Forged By Design
Forged by Design Podcast is more than a conversation—it is a platform where purpose meets leadership, business, and faith. Created for entrepreneurs with bold dreams, unwavering faith, and a calling to make a meaningful impact, each episode delivers practical insights and timeless principles that inspire personal growth, professional excellence, and purposeful leadership. Whether you're launching a business, expanding an organization, developing your career, or answering a greater calling, this podcast is designed to help you align your vision with your values and move forward with clarity, confidence, and conviction.
Beyond inspiration, Forged by Design Podcast serves as a bridge between businesses and the audiences they are called to serve. It provides entrepreneurs and organizations with a meaningful platform to showcase their products, services, innovations, and stories while creating authentic connections with current and future customers. We believe that every great business has a story worth telling, and every valuable solution deserves to reach the people it was created to serve.
The podcast also offers senior executives, CEOs, founders, and industry leaders a respected voice to share the wisdom gained through years of leadership, success, and adversity. By sharing lessons in ethical leadership, financial stewardship, operational excellence, innovation, and servant leadership, these leaders can equip and inspire the next generation to make wiser business, financial, and ethical decisions that create lasting value for their organizations, communities, and families.
At its core, Forged by Design Podcast exists to encourage leaders to build with integrity, lead with purpose, and leave a legacy that extends far beyond business success.
Forged By Design
Antonio Bradley - Real Estate investment and wealth creation
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Featured on the Forged by Design podcast, Antonio Bradley (thebradleyrealestategroup.com) shared insights on creating wealth, developing the right mindset, and applying discipline to achieve long-term success. Together, Antonio and Jasmin are raising seven children and remain committed to serving their community through real estate, education, and leadership.
Antonio Bradley is a real estate investor, military leader, and co-founder of The Bradley Real Estate Group. With 16 years of military service—including 13 years of active-duty service in the U.S. Army and multiple combat deployments—Antonio has built his career on discipline, leadership, and service.
Since entering real estate in 2016, he has helped families buy, sell, and invest in real estate while also mentoring aspiring investors on home flipping and wealth-building strategies. Alongside his wife, Jasmin, Antonio leads a family-centered business dedicated to helping clients navigate life's biggest transitions with confidence.
Good one.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to the Forge by Design Podcast. This is your host, Daniel Badijel. Thank you so much for all your support. You can find us through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and of course our YouTube channel, Forge by Design. Today, if you want to know about finances, mindset, real estate, I have a very important guest that's going to align our thoughts, our action plans toward living a better quality of life, a life that it's worth having. Your family enjoy, your peers enjoy, and you will not regret the decisions that you make in life, both physically, mentally, spiritually, of course, financially as well. Without further ado, Mr. Antonio Bradley, how are you? It's been a dream, man. It's been a dream. You always use that phrase. Why is that?
SPEAKER_02It's funny. Um, so about three or four years ago, I was uh almost slipped into depression, right? Had a lot of stuff going on. Didn't really feel I had control over it, even through prayer. And I just felt like the the Holy Spirit was telling me to proclaim how you want to be, no matter what you're going through. That's correct. And so to go against the grain of distress, I decided when people ask me how am I doing, I would say, I'm living the dream. You're living the dream.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02But I wanted to proclaim it, right?
SPEAKER_01That was a declaration outstanding.
SPEAKER_02So that's what I do.
SPEAKER_01So you at at the beginning, um, at the early age, you decided to join the military. Yes. And uh at what age did you join the military? 18 years old, for sure. 18 years old. So that was a decision you had already made. You needed to get out of you said Indiana, right? Indiana. So you decided to uh born and raised till 18? That's it. And you said uh, all right, Indiana, I gotta go. Time to go. Time to go. So you joined the military and you had a specific MOS. What was that MOS?
SPEAKER_02I was a cable systems installer and communications, and I also dealt with uh IT network switching.
SPEAKER_01Network is that's is that something that you wanted or you scored high on the ASBAT test?
SPEAKER_02Well, uh started off as a cable system installer. It kind of got bored because we did fiber optics, cat five cable. Sure. So eventually it was kind of like no progression. Correct. So I decided for a better challenge to go into IT networking. So I changed my MOS to 25 Bravo.
SPEAKER_01That's very, you know, nowadays that everything's going higher technology, uh, artificial intelligence, more switches, servers, bridges, you know, that I mean they're taking over towns and cities. What a great decision to go into IT. It has great rewards. You uh so you never uh once you got the what was the the the MOS again?
SPEAKER_02I went from uh it was called 31 Lima to 25 Bravo.
SPEAKER_01Right. You did 18 years in the military. 16 to be exact, yeah. 16 years active and three reserves. That's an outstanding did you visit any uh any nations?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh how many nations did you have Iraq?
SPEAKER_01Iraq three times, three times in Iran.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then I got opportunity to live in Korea for one year. That was awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Korea, that's that's amazing. I've always wanted to either go to Japan or to Korea and and just visit those nations. I did have an opportunity to go to China once. Yeah, uh So shoo, I guess, south of uh Hong Kong. Uh so we arrived at Shanghai and then we had to take uh a two-hour bus drive south. Yeah, uh quite an experience. But uh they treated me like like a king. I mean, I went there for uh business matters, new product development stuff, which I'm in, but it was uh quite an amazing journey to look at different cultures, uh different settings and whatnot. And the flight was so long, it was like 13, 14 hours one way. You know, so uh I can only imagine you, Korea, and uh and so forth. Once you got out of the military, um, first of all, what what made you get out of the military six after 16 years? So the wars?
SPEAKER_02No, I read a my wife gave me a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad. And we were then You know, I had that book somewhere around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We were in a training exercise, like deep in the woods, and so I probably read about half of the book in like a day or two, and it just it really struck me hard when I read it, and I'm like, wow, this really makes sense. So why am I here in the army? I felt like I was doing things the hard way and the slow way financially to reach my goal, right? And so I decided, like, hey, one day I'm gonna get into real estate. I don't know when, but I will.
SPEAKER_01Was uh was uh your wife Jasmine was she already into real estate during your tenure in the in the army?
SPEAKER_02No, we both were we both were in the army together. Oh, you both were in the army together.
SPEAKER_01How many years did she do?
SPEAKER_02She did seven.
SPEAKER_01Okay, and what was her MOS?
SPEAKER_02She was uh 25 Quebec, which was communications as well. Communication as well.
SPEAKER_01But I think they dealt with more satellites. Sure. Wow, that's amazing. Uh uh a tag team in the army and and getting out. Uh so you got out of the army uh because I got out of the I got out of the army so that I could pursue my dream of reality. So you can pursue your dream. So once you got out of the army, you continue to to do networking and cable and switches and all that.
SPEAKER_02That was like the bridge, you know, because it was kind of scary to like get out of the army. You're not gonna get a retirement. I didn't get a disability check. I just cold turkey. I was like, hey, if I want to do this, I gotta burn the bridges, right? Everybody thought I was crazy, but I just had that dream and I had to step out. And Jasmine went into real estate. She actually started a restaurant. Started a restaurant. First, she started a restaurant when she got out. So the plan was for her to get out, she was gonna be a stay-at-home wife. Well, one week when she got out of the military, she opened a restaurant. She never was a stay-at-home wife, right? She started the business. So we became restaurant owners one week after she got out. So that's amazing. So we had that restaurant for about two years and then she got into real estate.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So she knew the dream, the aspiration that you wanted to pursue.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01She went and got her license, got the information because uh real estate is it's very demanding. That's right. You have to be on call maybe uh 24-7 before this podcast. Uh he had uh another call uh talking about a lease here, a lease there. So I I understand that it's a very demanding. How how long did it take for you to go into real estate as well, knowing that uh Jasmine had already somewhat laid the foundation for the knowledge that you needed in order to uh to pursue a real estate uh career?
