Cody Bjugan’s Inspirational Rise to Success through Purpose Impact Fulfillment and VestRight

Pamela Bardhi
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the underdog Podcast. Today I have an incredible guest here with me, Cody, how are you?

Cody Bjugan
What’s going on? Thanks for having me.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh my god, I’m so excited to meet you. And like just right before this caller like. I just had to sit and make $10 million. And I’m just like, Lord, show me the way. Like, this really sounds

Cody Bjugan
Too good to be true. It doesn’t it like. Yeah I get it, I understand that, hey, they.

Pamela Bardhi
I know, you know, the tricks of the trade. There’s all entitlement, there’s a whole lot of political stuff that sometimes goes with land and all of that good stuff. And I’m sure that was very well earned. But it’s just, it’s just so cool to see what real estate can do. And I’m like, oh, it’s the coolest thing ever.

Cody Bjugan
Totally. 100%, and there’s all different models out there. And there’s some that you’ve heard more about than others. Like my model it’s just the reality yet most people have never even heard of it and that’s okay. Because three never heard of it because no one’s been teaching it. No one’s been talking about it. And that’s why I started my education company a few years ago. Because I wanted to change that. So yeah, it’s cool.

Pamela Bardhi
It’s super cool. We’re gonna dig into all that without a doubt. And I always start with this one question. Because it kind of brings everything together in the beginning. Now, Cody, like what inspired you on your journey to where you are today. Because here you are teaching about land. Which again, like, a lot of people don’t share this information, because you do make a lot of money off of it. So I’m, like, I want to know all the things like what inspired you to get to that route?

Cody Bjugan
Um, so just touching on what you just said a second ago. Where I get that sometimes people are saying, Cody, you make so much money doing this? Why would you teach it right, why would you create competition for yourself? You know, and then they might even add, because we’ve heard there’s limited land. Like, there’s just not enough to go around. So there’s a limited supply and now you’re out there teaching people how to do this. And here’s the reality. One is I don’t have a scarcity mindset. Like I, I’m not worried about creating competition for myself. Okay. Number two, probably someone that was either uneducated, or had a political agenda. Is the one that said there’s not enough land out there to go around, okay. Let me say this to you.

I’ve said this recently in a few different trainings I’ve done or podcasts or whatever is. Is that if Cody bunion slash allied development, my development company slash vest, right. My education company, if we three ended up being responsible for all the developable land or land in America being gobbled up. I would be the richest man on the planet by 10x. Right? Like, who’s Elon Musk, right? He’d be nothing compared to my net worth. The reality is, the only reason I’m saying that is because it’s not even a thought that crosses my mind. There’s plenty of land out there to go around. And quite frankly, we have a job, we have a responsibility to go do something with that land and help solve the housing shortage that exists in our country. Right. So we are moving the needle in a positive way.

We are making an impact to try to solve that issue because it truly is a crisis. But at the end of the day, I’m gonna go one step further. Why did I start teaching other people how to do what I do? And by the way, if you’re gonna learn from someone, make sure they’re actually teaching what they do. Is that I do this every day. I’m teaching what I do. Okay? But why did I do it? It’s you’ll find it I mean, if you follow me at all, you’ll see it quickly. What do I talk about all the time? I talked about my PIF purpose impact fulfilment, right? I started vest traction. Yeah, I’m wearing the shirt today. PIF purpose impact fulfillment is that I had the blessing or I was put in a place where I was able to learn something in real estate.

That most people don’t know and understand and it’s not their fault because no one’s been teaching it. But I’ve been blessed with that situation, where for 21 years I’ve I’m comfortable. I want to be careful that, it doesn’t come across as ego. I’m comfortable calling myself an expert and a land that has development potential. And what the political process looks like and how it works related to getting what’s called entitlements or governmental approval and so man, why not? Why not go make a difference? Another one of my slogans is one legacy? You have one legacy, I have one legacy, anybody listening to this will have one legacy. And every single decision you make, or don’t make every action you take. Or every day take or don’t take every single moment in your life. You are impacting your legacy in one way or another, okay?

