$2 Million in 2021 Between Wholesaling and Wholetailing

Steve Trang: Everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we've got Todd Miller with USA Homebuyers, and he flew in from Richmond, Virginia to talk about how you did 2,000,000 last year between wholesaling and wholetailing. 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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This is a live show, so please ask your questions for Todd to answer. You ready?

Todd Miller: I'm ready.

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

Todd: What got me into real estate? I worked a sales job, basically, and was going into debt, living paycheck to paycheck, and just had to figure out another way to get out of the rat race and not, you know, keep going into debt, keep living paycheck to paycheck. Just was really motivated to create some more additional streams of revenue.

Steve: When was this?

Todd: It was back in, 2008 Okay. When I started. I originally started. There was a website called flippinghomes.net, and I would work my forty hours a week, come home, eat dinner with my family, then I would get on flippinghomes.net and basically just learn and grow for hours and hours each night. So

Steve: who was running that?

Todd: It was Steve Cook at the time.

Steve: Okay. And you're saying paycheck to paycheck. Most salespeople do, well, depends on the industry, but a lot of salespeople do pretty well. Yep. So was it the matter of the times?

Was it the industry you're in? What was why why do why were you paycheck to paycheck?

Todd: Had kids. A lot of kids. So, you know, kids cost money.

Steve: They do cost money. My wife and I joke like, man, what could we do if we didn't have kids? That's right. Okay. So when you're saying paycheck to paycheck at that time, you were in Virginia then?

Yep. Okay. So what was, like what were you making?

Todd: Actually, I was making 6 figures at the time, believe it or not.

Steve: So Okay. And what were you selling?

Todd: I was in a truck rental and truck leasing industry.

Steve: Got it. I hear that's a great industry today.

Todd: Yeah. It it was it was a lot of fun. It was

Steve: a lot of fun. Okay. So what were you responsible for then?

Todd: Just, cold calling, going out to customers that have trucks in their fleet, and we would just, you you know, either knock on their doors or call them up, get an appointment set, try to either sell them, like, a maintenance program or actually lease them, the trucks, physical trucks. So

Steve: Got it. Okay. So, this was actually a pretty good time to get into distressed real estate. Yep. So, you started looking around 2008.

Mhmm. How long until you took the leap?

Todd: For, like, full time?

Steve: Before pulling the trigger on your first property.

Todd: On the first prop actually, it took me two years to do my first deal.

Steve: Okay. So So it was

Todd: a really long time.

Steve: What was the reason it took two years?

Todd: Well, back in two thousand and eight, you know, there wasn't skip tracing or any of

Steve: that stuff. It was basically just direct mail.

Todd: You know, you pull your list, you send out the mail, and then you just wait for the phone to ring. Yeah. And that's kinda where where we were at at that point in time. So

Steve: So was it because you had to figure out on your own? I mean, there was flippinghomes.net, but was it predominantly, like like, you and I were both in supergroup. Right. Right? We can pick up the phone, call Joe Taylor, Scott Oates, right, dot Acosta.

Yep. Back then, you're kinda, like, on an island. Right. Okay. Yeah.

So you're able to figure out to do direct mail and so on. So how long, I guess, then would be from when you were interested in it in it until you took action as far as sending mail or or whatever else.

Todd: Well, I wanted to do my first deal first. I actually cashed in my my four zero one k at the time because the market was going was crashing at that time. Right? And, like, I kept seeing it going down, down, down, and I'm like, alright. This is ridiculous.

I can make a better return than than what I'm getting with this. So I cashed it out, paid the penalty, and started my wholesaling company at that point. So Got it. It's there just was a lot of learning. Joined the local REIA group, and I found, two local guys.

They were they were wholesaling pretty heavily at the time. Mhmm. Just shadowed them and and took it from there.

Steve: So it just took it just took some time.

Todd: You know? I didn't really know what I was doing. A lot of trial and error and just learning how everything goes, and and so it it did take me quite a bit of time. So

Steve: Alright. So tell me about the very first deal you got.

