Episode Transcription
transcript (rough)
Last update
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by
Brett Johnson
[0:00:00] Glenn Harper: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Empowering Entrepreneurs. I’m Glenn Harper.
[0:00:04] Julie Smith: Julie Smith.
[0:00:04] Glenn Harper: What’s going on, Julie?
[0:00:05] Julie Smith: You know, I’m just waiting on this warm weather to arrive, but other than that, it’s Ohio.
[0:00:09] Glenn Harper: We’ll never get warm weather, unlike our guest on here. He’s he’s gonna have warm weather. 24 7365. Kind of spoiled. Well, we’ve got a we got a treat today. We’ve got Danny Bader, a fellow entrepreneur who is the driving force behind Simply Do It real estate investments. He’s helped many investors wannabees become successful entrepreneurs in the real estate world. Welcome, Danny. Thanks for being on the show.
[0:00:33] Dani Beit-Or: Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. Weather is warming up here in Southern California after a big storm.
[0:00:39] Julie Smith: Yeah, you guys have been hit with some storms that hasn’t been blue skies lately.
[0:00:45] Dani Beit-Or: No, I’m in Southern California. I was up in the Bay Area speaking last week, and I told them something about how we make decisions that are somewhat weather related as well as a secondary point. And I told them, you guys, this is a lot of rains, but this is not what I call harsh winter. I don’t like harsh winter, but this is not a harsh winter. Everybody’s like, oh, you’re so right. But they’re just so not used to it.
[0:01:09] Glenn Harper: Exactly.
[0:01:10] Julie Smith: Not at all.
[0:01:11] Glenn Harper: It’s crazy what’s going on around the world with weather. But, hey, that’s what makes it weather. It’s all good. So Dan, I detect a slight French accent. Is that true? I’m totally kidding.
[0:01:26] Dani Beit-Or: There is an accent. Good hearing, Glenn. Over there. It’s not french. It’s Israeli. So I’m originally from Israel, and from.
[0:01:34] Glenn Harper: What I understand, you’re from Ramadha. Sharon right there in the heart of it all and just north of Tel Aviv. How much fun was it growing up there? You’re born and raised there, I assume.
[0:01:45] Dani Beit-Or: Born and raised in that city, which is right the first city over outside of Tel Aviv. It’s a very middle class, nice area. And as a kid, it was fun because it felt like everybody knows everybody. And I was out and about a lot, obviously. And as a teenager, I rode horses, so I would just take my bike cycle at three minutes down to the fields and jump on the horse and just ride my friend’s horse all the time.
[0:02:14] Glenn Harper: Well, that’s crazy. You had horses right in the middle of the town. That’s fantastic.
[0:02:18] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah, that’s a lot of fun.
[0:02:21] Glenn Harper: It looks like at some point I couldn’t get a read on this. When I stalked you a little bit. You spent some time Rupping at Coventry University. What’s? That all? Is it? Coventry is in England, right?
[0:02:33] Dani Beit-Or: Coventry is a UK based university, and they actually came to Israel for a few years to open an extension or a school in Israel. So it was an English school. So that was a classical clash of cultures. The English school with older ticks came in and met the Israeli style which is completely opposite. I think it lasted five, six years. And then the Coventry said, listen, this is not a good fit for us. And I was just lucky to go through those years. So I’m a Coventry graduate, a UK university, but studied in Israeli campus, so.
[0:03:13] Glenn Harper: You don’t have to go outside anywhere else and we’ll travel that way. How did you decide to get out of Israel and come over to America? What was that journey like?
[0:03:22] Dani Beit-Or: Well, the trigger was in many ways a financial trigger. Because I was a young engineer working for Israeli high tech, I think I was good at my job, but I was also not after a year or two. At its time, at that job, I felt like I was a fixer. Project management, the wolf kind of a thing. We have a problem with this enterprise, problem with this client throughout Europe. So I would go and I don’t want to say fix the problem, but I would get it. I was very good about getting things back on track and that was an easy key for me because communication is key, right? Once you open communication line, you solve 50% of the problems. Now we have to deal with the technical side of it, but the communication lines are open. And I even remember once going to Swisscom, which is a big, huge communication company in Switzerland, and those two guys, my counterparts, who I’ve never met, only spoke to, came to pick me up at the airport and as soon as they get into the car, I could tell they’re pissed. Now, I’ve never met them. I knew to the project, I spoke to them once or twice coordinating my arrival. We go and have a coffee or something and say, Guys, I can tell, give me 1 second, I promise you I’ll do anything I can. And I started opening communication lines and they saw that all of a sudden someone is listening and helping them. And we were the supplier.
[0:04:52] Dani Beit-Or: I was the supplier representing the supplier. They were the client and they were very mad because they were missing deadlines and just by opening communication line, they got very ease. We still had technical challenges, but the communication opened up. It kind of alleviate the situation, the stress, the pressure, and things start moving forward. So that was kind of funny to see.
[0:05:19] Glenn Harper: Well, it’s weird that it’s not typical for an engineer to have great people skills, right? Like accountants don’t have good people skills, right? So when did you decide that, hey, I can do something different than working for the man doing this thing and you doing some engineering, which obviously you like to tinker around, but hey, you can talk to people and make a difference. How did you make that decision?
[0:05:42] Dani Beit-Or: It’s funny that you mentioned that halfway through my four year degree, engineering degree, I knew very well I’m not going to be an engineer. So physics and mathematics and statistics I knew all to like I told myself, Danny, you’re wasting your time here, but you’re almost done. Plus you’ve done with the hard years now it’s the more fun years with the more manager stuff and the other things and economics. So I’m just starting my two fun year, as much as you can say funnier in college, but I knew very well I’m not going to be your engineer type of world, I would be more like a managerial something else, but also I think that job really point. Smith israel, you go to the military mandatory and within a year before, a year after, until you start and finish the military. I think that job I started when I was 25 ish something like that, maybe 26, and for some reason I noticed that I’m good at solving, I’m a good fixer and the good fixer reason, I told myself that the reason I’m good at it is the communication. Like, no ego come in and just open communication lines and remove yourself from the situation and let people vent. And by the way, I still practice those same methodologies still, and then that’s what told me that I kind of need to be more in that category and not honking over some.
