The Balanced Business Dad
The Balanced Business Dad is a conversation that focuses on balancing the important six pillars of life for the business and entrepreneur dad. Join hosts Dustin Hoog and R.J. Campbell as they talk about the challenge of balancing work and life with the pillars which are: Faith, Health, Marriage, Fatherhood, Brotherhood and Business. Whether you are a solopreneur, dadpreneur or owner of multiple businesses, you will learn from success stories, wins and challenges from these Christian business owners as well as hearing about using the Dad Up Framework to handle challenges.
The Balanced Business Dad
Real Estate Serenity and Fatherhood Synergy: David O's Blueprint for a Balanced Business Dad Life
Discover the art of harmonizing the demands of entrepreneurship with the joys of fatherhood as we welcome the quintessential Balanced Business Dad, David O. His journey from a high-intensity corporate grind to the more serene pastures of real estate investment serves as an inspiration for dads everywhere. David generously shares the pivotal experience that propelled him towards financial freedom, where faith and family remain his guiding forces. Our conversation takes you through the inception of his company, Cashflow Nation, which is a beacon for what's possible when your work aligns with your deepest values.
As we venture further, the conversation turns to the practical steps that any dad can take to build a life rich in balance. Hear how crafting intentional habits and rituals can keep your personal and professional worlds in harmony. We examine the art of time-blocking for the things that matter most—be it morning meditations, family dinners, or date nights—and the discipline required to establish and maintain these boundaries. With insight from the thought-provoking book "Two Chairs," we also explore the tranquility and guidance found in the silent moments with faith. Wrap up your headphones and tune in for an episode brimming with strategies to help you become a more focused, fulfilled, and Balanced Business Dad.
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Dads, do you want a thriving business that doesn't control you, a passionate marriage and kids that adore you? Do you want to grow deeper in your faith, be healthier both physically and mentally, build more meaningful relationships with your friends? Welcome to the Balanced Business Dad Podcast, where, in each episode, we dive into balancing and optimizing the six pillars of life Faith, health, marriage, fatherhood, brotherhood and business. And here are your hosts, pioneers of the Balanced Business Dad movement Dustin Hogue and RJ Campbell.
Coach Dustin:All right, welcome again to another episode of the Balanced Business. Dad, I'm your host, coach Dustin, here in the studio live and I'm super excited about it. Real quick, I want to tell you guys studio live and I'm super excited about it. But real quick, I want to tell you guys about a book. I think I mentioned it last time that I was reading, but there's always these nuggets that come in, and today I'm reading the Comfort Crisis and it talks about forest bathing, which actually comes from Japan, but 20 minutes, three times a day, out in nature, no cell phone, no communications, completely unplugged. How it lowers the stress hormone, how it lowers anxiety and all this amazing stuff. So I know it's something that we're going to put into our family and how we can use that, because, I mean, nature is what God gave us, right, so let's go out and use it. So always want to share a tip what I get from it.
Coach Dustin:But now why we're here? We have a guest in studio, as the people who are watching can see, this guy. It's kind of funny because our paths are very parallel and have only crossed a few times, but we've kind of been on the same path in real estate in life, in leaving corporate America around the same time. So, yeah, it's cool. So, guys, welcome to the studio. David O is how everybody talks to what his name is, but what's going on, man?
David O:How are you? What's happening, Dustin? Glad to be on, man. Thanks for having me.
Coach Dustin:Yeah, so I am super excited about this because A you're in our backyard, so I always love bringing people in that we can have a conversation with. But you are an example of a balanced business, dad. You focus on your faith and I'm going to get to that because I have a story about you mentioning that but you focus on your health. You have a marriage. Our wives actually work together. In some aspects, of course, you're a father, you run a very, very successful business and you got friends too. So that's the definition of a balanced business, dad. But I want to let you take it away and just tell us a little bit about yourself.
David O:Yeah, so, like you said, first and foremost a follower of Christ, a husband I'm a father, and then you get into the professional stuff. I'm an agent and a real estate investor. I run a team of agents that help people invest in real estate at a group called Cashflow Nation under eXp Realty.
Coach Dustin:That we're super excited about yeah, and that's been taking off. I see your guys all the time now yeah.
