CoLivingiQ Mastermind: Brand Expert discusses CoLiving & Hospitality

Most Co-Living Operators Think They're simply Renting Rooms.

The Best Operators understand they're actually curating a Customer Experience.

In this episode of the Hospitality & Co-Living Series, I speak with a Brand Expert, Brad Holcman - we break down how Developing your BRAND of Hospitality is the recipe for Co-Living Success.

✅ High occupancy and constant vacancies

✅ Member referrals and constant turnover

✅ Strong reviews and negative experiences

✅ Sustainable growth and operational headaches

Many investors focus exclusively on acquisition and financing.

The most successful operators focus on what happens after move-in.

That's where hospitality becomes your competitive advantage.

In This Episode You'll Learn

✔ Why customer experience matters in co-living

✔ How hospitality improves occupancy

✔ The connection between service and profitability

✔ Why referrals start with resident experience

✔ How to build a co-living brand that residents trust

✔ The systems top operators use to create consistency

The CoLivingiQ Philosophy

Acquisition gets you in the game.

Operations determine if you win.

Hospitality is the secret sauce that transforms a property into a thriving co-living community.

Ready to Improve Your Co-Living Business?

Schedule a CoLiving Business Assessment:

🌐 www.colivingiq.com

We'll help you:

• Improve occupancy

• Increase referrals

• Build stronger systems

• Improve member satisfaction

• Scale your co-living portfolio

Subscribe For Weekly Content

Every week we share insights on:

🏠 Co-Living Investing

📈 Cash Flow Optimization

🎯 PadSplit Strategy

🤝 Hospitality Systems

📊 Operations & KPIs

🚀 Portfolio Growth

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Brand matters because it's the marketing that happens when you're not in the room. Um, and that's how really people convert. You can do so much yourself, but it's when other people talk to you about something that that's when really the conversion happens.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

I'm so excited to talk to you. This is right on point for where our mastermind and the people that I'm talking to are. Brad is a branding person, right? Like when you talk about individual brands, like it resonates so much. Because here is the evolution of the host journey for the people that I work with. Okay. This is the recent learning. Yeah. People come into co-living and they're introduced to this new thing. And they usually come in because the spreadsheet is real sexy and their cash flow positive and all of these things.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

And I have now, because I've had the ability to get out of the muck and kind of step back a little bit, realized Pad Splits an amazing entry drug and starter set in terms of welcome to co-living. It gives you a baseline framework. Welcome to the sandbox. They do the marketing, they they allow the technology stack to do the collection. There's some communications involved in there. But at the end of the day, that same user journey, if you make the decision of like this is my business and I'm going to build a portfolio of these things. Yep. They have to take some ownership of essentially building their brand. What is that experience going to be?

SPEAKER_03 1:30

What kind of options are my ownership?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

The baton handle from the platform's going to handle everything. That's how it's sold. That's what most customers that are new hear. Well, you guys handle that. Pat Split needs its own branding. Yeah, we'll get to that separately. But this is the host experience. This is the investor experience. It says, I do long term, I do some short term, I do some midterm. Look at this rent by the room cash flow model. And they're like, here comes this platform that's going to handle all of this and handle all of this and handle all of this. Yep. My guys are like, man, you know damn well that's not true. So the evolution from new student that comes into us, they're like, why are we not talking about the product acquisition immediately? And then the other people in the mastermind step in and they're like, We thought the same thing. The way he does it makes more sense. Learn the business, reverse engineer into the acquisition. Because if you know the customer that you want to serve, you want to be a Chick-fil-A fast food guy, you got to figure out where to put the Chick-fil-A. You don't see any Chick-fil-A's by the hood because that customer experience is not conducive to the clients that they're going to get. You see a lot of like winners chicken and church's chicken, you know, bojangles and like really crappy fast food stuff in these areas because that's the target demographic.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Can't believe you said bojangles, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Dude, I'm a North Carolina guy. My kid played in the Bojangles Stadium, brother. You know, he skated on that pathway. Well, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

That's a that's a floor with uh something around it with weird seating.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

