I don't know when side hustles became a thing but they are officially a thing. Instead of picking up extra shifts, nurses are picking up side hustles.
Enter Josh Condado, a certified registered nurse anesthesiologist who co-owns a real estate investing company with his sister Jenn and brother-in-law Colin, also, you guessed it, nurses. Now, the current annual salary for a CRNA can be upwards of $250,000. Why do you need a side hustle if you’re making a quarter of a million dollars a year?
For Joshua and many others, it’s freedom. Freedom to work as much or as little as you want.
Don’t misunderstand me, Josh loves being a CRNA. He was inspired to become one by his father, an OG CRNA. But early in his nursing career, Josh experienced burnout, motivating him to invest in real estate. By creating a financial backup plan, Josh can focus on doing what he loves, being a CRNA.
In his "air quotes", spare time, Josh cohosts the popular Investing RN Podcast, a show dedicated to providing nurses with the knowledge, tools, and inspiration they need to invest their time, money, and relationships wisely. Josh, Jenn, and Colin help nurses take control of their finances and create a future they love. And there’s nothing I love more than nurses helping nurses.
In the five-minute snippet: Cheeseheads, unite! For Josh's bio, visit my website (link below).
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[00:00] Michelle: I don't know when side hustles became a thing, but they are officially a thing. Instead of picking up extra shifts, nurses are picking up side hustles. Enter Joshua Condado, a certified registered nurse anesthesiologist who co-owns a real estate investing company with his sister Jenn and brother-in-law, Colin. Also, you guessed it, nurses. Now, the current annual salary for a CRNA can be upwards of $250,000. So why do you need a side hustle if you're making a quarter of a million dollars a year? For Joshua and many others, it's freedom. Freedom to work as much or as little as you want. Don't misunderstand me. Josh loves being a CRNA. He was inspired to become one by his father, an OG CRNA. But early in his nursing career, Josh experienced burnout, which motivated him to begin investing in real estate. By creating a financial backup plan, Josh can focus on doing what he loves, being a crna. In his air quotes spare time, Josh co-hosts the popular Investing RN podcast, a show dedicated to providing nurses with the knowledge, tools, and inspiration they need to invest their time, money, and relationships wisely. Josh, Jenn, and Colin help nurses take control of their finances and create a future they love. And there's nothing I love more than nurses helping nurses. In the five-minute snippet, Cheeseheads unite! Well, good morning, Josh. Welcome to the podcast.
[02:12] Joshua: Good morning. Thank you for having me.
[02:14] Michelle: Well, thank you for coming on. I think we met on Instagram, where I meet so many of my great guests. And I thought, man, once I started looking at your Instagram and your podcast, which we'll get to, I said, we have a lot in common. Like, we're two people that have never met. We live in different parts of the country. But you had a guest, Janessa Dean, who was a flight nurse, now coach, on your podcast. And we live in the same town.
[02:48] Joshua: Oh, no way.
[02:49] Michelle: Yeah. And we met at CrossFit, so. And she and my sister worked together in the same ICU. So I'm like, man, it is a small world. And then I interviewed Brian Cerezo, podcast host of the Direct Admission podcast, and you are a guest on his podcast, and that was amazing. And then we both come from a family of nurses, so we'll talk a little bit about that because you work closely with your family, and then you are my third guest, who is a CRNA, it's always a pleasure to talk to CRNA's because you guys are so well spoken and interesting. My first guest was Flo Schenke. She was amazing. And then Jenny Finnell of the CRNA School Prep Academy, and now you. So we have all those things in common, and I always nerd out on stuff like that. But we'll get started. I want to know, what did you do before you were a CRNA?
[03:56] Joshua: Before I was a CRNA? How far back do you want me to go? Like, high school or college? I don't know.
[04:02] Michelle: No. Like, obviously you were a nurse before you were a CRNA. I mean, you're still a nurse, but what specialties did you work in? Like, right out of nursing school.
[04:13] Joshua: Okay, so. So I will say my dad's a CRNA, so I kind of knew exactly the route I wanted to go while I was entering nursing. Not to say that I enjoyed the ICU that I was in. I started working as a nurse tech in a CCU in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I enjoyed that for the most part. I really like the heart. It just seems to make the most sense to me out of any of the body systems. So a CCU/ECU kind of made sense. I had a few friends that helped me get my foot in the door there. So I worked there as a nurse tech for about a year, and then I graduated. And it was, I don't know if things are still the same as they used to, but I was able to start working as a graduate nurse the day after I graduated with my degree. Like, before I took NCLEX and all that stuff. So I worked for about a month before I actually passed the NCLEX as a graduate nurse in that same CCU. So I did that for a year. I got married, and then we moved to Chicago, where my wife is from, and I worked in a CVICU up there at Loyola University Medical center for a year. And we were there while I was applying to CRNA schools. And, yeah, I worked in a CCU for a year and CVICU for a year.
[05:26] Michelle: Wow. So lots of critical care.
[05:28] Joshua: Yeah, I enjoyed it. I know people are always comparing the ER and ICU. I always liked the ICU because it was relatively fast paced. But at the same time, you had your days where you could just relax and have your, I don't know, vented and sedated patients all at the same time.
