Podcast 220. Meet the Blind, Deaf, and Unstoppable Entrepreneur with Aaron Hale

Average Joe Finances:
0:00

Hey, welcome back to the Average Joe Finances Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni, and today's guest is Aaron Hale. And Aaron, I am super stoked to have you on my show. I recently had the honor of being a guest on his podcast, and now I get to have this legend on my podcast. Aaron, thank you so much for joining me today.

Aaron Hale:
0:21

Yeah, it's mutual. Thanks, Mike. That was that was great. I hardly refer to myself not frequently as a legend. I appreciate the recognition.

Average Joe Finances:
0:30

Absolutely. Yeah. Nobody ever would refer to themself as one. That's what makes you one. Aaron, I wanna kick these things off this podcast episode off the same way I start every episode. And I wanna know if you could share a little bit about yourself, your story, let the audience know who you are. So could you tell us who is Aaron Hale?

Aaron Hale:
0:49

Yes, sir. I grew up in Akron, Ohio. Midwestern boy, I was, The epitome of the All-American slacker and just enough natural ability and talent and with added, with a touch of BS to get by on, without having to do a whole lot, put in a whole lot of effort or hard work and get, be that B, C. Student, but then I got to college and everybody who knew how to work hard and had work ethic, I think it's called passed me by very quickly. And I found myself without a diploma and having wasted far too much tuition. And that's when I turned to the military. I needed, a few more skills. And also dated to earn back the tuition. And so I decided at the time and I found out, throughout the story, I have I call myself now the blindest guy with shiny object syndrome because at the time I wanted to be a chef, I decided I love to cook. So I'll go to culinary school as soon as I get that GI Bill. So it was gonna be four years out, go become a chef. And of course, quite a few service members. I fell in love with the service. I loved being a sailor. I was stationed in Italy for four years, starting in 1999. The time of peace and. I was loving it. I was, cruising around Mediterranean as a personal chef to the commander of the six fleet and cooking for him and the top brass on duty. We were pulling into all these foreign ports and off duty, I was taking those MWR trips all around Europe. It was awesome. Hardship duty. It was not, But yeah, it was great. However, of course, it wasn't very long thereafter that I, we found, ourselves in Two Wars and I, it was just, one of those things. In a few years, I'd picked up exactly what I was hoping. Yeah, they had dedication to, to duty a little more self-worth and the value of putting effort into something, actually having ambition and goals. And I fell in love with service, working for and with, those service members to my left and right, and for something far greater than my own. Myself, but I also noticed that I was cooking for an admiral and I loved the job, but I was watching these wars in Afghanistan and Iraq play out on television, and everybody's job is important, everybody's role in the military, but I wanted to put my skills and abilities. You know this newfound pride in service and work ethic into a greater capacity. I wanted to do something better, so I volunteered to go to Afghanistan. I was a cook in Afghanistan at this time. I was cooking for hundreds of ISAF NATO troops. Was the chow hall had Portuguese and Spanish, and even Italians, even I learned enough of the lingo that I was speaking Italian in Afghanistan to these guys trading res for, those vacuum packs of espresso, so weren't too bad. That's when I met some EOD technicians, explosive ordinance disposal, the militar bomb squad, and wow. That was it, and something immediately clicked. The, those guys that get in the bomb suit, tight-knit community, this highly technical job and the fact that they're first responders on the battlefield, everything told me this is exactly what I was meant to do. And of course, the Navy liked my cooking too much and told me, Nope. You're not going from cook to EOD technician. When my contractor was up, and my deployment was over in Afghanistan, I returned home. I did not relist. I just went over to the Army recruiter and said, here's my service record. I wanna become a soldier and I wanna become an EOD technician. And they welcomed me in. I trained up to become an EOD tech. I deployed once Iraq and then once back to Afghanistan in 2011. And in this time as a EOD team leader. And about eight months into the 12 month deployment is when I wanted those IEDs, those roadside bombs. Yeah, I had my name on it. The blast, took my eyesight. It cracked my skull in a couple places where I was leaking spinal fluid right outta my nose, and it did some damage to my ears, but I still had some hearing, and of course it ended my military career.

