Billy Skeels has 25+ years of experience both in the Corporate World and Commercial Estate. He is also a father, a husband, a corporate person who has been doing enterprise application software sales, and a Podcast host of “Going Long Podcast with Billy Keels”.
In 2013, he was inspired to start his own company which focuses on aggregating capital for the purpose of investing it in real assets such as smaller multifamily units, apartment complexes, mobile home park communities, ATM machines, and equipment used in the energy sector in various locations across the USA.
He can also speak five different languages. Incredible!
Watch the episode here:
Listen to the podcast here:
Building a CRE Investment Bridge Between 2 Worlds with Billy Keels
Brett:
I’m excited about our next guest. He’s going to help us bridge the gap between the two worlds of commercial real estate investing and talk about a journey about how he just started his 506(c) investing platform and also, he has a tremendous background in the corporate world, as well as the commercial real estate world. In fact, he was inspired in 2013 to start his own company, which focuses on aggregating capital for the purpose of investing in real assets such as smaller apartment communities, as well as mobile home parks. And he also has a focus on ATM machines, which is gonna be really interesting. Please welcome the show with me, Billy Keels. Hi Billy, how are you doing?
Billy:
Brett, man, it’s nice to nice to see you and glad we’re gonna get a chance to share another conversation, man.
Brett:
Absolutely. A pleasure to be on your show your podcast, which we can plug right now as well. What’s the name of that podcast?
Billy:
The Going Long Podcast with Billy Keels. And yes, you’re our guest on episode number 67. So everyone should definitely check that out where you left lots and lots and lots of knowledge.
Brett:
Excellent. Absolutely. Well, let’s dive right into your story. Would you give us a little bit more about your background and your current focus?
Billy:
Yeah, sure, man. Happy to talk about that. So as you mentioned before, I am a guy from the Midwest originally, who is now calling a Spain home. And I’ve been over here now for the last 15 years in Spain in the last 20 years in Europe. And yeah, I mean, basically had a chance to work and travel throughout some 50 different countries. That was phenomenal. When I was living in the US, and then I moved to Paris, France, I was there for quite a while for about a year, and then moved down to the South of France. And then I moved to Italy for a while got married in Spain, and in 2008, a couple of kids and so I am a father, husband, and someone who’s still working in the corporate world have been doing enterprise application software sales, so pretty demanding day job, and have fallen in love, as you mentioned before, since 2013, with investing long-distance so living wherever you want to live in the world, I believe you can do that and be able to invest where it makes sense for you and your plan. And, and I’ve really fallen in love with real assets. So I’m sure we’re gonna get a chance to talk a little bit more about that during our conversation.
Brett:
Absolutely. I love the W to corporate gig, you’re still doing right and investing and the podcast and the father and married right? So there’s a big misconception of you can’t do it. All right, I can’t, I can’t go start my 506(c), you know, I can’t still be in the corporate, you know, high demanding job and then still invest in real estate. So we’re gonna dive into those secrets here in a minute. But before we go there, you know, I believe Billy, we’ve all been given certain gifts in this life. Some people call them superpowers, some people call them strengths. You know, I want you to go back maybe to the high school days, maybe the college days, right? And I want you to picture yourself and someone speaking into your life, and they’re saying, Billy, you have these gifts or these strengths, you should really, you know, you kind of had an epiphany moment. Oh, I mean, I do. That’s maybe what I’ve been given. So I believe that your God-given gifts again, some people call them superpowers. So I’m curious, what does that one or two strengths or gifts that you believe you were given? And how does that help how you help people today?
Billy:
I love that question. By the way, it’s just phenomenal. And first of all, would be as a kid growing up. And if I look back on my high school self from where I am today, I was given a gift that I did not realize when I was moving around or when our parents moved us around, and number one that was having the ability to, to recognize the situation and be able to adapt, right. And so my parents really were big believers in putting us in situations where we were different taking us out of our comfort zones. And as a result, I felt really uncomfortable about that as a child. But as of today, it’s one of the biggest advantages or gifts, that that that I have, right? So being able to recognize the situation and adapt to that situation. And then number two, I would say is being able to be someone who connects other people. So it’s something that I have, maybe that’s a derivative of being able to get into a place, recognizing where you can connect multiple people that are, you know, looking for similar things, different things and but more than anything else, they’re going to be able to add value to one another. So those are like the two that come off the top of my head right now.
