500 Transactions & Close To $100 Million in Sales in 24 Months

Steve Trang: About Steve trains. Jump on the Steve train. We real estate disruptors.

Steve: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we have Forrest Blackburn with forrestblackburn.com, and he flew in from Temecula, California to talk about how he sold 500 plus properties for nearly a $100,000,000 in fees over the last twenty four months. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, sales trainer. And every month, we help hundreds of people buy more houses at deeper margins.

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That way, we can all grow together. And don't forget, we do have parting the disruption tomorrow and certainty talks on Friday. This is a live show. Please ask your questions before us answer. You ready?

Forrest Blackburn: Let's do it.

Steve: Alright. So first question is what got you into real estate?

Forrest: Oh, boy. Well, I'm fourth generation real estate. So my, my dad was a commercial broker and I bought my first house, my first flip when I was 19. Prior to that I was an actor, traveling around doing a lot of theater and doing TV and film and stuff. So I bought that with cash when I was 19, and I flipped that property.

And I did a $10.31 exchange into a condominium and had that for a while, then sold that, took the cash, put it into a record label, and lost it all.

Steve: So is that the reason why you're in Temecula?

Forrest: No. So I had a marketing company that I started back in 2009 and, grew that up from seven agents, to 1,500 agents nationwide with 17 franchisees. And,

Steve: it was advertising today?

Forrest: Yeah. So it was it was, small small businesses, small and medium businesses, basically doing brand development, a lot of local stuff. Right. And we work with some franchises across the country. And, I made kind of a, I threw it out in the universe one time where I said, Gosh, I just wish that I could sit at home and watch all my businesses and watch KPIs from monitors and I got my wish.

Steve: Mhmm.

Forrest: So for about three years I sat at home and watched all those businesses grow and I got kind of complacent. So I threw my hat back out in the ring and became a consultant working for a lot of fortune five hundreds and things. My background, as it turned out, sales is in my blood and, it probably stems from the whole acting thing and and entertaining people. And I started scaling companies. And I went in and worked on their sales and their marketing and getting infrastructure put together for them.

And, I was working and I was so focused on that that I had my my my press kits out and everything so people would contact me. And that's when, I got pulled into real estate, by getting a phone call from, the flip or flop guys from Tarek El Moussa's company.

Steve: So I think, you know, before we get that far ahead

Forrest: Mhmm. So

Steve: let's start let let's just go back a little bit. So '19, bought properties, flipped them, and then record label Yeah. And then the marketing agency.

Forrest: Yeah. So the record label took off. We did a few records, then I got picked up by Capitol Records.

Steve: Was there anyone notable? No, not really.

Forrest: Okay. Not really. Nobody, nobody that ever really got big. We had people on tours and things like that, smaller tours. But, really, it was, the groundwork to have that revenue coming into the record label so that then I could fund my own projects.

Steve: Got it.

Forrest: So I recorded my own records then got picked up by Capitol and, toured around with them and had a lot of fun, so I'm told. Mhmm. And, that was that was a lot of fun. And then we got into some legal issues, with Capitol Records. A new A and R guy came in.

We kinda got shelved. What's A and R? They're basically your manager inside of the the label. K. So they're the people that set you up on tours, set you up on press press, events and things like that.

So we got kinda put on a back burner. So there was lawsuits going on between my entertainment attorneys and and whatnot. And at the time, Capital said come in and do some marketing with us. And that's how I got into marketing.

Steve: Got it.

Forrest: And then that I moved over to Paramount.

Steve: We did marketing there. Point, did you have a marketing background? You had the record label. So you didn't have any marketing experience?

Forrest: School of hard knocks.

Steve: School of Hard Knocks. Okay. So you started the marketing agency after like, directly after that?

Forrest: Yeah.

Steve: And you said with agency, I mean, you're talking, like, Facebook marketing or what kind of marketing were you doing?

Forrest: Yeah. So I was with Paramount, and we were losing a lot of our bus stops and billboard, things to this new marketing medium called Google. Mhmm. And Facebook was just coming out at the time. And during the band days, I was heavy on the Myspace stuff.

Steve: Mhmm. Oh, good old good old Tom.

Forrest: Good old Tom. Right? So I was I I learned how to do social outreach and things through Myspace and then got into some some of the bigger marketing stuff. But as we are losing these accounts to Google, I said I've got to start looking into this new thing.

Steve: How are you how are you losing to Google?

Forrest: Just people were diverting their money, into more Internet based marketing campaigns. Got it. And, so that was something that I earmarked and I said, I've got to look more into this. And then I got a phone call from the UFC, out in Vegas and they needed a music supervisor. So I became the music supervisor for the UFC for about a year and they put me up in in a house out there and that was cool.

But I was in charge of all the music for all the fighters, and all their docuseries and things like that.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: And they told me they said, you know, you can you can license whatever music that you want for all the different fighters. Just make sure it matches their target audience.

Steve: Interesting.

Forrest: So I said, are you sure you we don't have any favorites? They said it's entirely up to you. And I made sure I asked them probably 10 different times. Mhmm. And so, I went ahead and licensed all my own music.

And it was the smartest thing I ever did. It's the only thing that it still makes me money from my music. And every quarter, I get a healthy deposit. I've been like over 200 pee pee pay per view events and, yeah, it's kinda crazy. So then from there, that's when I got into the marketing.

I came back from there, moved to Orange County, and, I looked for for a job working with a company that was partnered with Google and that worked. Found out what not to do Yeah. And started my own company.

Steve: So what's not to do?

Forrest: So, you know, pitching a product that you don't have a plan to fulfill Mhmm. Can get you into some hot water.

Steve: I mean, that's a lot of information marketing. Right?

Forrest: Oh, sure.

Steve: Let me let me let me see if there's a market for this. And if there is, then I'll fulfill it. Yeah. Right. You're saying that was not the thing to do?

Forrest: Well, you know, if if you're telling small and medium businesses that we're gonna have you on the front page of Google within x amount of days and you don't even have people lined up to do the work to get it done you know, I was the director of sales and marketing for that or director of sales for that company. Yeah. And, you know, I believed in everything that they told me to sell and pitch. So I did all these major training seminars, and I had everybody trained in and, you know, it built a monster. But then I started looking behind the curtain realizing that there was no fulfillment that was planning to be had.

Steve: I mean, the SEO industry is a really interesting industry. Yeah. Right? It seemed like they told you what you wanted to hear. Yep.

I will get you on the front page, or I'll get you number one in Google.

Forrest: Right. Which that's an an impossible feat.

Steve: Well, right. If you know how it works if you know how it works, you can't guarantee it.

Forrest: Right.

Steve: But that didn't stop the salespeople from promising that. Nope. So, I wanna touch on something here, though, because you were very heavily involved in marketing, and I learned direct response marketing later on.

Forrest: Mhmm.

Steve: Actually, I think probably around the same time. So direct response marketing, you learn about this, and then you see everyone with marketing degrees. It's very different perspective on marketing.

Forrest: Oh,

Steve: sure. So you came from the background where you saw billboard marketing, which is the old school marketing

Forrest: Mhmm. And then

Steve: you learned direct response marketing. And I think this is really important for everyone that's trying to get wholesale deals right now. Mhmm. What's the difference between traditional marketing and direct response marketing?

Forrest: Well, for me, I at this stage in the game, I still use everything. I mean, I'm I'm we I I focus on billboards. I focus on TV. I focus on, you know, postcards and mailers, as well as all the digital marketing. So I don't know that there's really necessarily I think that all mediums are really, a necessity because, especially with wholesale.

Steve: But what if you're a small guy? I mean, you're a small guy. You can't start at billboards.

Forrest: You can't, but you can get creative. There are ways I found ways to have TV thousand dollars a month in in micro micro markets.

Steve: Okay.

Forrest: And, those are ad campaigns, and those are audiences and methodologies that the big players, the nationwide players, aren't necessarily looking at.

Steve: Right.

Forrest: So there's less competition in some of those little things. And you can get into, very inexpensive campaigns with some of the cable networks where they can even target per household. Mhmm. So you and I live next door to each other. You're crushing it.

I'm not. We're watching that same TV show. When When it comes commercial time, you're seeing an ad for a BMW dealership. I'm seeing an ad for, you know, sell my house for cash.

Steve: Right.

Forrest: Right? So, it it at the end of the day, your marketing really has to be focused on your target. Unless you're doing brand development and brand awareness where you want everybody to know who you are. But for me, I just want the person that I'm targeting to think that I am the number one guy. If the next if the next door neighbor doesn't know who I am, well, you're not my target, so I don't care.

Steve: Yeah. So how do you do that? How do you make sure that your target audience is seeing your marketing?

Forrest: Well, again, finding out ways to get very, very specific, getting data. It's on the data. Mhmm. And some of those cable companies, they're running your credit when you sign up for Internet or for cable, so they know that. They definitely know if you're behind on your bill with them.

And you can work out great deals where they can tell you this is these are the markets where we feel these people are distressed. These are the homes. These are the neighborhoods. And through that data, you can skew your entire marketing plan to be able to target those people. And, that's that's that's kind of a winning recipe.

But that's for target marketing, and that's really for getting through to, say, sellers or or, or agents even. If you're doing brand development and brand awareness, billboards and and all of those things are great to build your brand and build your trust and your credibility.

Steve: Alright. I think brand building, again, that kinda goes back to the traditional marketing, old school marketing. But, you know, like, you were doing the agency stuff for small businesses. Right? I imagine you're doing were you doing SEO and PPC?

Or what what was your focus?

Forrest: Yeah. SEO, PPC. I mean, we were building websites. We did over 50,000 WordPress websites from 2009 until about 02/2020, and full stack app development. And, you know, we really I moved away from SEO.

SEO, depending on who you talk to, can get a negative rep. Right? Because, again, you're pitching kind of a pie in the sky hopeful idea. And you can't guarantee those things. So it's all based on on the work you put in, and you can't necessarily measure the results.

You can't well, you can't guarantee the results. Everything's measurable. But, so that's why I started getting into and focusing more on, digital assets, websites, and and apps and things like that. A deliverable product Mhmm. That you can definitely come to a finish line on.

Steve: So did you say that we can target people that are behind on their cable bills?

Forrest: Yeah. Well, that's a huge nugget. Isn't that kinda cool?

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Alright. So then you go to you have your agency and then you did you shut that down to start working for the Fortune 500 companies?

Forrest: No. I kept the agency going. I brought in a couple of partners to kinda delegate off the workload, leveled some people up. I'm big on delegation, and, that enabled me to kinda work with some other corporations and some other companies, and keep myself satisfied and happy. I got complacent over those three years sitting around watching KPIs.

Yeah. I mean, I got my wish, but I didn't really know what that meant, what that what that equated to. And, that's when that's really when, you know, I I got the phone call to to get to really focus into real estate.

Steve: Got it. Yeah. So how did that change your business once you just got that call? It's like, hey. You know, get to this flipping this this flipper guy on TV.

Forrest: So, his partner, Pete DeBest reached out to me. Shout out to Pete. Amazing guy. And, we had about an hour and a half long phone call. Pete did most of the talking, and, you know, we kinda came to terms that, this was something that that was gonna be a good fit.

