Podcast 85. Real Estate Wholesale Mindset in Crypto Mining with Mark Andersen

Average Joe Finances:
0:00

Welcome back to the average Joe finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni. Let's get to today's episode. Hey, how's it going everybody? So today's guest is Mark Anderson and he is one of the co-hosts of the Amigos PC podcast, where they converse with their guests that have backgrounds in comedy, cinema, and crypto. So he, so mark and his partner here, Scott are crypto connoisseurs. They're cinema enthusiasts, and they're cryptic. Excavators. So their show was built from the ground up and like all podcasts, it's gone through the hardships that all brand new podcasts go through. They've had several notable guests on their show like Kevin L. Johnson from the Ozarks, Ralph Sutton, from the SDR show and guests digital network to Jesse Camacho from Netflix's lock and key. So mark and his co-host Scott have also started a home-based crypto mining farm from basically no knowledge. To building multiple rigs, they were dabbling in async miners to now having a full-blown crypto mining operation. I'm pretty excited to talk about this stuff because as I'm describing Mark's background, I know what that is, but I don't. So I'm pretty excited to get into this. Mark thanks for joining me today.

Mark Andersen:
1:11

Thanks for having me.

Average Joe Finances:
1:13

All right on. The first question I'd like to ask you is the same question I ask everybody that comes on the show. I gave a kind of a wave top background of you and who you If you could share a little bit more with us and tell us how this all got started for you, what made you want to start a podcast? What made you want to start mining cryptocurrency? We want to know.

Mark Andersen:
1:31

I have a over decade long experience in the mortgage industry. Done everything up and down. I got really tired of the nine to five. In the mortgage industry, it's really like 10 to 10 12 hour days, just depending on what boom we're in, when it comes to revise purchases or things like that. Podcast wise you'll meet me and a buddy. We were just sitting in there in his backyard. We're having drinks, having a conversation, just, how most podcasts start, man, is it having drinks in a backyard? And all of a sudden they're like, Hey, you know what we talk about? We find. I'm sure other people would find this funny too, let's record it. And so our show wasn't even really about comedy cinema or crypto up until probably about a year ago. We decided that at some point we're going to have guests on and that happened immediately and it really gravitated towards just having a bunch of comedians on and local to the Phoenix area where we're based out of. The show has expanded a lot since then. We've dived into having, actors on or people within the film industry, whether it be, cameraman to film directors or all of the above, because it's their baby project that's, they're actually talking about on our show. So there they are, the writer, director, and actor of it. And then. As you stated, in the bio we started a crypto farm. We started at home with just one rig that we put together. We we bought and then flipped and then put together it's almost basically reverse engineered it. And now we are diving into a full blown. Mine. We've rented out a warehouse and we joined up with another YouTuber John from the side hustle and enterprise. And we are, it's just, basic machines, everywhere rigs. We have a little bit of everything going on when it comes to crypto.

Average Joe Finances:
3:19

That's pretty awesome. One of the things that you we're talking about that I wanted to jump in on was the way that you started this farm, you had mentioned that you bought this rig, and then flipped it and reverse engineered it to make it work again. Let's say how did that work? Like where did you find it? Why did you have to change it so much to make it a start?

Mark Andersen:
3:42

So me and my cohost wanted to get into crypto mining. We were like, all right, we've made the decision. We're going to do this. How do we build a rig? And that was the first question. And we're both like, okay, we don't know. So we started looking at YouTube and we're like, okay, I'm getting it. This seems complicated. Let's try to make disease on ourselves. Let's just buy a rig, right? Let's just save up enough money and let's buy a rig. That's already put together everything like that. Finally found a guy on offer up a lot of when it comes to GPU, mining has always been secondhand. We have some newer equipment that we got, retail from a store. Most of it is secondhand. Like we're dealing with people in the streets trying to negotiate deals and getting graphics cards and building our farm when it comes to. GPU mining, excuse me. So we found somebody that we'd negotiated a deal to get a rig. And we're like, Hey, yes, this is an RX five 80 rig, everything looks good. We're going to mind a theory. I'm on it, all this stuff. And we miss a small detail when getting this. And so Ethereum can't be mined anymore on anything. Five gigs, basically as a V Ram virtual Ram on a graphics card. And so these graphics card that we got, it was a six gig rig or not six gigs, six GPU rig that was already built pre-built for us. And all of the cards were four gigabytes and we're like, oh man. So we get it. We're all excited. We plug it in. We start mining. And we realized that the hash rate is not what we were actually expecting. Hash rate is basically how fast this thing can compute to generate the type of cryptocurrency that you're directly mining or mining through a third party service. So we're like, okay what do we do now? What happens? So we flipped it. We took all of the cards. We kept the core essentials of the rig, the frame, the mother. All of the connectors, risers, power supplies, all of that stuff we kept. And we're like, let's say. The GPU's and upgrade. And essentially we already knew that five eighties are . These are AMD cards the crater of one side it's either AMD or an, a video for like brands of graphics cards. So we knew that these would work, but they needed to be a gigs. So that's just what we looked for. We w they needed to be more than five, I should say, but the next step up is eight. With these particular cards. Like, all right, let's find those. So as we were flipping these cards, we're getting a gigabyte cards and we essentially built a rig and we invested a little bit more at that time to just to get more of those cars. Cause we found somebody that had them new in the box, just sitting around the cards themselves were like five years old. They've never been used, never been opened. And you could tell that when we got them, the seal was their card was never touched and nothing. So took that out. And we started, basically re re-engineered the rig to fit our style or what we wanted to make, what we needed. We went from a motherboard that could hold six to now we needed to take that apart, get a new motherboard, put that on there. That can hold 12. Cause we ended up getting 12 at the time.