Brett:
Excellent. Yeah, adaptability and connection as well. And as a part of that, I think I read in your bio, you speak five different languages, right and incredible. And by the way, what are these two worlds? Well, part of the world’s Europe and the other part of the world is, is the United States. Right. And I think originally from the Midwest, Billy, yeah. And so that’s kind of a unique part of that whole story as well, you want to just touch on, on how those two worlds are kind of colliding for you and helping people connect commercial real estate investing?
Billy:
Yeah, sure. So I guess at its core, those two worlds connected, and the best representation of that is, is our children, right? My wife is from Europe, I’m from the United States. And our children are fortunate enough to be able to share those multiple cultures, different continents, and languages. Now, I took a bit of a harder route to learn five languages, I’ve also made lots and lots and lots of mistakes. As a result, sometimes I say I’ve made millions of mistakes, to be able to get to a level of fluency in those five different languages. So I guess I’m not really afraid to make mistakes. And I really want to be able to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. And yeah, and by being able to do things, be able to work through things, and I’m a recovering perfectionist, right? So that’s something that’s also pretty, pretty, pretty unique, I would say.
Brett:
Absolutely. So let’s dive right into some of those secrets, by the way of getting out of your own way, right, maybe delegating, maybe building a team, or just starting things right when others would say there are reasons not to start right kind of my story at five kids, right? To podcast, commercial real estate broker, deferred sales trust, you know, capital gains tax founder, on that side of things. And a lot of ways I could say, you know, I don’t I can’t do that, or it’s too much. But I imagine you too, as well, multiple languages. To connect the dots of what’s the best secret that you found Billy, to be able to do more? Right? What are those false beliefs that you had to overcome? Right? And what can you share with our audience today about that?
Billy:
So I’m a big believer in the power of and, and just as you said, I’m doing this and doing that I’m working a corporate job, and being a father and a husband and building my own business and helping investors, etc, etc. So and I think because of that, I am constantly focused on what are the things that I can do to stretch myself right and talked about the five languages before and now it is about what can I do to really go out and help to solve problems for my investors in the evening, and for the clients in a multinational that I work for during the day. And I guess one of the things that I’m very fortunate because of this power of and is, over the last 25 years, I’ve worked in very demanding sales and sales leadership roles in some of the market-leading companies in the software space and in the hardware space. And I’ve been given access to some of the best training done in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, done in Latin America worked in roles all around the globe. And so what I’ve started to realize, Brett is that having had this opportunity, and have this amazing training and access to some of the world’s brightest people, I’m now using those same skill sets, to actually go out, listen to my investors, be able to help solve the problems that they’re looking for. And they’re not just money, money problems, right? Sometimes people talk about, like, when you’re getting a return, it’s just the best financial return. And it’s really not that it’s about being able to listen, sit down, understand what the investors are potentially looking to do. And being able to come up with a plan that is unique to their specific situation. And so when I look back on that it maybe even touches on some of the superpowers that we talked about before, is being able to leverage all of those 25 years of experience, and be able to go out and help in my own business, solve the problems and situations for my current investors and prospects.
Brett:
Excellent. So taking that training, taking that knowledge, taking that diverse background of different places, different folks different in different even software and hardware, and then saying, hey, how do I apply all of that’s been invested into me, right to now apply it to commercial real estate investing, which is my favorite. So let’s dive right into that. So walk us through this. You just got the 506(c), walk us through and listeners for what that is, and the vision for how you want to help others invest in commercial real estate.
