Funds on Fire
Welcome to Funds on Fire, hosted by Devin Robinson—a seasoned fund manager with years of experience launching, managing, and scaling multiple successful investment funds. Devin has also helped numerous entrepreneurs ignite their own fund ventures. This podcast is your go-to guide for mastering the world of investment funds and capital raising.
In each episode, Devin dives deep into the essential aspects of fund management, SEC compliance, and strategic capital raising, sharing the insights that have powered his own success. Alongside solo episodes filled with practical advice, you’ll hear from top fund managers whose funds are truly on fire. These industry leaders reveal the strategies, tactics, and stories behind their remarkable success.
Whether you’re an emerging fund manager or a seasoned professional aiming for greater heights, Funds on Fire delivers the knowledge and inspiration you need to take your funds to the next level. Subscribe today and turn your financial ambitions into a blazing success!
Funds on Fire
From Homeless to Self-Storage Mogul: Stratton Brown's Journey | Ep. 10
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Ever wonder how someone goes from literally borrowing gas money to building a real estate empire? That's exactly what Stratton Brown did, and on this episode, he reveals the raw, unfiltered journey that transformed his life.
Stratton shares the pivotal moment when everything changed—having to call his mom for $20 to fuel his car one day, then having $30,000 in his bank account the next. This kickstarted his career in real estate wholesaling, which evolved into self-storage investments and a successful virtual assistant staffing company. With refreshing candor, he admits to losing $50-100K annually on experimental ventures while still building multiple seven-figure businesses.
What makes this conversation particularly valuable is Stratton's practical approach to breaking into commercial real estate without massive capital. He details how he acquired self-storage facilities with creative financing—as little as 10% down and interest rates as low as 2-3%. One property purchased for $900K with $300K down is projected to be worth $1.7-2M after improvements. These aren't theoretical strategies—they're real deals he's completed and currently manages.
The episode also dives deep into how Stratton built a personal brand that attracts deal flow and investment capital. His advice? Document your journey from day one, even if you're just starting out. Years later, people who followed his progress—including his former college strength coach—reached out to invest in his deals. This organic approach to capital raising has allowed him to fund deals without traditional marketing.
As we look toward 2025, Stratton shares his market outlook and why he believes now is the time to acquire commercial properties, particularly with 100% bonus depreciation returning. Whether you're just starting in real estate or looking to scale into larger commercial deals, this conversation provides a blueprint worth following.
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Meeting Stratton Brown: Wholesaler & Conference Creator
Speaker 1What's up, welcome back On this episode.
Speaker 1We dive in and I interview a good friend, stratton, out of Fresno. He is an amazing wholesaler of real estate. He does some self-storage stuff also owns a virtual assistant staffing company and then runs a really awesome conference that I had the pleasure of going to and I mean honestly, I have to say it is probably one of the best conferences I've ever been to. They did a phenomenal job, really knocked it out of the park. And I've ever been to. They did a phenomenal job, really knocked it out of the park. And I've, like, run a conference before. I've been a part of conferences, I've spoken at a bunch of conferences. This thing was incredible. He really, really did a great job, and so I definitely have to make sure that I give him his praise for that, because it was fantastic and then really excited about this episode to be able to for us to finally connect, for me to dive into, chat with him, see what makes him go tick. He has a really cool story of how he's gone from literally nothing zero dollars, borrowing gas money to really like, literally the next day, life-changing money, and then just taking off from there and then serving the community at a really high level that he operates in, so really excited for us to dive into this. I appreciate you all for listening. Super thankful for you. But let's dive in to the show.
Speaker 1Welcome to Funds on Fire, the podcast that ignites the passion of investment funds and capital raising. Here we turn the complexities of fund management into clear, actionable steps that drive results. I've invested into diverse real estate across the United States and managed thriving funds, and I'm committed to transforming lives through the vehicle of investment funds and helping others to do the same. Join me as we document the journey of scaling businesses, raising capital and impacting tens of thousands of people around the world. My name is Devin Robinson and welcome to Funds on Fire. What's up and welcome. Yeah, man, stratton, I'm so pumped that you are here today.
Speaker 1One like Stratton, I feel like you and I we've been friends for a little while but we don't like we've never actually like really chopped it up together. We've always been like yo just let's jump on this call, let's do this, let's do that, and we actually do have really cool calls and conversations together over the phone. I'm really excited to get together with you in person in a couple of weeks, but one of the things that like, just honestly, just looking over, looking back from afar, like 30,000 of you, I'm kind of just looking at what you're doing and all these things. I'm just really one encouraged by you. I'm encouraged by your hustle. I'm also encouraged by the way that you give so much to your community.
Speaker 1So, like you really do, you do like a fantastic job sharing some of the stories that you have, showing people hey look, this is how I'm doing exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker 1This is what you should do to go find this. And then I'm always seeing you going live with people giving a ton of value, and it's just a really cool testament to you. The way you give back to your community. And then also I think partially too is a big reason why you're successful as you are and, as we talked about before this, how you could just get straight to the money. You know what I'm saying, so I appreciate you, man, being on this podcast today. I'm excited to dive into a little bit about your story, what you're doing, what you're doing in self-storage and even what you're doing, because I know you have a conference coming up that I'm excited and pumped to be at, just to watch and to get a bunch of value from just because you've set up such a great event, and so I'm pumped for you to be here. Man, tell the people who you are, where you're from and what you do, man.
Speaker 2My name is Stratton Brown. I'm from a small town in Utah Wholesale houses, we own a virtual assistant company and we buy cell storage. And then we just I got this deal sent to me this morning. That's a bigger like flex space deal that we'll see if we can take down. But typically, like we've I've had I think I've been in business since I was like 22, 23 years old and I've had like not eight or nine different businesses at that point where, like I'm I'm good at I was talking to cloney about this I probably lose 50 to 100 grand a year at least in some new venture, some new thing I wanted to invest in, whatever it is. I I would probably lose 50 to 100 grand a year at least in some new venture, some new thing I wanted to invest in, whatever it is, I'm good for a 50 to 100K loss on something Okay, like do I think we could spin this out and make it big, yes or no? Let's see if we can do it.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think that's awesome, though, cause I think one you're not afraid to fail, not afraid to fail, not afraid to take risks, and I think that's what makes great entrepreneurs the people that are willing to go out and do what other people aren't willing to do, what's uncomfortable. I also think of, like Jerry Jones, who failed a lot of times before he finally struck it rich, and then now the dude owns the Dallas Cowboys. So there's that.