And, you know, I came into the to that corporation, that company, Tarek Buys Houses. And, it was at that time, they had gone through some ebbs and flows, and it was at a point where the structure needed to be put in place. It needed to be scaled up, and that's really kind of my background is is is scaling. Mhmm. Once, you know, I I use the term nail it and scale it.

It's just because, you know, you can't build on a foundation of sand. You know, you gotta have you know, when you're franchising, you gotta have the mother ship put together as an as an example so then you can go out and create all these franchises.

Steve: Perfect prototype. We're near nearly perfect prototype.

Forrest: Yeah. Well, I used to be a perfectionist until I realized there's no such thing as perfection, so now I'm a greatest.

Steve: There you go. But So when was this that you had the that you started working with Tarek?

Forrest: This would have been, June, July, June 2020. Okay. So that's when I started there. I scaled up the sales team.

Steve: Now that was already a big operation

Forrest: Oh, sure.

Steve: Back then. Oh, yeah.

Forrest: No. Very, very smart people, and, it was a great platform for me to you know, it's one thing when you take somebody from, you know, from zero to to hero. That's a lot of work. Mhmm. Right?

But if you can come in with the ground already you know, with everything already moving and you hit the ground running, and and and grow from there, it's a much easier feat. It's, it's a much more stable foundation to build on.

Steve: Alright.

Forrest: And, that's what enabled us

Steve: to emphasize cash flow to do things the right way.

Forrest: Well, that's the other thing too. Right? And that's why you can make big strides, and you can have big accomplishments when you're working for large scale companies. Yeah. If they have the revenue and the cash flow coming in to be able to utilize that, then you get into this I'll try anything methodology.

And that's where you figure out what works and what doesn't work because you're investing. Multiple times

Steve: in my career. Oh, yeah. We have extra capital. Let's go try this.

Forrest: Let's try this.

Steve: Let's try that. 100%. Man, how much money have we burned?

Forrest: A lot. A lot. Yeah. But what does that do? It gives us that education.

It gives us that that confidence of knowing what works and what doesn't work so then we can double down on on what's really working and invest hard and aggressive.

Steve: Right.

Forrest: And, you know, we were spending a lot of money, And that's what really, that's what did it. Marketing is our ask. And if we don't, you know, we get what we we don't get what we don't ask for.

Steve: Right.

Forrest: So the more we ask, the more we get. So by increasing that marketing budget, from a confidence standpoint, you're able to really kind of scale up your numbers.

Steve: So what was the operation like when you first, joined forces with them?

Steve: It

Forrest: was a small sales team. There was only a couple of sales guys. Mhmm. And, we grew that up to quite a few sales guys and gals and, had some dispositions, managers that came in.

Steve: And So how many markets was was he in at at this time?

Forrest: At that time, I think it was two markets, and then we grew that. We did the whole nationwide thing. Mhmm. And Very

Steve: popular motto, I think, until recently.

Forrest: It well, you know, it's it's popular. You know? Everyone's talking about it. Mhmm. But what I find is is when you get into, you know, doing all these, you know, 50 states and everything, you you create a lot of noise on your calendar Mhmm.

On your day to day. And, you know, as salespeople, we want to spend as much time as possible to acquire a deal and to dispose of a deal. And I always I use the terminology, the bigger the cookie, the bigger the crumb. If you work on a large property, if you work on something that's a multimillion dollar property, the spreads and the and the crumbs that come from that Mhmm.

Steve: Are more

Forrest: much more substantial than if you're working on a little shack under a rock somewhere. But funny thing is is we're all gonna put in the same amount of time on each one. Right.

Steve: Takes so much effort.

Forrest: Yeah. So if you eliminate the noise Mhmm. Then you can really focus on that. So, I like to focus on major metros, looking at medium household income, looking at how many buyers are in the area. InvestorLift's a great source for that.

Mhmm. Going into god mode and kinda checking out what they have there. And, that enables you to be more strategic and enables you to spend smart money and not just throw money at it. People ask me, oh, how do you how did you how do you make all this money in wholesale every month? Well, you spend a lot of money, but you have to be strategic in your spend.

And we were talking about this before we started the show. You can't just throw money at something because somebody said that's what you need to do. Yeah. And there's a lot of, students that I work with now, in, in coaching. And that's really what it comes down to.

Everyone says, so if I just increase my budget, I'm good? No. No way to do it. No. There's I mean, you can try it, but, you know, you may be pockets out pretty quick.

Steve: Yeah. And what

Forrest: are you gonna do about lights and brights and payroll? So it's all it all comes down to being strategic.

Steve: Yeah. So it was in two markets when you first started working with them and a handful of salespeople. When we say handful, you're talking, like, five or six?

Forrest: When I when I started, I think we, well, there there had been some major changes in the corporation, and that's really why they were looking outward to try and find somebody to come in. And and that's that I I was the lucky guy. Right. So I think there was two salespeople at the time.

Steve: Okay.

Forrest: And, we, leveled that up to around seven. Okay.

Steve: So from two salespeople to seven salespeople. And then the marketing, I mean, it's he's fortunate. Right? He already he's already a well known brand.

Forrest: And that's what made it. That's that was the icing on the cake. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's it's it's, he has an amazing brand, and, you know, he's in everybody's household in their living room every day, you know, on the show.

Mhmm. So there's a trust factor there. And, that enabled us to to get through and and get through some doors that, I would imagine it's it's more difficult for other teams to do.

Steve: For sure. So then, that's the number of salespeople. How many houses were they buying at that time?

Forrest: They it was more focused on flipping at the time. Mhmm. And because of the the the fast cash churn, in wholesale, I migrated the model. And, we to be able to have a big marketing budget, you have to have a fast cash churn. Mhmm.

Otherwise, you know, you're gonna go pockets out.

Steve: Right. The cash conversion cycle is really critical.

Forrest: It's it's so important. And the way I look at wholesale is the larger marketing net you can have with wholesale wholesale is if you're doing it right, it's always gonna the money's gonna come back, and you're gonna make money. That's that's not that's not too hard. But having that big net allows you to trip and fall over your buy and holds and your flips and all of those things because you have such a huge marketing net. Right.

And wholesale pays for itself, and then you can pick up those flips and and and buy and holds as well.

Steve: Yep. So, so when you first started working there, they're flipping heavy

Forrest: Mhmm.

Steve: And then you convert it to more wholesaling heavy. Yeah. So it's, like, a fifty fifty or, like, eighty twenty? What are we talking about here?

Forrest: You know, it just kinda migrated over. As as soon as we got into the the nationwide model, obviously, that was that was all geared for for wholesale. Mhmm. You know, for every for for any shop, any any company that I work with now, flipping usually takes place in your home market.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: And your wholesale is gonna take place in in yeah. Everywhere else. Right. So when you're in all 50 states and you're flipping in Southern California, you're flipping in Arizona, all your wholesales everywhere else. So just that dichotomy right there ends up tipping the scale.

You get to fifty fifty. You get to eighty twenty. And, you know, when you can get that cash cycle and when you can when you're in markets where you have big spreads, it's not really all that difficult to focus on those big spreads and lean into it.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: So wholesale ends up kinda taking over. And wholesale is scalable. Flipping is is not necessarily a scalable business. Right. You know, once you get to so many projects and so many contractors and subcontractors, your profit margin ends up inverting, and your profits get smaller and smaller, not so much with wholesale.

Steve: So what were what would you say were some of the biggest biggest challenges going from a flipping heavy model to a wholesaling heavy model?

Forrest: It really all comes down to marketing and training, hiring, staffing, onboarding, training to handle all of the marketing. You know, when you dial up marketing, you have a massive amount of leads coming in, and you have to have good people to service those good leads. The biggest challenge was moving into and this this I mean, I work with a lot of students now, and they're going through the same thing. They were working with an agency. The agency held all the cards.

Now they wanna do it on their own and have everything in house. And, you know, it's very important for everybody to own their AdWords accounts. Yeah. You know, if an agency owns your AdWord account, every amount of money that you're investing into that to that learning is going to them. It's not

Steve: going to

Forrest: yeah. You can yeah. They've got you. Yeah. They've got you.

And, that's that is a tough decision to make, to be able to say, well, this is working, but they hold all the cards. I'm investing into them. It's not investing into myself. Mhmm. And if that company closes, where are you?

Right. You know, you're you're you're done. So, switching over to all of your own tools and toys and your own platforms, you know, on day one, there's limitations. There's there's there's, spending caps. Mhmm.

There's no learning involved. Google doesn't know what you're doing yet on your campaigns. So that ramp up alone is is probably the biggest challenge.

Steve: Did you guys go cold turkey when you guys switched? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's that's gonna be the hardest part.

Forrest: And that's what I tell everybody. That's how you have to do it. But for me, I started I I kinda saw the writing on the wall that, and, you know, I'm I've been so many times on the other side of that phone call. I've been the agency. Mhmm.

But I was always working in other people's accounts, and I was always very transparent, you know, showing them wins and losses.

Steve: That's a what's a that's a nonnegotiable for me. Right? Like, I

Forrest: 100 percent.

Steve: If I if I ever hire an agency, like, hey. Like, it has to be my account because I if I

Forrest: if I

Steve: do your account again, it's the same thing we talked about. Yeah. I can never leave you, and so I I am literally tied to

Forrest: you. Bound. Yeah. Yeah. So that you know, that's that's kind of a that's kind of a tough thing.

So I kinda saw the writing on the wall and started building out some campaigns in the background and doing some testing, and, so when we were ready to make a switch. And that's what I advise to everybody. Start working in the shadows. It's even the same thing with a CRM. Right?

If you if you switch your CRM on your sales staff, they have analysis paralysis. Everyone freezes. You have a dip and everything. But if you start building out that other CRM in the background Mhmm. And doing some training on that while they're still using the CRM that they know and love, they start to learn the other CRM, and then you have your salespeople asking for that new CRM.

And when when you can test out other campaigns in the background and you see that they're working, then you're you're going to migrate away from that agency in a heartbeat because you now you you're confident in what's working for you, and you're investing into yourself. And, you know, that's that's what I tell everybody. You have to have it either in house or it's gotta be in your own account.

Steve: Alright. So what were some other, challenges you face in switching from flipping heavy to wholesaling heavy?

Forrest: It really learning markets, learning different markets. You know, when you're on the phone, when it's when you have an acquisitions member that's on the phone with a new in a in a new market with a seller, I tell everybody, don't necessarily look at this as I've gotta win this call. Mhmm. Look at this as education. Talk to them about the new schools coming up.

Talk about the new malls coming up. Talk about what's closing. Talk about sports teams and learn their local culture because the next phone call you have, oh, yeah. Are you excited about that new school coming up? Yeah.

I heard Applebee's closed. Is that still the you know, and you can really and they go, man. This guy, this gal knows they are an area specialist. Mhmm. You know?

And that was that's always a big challenge. Getting into a new market, it doesn't just come down to marketing. It comes down to training your salespeople to be able to talk the local lingo to be able to navigate those deals and really win people's trust and and, enable you to give that lower offer, and they're not gonna bock at it so much as they're gonna, understand where you're coming from.

