CAIR 76: How to Be an Entrepreneur AND Hold a Full-Time Job!

In this episode I talk with Dr. Pranay Parikh, where we look at the question, how can you do your full time job while being an entrepreneur to fill the gaps that are missing in your life?

Grant
Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Financial Investing Radio. So today I have this opportunity. It's taken us a few times for me to chase him down. He's very busy. Dr. Pranay Parikh. I'm excited to talk with him when I when I first saw the profile on him and realize the journey that he both has done and the one that he's on and his vision of that I got to talk to this gentleman. I'm gonna read his the little clip that I got before even let him say a word. I just want you to hear a little bit about him. Alright, here we go. Okay, hold on. Here we go. It's Dr. Pranay. Parikh is a physician co founder and president of ascent equity group, a serial entrepreneur, we're going to want to ask him about that. Okay, online course creator and host of the MD to entrepreneur podcast, which is really cool. Continuing on his unconventional journey, and I add it is which is what makes us really cool. His unconventional journey to medicine helped him learn the skills to excel in entrepreneurship. He's launched a seven figure online course. And he's bought over $1.1 billion in real estate. Wow. And he's helped hundreds of physicians launch their own businesses. His goal is to help launch 10,000 physician led businesses. That's amazing. So I want to welcome here to the show. Dr. Pranay Parikh. Welcome.

Pranay
Thanks, Grant. I'm super excited to talk.

Grant
It's so good to have you here. Now, we were both talking before we got started. We're both in the southwest part of the country. We sort of enjoy that. In fact, I think you and I might have even had our earlier grown up years in the Northern California area. So we got a lot in similar but the key difference is, I am definitely not a doctor. You know, I went bought band aids last night. And it took me awhile just to figure that out. So I'm more of a tech and investing guy. But I am not a doctor guy. But I'm excited to talk to you about this and your journey. So thanks again for being here.

Pranay
Yeah, super excited to talk to you and your audience. 

Grant
Okay, now something happened, right? You were growing up and you said, hey, I want to be a doctor and you got moving down that path. But somewhere along that line, well, first of all, what kind of medicine? Have you been practicing?

Pranay
So I did a residency in Internal Medicine, and I practice hospitalist medicines. So that means if you ever have to spend a night in the hospital, then I'd be your doctor.

Grant
Okay. Is that is that the same as as an internist? Is that? Is that what that is? 

Pranay
Yeah, so it's the same residency, but usually what internists do they do outpatient medicine, so you know, your primary care doctor, they do some inpatient, but I'm kind of sub specialized. I only see people in the hospital, the hospital itself. 

Grant
Okay, got it. Very good. All right. So you were on that journey doing that work. And something happened somewhere along the line, you sort of sat up and said, I need to add something, either to my life or my purpose or my vision on top of this medical route. Tell me about that. What happened?

Pranay
You know, so it's kind of funny. So to get into medical school, you have to be well rounded, right? You have to be doing all this other cool stuff, right? You can't just be a nerdy like I was really good at Sciences and maths and all that stuff. They want someone you know, reads a lot of the books and does all this stuff. But after you get in all that stuff gets taken away gets subtracted. And it kind of sucks for people like me that like doing a lot of other stuff, but you're so busy in medicine, doing your job learning that there's not much else you can do. So as soon as I got an opportunity to start doing other stuff I did. So for example, in medical school, I used to hold art shows. And then the money that we grades go to the doctors without borders, I was always trying to do stuff that was, you know, a little bit outside the box. So as soon as I graduated finished everything, I was like, okay, what can I do? What? Where can I go and all this stuff that's been suppressed for so long.

Grant
That's amazing. You talked about Doctors Without Borders, I have a friend just Sunday night I was talking with he, he spent a number of years I think went five times down to Central America, they were taking both dental as well as medical help and support into some of those areas there. It's fun to hear the service and the blessing that that is to people that are missing those things. So you did these art shows that was providing support to them. That's a cool thing. So it sounds like there was either there's altruistic thing that you needed to get filled in your life, right? I mean, something to reach out further, in addition to the work you're doing that led you to doing this kind of work. Now, there's that what led you at some point to say, I'm going to build sort of a business or be an entrepreneur on it is that what led you down that path?