Average Joe Finances:
5:36

Yeah. Aaron, that's the fact that, you came in, you had these aspirations that, you wanted to be, A cook, you wanted to use your GI bill to go to culinary school. That was the dream. And then not only that, but the job you got in the Navy was being an actual cook, right? So it was a great way to hone your skills and do something you really enjoyed. And then, September 11th happened. I think for a lot of us that changed the trajectory of everything that we have, known in our career in the military because, you go from a time of peace to a time of war and just everything changes, right? The whole dynamic. And you found yourself in this spot where, you wanted to contribute. More to the war efforts. And you volunteered to go to Afghanistan. It was pretty uncommon, but it started to become more commonplace to see sailors do boots on ground deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq and stuff. But those were totally voluntary, right? So the fact that you jumped right into that shows your dedication. But then you fell in love with this, with the EOD community, right? You met EOD technicians and you said, man that's what I wanna do. This is your calling. And fast forward the Navy said, yeah, sorry man. We're gonna, we want you to stay doing what you're doing. So you got out, went to the army, and then, finally did what you wanted to do as a EOD technician. Now you know, the fact that. On that deployment. As an EOD tech, with the I e D strike and everything, a lot of people at that point, I feel you lost your eyesight, most of your hearing. A lot of people, I feel would just give up at that point and. When I look at you and I hear your story and I've listened to, I've listened to your podcast right? And I've listened to more of your story, and just seeing what you've done since that's happened is just absolutely a amazing, and I definitely want to get into that. I want my listeners to know that what this did not only. Changed your life, but you didn't let it stop you, and it became a catalyst for something greater, right? And the things that you're doing today are just amazing. I wanna preface this with this, that from my audience that's listening right now. Aaron actually a couple weeks ago, just got done running the bad water 100. He did this, Fully blind, right? He had a lead. He had a team that helped him get through it, but he completed this race, right? And this is one of the hardest races you can ever do if you're a runner. I used to be a runner. I'm, I say used to because I don't really run that much anymore. But when I saw like your training,'cause I was following your stuff on social media, man. I was like, holy crap man, look at this guy. And I was following all your training and then you actually got up to the race day and then you did the race. And I'm like, Holy shit, man. Look, I was like, he freaking did it. And it was just, it was amazing for, it was amazing for me to see that. But it must have felt even more amazing for you to accomplish something so significant. And I point this out because I feel a lot of people would look at what happened to you and look at, being blind as a significant disability. But I feel like you said, dude, there's nothing that's gonna hold me back in life. That's the vibe I get from you, man. Every time I hear you speak, every time I see what you're doing, you're like, dude, nothing's gonna hold me back. And I'd like to get into what that's done for you as an entrepreneur, right? So I know, there was a lot of recovery, there was a lot of things that came together after the incident, right? But since then, You've become pretty much like a serial entrepreneur, right?'cause you don't just do real estate, you also have a fudge company. So I wanna just talk about all that, man. Tell me where you wanna start. But I want to know, like from the time that things happened to where you're at now, what was that journey like?

Aaron Hale:
9:37

Absolutely. Yeah. I don't wanna sound like a stickler, but I know a couple people heard you say bad water. 100. And this race was 35 miles past my longest distance, which was I. 100 Mile Ultra Marathon. This is Badwater 135.

Average Joe Finances:
9:56

Oh, sorry. Sorry.