Average Joe Finances:
7:04

Okay. You only needed five gigs though. So then the new cards you bought were eight gigs. Yeah. Did that help the hash rate and did you get, would you get a faster hash rate because it was three more gigs than what was required or does that not make a difference? Is it all about the processing speed of the video? So

Mark Andersen:
7:20

it is all about the processing speed of the video card, but the dag size, which this is basically how big the file of Ethereum is to actually put on a graphics card to start mining is over four gigabytes. So you have to be over. Like it, and that does affect your actual hash rate. So the closer you are to, for your hash rate might be in affected. So you have to make sure that you have enough leeway in actual space for V Ram, because we have cars right now that are six gigabyte, all close to that five gigabyte marker. And even still like. Four gigabytes really is the cutoff, but if you want to be safe and making sure that you have a card that you can hold for a little while and resell later, at some point, maintain its value, that's how you as an investment you mitigate risk. Then at that point you know that, okay if I get at least five gigabytes, I got like a good. On this specific algorithm, which if anybody follows a theory at all, it could be less than a year at this point. We, we don't know exactly what they're going to be doing here pretty soon.

Average Joe Finances:
8:27

Yes. I'm writing this one down. You guys are treating the video cards that you buy as an investment. But it's an asset. You want it to hold as much value as it can. At the same time though. I don't know if I might compare it more to a car, right? You buy a car and right now use cars are insanely overpriced. So maybe that's the same for use video cards. I don't know. But, or it was the video cards, that we're talking about. I just want to make sure I know it because I'm not the smartest when it comes to this stuff, but I'm learning as we go here. That's pretty awesome. So you want to, so you want to make sure that you have something that's not going to get fried because you overworked it and you can, get some money back when you go and resell it. Because I know this stuff's definitely not cheap. The best buy over here. Every time new GPU's on video cards, come in. Like you. Because there's this line outside of best buy I'm. Like what video game just got released. It was like, no, it's not a video game. It's Thursday. And the shipment just came in because in Hawaii it was like the set days. This is the days that this stuff's coming into the store, people know about. They literally, they set up tents out there. It's like one of those pre-sales that you see, or somebody waiting for an autograph, it's the same thing when it comes to this stuff. So I guess there's some. There's a large amount of crypto miners probably out here in Hawaii, but I got to imagine that they probably spend a lot of money because electricity here is definitely not cheap. What about over by you?

Mark Andersen:
9:49

It's not super expensive, but it is higher than where like our mine is. Like here, our residential rate is about 900. Which you know, is it, that's decent, it's below the national average, but I can only imagine why, what is it like 15, 17 cents, something like that. It's it? I know it's high 42 cents 32 cents. Okay.

Average Joe Finances:
10:11

It's pretty rough. That's why I have solar panels. Speaking of now you guys move this whole operation into a warehouse now, right? You guys, you have this whole big thing going. Do you have a solar farm or what are you using to power that? Or is it all like industrial electricity?

Mark Andersen:
10:27

One of the reasons we chose where we actually have our mind is because it's within, I would say a Stone's throw of a hydro plant. So we're technically getting hydro water or a hydro water, hydro electricity from the provider that we have. So it is a lot cleaner than if we were to have, just standard electrical that's based off of coal or anything else. Nuclear is still pretty efficient too, but the place where we're at again is a hydro facility. So we are getting electrical generated specifically from hydro. Now the goal down the road is to have some type of solar and hydro that were actually What will we be putting like on a building and things like that? That cause the warehouse that we have is very temporary. I could see as only being in this facility maybe a couple of years and then at that point it's, let's buy some land. Let's put a building. One of my, one of my partners actually wants to take old shipping containers and convert them into facilities, which I am very open to. Because that's very unique and that would be awesome journey to document. Yeah. But it not, it wouldn't be like the end all be all. We probably need a bigger structure just because we're going to 138 million miles an hour right now with this.

