Latest / Story Scaling / Faith Over Fear: Scaling Your Brand Authentically with Henry Washington
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Story Scaling by Podcastvideos.com, where creators share the truth behind the content, the grind, and the growth.
- 0:10SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and family, welcome back.
- 0:13SPEAKER_01: I am Bang of Podcastvideos.com.
- 0:16SPEAKER_01: And this is Story Scaling.
- 0:17SPEAKER_01: If you haven't already, please like, subscribe, share with your friends.
- 0:21SPEAKER_01: And I want to thank you all for just coming along on this journey.
- 0:25SPEAKER_01: I would not be able to have these dialogues.
- 0:27SPEAKER_01: I would not be able to even do what I'm doing if it wasn't for you.
- 0:29SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
- 0:30SPEAKER_01: And if there's anybody that you want to see, any topics that you want to discuss, make sure that you let me know.
- 0:36SPEAKER_01: Today feels special.
- 0:37SPEAKER_01: It feels like uh we, me, I feel like this community, specifically my podcast family, have watched and seen you for a long time.
- 0:48SPEAKER_01: And you've you've come in the studio and we've been able to celebrate you, you know, from afar.
- 0:53SPEAKER_01: So I want to first of all thank you for coming.
- 0:56SPEAKER_01: Let the people know who you are.
- 0:57SPEAKER_00: I am Henry Washington.
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: I'm a real estate investor.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: Uh I own a company called Independence Realty Group.
- 1:03SPEAKER_00: That's typically where I do my my investing out of.
- 1:06SPEAKER_00: But I just a real estate guy, man.
- 1:09SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love it.
- 1:10SPEAKER_01: I love it.
- 1:10SPEAKER_01: Man, so I got a bio that I want to read.
- 1:13SPEAKER_01: And this is what the streets are saying about it.
- 1:15SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
- 1:16SPEAKER_01: This is this is what the people are saying.
- 1:18SPEAKER_01: This is what the kids are talking about.
- 1:19SPEAKER_01: This is what the kids is talking about when it comes to Henry Washington, man.
- 1:22SPEAKER_01: It says, today's guest is Henry Washington, an entrepreneur who turned a single life-changing moment of clarity into the blueprint for financial freedom and a massive national platform.
- 1:33SPEAKER_01: Just a few years ago, Henry wasn't the face of real estate investing.
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: He was working a standard corporate job when a sudden realization about his family's financial future forced him to draw a line in the sand completely and rewrite his reality.
- 1:45SPEAKER_01: Fast forward to today, he is a powerhouse in the real estate world, a respected author, and a leading voice on bigger pockets, the largest real estate investing platform on the planet.
- 1:55SPEAKER_01: But what makes Henry the perfect guest for story scaling isn't just the impressive portfolio of properties he's built right here in Northwest Arkansas.
- 2:02SPEAKER_01: It's how he leveraged his personal brand through his education platforms you at the closing table.
- 2:08SPEAKER_01: He scaled his origin story into a massive community designed to help others build true generational love.
- 2:13SPEAKER_01: He has absolute proof that when you combine raw authenticity, real-world receipts, and a genuine desire to serve others, your audience will find you.
- 2:23SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, Henry Washington.
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: That is probably the single greatest introductions last bio I've had to date.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: That was pretty cool, man.
- 2:34SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
- 2:36SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
- 2:36SPEAKER_01: That's you, bro.
- 2:37SPEAKER_01: I didn't have to do much, like I didn't have to put no season in anything.
- 2:39SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, when when you when you hear this, and this is an abbreviated bio, I want to be very clear.
- 2:46SPEAKER_01: Like, I could have went on and on and on, but but when you hear this, like what sticks out most to you?
- 2:53SPEAKER_00: Oh man, a lot.
- 2:56SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know.
- 2:59SPEAKER_00: This is all just the culmination of how my parents raised me.
- 3:06SPEAKER_00: Um and the culmination of my belief and faith in God, yeah.
- 3:13SPEAKER_00: Um to be able to be in the the position that I'm in.
- 3:19SPEAKER_00: Um I had no plans for this, as if this wasn't a partisan blueprint.
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: Um but after I did my very first real estate deal just for for those who don't know the whole story.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: Like I had a panic attack about not being able to be financially sound and and to be able to afford a life for my family, my new family at the time.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: To 90 days later, I I owned my first real estate property.
- 3:54SPEAKER_00: You know, I knew nothing about real estate.
- 3:55SPEAKER_00: I didn't have any money, I didn't have great credit, and was able to buy a house, rent that house out, and have that house pay for itself and then pay us a little bit of money.
- 4:04SPEAKER_00: And then I had access to like a lot of credit on that house for like 30 grand.
- 4:10SPEAKER_00: And so to go from panicking about how to take care of my family financially to uh owning an asset that pays for itself, that pays me, and access to$30,000 to be able to continue to grow that portfolio.
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: I I remember I remember that moment when we closed on the line of credit.
- 4:33SPEAKER_00: I just remember feeling an overwhelming sense of responsibility.
- 4:39SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, I was happy, yes, I was grateful, but like that wasn't the feeling I felt in the moment.
- 4:45SPEAKER_00: Like the felt the feeling I felt in the moment was like there's no way that God opened all these doors just for me to figure out how to make money.
- 4:57SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not I just don't believe that.
- 5:00SPEAKER_00: Like I truly felt like there's got to be other people who are in a worse financial position than I was in, who have no idea that they're so much closer to being able to fix that issue, solve their problem than they know.
- 5:16SPEAKER_00: They just so I just felt like I was led down this path so that I could show other people that it's possible for them.
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: So, like, that's the same day I started my social media account.
- 5:29SPEAKER_00: Because in my brain at the time, the only thing I could think was like, I don't know how to show anybody what I'm doing.
- 5:35SPEAKER_00: And I'm I wasn't a professional share at that time.
- 5:38SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'll just share my journey so that people can see what I'm doing, and maybe they'll try to do it for themselves.
- 5:47SPEAKER_00: So that's when I started my social media account, and I was just posting pictures about properties I was buying, just sharing information about what I was doing.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: Like I wasn't trying to teach anybody, sure, just sharing what I was doing so that it would provide some level of exposure to like the three people that followed me.
- 6:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
- 6:06SPEAKER_00: And uh oh no, man, I just as I continued to do that, this things continued to escalate.
- 6:12SPEAKER_00: I didn't plan for any of this, but to answer your question, it's uh when I hear that bio, I just think like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
- 6:26SPEAKER_00: Like I feel like God exposed me to real estate, showed me there's a path because I'm supposed to show other people.
- 6:32SPEAKER_00: And the more I do that, the more opportunities just seem to open up to me.
- 6:38SPEAKER_00: And so um, I think that's what I hear.
- 6:41SPEAKER_00: I just hear like we're going and supposed to go like that there, but it's working out.
- 6:47SPEAKER_01: You you have a, I mean, extremely well said, by the way, you have a very groundedness to yourself.
- 6:53SPEAKER_01: It's always been there.
- 6:55SPEAKER_01: Whether I encounter you in person, even before I knew you, whether I'm looking at your social media, which one of the hardest things I think is for people who are really good online to translate that to in person, that's fair, or people who are really good in person to translate that to online, but you have a way of remaining, like I said, just grounded and and humble and personal.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like I feel like you're a human, which which that's the greatest compliment I could give somebody in 2026.
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: Like, that's fair.
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: I feel like you're a real person.
- 7:27SPEAKER_01: So, how how how where does that come from?
- 7:31SPEAKER_01: Like, has that has that always been there?
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: Did you have to work on that?
- 7:33SPEAKER_01: Like, where does that come from?
- 7:35SPEAKER_00: No.
- 7:35SPEAKER_00: Um, I think there's a lot to that answer.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: Um, first of all, I mean, you know this better than any of mine.
- 7:42SPEAKER_00: It it's a skill to be able to be comfortable and confident in front of a camera.
- 7:47SPEAKER_00: That's right.
- 7:48SPEAKER_00: Um, like, no matter how comfortable and confident you are in real life, somebody puts a camera on you, everything's different, it just goes out the window.
- 7:54SPEAKER_00: You forget how to talk, you forget what's all how to look, you forget like what to do with your hands.
- 7:59SPEAKER_00: Like it just it's so unnatural.
- 8:01SPEAKER_00: So that's a learned skill that I've learned over time.
- 8:04SPEAKER_00: But in terms of like just being grounded, I a lot of that had came, you know, a lot of it I attribute to um uh my wife and uh and just her faith, trust, and honesty with me.
- 8:22SPEAKER_00: Like I was pretty insecure um prior to getting married.
- 8:30SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, traumas.
- 8:33SPEAKER_00: Traumas, trauma, right.
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: We all got it right, and so um there was a lot of insecurities I had just as a as a person, uh as a man, uh, that she really helped shed a light on and worked through.
- 8:48SPEAKER_00: Um and uh you know, a lot of people, a lot of women that I dated prior to dating her would kind of see some of those insecurities and just write me off.
- 9:01SPEAKER_00: Um but she helped me work through them, she helped me see um parts of me and and things that that I did that uh it gave me grace about it.
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: Right, like so if I would lash out at her because of some insecurity that I had, you know, she would kind of give me the grace and just kind of tell me, hey, like I'm not your enemy.
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: So maybe how you're picturing this isn't truly the intention and just thinking things through things differently.
- 9:30SPEAKER_00: And just that growth over the years has allowed me to just be more unapologetically myself, yeah, and be okay being unapologetically.
- 9:38SPEAKER_01: Probably some of the first time you ever heard some of that stuff, like, oh wait, you ain't my enemy.
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: Right, yeah.
- 9:43SPEAKER_00: No, it's true.
- 9:44SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like it's just uh right, wrong, or indifferent.
- 9:47SPEAKER_00: We all just carry on traits from our parents.
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: Some are great traits and some aren't.
- 9:52SPEAKER_00: And uh you have to learn to unlearn some of those things.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: Uh and you have to learn to to keep some of the great things as a as a part of you.
- 10:01SPEAKER_00: And and so I would say just like I'm confidently who I am today.
