Double Your Business Income With these Simple Habits | Greg Junge

In this episode, Dalyn Hazell sits down with Greg Junge to talk about habits, how to build good ones and how to make them last forever, how a habit can change your life and increase your income.

Greg is originally from Long Island, NY and currently lives in Phoenix, Az with his wife Mandy. Greg has been investing in Real Estate since 2012, holds an active Real Estate License, and has invested in several niche's in real estate; Notes, Single Family Houses, Assisted Living Facilities, and invested several times as a LP in larger syndication deals. He loves personal development and mindset since it's changes his life for the better.

Key takeaways from this episode:

-Creating a habit makes you double your business income.

-How habits can change your life.

-Excellent advice to those struggling to build a habit.

-Developing self-awareness.

-The habits that help increase your income.

-Track your habits makes you consistent and leads to success.

-The habits that help move forward to the real investing business.

-How to push through when it feels difficult.

-Two habits that you can implement right away and can increase your income.

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Connect with Guest, Greg Junge:

Website: www.SevenFigureCapital.com

Phone No.: 602-327-9020

Email: Greg@Sevenfigurecaptial.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  0:23  

Hey, and welcome back to another episode of the show hope you're doing well and staying warm, it's definitely got a lot colder where I'm living in Springfield, Missouri. And so I have had to put on a sweater and a jacket instead of just walking outside with shorts and a T shirt. So that's thrown me for a loop recently. But in today's episode, we sit down with Greg judge, and we talk about habits, how to build good ones, how to make them last forever. And he co-authored a book called success habits of super achievers in real estate. So he's got really good experience with this. If you're someone who struggles building habits, you know, maybe it's getting up early in the morning, or maybe it's going to the gym on time, or maybe it's just spending time with your loved ones. If you're struggling with that, give this one a listen. If you're looking for a bunch of tactical advice, this may not be the one for you. We talked a lot about mindset and goal setting and habit building. And I found that when I have too much tactical advice, I don't do anything with it, because my mindsets are not right. So I have to combine mindset advice and tactical advice and then marry those together to produce great results. That's just the way it works for me, may or may not be for you. But with that all being said, I'm gonna dive in today's golden nugget of the day. Today's Golden Nugget is if you are somebody who is negotiating off-market or even on-market properties, and you're out there trying to find those good deals like you know, we all know it's getting harder to find deals. So you have to be good at negotiating and asking questions and really digging down to the motivation of why somebody would be interested in selling. Because typically to sell at a discount to an investor, which is what we're looking for somebody who needs to be going through something has some motivation. And so I like to open the conversation. By just asking these open-ended questions you can say something like, tell me a little bit about why you're selling, and then pause. Another question you could ask is, what is your plan if we don't do business today? So these two questions alone will really help you unpack that motivation. And definitely, I can't understate this enough. But make sure you listen. Okay, the more you listen, the more they're going to tell you. Because as humans, we don't want that awkward silence. And so you're going to start to really unpeel that onion, and figure out why they're selling. Maybe, just maybe they have a son or daughter living rent free in the property. And you wouldn't have known that, without them telling you. Maybe they just have a lot of equity in the property and want the easy way out. They don't want to go through staging, or selling the property with the agent. And so you wouldn't know that without asking those questions. So I encourage you to ask open-ended questions like that, to really unpack that motivation. And so we're not trying to exploit people here export, you know, bad situations, we're trying to figure out how we can help because, to be honest, you know, somebody is going to have to sell to an investor at a discount. That's just the way it is. So, you know, we can't serve 95% of the population who are looking to get top dollar for their property, but we can serve that 5% that are looking for a different way of selling. So I wanted to encourage you all with that today. But without further ado, here is my episode interview with Greg, judge. Welcome to the show, Greg, how are you doing today?

Greg Junge  3:52  

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Dalyn Hazell  3:55  

You bet. I'm very excited to have you on one because you sent me your awesome book in the mail. So I got to know you know more about you and you did that free of charge. I think that's awesome and speaks to the kind of person you are just willing to give out a lot of information for free and, and so I'm excited to dive into what we have in store for today. But first, can you give the audience a short introduction about yourself and how you got started in real estate?

Greg Junge  4:19  

Yeah, of course. So I'm originally from New York. I was born and raised on Long Island. currently live here in Phoenix, Arizona. I've been here for about 1415 years. I'm a realtor out here. I'm a real estate investor. And I've been in real estate investing since about 2012. So about nine years now and picked up the realtor in about 2015. So I've been a realtor, residential realtor here in Phoenix for about six years, and kind of balanced both at the moment. Although I do kind of lean a little bit more towards real estate investing. That is where more of my passion lies, but obviously being a realtor and then real estate investing is pretty much real estate all day every day and I love it. It's great. So I Can't complain

Dalyn Hazell  5:01  

yeah and we were just talking about the weather and you were saying it was 107 there right?