And you’re also impacting the legacy of people that you are touching or influencing or impacting and so, man, why not go teach this? Why not be a part of helping people in their journey? And you know, what, I’ve had students that have had such success, that it changed their life forever. I had one student recently, you just briefly mentioned on one deal, they made $10 million. Okay, it is that he tied up the land for 600,000. Him and his investors put in 650 grand their basis was 6.65 into the deal, and they sold it for $17 million. Okay and by the way, he didn’t have a clue how to do this. Prior to going through my education company. I mean, talk about path purpose, impact fulfilment, I got blessed with this experience, I can go teach it

And I can have that impact on people’s lives. Here’s the reality. That brings me tremendous fulfilment, right? Like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go one step further, okay. I don’t even like the word happy. Okay, the word happy is temporary. The word happy. Here’s what I can tell you. Swap the word happy fulfilment, okay. We are all searching for fulfilment, whether we know it or not and I’ll even say this. If you aren’t making a positive impact in the world, you don’t have a shot in hell at true lasting fulfilment. Okay, so why did I start teaching it? Because I don’t have a scarcity mindset and I wanted fulfilment in my life. And I wanted to create a legacy that I’m proud of. That’s why

Pamela Bardhi
I love that I love it. You’re preaching to the choir Cody, because I’m really on that same journey and same path to like, you know. I was crushing it in development started when I was 21. Like, absolutely demolished the game here in Boston, Mass. By the time I was 27, hit my first net seven figure year and made it to Forbes, Time Magazine, all this cool stuff. And then like you, you get paid out and then it’s like, Alright, oh, my God, this is so cool.

Now what and you’re just sit there, like you mentioned fulfilment, like most people are like. I’m gonna work to like, get to that number, you know, entrepreneurs dream, right. That’s seven figures. Like I can tell you and you can tell you can attest the fact that you can get there. You’re still you still may not be fulfilled, may or may not be

Cody Bjugan
All saw, I’ll say this. Yeah. If you think that fulfilment is in the money, I’ll tell you, you won’t get it. Okay. Money is just a tool, right? I mean, I had a substantial net worth in my mid 20s, okay. And then I lost most of it in the Great Recession. At the end of the day, the money is, I mean, it’s just a tool. It’s just, that’s all it is, It’s not the destiny. Right? It’s just not. And, you know, you mentioned a second ago, you know, entrepreneurs and I get this question, Cody, what’s your number? What’s yours? I don’t have a number of people. You know, what I have going, you know, what I want? I’ve been blessed with opportunity.

Okay, I want to stand before the Lord someday. Or I want to look in the mirror at myself and say, you know what. I did what I could with the responsibility that was given to me to go and capture all this opportunity that was right there, right. So that it’s my job to take the responsibility of the opportunity that was given to me and to go capture on it. No specific number.

Pamela Bardhi
Makes sense, makes total sense. Oh, yeah. That’s the one thing that gets me to you know. I think about it and I sit there and I’m like, man, so like, at the end of life, you know. Some people think this is very morbid, but I can tell that you don’t think so. So I’ll share it with you. You know, when God universe, whatever it is that you believe in. When you get time, when they asked, you know, what have you done with your gifts that we’ve been giving you? You want to like it, I gave it every damn thing I got right 100 sent and bless the world with it. That’s really what it comes to, what it comes down to real estate can change your life.

It’s a wealth vehicle, you know, and that’s a cool thing that one can have to learn how to leverage how to do the things and like, it’s just. It’s a huge passion of mine, I can tell it’s a huge passion of yours. And like, I’m just interested in Cody, like. What did you want to be when you grew up? Like, what was your childhood dream? Because I’m like, you know.

Cody Bjugan
We’re the result, a lot of times of the environment we grew up in, we all know that, right? Like, I didn’t grow up in an environment that dreamed like this. Or that was focused on fulfilment, I don’t even know if that was ever even used in my household growing up, right? It’s just that I guess my world has gotten so much bigger. As far as exposure and thought process and mindset and emotions and physical like everything, right? My world, just, if you looked at how I grew up, versus how I spend my time and energy and focus today, it’s like polar opposite, right? But I’ll just tell you this, okay, there’s a picture behind me. Let’s see right there. Right there. That’s my grandfather. I pull inspiration from him here and there. Unfortunately, he passed away when I was 14 years old.

But he was a real estate professional, fairly, really successful, actually. And, unfortunately, I was able to learn much from him because of, you know. His passing and whatnot, but I do, I do pull inspiration there and yet, I was gonna go be an architect. Okay. He convinced me that I should go become an architect. And so my original thinking is that I was gonna go off to college and become, you know. I didn’t have any thoughts of commercial or residential or whatever. But that was kind of the path that I was thinking and I can’t even remember man back when I was in, even in high school, right. Like, I had this thought if I could just make 100 grand a year. Right. I mean, I was just, you know, and it’s just funny.

