WS704: The Mission of Multifamily with Ellis Hammond

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication.

And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

[INTERVIEW]

[00:00:23] WS: This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Ellis Hammond. Thanks for being on the show, Ellis.

[00:00:32] EH: Whitney. Awesome to be back, man. Great to see your face.

[00:00:35] WS: yeah. Great to have you back on the show. I’ve known Ellis, I don’t know, a year or two now or longer. I can’t remember. It’s been great to see your success and just see you making it happen in this business. Even bigger than that, having a bigger picture than just the business and just making wealth and just building that level of success on the outside that everybody sees, but really having more in mind behind that. That’s what I love about Ellis and looking forward to getting into that today.

Ellis is a full-time real estate investor and entrepreneur. He is the author of The Mission Of Multifamily and Founder of The Kingdom Capitalist Mastermind, which serves faith-driven real estate investors who want to flourish in their business, as well as in their faith and in their family. He is a former full-time Christian missionary, who is now on a new mission to use the vehicle of multifamily to transform communities, cities and individual lives.

Ellis, thank you again for being on the show. Give us an update on where you’re at in your real estate business and then let’s jump into what this means, the mission of multifamily and what that stands for.

[00:01:35] EH: Yeah, that’s great, man. That’s actually the first time I heard that bio read back. Whoever put that together, I’m glad it got to you. Thanks again, man. Yeah, I’m a former missionary, Christian pastor and now full-time real estate entrepreneur and investor. It’s funny, the last time I was on the show, I was still a full-time pastor.

Now we’ve made the transition and we were investing in real estate both in San Diego and out of state before. Then just realized like, we all have a calling and a mission. Vocationally, I was serving as a pastor for six plus years. My calling really hasn’t changed, which is to really honor God, serve God and make a difference and use the gifts that he’s given me for his glory. Part of that is building communities, which is our mastermind and really helping people keep the most important things first.

Then also, what I’m calling the mission of multifamily and how to really steward not just my time and other people’s time, but also our capital and our wealth for a greater purpose. A huge part of my journey and why I’m so passionate about this message is that I was so against money, and so against wealth for so long, that I only really was stewarding my time. I have a new revelation, a new conversion you might call it to say, wow, we can actually steward both time and money to create impact in this world.

Like you, Whitney, which is why I’m such a big fan of you as well, as you get this, we can use our business in multifamily to create impact and to change people’s lives with your ministry with adoption. Anyways man, I know you’re a brother in this, and so that’s what I’m excited to share today, hopefully.

[00:03:14] WS: Yeah. No, that’s awesome. I appreciate you highlighting that and just your backstory a little bit. I didn’t remember that you were still a full-time pastor when you’re on the show before. Now you’re full-time in real estate. I loved how you said, your calling hasn’t changed. I just appreciate that.

Then maybe you could highlight a little bit though before we move forward. It’s just that mindset that you had about wealth is evil. I feel like I was raised that way, to think that way too and that was a turning point that I had to have as well. It could be a slippery slope as well, right? When you start to experience some wealth and maybe you never thought would happen for you. Tell me a little about that mindset behind why you thought it was evil and how that changed.

[00:03:54] EH: Yeah. I shared this journey in more detail in the book. Quickly, it’s given me now that I’ve written this book, I’m going through this journey, I’ve had a lot of time to process and look back about how I formed that mindset. I’ll tell you a quick story how it shifted, but to go back a little bit further and I’ve had some time to process this. I think, the reason I’ll share these, because I think a lot of people will relate that it typically is something for all of us that has been cultivated or nurtured even bad thoughts. I think it’s going back and doing the work of realizing why we hold these convictions.

For me, I look back at my life and my father passed away at the age of 55-years-old. He retired at 40, but from 40 to 55, my dad always worried about money. I just had a negative view. My parents divorced at 10-years-old and money was always a conflict. Again, I hated what I saw money do. In some ways, it was disappointing, it caused conflict. I’ve had time to look back and say, “Wow, those things really shaped my view of wealth.” I honestly chose a career, man, that took me away from money, because I was like, “Why would I pursue that when all that I see money and wealth doing is really cause division or disappointment?”

