35: From Homeless to an 8 Figure Real Estate Business: Jeremy's Story of Perseverance

Behind Their Success: Ep 35

Jeremy Beland: [00:00:00] I was hanging off skyscrapers for 12 bucks an hour. Literally had no credit card, no money. I had a 400 beta car. I was just like, I was broke as broke could be in my early twenties. 

 Welcome to behind their success. This podcast is for people who are feeling stuck on their entrepreneur journey or in their careers. It's for people who want to scale and grow their businesses, learn about the power of mindset, or they just know there's more out there and they want to start making changes.

Paden Squires: I'm Peyton Squires, the host of the podcast. I was never cut out to be an employee, and when I was an employee, I was bored out of my mind. So I made a plan. I studied and passed the CPA exam in eight months while working, all with the end goal in mind of quitting my job and starting my own business. I did that in 2014, and it has been an amazing wild ride since.

Paden Squires: So now let's hear from other entrepreneurs, and what mindsets, and probably more important, what actions they have taken that have created and led to their success. 

Paden Squires: Good morning, everybody. Welcome [00:01:00] back to Behind Their Success podcast. I am Paden Squires, the host. And today we have Jeremy Beland. His journey began with significant financial challenges, experienced homelessness twice and dropping out of high school at 15 and his late twenties. The 2008 recession left him jobless and on the brink of foreclosure, feeling trapped and desperate as a distressed seller, a real estate investor helped him avoid foreclosure through a short sale.

Paden Squires: And this experience opened his eyes to the potential of real estate investing. In 2017, he decided to go all in on real estate. He sold his house, moved into a small apartment and invested in a real estate coaching program. Within the first year, he completed 10 deals and made 77, 000. Today, his companies have acquired over 425, off market properties and have earned close to eight figures in gross profits.

Paden Squires: Jeremy. Tell us a little bit, I guess, give us a little more color to that. 

Jeremy Beland: yeah, yeah, no, it was a [00:02:00] great introduction and, you know, great, uh, summary of the bio.

Jeremy Beland: So, yeah, I mean, listen, my life has been, ups and downs and. It's funny because we always hear the cliche, Hey, you know, if I could do it, anybody could do it. And then I find myself in that position and I'm like, Oh my God, it's so cheesy. But that's reality. When I talk to people about getting into real estate now, because, you know, I'm not smart or anything, but I'm definitely not educated and I've come through a lot of struggles and a very, very humble background, of course.

Jeremy Beland: but as we find in life, you know, success is really just consistency, self discipline and perseverance, right? so I've been blessed to have those skillsets, but basically what happened was, man, I'll try to make this quick for your audience. It's good. A little bit long winded, but I'll do my best to make it quick.

Jeremy Beland: You know, I came into this world in the mid seventies, approaching 48 years old right now. My mom was a young mom in her early twenties and we basically came into the world homeless. she was from a very religious family, had me out of wedlock. Her family wanted nothing to do with any of us.

Jeremy Beland: So she was out on the [00:03:00] streets in early twenties, bouncing around from house to house. you know, the first years of my life outside of being homeless were on welfare, just barely getting by. And then eventually she got married, you know, when I was probably five, six years old, somewhere around that. She met my stepfather at the time.

Jeremy Beland: And then we. Moved into a situation where we were like lower middle class. You know, we had like a small house, a suburban town, um, lifestyle to get better, you know, I had a half brother and sister that were born and we had like two nice cars for the first time in our life. And then, uh, when I was about 13, 14 years old, he decided to leave his, good management job to start his own window cleaning business.

Jeremy Beland: And when he. did that, he ended up losing everything in the process. And at 13, 14 years old, as I was getting ready to go into high school, we found ourselves. Facing bankruptcy, facing foreclosure. Our cars are repossessed overnight. You know, we just came out to school one morning and then the cars weren't there.

Jeremy Beland: Right. It was that, that kind of scenario. Um, they lost a house. We basically were homeless at that point. We started bouncing around from like one terrible rental to [00:04:00] another terrible rental. We were moving around constantly because you know, they just really weren't qualified from a credit standpoint to get anything nice.

Jeremy Beland: And they weren't really, they didn't have any money. They were struggling. Can only imagine. Not knowing as a kid now, but as an adult reflecting back. The emotional and financial stress that they were having, right. During that time with three young kids, I bounced around to three different high schools. By the time I was even in my sophomore year, I was already gotten arrested a couple of times.