Average Joe Finances:
11:37

Yeah. So I actually saw something like that on YouTube. I believe there were some videos that I was watching about that. And, it was one thing that I always saw because I'm big into real estate. And there's always people talking about, buying the shipping containers to make the container homes. And I saw. One guy that was taking shipping containers, slapping solar panels on the top of it and building small, like crypto mining farms out of it, sticking like a, an air conditioner in it to keep it nice and cool on the inside. And it was running almost completely off solar panel, solar panels, but he also had a generator to, to help keep the electricity amperage up where he needed it to be. Now, the thing I don't understand about that it do, you don't, you have to be connected to the internet. To mine doesn't have to be connected. So all the blockchain speaking to each other.

Mark Andersen:
12:24

So to be connected to the internet,

Average Joe Finances:
12:26

it makes me wonder, cause like the way the video I saw, they had they had this plot of land and it was like, it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere and they had this going on. Maybe they worked out a deal with Elan and they had some Starlink, I don't know, but it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. I think that's really neat. And if you do something like that, definitely let me know. Especially if you're going to document it, because that's something I'd like to see start from the beginning to the end. And that might be something that any crypto enthusiast or somebody that's thinking about starting a mining operation would definitely, I think that's definitely something that they would want to watch for sure, because that. Just the way that you guys started off in your, you start, you said you started in your home, you just built, started building literally a couple of machines,

Mark Andersen:
13:09

literally rig in one of our closets. That's how small it started in now. It's just gone a little bit out of our hands.

Average Joe Finances:
13:17

That's my podcast operation, man. I'm in my closet right now. I have a rather large closet in my house, but yeah that's a, this is where I set up my little makeshift studio, so that. That's pretty awesome. It's a lot of greatness starts in closets or garages. I'm just saying that

Mark Andersen:
13:33

our podcast literally started in a garage.

Average Joe Finances:
13:36

See, there you go. Good stuff. And look at the guests that you guys have had, right? So you're obviously you're having a very successful podcast and now a successful crypto mining operations. This is pretty cool. We talked a little bit offline before we hit the record button and I asked you if there was anything else that you invest in now, I think, you're going to start looking at land here soon, right? Because if you're gonna look to move your operation and build your own warehouse and facility, you're gonna start looking at different things like that. So what kind of tools, or what do you have in your tool belt to help you? When you go to expand this operation? What are you going to do when you start looking. Buying land. Are you going to look in a specific area? You're going to try to stay rural. Do you want to be close to a city? Do you want to be close to a power plant or like where you're at right now, close to that, that hydro electricity station. Cause I really do like that, that you guys are, like using more of a green energy thing. That's one of the biggest complaints people have about crypto mining. Elon Musk was put on blast when he was supporting Bitcoin and how that was going on. And they said, Hey it's actually bad for the environment. When you talk about stuff like that and, alternatives. I think that's really awesome. So is that going to come into play when you look to move your facility?

Mark Andersen:
14:45

When we actually do decide to buy like a lot or a building or something along those lines, the intention immediately is to be off. The grid would be there for as a backup or it would be our backup generator for the most part. So we would want to stay close to something that's like hydro more energy efficient which, hydro, you can't really get much more efficient that other than solar and things like that. Yes, some solar some type of hydro on our own close to a water source may be that we could that's on the land. So it's technically ours. We're not damaging too much. We don't want to move or adjust, ground or things like that nature as it is. But we want to make it work in our favor. So if we can find some something, a water base wise that can help turn turbines and things like that's definitely something you had stated. What type of tools do we have? So this isn't my, like my first endeavor of things, like I have been trying to find financial freedom for I would say maybe five years at this point. And I used to do a lot of wholesale real estate. I have my real estate license here in Arizona. So when it comes to like tools, like I'll know what type of land we're getting what. Or where, or, what a building is worth, things like that. So there are quite a few things on my background, at least to where I can like, okay, what's a good investment. What's not a good investment. What are we getting ourselves into? Does this need to be rehabbed before we even do anything? Do we need to flip it right off the bat so we can get more capital, a lot of different things that we can get into once we're ready to take that. Oh, that's

Average Joe Finances:
16:15

that's awesome. And you snuck that one in on me, man, because when we talked before the, I had no idea that you previously had a real estate license, and was wholesaling. So that's really awesome. That's up my alley. And I know you said you had previous experience as a, you were an MLO to write a mortgage loan originator.

Mark Andersen:
16:31

Not a little bit. I've done a little of everything in the mortgage industry. So you name a job or aspect that has to revolve around the mortgage it and.