David O:We're adding agents it seems like every week, and it's been a lot of fun Nice.
Coach Dustin:Nice. So let's back up a little bit and tell us about the story, how you went into entrepreneurship, which I know started with real estate, but that path I always am curious about that journey people told to go to college and get a job working for somebody else.
David O:Didn't know anything different. Never had any entrepreneurs in my family. Nobody that invested in real estate in my family. That was risky, risky stuff. So I got a degree in computer science at Mizzou, went on to Webster to get my MBA. I'm climbing the corporate ladder. I worked at a large corporation here in St Louis for 12 years, which I think you also worked for.
Coach Dustin:I worked for a subsidiary of that same corporation. Yes, yes.
David O:And yeah, just climbing the corporate ladder and I just got totally burned out Just just working for the next paycheck. You know, I did, my wife and I did. The thing that most people did is, when you got to raise it in your job, you went out and bought nicer things. So we ended up buying new vehicles, we bought a bigger house, we bought a lake house, we bought a boat, we bought a jet ski, but we didn't pay cash for any of this stuff. We financed it all and so at the end of the day, I think I'm making this great money, but my paycheck comes in, it gets spent.
Voiceover:That very same day on all these payments and I've got a J-O-B.
David O:I'm just over, broke right Dustin, and I have no sight, no retirement in sight, no freedom in sight. I hate my job, I hate all the emails I get, I hate all the conference calls I have to get on. And they've got this internal chat messenger that's just dinging all day long and I'm at a hundred different group chat messages and I'm just pulling my hair out and I said I got, I got to make a change, something has to change. And that day was I was sitting in my cubicle. It was November in St Louis. I was in.
David O:You know, I go into work from eight to five, an hour, lunch built in there, and so it was dark when I went in. It was dark when I got out. It was just so miserable. I remember those days. But I would sit in my cubicle, listen to a podcast on fantasy football or fantasy sports, whatever it was, and that day I just decided, hey, maybe there's something about real estate or maybe investing. And I found tons of podcasts on there and like, just started downloading that information into my head until finally, like, after a year of all this research and knowledge, um, I knew enough to be dangerous and go out and mess everything up on my first deal.
David O:So that's kind of how I got into this whole thing, nice.
Coach Dustin:So let's talk about. Well, first of all, there was a lot of hate at that job. I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. So, but that journey to going out and doing the first deal, but the journey because you and your wife were married at the time, correct? Yeah, so she was a part of that journey. So how was the support system? How did you say, hey, this job that has got us just over broke, but all these nice things, I don't want that anymore.
David O:How did that work out, gamble on the real estate market and all this stuff and um. But then after a year of me talking about it she was like why don't you go out and take some action Every night?
David O:you come home and you talk about all these guys on the podcast that you listen to that are investing in real estate and they got financial freedom and all this stuff. Yeah, uh, why don't you go buy one house? And uh, you, and that's when it turned and I was like, okay, I got to go buy a house, let's go put this into play. I think she was just kind of sick of me.
Coach Dustin:Put your money where your mouth is. Big guy Broken record over and over again.
David O:And that's where we did and it was a very scary experience. So I had my real estate license on the side. Funny enough we started at the same brokerage. We didn't know each other, but another friend that I worked with was helping his family on the side. So a little extra fund money. If I knew of a family member that was moving, I could be a real estate agent. That's the only purpose of it. I never in a million years thought I'd be a full-time real estate agent. That's the only purpose of it. I never in a million years thought I'd be a full-time real estate agent. But knowing that I had my license, I didn't need anybody to help me buy this first deal. So I literally had nobody advising me, no mentor, no coach, nothing Went into the first deal thinking I could fix this place up with a $20,000 renovation, no problem.
David O:The wholesaler even said it's probably $15,000, a $20,000 renovation, no problem. The wholesaler even said you know, it's probably 15, $20,000. You know I I built a little pad in there saying you know, 20%, $25,000, just to be safe. And you know, six months into this deal we literally spent every dollar in our savings account. We had a hundred grand in our savings account. Our savings account All of it was in this property.
