Standing on New Shoulders:The Polite’s Path to Financial Freedom

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Mick Hunt: 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, Kristen and Dedrick Polite. How are you both doing today?

Dedrick Polite: Mick, we are doing awesome, man. Appreciate you having us.

Mick Hunt: 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 not just the work that you do — and we'll get into that — but more importantly, the human beings that you are. I'm a man of faith and I believe that good is rewarded in good. I just wanted you both to know just how freaking proud I am of the human beings that you are.

Crystal Polite: Oh, thank you so much. We really appreciate that.

Dedrick Polite: Yeah, I definitely appreciate that, man. I know that's from the heart, so we appreciate that.

Mick Hunt: Absolutely. It's the Carolina way, right?

Dedrick Polite: Absolutely. It's the Carolina way.

Mick Hunt: I usually start the episode by asking my guests, like, what's your because? That thing that's deeper than your why. 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. If I were to say, 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, what's your because today? What's that deeper purpose and mission that you have?

Crystal Polite: Wow, that's a great question. And the first time we've ever been asked that. So because. Because. My because. And it's easy, but now I'm trying to figure out how to frame it around my why, how they correlate with each other. So I would say my because is because I came from generational poverty. Because we both came from generational poverty. We understand what it was like. So we do what we do now to help someone else try to change the trajectory of their family tree. Even if it's giving them a nice place to stay, even if it's a rental, even if it's providing affordable housing to a single mother or a single father. Everything we do is really centered around because it's something that we experienced directly in our lifetime that we're trying to literally make it a little better for that next generation. And my mother always told me every generation should go one step further, at least, than the previous. So for her, it was like, my kids can just go one step further than I did, she would have done her job. So for us, that's what I always keep in mind. If I can go one step further and lead my children to do the same. I think that would be my because.

Mick Hunt: I think you've gone a few more than one step further than your mom. But we stand on the shoulders of giants, the previous generation.

Dedrick Polite: Mick, what I would say is my because is similar to Crystal. It's because we've been the underdogs. Because we came from living on Section 8 housing. Because I used to have food stamps as a kid and go to the grocery store. Because we've been evicted. So we've been on the bottom. And people see us now like, oh, you guys must have always had it going on. No, we started from the bottom. And because we started from the bottom, we want to serve as an example to others who are starting from zero or less than zero of what's possible.

Mick Hunt: I love that. And I want to hit on something that you said, talking about standing on the shoulders of giants. This is a part of what I feel like I need to tell you both too. You now are those shoulders that people are standing on. I want you to always know that and remember that. Again, it's part of the reason I'm proud of you. Because I have family members that look up to both of you. I have friends that are diehard followers of all the things that you do. And you now are those shoulders. So again, kudos to you both for all the things that you do. And I love your because.

Crystal Polite: Thank you. I appreciate that. And sometimes I'm just amazed. You're standing on the shoulders of giants, just living in North Carolina, living in South Carolina. Look how far we've come in 50 years, 100 years. Where our parents and our grandparents weren't allowed to even buy properties in certain neighborhoods back in the 1950s, 1960s and before. And now we're buying properties on TV. So it's just amazing. Again, I appreciate the sacrifices of the previous generations to allow us to do what we're doing and be an example.

Mick Hunt: 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. 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, 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? I love that. She put me on the hot seat, man. It was true in the hot seat. But you got to flip it a little bit. So we're going to talk about that. I don't know who wants to start first. Probably Crystal. Let's talk through what this first date was. Let's set that stage.