You know, and so, you know, I mean, obviously, I think much different than that today. But I think it’s, a lot of that is just constantly putting myself in positions to get uncomfortable, right? I’ve always need to be a little bit uncomfortable. Right? And that causes us to grow, right? To level up, to mature to find wisdom, right? You know, like, I’ve been on this journey the last several years to try to become, how humble can I become, right? Because I have this desire to be a wise man, right, and, like, right here, um, I don’t. I only have a couple sticky notes on my computer right here. And by the way, I’m gonna you know, hell, I’ve never even said I’ve never done this before. But I’m gonna do it just on this podcast right here.

I have three, I have three, I have three sticky notes. And I don’t even use sticky notes, I hate paper. First one relates to wisdom and humility. It’s proverbs 11. Two, and it says, pride leads to disgrace. But with humility comes wisdom. Okay. Like, I strive to be a humble man. Second one, because of my personality, I’m very driven. Everybody in my company, including myself, we all went through this. This, this profiling and it’s called the CVI or the core value index, by a company e rep. And everybody goes through it and what happens is I have this personality called this builder and a builder is like a director. If you’ve ever read the platinum rule, and so I’m just I’m hardcore. I drive hard, you know, and so what happens is. Sometimes you aren’t the most tender individual, right?

So another sticky note I have here on my computer says 10 deposits, one withdrawal, right, so meaning that I’m constant. I try to deposit into people before I go my natural tendency. Which is the withdrawal, okay? And then my last one is a sticky note that my wife gave me. She leaves me amazing notes all the time. This particular one I just happened a sticky note to my computer, and it says, I love you. So proud of you. You’ve got this right, so I must know what I was doing at the time that she said I got this. But I just never sticky note, I have my computer so you go.

Pamela Bardhi
Cool, well, you keep it top of mind. You know what I mean? Like these are almost your version of the upper fra affirmations. Well, affirmations. I don’t even know what the affirmations are so crazy powerful right and like you. You’re not into the universe, you’re making that happen, which is so, so beautiful. And I love art with all of this, which is the key to abundance and success.

I go by this phrase all the time and it’s very like the most successful entrepreneurs have a very specific energy. And then when I heard this phrase, it changed my life because I was sitting in the room and you know. A lot of people quote Tony, Tony Robbins, but I’m gonna quote them anyway. Because this blew me out of the water. Sitting there at a real estate conference. And he was like, Yeah, business is a spiritual game. Hmm. No,

Cody Bjugan
That is very similar to the pivoting point in my life. But that is so good. That is so good

Pamela Bardhi
About it. Because it’s like, you know, when you start to realise that, like what you said, you know. Put in 10 deposits, one withdrawal, like, that’s, like, the most successful people I’ve ever met in my life are the givers. Right? And like, yeah, sure, you can be a ticker you’re gonna get, like, only so far. You know, and then you’re just plateau and sit there.

I’ve seen it. So I’m again. And it’s, it’s the givers that you’re like, Oh, my God. They’re like blowing things out of the water. They’ve got it’s mindset, they’re like, Man, I don’t care. Take my formula. Here. It is gonna make 10 mil like you, right? Yeah, like giving your students power to them. It’s like, paid back tenfold. Not that you’re asking for it. But it just happens. You know? So I’d love to hear about that moment of yours. Tell me about it.

Cody Bjugan
I’ll tell you this. I’ll give you I’m trying to be brief here. But so I went through, it’s called My loser stage. Okay, so I thought I was going to walk. I was running the risk of potentially going to prison for five years. Right. And that’s a whole nother story. Okay and that was a tough time. That was a tough time. My life was.

Pamela Bardhi
You can recap. It’s underdog, right?