Aaron Hale:
9:57

Actually, it was far, much further than I'd ever done before. And it starts at the, Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet below sea level and. It goes to the Mount Whitney portal. It's about 8,000 feet with two other big climbs up and down in between. So it wasn't just the distance, it was the heat, and it was definitely a whole bunch of elevation gain and loss. Yeah. It was definitely a crucible. I've been through a couple. And yeah I've been injured. I went to Walter Reed and learning how to take, come to grips with this new blindness and, yeah. Changing my career path, my entire life altogether in darkness. And the first thing, I was angry. Of course I was. I was I was frustrated. I was mad mostly at my myself, but I was mad at the world. I wanted to blame something and I wanted the answers to why me? What if I'd done something else? Like what if this, what if that I called my demons? It was the voice in the back of your head that just be doubt and fear and anger and they come, it could, they come to us all the time, right? Don't, worry anxiety, and we ask those questions like that can't be answered and I didn't wanna get caught in that spiral of depression and anxiety and like just anger at the world and myself by not being able to, keep asking those impossible to answer questions. And it was my family, it was my support system. It was those other warriors up and down the halls. And really it took the focus off of me, what I lost and my situation. And frankly, I just knew that I realized that I'm not the only one going through a personal battle. I'm not the first one and my pain isn't all that unique. I don't have a monopoly on pain, so who do I have? Who am I to have an excuse, even if it in my head? It was a pretty good excuse for quitting it. It really wasn't, I was responsible for those warriors, they were fighting. Why couldn't I fight? And I was responsible to my family, my mom, my dad, my brother and sister. My son was responsible to them and for them, so I couldn't just say, I throw my hands up, I'm done. And frankly, if I wanted to quit, it would have to be put up by committee and I don't think I have the votes. I instead had to carry on. I had to fight, I had to figure out this blindness thing, this new life. And I decided if I was gonna be blind for the rest of my life, I was gonna be the best damn blind Aaron Hail I could be. And I started, yeah, I got to work. And learned how to, Do basic living skills like pairing my socks, you wouldn't believe. And, cooking and, using accessibility devices like my talking computer and text to speech, software on my phone and barcode scanners, that kind of stuff. And just, and using to, learning how to get around with my cane and then it out of sheer terror of. Being stuck on the couch and feeling sorry for, myself being, chained by my condition. I started researching. So it's like I use my computer, my phone, I started researching, doing internet searches for outdoors, blind plus running blind plus whatever, just to find a way to get out. And a few names started popping up. Like Eric Wine Mayor, the first blind guy to to climb Mount Everest, the Lonnie Bedwell, the first blind person to kayak the entire Grand Canyon. And you know what? I looked these guys up. I went climbing with Eric. I went kayaking with Lonnie. I registered for marathons and I started I'd registered for four marathons within the span of four months without having run anything longer than a 10 K in my life, so of how to coach, and I started learning how I was gonna accomplish this, and I just got to work. And I figured it out. I found guides and I started running shoulder to shoulder with a sighted guide and just putting on the miles and figuring it out. And then I was doing pretty well for a few years. I was upbeat, optimistic about my future. I was running marathons. I've even qualified for Boston and ran Boston in 2015. Wow. I climbed a few mountains and I was even on my way. To I was two weeks away from heading to Kilimanjaro. From the first of what I was going to attempt to climb the seven sevenths, the highest peaks on each of the s and one day, two weeks before heading out to Kilimanjaro, I was feeling pretty, pretty sick. My head was spinning and I was real, really disoriented and fatigued. I laid down for a nap, and when I woke up, my head was screaming, I, headache, migraine, whatever it was called. It nothing, no word I know does it justice. And what happened was the cracks in my skull that it had been patched up, hadn't been completely patched. And I contracted bacterial meningitis and it was attacking my brain. So I was right back in the hospital four years later. This time it was gonna steal my hearing, what was left of it for