Robert Leonard (04:07):
Terrence, I know you had a dream of playing in the NFL since you were five. And I can only imagine that you had to put everything you could into that so you could potentially achieve that dream. I know it’s a dream that so many kids have, but very few people actually achieve it. You achieved that goal of making it to the NFL, but unfortunately, your time in the NFL was cut short due to an injury. What did you learn from that experience?

Terrence Murphy (04:33):
Well, I’ll start with just the process. I’ve learned that you just got to be patient with the process. I think a lot of times everybody wants to be overnight successes and it sounds good rolling off the tongue on a movie or on the TV show, but there really are not many overnight successes. I mean the Kobe Bryant, the LeBron James, the Tiger Woods. They hit balls, shot balls in the basket, caught a million catches before anybody ever knew who they were. And so the one lesson I learned from achieving that dream is one, it’s a process. You got to fall in love with the process. Anything you are, anything that you become successful at you got to fall in love with the process because the results from that or the things that people see, but it’s the process we got to love and fall in love with. And then two, be patient, just know that if you’re building it.

Terrence Murphy (05:17):
And I have this one mentality that…I’ll call it “The One-Brick-Mentality,” building one brick at a time. And then the third thing is there will be naysayers. And probably the people closest to you will be the biggest naysayers because they know your journey they know your story. And they’re not saying it to hurt you. They’re just saying it because you may be thinking bigger than they thought. And so you just gotta be careful with that, or that may not make sense for you. And so you just got to know that you got to push through on those things.

Robert Leonard (05:42):
How do you deal with those naysayers?

Terrence Murphy (05:45):
You just got to be so passionate about your craft. Because I always say whatever it is, whatever your craft is, it could be podcasting. It could be starting a business. It could be getting a Ph.D. You got to be so passionate about it. And so focused to where nothing people can say can take you off that path. And you don’t really say anything to them. You just show them with your actions. So when I would tell people that I was going to go to the NFL and they would say, “Well, man that’s really not possible to achieve.” It’s never been done by anybody in our high school or our community to go in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. You’re just so passionate about it. You’re so focused on doing it, you just keep going. You don’t even hear what they’re saying. And then obviously I showed them on my actions that it could be done.

Robert Leonard (06:28):
I actually had a guest tell me one time that everybody wants to be an overnight success. But if that actually happens to you, that’s actually a really bad thing because you learn so much along the process that you need to be successful. If you were just an overnight success, you don’t have the tools, the principles, the habits, the knowledge you need to actually sustain that success. And that’s why you see a lot of lottery winners or people like that go broke because they don’t have the backing or the process or the foundation that they need in order to sustain that success that they just gained overnight.

Terrence Murphy (07:02):
Yeah and you know another thing that really changed my life is not only having that success, but then you got to have the financial literacy and the right heart to absorb the success that’s coming your way. What I’ve learned is when success hits, it’s going to hit in a couple of ways, notoriety most likely finances. So people start recognizing who you are. Obviously, you start making a little more money and then those challenges start and it starts saying, are you going to stay humble and keep the right mentality and just keep learning, keep growing, keep perfecting your craft, or are you going to get to a place where you got all the answers? And then as soon as you figure out that you got all the answers or that you don’t need to get better is when you’re going to start going backwards.

Terrence Murphy (07:42):
And then the next thing is to have you sent the right financial literacy information and mentality in place to absorb the success of the finances that are going to come your way? Because I’ve seen a lot of people be successful at a lot of different things, but then they don’t put that same energy into their finances. And then that’s what makes them lose also. So I think it’s kind of the Robert Kiyosaki, we have a career, and our money has a career and you got to attack both of those.

Ryan Conceicao (08:10):
I love the whole process story because truthfully Robert and I, Rob, and I are big fans of Andy Frisella and he does this thing called 75 hard. And the whole concept is to fall in love with basically putting yourself in 75 days of discomfort. It’s a regimen, if you will. And it’s changing what you’re normally used to. Now, I’ve done bodybuilding, I’ve done six months of training hard and dieting hard, and making sure I’m on a regimen, but this incorporated this aspect of being outside. And I chose January to start it because I knew I did not want to go outside and I didn’t want to … The New Hampshire bed. It’s freezing. There were some days where I did not get to my outdoor 45-minute activity until 9:00 PM at night, and it was 14 degrees out and I did not want to do it.

Ryan Conceicao (09:00):
And I will say by the end, by day 75, I was like, “I love this.” It was my favorite part of the entire process, especially during COVID we’re all locked inside and so forth. But again, day one versus day 75, it’s amazing how your mindset swings from I don’t want to do this to, I hope it’s pouring rain outside and I’m going to wear a t-shirt and I hope it’s 25 degrees because you fell in love with the whole process along the way. So according to an article by Sports Illustrated written in 2017, 78% of NFL players go broke or struggle financially within two years of retirement. As a man forced into retirement, how did you avoid falling into this statistic?

