How a Narrow Focus Allowed a Mom of 3 to Buy $75M of Real Estate | Pili Yarusi

In this episode, Dalyn Hazell sits down with Pili Yarusi to talk about mindset and how that narrow focus really propelled her forward, why you need to choose a narrow focus if you want to get far in real estate, and instructions and guidance on how to do that narrow focus that will help you achieve your goals.

Pili Yarusi is a loving Mom and Wife whose goal is to “lead with aloha” by example. Pili is the cofounder and operator of Yarusi Holdings LLC with her husband Jason.  Yarusi Holdings is a multifamily investment firm that repositions under performing properties through operational efficiencies, rebranding and value-add renovations. Pili and Jason have managed the successful and profitable exit of these multifamily properties. The Yarusi’s currently have an active real estate portfolio of over 75M. She co-hosts Multifamily Live, the Jason and Pili Project, MOM - Moms of Multifamily and MORE - Moms of Real Estate. All can be found on Facebook, YouTube and anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Key takeaways from this episode:

-Having an Aloha mindset can benefit you in aligning your visions and achieving your goals.

-ALOHA's motivating and impactful acronyms.

-To awaken that positive feeling, always start your day with an aloha mindset.

-Applying an aloha mindset in real estate or any other professional career provides opportunities.

-Connecting with the right individual.

-Giving value to tiny things will still produce results.

-Joining a mastermind group can help you obtain more deals.

-Having a narrow focus will help you in excelling and being successful.

Subscribe, Listen to our episodes and leave us a review:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-estate-investing-for-freedom/id1570870735

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2d3nMp137jfw6MDyPPsY3j

Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xNzkxNDk0LnJzcw==

Connect with Guest, Pili Yarusi:

Website: https://www.yarusiholdings.com/

Connect with the Host, Dalyn Hazell:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dalyn.hazell/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dhazell24/

Email: dalyndhazell@gmail.com

Transcript

Introduction  0:00  

This is the real estate investing for freedom Podcast, where we bring on the experts to teach you the golden nuggets of real estate investing, so you can escape the rat race and start living life on your terms. Now, here's your host Dalyn Hazell.

Dalyn Hazell  0:18  

Hey, what's up, guys, welcome back to another episode of the show. Sorry, it's been a little bit since I uploaded my most recent episode. It has been a crazy busy couple of weeks. But I do want to announce that I have left my corporate job and I am now pursuing real estate full time. So I cannot be more thankful and excited for what the future has for me in real estate. I'm staying very busy still, making deals happen making offers and closing on new properties. I'm so thankful for real estate and how it's changed my life. And basically, this podcast is all about helping shape your future and your life, if you so choose with real estate, just like mine has been changed so much. So with all that said, I'm going to get on to the topic of today's show, but I just wanted to announce that. And thank you for being patient with me as I worked on uploading this one. So today's show, I sit down with Pili Yarusi. She is the founder of Yarusi holdings. And she was actually on the BiggerPockets podcast this summer. So she is a very important guest. And she's done a lot of big and great things in her career with real estate investing. And today we're going to specifically hone in on how a narrow focus allowed her to buy over $75 million of real estate and counting. I'm sure it's gone up a lot since the recording of the show. So we do touch on some tactics in this episode. But mainly we're going to talk about mindset and how that narrow focus really propelled her forward. And why you need to choose a narrow focus if you want to get far in real estate because I think a lot of folks have a lot of things they're doing and they're building, you know, small bridges here and there. But we're talking about building one long bridge to your destination, this island of whether it's financial freedom, or lifestyle, design, whatever you're trying to get to, we're trying to instruct you and kind of guide you in how to do that with a narrow focus to go a long way rather than just go a short way with a bunch of different focuses. So this one's gonna be a good one. And I'm excited that you're here. But before all that, here's today's golden nugget of the day. Today's gold nugget is to make sure that you are keeping tabs on labor prices and material prices. In this crazy economy we're going through, you know material prices have always fluctuated, but they're especially fluctuating right now. There's a labor shortage. So labor prices are on the rise. So make sure you're keeping tabs on that because that's going to affect how much you can pay for a property, how much you can resell it for how much you can refinance it for all important things that we need to keep tabs on as real estate investors. And I know you may be thinking, I'm not expecting you to, you know, walk through Home Depot every week, check-in on the prices of a two-by-four. Maybe you just talk casually with your contractor, or other contractors and get multiple bids for your projects to make sure you are paying the right price because as what you may have paid six months ago, is not necessarily what you should be paying now. And with COVID and the supply lines being you know, impacted. It's really changed up a lot in terms of rehabbing properties. So that is today's gold nugget of the day. And without further ado, here I'm going to dive into today's interview episode with Pili Yarusi. Welcome to the show. Pili How are you doing today?

Pili Yarusi  1:17  

So good. So honored to be here.

Dalyn Hazell  3:48  

Thank you so much. Can you give the audience a short introduction about yourself and why you chose real estate?

Pili Yarusi  3:53  

Sure. Hey, everyone, my name is Pili "Aloha" Yarusi. I chose real estate because it was the next step in my evolution. So I am born and raised in Hawaii. I moved to New York City back in 2001. Just before like two weeks before 911 happened. That totally changed. Well, it changed the trajectory for a lot of us. But it changed the trajectory of my life. I ended up staying in New York. I was there to do theater and I wanted to Shakespeare for the rest of my life. I ended up bartending and managing restaurants. I have lived in California like I said, I lived in Hawaii, I lived in New Jersey and I live now in Tennessee. There's a lot in between there, but I want to make keep this introduction rather short. By the time my husband and I really really saw each other because we met in 2003 but we didn't actually see each other until 2012, 2013 once we saw each other, we spent a year in the bar industry still because that's where we met, we met in the bar industry, and then took that relationship to the next level when we decided we wanted to start a family together. Hurricane Sandy had happened in about 2012. And the thing is his family's construction company, that construction company he was basically raised into, was a house lifting company, or is a house lifting company. So they take and raise houses out of the flood zones are not adequate, they do move them as well. But they take them up, they raise them above the bfe above the base flood elevation, build them a new foundation, put the house back on and now you have kind of a brand new house. So like I said before, this was just the kind of next step in my evolution. Jason, I got together, we want to start a family, we started helping out in his family business, he actually became one of the vice presidents of the business, I started helping out the sales and real estate was the next level up for not only Jason I but for his family. So we got into flipping and wholesaling at that point. So again, it's just it was my next evolution.

