Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. 

For today’s guest, we have Luke Boschma. Luke graduated from Washington State University in 2008 with a degree in business and a minor in international business. Soon after graduation, he moved to Washington, DC, with his best friend to start his career. Fast-forward to the end of 2021, which marked his last team working with his corporation. 

As a federal consultant, something he did for 13 years before pursuing his dream of full-time business ownership. His company, KBL Development LLC, started in development as he and his wife were flipping homes in the Washington, DC, area that opened additional opportunities, and they shifted gears into residential and commercial construction full-time. 

Their dream is to work in the federal contracting space within the construction sector. Luke also acquired America. In 2019, that remodel LLC focused solely on bathroom remodels in the larger Washington, DC, area. 

He has also recently invested in digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Focusing on those that carry real-world utility and solve business problems, Luke is a strong American, and I’m glad and honored to have them on this show. 

Luke, are you there?

Luke 

Well, hello. Hello.

Cosmos

Luke, thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast with me.

Luke 

I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. Looking forward to it.

Cosmos

So, Luke, can you tell me, in the audience, a little bit more about yourself, your background, and how you got started?

Luke

Yeah. Yeah. You summarized it well in your introduction. You were born in Seattle, WA, went to school, and moved out with me. Yeah. I mean, as you mentioned, kind of my best buddy since about fifth grade. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I moved out here. I had no job. We didn’t even actually have a place to live until we were. We were on the road during us during our road trip. 

We were just kind of young and dumb and, you know, looking, looking forward to a new adventure, but didn’t have a job or any prospects. I figured I’d settle in out here and start the job hunt. Yeah. I started the hunt a few months ago. I finally landed an A at a great corporate job. I worked there in the federal consulting space for a few years, and then I had the opportunity to go to a different company, which was great. 

And you know, I just proposed to my now-wife, and it was a big pay bump. So that was a lot of welcome. This opportunity is a real blessing for you, just for the adventures of marriage. 

So yeah. So, I did that for 12 or 13 years or so. I never really loved it. I mean, it was a great job. Great opportunity. I had lots of flexibility and kind of climbed the ladder enough where I could, you know, kind of delegate and had some great teams and People that worked alongside me, probably toward the last three or four years; man, I started to kind of it started to be a struggle to get up kind of and go to work in the morning – Didn’t Love it I guess I didn’t love working for somebody. Didn’t love the job in itself. 

So, I started conversations with my wife about quitting. At that point, she was kind of a full-time mom. 

So, we just bought a bigger house in our desired neighborhood with the schools and whatnot. It was a long conversation. It took me a couple of years to make the jump. And my wife supported me in doing it. 

And, you know, I told her, I think that I think the big selling point too, to finally quitting was I was. This is the realization. I was like, babe, we can live off top ramen. We’ll know if we’re financially, you know, just taking a, you know, taking a step, taking a step of faith. But I told her I was like, well, no, we’re poor, but our kids will have no idea we’re poor. 

So, if we’re going to do it, if we’re going to try to, you know, take it, take a stab at this thing, then now is the time because our kids don’t know any better. You know, they don’t know if Dad and mom have, you know, $14.00 in the bank account or, you know, $14 million in the bank account.

So, if we do it, now’s the time. I convinced her to do it, and she let me do it. It’s been crazy. It’s a lot of fun, but I enjoy each day.

Cosmos

I have to ask you a question because it’s hard to start your own company when you have a family, and then you must support the family. It’s a huge risk and cannot be stated enough, right? 

So, my question is, what is the motivational factor or catalyst that made you go over the edge and say, “OK, I’m going to start my own LLC, even though there are a lot of financial risks.” Many people would just rather do their nine-to-five jobs, stay where they are, and get a steady paycheck if they have a family or children. What is it about you that makes you say, “OK, I will take this job Risk and see where it’s going.”

Luke 

Yeah, great question. I feel it got a lot more real. I think, honestly, when it just started to affect my day-to-day life, it was just like a dad and a husband; I mean, there were times I Remember. And it’s kind of looking back, like, whoa. But, you know, I would. I would hang up with conference calls and call out to our backyard and the woods. 

And just like I mean it was, it was rough like it was. I was like, I just hated it, and I realized that it was starting to affect me in every aspect of my life, not just, you know. You know, you don’t just hang up the, you know, hang up, you know, punch the clock at 5:00 and be done with it. It started to affect my emotions, really, and how I was. I was as a husband and again as a dad, and I realized that was probably the case. I don’t know how old that was, probably 30/35 or so, 36 or something. 