Billy:
Yeah, sure. So and I’ll tell you about what the 506(c) is and also to and I know one of the things that you’ll talk about, we’re gonna talk about some different examples of my life examples, right? We’re not giving anybody advice or anything like that. We’re just talking through examples. So anything that we’re talking about, definitely go and make sure that you’re talking to your, your team so that they can help you to once again contour whatever issue you’re trying to solve and make sure that it’s specific to you that that’s the first point. The other thing is also, you know, someone who is I’m someone who has been fortunate enough not only to be able to actively take a leadership role or as a, as a general partner, a key partner, and for something like a 506(c), and I’ll talk about what that is in just a second, but also to as a high paid and salary earner during the day. One of the things that are really important to me is making sure Brett that not only myself but helping others to realize that your capital should always be on the treadmill like it should always be working out no matter what. And so, one of the other things that I’ve actually found out about over the last couple of years is passive investing. So I actually choose to both actively invest. So I’m bringing forward certain syndications as well as invest with other people so that once again, my capital is constantly moving. So if we come back to what your question was, initially, kind of what’s on the radar, and what are we doing, and you also mentioned the 506 (c). So for those of you that are not familiar, a 506 (c) is an exemption for private placement for accredited investors and accredited investors. There are, I think, three different definitions. And then once again, you want to look this up, it’s actually on the irs.gov website. But basically, someone who has more than or earns more than $200,000 a year if they’re filing individually $300,000 as a couple, and for the previous two years, and is expected to do that in the current year. And that’s one way the other is by net worth. And so you can also be an accredited investor by being someone who has over a million dollars worth of net worth, not including your primary residence. And then there are some new ways that you can do that through taking tests and things like that. But like I said, Go look all that up on the IRS website. And there’s lots of information around what accredited investors are and how you achieve that status on Google. So that’s the one thing then you also mentioned specifically, towards the end of last year finished the first part of a $1.5 million raise, which closed at the end of the year. And we were doing that helping people that are interested in being able to participate in socially conscious investments. And being able to create double-digit returns for themselves and also being able to really help to make the tax obligation around ordinary income more efficient. Now, there are ways that we’ve gone about doing that. But that is absolutely one of the most exciting things that that we did to wrap up the end of 2020.
Brett:
So let’s dive into an actual example. And I don’t know if you’ve closed on any of that those funds for those deals for the 1.5 million or anything yet. But what you’re seeing right now is an opportunity, can you give us kind of an example there?
Billy:
Yeah, sure, Brett. So what I actually thought that one of the things that this would help or what would be really attractive to people that were high wage earners, right, people that are earning multiple, six-figure salaries is there’s typically you’re going to find that there’s a desire to want to create returns, and those returns are, you know, depending on what the risk-adjusted rate is for that person, you know, if you can do an acceptable double-digit return, that’s fantastic. But what we also found was there are very few opportunities in the marketplace where you can also help to help on earned income or ordinary income. And so this particular opportunity really helps you to achieve double-digit returns and at the same time, it can help you to, to minimize or right size, your tax obligation on the earned income. And so for those are for the earned for the high wage earners. And then also for those people that had money that is locked up in 401K’s or IRAs, which once again, as you know, Brett and your audience knows, that’s also ordinary income, because once you take that money out, then you’re taxed at ordinary income rates, which is typically the highest type of rate. So when we had when we saw that there were people over 59 and a half specifically, it was the most interesting because there’s not an additional 10% penalty. They’re looking at these opportunities thinking themselves. Okay, well, excellent. So I have a capital that I want to get out and we’ll use an example that’s $200,000. Right? Let’s say that someone has $200,000, it’s part of a larger portfolio or not, you know what, since you’re in California, let’s choose a California example. Because I think this will be interesting. So let’s imagine you have 5 million or $6 million in your IRA and 401k. Between them. And you decide, hey, listen, I want to bring half a million dollars out and place it in an investment. Well, typically, when you pull that half a million dollars out, if you were to take it out at one time, of course, you can pull it out as a gross number, and you can then place that somewhere else. But in the back of your mind, right? If you’re living in California, right? You have the 37% before and now it’s gonna look like it’s gonna go back to 30 39.6. But let’s just say between state and federal tax, it’s 50%. Right?
Brett:
Reasonable depreciation recapture depending on stuff and depend on your income, it could. Yeah, I wouldn’t say 30 to 50% is kind of the range.
