Episode 65 - VA Loan + Midterm Rentals: How Katie Newman Made It Work in DC
What does a smart house hack actually look like in a high-cost market like Washington DC? In this episode, Stephen sits down with Katie Newman to break down how she used VA loans, house hacking, and midterm rentals to build cash flow while keeping her life simple. They talk through real numbers, real mistakes, tenant screening, and why your real estate strategy should fit your life, not social media. If you’re interested in house hacking, VA loans, or midterm rentals, this episode is packed with real-world lessons.
Stephen and Katie talked about:
01:02 – Real estate investing mindset and solving problems instead of waiting to feel ready
03:27 – Getting started with house hacking and reducing housing costs
06:05 – Turning one property into multiple units and creating value through ADUs
08:09 – Self-managing rentals, using virtual assistants, and building systems
12:01 – Tenant screening, virtual showings, and managing trust remotely
20:00 – Tenant retention vs raising rent and protecting long-term cash flow
22:48 – Why property management companies often work against investors
26:57 – Contractor mistakes, repair costs, and protecting yourself
29:57 – Shifting strategy, scaling responsibly, and current projects
35:23 – Defining “enough,” passive income goals, and lifestyle design
38:11 – Teaching, mentorship, and using real estate for impact
46:16 – Burnout, balance, and stepping away from nonstop hustle
49:42 – Long-term vision, purpose, and closing reflections
TRANSCRIPT
∎ Teaser / Highlighted Clip
[KATIE NEWMAN] (0:00 - 0:07)
I was probably all in somewhere between 10K, 11K total of the basement. And I rented out for $2,100 a month as like a midterm. Woo.
[Stephen Husted] (0:10 - 0:11)
Wow. That's good numbers.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (0:11 - 0:39)
Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah.
And what's fun about this house too, is that I used the rest of my VA loan for it. And I came $0 out of pocket. I got an $800 check at closing because I got all my closing costs covered.
And so I basically was used the rest of my VA entitlement and bought this property and I have my other condo in the area as well. So I basically was able to get like an $800,000 house for no money out of pocket, which was pretty sick.
[Stephen Husted] (0:39 - 2:48)
If you have a lot of properties, shit's getting thrown at you left and right. And sometimes your team's not going to be able to, it's going to have to fall on you for whatever that reason is and what's going on. And then you're trapped because it's not like stocks where you could, Oh, I'm wanting to get out of this stock.
So I'm just going to sell it. I'm going to press a button. Money's going to be in my account a couple of days.
It's not how it works. It's oh shit. Where's the market at?
Do I got a tenant in there? When did that tenant move out? Okay.
Can I sell? You know what I mean? There's way more to it.
∎ Podcast Intro:
I'm Stephen Husted and you're listening to the Breakthrough Podcast, a space designed for clarity, curiosity, and the stories that move us here. We step away from the noise and into the moments that define us, the early influences, the hidden struggles, and the breakthroughs that reshape our lives from personal reinvention to building a life through real estate and entrepreneurship, these conversations remind us that success isn't a straight line. It's a series of honest decisions, brave actions, and small shifts that change everything.
This is where those stories live. Let's begin. All right.
∎ Guest Introduction:
Welcome back to the show. In this episode, I'm sitting down with Katie Newman, and this conversation goes a lot deeper than just real estate deals or surface level success. Katie shares her journey of building a business intentionally, the lessons she learned by taking action before everything felt perfect, and how clarity, consistency, and follow-through played a huge role in her growth.
What stood out to me most about Katie is how grounded her approach is. She shares the challenges she faced, the mental shifts that made the difference, and how she built confidence by moving forward without waiting for everything to line up. This episode is about taking action, figuring things out along the way, and staying the course, even when you can't see the full picture yet.
If you're building, transitioning, or trying to figure out your next move, this one's for you.
∎ Podcast Proper:
We are live, Katie.
Sweet.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (2:50 - 2:50)
Dun, dun, dun.
[Stephen Husted] (2:51 - 3:00)
Dun, dun, dun. Here we go. Guess what?
You're the last of the BiggerPockets conference people that I met.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (3:01 - 3:05)
Nice. I love being last on someone's list.
[Stephen Husted] (3:07 - 3:19)
And, you know, I don't even know how that all came about, but there was something, like some interaction that we had, and I was like, wait a minute. Why haven't I invited Katie on? Time for Katie to come on.
Yes. I love being on my last.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (3:19 - 3:20)
I shot you a message.
[Stephen Husted] (3:21 - 3:38)
I think it was one of your videos. Honestly, I think it was when you bought your house. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And you brought your brother in it. Oh yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I was like, okay, that's cool.
And it just got my mind going. I was like, wait a minute. We have a house.
We haven't got her on. So thanks for accepting.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (3:38 - 3:40)
I'm excited. I'm excited. I slid in.
[Stephen Husted] (3:43 - 3:57)
Sorry about the, you're the last one, but hey, it doesn't really matter whatsoever. You're the OG. And that's funny because I think when I met you, it's exactly the time that I started the podcast, actually.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (3:58 - 3:58)
Oh, really?
[Stephen Husted] (3:59 - 4:04)
Yeah. Yeah. So I just started.
So I think I'm 66 episodes in now.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (4:04 - 4:07)
You're good for you. I need to get on the podcast train.
[Stephen Husted] (4:07 - 4:08)
Do you think you want to start one?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (4:09 - 4:25)
I've thought about it. Maybe. I've thought about it.
Maybe down the line, but I feel like every year I'm like, oh, start a podcast on my like goals list. But I mean, I'm such a podcast binger. And then I'm like, oh, what, why don't I start one?
Cause when I get on them and I talk to people, I'm like, oh, this is fun. But maybe, maybe next year.
[Stephen Husted] (4:25 - 6:18)
Yeah. I have a lot of people that reach out and they want to know like just the ins and outs of getting started and like how much time and work does it take to do it? And honestly, I don't think this is the best time to start a podcast.
There's so many great tools to get you going that are relatively cheap and easy to use. I mean, you can go from setting up Riverside to having a VA that can do all the edits for the podcast out in the Philippines and then use Opus Clips to grab clips that use, you know what I mean? And those clips are, they're decent.
I wouldn't say it's the best approach. But if you had to start off on a budget, that would be a good way to go. And then the AI software for an intro, I was recording intros all the time, the very beginning, and it's like trying to get them, getting them perfect and then had to record them or this didn't sound.
And it's funny that now we use this, we use AI and it knows my voice perfectly. So it's like that took that off my plate. And, and really what it comes down to is you can then focus on getting good guests and just getting out good information.
And, you know, so it's not that big of a time suck. No, it really isn't. It is sometimes podcasting reminds me of when I DJed and you kind of, I would drive from my house getting ready to go to the media room and I'm like, okay, Katie's on.
All right, Katie, let's think about what Katie does. What's her background? How are we going to go into this?
I'm like mentally preparing for that podcast. You know what I mean? And it's like an anticipation of how is it going to go?
And DJing was very similar. You would sit there before getting on and going, okay, how's the crowd and what record am I starting with? So it's funny.
It's got some interesting parallels. So yeah. How's everything been with you?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (6:18 - 6:29)
Yeah, everything's been good. I mean, staying busy, really busy. This is my first, this is my first podcast in my new house.