[0:07:21] Julie Smith: We usually wait until later in the podcast asks a question, but I think you touched on it, so I just want to put it out there. What do you think your superpower is?
[0:07:34] Dani Beit-Or: I think the superpower is exactly that I can’t say I don’t have an ego like being here on a podcast, that’s kind of fun to share. I think it touches on that or nurture that side, but I think I know to kind of put myself or lower that ego and come in and open the communication line and talk and let people vent and listen and encourage them to talk. And I have had on the past 20 years of doing real estate and working my business every time there was a situation of a crisis, and there are a few of them I knew to be there for my clients and take on that. I have an ability to contain that. So maybe my true superpower is the ability to be patient and contain, even if I’m not necessarily agreeing or it’s not even always pleasant to have that conversation. I’m not shying away from those unpleasant conversations, never have. So maybe that’s a superpower.
[0:08:28] Glenn Harper: I hope now because you’re taking some of the Coventry University did you play some rugby while you were there? Did they bring that to Israel or no?
[0:08:39] Dani Beit-Or: They do have an official hobby league. Okay, folk football and rugby, but they only brought the education, they didn’t bring this fun stuff.
[0:08:51] Glenn Harper: Got you. We’re always trying to figure out how people make that decision to go from working for the man, to decide to open up their own, hang up their shingle and do their thing and there are certain places where that’s just encouraged. In certain places, people just don’t know how to do it at all. So for you, obviously, you had a pretty cool upbringing. It sounds like you’re right in the middle of everything, having a good time, and then you had to do the military thing. Did something shape you to make you think like, you might want to be an entrepreneurs at some point or it wasn’t until you were actually in the workforce, was it reic I think you worked for at some point where you’re like, you know what, this isn’t for me. Was it isn’t for me? Or is like, I knew I always wanted to do this thing right.
[0:09:40] Dani Beit-Or: So I think there was something in me early on because as much as early as probably 16, when I was in 1617, I lived for two years in Washington, DC. With my family, only for two years for high school. And I just went door knocking in one of the nearby neighborhoods and offer loan services to the neighbors. I didn’t have a loan more, so I borrowed my friends. And then when I saw I get some jobs, I hired that friend with his own lawnmower to actually do the cutting of the grass.
[0:10:16] Glenn Harper: Fantastic.
[0:10:17] Dani Beit-Or: Very quickly, I employed not a lot and maybe two kids, two other younger kids, and they did the work and I just made sure everything is fine. So I think that sparked something there without even intending to do that. But that’s kind of everywhere. Besides the military years, I always had working on an idea, thinking about an idea, trying to do. I never had other small businesses, nothing interesting enough to talk about. But what really pushed me to start where I am today, the journey where I am today is the fact that I as a young engineer in the same company, when I got a little bit bored, I just looked to the future. I looked to the future in the eyes and I said, wait, this is what’s happening. This is what’s going to happen in the next 10, 15, 20 years. I looked at my parents, my uncles, my parents friends, my older cousins. Everybody followed the same kind of model. They own their condo or maybe a house with a mortgage. 1520 years in, working many hours missing on the family stuff just because of work. And what do they have to show for all those years? That one piece of real estate with a mortgage and that’s it. And for me, I knew that’s not a path.
[0:11:40] Dani Beit-Or: I just did not agree that this is the path I should be following. And I already saw myself, I started that. I was put on that path on that road with the job that I had and the hours. And it wasn’t a startup, it wasn’t a big operation, but I think it was like a mature startup, right? A few years in, had money still as a startup, they were doing financially like this, ups and downs. And I just told myself, this road I’m on, it’s not the road I want to be on, but I just had a hard time finding what the road is. So that took some time, but that was really the push. And also through those times where those thoughts were going on, I realized how tough it is to thrive in Israel. And the reason it’s tough. There are maybe three I think there’s three main reasons. One, the culture is very backstabbing and very much when you agree with someone as a provider on a contract, they come back to you when everything is done, and they want to discount it. Why do you want to discount? They say, no, I want you to make money, but earn it profit on the next person. You’re the next person. I already had that conversation with the previous one.
[0:12:53] Dani Beit-Or: And then you have to collect the money. It’s very challenging. That’s challenge number one. The backstabbing. It’s challenge number two. And third, the overall tax burden in Israel, between sales tax, which is 17% doubled in most of the United States here or counties. Yeah, and then the income tax. And then the tax vehicle is 100%. So whatever. You pay $30,000 for a new vehicle here, $60,000 over there, just like that. So that overall tax burden, I like to just call it it’s about 70%, 65 or whatever. It’s a lot, and you just meet it everywhere. So even if you work hard and many hours and you’re able to get clients and you’re able to, the overall tax doesn’t let you really thrive up. And that frustrated me very much. So.
[0:13:47] Dani Beit-Or: And that’s where I said, I need a different path. I need a different to find my own road. I didn’t know at the time what it would be, but I knew this is not right. So I started with the no, and then I was looking for the yes, and that kind of pushed me off that road into something else.
[0:14:06] Julie Smith: Do you think coming over to the United States for high school, not only did it start your entrepreneurs journey, but did it also give you, oh, this is different. This is something that also started that thought process of maybe I could do something different someplace else?