When he was nine years old and they had a spotlight on him, and he called his name. He thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was awesome. Cute. That's the realization that our mastermind students are coming to is a like, I thought I was then gonna be arbitraging my house to somebody else's platform to run my business. And then I realized this is a people business, and I better have some systems that utilize the platform. So that was the that was the the eyeball thing. As you evolve into that journey, now it's like, holy crap, this is more like a digital platform like Amazon or Etsy or something, Shopify, where how do I compete against all of these other little tiles? And this is where the conversation turns back to brand. My dog. This is where how do you utilize the technology to communicate the member experience? Because the customers that you really want are the ones that want to stay over a period of time. So if you and I were both on the platform, what's my brand experience and customer experience? How do I communicate that to you? Like, how do I develop that as a real estate investor? And that's the learning journey that once you're in the sandbox, now you're fiddling around and trying to figure out oh my God, it makes a difference how I present, what the furniture I put in there, how do I communicate through the written word? How do I communicate through the video word? Like these things matter. I'm super excited to talk to Brad and kind of talk through how he works with so many people around extracting your brand and creating something out of what you think you want into reality, right? Ideas to execution, that's a massive thing. And that's an exercise that our students are being asked to do is like define your brand. And then I get like, huh? It's just rooms, right? And it's not, it's not just rooms. No, I open the floor, and that's a super general kind of way to attack it. But Brad, why does brand matter?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Brand matters because it's the marketing that happens when you're not in the room. Um, and that's how really people convert. You can do so much yourself, but it's when other people talk to you about something that that's when really the conversion happens. Because clearly I'm biased when I talk about myself or my brand, but the other individual is not. So, one of the greatest things that I've I've started to do over time to have people build communities and build those and have and elevate the ones that you know are your biggest fans. Those biggest fans are going to be bring in the next people. In this instance, in PATS in Co-Living, you have fans. They're the ones that are living in there. And how do you elevate them? And how do you incentivize them to keep talking about who you are and what your brand is? Additionally, if you talk to the members currently that are in and around you and you ask them all the questions, why did you join? What's your experience like? What do you believe this offers differently than either other co-living situations, other apartment situations? How do they express it? And then you use their words, and that's your marketing as well. That's your branding as well. I didn't say it, but Joe said this. And here's his words. And then you use that language because generally Joe is probably an example or an avatar of 20 other people that's probably looking for the same thing. One of the biggest things, you know, and this is uh stolen from somebody that I'm not going to remember right now, but you're best able to serve the person that you once were. And it doesn't, yeah. Genius. So in this instance, a owner or a, you know, a host may not exactly be that person, but certainly the person that is in your house wasn't in that house previously. So you're best able to serve. So the words that you may need to get is that. Now, if it's host to host, or if it's you to host, you know, that's easier because you were once not a host and you are looking to invest in real estate. And now you're speaking to that person who is looking to invest in real estate that has not yet a host. So you understand what it's like. So you utilize and you put yourself in that situation. I was you. I was either you looking for a situation that a co-living house provided me as a member, or I was you looking at the entire real estate investment journey or investing, period, and here's what I chose. So to think in that mentality, that's the biggest thing. Um, a lot of people do audits of here's my competitors, here's what's out there, here's all these things. I don't believe it starts with that. I believe that's your that's your audit after the fact. Most brands start from an origin story or a story in your past that otherwise probably no big deal to you. And it takes someone like me to spend quite a bit of time asking questions because I don't know who you are, and asking those questions. And listen, I have an ability to sometimes see somebody's special moment that they don't, because again, here's another line you know, you can't, um, if you're inside the bottle, you can't read the label. And that's where a lot of our stories um are hidden is in that bottle. But we just don't know until someone else reads it and understands it. It's that, but also the biggest thing, and then and I'm sure you do this, ultimately, what's the goal? And as a host or a mastermind owner, what's the goal? If the goal is transactional, that's actually somebody I don't serve. I can't tell you how to only have a transactional relationship. I don't believe that to be true. I believe it's a relationship business. And for me, a relationship business, there is no end. It keeps going and going and going. There may not be a short-term transactional element to it, but the wealthiest people in the world, they think 20, 30, 40 years, they don't think today. Um, that's been the hardest unlock for me, moving from the W-2 world to the entrepreneurial world. The W-2 world is 100% transactional. The system makes it, unless you're, even if you are uh based on commission, if your salary is based on commission, it's completely transactional. Every other Friday or commission, most of us. But the wealthiest people aren't those people. They're they could be rich, but they're not wealthy. I firmly believe in what do you want? What's your goal? What's the mission? What's the end game? If the end game is I want to solve world's hunger, that's actually something I can work with. Because then how do we get there? How do we start? We actually can start in co-living and build from there. But if you want just purely transactional, maximize every dollar, move everything, um, that's why asking those beginning questions and really understanding what that person's journey is. For me, at least in co-living, I have yet to start, but I want to start. My goal is affordable housing and building community among an individual that may somewhat be forgotten in the life cycle of success. You know, it's it's somebody that's not on the streets. It's not somebody that's wealthy, it's in between, they're struggling a little bit. They're they're blue collar with aspirations to white collar. They have something big, they understand financially, they want to be better off. They just don't know how to get there. And at this stage, they want a clean, safe roof over their head that allows them to do so much more. And then what I can provide inside that house that gets them that to the next level. So not only after 12, 24 months, they're leaving the co-living house, but they own one themselves. That's my philosophy of co-living. That's just me. And then I can tell you origin stories of why that is. I can tell you why. I was that person that was struggling with housing years ago. I wish this option were available to me. I did live in a fraternity, so I understand the concept of co-living in a fraternity, not what we're talking about here. It's asking and diving into all these questions. Once you have the ingredients, then it's somebody that you're gonna need help with to make that great meal. Give you that playbook, give you that recipe. We're gonna fail over time. All great chefs, just over and over. What you see in the menu is not the first thing. It's probably the 10th, 15th, 20th thing, and we keep making and making and making. Then we put on the menu, and then we still do we like it? Is it good? Is it working? Is it resonating? If it's not, get it off that menu. If it is, how can we keep pushing it forward, keep going, pouring more into it? Um, so that's there's a lot of steps to branding, but it really does start with the origin who you are, what you are, who you want to serve, what's your end game?

