WS663: Technology Used For Raising Money with DJ Scruggs

[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] WS: This is y our daily real estate syndication show. I’m your host Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is DJ Scruggs. Thanks for being on the show again DJ, or the first time.

[0:00:34.4] DS: Hi Whitney, I’m glad to be here.

[0:00:35.8] WS: Yeah, I know, happy to have you. I know we’ve had your other team members on that you work with and happy to have you on as well. But a little about DJ: He started his first software company in 1996 in Chicago and sold it in 99 with 700% return on investment for investors. Early partner in SurveyGizmo and grew annual revenue from 150,000 to two million in less than two years. He’s self-taught programmer who has written hundreds of thousands of lines of code.

DJ, thanks again for being on the show and I’m just looking forward to highlighting your specialty, your super power, part of the team that you know, you all have. And tell the listeners a little more about who you are and why real estate and let’s jump in to what your super power is on your all’s team.

[0:01:23.2] DS: Yes, happy to. My background is – I started music in college and –

[0:01:28.5] WS: What do you play?

[0:01:30.3] DS: I’m a drummer. Not really a musician, I’m just a drummer. But I was a classic liberal arts major, I got out of school in 1990 and had no idea what I was going to do. I stumbled around for a few years but I sort of naturally gravitated toward business, I started reading The Wall Street Journal and Inc. Magazine and something about that just really motivated me. And I remember reading an article about how great companies got started. Again, this is early 90s, so they were talking about companies like Motorola, Hewlett Packard.

The thing that was amazing is a lot of times they just started, like they didn’t even really have an idea, Motorola didn’t have a product. It was just a couple of guys that said, “Let’s start a company. We’ll figure it out.” This is in the 40s too, this is before the dotcom boom or anything and it just sort of hit me one day as like, the most important part is just deciding to do it. Furthermore, if you just look around you, practically everything you see is because somebody had an idea to create that microphone you’re using, someone had an idea that created my Macintosh computer.

It was just one of those weird kind of mind shifts where I was like, you can create anything you want, if you want it enough. I noticed after – my first job was with a nonprofit, Orchestra and I became the computer guy in the office and after a while, I noticed I was pretty good with computers and so I worked a couple of consulting jobs and 1995, November. It was Thanksgiving 1995, I was living in Chicago and I normally visit my parents every year down near Atlanta where I grew up. For some reason, that year, I couldn’t go and I can’t remember why.

But I was just stuck at home for thanksgiving in Chicago and I got on the internet, I had just got an account and I just remembered thinking, “Oh my god, this is going to be the biggest thing ever, this is going to just swamp everything else, right?” Again, I think I had a 56k modem and had the dial up and you know, all that stuff. But even with that, I was like, “This is going to be big.”

My idea was like, do something with the internet, that was pretty much my business idea. Fast forward a couple of years, eventually, what I settled on was customer service software. My pitch was, call centers, you know, they have these advanced routing systems and reporting and tracking so you can see how quickly you’re entering phone calls and I thought, “Well, email is going to be the same way.” I went to see a potential customer and they showed me how they were handling email and it was just a nightmare.

The original vision was just to build an email management software. It was one of the first ones. Now, we were in Chicago and Chicago was not a great place to start a software company, it was great if you were a consultant. But you know, all the action was in Silicon Valley and Boston area. It was very much – I had raised money just in bits and bytes at a time, trying to keep it afloat, trying to – by the way, I had never managed a team, I was learning to program but I was not a programmer or I couldn’t have built that product, I had to recruit people and all that.

Anyway, I ended up selling it and so it was funny because I would go out to Silicon Valley and try to raise money and fix this. The first time around, a lot of them didn’t believe it was a real problem, it was a real product, you know? Six months later, I got there and there was already three other companies in space.

Now, it’s, “Where’s already other people in this and by the way, you’re in Chicago, we’d like to invest in people that we could get in the car and go to board meeting.” Anyway, but I did cold call a venture capitalist into a space out here in Boulder, Colorado and shockingly, he returned my call and ultimately, that turned into an acquisition, I sold it to a company in Boulder that was one of the first email marketing companies, very early days of email marketing. This would have been I think it was 1999.

