The Everyday Millionaire Show
Ryan Greenberg and Nick Kalfas are two Maryland based business owners and investors. Ryan and Nick discuss topics such as basics of financial literacy, building businesses, investing, and real estate. This podcast is for people looking to achieve financial freedom.
The Everyday Millionaire Show
He Left Law To Become A Real Estate Agent (ft. Krys Benyamein)
What if renting your primary home is the smartest move you can make in a seven-figure market? We welcome Krys Benyamein, a first-generation American who walked away from a public defender career to join his family’s Southern California brokerage, and he brings the kind of grounded clarity that cuts through housing hype. From LA County’s “million-dollar doesn’t feel like a million” reality to the psychology of leaving a prestige title, Krys shares a blueprint for building wealth and a life you actually like.
Krys explains why he rents a $7k home instead of taking on an $11k mortgage, preserving capital and flexibility while holding low-rate assets that appreciate. Along the way, we connect ultrarunning and rock climbing to entrepreneurship—big goals are easy to announce and hard to resource, and the real work is designing a life that can carry them.
Welcome to the Everyday Millionaire Show with Ryan Greenberg and Dick Calvin. So guys, we are here just before 6 a.m. We have a new sponsor for the podcast, Stop Dog Supplement. They just sent us some pre-workouts, some creatine. I've been taking this every day before the gym. Got to do a about a mile and a quarter swim workout this morning and then just some biceps. This has always been a great pump the last couple weeks. Hasn't been too jittery. A lot of free workouts that take me the jitters. This has been good. It's pretty tasty. I have the blue, blue raspberry. Definitely strong tasting, but it's pretty delicious. And then we have our creatine here as well. So I'm going to take one scoop of the creatine with my free workout. Unflavored creatine. I like it better that way. If you uh looking for new supplements, try some out, Stuff Dog. They are local to Maryland. So they hooked us up and look forward to a long-term sponsorship with them. All right, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Everyday Millionaire Show. We are here with Chris Benjamin. Did I say that right? Nailed it. Let's go. Let's go. That's nailed it. That's tough. That's the one of the hardest parts of uh having a podcast is saying everybody's name right. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Chris, where are you originally from? Or where are is your family from originally?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Um the name, my family, we're from Egypt. My sister and I are first generation Americans. So my sister and I were born in Southern California, and uh my mom and dad immigrated from Egypt uh in the 80s.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. Heck yeah. That's and and they landed, you guys landed in California originally, or have you guys traveled?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, man, it's crazy. I think this is like a lot of immigrants or a lot of different countries, groups of people migrate one place. So a lot of Egyptians, I think in the 80s were coming to Los Angeles and they immigrated to Southern California. And in fact, where my real estate office is the city of Norwalk, Southeast LA. This is down the street from where my mom landed in the 80s. So it's interesting uh to see, you know, how close you stay to where you fall so many years ago.
SPEAKER_02:Um, that's that's interesting. So you're uh I didn't do my research either. So are you you're in real estate sales?
SPEAKER_03:Uh I'm I'm in uh what I'm sorry?
SPEAKER_02:Real estate sales.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I uh I'm in real estate sales. I've been in real estate sales for the last eight years, and I come from an industry I come from practicing law. So I was a public defender uh for about five years before getting into real estate sales, and I got into it uh to join the family business. So when my folks came over to America, you know, in the 80s, they did a few odd end things until they landed in real estate in um 90, the late 80s, like 1990 actually, exactly, or 1989, and uh been in the business ever since. So uh I've lived a lot of places. Uh I went to school in DC, so I know Maryland from going to school in DC, and then I went to law school in Las Vegas. I do a lot of rock climbing, so I went to law school in Vegas, and then I practiced law in Lake Tahoe or in Reno uh and lived in Lake Tahoe. Um, and ultimately I came back to Southern California about eight years ago and had been working with my family, selling houses uh since. That's kind of the the short of it.
SPEAKER_00:So you went to go ahead. You went to uh was it college in DC or was it um high school? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Uh no, I went to college in DC. So my sister went to Howard Dental School, so that's what exposed me to DC. She went to Howard Dental School. Um, her husband at the time uh had gone to Georgetown, and I remember visiting them and thinking DC's pretty badass. Uh and I ultimately went to American University and I was out there for four years, uh, you know, did the Baltimore thing a little bit and um loved it. It was like such a good chapter. I loved the East Coast, I loved living in Maryland, uh, and then came back here or came back West Coast for law school, did law school at UNLV. Um, and uh yeah, and now selling, been selling houses uh since.
SPEAKER_01:Been slinging houses since.
SPEAKER_02:Um so what is your like typical client look like in Southern California?
SPEAKER_03:Um a typical real estate client.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sorry, wait, somebody pop in the studio real quick. Yeah, yeah. Like your typical person that you're selling to in Southern California, like are people I feel like me in included think about Southern California as being like unaffordable, really, really tough to buy a house, um, million dollars get to your shanty shack or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, I unfortunately what you're thinking is so accurate, and so many of the people that I'm serving are pretty representative of the middle class, and it's crazy. 1.3 million, right? Medium price home in LA County, and LA County is so big, so there's some shitty parts of LA, uh, is 900,000. So it's not inexpensive. San Diego is about a million. Um, you see a lot of families pulling it together, like mixed families, people moving in with grandparents. You see a lot of blended type things, and you see a lot of people, I think, just using most of their income, not being able to save on housing. Like I think a lot of people are, I don't want to say house poor, but you know, you're not gonna live the way Dave Ramsey wants you to living in Southern California with the cost of the cost of housing here.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I never want to be doom and gloom when it comes to the to to real estate. But when I think of my peers, you know, I'm 35 years old, I got a two and a half year old and a seven-month-year-old baby. Um, a lot of my friends own houses, but a lot of my friends don't own houses. Um I don't see the climate getting much better. And I don't know Maryland very well, but I don't see the real estate market, the economic climate changing significantly, in which it's going to get easier to get in. I kind of see people with means. Um I I feel the gap is only going to get bigger between people that are making it and people that are trying to make it. Uh, we're not building houses in SoCal, we're just building apartments. Uh you know, it's yeah, it's tough. I don't mean a lot of renters. A lot of renters.
