WS1289: How To Keep Your Branding Up in Real Estate | John Casmon

EPISODE 1289

[INTRODUCTION]

0:00:00.0 

John Casmon (JC): I’ll tell you strategy-wise, one of the things that we knew was even though we have built up a pretty decent investor database if we don’t put out a deal for investors for a year, some of those people who signed up earlier on, they may have found other opportunities or moved on, or did something else with the money. So, want to bank on those investors moving forward. We started to let them know, “Hey, we’re constantly looking for that opportunity.”

0:00:26

Whitney Sewell (WS): This is your daily real estate syndication show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest had $20,000,000 in real estate in 100 days, and a couple of deals came together. It seemed like all at once, and he’s gonna go through many lessons learned about having all that hit played at one time.

Many things had to improve, and he’s going to help you and me to do that today, and sure our systems our processes are ready for that kind of growth all at one time. His name is John Casmon. He’s a real estate entrepreneur. He’s partnered with busy professionals to invest in over $100,000,000 worth of apartments. He consults active, multifamily investors to help them start or grow their businesses. He hosts The Target Market Multifamily Insights podcasts and is the co-creator of the Midwest Real Estate Networking Summit. Apart from becoming a full-time investor, John worked in corporate America overseeing marketing campaigns for General Motors, Nike, and Cores Light. You’re gonna hear quite a bit of that marketing expertise coming out. 

He is definitely an expert in that space. He’s helped us at different times on the show to think through our marketing and build credibility and scale your syndication business. And you can go back and listen to him on shows WS268 and WS715 to learn more about him and more of his expertise in marketing.

But today, we’re gonna get more to those deals and those processes that he learned to get better at.

[INTERVIEW]

0:01:53

WS: John welcome back to the show honored to have you back on. You’ve had tremendous growth over the last couple of years since we talked to you last. And grateful for your time and willingness to share with the listeners. I know there’s a specific period of time recently where it got very intense say, in your business and a lot happened. And I want us to dive into that today.

Maybe you can get the listeners a little bit about you and let’s dive in.

0:02:17

JC: Yeah, absolutely. Listen, first of all, happy to be here. I’m very excited to be on the show and as you mentioned, you know, a lot of growth, a lot of momentum, and it’s interesting because, you know, we put a lot of things in motion. You know you try to get that energy building up and get that momentum going. But it took a minute for its acts to result in new deals.

So we actually did one deal in 2020, and that was really more of a consulting-type role. We really didn’t have much to do and I was you know I just helped somebody out with the deal, and they wanted to make sure I was involved and compensated for just advising them, which was great. But other than that we really didn’t do much in 2020 and it wasn’t from lack of effort. We were certainly looking into underwriting deals and putting in offers.

So we went from doing nothing in 2020 to in about a 100-day time frame, we close $20,000,000 worth of apartments with 2 deals. And that was not necessarily by design. We had intended for those deals to be spaced out a little bit more, but that first deal took a little longer than expected. We had a big change that took place so that deal took longer than expected. And then that second deal obviously we needed to try to work to get that one closed because that one was taken a little bit longer since we were trying to push it out. So we ended up closing both of those deals in 100 days which took a lot of effort, a lot of work.

And if you can imagine from not doing a deal in 2020 to having $20,000,000 worth of real estate within 100 days, there are a lot of things we had to change and tighten up in regard to our systems and processes, so we can be more effective and efficient moving forward. 

0:03:49

WS: Interesting. It always blows my mind how those things come about, right? It’s like you know, “we got a little downtime it’s time to work on some things internally.” And then, all of a sudden. you know. your pants are on fire, right? There are 2 deals all at once. So that’s great. But it does cause you to hopefully get better and improve these things like you’re talking about.

You said you had to change a lot. Let us know some of those things, with a listener and me to be prepared for that intensity and have those changes made ahead of time if we can. What were some things that you learned through that process and let’s talk about what you had to change as well? 