It was fun, I sold it and it was one of those things where I was an entrepreneur, very scrappy, I was flying to go meet with customers and I would take the red eye plight and stay at the crappy airport motel and I get there and these guys have raised like 50 million dollars.

Now we’re staying at the nice hotel and we’re doing these off sites at Keystone and stuff and I thought well, I guess these guys know what they’re doing but they didn’t. My investor did really well, I did okay but ultimately, that company cratered after the dotcom implosion. But it was one of those lessons where it was a lot of fun and also taught me to trust my own instincts, right?

Don’t just assume because someone has an MBA or you know, worked at one of the big five accounting firms that they know more than you do. From there, I ended up starting several technology companies over the years, the most well-known one is SurveyGizmo. It was two friends of mine who started it and I joined about a year into it. And as you mentioned, they were, I think we had just cracked 150,000 for that year and then we got it up to two million.

While I’d like to take some credit for it, the truth is, sometimes you’re just the right product at the right time, We had a really great sales process and it was a one call close and now, they don’t report their numbers but you know, I’ve heard they’re over like 50 million, they’re still going strong. I kept – you know, me, I don’t like a company that’s more than about 20 people, as soon as you had to hire an HR person, I’m just kind of like, not that excited about it.

I did a few different companies over the years and after a while, I just got really kind of burned out and actually, if you sign up for our email list, that’s one of the first emails I send is about that. Which is, with tech, tech is really fun, right? It’s really exciting but it’s also –

[0:07:30.4] WS: If it works.

[0:07:33.2] DS: If it works, right. It doesn’t matter what level of success you’re at, right? From the startup to running Google, there is always something that’s keeping you awake at night. There’s always, in the case of a startup, you might be building a product and then it turns out, Facebook introduces the same thing for free. You know, there’s a risk of that. If it’s a business product, then Google does it.

Or, if you’re successful, people notice that and they start recruiting all your best engineers. It’s just a constant battle. And of course, you know, with software, there’s always bugs, there’s always problems, there’s always something in the back of your mind that you could be working on, need to fix and all that.

I was really starting to burn out on that process and I got into real estate because my neighbor was a real estate agent and he told me about this website called BiggerPockets and he actually knew a couple of guys there and I was like, “That’s interesting.” Initially, went there thinking about just applying for a job, was thinking I was just down shifting and have a job.

The more I start reading it, I was like, “This is really cool,” and so, then, I thought, “Okay, well, let me go to, let me see what I can learn from people in the area.” I was living in Denver, still am. I go on meetup.com and start looking for real estate events and the first one I go to is called the Creative Real Estate Lunch club and it was the very first meeting and it was put on by a guy named Adam  Adams and there was six people there, we met at this and it was snowing like crazy that day on his podcast, Adam talks about how he almost canceled it.

But he had committed to doing one meetup a week for a year. Fortunately, kept it going and I met him and also Manny was at that meeting, he’s my other partner and they were already doing some flipping and small rentals and you know, I just sort of kept coming and the thing I have noticed about Adam was he took this little thing with six people and within three months, it was 70 people. I mean, you would have packed houses.

[0:09:31.5] WS: He’s a meetup expert, that’s for sure, to say the least.

[0:09:35.5] DS: He is, and he’s not you know, it was no secret – well, there is a secret formula but he had to create it himself, right? There weren’t a lot of guys.

[0:09:41.8] WS: He’s been a guest numerous times on the show just so the listener know, Adam Adams and when one of them, we specifically talked about meetups and growing your meetup but go ahead.

[0:09:50.8] DS: You know, for me, I started out flipping houses just as a way to get into it but I knew all along I wanted to do something, I wanted to do whether it was multifamily or system layout, I wanted to do something that scaled, you know, that was bigger than just one house at a time or you know, a three or four plex at a time.