Billy:
Okay, perfect. So we’re just gonna use 50%, just to keep things very simple. So on that 500,000, you know that you’re going to have a tax obligation of 250,000, because of the ordinary income tax, well, if you are able to actually use that, that gross for that 500,000 and place it in the type of investment that will allow you to not only create a return but also let’s say you get a double-digit return on that 500,000. But most importantly, it’s the type of opportunity that you would place it in that would allow you to also be able to write off a large portion of that $250,000 because it’s against ordinary income. So in essence, we’re helping people that have a problem, which is, you know, that would be a problem for that person that has money that’s locked up in a 401k, or an IRA that they would like to get access to. And they don’t want to have a large tax penalty. And so this type of opportunity is one that is a solution for that particular type of person, right? It’s not for everybody. But that person is looking for that specific type of opportunity to gain access to funds that are in a 401k or an IRA. Or maybe they’re just a high-wage earner, and they want to be able to get better returns and not have to have the same tax obligation. So that’s basically what we’ve been what we closed at the end of last year, and also focused on moving forward to hopefully that example, Brett was concrete enough. And at least from an exam perspective, gives an idea.
Brett:
Yeah, and the thought here is always to be increasing and adding to like to say the Dream Team, right? In every specialist in different areas in different times. By the way, Billy and I are both passive investors in multiple different deals with different operators, right at different locations, different product types. We both love apartments. We both love mobile home parks. I also love assisted living. And now we’re learning about ATMs. And I’m learning about laundry mess a little bit too for another buddy of mine. But I want to focus here on ATMs, because you have a little bit of experience in that. So walk us through just maybe one of the most understood strategies to invest in ATMs. What is it? And what are you seeing out there? And what should we know?
Billy:
Yeah, exactly. So and as an ATM, I am a passive investor, right, and these types of opportunities. So and it’s once again, making sure that the capital is running and moving as much as possible. And, you know, having had access to other people that are that I didn’t even know anything about ATMs, right, I was thinking to myself, well, I don’t typically use ATMs a lot every once in a while I do. But I’m not I wouldn’t consider myself to be a heavy user of ATMs. And although it’s like everything else, like I also my company owns a mobile home park. But, you know, what I want to be able to do is provide a service for someone and help someone to solve a particular issue. So for a number of people, especially in the United States that are still using continue to use and the amount of money that we are continuing to print, it’s no doubt that we’re going to continue to use ATMs to access cash and a number of other things. But what I was looking for in my own particular portfolio, Brett was something that could provide a solid cash flow, meaning that I could get a have received capital, right receive cash flow on a monthly basis, and at the same time, be able to look for strong tax benefits. And when you think about an ATM machine, really it is a real estate play at the end of the day, because you have a physical structure, a real asset that is sitting on a particular plot of land. And that plot of land someone is receiving rent for it being on that land, right in terms of payment. And then every time someone uses an ATM machine, there’s typically at the bottom there you see that transaction fee. Well, that transaction fee is then split between the operator, the between the person that actually is using the space in between someone like myself who’s investing in these assets. So because it was something that I was looking for, for that part of my portfolio, Brett, the ATM machine was the ATM investment, right was something that absolutely made sense for me, in my situation at that point in time. And it’s something that I’m really happy that I was able to take part in every single month. I’m very happy that that that is part of my portfolio.
Brett:
Beautiful. Yeah, I’d love to pick your brain after the show. And yeah, definitely where to go with that. So now I want to connect the two worlds, right? The name of the show or the title of the show is basically Building a Commercial Real Estate Investment bridge referring to two Worlds. So part of its demographics or a part of its location, I guess I would say right to continents. But also part of it too is you probably know and they were listened to they kept on that. It’s the W two world right and the 5063 worlds not a lot of people have been able to do that. Right? And so you’re connecting and bridging these two worlds of kind of corporate traditional 401 K’s, IRAs, you know, maybe some kind of real estate investing, right? But now you’re saying no, no, I’m gonna do it, you know, and go big on this. So you Connect just that the strategy and the vision there for the corporate person who wants to become wealthy using real estate.
