Life-Changing Challengers
Dive into the heart of transformation with "Life-Changing Challengers," a podcast that inspires listeners to turn their challenges into opportunities for growth. Hosted by Brad Minus, a seasoned endurance coach with over 13 years of experience, this show brings you compelling stories of resilience, ambition, and personal triumph.
Brad and his guests share their journeys of overcoming obstacles through endurance sports, personal development, and pursuing passions. From completing Ironman triathlons to conquering personal and professional hurdles, "Life-Changing Challengers" is your guide to breaking barriers and achieving your dreams.
Whether you're looking to incinerate your limits, find inspiration to chase your big passion or enjoy motivational stories of people who've transformed their lives, this podcast is for you. Join us to explore how embracing challenges can lead to a happier, more fulfilled life.
Subscribe, review, and share to be part of a community dedicated to making every challenge a stepping stone to success. Follow "Life-Changing Challengers" to ignite your desire, push your boundaries, and embark on your journey to the extraordinary.
Life-Changing Challengers
From Debt to Wealth: A Dentist's Tale with Jeff Anzalone
Discover the inspiring journey of Dr. Jeff Anzalone, who turned a childhood tragedy into a thriving career in periodontics and real estate. From growing up in a hardworking, blue-collar family in Monroe, Louisiana, to overcoming a life-altering injury at age eight, Dr. Anzalone's story is one of resilience and determination. He shares candid reflections on his financial struggles, including navigating a massive debt load and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Learn how Dr. Anzalone's close-knit relationship with his brother and their collaborative efforts in real estate projects have paved the way for both professional and financial success.
Get ready to rethink your financial security as Dr. Anzalone opens up about how a skiing accident became the catalyst for his financial transformation. By adopting Dave Ramsey's financial principles, he managed to pay off $300,000 in student debt and eventually transition from traditional investments to lucrative real estate syndications. Whether you're curious about generating passive income or seeking strategies to achieve generational wealth, this episode offers valuable insights into leveraging digital platforms and building diversified income streams. Join us for a deep dive into Dr. Anzalone's compelling journey from a scarcity mindset to financial freedom, packed with actionable lessons and inspiring success stories.
Contact Jeff @Debt Free Doctor
Instagram: @drjeffanzalone
Facebook: @jeff.anzalone.7
YouTube: @DebtFreeDoctorJeffAnzalone
DebtFreeDoctor.com
FREE PASSIVE INCOME GUIDE
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Contact Brad @ Life Changing Challengers
Instagram: @bradaminus
Facebook: @bradaminus
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LifeChangingChallengers.com
and we are back for another episode of Life-Changing Challengers. As always, I am your host, Brad Minus, and I am particularly honored and privileged today to have Dr Jeff Anzalone here with us, and he has an amazing story that is going to resonate with a lot of you. So, hey, Doc, how are you today Doing great?
Speaker 2:My brother's also named Brad, so easy to remember your name.
Speaker 1:So I asked the same question. First question out of the gate is can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, like what was the complement of your family brothers and sisters where you grew up and the kind of environment that you grew up in?
Speaker 2:Yeah my parents and my lone brother are still alive. We all live in the same town, monroe, louisiana. Born and raised. My dad's dad and his brother, after World War II started a hardware store here and my dad had three brothers and three sisters and his uncle had nine nine kids. So that little bitty hardware store had to support 16 kids and now just tons of grandkids and great grandkids. My grandfather and his brother have passed away but my dad is still running it hard worker, blue collared.
Speaker 2:When you, when you look up the word servant in the library in in the dictionary, you see his picture. I mean that guy is just, he's served. It's just he's been my. You know, whenever I've raised kids or had issues, I just kind of think back. How did he treat us when we were kids and growing up? He's been a really big role model for me. So I've been blessed to have him do that. But unfortunately, because he can fix everything, he's always fixed stuff for us which I haven't had to learn that and I didn't get that gene. So hopefully he will live forever because anything that needs to be fixed he comes over and he fixes it for us, whether it's at my practice or at my house. So I'm grateful for that too.
