Whitney Elkins-Hutten explains what it takes to live off of your portfolio

Whitney is a real estate investor and personal finance trainer whose vision is to help thousands of families on their path towards financial independence. After purchasing her first rental in 2002, and hitting a home run, then nearly losing it all on her second deal, Whitney took control and figured out how to invest in real estate the right way. She realized that success must leave clues. So, she studied and using her skills in research,  business operations and training, she replicated the very personal finance and wealth creation strategies the wealthy use to create financial freedom. Today, Whitney is a partner in $900M+ of real estate assets, including 6,500+ residential units, 1,400+ self-storage units, including flipping over $3M in residential real estate. In this episode, she shares her journey and explains how to build the mindset, skills, and strategies necessary to succeed as a real estate investor, so that you live the way you want to. Episode Links: https://www.passiveinvesting.com/whitney/ https://ashwealth.com/ --- Transcript Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: What's going on everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today with me we have one of our favorite recurring guests: Whitney Elkins-Hutten and she's gonna be talking to us today about what do you need to be a badass rockstar, female investor? Let's get into it.   Whitney, what's going on? Thanks for coming back yet again for another episode of record with me really appreciate you.   Whitney: Yeah, thanks so much for having me on. I'm so excited.   Michael: Oh my god, this is… I'm more excited. I'm the most excited. So today, we're gonna be talking about your thoughts, advice, recommendations on how to become a badass rockstar, female investor, because you've done it. So curious to get your thoughts from a high level, you know, what is it that people are getting wrong with their mindset? Or is it something physical that they're doing?   Whitney: Well, yeah, so I don't know if it's something that somebody does wrong, right. I think there's really three key components to like being a successful investor period, but, and we can kind of like dive into like, you know, those nuances between females and males and like what females can do to like, kind of elevate themselves. But really, it boils down to three things: mindset, skill sets, and network. So I mean, if you've read any of the works, you know, thinking grow rich or anything by Kiyosaki, like it boils down to those three things. But just knowing those three words is not enough, like you have to understand how to act on them.   Michael: Here, I was thinking, man, I know the three words, I got the secret recipe now, I'm good.   Whitney: All right. Well, I wish it were that simple, right? You know, that's half the battle like, right, I know that right there. But um, you know, on the mindset piece, um, you know, that that's like the foundation like we're building a pyramid for like, your entire investing business to live off of, like, you have to have a good foundation. And that foundation is like your operating system, like what's in between these two years of yours. And unfortunately, like, or, I mean, we've evolved our society over the years, but this operating system still is like, you know, it's, it's, it's still like in the mastodon air, like, it hasn't like really caught up. Evolution is slow but you know, if you believe in evolution, but yeah, it's a little slow. So we have to, like really work on this on a daily basis and condition it daily and it's so hard in today's environment to do that.   Michael: So, yeah, what are some what are some tips or tricks or steps that you've taken, or you've seen others take to be successful to change their mindset?   Whitney: Well, I can speak for me personally and these are questions that like, I mean, I've had so many mentors and coaches in my life and these are like questions they've given me, too, that I have to continue to ask myself on a regular basis, sometimes daily, like if I'm going through a tough time.   But, you know, if you're getting into real estate, you have to know why you want it. Like why do you want to invest in real estate because real estate is a tool, right? There are some people that love real estate, and you know, you and I are chatting before the show, like, there's your strengths and then there's your gifts, right? For a lot of people, they they have a strength that a translatable skill they're bringing in it thinks that they might be good at investing in real estate, but end of the day, they don't want to own houses, they want the result that the houses give them, right? So know what you want, like, do you want time freedom? Do you want cash flow? Do you need a net worth bill do but I mean, even getting down to that, that freedom of choice, freedom of time, freedom to travel? Like, what is that freedom that you want? And then more importantly, why you want it?   And being able to answer those questions, you know, will reinforce what you're doing. It's like your North Star, like nothing will be able to derail you. Because no matter where you are in your investing plan, if you're just like, I know, I want to have control of my time and this is why because I want to spend it with my family, I want to spend it traveling. Like that's your north star and it can be like a filter for guiding all your decisions.   