Join my guest Niurka Castaneda as we discuss the military lifestyle as well as her transition out of uniform and into entrepreneurship and real estate. As a busy owner of multiple businesses, Niurka has valuable experience starting, growing, and running different types of businesses.

Welcome to the Battle Buddy Podcast with Keith McKeever. 

Keith McKeever  0:02

Well, hello, everybody. I'm Keith McKeever, the host of Battle Buddy Podcast, and back with another episode. And I'll go ahead and let my awesome guests introduce herself.

Niurka Castaneda  0:19 

Hi, good morning. How are you doing? How are you? And thank you very much for having me.

Keith McKeever  0:26 

Sure. No problem. I'm excited to have you here. Because we've gotten to know you, probably I know you, you know, put in quite a bit over the last couple months to the warrior council. So excited to have another chat with you. We chat like once a week, for a couple hours. But it's awesome to kind of have a one on one thing here and kind of talk about some things that, you know, our paths are fairly similar when it comes to entrepreneurship and real estate, stuff like that. So go ahead. And, you know, tell us what your story is, you know, where were we born and raised? And what's your military journey? And what got you to the point where you're at today?

Niurka Castaneda  1:02 

Um, well, thank you, man. I was born and raised in Cuba until I was 18. And then I flew over, I didn't get in the boat, I flew over the legal way. And a year later, I joined the army. It was the best decision of my life. Because he took me completely to show me the world. And

You know, I love the culture, I love the lifestyle. No, everything was easy. But it really is spend more time there than has been on my

own Cuba. You know, I traveled all over the world, I got to see a lot of different cultures, and I got to meet wonderful people. And then it was over.

Keith McKeever  2:07 

It was a lot of horizons, doesn't it? It just shows you so much. Just serving.

Niurka Castaneda  2:13 

Yes. As it was an eye opening, especially and you see the difference. When you come back, when you get back into civilian life, everybody stay where they were this to have the, the, the mentality or, or the mind frame, or the life right, or what their surrender was, the issues, the problems. were, you know, when you 've been to so many places, and you've seen so many different things. And you had a chance to see all the cultures, all the worlds. It's shocking and very shocking. And sometimes is, is very difficult to transition. And they still look at you like when you left, they'll look at you like, you know, you spend all this stuff. You did all this stuff. No, they look at you like, yes, you're still the same teenager, that you weren't when you left.

Keith McKeever  3:19 

You know, I was wondering if that was just because for them, I mean, you know, things change, but not as much as the change for you. So like, they're kind of still living in a bubble. And I never thought about it like that until you just put it that everybody does kind of look at you like, like you're the same old person. In your mind. You're like, I'm not, I've grown up, I've experienced, I've seen these things done these things, whatever. I've met all these, you know, interesting other people in the world and seeing how other things work. And I'm not the same person, it makes it it makes difficult, you know, to kind of readjust

Niurka Castaneda  4:02 

It makes it difficult and even you know, an organized person, when you have to leave a military lifestyle. You had a structure. Like I'm not organized at all, but I haven't scheduled I have a stretcher. Oh, how do things I get things accomplished in a day that a normal person would take maybe a week or a month to get done.

Keith McKeever  4:25 

I know you have a lot on your plate. So I know you've got to Yeah, that's one of those other similarities between the two of us is I think it's common common thread on Yeah, that are entrepreneurs.

Niurka Castaneda  4:36 

And that's one of the things that sometimes, I guess we call the normal people look at you like you, you had to hide and they keep telling you slow down, slow down. Like don't tell me to slow down. You need to speed up.

Keith McKeever  4:53 

Yeah, I got stuff do me. I got a plan. I got stuff to execute here. You know,

Niurka Castaneda  4:58 

yeah. You know, everyone's birth is different, there's nothing wrong with, you know, being laid back and, and you sleep your life or your own pace. But you know, if my, if I take three or five steps more than you, there's nothing wrong with that neither.

Keith McKeever  5:20 

Yeah, I mean, that's what makes you happy and you're working towards your goal because I literally had this conversation with my son last night about success. I said, Don't let other people choose what your success is. You choose what your success is, what kind of life do you want to live? What kind of legacy do you want to live? Like, don't, you know, don't, don't let other people influence that it's you. So if you want to pursue a certain passion or pursue a certain goal, then do it, how much money you want to make in a year, that's up to you, whatever makes you happy, whether that's trying to make a million dollars a year, or if you're gonna try to live off 5000 a year, like, whatever makes you happy. You know, I mean, don't let people you know try and tell you what your success is. So I think that's interesting. When people you know try to tell you to slow down or whatever, like, you're, you're doing too much like, No, I'm doing what I want to do, because it's my goal, it's my mission, it's what I'm working towards. It's my success that I'm working towards, not what your vision of, you know, my success should be.

Niurka Castaneda  6:18 

Yes, I guess, you know, um, you weren't in the military, I had to wake up at five o'clock in the morning, by six o'clock, I was running like two miles. And, and then we had to go formation, we had to do all this stuff. And you're done. In a normal day, like maybe five, I used to have a lot of stuff to do, you know, you didn't stop. And the next day, you will do it again. And you will do it, or you won't make sure that everything got done. Everything had a time. Schedule. And, you know, I was a single parent in the military, you know, that's not lazy. I had two kids to take care of, wow, doing 10-12 hours working in the military. And no superhero, but I managed.

Keith McKeever  7:07 

In here, hats off to you for doing that. Because I cannot imagine. I knew a lot of people that were single parents, or they were in a single pair role, because the other spouse was deployed. There just the nightmares logistically of you know, getting the kids to the on base, preschool babysitting thing, whatever that they had, you know, just like the logistics of picking up their kid who's watching them who's doing what, you know what their duty days are. I mean, it was, it was a nightmare. I had troops, other people in my unit that were like that, that they were always kind of constantly trying to juggle all that. And I was single for most of my time. And I'm like, That's just insane what you're trying to juggle. So hats off to you for being able to, you know, to find a way, use the resources and get it done.

Niurka Castaneda  7:55 

Thank you. And it does get easier. While it does get easier, it gets manageable. The more that you

Keith McKeever  8:03 

do find your groove a little bit, you know, you find what works for you, you'll find

Niurka Castaneda  8:07 

what to prioritize. And that's the key, what to prioritize. Not during your whole life, but during your day. What's important, what's not important? You know, I don't stress out about the little things. He they don't, don't they don't change what I'm trying to do, you know, let it go. Now they affect what I'm trying to do. Yes. You know, I will find a solution. I don't waste time complaining. Sometimes all this does that. And it is a waste of any EA. It's all about where you're putting your energy, right.

Keith McKeever  8:54 

There's a lot of negativity in the world, that's for sure.