the bob hadn't taken. And also it took my inner ear sense of balance, that vestibular balance, my gyro. So I came, I spent a couple months in the hospital and then I came back home in a wheelchair. Now I. Totally blind, totally deaf. When the doctor had broken the news to me I asked the it already sounded like I was at the bottom of a pool. I, it sounded like I was congested or something, and he told me that I was going deaf. And I said, wait a second. Are you telling me that I'm gonna have be blind and deaf? Wait, that means that I'm not gonna ever have to pretend to pay attention ever again. It's silver lining to everything. But, it might have been that I was too far gone by that time, but I didn't hear my mom or my girlfriend, wife now who were in present of the room. I didn't hear them hear the, didn't hear them laugh. It was probably the condition. I thought it was funny. But yeah. It's been a couple months in the hospital recovering from the illness, came back home in a wheelchair, blind and deaf, and had to go through it all over again. Especially the, those demons. The voice in my head this time saying, when is enough? When have I paid my dues? When has, this soldier paid his fair share. And I can't do this anymore. Everything's shut down, everything's silent, everything, all those tools, everything that I've learned in the last four years, how to cope and get by in this world silent. And there I was sitting in my breakfast bar feeling sorry for myself again. I can't do this and I can't do that. And why is this happening to me? But again, I was asking the wrong questions. And the secret to Yeah, anyone's success is you gotta start with the right questions, right? You gotta write, you gotta ask the right questions. And I've been speaking, telling my story ever since, going blind and starting to figure that out. And there was that whole message of triumph because of tragedy, because of hardship of success through struggle. And here I was having to put my money where my mouth was and do it again. So I had to figure out instead of why was this happening to me? Why was it happening for me? And. If this was happening for me, why what can I learn from it so that I can teach it, I can share it with others. So somebody else that was going through trouble hard times, maybe I could help show them the way. So I just, I, instead of saying I can't, I started looking for ways to f figure out how I can, right? If this method is cut out for me from now on, how can I do this? And I got busy even though I couldn't, I had terrible balance. I got back on the treadmill and I would hold on for dear life as I just hit the quick start and it would go half a mile an hour, and I just started walking and I took those trekking poles that I'd used in the mountains and I would just do this weird extended, like dead long leg walk out to my mailbox and back. And I'll be exhausted. But then the next day I would go a little bit further. Then on the treadmill I would go a little bit faster. And at the same time, the holidays were starting to come up and I decided we're just gonna throw a feast. I'm gonna, I'm gonna make a huge Thanksgiving feast and invite all the family and just gonna make this huge spread. And I started cooking weeks in advance cakes and cookies and pies, and I started making fudge batch after batch. And McKayla, my girlfriend, said she noticed two things. One was a smile on my face she hadn't seen in six months. Yeah, there would be a chance I could hear. That's how I could communicate with you, through the cochlear implant. It would be over six months before I'd get any sound through the thing, and even longer before I could understand, another human voice. But she saw that I was I was smiling again. I was doing something. I love loved cooking, and I loved, sharing that edible art with people I love. So I was excited. I was actually looking forward to tomorrow, and the other thing she noticed was the fudges was piling up. She snuck it out the front. She was started sneaking out the front door. I'm like, you gotta be real stealthy around a blind deaf guy. But she gave it away. And friends and neighbors started coming back and saying, Hey, yeah, that was pretty good. Can I buy some for a birthday party coming up a baby shower? And the capitalist did me. He said of course you may. And before we knew it, we had a business. It was a bit like a bake sale at first, but it quickly grew into something real. In fact, my garage, I turned into a pretty nice home gym, and it was so funny to imagine. I had the treadmill, the stationary bike, the rower, and then right next to that was the conveyor belt shrink wrap machine. But that's how we got our start and know. We called it Extraordinary Delights or EOD fudge.com.