SPEAKER_02It took me about another three years because uh of course she went the route of getting becoming a real estate agent first, right? Uh we always wanted to be real estate investors, but I dealt with a lot of fear uh back then. I didn't really believe in myself, right? But when I went to Korea, that was my opportunity to kind of learn who I really was because when I got there, they promoted me to staff sergeant and then they made me platoon sergeant, and I was so afraid that I had to be in front of these people, and now I'm in charge of like 48 people where I was just in charge of nobody. And um just being in Korea for a year really taught me how to believe in myself because they really challenged me there. Absolutely and I'm glad they did because it it taught me that hey, you are somebody. And um, so yeah, so eventually I took the step of becoming a real estate agent.
SPEAKER_01So what what's the process like? It's a several years, uh, different types of certifications, different types of levels before you can become a licensed real agent. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So no, it's very simple. Uh the class is about three months long. Three months long? Yep. You have to pass the class exam and then you go and you take the state exam. Okay. Once you do that, you can do all that in a matter of four months.
SPEAKER_01Do you still remember your first house you sold? I do. You do? Yes, I do. What year was that?
SPEAKER_02This was uh 2016. It was what we call a for sale by owner. So someone was trying to sell the house on their own. Okay. And so I did a cold call and uh convinced them to work with me.
SPEAKER_01Outstanding. Outstanding. So I I've got some uh some questions for uh for the audience and for people who are listening to me because you you bring such a uh a wealth of knowledge in the industry. You're part of the the you have your Bradley group. Yes, uh, you partner with Keller Williams, and uh if that's uh you can go to his website, a lot of houses there for listing, a lot of great prices and so forth, which can be tempting to new buyers, new home buyers, especially in this industry, sometimes a very volatile, up and down type of market, a surplus of houses, then a shortage of houses. Absolutely. Then uh it's all about location, location, location. So the one of the the questions that I have is uh I see a lot of new buyers shopping for homes and neglect the process of getting pre-approved. Oh, yeah. And so, you know, they could they they shop around, they jot down 10, 15 homes around the neighborhood that you know, they look at schooling, they look at job location and so many things, amenities, whatnot. Then they come to Mr. Bradley and they said, uh, I want to look at this how, this, how, this house. I would assume that, uh, and forgive my my lack of knowledge, that one of the questions that you may ask is, are you pre-approved approved?
SPEAKER_02That is one of the questions. Is that the first question you may ask? Or what are the questions? No, it's not the first question. The first question would be, how soon would you like to make this move and why are you moving? What's important to you about buying this house, right? I I need to know the why, right? Versus just you just being another client or you just being another transaction. Correct, yes. I want to know what your goal is because I can better guide you that way.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So once once you know their why, and most likely again, they they they see school districts, you know, they they want to maybe move closer to the home. Um one of the things that I was counseled when I was buying a home was don't buy a car yet. Don't get into loans, don't get into credit card debt, take care of your uh credit score, whatnot, before you even attempt to approach a real estate professional because these are the things that can damage or or uh you know uh halt the process of purchasing a home. How many cases of those? Don't have to mention anybody, it's just how many, how many of uh statistically, maybe what percentage do you see people that approach you uh with the with the knowing their why with a good intention, but have neglected the process of taking care of their credits?
SPEAKER_02Uh well, not so much lately, uh, but early in my career a lot. And I think lately it's because of social media, right? Social media, you have a lot of videos out there on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook that educates the buyers to some degree, right? They don't get all the education until they come to us and we explain the entire process. But yeah, early on in my career, it happened quite a bit. I mean, we had instances where people will buy all the furniture for the house on a credit card before they close. Before they close. Gotta take the furniture back. Either do you want the furniture or you want the house? That's correct. So things like that.
SPEAKER_01And cars, too, like you mentioned. And cars. Well, so if you're listening, one of the advices that Mr. Bradley's giving is that you know, don't buy the furniture yet. Don't buy, don't get into depth with credit cards. Uh make sure you have that down payment ready. Yes. Uh uh savings. I remember when I had I had this home and I also had another investment property, which was my first home that I was renting out. So when I was built, we were building this home, I had to have six months of savings for the first house, yeah, and six months of savings for this house. Now that that was just savings. Yeah. Then of course, how's your credit score? What you earn on an annual basis, and the whole list of things, which got me thinking that a lot of people, um, you know, just because you can uh afford that monthly payment doesn't mean that that's all you have, is to you all you have to is the ability to pay that mortgage, and then that's it. So a lot of people overshoot what they can't afford.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01What advice will you give a new person, uh uh a new home buyer about not overshooting their price? I mean, I know you love the house, right? But it it can be above your uh your your pay grade, whatnot, at the moment, in the stage in your life, but to maybe you need to downsize so that you can have that buffer financially in order to uh to live a better quality of life.
SPEAKER_02Well, especially if it's a first-time home buyer, I tell them, like, this is not gonna be your last house, right? So you don't have to go all out, right? Correct. Look at buying a house as an investment. You can have more than one home, but just get into the first home. But you know, don't use all your resources on that first house.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02And if you are approved for, let's say, $500,000, don't go spend $500,000. It doesn't mean you have to buy at the top of what you can afford. Correct. You know, buy what you're comfortable with.
SPEAKER_01That is screwed. You know, competing with the Joneses is one thing, you know. You don't want to do that. Everybody uh like me, you know, when I when I started buying, um, you know, you you want the lake house. Yep. You want the lake house and you want the boat ramp. That's it. And you want some some good land in front of the the before the boat ramp because you want to have a a fire pit area and a gazebo and want it all, and in the back you want the pool, you know, and stuff like that. And then when you look at uh your salary, you're like, uh, this is this is not this is not gonna make sense. And you calculate and you calculate, and and faith is great, don't get me wrong. You know, call the things that are not as if they were.
SPEAKER_02I want to be house poor.
SPEAKER_01But uh you need to be realistic with your with your finances and be good steward of of what God has given you. Bingo. And I and I see that now, especially when there's uh a shortage of homes in in certain uh stages in life or uh in probably in the CSRA uh that people just overshoot and and then of course they get locked in and they they're they're having to work two or three jobs in order to maintain that mortgage and the hand and then the family emergencies, right? Your tire breaks down, you know, you blows out, your car breaks down, and so forth. Um home inspections. So I'm I'm eager to buy a home. I love this home. What an amazing house. And I want to rush the process because I want to be the buyer because with there are other people making offers. What would you advise people to not skip that home inspection?
SPEAKER_02Never ever skip the home inspection.
SPEAKER_01What does what does a home inspection uh uh would entail uh specifically? Because I have things certain things in mind, but you're the expert.
SPEAKER_02Sure, yes. So what I think one of the biggest things that I'm visually looking for, even before the home inspection, right, is how well was this house taken care of, right? If you see uh a lot of delayed maintenance issues that would that weren't taken care of, that's gonna raise a red flag, right? What else did they not take care of that we can't see, right? So I'm looking for that as I'm showing the home, right? And if I see a lot of red flags, we probably won't even write an offer, right? It's it's no use because you got to pay for a home warranty. So you don't want to waste time on something where you know there's gonna be a lot of issues uncovered here, right? So but in the home warranty, the main thing we're looking for is how old is the HVAC, right? That's a big, that's a big replacement, high dollar value um item. Roof. Are there any leaks? How does it how old does a roof look? Usually you can visually tell how old it is, if it's you know, if it's new or if it's old or if it needs to be placed replaced within the next two or three years. Uh, electrical panels, a big thing. We're looking for leaks in the ceiling. Um, what else? Appliances, and the biggest thing is that buyers miss is foundation. You have to walk around the exterior of the house. You have to look for cracks by the windows down below the house. You need to look for cracks on the inside, uh, by the doorways, the entrances in the windows to make sure that that house is not still shifting.