Todd: First deal we got, was actually in Henrico County in in the Richmond, Virginia area, and we made, like, $8,000 on that deal. So

Steve: Okay. Wholesaling?

Todd: Wholesaling. Wholesaling. Yep.

Steve: So that was a direct mail, door knocking, like

Todd: It was a direct mail lead. Yep.

Steve: Direct

Todd: mail lead. I think it was, like, an absentee owner that they were found, and and then I was able to, find a find a buyer for it pretty quickly and cash an $8,000 check, and that was, like, the largest check I'd seen commission wise in a in a long time. So it was And

Steve: what did you learn from it?

Todd: Basically, that it can be done. Right? Mhmm. I mean, you know, you have doubts before you can do your first deal, and you put in all this time, all this energy. I mean, I had I had put in two years before I even done a deal.

So but the way it the way I did it, you know, I I cashed

Steve: my $4.00 1 k in, and it

Todd: was like, I have no choice. So I'm just gonna keep going, keep believing. I know this is possible because I've seen other guys do it. So just basically kept my head down and kept pushing forward, finding leads, making offers, and then, boom, it fell through.

Steve: 2010 then is when you did your first deal? Yep. Okay. So 2008, you cashed out your $4.01 k. Yep.

Put money in your business. Yep. And then you just kinda watch it kinda dwindle a little bit. Yep. So I think one of the things that's hard for some people is to watch you put in this effort, no results, put in this effort, no results, put in this effort, and still no results.

Todd: Right.

Steve: How did you keep going when you're just watching this?

Todd: I I I really had no choice. Like I said, you know, when I went all in on what I was doing and I cashed in all my chips, and it was like, alright. I've gotta make this work Yeah. And figure out how to make it work. So, one of my superpowers and one of the things I teach to my team now that I have is, you know, be committed, stay consistent, and just keep keep moving forward and being positive.

So

Steve: Got it. So after your first deal Yep. Biggest check. Yep. What what what happened after that?

Todd: Just basically, you know, was able to put some money back into my account, and then I I just doubled down on my marketing that I was doing to create more leads. Mhmm. Just gave me some more income in the business that I could spend it back to the business to to keep it growing and keep it going. So Yeah.

Steve: I

Todd: mean, I was part time at that. I still worked my full time sales job at that point. So my goal was to really double what I was making. So $100,000 salary in what I was doing, and I wanted to make a $100,000, for the year in wholesaling houses. So

Steve: And then was that, like, a a a benchmark? Like, once you can make it the same amount, then you can quit your other job? Yes. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah. How long did it take until you got there?

Todd: Actually, I, I stayed with the sales job probably longer than I should have. But, you know, when you have benefits, you don't really have benefits as you're an entrepreneur. You have to go out and buy them, and Mhmm. They're usually not as good. So it it actually took me a little while.

So the, fortunately for me, the, guy that owned the dealership and the the leasing company, he sold out to a national company. And they came in, and they kinda changed things around and started cutting commission structures and all that. And that's pretty much when I said, okay.

Steve: They made it easy for

Todd: you. Yeah. Made it real easy. So

Steve: Yeah. Okay. And when was that?

Todd: That was, 2000 and, 2016. Okay. When I went for

Steve: a while. Really did, like, stay there for some

Todd: time. Yeah.

Steve: And then, how did you balance because there are people that listen to the show that are still maybe, like, one foot in, one foot out. Right. How did you balance having a full time job and sending marketing out and, like, dealing with sellers that are calling you back?

Todd: So two things. First thing was, I'm in sales, so I'm out running around the the city, around the town all the time anyway. So I would just kinda structure wherever my my lead was for the house. I would go go do that, and then I could always have customers in that area that I could just pop in by and and and call them up. And, you know, it just worked out that way.

I was very lucky in that regards. And I was really good at sales too. So I didn't really have to work as hard as I as I probably should have at that sales job because I was popping these houses. So

Steve: So you're very strategic with your time. Yep. Yep. I guess, I mean, going back to your job, you're saying that you're pretty, good at sales. Were you a situation where you're more a higher like, a good amount base and then, like, a small percentage?

