WS900: What It Takes To Close Over $100M Real Estate Deals

EPISODE 900

[INTRODUCTION]

0:00:00.0 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]

0:00:24.4 Whitney Sewell: What are you doing today that’s pushing your business, or just yourself forward? What is that? Do you know? Have you thought through it? And one thing I wanted to share with you that helped us to get to close on a 100 million last year in real estate is thinking about who I’m surrounding myself with. Today, I am going to be in a room with a dozen to 15 other entrepreneurs and very successful businessmen who are doing big things, and that’s…

I wanna make sure I’m stranding myself with people who are ahead of me that I can look up to that can help pull me up, as I help pull others up as well, ’cause we all have different strengths. And we all have different things that we can pull from each other and learn and grow in a big way. And so the first year and a half to two years that I was in this industry, I traveled to every conference I could get to.

And so that was like, sometimes one to two weekends a month, I was flying somewhere all over the country, to different conferences, to surround myself with the right people and to network and to meet those people, build those relationships with people that were way ahead of me, and many people that were at the same level, but I wanted to meet those people that were way ahead of me and figure out how did they get there, what did they do? That was extremely important.

And now that’s changed a lot. I don’t travel to those same conferences. That evolves over time, you’re going to different conferences as your business grows or as you grow personally. But I just encourage you to think about who are you hanging around who and they are influencing you, good or bad, and you know this right, whether you think back to when you were a teenager or even now in your own business or your own day-to-day career, that you have to think about who are you hanging around? Who is that person that you’re spending the most time with? You are going to start to become a lot like them, so you have to think about who you are around. And it made me think about that this morning is I’m gonna be in this room with other entrepreneurs – a dozen very successful entrepreneurs or so. And so, we get to pull from each other. We get to help each other. So, I encourage you, whether it’s your business or whether it’s just personally, I hope you are thinking about who you are hanging around – maybe it’s people that you’re helping pull up, that they’re wanting to be around you, but think about who you are hanging around, what that looks like and just the…

It changed for me over time – just my time management skills and thinking about the best use of my time, the different groups that I’m a part of, different people that I’m trying to follow. Most of this is not rocket science. Most of this has been figured out about by other people, and you have to emulate and you have to be willing to change, you have to be willing to do the things that other people have done, but that are difficult typically. It’s not things that everyone is willing to do. And I’m learning those things by being around the right people. So I’m just encouraging you this morning to think about your circles of influence. Think about where you are going. Early on my first year and half to two years in this industry, I was traveling one to two weekends a month all over the country to different conferences in an effort to surround myself with the right people and learn this business, to network to build those important relationships. I know we hear it all the time on every podcast and everywhere. How important those relationships and networking are. And I can’t stress it enough.

You have to think very strongly about who you are surrounding yourself with. Who are these people that are influencing you? Because if you think they’re not influencing you, you’re wrong. Okay, they’re either pulling you down or building you up. Eventually, you’re at a point where you can pull other people up, and it’s an amazing thing when that starts to happen. But that started to change for me. I was traveling everywhere. I wanted you to think about who you are hanging around, and I was saying that that’s changed for me over the last few years. Initially, I was traveling everywhere, all over the country, a couple of times a month, I would be flying somewhere to different conferences to get around the right people, network with the right people that were ahead of me and learn this business and to build those relationships. But now that’s changing. Even today, I’ve got a full-day meeting with a dozen to 15 other entrepreneurs that have been in business a lot longer than me – guys that I look up to that are doing it, you know, that are way to me that I can ask questions and they can help me get there faster. But there’s things that I’m better at than they are, and so they can ask me and I can help them as well.

So think about who your circle of influence is, but I’d love to hear… How are you managing that? Has that changed for you over time? I know now I’m not going to those same conferences. It’s not the best use of my time, and now I’m looking for different groups of people, different conferences, different ways to educate myself and create different relationships that are important and moving forward. But what does that look like for you? Is there a certain conference or a specific thing…

I wanted to say too, this is not just in business, but even think about your personal life outside of business and other families or other people that are helping just build you up personally. It’s all connected in such a big way. But what does that look like for you? One thing that led to us closing on over 100 million in real estate last year was overcommitting, and I wanna give you an example of how we did that. One thing that led to that was a few years back, we decided to get into commercial real estate as opposed to smaller residential, smaller multi-family, and one thing that we did at that time, not only have… You’ve been watching some of the videos. You know that we sold the farm to get into commercial real estate and to build our business and to be completely committed to that business. We had to sell the farm, but that was the over commitment. It took that to make it happen. But one other thing we did at that same time as we started a daily podcast, seven days a week, and if any of you have a podcast, you understand how much work that is.

