Investor Cheat Code Podcast with Mike Simmons

For today’s episode, I gladly welcome Matthew Pollard, an internationally-recognized consultant, speaker, blogger, author, mentor, coach, serial entrepreneur, and the Founder and CEO of Rapid Growth, LLC, a company dedicated to achieving maximum ROI for businesses of all sizes. Matthew is also the host of the popular podcast The Introvert’s Edge and the author of the book of the same name.

Matthew has had to battle challenging personal and professional hurdles before realizing the success he has today. From having a learning disability and being painfully introverted, to being laid off from his first job just weeks before Christmas, he has made remarkable progress to pave the way for success. Being an introvert myself, I am excited by the opportunity to interview someone who resonates with me in multiple ways.

Matthew was born in a small, blue-collar town in Australia called Craigieburn, to a family of miners, sheep shearers, factory workers, seamstresses, and secretaries. He was hindered by a lifelong visual processing disorder, misdiagnosed until his teenage years which left him with the reading level of a sixth-grader, making school a nonstop struggle. Uncertain of what he wanted to do with his life, and exhausted from the effort of finishing school, Matthew decided to postpone university, and instead ended up at the only job he could find, which was commission-only door to door sales.

He landed his first sale after knocking on almost one hundred doors and was ecstatic! Because of his reading limitations, he discovered YouTube and started learning field testing and sales from the videos available. He discusses how he completely immersed himself in learning and often spent 16 hours a day practicing. This eventually led him to become the top salesperson of this company that also boasted the highest volume of sales and marketing in the southern hemisphere!

Matthew then started his own B2B cell phone company, which turned out to be the largest broker of B2B cell phones in the country. He went on to have five multi-million dollar businesses, all before the age of 30. He suggests introverts practice projecting extraversion in lieu of trying to become an extrovert. He says most people struggle to interact with others because it takes a ton more energy and they feel inauthentic when they're doing it. By knowing exactly what you’re going to say, who you’re going to speak to, and what is going to trigger their interest, introverts can manage well in these interactions.

Matthew shares his experience writing his first book and how difficult it was for him with the reading difficulties he had. He also talks about interviewing Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar, and learning from him how his father had also been an introvert. In discussing his podcast and how it has helped him, Matthew said that if you can't articulate the value of what you provide face to face when someone's politely listening to you, you’re going to have a hard time when you need to do that digitally.

With The Introvert’s Edge Podcast, Matthew provides a step-by-step process by which even the most introverted person can become a sales master, while still remaining authentic. He is on a mission to erase the stigma around introversion and to empower introverts to recognize and leverage their innate strengths and abilities. Matthew believes successful people share a few common traits and that they are all under your control. He said high-achievers have a 100% commitment to their goals, a drive to work hard, an ability to synthesize information and create reliable systems, a mindset of self-belief and a positive outlook, and the attitude of smart risk-taking.

With the incredible success he has created in his life and the unparalleled ways of sharing his practices, Matthew continues to revolutionize and reshape the industry. Do not miss out on this powerful and life-changing interview on the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with uber-successful entrepreneur, Matthew Pollard!

Notable quotes:

“I focus on making sure that every introvert out there knows that introversion is really just about how you draw your energy.”

• Mathew Pollard

“I watched my dad break his back for 80 hours a week to support the family, so there was no way I was going to sit and watch Oprah for the next month or so. So I pulled out the classifieds.”

• Mathew Pollard

“I'm up for hours before a presentation to make sure I'm ready and rock-solid for that event.”

• Mathew Pollard

“I'm really focused on helping people realize that they don't need to be extroverted. As a matter of fact, that's a disadvantage.”

• Mathew Pollard

“Realize that 90% of all success in networking happens before you even walk into the room.“

• Mathew Pollard

“When I go to a networking event, I know exactly what I'm going to say, exactly who I'm going to speak to, and exactly what is going to trigger their interest because I've researched it in advance.” 

• Mathew Pollard

Links:

Matthew’s Website

Matthew’s LinkedIn Profile

The Introvert’s Edge Podcast

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For today’s episode, I’m pleased to welcome Bo Kim, who is a real estate investor and popular podcaster. Bo is a buy-and-hold investor who works in the accounting industry in Southern California and also hosts the Bigger Cash Flow Podcast, where he shares the tips and tricks to making it big in the real estate sector. Owning an impressive sixty-three rental units in markets of Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Little Rock, Bo has a wealth of experience in the industry to learn from.

Bo talks about his early life and living in rented houses for most of his childhood. He shares how he was intrigued by their landlord owning four rentals and making a considerable amount of money with those alone. He saved everything he made while in college and was able to start investing soon after graduating. While still less informed about house hacking and the process of renting out an apartment, he managed to rent the extra bedroom of his house to his sister-in-law, after he moved into the newly-bought house with his wife.

