From Layoff to Freedom: Tony Lopes' Real Estate Journey

Rich Bennett 0:00
Thanks for joining the conversation, where we explore the stories and experiences that shape our world. I'm your host, Rich Bennett, today. I'm excited to welcome Tony Lopes to the show. Tony is a first generation American. I love that term, first of all. He's the CEO of Dirty Boots Capital. A bestselling author, coach, speaker and a podcaster with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an MBA from UMass. Tony spent 19 years managing multimillion dollar defense programs while simultaneously building a portfolio of residential income properties. His smart investments and deep understanding of markets allowed him to retire. Just 44 years old. Even though you can't see him, we could see each other because we're recording in virtual RB. Damn if he looks like he's in his forties, I would think he was probably about 20. So But now. Now Tony's on a mission to share his knowledge and help others achieve financial independence. His book, Freedom at Risk, explores the vital connections between education, politics, the economy and culture, offering strategies to protect and maximize our freedoms. So we're going to dive into his incredible journey, learn how he empowers others to build a life of freedom and purpose. So, first of all, Tony, how's it going, man? 

Tony Lopes 1:21
Rich, thank you for that for having me on, first of all. And then secondly, for that very, very kind introduction and if the folks could see me. I do have salt and pepper hair, so. 

Rich Bennett 1:34
No. Hey, look. You like me, man. I mean, a lot of people say my beard is white. It's Arctic Blonde. 

Tony Lopes 1:41
There you go. There you go. It's all in how you market it. 

Rich Bennett 1:44
Exactly. Exactly. Salt and pepper. I can't see any salt and pepper because of the hat. Maybe that's why. 

Tony Lopes 1:50
Yeah. Zales There's a little up there. 

Rich Bennett 1:52
Okay. All right, That's. 

Tony Lopes 1:54
Trust. 

Rich Bennett 1:54
See, that's just. That's just showing wisdom, man. 

Tony Lopes 1:57
I love it. Yes. Let's go with that. 

Rich Bennett 2:01
It's like. It's like when I went to my 

dermatologist. Dermatologist looked to be dopey. Yeah. You have some wisdom spots. I'm like, What? He said, Wisdom spots where? Wisdom spots? He said, Well, some people call them age spots. I said, Oh, hell no. I'll stick with what you said. They're wisdom spots. I came home and told my voice, you know, the reason I said no, The doctor said, they're wisdom spots. They are wisdom spots. 

Tony Lopes 2:26
That's how they get you to pay that high medical bill. And you're loving every minute of it because he made you feel so good, calling him Wisdom sponsor. Happy to write that. 

Rich Bennett 2:37
That's right. And the next time I go back there, if he changes or says there's something else, I'm firing him. 

Tony Lopes 2:42
There you go. Pay the bill. 

Rich Bennett 2:45
Exactly. So let's let's find out a little bit about Tony. You. Did you grow up in Boston or outside of Boston? 

Tony Lopes 2:52
So I just I grew up just south of Boston. My my parents, as you mentioned, they they migrated from from Portugal, you know, relatively poor country where they were from and especially their village where where they were from. So they migrated here. They saw it as the land of opportunity. And it was an it still is a great land of opportunity. So they came here. And so I'm first generation American, just like my my three other siblings. And so, you know, because they saw so much opportunity here, one of the things they saw was, you know, a great education system. 

Rich Bennett 3:27
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 3:27
And so they said, hey, you know, they handed us the tablets of and like many of your listeners are probably can relate to this you know having parents hand down the tablets of go to school, get a good education, you'll get a good job and you're basically be taken care of for the rest of your life. Right. And that was that was the case for them. And God bless them, they they had a very good life. And so me as a as a young man, I mean, I didn't know anything other than to follow their advice. So I went to school. I got a great education. I got two degrees a bachelors in mechanical engineering and then an MBA degree. And I don't say that to be braggadocious, but it it builds into the story. You know, you're. 

Rich Bennett 4:10
Right. Right. 

Tony Lopes 4:11
In advance. So I went to school, got great education. I ended up with a great job. Then about four years later, I got laid off and I was like, Rich. I was like, Wait a minute. This wasn't part of the plan. No one. 

Rich Bennett 4:25
They don't teach you that. 

Tony Lopes 4:26
Right know where my parents mantra was, and then you get laid off, right? 

Rich Bennett 4:30
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 4:31
And so I wasn't financially independent at the time. I was just, you know, living pay my bills, pay my mortgage. I had a condo. I was paying my my mortgage on my condo, pay my car. All that sort of just like everybody else. Right. Very relatable. My you know, I put my pants on the same way, one leg at a time, just like everybody else. Like all your other listeners out there, there's nothing special 

Rich Bennett 4:51
Mm. 

Tony Lopes 4:51
about me, Right? So. So I would just pay my bills and trying to figure out, okay, now I need to get another job. To be able to continue to pay my bills, Right, Because I didn't have a stream or a cent of income coming in. So I had to find another job, which I did great. But then, you know, that was really the inflection point in my life where I said, Wait a minute, do I want to continue to, you know, harness my horse to this carriage of having a job for the rest of my life and not really being in control of where my income is coming from. And so that's that's the point at which I started to seriously think about real estate investing. That was my thing, right? I'm not saying everybody needs to go into real estate investing. There's a ton of other things people can do. But for me, I had an interest in real estate. So that's that's what I started doing at the time. You know, 20 years ago, we never called it a gig economy. 

Rich Bennett 5:55
Uh huh. 

Tony Lopes 5:55
At that time. You know, you'll have the white beard just like I have the salt and pepper here. Right. Years and years ago, they never had this terminology. But basically that's what I was doing. I was in a gig economy 20 years ago, buying my first building to be able to collect rents and cashflow. Right. These were things that were never taught to me in school, never really taught to 

Rich Bennett 6:16
Right. 

Tony Lopes 6:16
me, even by my parents. Right. I had to figure this out for myself. And so that ultimately led to me buying another building and another building and building a couple of homes and all that sort of jazz. It just really led to me being able to retire at age 44. 

Rich Bennett 6:35
So you were buying commercial and residential produce. 

Tony Lopes 6:38
So no, this was all residential properties. I stayed in my small. 

Rich Bennett 6:41
Oh, okay. 

Tony Lopes 6:42
All residential properties. And and that's one of the big things. One of the lessons I learned and I share with folks today who are either going into business or doing real estate, you know, stay in your swim lane, stay in what you know. Try not to start going and in all sorts of different directions. I do some real estate coaching with folks. And, you know, I have folks who say I want to do short term rentals, I want to do self-storage units, I want to fix and flip. And I'm like, oh, by then my head exploded and I'm like, Holy cow, Like, there's only one of you. You can only do 

Rich Bennett 7:19
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 7:19
one. Like sort of like, okay, we have limited time, like pick one. And so it really requires them to focus. And the same thing with running a business right away. You 

Rich Bennett 7:30
Yeah, 

Tony Lopes 7:30
know, a lot of folks out there that have like either home businesses or small businesses, they're trying to do like way too much stuff. And, you know, one of the things I share with them is, you know, having a virtual assistant like oversees, like I ought to automate, you know, from being in the podcast business, we have virtual assistants that they do our social media, they do our our editing of videos, marketing plans, all sorts of stuff. So these folks like eight bucks an hour out in the Philippines, down in Colombia 

Rich Bennett 8:04
exactly. 