SPEAKER_01Would you recommend someone like let's say I'm the seller?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I've got my own home inspection company that I work with that I want to work with that uh it may not be a third-party home inspect uh inspection. Uh as a buyer, would you recommend maybe having uh a separate home inspection or or just take the one that it's being offered to you? Oh no, no. You you you get your own home inspection. Okay, you get your own home inspection. And how long does that process last when the home inspector comes to the home, to the house, uh, and especially if there's there's a pool involved, right? We got to look at maybe pipes, oh yeah, uh pumps, uh, you know, uh circular, you know, water systems and whatnot. Um how long does that process take for a home inspection, especially when there are a lot of add-ons uh to that? If you have a you know a house, a separate house with a bathroom with a shower and stuff like that. Oh yeah. Does it take a day? Does it take a week?
SPEAKER_02No, uh actually the uh the average home inspection will probably take about two hours. About two hours. Yeah, about two to two and a half hours. They're that good. They're that good. Now, I mean, because you know, they can't go behind the walls, right? Right. So and they're just checking main defects, they're not checking for little small things like chips of paint, things like that. Um now, when it comes to pools, you're gonna get a separate uh type of a home inspection, right? Okay. You need an expert in pools, not a regular home inspector.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so they're different, uh, so well, whatever home inspector you get has to be licensed and and uh I'm not sure if licensed and bonded, but licensed to do uh that home inspection that has some sort of home inspection guarantee uh that you didn't miss something that was very obvious. I'm not talking about the like you said, the paint and chips, something that was uh could have been catastrophic or dangerous, uh safety hazard to the new buyers. Correct. So if you have a home inspector, you gotta he has to be licensed, he or she licensed to do the home inspection, and if you have a pool inspector, they have to be licensed as well.
SPEAKER_02And foundation and that's another inspector. That's a different type of inspector.
SPEAKER_01All right, so home inspection, pool inspection, foundation inspection. I would say start saving if you want to buy a home. Oh, yeah. There are people that buy a house and they they finally get approved. They have a credit, good credit, but um, you know, they they have the savings, uh, they were able to pass the process, and unfortunately, they drown their savings because of the down payment. And they just had enough for the down payment, and the next the next uh uh check is is what they're dependent on in order to start paying the mortgage, paying the utilities, and so forth. So is that something you advise to someone say if you're going to pay, if you're going to exhaust every single penny of your savings in order to put a down payment, I would recommend maybe just downsizing or changing your expectations to ensure that you you're not caught in a foreclosure.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Uh I would definitely say you either wait another month or two, right? Um, and then and and it also just depends on how good is this person gonna be with budgeting, right? Because you could buy a house and your mortgage is gonna be $1,400. They also could be paying $1,400 in rent today. Correct. Right? So if you're already paying $1,400, yeah. Have you been through CSRA lately? Of course. I mean, just using that as an example, right? If we're already paying high rent, then you you might as well struggle with the home then versus just struggling with the rent, right?
SPEAKER_01I tell you what, I I've been in Augusta a minute, maybe more than you. I I was uh when I came here, we lived in Augusta. Well, it was not, it was used to be South Augusta, Butler High School. Okay. And that used to be the Evans of the CSRA. That's how that's how how many years I've been here. And then gradually, of course, you know, uh things happen now. Evans is Evans and Applin is Applin and Rens is Rens and stuff like that. When I was in uh uh an apartment, we used to pay uh maybe six, seven hundred dollars. Wow. It was amazing. Three three uh three room, three-bedroom apartment, you know, bit and stuff like that. Now it's twelve hundred, fourteen hundred, sixteen hundred.
SPEAKER_02I moved here, I my rent was eight hundred dollars. That was 2010. 2010.
SPEAKER_01And so now some uh leasing apartments uh um it's as much as your monthly mortgage. And so new home buyers have to say, okay, listen, with a home, with a home, you're gonna have some repairs. Your water heater is gonna go out. That's true. Uh you're gonna have maybe electrical problems, heating problems, HVAC problems, you name it, it's gonna happen in the tenure of a home, especially if you have a if you stay in that same house for 20, 30 years, something's gonna happen. You're gonna have to replace those shingles, you know, this and that stuff. And and with a leasing with an apartment, of course, the landlord, the uh complex owner of the corporation, they have to take care of it. So if you're listening to me, you have to outweigh the cost to make sure that you're not simply paying the mortgage and don't have anything to eat, you don't have any leniency on your finances, and perhaps in this season of your life, you may want to lease a townhome, a condominium, a studio, something that will be more flexible. A lot of people make decisions based on emotions. Absolutely. Emotions, right? And uh they don't uh I just want to buy a house, I want to get out of my parents' home, you know, I gotta get settled, I want to get married, etc. And they neglect uh the neighborhood, you know. That's a mouthful, right? Neighborhood is very important. You know, the the the neighborhood, I just want a house. You know, I don't I don't care where it's at, I just want a house. And that's uh that's a uh a major mistake because one of the things that I have seen uh from experience is that people don't do uh a survey of neighborhoods, maybe of course, crime, uh robberies, this, that, stuff like that before you enter. Yes, it's it's it's closer to your job. Yes, it's closer to maybe a school that your children. Going to, but if you're going to invest on a property for that much money uh investing, uh you're gonna buy a house in the neighborhood that maybe no one wants to buy later on absolutely because it's not it's not uh it's not growing, maybe it's stagnant, businesses around uh are closing and so forth. Have you had to uh on the new home buyer say, you know, is this really what you want? Or is this just an emotional decision?
SPEAKER_02I've had to do that several times. Okay, yeah. Um when I work with a client, the first thing I'm thinking about is their future. Five to ten years from now, where are they gonna be with that? That's a great heart, by the way. Yes, is is is this neighborhood going to appreciate? And you can tell I've been in a business for 10 years, so I can I kind of have an idea of what areas have been appreciating. Because if you have been appreciating, you're gonna keep appreciating it, right? Like nothing's gonna drastically change that quick. Um, but but that's what I'm looking at looking at in the next five to ten years, is this house gonna continue to appreciate or is it gonna be stagnant? Because if they call me in the next five to ten years, because most people, if you don't know, the research says every five to seven years on average a person moves. So when they call me in five to seven years, am I gonna be able to give them good news and say, Yeah, I can sell this house and this is what you're gonna make twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred thousand dollars, or am I gonna say five years, you're gonna be breaking even, or worse, you're gonna have to bring money to the table.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02So always looking for the future.
SPEAKER_01That that's an amazing hard. You always look for the future uh on that. Uh when you give them the the the I won't say the bad news, to say you may you may break even, which is but you wouldn't get you're gonna have to take out of pocket because a lot of new buyers are wanting the as an incentive, wanting the seller to pay uh to pay the closing cost, correct, right? Or part of that percentage closing cost, or the the seller is giving you five grand or ten grand for you know for whatever, you know, furniture, maintenance, whatever you you decide what you want to do with that. But for the most part, as a cardinal rule, maybe, is that if you're gonna buy this this uh 250,000 to 500,000, 700,000 home, you may want to ask if the seller is willing to uh in the negotiation process to pay some of that closing costs. Oh, yeah. And if you're breaking even and the buyers wanting you to get some of that closing cost, you are you know digging into your own pocket in order to do that. Um shopping around for mortgages, you know. You shop around, uh I guess it's a the neighborhood convenience, and I love I love how you started where you you want to know the family's why, why you want to buy the home to begin with, and is this a correct decision in your life to buy the house now, you know, where you can save a little bit more, pay a little bit more debt, pay off those credit cards, pay off those loans. You'll never pay off those students' loans. I don't know, but maybe you will. But to to go ahead and get your finances in order and have a little safety net, a financial safety net in order to uh acquire the home. Do you see a lot of people just shopping around? They it like endless shoppers. If I'm a new buyer says, Antonio, I need for you to show me 30 homes, and I'm like, you know, come on, man. You know, I've I've showed you the entire CSRA. What do you want me to do? Have you had buyers like that where it starts off with two or three houses and you're in your seventh home and they still haven't made a decision? Talk to me.