Terrence Murphy (09:51):
That’s a really good question. I’m unpacking it in a couple of different ways. I think the biggest thing that I will say about to me, it’s an epidemic for professionals. Not just NFL guys, but all professional athletes to not have financial literacy. I will say two, now that I have become that story of transitioning, it’s amazing how you lack the coverage on that because like you said, let’s just say if it’s 90%. No one talks about the 10%. And so the reason why the 90% is still struggling with understanding that it’s important because they’re not doing a great job of telling the 10% stories like let’s tell Robert’s story. Let’s tell Terrence’s story. Let’s tell Ryan’s story of an athlete who transitioned. And I think to me, that’s the first thing that needs to happen is just the perspective, because there’s nothing juicy about that.

Terrence Murphy (10:39):
It sounds cool to say “All the NFL guys go broke.” A lot of them do, but let’s tell the 10% of the ones who have transitioned. But what I ended up doing the first second round draft pay, well, second round draft pick Aaron Rogers was our first pick. I wasn’t taking pick. We’re roommates, we’re best friends. He’s the quarterback, I’m a receiver and I’m having a really good career. You know, I’m playing with Brett Favre. I’m number two in the NFC behind Steve Smith and kid return average. It’s right there in front of me, bro. And then I get paralyzed on Monday night football with the neck injury and it forced me to say, “Okay, I have a start on life.” Because I didn’t have life changing money. Everybody thinks the NFL has this life changing money. You got to get to second and third contract like Tom Brady to make that crazy money.

Terrence Murphy (11:23):
But I said, “Hey, so start a life.” And so what can I do? And how can I do it? Oh, it hit. [The stock market got crazy. I had my resources in the stock market and it was just kind of a mixture of a couple of life experiences. But I tell my financial advisor I’m like, “Dude, you got to give them money out of the stock market. I want to do something different.” He challenged me and said, “Well, what are you going to do? You’re 23.” And that’s when I went and bought a lot of real estate books, financial books. And I read about 38 books in 16 months. And that kind of set me on this path of seeing how important literacy was. And that created a passion in me.

Robert Leonard (11:57):
Why did you pick up the real estate books? I mean, you could have gone to Barnes and Noble and picked up any business book. You could have picked up any investing strategy book. There could have been options. I mean, there are a million different things you could have studied. So why real estate?

Terrence Murphy (12:11):
It’s crazy. I did. I actually read stock market books. I read books about franchising. I read books about just entrepreneurship in general, but the real estate books just kind of kept jumping out at me. And I read Robert Kiyosaki Who Took My Money. And that was the one that changed my life. I read it in like three days and I was like, “I want to do that. I want to do real estate. I want to put my resources in a tangible asset that I can touch. I can see.” And then I’m a very creative person. And so now we can get into that in a second, kind of that started the progression. But now we have 20 companies that we lead and run all-around real estate when I’m able to really expand that vision of what we’re doing.

Robert Leonard (12:49):
When you decided that real estate was going to be the route for you, where did you begin? Did you initially focus on being an investor? Did you focus on being an agent? Maybe it was something else.

Terrence Murphy (12:59):
Yeah. So what I did is the first couple of years I was 22. I was a limited partner in a capital company. Still wanted capital. So they raised money. They syndicate, invest in multifamily, commercial developments, things like that. So for two years I was just a limited partner and putting my money in and getting no return. And I would fly in town in Dallas, drive around with the guys looking at deals. That’s where I really kind of started wading my palette. I waited, so I did that for a couple of years. And then I realized how important it was when I was trying to sell my place in Green Bay after I was of retiring. I realized how important it was to have ownership. And so that’s when I moved back to College station and I became an investor. I wasn’t just a limited partner. I started placing deals.

Terrence Murphy (13:40):
I started rezoning. I started acquiring urban development properties right around the campus and started rezoning, replanting going vertical. And that’s where I really started as just an investor. And after people started seeing my projects, they were so innovative at the time. No one was really doing a demo in College Station in 2007 and eight, but I started doing it. And I was building these brand new student housing projects and the kids at A&M just loved them. I would lease-up in like a week because of word of mouth, a nice housing project. And so that’s what started. And then people would ask me, “Can you help me do what you do?” I was like, “Well, I don’t have a license.” And that’s when I got my real estate license in 2010 and went to Keller Williams for like a year, a year and a half. And then I just got frustrated with that experience and started TM5 as an independent broker in 2011.