Niurka Castaneda  8:57 

And sometimes we need that reboot. That's what I do. That's one of the reasons. You know, I decided to pose a couple pictures every day, that make me laugh, and hopefully make other people laugh, at least for five minutes. Because I think we all need that mind frame, right? We need to find a positive even if it's just one smile because life gets heavy. But it may get a little bit more manageable.

Keith McKeever  9:29 

Well, probably really important right now. I mean, especially with everything that's going on the world not to get into all that but there's a lot of stuff going on today. And social media is what maybe a lot of people have so you know posting something that takes somebody's mind down a different path or puts a smile on their face is a good thing. We can all use a little bit more that every day.

Niurka Castaneda  9:51 

And it's just a small thing, but it works. Um, so hopefully help somebody but You know, that's, um, that's all it is. And, you know, transitioning from the military is always difficult. Because you left FY 18, you left when you did 20 years, I was 45 in the 40s.

Keith McKeever  10:18 

Yeah, most people are going to be out probably by 45, if not 50, depending on how long they serve.

Niurka Castaneda  10:25 

So you just live a whole life. And now you have to learn how to live again.

Keith McKeever  10:35 

The beauty of it, though, is that, you know, hold on the life. I literally told the guy this yesterday, like, by the time you get out, you're gonna have another 20 to 25 years until that typical retirement age of 65. That's a whole nother career, you have a whole nother life ahead of you. And then, then you've got retirement, and then that's a whole nother life, and it's his own. So you've only lived a small portion of your life, if you're lucky. So, you know, make the best of it, get your education, get yourself ready, get yourself a plan and go attack and have fun, do something you enjoy.

Niurka Castaneda  11:11 

And that's, and that's my feeling like, you know, once you transition, you have to find a new purpose, you have to find something that matters to you. I believe in entrepreneurship, I kind of fell into it. I transitioned like most military do. I why I got my GI Bill got my education, because, oh, the first time I was in a place long enough to get my degree. I got to because it was the same amount of time to get to gate one. So I got that, and then transitioned on entrepreneurship. But the reason is, what I was doing all my studying, you know, the only way for me to stay still and care about what studying. I needed to put it into practice. And that's how I started intrapreneurship my time, my my pace, you know, I think went out and did everything that I needed to do, because I had to prioritize my studies, right, I had to spend time studying, and you know, you're studying, you're spending eight hours is fine fitting. So the only way I can do both, was by making sure that everything I was studying in relate to my business. So I will focus everything on my business. And he just gave me a head.

Keith McKeever  12:54 

That's a great way of looking at it, especially if you're in business. Because as you know, I'm going for my bachelor's degree in business administration right now, you know, and taking marketing classes and stuff like that. And economics, whatever. There's a lot of moments where a term comes up. And maybe you didn't really know what that term was before something or it just hates you totally different as if, instead of like if you were an 1819 year old college student, and now you can just, you can see it like it's in front of you. You've seen it your business you've done in your business, maybe didn't have the label for it. But now you know it, now you understand it, and it just kind of clicks. So I see that.

Niurka Castaneda  13:33 

Yeah, and I believe that's the missing piece. There's a lot of theory. And you know, a lot of people complaining, okay, I got a degree, I didn't learn nothing until I went to the real life. But it's not a you learn anything, it doesn't apply the right way. And it's not everything you need to learn. Because you always have to build up, you only have to gain new skills and find new information. So, but. but there has to be 5050 I believe you had to put it into practice. And those things that you're going to make a $1 million dollar business in five days. That doesn't happen unless you are really lucky.

Keith McKeever  14:17 

That are just like hitting the lottery right?

Niurka Castaneda  14:20 

You get that lucky. How are you going to handle it? You don't even barely took time to learn how to handle $5 million

Keith McKeever  14:28 

know that you haven't had the ups and downs of the whole road and the journeys is, all part of it. Yeah. Is learning and adapting and figuring out what works and doesn't work and networking and getting to know people like that's all part of the journey.

Niurka Castaneda  14:45 

I actually did. I consulted a real company, millions of dollar company and when you know they have so many issues. I went there. Yeah, they were making about five million dollars, they were probably losing about 10 Millions because they didn't have the fundamental was inventory, they didn't know what they had in inventory, they were out of stock, or the most valuable part that they make the most money or the components. Because they didn't have that down. They were spending money, they were making money. They were making as much as they could have

Keith McKeever  15:25 

that much revenue, they had probably hit a spot where they felt comfortable that their systems were in place, and they were working. And they probably let their guard down a little bit. Would you say that's probably, probably accurate.

Niurka Castaneda  15:37 

They had, they had a lot of issues. The main one is they didn't look at inventory, that's a lot of business. Don't do they don't look at inventory as money. But you have to look at it as money. Because it's money that you spend on it. It's money that can generate profit. Money that can go down the rabbit hole is spoils, depending on what kind of inventory you have. And if it's mismanaged or pilfer you're going to lose money either way. But also, one main ingredient that they had is they had employers, but they weren't training their employees the right way. And you know, that's key, especially going for the military. That's all we do. We train, we train, we, you know, we get missions door, you think that impossible, I will make it happen, by because before you go to that mission, you think you figured out you gotta you gotta you got a plan.

Keith McKeever  16:43 

Yeah, so becomes second nature, and it's just totally ingrained in your head exactly what you need to do, you don't think about it. You just act and

Niurka Castaneda  16:51 

react. And I believe that's my personal opinion is you need to run your business the same way. You need to build those foundations, and no money is green. Yes, the money that's coming is green. But a mentor is key. Finding everything that you can make, instead of paying your taxes, finding ways that you can deduct as much as possible. You know, doing anything crazy doing was legally allowed. And getting the education to be able to do that in the first place. That's, that's, you know, that's part of having a business.

Keith McKeever  17:41 

Yeah, and if you don't know that stuff, find somebody, you know, hire that tax professional, or that accountant, both, you know, and get him in there. Because I will say that, you know, that's the other vital part of inventory, just the finances, you know, need to know your numbers, know, your key performance indicators and all that stuff. Like, you just got to know that stuff.

Niurka Castaneda  18:00 

But you need to be able to have the systems and processes in place. Because you're just going hire somebody, and you have to spend most of your time managing them because they don't have a clear understanding of what you want them to get done. Then it is a waste of money as a waste of time. So you hire somebody, you need to make sure you have clear instructions. You need to have all the systems in place. So they use come and do the job. And you only delegating the task, you know delegating the responsibility, you still have the responsibility, or making sure that don't know the right way. Because nobody's gonna do it the same way that you can, you know, there's not gonna be as perfect or as imperfect as you can make it. But you still need you, it's still your business. So you need to be responsible for it. Because

Keith McKeever  19:00 

Oh, yeah, yeah, Brian, it's really hard for some people to do. I mean, myself included, just giving up control on things and just letting somebody else do something. Either delegate or to hire somebody and have them run a task when to not have that control. That kind of hurts a little bit. Sometimes. When there's something everybody has to get past,

Niurka Castaneda  19:25 

you start, why you don't like to do that.