Crystal Polite: Well, it definitely was intentional. I always tell people intentionality can take you a lot of far ways. 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. I've done that, been there. At this point, I was looking to build and I'd already started in that trajectory. So when I met Dedrick at a gas station in Boston and random 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. And when we sat down, I know he thought, oh, she cute, about to have a real look. I thought it was just going to be a little bubblegum conversation, you know, first date. No, he thought he was going to get to slide in some lines and be real smooth with it. Tell me about all on surface level what he was doing. Well, you know, I went to a really nice university and I got a really nice job. I got the company car. I knew he was going to slide all that little stuff in there. Of course. And I said, you ain't about to waste my time. So as soon as we sat down and started talking, it was just told me where he's from and stuff like that. I said, oh, okay. And then he asked me, same little service. Oh, where are you originally from? And I said, oh, North Carolina, stuff like that. And I said, oh, okay. So what do you do for work? He said, you know, told me what he does for work. And I said, okay, do you plan on doing that forever? And he was like, no. I said, oh, well, I said, are you an entrepreneur? Have you done anything entrepreneurial around? He was like, oh, absolutely. And then he started telling me about some of the stuff he did, which was a bunch of MLMs. And I said, oh, OK. And I said, OK, well, what's your credit score? I said, well, damn, we get right to it, huh? Let's go. And he told me his credit score was like an 810, 815. I had the Halle Berry credit. And I always like to tell people I didn't ask him his credit score as a factor in determining whether or not I would give him a second date or continue to talk to him or give him a shot. I asked him his credit score so I knew how much work we needed to do. Where are we going to start from?

Mick Hunt: That's what you say today, Crystal. If this credit score was a 510 and not an 810, we don't even know if there would have been a second date.

Crystal Polite: 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 repairs. We both need some credit repairs.

Dedrick Polite: Right, we both need some credit repairs.

Crystal Polite: Because you had just cleaned up your credit. I had just cleaned up mine. So I was on the track. I know the important — and you know, you do the first thing 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, oh, okay. Okay. So we ain't got to do no credit repair with him. But it had just been like, okay, so I already done did mine. I know what I need to do for yours. So we just going to pull that report and we going to get the work that he need. 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 taken aback 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. She didn't know that yet. 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. And this is the type of person that I would want to be with because we're equally yoked.

Mick Hunt: So I'm going to summarize this first date. 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.

Dedrick Polite: Start how you want to finish. That's one of our models. Start how you want to finish. And that's exactly what we did on that first date.

Crystal Polite: Everything new. If you wanted kids, we knew. I asked about preexisting conditions in the family. All of that came out at Joe's.

Mick Hunt: There it is. So, Dedrick, you were in, you were doing several MLMs as Crystal was saying. When did you know that real estate was going to be a jam for you? And more importantly, what made that move happen? That switch happened for you?

Dedrick Polite: Yeah. So I went to college, graduated from Ivy League School, Amherst College, got good grades, got a corporate job doing sales, pharmaceutical sales, big pharma, had the company car, had the company Amex, all that good stuff, wore suit and tie to work. But I knew that wasn't for me as a career corporate guy. I just knew I didn't want that. 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. And late night infomercials. And it was these guys who get on there. Yeah, you can make millions in 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 like 25 years later, I'm doing exactly that. That's the power of intuition and planting a seed in someone. So I always knew I wanted to get into real estate. I just didn't know how. When Crystal and I met, she's the one who saw the entrepreneurial dreams and visions in me. 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 allowing me to leave my job until I met her.

Mick Hunt: I love that. So, Crystal, you both start business together. Talk through — and Dedrick, I love that you brought up the entrepreneur because a lot of people don't understand the challenges and the adversity that we face as entrepreneurs and growing a business. So talk to us about some of those initial challenges that you had to break through to get to where you are today.

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Crystal Polite: Oh, some challenges. What wasn't a challenge? How many businesses have we started and failed? That's what people don't understand. 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, maybe not a struggle, but it's continual challenges. And sometimes the more successful you get, the challenges become bigger.

Dedrick Polite: Absolutely. More money, more problems. Like they say, the challenges do get bigger.

Crystal Polite: And for us, it was a struggle figuring it out. Especially when we got together early 2000s, mid 2000s, it was really you didn't have a lot of coaches and mentors out there. So for us, it was trying to figure it out, figure out what we want to do. No mentors, no guides. Figure out where we want to go, starting and failing. The difference was I was never afraid to fail ever. Dedrick, not so much. Dedrick was not trying to go back broke.

Dedrick Polite: My mentality was I'll lose it and I'll get it back again. But you were still living at home, so you had a little more of a safety net. I had a house, I had a mortgage, I had a new car, I had a car note, so I had some bills.

