Welcome to another enlightening episode of the Raising Private Money podcast! Today Jay Conner sits down with Jered Sturm, CEO of S&S Capital Group. Jered has transformed his journey from a humble apartment maintenance technician to managing a multi-million dollar portfolio in the real estate multifamily sector. Jered shares invaluable insights about investment strategies, raising private capital, and maintaining a balanced lifestyle amidst the challenges of entrepreneurship.

The Early Days: From Maintenance Technician to Real Estate Mogul

Jered’s journey began 18 years ago in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as an apartment maintenance technician. Fresh out of high school, he and his brother purchased a six-bedroom house and launched a construction company, leveraging their skills in the trades. Initially, they utilized their resources to acquire and improve properties, building a solid portfolio without raising outside capital.

Their business model focused primarily on the advantages of compounding interest and long-term investments. A significant milestone was reached when they secured a cash-out refinance loan on eight of their houses, allowing them to reinvest in additional properties, setting the stage for their success today.

From Small Beginnings to Syndication: The Power of Networking

For the first eight years, Jered and his brother operated without external investors, relying on their resources and grit. However, a pivotal shift occurred seven years into their career when Jered recognized the potential of syndication. Encouraged by exceptional investment results that outperformed traditional retirement funds, they decided to share these opportunities with others.

Jered emphasizes the importance of treating borrowed money with the utmost care, viewing it as a representation of the time and effort invested by the lenders. This philosophy has earned the trust and commitment of investors, with 60% repeatedly participating in multiple deals.

Syndication has allowed Jered’s company to scale significantly, leveraging both personal networks and word-of-mouth to attract investors. Their approach involves contracting specific deals and presenting a comprehensive offering memorandum to investors, detailing the business plan, projected returns, and more.

Infinite Return Model: Forced Appreciation and Long-term Hold Strategy

A key strategy at S&S Capital Group is the infinite return model. Typically, projects are held for an extended period, around ten years, but investors often see their principal returned within 2-3 years due to forced appreciation. This involves modernizing units and executing strategic property management improvements. By doing so, the company can return 100% of the initial investment while maintaining ownership, creating a cycle of continuous, passive income.

The benefits are twofold: investors receive predictable cash flow and returns without actively managing properties, and the company gains financial advantages through economies of scale and operational efficiencies.

Balancing Business and Personal Life: An Entrepreneur’s Guide

Maintaining a balance between personal and professional commitments is a recurrent theme throughout the interview. Jered underscores the importance of intentionality in staying balanced across personal, professional, and spiritual life. He acknowledges that perfect balance is an elusive goal, but the continuous effort towards achieving it is essential for personal growth.

He advises entrepreneurs to leverage their strengths, whether in construction, sales, or analytics, as their unique competitive advantage in the multifamily space. Jay Conner complements this with his father’s philosophy of ‘dictate, delegate, and disappear,’ underscoring the significance of knowing one’s strengths and delegating tasks to maintain focus.

Contact Information and Additional Resources

For those interested in learning more about S&S Capital Group and connecting with Jered Sturm, visit their website at www.snscapitalgroup.com. Jay Conner also offers a free guide on private money in real estate, available at jconner.com/moneyguide, providing further insights into raising private capital.

Conclusion: A Testament to Patience and Strategic Reinvestment

Jered’s story is a testament to the power of patience, strategic reinvestment, and leveraging personal strengths to achieve business success. From humble beginnings to managing $200 million in assets, his journey provides invaluable lessons for aspiring real estate investors. Catch the full episode for detailed insights into multifamily investments and practical advice on balancing life’s multifaceted challenges.

 

10 Discussion Questions from this Episode:

• Investment Approach:

1. 1. • Jered Sturm describes his investment approach as involving the presentation of an offering memorandum to investors. How does this method facilitate investor understanding and confidence in individual assets?

• Infinite Return Model:

1. 1. • Jered’s strategy often returns the principal to investors within 2-3 years while maintaining ownership. Can you discuss the benefits and potential risks of the infinite return model?

• Investor Retention:

1. 1. • With 60% of investors participating in multiple deals, what factors do you think contribute most to this high level of investor retention?

• Transition to Syndication:

1. 1. • How did Jered and his brother’s initial 8-year period without raising capital set the foundation for their successful transition to syndication through personal networking and word-of-mouth?