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Okay, that was drinking out of a fire hose.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Wait, can I just say what it's not? Please. It's not about colors, it's not about logos, it's not about being faceless. I firmly believe in that. In the world of AI, it's very easy to do all of what I just said. And people are making a ton of money doing it. I don't believe that has legs. I believe that's short-term money. If you can't pay rent tomorrow, you have no excuse anymore on free AI accounts connected to Amazon or TikTok, that you you can make money. You can absolutely make money. I'm not about that. What I'm about is building, building a foundation for a great brand. So um, I tell my clients all the time, I don't care about your company name. I don't care about the logo, I don't care about the colors. What I care about is you, your name, what you stand behind, what you can repeat on a stage over and over again that makes you distinct and different, makes you the only in what you do, how you provide something different, not the best. You know, one of my mottos is don't be the best, be the only. How can you be the only in what you do? How can other people talk about you? Not envy, but have a desire. Like I want to be certain people in this world. I don't envy them. I want to be them. I want to emulate who they are and what they are. That's what you should be in what you do. If you deliver that, even on a fraction of a scale, you're gonna have success. And that's what you need to be concentrating on. And even more so, it should be as distinct and different that all of these people repeat the words that you're saying as well. If they can repeat your mission, your goal, your only, then you're on to something. We we do that all the time with the biggest innovators in the world. I just did earlier, you know, I quoted, you know, a couple uh really inspiring individuals.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

And it's a journey, and it's not like it's there's no finish line to what you're talking about because you are constantly going through life. I'm on a Seth Godin, you know, feed bananas sauce right now, but I'm talking purple cows, you know, to people in our group, in our business, and I take all these inputs in. I'm a huge believer in the way I do co-living. You choose your customer, you choose your future. And I'm a massive believer in that. Okay. Because for me, what I've understood is like, how did I default into trying to get the Uber Black customer for co-living? And what I've realized was I am not equipped best to work with customers who cannot pay. If you are in pure survival mode, I am not equipped to master and help you. But what I find real success in is people who are renting smarter. And I love this. I help people give themselves a $10,000 raise. Because if you are $1,600, $1,300 for rent, $300 for utilities, and you come to my house at $850 a month, all utilities included, I, as the landlord, gave you an $800 a month raise. You did. That's essentially $10,000 a year. Who the hell is giving you $10,000 a year out of your current salary? And you make the active decision to rent smarter. And it comes with some concessions, but there's no free lunch, right? Your boss isn't giving you a $10,000 raise. No. But if you actively decide, hey, I can live in a house with six or seven other people, behave a certain way, and even more important, you find like like-minded people, you can find success there. Yeah. And that's the beauty of what I'm trying to do. So when you talk about like what's my $2 bill, it's an evolving idea in my own head. I know I lead with hospitality, how I deliver that hospital. It used to be, hey, I do hospitality, I give a shower caddy because I was solving operational problems. But all the way underneath of that, the underlying premise was we can do a better version of shared housing. We can do a better version of SRO, single room occupancy as a business model. And when I looked at all the business analysis around you and the things that you say resonate in my head, the people who are serving customers with choice, where customers they don't have to have it, but they choose to have it. That's a much more successful business model for sustainability. You know, I think like the Nordstroms of the world, the LVHs of the world, like those are really high-end, you know, brands. And I try to take those same concepts into our world of affordable housing. We, you know, I you and I have talked for years, like, or damn near a year. If I go from the scale one to 10, one is like government supported. So we won't say that. So two to seven, two to eight. If everybody wants to play in this two, three, four model, that's not my wheelhouse. But if I focus on four, five, and six, where people have some optionality and they get value out of what I give. It's completely different product. It's a completely different experience. It's a completely different product. And the people who don't understand it, think about your Uber app, Uber Share, Uber middle, Uber Black. It's a it's in front of your face every single day.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