Average Joe Finances:
16:40

Okay, right on. So you definitely have a well-equipped toolbag when it comes to a, Hey, we want to start looking at, a new facility to move our operation to you definitely. Yeah, you definitely have a really good tool bag, so good. All right, man. Okay, moving on then. You said that you've been on your search for financial freedom for the last five years. And it looks like you've dabbled in a bunch of different things. And it reminds me of like where I'm at right now, where I dabble in so many different things right now. So I'm still active duty in the Navy, but I also have my real estate license on the side. Cause that's what I planned to do when I retired. I also invest in multifamily real estate right now, and things like that. And I play a little bit in the stock market. I don't have much in there, but it's just a little bit of play money and it's stuff that's fun to do. When you say that you've been on your search for financial freedom while you were doing it, you said you were doing some wholesaling, right? And then you got your real estate license. I have a question since, because I, since I had my real estate life, W what was the significant difference between when you were wholesaling properties versus. Being a real estate agent and collecting a commission that way, what would you say was the biggest difference?

Mark Andersen:
17:50

That's a real estate agent. You're mainly working for your client, right? And you're legally obligated to act in their best interests, whereas wholesaling you're acting in your own interests and your trying to. Maximize your profit as much as possible. And you're also dealing directly with a home seller. So at that point, you're also helping them in their situation and trying to get them out so you can move them on to their next stage of whatever they're doing. And then you can then, if you're going to burry it or if you're going to Flip it, whatever it may be. There's some multiple different avenues of actually wholesaling. So that's my main difference at least is you're working for someone versus your interest is yourself in wholesaling.

Average Joe Finances:
18:35

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you don't have that fiduciary responsibility to that to someone else. Okay. Yeah. No that's a great that's. That is the key difference. So I was curious if you notice anything in particular that w that would really stick out to you. So that's awesome. Now

Mark Andersen:
18:48

there's a lot more freedom when it comes to. Wholesaling versus actually doing traditional real estate. So real estate, you really got to, there's gray areas, but you got to play around, in the box, right? For the most part as a legal real estate transaction wholesaling, you can get very creative creative financing is another option. And it's a lot of different avenues you can take with wholesaling.

Average Joe Finances:
19:12

Yeah, that's awesome. So I want to get back to crypto cause that's really what I brought you on here to talk about, but man, when you start talking about real estate, I can't help it. I I gotta just, I just gotta tap into that a little bit.

Mark Andersen:
19:24

I know I don't want to derail you or anything like that, but one thing that kinda will maybe gravitate us to crypto the approach that we're taking with crypto is a wholesale mindset. A lot of the investment that we're doing with crypto is not our own money. We found investors that will help us. And, we've put them in terms that the typical person would be like, wow, that is ridiculous. But in wholesale and the creative financing that, that wholesale brings the knowledge that I have, the terms of which we're giving these investors. It's normal, right? Eat your flip. Hey, we're going to pay you in 12 months, six to 12 months and we're out. We're moving on to the next thing, whatever. I've I found a way to relate that with mining crypto, especially every time things start to really pump when it comes to value of. Okay I will borrow money from someone, right? Or let somebody invest in me and I'll take that investment. I'm going to start buying miners. And then I'm going to sit here and start mining aisle 40 X, and then pay them a portion of that 40 X to be to finish my note with them. So I T I've taken, and I think one of the reasons why we've gone from basically the ground floor to. Now this warehouse that we're in and we're basically at capacity with the amount of miners that we can actually hold in. It is because of this philosophy in trying to finance it using it in an investment mentality.

Average Joe Finances:
20:52

That's pretty wild. I, I didn't really think you can do something like that. In the crypto realm, right? So you guys are. Essentially treating it I guess more like a syndication or like a JV partnership where people are coming in and or even as like private lending. So people are private lending, you guys money, for your project, for your piece of real estate that you're buying. And you're taking that investigate into your miners, and then over the period of a year, mining all this Ethereum or whatever else you're mining is. And now you just collected this and you're paying them, a rate of return that you previously agreed on. Let's say that's 12%, but you've you 40 X. You just made a killing other people's money OPM. Which that, that is huge. That's really awesome. Now, when you pay these investors back, are you paying them back in, in cash? Are you paying them back into.

Mark Andersen:
21:41

We're leaving that up to them. Now we actually put it in our contract and our stipulations that they can choose. We do have investor that likes to rotate it. One month is cash. Cause we pay monthly one month is cash and then one month is crypto. And then by the time of the Turmans, we just pay whatever the difference is and if he wants to redo it great, if not Thank you for the business.

