Chris & John
- Sep 15, 2020
- 3 min read

Ep 86: Pay Yourself First with Cody Hofhine

While most budgets are built around expenses, the pay-yourself-first method flips that approach on its head, allowing you to prioritize savings and grow your business. Today’s guest is Cody Hofhine, a strong believer in the profit first formula, and a multiple Inc 5000 Business Owner. Cody is the Founder of the Real Estate Freedom Formula and Co-Founder of Utah Sell Now, as well as a successful real estate investor and mentor, a high-performance coach, and a sought-after speaker. Cody used his background in sales to quickly build a seven-figure real estate business that was built on the principles of clarity, energy, courage, productivity, and influence. In this episode, he shares his journey into real estate through entrepreneurship, how he started his wholesaling business, and how he went about spending his first check. He also maintains the importance of monitoring passive income, paying yourself first, and delegating what you don’t enjoy doing, as well as retaining A players by being an A leader, doing one thing at a time, and committing to a set budget and timeframe when moving into new markets. Finally, Cody talks about wholesaling, and has some pertinent advice for those looking to get started, so make sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

Cody introduces himself and shares how he got into real estate through entrepreneurship.
Why Cody chose to be an investor, rather than getting a W2 job – he wanted to be happy.
Even passive income is not passive; Cody maintains that if it isn’t monitored, it can fall apart.
Starting up his wholesaling business – Cody started listening to podcasts and found a mentor.
Cody divided his first check according to the book, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz.
Cody sums up Profit First as gross revenue, minus profit equals expenses, which is the opposite of how profit is usually understood.
As your business grows, the percentages of how you allocate money adjusts and changes.
Working in the business versus working on the business – it’s a progression, says Cody.
Hire out your hate-to-do list first, and keep doing what you do well before it hiring out.
If you want to retain A players, you have to become an A leader first, and you will attract them.
Cody’s personal development centers around being where he’s at and using his time wisely.
Cody scaled his business by learning from his mistakes and projecting 60-90 days back.
Moving from one market to another while maintaining them all – just do one thing at a time.
Weighing up the cost of going into a new market – Cody invested $50k and committed to 6 months, no matter what happened.
Entrepreneurs have to be willing to adjust! You need to fulfill changing market demands.
Cody’s advice for new wholesalers – pick one marketing channel and stick with it!
Start in your backyard – Cody says look for distressed properties or distressed situations.
You can build a buyers list by going to Facebook and finding real estate investing groups.

Tweetables:

“The hope is that sacrifice up front is to get something working, and turn it from not just a job or a higher-paying job, but actually into a business, one that serves you that you don’t always have to serve, one that that you’re [not working in] but working on. That’s the crucial point. Even wholesaling real estate can be just a high paying job, if you allow it to be that. You really have to cautiously grow this to be a business.” — @CodyHofhine [0:07:48]

“Pay yourself first. Whatever rev comes in, you’ve got to pay yourself first, and whatever is left, that’s all you get for your expenses, versus so many people justify, ‘All this money came in, X amount went out to expenses, and I really wanted to do this,’ and then there was this little piece left or maybe nothing at all for profit.” — @CodyHofhine [0:16:01]

“If you want to retain A players, become an A leader first, and then watch what happens. You’re going to start to attract these A players.” — @CodyHofhine [0:22:36]

“Be willing to adjust, be willing to pivot. What got you here won’t get you there. You always have to be adjusting, you’ve always got to be changing up, and listening to what the market is demanding and fulfill that demand. You can’t just sit there.” — @CodyHofhine [0:37:07]