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Man I've been sick! My nose is constantly either stuffed or dripping, or somehow both! And I need that ocean!! Without it, I'm left sniffling constantly through my conversations, blowing my nose every few minutes, and dripping all over the place! But in the ocean, I'm free and I get to get clear and ready my sinuses.

After a strong career as a civil engineer, Hawaiian native, Lane Kawaoka, decided to kiss corporate America goodbye and turn towards a stronger long term wealth plan - investing in single and multifamily units. After purchasing his first property in Seattle, Lane quickly realized what he needed to do to bring better cash flow to his strategy and invested in eleven different single-family units is not as large cities, such as Birmingham, Alabama, and Indianapolis, Indiana. Lane has a different business model where he focuses primarily on getting the money for the deal, and this way he joins on the GP side of the syndication.  In this episode of Multifamily Real Estate Investments with Don and Eden, Lane dives into how he conducts business all over the country - investing in multifamily units in different regions of the United States and more specifically how he anticipates what the markets are like so he can find a good deal. From there he will detail his unique business model of finding deals that no one else is really putting into practice and why it generates such great success for him and his partners. Lane also talks about why he thinks self-storage units and mobile home parks are a great start to investing in real estate and why he is focused on that for his investment future. At the end of this episode, Don also records an outro that explains how the entire syndication process works.   Highlights:  Lane’s Beginnings In Real Estate  His Unusual Business Model  How He Analyzes Markets Throughout Us Why He Believes Mobile Home Parks Are A Great Investment   Current Projects And Future Outlook   How to Connect with Lane   SimplePassiveCashFlow.com Simple Passive Cashflow Podcast with Lane Kawaoka    ----------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPTION   Hey guys, today I'm going to interview Lane Kawaoka - a real estate investor from Hawaii and he is also syndicating deals. What I like about him is that he's going to educate us on a different way of making passive income from multi-family and other real estate's syndications without ever finding the deal, but only finding the money. Now I realize not all of my listeners are really educated as far as the syndication process and how it works. So I decided to add a small part at the end of the interview, at the end of this episode really, to kind of educate you guys about the process so that you would know exactly what we're talking about because these are some critical advice that he gives and I really want everybody to understand. So I hope you guys are excited and stay tuned.  Welcome to the real estate investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to multi-family apartment buildings and off-market strategies.  Hey, Lane Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Don. Yeah. So how's the weather in Hawaii?  Perfect as normal little hot, but not complaining.  So I live in Florida and that's where I want to live. But right now as it's the summer here it’s not that pleasant, there's a lot of rain, hurricanes, the Internet is bad. I'm pretty sure you're having a better time than I am the other day or just in the office all day long looking at deals.  You're so right about that. So how about you tell us a little bit about yourself. For our audience to be able to get to know you a little bit.  Yes. I used to be an engineer, graduated from college in 2007, but none of my family was in real estate. They thought that the tenants would just rip the house. So I kind of grew up on this linear path that goes to school, study hard, get a good job, yeah engineer of all things and work for 40-50 years and maybe retire, but that kind of changed for me when I started to work as a construction supervisor and my first job out of college. The job kind of sucked. I didn't like it at all. I was traveling all the time, but I got paid a pretty good salary   80-90 grand a year wasn't bad. And I was able to buy a primary residence up in Seattle which I'm sure you guys talk a lot about that. That's not exactly where you want to invest for cash flow, but I didn't know any better start to rent it out and for a young 20 something-year-old kid. It was a lot of beer money when the monthly rents were twenty-two hundred a month. And the key idea the mortgage payments were sixteen hundred dollars a month. Then at that point, I realized like shoot I gotta keep doing this over and over again and that's my way out of this crappy job and to get financial freedom.  So, you bought some more single-family units afterward right? Yes, I bought another one in Seattle, but at that time I was in a bunch of podcasts and kind of learning this concept of yeah you don't want to buy A class rental. You want to buy more B or C class. And so I bought a nice class rental was a duplex, but at that time it was   2011, 2012 the prices were starting to come out and I was realizing that wasn't cash-flowing. That's where I learned the concept of you don't buy properties and probably markets like Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston you look for more of these secondary markets like Kansas City, Memphis, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Jacksonville, Birmingham kind of those places are. Today tertiary markets so that you can buy more for cash flow as opposed to appreciation which is sort of gambling and a little dangerous in my opinion especially when it looks like we're sort of getting to the top of the market.  Yes, I agree. So, what was the stage where you decided to move from single families to commercial real estate especially multifamily?  Yeah so after those two rentals - all I bought the other one of these turnkey rentals in Birmingham. So, I think the purchase price is like 80 grand. And the rents were like eight hundred or so. Right at that 1 percent rent to value ratio and I had some pretty good luck with it. So, I sold those two Seattle properties and did a 1031 exchange for nine out-of-state properties and then they picked up another property in Pennsylvania. So in 2015, I found myself having 11 rental properties and at that point, I was operating off of this mindset of hey I'm just going to buy a whole bunch of these single-family homes just get another 20 I'll be financially free right. Thirty properties cash flying at 300k dollars a piece that's about 9-10 grand passive. But then I realized with those 10 rentals I was getting an eviction or two every year. So that's when I kind of walked down this path this logical path of becoming a multi-family investor.  That's cool. So, I know you have a different business model when it comes to multifamily apartment especially when it comes to syndication. So tell us a little bit about that business model. What's so special about it and how do you go about it. How do you do it?  Yeah. So, I mean, I started to do this podcast and if at first, it wasn't very popular. Like most podcasts die. But I kept doing it because my motivation was that in the first like the podcast was about, hey educate people buying a single-family home, turnkey rentals, or buy properties remotely. Just because a lot of my friends were asking me this and I was just so tired of saying the thing over and over again to people and nobody does anything. But throughout that process people kind of got to know me and they realized like alright this is cool and nice you're going into these multifamilies, these syndications and private equity deals. Can we just copy what you do? So that's what I do today and every deal I go into I typically bring in about 50 or 60 investors or three million dollars follows along with me.  That's very cool. So you're focusing on raising the funds rather than finding the deal or you're doing both? So if you've kind of back up to 2016 I joined an apartment investing group and you spend like 30 grand to get in and get the training. But I went in this because I wanted to be the operator I want to be the guy who is running this 200-300 unit apartment complex.  