SPEAKER_00:And does it seem right now that it's transitioning more towards a buyer's market in California?
SPEAKER_03:Does it seem like it's transitioning? I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00:Does it seem like does it seem like it's transitioning more towards a buyer's market right now?
SPEAKER_03:You know, it's definitely transitioning more to a buyer's market in the sense that houses are staying on the market longer. So naturally, if houses are gonna stay on the market longer, we're gonna get more ability to negotiate. I'm definitely getting buyers' houses under the list price. I think even under the list price in some circumstances, though, is fair market value, right? Like I think some prices are still just off from what sellers thought they were gonna get in the past. And that's okay. Um, but even it becoming a buyer's market doesn't make it super uh affordable, right? Like people are still feeling six percent on a on a million dollar house, but they're doing it right. So I don't say this is doom and gloom. Like we're still selling a lot of houses. I'm so grateful for for for this business and being able to do what we do. And there's no doubt that, like, I mean, there's still a lot of people buying and selling homes. So it's a testament to I don't know if it's resiliency or just like people are gonna do whatever it takes to provide for their family, to to live, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Speaking of that, can you go can you talk a little bit about how your parents came from like a foreign country and just started a real estate business? Because that just seems like something that would be really tough to do, just in general. I know from my own, you know, I was born here and had all the things, and it's still a hard business. So what did they do um to get started?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think uh I think my parents, similar to other immigrants or people that have like chips on their shoulders, will do whatever it takes to get started and to make it. So I feel very grateful because you only know what you know, right? Like I only know what my parents taught me. I only know what I've like what I've been exposed to. And that's like a lot of hard work. Like my parents still put in a lot of hours. And I just think that's sort of a um, I think for a lot of generations it was like a blessing or like a privilege to get to work hard and succeed and make money. And the old, like, I don't know if it's like younger people or you know, now, especially with social media and stuff, it's like quick wins, quick money, so that we can chill. And I think there's something still beautiful about just putting in the equity, right? Like putting in the work. So um, I don't think they did it any differently than people do it today. Uh, maybe it was a little bit easier with less competition back then, but they were like with Century 21, a big office. Like ultimately they were exposed to people knocking on doors, making calls, and uh they took a leap and they they pulled it off in the early 90s and just got better at the craft. I think that's the cool thing about real estate specifically, is it's open to everybody. Only the ones that are really sharp are are like achieving these high levels of success. But you know, you don't gotta go to law school, you don't gotta go to medical school to get this opportunity. And like that's such a that's such a privilege because the barriers to entry to other industries of helping people can be can be tough, right? Like that's a double-edged sword.
SPEAKER_01:Chris, you can you kind of inspire me though in the fact that you went through this journey of going to law school to get, you know, to become a public defender. And and lawyers, you know, they don't just make a hundred thousand dollars a year, right? Like they they make pretty good money. Um and and you decided, hey, I want to go back and I wanna I want to help my mom and I I want to you know join this real estate journey that they're on and have my own journey, and now you're doing you know, Instagram, 35,000 followers, or I don't know what you're up to now, but you know, a ton of followers, you're doing the content, you're creating. What got you to the point where you were like, hey, I'm ready to just kind of quit this the public defender thing and go do real estate?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, great question. I think when I quit being a public defender and moved back to Southern California, there was a lot of things happening in my life that were leading me down a certain path. So I love to work, I love selling houses, but I love life and I want to live my life a certain way. So when I say that, I say that to make clear selling houses is similar to being somebody's lawyer in which you are like advocating, protecting somebody. I know it's different because you're not in a courtroom, but you're still like providing a service. So I think ultimately I figured out that I didn't need to be a lawyer to feel happy serving people or doing like this part of my brain. Um, I just need to do something that gives me that part of my brain. At the same time, my family, my mom, goaded in this business, has been doing it 35 years. It's difficult to find mentors that are willing to literally pour everything into you the way a mother would, um, who's goaded in an industry, right? So, like I'm thinking this in the back of my head is like, I got this ace, how do I not play it? And, you know, maybe this is a testament to my life and having been so abundant and so many things I've gotten to do, and so many things, like just like, you know, I've had such a privileged life, but I was never worried about transitioning from lawyer to real estate and make not making money, right? Like I think I'd be making a ton of money if I was selling ice. Like that's secondary to I think whatever you're doing, right? Um, it was very difficult to go from being lawyer to real estate agent in the sense of the way that I felt people respected me. My wife is a plastic surgeon, my wife is a doctor. I already felt some type of way when you know your partner is like with all these people that are at a certain level of edge. Like there's just stick, there's just things around it that I don't think I need to describe and you guys understand. So I certainly felt some friction when I went from being in a courtroom to knocking on doors. But truly, truly, like that stuff that I feel like I have shed, like that ego that I have shed, where it's like, bro, think whatever the fuck you want of me. Like, I don't care. Like, I'm so much more than a real estate agent. Like, if I, if I, if my identity was a fucking lawyer, like that makes me a shitty person too. Like, I'm so much more than the job that I'm doing. So it was difficult because I'm a young man, like 28, 29 years old. Like, you want that respect, but I wasn't gonna be willing to hide behind it to not take the leap, right? And um I think you gotta trust life, faith, you know. Like I'm I'm religious, I believe in God. Like I knew it was gonna work. Um, and I haven't looked back, but it wasn't just because it was real estate, it was because my family was in it. The woman that I met, my wife now, the like the mother of my kids, like she was moving to SoCal, my sister was getting a divorce. Um, and I needed to be back with the family. So there were so many things like you know, we all talk about looking for signs, but God, the universe will provide you indications of what you need to do. You just sort of need to take the leap. And that's difficult. I think that's difficult. Yeah, that's difficult.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. We we talked about on the last podcast, like quitting your job. There's like a there's a right and a wrong way to quit your job. Um, so like speaking on that, how how did you set yourself up? Like, you don't have to speak exact numbers, but did you have like a certain amount of reserve funds just in case like real estate didn't pay like sometimes you know you become a real estate agent, you don't sell a house for a couple months. Did you have a strategic reserve? And like how did you go about from working full-time as a lawyer to being an independent, you know, real estate agent?