So… wondering what to make of all this?

  [thrive_headline_focus title=”Not Sure What to Make of All This?” orientation=”center”] Wondering who the heck we are? Or what in the world we even stand for (that's worth standing for)? Well OK then. How about let's have a lil' look-see under the kilt… [page_section template='2′ position='default'][thrive_headline_focus title=”In a Nutshell” orientation=”center”] [thrive_drop_caps color='orange' style='1′]W[/thrive_drop_caps]e’re a small crew of real estate investor-entrepreneurs who, through several strange twists of fate, somehow landed together with this crazy idea to “do something better” with real estate investing–both in the real world and on the world wide interwebs. More on how we do this and what we stand for in a sec.  First, let's sneak a peek at the folks behind the Awesome, so you can see that we’re real, live human beings with real lives who have a lot of fun, enjoy life (sometimes a little too much), make mistakes, love and crush the real estate game, but still put our pants on the same way you do every morning, and hope to make a positive, constructive difference in your world.[/page_section][page_section template='3′ position='default'][thrive_headline_focus title=”Meet Team Awesome” orientation=”center”] [thrive_drop_caps color='orange' style='1′]G[/thrive_drop_caps]otta click us to see us… [thrive_toggles_group][thrive_toggles title=”Patrick Riddle–Founder, Beach Bum, Cold Brew Enthusiast” no=”1/11″]

Patrick first caught the real estate investing bug back at Clemson University, when at only 22 he exploded his parents' heads by dropping out of college to go all-in with real estate, along with a couple of his ‘bad influence' friends from school.

Not gonna lie. Those first few deals, while an exciting rite of passage, were rough. Mainly because lack of experience and training. And also because using his own cash, credit, and hard money loans turned out to be an uphill, brutally slow and precarious way to (hopefully, someday) achieve his real estate dream. But after a few small wins, more than a few fearless failures, and rather impressive collection of bruises from the school of hard knocks, Patrick finally found his footing when he discovered one of the biggest secrets to short-cutting his success was being able to get more deals done faster, and do it without having to go to banks or use expensive hard money. Enter the awesomeness of using Private Money (i.e. other people's mattress money) to fund his deals, faster and cheaper than ever. Heck yes! Over the years since, Patrick's company has closed deals involving about every kind of real estate investing transaction out there… from wholesales to rehabs… foreclosures to short sales… from residential to small multi-family… lease options, mobile homes… Patrick also loves beaches, volleyball, beach volleyball, iced coffee, craft beer, and teaching others how to win faster and not screw up as much he he did in their own real estate investing journey. Today he gets to enjoy life at his own pace and by his own rules. He gets to work when, how and where he wants to, and he truly enjoys the ‘real estate lifestyle' that first got him to go all-in with real estate investing in the first place. But the journey's been filled with both wins and losses — major success and epic failures. Which is exactly why he's so passionate and puts so much focus and time into helping other investors learn from his journey, and hopefully make their own learning curve to success shorter and less painful along the way.[/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”JP Moses–Director of Awesome, Questionable Jokes Teller” no=”2/11″]

JP Moses is a roughly-hewn man-child who first got into REI after reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad back in 2000 and went full time in 2002. His business has had many twisty turns over the years, and he's tinkered in everything from landlording to short sales to rehabs to Realtoring to lease options to REOs to notes to owner financing, started and ran his local REIA club for 6 years, blah, blah, blah… Until he finally stuck his flag deep into wholesaling and has since flipped somewhere north of 400+ transactions.

Today JP runs a thriving wholesale operation in Memphis, TN that actively turns around 3 to 7 houses a month. And like Patrick, he's also passionate about helping others along their journey, and pours a ton of his heart and soul into helping his fellow real estate investors with tips, tactics and lessons learned from his own real estate and business-building experiences. He's also a guy of deep faith, and a die-hard family man (have you seen how cute his kids are?!) Among his core values are authenticity, creativity, value-giving, general fun-ness and being unshaven. He’s super proud to be in charge of bringing an extra dose of awesomeness to everything we do here.[/thrive_toggles][thrive_toggles title=”Charity Akers–Chief Membership Experience Gal, Sand Person” no=”3/11″]

Charity is the gal at AwesomeREI who holds everything together for us.  From being in charge of Customer/Member Experience to helping with all the worky admin things behind the scenes that everyone else seems to take for granted because she does them so darn well.

Truth be told, Charity's not only the lubrication that keeps our gears rolling internally, but she's also kind of the awesome mom of us. Not that she's old enough to be… cause she's not. But she's just that way. And we love it. And we love her. Also, her Snapple Fun Fact is that she's one of the Sand People. Meaning, she enjoys collecting sand at each beach she visits, and labels and proudly displays it in her home. True story. Seriously. She's amazing. She's likely the one you’ll be talking with most of the time when you contact us, so say hi to her next time you chat w/ her. [/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”Tim Krulia–Numbers Cruncher, Steelers Uberfan, Tater Tots Lover” no=”4/11″]

As our CFO and resident MBA, Tim is certainly the smartest sounding of all of us.  Tim used to work for Patrick’s real estate company and managed over 50 property renovations. Things evolved (as they do) and Tim's now our numbers guy and makes sure we’re on the straight and narrow. He keeps all our money someplace safe like under his mattress or something. He also tries so hard to make Patrick remember to keep his receipts, but old habits die hard, so it seems to be a losing battle for sure. Still, Tim presses on.

