Chapter 1: What inspired Crystal and Dedrick Polite to pursue real estate?
From flipping houses to flipping the script on generational wealth, this dynamic duo turned a first date credit check into a multi-million dollar real estate empire. Stars of A&E's 50-50 Flip and founders of Be Polite Property, they blend faith, family, and financial freedom into a blueprint of success.
Please join me in welcoming the visionary, the resilient, the trailblazing Crystal and Dedrick Polite.
How you both doing today? Mick, we are doing awesome, man. Appreciate you having us.
I am the honored one. You know, we were talking offline about all the cool things that we have in common. But what I wanted to tell you both and I wanted to look you both in the eye and tell you this is that I'm just so freaking proud of both of you and and not just the work that you do. And we'll get into that. But more importantly, the human beings that you are.
You know, I'm a I'm a man of faith and I believe that that good is rewarded in good. And I just wanted you both to know just how freaking proud I am of the human beings that you are.
Thank you so much. We really appreciate that.
Yeah, I definitely appreciate that. I mean, I know that's from the heart, so we appreciate that.
Absolutely. It's the Carolina way, right? Absolutely. I usually start the episode by asking my guests, like, what's your because? That thing that's deeper than your why. You know, Simon Sinek wrote a book called Start With Why. And while I believe that's really important, I also believe we have a deeper mission and I call it your because, right?
Like if I were to say, you know, Crystal Dedrick, what's your why? You're probably going to tell me your kids, your family, your community. But when I say, why are they your why? That response is what I call your because. So if I were to ask both of you individually, like what's your because today? What's that deeper purpose and mission that you have?
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Chapter 2: How did intentionality shape the Polites' first date and business meeting?
Absolutely.
All right. So we're going to go to where this started with you both. We're going to talk about that first date, but maybe we call it the first business meeting. Right. So I'm going to let you tell the story, but I'm going to frame it up a little bit for the viewers and listeners. So first date, you know, everybody's going in casual. We're at a dinner getting to know each other.
And Crystal's like, what's your credit score? What's your business plan? What you're trying to be when you grow up?
She put me on the hot seat, man.
You got to flip it a little bit. So we're going to talk about that. So I don't know who wants to start first. Probably Crystal. Let's talk through what this first date was. Like, let's set that stage.
Well, it definitely was intentional, right? And I always tell people intentionality can take you a lot of far ways, right? When knowing and going into it with a purpose, a reason. So for me, at that point in time in my life, I wasn't dating just to date, right? And I've done that, been there. At this point, I was looking to build and I had already started in that trajectory.
So when I met Dedrick at a gas station,
In Boston.
In Boston. Random. And he asked me out for lunch. I said, okay, not a problem. We exchanged business cards and we met at Joe's Grill. Joe's Grill in Dedham. In Dedham.
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Chapter 3: What role does mentorship play in the Polites' success?
It would have been a second date. It just would have been, I'd have been like, okay, so we're going to do some credit. We both need credit repair. We both need some credit repair. I had just cleaned up mine. So I was on the track. I know the important, and you know, you do the first thing you do, your parents tell you not to do when you get to college, get these credit cards.
So of course I did exactly that. So I literally just cleaned up my credit score. My credit score was climbing back up and I was in the 600s. Told Dedrick he was like 810. I said, OK, OK. So we got to do work with that. But we got to do no credit repair. Excellent. But it had just been like, OK, so we got while I'm already done did mine. I know what I need to do for yours.
So we just don't pull that report. And we're going to get to work. But he need that. So I said, OK. I said, well, do you plan on living in Boston forever? And he said, well, I mean, I ain't got to. I ain't got no kids. I ain't really got nothing tying me to Boston.
And I said, OK, so anyone who's planning to be with me must be willing to move within the next year or two because I won't be staying here forever.
