$550,000 in 5 Days ft. Cooper McCoy & Michael Du Gan w/ Zach Rucker

The Multifamily Mindset Podcast, hosted by Zach Rucker, shares success stories from real estate experts within the Multifamily Mindset network. Cooper McCoy and Michael Du Gan of CM Capital Enterprises quickly raised $550,000 for an urgent deal through strategic planning and networking, emphasizing the importance of embracing discomfort and continuous personal growth.

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Transcript

Multifamily Mindset Podcast. 
S
Speaker 2
00:03
Think bigger. Welcome back to another episode of the Multifamily Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, Zach Rucker, co founder of Black Cedar Investments and coach here at the Multifamily Mindset. For those just joining us, welcome aboard. We're thrilled to have you join our growing community here at the Multifamily Mindset Podcast. We deliver fresh content twice a week, keeping you engaged and inspired. Every Tuesday, we dive into insightful interviews with students from the MFM Network, showcasing their journeys and lessons learned. Then on Thursdays, our mindset mentor, my friend, Dallas Pruitt, unpacks the powerful mindset principles gleaned from these student stories. And that's not all. Wednesdays are reserved for another fantastic podcast, Own the Outcome, hosted by Tyler Devereaux, the visionary, founder and CEO of the Multifamily Mindset. 
S
Speaker 2
00:55
Tyler sits down with high level individuals exploring their path to success and extracting invaluable wisdom along the way. So whether you hear for the wealth of knowledge, the inspiring stories, or the expert insights, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Multifamily Mindset Podcast. Let's dive in. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, and I know your listeners will take away so much value. And with that, we have Cooper McCoy and Michael Degan of CM Capital Enterprises. Welcome to the show, guys. 
S
Speaker 3
01:27
Thanks for having us, Zach. Super excited. 
S
Speaker 1
01:30
Yeah, thank you, Zach. Blessed to be here. 
S
Speaker 2
01:33
Yeah. I'm so stoked to have you guys here. And you guys joined the MFM mentorship program back in September last year, right? 
S
Speaker 3
01:42
That's correct. Y. 
S
Speaker 2
01:43
Okay. Yeah. And you mentioned you went to one of the free events actually earlier in the year, probably April or maybe. So it's. 
S
Speaker 3
01:51
Yeah, yeah, that's. That's right. So I think it popped up as a, an advertisement on my Instagram and Cooper and I always wanted to kind of partner together in real estate. So I said, let's go to this, see what's it about, and the rest is history. 
S
Speaker 2
02:08
Oh, that's awesome. So it's. So it's been about a year since you guys started to kind of see the multifamily mindset and start to get that itch. And then you guys dove into the mentorship in September. So let's. With that, let's kind of. I want to dive into, like, introductions with you guys and get a backstory of how that all came about. You guys wanted to partner in real estate. How did that come about? What do you Guys do for your day jobs? Let's give a little backstory here for our listeners. 
S
Speaker 3
02:36
Yeah, I'll kick it off. So my name's Michael Dugan. I went to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee as a supply chain major in marketing collateral. And I took a job with Amazon right out of college. So I've been with them for the last nine years. Started in operations for four years and then joined a startup team in the last mile fleet space. So the delivery vans that you see driving around. So I've been there for five years and that's where Cooper and I connected. But outside of that, I started my real estate journey four years ago with long term rentals. So I have nine doors in the Nashville area with one of my best friends. So we do everything. So we do the property management, we find the tenants, we do the maintenance if we can. Otherwise we will strategically outsource that. 
S
Speaker 3
03:32
So that's kind of work wise. And then personal life at home. I'm married to lovely wife and we have two twin boys, Davis and Nico, who are 13 months old. 
S
Speaker 1
03:47
Yeah, Mike summed it up well. Cooper McCoy here. I can introduce myself. I went to the University of Kansas and I've been with Amazon for eight years. So Mike has been beat by one year in terms of Amazon. I had a similar path. I've kind of hopped all over Amazon. I started in operations and then I did capacity planning for Amazon Logistics. I did labor planning for a little bit and then I did routing, which is kind of forecasting shipments per routes and different MSAs. It's an efficiency type metric. And then I joined the fleet org. That's where I met Mike. And Mike has some duplexes and triplexes. I have a few long term rentals and Airbnb and then a bar at the University of Oklahoma. So we both had a passion for investing in real estate. And it started with coffee chats. 