You know, and like which market segment do you want to service? And that's kind of how I've framed how I continue to build my business. The reason I come back to branding and how important it is, the evolution of co-living investors is that they come to the realization they're like, this business has to become mine. So they come into this world, they think the platform's going to handle everything, essentially arbitraging their property and real estate investment to a platform to run it that the way they want to. The learning is once you sit your ass in the driver's seat and not in the sidecar, you have to make some real conscious decisions around the product, the brand, the member experience. And that formula is what's actually driving long-term success for the co-living operators we work with because they're intentional versus like, I thought the platform handled that. It will in the way that's most advantageous for them because it's their business they're running, not yours. Same thing for property managers. Property managers get paid eight to 10% on gross rent. So they're motivated to let more people in, right? So they approve more body count. More body count count comes into the room, and now all of a sudden it's not curated, it's not intentional. You've got six, seven, eight unique individuals that don't necessarily fit in a puzzle piece. And it causes chaos in a house where the landlord, the owner, is the last person to make money. They're losing money everywhere. Yep. Because good tenants leave, bad tenants stay. All of these things are realities that they come to after the fact. Ton to talk about there. But it was like this is the realization for me, even as I'm sitting in this seat, new to owning a coaching business, new to creating a mastermind. I'm learning so much from people who are individually solving the same exact problem. But once we surfaced it, now everybody's eyeballs are looking at like, okay, how am I building an individual brand to succeed in this business? And that's the fun part that we're seeing is because everybody's got their own personality, like you're saying, their $2 bill, their uniqueness, their one. It's tied to the property, it's tied to the experience, it's tied to the city, it's tied to the people they want to serve, all of the above. And their uniqueness is what they're now like leaning into, which separates them.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Well, you have to ask those questions first. And and it in people want to go past go and and and get ready, you know, all ready to the properties. But if you don't build this foundation, then you're gonna be left with, I should have done this, I should have figured this out, I don't have the answers to my questions. And in fact, there's somebody that did that to me. I I was ready to launch, I had the idea, and he asked those beginning level questions of who you're gonna serve. I thought I had the answer. And then he goes, Yeah, but here's your problem with who you're able to serve. So I was gonna create something without a buyer, essentially, or a buyer that wasn't gonna buy it, a buyer that wanted to buy it, but it wasn't the right avatar for that. Yeah. Um, I'll I'll say this about the Uber Black versus Uber, you know, if you break it down, everybody's gonna want, you know, the premium, the luxury, um, because financially it it makes more sense. But those people have come with certain responsibilities that you probably aren't experienced with. So, do you start out being a CEO of a Fortune 500 company? No, you start learning, you start on the factory floor. So part of this is it's real easy for people nowadays to jump into all of this without having that base level work, that foundational work. So sometimes the best answer is let me find an operator, let me find somebody that's doing something and learn from them. The heart I didn't know this as a W-2 employee because this was not the culture that I was in. But I keep hearing it over and over and over again. When you talk about coaches and masterminds and investing in yourself, again, I never was around that. The biggest, wealthiest, most innovative individuals probably spend the most money on mentors and coaches, on self-improvement.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Absolutely.