Tony Lopes 8:04
and Mexico, eight bucks an hour. So if you can't afford eight bucks an hour for, say, I don't know, ten, 10 hours a week to do your marketing. And you can do a lot of marketing in 10 hours a week, Right? So 80 bucks a week for marketing that, that's that's pretty darn cheap. And so, Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:25
And the other thing is, too, if. Number one, if you're running a business and you can't afford marketing, you need to go back to the drawing board because you should not be in business right now. I mean, when you put together your business plan, marketing better be in that business plan. 

Tony Lopes 8:42
Absolutely. You know, so one of the things of, you know, just working with different people and really at this point in my life, I'm just trying to add value to people's lives to. 

Rich Bennett 8:52
Right. 

Tony Lopes 8:53
Them whatever they're doing, I don't really care if it's, you know, trying to have better health, trying to get into real estate, trying to start their own business, whatever it is. It's just really trying to help them think a little differently. Because even even us, ourselves. Me, I get stuck in a rut of my own own train of thought and. 

Rich Bennett 9:14
Oh, yeah. 

Tony Lopes 9:15
I don't see my blind spots. It's hard for us as individuals to see our blind spots, so we need others to kind of point those out to us and say, Hey, this is a blind spot. You need to you need to work on that. You need to change how you're doing things. And if so, if you're just going on day and day and you're ignoring those blind spots, 

Rich Bennett 9:35
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 9:36
they're going to continue to plague you. So, you know, one of the things we're going through now is we're taking a look at 2025 goals for next year. Right where and one of the things we do is we take a look at what it's always nice to go back and look at this current year, 2024. What did we achieve this year in 2024? And it's very you know, hey, you pat yourself on the back, very congratulatory of what you completed. But one of the things we do is we also take a look real hard at what didn't we achieve for our goals. 

Rich Bennett 10:09
Yep. 

Tony Lopes 10:09
Because, you know, as you know, Rich, that's super important. And you start to ask, why? Why did I achieve that? Obviously, it wasn't a super important goal because otherwise I would have achieved that. So. 

Rich Bennett 10:22
You know what? You're right. And the funny thing is with that and I've seen this with a lot of business owners, 

see it every four years when it comes election time, people get scared and they and they don't achieve a lot of them goes because they're afraid of what's going to happen. My my thought is, first of all, COVID was a lot worse than any election, I believe. And if you succeed it during COVID, you can succeed through anything. You gotta think outside the box or somebody. I just had a guest on that said, and I love this. They said, want to think outside the box while I had to always think outside of the box because I didn't learn how to be in the box. 

Tony Lopes 11:10
Yeah. Yeah. And. And it's. 

Rich Bennett 11:12
But everybody does the same thing that's in the box. 

Tony Lopes 11:16
Man. You just brought out something so massive here. Rich You know, during that time of COVID, that was a very unique time in history. I don't know. And I hope we don't ever see that again. But there was actually. 

Rich Bennett 11:28
Exactly. 

Tony Lopes 11:28
Right. Hopefully there is you know, people are picking out some of the goodness that happened in COVID to say, wait a minute, maybe this is a good time for me to recalibrate how beautiful is it for me to work from home and spend this time with my family? Right. Just to recalibrate folks that wait a minute, I'm really doing all of this for my family. It's all great. And well, you know, we go to work, we make money, you know, and and folks all share with me, you know, gee, Tony, you know, you know, we're buying more buildings, we're buying more things. It's it's more money. But and that's that's great. We're helping people financially. But at the end of the day, money you can't eat money, right? You can't hug your wife or your kids with with money. Right. We want to give people back time. 

Rich Bennett 12:17
Yes. 

Tony Lopes 12:18
Right. To be able to say, okay, maybe you don't have to work so many years. Right. Maybe you can retire early. Right. Maybe you can work from home. Maybe you can do some different things. Where what's most important to you is your your family and being able to do these incredible adventure adventures together. 

Rich Bennett 12:42
Yes. 

Tony Lopes 12:43
That's the important thing. Right. And so that's one of the things, you know, like when we're going through goals with folks, we really start with And I encourage folks any any of the listeners, you know, to really start thinking about 2025 goals and 

Rich Bennett 12:58
hmm. 

Tony Lopes 12:58
start with your intentions before you start writing goals on the paper and you say, you know, Hey, I want to be a millionaire in 2025 or I want to buy a Ferrari or whatever materials. And a lot of people come up with materialistic things, and that's 

Rich Bennett 13:11
Yes. 

Tony Lopes 13:11
fine too. I'm not a proponent, you know, but really, you know, we start to we actually look at intentions, what things do we want to be known for or what do I 

Rich Bennett 13:24
Legacy. 

Tony Lopes 13:24
want to be known for? Like if I want to be known as, say, I'm not a I don't have kids, so I'm not a father, but I want it to like my intention would be to be a great father. Right. And 

Rich Bennett 13:35
Right. 

Tony Lopes 13:36
I think every father out there most likely has that intention to begin. 

Rich Bennett 13:40
I would hope so. 

Tony Lopes 13:41
I would hope so. Right. Right. So, you know, if you write down that intention and you probably have, I don't know, five, six, ten other intentions. Maybe to be a good husband or a good spouse or whatever it ends up being. Right. Those intentions. Those are big things to be a good father. 

Rich Bennett 13:57
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 13:58
And now as you start to develop your goals, start to develop your goals and you say, does that goal really map back to me being a great father? Maybe it does. Maybe it does. Right. I want to be a millionaire in 2025. That's a great goal. I'm okay with that as long as you're doing it with the right reasons and it maps back to being a great father, because, hey, if I can become a millionaire, I'm going to have more time. I'm going to have more freedom. I'm going to be able to take more trips with my kids and my family. That makes me a great father. So the reason why you want to become a millionaire in 2025 is because it maps back to you. Being a great father or great wife or spouse or whatever. Right. It maps back. And that's the whole. 

Rich Bennett 14:45
There. 

Tony Lopes 14:46
That's the beauty of going through this process of setting your goals. And it just further, you know, it makes you think, right this world. 

Rich Bennett 14:55
Oh, it does 

Tony Lopes 14:56
It's just you go and you go and you go and it's God. I jump on my phone and it's social media all over the place. And before I know I've spent a an hour wasted on my phone on social media. 

Rich Bennett 15:07
help. 

Tony Lopes 15:07
You're getting pulled in so many directions. We all know this. We never have a moment of call 

Rich Bennett 15:15
No. 

Tony Lopes 15:16
Right. Just to think. Like what? What? One of my things I love to do, I. I work out first thing in the morning. 

Rich Bennett 15:24
Mm hmm. 

Tony Lopes 15:24
One of the things I love to do and I share with folks because hopefully, you know, again, this is all, you know, trying to help people. I'm not looking for to clone myself and make people, you know, a spitting image of me. I just share what works for me. 

Rich Bennett 15:38
Right. 

Tony Lopes 15:38
It with the hopes that works maybe for somebody else. 

Rich Bennett 15:41
Or then. Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 15:42
So one of the things I do while I'm working out is like, what's like the one big thing I want to do today, aside from like not sending emails, not coming up with whatever business plan. Like, what's the one big thing I can do today that maybe I didn't do yesterday or over the last week? Or maybe it was in my thoughts, but I didn't really get it done. What's that one big thing that maybe just might change somebody's world today? 

