REL Freedom Podcast: Episodes 1-40
We're excited to share all of our Freedom Stories with you. These are people sharing their journey toward time and financial freedom through various opportunities in Real Estate. Listen. Learn. Find a story that resonates with you and go pursue your passion and your goals! Scroll down for episodes 1-40 or jump to the links for other episodes!
Episode 40: Curtis Kupfersmith
Control Your Time To Control Your Life
Curtis Kupfersmith has had a lot of success in his life on his journey to financial and time freedom. He purchased his first investment property back in 2010 at the age of 19, shortly before moving to Oklahoma City. In 2013, Curtis got his real estate license and ended up selling 50 homes his first full year. From there he grew a team over the next few years to 227 units and almost $30 Million in volume in 2019 before he decided to sell his team. In that time, he's also flipped and rehabbed 15 properties. Today Curtis is a coach a trainer to sales people and is also the host of the "Let's Talk Investing" podcast. He has a strong passion for teaching and helping others take control of their lives.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 39: Al Jones
Having A PERFECT 850 Credit Score!
Al Jones knew what it was like growing up with bad credit. If fact, he was often on the receiving end of nasty creditor calls as a child. By taking messages that he'd relay to his mom, without realizing it, he helped negotiate credit payments on her behalf. Fast forward to today and Al actually boasts a PERFECT 850 credit score. Hear his story as he shares more about the freedom he's built by building great credit over his lifetime. Al is also the author of the book "My Journey From Bad To Excellent Credit" and is the founder of a game/app Lyrics Guru which he also pitched to Shark Tank.
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Episode 38: Van Sturgeon
From Humble Beginnings To 1000 Doors
Van Sturgeon came from humble beginnings in Chicago helping to manage a property with his family. He turned to starting a construction business to live out the American Dream, and from there, one thing has led to the next. Today he is an experienced entrepreneur who has businesses in land acquisition, development, construction, renovation, as well as owning over 1,000 properties in North America. Because he's built his companies with great people, he's now semi-retired and spending his time coaching and mentoring others. Primarily he helps homeowners and real estate investors overcome their fears of house renovations and helps them to achieve their real estate goals.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 37: Chad Willardson
Overcoming Obstacles For Stress Free Monday
Chad Willardson shares with us some of the main obstacles you can overcome to find financial freedom. Chad is the founder and president of Pacific Capital, a wealth advisory firm in California that works with high net worth individuals. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., US New & World Report, Entrepreneur Magazine, NBC News, and many others. He's also the author of Amazon #1 Best-Seller "Stress Free Money: Overcome These Seven Obstacles to Find Financial Freedom." In addition, he's also an elected City Treasurer, managing a $350 million investment portfolio for tax payers. He is the co-owner of the Draft Sports Complex, he's an entrepreneur, and father of 5!
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Episode 36: Adam Hergenrother
A Life Of Discipline Leads To Freedom
Adam Hergenrother runs a $1 billion company which includes a Real Estate company (HergGroup & Livian), a Coaching & Training Organization (Achieve Freedom Coaching), a construction company (BlackRock Construction), among others. In addition, he also has authored a book with his Chief of Staff Hallie Warner (The Founder & The Force Multiplier) and runs a podcast (Business Meets Spirituality). In this episode, Adam talks about how you have to focus on the disciplines in your life in order to gain the freedom that you want. You can't lead all of these companies, take on physical challenges, spend time meditating, traveling, and being with your family, without locking in the discipline of how to best spend your time. Hear Adam share his wisdom to help you to understand that if he can do it, you can do it too!
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 35: Tina Beliveau
Building A Strong Financial Foundation Toward Freedom
Tina is the founder of The Beliveau Group of eXp Realty, where she has serves over 100 clients each year and over 800 since the team was formed in 2014. In addition, she has served as a Team Leader and General Manager for multiple locations at her previous brokerage. In addition, Tina is the host of the "Tina and Jo Show" podcast with Joanne Bolt, discussing how they created and maintain their real estate empires. In her free time, Tina enjoys spending time with her husband and their 3 dogs (and preparing for a baby on the way)!
