Thirteen years ago, Joshua Dorkin's friends teased him about starting a website that seemed to have no future.\r\r \"I would get calls from my buddies who would literally call me on my cell phone [and say] 'Hey Josh, we just walked past a penny on the ground. So I read about happiness, right? And its not healthy for any of us, it really is not. Joshua Dorkin didnt have to go to Trump University to learn a difficult lesson about real estate investing. He convinced a slew of real estate players, such as veteran house-flippers and rental-property investors, to contribute their know-how to BiggerPockets educational blog; added a marketplace for lenders and others to pitch their services; and installed analytic tools such as a calculator that crunches everything from local property taxes to vacancy rates to determine whether that split-level ranch will make for a profitable rental investment. How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started is written by Brandon Turner; Joshua Dorkin and published by BiggerPockets. Josh Dorkin: Absolutely. So I want the opposite. It became more than a website - it became a brand and an ideal. Joshua Dorkin is a serial entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, publisher, and educator. Is it all the hustle and grind? The list of accomplishments goes on and on, but with this growth came the need to hire, and that we did. This keynote speech goes deep into what really matters most. Maybe not crazier than moving to California to dive deeper into the entertainment business, but I digressWhile I struggled for quite a long time before the business really took off, I was able to live my life on my own terms. I had time to wonder, time to wander, and time to contemplate my life and my happiness. And most people, I didnt know really anyone who, I had very few friends, you, Scott Yates, and some other guys who, you know, were creating companies locally that I knew that I could talk to. Given the choice, I decided to pivot and change course. 95 0 obj <> endobj 100 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[]/Index[95 7]/Info 94 0 R/Length 36/Prev 376417/Root 96 0 R/Size 102/Type/XRef/W[1 2 0]>>stream And I think far too many people get caught up in that, well, you know, Im going to build a business to get to an exit. We always wanted to be, you know, in Hawaii and Colorado. But I think from a mindset perspective, you really, I think, if you have a learning mindset, a mindset where Hey, I always want to learn, I always want to get better. This happens so often where and you mentioned it, its at the SEO algorithm, is it, its almost like youre manic because one day you just closed a really large client, youre all celebrating, and then the next day, all of your servers crash. Exclusive bonus content provided after checkout, 2021, BiggerPockets Bookstore Powered by Shopify, Only available in Ultimate Package and offsite, , Super Bowl 50 Champion and real estate investor, How to invest in real estate while working a full-time job, How to earn more at work (or on the side) so you can invest more, How to get your spouse on board with real estate investing, Eight unique property types you can invest in today, Eleven powerful strategies for building wealth through real estate, Twenty-eight tested methods for finding great real estate deals, Details on partnerships, BRRRR investing, and other creative ways to fund your deals. What do you do when somebody is ripping the copper piping out of your vacant unit? Joshua Dorkin Oct 2016 Mar 2021. This keynote speech goes deep into what really matters most. I learned that the sudden eye blur thing could be a sign of a stroke, but I believed it needed to come along with other symptoms. What are the things that I need to do to be better within all these personal domains? But I look at the cycle as a multi stage cycle. Startup / real estate investor. Ive used that technique, and that has helped me dramatically. And Im. Horrifying, scary. For returns, refunds, or the status of your order, you can contact. I remember you and I met, it must have been like, what, when did you found bigger pockets? On Pivoting and Maintaining Control of Everything, Finding That Moment of Time Each Day to Live and Be Present, The Evolution of Business: From Bootstrap to Semi-Retired (Video), How to Support Your Favorite Charities (for Free) Every Time You Shop on Amazon, 50% change youre shopping there once a week, The Return . But its fantastic. For two years I taught and in my free time I coded and built this budding hobby into something that trickled in tiny advertising checks. And, you know, I think theres a lot of people who are willing to. +(((Bp3G' $('4 )GNh!NA< Well, what do you need to do to change it? Josh Dorkin: Man, so Ive started and stopped the book probably 50 times. What lessons did he learn along the way? Podcaster. And it can be significantly helpful, but I want to press upon anybody whos thinking about it to just recognize that its not something to take lightly. The company is one that I founded almost 18 years ago and left back in November 2018 after undertaking a recapitalization via McCarthy Capital, a private equity shop out of Omaha. And what advice would he share with other aspiring online entrepreneurs?