Billy:
Yeah, so and I love that question and just to kind of get to the crux of it. So and as I mentioned, as someone who is a, I am a happy corporate employee, right. And I think one of the reasons that, that you can be a happy corporate employee because there are many people that love or really like the job, but at a certain point, because of so many different obligations outside of the job. It’s almost like they dread going into the role every single day. And, and I guess one of the things I was in that I was in a similar kind of position, but it was more frustrating because I was doing everything that I was supposed to do, right, Brett, I mean, I, I’d got the good grades, I was in the corporate roles, I was looking to be promoted and move up to move up the org chart and all these kinds of things. But two things really made a huge, huge difference in my life in 2000, when I was doing all the right things, and putting my money in my 401k, all of a sudden, the stock market kind of went down, right for 2000 whatever. And it took a while to get back. And then around 2008 2009, my portfolio just crashed, like 33% of my portfolio value just tanked. And so I got hit in the gut, I was thinking to myself, you know, I’m doing all the things that I’m supposed to do, I’m, you know, I’m rising the corporate ladder, I’m doing this, I’m doing that I’m maxing out my 401k I had my IRA. And the responses kept being well, you know, just stay hang on there, we’re gonna do some dollar cost averaging or average dollar costing and stuff like that. And I thought, well, hang on a second, I want to have more control. And so like many people that I’m sure you’ve talked to have come across the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that completely changed my mind, right? completely changed the mindset. And so afterward, I thought, you know, how can I do this so that I can still enjoy the job because I enjoy being able to solve those huge enterprise-wide types of issues? And at the same time, how can I get more control over my financial life? And so when I read that, and I had my first exposure to real estate, cuz I don’t come from a family where I had a real estate or real assets was not even really there. Like being able to save was kind of like the big thing at that point in time. But then I started realizing, okay, well, let me learn more about this. And I started reading more books and listening to podcasts and getting involved in groups and starting meeting people in networks. And then I bought my first property there, a small duplex, and then I bought another quad Plex and another quad Plex. And all of a sudden, I started thinking, wow, if I actually use all a lot of the things that I’m doing in my corporate life, the analysis, the team building, and making sure that this person is on the team, and they’re in doing that, while I’m living in Spain, in the team is in the United States, and started realizing that we were creating strong cash flow, right, while I was working my day job, I mean, I’ve worked really, really long hours for a really long time, right? I’m not gonna say that it’s easy, would never pretend to, but you know, what, when I realized that, I can go into my day job, because I want to go into the day job, because the things outside of the office, the financial life, it’s prospering, right, I mean, it working really hard, building the team, making sure that the team is constantly moving things forward. But now every day, when I go into my corporate job, you know, Brett, I go into the corporate job, because I want to be there, in I don’t worry about the fact that this has to be done, and this other bills happening and the other things happening, because the part of my portfolio that I actually control, and now I’m fortunate to be able to also help others that are investing within but alongside me, helping them to achieve their goals. It’s just it is at the end of the day, the power of and, and, and being able to do that help other people achieve their goals, financial and otherwise, and still be able to work at a corporate job. I mean, I just, it’s something that I feel very, very fortunate to be able to do.
Brett:
It’s an entrepreneurial dream, right, I think and I think that’s the beauty of, persevering, and figuring out a creative way, and then building that team getting out of the way, delegating those things, right. And you got it really, really, really forced the delegation, especially when you’re in Spain, and they’re there in the US and you’re getting the vision, right, you shoot the strategy, and then you’re finding the right team players to fit. I have assistants, overseers that right now as well as the virtual assistants, right, and, and it’s a world where it was new, and hey, by the way, I’m a control freak, too, right? I want to be in control. But I had to learn to this let go and get out of my own way. And I could say it like this. You got to learn to hire the who instead of being the how, right to get stuck in what’s called a procrastination cycle of always trying to just, you know, do it ourselves, right. And someone else can do it cheaper, you know, no one else is good as me but you’re limiting your ability to build your business, right? You might buildings, you saving some income on your personal side, but you’re not building that team that business. So I think that’s almost Unlike a whole nother episode that we could go into just on that subject alone, but I want to touch on the Robert Kiyosaki part of the cashflow quadrant and Rich Dad Poor Dad. Yep. If you haven’t read the book, get the book tomorrow and read it. It’s life-changing for everyone I’ve ever heard hear about it. And essentially, there are four quadrants. And the question is, what quadrant Are you in? Are you trading your time for dollars, or you’re getting $1 to give you time, right and there’s a business side, investor side, W two side, and self-employed side. And when you can start to move over your equity and move it into assets that are producing and get a diversified income stream coming in from multiple different places, whether it be apartment complexes, whether it be you know, mobile, home parks, ATMs, your W two job, your other business here, you start to diversify, therefore it takes that pressure off. And so Billy, like he was saying the web part, he’s not so concerned. I mean, he still loves it, he does it because he loves it. But he’s not so concerned about having to count everything with the stock market and those investments because he knows he’s got some financial freedom over here Is that a fair summary?