Keith McKeever  19:31 

You find a person that fits what you want, what do you want done, what tasks you want done, you got to find a person that fits it, right? This may not be somebody exactly like you. It's got to be somebody opposite. You know, cases,

Niurka Castaneda  19:47 

you want to make sure you find a second you and I don't mean same personality saying everything. A being somebody that can get the job as good as you so In order to have that in place, you need to have a trust. You need to have checks. Make sure you have assessments in place. So when you pull that one person to replace your job doesn't mean that you're going to, you're going to have more time to focus on other projects. But no, you have to come back and correct whatever they doing. Okay, they need to be, they need to have the skills, they need to have the need to be trainable. Because even when you don't have the skills, but you're trainable, you can learn.

Keith McKeever  20:34 

Just about anybody can learn.

Niurka Castaneda  20:35 

Not everybody can learn most people. Right? Right. You need to have the right time right away. Yeah, you need to have the right timeframe and the, the, the right time frame. So by you need to have the systems in place, I believe that's my personal opinion anyway. Because it's my money, I don't want to waste it. Because I can use the same money to grow another project or to make sure that my business keeps growing.

Keith McKeever  21:14 

So you never know that a couple $1,000 That, could be wasted. You know, if you save that by doing the right things, now, the right processes and people. If you're wasting that money, you've wasted it, what if you didn't waste it, who knows what that money could have been invested into the business stocks, whatever, you know, and who knows what that, say, $5,000 could have turned into 10 years down the road, who to turn to do multimillion dollar business or, you know, whatever. So every penny counts. That's, that's always been my thought,

Niurka Castaneda  21:45 

especially in the beginning, especially in the beginning, because you never know, if COVID has teachers, anything, three months is not enough anymore. You need a year, you know, now we're going to go on the second year. So you need to have a buffer, there's always an emergency fund that you need to have.

Keith McKeever  22:09 

I think COVID has talked, businesses that are listening or pay attention anyway, those things that you never thought you'd have to plan for, maybe never plan for it now. And it's sad to say. But I mean, whatever your mind can come up with that you might need to plan for, you might want to come up with a plan for it. Because if we've seen anything in the last couple years, just about anything seems to be possible that we would ever expect the global pandemic and businesses shutting down and not being able to eat in restaurants. And for people who weren't prepared or businesses are prepared, they're dumb. And it's a shame. On the flip side, it also creates opportunity for people to come in and, you know, new entrepreneurs to come in and take over those restaurants or those companies that you know, that fail to adapt or fail to prepare. So

Niurka Castaneda  23:01 

Cows always bring opportunity. That's the basics. And, and what I say and one thing I wanted to mention is when I say build your team, there's tasks that you can delegate, that you can include people closest to you. You know, I delegate tasks to my kids or delegate tasks to my family. They don't do every single course, are compensated and return. You know, it's not free Labor. I don't believe in free Labor.

Keith McKeever  23:37 

Yeah, you're putting a roof over their head, right. That's what I always got you. I don't know if you knew it. I grew up around the real estate industry. So I put off your signs when I was a kid and my kids are sure to do it. And I was always told, Well, I put food in your stomach and a roof over your head, don't I? So here's $5 in gas money, go put these signs out.

Niurka Castaneda  23:59 

Oh, you know, I, like especially my kids, my main idea is stuff that I can do. They probably can do better, because they're better in the knowledge of AI. And that's always a case of focus. But the main thing for me is I want to teach them, they can do it. They can learn a new skill. And there's value in that. And that's why I compensated. And it's a business, by the way, as a business owner. So you do it the right way. Is still a perfectly legal business expense.

Keith McKeever  24:40 

Yeah, well, there's a lot of benefits there beyond just the business side of it. But get your kids some experiences, some different things and figure out and maybe they'll find an absolute joy for something that they didn't know they had or a knack for it. Or Or maybe they find out that they're absolutely terrible at something. Yeah, you know, and then they know that that's a path that didn't go down. And then their life because it's just not a good fit for them.

Niurka Castaneda  25:03 

And that's what I do like I don't make them do stuff they don't like to do. No, you have a talent, your you have our talents and you want to do something, and it's easy for you and you get it done five seconds, yes, I want to, I want to foster that, I want to make sure that you see it because especially kids, I got teenagers is all about self image, right, and they don't believe in yourself. So in a bad way, and teaching them they're very valuable the skills that they have. You know, I asked my, son asked all the time, his opinion, because he has a better eye, artistic eye dad. And then you go from there, and then you go, you know, there's plenty of universities and colleges that offer interns, and they have to have that experience in order to transition to the civilian, to the gap market. So it's a great way to start building your team and put them on trial. Because you want to cherry pick the one that's the best fit for you and your business and your cultures and make sure that their values and their culture aligns with yours.

Keith McKeever  26:25  

You know, values and cultures that align, and you gotta have the trust. And then you gotta find, like I was saying earlier, like somebody who's different than you, you may have to find somebody, it's a totally different personality or way of getting things done, that fits a particular role that you need, because maybe it's your not your strong suit as the owner, a manager, whatever. So you got to this, you got to know those things, you got to know your people.

Niurka Castaneda  26:49 

And you want that, you want diversity, you want people that have a different outlook and different skills. Because they can see all the things that you cannot see, you have those blind blinders by you also need to learn how to manage the diversity. Because that's a real thing. There's a different culture, there's a different language, and personalities. But you can integrate it, you can align it.

Keith McKeever  27:24 

And you have to really know yourself too, you know, and your strengths and weaknesses. Because I think like if I was a business owner, and I had multiple employees, I would have to find somebody that can run an HR department and somebody who could be the person to fire people. Because I don't have that personality, I am a very caring giving kind of person, I would probably look the other way on issues or give people an extra chance, even if it hurt the bottom line for my company, I would need somebody in a role, I'm self aware enough to know I would need somebody in a role that could put their foot down and say, Nope, enough is enough. We're gonna fire this person and they're gone. Somebody with a more strict personality. You know, so you get to know yourself and your people.

Niurka Castaneda  28:10 

Yes, I think that's very important. And, you know, and there's, there's tools out there that you can learn how to do that you can take personality quizzes, you can have that as part of your hiring practices. Have all this, this personality is one of the assessments they use, it's a good one. Because that way, you can build a profile your employee, and you know where they need to develop because as they grow, your company grows as well. So it's important. I think

Keith McKeever  28:46 

There's some good stuff here. But you know what, I'm going to put together a resource for my podcast website, and I'm going to get some of the personality assessments and quizzes and stuff and get them up there. It's good. Yeah, it's needed to be helpful for people. So if anybody's listening to this, look for that here, coming up pretty soon. So you know, along with entrepreneurship, since you've been on this journey for a while. Is there anything on the journey that just was like, naturally easy for you, like, anything is naturally easy? And then you know, anything that you found that was like, super difficult? Easier, or harder than you thought? I guess?