Rich Bennett 16:09
Mm. Yes. 

Tony Lopes 16:11
Right. Just. 

Rich Bennett 16:12
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 16:13
Just have this moment of calm. And for me, it's when I'm walking out, I'm walking to the gym or something like that, right? You know, I just take that moment of calm to think, what's the one thing? And sometimes it's sometimes two or three things pop up, and that's okay. And, you know, I find myself you know what? I haven't called my friend Chris in a long time. I know he's been going through a lot. A lot of things are happening. You know what? On the way back from the gym, I'm picking up the phone and I'm calling Chris. Hey, Chris. How you doing? We haven't spoken in a while. How you doing on those? Those? Last time we spoke, you were having some issues. Blah, blah, blah. Sorry, I haven't been there for you. Haven't been a good friend or whatever. Whatever. Right. But now you're making the time to really have an impact. 

Rich Bennett 16:58
Hmm. Yeah. You know, you never know when you call that person. You could be saving their life. 

Tony Lopes 17:04
You're so right. Yes. We never know what's happening on on the other side. Right. 

Rich Bennett 17:10
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 17:11
We it's so important to to, you know, be kind of because 

Rich Bennett 17:15
Yes. 

Tony Lopes 17:16
even if somebody is in a chipper, happy mood, doesn't necessarily mean that they are. 

Rich Bennett 17:24
That's true. 

Tony Lopes 17:25
There's a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes. And, you know, it's so important to to to be kind to folks and help folks. And and this is why I love coming on podcast here with you. Rich Herron. HERRON today to be able to just share some things that of have helped us right 

Rich Bennett 17:44
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 17:44
We're not working off a script we're just yakking about like hey life and what's, what's worked for us. 

Rich Bennett 17:52
The thing is with being kind, at least this is help for me. And I would think you would help from other people, but especially as a business owner, if you're kind to others, going to help your business as well. 

Tony Lopes 18:05
Oh, my God. It's, you know, one. 

Rich Bennett 18:07
You are your brand. 

Tony Lopes 18:10
You are so you are so right. And that's actually one of the things that. Really drove me towards real estate and not a really I don't want to talk too much about real estate because it's not everybody's cup of tea, but for me it definitely touches on that point of, you know, when I go to conferences and we talk about real estate, we're just sharing ideas openly and freely. Hey, did you try that? How did you negotiate a deal? How are you dealing with your tenants? How am I dealing with my tenants? Did I ever have that issue? And we're all trying to solve each other's problems. Nobody's looking for a fee. Nobody's saying, Hey, I'll tell you how much I saw how I solved those problems. And, oh, by the way, you owe me, you know, dinner or 200 bucks or whatever it ends up being, right? Nobody's nobody's negotiating that. So real estate, you know, we get into these rooms and we're just sharing and trying to help each other as much as possible. Now, contrast that, contrast that environment with, say, you work for the pharmaceutical industry and you go to a pharmaceutical conference. I mean, you're not going to be trading if you work for Pfizer, you're not going to be trading. 

Rich Bennett 19:21
Johnson and Johnson. 

Tony Lopes 19:22
You're not going to be sharing your trade secrets. Johnson and Johnson are Bear or whoever. Right. You're going to keep that pretty close to the vest, Right? But with real estate, we can in a room were such a odd breed. It's the I've been involved in so many things that it's just like real estate. It's just so unique in that way. There's people who are reaching down with their hand to pick you up, to lift you up. Right. Not kick you further down in the teeth, you know, with their boo or, you know, it's not like that. That's not what the real estate folks are looking to do. 

Rich Bennett 20:03
I mentioned this a lot to and especially and again, I'm going back to covert restaurants. You saw restaurants helping each other out. And to me, I've always this is one of the reasons I do not like. I'm not a big fan of the business networking groups because with business networking groups you can only have like, say, one company that's, you know, one person that's in the insurance field, one person that's in the real estate field. I believe you should let everybody in, because you should it shouldn't be competition. It should be partners. You are helping each other out. And you see that with a lot of people that are into podcasting now. Helping, I ask. One of the things I love doing is I do you know, the park is consulting and I've got people call me up and ask me, you know, they want to get a podcast. Of course, my first question is why? 

Tony Lopes 21:01
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 21:02
Yeah. And do you want. What do you want to hear first, the pros or the cons about it. And a lot of times, once they hear the cons, you realize that it's not as easy as people think. 

Tony Lopes 21:15
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 21:16
It changes, you know, their perspective on it 

Tony Lopes 21:19
I 

Rich Bennett 21:20
and. 

Tony Lopes 21:20
think, you know, having been on both sides, both a fan of podcasts and YouTube and all that sort of jazz, a longtime listener, a big fan of that sort of stuff. And so now. We both have our own podcasts and our own YouTube, and we're well on the other side of the table. And you really get to see, like you and I, we don't get paid for doing this right. And I don't say that to like, you know, be like poo poo and and be like, you know, oh, woe is us. Right. But. 

Rich Bennett 21:53
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 21:54
Start to see people do podcast because they're truly out there. They want to help people. Right. 

Rich Bennett 21:59
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 21:59
And I'll be the first in the room to say, Hey, you know what, guys? I don't have all the answers. I don't. So. 

Rich Bennett 22:07
Nobody does. 

Tony Lopes 22:07
Right. So don't expect me to have the answers. But you know what? I'll listen. I will give you my opinion and try to help based on my perspective in my own personal experiences, because our experiences shape us. So my experience has shaped me. Your experience is rich, shaped you. Right. And so there may be some things you can offer to me that maybe I haven't experienced in my life here that can help me. Great. 

Rich Bennett 22:36
Vice versa. 

Tony Lopes 22:36
Right. So. So that's the whole you know, the thing I love about podcasts and really once I started doing my own and I'm like, wow, you know, this isn't a profit center. This. Only costing me time and money. But I love doing it just like you love doing it. Because at the end of the day, I mean, there's folks out there that we may never know we're helping. And I've had folks come back like after, you know, they listen to some of my stuff or whatnot. They they heard me and they were like they saw me at a conference or something. And they were like, wow, you know, when you were talking to so-and-so and me, I've, like, already forgot that conversation because had, like, you know, 2000 other conversations. 

Rich Bennett 23:19
Uh huh. 

Tony Lopes 23:21
Right. It's like, Oh, really? I said that. Wow, that's really inspirational and that's really great stuff while I said that, but at the time it like really hit them and they. 

Rich Bennett 23:30
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 23:31
It was the one thing they needed at that point in time to effect change in their lives. And that felt good. And I. 

Rich Bennett 23:39
Feels really good. 

Tony Lopes 23:41
And it's not like we go back and we say, okay, that affected change in your life. Okay, give me 100 bucks. Right. Great. It helped you. That makes me so happy that 

Rich Bennett 23:51
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 23:52
some random thing I said helped you. Fantastic. 

Rich Bennett 23:56
That's why, you know. Because you interview people on your show as well. 

Tony Lopes 24:01
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 24:01
And that's one of the things that I look at. If I see somebody that I know I can learn from, then I know my listeners are going to learn from maybe not all of them. But even if it's one, you know, that's fine. We talk about addiction a lot and mental health. If I can help somebody raise awareness. That's a win. That's a win win. And I've we've had people contact us and and thank us for a guest we've had on it because they learned from it. That's the biggest reward that you can ever get. 