Excited at the new passive income source he’d managed to build, he dove into this business for the incredible cash flow it could provide. Bo also shares how losing $10,000 on his first real estate deal helped him learn a great deal about the industry and its functioning. He discusses how starting off, he’d initially made a list of twenty metro cities he liked and went about calling all the turnkey providers, contractors, and agents until he found some people he was excited to work with.

Bo also shares his approach of going about determining which markets are good for him. He considers cash flow, a favorable rent-to-price ratio, population growth, a diverse economy, and suitability for landlords as the prime deciding factors. Bo says that over half of the rentals he owns are single-family properties.

Bo has a business degree in accounting and works currently in the accounting industry. His podcast aims at helping newbie real estate investors take back control of their finances. Bo is also an avid writer on his blog, where he shares tips and tricks on achieving freedom with time, location, and money.

Bo also discusses how he manages all of his units every day. He suggests starting off by having the picture of the end in mind. Bo’s professional goals go beyond just making money, and he chooses to always have in mind the kind of lifestyle he wants to keep and invests in his choices accordingly. He shares how much he targets per door for single and multi-family rentals. Bo explains how he chose his investing strategy and why he invests in rentals and not full-time flipping of houses. He shares that he enjoys his present job and would consider doing other things if he gets tired of doing his job at any time. His aim is to have cash flow without investing a lot of time and energy into the process.

Bo discusses how it was not a seamless process to manage his rentals while working full-time simultaneously. He put in a lot of work, often waking up at 5:00 am to manage calls and working on the weekends to get everything finished. He also talks about finding the perfect balance between work, personal life, and a healthy lifestyle. Bo explains that not having kids helped him find more time for his business and get things running efficiently. We also discuss how the pandemic has affected people today. Bo shares how he did flipping for the first time this year and made $15,000 out of the first deal. He says he’d like to continue testing and finding the right waters to start something new.

Don’t miss out on this episode of the Just Start Real Estate podcast that is filled with huge take-aways from my powerful conversation with Bo Kim!

Notable quotes:

“You have to really start with the end in mind.”

• Bo Kim

“If you don't have the end goal in mind, you're just gonna pick up any random properties and these could be other investors' problem children that you are buying by mistake.”

• Bo Kim

“So for me, the number of units is never the goal. It's making sure that whatever I buy and invest in really correlates with the lifestyle that I want in the future. ”

• Bo Kim

“It goes back to educating yourself because you don't know what you don't know.”

• Bo Kim

“If you do what everybody else is doing, you're gonna get what everybody else gets.”

• Bo Kim

“I like to call it the work-life blend. You just have to find what's important to you and incorporate it into your day-to-day.” 

• Bo Kim

“I think balance is tough. And everyone's different. You don't have kids, maybe someone who's listening does and they can't do it the same. “

• Mike Simmons

“Don't use that as an excuse, get out there and do the work and learn as much as you need to be dangerous. “

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Bo’s Email

Bo’s Website

Bo’s Instagram

Bo’s LinkedIn Profile

Bigger Cash Flow Podcast

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I am thrilled to interview Trevor Mauch, the CEO at Carrot. Carrot is a digital SaaS company that helps over 6,500 real estate professionals generate consistent, high-quality leads online by leveraging content marketing and is an industry-leading software. Trevor is passionate about using business to fuel investor’s passion and to amplify the impact investors want to make in the world, helping entrepreneurs achieve freedom, flexibility, finances, and impact.

Trevor shares his background story of buying his first rental property back in college and how the business that his parents were in discouraged him from entrepreneurship at a young age. He describes how his dad pushed him to buy that first property, which he still owns today. Trevor talked about limiting beliefs that people have that pile-up and create an impossible mountain to climb.

We then moved on to when Trevor moved to Portland and started entertaining the idea of entrepreneurship. He explains how he gave himself time to figure out entrepreneurship, which was hard for him financially before things started looking up and he started earning a consistent income. Trevor describes how he found real estate wholesaling and also turned his passion for marketing into a day job for his active income. He opens up about his serial entrepreneurship endeavors which include real estate, marketing, publishing company, and others.

We dive into the topic of entrepreneurship and whether entrepreneurs are born or made. By comparing his own journey with his brother’s, Trevor believes that entrepreneurs are born, but also agrees that they have to develop certain attributes to be a true entrepreneur. Carrot was born from Trevor’s passion for marketing that had turned into a draining activity before he found his unique abilities and went all-in with them. He describes how he found a mentor and emulated him to find things that give him more energy. Trevor advises people to stop doing things that drain their energy even if they bring you a lot of money, and instead focus on things that give you energy and keep you motivated.