unknown 19:33

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

And it's funny because at the very simple level, fitness, right? So if you look at fitness, at the very base level, you do nothing. One step up, you get the $24.99 or $15 membership anytime fitness or whatever. Great step. Fantastic. Then the next step is maybe I don't go there, maybe I go something a little bit higher. Okay, then you get the free physical trainer assessment. You know you do it, but you can't afford it. Um, then you, okay, well, now I can afford it. Now I'm training, now I'm seeing the results, but I don't have the nutrition. Okay, now I hire a nutritional person. Now I've got nutrition, now I've got a physical trainer, not the gym, now you bring the gym home. You do all these things home, and then you add on the medical side of things, the blood work, all these types of things. You keep going up and up and up. And you can't deny the fact that the people that have the day-to-day nutrition coach, fitness coach, medical professional helping you with your fitness, there's a reason why those people are the most fit. It's not that they lack motivation, but they have people around them that help push them. Now, and the beauty of so you need to get there, you need to travel there. Yes, if you have all the money in the world, you can the cheat code is you start all that from day one, but most people aren't like that. So where you're at, you need to understand. So if you are not at that top, don't start at the top. You've got to learn the basis and you've got to step, step, step, step up. Just like investing in a house. We haven't spoken since then, but I flew.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Have you sold that bad boy yet?

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Oh, for the love of God. All right, we'll get there.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

We'll get there.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

I'm doing everything I can. Yeah. I don't even know. Um, so I I I flew out to Idaho uh to speak at a mastermind. Uh, it happened really quickly. And this individual uh invited me to stay at his house, and he had a very nice house that he built himself. And he did the I build a house and move every two to five years. The beauty of his wife is they shared the vision and they started 25 years ago. They started 25 years ago with like a hundred thousand dollar condo or something of that nature, and they kept going up and up and up. And what he said is every step of the way, we just wanted to stretch a little bit. And we had a 25 year plan. We did not have a two year plan so that up and up and up, we could be at a place where we'll, we'll, we'll add in a little bit more. We don't know where that skill set will take us in the real world, but we'll add a little bit more. And financially, the appreciation, plus I don't have to pay taxes on the first half million if you're married.

unknown 21:59

Um

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Will keep getting us debt-free, debt-free. Because we're going to start up with a place that's debt-free and keep going, keep going. Um, they have now a $3.3 million house, um, 8,500 square feet, completely paid off because of where they were. Um, they are now building spec homes for literally the same size as their house because now they know how to do it. And they did it for themselves first before they did it for others. Um and they're they just broke ground on a 12,500 square foot house because that's their next level, and that's where they are around. So an individual just like the would go from, well, I want to go from zero to the 12,500 square foot house, never gonna happen. Never gonna happen. So also you've got to just be understanding of where you are in the cycle. We all have a desire to be at the 25,000, 12,500 square foot house. That's at least that's the people that I want to be around. I want to be around those people that have those aspirations, but you got to understand where you are and what you are doing. Um, so if you have a house, maybe as a beginner, you're gonna have to be where Bo Jengles is, you know, or where those are. You may have to, so you can learn with less risk, less upside, but less risk. So you can learn the ropes. And then the next one that you do, a little bit closer, a little bit closer to Chick-fil-A. And you keep getting closer and closer and closer and closer. But again, it's thinking long-term versus now, really understanding the promise that you're being delivered. What is that for you? So, yes, as sales with a company like we keep mentioning, of course they want to sell you the dream. That's why you buy in, but that's not the reality.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

No.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

The reality of day one is not the dream of year five or year 10. Right. So, and that's what you're providing with your program is you're providing the reality of day one and helping and holding people through the process, done with you, I would say, right? Just done with you, not done for you. It's done with you. Um, but understanding that we're not there at the the mansion yet. You know, we're there at the, we're at their, we're at the apartment. And things that you have to do now, you have to overdo. That's that's the journey I'm on right now, is scaling the unscalable. What am I doing that nobody else is doing today? What am I doing to take care of each individual individual over deliver? If I tell you an hour, it's two and an hour and a half or two.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