So that I'm last on your list. Your first podcast in my house. That's great.
[Stephen Husted] (6:33 - 6:38)
That's fantastic. So speaking of the house, let's talk about that. What'd you get?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (6:39 - 8:07)
Yeah. So I got, so this is my first house hack. It's my third property.
I bought it. It's a four three. And luckily I think I lucked out.
It was basically like turnkey and it was fully renovated basically in 2010. And the guy that owned it and sold it was like a home builder in the area. So he did everything up to spec, like super nice stuff.
And I wanted something super specific because I live in a high cost area. Like I'm in the Washington DC area and it's just, it's so expensive here. I'm from here and I wanted something kind of for long-term stuff, but I wanted also something to house hack and like kind of cut my mortgage.
So I got a four three and it's basically a 22, 2300 square feet. And it's about 900 square feet in the basement, 1600 ish, like up top. And so it's three, two up top and like one, one in the bottom basically, which is kind of what my buy box was.
So, yeah, so I live up top and it's bigger than my condo that I have as a midterm rental right now. And then I renovated the basement after I purchased this property and just did like an additional space for a washer dryer and kind of a little kitchenette in the basement. And so with this did like extra plumbing, extra wiring, and like a privacy door at the bottom of the stairs.
So it's kind of just like a whole like 900 square foot apartment, basically in the basement with a separate entrance. So like tenant can use the backyard, the back door to kind of get in and never see them. And it's been working great so far.
It's been about two and a half months or so. I closed in July, moved in September, and then I got a tenant in, I think October or something.
[Stephen Husted] (8:08 - 8:14)
Yeah. Awesome. Wait, so you didn't take long to get that basement built out for you.
How much did you spend?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (8:14 - 10:13)
I want to say a rough estimate, like probably close to 10 grand between like renovations and like furnishing and that kind of stuff. I mean, I will say I did have a contractor debacle that was all my fault, but I overcame it, but I will say, yeah, I got done really quickly in a sense of as soon as I closed, I used my realtors contractor who does all their properties, does everything. And he had quoted me like 7,500 bucks to basically do like plumbing, electrical, new door, like I was basically adding a washer dryer in the basement so I could have my own and my tenant could have their own.
Cause I just don't want to share a washer dryer. I feel like that's kind of a no, not a no, no for me, but I think a big selling point for someone to have their own private washer dryer. And so they quoted me like 7,500 bucks and he was supposed to put in like older cabinets from another property into the basement and that was like included in the quote.
And so the whole thing of you're always like, Oh, this is never going to happen to me. Like I thought I have a really great contractor. He's like over here.
The first day I closed basically done with everything in a week and a half. So like plumbing walls, everything was done a week and a half after I closed. And then the whole cabinetry debacle happened where he was like, basically like stopped showing up, didn't put cabinets in, said he was going to come over.
It just happened for like weeks at a time. I was like, are you coming? Are you doing the cabinets?
Are you yada yada? And eventually he never showed up again, ditched the project. So then I had to get my realtor on.
They try to call him. He never showed up. And luckily my older brother is a pretty handy.
So he basically came and helped me put in cabinets from home Depot into the basement. So after I kind of overcame that, so that probably took a month after the actual like closing of him closing and him finishing that I actually finished the basement. So between that and furnishing, basically from like Facebook marketplace, I was probably all in somewhere between 10 K, 11 K total of the basement.
And I rented out for 2,100 a month. There's like a midterm.
[Stephen Husted] (10:16 - 10:18)
Ooh, wow. That's good numbers.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (10:18 - 10:46)
Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah.
And what's fun about this house too, is that I used the rest of my VA loan for it and I came $0 out of pocket. I got an $800 check at closing because I got all my closing costs covered. And so I basically was used the rest of my VA entitlement and bought this property and I have my other condo in the area as well.
So I basically was able to get like an $800,000 house for no money out of pocket, which was pretty sick.
[Stephen Husted] (10:46 - 11:06)
Yeah. With cashflow coming in on a basic. Yeah.
So with that being said, I think one of the biggest things to tell new investors is get creative. Yeah. You gotta be creative.
You gotta think out of the box and make deals kind of go in a direction.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (11:07 - 13:06)
And I was really specific. Like I was, I think very creative, but I also was very specific on what I wanted and what I didn't want because there were properties that I saw that I was like, if it doesn't have a private entrance, if it doesn't have an option for me to have a separate washer dryer or small kitchenette and like enough space between like for me to live up top and then in the bottom, it's not for me. So I probably toured like seven, eight, maybe nine properties in the area.
And like some of them hit that. And there were some that were really nice, but like the washer dryer, I couldn't put upstairs and I couldn't make a separate entrance. And I was like, that's kind of out of my buy box.
And so that's not what I want. So I kind of one thought creatively on a sense of this is what I want. But then two, I was like, this is what I don't want.
And so I think that really helped me and my realtors hone in to be like, Oh, hey, this property actually, cause I didn't even plan on seeing this property. I saw another one before this, which was a wreck. It was a mess.
And they're like, Oh, are you actually interested in seeing this other one real quick? And so I was like, Oh yeah, sure. Cool.
And it had been on the market for two, two and a half weeks. And I came in and I was like, Oh, this is really nice. Like nice hardwood floors, nice basement, nice kitchen, huge backyard, big shed in the backyard for a gym.
And I was like, Oh, this is actually like hitting everything. And then we got creative looking downstairs and I was like, Oh, hey, yeah, you can just move your washer dryer over here. Put plumbing to the back wall of the bathroom and you have your own washer dryer and then make a kitchen down here.
And I was like, Oh, sick. This is exactly what I want. And then knowing that buy box, I was able to put an offer in that afternoon because I was like, Yeah, this is work.
This works. It's cool. Perfect.
It's in my budget. It was actually under my budget a little bit in a sense of like I saw the number and I was like, Oh, sweet. This is even better.
Yeah. And I knew the midterm market rents in the area because I've done a midterm rental a few years ago in the same area. So I kind of knew what I was working with and I was like, All right, if I get this amount, this works.
And so that's, I think, what kind of helped me seal the deal for this one.
[Stephen Husted] (13:07 - 13:13)
And it had a bathroom already. It had an existing bathroom. Yeah.
Pretty nice, decent.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (13:13 - 13:13)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (13:15 - 13:20)
So explain the whole midterm rental and why this works in the area that you're at.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (13:21 - 14:48)
So I'm in Alexandria, Virginia. So it's the metro DC area. So like everyone is always either military here, federal workers.
It's highly populated and housing is just really expensive. And some people are transient in the area. So I have a military background.
I'm also a health care worker as a nurse. And so I know the clientele and I know what people are kind of looking for who are maybe geo-batching to the area. So like military folks that might be on orders for three months, six months at a time that might not be traveling with their family or, hey, I'm here for a year.
Or, hey, my tenant right now is in like police academy. So he needs a place for like three to four months. And so that I think works really well in this market because number one, like housing is so expensive.
It's crazy to even purchase a property here. Then number two, rents are crazy expensive. And people just kind of need like an ease to come in, come out like, hey, I'm coming to this hospital.
I need three months to stay. So it's just a highly populated area for a perfect midterm rental market. And so that's why I really love the strategy for the area, because I'm close to hospitals.