Niurka Castaneda  29:27 

I think the hardest thing for me is to stay in one thing, because I don't believe in or limiting myself. I'm very creative. And I love that part of entrepreneurship. I love being creative. I think that that kind of fits my soul. So when I'm in the creative phase, he helps me expand. It doesn't mean that I forget about everything else. It's just it gives me the energy boost that I need. Right. So stay in focus on one thing. Maybe that's not the same for me. And I look at it, I don't do, I don't really multitask, what I do is I do vertical path. So everything that feels in the same pocket, or similar bucket, if I can hang, I can abandon at the same time, the same thing. So you take the same kind of offer, I bashed them together. And I get that over. And then if I had to leave it on for a little while I do that. You know, because, and that's another thing, I had the luxury because first and self funded. I don't have investors, I know looking for a handout. Because I need to, I need to be able to set my own pace. Once you have to respond to all the people's investment and your business, you don't have that luxury anymore.

Keith McKeever  31:12 

I can't imagine that stress, because I'm the same way as you.

Niurka Castaneda  31:15 

Yeah, you don't have that luxury anymore. So I try to set my own pace, you know, and get things accomplished and, and use keep, keep on trying keep telling myself, period, you know, doesn't mean that I invest in my education. I'm always learning. I don't know how much I spent so far. And self education,

Keith McKeever  31:44 

you remember is one thing that people can't take away from you either, you know, that knowledge, all that education, everything you put in your brain?

Niurka Castaneda  31:52 

Yeah, I think this year has been a year of learning and growing.

So I love it, I love every single thing, I can't wait.

Where everything I'm building is it becomes apparent to our values. So that's the thing about intrapreneurs, right, you have the vision, and then you have to make it happen. You are that that's the definition of an intrapreneur you can see what nobody else can see.

Keith McKeever  32:28 

That action step takes you from a dreamer, you're an entrepreneur.

Niurka Castaneda  32:33 

And then you have to become, you have to become a doer, you have to build it brick by brick. You know, little by little,

Keith McKeever  32:44 

and brick skills of different, like different businesses and things like that different things that you got going on. One that you do is you have your own podcast. So what's, what's the name of your podcast?

Niurka Castaneda  32:53 

Funded time podcast?

Keith McKeever  32:56 

And Kareem, if I'm wrong, it seems like because I've gotten to know you a little bit, you've got a little bit of a passion or an interest in teaching and, and just kind of education kind of thing. Is that influence? Or is that true? Is there any influence there on why you started the podcast? Or?

Niurka Castaneda  33:12 

Yes, I actually fell into that. I was in a group and I saw, I wasn't running for all these great men's right? And I see more than 500 people there. And they all had a story that needed to be told. And they all were intrapreneurs. And I believe that's one of the best ways to learn how to become intrapreneurs. Because we all have our own books, right? We all write books. But some people are 10 pages ahead of you. And that's okay. You cannot be tempted how you started, you can be your first page. But you can learn for those people that are 10 pages ahead of you. You can see what worked for them, why they work for them. What is a good fit for you? So that's what, that's what's cool from this time. Because it's their time, then, is then telling the story of what worked for them. They want the work for them with the idea of inspiring all the intrapreneurs that maybe have an idea that you still have the how to make it happen. Because you don't know what you don't know.

Keith McKeever  34:26 

There's and there's a lot of happening in entrepreneurship. You know what you don't know. Yeah. Yeah, you kind of fumble around in the dark sometimes until something just slaps you upside the head. You're like, oh, that's how I can do that. I get it now. Yeah, knocking on another brick to the wall.

Niurka Castaneda  34:45 

So it's definitely, you know, it has been an experience and I'm actually in the process of transitioning to a TV show, hopefully So it's going to, we're still going to have the same format, it's just going to have the TV show, asteroid, and go even more awesome fighting

Keith McKeever  35:12 

in depth is something that's really needed, because a lot of the things that you can consume out there on entrepreneurship is sometimes barely just kind of scratches the surface. You know, it's not hard to find an ebook or something on YouTube, or something that talks about it, but it doesn't really give you really anything super in depth, sometimes. So more depth and more, more information is always good. Sometimes this kind of like hidden, like, people don't want to give, you know, too much out or so great idea to have a TV show and go even more in depth about entrepreneurship.

Niurka Castaneda  35:51 

Yeah, I believe there's, that's the missing piece and entrepreneurship for anybody that's listening, is one of the most important people in society, because they're the one that build, The build of future. So, there's a lot of misinformation, or lack of education. There's a lot of programs, but sometimes they all try to sell you something. And they only send you one port

Keith McKeever  36:27 

with a huge promise somewhere in there. Yes, getting rich quick, or, you know, hey, you're gonna make X amount of dollars in six months. And, you know, there's usually some sort of aspect to some of those things.

Niurka Castaneda  36:39 

And, this thing, nothing that's worthwhile to have, is going to be instant, because you won't value it, period. Part of the struggle or learning how to do things, is what really makes you care, make you build something that will stand the time test, write the test. And, and there's no, there's really no one single SOP, a standard operation of step by step of how to build a business. There are some steps

Keith McKeever  37:20 

Yeah. Yeah, that thinking about those companies with the crazy promises, kind of leads me to my next next thing to talk about here, which is real estate. And I'm sure you see it on there in your market as well, because we're both realtors, you see these these people or these organizations that come in and set up in a hotel and, and offer these huge seminars on buying, buying houses with other people's money, no money down, quit flips, wholesaling, you know, I'm not saying that some of those things don't work. But a lot of people that get in there, just get suckered into the money. And I think they get left with really no actionable steps to really do anything, they get 15-20% of the recipe to do it. And, and the rest of it, they got to kind of figure it out on their own. And then the guy goes on to the next town to his next seminar to collect money from, from all those people for teaching them the same exact thing. So you know, not saying some of those investment strategies might not work. But part of it is the scam of the education piece of it.

Niurka Castaneda  38:27 

Yeah, they're making the money selling you the information or how to get the money. Yeah. And There, they are valuable, but you need to understand that it's real estate insurance. It can help you leverage business, if you know what you don't. Like, it goes back to education, having the right information. You need to pay

Keith McKeever  38:59 

$100 or $1,000, or whatever they charge for those classes, totally get 20% of that education on how to do it right isn't going to really put you on the path to, no. to getting where you need to go. Taking your money. And next thing you know, six months later, you haven't invested in anything with anybody else's money, except for your own money on a worthless class.

Niurka Castaneda  39:20 

You need to go to the source or the information you need to always verify your sources. You know,

Keith McKeever  39:27 

you need to talk to a realtor, you need to talk to a good mortgage lender, your local bank, whatever. And you need to figure those things out. Get that education that way.