Building a CRE Investment Bridge Between 2 Worlds: “To be an investor you must be a believer in a better tomorrow.” Benjamin Graham
Billy:
Really, it is the one thing I would say I would make a slight change. I don’t love my corporate anymore. And if I said that, I shouldn’t say that. It’s a very strong thing. I really like it. Like I am a happy person, what I’ve realized. And this is also part of the power of and is what I really love is being able to help my future investors, I really love being able to go out and network and build that part of my business. And so I am happy when I go into my corporate role because I choose to be there not because I have to be there. And I think that’s huge, that’s a huge difference. And also to one of the things that sometimes happens, Brett is when when when when you’re working in a corporate role, you just get into the rut, and you forget that you can really be learning so many valuable skills that you can then use later, like one of the things people have been freaking out with the whole pandemic and working remotely and things like that. I mean, I’ve been working remotely for the better part of 15 years, like in the corporate role, but because I’ve been doing that, and working across Europe, Middle East, and Africa, via phone via zoom, but this whole transition, it was really, it wasn’t difficult for me in my own business, because we are between two continents, and now have team members that are in four or five different countries, right, that are doing everything from helping me with the podcast and helping me with the bookkeeping, to helping me with all of the things that I’m not best suited to do. I had didn’t really go through that whole suffering like that I couldn’t do it because I had to use technology, because that’s what I’ve been doing. And that’s what part of this part of what the corporate role allowed me to do is to be able to use these types of technologies in a better way to ultimately be able to better serve.
Brett:
My clients absolutely make an impact, right. That’s the key you’re taking in the town. So you’ve been given, and you’re going out and you’re helping and you’re helping pull other others up and make an impact for them. And so I Love it. Love it. Love it. We’re running out of time now. So we’re going to move into the lightning round. Are you ready?
Billy:
I am ready.
Brett:
All right, biggest frustration when it comes to capital gains tax deferral options, it could be temporary or exchange. It could be there are no good quality deals and opportunity zones anymore. It could be I didn’t know what the deferred sales trust. And now I do and I’m frustrated that I didn’t know how to pay tax. So what’s your biggest frustration when it comes to capital gains tax for options?
Billy:
Yeah, I think just in general, when you don’t know what you don’t know, right. Before I before you and I had a conversation on episode 67 of my podcast, I didn’t really know that much about the DST right, as we talked about it at that point in time. So I think that’s the biggest issue is when you don’t know what you don’t know because then you can have major issues with your capital gains tax.
Brett:
You got a great, great answer. I couldn’t agree more by going to capitalgainstaxsolutions.com to learn about the deferred sales trust in different options. Next question number one book you’ve recommended or gifted Billy the most in the past 12 months?
Billy:
Well, good question. That would be Return to Orchard Canyon by Ken McElroy.
Brett:
Great. Favorite leadership quote or theme that you strive to live by.
Billy:
Start before you’re ready.
Brett:
So true. Right. What’s the biggest obstacle you’re currently facing right now?
Billy:
Scaling my business in a way that is continuing to personalize every single interaction that we have at scale. It’s being able to scale in a way that is effective and efficient
Brett:
Effective, efficient, and still personalized for your clients and partners. What is the biggest opportunity you see for the future of 2021?