And that, again, most people might be taking it back like, damn, she interviewed you, she grilled you. But it was refreshing to me. It was exciting because it wasn't the norm when you're in your late 20s, early 30s dating, first date. So I was like, wow, this woman is ambitious. She's driven. She knows what she wants. That was like, this is what I'm looking for in a wife.
Now, I knew from the first time I saw that I was going to marry her, right? She didn't know that yet.
Right.
And again, when we met, I wasn't ready for marriage at that time, but that just further cemented like, man, she is a dynamic woman. This is the type of person that I would want to be with because we're equally yoked.
So I'm going to summarize this first date, though. So first date... You already know you're going in business together. You know, you're moving. You know, you're getting married all in the first 30 minutes.
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Chapter 4: How do the Polites define legacy and its impact on their community?
Right. But really, I got the bug for real estate when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad in 2001. Matter of fact, it happened earlier than 2001. I got two VHS tapes right here. In the 90s, my mom had these VHSs, No Money Down, right? The late night infomercials. And it was these guys who get on there. Yeah, you can make millions of real estate and you can drive a Rolls Royce.
You can have mansions, but none of them look like me. But I was like, man, one day I want to do what they're doing. I want to own properties. I want to drive a Rolls Royce, all that stuff. And 25 years later, I'm doing exactly that. Right. That's the power of of, you know, intuition and planting a seed in someone. So I always knew I wanted to get in the roster. I just didn't know how.
When I met, she's the one who saw the entrepreneurial dreams and visions in me. Right. But at that time, I was more of an entrepreneur. Because I had a safe corporate job. I grew up broke. I didn't want to go back to that. So I was afraid of jumping out and taking a risk.
So I would dibble and dabble in little network marketing here and there, make a few dollars, but I didn't make enough money to allow me to leave my job until I met her. I love that.
I love that. So, Crystal, you both start business together. Talk through... And Dedrick, I love that you brought up the wantrepreneur because a lot of people don't understand the challenges and the adversity that we face as entrepreneurs and growing a business. So I'd love for you to talk to us about some of those initial challenges that you had to break through to get to where you are today.
Oh, some challenges. What wasn't a challenge?
How many businesses have we started and failed? That's what people don't understand. Right. Like like they see the end result. They see the visibility, but they don't see the grind and they don't see. I think to what you're saying now is it's a continual process. Maybe not a struggle, but it's continual challenges. And sometimes the more successful you get, the challenges become bigger.
Absolutely.
More money, more problems. Right. Like they say, the challenges do get bigger. And for us, it was a struggle figuring it out. Right. And especially when we got together early 2000s, mid 2000s, it was really you didn't have a lot of coaches and mentors out there. Though for us, it was trying to figure it out, figure out what we want to do.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did the Polites face in their entrepreneurial journey?
We need the details. We need step one and step two. And we can't go to step two until step one.
We need a SWOT analysis. And we need a business plan for the business plan. Because that's how I was trained in going to college, right? In school.
Yep.
Yep.
I love that. And, you know, Crystal, you brought up not having mentors, not having coaches. And I would say for me, one of the things that later in my business career, because early on I was just like you, like I didn't necessarily have a blueprint or a person or people I could really talk to.
But then as I got older in business, I was able to be mentored by a Damon John or Robert Irvine or Les Brown. And I know that you're so passionate, both of you, about mentorship and being those resources and allies for others that you turn it into a coaching program. So talk a little bit about what you do in your coaching program and who a good mentee might look like for you as well, too.
Yeah, I mean, we figured out, we solved real estate investing, right? We became very successful from real estate investing. Then we got our own TV show, right? And then so many people would reach out to us like, hey, how can we do what you guys are doing? We're inspired by watching you. How can we duplicate it? That's what made us start the coaching program.
And the reason is, is because we didn't have that rich uncle. We didn't have that rich dad we can call when we were coming up to be like, all right, what do I do? How do I do it? It wasn't until we were in our 30s that we met our rich dad, which is one of our mentors who lives right in Winston-Salem, who had already achieved what we wanted to achieve.