Tony Lopes 24:38
It really is. It really is. I mean, doing the whole podcasting thing and that's kind of like a big con to doing podcasts is, you know, once you get past the initial cost of you need certain equipment, cameras. Phones, lighting, all that sort of jazz. You know, there's a cost to it. And then once you're doing videos, you're editing those videos. You know, there's there's a cost to that, you know? Every video I put out costs me about 50 bucks just an editing time. Right? So there's a cost to that, right? So it's it's not like we're doing this again as a profit center. We do this because we truly want to add value to folks. And so, yeah, I love interviewing folks because, you know, on my podcast, I there's a lot of things, you know, with real estate, I'm still learning. Learning rich. And it's just great to be able to bend the ear of people who have come before me, you know, and and so forth, you know, and that's a super important point and valuable for for folks to hear is, you know, I'm talking about it from a podcasting perspective in a real estate perspective, to be hearing from people who have come before me. But if you're out there and you're listening to this and you want something better in your life, whether it's better health, better relationships, better financial situation, look towards people who have come before. You look towards people who have that in their lives, right? If there's somebody you see, maybe you live in a complex, an apartment building or something like that, and you see somebody who just looks really fit, just strike up a conversation with them as you pass them in a hallway or something. You know, hey, you're you know, you look super fit. You know, can I can I ask you how how do you get super fit? 

Rich Bennett 26:23
Uh huh. 

Tony Lopes 26:24
And maybe there's something there. You can learn from that, from that person. You know, typically it's not all genetics. 

Rich Bennett 26:31
No. 

Tony Lopes 26:32
It's work. 

Rich Bennett 26:32
No, it's a lot of hard work. 

Tony Lopes 26:35
Right. You know, or if you see somebody, you know, and I. I'm down in Florida right now. We spend part of our part of our year down here in Florida. And there's where I am. There's a big Christian population. Right. And I see a lot of those folks just leaning on each other relative to like relationships. None of us are perfect. None of us are perfect spouses, so to speak. We need help and we need advice from us. So look for those people in your world. Chances are you have them. Whatever it is, if it's from a health perspective, from a financial perspective, from a, you know, being a better spouse, whatever it is, look for those people that have come before you. 

Rich Bennett 27:20
You know, and I think that's I don't know if it's a an ego thing with some people or what, but I mean, somebody else were talking about this the other day. I personally this is my fault, not my fault. My thought, I believe and I don't care what you don't whether it's for business, whether it's for your personal life, whether it's helping out in the community, I believe that everybody should have a mentor. Or more. I mean, I know I'm in the Lions Club. I do the Lions Club. I've had a couple mentors that were in the club. When it comes to business. Some of my sponsors are my mentors. You know, I learn from them. When it comes to podcasting, I 

know this. 

If he hears this help 

Alex from Pod Match. I look at Alex as a mentor. He means he doesn't know that. But I learned so much from him. And who's the idol? Daniel Lewis from The Audacity podcast. There's so many different people out there you can learn from when it comes to your work, giving back to others. A guy who's in real estate, Danny McGee. I've learned so much from him. You know, he's always giving back. Even going to like Haiti or Costa Rica or whatever to help out. It's just 

you got to have a mentor. 

Tony Lopes 28:59
Absolutely. And they just come with such a different perspective, a different 

Rich Bennett 29:05
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 29:05
frame of mind. 

Rich Bennett 29:07
Mm hmm. 

Tony Lopes 29:08
You know, I'll I'll share a perspective. I have a mentor who's in real estate, too, to give you a magnitude, you know, super great guy. I'm not going to mention any names because I don't want to embarrass him or anything like that. 

Rich Bennett 29:24
Go ahead. Embarrass him. That's all right. 

Tony Lopes 29:27
I want to have a certain word for him with him to have a certain respect and privacy. But, you know, so he and I would talk and, you know, so from a real estate perspective, he's on. Billionaire spectrum. And I don't say. I just say it to give you a size of where he's at. He doesn't need to be speaking with me. He doesn't need to be mentoring me or anything. Right. 

Rich Bennett 29:54
But he is like a mentor. Even though you don't talk to him, he is like your mentor. lot of people get confused. 

Tony Lopes 30:00
And so and so we we do talk and he like I'll be like, you know, I remember like a couple of years ago we were we were going for like I think, 20, 24 goals. Goals. And so I met with him on Zoom because he's not local to me. I met with him and I'm talking with him and, you know, pitch like, you know, I was like the child. So so excited. I was laying out all my toys on the table, Hey, I'm doing this. I'm doing podcasting. I got my book, I'm doing speak income, all my toys. I was laying out on the table. Right. 

And he asked me why, why, why, why are you doing all these things? Like, what are you what are you trying to gain? And he knows me. He knows me, knows me personally. He knows like he's like and rightfully so to him, it's. And helps to calibrate me, you know? I didn't need to. I didn't need 

Rich Bennett 30:59
Right? 

Tony Lopes 30:59
to do those things right. So again, it goes back to one of the earlier things I said. Sometimes people on the outside can see things so much clearer than than you can, Right? They can see your blind spots. 

Rich Bennett 31:10
Yup. 

Tony Lopes 31:10
And for him, he helped me realize that it was something why I was doing these things. It was something so much bigger. It was more of a life of significance versus success. So there's like four I share. So there's four levels. I look at four levels of being right, your first level of being at at the bottom. We've all been there, by the way, is the first level of struggle. We've all been there. You know, we we leave home for the first time. We're on our own paying rent or paying our mortgage. All our bills, electricity, whatever it is. There's a struggle there. Some have it harder than others, but we all girls go through that level of struggle. 

Rich Bennett 32:00
Mm. 

Tony Lopes 32:01
But eventually you kind of grow out of that. You grow past that struggle and you get to a certain level of success where that second level of success you start to realize, Hey, I can pay my bills pretty easily. I have some dispensable income. I can go out to eat freely. I, I don't really have to worry financially or whatever it is. I have success in my life. Okay, great. Once you have that success, now you go on to the third stage, which is significance. How can I start to help others as I live and breathe today? How can I have a life of significance and help others? And that's great. That's great to get to that level. Right. And that's what he was trying to help me. Are you on the level of success or are you really in the level of significance? And he helped me realize I was really in the level of significance. That's where I. 

Rich Bennett 32:55
Right. 

Tony Lopes 32:56
And then the fourth level is creating an atmosphere. That fourth level is legacy. After you die. That what you've created is still around and still helping people, right? So I challenge folks and different conversation. It doesn't always come up in one conversation, but it just kind of again, sets that perspective of where are you on the spectrum? And that can be a lot of different things. Maybe, maybe for for for me, you know, maybe health, maybe today I'm still struggling with health financially. Maybe I'm maybe maybe I'm at a level of significance for financial reasons. Maybe I'm insignificant. But my health, I'm still struggling. Right. So there's. 

Rich Bennett 33:40
Right? 

Tony Lopes 33:41
Like one category. Like you're always in for everything under the sun, right? Relationships with your spouse. Maybe some people are in success and they want to get to a level of significance with their with their spouse, you know? 

Rich Bennett 33:56
Mm hmm. 