S
Speaker 1
04:40
When me and Mike met each other, we would grab coffee or grab lunch and just talk about real estate. And eventually led to someday, like we got a partner together. And then one day Mike invites me to an event which I had no idea what I was walking into, to be honest. He said it was from a advertisement on Facebook. But then that event ended up being awesome.  so we took the leap of faith and then went to the three day class with multifamily mindset. And then on the spot. I think there was one point when Mike and I looked at each other and were like, this is. This could be a pivotal moment in life.  and so at that moment, were both like, all right, we have to do this. We would be foolish not to do this. 
S
Speaker 1
05:26
there's only so many pivotal moments in life where you get a chance to do these type of things.  and so that's what led Mike and I into multifamily mindset. And then now I'm the senior manager for same day delivery and I own cost for Amazon. So it's a lot of you listeners probably see you're starting to get same day packages at your door. I'm the one who optimizes costs for those packages because as you can imagine, the shorter the delivery time for a package, the higher the cost. So my job is to minimize cost per package. But, yeah, that's basically background on myself. 
S
Speaker 2
06:08
Yeah, that's awesome. So all the listeners, everyone in the world can thank Cooper and Mike for helping on getting our packages as quick as possible so we don't have to run to the store. So I appreciate that and I know a lot of people out there probably appreciate that. Those same day deliveries I think is insane. So that's awesome. So you guys met at Amazon, shared a passion. You're already in real estate, doing some small, you know, either small, multifamily, or even single family rentals, Airbnb. And then came across the multifamily mindset and kind of opened your minds. Right? So with that, you guys started how. How has the impact been on joining mfm? How has that impacted your guys's business and your real estate? What have you guys been doing now since you joined? 
S
Speaker 1
07:05
I think it completely reshapes your thinking process, to be honest, for the better. I, I would say most real estate investors run into a bottleneck, and that's being capital. And, you know, and 2019, 2020, 2021, a lot of real estate investors could cash out refi if they're in smaller deals. But now, just due to the current macro environment, cash is usually the bottleneck because it doesn't make sense to cash out refi for a higher interest rate on a low interest rate deal. But as for multifamily mindset, we've learned a ton. And my favorite part about multifamily mindset, I'm on Twitter and Facebook. Mike's got the LinkedIn handle down. I can't compare with his impressions on LinkedIn, but I'm on Twitter and Facebook quite a bit. And half my posts are about mindset because I think this goes beyond real estate. 
S
Speaker 1
08:05
Just in all aspects of life, you're gonna have Hurdles and you have to kind of work backwards with what your end goal is and why you're. You have that end goal and then create milestones for yourself. So I remember as part of the homework before our fasttrack class, were writing down our goals, going through the modules, writing down milestones, and Mike and I did those together. We would hold each other accountable, and then our strategist will hold us accountable every Friday to making sure that those were done. But I'm a, I was never a quotes guy until multifamily mindset, and I actually have one in front of me. If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone. John C. Maxwell and you have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. 
S
Speaker 1
08:57
And that's kind of what a growth mindset means to me. And each day, like if you just create baby milestones each day, you can keep growing. It's not going to happen overnight. But that's my biggest takeaway from multifamily mindset, aside from the real estate portion, which I haven't even gotten into. But just creating that strong mindset for yourself, it goes beyond real estate. It goes to all aspects of life. Your family, your friendships. If you have a W2 job, it goes to that. Basically all aspects of your life. And then as for the real estate aspect, Mike and I, sorry, Mike, I'm speaking for both of us, but I think we both thought were subject matter experts in real estate. And then when we got into the three day class and we're both like, whoa, this is a whole different ball game. 
S
Speaker 1
09:52
There's no valuations on comps. I'm not looking at different amenities for Airbnbs. They're gonna up my average daily rate. Just a whole different ball game calculating NOI expenses, value adds. So there's been a ton that we've learned, but the growth mindset I think has been key. I tweet probably every other day a different growth mind quote. My favorite lately, ever since peak partnership has been even before that has been David Goggins. He has hundreds out there that are just great. Yeah, Mike, if you have anything to. 