So I went and got the training for it. I got the coach and learned how to underwrite deals and for about 18 months I must have analyzed a couple of hundred properties and I realized that absolutely none of them made sense. Most of the garbage is out there especially through brokers and Don you kind of mentioned that most of you guys are looking for properties, not from a broker which I think is a good idea because even me and my partner we had like 30 or 40 units in their name, but nobody cared. If you have a bunch of single-family homes they only want to know if you close big deals. So I wasn't getting anywhere in terms of traction if there was one saving grace being able to underwrite deals pull the panels or rent rolls do my analysis. It prevented me from buying a lot of deals in that from 2016-2017. And at that point me and my partner were like ‘hey we're not getting anywhere with these brokers’ which I'm sure a lot of you guys can sympathize with. And because it is super hard and so we're like well let's just go as a passive investor into some deals and build our track record and make us look cool on our resumé.  So we went through a few deals and then we had 300 units to our name, but then I realized like ‘hey this is pretty easy just being a limited partner, making 10 to 15 percent on my money and then not doing a thing like this’ is pretty good and my net worth at the time I was getting to a point where hey if I die if I just invest my money at 10 or 15 percent I'll be financially free in the very near future. Definitely, well before my 40s. So why would I want to take on all this risk putting down all this hard money on these bigger deals and I'm going down that route.  So it's always the question we always want to do the bigger things. Even though we could make good money by just investing our money inside other people's deals but we want to be the people that actually operate the deal.   That's the thing right. I mean but ego aside. Right.  Everybody wants to do big things or whatever, but it comes down to your net worth. Like if you're under half a million dollars net worth you're broke. I mean you got to be the guy operating there. You can't be a passive investor. You got you gotta have money to invest as a passive investor. So it's just more of a math equation kind of moving past that critical mass point or I could be a passive investor and just sort of these single-family homes and those rentals got me up to that point so I could switch that just instead of talking with brokers and finding my deals. I started to go out and network with other operators and to go in as a big name partner on these deals and just got really good at underwriting those deals because I did it as a sort of pseudo operator for a while.  I could look through all the garbage and all these pitch deck deals because I've been in Dallas trying to invest my own money and so it all kind of came together where my investor list wanted to know what I was investing in and I was kind of looking for deals for myself.  So far we've closed on about two hundred sixty million dollars worth of properties and 26 units or twenty-eight hundred units I think I don't really count anymore.  Who counts. Yeah. Yeah, I got six hundred after a thousand, that just sounds a bit ridiculous. I just sound like a jackass.  So you were just getting into these deals that other syndicators had and you were just investing as a passive investor and then you decide that you have the connections with other investors that are looking to invest. So you could get on the GP side of the deal by just being the person who brings the money in the right. Am I getting you?  Right. I mean I'm very valuable when I come into a deal. I bring in three million dollars of investors with my great relationships. It’s a big problem especially being in some deals that don't go as well.  Investors start to get very whiny and they start to ask a lot of questions and some of them may even sue you. So those relationships are key and I think a lot of newer investors lead investors don't realize this. So having relationships with all your investors is very important and not to mention that that's the S.E.C. protocol you need to have your pre-existing relationship with all your investors and you need to know every single one of their financial pictures intimately.  So now I go in as sort of a sub syndication and bring in my investors and my investors want to know that they have somebody on the inside somebody who is pulling the strings on the management team and a lot of times I've been in more deals than the operators at this point, almost like 20 something deals. So I bring in my insights I bring in my contacts best practices from other deals. But at the end of the day I don't I'm not I don't want to be that person managing the manager on a week to week basis know in my opinion that's trading time for dollars. That's not the highest best use for my time.  Ok, so you're giving some critical advice here which I love. So the first thing that you're saying is that you're getting in all the deals that your investors are getting into. So they know that Lane here, that we trust Lane, and he's got experience and he was involved in 20 deals or so and he's investing his own money. So we know that we could invest together with him because we've made money with him and we have a great rapport with him and we trust him. So that's the first thing that you do but the other thing you do is you've got to screen out all these deals coming from syndicators must have heard about you and your connections because a lot of people are stuck because they don't have money right? So then you have to screen out the deals between all the syndicators and you've got to pick the right one for your investors and yourself. So how do you do that?  Well it's a simple process of I mean it's just no different than getting deals from brokers or figuring out deals from wholesalers are good. At the end of the day you grab the pen, you get the rent roll and you put it into the analyzer and you analyze the paper yourself. That's half of that right. The other half is building up a network of other past the best serves so that the operators because I don't go into a deal unless I know I have a strong relationship with somebody who has been in their previous deal to bet that expense.  Yeah. So how often do you see syndicators that are involved in bad deals? Ones that don't have any chance of delivering what they're promising to their investors.  Well, I mean quite often. I mean it's kind of like syndication. They're kind of like airplanes right. When they take off everybody's all happy, but nobody knows if it's taking off with a quarter tank of gas. When I go into a deal I want to at least know we have enough fuel to get there.  Yeah, I see so that's your criteria. Your check to see that the plane is not going to crash.  Well, I don't know. I don't know if it's going to crash or not. Nobody knows, but I want to make sure it has enough gasoline to get there and metaphorically what I'm talking about is it underwritten the right way or are they using these loony projections on rent increases per year, the reversion cap rates are too low, or if the rent increases just too aggressive? Okay, but let me try to understand something. So when you're underwriting a deal you also have to get to know the market. So if you're working with syndicators from all over the United States sometimes they would show you deals from markets that you don't know you're not familiar with. So how do you go about getting to know the market so that you could understand that their underwriting is done correctly?  Well, every day where the rubber meets the road is on a few cells on a spreadsheet. Different locations are underwritten a little bit differently. For example, Dallas is a very hot market these days you might underwrite it for more than 90-92 percent occupancy whereas Oklahoma City is not the case and you might underwrite it for a maximum of 88 percent occupancy. Now, of course, there are a lot of other boxes on the spreadsheets that I might play around with based on the market, but those are some of the levers that you pull. And where do I get some of those numbers from? Well I just call up some of my buddies who are in those markets and I ask them what they're using at the time and they level and normalize based on what other people are using.   So it's all about networking, you don't know anything about every market that the people in every market so that you could ask them?  Right. Right. But it's the same it's no different than like me asking you well hey what's the temperature in Florida like I don't have a clue what the temperature in Florida is, but I know what it is relative right to Hawaii or California. Same thing.   Yeah. That's a very smart perspective. I like it a lot so I know you've been looking at other asset classes recently especially self-storage sites and mobile home parks which I've been hearing a lot of people talk about recently. So could you tell us a little bit more about that? What exactly are you looking at and what are some of the opportunities that you see over there.  