Average Joe Finances:
22:02

Yeah. That's awesome. So you pay monthly distributions, so that's pretty good because somebody can, put an investment in right away and start collecting. And start getting returns on their investment right away.

Mark Andersen:
22:13

We have been very fortunate, especially with the investors that we've had. Like we had have started paying them on their initial investment before we even get miners. We've just made that initial promise to them. Look, every time. It's payday, you expect it from us and we're trying to keep them happy and doing that. And then when it's time to actually pay it off we're trying to do that well in advance as well.

Average Joe Finances:
22:35

Yeah, that's fantastic. Cause you're, you're building your reputation and your credibility with these investors. And all that's going to do is in the future. When you know, when you need more money to start the next project they're going to be right there. Here you go. Yeah. Yeah, that's good stuff. That's really good stuff. Okay. So now if you're investing, so let's say somebody loaned you$20,000, are you taking that 20100% putting it into equipment? Or what is this all going to do? Do you divvy it up between. Hey, we need to put so much to the side for our expenses, like electricity. We need to put so much to the side for the actual rental or the mortgage of the property that we're in right now, or is it strictly. Mining what,

Mark Andersen:
23:20

we've been pretty fortunate with our investors thus far. We are offering hosting services as well, where other miners, if they need, they're at their capacity and they need a facility to just hold their units at and continue mining, they're technically paying our rent. So the holsters are paying the rent. So we don't have to worry about that. But on the other aspects we do a lot, a little bit towards Maybe if we need to make sure an electric bill is paid or just, unknown expenses, but the majority of it, and I would say at least 90% of it is going towards equipment

Average Joe Finances:
23:53

90%. Okay. I just wrote this down because of the way that you just described that, especially if you have other people that are, they're using you as a whole. To put their mining operation. You're essentially, this is like crypto house hacking. You know what house hacking is? So this is like crypto house hacking, man. These guys are coming in and, living with you or renting out your space and paying your rent for you or paying your mortgage for you. That's awesome, dude. Yeah. So there you go. You guys need to coin that, make sure you put that on your stuff that you guys are crypto house hacking. That's. That's really good stuff. Okay, cool. For sure, man. All right. So now are there any other assets besides crypto that you personally invest in? I know you're, we talked a little bit offline, your partner, Scott dabbles a little bit in the stock market. Do you do anything else?

Mark Andersen:
24:37

I mean beyond like a 401k that I have from previous employers, that's just sitting and doing its thing. No, I have pulled away from like apps, like Robinhood or weeble, things like that, retail investing. And I just there's too much drama inside of that right now. That's I personally just don't feel comfortable being a part of. Now my co-host Scott, like he's still in a Robin hood and doing some things here and there, but he is slowly migrating pushing his assets into more crypto based items. And then my partner that's with us on the mind, John, from the side hustle enterprise. He does a lot of stocks and diversifying and things like that. He's a huge AMC maxi right now. So there's a lot of different things going on when it comes to who's involved, but, and we all have different opinions and it's great. Cause we get to shoot all that to with each other For me personally, I'm one of those people that like, I can't do a lot of different things. Okay. I need to focus on one specific thing and I need to be great at it. Yeah. Crypto is basically my baby at this point. And I'm trying to stay away from other assets for the time.

Average Joe Finances:
25:42

Yeah, you don't want to be a Jack of all trades and master of none. You want to master your craft and keep that thing moving. Keep that train roll on. So that's awesome now, cause we, we talked a little bit offline and that's the answer I was trying to pull out of you because this is the route I want to go with talking, talking about mastering your craft, and finding that particular thing, because on this show, we talk a lot about financial freedom and how to build your wealth and how there's so many different ways to do it. Mostly, I have real estate investors that come on this show. I've had a couple other people that are big in the stock market. And recently I've had more, a few more folks come on and talk about crypto, but you're pretty much like the first person who's saying Hey, I'm all in on this. And here's why, and I really liked that. And I respect that answer because you want to make sure that if you're going all in on something, you really know. You know what you're doing, what you're getting yourself into, but you're utilizing it in a way other people that I've had on the show utilize for their investments in real estate. And I really liked that. Like you're taking all those different aspects and saying, Hey, this works here too. And we can continue to have a thriving business treating. The same way we would treat a piece of real estate. And it's all about the way that you treat your own business. And the fact that your, your operation is a business and you treat it as such. So that's really awesome. And your mindset when it comes to this to immediately think. We can help some other guys out. They can, keep their stuff here. We'll host it for them. And boom, they're paying our rent, they're paying our bills. So that's really awesome, man. So I just wanted to point that out that it doesn't necessarily have to be that you're. A specific thing or, a couple of different things. We talk a lot about diversification. I do believe in diversification, but there's different ways you can diversify. I'm sure you're not just all in an Ethereum. I'm sure you have several cryptocurrencies and all coins and other things like that. It's the same thing as the stock market. It's like saying somebody is in the stock market, and that's the only thing they do then, they're not really doing anything from so for themselves, but they're in multiple different stocks there. They have a diversified portfolio. It's the same thing in when you look at crypto and I think people need to start realizing that, crypto is the up and coming. Not up and coming like it's here. It is the game changer, but you need to look at it the same way you would look at any other asset class, because it's, it is an asset class. And I think for me, I'm coming to that realization. Because I've always been a kind of like towards crypto. I, as I talk to more crypto enthusiasts and it's not just people that are hyping it up because of whatever. Cause you see that a lot too. You see those whales out there, especially on YouTube, hyping up a specific coin. So it blows up and then they sell all theirs. And then, everybody else is left holding the bag and those are pyramid schemes, but when you have legit. Coins and legit cryptocurrencies, like the stuff that you guys are mining, the operations that you guys are doing, it really it's a business and you have to treat it as such. So you're definitely going about that the right way. So I definitely respect that and I'm learning a lot right now. So this is really cool, man.