S
Speaker 3
10:32
Add, I think you hit the nail on the head. And it's funny you mentioned something you just referred to at the end there where we thought we knew real estate, right? Because we, you know, have pretty good knowledge around long term rentals, smaller multi families or Airbnbs. And I'll never forget the individual who spoke at our initial conference asked, hey, who has, you know, properties etc? We all raised our hand I think you and I, you know, we're fortunate enough to be the last ones with our hands raised in terms of how many doors we have. And I'll never forget the individual said, all right, well that, all of that's great, but everything you have learned in the past is irrelevant for these items here. And it was so true, right? 
S
Speaker 3
11:18
So I think having that mindset of always wanting to low, to learn and to grow is super powerful. But another one for me, I think was changing. You know, MFM was really good in changing kind of my mindset in obviously in work, whether it was my W2 job, real estate, but also with life, right? You often hear people, I'm too busy or I don't have the time. And I was one of those people, right? But changing your mindset there completely changes how your perspective is on life. Like, I am absolutely more busy now than I was a year ago, but I'm happier because of my mindset, and that's directly attributed to the growth mindset. So thinking positively and realizing that problems are treasures can completely change the mind shift of your life. 
S
Speaker 2
12:19
I love that. Thanks, guys, for sharing that of like, the mindset affects all aspects of your life. And a huge part of it is people get into real estate, they buy single family homes, they buy Airbnbs, maybe some small duplexes, right? And that's kind of common for people to start expanding into real estate. That's the first step, because that's the easier step to attain. And then you reach this next level of multifamily investing. And it just opens the doors and opens your mind to the possibilities. And that's entrepreneurship as well. But that's the growth mindset that you guys are talking about, really brings that out in us to really see that there's a lot more possibilities then Mike, you touched on this. 
S
Speaker 2
13:05
You're more busy now, but your attitude, your mindset, your Persona, the energy you give off might be even better than it was before. It's because you, you switched your mindset and that's allowed you to feel more abundant and to give more because you've allowed more to fill up your cup as well and fill that. So thank you guys for sharing that the mindset piece. I do want to dive into a story that I listen from you guys just a month ago. So we were having dinner. Pete Park. Pete. Excuse me. So were having dinner at Peak Partnership, where we officially met in person just a month ago. 
S
Speaker 2
13:50
And we're at dinner, and you guys started telling the story of your first deal that you closed on and how much money you raised in a very short period of time. I won't give the details. I'll let you guys handle that. But tell our listeners what your first deal was like and. And what happened there. 
S
Speaker 3
14:12
Yeah, I'm happy to speak on that. So we're extremely grateful for the opportunity were presented, and part of it is taking action. Right. And being proactive, so we'll get into that. But were at Fast Track. So were about a month into multifamily, and at our fast Track event, we saw an individual post about, you know, looking for potential capital raisers and things like that. So, you know, originally our mindset was, you know, coop will be the underwriter, I'll be the asset manager. 
S
Speaker 1
14:51
Right. 
S
Speaker 3
14:52
And we kind of were building our own niches. And at the Fast Track event, I think we kind of had a realization of, you know, why don't we get it? Try to get into a deal network with. With individuals and sponsors and learn from within. So we started doing that, and we actually had a call set up for lunch during our Fast Track with a sponsor. So we had the call. It went really well. Cooper and I got along extremely well with this individual. And at the end of the call, were talking, told, hey, well, we actually have a deal, if you're interested right now. We said, absolutely. This is exactly what we wanted. This is perfect. 
S
Speaker 3
15:32
So we started jotting down all the information, and by the end of it, the sponsor said, oh, by the way, you have a week to raise the amount of money needed, which was $500,000. 
S
Speaker 2
15:46
So a week. I just want to highlight that he gave you a week as a deadline to raise $500,000, which you guys have never done. You were about a month into the mentorship program. You're at one of the next live events where you're touring a property, you're learning about due diligence, starting to underwrite a deal, and you connected with someone through the network, and that's a sponsor, and you started building a relationship, and immediately an offer to work on a deal. 500,000 in a week. Okay, I need to know, how did you guys. Did you guys accomplish it? First off, I think our listeners want to know, did you accomplish that, and how did that go? 
S
Speaker 3
16:35
Yeah, absolutely. And to preface, the week was the timing of the deal. So it just happened to. To be the timing of the deal. But we did raise that money. We actually were able to raise $550,000, which was incredible. And we'll get into that in a second. But I think after the call ended, Cooper and I, I'll never forget the Marriott. We reserved a room, we jumped up high fiving, super pumped. And then I think it kind of hit us and we go, oh crap, how are we going to do this? So we, you know, we took action. So instead of going back into the Fast track class, we said, you know, what is the best use of our time? 