Yeah. So I mean multifamily don't get around as a great asset class right. The population is increasing and the whole workforce housing story. And then a lot of people like to get into multi-family because of great financing options. In theory, you could just get a good property manager and they just run the show for you. But those are the exact reasons why you shouldn't do it because everybody and their mother is syndicating multifamily deals these days and very few people are into the mobile home park space. So from one perspective, you're kind of looking for an investment that is a good investment. Which mobile home parks and what they found they are but from another viewpoint. You're looking for which one has less competition and this is where mobile home parks vastly overpower what they found the apartments. If I were a new operator today I would do a mobile home park investing just because there is a lot less competition out there for it. Part of the reason why it's kind of a dirty asset. Most people have a knee jerk reaction to it like they're like I don't want to own a mobile home park, a trailer park trash type of environment and everybody who's own single-family homes gets the renter mindset of a renter in that environment and they're like all of this. It's a logical progression to go to multifamily but not a lot of people have lived in a mobile home park. So again it's a lack of competition.  So, what are the opportunities or more correctly the value add opportunities that you see in a mobile home park?  Yeah, I mean it's no different than apartments or says family homes. It's a little bit nice lipstick on a pig but a lot of it more like management plays. There's a big increase in the amount of community and that's where the property manager comes in with the leasing getting more systems in place improving the community because the nice thing about these mobile home parks is yeah you can have one business model where you rehab the existing units but you're trying to get to a point where the tenants on their own houses. Right. So if a tenant screws up property just like how they screw up a single-family home or they screw up an apartment complex in a mobile home park when it's their property, well, that's their problem as a mobile home park owner you want to get to a point where you just on the concrete slabs and people pay you the rent for that lot. It's really hard to screw up a concrete slab.   Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So where do you see yourself in the next 10 years as far as real estate investing, what are your goals and dreams for the future? You are still in your 20’s right? No, I look 20 but I'm a lot older it's the Asian thing or something.  Thirty-three. Oh, you must be using some good anti-aging then yeah.  Well, it kind of sucks when you're in corporate America right. Because you look like a little kid. One of the reasons why I quit my job five months ago.  Well, I thought to do somebody that they look younger is always a compliment.  Yeah. I mean, I kind of realized that like five years into my career - probably like seven years into my career and at that time I had like five or eight rental properties and like somebody told me at work to go grab these boxes with the interns. And I was like Man I've been here for like five-seven years don't tell me to go grab some boxes so then I realized at that point this is how companies are it's how much white hair you have. It's funny. Yeah. But yeah. So to answer your question, yeah and let's get back to that.  What's going to happen in 10 years think in the next I think in the next couple of years.   I'm going to write out this mobile home park because I feel like it's a little bit better cash flow than apartments. It's not as great appreciation play. But quite frankly I'm not looking for appreciation. I'm looking more for cash flow these days.  I stay away from the development deals and I think I'm going to be doing this mobile home park for the next couple of years of course still like cherry-picking the mobile home parks or the multi-family apartments because there are still big deals out there you just need to know how to analyze them and figure out the good ones from the bad ones. But two years and beyond. I think I might phase-out of real estate and maybe go to something more recession-proof or not correlated asset to the economy such as life settlements or something like that when you buy policies the people who are going to die. I mean there's nothing more guaranteed than death and taxes right. Yeah definitely. Ok so now I want to get back to the mobile home parks again just one last question. So when you look at a mobile home park what are you looking for? What are you looking at? How do you have a deal? Yeah, I mean, I don't know yet too much. I mean I'm still learning the asset class. That's why I'm going to go into parks that are already stabilized so eighty-five to ninety-five percent occupied. I'm just going to buy existing lemonade stands that are cash flowing? I learned it from that. I mean that's it but it's no different than an apartment. Really. It's just I think the key difference is property management. They are a lot stronger. The key employee part of this business.  I had a guest maybe like five or six episodes before and he said something about adding a value add to a mobile home park by just cutting some weeds out and just clearing some more space so that you could lease more units or you could do small storage for people to put some stuff they have like boats or cars or stuff like that, so that's how you could get some more value-add and you could increase your rent.  Then we went over the numbers together and I think it was Paul Moore one of my guests here and we went over the numbers together and I was shocked by how easy it is to increase the value of that park and I was actually starting to look at them myself and asking people what they know about them. So I was looking up I use Reonomy if about it but I use it it's very the interface is very nice and I started looking up the mobile home parks here in South Florida which I'm not really sure I want to invest in them yet because of the hurricanes and everything you're people they want to have.   That's exactly why do you want to own them because that 10 if you if you get to the point where the tenant owns the homes I don't care if the tornado or hurricane takes the target but you would think but you would think that maybe now when there is a big hurricane make almost every year that people would just maybe prefer not to move their homes here so maybe that the demand is decreasing.  I don't know. See I don't know as much as I know about real estate. There are so many things said I don't know. And so I want to do some more research before and try to understand exactly what's going on because people are talking about mobile home parks right now and I have to say it is interesting and you're talking about it and then people say it's like the next big thing right and apartments are already overheated but they're still buying apartments and you rarely hear about anybody that's buying mobile home parks. So it's kind of confusing. Everybody's saying different things. Right?  Right. I think I will talk about a lot like psyche. He has a saying there's two there are three sides to a coin. There are people who are on heads or tails right. What people normally think that you should buy multifamily you shouldn't buy multi-family, you should buy a mobile home park, you shouldn't. But there are investors out there that have a spreadsheet and they can put the numbers into the spreadsheet and those are the guys who live on the edge of the coin. Good or bad market. They know what the deals are. And I think that's the key is figuring out being able to analyze the properties and that's going to require you to go find a mentor to teach you that too and then go doing that for yourself. Because numbers don't lie. People do.  I could agree. Numbers don't lie. People do. So maybe I'm going to make that the headline of this episode. Who knows? So Lane, really it was a pleasure talking to you to do it today you're so smart and you have such beautiful insights. What are the best ways to connect with you for other people that are listening to that show?  Yeah. My podcast is Simple Passive Cashflow mostly for passive investors, first money podcast about single-family home, turnkeys. But then that's when the story starts changing to these private equities and we talk about all kinds of stuff like internet banking and that kind of stuff and have a whole bunch of articles on my website simplepassivecash.com. Wonderful. Ok so thank you very much for coming to the show and I hope you're going to enjoy the beautiful weather in Hawaii and stay in touch, I'm sure we have a lot more to talk about.  Yeah yeah. Thanks for having me.  