Mark Andersen:
28:37

Thank you. And to feed off what you're saying here, so I am diversifying and it is in crypto, just like you are. We don't mind just one particular coin like Ethereum or something like that. We are speculum mining, especially right now, we're still in a bull run that was supposed to end at least a year ago at this point. And we're dabbling in different coins and trying to figure out what we can we're utilizing same resources that we've already built in no run efficiently and putting it towards different coins and tokens and things like that. And we are expelling a little bit of our own. And putting it into projects. So it's a little bit of, a little bit of everything, especially in the crypto world. There's a lot there that you can capitalize and you just, you have to do your own research and figure out what's going to work best for you on that. And to go back on to, solely focusing on this, and the path that I'm taking in making sure that I am trying to be a master of crypto. And I maybe just token that, but I realized when I started real estate. So I've always been in real estate in some fashion way, shape or form. I used to be really good doing mortgages. I am a really good processor when it comes to mortgages. Some of the companies that I worked for, I be looking at six figures, easy just on a base in commission and doing my job efficiently at that now real estate. I realized immediately after getting my license. A traditional real estate agent really. My career path like that, wasn't the way through I can't be a buyer's agent and most people have to start off as a buyer's agent. It's just one of the, one of the grounds, you have to cover that, to do it to get in your database, get things going and solidify yourself as a listing. And, I would get deals now and then, driving around in the valley itself, you need to drive everywhere and you could be on one opposite side of the valley, which is two hours away from the other opposite side. And I was just like, this is not what I want to do. When it comes to today's gas prices. No. Yeah, exactly. Gas prices are ridiculous, but even when I was doing it they weren't very friendly either. Getting in, I had a couple of partners that I was doing with wholesaling. One of them was a really good friend still, is a good friend, but he's, solely focusing on wholesaling and doing his thing and is a licensed real estate. I, again, realized very quickly. I adapted to real estate, the projects, getting to know contractors. Like I had a lot of fun doing it, but I just I felt like this, isn't it. I know how to do it, and I know how to make a profit doing it. And it just wasn't it. Then we discovered crypto me and my cohost and it's not that we discovered it. I had gambling and I told you about that when my Bitcoin on a computer. had been dabbling in it. And then coming back to it again, as Ethereum started really pumping and things like that, and, taking the mainstream and being a number one contender to Bitcoin, I. I dunno, I think we really need to do it. And as soon as they started reversing, reverse engineering, that rig and started building our own in really learning and adapting to what the culture of crypto is because it changes by the minute even quicker than that, sometimes I just fell in love. So it ended up being like this passion of this is it like, I need to focus on this I enjoy doing this. It's just one of those things where you found a calling, and it's hard to explain, but it's just, I realized immediately this is the way I want to go.

Average Joe Finances:
31:55

Yeah no, that's perfect. And it's funny because as you talk about everything that you're describing, like how you got started and how this whole operation is going and in my brain I'm tying it to real estate and different thoughts of how, how it's very similar when it comes to investing in real estate or the stock market, how, the way you're doing your operations, very similar to if you were doing any other type of asset class right now, Offline before I hit the record button. And you had just mentioned it just now about the Bitcoin fiasco that you ran into a couple of years ago. So if you could, for our listeners, tell them about your laptop that is in your house with Bitcoin on it that you can't get to.