Dalyn Hazell  6:19  

Okay, so you've been in the real estate game for about eight years now sounds like right, eight or nine years. Perfect. And I'm very excited to have Pili on because she was on the BiggerPockets podcast, which so I think you're a really big deal, being on that podcast and having it here is pretty humbling, so exciting. And you had a lot of good points to share on that show, which we're gonna unpack some of today. First being I know you mentioned in your name was Aloha. What is that mean? For you? I know it has a kind of sentimental meaning for you. And how do you integrate that into your life? But first off, kind of explain what it is? Is it an acronym or what is that?

Pili Yarusi  7:00  

So there's so much to the word Aloha, I just grew up in Hawaii. So I grew up surrounded by aloha surrounded by love, and aloha, translated into English, the closest word that you can find is love. But it's all the good feelings. It's like happiness and warmth and growth. And there's another word and Hawaiian, which is ha, which means breath. So Aloha. I mean, it's like it's everything good. So that just having that in my name, Pili Aloha, which means close love. Pili means close or togetherness and love. I mean, my mom naming that just kind of set me up for life. She just sent me out in this position where I get to lead with Aloha, which is my motto I lead with Aloha, I take those steps to be front-facing with Aloha. And I just anytime I enter a room, if I can't enter it with all the Aloha all the love all the energy in my heart, then I don't enter it, I focus and I settle within myself so that when I enter that room, and this is, this is something I've learned over the years because you don't know when that next person that you'll meet will take your life to that next level or that person that you'll need that you'll take their life next level. Like you don't know how many people that you can change their lives that you can change, or which people are going to change your lives, what moments in time are going to change your life for the better take you to that next level unless you enter a room, a podcast, a and it really anything in your life with your whole being. And that starts off with centering yourself within yourself by taking that moment, whether it's in the morning or afternoon or even the evening, depending on what kind of person you are, and taking those steps to send to yourself and to fill your cup first. So you mentioned my acronym. And it's actually in the book that my husband and I wrote this during COVID. During 2020 we're like we have all this stuff that we want to share. We can't see anybody anymore. So we're gonna write a book. So the book is actually called How to master a fit-rich life in 15 days. And in it I explore my aloha mindset and you are going to recognize this because it is exactly like the Miracle Morning. I absolutely love the hell out rod and the Miracle Morning I give props to him. Just as he gives props to those that came before him who figured out all these things like Oprah, like all those people that have already been meditating that wake up early that set themselves up. So my turn to give props to him. So my aloha mindset is an awakening. You get up and you start your day whatever you need to do, roll out of bed, Go brush your teeth. Put your phone halfway across the universe, whatever you need to do to get out of bed. And then you know what there's sometimes you got to give yourself grace. But my grace looks like setting myself up with my yoga mat on top of the floor right next to my bed. So I can turn over and onto my yoga mat and stretch on the floor if I have to, to me that's getting up. So do anything you need to make that happen. Next comes l for love, again, with the Aloha, and that's love towards yourself, that's filling your energy. That's prayer, that's meditation, taking the next five to 10 minutes. If you don't think you need to meditate or prayer pray, that means you need to take an hour, you need to send to yourself, you need to get your mind, right, you need to break out that vision board, you need to just have those affirmations, whatever you need to do because it looks different for everybody, whatever you need to do to send to yourself. So next is over opportunity. I mentioned the vision board. So my husband and I have a vision board, we look at it together every single day for at least 30 seconds together. We look at it separately, but at least 30 seconds together. So we can solidify our partnership and our goals by making sure our visions align, make sure you have those actionable goals, those actionable steps to get to those goals, either written down Put in a journal writing in a journal is really, really helpful. I'm really bad at it actually. I'm really, really bad at it.

Dalyn Hazell  11:35  

I don't do journaling too Well, I do it for a few days. And then I just lose touch with it may be because I'm like a guy. And I just don't I'm not big into that. But I don't know,

Pili Yarusi  11:44  

I don't think it has anything to do with if you're a guy or a girl because I'm horrible at it, I have all these unfilled journals, and it makes me feel bad. So I just don't do it anymore. Why do something that's just going to make you feel bad? So what I do instead of journaling is, I make sure I have that vision board, I make sure I write down something every day, whether it's in my notebook in which I have my notebook, which all my notes go into. So I don't call it a journal. So maybe that's why I actually use it. But so that's O, for an opportunity, H, ages for health. So, Jason and I were huge into 75, hard, all through COVID, all through 2020. And even before we started, we started 75 hard I think at the end of 2019. And we finished the entire year. That's basically working out twice a day drinking a gallon of water, writing, reading, all the things that fill your mind if you want to look that up. That's Andy for Sella, hashtag 75 hard, it's an amazing, amazing program, if you want to kind of kickstart and kickstart your life. And so but anything really half an hour of something, whether it's yoga, running, walking, whatever it is, that gets you moving, get your heart rate up, do it and don't follow somebody else's plan. Because you're going to feel bad about yourself. If you're gonna try and run that marathon before you've even walked. Walk first. That's the steps you have to take. And then the last thing is Aspire. And it's like podcasts like yours. It's surrounding yourself with the best surrounding yourself with people that that uplift you that inspire you in, in everything in anything, whether it's a podcast, whether it's a book, whether it's anything, have it inspire you and be and surround yourself with people that you can aspire to be like.