Cody Bjugan
Oh, so there’s this thing called structuring? Okay, and you know, most people don’t even know that it’s a law. And whether you know, it’s a law or not, if you do it, you’re guilty. What happened is when the real estate market started coming back in like, 1112. I had cash in my safe because when the market started tanking, and it almost took me under and the great recession. But it didn’t, I started selling all my toys, and all my toys were paid for with after tax dollars. You know, I don’t know four wheelers, or boats, or RVs, or whatever it was in my shop, right? I started selling all this stuff. Did bills have a sale on it all. But I had eBay pay me in cash because I wanted to stack the cash in my safe

Because we didn’t know what was coming right. Like there was runs on banks and blah, blah, like if we wanted to stack the cash in our safe just to be safe. For a rainy day. We didn’t know what’s coming, right? So anyways, and I kept a log of every single cash deposit, I made my safe and everything. Well, I wanted to get that cash back in the system as the system started coming back. And a few of my friends said Cody don’t go and it wasn’t a tonne of money, but they Well, it’s all relative, I guess. But they said Cody, don’t go put all that cash in the system all at once the IRS is gonna be all over your ass, right? They’re gonna, they’re gonna be, they’re gonna be all over you.

And they’re like, No, Cody, go put the money in numerous banks. Numerous deposits over numerous weeks and keep them all below 10 grand. So that you want to fill out that form. I was like, okay, okay, I guess I’ll do that, I don’t want the IRS, you know. All over me for, you know, this big cash deposit? Well, shit, what I didn’t realise is what I did is illegal, you know, or it’s considered a felony. Right and so, you know, luckily, and it’s to catch people that are laundering money, right? And so, you know, several months later, my wife calls me says. You need to get home, I said. Why don’t you get home? She said, Well, Cody, there’s two IRS agents, the front door. I’m gonna call shit and then I call my attorney, I’m like.

There’s agents in my front door and I said. Dude, the IRS usually sends letters they don’t send to agents to your front door. Well kind of found out I was being pursued for what’s called structuring and luckily. I had all those below sales, right? And I had that log of every cash deposit and the reality is I was easily able to prove that all that money was after tax dollars. But it took two years even me pursuing the Feds trying to get it settled. It took like two years. And when you think you might go to prison for five years. That’s tough and I broke one of my golden rules. I’m not a big fan of the victim mentality, right? Don’t get me wrong. There’s true victims out there.

But you know, when you go through a tough time where you fall flat on your face. Or you’re going like a victim mentality is really not going to get you anywhere. And so I chose to self medicate, right? I chose to get drunk three or four nights a week right next gave reality and I did that for like two years, two and a half years, maybe even three years. But I tell you that story because I was going to something else. What really helped pull me out of that loser stage I call it is I heard a sermon at church I’d never heard before in my life, okay. And I always looked at believing and faith as the same thing. The sermon was basically In summary, just because you believe doesn’t mean you have faith, okay?

And so they were talking about my spiritual relationship with the Lord that yeah. I believe in the Lord, but in my truly exercising faith in the Lord. And I came out of that, and I realised I was a control freak, and I tried to control everything. Then I and then I started relating that message to really everything in my life, right. Some new business, I want to go achieve something, some new division of my company, some project I’m trying to get whatever it is. I don’t give a shit what it is, at the end of the day. Okay, I have one of my shirts when another one of my sayings is faith in action, okay. You know, first you need to believe it’s possible, you need to believe in yourself, you need to believe in whatever it is, okay?

First step is belief. Second, when I think we’re a lot of religious people skip over the step when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. And it is that they go, they skip over this really important step, right and that’s action, right. Is that if I hear one more person say, oh, it’s meant to be it’ll be right, like, you know, bullshit, like, take the action. Do your part, whole your field, right and at the end of the day the vegetation is up to the Lord or, or whatever you believe in, right? It’s up to faith, what you need to realise is that first you need to believe Second. You need to take action, and three. Which is, by the way, the majority of the percentage. Majority of the pie is faith, very little of what actually happens is within your control.

And until you start embracing the idea of faith, or the spiritual side of life, like Tony was talking about. There was a pivot point in your life, until you start embracing the idea of faith. You will never have an opportunity of true peace in your life. Right? As soon as I realised, I don’t have peace going on in the moment or in the situation, the day, the week, whatever. I can instantly start thinking about you know, why? Because I’m not exercising my faith muscle. Right? Like, faith is actually the majority of the game, right. So there you go.

Pamela Bardhi
I love that. Cody, thank you so much for sharing that. And yeah, you’re absolutely right. You’re absolutely right. People think like, in their lives. What’s meant to be will be in the destiny. And I’m like, so that means you’re just not gonna take any action, you’re just gonna let shit come to you and it’s just

Cody Bjugan
What? Like y’all, you say, I’m lazy.