Steve: Yeah. So you were saying earlier, like, you kinda got complacent in your old marketing agency where you're just looking at KPIs all day.

Forrest: Mhmm.

Steve: But I imagine going to this new role, you're probably looking at KPIs all day.

Forrest: I'm looking at KPIs all day.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: But the difference between that and and now is that I wasn't just looking at KPIs and checking in on them and then going and having lunch and, you know, having a second lunch and right? Playing with my with my dogs or or whatever. Now it's I'm looking at KPIs, and then I'm being pulled in a million different directions at the same time. And that's really where I thrive. I work well under pressure.

I think I get that from being a a procrastinator. You know, that's really when when I do my best work is when when, I'm kinda put to the fire. Yeah. And, so when I am overloaded and being over busy Mhmm. That's kind of a winning environment for me.

Yeah. So that's why getting into, you know, and and being kind of an overseer or general manager of different companies and and running all the different facets, It's fun for me.

Steve: So what were the major, KPIs you were examining when you were working with Tarek?

Forrest: Same thing that that I that I look at now, with Green Elephant, with any of my students. It really comes down to conversion cycle. It comes down to lead quality. On the marketing side, you're constantly analyzing, you know, what ads are working, what campaigns are working, what, what descriptions and content is working. And then you're you're monitoring your salespeople, monitoring their conversion cycle, monitoring their talk time, how many calls per day, how many texts per day, you know, setting those benchmarks and having goals for your sales team, having goals for your marketing department, and holding them to that.

So many people say, yeah. I I want you to make a 100 phone calls a day. Mhmm. And that's it. Nobody's on them every day how many phone calls you make today.

Steve: Alright.

Forrest: Or studying the KPIs saying you didn't hit your mark today. Mhmm. Putting people on performance plans after quarterly reviews. That structure, is such a needed thing. And, you know, it's like taking our kids to go bumper bowling.

Right? When their when their kids go bowling, they got the bumpers on both sides.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: We all need structure. People drive better during the week because they wake up at a certain time, drive a certain route, get to work at a certain time, same thing coming home. On the weekends, they drive like idiots because they have no structure. You know what I mean? So structure is something that we as human beings need to have.

And so often, especially in this industry, I find that everybody's everybody is a good salesperson, and everybody has enough knowledge about business to be dangerous. But it's very easy to make $50.60, $80,100,000 dollars off of one deal. And then you're you're you're high on the hog. You're feeling great. You get a new car.

You get a new office. Yeah. And you bypass that necessity of having that infrastructure and having those bumpers for everybody.

Steve: Everything you needed to do to get that, you're now not doing to get

Forrest: All you did was get lucky, to be honest. And then, you know, to grow and scale a company, you have to have those that that infrastructure in there. You have to have, those metrics, those KPIs, and you're holding everybody to those KPIs. Hold yourself to those KPIs. And it's not just about your acquisitions team.

I mean, I do a lot of training with c level and and management people too because, you know, I talk about this a lot. The bottleneck's always at the top. Right? So, you know, ensuring that that the the mission and the culture and the core values is trickling down from the top and is being instilled into the team. And everybody has their own lane.

Right? Mhmm. Business owners, if you're a partner, sometimes your partner's out golfing, but something has to get done. So you say, okay. I'll do that for you while you're gone.

Yeah. But imagine if there was an owner above that and you dropped the ball on that task. Who do they fire? Do they fire the guy whose task it was or the guy who said I'll do it for you? So don't paint a target on your back.

Stay in your lane and delegate out. If there's something you're weak at, don't try it. Don't try it. Just delegate that out to somebody.

Steve: That takes sometimes multiple times, to learn.

Forrest: Yeah. Multiple stings until you until you wake up. Yeah. I know. I hear you.

Yeah.

Steve: So But

Forrest: it's important.

Steve: Alright. So you're measuring that. Are there any other things? And because we're talking, like, these are substantial numbers. Numbers.

Right? 500 transactions, 100,000,000.

Forrest: Yeah.

Steve: As, like, are there, like, some other things that we haven't talked about that's, like, you gotta focus on this.

Forrest: You know, it depends on so, yeah, a lot. But, as far as the marketing is concerned, I would much prefer a lot of people talk about, oh, what's your what's your cost per lead is, you know, get a low cost per lead. $5 leads are cheap, crappy leads.

Steve: They're $5

Forrest: leads. That's it. I would much prefer to spend $10,000 on a lead if it's gonna close. I would much prefer to have 10 leads for a $100,000 a month than a thousand leads for $10,000 a month. I'll close nine out of those 10.

I'll close nine out of that thousand. But what I'm doing is I'm burning out my salespeople, and, it's just a lot of noise again. Yeah. So on the marketing side, it's it's definitely focusing on high quality leads. You know, take care of your people.

You know, I'm I'm I'm a married guy. I take care of my wife. She takes care of me. Yeah. Take care of your business.

Take care of your staff. They'll take care of you.

Steve: So what are these calls these guys are responsible for? Because if you're spending money on marketing and you have high quality leads, I imagine a lot of your leads are inbound.

Forrest: Mhmm. Right?

Steve: A lot of your leads are inbound. It's, the the focus on dials is not as much as it is if it's outbound marketing. So what what are the metrics or what are the difference in metrics for an inbound marketing versus an outbound marketing, service?

Forrest: So, inbound leads are you know, they're never gonna be one right on top of another unless you're running a commercial right at that time and every phone on the sales floor lights up. Right? But if you're doing form fills and you're doing PPC, you're doing billboards, you're doing some of those things, and you have a a sizable team and everything's set up in a round robin

Steve: Mhmm.

Forrest: They're not gonna be one lead on top of another on top of another on top of another. Right. So that's where I squeeze in all of the cold outreach. That's where I squeeze in the dialer. I squeeze in the texting.

I want them sending 500 text messages a day minimum. I want them doing 100 dials a day minimum. Those are goals. Mhmm. But if their numbers are there and they're they're crushing it, you know, I'm I'm not here to say, hey.

You're not doing it right. You're making me a lot of money. Yeah. I really want you to spend a 100 dials a day. That could knock them off their off their kilter.

And, setting those goals and making sure that they understand that they're they they should not have a thumb to twiddle during the day, ever. Yeah. You gotta keep your cinder block on a gas pedal. You gotta keep moving. This is an opportunity.

This isn't a job. This is an opportunity. You have an opportunity to make a lot of money. I'm spending a lot of money on leads. I've got a lot of money on data.

I've got systems and processes that you can utilize to make yourself a lot of money. So don't spend your time talking to everybody at the office. Don't spend too long at lunch. In fact, bring in lunch. Yeah.

Right? You know, stay motivated and and stay focused. And hitting all those numbers, making sure that, obviously, your inbound leads are your gold, and you wanna stay on top of that. You know, that's that's top priority, first priority. But in between that, if you don't have cold outreach, if you don't have text messaging, if you don't have dialing, what are they gonna do?

They're gonna twiddle their thumbs. Maybe they're gonna reach back and call some ghosts, ghosts, but ghosts are good at continuing to be ghosts. So, always moving forward.

Steve: Who are you texting along this time?

Forrest: So I I I do a lot of SMS outreach to agents, building agent relationships. Agents have a great response rate. They'll always get back to you, especially via text. And building that relationship with agents, you know, you can you can grab data and say, hey. Listen.

I saw that you have this house pending right now. Do you have any other properties that would fit for me? I'd look for distressed. And you really have to work with them and kind of coach them. Otherwise, they're just gonna send you a link with a ton ton of properties.

I talked to somebody one time, and I used the analogy of if I tell an agent or a wholesaler, hey. I'll buy anything that's blue. Mhmm. They say, okay. Great.

But what did you think about that red one and that orange one I sent you? You're not listening. Right? So it's really there's comes down to coaching. But with agents, they'll send you properties.

You build a good relationship with a good agent. Mhmm. You're gonna source a couple properties a month per agent, or I'm sorry, per rep with all the agents that they've got outreach with. So doing SMS outreach with agents is good. Also, you can reach out to sellers too.

Of course, there's 10 DLC compliance that you've gotta make sure you're working with and batch and lead Sherpa and some of those are great, and making sure you stay compliant. But, it just gives an opportunity for people to stay busy and to potentially find more gold nuggets under rocks that don't have the savvy or the wherewithal to go on Google and submit a form.

Steve: What were the best marketing channels you guys were using at that time?

Forrest: I've had a lot of success with with texting and and cold outreach. Mhmm. In this market right now or, actually, I should say six months ago, the, there's a lot of money motivated people in PPC. You know, you always you have your PPC ads that are saying, you know, you have an inherited home that you don't want or you have a, are you in preforeclosure? And those people are gonna gravitate to those search terms that that fit those.

And then you have a landing page that replicates that. Extremely important. I have landing pages for every pain point. If they search for, you know, how to sell a preforeclosure home, they're gonna find an ad for preforeclosure. They're gonna click on that ad.

It's gonna take them to a preforeclosure landing page. When the it passes through the CRM, we have their search term in there so that the rep understands they were searching for preforeclosure, and the rep's gonna pull out the preforeclosure intro

Steve: Mhmm.

Forrest: In the script. The rest of the script's the same. It's just that intro. We specialize in preforeclosure.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: Right? We specialize in inherit. We specialize in entire landlords.

Steve: I love that. Right? Because when I was, you know, doing, traditional real estate, like, I specialize in every city. It's it's amazing.

Forrest: Yeah. Right? Yeah. Every single one. But and and that's what enables a seller, to feel comfortable that they found the right solution.

Mhmm. You know? And that's why it's important to have those landing pages replicating your your your ad, copy, because a lot of these people, again, are not the most savvy people. And if they are looking for a pre foreclosure ad and it goes to something that's talking about home building

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: They're gonna say, oh, my gosh. I did the wrong thing, and they're gonna click away. Mhmm. So keeping that cohesion is is so important to ensure that flow. And then the the rep is picking up the phone and talking about preforeclose, and they go, god.

I found my home. I found the people that I wanna work with. Everybody else is too generic. These people specialize in this. Right.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I think the the key here is, I think what's it called, like, the crumbs. Right? The crumbs have to be consistent Yeah.

From page to page to page. Every the message, the the conversations, the words, everything. Yeah. It was that consistent, it was that congruent, something in their head goes, like, there's something wrong here.

Forrest: A 100%.

Steve: Freak out.

Forrest: 100%. And there's so much room for error. Yeah. So that's, you know, that's what it comes down to. I do a lot of split testing.

Steve: Mhmm.

Forrest: You know, never have an ad that's working for you and then say, you know what? I'm gonna make some cool changes to that ad. No. No. No.

Duplicate it. Make the changes over there. Don't ruin what you've already got working. Split test everything. The more split testing you can do, the the the more strategic you're being in the

Steve: the This is kinda what I sound weird, though. Right? Like, the difference between direct response marketing and and traditional marketing. Traditional marketing is just like Coke and every commercial, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Or like product placement.

Forrest: Just throw it out there.

Steve: Right? Yeah. That's what you get with a college degree. Yeah. But like real application of marketing is very different.

You have to understand the congruence, the messaging, the Mhmm. Right? If you have one font and one color on one page and go to the next page, it's a different color, that could screw everything up.

