Maximize Your Finances with Christopher Nelson

george grombacher 0:00
Come on Well, I’m left with this is George G and A time is right. welcome today’s guests strong, powerful Christopher Nelson Christopher, are you ready to do this? Oh, yeah. Let’s go man, because the phrase is time to time IPO technology executive. He’s a real estate investor, an author, a speaker and a podcaster. He is the co founder of wealth, word capital. They’re an organization helping technology employees, grow their careers, build wealth, and have an impact. Christopher, tell us a little about your personal life’s more about your work and why you do what you do.

Unknown Speaker 0:42
All right, well, so good to be here. Thank you so much for having me, George. Appreciate it. Personal life I am the father of three boys. Yes, we have an all boy household, and a beautiful wife regime. And we live here in Austin, Texas, as I was sharing with you. And I just love hiking and biking being outside. And that’s really what you know, I think makes my heart sing is is really being able to, you know, live in love with my family. And I think that’s part of the broader story of why I really focused on not only real estate, but also looking how to optimize getting the most out of my career compensation by working for equity.

george grombacher 1:24
Nice. So you found yourself in technology field? How did that kind of walk us through through your career path?

Unknown Speaker 1:33
Yeah, so I think it started in college. I mean, I think it is interesting, where, you know, we want to go in, we want to pursue our passions, right? We want to pursue our passions. So when I was in college, I was super passionate about being a software engineer, so studied computer science, UC San Diego. And when I had my first internship, I realized, oh my gosh, like, I’m sitting here staring computer screen all day, I can’t do this. I am more social than that. And I think that’s it’s a very interesting lesson. It was a big life lesson for me, because I’d been pursuing my passion and realized my passion wasn’t what made my heart sing. What I did is I started pursuing mentors and mentorship. And I started going to a lot of career fairs and finding other people that were in technology and asking what they did. And I found a gentleman who was a technology consultant. And he said, Hey, in our business, we solve difficult technical problems, but we do it with people. And we do it to advance businesses. And that was something that really made my heart sing and really allowed me to transition from college into a career, I went to work for a larger company called Accenture. And they provided a ton of training, and really helped me build what I call my career capital, which are is what I call my book, you know, it’s a combination of your education, your experience and your results. And it was ultimately that that really, you know, launched my career in technology.

george grombacher 3:02
Nice. Got it. And I think that, how did you did you always have a sense of, it’s important to pursue my passion. I think sometimes young people these days, and even even older folks like me, it’s like, okay, what, where’s my place in the world?

Unknown Speaker 3:21
Well, it’s interesting is I had, I had sort of conflicting messages, right, as I had a grandfather, who was a, you know, high school shop teacher, who was very much you need to learn to work with your hands first, and then with your head. And then I had this other message saying, Oh, you need to pursue your heart, you need to pursue your passion. And I really realized that the truth of it, there was an intersection. And, you know, I read this book by Cal Newport, and I read it recently, but I think it speaks into my experience, which is called the book is called so good, they can’t ignore you. And he talks about how skilled Trump’s passion every time. And I think the reality and what I found, and I stumbled into this is that I was pursuing my passion. But we find I think we find our way through to passion through work through, you know, understanding what aligns with our skill set, like what are we good at? What do I actually then feel good, delivering their results, right. While I wasn’t, I did not feel any passion or didn’t resonate, for me to be behind a computer screen typing code all day. It did resonate with me to help in facilitate between, you know, business and technologists how to solve larger business problems. That’s where I found myself and that’s where then I started doing the work to build skills that then could allow me to move to this point in my career where now you know, leaving w two building businesses because now I have a set of skills that I can rely on and I’m really aligned with what my mission, my passion my focus are.

george grombacher 4:58
So those early days and I I always respect and commend people for being as proactive as you were recognizing, okay, maybe I’m in a spot where this isn’t awesome. I wonder if there’s other human beings that have ever been through this too. And let me go seek them out and ask them questions. And that’s, it sounds like how you got on the path that you’re on. Do you have a is a desire to like, pay it forward, pay it back, that you work so hard to, for lack of a better term, mentor others,

Unknown Speaker 5:26
it’s definitely to a bit of both to pay it back. I mean, I feel that I was taught by my grandfather was a phenomenal mentor to me and showed me a lot of things. And I think that, as I look around, I see that some people haven’t had that example. They don’t understand that. And I think that they need to see it, because it’s, it is an ability to truly advance your career. So I think in respect to him, and then, you know, the one thing is, you know, I do have a heart of a servant leader, right, I do want to serve. And what I’ve seen, especially in technology is that so many people in that field are passionate about what they do love the impact that it makes in the world around us solving very hard and difficult problems. But the lifestyle can really grind on them. And they don’t always have their heads up to how do they make this better for themselves. So honestly, I’m looking back at my people, and I want to help them, you know, grow their careers, build wealth, make an impact, live sustainably, you know, some of these things that, you know, I had to really fight for, I want to turn around and give that back to my community. Because my belief is that if technology employees were financially independent, had more sustainable lifestyle, they would solve some of the world’s biggest problems.

george grombacher 6:46
Yeah, I think that that’s an awesome belief. And it certainly proved out technology is obviously making our lives so much better, and connecting and doing these things. And I could definitely see how it would be like you almost get trapped in while I’m so good at doing this, and I make a lot of money. So I’m just gonna keep doing this and put my head down. But it’s not necessarily sustainable. It’s not necessarily the things you want. And maybe one day, you’d like to be able to step back and pick your head up, pick up your head from the monitor the hands from the keyboard, whatever it might be.