We discuss the Carrot brand and how it helps real estate investors create customized sites that rank and convert well on Google. Trevor explains how they’ve been adjusting their data over the years to keep up with the competition. They have been building a lot of content marketing tools to make it easier for people to get content online and rank it well on Google, plus win more deals by being the trusted authority. He explains that his most successful clients at Carrot meet their goals with written content by either writing it themselves or by choosing Carrot’s automated content packs.

Lastly, we talk about the importance of scheduling your content on your site and social media as a way to create authority. Trevor explains how content helps you as an investor demystify your process which encourages people to trust and follow you.

You really have to check out Carrot, the #1 Inbound Online Lead Generation System For Serious Real Estate Professionals, and Trevor’s podcast dedicated to interviewing his clients, CarrotCast. You will not want to miss this episode of Just Start Real Estate chock-full of fabulous information and value from marketing guru and fellow real estate investor, Trevor Mauch!

Notable Quotes:

“That’s the difference I find between successful and unsuccessful people - some just do something with what they know and others don’t.”

• Mike Simmons

“People often have the ingredients of entrepreneurship, but they either never put themselves in that position or they’re never put in that position, so it’s unrealized.”

• Mike Simmons

“You know you’re doing the right stuff when people pay you really well and say you’re really good at it.”

• Trevor Mauch

“I found my unique abilities and went all-in on them.”

• Trevor Mauch

“You win, not by saying you can buy fast because everyone can. You win by being the trusted authority in that area or topic.”

• Trevor Mauch

“Even if we’re not trying to focus on Google rankings, we need to focus on making sure that we have an authority hub, so all our marketing converts better because of the content on our website.”

• Trevor Mauch

“Leads are the oxygen of your company; you can’t live without leads.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Carrot

CarrotCast

Trevor’s Website

Trevor on Instagram 

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I welcome David Hill, a leading expert on telephone prospecting, bestselling author, and popular podcast host of the Path to Mastery Podcast. Over the past twenty-eight years, he has worked as a salesperson in numerous industries and depended primarily on the phone to make sales. He was previously a team leader at Keller Williams Greater Hartford and is now at eXp Realty.

David first shares his background story from a call-center caller when he was seventeen years old to building a career as an excellent salesperson. A funny turn of events is that David’s career in real estate was largely influenced by his then 10-year-old daughter… I hope you listen to the episode to hear all about it!

We discuss the lessons of resiliency and dealing with rejection that David learned during his journey making sales calls. David explains call reluctance as the ‘little voice’ that stops you from taking that leap and the many forms it shows up in.

David explains why you need to be proactive in sales to be good at it and effective salespeople condition themselves to be this way. He perfectly describes the type of character that he believes will struggle in sales and points out that you need more than a great personality to be successful. David made a lot of mistakes and had many failures but his willingness to continue making things right is what has defined his success. He has mastered how to be the right leader even as he looks for the right people to hire.

We eventually dive into the topic of David’s bestselling book, The Sales Playbook. He wrote the book to give people eleven strategies to become great at sales. ‘The hidden goldmine in your pocket’ is a phrase David uses to describe a phone and your contacts and all the connections you can make with them. The text message form of communication can be interpreted differently and hence ineffective as compared to face-to-face calls or voice calls.

We move on to discussing real estate and why David prefers wholesaling which isn’t necessarily a favorite of most real estate investors. He explains most of the strategies that make him believe that there’s a lot of potential in wholesaling.

David describes his experience hosting his podcast, the Path to Mastery, and bringing Gary Vee plus other prominent people on his show. One of his popular pieces of advice is for people to stop rushing in life and instead slow down and be present. David asks for my feedback on his podcast which I willingly give based on the episodes I’ve listened to. We also talk about the art of podcasting and what it takes to put high-quality audio out there. Don’t miss this episode of Just Start Real Estate with the very smart and engaging, David Hill!

Notable Quotes:

“In sales, don’t take things personally.”

• David Hill

“If you’re going to be good at sales, you’re going to have to be proactive in some capacity.”

• David Hill

“If you’re the type of person that can’t get beyond your own ego, beyond not looking good or being right all the time, I think you’re going to struggle in sales.”

• David Hill

“The difference between adequate, okay, and really good is tremendous.”

• Mike Simmons

“There’s a lot of difference in the revenue when you have a really good salesperson.”

• Mike Simmons

“I think it’s finding the right people but then also being the right leader.”

• David Hill

“A lot of people hide behind texts.”

• David Hill

“You have to know what phase, what cycle of the market you’re in, and adjust to it.”

• Mike Simmons

“You change based on what the conditions are.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

David’s Website

The Sales Playbook by David Hill

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I welcome Reed Goossens, who is a real estate investor, best-selling author, entrepreneur, and host of the popular podcast, Investing in the US. In 2012, Reed quit his job in Australia and moved halfway across the globe to the United States to change his life and chase a dream. With limited funds, no investing experience, and no credit, Reed went from purchasing a small duplex to growing his own real estate investment firm, Wildhorn Capital.