I kept sort of planting that seed with Adam and Manny and eventually, I say eventually, it was only about six months, they said, “Hey, we want to get into multifamily, do you want to do it too?” I said, “Absolutely.”

We started doing that and like everyone, we made a lot of mistakes at first and kind of spun our wheels but eventually, started closing. And you know, my strength, being a tech guy, I’m always looking for ways to sort of optimize not have to duplicate things, make really easy flows, you know, for the user, if you sign up for our list, I have a whole set of investor qualification form and then we automatically link you to Calendly to schedule a call and stuff like that.

What I’m not is an extrovert, you know? I am perfectly happy just staying at home working on a computer all day and Adam, of course I the opposite. He’s been most extroverted person I’ve ever been around. And so, I had a sense that you know, if we take my sort of operations expertise with Adam’s ability, just to meet a lot of people and Manny, he’s an agent so  he knows a lot about contracts and the legal and due diligence and all that stuff and it’s worked out great so far and Adam –

[0:11:27.3] WS: Yeah, what do you do for the team, your expertise, you know, let’s jump in to what your specialty and what you do for the team?

[0:11:36.3] DS: I mentioned tech, I’m always looking for – I’m looking either to optimize existing process or add something to the mix that will help us stand out, right? I mentioned like the investor qualification, we also have a whole deal launch process when we have a deal that involves building a landing page, sending out follow up emails, tracking all those in ActiveCampaign and always having a running tally of how much money you’ve got committed and things like that.

And then also, hooking systems together. You know, Calendly’s its own thing, ActiveCampaign’s its own thing. How do you get those to integrate, well, we use Zappier, that’s a very popular platform for that? I do a lot of that but also, as a CEO of the company, I sort of have to think more strategically about other things. I also handle all of our asset management and in that context too, I’m also looking at technology to improve that.

And then, strategically for the company, a CEO basically has three jobs. One is to make sure things are running okay, the other is to make sure you have the money to do what you need to do, and the third is to set the strategic direction for the company. I spent a lot of time thinking about those things and with us, because of COVID-19, we have paused – we’re not making any offers right now, we think that it’s going to take a while for it to really shake out. But in the meantime, we’ve been doing events like the raising money summit that’s going to be coming up so we’ve been looking at how do we turn that, how do we make that the best thing it can be, most efficiently and provide the most value?

I spent a lot of time with the team on that stuff.

[0:13:15.8] DS: Let’s talk a little bit about the technology that you use for raising money and then we’ll talk a little about the technology that you use for asset management, maybe as well or if there is something. As far as raising money. I know you mentioned like ActiveCampaign, you’re going to build a landing page and some things like that, could you highlight, maybe that process a little bit in the technology you use to that happen?

[0:13:37.6] DS: It is a hybrid as I said, the initial step is we have a list we’ve been building over time and we’ve been communicating with regularly. That’s very important, right? If you get someone’s email address and then you wait nine months till you have a deal, they’re going to be like, “Who are you?” It’s very important that you sort of establish that baseline that they know who you are, they know you’re active, they know you’re doing stuff.

We have a series of automated emails that go out. As part of that, we send out a qualification form that looks more or less like the questionnaire you’d see on a subscription agreement and we don’t require people to do that. But we strongly encourage them, and the reason is, first of all, it tells us whether they’re accredited or not and other stuff.

But it also gets their mailing address and we get their birthday too so we can send t hem birthday cards and things like that. Then, when a deal comes, we send it out and we have a landing page typically built in ClickFunnels and it sort of spills out the high-level information about it and then you have to register and that using Zapier, we push that information over into ActiveCampaign and we’ll send you a series of emails about the property.

I’m not sure if there is a right way to do this, I’ve seen some people just put everything in one email, I’ve seen what we do as we break it up so one will be about financials, one would be about the property, one would be about the market and we also do what’s in ActiveCampaign, what they call deals so they have this, it’s kind of hard to describe  unless you see it, if you ever use Trello, it looks like that but they have these pipelines. And so, you know, when someone first comes in, we know they downloaded the packet but that’s it.