Jeremy Beland: Um, it was on, you know, probation for like the second time. And by the time I was 15, I quit and I went to work with him, to wash windows, um, was a terrible decision, but also a good decision, because I was headed nowhere in school. I was just getting in trouble. And that. Basically taught me how to start working hard and that self discipline, make a long story short.

Jeremy Beland: I found health and fitness in my late teens, you know, got it stopped doing drugs and smoking and doing all that stuff and got into the gym and that set me on a different path altogether. I really learned about self development and Achieving goals and [00:05:00] wanting to just get better as a person. and then in my early twenties, I was a high rise window cleaner.

Jeremy Beland: during the day I was delivering pizzas at night, you know, working with my old stepdad during the weekends. I was, you know, hanging off skyscrapers for 12 bucks an hour. Literally had no credit card, no money. I had a 400 beta car. I was just like, I was. Broke as broke could be in my early twenties.

Jeremy Beland: Uh, but I was playing semi-pro football and a friend of mine says, Hey dude, you should come work with me. You know, it's a sales job selling copies and printers and stuff like that. I said, okay, sounds better than hanging off a skyscraper. So, uh, I went out and bought my very first time. I was like 24 years old.

Jeremy Beland: Never even had a tie in my life. Had to have somebody tie it for me for the interview. somehow landed the job. I think they were really desperate for sales reps. They hired me. Uh, and then I started my. My career was professional sales, selling copiers, printers and fax machines and it was business to business.

Jeremy Beland: So I had to literally go generate cold calling, deal with gatekeepers and secretaries and, you know, a lot of nose, a lot of doors [00:06:00] slamming on my face, but you know, I didn't care. It was a professional job. I wasn't, you know, hanging off a skyscraper in November, freezing my butt off, so I was thrilled.

Jeremy Beland: but it taught me a lot. You know, every no is a no closer to a yes, right? So all these lessons I was learning along the way and how to get better talking to people and overcome my fear of just cold calling and cold approaching people. Then I got married and with my first wife, I am, you know, so I was in my mid to late twenties and all of a sudden, dude, I made it.

Jeremy Beland: I found another sales job selling cleaning service. I was making six well into the six figures a year. I had this nice house. We had a Pool. We had a camper up at a campground. I had nice new cars, literally everything that I dreamed about my entire life. I, at my late twenties, as I was approaching 30, I achieved it.

Jeremy Beland: Two young kids, wife, life was great. Then the recession happened in 2008 and we just put a huge addition on our house. We had about a hundred and I don't know. I think we had like 80, 000 in equity a year and a half later. We're upside down 150, 000. [00:07:00] Um, what people don't realize too. And you know, I, I think, you know, you probably remember that time a little bit, but a lot of people don't understand.

Jeremy Beland: It wasn't just a housing crisis. It was also an employment crisis. A lot of people were out of work. I didn't have a high school education. I didn't have a college education, right? So all these people who are much more educated than me that had higher paying jobs were all out of work too. And they were taking lower paying jobs just to make their ends meet to survive, which just pushed me down this, uh, totem pole even more.

Jeremy Beland: So I couldn't find anything. Like literally I was out of work. I got laid off. Um, You know, there was no loan remodifications back then. There was no government help. There's no SBA. There was nothing you know, the banks were getting bailed out, but people weren't and I was on the brink of going into foreclosure and bankruptcy and I decided to go into depression.

Jeremy Beland: I'm like I'm in the same situation. My family is like, I'm, I'm no better than them. It just felt like a loser. Right. And, um, I had a situation where I could join the air force. My thought [00:08:00] process was if I can go into the air force, I can learn a trade to learn network security. So when I come out, I can get a recession proof job selling firewalls, right?

Jeremy Beland: Cause we're always going to need firewalls. That was my mindset. I couldn't afford to go to college. Couldn't make ends meet. I was. Basically not making anything from making 140, 000 just a year and a half earlier. but I decided if I had to go into the air force, I could find my way out. But here's the catch: I could not get into the air force if I had a foreclosure bankruptcy, because I needed a top secret class for what I was going to do.

Jeremy Beland: And in order to do that, I guess the government thinks. You're going to sell government secrets if you're in bankruptcy or foreclosure. So that was their mindset. so I was learning about real estate investing that time. Took a Donald Trump weekend seminar, university seminar. I was trying to get into it.

