Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Leveraging the Post-Pandemic Market with Eric Brown

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Leveraging the Post-Pandemic Market with Eric Brown · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  We don't like uncertainty.
• 0:01
  And at the same time, as you well know, opportunity is always in uncertain
• 0:09
  Hi.
• 0:09
  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady host of the small Bizchett podcast.
• 0:13
  I want to serve you.
• 0:14
  This pandemic has been so hard on America's small businesses and on just America in
• 0:20
  general.
• 0:20
  If you're ready to start your dream business, boy, do I have a great offer for you?
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  Over a hundred thousand people have this book has been printed in multiple languages around
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  And I wanted to find a way to serve America's small businesses in this pandemic.
• 0:41
  And so I am giving away a 1000 copies of my book.
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  All you have to do to get your copy is head over to beginmybiz.com/ free offer to, you
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  know, sign up for your copy.
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  I am so excited about this.
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  I wanna serve you, grab your copy today.
• 1:01
  I left off.
• 1:03
  Ending small business failure.
• 1:06
  Welcome to the Small Biz chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert, Melinda
• 1:11
  Emerson.
• 1:12
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give be the information you
• 1:17
  need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 1:20
  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
• 1:24
  Melinda Emerson.
• 1:27
  Hi.
• 1:27
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
• 1:30
  America's number one small business expert and I would like to welcome you to the small biz
• 1:35
  chat podcast.
• 1:37
  Now the goal of the small biz chat podcast is to give our small business audience an
• 1:42
  opportunity to hear sage advice from various different perspectives, all with the goal to
• 1:48
  take your business to the next level.
• 1:50
  Tonight's guest, serial entrepreneur, Eric Brown.
• 1:54
  He's got a great recovery story to share.
• 1:56
  He is CEO of Urbane Apartments Located in the Deach Troy Suburbs.
• 2:01
  He's a pioneer in digital marketing and an expert in urban housing development.
• 2:07
  He has built and developed over 16,000 market rate apartments on a national scale.
• 2:14
  He founded Urbane Apartments in 2000 He oversees new business, general operations,
• 2:20
  marketing, and branding at the company, and he has long been recognized in the multifamily
• 2:25
  housing industry as a Vanguard and cutting edge social media marketer.
• 2:30
  Thank you so much, Eric, for being here with me today.
• 2:33
  Have known you for so long, so it's such a treat to have an opportunity to talk to you on
• 2:38
  the show.
• 2:39
  Now I know that the pandemic has been rough for people.
• 2:43
  There certainly were winners and there were losers, but everybody had to change.
• 2:47
  It was almost like everybody had to go back to being a startup, frankly, Tell me about your
• 2:53
  business and and, you know, how the pandemic sort of, like, rocked you guys.
• 2:57
  So mid March of last year, when this all started set in and business is where we were
• 3:04
  closed.
• 3:05
  Michigan basically closed up shop, We somewhat had a bit of an advantage because we had been
• 3:11
  doing go solo apartment tours for about 10 or 12 years.
• 3:17
  And when we first started those, we were actually it was looked at as a as a negative
• 3:22
  customer experience.
• 3:23
  It actually wasn't, but So we were able to pretty pretty quickly shift into gear and and
• 3:29
  do that.
• 3:31
  So that helped us a lot.
• 3:32
  We already had the infrastructure in place at our properties to be able to do that.
• 3:36
  It actually worked out fairly well for us.
• 3:39
  But you had a personal impact with the pandemic.
• 3:42
  Right?
• 3:42
  I mean, you said that while business did okay, but but you personally were impacted by the
• 3:49
  pandemic.
• 3:50
  I did.
• 3:52
  Yeah.
• 3:52
  So, you know, this is our 22nd year in business and things that I used to be worried about
• 3:59
  things like, you know, making sure we had enough capital and we extended our runway and
• 4:03
  all those things.
• 4:05
  What was a really just a moving experience for me during this pandemic was relevancy.
• 4:12
  Right?
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  I I kinda woke up one day And while there was a time when we we were all that in a bag of
• 4:19
  chips, at least here locally, and we lost a particular contract, and I kind of didn't think
• 4:25
  that much about it.
• 4:26
  And then when we lost 3 more, I woke up, and I woke up really fast.
• 4:31
  And I looked around and I started to to panic in a way.
• 4:35
  You know, when you've sort of been, like, way out in front for a long time and then a new
• 4:40
  there's a new kid on the block.
