WS1243: Going for the Big Wins in Real Estate with Pro Ball Player Art Morrison III

EPISODE 1243

[INTRODUCTION]

0:00:00.2 

Art Morrison III (AM):  When I was growing up, my dad was constantly in prison, and so was my older brother. My older brother’s a huge figure in real estate now. Real estate was his basketball. So, he got out of prison and was in some program. He ended up working as a loan officer and ended up being this huge real estate mogul. But at the time he was 25 years old, and he was wholesaling real estate, and I had a teammate in high school whose father was a doctor and he drove a 2006 Range Rover. This was in the year 2006. But my brother, who was 25, and in real estate, who was a realtor loan officer and wholesaling at the time before it was all big like it is now, also drove a 2006 Range Rover. That moment was when I realized, this person is a doctor, my older brother’s only 25, and he’s making that kind of wealth through real estate. So I’ve seen that, and then went along with my basketball career, obviously. But when it came time for me to realize – hey, you’re 25, you’re 26. You’re done playing professionally. You’re ready to be wealthy, what are you gonna do? That was the avenue.  That was my first time experiencing actual real wealth. 

0:00:57.2 

Whitney Sewell (WS): This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Art Morrison III. After a rocky childhood, Art went on to play college basketball at a D2 school on scholarship, and eventually to professional basketball in Portugal. Following his retirement from basketball, he single-handily built a basketball camp for children and while still trying to figure out how he would build his wealth, Art found real estate. He did over $2.5 million in transactions his first two years. Today, Art and his team have done over $6 million in transactions across 15 properties in three years or less. Great story. I love the story that Art has. Really some tough beginnings, tough background. He’ll go into some different things about that, and how that has helped shape him. Many times those difficult things shape us in ways but at that moment, it’s so hard to see that. And I can look back and see so many things, even as a very young man, the things that I thought at the time were just gonna kill me, have helped shape me and pushed me in ways. They helped me to be an entrepreneur many years later. But he goes through many things, even going into professional basketball and how that shaped him and pushed him into real estate. Even his brother has an amazing story into real estate success as well. But Art shares how he obviously deals with these, with no fear of failing. Just pushing through the branding component that he pushed so hard with, and even just skipping the thing of how we always feel like, we gotta have that resume, in the beginning, to get started. That’s just not important. He pushed to have mentorship. He pushed, similar to professional ball or any professional athlete, they’re gonna have mentors or people around him. He elaborates on that as well. So, I enjoyed this conversation with Art. It’s interesting, just the professional athlete mentality to enter entrepreneurship. We’ve had numerous professional athletes on the show now, and just hearing the similarity and how that shaped them into entrepreneurship. So, I know you’re gonna learn a lot today. 

[INTERVIEW]

0:03:03

WS: I don’t know too many professional basketball players, but I’m grateful to have one on the show today who has turned to real estate. He’s gonna help us to think about how he really just hit the ground running. He was able to push through many limiting beliefs that hold so many of us back. I think that I see that in professionals, I have interviewed a number of professional athletes now that have come to real estate. It’s interesting, the mindset behind a professional athlete. It’s similar in the military. I think they’re similar, just things that are taught, going through some difficult things. You gotta be willing to hustle all those things. Art, today is gonna help us think through a lot of that. I’m looking forward to hearing more about his story. 

So, Art, welcome to the show. 

0:03:48.3 

Art Morrison III (AM): Thank you so much for having me. I’m pumped to share whatever values and nuggets I can about real estate and just about overall character and business. Let’s do it. 

0:03:57.6 

WS: Yeah. Give us a little bit about who you are though. Give us a little bit about that professional basketball background because I want to tie that a little bit into that mindset, that shift into real estate, how that helped you. Then, I want to jump in to your real estate business and how you’ve just crushed it.