- 10:08SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
- 10:08SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, and because of how she helped kind of shed a light on some of the things, and I just think I'm a better person now because of her.
- 10:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 10:23SPEAKER_01: Shout out to the wife and you know what I'm saying.
- 10:25SPEAKER_01: Shout out to the Mrs.
- 10:26SPEAKER_01: Washington out there.
- 10:27SPEAKER_01: Man, tell me about your upbringing.
- 10:28SPEAKER_01: Like, where are you from?
- 10:30SPEAKER_01: Where you know, you talk about how we are a combination of our parents, and you know, like where do you come from?
- 10:36SPEAKER_01: How did you how'd you get here?
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
- 10:40SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I I got here, everybody gets here.
- 10:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, okay.
- 10:44SPEAKER_00: But um uh so I'm from Bakersfield, California.
- 10:50SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 10:50SPEAKER_00: Um California is a cool state.
- 10:55SPEAKER_00: Bakersfield, California is not like the rest of California.
- 11:00SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 11:01SPEAKER_00: I I tell people Bakersfield, California is like the Arkansas of California.
- 11:05SPEAKER_00: It's very blue-collar.
- 11:07SPEAKER_00: It's very, it's a red dot in the middle of a blue state.
- 11:10SPEAKER_00: Like um, it just doesn't fit the rest of the California motif.
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: Lots of, you know, hardworking folks, you know, oil field workers and farmers and agriculture.
- 11:24SPEAKER_00: It's a wow, very blue-collar community.
- 11:26SPEAKER_00: Geographically where?
- 11:27SPEAKER_00: All right.
- 11:28SPEAKER_00: Uh we like to say we're from Southern California, okay.
- 11:31SPEAKER_00: But if you look at the map of California, we're just below the center.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's two hours north of LA.
- 11:40SPEAKER_01: Okay, right on us.
- 11:41SPEAKER_00: Um four hours south of Sacramento.
- 11:44SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
- 11:45SPEAKER_00: Um, but um uh my father was a high school art teacher, uh, and my mother was the head of waste management for Kern County.
- 11:58SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 11:58SPEAKER_00: County I'm from.
- 12:00SPEAKER_00: Uh and so uh both college educated, you know, both the first and their families to be college educated.
- 12:07SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
- 12:08SPEAKER_00: Um so they really stressed the value of education, especially in a place like Bakersfield, where like if you're gonna make a lot of money in Bakersfield, you either are gonna go work in the oil fields and work your tail off, or you gotta have a degree.
- 12:24SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 12:24SPEAKER_00: Um and so they were, and this was back when degrees were more important.
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: They're they're still important, right?
- 12:31SPEAKER_00: They're just not asking.
- 12:32SPEAKER_00: People see value in people now outside of a degree.
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: That's right.
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: Back then, 90s, 2000s, yeah.
- 12:38SPEAKER_00: You didn't have a degree, people thought you were dumb.
- 12:39SPEAKER_00: They were like you.
- 12:40SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they didn't want to talk to you.
- 12:42SPEAKER_00: Um, which obviously people understand that's not the case.
- 12:45SPEAKER_00: And so um, and just people wouldn't give you an opportunity for it.
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: That's right if you didn't have a degree.
- 12:50SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 12:50SPEAKER_00: And so uh my parents were very focused on doing the traditional go to school, get a degree, get a job, find a corporate ladder.
- 12:59SPEAKER_00: And so I was just hammered into my sister and I, since we can remember.
- 13:05SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that's what I did.
- 13:09SPEAKER_00: Um, but there were things that happened.
- 13:11SPEAKER_00: So again, my mother, a black woman, very blue-collar, white town, was able to get a very prominent role that no black woman ever had before.
- 13:26SPEAKER_00: Um so I got to see like the challenges she went through from far.
- 13:29SPEAKER_00: Like she shielded me from a lot of shit, but I could still see that it was hard for her to get to where she got to.
- 13:35SPEAKER_00: So I kind of saw that perseverance in her because uh everything around her didn't want her to be where she was.
- 13:44SPEAKER_00: But she was gonna get there no matter what.
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: I love that.
- 13:47SPEAKER_00: Um my father, I saw him teach and nurture people, you know, and I would see, I would hear you know, uh he taught for so long that, you know, people would come up to me and say, Man, your dad was the best teacher I had.
- 14:04SPEAKER_00: And it was art.
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't like, you know, people don't think of it as some core skill, but he wasn't teaching art, he was teaching life art.
- 14:12SPEAKER_00: And so he impacted people in ways that other teachers didn't get a chance to impact people because science is not you can't it's harder to touch people, like in a in a in a way, teaching math or science than teaching art.
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: And so um I would see grown man come up to me and be like, Man, your dad was the best teacher I ever had, and now he's teaching you know my kids.
- 14:35SPEAKER_00: And and that that was cool to see, but my father was also an entrepreneur.
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: He um teachers don't make much money to this day.
- 14:46SPEAKER_00: From why back then salaries are even lower.
- 14:48SPEAKER_00: So he always had some side hustle or something to make extra money.
- 14:53SPEAKER_00: And so like he did everything, he used to push around an ice cream cart and walk around the parks in the summertime.
- 14:59SPEAKER_00: It gets hot in Vegas, it was like the desert.
- 15:01SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 15:01SPEAKER_00: So in the summertime, he would go, he bought this ice cream cart, and he would uh take it in his truck down to the parks, and he would just walk through the parks and sell uh ice cream out of his little pushcart.
- 15:13SPEAKER_00: He owned an arcade back in the day.
- 15:17SPEAKER_00: Because you I you look pretty young, you've probably never been to an arcade.
- 15:20SPEAKER_00: No, I know we used to have to go to a place to play video games.
- 15:24SPEAKER_00: Pac-Man got direct cards.
- 15:26SPEAKER_00: You didn't need to just be able to play a map, right?
- 15:28SPEAKER_00: You had to go to a place.
- 15:29SPEAKER_00: I'm outside.
- 15:31SPEAKER_01: I was outside.
- 15:32SPEAKER_00: I was outside.
- 15:33SPEAKER_00: So he owned an arcade.
- 15:35SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, and then um uh he had several other businesses, but the main one was he he had a barbecue restaurant, so he started a barbecue restaurant when I was in middle school.
- 15:46SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
- 15:46SPEAKER_00: Uh serial entrepreneurial.
- 15:49SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and he ran that for 10 years.
- 15:51SPEAKER_00: My father never talked to me about entrepreneurship.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: Same.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: Like he was never like, hey, this is what I'm doing.
- 15:58SPEAKER_00: This is how you set up your LLC, this is how you do your taxes.
- 16:01SPEAKER_00: Like, never talked about it.
- 16:02SPEAKER_01: Why do you think that was?
- 16:03SPEAKER_00: Because he wanted me to get a degree and go the corporate.
- 16:07SPEAKER_00: He didn't want me to have to hustle on the side.
- 16:09SPEAKER_00: Like he like that generation, that boomer generation, just saw value in education and corporate structure, right?
- 16:16SPEAKER_00: Like that equaled success.
- 16:18SPEAKER_00: Uh and I get that.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: Like, and and it does for a lot of people, but that's what he wanted to do.
- 16:25SPEAKER_00: He didn't want me to work as hard as he had to work.
- 16:28SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 16:29SPEAKER_00: But, you know, through osmosis, right?
- 16:33SPEAKER_00: I saw a lot of the lessons.
- 16:34SPEAKER_00: I saw what he was doing.
- 16:36SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I didn't learn a lot of the lessons, like he didn't teach me those things, but my seeing him go through it gave me a sense of confidence.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: And like when I decided I wanted to start a real estate investment business, I never thought, and I wonder if I can do that.
- 16:52SPEAKER_00: Like it was never a challenge for me to a fear because I saw my dad do so many side businesses.
- 16:59SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, you just you just start science do, right?
- 17:02SPEAKER_00: Like, I just I had that confidence.
- 17:05SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't realize this until well after.
- 17:07SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of people, as I started to teach people how to do this, I just saw a lot of fear in people starting in business.
- 17:12SPEAKER_00: And I was like, well, you're not scared of.
- 17:14SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, wait a minute.
- 17:15SPEAKER_01: Like, they probably just you know that that's profound.
- 17:18SPEAKER_01: That's profound.
- 17:19SPEAKER_01: I I got a friend of mine who, black lady in Atlanta, she has an entertainment company.
- 17:23SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she says, I grew up like with no point of reference of something that I couldn't do.
- 17:27SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I saw black scientists, I saw black doctors, I saw black, like, and so I just didn't think I couldn't, you know what I mean?
- 17:33SPEAKER_01: And and so for you, I guess it makes sense the other way of like you you just didn't think that you couldn't do it.
- 17:38SPEAKER_01: Like you was like, I'm just gonna figure it out.
- 17:39SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do it all the time.
- 17:40SPEAKER_00: Like you says, if you wanted extra money, you said I'll just go do a thing and I'll make some extra money.
- 17:45SPEAKER_00: So I didn't, it wasn't like having a side hustle was never like a fear of mine.
- 17:49SPEAKER_00: I was like, I just figured it out.
- 17:51SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 17:51SPEAKER_00: Um well that's true because I've learned also just in education with real estate.
- 17:57SPEAKER_00: I think the main lesson that we're talking about is like exposure is important.
- 18:02SPEAKER_00: And if you boil that down even more, like who you choose to spend your time around lets you know what's possible.
- 18:09SPEAKER_00: And so that's what Say that again.
- 18:12SPEAKER_01: This is a clip.
- 18:14SPEAKER_01: Clip this.
- 18:14SPEAKER_01: Hey, clip this more.
- 18:16SPEAKER_01: Say that again.
- 18:17SPEAKER_00: Who you choose to be around lets you know what's possible.
- 18:21SPEAKER_00: Like, um, so in the real estate world, most people start by buying a single family home.
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: That's how they get started.
- 18:29SPEAKER_00: And then they move on, maybe they'll buy a duplex or a triplex, small multifamily, and then after they get their reps in, they'll go and they'll buy, you know, maybe they'll move into large multifamily, right?