Reed first shares his background story from living all across Europe as both a structural engineering expert and a tourist to later moving to New York and falling in love with it to never want to leave. He once worked as a deckhand in a luxury yacht in Europe where he got to experience a glimpse into the crazy world of the ‘filthy rich’.

We move on to discussing how Reed got into real estate intending to escape the corporate world and embark on backpacking travel adventures. Reed explains how reading Rich Dad Poor Dad changed his perspective on entrepreneurship and developed his interest in real estate. He continued educating himself on real estate and within a month of living in New York, he attended the first Real Estate Investor Association (REIA) meeting.

Reed describes the Australian real estate market as a high appreciation market where you don’t buy for cash flowing investments. Reed explains how he bought his first property at $30,000 which set up his path to many other deals. Reed had the clear goal of cash flow and started by buying a small duplex but ended up flipping it before getting into the scale side of it as a way to produce passive income.

We discuss how Reed moved from buying duplexes and triplexes into buying larger apartments. A friend of Reed challenged him to get a mentor and fundraise for capital, which he did. He did this by beginning to build a personal brand and he found that he began to face the challenge of imposter syndrome. He overcame this by creating a podcast that served as a foundation to educate people, and in turn, this built up his confidence. Reed also shares how he build a brand around his own story and transparency, vulnerability, being down-to-earth, and approachable, which ultimately helped him get to deals and grow his business.

We discuss the importance of building a personal brand that’s not about striving to get millions of following but being a key person of interest to grow your real estate business. Reed explains in detail how his brand story and podcast helped him meet people, gain trust, establish credibility in the industry, and be able to grow his real estate business to where it is now.

We eventually jump into the topic of syndication, which is the act of pulling people’s money together and buying a large deal that one individual couldn’t buy on their own. Reed explains syndication with an analogy I believe is the best I’ve ever heard. He then goes ahead to explain how he started syndicating deals with his mentor but broke out on his own in 2016. He is now doing exclusively apartments in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. Reed explains how they keep it lean when it comes to scaling up, plus how they have mastered the art of doing what they say they’re going to do. Reed shares how he handles being a remote investor and the challenges he faces.

Lastly, we talk about the possible future of the real estate industry. He describes multifamily as a golden child of commercial assets right now in growing cities. It is important to understand the keys in your industry to perform even during a crisis or an election year. Don’t miss this episode of Just Start Real Estate that is filled with gold nuggets from super-successful entrepreneur, Reed Goossens!

 Notable Quotes:

“Anytime anybody has an abundance of anything, it’s hard to appreciate it.”

• Mike Simmons

“Australia is a high appreciation market- high demand, low supply.”

• Reed Goossens

“I’m not going to get to deal #10 without doing that first deal.”

• Reed Goossens

“You have to get really clear on what your goals are and for me it was cash flow.”

• Reed Goossens

“Self-education is great, but you come to a point where you need a coach in your corner.”

• Reed Goossens

“People want to know your story - that’s what’s really important and then they invest in you. The deals are actually secondary.”

• Reed Goossens

“Looking back, if I didn’t do the podcast or the branding stuff, I’m sure I wouldn’t be in the place I am today.”

• Reed Goossens

“Underwriting is determining the value of what you should buy it for and understanding the numbers of the deal.”

• Mike Simmons

“Scaling sometimes is where people fall apart because they either go too fast and are reckless, or they hire the wrong people.”

• Mike Simmons

“Being able to perform, close on a deal, and do what you say you’re going to do is super valuable.”

• Reed Goossens

“You can do this business from the moon if you want to.”

• Reed Goossens

“Multifamily is the golden child right now compared to other commercial asset classes.”

• Reed Goossens

“There are opportunities in every market. It’s just knowing where you are in that cycle is really the key.”

• Mike Simmons 

Links:

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Key Person of Influence

Reed's Website

Reed's LinkedIn

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I welcome Victor Menasce, the author of Magnetic Capital and the host of the daily Real Estate Espresso Podcast. He specializes in the development of new construction multi-family apartments, assisted living, industrial, and workforce housing in several markets across North America. Before moving into real estate development, Victor held roles as Vice President of Engineering at Wavesat, a developer of chips for wireless networks, and Chief Technical Officer at Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC), a Silicon Valley-based public company that develops microprocessors for numerous consumer products including televisions and gaming. Victor lives in Ottawa, Canada with his family.

Victor first shares his background story as a microprocessor developer which eventually got tedious and he had to retire. He made a hard turn into the real estate world and is now doing almost all new construction development. We move on to talk about his shift from the tech industry to real estate. There’s no one single dominant player in real estate anywhere in the world and people will invest at a level they wouldn’t in the tech industry. Victor explains how real estate doesn’t require much for people to start investing as compared to tech businesses that require deep pockets to get people to invest.