Crystal Polite: Yes. And I'll tell you one of the best things — and I always try to tell this to young college students, high school students, especially parents. One of the best things my mother ever said to me was once you got out of college, come back home, live with me. Don't rush to jump out there on your own. Come back home. Figure out what you want to do. While your headaches are my headaches, your worries are my worry. Don't rush to get out there and put the weight of the world on your shoulders before it's time. So out of her four kids, I was the one that listened. I came back home. You had a safety net. I had that safety net. I was able to start a nonprofit. I was able to start my own business. I was able to fail at everything. And my mother was right there. Keep going. Keep going. OK, I'm here to support you. And it allowed me to spread my wings. It allowed me to get out there and do things that made me truly uncomfortable. So when I met Dedrick and Dedrick was very risk averse, it was just like her mindset was totally the opposite. She's like, oh, we don't need a business plan, let's just do it, let's figure it out.

Dedrick Polite: Well, hold up. Grow wings on the way down is what I tell him.

Crystal Polite: All right, Dedrick is like, we need the structure plan, we need the details, we need step one and step two, and we can't go to step two without a small analysis, and we need a business plan for the business plan. Because that's how I was trained in going to college, in school.

Mick Hunt: I love that. And Crystal, you brought up not having mentors, not having coaches. I would say for me, one of the things that later in my business career — because early on, I was just like you, 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 Daymond John, Robert Irvine, a 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 turned 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.

Dedrick Polite: Yeah, I mean, we figured out we solved real estate investing. We became very successful from real estate investing. Then we got our own TV show. And 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. The reason 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.

Mick Hunt: Yeah. And you hit on something I want to double down on. I want to unplug, no pun intended, this because I did the same thing. You paid for coaching. You invested in yourself. I'm going to hurt some feelings today and I don't want this to come across from Crystal and Dedrick. This is purely the commentary of Mick and Mick only. People need to invest in themselves. And here's why I say that. And I want you to talk a little bit more about your coaching program, too. When I first started coaching and helping people, I was willing. And sometimes today I still do it for free. But the people that invested were more accountable to the success, to the results, and do the actual work. So this is my message, this isn't coming from Crystal and Dedrick, so don't at them, don't yell at them, yell at me. I take it. If you're not willing to invest in yourself, don't always ask for free advice. Don't always ask for free mentorship because it's draining. I'm not gonna lie. People that want it for free over and over and over again are the ones who aren't going to be willing to commit to do the actual work required to get where they're trying to go. They're always going to think there's an easy button that you can press and there's no such thing as an easy button.

Dedrick Polite: Right.

Mick Hunt: And then I'm also going to say this. They want people to invest in their dreams but they don't want to put that same investment into their own. So I said that. So you didn't have to say it.

Dedrick Polite: Listen, we keep it real. We're going to agree with you a thousand and ten percent. Because we have been there. We've been on both sides. We've been the mentee and we've been the mentor. We're there now, like today. And we tell people we still have mentors. Literally that always, because we're not done. We are still building, we are still climbing. But we do believe in lifting as we rise. But it goes back to that saying: people who pay, pay attention. And we've learned just giving information to individuals, it drained us. It was a waste of our time. No one ever acted on that information. And then you don't hear from them. They come back around in six months. Hey, I got a question real quick. We ain't got time for all that. And then the people who pay, they pay attention. They're at every coaching session. They are emailing, they're actively taking action. And those are the ones who are constantly hitting us and DMing us like, hey, I just got my first deal locked up. I just bought my first rental property that I'll be passing on to my kids within two months time. And it's just as simple as listening, sitting down, listening, following instruction, and getting out of your own way.

Crystal Polite: And I tell Dedrick, one of the best things about that TV show for me was the exposure to people who said they'd never seen a show like ours where it was attainable as well as inspirational. So it was at a price point where people who worked at grocery stores, who were secretaries, were reaching out and was like, I can...

Dedrick Polite: Before in prison. Prison.

Crystal Polite: Wow.