You have a great day. ------------------------------------------- Syndication Process by Don  So a real estate syndication is essentially the operator of a deal. That's a person that's trying to facilitate a deal in real estate typically commercial real estate. It's usually the bigger deals but it could be any type of deal it could be one million, it could be 10 million, it could be one hundred million. So the syndicator what they're trying to do is they're trying to raise the down payment to the purchase of that property. So let's say that we are buying a property for one million, let's say this is the purchase price. So the syndicator is going to need at least two hundred thousand to get a loan so that they're going to get 80 percent of the purchase price from the bank. They still need a down payment so that the 20 percent and that they raise from investors.    Now, what's in it for the investors? The investors are making a preferred return which is a return that they're going to make anyway using a PPM, also known as a private placement memorandum. And then they're going to make that preferred return anyway every year. So if they invested a hundred thousand they're going to make eight thousand every year. And they're also the partners of the entire LLC that is purchasing the property and they are known as limited partners which means they're not taking any decisions of operating the transaction doing the value add plans and all of the above. But they're just making the money. So they're just passive investors making the 70 percent, of course, based on the amount of money that they had contributed. But they're going to make that limited partnership return and also the preferred return that they're going to make every year.    So the syndicator is going to make 30 percent of the entire LLC but he's going to be a general partner. So he's making decisions, he's implementing the value plans and he's doing all the work of assembling the deal. And that is what he's making. So a lot of syndicators they would also make acquisition fees so once the deal is completed then they're going to take between two to five percent of the entire purchase price of the property and they're going to take that in a check from the money of the investor. So the money of the down payment which is why you have to raise a little bit more than 20 percent also for a cap-ex and other things but that's pretty much how it works. Of course, you have to remember that sometimes the numbers change. I've seen general partners that are 30 percent and the limited partners would be 70 percent obviously but then I've seen general partners that are 25 percent /75 percent limited partners and so it changes. I've seen acquisitions fees for one percent and I've seen some 4 5 percent. So the numbers are negotiable. Every syndicator has its secret sauce. So what I would say is average is 30 percent, General Partners 70 percent, Limited Partners and a preferred return of 8 percent and then an acquisition fee of 2 percent is what I think is the average. So I hope you guys enjoyed the episode and remember two episodes are coming every week so stay tuned.    Thanks for listening to the real estate investing podcast with Don and Eden. Stay tuned for more episodes. Till next time. 

What's going on everybody? This is Coulton Woods and I want to welcome you to another episode of learning from the experts. And today I actually want to talk to you about something that has been nagging at me in the back of my mind for quite some time about something I saw on Dan Locks ad. So here's the deal. I know how frustrating it is as an entrepreneur to waste countless hours sifting through wannabe experts who never actually helped me in the end. Then to learn years later that there was an expert who really could help me 100 times faster than learning it on my own. I have created this podcast to save you time and money while taking you on a journey with me as I learn from and interview real experts who can actually help you grow your business. My name is Coulton woods and you're listening to learning from the experts. All right now if you don't know who Dan Lock is, he's actually a YouTube sensation. But he has a program what they call high ticket closers. So he essentially teaches people how to close high ticket programs or just sales in general, very sales oriented. But he's huge on YouTube, very big following. And he's been growing like crazy actually just over the past year, he's been just exponentially growing. I was actually looking into a bit of what he was doing in the past few years and honestly hasn't really been too long since he started even doing YouTube videos and talking about high ticket closing. So he's grown and gotten big pretty quickly over the past few years. Since I was looking around at him I must've gotten an ad or something that I had seen on Facebook, he was targeting me on an ad because I was looking at his stuff probably but I was looking at this ad and I love seeing the haters comments on ads or just different programs. I love seeing them because it helps me kind of understand their mentality and also what's going on in their head. And I remember looking at this and there was a couple of them that said oh he's a scam, this dumb and I'm like Man I've met Dan Lock in person and he's actually pretty cool guy. So I thought it was weird and he's in the click funnels area, he's in Russell Brunson's inner circle. And so I'm looking at this and I'm like OK well I know he's not a scam, I've seen his stuff. It's so funny to me how people can just perceive something as a scam. And a lot of times they haven't even done anything with it or even looked at it. There's a lot of hater comments on there and I even commented on it. I was like that's weird that he's making a lot of money and you aren't, like come on guys seriously. I think it's interesting that a lot of them are probably struggling in life that comment all this negative stuff and I'm like well if you're just going to keep commenting all of these negative things on people that are being successful I don't see you getting too far by doing that. Maybe you should look into what they're actually doing and figure something out. I just think it's funny because I like to see what people's thoughts are. And what's going through their head when they post on there. I'm sorry but I like getting a little bit of a rise and commenting some controversial stuff on there just to see what people say because it's funny to me. And so I mentioned like man it's interesting that he's doing well and you're not. Or you know he's making money and what about you. And then somebody posted on there and I was like What the heck, I've thought of this but like he was so night and day on that post. I wish I had it. I wish I could pull it up. I should have screenshot it. Anyway, so this guy's comment on the Dan Lok's ad, he said you know it's interesting to me because people are willing to spend thirty thousand dollars on a vehicle but yet complain and cry and moan about spending 300 dollars on their mind like spending three hundred dollars on something that's going to increase them as a person, not something physical. You'll spend thirty thousand dollars on a car but you won't take three hundred dollars and spend that on something that's going to help you become better in the things that you're doing. You won't spend three hundred dollars on learning something. I see it all the time. They're like oh that's too much money or I don't need that course, I already know it but then they're OK with going and spending 60 70 thousand dollars on a vehicle that that gives them no intellectual property. So it surprises me that so many people are willing to spend that much money on a car but they won't spend that much on something that's going to increase their knowledge to help them make more money to help them be more successful in whatever they do. That was just eating at me. I need to podcast about that because it's so true. I've seen so many business people want to increase their business or become better or do more but then they're not willing to spend a few hundred dollars for it. They look at a thousand dollars like oh that's way too much, what's it going to give me. But in reality, they don't try to figure out the ROI on it. If you're struggling in your business, it's worth money paying an expert to figure out how you can increase your business in areas that you're lacking or failing at. You can find experts that are so well versed in that area of what you're looking for in your business that it would take you years to become that good at it. So why are you trying to become that good at it in years when you can hire somebody that is that good at it already and help you blow up in that area and overcome that part of your business. There are so many experts out who can help through every stage of business