Together we dive into the real estate business approach that Victor took when he joined the industry. He saw a need in his city of Ottawa and strategized a way to serve a targeted market. He started by buying one-bedroom condos within a four-block radius of parliament and marketed them as fully furnished executive suites. He later sold that portfolio to focus on the US market when he saw an opportunity presented by the financial crisis in 2008.

We talk about the distress in commercial real estate following the pandemic, which included hotels. Victor explains how wealth is going to be transferred and some good assets will come into the market within a short period. Businesses are especially vulnerable now due to their outstanding debts.

We talk about the concept of new builds with Victor explaining his beliefs concerning demand and supply. Victor explains how he and his team learn from their developments in the US on the ‘good side of the line’ and the ‘bad side of the line’ as is defined by various zoning codes.

We move on to the power of developing relationships with the best people in the world. Victor explains how he opened his eyes to opportunities after becoming aware of what is possible. He then talks about his book Magnetic Capital which is about the five principles to help you raise capital for any venture. There’s a difference between asking for money and offering an investor an opportunity to collaborate on a project. Victor gives us the reason why he offers compelling and interesting projects that serve a need in the marketplace to potential investors rather than directly asking them for money.

We discuss what Victor means when he talks about ‘good charitable cause, bad foundation.’ He believes that raising money for a charitable cause is no different from raising money for investment. The foundation of a worthy cause should be set to have an outcome just like an investment does and it is important to look for these qualities when you are looking to invest in one. 

Lastly, we discuss how to invest like a billionaire by looking for and investing in safe deals. Don’t miss this powerful episode of Just Start Real Estate with tons of applicable tips and advice from uber-successful entrepreneur, Victor Menasce!

Notable Quotes:

“Every single project is a little different, even the ones you design in architecture to look identical to the next.”

• Victor Menasce

“People will invest with you. They will give you capital on a level that they wouldn’t in the tech industry.”

• Victor Menasce

“You need to be challenged and pushed out of that comfort zone.”

•  Mike Simmons

“Even today, I’m not a real estate guy per se…I really took a business approach.”

• Victor Menasce

“Whenever you have a business model that’s based on the assumption that you’re going to be able to feed the debt based on the revenue, and the assumption is the revenue is going to stay uniform to service that debt, you have some level of vulnerability.”

•  Victor Menasce

“It really comes down to developing relationships with the very best people in the world.”

• Victor Menasce

“Just becoming aware of what’s possible opened my eyes to seeing those opportunities.”

• Victor Menasce

“When I saw a void in the marketplace, I just wanted to address that, so that is why I wrote my book.”

• Victor Menasce

“When trust is there, decisions happen faster.”

• Victor Menasce

“If the goals for the money and the goals for the project don’t match, don’t take the money, because it’s not going to work.”

• Victor Menasce

“More sophisticated investors are very clear on what they’re looking for.”

• Victor Menasce

“You cannot go into a situation where you’re raising funds and appear to need that person more than they need you.”

• Mike Simmons

“Raise funds, don’t ask for money.”

•  Mike Simmons

“Raising money for a charitable cause is no different than raising money for an investment.”

• Victor Menasce

“If you want to be a billionaire do what billionaires do. If you want to be broke do what broke people do.”

• Victor Menasce

Links: 

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Magnetic Capital: Raise All the Money for Any Worthy Venture by Victor J. Menasce

Victor's Website

Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Victor's LinkedIn

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I am happy to interview Max Keller, who is a real estate investor, bestselling author, podcaster, speaker, and an expert panelist on the topic of lead generation and marketing. In just a few short years, Max went from being a full-time high school math teacher to flipping over 100 houses. His unique marketing approach landed him onstage with Robert Kiyosaki as he was presented with the 2019 Industry Innovator of the Year Award. He is passionate about sharing his strategies to transform ordinary investors into trusted experts in the eyes of motivated sellers and private lenders.

Max first shares his background story as a math teacher who wanted to find a way to earn more when he stumbled on real estate. He didn’t originally plan to leave his teaching job but saw a good opportunity that he liked and decided to go full force. We discussed when Max knew it was the right time to quit his teaching job at only deal number two. The market cycle was lower at this time which made it easier to scoop up a property. Max explains the tactics he used to make real estate investing work for him, like selling his house to fund the business with the support of his wife. Flipping 100 houses in two years needed a lot of funding which Max explains progressed from personal money to private money.

Max dives into his current marketing strategy which originated from a perceived lack of standing out from his competition. He shares how he created a three-criteria list of what he wanted: deals of great profit, sellers who were not resisting his offers, and to have fun doing it. Max shares how authenticity and being genuine get him more business through trusted referrals.