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Episode 34: Eric Martel
Retiring In 4 Years Through Turnkey Investments
After losing a fortune during the dotcom crash, Eric knew there had to be a better way to plan for retirement. He began to look for ways to earn income passively and to no longer trade time for money. After a few business launches, he landed on MartelTurnkey, a company that provides a way for the "average person" to invest in turnkey properties that he and his team have identified to be successful opportunities. He sold his house and all his equity to launch this venture, and in just 4 short years now is able to retire from his day job. In addition to that, he launched a book "Stop Trading Your Time For Money" as a way to help others learn the valuable lessons he's learned on his journey, so that people don't make the same mistakes he's made.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 33: Ashlee Chapman
Specializing In What Most Agents Hate
I'm going to stick to "traditional" real estate because it's "easier." That is NOT Ashlee Chapman! While most agents are running out of the home, that's when she rolls up her sleeves and runs in. Inside Sales? Yep. Cold calling? Yep. Foreclosures? Yep. Bankrupcies? Yep. Short Sales? Yep. Wholesaling? Yep. All with no training provided. She bootstrapped and figured out what she needed to do. Not to mention, she left her home in the Pacific NW and moved to San Diego on a whim, so all the traction she's gained is in an area she didn't know. Today, Ashlee serves as Director of Acquisitions for the Middleton Group with Big Block Realty. She LOVES what she does and is going to do big things in the future.
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Episode 32: Kurt Uhlir
10x Your Marketing & Scale Big
Kurt Uhlir is a marketing expert that loves to scale companies fast and big! This is what gets him most excited! Kurt has helped grow companies from launch all the way up to having revenues over $500 Million. He's a speaker, coach, and consultant who has advised leaders from private-equity backed CEOs to the President of the United States. He's also appeared on national TV shows including The Wired, TechCrunch, Thrive Global, USA Today, NBC, ABC and others. Today, Kurt shares top tips people need to know to scale and grow their business as well as lessons he has learned along the way.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 31: Loral Langemeier
Becoming "The Millionaire Maker"
Loral Langemeier, affectionately known as "The Millionaire Maker", is living proof that wherever you start in life, you can live the life of your dreams. Loral is a money expert, speaker, 5-time New York Times best-selling author, Owner & CEO of Integrated Wealth Systems, and avid real estate investor. She has appeared on various shows and channels like Dr. Phil, The View, CNN, CNBC, Fox News and in articles in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Forbes Magazine. In this episode, we talk about how she changed the trajectory of her life through relationships with others to earn her first million and beyond.
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Episode 30: Todd Ashton
Acquiring Properties For 3-5 Cents On The Dollar Via Tax Liens
Todd Ashton is the expert when it comes to acquiring properties via Tax Liens and Deeds. He's been teaching and providing mentorship to thousands across the country including Robert Allen, Russ Whitney, Dolf DeRoos, Robert Kiyosaki, James Smith, Armando Montelongo, Sean Higgins and Tony Martinez, among others. While many companies seek to sell you training after training and course after course to make them more money, Todd has modeled his business around 1 flat fee for a lifetime of mentorship. He also provides a 100% success guarantee as you follow the 4 step process: Find, Vet, Evaluate, and Verify. Hear Todd share his story and give you a window into the fascinating industry of tax liens!
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 29: Shawn DiMartile
Air Traffic Controller To 500 Unit Investor In 2 Years
Shawn DiMartile started as an air traffic controller in San Diego diligently investing in his 401k. Fast forward 2 years and he and his partners will own close to 500 units. How did that happen? He determined the "traditional" way to retirement wasn't for him, he put in a TON of hard work, he read everything he could about real estate, and he networked to find some top investors to mentor him. His first investment out of the gate was a 32 unit building in Indianapolis, IN which took a lot of work to get going for 3 guys with no investment experience to show lenders, yet they got it done. Shawn has now mapped out a plan to net over 600k per year in his investment business over the next 15 years. Learn more about his journey here! Shawn and his partners are also the hosts of "The Multifamily Takeoff" podcast where they discuss multi-family real estate investing.
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Episode 28: Greg McDaniel
A Censored Real Estate Freedom Conversation From Mr. Uncensored
If you know Greg McDaniel, you know he's not afraid to share his thoughts and opinions in an uncensored manner. After all, he's the co-host of Real Estate Uncensored, a top podcast focused on marketing and sales in real estate. He's never met a microphone or a camera he didn't love. Growing up in real estate and learning his dad, who has been in the business for over 50 years, Greg decided to take a different path after high school before circling back to real estate a few years later. He launched his business focused on cold calling and door knocking to the point where his shoes completely wore out, and hasn't looked back. Now 20 years in the business himself, he's regularly taking multi-million dollar listings in and around his area of Walnut Creek, CA. Greg shares his path and the wisdom he's gained along the way, as well as his heart for helping others succeed too!