Niurka Castaneda  39:35 

Yeah. Because, it's because it's simple. The simple truth is there's a vetting process right. Before they can get accredited before they can. They can be put out to the masses. There's a better process. Sometimes when you do go to one investment while this guy versus there's nothing they use somebody put it out there. And there was no structure. Maybe they have some valuable information. But, you know, there's

Keith McKeever  40:09 

a bunch of stuff on the internet and made some flyers, put $100 behind it on Facebook. And then next thing, you know, they got a roomful of 100 people paying $200 piece for the information that's useless to

Niurka Castaneda  40:20 

Yeah. So yeah,

Keith McKeever  40:24 

It's unfortunate, but, but it happens. And like I said, I don't want to bad mouth those people on my podcast, because I haven't been through any of those classes, maybe some of that stuff works. But from the amount of interest there appears to be sometimes there sure is a lack of investors using other people's money, at least in my market area. So it doesn't appear to have kicked off really in Peoria, Illinois, too much. So. But on real estate, you know, what, what made you get into real estate? You've been in the business for what, 16 years now? or so?

Niurka Castaneda  40:54 

Um, well, a little bit less than that, because I got back in 2005. And then I went back to duty. So there was an interruption of service. But the main thing I got interested in, on real estate, was because of the potential right, and I went to the class. And I find all this wealths information on all the potentials way that you can use real estate, all the ways that you can get in trouble, if you use the right way.

Keith McKeever  41:33 

There's a lot of those. Yeah.

Niurka Castaneda  41:35 

And like it, I think is, is being used as a as a way to amass

to create wealth for centuries, right. So it's very valid. But like I say, there's lots of ways to get in trouble. And there's a lot of ways to make money. You need to get educated, like everything.

Keith McKeever  42:00 

Yeah, I mean, you can put money in the stock market, it can go up, it can go down, I mean, you might lose your money. But there's a lot of ways that you can get yourself in trouble when it comes to property, lost due to natural disasters or other things or, you know, bye bye Money Pit, you know, the good old money movie Money Pit back there. Back in the 80s, I think that was one of my favorite movies, actually, as a realtor. Because unfortunately, not to that extent, but it happens, you know, you buy something that looks pretty good. And it turns out to be a dump. And next thing, you know, you're putting money in it left and right. There was any investment and wealth building, you'd immediately kick yourself, you know, for purchasing it.

Niurka Castaneda  42:48 

Because, before you put your money into anything, you need to do your due diligence, you need to be able to manage risk, because there's always risks and any kind of investments that you do, how you manage that risk matters. Sometimes you can leverage that race with insurance, you get the right one.

Keith McKeever  43:10 

With the right amount of coverage, just there's a lot of moving pieces there too, we could probably go on for days on a lot of these things.

Niurka Castaneda  43:18 

That's another class and there's ways to leverage that as well. But you need to be informed. But also, you know, you decided that you know, you want to invest in real estate, make sure that something that gives you a return, a certain thing that you can write out, oh, you know that, that it will cover your basic needs. But you know, you're not going to live in a store that wasn't recommended in the first place because you will never have a life. They will keep calling you every five minutes. Make sure you have a property manager. That's a business expense. Having a property a rental property is a business in itself. So manage it as a business. When you have to spend money, make sure you spend it ,because if save you five minutes, save you, getting 20 calls in the middle of the night, because something is wrong in your property. You know, know the laws. What are your responsibilities as a landlord? What are your responsibilities as a tenant as a homeowner? No one you have to pay your taxes. And oh, definitely

Keith McKeever  44:41 

on the taxes, man. Yeah, more than enough people that don't pay their taxes. See that all the time?

Niurka Castaneda  44:48 

Yeah, and just because you're buying another state, the laws might be a little different. You're buying another country. The laws might be a little bit different just because your laws are a certain way. And you're global. All right now, you need to make sure you know those lows.

Keith McKeever  45:03 

Yeah, ominous, I'm in the state of Illinois and our tax laws are really different when it comes to real estate, we pay ours in arrears. So we get people to move here, and you have to really explain it. They just kind of look at you like deer, you know, in headlights, like, What are you talking about? It's like, well, the taxes you pay in 2021? Are the taxes you incurred in 2020? They're like, Well, why would I pay him in 2020? I don't know. Because, bills a state legislator made that rule a long time ago, you incurred it, then you pay it this year. Then to complicate things like the city of Peoria, it's right across the river from me, they put their garbage fees in there, while the garbage fees are not in arrears. So then you gotta like break up the bill and the proration 's are all messed up, you know, when you get to the closing table. So there's a lot of just interesting little moving parts that just in that one tax bill, that you have to know and you have to understand, if you move to a different area, even a different town, you don't even know sometimes.

Niurka Castaneda  46:02 

And make sure, make sure that you have a property special. And a portable Property Inspector, that checks for all the little things that you miss. Because you want to check your budget, you don't want to buy problems when you do something.

Keith McKeever  46:22 

It should also be noted, though, that they can't inspect everything, right, things can go bad weeks, or months after something's inspected. So keep in mind, it's what they can see and touch and inspect at the day they inspected it. So that's something I have seen before. Like, yeah, the furnace is 30 years old. It worked just fine two months ago, when you bought the house, and it went out today, like things happen. I mean, it's 30 years old, what do you expect? You know, it's sometimes unfortunate, you know, there are home and home warranties out there that people can get to. It's another thing you can, you know, kind of protect yourself with So, but you have to read the fine print on that, too. There is a lot of education that has to go into the whole process. But unfortunately, it's not done all that frequently, sometimes not to the level that it should be.

Niurka Castaneda  47:19 

And that's something that you know, so that's why I say you're going to get a second property or rental property. Three as a business. You won't get us a residential property. You still need to know what are your responsibilities? What are your all the legalities that you need to look at? You know, so make sure you manage it the proper way. That absolutely is definitely a way because you know only making money and appreciation and depreciation. You know, it has a high return on your money? Definitely. Are you going to leave it you know? Yeah,

Keith McKeever  48:10 

Yeah, real estate is a wonderful way to, to increase your wealth when it comes to purchasing and investing. And it actually creates a great, great lifestyle too. If you want to become a realtor there's so much you can do. you know residential commercial, you could work with investors, you could mission in better working with veterans or foreclosures or whatever. There's a lot of different ways you can go. But the industry can be a little tough. So since you became a realtor, what's, what's one thing that jumps out of your mind that like you never thought you'd either have to deal with or something that was totally kind of caught you off guard about the industry that was harder or or different than you ever expected?