Jeremy Beland: And then all of a sudden the world collapsed and I just got out of it. It was in survival mode, but I reached out to a real estate investor and I said, Hey, I need some help. I don't want to go into bankruptcy and foreclosure. He said, I have experience working with your lender. I feel [00:09:00] confident that we can do a short seal.

Jeremy Beland: And get you out of this situation. That short seal allowed me to go into basic training at 33 years old, just before the age cut off of 34. Um, my nickname was Gramps in basic training. Cause I was with my 17 year old kids. I had to leave for six months too basically make 30, like 32, 000 a year, just to get in, you know, just to bring in some money.

Jeremy Beland: It was just, it was a crazy time, that real estate investor gave me a reset button in life. And not only during that time, did he give me a reset button in life, you know, he was able cause you can't profit off of a short sale, but he was giving us money behind the scenes for things like our refrigerator, our pool and other things that really didn't have any monetary value.

Jeremy Beland: So. But he knew we were desperate and that cash was literally like Christmas presents for my kids, clothes on their back as they were growing groceries. So like, it was really like money that we desperately needed. That guy was a blessing in my life at that time. So I went into the military, came back six months later, still trying [00:10:00] to find a job and everything else.

Jeremy Beland: Finally got myself a job, got divorced. Now I'm like, in my mid to late thirties and I have two young kids, a divorced dad. and I'm approaching 40 years old and I found myself back to making six figures in life again, but as I'm approaching 40 years old, I'm like. What happens if the owner of my company sells?

Jeremy Beland: What if something happens? I started to feel like Vulnerable of my future and we know and you know, you probably know people as well We started to come in the 40s and 50s just start to see people have been working their careers for a long time Chopped off right and they're out of work and they can't find work and they can't get their you know Uh a job that pays their lifestyle anymore That scared me and I didn't have any retirement and like I gotta do something So after about a year of having analysis paralysis, I came across this wholesaling Inc podcast.

Jeremy Beland: I said, I'm going to get into wholesaling and wholesaling for your audience that doesn't know it's basically what we do is we find properties off market, put it under our purchase and sales agreement. We assign the rights to that purchase and sales agreement to another buyer who [00:11:00] pays us for the rights to that contract.

Jeremy Beland: That's what wholesaling is in our industry. Basically it doesn't cost any money to do it. Right. So. I didn't have any money to join this coaching program. Didn't have any money to do this. All I had was a condo that I owned for about two years. And I sold it. I said, alright, I'm going to sell this condo. I had 17, 000 of equity in it.

Jeremy Beland: I paid 6, 000 in credit card debt. Moved my kids into a crappy two bedroom apartment in not such a nice area. Uh, and I was all in, I burned the boats. I took 11, 000 and started my real estate business. 5, 000 went into the coaching program, which got me this check for 5, 000. 90 days later, um, 6, 000 was that marketing spend.

Jeremy Beland: We went on to, as you said earlier, the introduction, 10 deals, 70 something thousand dollars that year. But since then, with reinvesting into more coaching and teams and everything else, we've scaled, you know, To be at, you know, we're around 450 off market deals now and about 10 million in gross revenue, which is just mind blowing.

Jeremy Beland: but it wasn't easy to [00:12:00] get there, but that's the story of how it was. That was 

Paden Squires: That was a great story. You know, there's, there's a whole lot of things in there, you know, and I was kind of taking some notes when you're talking through stuff of, some things that I could relate to, you know, and one even goes back, I think, you know, early in your story when you said you found the gym and found them working it out.

Paden Squires: That has been really big in my life, I would say in the last four ish years. working out in the gym is such a tangible thing and such a, a great tool to learn about progress and discipline and, and, you know, Hey, I can't measure the changes day to day, but if I know, and just have the faith and show up every day, you know, you measure something in six months and you'll be blown away how far you've gone.

Jeremy Beland: Exactly. Yeah. And then also, you know, you want to get better at it, right? So what do I need to get better? I need to eat better. I need to drink better. I need to sleep better. You know, do I need to take supplements, right? All these things you start to learn, which really gets you into this mode of like, wow, if I take some of those attributes and apply them to other areas of my life, and then you build this world of self development, right?

Jeremy Beland: Yeah, exactly. [00:13:00] So, you know, back then I didn't really think about it, but it really just, you know, set, The trajectory of where I am today of just personal development. And now for like the last 25 years or more, you know, I just try to get 1 percent better every day. I still do. You know, the, the 

Paden Squires: Another thing, I mean, the, the, I guess the drama of your story is like, you know, you, you've earned the boast, you had, you know, you're in a crappy apartment, divorced dad, two kids and sold stuff.