Dalyn Hazell  13:43  

Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for breaking all that down. What you're doing here is you're not trying to replace other methods like maybe the Miracle Morning, hello rod, you're just trying to kind of pave the way of this is a way that you kind of conduct your life and the way that you see the world and I think that's a really beautiful thing. So that first one awakening just opening up your mind right first thing in the morning and putting aside any distractions just awakening in that positive feeling. And then you know, love you You're, you're loving yourself and you're also loving others opportunity, you're looking towards the future. And with your spouse there. I think that's an awesome thing. If anybody doesn't do that kind of like review goals with your spouse, that's super important. I highly recommend doing that. And then help you realize the importance of health because that affects your mood, your productivity, you’re well-being. And then aspire to do things like this. Just iron sharpens iron. I think this is just a great way to kind of conduct your life. It's not like a step-by-step. It's just these are the pillars of your life. Is that kind of correct?

Pili Yarusi  14:48  

Yes, these are definitely the pillars of my life. This is how I start my morning. Every single morning I have to do that. I know and I feel those days where even if I don't do one thing, I'm just like, oh Is my day just not good today, and I realized, Oh, I didn't meditate, Oh, I didn't read or I didn't do something to fill myself too, because I, I fully believe in giving all my aloha out, because I know I'll get it back. I know because of the energy I put out, I will get the same energy back. So if the energy that I'm putting out isn't like to the tee isn't tippity top, then the energy that I'll get back is going to make me tired because the energy is it's the same the ones that what you put out is the same thing that you'll get back?

Dalyn Hazell  15:34  

Absolutely. It's reciprocated. And so have you seen that this just lifts your mood and lifts other people's mood throughout the day? Have you seen that? Obviously, the positive results of this method?

Pili Yarusi  15:47  

Yes, I find that if I center myself, especially when I come on the podcast, I need to censor myself first. And you mentioned the bigger pockets podcast, I seriously was I'm gonna be honest with you and your listeners, I was nervous. I mean, it's bigger pockets. And it wasn't until after, after I said goodbye to David and Brandon, I was just like, oh, my goodness, I just did bigger pockets. That's amazing. But the thing is, I had to set myself up for that I had to make sure I was present, I had to make sure that I had my ducks in a row. And even during the podcast, I was just like, that energy just wanted to explode. Because there's such thing as having too much great energy, like having too much like nervous energy, even taking that down and making sure it's settled. It's level, it's, it's understandable. You have to do this every single day for yourself. But I did also mentioned that you know, my path is not going to be same as may be the same as your path is not going to be the same as you know, Mary, or john or Jane over here. Because not everybody is a quote, morning person. So that's why something like the Miracle Morning might scare people, because they're like, well, I don't want to wake up at 430 in the morning or 530 in the morning to set myself up. I'd rather do this at 10 at night fine. Perfect. Set yourself up at 10 at night and carry that through your sleep and into your morning, whatever you need to do to set yourself up.

Dalyn Hazell  17:19  

Absolutely, you know, and these types of things are so important that you just do them that you want to take the path of least resistance, for example, you know, like you said, if you're not a morning person, don't do this in the morning, if you don't like to journal, don't journal or all that something different, like reshape your mind around that. Because once it becomes an obligation or a chore, you really lose steam pretty fast in it. Wouldn't you agree? 

Pili Yarusi  17:43  

Exactly. Know exactly. That's why I changed the Miracle Morning, again, totally ripped off of that change the Miracle Morning into my aloha mindset. And that just opened the world up to me because all of a sudden, I had my personal motto, which is to lead with Aloha. I had this acronym that Jason I live our lives by. And I knew that I could do this at any point in the day I didn't at all like it's best for me to wake up at 430 in the morning, get this done, get a really good run or exercise in and then continue with my day. But hey, I'm a mom of three. Now, I don't always get to sleep early enough. Or I wake up at a weird hour at night, because I'm either worried about the kids or they've all decided to jump in the bed with Jason and me. So when these things happen, what are you going to do? Do you make sure you get it done? And you make sure you get it done correctly and every day?

Dalyn Hazell  18:43  

Yeah, because like it's easy to talk about this and like, Okay, this is what I do at 430 this, but yeah, when your kids run in there and kind of disrupt things, or maybe you just have you're in stuck in traffic, like what are you going to do in those scenarios where life doesn't always like play the cards right? and building up that aloha mindset, I think really carry you through that. And onwards. So I'm curious, like, how do you apply this into real estate because we are real estate investors. And so far we've just talked about like, overall, you know, the Aloha mindset, how do you apply this to for example, if you're in negotiating with a seller or like setting up your property management, like how does this really apply to your professional career? 