S
Speaker 3
17:16
So we immediately, for the rest of that day, and I think we actually stayed later than the Fast track was supposed to be, started jotting down individuals, getting the details nailed down, getting our pitch nailed down, calling like crazy. I think were probably on the phone for seven hours straight after that. And that was just to end that night. But Cooper, if you want to add in anything on the night, one of that. 
S
Speaker 1
17:43
Yeah, no, that was crazy. I think we left that meeting was around lunch at Fast Track and then we had to step out for the rest of Fast Track. So apologies to our instructor for that. But this opportunity came. I think Mike and I's blood pressure was extremely high. It escalated a lot quicker than we thought it would. I remember Mike and I, we had pen and paper, we just wrote down like all the names like of all the people we know and just started making phone calls. And at that point, I don't even know if we had the OM at that point, Mike. I just remember citing the details and we got the OM a couple hours later. But at that point we just started calling everyone we know and we had five days to complete that raise. 
S
Speaker 1
18:35
And I think Mike, probably the same way I was on the my phone like on calls for about 80 of those five days, just, you know, calling everyone I know with no strategy. 
S
Speaker 3
18:48
I'd love to see our call logs during that 72 hour window. 
S
Speaker 1
18:52
I just, yeah, I remember my wife was like, dang, I've never seen you on the phone this much. But yeah, it ended up going well. We raised 550k in 5 days. It was a combination of friends, family, co workers, which I think we'll go into here in a little bit. But I think we learned a lot about ourselves. And as Mike kind of hit on, we initially thought that we Amazon's a very data driven company. And Mike being there nine years, myself eight years, data has just been ingrained into our minds. So we initially both thought would be great underwriters, asset managers, potentially like one of those two things just because of the data driven Mindset. 
S
Speaker 1
19:41
But I think during that first raise we had an epiphany of kind of where we work, what our niche should be and how we can really scale quickly and monetize ourselves based on the circle that we're in, which I think we'll get into here in a bit. But yeah, were just on phone calls, constantly calling everyone, anyone and everyone. And I think it was a good starting point that Mike and I both had a bunch of properties so people trusted us. I know we're both into real estate, but you know, apartments, multifamily is a whole different ball game than a single family home or a duplex or an Airbnb. 
S
Speaker 2
20:21
But so I want to highlight that I was going to ask like how did you approach those conversations with those people? Because you were just learning about multif family. This opportunity came up and then you start calling people. And so part of it you, you touched on was you started reflecting on the work that you are. I guess the real estate you have closed on as a way to kind of go back on your experience. So how did those conversations go when you're calling people? Like what were you even saying to those people? 
S
Speaker 3
20:56
Yeah, it's a good question. It was cool because were able to apply what were learning just hours prior to our conversations and what we Learned in the 3 day conference as well to those conversations. 
S
Speaker 2
21:09
So immediately implementing exactly what you learned, just putting it right into action. That's, that's amazing. 
S
Speaker 1
21:16
I had my notebook out like the big booklet that you get during your three day course. I had that right in front of me during all my calls. 
S
Speaker 3
21:24
Absolutely. And I, I think too, I don't know if this will be on video or not, but this is like the actual notebook I used. So I thought it would be cool to have and just show whether listeners can see this or not. It's just a notebook where I literally jotted down individuals names who I think would be interested, who wouldn't in all of my updates. So a funny story about this raise. Day 2 so the Saturday I was actually going up for the Tennessee South Carolina football game. So part of my raise was while I was tailgating the entire time. So the drive up, I think my friends in the car probably wanted to kill me. So shout out to them for letting me be on calls the entire time, but also while tailgating. 
S
Speaker 3
22:08
So very different experience and unique experience but you know, prioritizing what was needed to be done and it was, it's a cool story. Looking back on, I can just picture. 
S
Speaker 1
22:22
Mike with his twins and then a phone in hand, trying to raise with his twins right by him tailgating for a football game. Makes me laugh every time. 
S
Speaker 2
22:32
That's awesome. That's awesome. Raising money while tailgating. That's a good one. That's a good atmosphere to be in for sure. As long as they win the game. Right. So hopefully you raise the money before. Before the outcome or the outcome is a good outcome. And you reach out to people, they're going to be just excited to give you the money. Right. 