Unknown Speaker 7:18
It’s true. And this is really the impetus behind my podcast tech careers and money talk, is to really start facilitating the conversation, because in the industry, people are very focused on technology. It’s a very fast lifestyle. And it’s a, you know, 24 by seven, you’re plugged into the matrix, you’re getting all of this sensory overload. And because we don’t have the conversation, we as a community are very bad about talking of tech and money. How does it come together? How do you plan for a sustainable lifestyle? How do you plan for what comes after tech? What happens is people either they fall into what I call the golden jail, where they all of a sudden start letting all these dollars leak into their lifestyle, and they really, you know, create a lifestyle where they’re, you know, they can’t be living paycheck to paycheck, I saw an article the other day where it’s talked about people who are making over $250,000 a year, you know, there was a good percentage, like 30, or 40%, are living paycheck to paycheck. And I see how this can happen. You’re in a high cost of living area, you want a nicer home, you want a nicer car, right? There’s good intention behind it. But if you’re not focused on how do I get to beyond and how do we have conversations about how do we, what is right, there is a right way to do the, there’s a wrong way to do it. How do we have those conversations? That’s, that’s what I think that we as a community can do better. And that’s really where I want to lead.

george grombacher 8:44
Yeah, I think it’s, I think it’s awesome, super noble, and I can definitely see how easy it would be to fall into that, that golden jail and, and all of it. So in terms of the investment piece, tell me more about that.

Unknown Speaker 8:56
So for investing, you know, what I saw and I still see is that a lot of technology employees are very focused on stocks, they’re focused on venture capital, but that doesn’t give them income into their portfolio. So you know, for myself and this was my experience is I’d gone through an IPO you know, had a significant wealth event. And then it was I want to do this with my dollars as I was working in that direction. And there is a group of people that I would meet with regularly talking about career and money at one point they raised their hand and said help us out we want in and so this is really sort of a pivotal point for myself because they were asking you know for help investing and you know, light bulb started going off that you know, investing in real estate is very important for people to create financial independence you know, passive income, so, stood up wealth word capital in 20. Well, we had actually we did our first JV is five years this August, and then it was in 2018. In January that we created wealth word capital to really help technology employees see what a good real estate investment looks like, they can participate. And then we also do education as well.

george grombacher 10:13
Nice. Strikes me the, that’s such a great way to describe it to see what a good successful deal looks like. Because if I were just to say, Okay, I guess I want to start investing in real estate, there’s a big gap in between that conversation and actually doing it.

Unknown Speaker 10:31
It really is. And this is where I truly walk people through from my experiences. Here’s what I learned, I got the terms, I learned the math. Now, here, I started looking at what what deals would investments look like, here’s how you walk it through, and really try to walk people down and then get them to participate. Because I do believe that the best way to learn is when you do have some skin in the game, and you’re monitoring and managing your investment. And then you start seeing the checks coming in, you understand what a good, you know, communicative transparent operator looks like. And then you can go and rinse and repeat yourself.

george grombacher 11:07
Nice. So, did you start out thinking that we’re going to niche this just towards technology employees? Or did you say, well, that’s not big enough? Or

Unknown Speaker 11:20
is that perfect? Yeah, that’s that’s actually a very intuitive question. Because originally, I was, Oh, we’re doing it for, you know, busy professionals. And I realized that didn’t resonate with anyone. And I had to have that moment to say, Well, wait, who am I really serving? And then, you know, talking and again, I found another, you know, mentor, as far as personal brand and marketing. And they said, you have an audience, you have people that you’re speaking into that you also, that’s your story. And so I pivoted then to, you know, technology employees. And now, literally in the last six months, it’s really financially focused technology employees, like, let’s go down another level, because I know, there’s a lot of technology employees that, you know, maybe in Golden jail and happy to be there, right. But I want the ones that are really focused on their finances so that we can get into deeper conversations.

george grombacher 12:13
And I love it makes a ton of sense. So again, benefiting from a mentor to be able to sort of just I don’t know if knowledge is the right term or not, but just give you some of the feedback.

Unknown Speaker 12:26
Yeah, yeah, this this mentor is not a ninja. He’s a this is crap. You need to start looking over to here. Yeah. Good guy. Yeah. It’s interesting that Yeah, I think some of the mentors that are willing to give you that direct, honest feedback and tell you that you have a you know, an ugly baby, it so important, you know, and I thrive on that, really,

george grombacher 12:50
yeah, certainly save you a ton of time, and maybe just result in your success or your ultimate sort of not working.