[05:46] Michelle: There's so many memes on Instagram and just social media about the differences and the rivalry between emergency room and ICU nurses. And it's always funny to watch.
[05:57] Joshua: Yeah. And so I will talk about them later. But my sister and my brother-in-law, they both did ER nursing, so we, we make fun of each other all the time.
[06:05] Michelle: That's great. Wow. So you said your dad was a CRNA and that must have been a while ago. So when did he become a CRNA?
[06:16] Joshua: Yeah. So he was, he was a high school math teacher for almost ten years. Then he went back to nursing school, I think he was 30 or something like that, I don't remember. And then went to anesthesia school in Pennsylvania. So I think he graduated with his anesthesia degree back in, I want to guess it was like 99 or 2000 maybe somewhere around that time. So it's been almost 25 years.
[06:39] Michelle: Wow. Yeah. I mean, what are some of the differences? Like have you and your dad discussed some of the differences between the job now and the job then?
[06:51] Joshua: I don't think a lot has changed, but there is a couple of things. I think it's more like cultural because he trained in Pennsylvania, I trained in Florida. So I wouldn't say it's like a whole like new wave of technology that I'm using. It's a lot of the same stuff or it's all the same stuff. But I think it is kind of cultural because I do see people that graduate recently, like in my same like year or couple years around there and they practice very differently than me. So I think it kind of depends on where you were training.
[07:18] Michelle: Yeah. Do you think also that CRNAs are more widely accepted? There's a lot of controversy about the MD anesthesiologists and nurse anesthesiologists and it's always this feud of like who's better, who has the better outcomes. So do you think that that is a little bit more widely accepted now that we have kind of decades of research on the efficacy of CRNA's?
[07:58] Joshua: That's a very fun topic. And that was something I was completely unaware of throughout all of my training. And then I wasn't even really introduced into all the politics and if you want to call it drama until after I graduated. And it's not something I love, but it's kind of something that is inevitable but kind of to your point, I don't think it's, it's not so much like who's better. I'm sure nurse practitioners kind of feel the same way with their MD counterparts as well. It's more that we just want the freedom to practice to the entire scope of our license. And there's a lot of MD's that want to prevent that because then whether or not we're coming for their jobs, it's not really even that we're coming for their jobs. It's just that they feel like there's potential where they'll have less opportunities if we're able to practice to our full scope.
[08:51] Michelle: Yeah. And the job market, there is a shortage of anesthesiologists and of CRNA's. So that's something that we have to take into account. And I talked about this with my guest Flo Schenke, because she practices in the town that I live in and at the institution that I worked at for 40 years. And I remember exactly when the CRNA group came into our hospital, and it was huge. It was a huge controversy in this community. We're a small community, a rural community, and we had surgeons and anesthesiologists taking out, you know, full page ads in the newspaper because back then, people read the newspaper today, it would have been all over social media or maybe a billboard or something. But, you know, just really scaring the public about, you know, these nurses are going to come in and they're going to be giving you anesthesia and, you know, don't let them touch your family members. And it caused this great divide. And, you know, ultimately the group came in and they were just consummate professionals and the rest is history. Everything worked out, and the MDs kind of got over themselves and learned to work with their CRNA partners. So it was ultimately a good thing. But, you know, change is hard, right? And like I said, we have decades of research now that, you know, there's no harm done by having a CRNA.
[10:39] Joshua: Yeah. Very similar outcomes, or even identical outcomes when you're putting all the statistics together.
[10:47] Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. Well, in your bio, you say, "I somehow managed to make it through CRNA school." What did you mean by that?
[10:58] Joshua: So I like to tell people, because there's a lot of people reach out to me and they're asking about CRNA school. Mostly I try not to give people advice because everybody has a different situation. I just try to tell them exactly what my story is, and if they can relate to it, then great. So my story was, I was not an academic. I was not extremely smart. I just, I did the work that was requested, and I somehow ended up here as a CRNA. So I'd say I had, like, a 3.0 GPA in college. Like, it wasn't outstanding, but I did kind of pick it up. I got married towards the end, and then in my Bachelor's did a lot better. And I think most CRNA schools, they saw the progression and they saw that I had matured a little bit, and there's reasons for that. I was much more involved in sports than I was in academics for the first few years of college. So that kind of factored in a little bit. But I just tell everybody, like, if you want to be a CRNA, it's like, if I can do it, then anybody can do it, essentially. I do feel like it's getting a little bit more competitive. It was competitive back when I went in 2015 is when I started, so it was obviously competitive then, but I do feel like it might be getting a little bit more competitive now. And everybody's graduating with doctorates. Back when I was there, it was a Master's degree. But it's possible, like, if you start out with a low GPA or you're not really focused or your priorities are not exactly right, there's definitely time to make it up. There's ways and there's strategies that you can use to show the administration of these CRNA schools that you are prepared and you are willing to do what it takes now. And that's exactly what I did. I took a couple graduate level chemistries and other sciences and did well on them just to kind of show that I'm ready, I'm matured. I've matured. Now, granted, having a family and having a kid really kind of changes your priorities, and that's what happened to me. But it's possible, even if you don't have a strong start, it's possible to turn it around and to do what you need to get in.