• Leveraging Personal Strengths:

1. 1. • Jered advises investors to leverage their strengths in the multifamily space. What are some examples of strengths in sales, construction, and analytics, and how can they be used as competitive advantages?

• Balancing Priorities:

1. 1. • Jered emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balance between personal, professional, and spiritual life. Can you discuss the strategies and challenges involved in achieving this balance?

• Delayed Gratification:

1. 1. • How did practicing delayed gratification, as explained by Jered, contribute to the long-term success of their investment portfolio?

• Economies of Scale:

1. 1. • Jered’s focus on being owner-operators of multifamily assets underlines the importance of economies of scale. Can you explore the benefits and challenges of achieving these operational efficiencies?

• Mindset Shift in Raising Capital:

1. 1. • What significant experiences shaped Jered’s mindset about raising outside capital, and how does this mindset influence his current strategies and investor relationships?

• Private Money Lending:

1. • Jay Conner offers a free guide on private money in real estate. How do private money strategies complement Jered’s investment approach, and what can new investors learn from integrating these methods?

 

Fun facts that were revealed in the episode: 

1. Jered Sturm and his brother bought a six-bedroom house straight out of high school, leveraging their skills in trades to kickstart their real estate journey.
2. Initially, they didn’t use any investor funding for 8 years, relying on their construction skills to build a strong portfolio.
3. They returned 100% of investor capital in 2-3 years while maintaining ownership, a strategy known as the infinite return model.

 

Timestamps:

00:01 Raising Private Money Without Asking For It

05:13 Small actions daily define pivotal life moments.

09:26 Found opportunity in multifamily real estate investment.

10:32 Respect capital as exchanged time and life.

15:29 Vertical integration boosts efficiency and investor returns.

17:15 10-year hold, force appreciation, refinance, predictable cash flow.

22:06 Tracking potential investors from experience.

23:53 Identify and leverage personal competitive advantages.

26:39 Entrepreneurs must adapt to maintain life balance.

29:44 Jay’s Free Money Guide: https://www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide

 

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Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $67,000 per deal.

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Achieving Infinite Returns in Real Estate with Jered Sturm and Jay Conner

 

Jay Conner [00:00:01]:

Well, hello, and welcome to another amazing episode of Raising Private Money. I’m your guest. I’m not your guest. I’m your host today. I have a special guest, but I’m your host, Jay Conner, the Private Money Authority. My guest today has only raised about $42,000,000 Wow. And we have some information to talk about today. We’re going to dive deep into how he is going about raising private money, and he has got fantastic experience that he can share with us.

 

Jay Conner [00:00:31]:

Well, he is a prominent multifamily owner operator, and syndicator. He’s the CEO of S&S Capital Group, and check this out, under management, assets under management now are right at $200,000,000 Well, he and his team offer a focused alternative for passive investors in the multifamily space. Now check this out. If you have been listening to any podcast for any length of time, you know Bigger Pockets is like the most popular real estate investing, podcast out there. And my guest has had notable appearances on the acclaimed real estate podcast, Bigger Pockets in just a moment. We’ll be right back, and you’re gonna be meeting Jered Sturm right after this.

 

Narrator [00:01:20]:

If you’re a real estate investor and are wondering how to raise and leverage private money to make more profit on every deal, then you’re in the right place. On raising private money, we’ll speak with new and seasoned investors to dissect their deals and extract the best tips and strategies to help you get the money because the money comes first. Now here’s your host, Jay Conner.

 

Jay Conner [00:01:48]:

Well, hey, Jered. Welcome to the show.

 

Jered Sturm [00:01:51]:

Jay, thank you for having me. I loved the intro and the enthusiasm. You guys are gonna have to send me that sound bite so I can use it. You did a phenomenal job. Thank you.

 

Jay Conner [00:02:00]:

Well, you’re certainly welcome. But, hey, here’s here’s the question. Are you the guest or are you the host?

 

Jered Sturm [00:02:06]:

Let’s just have a back-and-forth. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Jay Conner [00:02:10]:

Oh, my lands. I did not get enough sleep last night. But anyway, welcome to the show, Jered. I love your backstory. Of course, on the show today, we’re gonna talk about, first of all, when you started raising money and syndicating and raising money for multifamily, how did you go about it? What are your favorite ways to attract, you know, funding, new lenders, if you will? And then we’re gonna talk about, your company and the opportunities that you offer. But first of all, I want you to share your story and your journey. I mean, you started as an apartment maintenance technician, and as young as you look, it couldn’t have been that many years ago, and then you transformed and segued into becoming the CEO of a very substantial capital group. Tell us that story.