I'm close to military bases. I'm close to the government. I'm close to D.C. But it's still like pretty affordable compared to other places that are like you can't I mean, you could, but it would be a dump if you got a place that was unfurnished farther away than where I am. So that's kind of why I think this is such a good spot for midterms.
[Stephen Husted] (14:48 - 15:14)
And you have your tenant pool who's looking. It's not just one industry. And I think that's a huge thing.
You kind of need to have a few different things going on in the area to kind of capture just in case one dries up for whatever reason. There's other people coming in at different points, too. So that's really cool.
So you're getting 21. And where did that tenant guest come from? Did they come from Furnish Finder or Airbnb or what platform?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (15:15 - 16:44)
Yeah, they came from Furnish Finder. I will say, like the biggest thing that let me go from like no one's contacting me till I got contacts within three days was like professional photos. And I knew that that was going to be my problem, but I didn't want to put it up immediately with ugly photos or a kitchen that wasn't ready yet because I knew no one everyone would pass over a place that really didn't have a kitchenette space or really didn't have something that was worth like twenty one, twenty two hundred a month.
And so I did post some random photos from my iPhone and I posted into a local Facebook group for like women in the military because I was like, this is a small start. If anyone is curious and wants to message me about it, sure. But then once I got professional photos done of the property, I updated them on Furnish Finder and that was really the only other place I put it up.
And within a week, I probably had three or four people messaging me. They kind of want to come look at it. And then there was a guy that was I was trying to get.
He wanted like a six month lease and it was going to be a little less expensive. And I was like, I'd rather take someone for a longer term at a shorter amount because that's just like reduces my vacancy. I like being very passive, quote unquote, and like lazy.
So I don't want to get the highest amount of money just for one month versus someone that might stay longer. But it's less of a headache. This guy just messaged me on Furnish Finder and was like, hey, can I come see the place?
Three days later, he saw it and was like, cool, how soon can I move in? And I was like, as soon as I do your background check. And so probably three days later, four days later after he came and looked at it, he moved in.
[Stephen Husted] (16:44 - 17:09)
Yeah. What is your process? So it's interesting.
So the background check and like security pause. I'm curious to hear how you position it, because we have a midterm over in Kansas City by KU Med and we had a gentleman that wanted it for six months. We're like, great.
Well, what do we got to do? I'm like, well, you got to do background check. This is a security deposit.
We asked some questions and he came back. He's way, man, that's way too much red tape. I'm all red tape.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (17:11 - 17:14)
Yeah. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (17:14 - 17:18)
Let me just give you a handshake and just jump into my property. Right.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (17:19 - 18:48)
Yeah. I think for midterms and I think it depends on who you're trying to get into your spot. But like I did a midterm rental to a couple of traveling physical therapists a couple of years ago and then to this guy who's in like Police Academy.
And so kind of looking not like I'm saying, hey, like I'm not accepting anyone to the property, but these are just the people that kind of applied to first to get in. And so knowing at least for travel nurses, they're typically background checked for their jobs already. And so not saying this is like incredibly great advice and I probably would be a little need to be a little stricter if I were to grow a portfolio that's bigger.
But along with this guy, the tenant I moved in, he's in Police Academy. And so I just kind of did the typical like background checks through I use Turbo Tenant, which I love because they automatically do background checks. The tenant pays for it on their side.
I think it's like 20 bucks or something like in their application fee or something. And so it automatically kind of pulls up a background check. It looks at their credit score.
It looks at everything you kind of need to know. And then for job verification, just kind of I got his like job verification letter and called his boss at the academy and just kind of was like, hey, the skiddy so and so is interested in my property. I just wanted to kind of follow up with you.
Hey, is this a real job? Is he really there? Is this just ask and kind of like simple questions like that.
And they're like, yep, he's here. Or yep, this is X, Y, Z. And then the same thing with the physical therapist.
I kind of got their job verification. They're already kind of background checked. And I was like, all right, that works.
[Stephen Husted] (18:48 - 18:58)
How do you position? So it's $2,100 monthly. What did you, what have you been doing for like security deposit?
Are you doing $2,100 or is it less? Like how do you position that part?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (18:58 - 19:42)
I just do like $500 to go in. I feel like for midterm rentals and I think about it, like me too, if I was traveling as a travel nurse somewhere, I feel like asking for a full month rent upfront of like $2,100 to move into a spot would be kind of a lot for me. Not saying I don't have it, but I think I would probably be turned off a little bit to be like, oh my God, I need to turn a whole month's rent over for just three months that I'm staying there.
And so I just do $500 and then like a pet fee. If they're coming with a pet, it's like non-refundable. I think it's like $250 or something.
And I just use that honestly to just clean the property once they leave. Cause I don't also like cleaning. I like being kind of as off hands, but I kind of like try to keep it as simple as possible.
So that's kind of what I've done. And it worked, it worked fine.
[Stephen Husted] (19:42 - 21:31)
Yeah. That that's good. A 20 to 500, we had a couple of really good guests stay at ours in the very beginning, and then we got this company that housed a few other people in it.
I won't get into detail of some of the messages, but let's just start with this guy actually that Lee was messaging one of the coworkers in the chat, thinking that she was talking to her, but he was actually grouped it into it. And it was, I can't wait to hook up with you and all this crazy stuff. And then he was like, Oh man, I'm sorry.
Wrong. We're on chat. And I just kind of, I'd even, I don't even think I answered it.
I just did. I let it go, but they absolutely thrashed the place. Thrashed it.
They had a dog, ruined all the blinds, scuffed up all the walls. Dog hair, never cleaned it. And they were there for 60 days, I believe.
Never cleaned it. Found bottles of urine underneath the kitchen sink. But I think they were using that to something that I've noticed about a lot of people that stayed that are on contracts only on this one particular property in this location.
I think they have to take drug tests because we keep finding in the drawers. Yeah. So I think there's something that was going on.
A bottle and my cleaners found it and they were just like, Oh my God. I thought this was cooking oil. She smelled it.
No, she didn't. Yes. Yeah.
And she's like, what in the hell is going on here? And here's what they're leaving in your drawer. And she'll open up the junk drawer and it'll have change and stuff.
And it's all these like drug testing packets and stuff. And I'm like, you can just throw all that out. But that one took us three more weeks to get back online because we had to reorder.
They ruined bedsheets, stains on things, stains on the couches.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (21:32 - 21:38)
Yeah. I'm knocking on wood somewhere that, um, so far I haven't had any of those issues, but it was a bad situation.
[Stephen Husted] (21:38 - 22:09)
And then we kind of had to fight with the company that the lady that placed them. Yeah. Because I was trying to be cool about it and not make a big scene.
Everybody go, look, we have to do paint touch-ups throughout. We have to order new supplies. And now we're off the market too, for that month.
So we had to lose, we lost that part, which that, that was a big learning lesson. So now if people are going to stay more than 60 days, we automatically are having a cleaner come in there and, or we're doing something to get into the property just to make sure things are good.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (22:10 - 22:10)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (22:11 - 22:14)
I think that's smart. You know what I mean? Because you just don't know.
Yeah.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (22:14 - 22:16)
You don't know what's going on. Yeah. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (22:16 - 22:29)
But that's just, if you're going to do long-term, midterm, short-term, it's all the same, you're gonna have really great people in your properties and then you're going to have some bad ones. It's part of the game that we go through. How's the other one?