At age 27, I was serving as a college missionary and we were raising funds to support our non-profit. I had a young guy on our team come to me and say, “Ellis, I don’t have enough money this week to buy groceries. I’m not bringing enough in. My support has fallen short.” That was the turning point for me, man, where at least hit me to realize, wow, how could money be so evil if a guy like this who was serving a great purpose, who loved God, who was helping people, he needed more money.

I mean, it was really simple. It’s like, I’m so wrong. I’ve only learned how to steward my time and not my wealth. I mean, I just went on a journey. I got serious about how do we figure out how to create capital and use wealth and even the system of capitalism. I mean, that’s why I started this thing called Kingdom Capitalists, because there’s a system that we can use to take advantage of to really steward. That was the turning point for me, man. Those are the things that I look back and formed that mindset. Then that moment, at least was like a dagger of, “Oh, I think I’ve gotten this wrong.”

[00:06:13] WS: Yeah. Wow. That’s awesome, because I think I was raised that way to think wealth is evil. I heard a very well-known pastor one time talking about no, if you’re a doctor, well be the best doctor you can be and make as much as you can, so you can help the kingdom and help other people. It doesn’t have to be evil.

[00:06:34] EH: There’s three shifts for me. One of those shifts was learn to either master money, or it will become your master. I think a lot of the fear, especially in the world of Christianity around money is that the reason we talk ill against money and the reason Jesus talks so much about money is because we know and he knows that it does have the power to become your master. We can only serve one master, but if we learn how to become master over money and how to steward it, then money is just a tool to do incredible things, which is what you and I are really using it for. For me when I learned like, “Oh, I can actually become master over it, learn how to use it as a tool and a vehicle to accomplish my mission,” things got much more clear.

[00:07:22] WS: Well, why don’t you go ahead and elaborate on there’s The Mission of Multifamily and what that is.

[00:07:27] EH: Yeah. Well, I mean, we know money is a vehicle that we get to steward, to have impact and influence. The Mission of Multifamily is really simple. Again, you and I are in this business of multifamily. We’ve seen that it can be an incredible vehicle to have impact. I say, our mission is to transform neighborhood cities and individual lives. Well, from a city or a neighborhood perspective, I mean, when we own an asset like an apartment complex. We have ownership over people’s homes, where they live and do community.

There’s an incredible organization I learned about, which was also a turning point for me to say, “Man, maybe I can do business as ministry called apartment life,” where we actually are able to place a missionary, or church family into apartment complexes and essentially be there for the community. Put on events. Create an environment where people can have fun and nurture relationships and have a place that they can call home.

This is not just hey, these are tenants. No, these are people’s lives that we get to really steward over and help build. That’s one way, man. I also think from a investor standpoint, individual life standpoint, there’s a real stewardship I feel as a capital raiser to help people think differently about freedom. I’m sure I’ve heard the definition by now, financial freedom is not just having a bunch of money stored up in the bank, but it’s having enough money coming in, passive cash flow to cover your expenses.

Listen, that’s a huge mission of mine to help people find freedom in that regard, because going back to we have two resources, I guess, to steward, our time and our money. Listen, the only one of those that really is limited no matter what people think is time. It’s not our money. There’s so much money out there. There’s so many ways to create money. There’s no way to create more time. That is what I’m passionate about helping people get back as well, because part of our existence, even when I find to be important, our faith, our family, it’s those things helping people get back more of.

Helping people think and consider a different way to pursue freedom and especially in finances and helping them steward their wealth in a greater way. We invest in properties that cash flow, that pay people on a monthly or quarterly basis, and then can double that money in the next seven to ten years as well. There’s an asset side of this, but there’s also an investor side of this. I think I love this vehicle, because it brings together both. We can do business. We can really help people make money, but also have an impact as they invest.

I don’t know, Whitney. I guess, I’d ask you this two minutes, you’ve seen this. I think so many people have their giving pocket and then they have their investing pocket. They have an impact with their giving pocket, but they just want to make money with their investing pocket. As we’ve seen, those don’t have to be separate anymore. Haven’t you seen that to be the case in your business as well?