David O:I was losing sleep at night. My wife was going to kill me. We're like, if the next thing goes wrong, I don't know how we're going to pay for it. You know, knock on wood, joined a mastermind, got a coach, got somebody to help me. They helped me get rid of this thing. I lost thousands of dollars but I got a lot of my capital back. We put money back in the savings account and you know, knock on wood, didn't lose money on a deal since that first one. But it all, it all came from getting the help and the mentorship and the coaching and somebody to show me what not to do and how to do things the right way.
Coach Dustin:I love that and you don't have to go over numbers. But was the money you lost in that first deal cheaper than your MBA?
David O:Yeah, I lost about $7,000 in the first year.
Coach Dustin:I'm going to say it was cheaper than a course in one class.
David O:Yes, yes.
Coach Dustin:And I bet you learned more.
David O:Yes.
Coach Dustin:And I have an MBA too right.
David O:Yeah right, and my work paid for my MBA, so I didn't even pay for it. Oh, okay, well, that makes it even better right?
Coach Dustin:Yeah, I guess they did have some tuition reimbursement there.
Coach Dustin:They did. But it's so funny. The mistakes we have in life are our best teachers. It's the best education we can have, and that's proof of that. The mistakes I've made or still make in real estate have still been cheaper than my MBA. So, yeah, that's awesome. What an inspiring story. I know we have a lot of dads out there that are listening, that want to become business dads. They might not be there, they're running the side hustle and they do that and you took the leap. I love how your wife supported you in that. Was that as easy of that conversation as you made it sound like, or was there a lot of talking into, or was she just hey?
David O:she had the faith in you. It was literally a year of me telling her all these great ideas and then, slowly but surely, it got to the point where why don't you go out and do it? You're talking about it, nice.
Coach Dustin:I love that, yeah. So let's talk about the present, because now you run a pretty large team. You have two kids, three kids, three kids, three kids, the wife. You also invest your wife's in the business with you, plus your faith and your health. Are you still on 75 Hard? Did you make it?
David O:I'm not on 75 Hard Okay, all good, all good, we'll get into that.
Coach Dustin:But how do you keep it all? I mean, what are you doing right now to making sure everything works?
David O:That's a great question and only something that I really has made huge progress in recently. So we talk about balancing all these things, and there's this book. I'm sure you've read it. The One Thing They've got this amazing quote in there that says people don't decide their futures, they decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures. People don't decide their futures, they decide their habits, their habits decide their futures. People don't decide their futures, they decide their habits, their habits decide their futures.
David O:And so we think about this balancing act that we have to do with all these things. Well, we need to make it a habit of our lives to spend time in our marriage, spend time with our children, do all those things so that we have those relationships. We have those 10 out of 10 relationships with our spouse and our kids, and we do have a 10 out of 10 business and 10 out of 10 in faith and all that stuff. And so one of the things we had, uh, uh, uh, one of the same coaches I know in business, and one of the things he taught me was laying out a weekly calendar and, like time, blocking it. And so I, you know, I love this idea and that's how I set up. My week today is it's. It's pretty much the same week for me every week, um cause I try to build in all these blocks that make sure that I don't have to balance all these things that we're talking about. It's already planned into my calendar.
David O:It's all right, I know what I'm supposed to be doing. So I'm putting all of my uh faith stuff in there. First. I'm putting my church on Sunday. I've got two Bible studies that I do and I've got a men's group. Those four things go on the calendar before everything else. Then I've got all my family time right. So I've got, you know, weekend with the kids. I've got, uh, breakfast in the morning, dinner and night, um, I've got date night with the wife on Fridays.
David O:And then I'm putting in fun stuff, stuff I like to do and exercise stuff. So I'm putting in the gym, I'm putting in working out, I'm putting in pickleball and golf and other things I like to do that's active and getting out there, and then it's like whatever's left. Now I'm going to'm gonna because I own my thankfully, we own our own business. We can kind of create our own schedules. Yeah, now I'm putting in my work, meetings and and and appointments and stuff like that in there as well, and so every like I know where I'm supposed to be, depending on what time of day and what day a week it is.