Speaker 2Do you listen to Founders Podcast bro?
Speaker 1I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2It actually is on my list to listen to, but then I look at it and I'm like, oh, two hours, bro. Most of them are like 45 minutes to an hour and a half. I just listened to the one on Jerry Jones Very, very interesting, and I can see why the Cowboys operate the way they do. But I think if you are an entrepreneur, I wish I would have had Founders Podcast when I was 22 years old. I wish I would have had Founders Podcast when I was 22 years old. I wish I would have had Founders Podcast and Hormozy, because it would have put a lot more into perspective on time.
Speaker 2And then getting your absolute ass kicked day in and day out, because, as a young man, all you had was the internet and the internet just telling you that everything should be sunshine and rainbows all the time. And then you listen about these. Even Rockefeller got his ass, beat All these people over and I'm really like the robber baron era right Of, like the early 90s, like these absolute maniacs of men who knew nothing bro, like these. Dudes are not college educated, they're just dudes doing deals on paper and pencil and building billion dollar companies, and they still would get slaughtered and then bounce back and come back. That's why I think it's so good, because it shows you the amount of time it takes to really build something special to where most of the people who I know who are big on social and they said they built something big when we were young are probably going to go to jail now.
Speaker 1You wouldn't be. I mean, you would be surprised. It's funny because even just like on that level, you see a lot of people. I think when I think about jail, I think all about. I always think about, like SEC violations. I'm like there's a lot of people raising capital like they should not be, that like you just go out, but but it's not because like they don't, it's because they're just like gun ho, going to get it started going and just doing it and then they end up doing something that they shouldn't be doing because they didn't do the due diligence to realize that's probably illegal.
Speaker 1But they were going out and they were doing it and making it happen. I also think it speaks like a lot of the stuff that you were just talking about, a lot of things you see in a lot of these founders. You think of the meme where the guy's like digging, digging for gems.
From Skateboarding Dreams to Football Reality
Speaker 1The one person gets so close and turns around and he's so close and the other person just keeps on going. And it makes me think about, like, what I know about you and your story a little bit is you've gone through a lot of ups and downs, like you've gone through, I think. Just I think at one point and you could talk about this, I think it'd be cool At one point you are pro skateboarder and then in the NFL, and then another point you were homeless, and then now you're back to doing real estate and syndicating, syndicating self-storage units, and so, like, what's that journey been like for you, as you've continued to push, push, push, fail, push, push, push, fail. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2It's been hard. I couldn't have done it without Kalani.
Speaker 1And Kalani is who.
Speaker 2My life partner essentially, um, I couldn't have done it without her. I was never a pro skateboarder, but I wanted to be a pro skateboarder when I was like, call it 12 to 14, I was really into skateboarding and I was like I was gung-ho on skateboarding. If you I'm 30 now I just turned 30 if you're my age, you know and you like skateboarding, you know who nija houston is I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, long, long dreads.
Speaker 2Bro Nija was the man when we were kids and he's still the best skateboarder in the world and so I was like bro, if he could do it, I could do it. And then my dad sat me down one day. He was like Strat, either you're going to be watching these football games or I was bigger, I was faster, like I was a really good athlete and so at that point I quit skateboarding and then I was like for from call it 15 on I was in four or five sports like I'd full-time. I was on junior national USA rugby team so I traveled to Europe and everything else with USA. I played basketball, lettered and track, played football and I just did those sports full-time and that's what I did all high school. I had scholarships in three different sports.
Speaker 2Coming out of high school ended up going with football. I thought I was slept on because I had like some D1 AA offers and this goes into just betting on yourself and I was like, okay, I can either go to a junior college with a full ride or take like this partial D1 AA offer. Go to a junior college with a full ride or take like this partial d1 double a offer. So I went to my junior college balled out, got scholarships from like utah byu, and then I was talking to oregon, washington state and fresno state called and they were ranked like 15th in the country when davante and derrick were there yeah, and I was like, oh yeah, I'll go there.
Speaker 2So I go there. Um, I don't really play a lot at the beginning. It was a big learning curve. And then finally, I get on the field, my senior year. I'm all conference 17th in the country in tackles. I get a shot with Seattle. Nothing really came from it. I could have bounced around and tried to play, but there's a very, very large gap. And the NFL dudes who are doing it, and even just regular college players it's huge, bro. And I'm not even blaming politics. I just don't think I balled like that in order to get a spot. But I know dudes who are really talented and they got kind of ousted by politics. So, right, all that happens.
Speaker 2At that point all I wanted to do was like make a hundred grand a year, and so I knew I could make a hundred. I like, okay, I'm starting a home inspection business. I start the home inspection business. I do like one mock inspection on the rental I'm living in. I go through the crawl space. It's like, bro, I'm never fucking doing this again, ever bro. I was like I don't know what's down here, I'm gonna get bit by something. It's human. I was like I'm just not doing this, and so at that point I had that home inspection business that I started, spent a thousand bucks and some change, getting a bunch of like ladders and stuff I was going to carry around on my car and just like go and do stuff.
Going Broke and Making a Comeback
Speaker 2And then I was going to meetups. I met a guy. I ended up working for him, ran a lot of his day to day and then I broke off on my own, proceeded to go broke then proceeded to essentially be homeless. I ended up moving in with Kalani and then from there we finally got some traction in the wholesale space again, like and I'm doing my presentation on this in a couple weeks at Dill Champ Summit. It was so bad to where I had to go pick up my son down in bakersfield. I had to call my mom for 20 bucks till I go pick him up. And I got there and I ran out of gas and I had to call my mom for another 20 bucks to get home, but then the next day I had 30 000 dollars in my account.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's crazy. It's like that was like I'd say that was like the first big check. That was a game changer. And then from there I mean we've still had all sorts of ups and downs. If you're in business, I'd say it's majority downs and just getting through it until you get those little wins and then it feels good, then you continue. If you want to grow, at least to get your face kicked in, because a lot of people stop because, like they know, I personally feel like the entrepreneurs who stop growing. They've just decided I'm happy with this life and I know what it's going to take in order for me to like get something new, and I just don't want to continue this treadmill of getting kicked in the face.