Pranay
Still, so you know, when I when I looked at the landscape after being graduated, you know, at a pretty decent salary, but I realized the most important thing is what I do with that money, not how much I can make, you know, I could have just gone and bought a car or bought a house. And I'd be, you know, I wouldn't have a ton of money to consider for my future, right. So I decided to rent a little bit longer, keep driving my Honda Accord, which actually still have 2012. So you know, it's what I do with the money. So you know, I did the stock market, but in this world, people that are most well off and buy well off, you know, I don't care about the total number that's in my bank account, I care about freedom, I care about providing for my family, and I care about providing for my extended family. So the people that I've seen that been have been able to do that are the people in business, business and real estate. So I thought how, how can I incorporate one or, you know, fortunately, now, both of those into my life? And what's the quickest way to do that?

Grant
Okay, excellent. So you have a broader vision about, I want to make a difference, right? I want to help someone in the world, what not just my own family, but but the people within my reach that I can access or get out to? Is that right?

Pranay
Yeah. And as a doctor, it was great. Because I there's a lot of job satisfaction and being able to help people. But I was limited by time. And that's, that's one of the big issues that I had, I wanted to create this impact. I wanted to help as many people as possible, but there was only one of me, right? So if I'm not at the hospital, I'm not helping people. So how do I take that impact that I want and spread it to, really the whole world, and the what I thought was, if I can help other people, after I got my business up and running, I can help other people get their business up and running. And if they're able to either find financial security and be happier doctors, you know, you might have heard of this epidemic of a burnout, that's just been an issue. And a lot of that is not being able to pick your own hours and being forced to do things that you don't necessarily want to do a lot of administrative work. And if you're able to take control of your life, then those happy doctors are making a bigger impact. And that's something that I can, I can help people do as well.

Grant
So you're going after this audience of people that have proven that they have the ability to be disciplined to dedicate their time and their resources, their energy, not just to not just to their practice in their craft, right around medicine, but but now to take that and apply it to businesses. And those businesses the purpose of those sounds like have twofold one is to provide an outlet for them sort of emotionally, right where they can get outside and, and maybe really, you know, benefit their own family but also to use their businesses away then to further their reach to help people when they're away from practicing their medicine. Did I get that? Right?

Pranay
Correct. Correct. And you'd be surprised how often someone comes up to me and says, Hey, Pranay, I'm just a doctor. You think I could start a business? And it's funny because you have to get to get into medical school or, you know, dentistry lawyers, and I'm just talking about medical school because that's what I've been through. But you know, any professional degree, you've gone through a lot. You've studied, you've been taking all these tests and you've really stood the test of time. So you can pick up a lot of these other things pretty easily, you know, a little bit of trial and error. So a lot of it is just showing people that they have this innate ability. And a lot of times in medicine, we're taught not to try something, unless we have 100% chance of success.

Grant
It's interesting is about a year ago, I was running a class for a group of people on starting your own business. And, and one of the people that came into that class was an oral surgeon, and doing doing just great, you know, in terms of financial, right. And I said to him, why, why did you take this right to mean, you certainly don't. Okay. I mean, and he said, well, the, the one area that he felt like he was running into that it was creating a challenge for him was that, while he had figured out and was successful at the procedures, at some point in the career, those procedures became procedural. In other words, I was just doing I'm quoting him, I was just doing and still doing the same thing every day. And what I found that I couldn't do is I couldn't be creative, right? I mean, that wouldn't be the right thing, either for the safety of the patient, right, or for other reasons. It's not like I can say, well, I'm going to try this procedure. And other way. There's other times and places maybe to do that, but not while you're, you know, doing the the surgery. So he said there was a gap in his life was, he needed a way to be able to express himself and be more creative, and let that part of his personality have a place to do things. So he was starting a business on his own. And I'm wondering if, if that resonates with you, if that's also part of what was in your mind as well.

Pranay
Yeah, and you know, after and there's usually a slump, three to five years after you're done with school, you feel confident in your abilities. And a lot of times that challenge is gone, you know, it comes here and there. But that that daily challenge that you're, you're racing against the edge is gone. And it's nice to go into something that you have no idea about, you know, starting a business, starting your own practice starting a podcast like yours, and it's invigorating, trying to figure things out, you know, and, and failing and being successful and getting that first download and 10th Download, and so on.

Grant
There is something to that, isn't it? It's this, what's my next hurdle? Right? What's the next thing? You know, can I do this right? Can I grow or expand in that area? And so I think sometimes in that profession, well, not just that profession, others as well. But being able to have that side hustle, or that side practice helps to fill that out. And to round you out. That doesn't mean you step away from it. Now, maybe some do. In fact, on that topic, do you still practice then today in medicine? Or are you full time over in the sort of business and investing side?