Robert Leonard (14:26):
I very often hear real estate investors talking about scaling their portfolio to a certain number of units or completing a certain number of flips. Ryan and I typically focus on rental properties ourselves. So most of my conversations are around number of units. But the point is that most investors I talk to seem to only think of real estate in one dimension. What I love that you do is that you’ve numerous different companies. You just mentioned, I think 20 all in the real estate industry, you don’t just buy rental properties or just flip properties. You have a real estate brokerage, property management, mortgage company, insurance company, and a bunch more that are all related to real estate. Talk to us about your strategy with all of these different companies and how it all came to be.

Terrence Murphy (15:12):
Yeah, it just kind of happened. As I started having these experiences with my property manager when I was investor, I still remember one of his leasing agents showed up and this was like my pride and joy. It’s like I bought a whole block of properties and ended up being like 116 bad project. And I was just so proud of it. And the leasing agent showed up and I was out finishing something in the landscaping. And I said, “Hey, you’re showing this property it’s like the last one we needed to lease or the last couple we needed to lease.” She’s like, “Yeah, I don’t even know what the bed and bath is. I don’t even know what we’re releasing it for.” And I was just so disappointed. And I was like, if that’s going to be the people that are showing up to at least my properties, then now I can lease of them my own.”

Terrence Murphy (15:50):
And that kind of started that mindset that will in my mind, like I’ll keep you on my team and I will be loyal to you. But if you’re not giving me the right level of service and focus and attention to detail, then I will do something different. And I learned that the hard way by just being a young guy. You know, when you’re young, you don’t really want to have those hard business conversations. But I learned that if I don’t have it, that’s me losing money. And so that started the thought process. And then I read a book that talks about intentional congruency. And what that means is you get one main whole company and then you create companies that compliment that company and service off that company. And so when I got my real estate license, I realized realtors really had control of a lot of the referrals and the part of the process.

Terrence Murphy (16:36):
And I just decided, “Okay, why not create the companies that I can make sure that my clients are still getting a five-star service?” And so that’s where it kind of started the Terrence Murphy companies and Spider Web and created the different companies.

Robert Leonard (16:49):
We see this with bigger companies all the time. Let’s take Amazon, for example, they started as a bookstore. And now if you follow Amazon at all, I’m a stock investor as well. Their most profitable business unit is AWS. And they built AWS, which is their web service program because they needed it for their own online e-commerce platform. And now it provides the majority of the profits for the business and they have tons of clients. And so I mean, this is applicable across many industries, not just real estate.

Terrence Murphy (17:17):
Yeah, it is. And it’s funny when you are a young entrepreneur, people are asking you “Why do you have so many companies? Why are you doing so much?” They try to make you feel like you’re doing something wrong. But you hit it on the head and that just shows the entrepreneur that you are no, one’s asking Amazon that. No, one’s asking Disney that. Disney has movies and obviously the theme parks and now they own Marvel. And now they have Disney Plus. And no one’s asking Disney that, so why are they asking me that? So if they can do it, then why can’t we do it? And that’s really the mindset. I have a fearless mindset when you’ve been through the life experiences that I’ve been through. I came from a really tough neighborhood and then just being paralyzed and God bringing me back from that mentally, spiritually, physically having to rehab my mind, my body, and soul. I’m fearless, man.

Terrence Murphy (18:00):
So I just go after stuff. So we bought commercial properties throughout the United States like you said. And one of the things that I learned from Warren buffet, he talks about diversity. So he talks about diversity within the stock market. And really when you’re buying shares, you’re buying a piece of the company. I just decided to diversify myself within the real estate industry. So as I get in I said, “Okay, we’re going to own 400, 500-bed student housing. Then we’re going to go buy a commercial strip center. Then we’re going to go buy ranches and run cattle and hay.” And I just keep diversifying myself within certain categories and segments. And it just creates that where you’re just reinforced with those diversified multiple income streams that I really enjoyed.

Robert Leonard (18:41):
Out of all of the businesses that you have in real estate, which one is the most profitable? And I ask that because I’m curious if it’s something that most people listening wouldn’t expect. Maybe it’s a business that most people are like, “Really that’s the most profitable?” And then which one’s your favorite?

Terrence Murphy (18:57):
Oh man, the favorable is going to be tough because it’s like your babies, man. You’ve always asked like I have three kids and it’s like, if you ask me to give up one of them, I love all three of them. Right? And so I love all of my companies. I will tell you profitability can be measured in multiple ways. And one of the biggest things that my wife helped me figure out is you don’t need to own a 100% and run every one of them. So like our property management company, as we were trying to stop managing our own portfolio, I didn’t want to go back to letting another property manager manage my properties anymore, just because I got away from that. But I found a young man that was a couple of years younger than us who was starting to property management company, had been running it for about four or five years and he was trying to get to that next level.