 

Jered Sturm [00:03:00]:

Yeah. Well, thanks for giving me the platform to share my story, and hopefully it some of your audience because I think it’s a very kind of grassroots organic, relatable story that many of your audience may be at some phase of where I’m at or maybe ahead. So, 18 years ago, I started as a maintenance technician for another landlord here in my market, which is Cincinnati, Ohio. So I was the guy, you know, changing the toilets, painting the apartments, hanging the blinds, doing whatever was needed. That was actually during high school. So my high school fortunately had a program where if you had enough credits, you could work full time. I wasn’t a good student, but I was good in woodshop so I kinda said how am I gonna use this skill set and, got a job making pretty decent money as a maintenance tech, which then allowed me to buy my first house straight out of high school, which was a 6 bedroom house that me and my brother bought together and rented out the other rooms to friends. And, that was 2,008 that we were stumbling into the real estate market and just fortunately some really good timing.

 

Jered Sturm [00:04:03]:

And so using our skill set in the trades, we were growing a construction company and buying distressed houses. And for the 1st 8 years, we did not raise money from investors. We were just buying distressed assets, forcing appreciation, stripping the equity, and then rolling into another small single-family or duplex. And for 8 years, we scaled that up to, you know, a bunch of units under our our ownership with no investors. And then in 2015, we made the transition to shift into the syndication model.

 

Jay Conner [00:04:34]:

So you were one of the first real estate investors, to employ the co-living strategy.

 

Jered Sturm [00:04:44]:

Yeah.  I was making money off, running a frat house. Yep.

 

Jay Conner [00:04:50]:

I hear you. Well, you know, all of us investors and entrepreneurs, have these moments or these experiences along the the line that end up shaping your career. Did you have any pivotal moments or anything happen along the way that shaped, what you have transformed into today?

 

Jered Sturm [00:05:13]:

You know, I’m a big believer that it’s all the little things that add up, and so there’s there’s pivotal moments throughout every single day. It’s like how do you step up to those and how do you sometimes you don’t even realize they’re there until they’ve already passed, and did you capture them or not? And so it’s kinda how you show up every day that I think is pivotal moments. But one thing that’s, like, a profound memory in my story is, you gotta remember I started in 2008. I was 18 years old. I didn’t have a W2 job because I was self-employed, so lenders were not that interested in lending to an 18-year-old, self-employed person with no experience. So it’s a different time in the market. What that meant is the first, 8 houses that we bought, we had to buy all cash and renovate all cash, which was a slow and tedious process, but that’s the route we went. That took us 3 years to accumulate those 8 houses.

 

Jered Sturm [00:06:08]:

And I’ll never forget, like, you’re talking pivotal pivotal moments. It’s a profound moment. 3 years in, we found a little local bank that gave us a 60% cash-out blanket or not yeah. A cash-out blanket finance, on our equity that we had put into these 8 houses that we did all cash. And it was it was a profound moment because it was like, this worked. Right? Like, the check that we got from the loan proceeds was, you know, a healthy six figures. And being a 21-year-old kid that had really deferred a lot of any income and just kind of delaying gratification over 3 years and then seeing that check. The pivotal thing that we did, me and my brother, at the time was we did not go out and buy things that a reckless 21-year-old would buy.

 

Jered Sturm [00:06:57]:

What we did was we went out and bought 10 more houses. And so, it plays into the rest of our story, which is, like, a story of delayed gratification, the story of compounding interest, and a snowball effect of doing the same thing over and over and being disciplined in that approach. And now we sit at, you know, 1400 units here in Cincinnati, Ohio, all from that, maybe one decision to just reinvest and delay that gratification.

 

Jay Conner [00:07:25]:

I love it. I love it. Delayed gratification. I think the first time I saw that in print was in the book that I read when I was in my twenties called The Road Less Traveled. So I appreciate you sharing that part of the story. So when you started raising private money and capital, and attracted, you know, lenders to invest with you, what were some of the mistakes that you started? And you said, you know,  I don’t think I wanna go about it that way. So in other words, lessons learned, mistakes in attracting money, that you would advise a a new real estate investor to avoid.