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, absolutely. So great question. I did have money saved, but not money saved to the extent in which I could like flounder forever. I mean, truthfully, I wanted to continue building a portfolio, and I wasn't willing to compromise certain things. So I moved in with my parents, right? Like I, this is 28 years old, but like I'm not embarrassed by that. Like it is like it's Gucci. Like, my life is great. So I didn't want to sell my house in Incline Village Lake Tahoe because it was one of the best investments ever. I didn't need the money, and Taho is very special to me. So I moved in with my folks. My lady was in her residency at San Diego, so she was renting an apartment down there. I would go to the office every single day, you know, drive separately than my mom, but like I'd go to the office every day and I'd come home living with my mom. And uh I would drive from San Diego probably like three, four days a week, like commute two and a half hours each way just to see my lady at the time. But it was like all good because I'm young, we don't have kids. Like it was fun. And I did that for a few years. Um, ultimately, I saved up. My folks helped me again. This is at 29 now, like a year and a half into SoCal, moving back. I bought a duplex in San Diego because I knew I was gonna marry her. Uh, and I pulled the trigger on a duplex, moved us in, moved her into the one-bedroom apartment, rented the two-bedroom, uh, lived modestly, you know, sort of did that house hack. And then it's just changed as we've gotten older and built a family. Like we got engaged. I wasn't gonna start like continue staying at my mom's. So I was just driving pretty much every day from San Diego to LA. Like it just is what it is. Like I was cool with it. And then um we got married, we moved to the two-bedroom, making less money on the rental. But like as we grow and develop, like it's not all about the money, it's about the lifestyle, and like we needed another bedroom. And, you know, life has just been continuing to develop like that. And I just feel like it's all perspective. Like, you know, you were talking about the security blanket, you need to take a leap. I have my transaction coordinator who's a licensed real estate agent, he gets a salary, and I'm encouraging him to take the leap full on into sales, right? But he doesn't want to because he likes getting this steady paycheck. And what I told him very transparently is like, it is an illusion of security to be getting this paycheck from me because I love you like family. Don't get me wrong. Like, I would never do anything to like get rid of you. But if I die, like I don't know what the next person's gonna do. Like, God forbid, like I go climb a mountain, I don't come back. Like, bro, I don't know what's your future, like you can't rely on me to so I feel like you know, there's illusions of safety, it's all perspective of how you look at these cards that were dealt. And um, I don't even know how I got onto that boat, but that's that's uh that's how I feel about oh, you're the investments and like taking that leap. Yeah, I think you probably don't need a blanket as much as you need to take the leap.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I love that. That literally it's so funny that's the second podcast back to back that the person across to us has said, like, it's not really always about the money. I mean, it's about money, right? Like it's it's always about money, but at the end of the day, it's about the lifestyle that you want to create, the lifestyle you want to have. Um, and I mean we just had a guest down from from Philly, and he was saying the same thing. Like, he he was working for his family's company selling signs, and he got out of that to create the lifestyle he wanted to investing in in real estate. Um, and I I think it's really cool, and it's I think you guys would agree that's the same thing. Nick used to be a landscaper, Ryan used to be a PE teacher. Um, and obviously I was in the military, and it was like I could have got out and did that thing, but I wanted the lifestyle. Um, you talked about buying your your first duplex. How much real estate do you own currently?
SPEAKER_03:I own currently um the I own a home in Lake Tahoe that's an Airbnb short-term rental. Uh, we use it with our family, we rent it out. Uh, that was the property that I bought after law school. I own a condo that cost very little when I bought it in law school uh in Las Vegas. I own a duplex in San Diego, two units in San Diego. I own a rental, just like a house hack that, you know, I'm in the business, so I saw an opportunity to buy an investment in LA. And I currently rent the house that I live in. I don't even own the house that I live in at the moment. Uh so it's interesting, you know, like at this age, that was definitely like a fucking renting a house with two kids. Not to say it matters. At all. Like it doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter. But uh, you know, you think about all these things being being a dad now, being 35, like you guys look similar age. I think Chase is younger, but like I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:We're a same age, yeah. You guys are all millennials. I'm the only Gen Zier.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. So I think that might resonate with you guys.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So the house that you currently live in, you rent, do you have like is that purposely? Do you you're just not you haven't found a house that you want to live in?
SPEAKER_03:Like what it's such a good question because being in real estate, it affects sort of like this, you know, idea of what I feel owning versus renting and the timeline. Um, truthfully, and whether this is I mean, this is what it is. I'm not willing to sell anything, to buy something, because I believe we can be patient to get where we want to be for at least the next like five to eight years. And that was kind of the thing is we were in a transition period in which I knew the next two to three years, uh, I was unclear where my wife was going to be working. And with the cost of real estate in Southern California, it just made no sense for me to buy something knowing that I was growing a family, like I just had my second baby, uh knowing that it wasn't going to fit my lifestyle for more than the next truly like five years. And when you look at the payments, like I'm very transparent, seven thousand dollars a month.
SPEAKER_02:You broke up there, what'd you say? I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03:Uh my rent, for example, is about seven thousand dollars a month. For how how big? It's a three-bedroom, two bath, like almost three thousand square feet, like big backyard. It's like a house for a family. It's not big, it's not, it's nice, but it's it's not, it's whatever. And that's like reasonable. That same house has a payment of a mortgage, probably around like eleven thousand a month.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:There's no issue with that payment. But if you know that you're not going to be there for like eight years, if you look at the cost of renting versus owning at this price point in Orange County, it just doesn't pencil unless you know you're gonna be there for a period of time. So, God willing, buy a house in the next year, and then that house I'll be in will probably be like eight years or so. And it was just it just makes more sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, at that price point of$11,000 mortgage, your interest payment would be more than$7,000. Yeah, you gotta pay for the maintenance.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and like truly the house that I really want cost me like$20,000 a month, and I can't like I'm just not at that place right now, but I will be in like 18 months. So rent for seven, it's just it just makes it just makes sense for us. And I have to put my ego aside because uh your ego just gets in the way of so many things, right? Like you make so many decisions based on you try not to make decisions based on what you think people are thinking about you, or just like what you think you should be doing, you know. So it's just like I had to check myself, uh, having not been a tenant for so many years to get back into this role.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah. That's it. That's so interesting because here we don't, I guess it we don't have that same like affordability. I guess we do a little bit, but it's not like California crazy with um the affordability like crisis or whatever you want to say. But how are people sustaining like I guess the people that you rent from just don't have a mortgage?
