From avid listen to featured on BP podcast!

[James Doren]

I want to share something that still feels a little surreal to write down.

A few years ago, before Aida and I owned a single piece of property, we were the people in the car listening to the BiggerPockets podcast and Real Estate Rookie on the commute to our corporate jobs. We didn't have a deal. We didn't have a track record. We had questions, a lot of them, and this community is where we went to get them answered.

I remember thinking, fairly early on, that the people telling their stories on those shows were somehow a different category of person than we were. That turned out not to be true. They were just folks who started, and who kept showing up, and who took the work seriously over a long enough stretch of time that it added up to something real. That's a lesson worth sitting with, because it applies to a lot more than real estate.

Today the Real Estate Rookie episode we recorded went live, and we're the guests now. The honest truth is that we wouldn't be on that show if this community hadn't been here in the early days, back when we were still figuring out which questions were even the right ones to ask.

So this is mostly a thank you. To the hosts, to the people who post the unglamorous deal breakdowns, to everyone who answered a question in a thread without ever knowing who was reading. You were teaching us, and you probably had no idea.

The best part is, we're not done. We're moving toward bigger projects now, and there's plenty we still have to learn. But it felt right to stop for a moment and mark where this actually started. If you're sitting where we were a few years ago, listening and quietly wondering whether it's possible, I'd just tell you that it is. Start, stay honest, and keep showing up.

Grateful to be part of this.

James and Aida, Rise Up Capital