Tony Lopes 33:56
So there's all different ways to look at it, but it kind of visually helps people kind of assess their lives and where they are. And that's what my friend was was doing with me is is saying, that's great, you're doing all these things. But. But why? Like, what's the purpose? 

Rich Bennett 34:13
You know, and I think that's a question a lot of people don't ask themselves before they jump into something like that. They don't ask themselves why? Why are they doing it? You know, and they just get up and start doing it with a gang, going back with no plan. 

Tony Lopes 34:31
Yeah. Yeah. And that's why, you know, we really look not to not to keep jumping on this, but, you know, goals and setting goals for 20, 25. That's a big thing for us. Because if we have no plan, if we have no roadmap, no thought, no opportunity to give ourselves a calm moment in our life, to think about that 2025, it's going to come and go. And what 

Rich Bennett 34:57
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 34:57
did you achieve? 

Maybe something, maybe something, maybe by happenstance something happens and that maybe that's great. But was that the right thing? Was that the thing you really wanted? Right? Maybe you have somebody in your your life that you know what, they're aging. They're probably not going to be on this planet for very much longer. 

Rich Bennett 35:18
Mm hmm. 

Tony Lopes 35:19
Maybe one of your goals this year is you want to spend more time with that person because life is short, right? 

Rich Bennett 35:25
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 35:25
I'm not here to be morbid about things. I'm not. But I want people to have. 

Rich Bennett 35:29
They may not have it tomorrow. 

Tony Lopes 35:30
Right. And if you just live your life and you and you just go by the seat of your pants and you don't have a plan and you don't have goals. And one of the goals may be to spend more time with that, that loved one that year. You may not ever get back and you may regret it. Right. 

Rich Bennett 35:46
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 35:47
You know. 

Rich Bennett 35:48
We speak because you you speak of a lot of different business owners, correct? 

Tony Lopes 35:53
I do. Yes, sir. 

Rich Bennett 35:55
I never asked this question, but 

Tony Lopes 35:58
This is America. 

Rich Bennett 35:59
because. I'm interested only because, like I told you about the the podcast, the part where I talked my first question when I asked or taught somebody wants to start a podcast, I ask them why do they want to do it as a hobby or a business? to do it as a business, then great. Put together a business plan. How many business owners do you know that are successful that never had a business plan? 

Tony Lopes 36:28
Wow. 

It's a very small number, if not zero. 

Rich Bennett 36:37
Right. 

Tony Lopes 36:38
Right. It just doesn't. 

Rich Bennett 36:40
Or they created one after the fact. 

Tony Lopes 36:42
Yeah. It's just, you know, it's it's kind of like, you know, right now where we're seeing. 

Rich Bennett 36:48
Like a chef without a recipe. 

Tony Lopes 36:50
Yeah. You know, and unfortunately, there's things happening. There's things that have actually happened in the last, I would say, 15 years where folks have had tremendous, tremendous success riding on the coattails of others. And I'm not pooh poohing that. But but they have no real deep knowledge of what they're doing or why they're doing it. And so I'll say you know, I'll get off the real estate thing, although real estate is one of those things. We've had 15 years of a bull market in real estate, 

Rich Bennett 37:27
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 37:27
and I've seen people make gobs of money in real estate, and that's great. That's great. But when I start asking them some deep questions about how they run their business, to your point, they have no business plan. They just been very fortunate that they've rode this the the ladder up on real estate. 

Rich Bennett 37:43
huh. 

Tony Lopes 37:44
But let me tell you, when the when and more more so of when, not if bad times happen, they're going to be in trouble. But the same thing with some folks who have invested in like Bitcoin. Right. And some of the 

Rich Bennett 37:57
Mm 

Tony Lopes 37:57
cryptocurrencies. 

Rich Bennett 37:58
hmm. 

Tony Lopes 37:59
We're at a an all time high here for for bitcoin almost at at 100 K And there are some folks who have invested in that just on pure speculation, not really understanding what that asset is and what it does and how it holds its value. And I'm not a crypto guy, I'm not a, you know, bitcoin or anything like that. But you know, there are some folks who have had success. And 

point on a business plan 

and not having a business plan is probably not a great way to to start off. 

Rich Bennett 38:37
Right. 

Tony Lopes 38:38
Because you're you're you're most likely doomed for failure. There's very few people who have success without one. 

Rich Bennett 38:45
Yeah. I mean, you had to bring up crypto. That's one thing I've never understood. Still don't understand. Tried to research it, to try to understand it, and it hurt my head. 

Tony Lopes 38:57
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm not your guy to explain it, 

Rich Bennett 39:01
I've 

Tony Lopes 39:01
but you know what? You know what? One of the reasons why, you know why I do podcast and, you know, because we had spoken, 

Rich Bennett 39:08
blurred. 

Tony Lopes 39:09
you know, a little bit before you. Yeah, you hit the record button on this. You know, we, we were talking a little bit about why podcasting you sharing a little bit about that. I do it because it puts me in contact with people. 

Rich Bennett 39:22
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 39:23
I would normally not have any exposure to. 

People who are just like absolutely amazing people. 

Rich Bennett 39:33
Oh, yeah. 

Tony Lopes 39:34
And so what it does for for me, for me, my business, my speaking career, all that I do, it just elevates me. Because now I'm associated with other greatness that I've interviewed. Right. And now through association, you know, the the tides rise for for for for for me as well. Right. So that's a great thing. And, you know, and the other thing with podcasting is, you know, it helps folks develop their their voice, because when when you podcast, you have to have something of value to add. You know, you you get to be successful at it. You can't just go on there and just blabbering about, you know, nonsensical stuff that adds no, no value. You have to bring, you know, you have to bring something of either entertainment or, you know, advice, some financial, some well-being, some mindset. 

Rich Bennett 40:37
Uh huh. 

Tony Lopes 40:38
Value to people. So, yeah, that's, that's one of the things that, you know, so for me, you know, you go back and you look at my, my early, early videos, they sucked. They. And honestly, honestly, it was like and I'm okay. I'm okay with that because you have to start someplace, right? And even today, I mean, they're not the best. They're not the best, but they've improved. And I'll take. 

Rich Bennett 41:03
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 41:03
So when that's a win for me. But everybody needs to start from a place of speaking first. You have to suck first before you get better at something right? You know, 

Rich Bennett 41:15
Oh. 

Tony Lopes 41:15
we all we all do that. I'm sorry. 

Rich Bennett 41:18
Tony. I think. I think I got you beat on the video part, though. 

Tony Lopes 41:22
I also. 

Rich Bennett 41:24
See, when I started this originally back, I start started it back in October of 2015. Originally as a YouTube show, and we recorded at a local radio station and it would play on the radio station on Saturday mornings. So the first episode I had, I think was for young ladies in breast cancer Survivors. And halfway halfway through the recording, the guy ran to videos like Rich, We Got a Problem. So it was very sad. The video's not working. The camera's not working. I'm like the He says Brando is working fine. I'm like that. Then in there that told me I only have a face for Audiard, which is. Maybe that's why when I went to broadcast school, I got a degree in radio and not television. Yeah, but it was. It was so embarrassing because I had to take photos of my phone of the ladies and pieced together. Needless to say, video never happened. 

Tony Lopes 42:23
It's all good. 

Rich Bennett 42:24
Oh. 