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  It was a shock, honestly.
• 4:44
  And would quickly retooled and did a lot of things we needed to do.
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  And I guess the word for me would be humility.
• 4:51
  I got a really good dose of humility.
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  And I think we came out much stronger for it.
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  Well, I mean, but the pandemic has had a lot of effects on a lot of different kind of
• 5:02
  businesses.
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  And so I wanted to kinda pivot into thank goodness.
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  Like, you know, you were able to kinda quickly recover, but you you had a very significant
• 5:11
  business to begin with.
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  But there were a lot of smaller businesses that just I mean, we probably lost, what, 40% of the
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  African American businesses in the US, and lots of other small solopreneurs that didn't qualify
• 5:25
  for PPP loans and all this stuff because they didn't have employees.
• 5:28
  So You know, how do you think the pandemic has overall affected America's small businesses?
• 5:34
  I mean, everybody has had to retool, but what about everyone else?
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  So I think that so the word that comes to mind for me is I feel like society in general has
• 5:45
  been scarred from this.
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  And, you know, we all sort of have our own bag of crazy.
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  We carry around, but that seems to have expanded.
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  It expanded with our employees expanded with our partners, which which was a a whole
• 6:00
  different thing to manage.
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  I mean, suddenly, they're they're airs on fire every day.
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  And there were times we, you know, we didn't know, well, is everybody stopped paying rent?
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  And we've got 22 apartment communities.
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  And if people stop paying rent, you know, we could be upside down in 45 to 60 days.
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  Unfortunately, that did not happen.
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  And people still paid their rent like they're supposed to.
• 6:23
  So a lot of that stuff went on like it was supposed to go, but I guess we don't like
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  uncertainty.
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  And at the same time, as you well know, opportunity is always in uncertainty.
• 6:35
  So if you can just kinda calm yourself down, say centered and grounded.
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  And I really learned to see what is as opposed to what my perception, what we all want it to
• 6:48
  be something, and sometimes we want it to be something it is not.
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  And so I feel like the quicker that for me and our company and our business that I just looked
• 7:00
  at it for what it is.
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  I was able to start to to create a pretty quick recovery.
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  And I don't wanna make it a gloom and doom.
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  It wasn't like we were close to the edge, but a chunk of our business went away, and I was
• 7:14
  ignoring it.
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  Like, oh, oh, that that that just happened.
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  We'll know it happened for a reason.
• 7:20
  Well, how do you think I mean, I do think this pandemic has created a lot of opportunity.
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  I mean, certainly, people who were already positioned online they won in the pandemic.
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  I'm it definitely.
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  And it you know, and I'm sure, you know, my next guest is gonna talk all about that, but I
• 7:35
  think that I feel like there's still people trying to figure out their digital pivot.
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  Like, I think there are people that started it.
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  They might've got they finally got their Shopify store going.
• 7:44
  You know what I mean?
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  But I I feel like people are still kinda trying to understand that and still trying to
• 7:50
  understand online marketing, and it's a lot more complicated.
• 7:53
  I mean, I've also been in business for 22 years, and I feel like online marketing has
• 7:58
  gotten way more complicated than it used to be, like, You needed a website.
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  You needed a blog.
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  Like, you needed to be putting out content in some kind of way.
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  But now it's way more.
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  You gotta understand a whole bunch of other stuff.
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  Something that happened to us locally is other apartment operators came to a a very quick
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  conclusion they can't do business like they used to.
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  So the big guns, the apartments department.com, apartments.com is an example.
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  They came in and immediately created a media package so that any average joe apartment guy
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  could suddenly have digital marketing plan.
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  They could have virtual tours, and they put them on the map with Google.
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  And so we enjoyed 18 to 20 years of being number 1 if you typed an apartment Roryloke, or
• 8:54
  we just commanded that, and suddenly that went away.
• 8:57
  And it took me more than a minute to get when the ILS has come in to do that, they buy up all
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  the AdWords.
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  And so we just got pushed way, way down.
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  And it took me probably two quarters to go, like, what's going on here?
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  And and part of that is we were all going on going on.
• 9:19
  We're watching the news every day, and I'm wasn't really paying that close attention to my
• 9:23
  business, to be honest with you.
• 9:24
  I was trying to deal with just personal stuff going on and what's going on.
• 9:28
  But once I sort of figured that out, we ended up having to join the forces.