Pamela Bardhi
Right? Like moving with intention is the most critical piece of all of this, right? Believing and saying, let me like having those conversations with God, right? And like really sitting down, like, what is it that you want me to do? Alright, let’s, let’s channel that. Let’s put that down. Let’s figure out what it is and then all of a sudden, you’re like. Oh, my God, Pam, like, you know, when I was sitting there, and I was just in prayer, there’s just silence. Like, you know, this came to me, this came to me and I’m like, oh, that probably means that you’re that’s part of your mission. Right?

Cody Bjugan
Yeah. And even if you don’t find you don’t believe in God, or you don’t believe in Jesus. Whatever, fine, have faith in the universe, all I’m saying is come to the realisation you’re in control of very little of the process. And that you’re gonna have to have faith in something, otherwise, you’re gonna live a miserable life, okay? Otherwise, you are not getting to ever be exposed or have an opportunity to what piece actually truly feels like.

Pamela Bardhi
100,000% Go 100,000 You gotta have that faith that you know. When you’re getting that information from God’s universe. Whatever it is that you believe in yourself, like your higher self, whatever, whatever it may be. You have to trust that connection and then take action on it. Because then it’s like, it’s like, you know, the coach is gonna give you the plays. If you don’t do plays, you’re not winning. Like period, you know, I love it. So like, in real estate, like, how did you fall into that? Arena? I know you mentioned your grandfather was.

Cody Bjugan
Yeah, yeah. But he was, yeah, there was no connection there. What happened is straight up, I thought I was going to college and said the I had a little different path. I went, I got my high school girlfriend pregnant, and had my son. Three months out of high school I actually got married two months ago. And I went into the flooring union just to be able to get health insurance so I could pay for my son. So I was in the trades. I was in the flooring industry, I did that for about the first five years of my career, I only did the Union by the way for about three months. But, I got my health insurance anyway. A lot of these ended up running a foul boring business.

But a lot of these homebuilders, land developers were my clients because we were doing all their houses. And so and so I just kind of got exposed to it and you know, and so in 2002, I was what, 24 years old. I made the leap of faith, I had a partner for the first couple of years. But I literally just made a leap, and I, and I jumped into homebuilding and land development. And that’s where, you know, we can give my grandfather some credit for inspiration. Because that’s what he was, right, and so and it’s just, you know, it’s kind of. I’ve never looked back, I mean, don’t get me wrong. The great recession was not fun and I lost 90% of my net worth.

And the only reason I went bank or didn’t go bankrupt. Like so many people around me. It is just because I was in numerous states and some states got hit before others. And so I was able to make some moves. But it was not because I was any smarter, but you know, and so I’ve just been playing this game, and I’ve been. I’ve been mastering it and I’ve learned the do’s and the don’ts and I’m now teaching a very specific niche within the land development industry that doesn’t have the exposure. Or the risks or the capital requirements, that is required to be a full fledged land developer. I teach you how to bring value to a deal. We call it a value add model, right?

If you know, sometimes people without learning my model, they’ll say, Okay, you’re a land wholesaler and I it’s like a, it’s like cussing at me. We are the furthest thing from a land wholesaler, right? Wholesalers bring no value to the asset. That’s all we focus on is bringing value to the asset. Right? And so today, man, it’s just it’s, I mean, did I think I was gonna be here, you know. 21 years later now teaching this stuff and, and being a part of changing people’s lives forever. No, but damn, I’m thankful I have much gratitude. It’s really special.

Pamela Bardhi
The coolest thing in the world and I mean, your students can attest to it. I mean, like your student just means that really about a deal like. That is like the pinnacle of success and fulfilment. I feel like when you can pass that knowledge on someone really see them thrive in it is like the coolest thing ever. So I know that I’ve told you even before the call, I’m like. I’ve had people ask me about you. And what yeah, why even met you. So definitely walk me through the model a little bit and like.

Cody Bjugan
Yeah, for sure. I’ll do it. I’m gonna make sure before we get off today. I’m gonna one I’ll walk you through quickly what the model is, yeah. Then I’m gonna, if you if you’re okay with it, I’m gonna give you I’m gonna give you all a link, okay? Where you can go and get one of my eBooks for free, and just gobble up a bunch of amazing content. And I would be amazed, I can’t guarantee or I’d get in trouble legally. But I would be amazed if you don’t come out the other side of that ebook, much more knowledgeable. And that much more powerful as a real estate expert or investor. So my model, let’s just try to keep it simple. I specialise in prospecting off market, raw land that has development potential.