Forrest: 100%. Right. 100%. Yeah. So yeah.

No. That it's it's extremely important, and it's it's it's very crucial for the flow of everything. You wanna increase your conversions. Those are those are things that will do it. Yeah.

Steve: With the luxury, right, of having a household brand Mhmm. Were you guys using TV as in, like, the, like, the actual show, or you guys were not allowed to do that?

Forrest: So from what I recall, HGTV allowed us, to have, the Tarek buys house's name, across the bottom of the screen on the on the TV show. So that lended credibility, and we would get a lot of of of inbound leads from that.

Steve: So you guys are probably targeting that keyword very hard.

Forrest: Oh, sure. Sure. Yeah. You know, I mean, and so were a lot of other people too, by

Steve: the way.

Forrest: Obviously. But you

Steve: guys have to make sure you guys were there.

Forrest: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So but, basically, having that experience for nearly two years, with Tarak Buys Houses was, an amazing learning experience Mhmm. Because, even though I came from I grew up around real estate and then I got into sales and marketing, I found that, the blueprint that I had for scaling companies with corporate, you know, fortune five hundreds and whatnot, even my own company, It just really works in this industry.

And, again in

Steve: every industry. It does. We just don't do it.

Forrest: Right. Yeah. Yeah. This industry is is a little, a little less focused on infrastructure.

Steve: Well, and I think one of the reasons why is that because the margins are so large, there's Yeah. So much room for error.

Forrest: Yep.

Steve: Or you can't screw it up really. I mean, you can't today because of how much everyone's leveled up. But last year, two years ago

Forrest: Different ballgame.

Steve: So much room for error.

Forrest: Everything's changed so much. I mean, especially recently Yeah. Just with with the market and and the the the shift and and everything to kinda doing a market correction. A lot of people are talking about a market crash. Maybe.

We'll see. But I definitely think a market correction is is, is more the terminology of where we're at right now. Over the you know, in 2021, being able to crush it was a lot easier than being able to crush it in 2022 in today's market, big time.

Steve: Oh, a 100%.

Forrest: So it's it's it's a it's a different dichotomy. And, yeah, it's it's it's gonna be a little bit more challenging now. You know, everybody was was overpaying for properties in 2021 because They could. Because they could. Because everyone's crystal ball said, hey.

Next month, it'll be worth more, and the month after that, it'll be more. So I have no problem paying this amount today. Mhmm. But now everybody's crystal balls are broken, and everyone's scared. And there's a leveling out that's happening, so that increase isn't happening there.

So, it's just a market correction. It's not gonna be as easy to acquire properties right now. And that's why you have to have really good salespeople, not order takers.

Steve: Mhmm.

Forrest: You could get away with order takers in 2021.

Steve: Yep.

Forrest: You want cheese with that? You want pickles with that? No problem. I'll button it up and send you a contract. Now you've gotta you you you've gotta charge them for the pickles and the cheese, and and it's a whole different deal.

And you need really good salespeople. And that's why I don't necessarily hire people that have a real estate background because real estate is something that is easily learned. You can take a course. You can get the three books. You can go get your license.

It's not like getting a license to, you know, practice law or a license to, you know Operate. Operate. You know what I mean? Okay. It's not a, a heart surgeon type of thing.

So I look for salespeople. If if if they can sell knives, if they can sell door to door Mhmm. If they can sell solar, if they can sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves, you're hired. Right. You know, I will train you on the real estate.

Because those really good salespeople, they'll they can sell anything. You just change the script. And you train them on what that script is.

Steve: You train

Forrest: them on the expectations. Uh-huh.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Right. I think I think that's spot on. And especially you're talking about, like, you know, real estate is that, we look for, you know, behavior.

We're looking for attitude. Yeah. Right? We can teach the skills. Yep.

We can teach the knowledge.

Forrest: Mhmm. But you

Steve: have to have the right behavior. You have to have the right attitudes.

Forrest: And because the the big thing too is is I've said this before. You can have all the systems and processes you need, but if you don't have culture, if you don't have an ecosystem Mhmm. Then the people you have, aren't going to optimize your systems and your processes properly. Yeah. And culture for me, creating a culture and creating a positive ecosystem where you're giving bonuses, you're giving rewards, you're taking care of your staff, that is so crucial.

I call it sticky. Right? The stickier your company can be where no one will ever want to leave means that you've got long term players. Long term players are not so disappointed that they didn't do well this week because they look at it. I've still got the rest of the year to do an amazing job.

Yeah. But those short term players say, oh, I didn't do well this week. This isn't gonna work out. I don't want this amount.

Steve: Yeah. And it's your fault.

Forrest: Of course. Always. Always.

Steve: So, yeah, we got a chance to connect initially at the all in event. Mhmm. You came here with, I think, Robert.

Forrest: Yep.

Steve: Right? Yep. And then we met again.

Forrest: Really good friend of mine.

Steve: Yeah. He's a genius. Yes. And then we got a chance to meet again at Vick's event.

Forrest: Yep.

Steve: Right? And, there, I got a chance to talk about, you know, leadership and and and culture. So, I mean, I think culture is really important.

Forrest: I think

Steve: so can you expand a little bit more on culture?

Steve: Well, I

Forrest: was really impressed with everything you said because we're very aligned in a in a lot of ways, and, I think that's why we get along. The, creating a company culture based on core values. And, you know, a lot of people will just go out and look on Google for mission statements and core values and then copy paste that and say, okay. Print that, send it out to everybody.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: You really need to spend some time and look inward on what you want for your company if it's gonna be a long term company. And if it's not, then the bottleneck is you Yeah. And you need to get out of your own way. Maybe you just need to be a financier of that company and and shut up and stay home. But, developing that company culture and that ecosystem, taking care of your people and it's not just in the bonuses or taking them out with party buses and having fun.

That's neat. Mhmm. But for me, and I think for a lot of people out there, you can always make money at a job. Money puts, you know, money in the bank, and you can take care of your gas and your bills and your friends. And, but if you wanna grow in life, it comes down to knowledge and experience.

And the more knowledge and the more education that you can give to your employees and to your staff, again, the stickier it's going to be. Because they're saying, man, I'm learning so much. The money's there, but I'm learning and if and even if they have a dip and the money's not there Mhmm. They're like, I have learned so much from being here. I wanna continue learning, continue growing as a human.

Yeah. And that's what enables you to have these long term players. And when you have long term players, they're telling their friends and your friend their friends are coming asking for jobs.

Steve: They're recruiting for you.

Forrest: A 100%.

Steve: Yeah. I think, you know, I read somewhere, like, they come for the money and they stay for the culture.

Forrest: That's

Steve: it. And, I I actually had had a competitor in town. And, like, supposedly, you know, is where I heard, they're what they're really good at was taking people to strip clubs and providing, you know, some nose powder.

Forrest: I was

Steve: like, well, that's fascinating.

Forrest: That's one way to do it.

Steve: I don't want to compete against them in that arena. Right? Like, if that's what they if that attracts you,

Forrest: then I mean, you'd have a twenty four hour sales floor.

Steve: Well, that tells me that we were not a culture fit.

Forrest: Yeah. I hear you.

Steve: If you're attracted to that, then this is

Forrest: This is not it.

Steve: This is not gonna work. Yeah. So, guys, four is the wealth information. Please ask some more questions. I only see a handful here so far, but, you know, definitely ask some questions.

And before we go into the audience questions, let's do a quick commercial break.

Speaker 3: His sales training is unbelievable. Right? There is other sales training in theory. Going through this stuff with how he breaks down his business is this is, like, invaluable, because there's no other way to get this type of like, this type of access with someone who's such an open book about every little thing that is completely applicable to my business.

Steve: Anyone who wants to bring that business to the next level, anyone who wants to close thirty, forty, 50% more of the deals, I mean, there's no one who wouldn't benefit from being better at sales. I mean, anyone in real estate, anyone I mean, anyone that has any entrepreneur that has a business. Not all the information may be pertinent to you, but time management, knowing how to work with people, having sales skills, because I think we're all in sales and marketing. And it could pertain to anybody, honestly.

Speaker 4: I would have to say it's asking questions. That's the biggest thing. You don't wanna give an answer right away. And if you're able to, answer their question with another question. And also that along the process, it's gonna be very uncomfortable with talking to the sellers, asking the questions that you need to, and digging for paying.

But that's gonna come with experience. So

Steve: if you're struggling, I think this is David that you need to come to to make sure that you take your business to the next level.

Forrest: I'm

Steve: glad you asked. Yeah. I wanna talk about it. Alright. So the first question, from Leon on YouTube is what is the one quality that you look for when you're hiring somebody?

Forrest: Team players. People that are not so headstrong to say that, you know, I know it all. You should hire me because I'm the best. Obviously, a lot of the, you know, the the good salespeople, the good closers are gonna tell you, oh, I was number one, and I'm the best person. I was in the president's club and the you know?

That's all fine and well. But, you know, sometimes that best person that you have on your sales floor is also the most toxic. Mhmm. And I have sacrificed the one to save the money. Yeah.

I call it pissing on the sales floor. And so looking for those team players that want to be leaders, but leaders from within. Right? Not necessarily leading from the front, but leading internally and leading by example and, that want to grow with the company, that want to prove themselves to be able to level up. Not just somebody who comes in and says, oh, I know you're gonna make me a manager in, like, two weeks because I'm amazing.

Speaker: Right?

Steve: Well, this is the the the challenge with salespeople. Right? Like, a lot of the salespeople tend to be, alpha males or females. Sure. They think they're the boss.

So I learned quite a bit in the last, you know, fifteen years about how to run effective organizations, this and that. But if you were to talk to me ten years ago, like, Steve, what do you look for, in in a salesperson? I was like, well, I'm looking for two qualities. I want someone that's cocky and humble at the same time.

Forrest: Yeah. It's hard to find.

Steve: It's hard to find.

Forrest: That's that's a needle in a haystack, Steve.

Steve: Right. But they're super confident. They think they're winners, but they're coachable. Yeah. That's who I want.

Yeah. So

Forrest: Yeah. And that's the other thing. Coachable. You know, they have to be willing to learn. They have to be willing to, the the thing that drives me bananas is when somebody says, well, the way we did it over at the I don't wanna hear about it.

I don't wanna hear about the way you did it somewhere else because this is how

Steve: we do it here. You can

Forrest: always come back over there. I mean yeah. I mean, I'm sure that they'll they'll invite you back. Right? Because if they won't, then why are we talking?

But, no, that's it's coachable is is a big thing. They have to be willing to be molded to to work within your ecosystem and grow within your company and go to the finish line with you. Mhmm. And, the the arrogance of most salespeople, I'm not saying that we don't want anybody without any arrogance because I think that there a little of that is good. It's confidence.

But there's a fine line.

Steve: Well, you need that ego because you're getting rejected all day.

Forrest: Yeah. That's true.

Steve: And you and you have to persevere.

Forrest: Yeah.

Steve: And you can't do that without an ego.

Forrest: That's true. That's true. But, yeah, finding that that that that perfect blend of of the ego, of the the team building, of the, wanting to be wanting to learn and wanting to grow, those those are all things that are, you know, you throw them into a blender, and that's the perfect mix.