Michael: I love that.   Whitney: So that's like, yeah, it's like that's like, I mean, it really under it really boils down to getting the right questions in the right sequence, and then pass that deciding it's yours. Okay, just make giving yourself permission. I know for me as a female, like the way I was raised, um, um, you know, borderline millennial Gen Z, right? Like, my mom was very much, you know, pro feminist and stuff like that. You know, I have no problem with that, or very little problem with that, like, I mean, that's just the infighting meant that I was raised in but I'm not. That's not how everybody, everybody came on, right. But you have to decide it's yours. Like, I'm going to go after that, and I deserve it. And there are going to be things that knock you down. Yeah, that happened. throw you off course.   I was just speaking to one of my coaching clients earlier today. And, you know, she's going through divorce now. She's just like when I thought it was getting all this momentum. And I'm like, do you still believe in what you're doing? Yeah. Like, is it yours? Yes. I'm like, okay, great. Like, now let's focus what we can control. And, you know, but those types of things, you know, we feel we're very empathic, but yeah, those type of things get kind of, like derail you a little bit. But really, like just having this, you know, two key decision or two questions and a key decision, like, written down can really help you move forward in that mindset piece.   Michael: I love that and Whitney, I'm curious if we just take a step back for a second for making, you know, knowing your why, and kind of making that decision? How important is it and how granular do you recommend people get, because at the restart Academy, we talked about smart goals and use that acronym for goal setting. But I know so many people are like, oh, I want to invest in real estate because I don't want to work anymore, like, is that enough? Or like, how do they get?   Whitney: I mean, it's a good story. Tony Robbins has this like great exercise like we've ever done unleash the Power Within or any of his bracer series, like, it's the first time you do it, it might actually feel very unsettling and awkward. Like, it's called, like, the seven reasons and so you you name like, why do you want to invest in real estate, right? Because I don't want to work anymore. Why do you want that? Well, because I want to travel great. Why do you want that? Well, I want to see the world and like, you start getting people's puzzles looks on their face, they're like, see me…   And you're like, but that's that gets down to the core essence. Because, as I explained it to, you know, people like Coach is that first level knee jerk, why is what you're running from?   Michael: Hmm…   Whitney: When you ask seven layers deep, you finally figure out you might not be able to articulate the first two or three or four or 5-10 times that you sit down to do that exercise. It may take you months, or even a year or two, you're then figuring out what you're running towards and what is going to get you more motivated, okay, you know that day to day pain, it might be like, understanding what you're running from, like I want to get I don't want to work for you know the company anymore. I don't want to work for my boss, I want to have my time back, blah, blah, blah, right?   But what you're running towards is what's going to be your that Northstar guiding post for you long term, it's what is gonna have you help you build the right real estate business for you, right, because there's so many gets down to that last one, that seventh why and they like, I want my time freedom and they come to me and they're like, teach me how to flip. I'm like, thinking hold on…   Michael: We'll need a little bit of alignment.       Whitney: Yeah, well, that was like, now, you know, we can use flipping as a means to an end to build the real business they want. But you know, we have to understand, you know, you know, where different modalities fits into different phases of the business, but got a little off course in the wild, but that's why you want to make sure that you sit down and kind of go through the exercise. It's, it's hysterical. I mean, I went through the same experience, like, the first time you do it, you're like, why am I asking this question seven times, like I got it the first time…   Michael: I study for the test…   Whitney: It is not the same question. Because now you you're figuring out why you want the next thing that you named.   Michael: Hmm. That is very interesting, I like that, I like that a lot and so who do you who should be having these conversations? Who should be asking these questions of the potential and would be investors? Is it spouses, partners, friends, colleagues? I mean, who should who's a good person to have these conversations with?   