Terrence Murphy (19:40):
And so I think he was at 300,000 in revenue and he was building a good brand, but he couldn’t get to the next level. And I partnered with him and said “Let’s partner up.” And within a year and a half of us partnering, we got up to 2.5 million in revenue. So we almost 10Xed the business in less than two years. And so the point I’m making is because he is leading and he’s running it. I’m really an advisor and I kind of meet once a month and once a quarter, the return on my time sounds like leveraging a rental property. If I pay a million dollars for something and it’s a Starbucks and a five cup, I’m going to make 5% of my money. But if I buy that same million-dollar property and put down 300,000 and leverage the 700,000, my rate of return is going to be higher.

Terrence Murphy (20:19):
So the way I look at it is how much of my time is going into it to get the return that I’m getting? And so it’s exponential when I’m not in the day-to-day operations. I know that was a kind of roundabout way to answer it. But as far as my favorite company, I would say the expansion that I’m doing, Terrance Murphy team, I’m expanding in all 50 states and 15 countries with the XP, that one has been really fun because I just love just growing stuff. That’s been awesome. Murphy Signature Homes is our luxury home business. And we built these modern, contemporary really cool houses. We’re working on like a 10,000 square foot masterpiece and I draw and design a lot of those. I enjoy those. Those are probably my favorite two companies.

Ryan Conceicao (21:01):
I loved your response to the intentional congruency, as well as the fearlessness and kind of how they play off of each other in terms of how you’ve kind of cornered your own business. Number one, you don’t have to rely on anyone and in relying on yourself the quality and the work you’re getting. Again, you’re not going to have a property manager who’s like, “I have no idea how many beds or baths this is leasing.” But that’s again, that’s just bad business and it doesn’t look good as a reflection of you in TM5. So in cornering the business, I love how you’ve been able to again, not so much have control, but you’re controlling the equality that’s being put about.

Ryan Conceicao (21:41):
Again, I liked your story about the property management, because in doing my research on you, I found that when you are hiring people, you don’t necessarily hire people based off of their experience. I read about one girl who you hired and she did 6.9 million in sales her first year. And I know that was because of your tutelage, just because of how you seem to control and operate everything else. That seems again, you’re taking that fearless mindset into someone who’s new and taking that opportunity to take a chance on someone probably based off of their work ethic, what you see in them. Again, I’d just like you to talk about taking that fearless step into someone who doesn’t have experience and how you approach that.

Terrence Murphy (22:27):
Yeah. It’s one of those deals. I remember when I retired, I was 22 and I was wanting to get into coaching because that’s what everybody thinks you should do when you’re an NFL guy, right? And I just remember one of the interviews and I had the resume hands down, but the first thing they would always tell me is you don’t have the experience. I hate that. I hate that word. I hate that thought process. And I remember because when I came to Texas I was a two-star quarterback recruit. I didn’t have all the stars by my name. I didn’t come from this long lineage of whatever, whatever. I just came in with $200 on my name sleeping on a guy’s couch. And I just went to work, right? And I missed being able to just put in the work and see the results.

Terrence Murphy (23:04):
And I remember telling my wife, that’s what made me miss ball the most is just the organicness of you can be in politics all you want. But if I go out and run a four or three, and I catch every ball is thrown my way and the game’s on the line, I catch the game, winning touchdown. It’s going to be tough next week to keep me off the field. And that’s what I look at when I’m growing my companies because at this point we have about 300 people that work for us directly or indirectly. And the key thing I’ve learned is it’s all about hiring the right person. We can give you the tools. If you have the skillset, we can coach you and give you the tools. And I’d much rather hire somebody with no bad habits or someone who already thinks they got it all figured out. They don’t want to listen. They want to do it this way and do it that way.

Terrence Murphy (23:44):
And so I love hiring people that are just talented. And the last thing I realized too, is the reason I started my podcast is the reason I’ve started getting out here with my message. It’s because your message is going to resonate with a certain audience. And so your tribe will be attracted by your vibe and they’ll come find you.

Ryan Conceicao (24:01):
I worked in the pharmaceutical medical field I was 22, I was fresh out of college and I’ll never forget sitting in front of the people who were interviewing me. And the biggest question was, “Why am I going to hire you? You’re 22 years old, you have zero experience.” And I had my own business and grew it myself. I had 400 clients by the time I was a senior. And again, I was sitting there and I’m just like, “I will work harder than anybody you have on your team right now.” And it doesn’t have to do with experience. It’s just that work ethic, not failing, not having that mindset. It’s just fearlessness kind of like you said earlier, carrying that into everything that you were saying earlier about again, you’re organized companies and executive vice-president for the Bryan-College Station Regional Association of Realtors that you mentioned earlier. You basically said in an interview that you’re capable of anything you put your mind to. But he also said that you’re smart enough to know what you don’t know. Can you explain the importance that’s played into building all of your companies and really into your career?