I quickly realized I couldn’t do this for the rest of my life. Like, I’ll, I’ll drive myself to a dark place. My wife told me. I’m like, look, if I try this, you know, and we, you know, we were smart with our finances, and we had, you know, we had stuck a little bit of a, you know, and that stage away. We could, you know, we could, we could ride that for a while without, you know, without being too bad. But I just realized that I can’t. I can’t do this for the rest of my life. 

So, it was just that, that was the point where I realized, like, man, this is not good. It’s not good for me. It’s not good for my family to continue this. And you know, my wife would always laugh because she’s a lot more. 

She let me do this, you know. But I think she’s a lot riskier person, rightfully so. We have two kids, and our mortgage payments doubled when we bought them. When we bought a house in our neighborhood, we wanted to get into it with the kids and the school district. School district and whatnot. 

I told her, “Look, if we ride this out and our next day goes to 0, then you know I was.” I was pretty comfortable and confident that I would just get another job. You know, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t like it, you know, certainly, but I certainly would do it.

I said I wouldn’t risk my family or put them out on the streets just to chase a dream. I realize there was a combination of Ice in a dream, but also the reality of, you know, you’ve got, you know, a wife and two boys and a mortgage payment and, you know, real-life stuff. But I, you know, I told her that. Yeah, if I, you know, fall flat, then I’ll go to get another job, and you know we’ll be OK again. 

So, I think that the guy gave her some comfort, but yeah, just to, you know, just the epiphany or the realization of sitting back and just looking across the entirety of life and situation and realizing, man, this is. I’m struggling. I was struggling to stay in that, you know, kind of a suit-and-tie corporate life.

Cosmos

Man, it looks like so many people across America are going through the same struggle you went through right where they want to go, like starting a business and being financially free versus being in a safe space or doing a corporate job with a steady paycheck versus paying at risk.

Then, they go through this internal struggle, and many times, people don’t take that risk, and then later on in life, they have many regrets. 

So, from your perspective, let’s say somebody in this audience is listening who’s going through the same struggle as you are and where they are, like family and the kids. But they are afraid of the financial risk and all that stuff. How would you go about advising them if they came to you?

Luke 

Advice. Yeah. No, that’s great. That’s real, right? I mean that, you know, that’s real. I forgot the stat, which is the age when most people start their companies. But yeah, I think it’s like mid-30s kind of upper, you know, upper 30s or something like that.

I think for many folks that do this, it doesn’t come until, I will say, not later in life because that’s, you know, I don’t consider myself old. Still, I think I helped myself do it; I had to, you know, show my wife everything and lay it all out there so she was comfortable. But what we did, and what you know, was we started the LLC. And it was kind of the side hustle, to put it so Probably. I was still working at my corporate job. 

You know, kind of on the side, or when I wasn’t super busy at work or something, I would start to work on the building by a company and did that in parallel. I don’t know how many years it will be. 

Cosmos

That would be a lot of work, like taking care of your family, doing your job, and doing this simultaneously, like I did. I want to state that’s a lot, you know.

Luke 

Yeah, it was. It was a lot. As I mentioned earlier, I had a lot of flexibility in my corporate job just because I sat and had some good teams over. So that was a, you know. 

Honestly, if I had to work 40 to 45 hours, like you know, at my desk, I don’t know that that would have been tough. You know, thankfully, that wasn’t the case for me. Granted, looking back out, I didn’t pay myself in the best light as an employee, but there was part of me that just said I got to do what I got to do for my family and me, and this is what I. What do you want to do? 

I decided early on that I wasn’t going to chase the corporate ladder anymore; I was just going to sit where I was because it offered me more time and flexibility to focus on what I wanted to focus on. 

So, I did that for a few years. Yeah, it was a lot. My wife took the brunt of that while I was trying to keep my job and grow our business. Getting back to your question about advice, that was what I did, and that seemed to work for me. 

I had something we started; we started gaining some traction over the years and getting our name out there. Yeah, we were, you know, we started off Flipping. Houses that kind of just evolved, you know, we were doing, we were doing good work, and then that’s how our name started to get out there a little bit. My wife was also a real estate agent. Kind of. We kind of worked very hand in hand, and as her name got out there and she would sell clients’ houses, we became kind of This Team of, you know, hey, you know, you buy, and then we’ll also help you design it and renovate it and whatever. 

So, we became a very good team that way. Yeah, I think, like I said, I think just, you know, working your nine-to-five job and, you know, kind of starting your business on the side and starting to grow that as you can. And you can’t. Yeah, there’s no. There’s no set timetable for it. It could take six months if you, you know. Or it could take six years, you know. 

But I think for me. Well, it helped me a lot because I felt like I was doing something that I wanted to do. Yes, I still had my corporate job, which. I didn’t love, but I loved what I was doing on the side, and even if I got to spend 30 minutes or, you know, an hour or something a day on this thing, you know, on the business side, that gave me enough energy to continue and get up the next morning because I knew that. At the end of the day or sometimes, you know, during lunch or, you know, whatever it was, I would be able to focus and work on what I wanted to build again while maintaining kind of, you know, the steady paycheck.