So the condo, tell me how you bought that one.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (22:30 - 24:51)
Yeah, that was the first, that's what I used my first VA loan on, or my first property I bought. So I came back overseas from a deployment and I was eligible for the VA loan. And it was in 2020 when rates were insanely low.
And I had just gotten into bigger pockets, like just got into real estate. And I was like, I should probably buy something. And so I was looking for something that I wanted to kind of house hack.
And then I just found this property and I was like, you know what? It's a 2-1 condo. And it was good location.
And at the time I was like, rental when I move out kind of thing was my vibe for it. And so it's a great location. I kind of wanted the lifestyle of going out for a run, like going to go walk to get the groceries, that kind of thing.
And so I purchased it end of 2020, I believe. And I think it was like a 2-3-7 rate. And I think I paid 6K out of pocket.
It's like a $300,000 condo. It's about 15 minutes south of DC. So it's a really great location.
Very clean. The people come and sweep the hallways and clean the floors every day. Like they're sweeping the sidewalks.
Like it's very well-maintained. And so I lived there for a couple years and then moved out and turned it into a midterm for about a year when I rented it to a couple of travel physical therapists. And I think I was getting like $2,800 a month for it.
And my overall cost, like all in, is about $2,000. So I was making like, after everything, probably $600, $700 something a month off of it and just throwing it into a bank account. And they were there for about a year and I just traveled and be-bombed around.
And then kind of moved back into it. And then when I wanted to buy this property, I actually, luckily my good friend's mother-in-law was moving to the area and needed a place to live. And I was like, oh, I'm buying this house.
Do you want to get on my lease so I can now be approved for this loan? Because, you know, I don't know if I would have had enough like income, quote unquote, to probably be approved for this loan on this property if I didn't have a tenant in my condo. And so luckily the time, like the timing matched up when she needed to move in when I was trying to get the property.
And so she's going to be in there because eventually her son and my friend, so her daughter-in-law are going to move back, move into this area eventually. And so she's just been in the midterm. It's nice.
Cause it's like, I can give her a nice property to stay in. She can cover my mortgage and my rent. I make a few hundred bucks off of it a month, but it's nice.
Cause I know I have a tenant in there that's like taking care of the property. She's like an older 70 ish year old, like woman who's active. So it's not like there's parties going on in there.
[Stephen Husted] (24:52 - 24:53)
And so- That's a beautiful tenant.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (24:53 - 25:42)
That's a great- Great, beautiful tenant. She texted me and she's like, you got a package? I'm like, I'll come pick it up.
So I just like kind of keeping it as simple and easy as possible. And I think just the timing worked really, really well for me. And so she's in there now.
She's been in there for probably four months or so. And I just managed that also through TurboTenant. So she does her monthly payments.
She is like, Hey, the sink won't drain. I'm like, okay, I'll send someone. I was like super simple.
And that one's working really well too. And so, yeah, I got in on that property. Like I said, six grand or so total with the VA loan costs and all that closing costs and all that sort of stuff.
And so, yeah. So between, that one was 280. I think I got a 285 with 5K seller credit.
And then this property I'm in now is 785 and I got 18K seller credit. And those were both- That's so great. Yeah.
Those are both the VA loan.
[Stephen Husted] (25:44 - 25:47)
If you can utilize those VA loans, go for it. It's a smart scenario.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (25:48 - 25:48)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (25:49 - 25:52)
You think a lot of people don't really understand it and know that they can actually use it?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (25:53 - 27:06)
Oh, a ton. Yeah. No, a ton of people don't really know that you can use the VA loan multiple times.
They don't know a lot of things about it. They don't know that you, like the first time you use it, there's not really a limit on it. There was a limit a few years ago, I believe.
I don't know what exactly what it was, but technically if you use it for the first time, you're not, you don't have a limit. So there's people that have bought 1.5, $2 million homes on, or quadplexes in California, San Diego, and they're house hacking it. And so you can really utilize the VA loan that I don't think a lot of people know, because I didn't even know you could use it another time.
And the amount that you can use depends on the location you live in. So if you're living in a more expensive area, then you can have a bigger entitlement. But all you do is just call this, literally just Google like VA loan entitlement.
And a phone number comes up. And if you're a veteran that qualifies for VA loan, you just call them and you're like, Hey, I want to know what my VA entitlement is. And within two minutes, it's actually a phone number.
Someone answers and they say, where do you live? Here's your entitlement. So I called when I was looking for this place, cause I live in the DC area.
And they're like, Oh yeah, you have $910,000 left. And I was like, sweet. And so that was basically like the rest of my money that I can kind of technically qualify for.
[Stephen Husted] (27:07 - 27:08)
And you came in under budget.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (27:08 - 27:09)
Yeah. I came in under budget.
[Stephen Husted] (27:11 - 27:22)
So, so let's break down the numbers. What is your mortgage all in PITI? And then let's take that number and then minus what you're getting for the gross rents in the basement.
So where are you sitting at on that one?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (27:22 - 29:24)
Yeah. So let's see. So this property was 785.
I think I got my, I think it's a 637 rate from the summertime when I got it. And I think all in about 50 and I'm like, when I think about it, I'm like, Oh my God, this is so much money. But it is 5,900 ish all in 5,900 ish all in for the mortgage and everything.
And gross rent, I'm getting around 2,100 a month. I think I could probably go slightly higher if I really wanted to push it, which I'm going to see if I can test the numbers when this tenant moves out to see if I could push it a little bit more, but I think 21 to 2,300 is probably a good cushion for the area, especially because it has a kitchenette in it. And so I'm nicely coming in like under 4k a month out of pocket for me, like net to live, which is still like a lot of money, but I feel more comfortable with that number in my life now because I've been like building a business, kind of doing copywriting and content for folks.
And I do have like my nurse job. And so it's cool that one client of mine covers the payment of me to live. So it covers like my out of pocket costs for the rest of my mortgage plus my like bills.
And so I have a pretty decent cushion of income every month for be like, okay, cool. Like this works for me now. And I'm like, I'm not going to regret having a house in the DC area in the next five, 10 years.
Like you would have told me three years ago, I would have had almost a $6,000 mortgage. I would have slapped you in the face and be like, absolutely not. I'm never going to do that.
But I think I looking at, I look at it more as like a longterm play. I'm okay. Cool.
Like I've set myself up recently from a like active income side to feel comfortable with this budget. And then the gross rent in the basement is covering over a third and it makes me feel comfortable enough to be like, okay, cool. I'll sacrifice a little bit of paying more now for appreciation and having real estate in the DC area in the five, 10, 20 years from now.
[Stephen Husted] (29:24 - 29:43)
No, I think you're doing it smart because you have assets and you're basically getting cashflow from the condo, right? We can count that towards the other 2,100, right? And then, but then let's just take it a step further.
What would you be paying for rent for that house or just another house in general in that area?
Shifting strategy, scaling responsibly, and current projects
[KATIE NEWMAN] (29:43 - 30:17)
Yeah, probably equivalent, equivalent or more if I wanted like a big house like this for sure. Yeah. And I have another house, I have another longterm out in Chattanooga, Tennessee that I also just have a property manager manage and it's like a high pay.
