matt here is a young guy that says, you know, it's like hey, The W two is nice, but how can I diversify? How can I do this? How can I exasperate the amount of funds to help me into retirement. And not only did he get all these assets in relatively short period of time, but he also has a wonderful podcast. It's called ice cream with investors. And it's at ice cream with investors.com, where you can listen to all these episodes to help you remove the roadblocks to enable you to have financial success. Well, Matt, I appreciate you coming on. And it's always a pleasure to talk with you.
Matthew Fore
Absolutely. Look back to look forward to connecting again soon on your show my show or maybe at some over a bowl of ice cream at some conference,
Mike Stohler
whatever, because that's mine. What's
Matthew Fore
your you go that? You know what, actually, I'll tell the story real quick. I was out on Saturday night and just got done with a little date night and we stopped by Maggie Moo's and they had some butter pecan and I thought about you and I was like, That's it. That's what I'm gonna get right there. It was just recommended.
Mike Stohler
There you go. Butter Pecan. Is it for me. All right, guys. Thank you, man.
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ABOUT MATTHEW FORE
I’m a son, friend, triathlete and investor. I founded ICWI to help others identify and remove the hurdles keeping them from personal and financial success. Through educational content and thought-provoking conversation, my goal is to help you create income streams so that you can live a more intentional life.
I’ve spent the past decade building a sales and leadership career at some of the largest tech companies in the world. In 2015, I was supposed to receive a life-changing commission check. But the week before Christmas, I was told I would only make pennies on the dollar of said check.
Right then, I decided to take back control and find financial security outside of a job—that’s when my work really began.