Speaker 1That's the thing with real estate in general. You know, you, like, we go through these ups and downs cycles. You know we just come out of a cycle Like I don't know how, but single, like our single families, like our single family, our fund, our single family fund, last year, I mean, just got felt like we got kicked in the teeth over and over and over because, like, deals weren't selling, deals are sitting on the market and you can't control the worst housing market in the last 30 years. All you could control on is that you continue to go, that you continue to keep moving forward, and it's those little ones that keep pushing you back up to the top, making you feel better and better and better and better. And so that's the goal for what we do.
Speaker 1Right, like I think I heard, like your first deal, you know, got you like $1,500 and then that deal, right there, hit you to $30,000. And then now you started other companies that crashed and burned, and then you started the VA company, and the VA company is. Is that something that you currently continue to run and add it as almost like a vertical to what you're doing, or do you is that a service that you're offering to other people?
Speaker 2No, that's a service that we offer to other people. I love that company because it's really easy for us to run it. Cash flows great. It's not management intensive.
Speaker 2When we when you saw me go on Steve's podcast at that point we had a hundred something employees. That was a lot. I didn't like that. I didn't like it and I was like, okay, if I'm going to build another company and I have hundreds of employees, if I'm not making hundreds of millions of dollars, what am I doing? Like cause, like it was, we had a whole HR department, right. So I had an HR department and we'd always have people issues and just like the logistics of it and having to manage that was more than I'd wanted for the amount of money that that that company was shooting off.
Speaker 2And then I did the math and I was like, if I'm going to make the amount of money I really want to make, I'm going to need to add on several thousand more employees. And I was like that that's not going to happen. There's no way, I don't want to do this. And so we kind of pivoted it.
Speaker 2I broke off from my partner and then now that company's rebranded as Virtual Help and we help people staff up really, really world-class talent into certain roles I think regular virtual assistants will be gone away here pretty soon but really talented people from across the world where, if you can make your hiring pool global, you can get cheaper labor and you can get better, cheaper labor to where in call magicians. We had a manager for us who had a master's in bioengineering and it was like five bucks an hour. You know what I'm saying. So I got someone who could think at a completely different rate than I would have. Obviously, that doesn't directly correlate, but it shows you that someone they have a little bit of horsepower up there. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, there's no doubt. I had a VA, or I still have a VA, and the guy's on the bar in Egypt and it's like $5 an hour. He's on the bar, like what? And it's crazy the amount of work, the work that you can get and the competency level, which is significantly higher, and so what makes it makes it? I mean, honestly, I would love to hear for you how do you manage the people that you have in-house? You know, cause, like I know, I don't know if you have people that are stateside and then you have VA. Never you have people that are stateside and then you have VA Never.
Speaker 2I've only had like one stateside employee.
Speaker 1Okay, so then you've got mostly VAs, and how has that been in helping to honestly increase profitability for your company? And then also, like, how do you build a good culture when you have a virtualist I guess a majority staff of virtual assistants, people that are outside of the country?
Speaker 2It's hard, and that goes into another reason of why I wanted to pivot call magicians. Because there was a call center and I have a good friend named Scott Morse who runs a call center down in Columbia and I was like, can we replicate the same thing virtually? And I don't think we could like culturally, but like one thing that we would do is we'd throw parties for people. So we had, let's say, out of those 100 plus employees, we'd have 30 percent in egypt, 30 percent in like mexico area, we'd have another, another like I wouldn't say 30 percent, 10 percent in like down in south america, and then another 30 in the philippines, and so each person get like we'd pick a team manager over there and then they'd throw a party right. So like they'd throw a party for everybody, I'd be like all right, just send me the receipt.
Speaker 1Yeah, and then You're almost creating like a almost like a little like a culture for them over there and facilitating that from here, we'd still do like Halloween contests, so like on Halloween, like let me see your costumes.
Speaker 2One thing I got from Rafael Cortez, it's just every day, what is something you're grateful for and what's something good that happened to you, and then it's still just holding people accountable. And then, when they come in, obviously and this gets into the same stuff that if you are into like business, like, but you just got to cast the vision every day where are we going? What are we doing? What acceptable and having meetings, I think, is good. I don't believe in one-on-ones, because I like to just be direct all the time and be like hey, dude, this work is shit. What's going on here is something going on, and I'd rather address it right then and there and just have a conversation with them person to person, because that's just how I like to operate.
Speaker 2I'm a real big fan of like Ray Dalio, yeah, and what he built over at Bridgewater, and so like. If you can apply some of that of like a meritocracy and everybody knows where they're at, it's a lot easier, but I'd say, yeah. The best way to do it, though, is in person. As we start new stuff, we'll obviously go in person if we want to get bigger and bigger and bigger. But I mean, bro, you could make a really really good living even just on the single family side. All we have is VAs and AI and nothing. For most people They'd be very happy with that life.
The VA Staffing Company Evolution
Speaker 1Yeah, and I'd love to talk about that a little bit more. It's funny that you mentioned Ray Dalio. I love Ray Dalio. Have you so like? There's a book called the Fund and it's about, like, the negative side of Bridgewater. Have you read that?
Speaker 2No, and I've heard that some people like absolutely hate Bridgewater and Ray Dalio.
Speaker 1Yeah, oh yeah, and this book is definitely like that. But like and I actually I actually liked the book. I'll tell you cause like Ray Dalio became Ray Dalio because he's Ray Dalio, right. And so then you come up with principles and there's going to be people that don't like it, but there's a lot of that that I learned. I was like, oh man, if I want to build something, probably big like that, I probably need to grow a backbone a little bit more. I probably need to grow a little bit more of a backbone, because when I read Bridge, they're just going to interpret it, interpret that the wrong way, and then they're like interpretations of the situation is going to be very skewed, and so you always have to take stuff like that with a grain of salt.