SPEAKER_03:No, so I just saw a headline the other day that there are more six percent mortgages than three percent mortgages. There is a huge group of people in Southern California still that have been making good money that have three percent mortgages in which they can rent out and either break even or cash flow, and they make good money, so they've just saved for another down payment. So there is an inventory that I believe will never be unlocked because like I'm one of those people, like I'm never letting go of some of the shit that I have because why would I? Like, I don't need to cash out of them. The interest rate is so low, I'm in California, it's gonna continue to appreciate. Like, I'm patient. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, what do I what do I need to to do that for? And that I think is a lot of you know, affluent individuals in SoCal that have bought these houses. Like the person that I'm renting from just bought a bigger version of the same house down the street, and I'm thinking that they make no money on my rent, but it breaks even, and their house just, you know, they continue to stack equity.
SPEAKER_01:Chris, do you guys work with investors in in SoCal, or is it typically more just like retail buyers and sellers?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, I've not made my specific business uh investors per se. Like out of 70 transactions I did last year, I probably would say maybe like 10 of them were with developer investor type flip rehab. So it's like a small portion. So much of my business is relationship based. So like I have a handful of people that are in that game that I do stuff with, but what I've learned is that they kind of come and go. Like I have like people that I've done stuff with for a few years, and then I think they get into a different business, and you know, so it's never been like my bread and butter, but um, you know, I've got like a a couple developments right now going.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that that that's where I was going with that is like how are people investing when the affordability is just crazy? I mean, Nick was kind of pointing it out of like if your mortgage is eleven thousand dollars and you can rent it for seven thousand, like you're already upside down three thousand dollars a month.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think you're not seeing flips the way that they used to, obviously. The skin on or the meat on the bones is a lot skinnier. So you're seeing, in my opinion, only like more savvy people flipping houses these days during COVID. I think anybody that watched uh Instagram or TikTok was like, let's go flip a house. And they can do that sort of thing because the market was moving so fast that a dummy was making money. But now I think it's like back to people that are more sophisticated, just like selling houses. It's back to people that are more sophisticated. And then I think specifically where investors are finding money in in Southern California markets is value ads. ADUs are literally like the talk of the town. You know what I mean? Like ADU is like only fans, gets people excited, type of shit. So investors are looking for these properties in which they can build ADUs, they can, you know, when I'm selling houses, I'm definitely marketing that lifestyle, like it's got a detached garage. You're gonna be able to do something with that. And uh, you know, I don't know what the term is, it's like squeezing equity out of the place. And I think that's how we're seeing a lot of it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Are you seeing guys? Are you are you guys seeing a lot of developments too where they're like paying crazy prices just for like the land in the house and then tearing them down and building million, millions of dollars of houses? Like, you know, out here, like three or five million dollars, like get you on the water, pretty nice house. I mean, that's like what a three-bedroom house in California?
SPEAKER_03:Well, it really depends where, right? So, like, I'm not gonna be, you know, chagrunned to be like every like if you're buying a three million dollar house in California, wherever you are, that's gonna be a pretty ball in crib or a very ball in neighborhood. Unfortunately, it's this like one million dollar price in LA that's gonna like, yeah, it's not gonna impress, it's not gonna feel like a million bucks. Um, so so yeah, like they're there there there's a difference there, but people are still making it happen. You know, it's fascinating. Like I saw a headline right now, these billionaire New Zealand brothers bought$60 million worth of land uh on Malibu from the fires, and they're building 19 prefabricated custom homes from like China that they're gonna like modularly put on the beach. So, you know, it's exciting to see it's tough because like politically, you know, without getting into politics, like our local government has done some things that's obviously pushed a lot of people out, but California has so many positive things going for it that I just don't see that landscape changing. Don't get left behind, like you better get with it or get out. So, from my perspective, like I'm not upset about it. I just need to sell more houses, I just need to do more business, you know what I'm saying? Like, it is what it is. Like, unless I'm going to leave, this is home, and I'm gonna like do what I need to do to provide the lifestyle that I want. And like, that's uh I don't think that's a bad thing. It's just like that's why I'm not crying over spilled milk. Like, it is what it is. Like, gas is six bucks. Like, I want to live here, I want to drive my big truck, I want these like 35 inch tires. Like, I do it with a smile on my face. I pay the fucking gas bill, like it is what it is.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that I that's the only way that you could do it out there is just stay fuck it. Like, you just gotta make more to pay for the lifestyle. That's I don't really see another option. That is like where I'm from in New York. Um, most of my friends that I was friends with, you know, back in high school and stuff, they're they didn't like grab life by the horns, like you're saying. They're still living in their parents' house and not in a good way where they're saving up for that, you know, that house that they've been trying to buy. It's it they're just stuck. And like I I tell people all the time, if I had gone back home to New York after college, there would have been no way that I would have been able to start the business that I have here up there because you're competing against people. New York just has there's just so much money there, and I imagine it's the same kind of thing in California.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think competition is definitely different in different places, but you know, I think people are people, and like you guys making it in Maryland, you doing it wherever you are, like I think people are people, and that grit that like I'm gonna figure it out. Like, maybe there's levels to it. Maybe you make four million because you get to save more because there's no property tax. But like, you know, I think you'd be selling I think I'd be selling houses the same way if I was in a different state, you know. I think if you came over here, it'd be the same thing. Like you rise to the circumstance in which you're around. Like, that's why you don't want to hang out with slouches. That's why I don't like mopey people. That's why, you know what I mean? Like, you you rise to the stuff that you're around.