Paden Squires: So you could take a course. To start your career, right? I mean, like literally you, everything was on the line there, right? 

Jeremy Beland: It was, and if it didn't work, I had no backup plan, right? There was nothing else. I would have just been stuck in this job and I was making decent money, but I was still living week to week, month to month, right?

Jeremy Beland: I wasn't getting ahead. I was just floating. and I didn't know, but I was just, you know, It was going to make it happen. I field forward, massive and perfect action. Once I got that first deal, I was like, Oh my God, this actually works. And then my, And my friend who, you know, is now my wife became my girlfriend during that year.

Jeremy Beland: [00:14:00] Um, you know, she was just like, I can't believe this actually works. When you were talking about doing this thing, I'm like, is that even legal? Is that even a thing? And, uh, you know, and we've built this amazing life as a result of it. Now I'm. Business model has changed over the years, but we still get properties off market.

Jeremy Beland: We still provide a lot of value. So we talked earlier about, you know, I shared about the real estate investor helping me, right. Give me a reset button in life. I've been able to do that with my companies and myself personally, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times over and multiple markets are in this country to other people.

Jeremy Beland: So I've been able to pay that forward because. Let's face it. We're all one or two decisions away from, you know, being in that situation or one or two life events that we can't control of being in that, you know, that position. So good people fall on hard times and good people need help. And a lot of us are too insecure, too proud to ask for help in those situations.

Jeremy Beland: So we ended up just sinking. And then somebody like myself comes into your life unexpectedly, like that real [00:15:00] estate investor did for me. And I can change their life, give them a reset button. And the next thing you know, they're able to rebuild themselves and dig themselves out of that situation. 

Paden Squires: You have the opportunity and the ability to do exactly what was done for you.

Paden Squires: Right. you know, the passion that comes behind that, right? Like, that's gotta be a whole lot of fuel, 

Jeremy Beland: dude. Like every day I wake up, I love what we do, you know, and we have great people on our team. We're blessed to have people who have been with us for over five years now that have been on our, in our companies.

Jeremy Beland: And they have the same, you know, values, the same core beliefs of just. being a go giver and providing value to the local community. Of course, we make great money doing it, which is awesome. Um, but it's like the best of both worlds, right? Providing value and getting paid to do it. Uh, every day I wake up, I'm so excited.

Jeremy Beland: I love what we do. I like it, I can't wait to get better. I can't wait to make money. Can't wait to provide value. I can't wait to do more real estate. It's super fun. 

Paden Squires: I love it. So, so yeah, heck of a story there. And, and I don't know if you know who Ed Mylett is. He's a [00:16:00] big, yeah, a big podcaster. Of course. but, you know, he talks about like, you know, you're the most qualified to help the person you used to be right. Like, you know, the person that's going to reach, you know, say the alcoholic or drug addict. Is going to be the person that used to be an alcoholic drug addict. And it's so cool.

Paden Squires: You, you have such that perfect story of, of really paying back exactly, or even, you know, even more, but paying back even more in the exact kind of vehicle that was done for you. That's such a neat thing. 

Jeremy Beland: Yeah, it's amazing. And you know, it's happened. There's so many people that need it more than you think.

Jeremy Beland: Like, I mean, this country alone has like 2 million houses that go into foreclosure every year. Right. And that's just foreclosure. We're not talking about people that are hoarders or facing tax delinquency or the house has fallen apart. You know, beneath them, or they just can't afford the house anymore.

Jeremy Beland: They're out of work and they need to relocate this, all these signs of distress, we help people in all different types of situations all the time. And it's, it's really fun. 

Paden Squires: [00:17:00] And then, you know, I think the other piece, the other big piece of your story that stood out to me is just the. The will, the humble, right?

Paden Squires: And the willing to sign up for a course, the willing to learn you know, most people don't do that, right? They, they kind of get stuck in a position and they're, they're kind of just waiting for somebody to save them or something to come along. Um, I think the decision you, you knew you needed to do something and you did it.

Paden Squires: And that's not, that's not even that common.

Jeremy Beland: You know, it's funny, you, I'm a coach now, and I started a coaching business about a year ago and, you know, during my process of becoming a coach and growing my coaching company, I talked to a lot of people who want to get into my business. It was really that epiphany during this time that I realized, wow, a lot of people aren't willing to make that commitment, that sacrifice, they are just hoping for a few different things, right?