- 18:38SPEAKER_00: Big apartment building, because that's a big asset.
- 18:42SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 18:42SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of money.
- 18:43SPEAKER_00: It's risky, right?
- 18:45SPEAKER_00: Um, when I kind of realized this, I had this epiphany that that's that's what this is.
- 18:51SPEAKER_00: I was interviewing a guy for the Bigger Pockets podcast.
- 18:55SPEAKER_00: His very first real estate deal, he bought a 200 and some unit apartment building.
- 19:00SPEAKER_00: And we were just interviewing him.
- 19:02SPEAKER_00: And I remember we asked him, I was like, Well, what what made you like do that first?
- 19:06SPEAKER_00: Like you build up to that.
- 19:09SPEAKER_00: Like, how did you like what made you even think that that was like the route you should go?
- 19:13SPEAKER_00: And he was like, Honestly, it's like all my friends buy large apartment buildings.
- 19:19SPEAKER_00: That's just what they do.
- 19:20SPEAKER_00: Because like, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to do that.
- 19:24SPEAKER_00: And that's what it like dawned on me.
- 19:26SPEAKER_00: And you're like, like, exposure.
- 19:27SPEAKER_00: Like, you're right.
- 19:28SPEAKER_00: Who you're around, like if everybody you're around is doing a thing, you're probably gonna do that thing, right?
- 19:34SPEAKER_00: And people say this all the time with like fitness and health.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: Like, everybody around you is out of shape, you're probably gonna be out of shape.
- 19:39SPEAKER_00: If everybody around you is running marathons, you're probably gonna run a marathon, right?
- 19:44SPEAKER_00: Like, and I was like, it's true.
- 19:46SPEAKER_00: That's why my parents were so heavy on like cared, like they cared heavily about who my friends were and my friends were doing and what they were into and who their parents were.
- 19:55SPEAKER_00: And when I was growing up, I just thought it was nosy, but it wasn't nosy.
- 19:58SPEAKER_00: It was like they knew that whoever I spent the most time around, that's the stuff I was gonna be getting into.
- 20:03SPEAKER_00: So they were very careful about who they allowed me to spend time around.
- 20:06SPEAKER_00: It's just oh I get it now.
- 20:08SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I get it now.
- 20:10SPEAKER_00: So that's what I tell my students who I'm teaching how to invest in real estate.
- 20:15SPEAKER_00: Like, if the five people you spend the most time around, none of them are doing real estate, it's gonna be a whole lot harder for you to do this business because they're gonna think you're crazy.
- 20:26SPEAKER_00: They're gonna think you can't do this, and they're gonna push all their fears onto you.
- 20:28SPEAKER_00: But if those five people you spend the most time around are out here doing deals and growing a real estate business, they're gonna be like, hey, come on, this is what we need to be focused on.
- 20:36SPEAKER_00: Like, you're gonna, it'll make it so much easier for you to do things that you don't think you can do because everybody else around you is doing it.
- 20:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I gotta let that breathe, bro.
- 20:46SPEAKER_01: That gotta sit, I just gotta sizzle a little bit.
- 20:49SPEAKER_01: They say, uh, is it um if you show me your file poster screen, that'll tell you where you'll be.
- 20:54SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
- 20:54SPEAKER_01: It's the same thing.
- 20:55SPEAKER_01: Very, very same thing, yeah.
- 20:56SPEAKER_01: So you start to gradually build, you know, and and it's cool because when did you start your social media?
- 21:02SPEAKER_01: Like, when did you say you started?
- 21:03SPEAKER_01: Even just showing what you were buying 2017?
- 21:05SPEAKER_01: We're talking almost a decade.
- 21:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 21:07SPEAKER_01: And so at that time, you were doing what they are now saying you should do.
- 21:11SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, I I think social media has gone through a weird phase because at first it was like you need to show the most polished yeah, yeah, it needs to be your portfolio, like you can't, it need to be perfect, yeah, and then we did that for a while, and everybody got messed up because it's like, wait a second, now we expect perfection and we don't see the and so now it's moving more towards being vulnerable and being open and like, yeah, I tried this deal, it didn't work out, we're gonna try again.
- 21:33SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so I feel like you had a level of transparency even back then where you were just bringing people along in the journey, and so now you fast forward to, like I said, you've grown to the one of the most credible voices in the space, is what I would consider, you know, and that's not easy, obviously.
- 21:51SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 21:52SPEAKER_01: Like, so so talk about that, like talk about the journey from not even knowing what you're doing, like you said.
- 21:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm gonna post this for three people, yeah, right.
- 22:00SPEAKER_01: And now it's hundreds of thousands.
- 22:02SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 22:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a whole lot more than three things.
- 22:04SPEAKER_01: What did you learn?
- 22:05SPEAKER_01: What did that teach you?
- 22:05SPEAKER_01: How did you Yeah?
- 22:07SPEAKER_00: Um so again, I started sharing my journey just because I wanted to provide people exposure to something that they may not understand.
- 22:16SPEAKER_00: I still do that.
- 22:18SPEAKER_00: I just do it from a more educational standpoint, man.
- 22:21SPEAKER_00: I think I think if you're going to talk about a subject, if you don't have experience in that subject, I feel like it's totally fair to talk about it.
- 22:30SPEAKER_00: But you need to talk about it from a perspective of like, I'm sharing with you what I'm doing.
- 22:34SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you you have to go do what I'm doing.
- 22:36SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you what I'm doing is the right thing to do.
- 22:39SPEAKER_00: I'm just sharing my journey.
- 22:40SPEAKER_00: And I think anybody who's doing something that they think is of value should share their journey.
- 22:46SPEAKER_00: But you just have to be authentic with it.
- 22:47SPEAKER_00: You share the wins, share the losses, like so that people can truly see what you're doing.
- 22:52SPEAKER_00: Then at some point, if you do a thing long enough, you become, you know, an air quotes expert in that thing.
- 22:58SPEAKER_00: And then you can pivot to like teaching once you have some credibility, once you have some, some, some notches in your belt, right?
- 23:05SPEAKER_00: Um, then you can educate.
- 23:08SPEAKER_00: So um I think people who are probably genuinely good people uh who should be sharing their journey probably don't because they don't feel like they're an expert or they're scared of what people might say about what they're doing.
- 23:23SPEAKER_00: And then I feel like there's people who probably shouldn't be sharing a damn thing about what they're doing, get up on a platform and and and share their experience to try to teach people.
- 23:34SPEAKER_00: Um what I learned through that is like you can tell.
- 23:40SPEAKER_00: Like when you see someone who's not genuine or doesn't feel genuine, you feel it.
- 23:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 23:48SPEAKER_00: Um and so I've just always wanted to share my content from a space of like I'm just gonna be genuine.
- 23:58SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna be me.
- 24:00SPEAKER_00: And you know, I share wins, share losses.
- 24:03SPEAKER_00: Um real estate.
- 24:06SPEAKER_00: You know, it's if they say they are, they're lying to you.
- 24:10SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that that's what makes it easier for me to stay consistent.
- 24:15SPEAKER_00: Um, do I have like because the algorithm changes and what people want changes based on a million things, right?
- 24:24SPEAKER_00: You know, which I could talk about forever.
- 24:25SPEAKER_00: But I think COVID changed the content gap.
- 24:28SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then that flooded the market with creators because everybody was at home board, and then what people expected out of content has just evolved because of that.
- 24:39SPEAKER_00: And so now, like, yeah, there's a formula you can follow to get you more likes and views, and and that's awesome.
- 24:46SPEAKER_00: But for me, I just kind of continue to share my way.
- 24:52SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that means I get, you know, a couple thousand views, and sometimes it means I get, you know, 50,000.
- 24:58SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 24:59SPEAKER_00: Really, that's not the most important thing to me.
- 25:02SPEAKER_00: The most important thing to me is that I just continue to share what I'm doing, continue to show people that this is something that they can do, and uh have us have a place out there in the ethos where I do that for free right now.
- 25:14SPEAKER_00: That's Instagram.
- 25:16SPEAKER_01: You know, there's something that you do that I think in and of itself is is noteworthy.
- 25:22SPEAKER_01: First thing is you already knew your why.
- 25:25SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 25:25SPEAKER_01: So you didn't get into this like trying to be the biggest or trying to be the most credible.
- 25:30SPEAKER_01: Like you literally were like, okay, I've been given some wisdom, some insight, some knowledge.
- 25:34SPEAKER_01: I want to put that back out there.
- 25:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 25:37SPEAKER_01: And then I didn't realize this, but it's hard for people to be genuine, especially when you got the camera on.
- 25:42SPEAKER_01: It even when you when you pull this out and it's like, oh now all of a sudden I gotta, yeah, hey, you got like you got, you know what I'm saying?
- 25:49SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, what's up?
- 25:51SPEAKER_01: You you gotta switch it, you know what I mean?
- 25:53SPEAKER_01: And so, so for you, even that genuineness is now something that people are having to relearn how to be genuine.
- 26:00SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 26:00SPEAKER_01: And so I guess what I'm asking for you is just insight or what would your perspective be on?
- 26:07SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you even define that that why that everything flows back forward?
- 26:11SPEAKER_01: For you, it's not make or break if the video gets 5,000 views.
- 26:15SPEAKER_01: It's not make or break if it gets 50,000 because that really ain't why you're doing it.
- 26:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the point is just to share it with people.
- 26:21SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whoever's supposed to see it is gonna see it.
- 26:23SPEAKER_00: Like, I leave that up to God.
- 26:25SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 26:25SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm gonna put it out there.
- 26:27SPEAKER_00: Whoever's supposed to see it is gonna see it.
- 26:29SPEAKER_00: Do I want more views on videos?
- 26:31SPEAKER_00: Sure.
- 26:31SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
- 26:33SPEAKER_00: I want to reach as many people as possible, but I'm not chasing that.
- 26:36SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 26:37SPEAKER_00: Um, and if I got if it tomorrow they change the algorithm and you know, I could only get two views per video, I'm still gonna put the videos out because we feel like that's what I'm supposed to do.
- 26:49SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I would think about it from this perspective.
