How do we do this better than everybody else? He started BiggerPockets to help democratize the real estate investing landscape for himself and others, aiming to make it accessible for everyone, regardless of income or education. Denver, CO 80202. I thought I was having a heart attack. And so that ultimately led to diversification of the business. And lifes too short, man. October 22, 2022 Almost a lifetime ago - 18 years today - I officially marked the founding of BiggerPockets Starting a hobby website while working as a full time teacher was one thing. And in that time, I realized that I wasnt as happy as I wanted to be running the business. He tried to solve his problems by reading real estate how-to manuals, but they made no mention of the real-life issues landlords facelike what to do when someone cuts a three-foot hole in the kitchen floor. It was a blast, but by year 12, 13, 14 my job changed. [j:^h%m-dm0 \G/#f?IXv\I:$W2i|IO]K}3R+_D_P{_zZ`uu I\bY]_|[ J'|#W} t_g%=5+nnsN@ W ~xSf&+|r i44u{]Im|0S>gX}^jK9$m0BR8Y]?\fry5l |E~x7~'&xa PE""X WHr;.7=1k Lets do it. And so what happened was little by little, I found myself running into some problems and I didnt quite know how to deal with those problems. Proud parenting moment: Tonight while eating dinner, my daughter started to sing Freewill by @rushtheband and followed it up with her rendition of The Trees. 04 Mar 2023 02:14:54 We all KNOW what we need to do, but more often than not we let our fear of the unkno. But, you know, getting to exit, getting close to the finish line, so to speak is an absolutely incredible feeling and I wish it upon, you know, all the entrepreneurs out there. It is always interesting to see what kind of things come up when you search for yourself online. Josh tells his story of wanting to quit, having 3 nervous breakdowns, and eventually selling to a private equity company. Heres your host, Dan Daugherty. So I read about happiness, right? The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for How to Invest in Real Estate are 9781947200050, 1947200054 and the print ISBNs are 9780997584707, 099758470X. Read it!Ryan Harris, Super Bowl 50 Champion and real estate investor. As of February 2019, Amazon has raised $124,651,081.04 for charities through this program (Source Amazon). As the message board gained a following, Dorkin quit his teaching job, moved to Denver (for quality of life reasons), and focused on the website full time. If you dont take the time to find moments for yourself - moments to be present with the world around you, you might be missing some of the best opportunities for personal happiness. If you're not satisfied with your purchase, you can return your book for a full refund within 30 days. Zf|Gy}dN1,2,qY\ s#sK~?>#W]CYq~Z6btV37 g)v3[# kG:_jJ/0Cr[-I\7{\t_LkL,K'4'Mm+"Pd60|q!?jO7S9h,P-WwS/. Joshua Dorkin is a serial entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, publisher, and educator. I was teaching high school in Los Angeles. But you know, we were living off the business and it was very scary to go and take on debt because Im very conservative financially, fiscally. It was a very unpleasant experience, very scary again, you know, I was fairly uncertain I would get through it. COVID you know, your kid gets sick. Im your host, Dan Daugherty and today I have a good friend, Josh Dorkin, who is the founder and former CEO of Bigger Pockets. After coming up short, Joshua decided to take matters into his own hands and start his own website. You know, I want to learn how to be happy. Find which one works best for you, your resources, and your goals. If thats the case, figure out what you need to do to change and the big challenge I think most people have is thats so big and tenuous, like, what do I do? And anything thats stressing me out, you absolutely have to dissect it, and then figure out what the root cause is and that opens up everything else because then you figure out ways, again, Ill use the term operationalize it, is because then it allows you to leverage different tools, maybe you have to delegate more, maybe you dont have to respond within an hour of every single email that comes in, whatever it might be. Press the space key then arrow keys to make a selection. because I felt that I had to succeed, and because in reality, I was STUCK IN MY BUSINESS instead of working ON MY BUSINESS. FHA Guidelines: How to Qualify for a 3.5% Down Loan . From a life experience, it sounds like youre doing the same thing. I dont know, maybe, if I get some encouragement from my friends Ill do it. I mean, I literally started this company with the, you know, like 12 bucks a month that it cost me to host and the whatever four or five bucks it cost to register the domain name back then, and that was it. Of course I was happy to have an amazing loving family and a successful business. All things Colorado delivered straight to your inbox. Wednesday was about thinking, networking and not doing. And I had just swarms of competitors coming out of the woodwork trying to take me down and so there was threat everywhere, right, theres threat everywhere. It was a hard decision for Joshua to leave, but thanks to his amazing team, he was able to (even during a time of tribulation in his personal life . It was excruciatingly slow and frustrating, but we never let up. No. But thats OK. Hes still well on his way to becoming a mogul just less Donald Trump and more Rupert Murdoch. And for me in that period, you know, when I realized I wanted to be healthier for example, and by the way, I didnt have to lose weight. And you know, the kids can go out and do physical stuff. Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turnerlongtime hosts of the world's #1 real estate podcast, The BiggerPockets Podcastgive you an insider's look at the many different niches and strategies that exist. And I immediately thought of you, because youve bootstrapped Bigger Pockets from I remember your Washington Park house where we met to really a multi-million dollar organization. For two years I taught and in my free time I coded and built this budding hobby into something that trickled in tiny advertising checks. Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi. Our friend had come over to help out and I was going to rest while she watched the girls. Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner - longtime hosts of the world's number-one real estate podcast, The BiggerPockets Podcast - give you an insider's look at the many different niches and strategies that exist. If thats the case, figure out what you need to do to change. Some people dont see that, its almost like when you get a new car, and then you start seeing other similar cars that are the same color that you never saw before. In 2006, Brandon Turner got married to Heather. I dont wish it on anyone to go through what we all went through, but it gave me the time to really think about life. You know what, Im going to get a fitness watch, and Im going to walk 10,000 steps a day. Overnighted packages might take a week or so if youre lucky, standard mail might take weeks, and trying to get a package from the mainland - well, hold on - that might be 2-3 months. And instead of working on the business, I was working in the business exclusively. And really, quite frankly, I did not do a good job of understanding when Im depressed, or who to call, if Im depressed. And, you know, so I take those moments when they come to me and I try and take bold steps when they come. What's my secret? By the time I exited, we had over 40 full time employees, and around a dozen contractors - close to sixty people working for the business. Exclusive bonus content provided after checkout, 2021, BiggerPockets Bookstore Powered by Shopify, Only available in Ultimate Package and offsite, , Super Bowl 50 Champion and real estate investor, How to invest in real estate while working a full-time job, How to earn more at work (or on the side) so you can invest more, How to get your spouse on board with real estate investing, Eight unique property types you can invest in today, Eleven powerful strategies for building wealth through real estate, Twenty-eight tested methods for finding great real estate deals, Details on partnerships, BRRRR investing, and other creative ways to fund your deals. Joshua Dorkin is the founder of BiggerPockets, as well as a serial entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, publisher, educator, and co-author of How to Invest in Real Estate. How do I hire? Days and weeks of not knowing what was to come with my daughter eventually led to glimmers of hope that wed see a recovery. Instead of getting my hands dirty building product or testing some new landing page or campaign, I was overssing someone else that was. And so I think for a very long time I ran my life, you know, moment to moment and its through conversations with folks like Brandon, you know, lots of, Ive got some good friends who think real deeply, to reading a lot, reading a lot, listening to some, you know, thought leaders in various spaces, you know, my transformation really, I think began from the moment of that I went to my wife, year eight of the company, and I was in tears. As always, I charged on despite my body and subconscious screaming as loud as possible to stop. And I suppose if I had enough people saying, Yeah, Josh, you should do it, for sure, I might jump at it. Julie was in California and I was home alone with the girls. Josh Dorkin: I thought I was having a heart attack. What regrets does he hold? All rights reserved. I mean, you know, you want me to just take it from the beginning or? Whether it is the struggle to communicate at checkout while you and the cashier are donning masks, or the untrusting looks from everyone around you, the entire experience is less pleasurable for all of us. Joshua Dorkin is the founder of BiggerPockets, as well as a serial entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, publisher, educator, and co-author of How to Invest in Real Estate. . We build tools, our content, our social presence. He started BiggerPockets to help democratize the real estate investing landscape for himself and others, aiming to make it accessible for everyone, regardless of income or education. And I mean, even when Brandon was hired, it sounds like you were able to take a step back, look at a much bigger strategic view from a business perspective that accelerated growth. Is it impressing other people? Horrifying, scary. So we went and we hired an investment bank, I mean, cutting a long story short, Im sure youre going