Pranay
I actually still practice and most people are very surprised, given all the other stuff I do. I'm at around point eight full time, I probably need to cut down a little bit more. So at the end of the year, I'll probably do point five, but it's nice to keep my foot in the door a little bit. You know, like I said, I enjoy it. And it is using a different side of my brain.

Grant
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so let's talk about, let's talk about that entrepreneur side of you then. So you went to real estate, because you said you saw that those that had achieved some level of freedom. Were doing business and real estate, and you sort of found that pattern there. Right. You talk a little bit about what it is that you do with that business.

Pranay
Yeah, you know, and so a little bit about the beginning, in medicine a lot of the times is you're learning from colleagues, you know, it's like Socrates, instead of more of a professor to student, there's some of that as well. But after your practice, seeing I reached out to my colleagues all the time, I asked them what they think so, you know, when I first learned about real estate as I thought, there's not that much people teaching how to invest in real estate without being a landlord. And I looked around, I looked around, there wasn't anything. So I went with my partner and said, Hey, let's create a course that will teach people how to do this, right? And we thought we were done after that. And after a couple years of doing that, we've had 1000s of students, people say, hey, you know, we learned we'd like what you say, but we don't actually do want to do the work. We want you guys to find the deals to negotiate, and most importantly, to follow up to make sure that the person who's running the day to day is doing what they say they're doing. So we created really almost like a bespoke, passive, real State, a private equity company called the cent equity group where we go out we find best in class operators that have done this for 2030 years. And when we partner with them, we negotiate for the best terms. And most importantly, there's many people that do that. But most importantly, we have a full asset management, we have a full team that if something goes wrong, we could take over the property. However, that team, they're really focused on the big picture, how do we maximize profit? And, you know, not really doing the day to day like talking to maintenance, finding about leases? How do we maximize profit for our investors, and, you know, we have at this point, hundreds, almost 1000 investors, mostly doctors, but some dentists pharmacist, and we really want to create the best real estate investment, that it takes the least amount of work. So I own a couple rental properties myself, I have a property management, property manager, and it's still work. You know, I don't want to really work very hard for my investments. But that's just me. 

Grant
Yeah, that makes sense. So wait, can you talk more Pranay about where the investing is? Is it raw land, single homes, this apartments are commercial? You talked about that?

Pranay
Yeah, so we, you know, we do bread and butter. And we kind of focus on people's needs, right? And people need a place to live. And what happens when, like right now we're heading towards a recession or mortgage rates are going up. People go into apartments, I've lived in apartments in the past. So what we do middle the ground, what is often called Class B, like boy, apartments, where when times are good people will move up into when times are bad people will downgrade from, you know, the nice downtown apartments to you know, maybe a little bit further away. And, or maybe they can't afford a house or they don't want to buy a house. And they go to class B. So that's the type of stuff that we've like, because it's recession, recession resistant. And even in 2008, the default risk was less than 1%. Because apartments are safe and stable.

Grant
Yeah, safe and stable. Another key part of that seems like the demographics and the geography. In other words, where these are located. Do you target a specific part of the country? Or where do you focus?

Pranay
Yeah, yeah. So we call it the business friendly states. It's kind of along the Sunbelt. And this has been a trend. We've seen it a lot more in the past, since 2020, after COVID, but it's been ongoing for five to 10 years, people are moving to areas that are more affordable outside of coastal cities. And now with all the remote work, there's there's no reason really to live in the coastal towns, you might as well live where you can afford, and they're starting to get, you know, robust neighborhoods and cultures and all that great stuff.

Grant
Nice. And when you when you think about the kind of profile, right, can you describe what does that look like in terms of the perfect person that you would bring into the ascent group? Meaning that you're focusing on the doctors, right, but is it someone that's done with medical school? Or is it Are they on their way? Or they they're 10 years down into their career already? I mean, what does that look like?

Pranay
Yeah, so all our deals have to be accredited investors, meaning that you have to make more than 200,000 per year, for two years, or 300 as a couple for two years, or have a net worth over a million dollars. And that's, that's not our requirements. That's the Securities and Exchange Commission by the government. So as long as they qualify for that, we're happy to take anyone, mostly doctors, but we have a ton of dentists. And it's usually, you know, they have to have two years of tax returns. So people started investing two years after they graduate, and then all the way towards the, you know, latter part of their career. So it's, it's nice, it creates stable income. It's tax deferred. So it's money you can start using, and there's a lot of tax benefits. So doctors especially like the type of investment.