Speaker 1But the fund that it's called Sorry, the book is called the Fund and it is like insane. So good book. I would suggest it, especially if you like Ray Dalio and then like take it with a grain of salt. But suggest it especially if you like Ray Dalio and then like take it with a grain of salt. But it's a. It's what it was Now you talked about. It's a very interesting you're talking. So one thing that I love talking about is like one raising capital and then self-storage, and so I'd love to hear like are you and you may not be, and I didn't talk about this before Do you use your VAs for anything as far as like raising capital or self-storage, or automating those processes, or even like?
Speaker 2you can use them in self-storage. I don't use them for raising capital. I feel like to me, we're not big enough to where I need to outsource raising capital, and I don't only the best funds in the world can you outsource raising capital. More than likely, you are the golden child and everybody believes in your mind child and that's why they're giving you money. Like you are still the face of it. And this is just my thought process because, like, if I'm going to give my hard-earned money to someone, I don't want to give it to some fucking associate. I'd want to know, like, okay, so what does joshua think, especially if you're raising billions, like if you're going to go to jp morgan and you're like, bro, we need a billion dollars because we're going to go do this and this, you're talking to JP Morgan, not some fucking associate is going to be talking to JP Morgan. So I just think, when it comes to that, maybe they could help on the administrative side, but for the majority of the time, you're going to be the one rowing the boat. You're going to be the face, because the people believe in you.
Speaker 2People follow Bill Ackman on Twitter for a reason, like I love Bill Ackman. Yeah, I think he's one of my favorite entrepreneurs of all time Nice and he runs a fund. Obviously, everybody invests in Bill. Bill could rename his company Perishing Square right now. Nobody give two shits, it's Bill the brainchild. Yeah, okay, yeah, bill's the brainchild. All right, sweet, let's go.
Speaker 1Now for you, though, because I think there's a lot to play in here. So there's a lot of people that are listening to this podcast, and if they are listening to this podcast, they're probably interested in raising capital or in a fund, and I think the quickest way to scale is to hire good people, like really good people. If you actually want to replace yourself, buy back your time, make sure that you do. What's in your zone is genius. So where do you see people that would be listening to a podcast like this, or people?
Speaker 2that run funds or do things like that. They could use virtual assistants in their business. Majority of your administrative things, I would say, is administrative things customer support, you name it but when it comes to making phone calls to investors, bro, bro, that's gotta be you. I call our investors once and I'll just call them and talk to them. I know about their kids, I know about their families.
Speaker 2Obviously, when you hit scale, you're not gonna be able to do that and for some of it I would personally rather have less investors but more, just like big ticket investors. They may, I may, be put over a barrel at times, but it's a lot easier on me to manage those relationships than have, like a Grant Cardone model, which I think is absolute hell, but only he could pull it off with his reach, or even Pace, but at the same time. So I love Pace. Pace will be speaking at our event and he's a mentor and a friend. Only Pace could have that many investors and still have relationships with that many investors.
Self-Storage Deals and Creative Financing
Speaker 2Unless, like, unless you're going to take this thing public, I feel like you still want to have some type of personal touch, because if you look at let's just say so one thing that was really great area was the amazon automation stuff to where they were selling a bunch of these stores, and it really was a security, if you think about it. Like and that's why a lot of these dudes are going to go to jails because it was a security. Those guys didn't have relationships with everybody who they sold to and they had a bunch of sales reps, and so what happened when shit started to hit the fan? Lawsuits, because, like, when you, when you're going to have someone's, you're always going to get into issues with money and everything else. Again, business is not always going to go right. If you can outperform the S&P 500, you're probably a really, really good investor. You're probably like a great like Monish Pabrai, bro. I saw his stats the other day. Monish has not beat the fucking S&P over the last 10 years and he's considered one of the best investors.
Speaker 1Yeah, I was going to say I don't think anybody's beat the S&P Right.
Speaker 2And think about that. Like, monish Pabrai is an amazing investor, he has a fund, he's obviously in the stock market and so, like you just want to, for me, I want everything to be personal. What could we? We use va for vas for everything operationally and I we don't even consider them vas. It's just different employees to where they can handle everything operationally marketing sales for the storage side. As we ramp up, we could have them running sales for us.
Speaker 2But if I'm going to take your hard-earned money, I'd like to have that conversation and that may just be. You need to find out what your unique ability is, because it might be your partner. Who is that person? And this could be different from your school of thought Because, like, there's operators, there's capital raisers, there's salesmen, but the capital raiser is a different type of salesman than the actual salesman in the sales seat. And so find out what your unique ability is to where, like today, I just got done walking this $8 million property.
Speaker 2It's funny that I did it. And then I had this and I called my friend. I was like hey bro, here's what I'm thinking and this is one of my partners, what? And he's like okay, the numbers sound really good, the rents are like 30 bucks a square foot, a 30 cents a square foot, I think they could be 86 cents a square foot. They're all the month leases, for the person who brought it to me is a good friend of mine, is a broker and we think we could get it there in like two to three years.
Speaker 2It's just figuring out what the capex is he's like. All right, let me send this to my other partner who does a bunch of gas stations. See what he thinks he's familiar with commercial. If he gives it a go, then we'll all go out and raise the cash. But that's just because we're all talented at raising cash. So so I can raise some, he can raise some, his partner can raise some. That I'll probably call Jason and I'll be like Jason. I know you own one of these. Will you hop in on this? That way we can cover our ass is what I think about. Like I want someone who's experienced in this and I'll give up as much equity as I need to, just so I know that we're safe and comfortable.
Speaker 1Yeah, and at the end of the day too, because you have a fiduciary responsibility if you're managing other people's money, to make sure that you're safe and comfortable. So, yeah, you got to. Yeah, exactly, that's important. So now you you've done, and I'm very curious because, like I think a really cool thing that, too, people don't often think about is, I think people will go and they'll look and they'll go. Okay, how do I get started into self-storage or finding some of these deals? And you're using, or you have used, virtual assistants to cold call and to call like bigger. So of course, we used it for single family properties, but now you use it also for self-storage, or what's one of the main ways that you're finding some of your deals, whether it be self-storage or whether it be the flex space or I know that you're thinking about getting a little bit more into, like, the PE side. Where do you feel like you're-.