to have a ton of questions and sorry for ranting, but we hired a bank, went through a process, and, you know, six, eight months later, I had an exit to a private equity company, still own a significant piece of the business. Josh Dorkin: Absolutely. You know, like any entrepreneurial story, lots of ups, lots of downs. I was, I went to college, you know, all these things, and bought property thousands of miles away, which would normally be a challenge, but I didnt really do my homework. So first phase, I call it like that hobby phase. Weve climbed mountains, traveled, explored and journeyed, surfed, skied and have never stopped seeking out a full and rich life. Today, I think its a sign of necessity and strength, to be self-aware enough to know. Genealogy profile for Joshua Dorkin Joshua Dorkin (1843 - 1914) - Genealogy Genealogy for Joshua Dorkin (1843 - 1914) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. The real estate industry is huge, and often complicated, but this book clears away the fog and uncertainty in a fun, easy-to-read manner. Dan Daugherty: Yeah, theres no shortage of chaos in the startup world and those that cannot adapt to change will inevitably fail and close shop. Fear of change or of taking risks by changing course has sunk far too many businesses. I remember you and I met, it must have been like, what, when did you found bigger pockets? But, you know, I think the key was just persevering through those in order to come out at the end. His wife and three daughters wouldnt take too kindly to sharing their space. I immediately stepped back from the day to day at work and handed charge to my number two at the time, Scott Trench in coordination with Brandon. I learned to stop being a cadet and start being a general.', 'life is too short to be stuck in a job you hate. Just at the time when things were starting to go from big to bigger, Joshua had to take time off to take care of his daughter's medical emergency. But I, you know, theres so many books out there. What you may not know is Joshua's journey in founding, building, scaling, and finally leaving BiggerPockets. For returns, refunds, or the status of your order, you can contact. In this conversation. Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turnerlongtime hosts of the worlds #1 real estate podcast, The BiggerPockets Podcastgive you an insiders look at the many different niches and strategies that exist. We grew the platform and its offerings. Like, dont do, keep doing things that make you miserable. But its so easy for us to try and ignore things and hopefully itll go away. . They live in Grays Harbor, Wash. 1675 Larimer St. And but yeah, thats what Ive been up to. He later transitioned to building a team, starting with the BiggerPocket Podcasts very own host, Brandon Turner.This later snowballed into more hirings, with the BiggerPockets growing faster and faster, and being able to scale larger and larger. We just wanted to find a place where we can go, where we could just normalize our lives, where my kids could, you know, get up and not be all stressed out where, you know, we knew that the government was doing a lot to mitigate the situation. But you know, from a sheer depression, man in the year before my exit, in the year and a half before my exit I had, Id never had this before, but I had three like full on panic attacks. And from a bootstrap perspective, you know, bootstrapping, you have a lot less support than you do when you raise money. And it can be significantly helpful, but I want to press upon anybody whos thinking about it to just recognize that its not something to take lightly. And the platform itself, your business, whatever it is, is not going to be able to blossom. It is big enough that youre not doing everything, but small enough that you can still get your hands dirty when you want. Like you cant find that and all that was out there were communities, forums, but they were all kind of tied to or in cahoots with I call them the gurus, the get rich quick crowd. And I was helping other people get rich, and I was broke.\"\r\r Dorkin spent the next 8 years working mostly as a one-man operation as he tried to monetize a fledgling website.\r\r \"We were struggling and scrapping by on every AdSense check that we could collect,\" Dorkin says. Dan Daugherty: I just might, well, offline, lets catch up, because maybe theres something we can do together. We've all felt scared about doing that big thing we've dreamed of doing. Today, BiggerPockets is the premier real estate investing website online with . Quotes "I believe 100% in putting all my eggs in one basket. Highly recommended!" Nat Borchers, retired pro athlete, He started BiggerPockets to help democratize the real estate investing landscape for himself and others, aiming to make it accessible for everyone, regardless of income or education. Brandon Turner & Joshua Dorkin. JFIF ,, C I easily felt better. But that's OK. Joshua Dorkin is the author of The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down (4.20 avg rating, 1854 ratings, 108 reviews, published 2. What you may not know is Joshuas journey in founding, building, scaling, and finally leaving BiggerPockets. And, you know, between Brandon and Scott Trench, who was my second in command at the business