[13:00] Michelle: Yeah, that's a great message. And, you know, we discussed, Jenny Finnell and I discussed that because she runs the School Prep Academy, and so what she does is help potential CRNA students get into schools. And that's one of the things that she said was that a lot of nurses are intimidated because they think I have to be super smart, I have to have a super high GPA, all of these things, to get into school. And she's like, no, what they look at is more of your well roundedness and, like you said, your progression and your maturity. And that's a good message, because I think a lot of people would miss out on that if they really wanted to do it.
[13:44] Joshua: Yeah. And I have had some people reach out and they're like nervous. Like, what if I go through all of this and then I fail out of the program or if nursing was hard. So how hard is anesthesia going to be? And I tell everybody, honestly, I thought anesthesia school was easier, and there's a couple reasons for that. Well, for one is because I was working full time for two years before that. So now instead of doing my twelve hour shifts in the hospital, I do six to eight hour studying shifts for school. So really it's less time. It's just a little bit more focused on a different area. And then the other reason that I say it's a little bit easier is because in nursing, like, you learn a lot, but you really don't learn like everything, like how everything works. So in your grad school, you learn everything and it's a lot easier to kind of work through the questions and to kind of figure them out. And you learn critical thinking in nursing, but you learn a little bit deeper level of critical thinking when you're studying for anesthesia.
[14:42] Michelle: Yeah, I see that as a truism. Nursing school prepares us to be generalists, right? It doesn't prepare us to be specialists. And so then when you go into your specialized area of expertise, that's when you can really drill down. And CRNA's are really famous for just all the pathophysiology, the anatomy to the, you know, the cellular level, right? All the things that we didn't learn in depth in nursing school. I think that scares a lot of nurses, too, because it's just so intense and so focused, right? But you have to be. Well, do you have a favorite procedure that you like to do as a CRNA? And don't tell me that there's not one because we all have it.
[15:42] Joshua: So I like working with my hands. So if it, whatever procedures require the most skills. So that would probably be some sort of ortho procedure where I can do the nerve block. I used to really like doing open hearts because I could put in all the central lines and all the A lines and all the lines. And so I just like working with my hands. So putting in lines, doing nerve blocks, whatever it is. I don't necessarily love the open hearts anymore. I kind of had my thrill and now I'm ready to just to do the simple procedures. So I work in a critical access hospital, so I really don't do those anymore anyway. But I enjoy doing those ortho procedures, like a shoulder scope, because I can do the inner scanling block or some sort of a knee procedures. I can do all the popliteal or the adductor canal blocks. I really enjoy doing the blocks. Those are a lot of fun.
[16:29] Michelle: Fun? That's debatable.
[16:34] Joshua: What about taking away their pain?
[16:36] Michelle: Yeah, definitely. Do you like c-sections? I worked my whole career in pediatrics, NICU, so Labor and Delivery, I went to many, many c- sections, deliveries, all of that. And that was my only contact with a CRNA, except for having one that gave me anesthesia. But do you like those?
[17:00] Joshua: I do, actually, yeah. I know a lot of people that do not because it can be pretty intense. Most of the time you're going to have the mom wide awake and it's a pretty emotional experience that can be, most of the time it's good, but it's not always great. But I do enjoy them because I have four of my own kids, and so I like kids. I like seeing the good outcomes and how emotional of an experience it is for the mom and for the dad.
[17:27] Michelle: Yeah, I really loved that part of my job. I felt like each delivery was so different and unique, and I loved that aspect of it. So what kind of shifts do you work as a CRNA?
[17:42] Joshua: So you can find most any type of shift that you want? I mentioned earlier, I work in a critical access hospital. There's a few reasons for that. One of the reasons is because I work alone. I make all my own decisions. I don't work in any sort of a team environment where somebody kind of tells me what to do. I really enjoy coming up with the anesthetic plan myself and then implementing it. And if it works, great. And if it doesn't work, just come up with plan B and just implement plan B. So I really like working in that type of an environment. So currently my situation is I do five days a week in a critical access hospital. If there's a surgery, I'm there for it. If there's no surgery, then I'm on call from home. And a lot of people don't like as much call as I have to take because of that, but I don't have any issues with it. I like the critical access, small team environment. I just work with a couple surgeons, a couple nurses, and a couple techs. It's really a close knit community.
[18:43] Michelle: That sounds a lot like our hospital when it first started out. Now it's gotten a lot bigger, but I definitely liked that as well. You have, I think, fewer resources, which can make you a little bit nervous, but you have a more tight knit team which can compensate for that.
[19:01] Joshua: Yeah. Lack of resources is a huge issue. Like, we only have a couple units of blood in the entire hospital, so if something goes wrong, they have to be shipped to a bigger facility as soon as possible, which it does happen, but we also don't do, like, major vascular or open heart surgeries or anything that should require blood. There's always a chance that you need some, but for the most part, yeah, we don't have too many resources, and I'm the only anesthesia provider that's there. So if I need help, I really have to delegate to one of the nurses or just really anybody else who can help, which, granted, most of them are very, very skilled and understand what needs to be done, but it is. Lack of resources is something that most people kind of don't realize until you really talk about it.