Cosmos

I get that you managed your time well. You could juggle, and you had an efficient skill of disciplining and managing your time for a certain period, contributing to this. 

But look, I had one question: What was your strategic vision regarding going to real estate versus other industries? When people start a business, they could enter any industry, but why was it specifically real for you and your wife? What did you see in real estate? 

And, like in real estate development, did that make you go into that? Mm-hmm.

Luke 

Yeah. I mean, this is probably what a lot of these, you know, people that have their own business or entrepreneurs do. It was a passion; we enjoyed it. And you know, when you enjoy what you’re doing, you can spend those hours, you know, before work or after work whatever and is working and to build something and it does it doesn’t. It doesn’t feel like work. I mean you for the same. You know, umpteen times. 

You know, if you do something you love, you never work a day. And it was. It was very much that we just enjoyed it. We always enjoyed it everywhere we traveled. We would always look at homes, real estate, and construction. It was just one of those things that we both, you know, and we didn’t talk about it before we were married. But both realized, like man, we both like this. And enjoy this.

 And so that’s kind of where it started with just, you know, watching TV shows about, you know, people flipping houses. And, you know, all over the place, and just kind of came this thing that we enjoyed. And, you know, we’ll see how it progressed from there. Yeah, we just enjoyed it. I just enjoyed it, and it was. It became a passion, and that’s that. That made it easy to work those extra hours.

Cosmos

So, it’s very interesting that you mentioned passion, right? A lot of people, when they’re starting businesses, talk and think about making money and making a profit. They never go into why they’re doing their business, right? Like ideally, People want to do something they’re already passionate about and monetize the business. But often, when they’re trying to start something new, they do it out of a sense of logic, like, OK, this business has this much market capitalization over here. And if I do this, I will make this much profit. And then, like, they’re thinking in monetary terms. 

So, do you think that’s an accurate way of going about it, or do you think you have to have a passion for you to sustain? You are in the business.

Luke

That’s a great question. I think, to be honest, I didn’t consider myself. That’s smart. And sometimes I don’t look at all the factors in, you know, market cap, and I was probably just a little bit naive enough to want to get in something because I want to get it into it and, you know, dumb enough to think that I could do it.

But being confident enough to do is, I think that’s. That was a big thing for me. Just believing you got to, you know, you have to believe in yourself. But yeah, I don’t know. That’s why I don’t know if there’s a cookie-cutter or cut-and-dry answer. You know, I think. I think over time. Passion is what sustains you. You know, I think that you know. Money. I mean, granted, I’m not. I’m not doing this. Because, you know, I don’t, I don’t. I also like money, you know.

Cosmos

We all do. We are here.

Luke 

Yeah, you’re right. Right. But I never looked at this as, oh, this is going to be a this is, I want to do this because this is a huge money-making opportunity. I knew that what I did, I was comfortable with what I was doing and confident that the money would follow, and we, you know, we’ve, you know, we’ve got some bigger goals and dreams. That we’re chasing,

I think just chasing the money is not the case. I don’t know if that would be for me. You know that wouldn’t be a sustained me because I think. If it took a while for the money to come, it would. That would be if I were fighting myself if that was the driver of my having to make money. And in a year or two years or whatever it is. 

And If I missed that or didn’t make as much as I wanted, it would be hard to keep pushing, right? That’s just saying that if I wasn’t meeting goals or if I wasn’t making money, I wasn’t doing what I thought I could do or needed to do or should be doing whatever it was. Am I chasing the dollar? It wouldn’t have sustained me to keep pushing like I was. 

The passion kept me going when money wasn’t following or, you know, when I thought it wasn’t coming in fast enough or enough of it. Whatever it was. So yeah, that’s just that’s just me. I think it’s the sustainability of that, you know, for me.

Cosmos

So, ultimately, what does it look like One of my mentors told me over the years that this was a great revelation I had when a lot of people chased money. But what you need to do is chase value instead. And the value that you’re passionate about what it means is that money chases value from what he said. 

And so, if you give to society. Some sort of value that you’re passionate about giving, and you enjoy doing it, and then you give that. If you find a way to monetize, the money will naturally come. 

But a lot of people think that they have to do the next big thing like, you know, like do like Apple or like or like, you know, they saw the movie The Social Network where Zuckerberg started Facebook where like it’s this cool idea and like you have to do it and you got to it’s like a kind of like a movie. 