you go through. Alex Charfen is the man when it comes to what you need to do system wise and company wise and entrepreneurial wise every step of the business and every step is different like 0 to 30,000, 30,000 300,000, 300,000 to a million, million to 3 million, 3 million to 10 million. Those are all very big transitions in your business and you need to start doing things differently in your business in order for it to work. Your business will fail if you don't do it correctly or if you don't do it at all. If you keep trying to run your business like it was when you started and now you're on a million dollars a year, that's not going to work. You have to figure out different systems. James P. Friel is another man when it comes to systems and different things on how you can create those systems for your business that will free up a lot of time and also help your employees do better. Think about what you are spending money on, what you value more than other things and how much are you spending on your intellectual. How much are you actually learning? I've gone through this before, I've done phases where I'm focused more on buying something that doesn't really do anything for me, like buying a car. But when I focus on things that helped me become better myself intellectually, I can be better in my business and understand things more and make more money, it's so much better that way. But I've gone through spurts, I've gone through the different times as well. I used to hate learning growing up. School is not my thing. I did not like school at all which is sad. But now sometimes I go through a book a week trying to cram it in. Always be learning the things that you're needing at the time. Don't go try to learn something that doesn't apply to what you're doing right now or doesn't apply to the thing that you're focusing on your business that's going to help you get to the next point. So I'm going to leave you with that. Thank you very much for listening and you have gone through another episode of learning from the experts. And thank you so much for following guys. Are you looking to jump start your business by learning or getting help from the real experts. Go to learning from the experts.com to find pre-approved experts that I've hand picked for you. Don't forget to let me know how I'm doing by subscribing, rating and leaving feedback.  

Rob:           All right well, welcome to our Becoming Your Best podcast listeners wherever you are in the world today. I have a person that we're gonna talk with today who I consider to be one of the most amazing people I've ever met and you'll quickly realize that and as you start to listen to some of his stories and hear some of the background and a little bit about Randy. But let me introduce Randy because, I don't say that lightly when I say he's one of the the most respected people I know and not just by me but might many many other people who I know, that says a lot about Randy. He started out as a student body president at Ricks and while he was there I said, “You know Randy, is there anything you haven't done?” Because he's done all these things and he looked at his phone and he showed me this picture of him riding a bull while he was in college. Not only was he study body president, he did some bull riding while he was there, which immediately my respect level went through the roof for him when I saw that. He went on to the Harvard OPM Program. He starred and sold several businesses very successfully. He has six children, a beautiful wife who's amazing in her own right. One of the things that stands out to me most about Randy, amongst all his success’ and all the people he knows, he's probably the most connected person I've ever met. The thing that really stands out the most about Randy is his impeccable character and honestly, he genuinely cares about other people and helping them succeed and that's one of the reasons I believe Randy has been so successful himself is because he wants to see other succeed and he comes across very genuine people realize that he's very sincere in what he does. So without further ado, one the most successful people I know and down to earth, just loving, kind people; Randy Garn!   Randy:       Well, thank you Rob! I really really appreciate you saying those kind words and I feel the same about you and what you and your dad have built with BYB and the whole leadership thing is so critical in everybody in all facets of our lives and so I'm learning to be a great student of yours.     Rob:           Yeah, well that goes both ways! It’s always hard too, when someone introduces you and says all these amazing things, it’s like what do you say after that? But Randy really is amazing! Do you think, Randy, if you wouldn't mind just giving them a brief background on you that I didn't cover? You know, where you're from, a little bit about you, anything that you think would be valuable for someone to know?   Randy:       Yeah, I think it is important to know where we've come from and you know, I grew up in a really small town called Sugar City, Idaho. You know, when I left I think there's 1150 people there after I left. And I mean it was just an amazing place and I'll get back to that. Why I think our roots and the way we are raised, and the way we're raising our children are so critical for the people that we become, and especially with character and integrity and in leadership. And so I grew up and and my dad was a high school football coach for 29  years. He's going into medicine and then you know he had these four boys and he's like, “Man I'm gonna buy a ranch and I'm gonna be a football coach. I'm gonna teach my kids how to work.” So I mean he sacrificed on what he could have done but he wouldn't give it up to the world and so you know, I grew up in a really fun environment. It's so funny when I meet a lot of leaders, they’re like, “You know my parents abused me,” or you know, “I was in some serious trauma,” or other things happen and that makes people great. You know when they can overcome those things, but I was actually fortunate enough to be led by a really,  really good man that told me that I could do anything I wanted in life and actually mentored me and stuck with me the whole time. And so, somebody that I love and admire and he's still alive today and I respect him and he still gives me a quote every night and how he help build me up every night and so that was some of my roots was growing up in that type of environment.   Rob:           Did I hear you right to say that you either rode a tractor or a truck or something and he would always be playing these tapes of some these greats?   Randy:       Yeah. In fact, we had about, you know it was about a twenty minute ride out to our ranch where we you know we raise cattle and horses. And so, we had about 300 head of cattle and we had 50 horses at one time so I mean it wasn't a huge ranch but it was a ton of fun and we would listen to Denis Waitley and Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar and The Strangest Secret from Nightingale and that’s some of the things that I’d listen to and then he'd mentor me. We're out there fixing fences and all that and he’d talk about it. You know, we grew up in kind of a family to where we are God fearing and we literally would say family prayers at night and then put it in and everybody in, ready? Break! Go Garns! And so it was just fun. It was a good time, so yeah we listened to a lot of the classics and you and I did a call with Denis a couple of days ago and he's a great man, but that's some of the things I grew up on.   Rob:           Yeah, and the irony is all these very people who you grew up listening to now, you become very close friends to them. In many cases ,helping mentor them as it goes both directions and ironic how you know that fate aligned that way. Speaking of this, interestingly, we were just with the group today and was talking about estate planning and one of the things was mentioned was often times we think about estate planning as it's just financial. You know, here's what happens to your finances. This particular person leading the discussion was saying, you know what? It's so much more that! It's a legacy that you're leaving. It's a legacy of character. It's a legacy of what you're teaching your children and in so many ways it sounds like you're such a product of what your parents created for you in the environment.   