[0:14:25] Dani Beit-Or: I don’t think it told me that. Well, first of all, I’ll say the two years I did in DC is one of the best things. I got a huge life gift because what happened when I was going to the DC, I got a Social Security number, which really enables me to come to it. Makes it easier when I move later. My English, I came at the 10th grade. My English was very basic, to say the least. Within two weeks, I spoke fluently. It was very basic necessity of a teenager boy. Right. You got to pick the English, otherwise you’re not going to talk to the girls, right?
[0:15:06] Glenn Harper: No.
[0:15:06] Dani Beit-Or: Very much helpful. So within two weeks, I spoke I don’t want to fluently, but I spoke well. Well enough to have a nerve to speak to them, to girls.
[0:15:18] Glenn Harper: Chicks love a good accent, though, so.
[0:15:20] Dani Beit-Or: You’Re probably okay the accent found to be actually helpful. It’s actually a benefit, not a disadvantage, I can tell you that. So I got exposed to the US culturally, the Social Security, the English got improved a lot. It was not perfect, but really gave me that foundation. But also it gave me an appetite to what’s going on here. And I think I tasted freedom. I tested the good life, so to speak, and that’s kind of what propelled everything else later on. It didn’t start empowering entrepreneurs side of it, but it did start the I could just tell this is a country that if you work hard, you will probably be okay. You have to want to work. You can’t come here and be a lazy bum and expect everything to happen. But if you do, it will probably pay off, right? There’s no guarantee, but it will probably pay off.
[0:16:22] Glenn Harper: I mean, that is the takeaway again. The people that live here that don’t seize the day and go do and be the best they can, they just can’t comprehend when somebody comes from another country and gets over here how amazing it is. We were just in DC at a conference. I remember our cab driver, the Uber driver, and he was just like, this is amazing. I got running a limo business. Now he goes, I just knew I could make it work here. And the concept was just we’ve got this incredible opportunity. All you have to do is go take it and work hard and figure it out, and you can do it. Whereas a lot of places, they just don’t give you the opportunity. And that’s just the biggest I guess that’s the takeaway for our listeners is that don’t just sit back and wait for it to happen. Go make it happen. This is the greatest place to go do it at. And you can do it.
[0:17:12] Dani Beit-Or: You can. And I got to tell you, if we’re all on the topic, when I got my citizenship during a few years ago, obama was the president, and I went to the ceremony. I think it was like 2016, 17, I can’t remember exactly. Obama was the president. I went to the ceremony in the La convention center, and I was busy. I was so busy. I thought, this is like, I got to go there as quickly in and out because I’m just way too busy. And I’m just trying to make this for me. It was just a chore. And I’m standing there by myself because it’s early morning. My wife and my boy are still at home. Nobody else came in with me because I wanted in and out. And I’m standing there, and when you have to sworn in, I’m crying. I’m asking myself, why are you crying? And I realized there’s two reasons.
[0:18:03] Dani Beit-Or: First of all, when you are born into a country, you’re never sworn in, you’re just your citizen. You’re born, you’re your citizen, right. In Israel. Same thing here. I had to kind of take the oath, so to speak. I was sworn in. So that was like, wow, someone is willing to accept me. But also, I think it kind of brought all the appreciation. So it’s not for granted to move over. It’s not for granted to succeed on any level. This country gave me so much opportunity. I knew to work at it, but it responded to my hard work. And I was all very all of a sudden, it kind of all came up, me being so emotional about something. I thought, I’m going to be in and out in a few minutes. I was like crying there.
[0:18:45] Dani Beit-Or: It was actually very appreciative moment to appreciate the opportunity.
[0:18:49] Glenn Harper: That’s fantastic. Like you said, you weren’t just entitled because you were born here. You had to do this willing partnership and make it work. And how satisfying is that, that had that somebody entrusting you to do that and you’re going to do your part. And I’ll look at you get goosebumps every time I hear something like that. That’s the best.
[0:19:09] Dani Beit-Or: Me too, by the way.
[0:19:11] Glenn Harper: That’s the best. Do you follow any NFL teams or college teams or you’re not into that kind of stuff?
[0:19:18] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah, even in Israel, I’ve never been like a sports fan. I would watch the Super Bowl. I would watch the World Cup. The highlights. I think it’s always interesting because that’s the sports, their top abilities. So that’s almost art. That’s not even sport for me, but on an ongoing basis, not as much. Got you an American of me.
[0:19:42] Glenn Harper: No. It’s funny, one day you’ll just wake up and you’ll see something. You’re like, I want to follow that team. It’s the craziest thing. It’s our culture. I can’t explain it. I want to go back again. I’m just always curious on people’s journey, how they get where they got. When you moved here in high school, then you had to move back, right? You had to go back to Israel. Did your parents stay here or do you have to go back or how’d that work?
[0:20:08] Dani Beit-Or: No, we all came as a family. My dad was a military at the sheriff for the Israeli for Israel for two years. So it was a two year assignment. Let me just refocus myself here, hopefully. Okay. It was two years assignment and we came back. I also had another lucky opportunity. Where the high school I went to. That was another lucky chance. The high school I went to in DC had a program that I could graduate at the end of the junior year by doing additional summer courses. So during the summer, I was still going to school to get the additional credits. And when I got back to Israel, I actually was a high school graduate and that gave me also advantage towards going to later on to university. So that was also helpful. That was another little perk I didn’t plan for. It was just kind of coincidence helped as well.
[0:21:08] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah.
[0:21:08] Glenn Harper: I burning you to think that there’s something wrong with you. You’re here in America for two years and you’re going to summer school, taking extra classes and not enjoying everything again. It’s just a thing that’s programmed in people. Some people have it and some people don’t. Did you don’t tell anybody.
[0:21:23] Dani Beit-Or: I slipped through the entire summer program. So my friends were from Israel, were visiting.