Terrence Murphy (25:09):
Yeah, I think it’s I used to take this thought process that I had to be the expert at everything before I started it. And that’s great in the beginning, right? You got to build a track record and I’m real big on curating an experience it’s why I love Starbucks. They’ve done a great job. No matter where you go to a Starbucks East Coast, West Coast, South-North, you’re going to get a similar experience from them. And so for me, the reason I’ve started some of my companies because I kept seeing my clients not get the right experience. They’d had a really good foster experience with me and my team. We hand them off to a lender, to a builder, to a title company, to a property management company. And then they’d be blowing me up. I’d lose more time with them calling me pissed off because of the person I referred them to.

Terrence Murphy (25:55):
So that’s the main focus and the vision behind what we’re doing. And we’re growing this family of companies to now you know, we’re expanding all across the United States and we’re just looking for talented people. If you’re in real estate and you’re interested in doing real estate sales, call me. I took a startup company when my wife and I were 25 and 27 with no broker, no experience, no website, no paid leave. We took a startup company in less than nine years in a small college town from zero sales to a billion in sales. That’s never happened in this central Texas area that fast. And it’s all just about building out the right processes, systems and hiring the right people. And so we have that playbook and it’s something that we’re using this now scale and partner with real estate agents throughout the nation.

Robert Leonard (26:42):
Did you originally plan on having all of these different businesses? I know you mentioned, they kind of evolved, but did you expect it to evolve that way? Was that your goal or did you start focus first and then expand?

Terrence Murphy (26:55):
Yeah, I started to focus first. I think people just see now the different companies and think I just was running around being a jack of all trades and now that’s not what it was. For a couple of years, I would just do one thing really well for three years, and then I would start something else and then I would start something else. And it’s like a snowball, right? You start off in the beginning just kind of building it. But once I got it up on that top of the hill, when it came down to the other side is when those ventures and those opportunities started presenting themselves. And then it just made sense for me because like I said, I think we discount ourselves so much. There’s a quote that I always like to talk about. It says “There’s a lot of people achieving greater things than you simply because they chose to believe in themselves.”

Terrence Murphy (27:39):
It’s not that they’re more talented. It’s not that they can run 20 companies and I can’t, it’s just the fact that they believe that they can do it and they went and did it. And that was really the thought process. That wasn’t the way I started off wanting to do this. I just really just been walking by blind faith. I really had no mentors. I’m starting to try to find mentors but man, it’s just been reading books and watching and learning and praying and just creating these companies with my wife and I, and with the right people on our team.

Robert Leonard (28:04):
Which parts of the real estate industry don’t you have a company in yet that you’re interested in getting into?

Terrence Murphy (28:11):
Man, I don’t know. I think I’ve kind of checked most of the segments. I’m actually finishing out MEP. So we don’t have an electrical and HVAC company, but we have a plumbing company. We have a sheet rack company. Like I said, because I’m building houses, but I’m building these cool modern houses and I’m like, I’m tired of my plumber not doing this. So let’s start one. A lot of it’s been a necessity. I think the hardest thing that I’ve learned with people is they want your business. They can leverage your name in this community. “Oh I work with Terrance Murphy,” and that means something to our people I guess, but then they get in, and then you start doing reigning business on them because like I got to just over inundate them which is what I think they want. And they just start losing interest because it’s too much for them.

Terrence Murphy (28:54):
And so I’m like, “Listen guys, a couple of the entrepreneurs here locally, I helped them build their businesses.” And then they get to a place where they’re successful and they forget who it’s like who came to the dance with them. And so that’s what it forces me to go and then go start our own companies, start these other ventures, but it’s been good, man. I won’t expand everything nationwide. There’s only a couple of companies that are going to be expanding nationwide, which is the real estate, the TM5 expansion. That’s the one that I’m going global with. A lot of my companies, I’ll just keep local.

Robert Leonard (29:24):
For someone listening that knows they want to be in the real estate industry, but they don’t know how. They don’t know if they want to be an investor. They don’t know if they want to be an agent. They don’t know. They want to start a different real estate-related business. What would you recommend they consider starting first?