Greg Junge  5:06  

Yep 107 degrees not a lot of humidity but definitely a lot of degrees and like anything you do get used to it I do say we kind of sweat through the summers to get through to the winters because the winters here are gorgeous.

Dalyn Hazell  5:18  

I bet you live for the winners don't.

Greg Junge  5:21  

Yeah, I do yeah it's so nice. Just open the windows no air conditioning going on. And they're just yeah, just perfect temperature perfect outdoor. You know, get outdoors, play your sports go hiking, it's it's a lot of fun here in the winter.

Dalyn Hazell  5:34  

So yeah, Arizona has always been one of the places I want to go. And I'll make it there soon. So

Greg Junge  5:40  

yeah, what's he doing? Did you get to look me up man?

Dalyn Hazell  5:42  

Yeah. Well, Greg, um, I was thinking about what we could talk about today that's kind of different, you know, and off the beaten path. And I think I settled on, you have a unique point of view on some habits, some habits that help you as you put it, double your business income through these learned habits. And you talk about you know, in your section of the book and about how you didn't have these habits, to begin with, right, this is something you had to learn. And through that process, you were able to double your business income. A lot of people talk about habits that help you in your relationship or your just your overall life. But I want to specifically talk about those that can directly impact your income. Because obviously this podcast we're all about creating freedom through real estate investing and part of that is having a high income. So let's dive into you know, some of those habits and just get started here. So what were some of those initial habits that you had to learn to help you obviously, double your income and increase your income in real estate? 

Greg Junge  6:44  

Yeah, great question. So yeah, the chapter in the book that I wrote about was about habits and how it changed my life because two years ago, three years ago, I didn't really know a lot about habits not consciously anyway obviously we all have good habits, and bad habits. So it wasn't something that I really honed in on and said I'm going to be you know the habit master and tackle this it was just something that kind of came about naturally through you know, learning about personal development and mindset. And all of a sudden I was in you know, down that rabbit hole of with habits and I was like, Oh, this is a cool topic, maybe this will help me out. You know, and sure enough, it did help me out personally professionally. And one of the things that really moved the needle for me was waking up early because previously I would you know, as a realtor as an entrepreneur, kind of run my own day so I didn't really feel the need to wake up at six in the morning and then give myself that time in the morning before the workday started I would just you know, wake up at 738 o'clock and kind of see what was going on and you know, I kind of realized I quickly realized that having a morning routine would really give me that wind you know behind me to get my day going properly and and that includes you know, finances and business like you said relationships and you know, personal and nutrition and everything so, but one of the that was the biggest one that really moved the needle for me was I read the book by Hal Elrod called the Miracle Morning and and I wrote about in the book it actually took me two times two rounds to try the Miracle Morning The first time I tried and I failed, I didn't I didn't like adjust to it, I didn't really want to adjust to it I was more forcing or more fighting it than just kind of letting it happen to me naturally. But the second time I did it I said alright, I'm going to make this work. And I read about the effectiveness of the Miracle Morning and just having that morning time and it really allowed me to kind of start my day off a little bit calmer, you know, get everything in before nine 930 when, as you know, the phone starts ringing and text messages come in and that's when the day kind of gets hectic. So really, you really just made me more organized. And I think that was probably the biggest thing that I took out of the Miracle Morning was you know, once I organize my morning, I organize my calendar organize my day. And it really made me look into my day. You know, as a realtor, you have to make, you know, a certain amount of calls per day a certain amount of touches to clients and I was kind of doing that but I wasn't really doing that, you know, efficiently and effectively the way I should so that was one of the things I really took out of the Miracle Morning was just organizing my day timestamping my calendar and really sticking to it. That's what really kind of you know, got that needle moving in that positive direction to help me double my business and really take on a few more tasks on the real estate investing side to really balance everything out.

Dalyn Hazell  9:36  

Yeah, waking up early is important, but I'll be the first to admit I struggle with it. Sometimes I'll wake up at 6 am then I'll go seasons I wake up at 8 am like there's no fluid habit built there. So what would you say to someone like me and I think a lot of people listening to that struggle with the building of the habit?