Okay, key points, they’re off market, why off market because I want to be in control of my own deal flow deal flow. If I’m always sitting around waiting for a broker to call me or for a piece of property to be listed. My business is very unpredictable, and very difficult to scale or keep consistent. Because I’m not in control of my own deal flow, deal flow is everything without deal flow, you have nothing. Okay. Second, was not just land, but land that has development potential. The reason we make the kind of money we make is because of the development potential, okay? So what we do is we identify that rollin as developer potential. Find ready willing sellers, get the property under contract.

And then we take it through what’s called the entitlement process. Or some people refer to it as like the land use process or the governmental approval process. I really don’t care what you call it, at the end of the day. We take that raw land, and we turn it into an approved development. Now, just to be clear, full disclosure, my company, we will also develop the land if we see it to be the right move. Or we would even build homes if we wanted to. We’ve built hundreds and hundreds of homes, but we specialise in what we, what we teach. And what we do with almost all of our projects, is we take it through that governmental approval process. We turn it into an approved development, and then we sell it to one of our clients.

Okay, and so we sell it to them in a pretty little bow all approved ready for development. And they love us for it because of two reasons. Three reasons. One, they wouldn’t have the deal if it wasn’t for me. Because it was more likely off market to be they would rather not deal with entitlements or governmental approvals, because that’s not what they specialise in. That’s not what they’re good at. My clients are homebuilders. Okay, they want to build homes, okay. And so they are construction companies. So that governmental approvals, entitlements and all that it’s, it’s not what they say it’s not what they’re what their companies are built to do. Then quite frankly, you know, on that note, it also saves them time, right. Because they don’t have to go through that process.

But quite frankly, I’d say one of the biggest reasons why is because I happen to like big home builders. Publicly traded companies, and they have very rigid box. They got to work within policies and procedures, right. And a lot of times to be really good at entitlements. Or getting a property you are comfortable selling to you. You’ve got to figure out what the hot buttons are. If there’s anything you can learn from me is figuring out the hot buttons. You want to put together a win-win deals with the property owner, you want to get your projects approved with the jurisdictions. Figure out their hot buttons and take care of their hot buttons, and you can win everywhere else and that’s how you do a win-win deal.

And at the end of the day, my clients aren’t able to go outside their box. So they often can’t take care of those hot buttons. Okay and so, two more things I want to add. One is we usually pay property owners three times to 10 times the value of their property, okay? But the key is, I don’t close on their property until I get it approved for development. Understand development potential doesn’t mean shit, okay? Until you get the development approved, you have nothing more than what’s there right now. Okay and so if I’m going to pay for a diamond. I gotta make sure it’s a diamond, and it’s not a diamond until it’s approved, okay. And so people say, well. How do you get people to wait 1218 months to get paid? Well, let me ask you this.

Let’s act like you own the property. Okay. Billy, I can pay you 200 today for your property and close it like a normal real estate transaction in 30 to 60 days. Or I might be able to pay you 600 a million, maybe even 2 million. If you’ll wait 1218 months for me to pay you. Billy, what would you like to do? Can I tell you in 21 years, I’ve never had the belly, say I’ll take the 200. Today, they would much rather get the million and 1218 months, okay, then here’s where it’s really fun. Through a double closing, simultaneous closing, I use my buyers money to pay the seller. And I make my profits out of the middle. For the value add model that I do I increase the value of that asset, right.

I took the raw land, I turned it into an approved development, right? He’s my buyer and might pay my seller. And I make my profits out of the middle. Because I did something that that brought value, right? And the seller loves me. Right? I cared about the seller’s legacy because I paid him more than what the property was worth as is right? My buyer loves me, because he’s gonna be able to feed his homebuilding machine and help fix this housing shortage in America. Right and the jurisdiction loves me, because I listened to what their hot buttons were and I took care of them and their hot buttons.

And I got paid, the magic happens. People hear me out here. You want to make real money. The magic happens when you bring value. Okay? In my business model, I bring value to the seller. I bring value to the jurisdiction. I bring value to the buyer. And last, but one of the most important for the big paydays is I brought value to the asset, I increase the value of the asset. Why do wholesalers can’t make a substantial amount of money? Because you’re not bringing value to enough of those four items. Right? Does that make sense? Make sense. So yeah, there you go.