0:04:14.8 

AM: For sure. So, my name’s Art Morrison III. I’m from New Jersey. I grew up, I guess, you would consider lower class. So, I have a little tough background. Basketball was my first love, my first escape like many youths across America. So, I was pouring everything I had, everything I had into basketball. It was all I cared about, didn’t really care about school, especially as I started getting in high school, parents were going through a tough divorce. So, I actually ended up going to five different high schools, which, if you know about college sports, that poses a problem when you’re trying to get recruited to go to college. But I ended up getting a scholarship and going to college, which is pretty cool. I had a decent career there. I actually missed two years – in college, there are only four years – but I missed two years of college due to an ACL injury my senior year. And then my freshman year, I actually missed the entire freshman year because I went to five high schools and my credits were all wonky, and I had to sit out a year. So, I actually only played two years of college basketball, but I did pretty well.

0:05:13.4 

AM: I was at the Division 2 level, I did pretty well and ended up playing professional basketball. So, I kinda sped along that story but overcoming all of those obstacles made me, into my core, an entrepreneur who just wanted to take control of their fate and future. So when I was playing professional basketball, it didn’t take long to realize that it was just a job. And whether it was injury, whether it was a shady agent, whether it was your team not having enough money or losing a sponsor, I didn’t have control. I was bouncing with many crews in only two years. I was bouncing teams. I was losing contracts. A lot was going on that two years, and I said, wait a second, I don’t like this. I already went through this in high school and in college. Not doing this again. So, I used basketball organization, leveraging my talent in basketball. But it was all new, leveraging teaching that to kids. And it went really well, but there was a ceiling there. We’re talking about youth basketball, youth sports, and for me, I have bigger aspirations financially. I knew about this real estate thing. I knew it was everything. I knew you couldn’t sleep, eat, worship, whatever, you can’t do anything without real estate.

0:06:20

AM: We’re all in real estate as we record this podcast for (inaudible). So, understanding that, I took those same talents that I learned in my upbringing in sports, my same burning desire to be an entrepreneur, and I applied it to real estate and we hit the ground running, as you said. And since then, we’ve grown pretty popular, and I say fun, fix and flip company in New Jersey, where we leverage syndicating and other people’s money and pulling all my resources that I have through my old career to flip as many houses as possible and now we’re transitioning into bigger projects and we’re really excited about it.

0:06:53.1 

WS: That’s awesome. I love hearing stories like that. And it’s interesting, this has nothing to do with real estate but it’s probably not common that somebody plays only two years of ball in college and then goes professional. 

0:07:04

AM: I mean, you asked me, what was my superpower. And I wrote a book, this was about four years after I played professionally because I was just laying in bed. I had the same realization you just had. I said – how many people go play professionally at any level that only played two years of college ball? Just in recognizing that that was amazing, kinda propelled me into what ended up being, bringing me here on this podcast, doing more and more amazing things. But it took that initial realization of, hey, I am superhuman. The name of the book actually is “Overcome: The Key to Unlocking Your Superhuman”. That’s the title of the book, but anyhoo, yeah, it is amazing. So, once I got a taste of that, I’m like, oh, I can do amazing things. Let’s go. To fly is to real estate.

0:07:47.7 

WS: Yeah. So, all those hard things though, I think, just shaped you as a man or a woman, but I just mean in your case, man. I just can look back over many hard things, even as a young man, a very young man that I’m thankful for now looking back. At that time it was difficult. But yeah, it just helped shape me in so many ways. Lord just use those to help build me a great man, to be an entrepreneur, I think, in so many ways. But I want to get to, you also realized that you had accomplished so much. You were a professional player now but you realized that it was a J-O-B and you didn’t care for that. And so, tell us where did real estate come in? How did you figure out that, hey, this could be something that can build a legacy or wealth or whatever? Because you could have gone and started another kind of business. What was it? How did you first hear about real estate? What was it that triggered that desire to go in that direction? 

0:08:45.3 

AM: Yeah. So, in my community, there are only a few times you see extreme success, and it’s when you’re a professional athlete or if you’re in music.

0:08:53.3 

WS: When you say community, you mean, like where you were raised?  