Greg Junge  9:56  

Yeah, the building of the habit. It's hard because I mean, the old habit is ingrained. Then you, you know, for however old you are, and however long you've been, you know, doing that habit. And like I said, it took me two times to really, really track the first time I tried it, I tried the Miracle Morning for a week. And I just had those old thoughts in my head of like, Oh, this isn't you, this isn't gonna work for you. And, you know, it works for everybody else, but not you. And then I was really analyzed, you know, what, if, if somebody else can do this, I can definitely do it. Because everybody says that. And it's true, right? If, if somebody else can do it, I can definitely do it. So I said, You know what, this is going to change my life. So I really approached it from a logical point of view, instead of like an emotional point of view. Because obviously, when it's six in the morning, and your alarm goes off, you know, you're emotionally you're like, Oh, I just want to lay in bed a little bit more, another 10 minutes, whatever you want to rationalize in your head. But once you get past that emotional part, it's the logical part of 36. In the morning, my workday doesn't start until nine, how much can I get done in the next three hours personally, to really set up my day. And then once you get that mindset, you know, that kind of thinking going, you're like, Oh, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna meditate, I'm gonna take the dog out, you kind of get excited. That kind of really worked for me anyway, I'm a pretty logical guy. So the logic really motivated me to get me over the emotional and say, All right, let's just knock out this checklist. And then by nine o'clock, you're going to feel like a million bucks. And then from there, you can just take on your work day and you know, answer those text messages and move forward. So that worked for me, I know, everybody's different. Some people are more emotional than logical, or vice versa. But just speaking from experience, I think me having a more logical brain really helped me just kind of power through it.

Dalyn Hazell  11:43  

Yeah, I think those are some good points. Yeah. And I'm definitely more logical. But there comes a point where it's like, yeah, waking up at 6 am is good for you. But you also need to be putting in the right inputs to your body. So what time did you go to bed? How did you eat the night before? What was your relationship like the night before? And that's what I don't think a lot of people talk about, they just say, wake up at 6am or wake up early. But you also have to put in the input because your body is not a machine, right? It has to be nurtured and cultivated. And you have to build those good habits in other areas of your life. So what are some habits that someone should build to, you know, make waking up? early? I priority for them?

Greg Junge  12:25  

Yeah, I think you kind of nailed the, the main one is, you know, you have to go to bed a little bit earlier. If you're waking up at eight in the morning, and you go to bed at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, that's probably fine. You know, you get your seven hours of sleep. And that's something you have to figure out as well. Are you good with, you know, six hours of sleep seven hours of sleep? How much sleep do you want? And how much you know, how much value do you put on sleep? I personally put a lot of value on sleep just because I know reading from reading, you know, nutrition books and everything, everybody, they always kind of loop in, well, how good is your sleeping habits? And how good is your sleeping routine? But yeah, definitely going to bed a little bit earlier. And like you said, you know, your relationship Did you have a fight the night before, if you did, you're probably not going to sleep as well. I know tracking sounds strange but tracking how much water you drink and how well you sleep. For me, there's a correlation. Because I know, two or three years ago, I wasn't tracking how much water I drank. And I probably didn't drink a lot of water, to be honest. And living out here in Arizona, you definitely need to and living anywhere, I think you definitely need to get into your eight to 10 glasses or whatever kind of works for you. So yeah, all those little things, I think awareness is probably the biggest thing is just to be really aware of what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how, you know, going to bed at maybe 830 or nine o'clock compared to 10 or 11. How that two-hour difference can really affect you that next day and just being aware of how you feel the next day, are you sluggish? Or do you feel better if you're on six hours or seven hours asleep? So it's a lot of like trial and error. And it's, I don't know, it's kind of fun, it's like a game, you kind of figure out what works best for you. And what's your, the ultimate way you can operate and you just work towards it. 

Dalyn Hazell  14:07  

Yeah, and that just comes down to self-awareness. Like you just have to know if you don't want to waste all this energy trying to be a morning person when you're not. So we're not telling you you have to wake up at 6am. But we are telling you to get your inputs, right, you know, get your sleep and get your food right, get your relationships, right. And then it'll make other habits easier. And if that means waking up at 6 am, then good all the power to you know what I'm saying? I personally strive to wake up early, just because I think Yeah, you're right, like getting your productivity in the morning is so key. Getting that quiet time in the morning will go a long way in your business. And since we're talking about doubling your business income, you know that that can be a big part of it. So what are some other habits? I mean, you mentioned several in the chapter in the book, what are some other habits to help you increase your business income? 