Speaker 1:Because you fix people's teeth and their mouths, so you must've got some part of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe a little bit, but if I have a ceiling fan or something that's wobbly or a door that's loose or whatever, that's when we call him to bring in the big skills, so, and we'll get in more to our story. I know in this podcast it's kind of like you don't know what you don't know, and growing up you're just around my family and they just taught us the different things. But now that I have my own family and I've seen different things, I've realized that we had come from a household hardworking, blue collar, never wanted for anything, had a great childhood but more of a, I would say, a scarcity type mindset that limited money is limited. I would say a scarcity type mindset that limited money is limited. You know we, we heard a lot that costs too much, too expensive to go on that vacation.
Speaker 2:What do you think money is? Money grows on trees, you know. So I was always in my back of my head going, okay, money must be very limited and always very frugal. We had to save anything that we acquire. We get money. Where to save that money? Put that money in the checking account and saving the account. So I grew up hearing that a lot and that sort of carried over into my adulthood. So that's pretty much the gist of it. You know growing up with in that sort of environment.
Speaker 1:So you get along with your brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's an engineer. He's actually two blocks over. He's a civil engineer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's an engineer. He's actually two blocks over. He's a civil engineer. We actually just started, probably this last year, working together because the more real estate projects we're doing weontist we all think of dentists and everything, and I know it's got something to do with the mouth, but can you define it for us?
Speaker 2:are round and daunt is the teeth. So it's anything that has to do with the structure of the teeth, the bone, the tissue gum, that sort of thing. So we do pretty much our specialty in. Oral surgeons are sort of crossover, sort of like dermatologists and plastic surgeons, so we do a lot of extractions, bone grafting, dental implants, more of the surgery aspect of dentistry.
Speaker 1:Okay, so kind of like ophthalmologist to optometrist.
Speaker 2:Well, the ophthalmologist does the surgery and then went to medical school with optometrist. They don't really have much crossover. But I go to a dentist and they do the fillings and cleanings and that would be like the general dentist, whereas they send us to treat gum disease, to replace missing teeth, you know, with implants, that sort of thing Okay, great.
Speaker 1:The surgery side of it Excellent, that's great. So where did that interest come in it actually?
Speaker 2:started back the day before I turned eight and probably you heard the phrase don't play with fire and I was taught that. Well, my friend and I, the day before I turned eight years old, we were in the backyard playing with fire and he had some matches that went, you know, pine straw. This was in August, very dry in the South and there was this red can sitting next to it and he said well, what would happen if you pour that on that fire? Well, you know what happens when you pour gas on the fire it flamed up, causing second and third degree burns all on my legs and sort of flamed up on my chest. So I can still to this day just see the blistering and the burns and me riding home on my bike, crying. And now that I've got kids, I just couldn't imagine my son coming home in that condition. And really up until that point I'd just gone to the doctor just for checkups, never had any issues or really sick or anything like that, and I had to go to the pediatrician for a couple weeks and then plastic. And I had to go to the pediatrician for a couple of weeks and then plastic surgeon had to learn how to walk again, cause I was in the hospital for so long with skin grafting and it was a pretty big ordeal. But the plastic surgeon, dr Worthen who's actually passed away he really inspired me to really start taking a look at healthcare professional and it was really great, really caring, just the nicest guy. So that I guess maybe that just sort of embedded in my head at seven and eight years old, maybe that's what I want to do.
Speaker 2:So in high school, in college, you probably I don't know if you ever watched the show ER, oh yeah, favorites. So we would have a group and back then you couldn't do DVR and record all that stuff. You had to be in front of the TV at eight o'clock on Thursday night or whatever. It was, on channel whatever. It was NBC that it came on to watch it and I just knew I was always interested in it.
Speaker 2:But also, growing up I had friends that their dads were physicians and friends that their dads were dentists and I noticed a couple of things playing sports, uh, and my dad and a lot of the dads, you know, they were always there coaching and the dads that were dentists are always coaching the kids, the dads that were physicians, they were always working. And then as I got older and I kind of realized how much they were always just working and working, but that was in the back of my mind so I'd actually decided to go to dental school at an uncle, that was really instrumental. And a couple other friends and you know, work four days a week. They're off on Fridays, you know, they hunt and they fish, they do all these things. I'm like that's a pretty cool lifestyle and that was really kind of.