0:08:57.0 

AM: Yeah, yeah. Even like the black community or poor communities. I’m talking about extreme success, driving nice cars, having large houses, that’s typically where you see people make it. So, when I was younger, one of my favorite stories, the way I got introduced in real estate was because when I was growing up, my dad was constantly in prison and so was my older brother. My older brother is a huge figure in real estate now, real estate was his basketball.  So, he got out of prison and was in some program. He had to work somewhere. He ended up working as a loan officer, ended up being this huge real estate mogul. But, at the time he was 25 years old and he was wholesaling real estate, I had a teammate in high school whose father was a doctor and he drove a 2006 Range Rover. This was in the year 2006. But my brother was 25 and in real estate. He was a realtor loan officer and wholesaling at the time before it was all big like it is now, also drove a 2006 Range Rover. I came out of practice and I got in the wrong car one time, got in the car and it’s like – my teammate’s dad. But that moment was when I realized, okay, this person is a doctor, my older brother’s only 25 and he’s making that kind of wealth through real estate. So, I’ve seen that and then went along with my basketball career obviously. But when it came time for me to realize, hey, you’re 25, you’re 26, you’re done playing professionally, you’re ready to be wealthy. What are you gonna do? That was the avenue. That was my first time experiencing actual real wealth. 

0:10:18.0 

WS: Wow, what a story! I love that. That’s incredible. I love that your brother sounds like – prison, obviously, is a horrible thing to have to go through, but he came out of that and done well. I love that story. Even how that affected you. You can see that happening. At 25, man, he’s making it happen. And you came back to it after your professional career. And so let’s jump into now, leveraging your network, you’re professional player, tell us how you then made it into real estate. How did you start to grow your business? What did that look like? I think you started with wholesaling and using other people’s money. Share a little bit about that. And I want to jump into how you then push to doing it without fear, and then also the branding component that I feel like you’ve done probably very well, better than most of us, and that’s helped you to move fast.

0:11:07.8

AM: Absolutely. So that story I just told, was what? 2006 or seven-ish. I didn’t get into real estate until 2018. Did my first deal in 2019, and the way I got into it was, when I finally decided to jump into it – my older brother is 10 years older so everyone knows for the sake of the story – so even when I decided to get into it, I wasn’t loud about it because I didn’t want it to seem like I was chasing after him or following his footsteps. I had my own brand. I already had my youth basketball organization at that time. So, I was actually living in my best friend’s basement. I knew about real estate. I’ve been studying the market. I’ve been practicing running numbers. I’ve been doing a little bit of marketing to find deals, leveraging social media and bandit signs, and not even good bandit signs but whatever. And I was on a walk and one of my neighbors put a for sale by owner sign on the window. With all the studying and preparation I’ve been doing, I knew what a motivated seller looked like. So, obviously, I walked up to him and asked if he’s selling the property, he was.

0:12:03.1 

AM: I got him to take the sign out of the window, told him I’ll bring in the contract tomorrow, there will be an attorney review. I used probably every bit of my little real estate glossary at the time to get this person to believe that I was the solution to them wanting to sell their house. There was a perfect motivated-seller story, their mom passed away, left them the house, and they didn’t want to rent it out, they just wanted the cash for it. It’s like the most fairy tale real estate story ever. But with that deal, I knew it was an opportunity so I went to everyone in my network – my older brother, a pastor of mine who was in real estate, everyone I knew and basically everyone who got excited about the deal. So, I knew it was a good deal. I knew I did my numbers right. And I ended up partnering with someone who’s my partner today but he mentored me on this first deal. I could wholesale to him the deal, made $40,000, and be out of my friend’s basement just like that. But I chose a different route and let him pay me $15,000 but then also pay me $5,000 a month.

0:13:00.9 

AM: So, pay me $15,000 in the form of $5,000 a month. It’s way different than a $40,000 check but the deal was that I would shadow him on the deal. I’d be on the LLC. I’d be able to use that as my experience so I can later get funding and it allowed me to shadow him and learned my first fix and flip. This was in September, we closed November of 2018. Fast forward to 2019. I think I used some of that money to get my first multi-family. I posted that deal on Instagram and someone has sent me another deal. So then, I got my very own fix and flip. And then in 2020, I think we did, we bought five. In 2021, we did ten. And now, here we are at the top of 2022. 

