Being a BP Podcast Guest was the best..and worst thing to happen to me

Its been over 4 years since I have been on the Bigger Pockets Podcast and ALOT has changed.  I have done over 100 million in transactions (alot more actually) as a realtor, investor, wholesaler, principal, consultant and then even more as a passive investor.  I personally bought my first commercial real estate property on my own, started a consulting business, bought a small business, moved to a new real estate market, started lending, invested in multiple out of state markets, invested with partners, wholesaled and started my own social networking platform for local investors to learn from each other.

To give you some background story I was the guest on Bigger Pockets Podcast Show 178.  The casting director for Bigger Pockets at the time, I'll call her H, sent me a few popular podcasts that had many downloads and I was told I was chosen because they thought I would be entertaining given I had a background doing impromptu comedy shows.  So my plan was that because Brandon Turner was such a good sport, I was going to make it a Brandon Turner roast show.  What ended up happening was we got on the show early to check sound and ask questions. Brandon greeted me first and we got to talking, and as many of you already know Brandon is an incredibly personable person and between that and Josh Dorkin being 20 minutes late which already made me more nervous for the podcast, I decided to switch it up last second.  The rest as you know became somewhat of a roast of Josh, and he was a great sport about it.  I had a great time on the show and left the show not really expecting anything.  

As time went on and I would speak with people, I slowly started to hear people ask me, "hey are you Charlie from Show 178?"  Before I knew it I was actually showing up in Google searches on the 1st page when you typed in my name.  I used to be 1st for a scholarship I won in college, but then was supplanted by a Nobel Peace Prize Winner of the same name, so I really didn't think that would EVER happen.  Then banks started saying they recognized me, and other investors would reach out to me for my advice and input.  As all this became to transpire, I began to realize I never gave myself credit for all the things I did in real estate for others or as part their team.  As a child, my parents broke nearly every child labor law possible having me work on their rentals and commercial real estate investments and I was being groomed to be a real estate investor early on.  I worked for one of the most successful real estate brokerages in Northern California, and worked in many roles in real estate from lending, to property management and I never really leveraged that knowledge.  In addition I had been reading and listening to everything real estate for probably 10 years before I got back into real estate after graduating high school and I realized one thing after talking to a ton of investors that had been investing alot more than me.  That was, "I know alot more than they do, and they are killing it, so why can't I?"  So the lightbulb went on.  First it was a few duplexes, then it was an apartment building, a storage facility, and it just kept going on and on when I realized, the only person limiting my potential was me. That is why being a Bigger Pockets podcast guest is one of the best things to ever happen to me because it put me out there so far that I realized where I stood and I didn't feel uncomfortable.

So that probably brings you to my next question.  Why is that a bad thing?  Well because of the massive exposure of the Bigger Pockets Podcast, unfortunately that Podcast kind of made me a one hit wonder. Where all the podcast and blogs and things I have done since have not really been noticed,  people still think I'm flipping 1 house at a time and grinding it.  I liken it to my parents still telling me to not talk and drive, eat lots of green vegetables and don't work too hard.  I'm always going to be their kids no matter how old I am, so of course people will think that's what I'm doing even if that was years ago.  

So if you didn't know already from reading my posts, and blog.  I tell stories to teach because I think case studies are the best way to learn. So let's get to the lessons, as my blog is meant for teaching:

1.  You don't have to be a Bigger Pockets podcast guest to realize your potential, but you do need to put yourself out there to network.  I had a bad experience partnering with another investor that made me really adverse to investing and seeking advice from others and the Bigger Pockets forum and community really made me put myself out there to know I had not realized my potential

2. BE CAREFUL what you say and write on national and even local forums.  Once it's there, its ALWAYS there and it's not hard for someone to go back and look at all of your past blog posts. Some investors I have worked with have listened to my podcast and felt it was immature rather than being comical, which has only created an obstacle to a working relationship, while others liked that I was so willing to admit and own my mistakes.   I tell this to others but if you are posting the most basic questions on Bigger Pockets and then only a few months earlier you come to me and say "hey do you want to invest in this multimillion dollar deal." (True story) I'm probably going to have some sort of built in skepticism, especially because you can use something called a search function often to find your answers.

3.  Keep it simple.  There are people everywhere with less, whether it be intelligence, time, resources, money, whatever, they find a way to make it happen because they act when they have to. So can you.

With that I hope this blog post does not get deleted.  I don't remember signing a confidentiality agreement or anything so hopefully I'm good right? Cheers to your journey. 

Charlie Kao