The thing, but in reality, it’s much simpler. You have to know what value you’re going to give to society. And is it a value that you’re passionate about giving? In your case, it was real estate, right? Like, like, you didn’t feel like it was, like, work. A lot of the time, you just do it, and you enjoy doing it. So, it’s not even worth it.

But you’re getting some sort of value, and then the money naturally comes because you figured out a way to monetize it. So, I feel like many people have a misguided concept of how to create money, like they have first to create the value, and then money naturally follows. But I don’t know what your thoughts are on that.

Luke 

Yeah. No, I think. When we. Do this, and we, obviously we, we still do this. I think what I pride myself on is the quality of what we do, and I think that’s where, yeah, the value I provide to my customers is a quality product. 

Yeah, the construction companies, development companies, you know there’s they’re a dime a dozen out here. I would probably say not every city, you know, every major city. I don’t think there’s to be, you know, to be frank, I don’t think there’s any. You know, I’m not a one-off doing this. Whatever it is, it’s like, no, there’s many of us. 

But what sets me apart is that I’m passionate and seek a high-quality product. That’s where the monetization comes in. I’m good at what I do, and my wife is good at what she does. If you’re good at what you do and people know that you’re good at what you do, the money will come. The money’s going to follow. 

It’s just it’s just a matter of time. It’s a matter of getting your name out there. It’s a matter of getting in front of people to kind of show them what you’re doing or what you like doing. And that’s where the money follows. If you’re just chasing money, you’re going to, and you’re not passionate about it, you’re going to, you’re going to do something. If you, whatever it is. I don’t know if you’re manufacturing black pens or something. 

It will be hard again if you’re not passionate about it and will return to the sustained thing. It will be hard to show your customer and client that what you have or are doing differentiates you from the next lineup of companies doing what you’re doing.

Cosmos

For real, that’s ultimately what it is. That is pretty true,

Luke, One question I had since you’re in real estate development, like the feel right, is, what is the biggest lesson you had during your time doing this in the real estate field that you think people should know when starting?

Luke

Biggest lesson? I don’t know if this is a lesson, but this is the first thing that comes to mind. We talked about this before and may get into more of it later. We had the I had the unique opportunity to learn from somebody else’s name. That was a huge thing for me, kind of in the development space when we were flipping houses, and again, I don’t want to jump too far ahead if we get into this down the road.

Again, I don’t know if it’s a lesson learned, but one of the opportunities I look back and say, man, if that hadn’t been the case, this would have this could have looked a little bit differently in terms of where we were today. Again, the lesson, or, you know, maybe the lesson learned, is I realize I still do every single day. The importance of putting the good people around you. That was probably one of the lessons I learned early on. You know, I can’t go out and do the work all the time in this space. And to be honest, I would say very rarely do I go out and do the work. I can I know what needs to be done

I’ve got teams in place to do much of that. The lesson learned early was if you don’t if I don’t employ good people. Then, even though they may be cheaper, faster, or whatever, it is at the end of the day when I realize that this is not a good fit for me. In a couple of instances, I held onto some of those. Those people are too long. We had built a relationship with them. We became friends with some of these guys that I was working with and was hired to, you know, too, you know. To work with us.

And just again, I think I like people. I enjoy people. I’m probably a little bit of an extrovert, and when I was a child, Kind of a Little bit earlier on when I was working with some of these guys that weren’t performing, they weren’t. They weren’t, you know, just the opposite. It was it was becoming detrimental in a lot of instances. And I just kept on one more shot, one more shot, one more shot, one more shot. And I did that far too long, and it kind of nipped me in the ****.

So, I think, you know, realizing if something’s if something’s not going to work or somebody’s not. You are going to work. In what you are trying to grow, and if they’re not going to kind of catch that vision behind you, then you, you got to you got to cut your losses and let go of that and get somebody in there that is going to help you grow to where you want to be.

Cosmos

Look, what you just said is relevant because many people and companies often have employees, and they will become good friends with their employees. But then when they, let’s say, they don’t perform like you’re saying. It becomes a contentious thing to like. Let go of them, and it’s. Yeah, it almost creates a very awkward and weird thing. 

So, you don’t mind, do you think there has to be a distance between the boss and the employees so that when they say they don’t perform in terms of the greater vision, you can do as you said, like let them go?

Luke 

Yeah. I’m probably not very good at that. You know, I think I’m learning on it, as I just kind of explained, but I’m getting better at it. I’m not the kind of guy that’s going to, but I’m not. I’m not. Hey, I’m the boss. I’m in charge of my company. You know? You were. That’s not. That’s not how I roll. You know. I’m close with all my guys. I, you know, I know what’s going on with my teams. 

And all you know, I was at a professional level many times and on a personal level, which is important to me. If something happened and I needed to let somebody go, I would. You know, now I’m a little bit more comfortable with it, but I think in showing them that I care about them outside of work, they, in turn, care about my family and me and what we’re trying to do, so it kind of becomes this circle of things—support almost.