And so at the same time, I was working full-time, and I was also doing deals, I was also working with investors. We had a full-time family, of course. We were moving obviously because we sold the farm and we actually moved twice pretty quickly there, and right during Christmas too. It was horrible. But we did it. But doing the daily podcast is one way that we overcommitted. I had no idea how much time and energy that that was going to take. But you know, it pushed me to grow in many ways that I never expected or never –  I’ve never seen all these ways coming, that it pushed me to grow, and then I know looking back that if I had done… If I had tried to do a weekly podcast and then I would have tried to have done it all myself. I would have tried to have edited the audio and the video, and I would try to… Done it myself, and I would have gotten frustrated. It wouldn’t have been near the quality. I would have gotten way behind. However, doing seven days a week, it was obvious to me from the very beginning that it wasn’t possible.

Right, it was not possible. So it made me build a team. And I had never done that before at that time, but it made me find a way. It made me find a way to find people that were better at certain things and skills that I was, and they were able to do things that I don’t wanna do actually, I’ve never edited the first piece of audio or video, now we’ve recorded almost a thousand shows and I’ve never edited any of that stuff. But overcommitting, doing a daily podcast versus a weekly made me build team, made me build processes that I would have never had otherwise, or especially not near as fast. But it was impossible. So I knew it was impossible for me to do it. So I knew that I had to do that, I had to build those processes from the very beginning. And I encourage you to commit at least. Are you committed this morning to winning the morning? I hope you’re up and you’re winning the morning so you can win the day. If you’re not winning the morning, you’re not gonna win the day, most likely. But I encourage you to overcommit.

I encourage you to find a way to make it happen, and that’s what we had to do. When I was first starting the podcast, – daily podcast – I met with two people, two different conferences, and these are very big names in our industry. And both of them, if you’re in real estate at all, you will have heard of these names. And I was having dinner with them individually, and I was telling them about the podcast. Of course, I was excited about it. And both of them said, “Whitney, what are you doing? Don’t do that. That’s crazy. That’s so much work.” So, I was kind of discouraged. I was thinking, “Oh, wait a minute. You know, I should be listening to these people. They’re so far ahead of me.” But I talked to my mentor. I tell him about it, and he said, “Whitney, that’s why you have to do it because it’s too much work. Nobody else is gonna do it.” And so that just kicked me back in gear and made me find a way. I was already used to not listening to naysayers, but these two people, I thought, “Man, they’re so far ahead of me, maybe I should listen.” But having that mentor as well, it was crucial numerous times in the process. But ultimately this morning, I was explaining about overcommitting and how that helped me to get where we’re at and close on over 100 million last year in real estate.

Have you committed to the point to where you have to find a way to where it’s uncomfortable? have you done that? And what are you committed to this morning or today? Goal setting helped us reach 100 million last year in real estate under management, and without those goals, we wouldn’t know where we were going. We wouldn’t know if we were even going in the right direction. And so setting goals, I want you to think about that, think about where you wanna be a year from now, and then think backwards. What do I need to do every month or every week? And break that down to every month of that year, if you need to, and then even come down to what do I need to do this month. What do I need to accomplish this week? What do I need to accomplish today? And even think through your morning, right? What do I need to do this morning that’s helping me get towards that goal and thinking through the activities that are gonna get you there, like… Have you thought about it? Most people don’t set goals and they don’t because they’re afraid of failure. They’re afraid to fail, and there’s some self-accountability there. When you set some goals, and it’s even better when you share those goals with other people. And maybe you have an accountability partner, somebody that’s holding you to those goals may be a business partner or even a spouse – somebody that’s saying, “Hey, are you following your goals? Do you even have the goals written down?” Write them down. That does something.

So like, I even have a goal of exercising at least four mornings a week. And so usually it’s five or six mornings a week. But having that goal, – I even have some accountability on that with another group of guys – and that’s been very helpful in getting that done. But early on it was knowing how many podcasts I need to record every week, knowing how many other shows I need to be interviewed on a week, knowing how many deals I needed to look at, how many conferences do I plan to go to every month, having those things written down was very helpful, not only for me, but also for our entire team. As my team grew, I can say, “These are the things I’m trying to accomplish.” And then they help me get there. It starts to become a lot easier to accomplish those goals, but if you don’t have them written down, not only is your team not gonna know where to go, but you’re not gonna know where to go either. Also, let’s say you don’t hit that goal. But what if? If you don’t hit it, what if you hit it halfway? Well, you are still so much further than you were if you didn’t have a goal at all. How do you know?

How do you know if you’re going in the right direction if you don’t have a goal? And something to compare it against, right? Do you have goals this morning? What are they? Write down your goals. Think about this year. Think about today, all the way down to today. And this morning is so important. Writing things down make a big difference just mentally to you. Find somebody to help hold you accountable. And that will even go that much further tell people about your goals and that holds you accountable… Oh yeah, one more thing, even if you fail, you’re still gonna be so much further ahead, right? But it’s now or never for most of those things that you’re trying, right? Why wait? Get started on pushing your business, pushing yourself, and so you can get there faster.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[OUTRO]

ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to the Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Life Bridge Capital. Life Bridge 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. Life Bridge 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]