So, that was kind of how we got into it. But the biggest thing for me was a new opportunity. I’ve seen the opportunity from a real estate perspective and then even after I got the deal under contract, I see more opportunities to learn. I’ve seen an opportunity to get experience. I knew the value of all these things from my research and seeking mentorship and just kinda overall understanding the game. So from there, once I started finding myself in these deals, I call them makeshift syndications early on in my career. 

0:14:06

AM: I was also building a brand around it which is what you were asking. But, so I wasn’t just doing it as Art Morrison like, look at me, I’m a former pro just doing some real estate, as everyone wants to call it. I knew how to build an actual brand, an organization, a company around it to give myself even more credibility. And then you ask me about leveraging my network, I literally took that brand, that organization, that company I created – at the time only did three, four deals – and I took that to my friends, family, my social media following, my youth  basketball organization, parents of kids that I coach. I was always joking, if they trust me with their kids, they’ll definitely trust me with their money. And we started partnering with them in 2020, and we were able to raise a good amount of capital, enough to do the 10 to 15 deals that we did in that period of time. 

It all came together from my knowledge and experience, and mentorship, to just networking, to also branding. If I would have went to them just – Hey, I’m thinking about doing some real estate – it would have gone way different than – Hey, I have this investing firm. It’s called United Home Relief, we just launched. We’ve done four projects. There’s a deal in our website. I’m big on all of those things, and whenever I’m teaching it to someone, I teach those same values because I know what it did for me versus if I would have just been like, hey, you’re my cousin, right? Your family, right? I need somebody to flip this house. No. My approach was of utmost professionalism. And I think anyone jumping into real estate that they approach it with that level of mindset that can achieve the same sort of success that we’ve achieved in such a short period of time.

0:15:31.7 

WS: How did you learn some of the branding techniques? Did you hire somebody? Did you just go try to educate yourself? How did you do that?

0:15:39.4 

AM: I didn’t hire anyone. I educated myself because I’m obsessed with…Oh, this is such a good question, you’re stumping me. I’m just obsessed with branding, whether it’s personal branding, some of my favorite people, celebrities. I love them because of their brand. I was a huge Kobe Bryant fan. I love everything that his brand stood for. I’m a Jay-Z fan, I love every…right so. But then you think about Nike, Apple or some of my favorite brands not because the product is amazing – which it is, you gotta deliver a good product – but I just love the way that they present themselves. And so I knew if you’re calling yourself an entrepreneur, we all know what a crappy business looks like. We know we have friends and family, their logo is just unprofessional or they just…their email still says Gmail at the end of it. We know, right? So for me, I just know, if I presented my company the way I would want Apple to present to me, we’re gonna be successful to some bit. And I don’t know, I’ve just always been obsessed with that presentation of the business.  I feel like it just added so much more credibility and it’s credibility that I wanted and kinda always have chased in basketball. Even if I’ve left playing professionally, I want you to look at me like a professional ball player. I don’t want you to look at me like some guy who plays basketball. 

0:16:49.8

WS: Tell us, now that you’ve jumped into real estate, you’ve been wholesaling, you’ve been raising money, talk about, when would you say somebody should syndicate in their real estate career? Or when would you start raising money? Or should they start wholesaling? What would be your recommendations for somebody getting started in wanting to syndicate? Can they do it right away? What would you say?  

0:17:13.8 

AM: For sure. So, I love to say that everyone can just start out syndicating. I think I had a little bit of a cheat code in having mentorship around me, in having mentorship and experience from an older brother as well as having an entrepreneur experience with my basketball company. I think it’s safe for someone to begin as an agent. It’s always great, very educational. You can learn the industry that way. Wholesaling is great. And after you get those things that I just broke down right here, your business professionalism, your branding, mentorship is huge, whether it’s virtually with someone, whether it’s free in the form of podcasts like this one, or YouTube or whatever. But really seek the mentorship. Buy into someone else’s model and learn that model. Once you’re done with that, then you’re pretty much ready, because once you have the information, it’s just about taking action. I know a lot of people like to baby-step their way into things. I would love to be a fan of that as well. But being someone who’s overcome a lot of stuff, I realized that whether you jump all the way in, whether you baby step your way in, you can’t control what’s going to happen to you. I can’t control getting hurt in college playing basketball. I can’t control my parents being divorced and going to five schools. Some of those things.