 

Jered Sturm [00:08:10]:

Okay. Yeah. I can’t say I’m well, let me take a step back. The 1st 8 years, we did not raise money, and, frankly, I didn’t ever think I would. The 1st 8 years, I kinda took the philosophy of, man, we started so young that there’s no need. Right? We have time on our side. We’re just gonna let compounding interest do its part. It’s okay if we go a little bit slower because there’s a long enough runway.

 

Jered Sturm [00:08:34]:

No, no need to dump the fuel on the fire by raising outside capital. What shifted my mindset about 7 years in, when my brother started the company, I have phenomenal parents. Just great parents, always supportive, amazing upbringings. But my mom was a stay-at-home mom. My dad worked the same in the same corporate job for about 30 years doing bookkeeping, which he did a great job at. But he’s the type of person that if you read a financial advice book from 1980, like, he did everything right. Right? So worked a corporate job, and invested in the 401k. And 30 years later, that 401k, like, had been fed to death and hadn’t produced the results that he was looking for to ultimately have the retirement that he wanted.

 

Jered Sturm [00:09:26]:

And we had found around that, like, 7th year in our career, we had found a 16 unit multifamily deal that it was clear to us it was gonna be a very attractive deal and great returns. And we went to our parents and we said, look. We can buy this, but why don’t you guys buy it and we’ll run it? And in 18 months, we did what we did probably 3 times what his 401 k did in 30 years, which allowed my parents to get the lake house they wanted and have the retirement they wanted and retire. And my mindset kinda shifted around that time. It was like, rather than me just saying, oh, I’m young, and so I don’t need to raise money, and I’ll kinda just do the compounding interest effect. I saw it as now this is an opportunity for me to share something that I’m good at, which is forcing appreciation, and running these real estate assets to produce cash flow. And my mindset shifted off, like, this is an opportunity for me to find fulfillment beyond just, like, covering my bills and covering my living expenses. And so really saw it as a shift there.

 

Jered Sturm [00:10:32]:

But your question was, like, advice for new individuals considering raising capital. I think the one thing that people miss so much, and maybe it’s founded in the experience I had with my parents. I think that people forget that, individuals, whether their net worth is 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000, they traded time to earn that capital. And so, really, what you’re what you’re raising is not capital. You’re raising the time that they traded for that capital. And so going back to my story of my dad, like, how many years of his life did he exchange to earn that capital? And then I would advise the new capital raiser, like, think about what you’re raising or borrowing or whatever term you wanna put on it. And what lengths do we go to as a society to save someone’s life for another year, another day, or whatever that might be? And yet we’ll raise, you know, 100 of, 1,000 of dollars from an individual that they might have traded 5, 10 years of their life to earn, and we treat it recklessly as an industry. So just holding that capital to that same standard that you would hold a portion of a person’s life to is good advice for a new capital raiser because I think we can get a little bit too loose with that.

 

Jay Conner [00:11:52]:

I love the analogy. I love the analogy. Think about what the person that you’re borrowing money from had to go through and how long it took, and it shines a light on how you should take advantage, of your of other people’s experience and look after your lenders. Not only is it as if it was your own money, but as if it was your payer’s money. Right? And I and I love the value, the framework that you that you put around that. Now one thing that you mentioned a moment ago is that you’ve gotten good at managing the assets, that you all have under management. So what would one way that you grow the values is you is you have value-adding strategies for these assets? So can you dive a little bit into some of the specific strategies, value-adding strategies, that you implement and how it has made a difference in your portfolio?

 

Jered Sturm [00:13:02]:

Yeah. I think property management and construction are maybe the least funded, least profitable, and most important components of real estate investment. So we want full control of that because our whole investment strategy is to force appreciation. So we’re not waiting for the market to give it to us. We’re buying an asset that has inefficiencies. We’re gonna force that appreciation. And at a high level, it’s gonna, for us, come down to property management and or construction. And so as you get beyond those initial components, it’s gonna be very deal-specific.

 

Jered Sturm [00:13:39]:

Right? So you might be like this one property just needs to go from 19 nineties finishes to more modern finishes. Another example would be, you know, recently, we bought a 246-unit foreclosure with 100 of the units vacant when we made the acquisition. So that’s a more heavy value add that we’re going in and pulling those levers to, not only renovate, but also, you know, fill the units back up with a quality resident base that produces a good community and attracts quality residents that have a long length of length of stay. So, it’s it’s incredibly impactful on the bottom line, that vertical integration and that control of the operations.