Pili Yarusi  19:24  

Well, it's all about making relationships, right? Everything is relationships, whether or not you're in real estate, whether or not you're an agent in real estate, and a single-family investor or multifamily investor. Having the mindset of giving first is optimal in any shape or form. Giving first is how you will receive the most. So aloha mindset and leading with aloha helps me in every single So my life, so how does it translate to real estate? That was your question. So every conversation that I have, every single conversation that I have, I am seeking to provide opportunity. So this is even more so when I'm having conversations with investors. So my wheelhouse my superpower is Investor Relations. So when I'm talking to investors, when I'm talking to possible investors, or when I'm just speaking to someone like I'm speaking to you, I don't know Dalyn. If you are going to be an investor in one of my deals, whether it's tomorrow, a month from now, six years from now, regardless, having this conversation, and showing myself and providing as much opportunity and value as I can, we'll make that happen. Whether it is a month from now, three months from now, or six years from now, whatever conversations that I have, I try to be mindful of that. So one of the questions I get a lot is how do you raise money? Like how do you start raising capital, I have such a hard time talking to people about money about raising capital? And my answer is, don't just don't, yes, it's in the back of your head, this is what you want to get into, maybe you have a deal that you haven't, that you're having a hard time raising for maybe you're thinking about deals that you might have in the future, regardless of what it is, when you're speaking to people don't go with the mindset of raising money. That just basically means I want to take money from you. If I came to you Dalyn, and I was like, Can you give me some money, and you'd be like, Pili, I don't know you. I don't know you, I don't know what you're about, I don't even know what you have to offer. And really, it actually doesn't matter what I have to offer if it doesn't suit what you need. So again, with the giving attitude, the Aloha mindset, the leading with Aloha, I listened first, I listened to what my prospective investors what my, what I what whoever I'm talking to, I listened to what they might need. And if it aligns with what I can provide, whether it is my investments, or my educational platform, or just simply being a friend, whatever it is that I want to provide that but again, you're not raising money, you're providing opportunity, just having that mindset shift will open the world. For so many people. I've been called like, that's been called flower re, or like, I don't want to say it's been put down before because but people have been having told me But Peter, you're simply raising money. When I go into conversation, I want to get down to business, I want to make sure that you know, they know that I'm looking for partners I'm looking for Investment Partners, I'm looking for limited partners in my deals, I'm like, you know what the thing is if that works for you, and it is getting you to the point where you need to get in great. That's awesome. That doesn't work for me. And if you're trying that, though, and you're having these like hard conversations right off the bat, maybe switch it up a bit, maybe Listen, first, maybe go into a conversation without the thought that you're going you're raising money for a deal, maybe go into the thought that you want to provide this person with as much opportunity as possible. So Dalyn let’s say you wanted a quick turn on your money and say six to nine months. Am I the best person for that? Absolutely not. My holes are anywhere from three to 10 years. So what I would do is say I would be like Dalyn you know what, I actually don't flip in wholesale anymore. But I have investors A, B and C that I have known since 2013. I can give their credentials to you, I can make that introduction. And I know that it'll be a quick turn on your money. And I know that I know like and trust them. So there you go. I'm not going to make any money out of that. Dalyn but say, say you do get that done. And you make a ton of money on your money which I helped provide for you. I provided you the opportunity to speak with some of my friends to invest in some of my friends. Who are you going to come to when you want someplace to put your money for a longer hold where you want to be more passive. Exactly. You're going to come to me Or you're going to come to me to ask me, you know what, I have this money now, I'm thinking about doing a, b and c with it, what do you think, and then we can have the conversation about you investing in me, or you invest in with somebody else. Because I also, like, I also recommend my other multifamily friends to my investors, like maybe you don't like my market, great, you want to be in Florida, here's investor, C, D, and F, they're in Florida, go talk to them. It's all about connection and relationships, and even those relationships that don't invest in me and end up investing with other people. As long as those people are taking care of those investors of those peers, then I'm happy, I'm a happy camper, because not everybody's going to be for me, and I'm not going to be for everyone. But again, coming back to aloha mindset, and providing opportunity go into these conversations, where whatever it is, with that mindset, provide opportunity.

Dalyn Hazell  26:02  

Yeah, because you can't serve everyone directly. And you're not supposed to. But you understand that you could serve everybody indirectly by putting in in the right direction or connecting with the right individual. So I think your mindset is very advanced just listening to you. And that you realize that and I'm sure that's part of the reason why you've gotten so far in your professional career. In my, in my you know, in my career, I'm in the flipping and wholesaling phase. So the way that kind of looks in my life, and I think for a lot of listeners who are just getting started out is like, you know, talking to sellers is probably the main most important thing you need to be doing talking to sellers that want to sell. And so I go into appointments, and I go into negotiations with the attitude of like, I don't know if I'm the right fit for you. And I don't know if I can give you the right offer that you need. But I'm going to help you sell this house, no matter what it may look like, if it looks like referring you to a contractor or an agent, or even another wholesale buyer. It doesn't matter, I'm here to provide a win-win solution. And that actually, it's amazing when you go into it that way. Rather than like needing the sale or pushing the sale, it comes back because they're like, hey, that Dalyn guy was really reliable, or he really helped me out even though we couldn't do a deal together. Like he's a cool guy. And I'm not doing that for my own self-esteem. But it's like, I know that I can't help everybody. And I may not be the right solution, just like you may not be the right solution for me now, because I'm looking for a quicker return on my money. But it's all about putting two and two together, like putting people together putting experiences together for the greatest results. So I think you explained that very well. And I just wanted to add on to that for folks that are maybe not in your stage of life right now.

Pili Yarusi  27:53  

Thank you. And the thing is, like with this mindset came out of gross, I'm 41. I just turned 41 a few days ago. And I can't say that I have the same mindset 20. But throughout my life I've it's just kind of become solidified ever with every step that I've taken. So when we were in the flipping and wholesaling industry, wherever you are at, I still had the same mindset, exactly what you do with sellers, I did the same, I would walk into the appointments, not needing it, I, of course, you know, we want to make that, that sale, we want to be the people that help that seller. But see, that's a difference in mindset, we want to be the people that help that seller with every shape or form because if they're calling us, that means there's something wrong with their house, that means they don't want to work with an agent. That means that I need to listen to them to figure out exactly what they need and do my best to serve them. So if they need that agent, like if I walk into the house, and there it's like spotless and immaculate. This has happened to me before, I'll walk into a $1.2 million house in an amazing part of town. And they're just like, I just don't want to work with an agent. And I'm just like, oh, I don't have $1.2 million, and there's nothing I can do to your house. So this is what I'll do either I was an agent at the time. So I was like, I could list this for you. But I am not a higher-end agent. I have agents A B and C that could work with you. And they would love to talk with you. And if you would like since we already have this relationship with this repertoire. I can sit in on the meeting but these are people that I know like and trust and I know they will serve you I know they will take care of you. And I've made such amazing relationships with sellers back in the day. But not only that, making good business relationships with other agents in the industry, because they'd look at me and be like, wait a minute, I'm not even your brokerage. Wait a minute, I don't like I'm like, I don't care, you're a great agent, I want you to represent the seller that I've, I've worked hard on the seller, I've put in 1000s of dollars in marketing, I've already had three conversations with them, two of them being in person, I want to make sure they stay in my system by giving you the referral. So I want you to make that money. So that this entire thing can come to fruition not only for me, for you and for the seller, so you're helping more people in that aspect. I'm not going to be like, I would like to make that sale, but I'm not the one that can help that person the most. So but I wouldn't know this unless I went in. And I actually listened. And I heard what they needed.