Average Joe Finances:
20:24

Yeah, absolutely love that man. The fact that it was, you were doing something that you were passionate about, right? Getting back into the kitchen and cooking and doing something that really brought you true joy and you were able to turn that into a business, right? And start your journey as an entrepreneur. And now I know from there's so much more. Because you're also a real estate investor. And I have to ask you, man, like how I know, a lot of things are challenging with what you have to deal with right now, but how do you go about your real estate journey with the way things are today?

Aaron Hale:
21:01

We'd it started off as kitchen therapy, right? Sure. I was just cooking and it was helping me get through a difficult time. And it started, it turned into a business. And then what happened was we had came to that decision point where we'd have to go. We had to come out of the, like the home kitchen. We had fucking ocean rules that we had to go into a commercial kitchen. And frankly it was either go brick and mortar. Or e-commerce and the thought of cooking like 14 hours a day or staying behind a register, that was my picture of hell. We went the online way and we found a co-packer A larger commercial, like a larger candy company. That would take our recipes and make exactly what I was making just on a larger scale. They would do all of the labor, the supply, operations, production, ca and shipping. And then we basically became a marketing company and the home kitchen became the r and d lab. And we were generating revenue and decided we had now had, the time that we were spending cooking and cutting and wrapping. Now we could focus on other passions too. And I wanted to start investing that active cash flow into things more, more passive. Of course. I look to real estate. I read Rich Dad, poor Dad, and I knew that I wanted to get into real estate, but it was a long educational path, a long learning curve to decide which method. And it was so funny 'cause the very first investment we made was probably it was, we bought an. It was a a fixer upper, we were gonna do BRRRR, the BRRRR method from an online auction out state using hard money. So probably the most difficult thing a blind deaf guy could do. And it turned out like you would think it was a disaster from the get go, but.

Average Joe Finances:
22:58

A lot of first deals are no matter the situation. So I could only imagine.

Aaron Hale:
23:03

Yeah, but it was the, it was 2019 and the market was just blowing up. So we had the market in our favor, the tide rising with us, and most of our estimates were on the low side, including the rehab budget, which actually doubled. And we'd also, I'd also made the mistake, I didn't know this, that hard money. Lenders want to lend to an entity, but I did put my own name on the purchase contract with the, auction house. And so the hard money we had lined up, backed out. We had to use all fudge money, all our own cash. Until we started running out of that, even towards the finish line, as the rehab budget ballooned, or exp expanded. And, we had to find a private money lender to help us get across the finish. But thank goodness it apprais for far higher than we thought it would, and it rented for far more than we assumed it would. We did some research, but it, we got. We just, the market had bailed us out and we were able to recoup we give our private money lender, the seed capital plus pretty, good interest and return. Pull most of our own equity out and keep going. And we also had a great contractor, was just a magician putting this house, there was a century home back together. And this was in my hometown of Akron, Ohio. And I knew what the streets looked like and I knew what the homes were like, and the community and my mom and my brother had already done a couple flips. So we had boots on the ground and we had a few things, like great team already in place. And we just we bought a, another single family, we bought a duplex and we just kept doing it. And during that time, during, as we were expanding this operation, McKayla got her Florida license. We set up a, is partnered with a fellow wounded veteran who would, would, compliment some of my, some of my weaknesses like. Site and, having a driver's license is, and we partnered with my buddy Dan, and we started finding off market deals. And you either assigning those contracts to other investors or keeping 'em for our ourselves to do right here in Florida. And, we have a few, we have long-term rentals. We have a few short-term rentals that they're all doing really well and we love this process. And the whole time now we're using very little of our own capital as we, we invite private money lenders to use that lazy self-directed i r a money, some. And for our projects.

Average Joe Finances:
25:49

Nice. Nice. Okay. Yeah. So you're, are you also wholesaling as well when because I sounded like you said that there's some that keep for yourself and some that you are passing along. So are those wholesale deals?

Aaron Hale:
26:02

That's right. Yeah. We'll get it on a contract. We'll either assign it or if it's within our buy box, our criteria, we might just hold onto it. And, sometimes we just we work out the contract. So if fits our scenario mostly we just make it. We wanna make it the best solution, best possible solution for the seller, and then we'll find, we'll either hold onto the property or we'll find a buyer interested in, buying our, interest in that contract.

Average Joe Finances:
26:33

Okay. Right on. Aaron I want to ask you when you transitioned from cooking the fudge in your house and packing it up and doing it there, having to mess up your beautiful garage gym for the shrink wrap machine to go from that to doing more of the e-commerce thing and having that other company take over the recipe and do it that way. You said that you became more of a marketing company. Do you find that what you've learned on the marketing side has helped you on the real estate side?