SPEAKER_01:So kind of a product of your environment type of thing. Yeah. I think you froze again.
SPEAKER_03:I I think it cut out right when you said I think a product of your environment.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, that's what I was saying. Uh, he actually put something on you guys probably don't follow him, but Chris is really big on social. Chris, how long did it take you, man, to get consistent on Instagram, like posting, doing all your things? And like, do you have a thought in your mind, or like maybe it's kind of your future plan to become more of like a content creator than real estate? Or is real estate kind of the passion? Have you thought about that?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's a great question. So as I think about real estate or like business, I'm realizing that so much of it is like your personal brand. So I don't believe that I'm going anywhere from real estate. But like right now, real estate occupies 97% of my professional life, right? And it provides me 97% of my professional income. But what I'm realizing now, year eight into the business, is where the sales are coming from is changing. And where I put my focus can yield results. So I think, not I think, as I focus on like my personal brand, naturally real estate is always going to come. And right now I'm like facilitating a lot of that, but I'm not sure if in 10 years, like I'm gonna be doing all of that. Like when you guys, you know, when you were asking me lawyer to real estate agent, one big difference between lawyer and real estate agent for the kind of lawyer that I was was getting to put on a performance in a courtroom, getting to show up and like advocate. So switching from that to real estate, when I was exposed to digital marketing, when I was exposed to the video side, it really fired off a piece of like my brain that I was losing leaving the legal world. You know what I'm saying? Like I wasn't a desk lawyer, I was a courtroom lawyer, and there's a huge difference. So it's really obvious in my brain, like why I love making videos, why I love communicating, because that's the shit that I wanted to do before. Like now it's just figuring out, you know, how it fits into you know making making money, doing something that makes you money and makes you happy, because you're right, like it's always about the money. But how can you build a lifestyle in which you enjoy the way you're making money? Because when I think about selling 70 houses last year, if I would have done that same kind of business, cold calling out of a dark booth every day, fuck that shit. I'm gonna go do something else. Like no way. So when I look at my own business, could I have done 200 deals? Maybe, maybe if I would have sacrificed some other things, maybe if I was willing to do it a certain way, but it's not just about what you do, it's how you do it, right? Like, what's the point if you're soulless throughout it? Like, what's the point if every fucking day you're just like, I hate my life, I hate my job, I hate this shit, I hate these people. Like, real estate agents are so ironic when it comes to what we do because it's like every aspect of the job we dislike. It's like, what do you like? Cashing checks? Like, dude, that's so even if you're closing uh uh how many deals? Like, give me a break. Give me a break. So it I think what's a struggle, especially for like young dudes into the business, is it's slow to make money doing things like this idyllic way, right? Like it's harder to make content and sell things than it is like pound the phones, right? Like there's a difference between strategies and some of that joining a club, building relationships with people, sitting in a lobby and waiting for people to walk in and walk out. That shit is harder than like pounding a phone book. And it takes longer, it takes more at bath. So to answer your question, I'm always gonna be selling houses because it's like a business that I don't think I'm gonna ever get away from. And it's always gonna be something that I tie myself to. But I love, yeah, I love marketing and like other doors have opened because of it. And I just like want to continue to yeah, lean into it.
SPEAKER_02:So, what does your team look like? You have a you said you have a transaction coordinator. Um is that it? Is that all you got?
SPEAKER_03:It's pretty no, it's uh it's bigger than that, fortunately, but it's pretty lean, to be honest. Um, it's my mom and I on the production side. My cousin used to be our transaction coordinator, but she's a full-time agent now. Um, I have a transaction coordinator who's fully licensed. So that's four of us. I have my video guy, Joaquin, depending on if I'm upset at him or not. He goes for my video guy when I feel like he's just pushing buttons. He's my creative director when I feel like he's doing more than that. So, like today we had a talk, he's my video guy today. And then I have um that's it.
SPEAKER_01:That's it. Do you do you keep it that lean on purpose? Or, you know, do you ever think about like, hey, like we might need some back admin staff or maybe getting more agents on the team, that type of thing?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, totally. I mean, I'm realizing like there's seasons to things, and there's seasons in which like I'm learning. So this is year eight for me in real estate, and it's also like year eight kind of is like a small business owner, and certain things like I've done better than others, and like learning how to manage people and build systems is something that I'm working on. So that's like my real estate team in business because the media and marketing has gotten to be like so much more, it feels like I have a media company that I end up spending like hours on. That media company does like a lot of real estate media for my own team and other agents. So it's like I'm doing the same thing, but it's with a separate group. So I have like two video editors, a graphic designer. I just lost my social media manager person. Um, and that's kind of like a separate arm. And that kind of was birthed out of selling houses and just trying to build a smarter business. It was like 2022. I think that year, right after COVID, we had sold like a hundred houses, my mom and I. But more importantly, like when I looked at the numbers, we had spent like a hundred, just under a hundred thousand on video marketing between like our own personal branding stuff and all of our listings. So if you look at the math, like, you know, we sold, I did 35 listings last year. If you like, if I was averaging about a thousand bucks or 1200 bucks a house, you know, how much more is it to get us full-time salary? You know what I'm saying? Like you just start doing the math of things and it's just like, well, let's just like bring this in-house. But then once you bring it in-house, you learn other things. Like, oh, if he's filming videos all day, who's editing videos? If he's editing videos all day, he's not available to shoot videos. So, you know, there's been like growing pains. Um, but I love it, right? Like I loved digital marketing. I love video, I think it's fun. Um, if I didn't like it, like I wouldn't do all this, right? Like I send mail and I make calls because those are important, but I do them because I know they're important, but not because like they give me joy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Can you talk about because that I think like I I manage a team of 12 agents now, which is absolutely insane for our first year in real estate. And I'm I'm figuring out that it it is almost better to keep it lean, um, managing, you know, a ton of people and trying to pour all your love into that. And and and again, I agree, it's definitely seasons to it, right? Um, but can you talk about like the content creation? Because, you know, I I've this last year, 2025, I was doing like 12 pieces of content around about a month, and Instagram gave me no love, and that's okay. And that and part part of it, you know, was on me. But like how how the content, how you manage being a f almost a full-time content creator and real estate and you know, the media company.