And then, we might do a follow up phone call and so we’ll drag it over to the next column, we’ll find out if they’re interested, how much and that will give us a running tally of how much potential money there is and then we just move them through that process. We also do webinars, Zoom webinars, again, that’s automated, we send out an email invitation and if they tend, we make sure to flag that they have seen the webinar in our database and we’ll usually do at least two, usually three webinars and we’ll also send out a recording.

And then, when use Syndication Pro for the actual subscription fulfillment.We just started using that this past year and you know, that’s got a very nice investor dashboard and you can upload the documents there on a signed electronically and then after the deal closes, you can use that for whether it’s messaging or distributions and things like that.

Yeah, it’s a lot of moving parts and you know, like I said, I’m always looking for new stuff too. I mean, at any given moment, I’ve got a half dozen different technologies, I’m playing around with.

[0:16:20.9] WS: Yeah, just to highlight a little bit. ActiveCampaign, and then you’re using – really, for contact management I guess or email management or you know, email campaigns but then ClickFunnels, you’re building landing pages through. Then Zapier or Zapier, however you pronounce it, it’s going to can really integrate those and allow them to communicate, you’re going to do webinar and Zoom and then also, you’re going to use, after the deal or when does Syndication Pro come in? Is it integrated in any way?

[0:16:52.8] DS: That’s when you’re ready to write a check basically. You’re like, “I’m in, let’s get this going,” right? I would say, Syndication Pro is a nice platform but it’s also a relatively new one. There’s not a lot of integration there. I did manage to hack together a system where they’ll email you when someone signs up, when they commit.

You can use Zapier or take those emails forward them to Zapier, they’ll parse them out and we’ll flag it the database based on that. Those are probably the main tools we use with a lot of Zapier. We have a ton of probably three dozen Zapier actions that are running, at any given moment.

Syndication Pro, like I said, it doesn’t integrate with Zapier, I’ve pushed them very hard to offer that. I hope they’ll get it soon. But one thing in general with technology, just as a very high level when it comes to software in particular is, you basically have two choices, you can have an all in one or you can have best of bread right?

All-in-one is, it has all of your contacts, it has all of your scheduling, it has all of your email communications and the best of breed is you want the best thing for your email communication. The best thing for scheduling and the best thing for signing documents and they both have their advantages and drawbacks. All in one, typically, those products they start as one thing and then the company adds things to it and inevitably it is just not as good as if you got a best of, right?

So, it is really on you and both your own sort of comfort with technology or people you have available to you to integrate technology. ActiveCampaign is a very powerful platform. You can do a lot just with it, we always recommend it because it is a really good value for the price.

[0:18:42.5] WS: Do you all use it as your CRM as well?

[0:18:44.6] DS: Yeah, I mean everything goes in there. If you schedule a one-off phone call with me, we make sure it gets updated there. I also have a system, which I am not using as much these days because of COVID but I use a product called Contacts+, which is a contact synchronization system. So what it does is you take if you have like Apple contacts and Gmail and any other system you have, it rolls those all together so you have a single – So you know someone updates their email address in one system it updates there as well, right?

[0:19:19.8] WS: What is that called again?

[0:19:21.2] DS: Contacts+. It used to be called Full Contact and they rebranded it. I think that was a mistake because if you search for contacts on the app store there is about a zillion results. In any case, the main thing I like about it is that they have a tool where you can take a picture of a business card and they will transcribe it. And when I say transcribe, it is really someone who is physically looking at that card and typing it in. It is not some kind of AI thing.

They basically push this all to I don’t know if it is India, I am not sure where, somewhere offshore and they’ll have two different people look at the card and type it in and so that it verifies it. So now, you don’t have to enter anything right? So, on one hand that is good all by itself, right? Because I know that what I was like and just about everyone I know in this business, they go to a networking event, they get a handful of business cards, they come home, they put it in their desk and think, “I should follow up with an email to that guy,” and then they don’t. And pretty soon they got a drawer that’s full of a hundred or thousands of business cards. Adam was like that.