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. It was it was a, like, a mid $50.60 k base salary. Yeah. So and then I can make double that with the commission structure that I had.

So, yeah, it was nice.

Steve: Okay. So Yeah. I mean, I'm just kinda curious because, like, there's there's this conversation. Right? Like, do you have you you pay your salespeople, and and this is true for us as well.

You pay your salespeople straight commission

Todd: Yep.

Steve: Or do you pay them a base and a smaller commission, and one is more subject to abuse than the other. Mhmm.

Todd: Absolutely.

Steve: And I'm not saying you were abusing it. You were strategic with it. But, you know, there's this kinda deal where, like, if you don't have to prospect forty hours a day Yeah. You may not if you have a pretty good base. Right.

Right? So what are your thoughts on that?

Todd: I mean, I can see it both ways as a business owner. You know, obviously, we wanna pay as as low of a base salary and have it more commission based.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: But, you know, the opportunity for the salesperson in that that realm should be more potential, obviously. Right?

Steve: Right.

Todd: But the other way, you know, is just straight commission. That's that's what I like to do. I mean, that's how we pay our our sales guys. It's straight commission. There's no base.

We will give them a draw while they're in their training process. But after that, it's pretty much you gotta, you know, lock up deals. So Yep.

Steve: What was, your first major challenge or struggle as you're doing this? I mean, obviously, the two years of waiting. After that, what were some additional challenges or struggles?

Todd: Just being consistent, I would say, was probably my biggest struggle. You know, you get a check and you kinda breathe a little bit, relax a little bit, go go have some fun, and then Mhmm. You know, just have to get back, refocus, get back on the marketing. Because, obviously, this business is sales and marketing, really. It's not houses.

It's sales and marketing.

Steve: Right. Yeah. So you get focused in that. So you get a big check, and then you kinda take a breath. Yep.

Kinda enjoy it a little bit. Yep. And then you get back into marketing again.

Todd: Correct.

Steve: Got it. How did you stop doing that? Or have you stopped doing that?

Todd: Oh, yeah. We definitely stopped doing that.

Steve: So yeah. We So how did you stop doing that?

Todd: How did we stop doing it? Just ultimately, we just did enough deals. You know? You go from doing I went from doing one to two deals a month and then, quit the job where I was making the $100,100 k. But my mentality when I quit my job was, alright, you know, I'm I'm making a 100,000 or more a year in real estate already doing one to two deals a month.

So now I just need to do and and that's part time. Right? I'm part time. So now all I need to do to replace my income is do one more deal a month, which to me was very doable. So, just didn't really stress about it.

Just started the marketing at that point. I was I did have a partner when I was full time. Like, he would do all the marketing stuff for me on that side, and then I would just focus on locking the contracts up and going out and selling them. So, once I quit, went full time, you know, I called him up, had the discussion with him saying, hey. You know, I'm I'm going full time now, so I'm gonna do my own thing.

And and then that's when I started, you know, learning more about the marketing side and pulling the list and sending out, you know, direct mail, cold calling, stuff like that.

Steve: Okay. So to clarify, when you were working your full time job, you had a partner?

Todd: I had a partner. Yes.

Steve: Okay. And then once you quit your full time job, then you said, hey. Thanks. At this moment, I'm gonna just go all in on myself here. Yep.

Okay. So, since he was handling the marketing side, were there any, like, eye opening moments? Were there any ahas? Or, like, man, I should have done this earlier.

Todd: Probably that I should have done it earlier. I mean, I knew what list that he was pulling and mailing to. So

Steve: at

Todd: that point, it was just going out and and doing the work.

Steve: So Mhmm.

Todd: Then putting then starting to put a team in place slowly but surely as I could afford it.

Steve: So Alright. And then, as far as building out the marketing then, were you, like, right off the bat hiring people to handle this? Or, like, what was your building out your business like?