SPEAKER_03:Love. I think just like my perception of what work versus joy versus like there's no balance chase, there's just like harmony, and there's accepting like certain realities. So, like, I'm a creative, I'm a director, but I'm also a witch. It and an operator because I'm still like a small business owner. So I try not to get lost in the weeds when I find myself doing micro bullshit. It encourages me to find somebody to do that micro bullshit for me. But like, you know, my wife the other day. So my wife is a cosmetic plastic surgeon, one of the most educated, sharp, astute people. Like, you know, God willing, I don't gotta do nothing and just chill, make videos, and it doesn't matter if nobody watches them. It's not our life right now. But my wife, God bless her, was talking to me about wanting to make this social media post. And I was explaining to her how to do it. And by the end of her doing this thing, and it was like, it was just this like basic thing on the edits app. She was so angry, and she's like, I shouldn't be doing this. This is so stupid. How does anybody do this? And I was like, listen, mama, just because you're on level 12 of surgery doesn't mean you're on level one of building a business. So get your ego check, like, sit down, turn on some music, turn your frown upside down. It's not that fucking bad. Push these buttons, edit the shit, and like move on, right? And I think there's like this piece of where are you in the season of whatever you're doing, and just like stop resisting some of that shit and just it's okay, you know? So, like, yeah, brother, it's so much on my plate that is not yielding financial results yet. However, I get a joy from it, and I have a belief in what is coming that I'm willing to sell whatever I need to to live my life and do the extra hours, under hours, whatever, to keep building what it is in the future. And like I drop a lot of balls, a lot of things fall through the cracks. There's a lot of things I could do better, but I always am moving forward, and I think that's like always that's often the problem is like if we can't do it perfectly, we don't want to do it. If we don't have the full vision, we don't want to get started. But sometimes you just need to fucking go, and then you figure out where you're going once the car is rolling, and like that's it. Like, you know, that's my that's my vision of it.
SPEAKER_02:Like, so so this is off topic, and I apologize for derailing here. But are you wearing two watches right now? Yes, you have a smartwatch and a and like a an ice watch?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Shit, I gotta step my game up.
SPEAKER_01:So right, so Ryan Chris is uh he just bought a Rolex. Um, and I was like, You're an idiot, like blah blah blah, like just giving him a hard time. Um, and we went to uh look at him, two watches on. Uh we went to Boston, dude, and we did a podcast with Kevin Coney. And do you know who that is, by the way? Kevin Coney. His wife has like a super uh thick British accent. Boston. Boston. I don't know why I said British. Um but anyways, he we were up there in in Boston. We we go through all the watches. I'm like, okay, this is legit. Like this is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02:Like the amount of there was an AP store, a Patek store, like there is like all like every single major watch brand that you could um that you can imagine. So I was in I was in heaven.
SPEAKER_03:I bet you know, I have to be so transparent. This watch was a wedding gift from my mother. I'm so grateful, and like, you know, I'm I'm just like my life is so abundant. Um, but I saw a picture because like I'm really into like tracking things and health. Like this Garmin doesn't come off.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, I have the Garmin too.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, brother, you just need to rock both. But I saw I gotta rock both. Uh I saw a video of uh Lewis Hamilton's father giving him a hug after a race, and he was wearing an Apple watch, and I was like, man, like look at this guy's Apple Watch, like Lewis Hamilton's dad, humble guy wearing an Apple Watch. And then there was another angle of the same photo, and he was wearing this beautiful, like baby blue Daytona, and I'm like, Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, well, ever since I saw him dual watching, I was like, Yeah, why not? It's most people don't notice, like, we've been talking now for 50 minutes, and you're just noticing.
SPEAKER_02:I noticed like 15 minutes ago, but I've just been trying to find a good place to sneak it in there. So my my ADD was like, Yeah, okay, I gotta mention the watch, double watch thing. Because the only other person I've ever seen double watch it is Kevin O'Leary, who I watch on like YouTube, and but he's wearing like two wearing like two Richard Mills, like he's not wearing a Garmin watch. But I'm like, damn, I I can't, I'm not Kevin O'Leary, so I can't wear two watches. But now that I saw you do it, I think you are you, Kevin.
SPEAKER_03:Like you wear them both, wear them on your ankles if you want to.
SPEAKER_01:Yo, it's so funny, but this guy is like the king of Garmin, too. Like, he bought me my first Garmin when we started the Iron Man training. Uh, because I refused, I had an Apple Watch on, I refused to buy the Garmin, and then it changed my life.
SPEAKER_03:I just got an email from Garmin about like adding nutrition to through the Garmin app. Did you guys see this? How much Garmin you can start tracking? Yeah. That's crazy. Because you guys have the Garmin scale.
SPEAKER_02:I don't have the scale, um, but I enter my weight into the app. So I I do track that pretty good.
SPEAKER_03:Get the scale.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Because it's so effortless. You just weigh yourself in it just to the app, and like it's just too it's too, it's bad and it's good. I mean, it depends on what your goals are because that shit can really if you guys have trained for Ironmans and you know exactly what I'm talking about. Sometimes it's too much data.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, we would be running eight miles, and it's like, your performance is negative eight. And I'm like, bro, what?
SPEAKER_03:I think that's so funny because Garmin are a bunch of haters. I thought about this yesterday. Have you guys seen the Apple commercial in which the guy, the fat guy, is running away from the couch?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_03:So there's a the Apple's definitely spending quite a bit of money on this campaign, but it really makes like think of the American culture and what this might mean. Like, I don't have an Apple watch, so I have to be mindful of what I'm saying. The video is a guy running away from a couch, and it says, like, don't fall for the trap. And it's all about closing your fitness rings. And when I see that, and I'm this fat guy closing his fitness ring, all I can think is like, well, what's what's it take to close a fitness ring? And now you got all these people buying Apple watches thinking that they're half decent humans because they can like close a fitness ring. And then it made me think of the Garmin because the Garmin be fucking trashing me every single run is like a piece of shit. You know, and I'm that's what I like.