Dedrick Polite: A lot of brothers in prison have reached out to us saying they've been inspired. So many letters from prison. One guy, the most humbling letter I've ever read, was from a guy in prison who wrote and specifically spoke about Dedrick. And he said, for the first time watching your show, I've held myself accountable for my actions that got me here. He said, because looking at you, we're the same age, we look the same, we come from the same neighborhood. And to see where you have gotten, my brother, has for the first time shown a light on myself and said, why could I have not done what you've done? And we came from the same place. We came from the same background. I'm the same age. You look like me. He says so he really just wrote the letter thanking us and thanking the network for actually showing someone that he could relate to. He said so for him, it was a mind shift where he's now like, he can accept responsibility that he and he alone got him to where he's at. And now he's prepared to do better, even while there, to get out to one day be able to do what we're doing for the family that he still has out there. That's what I tell people the TV show did. That was powerful to me.

Mick Hunt: Yeah. It's just the fact that people can see themselves flipping a property or buying real estate and aren't millionaires. And again, I go back to what I said earlier when I wanted to give you both praise. You are now those shoulders. 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. It's a real legit network. So talk about Hulu and Hulu, right? And even bigger, even more distribution, 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? I'd love personally, I just want to hear this story.

Dedrick Polite: 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 like, 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, 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 Merrill. Thay and Merrill flipped this out in 2008. The first one. So they were looking to now get back into the home space and they were looking for a three show. They were green lighting three shows. So they were looking and searching all over and they were looking at hundreds of people. They had ended up DMing us. At a certain point, I just stopped going into the DMs. I wasn't really looking at them. So one of the executives, the casting company, contacted, called our 800 number, got our secretary, made our secretary promise to give me the message and to promise to get me to call her back. So they had been DMing us for a year, which we hadn't known. And I had seen it in there, but I thought it was spam. So I told by that. And so as soon as I walked in, our secretary sounds like, hey, a lady name, I think it's Allie from Annie. She said, if you could please give her a call back, she really wants to speak to you. And I said, oh, OK. And I kept going on, kept walking to go into the office. She came and she was like, no, she made me promise to have you please give her a call back. And I looked at, I said, and you promised? And she was like, yeah. And I said, well, don't promise nobody else unless you calling him back. And she was like, please, I don't want to be made out a liar. Could you please call her back? So I was like, all right, fine. I called her back and she was like, first off, I want to say I am not a casting company. She was like, I work exclusively for A&E. Have you ever felt like the banking system is stacked against you?

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Crystal Polite: And I had no idea what that meant. So it didn't impress me. I was just like, "Oh, okay. All right. Well, what can I do for you?" And she was like, "And we've been following you guys. I've been trying to get ahold of you for a year, past year." Now this is during COVID. Right after COVID. No, we started right after COVID. They had started hitting us about a year during COVID and stuff. Then I was like, "Oh, okay." She was like, "We love your YouTube. We love your Instagram. We're looking for a couple to do a show. We're interviewing hundreds of people." So we was like, at that point, I told Dedrick, I was like, "Okay, well, we ain't going to really do it. Let's just see how far we can get." We didn't think they were going to pick us. And I'm super private. Like, extremely. If they had a TV show on extreme people who were private, I would definitely FBI meets CIA. That's Crystal.

Mick Hunt: I'm right there with you, Crystal. I really am.

Crystal Polite: So it wasn't even a thought in my mind to do something like this. So me and Dedrick was like, "Yeah, we're just going to see how far we can go." So then we can tell people like, "You know, we were one of the finalists." It'll be a cool story at the dinner party. 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?" Since it's an email, we'd like to hop on another Zoom with you guys. We was like, "Yeah, sure." 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." Me and Dedrick looked at each other and was just like... [makes shocked face] Oh. Like literally a fake smile and everything like, "Oh, okay." We got to get a copy of that recording to get our reaction. Oh. Like, we were literally stone-faced like, "Oh." And then we got off and Dedrick was like, "We're not really doing a TV show, are we?" I was like, "We kind of have to now?" He was like, "Why?" I was like, "Because they've already chosen us."

Dedrick Polite: So now I'm having second thoughts.

Crystal Polite: I'm like, "We really want to do this? We can't go back on our word. We done got this far. They done eliminated all these other people. We got to do what we say we were going to."

Dedrick Polite: Babe, babe, I never said. So we were here to see how far we were going to get.