Todd: Yeah. When I went full time, I mean, me and my partner, we had virtual assistants at that point. So they were the ones doing the majority of the calling for us Mhmm. Finding us the leads and then just booking us the appointments. So at that point, as soon as I I left my partnership, I went ahead and hired, you know, two virtual assistants and got them started with the cold calling and and locking in leads for us.

Steve: Yeah. And then, just again for context for everybody else. Right? So this is, like, back in, like, 2016. Yep.

So the VA industry today is very different than the VA industry back then.

Todd: Very different. Yep.

Steve: Yeah. So, like, how was it, like, managing VAs back then?

Todd: Very labor intensive.

Steve: Yeah.

Todd: And, to to this day, it still should be labor intensive. Like, you need to communicate with your VAs. Mhmm. They they love talking to the the boss. Basically, they'll call you.

And, if you're not in communication with them, I feel like sometimes they're gonna they're gonna slip, maybe not do as much. But, you know, we have a team meeting every day with the virtual assistants. We go over their numbers. We go over what they what they brought in, how many appointments, how many leads they got, and, just basically talk through it. And then we challenge them if if they didn't quite meet their quota.

Like we have, four to five lead quota for the VA each each and every day.

Steve: And if

Todd: they don't hit it, we ask them why. Was their call volume down? So forth. So

Steve: Got it.

Todd: Back when I started, it it was very labor intensive. I actually trained all the virtual assistants, from scratch. So we we use a site called onlinejobs.ph. That's where I found them all. And I would basically, you know, hire three to start because I knew based upon the previous virtual assistants, there's like a six month shelf life for the most part with them.

Mhmm. So I wanted to get three of them and make them all compete against each other

Steve: Yeah.

Todd: To find the best one to keep to keep one. So that's that's a little strategy that I used. And I actually trained them, and I recorded everything that I did when I when I trained them because I didn't wanna have to retrain every single one that I hired. So I got really smart, got a screen capture device, recorded everything that I did when I trained the first group. And then when the second group came in, it's just here.

Here's here's the recordings. Go watch through the recordings. If you have any questions, we'll we'll we'll talk each day for, like, five or ten minutes.

Steve: And that's a huge nugget. Right? I mean, there's a lot of people that are trying to figure out how to train their people and, like, you get turnover, you gotta train this new guy, you gotta turn over, you gotta train this new guy. But recording your trainings is something that really reduces time commitment on your end.

Todd: Absolutely. It seems huge. Huge.

Steve: Did you collaborate? Did you join forces with anybody at this time as your as your you know, whether locally or, nationally?

Todd: I mean, I kept in touch with my old partner. You know, he's he's a pretty heavy player out in the Chesapeake, Hampton Roads area. So we would still bounce stuff off of each other, what's working, what's not working, so forth. And then also joined, a mastermind, which was huge for me. And if you're not in a mastermind, definitely consider joining a mastermind to to rate your game.

It's just there's not a lot of people back then that that were doing it, so you're kinda like on an island. Right? Yeah. And just being in a group where everybody kinda is like you and understands you and knows what you're dealing with and what you're going through, and just to be able to to chat and bounce ideas off of and what's working, what's not working was was huge huge

Steve: for me. So, this was back then Boardroom? Boardroom. Yep. And then Start

Todd: with Boardroom.

Steve: And then and then eventually evolved into Supergroup.

Todd: Yep.

Steve: So talk about where your business was before the Mastermind and where your business was after or now.

Todd: Sure. Sure. So before, I mean, I was doing one to two deals on my own, kinda struggling, you know, stressing every month that, hey, I'm gonna spend this money, and I'm not really sure if it's coming back or not. So, and then taking that into consideration, joining going all in on on what I'm doing and believing in myself, that was the first step. And then joining the masterminds and just basically listening and learning from everybody in the group who's at a way higher level than I was at that time, and, just incorporating their ideas and just seeing the consistency in what they're doing and then trying to bring that and duplicate it for my business.

And that's kinda the model that we took, and we just hit that ground running. My wife is my COO, and she's helped me tremendously as far as being consistent. She's more of the integrator

Steve: Yeah.