Speaker 2:You know, starting from the that accident to getting to the point where I went to LSU dental school. Then I went to the VA hospital in Biloxi, got interested in surgery, went back to LSU for another three years, did the residency and then you may know my story after that. But I'll pause right there.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that is amazing and I love the way that you detailed why you went towards dentist in part. Periodontology Periodontology, thank you very much, cause that's going to be a brand new word for me and for probably a lot of other people. So periodontary, that's excellent. Yeah. Looking at lifestyle, so here you're able to earn a nice living and still get to see your kids and do what you want to do with your life. Quick question you mentioned sports.
Speaker 2:What's the kind of sports were you involved in high school? Mainly, growing up played a lot of basketball, baseball and then football, and then when I got into high school, it was just football and then basketball, and then I graduated high school at 17. I was six foot six foot one, got into college. Now I'm six foot five so maybe, maybe my parents should have held me back. But I played a lot of college, like intramural ball and college and dental school, but never, never, you know further, because I worked a lot. I mowed 30 to 35 yards a week in high school and college and and that was really what taught me that I love working for myself and I could never see myself working for somebody else.
Speaker 1:Well, that revelation came in a lot earlier than a lot of us. You know. A lot of us are like thinking about oh, I want the big desk, the big desk in the corner office, but you always end up working for somebody. So how long have you been practicing now office?
Speaker 2:but you always end up working for somebody. So how long have you been practicing now? Finished in 2005, in June, which was two months before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, which our whole program, our apartment, everything was just pretty much. So we really lucked up for sure. So almost 20 years. We really lucked up for sure.
Speaker 1:So almost 20 years? Wow, that's great, and so all right. So let's get into the nitty gritty here. In his bio we heard of a ski accident, so you want to tell us about the trip and what was going on and then how it happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I got out I had $300,000 in debt and I was supposed to come back here and join a group practice. Well, unfortunately, two weeks before that happened, they pulled the deal off the table and if you know anything about professional schools, they don't teach you how to run a business or practice or anything about money, which is pretty important. So that really set me back into going back to my how I was raised at scarcity mindset now was more in survival mode because we had a two month old, we'd already bought a house we're paying interest only and had all that debt. So I had to build. You know when you typically, if I would have gotten out, I'd have made a couple hundred thousand dollars and could start paying all. But now I've got out making zero, not knowing what to do, and it was. It was tough, but I'm glad I had the Dave Ramsey background. I've been listening to him just to kind of have structure back then, because there wasn't really a whole lot of quote financial people and I followed his baby steps and it took us about seven and a half years to pay off everything, including that first house. I found another dental specialist. He took me under his wing, helped me network. He said look, you don't have to take out any more loans, you can just rent from me, you can use my equipment, you can share my staff. That was really nice. Then, after two years, I purchased the building that I'm in now, started my own practice and after seven and a half years I was, like you know, every day, you know, I was writing on the whiteboard marking off the debts as I was paying them off, thinking you know that cause, you know Dave teaches that he's like okay, after you are debt-free and you have all this money in your 401k, then you just work until you're, you know, 65 or 70 and life goes on. That's what I was thinking I was going to do. And about two years after that, with the paying off everything, we went snow skiing.
Speaker 2:My kids at that time were eight and six and I got into an accident. Luckily it was a major, but I fell and I hurt my hand. That, brad, was my wake up call to make me realize how risky I was operating financially, because if you don't have your hand, especially your right hand, if your right hand, is kind of hard to work as a periodontist, as a periodontist. So for me it was more of. I've got to do something to provide for my family, to mitigate the risk. More of like another type of insurance policy, because I do have a disability insurance policy but it's not going to cover the lifestyle. It's pretty much the bare minimum.
Speaker 2:And that really led me to start doing a deep dive on what the really wealthy people do. I'm not talking about the people on Instagram that drive around the Ferraris. I'm talking about people with generational wealth, and I know several of them here in my town. Plus, I was looking at a line and two main things stood out. Number one, the majority of them had real estate in their portfolio and at that time I had zero. And number two, almost all of them had multiple streams of income average seven to nine. I had one. And here's another interesting fact Once I started to go to meetings and masterminds around these people, when we start talking, you know if you're in first class with somebody and they're, you know, a wealthy person and you ask them what they do for a living.