0:18:21.4 

AM: So I just decided, I’m not going to baby-step my way into anything because it’s not promised. But then, I’ll always tell you, I’m always like, envision where you want to be and work backward and that gets you there as fast as you hope to get there.  

0:18:35

WS: Reverse engineer 

0:18:35

AM: Reverse engineer whatever you see yourself as. So, if you look at yourself in the mirror, you see yourself as this huge Grant Cardone-level syndicator, then you need to reverse engineer there. You don’t need to see that in the mirror and then look away and say, well, no, that’s too big. Let me start wholesaling or let me just get my real estate license and see where it takes me. No, no, no. You should take control and kind of reverse engineer. So to answer your question, that kind of didn’t answer the question, I recommend everyone start with mentorship of some sort. It doesn’t matter if it’s a broker or someone in real estate who’s doing what you want to do. Figure out a way to develop a relationship with them. Sometimes you gotta pay mentors, sometimes you gotta buy their course. Whatever it is, seek mentorship where you have direct access to someone doing exactly what you aspire to do.

0:19:20.2 

WS: Yeah, I love that. It’s such good advice. I could not agree more. Even if you have to pay for it, it’s an investment in yourself. People spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on college tuition, and then go work at a $30,000-$40,000 a year salary position. But then they won’t go spend $20,000-$30,000 on a really good mentor and man, one deal more than pays for it. But more than that, more than just the paying-for-it component is the education experience in the network of that mentor that you’re gaining. It’s so valuable. The listeners probably have heard me talk about that, but I just can’t stress it enough. And Art’s a great example of that. 

Tell us now a little bit about how real estate has changed your family. I think you’ve talked before about having a real estate family fund and those things. What does that look like and how it’s affected your family?  

0:20:10.6 

AM: Absolutely. So my brother and I have partnered on deals. We’ve been able to – I don’t want to use the word employ – but just kind of partner and bring in other family members. My girlfriend works alongside me as well. She works at acquisitions. She has her real estate license and has made over a million dollars in real estate commissions. My mom just got her real estate license that she’s excited about. She hasn’t closed any deals but we talk once a week. She’s one of my mentees, and she just has something to be excited about where she can be an entrepreneur. She still works a full-time job, she wants to quit. So, I said I have a way for you to do so. And that part is exciting. It’s giving everyone kind of a whole…house flipping is something that, everyone loves it. You see it so much on TV. You turn on HGTV, and you just see the transformation. Knowing everything, it’s like, I want to do it, or I can do it.  So, it’s parts are broken down. Majority of people don’t even understand, there are lenders that’ll give you pretty much all the money to flip the house. You just gotta know what you’re doing. So, just opening everyone’s, in my inner circle’s, eyes to some of these things.

0:21:12.7 

AM: Give them – I won’t get too deep and say hope – but it just gives them a certain level of excitement like, hey, I can do this, we can all do it together. Breaking down – and this is kind of segue into syndication – but breaking down how it’s a team effort. There are so many different roles that someone can play. And the more of us that kind of band together, the larger deals we can do. Me by myself with my girlfriend and maybe one other person, yeah, it will be flipping houses for a long time. I’m sure we’ll be good at it. But myself with pretty much all of my network and everyone else I know in real estate, I know that we can buy a $3-$10 million midrise and at 50 units in our name. We pass that down to our kids, our kids would understand that concept that it’s a team effort. It’s affected my family in that way. Everyone sees an opportunity to work together in a super lucrative industry where no one has to be greedy. Everyone’s gonna eat. There’s so much money moving around in real estate. I always joke, I say, you go become a title agent, you go become a real estate agent, you go do loans. We’ll all make several thousand every single deal because I look at the hood and so much money is going out every time I buy a house. This could be going to people on my team or within my inner circle.

0:22:25.9 

WS: I love that thought process. If there are family members who are qualified to even learn some of those things and do it well, why not? Create that opportunity and grow your team at the same time. 

Tell us about what’s your best source right now for meeting new investors. 