Mark Andersen:
32:37

So when I first heard about Bitcoin I decided that I was going to attempt to make. And this was just all on my own. This is back at a time where you could technically mind Bitcoin on a GPU still. Like it was still efficient enough to do that. It was right on the cusp where it was just about to go to specific integrated computers that mined Bitcoin versus mining it on a GPU or a graphics processing unit. And. Okay, I'm going to try. And so I attempted to try and mine, Bitcoin, I did mine a little bit of it, a few coins, at least. I may downplay that a little bit, a few coins and it took a toll on my laptop. Completely destroyed it. It's very, I like right now, I can't even. So I have had that laptop now sitting in my garage for years. I've lost a seed phrase to the wallet that's on it. So there is just Bitcoins sitting in my garage. Lots of it, I would say at this point, I know it said a few coins, but it is a little bit a chunk of change based on the value now. And I'm just trying to figure out a way to, a time or something to where I can actually, get around the seed phrase and get my wallet.

Average Joe Finances:
33:45

Yeah. So the reason why I wanted you to bring that up right, is because this is when you first started, right? When you first started looking into crypto, you jumped in, not really knowing. And you got yourself in a situation where, Hey, I'm doing it, I'm mining some coin and then laptop died. And you essentially lose everything the same way that people investing in other asset classes like real estate. If they, they're just getting into it and they didn't really have everything together and know what they're doing it for. And they buy a deal that doesn't quite work out for them and it blows up in their face. And then what do they do? They walk away and say, I'm not investing in real estate anymore, but what did you do? You lost all this stuff. It's well, it's there, but it's not right. But you had this happen to you and you didn't let it deter you. You said, Hey, I still think there's something here in crypto. And you did a little more research. You learned a little bit more about it and how to do it a little bit better, not on a laptop. That's going to explode by trying to deal with. And you change your thought process. So you change your system and, you and your co-host and your partner, and came in together and built this whole different operation. So I just wanted to point that out that it's. Yeah, it's not always rainbows and butterflies, no matter what asset class you go into, there's going to be trials and tribulations. There's going to be things that test you, that you have to overcome and figure out a way to get past these barriers or break through these barriers even. With failure. And I wouldn't call this failure. Cause you didn't fail you or you can call it failing forward. Because you kept going, you didn't let it deter you. And you kept, your mind on the prize and or your eyes on the prize and your mind on the goal. That, that's why I wanted to bring that up. So I think that's super important for anybody that's listening that wants to get into it. Hey, it's just like anything. Do the research and make sure you have a good operating system before you get yourself into something like this.

Mark Andersen:
35:39

And look I fully admit, like I put it down for years. I just it's okay, that was a bad experience. Let's put a breather on it doing the nine to five, I was still doing the nine to five at that time anyways, all of a sudden getting real estate license to wholesale. And then coming back and rediscovering it. So it's not like just, it was a failed and then just re attempted again, like I was like not, I got hurt on this one for the time being, I need to put that aside and I'll find a different way.

Average Joe Finances:
36:06

Yeah. So mark, this is super awesome. I really feel like I learned a lot about just crypto mining in general, just from this conversation. And we'd even talk too much about it, but I think. It's the whole mindset behind it. It's the mindset you have with the operation that you currently have with your cohost. I want to talk a little bit about your podcast, right? Because you have utilized your podcast now as a catalyst for your business, right? So you talk about different things like Mo you've had comedians. And you talk comedy, you talk movies and shows, and you also talk crypto because you like to talk about the things that you like to talk about. So I think that's really cool that, you're not just saying, Hey, this podcast can be strictly this Hey, our podcast is about, this is what we're into. This is what we want to talk about. Come hang out with us. And I think that's really neat. What, how, what made you decide that, when you went from comedy and TV shows, what made you decide to talk about what you're doing with crypto on it? Was it just because you enjoy talking about it and learning about it and you just want to keep that conversation going. What made you jump into.

Mark Andersen:
37:06

We had been talking to I don't know if you want to call them a guru or something along those, but basically somebody that's very successful at podcasting. And they talk about growing your show quite a bit when it comes to podcasting and. He was like, Hey you need to build a fence around your podcast. It's great that you guys, because initially when we started the show, we talked about whatever whenever and however, and one thing I heard a while back is, it's very easy to make a podcast, but it's very difficult to make a good podcast. So in opening the conversation with more people in the podcast world it came to the realization we're talking to this guru and he was make offense. So what are you going to do? And at that time we always had comedians on and we didn't want to let that go. Because we have a lot of fun when it comes to, talking about comedy with comedians because they just have a different view, viewpoint and insight on the world. We got a referral from somebody in the podcast world. That's they, their show is mainly pop culture and actors and things like that. And he was like, Hey, can you have, a couple of my friends on one of them happened to be Kevin L. Johnson. So it, we got that referral and we were like, this is a lot of fun still too. So let's, incorporate some. And this is at the time when we decided, okay we're going to start doing crypto. And me and my calls when we first started, we knew nothing, literally nothing about crypto. When you look at the big picture of everything we knew there's an app. You can buy crypto, but we didn't want to buy crypto. And one of mine it, and so we didn't know anything about mining, so we thought it would be a good idea. To start having guests on to help teach us basically, or give us some more insight on crypto, because crypto, like I said earlier, changes by the minute and sometimes even faster than that in getting these guys on to, to explain it to us. Cause I need things explained to me personally, as if I was like a kindergartner And not to say that, like I have some type of a learning disability or anything like that. That's just the way I understand things. So if I can understand that way, then I can convey it out in a message that other people like me. Then, understand it. So

Average Joe Finances:
39:16

I felt that's how you helped me understand.