Speaker 2:They don't say I am a doctor, I am a lawyer, I am a dentist. They say I own real estate and I own businesses. They're a business owner. And as I started going and this was like months and years I'm learning all this stuff and I started a blog, debtfreedoctorcom and I started to share what I was learning. So I knew there was other people out there that needed this information.
Speaker 2:It was literally like everything that I had learned up until that point I was like 40 years old was wrong, and I used to play golf and it was like you know, you go and you play golf and you think I got to. You know, tense up and swing hard and hit that ball hard. And once you start learning about golf, it's like the complete opposite. You got to be completely relaxed. You're like how does that make sense? And like it's a spaghetti noodle, you know. So it's almost like that analogy, I mean, from going to school, from, you know, getting that career, to locking in, to getting that one income stream, to paying all these taxes. It's insane that there's not more people teaching out there, and that's what really encouraged me to start the blog.
Speaker 2:And at that point, only thing I knew how to do was turn on a computer and type my notes and everything that I had learned. I guess you could call it non-clinical work. It was all free online YouTube and other articles and just kind of networking with people. So it's really amazing. So you know, like I said, I finished in 2005. Well, guess what started in 2005? Youtube. So I didn't have any YouTube. I didn't have all that stuff that my kids now have and people have now to learn it, so you can learn it even quicker now. So there's no excuse for somebody that can't get to the point that work is optional with all of the free information and resources that are out there.
Speaker 1:It's true, there's a lot of great information out there and there's a lot of misinformation out there as well, so you've got to kind of beware about it. But I love the fact that you were sharing right away. You know you weren't keeping it to yourself, trying to figure out if it worked. You're just like hey, I went to the masterminds, this is what I learned, and you made a blog post about it. That's fantastic Whereas a lot of people out there make sure it works, put it together and now, by time they get the blog out there, the information is almost like outdated. So how? So?
Speaker 1:Obviously, you said the reason why you thought about real estate is that you, you researched the wealthiest people and they all had real estate in their portfolios. Was there another common denominator that these wealthy people have? The multiple income streams is an income stream. So as far as those income streams, so they owned other businesses that would pay them. So those are the two things that you found that were the most common. Most common Owned other businesses and they did real estate. Why did you decide on real estate versus buying another business?
Speaker 2:Well, the majority of it was about real estate and I thought at that time I had to go out and buy a home and rent it out, because I've got friends around here. They own, they manage a bunch of property for their family. That's what they do. So I started looking at estate. He was in Dallas I'm four hours away so I said, hey, I'm going to go drive over and just to hear what he had to say. And I'm really glad I went, because what I thought I was going to learn I didn't at all, cause I always thought I was just going to he was teaching dentists how to go buy houses and run them out, but that wasn't the case. He was talking about different ways to invest in real estate. As a busy professional that had a full-time W-2 job, passively so you could continue to work your trade because you spent all this money and energy and time getting your degree, your biggest wealth building tool is your regular income, your W-2 income, but you can take that money. Instead of putting in the stock market and waiting until you're 60 or 65 to get to it, you can start investing in different ways in different properties that start to pay you now. I thought this was 2014, 2015,. About 10 years ago, I was like you know what it would really be cool one day to have a group like this, to have this network. And then you know, here we are. 10 years ago, I was like you know what it would really be cool one day to have a group like this, to have this network. And then you know, here we are 10 years later and I've started to do that build that. But it really taught me a lot that there's multiple ways to get involved with real estate and you don't have to deal with tenants or things like that. So I started writing more about it and started building this following online. It took me about.
Speaker 2:I started investing in what's called a real estate syndication, which is nothing more than a group investment. You put your money in, you pull it with other people. You're a passive investor. Let's say you're going to we do a lot of RV parks so you put your money in and, in return, they give you a quarterly distribution, which is passive income. Well, slowly but surely, I started building up this passive income to replace my expenses and one day I looked up and I was getting ready to invest with this group in Dallas. This was 2020 in an apartment and they said, hey, jeff, you have like this little following. You want to maybe see if we do everything you know we have an attorney If we make you like a co-general partner sort of thing, if you want to see if any of those people want to invest in this deal alongside of you. I was like, okay, sure.