We discuss why Max made the transition from ‘junk mail to coffee table’ which was about finding a more scalable way to build trust. Max laughed off the idea of writing a book when he first heard it, but after contemplating it, he decided to put all his knowledge on senior housing on paper and wrote his first book, Home to Home: The Step by Step Senior Housing Guide. The book opened up other things like instant credibility and trust and now he is known as the senior housing expert.

We move on to how Max saw the need to become an objective foundational source of information for the senior living space. Max’s book teaches people the pro and cons of selling their homes, how to stay in their homes, home rehabbing, and much more. He also has materials to empower and educate adult children and grandchildren of seniors on picking the right senior housing facility.

We talk about the importance of adding a book to your marketing strategy that Max himself used to increase his response rate. He also explains how his focus on a small geographical area helps him get more leads, plus using Facebook videos to create a personal connection with his students. The book has become more of a business card and referral tool that offers value to people and a better response rate for Max. He mentions some other niche-related marketing strategies that he uses, as well.

Lastly, we discuss the importance of writing a book as an entrepreneur and how to approach it. Max explains many of the concepts of writing a book and how by utilizing these ideas, people can write their own books more quickly. Don’t miss this episode of Just Start Real Estate that is value-packed with lesser-known marketing strategies with marketing expert, Max Keller!

Notable Quotes:

“It started with my own money. When you’re doing one deal at a time, it works. But once you start doing multiples, that doesn’t work.”

• Max Keller

“I really wasn’t standing out, and it was a grind.”

• Max Keller

“Being a math teacher, I knew this is a number’s game. I didn’t want to overpay for deals and at least I made that good decision.”

• Max Keller

“I didn’t leave teaching to be on a hamster wheel and a grind.”

• Max Keller

“Of all the deals that I do, 80% of them are with people who are older.”

• Mike Simmons

“When you give people choices that don’t point to you, they see you as objective and credible.”

• Max Keller

“I know a lot of people that are trying to figure out how to use Facebook to generate a higher return on investment and I know a lot of people that have abandoned that because they can’t figure it out.”

• Mike Simmons

“You certainly feel more like you know someone more from a video than you do a postcard.”

• Mike Simmons  

“Generic messaging gets a generic conversion and response rates.”

• Max Keller

“The word-of-mouth marketing is very powerful and there’s really no substitute for it. It’s just very hard to scale. I haven’t found anything better than writing a book that has been able to enhance it.”

• Max Keller

“For every one person that’s written a book, there’s like ten that have a half-completed book they will never finish.”

• Max Keller

“The number one thing that people are struggling with right now are leads.”

• Max Keller

“If it’s perceived to be hard to do, your competition is not willing to do it either.”

• Max Keller

“It’s always good to talk about how to generate leads and to do it the right way.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Max's Free Book Writing Checklist

Deals Chasing You Website

Max's YouTube Channel

Savior Realty Expert Interviews Podcast

Customers Chasing You Podcast

Savior Publishing House

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In today’s episode, I welcome Feras Moussa, who is a successful entrepreneur with a tech background. He is the co-founder and managing partner at Disrupt Equity, a real-estate services platform focusing on multifamily acquisition and investments for investors. Feras graduated from the University of Texas with a Computer Science degree and worked at Microsoft straight from college. He later resigned from the company to bring tech to industries that lack it, where he later found his passion for real estate. He has helped raise millions of dollars for multifamily syndications across 2000 units, in addition to managing his own portfolio of properties.

Feras shares how his search for new opportunities and love for entrepreneurship landed him in the world of real estate. After starting in single-family home rental investing, Feras later decided to scale up into apartment complexes, where started Disrupt Equity with his partner.  Disrupt Equity is focused on multifamily acquisitions and investments, and in doing so, has helped leverage his strengths in tech to better identify quality investments for others. He shares how he’s always been an entrepreneur at heart as he started his own web company while still in high school. 

We get to know the ups and downs he faced while starting his business, and what the specific challenges were that he faced in the journey. He also cites how his tech background has helped him grow his business and bring changes to the real estate investment sector altogether, something he had envisioned while leaving Microsoft as a developer. 

Feras talks about real-estate investing as being a numbers game, and that by investing in apartments and not single family houses, you can make better profits. He also shares with us his way of viewing an apartment deal. He weighs the price factor to check for the risks as well as the rewards, and also keeps a check if syndication is a possibility with each deal.

We also discuss how Feras views software such as Asana, Slack, and email and why these are better to use than normal ways of texting. He also discusses how he makes use of these software applications to assign tasks to his virtual assistants and teammates. We learn how trust is a highlighted major factor in relationships with VAs, and that appropriate pay and understanding can help them feel more connected to your business and enhance their productivity.

Feras explains what disrupt management actually is, and how he scaled his business to 1500 units in three years. Coming from this background of education and practical experience, Feras shared valuable information on a lot of topics ranging such as handling property management through COVID-19, finding investors and building the right partnerships, handling nightmare syndications and bouncing back after major setbacks, and facilitating a great relationship with brokers, while also giving away tips for sourcing off-market deals.

