Χόλσλινγκ 2.0

December 2020. Christmas Eve.

I’m sitting in my girlfriend’s parents’ house near Gdańsk, Poland.

Dinner is ready. The family is festive.

And I’m… still trying to close deals with unmotivated sellers.

I had just moved my wholesaling operation to Atlanta metro, thinking it would be easier.

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.

Not only was it not easier—I didn’t close a single deal.

One deal was stuck in title. I was working with a successful local wholesaler whose mentorship program I had joined.

But it had been three full months… and not a single dollar in the bank.

I hated where I was.

I hated this business.

And, to be honest, I was starting to hate my life.

This wasn’t what I signed up for.

I felt it physically.

Whether I made the calls or my acquisitions rep did—it didn’t matter.

I had lost all excitement for this work.

After hundreds of calls and dozens of contracts, I knew deep down:

This wasn’t it.

So, I made a deal with myself.

The Final Deal Test

I had one deal left, stuck in title.

If it closed and made us some money—maybe I was wrong.

Maybe there was still a future here.

But if it died…

That would be the sign.

The pragmatic marketer in me said: “Wait and see.”

But my gut already knew.

And then—on the very last day of the inspection period—the buyer backed out.

Boom. Done.

One of the most depressing New Year’s Eves of my life.

I knew it for sure:

My wholesaling career was over.

I had tried everything.

Every course.

Every mentor.

Every method.

I knew more about wholesaling than most people out there.

And still—it wasn’t working.

Συμβουλή Επιχειρηματικότητας #3:

If you’re grinding your ass off and still making less than a salaried employee—that’s your cue to pause.

There’s no point in sugarcoating it.

Sometimes, wanting it badly isn’t enough.

Λειτουργία επαναφοράς

I took a month off to regroup.

Then, I returned to what I knew best—online consulting.

A few clients, some research gigs, marketing strategy… just enough to keep things moving.

I’m not religious, but I do believe things happen for us, not to us.

And then, while watching a YouTube video about real estate agent lead generation, something happened.

A Facebook Message That Changed Everything

A former mentor—an investor with a 7-figure wholesale business in Florida—popped into my inbox.

“Hey man, what’s going on in Georgia these days?”

I told him straight up:

“Don’t ask. I quit wholesaling.”

He asked why.

I told him.

Then he said something unexpected:

“Wanna work with us? I’ve got an idea. Keep an open mind.”

Enter: Marketing Director

He offered me something completely different.

To manage their entire marketing operation:

Ψυχρή κλήση

Καμπάνιες Κειμένου

Απευθείας ταχυδρομείο

Eventually Google & Facebook

They had budget.

I had the experience.

And within a week—we made it official.

They became my only client.

I wasn’t an employee, but I ran everything, end-to-end.

Και ήταν καταπληκτικό.

My bank account recovered.

I learned a ton.

I managed a 15-person team of VAs and callers.

We pulled in hundreds of leads a month.

We even built a direct mail system with instant inbound calls—on a $30K monthly ad budget.

Something I’m still proud of.

Αλλά η πραγματική αλλαγή του παιχνιδιού;

We launched Google Ads.

Back to My Roots (But Smarter)

This is where it all began for me—13 years earlier.

At first, we hired an outside agency… but it didn’t deliver.

So they handed the entire thing over to me.

I dove into the top Google Ads courses for wholesalers, funded by the company

There was a learning curve, but soon the contracts came.

The deals followed.

And talking to sellers?

I knew I’d never go back to that.

But the grind I had been through?

It made me a much better marketer for this space.

I Stayed Three Years

I worked with them for three full years, and loved every minute.

I even started traveling again—working remotely from Sri Lanka, Africa, Central America…

And during that period, something new began to take shape.

A new business was born.

That’s what I’ll share in Post #5.

Photo: A message that changed my path—just when I thought I was done.

See you in the next post,

where I reveal how I combined 15 years of digital marketing with real estate to build my current business.

Got questions or curious about wholesaling? Drop them below

— Γιόγκεβ

Ιδρυτής, I-Solutions