at the time, and my management team, you know, I tasked those guys and gals to run the business and I had to focus on my family. And that had to stop too. Many of you already know my story, but it is always a privilege to have the opportunity to share it with other entrepreneurs in person, at events, and of course, via podcast conversations. Youre operationalizing your life and that has allowed you to kind of be more open. But he came in and was instrumental to advancing the business. And so you can freak out and flip out, or you can say, all right, you know, what, they made this tweak, what could we do better? That was all I was allowed to do on Wednesday. hb```b``"Y@9YY0sp(AnD$x}9QZuI>'vM`VyU'7>hAUf+-U]Y&-:+5+!Ab` 2:;4:J s `NzxSSgp80/ulk8 so9e1TX @6{c4# ] endstream endobj 96 0 obj <> endobj 97 0 obj <>>>/Rotate 0/Type/Page>> endobj 98 0 obj <>stream . I know far too many people who live the non-stop life and many, if not most, are unhappy. So give me give me the motivation and Ill get out there and do it. For locals, by locals. BiggerPockets founder Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner from the BiggerPockets Real Estate Investing podcast. I created this site in 2004 to create a place where investors could learn, network, market and make deals in a safe online environment. No, very few people do exactly what you just said and thats actually something that I do as well, I break it out. In the early 2000s, Dorkin bought rental property in St. Louis andafter adding up what he could charge for rent and subtracting his expected expensespredicted hed make a tidy profit. And I did it without freaking out or getting stressed because doing so doesnt help. Beyond that, weve helped transform neighborhoods, built communities and so much more.It has been almost 4 years since exiting the day to day and stepping away. ). \\ + endstream endobj 99 0 obj <>stream Almost everyone that builds a business wants some kind of growth, but as much as I loved seeing my brainchild thrive and grow, I was having less and less fun doing it. Joshua Dorkin Public figure Father. The podcast has almost 250 episodes and the blog features more than 8,100 articles.\r\r In today's episode, I have a heart-to-heart with BiggerPockets founder Joshua Dorkin about the blood, sweat and tears that's required to start a successful online business. As Founder and CEO of BiggerPockets, I created the vision and strategy for the business and bootstrapped the company until . The days of building product, building community, marketing, growth hacking and being creative were replaced with days managing people. 4.6 208 Ratings; $11.99; Listen $11.99; Listen . I spent countless hours caring for her full time - feeding, moving, and working with her to accomplish tiny wins like the movement of a single finger or opening an eye. Doing so otherwise would leave me a nervous wreck. A thought experiment My daughter posed the following question: It is raining outside at a constant rate. I dont know. Yesterday that reality came a little too close for comfort for me. (BTW - Ill certainly talk more about working on a business at another time). And if you want to grow and thrive, you have to become seriously adept at it. And its not healthy for any of us, it really is not. Your In-Depth Guide to the Best Golf Courses Around Denver, Six Bizarre Majors That Will Actually Get You A Job In Colorado, How Trumps Executive Orders Are Affecting Refugees In Lakewood, The Best Ski Run at (Almost) Every Mountain in Colorado, Advertising and Sponsorship Opportunities. Josh Dorkin: Yeah, yeah, I think for me, the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, was one of the most impactful in just, you know, helping me kind of break things down. And yeah, so were here. I realized that like, thats not healthy, you know, its healthy to be balanced, its healthy to spend time with downtime and so, you know, tried to create operating manuals around that, you know, eventually that became like, my Wednesdays, you know, in the year, call it year and a half leading to the exit, my Wednesdays, I didnt go into work. And so, you know, its a serious decision to raise money or not to raise money. You know, what are you doing and deal with that situation. What lessons did he learn along the way? Its fantastic. But instead of sitting in my office talking on the phone, every phone call that I had was a walking call. We had kids at that point. ChatGPT disagrees (see image) What say you? And I had to step away, I had to step away from the company, in order to take care of my family. But just know that theres guys out there like me and Dan and, you know, countless other people whove tried it, whove been through it. Sarahbeth Maney is a Washington, D.C.-based photojournalist and a photography fellow for The New York Times. I had time to wonder, time to wander, and time to contemplate my life and my happiness. This ultimately led to me having several panic attacks which really should have been a sign to step back. My strategy was to first pick out the easy items like toilet, vanity, towel bars and hooks, followed by choosing flooring, and finally finding a pre-fab shower that we could just drop in. Did you feel, I mean, Im sure you had lots of times where you just wanted to quit or push through.