[0:21:27] Glenn Harper: I will never say a word or secret safe with us. When you’re in the military, was that a one year thing or two year thing?
[0:21:35] Dani Beit-Or: Three years.
[0:21:36] Glenn Harper: So you’re in there for three years and do you have to pick a discipline or they kind of just put you where they need you?
[0:21:42] Dani Beit-Or: The military puts you where they need you, but you have the ability to request or volunteer to some units. And when I was at the drafting base, whether the day of drafting and they let you kind of shop around between the different units and actually they want you to come and convince you. And this guy from one of the special forces units were sitting down in the tent and was just telling about that unit. And from that point on, I didn’t see anything. I only saw that unit. I didn’t even think about the consequences of me not being picked into it. You have to go through some like they do for the Seals. They have this hellwick or something like that. It’s not a hell week, it’s three days. But it’s hell and you have to pass that few days and they only pick anybody. Well, you have to not just finish it, you have to finish at the top, maybe 20, because they only take the first 20. And if you’re like 21, you’re somewhere else. You’re not going to be bad in a bad place, but it’s a whole different to be in that unit versus number 21. It’s a really big difference. And I was picked, luckily for me, but I was very tunnel vision looking at that unit and I was not even thinking about so much.
[0:22:59] Dani Beit-Or: So during hellwick, I told myself, you’ve already done hellwick for other units to be pre military, you are not working hard enough. You don’t need to prove to yourself that you have to finish in three days. You’ve already finished three days or four days somewhere else. So you might as well just walk away. If you can’t do the hard work, walk away. I was just that’s a conversation I had with myself and then the narcotics. Okay, just finish and finish. And actually I finished all the way to the top. So that was actually lucky for me.
[0:23:29] Glenn Harper: Well, then that begets the next question. How come you didn’t want to stay in and keep going? Is it something that you’re like, I just really want to put the three years and be done, or it just wasn’t an opportunity? Because that takes a lot to get in there. I mean, that’s hard.
[0:23:43] Dani Beit-Or: No, it feels like you were sitting on the family conversation on Friday. Because my dad is military, career military. He was a colonel in a colonel or something like that for many years. And both of my sisters, older sisters, are officers. And when I came to that point, my family didn’t pressure me, but they were very clear about they think I should go to officer schools. And I just felt I’m not enjoying the military. I’ve had enough. I mean, those three years, especially the first two, very intense, very intense. And for me, I felt like, I don’t want to stay any longer. I just want to go out and I’ve had enough. I’m happy. Like my best buddies, we are still best friends for life. As we speak, they’re heading to the airport, going to a ski trip in Europe, which I’m not joining them this time, but we are really best friends for life. All 15 of us stayed very close, connected. But I felt like, that’s good enough for me.
[0:24:44] Dani Beit-Or: I want to move on with my life.
[0:24:46] Glenn Harper: And again, you’re always curious because again, it’s weird that you must have had some other calling because again, you achieved something that you shouldn’t have. Probably made it right. Most people don’t. And there you are, and not only did you get in, but you nailed it. You’re like, there’s something else out there, and that’s just not an engineering yet. That’s some other driving force, probably. But yeah, Israeli military industries, they got some great weapons. Desert Eagles. A fine weapon. But yeah, the great thing is, so now you come back, you decide to come to America, and you’re going to do your thing here. When did you decide to go? Is it real estate? I think you’re teaching people like a guy like me, how do you invest in real estate? Is that what your deal is today?
[0:25:29] Dani Beit-Or: It is back then, yeah, very much so. For the past, since I moved here, I will say that when I was on the journey of looking for my path on my road, my financial, kind of trying to find that road for myself, I eventually started investing in US real estate from Israel. So we’re talking about 2002. Google was a startup, right? Mapquest were the only maps around. There was no Google Maps, no Zillow. All those websites. And I bought my first investment property completely sight unseen in a small town called Phoenix, Arizona. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it.
[0:26:11] Glenn Harper: Nothing’s going on there.
[0:26:12] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah, small town even back then was really small of 6 million people metro wise. And that was my first investment, and it actually went well, relatively, after some obviously growing pains for not knowing exactly what to expect. And then I did two other small investors. Those are not expensive things. And then in 2004, I think I got really passionate about it, and I told myself, that path that I want to find for myself, maybe it’s real estate, but if really I want to succeed, I got to immerse myself in real estate. I can’t just sit on the sideline and doing it. I probably could, but for me, the story I sold myself was, if you really want to succeed, you have to be as close as possible to the core activity. And that was the drive to move out here eventually, actually, when we were debating what to do, my wife came one day, and she said, you know what? Let’s go. I’m like, what do you mean, let’s go? She says, I’m buying tickets. We’re going. And we just I don’t know if you’ve probably never heard of israel has one of the best unknown management methods in the world. It’s called? It will be okay.
[0:27:31] Dani Beit-Or: And you’re joking.
[0:27:32] Glenn Harper: I’m joking.
[0:27:33] Dani Beit-Or: But this is really in the culture, right? And that means it’ll be okay. And people follow that management method throughout history. Sometimes it works. So I thought we just packed bags, came like immigrants, four suitcases. Nobody did a relocation package, went on a plane, bought tickets and lended here, and started our journey just like that. I didn’t come with $20 in my pocket, like some of the stories from the past, but it wasn’t a lot more money than that. So we came with a few thousand dollars in our pockets, which we saved up. We cleared our bank accounts, so we had a little bit of maybe a wiggle room to get started for a few, three months, but not much more than that, right? And half of that just went on setting ourselves up, right? We need a car. We need to rent a house. We need to buy a house, right? Because there’s no furniture. So that was the starting point.