[19:47] Michelle: That's a lot of pressure, Josh. That's a lot of pressure on you as a professional, and how do you kind of offload some of that stress, some of that pressure that you go through every day in your job?
[20:04] Joshua: I mean, I feel prepared. I make sure that I'm ready, and I'm prepared for each case. I was in anesthesia training for two and a half, three years. Almost three years. I worked in big facilities. For the first almost three years of my anesthesia career, I worked in large facilities, and I saw a lot of things go wrong, and I dealt with them, so I feel like I'm very prepared to deal with things when they come up. I wouldn't say it's a great job for somebody who's just coming out of school because of the lack of resources. I would say you need to develop your skills and learn how to recognize things early so you can treat them before they go all the way south. Knowing the surgeons I work with, knowing the nurses I work with, we all kind of have a really good understanding of each other, and we're always ready to do whatever it takes. So as far as, like, dealing with the pressure of it, I don't really feel a ton of pressure. We just know what needs to be done, and we do it.
[20:59] Michelle: You're so easy going. Well, that's good. I don't want you to feel pressure. It sounds like you're doing great with all of that. So one of the things in your Instagram bio is that you are a mentor, and so talk about mentoring and who do you mentor?
[21:19] Joshua: Yeah. So I love helping people. And I know I mentioned earlier, I try not to give advice. I'll just kind of tell my story and hopefully it can help you figure out what you need to figure out. But I am like an open book. Like, if you want to ask me about anesthesia, I'll tell you exactly. And I don't claim to know everything, but I'll tell you what I do know. So I do mentor people with anesthesia. People will reach out to me and I'll try to answer their questions. Most of it's people who are trying to get into school, and I'll just kind of tell them my story, how I did it. The fastest route to get there, if you want to get there. But then we also do some real estate investing, and I know a lot of people are trying to figure out some sort of side hustle or way to make income outside of the hospital. And so I try to help people there as much as I can also. So those are the two things that I try to help people out with.
[22:08] Michelle: Yeah, that's fantastic. And I imagine that you have influenced other nurses to become CRNA's just through your mentorship. And we are going to talk about your investing because first thing you talked about side hustles. I, you know, I got out of nursing, I retired in 2022, and I've never seen so many nurse entrepreneurs, so many side hustles. I don't know if it's like an effect of the pandemic or what it is, but I think of a CRNA, and I think they really make a great wage, right? So why does a CRNA need a side hustle? Like, so let's talk about investing, because you have an investing business, All Day Investments. And do you co-own that with your sister and your brother-in-law?
[23:06] Joshua: I do. Yep. We're three equal partners.
[23:09] Michelle: Okay. And so why did you guys start that?
[23:14] Joshua: I always give credit to my cousin. He used to be a cop, and he started real estate investing, and he retired as a cop after, I think, it was only seven years. And now he's full time real estate investing. And I saw that, I'm like, wow, that's kind of cool. Like, now you can work from wherever you want and whenever you want, and you're making more money than you used to as a cop. So maybe I should try this. And so we, me and my brother-in-law, it was really me and my brother-in-law that have initially started talking about it. Like, that's pretty cool. We should try that. And it really started out with like a really, I would say our goals were very small. Like we just wanted to buy a one house a year for ten years. And at the end of that, well have ten houses. I'm like that's some really good side income. But after we got the first one, its kind of addicting. And you see the equity that its just kind of building and how fast you can actually turn it around and make some pretty good profits. And as you mentioned, CRNAs, we make great salaries, but also I like having a second option. I think we all realized in 2020 and 2021 we thought we had like extremely secure positions. And we do. But I don't know, like my eyes were opened a little bit because I saw hospitals just laying off 50 CRNA's and I was like, I didn't ever think that would happen to me. So as soon as I saw stuff like that, I was like, I probably should set myself up a little bit better just in case. You never know what's going to happen. And then, like I said after we did our first few, it's kind of addicting or like, wow, this actually can compound really, really rapidly.
[24:52] Michelle: So did you have any financial knowledge before you got into investing? And if you didn't, how did you learn about it?
[25:01] Joshua: I had none whatsoever. Just, just the kind of the basics that, you know, my parents would teach me growing up, you know, bad good debt versus bad debt. Actually, I was, I was taught that all debt was bad debt, more along the lines of the Dave Ramsey debt-free lifestyle. And that's kind of why we started our podcast and kind of like why I want to try to help as many other nurses as I can because there's really not a lot, if any, financial education in the nursing career. Yeah. There's ways that you can make money faster or better than just the traditional, like 401K, putting all of it there. And granted, I don't recommend people to stop doing that. I just, I recommend having something else that you have a little bit more control of.
[25:51] Michelle: Yeah. Really diversifying. And, you know, what do you say to those nurses that are like, I'm on the fence. I'm scared about investing. You know, I have this little nest egg that I could invest, but I'm fearful that I'm going to lose it all. And I, it's just easier for me to just work extra shifts because I know, like, I'm going to get so much money and it's going to be mine and I'm not going to lose it. So what, what do you say to those nurses?
[26:26] Joshua: It's a kind of safety. There's no risk-free investing. You have to kind of weigh in what your goals are. If you're happy and you love your job, then I don't see any problem with that. But I will say I'm very happy and I love my job, but I also feel like I need a second option, because if you're only given one option, you can't really have, like, that much freedom if you only have one choice.