S
Speaker 3
22:52
Yep, exactly. It was a win day. Tennessee won, and then Cooper and I won in the real estate world. So it was a great day, great weekend. 
S
Speaker 2
23:02
That's awesome. So what, you know, you guys kind of touched on it. You just were on the phone, like, what was the most challenging part? Was there a part in this process where you're just like, are we gonna. We're gonna be able to do it? Are we gonna be able to hit that 500, 000? Like, how. How was that? How was your mindset through those five days? What was like, the most challenging part there? 
S
Speaker 3
23:23
Yeah, I think you can go ahead. 
S
Speaker 1
23:26
Okay. I was gonna say, I think the two most challenging parts at that point in time were the short time frame. Since it was five days. Majority of people I called said I could do this, but I just can't move my money around or wire it within five days to get my funds in order. And then I think the second most challenging part could be equally as challenging, is just. It was just during our fast track and it was so early. This would be part of my advice to students is we didn't know all the. At that point in time, all the intricacies of underwriting. So if you ever get a very intelligent investor that asks a lot of detailed questions and kind of peels back the layers of the onion and asks you the five whys. 
S
Speaker 1
24:16
It's not only knowing the numbers within the underwriting, but kind of knowing the why behind those numbers. Because if you ever get probed on an investor call, you need to know about the city, like the market research, like, why this city, why vacancy rates are trending up or down, like, why every KPI in that underwriting. You need to know the why behind. Because it's not just a number, like, hey, here's your vacancy rates. It's. You need to know, like, what the forecast through COSTAR projects them at, what they're projected at in the underwriting. What they look like versus other comps in the area. So I think that was a learning lesson for us, and it was a good learning lesson. We learned a lot from that first deal. 
S
Speaker 1
25:02
But I think just the timeline and not knowing enough at that time about underwriting were our two biggest challenges. And the underwriting thing, we've totally actioned. So if you're interested investor relations, my advice is really no underwriting. Even if you're not going to be an underwriter, you're going to get questions about it if you're trying to raise capital. So that's kind of my two cents. 
S
Speaker 2
25:28
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm biased. My, my specialty is on the underwriting side. And I, I create templates, you know, the MFM template. I do financial models. So, yeah, I'm biased to underwriting. You got to know the ins and outs. But that's definitely helped me when I go raise capital as well. And that's why I tell all the new people. It's like you need to know underwriting. You can be the best salesman and you can still go out there and raise and be successful in selling. But you got to come back to fundamentals because a lot of times people are going to come from a data standpoint. They want to ask numbers, they're going to ask for projections. Where's the risk? Do you have buffers in place? Right. 
S
Speaker 2
26:09
So understanding that definitely helps you give that story of the property, which is what the really selling point is. But to give that story, you do have to have that data to back it up. So that's a great point for our listeners is focus on. On underwriting, the market research that plays into your success as into raising capital. 
S
Speaker 1
26:32
Definitely. 
S
Speaker 2
26:34
Awesome. Mike, anything to add to the challenging pieces? What was challenging for you? 
S
Speaker 3
26:41
Definitely the turnaround, but I think a bigger one too. Right. Being a month in is how many. The question how many deals have you been a part of? Because that is obviously a challenge as a newer student. 
S
Speaker 1
26:56
Right. 
S
Speaker 3
26:56
So I think my advice as well to newer students would be treated like an education call. Right. We're not salesmen or saleswoman. We're educators. Explaining why multifamily is such a great avenue. Right. Why multifamily is such a good investment vehicle. And I think that's super valuable and important. And then on top of that. Right. If you're a newer student, you know, get to know your sponsor very well. Right. How many deals have they been a part of? How. What are the past returns on prior deals? Right. Because knowing them and being able to speak to them and leveraging, you know, their experience, I think helped us a lot.  we had some growing pains on maybe our first couple calls, but after we leveraged that a little bit, I think it helped us. 
S
Speaker 2
27:52
Yeah, huge. Lots of key points have been brought up in the last five minutes. So hopefully, listeners, you're listening, some of those key points. Use the credibility of your team. Use the credibility of your team. But also on top of that, do your research, know the deal, know the ins and outs, to be able to explain the story of the property. Those are huge points right there. To do that, even if you are new, if you can dial those two pieces in, that's going to help you so much more, is rely on that credibility, because it is hard. I have an imposter syndrome. I'm sure when you guys are calling of like, you know, this is hundreds of Thousands of dollars, $500,000 you're raising of people's money. That's a big responsibility. 