0:04:23

JC: Well, I’ll tell you strategy-wise, one of the things that we knew was even though we have built up a pretty decent investor database if we don’t put out a deal for investors for a year, some of those people who signed up earlier on, they may have found other opportunities or moved on, or did something else with the money. So, want to bank on those investors moving forward. We started to let them know, “Hey, we’re constantly looking for that opportunity.” But keeping those leads warm with something that you know we worked hard at.

But you know honestly, I think we could even do a better job of that. So we have a clear understanding of where are people on their investing journey in that cycle. But particularly if it takes, you know, 6 months or more before you present that opportunity.

So in an ideal world, you’re presenting opportunities more frequently so you can get those investors. But you know, you can’t force to do it to happen. So that’s one thing we had to keep an eye on.

The second thing with that in mind was how much would we be able to bring forward for these 2 deals. So the first did, we felt pretty confident that we could go ahead, and with our investor network we could take that down. With the second deal, we’re actually looking at partnering with either private equity or family office, or some sort of institutional capital. It was a newer asset, we thought it’d be very attractive for those types of investors. And that was really the play we were going with. And what ended up happening is everyone we talked to that a lot of interest in the deal, but when we got into the terms and tried to negotiate terms that made sense, we just couldn’t come to an agreement on what was fair for both parties. So we ended up syndicating both deals.

So with that said, one of the big changes we had to make was really looking at kind of our investor database. How we were communicating with those investors, and making sure that we had the means to get in front of more people. The first deal we did was with a 506 B offering, so that allowed us to talk to people who are already in our network, in our database. But that second deal, because we had initially thought we’re gonna go with that private equity group, we wanted the ability to talk to a wider audience, so that one we did as a 506 C which allows us to advertise and market a little bit more and push it out on social media.

So we were kind of intentionally doing that. And then the last point I want to make is because we still had that B deal going since they were so close, we actually made it a point to hold off on any social media pulse or anything that was public with that C deal just because we didn’t want there to be any indication that we were doing any kind of bait switch, right? We were assured this I will succeed deal and say, “Oh, well, you know what maybe you’re not accredited. But, hey, I got this other deal here.” We wanted to make sure we avoided that completely so we actually didn’t really market that C deal until that B deal was completely closed.

So that was something that was, you know, a little tricky, and you know, maybe we could have been fine. But I just want to be really cautious from that standpoint to make sure there was no way of getting that mixed up.

0:07:15

WS: I can appreciate that, and I think it’s very wise that you did that. We’ve done some similar things and it’s like I just want there to be clear boundaries from when we’re doing a 506 B to 506 C and vice versa.

Let’s back up a little bit, you talked about how you communicated with investors. You all worked on that. You learned a lot through that process. Speak to how maybe that changed. How you’re doing that now, you know in moving forward, or can communicate with investors now, versus, you know, before?

0:07:42

JC: Well, I’ll give you a great tip here. One of the main things for us is we try to communicate with investors the moment we come in contact with them. So in the past, we weren’t quite as, I guess, immediate with that communication. You know, we certainly would allow people to set up a phone call with us, and things like that, we didn’t make it a point to you know have kind of that initial call right away with everybody who signed up. So that was one thing we changed was, listen, for us we realized there’s a much greater conversion rate when we talk to an investor live and have a conversation with them about what they’re looking for, and what their investing goals are versus you know when someone signs up, they send us their information. We have some email conversations back and forth, but not a phone call.

So we just made it a point to say, we got to get people on the phone. We have to talk to them and it’s okay if they don’t want to talk, but the probably also means that they may not be ready to invest with us at this time. So for us it just allows us to be a little bit more direct and get clarity on where someone is in the journey, and then help them along the way.

0:08:42

WS: How do you track that? 

008:42

JC: Yeah. So we use a couple of different things. So one of the big differences or changes we made over the last, you know, 6 months or so, is we actually work with an investor portal now. In the past we had different you know CRM systems, so we always used some sort of system, but we didn’t have an investor portal, and the portal is key for us because it makes it easier to announce deals, track who’s already signed up for it, who’s signing the ppm documents, where they’re at in their process as far as funding the deal. All that was centralized in one place.