Randy:       Yeah, I would totally agree with that in a lot of ways. And so I mean now I've got a family of my own, married probably one of the most awesome women on earth and I've got an amazing life. In a lot of times I do I talk a lot about kind of the home court advantage. You know I had a CEO reach out to me the other day and he's like, “Man I've got two kids and you know things are rough at home. How do you balance everything? How do you grow a business and keep things right personally and stay fit and do all these things? I can't keep it up!” And he's like, “Randy, you're probably single and being able to do all these things!” I was like, actually I'm not! I have an amazing wife. I've got six kids. I’ve got two sets of twins. I run multiple companies and we’re growing things like crazy! He about lost it! He's like, “How in the world do you balance all that?” You know, I said, well first off you got to have make sure you get everything right both personally and professionally because for me, there's no distinction. And I know a lot of people try to put things in silo but for me, Rob, there's no distinction between who you are at business and who you are home and who you are church or who you are personally and professionally. It's you’re one person and so the way that you show up in one place is the way that you really show up everywhere.   Rob:           Ooh, we could stop the podcast right now. If we all just live that, what a huge impact it would have on the world. Randy, actually segways into a thought I had and that was you know one of the things that is amazing about you, is the relationships you have with so many people. And so you had a chance in your life in these different associations to meet some of the most incredible people and influencers on earth. So, from all these people you've met and you just describe some of it right there, if you had a narrow down to a few things what sets apart those who you most admire and respect and why?   Randy:       I thought about this a lot you know and I thought about this over a great deal. I actually wrote a book called, “Prosper.” We hit The New York Times in 2011 and I wrote the book with the with a close friend of mine. We started another company that we sold in 2014. But for me, it's those people that are balancing money and happiness and sustainability. And to be able to do that, that's where prosperity really comes in for me. But to be able to do that, you have to have some real deep character and there's a few people in my life that I really truly respect. You know, I just was on the phone with Brandon Steiner from Steiner sports and Harvey McKay - I'm on his advisory board. He's written 13 books, “Swim with the Sharks,” and you know, “How to use your head to get your foot in the door,” and many others. But for me, it's people that have really lived the law of reciprocity and that you know, Brandon always says, “Do as much as you can for as many people as you can for as often as you can without asking for anything in return. And watch what life does to you and for you.” And so, I watch them and I watch how successful they are but also successful is more than just monetarily. It's like it’s rich in relationships and rich in being able to do business development and rich in being able to call anybody at any time and have access instead of you know trying to pay your way into things. You have access to the things you'd never have access into because you're such a giver.  That’s one characteristic that I know the people that I really admire and love.   Rob:           Yeah it's interesting you say that because, really, we live in a world where it's almost counter to our culture. At least from my perspective, there's so much in the world of what's in it for me and how do we grow and I and we and us and what you described is so powerful and I just think, you know, our listeners don't know this but you have this ranch up in Wyoming, this beautiful ranch in a valley called Star Valley and you bring people there often go fishing and take some time in the outdoors and you had a couple of people who  from the outside would be considered very successful recently and I remember you show me the pictures of the dad catching a fish with his son and taking that time and so many things come from that. Not only was that a relationship that you had with him, where just purely giving of your time not only giving but creating a rich experience. It’s not even just a lunch or dinner, you're out there fishing side by side and secondarily there's this dad fishing with his son for what looked like one of the first times in his life and the rich experience that they were having together and his son will never forget that and so I think you're one of the epitomes of what you just described.   Randy:       Well, I mean that we were doing that for them and they become even deeper friends right? There's another principle that I live, one is the law of reciprocity but the other big one, Rob, that's really been effective for me is called the experience economy. Joesph Pine wrote a book called “The Experience Economy” and that's why we have you know the Trout Ranch. We've got other properties and then I do, I take a lot of people up too. Got some great friends up at Sundance and Chad Lindebaugh and the guys that run Rocky Mountain Outfitters or we go horseback riding or fly fishing or zip lining and you go have an experience with somebody and a lot of times you'll spend the whole day together and maybe talk business about twenty minutes. When they kind of come out for the whole day and we have a deal done. And so a lot of times people get so stuck in to, you know, “We will meet you at the hotel,” or wherever. I love to get out and do stuff with these guys that never experienced the things that we can offer. So I'm really big on the book by Joseph Pine called  “The Experience Economy,” to generate deep meaningful, relationships but also drive tremendous value and move business forward in a big way naturally.   Rob:           Yeah that's awesome. I mean there's another terminology: transactional versus transformational. I mean, lunches are great, dinners are great but what you're talking about is the spirit of good, better, best. Taking something that's good and making it way way better because it's so rich, it's so deep and so real. I mean you're out in the outdoors and so much amazing things that can happen from that. So building on that what you just described there, and maybe now zeroing in on you not so much on others, but from your own life experiences ,what are two or three of your biggest lessons learned through life? I mean you've seen so much now. What are one, two or three of those lessons learned that you feel could we have a real impact in the lives of our listeners and what tips would you share from your own experience?   Randy:       From my own ,experience, I think some of the biggest things are ,you know you don't need to please everyone. And I think early on in my career, you know the most valuable asset that any of us have is time - is our time. And so I have a formula for whether I’ll do business with others or not and it's a formula that I actually learned from it another gentleman that does partner with this up at the top of the trout ranch. It's called you're the P. over your E. squared. Take look at fractional equations get your P. over your E. squared that means that your principles are higher than your ego or economic interests, always. I always look at somebody and I say, at the end of the day is as their principles other principals higher than their ego or their economic interest in something and will they stick to that more so because I have done business and I've done things with individuals where, man,  it looks on paper like it's going to be a fantastic, amazing, awesome opportunity and we’re going to crush it and we're all gonna be billionaires and you know being able to give back and do all the stuff but the end of the day you know that something's just not right and I've actually got some pretty good Spidey senses for that, where you just know that there's just something that's just not right and I went forward with that is like I haven't quite figured that out you know when I was younger but now I have. If it just doesn't chemistry, doesn't fit right or like something just doesn't feel like, “Oh heck yeah. We’re gonna crush this, we're gonna do this!” if you leave a meeting and you feel like I just I don't know if I am in. It doesn't mean that they're always unintegrous or whatever it may be, but it's always been where their ego or their economic interest don't align with mine, it has not ended up being a good thing.   Rob:           That right there just to pause, I know you have one or two more to say, but that is a huge, huge deal. You know it's interesting as we put together the book you know as you well know Become Your Best and ironically used the word principles -  The 12 principles of highly successful leaders. And in doing so interviewing hundreds of people and you try to look for these patterns of success and what sets apart great leaders and high performing teams from everyone else. And so you see that there's this pattern that emerges there's where the 12 principles come from. At the same time it was really interesting because another pattern emerged and it was at the very same principle but when they were violated. And one of the things you see over and over in CEOs and leaders that at least was from my experience and perspective was their downfall was their ego.   