It's two hours of like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

If I get, you know, through a lead, I now have it tagged where anybody that's a hot lead, um, I get text to my phone, I record a video and send it off, hopefully within 10, 15 minutes. And it's not a sales video, it's a thank you so much for taking the app. I appreciate it. If you need any help, I'm here for you. Just very simple. People aren't doing that. You know, what are and so what in your job, what in your what are you doing that nobody else is doing? Because then going back to brand, that's a sexy brand. If somebody talks about you in a way where I can't believe this person did this, very simply, I know, and this is a little bit of what I did. So I stay at the house. Here's what they did for me. There, I'm staying at their house. That means I should be giving them stuff, right? Because one, I don't have to pay for a hotel. And two, they're welcoming into the house. They have no idea who I am. Not only did they welcome me in the house, they had a full snack. This is not an Airbnb. This is their house. They had a full snacks, all the drinks. They left the key in their son's car for me if I needed to leave or go out. And then they had a blanket to take back, not to me, but to my wife. My wife is now getting a blanket. Like, talk about what happened in our household. And guess what I'm doing right now? I'm telling you the story of this. What are we doing that we are just going above and beyond, not because we have to, but because we want to, because that's what we want people to talk about ourselves is that you are the most giving, thoughtful, amazing person. So, what I did, I want to outgive the giver, right? That that's the best philosophy in the world. So I made it a point to call every person that attended this mastermind, which I did, and said, just want to thank you. Not about me. And I was offering a product, which I didn't unrealize I was offering a product until that morning. Um, but just said, hopefully, you know, if you want to speak to me about Cody and who he is as an individual and as a person, please let me know. This is unbiased, on you know, anything. So I poured, called 35 people or left a message if if they weren't. Yeah. And I sent, they gave me a blanket. I sent them a nice bouquet of flowers, not a bouquet, like a with a vase or something that I knew Cody, the who invited me, was not going to be home because he was traveling, but the wife was gonna receive it.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

And what does his wife do? She put on Instagram, and she she then talked about, you know, Brad talked about the two-dollar bill and being the only, and he continues to live by that and showed the the bouquet of flowers. Um, so what are we doing? Again, this has nothing literally to do with the step-by-step. These are the things that we need to think about of who we are and what we want people to talk about us. Yes, resume gets me in the room. Absolutely. It opens doors, but that doesn't keep me there. It doesn't have somebody recommending me to someone else. I literally, I just I haven't even opened it, but I got a DM from someone that wants me to speak because they had somebody else that talked to me about the speech, by the way, in Idaho or in Utah. Um, so again, it's you got to think about these things. You got to go the next level. What are people talking about you or saying about you when you're not in the room? For me, that's the biggest thing when you think about brand. Or your property, or your, and I don't want your property to be a faceless property. I want your name to be tied implicitly with the experience that every member is getting in that property because that's gonna elevate you to have the second, the third, the fourth property. When your audience, your community, your fans are the ones that are selling you without you in the room. That's when you know you're great. You just got to give them the ingredients. You got to give them the flowers, the blanket, the experience, the personal touches, the one-in-ones. You got to give them all of that without expectation of return. The way the world works is they will repeat, they will talk, they will do it unsill. You're not asking for a testimonial, they're giving you the testimonials by talking to other people.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Yeah, I love that because I've been talking to you about starting this coaching thing for a long time. And my realization was like the aspirational world is the hormoses and the Gary V's and all that, you know, even in our world, you know, the the Brandon Turner's and the Sam's. And I thought about myself in a different way because every student that I talk to, I have a personal relationship with, and they're like, bro, the difference is I actually talk to you, right? Like you and I hold hands and we walk through. And I'm and like my first response, because this is my my life of being an entrepreneur. Like, I marry my customers, I don't date them. Because for me, it's always been like that. Like when I sold baloney and turkey for Boarshead, it was like the chefs and I were boys because that's how the relationship worked.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Engaged or honeymoon. I don't know. You know, you have to keep delivering, of course.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