Terrence Murphy (29:39):
Well, I would recommend that they don’t even start anything first. I would recommend they go spend a 100 bucks or so and go take a DISC profile. Go get a personality test done on yourself and real quick use the DISC. And then you can see what your gifts are because if you’re high D high I, you’re not going to be a great transaction coordinator. And if you’re high S high C, low D low I, you really want to be a coordinator. You want to be doing paperwork. You want to be setting processes. You want something that’s repeatable. Those are my best transaction coordinators. Those are my best office managers. Those are my best director of operations type people. But if you throw them in the field and you want them to go talk to people every day, sell real estate, hell sell whatever, they’re not going to be good salespeople.

Terrence Murphy (30:26):
And so really understanding who you are because we all have our strengths and weaknesses. It’s like if I try to go be an offensive lineman, I’m 6″2, I have 215 pounds, I’m probably going to get thrown around no matter how much I’m passionate about it, how hard I want to do it. I’m just not wired and I’m not set up to be successful being an offensive lineman because I’m not 6″5, 330 pounds. There are just certain things that we’re set up and I’ll tell you anybody who wants to go in business, anybody who wants to be an entrepreneur. I would tell them at 16 and get these personality tests done once a year on yourself just so you can know who you are because sometimes it evolves. And then that’ll tell you, you can match that up with job opportunities in real estate. And that’ll tell you where you would be successful at.

Robert Leonard (31:06):
I have interviewed about 70 or so people on this podcast, over a 100 people on my other podcast. And I don’t think anybody has ever said, when I asked for recommendations on investing strategies or businesses to start or anything, I don’t think anybody has ever said, go take a personality test. I love it. I really do. I love it. I think that’s a great answer.

Terrence Murphy (31:29):
Yeah, because the cool thing is those personality tests they’re 65 pages. And like for two years I had an HR consultant that I paid. We had weekly coaching on just how to read people. I was already very intuitive because I played quarterback my whole life. So I know how to get people organized, get them lined up, get us going in the right direction. It just made sense for me to be an entrepreneur or a leader doing something because I’ve been that my whole life. And even when I didn’t want to be a leader, when you’re a quarterback, the coach goes and grabs you out of the back of the line and [says,] “Go lead.” And I’m an introvert by nature. So I’m like, I don’t really want to talk right now. I was like, well everybody’s waiting for you to talk. You’re the guy, go. You know, I didn’t realize God was setting me up to be a leader in business and entrepreneurship now.

Terrence Murphy (32:09):
But having that personality profile, if you give me your personality profile right now, Robert, give me 15 minutes, I can call you and tell you exactly what you’re dealing with in a day-to-day [basis] in your business, in your marriage, anything you’re leading. I can help you create these buffers and these boundaries that you need to be successful day in and day out. Because once I read that, I know you’re in and out. And those people who take that personality profile, if they can learn how to read it, then they’ll know themselves and they’ll know, “Hey, here’s where I procrastinate.” When I create a to-do list, there’s a reason why I keep skipping over those three to four and keep onto the things that I want to do and really understanding that about yourself can help you. That’s what people say, “How are you running all those companies?” Because I really studied myself and I’m not perfected this at all, but I’ve put these things in place to help me be more efficient. And it’s really worked well for me.

Robert Leonard (33:00):
How do we not let that, or should we let that dictate or limit the things we can do? So what if we really have a dream, we really have a goal that we want to do something, we take a personality test and it just doesn’t align with our personality, but we know in us that that’s our dream. Should we maybe change our dream and try and find something that better fits the personality test? Or do we fight through that personality test and get better on the things that we need to be better at to achieve that goal and dream that we have?

Terrence Murphy (33:28):
I think anything is possible first off. With the right mentality and with hard work and faith, no matter what your personality profile tells you, no matter what your background tells you, no matter what your friends and family tell you, no matter what mistakes you’ve made in the past, truly at any point in time in life when you decide you want to achieve something, you can do it, period. But the personality profiles tell you two things. One, we all have two personality profiles in the workplace, an adaptive personality and a natural personality. And my natural personality that just means that’s naturally who I am. My adaptive means I got to put extra effort, extra energy, extra focus in being that person. So like you said earlier, if this role is meant for me to be high D high I, but I’m naturally not. It’s going to require me to exert so much more energy to be that person day in and day out.

Terrence Murphy (34:21):
And they always say after six months, nine months, when you get tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, or busy in the workplace, you’re going to progress back to what your natural state. So you can do it. It’s just going to require extra energy to do it. And I’ve done it. There have been some roles that I’ve been in as a leader for eight years, that I should have been out of them after 30 days. But I will tell you, I pushed through. And there was at the end of the week, I was miserable, but I kept pulling it because I had to leave. And one of the roles was giving up my independent brokerage and merging with EXP and not doing some of the things that I was doing as a broker and I just feel free now. And I’m like, man if I just would have listened to my personality profile, I would have released some of this burden years ago. So, it can be done. Anything is possible, but just know it’s going to exert more energy.