Steve: So how do you identify that? Right? You got five candidates. They apply. Right?

They go to your portal and they whatever you use.

Forrest: Mhmm.

Steve: How do you identify those qualities and characteristics in your interview process or in your screening process?

Forrest: So, typically, when I when I'm onboarding new people or if I'm looking to bring on people, I don't bring on one at a time. I bring on a new class. Mhmm. That way I can start them all on Monday. I can watch them pace, but, I'll do Zoom interviews with everybody and prescreen them.

And then I'll do an in office interview, and I'll sit down with them and show them the office. And, really, for me, I'm I'm, I read between the lines on what they're saying. I've I've gotten to be a pretty good judge of of character, and I size people up pretty quickly. And that enables me in business to do, you know, good relationships and Sure. Stay away from bad relationships.

But, it really comes down and I and I follow-up on references. Most people don't. Mhmm. Most people say, do you have references? And they go, yeah.

I've got all these. Okay. Great. Thanks. That's enough.

I contact references. I wanna know about these people, and I do a little bit of a deep dive. Yeah. I'll research them on LinkedIn. I'll I'll I'll, I'll kinda stalk them a little bit to see if they're gonna be the right candidate once they've passed all the other tests.

But for me, I, you know, I look to see how they are with their family. I look to see where they're at with their finances. I, you know, I ask them how many times they've moved around in jobs and, you know, what what made them leave their last position. Because from what you're saying, you're an amazing salesperson, so I believe that you were making really good money. Why aren't you still doing that?

And letting them explain it. I, you know, I like to kinda set the noose a little bit. Yeah. And if they can navigate through the questions and they can say all the right things, without hanging themselves, then, you know, they move on to the next step and on to the next level.

Steve: Yeah. So is there any specific questions you like as far as trying to you know, you're talking about team player.

Forrest: Mhmm. Are

Steve: there any specific questions you're looking for to find that team player, characteristic or quality?

Forrest: So, one question that I that that I do ask people is how can you be a team leader, and, without being a manager? Explain that to me. And the way that they go through that and and I've had people that'll sit there and, you know, and and not come up with the answer, and that's that's pretty much dead zero.

Steve: Yes. That's right.

Forrest: But, you know, I I I try to get into their head is is really what it comes down to. And I'm kind of a wordsmith, so I'll I'll I'll ask them pretty poignant questions depending on their resume, depending on, you know, kind of what they've told me about their backstory and their their family life. For me, that's that's, I like to know their journey. I like to know their story because that's what has made them who they are today. And most people, even if you're dating somebody, you know, they have a false persona for the first few few months.

Mhmm. Right? They wanna show you who they want you to think that they are. Right. So by learning that backstory and really kinda digging deep into that, you can kinda figure out what's behind the the veil, you know.

And you can kinda get them to open up the kimono a little bit and show you who they really are, upfront as opposed to waiting two or three months down the road Yeah. To find out, wow. This guy, this gal is not a good fit. You know?

Steve: Do you use any personality profile tool or anything like that?

Forrest: I do. I I have I have everyone run through. I forget the name of the test right now. But, I have everybody run through a personality test and and run through, just to kinda see where they're at in in, where they rank.

Steve: Mhmm.

Forrest: And I utilize that, but I don't lean on that. That's not not, like, a major component for me, because I'm creating culture, because I'm creating people. For me personally, I don't test well. You put a test in front of me, and I'm gonna freeze up. I just I and I've taken those those tests myself, and, a lot of those questions are are centered around sales.

And it's interesting in acquisitions because we're not really we're selling an offer. Mhmm. But it's not like a typical sale. It's not a product cycle. Mhmm.

There's not a a discount on Thursdays by 20% if you sign up now. You know? So a lot of those questions, it really depends on your mindset on on what you're actually selling. And, you can get some pretty wild and all over the place scores on some of those tests because they're they're more centered on sales. Right.

So I really I I I need to know more about the people. The people are what I'm gonna be working with on a day to day basis. And that backstory of what what has made them who they are and how they've gotten to where they are, that's important to me.

Steve: It sounds like you're pretty heavily involved in the in the hiring process.

Forrest: Yeah. I'm a control freak. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Steve: So is that something that you will never let go or, like, you love it too much, you enjoy it too much, or where where are you on that?

Forrest: That's a love hate relationship for sure. Because there's a lot of work that goes into it. I mean, you're sifting through resumes. You're doing a lot of appointments. You're doing a lot of calls.

But for me, and building that culture, because that's that's really that's that's a big, big monument for me is is culture and ecosystem.

Steve: Well, that is, I think, one of the most important, responsibilities Yeah. Of a business owner. Right? And I think one that kinda gets overlooked a lot. Yeah.

But the part about hiring the only reason I bring this up is, like, I've read I've read other books. I've I've gone through the process. Sure. I understand all these things, and I'm still terrible at it because I think everyone's gonna be great.

Forrest: Yeah. I have

Steve: that problem.

Forrest: You're hopeful.

Steve: I'm very hopeful.

Forrest: Yeah. No. That's good. I I am too. And, you know, I know that about myself, and so I I sometimes have to pump the brakes on that.

Yeah. You know, I I, I give everybody too much credit sometimes.

Steve: That's why I delegate that.

Forrest: And that's yeah. So, you know, there's there's, because I'm aware of that, it enables me to to be able to pump the brakes on that and look at things a little bit more objectively. That's why I do call on resources.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: You know, I I call on the references rather, and and get other people's opinions. But for me, it's it's, it's I don't know that I'll ever stop being involved in that process in one facet or another, because it's I look at it as it's my team. Yeah. And if it's gonna be my team, then that means they're an extension of me. And if I can't pour myself into somebody or into all of those somebodies, then that's a broken team.

And if I have a broken team, then I'm broken.

Steve: Yeah. No. I I totally respect that. Stephen Collin wants to know, with this market, how would you break down and allocate your marketing budget right now?

Forrest: Well, PPC is all that's a good question. PPC is always gonna be something that that that holds true. We're coming up on elections right now, so Facebook is gonna be increasingly difficult, as people run their their marketing, getting in front of people on Facebook with these huge marketing spends that some of these politicians are gonna be doing. But Facebook is great for retargeting, you know, with pixel codes and everything. But PPC is always gonna be your constant.

I also, am a firm believer in television and radio. Some of the greatest leads that I've had came from TV until I started running radio. And the leads in radio, to me and, you know, it it it depends on the market that you're in. Right? Because, in Southern California, there's a lot of windshield time.

There's a lot of traffic. So if you can air those radio commercials at the right time, then you can get those phone calls and you can get those things going. You gotta repeat your phone number enough times. Right?

Steve: I mean, that makes total sense because they're just staring at that tailgate.

Forrest: A 100%. Yeah. And then it cuts to a commercial break. Yeah. You know, and and you can pick up some of those ads in some of these micro markets and some of these secondary and tertiary markets that, are very cost cost friendly.

Mhmm. And the return on and we all know this. Like, the amount of money that you can make off of just one deal will more than pay for a small test on on marketing. Mhmm. And that's why I say try everything.

Test everything. I I do I also I create testing marketing budgets by having teams focus on bringing in at least one outbound deal. Yeah. If an acquisitions member is working on bringing in at least one outbound deal, that's money you never would have had. And, again, we go back to how important data is.

The entire time that they're sowing those seeds on on bringing in those outbound deals, you're getting all of this data into your CRM for lead nurturing, for direct mail campaigns, etcetera, and, you get that outbound deal. Maybe pay your rep a little bit more because it's money you never would have had. Mhmm. Maybe pay them 25% on that deal. That 75% that you never would have had, there's your marketing budget.

There's your test marketing budget. Go test some things out. Go try radio in a certain market. Go try billboards. Go try television.

You know, you can go to some of these cable companies, and they have local programs that are very affordable. And, again, they can target by household. Yeah. And, you know, radio's good. Some of the streaming radio and Sirius and things like that, I haven't had, as much success in, as as just, you know, traditional radio channels.

Steve: Have you tried YouTube TV or or Hulu and those other

Forrest: I have. The streaming streaming stuff, I have. And, I didn't have as as good attraction as having him on the major networks during Yeah. You know, gossip hour and Judge Judy and and all that stuff.

Steve: Yeah. Because I I know a friend that's had success with it, not as much recently, and I was curious about it because it seems like that would be a younger audience.

Forrest: Yeah.

Steve: And our avatar tends to be older. Yeah. So True. Don Yehuda on YouTube, when developing landing pages, what are we some of the best step by step best way to go about it step by step?

Forrest: Again, back to, having your PPC and and your campaigns replicate, what, your landing page has to be cohesive with your with your ad copy. You can use things like Unbounce, to build out landing pages. Mhmm. Having that stepped process, I know, like, the the landing pages that we all use with investor lift. You know, they they come in, they build an address, they put in the address, goes to the next step.

They put in their contact information, takes them to many more steps that gives conditional questions about the home. Mhmm. And sometimes that's too long winded, and people will just opt out. They don't have the time or they need to come back to it. But having that step process in there gives your, acquisitions rep more information to take on the call.

But you you have your landing pages send two different sends. So it's gonna send you the information on their address and their contact information. That's a full send. You're gonna get that right away. All the other information that they're gonna fill in and all the other steps, you know, steps three, four, five, six, whatever, that'll come again on another send.

Mhmm. And you have that information. That way, if they fall off, you still have all that information in there. So having that stepped process built out, having, a lot of information in there because it's not just for the acquisitions rep. It's it's also so important because it's getting them in the mindset of thinking about their house so that when the rep is on the phone with them, they're not catching them off guard with these questions.

Yeah. When you ask questions like, have you replaced your roof in the last ten to fifteen years? No. I I haven't. Oh, that's probably gonna be a problem.

Mhmm. You're right. But now they go into the call knowing, yeah. Alright. I know you're gonna ask me about this.

We haven't ever we've been here for thirty years. We've never done anything with our roof. Does that mean we're getting a lower price? Probably. Okay.

But they're prepped for that. Yeah. So going through in some of these things, does it have a pool? Does it function? Does the pool equipment work?

These are all things that they're thinking, oh, I've got a house with a pool. It's gonna sell for a lot. But you ask those questions in the fill form, and when you get to them on the phone, they're already prepped for the fact that that's a negative.

Steve: Right. And, you know, again, for, Don, like, we're talking about this is the sales page that comes with investor lift. I think one of the other things too is the the psychological component is that when if if they go to page two, page three, page four

Forrest: Mhmm.

Steve: What they're not doing is going to someone else's page That's a big one. Giving your sales rep more time

Forrest: to call. That's a big one. Basically, it slaps blinders on them. Right? Like a horse with blinders.

Right? They're just so focused on on, on what you're doing. And, also, they're investing time into your potential conversation, and they're taking that time. And and anytime you can take somebody's time, you're gonna make a larger impression on them with that step process than somebody who just says give me your name, your your email address, your address, and your phone, and we'll call you.

Steve: I mean, that's the same mindset. Right? Like, why you can't leave a bad movie? Like, I've already invested so much time into this. I have to.