Aaron Hale:
27:05

Absolutely. There are a few things as far as marketing goes that are just universal, right? You could have all the supply in the world, but if you don't, if people don't know you're out there. Then you don't have, you don't have the demand. There might actually be demand, but if nobody knows the, the store is open or the store even exists, how are we gonna meet, the match that demand to the product. For example, when during that covid quarantine, lockdown time, We did what pretty much everybody did was start a TikTok, profile. And I started doing a cooking show. A daily cooking show. Aaron Hale's cooking without looking and.

Average Joe Finances:
27:45

Nice.

Aaron Hale:
27:46

Yeah. So one minute. Little ex, kitchen hacks and recipes and stuff. And the one thing we definitely realized on that is that you've just got to be consistent. Some of those videos really flopped and some of 'em really took off, and sometimes we didn't even know why we'd had to. You dig into what our what was it behind? That video or this video that was successful and really talked to our audience and, we grew our followers to over 150,000 in, under a year.

Average Joe Finances:
28:22

Wow.

Aaron Hale:
28:22

And it was just, it was because of consistency. I think I'm a pretty decent, personality, but it really has to do with consistency. Consistency and your content. You gotta know who you are, you're talking to and who have that picture of, who's watching and, really drive the message that they're, you're trying to answer the question they're asking.

Average Joe Finances:
28:46

Sure. Absolutely. So by, by creating this TikTok account, was this more for marketing the fudge company? For one thing it was something to do or marketing yourself.

Aaron Hale:
28:56

I think one day McKayla just put her camera in my face and said, start talking. What are you doing? And it was really her, idea, her concept in innovation. And then we just went with it. And there were a few times where it was just me talking out on the front porch talking about my thoughts on things or showing people how I use accessibility devices. And then sometimes it was actually in the kitchen showing 'em how to make. Grilled cheese or something and it was just funny. The best, I think it was one of the top rated, most viewed videos was best ever grilled cheese sandwich.

Average Joe Finances:
29:35

I'm gonna have to go back and watch that one 'cause I am, I'm a grilled cheese fan. So I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have to go watch that video on TikTok for sure.

Aaron Hale:
29:42

It is a pretty good sandwich.

Average Joe Finances:
29:44

Okay. But but.

Aaron Hale:
29:45

Yeah, it was.

Average Joe Finances:
29:46

I'm not just gonna take your word for it, man. I'm gonna go make it.

Aaron Hale:
29:48

It's the same with when you're marketing anything, right? You want to you start building a brand. It wasn't about, we weren't almost none of our videos had anything to do with fudge. It was me in front of the camera talking to one person out there. And I was showing them, what I thought they were interested in. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I wasn't. But the more I put out, the more content I put out, the more information I would get back. And. I tried to steer the future content towards what I, our avatar was looking for. And not only that, when we we pivoted, but we didn't give up the the fledge business that's still going, but we built this brand. Which is, Aaron and Hail family and McKayla, who was, the Florida agent. And we expanded our brand and we started talking about other facets of our lives. So we're you, I'm a wounded veteran who likes to go for a run now and then who also has a fudge company and invests in real estate. And then I just, I share from time to time on our social media platforms about all those things. And if somebody's interested in buying our fudge, they know where to find it. And if somebody's interested in investing with us, they know how to contact me. And if they're interested in saying, following along on my podcast, let 'em know how they can find the podcast.