Speaker 2Brands yeah, you're forcing these things Cold calling. I mean cold calling. For sure you can have a VA cold call cell storage, but like we have stuff come in inbound internet wise to where, like we just had a random one in like Gerald Oklahoma, that's 10,000 square feet, it's feet, it's 100 vacant. He wanted like 30 grand how did you?
Speaker 1how did you find that? How do you get that?
Speaker 2it may not even be worth fucking 30 grand, bro. There's a surprising amount of self-storage within the area and that is interesting right, and so you don't want to have too much of it.
Speaker 2and that came in through the internet, through um real estate bees I'm, luckily enough no majority of the PPL providers and so I have just like hey bro, like, send me your commercial stuff and we'll buy it Nice, and so, like we get it through there. Cold calling. We did mail for self storage and it didn't really perform for us. Cold calling performed well for us, but now it just kind of comes in through word of mouth, internet leads. If we wanted to start again, I could do cold calling again, the cold calling stuff. I think it works great. It's just gonna take a while. So, like, because commercial and if you're coming from a single family space, commercial, significantly slower, bro, way slower so slower cash conversion cycles, but like higher profitability I would imagine bigger deals, like you can do bigger deals, but then someone like you could make 40K a deal wholesaling cell storage.
Speaker 2I was like, bro, if you're getting a deal that's over 10,000 square feet, you should just keep it. And you could wholesale a house in California and make 40K, right and like that. That makes more sense for your money. And what else could they use? And your VAs could cold call. Your VAs can underwrite Operator chat GPT operator can almost run comps for you now, which is pretty cool, but I'd say I mean it's if you want to market for them. It's no different than your single family stuff and you just apply it to the same thing, even on like the PE side that we were looking at like buying companies.
Speaker 1I just used a different data provider and applied the tools and it's still where it's marketing is marketing, bro, you just want to get the phone to ring and then hop on the phone with people and see how they're doing. Yeah, that's right now, do you? I'm curious for you. So are you going in like raising a bunch of the capital or are you doing certain because I know you talk about seller financing stuff because I think seller financing has plays a pretty big part in the potential to be able to, especially with businesses and self-storage things like that Are you using a lot of creative financing and seller financing for those?
Speaker 2Yeah, the two that we just sold one we bought that one at 10% down, 500, 3% interest. That one was a killer deal. The other one we own right now up in Northern California 2% interest, $900k purchase, $300k down and it'll be worth $1.7 to $2 million when we're done.
Speaker 1Nice, Are you GPLPing some of these things, or do you just have individual investors that come in help you to put down the down payment? You're splitting the upside with them there's not financial advice?
Speaker 2of course not, and I'm not a securities attorney with one of them. I just called two of my friends and beg hey, bro, send me 50 grand, let's go buy this thing. I think it's a good deal and I, I can get you a 12 return, all right, cool. And then they got a what?
Speaker 2they doubled their money in 18 months so you forced appreciation we just did an LLC, oh yeah, and that makes total sense. But there was only three of us and it was like personal relationships with the other one. That was like a $350. I ended up raising $450 for it. Much different we have a securities attorney. On that one we had everything above board and everything else. And that was my first one too. So I was like all right, I might as well go through it. I raised enough to cover the securities attorney anyways. So it wasn't that big of a deal and I'd say I raise as much as I can raise if I don't think I can get it. And I need to connect with my friend Lame. He's a capital raising master. Nice, he'll be at the event. I mean, he buys like a hundred houses a year like, buys them creatively and keeps them, and he raises all of the money for the creative stuff for the down payment.
Speaker 2I'd love to connect with them and so like if I need something and I know it's in like one of my friend's wool houses or it's in their area bag hey bro, I'm looking at this. You think we could make this pencil and do you want to raise some capital for this? And they can say yes or no.
Speaker 1Boom, yeah, that makes sense. On some of those did you like force, so then you like went in. Do you find that All forced?
Speaker 2appreciation.
Speaker 1Yeah, Is it by like automating the processes and system reducing staff costs, or does you mostly just go into like raise the rents and then that ends up taking care of most of it?
Speaker 2Both. One of them, raising the rents, was all we had to do. The other one it was a complete turnaround. But I think what? Because, like we have our ERC company, I raised 100% of that and we took that company to a million dollars net in less than 12 months and that was still just like hey, here's the idea I have. I know we have. We got extra amount returned based off of my testing, and we went out and raised three different investors and they threw in like 300 or 400 grand Nice and we did almost multiple seven figures.
Speaker 1It's awesome because I think a lot of times when people think about getting into like the higher asset classes or they're like I want to jump in and listening to these podcasts, I've been reading these books, I've been doing these things and I want to jump into doing self-storage, I feel like we tend to overcomplicate it. I feel like we tend to think, okay, if it costs eight, eight million, I need to get eight million and then I need to figure out where to find these. But it sounds like with some VAs, with the right list, and then with a couple of good friends or some people that you know, with some money that can help you to creatively structure something, you can start getting into your first deals relatively quickly. I want to take a quick second to talk to you guys about something that could completely change the game for you. If you're serious about launching and scaling an investment fund, if you've ever wanted to start a real estate fund, private equity fund or syndication but didn't know where to start, this is for you.
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Speaker 2I think so. Yes, I think it's easy for me to get into deals because I built a very good name for myself and I've built my brand and people have seen what I've built. So by the time I bought my first storage facility, I bought three houses first and I had that proof of concept and then I went to all these masterminds and people could see that like I've been educating myself on these things. So it's not like overnight I spent between me and clonny we probably spent 80 grand to 100 grand in education on that stuff, just to like learn it, get to know it. Fucking forfeited emds, travel costs, right, backing out of like three different deals that didn't make sense in due diligence, and then we finally find one that we want and then it's easy to raise capital from there because people like, oh wow, so stratton's grown. Wow, you go with this company to seven figures. Wow, you're already on a rental portfolio. Oh, wow, you go another company to seven figures. Like next time you want to do something, bro, just like let me know I'd be interested and that's just been from putting my name in the game. And then I actively do like the meetups and stuff, so it keeps the social relevance, so I can actively raise capital whatever I need to. And you wouldn't think you're and this is like for someone basic you wouldn't think you're like raising capital. But let's say, for our zero to a million challenge, I paid for nothing. That's still raising capital. But let's say, for our zero to a million challenge, I paid for nothing. That's still raising capital.