Unknown Speaker 12:58
Right, right. And I think I’ve come to learn over the years that if I can, you know, have my ego in the back seat, and really just listen with humility and understand what’s the message? What do I take away having confidence in my own work? And knowing okay, what’s good, but hearing, what’s the message, you know, with that filter, it’s just allowed me to, I think, really accelerate my growth in some areas,

george grombacher 13:20
for sure. And I imagine that when you are interfacing with, with people that are either finding you and interested in learning about career development, and or they’re interested in and help you to become financially just get some financial freedom, all of that because of your background, they see, oh, this guy actually did it. He was, you know, did all these roles had the success? And like, I’ll eventually get to a question, I imagine you understand how to present information in a way that is more readily accepted.

Unknown Speaker 13:58
That’s right, because, you know, being an insider, and somebody who walks through this, there’s a way that I want to see the information and a lot of technology employees want to see the data, they want to see the math understand how that works. And so, this has provided me an edge because I can lay that out there. And then, you know, I’m also, you know, huge, great fan of, you know, iterative cycles that we have in technology. So I have a small group, hey, here’s what I’m thinking of presenting for, you know, my next investment summary or offering memorandum. What do you think, oh, feedback, great. Let me iterate get another version out there. I think a lot of that way we work in technology, and then having that lens has helped me tremendously.

george grombacher 14:41
them. What’s 1,000% confident it was not easy to all of a sudden set up a fund and I believe that you have several of them. Now going through this whole process of starting that and putting it out in the world. What are some of the big takeaways, surprises

Unknown Speaker 15:01
Well, you’re right. I mean, the interesting thing is, so where I play in software companies, right, I work in IT departments and I actually purchase software is, you know, understanding those large legal contracts and and going through that process, the interesting thing is looking for things that do maps are where the similarities where the differences, right, when you go through a ppm or private placement memorandum, for a syndication or a fund, there’s a lot of things on that contract or similar boilerplate, then there’s the things that are different. So I learned that process already. So that really, I think, gave me a leg up. And then, you know, again, like, we have this now this broader process of how do I find mentors? How do I find people that are winning in the game, and then be able to provide value to them, and then create relationships, so they can help advance that was part of it, and then, you know, you’re never going to be able to escape the work, right? It takes what it takes in so I think that, you know, just realizing that this is going to be something new, and you got to put on the 50 pound backpack, and you got to grind up that hill to get it done and learn it, and check and double check, and just being transparent with people the whole way. That’s what really helped me start building funds. And then, you know, I think, starting small the first fund was 1.5 million, then it was a 4 million. Now we have a $10 million fund, right? Being able to, you know, do something at a smaller scale. And then and then scale up from there. Right grow from there, again, something that I took away from from Tech.

george grombacher 16:41
Yeah, that makes no sense in the world. So nothing you’ve said doesn’t make any sense to me. It all

Unknown Speaker 16:50
perfect sense. I’m making sense. I’m making sense. That’s great. I love

george grombacher 16:55
it. Oh, Christopher, you have given us a lot. But the people are ready for that difference making tip, what do you have for them.

Unknown Speaker 17:00
So the difference making tip is you want to invest your time. One of the things I think that people don’t think about is there, we’re spending time are constantly just taking moments and letting them slip away. But I think to live intentionally, and this is something I’m going to be publishing a book early next year, and it’s called from no doubt IPO. And this is really a playbook of how to work for equity. And I think whether it’s equity, working for equity, working a W two job, or building your own company, investing your time in thinking about where you’re spending it, where it’s going, doing a time analysis, where are you spending a lot of time on social media, on television, on things that aren’t giving back to you is so important because it is our most precious resource. And we are all you know, the ones of us listening today that want to get financial independence is because we want more of that time back. But then let’s think about how we’re investing that and what is our return on time.

george grombacher 18:00
Worth that that is great stuff that definitely gets come up. So easy to waste time Christopher. And certainly I’m guilty of that. But going back to Cal Newport to top of be so be become undeniable or be so good. They can’t ignore you. So that proponent of deep work, and yes, it’s a human thing to to waste time. And if we’re not careful, we waste half of it.

Unknown Speaker 18:27
Truly, truly.

george grombacher 18:31
Well, Christopher, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can they engage? Tell us about wealth word capital tells you? Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 18:39
let’s let’s go so we can they can go to wealth word.com. So that’s w e al th W ARD moving you towards wealth, wealth. word.com will give you an overview of your wealth for capital, that is where we, you know, help technology in place. And we do also help others we do have, you know, doctors, lawyers, jockeys, we have a, you know, other people that are investing with us as well. So come check out that there’s an easy way to click in the top right corner and get some time with me. And then if they go to tech careers and money talk, that is, you know, where they can actually put in their email, they can get some information about our podcast, and then also they’ll have an opportunity to join the book army, right? The book army is just getting ready to launch it’s going to be we’re going to be taking it live next year. But if you want to be a part of the final stages of getting my book from node IPO, ready for launch, that’s where you can participate.

george grombacher 19:38
Awesome. Well, if you enjoyed as much as I did show cause for appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to wealth word.com w e. W WELTHWA rd.com go to tech careers and money talk.com And then finally, get involved with the Look army as well for the upcoming book thanks and Christopher thanks so much George and until next time keep fighting the good fight we’re all in this together

Transcribed by https://otter.ai