Speaker 2:So what they did is, you know, they sent out their email kind of describing the property and all that, and I took it and I changed it up and reworded it to like it came for me and I sent it out like 200 people back then 220 people, and then 48 hours later, I sent out like a follow-up email. Well, the next day they reached out to me because they were sending out an email that like 700 investors that said okay, jeff, you don't have to send out any more emails, we've raised enough money. Between you know, our group and your group and they were like well, how many, how long have you been raising capital? Between you know, our group and your group and they were like well, how many, how long have you been raising capital? I was like what is that? Well, you know you're, you're helping us raise capital. So this is the first time they're like really. It's like, yeah, wow, they said, well, in 48 hours you just raised 2.4 million dollars. Wow, I was like, what did you say? Just from sending out two emails and now it's has transformed into you know, raising, you know 20, $25 million a year just online.
Speaker 2:But it's just crazy that everything goes back to learning that one skill Starting a blog. It was like 300 bucks. I took an online course, right, and I'm making as much money from things that I learned online for free as it took me like 10, 12 years of education and debt and everything. So my point being is, the world has definitely changed. You know, you don't have to do the high school, college, professional degree and all that get quote a guaranteed good job, because that's just. There's so many different avenues out there now, and if you're already in a good job where there's multiple ways to make income. So I'm just basically just telling people what I'm doing and what other people are doing. If you want to be a coach, like you, you can do that on the side. If you're passionate about something, you can help people. So really, the sky's the limit. It's pretty incredible what you can do now with a Zoom call and the internet.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm personally. I have a good job and I also coach, but coaching is my passion, so I'm definitely interested because I would hopefully my boss isn't watching this but I would like to get out of that nine to five job because I like to coach more than I do right now and if I had that, something like that, that would be great. But I think it's a great lesson for everybody that hey one again if you have a job, here's a way to supplement it and if you lose your skill or you lose something that's part of your skill, like a hand to a to a periodontist that there's a way to supplement and eventually come up with an income. That you know what. Now you can be a doctor part-time and you're still getting the income and setting yourself up for the future.
Speaker 1:And generational wealth was what you said, basically what you were mentioning before. So we're gonna definitely in the show notes. It's debtfreedoctorcom and we're gonna put that in the show notes and he has got a really, really cool free guide that you all need to check out and you're gonna like that. But how about you give us one nugget, I should say, of information on something that maybe they can take action? Some people could take action on now when I read the book Rich Dad, poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki.
Speaker 2:Robert Kiyosaki, yes, and he talked about something called the cashflow quadrant in that book.
Speaker 2:Plus, he has another book specifically on the cashflow quadrant, and that's basically nothing more than thinking about how you make money. And when I ask people, how do you make money, they just say, well, I got a job. Again, you don't. We have this ability to think and it's just like it's been taken away from us because we sit through school for so many years and we're just told what to do and told what to learn and take a test on it, and if you pass the test, you can move on to the next grade. So it's almost like we lose our ability to think and think about. And he makes you think about how do you make money and he breaks it up into a quadrant. Well, the majority of the people are either. Well, a majority of people are employees.
Speaker 2:Then you know, I start off as an employee working for that other dental specialist. Why do people want to be employees? Well, it's, it's safe, it's limited risk. You may get some benefits 401k, health, maybe some insurance, things like that. You know that you're going to clock in and clock out and you pretty much know what you're going to make every month or year. People like safety. They don't like a lot of risk.
Speaker 2:But what y'all understand is if you're not working, you're not making money. And what you also don't understand is your money is the highest taxed income. There is active income. Again, they don't teach you anything. This literally should be taught in high school, but it's not. And then I got to the point where I thought everything was going to be sunshine and rainbows when I went from an employee to a self-employed. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. I'm my own boss. But yet it's like even worse now because you're still trading time for money. You're wearing so many different hats. You're the HR director, you're the payroll guy, you're dealing with patients or clients or customers. I mean, you're running everything, having to juggle everything running a business. You're paying even more taxes because, as an employee, you can split your self-employment tax with your employer. Well, if you're the employer, you're paying all of it 15 point whatever, 3% or 6%. Again, you're trading time for money. So he says that left side of the quadrant the E employee, the self-employed, is the poor side. That's 98% of the country. That's how we make money and we just take it for granted.