Before we had the portal, we were using our mail chimp to blast off the deal, or whatever for marketing So we use that. Then we had to kind of track who we had the conversations with. If we’re doing a webinar we’re maybe using zoom and track who’s on the webinar, who didn’t come to the webinar. Then we’re trying to cross-reference that with the mail, to the database. You know, any live conversations we had with that database. And then ultimately, we now have to get the ppm document.

So now we’re using a docu sign or something like that to get all those ppm documents on. We got to store that somewhere. So now we’ve got either a box or a dropbox or something like that. So you have like 4 or 5 different platforms trying to track all these documents, all these conversations, all these engagements, and it made it very challenging to keep it all straight. Not to mention things you got to turn around and get all this information ready to go for the SEC attorney, and so they could then send it to you know the SEC and do the filings that are necessary there. 

So it’s just a lot of different things to do. So cutting back a good chunk of that time by using a portal where a lot of those things are automated or streamlined, and everything is centralized in one location made it much easier for us to track all those communications and documents. 

0:10:26

WS: What portal do you use? 

0:10:28

JC: So we started off with Syndication Pro. Groundbreaker is another one that we like a lot, and we’ve been talking to those individuals a lot about their capabilities. There are certainly different portals out there. But those are the 2 that I’m most familiar with. And I would implore people to look into it if they’re looking at a portal. 

0:10:45

WS: Yeah, I would encourage people to do demos with numerous different platforms, and talk to operators like John and myself or others who have been using those portals and features that you like. It’s a big decision because it’s hard to switch after you get going, right?

So what about CRM? Do you use the CRMinside that portal as well? I get that question often, you know. Or do you have to have a separate CRM? Or how do you keep that data, you know, and like you have it working together for you?

0:11:10

JC: Yeah, It’s interesting. you know. I was using 3 or 4 different platforms at 1 point. I had pipe Drive. I had Mailchimp when we brought on the portal at the portal, and it just became too much. There was a lot of duplication and repetitiveness in the portals when I started off, I’ll do the Mailchimp in the Pipe Drive. Mailchimp was great for email marketing, the pipe drive allowed me to kind of track deals as well as track investor conversations and it put people with different groups. What ended up happening is obviously these platforms continue to grow and add on new features and new services. So some of the things that I initially was using pipe drive for, Mailchimp built-in that integration.

Active campaign is another one that a lot of people love, and if I were starting over today, the active campaign is probably the one that I would look into the most. But for me, I do not use the CRM within the investor portal today. And part of it is because the main thing that I’m looking at is tracking the leaves that we have, tracking the conversations, but then also the email marketing component you know if I’m reaching out to people, letting them know about deals working on, or letting them know about just our weekly updates. I want to be able to track who’s engaged, and I don’t think it’s quite as easy to create compelling email marketing campaigns in those portals, and it’s not quite easy to track all of those conversations or at least the open rates and really gleam the information that we’re looking for, based on those portals.

So I still keep that separate and use kind of my email marketing system to track those things and really use the portals more for a deal-specific or investor-specific dialogue.

0:12:50

WS: Yeah, No, I completely agree. I do the same thing. It’s like I want that investor portal to have the best processes for that investor, right? And some of our back-end stuff you know as far as that goes. But ultimately the CRM component typically in those portals is not as robust as some other CRM focus type software. right?

And so you said you use Pipe Drive on your current CRM? 

0:13:14

JC: I did. I do not use Pipe Drive anymore. So it just got to the point where Mailchimp built in the capability where you can do tags, and you can segment, and you can do different things. So for me, even like taking notes on a conversation, I used to I mean, I went from everything from handwriting notes to have a word document up, and I would just jot down notes in the word document to use a pipe drive. and now we just pretty much put them in that Mailchimp where people are going.