SPEAKER_02:That's what I like.
SPEAKER_03:That's what I like. Yeah, exactly. So boss, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So what's so you got a Garmin on the one hand, what's on the other?
SPEAKER_03:This is a uh Sky Dweller. This is a classic.
SPEAKER_02:Is it two-tone?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, uh, a Jubilee band, two-tone, and a black face. Nice.
SPEAKER_02:I really, really that's that's good. You can't when you put that on, Chase.
SPEAKER_01:You gotta both of my daddies got watched. You got you gotta get one.
SPEAKER_02:You gotta get one.
SPEAKER_01:You know what?
SPEAKER_03:Do do all these other things that you need to do and then get the watch. Yeah, because it's gonna be there. And the other thing too is like you're so good looking and smooth, and like you have your stuff together. Like, if this watch was fake, nobody would know the difference.
SPEAKER_02:Right. He does wear he wears a gold uh uh Michael Kors watch that doesn't work. That doesn't even work.
SPEAKER_01:I just use it for looks, man. That's a there you go. The other day he looked at me, he was like, Did you did you get one?
SPEAKER_02:I was like, no, so so it's funny enough. I got sucked into and I never watched TV. Like I'm uh and I'm very ADHD when it comes to like sitting in front of a screen and watch TV. But I we put it on the other day, owning Manhattan with Ryan Serhan.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and this guy knows Ryan Sirhan by friend's name.
SPEAKER_02:So so I got into that. We've been watching that, and every single fucking person in there has a sick watch, and like I was I'm like watching my wife. I'm like, he's got a royal look. I think I need to get a royal look. I think I need to get a royal look. But now I'm now I'm sucked into these shows and I see these watches, and it's just like it is it's an unhealthy uh hobby, habit, whatever you want to call it.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, whatever. Set a goal, sell whatever, take you know, set the goal, another however many houses that you want to manage, and then treat yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. What's uh I mean, what's your fitness journey on right now? Because I know you're a big runner. This dude's always running. So what's your uh what's your big like big I don't know, what not project, but training goals, whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Um you know, it's in 2026. I don't have anything too big. This year, my wife is taking her uh board exams. It's her last big journey of like finishing all the stuff that she's been doing, and that's in November. So I've really had to pull back some of these things that I've been chasing um because she supported me doing so many things in the past that like we're kind of in her season a little bit. Um, so more immediately, I'm I'm running a half marathon. Uh Feb 1, I'm running the LA Marathon in March. Um, I'm really still trying to weightlift because I haven't put down money yet, but I will be going back to the Himalayas like 2027. I think I'm gonna climb a mountain called Ama Dablam. It's um it's like a little bit under 7,000 meters. It's a big mountain and it's pretty technical. Uh so it's a far out goal that like I can't get off the couch like in like I wouldn't be able to get off the couch and do it. So I'm trying to set little goals to keep me motivated because it's hard to work towards 2027 when 2026 just started. Um, but that's kind of like my long and short. I'd like to do a high rocks. Uh I'm probably not probably like I'll definitely, I haven't uh signed up or I haven't like booked the weekends yet. I'll go climb some stuff in the Sierras in the winter. I'll go do some like ice climbing. But unfortunately, 2026 is not going to be like my my Iron Man year.
SPEAKER_01:Um 2027 be your Iron Man year?
SPEAKER_03:Literally Iron Man.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_03:You have to love the training. Like I admire guys that do Iron Man because I know what kind of commitment it takes. Like I'm very, I'm well aware of what kind of discipline it takes. But what I've learned about endurance training is you have to enjoy the process. Like your Iron Man is a day, right? But the training is months, years. And like I just don't want to, I just don't want to, I don't want to ride the buy. I I don't want to follow the schedule enough.
SPEAKER_02:The full Iron Man was a true life commitment. Like you had to commit the whole our whole lives to it. And it was a lot, like three to six plus hours a day. Like weekends would be basically all day. You'd be on a bike, running, whatever. Weekdays you're up running, swimming, biking. I mean, it's it was a it was a lot. It was a lot.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, the thing about big goals, like I had run, uh, I had set a goal to run every day in December. And well, the goal was originally run 69 miles in December, and then it quickly became run every day in December. And what it showed, what it proved to me is that it's easy to set goals and do them. It's harder to decide what you're gonna cut out to accomplish it. Like running every day is easy, but it's difficult. Like going out on a hike on Saturday all day is like, you know, pretty fucking straightforward. That's why training is fun. Like it's pretty clear. What's hard is getting your wife on board with you being gone all day. What's hard getting the open house covered. What's hard is like telling your clients I'm not gonna be available. Like it's really easy, I think, to train. It's hard to design your life in a way that it allows you to commit to those goals. Um, and that's like what I've been so careful. Like the LA Marathon, I've been very careful about setting a time goal, not because I don't think I can do something crazy, but because I know what it takes to do something crazy and I know how I become when I begin to like get crazy. And like I don't I just like I'm it's it's a hard season to do that right now, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Um Yeah, I think you have to be very aware of your your lifestyle. Like, you know, I'm young, my wife's young, we don't have kids. Like I I could commit to six hours on a weekend for a bike ride. Like, she's not, you know, of course, she doesn't want me to do that, but she, you know, she's she understands, right? But like you, your wife's doing boards and you guys have kids, and it's like you know, I and it's funny because you were it it ties the fitness thing.
SPEAKER_03:I think that's why it's so important to have fitness goals when you got business goals, because it's all the same. Like it's all the same when you begin to prove to yourself like what you can do and what it takes to earlier. You asked, like, how do you do it? And I'm just like, Well, you love it, so you show up and do it. And I think the training is the same thing. Like, I'm not making it like if I wanted an iron band bad enough right now, like what do you do? You wake up at three in the morning to get your shit done before you like, you know what I mean? You run, you train at night after work, like two a days are hard for everybody. Like, I think that's a tough pill for our generation, our community to swallow is like you can have it all, but like how bad do you want to fucking give up sleep? How bad do you want to give up whatever else? Like, that's the truth.