[0:28:28] Dani Beit-Or: It really came with, it’ll be okay. Verdict is still out 20 years later.
[0:28:34] Glenn Harper: What city did you move to when you came over?
[0:28:36] Dani Beit-Or: We moved to Marine County at first, which is just outside of San Francisco.
[0:28:42] Glenn Harper: Okay.
[0:28:43] Dani Beit-Or: Mostly known for a place like so Solido Tiberon. Anytime we drove to San Francisco, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, which for me, I’ve probably crossed it 300 times. I don’t know, maybe more. Every time I cross that bridge, I’m like, oh, my God, I’m here. It’s happening. I’m here. It was always, like, a big sign, don’t take it for granted, which I never did.
[0:29:10] Julie Smith: So when you moved, did both of your family support that move, or was that something where you kind of did it and said, well, I’ll let you know. How it goes. It’ll be okay.
[0:29:21] Dani Beit-Or: A little bit of both because I have members in my family that are a little bit more conservative. Everybody was happy for us. I think everybody was a mixed feeling. On one hand, we support the journey that you’re looking for for yourself. On the other hand, we know it means it’s going to take you guys out of our day to day life. So that’s the biggest price when you move so far, the biggest price, by all means is friends and family. There’s no other price. And that has always been the challenge. That’s always been the pain, so to speak. Some family members, I think nobody realized it will last so long. Not that they thought it’s going to last. Nobody gave it some thought. They’re just moved, right? You don’t think, oh, they’re going to be back in a year, going to be back in five. It never came as permanent as a management.
[0:30:15] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah, it was more like they’ll be okay, and some other member, what are they going to do? How are they going to succeed? Right? It’s not like we came with there’s no relocation package. There’s like an employer, sponsor. There was no salary right at the end when we land. So that was, I think, a lot of my family, I think they knew us enough to trust that we’ll succeed. But there was also this fear. What are we going to do there? Right? How is this going to work out?
[0:30:44] Glenn Harper: But you know what’s so funny about that is one of the questions that we kind of throw in here is what was your biggest fear or obstacle you had to overcome to be an entrepreneurs? And that can’t even compare to everything else you’ve done. So it had to be so easy to like, you know what, I’m going to hang up my shingle and go do this. This is cake. It couldn’t have been a hard decision.
[0:31:05] Dani Beit-Or: Or was it, you know, easy? I knew it and I know some of my friends told us. Some told it to my face like, you are so brave. And I’m like, what are you talking about? I’m far from it. The lack of opportunity that I saw for myself in Israel was the driving force. So for me, moving from lack of opportunities to opportunities with the hope and the vision, that’s such an easy decision. It wasn’t difficult. I wouldn’t say it’s easy and not fear and a lot of unknowns. And I’ve never been to California, and when I was here, still it was looking. I got a sense that I’m already starting my adult life with everything that it means and I’m looking again to the future. Like, this is not I don’t see as much opportunities. It could be all mental right in our head. We sell and tell ourselves stories, but that’s the story I had in front of me and I felt like it will be very challenging. I had a company for one year from a project management company in Israel, and one day when we came here and I was working on submitting some documents, I had to go back and do a report of all the clients I’ve had in one year through the life of the company.
[0:32:23] Dani Beit-Or: It was about a year, a little bit over a year. And then I literally go contract by contract. Like, oh my God, that was so many. I was blown away by my ability in Israel to get so many clients, and they’re like, with all those clients, you are so struggling to to get by. It’s crazy, right? It’s crazy. So for me, it was really like it’s a no brainer, no bravery there.
[0:32:46] Glenn Harper: Yeah. Like, where you were at initially back home, you had the the Smorgasbord had like, two items on it. Then you came to America and it’s all you can eat. You just got to go choose and go get it, right? I mean, that’s the best way.
[0:33:03] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah.
[0:33:04] Glenn Harper: I think the opportunities were just there. And again, I don’t know how you gravitated to the real estate side, but again, you’re always dabbling in it before you came over, so I’m sure it wasn’t foreign for you, but that’s pretty cool that you did that.
[0:33:15] Julie Smith: So what was your next move? So you make it to California, you’ve got this investment in Phoenix, you’ve done a couple of others. What’s your next move?
[0:33:24] Dani Beit-Or: The next move I partnered up with or I joined someone who’s already in the real estate business and kind of start working alongside that person. And very quickly I saw that I am doing well as helping others invest in real estate. So lack of a better term, or the simplest term, the way I look at it, is like a real estate financial planner or financial planner, specializes in real estate that has both the knowledge and the products. It’s not just one or the other. So kind of to simplify how that works. And from that point on, I started working at that and very quickly started helping others invest in real estate. Putting the tracks, putting all the effort of the knowledge and execution infrastructure, and people just gravitated towards wanting to do something similar. And that’s kind of what led the path to not just continue. That obviously brought the compensation with it. So I was able to continue investing myself, but it just brought more clients. That just gravitated. And part of it was a big part of it is still, by the way, the fact that I am on the West Coast where there’s a lot of wealth and a lot of expensive real estate, and I’m helping or enabling or simplifying people how to invest in other parts of the country where real estate is just much cheaper. Right? Cheaper. Not necessarily cheap real estate, but cheaper relatively.
[0:35:00] Dani Beit-Or: Or the rent ratio compared to the asset price is completely different. And people just you don’t need to do a lot of smith to see that. A million dollar home here at the time rents for 3000 and you can buy four houses, even five houses per million dollars in a different place in the country and that will rent for 10,000 or 9000, whatever. So people are like, oh, I get it, right, it’s a lot better. And that kind of created that knowledge gap, that execution gap. And then I had to call on my skills of helping people smith know to communicate how this works to them and simplify. And then not everybody, but many people just got it and they say, okay, I get it. I can see that why it makes more sense for me to invest in another part of the country.