David O:Yeah, um, so like when I'm home at night at family dinner, I don't have to be worried about checking my phone because a customer or an agent's calling me. Like this is this next couple hours is family time for me, and so I'm going to pick back up the phone at nine o'clock the next morning when I'm back in my working hours, back in my working block, and that has been just a game changer for me. That always it wasn't always like that, right, and that has been just a game changer for me. That always it wasn't always like that Right. And it was like you know, I was trying to grow the business so fast that I was stealing time from my kids and my wife, you know, checking messages and getting stuff done on the weekend and doing contracts and stuff like that.
Coach Dustin:So great question. So now that you've made that change, you know, while you were going through that change was it hard to let that sit sit until the morning.
David O:You know, through that change was it hard to let that sit.
Coach Dustin:Sit until the morning.
David O:You know like what I found is I can't look at it okay. Okay, if I, if I peeked at a message, yeah, and I saw that there was something somebody was asking and I was like, oh, I gotta do that would be on my head. Yes, until and then I'd have to take care of it.
David O:That, yes, yeah so it was like if I put it out of sight, out of mind, if I didn't preview messages and stuff like that. And that's what I try to do today. I try to only look at my texts when I'm responding to them. I try to only read my email when I'm at my computer, because a lot of times the email wants some file that I have to attach and I can't do it on my phone. So I only do email at my computer now when I'm sitting there responding to emails. Because, like, like, if I preview an email on my phone then all I can think about is like I got to respond to this email. It distracts me from anything else that I might be doing.
Coach Dustin:I like, it Some major discipline. Yeah, so I could never. I mean, it's one of those things I need to work on, but letting a text go unread immediately which I probably need to do that I shouldn't look at the text unless I can respond right now and I'm really bad at that Like I got to know what it says and then I'll come back to it or forget it, and then you know, all hell's breaking loose.
David O:So I mean, it still happens to me. I'm not perfect. So, like on the way over here, for instance, um, I was trying to play music on my phone and you know how it drops down with a little preview. It's this guy that just closed 10 properties with us last week says hey, I need proof of sale. And so I'm like, oh, I'm not going to do that right now, but then I'm going into this interview. I had a few minutes in the parking lot. I was like I got to get rid of this. I got to get this off of my mind.
David O:And so I just sent him the proof of the sale and I was like but that was a perfect example of, like you know, that's that stuff comes up.
Coach Dustin:That's awesome. So I love how you lay out the schedule and put the important things in there. And something that you mentioned a couple of times is faith, and I don't know if you realize I don't even know if we've ever had a conversation about it, but you, your faith journey. You posted something. I don't know if this could be six months, or it could be a year ago, or it could have been last month. I don't know when, but you mentioned the book Two Chairs. That really had a pretty profound you know, on your life and your faith journey. I'd love for you to tell that story, what that book did to you and kind of your faith journey.
David O:Yeah, that's a great book. Yeah, yeah, that was, yeah, maybe a year ago or so that I found that book, and the basic premise of the book is basically spending time with God in the morning and spending time silent, and so, like something that I always wanted to do was I always wanted to meditate. And then you know, in the personal development space you talk about meditation how powerful it is. All this stuff I could never get myself to do it and I didn't see the point of doing it.
David O:And then this book, two chairs, it's. It's more of just a time to listen for God and listen to the Holy spirit, and that is so powerful, like when you can get those and it doesn't happen to me every time, but when I can sit there and I can say a prayer and ask him to speak into me today and I can just be silent for the next 10 minutes, 15 minutes, like you'll get a lot of times something that that you needed. Maybe it was one thought or one thing that you need to focus on that day and it's like you know, it was placed there by God and it was him communicating to you and and sometimes you can't get those opportunities unless you're quiet and you can listen and you can clear your head. It's just a great way to reset in the morning.
Coach Dustin:It's an absolute great book and for those guys who have Audible, I think it's a free download on Audible. It's a free book.
David O:You don't even have to go out and buy it. It's a free Audible. It's amazing. You got to download it, you got to listen to it.
Coach Dustin:We should try to get him on the show, because it's a good book.
David O:That would be cool.
Coach Dustin:Yeah, so that's awesome. I love the idea of the faith and how important it is in your life the family time, the kids. You know what's what's new and exciting for you right now. Like, what are you guys working on right now? I've obviously got the team and things like that, but there are any projects or anything like that you're working on currently.