Niurka Castaneda  48:53 

I think they, very regulated industry. And you can get in trouble for a lot of little things. But there's not enough investment in education for the realtors. There's a lot of expectations. But there's more investment on, on the realtors. There's a lot of fees, a lot of people making a lot of money out of basically the realtors. But there is a missing piece. And I think that's the location. And I

Keith McKeever  49:31 

I totally agree with that. That's a good one. Yeah, that's uh

Niurka Castaneda  49:38 

you know, you think like, you know, like betters, most veterans, the first thing they want to do is use the Ba, ba long and that's a very smart thing to do. And to leverage that, especially if you spent 20 years and you're in the military, you can build and adness an asset that way. I'm thinking you buy, multi family in a period of 10 years, how many multi families can you have? Using the use the BMR?

Keith McKeever  50:14 

Yeah, absolutely. That is, that is the way to go. And that's underutilized, in my opinion. Now, the VA loan, in most cases is going to be the best route to go, it may not some particular cases for whatever reason, but if you can get into multifamily property, preferably three or four units, and you can cover most of your mortgage with with rent for one or two, then you've got income coming in. Yes, you know, I mean, it's a no brainer, now you have to want to be able to live with two or three other families, you know, people around you see y'all back there, too. Not everybody wants to live like an apartment in that apartment style, life, but it's all that income, and then you can invest into another one a couple years down the road, and another and another. Another next thing, you know, you got 2030 different apartment buildings across the city. And you're bringing in plenty enough income, to pay for your own mortgage, you know, in your own single family home, whatever you want to do. So.

Niurka Castaneda  51:24 

And, and the thing I will say about that is, you know, you only had to do one year, right? You only had to leave next to your renters one year, and then you got moved to another property and do all over again. But also, a way to manage that is Don't tell nobody that you're the owner, because everybody will come.

Keith McKeever  51:50 

That's where that property management company comes in. Because yeah, yeah, don't. Don't tell anybody that doesn't mean you're not the people that rent are going to go check, they're not going to really take care or notice. Just mind your own business, don't really talk to anybody. Let it be, I guess one difficult counter argument I'd have on there is, uh, you know, if you, if you're in a duplex or something like that, it's not like you can call it a noise complaint to your property manager. Because then they're not gonna know it's you. But then I guess you've got the power to tell them that you're not gonna really renew the lease at the end either. So, you know, I guess you've got some power both ways. But that is a good one, hire somebody else to manage it. So you don't have to do it. Don't let anybody know who you are, that you're the owner. Whatever, however long you want and bounce to the next place.

Niurka Castaneda  52:40 

And then most complaining is a big one. Why you don't invest in some soundproof walls? Now you reduce the Yeah,

Keith McKeever  52:51 

yeah. No, the goal is to get somebody in there as a good tenant, it's not going to trash the place or, or have noise complaints. But we all know, that's not a reality, sometimes, you know, about 20% of the time, you might get a good tenant. That, unfortunately, is, that's what I tell my clients all the time, when we're looking at investment property, you're going to have a lot more bad tenants than you are good, you're going to live a lot more people that are going to leave you messes or things are gonna get broken. And they're not going to tell you that you are people who are going to pick up the phone and tell you what something's wrong, that they are gonna pay on time, leave the place clean when they leave. It just is what it is. So you just have to be willing to accept that, that you're going to walk into some messes sometimes when somebody leaves. Yeah, leave it to your imagination. As Mrs. can be. We will know. You know, look at show hoarders and stuff like that, that might give me an idea of some of the stuff you could walk into sometimes, but you know, the single family homes people that they do that too, so don't get me wrong. So so on real estate. Well, we'll flip this to your local area here. You're in the Miami area. Let's just say somebody who's who's listening, think about moving to Florida. Why should they move to Miami? It was a good pitch for the city there

Niurka Castaneda  54:11 

was a big drop is the Miami lifestyle right? There's a lot of things to do here. Of course your

Keith McKeever  54:17 

backyard. Yeah.

Niurka Castaneda  54:19 

Everywhere you can go to the beach and during traffic it's you know, it's a pain. But you can get in your car and you can go

down to the keys or you can go up to Orlando anytime that you want to and all the cities in between. There's a lot of sports here. I think we're only missing one stallion to have a niche on that. Before kava hit, there was like 10,000 people coming in every day. You know, because there's a lot of people that come from South America. And even people that leave this still coming. So the culture is very rich. Very diverse. Couple years ago, I think it was 154 Different cultures in here Miami alone. So,

Keith McKeever  55:28 

diversity right there. That's awesome.

Niurka Castaneda  55:29 

Yes. It's very rich. So you can find Russians, Italian, Irish, Cuban, a lot of those. So, Americans, there's, there's a lot, there's a lot to do, there's a lot to see others. There's a lot of entertainment. So it's whatever your budget is. And whatever you, your taste, like is pretty much a little bit for everybody.

Keith McKeever  55:59 

Okay, that's it for talking about it. And what would you say your typical price point would be in an area just out of curiosity? For a three bedroom two bath?

Niurka Castaneda  56:11 

Well, right now the prices are going up. So I don't think, Yeah, he just went up 15% again. So last time I checked. I see the average was about 400. Now, I'm, like, you know, like 350, maybe you can find something very limited. So the prices are high. But the appreciation is really high. Yeah, in a normal year, the appreciation goes up. Really quick. So you buy a property, you'll see the appreciation coming like my brother lives in North Carolina, his appreciation doesn't go barely, and 10 years were here every year I got

Keith McKeever  57:03 

where I'm at, it's pretty steady. Depending on where you're at. There's a couple of places where it's been pretty, pretty flat. Not too many places where it's depreciated in value, but we have certain places maybe three 4% Typical maybe steady growth right, here's 1%. So it doesn't grow super fast. But our, our local price point. Typical price point is about 125,000. So, definitely a lot more, a lot more attractive there. But we don't have palm trees and we don't have the ocean nearby. But we are very uniquely sandwiched between St Louis and Chicago. So we got that. Yeah, that's good.

Niurka Castaneda  57:40 

Well, we got it when I joined the army, I think prices were like in the 98,000 like you can find a really nice house for like 200,000 Now those same houses were 98,000 You're not gonna find them for less than 400. So yeah, and that's less than, wha, 25 years, so the appreciation is Kira. And a lot of his there's a lot of tourists that come here and buy here. There's a lot of people that there's a lot of snowbirds that come to Florida

Keith McKeever  58:24 

I know you're from my area, that's for sure. A lot of people from my area go to Texas, Arizona and Florida. I mean that's pretty common you know everywhere but I know a handful people that are in Florida at least six months out of the year

Niurka Castaneda  58:39 

yeah, that's what we had that boy Welcome to Miami.

Keith McKeever  58:42 

Yeah. You know, that palm trees, branches hanging behind is pretty, pretty inviting and almost makes me want to hop on a plane, almost. You know, first no COVID it'd be helpful because Bob came to visit but I put that on my bucket list. I told you earlier. I was planning a trip to Disney this last summer but yeah, Florida sounds really nice. Especially as it's bitterly cold up here. Yeah, that is Illinois for you. So we get all four seasons in a week if we're done sometimes in a day.