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 27: Alex Marsolais
Freedom For Families, Employees, and Clients At the Same Time
"I want to build a family someday, yet I don't want anyone to tell me what time I can or can't take off." This is the mindset that fueled the entrepreneurial drive of Alex Marsolais. Not only did she want this for herself, she wanted to build a company that lived out that same mindset for its' employees, and provide a service that helps provide more freedom for their clients. That's what she's doing. In just over five short years, Minnesota Transaction Coordinators (now called Home Free TC) has grown to one of the largest real estate administrative companies in the United States. This year, they will close north of 2,000 transactions and currently have a staff of 17 people.
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Episode 26: Bryan Driscoll & Chad Keller
Digital Marketing Specialists & Buy/Hold Investors
What happens when some digital marketing, SEO, and FB ad experts combine their knowledge and apply it to providing leads for real estate investors? Meet Bryan and Chad! They've applied their longtime knowledge and experience in the digital marketing space to find off-market investment deals for real estate investors across the United States (through their company Motivated Leads) and for themselves locally in the Pittsburgh area (using their strategies to build a personal portfolio of 15 buy & hold properties). Hear their story of how they've positioned their experience for maximum personal and professional success.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 25: Zach Riggs
Working 15 Hours A Week Selling $9 Million/Yr And Owning 80 Homes
Zach Riggs is a guy that knows what's he's good, stays in his lane, and doesn't feel the pressure of having to work a lot of hours to feel accomplished in his career. After struggling to find his place after high school, he was eventually encouraged to go get his real estate license. From there he slowly built his sales business at a discount brokerage before moving to a more traditional brokerage. Along the way, he built up a small team and eventually found a love for fix-and-flips and investment properties. As of this past year, Zach closes about $8-9 million in sales per year as an agent, owns about 80 homes, and flips dozens of homes per year, all while working about 15 hours a week. He prioritizes his time so that he can take his kids to school each day, take lots of fun trips all over the world with his family, and still finds time to take his customary lunch at the Pita Pit during the week. Hear Zach share his awesome journey!
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Episode 24: Rachel Teodoro
Modeling Money Principles To Raise Financially Wise Children
Rachel Teodoro is a wife, mom of 3, and a full-time blogger in the Seattle area. Growing up, she was fortunate to be in a household that taught her about money & saving at a young age. Graduating college married with a 2-year-old tested their new family financially, yet she shares how implementing what she was taught about money helped get them through. She's passed these lessons onto her children to where their oldest son graduated debt-free from college (financing over 30k/yr of the cost himself) and just closed on a 500k house at the age of 22. Hear this Everyday Millionaire share her journey along the way.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 23: Jeff Scislow
Improvising Over 35 Years And $20M In Agent Commissions Earned
Jeff Scislow has been a real estate agent for over 35 years, with 34 of those years at Remax. His career started out with a bang, selling 58 homes in his first year and last year eclipsing over $20 Million in commissions earned during his time at Remax. Over this span, he's adapted and evolved as the market has changed. He was a pioneer in the industry, being one of the first people to have a buyer's agent back in 1992. He was the first agent in Minnesota with a website back in 1995. He's been a top 10 agent in all of Remax in 1996 and 2006. While being a Minnesota resident, he helped over 200 people buy homes in Florida in one year. He's done flips, rentals, guaranteed sales, financed contract for deeds for his clients, and much more. You name it, he's done it in his career. Hear how his business has twisted and turned over these past 35 years and how he's enjoyed the ride along the way!
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Episode 22: Clint Muhlenberg
Reinventing Partnerships With Real Estate Virtual Assistants
Clint Muhlenberg is the Founder and CEO of Level, a company that provides professional virtual assistants to people in all areas of real estate. Level is on a mission to completely flip the idea of a Virtual Assistant from a robotic task-doer to an essential team player. They hire real people specifically chosen to fill a role in your organization, and arm all partners with a passionate support team that’s dedicated to everyone’s mutual success. Clint's heart is in helping others, treating his staff with the utmost respect, and being an advocate for them in all the companies he partners with. Grasping the way Virtual Assistants can take your business to the next level can radically change the trajectory of your business.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 21: Erik Hatch
Broker, Coach, Author, Investor, and Leader of 20+ Companies
Erik Hatch is a masterful entrepreneur. Originally a youth paster, Erik started out in real estate part-time and closed 0 homes his first year! He kept at it and slowly grew his business before jumping in full-time about 10 years ago. Since then he formed a team, became a brokerage, formed a coaching company, began investing (he now owns 60 doors), flips 25-30 homes a year as part of his Snap Offers program, wrote a book, and recently started doing Airbnb. Hear Erik talk about his journey, how he allocates his time and sets his priorities to grow his companies, and how he's built a great team of people along the way that loves winning alongside him.