SPEAKER_02Seven is fine. So when I do my buyer presentation, all right. He said it here on the forge. Seven is fine. Yeah, when I do a when I do a buyer presentation, uh, I let them know you're probably gonna be looking at on average from seven to ten homes. Wow, that many. Yeah. That many on average, right? In the same neighborhood or or throughout the just throughout. That's the average buyer. Some buyers like me for myself, if I'm when I'm shopping for a house, I know exactly what I'm looking for. Sure. Right. So I may only need to look at three or four. What you need to do is when you're when you're shopping for a home, you need to know your square footage, your bedroom, your bath. What do you not want? You know, like what is a no-go for me? Like, I absolutely do not want this, right? And what do I absolutely have to have? So as I'm sending you homes through the internet and you're looking at them, if it doesn't match the square footage, we're not gonna go look at it. We're not gonna waste time, right? So you have to pluck them out as you're looking at them before you actually go. So those people that look at 30 homes, it's because they don't know what they're looking for, they don't know what they want.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02Because it doesn't take that many houses to figure out what you want. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So by doing that market survey, that's that's so important. Know the how many rooms you need. What's what's your family size, you know? Exactly. And uh if you plan to grow into that home, I remember my first house did have the uh it was at uh I think it was a uh three-bedroom house. It was about 1,700 square feet. Uh it was what we needed at the moment, you know, small kids. Uh, but when they started growing, becoming, you know, young ladies and young men, right? And they needed their elbow space and privacy, I was I was in a buying. I was in a pickle. Uh so you know, there you everybody needs their space. So we we kind of upgrade it just a little bit, right? Right. So um by them shopping around, you give them an assessment of what it's in the marketplace. And sometimes this is what's available, you know, in in the industry. Because just um it could be Keller Williams, it could be Mavon, it could be somebody else. Everybody's competing some somewhat, some way, maybe for the availability of homes or who who's selling the home. I get like 30 texts, maybe even in a period of three months. Are you selling your house? Are you selling your house? And I'm like, how do they get my number? You know what I mean? How do they skip trace? You know, but as far as Atlanta and you know, like two hours away, somebody somehow somewhere, you know, they they know you have a house and they want to buy it, you know. And uh see, not not for the for the time being, you know, but who knows? Maybe in the future. So under underestimating ongoing maintenance costs, the house is great, but you know, it came with the pool. You know, the house is great, but it came with it's uh a boat dock or or some other add-on to the house. Maybe it's an add-on to the house, right? You know, that it was not the is somebody added a garage or an extra bedroom or or you know, a mom and pop did something in the backyard. I don't know if it was licensed or approved by the city, but it's there, it's a structure that is there. Um what are your advice, people that you know, when looking at maintenance? I say, yes, this is a beautiful house. Are you willing to take on this maintenance keep up? What would you advise?
SPEAKER_02I mean, the pool was that's a great one, right now.
SPEAKER_01That's the great one, Kane.
SPEAKER_02People don't realize how much it costs to maintain a pool, especially in the state of Georgia, because we have how many months where you could swim? Probably at least six or seven months. Yeah, absolutely. So you think about that's all those months that you have to keep up with that pool, right? Right. In the north, they don't have they may have three or four months that they only have to you know purchase all the the uh material to keep it clean.
SPEAKER_01We we bathe, you're from Indiana. Oh yeah, actually, I'm from Boston, so we bathe in the snow, you know. Yeah, exactly. So we got three feet of snow. You want to dive, dive in the snow. You know, here's uh uh a 10-foot wall of of uh snow that you can uh go into. But absolutely, you know, I had her I had her pool very briefly. Yeah, and keeping up with the pH levels and the chemicals and the chlorine. Nah. Yeah, I spent.
SPEAKER_02I remember one summer I calculated about $4,500 I spent. Oh my god, I didn't spend that much. Getting somebody else to clean or me trying to clean and failing and having to re-clean it again is it was a lot. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I, you know, and the thing is that you're the only one out there with the floater. You know, I was the only one out there. So we're the kids. The kids are inside with the AC, playing video games, Fortnite, you name it, you know, everybody's in their own world. And dad is in this little uh uh pink uh flamingo uh floaters that I bought for them, you know. Uh swimming in this uh in this pool and wondering why I bought it to begin with. Um so we we let's transition now to um uh growing wealth. You know, I'm going to buy a house and I have this wealth mentality. I I have a set of goals uh to achieve. I want to I want to get $100,000, $200,000, or whatever that financial uh goal is as a family unit. I know that the the house is both uh a it's a blessed, it's an asset and also a liability. Right. It's an upkeep until I I do a return on investment. Hopefully, when you sell it, you get, like you said, $30,000, $50,000, $100,000, depending on the value of the home. And it's location. It's location. Some people I know of a of a gentleman that bought some property in Applin when Applin was not Appling, right? A corner lot, 10 acres of woods, and he he had almost tenfold of his investment. Wow. So it that's that type of investment where people can see the future, know what houses to invest, know where to buy land, know uh the the the specificity of what that what they want to get into. When you talk about um wealth management or wealth growth, what are what are the first carnal rules or pillars you advise people? So you I want to grow uh my wealth. What is something that you would advise me from the get-go? First of all, you want to know what I have, right? I love this question. Oh, go for it. You you are an investor, you are uh, you know, you you do you deal with this on a continual basis. Yeah. What's what's the start for a young family?
SPEAKER_02If it's if it's building wealth through real estate, education is the biggest thing. I uh because I teach people how to flip homes too. And the the main thing that I hammer is don't just go invest it in real estate. Understand why you're doing it, understand how to do it and why to do it the way they're telling you to do it, right? You know, just don't be going through the process, right? Sure. Because eventually you'll make mistakes, right? And you will you may ignore what a book was telling you to do because you didn't know why it was telling you to do that.
SPEAKER_01You're referring to like uh city codes and regulations, uh regulatory uh you know, compliance thing, codes?
SPEAKER_02Codes, uh goals, like why are you doing it for, right? Um setting goals, writing out goals, right? Um, so when I when I teach people how to flip homes, a lot of them will flip one home and then they stop because it's a lot of work. They realize how much work it was.
SPEAKER_01Well, if are they flipping homes by themselves or are they employing a contractor to flip the home?
SPEAKER_02They're employing a contractor. Okay. Um, so we build a team, you have a contractor, you have the agent, which is myself, uh, the mentor also, which is myself, which is guiding them through the process, right? Which selections to put in the house, how much money to spend, how much to budget, and all of that good stuff. And then you got your real estate attorney, appraisers, inspectors, and all that stuff. We're putting all this together. So um, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So when um so wealth management is is okay. I have Mr. Antonio, I have a hundred thousand dollars to buy a home. You like I may, you may, you it depends on the neighborhood too, right? Right. So uh, or whatever that is, a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand. Let's say I have five hundred half a million dollars for a home that uh um, but off of that I'm willing to to pay two hundred and fifty thousand for the house, and then I have another two hundred and fifty thousand for the reno renovation of the flip, right, with the expectation to sell it for maybe seven fifty, maybe eight fifty, uh, depending on on the neighborhood. And I see, you know, my wife and I, we can we we spend almost a 2 a.m., 3 a.m. watching all these houses flip, right? Especially in the Caribbean, right? It's always in Jamaica and this and that. And uh we're like, yeah, we can do that, we can do that. And we have these uh false narratives in in our minds that we we're we're able to do that, and that's it's that easy, right? Because that episode on TV is only about 50 minutes, and in 50 minutes they were able to flip a home. Right. So uh you have to have some contingency finances in order to start flipping the house.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01How much would you advise? I mean, obviously it's uh not only buying the house, but you have to have X amount of money saved up to purchase all the materials. So do you sit down with them and go through their financial books, their accounting in order to say, yes, you can embark on it, or you may want to save a little bit more?
SPEAKER_02So I don't get too deep into their personal finances, um, but I tell them on average how much they need to get started, right? Which is on average, you're gonna need at least a 20% down payment. Okay. The average flip that's being purchased here in Augusta, depending on which neighborhood, is about $100,000. Okay. Plus $20,000. You're gonna need another $5,000 for closing costs, so that's $25,000. And then you're gonna need another $40,000 for rehab.