Building a Personal Brand From Scratch
Speaker 2The PPL companies, provided all the leads, that would have been that's a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of capital on their end to invest into that challenge. The CRM, at least $20,000 worth of capital on their end. And you can name off all of these things. That's why I think it stems from number one, it's confidence. Number two, it's competence. And if I have the track record behind me, then it's. Then it's easy Like hey, here's my idea, here's what I think I can do, and then we've never lost money. I would rather and I would still rather, let's say, if we have a deal that goes bad and I know we should just offload it, I would much rather come out of pocket and pay the prep and offload the deal than just sell the deal and then just keep it going and then that way those people still want to invest. They may not be very happy that we didn't get like a huge upside, but they didn't lose money. They didn't lose money.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's a good part. Lose money? Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1And they made money, yeah, and they made money, and that's a big key man, I think, if you can be able to limit, and I think that's so important when people think, because here's the really, here's the really like sexy part about raising capital is you can go hey, I have, I can go, and it's eight million dollars or like a million dollars, I can go and raise a100,000 and not have to put any of my own money in. So then I don't have any skin in the game, because it's really popular to use OPM right Other people's money to do things and not have skin in the game. But it's also very, very important to go if it hits the fan. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure all is right, and I think that's where people get in trouble, is where they go. Well, that's real estate or that's the risk you run.
Speaker 1And so it's so important for you because I think we're going to transition into this, because you brought this up important to build a brand and then create a brand that people can see, I guess, day in and day out, and trust that it works. And so for you, how should somebody go about building a brand if they don't have an Instagram following like you do. They don't have the ability to start and run a meetup. How should somebody begin to build their brand? Because we keep hearing this and I think, personally, your brand is the number one asset that you have and when it comes outside of time and stuff like that, the number one asset that you have and when it comes outside of time and stuff like that, the number one asset that you have that will make you successful moving forward and in the future. I think personal brand is going to set most people that become really wealthy in the future apart.
Speaker 2So you say they may not have a big meetup like us, they may not have a big Instagram like me, but I still started at zero. I've just been doing it longer for my and I remember this specifically when I first started my meetup and I was like barely doing any deals, we ran one when I was running the other investors company and he was like bro, just take it, like I don't want to fucking do this. I was like sweet, I'll see what I can get out. Bro. There was like two months in a row where I ran the meetup and nobody fucking showed up. You know what I'm saying. And then I just kept doing it and then I figured out like okay, well, what is good? People don't want to hear about Stratton Brown, people want to hear about other people, and so I that's. I was essentially just doing like a podcast before podcasts were a thing and I'd bring in a speaker and I'd interview them, and so like that's how I started my meetup.
Speaker 2I think starting a meetup is really easy on like meetupcom and just reach out to the biggest investor in town. If they don't have a meetup, just ask them like, hey, will you come speak at this meetup? I'd love to have you and just give back to the community. That is an easy one to start building your local brand and that way you're giving back. You don't have to be the one like who's forward facing and everything else and then like, as far as Instagram, and I'd tell you, pick a vertical. I still think I love TikTok. I think it's the greatest app that's ever been made. Yes, it is 100% a national security risk that should be taken seriously.
Speaker 1It's true, but who cares?
Speaker 2But who gives a shit? It is the best app ever. I love it, bro. I have to delete it off my phone. I love it so much.
Speaker 2I think you should start there when I'm thinking about like building a brand Because, like capital raising wise though I would say Twitter is one thing I would have taken a lot more seriously. A dude named Nick Huber raised, I bet you he has a hundred million dollar portfolio and he raised all his capital through Twitter of him, just like talking on Twitter. So Twitter's good. Facebook is still good when it comes to being able to raise capital, and this is just me. You want people to see that, the way that you think, and get to know you and like you. So if you could follow like a, my posts are to, let's say, regular instagram posts are to just like give people an insight into who I am, stories or where they build relationships with me.
Speaker 2My facebook posts, where I'm writing, they get to see how I process things, how I think and the lessons that I learn, and same with twitter, and then, like an email newsletter, if you like, want to take it there and so that way, like you, have an omnipresence around them and they can see exactly how you process problems, how you solve things, how you handle yourself, and they can see like, okay, well, here's this family. And then now, like they see you go snowboarding, now they really resonate with you and everything is there. Because when you talk about raising capital, especially at the beginning, you are only going to raise capital from your friends and family because they know I can trust you. So they don't need to see these Instagram stories and these Instagram posts. They already know you. They already know that you do what you say you're going to do and everything else.
Speaker 2Now, the rest of that is to show more people that you do what you're saying you're going to do and then to show the results that you did do what you said you're going to do. And then, hey, it is a little bit of like beating your chest of, hey, look what I did here. We just made x amount of dollars, but then you got to show somehow that the fund returned money and made money. So that's how I would approach it. You can stick, stick to one TikTok. I don't have it mastered, but I still think it's the best way to get viral and like, get stuff going. But the best way to build a brand is to do something exceptional, and so if you have done anything in the past, you at least want to talk about that on a consistent basis, so somebody knows that you're actually credible.
Speaker 1Yeah, and it's funny because you said the best way to build a brand is to do something exceptional, and I think that's really good, and I think sometimes people go well, I haven't done anything exceptional. But I think about the quote what's ordinary to you is extraordinary to somebody else. And so the fact that you're even doing stuff you're you're making waves, you're doing stuff, you're closing deals, you're going to a property that you're flipping or you're walking an $8 million project, the fact that you're actually just doing that is extraordinary and exceptional to somebody else, and so I think we negate the whole. I mean, gary Vee has been talking about this for years, just documenting the journey and then reproducing it onto these or regurgitating, reproducing it onto these different outlets like TikTok and Twitter, and it's really funny because everything I you know, like everything I listen to, all the fund managers, the people that are in finance, all that stuff they're all just on Twitter and LinkedIn or X and LinkedIn. They're not even on Instagram and Facebook. They're not, bro, they're not there.