- 26:52SPEAKER_00: If you're considering making content, think about, I mean, be honest with yourself.
- 26:57SPEAKER_00: Why do you want to make content?
- 26:59SPEAKER_00: Like, ask yourself, because it's not fun.
- 27:01SPEAKER_00: Like, who I don't know who like let me say it differently.
- 27:08SPEAKER_00: Doing it consistently is work, is work, it's not working fun.
- 27:12SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right, like doing a couple videos here and there, yeah, you can have a great time with it.
- 27:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, super fun, but you're not gonna grow.
- 27:19SPEAKER_01: It's just so like and talk about that because the level that you do it specifically, yeah, part of the interjection, like it is work.
- 27:26SPEAKER_01: Like you are posting daily, multiple times a day, yeah, different types of content.
- 27:31SPEAKER_01: Like, so so even talk about that.
- 27:33SPEAKER_01: Like, people look at Henry Washington and it's like, oh, you probably just did this today, and like you're just throwing some stuff out.
- 27:38SPEAKER_00: Like, talk about the the part that we don't really see.
- 27:41SPEAKER_00: Consistency on social media is hard, it's work.
- 27:44SPEAKER_00: Like, you if you want your videos to do well, there's research that has to happen.
- 27:49SPEAKER_00: You have to understand what what questions your audience is asking, and then like how can you answer those questions?
- 27:55SPEAKER_00: But how can you do it in your way, not the same way somebody else does it?
- 27:58SPEAKER_00: Because just because somebody else does it one way, like if I try that same thing, it may not hit the same way.
- 28:03SPEAKER_00: I'm not that person.
- 28:04SPEAKER_00: So, how do you give your audience what they're asking for in a way that's genuinely you?
- 28:10SPEAKER_00: And how do you do it consistently day in and day out?
- 28:12SPEAKER_00: Like, that's work.
- 28:13SPEAKER_01: How do you know who your audience is?
- 28:15SPEAKER_01: How do you know what they want?
- 28:16SPEAKER_00: Like even before you get to, you know what I mean?
- 28:19SPEAKER_00: Work.
- 28:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 28:19SPEAKER_00: So like if you really want to get into this space, you have to ask yourself why you're doing it.
- 28:24SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 28:24SPEAKER_00: Some people do it because of why I'm doing it, right?
- 28:27SPEAKER_00: Because they feel responsible.
- 28:29SPEAKER_00: They feel like they're supposed to help people.
- 28:31SPEAKER_00: Some people do it because it brings in value to their business, right?
- 28:34SPEAKER_00: Maybe it brings them customers, maybe it brings them money that they can use of uh, you know, because other real estate investors create content because it creates uh brand awareness, and then people want to give them money to invest.
- 28:48SPEAKER_00: So, like, be honest.
- 28:49SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
- 28:50SPEAKER_00: I have selfish wants.
- 28:52SPEAKER_00: Like, you should good, just be honest with yourself.
- 28:54SPEAKER_00: And then once you understand that why, then like think about how much are you willing to sacrifice in order for you to reach that why, right?
- 29:04SPEAKER_00: Because it's gonna take time, it's gonna take effort.
- 29:08SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to, like, when I like unfortunately for enough, people can't see, but my content manager is sitting right here in the room with me.
- 29:15SPEAKER_00: Before I had her, I had to do it all.
- 29:17SPEAKER_00: And it was like, you know, I'm creating a I'm creating a video, right, in my house, and you know, my wife is there, and my kids are there, and they might need something in that moment.
- 29:27SPEAKER_00: And like you're having to sacrifice some of those things, time with the family.
- 29:31SPEAKER_00: Um and so like ask yourself, like, well, you know, how much am I willing to give up for this?
- 29:38SPEAKER_00: Like, is it that important before you dive into creating content?
- 29:41SPEAKER_00: Because the biggest benefit I can tell you from social media is like just consistency.
- 29:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the best way to build a brand is that like just need to be in people's face all the time.
- 29:51SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 29:51SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you're not going to be consistent, or if your why is simply just, you know, I want people to see me, it's not gonna work for you.
- 30:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
- 30:03SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be bigger than that.
- 30:04SPEAKER_00: It's gotta have some motivation outside of just I want to be popular.
- 30:10SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 30:11SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's okay if your motivation is I want to make money.
- 30:16SPEAKER_00: I would just dive into what that means.
- 30:17SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you want to make money?
- 30:18SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 30:19SPEAKER_00: Like, do you want to generate income that you can use in your investing business?
- 30:23SPEAKER_00: Partner with people, like that's a cool want.
- 30:27SPEAKER_00: Then yeah, then maybe you don't have to be as consistent, but it just will help you understand like how much time and effort you need to put in.
- 30:34SPEAKER_00: But I tell people who ask me all the time, man, hey, I want to I want to teach people how to do real estate.
- 30:39SPEAKER_00: And so I want to start with content, and I would tell you, we probably shouldn't.
- 30:44SPEAKER_00: You probably shouldn't like I don't make content online because I want to make money as a real estate coach.
- 30:51SPEAKER_00: I make content online because I want to help people.
- 30:55SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 30:56SPEAKER_00: And because I want to help people and they see my content and the value I bring for free, there's gonna be a subset of those people who see the content that I produce for free, and they're gonna come to you and they're gonna say, How do I learn more from you?
- 31:09SPEAKER_00: Why?
- 31:09SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 31:10SPEAKER_00: And then I have something for them that is more structured that they can learn from me, but there's a paywall, it's gonna cost you money, right?
- 31:17SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 31:17SPEAKER_00: Um and so there's always a subset of people who see what you put out for free and they want to learn more from you.
- 31:25SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have something for them, they're gonna go spend money somewhere else and give it to them.
- 31:29SPEAKER_00: So I think if you're gonna teach people, you've got to genuinely want to do it for free.
- 31:34SPEAKER_00: Like if I stopped having paid coaching tomorrow, I would still put out the information for free.
- 31:39SPEAKER_00: What I do on social media is not because I make money as a coach, I make money as a coach because I put the information out on social media.
- 31:47SPEAKER_01: Well, and you did it before you were making money.
- 31:49SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 31:49SPEAKER_01: So we can we can vouch for you, you know what I mean?
- 31:52SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, how do you know when you are in that that place of now you can teach?
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, and you talk about you need some notches on your belly because now everybody's an expert.
- 32:02SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and like you said, uh sometimes, literally, other than that intuitive, something feels funny, yeah, you don't know.
- 32:09SPEAKER_01: I mean, they got the lights and the Rolls Royce and they got the they got the rinse, yeah, but they're they're showing us this image and they're showing us, and so yeah, you know, whether that comes from discerning what we're watching, or for you, you know, maybe you have been doing music for 10 years and you got something to say, but you were afraid, you know what I'm saying?
- 32:30SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you've been doing music for 10 days and now you think you're the guru.
- 32:33SPEAKER_01: Like for you, what would you say?
- 32:35SPEAKER_00: How do you know when real estate is interesting because there's no like as an investor, there's no like certification.
- 32:41SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like, hey, I am now uh I am now an investor because as long as you do a deal, you're an investor.
- 32:48SPEAKER_00: And so I would say, uh if you if you I would say you can teach people how to do this if you A, own some properties or have done deals uh in the past five years consistently, right?
- 33:02SPEAKER_00: Like I would like I didn't really pivot to like teaching people how to do this until it was here's here's where it happened for me.
- 33:10SPEAKER_00: I uh so I was putting the free content out, yeah, and I just had a small social media following.
- 33:18SPEAKER_00: And then at one point people started to uh I get a few thousand followers, not nothing, less than 10.
- 33:25SPEAKER_00: Um, and people would start asking me for my advice.
- 33:32SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's when I realized people started to see me as an authority.
- 33:37SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
- 33:38SPEAKER_00: And when they were asking me for advice, what I would do is I would always say uh a disclaimer like, hey, I've only been doing this for a couple of years.
- 33:48SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if my advice is to write advice.
- 33:51SPEAKER_00: I'll just tell you what I would do in this situation.
- 33:54SPEAKER_00: And what I would do in this situation may not be what you should do.
- 33:57SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 33:57SPEAKER_00: Like we got different financial backgrounds, we got different markets, like things can be completely different for you.
- 34:03SPEAKER_01: So you wouldn't even look in the teach.
- 34:05SPEAKER_00: People were asking you when you were like, oh wait, if if everybody keeps um the more you know popular I got on social media, the more people would ask me uh for help.
- 34:17SPEAKER_00: And I would just try to help everybody I could.
- 34:19SPEAKER_00: So I was answering DMs, just helping people in any way I could.
- 34:24SPEAKER_00: Again, with the disclaimer of like, hey, this is I can't like and I'd be honest with people, like if I didn't feel comfortable answering their question, or if it didn't make sense, I'd say, I'm I'm not the guy to ask this question.
- 34:35SPEAKER_00: Um, but the more popular I get, the more demand there was for that.
- 34:38SPEAKER_00: And um, and so what I had to start doing was I had to create uh a boundary um because I couldn't help everybody.
- 34:47SPEAKER_00: It got to a point where I just couldn't help the amount of people that wanted me to help them.
- 34:51SPEAKER_00: And so the boundary I created was I'd say, hey, I'll help you, but you're gonna pay me.
- 34:59SPEAKER_00: But I didn't make it some like most people were charging three, four, five hundred dollars for a 30-minute call.
- 35:04SPEAKER_00: I would say, look, give me 25 bucks, and I'll help each one.
- 35:08SPEAKER_00: 25 bucks for a 30-minute call, right?
- 35:11SPEAKER_00: The money wasn't the point, like I wasn't trying to make a bunch of money.
- 35:14SPEAKER_00: It was just I need it to be enough that you're gonna think about it so that when we spend time on the call, I know you're serious.
- 35:21SPEAKER_00: I know you, I know you care enough that you put some money up and that you're not gonna waste my time and effort.
- 35:27SPEAKER_00: So I just it was just a a boundary.
- 35:29SPEAKER_00: It wasn't to make a bunch of money.
- 35:31SPEAKER_00: Um, and people would pay it all the time.