Todd: On the side, and I'm more of the visionary type person. I'm not really very good at putting things in place, but she's excellent at it. So, bringing her on board with my company and and us together, pretty much a a great power team. So Yeah.

Steve: And I think you guys are gonna come be come back out here in a month and a half. Right? Yeah. Back in June as Josiah. Yep.

Yeah. So just kinda recap, it's just being able to compare notes with other guys. They're doing what you wanna do. And I think the there's this thing we talk about in squatting up or, you know, finding your community, this and that. You're able to do that back then, which helped you kinda get to get you to where you are today.

Todd: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it it was key. I mean, there's I would not be here or where I'm at today without being in that mastermind.

Steve: Right. And I think, what's interesting because, in those meetings we've talked about, like, you run into some of the challenges or some major struggles, I think. I can't remember if it was you or someone else in there. We were talking about, like, you know, losing all your sales guys or having to replace all your sales guys. Yep.

Was that you, or is it somebody else? Yeah.

Todd: That was me. Okay. Done that a couple times. Okay.

Steve: So, I think sales is very interesting. Right? Like, there's there's I I I think there's four different things involved with salespeople. First, you gotta find them. Yep.

And after you find them, you gotta train them. And after you train them, you gotta manage them.

Todd: Mhmm.

Steve: And after you manage them and they're good, you gotta retain them. Yep. I guess, four, like, major obstacles or steps with salespeople.

Todd: Couldn't agree more.

Steve: So what have you found from your first time you had to replace all of them to second time and so on?

Todd: For me, like, the first time, it it was taking the leap of faith to to hire the first salesperson, in the first place. And then them kinda struggling and floundering, I really didn't manage them properly. At that time, I didn't have my systems in place. I I wasn't doing, like, daily meetings. I just kinda got leads, threw in the leads, and just kinda waited to see what happened.

Right? I didn't track it. So Yeah.

Steve: Well, you just trust that, hey. Like, you're you wanna make money. I wanna make money. Of course, you're gonna do your job well. Right.

Todd: Yeah. Right?

Steve: Boy, that's that's Yeah. Terribly wrong.

Todd: So we we did we did that, and then I, you know, started to send out more marketing because now I had another sales guy, and I could step in on sales calls and stuff as needed. And I actually hired two because I didn't wanna have one, so if one quit, then I would be in a quandary where, alright, now I'm back to on the phones again locking up deals, and I'm running this little rat race circle. Right? So, it ended up where like the first group I had, they were doing, like, two or three deals a month. And I think my overhead was, like, $70 at that point.

And I'm like, alright. This is not sustainable. So I let everybody go at that time. And then the very month after that, I locked five deals up myself, all by myself. So that just kinda told me that, hey, you know, two things.

One, they weren't doing their job. Uh-huh. And two, I wasn't doing my job managing them very well. So then I I, I waited a while, built it back up, got some more cash back in my business again, and then I went and I hired three salesperson three salespeople the second the second time I did it. So and, lightning struck twice again, and, we had a an event that happened with all three of them where I had to let them all go at one time.

Steve: Oh.

Todd: And, so I was back on the wheel again. So but I did learn from that experience that right before that, we were we were doing really well. So we had the systems down. We had the mailings down. I just didn't have the right people in the right seats.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: So had bread traction and and and, you know, always learning, always growing, always getting 1% better. I mean, you got it out on the board there. That's one of my battle cries to my team when we meet each day. It's just getting better and being better. So, I knew I had the processes and the systems ready to go.

It was just implementing it in the proper way with the proper people.

Steve: So So the first lesson was you weren't managing them.

Todd: Right.

Steve: The second time, you were saying that they weren't necessarily the right people? Or

Todd: I wouldn't say they weren't the right people. You know, they they were doing their job pretty well.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: But, you know, they they're just a situation arose that I I couldn't keep them on my team anymore. So

Steve: I had Is this something that you can talk more about?