S
Speaker 2
28:35
And to be able to do that, you know, you do have to rely on your partners when you're new in this to make sure that's going to happen, the returns are going to happen. Right. So it's a big piece of it. Do your research, rely on the credibility of others to help you. If you don't have that credibility yourself, that's great. So with that, like, what are you guys doing now? You. You raised that $500,000. You did it in five days. First off, congrats. That is awesome. 
S
Speaker 3
29:05
Thank you. 
S
Speaker 2
29:06
What have you done? That was fast track. You guys joined September, so I was probably. October time frame, right? Yep. Now, what have you guys been doing since October? What are you guys working on? You working on anything? Give us a rundown there. 
S
Speaker 1
29:21
Yeah. So we've been taking up more and more with that first property. We started with work orders. Now we're helping manage the property management calls, the weekly property management calls, and slowly gaining more responsibility with that first property. And then were brought on to raise capital for a second property as a gp. And I think this is where Mike and I really found our niche and how to monetize kind of the niche that we're in. But so the second deal that we're working on, we've raised 1.1 million in capital. It hasn't closed yet, but this is where Mike and I really sat down and brainstormed how can we utilize, like, our network to raise capital? And it started with Amazon. So we work in a building with 5,000 employees, white collar employees who are mostly accredited investors. 
S
Speaker 1
30:29
So we've been reaching out to Amazon employees, co workers in the building and then we shamelessly both wear our CM Capital gear in the office. And that's just a talking point. So people come up, you know, not even talking about him. Mike and I would be grabbing a cup of coffee. People are like, oh, what's CM Capital? It just strikes a conversation without us even having to shamelessly talk about what we're doing in the real estate world. And that's opened up a lot of doors from an Amazon perspective. And then I think another thing that they talk about in the training for multi family mindset, which at the time I glossed over but then I realized the importance of it and I'll give, I guess I'll give two different stories to talk about. 
S
Speaker 1
31:16
The importance of it is going to high net worth events and I'll give two, just short, sweet, short and sweet stories. I started playing tennis like six months ago, no, maybe seven to eight months ago. And I was playing against these people and you know, we're just playing for fun. And I learned that one of them works for Oracle, an executive at Oracle. And obviously I'm wearing my CM Capital gear while I'm playing tennis. I mean how could I not? And then free marketing. Yeah, free marketing. We're trying to get more, we need to get more gear. And I find out, executive at Oracle and I just say I work at Amazon. I didn't even bring up anything with our deal and now we play tennis weekly. Became friends and she caught on. Keep seeing that I'm wearing the same capital gear. 
S
Speaker 1
32:15
But now we're starting to tap into another market. They're bringing 8, 500 jobs to Nashville by 2026. So I think that just opened up doors for Mike and I which we're just starting to tap into now. But that's just one story of like just being in high net worth activities like golf or tennis and just being yourself, just being an extrovert, being open, talking to people, just having a, a great mindset and just being friendly. And then another story. I was in Orlando. I had to after peak partnership. I had to go back the week after for work for Amazon and my flight got delayed out of the Orlando airport by seven hours and I was like, oh my goodness, what am I going to do for seven hours? 
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Speaker 1
33:06
So I just, I go sit in a restaurant and I'm just talking to someone to the left of me. They end up being a principal and I'M in my CM Capital hat again. As you can tell, it's free marketing. It's a good way to start conversations. And then they'll eventually ask you what is that? There's a principal to the left of me. We start talking just about what we do and she says she's a principal and I end up telling her about what Mike and I do. And then on the other side of me was a guy who works for waste management. Long story short, you know, flight's delayed for seven hours, so we're talking for a little bit. 
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Speaker 1
33:49
But my two biggest pieces of advice here is both of them, we ended up getting their numbers and talking to them about the deal. But my two biggest pieces of advice here is you don't even need to like force the conversation upon someone. If you're wearing like a, a hat or a T shirt or, you know, just something that has your company on it, people will eventually ask you about that. And then we utilized a lot of Jim Quick's learnings from peak partnership, like saying their name at the beginning of the conversation, saying their name at the ending, and then internally correlating their name to like something we could think about. But my main takeaway here is find out what your superpowers are and what kind of niche you can go into. 