SPEAKER_01Okay, total at uh $25,000. So you need about $65. Yep. Off the bat, I need $65,000. Or if you partner with someone, and then you only need half of that. It's just me. It's just me. I need $65,000, and that depends on the house that I buy and what neighborhood I buy.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_01I see a lot of development downtown where a lot of the homes that were there, and uh, you know, they've been being either torn and and made into like town homes, whatnot, very elegant, very nice uh as you're getting into the Laney Walker area uh and stuff like that. A lot of flip flipping of homes. Uh perhaps it's uh it's uh a corporation or whatnot that uh of investors that come in and flip those homes. But off the bat, independently, I need $65,000 depending on the house, just and then I need the money to buy the house. Is that so I need $65,000?
SPEAKER_02You need $65,000 total. Total. Because that $20, that $20,000 is to be purchased. You putting down the 20%, the the bank or hard money lender rather is gonna put down the other 80% for you. So we're leveraged, we use OPM, other people's money.
SPEAKER_01That should be the uh I should have I should have named the podcast Other People's Money. There you go. Oh man, that's a that would be an epiphany just game. I have an idea.
SPEAKER_02Better for me to make money off of yours than mine. All right, you heard it from Mr. Mr.
SPEAKER_01Antonio, that's uh other people's money. It's it's it's uh so it's a commitment. Uh the flipping of the home, I'm assuming it's gonna be maybe 35, 40, 40 days, whatnot, maybe two, depending on how much structure you have to rebuild, things you have to tear down.
SPEAKER_02On average, six to eight weeks is what it's gonna take to get the project done. Correct. And then depending on where the market is right now, we're on an average of 90 days, so you add another three months to that, and that's your time for it.
SPEAKER_01And then you have to pay the uh the home inspector, the pool inspector, and the the other, the other inspector, the foundation inspector.
SPEAKER_02It's a lot of management, right? So um, like you say, you look at HGTV and you don't see all the management that happens. You don't see the phone calls, you don't see the mistakes, oh well, you know, and the the the orders that are being delayed, which is delaying the time, and then you have to pay uh interest every single day. So every day you're working on this house is costing you money. So every delay, you know, takes money out of your pocket, right? Correct. So it's all about management. How well can you manage this project? And your manage your management is going to depend on who's on your team.
SPEAKER_01What's what's one of the greatest lessons you have learned in coaching and mentoring people that are right now embarking on flipping homes? You as a as a as a mentor, as a guide, as the guru, what's one of the the as as you have coached so many people, what have you learned from all this process?
SPEAKER_02Well, what I would tell you if it's if you're if you're getting started, ask more questions than you think you need to ask if you're if you're brand new. Okay. Even I don't care how small it is, sure. What type of toilet should I put in? You know, what color should I use? Right? What type of flooring? What every because everything matters. Absolutely. Right. You just you just can't randomly pick things and think it's all going to come together and the buyer's gonna be like, oh, I love that. You have to create a vision, right? You have to start with vision. You can't even start with a budget. Sure. Because if you start with a budget, you're gonna have a cheap house and buyers don't buy cheap houses. So you gotta start with a vision, you gotta have a good vision.
SPEAKER_01That's a great point. Yeah, because the buyer's buying your vision, right? They always tell me, you know, you know, spend the money on the kitchen, right? Kitchen and baths. Kitchen and bath, kitchen and bath. As a man, I'm looking at the garage, the land, does it have a shed? You know what I mean? You know, of course, the wife's picking the house. Yeah, that the wife's picking the house, she's picking the the materials, the color of the palette, combination, and stuff like that. And my producer knows that. I mean, uh his uh his his wife is uh very aesthetic, you know. Oh yeah, you know, you know, I you know, uh very aesthetic. I think she went boho once. I've that bohemian, whatever, you know, and she wanted to flip my house boho. I'm like, whoa, whoa. He was like, way, way, way. You know, if we were in an island, maybe, you know what I mean? But uh, you know, that she has she has great, great, expensive taste, you know. So so uh she has some savings somewhere down the line. So that's very important. Uh, how many houses or people have you coached, just in general, uh, about flipping homes and so forth?
SPEAKER_02I started uh coaching three years ago. Uh seven. I've got seven people started in real estate investing. That's amazing. Successfully. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So you you you dedicate yourself and you focus on coaching, mentoring people that want to flip homes and make and make a profit, a substantial profit, growing wealth out of flipping homes. Correct. Do you do you do tail in on how to invest on your earnings after that, or is that something uh separate from what you coach?
SPEAKER_02That that'll be separate. What I usually tell them is, you know, flip three to five houses and then buy a rental property. Right. Because if you continue to flip, you're always your money is always in the streets. Right. You need something to come back, right? And then you need that money to also be earning money somewhere else passively. Because flipping homes is not passive income. It's a job.
SPEAKER_01You know, one of the things that uh I I would advise people, and just looking, you know, sometimes I see a lot of uh apartment complexes. So they buy one unit that has four apartments, you know, let's say two, four, six, eight, maybe, maybe double that. Let's say four apartments, four massive apartments. And they just buy that unit and they they flip the the units, the vision individual units, and you're really just taking care of one building that has four units that's growing income as as uh as you go. And I've seen that uh uh close to uh what is it, Patriots uh high school? What uh was that uh Patriots um uh on Washington?
SPEAKER_02Huh? West Side. That's it. That's that's funny because I sold 12 units over there. See that? Yeah, you go West Side. I had a client, uh actually a friend of mine from New York. Okay, I helped him to purchase it was eight units over there. He purchased it for 200, no, 400,000. Sure. And three years later, I sold it for 900,000.
SPEAKER_01Amazing. And that's a profit for him. Yeah, that's one of the things that I that I was looking into. If I'm gonna do this, obviously, um uh I don't know about you, I don't have a lot of time. You know, my my every hour of the day is counted, you know, with our profession, our careers, and everything that we do uh in between. So if if we're if we're gonna go big, you know, go big or go home and and focus on something like that, and or um investment property that's in the right location to Airbnb and then do that then do that, uh thinking of the the island of Puerto Rico, you know, something tropical, uh something that people can can go into. So do people just do the Airbnb or do they just rent it out and do rental properties once they flip it?
SPEAKER_02I have clients that uh that do it does Airbnb. I have an Airbnb and they also rent them out too.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Outstanding so it really depends on what the numbers look like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you have to count count.
SPEAKER_02If the numbers aren't good enough to get a 20% profit if you're flipping it, then I suggest to rent it. And then you can get rental income for a few years and then flip it, and then get more than 20% profit. That's great. So sometimes that patience is worth it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, one of one of the things that have we seen, you know, um that's rising and escalating is property taxes. These property taxes, Lord have mercy, you know. You know, you wonder why I pray a lot. Oh, yeah, write a lot. Oh, yeah. It's motivated by the property taxes. I'm just gonna put it out there uh on the forge.
SPEAKER_02Or we can just we all can move to Florida. Yeah, we'll be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that we need to move somewhere, maybe Alaska or something like that. Yeah. But uh to move out of the property taxes. But it's it's amazing. So um, of course, property taxes, making a profitability uh to do that. Uh transitioning over to mindset. You know, it's it's uh in order to do everything that that you have uh enumerated, it takes uh an individual, it takes a couple that is very disciplined. Yes. Very pers I mean I mean disciplined before being persistent because you can be persistently going in the wrong direction. True. So you have to have the the information and be very disciplined, focused. And I as a project manager, I'm all about pre-planning, you know, looking at the scope of the project, looking at my inputs, my outputs, looking at every asset allocation, looking at who am I partnering sh uh partnering with, looking at the the my financial stream, my my revenue stream, but also the the outflow of my liquid asset. You know, once money goes out, you know, unless you have money coming in in the same uh uh you know quantity, whatnot, right? Uh then then I have to ensure that I I have a contingency plan or contingency money, whether it be uh in a very secure Roth IRA. Or a 401k plan or some liquid assets on a high yield savings account, whatnot. You have to have all those things in order before you embark on a vision and a mission in order to accomplish a certain goal at a certain time frame. That's called a project cycle. We have this project is going to start in January. It's got to end in March, mid-March, and these are the milestones in between and whatnot. And I say that I guess that I say this out of experience, but I didn't start off like this. And I it could be that uh some some couples or maybe some individuals are because of that emotional drive, go into the project and don't calculate the costs.