[26:54] Michelle: So, Josh, how do you keep up to date on all the financial goings on and to keep yourself current? Because as nurses, we have to take continuing education credits to keep our knowledge base solid, keep learning current technologies, all of that. But how do you stay up to date in the investment field?
[27:19] Joshua: Yeah, investing is kind of trial and error. There's a lot of courses out there. There's a lot of communities, mentorships that you can be a part of. I'm a part of a couple of them. So it helps just kind of being around other people that are doing it. But there's no regulation as an investor as far as what you can and can't do. So I would say the way that we are maintaining our education is just by staying in it, continuing to do it. We're still actively buying properties right now. I know a lot of people are kind of scared of the interest rates. If the numbers make sense, and I know everybody says that that's kind of a cliche, but if the numbers make sense, then we're still buying, and we can't pay as much as we could two years ago because of the interest rates. But if a seller doesn't want to sell it at the price that works for us, then no problem. We'll keep looking for something else.
[28:09] Michelle: Yeah, that was something that really surprised me when I talked to Savannah Arroyo. She's a nurse that also has an investment company. It was last year, it was right around the time where the interest rates just were super, super high. And she said that, honestly, it had had no effect on people investing. And I was shocked by that because you always think, oh, my gosh, interest rates are super high and you don't want to buy at that time. But she said that they weren't having any trouble with that, so that was surprising.
[28:46] Joshua: Yeah. It affects the primary homebuyers, not so much the investors. I mean, it does affect us, but not in the same way. And I remember your question from earlier you were asking like, if somebody has a nest egg and what, what should they do with it? And I know its scary, so I'll touch on that real quick while I remember, but I will say, like, its scary. And I will say our first, our first property we bought for $35,000, and that was the scariest, that was the scariest one that weve bought. And granted, we've bought something. I don't know how much our most expensive purchase was, but it was, it was just under a million dollars. And that one wasn't nearly as scary as our very first property that we bought for $35,000. So I recommend to everybody, not every deal is a good deal, but as long as you have your numbers and your risk tolerance is appropriate for what you're trying to do. Like I would, I recommend getting in. Real estate investing is how, how our strategy is and how it's working really well. And real estate, over time is very forgiving. I don't do any kind of stock investments. I know some people that do really well in it. I don't understand it so I avoid it. Real estate, I love that real estate makes sense to me. So that's where I'm putting all my eggs in that basket.
[30:02] Michelle: Yeah, you're staying in your own lane. It's like, if you're not familiar with it, then you're like, I'm just gonna back out of that. Do what you know, right? Do what you know. Who are your clients, Josh? Are they nurses or medical professionals or just the general public?
[30:23] Joshua: So most of everything we've done has been just us three partners. Our last two deals, we actually did open it up to investors, and we really don't have any, any basket that fits, just our investors. We're open to anyone for the most part. It's just people that we know just because it's easier, and we want to help them out just as much as they want to help us out. So it works really well. We want to educate as many people as we can, but we have a real soft spot in our hearts for nurses because all three of us are nurses, and we want to make sure that financial education is a little bit more mainstream with nurses because we didn't get any sort of that throughout our education.
[31:01] Michelle: Yeah, I love it. I love the community of nurses helping other nurses. So what do you say to people that say, by having a podcast and trying to educate nurses on other options out there instead of just working those extra shifts that you are influencing nurses to leave the profession. What do you say to that?
[31:27] Joshua: That's a challenge, actually, that we've kind of gone back and forth on a lot because each, all three of us, we have a different relationship with nursing. I love it. I love my job. I love everything that I do. I just wanted something that would create a little bit more safety and a little more freedom for me, my brother-in-law and my sister, they have a little bit different feelings towards it. They were ready to get out a couple years ago and they actually did. Both of them left nursing for two years. They more recently started working back in the hospital. So it's kind of like a love hate relationship. And that is something because nurses are so essential. We don't want to encourage people to leave nursing for the sake of leaving nursing because it's essential. We can't operate as a country or as people without nurses. It's more we want to educate nurses who are burnt out, who hate nursing, because we really don't want those people working in the hospital as nurses. If you really hate it, you're not going to function where we need nurses to function if you really hate it. So that's kind of more of our niche, is we're trying to help people who either hate it or want to leave because they're not going to be as effective as they should be anyway.
[32:43] Michelle: Yeah, I think just giving nurses other options, I think that's the purpose of all these side hustles. It's like we have to pay the bills and we are doing something that maybe we started out loving, maybe we still love it, but we want to do something else just to supplement our income or whatever. And so I look at it as, like, you're giving nurses other options, more options for financial independence, for freedom, for flexibility. Maybe they don't want to work their three to four 12-hours shifts a week. Maybe they only want to work one day a week, but they still have to pay the bills, right? And so you are helping them do that in other ways through investing.
[33:37] Joshua: Absolutely. Yeah. And I experienced burnout on multiple occasions, and it was all tied to finances. Like, I needed more money to go back to school or I needed more money to, doesn't matter what it is, buy a new car or something. It's all of the burnout that I experienced that was tied to finances. And if I had side hustles in other income streams, it would have been much less of a burden to me and I wouldn't have had to pick up so much extra shifts, and I most likely wouldn't have experienced the same burnout that I did have to go through because of it.