Jeremy Beland: They. Don't want to spend any money. So they hope YouTube university is just going to provide them this miracle equation of how to get everything, or somebody is going to magically just teach them [00:18:00] everything for free. but also a lot of people just waiting. I call it the unicorn, right? Unicorns don't exist.

Jeremy Beland: They're an imaginary creature. They're waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect time, the perfect situation, and it's never going to be perfect, right? There's no perfect deal. There's no perfect flip, no perfect rental. There's no perfect opportunity. It's just, there is what you make of it, right? And you have to take massive and perfect action.

Jeremy Beland: It's scary. The risk, there is a risk, but I feel like the risk of waiting for something better to come along and wasting that time and wasting our life is a much greater risk.

Paden Squires: You know, especially like say in the real estate market today, you know, you know, people are like, Oh, house is so expensive. They're sitting around waiting and thinking, Oh, the market's going to crash and whatever. And like, yeah, I don't know about that, but you know, it's, it's people, it's, it's really fear, right.

Paden Squires: That is leading them to not take action. Um, and a lot of that fear is most of the time wrapped around of like, What are other people going to think of me? they're not even afraid of failing per se. they're [00:19:00] afraid of what other people will think of their failure.

Paden Squires: like for an example, like, you know, you're playing a video game, right? You don't really have anything at stakes. Like you're willing to fail at that over and over and over again. Right. And in private, right.

Paden Squires: Right. Um, but as soon as it comes up to the public, right, we want to put on the show, put on this mask. Not be vulnerable. Hey, I'm, you know, I don't fail at 

Jeremy Beland: right. Yeah. You know, I'm still failing regularly. You know, um, we're working on a property this year, which is a big burr rental.

Jeremy Beland: it's probably gonna be one of my biggest failures to date, but you know, it's a lesson and, you know, we're going to learn from it. We'll get better from it. It's going to happen. It's inevitable, right? We're all going to get. Knock down, we're all gonna lose. We're all gonna make mistakes. We're all gonna fail, but.

Jeremy Beland: You know, if we don't just keep moving forward, then we're just going to live in this life where we settle for less because we're afraid of letting other people down, letting, afraid of other people's opinions, but like, man, life is short, like, man, I'd rather feel trying than being afraid to feel not doing anything, [00:20:00] living a life that I am not happy about.

Jeremy Beland: I I can't imagine that. So, and I, Hey, listen, I still have my sleepless nights, you know, I'm still stressed, you know, there was a few nights ago I was like, Oh, sick to my stomach because a bunch of stuff that happens, right. That's being a business owner, you know. But what if you're wait, you know, you're in a company like one of our students recently where they were going through layoff after layoff and he's like surviving, but he knows it's inevitable.

Jeremy Beland: That'll keep you up at night too. 

Paden Squires: You know, same thing here. as you move up the scale of success or, you know, doing bigger and bigger things, like it's still the same game. Like the poker chips just get bigger, right? Like, you know, You say, you know, you've got no bad deal or trying to, you know, figure out a tough deal you're in the middle of, like that probably would have absolutely smashed you 10 years ago or whatever.

Paden Squires: Right. Like from a personal standpoint, you wouldn't even be able to handle it. Right. And I think about the stuff that happens day to day in my business now that like 10 years ago, Holy moly, like, you know, the comings and [00:21:00] goings of money and the size and, and things like that, like, there's no way I wouldn't be able to handle that, the pressure and the small mindset I had at that point.

Paden Squires: And now it's like, well, yeah, it's just a regular Tuesday. 

Jeremy Beland: Right, exactly. And that's why mindset's really important. We all have limited beliefs and you really need to work as you grow as an entrepreneur on your mindsets. And, you know, one of the things my beautiful wife said to me long ago. When I have these moments, she was like, there was a time in your life you would have been thankful to have these problems.

Jeremy Beland: And I always use that to humble me and ground me. Like, you're right. These problems suck today, but you know, five years, 10 years, 15 years ago, I would have loved to have them. So yeah. And those are the problems you wanted to have, 

Paden Squires: like, you know what I mean? Like you, and I, I'm the same thing, like. Going back 10 years ago, I'm probably so much further along than I ever even believed possible, right?

Paden Squires: but then you get there and you're like, Oh, I'm just ungrateful. You know what I mean? Whatever, right? Yeah.