Robert Leonard (35:06):
I want to talk a bit about your personal real estate portfolio. Outside of what you’re doing with all your companies, what is your personal real estate holdings look like? If you have any, maybe everything is in the business.

Terrence Murphy (35:20):
Yeah, I do have it. They’re all in businesses. I don’t really own anything in my personal name at this point. So I put everything in company names and in LLCs, but I will tell you the key is, and you want to do that from a liability standpoint. You don’t want to have stuff in your personal name, no matter what it is. So I would say that to say it is my personal. So we own commercial. So we do commercial strip centers throughout the nation. We’re in four states right now, Starbucks, Buffalo Wild Wings, AT&Ts, things like that. And those have worked really well for us. That’s probably been one of the best asset classes I’ve invested in. Then we have student housing.

Terrence Murphy (35:56):
So in college towns, we measure things by the bed. We don’t really do units or properties. And so we write in 400 beds or I think 450 beds. And then we own land. We own ranches. So we buy a lot of land and we run cattle and hay and things like that. I mean, we have office buildings, complexes. So I’m kind of diversified with the real estate. The only thing that is not in my portfolio is industrial and hotels. But everything else, multifamily, commercial land, single-family, duplexes, townhomes, all that stuff we have acquired.

Robert Leonard (36:26):
Have you avoided those two asset classes by choice or have you just not got there yet?

Terrence Murphy (36:31):
I’ve just not gotten there yet. Hotels I got to a place where I was really studying rail car and all that stuff and I’d just like I said it wasn’t something that I naturally was incontinent of study. And then I just had no passion. So I kind of skipped out on the hotels, but yeah the industrials are so hot right now, but I still think that’s the space that I would like to get into. And I’m really focusing on bigger multifamily, like 200 units and up. So my wife and I have done over a 100 million in acquisitions and development with no money raised. So all that has been our own money. We haven’t brought in any…no equity partners, no investors, but we’re actually now we’re starting TM5 equity partners and we’re going to start doing the syndication and raising it for multifamily and for commercial.

Robert Leonard (37:12):
Based on everything that’s happening in the world right now, whether it’s the pandemic, economic conditions, fiscal and monetary policy, real estate markets, looking out over the next one to five years, what are you worried about? What keeps you up at night?

Terrence Murphy (37:28):
Nothing. I go to bed, bro. I don’t stay up for anything. It’s the beauty of being an athlete and it’s the beauty of having faith man. I know it’s out of my hands, it’s in God’s hands. If it passes through his hands and I got to go through it just like my injury and some of the things I’ve been through in life, me staying up at night is not going to dictate if it’s going to happen or not happen. And so I don’t really stay up at night, man, I go to bed. But I know what you’re saying in general. I don’t really worry, bro. I guess at this point in my life, I really feel like if the poop hits the fan tomorrow and you drop me in a desert, I’m going to find my way to water.

Terrence Murphy (38:02):
I will find a way to get to the oasis. And so for me, I just have that faith in God and in myself and knowing that he’s in control of everything that’s going on. But I do like to stay out in front of things that are happening, like really understanding the market segments. Like lumber’s up 200% right now and so that’s why I’m starting more MDPs because it’s like, okay, if your builder margins are down, if I can make a little bit on sheet rack and a little bit mechanical electrical and plumbing, then that keeps my margins where they need to be versus just being the builder and only solely relying on that. And if I’m the developer that means I’m doing the dirt and then I’m the builder and then I’m the MDPs within it. And then at the end of it, I’m selling it. I mean, it is what it is.

Terrence Murphy (38:42):
And the thing is [inaudible 00:38:46], there have been companies doing these things for years, but once again, no one second-guesses them when they do it. But people are always like, why are you doing? Why not? [inaudible 00:38:56] does it. So that’s really the mentality. So I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. I just say, educate yourself, always have an extra strategy, and always be thinking, how can I innovate if the market does pivot?

Robert Leonard (39:07):
Which habits or principles have you incorporated in your life that you think have helped lead to your success that not enough people do but they should?

Terrence Murphy (39:17):
Step out in faith. Make the move now, you got people that are thinking about this business or this idea or this strategy or this new innovative technology. And they sit on it for years. Go, make it happen. Just go for it. You’re going to fail. That’s the part. We got to get, there are only wins and lessons and I say that on my podcast, there are no losses. The only losses are if you quit or give up. As long as you’re moving forward and you’re progressing, you’re winning and you’re getting lessons. And so like for us in football, it’s like we’d call it reps. How many reps can I get? Because every rep you get, you may get your helmet knocked off, you may get knocked on your butt. But now you realize okay, I won’t do that again. And that’s the same in business that I’ve been able to translate. It’s like just keep going and keep learning those lessons and then just keep trying to innovate, get better and evolve and grow.