 

Jay Conner [00:14:23]:

Makes sense. Makes sense. So how about sharing with the audience your approach to syndication? And, really, how would you say it benefits both the investors and your firm? Mhmm.

 

Jered Sturm [00:14:42]:

So my approach has always been that we are first and foremost owner-operators of multifamily assets here in Cincinnati, Ohio, and secondarily, we are a syndicator. So, let me parse out the distinction here. So there are there this isn’t a matter of right or wrong or me pointing fingers, but there are groups who are just excellent at raising capital. Right? They are their sales and marketing are phenomenal, and they could have raised money for tech. They could have raised money for whatever, industrial real estate. They just happen to choose this one niche. Our core competency, what we’re good at, is operating multifamily assets. We just happen to further that with syndication.

 

Jered Sturm [00:15:29]:

You know, why it’s advantageous for us is it does give us the economies of scale. And so in hindsight, you know, 8 years ago, I thought, oh, we don’t need the capital. But in hindsight, it was very advantageous for us to build out that vertical integration. So as of today, we have 64 employees, you know, a whole construction arm of our company, multiple tiers in the org chart, which gives me freedom and flexibility. It also gives me efficiencies that make us very competitive as a buyer and, produce great financial returns. You know, what’s in it for the investors is at a high level, we only raise money from limited partners being passive investors. And what we’ve seen is we can produce equal to or better returns than they could in an active investment. So if they went out and bought a single-family home, rented it out, and we’re looking to produce cash flow, a lot of times our returns are beating that because this is what we do full time, and we’re just constantly polishing our operations to produce those returns.

 

Jered Sturm [00:16:32]:

So the exchange of value is that we get to build the economies of scale, and the investor gets to benefit from those economies of scale passively. At a high level, I think that’s a good way to distinguish it, but there are lots of other, small benefits as well.

 

Jay Conner [00:16:49]:

Right. So when you have an individual that wants to invest in your company, what length of time typically are they gonna well, really two questions. What length of time are they typically gonna have their investment, with you? And secondly, are they investing in, like, a particular project that you’re working on or more of a general fund?

 

Jered Sturm [00:17:15]:

So our typical strategy is a 10-year hold. So we’re gonna buy an asset that needs that that has that value-added component. We’re gonna go in, force appreciation. Around year 2 or 3, we’re gonna restructure the debt either through a refinance or a supplemental loan. We’re gonna strip out the equity that we force to a safe leverage. Return usually, what we’ve become known for is returning 100% or more of investor capital, but then continuing to run that asset for another 8 to 7 years producing consistent predictable cash flow. So it’s about it it typically is a 10-year model is what we’re doing, which is the longer end of, syndication, But we like again, our investment philosophy is consistent predictable cash flow, and so we want longer term holds and that leans on our competitive advantage of operations. But you had asked, Jay, you asked a 2 part question there.

 

Jered Sturm [00:18:06]:

That reminds me of what the second part was.

 

Jay Conner [00:18:08]:

Yeah. So, how long, right, how long? And secondly, are they investing in a particular project, a particular asset that your company is managing? Mhmm.

 

Jered Sturm [00:18:22]:

The answer to the second part is yes. So we identify a specific deal. We put that deal under contract. We produce an offering memorandum, and then we present that to investors where in that offering memorandum, it will say, here’s why we like the deal. Here’s the business plan behind it. Here’s the debt. Here’s how long we’re gonna own it. Here’s how we think we’re gonna exit it.

 

Jered Sturm [00:18:41]:

Here are the projected returns. So we’re not doing a fund model. We’re not raising capital and then saying, you know, trust us. We’ll go do a good job with it. It’s gonna be specific to one individual asset.

 

Jay Conner [00:18:52]:

Okay. Very good. And so, again, you said you were in it, each project, typically about 10 years. But did I hear you say for the investor, for the lenders that are investing in the project, you look they’re looking to get them, their principal back within what did you say? Within 3 years, or did I misunderstand you?

 

Jered Sturm [00:19:13]:

Yeah. We would outline that all in that offering memorandum that we present upfront. But what what we’ve done well is force appreciation to make that asset worth more. Then we go back to the lender usually around year 2, maybe year 3, depending on how long that repositioning takes. And then we say, you know, hey. This property that we bought for 10,000,000, it’s now worth 20,000,000. Will you lend us 70% of the 20,000,000? And, you know, mister lender says, yeah. That’s great Mister Bank says, yeah.