SPEAKER_00:When when you go rock climbing and ice climbing, do you go to like like a business where you have to like sign up to do it, or you just go to like a random and start climbing it?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, on like on a Tuesday night, like this last year, I climbed a big wall in Las Vegas called Dark Shadows. It was like 2,000 feet. I don't know, it took like eight hours or something. Um, on a Tuesday night, I don't go outside, I'll just go to a gym because like where can I get some reps in uh before bed? But I do like climbing outdoors.
SPEAKER_00:Um how do you like so I've seen videos where they climb ice and they screw the thing in? How does that work when it comes to rocks?
SPEAKER_03:So with rock climbing, it depends what kind of uh rock climbing you're doing. There's two types: traditional trad climbing, and then something else called sport climbing. With trad climbing, you are placing your own gear. So there's these devices called cams and nuts. Um, you would like put it between like a crack and then you'd pull on it and it would expand. Um, you place that and then you would fasten the rope and then you climb. There's another type of climbing called sport climbing. Somebody before you has screwed a bunch of bolts in the rock in different places, and then you're clipping up through the rocks.
SPEAKER_00:Um the first method as you're climbing is all of that gear being left behind that you pushed into the cracks? Correct. How do you get it?
SPEAKER_03:If you have a partner that you're climbing with, they are behind you, they are cleaning the equipment and putting it onto their rack. That's typically how it's kind of being done.
SPEAKER_00:But then how are they safely securing themselves?
SPEAKER_03:They're anchored to you above, so you have above them that is securing them. That's a good question, though.
SPEAKER_02:That I am so deathly afraid of height, so I'll never do this sport. But the I just saw the those the famous climber guy, Alex Connell. He's about to climb a building, the front of a building. Did you see that?
SPEAKER_03:In the I don't know about it, but I saw that headline.
SPEAKER_02:One of the tallest buildings in the world, he's gonna scale the front of it free solo. Like he doesn't have the things that you know, cables, nothing. No, no, nothing, nothing. He's just literally just free free climbing.
SPEAKER_03:I would imagine that's probably gotta be so much easier for him than being on a rock. I would think.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what his life insurance policy costs him. Like that guy's just got so many videos. Have you ever seen this guy? No, dude, he he climbs like that one famous one, L cap, which is like where is that in Utah or something?
SPEAKER_03:Yosemite. Yosemite.
SPEAKER_02:It's like a fucking just a wall that he climbs thousands of feet with no nothing, no straps, nothing.
SPEAKER_03:But you know, he had it like memory, not taking anything away from him. It just shows you like the commitment to these things, like anything else. It's like running an Iron Man, like obsessed with it. Like, we can do anything, you just have to become obsessed. He'd probably been climbing that for years, memorizing every single step, every single moment. So it's like by the time he did it with no ropes, he had done it for a year with ropes. Um, like such a testament to like he's not frivolous. Like, obviously, I would never climb without ropes, but he's so safe at the same time. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's not, he's obviously a thrill seeker, but he's a real professional. Like he's I know that sounds silly, but it's but I think you I I hope you're tracking.
SPEAKER_00:So the the ropes and the device you put into the rocks, they're not to like uh leverage, they're basically just as a safety blanket in case you do fall or slip.
SPEAKER_03:Generally speaking, if you are trad climbing, depending on what kind of climber you are, you want to climb within your means to not be falling and pulling on the equipment. Like it's there to catch you, no doubt, and it will catch you and it does catch you, but you're not climbing with the goal of falling. When I'm out there sport climbing and it's a bolt, like fuck it, like go for it, take a fall, like you're gonna take a whip, but nothing's coming out of that rock. So you kind of have a different intention when you're, you know, different kind of rock climbing. Like, you know, with ice or yeah, with ice or like mountaineering, like you're just it, it's it's it's so different. Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's a wild uh this is uh most I've ever talked about rock climbing. And I'm now I'm like intrigued about rock climbing.
SPEAKER_01:This guy's crazy, he'll drag me into something else. No, no, no.
SPEAKER_03:You should know, but there's so many parallels. I mean, that's what had brought me into like climbing, really, was to like get into mountaineering. So like there's a big parallel between Iron Man, ultra runners, and like mountaineers.
SPEAKER_02:Like you know, like I'm a big rock climber, but like my thing though is like okay, Iron Man, if we were running and we have a cramp, we stop running. Yeah, if you're halfway up a face of a mountain and you're like just grabbing on with your little fingers, and you got a cramp, then you what do you do? You're stuck.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, there's definitely places in which you don't want things to go wrong, and there's definitely like like airplanes, everything that's really tall.
SPEAKER_02:Airplanes, rock climbing. I can name a couple.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And when when you climb and you get to the top, is there generally a walking path back down, or you have to climb back down?
SPEAKER_03:It really depends like what rock or mountain you're on. Um, it really depends on what rock your mountain you're on. Like Mount Everest, you're just gonna like come down the same way you went up. And if you go down the other side, like you would be in China. You know, Mount Whitney in California, the biggest mountain in California, um, the continental US, you like rock climb the front of it, and then you're just like at a flat top, and like all the hikers are up there. So it's like so funny. You're on the top of this mountain with like a bunch of people that just like hike. Up there. Um, I've been on some mountaintops that are like only one person's fitting, like, don't fuck it sneeze the wrong way. So it's all different.
SPEAKER_02:That's wild. Well, Chris, it was great having you on the show. I gotta get out of here because I got dinner dinner plans uh in a little bit. But uh, where can our listeners find you and find your content?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, um at my at Chris Benjamin. I'm at Chris Benjamin everywhere, if the spelling is anywhere, K R Y S B E E N Y A M E I N, Chris Benyameen.
SPEAKER_02:Got it, sweet. Chris so much, man. Thanks so much, Chris.