\r\r We don't talk about real estate investing in today's episode. Have you had additional clarity from just taking a step back? I dont know, maybe, if I get some encouragement from my friends Ill do it. But yeah, I mean, there were down periods, dark periods. The book teaches readers how to limit spending while increasing income by using techniques like house hacking: buying a multifamily property, such as a duplex, and living in one unit while renting out the other(s). Almost everyone that builds a business wants some kind of growth, but as much as I loved seeing my brainchild thrive and grow, I was having less and less fun doing it. Verified account Protected Tweets @; Suggested users And please share this article so more people can learn about this amazing program. But just know that theres guys out there like me and Dan and, you know, countless other people whove tried it, whove been through it. After spending an amazing day with my girls, out of the blue one of my eyes went blurry. In this conversation. And the platform itself, your business, whatever it is, is not going to be able to blossom. Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turnerlongtime hosts of the world's #1 real estate podcast, . $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ? A life-long adventurer, Brandon (along with his wife and daughter) splits his time between his home in Hawaii and various other destinations around the globe. What is a VA Loan and Why Should I Consider Using One? For those of you who don't know Josh, Josh is the founder of BiggerPockets.com. And look, we get to go and you know, go out on the beach and not be near people. Dan Daugherty: Welcome to this episode of The Big exit. We engaged an investment bank, initiated a process, and ultimately found ourselves at a successful deal with our aforementioned partners. So, I looked at our total budget for the project, made some adjustments, grabbed some floor and wall tile for the newly conceptualized (on the fly in my head) shower and went on my way. And for me, the outlook is Im not going to let these things dominate me, theyre not going to define me, Im going to allow them to, like you say, to become some kind of catalyst. Doing so otherwise would leave me a nervous wreck. That's why two of the biggest names in the real estate world teamed up to write the most comprehensive manual ever written on getting started in the lucrative business of real estate investing. But thats OK. Hes still well on his way to becoming a mogul just less Donald Trump and more Rupert Murdoch. I recommend it to everyone. Dan Daugherty: I just might, well, offline, lets catch up, because maybe theres something we can do together. But cool, you know, and you move from drinks to water, you start losing weight. And in that time, I realized that I wasnt as happy as I wanted to be running the business. As I sat there trying to relax, things didnt improve and I knew I needed to go in. \"The business really wasn't making serious money for probably getting close to a decade.\"\r\r The story has a happy ending. And lets dive in. Joshua Dorkin is the founder and former CEO of BiggerPockets, launched on October 22, 2004. Joshua Dorkin is the author of The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down (4.20 avg rating, 1854 ratings, 108 reviews, published 2. You know, Im not without stress, and headaches. And everybodys at each others throats and stressed and tense. I realized that over the past fourteen years as CEO and sole founder of BiggerPockets, I sought out success, fame, fortune and accolades, as most people do, but despite achieving all of those things, I just wasnt fully happy. We were thinking about picking it up and mailing it to you.\"\r\r At the time, Dorkin had just launched BiggerPockets, a then-nascent website about real estate investing. Horrifyingly scary, where I was in my, in the office and I broke down and just I was in tears. Highly recommended!" Nat Borchers, retired pro athlete, This caused a shift in Joshuas reality, so he dropped everything. Be there for your families. They have got a new book coming out this Thursday called How To Invest In Real Estate. Lifes too short, man. What regrets does he hold? And come 2007, I went through this very difficult personal time, one of my kids had a medical trauma that led to some really scary stuff, a paralysis in a nine year old. Then I got a little nauseous and dizzy with a very minor headache. Well, the reality is, we are all running out of time. 1675 Larimer St. hbbd`b`ab`gb`\ '11d; Z endstream endobj startxref 0 %%EOF 101 0 obj <>stream Today, BiggerPockets boasts more than 725,000 members, produces the top-rated real estate podcast on iTunes, and last year raked in $7 million in revenue through advertising, premium memberships, and partnerships with companies like credit-rating agency TransUnion. Dan Daugherty: Well said. Josh Dorkin: I thought I was having a heart attack. But yeah, just finding different ways to tweak the way youre doing things, right, if what youre doing personally with your family, and Ive also done that. Instead, Joshua and I focus on the harsh realities of growing an digital empire.