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  We haven't ever used paid advertising really since we started in business until the last
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  year.
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  So I had to jump on to the apartments.com bandwagon.
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  Now in areas where because we're in about 6 or 7 small towns in Southeast Michigan, That
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  wasn't true in all of them, but about 4 of them, we just sort of got pushed down
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  apartments.com, and I'm just using them as an example.
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  It's Zillow, all of them did that.
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  They just pushed their digital net further upstream, and and you just you just couldn't
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  compete against that.
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  And so so so the it became a war.
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  So it became a war of of the online advertising, and it was like, who got there and
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  who's spent the most money and that kind of stuff.
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  And that was something you hadn't had to deal with.
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  And, you know, that's really interesting.
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  I think there's a lot of people who got affected in a similar way.
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  So I guess my question for you though is, Eric.
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  So before the pandemic, What kept you up at night?
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  And since the pandemic, what keeps you up at night?
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  Cause I'm curious what the difference is, frankly.
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  So in the beginning, and even in the middle, I was always worried about capital running out of
• 10:50
  money.
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  You know, you run out of money, end of game.
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  Right.
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  I hear all the time.
• 10:55
  I hear business gurus say, oh, just just make mistakes faster.
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  Well, there's certainly truth in that.
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  You can make mistakes in about as as exact proportion as you have enough capital.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  So if you're miss and I made some mistakes throughout my career that have 5 zeros behind
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  them.
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  Sure.
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  So it would take a while to dig out to what I always focused on, and I read an article a long
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  time ago about extend your runway.
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  So I would think about, okay.
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  I've got 60 days of capital.
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  I got 90 days of capital and then so on and so forth.
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  So but at at some point, we sort of had enough working capital because we I did not read the
• 11:38
  financing piece of your book when I started my my my business, and we just started it on a
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  shoestring.
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  I get that's not the way to do it.
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  That's just what we did.
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  But now I try not to keep up, to be up at night, honestly.
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  I'm post sixty years old, and I try to just rest in that there's universal support, not to
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  get too metaphysical, but but what I think about is this really struck me this whole
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  humility thing and that you've gotta stay on top of your brand relevance.
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  And so that's what I think about a lot.
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  And we're we're bringing in a younger a younger force in our office We just hired one very,
• 12:20
  very bright guy that we're he's gonna we're gonna make him a partner at some point, but He
• 12:25
  just got fresh art, a fresh ideas, and fresh energy, and it it occurred to me maybe I need
• 12:33
  to kinda step out of the way a little bit.
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  I always would sort of land blast the guys who, you know, well, that's the way we've always
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  done it, but but then when I looked at my own actions, I'm going, that's the way we've always
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  done it.
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  And when something has worked for a long time, a couple decades, and then isn't only my own
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  self I had to deal with with that.
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  I had to talk through this with my partners.
• 12:58
  Like, wait, one of our one of our partners, well, 2 2 of my partners in the real estate are
• 13:03
  in their mid eighties.
• 13:05
  Oh, wow.
• 13:06
  Trying to talk to those guys about what they're like, what do you mean?
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  We need to spend money with apartments dotcom.
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  We've never.
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  Right.
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  You know,
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  to a small property, that can be 2 to 5000 a month.
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  Sure.
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  $50 a year.
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  Right.
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  And so
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  That's a person.
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  That's real money.
• 13:24
  No.
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  I get it.
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  I get it.
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  And it just took us longer than it should have to react.
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  I'm much more awake now, or I feel like I am.
• 13:33
  I love it.
• 13:34
  So After 22 years in business with multiple multimillion dollar companies, some of these
• 13:40
  souls, and your main company that you still run, What do you think have been your keys to
• 13:46
  success?
• 13:47
  Focus.
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  I think, you know, I just think you you have to stay focused every day.
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  And you have to be very clear about, like, what the we all have the same amount of time.
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  You know, what am I going to do today?
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  And it can be very easy to procrastinate.
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  Some things are more fun to work on than others, but it's it's really focused.
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  I like that.
• 14:09
  I like that.
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  So I keep hearing a lot about people struggling to find employees, particularly hourly wage
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  employees since, you know, there's been so many stimulus packages.
• 14:19
  Are you experiencing that in in the Detroit area?
• 14:23
  Absolutely.
• 14:24
  Hands down.
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  Every small business that I see, there's a sign in the window.
• 14:29
  And, you know, some of my local business friends and acquaintances their ability to
• 14:36
  increase their sales is limited by the amount of staff that they can garner.