I'm 120 bucks a month and he manages it and I probably cashflow. I think my, I probably, it's rented for 1,900 and I think mortgage, I don't even look at the numbers lately, but I probably cashflow a couple hundred bucks off that one, but it's also like an appreciation slash kind of investment wealth, like diversification play there. So between like my assets plus everything else, it works for me.
[Stephen Husted] (30:18 - 30:40)
I think it's great. And I think too, there's a lot to your story, military. Then you became a nurse, you got into that direction.
So you got your W2 quote unquote money coming in, which is, I think really smart and there's something to be said that if you can pull off a W2 and be building, investing in real estate on the side and doing both, like that's the power move.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (30:40 - 32:13)
Thousand percent. Yeah. I totally agree.
Cause I, when I initially quit my, cause I mean like nurse jobs, you can typically get them all the time. And so, you know, I was in that mindset of, oh my God, I'm so burnt out. I'm going to quit my job right now and go cold turkey.
So I quit it like end of 2022. And I, that's when I started to kind of do copywriting and content for folks. And so I was making money, but I was 1099 and then you're really not bankable.
You're just so much more bankable as a W2 person and not saying there's all these cool stuff out there. It's creative financing and all this crap that's out there. But I think people just like boohoo on W2s when that's kind of like the powerful thing that people need to stick with.
And I wish, not like I wish I hadn't quit my job. Cause I think if I hadn't quit my job, I wouldn't be here, but now getting a W2 again, and then being able to kind of get this property versus how I was trying to look for the last couple of years as a 1099 for other places, I was like, this is so much harder and I was able to find a W2 that like works for my lifestyle. I found a place that, yeah, I don't want to do nursing forever, but like for right now, it was cool.
I had to go back to a W2. It pays well. I kind of do less work there.
It's an easier job than other ones I had. I'm not as burnt out and it let me get all, it let me get a house. It let me like have a little bit more financial stability.
And so it just takes a lot of the stress off of having to think about, oh my God, if I want to buy another property or if I wanted to do this, what am I going to do? Okay, cool. Like you do have a job to fall back on.
[Stephen Husted] (32:13 - 32:16)
How many hours do you work per week now in days?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (32:16 - 32:37)
Technically, so technically it's 36 hours a week. So it's three shifts a week. It's not always like the same days.
So like some days I am working like six out of seven days, which sucks. But like I have seven days off and I didn't take any PTO or anything right now. So I have a week off technically from my W2 and I'm still, it's still like a six figure job that I'm like, okay, cool.
[Stephen Husted] (32:37 - 32:57)
Yeah, that's fantastic. And then, so let me ask you this. How much time do you really spend per week on your investment properties and the business itself?
Because it's not just about the property and the tenant in there. There's obviously there's tax. There's, there's so many other things that come up that we got to deal with, but how much time do you think you spend per week?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (32:59 - 33:06)
Oh, less than an hour. I don't even think, yeah, I don't think I do. I don't do much quote unquote.
I don't do anything.
[Stephen Husted] (33:06 - 33:28)
The only time it gets up more is when you start to, you're like, oh, I'm going to go buy another property. And then you have to go through that process of going from point A to B and whatever you're starting to up the hours then, but then once you get it, you rehab or whatever you're going to do, you stabilize it, you got all your systems in place, you got all your tools. And then it's kind of.
You set it and you kind of forget it, but then you manage from afar.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (33:29 - 35:38)
So yeah. And I kind of built it and I want to build it kind of the way I want to, where it's real estate is fun and I like it as a wealth building and like diversification kind of future long-term strategy, but I don't want to be learning or doing real estate 10 hours a day. It's not like my like love in life.
I want to use it to kind of have assets to diversify my wealth and I want to build it how I kind of want to build it. And so I will pay a hundred dollars a month for a property manager to put my tenant in place and to do everything in my Tennessee house, then having to like try to place a tenant, try to answer all those, their problems. And so that's kind of how I've been trying to think about it, where it's like, how can I kind of be as off hands off hand as possible while still kind of, uh, staying hands-on.
So I don't want to do it all the time. So how can I not do it all the time, but still enjoy the perks of having real estate? So it's like, I want really simple tenants.
I want a nice clientele. I want provide good housing, but I also like want to spend less than an hour a week doing real estate because there's other things that I find a little bit more enjoyable. And so kind of just building something that aligns with what you want to do.
If you want to like go out and sell houses, if you want to build all these properties, if you want to like buy and style houses with doorknobs and beautiful kitchens, go for it. That's just not my zone of genius. And so I like the ideas of cool in 10, 15, 20 years, I'm going to have these properties in 30 years, I'll have them paid off and like, yeah, cool.
I will, maybe I'll get one every year, every other year or do some passive investing kind of thing. But that's what piques my interest a little bit more than kind of the more active side. So it's like, how can I spend less than an hour?
How can I spend as little time as possible trying to deal with tenants or trying to do this and that? Like it is stressful furnishing a property. It is stressful finding a tenant.
And so the hours definitely increase then. But since I got my tenant in here, I don't really see him that often. He uses the side entrance.
I see him on my ring camera because he leaves at four in the morning. I work mid shift at work. So like he comes home when I'm gone.
I come home when he's gone. So it's a really nice setup.
[Stephen Husted] (35:39 - 37:39)
Well, you brought up a really good point. And I think this is, it needs to be said because social media too, depending on who you're following, you can really feel like you're not doing enough. You know what I mean?
By what you see. And a good takeaway from what you just said is you can create your real estate goals on what you want. And the amount of time, everything is flexible.
You know, you don't need to have a hundred properties. You don't have, interesting enough. I just had another gentleman on the podcast a couple of days ago.
And it was the same kind of story. He was like, Hey, I started with, I'm going to buy all these properties. And then he's like, God, I just want to simplify it all.
And it's interesting that he brought that up and you're bringing up what you're saying, because I'm kind of on that same path too. We started off small and then we went on super growth and expanded and bought all these properties and got a huge portfolio. And then it didn't even matter having a team and having a VA and having property management, I was still in it.
I'm still in it. And if you have a lot of properties, shit's getting thrown at you left and right, and sometimes your team's not going to be able to, it's going to have to fall on you for whatever that reason is and what's going on. And then you're trapped because it's not like stocks where you could, Oh, I'm wanting to get out of this stock.
So I'm just going to sell it. I'm going to press a button. Money's going to be in my account a couple of days.
It's not how it works. It's oh shit. Where's the market at?
Do I got a tenant in there? When did that tenant move out? Okay.
Can I sell? You know what I mean? There's way more to it.
And it's funny. I'm at that point now where, like what we're doing out in Seattle and developing, we've already kind of established, like, look, we're going to move into maybe a couple of apartment complexes, bigger ones, value add, move all the capital, and then we're just, we're done. Everything, we're done.
You know, I don't want to think about it anymore. And it's, but right now it's shit. I'm stuck in this, like Kansas City and Detroit go crazy.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (37:40 - 39:04)
And to your point with like social media stuff, I think there is also a pattern that I've noticed too, where it's like all these folks that like got really big and like are doing all these crazy things, they're doing incredible jobs, but if you notice kind of their messaging now, a lot of it's time freedom and talking about going back to their roots of like being smaller or trying to simplify things when a few years ago rates were lower, things were a little hotter, they're like build, build, build, scale, scale, scale. But I think it's really important for you to really hone in on what do I want out of real estate? And then once you figure out what you want out of real estate, then think of like, okay, cool.