Crystal Polite: I said, "I know. We don't have to just do it. We don't have to do it. I know, I know we don't." And it was really us, like, we didn't think. You know, you dream about being on TV one day, but you don't think it's going to actually happen. So we were shocked. I mean, we were just like, "Man, God works in mysterious ways." And after like months of contract negotiations, you got to remind the TV show network that you ain't a starving artist when you ain't starving. We were already successful. We have a successful real estate company. We own a bunch of rentals. So they sent over the starving artist contract. So yeah, it took a while. But what we did is we went straight to series, where most people would get a TV show. They'll do like a sizzle reel, which is like a five, 10 minute pilot. But we went straight to series, which means they started. As soon as that contract was signed, they had boots on the ground within two weeks and started filming, which never happened in the industry. Literally. And it was like, "Oh, it'll be like two or three days a week." It went from two or three days a week to five days a week.

Dedrick Polite: Filming.

Crystal Polite: Filming. Ten hours a day straight for like seven months, seven, eight months.

Mick Hunt: Wow.

Crystal Polite: And the first season, you don't know what you don't know. So first season broke us. When I tell you it broke us, it broke us. After that last day, we wrapped, we sat in that bed and looked at each other and said, "We will never come back for a season two."

Mick Hunt: But look at you now. Look at you now. What are some of those things really quick that you learned after or during the first season that you now know what to do differently, better, ask for, say no to? What are some of those things that you learned?

Dedrick Polite: Well, the first thing we learned is that we had to do 10 houses. We ended up doing six because our team just wasn't big enough at the time to handle 10 houses. But I didn't want to do it because we had to raise about two or three million dollars in investment capital in order to pull it off. And I didn't think we could do that because I'd never raised that much money before. But when you stretch yourself and you challenge yourself, it's amazing what you can accomplish. And we ended up getting it done. So that was a big thing for me is like doing something I was afraid of doing. I was terrified, but we got it done and I grew in immense ways.

Crystal Polite: Yeah. And understanding that we definitely learned from season one, it was literally three of us doing the work of 10 people. So we understood that we couldn't do everything. We learned that we couldn't do everything ourselves. Like we needed, I think I lost 15 pounds. We both lost a lot of weight. I went from like two gray hairs to like team. It was crazy. And we learned that we had to find a team and delegate some of these responsibilities and tasks. And I remember we had talked to a couple of people who had already had TV shows in flipping and they had said, "Oh yeah, the TV show is going to be your new business. So all that other stuff is going to fall by the wayside, this is going to become your every day." And we was like, "Yeah, all right. They don't know. We can handle this. They don't know what." When I tell you, baby, we were up there like, "I told you, remember what they said?" Because we were suffocating. Because we still have a wholesale flipping company. We still have a rental company. We have an Airbnb division. We had all these divisions of real estate going. Plus you add a TV show, which is another 50, 60 hours a week. So it was intense. And 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.

Mick Hunt: There you go. That's what's up. That's what's up. So 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.

Dedrick Polite: Yep.

Mick Hunt: Right. And I would say for me, the hardest lesson I had to learn was delegation because I wanted to do 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.

Crystal Polite: You got to have a team. 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.

Mick Hunt: Right. Amen to that. Amen to that. One of my mentors said, "You can't read the ingredients when you're inside the box."

Dedrick Polite: There you go. That's a good one.

Mick Hunt: I love that. One thing I had to learn. All right. So you both are very busy. You've been gracious with your time. I'm going to get you out of here with my quick five rapid fire so you can determine who wants to answer the question. Okay. So after the credit score reveal from Crystal, I guess the first one going to be for Dedrick. Were you nervous at all? Did you get nervous when yours was an 810 and hers was a 6 something?

Dedrick Polite: No, I wasn't nervous at all. And I had the 810.

Mick Hunt: That's it. All right. You've had a long day of filming, a long day in the office. What's your favorite comfort meal?

Dedrick Polite: Favorite comfort meal for me, other than mine would be soul food. So smothered pork chop, baked macaroni and cheese, yams is definitely soul food.

Mick Hunt: Making me hungry.