\r\r Enjoy!\r\r \u0026nbsp;\r\r You can find more information in the show notes at http://podcast.affordanything.com/episode99 Choose a career that makes you excited to wake up in the morning, energized through the day, and content when you fall asleep at night.', and 'remember: provide value.' Im 43 and I know Im not a kid anymore. You know, like any entrepreneurial story, lots of ups, lots of downs. It is always interesting to see what kind of things come up when you search for yourself online. Dont get me wrong - I used to stress about EVERYTHING. And anything thats stressing me out, you absolutely have to dissect it, and then figure out what the root cause is and that opens up everything else because then you figure out ways, again, Ill use the term operationalize it, is because then it allows you to leverage different tools, maybe you have to delegate more, maybe you dont have to respond within an hour of every single email that comes in, whatever it might be. This led to massive burnout and I came very close to quitting and shutting everything down. Almost a lifetime ago - 18 years today - I officially marked the founding of BiggerPocketsStarting a hobby website while working as a full time teacher was one thing.Two years later taking the risk to quit my job to become a full time startup founder was the craziest and smartest thing I ever did. He later transitioned to building a team, starting with the BiggerPocket Podcasts very own host, Brandon Turner.This later snowballed into more hirings, with the BiggerPockets growing faster and faster, and being able to scale larger and larger. I mean, nights, weekends, you name it, seven days a week. (Where the hell have you been Josh?!? Find which one works best for you, your resources, and your goals. Today, BiggerPockets is a thriving community of over 500,000 experienced and aspiring real estate investors with a wealth of content around buying, managing, and selling investment properties. %PDF-1.6 % I know far too many people who live the non-stop life and many, if not most, are unhappy. I want to, I listened to experts on it. And so, you know, its a serious decision to raise money or not to raise money. I LOVED the first few years of hiring and scaling. Like, I mean, you wouldnt know the difference between her and any other kid. Thank you for the stories and the insights and the tips. So give me give me the motivation and Ill get out there and do it. And really, quite frankly, I did not do a good job of understanding when Im depressed, or who to call, if Im depressed. 28 Jan 2023 08:21:40 Suite 675 Its, instead of drinking soda and orange juice, and, you know, coffees and energy drinks, Im just going to drink water, because water is healthy, water cleanses you, water does this, you know, thats not that big a step. Brandon Turner & Joshua Dorkin. And I didnt want, I just didnt want to do that. And for me in that period, you know, when I realized I wanted to be healthier for example, and by the way, I didnt have to lose weight. But I wanted to be healthier. And so we spent weeks going through the business, realize that we had, you know, created a product that was a little overly bloated, there was you know, wed built too much, too many features. So first phase, I call it like that hobby phase. Why I left BiggerPockets is a little more complicated. But, you know, I didnt do a lot of that, you know, I didnt want to share my feelings necessarily in those early years, because I thought it was a sign of weakness. In my case, the two things most searched are my net worth and why I left BiggerPockets. Many of you already know my story, but it is always a privilege to have the opportunity to share it with other entrepreneurs in person, at events, and of course, via podcast conversations. It was a blast, but by year 12, 13, 14 my job changed. In the early 2000s, Dorkin bought rental property in St. Louis andafter adding up what he could charge for rent and subtracting his expected expensespredicted hed make a tidy profit. And inevitably, you know, I really struggled through those difficult times. Just at the time when things were starting to go from big to bigger, Joshua had to take time off to take care of his daughter's medical emergency. Dan Daugherty: Thats right. And my idea, you know, was one where, you know, VCs and angels thought it didnt have a chance. If you dont take the time to find moments for yourself - moments to be present with the world around