- 35:35SPEAKER_00: And I would, as long as they were willing to, you know, put some skin in the game, spend some time with you on the phone, and I'll talk through it.
- 35:42SPEAKER_00: Um, and then what happened was um a couple of things.
- 35:47SPEAKER_00: I I got I got off one of the calls one time, and my wife saw me, and she was like, Why are you so bummed?
- 35:55SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Well, I keep having these calls, and everybody asked me the same questions, and I spend my time and effort giving them the answer, and then no one does anything with the information.
- 36:07SPEAKER_00: And she was like, Well, why don't you just like record yourself giving those answers?
- 36:13SPEAKER_00: And then when people reach out for help, just send them that recording.
- 36:16SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's a great idea, and so I did.
- 36:19SPEAKER_00: Like the questions I got the most were uh, how do I find deals and how do I find money for the deals?
- 36:26SPEAKER_00: So those are the two main questions.
- 36:27SPEAKER_00: So I just created like a video series on like, here's how you can find great deals, here's how I'm finding money for these deals.
- 36:36SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 36:37SPEAKER_00: And what I was doing at the time was creating a course.
- 36:39SPEAKER_00: I didn't know it was creating a course, but that's what I was doing.
- 36:41SPEAKER_00: Literally.
- 36:42SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 36:43SPEAKER_00: And so I did that.
- 36:44SPEAKER_00: I created uh essentially like a short course that talked about those things.
- 36:49SPEAKER_00: And instead of doing the one-on-ones, I would uh I would just put those courses out there.
- 36:54SPEAKER_00: And so instead of me coaching them for 30 minutes, I would just say, pay 25 bucks and he cares that of course here's what here's the answers that you're looking for anyway.
- 37:03SPEAKER_00: And man, we sold a ton of less people.
- 37:07SPEAKER_00: For really, like it was just unintentional.
- 37:09SPEAKER_00: Like and people like other influencers at the time would like fuss at me because I wasn't giving it away.
- 37:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're giving that away.
- 37:18SPEAKER_00: Yeah, why aren't you charging more?
- 37:19SPEAKER_00: You could be making so much more.
- 37:20SPEAKER_00: It costs more than 25.
- 37:21SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna check for away.
- 37:22SPEAKER_00: Like it's a barbecue.
- 37:24SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 37:24SPEAKER_00: So I just uh it wasn't about the money.
- 37:26SPEAKER_00: It's never really been about the money.
- 37:27SPEAKER_00: So I'd give it away cheap.
- 37:28SPEAKER_00: Now, those SEM courses are still out there.
- 37:30SPEAKER_00: I don't, I just they're out there for pay what you want.
- 37:33SPEAKER_00: Like if someone wants to go pay like a I think I set the minimum at like eight or nine bucks.
- 37:37SPEAKER_00: Like, as long as you're willing to pay eight or nine bucks, those courses are still out there.
- 37:39SPEAKER_00: People can go buy them today.
- 37:41SPEAKER_00: Pay what you want.
- 37:42SPEAKER_00: You for the people.
- 37:43SPEAKER_00: They're still out there.
- 37:44SPEAKER_01: Either, either, either you're for the people or you're a terrible businessman.
- 37:48SPEAKER_01: Yeah, probably both.
- 37:49SPEAKER_01: Maybe a little bit of probably both, yeah.
- 37:51SPEAKER_00: Yeah, probably both.
- 37:53SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, that was the and that's the kind of like the moment I realized, okay, like people want help.
- 38:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I want to be able to have a place where they can get the help.
- 38:06SPEAKER_00: What's the time of playing my next five?
- 38:08SPEAKER_00: This was 2019.
- 38:14SPEAKER_00: Was that it?
- 38:15SPEAKER_00: When did you start?
- 38:16SPEAKER_01: 2022.
- 38:17SPEAKER_00: 2022.
- 38:18SPEAKER_00: So I started selling the courses probably in 20.
- 38:22SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 2020-ish, probably.
- 38:24SPEAKER_00: Wow.
- 38:25SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 38:25SPEAKER_00: COVID.
- 38:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 38:26SPEAKER_00: That's when I created them.
- 38:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 38:28SPEAKER_00: Because we had just moved into our house.
- 38:30SPEAKER_00: So 2020.
- 38:31SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Cassandra.
- 38:32SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 38:33SPEAKER_01: Maybe we maybe we put like a little icon in your right here.
- 38:35SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 38:37SPEAKER_01: Oh.
- 38:38SPEAKER_00: 2020.
- 38:40SPEAKER_01: When when you look back at the journey, it's and it's also refreshing talking to you because, like I said, what you see is what you get.
- 38:48SPEAKER_01: Like you can tell based off how you do content that it's not a money grab for you.
- 38:53SPEAKER_01: Like, you're not going to retire from social media.
- 38:55SPEAKER_01: And we as followers, consumers, people who keep up with your journey, we know that.
- 39:00SPEAKER_01: Like, we we don't feel you know, you can see content and tell if you're the product.
- 39:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know what I mean?
- 39:05SPEAKER_01: Like, you can tell if you transacting with this person is their bottom line.
- 39:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you really can't tell, you know.
- 39:13SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but for you, it's never really been that.
- 39:15SPEAKER_01: And so, like, there's this element that you come, you bring to the table of consistency and transparency and genuineness, and like I said, things that now, I mean, there needs to be a course on those things, on how to be, you know, and so a person right now starting from ground zero, yeah.
- 39:32SPEAKER_01: They they want to do real estate, yeah.
- 39:34SPEAKER_01: They get they want to open up a bakery, whatever.
- 39:37SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but they want to start making content consistently.
- 39:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah, give us a give us a three-step framework to from from nothing.
- 39:47SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't got nothing out there.
- 39:48SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm entering in 2017.
- 39:50SPEAKER_01: I just want to start.
- 39:51SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, what do you say like most important things to keep in mind?
- 39:55SPEAKER_01: Here's three of them go action steps.
- 39:57SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the most genuine way to do it and the most um least stressful way to do it is to realize like you already make content every day if you have a business and you want to get it out there, like you are the content, and there's just no camera on you.
- 40:16SPEAKER_00: So the easiest way to start sharing what you're doing is just to get somebody like Cassandra, and you don't have to pay somebody full time, but we can hire freelancers.
- 40:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can set up your phone on a tripod, right?
- 40:30SPEAKER_00: Like you send it's all content, it's all content, you just you're doing it.
- 40:34SPEAKER_00: If you have a bakery, you bake, turn the camera on, right?
- 40:38SPEAKER_00: And do what you do.
- 40:39SPEAKER_00: You don't have to talk to the camera, yeah.
- 40:41SPEAKER_00: You ain't got to look at the camera, just turn it on while you're doing your thing, and then uh and I would like that.
- 40:50SPEAKER_00: Would be the first thing is don't worry about editing it, don't worry about scripting something, just whatever you're doing, turn the camera on, turn the camera on and capture it, and then you can figure out later how you want to edit it and like what you want to produce.
- 41:04SPEAKER_00: But I mean, there's a uh there's a a girl I'm friends with now, but I started following her on social media a long time in real estate.
- 41:14SPEAKER_00: Like she got super popular just by like because she did a lot of DIY uh projects.
- 41:20SPEAKER_00: You know, what she would do is just do the the not stop motion, but where you the time lapse.
- 41:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah, time lapse.
- 41:26SPEAKER_00: So she would just turn the camera on and she would like do a project, and it was just a time lapse video of her doing these projects, and like that's how she became super involved on social media because she was just sharing what she was doing.
- 41:37SPEAKER_00: No trendy dances, like she didn't have to do like she didn't have to do none of that.
- 41:40SPEAKER_00: She just she just did what she was doing, but she did it in front of the camera.
- 41:44SPEAKER_00: So I'd say the easiest thing to do for anybody in any in any any business you're trying to get out there is just turn the camera on, capture the content, try to figure out how you want to edit it later.
- 41:54SPEAKER_00: But like you are the content.
- 41:56SPEAKER_00: That's good.
- 41:57SPEAKER_00: People want to see what you're doing, so share that.
- 42:00SPEAKER_00: And then you could figure out like, because content needs to be genuinely you.
- 42:04SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 42:04SPEAKER_00: So, like, if you're trying to figure out like how you want to portray a certain thing to people, like you'll lose your mind trying to figure out maybe I want to do it like this person.
- 42:15SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
- 42:16SPEAKER_00: Just capture yourself doing it, start posting what you're doing out there, and then let your audience tell you what they want from you.
- 42:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
- 42:24SPEAKER_00: Like, listen to the comments and the feedback, engage with people in the in the comments, right?
- 42:28SPEAKER_00: And then sure, yeah, like you might see some trends or something, or somebody do a video that you're like, oh yeah, I could do that.
- 42:35SPEAKER_00: Like, that's odd, and if it's genuinely you, like, do that.
- 42:38SPEAKER_00: Do it, but like, don't you'll bang your head against your wall trying to figure out like how to put yourself out there.
- 42:44SPEAKER_00: Just turn the camera on, do your do, edit it, post it out there.
- 42:50SPEAKER_01: You be dropping gems.
- 42:52SPEAKER_01: Like, you just said if you gotta think about something that you just said like this, but you likely already on the wrong track.
- 42:59SPEAKER_01: Like, if you're thinking about, or what should I do?
- 43:01SPEAKER_01: What should like you probably going down the wrong path?
- 43:03SPEAKER_01: Like, just turn the camera on, do what's natural.
- 43:05SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 43:05SPEAKER_00: I got a I gotta had a uh I had a moment this morning where so I host a real estate meetup, and last night we had one of our meetups, and uh somebody asked a question, and I answered the question, and I mean pat self on the back, I gave a great answer.
- 43:27SPEAKER_00: Right, and I was like that's content, like that that is a real, and like sometimes when I sit down to like record content, I can't think of what I want to say to people or how I want to say it to people.
- 43:40SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but like when I'm just talking and cooking, yeah, like I'm like that was like cooking, like that's my content, like that's what and some of my best content hasn't been me sitting in front of a camera, right?