And I’ll tell you this, too. I had a conversation with a mutual friend of ours, and what I noticed was that on the investor portal my signups were dropping. We had a certain average for we’re using our email marketing and sign-up form. And then, when I use the portal, that dropped, and part of the reason it dropped is there are more questions. And just looking at the information it’s like, “why are you making this hard for people to sign up initially?” So we actually stream on that process to make it a little bit easier for people to sign up. That way, once they’re on the list, we can get more information from them if they are ready to invest. But I don’t necessarily need all that the first time we meet or have a conversation.

0:14:20

WS: Yeah, you mentioned, you know, tracking who is engaged. Speak about how you do that? How often are you looking at that data? How time-consuming is that? How valuable is it? 

0:14:30

JC: Yeah. So listen, it’s one of those things where you know I come from marketing, I spent 15 years in corporate America doing marketing for all sorts of big brands. And data, having a dashboard, looking at our analytics, it was never the fun part of marketing, right? The fun part is calling some cool idea, you know, coming up the creative going out there and shooting it, or, you know, having to create and developed and then putting it out there.

But you got to figure out, “Hey, how effective was this? Did this work? Did this reach our goals? Are we cracking? Do we miss the mark?” And most people don’t take the time to analyze what it is they’re doing, You know, you’ve been doing this podcast a very long time. I’ve been doing my podcast a long time, and if we completely ignore the numbers, I’m not saying, “Hey, let’s beat ourselves up or pat ourselves on the back.” because “Hey we’re crushing it with our downloads,” or “Hey, the doubles aren’t there” But we have to at least analyze what we’re doing. 

What’s working? Why is it working? How do I do more of what’s working, a little less of what’s not working? That’s with anything that you’re trying to do. So what’s really important in this space is taking a look at it and understanding what’s working and what’s not working. If you have a week where you have a bunch of sign-ups, or you have huge download numbers, “Wow! we’ll cause that spike. Can I replicate that? What can I do so that this is more the norm and not the outlier?”

If you have a week where, “Man, we think it any downloads this week or not, that many downloads, or you know we didn’t get a whole lot of sign-ups this week. But what happened, you know, where we were as engaged, we’re reactive. We’re on a vacation. Do we not put out any content?” You know you want to understand those things, so you can start to monitor and make the right adjustments. 

So I try to take a look weekly. We’re starting to grow our team and this will be one of the responsibilities of this new team member to kind of help us track that so we can make more intelligent decisions based on what the data is telling us. But I take look at a weekly at a high level just to see from the major platforms that we are involved with what’s going on, what’s the data telling us, and then on a monthly basis, I really do a little bit more of a deep dive to see, “Okay, last month, hear the different podcast episodes which ones really resonated?” Or you know, here’s the different content we put out, what really stood out? What got the most engagement? And then that kind of starts to frame and shape and form how we go to market moving forward. 

0:16:45

WS: Nice. The data is so important. I found it difficult to ensure what data is accurate. And what’s the most important data and then the time to just trying to analyze, or what do I need even be looking at? I’ve gone for periods where it’s like, “Man, I just I don’t even know what to look at and I won’t look at it for a few weeks.” And that’s not the right answer either.

0:17:06

JC: I think that’s the harper when you write the harper’s figuring out. What should you pay attention to is particularly when it comes to social media because some people look at likes and it’s like, ”Oh, look, there’s got a 100 likes listen.” Listen, likes take a second to do right? It takes me literally a second to double-tap something that you’ve posted. So I actually don’t value likes very much. It’s a vanity metric to me I don’t think it matters, and there are also things you could gain.

I know if I put a picture of me up there, be able to get a bunch of likes. If I put a picture of me and my kids I know it’s gonna get a bunch of likes. It doesn’t mean it adds any value to the person on the other end. So instead, the way I like to think about it is, who am I trying to connect with and how can I add value to that person? And the metrics that I use help me understand whether or not I was able to add value to that person. And don’t get me wrong. They’re algorithms. There’s a whole bunch of stuff involved you sometimes, you got to put a picture up there with you and your kid or just you waving, or something, fun, or whatever right to show your personality and let them get to know you there are other reasons to do that, but the most valuable posts are not necessarily the ones that get the most likes. They’re the ones that get the most engagement.