 

0:22:40

AM: Social media and then mentorship. People who have the same mentors as me or people who I mentor are the best kind of partners because now I can make sure that we share the same philosophies. I taught or shared my philosophies, it creates a real tight inner circle of investors. I’m sorry, you’re talking about fellow investors or investors for capital-raising?

0:22:58.0 

WS: Yeah, just like if you’re raising money for a deal. 

0:23:01.3 

AM: Yeah, I love social media. That’s just my go-to. Again, I know how to build a social media brand. I am a millennial so I’m pretty good at social media. We’ve experienced extreme success leveraging social media and online branding and online presence to raise capital. 

0:23:14

WS: What would be a couple of tips around social media presence for the listener? The top two platforms of choice, and maybe a couple of tips on how to use them.

0:23:22

AM: Certainly. Top 2. Instagram and Facebook for sure are the top two. Tiktok is still pretty young to be doing that. YouTube is a different kind of beast, it’s more like for consuming. Instagram and Facebook are for engaging. So, Facebook has – and I’ll speak in layman’s terms for everyone who doesn’t know – there’s this thing called the Groups on Facebook. You can literally join Groups of people who are looking to invest. You can join Groups of people who are already raising capital, other investors, and now you can partner with them. So Facebook is amazing for that. And then Instagram, I believe, leads in time spent, the ratio, how much time you spend, how many people are on it. So, just constant eyes on Instagram. So, if you can create an attractive brand that is just providing value to people – which essentially is, if you’re raising capital there’s some sort of offering involved, they’re not just giving it to you – so if you’re providing value through a quality offering, you can raise capital pretty quickly. And people are going to really back you because they’re on there to engage and they’re looking for value and you’re providing it. 

So yeah, those two platforms are the go. And it’s easy to grow if you’re active. It’s just one of those things. You spend time on it. It’s intentional. I tell anyone who I teach or mentor, it’s like, hey, you want to, even if you have to hire someone or get a younger family member, someone who’s already on there to run your social media page, you engage with people on there because there’s a lot of opportunity there. There’s deals, I’ve closed several deals, houses that came through Instagram direct messages, and I raised quite a bit of capital and found some of my long-lasting partners on instagram, those two platforms.

0:24:49.5 

WS: Art, what about some daily habits that you have that you’re disciplined about that have helped you achieve this level of success?

0:24:55.7 

AM: I drink a ton of water. I go on walks. I like the sunlight, I feel like we’re made to be in the sun and consume that energy, it helps my brain work. I eat super clean. You won’t catch the ton of snacks around and things like that. I’m very intentional about what I put in my body ’cause I just think all of that fuels my brain. And one thing that I will say that I’m not good at, something I encourage everyone else to do, tell yourself, relax, have an off-switch at some point. I work way too late, my brain’s always working, the back of my neck is always sore ’cause I’m just like, my brain is just always in overdrive. If there’s one thing I could change about my habits, it would definitely be that having an off-switch, saying, nope, this has to wait till tomorrow. It’s my time to breathe, meditate, pray, rest, sleep, that, definitely I’d recommend.

0:25:38.9 

WS: I think it’s an entrepreneurial complex that we all struggle with. 

0:25:43

AM: I’m like always trying to work like, bro, you need to rest to work. They go hand in hand.

0:25:47

WS: Shut it off. Be with the kids, be with the family, or when you’re there.

0:25:50

AM: You want to try to hear that one.

0:25:52

WS: What would you say is the number one thing that’s contributed to your success?

0:25:55.5 

AM: Number one thing, perseverance. Just like so many people I met, they create in their head why they can’t do something. It’s like the weirdest thing that we as humans do. It’s like you just told yourself why you couldn’t do something, that’s so dumb. Let someone else tell you why you couldn’t do it and even then you should push through it. I always tell the story when I was going to play professional basketball, I did so without an agent. It was hard to get an agent because I had a torn knee so I literally posed as my own agent. I set up an agent account on this platform that you can reach teams either here or there and emailed over 3,000 teams myself. I didn’t have a CRM or anything. I was literally copy-pasting in the Gmail app sending out hundreds of emails a day, and I only got two contract offers. One of them obviously I accepted. But I did all of that for only one contract offer. Now, you can never say my name without saying professional basketball player next to it. I won’t allow you ’cause I put in so much work to play that season and a half or two seasons of the professional basketball. I persevered through so much to get there. Anyone who’s listening to this or looking to start real estate or start anything, just push through. Whatever it is that you think is in the way, it’s not really in the way, the only thing that could stop you is yourself.