Forrest: I've got to see if it gets better. You know what I mean? I'm gonna I'm gonna wait it out. Yeah. But, no, that's that's the big thing.

And, it's taking that them taking that time, and that equates to your first phone call. You know, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression, but we're also never guaranteed on a second chance. Mhmm. So taking the time on that initial phone call. And, you know, I tell everybody, have a long call.

You know, you know, reps that are doing hour long phone calls have the highest conversion rate. And they're talking a lot. They're educating a lot. Mhmm. The seller is getting to hear because at the end of the day, they're talking to a lot of different companies.

So in a way, this is kind of an audition. They're auditioning who they want to work with on this property, even though they're selling their house.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: You know, we have to show them that we're credible, we're educated, we're experienced, we're knowledgeable. So having that long call, talking educating them on the market, educating them on the different solutions that you provide within your company. They get to hear how you think, the how your brain works, and that just builds trust and credibility. So when you come in with your offer, it may not be the best offer in the world that they're looking for, but now they're gonna listen to it. It's like somebody telling you a joke, and they forget the whole joke, but they remember the punch line.

Right. Well, the punch line's not very funny. I don't like it because you told the joke horribly. So you gotta have take the time and tell the joke right so when you come in with that punch line, that offer, it's credible, and they enjoy it. They get it.

They understand. And, it's not, they're not hanging up the phone on you.

Steve: On YouTube, Jose Alizondo, what is an indicator that you should start delegating acquisitions in your company? You start delegating what? Acquisitions, hiring or, I'm sorry, sales.

Forrest: So businesses have ebbs and flows. Right? And it really comes down to, a lot of people I'll back up. A lot of people will say, you know what? I'm gonna go get an office for 40 seats, and then I'm gonna start staffing.

And and from one to 40, and I'm gonna get it's gonna be great, and I'm gonna throw a bunch of money at PPC and, level up when your business is begging you to level up. Mhmm. Level up when you are at a point and you're at an inertia within your own lane. And, again, don't step out of your lane. Right?

And a lot of us, you know, as business owners or as managers, you know, we wanna control everything. We wanna stay on top of everything. But and that's all fine and well. But don't work on things that you're not super strong at. There's only we're as humans, there's only a 100% of us.

We're 100%. You you'll never be able to put a 100% into two things. You're gonna put 50% into two things. So make sure you stay in your lane, and delegate out when you feel like you're starting to only give 80% to your main focus. That's when you need to make sure you're giving a 100%, delegate off, and and hire good people.

And make sure that these people aren't just good within their own right, but make sure that you can, clone yourself into them. Because if if if if you can't get them to follow the leader and be in a good ecosystem and have core values and and be somebody that, you know, you would wanna go out you wanna go on vacation with that person Mhmm. Because that's that's how cool they are and how well you get along with them. You know, that that's when you know that you've hired the right person, and it's the right time when you absolutely need it. So don't just say I'm gonna go out and start up a 100 man office tomorrow.

Yeah. You know, have 40 reps if that's the case, and then get an office for 50 reps and add 10 more. And, you know, it just as it grows, as your business demands, supply and demand, as the business demands Yeah. That's when you level up.

Steve: I remember I was, coaching someone, and they're like, oh, you know, I'm good now. Like, I'm ready to move on. It's like, really? They're like, yeah. I mean, all I need to do now is just hire a lead manager, a couple sales managers, and, you know, just beef up marketing.

It's like

Forrest: Mhmm.

Steve: Oh, yeah. That's it. Just Sure. They just just Yeah. They're more Sure.

Just hire

Forrest: Just open up your wallet and hold it out the window. Yeah. You know?

Steve: That's all you need. Like, there are no more challenges after this. Yeah. Right. So, Marcos Matos wants to know, what

Forrest: does the onboarding look like at your company? So, everybody that I work with, I have the same kind of onboarding, methodology. And, it's obviously, we go through the the hiring process. I use things like Indeed and ZipRecruiter, and I go through a lot of resumes, and I set up a lot of appointments and do a lot of Zoom calls. I keep the Zoom calls short and sweet.

I want to hear that kind of high level. And then I'll bring them in for an in office interview, show them the office, watch body language and see how things go. But, again, I start a whole new class. I never just start Tom on Monday and Sarah on Wednesday and Billy on Thursday. Everybody starts on Monday.

And, building an onboarding the biggest thing is we we we need to tell them the core values. We need to tell them the mission statements. We need to tell them how to say what we want them to say. But if you don't have that prerecorded, if you don't have them into an onboarding system, then you're just repeating yourself all the time. So record yourself doing these videos and get that into an onboarding platform.

For me, on Mondays, I'll see you at lunch, and I'll see you when it's over. Monday, they come in. They put a heads headset on. They're watching videos, And it's a lot of videos. And they go through all the videos and all the video training, and they've got access to scripts.

They can look at those and print those out. Tuesday, and they're going through recorded phone calls, and they're doing a lot of scripting. Again, this is all on the computer. Headphones on. Head down.

You're gonna this is gonna be a a lot of knowledge thrown your way. Probably too much. Yeah. But that's what I do on the first week. Everything's too much.

Mhmm. Because I'm setting a pace. It's like being on a phone call with somebody. There's only two people on the phone. If you don't control the temperature, if you don't control the tempo, you're leaving it up to them.

Right. So if you want it to go fast, you're gonna have to talk a little bit faster. You're gonna have to speed things up to get them to do that. So it's the same thing with bringing on, you know, new people. Monday, Tuesday, head down, headphones on.

They're listening. They're reading. They're watching. On Wednesday, I do a group training where we're going over objections and rebuttals, doing a lot of role play, a lot of script work. And then Wednesday afternoon, they're out shadowing people, watching how not necessarily how they're going about their scripting, but really how they're mon they're going through the systems and the processes, which they were also learning on video learning on Mondays and Tuesdays, how to manipulate the CRM, manipulate the CRM, how to use, say, PropStream and things like that, the the the SMS platforms and the dialing platforms.

And, so then Wednesday afternoon, they're shadowing how existing reps are putting that together. And then Thursday, I throw them in the deep end of the pool and put them on a dialer. Nice. And on Thursday and Friday, they don't pull their finger off the trigger, and it is back to back to back to back phone calls. Because at the end of the day, this is a numbers game.

And you need to to disqualify these people quickly. Hi. You know, I was driving down your street the other day. I work for an investor, and I saw your house. It fits the buy box perfectly.

Have you been considering selling? Are you open minded, to to hearing about a cash offer on your no? This forever home? Okay. Have a great day.

Hi. This is Forrest. I'm driving down your street, and it's a and it's just the numbers game back to back to back. And I I'm I make that first week a whirlwind. Friday, it's over.

They're exhausted. They have the weekend to think about it. Monday morning, maybe three out of the five peep maybe one out of the three people that I hired is gonna come to me Monday morning and say, you know what? This just this isn't for me.

Steve: Yeah. Good. Good. That's awesome.

Forrest: I'm glad I weeded you out. Yeah. That's not what I say. But I say, listen. I wish you well, and I totally understand.

And the people that stick are are the people that went home over the weekend, thought about it, and said, yeah. I'm ready to go with this. I want this.

Steve: Alright.

Forrest: And they come in on Monday, and they're ready to rock and roll. And I put them back on the dialer again. And, typically, with that kind of giddy up, I've got people that will close a deal within the first three weeks of working. So the first week is hardcore training. Second and third week, second week's building pipeline.

Third week, they're gonna get a deal. By fourth week, everybody gets a deal, on that methodology. But you're setting out you're setting the the pace. You're setting the tempo right off the bat with them so that they're aware that, hey. This place moves fast.

It's gotta be a cinder block on a gas pedal and it's a numbers game. So as long as I do the numbers, as long as I move quick, I should be making money. So that's kind of the the kind of 10,000 view perspective on on on how we do some training.

Steve: Awesome. Follow-up question by Marcos is how are you adjusting your offers right now?

Forrest: So, yeah, it really comes down to offering solutions right now. As far as, cash offers So here's the deal. There's a lot of things going around on the online right now, and there's a lot of scare tactics talking about the market crashing. So who's privy to that information? Who follows that information?

We do. Do. Mhmm. Investors do. Flippers do.

Wholesalers do. So there's a lot of fear in our industry right now. And because of that and also because of the hedge funds and and a lot of the lenders so the way that the hedge funds do it, they they arbitrage the best interest rates. They put their money into the stock market. The the the money that they get in the fund, they put into the stock market.

The stock market crashed. Mhmm. I mean, it it's it's been, the worst numbers in the last fifty years with the S and P and the Dow, and, that's made lenders and hedge funds dry up this year. And if they haven't stopped buying altogether, they're buying at really deep discounts.

Steve: Right.

Forrest: And that's the funds. Then you've got the the flippers and investors. They're scared shitless right now. Mhmm. So they are now buying at the sixty, sixty wholesalers were buying at to be able to sell to them at the 75% range.

So it's it's and what what is a wholesaler supposed to do? Offer 50%, 45%? People have a real disdain for those numbers. So it makes it increasingly difficult. Yep.

So that's why I think in this market shift right now, getting into creative finance and offering more than just the the yes or no. Here's my offer. Do you like it? Yes or no? No.

Have a great day. If you have different solutions, it takes you away from a yes or no and presents a which one. Mhmm. So you've got the cash offer, which really fits well if you're in a hurry or if your house is in disrepair and not ready to be listed. Right?

That's the cash offer is gonna work really well for you. And a 100% of my customers that pick that solution are satisfied. Mhmm. The other option is we can go about creative terms and creative financing. I'm sure, you know, with with PACE and and Jamil and everybody talking about sub two.

And if you don't know about that, go check that out. It's gonna be very valuable for you. You know, you can offer terms. You can take over their mortgage payments. You can put yourself on title.

You can give them some small monthly payments if you need to with a balloon at the end. Or the new buyer comes in, refinances, and gives them that whole lump sum on the seller finance on the back end. So that's another option. Yep. I tell people, listen.

You probably are talking to me because well, let me ask you this. Have you talked to an agent yet? I don't ever ask somebody, why aren't you listed this? Because then they think, well, gosh. The way you just said that, why haven't I?

Mhmm. Talk to you later. Right? So I say if you talk to an agent, and they say, yeah. But I don't wanna do that.

I mean, I'm gonna have to pay the commissions and fees. If they want they told me that I'm gonna have to spend $20 on paint and new water heater. I don't have that. So I don't wanna go the listing around. It sounds really tedious.

People coming by my house all the time. Let them throw the listing under the under the bus. And you can say, I totally get that. I I have another program. I do have another solution.

And that's when you can start bringing out novations. Mhmm. So don't just worry about just the cash offer. Don't be a one trick pony. Don't just say take it or leave it.

Yes or no. Give them solutions. Give them options and say which one works best for you. And, you know, Sean Terry says this a lot. And recently, we talked, actually, at that event with Vic.

I was talking with Sean, and, you know, he gets everything out onto the MLS. And that's, what I am preaching to everybody right now. Get that attorney of fact into your contract. Make sure you have an ovations clause in there. Call it whatever you need to call it.