SPEAKER_02True.
SPEAKER_01What type of uh individual is successful? What type of indiv what qualities would make an individual successful in order to achieve that desired outcome?
SPEAKER_02I would say coaching. You know, having a leader that is where you want to be. Sure. Right.
SPEAKER_01So you would say go in without go in with a coach? Or do you see a lot of people going into it without coaching?
SPEAKER_02I would say you need some type of mentorship or coaching. Correct. You you have to know what you're up against. Uh I think people make mistakes because they just dive into things, sure, not understanding like what is it involved, what mistakes can I avoid. Sure. Right. You want to avoid as many mistakes as you can. You don't have to make a mistake, right? So you don't want to learn everything by losing, right? Correct. You want to learn by somebody else's loss. Sure. And that's where that mentorship is. All the people's money. Exactly. That's where that mentorship and coaching comes in and it saves you a lot of time and money.
SPEAKER_01Correct. So you not only give them um, you know, financial coaching and real life experience about things that work, things that didn't work, but by the same time, you you're looking at people's uh attitudes in the process. Absolutely. You know, did this person have the the thrive, the drive in order to bring this project into fruition?
SPEAKER_02It doesn't matter what you do, mindset is at the top of whatever you're doing. Sure. You can do anything with the wrong mindset and you won't be successful.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. That's that's a great great advice. So um, you know, many people define success very differently. You know, and you can I can achieve like like you say, yeah, I can achieve the outcome and arrive broke. Arrive exhausted. Uh I've seen people achieve their goal at the expense of their ending up in divorce, ending up with without uh with torn family relationships, a disconnect between parents and and and children because they've dedicated all their time to this project. Uh you know, what what they calculated to be three months is now they're seven months, eight months into it, um, because of XYZ. So at the end of the day, and when they achieve that milestone, um you know, you want them to not only be successful financially. Yes, you made a profit, but what what else have you lost?
SPEAKER_02True.
SPEAKER_01How does Mr. Antonio Raleigh define success?
SPEAKER_02Success is first setting a goal, right? And just basically accomplishing that goal. And a goal doesn't have to be huge, it could be small, right? You can step your way into it, right? And and continue to increase that goal. But success is just doing what you said you were gonna do and getting the result that you said you were gonna get.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And in the specific time, you know, in the specific time, yep. You know, there was uh I can't remember the movie. I I think it's uh it'll come to mind, but there was a young gentleman that he went to college, and uh, yes, I went to college and I graduated after 12 years, you know. So he was successful eventually. He was successful eventually. So that short-term goal, maybe three, you know, I'm not sure if it was a community college or it was a university, but typically it's four to six years, right? Depending on your major, he had he had almost 12 years into it. But he finished, right? Eventually, I think they pushed him out because you know you're 12 years older, you know. Right from when you started. So one of the things that that I do uh that it's it in my life, because I'm I'm not I don't coach others uh in the way you coach others as far as uh financially. Um my strengths are my writing the books and and and uh giving conferences, giving seminars on not only leadership, but of course uh ministering here, doing this there. And and I I always advise people if not only knowing your why, of course, being guided by the man upstairs, our creator, but also uh again, at what cost is the question that that I always ask the audience is that there's some things that uh that you want to get to the end goal healthy, physically, healthy mentally, with stronger relationships as far as you yourself, your wife, your kids, uh, strong partnerships, meaning that you've you've obtained the right coach, you made the right associations, you have the right connections, the healthy connections, people that become assets, they become guard uh guardians also of your dreams, your aspirations, your assets. Uh you have you achieved the end goal. Yes, with a little bit bruised, a little bit scarred, because the process does discipline you, it does form you, but at the end of the day, uh you know your your drive and your discipline, uh, you arrived with the correct mindset and also without uh losing your health in between. So with that said, you work out a lot. Yeah. You work out a lot. And I'm glad I was telling I was telling uh Mr. Antonio that uh I'm glad he wore a sweater today because you know I always wore a nice little loose shirt, you know. I didn't I didn't want to make you feel look bad. So I look bad. No, but miss uh yeah, you work out a lot and also you compete professionally. I've seen a lot of your uh competitions uh where uh it takes a lot of all the qualities that you mentioned, yeah, not only from the real professional real estate, not only from being a coach, but it takes discipline. It takes grinding, it takes uh eating healthy, looking over your your mindset and so forth. What made you get into bodybuilding? Because that's I mean, you didn't get out of the military. I seen the photos, Antonio. I see the photos. All right, I won't mention his uh his social pages, but I seen those photos that the the that before photo. You were not as big as fit now. What what made you what motivated you to start and and getting a little bit more disciplined and and focused on bodybuilding?
SPEAKER_02Um well when I got into real estate, um, I learned more through Keller Williams and some of the classes that I took about mindset, right? Very they're very deep on mindset. And I started wanting to eat healthy, right? Because you know, a life by design. You know, I wanted to be more healthy. I had I had the dad bot, I was overweight, you know, wasn't doing anything, no, no type of running, walking, or nothing.
SPEAKER_01No shame, no shame. I don't I don't want you to feel bad. You said the dad bot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, yeah, but um my wife she signed us up for personal.
SPEAKER_01Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02My wife signed us up for a um a personal trainer, and okay. It was three days a week. Of course, we had to pay for it. Um, but I wasn't going. Sure. You know, I was paying for something, wasn't getting nothing out of it.
SPEAKER_01So is it one of these gyms here, Gold's gym? It's a real real real small gym. Small gym.
SPEAKER_02Small uh uh small he actually happened to be a bodybuilding coach, okay, but he didn't really talk to me about bodybuilding, he just mentioned it. Sure. And so I came to him one day, long story short, and I was like, hey man, I want to try this bodybuilding thing because I think that that might make me want to get up in the morning and come to the gym because I'm just not motivated, right? I was just looking for some motivation so I wasn't wasting my money. So I ended up trying it out um 2020 during COVID. Uh signed up for my first bodybuilding show because of COVID, it got canceled. Uh so I gained the weight back and then I had to lose it again because they finally had the show later on that year in August. And uh I got third place my first show. Okay, wow. And uh, I am competitive, so I did not like that somebody beat me. Okay. So what what what weight were you before you started bodybuilding? So it's weird. I I was 200 pounds.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's that's a lot of weight.
SPEAKER_02With the dad bot. With the dad bot, okay.
SPEAKER_01All right, I'm glad you explained. No offense, right? With the dad bot, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I mean, today, uh I hope I look muscular, but I'm 205 pounds now.
SPEAKER_01255 pounds, but yeah, definitely ripped. Yeah, definitely ripped. Put on the muscle, yeah. So so was it during COVID? I mean, you hit everybody had time during COVID to work out. I mean, did you hit it really hard during that time?
SPEAKER_02I did, I did, because I I I got focused on getting on the stage. What I love about bodybuilding and setting a goal is it gives you a deadline.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02And that's where most people fail when they set goals. They don't have a deadline. So it a lot of times they never reach it. But in bodybuilding, there's a deadline. That show is this date, and that date's not changing. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's outstanding. Yeah, I didn't see that like you.
SPEAKER_02So you better eat right, you better drink your water, you better go to sleep, and you better show up to the gym and don't miss days because those people that's gonna stand next to you on the stage, they're not missing. Correct. They're they're they're coming to beat you. Right. So you gotta develop that that mentality, that dog mentality, like, I gotta do what I gotta do now.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow. You said um uh nutrition, right? So by 200 pounds, of course, a lot of people gain weight in order to to get you know, lose the weight and get ripped. That's right. Is that what you did, or you did the opposite? You just you had the weight. You already had the weight, yeah. You already had the weight.