[00:10:30] WS: For sure. I mean, trying to think even more so towards giving long-term and giving in a bigger way and even investing to be able to give, or even our non-profit investing and in our properties and things like that. It can give in a bigger way long-term, not just today, but five years from now be able to give in a much bigger way.

[00:10:51] EH: Right. Yeah, and there’s the giving side and there’s also just – I talk about this idea of triple bottom line. For me, I was always just trained to hey, how much is this dollar going to make if I invested in this? Now I get the opportunity to say, “Well, how much is the seller going to make and who does it impact and how is the kingdom advanced?” It’s fun for me to be like, how do we make more money? Because that money is not just making more money, it’s doing a multiple of things now. I get really excited about that opportunity.

[00:11:18] WS: I think too, you could probably encourage some of the listeners around building a brand around your story. It’s neat that you’ve done that and I think that I use that. Honestly, when I started the syndication business and we’re talking about to investors about our goals of giving and all those things, I had no idea how the Lord was going to use that to help grow our brand and our business. That wasn’t even in my wheelhouse or plan in the beginning. You’ve done an amazing job at that as well, just building your brand around your story, and so you can make a bigger impact. Maybe you could encourage the listener in that as well. Just thinking through their why and their mission behind what they’re doing.

[00:11:55] EH: A 100%, man. I just actually gave a long talk on this at a virtual conference. I hope it inspires hope for people, this idea of owning your story to find success and what I said do give them hope. The reason I’m the most qualified to speak on this topic of owning your story to find success is because I was the least qualified speaker at the event.

I don’t have a real estate education. I don’t come from a family of large wealth. Yet, I have found a way to break into this industry, create a name for myself, have investors trust me and why is that? It’s not because I have the longest track record. It’s not because I have the most credibility. It’s not because I have the most assets under management. It’s because I have a story that people resonate with. I have created a tribe, or a community around my story in my vision.

I think that’s so powerful, because when I talk – again, I just am who I am. This is my story and I’ve created a brand around this. I would say this, it’s not that my brand is I’m this faith-driven investor. I’m Ellis Hammond and these are the things I’m passionate about. What that does is it attracts people to me that resonate with that. It’s a lot easier. There’s a trust there, when we get on the phone and say, “Hey.”

I’ll be honest, the question of Ellis, “Well, what’s your track record? How many assets do you have?” Do you know how often that question comes up? Honestly, never. It’s a non-issue. I always say this, people they make decisions with their emotion and then they justify that with logic. Building a brand is way more about creating a story that resonates with people who are saying, “Man, I want to be a part of that. I can see myself in that.”

I think it’s okay to attract the people you want to work with and repel those who you don’t want to work with. If your story, or your brand isn’t both attracting and repelling, it’s not clear enough. Because not everybody should work with you and not everybody should want to work with you. That was when I came into this and realized, how am I going to compete in a competitive industry like this? I need to be myself. That is going to be how I’m going to differentiate myself.

I think that’s a good word for anyone who’s really trying to build a brand or build a business in any industry, but especially in real estate. We all got the same product, man. Land or deals. You need something else that is going to set you apart from everyone.

[00:14:23] EH: I like how you highlighted just being very clear on your story. You’re either attracting or repelling and you should be doing both, no doubt about it. You’re not going to be a perfect fit for everyone, or for every investor. Building that brand around your story too, I think, and you can see this in you and I’m sure you can relate, is that the investor, or anybody else you’re speaking to can see that passion in you. It’s something they can relate to outside of multifamily investing. Like you said, there’s so many operators, so many people you could invest with, but that conversation is very different when you’re talking about something that you’re passionate about and maybe even something that they could be passionate about and then you just connect on a different level.

[00:15:02] EH: Yeah. No, a 100%. I love having conversations with folks and the first thing they say is, “Man, I’ve been following your story. I heard you here and then here and I reached out.” I never get on the phone now with a stranger. What I mean by that is they’ve joined my tribe. They’re part of this vision with me. Part of it, man, we’re barely talking about real estate, because honestly, it’s not about real estate. It’s about what we’re accomplishing together.

Again, that’s my brand. That’s my mission. That’s my story. That’s not going to be for everyone, but I hope it gives insight to, yeah, it’s powerful, man. I’ve been recommending the book Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson to a lot of folks. Expert Secrets and Traffic Secrets, two incredible books to help people really develop their story and how to build a tribe around their business. I highly recommend those two resources.