What's your buy box, not just a buy box for your property, but like a buy box for your life when it comes to real estate. So for me, I didn't want to manage my tenant in Tennessee. Like I could make a couple hundred bucks more a month, but like that time to me is more valuable elsewhere.
And so how can I build my real estate buy box of what I want to do with real estate along with like my actual properties? And it's other people like I do have ambition and other people, you can be ambitious, but you don't have to like be ambitious because it looks cool on social media or because it looks cool as you think you're going to get all this crazy cash flow. When for me, my buy box is like, how can I make it as simple and lazy as possible, but still get the benefits out of it?
And that's kind of how I'm trying to build it. And like, maybe I'll just build a little slower, but I'm just going to enjoy the journey a little bit more because I'm not going to be like stressed about, oh my God, six figures of renovations or not having tenants in a bunch of places.
[Stephen Husted] (39:04 - 39:59)
That's kind of how I try and look at it. I think it's fantastic. I'm glad I got you on.
I think this was very important to be talked about and I do share it a lot on how this has been. And I tell new investors that jump in, they're like, oh, I want to do that. I want to build.
I'm like, be very clear on really where you want to be in 10 years with this. Do you want to be a slave to it all? Or do you want to have freedom from it all?
And that's a big thing that I probably got wrong, which is, it's fine. It's my journey and I'm going to now kind of correct it and get it on the right path. I think you just start to understand really what matters.
And it's not only this, as far as talking to people that invest, but I was on it. I'm just finishing up a cohort right now. And this gentleman lives in Australia.
He's 29. And I swear to God, this guy's more dialed in like 29. I was partying when I was 29.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (39:59 - 40:04)
Dude, I didn't know my elbow from my asshole. I was like doing, you know what I mean? Like this stuff.
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (40:04 - 42:14)
I wouldn't believe the shit I'm going through with on this cohort. It's hilarious too. We had to do like intro and this one guy from Tennessee and everybody that's in this cohort are running different businesses, right?
Uh, coaching, mentorships, digital things, all that. But they're all over the world in different aspects. Right.
And this, and we had to do an intro and the guys, Hey, yeah, I'm looking around the group and I'm just kind of noticing I'm probably the oldest one in here. I'm 35 and I'm like, yeah, dude, I got your beat. I got your beat.
I'm 55. I'm like the oldest one in here. And it's funny.
But the thing with the gentleman that's teaching, he's 29 is he's all about setting himself up on how much time he wants to work per year. How many vacations, how much he wants to met. He's got GPT spreadsheets that were put that we got links for in these sessions that help you kind of determine that.
What do you, how do you really want to be living throughout your year? And it's so incredible down to the money. How much money do you really want to make?
Here it is. And let's put this in a spreadsheet. So focused.
And it's just, it's funny because you know, I made good money in my twenties, but I also just didn't have a, I had a different mindset in my twenties too. It wasn't real estate and it wasn't stocks. It wasn't, it was just, Hey, I'm going to make good money.
I'm going to travel and party and do my thing. But now that, especially with what you just said, you and my last got the breath of fresh air. And it really tells people that your journey when it comes to real estate is yours.
You don't need to focus on what all these other people are doing. Choose something that lights you up that you like yours makes sense. Midterm for the military to nurses.
That's your background. So it's easy to kind of like gravitate towards that, but also understand where you want to be and be able to do the things you want to do, like the copywriting, I want to talk about that. But I didn't know, I didn't, you haven't talked about, do you talk about this on social media?
Cause I didn't know about the copyright. I just found this out like 10 minutes before the podcast.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (42:14 - 43:03)
I need to be better at it. I, I think 2026 is going to be the year that I talk about it. I think I started off with it, editing a friend's captions on this course she was doing.
She's like, Hey, we met at a real estate retreat. We became good friends. And I just started editing like captions for her and she was like, it doesn't look good.
And I was like, yeah, sure. Write this, write that two years ago, three years ago, I didn't even know what copy was. I had no idea.
And I think for the last two, three years, I kind of always thought of it as a side hustle. And I was like, Oh, this is weird. Cause I started doing, then I started doing emails.
I started doing social media. I started doing all sorts of stuff and I was getting referrals at one time I had like three or four different clients in the real estate kind of education, entrepreneur space. And I was doing their email content and their marketing and their socials, and I was like, is this a real thing?
[Stephen Husted] (43:03 - 43:06)
Like, I didn't know this. It's so crazy, Katie.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (43:06 - 45:13)
I can't believe it. And so what's cool now is like, I make the same amount for my copywriting and content business that I do in my nursing job. And that started just from like a random, random option for me to keep.
I just said yes to do free things for a little bit. And then I eventually found something I was good at. And then I found something that I kind of wanted to get a little better at.
And it also kind of scratched my itch to like, I like helping people. I think a lot of people like, like helping people. I'm a nurse.
I've been doing it for 12 years and it just kind of opened my eyes to the business world and I, for two or three years, I've been denying it. I'm like, well, I don't know. I'm okay at it.
Or like, Hey, XYZ, but I'm actually pretty good at it. I I've gotten into email marketing and copywriting and landing pages and sales and launches and social media. And I I've been doing that for two, almost three years now.
And I have like pretty good clients and I do stuff for them, but it was just something that like, I started to say yes to, I just kept doing it. I found out I was good at it. And then I realized I could make money from it.
And then people were paying me and I was like, wow, this is weird. And then I just, people were like, oh, asking me all the time. Oh, can you do this?
Or can you do that? And I was like, yeah, sure. They're like, how much do you pay or how much do you cost?
And I was like, I don't know. And like, I literally just been like figuring it out as I go, but I'm really trying to dig into it now in 2026 and talk about it more because it's definitely been a way for me to also keep balance outside of my W-2 because nursing is great and it's scratches my itch of having a W-2 and I feel kind of like useful and doing my skills, but I want to not be a nurse forever. And it's nice to have another avenue of creativity where I can make money and also have an impact on businesses and help good people do good things in the world and kind of expand their businesses.
So that's kind of what I like about it. And so 2026 is the year of me like embracing like, oh, cool. Like I'm building a business.
I have a job that I'm good at and a creative kind of passion that also helps me help others that has nothing to do with healthcare, which is kind of nice. But yeah, isn't it? Yeah.
I don't want to talk about it on social, but I need to know more.
[Stephen Husted] (45:14 - 47:43)
Literally my assistant told me right before we got on, I said, give me a little bit more background on Katie. I mean, I follow her on Instagram and I know some things, but you know, and then she's a copywriter, I'm like, she's a copywriter, what? Yeah.
Weird, right? No, I think that's another damn good point. This is a good podcast.
I love it. I love when I get on sometimes and we'll start going with a guest and sometimes guests are just, they just can flow and I'll just sit back. I'm just like, do your thing, ask a couple of questions, go ahead and keep on talking.
And sometimes it's gotta, I have to kind of carry it more so, but I think this one was really good on the fact that you also talked about it, you can explore other options, you got, you have a bunch of different anchors, it's so cool to hear this too, this is one of my biggest. So one of our things on our list this year for 2026 is copywriting and captions is the biggest thing that we really need to tackle. And the problem for me is I can't be in every detail in my business, unfortunately.