 

Jered Sturm [00:19:42]:

That’s great. I’ll lend you, you know, 70% of 20,000,000. Well, those loan proceeds, when we’re, you know, stripping out that equity, will allow us to do a return of capital to our investors. A lot of times because we’re good at forcing appreciation, we can return 100% of their initial contribution back, but they continue to have the same ownership percentage in the deal moving forward. And so, you know, a lot of a lot of investors know this as the infinite return model. So when you have no cash in the deal but you keep getting distributions your numerator is 0, but your denominator is something. And so mathematically, it’s an infinite return. Right? And so that allows our investors to repeat invest with us.

 

Jered Sturm [00:20:25]:

Right? If someone comes in, invests $100 with us, and we do our job, we put on new debt, we return that $100 to them, and then they say, well, when’s the next one? Right? And so we’re very proud that, 60% of our investors have participated in 2 or more deals with us. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that we are churning their capital while continuing to own long-term.

 

Jay Conner [00:20:51]:

Right. I would anticipate you have experienced the same thing that I experienced, and that is after I had just a few, private lenders that were, loaning money on our deals, the word started to spread pretty quickly. And so I have not actively sought after new private lenders, investors, in many years, because of the referrals that that we get, you know, just organically and automatically. But when I started it wasn’t like that. So I’m interested in hearing your story. When you and your brother first started raising capital for your projects, how did you get the word out, and how did you go about doing it?

 

Jered Sturm [00:21:36]:

Yeah. It’s a great question. I mean, in the 1st 8 years, we weren’t raising capital, but we were building a solid track record. So I did have that advantage. So when the time came when we wanted to raise capital, you know, we already had 8 years under our belt and a lot of success. And market conditions from 20 or 2008 to 2015 were pretty, favorable for us. So hard work plus great market conditions were producing really strong results. Over those 8 years, you know, we had people reach out and say, you know, hey.

 

Jered Sturm [00:22:06]:

We’re seeing what you’re doing. If you ever raised capital, just let me know. Again, we didn’t think we would, but the wise thing we did was at least keep track of those people in case we ever got into a pinch or in case we ever went, you know, we started up in 2008, 9, 10, so we remembered what it was like when no one was lending money. So we were keeping track of those names. But I’ll give you the story of our very first one. You know, Jay, we made the decision. It was a 93-unit apartment community here in Cincinnati, Ohio. We put the deal under contract.

 

Jered Sturm [00:22:38]:

We made the decision we were gonna syndicate it. I put together the whole offering memorandum. I sent it to 1 investor and said, like, hey. Before I send this out to everyone, I’d love to get your feedback. He reviewed it and responded and said, if you take half of the equity, I’ll take the other half. And we said, great. Let’s do that. And so the syndication wasn’t very, complex on that first one.

 

Jered Sturm [00:23:01]:

But then, you know, he had colleagues and peers, and word-of-mouth spread. And so like you just highlighted for yourself, Jay, like, our whole marketing strategy for expanding that investor pool has been doing a good job, and they’ll tell each other. Right? So we don’t have a complex marketing strategy for, finding new investors. We just produce good results, and they do a good job of finding us.

 

Jay Conner [00:23:31]:

I love it. I love it. So, a portion of our audience here that’s tuning in has an interest in looking into multifamily space. So what advice would you give to an aspiring real estate investor looking to get into the multifamily space that hasn’t even gotten into it at all?

 

Jered Sturm [00:23:53]:

Yeah. I think, you know, I get this question a lot, and I think you have to know what you’re good at. Right? So, like, I was a kid that wasn’t great in school but could always had a natural aptitude for the trades and had that, experience in construction that I could build off of, and so that was my path, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s someone else’s path. And so you might have someone who’s just really great at building relationships, amazing at sales, and, like, their path should be about leveraging that and potentially being the capital raiser for, you know, some some kind of, venture. Right? Or you might have someone who’s just phenomenal at tech and data, and they can run analytics like no other. It’s understanding what is your competitive advantage because at the end of the day, there’s a lot of competition in real estate and we’re all chasing financial returns. How are you gonna have a leg up? And so understanding the answer to that question, I think, is the best starting point, which it’s gonna it’s gonna be a different answer for every single person.