Billy:
Being able to connect with more people. I mean, because of where I see that there are so many people that want to do things that are not just about the return, but doing things that are socially responsible, being able to create a return feel good about that, and also be able to help. What I think is a group of people, which are high wage earners, which most people think that there are no issues with highway or, or with high wage earners. But there definitely is. And I see an opportunity here to be able to help high-wage earners, not just earn more money, but be able to also keep more of their capital so that they can then go out and use their time in the way that they really want to use it.
Brett:
Beautiful, love it. Last question and I’ll wrap it up. And this kind of, hopefully, encompasses a little bit about your backstory you’ve persevered through, and all the accomplishments that you’ve been able to do and achieved so far. And it’s this, how do you stay centered Billy, in your values? And how do you stay encouraged to reach for new massive goals?
Billy:
And so the number one thing that I do, and this is just is super tactical, very, very tactical, I mean, you could talk about the plans that you make for the year and look in all the different axes. Now. It’s something that I’ve started taking on board, but I really love spending the first hour of the day by myself. And I spend that first hour of the day going through how Elrod savers and I’ve been doing that for I don’t know how many years. And the reason for that is it allows me to set the day and the tone in a way that makes the mess the most sense for me. And so that without a doubt is the first thing and then the way that I stay grounded is I have two sons and a wife that really look in depending on me, especially my sons, I realized the importance of them now being 9 and 11. And the things that I do, whether I’m aware or not, that impact their lives. And so I’m very aware and conscious of the fact that they are now watching and repeating and doing things that I wasn’t really aware of before and in the fact that I’m aware of that really helps to keep me grounded to make sure that I’m focused on and doing the right things. And because at the end of the day when life is, you know, when I’m no longer going to be here, I want to know that I made the right impact on my children, and also on my wife that they look to say, wow, you know what, I’m really glad that dad and my husband was a part of my life for the amount of time that he was here.
Brett:
Beautiful, great way to end the show. And for our listeners who want to learn more about you, Billy, what’s the best place for them to find you?
Billy:
I would love for people to connect with me on LinkedIn. And definitely let me know that you saw me here speaking with Brett on the Capital Gains Tax and Solutions Podcast and I would love for you to be able to do that. You can also go to my website, billykeels.com. And if anybody wants to know anything specifically about the Energy Stuff, please feel free to send me an email at energy@ billykeels.com.
Brett:
Beautiful. Well, thanks Billy for being on the show. I want to thank you for sharing part of your story and giving us a lot of wisdom and a lot of inspiration. I want to encourage you to keep using the gifts of adapting and the gifts of connecting with others’ right to make a difference and impact in this world. And with that, I also want to thank our listeners for listening to another episode of the Capital Gains Tax and Solutions Podcast. As always, we believe most high net worth individuals and those who help them. They struggle with clarifying their capital gains tax deferral options, not having a clear plan is the enemy, and using improving tax deferral strategies such as the deferred sales trust, or getting with Billy to invest in some ATMs, mobile home parks, multifamily just may be the best way for you to grow your wealth. With that please Rate, Review, Subscribe, share this with somebody who can be an inspiration to you. So appreciate you. Goodbye, everybody.
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About Billy Keels
Before becoming a real estate entrepreneur, KeePon Cashflow’s founder Billy Keels worked in the corporate world. In fact, he was one of the best “corporate soldiers” you’d ever want to meet. During his corporate career Billy put his leadership and relationship-building skills to good use to help clients get to the root of issues that were holding them back from full success. Billy earned his stripes as a true problem-solver, a skill he carried into his new entrepreneurial life.
What made him popular with employers who sent him across the globe to meet with Fortune 500-level clients is the same thing that makes him popular with investors, buyers, and sellers in real estate today… his skills in coming up with real solutions that work in the real world for real people!
Billy says that he was happy enough in his J.O.B., but something was missing. An emptiness and longing for a different life chewed on him, pulling him to what he knew he wanted to do more than anything else. Billy wanted to be an entrepreneur who brought two worlds together. He wanted to give individuals where he lives the chance to invest in properties on U.S. soil. Today Billy is an international real estate entrepreneur, problem-solver, author, coach, and mentor. He sees opportunities where others often don’t in real estate.