Tony Lopes 42:24
And it all helps us with, you know, in the face of adversity. Who. Who are we? Who are we? Are we going to, like, crawl under a table and just, like, retreat there for the rest of the day? Are we really going to grab the bull by the horns and really, like, make something of it? 

Rich Bennett 42:42
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 42:42
You know that that that's that kind of culls the herd a bit. So. 

Rich Bennett 42:47
Oh, if I would have given up on this because of that one incident, and then even later on with when I went strictly audio, I go back and listen to some of the episodes. I'm like, Oh my God, Because when I was a radio, I was a music deejay. I mean, like talking to people. 

If you want to tell me their views about me, my can, I guess I would certainly do it. I don't want that thought of, you know, especially a celebrity. I mean, you're freezing up and everything, but. But now it's. Oh, my God, I love it. And 

networking. 

Tony Lopes 43:27
It is. 

Rich Bennett 43:27
Podcast. 

Tony Lopes 43:28
Form. It's so it's so valuable, you know, not just to develop your own thoughts to to be able to add more value to to people's lives. And the whole bunch of different ways, you know, But they, they see out there I was at an event, I forget what it was and, you know, and here I am, I'm like, Oh, this podcast thing, thing. You know, it was during the the rough days of, you know, I should I, should I continue doing doing it 

Rich Bennett 43:54
Right. 

Tony Lopes 43:54
or should I scrap it? Right? And then I, I was in the hotel lobby in their little like commissary section where you can buy trinkets or whatever. I was in there and somebody was calling my name and I'm like. Who the heck is this? Nobody knows me here, right? And so I turned around and there was somebody they introduced themselves, blah, blah, blah, you know, And it was like as a result of of my podcast and I was like, Holy cow, I am reaching people. And so this is this is where it goes goes back to, you know, you know, like you were saying, you know, be kind, be respectful of of people, try to help people as much as we can. Right. 

And you never know who you might be helping or touching their lives. And in some way, you may never see that. They never see that. But it definitely beats the alternate of a being a jerk. Right. Right. Kicking people in the teeth. I mean, that's just that's never going to go over well. I'm perfectly happy living my life knowing maybe I did touch some lives out there. Right. And again, this is operating in the in the level of significance where it's like, you know, you got to I think you got to know where where you are. I don't do this. You don't do this for for fame, Right? I don't have the face to write to be a Brad Pitt or to be, you know, George Clooney, famous, beautiful person. I don't have that face. Right. So I know my you know, my role. Right. So it isn't like for success or for fame or for money or anything like that. Like I do perfectly fine financially with my real estate and with my business. I don't need to do this. I'm not coming on to your show here, Rich, for nothing other than to be able to chat with you, create some new friendship with you. And if some of your your viewers, your listeners get some tidbit out of this that helps them from our conversation, something you said, something I said, Great. I'm happy this this hour that we spent together was a huge success. 

Rich Bennett 46:03
And actually, I'm glad you mentioned that because one thing I do want the listeners to know about is the book. us a little bit about freedom at risk. 

Tony Lopes 46:11
Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. So I spent four years working on this book. What? 

Rich Bennett 46:17
Wow. 

Tony Lopes 46:18
Yeah, it wasn't any small. And so I want to, I want to size it like the, the history behind it because it's, it was no small endeavor. It actually it started out it was supposed to be a small endeavor. I actually I don't have any kids. Like I said, I'm, I don't have any kids of my own so I actually but I have a niece, I have a niece and I have some nephews, and they're starting to come into their own into their twenties and whatnot. And I realize they're not learning all that they should be learning in school and college. 

Rich Bennett 46:52
Right. 

Tony Lopes 46:52
And I wanted to help them kind of frame their thoughts, frame their, you know, give them some additional exposure to things that would really help them. Right. Share some of my experiences. So I said, hey, you know, I'm going to go and write, you know, 30, 40 pages of maybe my experience, you know, give them some some operational framework for the life ahead of them. Right. And so I'm the guy in the corner of the of the coffee shop sitting at a table, banging at his laptop. That guy's me. Okay. Just to give you a frame of reference, that guy was me. Every day I'd go to a coffee shop, I bang out some some words, and I got to the point where I was like 35,000 words. I was at like 200 some odd pages and I. 

Rich Bennett 47:38
Wow. 

Tony Lopes 47:39
I was like, Whoa, this isn't like a 3040 page thing anymore. This is a book. This is a book, right? And so I had to transition. I had to like, you know, it was going from like me, you know, putting words on a page. I need to get an editor, a publisher, a graphic designer for the cover art and all that sort of stuff. I was like, Holy cow, I don't know how to do this stuff, right? So I had to go out and find people. Here I was on like, you know, freelancer and on different sites, trying to find people which is again, and another important thing, if you know you're not the expert. Don't try to become the expert. It's just too 

Rich Bennett 48:13
No. 

Tony Lopes 48:14
hard. It takes too long. It's too expensive. You're going to get it wrong. I'm sorry. You're going to get it wrong. The expert right to do that stuff. And so that's what I was doing. I was finding the editors and the graphic designers and all the folks that knew how to do that sort of stuff. So anyway, so I wrote the book, took me about four years to do it, but I wrote it from a place of Love where I wanted to actually all this information was shared was, you know, really developed to share with my family. 

Rich Bennett 48:41
Right. 

Tony Lopes 48:42
So it comes from a deep place of love, of where I want it to help them succeed in a very tremendous way and be prepared. 

So I titled it Freedom at Risk How to Protect Your Personal and Financial Freedoms. And so the first section of the book, it's a very easy read. Again, I wrote it for kind of like that 20 something, 30 something CROWD Right. 

Rich Bennett 49:05
Uh huh. 

Tony Lopes 49:05
Very easy read. It's not like a text book or anything like that. I include some pictures, some graphs, some easy things in there. So it was the first section of the book is really answers the question why? Why are our freedoms at risk? Right. Because if you don't understand that aspect of it and it's not a doom and gloom book, I mean, I definitely want to get that across, even though it's titled Freedom at Risk. That's the catch. That's the really 

Rich Bennett 49:31
Right. 

Tony Lopes 49:31
freedoms are at risk. The first part of the book answers the why. Everything from, like you said, from, you know, the education system not really teaching us everything we need to know so we lose our freedoms there some to some degree, the political system. We all know our freedom is in jeopardy because of our political system, society itself. I have a whole chapter on society, how society steals our freedoms or lets them go too freely. They 

Rich Bennett 49:58
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 49:58
let the government and the politicians solve their problems when rightfully so. It should be our selves. Our. 

Rich Bennett 50:07
Exactly. 

Tony Lopes 50:07
These things that should be fixed should be fixed around the dinner table with mommy 

Rich Bennett 50:12
Mm 

Tony Lopes 50:12
and 

Rich Bennett 50:12
hmm. 

Tony Lopes 50:12
daddy and the kids and, you know, an education there at home. Right. Going back to the education. 

Rich Bennett 50:17
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 50:17
The education starts at home. Some of these things start at home in society now with the politicians, too. So I talk about society. I talk about the the economy, how the economy can steal our freedoms, then also the monetary system. And I don't go too deep 

Rich Bennett 50:33
Mm 

Tony Lopes 50:33
into 

Rich Bennett 50:33
hmm. 

Tony Lopes 50:33
the monetary system because I don't want to, like, you know, have people's eyes glaze over. But it is something super important to understand how the monetary system works. And if you do, you read this chapter and you start to understand. You'll understand why Bitcoin is at nearly 100,000 today. 