Paden Squires: but it is important, like I was listening to some, some YouTube motivational thing this morning in the gym and it's, yeah, it's just, you know.[00:22:00] 

Paden Squires: Tony Robbins was on there talking about it's like you don't experience life. You experience the life you focus on, right? Like there there's things everywhere around you to be grateful and at the exact same time There's things around you at all times to be like point out that oh, that's bad But it's literally like What do you focus on is what you get if you can find something to be grateful for at any moment and it's just a mindset thing.

Jeremy Beland: Totally. You know, Ed, my let talks about that in his books and I forget the part of the brain, he calls it, but it starts with like an M, but he says, you know, what happens is like, if you're interested in maybe buying a car, right. And you're like, Oh, I'm going to buy a Toyota pickup, right. All of a sudden you're driving around and everywhere you look, you see Toyota pickups all around before you never noticed them.

Jeremy Beland: Right. So that is a perfect example. You. Live a life of what you focus on. So if you focus on negativity, toxicity, being a victim, that's the life you're gonna live. Right? If you think of a life of, I'm gonna persevere, abundance, you know, collaboration, providing [00:23:00] value, wealth, health, and work towards those things, you'll surround yourself with that.

Jeremy Beland: Yes. Yeah. 

Paden Squires: The, uh, uh, it's the, it's called the reticulating activating system. So RAS Yeah. Yeah. So it's the part of your brain that filters things, right? Like our brain is. You know, we're getting stimulus like unreal amounts of stimulus at any given moment in our brain, you know, part of our brain that filters like, okay, this is important.

Paden Squires: Pay attention. You know, most things we don't even don't even rise to our consciousness, right? Because our brain can't handle all of it. And yeah, it's true. It's like you, you, you start to focus on something and, you know, you don't want to go biblical. It's like. If you seek it, you'll find it, right? Like if you look for it, you will find it.

Jeremy Beland: Yeah. And you know, that's what's led me to some of the great coaches in my business. You know, we talked early on about me investing everything into that one coach. The reason why I'm here where I am today, It's not because I took that one course and I was like, all right, I'm going to be a superstar, right?

Jeremy Beland: Like I invested a lot of time and money and energy into more coaching and [00:24:00] personal development. And it was having that mindset of trying to find these guys. Some of these people were hard to find, but they were huge in my ability to grow as an entrepreneur and. My team members who have had a lot of I've invested a lot of coaching.

Jeremy Beland: They've been able to grow and prosper. And, 

Paden Squires: You know, the same here on my journey is like the more I started investing in self development and coaching and mastermind groups and all those things, right. I mean, that's just exactly right. And, and, you know, the tools and it truly are, you, you know, you are the most valuable thing, right?

Paden Squires: Like the most valuable investment. And the more you pour into you, you get all the leverage to then go to, go make more money in whatever business ventures you are, but it's really you that needs to be developed to go, to go make more money. Do any of that stuff. 

Jeremy Beland: 100%. And that's why I'll never stop doing personal development or investing myself.

Jeremy Beland: I read books every single morning. I still have a morning routine. I'm opposite the gym, just like you today, you know, these things never, ever, and 1 percent better every day. 

Jeremy Beland: Yeah, I'm only 40. I'm going to be 48 [00:25:00] this year. I plan on living well past 100. I'm still in the first half of my life, which means I have a very expensive second half of my life. So I need a lot of personal development because I want to do a lot of fun things. I got a buddy 

Paden Squires: of mine that has a very clear vision.

Paden Squires: He's like, I'm going to die at 108 years old. It's like, I'll probably slip and fall in the shower in a hundred days, but that is his vision. Right. And that's so cool. And like he is planning his life to live to a hundred days. Um, yeah, and that's, you know, with technology coming down the route, I mean, we may be of the age that our lives are extended dramatically, um, depending on what breakthroughs come through for sure.

Jeremy Beland: I am going to use modern science and any kind of medical advantage I can use over the next half of my life. That's for sure. To live as long as I can. And my wife and I want to travel the world and we want to see our grandchildren grow. We just want to have tons of fun and adventures. And, you know, and if it wasn't for me taking these risks and still taking these risks, I would not be able to live the life that I want to do where I [00:26:00] travel and will be able to travel and spend a lot of time with my kids now that are leaving the nest and their kids down the road.

Jeremy Beland: And that stuff's super important to me because, we can all make more money, but we can't get more time. It's so invaluable. So you really need to make sure that you're working hard to enjoy it. Every moment. 