Greg Junge  14:56  

Yeah, so I mean I think an organization like I said earlier was The biggest one, it really just kind of more just organized everything that was kind of here kind of there. Because, you know, as an entrepreneur, you know, when you're a W two worker, you know, you have a boss that kind of tells you what to do and say I need this project by Friday. But as you know, as an entrepreneur, you can work as hard as you want, or as little as you want during any day, you know, barring some meetings and networking events. So you really have to, you know, stay organized and stay motivated, because nobody's going to motivate you, and nobody's going to tell you, hey, this project is due on Friday, you know, well, it's not done. I don't know, sorry, I don't know what to tell you. So staying organized, and really staying motivated, you know, staying motivated, is key. So I think having like certain relationships, and even having an accountability partner in your business, can definitely help you. I never had one before. But it's actually something that I'm looking to do here in the near future, just to kind of accelerate my habits a little bit more. So I think that's another good thing that a lot of people could do reach out to a friend or somebody in the real estate investing community, ask for an accountability partner, and say, Hey, I'm working on a few habits, this is what I'm looking for. If you need some help, I can definitely reciprocate. Because I feel like habits are something that a lot of people are talking about a little bit more, especially in the real estate investing community, just because it is a lot of, you know, repetitive things that we do day in and day out. And you know, that's exactly what a habit is. And if you want to turn it into a good habit, there are certain things you can do. And then if you want to turn into my bad habit, there's just, you know, you do the opposite of those good things. So it's kind of like, I kind of related to investing in different niches in real estate, you have to find out what is good for you, right? Some people love single family, some people love multifamily. Some people are good with investing in both, you know, and there's a lot of different niches, but you have to find kind of what works for you, and what habits work for you how you track them, you can write them down, you can use apps, I kind of use both, but just trial and error, kind of see what works for you in, you know, inhabits and in real estate investing in life, you know, honestly, so

Dalyn Hazell  17:10  

yeah, I mean, I can't help but share what is kind of worked for me in the past. So I have this app, where, I click the date, and if I were I click the certain button, and it'll track how long I've kept that habit. And even though like, it's on my phone, it is digital. And it it's kind of hard to resonate with. Sometimes it is just the act of tracking that is so powerful, because I'm like, I don't want to break that 50-day streak. I know Snapchat has some streak thing. And a lot of people are into that, like, I don't want to break my streak, which I think is kind of silly, but people do it. And so if you can attach a good habit to some sort of record-keeping system, I think that'll go a long way. Because otherwise, if you break a habit, then it's like, oh, well, I'll just I can just get back on the horse another day. But if you're tracking it, and better yet, if you're sharing that with a partner, or a friend, then you're just going to increase your likelihood of success. And I know on the BiggerPockets podcast, they talk a lot about willpower. And high willpower is weak. And so we don't want to depend on our willpower, we want to have systems in place that allow us to achieve those habits. And you do that in business, right? You put together systems to keep your team accountable to keep people working. So why not do it in your personal life? Where I would argue it's even more important.

Greg Junge  18:32  

Yeah, no, I agree. And I think to kind of, you know, add to that a little bit. I think tracking your app tracking is a habit, right? I mean, whether you're going to track it, you know, honestly or dishonestly because you know, you can obviously you know, lie to yourself and say, to keep the streak going, Oh, yeah, I drink eight glasses of water today, even though you didn't? I don't know, I'm real honest with my tracking, because it's only going to benefit me and I'm the only one really seeing it anyway. But I would start with that and say all right, tracking is definitely a habit, whether you're, you're doing habits or not, you should track it every day. Because, you know, like you said, you want to continue that streak. And it is kind of like a game if you want to continue that streak and see how many days you can go and hopefully, you can go you know, everyday with, you know, achieving all of your habits and you know, sometimes things come up. But tracking itself is probably one of the bigger habits just to you know, get into that routine. Because yeah, that's what you're going to look for and you're gonna look back and you're going to see the results and that's exactly what you're going to look for is you know, what did you do to get to those results and it's either right on your phone or reading your piece of paper.

Dalyn Hazell  19:38  

Yeah, I mean looking back, I because I looked back on that app and some of the habits I've broken and it takes me about 30 days of diligence to do it. I know people say you know more or less based on your willpower Of course, but have you seen a certain amount of days or weeks or months that have been kind of magic numbers to build A new habit.

Greg Junge  20:00  

Yeah, you know, I've heard all the different numbers do for 14 days, I've heard 66 days I've heard all these different numbers. Personally, I think I've never really tracked it. But I think, you know, easier habits are going to be obvious, a shorter timeframe to really knock down because, you know, it's an easy habit and it's just, you know, like maybe flossing your teeth if you've never floss your teeth before it takes you maybe 20 seconds to floss your teeth. But you know, if you're going to take on you know, a full-on workout routine that you know, is a little bit more jarring a little bit more, you know, foreboding, when you're looking at it, it might take a little bit more time to kind of pick up that habit. So I think it just kind of depends. And that's, that's kind of interesting, and give me an idea to track how long it takes me to, you know, really solidify a habit. So I'm gonna try to use that moving forward. So I appreciate that.

Dalyn Hazell  20:49  

Yeah, you bet. Well, um, so we've talked about certain habits in your life that have helped you kind of increase your income, or at least your productivity, from waking up early to getting more organized. Let's talk about some habits that have directly improved your real estate investing business. So are there certain things you do every day to make sure you're moving the needle forward? For me, it's working on this podcast for networking abilities. It's also trying to make one offer on a property a day. So what are those things that you do in your real estate investing business? 