Average Joe Finances:
31:26

No, that's great. Like you're building yourself up as a brand, and I'm trying to do something similar. I started off this podcast, it started off as a blog, then it became a podcast. And, the podcast itself did really well. And it's, it's, its, it's its own brand, right? But there's so much more to it. And I've been trying to like, rebrand myself. Lately, and that's one of the things I've been focusing on as well, is like, Hey, I'm more focused on. I'm Mike Cavaggioni, this is what I do and here's how you could find all the things I'm doing. So now I focus more on sending people to my personal website, which like, Hey, you could find my podcast here. You could find my financial coaching. You could find any real estate deals I'm working on. Everything's all in that one spot. So that's, yeah. I'm trying to do the same thing. So it looks like you've got that really down to a good science. But there was something, there was a key word that you said that I wrote down because I absolutely love this word, especially when it comes to making sure you're targeting the right people, and that's finding your avatar, who is your target audience? And that's the biggest thing, is making sure that whatever it is that you're providing it to that specific person. Yeah. And I think that's huge. I think a lot of people don't use that word enough, avatar. And knowing who it is that they're talking to, who it is that they're, that they're trying to sell their products to and I think that's huge for sure. Now, when it comes to your entire organization, the Aaron Hale organization, you've got going on, what does it look like? So you've got the fudge company, you've got. Real estate, right? You've got your podcast now. So what does your organization look like today?

Aaron Hale:
33:00

You've probably heard this also, but when you market to everyone, you are really marketing no one. The shotgun effect really spreads out and has very little effect the further out you spread, right? So if people are considering who their. Selling to a marketing to, and they don't know yet. Maybe they should just be talking to themselves, talking to that, that, that person they were 10 years ago, 20 years ago. This you're sharing, lessons you've learned, you're sharing your story and. Who better to teach than the person that you used to be? If you have a product that's specific, Maybe you should find, that the customer that is really, looking for that product and gear the message around that. For me, if I would have too many the fudge buying real estate investing ultra Marathon running podcast host. That'd be a little, that'd be pretty niche, but just a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. But instead, I just talked to the guy who's made me doing one of those things. He just did, just a few years behind me. Sometimes I'm talking to the real estate investor and I just say, you know what? I, he blew my mind when I learned about self-directed IRAs. That you could actually write a check out of your i r a and go invest in somebody else's deal instead of just stocks and bonds and mutual funds. And like that, that there was, that was an epiphany. And then, talking to the guys, just trying to get fit right, and there's no way I would've even considered or even possibly imagined that I'd be running bad water even 10 years ago. I found out it was possible. Here's how I did it. And same with the fudge business, or even family life or dealing with disabilities or hardships in general. I just I talk to my past mate and say, here's how I did it. Here's a couple things I've learned and if you'd like to find out more, you know where to find me.

Average Joe Finances:
35:07

Yeah, no That's what it is, man. You gotta sometimes just spec get specific to who you're talking to, right? And yeah. Yeah. So Aaron, you know what I'd like to go ahead and transition this into something that I call the final round. It's where I'm gonna ask you the same four questions I ask everybody that comes on the show, and it gives us a good idea of how you are when you're under a little bit of pressure. But did I, there's. You're gonna crush it. You're gonna crush it. So if you're ready to go, we'll get that party started.

Aaron Hale:
35:35

Let's go.

Average Joe Finances:
35:35

Okay, let's do it. So Aaron, first question of the final round is, what's the biggest mistake you've ever made when it comes to your finances? Investing real estate or just business in general?

Aaron Hale:
35:49

Besides that whole HML or the Hard Money Loan debacle of the first deal. I'm a bit enough, a little bit more than I could shoot, had too many deals in the going at one time without be paying attention to the details. I'm not the detail guy. I'm the big picture guy and I just didn't set up the systems properly. And so for me it was, I love Biden off more than I can chew and then gnawing like crazy. But when, when I'm dealing with other investors', capital, you gotta know what you're doing and you gotta set up systems that will account for especially my weaknesses. We've got that sorted out. But it was a little bit of fly by the seat of my pants at the beginning.

Average Joe Finances:
36:35

No, definitely appreciate that.'cause I know I can identify with that answer a lot 'cause there's been several times where I bite off more than I can chew. And I'm sure there's a lot of people listening right now that really resonate with that. So I definitely appreciate that. So Aaron this next question kind of ties into that one and it's, what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first got started?