you, you might be missing some of the best opportunities for personal happiness. And, you know, so I take those moments when they come to me and I try and take bold steps when they come. I mean, the very first early years, you know, I had very little support outside of my wife, you know. Founder BiggerPockets. I created this site in 2004 to create a place where investors could learn, network, market and make deals in a safe online environment. https://www.biggerpockets.com/show421Many avid members of the BiggerPockets forum, listeners to the podcast, or readers of our articles may know our founder, Joshua Dorkin. And so we said, hey. Many avid members of the BiggerPockets forum, listeners to the podcast, or readers of our articles may know our founder, Joshua Dorkin. You are also, obviously Bigger Pockets continues to grow, still the top everything, the community, the podcast. Life is short, you know, you dont know what can happen tomorrow. Colorado, working ridiculous hours in my basement, I ended up meeting you, of course, and just kept going and going for six more years, until I was ready to throw in the towel. Fast forward to yesterday, I had some of those symptoms. Wed launched the publishing business, I mean, you know, the company grew and grew, he will allowed me to think about the business from a holistic standpoint, strategic, and over time, we grew, we scaled, we hired dozens of people. Josh, thank you for coming on the show. It is always interesting to see what kind of things come up when you search for yourself online. And I had a lot of time and in that time realized that, you know, after 14 years of building this company, man I love, I love, love, love Bigger Pockets, but I was kind of burnt out. Make sure youre doing everything you can to live your best life. Mr. Dorkin's vision for BiggerPockets helped to propel it into becoming one of the top real estate destinations online. And so that ultimately led to diversification of the business. And Im excited to have you on board to really tell the story of how you went from zero to an exit without ever raising a single dime of outside capital. I kind of just glazed over it and just put my head down into work, so I didnt feel depressed anymore. ChatGPT disagrees (see image) What say you? Welcome to the Big Exit, where we discuss startup acquisitions with the founders who lived it. And the platform itself, your business, whatever it is, is not going to be able to blossom. But then I, you know, just went balls to the wall, so to speak, and, you know, was doing 80 to 100 hours, trying to build this thing out. But, fast forward to where we are today and shes fully physically functional. You know, well be doing great getting, you know, x million views per month on, you know, through search, and all of a sudden, Google will make an algorithm change, and thatll drop 20% or 30%. Here youll have a chance to follow me via this blog and to explore the ideas, products, services, books and many other things that influence me. Plus, he doesn't own any rental properties outright anymore, simply because BiggerPockets requires too much of his attention. I had purchased a few rental properties and needed some help dealing with all the questions I had, but couldnt find a place where I could get answers without having to deal with solicitations and promotions of these self-proclaimed gurus who dominated the scene at the time. . Find which one works best for you, your resources, and your goals. It was a very unpleasant experience, very scary again, you know, I was fairly uncertain I would get through it. You know, we started producing video, we created podcasts, we created books, you know, we wanted to be where the listeners and viewers were versus thinking, hey, theyre going to come to us. The days of building product, building community, marketing, growth hacking and being creative were replaced with days managing people. I eat well - seriously cutting back on sugars, eating lots of fruits and vegetables. This caused a shift in Joshua's reality, so he dropped everything. We all KNOW what we need to do, but more often than not we let our fear of the unkno. We took power from those who made information inaccessable by opening the doors and making sure real estate investing knowledge was free.Over the years, the mission to democratize knowledge so anyone, anywhere, regardless of income, education, age, or any other demographic, could learn to build wealth, has resulted in countless lives being changed for the better.Not only have we helped individual investors around the country and work, but weve moved markets.Ive always wanted to calculate the actual economic impact of the business - Im sure the true number would blow everyones minds. You know, I want to learn how to be happy. Im your host, Dan Daugherty and today I have a good friend, Josh Dorkin, who is the founder and former CEO of Bigger Pockets. Genealogy profile for Joshua Dorkin Joshua Dorkin (1843 - 1914) - Genealogy Genealogy for Joshua Dorkin (1843 - 1914) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. We had kids at that point. In the early years, that was mostly strangers, as most of my friends thought I was nuts, but the coolest part is that today, many of those strangers are my closest friends.Finally, if youre dreaming about starting some crazy idea - whether it be a small business, a startup, a real estate investment, or anything else, I encourage you to take a chance.Life is too short to life without taking some risks.And no one wants to live a life full of regrets.Besides, youll never know if that hobby or idea can become a success if you never give it any real effort. There are few things worse than seeing your child suffer and this period was easily the worst of my life. and they hold the #1 real estate podcast on iTunes. Lets do it. Our gut answer is run, because you get wet from above and front. But I got to this point where Id just run myself ragged, really, you know, stupidly worked way, way, way, way too hard. The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. We are all faced with challenges as we go through our lives and they can either break us or just be another thing we deal with. We grew the platform and its offerings. You know, part of my job and one of the things that I pressed upon my staff was, you know, if youre not spending significant time every day learning, youre not going to grow, youre not going to get better, youre not going to be competitive with other people across your area of expertise. something that I used to think gave me hustle street cred, but today I realize was just a formula for burnout. 5280 Publishing, Inc. Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turnerlongtime hosts of the world's #1 real estate podcast, The BiggerPockets Podcastgive you an insider's look at the many different niches and strategies that exist. Problems dont go away. And, you know, Ive been investing, you know, since my exit, in different things, looking for, you know, startups to get involved with, looking for boards to become a part of, looking to advise, Ive been advising some small companies kind of off the books. Dorkin failed to account for costly evictions, irresponsible tenants, inattentive property managers, and unforeseen repairs, such as mending a three-foot-wide hole cut through a kitchen floor. But did you, were you ever really depressed at all? As you know, Im like a scrawny dude. And then I go through and Im like, all right, where am I crappy in each one of these things? I easily felt better. Josh Dorkin started BiggerPockets.com from scratch 10 years ago and now has over 435K members. q=q >s@U8F qNU +HrQ-&pp9Q#b5H8kz{04rs~PRdyC 14Z'= :O+OIQG{^[gFN28JR`9X, r cvhwc61@S*JL1M$d|H8v:Rp= sE) It sounds like you said okay, what am I going to do next? I still get a lot of my great information from the community and the network. Today, BiggerPockets has grown to more than 870,000 members. So, you know, the decision was, do I raise money? . I get to advise Scott and the current leadership team alongside some incredible partners. It was brutal. You got to deal with them. Is that true? Like you cant find that and all that was out there were communities, forums, but they were all kind of tied to or in cahoots with I call them the gurus, the get rich quick crowd. Just work, keep working, be dynamic, pivot and you know, a lot of luck out there. What you may not know is Joshua's journey in founding, building, scaling, and finally leaving BiggerPockets. . The impact of the site, the podcasts, the dozens of books, the videos cant be measured in KPIs alone, but must be measured by lives changed for the better.As a result, BiggerPockets helped transform an industry. Along with a team that we put together including physical and occupational therapists, we began to see the wins rack up and by February/March of 2018 she had progressed from her wheelchair to walker to finally walking by herself. For locals, by locals. With over 100 million prime members, theres about a 1 in 3 chance you are one and if you are, theres a close to 50% change youre shopping there once a week. Well, then you need to figure out a system how to stop being responsive to your email and be proactive, because youre not running your business, your email is running you, right? He started BiggerPockets to help democratize the real estate investing landscape for himself and others, aiming to make it accessible for everyone, regardless of income or education. As you can see in the image below, every time you shop while using the smile subdomain, Amazon will show you your charity of choice (in this case, you can see that we support Childrens Hospital Colorado Foundation). So hired a guy named Brandon Turner, he, some of you listening may know him, hes still the co-host of the Bigger Pockets podcast. As Founder and CEO of BiggerPockets, I created the vision and strategy for the business and