Paden Squires: You've really been starting to try to pick, you know, to be a focus of mine is just being present in every moment, you know, yeah, with entrepreneurs, like you're so forward focused, you're so thinking about the future and driving and sacrificing today.

Paden Squires: And, and, you know, you, you're just of that mindset that like, you can go a long time and never really be. Where you're at, right? You're always, you know, you're always out in the future and that's, that's something I'd say I haven't been great at. but it's really a focus. I have three small children and you know, the oldest has hit eight now and you realize like, wow, that eight years was fast.

Paden Squires: It's, it's just a matter of like, I want to squeeze everything out of this that I can. 

Jeremy Beland: You really do. You know, we have five kids between me and Michelle [00:27:00] together. Um, my two already left the house. She first just left the house. We just dropped them off at King's point at the merchant Marine Academy. We have another kid who's going into a senior year, getting ready to leave.

Jeremy Beland: And we have a kid going into high school. So we're like four years away from having no kids. And it just seemed like. You know, five years ago, we had all these little kids running around the house during COVID where we're going crazy. Right. And just like that, it's gone. And they'll never live with us again.

Jeremy Beland: Most likely, you know, the mornings of just hanging out and doing the little things that just gone, you know, I, so all of a sudden you start to reflect like, God, I just miss watching Saturday cartoons with my kids on the couch. I, you know, I was too busy doing emails at that time, but God, I wish I could put the phone down and spend time with them.

Jeremy Beland: Right. And all that stuff happens so quickly. you know, and it's hard to find that balance. To your point, like, you know, the next 10, 12, 13, 14 years of your kid's lives to be able to like what me and Michelle have been able to, we've been to every school thing over their last five, six years, they were always home.

Jeremy Beland: We pick them up if they need to not go [00:28:00] to school for the day. We're there. We're just, we've been so present. So to have that opportunity on the last, Half of their childhood because of our real estate business has been the best blessing this business has given to us. That's 

Paden Squires: fantastic stuff. And that stuff, even, you know, currently me and my wife have had a lot of conversations about love.

Paden Squires: What's important, what's not important. And because, yeah, you know, I can work all day, every day and run all day, every day. And, um, you know, and never stop being true. a simpler type, like as the guy that wants to run and go and do all the things, like, um, it's not always the right move, 

Jeremy Beland: You know, I wasn't able to travel outside of, I live in New Hampshire.

Jeremy Beland: I wasn't able to travel outside of New England until I was 24 years old. It was the first time I ever went on an airplane in my life. Same here, same here, first airplane I 

Paden Squires: ever went on my honeymoon. 

Jeremy Beland: There you go. Right. That was the first time I ever left the country. so. You know, over the last six, seven years of being in this business, we've been able to take the kids on a lot of different vacations.

Jeremy Beland: You know, we've gone to St. John [00:29:00] and we've gone to Florida and the Carolinas, different things, right? And Michelle and I have traveled a lot for businesses, everything else. And we've built this thing of Wanderlust. Our whole goal going forward is like, how much can we travel? And can we build a life of running our businesses from wherever we are in the world?

Jeremy Beland: Right. But our kids now all have this one to less bug too, and they can't wait to see the world. And we've been able to give them that opportunity to get a taste of what that feels like. And now they're all motivated to have these great lives. So they can go explore that. Um, man, it's just, it's so rewarding.

Jeremy Beland: And if we were just working all the time and my wife was like, Hey, let's not, let's go do some fun stuff. we would not have those moments. Yeah. That's awesome. 

Paden Squires: Yeah. We, uh, just last month got back with, took the whole, the whole family down to Cancun and it was, it was a really cool experience, not only for the kids and the family, but also we, it was part of a mastermind group.

Paden Squires: I'm in, and you know, there were 15 different families down there of, you know, fantastic entrepreneurs and great conversations. And, we even did some marriage stuff, you know, it was kind of a whole family, family [00:30:00] thing. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, the experience was amazing. And then the relationships you all should gain out of that, the deepening relationships, especially with all these other successful business owners, it's, um, 

Paden Squires: know, what would you credit as your best? Decision you've ever made.

Jeremy Beland: That's a good, you know, I obviously it was, you know, you know, selling my house and starting my real estate business, our professional thing. But honestly, my best decision I ever made was marrying my second wife. you know, I don't, not to sound cliche, but she's my best friend. She's built this business with me.