[0:35:53] Glenn Harper: So I guess one of the questions is a lot of times from the clients that I know and people in real estate, they start off doing a bunch of real estate and they get good at and they want to keep expanding their empire and they may partner to do more real estate. But for you, all of a sudden you decide you’re going to share your secrets and teach others. How did that switch flip? Because now you’re building all these competitors, but obviously your program must create some sort of revenue stream that you partner with them or whatever that is. It’s not important to this conversation. But again, all of a sudden you want to be the teacher, dani beitor them like somebody just did for you here a few years ago. Right. So is that what made that happen?
[0:36:30] Dani Beit-Or: Absolutely. I think I look at it as I’m translating real estate to people because there’s so many moving parts. Just speaking sometimes I’m 20 years in the business, I speak to lenders mortgage people on a weekly basis and I still get those emails from those mortgage people. I’m like, I think there’s like you have to know there’s English, there’s an American English and there’s mortgage language and I’m getting those emails out in the business, I know the person and I’m like, I think I know what he’s meaning. But I’m not sure. I’m not 100%. Let me check. So all those communications and there’s so many professionals involved, that’s where it’s good to have that kind of quarterback putting things together, but also helping translate a situation to the person or explaining how things work or many times even telling my clients, you are telling yourself a story that it’s incorrect in your mind. You’re putting yourself in a situation and you’re telling yourself it will never rent. Yes, in the extreme situation it would never rent. But that never happened to me in 20 years. So there’s a reason why the chances of you getting to not renting the house as an example are practically zero. Right? There’s so many things that needs to fail and we are avoiding those in the first place. So sometimes I have to tell my clients, my client, to put them on the spot and say, you’re wrong or you’re not thinking clearly or you’re thinking incorrectly.
[0:37:59] Dani Beit-Or: Let me present to you how we solve the problem. And I help them come down from whatever tree or whatever they’re on just to show them there is a path to resolve or solve or mitigate a problem. That happens a lot. Again, all comes back to the communication.
[0:38:16] Glenn Harper: What’s funny, we always joke around the hardest clients for CPAs to deal with are engineers and doctors and engineers because they generally know a lot of things. But what we do know is that if you put an engineer on a project, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter what they’ll figure it out and it’s going to be right. And so for you, you’re like, I got this. And now the question would be then is, do you derive more of your passion, your revenue, your volume from you actually investing in real estate, whether it’s flipping or fixing up or renting it out? Or do you generate that by helping others fill up their portfolios?
[0:39:00] Dani Beit-Or: It’s both.
[0:39:01] Glenn Harper: You still do both.
[0:39:02] Dani Beit-Or: Then what I know is because when I’m in a specific situation, sometimes I ask myself, well, I learn about myself to see how I’m reacting to that situation. And there’s two situations that in my day to day business that always gets me more excited. One, when I’m putting a new program together, like an investment program together, for some reason, that always get me more energized. I’m like, I can tell. I love doing that, putting all those operational pieces together. The other place is when I’m holding my I call it the strategy session with my initial conversation study session with my clients. That the conversation number one that we have just to get to know each other. This is an opportunity for you to ask me what you want and also for me to get a sense of who you are. Because I’m also kind of asking myself, do I want that person as a client? Maybe this is not a good fit. They’re not fully aware of that. Although I do mention it quite a lot. And I have had conversations like this, the strategy session, for the past 20 years. I’ve probably had more than 20,000 of those conversations, right? I’m not talking about the day to day interaction.
[0:40:09] Dani Beit-Or: That’s maybe another 40,000 of them or more. Just that clearly boxed conversation about getting to know each other, getting the process started. I don’t know, 18,000, 21,000, who knows, right? A lot. And I have them on a weekly basis. And when I get into that conversation, I never feel like I’m worn out, that I don’t have energy for it. I’m like, I’m all pumped. I’m already in the zone, and I’m enjoying this. So that also tells me I’m in the right place. I never had to feel like, oh, not another one. Never. So hopefully it will never come. But it’s like a self test. Am I in the right place? And when I have that conversation and I feel good about being there, I’m like, okay, you’re in the right place if you’re enjoying this, if it fulfills you.
[0:40:59] Dani Beit-Or: So that’s a good sign.
[0:41:01] Glenn Harper: I think that goes back to the whole as an entrepreneur. You’re generally doing things to pay the bills. You’re chasing this dream, doing what you do, and then all of a sudden, money is important, but it’s not everything. And all of a sudden you’re like, what is that purpose? And then all of a sudden you realize helping somebody else achieve their greatness.
[0:41:18] Dani Beit-Or: I mean, that’s the magic that always paid emotional dividends. Personally, I think it’s characteristic, but it’s always been as young as I can remember myself. I don’t know why, but it’s just been there.
[0:41:32] Glenn Harper: It just feels good. I don’t know why.
[0:41:34] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah.
[0:41:34] Julie Smith: So you talked about your beitor as soon as you came over, and you kind of obviously your path led you to be a mentor to so many. Are you still in touch with that person today? Do you guys still do business?
[0:41:47] Dani Beit-Or: Not at all. This person is super smart person, but I knew the minute we’ll stop working together, that would be probably the last day we’ll speak. Right. I just knew, personality wise, nothing bad about this person. It’s just personality. He’s very keep to himself kind of a person. We may have spoken over the past ten years, maybe exchanged three emails. I would say, like, very courtesy, like something happened in the other person, like, major event, and that’s it. None whatsoever.
[0:42:25] Julie Smith: And so then begs the next question. Have you found another mentor or someone as you’ve gone through being the beitor? I think we always hear people say, well, I’ve built this team around me that’s allowed me to then go do X or Y or whatever that is. Have you been able to kind of navigate that as you’ve been so successful?