SPEAKER_02It was just a matter of working out and yeah, and starting cleaning up the diet.
SPEAKER_01I would like to tell my producer that there is hope. There's hope for us. You know, we have a deadline.
SPEAKER_02I'm not sure if it's gonna be three. You can do anything in three months, I promise you. Three months. Three months will change. People wouldn't know who you are in three months.
SPEAKER_01All right, so uh Mr. Kevin, uh, we got three months to make this happen. All right, you know, I always say uh how it is.
SPEAKER_02I can write the plan for you.
SPEAKER_01Man, yeah, uh, please do. We could talk after this podcast. You know, because March, March comes along and everybody wants that beach body, right? Yeah, oh we gotta stop. We gotta stop eating so much fast food, so much unhealthy things, especially late at night, right? Right. Uh we Hispanics, man, we love to eat late at night, you know, just fried, deep fried stuff. My wife's Hispanic, pastelillo, this, you know, anything. You know it, you know, it's just so many things. And uh I think uh Kevin would would agree with that too, you know. Uh we're not bashful about eating. What things uh you recommend uh as your bodybuilding? Obviously, you your nutrition had to change. Uh what things are unhealthy as as you bodybuild? What type of type of fried foods?
SPEAKER_02Uh anything, anything greasy, yeah. Anything free. Any fried food uh high in sugar. It's okay to have sugar. If it's if it's six grams or less in sugar, I'll I'll enjoy it. But more than that, I stay away from it. Um try to stay away from most breads. Okay. Um, I may have a bagel here and there, or um, or wheat bread, or protein bread. Yeah, protein bread.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Do you drink a lot of protein shakes, protein bars? Because that's it, that's an investment too. That's one of the things that when food is expensive. Yeah, yeah. I mean, healthy food is expensive, you know. Uh you go to these um, you know, healthy supermarkets, you pay three times for one thing, you know, maybe you would do at Walmart, you know. So uh when I when I used to work out, you know, back in the day, way back, way back. Way back. I need you to have faith right now. When I used to work out, uh man, I used to buy all that creatine, right? To get the mass and get the water and stuff like that. And these things are sixty dollars on up, you know, yeah, on up, depending on the GNC, you go to and get all the vitamin shops, yes, vitamin shops and stuff like that. And and and you know, I really didn't know what I was buying. I knew I was buying creatine, but there's there were so many things that were being offered, and obviously, if you buy it all and you consume it all, you can get you can get something, you know, uh your liver damage or your hurt something, yeah. Uh as you eat healthy, um what what things would uh you advise people not to overdo as far as like uh the protein bars, the shakes, or or any other additives to buy?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so when it comes to uh protein bars and protein shake, it's not real food. Okay. Coming from a bodybuilder. We don't we don't view that as real food. So when it comes to that, I would only have one a day.
SPEAKER_01One a day.
SPEAKER_02Right. I I wouldn't drink two protein shakes a day because it's better to have a meal than a protein shake. Because a protein shake is just identical to a meal, correct? Right? It's it's not, but it's not the exact same thing, right? The food is has more nutrients in it. So you rather have food than the protein shake or even the protein bar.
SPEAKER_01How do you prepare food-wise uh for a competition? What do you what do you eat you know on a weekly basis? I mean, what does your diet look like?
SPEAKER_02Cool.
SPEAKER_01So I eat six times a day. Six times a day.
SPEAKER_02Well, Kevin, that that we have hope. Now, what helps it what helps me with eating six times a day is one of those will be a protein shake or a protein bar.
SPEAKER_01Micro, micro, little, little sampler, right? It's not it's not like a big meals a day.
SPEAKER_02Well, it depends. So if you're bulking where you're trying to put on muscle mass, then it's gonna be a lot. So right now I'm bulking, I'm putting on muscle mass. So one of one of my meals might be seven ounces of rice, which is a lot of rice, and I'll probably have six ounces of protein, whether it's gonna be um chicken thighs, chicken breasts, ground turkey, or steak.
SPEAKER_01Everybody says eat a lot of chicken. Is that is that is that a good advice or steak? Which which other two?
SPEAKER_02Steak is steak is better and ground turkey is better. It has more nutrients in it than the chicken does. All right, I think default to chicken because steak is expensive.
SPEAKER_01It's expensive. It's expensive. Yeah, it is. Yeah. So you so you have uh are you counting calories or are you counting carbs? Absolutely. Or carbs or both?
SPEAKER_02Counting, I'm counting, I weigh all of my food. So when I eat a meal, I have a scale. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You have a scale. Yep. Wow, you're taking it to a whole nother level.
SPEAKER_02Well, the thing about it is if you want to pick up muscle, gain weight uh at the rate that you want to, the it's better for the body to get the same amount of calories consistently because then it you get faster results. Correct. But if you're eating a thousand today, two thousand, then three thousand, the body doesn't know it's just gonna take the median effect.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Right. So you give it the same amount of calories every day based on what you're trying to do, you get faster results.
SPEAKER_01I'll say I never thought about that. You know, you know, I'm a busy individual, and a lot of times we eat we eat on the go. You know, we eat on the go because we got things uh just a couple of weeks ago. I was in uh I was in uh Fostoria, Ohio. Oh you know, and I asked the guy, hey, what's what's around here? Because uh I felt like I was in uh you know uh in the middle of nowhere, right? But you know, long story was beautiful, beautiful town. Don't take it, don't, don't get offended at Faustoria. Beautiful town. But the only thing there was a Mexican restaurant, of course, man. You go to Mexican restaurant, you're gonna go carnitas, they give you the chips and stuff like that. I'm not thinking work out, I'm thinking, you know, let's let's let's let's eat. So you you have to work out. Do you work out every day? Do how how early do you get up on the day to work out? Do you work out in the morning? Obviously, work, family, and then at night? How does your routine, weekly routine, look like?
SPEAKER_02Uh so I'll give you my routine if I'm prepping for a show. If I'm prepping for a show, I'm gonna get to the gym between 5 and 7 a.m.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Right? Two-hour workouts.
SPEAKER_02Well, no, I'm gonna get to the gym between that time. Between that time, okay. Um, the workout will be it'll start off as an hour. As I get closer to the show date, it uh goes up to two and a half hours. Okay. And that's gonna include uh weightlifting, cardio, and abs.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Weightlifting cardio and abs, of course. Some days you do legs, other days you do more chests, other days you do that. So you have to go.
SPEAKER_02Six days a week I go to the gym. Six days a week. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Five days a week I go to the gym. Two days is rest days.
SPEAKER_01Rest days. I was gonna ask you, when do you rest? Yep, right?
SPEAKER_02Thursdays and Sundays.
SPEAKER_01Thursdays and Sundays. Sunday's a good day because I have to see you then. Sundays, all right. So maybe that's why if I see you walking a little stiff, I know I know you're aching for the workout, you know. That's right. You know, you can pass for a while. I'll I'll pray for you for uh for looseness, for looseness, all that. That all that these qualities are you talking about mindset. Right. Yeah. It it takes discipline, right? It takes persistence. Yes. It takes sometimes whether it's raining, I'm gonna go to the gym. Whether I want it or not, I'm gonna eat this meal. I'm not gonna be tempted to eat this, to eat that. I'm gonna focus on the goal and whatnot. You get to the competition, I mean, it definitely paids its its rewards, it did its dividends. Uh every time I see you in the platform, you got a medal, you got something going on. And uh, you know, truth be told, I wrap I wrap some I wrap something around my neck to try to feel proud, you know. You know, that um you know, I do a lot of mental work. That's my workout. A lot of a lot of mental work day in, day out. That's the hardest work, man. So once once you you you have the competition the day after the competition, how many days rest do you give yourself before you start working toward maybe another physical goal?
SPEAKER_02Uh typically I probably give myself maybe two or three months.
SPEAKER_01Two or three months without working out.
SPEAKER_02No, okay, not without working out. Okay, with with without working out as serious.
SPEAKER_01As serious. Okay. Okay, I'll extend.
