We were lucky to catch up with Victor Vonico Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Victor, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 2012, I was living in Atlanta with my wife and teenage kids. I had a position as an Operations Manager for a Call Center. It was brought to my attention that the company would be closing within 1 year and we all needed to prepare to find another company to work for. I began exploring opportunities
within the Atlanta market but did not rush as I knew I had a few months before it was getting critical.

One of my roles in that last year of the company was to see if any of our competitors were interested in buying the remaining loans in our portfolio. I started contacting our competitors to explain that we were shutting down and looking to sell off our remaining inventory of loans at a steep discount. During one of those conversations, the discussion covered several topics from what processes I implemented to manage these loans from start to finish, to how I selected team members and management under me. After an hour, she said, “Let me discuss with the team and get back to you in a few days on our decision.”

When she called back a few days later, she said “…we are not interested in the loans; however, it sounds like you will need a job soon.” That led to me interviewing for a position with their company, but the new role would be in a new city and state, AUSTIN TEXAS. This was completely unexpected.

I discussed with the family and wife, and after much debate and consideration, I decided to accept the position with the new company, in a new city and state. This was a HUGE RISK because we had most of our family in Atlanta, 2 of our daughters were still in high school and we didn’t know how this would all workout.

Fast forward, 8 years and it proved to be a magnificent decision that led to better income, better living situation, us getting into real estate investing and starting 3 businesses.

I now look forward to RISKS as I know that, if analyzed properly, those risks can be very rewarding.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

I am Victor Vonico Johnson, some call me Vic, others call me Nico. My gift to the world is my ability to help people get inspired to pursue and achieve their biggest goals. As a published author, speaker and real estate investing Coach, I often work with people that have been eager to start investing in real estate or to start a business. Through these various tools, I have assisted 100’s to advance in their entrepreneurial journeys and begin to see great returns on their real estate investments.

Through www.VictorVJohnson.com people can order versions of my book, courses or seek personalized coaching from me.

Through www.555equityllc.com, our real estate investment firm, we help homeowners and landlords that need to sell their properties AS-IS, quickly. Often these property owners are experiencing sudden hardships such as financial challenges, health issues, divorce or even death within their families. By selling their properties through 555 Equity LLC, they can get to that cash much faster, and without paying a real estate agent, fixing up any repairs, and we can close quickly.

As for me as an individual, I am a highly motivated and disciplined person that believes in having a morning routine that consists of physical exercise, stretching, meditation, gratitude and prayer, and proper planning for the day, week, quarter and year. I take great pride in working to be better than I was yesterday, in all areas. I enjoy walks on nature trails, reading, golfing, traveling and exploring cool restaurants and places with my wife, Latasha.

What I am most proud of is overcoming my poor mindset and spending habits, to build a successful rental property portfolio, as well as the fact that all of my kids are healthy and pursuing their own dreams and goals.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I’ve had to unlearn is how to deal with money. Growing up, funds were limited and I was always taught to hold on to every dollar. I believe that mentality has caused me to be too frugal, especially when dealing with business vendors and investments. I’ve since learned that money must circulate in order for more of it to come to you. We are not wasteful people, but we do consider the VALUE of things as opposed to the COST of things. This allows us to see the overall benefit of spending money, as opposed to just holding on to it tightly.

The difference in mentality helps us to support other business owners and allows others to want to support us as well.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020, many business owners had to pivot, I was one of them. As a speaker, I was getting consistent paid speaking and presentation opportunities at many colleges and universities during 2019 and early 2020. When the pandemic started, these colleges and universities discontinued having students on campus, as well as speakers and others. This caused an instant slow down to my coaching and speaking revenue. I decided to pivot by performing more mobile notary signings for real estate closings. I was already of Texas Commissioned Notary but I realized that I would have plenty of title companies and mortgage lenders seeking to send out mobile notaries since interest rates had dropped and none of them wanted people closing in their office space. Over the next 3 months, I generated 300%more revenue from mobile notary work, compared to my speaking and coaching revenue during the prior quarters.

To this day, I block off the last week of the month to perform mobile notary closings for one of my title company clients. That income covers all of our house expenses.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.VictorVJohnson.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/VictorV_Johnson
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victor.v.johnson.9
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorvjohnson
• Twitter: Twitter.com/AbundantVJ
• Youtube: Nico Don Projects
• Other: www.555equityllc.com FB, IG, LinkedIn = 555 Equity LLC

Image Credits
All owned by Nico Don Projects and 555 Equity LLC