So by setting up in this, so first of all it is electronic but with Zapier then what I do is pretty much is as soon as it is transcribed, which takes about 30 minutes, it sends an email to that person that just says, “Hey, it was nice to meet you.” and it has like, “Here is my contact info in case you ever want to reach me. I have some links to our website.” There is a presentation, a couple of presentation I’ve done I will link to those.

And then with contacts, you can have – with Contacts+ you can tag someone. So, a lot of time you’ll meet someone who is a real estate agent or a contractor or something like that but very occasionally you meet someone who is a potential investor. So, I tag them as an investor and with Zapier, if they’re tagged as investor, we put them on our special investor list and then they’ll start receiving emails automatically from us.

[0:21:13.5] WS: So, they automatically receive an email from you because you linked that or tell me what you link there? So, you took a picture with Contacts+, it gets put into your system and I guess it gets put into contacts plus then and then what does Zapier link Contacts+ to, to make that happen?

[0:21:32.0] DS: So, the initial one off email I use I think it is called Mailjet, which is they have a free version where you can send, I don’t know, 100 emails a month or something and I just built that email right inside of Zapier or inside of Mailjet and it is just really – you know I am not trying to get fancy because I want people to think that I actually just sent them an email and I want them to think, “Oh, I signed up for a bunch of marketing spam,” right?

So, the thing is like I said, people they go to these events and they trade cards and most people don’t act at them at all and so just by sending them an email, I have already stood out from everyone else they have talked to there. So, I use Mailjet to send a one-off email and in both cases I have pushed them into ActiveCampaign but if it is an investor then it triggers an automation in ActiveCampaign that sends them a welcome message as a few days later since the qualification form.

Then we got about, I don’t know, 15 or 20 automated emails that go out roughly once a week and every one of those emails, you know people can reply to it and I will see it. And whenever I do the investor calls, you know at the end I said, “By the way, you’re going to get emails from me. Don’t hesitate to reply. If you ever have any questions.”

[0:22:46.5] WS: Do those look like personalized emails or do they look like marketing email?

[0:22:51.3] DS: They are sort of personalized plus so they have my picture in it, they have some links, phone numbers but it is still pretty much a message from me it is not some random marketing message.

[0:23:05.1] WS: Yeah and before we run out of time, what about the asset management side a little bit? Any technology that you are using that’s helped you on that side as well?

[0:23:13.6] DS: So, you know every property management firm has their own that they use. So, you’re a little bit at their mercy what I do-do for one of our properties, we actually directly manage. We have a manager on the payroll and we use Buildium for that. I signed up for that because you know again, good price for the value. I think for a while, it may have a reputation as being only for small properties because what I would mention to people, oh yeah that is for small properties.

But no, it’s great. I mean I think it’s fantastic and you know they have a really good training. So, our property manager and the particular property I am talking about, she is not super tech savvy. So basically, the first thing I did is just have her watch all the videos and then I have feeling around different aspects of it and I like that a lot but we also keep a – for every deal, we have a Google Spreadsheet that is I don’t know, 15 tabs. You know everything from expect of returns to projectors and then we also keep all the investors in there. We also keep the investors in ActiveCampaign but for tax reporting purposes it is easier just to send that to our accountant. So, we will keep a running tally within ActiveCampaign, what was the product – no, the Google spreadsheet and this is more of a manual process but at least it is there. It is easy to share and I will just keep all of the distributions and actual results in their budgets, that kind of thing.

[0:24:40.0] WS: Nice, okay. We just have a couple of minutes left, DJ, any other software that you mentioned. There is numerous things you’re trying or things that has helped your business. Anything else that maybe you are trying that we haven’t talked about yet that we should be aware of as well?

[0:24:56.0] DS: So, I am kind of a personal productivity junkie. So, what I am trying right now – so I use Gmail. I have been using Gmail almost since it came out, which is like 2003 I think and I’ve got three different accounts there and so I have kind of learned all the shortcuts and some hacks for Gmail but one that I am trying right now is one that just came out called H-E-Y, hey.com. It is started by some guys in Chicago, I wished I had known them when I was there.