Greg Junge  21:25  

Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, the things that I do in my business are probably similar to you a little bit. You know, I definitely read, I read a lot of, you know, books and blogs. So one thing that I actually did was kind of changed my Facebook around where I still have friends on Facebook, don't get me wrong, but a lot of my newsfeed is, you know, our multifamily syndicators that are you know, posting just close this deal or posting questions and masterminds and that kind of thing. So I actually like being on Facebook now because it's not, you know, here's a picture of the burrito that ate it's more of motivational quotes and looking at people closing, you know, 130 units and that kind of thing. So she, I'm reading those kinds of posts reaching out to those people when I can, you know, I would say probably relationships is, you know, the biggest thing in this in this world, right in this in this business and your personal life and your friendships. So same thing goes with, you know, real estate, investing, and syndicators. And so I have no problem reaching out directly to you know, syndicators, and people that are putting on deals and just ask them questions picking their brain, some people respond, sometimes they don't need up any big deal. But yeah, definitely reading and following up with other real estate investors, finding out what's going on in their world. You know, for instance, I'm actually, you know, I'm located here in Phoenix, Arizona, but I'm in a few virtual networking events or networking groups. One of them's a central Florida Meetup group. And I just joined that group, I'm, you know, we're kind of thinking about moving to Central Florida, but at the same time, I just want a pulse on the market in Central Florida, because I know it's a, a great demographic, and, you know, maybe one day we'll move there, we've already have some properties there. So just kind of doing those little things. And that's one thing that, you know, virtually you can kind of do now. And that's one benefit that can kind of came out of COVID to was all these virtual networking events where you can just pop on to, you know, different events all over the country, and really just talk to different people in different demographics and different areas. So yeah, those are, those are kind of some of my day to days that I really do to help me move, move the needle forward on the investing side.

Dalyn Hazell  23:39  

Yeah, definitely. And you always have to be doing something. So, I heard a motivational talk. And it's like, make sure there are no zero days. So make sure you know if it's 1158 at night, that you have done something for your future that your future self would thank you for. So I mean, I work a W two job. So it's hard for me to do real estate. But I always make sure I'm doing something that day to push the needle forward. If I didn't have time to make an offer, maybe I built up this other system in place here. Or if I didn't have time to make an offer, maybe I read a real estate book, always doing something. And if it's a priority for you, you'll get it done. Right. So I try not to say, I don't have time for that. Because that's a bad habit. You know, I'm habitually making excuses. So once you learn that everything in your life is a habit that 95% of your behavior is driven by your habits. It really makes you want to get good habits. Because you're doing these things subconsciously because your brain just simply cannot handle all the information overload. Ever, I mean, especially in today's culture, so your body wants to conserve energy, like a, like a well-oiled machine to and it does that through habits. So I like what you said in your chapter where Once you build these things up these habits, almost served you on autopilot. And that's the beautiful thing about habits is you don't have to work at it so hard. But just like with everything in life, when you first get started, it's the most difficult, but it has exponential growth. And I don't know if you've read like the compound effect or the slight edge of those books, but it talks about doing a little something each day. So can you kind of encourage our listeners, if they're struggling with that first initial 30 days? Or whatever it is? How did you? How do you push through that? When does it feel so difficult?

Greg Junge  25:32  

Yeah. So one thing that I would recommend also is really being really honest with yourself and get one sheet of paper and write down all your good habits. And like I said, Be honest with yourself, write down all your bad habits, we all have bad habits, some are, you know, extreme, some are mild, whatever they are, just write them all down. And then kind of like you said, Just you look at the column that has the bad habits aside and says, all right, we know how many of these do I want to get rid of? Right? Some of them are pretty detrimental, you should probably get rid of them, or turn them into, you know, positive habits. And I love what you said about you know, it's harder in the beginning, but then once you kind of get going, it gets a lot easier. Well, that sounds pretty familiar, that sounds like real estate investing, right? Because in the beginning, you don't know what you're doing, you don't know how to do it, you hear all these success stories. And you know, place those limiting beliefs in your head, maybe of like, I can't do that he had yet a headstart, he had a million dollars, I'm starting with zero, but you know what we all find our way. And then after a while, it's just maintaining the portfolio, which is also maintaining the habits, right. And like you said, once you create those habits that are a little bit easier, it's just kind of more naturally part of your day, where you're not really thinking about it, you know, think about, oh, I have to floss my teeth at night, it's just something that you do, and then you're on to the next thing. So that would be my first, I guess exercise for your, for your audience would be get that piece of paper, write down your good habits, the ones that you want to maintain, or even you know, maybe increase, and then write down those bad habits, be really honest with yourself. And then ask yourself be real conscious, and be aware of, you know, how can I change these some of these bad habits into good habits, or just eliminate those bad habits altogether, I think that'll be a good starting point for a lot of your listeners because it is really hard, to be honest with yourself. But like I said, it's just yourself, it's just you know yourself on that piece of paper, you can throw that piece of paper away when you're done. But it's just for you to get Ground Zero with yourself as a starting point for habits moving forward.