Speaker 2Like you're not, but you will get. So you may not get huge money out of Instagram, but you're going to get a lot of Roth money, like K money and like that's still great money and it's easier for them to self-direct and everything else. I just personally think, like the big money is going to be on LinkedIn and Twitter, yep, and Facebook. Facebook has a really good older demographic. Twitter has, I mean, cause. That's people who want to intellectually spar with others and they want to show off their career and they want to show off how smart they are, and it's the same thing with LinkedIn. Linkedin is like hey, I'd like to announce that I am officially the number one toilet scrubber at Jimbo's. Right, like it, congratulations, right, congratulations. Blah, blah, blah and it's like that's that, and so it's all career opportunity, and so I think there's something to be said about them being in the mind frame of growth while they're doing that.
Speaker 1Yeah, and and that makes sense, cause you do see a lot of that I do see a ton of people. I've I actually have had people ask, so I've raised capital on Tik TOK, which I think is really interesting. So I think you're very right. It's all about what you're sharing, the information you're putting out there, and then just documenting the journey and sharing that journey. I think that's just as important.
Speaker 1Okay, so now you've got coming up, you've got Deal Champs coming up. What role so for you? You throw on this thing for the community. Clearly, you have a community that you cater to and meet and kind of serve locally, that you cater to and meet and kind of serve locally. And then you guys decided you and a couple other people have decided to bring in a bunch of people that some people may know here, like Pace Morby and other people I know, like Gary Harper is going to be there, all these people that are going to be there. What made you decide to do a conference? And then I would say like, yeah, I guess what made you decide to do a conference? Because I think it's a big undertaking to do. But now, as you've done it, and you've done a couple of them. What makes you decide to do that Back?
From Meetups to Conferences: Deal Champs Summit
Speaker 2in 2020, before the scamdemic, me and my friend Jason, we flew out Pace Because I met Pace at an event before. Pace was Pace, but he was still a fucking animal, right. So I meet Pace and him and Jamil and this is before I think you were in the real estate space. We're doing Pace and Jamil do America, yeah. And so they were like going around all these meetups and then I was like, hey, me and my friend have like pretty good meetups. And I called my friend Jason, like jason, I want to fly out pace and jamil. And he was like bro, let's do, let's do a combined meetup. And so we do that and we fill up this theater by 300 people when they come and I'm like, oh yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2And then from there, um, I want to say like a year or two later, my other other partner in this Dean, she's like hey, we all need to get together, cause we all had three different meetups and central California is not huge, like there's probably a million people in the County of Fresno. And so we was like, bro, if we throw this a meetup together in the same month like let's say, you throw one this week and I throw in the next week, it decimates our numbers. He was like we might as well just do them all together. And so at that point we all got together and decided like, okay, we're going to do all these things together, let's do it. And so we started throwing our meetups together and we were like, okay, we had them all lined out for the year, one a month. And so we made like a super meetup.
Speaker 2And then our friend Michael Zuber was like at one random meetup, he's like you guys should just like do a big event. Like let's do a big event, I'll down. And Mike has like a hundred thousand YouTube subscribers. He's like I'm down, I'll drive traffic, it'll be great. And so Mike announces on his YouTube channel and we do this big event with Mike, a guy named Bo, a guy named Ty Guerrero, and then me, dean and Jason, and we fly out Pace again, jamil and my friend Henry Washington, and they all come speak with the short sale queen. But then the short sale queen ended up going to prison. We didn't know that. And so we have all them and that was called Collaborate to Dominate. It was coming out of covid, like what do you need to do to pivot? Okay, that's cool.
Speaker 2And then, out of nowhere, we did another one with, like, carlos reyes the next year, and then that year we just like randomly started a podcast called deal champs because we thought we were cool and we should be talking into microphones and that people need to hear us talk more. And so, yeah, they start right, and so we do that one. And then we had our last big event at this place, called double tree, in downtown fresno, and downtown fresno is a hellhole. There was no parking, there was nothing else, and so I, hey, guys, we're gonna do this again, like let's see if we can like get this thing big. And so we ended up like one of my friends rented out Table Mountain Casino for a boxing tournament that he threw for his brand. He has a brand called Bring the Juice, bro, how much was that? And it costs the same amount to rent out the whole like the nicest casino and hotel in the city as compared to downtown in the cuts.
Speaker 1Dang.
Speaker 2And so that it's just been like slowly evolving over time. And it really is. It started off with just giving back to our community, bro, and like we keep the tickets pretty low just so we can give back to our community. We don't really do it to make a ton of money. Like we could try and go down the heavy education side and push it that way. But nowhere else in central California, really in California, can you get access to the type of speakers that we bring and the type of network that we bring for like 99 bucks, dude. There's like nowhere, nowhere else, where you'd be able to like get access to something like that. Like we have a mixer the first day where everybody's going to be together getting drinks, and so that it just started off with how can we give back to the community.
Speaker 2And then, obviously, there's very good ancillary benefits of being able to raise capital more brand awareness. Like people see me in ads. I've been getting like 10 new followers a day randomly from like the ads that we're running. I can raise capital because I'm on a stage in front of 600 people and at this point I'm a point of authority and I can say, hey, here's the deal that we're looking at so and this will maybe come out for this deal, but you're on the other side of the country. If me, Dean and Jason decide to buy this $8 million property and again this is not public advice hey, we're thinking about buying an industrial property here in Fresno. If you have some money and you'd want to be interested in investing, come talk to one of us. No, Just that alone is huge.
Speaker 1Yep, be able to do that, and I think you mentioned a couple of things, too that I think are really key. There is like just being the person that and you don't always have to be the person up and speaking, but being the person that's in the spaces, that's there, that's mingling, that's talking, that's even seen as an authority almost gives you that instant like like no entrustability that would make somebody want to share and or like invest capital with you because you're seen as you're seen as an authority in that community and then also in what you do. And so I think even that in itself is a big way to help to raise capital, to create, create a following and to build that brand that ultimately can help you to scale. Like, if you people are going to I'm sure how many people bring you deals Do people bring you deals online because they know that you do that and they follow you and they want to really deal with you.