And that way, you can actually bypass these scared flippers, these scared investors, and go right to the end buyers. Yep. By going to those end buyers, the end buyers, because we're an election year, the media is not talking about how the the the market is autocorrecting right now. It's just not talking about it. Everybody heard when the stock market crashed.

Everybody heard when crypto crashed. But that doesn't affect everybody. The housing market affects everybody. And right now, the media is not talking about it, but they will come October. It's it's gonna come out.

But right now, we have to educate these sellers.

Steve: I think it'll come out in December after the election's over.

Forrest: You think so? Yeah. Maybe.

Steve: I mean, you gotta protect our guy.

Forrest: I know.

Steve: So Stephen Collier wants to know, how would you split the profit right now between your team members, with your with your business as it is today?

Forrest: So I I'm assuming you mean, how do I comp, acquisitions members? Sure. So, you know, there's there's so many ways to do this. You know, you can have a base salary, plus commissions. You can have a draw against, against commissions.

I've done both those models. Mhmm. You can have just a pure commission model. Typically, I like to start people off with a little bit of a cushion. So for the first three months, let's say you're giving them a $3,000 salary.

And again, salaries are going to be contingent on the market that you're operating in. You know, in in Southern California, you can't pay somebody a $1,200 a month base. That that's gone by Tuesday. You know? So but having that base and letting them keep it, you know, even if you're gonna do a draw scenario, don't don't draw against that for the first three months.

Let them get their water wings off and let them let them let them get going. But, you know, I've I've worked models where you're at 6% and you move up to, say, 10% after the first year, and then you can move that up to 15 and even to 20. You know, giving them a tiered out structure where, if another shop calls them and says, how much are you making right now? I'm at 10%. Oh, I'll pay you 12.

Come over here. Nah. I'm gonna make 15 next year, so I'm gonna stay. Right. Right?

Giving them that that step up is is a good way to do it. But whatever you're paying them on leads, if they're inbound leads, treat your inbound leads versus your outbound leads different. If they bring in a lead from a barbecue that they were at over the weekend or they went to an estate sale and and they were able to get a deal out of that, comp them better on that, because that's gonna that's gonna drive them to do more of those outbound deals that you never had to spend any money on. It didn't cost you a dime to get it. You got all that data for free.

And now that enables you to have that extra marketing budget to go test new things. And, and and, yeah. So there's so many ways to do it. It comes down you know, I I pay people healthy commissions. Take care of your people.

They'll take care of you. But, and and give them bonuses and rewards. If they do something out of the norm and they do something that's really great, comp them for it. Right. You know, take care of them.

But there's a lot of ways to do this, and I wish that I had a ironclad way to say, only do it this way. But it's it's different for every every shop. I think

Steve: it's different every shop. I think it's also different for every market. Mhmm. Right? Yeah.

You were saying, like, Southern California. Right? It's gonna be very different than if you're in Mississippi.

Forrest: Yes. 100%.

Steve: Alright. If you're doing two dose a month versus you're doing twenty dose a month.

Forrest: The the just just what it takes to live, say, in Utah versus Southern California, it's an entirely different entirely different model. And you can get the same quality of people in, say, someplace like Utah for $1,500 a month that you could you can get for Southern California for $3,000 a month. Same thing, like, going with VAs and and going that route. You know, I can't get somebody on my sales floor that has a PhD here in in in Arizona. Can't do it.

No. But if I go to Egypt, I can get somebody who's got a PhD Mhmm. And that'll work with me.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: Right? And and it costs me a lot less. So, you know, it it really does come down to your market. It comes down to how you wanna work things, but there's no right way or wrong way to do it, except the only wrong way, I should say, is is not taking care of your people. So you gotta take care of everybody.

Steve: Question on, YouTube. Gary Yates, if you start over today, what are the first things you would do on a budget to, I'm guessing, to scale back to where you are?

Forrest: Mhmm. So I work with Green Elephant Development. I'm the director of sales and acquisitions for Green Elephant Development, which, is Cody Sperber's company. I work with Brian Aplus. And these two guys, I am so impressed with.

It's just unbelievable. And, you know, that takes me back to you know, being compensated well is one thing. And, you know, I I jokingly always tell anybody who wants to hire me, I tell them that they better have a pen with a lot of ink. But getting that out of the way, some of the most important things for me is the knowledge and what you can learn as you grow with with people. And I have learned more working with Cody and Bryant in the past two months than than I think I have in my entire real estate career.

And, it's it's pretty special. Mhmm. And, coming back to the question of what would you do if you started over, I really have in the past couple of months in in going in and working with Green Elephant. And, they have graciously given me the steering wheel, and, we're making a lot of model changes right now. And with those model changes, it's, again, it's increasing marketing.

It's increasing staff. It's the way you train staff. It's the way you onboard. And, it's for me, it's not just the scripts, but, you know, coming back to being a wordsmith, it's how you say things. It's not what you say.

It's how you say it and how you set people up to, you know, to to go for the win. So people ask me, how do you make so much money a month in marketing? Well, you spend a lot of money in marketing. And the only way I was able to spend so much money in marketing in past gigs, was from split testing and was from, tripping and falling and figuring out, oh, there's a pothole there. Stay away from that.

That was very costly. You know? I've worked with shops where we're spending $90,000 a month on Snapchat and TikTok for three months to find out that that shit doesn't work.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: You know, I mean, you get some agents out of it and, you know, you learn how to do the floss dance. Yeah. But, you know, it's you know, you you you learn because you're able to test out and you're able to spend money. And don't be afraid of spending money to learn. Because if you don't, how are you ever gonna learn?

And if you don't learn, how are you ever gonna grow?

Steve: Right. Yeah. No. That's that's that's a so what's it, like a paradox. Right?

Like, it's like, how do I know what to do next? Like, well, you gotta test it.

Forrest: That's it.

Steve: You you maybe don't put your foot all the way in. Just kinda, you know, put a little bit of pressure.

Forrest: That's it. You you you you've gotta test things out, and that's how you learn what works and what doesn't work. And as soon as you know what works and doesn't work, you chew the fat, you double down on what's working, and you can confidently dial it up and dial up your spending. You can go from 40,000 a month to 150,000 to $2.50 to 3 to 4 to 5. Yeah.

And when you're spending that kind of money, again, marketing is our ask, and you don't get what you don't ask for. So if you're asking a lot, you're gonna get a lot.

Steve: So you've done many different things. What is your why? Why why what keeps you going?

Forrest: What's my reason? Mhmm. My kids. My family. Right.

I have a picture of my kids, on my desk. I have a picture of my kids everywhere because I do a lot of phone calls. I do a lot of Zoom calls. You know? That's what we do.

Mhmm. And I always have that picture right there. Just as I look away from you when I'm talking, every time I look away from a Zoom call, I know exactly where to place that picture because I know where my head goes. Yeah. And it just it's a motivator for me.

I have a beautiful wife and beautiful kids and an amazing support system. I mean, hell, Steve, I'm out here in Phoenix for two weeks straight this month. I'll be out here three weeks total this month. I live in Southern California. And my family, you know, shout out to my boys Nixon and Weston and, my wife Ashley, and they're very supportive.

And, you know, they they understand that, you know, daddy's coming home, and daddy is is is providing. And having that support system and having that, it enables me to make sure that they are always my reason. But, yeah, that's my motivator. 100%.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle right now?

Forrest: Bandwidth. It's always bandwidth for me. I'm a cinder block on a gas pedal. I go fast. I talk fast.

I try to cram as much things as I possibly can into the day before I quit to go play. And, even when I'm playing, I'm working. You know, it's just nature of the beast. But, my biggest struggle at all times is bandwidth. You know, I I need assistance.

Mhmm. I and and I don't mean that I need people to help me. I need an assistant. Yeah. You know, I I need multiple assistants.

Steve: I'm assuming you have some now.

Forrest: I do now. I do now. And, you know, as I left, Tarek buys houses, I had my head down when I was with Tarek, and I had a lot of people contacting me all the time saying, can you help me with this? Can you help me with that? And, my immediate response was, no.

I'm just too busy with this. And when, I left, I was I I got even the word got out. I was a free agent, and, I got bombarded. And, I I'm a yes man, and I like to help people, and I kinda bit off more than I could chew. And, without having that that 100% infrastructure of my own in place, because it was literally overnight.

Mhmm. You know, I I I that's, I was I was when we met at All In, it was, like, a week after, two weeks after. And, you know, leaving Tarek Pai's house is my mother passed away right then. And so I had a big life kinda change, and I kinda had to take a step back and take a look at everything and see what I wanted to do. And I wanted to help people.

I wanted to help more people.

Steve: I will say when I met you at at All In, you looked like you were a little overwhelmed.

Forrest: Yeah. Yeah. And and it and and I have been. The past you know, up until, July, I had to take some time off in July and kind of restructure everything. And now I've got assistance in place.

And, you know, people start seeing more social media posts. I've got PTSD on social media from being in the band back in the day, and, you know, I, I'm not real good at doing it on my own. So thank goodness to people like Luigi Ritchie and Pat Hilton, for for aiding me in that that deficit that I have mentally on on really applying myself to that, but delegating out.

Steve: Yeah. I'll say there's something you said much earlier in the show. Right? You said you're a procrastinator.

Forrest: Mhmm.

Steve: And it doesn't make sense in the outset. How can someone that's a procrastinator get so much done?

Forrest: Yeah.

Steve: Right? And I think you and I have the same struggle because I'm also naturally a procrastinator. Mhmm. And the way to fix this is to just to commit to a lot of things Right. And have a lot of deadlines.

Forrest: And have a lot of things that you have to get under pressure, under fire Right. To get

Steve: done. Yeah. And so you just have all these deadlines. So because you have all these deadlines, then things

Forrest: get done.

Steve: Yeah. Because if it's just do one thing, then have this, like, really far

Forrest: off deadline Yeah. And then nothing gets done. Yeah. 100%. Yeah.

And that's and that's really why I kinda had to take a step back, you know, just this past month. And, you know, I knew that we had this show coming up, and, I knew that that, Luigi and Pat were there to help me on social media. And, I got an assistant, and I've got an amazing marketing team that is with me since my marketing days. They helped me at Tarq Buys Houses in the in the shadows. They help me now.

I put them to work every day, and we're we're working with a lot of people, a lot of investor lift people. They go to my site, and they put themselves on the calendar. And we do a consultation, and then I connect them with my marketing team. And, but, delegation is something that, I am really headstrong on right now, because I I have to be. I've got so much going on, but I love it.

You know? So it's really August is is is my month to really kinda double down and and, and and and really have everything structured for myself. I do it for other companies. I've done it for my own companies, but this is my name. Right?

This is my own personal brand. And, having that set up properly and practicing what I preach, is something that that that is it's where I'm at, and that's my mindset now.

Steve: Yeah. I'm also addicted to chaos. Yeah. How do you measure success?

Forrest: Oh, boy. So many levels to measure success on. It really comes down to what you find most important. You know, you can look at finances as as a success. You can look at how many shoes you own as a success, watches, cars, houses.

But for me, it comes back to my reason. And for me, it's it's making sure that I am buying and affording and financing experiences for my kids. And, I mean, we've gone on some amazing vacations this summer. You know, we've hit every theme park that is created known to man. I'm worn out.