Dalyn Hazell  27:34  

Yeah, and to add on to that, once you have those on a sheet of paper, you're very honest with yourself, I would say focus on one at a time. Because if you try to focus on all your bad habits, you're just gonna get frustrated, because it's gonna be so hard. I mean, it's already hard enough to focus on one. So just focus on one for, you know, three to four weeks. And then once that solidifies, that's like something working for you on autopilot. For the rest of your life. Now, it's still hard. But it's, it's easier to maintain that habit once you've built it. And once you've forced your brain to adopt that habit, then you focus on the second and the third. And before you know it, you have a slew of habits that you've you've grabbed on to over the course of a year. So that's a great strategy, write it down, and then implement one at a time. Love it. That's great. Yeah. So Greg, can you share any books on habits that taught you this information? Because it's not taught in school? Certainly. So how did you learn this information on habits? And can you recommend some books on that?

Greg Junge  28:40  

Yeah, of course. So actually, the one book that I'm reading right now is I think it's a bigger book. It's called atomic habits by James clear. And it's funny when I talk to people, and they're like, Oh, you haven't read that book yet? And I was like, No, I just haven't read it. I've heard about it. But yeah, I've honestly just listened to a lot of podcasts around habits. And then, you know, the Miracle Morning, that was the big motivator, the big, you know, needle mover for me. And I listened to his podcast as well. And I just love his podcast and everything that he puts out. But yeah, honestly, the atomic habits is the book that I'm getting through right now. And it's giving me some great ideas. But yeah, just a lot of a lot of podcasts around it. And, you know, if you talk to enough real estate investors, you can ask them, you know, kind of what habits Do you have, and probably nine times out of 10 people will share their habits with you of what works for them, what doesn't, if they're a morning person, if they're not a morning person, if they tried it. So just kind of having that conversation and just asking people, you know, kind of what your habits are and what your experiences, what habits and just kind of opening that conversation just like you normally would with any topic, really.

Dalyn Hazell  29:45  

Yeah, I mean, it's really freeing to take on a habit, it can seem constraining because you're like, telling your body to do something that it frankly doesn't want to do. But then when you adopt that, you're like, Oh, I feel much better by myself or I feel much better. fitter or healthier or richer? So you'd be surprised what happens. I mean, I remember when I took up flossing I just never lost on like throughout high school, and I just never felt like I need to. And then I took on flossing, and it just became so easy. Like, I can't imagine life not flossing, or I can't imagine life not drinking all the water I do. And I can't imagine life, you know, not staying away from fast food and, and sugary drinks. So if if you're a person struggling with the habit, like just know that it's, it's normal, and you need to implement the things that we talked about today. And you'd be surprised how freeing it is? Is that how you felt you felt like a much more free autonomous person without these bad habits dragging you down?

Greg Junge  30:44  

Yeah, no, I totally did. And to share something on the fitness side, you know, since the beginning of January 2020. Till now I actually lost about 45 pounds. So I know a lot of people during COVID they're complaining that they're gaining weight because they're you know, eating, you know, more food and drinking and all that kind of stuff. Well, I went the other way. And it's, uh, yeah, it's exactly like you said, it's totally freeing. Because, you know, for years, I mean, I'm 41 and I've always been, you know, chubby, or a little bit heavier or whatever. So that was always weighing on my mind of, you know, just being the chubby person or you know, that kind of that just that mentality of kind of how you talk to yourself. And I don't talk to myself like that anymore. Because that was the old me and now I'm 40 pounds lighter. And I feel like that is just, you know, weight off my shoulder literally and figuratively. So, it's, yeah, it's talking about freeing. I mean, I've been trying to lose weight for over how many years and beating myself up for it, because I couldn't do it. And all of a sudden, I just, you know, decided to make that change and that switch and, and just really commit to it and not, you know, just kind of like, oh, I'm gonna try, no, you don't try you commit to it. You get it done. And then it's, it's just so like you said, it's just freeing. And it's just one less thing to worry about and more time and energy I can focus on, you know, transferring that that next bad habit into a good habit.

Dalyn Hazell  32:06  

Yeah, 100% couldn't agree more. Before we wrap up the show, Greg, I want to talk about some habits that our listeners can walk away from within the real estate investing business right now to give them a good shot at doubling their income. So I know we touched on briefly, I personally, you know, try to do an offer a day, in my real estate investing business, I think some other good habits to shoot for is, you know, talking to one person in the industry, whether that's a private money lender, a, an agent, a seller, talk to one person a day, obviously, if you're full time and can do this more, you know, bump it up. But talk to one person today, that's going to put you in a different place you were the day before. So also another thing I do each day is, you know, I try to watch a video on real estate investing, to increase my knowledge, I never want to be sitting back. So what are some additional habits that, you know, real estate investor who's excited about this podcast? What are some additional habits that they can take away and implement right away, that gives them a good shot at increasing their income?