Speaker 2Every day we get, I'll get like something that like hey, bro, what do you think about this? Yesterday I got a phone call while I'm on the Stairmaster trying to get after it, trying to get you know, puffy chest for the event, trying to slim down. You know what I'm saying. One of my boys calls me like hey, bro, I got this house. One of my boys has it. It's a sub two house up in Northern California. He doesn't know what to do with it. Can you help him out, bro? He has a 2% interest rate in California.
Speaker 2I can make that happen. Like I can make that happen, bro. That's right, I'll be able to make that happen. So it's just stuff like that.
Speaker 2Or someone sends me a random storage facility or someone needs like hey, do you have, do you still have any VAs available? What does that look like? Like you can monetize so much off of your brand. It's just. I personally feel like it's doing something exceptional, like I said, and the way we grew Call Magicians with the brand is I just went live on Facebook and I had an unofficial podcast every week, sometimes two or three times a week, and I would wear my Call Magicians shirt, my Call Magicians hat, and I'd talk to some other really, really significant person wearing my Call Magicians merch and then I'd shout out Call Magicians. Two or three times during it. We grew that thing to a million dollars in 18 months with no actual ad spend. All from me talking shit on social media, building a brand. So you can do so much and you can raise so much. You just have to be in front of them more and all you're doing is just marketing still.
Speaker 1And, at the end of the day too, I think the zero to one is just like get out there and start telling people what you're doing. You don't have to get out there and jump on a stage, you don't have to just get a microphone and start a podcast just because you think you should. Those are all things that are helpful and can accelerate the process, but just get out there and just start posting what you're doing. Get in front of the right audience that you're looking to raise capital from, find deals, from help to source you deals, get out in front of them and just start. That's all it takes is just like one step.
Speaker 2The zero to one just share the most recent thing you did and just start Build that personal brand, bro. Okay, I got two final stories for you. Let's get it. That will help solidify why you should be posting from the very beginning. So the first one a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2I'm at my office and I get this text message from one of my old roommates. He's like hey, what's your number? Our old strength coach wants to talk to you from college. He's my head strength coach for one of like a, for a really good team in the NFL, and he calls me. He's like Strat, bro, I've heard all your podcasts. I see you on social. You know what the fuck you're talking about, bro, let's go. I'm about to sell a bunch of properties and I'd love to invest with you. That's also that. That's one story. And again, that's crazy because this guy was essentially my dad for four years and a college strength coach was like your father, yeah. And then we have ron. Right, you remember yours, bro. They're with you every day, through the thick through the thin, making you a man. I definitely remember Mark. That dude was crazy.
Market Outlook and Buying Opportunities
Speaker 2And then the other one when I got done playing ball at Fresno State, I knew I had a kid on the way, during that span I had to fly home and work for my dad and my dad's an electrician. He owns his own electrical company and I was like doing some electrical. My dad was like, hey, come meet my son. And for the guy whose business we were wiring. And so I'm like, yeah, hey, my name is Stratton. Blah, blah, blah, I'm getting into real estate. You can follow me on Instagram. I love to talk to you and this is like me, just like fresh out of college. The dude follows me and last year he sends me a DM. Bro, if you have any more storage opportunities, let me know. I've seen you since the beginning. I've seen exactly what you've done. I'm invested in a couple other funds of people who you know. I'd love to invest with you. That's awesome. And that's just from posting from the beginning. Posting from the beginning and just showing the entire journey.
Speaker 1Share the journey, man. I think that's what it takes. Now. This, this podcast, is called Funds on Fire man. What is, what is something that's got you, as we kind of like, land the plane here? What's something that's got you fired up for 2025, as you're heading into 2025, as you're heading into, I mean, we're looking into market changes, goals, dreams, new presidency Like what are you? What's got you fired up heading into 2025?
Speaker 2100% bonus depreciations coming back. Let's get it, let's do it. Well, you know, I mean let's go. I think that's a big deal.
Speaker 1That's a big deal. If you're a real estate investor, that's a huge deal. Let's go pop a T. That's what I'm talking about, uncle T bringing it back. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2I think that is a very, very big deal. If you are in real estate, it's very helpful. I think now's the time to buy for most, I would say, commercial stuff, self-storage stuff. I'm still waiting for the multifamily market just to absolutely melt. I'm waiting for the office space market to melt and it might not Like the debts come and do, but I think I called it in like 2024 that those two markets would like start to actually wash away and you'd start to see some people that really have their pants down. Yeah, so I'm going to call it again. I think buy season is now. If you can make a deal, pencil now. Shit is. It's not going to get worse, really Like it may go into a recession. But if you can make deals, pencil now and they pencil good, you're doing it. You're doing it.
Speaker 1Nice. Well, man, that is very, very true. I think you're very right about multifamily, that bridge debt is coming due and office space is getting demolished during COVID. It's really interesting to see a lot of these companies demand their people to come back to the offices. So it'd be really interesting to see the wave of people coming back into offices, and if you own some of them, then they're going to be looking to rent from you, and even me and my people, like we have to be in the office, I have to have our team in the office, and so I think the office space is fantastic. So, but I appreciate you, man, thanks so much for being on here. I appreciate you joining us and sharing your knowledge, man, so much. I think people can jump into a lot of zero to ones here today on getting started in self-storage, having VAs and then even building that personal brand. So I appreciate you, strat.
Speaker 2And where can people find you, man, follow me on Instagram at Strat Daddy, oh Gratdaddy, Send me a DM.
Speaker 1Let's get it. Cool man, I appreciate you and your time.
Speaker 2Of course, bro. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1Yes, sir, Peace. Wow, I hope you enjoyed that. I have a quick favor. If you've been enjoying the show, there's one simple way you can support us, and it's by hitting that follow button or that subscribe button on the up in every single way possible, bringing you more value, incredible content and guests and new strategies. Following the show and leaving a quick review goes a really long way in helping us to grow and continue to deliver top tier content. It's the only free thing I'll ever ask you to do and it makes a bigger impact than I can possibly put into words. So thank you for being a part of this journey and I'll definitely catch you on the next episode, To great success and greater impact. Peace.