Randy:       Totally.   Rob:           And when ego became so big that it got in the way the progress of the company or got in the way of the finances so they couldn’t  wrong or they couldn't take input - the ego, was in many cases, their downfall. And we have several coaching clients right now and part of the reason I know this is, “Hey I've got a nice present or so and so and their egos got so big, how do I handle this?” Because it’s kind of killing our business. So just to reinforce it, what a great thought that is so P over E squared, is that right?   Randy:       P over E squared - so your ego and economic gain, but you're right, I mean there's been, in fact we just met with another amazing, amazing man and he said the best CEOs in the world are those that have humility. Isn't that interesting? They have humility and they follow their principles. Because you can do anything, I mean you can have success for a short period of time but if your ego and your economic interest and you get too greedy, it's gonna get in the way and it's going to stop you from growing and the best CEOs both have humility and also give credit where credit's due. I mean, there's different forms of ways you can pay people. One of the best ways that I know how to pay people is to give them credit.   Rob:           Yeah, make them the hero. Yeah, that's really good. Any other thoughts on that lessons learned from your past experiences? I mean that's a fabulous one right there.   Randy:       Yeah, I think the other big one for me is something that again my dad, he is just an amazing man and I can't wait for you to meet him but one of the things; I was leaving for college and he told me one thing and I wrote it down. I’ll never forget in this state is like my first day going up from college. I just got back from living in the Philippines for two years and literally had like four days until I start college and he said, “Randy, I want you to know one thing is that if you don't have your own goals then someone else will use you for theirs.”   Rob:           Wow. Yeah that's powerful.   Randy:       So, you think about that whether you're a CEO or you know working for somebody or whatever that is but again you know if you don't have your own goals then someone else will use you for theirs. So I work closely with a lot of very high powered people in on some advisory boards and we work on strategy. If you do not have your own personal strategic plan and if you don't write down those principles like you guys talk about like leadership, like when I went to your live event, it was awesome! Because you were really pushing people to write down and to really manifest what they wanted to accomplish and so that was like one of the biggest key advices that had ever been given to me is, you know, “Randy if you don't have your own goals someone else will use you for theirs.” And I know you guys do a lot of that with what you do and even this year, BYB Daily Journal that I'm using and everything else it's so critical, to set those goals and know exactly what you're doing -every single day, every single week, every single month and execute well.   Rob:           Yeah, because the whole point is to lead a life by design rather than live a life by default.   Randy:       Exactly.   Rob:           And you know the research, backing up what you just said, is that a person is 90% more likely to accomplish something when they have a clearly written goal. Yet on the other side of the scale, on average only 10% of people have clearly written goals and so getting very intentional and focused. But I love that quote, I wrote it down. I'm gonna use that again in the future because it’s so spot on. “If you don't have your own goals someone else will use you for theirs.”   Randy:       Exactly right.   Rob:           That's a good one. I like that. You know, we're sitting here talking Randy and so many people listen to this podcast because their businesses in a leadership position or you know they want to be a better employee, yet many people also have these families at home, they’re in a relationship with someone else and a lot of what you're saying now goes right back into the home, doesn't it?   Randy:       Well, it does. I mean that's why I said it. It really does. You think about your family, to think about your most valuable asset. To me, it’s my children.  I actually literally plan time to spend time with them or planning out you know our whole entire year; when we're doing vacations and all that. When I was younger, we didn’t plan our vacations and then somebody else put something on there like, “I'm sorry honey, we really can't go to San Diego,” or “We can’t go to Hawaii this month of August, because I actually have an event I'm speaking at or doing.” But now, we do have to plan those things out or you will miss baseball games, you will miss opportunities for your your family and family things and so, why do we work so hard? Literally, for me, it’s because so I can actually give my family that things that they need so I don't want to miss that time especially the prime of their life. And so, I don't want to be one of those guys you know like Cat Stevens, “A cat's in the cradle,” where I didn't spend time with my most valuable assets so I think it does spill over to home and again that's part of my whole thing on home court advantage. You got to plan those things out or else other people use your time for other things.   Rob:           I’m so in agreement on that, absolutely! And, everything you're talking about, not only planning and being intentional with our children and with our spouse. I just met someone at a conference, Randy, last week and the two people walked up and, it's not a credit to me or you. It's the principle. That's what you're talking about. And they just said this short hour just changed my life and they say, “Well, you know I haven't been on a date with my spouse in over a year.” It is just because life - it's so easy for life to come in and take over if we're not being intentional planning and doing the things you're talking about. Because, in our society, unlike in some others around the world, wow it's so fast paced here and so we’re not intentional we run the risk of something else taking over our lives and suddenly we look back and say, “Wait a second, where’d time go and our kids around the house and our relationships? You know, what happened?” So I love that! If you want, Randy, since we’re about twenty minutes or so. I can't believe it goes by that fast and I got to tell our listeners, something cool about Randy, that we don't know, we're in the very early stages but I just had this thought, it'd be fun to go to the Everest base camp store talking about experiential and this experience economy, and so we got on the phone and I asked for Randy, “Hey Randy, how would you like to go? And would this be some you might be interested in?” And we want to keep this to a small group and Randy was like, “Man I had this is as a dream of mine forever!” You know, I was thinking maybe it might be fun to take my will be, at the time my 18 old son with us now and we talk about these experiences and we're in the early stages of planning and just before the podcast we’re thinking, you know, maybe 2019/2020, the thought is if we don't plan it now, what's the odds it's something like that's ever going to happen?   Randy:       It's so true, Rob and just think about that both! It will help us to get in shape to do that – that’s some serious, serious hiking but just think of the experience that we have that the group that will go will do something that we’ll never forget, right? And so you're exactly right but we're planning that after two 2019 or 2020 and you have to do that because time flies! Time flies so fast that if you're not staying on top of stuff you will you'll miss out on living the intentional life is what I call it.   Rob:           Hopefully my mother in law is not listening in this podcast because she doesn't know that yet. So as we get ready wrap up, maybe one more thing if you don't mind Randy. I haven’t really asked you this yet. What's an experience in your life that really ,if you look back say maybe that experience or one of the experiences that was one of the most influential experiences on you, help shape you and who you’ve become today? Would you mind sharing that?   