Pamela Bardhi
Win win for everybody. I mean, yeah, it could take you know, takes a little bit of time. A lot of red tape sometimes playing right that’s where the relationships and all of that come in, which is amazing. I love that for a reason. Also, I love it. So I’ve been in construction development flips and all that stuff and like yeah, constructions and sets. Like it can be very time consuming and expensive and all that stuff and like here are your deal making. Which is and you’re making your money still and you’re like alright, peace out. See you can go take the next Two years to go build that while I go out.

Cody Bjugan
And do more deals. Totally. Yep. Because the entitlement process isn’t capital intensive. The real capital starts and the debt starts when you decide to put a shovel in the ground. Okay, and store exiting majority of the time and what we teach is you exit before the shovel goes in the ground. But hey, before I forget, let me drop this link. Then related to that, go to vest, right, which is my education company, V. s. T. Ri ght vest right.com/underdog. And you can go there and get my free ebook, what do we call it?

Actually, I lied. I have a fourth sticky note that I put up here just now. Because I can never even remember the name of my own ebook. It’s called Seven, It’s called seven figure raw land paydays. I hate the title, but we’ll change it at some point. But it’s seven figure raw land payday, you can go get a free copy of that. And just you can eat up about my model and what what it’s all about.

Pamela Bardhi
I absolutely love that goatee. Absolutely love that I love those gems that you dropped. This is not really talked about in real estate, right? Like hot buttons are like flips and wholesaling and you know. Buy and hold and all that stuff and like. This is something that people don’t talk about and I’m like, there’s so much money in this. It’s like, not even funny. So like, I hear you worked on a bunch. Yeah. Like, I know exactly what he’s talking about, like this is, that’s where the real money is. And I know people who’ve made stupid money and entitlements to was based here in Boston. But like the ones who have the relationships in the city, they’re making like redonkulous. And then they exit again, with the shovel goes in the ground, like easing. Amazing.

Cody Bjugan
if you want, here’s the thing, if you want to have. So we’re we have one office, but we’re scaling all over the country right now, like 13 states, 23 markets. But guess what, so we’re constantly building new relationships and new jurisdictions. You want to know how you build a relationship really, really quickly. With a buyer with a seller with a jurisdiction. I don’t care who actually gives a shit about what they want. Give a shit about their story, care about their goals, find out what’s important to them. So many people try to look at the jurisdiction as the enemy. How about we shift your mindset? And you look at them as your partner, right? How would you figure out how to take care of their hot buttons? Right? Now all of a sudden knock on wood, thank the Lord.

And 21 years, any project that I’ve actually attempted to go get approvals on? I’ve gotten approved, I’ve never not got a I’ve never had a project denied. Okay, and why? Because I actually take the time to figure out what’s important to them. And how can I make that happen and the deal still work, right? Pick your damn battles, leave your ego outside, leave it at the doorstep like. Geez be willing to fall on a sword for the jurisdiction to make them look good to the public. Because you gotta remember their elected officials, like fall on a sword for him, make him look amazing. Make them look like they took a pound of flesh out of you, because they want to look good to the public. Right? And so like, just I don’t know, and I could go off about this stuff. You know.

What Would Cody Older Self Tell His Younger Self

Pamela Bardhi
I love it, though, I love it, I really don’t. But it’s so true, right? Like these are all tips because again, you’re going to be your entitlement. You’re going to be dealing with politics, period. There’s no way around it. Not like it’s the same thing like anything you want to be successful in business. The key to negotiation is understanding what the both sides want. Right? And if and what Zig Ziglar that talks about, you know, if you help enough people get what they want. You will also know Yeah. Totally. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Cody, I have this burning question to ask. It’s my favourite one. Okay. What would your older self tell your younger self based on what you know now? business life personal, whatever it may be?

Cody Bjugan
That’s a great question. There’s so many of them trying to pick one, I would probably become a student of your work, right. You know, in my 20s I didn’t start my personal growth journey. My working on mindset and working on just all kinds of stuff, right. Endless stuff. I started my personal development journey when I turned 40. Okay, which was I turned 45 Just a few days ago. I’ve grown more in the last five years than I did the previous 40, right. Like, and there’s people in my life that, you know. Because I do masterminds, right and I read tons of books and I go to events. I do courses and I do all these things, right, and I journal right, I have eight daily habits.