0:27:01.6 

WS: How do you like to give back?  

0:27:03.3 

AM: Working on this. It used to be through my youth basketball organization. I, unfortunately, had to scale back to focus on the real estate company. So, I personally don’t give back through the mentorship of youth like I used to. I have coaches hired who do it. So, I want to fill that void, I’m missing it. I guess I am kind of doing it through coaches and younger coaches still but there’s nothing like being on the court with the young men – ’cause we were all boys, we didn’t have girls – I’m being on the court with young men and sharing with them the same way I’m sharing with you in this audience. But I’m sharing with a nine-year-old how basketball is going to shape them. They might kind of foresee it and keep them motivated and pushed. I do miss that a lot, but when I do give back, my number one way is just directly with the kids and the youth and their future. 

0:27:42.3 

WS: Love that. Art, it’s been a pleasure to meet you and have you on the show. Just really hearing how your basketball career shaped you in so many ways. Even before that, I think just a tough background that just shakes people in ways.  You’re set up then to do more tough things and to deal with tough things, and you’ve done that. And I can just see that in you and now pushing through real estate and your real estate business, being an entrepreneur. It’s just incredible what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve been able to accomplish. Even hearing your brother’s story, I think it’s so encouraging as well. You jumped into real estate, just not focusing on the fear or what you can’t do, but you focused on what you can do. You saw how other people are doing things, the branding component. I think even before we started recording, you talked about, skip the part of having or thinking you had to have a resume right before you even get started, or in the beginning. You just went out and made it happen. You surrounded yourself with mentors. And I think that in basketball, you do that as well, right? You have other people you look up to. I was never a professional basketball player, but we know better than that. I just think you probably did, right? When you’re a professional player, you’re gonna have mentors, right?

0:28:52.8 

AM:  Absolutely. Even growing up, you don’t know them, but you pick a mentor. So, I want to be Allen Iverson, I want to be Michael Jordan. For me, it was Kobe Bryant so you’re already identifying someone who’s where you want to be, is playing like how you want to play, and then you can model after it. You do it as a kid just with your parents, they’re your first mentors. And you’re like, have you ever been in the mall and seen a dad and his son, and the son walks like his dad? He has the same walk. How does the kid know how to walk like that? Is that genes or did he learn it? I don’t know, we will never know. But it happens and it’s because they’re the first example. So, find yourself an example and chase it. 

0:29:24.4 

WS: Yeah. I love that, I love that. Parents are your first mentors, and then that grows and you find people that are where you want to go, and we did the same thing in real estate, for sure. 

Art, thank you again for your time. Incredible story, and it is your path to real estate success. Tell the listeners how they can get in touch with you and learn more about your business.  

0:29:42.7 

AM: Art Morrison III on Instagram. I talked about social media, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t drive you over there. @artmorrisoniii, that’s Art Morrison iii. And then my website is ArtMorrisonIII.com. Pretty much everything’s up there. It talks about my basketball company, my real estate company, my story, my book. I encourage everyone to go down, the book is free on my website,  ArtMorrisonIII.com. It’s an e-book, download and get inspired. It’s broken down like a self-help book that allows you to take notes on yourself. It’s like a self-reflective kind of thing. It’s not just like my biography. It’s a really helpful book and it’s changed a lot of lives so I encourage everyone to go read that. And so, just keep it at those two. Go follow me on Instagram and check on my website.

 

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[OUTRO]

0:30:25.1 

WS: Thank you for being a loyal listener to the Real Estate Syndication Show. Please subscribe and like the show. Share it with your friends so we can help them as well. Don’t forget, go to the www.LifeBridgeCapital.com where you can sign up and start investing in real estate today, Have a blessed day! 

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