Aaron Hale:
36:57

It was the whole pay yourself first thing. The richest man in Babylon, the profit first mentality, set up automatic payments to where it needs to go. Starting with your savings, your investment account, just paying yourself first and make that ritual, that never changes. And then you set up those buckets, the envelopes. You set up accounts for specific purposes, and that way it's automatic and you have a plan. You could just look at balances, you can look at, you can, and it helps you tell the future when you know how much is going there, where it's coming from, where it's going, and how much you can afford to invest or not.

Average Joe Finances:
37:42

Absolutely love that and recommended two great books in that answer as well. That's awesome. Okay, Aaron third question of the final round is, do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started out today?

Aaron Hale:
37:56

Frankly, it's not really about a trick or a tip is just take action. Do something you can. You catch a phrase nowadays, but you fail forward. But it's really, it is not a failure unless you quit or you get beat back too hard. You are, it's always a learning experience. And failure is chock full of information if you're willing to learn. So yeah, if you're learning, you're moving forward. Don't be afraid of failure. Just take smaller bites at the beginning.

Average Joe Finances:
38:26

I love that. Take smaller bites. Oh that's awesome, man. Alright, Aaron, so this final question of the final round, I'm gonna preface this with, besides your own, do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both?

Aaron Hale:
38:41

I don't know if It's business related. Yeah, it's business. But extreme ownership by Jocko Willink is probably one of the best. I think there's a severe lack of responsibility of ownership over one's actions. And if we can take responsibility for everything in our lives, whether it's your fault or not. We don't get sta stuck in that victim hood, if we make excuses rather than find reasons. Excuses are the, like the dead end, like the bad questions I was answer asking. We have reasons. That is information and we can move forward. So take ownership of everything, find a reason or a cause and learn and move forward.

Average Joe Finances:
39:27

Absolutely. Great recommendation, man. Great recommendation. Okay, so that is it for the final round, however, I do have another question for you, and this is probably the most important question of this entire interview because my guests have been listening and they're like, Aaron, you have an incredible story. And they're just loving what they're hearing on this episode, and they wanna know where they can find more information about you. So can you share your website with us, any social media profiles? Definitely the TikTok. And then of course, your podcast we'd definitely love to know where we can go and listen to that as well.

Aaron Hale:
40:03

I don't want to inundate'em with all sorts of stuff. They can find the Point of Impact podcast with Aaron Hale on all their major platforms and YouTube, and the website is pointofimpactpod.com. Of course, there's the fudge business, eodfudge.com, and both of those websites will have links to the social media.

Average Joe Finances:
40:23

Awesome. Awesome. So I'm gonna make it easy for all the listeners. We're gonna have those links in the show notes, so you could just copy and paste or click away. Just don't do it if you're driving or anything like that because I want you to be safe. Aaron, this has been phenomenal and I wanna close things out with asking you if you have any final thoughts for our listeners.

Aaron Hale:
40:43

Actually, my final thought was what you were talking about expanding your brand beyond the average deal finances and talking about the Mike Behind the Mic and, let's just say that I think that's a really great idea because you do also have a fantastic story. We share that, and that story will come out very soon. It by the time you publish, I'll probably have published it.

Average Joe Finances:
41:06

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, I appreciate that. For my listeners, just, I was a guest on his podcast recently, like I said at the beginning absolutely phenomenal podcast. Make sure you go listen to Aaron's podcast. It, the guest he has on and just. Just the quality of the show itself is just amazing and I had a blast on there. So I know my listeners would really enjoy that show. But I also wanna say Aaron, thank you so much, man, for joining me today. This was phenomenal. I had a great time great conversation with you. As always, every time I talk to you, it's awesome and amazing. Your story is amazing and I'm so happy that I was able to share it with my audience today. So thanks again, man.

Aaron Hale:
41:44

Thank you as well, Mike. Thank you.

Average Joe Finances:
41:46

Thank you. All right, and also I wanna thank all of you listeners for joining me and our special guest, Aaron Hale, on the average Joe Finances podcast today. Go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Aaron. Aloha from Hawaii and have a great rest of your day.