Cosmos

I understand what you’re going through because, on the one hand, you have the corporate world where everything is worthless. And then, on the other hand, you have compassionate entrepreneurs that we want to care about the employees by the end of the day; they have to get results as well. 

It’s such a delicate subject. Also, yeah, all the people who do entrepreneurship and business are first-time experiences because they have to create results, jobs, and anything only they understand. Most people, even nationally, will not understand what it’s like to go from the employer or the company owner’s point of view.

Luke 

Yeah, it is.

Cosmos

And this is one of those cases where, uh, where it’s just like, so relevant, you know, it’s like that this delicate fine line you walk your tightrope like I understand that you know.

Luke 

Yeah. Yeah, it’s Tough, sometimes you know something will happen, and I’ll. I’ll kind of jump on somebody. Again, you know, but again, there’s the, you know you, you build that camaraderie. There’s a mutual respect there. 

So, if you know if they didn’t do something that they needed to do or that I asked them to do and that didn’t get done, yeah, they’re going to know about it. You know, again, learning to build that skill a little bit, but maybe it’s just my nature. You know? 

But then I’ll smash it with something else, you know, crack a joke or something. Or bring them, bring him some food to the job site or something to say. Thanks. If something happens where I need to get stern with some of my guys, I always try to ensure they know what’s happening.

But also like, hey, let’s l just not let’s not do that again. Here’s some cheeseburgers. Let’s go. Let’s rock’n’roll so, and it’s, you know, for. For the last few years, that’s been very productive for me, and you know they, I know, my guys appreciate that. But I and I also appreciate them. One of my biggest sayings is that you must care for those who care for you.

That’s probably the number one thing that I will talk to folks about, especially in this industry. But I think in any industry you got to take care of the people, take care of the people that take care of you, cause without them, you’re. I’m nothing, and I know that. You know, I know that.

Cosmos

This is the type of like mentality that means, like America, extraordinary in terms of like. Jobs that, at least back in the 1940s nineteen 50s, there was a time when many people had manufacturing jobs, and then the employers cared about their employees.

And then they had pensions and all that. But in 2024, things have drastically changed, like those times are no longer there. And do you know what, like inflation and everything? Things are getting harder, not only for the founders of companies but also for employees who like to pay their bills. 

But so, from your point of view in today’s world, what do you do? Think is the biggest challenge real estate developers and company owners will face in your industry. How do you think they can go about overcoming it?

Luke 

The biggest challenge, I think, falls from what kind of where we started; we don’t do so much of this. We, you know, do a little bit of it, but not as much as we do. I used to watch just the space of what was going on. I think when we were, you know, when we were doing a lot of development work, borrowing money lending, that became a, you know, that became a thing and then. At some point, that’s what we got out of it; it just became. It became too expensive to borrow money. 

So, you know, I think you know again that construction is a bit different. You know, development is, you know, where you borrow money just watching the geopolitical and, you know, on a national level what’s going on. You know, interest rates were just something we had to watch closely. You know, and you kind of mentioned the word mentor earlier. 

I think that’s such a huge thing. It’s a huge help to get started and have somebody advocating for you and showing you the ropes. I’ll quickly blip on what you and I talked about a handful of weeks ago when I mentioned, you know, kind of learning on somebody else’s dime. We always like real estate. 

We went to this kind of networking event—my wife, partner, and I at the time. We met somebody there who turned out to be us. We had no idea at the time. We sat down, talking to people at a round table, and jumped back and forth. We talked. We had known this person previously but didn’t know much about what she was doing or wanted to do. 

So, we were just sharing our dreams. We’re sharing our passions about, you know, about real estate, you know, and we just kind of left it at that. You are left that left. That evening came home, you know, and I don’t even know how many months later, but I got a phone call some months later saying, hey, this is so and so. Hey, what do you know what’s going on? I’m just thinking, you know, this is weird. Why is? She, you know. Why is she calling?

She says, “Hey, I want to. I want to get together.” Me, I was like, OK. Yeah, great. Great. So anyway, we ended up meeting with her. Long story short, my partner and I sat down, and she sat down and said, “Hey, I just bought.” I just bought two properties in Washington, DC, and I need somebody to manage the development of its kind. 

And we’re thinking, oh hey, cool. That’s awesome. You know, why are you talking to us? You know, we didn’t have any. We didn’t have any experience at that time. So. But she’s like, I want you guys to do this. She’s like, I’m going to go. 