Dalyn Hazell  30:57  

Yeah, and it's brilliant of you to like see past, you know, the brokerage or the label or because humans, we put so many labels on things. And it's like, well if that person is not experienced enough, I don't really want to help them. They're not worth my time, or this podcast is small. So I don't want to, I don't want to appear on it. It's not worth my time. And I think what separates you is that you see past that, and you're just trying to give value because you know, it'll come back and return.

Pili Yarusi  31:21  

Exactly. I mean, I honestly don't know where your podcast is big or small, bigger pockets, or I'm your first ever guessed, it doesn't matter to me. It's conversations it's giving value. I'm not sure if I'm going to partner up with Brandon or David one day, I'm not sure if I'm going to partner up with you, Dalyn in one day. But I consider like, in fact, like this podcast itself, that you are my partner right now, we are in a partnership to provide as much value as we can to your listeners who are listening in right now giving us their time and energy right now, by simply putting us in their ears. And I want to make sure that this time that they spend with us, gives them something even if it's a minuscule amount to move their lives forward. That is what a podcast is for. We are supposed to move people's lives forward. And if it's not doing that, then we shouldn't be on the air.

Dalyn Hazell  32:25  

Yeah, absolutely. And as I'm just listening, and I hope other people are picking up on this, just how differently you're talking than most people. And I believe success leaves clues. So this is how, you know, the way that police talking. This is how you should be thinking about life and real estate and business because these are clues to success. So Absolutely. Well appealing. If you don't mind, I want to kind of switch gears and I know you're big on having a very narrow focus. So how has that produced the most opportunities in your life,

Pili Yarusi  32:58  

I'm laughing right now because I didn't always have a narrow focus. I thought I could do everything right out of like I could in fact, in college, I had like five jobs. Plus I was in college, I was working in at the college, I was working at the theater, I was working in the library I was working at the like snack shop, I was always like just I learned how to the cocktail waitress, I was doing all the things plus I was learning. And then when I moved to New York, I was bartending, I was trying to get into the acting thing I was writing a book I was I was doing so many things. It wasn't until very recently that I learned that I needed to focus. And that happens. Because I became a mother. All of a sudden, I did not have any time. All of a sudden, my body was a lot different, my mind was a lot different. And I was actually suffering from postpartum after the birth of my first child. So and I didn't realize it, then my doctors didn't realize it. And it was probably really it was probably just mild. But my husband noticed that enough Jason noticed it enough that he was like Okay, I gotta snap you out of this. This is she's not. She's not the same. And the thing is mothers or anybody out there, that you were going to go through these life changes, whatever they may be, whether it's childbirth, whether it's a changing job, whether it's COVID, we're going to change and that's allowed, but I was changing for the negative I was becoming very negative about myself about my self worth about my body, about my mind, about my trajectory, even in real estates. I've started getting down on myself, and my husband's a very uplifting person if you've ever talked to him, he's very he's like a bulldog when it comes to getting things done. But he also likes to lift people up he'll like put you on his shoulders and lift you up and carry if you if he has to. So what he did and we already have A successful or kind of successful flipping and wholesaling business, we were picking up the hammer too much. We weren't systematizing enough at this point, and we were already looking into different avenues of real estate and multifamily hadn't come up yet. So he enrolled me or basically told me to go check out this, go check out this mastermind, this guy, Justin Williams. And I ended up joining seven-figure flipping. And this program. I mean, not only gave us the way to systematize, our business and took our flipping and wholesaling, actually our flipping business at the time they introduced wholesaling to us, which was just a whole nother level. And we made a ton of money on that. It also allowed me to have this one on one conversations with people that were doing it and doing it better than me. And what he didn't, what Jason didn't realize is that there were a lot of mothers in this program as well, that I could ask and I can get information from. So that is what masterminds and mentorship are really for, is to especially a mastermind is to really like dig in and talk to other people in the industry, your peers, those people that are doing it, those people that are like right there above you that are putting their hands out, wanting to help you and all you got to do is reach up and ask the questions. And even those that are just starting that need that leg up, you get to help those people. So that is what brought me to my extreme focus. And the reason why I'm turning this into a huge story I'm getting to the point is that at some point, so we actually started at not the like the beginning level, their mastermind was called house flipping formula at that time. And then we joined the upper-level mastermind, which was seven-figure flipping, and when we were at the first, our first like hot seat, our first mastermind meeting, Jason Jason, I had just closed our first multifamily. So we closed our first multifamily and we're like, okay, there's an ask and the gift. So give, we're going to tell everybody about large multifamily. And we gave that information and then our give or our Ask was, was okay, we need. We need. We need to know how to manage all these companies. Because we had wholesaling. We had flipped, we had large multifamily. We had the construction company, we had, we still had our smaller multi-families, Jason was still a partner or still own part of his brewery company. He was still partners in a restaurant. And we had two kids at the time.