Greg Junge  33:15  

Yeah, so I'll give you two when one's around networking and one's around reading. So one of the habits that is literally on my list every day is read one chapter of a book, you know, because you know, people want to read books. But I think if you kind of break it down, and obviously the book is broken down into chapters, any book is reading one chapter every day, I feel like is kind of like flossing, maybe a little bit more difficult, but not as bad as you know, starting a workout routine where you have to work out five days a week. So I feel like reading a, you know, one chapter in a book, real estate investing book, even an ebook or a blog, anything that's real estate investing related, just so I can check that off my list and say, Yep, I'm keeping my streak going. I'm reading one chapter every day. And you can track how many books to read every year if you want. And the other thing I would say is kind of like you said, is just networking, you know, signing up for networking events, cuz like I said earlier, especially nowadays, with everything being virtual, if you're, you know, a mobile home investor, you can go on to, you know, you can Google or just go onto meetup calm and look up mobile home investing, you know, networking events, and I'm sure you're gonna find one because everything is virtual. So there is a guarantee you there's one going on right now as we're speaking. So that's something that I would probably do every day is to not necessarily sign up for one every day, but get in the habit of looking for, you know, networking events that you can attend that, you know, interest you that, you know, pique your interest if you're interested in mobile, home parks, but you're not necessarily 100% into it, go to a few networking events and find out and, you know, talk to some people see if that's you know what you want to do, does it fit your goals? If not, Cool, then go check out another niche, go talk to some other people in other niches and kind of see, you know what works for them. And you know if that aligns with the goals that you're looking for. So those are the two that I would say that I came out with was, you know, definitely networking and then reading one chapter every day.

Dalyn Hazell  35:17  

Yeah, I had a guest on episode five of the real estate investing for freedom podcast, Bailey Kramer, and he messaged three people a day. Now mind you, he was in college, just getting started didn't have a single asset to his name, but he messaged three people a day in the industry. And he built up his network really fast. And people respect him. And he's got lots of opportunities now because he built that foundation. So that's a that's a good networking tip. Another one could be posting one bit, one post per day on BiggerPockets comm, which is the largest real estate investing website, just starting a conversation once a day, you'd be surprised at how things add up all, you know, all over. And of course, that's not the only thing you're doing, you may have five other habits that you've built. And so if you're doing that, it just, it's really going to compound, you're gonna be surprised that there is

Greg Junge  36:11  

no, I love it. And you mentioned the compound effect earlier, that's one of my favorite books. I and my wife were actually in a book club with a couple of other investors. And that was the book that we read a couple of books ago, and it was one of my favorites. And that's one of the things that I actually asked myself is what can I compound this week? Like, what habit Can I put on my list? Whether it's something as small as eating half an apple every day? Because I know, it's, you know, good for you. So, you know, you mentioned compound a few times, and yeah, the compound effect was, was, and still is very impactful in my life, and especially with habits because the compound effect just really takes hold of habits, and it's a beautiful thing to watch.

Dalyn Hazell  36:50  

Yeah. And it is obviously can be copied into other areas of your life, you know, from your, your fitness. I've personally built a habit to work out four times a week. That's just what I do. Like, everybody understands it, I understand it. And it's just a part of things. And, you know, I also spend at least an hour a day with my wife as quality time. And that's just what I do. Like, there's just no question about it. And when other things come up, they always are submissive to the habit, you know, right. So you don't want to get off track with your habits just because something fun comes up or, or interesting. You still want to stick to your habits and prioritize that. Yeah, couldn't

Greg Junge  37:35  

agree more. And that's great that you carve out time for working out and relationships. Yes, that's the important stuff. So good for you, man.

Dalyn Hazell  37:42  

Thank you. All right, well, this last portion of the show is called the triple threat. And it's the same three questions we ask each guest. Number one, what is the app or tool that has been the biggest game-changer in your business.

Greg Junge  37:57  

So for me, the biggest tool, I would say, and it's probably a real broad one, but it just goes back to relationships, you know, connecting and making those relationships because you know, real estate investing, it's, it's totally a relationship game. You know, you have to know who's who is selling, who's buying, who you can partner with, who to kind of stay away from, who to trust. So I think that would be the biggest tool in my tool belt is the relationships and the phone numbers that I have in my phone, and I can easily pick up the phone and call some well-respected investors to ask their opinion and see if I'm doing things right or wrong or, or that kind of thing. So just building those quality relationships. Just it's gonna, it's gonna take you a long way in this business.