And at this point, we have so much going on that it's virtually impossible. So I'll like, I'll shoot content and I'll do things and then they'll put it, put a caption to it or some information, but my team's great. But a lot of my team started off that we're kind of all growing together.
And so every year at the end, I like to sit down with them and go, what did we get right? What do we need to improve on? Let's see where we have to put, let's put some more energy in the things that we need to.
And that copywriting and captions is huge, even the hook part. But now I'm testing out ChatGPT and, you know, I'll come up with an idea for a video and I'll create a long form first and then tell chat to create a short form. Give me three short form videos, right?
Make sure they're with hooks and then give me three hooks and some CTAs at the end. And I did this one video early in the week, did it. And then one of my business partners, he reached out to me and he's like, dude, that video was so great.
He's really liked the hook. I'm like, okay, cool. We're on the right path now.
You know what I mean? But the copywriting part, how did it all start? How did you explore it?
How did it start where you got like the light bulb moment to kind of go, yeah, I think I can do this.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (47:44 - 51:56)
Yeah, no. So I went to a real estate retreat three, I don't know, it had been three years ago now and met a friend there who was building her social media online. We became friends and when she got, she was like building her first online course.
And so she's really good. What I admire about her, she's really good at asking for help or asking for opinions or questions and stuff. So I'm trying to be a little better about like, ask, Hey, I have this idea.
What do you think about it? So she would send me captions or be like, Hey, does this sound good? And I was like, yeah, or maybe, Hey, why don't you change this?
And it was literally just like captions on her course pages or like captions on a social media post or whatever. And I was like, well, yeah, edit this or edit that. And I have no formal writing background.
I mean, I've written nursing notes for 10 plus years when like, I was a really good writer when I was a kid, but I didn't even know what coffee was. And so then I was at my ER nursing job. I was a little burnt out and she wanted to build her team basically.
And was like, Hey, can I hire you to do part-time like social media captions? And I was like, no, I was like, let me just help you for free. You don't have to pay me.
I had an entrepreneurial mindset, but I didn't even think about the idea or no one has ever even asked to hire me outside of anything. So at the time I was like, no, don't pay me. Like, I'll just do this for free.
So then like a couple months later, she kept badgering me and was like, Hey, let me pay you. And I was like, no. And then eventually she wore me down and was like, Hey, if you want to quit your job, I'm trying to build my team.
This is what I kind of am looking for. And it was basically just like kind of social media help. So like doing Instagram captions, doing Instagram content, like strategy.
And then eventually it led into like emails, right. Email writing. And then we did like a launch of a course and then it just kind of like snowballed from there.
And we had pretty good results, grew our social media pretty well. We have six figure launches. We have all sorts of stuff.
And I was like, this was before chat even existed, by the way. So I will tell you, like, I was writing all this stuff before chat and I was like, I don't think I know what I'm doing, but I'm just going to like keep trying. And then people were like, Oh yeah, like this is called copy.
And I was like, what? And so I didn't even copy. I was like, I have no idea what you're even talking about.
And I kept teaching myself on YouTube. Like I found this copywriter on YouTube that I really aligned with. She was really like kind of my style and she had a really great YouTube channel.
So I bought a ton of her free stuff. I did her courses. I did random stuff.
And then I started to kind of just get decently good at it. And I thought it was interesting. So that's why I think I kept going with it, because it sparked an interest in me of like, how can I get better at this?
Like, how can I make this sound so good? Or how can I make these results happen for someone I know who's building a good business? So that's kind of, I think what kept me wanting to go to learn a little bit more about it.
And then I went to other conferences and people word of mouth heard, I did this and I'm finding out slowly and surely within at least the real estate space, everyone needs a copywriter. Everyone needs a content person. And so then people were just like asking me all the time, Hey, can you do this?
Or, Hey, do you do this? And I was like, yeah, sure. So I was like, they were like, did you do this carousel with the hook?
And I was like, yeah. And they're like, Oh, can you do that? And I was like, sure.
So I just kept saying yes to opportunities. And I was doing content for three, four, five different real estate folks. And then it just kind of snowballed from there.
And then I just kept getting referrals. So I've only had referrals. I just had people be like, Hey, I heard you do this.
Can you do this? Or like, Hey, can you quote me a project? And I'm like, yeah, sure.
So that's kind of how I got into it. Especially like I do newsletters. I do email strategy all the whole shebang, you know, but like I said, two or three years ago, I had no idea what it was.
I just kind of followed the, Hey, do something for free for a little bit. If you like it, keep going. And I liked it.
Something I could get better at and I could get paid for. So it's kind of like that Venn diagram of like, how do you find something that you're passionate about slash like good at slash like what you can get paid for. And I just kept doing it.
And so now I kind of have clients in the personal development space, like book space, people are like, Oh, you're doing their content. And I'm like, yeah. They're like, what?
And I'm like, yeah. So I feel like it's like a serendipitous, like I have no idea how it happened, but that's kind of how it happened.
[Stephen Husted] (51:57 - 51:59)
I love it, Katie. It's so awesome.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (51:59 - 52:00)
Yeah, it's cool.
[Stephen Husted] (52:00 - 52:10)
It's been a great, I'm so glad we had this conversation and two, I don't recall, did when we first met at the BiggerPockets conference, was it San Diego or was it Tennessee?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (52:10 - 52:11)
Yeah, we were on a boat.
[Stephen Husted] (52:12 - 53:15)
Oh, that's right. We were on the boat with Alex Brichese, right? He put it on, right?
Well, it was Alex and who else? Someone else. That's where I met you?
On that boat? On the boat. On the yacht.
We met on a yacht. So great. Oh man.
It's funny. I look back at this year and there's these time periods where I, my gut pushes me in directions, like people like, Hey, I'm going to get Katie on. Hey, I'm going to hire this guy that I'm going to, I'm going to go in this guy's cohort, right?
$6,000 and my teams, but you're already, you just hired another team to build out your, all your branding and stuff so that you can do your own mentorship and stuff. I'm like, my gut, my gut tells me this is the direction I need to go. Like, I got to go this way.
And it's funny, those time periods that I'm so glad I listened to those signals on things, kind of what you were saying about the copywriting. You went through a couple of things, you had a little bit of a moment and you're like, Oh, this is creative. And you seem to have a creative side of you too.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (53:15 - 55:43)
I mean, yeah, yeah, it's, I definitely do. I enjoy it. And I think allowing myself to, to express my creative side a little bit more is what makes things more fun and what makes me continue to want to try them.
So for social media and content, I like making, I don't want to make content that doesn't make me giggle or doesn't make me feel enjoyable, do like enjoying doing it. And I feel like it's now opened my eyes into doing other creative things where I did improv classes last year. Like I go do standup shows now, like I do all sorts of stuff.
Yeah, I did a standup show last week. And so I go around DC with friends and do standup shows. And it's actually very parallel to copywriting where it's like, you have to hone in and make this sound so good and use your words so wisely and so well to get your message across.
And it's kind of like a game to me. So it's a creative play of like, how can I make this sound so good? Or how can I make this messaging really work and like resonate and all that sort of stuff.
And the same thing is for like standup where it's like, you got to write a joke, but you have to use three words and not 10 words. And how can you really make this kind of funny and go from your brain to someone else's brain and they think it's funny, but it's very creative, but it's very fun. Really, it just gets my juices flowing for like life.