She was going to a medical school up in Boston or Yale, or some, I don’t know, some Ivy League medical school. She’s super smart. But she’s like, I don’t want you guys to. I want you guys to manage these projects for me manage these. Properties. And we thought, well, I don’t, you know, I don’t know. We just like doing it. We want to get into it. We don’t know what we’re doing. No, no, no. I trust you guys. I trust you guys. 

So, she started talking a little bit more about some logistics and said, “All right, I got to jump on a plane tonight. But here I wanted to give you the keys to the property, and here’s a checkbook for this bank Account, right?” We were still slightly stunned, like, “I don’t know what is happening.” What was she doing? Is she crazy? And yeah, she was. 

But that was a kickstart for us. She didn’t know much about this space, but she was pretty. Plus, she was a trust fund baby, probably our age. But I got super nice and kind of blankety and trusted us to start this stuff. 

So, we got, you know, yeah. Oh, it’s. Yeah. It’s not. Yeah, that doesn’t happen.

Cosmos

That is very rare.

Luke 

And that just kind of started the whole endeavor again. Fast forward to where we are today. That was the point at which we got started. And like I said, we got, you know, we got when I say we got to learn on somebody else’s dime because it was her bank account, and we were doing everything, learning everything. She had no teams. She had nothing.

She had two keys to these properties and an A and a check. Right, she said. Everything’s there. I don’t, I don’t. You guys do what you guys do, and it was just this opportunity that, that, that. Yeah, we think that was the real point; that kind of thing got us to where we are today just because we got to learn so much again. You know, we were hiring agents, we have attorneys. We had to go all these Council meetings and, you know, get, you know, all this stuff. 

So, it wasn’t just a construction project; it was a whole political thing because rezoning was huge. But we just took it. We just started running with it. Again, I did that while still working at my corporate job. 

So that was it was a lot. It was a lot then to, you know, getting out of work. And then I’m driving to these, you know, properties and meeting with attorneys and also, you know, hiring construction, you know, hiring teams to, you know, actually do the work once, you know, once we were good. It was such a wild thing, and at the time, you know, and now I realize what a blessing it was because we just got introduced to so much. 

I learned so much and met so many people during that time. And you know, some of those people we still work with, I still. Work with today. 

It was just one of those blessings. Yeah, like you said, it is a pretty rare opportunity.

Cosmos

So, look, when people think of opportunity, they think of something like a lot of people think of something like the social network, where, oh, it’s a new idea and everything, but this is also like it. It’s one of those real estate types; it’s almost like a movie. 

So, you have this trust fund that gives you the keys to the Kingdom. But you have no experience. How many times does that happen? And then you learn, you learn, you learn, it just changes the course of your life. That is pretty wild.

Luke 

Right.

It was. It was pretty wild. And, you know, there was a lot of times we failed, you know, there was a lot of times that we had to, you know, we missed. We swung it something, and we missed you, you know. And she was nice, you know. And to her credit, she also said, hey, that’s what we can’t. That can’t happen again. I understand we’re all, you know, we’re all learning this, but that’s not, you know, that’s not. I’m going to fly. 

So she was very graceful but stern in the same way. That was a huge help for us. But she was also a huge advocate for us, always encouraging us. And you know, I think when you know at that time. You know, and I think for people looking to get into business ownership or entrepreneurship, if you can, people will miss the mark. And that’s OK. That’s how you learn, you know.

And I think getting back to where I’m talking about earlier, right, if you can, if you can support your guys in a way or you know, I say time Files In a way that they know they’re supported, man, they’re they’ll, they’ll run the race with you. And even when something misses, or, you know, they fall short of something, or they didn’t do something you asked or whatever. If you if you, you know if. They’re. If they’re good, keep them around and watch. They’ll grow alongside you, and they’ll grow with you, and you know. Well, they were just, and that was huge. 

That was a huge thing for us is like knowing that, you know, when we did something or when we, you know, something happened, or she was like hey, lets you know course correct, but also you guys got this kind of a thing when you’re just when you’re learning and when you’re you know when you’re struggling sometimes. When it’s when, it’s when everything’s not going super well or as planned, you know, to have somebody that’s you know mentoring you or helping you whatever to, you know encouraging you is that’s a. Huge. That’ll get you up in the morning.

Cosmos

Yeah, Luke, this is almost one of those Great American stories where you go through this interesting, crazy experience. But then it just alters the course of your life. And then you do entrepreneurship, and many people would want opportunities like this. But it’s not just about having the opportunity. It’s about capitalizing on that opportunity. This brings me to the next question. 

So, on a national level, as you know, America’s identity is all about the entrepreneurial spirit, and it’s also like America is about a land of opportunity. So, from your perspective, how should Americans achieve the American dream? Should they go about the entrepreneur path from your perspective or do something else?