Grant
Yeah, is it? Is there a certain commitment time? So in other words, are you expecting people will get involved for a five year period or 10? Or what does that look like?

Pranay
Yeah, so our deals, we tend to go on the lower end. So three to five years, that means you put in your money, you get your money back? Usually 1.8 to double your money in about three to five years just depends on the deal. And minimum is usually around 50,000. And we have that at that amount because it's really easy for people to get me on the phone and any of the principals who are all doctors And we want to create really a high quality great communication system. Because, you know, even if you're able to put down 50 102 50 It's scary. I don't care how wealthy you are, it's scary putting your money down. So we really pride ourselves in having great communication.

Grant
What impact have you noticed on this investing strategy with, you know, the increase in inflation rates that's been going on as well as mortgage rates is had some impact on this?

Pranay
Yeah, so and this is really important for people who are looking at these types of deals, also called syndications. People might know it as that the two things I'd really look at right now, to bet a deal is to sponsor you know, people who are running the day to day, that kind of makes sense. But the second is the debt. So interest rates are crazy right now. So I would try to get a fixed rate debt, you know, meaning that it's, you know, three to five years. So for example, our last deal that's close now, we had nine years at 2.9%, Raizy. And then four years of interest only. So we really go out and try to find deals that we think have a ton of downside protection. So the one of the most important things, it's always been important, but even more so is what type of debt or mortgage the people are getting. Because if anything's gonna go wrong, it's, you're not going to be able to cover your mortgage payment, and the bank takes the property back.

Grant
That's amazing, you share that, you know, I look at the interest rates today. And they are obviously higher than than they were just, you know, last couple of years. But it reminds me of when my wife and I had just gotten out of college, and this was late 80s. And we were in Chicago, and we were buying our first property. And interest rates were really high. I mean, like, 9% 10%, I remember us driving, you know, an hour because we found one mortgage place, you know, that give us you know, half a basis point last. And that meant that we could probably eat every month, right? Because he knows, several $100 less on the mortgage. And so that matters, matters. Totally what what you're saying to have that. All right. So what questions haven't I asked you, you've been very kind to share your time here. What other things do you need to share with people that would help them prepare to take advantage of the services that you're providing?

Pranay
Yeah, we, you know, one big thing I see. And we deal with a lot of investors on the active and passive side, and you know, the stocks and all that stuff, consider your time, the value of your time, right? If you're spending, you know, 20 hours a month on one of your properties, and you're trying to scale it up. Consider that right? Most of us don't pay ourselves first. You don't have to take money out. But consider the time that you're spending on this. And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people in business as well. They forget the time they spend on it. They're like, Yeah, you know, it's making us it's making six figures a profit. And when you realize you're not paying yourself. So the nice thing about our real estate investment is maybe you spend an hour on it a month, a year, one, one investment one hour per year, you know, and we really try to create this bespoke experience that we take care of everything for our investors, you know, and that's not the right thing for everyone. And some people like to kind of pick their own deals, but we find that most doctors prefer this. And we give them a nice, diversified portfolio because we work with different people across the US and different types of deals. We'll do maybe some, like very safe deals a little bit more value, add meaning larger renovations with a higher return. So we kind of really spread it out. And we've had we've been going for a couple years now. And like you mentioned in the beginning, we've bought over a billion dollars of real estate and so we're really excited about the chance to give this opportunity to doctors, dentists, pretty much anyone that would qualify as an accredited investor. So if anyone is interested, feel free to reach out to me. Sure, we'll have it in the show notes, but it's [email protected]. And then one last small plug. I have a podcast if you want to hear more about podcasting, entrepreneurship, being a doctor things that I've been dealing with. It's from MD to entrepreneur podcast and you could find it on Spotify, Apple, Google pretty much anywhere you can find podcasts.

Exclusive resources: finp.ascentequitygroup.com/
My podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/48VsN5DnCWY8lxiMyLbrMA
My podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-md-to-entrepreneur-with-dr-pranay-parikh/id1625547221
My email: [email protected] 
My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pranay.parikh2
My Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranay-parikh/

Grant
That's awesome, man. Pranay, thanks for taking the time here with us today. I really appreciate that. Very impressed with the journey. journey that you're on, and also the impact that that journey is having on people, both in terms of not only your medical practice but what you're doing in terms of business as well. Thanks again for joining. Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening to another episode of Financial investing radio. Until next time, check out Dr. Pranay Parikh at ascentequitygroup.com.

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