[00:15:52] WS: Say those again, Traffic Secrets and what?

[00:15:55] EH: Expert Secrets, both are by Russell Brunson, who’s the CEO and founder of Click Funnels. He gets this, man. He gets this so well about how to really build a brand around your story.

[00:16:05] WS: Cool. Wow. Ellis, anything else you want to leave us with about just building your brand, or mission of multifamily before we move to a few final questions?

[00:16:14] EH: Yeah, actually. I think one of the way I finish this book might be a really great way to finish this podcast. I think, for most of us the biggest thing that needs resetting or change as we develop about a story, or mission, especially as it comes around capital it’s just a reset, like a reset of a lot of things. The first thing I talk about is a reset of your mindset. On money, a lot of us, man, pretty much everyone. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t have baggage when it comes to money. That could be baggage that keeps you from making it, or baggage that keeps you from making too much and doing not good things with it.

I think it just takes time, man, to really hit reset and ask yourself what is the what’s the baggage that I have right now as it comes? I also think a reset, or maybe a refresh in financial education, we both know, man, the middle-class mindset, unfortunately, and I say this to be kind, but to be really frank and truth in my book. We’re taught by middle-class teachers. That’s the reality.

We have a financial education that has not set us up to excel in the realm of finances and wealth. I think it’s a refresh and a reset there. Then a reset in our expectations of what financial freedom really looks like and really what we’re supposed to do with money. I hope that challenges, maybe even encourages folks to say, money’s not hard to really create. Again, it’s not a limited resource as I’ve already spoke about.

I think, the harder work for anybody is resetting that mindset perspective and even possibly education around wealth and capital. Hopefully, man, your show, my show, this book, all that we’re doing can really help people in that journey.

[00:17:55] WS: Ellis, what’s been the hardest part of your syndication journey?

[00:17:59] EH: I think for a long time, I spun my wheels because I tried to do everything. Now I have three partners in our business. We go fast. Because I don’t do everything. I know what I do, man. I’m on the phone with people with investors sharing our story, sharing our mission, and then I have partners, man, who absolutely crushed it in every other part of our business. Just believe in partnerships. That doesn’t mean you have to go form a company with other partnerships, but learning what you’re good at and leveraging that and then finding people who are good at other stuff has been so massive for me.

[00:18:31] WS: What’s a way you’ve recently improved your business that we could apply to ours?

[00:18:35] EH: Go read that book, man. Traffic Secrets. Developing out a brand and a story. I think producing and creating this book is going to be massive. The thing that everyone needs in a business is a list. If you are figuring out, “Where do I spend money? How do I get started? If it’s not,” and I tell our mastermind this all the time, especially early on, if those dollars don’t contribute to your e-mail list growing, then you’re probably not spending money in the right way right now.

For me, it’s all about how do I create a community around our business and that really involves growing this asset base of our e-mail. If you download this book, I’m giving you a resource in this book and I put my heart and soul into this What you’re giving me in return is your e-mail. That’s how you get to be part of my tribe. For anyone trying to build a business, that e-mail list is huge.

[00:19:24] WS: What’s your best source for meeting new investors right now?

[00:19:28] EH: My podcast and LinkedIn. Having a platform, consistently creating content. It’s amazing how many people – I try and make it easy, but I guess I don’t have it easy enough. How many people, they’ll do the hard work. If they hear me on the show and then they’ll go to my LinkedIn and then somehow, they’ll type my name. By the way, it should be way easier than that to figure out how to get on the phone with me, but it just goes to show having a platform, having a consistent message, the extent that people go to find you and be a part of what you’re doing. Those two things have been really huge. Having my own platform and a podcast and showing up almost daily on LinkedIn and creating content have been massive.

I mean, I’ve raised for example, last week, I think I had about a million dollars in commitments that came from LinkedIn, from folks saying, “Hey, I want to be part of what you’re doing.” We have some capital invest. Don’t overlook that platform right now. It’s huge.

[00:20:21] WS: Wow. Yeah, I’ve had numerous guests talk about LinkedIn recently, so that’s interesting.