[0:42:46] Dani Beit-Or: Unsuccessfully? Yes, I was able, but not in a very successful way, I’ll tell you that. Maybe eight years ago, I found this person. His name is Robert Chairman. Robert Chairman is an author with multiple books and bestsellers. And he speaks I’ve seen him speak on different stages, real estate investment stages, throughout my career when I attended events or even participated in events. So I knew the name. Super nice guy. I always call him in the US. He’s like the second row of speakers, meaning he’s on the same stages with Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki and Susie, ormond like, those stages. But he’s never the headliner. I don’t know why he should be, but he’s never the headliner in those events. Although he’s very excellent speaker. A person with good heart also loves to help people. And one day I ask myself, I tell my wife, like, I need a mentor.
[0:43:47] Dani Beit-Or: I feel like I need a mentor. And she says, who’s the person? I said, that’s the person. I don’t know him. Right. I know the name. I chase him for nine months, meaning text and with his assistant, and it takes me nine months to get a conversation with him. Not because he wasn’t available. This guy is traveling all the time. It’s just hard to find those minutes. And he’s like, very slow to respond. He tells me, Danny, I’m in between. I have half an hour for you. I have a lot of meeting. We’ll have a conversation on that day.
[0:44:15] Dani Beit-Or: We end up speaking for 2 hours. Right. Wow. Just getting to know each other. And then he tells me, all right, let’s do we find a mechanism and we work for the next year or so. And then I think it just ended up because there was no I think for that period that we did everything we wanted. But that year also brought us close together and we became friends to the point that when I’m in Israel, he has a group in Israel, and he’s there. We always meet. Of course, when he was here with his team, we had a dinner together. If he comes to Orange County, Southern California, even Vegas, he calls me or text me, I’m here. Do you have time to meet for a coffee? So we stay in touch. We talk every once in a while. So that’s not a relationship that ended. So that was the only time I was able to find a mentor.
[0:45:07] Dani Beit-Or: I had throughout 2022 for about six to eight months, I had a coach, like a business coach. We are now in communication about renewing because she had some changes in her life. So I wouldn’t say she’s more of an advisor than a mentor. Mentor for me has always been like, something over the years. There are times I was looking for it, I couldn’t find one. There’s a lot of over promise under delivery, kind of, or the cost effective, or maybe they’re delivering well, but they’re so expensive, it’s almost unaffordable, so it’s kind of tricky. So the simple answer is very challenging.
[0:45:49] Julie Smith: So have you taken that lesson and has that simply changed how you give to your absolutely.
[0:45:57] Dani Beit-Or: For me, well, I look at myself and I say, I’m trying to make myself available. And quickly I see it mostly being I think I’m mostly surprising clients of mine that have purchased a property maybe four, five, six years ago. And I tell them, after you own you purchase that property. If you purchase it through us, we will stay and support you with issues that come up in the next years, with management, with tenants. We will help you with that. I tell it. I’m telling it here, right. So my clients know it. I never hide that fact. And someone calls me after I see just multiple times, they call me after four years that we haven’t spoken with a simple question or complicated situation, and I pick up the phone, or I call them, and I’m like, yeah, let me look into it. Let me tell you. And they’re like, really? You’re going to do that? I told you I’m going to be here. I told you this is not about time.
[0:46:52] Dani Beit-Or: You’re my client. Of course I will help you. And they’re pleasantly surprised. Now, I wouldn’t say it’s not nice to see them surprised, but I’m just living up to my own word. I told you, when you have a problem, it’s part of your package. You paid for it. I will help you, I will support you, and I will try to resolve that situation for you. But there are many times those who kind of fade away over the years, they’re like, oh, so nice. I’m shocked. Like, I knew you told me that. I’m surprised you’re doing it so much.
[0:47:23] Glenn Harper: They shouldn’t be.
[0:47:23] Dani Beit-Or: Absolutely.
[0:47:25] Glenn Harper: That’s your integrity, your word is what you do. And if they know what you went through to get where you are, they would know that. Take that to the bank. Maybe not their Svb bank, but to a bank.
[0:47:36] Dani Beit-Or: I’ve also found there’s another little perk to it that I didn’t plan. I’m always there because of what you said, the integrity, and what I like, I promised. But over the years of being there, talking to the person, after four years of not kind of communicating or three years or five, whatever, all of a sudden I don’t need to do anything like, oh, by the way, we want to buy another one. So the natural evolution of that conversation, and I don’t even ask them, do you want to buy? How about another property? Just by this interaction, renewing the connection once things are resolved or on the path to be resolved, almost always like, by the way, we want to buy another one, right? So it turned out to be also very beneficial to be there because that’s just reconnecting, and they may come and buy another property. I don’t do it for that reason. That’s just a byproduct of being there.
[0:48:32] Glenn Harper: That’s the one word relationship. That’s it. You keep those relationships going. Do you have a piece of real estate that you’re like, man, if I could just buy that thing and fix it up or flip it or turn it back to the glory or tear it down and build it out. Do you have any of those that’s just like the dream deal or I mean, you don’t have to tell specifically because I don’t want people to get in on it, but do you have things like that, or is it just come? If they come, then you get one?
[0:49:01] Dani Beit-Or: I would say no, but many times when I speak to someone, especially that they’re not client yet, they tell me, Danny, when the amazing deal comes along, will you let me know I’m not telling that, but I’m telling you. And if daily saying no, yes. Not because I’m keeping it for myself, maybe that’s a possibility. It’s because first of all, the people, the clients that already signed up to be a client that already did the vote of confidence, of becoming trusting us, they would be the first one who’s getting it, not you. You can be part of that group, but you have to be part of that group. So that’s kind of something that rarely happens. I’ve seen three deals in my career that I would call like, wow, so that’s how rare they are. I’ll go even further and say, but eight years, seven years ago at the time I was flipping properties, I had three potential flips in front of me, and I sent it to my database, and I wanted to do one. But I told myself, Danny, let your clients choose and you’ll take the leftover. Right? I was happy with any one of them, and I said, I’ll offer all three and whatever is left over, I’m going to do myself. Right. So they picked the ones that appeared to be better, and I took the third one that appeared to be not as amazing. Right. Guess who?