Mark Andersen:
39:19

So I helped. I was like, if we incorporate this right, there is literally no podcasts out there. That's like comedy, cinema, crypto. Let's make this our fence and let's learn more about crypto as we have these people on. And hopefully I can convey things to with doing a little bit more YouTube videos and things like that to where people can understand on my level, because I'm not the only one I will sit there. And especially when we first started mining crypto, I would watch videos. They would start talking about certain things. I would have to stop the video and go look up exactly what they. And I F I feel like I am not the only one that's like that. And so I I felt it necessary at least for our show that maybe we should do that for other.

Average Joe Finances:
40:11

Oh that's awesome. That's awesome. And I've really liked that. And the, it's funny and I want to bring this up because we talked about this before we started recording. I had mentioned to you, I said one of the really cool things about being a podcaster is when you can bring somebody on, that's going to talk about something that you don't know too much about, and you can sit here and learn, like I told you before, If I'm looking down while we're talking, it's because I'm not ignoring you, I'm taking notes. And as you saw, I've been looking down several times and taking several notes just talking about, just writing down the stuff that you're talking about with your story. And and as I want to come back to certain topics, I write it down and that's where the whole crypto house hacking thing came up, because I thought that was really cool. And I'm like, Hey, this is pretty awesome. So I think that's, the way that you're doing it is you're still having fun with it and you're still enjoying yourself. And that's one of the things that I love about podcasting is I get to bring people on and have conversations like this, learn something, but it makes it enjoyable to I'm really enjoying this conversation with you. I like the dynamic we have. It's just been super cool, man. And I really think that, you and your partner are onto something especially in that particular niche. That's pretty cool that the way that you're combining these three topics and I'm definitely to go subscribe and listen to it myself. So speaking of that, All right. So where can people find mark and Scott? Where can they find the Amigos PC podcasts or YouTube channel website? Anything like that? Can you share that with.

Mark Andersen:
41:35

So you can find all of our content, a YouTube channel, everything like that at where social media is are at and everything like that on our website at amigospc.net we are Amigos, PC, all one word on all social media avenues, including YouTube. So if you want to go out there we are running a a giveaway right now where we're trying to hit 1000 subscribers on YouTube. I, if we do that before on or before the birthday of doge, which is December 8th we're going to be giving a thousand doge points away.

Average Joe Finances:
42:10

That's a really cool that's really cool. Okay. So now I asked you that before the other question I wanted to ask you, just because that's the route that the conversation was going, but now do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to somebody who wants to get started in crypto?

Mark Andersen:
42:30

Just do it is really the main tip or trick Nike don't Sue us. Yeah. But no, yes, they get into it. If you're going to do it. The next thing is do your own research. This is a very. It can be very daunting and complicated, but it can also be very easy and very easy to screw up. You need to find an avenue which you enjoy first. So if it's GPU mining, ASIC mining, which is an integrated computer that just minds one specific thing or even just using a CPU, if you're a gamer and you've got a graphics card and while you're not gaming, you want to dabble into it. The main vocal point though, is if you want to really try it, just get into it and start.

Average Joe Finances:
43:14

Perfect. Perfect answer. I love it. Hey, markets, it's been an absolute pleasure, have a conversation. I really enjoyed it. I really feel like I learned a lot. I got some really great notes here. I definitely want to talk with you more offline and keep in touch because this is just, it's just good stuff, man. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, I really appreciate you taking the time. I know it's a Saturday and you've probably got a lot of mining to go do, but I really do appreciate you taking some time on this weekend to have this chat with me and coming on the show.

Mark Andersen:
43:43

I really appreciate it. And like you said, really enjoying the conversation honestly could continue just talking and explaining things. So thank you.

Average Joe Finances:
43:50

Absolutely. Hey, I'm out of here too. Thank you for making it to the end of this episode greatly appreciate you being here with me today on the average show of finances podcast. If you haven't done so yet, make this the episode that you go, leave us a five star rating or subscribe to our YouTube channel. The average Joe finances podcast is for informational and entertainment per. Only have an outstanding day.