[00:20:25] EH: Actually, no. I take that back, man. No one get on LinkedIn. Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore it, because I’m going to keep using it.

[00:20:33] WS: There’s plenty of fish out there. What’s the number one thing that’s contributed to your success?

[00:20:38] EH: There’s two things; knowing my superpower and not going outside of that. There’s a lot of things in this business that can get you in the weeds and slow you down. For me, my superpower is relationships, it’s sharing a vision, it’s – I’m an evangelist at heart, man. It’s what I did. I try and stay in that. Then I really partner, or bring on other folks to do the rest. Then I think, another thing is I am just bold, man, who I am, because it is my story.

Again, I am okay to repel those who do not like that. I’m not trying to be offensive. I don’t want to push people away. That’s not my point. I want everyone to come into our community and be a part of this. I want everyone to be a part of this bigger mission. I believe it brings so much joy and freedom to people’s lives. What I’m saying is that I know not everyone resonates with that and that’s okay, because it creates a stronger community and a stronger conviction for those who are in.

For me, man, it’s learning my story and how to really share that with people that resonate with them for them to want to work with me. Those two things; knowing my superpower and really developing my story in such a way that I can share with others have been massive to my success early on. Building my network of other folks who are doing incredible things as industry. It’s why I’m on the show, because me and you build a friendship. Because of that relationship, I could call on you and say, “Hey, man. Would you have me on this show, so I could talk about my book?”

I can’t explain enough for early entrepreneurs, early people in this industry, do work for free. Do all the hard work for guys like Whitney. Make them look really, really good for a long time. Create things that make other people look really great, like a podcast show, like webinars, like content. Because when you start connecting your name to theirs, that’s an incredible way to grow at 10X speed as well. That’s been another huge thing, man, that’s really helped me.

[00:22:42] WS: I know we’ve talked about this for most of the show, which is incredible, but I always ask everybody how you like to give back.

[00:22:48] EH: Gosh. Yeah. I mean, it’s all about what we’re doing, man. It’s all about The Mission of Multifamily. We’re using capital to really create a place for our tenants. I mean, I don’t think that our business has to be different from the way that we give back. We’ve been a huge part of our non-profit here in San Diego. My time and my energy is really spent on how do we use our business as a ministry, both for the tenants that we serve, but also our investors.

Man, I love getting on the phone call with our investors and just hearing how they’re doing, hearing how we can come together. For me right now, man, it is this Mission of Multifamily and really, I’m all in on it. It’s all that I’m about right now. That’s how we’re really giving back is even through our business.

[00:23:31] WS: How can people get in touch with you, Ellis, and find your book as well?

[00:23:34] EH: Yeah, man. Missionofmultifamily.com. I appreciate it. It’s free. I want to give you a free copy to go and check it out. It really shouldn’t take you more than a couple hours to read. That’s if you’re a slow reader, because I want it to be something you can sit down and understand the vision and get the message and see the power in this asset class for you as an investor, but also for you and your own business, in ways that you can steward your own business in your own industry to have impact. It doesn’t have to be so black and white.

I wrote it in such a way that tells a story to really invite you into it. Missionofmultifamily.com. Go grab your copy. You’ll get an e-mail from me, so I would love to hear how you’re enjoying it as well. Just reply back to that e-mail.

[00:24:14] WS: Awesome. That’s a wrap, Ellis. Thank you very much.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:24:18] WS: Don’t go yet. Thank you for listening to today’s episode. I would love it if you would go to iTunes right now and leave a rating and written review. I want to hear your feedback. It makes a big difference in getting the podcast out there. You can also go to the Real Estate Syndication Show on Facebook, so you can connect with me and we can also receive feedback and your questions there that you want me to answer on the show. Subscribe too, so you can get the latest episodes.

Lastly, I want to keep you updated, so head over to lifebridgecapital.com and sign up for the newsletter. If you’re interested in partnering with me, sign up on the contact us page so you can talk to me directly. Have a blessed day and I will talk to you tomorrow.

[OUTRO]

[00:24:58] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to The Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Lifebridge Capital. Lifebridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Lifebridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.LifeBridgeCapital.com for free material and videos to further your success

[END]