bootstrapped the company until . I built at my own pace and designed a business with a mission and values that were important to me. And from a bootstrap perspective, you know, bootstrapping, you have a lot less support than you do when you raise money. What you may not know is Joshuas journey in founding, building, scaling, and finally leaving BiggerPockets. After about six months since transitioning out of the role of CEO of BiggerPockets to advisor, I thought it was time to kick off my own personal platform, this site. Thanks, Josh. I love being an entrepreneur, but I simply prefer working at a smaller company - the sweet spot for me is probably up to 15 employees or so. (BTW - Ill certainly talk more about working on a business at another time). And hopefully, you know, hopefully, somebody listening takes something away from it, I, you know, entrepreneurship is challenging, its really, its really, really tough. Star Wars: Thrawn. Just at the time when things were starting to go from big to bigger, Joshua had to take time off to take care of his daughters medical emergency. Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner - longtime hosts of the world's number-one real estate podcast, The BiggerPockets Podcast - give you an insider's look at the many different niches and strategies that exist. Brett Jurgens Talks About Building and Selling Notion to Comcast. JoshuaDorkin.com linktr.ee/jrdorkin Posts Reels Videos Tagged Show More Posts from jrdorkin I doubt it. Some people dont see that, its almost like when you get a new car, and then you start seeing other similar cars that are the same color that you never saw before. Everything came back clear and they released me. I was making money. And I suppose if I had enough people saying, Yeah, Josh, you should do it, for sure, I might jump at it. Author. Standard economy shipping is always FREE, but you can upgrade if you'd like to receive your book faster. I realized that like, thats not healthy. Weve replaced iced teas, sodas and juices with water in the last decade, and rarely, if ever will I drink alcohol. My excitement for the company and brand never waned, but I really stopped loving going in to work, but didnt know it. The two of them promised me that they would take care of the company in my absense and they certainly did that and I am of course, eternally grateful. And instead of working on the business, I was working in the business exclusively. I dont wish it on anyone to go through what we all went through, but it gave me the time to really think about life. We needed to get this done and time was not on our side. Stop making excuses and focus on those things as your priority because in an instant it can all be over. . And so I, you know, on the side, nights and weekends, while teaching, for the first two years, just started building this platform. Will I get more wet if I stay still, walk or run, and why? Of course, this was an extremely difficult transition for me, but I believe that several years later, I have become a highly valued board member that contributes immensely to the business and Im hopeful that I can find other opportunities to do the same for other companies. So we went and we hired an investment bank, I mean, cutting a long story short, Im sure youre going to have a ton of questions and sorry for ranting, but we hired a bank, went through a process, and, you know, six, eight months later, I had an exit to a private equity company, still own a significant piece of the business. Where am I good in each of these things? As always, I charged on despite my body and subconscious screaming as loud as possible to stop. And Ive given two examples of bad things Ive been through, Ive been through a lot, you know, some pretty bad things on top of that. http://biggerpockets.com/moneyshow42Real estate is a hot topic right now, and who better to talk about the subject than BiggerPockets founder Joshua Dorkin a. Is it impressing other people? All rights reserved. They live in Grays Harbor, Wash. Instead, it dives into dozens of unique, life-changing quests and is packed with more than forty real-life stories of how real estate investors are finding success in todays economy. I mean, nights, weekends, you name it, seven days a week. You know, dont keep doing things that keep you super stressed out. I didnt take calls. You know, we were living pretty tight on what we were making, where we were, as you know, Denvers not inexpensive. Dan Daugherty: That is, as you know, I have two little ones of my own and that is, that changes everything, and Im glad that you priorities that over anything else. I think its one of the top hundred podcasts in the world, give or take. And I did it without freaking out or getting stressed because doing so doesnt help. But, you know, I now have a formula on how do I get rid of them. Every purchase comes with free bonus content: How to Invest in Real Estatewill catapult you 510 years ahead of where you are now.