Cause I think for me, I want to have real estate in my life for longterm stuff. But like, I want to experience and explore different things because I don't want to be a nurse forever. I don't want to have this W2 forever.
So where am I going to go with it? And I would have never known, do I want to do content or do I want to do copy or do I want to do writing stuff in the future if I'd never tried saying yes, like when I had no idea what I was doing. And then that kind of led me here.
So being very creative has led me to have more fun in life and just kind of now helps me find something I'm a little bit more passionate about. Cause then I really know what I'm not passionate about. Like people know I hate designing things.
I would hate designing a house. That's my least favorite idea or thing that I want to do. There's other people that absolutely love it.
Like my friends are designing hotels and they love picking out wood and rugs and handles. And I'm like, that is my worst nightmare. But like, I'm not following that path.
Cause like my gut is not telling me to follow that path. Like my gut is telling me to cool, be creative. This is what is fun.
Like the standup is fun. Creating content is fun. Like copywriting and kind of marketing is fun.
So that's why I'm following that path. I'm like kind of following my gut that way. And then I'm realizing, oh, I'm actually good at it.
And so then I still continue to do it.
[Stephen Husted] (55:44 - 58:23)
Well, creativity comes in so many different forms and it's up to the individual to figure out what that is to them because it's an internal thing. Because I think things, you should go to my Instagram profile. I posted, I write these little things out, like in my brain, I'll go through something and it's like, I posted about creativity.
And if I put it on stories and people react to it, I then turned it into a reel. But it was on creativity. And I think creativity is like where all of my fulfillment comes from is from creative things.
Like when I started shooting content, it wasn't like, oh, I have to go shoot content because I need to make money and I got to build a brand. No, that was absolutely furthest from the truth on why I started shooting content. Back in sixth grade, I had a TV journalism class and I loved it, but you had to learn how to write a script and you had to get on camera and film and you had props and all these different things that sparked my interest then.
Now fast, that class and drafting in sixth grade were two of my favorite classes. And you know what, this is the craziest story about drafting. We had to build a house and built these little model houses.
We put hot air balloons and we built this house, right? And fast forwarded to today, randomly, this guy that lives out in Seattle was in my class in sixth grade and was the guy that helped me build the foundation of my house project for sixth grade. And he DMs me in Facebook and says, wow, you really took that drafting class serious.
And I'm like, what? He's like, dude, you're building houses now. You built a house in sixth grade.
And he's, oh, by the way, it was one of the coolest houses in the group. That's wild and funny. And I just found this out from my brother.
My brother's a contractor that the house is in my parents. It's at my parents' house and their den up in the attic. It's just sitting up there.
I haven't gone there and grabbed it yet. But my point to it all is, you know, that full circle, look at where I am on that aspect in the TV journalism. I just love creating things.
It could be as simple as like how I put a video together with the song in a story. I'm a tweaker going for it. Like I'm creating the music and that makes me feel good.
It makes me feel good. If I'm going to get paid for it, great. But I'm just saying that creativity, everybody has it.
They just have to figure out where that creativity leads them and what gets them fulfilled.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (58:24 - 1:00:44)
Yeah, no, totally agree. I was talking to this with my coach the other day where it was like, he was like, where do you get the idea to go after things you're doing? And I'm like, I think about what I enjoyed as a kid.
So like, I was very athletic as a kid. I played sports. I played basketball growing up all year round.
And so three, four years ago, I quit my job and I coached basketball all summer. And I trained a high school boys basketball team strength training. And I was like, this is fun.
So I did like a pickup league for basketball last year. And so when I was younger, I did write. I was pretty good like at writing poems.
And I enjoyed like that kind of stuff. And that was fun. And so that kind of got me into thinking, hey, what did you enjoy as a kid?
Because that's kind of like your natural prerogative to go towards something you like, because you're not thinking about, is this going to be my business? Is this going to, am I going to make money from this? You're just like, is this going to be fun?
And so that's kind of stuff I think about. And so when I was younger, I didn't have any style or design of clothing or cared what I wore. Other people, they're like, oh yeah, when I was a kid, I used to rip out magazines and put tabs on all these magazines of outfits I liked.
And now they're like designing clothes and they're designing all this sort of stuff. And they love going shopping. And I'm like, I was never like that.
And I'm still not like that, but like for sports and for athletics, like I love going to do, like I did high rocks last year. I did like marathons. I've done bodybuilding.
So like that stuff excited me when I was a kid, like writing excited me when I was a kid. So thinking back to, hey, what did I enjoy growing up? And that's like where I'm going towards now of, hey, what do I find fun and creative?
And it's the same thing. So it's, if you're trying to think of, hey, what do I like or what am I like missing in life with fulfillment? Like just think about back when you were a kid and like, what did you enjoy?
And just try doing that as an adult. And there's a really great book that I loved last year. It's called Tiny Experiments.
And it was, it's a great book by a neuroscientist that just talks about how looking at life as a tiny experiment and not the end all be all. So it's, hey, if you want to have this idea, like if you want to start a podcast, start a podcast and give yourself 60 days and do one podcast every week or one podcast every other week. By the time you get to the end of 60 days, did you like it or not?
If you didn't like it, fuck it. You don't have to do it. You know what I mean?
I think there's so much stress in society. That's like, you've got to push through the hard shit. And we're like, yeah, you do.
But sometimes you don't, you know what I mean? And so we got to push through it.
[Stephen Husted] (1:00:44 - 1:01:15)
You got to push through it. But if you're passionate about something and something really lights you up, you're all good. You're, I mean, that's the part, but you make a good point.
Don't force it onto yourself. Damn, you got some good stuff today. Yeah, it was good.
Really good, really good stuff. I swear the whole, what you go through when you're younger and how it leads to the today. And I've just recently going through that.
Like I said, that story from that guy just happened. And I was like, wow, this is kind of crazy, man. It's like full circle stuff, right?
[KATIE NEWMAN] (1:01:16 - 1:01:17)
Yeah, that's crazy.
[Stephen Husted] (1:01:17 - 1:02:21)
Yeah. Well, yeah, you made my day. It's been a great podcast.
Appreciate you jumping on. I'm glad you said yes. You know, it's interesting.
Typically I am, I start to follow people and then I invite them to get on the podcast and I have about a 60% accuracy of them saying yes. And, but now I've been kind of running out of people that I follow that I want on the podcast. Yeah.
So then I got my team to start to reach out to people that have been on Bigger Pockets and other big investing podcasts and like reaching out that way. So that's been good, but you know, I never know where it's going to go when I don't know. I'm like you, I knew, like I, I follow you.
So I knew some things and so, but yeah, I'm really glad that, glad I got you on. And, and we're going to talk right after we hang up on this. Cause I could talk to you for another like 30 minutes on another topic, but we won't put it on this show, but I appreciate getting on.
I hope you have great holidays. This won't be the last time we chat, but yes, once again, I appreciate you.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (1:02:22 - 1:02:24)
No, I appreciate it so much. Thanks for the chat. It was good.
[Stephen Husted] (1:02:24 - 1:02:26)
All right. Have a great day. We'll talk soon.
[KATIE NEWMAN] (1:02:26 - 1:02:27)
All right. See ya.
∎ Podcast Outro:
[Stephen Husted] (1:02:28 - 1:02:56)
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