And it wasn't like we were falling apart. But we just had so many jobs and so much stuff to do. That we kept on asking for this. We kept on asking for this for two years. Finally, like the straw that broke the camel's back, I'm asking for the same thing. And one of the upper-level-level mentors walks in, who actually ended up being one of our key investors and most of our deals, and was one of our partners in our last big deal. But I digress. He walks in. He's like Pili, you keep on asking for the same thing. You know what to do, just go and do it. inadvertently, he had just told me to quit some finger flipping and to dismantle both my flipping and wholesaling businesses. inadvertently, I had this epiphany. And I realized, I need focus. And that year became the year of focus. And in order to do that, I needed to drop some of these balls. So Jason took himself out of the construction company. We still he still does a little bit because it's his family company. But he's no longer president. He's no longer key, a key principle of that company. I dismantled the flipping, wholesaling companies that we had, I basically cut the marketing once you cut the marketing, the business drops. So we were doing $15,000 in marketing every single month. This is where we were in that business $15,000 in marketing cut. It took us about, I don't know a year or two to actually stop getting phone calls. The last thing I actually wholesaled for like, I don't know, I was it was a great home and a great neighborhood and one of my friends wanted it. I was like, You know what, give like, give me a condition of $8,000 you can have it. He probably has like $100,000 in equity in that house right now. Not only because I gave it to him for such a great price, but because of what has happened with the market. So, to get back to your question about focus, it's needed. At least for me, it's absolutely needed to have this focus is the extreme focus. You might not be like me You might be able to handle more things at once my husband can handle more things at once. But if you're like me, and you need to actually take your head, stick your head into it, and focus on it. And if that's where you can provide the most energy, and I believe this is actually a little bit true for everyone, because if you give your extreme focus to one thing, don't you think that one thing is going to excel. So this idea came from the books the 12, week year by Brian Moran. And Gary Keller and Jay Papasan is the one thing I read those books, those books were introduced to me by the mastermind, and I follow them almost to the tee To this day, because I know whenever I lose focus, it's when everything starts to fall apart, not only the business parts but also the family parts. Also, the relationship parts between me and my husband, if I am not focused if I don't, if I'm not put in the position, and I'm not present in that moment, then I miss it isn't one of the things that we all want, if you're listening to this podcast, this means you have some idea or you have some steak or you want to get into real estate or something like it. And most people get into real estate because they want some of their time back. But if you are all over the place, if you're spending your time being fractured, then chances are when you have that time, you're not going to be spending it where you should be, you're not going to be focusing in on your family when they need to be focused on, you're not going to be focusing in on those relationships that you need to be focused on. When you need to focus on your business, chances are you're not going to be focused there. So if you start practicing insane focus, and chances are that one goal that you've been eyeing to get to, you'll get to it, because now you'll know you'll have to set those actionable steps to get to that goal. Chances are if you read the 12 week year, you'll see that you can get that year goal that you had in mind. I do it in here, why not do it in 12 weeks, it's possible I've done it before. All you need to do is set that actionable goal, have those SMART goals and set those actionable steps to get to that goal. So that's why I have this extreme focus because I needed to. I used to be a very, like, fly by night very like flighty, very like, okay, we can do that. Let's go to the beach, let's do this thing. But I've used that energy, that calm energy that kind of like, okay, I can go with the flow energy. And I've just basically floated into one area at a time.

Dalyn Hazell  42:56  

Yeah, I think it's so easy to fall into that trap, and you've probably realized is that you probably thought going, you know, taking away your wholesale business and you know, your husband leaving these certain roles, you thought you were doing less. But actually, you're doing more, because you're going deeper on your one thing. And I would just add, like, the book recommendation, recommendations you gave, the one thing is a great resource. Everyone should read that I have not read the 12 weeks here. So I will have to pick that one up for sure.

Pili Yarusi  43:25  

Life changer. I'm just gonna say that life-changer, you have to pick it up and try it.

Dalyn Hazell  43:32  

Yes. And another point I wanted to add was, you know, you have to know whether or not you want to cut something entirely or outsource it for you, it meant cutting that wholesale and flipping business entirely cold turkey 15,000 a month to zero a month in marketing cost. But for someone else, that might mean just hiring an acquisition manager or a lead manager to manage that. But you're probably still going to be somewhat involved in that business. But you knew, hey, I've got to go full steam ahead on this. One thing. So I admire you for that.

Pili Yarusi  44:02  

The same thing is we tried, we tried to do that because we were given the systems to do it. I swear, we were given all the systems we not only from our seven-figure group, but one of our great friends gave to Silva, who is in New Jersey, he is an amazing flipper who does amazing work has amazing systems. He basically was like here, Jason pili. Here are all my systems. And we use them, we were really good at using them. But we could not put down the hammer. We could not get that mindset out of our heads. That's that we were the best people that we could do it cheaper that because we have a construction company, we could do it cheaper. But the thing is if some like if somebody can show up, that Jason would go do stuff, and I was like, I would go in and do stuff and it just is like, it'd be a mess. So multifamily was the way to go. Because we had to hire the best teams, we had to take ourselves out. And finally, be the managers that we knew we could be the manager because we battered a multi-million dollar restaurant in New York City, why not manage a multi-million dollar company in real estate, and we were not doing that with flipping and wholesaling, because it wasn't where we needed to be. We needed to be in large multifamily.

Dalyn Hazell  45:27  

Yeah, because from what I know, a large multifamily, it's a lot. It's less probably management intensive than your restaurant or your active flipping wholesaling business. I mean, there's still a lot to manage. But I'm sure that's probably another reason why you got into that large multifamily, because of the scalability and probably a little easier to manage. I know you're, you're smiling, because it's not easy to manage. But no, I tell you.

Pili Yarusi  45:52  

Everything's relative, right? Yes, it's relative. So it's like, it's like comparing apples and oranges. It's totally apples and oranges, like the flipping and wholesaling company and to what you said, like one of our partners, Chad king, he still has flipping in wholesale. In fact, Bill Allen, who runs seven-figure flipping now, still has this flipping and wholesaling company, and they both do large multifamily because they systemize it to the point where they could step out of it, they can still step in and do things. But for an, I don't even think Jason This is more for me. For me to fully step into large multifamily, we had to let go of flipping and wholesaling. That's why we were able to scale into large multifamily so quickly, it took us eight months. The scaling of our flipping company took us all of three years to really get to the point where it was systemized where we could spend $15,000 on marketing because we had the people we had the background, we just wouldn't put down the hammer. So when it comes to large multifamily, again, we were I could go and take that business to another level because we didn't have all these other balls in our court.