Robert Leonard (40:06):
Whether it’s about business investing, it could even just be life in general. What piece of advice have you received that has really had an impact on you and you continue to use it and think of it to this day?

Terrence Murphy (40:18):
It’s okay to hire people that are your friends. People always say don’t mix personal and business. I think that’s a terrible … I don’t know. I just, I hate cliches. I hate when people just repeat something and they haven’t done the research or tried it in their own life. And they’re just “Well, you don’t really want to mix business and friendships.” Why not? And what I’ve learned is those are some of my best employees and the best people that work with me is the people that I had a prior relationship with because it’s not just about business. There are personal connections there and we do want to hang out with each other not only at work, but after work and all that. So I think it’s okay to hire people that you know, and love and trust. And my thing is, if I’m going to get this new opportunity, this new role that I have and pay somebody a nice base salary, give them the nice PTOs and things, why not give it to a friend of mine that I grew up with?

Terrence Murphy (41:06):
Now, obviously, they got to have the skillset, but why not? So that’s something that I would challenge people to do is be okay with hiring your family members and friends. And you will have some run-ins, but you’ll have run-ins with employees that are strangers. So why not let it be your friends and family?

Ryan Conceicao (41:23):
I love that response because truthfully I would have never, I mean, I’ve had some run-ins in the past and Robbie knows with hiring family to do certain jobs. I’m actually living through right now. But again it’s a situation where again it’s like never judge a book by its cover. You can have 50 people tell you how a person is or why they are the way they are. I’m one of those people that I don’t know you until I meet you. And again, why not hire somebody who you do know, and you know that they’re capable rather than hiring some random person who again maybe interviews well for an hour, two hours, however long the interview sessions are? I think that’s again in you again onto your tutelage. And I don’t think you can fail. You’re taking a risk on yourself. So again, it’s a win-win in my eyes.

Terrence Murphy (42:11):
It’s a no-brainer, bro. Even if it doesn’t work out let’s say I ended up having to part ways with my brother. It’s like, “Hey, this isn’t working.” Well, at least he got a life experience that is now going to stay in my inner circle. And you never know how it comes back to you, right? He may start a job or create a business just from that experience. And so for me, it’s just pouring into the people that have poured into me. And I’m real big about…when you’re an athlete you got so many people pulling at you. The agents, the companies, even when I was in the NFL and that was before social media blew up. Everybody’s wanting a piece of you or who you have access to, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, the list goes on. You got to really understand who’s around you for the right reasons, and when you figure that out, you got to keep them close. So that’s just so important to me at this point in my life.

Robert Leonard (42:58):
Terrence, thanks for joining us on the show today. Ryan and I are both athletes. I’m a big football fan. So it’s been an honor to have you here. I’ve had a couple of NFL guys here now, and every time I get the chance to chat with you guys, I really appreciate it. Before we end the show, I want to give you a chance to tell the audience where they can go to connect with you and learn more about you.

Terrence Murphy (43:20):
Yeah, you can go to my website and my enterprise site is just terrencemurphy.com. It’s just T-E-R-R-E-N-C-E M-U-R-P-H-Y. I also have my new podcast, so that just started. It’s doing pretty well. I think it’s hit 15,000 downloads in the first couple of months. It’s just Real Estate Entrepreneur with Terrence Murphy just talking about real estate man, just talking about the whole segment of it. And then so my podcast, my website or my Instagram, my Instagram is just Terrence Realtor. So T-E-R-R-E-N-C-E realtor, R-E-A-L-T-O-R. So look me up on those three and if I can help you guys in any way, Robert, Ryan, man I look forward to connecting and staying in touch and just staying a part of each other’s track.

Robert Leonard (44:01):
Thanks, Terence. I appreciate it. For everyone listening, I will put a link to those different resources in the show notes below. Terrence, thanks so much.

Terrence Murphy (44:09):
Thank you, bro.

Ryan Conceicao (44:10):
Pleasure.

Robert Leonard (44:11):
All right, guys. That’s all I had for this week’s episode of Real Estate Investing. I’ll see you again next week.

Outro (44:17):
Thank you for listening to TIP. Make sure to subscribe to We Study Billionaires by The Investor’s Podcast Network. Every Wednesday we teach you about Bitcoin and every Saturday we study billionaires and the financial markets. To access our show notes, transcripts, or courses, go to theinvestorspodcast.com. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any decision consultant professional. This show is copyrighted by The Investor’s Podcast Network. Written permission must be granted before syndication or rebroadcasting.