- 43:53SPEAKER_00: It's been just me having a conversation with other investors.
- 43:57SPEAKER_00: Those are my best content.
- 43:58SPEAKER_00: So I just in my Moment last night was like, I gotta stop worrying so much about curated content and we need more organic content, or I need to take notes about when I'm speaking to people, about what sounds good or what hits with people, and then recreate that in front of the camera.
- 44:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 44:17SPEAKER_00: And that's just that's yeah.
- 44:19SPEAKER_00: Jascula's cooked.
- 44:20SPEAKER_01: So, so step one, turn the camera off.
- 44:24SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about how it's going to be edited and starting and stopping the camera.
- 44:29SPEAKER_00: Like, because I think that's what overwhelms people when they first get started, is they think of a concept and then they sit down and try to create this concept and then like record and then they say it and then stop.
- 44:38SPEAKER_00: And like that, you'll never get anywhere.
- 44:40SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 44:40SPEAKER_00: Just like if you're a baker, turn the camera off while you're baking.
- 44:44SPEAKER_00: If you're a real estate investor, just have your phone with you while you're walking the property or talking to your contractors, right?
- 44:50SPEAKER_00: Just if you're, you know, if you're yeah, a reefer.
- 44:54SPEAKER_00: Like anything.
- 44:55SPEAKER_00: Turn the camera on while you're while you're talking to somebody about their new roof or while you're putting a roof on the house.
- 45:00SPEAKER_00: Like just turn the camera on, hit record, don't hit stop, let it record.
- 45:05SPEAKER_00: You just at worst case scenario, you just got raw video of you doing what you do.
- 45:10SPEAKER_00: You can hire an editor if you just get so overwhelmed and say, hey, I'm a roofer.
- 45:15SPEAKER_00: This is a video of me doing a roof.
- 45:17SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to put down social media.
- 45:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah, give me some ideas, chop it up, and give me something.
- 45:21SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
- 45:21SPEAKER_00: Like you didn't even gotta do that part.
- 45:25SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 45:26SPEAKER_00: There's there's AI tools that'll just chop that up for you.
- 45:28SPEAKER_00: Just capture it.
- 45:29SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 45:30SPEAKER_00: And then put it out there.
- 45:31SPEAKER_00: That's the hardest part.
- 45:32SPEAKER_00: It's hidden.
- 45:32SPEAKER_00: Step number two, put it out there.
- 45:34SPEAKER_00: Step number two, post it.
- 45:36SPEAKER_00: That's the scary part.
- 45:38SPEAKER_01: What if I don't got no caption?
- 45:40SPEAKER_00: So post it.
- 45:42SPEAKER_00: Post it.
- 45:43SPEAKER_01: What if I don't know who's gonna see this?
- 45:47SPEAKER_00: Come at it.
- 45:47SPEAKER_00: Post it.
- 45:48SPEAKER_00: What if they talk bad about me?
- 45:50SPEAKER_00: They're gonna.
- 45:51SPEAKER_00: Post it.
- 45:51SPEAKER_00: Post it anyway.
- 45:53SPEAKER_00: They're gonna talk bad about you.
- 45:55SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
- 45:56SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
- 45:57SPEAKER_00: You show me anybody successful that don't have some haters.
- 46:00SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 46:01SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
- 46:02SPEAKER_00: Post it anyway.
- 46:03SPEAKER_00: That's why your why's gotta be bigger than your reason.
- 46:06SPEAKER_00: Because yeah, it's gonna be and it's gonna happen.
- 46:10SPEAKER_00: People are gonna talk bad about you.
- 46:11SPEAKER_00: Your friends and family are gonna look at it.
- 46:14SPEAKER_00: That's stupid.
- 46:15SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 46:15SPEAKER_00: Wasting your time doing that.
- 46:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 46:17SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 46:17SPEAKER_00: Like, that's okay.
- 46:19SPEAKER_00: My best connections in this industry, my best friends in this industry are all strangers who saw me online.
- 46:30SPEAKER_00: The people I know that are like closest to me, like let me say that differently.
- 46:34SPEAKER_00: I have some great close friends that support my business.
- 46:37SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 46:38SPEAKER_00: But like the normal acquaintances that you see everyone somewhere here, yeah.
- 46:42SPEAKER_00: They they don't support my business.
- 46:44SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 46:45SPEAKER_00: They were never gonna support my business.
- 46:47SPEAKER_00: It's not for them.
- 46:49SPEAKER_00: Like God asked me to put this out there for other people, which means that there are strangers that I don't know, who I may never know, who are depending on me to put out the information I'm supposed to put out.
- 47:04SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter what your cousins think, it doesn't matter what your aunts and uncles think.
- 47:11SPEAKER_00: Sure, your your mama, your daddy, you know, your wife, those people are important.
- 47:17SPEAKER_00: But everybody else who cares.
- 47:19SPEAKER_00: It's not for them.
- 47:21SPEAKER_01: Break this down a little bit.
- 47:22SPEAKER_01: I seen a video yesterday of this guy saying you're trying to garner the support of the people that's closest to you, and you shouldn't.
- 47:29SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't.
- 47:30SPEAKER_01: Your world, the world is your market.
- 47:32SPEAKER_01: Like there are he literally said what you just said, there are strangers who are waiting on your content, who are waiting on your music, and who are going to support you sustainably.
- 47:40SPEAKER_01: Like people you don't even know.
- 47:42SPEAKER_01: You don't know.
- 47:43SPEAKER_01: So why why do we kind of have this mindset that, like, oh my god, my friends ain't supporting me, like I'm done, or my friends ain't supporting me.
- 47:50SPEAKER_01: I ain't doing right.
- 47:50SPEAKER_01: I'm finna stop.
- 47:51SPEAKER_01: Like, how do we get over that?
- 47:53SPEAKER_00: Well, getting over it's hard, but like the people in your network, like your business isn't for them.
- 48:02SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 48:03SPEAKER_00: What you're producing is not for them.
- 48:05SPEAKER_00: What you're producing is for somebody you may never get a chance to know.
- 48:09SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's kind of like twofold.
- 48:12SPEAKER_00: Like, if you have a business, A, whatever product or service that you're selling, you're gonna sell it to people you don't know.
- 48:17SPEAKER_00: Like that's where you make money.
- 48:19SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 48:19SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna make a million dollars selling t-shirts to your friends, right?
- 48:24SPEAKER_00: A, there ain't enough of them.
- 48:26SPEAKER_00: B, they don't care, right?
- 48:27SPEAKER_00: They may not be your target audience, right?
- 48:29SPEAKER_00: But there's a world full of people who want your product or service.
- 48:33SPEAKER_00: And right now, fortunately, like social media gives us a way to reach those people.
- 48:39SPEAKER_00: That's it.
- 48:39SPEAKER_00: Before social media, it was hard to reach those people.
- 48:42SPEAKER_00: It costs a lot of money to get on TV.
- 48:44SPEAKER_00: A lot, right?
- 48:45SPEAKER_00: Like you have to be very rich or know some very important people to get your product in front of people.
- 48:50SPEAKER_00: Or hit the road.
- 48:51SPEAKER_00: Hit the road in your car, pop the trunk, hit the road, right?
- 48:54SPEAKER_00: But now you get to get in front of people almost for free, right?
- 49:00SPEAKER_00: And so who cares what they think?
- 49:02SPEAKER_00: So it's it's hard, but you got to develop some level of thick skin because people are gonna tell you that you shouldn't be doing it, people are gonna tell you that you're a clown for doing it, people are gonna tell you that you're a sellout, people are gonna tell you that what you're doing is risky and you're gonna lose all your money.
- 49:23SPEAKER_00: But what you have to realize is a couple of things.
- 49:26SPEAKER_00: The people who are closest to you who are telling you that, other than your, like I said, your wife, you're like those people you should do, because they have your best interest at heart.
- 49:36SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 49:37SPEAKER_00: For everybody else, for everybody else, and even sometimes it's the pe the people closest to you, you have to understand that they will force their fears on you, they will force their their fear and negativity on you.
- 49:57SPEAKER_00: They're scared for themselves, and then they don't think they can do something, so they worry about you and you you can't do it.
- 50:06SPEAKER_00: You can't let that happen.
- 50:08SPEAKER_00: Like, fortunately for me, I knew pretty early on that I was supposed to share this.
- 50:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 50:14SPEAKER_00: So when somebody told me I shouldn't, didn't didn't matter.
- 50:19SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 50:19SPEAKER_00: Um, there was one time where somebody told me I shouldn't, and I took it a little too seriously, and my wife checked me.
- 50:25SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
- 50:26SPEAKER_00: My wife checked me and said, No, you said you were supposed to do this.
- 50:30SPEAKER_00: You said God told you you're supposed to do this, so you need to go do it.
- 50:34SPEAKER_00: And I was like, You're right.
- 50:36SPEAKER_00: You're absolutely right.
- 50:37SPEAKER_00: But I almost quit before I started.
- 50:39SPEAKER_00: Wow.
- 50:39SPEAKER_00: Um, so like here's another, here's what I here's another thing.
- 50:43SPEAKER_00: I have to try to put it in in other words.
- 50:46SPEAKER_00: Like, a business is about creating a product or a service that solves a problem and then putting that product or service out to people.
- 50:54SPEAKER_00: So if you truly care about your product or service, or you truly care about your why around your product or your service, then you need to put it out there because there is somebody who doesn't know you who's depending on you to do it.
- 51:07SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like God calls us to be entrepreneurs or own businesses so that we can be wealthy.
- 51:12SPEAKER_00: He calls us to do it so that we can provide whatever we need to provide for somebody else for whatever reason we're supposed to provide it to them.
- 51:18SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes we're fortunate enough and lucky enough that we get to know why that reason is.
- 51:22SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're not.
- 51:24SPEAKER_00: Might never know.
- 51:25SPEAKER_00: But if you're called to do it, you're supposed to do it.
- 51:27SPEAKER_00: And one of the best parts for me about real estate investing is like there are so many people that are impacted by me doing a real estate deal.
- 51:39SPEAKER_00: And it took me a while to realize this.