• 14:43
  And at the same time, I've always thought that from a development standpoint, a great
• 14:49
  development, capital seems to find it.
• 14:53
  For whatever reason.
• 14:54
  I don't know why that is, but it just seems to capital seems to find the the right
• 14:58
  development.
• 14:59
  And I also feel like during this pandemic, We've actually been blessed to find some of the
• 15:05
  best employees we've ever had.
• 15:08
  Oh, yeah.
• 15:08
  There's there's been some amazing people who suddenly were on the market.
• 15:12
  So, no, that's definitely true.
• 15:13
  I've I've seen that across the board.
• 15:16
  And so but, yeah, I I think, you know, depending on where at what level you're hiring
• 15:22
  at, it it certainly, as you, you know, the service industry, those guys are having a tough
• 15:27
  time.
• 15:28
  I I believe it.
• 15:29
  I believe it.
• 15:30
  Well, listen.
• 15:31
  When we come right back, we're gonna talk more with Eric Brown who's in here dropping
• 15:36
  knowledge about how to leverage what's going on post pandemic to take your business to New
• 15:42
  heights.
• 15:43
  You're watching the small biz chat podcast, and we'll be right back.
• 15:52
  People always ask me, how can I become my own boss?
• 15:56
  With multiple features in the New York Times Forbes on ABC News, as America's number one
• 16:01
  small business expert, I know a thing or 2 about how to do it.
• 16:05
  Hi.
• 16:05
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady, and I've been coaching small business owners since 2008.
• 16:11
  That's right.
• 16:12
  I've been helping small business owners plan for success since the last recession, and I'm
• 16:17
  still here reaching over 3,000,000 small business owners a week online.
• 16:21
  I spent the last 12 years compiling exactly what I did to become my own boss.
• 16:27
  I even broke it down into a 6 step system in my best selling book, become your own boss in 12
• 16:32
  months.
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  Over a hundred thousand people in multiple languages around the world have this book.
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  And due to the pandemic, I know people need help.
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  If you're ready to transition successfully from being an employee into your own business, I'm
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  I'm giving away 1000 copies of becoming your own boss in 12 months for free.
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  If you've always wanted to start your dream business, let me give you a road map to
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  This offer will only be available while supplies last And when they're gone, they're
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  Click on the button to grab your copy today.
• 17:17
  Welcome back to the smallbiz chat live.
• 17:19
  I'm Melinda Emerson here with my guest, Eric Brown, who is dropping knowledge for us.
• 17:24
  We're gonna talk about how to be better in your business post pandemic.
• 17:29
  Eric, welcome back.
• 17:31
  Thank you.
• 17:32
  So talk to me about when you think about the pandemic.
• 17:36
  How do you think it has changed you personally the most?
• 17:41
  So not to repeat myself, but I really feel like I've become much more grounded.
• 17:47
  We all had a lot of time or more time which is interesting.
• 17:52
  I would sometimes go off.
• 17:53
  I just had some more time to do this or that.
• 17:55
  Then suddenly when I had it, I don't know if I use it in a wise way or not a wise way.
• 18:00
  But I feel like I feel like I we got our mojo on again and things that I haven't thought
• 18:07
  about for, like, a long time.
• 18:08
  I mean, we we we had a new website built and we're we're we're sort of doing some
• 18:14
  rebranding.
• 18:15
  And and, again, I have had to consciously pull myself back from that because I would go, no.
• 18:23
  Well, we've always used that color.
• 18:24
  And they're like, well, that's not the color you should be using today.
• 18:27
  And and if we are hiring professional creatives to to help us, we have to be cognizant of, let
• 18:34
  them do what they do, or at least consider what they do.
• 18:38
  And so that's that's been a big learning curve for me.
• 18:41
  Mhmm.
• 18:42
  You can teach old dogs new tricks.
• 18:45
  You should get a t shirt that says that.
• 18:47
  So I know that you are not formally educated, but I was curious as to whether or not you
• 18:54
  participated in any sort of like training programs or or mentorship programs or anything
• 18:59
  like that throughout your years that you've been in business.
• 19:02
  Yeah.
• 19:02
  So I have I've always been a very avid reader, so I've read, read, read.
• 19:07
  I've spent a lot of time and resources on personal development programs throughout my
• 19:14
  career.