Whitney: I mean, you know, you can some people are like introverts they want to do it with by themselves. If you have a good partner or a good friend that can help lead you through that exercise and interrogate reality with you… you know, kind of like, open and honest way, then fantastic. I think the more the merrier. My husband and I we sit down and we do a couple schools setting retreat every year and you know, normally we've like gone back answer the questions that what of what we want for the year ourselves and then come back together and we kind of formulate a plan.   This year, we sat down in the same room and did everything live with each other and I'm like, you know, like peeking on his paper. I'm like, well, yeah, like, what was that like? That but I get to learn so much more about you know, who he is and, you know, we're just gonna there are things that I learned about when we've been married, I mean, she's gonna kill me like, you know, we've been married for a really long time and he's just like, you know, we know everything about each other. I'm like, No, you don't. We don't at all. It was that's so much fun. But you know, really like, if you're open to like having helped, you know, somebody asked these questions with you, so you can help deepen your own like, it frees you up from being the the questioner and also the answer, answer or if you can bring somebody in in that process. You can just take on one role.   Michael: Yeah, I dig it, I dig it. Okay, so that was mindset and then you mentioned what was stuck to…   Whitney: Yeah… So that you know for you to do anything in life you have to have the right mindset you know, the the fact that you know what you want why you want it and that you are going to go after you have given yourself permission to go after it right, that's mindset.   Once you once you understand that you might be standing there going, the person on the street going, Grant, okay, I want real estate, I want financial freedom. Where do we go from here, right. Now you're down to the skill sets, okay? Like the kind of get into the how do we get things done? Now, here's the trick, I'm going to give you you know, people a couple of different ways to look at it first, we can look at what's what you have and what you don't. Okay, so, if you come from business, you've probably heard a SWOT analysis. So where you're, you're listing out your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities to your investment, like what can you bring that is really cool that you can really utilize in your threats, like, you know, um, you know, if you have a family like, I've got a nine year old at a time that can like bomb me anytime in any podcast, and I'm doing like the doors latch, right… Handle that threats what…   Michael: Threat destabilized…   Whitney: …disarmed, those are, you know, really sitting down on all seriousness, the strengths and the weaknesses, you know, focusing there first, and I don't like thinking of weaknesses, but those again, you know, that's what the acronym is, but those are areas that your blind spots, you know, what are what don't you have that, you know, that you need in order to succeed?   Okay, taking, taking, like 510 15 minutes, you know, to look at your strengths and weaknesses and revisit those on a regular basis because as you start, you don't know what you don't know. And as you start digging into, like, whatever path or real estate you're going to go down, you will uncover things like, oh, I need to have a property manager and I don't know how to interview great like, that's, you know, that needs to over here as an opportunity or like, you know, weakness that I need to fill in.   You were talking about strengths. I think there's a confusion that people have, right. Between strengths and gifts. Yeah, in strengths are things that we are good at, we have been trained, we have learned over time we have mastered them, you know, it can be through schooling, training, on the job training and stuff like that, it doesn't actually mean that it's a gift and then it's our net that it lights us up on the inside. Case in point: I'm an epidemiologist by training, I love thinking through critical things. You handed me like a regression analysis and like on software and spreadsheets and stuff, like like that, I can do it. I'm really fast at it, I'm really good at it, do I love it? No, it's a strength, but like, if you if I doubled down on that strength and just solely honed in on that, that being a core part of my business, I would struggle, right because it's not a gift of mine. Like I would eventually hit a wall and go I don't love doing this at all I need to reengineer my business. So even getting more granular so once you have your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, you know, written down on that strengths, separate them out of like things that you've been trained that that you're just good at but then also what do you love? What, what would you do, if you never got paid? Like for me like I love talking, I love educating like, you know, I could I get up I'll do it in the morning. I go to bed doing it at night. My husband is like, can you please just get off the phone? Like I'm on it… and like for women, you know, we have some you know, but there's some big differences between men and women like women we naturally come you know, probably more culture with like communication report building organizational skills, and attention to detail and not so much like being able to focus on detail, but also like handle like, you know, more and I hate the word multitask, but like attention to detail and multiple areas all at the same time, right. Yeah, that's, you know, we were the gatherer part of the chain. You know, we had to pay attention to the kids running around, is there a saber toothed tiger in the area? Where would I get those last berries, that didn't make me sick? Right like we had to pay that into all those details and that is part of our physiology, it's part of this operating system up here in our head.   