- 51:41SPEAKER_00: But every time I do a real estate deal, I impact many people's lives.
- 51:48SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
- 51:48SPEAKER_00: So as an example, how many people do you think make money for their business?
- 51:54SPEAKER_00: Because I decided to do one real estate deal.
- 51:56SPEAKER_00: Just what's your guess?
- 51:58SPEAKER_00: How many people or businesses are impacted by my one real estate deal?
- 52:01SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say like 10.
- 52:03SPEAKER_00: 10.
- 52:03SPEAKER_00: That's a fair guess.
- 52:04SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 52:05SPEAKER_00: I literally I have a slide that I do this where I teach people this.
- 52:08SPEAKER_00: It's about 60 people on average who are impacted.
- 52:13SPEAKER_00: There's real estate agents, there's title companies, there's plumbers, electricians, contractors, subcontractors, there's uh lenders, there's transaction coordinators, there's so many people inspectors.
- 52:27SPEAKER_00: Inspectors that goes on and off.
- 52:28SPEAKER_00: Wow.
- 52:29SPEAKER_00: Every just one real estate deal.
- 52:31SPEAKER_00: All these people generate income for their business, feed their families because I decided to do one real estate deal.
- 52:38SPEAKER_00: And that's when it dawned on me that none of this has ever been for me.
- 52:43SPEAKER_00: None of this has ever been for me.
- 52:44SPEAKER_00: I was called to do this because there are people, there are literally people all over the country and in my backyard and in my community who are depending on me to do this.
- 52:54SPEAKER_00: If I don't do this, it's one less customer for them.
- 52:56SPEAKER_00: It's one less person that comes through their doors and puts money on their table.
- 53:01SPEAKER_00: Like, wealth isn't about us.
- 53:05SPEAKER_00: It's not about me.
- 53:07SPEAKER_00: Do I get to uh do I get to use the wealth while I have it?
- 53:12SPEAKER_00: Sure.
- 53:12SPEAKER_00: Do I get to have the have it positively impact my family while I have it?
- 53:17SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 53:18SPEAKER_00: But it's not for me.
- 53:20SPEAKER_00: The money that I make, the wealth that I'm building, is for me to impact other people.
- 53:27SPEAKER_00: And I think when you see stories of people who accumulated wealth and then lost it, typically what you see is somebody who got so focused on making money for themselves and not focused on who they're supposed to impact with that wealth.
- 53:40SPEAKER_00: I think if I think we're called to be stewards of wealth.
- 53:44SPEAKER_00: And the more good stewards you are, the more you're going to be blessed with.
- 53:48SPEAKER_00: And the more selfish you are, they'll take it from you.
- 53:51SPEAKER_00: So, like, none of this is ever for me.
- 53:54SPEAKER_00: And it took a lot for me to realize.
- 53:55SPEAKER_00: I mean, I learned that like when I first got started, but it's so much bigger than that.
- 54:00SPEAKER_00: It's so much bigger than I'm just supposed to share my journey.
- 54:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm supposed to share my journey.
- 54:05SPEAKER_00: But everything I have, everything I've done in real estate, has all been because I'm supposed to help other people.
- 54:13SPEAKER_00: None of it's for me.
- 54:15SPEAKER_00: And that realization has just always kept me grounded.
- 54:18SPEAKER_01: You've spoken about something that's been a through line.
- 54:21SPEAKER_01: It's this concept that you were called to do this.
- 54:26SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 54:26SPEAKER_01: And I I think that's a very interesting choice of words.
- 54:29SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 54:30SPEAKER_01: I I like you, come from great parents, grandparents were heavily influenced in my life.
- 54:35SPEAKER_01: My grandmother's a pastor of 40 years, still pastoring to this day.
- 54:38SPEAKER_01: And like something she taught me at, I mean, five, six, seven, eight was this idea, you're called.
- 54:44SPEAKER_01: Like God gave you certain skills and gifts that you didn't earn, gave them to you to fulfill this calling.
- 54:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 54:50SPEAKER_01: Spent early years, like, no, I don't want to do it.
- 54:52SPEAKER_01: I don't like it.
- 54:53SPEAKER_01: I don't like the attention.
- 54:54SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 54:55SPEAKER_01: Like at a really young age, I was aware of the burden of blessing and like the pressure that comes with being someone who, you know, and so and so she says, you don't get to choose what gift you got.
- 55:07SPEAKER_01: You just get to choose if you surrender to the call.
- 55:09SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 55:09SPEAKER_01: Like you get, you know what I mean?
- 55:10SPEAKER_01: And so for you, every time I hear you talking about this, you're like, yeah, I mean, I was, I was told, I was called, I'm I'm doing what I was basically just, you know, talk about that in terms of A, how do you know you're called to do something?
- 55:26SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 55:26SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 55:27SPEAKER_01: Whether it's real estate, whether it's openness business.
- 55:29SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 55:30SPEAKER_01: Um and then how do you how do you surrender to it?
- 55:32SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you just say, okay, I'm I'm gonna be the vehicle that you use, or you know what I mean?
- 55:37SPEAKER_01: I'm going to steward this this influence that you've given me.
- 55:40SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you Yeah?
- 55:42SPEAKER_00: That's tough.
- 55:43SPEAKER_00: Um, because it's probably gonna be a little different for every person.
- 55:47SPEAKER_00: Uh uh For me, the epiphany was going from problem to solution so fast.
- 55:59SPEAKER_00: Going from panic attack to knowing I had now found this vehicle that I could use to put food on my family's table for the rest of my life was just such an overwhelmingly, I was just so overwhelmed.
- 56:14SPEAKER_00: Like, I just I was like, I don't deserve this.
- 56:16SPEAKER_00: Why me?
- 56:17SPEAKER_00: Why like I was terrified 90 days ago, and now that problem is solved.
- 56:25SPEAKER_00: There's a host of other problems being an investor in a business.
- 56:28SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 56:29SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying it's all hunky-dory and perfect, but what I am saying is I have a skill set that I know I can use to feed my family for the rest of my life.
- 56:37SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 56:37SPEAKER_00: Like I know I can invest in real estate and and make money, right?
- 56:41SPEAKER_00: And that like, and so it you're asking what can other people, I would just think through those situations in your life, right?
- 56:48SPEAKER_00: There's probably something in your life where you went from problem to solution so fast and it wasn't you.
- 56:55SPEAKER_00: You like you know it wasn't you, right?
- 56:57SPEAKER_00: You know you, you know you didn't do that.
- 56:59SPEAKER_01: I got them every day.
- 57:00SPEAKER_00: I got them on it's always godlinks, right?
- 57:03SPEAKER_00: So like think through those godwing situations, those things where it's like, I don't know how the heck I got out of that, but I got out of that.
- 57:11SPEAKER_00: Well, think through how did you get in that?
- 57:12SPEAKER_00: What skills did you use?
- 57:13SPEAKER_00: What what doors opened up?
- 57:15SPEAKER_00: Like, why did that happen for you?
- 57:17SPEAKER_00: Like dive into those situations a little deeper and figure out, like, you know, you're right, because we're all given these gifts.
- 57:23SPEAKER_00: We're all giving the I still don't quite know what my gift or ability is.
- 57:28SPEAKER_00: Uh but I know that I know when doors open that shouldn't have opened for me.
- 57:37SPEAKER_00: And I know every time I've dove into like why did that door open, I've found a calling in it that um I needed to pursue a little deeper, you know.
- 57:49SPEAKER_00: Um down to me being here in Northwest Arkansas, like uh yeah.
- 57:56SPEAKER_01: You mean you didn't pick this place on a map as a place that you want to know I'll try to make it as as brief as possible, but like before I moved here, I moved here to work for Walmart.
- 58:12SPEAKER_00: Walmart recruited me to work here.
- 58:14SPEAKER_00: Um and so um as part of that process, they asked me.
- 58:19SPEAKER_00: Um they let me fly out here ahead of my job to look for a place to live.
- 58:26SPEAKER_00: And uh and so they flew me out here and then they let me stay for like a week to find a place to live.
- 58:31SPEAKER_00: So that's when I moved here, you know, I didn't have to live in a hotel.
- 58:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I found a place.
- 58:34SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 58:34SPEAKER_00: And so it was like 30 days prior to me starting my job, they flew me out here.
- 58:37SPEAKER_00: So I flew out here, looking out apartments and things to kind of set you up with somebody to kind of show you where to go look.
- 58:43SPEAKER_00: And uh I narrowed it down to two places.
- 58:46SPEAKER_00: Uh, one was an apartment in Springdale, one was an apartment in Rogers.
- 58:51SPEAKER_00: And uh almost identical apartments, same amenity, same cost.
- 58:56SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know which one to choose.
- 58:58SPEAKER_00: Um, part of me wanted to live in Springdale because Walmart's so big here that like I didn't want to feel like I was at work when I wasn't at work.
- 59:04SPEAKER_00: Like I didn't want to walk into the grocery store in Bentonville and be like, oh, there's my boss.
- 59:08SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
- 59:09SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 59:09SPEAKER_00: So do I live further away in commute where I don't have to worry about that, or do I live closer for convenience?
- 59:14SPEAKER_00: And I was just torn between the decision.
- 59:16SPEAKER_00: And um I was looking at this apartment in Springdale for the second time that day.
- 59:20SPEAKER_00: And the lady who showed me the apartment, I could tell she was annoyed because she was there for the second time, hadn't signed nothing.
- 59:26SPEAKER_00: And um out of the corner of my eye, I saw this uh uh plushie of a basketball.
- 59:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this apartment was bleached clean.
- 59:36SPEAKER_00: The literal bottle of bleach was in the sink.
- 59:38SPEAKER_00: There was nothing in this apartment.
- 59:40SPEAKER_00: It was it smelled like bleach, it had been cleaned, but for some reason, somebody forgot to pick up this little plushie of a basketball.
- 59:48SPEAKER_00: And basketball has been such an important part of my life.
- 59:51SPEAKER_00: Like I played ball, I played semi-pro ball.
- 59:53SPEAKER_00: Like my whole life was basketball for most of my life.