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Episode 20: Devin Doherty
How Your Mindset & Outlook Impacts Your Future
Devin Doherty is a mindset ninja. Outside of real estate, he's been in the tech industry (working with IBM & Macintosh), a consultant, and also a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, among many other amazing accomplishments. Inside of real estate, he's been a top agent, investor, coach, and helped build the 6th largest real estate team in the United States. In this episode, Devin shares more about his journey towards financial freedom and the lessons that have helped impact his journey. This episode comes from Freedom Con, a live event REL Freedom held in the fall of 2020.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 19: Kelly Blodgett Sjostrom
Paid Off $46, 514.91 Of Debt In 20 Months
Before we can experience the freedom of building wealth, many of us have to remove the chains of debt. For Kelly Blodgett, she graduated with 60k in student loan debt. She faithfully made her school loan payment for 8 years. She was astonished at how little she had paid down during that time, so she decided to get aggressive and attack her debt. Over the next 20 months, she paid off the remaining $46,514.91 and now is a financial coach helping others to build a solid financial future through Money Gal Coaching. In this episode, Kelly Bodgett and Mike Swenson discuss getting your house in order and many of the basic principles to give you a solid financial foundation for your future.
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Episode 18: Erin Torres
New In Real Estate To President Of Herg Group In Five Years
You can be anywhere you want within five years. Erin Torres is proof of that. Having worked past jobs that left her bored and unfulfilled, she met Adam Hergenrother and it all changed. In 5 short years, she's moved up to President of Herg Group, a top real estate team that closed 3,000 units with 240+ agents in 24 states. We talk about how she found the role, her journey in real estate, and how she has 12 streams of income coming from 3 main areas that ALL worked synergistically to help feed each other. Plus she has some BIG projects on the horizon for this upcoming year.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 17: Todd Dexheimer
Teacher Turned Investor, 800 Units & $45 Million In Holdings
Todd Dexheimer shares his journey from being a teacher to researching real estate investing, to eventually jumping in full-time over the span of a couple of years. He's done single-family, multi-family, mobile homes, and even a ski resort. Todd's pushed through roadblocks, adapted his mindset and grown his company to new heights. Todd now focuses his time on 100+ unit complexes & senior group homes. Learn from Todd to help you forge your path in real estate. You can also hear from Todd on the Pillars of Wealth Creation Podcast.
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Episode 16: Ahmed Iqbal
Utilizing Partnerships With Others To Accelerate Your Portfolio
Ahmed Iqbal is an IT guy who "finds bugs for a living" by day, is also a real estate investor who currently holds 28 units in Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Alabama totaling $4 Million, which have all been purchased in the past 5 years. He has leveraged relationships with others to create strong investment partnerships where each person brings their specific skills to the group. Because of his strong passion for systems and efficiencies, it has allowed each of them to grow quickly. He also discussed his desire to "soft retire" in 3 1/2 years to choose where he wants to spend his time after that.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 15: Christy Belt Grossman:
Do What You Want, When You Want, Where You Want, Forever
Christy Belt Grossman talks about her journey to creating a life by design and empowering thousands of other admin in real estate along the way. She discusses how she went from the top #1 worldwide at her employer in the mortgage industry to running her family's real estate team that has sold over $1 Billion in their lifetime. She then took that experience and launched Ops Boss Coaching and is truly living the life she wants serving her bigger purpose in life, giving back to the real estate admin community, and working with a group of people that she handpicked to help change the world.
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Episode 14: Ryan O'Neill
Humble Growth In Leading #1 Remax Team In The World
Hear from Ryan O'Neill as he shares his humble growth from renter to investor to agent to leading the worlds #1 team at Remax in closed transactions. Oh, and he also has been inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. We discuss basic business principles - hire good people, care for them, help them get where they want to go, and provide great service to your clients. It's simple, not easy. Yet when you do that year over year, a large business can grow organically - eventually getting you to #1 in your field. This is a can't-miss episode.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 13: Tri Vu
IT Guy Turned Airbnb and Turnkey Property Investor In Multiple States
Hear from Tri Vu as he talks about how he's lept into investing over the past 2 1/2 years while still keeping his day job in IT. After interviewing a bunch of top people in IT, he found out that so many of them had real estate investments on the side, so he and his wife and family dove headfirst into opening 2 AirBNB's in San Diego in the spring of 2018. Since then, it has grown to additional investments in other states such as Arizona, Mississippi, Illinois, and Maryland. It has provided a creative outlet for him and his wife and led him to take risks he never would have taken before, so that he can build the future and freedom he wants.