SPEAKER_02I'm always gonna work out. Correct. It's a lifestyle. If I get out, if I when I get off the stage, I may give my body maybe two days of rest. I'm getting back in the gym. Okay. I may take it light when I get back in the gym, but I'm getting back in there.
SPEAKER_01Do you uh uh drink a lot of water? I mean, how much water do you drink?
SPEAKER_02I drink uh a gallon of water a day as I get closer to the show. It gets up to a gallon and a half.
SPEAKER_01Gallon and a half. Yeah. It's a lot of trips to uh to you know where. That's a lot of water. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But the thing about water is when you're bringing in enough water, your body won't hold it. So a lot of people will lose weight quickly just by increasing their water.
SPEAKER_01We got hope, Kevin. We gotta increase our water. That's Kevin. Kevin said, throwing them under the bus.
SPEAKER_00Kevin said what? Oh, pick someone else.
SPEAKER_01All right. I'll I'll I'll make up a name, John, or something like that. There you go. We're gonna have a conversation after this. Yeah, uh that uh that's that's great. Mindset. Let's let's so mindset to get serious. Um mindset discipline. One of the things that I always um advise people is that they have a lot of dreams, a lot of aspirations, both in ministry, career-wise. Um they have um, you know, personal goals and aspirations. And a lot it a lot of it is not academic, a lot of it is not financial, a lot of it sometimes it's not even spiritual. A lot of it it's it's it's physical. Yeah you know, uh you had some promises, you had some goals, you had some declarations over your life, you had a vision, a mission, a prophetic word, whatever that may have been, and uh you were unable to get there because you know, uh of health issues and complications because of an unhealthy lifestyle. Some of it may be genetics, and a lot of times it's just that we don't take care of of ourselves as as individuals, men, women, and so forth. One of the things that made me uh really happy was when Jasmine got into fitness as well. Yeah. You know, I I saw you, I've always seen you, and suddenly, you know, here's here's some posts of you guys together, and you you were uh working out together, and I think she may have won well one or two competitions. Uh I'm not sure. But uh she started uh did you motivate her or she had it already as a goal to start working out?
SPEAKER_02No, I'm I motivated her. Well, she motivated me to get on the stage for like the first time. Okay. And it's it's weird because she never had any any aspiration towards bodybuilding until she went to my show. Oh, outstanding. Because she, I mean, because the women are in bikinis, right? Sure. And so she thought, like, maybe like, uh, I'm not doing that. Like, that's not gonna look right for me. Um, but when she actually went to the show and she saw that, hey, they're judging the physique, they're judging the muscle that you built. Correct, they're judging the posing, you know, the the beauty, how you put yourself together. And so she was interested, and then she finally did the next show with me. Correct. So my second show, she did her first show.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. That's amazing. Great, great memories and and all that. Do you tend to work alone or do you have other people that uh you work with as I work, I work alone.
SPEAKER_02I try to, yeah, I try to work out. It's just like as bodybuilders, right? It's weird. We can only work out with bodybuilders. This is like it's a different type of mentality. It's a different type of workout, right? Right. We're not gonna talk, we're not gonna have a conversation, we're not gonna talk about sports.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. You're you're there, you got your you got your three reps, yeah. I got my three reps, somebody else, and stuff like that. Sometimes you need like when when I was uh working out, uh it was way back then. I think it was like Windsor Spring Road and Rosier Road. There used to be a Gold's gym there. Oh yeah? Yeah, back in the day. Yeah, we have way back in the day. So there used to be a Gold's gym there, and uh, of course, they had uh local, they had some coaches in there, trainers, uh, but they would they would push you, motivate you, yell at you, smack you, you know. You can do military. Military style, a lot of yelling, a lot of yelling. They were also focused, uh, but but it was one of the best periods of my life. Of course, I was I was younger, but as far as mindset, as far as discipline, going there uh five days a week, uh maintaining weight, uh not not not the dad bot, but just maintaining weight. You start to see the abs, you start to See this, the tone, uh, the best you can. Of course, there's always a personal best. Um, and and that was great. I ran great, I felt great, and stuff like that. And that's one of the things that I would inspire everybody. You don't have to be as as bulky, whatnot, as long as you have a lifestyle that can can help you get to your dreams and aspirations. Lifestyle is key. Get you to your goal. And like you said, it's it's a lifestyle, it's a routine, and a lot of people don't want to pay the price to get to that routine. I see a lot of the qualities that uh that to this day you had when you were 18 in the military, right? Everything was about you had goals, aspirations, discipline, focus, mindset, grinding it out, perhaps not having all the answers to your questions, or maybe not uh a clear vision, but your your persistence paid off, you know, because not only in your career, but also now into your real estate. Well, now you're meant you're not only a professional real estate agent, but you're also coaching and helping people gain wealth and create wealth. And so that's uh that's rewarding not only personally for you, but also seeing other people triumph and other people succeed. I have one addiction, and is I love to see people succeed. I love to see the the rags to riches type story, whatever that may be, not necessarily financially, but also in mindset, also in in their physical appearance, also in their attitudes, you know, people with just foul with really bad attitudes. And seeing that uh exemplary in your life and your ministry and what you're doing and where you're headed, because again, you're a young guy, and and uh you know, knowing that uh you have laid uh the example in the foundations for many that are coming your way, yeah, and want to say how did he do it, and are asking you advice. And I would like to I would like to close with uh with this question is uh if you're looking at a young Antonio Bradley that is looking at you right now and saying, I would love to to embark in this career or develop this type of mindset to have a successful and good quality of life, what would you advise them nowadays with the kind of world that we're living in, with the all the volatility financially, the turmoil, and so many things that are happening in in our society? Um what would you advise that young Antonio Raleigh?
SPEAKER_02Um, first thing I would say is do it through prayer, right? Um go through God, stick with God, yes, right? Allow him to guide you and lead you. You're gonna lead, you're gonna need a lot of faith. Sure. Right. So get ready for the ride. And uh, and then I would say program. Program your mind the way you want to be, right? If you want to be whoever, if you want to be at a certain a certain spot, study those people that are already there and what did they do to get there mindset-wise, and program your mind that way. Uh, I think a lot of people today, because of social media and we're so used to looking at other people's lives, and again, we don't we don't know how they got there, right? And so we're not willing to do the work, we just want what they want, or we desire what they have, but it's so easy right now with all this information, it's so easy to reprogram your mind to think the way you want to think. You've got so many people on YouTube that you can listen to. You got Tony Robbins, you got Eric Thomas, right? I studied these people in my 20s, right? And now I'm starting to see it pay off. I mean, I listen to them every day, sure, all day. Yeah, likewise. Yeah, likewise. So that's what I would say. Program yourself um prayer and faith.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. He definitely laid the foundations, uh, uh, and what a beautiful legacy you're leaving, uh, leaving with us, and not only again seeing the fruits of your labor in your life, and your family, your household, but how you're blessing other people by by giving them the teaching them the correct mindset and the how to grow wealth and and so forth. Now, the your website is the Brad the Bradley Group. The Bradley Real Estate Group. Yes. The Bradley Real Estate Group.com.com. And in there you'll find all the information. I see that you guys celebrate like uh like a different events during the year. Oh, yeah. Uh always celebrating. Yeah. That's that's amazing. So the Bradley Real Estate Group.com for more information and how to get in contact with Mr. Antonio Bradley. He had we have navigated through professional real estate, we have navigated through flipping homes, we have navigated through um the mindset and having the physicality to get to those goals and to those aspirations. And the legacy that you're leaving behind is one that's admirable. And I pray many blessings for your life. And I'm pretty sure that if you want more information and how this gentleman is is getting as ripped as he is getting and as blessed as he's getting, uh, contact him through the Bradley Real Estate Group. There's so much information, there's so much we can cover only in an hour, but he is has so much wealth of information financially. I will definitely thank you so much if you like, share, subscribe, find us on the YouTube channel, and of course, what a blessing we've had today. I will see you on that next episode.