Dalyn Hazell  47:08  

And sometimes your gut feeling about the situation kind of overrides the rational financial aspect of it like other people looking in, it didn't make sense for you to give up such a successful venture. But you knew like your gut was telling you your aloha was telling you like you needed to go in this different direction. So that's just encouragement for people who may maybe you're on the fence about doing something that doesn't make sense from a financial point of view. But it makes sense from a heart point of view. I also wanted to add on what you were saying about masterminds they're so important and when we try to do so much in our lives, for example, like what I was going through a few weeks back, knowing what color to paint a wall on a flip like something so silly. I was just going back and forth like what do I paint is like this color Wear this color. And then I just asked my mastermind group and they were like, Oh yeah, just throw this color on it. And like, it just immediately, like, lowered my blood pressure, like my stress level about it. And it was just because I was willing to be taught and willing to like, ask the mastermind group. So I know that words like mentor mastermind groups are kind of overused and people get all weird inside about it. But it really is important. I can't understate that enough.

Pili Yarusi  48:25  

I used to be the same way. I was like, why am I going to pay somebody all this money to do to like, do what do they do? What do they actually do for me? Yeah, oh, they do a lot. They did so much for me. And to this day, actually, we are looking for another mastermind to join, we're looking for another upper-level mastermind to join. I know, I still don't know what that's going to look like. But we need it. We need that next level. So even we're going to join another mastermind. And the thing is that mentioned masterminds that we've been a part of every time we've joined a mastermind. So when we finally joined seven figures, and it was 20k, when I joined, we made hundreds of 1000s of dollars. In that business, we made it was exponential growth within that business. And then when we took that, and we jumped into large multifamily, we went we didn't wait, when when we decided to jump into large multifamily, we went straight to mentor, Jason, I researched we looked at everybody that was available in 2016. Everyone who was available in 2016, we talked to their mentor or their mentees, we tend we talked or we looked at anything we could any information we could, and we picked one. And that mentor takes us and we were still friends with them, we still pay him a retainer fee just to have this had his phone number and text message and whenever we need to. And it has taken us like where it took us three years to scale our flipping whole and wholesaling business to, to an amazing, profitable business, it took us eight months to do the same thing with large multifamily. So if you use it correctly, the thing is a mastermind is just that you have to pour into it so it can pour into you. When used correctly, a mastermind can take you as far as you want to go. And I can't say enough about them. So if you know of any masterminds that I should join or your listeners, let me know, send me an email.

Dalyn Hazell  50:37 

We'll do that. Yeah, cuz as you get farther along, you're like, Okay, I need a coach for this. I need a coach for that. Because you realize, like, how much you don't know. And obviously, your financial capacity grows to hire those people on? So by all means, yeah, I will look into that for you, if you don't mind. how I can help there. Yeah, so pili. I know you mentioned like, you stopped the wholesaling and flipping out of necessity, right? Have you needed that for yourself, I think, for a lot of people, they should probably go into with the attitude of like, maybe not out of necessity, but getting out in front of it. Like if I know that this endeavor, whatever I want to get into this new venture if it's going to stretch my family if it's gonna really take me away from other things I'm doing. Maybe I shouldn't even get into that. Or just try to outsource as much as I can talk about, like, that whole necessity versus like getting out in front of something before it comes crashing down on you.

Pili Yarusi  51:40  

I understand what you're asking. Because there's, there's been many times when like, I've experienced burnout, when it's I when I'm like, Okay, this is going to come crashing down on me. I need to put something down soon. So don't take yourself to that point. Don't take yourself to the point that I took. And Jason, I took this company to could we have managed all of them? Maybe I don't know, because we didn't, we didn't do that. I've seen it done so it can be done. So to what you were saying Dalyn is if you are in the flipping and wholesaling industry right now, make sure you're using those systems that you've been taught that you're using and taking them to the next step. Make sure you have your CRM and you are that highly systematizes that everything is I'm actually gonna I'm actually going to pick on you a little bit painkillers. Yes. At some point in your, your cycle, your journey, painkillers aren't going to matter. They shouldn't matter what you hit you should have a skew sheet that has everything you need for every single flip. Every single flip should basically look like the one you just did before. Maybe depending on the market. Get, maybe you have to pick a certain color, maybe the color palette has changed, these things happen. But these are the ways you systematize your business or you have somebody else pay pick that pink color. Because chances are somebody else can do it for you better than you can. Having those people on your team. So you don't have to worry about paint colors, you don't have to worry about tile, it doesn't matter anymore, because you have it. So systematize, you have the skew sheet that you can give your project manager, this is the skew sheet, follow it if you did, if you go away from the skew sheet, actually, I have these other three things that you can choose from if those three things aren’t available, then pick something, let me know about it, send me a text, I'll make a decision right on the fly. Have it systematized at that point where you don't have to think about it when all you're doing is looking at the big picture. This is how you jump into the other part. We didn't do that my husband, I didn't do that we were almost at that point. But we were so ready to jump into the next part that we didn't take it to that point. And I know I know deep down, we would still be like in it, you would still be picking up that hammer because we liked doing that. It wasn't where we needed to be wasn't scalable for us. So the other thing, so you have the skew sheet, you have your CRM, you have your acquisitions manager, you have your dispositions people, you have your transaction coordinators, you have the different agents you work with, even if you're an agent, you should not be listing your own properties. That's what I used to do. Don't list your own properties, source it out, make sure all these things are in your numbers in your analyzer even getting to the point where you have people to look at properties first before you even look at them. Have them analyze the properties first before you even look at them. Because I know. If you jump into multifamily, and you don't have these things structured, then you will you'll have your mind all over the place. This is the best way to jump from one to the other if you want to keep a visit. And this is for any business, I'm not only talking about flipping and wholesaling. Let's say, let's say you're a dentist, let's say you are you have a nine to five, let's say whatever it is that you have, you need to make sure that that is structured enough. So that if you have the nine to five, when the five o'clock hour hits, and you are home, you don't have to focus on that nine to five, you can focus totally in large multifamily to take yourself to the next step. So you need to systematize hire and leverage and get that solid, whatever it is, so you can keep on building up. For us to build up we had to take away. But the thing is for me, and I've been I guess I've been saying this wrong on the podcast I've been on. Yes, I stopped that flipping and wholesaling business, I cut that marketing tie, but I didn't stop doing real estate. I'm still doing the same thing, just on a higher level. So an even higher level, just on a different level. So this is flipping and wholesaling. multifamily is like this right here. It's just a different language, you're talking to different people. And it's a different unit count. It's not a single-family, it's multifamily. So it's usually higher numbers. There's a while there might be luxury people that are talking to me, or they're listening right now. They're like, I deal with like in the two to $3 million range. How about us? That's fine. So it's just it's a different ballgame. It's a different language. But in order to transition to this one and have them both running, you need to make sure you're solid and one. So you can keep on building use that as a stepping stone. That's what Jason I used our flipping and wholesaling company as it became our stepping stone I grew a great foundation with which to lie our multifamily business on.