• 19:14
  And then probably a really significant thing that helped me was I was in Arizona for about 3
• 19:20
  years doing some work out there, and I was able to spend a lot of time with Robert Kosaki.
• 19:26
  From Rich Dad Poor Dad.
• 19:27
  I was able to be on this radio show several times.
• 19:30
  I actually managed a resort for he and Kim.
• 19:35
  And so and that was, like, the first business book I ever read when I was a young guy.
• 19:40
  And so He certainly has a lot of different ideas.
• 19:43
  He isn't for everybody, but I learned a lot.
• 19:45
  I really learned a lot from the guy.
• 19:47
  That's interesting.
• 19:48
  So I know that you have this system that you have called the 6 top to do priorities each
• 19:56
  day.
• 19:56
  Talk to us about how you develop that and how you implement it.
• 19:59
  Well, actually, that came right out of your book from I don't recall the gentleman that
• 20:05
  he's he's quoted in your book, but it's just it sort of simplifies everything for me in that.
• 20:11
  I just need to pick 6 things that I need to work on.
• 20:15
  And I keep that list and it things move up and they move down and because it has to be fluid,
• 20:20
  but I feel like it's very easy to drift off take some very simple thing, billings.
• 20:27
  Right?
• 20:28
  If you're gonna get invoicing out on the first to 3rd, by the 20th, we have a problem.
• 20:35
  Sure.
• 20:35
  Sure.
• 20:36
  Problem.
• 20:37
  We wanna work on new problems, not the same old ones over and over.
• 20:41
  And so that helps keep me focused and you pick 6 things.
• 20:44
  And sometimes I don't get past the first one, but at least they're on there and you can, you
• 20:49
  know, move them around.
• 20:50
  Right.
• 20:51
  You can come back to the list.
• 20:52
  And then what is the best business advice you ever got?
• 20:55
  The best business advice.
• 20:56
  I would say that is to watch the money.
• 21:01
  I think I think that's a good I think that's as good advice as any I've ever heard Thank you so
• 21:07
  much, Eric, for being with me.
• 21:09
  Eric Brown, what is your favorite podcast?
• 21:12
  Gary V.
• 21:13
  Gary V.
• 21:14
  Alright.
• 21:15
  Alright, Eric.
• 21:15
  What's your favorite business at?
• 21:17
  Vazeda, the CRM tool.
• 21:20
  Say it again?
• 21:21
  Vazeda.
• 21:22
  V Acita.
• 21:23
  V Acita.
• 21:24
  Okay.
• 21:24
  I I couldn't hear if it was a v or not.
• 21:26
  So it's V Acita.
• 21:27
  I haven't heard of that one.
• 21:28
  I gotta look it up.
• 21:29
  Alright.
• 21:30
  Eric, what do you got for me?
• 21:31
  Favorite old school marketing tip.
• 21:33
  Answer the phone.
• 21:36
  That's true.
• 21:36
  Nobody does that anymore.
• 21:38
  Answer the phone.
• 21:39
  Favorite old school marketing tip.
• 21:41
  Go out and meet someone in person.
• 21:43
  I'm big on that even though I'm not that old, but I I'm still big on in person and COVID was
• 21:48
  hard for me.
• 21:49
  Yeah.
• 21:50
  Yeah.
• 21:51
  You mean, if you've been vaccinated, though, right?
• 21:54
  You know, I have.
• 21:55
  Do not.
• 21:56
  I know what?
• 21:56
  I saw you at the vaccine clinic.
• 21:58
  I know you've been vaccinated.
• 21:59
  Alright.
• 22:00
  So alright.
• 22:02
  What is the best business book you've ever read.
• 22:06
  Best business book ever.
• 22:08
  Napoleon Hill, the law of success.
• 22:10
  Alright.
• 22:11
  Very good one.
• 22:12
  Very good one.
• 22:13
  Thank you all for joining me for this episode of the small biz chat podcast.
• 22:17
  If you want more information about how to start and grow a business, Head over to small biz
• 22:21
  lady university.
• 22:22
  I'm sure I got a course over there that can hook you up and get you where you wanna go.
• 22:26
  Thank you all so much.
• 22:27
  The mission of small biz chat is to end small business failure.
• 22:31
  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady.
• 22:33
  I wanna leave you with this.
• 22:34
  You never lose in business.
• 22:36
  Either you win or you learn.
• 22:38
  God bless everybody.
• 22:39
  Good night.
• 22:42
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 22:47
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 22:54
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.