I’m in the transformation business. I just use real estate.

Today, I serve as President of National REIA, representing approximately 40,000 investors across 120 chapters and affiliates nationwide. I'm also the founder of BPM REIA, where we teach investors how to find off market properties and build real investing skills.Through my work with the Professional Athletes Community (PAC), I've also had the opportunity to teach professional athletes about real estate investing, wholesaling, and rehabbing properties.

I've spent more than 25 years investing in real estate, buying, selling, renovating, financing, and negotiating deals through changing markets. Before the market turned, I had built a portfolio of 28 properties. I thought I had it figured out.

Then the market fell, I lost more than $3 million and eventually filed bankruptcy in 2010. My parents had invested with me. They lost the home they had built in Georgia. That was the hardest part.

I invested more than $50,000 in a national real estate education program. I learned, but I also discovered how much I needed people who understood my local market. That led me to my local REIA and the mentors who helped me put the education to work through wholesaling and rehabbing.

I became one of the top students. In 2014, I bought the REIA from my mentors. Years later, I started BPM REIA. Today, I serve as President of National REIA. I still remember what it felt like to walk into that first room needing help.

In 2017, I was able to buy my parents a home in Davie, Florida, and pay cash for it.I bought my parents a home in Davie, Florida for $303,000. They thought Eliana and I were buying it for ourselves. The closing papers were already waiting inside.My dad asked, “Can I afford this?”I told him, “Can you pay the electric and water? Then you can afford it. And if you can't, I'll pay those too.”My father cried.

An investment I thought belonged in a relatively safer part of my portfolio had been producing passive income. Then I lost $1.4 million. It brought back feelings I remembered from the crash.I had to look again at risk, control, my health and where I wanted to spend my time. I also had to remember that the version of me rebuilding after bankruptcy would have been thrilled to have the life I have today.That doesn't make the loss feel good. It helps me see it in perspective. I'm still learning, and I have unfinished business.

One of the best parts of this work is watching someone become more confident and more capable. Then seeing them do something they once thought was out of reach. I know what good mentors did for me. I get to help someone else take that next step.