Michael: It's so funny, you mentioned that yeah, the other day, we had some contractors at our house and I was outside chatting with them, we got along just fine and then I was gone for 10 minutes and my wife, Claire was outside, and they're like, best friends in 10 minutes and she's like, oh, yeah, we just get along, we're buddy, buddy, like, how do you do that? How do you build rapport people so quickly? So I love that you mentioned it. I'm like, yeah, first, first, it's really happening in my household…   Whitney: Yeah, I mean, it's in every, like I said, it's not like, it's not a blanket statement. But identifying what those strengths are and, you know, I think for women, when we're getting into like a very male dominated industry, I think there's an expectation that we have to go toe to toe with them, you know, with males, I'll give you an example: I was on a, speaking on a panel last month at a conference and two incredible male investors with me, I mean, couldn't be, you know, on the stage with more nice, nicer people and I was like, a little nervous, because I was like, these guys are gonna go over deal specifics and numbers, and they're gonna hammer home their deals and returns and I was just like, I'm like, I'm gonna take a different approach. And so whenever I got asked my questions on a panel, I turned back to the audience, and I, like engaged in a conversation with the audience and I had like them laughing and rolling over each other. Because I was in, you know, it was just a different way of connecting, right, like, so um, you know, in the in, you know, not what, there's not a one size fits all solution. But you know, some people would have resonated with that a little bit better, so…   Michael: Absolutely. Oh, how cool. That's great.   Whitney: And, and then, you know, so when we understand what the strengths are, we've got the strings, we've got the guests. Also, we have to switch back to that that awkward the weakness column, and I hate to say I hate the word weakness, I always want to call it opportunities, because it just feels better. Like, this is an area it's kind of my blind side is what area for me to get better. But when we're talking about scaling a business, really, do you just need to be aware of the blind spot and do you have to fix it? Or do you need to find out who to help you, right? So if you don't if you ever read the book, who not how? Michael: Yes, love it!   Whitney: …and the title says it all, who not how... Done, you don't have to read the book.   Michael: Yeah, we just saved you two hours’ worth of reading...   Whitney: Right, but you know, really, you know, how can, you know, you really tap into understand what your blind spots are, and what how they might be limiting for you. If we all can do better in like, you know, fixing our blind spots, when you're building a business, you may not have that luxury or time, go find somebody that that you can bring in that has a complementary skill set.   Me, I found out really fast when I got my first like actual rental, like when we placed tenants in our properties. I was like, okay, I love talking to the, to the tenant, I could build a report, I could get them in, I have got sales skills, not a problem. But when it came to day to day communication with them, I wanted to have nothing to do with it, like I was just like, yeah…, I checked the box, right. Um, but it takes a very special person to do that right to, you know, to manage the tenant and obviously, I mean, I need a property manager, that's my who, like, take me out of this role. Like, I remember standing in the Children's Museum in Wisconsin, I hadn't seen my friends for two years, our kids are playing, and my husband's on the phone talking to our tenant for an hour and a half and this the whole experience of our kids playing because we didn't have a property manager. So that's what I mean by who, right, it was a blind spot for us, we thought we could power through it, but at the end of the day, um, you know, the tenant would have been better served with property management and so we would have we two totally needed to who, in our business…   Michael: When I'm gonna get real vulnerable with you and everyone for a minute, I am not the best identifier of my own blind spots, my wife can attest to that. So how I mean, so much of the who should this conversation be had with question that I was asking you previously? How can we identify or how can we get our blind spots identified and not be, not be rude about it not be you know, have our claws out when that conversation is happening?   Whitney: That is a little tricky, right? Like, who likes being told that you're not so good at this?   Michael: Tell me all the things I can't do well, yeah, it’s not a fun conversation.   