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Speaker 1
34:42
And for Mike and I, that has been kind of the tech world of Nashville, just based on where we're at Amazon. But then also there's so many other avenues you can go like tennis courts, golf courses. I mean, the airport's kind of a gold mine in my mind. 
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Speaker 2
34:59
Yeah, Lots of people traveling, lots of high net worth individuals traveling through the airport. Business trips. Right. They have the layovers or the seven hour delay. Like you know, take advantage of those. Go to the, go to the bar, go to those restaurants, those nicer restaurants. There's always a very nice restaurant in the airport. That's a good point. I mean even pickleball, I hear some people go to pickleball clubs. That's older crowd. And there's high net worth individuals there as well. Those are, those are great points. I love how you brought that up. And the other piece is like just have conversations, you know, don't force them to say, hey, do you want to invest in a deal? Or have you heard about real estate? It's you having conversations with people and at the end of the day that's what it is. 
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Speaker 2
35:41
Get to know them, ask about them. They're, they're going to ask about You. The other key part is get some swag and wear your swag around to market it. I, I always do that. I wear my hat everywhere, my polos, I'm always wearing a bit and repping it. Because the other piece is the identity. Identify yourself as a real estate investor. You buy multifamily properties, identify yourself as that, become that identity. That's going to help you present yourself in that way and get that intrigue from others as well. Those are great points. So I want to pivot a little bit to what's the been the impact of just the MFM network and social media. What's been the impact there since joining just about a year ago. 
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Speaker 3
36:31
Yeah, great question. So I think first we wouldn't be here right now. So it's been pretty incredible and really just, you know, changing. I know Cooper mentioned this earlier, but being able to change your attitude towards life. Right. So I think, I like to think I'm a better person now in my W2 job in real estate and then personally because of that mindset you mentioned, social media. I was very much a person that has it but periodically checks it. But I truly believe it can be an educational platform to teach like minded individuals and I think it's opened up a lot of doors and avenues. 
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Speaker 3
37:19
So I think for those that are a little nervous or hesitant to do social media, if you were to ask me, you know, in August before went to the fast track or joined mfm, I absolutely would not have been a proponent of social media. But the advice I would give to students is leverage social media. It's extremely powerful. You would be shocked at how many people that you work right next to every day or you walk by or you take the bus with are interested in what you're doing. So that would be my 2 cents there. 
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Speaker 1
37:55
I think half of our leads, close to half at least, have been from social media, whether it's Twitter, LinkedIn, Mike's, the LinkedIn SME subject matter experts, or Facebook. I think just posting like a combination of like mindset stuff and then real estate, like either market research or real estate tips is a great course of action. I actually started with just posting mindset stuff and stayed away from real estate. And now I'm pivoting to 5050 mindset in real estate. But I think a lot of people really respect people that go after a strong mindset in today's age. So just plus one to what Mike said. 
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Speaker 2
38:40
Yeah, no, that's awesome. And I know we could probably even dive in deeper into Social media, the impact that has, and we'll probably have to have you guys back on to dive into that and how that's really impacted. You've already gotten investors from that. I know social media is a trigger for a lot of people. It's hard for me. It ends up being a job to get on there and do that. But at the end of the day, be authentic to yourself. Be true to yourself and how you word things and how you share your message. Right. Because people are going to want to know, like, and trust you. So we'll definitely have to have you back on, you know, a few months down the line, I'm sure to bring you back on and talk about how that's impacted your business. 
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Speaker 3
39:20
Yeah. 
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Speaker 2
39:20
But I want to end with one, two more questions that I like to ask our. Our guests, and that's first, how do you define success? 
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Speaker 1
39:31
Yeah, I can take this one, Mike. Yeah, I think I hit on this at the beginning, but I think success starts with a working backwards timeline. You're not going to be successful overnight. I think creating milestones for yourself, whether they're daily, two times a week, something every month, small milestones leading up to an end goal. But as long as you're getting better each day and you can either quantify or speak to what you did to get better each and every day, then you're having success. Whether it's success like you learned how to an intricacy of underwriting, or you learned a new technique for investor relations, or you met a new broker today just having your basically a smart goal, having your milestones mapped out and then maybe a major milestone and then your end goal. 
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Speaker 1
40:32
But if you're getting better each and every day, I would call that a success. 