- 59:58SPEAKER_00: And so it was just like a basketball is so core to who I am.
- 1:00:02SPEAKER_00: When I saw this plushie sitting there in this apartment, I was like, oh, this got tone.
- 1:00:08SPEAKER_00: This is it, this is where I'm supposed to live.
- 1:00:09SPEAKER_00: So I was like, this is it, I'll sign it.
- 1:00:12SPEAKER_00: And she was like, You'll sign it later.
- 1:00:13SPEAKER_00: I was like, Yeah, where's the paper?
- 1:00:14SPEAKER_00: I'll sign, I'm supposed to live here, so I'll live here.
- 1:00:17SPEAKER_00: Um so I signed the leaks and I move in.
- 1:00:20SPEAKER_00: Fast forward to like a year later.
- 1:00:23SPEAKER_00: Um I was uh living there, and uh I got myself into some trouble.
- 1:00:32SPEAKER_00: And uh and I prayed that God helped me fix the situation, and it was almost like a light switch, boom, problem solved, right?
- 1:00:42SPEAKER_00: A few months later, get myself into some trouble.
- 1:00:45SPEAKER_00: First thing I do, pray, help me fix it, boom, fixed it.
- 1:00:49SPEAKER_00: And I just remember that second time, I was like, I'm selfish because I don't pray about nothing until I need some help, and then all of a sudden I'm like, hey, can you help me?
- 1:01:00SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I don't treat people like that.
- 1:01:02SPEAKER_00: Why am I treating God like that?
- 1:01:04SPEAKER_00: And so I just felt guilty.
- 1:01:06SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, you know what?
- 1:01:07SPEAKER_00: I need to obviously fix my relationship with God because I can't just be going and praying when I need help.
- 1:01:13SPEAKER_00: Like I gotta hold up my end of the bargain.
- 1:01:15SPEAKER_00: But I don't know what that looks like.
- 1:01:16SPEAKER_00: And I'm in the middle of the Bible belt, and walking into any church is scary, right?
- 1:01:20SPEAKER_00: Like, uh, and so I was like, I don't know how to fix it.
- 1:01:23SPEAKER_00: I just know I'll go to a church and I'll pray about it and we'll see what happens.
- 1:01:28SPEAKER_00: And so I remember in that moment I wrote down, I was like, this is because churches can be weird.
- 1:01:33SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 1:01:34SPEAKER_00: I was like, uh, here's what I'm gonna do.
- 1:01:37SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna write down three things that I know that I can't fix on my own that I know I need help with from God.
- 1:01:44SPEAKER_00: I'll just write those three things down.
- 1:01:46SPEAKER_00: I'll go to the church that's literally across the street from my apartments.
- 1:01:49SPEAKER_00: I'll just start there.
- 1:01:50SPEAKER_00: It's right there.
- 1:01:51SPEAKER_00: I can walk there, I'll just start there.
- 1:01:53SPEAKER_00: I'll just go in there with these three things.
- 1:01:55SPEAKER_00: And uh if it's weird, I'll just pray over these three things and I'll try again next week at another church.
- 1:02:01SPEAKER_00: So I was like, we'll just start there.
- 1:02:02SPEAKER_00: And so that was the plan I had.
- 1:02:04SPEAKER_00: I wrote down my three things, put the paper in my pocket, walked over to the church on Sunday morning, and when the pastor started preaching, he said, We're starting a new sermon on miracles and how we can make miracles happen in our lives.
- 1:02:19SPEAKER_00: God will perform miracles, but there are things that we can do to help.
- 1:02:25SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want everybody to do.
- 1:02:27SPEAKER_00: I'm passing out a piece of paper and a pen.
- 1:02:29SPEAKER_00: I want everybody to write down three things they know they need help with, God's help with.
- 1:02:36SPEAKER_02: Three things.
- 1:02:38SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna pray over, we're gonna pin them to this cross in the back of the church, and we're gonna pray over them as a church.
- 1:02:43SPEAKER_00: And the way started bawling.
- 1:02:49SPEAKER_00: I started bawling.
- 1:02:50SPEAKER_00: I can't tell the story without crying every time.
- 1:02:53SPEAKER_00: But like it was that moment that I knew that like I am exactly where I'm supposed to be doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing.
- 1:03:03SPEAKER_00: I was supposed to come to Northwest Arkansas.
- 1:03:06SPEAKER_00: I was supposed to live in this apartment so that on this day I could walk in this church and strengthen my relationship with God.
- 1:03:16SPEAKER_00: That's what it all came together for me.
- 1:03:17SPEAKER_00: So that's what really helped me start to be able to listen to like when God's tapping me on the shoulder, because I lost it.
- 1:03:24SPEAKER_00: My life changed from then.
- 1:03:25SPEAKER_00: I gave my life to God not long after that.
- 1:03:27SPEAKER_00: I was baptized in that church.
- 1:03:29SPEAKER_00: Um it's just all it all works together, man.
- 1:03:34SPEAKER_00: Because had I not moved here, had I not given my life to God, had I not changed, I wouldn't have been the man I needed to be when I met my wife.
- 1:03:47SPEAKER_00: And I would have screwed it up.
- 1:03:49SPEAKER_00: So all of it is for a reason.
- 1:03:51SPEAKER_00: So the home-winded answer to your question is dive deeper into those situations where things just kind of fell into place.
- 1:03:58SPEAKER_00: Try to figure out why they fell into place, listen to that voice, and try to do what that voice is telling you to do.
- 1:04:02SPEAKER_00: And that probably sounds like a really kooky answer, but that's that's what I got for people.
- 1:04:09SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bring it like as you talk, I keep getting chills.
- 1:04:12SPEAKER_01: Like, I was because it's uh I feel that on a soul level.
- 1:04:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 1:04:18SPEAKER_01: Now you just gotta breathe.
- 1:04:19SPEAKER_01: We just gotta let that, you know what I'm saying?
- 1:04:21SPEAKER_01: Don't edit this out, just let this breathe right now.
- 1:04:23SPEAKER_01: So for those of us who want to follow along with your journey to go deeper with you, to attend earlier in the conversation, you mentioned a meetup or something that you do.
- 1:04:35SPEAKER_01: Like, what's going on?
- 1:04:37SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got a couple minutes, but I want you to highlight every like where can we follow you?
- 1:04:41SPEAKER_01: Where can we get involved in the courses?
- 1:04:43SPEAKER_01: How can I come to a meetup?
- 1:04:44SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what's next?
- 1:04:45SPEAKER_00: Like the best way is to follow me on Instagram at the Henry Washington on Instagram.
- 1:04:52SPEAKER_00: Um, I give lots of free information away on Instagram.
- 1:04:55SPEAKER_00: If you want some more structured help, I'm actually hosting my very first conference this year.
- 1:05:00SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
- 1:05:01SPEAKER_00: Uh that's the Road to the Closing Table Conference, uh, Dallas, Texas, June 26th and 27th.
- 1:05:09SPEAKER_00: Um, you can go to www.road to the closing table.com, spelled all out, and you can register.
- 1:05:18SPEAKER_00: The conference is different though.
- 1:05:20SPEAKER_00: Um, I get the opportunity to speak at conferences all over the country.
- 1:05:23SPEAKER_00: And so I've bindled millions of them.
- 1:05:25SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've spoken at a ton of them.
- 1:05:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 1:05:27SPEAKER_00: Typically, what happens is somebody stands on a stage, yeah, they tell you about how awesome they are, and they tell you about all the things you should be doing.
- 1:05:35SPEAKER_00: Very true.
- 1:05:35SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then they say, Go do that thing.
- 1:05:39SPEAKER_00: And then you leave so motivated, and then you get home and you realize no one showed me how they didn't give me one action step, but I don't know what to do.
- 1:05:48SPEAKER_00: Showed me how to do any of it.
- 1:05:50SPEAKER_00: So I will not put on an event like that.
- 1:05:53SPEAKER_00: My event, I call it an unconference.
- 1:05:56SPEAKER_00: But what it is is no speaker is allowed to stand on my stage and talk at you.
- 1:06:00SPEAKER_00: Every speaker has to host a workshop where they give you real examples where you actually do the work in the Oh my goodness.
- 1:06:10SPEAKER_00: Every speaker, there's no stage where people can talk at you.
- 1:06:13SPEAKER_00: You every speaker is hosting a workshop.
- 1:06:15SPEAKER_00: And I've been fortunate enough to be able to make a lot of friends who are titans in this industry who have agreed to come and host workshops.
- 1:06:24SPEAKER_00: So it is a workshop conference.
- 1:06:26SPEAKER_00: You will never leave motivated, you will leave equipped.
- 1:06:29SPEAKER_00: You will leave equipped with real tools and real examples that you're going to be working through.
- 1:06:34SPEAKER_00: So it's the Road to the Closing Table on Conference.
- 1:06:37SPEAKER_00: And you can get tickets, www.road to the closing table.com.
- 1:06:41SPEAKER_00: I encourage anybody who's genuinely curious about real estate, just come spend two days with me at this conference and you will leave with tools to be able to do this on your own.
- 1:06:51SPEAKER_00: I promise you that.
- 1:06:57SPEAKER_01: You're giving them the keys right there, actual practical right there.
- 1:07:01SPEAKER_00: I want you to be able to leave and do this business on your own.
- 1:07:05SPEAKER_00: If you want my help to coach you, yeah, you can come work with me and I'll coach you.
- 1:07:08SPEAKER_00: But I'm not like you, you can come learn how to do it and go do it on your own from this conference.
- 1:07:13SPEAKER_00: That's the goal of this conference is to equip people to go do this business.
- 1:07:17SPEAKER_01: If this is a successful conference, people will be able to leave here and implement immediately what it is.
- 1:07:23SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 1:07:24SPEAKER_00: You will get the skills at the conference.
- 1:07:27SPEAKER_01: One more time, road to the closing table.
- 1:07:29SPEAKER_00: Road to the closing table.
- 1:07:32SPEAKER_00: Taylor Washington.
- 1:07:34SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us.
- 1:07:34SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
- 1:07:35SPEAKER_00: Man, this was funny.