Jeremy Beland: We spend all day, every day together. You know, a lot of what we've been able to achieve has been because of her and her ability to bring our vision together and help with the kids and just all this stuff. And, you know, my best decision hands down has been sharing my life with her.

Paden Squires: you know,

Paden Squires: when you're looking at relationships with your spouse or really anybody in your life, it's like trying to evaluate that. It's like, does this person. Make me better, right? Like when I'm around them, do they [00:31:00] make me rise to another level?

Paden Squires: Right. In different areas. Yeah. That's what she does. 

Jeremy Beland: And that's all I ever wanted was somebody like that. And that's what she does, you know, and just a simple thing. Like she just made a whole bunch of green juices. Cause she knows I want to have green juice to be healthy. And she doesn't really care for green juice that much.

Jeremy Beland: I'll have them occasionally, but she just made them because she knows it makes me better. Right. And that's just a small thing, but there's many things like that again. The compound effect of all that makes me want to be the best man I can be for her. 

Paden Squires: Which is kind of interesting. And this part of the stuff we talked about that mass mind group or the family thing is that like, uh, kind of the masculine feminine energies there around, around a lot of that stuff.

Paden Squires: And, and, man, if, Women honestly probably have a lot of the power in the relationship, but like the women, you know, really learn how to harness that power. They can get the man to run and go do anything, right? Oh 

Jeremy Beland: yeah. How many burpees do you want me to do? You got it. 

Paden Squires: You know, they go deeper, really understand.

Paden Squires: They can, you know, they can pump their man up to get him to go do anything. 

Jeremy Beland: Women really rule the [00:32:00] world. Let's face it. They do. Yeah. 

Paden Squires: So one, another, one more question I wanted to ask you really was, uh, going back to 2008 or, you know, right when you were learning about, you know, getting out of your, your bad real estate dealer, avoiding foreclosure.

Paden Squires: If you go back and give that person one piece of advice. What would it be?

Jeremy Beland: I would have, I go back and forth between two things. I would start real estate then. I know that sounds crazy, but knowing what I know now, I probably would have moved myself out to California and became a real estate agent because I could have made a fortune selling houses there in the rise of the next 

Paden Squires: 15 years.

Paden Squires: Dude, if you would have bought anything, you could have bought anything blindfolded in 2010, 11, 12. 

Jeremy Beland: So I would have went out there. I would have been an agent. I would have been an investor. I love real estate investing. That's truly my passion. Being an agent wouldn't have been, but it would have been a great catalyst to get me to where I would love to get to financially.

Jeremy Beland: So that's what I would have done knowing what I know now. 

 So Jeremy, it's been a great conversation, man. [00:33:00] what's the best way, uh, what's the best way people can connect with you if they're interested in what you're doing or what you got going? 

Jeremy Beland: Yeah, I'm on social media everywhere. you know, Tik Tok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, you name it, Jeremy B land.

Jeremy Beland: Um, you can also check us out at REI freedom. So real estate investing, REI freedom. That's our branding for our coaching program. If anybody has interest in learning a little bit more about what we're doing. What I do and wanting to do that, I can provide guidance and coaching on that. You can just reach out to me.

Jeremy Beland: If you really just want to talk to somebody about entrepreneurship or self development, happy to talk about that as well. I love talking about things that make me better and I can give value to other people. So I would, you know, if anybody wants to talk to me, please, please, please reach out, don't be afraid.

Jeremy Beland: I'd love to talk to 

Paden Squires: you. You know, I would challenge you if Jeremy, um, touches you anyway or got you excited anyway in this conversation. Absolutely do that. That's, that's an amazing offer of value from a guy that has done a lot of ridiculous stuff in the real estate world and, and, and is willing [00:34:00] to just give that away for free to strangers and take time to do that.

Paden Squires: So, um, that's, that's, that's amazing value. Anything else you want to.

Jeremy Beland: No, listen, like I guess the last thing, you know, I always say these three things when it comes to real estate, and I think it goes good with any business, right? There's never going to be a perfect opportunity. So stop waiting, start doing. But when it comes to building your brand, building your business, building your goals and entrepreneur things, always be marketing.

Jeremy Beland: Always be learning and always take massive and perfect action. You apply those three things consistently, you'll achieve a lot more than you realize. 

Paden Squires: Listeners, thank you for checking out the show. Check out Jeremy, and we'll catch you next time.

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate, review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me, @padensquires or going to [00:35:00] www.padensquries.com On the website and social media, we're always sharing tips of personal growth, and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.