Luke 

That’s a great question—one that will only be answered by individuals, right? Many people think the American dream is climbing the corporate ladder, and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

There’s this misconception out there. If you know, to be whatever, you have to own your own business or, you know, the American dream is owning your own business. Some people scare the heck out of, you know, the idea that a lot of people in my circle are not wired that way. My family thought I was an idiot when I was making the money that I was making, you know, 25 hours a week with flexibility and every. You know, like. You know, they would look at me like that. You’re that’s the most ridiculous thing that you ever heard of. How are you? How do you hate your job? You don’t. But I just, you know, I wasn’t wired that way, and I think it, but some people are not wired to Jump out of the boat and sink or swim. 

So, I think it’s just realizing, being OK with, and owning the. No, that’s not me. That’s, you know, business ownership is not my path. I like what I’m doing, and that’s awesome. I think more and more I commend people who enjoy that. The lifestyle of this, this, and sometimes I miss it, to be honest with you, the steady check, whatever it. You know, but I think some people dream of becoming the CEO of these multinational companies or, you know, running these nonprofits that are changing lives or, you know, whatever it is, it’s, you know, I think the American dream is whatever your dream is. Right. 

My dream was this; somebody else on this channel’s dream might be that. And that’s awesome. And I think that’s why you know this: this country operates the way it does because everybody’s got their own, everybody’s got different dreams, right? America can’t be built on however many people here, and not everybody. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, right? Otherwise, nobody can have employees, so you know that’s how the body works. Well, that way.

Cosmos

No, I mean for sure. Many people have hopes and dreams, realities, and what they want to achieve, but they often can’t because they lack financial freedom. 

So, I think the American identity of freedom and realizing the American dream is integral to the entrepreneurial spirit because when you have problems, like when doing business. You’re having all these problems; you can live the life you want. And you’re not following somebody else’s dream; you’re doing what you want to do. 

And I think, like, when I came here as an immigrant, that’s something that I noticed was distinct, that sense of individualism and about going and chasing after what you want, like whether you make mistakes or not. And that’s part of life, like real freedom, about making your own. Choices and to live with those choices. And I think that’s part of what makes Americans extraordinary. 

Luke 

I couldn’t agree, agree more, or agree more. And yeah, your testament to that is in its own right.

So, I think, you know, I think that’s such a. We’ve got some friends that you. Know they had a. They had a hard journey coming, you know, to the States, you know, from different places around the world. You, you know, you hear some of these stories, and I’m like, holy moly, man, you, I tell you, I take you to know, I took for granted sometimes do still do, and you know. Take for granted the opportunity that I was given just being born here. 

Right in, you know, in a comfortable family, and I’ve worked my tail off to get where I am now, but not everybody has that same opportunity. The more and more you talk to people, the more and more you realize you like a man. Sometimes, my hard days are pretty are pretty easy days compared to a lot of people. And I think. When you can just myself, I kind of realize the. Kind of take a step back. What’s the word? Perspective. That’s the word I’m looking for: Perspective. Right.

Perspective is powerful, you know. And I mean, the more you know yourself, the more you talk to more people doing different things or, you know, learning more about their journey in this life. You know whether they’re born here or not. But. I think it’s a that’s a. That’s a testament to. Those are the grits of a lot of people in this world.

Cosmos

Yeah. And I would like to add that the American identity is also about mindset, right? We have become who we are because our mindset differs from other nations. We had the mindset of working hard and working smart. 

And it’s kind of like what you’re doing, right? You took advantage of the opportunity and built your company around real estate like it’s about that entrepreneurial spirit. And, like, that’s what allowed us to become what we are today. 

So, yeah, I would like to add a mindset. It is a big part of that—identity combined with the right mindset.

Luke 

Yep, absolutely.

Cosmos

So, Luke, on a different note, could you tell me in the audience a little bit more about your KBL Development LLC, including how you got that started and what it is?

Luke 

Yeah. So, we started the company back in. I think it was good. I should know this, but I don’t know this exactly. But when some of these opportunities started coming, we, you know, we. You know, I started. I started the RLC, the first one we still operate under today. 

Yeah, we started flipping houses and knew, just from a legal perspective, that was the best way to do it: to kind of hide there. I say hide, but structure everything in, you know, under the LLC or different LLCs for different properties and whatnot. Yeah, we started off doing that. 

You know, the market changed, and it wasn’t super, you know, sustainable to kind of do what we were doing, just cause money got so expensive and home prices were, you know, everything was kind of. It was not conducive to our model. 

So, we kind of shifted gears, and that’s when we got into construction. And that’s what we do today: residential construction, building homes, and commercial construction. Our dream is when I structure the company. 