And by engagement for me, I’m looking at shares. I’m looking at saves and also comments so comments, shares, and saves, are the ones I pay more attention to because that means someone took the time to say, “Hey, this is valuable. I either want to say something about it or want to share this with somebody else.” So I think is gonna get good value out of this. We want to say this like to come back to it and make sure I can take some of this information and apply it when I have more time. 

0:18:41

WS: Is there an easy way you found to collect all that data?

0:18:44

JC: You know what, most platforms have dashboards now. So if you go to like, I don’t know if you use Instagram, but on Instagram, if you have a professional page, you can hit the view dashboard, and you can see what out of the content you put out there what’s performing best, how much engagement you get. Linkedin does the same thing. I like to look at comments. Unfortunately for LinkedIn, there’s not an easy way to do this. So you can see profile views, but I actually like to look at comments, because I think that’s more of a better metric for engagement. And then, you know, you also want to look at open rates for your email marketing. I like to look at just something as simple as how many people respond to me. If I send out an email message or our email weekly newsletter or something like that, how many people respond? It’s one thing to open it up, it’s one other thing to be like, you know what let me take a minute, and just send on a response to this and it may not be a whole lot of people who do it, but when I do get a few responses it lets me know, “Okay, I’m making a point, here. People are getting it.”

And if that coincides with like open rates, you know, if you have a 45-50% open rate, you know, and you get 4, or 5 people or 60 whatever it is right? Some people who respond to you, that’s a good indication that “Okay, hey something we put into here connected with people and that’s great to see.”

0:19:57

WS: Speak to a few of the lessons learned, or things maybe you want to make a listener aware of between doing a 506 B and 506 C deal. 

0:20:05

JC: Yeah, I mean, I think the big thing is 506 B is really about having that pre-existing relationship, you know. You talk to a bunch of attorneys and there are some nuances here and there, but the bottom line is, you cannot solicit a 406 B deal. You have to have an existing relationship and understand that this person has the means to invest. So it’s all about building those relationships and having those conversations in advance. You know, I’m a big fan, of creating content and giving value to other people, so that they understand what it is you’re talking about. And then having those live conversations, so you can assess both their ability the questions that they may have, and then also let them know what they can expect if they do decide to invest with you.

Well with 506 C, that is, for accredited investors only, and the great thing is, you can advertise. You do not have to have a pre-existing relationship there, but you also have to be honest with where you’re at in your investing journey. If you are a new investor, a new syndicator and you don’t have an existing relationship, just ask yourself, “Why would this accredited investor choose to invest with you as opposed to many of the other options that may be available to them.” 

For a 506 B deal, they may not have those options if they don’t know these people, so you may be one of or if not the only option that they have to invest in this kind of deal. For a 506 C deal, they may have other options as well. So before you just go to see and say, “Oh I’m just gonna do C and I’m gonna you know put up some Facebook ads and We’re gonna raise our money that way.” You have to put yourself in the shoes of the other person because if they don’t know you if they don’t trust you, they don’t like you, and you don’t have a track record or anything else that can make them feel comfortable, they may be more hesitant to want to invest with you.

0:21:46

WS: Did you feel being able to advertise for the 506 C opportunity with it was helpful?

0:21:51

JC: Yes, I don’t think it was the result I had anticipated, but I think it was definitely helpful. Part of it for me from a strategy standpoint was I didn’t want to have people comparing the 2 deals, and that was a concern that I had if you put both deals out, I’ve got this one deal that’s almost closed and I didn’t want them to see the second deal, and say, “Hey, actually, never mind, I want to do that.” And that was something that I was really conscious of. So I wanted to make sure that the 2 deals were a bit separated at least in the offering, so that you know they could jump and pick a different deal, and now I’m sitting here playing musical chairs with these 2 investment opportunities.