Who they have a very famous project management product called Basecamp and HEY is – You know their whole thing is they don’t follow conventions. They decide what should email do not what is email but what should it do. And so, they redesigned email and I can’t go on into all of it but it is a really different experience. Now the other thing is they don’t do free. They charge. It is 99 bucks a year and they are very opinionated on how business should work.

So, you either buy into their view of the world or you don’t and if you don’t they don’t care, right? So, I like the software a lot. It is still early I think there is a few features that need to be added before I can move all of my email to it that. But so far has been fantastic. I really like it.

[0:26:16.2] WS: Nice, okay DJ just a few more questions. Is there anything else that we haven’t we talked about, anyway that you have improved your business recently that we could also apply to our business?

[0:26:27.1] DS: Well it is not about technology per se but the book Rocket Fuel, you know Rocket Fuel is sort of the marketing version of the book and then the how to version of it, what is it called, I have already forgotten, it is by the same author and it is basically you can use it in any business.

[0:26:46.7] WS: That’s not Traction is it or?

[0:26:48.6] DS: Traction, yes exactly. Traction, so we adopted a lot of those, you can go out and get coaches to do it but I have some friends who had done it and I am pretty good at kind of building systems myself. So, we follow a lot of stuff in there. They have something called the level 10 meeting every week. They have a whole chart where you sort of you figure out what your company’s values are and how does that show up in your business.

Because a lot of times when you are making decisions about your business around things like that it is easy to say what you’re for but you have to really but into the fact that what you are not for, right? And so, they give examples of different values a company might have. So, you know one company might be run by some ex-military guys so that is all about discipline and following a plan. But another company might be all about creativity and coloring outside the lines.

And so, a big part of it is just discovering what your values are and it is not just the plaque you hang on the wall. It’s got to be something you are all in on and you live by every day. And the way I think of stuff like that is when it comes to company culture, I think of it like a seatbelt. So, when I was growing up, seatbelts weren’t common. People didn’t wear seatbelts and that started to change right around the time I started driving, thank heavens. Within five years of me getting my license, it was universal. And if you have ever gotten in your car and then just for whatever reason not put on a seatbelt because you are just going to move it a block or something it feels weird, you know?

[0:28:21.4] WS: It does feel weird.

[0:28:22.3] DS: You don’t have that pressure on that and that is how I think about culture. If you live in your culture it feels good. If you’re not it feels weird. And so, you just make sure that if something does feel weird, you speak up, right? You don’t just let is fester because if a culture starts to fall apart, the company it will follow shortly after.

[0:28:43.3] WS: So, what’s the best source for meeting new investors right now?

[0:28:49.2] DS: Podcast is one. We got a lot of people because Adam is on a lot of podcast plus, he has his own podcast. So that is a big one. We do meet them in events and meetups and things like that. Obviously, we are not doing those right not but we hope to get those going someday. It is I will say, it is a long game. That is the most important thing and I even tell investors when I did the first phone call. I will ask them some questions around, “What do you look for in an investment? What is the first question you would have?” Those kinds of things.

But I also tell them like, “Look, for some people…” like I literally had someone I spoke at a meetup and then the next day she wrote me a check for $50,000. That was great but you know that is not what you should expect. Most people want at least to wait a while and then for some people a while is just a few months, for others it might be five years.

So, I tell people, “look we are in this business for the next 30 years. We want you, when you invest, we don’t want you to kind of want to do it or you know be nervous about it. We want you to be psyched.” We want you to really like, “Hell yeah, I am investing in this property and I am really glad I am working with BlueSpruce to do it.

[0:29:55.3] WS: What is the number one thing that’s contributed to your success?