Niurka Castaneda  59:17 

Oh, yeah. Those

Keith McKeever  59:22 

are a lot easier job so and your city than I do my

Niurka Castaneda  59:26 

I got, I got, we got like two seasons so it's about summer and 10 days a winner. That's it.

Keith McKeever  59:40 

Well, the jersey summer hurricane

Niurka Castaneda  59:44 

That's part of the summer, that's part of the summer okay.

Keith McKeever  59:46 

Yeah, no, I see. I I think about that. And I'm like, man, there's no way like, I guess I'd much rather take my chances with tornadoes up here buddy So what you're used to so Yeah, lucky, it is what it is.

Niurka Castaneda  1:00:04 

I don't think we have had a real good hurricane in the last, what? Five years, three years. So

Keith McKeever  1:00:14 

That's good. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure you do it either way. Everybody's got their processes down. You know, Billy's here some time to prepare for Where's tornadoes, they're obviously a lot smaller. But it even more destructive, but you know, you've got to be right in the path and

Niurka Castaneda  1:00:32 

and that's the thing. It doesn't surprise me. Like, every time there's a hurricane, you see people going crazy in the street. Oh, my God, I was gonna die. But you know, you had the whole year to prepare, you have emergency kit, you know, especially, you know, the prices are going to go up. Because everything is going up at that time, you know?

Keith McKeever  1:00:55 

Follow donner, I mean, I know you guys board up your windows and stuff like that, I would probably have all that would sit in a shed or something like that. I would want to have all that stuff prepared for all I gotta do is pull it out and attach it to be ready to go.

Niurka Castaneda  1:01:08 

We got the windows, the impact windows, and then we got the protector and you always have to pull the protectors and simple haven't ready.

Keith McKeever  1:01:18 

generators and stuff like that for power outages or?

Niurka Castaneda  1:01:21 

Yes, but you have to be very careful with those that don't bring it into your house. It goes on forever. Yeah. I made sure to check it before because I know we have one, it probably hasn't been checked in five years. So yeah. Make sure you check that before you need it.

Keith McKeever  1:01:42 

Yeah, I would say if it wasn't, it's something that probably should be checked every year, have somebody come out and give it a, give it a check. Fire it up, whatever, make sure it's running a couple months before the season in case you need a part or something like that and it has to be ordered. You know, yeah, just like your furnace and your air conditioner and stuff like that should be checked on a regular basis, I'll pound the table for those industries, because they really should, but people don't get them to get them checked as much as they should.

Niurka Castaneda  1:02:07 

And your roof, you know, your roof has to be out cold. And because that's the first thing that will go out. It will fly away from you. So make sure you have, you know, a good roof at least every 10 years. So you don't get those big holes in your living room.

Keith McKeever  1:02:29 

Are people switching the metal roofs and all down there? Is that had any impact?

Niurka Castaneda  1:02:36 

Some people do but it gets hot here. So um you know, I know a lot of people transition into solar panels because that's like the most underutilized power in your room or your house right? Yes. Of course the prices are still expensive but

Keith McKeever  1:03:03 

The electric companies want to keep it that way. Keep more people from getting it because I would have some solar panels on my house was more cost effective. So you know, with, with the real estate, I know you're a member of the Veterans Association or real estate professionals. What can you tell us about that for anybody who's looking to get into real estate or?

Niurka Castaneda  1:03:26 

Well I tell you something, that was one of the organizations, that as soon as I got my license again I joined it because what they represent and what they do for veterans so it's cool, they have similar problems well you know, they help a veteran get into a house mortgage free they also come and educate veterans on how to use the VA loan you delete that as a realtor you can get only get the memberships you also can get certified as a mentor and go help other people to understand the ins and outs of VA and, you know, they have people that specialize it they most of them are veterans. So they know what I'm talking about. And then national MMA now they have like three different programs. The one for the house in the house or location and, and the whole membership.

Keith McKeever  1:04:44 

Awesome. Yeah, something I had seen before but I had. I'm not a member and I thought about it, but there's no chapter in my area who were talking before we did the show. And if I was going to have one in my area I'd have to set up a whole chapter and all that stuff. So I hadn't penned in a moment. If I was gonna go down that path, we don't have a whole lot of realtors here locally in my area, about 750. So, you know, there's only about five or six of us that are vets that I'm aware of. So if we set up a chapter, we all our backs. So, you know, something, I might have to join a chapter farther away or something like that. So speaking of, you know, vets and real estate, stuff like that, we get to the final three questions, I asked everybody, you know, what kind of advice would you have for speaking to the VA loan or buying a home selling a home, whatever, what's your advice for vets couple, a couple of good nuggets for them to take away,

Niurka Castaneda  1:05:37 

utilizing start early, I start wearing you getting paid for housing. You know, just imagine, the most people, most soldiers, that spend about three to five years in a duty station. That's depending on the area, three to five years that you're building an ethic. And even if it doesn't go as much, and appreciation, that's money that you didn't throw away, you rent it out, the money's gone. By you putting that in your principal. You know, my brother's is in the military as well. He has two houses with 20 years of service. Because he was at a station, and he will buy, he went to forebode and he bought another house there. And then he saw that. But even if you sell it later. That's money that you didn't have before. You know, you don't want to deal with the property management and the headache, having that, just go through the process of solid and use that money to invest in a new property. Yes,

Keith McKeever  1:06:54 

That's a, that's a great one. This got me thinking, it makes me wish I would have used my VA loan when I was in and bought a multifamily property that I had to live there. And you know, if that isn't a win, win, even making money outside,

Niurka Castaneda  1:07:12 

you know, I wish I had that opportunity, I was stationed most of the time overseas. So I didn't have that opportunity. Because you know, you have to leave for a year in order to be able to use the VA benefits. And, you know, they never gave me that opportunity. So, anyhow, so I wish I would have that, because I probably would have 10 houses by now. Because that's the things you know, when you sell the house, you invest whatever equity you have, after you sell everything in another house, you just don't pay taxes, you know,

Keith McKeever  1:07:58 

money and do anything else, but buy another property with it. No.

Niurka Castaneda  1:08:03 

Another property you had to leave somewhere anyway. Why don't put it on another property? And now you gotta, you gotta keep doing it. And that's only you don't want to deal with another property and and tenants and everything and you do have tenants, you end up having more than one property is make sure you do your due diligence, you put the personnel that you need, make sure you have property management, but not only property management, you want that buffer so you want the the warranty on our warranty association to make sure that when something breaks down, somebody goes back to before you had to pay. And it's a real expense is not somebody trying to pull something over you.

Keith McKeever  1:08:52 

Yeah, absolutely. Any other nuggets of information, helpful tips?