0:22:28

WS: Yeah, that’s a great concern or a good concern. It’s interesting you had thought that through, no doubt about it. And I wanted you to speak just quickly to even you mentioned the importance of having that conversation with that investor. And seeing more conversions by having that conversation. What do you think we’re a couple of key things about the conversation that led to a conversion?

0:22:47

JC: There is a couple of different ways of looking at it. You know, for my viewpoint, when I have a chance to talk to an investor, or prospective investor, I get a chance to talk a lot about us, the way we think about the business. Let them get a chance to know who I am. The way we operate and the way we think allows me to build a connection with him. I think, from their standpoint, they get all those things but they get to also ask those questions and learn more about us, and tell us a little bit more about where they’re at and what they’re trying to do from an investing standpoint, and we can fill each other out and if it’s not a fit. Or if we don’t think it’s gonna be a fit we can pretty much figure that out in a 10 or 15 min conversation.

However, if our interests align if our philosophies align, then it’s just not become about the deal. 

Part of that big hesitation investors have at times is they may not have done their due diligence on the operator, or they haven’t felt a level of comfort with that operator, and when they get the deal now they’re trying to analyze 2 things which I’m gonna analyze the deal but they’re also trying to analyze the person and figuring out, “Do we feel comfortable with this group?” And at that point, there are a lot of questions and factors to consider, and the clock is running. So if you’ve got 60 days to close a deal, you know that person just may not get comfortable enough in that time frame. So having that conversation upfront makes it easier to do some of that due diligence.

And then I would also say that for us, it also lets us know where someone is on their journey, which I just think is key. If someone is just, you know, they just heard about syndication yesterday, and they signed up to start learning more, they may not be ready to invest if you got to do it next week. But if this person has invested in 2 or 3 syndications already, and they heard you on a show, or whatever the case may be, and they’ve got a couple of $100,000 sit in their bank and looking for some investment opportunities, that person may be ready to go right away. So it just helps us get a sense of where you are out of your journey. Realistically, what should I expect if I bring a deal to the table? Do I anticipate this person is gonna be ready to move forward? Or do they need maybe a couple more miles before they’re gonna be more comfortable investing?

So it just allows us to get a better gauge on like the investors in our network, where they’re at today, where they’re at, and where they will be by the time we have our next opportunity. And to allow us to make the right decisions with all that information.

0:25:06

WS: John, you know, just in our current market, do you have any predictions or any thoughts as far as, are you a buyer? A seller? What’s gonna happen next month? I know you don’t. But you know, how is what’s happening even determining maybe your action steps or goals for over the next 6 months?

0:25:23

JC: Yeah, I think we’re buyers and sellers in this market. I have no clue as gonna happen and I think anyone who says they, they do know what’s gonna happen is probably just speculating at best and just completely misleading intentionally, or worse. With that said, we try to stick to our fundamentals, and if you stick to your fundamentals, you should be able to mitigate risk. Those fundamentals come down to buying for cash flow first and foremost. And by cash flow, I don’t mean a property that’s gonna deliver a 10% cash on cash return out of the gate. What I mean is a property that is positive cash flow that can cover the expenses out of the gate, where there’s an opportunity for us to increase the value and drive up. That’s what we’re looking for.

We’re looking for something where we can force the appreciation, add values of the property, and if the market shifts or changes, we have enough cash flow to take care of the bills, we have enough money in reserves where we’re not going to be worried about overcoming any temporary surpluses that exist on expenses. But we’re going to be in a place where we can manage to deal.

We want to be in properties where we’re okay holding them longer-term, if necessary. If we have to be at a deal for 5, 6, 7, or 8 years, I want to be okay with the properties that we’re investing in. So one of the pivots we’ve made is just to buy assets that are a little bit newer than maybe what we were doing when we first started out. We want to make sure that again we understand what condition are the mechanicals and the roof, the big-ticket items because if you do hold a property for 7, 8, 10 years, you may have to pay or invest more money for some of these big-ticket items. So we just want to make sure that If that happens, we’re going to be comfortable with the asset we have as opposed to buying, say, 1950s property, maybe you plan on being in for 2 years.