Dalyn Hazell  57:04  

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you mentioned amazing golden nuggets there. And this is the secret This is like how you get these are. This is the difference between the people who stay small and are the owner-operators and all the way to the people who are making the biggest impact in earning the most money. What you've just described is the difference between those two camps. So it's totally fine if you want to stay as the owner-operator forever. I mean, some people want to do that. And that's all they, you know, their ambitions in there. But I think your ambitions went a lot farther. And you have explained well how you transition into that new space. So pili we're gonna wrap up our show here with the same three questions we ask each guest. It's called the triple threat. What is the app or tool that has been the biggest game-changer for your business? That's question number one. 

Pili Yarusi  57:52  

Ooh, the app or tool that's going to be bigger pockets. I mean, we all start Yeah, like if if you started around the same time and I started or even after that, bigger pockets is a great way for anyone to jump in and learn real estate and find those people find your tribe, you can find a tribe. That's where I found my first real estate tribe. That's actually where we found seven-figure flipping. To find your tribe finds your people in bigger pockets. It's an amazing, amazing app, and an amazing just program that you can jump into. And it's really, really inexpensive considering all the other educational programs out there.

Dalyn Hazell  58:35 

Yeah, great resource there. Question two, what has been your biggest learning lesson in the last year? Whether it was a failure or otherwise? And what do you think happened?

Pili Yarusi  58:45

So I believe all learning lessons are stepping stones. And whether it's a learning lesson or a success, no matter what it is, is a stepping stone. So my biggest failure, that's going to have to be like almost my, my all of our companies imploding. And I failed there because I almost failed to see what was happening. We had so much going on, we had our fat, I mean, we I've actually I've either been pregnant or with a small child throughout this entire journey. Because when we decided to get into real estate, I was in my first trimester, I was in my first trimester. And that's when I got my real estate license. So just thinking about that, and thinking about like, all the times, I could have failed. And I, I have, the thing is how you come away from failure. It doesn't, it isn't a failure unless you use it as a stepping stone. If you let yourself just sink into that failure and put yourself into that big dark black hole, then, of course, there you go, that's a failure. Because you're not rising above it, you're not learning from it. failures are simply moments that you can learn from they're building blocks in your life. So that would be my biggest failure like life could have been my biggest failure. But I decide to look at it as just subsequent stepping stones, a ladder that I'm climbing on, sometimes I fall down, but I pick myself back up and I start climbing.

Dalyn Hazell  1:00:26  

Yes, absolutely. Question number three, our podcast is all about helping others achieve freedom with real estate investing, whether that's a financial lifestyle, or otherwise. So what does freedom mean to you?

Pili Yarusi  1:00:39  

What does freedom mean to me being able to just hang out with my kids hang out with my husband, go to Hawaii and not have to worry about you know, a house flip, failing miserably or, or even like my Prop, like having a property manager does not do their job. So I my team, my property managers, all the people that I work with, they are so just stellar people just stellar at what they do amazing what they do. And I consider everybody that I work with partners and team members, whether they are property managers, brokers, whatever it is, they contribute, and I hope I am able to contribute to them having the freedom that they desire. And also the freedom not only with that, but it’s also like it's mental freedom to write. It's the ability to just be to simply be free, to simply be independent. And that comes really from taking responsibility for everything in my life. Because I find if I don't take responsibility for it, then it just it, it's not freeing, because if you give somebody else or the responsibility for it if you make if you put the blame onto others or something, then that or they have the power. So with power comes freedom. So don't give your power away with blame. Don't give others the responsibility for your happiness or you’re well-being. Take that power back. And within that comes freedom. 

Dalyn Hazell  1:02:13  

Yeah, that's something that nobody talks about as mental freedom clearing your mind to only focus on the things that matter most. So great, thanks for mentioning that. wrap up the show pili where can listeners get a hold of you and maybe potentially invest with you?

Pili Yarusi  1:02:29  

Fantastic. And again, thank you so much, David. This has been an amazing conversation. For any of your listeners that are looking to get more information about what my husband I do, you can go to www.yarusiholdings.com you can get everything in there, how to find our podcast, how to invest with us, anything and everything. All the information is right there again, www.yarusi my last name, holdings.com.

Dalyn Hazell  1:02:59  

Thank you very much. Yeah, this episode has been amazing, very impactful for me. I think it will be a lot for a lot of people. For me, it wasn't just like another talk another step a guy. This is about life and how you approach life and how it's just become very fulfilling for you and how you've made such an impact on the world so far and will continue to do I'm sure. Well, great, Pili, thank you again, and I will talk to you later.

Pili Yarusi  1:03:25  

Thank you so much. This has been amazing.

Outro  1:03:27  

Thank you for listening to the real estate investing for freedom podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe and leave us a review and tune in next week for the next episode.