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Speaker 2
40:38
That's awesome. Fall in love with the process. That's what Dallas Pruitt teaches, is fall in love with the process. And that is what I'm getting from that is success there is how you define it, is hit those goals and try to improve every day is the measure of success there. Awesome. Thank. Thanks, Cooper. And then the next question, Mike, I'll give this one to you. What is the best advice you can give new multifamily investors or MFM students to start in their if they're at the beginning of their journey or even if they're in this a year, two years, like, what's some advice you can. 
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Speaker 3
41:09
Give them, man, how much time do we have? There's so much good stuff. No, just kidding. I think a few things that I'll actually steal from mfm. So in one of Tyler's webinars, he mentioned, you have to get comfortable, you have to be uncomfortable. And I think that was super powerful to me. And Todd Miller actually mentioned this at Peak partnership, right? He said he's an introvert. Coop mentioned earlier, be yourself, be an extrovert. Well, if I was myself, I'm an introvert. Like, he is the talker. I am more of the kind of behind the scenes strategic planner, but getting out of my comfort zone, right? 
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Speaker 3
41:51
Like, I thought I would be the underwriter or the asset manager because I'm in my niche, but I never thought in a million years I would be on as many calls and doing what I'm doing on social media if I didn't get out of my comfort zone. So I think that's a big one. I also think if I didn't get out of my comfort zone, we may not have got in on this first deal and then this upcoming deal, right, where we said, hey, instead of us finding our own and doing this, let's get in one. Learn by doing, learn from within. So I think that's a really big one. Another one. Apply your learnings and tools. So there's a lot of good tools and learnings that we learn every day, right? 
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Speaker 3
42:36
But if you don't apply it, if you don't take the time to actually put into action what you're speaking about or what you're learning about, it's useless, right? So I think that's an important one. And then Jocko Willock. I love Jocko. Having extreme ownership, right? So if you take ownership for everything, you can change your outcomes. So I think those are three kind of big ones for me. But Coop says too. 
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Speaker 2
43:04
Yeah, yeah, those are amazing. Sorry. Go ahead, Coop. 
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Speaker 1
43:08
I just have one quote just to sum it up. It's kind of a combination of everything Mike said. Inaction breeds doubt, action breeds confidence. So the meta point behind that is never give up. Create an action plan for yourself. Get better each and every day. And confidence will come. Like, I cannot say were confident when in fasttrack, were raising on our first day calling potential investors. Like, we definitely weren't confident.  but, you know, we kept. We persevered through the process. So if there's ever a day when you're not feeling confident in yourself, just persevere through that day. You're gonna have up days, you're gonna have good days, you're gonna have bad days. But just remember that action breeds confidence, practice breeds Confidence and just stick with your program. 
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Speaker 2
44:01
I love it. Thanks so much guys. We'll do a quick recap for our listeners. Some things I took away from this is big piece mindset. A growth mindset really can make an impact in your business for closing on deals, doing real estate, but also in your life. It affects everything and improves that which is going to continue to just have a compound effect. Second is take immediate and massive action. You guys learn something in the same day. You turn around and you imply that and you took that massive action. And then the third is surround yourself with other like minded individuals. Be a part of a group, a mentorship. Go to locations where there's high net worth individuals, golf, tennis, the airport and surround yourself with people. That's going to push you out of your comfort zone so you can continue to improve. 
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Speaker 2
44:54
Those are just a few and there are so many. This was jam packed with so many tools tips for our listeners. So if you miss some of it, go back relisten to this podcast in this episode because there's so much great things to take away from this. But with that Uber and Mike I this has been awesome. We included your social media links, your website, it's in the show notes for our listeners to get a hold of you and then to our listeners. Yeah, if you want to connect, look in the show notes. You'll find the links to to Cooper and Michael and with that I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for taking your time out of your day to give back to our listeners and share your experience with them. You're an inspiration. 
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Speaker 2
45:35
Inspiration for sure to them and for me. So I appreciate you guys and to our listeners. We'll. We'll hear you next time. Come. Sorry, let me bring that back to our listeners. Listen on Thursday as Dallas will bring out some of the mindset principles that we talked about today. Thanks guys. 
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Speaker 1
45:58
Thanks for having us Zach. And thank you. We're super grateful for everyone that listened in. 
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Speaker 3
46:02
Yep. Thanks Zach. And thank you to the MFM family for making all this happen. We're extremely grateful. 
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Speaker 2
46:09
Awesome. We'll see you guys. 
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Speaker 1
46:11
Multifamily mindset podcast Think bigger.