[34:09] Michelle: Yeah, financial problems can burn you out really quick. Well, I want to talk about your podcast because it's really cool and it looks really fun. It looks like working with your family is a fun experience. You can tell me if that's true or not, but yeah, in one of your Instagram stories, you posted a meme saying,"We do this not because it's easy, but because we thought it would be easy." And when I saw that, I just cracked up because this is how I feel about podcasting. But what has surprised you about podcasting?
[34:50] Joshua: Kind of what you just said, it's a lot more work than I thought it would be, right? We had talked about starting a podcast for a long time for the same reason. Like, oh, we want to get on there, help nurses learn other side hustles and stuff, and we didn't realize everything that it was going to take and how much money it was going to involved.
[35:10] Michelle: Right.
[35:11] Joshua: All the subscription platforms and editing and all that stuff. Yeah. It's more costly and more time consuming than we thought it would be.
[35:20] Michelle: Yeah. And do you guys, and you guys all have to find time in your schedules to get together and that can be really hard with three people. Talk for a moment about your co-hosts.
[35:32] Joshua: Yeah. So my sister and my brother-in-law, Jennifer, also growing up, she was Jennifer to me. Now she likes to be called Jenn, but of course I'm not going to oblige. I'm going to call her Jennifer because she's my sister. So Jennifer's my sister and Colin is her husband, my brother-in-law. And we keep our podcasts, we keep it as light as we can. We like to be very sarcastic and we like to make a lot of jokes and we like to throw in some serious topics also, like real estate investing. It's fun to talk about, but there's a lot of seriousness with it also. So we kind of try to find some sort of a mix so we can keep it light and also educational at the same time.
[36:11] Michelle: Yeah, I love it. It looks like you guys are having a lot of fun, for sure.
[36:16] Joshua: Yes, we do have a lot of fun together. Most of it's because we like to make fun of each other and we're all okay with that.
[36:24] Michelle: And so tell me a moment like, so, Jenn, you said, what have they done as nurses?
[36:32] Joshua: So they both were ER nurses. They both did that the most. I know my sister worked in PACU a little bit. I think Colin might have worked in PACU a little bit also, but they're both ER nurses at heart, if you want to say that. I did mention that they were both out of nursing for two years. They did property management. They were kind of help building out the back end of our business during that two years. They both went back recently. Colin's in the ER again, and my sister's in Cath lab now. And I think the cath lab fits her a lot better for her personality and for her skillset. So I think she's enjoying that a lot more. She's not going to be so excited or so anxious to leave again.
[37:13] Michelle: That's cool. So who are some of your guests that you've had?
[37:17] Joshua: So we just recorded our 50th episode. It's pretty exciting. And honestly, we didn't even realize it. We were just recording and we're like, oh, I guess that's gonna be our 50th one. That's kind of a big deal, I guess, if you. I don't know, maybe.
[37:32] Michelle: I think so.
[37:34] Joshua: So we've had a lot of nurses, and that's kind of something we've gone back and forth on. We want most of our guests to be nurses, but we don't want to exclude some other guests if they're not nurses. Like I mentioned, my cousin was kind of the reason that we got into real estate. He was actually the one that we just recorded with for our 50th episode because he had such a big influence on us. So we've brought in quite a few real estate investors. I would say most of them have been nurses. I think we might have had quite a few guests that you've had. I know Savannah was on here, Janessa Dean, or I don't know if she was on your podcast, but your neighbor, I guess.
[38:10] Michelle: Yeah, we've talked about it, and we just haven't got together to do it yet, but, yeah.
[38:16] Joshua: Yeah. But, yeah, we've had a lot of nurses, and really, it's just kind of been great. Just kind of networking with other nurses that are doing really cool things and people that we otherwise never would have met or known. It's been a really great experience. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.
[38:34] Michelle: Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to say congratulations on 50 episodes, because what that represents is so much work behind the scenes that nobody sees, and it is absolutely true about underestimating the amount of preparation and, you know, production and post-production work. Do you guys split that all up? Like, does somebody do the editing? Does somebody do like, the social media part of it? Or do you like, outsource that to another company? How does that work?
[39:11] Joshua: Yes, we worked with a couple different people. The way that our real estate split was for the first, I want to say, probably three years, we were all just doing this, that something needs to be done. Let's just do it. Once we started the podcast that was kind of put in my lab and I kind of just handled the bulk of that. I didn't do any of the editing myself, but I would kind of like oversee, make sure that it was done well and then also the post production, like clipping all the videos into short reels and stuff like that. So I kind of handled the majority of that. And that's probably why there wasn't like a theme to it. I know my sister was constantly telling me like, oh, no, we need to be more consistent. Like, this looks like cartoon, make it look more professional. And like all this, she has, she used to do photography also for a little while for that kind of stuff. And me, I'm like, oh, it looked, looked good enough for me, I don't know what's the problem? We just recently hired somebody else to kind of oversee all of that also. So it'll kind of get me a little bit more out of the day to day of the podcast, which will be really nice. My sister, she does all of the proper property management for our real estate. We just closed on a property a couple weeks ago that put us right at 150 doors. So that's time-consuming for her while she's in the, going back to the hospital doing nursing. So we're, we're all fairly busy. And then Colin does a lot of the asset management, like all of the, so property management and asset management, I used to think those were the exact same thing. Not so much. Property management is pretty, it's very different from the asset management. So he does a lot of the day to day upkeep and maintenance of the properties as well.