Rich Bennett 50:51
Right. 

Tony Lopes 50:52
So that helps kind of framed the the idea of why our freedoms are at risk. But then after that first part one of the book Easy Read, I transition into part two, which is the how to how to protect your personal and financial freedoms, which is really. I don't. I don't. Push anything in those chapters to say, You must do this. It's really laid out as an all out car package, right? If you want to start a garden in your backyard and this isn't an example in the book, start a garden in your backyard where you know, where you get your fresh fruits and fresh vegetables and you pick your potatoes and you know your your string beans and all that sort of stuff. You have freedom knowing your your your growing your own fresh fruits and vegetables. No pesticides, no chemicals, nothing like that. There's a sense of calm that comes with that, where your food is coming from. 

Rich Bennett 51:46
It's good for your mental health. It's great therapy. 

Tony Lopes 51:48
Huge. Huge. And oh, by the way, when you're out there in the garden, I know this is true for me. When you're out there in the garden, you're away from the social media, you're away from the news stations. It's really hard to check it. It's really hard to check your social media when you're like picking potatoes. I've tried and it doesn't work well, right? 

My phone gets hurt 

Rich Bennett 52:12
You 

Tony Lopes 52:12
all 

Rich Bennett 52:12
could 

Tony Lopes 52:12
over 

Rich Bennett 52:12
not plant cell phones and grow them. 

Tony Lopes 52:14
the. So. So I give you all these different all our car examples, you know, starting a guard and, you know, going for a second citizenship. You know, if you're first generation like me, it's probably easier than if you're second, third, fourth generation. But that's something somebody may not have ever thought about. But by reading the book, they say, Oh, I'm a first. 

Rich Bennett 52:38
I never thought about that. 

Tony Lopes 52:39
Right. I mean, somebody who's first generation that may only cost me $300 to get a second citizenship. I know people rich. I know people who are paying $100,000 to get a second citizenship. 

Rich Bennett 52:53
You mean United States citizenship or just in another country? 

Tony Lopes 52:56
In another country, 

Rich Bennett 52:57
Okay. I was going to say, wait a minute, Why? 

Tony Lopes 52:59
right? 

Rich Bennett 52:59
But you would. That's. Wow. 

Tony Lopes 53:01
Yeah. So it just gives you that much. It gives you that much more freedom in terms of mobility. Like, say, during COVID, if you didn't want to be here in the States during COVID or say, there was something else that happened here in the States and you wanted to go someplace else, it just gives you that freedom through a second citizenship to be able to go to another country and stay there for, you know, six months, 12 months, you know, two years, whatever it is. You have that citizenship to be able to do that. Not everybody has that ability. Maybe they're married, maybe they have kids. It becomes a little harder. But took the time to do it is now when those options are there. Because I have seen some of those options narrow. What certain country? 

Rich Bennett 53:47
Right. 

Tony Lopes 53:48
Harder. So the time to do it is now when those options are there. So we talk about that. We talk about something that's called like an asymmetric play. It's a very fancy financial type term. Think about like Bitcoin, like, I don't know, ten years ago when you could get like a Bitcoin for a nickel or whatever it was, I don't know what it was, but it was like you could buy like a Bitcoin for a nickel. Like, okay, so if that goes down, what do you lose? You lose a nickel. 

Rich Bennett 54:15
Nicole. 

Tony Lopes 54:15
Okay. Who cares? Who cares? You'll lose a nickel, right? But if you let it sit there and it goes up, that one Bitcoin that you bought for a nickel is almost worth $100,000 today. That's an asymmetric play, something with tremendous upside and very, 

Rich Bennett 54:31
Okay. 

Tony Lopes 54:31
very little downside. So there's different things like that that you can explore in terms of asymmetric plays, you know. So we go through a whole we talk about stocks, bonds, dividends, we talk about real estate, we talk about starting a business. You know, we talk about a lot of different things. In part two of the book, Freedom at Risk, so that it opens people's eyes and gets them to start thinking right. I'm not here to say you must do steps one, two and three. I want folks to really think for themselves what's impactful for them. Because what's impactful for me may be something totally different for them. 

Rich Bennett 55:07
Right. 

Tony Lopes 55:08
So that's all that's really what I offer in the book is to try to get folks to maybe think differently, something that hasn't been taught in school, maybe something that isn't discussed in social groups. That's what I do. 

Rich Bennett 55:21
So does this correct me if I'm wrong, but this also has a workbook that goes 

Tony Lopes 55:26
It 

Rich Bennett 55:26
with 

Tony Lopes 55:26
does. It does. Yeah. Because, you know, again, the point of some of these chapters is to get folks to to think and to have 

Rich Bennett 55:35
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 55:35
some of these some of these critical thoughts of, you know, okay, so what's really important to me and how does this impact me? Either good or bad. Right. So we do have a workbook that goes with it. So if there's anybody who wants a copy of the book Freedom at Risk, I'm happy to send them a copy, a free copy of the book if they're in the States. Right. Sending it internationally gets gets hard, But if they're in the state. 

Rich Bennett 55:59
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 56:00
Send them a copy of the book. Just so you know, they can shoot me an email at Tony Lopes Tony Lopes LLP, as my last name is an SO Tony Lopes at Dirty Boots Capital dot com. I check all my emails. They can shoot me an email. They're let me know they they want a copy of the book. Tony Lopes at Dirty Boots capital dot com and I can send them out a book along with the the workbook and hopefully it helps some some folks out there 

Rich Bennett 56:31
I got to ask you this, too. How did you come up with the name Dirty Books, Capital 

Tony Lopes 56:36
so. 

Rich Bennett 56:36
R, Dirty Boots Capital. I'm sorry. 

Tony Lopes 56:37
Yeah. No, it's. It's. It's so funny. So, um. So real estate today. Is different than it was maybe when I got started 20 years ago, 20 years ago. The life with the world was a kinder, gentler place. It's it's it's really it's really mucked up right now. And so when I talk about real estate, what I used to do is I used to get my boots dirty just by walking on site. I'd walk the, you know, the building or the grounds if I was building, you know, a residential unit or something. I'd walk to the door, I'd get my boots physically dirty, walking the property around and whatnot. And that's one way to get your boots dirty. But today, to really be successful at real estate, you have to get your boots dirty. A whole bunch of different ways. You've got to get your boots dirty. Walking through demographic reports, migration patterns, financial reports, understanding whether something in a financial report is a recurring cost or whether it was a capital improvement costs like a one time thing that's never going to be seen again. Or maybe not for a long time, right? So we get our boots dirty a bunch of different ways. It's not just walking the property, which is a very important I mean, that's that's something I value and I love to do. But that's really where Dirty Boots Capital came from. We, you know, we we really do get our boots dirty in a lot of different way. 

Rich Bennett 58:16
It makes sense now. 

Tony Lopes 58:17
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 58:18
I love it. So something very important. Tell everybody the websites and how they can get in. Well, you're already told. I told her, but I had to get in touch with you with the email. But tell her by the websites. 

Tony Lopes 58:29
Yeah. So they can, if they want to know all that I do. It's really simple. Dirty boots capital dot com. Just go there. You can see all that we do. You can see links to my to my YouTube channel to different folks We, we interview and we really do pick out folks that we interview that bring value to be. 