Whitney: Right, so I think, you know, um, you do having that conversation with somebody that you know, love and trust. I did this this is I started this off like years ago, I sent me an operator, ,I sent a survey out to like my best friend, like my 10 a small group of friends and I asked them, it was anonymous. They, they could say whatever they wanted on the survey, now, it's only 10 people, you kind of figure out who like said, What, but that, like, what do I have an opportunity to develop? And you know, it's really, it was really interesting, I got some great feedback and that's how you have to take it, it's feedback, right…   Michael: It's not criticism…   Whitney: …Like, we look in the mirror, we're looking at a direct reflection, but we're not seeing the back of our head, there's just no way for us to see, you know, around our body, like how many times you've walked out a bathroom got toilet paper stuck on the backside of your shoe, right? Like you just, there's just no way, so we have to get somebody that has seen all sides of us and the good guy, my ugly, right?   I'm also like, I love having those people in my life and it's just radical candor, okay, it doesn't mean that it's not love. I actually, you know, find it more endearing and more empowering. If I have somebody that's willing to tell me where I like with, you know, with some love and just like, hey, listen, like, you know, you move really fast up into topic, I know you and I know, you don't mean to do that but it'd be really cool if you could just like look me in the eye and say that you understood where I was coming from before you saw the problem and that that's for me, like, that was feedback that I got? No, I was just like, what do you mean? You know, my first I was, I was first taken aback and then I was like, you know, what, do you know how many thoughts went through my head before the words came out of my mouth? Like, I was like, thinking about her mom and thinking about this, like all these different situations and how I could help her and then like, I would love from her telling me what's wrong in her day to like me telling her, this is how we're going to fix it and I didn't… I, my problem is I don't actually like say all those things are going through my head first to create empathy. I think those are amazing things to hear back because it just gives us an opportunity to create a richer relationship with people…   Michael: Oh, that's so good, that's so good and I'm right there with you. I'm so guilty of the same thing, I'm like, oh, cool, here's the problem, well, here's the solution. It's like, well, maybe that's not always the best way to go about it. There's a lot of other things that we could do in the in the in between…   Whitney: Yeah, I mean, it gives you an opportunity to kind of put tools in place. When I was given that feedback. Um, I, I like when searching for tools, like, do I just need to, like, ask more questions. That's always a great thing and, but also, like, I, my question now that I asked is one I'm like, do you need me to help you solve this? Or do you just need me to listen, you know…   Michael: Yes, yes…       Whitney: And half the time, it's like, no, I just need you to listen, I'm like, okay, then, of course, I'm like, I got a solution.   Michael: I have the answer, it's a magic.   Whitney: Yeah, but anyways, you know, we've kind of like, you know, dove down a rabbit hole there but I think it can be a blind spot in any sort of way. Like, I think it's just, you know, again, you know, we're, it, we're having a human experience, right, I heard a quote from one of a, an old coach of mine, he was like, we're just here, you can have any human experience, we're all walking each other home and so you know, you just can't take that feedback about your blind spots too, personally, because really, at the end of the day, the person is, you know, really trying to tell you what you can do to improve yourself. I would be more worried if somebody said, you don't have any blind spots, right? You're just kind of like, really? There's nothing for me to work on, like…   Michael: Yeah, totally, totally. Awesome, okay. So we covered mindset, we just tackled skill set, what’s the third thing to be aware of…   Whitney: Networks, right. So this is an extension of the who, not how, and I think women really excel at building networks and but I want to dive deeper, because it's not exactly building the network, but building the right network, right.   So the network is, you know, when you hit a level of achievement, you're missing, you know, a skill or a person to help you get to that next area. So I mean, I think this is a huge thing. You know, we've all heard the quote from Jim Rohn, you are the average of the five people that you surround yourself with. I would really challenge you, I do this with my coaching clients every single year and they they hate it and they love it at the same time. We do a purge exercise, I have them list out everybody everything in their life and move things to a purge column that just aren't serving them. Now, the first time they do this, they're just like, there's no way that I'm going to like stop talking to that family member and I'm like, I'm not asking you to stop talking to them, I'm asking you to identify those areas in your life, those toxic relationships, maybe like relationships that are holding you down, right? They're not elevating you to that next level of business where you want it be, they challenge, they challenge you in some way, they, they're holding you back.   