Crystal Polite: Mine is whatever my wife cooks. She is an amazing cook. Now, when we first started dating, my baby couldn't boil water when we first started.

Mick Hunt: Right, right.

Crystal Polite: But her condition was, she said, "Until you put a ring on it, that's when we start cooking." And that's exactly what happened. And once I put a ring on it, really, once we had our first child, her cooking is amazing. So that's my favorite comfort meal.

Mick Hunt: Okay. All right. So then let me parlay that into question number three. For you, Crystal, what's your favorite dish that you make?

Crystal Polite: Well, my kids would definitely say baked macaroni and cheese. It's like every week thing. Every Sunday, we got to have it.

Mick Hunt: I'm the same way. I'm a mac and cheese snob.

Crystal Polite: Oh, yeah. And it has to be baked. No out the box. Like it has to be baked macaroni and cheese.

Mick Hunt: Okay, I love it. What's one word that you would use to describe your partnership?

Dedrick Polite: My word would just be powerful.

Mick Hunt: I like that one.

Crystal Polite: Mine would be intentional. I think everything we do with each other from the day we met has been very intentional. You know, dating him from the beginning, I made it so that he understood he never had to lie to me. We can work through whatever we got to work through. Be intentional, be respectful of my time, I'll be respectful of your time. He don't be late. Like I've been very intentional with each other along our entire journey.

Mick Hunt: Intentional and powerful. Sounds like a great book title for you. I'm just going to say. I like that. All right. Last one. When the story is written for the Polites, what do you want that legacy to be described as?

Dedrick Polite: I mean, I would say people look at us and think, you know, we've accomplished everything. I would say we're in like our second inning out of nine innings. We're just getting started. With us, it's about impact. It's not about how many doors we own. Crystal always likes to say it's about how many doors can we open for others to walk through, right? How big of an impact can we have? So that's really our goal is to marshal enough resources so that we can give massive amounts of resources away.

Crystal Polite: Yeah, I definitely would say a saying that I learned in 10th grade. I read it somewhere on something. And it is literally been the whole basis of my existence from 10th grade in high school all the way through. I've had it written on everything, all books. You name it. It is: "You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give." And I've lived my life that way my entire life. And my mother would tell people from four years old, it's been, "What can I do for others?" So I think for us, that's what we try to embody. How can we be of service? How can we open a door for some other family, some other individual to be able to walk through to change the trajectory of their family tree? Because like I tell people, our children are going to be okay because we're going to teach them not only how to live in today's society, but get it out the mud if they got to all over again, right? We're not raising those privileged children. They're going to learn how to get it out the mud just the same way we did, as well as responsibility for what they have now, but also, and more so, to be a blessing is what we're teaching them. To be a blessing means to be blessed, and you are blessed. So it's more important for us to teach them how now to be a blessing to others.

Mick Hunt: Wow. I love that. I love that. You two are so awesome. Thank you. Thank you. You are the epitome of good. You're the epitome of like who we all should strive to be. So just again, thank you for being who you are. It means the world to me to have you on the show. Where can people find and follow you?

Crystal Polite: Be Polite. So BePolite Properties on Instagram, on YouTube. Also our website.

Dedrick Polite: DedrickandCrystal.com.

Crystal Polite: DedrickandCrystal.com. Which has everything as well. Has all our information. Anyone who has questions about real estate, how to get into real estate, how to build wealth, feel free to reach out to us and our team and we'll be glad to help. And we appreciate you. Thank you for having us on, Mick. And we've got to do this again. And make sure you guys go and watch the TV show. See the one, two, before we hit you with a third one.

Mick Hunt: There it is. We will make sure we have links to all that in the show notes. I'm going to make sure weekly I'm promoting the show and when it comes on, I'm going to also promote the coaching program that you all have, because I think that's amazing and it's honorable that you are mentors to so many. So again, thank you from the bottom of my soul for all that you do.

Crystal Polite: Thank you for having us, Mick. We appreciate you.

Mick Hunt: You got it. For all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it. You've been plugged into Mick Unplugged. Don't just listen, take action. Rate and subscribe. Follow me on social and get the full experience at MickHuntOfficial.com. Keep building, keep leading, and most importantly, keep dominating.

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