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Episode 12: Nick Correll
Family Investor With A Heart To Help & Moving To A New State
Hear from Nick Correll as he talks about getting into investing before he was a licensed agent. He talks about what it's like working with his family in his business and how he's balanced being an agent & and investor. Also hear how his investment business is giving him the freedom, due to passive income, so his family can follow their dreams and move his real estate business to a new state!
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 11: Mike Swenson
From Finance To Ops To Entrepreneur To REL Freedom Founder
Hear from REL Freedom Founder Mike Swenson about his journey from working in finance for a non-profit to real estate team founder and REL Freedom founder. He shares his journey on real estate investments, savings, and talks about the future he's creating for those in real estate.
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Episode 10: Veronica Figueroa
Going All-In On Life You Don't Want A Vacation From
Hear from "Queen of Teams" Veronica Figueroa on her journey from a teenage mom to running a powerhouse real estate team. She shares how she burned the boats and went all in to become a true success story and an inspiration to others.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 9: Brian Carruthers
Sharing His Experience Of True Financial And Time Freedom
Hear from former real estate agent and broker turned network marketing guru and author Brian Carruthers on how he's earned true financial and time freedom in his career. Brian is the author of books such as: Untrapped Freedom Manifesto, Building An Empire, Making My First Ten Million & Money Mindset.
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Episode 8: Christian Peterson
The Journey From Attorney To Agent & Investor
Hear from attorney turned agent Christian Peterson on his path from working as an attorney to getting his real estate license, to now become a highly specialized professional in the real estate space. In addition, he's taken on investing the past couple of years and is growing to become a net worth millionaire.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 7: Brindley Tucker
Building Your Empire By Supporting Others Building Theirs
Hear from "Queen of Leverage" Brindley Tucker on how she is fulfilling her dreams by supporting others as they build theirs. Brindley is the founder of Your Realty Leverage, a company that provides a whole suite of services to real estate agents, teams, and brokerages - from recruiting, hiring, training, listings, transactions, marketing, and coaching. Because of their success, they are expanding to other industries as well.
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Episode 6: Vlad Kats
10 Streams Of Income Is Great, Yet Don't Spread Yourself Too Thin
Hear from Vlad Kats how he's strategically spending his time to focus on growing his greatest asset...himself. His goal is to make 80k per month passively so that he and his family can travel the world 6 months at a time and live like kings & queens!
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 5: Reyna Rousseau
Running A $68 Million Mortgage Business & 17 Rentals & Flips
Hear from Reyna Rousseau from Crosscountry Mortgage to hear how she has grown her lending business to over $68 million. In addition, she had found enough time to handle 17 rentals and flips in the past 3 years. Her and her husband have plans to retire by the age of 50.
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Episode 4. Chris Craddock
Running 8 Businesses In Real Estate That Feed Each Other
Hear from Chris Craddock from The Redux Group as he shares how we went from making $20k/yr in ministry to now having 8 different businesses that each help feed each other. This includes his residential real estate team, a construction business, investments, flips, a title company, an insurance company, LegalShield, and a coaching business. His goal is to have $13 Million in paid of rental properties to help him net $1 Million per year.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 3: Amanda Churchwell
Retiring Her Spouse Through Growing A RE Admin Company
Hear from Amanda Churchwell from The Churchwell Group as she shares her journey towards financial freedom through building a company that provide listings, transactions, and marketing services to real estate agents. Amanda has been in real estate for 20 years and started The Churchwell Group almost 8 years ago. Since then it has blossomed into a staff of 28 serving 10 states. Her next major milestone in the next few years is to reach $10,000,000 in revenue with a staff of 100.
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Episode 2: AJ Pettersen
From MN Twins To 275 Units & 10 Rentals In 6 Years
Hear from AJ Pettersen from The Advisory Realty Group as he shares his journey towards financial freedom. AJ Pettersen was an All-American baseball player at the University of Minnesota and was drafted by the Minnesota Twins. In just 6 short years, he went from baseball to real estate agent, to launching his team, to owning 10 rental properties in St. Louis Park, MN.
Watch Episode & Read Show NotesEpisode 1: Erick Peterson
Growing A Team & Passive Income To Fund Rental Properties
Erick Peterson started in real estate as a solo agent in 2006. He launched a team with Keller Williams and currently serves as Team Owner and Realtor for that team - Peterson and Co. Together they have closed over 100 units the past 2 years. In addition, Erick owns a pair of duplexes in Wright County, MN as an investor. He also spends his time giving back to others in the industry as a coach and trainer. Erick is an avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman. Erick lives near the family farm where he grew up in Rural Wright County. He has a wife and is a father to three beautiful children.
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