Rich Bennett 58:52
Right. 

Tony Lopes 58:53
You all with different, different aspects. You can find folks on there who are talking, not just mine, like real estate stuff, but also people who are talking about mindset, Right? 

Rich Bennett 59:02
Yes. 

Tony Lopes 59:03
Know, there's a great friend of mine. He became a great friend of mine because I interviewed him and he helped me. I did some mentoring. He did he mentored me through some stuff. And so he's a great friend of mine, Brian Mojica. He's the freedom Sherpa. He helps people through some recalibrating themselves from a mindset perspective. So great guys. Yeah you can you can see a lot of see a meet a lot of different folks this way. 

Rich Bennett 59:29
Oh, yeah. It's if people want to get into Pakistan and if they want to interview people, Oh, my God, keep going. Lists of everybody you talk to and go back. I mean, that's one thing I love about doing this, too. I can't tell you how many times I've gone back and not just had him on a show, but if I had a question like, I know I can go back to this guest I had before because they would have the answer. It also helps. We've done mental health roundtables. 

Well, virtually and in person from people that I've had on bet that. So before I get to my last question, Tony, is there anything you would like to add? 

Tony Lopes 1:00:12
My my only add is, you know, if there's a listener out there that. Thinks there's something I could potentially help them with. I'm more than happy to jump on a call, jump on a Zoom meeting, send me an email. Whatever method of communication you wish to use. Just reach out to me. You know, I'm just regular guy. Just do my thing. I'm happy to help people. You know, just reach out. If you think there's. There's something I can help you with. I'm truly, truly happy to engage. And if I can't, I'm going to let you know I can. But I don't. I don't want to. I want to help as many people as I can. So if there's something I can help with a listener out there, just reach out, please. Happy to help. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:56
I love it. So my last question for you. You ready for this man? 

Tony Lopes 1:01:02
I don't know. I don't know if I am rich. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:05
I know it's easy. What's the next big thing for Tony? 

Tony Lopes 1:01:10
Oh, wow. The next big thing. So. 

So far for me. I just as I mentioned, I just recently got my second citizenship and that's to that's to Portugal, Right? So now I have two two citizenships here and the one in the U.S. and one in Portugal. You know, one of the things I'd love to do both personal reasons and professional reasons, it kind of scratches the itch on both sides is to purchase some real estate out in Portugal. I never thought rich. I never thought I would be in a position where I'd be able to do international real estate investing. never thought I'd be there, right? I never thought I'd be there. And to now be in this position. It's just it's a very surreal. Thing to to be there and be able to say, yeah, I can really make this happen. And being a citizen of a of that of that country just makes it that much easier to do this. So, you know, that's really the next big thing for me personally and professionally is to, you know, work towards that in 2025. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:28
I don't think I actually I don't know of anybody who's ever done that, which means you're going to have to come back on again after you do, actually. And do you have family in Portugal still? 

Tony Lopes 1:02:36
I do. I do. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:38
Okay. So, you all right? Yeah. Tony. If you go to Portugal and you come back, man, get in touch with me. Because I love talking to people have been to other countries. But what you're doing there, I mean, what you want to do is, like, completely. I never talk to him by the real estate in another country. But also, I love to talk to people about food. 

Tony Lopes 1:03:02
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's it's very interesting because, you know, I've been to Portugal a few times and. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:11
Okay? 

Tony Lopes 1:03:12
So for the listeners, whether for whatever reason it is, even if it's just, you know, for for pleasure 

Rich Bennett 1:03:20
Mm hmm. 

Tony Lopes 1:03:20
to go on a family vacation to a different country, spend some time, I think it's important. So I'm going to share spend some time with the locals. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:30
Yes. 

Tony Lopes 1:03:30
Getting getting to getting to know them. Getting to, you know, try to understand their values. And, you know, it's just amazing. They live like, for example, in Portugal. I have some family members there who their their whole purpose for living, their value system is very different than some of our value systems here in the United States. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:56
Mm hmm. 

Tony Lopes 1:03:57
So it's it's just a very it just makes you think. It just makes you think a little differently. And I'm not saying they're right and we're wrong or vice versa. I'm not saying 

Rich Bennett 1:04:07
Right. 

Tony Lopes 1:04:07
the right or wrong. I'm just saying it's it's something to reflect on how 

Rich Bennett 1:04:13
Yeah. 

Tony Lopes 1:04:13
these how these different countries, how these different folks live and what they value and how it's maybe similar or maybe different from us. It's definitely an interesting thing. I love I love and my girlfriend knows this. She's like, she has to pull me away from people that she's like, Why are you talking to them? And I'm like. Just because I'm just, like, really curious, like what things are like and, you know, we. 

We go to some even here in the United States, we go to some like seaside towns where they bring in different people from either Peru or from Romania is a big one. They bring people in from just actually they used to bring in. I don't know about now, but they used to bring in a lot of students from Ukraine to work during the summer because that was. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:09
There. 

Tony Lopes 1:05:09
Busy season in these seaside towns. And then also if we went skiing, you'll you'll also see them on on the slopes during the busy season. Ski season. They'll come here and work a couple of months. But I would love talking to them. I'd be going to get like my my ice cream cone right at the counter. And that, you know, you can tell they like from a different country and it's like, oh, where are you from? And they'll be like, Oh, I'm from Ukraine. And it's like, Oh, what do you think of the United States? Right? Just a simple question like that. What do you think of the United States right there? Then they'll. They'll blow your mind. Right. These young people are just so different than if you ask a an American teenager. What do you think of the United States? You're going to get a vastly different answer between the two demographics here. One from you. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:00
Oh, yeah. 

Tony Lopes 1:06:01
So I just encourage folks to take some time, have those conversations. It's really fun. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:06
Oh, it's worth it. My my wife hates going out with me because all we were actually was then in New Orleans. We were dating in New Orleans in February. First time I ever been there. And she's like, Oh, my God, do you know that person? I say, No. Why are you talking to her? It's like. Why not? I was not. I was not. We were down there for a week. I was not allowed to work. I wanted to take my recording. Quit. Snow bad? Oh, my God. I could have sat there and talked to everybody I met. But that's and might be a goal for 2025. 

Tony Lopes 1:06:44
There you go, my friend. There you go. Where? We have to end on a high note and just remind folks, you know, set, set your goals, you know, map them back to your intentions, because that's a big piece of goal setting. Because if they don't map to your intentions, why are you doing it? You know, you really have to think about that. And then once you do have your goals in place for 2025, start putting some action behind those goals. Actually write it down. You know, number one, I'm going to do this. Number two, I'm going to do this. Number three, I'm going to do this. Write down those action plans because otherwise you'll find yourself on the other other side of 2025. And maybe it was a great year, but maybe it wasn't a great year because you didn't achieve really, really much in that year. So we want to we want folks to try to do their best, be their best, and achieve the most they possibly can in life. So we encourage them to set goals. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:40
I love it. Tony, Thanks a lot, brother. I appreciate it. It was a blast having you on. And like I said, the door's open when you get back from Portugal. We're going to have another good conversation. 

Tony Lopes 1:07:50
Absolutely. Let's do it. Sounds like a lot. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:52
I'm a 

Tony Lopes 1:07:53
Q Right. I appreciate you 

Rich Bennett 1:07:54
bag. 

Tony Lopes 1:07:54
having me on.