Randy:       Yeah, I mean, one that just comes to my mind that I'll share with you. As you know, back in our company we started  company back in 1999 and you know, it just exploded and back after two and a half years of being business and really profitable and growing and we had some people that came in and said, “Hey, we'll give you all this money and you know we'll take you IPO and we'll do a reverse merger and you know we ended up doing the deal and it took us 3.5 or over 3 years to unwind it and it'll cost millions of dollars to be able to do so and so that was one of my most valuable experiences because we said you know what these guys are really super smart you know they're in their forties, they're amazing, they've done business stuff but come to find out that it was really not what it was all out to be. I remember my business partner looking at me and he said, “You know what, if we're waiting for all the smart people to show up, we're actually here.” And we’re literally just looking at each other and so I think one of the biggest things is that I've learned in my life is to have confidence in myself, in that, if somebody else can do it, I can do it. So you can't fear those things and it's just like what's the difference between a $4,000,000 company a $40,000,000 company and a $400,000,000 dollar company - that really is really good people and strategy but it's a really good leader. Leadership is everything and so I stopped looking at other people to be my leaders and I started looking inward and started to build my own leadership qualities and traits and that's been a big focus of mine I’d really say for the last 18 years or so. But it all stemmed from that experience.   Rob:           How was that when you're going through it at the time?   Randy:       Oh bro, it was the worst ever. It was dark days, you know. It was it was really, really hard because we had all our employees that were also rooting and fighting for an understanding but it was a lot of prayers and in a lot of good things but we ended up you know really, really exploding after that as well, so I mean it's those things that build character and put hair on your chest when you go through tough experiences so it was good. Rob:           It is. You know it's interesting that's what you shared and I think a lot of our listeners know that my dad went through a similar experiences and it took him seven years. I remember him going down to the office with him. You know, speaking of being intentional, bringing everything back together. I remember running around the building -  it's a dark building but I'm down there in his office with him until like 9pm. He’d work these 15 hour days - trying to get out of a similar dark period and from that experience, that was kind of a refiners fire for him to really shape him to who he became later on in life and they're certain principles as a result of that and standards that we live by now as a company, for example, we will not operate with debt. I know that's not the case in every industry and companies there’s, you know, different thoughts on that but that's one of our things that we will do. He will never get in that position again. It's one of my personal mottos - the same principle. So it's amazing what can come from those refiner prior experiences. Boy, they're tough when you're in the middle of them aren't they?   Randy:       Yeah, and I learned too, you can't go sometimes in life you can't go around things or over things. Sometimes you just have to go right through them, you know?   Rob:           That's why you got the nickname. What they call you as a full back in high school?  The little ball of hate?   Randy:       Yeah, the little ball of hate. Back in the day. It’s a ton of fun!   Rob:           Randy, thank you so much for being on this podcast. I mean you're such an incredible friend, mentor, example and I think all of our listeners - I'm extremely confident they felt not only sincerity, but who you are and why you’ve had the influence on people that you've had and who you've become. So if you wouldn't mind, if there's any way they can either contact you or any details that you share about how they can learn more about you? If someone wanted to reach out in some form or fashion – is that something you could share with them?   Randy:       Yeah you know what, this is gonna be awesome because one of the software technology companies that we have is a marketing communications technology and it allows you to get really good at personal relationships and following up. It’s a company called Skipio and so the best way to get a hold of me as I'm really on my V. I. P. line and if you will just text me the words S K I P I O at 801 332 9909 and I'll be able to be able to follow up with you and you'll get a reply from me on some of the cool things that we're working with on the how to be a really, really amazing communicator and how to be really good on follow up. So again it's Skipio, just text key words Skipio to 801 332 9909  and you'll get a text right back from me with all my contact info.   Rob:           Awesome, so text Skipio – S-K-I-P-I-O to 801 332 9909 is that right?   Randy:       That's correct.   Rob:           And Randy will respond to you and we use Skipio. This is a great service if you're in any type of business where the customer experience is important which should be just about all businesses. You can also go to skipio.com and see what they do is a business a little bit more. Very, very cool what they do and Randy will respond so that's very generous of you to offer that out there for them Randy. Any parting thoughts?   Randy:       You know the last parting thought that I have is that I hope that all the listeners are you know utilizing Becoming Your Best tools. Honestly Rob, you came in and you spoke our company about what was it three months ago?   Rob:           Yeah that in there. Somewhere in there.   Randy:       And it has been it's been amazing, both for myself but other people keep referencing it in our office so all of the listeners I'd say you know the most important thing to do is to continue to work on yourself and continue to become the best individual, the best human, the best person that you can, and that way you can really reach out to others in a big way. And so I'm just that’s the one thing but I'm trying to do a lot better is to be the best you know leader that I can be and change as many lives but I possibly can before I go to the other side. And, so the other thing is one last thing - relating back to that story, is that a lot of people think you know in today's society it's like you know well I should deserve that or I should you know that's something that I deserve. I should deserve to be the CEO or I should deserve to have lots of money. I will tell you, that you really don't get what you deserve in life. You get what you work hard for and what you negotiate. So those are the two things – the two principles I live by: you don't get what you deserve in life you get what you fight, scratch, beg and plead for and negotiate. That's what you end up getting in life so that's part of my last leadership tip for everyone.   Rob:           Well, that is so true and I certainly echo and feel the exact same as you do so. Randy you're amazing! Thanks so much for being on the podcast. I know this is a huge deal for our listeners. It impacts me and it will certainly impact them so thank you for being here and everyone remember that one person can make a difference and it's just like Randy said it's you and I asking what can we do to make a difference so wishing you a great day and wonderful week where you're at in the world. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Santa Fe Grill… Not much we can say that hasn't already been said. Vegetarians have options here, some X number of combinations that can be made from several veggie ingredients.  We discuss Taco Bell's likely stringent IP policies.  Amy doubles down on her contempt for vegetarianism by drinking her beverage after a fly had flavored it.  Daniel worries about his burrito linguistic skills.  Ben washes his vegetables, not to stave off pesticide poisoning, but to stave off insect poop.  Sadly, per the rules of Veggie Trek, the tiny bit of bacon Ben finds in his burro makes this one ineligible.  Given that we're sitting pretty at 4 out of 12 burros for Veggie Trek.  Time for a summer break!Ingredients: Beans, Potato, Green Chile, & Pico de Gallo (plus inadvertent Bacon)Ratings:Ben - Waking up pretty early and you're not tired, you go out and do some stuff and you're suddenly like, "Man I've got all this stuff done already."Daniel - Blowing out your voice playing Rock Band, it's pretty fun while you're doing it, the next day your voice is fucked up.  It kind of sucks, but how important is my voice really?BQ4 - Episode Five"This Is The Best Burrito I've Ever Eaten" by Parry Gripp, used with permission.  http://parrygripp.com/