Feras is a great guy and I loved getting to know him better, both for his real estate knowledge and also because he is a generous and charitable human being. You do not want to miss this fascinating and informative episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with guest, Feras Moussa!

Notable quotes:

“Obviously, coming from the tech world, stocks are the thing everyone thinks about, but I was looking for different opportunities.”

• Feras Moussa

“We just ended up pivoting to do full-blown property management, because it's a much bigger bang for the buck.”

• Feras Moussa

“Even if you have that one employee that goes to 10 different houses, that's a lot of time wasted in transit.”

• Feras Moussa

“It's just how much we use tech to really give visibility.”

• Feras Moussa

“What I have found is, if you have a very linear straightforward task that's well defined and doesn't allow for a lot of variables, you can hire a VA and it can work. “

• Feras Moussa

“Our VAs feel like they're part of a team and they work US hours. That's part of the requirement.” 

• Feras Moussa

Links:

Feras’ Website

Feras’ LinkedIn Profile

Disrupt Equity Website

Feras’ Email

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Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In a very insightful conversation today, I am pleased to welcome fellow real-estate investor, popular speaker, educator, podcaster, and author Mitch Stephen onto the show. Mitch has been in the real-estate game for more than 25 years and he has purchased well over 2,000 houses in and around his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Today, he specializes in owner-financed properties with individuals left behind by traditional lending institutions. Mitch has also forged the creation of a mass texting software, LiveComm. Listen in as this phenomenal individual shares his journey building and expanding the empire he has built!

Mitch says he started basically because of a substantial relationship he had with a woman who left him for someone who was rich and in a better position than he was at that time. He badly wanted a path to financial freedom but money was never discussed in his family or even while he was in school. He shares that his real estate investing career started at the age of 23 when he read Nothing Down by Robert Allen, which gave him the courage that he could get into real estate. But it took him seven years to own the concept in his heart and actually get started with it.

Mitch had, by accident, made some money in real estate, which propelled him to get more actively involved. He flipped a couple of houses and put $35,000 in the bank which was a year's salary for him when he was a bartender. He decided to take a year off and see what he could do. In 1996, he flipped forty-five houses, sixty-five houses the next year, and then one-hundred-fifty the following year. He’d grossed a lot of money but was very unorganized and inexperienced to be at that level.

Mitch talked a lot about working with his family members and the lessons they have learned along the way. He said sometimes it is a struggle because it is almost as there is shared mistake-making and little progress forward. Mitch got to the point where he had to shut down the business, reassess everything, and start fresh. Even with these issues, he has made it work with family members and his daughter has been a loyal employee for over 25 years.

He’s shared a very successful idea he’d implemented to obtain more deals. He partnered with people and paid them 50% of the profit if they brought him a good deal. He shares how he would have a line outside his door every day of ten or fifteen people who showed up because they didn't have any other source of income.

Mitch has also discussed people who tend to spend a lot of money when they initially start making good money and said that people who have that kind of money appreciate people who are careful and live within their means. We have an extensive discussion about the real estate market downturn in 2008 and how his business thrived during those times. It was after this that Mitch started finding and hiring better people, which made a noticeable and positive impact on his business.

Mitch’s company specializes in buying distressed properties with other people’s money and selling those properties with owner financing. His personal expertise includes raising private money, finding bargain properties, negotiating favorable terms, dealing with renovations and contractors, and selling notes with little to no discount. Mitch also spoke about the educational programs he has put together to help other investors do exactly this and experience success in this field.

Mitch and I just have a blast in this episode of Just Start Real Estate and you don’t want to miss it! It is longer than usual because he just provides us with so much wisdom and actionable advice, so please take the time to listen and learn from this fabulous guest, Mitch Stephen!

Notable quotes:

“When I re-read the books, after some maturing, I was able to actually absorb the message deeper and own it in my heart.”

• Mitch Stephen

“I'm interested in my financial freedom, and the stability of my family and my income for a long period of time. I don't give a damn about a car.”

• Mitch Stephen

“I think people who have that kind of money appreciate people who are careful and live within their means.”

• Mitch Stephen

“We learn what a good partner is, or we learn what a good business is when they can survive a bad time. ”

• Mitch Stephen

“I do not ever want to take someone's house, I think it’s the shittiest business plan in the whole wide world.”

• Mitch Stephen

“I only borrow what I need, I don't borrow money to live on.” 