David O:Yeah, I mean we're just really excited about growing IDXP Realty. The future is just so bright and kind of the niche that we picked out, just helping investors. It's such a passionate project for me because when I was in the corporate world the investments that were available to me were just bad.
Voiceover:They're just 401ks.
David O:It's Wall Street, it's stocks, it's bonds, it's mutual funds, it's like all this stuff that takes 40 years to retire. It's not good, and so I think Americans are just desperate for a vehicle in real estate and making it accessible to the normal person. And that's what we do as agents is, we can help that average American buy their first real estate investment, and they don't have to go out and sign up for a $50,000 coaching program or a Robert Kiyosaki seminar. They can just hire us as an agent and we can walk them through the steps, and it's really simple and it's just something that I'm really passionate about and spreading the word and getting more people to invest in real estate, because I believe it's the best investment vehicle in the world.
Coach Dustin:Yeah, so I do as well. Obviously, you mentioned a couple of times about coaching, personal development, masterminds, so tell us about that journey of you know, getting a coach or going into masterminds, and what it's done for you and your family and your life, et cetera.
David O:Yeah, I mean, the funny thing is, before you know, I was just like anybody else before I got into coaching or personal development or masterminds or anything like that the thought of paying somebody thousands of dollars was just outrageous right.
David O:It wasn't until I was like losing thousands of dollars on my first deal and literally so desperate I didn't even have the money anymore to pay for the coaching.
David O:I had to go to one of those promotional credit cards where they give you no payments for six months and I fricking swiped $7,000 on that and I'm like just praying that this is going to work out, that the coaching is going to pay for itself over the next six months, and thankfully it did. Within two months, I did a wholesale deal and made $8,000 and I paid it back. I was like, wow, this is actually works. But yeah, since that moment in time, like I've invested easily over six figures into coaching and events and masterminds and it's just, they're just going to be a part of my career until the end of time. Like, you have to have, uh, the peer group, you have to have the accountability, you have to have somebody else that intimately knows what you're facing every day so that they can they can have a different perspective and share, um, share some guidance with absolutely, and call you on your BS sometimes, because they'll see it.
David O:True, very true.
Coach Dustin:Yeah, man, that's awesome. So you know, I always like to close with the question what is your number one tip for a business, dad?
David O:Number one tip for a business dad? That's a great question. Number one tip for a business dad? Um, if I could only give you one tip and this would be the same tip I'd give my kids to life is like lean into your faith. Oh, I love that. You know, one of the things that I've gotten from uh, uh, just listening to a podcast like this um, that's been a year or two now was I heard somebody say just take your kids to church every Sunday, not because it's church and all that, but to show them that this is a habit, that this is a staple in their lives, because when they move out of the home, who's going to be the one providing the guidance? And you really want to instill the importance of having faith and being able to look to the Bible for advice and looking to other Christian men and and other Christian dads for advice and direction. So I'd say faith.
Coach Dustin:I love that, and it's like you were eavesdropping on my last interview. Um, I and I got to mention it. So, everybody, if you didn't listen to last week's episode, go back and listen to that with my pastor, pastor Ryan Taylor. But one of the things we were talking about and of course you can go listen to it but it was I asked him. You know, as someone who wants to lead my family in faith, when you're sitting there, it's like I'm watching the kids, I'm telling them to be. If I'm not getting anything out of it, they're not getting anything out of it. What? And he said something I needed to hear. So, again, I would recommend everybody going back to listen to this one. But he said, dustin, your job right now is not to listen to my message. Your job is to be the example for your kids and bring them to church. So I swear it's like you eavesdropped on that and it's already been released. So that's awesome. Yeah, that is awesome Cool. So how can people find you if they wanted to get ahold of you, dave?
David O:Yeah, so on social media, I'm at agent David O, you know, send me a message I read and respond to those Awesome Love to connect with you, awesome.
Coach Dustin:Well, guys, remember we have this conversation going on with our free Facebook group at the balance business. Dad, you can join that. You can go straight up to dadupgroupcom. Join the group there. There's also a free training I put on there on the Dad Up framework. Besides that, guys just go ahead and dad up, because the people who love you the most deserve it the most. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks a lot.