But the reality is market shifts. You’re in this thing longer and now you’ve replaced boilers, you’re replacing windows, you’ve got all sorts of other issues, and that’s gonna wipe out all the cash flow for investors. So for us is just more about looking at the acid being a bit more particular about the types of assets we acquire right now, but still making sure that we focus on cash. So first to foremost, appreciation potential being there and understanding what’s going on with those big-ticket items.

0:27:33

WS: What’s your best source for meeting new investors right now?

0:27:35

JC: I think there are a lot of different things that happen. You know, we spend a lot of time with podcasts both, you know, our show as well as being a guest on another podcast so that’s something. We certainly spend a lot of time with. I love doing events, you know. Unfortunately, we have been able to do as many events over the last couple of years, but starting to get back out there to events now, which certainly works well to connect with other investors. 

And then I would say, on top of that, you know, we try to create content for blog content. We do some guest posting and I’m not quite sure how frequently we get investors or new leads from the blog content. You know it’s very rare that someone says yeah reg your blog and wanted to sign up. I will tell you I get Youtube from time to time which is interesting to me because we don’t really do much on Youtube. And I will have people say, “Hey, I saw your Youtube video and you know, came to your website and check you out learn more.” So that’s always interesting to me.

But I really think it’s a combination of everything you know. If you think about branding and marketing, if you think of any company, or any product you like it’s very rare that you only know, hear about them, or see about see them in one channel. If you see a TV spot, they probably have, you know I’m gonna go nerdy on marketing for a second, like a cooler door decal or a point of sale material, right? It could be anything from a shelf talker to anything you might find in the grocery store where you’re buying that product, right?

So those are a point of cell materials. And then there’s everything in between there, you know, from digital to social media to print campaigns to online ads. So, you really need to have a multi-level strategy. I don’t think you can do one thing and expect it to work. 

Podcasting is great, but if the only thing you’re gonna do is a podcast, I think you’re gonna miss an opportunity to really build connections with people because they want to be able to see you in multiple facets, and they need to be reminded of who you are and what you do. And you know, when I can go to an event and I can see someone on stage I’m like, “Oh, there’s Whitney. I know, Whitney, I listen to his podcast. Now I’m seeing him speak as a speaker.” 

Well that connection, especially seeing you in a different environment. It may be the thing that allows me to build a stronger connection with Whitney because out of the 5 podcasts I listened to that know that or I’ve listened to the speakers, and I know who that whole star he’s the one I saw in person, and I see Whitney in person. So now he’s elevated beyond just those people that I know from an audio standpoint, or even if you do a video if you have Youtube now. “Okay, wow, let’s see is Youtube videos, or I see them on social media. Whitney’s got a podcast.” So I’m now touching you 3 different ways that allow you to elevate that experience.

So I think when you are thinking about how you grow with investors, it really comes down to how do you get in front of them, you know, and if you could get in front of them where they’re at and give them the content or the information they’re looking for, you position yourself as someone that they want to get to know a little bit more and potentially could want to do business with.

0:30:26

WS: So tell me, or maybe this has changed since the last time we spoke but maybe not. I’d love to know some of the daily habits that have helped you achieve success.

0:30:33

JC: They’re in flux a little bit now. You know I had some stuff that was doing that was great, and some of that has shifted a little bit. But I’ll give you a couple of things. So one is I have kind of mantra that I state that helps me tremendously. Just remind me of how much power I actually have over not just my day, but my life and the outcomes that I’m looking for. So that’s very helpful. Outside of that I’ve been working out probably 4 or 5 days a week for the last 6 to 9 months, and on days where I don’t work out I feel it and I’m sluggish and I just don’t have the same energy and it’s a problem. And I will sit there and try to look at my schedule and figure out “Okay when kind of squeeze in a workout? When can get something done?”