I knew what I wanted to do long term, you know, which was, and you kind of mentioned this, you know, alluded to this at the beginning of the podcast, was get into the government space, you know, being out here we’re, you know, we’re in Bethesda right out, you know right outside of. You know we’re well. Football throws away from the DC property line, so the federal government is in our backyard. I always knew I wanted to get into government contracting, partly because that’s the space I was in during my corporate time, right? I was in government consulting. 

So, I saw a lot of things learned, and you know, one day, I realized, man, if I can do this for myself and our company, this would be a huge opportunity. There’s a huge opportunity there. 

When I structured the company, I put 51% in my wife’s name because she’s Puerto Rican. Fast-forward a handful of years, and we hired this company to take us through the certification process to become a women-owned small business, a women-owned business enterprise, and a minority-owned business enterprise. 

So, we hold these three certifications, and you know. I haven’t done a whole lot with it. You know, you know, and I think it’s been a blessing and a curse at the same time. I think we’ve been. We’ve been busy enough on the other side that I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time as I’d want. To kind of grow that government sector. But that’s, I mean, long term, and even short term, we’re making some moves to get into that space now. 

But It’s a Bearcat to get into government contracting. Somebody through our organization introduced me to somebody else and connected me to A to A. This company specializes in taking small businesses looking to get into contracting. Within the government sector, we’re talking with them about that space. 

And pretty, pretty heavily, I am looking forward to that opportunity of making that step and kind of taking that next leap in terms of growing our business and getting into the government contracting space again within the construction space.

Cosmos

That’s amazing. It’s just, I mean, I would ask you so many more questions about the government space and all that, but obviously, there’s only a limited amount of time for the podcast. 

Still, there’s so much interconnection between the government and real estate development. Like many people, that would be interested in knowing, but it’s probably like something for a later time. But Luke, are there any other projects you’re doing and working on right now that you want the audience to glimpse?

Luke

I don’t know. There is, yes. Do you know what the audience is interested in? I don’t know. Or, you know I. We’re doing; we’re building out some space in this eye surgery center, so that’s some commercial work. 

So that’s fun; it’s different. I think every one of the things I enjoy about it is construction. It’s just something new every day, right? No day is the same, which I appreciate. You know, I can. I get my truck. I can drive around and, you know, talk to people. So, I enjoy that part of it. Yeah. 

So, we’re doing, you know, doing some commercial stuff right now and some, you know, some kind of medical facilities. We’re just wrapping up. We’ve just built this massive garage for a client who loves cars. Man, we built this thing from the ground up and, you know, put two car lifts in for them, and they’re, you know, they got these Porsches and Lexus. They’re just, and I’m a big car guy. 

I enjoyed it. It was a fun project because I got to watch the cars right after I was done, which was fun. We’re always doing new kitchens, bathrooms, and other things for people.

And so, it’s fun when a different project comes along. Like I said, we’re in the garage or some commercial stuff. So, it’s the part that is fun for me, the new and challenging stuff. And you know, I get to, you know, I like putting my brain to work and learning something.

Cosmos

That is amazing, Luke. And how can our audience connect with you and learn more about you and what you do?

Luke 

Yeah, absolutely. I mean my, our, my e-mail address or the e-mail address on our website will, will, will, you know it will be directed to me, but it’s just info@kbldevelopment.com. So, if you have any questions or are interested in anything, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I’d love to. I’d love to connect with you, and we can, you know, jump on a call and talk some more, but that’s probably the easiest and quickest way to get a hold of you. 

Cosmos

Look, thank you so much. And I do mean, thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast with me and then share your experience of yourself and your entrepreneurship experience—all that cause. 

Your story is one of Those Stories that America needs, like how to achieve success through business. Ultimately, American identity is all about financial freedom and the entrepreneurial spirit; taking advantage of opportunities is the means to do it. You’re an inspiration to a lot of people. I hope you take the time to come back and do this podcast later.

Luk

 I’d love to do this again with you and, you know, for a couple of years. See, we’re at or even next year. See where we’re at? That’d be that’d be great. And I’m glad that I could. You know, I could do this for you. You guys, have you known, you’ve been a huge help for me, so I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and learn more about a little bit about me and yeah, hopefully like somebody was to me that you know, some part of this conversation somebody takes away. 

It inspires them to take a step, make a phone call, or set up a coffee or something with somebody. Help in any way, whether financially or as a mentor, or just to learn. Take the step. That’s a big thing I try to tell myself daily: What am I? What am I doing today that moves the needle? It moves the needle a little bit. 

So, do something tomorrow that helps you in your venture. It doesn’t have to be a huge step, but a little step feels good.

And that’s how they start.

Cosmos

That is exactly the mindset of entrepreneurs who ultimately succeed. Yeah, Luke. 

And so, I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, listen, there’s an extraordinary within every one of us, and we have to awaken it and unleash it until next time. Bye for now.