Dalyn Hazell  38:41  

Yeah, that's great to hear. And, and definitely their key. I want to go back and mention the tool, I use the habit tracker I use, it's just called habit. It's on the App Store. As of right now, it's, it's pink, it's got a checkmark. So for anybody, anybody wondering what exact tool I use, and it's great, you can track everything, you can color-code it you can set up reminders. So it's amazing living in today's world, because it can make a lot of things easy.

Greg Junge  39:12  

Yeah, it's very, very, it's very true. One of the habits of one of the tools that actually use my phone is called habit share. Okay, and I just downloaded it like two days ago. So I'm trying to switch over from pen and paper to digital and want to see kind of how it goes. But similar to yours are color-coded and you can kind of customize it, but I'm gonna check out yours as well just to kind of compare the two and see which one I like on the digital space better.

Dalyn Hazell  39:38  

Yeah, you can even have shared habits where somebody knows what you're doing and is looped in on that, which makes me cool, powerful. Very cool. All right. Number two, what has been your biggest learning lesson in the last year?

Greg Junge  39:54  

So my biggest learning lesson, so actually, yes, is probably a good one. So as an entrepreneur And you know realtor and real estate investor. I feel like I can't say no sometimes to you know, opportunities or projects. And then I find myself overwhelmed because I have like six different projects going on and that's just too much on my plate. So that's one thing that I've actually gotten better at this year. But earlier in the year, there was a were a few projects and have a few things going on. closing those closing some deals with some business partners here while also having some clients you know, cause me to work 1012 hour days, probably for two or three weeks straight. And I just realized I was like, I'm overworked. I'm kind of overwhelmed. And I realized I looked at my whole plate and I said, I gotta take some stuff off this plate. So that was it was good that I caught it and I was aware of it. But you know, I definitely did not say any enough in the beginning to you know, cause that plate to be full. So, ya know, as an entrepreneur, sometimes it is hard to say no because it is easy to say yes, the opportunities that come your way. At the same time, be mindful of your time and how much that's going to carve away from your day and your morning and time with your wife and that kind of thing. So that was probably my biggest, I don't wanna say failure, but missed up this year. And kind of how I kind of set it off made or made a correction to it, I should say,

Dalyn Hazell  41:20  

Yeah, we don't say no enough, you know, and kind of to put a tangibly off this episode, if your habit you're working on is healthy eating, don't say yes to somebody inviting you to Wendy's or McDonald's. Right? It just doesn't align with your goals and I'd hope that they don't push you in that direction, you know, if they know what you're working towards, right? Question three, our podcast is all about helping others achieve freedom with real estate investing, whether that's financial lifestyle or otherwise. So what does freedom mean to you?

Greg Junge  41:54  

Yeah, freedom. So obviously, financial freedom is, you know, when your passive investments are making enough money to kind of pay for your monthly expenses. But yeah, honestly, I think freedom is just as an entrepreneur is not having that obligation to, you know, to go to your boss or to ask your boss for time off. And even as an entrepreneur, I'm kind of looking for that next level of, you know, how could I have more passive income to really kind of kick up that freedom level of where I still want to be a real estate investor, I think I'll always be a real estate investor, I'm never gonna be retired from it. But I don't want to be obligated to you know, do something that I don't necessarily want to do. Like, you know, kind of like we were talking about before we recorded you know, being a realtor. I love being a realtor. It was great. I'm kind of scaling that business down a little bit. For me, it was a means to an end. But you know, I wanted my nights and weekends back honestly, because that's when you know, clients will come out and rightfully so right they work nine to five and Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays is when I'm out chilling homes and listing homes, which is great, it's helped, you know, fund my real estate investing career. But at the same time, I want a little bit more of my freedom back because I realized I didn't really have a lot of balance in my life. So that's freedom for me is not having too many obligations, you know, on your calendar and the obligations that you do have, you're looking forward to so it's not necessarily an obligation, it's something fun that you get to do like, you know, being a guest on the podcast or going to networking events. You know, it's all cool things in the realm of real estate investing.

Dalyn Hazell  43:31  

Yeah, that's great to hear what you're you know, transitioning out of and what you're working towards, it's just awesome. I think you're doing all that quite well. So Greg, where can listeners get a hold of you if they want to know more?

Greg Junge  43:43  

Yeah, so the best way to get a hold of me is if they want to just shoot me an email it's Greg at seven-figure capital calm and or they can just go to the website. It's just seven-figure capital comm all spelled out. Pretty simple to find me.

Dalyn Hazell  43:58  

Awesome. Well, it's been an absolute pleasure. You've been a great guest, and I really appreciate your insights on habits and how we can improve our lives through intentional habit building. So thank you.

Greg Junge  44:08  

Yeah, thank you for having me. I had a great time. Appreciate it.

Outro  44:12  

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.