But like in in this world, it's like I want the personal relationship, I'd like it smaller, you know. Like when I think about big picture stuff, like I like Doug Collins before Phil Jackson comes in and he's the finisher. I like the first phase. Like I like it small and boutique. You know, I like the personal the personalization of it because I I don't want it to be, you know, I have 15 coaches and and you get 10 minutes of me in a video. Like I like sitting in the muck with you and trying to figure out, like, yo, what are we doing here? You know, how do we exemplify what you want? And then from there, that's the fun part because I've got students that are doing all sorts of crazy shit, but they came to that realization and unlock on their own. And now I'm learning from them on the things that because some of them are crazy with AI, some of them are are really good with digital marketing. And I'm like, they took whatever nuanced piece that I can give and they rolled with it. And those are the most fun because now I'm learning from them how they're taking it next level. And that's when I hear you with your masterminds, and like this is what makes sense for me. It's like, you're not coming to my mastermind to talk to me. I have a niche that I'm really, really deep on. But what I'm really finding is that like I have really good relationships with really cool people that are doing really cool shit. And then when they talk, everybody gets to avoid the branch coming around the corner and smacking them in the face. And in our world of real estate, those are five, 10, $15,000 savings just from being in the room and listening to somebody. This is my evolution of being in this space because, like you said, I was never a payer of education. I just happened to be in a seat when I was talking with 800 different investors. So, like literally, I had my own mastermind of people in this tiny little niche, and I got to be a fly on the wall and ask a ton of questions. And this is what I realized in our space, everybody's in a silo. The ones who are crazy successful, they're not in a silo. They are in these other groups that nobody really knows about. Oh, I'm part of that, or I'm part of that, or I'm part of that. It's like sorry, they go three sliders down instead of one brick at a time, right? And being around, yeah, just being in the room. Proximity is power. Like, these aren't corny ass sayings that you're seeing on Instagram. This is somebody's life experience. And it's hard to explain to somebody what swimming is like if you've never gone into a pool.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Yeah. Here, here, here's a little bit of my problem though. Okay, so first step, recognize that you need to be in a room and not be siloed. Two, once you get in the room, you it's a rah-rah, amazing, wonderful. A lot of people don't get to the third step. Then what do you do with that room? Give, give of yourself.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Because you're in there, you're unique, and people aren't you.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

That's the pace, Morby. Um, the thing that I learned from Pace, and from frankly, from the masterminds that I'm in. What do you have to offer? And what are you looking for yourself? But in that order. Yeah. And sometimes you never get to that second part. No matter where you are and who you are, and also walking into the room with intention. Sometimes we just walk in, open the door, we're not sure. Um, and the it's the hardest thing in the first five, 10, 15 minutes because you're walking into a room that's already clicky, people already know each other, people are already talking. So you need to be super clear on who you are, what you are, and what you have to offer. And it could be as, and it's what it's not is I can just work for you for free. Well, now you just gave the person a job and a job to look over you. You have to be proactive. It's like, hey, uh, I'm a digital marketing marketing specialist. I do you mind if I do an audit of your social media feeds and just give you some examples of how I would have done this or what the plan is? Great. Okay. I don't have to deal with you. I don't, but that's something you have to offer. It's something that's giving, it's something that's seeing what you can do. But a lot of the times is, you know, it's the, hey, can I just get five minutes of yours? Or hey, hey, it's funny. I I was emailing with somebody. His dream was to have a television show. And he's in the flipping space. He is 21 years old. Not to say that a 21-year-old can't be on a television show or be a flipper. He just hasn't put the work in. And if I'm going to put a multi-million dollar production around an individual, I do have to have some sort of resume. It's, it's, it is a matter of fact, it's different than somebody showing up on TikTok and just translating them to television. There's actually a business that I have to follow that they actually have to work within the bounds of television production. Um, but he kept talking and talking. And I was giving him a lot. Um, and I was helping him a lot, um, and literally giving him the playbook on if his dream is to be on a television show, here's everything you need to do. Gave him the entire playbook on how to do this. Then he goes at the end, hey, you're really smart. I really um can I get your phone number? Because you're somebody that I need to talk to you more. And that's when I cut it off. And it took ever it took a while for me to come up with the right response. Because I didn't want to say, I'm full, I don't have time. Because you always make time for what you love, you make excuses for what you don't. If if there's a billion-dollar opportunity that happened tomorrow and you had an entire full day and you're gonna be in a place with no cell service, no, you would make time. All right. So stop saying you don't have time. You always have time. So I never want to give that excuse. Like, oh, you must be busy, it must be. And I'm like, we're all busy, but I'm not busy for the right opportunities, the right relationships. You know, when you get a phone call of people that you will stop everything for, you know those people. You also know you will never pick up that phone for that person. So be the person that you always pick up because you've shown so much giving. I so wanted to be like, you're 21. You don't know that this. I just simply said, we are communicating here. Um, I'm for I'm I'm here if you have any further questions. But I denied his request for my phone number because that was not the approach. You know, the approach was he he was receiving of so much, but I knew the kind of person that I want to surround myself is somebody that aims to give before they receive. And all this person was doing was receiving. Somebody posted the other day is I'm tired of having free calls for somebody else to make so much money out of it. You know, and it's it's it's hard to say it simply as that because we all want to be the person that just pours, pours, pours, pours, pours. But that's not how relationships are born. Relationships are born is out of giving, right? And then the other person giving and then giving and giving and giving. And then the club, both cups are so full, running over that you can actually receive something.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