[40:49] Michelle: That's amazing. I mean, you guys are leading full lives and, you know, you have families, I'm sure, like your own families, and then you're a family. And I love coming from a family of nurses. You know, it's never dull. It's like when we get together, we all start talking about, you know, our war stories and all of that. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. And I imagine doing a podcast with, with your family has to be fun, too. So, yeah, I'm coming on my 100th episode in a couple weeks.
[41:31] Joshua: Wow, congrats.
[41:32] Michelle: Yeah, thank you.
[41:33] Joshua: That's a lot.
[41:34] Michelle: Yeah. And so for the hundredth episode, my brother, who was a guest on my podcast, he's a research director at our local institution, but he said, what are you going to do for your hundredth episode? And he said, I think someone should interview you. And so I said, well, why don't you do it? And so he says, well, we have to meet so that you can tell me what questions to ask. I was like, no, it doesn't work like that. You ask your own questions. You prepare your own questions. I'm not going to tell you what to ask. Nothing is off the table. You can ask anything that you want. So we're trying to find a few minutes to sit down and do that for the hundredth episode. But I've worked with all my siblings in the hospital setting at one time or another. Lots of nurses married to nurses, so I totally get that. I'll say it's a nurse thing, right? Yeah. Okay. Well, what's your goal for the podcast?
[42:41] Joshua: The goal for the podcast would be to help just kind of raise awareness of other things that are possible. I think nurses, or myself at least, didn't even know what was possible until we started doing it ourselves. And every investor I've ever talked to, the one regret they have is that they didn't get started sooner. And that's the same for me. If I had started ten years ago, we just started four years ago. If I had started ten years ago, imagine where we could be. Who knows? The sky's the limit. And so it's more just to kind of put the bug in the ear of nurses that more is possible. And if you get started sooner rather than later, you just. Who knows what's possible?
[43:28] Michelle: I love it. I love your message. I love your podcast. I love what you're doing for nurses, that you are teaching them the tools that they need to create financial freedom, independence, all of those things that we talked about, and it's very valuable. And I thank you for coming on and talking about it today. So we're down to the last two questions. Josh. All right, is there someone you recommend as a guest on this podcast?
[44:03] Joshua: Sure. My sister Jennifer or Colin. Both of them. IMe and Colin, we co-host every episode together. And then once a month, my sister and both of us will go on for what we call a roundtable, so she's not on as many episodes. So I know some people like to hear her because she's more relatable from the other women that listen to our podcast. And I don't know what most of your listeners are, but she would probably be a great guest.
[44:33] Michelle: I love it. Great. I already have an introduction, so that's amazing. Thank you. Well, where can we find you?
[44:44] Joshua: Anywhere, I guess. We have a YouTube channel. We have our Instagram @Investingrnpod. That's probably where you could see most of what we do. We all have our own personal, which you can find from our podcast, Instagram. You'll see the greatest variety of stuff. Like, I'll post stuff on there. My sister will put stuff on there. Brother-in-law. We all put stuff on there separately. We have a TikTok not as active on there. I would say Instagram's probably the best way to find out what we're doing. And then all of our podcast stuff is either on audio or on YouTube.
[45:17] Michelle: Very cool. Yeah, you're easy to find. And I'll put all those links in the show notes so people can find you.
[45:22] Joshua: Sounds good.
[45:23] Michelle: Well, Josh, thank you so much for coming on today and giving your perspective on being a CRNA, being an investor, being a podcaster. I have just really enjoyed talking to you. I love your laid back style. And, yeah, you're easy on the eyes. So thank you so much for coming on.
[45:45] Joshua: Well, thank you so much for having me. This was great.
[45:48] Michelle: Yes. Well, we're at the end, so we're ready for the five minute snippet. You ready for that? It's just five minutes of fun.
[45:55] Joshua: Oh, I don't know. Just kidding. Of course I'm ready.
[45:59] Michelle: Of course. You were born ready. Okay, let me get my questions. Okay, so you live in Wisconsin?
[46:47] Joshua: Yes.
[46:48] Michelle: Convince me to live in Wisconsin.
[46:51] Joshua: All right, well, we have the Packers, and if you need another reason, our summers are amazing, I would say I need that reason. Our winters are less of a reason to live here. I actually hate the winters here, and it's pretty tough. And it's not just the cold. It's gray a lot, and I like to see the sun more than it shows here in the winter. But the five to six months of summer and fall makes everything worth it. It's so beautiful here.
[47:22] Michelle: Well, I'll tell you what. I don't know if it's just being older or what, but it's like, weather is everything. I feel like I'm turning into my parents, where I'm, like, always looking at the weather forecast, but, like, for today, where I live, it's forecast to be 112. And I'm just like, no, I don't want to do that anymore.