And my daily habits are very precious to me like, and I have friends, you know. That I grew up with that think I’m insane, right? Like, all that stuff’s all a gimmick. That’s a joke, that’s a waste and I’ll tell you what, I was the guy saying that stuff, right? And then a switch flipped and it was right after you shortly after I heard that sermon. Just because you believe doesn’t mean you have faith and when I started actually, on that journey. If I would have figured that out in my young 20s. Like, some of these guys that I’m around that are in this stuff in their 20s I am so excited for them. Right, like, chaise, I just It would definitely be that it would definitely be that.

Pamela Bardhi
Wow, I love that. Cody, thank you so much for sharing that. That’s crazy. You know, like, I mean, our journeys are just so interesting. And our life paths are so different and it’s just so cool to see all the different parallels that kind of happened between that. But I’m just so excited for your growth and all the amazing things that you’re doing and that you’re helping people get to and like. What’s going on in your world? And like the next, like two, three months? Like what what’s happening? Yeah,

Cody Bjugan
Well, I’ll rattle off a few things that are going on. But then I’m also going to give you all one more link, okay. And you’re gonna get, you’re gonna get early access if you choose to. Okay, and I’ll explain in a second, but in the next couple of months. I chose to move my ally development company, its headquarters is burnt currently in Dallas, Texas. But I live in Paradise Valley, Arizona, which is Scottsdale. And we’ve just really come to conclusion just how much my energy is important for the company, and my passion and my vision. So we chose to relocate the headquarters. You know, come probably when this goes live, it is that my headquarters will now be in Kierland. An area called Carolyn Commons, which is here in Scottsdale, that’s a huge move. What else?

I’m launching my next Fund, which is where I’m going to drop you this link. So here’s the deal. Okay. I launched my first fund a little over a year ago. It’s in my with my business model, right. That I’m the only one that I know of that has a fund in my business model. And so we were trailblazing like we didn’t know if it would flop or if it would. You know flourish, and Thank the Lord. I did one webinar with 173 people on it. And within three and a half hours, it was about three and a half hours. My fun fully subscribed, right? So it sold out and then within 24 hours, we oversubscribed. Then we had to hit our max number of investors we could have in the fund we oversubscribed by 38% right within 24 hours.

So very cool, very neat. Well, I’m getting ready to launch my second fund and so the webinar is on May 24. And at the link I’m gonna give you in a second you can go register for that webinar if you want. Then we’re raising 15 million and Lord willing, we believe it’ll fully subscribe again with just one webinar. But you can actually get in early if you want and so you know up to you you can go to this link get the deck check it out. And if you want to invest you can maybe because you hear what I’m doing and maybe you love it and you love the model and you love the idea of diversifying and getting involved in it.

But you don’t actually go do it, you can always invest in it right and so. So I’m just gonna give you the link that’s gonna be that’s gonna be super great. It’s Cody V again, which is my name cod. Why? Last names Buke and B as in boy J UGA N Cody bergen.com/invest. And so you can literally get in there right now and make your investment in case you can’t attend the webinar. Or in case you’re worried about not getting in in time. But we you know, anybody that wants to be a part of it. We are beyond grateful have much gratitude to anybody that’s willing to support us in this journey. So yeah, there you go. That’ll be that’ll be a good one.

Pamela Bardhi
I love that Cody, thank you so much for sharing that. I’m so excited for where that fun goes. That’s probably going to subscribe right away within 24 hours and then God willing, you’re gonna continue that.

Cody Bjugan
Oh, I’ll keep going. Yeah.

Pamela Bardhi
So excited. Cody van you are super inspiring thank you so much for sharing your story, the business model like everything like I just adored it. Thank you so so much my friend.

Cody Bjugan
Thanks for having me I’d you know we have a responsibility to. To do what we can to make a difference and to serve and to Yeah, just just leave your fingerprint man leave it and leave a positive fingerprint, write a positive impact. So people like yourself, you know, you give me an opportunity to hopefully just touch a few more people and, and I’m very, very grateful for that. Thank you.

Pamela Bardhi
Amen to that Cody. I don’t even know what else to say except from Mike drop to what you just said. Thank you so so much, thank you.