Niurka Castaneda  1:09:00 

Um, yeah, I think you know, get educated and use the benefits that you have. And the best way so you can get investment, is totally it's a totally different thing to come out of the military 20 years after we something to fall back. Then, you know, having a property, having some money saved in the bank. Then you try to transition trying to figure it out. And then you have to worry about money because nobody's paying you housing anymore. Yeah, that now.

Keith McKeever  1:09:48 

Yeah, it's not just housing, it ends up in your lap too. It's, you know, health insurance, life insurance, I mean, all those different things that start

Niurka Castaneda  1:09:58 

you off Yeah. So any something that you can use to leverage your personal life, your business life is just something, is, you know, you're financially educated.

Keith McKeever  1:10:15 

Absolutely, it gives you a place to live and gives you an asset that's paying your money. You know, so take some of that financial burden of paying for those other bills, you know, away from you, and pay for the property even faster, or puts money in your pocket to live off of whatever helps that transition. So, a new way of going about things. So, last three questions I've got here for you, New York, I asked everybody who's a bit. So first of all I ask is, what advice would you give to somebody who's looking to transition out, you know, sometime soon,

Niurka Castaneda  1:10:46 

plugin, um, find the resources that are available to you. Start early. There's transition problems, they are coming up, now they're really good. start plugging in them early, find your benefits, have a plan, the same way that you live your military lifestyle, you know, you always have a plan, have a plan to when you get out. So because of you, you still had to cope with the loss. You know, most military has PTSD, then you have to deal with your family. Because even you deal with your family before, it was part time, the military for a huge chunk of your life. But now you're going to be full time in the house, then you're used to it, you're not used to it. So that is a transition on itself. So yeah, have a plan. Have a plan for all of that.

Keith McKeever  1:11:53 

That is a good one. So what about any young person? You know, in high school or college right now, that's, you know, kicking the tires on joining? What kind of advice would you give them?

Niurka Castaneda  1:12:06 

That they made sure. I definitely would recommend to be informed. So don't let nobody sell your type, right? Dream pipe, make sure that you know what you're supposed to expect that you go into a job or MLS, that is something that you see yourself in the future doing. How much time you spend on the military make a count.

Keith McKeever  1:12:44 

Yes, four years of your life to go party, you know, you need to look at it as a career, a stepping stone, a way to get education and network and meet other people and, and come out on the other end of a better, stronger person more capable of adapting to the world.

Niurka Castaneda  1:13:01 

Yeah, and, you know, even when you go in, and maybe you pick something that you saw you like and and you end up not liking as much. You can always transition to another thing, but you know, you're really wanting the plan. Like my nice husband, he wants to be a pilot. So he just joined it. And he couldn't get into the pilot school of fastener. So he worked as a mechanic to fix helicopters, that's what he wants to do. He wants to fly the helicopters. So now he's, he knows how to fix a helicopter, he's gonna be flying. And now he's gone to the, gone to the academy to learn how to be a pilot. You know, he had a plan saw me 18 years old.

Keith McKeever  1:13:50 

So a lot of knowledge that you can pick up definitely not a pilot. But, you know, I don't know that the pilots know all that, you know, they might know what some of those parts are. But I'd give them more knowledge about exactly what they are, what they do, why it's important and how to fix them and stuff like that. So that's good. It's good advice, can i have, knowing what you're getting into the last question I got for you. I have a feeling I know the answer already. But are there any veteran social groups or clubs or anything like that? That you want to give a shout out? 123 Whatever. That you have found helpful or useful, or do you  think that people should, should look at joining?

Niurka Castaneda  1:14:34 

I said there are a lot of groups out there that do a lot of great amazing things. I definitely as a realtor, I will call out Barack because I think they're doing an excellent program. They don't have enough market person But I definitely you want to be intrapreneur, I will look up i BMF, the, that printer tribe, you're on Facebook, I will look into bunker labs, I will look into wonder warrior, you want to find something else to do with your family, and they have a lot of recreational. But the missing piece when you ever transition is that community that you build when you're in the military, employing all this, all these resources, and all these organizations help you kind of build anyone. So that's very important.

Keith McKeever  1:15:46 

That is vitally important. I like that. And I've heard to sort of hear that more and more often. And I think that's not set enough, that, that structure, that group mentality, you know, it's just gone. When you're out, you're out. Honestly, the unit that you're leaving behind, isn't gonna pay attention to you, you're done, you're gone. They don't really care about you anymore. So now you have to make your own path in life. And it's incredibly helpful to connect with fellow vets in one way, shape or form, get that group, find out who that group is, and become a part of it. Let them be your new, your new grew up, you know, your new group.

Niurka Castaneda  1:16:33 

And it takes time, because there's a lot of distractions when you're becoming a civilian. You don't fit in with him, made the active duty military because they look at you like oh, you're trying to tell me what to do. And you don't fit in with the civilians, because they're like you crazy, you get this love that. But the veterans, most of them being in the same place that you have been. So there's a commonality. And once you build that trust, they will, they will welcome you.

Keith McKeever  1:17:06 

Absolutely, you know, we are a very small percentage of the population in the United States. That force like say, you know, kind of in a no man's land, you know, you don't fit in this little world don't fit the military world. You've got some connections in your life to both. But that's not who you are. You know, you're kind of a hate to say, but it has been, you know, you're no longer and you're not, you're not doing all the fun cool stuff anymore. Now you're just an old, broken down, hobbled around that most of us, most of us that way. We don't come out without a few bumps and bruises along the way. But you got to find your own path. You know, you never know when that, that's when it's gonna hit you. Ironically, I'm wearing my greater periodically shirt right now. That's the organization that I found by some odd chance. That gave me that group. They gave me that new close group of friends. Not all my events, but they're almost like family to me now. And this year's been hard not being able to have any missions, flying to DC. But it's you know, that's, that's what helped me through transition, honestly. And it took I think three years after I got out before I found them. So eventually you find your group

Niurka Castaneda  1:18:22 

and yeah, and muscle us, with done, with the military, oh, my god is over, finally, need a break. But then you hate that period where you miss it. Because it's your, it has been your life for how many years? So you need to build a community you need to find and sometimes you know, maybe you don't have a base around you, maybe you don't have that many betters around you, go to a conference. And my phone's gonna die but go to a conference and plug in. There's, there's like, I think that's like 20 Right now, every year.

Keith McKeever  1:19:14 

Yeah, there's a lot of ways in from conferences to social groups online to, you know, going on your local VFW, American Legion posts, whatever, you'll find them there. They're out there. It's really not hard to find groups of vets. So just go find want to connect. And we'll go ahead and wrap this up since your phone's about to die. You wrap it up anyway. But your God, thanks so much for being on the podcast. That was awesome. Look forward to seeing you next week. On the, on the warrior Council. All right.

Niurka Castaneda  1:19:43 

All right.

Keith McKeever  1:19:45 

Have a good one.

Unknown Speaker  1:19:45 

Bye.