He’s also a huge Steelers fan, but don't hold that against him.[/thrive_toggles][thrive_toggles title=”David Eldred–Lord of Operations, Digger of Bottles, Buen Chico” no=”5/11″]

David Eldred's Jam is making systems, people and processes sing. He's our how-can-we-make-it-work-better-faster-easier guy here at AwesomeREI. He's also the one most likely to wag his finger at JP for his sometimes questionable jokes.

He has a passion for continuous improvement and lean/agile methodologies. Formally trained in the dark magic of business administration and – OH yeah – he speaks Spanish. Like, for real speaks Spanish. He once disassembled his first car just to see how it worked. He’s kinda like Sylar from Heroes but without most of the mess & psycho aspects. But this guy just loooooves to know how and why things work, and doesn’t really understand what “good enough” means. He signs his emails with Semper Anticus which means “always moving forward”, if that tells you anything. So when David’s not actively tuning the very welled-oiled machine that is AwesomeREI, he is spending time with his lovely wife and three strapping boys. He loves the outdoors, carpentry, and most things history related. A few more Snapple Fun Facts: He’s been known to dig really deep holes in the ground searching for antique bottles, and never turns down an offer to go fishing (wifey approved of course). He’s also almost never home on Sunday mornings, because that’s precisely when you’ll find him serving somehow in his local Church community, which he truly loves to do.[/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”Shoshana Cenker–Crafty Content Crafter, Disney Zealot” no=”6/11″] Shoshana is our resident word nerd extraordinaire. She’s been a professional writer, editor, proofreader, marketing consultant and all-around wordsmither since 2002. A graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington (Go Hoosiers!), she kicked off her career as a TV news writer and producer in Washington, DC and later in Atlanta, GA, before segueing into print and digital arenas. (That’s segueing not Segwaying.) She met up with the one and only JP Moses, whom she considers a mentor, back in 2013 and began collaborating with him on various real estate investing content endeavors. This lady knows her REI. A diehard Disney fan/expert, Shoshana and her three young kiddos—twin boys Aiden and Akiva, and daughter Lyla—live happily in her hometown of Memphis, TN. She enjoys traveling, cooking, karaoke, working out, participating in her synagogue and spending time being active with her kids at parks, on hikes, biking around their neighborhood and walking their pups Dreidel and Memphis.[/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”Jeracelle Joson–Support Hero, Potterhead, Not a Battery” no=”7/11″] Jeracelle joins the AREI team from across the ocean in Manila, Philippines. As our Support Hero, she uses her degree from the University of the Philippines Manila and 10+ of experience in the customer support industry to provide—yep, you guessed it—support and assistance to our AREI customers. This Potterhead (aka Harry Potter fan) loves that she gets to connect with so many different people and help solve problems and make their life Awesomer. Yasss to that! When she’s not re-reading The Chamber of Secrets for the 27th time, she’s with her family—a hubby and two little kids. She’s fun and environmentally friendly, and her friends know they can come to her when they need a good giggle or outright belly laugh. A favorite quote that guides her is, “What comes easy won’t last long and what lasts long won’t come easy.” Also her fun name kinda reminds us of this, but I digress… [/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”Matt Proper–CMO, Wearer of Many Hats, Jolly White Giant” no=”8/11″] Matt’s a dude you can’t miss. I mean that quite literally—this Penn State grad is a towering 6’7”. For real. As our Awesome CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) this former pro volleyball player has spent years marketing professionally before landing with Team Awesome. He also has a super nerdy tech background in coding, but whatever. So, from writing copy to creating new ads or other promotions for our Awesome programs and services, Matt's well-versed in the whole marketing ‘verse. And—we shucks—he says that he especially enjoys our friendly, teamwork-driven Team Awesome atmosphere, 'cause he sees that we really, truly care about our customers and their success. Matt is a totally task-oriented, high-achiever kind of dude. Basically, he gets stuff done. (Btw, “totally task-oriented” is kinda fun to say out loud.) Living with his wife and two young boys in Southern California, he enjoys surfing and spends most of his fun time hanging out with his family at parks and beaches. Suffice it to say, playtime is bigtime in the Proper place. (that’s also fun to say out loud!) [/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”Justin Wilmot–10-Hour Wholesaler, Surfer Dude, Prized Pedagogue” no=”9/11″]