[47:42] Joshua: Wow.
[47:42] Michelle: So, yeah, I would move to Wisconsin in a heartbeat.
[47:47] Joshua: I didn't even mention the cheese. Oh, my God, I love cheese.
[47:52] Michelle: The cheese would be the number one reason to move there. Okay, well, you said earlier you have four children.
[47:59] Joshua: I do.
[48:00] Michelle: Okay. So out of number one, number two, number three, or number four, which baby was the easiest and why?
[48:11] Joshua: So far, it's our most recent one. So he's four weeks old tomorrow, June 4. Check my math, I guess, but four weeks old, he's been the least cranky. He sleeps through the night the best. So we have three older girls. Eleven, seven, four. And then this is our first boy. All of the girls liked to wake up all the time. He is actually sleeping through almost through the night. Not quite all the way through the night, but almost through the night.
[48:41] Michelle: Wow. Well, you have three older sisters who are all just probably doting on him like crazy, right?
[48:49] Joshua: Oh, they are. They're all arguing who gets to hold him and who gets to play with him and all that stuff. Yeah, it's great.
[48:56] Michelle: I love watching your pictures and your videos. Do you think that your son is the easiest just because you guys have more experience as parents?
[49:06] Joshua: There's a strong possibility that's the case.
[49:10] Michelle: I love it. Okay, so you're familiar with Taylor Swift, right?
[49:14] Joshua: I am.
[49:15] Michelle: Okay. I mean, you have three girls, so, yeah, she has a song called Shake It Off, and there's a line in the song that says, "Haters gonna hate." So tell us about a time when haters were gonna hate.
[49:28] Joshua: Haters gonna hate.
[49:31] Michelle: Anybody hating you on social media? Any snarky comments or anything?
[49:37] Joshua: Social media is its own animal, for sure. We've definitely had some people. We invest in real estate, and there's a lot of renters that don't like their landlords, so we'll get an unfriendly comment here and there, but it is what it is like. We're providing housing to people who otherwise wouldn't be able to have somewhere to live. So I have no issues with what we're doing. We're providing a service, and we're getting paid for it, and that's how the world works. I will say that probably the most difficult hater moment that I had was in CRNA school, because I was very young when I started. I was 23 years old when I started anesthesia school. I was 25 when I graduated. One of the youngest, or actually, I was by far the youngest in my class. And I don't know if it was, I kind of attribute it to jealousy because there were a lot of older Circulators that maybe wish they had gone back when they were young and just didn't. And so there were a lot of Circulators that gave me not even a lot, there were just a handful of them that gave me a hard time, and I can only assume it was because of my age. I could let it roll off my back. It's no big deal. I'm just here to make it to graduation. I did.
[50:56] Michelle: You know what? I could see that Circulator personality a little bit because I grew up in that kind of generation, and, you know, I could see them saying, who does this young whippersnapper think he is?
[51:13] Joshua: Yep.
[51:14] Michelle: You know, coming in here and changing everything. Yeah, totally. And I think you're right on about that. That's funny. Okay, so now we're going to go into some Green Bay packers trivia, because you did say you're a Green Bay packers fan. Okay. How many Super bowl titles do the Green Bay packers have?
[51:33] Joshua: I think it's four.
[51:35] Michelle: Yay. Oh, my gosh.
[51:37] Joshua: I am a Packer fan. All right.
[51:38] Michelle: Wow. Okay. Do you know what's the capacity of Lambeau Field?
[51:44] Joshua: Oh, I do know this, because they ask this question at every game that I go to, and I think it's 82,000.
[51:52] Michelle: Well, you are so close. 81,441.
[51:56] Joshua: 81,441. Okay.
[51:58] Michelle: Yeah, that's really close. Okay. What year was the team founded?
[52:05] Joshua: 1929.
[52:09] Michelle: So it says the team was founded in 1919, but they didn't join the NFL until 1921.
[52:18] Joshua: Okay. Oh, man. I was ten years off. 1919. I should know that. Actually, there's a restaurant inside of Lambeau called 1919, so I should have known.
[52:25] Michelle: Oh, wow. Okay. Didn't know that. Okay, last question. Which player had the most career yards passing?
[52:34] Joshua: It's gotta be Brett Favre.
[52:37] Michelle: Yep. And do you know how many yards?
[52:39] Joshua: I have no idea how many yards it would be a complete guess.
[52:44] Michelle: 61,655.
[52:47] Joshua: That's a lot.
[52:48] Michelle: Do you know what his season spanned.
[52:51] Joshua: The years 20 or not? 2019. It's also a guess. 1991 to 2008.
[53:03] Michelle: Oh, man, you're so close. '92 to 2007.
[53:08] Joshua: Okay. Oh, it's one year off on both sides.
[53:10] Michelle: Dude, you do know your packers trivia. Yay. You passed the five minute snippet. You survived. Thank you, Josh. I really appreciate it.
[53:22] Joshua: Oh, thank you. This was a blast. And now I'm confirmed a Packer fan.
[53:28] Michelle: No disputing. Now everyone's going to start asking you questions. Gosh. Okay. Have a great rest of your day.
[53:35] Joshua: All right, thanks. You too.