 

Jay Conner [00:24:59]:

Yes. That reminds me of my father. He’s gonna be 91 in 2 months, and he’s still doing deals. He’s in the middle of a 350-new construction single-family house development, halfway built out. When I grow up, I wanna be like him. But he’s been, he’s been known as, he’s been called the 3 d man, which stands for dictate, delegate, and disappear. And what I learned from him is, you know, as you just said, Jered, know what it is that you’re good at, and what do you enjoy doing? And get out of the way, and let somebody else do that, all that other stuff. Jered, I have one last question for you, and this is my favorite question, that I will have asked you in this interview.

 

Jay Conner [00:25:44]:

And I know your background. I know family is very, very important to you. Community is very, very important to you. My guess is the spiritual side of your life is probably important to you as well. And with those things being the case, one question that I get from and I run, you know, a mastermind group. I’m in an I’m a member of, more than one mastermind group myself. And one thing that I hear real estate investors struggling with is how to balance the business life, the personal life, you know, all of us entrepreneurs are driven, driven, driven. Well, most of us have shiny object syndrome.

 

Jay Conner [00:26:28]:

And so the question is, how do you balance all those different areas of your life? And what advice would you have for others who would like to get more balance in their life?

 

Jered Sturm [00:26:39]:

Yeah. I, like all other entrepreneurs, struggle through this, but I think that’s kind of the answer. Right? It’s the willingness to course correct when you get out of balance because there are absolutely times when you have to go over into one of those pillars or one of those buckets more than would be sustainable. But course correcting and understanding your intention to be correctly balanced will help you get back there. Right? So if you just get stuck in a rut and you’re a workaholic and you never spend time with your family or never take care of yourself or never, you know, spend the time to maximize your spiritual life, then, like, what It’s it’s the ability to have an intention and then get back on track because no one’s gonna be like, oh,  I got the balance right, and let me tell you exactly how to do that. That person’s probably trying to sell you something. And so there are times when, I go further into spending time with my kids and with my family and with my wife, and I say, oh, the business needs me back. Right? I gotta rebalance.

 

Jered Sturm [00:27:45]:

And then there are certainly times when I’m too involved in the business, and I say I need to get back into family and all the other pillars of life. And so it’s these, it’s this goal of, like, if you ask me where do I wanna be 5 years from now, I want I just wanna be a better version of myself. And so I’m very proud of who I am today, but I think, expanding on each of those pillars is gonna be essential for me to be a better version of myself. And  I only invest in one of them. I will become out of balance, and I will not be a better version of myself. And so long term, the advice is to continue to have intentionality and continue to be okay with the idea that it won’t ever be perfectly imbalanced, but you’re gonna put forth the effort to get yourself back.

 

Jay Conner [00:28:30]:

Jered, I appreciate you taking your filter off and being, transparent, and sharing what’s really coming from your heart. How can the audience get in touch with you and learn more about, the opportunities to invest and to, learn more about your world?

 

Jered Sturm [00:28:48]:

So S&S Capital Group is our website, and I think that would be the best place to start to get to know us better. And there are certainly, on that website, options to reach out. And then we’d have our, you know, different social media platforms where we share more about what’s going on in our world. But, the website’s a great place to start, and I’d love to connect with anyone so I can be of value to them.

 

Jay Conner [00:29:10]:

Alright. Well, the website and the connections will be in the show notes. But for all of you who are listening, Jered’s website is www.snscapitalgroup.com.  Again, that’s www.snscapitalgroup.com.  Again, that’s www.snscapitalgroup.com. Jered, thank you so much for joining me. I enjoyed getting to visit with you.

 

Jered Sturm [00:29:35]:

Yeah, Jay. Thank you so much. And anyone else who’s in the background producing and giving me the platform to share my story, I thank you for your time and energy.

 

Jay Conner [00:29:44]:

You’re certainly welcome. Well, there you have it, my friend. Another amazing episode of Raising Private Money with Jay Conner. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you. If you’re listening on one of your favorite podcast platforms, be sure to follow me so you don’t miss out on upcoming episodes. And if you happen to be watching on YouTube, be sure to subscribe and ring that bell so you don’t miss out.

 

Jay Conner [00:30:08]:

I look forward to seeing you right here on the next episode of Raising Private Money with Jay Conner.

 

Narrator [00:30:17]:

Are you feeling inspired by the knowledge you gained in this episode? Then head over to www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide.  That’s www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide, and download your free guide that shares seven reasons why private money will skyrocket your real estate investing business right now. Again, that’s jconner.com/moneyguide to get your free guide. We’ll see you next time on raising private money with Jay Conner.