Justin's an Awesome Adviser, surfer dude turned full-time real estate investor, our resident “10-Hour Wholesaler”, and clearly the beach-bummiest of all of us. The guy loves to surf so much that he found a legit way to make a great living through real estate AND spend as much time surfing and goofing on the beach with family and friends as possible. Seriously, he pretty much spends more time surfing each day than working. He runs a terrifically successful real estate business focused on his own unique flavor of wholesaling, which allows him to only work around 10 hours a week. He also travels incessantly with his family and runs things from wherever the heck he happens to be in the world at any moment in time. Charged by a fervid appetite for sharing and helping out his fellow investors along the way, Justin also teaches others how to copy his business model, and enjoy a healthy, full-time income with a part-time effort. [/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”Sean & Tracey Flanagan–Abandoned House Pickers, Jiu-Jitsu Masters” no=”10/11″] As an active real estate investor for 18+ years now, Sean's still in love with buying, selling and owning properties. Which he does actively in FL—which is btw in one of the most competitive markets in the country. And the guy's just got this knack for creating powerful-awesome systems to unearth motivated sellers where his competitors aren't even looking. (shhhhhhhhh…) Tracey is definitely Sean's better half. With a tenacity and work ethic second to none, she excells in creative problem solving ‘belly to belly' with motivated sellers. She's also the visionary and supervisor on the rehab side of their ‘fix & flip” biz. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, watching her children compete in sports, jiu-jitsu, working out, going to the beach, sleeping and “bossing Sean around”. Sean Flanagan (in Tracey's words): Sean is first and foremost a Christian family man and second, a serial entrepreneur. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife Tracey and their 3 children, Logan, Bailey and Kiersten. His hobbies are surfing, jiu-jitsu and coaching his kids' wrestling matches. Tracey Flanagan (In Sean's words): Tracey is a loving, yet stubborn and bullheaded, wife and mother to our 3 beautiful children who draws her strength through her faith in her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. While I joke about her stubborn ways, I credit that trait to a large portion of our success. She is the “oil that makes the wheels turn” in our real estate business and our life. [/thrive_toggles] [thrive_toggles title=”Ben Cope–Website Wizard, Internet Genius, Disney Cruise Addict” no=”11/11″] Ben is our actual, legit Web Wizard and technical sherpa behind all the online awesomeness that happens here. Born a hardwired entrepreneur and natural problem-solver, he doesn't just think outside the box…he kinda lives outside most boxes. Besides being a full-time web developer and our secret weapon (shhhhhhhhh) Ben's also got an Angel of a wife (that's her name,  Angel), two crazy-awesome kiddos (Emily and Anna) and a dog (Beasley) and cat (O'Malley)—both rescued animals. So he's a wizard with a great big, juicy heart. Yeah, he's our Dumbledore. And Snapple Fun Fact: Ben's got a not-so-secret addiction to the pure, child-like joy of the Disney Cruise experience. The Cope clan just keep going…. and going… and going… (Guess there's worse addictions out there. 😉 ) [/thrive_toggles] [/thrive_toggles_group][/page_section]   [thrive_headline_focus title=”What Do We Stand For?” orientation=”center”][thrive_drop_caps color='orange' style='1′]W[/thrive_drop_caps]ell big picture, our mission is to make a real difference in people's lives, period, end of story. How do we do that? Well with a healthy dose of core values and culture of course. Boom… [thrive_tabs layout=”vert”][thrive_tab headline=”12 Always Do's” no=”1/3″] 

1. Always care.
2. Always have fun.
3. Always keep it real.
4. Always have an abundance mindset.
5. Always be students, not just teachers.
6. Always keep improving, learning and growing.
7. Always be grateful. (not just for the good stuff)
8. Always have a positive impact and build people up.
9. Always respect people enough to just be honest.
10. Always learn from your mistakes.
11. Always give first.
12. Always be awesome.

[/thrive_tab][thrive_tab headline=”11 Always Don'ts” no=”2/3″] 

1. Don't make it too weird. (a little is ok)
2. Don't take yourself too seriously.
3. Don't sweat the small any stuff
4. Don't NOT learn from mistakes.
5. Don't stop believing. (hold on to the feeling)
6. Don't do things half-heartedly.
7. Don't be that guy. (you know the one)
8. Don't put Baby in a corner. (nobody does that)
9. Don't lie even once. (or all your truths are iffy at best)
10. Don't be a hater, a jerk face, a troll, a telephone-tough guy or a grammar nazi.
11. Don't forget to be awesome.

[/thrive_tab][thrive_tab headline=”10 Awesomes” no=”3/3″] 

1. Real estate investing! (as a means, not an end to itself)
2. Making mad money! (but also, people over profits)
3. Freedom baby! (to write your story, steer your ship, carve your slice, and rock those socks and sandals)
4. Integrity! (honest hearts produce honest actions)
5. Winning! (success is fun and fuel for greater impact)
6. Failing! (when you extract the lessons and fail forward)
7. Growing! (constant and neverending improvement)
8. Kindness! (even when mean people suck, do unto others…)
9. Over delivering! (as in, going the extra mile whenever possible)
10. YOU! (you beautiful hunk of human, you)

[/thrive_tab][/thrive_tabs]