[0:29:58.3] DS: Flexibility and high tolerance for ambiguity and by that, I mean especially early in a business, especially early in a tech business but also in really any business. You think you know what is going to happen but you should be comfortable with the idea that you might be very wrong about the market you’re in, who your customers are, what they should pay for your services, what your services actually are. So, you have to just relax and just accept that there is going to be days when you’re like, “I can’t believe, nothing is working. I am totally wrong about this thing. Oh, that customer is angry at me.” That is just part of business.

So just being comfortable with that idea and not feeling – it’s like go back to the beginning, I said, you know Motorola was founded by two guys who said, “We just want to start a company.” So, there was a lot of ambiguity in that statement, right? Well, what kind of company? Who are your customers going to be?  What is the product? What is your expertise? But deciding to do it and then just being I don’t want to say comfortable but tolerant of the vagaries that will come with that.

[0:31:02.1] WS: Yeah, I really like what you said earlier or right away in the beginning of the interview you said, the most important part is deciding to do it and I like that. It is so much is mental and that decision is big when you decide to move forward and you are committed but DJ, how do you like to give back?

[0:31:17.6] DS: You know I like to do just sort of personal acts of service, whether it is volunteering, I also am a big animal guy. I have a dog; she is getting up there but she is a tripod. I used to have a tripod cat too but now I just have a regular cat and I also just like one, what I do at Christmas time is I go buy, I go on Amazon and buy a bunch of Planters cashew nuts the little packets they are like three ounces or something then I will staple a $5 bill on them and I will put a little sticker, like a holiday sticker on that and then if I ever see a homeless person out who wants money, I will just give them that and say happy holidays and it is a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing that.

So, I look for ways to kind of help my own well-being but help other people’s well-being too and often times it is just the little thing that can make someone’s day.

[0:32:16.2] WS: Do you still play the drums?

[0:32:18.5] DS: I have drums. No, I don’t. For a while I actually play guitar more than I do drums these days but even that, it is kind of falls off of that. But I definitely will air drum when a classic comes on.

[0:32:31.0] WS: Sure. Well, DJ it’s been a pleasure to get to know you better and just to have you on the show and really highlight your super power and bring in just all the technology that you all use to make your business happen and be more productive and whether it is on the capital raise side or asset management side, I am just grateful for your time today and tell the listeners how they can get in touch with you and learn more about you?

[0:32:53.7] DS: So, the best way, you go to our website, realbluesspruce.com or you could email me, [email protected]. I am not big on social media. I used to be. I was one of the first 100,000 users of Twitter. I was there when they first launched at SXSW. These days I am starting to think social media is cancer. So, Adam is still, he is huge on Facebook, he and Chad are but I have a presence but I rarely use it.

But I will say one thing your listeners might want to know about when it comes to raising money.

We have the Raising Money Summit coming up October 1^st through 4^th. This would be the third annual one. This one is going to be a 100% virtual. We just made that decision. But we are really psyched. We had a chance to watch other people’s events, learn from that and we think it is going to be a really engaging, fun event and they’ll learn a lot. I mean if you look at the testimonials, there is a lot there and what we can offer we can do a onetime offer for your listeners. If they will just text “Whitney” why don’t you spell that Whitney?

[0:33:55.3] WS: W-H-I-T-N-E-Y.

[0:33:57.9] DS: Exactly, text that to 55444, so two fives three fours, 55444 and normally the admission price is 399 but for your listeners, we will make it $97 only they can get that and only if they text that, “Whitney” to 55444.

[0:34:17.3] WS: Nice, I appreciate that discount and I would say yeah that is a great event. I think maybe I spoke at the first one. I can’t remember I have been to a couple of them I think I remember. You’ve had two. So, I think I was at both of them and I was able to be on stage on one of them. So, a great event if you are looking to raise capital and get in this business, you are going to meet some great people there and learn a lot.

[0:34:40.0] DS: Yes, we are psyched about it. I was kind of skeptical about doing it virtual at first. But now that one of the technologies I haven’t told you about and I am still not going to tell you about but it is a really cool technology that is going to make it better and so when people sign up, they will see. It is going to be a lot of fun.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[0:34:57.0] 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.

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[OUTRO]

[0:35:37.3] 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.

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