That's the abundance idea that people talk about, but they do not actually put into people that come across, they book time with me, and it is a brain suck. And I get it, right? And I appreciate it. Um don't offer it. Well, yeah, I guess so, you know. And it's so you know what the other part that's really interesting? Yesterday, a woman called me, and I've spoken to her multiple times over the last three years, right? She finally bought a house, she worked with a different person, they got comped on it. She went live, and every time she would have a question, she would always call. And then she called me and she had a disaster at a house with a plumbing thing, and she's worried about the insurance. And I was like, you know, I don't work there anymore. She was like, I know, but you're the person I call. And I was like, You know, I have a coaching program. And she was like, Shit, I didn't know that. She goes, send that over to me. That's my fault, right? Because I am not good enough at telling the world I have a thing, and I'm working on that piece. My awareness component sucks monkey balls. It's because I found hard. Yeah, I found early success from the people that I currently work with that I give constant value to. They're like, Let me pay you. And that's the fun part. There's other people that I come across and they're just like, Let me extract. And to your exact point, I won't shut up. Like, what other problem? And then we're just constantly solving it. I watched something yesterday, the guy that does like the master of webinars or whatever the case may be. Yeah, and he was in a room with with um three other people, and they were like, Everybody makes the same mistake. I get on a stage and I'm teaching tactic. And I think that it makes me feel good because I'm teaching tactically. And the answer was kind of like lift up 50 feet, lift up 50 feet, and you're talking frameworks and you're talking all of these things, and you're talking about where I'm taking you. So I'm launching a free webinar series as a new introduction to fill the top end of the funnel and just kind of put my ass out there a little bit more because I want more leads, right? I want more people to come experience it, and then from there they can pick and choose kind of where they want to go. That's that's one of the exercises that I need to get out because I need to get out of the hour 90-minute tactical fix this mentality and talk frameworks, you know. So I'm learning. That's one of the things that I'm launching for next week. And it's kind of I'm excited about it, and then we'll go from there and and we'll see what happens. But I don't know why I didn't do it a month ago, mostly because the inbound coming were one-on-one relationships that I had before. So I'm checking off sales. I'm like, oh, it's working, but there was no lead funnel coming in for people that I did not know. There was a handful of people that that came in through social and they converted, but there was no constant lead funnel where I was like, of the hundred, I converted 15%. No, it was two a day, you know. So there was no specific lead component to it that I have to address. It's hard.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

I I, by the way, I don't practice this, but I should. There are people out there that are dying to hear from you. There are people that you know without a doubt, you can change their lives if they know who you are, what you are, and what the product was. Absolutely. You need to speak to that because here's the thing not a lot of people entering into your world, um, you don't you don't need a lot of people entering into your world to for you to be successful. We all think of the one person, Nancy from eighth grade, that may judge us for selling or talking about who we are and what we are. And if your intent is to sell and transact, then you should be worried because then you come off as a used car salesman.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

But if you genuinely talk about why you do what you do, here's the people that I've helped. These are their stories, they're not mine. They did the work. I just provide, I was just their coach, I was just their mentor, be, you know, very um not owning it, but providing the platform and the opportunity. And if you're at all interested in what Sally experienced with me and just hearing about my passion and what I absolutely believe, both within days, ask me the exact same thing. How confident are you that through investment in you, you can provide a 10 and 20x return both financially and as a human? And I said, Well, that's too low. I said, I really do believe. If you talk to me six, seven months ago, different story before I had gone through the motions. But now there's not a person on this planet that doesn't walk away with from an hour call with me that I don't unlock something. And every time it may not be equal, but I also meet where they are. And I firmly believe that anybody that walks through my doors, you have the same thing. That's why we need to talk and what we need to talk about, because we believe so great. Now, there are a lot of most people will not equate that feeling to a transaction because you have to pay up front, right? It's it's not like upon success, then you pay. That's very easy.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

I love talking with you. Thank you so much for today. You're brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

Of course, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

Talk to you, homie. All right, bye. See ya.