[0:50:23] Dani Beit-Or: You already know probably which one did the best. Right. And that was unintentional. And I don’t know if it’s karma, I just said, you know, I’ll be okay with you the one. So it’s kind of happened that as well.
[0:50:34] Glenn Harper: I think when you’re good, you’re just good. That’s just the way it is. As there’s nothing else to say. Is there an end game for you? Are you going to keep doing this until you’re a million years old or are you going to do it when you hit the right age of 45?
[0:50:51] Julie Smith: Do you have something else completely in mind that you want to do another passion or dream that you want to put forth effort into?
[0:50:59] Dani Beit-Or: It’s kind of interesting that you’re asking. I’m just kind of going through the process of in recent, not even a year, maybe a year, I’m trying to see how I can pull all that knowledge and experience and the love of sharing and mentorship and kind of shift it to people who are looking to for a mentorship in business. Right. So use all of this because I’ve solved a lot of that issues, a lot of challenges of a business owner. I just solved them as I went along. And now including we even talked about it, how I completely kind of redesigned my CPA accounting system. I know it’s your business and I thought we will have a chance to even share something that your clients could benefit. I always wanted to take that knowledge and say, this is not just real estate, this is business. And now how can I extract it? So that’s a little bit where I am these days. I want to shift over, not shift over, but add another avenue that will leverage on all that experience, knowledge, ability, karma, positivity to help others and benefit from it, but also just leverage on that.
[0:52:09] Glenn Harper: Well, I’m telling you, one of the things we see with entrepreneurs is if they would have just gotten a good advisor and a good CPA and then match up with the attorney after they get with their CPA, that advises them their path is totally different and way better. They just don’t know. They ask. They think it might cost too much. They didn’t realize that’s an investment and it’s something they should do. If they would just get those couple of keys at the beginning, it’s light years ahead of everybody. They don’t have to go through the school hard knocks, but people just don’t want to do that. That’s what we try to do on this side. And if you get to do that, that’s really what people need. And then they can apply that to any type of industry, of course. But if you have it customized for the real estate, I mean, you’re going to hit a home run with that. That’ll be awesome.
[0:52:52] Dani Beit-Or: And I think you guys touched it well on there’s a recent episode about hardship or challenges of entrepreneurs that you talked about how they’re not properly like they’re doing accounting themselves. You said 70% are doing I’m like horrible, horrible. By the way, guys, cut it out of edit. Accounting is very time draining and boring.
[0:53:18] Julie Smith: Oh, no, I second that. We’re on the same page.
[0:53:22] Dani Beit-Or: For me, I could think my time I could use elsewhere. And I’m not good with accounting, so why would I want to spend something that takes a lot of time, a lot of energy and boring?
[0:53:35] Glenn Harper: I mean, I sometimes think I got to get my head examined. But the good news, I don’t do much typing in data. It’s more strategy, thank God, because back in the day, if you put me in a Cost account world, it’d be over. I’d have to quit and do something totally different. Well, I really appreciate you being on the show, Danny. And if we ever get out to the Orange County Fair again, I’m going to look you up because that’s a great fair.
[0:53:59] Julie Smith: We were just there last year.
[0:54:01] Dani Beit-Or: Really?
[0:54:02] Glenn Harper: It was a hoot. Yeah, I love a good fair.
[0:54:04] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah, it is.
[0:54:05] Glenn Harper: Well, if you want to put a little plug in here of how people get a hold of you, I’m sure they might want to reach out.
[0:54:11] Dani Beit-Or: Yeah, absolutely. First of all, thank you guys for the conversation. Pleasure. Truly, truly a pleasure. My web identity and my alter ego, you could say, is called Simply Do It. That’s my company name. Everything online is simply do it. If you just put Simply do it with Danny, simply do it with real estate, very likely you will land on one of our social media outlets, website, et cetera. I try to make myself approachable and soon not talk to you in three months and for ten minutes. That’s not my style. So absolutely, if someone is running a business and they just need a few minutes, even an hour, someone’s listening, like, I just need to brainstorm with someone, I’ll be happy to offer a few hours of just going to see if I can pick your brain. It’ll help you in the process. Or you pick my brain and help yourself in the process. With pleasure.
[0:55:09] Glenn Harper: I just think it’s awesome. You’re an inspiration to everyone. If they can’t listen to this story and make them get off the couch and do something I don’t even know, they have no chance whatsoever. But you’re very motivational. I appreciate you. Again, thank you for coming on.
[0:55:20] Julie Smith: Yes, thank you.
[0:55:22] Dani Beit-Or: Thank you.
[0:55:22] Glenn Harper: Ms. Glenn Harper signing off.
[0:55:24] Julie Smith: Julie Smith.
[0:55:25] Dani Beit-Or: Thanks.
Episode Show Notes
Entrepreneur Dani Beit-Or shares his journey from starting a small business in high school to pursuing his passion for real estate investing in the United States. He discusses his superpower of open communication, listening, and containing difficult situations, and how he uses it to help his clients simplify the real estate investment process.
Dani emphasizes the importance of having good advisors and CPAs for entrepreneurs and offers his expertise and approachability to listeners looking for guidance in their business ventures.
Hear how Dani’s persistence and passion have led to his success in real estate investing and helping others achieve their goals.