Speaker 2:But once you learn this and you start questioning it, to get over to the right side and the right side is where the wealthy people are. They're the B quadrant, which is the business owner. I've got a friend here that owns a health club. He can take off for a month, two months, three months in the summer Guess what? The health club still runs. I can't do that. Or if you own your own business, or if you're an employee, you can't take off. Why? Because you don't get paid.
Speaker 2:And the ultimate quadrant is the I quadrant, which is the Warren Buffett and these really wealthy people. They're investors, literally. Their money works for them. Their money makes some money. They don't trade time for money. This is the rich side and the money coming in.
Speaker 2:Remember we talked about the multiple income streams and dividends and rental income. All that is taxed differently than active income. It's like the lowest tax income there is. So not only are you not trading time for money, not only do you have multiple income streams coming in, but it's not taxed that much. And once I read that I was like holy cow. This is insane. And that was the other thing that you know how the wealthy people operate. They have the real estate, they have the multiple income streams and they're on this right side of the quadrant.
Speaker 2:So I guess once I heard those three things, I made it a point. I want to do everything I can to get over to the right side and start teaching people about it. So my one nugget would be read that book, or Google, or look up. We have resources, articles and YouTube videos, have a lot of YouTube videos all the rich dad, poor dad and the cashflow quadrant. Watch it multiple times and let it sink in and figure out where you are in the quadrant. If you want to get to the right side, come up with a plan and just do it, and that's what I've done and that's what I'm teaching people to do. If you got kids, encourage them. There's Rich Dad, poor Dad for teens. My kids have read it. They understand about entrepreneurship and guess what? Because if you don't teach them, society will teach them and they'll just get a nine to five and they'll be broke and miserable like everybody else. So it's up to you. Life's full of choices. Make good decisions.
Speaker 1:You heard it here, guys to. You know Dr Jeff Anzalone and or alias, aka Debt Free Doctor. So yeah, we need to check out his website. Debt Free Doctor and that's the end. Is DR, so debtfreedrcom.
Speaker 2:I have both, if you will. I have both Debt Free DR and Debt Free Doctor, and then my YouTube channel and Instagram is on there. I do a lot more on YouTube now because I think it's just easier to consume and I watch a lot of YouTube and if it's a long YouTube video, like 30 minutes or 60 minutes, you know how you can get the transcript below it. I'll just copy and paste it in the chat GPT and just say give me a one-page summary. And that's how I get a lot of my stuff, just quick, and then if it's really interesting, I'll go back and watch it. So I use a lot of AI, teach a lot of AI. It's just incredible.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, no, ai is changing the world right now. We just have to be careful. James Cameron said it. It was an interview that I saw not too long ago. He's like James Cameron says I don't know what you guys are going on about this AI stuff. I told you back in the 80s, you know, when I made the Terminator, I told you guys that we need to stay away from this stuff and we got to be careful. That's true, and when I saw it and he's like when I saw that I wasn't getting through to you all, I made two, then I made number three. He says so. If you haven't figured it out by now, it's out of my hands.
Speaker 1:But as far as summaries, social networking or social awareness, chatgpt is fantastic and there's a bunch of other AI stuff out there. Definitely again deadfreedoctorcom Check out Dr Jeff's stuff, all of his blog posts but this is definitely. This is huge, guys. So for all of you trying to find your next step and that's what we always talk about it's about that next step that you're going to take in your life. This could be a part of it or maybe help you to find that next step. You know what I mean, because a lot of our passions out there, and I know mine are expensive but don't pay a lot, so this might just be the way to go. This is a tool that you can have in your toolbox over at debtfreedoctorcom. So, all right, listen, dr Jeff Anzalone, thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on Life Changing Challengers. It definitely was a huge life change for you and you told us your story and we really appreciate it. Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you so much. All right, everybody, I will see you in the next episode.