Maybe there's double standards there, they can do it, but you can't, right. Or maybe they've just have a victim mentality, and you just need to throw them back the rope and be there be loving, be open, but like, You got to figure out your problems on your own because I, I gotta go solve this over here, not that, right. So, um, you know, surrounding yourself with the right people that need to be in your world in order to get to that next level. I know, when I got into real estate, that was super hard for two reasons: One, nobody around me was doing real estate, I didn't have, I didn't feel like I had permission. I was, I was crazy. I was like, you're buying your, you're spending how much on a house I'm like… I'm not spending, it's investing…   And two, my mom was still alive, bless her soul, I mean, it's such a strong, amazing woman to learn from. But I was, I was scared of my mom, like when I needed her permission to invest in you know, she finally just kind of like understood, like, before she passed away that I was I needed to do what I was gonna do. But we had, like, we had some odds there. But I eventually had to be like, you know what, we're gonna agree to disagree and I'm still gonna, I'm still here, I'm your daughter, I love you and you just need to let me do what I'm going to do. But that's hard, those are hard relationships to kind of set aside. But once you kind of create that space, right, you know, whether you actually put boundaries on those relationships, or eliminate the toxic… toxicity and double standards, you can you the first time you do that exercise, you may or may not actually take any action, but over time, you'll realize you have to in order to move up to the next level. Now you got to fill the void when you start moving those people out, now you got to fill the void and backfill with people that are, you know, maybe just right above you that are doing what you have are what what you want to do, go find a mentor, go find the quote, scope be part of a mastermind, right? When you help fill that void at the next level…   Michael: And how I mean, you mentioned it, and I think it's so applicable for so many people, especially a lot of our listeners, maybe who are just getting started who don't have five other people to surround themselves with. How do you build that network? How do you go? Yeah, how do you how do you build that network?   Whitney: So internet… You know, that's great. I love this question and I'm really glad you're one of my favorite ways is actually through podcast?   Michael: Oh, really…   Whitney: I'm in, you know, when we think of network, or a mentor, or coach, it doesn't actually mean that you have to exchange money, I think there needs to be a time at some point in time that, you know, if you really are serious about building your business and scaling, you're gonna find you want to short cut your path to growth, right, you want somebody like looking over your shoulder partnering with you. But when you're just starting out, um, you know, maybe it's like, choosing like, you know, visiting, like a math meetup, like locally finding some, a couple local investors that you resonate with and then like two or three podcasts, people that you love, and you follow, and you just, you know, these are the people again, it's kind of like you're the gifts part you just, like, want to listen to them all the time.   You know, that can even be like a great way to surround yourself in that environment until you can actually, you know, build out that the physical network and to do that, again, meetups can be great. And now that we have zoom, you know, it's proliferated in the past couple years, you know, meetups, a lot of meetups are still virtual. I love conferences, too because conferences, you get like a high density of like, like, a awesome, like investors and operators and stuff like that. So can you find those conferences? For me, I'm attending best ever conference here next week in Denver, Colorado. But that's geared towards multifamily and self-storage, new maybe you're more into single family homes, there's a, there's a conference out there for that, like attend those events. One, you can get your stuff around operators, which we've talked about in length, but too you can get around yourself around other investors that are doing bigger and better things and that you that you want to do…   Michael: That's so good and just one kind of piece of advice, piggybacking off that is when you go to these events, and you go to these in person conferences, or even just these zoom meetings, set an intention, and then follow up on it because I think so many people go to these conferences and it gets super excited and get super hyped and then go back home kind of bored. They might be isolated and don't have a network around them, they're like, oh, well, that was cool but now I'm you know, back to reality here and you never do anything with it…   Whitney: Well, it's all about execution, right? You don't go to the you go to the conference right to learn information, but how can you carry the whole point in building the network is to reger… is for regular engagement. How can you make two or three friends at that conference that you're going to maybe like, do put together a little mini mastermind yourself, you guys are going to meet monthly and hold each other accountable on your goals. You don't have to be doing the exact same thing, you're just like both kind of like, you're all just kind of, you know, going in the same direction in your build, right, your wealth build. You know, you can join, you can join paid masterminds for that type of thing. But it's just it's about the consistency and the persistency of staying engaged, right? You can't, you can't just like attend one conference and go, hey, I built a network.   