And we were able to pay him for his time and expertise. And he gave us the blueprint. He gave us the roadmap. So we were like, hey, when we become successful, we want to turn around and do the same thing. We felt an obligation to turn around and do the same thing for others.
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Chapter 6: How did the Polites transition from real estate to television?
That's what I tell people the TV show did. That was that was powerful to me. Yeah. It's just the fact that people can see themselves flipping a property or buying real estate and aren't millionaires.
Yeah. And again, I go back to what I said earlier when I wanted to give you both ways. You are now those shoulders. Right. And that's why I'm proud of you. You are those shoulders that people are standing on and looking to. So that's awesome. So let's talk about the show. 50-50 flip on A&E. First off, A&E is a big network. Right. Like it's it's a real legit network. So it's on Hulu and Hulu.
Right. Bought the rights.
And even bigger, even more distribution, right? More views. Let's go back to the beginning of the show. How'd you get the call? What was it like when it was like a yes, we're going to do it? Like I'd love personally, I just want to hear this story.
Well, yeah, let's go all the way back, Mick. It actually started because we invested in ourselves. What do I mean? We joined a mastermind. We had not closed the deal. We were trying to figure out how to wholesale, make money wholesaling. We joined a mastermind. We spent $16,000 joining a group of high-level real estate investors.
And the leader of that mastermind said, hey, we're having trouble raising money to buy our first rental property. What do we do? He was like, document your process. What do you mean? Go on social media, show people what you're doing. Every time you do a walkthrough, every time you meet with a contractor, document what you're doing. So we started doing that, right? 2017, 2018.
So we built a following. And as a result of that following, we started a YouTube channel. And that's where the producers from A&E found us. They were looking for a couple in North Carolina.
They were just looking for people, period. They were green lighting. They were getting back into the home space, which they were originally before everyone knew about HGTV. It was A&E with Thay and Meryl.
Thay and Meryl flipped this out in 2008.
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Chapter 7: What lessons did the Polites learn from their first season on TV?
Like, extremely. If they had a TV show on extreme people who were private, I would definitely...
FBI meets CIA. That's Crystal.
I'm right there with you, Crystal.
I really am. So it wasn't even a thought in my mind to do something like this. So me and Dodger was like, yeah, we're just going to see how far we can go so then we can tell people, like, you know we won the final list, right?
It'll be a cool story at the dinner party. Yeah.
All of a sudden, maybe... Six, seven months later, Zoom after Zoom after Zoom, they call us and they was just like, hey, can we get on another Zoom? Send us an email. We'd like to hop on another Zoom with you guys. We was like, yeah, sure. And we got on the Zoom and it was even more people on this one.
And it was like, hey, we want to offer you guys a slot for this upcoming season for one of the TV shows. I mean, they looked at each other was just like.
Oh.
Like, literally, a fake smile and everything, like, oh, okay.
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Chapter 8: How do the Polites empower others through their coaching program?
Plus you had a TV show, which is another 50, 60 hours a week. So it was intense. So season two, the only condition we came back on is that we had a team. We had project managers. We had designers. We had 10 people doing the work of 10 people versus three who were overstretched.
There you go. That's what's up. That's what's up. So that's that's awesome to hear. And that's great insight. I think that also correlates into the business world, too, that I think a lot of leaders, we tend to put everything on our shoulders. Right. And I would say for me, the hardest lesson I had to learn was delegation because I wanted it all. But. I can't scale if it's just me.
I can't scale all the major responsibilities. And I'll be honest, too, the major headaches can't just be mine. I need other people to deal with those, too.
You got to have a team. That's one of the big things we've learned is that, again, you know, as an entrepreneur, self-employed, you feel like, hey, if it has to be done, if it is to be, it's up to me.
And you can't work on the business if you're working in it. Right.
Amen to that. Amen to that. One of my mentors said, you can't read the ingredients when you're inside the box.
There you go.
That's a good one.
I love that.
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