And it’s obviously part partially physical part is about energy, but also think a lot of it is a mindset. You can put a win on the board, went on the board early. Makes it a little bit easier to attack the rest of your day and have that confidence. And I don’t know about you, Whitney, but when I work out there are days where it’s just you know kind of going through the motions, and then there are days where I feel like I’m ready to compete in, you know, whatever you know wrestling competition, or boxing or whatever it is, right? I’m just you know I’m feeling juiced up and ready to go.

So those days are great, because, I think go and sit in front of a computer. Right? So it’s like I lift all this heavyweight and it goes in front of a computer, start typing. But I feel invincible those days and I think it’s great to give yourself that energy, and that confidence to go out there and conquer the world, no matter what it is you’re doing.

0:32:06

WS: How do you like to give back?

0:32:06

JC: You know I’m a part of an organization called Surge Water and Surge is a great organization that invests in sustainable water solutions in communities that need it. So particularly in the Philippines, in the Dominican Republic. Haiti is another country that we partnered with as well. And in these countries, one of the main things we’re doing is we’re actually going in and helping those communities build more wells, build sanitation stations, teach them about menstrual cycles, and build toilets at their schools. Things that they really need, not want but need. 

In many of these countries, some of the children and women, actually cannot work and cannot go to school because they have to go down to the river and get water. And it takes 3 or 4 hours to walk that far, to get the water and come back. It is just something that you know we all take for granted in the United States and in you know, the Western world, and being a part of this organization, is just a tremendous thing.

And I got to tell you, a friend of my wife’s started this company or this organization 12 years ago, and there were colleagues working together at a large accounting firm. And I remember my wife telling me that she was gonna quit to go run this nonprofit full-time. As you can imagine, I was shocked that she was doing those, too, that she had enough money and could just be in a position to just say I’m gonna leave corporate America completely and just go to this philanthropic thing. 

And it also just reminded me that you know what all the stuff we do, and I was at the time working in advertising, so it was like there’s got to be a greater purpose in this, you know. I was selling, you know, I was doing beer ads at the time like here I am doing beer ads, and this woman is, you know, helping to get clean drinking water to people who absolutely need it in different countries. It’s like, “What am I doing in my life? What what purpose? What legacy am I leaving here?”

So it really forced me to reevaluate that, and I was happy to join her board and help them with some of the marketing and sponsorship items that they’re doing but I think we all are looking for purposes in some form or fashion, and this is one of the things that allows me to have a little bit of purpose in regards to helping out other people.

0:34:12

WS: Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that and just a reality that most of us just can’t even fathom. What do these other people have to do to even get water? We should be more aware of those things. I think it brings so much under perspective and how fortunate we are. We just take it for granted. Thank you for sharing that, John. Appreciate your support through that organization, helping so many other people that are so less fortunate.

But grateful for your time today as well. I mean just going through I mean $20,000,000 there’s 2 deals in 100 days, and some lessons learned. You’re talking about numerous things that had to change. How you learned about investors and all the data that’s helping you to improve your communication and what investors want, and even staying in front of them. The keeps that conversation, but also 506 B versus C. Many lessons there you shared would have been helpful to us. I think, before doing that as well. 

So we’re just grateful for your time and sharing those and even thinking through an investor portal or CRM.

How can the listeners get in touch with you and learn more about you?

0:35:09

JC: Yeah, 2 things. One I’m the host of The Multifamily Insights podcast and Whitney has been on that show and is a great guest, so be sure to check that out anywhere you listen to podcasts. And then second is we have a sample deal on our website. And if you’re looking to syndicate whether you are an active investor, looking to put together your own syndication, or you’re an LP or a passive investor, and you want to get a sense of what are some of these terms and things you should be looking for, check this out because we’ll follow it up with some communication as far as some key things to look at. But we have a sample deal on our website. Go to casmoncapital.com/sampledeal, and you can download that today and join our newsletter.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[OUTRO]

0:35:46.2 

WS:  Thank you for being a loyal listener to the Real Estate Syndication Show. Please subscribe and like the show. Share it with your friends so we can help them as well. Don’t forget, go to www.LifeBridgeCapital.com where you can sign up and start investing in real estate today, Have a blessed day!

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