Michael: I did it now…   Whitney: Yeah, now we just have to be cultivated. I mean, I think people hate the word networking, I actually do a module like with my coaching clients on this. Networking is just us having a conversation. It's really me just asking for directions, right? So how can we like you know, you know, make that just like a regular regular thing. I'm part of the women's go abundance and there's, you know, there's four of us that meet like, every two weeks, whether we have like anything that's for progress forward. We meet every two weeks, we set an intention and I know I've done this, I'm guilty of this. I know like our meeting is on Thursday, I committed to some things two weeks ago, they're not done… I got, I got a report on that, right… And why and it's sometimes it's just like, well, darn, it's just easier for me to get it done but it keeps you moving forward and that's part of the networking it’s the accountability, too…   Michael: Totally! I think networking, so often has this connotation around me using someone or you being used by someone else but really, I think renaming it or reframing it to call it relationship building is that a stitious?   Whitney: Yeah, rapport building relationship building, like, there's you don't have, there doesn't have to be an exchange of anything other than just like report initially and, you know, I mean, we've all been to those events, that the networking events where somebody is like shoving all their cards in your hands, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about actually finding somebody that you just like, you know, at the core fundamental that you resonate with, like, either you guys are walking a similar path, or they're just like, I like put, I like being in the room, or I am the dumbest person in the room. Like, I love that, and it pushes me, but at the same time, I also put myself in situations where I'm the mentor, and I'm giving back and it's just as rewarding.   Michael: That's so good, that's so good. Whitney, we covered mindset, skill set, networking, anything else that you'd recommend to be a rockstar, badass woman investor?   Whitney: Well, I think it's just continuing to, like, revisit these questions on a regular basis, right, because every time you you, you level up a part of your portfolio or achieve a goal, you now have to change who you have to become to get to the next level. So the mindset that got me to buying my first one or two single family properties, compared to the mindset that I have to have it now is entirely different. So it is an evolving process. You're constantly having to level up your mindset, your skill sets in your next your network to reach the next level. So it's not stagnant, this isn't one and done, this is like perpetual work that you have to do on yourself.   Michael: That's so good because I think so many people think about it. If I can just get this one deal, I you know, I'm there if I can just do this one thing that I'm there but it sounds like that's not the case, it's this ever evolving kind of evergreen cycle.   Whitney: I mean, I knew very few investors that have gotten like four or five or 10 single family properties that didn't want didn't go hmm oh, I have a multifamily look great, now you gotta like level level up right? You got to learn or do at least a whole new skill set and you know, probably expand your network to like figure out how to do the multifamily property.   Michael: I love it, I love it. Really this was so good. If people have questions for you want to reach out to you what's the best way for them to get in touch?       Whitney: Yeah, so you can reach out to me at https://www.passiveinvesting.com/whitney/ and you know, I know there I have tons of free downloads on how to get started with passive investing in multifamily and self-storage, real estate. You guys can find me there, but also just happy to jump on the phone and answer any questions for people.   Michael: Oh my god amazing. Well, thank you again for coming on. Always a pleasure to see you and I'm sure we'll do this again soon.   Whitney: Alright, thanks so much, Michael.   Michael: Thanks Whitney, bye…   Alright, well, that was our episode, a big thank you to Whitney for coming on yet again. She shared tons of knowledge, tons of wisdom, really some insightful stuff. So if you like the episode, feel free to leave us a rating or review wherever it is you get your podcasts and as always, we look forward to seeing the next one. Happy investing…