And, you know, it's, it's those things that, for me, enable me to look in the mirror and say, yeah. You're doing it.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: Yeah. You're you're doing it. You know, I mean, building portfolios and and doing those things. And after I left, my previous gig, at Taric Buys Houses, I immediately went out and did a flip in Hermosa Beach and bought a commercial building and, got into selling some portfolios. And, you know, you're selling portfolios.

We got a $130,000,000 portfolio we're kicking around right now. And, like I said, big cookie, big crumbs. And, you know, people ask me how you do those numbers. Well, it you know, you can do it off of one deal if you really need to. You know, it's it's just picking and choosing the right I guess picking your battles.

But success for me is being able to take care of the people that I love and, and and growing their life, because of what I'm able to afford to them by hard work and the chaos.

Steve: What is your superpower?

Forrest: I think most people will agree it's my gift of gab. My superpower is being able to talk to folks and being able to string words together and and and painting mental pictures that everybody understands and and being able to size people up pretty quickly, that gives you an indicator on on on where to take the conversation and and how to talk. But I'm a talker. I'm a sales guy. That's in my blood.

It always has been. That's why I was an actor when I was a kid. I even did stand up when I was a kid. So being stand up as a kid. Yeah.

There was, yeah. It's a whole another Jerry Springer episode. But,

Steve: I was gonna say Star Search.

Forrest: No. No. No. But although I I was asked a couple of times to go on that, and a few friends of mine when I was a kid went on Star Search. I don't even they that's gone.

That's been gone

Steve: for a

Forrest: long time. Yeah. So we're dating ourselves a little bit. But, yeah. So it's, it's it's it's an it's an interesting game, and staying busy for me is is the most important part.

When I'm not busy, I get complacent and complacency is a dangerous place to be.

Steve: Yeah. What is the greatest lesson that you've learned?

Forrest: Delegating. Delegating, not biting off more than I can chew, and which that's my biggest struggle. And as you said, we're we're pretty aligned on that. Yeah. You know, I, I have a lot of opportunity that comes my way.

I've been very fortunate in my life that that has always kind of been something that has followed me. My shadow has always had opportunity in it. Mhmm. And, now especially, in the past three, four, or five months, opportunity is just abounding. And, you know, that movie with Jim Carrey, Yes, Man.

Steve: Mhmm.

Forrest: You know, there's there's a big part of me in that right now. And, I do wanna say yes to things, and I do wanna help people, and I wanna take on and help everybody because, again, you don't get a second chance. You know, the second chances are never guaranteed. So the biggest thing for me is delegating and not biting off more than I can chew and making sure that if I do, I have the infrastructure there to support it. And, and it's been a fast growth on my personal brand over the past few months in getting everything aligned so that I can service people and so that I can take care of all these folks.

Yeah. And that's that's the that's that's really the bottom line.

Steve: I wrote down nine questions to ask myself before I say yes to the next opportunity. K. So let's definitely talk about that later.

Forrest: I I yeah. Please share. I wanna know.

Steve: What book have you gifted more than any other?

Forrest: What exactly to say or what to say, I think is what it's called. It's I have a whole library of of audiobooks that I share out to every team. Mhmm. But that one is, is one of my favorites. It's a it's a quick listen or a quick read depending on who you are.

I do a lot of driving. I do a lot of flying. So listening to things and, listening to books are are really where, I I end up, you know, living. But it's, there's they've got one for real estate. What to say, for real estate agents.

Don't let the term real estate agents fool you. It really is just real estate in general. And, it's only about two hours. You remove the glossary and the intro, and I think you've got about an hour and a half, thirteen thirteen chapters. They're all short and sweet, but they're all situational.

It's all talking about I I talked to this one guy, and he said this, and I did that. And, it gives you all of these sales nuggets to say. One thing that stands out the most from, that book specifically, there's a lot, but one thing that I I train on a lot is, I use the word open minded in pitches a lot. Are you open minded to spending a couple more minutes with me on the phone? Are you open minded to hearing an offer lower than what you just said?

In that book, the author says if you asked a room of a 100 people if they consider themselves open minded, 97% would raise their hand. Everybody wants to fancy themselves as being open minded. So using that in your your mental ninja sales pitch, using neuro linguistic programming, you, like me, are a very smart person, and your brain just remembered that you like me. Right? So it's it's, it's it's introducing a lot of those things.

But,

Steve: They're using little crowbars. Just kinda open open them a little bit.

Forrest: I call it corralling cattle. Yeah. Because, you know, you you you've gotta set them up, and you've gotta take them down the path that you need them to be on. But it's also a delicate, delicate dance because you need them to feel like it was their idea. Of course.

You know? Because if it's their idea, then it's a great idea.

Steve: Oh, for sure. I mean Yeah. I have nothing but great ideas.

Forrest: Of course, you don't.

Steve: You mentioned neuro linguistics programming. This has been one of my struggles. I love NLP,

Forrest: and

Steve: I studied it quite a bit. Mhmm. But it's really hard to find quality NLP NLP books.

Forrest: Yeah.

Steve: So what are some of your favorite NLP books?

Forrest: Oh, gosh. I don't even know. It's been so long since I was actually studying NLP Mhmm. Because it's very difficult to instill that into, your sales team. A lot of it, it can be somewhat overwhelming.

So honestly, I don't necessarily have a good book, for that because it's been a long time since I've actually studied NLP, because I I practice it so much and I put it into my scripts Mhmm. So that I don't necessarily have to train people on NLP. They just use it in the scripts. Right.

Steve: It's in our language.

Forrest: Yeah. It's so it's it's yeah. I that's kinda how I talk, you know. So I use that in all my phraseology and all my scripts, and that way I don't have to train people on NLP because they're just they they no one reads scripts when they're on the phone. Right?

You read the scripts beforehand. You you get the gist of it, and then you use your own words, which you know work. But by dropping in those things into the script and making sure that they focus on those, you're able to get NLP into your pitch without having to train people on Oh, yeah. I'm not trying to train

Steve: other people NLP. I'm just trying to become a better practitioner myself.

Forrest: Yeah. No. I hear you. I hear you.

Steve: Alright. So I'm gonna make a few quick announcements. I want you to think about something you wanna leave the listeners with. Guys, if you have value today, please like, subscribe, share, comment. I mean, we just had Forrest talk about how he's done 500 transactions the last twenty four months.

81 people watching, only 32 likes, guilt tripping you here. Also, we do have our live event. It's gonna be next Thursday and Friday, day and a half, going over sales, our sales process, what we use to teach hundreds of the top players across the country on sales. We have part in the disruption tomorrow, Eric Brewer, RJ Bates, Chris Jefferson, we're gonna be debating. And then on Friday, we got Certainty Talks.

And next week, we got my great friend Stephanie Betters. She's the one that has the left main, Salesforce CRM. Gonna hear what's going on now in her business. So what are some last thoughts you would like to leave the listeners with?

Forrest: Don't let this current market change scare you. Don't let it give you analysis paralysis. Don't stop what you're doing. Keep doing exactly what you were doing, but you're going to have to come down on your cash offers a little bit. You're gonna have to be a little bit more aggressive.

And the only way to do that is to spend time on the phone, have long phone calls educating these sellers on the current market correction. There's so much data out there. 9.1% inflation in June. That's everywhere. You can you can show that to people.

You can talk about how how pricing, price drops have gone down, so dramatically over the last three months as opposed to 2008. It took thirteen months. We've seen bigger price drops in the last three months than in 2008. It took thirteen months. Yeah.

You know, food index is up. Shelter is up. Gas prices are through the roof, but wages aren't. If anybody follows Zillow, tell your sellers, follow Zillow. You're gonna see price drop after price drop after after price drop, and it's on the same house.

Price drops are historic right now. So it's it's it's an interesting dichotomy, but you have to educate your sellers. If you don't educate your sellers when you come in with these low offers, they're not gonna understand it. And being transparent, that's the other thing that's really big. You have to be transparent when you're talking to these folks.

Let them know that you're in this for profit. You're not in this just to get them the best offer. It has to work for them, and it has to work for you. And if you're there's no way for you to make profit on this deal, then it's just not a good fit, and that's okay. We could still be friends.

But, and let them know. I may I may end up bringing in another investor partner because I don't I'm in Arizona and you're in Ohio. I can probably bring in another investor that'll have better labor costs, locally. So I may have another investor come by and look at your property. Don't have your dispo team reaching out to buyers saying, hey.

Tell them you're with Mike. Tell them you're a contractor.

Steve: Yeah.

Forrest: Don't ask people to lie for you. Be transparent from the get go. Make sure they understand you're in it for money. Make sure that they understand that you may assign the contract. Those are the transparency is key.

And, you know, when you're being transparent and you're being educational and you're giving out that knowledge and you're having long phone calls, they're gonna trust in what you're saying. And when you offer them that lower offer, yeah, the best I could do is probably $5.80. Oh, my gosh. I don't know. Could you maybe do 600?

Would that still get you some profit? Totally different phone call. Now they're advocating for you to make sure that you make profit to take care of you because you're taking care of

Steve: them. Right.

Forrest: So it just it just comes down to mindset, guys, and, educating the sellers on the market, letting them know that where where things are at. You can pull things from New York Times, CNN, Forbes. It's all out there. Yeah. And cite those sources.

Steve: How can someone get a hold of you?

Forrest: Easily. Just go to forestblackburn.com. There's two r's in Forest. Blackburn, just like it sounds, black like the color, burn like you're burning something. Forestblackburn.com, you can throw yourself on my schedule, for a consulting call.

I'd love to hear from everybody, and I'd love to help everybody, and, fill up my schedule. I have a course that's coming out, next month, that I'm pretty excited about. You can also there's it's under preorder right now. It's 50% off, on the site. Shameless plug.

But, preorder that. It's going to be everything that we've talked about here times 20, times a 100 maybe. But we're wrapping that up right now. We're in post, and, I'm I'm really excited about that. But, and then I'm doing Ricardo Rosales and Don Costa and I are doing, systems of the future in Houston, Texas on October.

And, I think we have a link for that somewhere. Yeah. But, go there, and there's some amazing pricing for that. I would love to have you guys out at that boot camp. We're gonna be dropping a lot of knowledge, a lot of nuggets, on the systems of the future, ecosystem, culture, training, hiring, scripting, PPC, and marketing, and and all of that.

But, if you need help with your marketing, if you need help with PPC or scripting or infrastructure, hit me up. Just go to the website. I'm available.

Steve: Yep, man. Don Costa, genius. Right?

Forrest: Someone He's amazing.

Steve: For a long time. He's amazing. Ricardo Rosales, our great friend. Right?

Forrest: We did we just spoke together out at a 10 growth, in, in Houston with, Robert g Allen, who's an amazing person, seven time best New York time bestseller. I've known Robert since I was 12 years old. His girlfriend was my his daughter was my first girlfriend. So it goes all the way back.

Steve: It goes way, way back.

Forrest: Yeah.

Steve: Alright. Thank you all for watching. Thank you. Appreciate it. Steve.

It's been

Steve: a pleasure.