• Mitch Stephen

Links:

Mitch’s Website

Mitch’s LinkedIn Profile

Real Estate Investor Summit Podcast

MY LIFE & 1,000 HOUSES: Failing Forward to Financial Freedom

MY LIFE & 1,000 HOUSES: 200+ Ways to Find Bargain Properties

MY LIFE & 1,000 HOUSES: The Art of Owner Financing

Livecomm

Nothing Down

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I am excited to welcome AJ Osborne to the Just Start Real Estate Podcast. AJ is an entrepreneur, investor, author, speaker, and popular podcast host of Cashflow 2 Freedom and Self Storage Income. He also owns and manages his self-storage portfolio of $100 million in assets and specializes in acquiring and turning around underperforming facilities with a value-add strategy. AJ loves to show other entrepreneurs and investors on how to focus on technology and automation in order to grow their businesses.

 AJ starts out by providing some background on how he got into real estate investing. He starts off by telling us that he was an insurance nerd, and even though it is thought of as a boring occupation, it taught him so much because of the lessons it provided him. He was selling group insurance policies, which were very technical, had a long sales cycle, and a very high failure rate. He learned so many great lessons from working in this field but started to see that it was not something he could scale and he wasn’t really working for himself.

As AJ began to see that earning a high wage wasn’t necessarily making him wealthy or financially free, he decided to buy brokerages in order to consistently have clients. He had a terrible experience with one of these deals and this changed his entire work strategy. He decided he needed to actually own assets that paid him consistently and predictably. AJ and his dad, working as partners, ended up buying several self storage complexes mostly because they thought they would be easy real estate investments because they didn’t have toilets. What AJ found was that they were more like businesses rather than real estate assets.

AJ said that the way they began approaching these self storage investments was to look at the potential for building revenue only. I asked him to explain what he meant by revenue management other than occupancy because this type of investing seems a lot like multi-family properties to me, which hinges on occupancy. AJ gave us some great analogies to explain his philosophy towards creating wealth with this unique wealth-building tool.

AJ shares a lot about the lessons he learned in building his business and he found that very few people understand the intricacies of self storage investing so he decided to share all of this information through podcasting and writing a book, titled The Investor’s Guide to Growing Wealth in Self Storage. He said they just starting uploading all of this information and it caught on like wildfire because there are no other resources for this type of investing. AJ mentioned how they get a lot of deals this way because sharing these investment strategies built people’s trust in their business.

AJ mentioned he had just started a private equity company, so I asked him to explain what that meant to our listeners. He said that they just take on private investor’s money to give them equity in a deal. He explains to us how he started in this arm of the business and give us some specific examples of deals he has taken on private money. He also shared how doing business this way reinvigorated him because he is a people-person and loves brainstorming with others.

I asked AJ to explain the new technology company he is involved with. He said they are partners with Tenant Inc, a property management program whose technology is superior, yet simple and helps to centralize and streamline your self storage business. Some of its functionality includes ways to easily integrate third-party technology, manage your managers, and bolster your profits, equity, and market position.

We also talked about networking, how you go about finding and closing self storage deals, how to grow your businesses and still be personally productive, and so much more! You have GOT to listen to this information-packed episode of Just Start Real Estate! AJ is involved in so many different projects and aspects of the industry, you do not want to miss all of the fantastic value he shares!

Notable Quotes:

“I followed in my father’s footsteps as a salesman because that was what I thought life was.”

- AJ Osborne

“I learned very quickly, and early, there were some things I was good at and I had to stick with that because there was nothing else.”

- AJ Osborne

“I liked sales - it made me fail all the time!”

- AJ Osborne

“Sales experience will serve you forever. Sales is such a valuable background to have.”

- Mike Simmons

“That was the culture of my family… no one cares if you are hurting, you just work.”

- AJ Osborne

“I was rich, but I was not wealthy. Those two things are completely different.”

- AJ Osborne

“I was on the biggest treadmill ever, and the moment that it stopped, I was screwed.”

- AJ Osborne

“We own a lot of different companies and in most, we are partners. We have an incredible relationship.”

- AJ Osborne, about his father 

“That’s what we real estate investors do - we get into it and realize what it takes to actually be profitable.”

- Mike Simmons

“What operational aspects can I change to increase the revenue to make it worth my time?”

- AJ Osborne

“We focus on understanding our tenants.”

- AJ Osborne

“We are cash-flow guys.”

- AJ Osborne

“I want to be the best - I’m just a little competitive.”

- AJ Osborne

“People don’t understand this asset class and they need to, so I started the podcast and wrote the book.”

- AJ Osborne

“I figured if we could partner with other people, we could grow so much bigger and faster.”

- AJ Osborne

“I like other people participating in success.”

- AJ Osborne

“You build a relationship and the relationship turns into deals.”

- AJ Osborne

Links:

The Investors Guide to Growing Wealth in Self Storage: The Step-By-Step Playbook for Turning a Real Estate Asset Into a Thriving Self Storage Business

Cashflow 2 Freedom Podcast

Self Storage Income Podcast

Tenant Inc

Self Storage Income

AJ on Facebook

AJ on Instagram

Cashflow2Freedom on Instagram

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

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Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months