Todd: It just was related to one of my one of my team members, and and they were I I talked to them about uplifting people and helping people out. It was a situation where where they weren't helping one of our teammates out. And at that point, I just felt like, you know, it was best for just part ways. Yeah. I wanted my culture to be, you know, championship level, always pushing, always striving Yeah.

Getting better. And at that point, we were going the other direction. And I just wasn't gonna gonna take that on my on my team.

Steve: Sure. And I and I appreciate that because I think I see some stuff that you post about, right, on Facebook. And, you know, I know it's it's readily apparent that you want to create a certain culture. Yep. And you want a culture where we're winning and that you want to treat your people right.

It's obvious in in some of your comments.

Todd: Right. I mean, I'm very loyal loyal guy, and I expect loyalty on the other side as well. So, you know, I'll you know, you're my family, basically. If you're on my team, you're my family. So Yeah.

And I'm gonna take care of you. So but, obviously, it goes the other way too. I expect you to kinda take care of of me as well. So Yeah.

Steve: So what have you found to work now with your existing salespeople?

Todd: Again, just being more structured, more systematized. And, my wife actually helped put that put those systems in place. I got some actual, training as well where I I I purchased a coaching program.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: So, that helped me elevate to the next level as well as far as tracking KPIs and having those daily meetings of, you know, talking about, you know, what what's going on each day in your business and looking at it each and every day instead of, you know, having maybe one meeting a week where you're looking at it a week behind. Right? Now you're a week later, and it takes two to three weeks to catch back up.

Steve: Right.

Todd: Where where now it's a daily meeting, and we catch it each and every day. So, I mean, we were just talking about leads this morning. So our lead count was down last week, and I'm like, okay. Leads are down. Like, what's going on?

Let's look at the marketing. Let's see what we can do. What are some other functions that we can implement to to increase our leads? Yeah. So get more offers.

Steve: One of the things that, you know, I've heard you talk about is running your your business through KPIs. Yep. So, like, how does that work as far as I mean, do you just have them on your screen? Do people report it? Like, how does how do you run your daily meetings with using KPIs?

Todd: So, the majority of our team is virtual assistants. So they're actually responsible for putting in their own productivity for each day. What we track on them is how many how many, past due tasks do they have. So they have tasks they have to perform each and every day. How many of those did they did they complete?

Total call volumes, like how many calls did they make that day? How many conversations did they have based upon those calls, how many leads did they get based upon those conversations, and then how many appointments did they set based upon those leads.

Steve: So Okay. So they're self reporting. Yeah. Google Forms or

Todd: Yeah. Google Sheet.

Steve: Yep. Google Sheet. So they put it in every day, and you have a chance to observe and monitor it. Yep. And then based off of those reports, what are your conversations like?

Todd: Just, you know, if they're not meeting their numbers, we'll have those conversations. You know, I expect them to do the the virtual business to make 200 calls a day. And if they're not hitting 200 calls a day, we single line dial. So it's not a a dial or anything. If they don't hit those numbers, obviously, they're not gonna get the leads that they need.

Mhmm. So it's just basically having real conversations with them. So, we preach each and every day to go out and win the day, you know, just perform, be consistent, and, it starts by, you know, each day, each call. Like, just take it one step at a time. And if they're not hitting those numbers, then we're gonna have real conversations.

That's like, look, you know, you fell short on your calls today, which in turn made you fall short on your leads and appointments. So tomorrow, we need to pick that up and make sure that it doesn't happen again.

Steve: So Got it. What's the conversation like when they do hit all their metrics?

Todd: It's awesome. It's it's a big party. Right? So you're getting leads. You're getting appointments.

You're locking up deals. It's it's just a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun. We celebrate quite a bit. Anytime we get a deal, you know, ringing the deal well, we have a a group chat on Skype, how we communicate, and we're, you know, posting GIFs and stuff in there.

So it's it's a lot of fun.

Steve: Got it. And then something that you're really high on is virtual agents. So, you know, there's, people that, you know, are a 100% opposed to having VAs on the sales team, and there are people that, like, you gotta run your sales team with the VAs Yep. Or to run a profitable business. So can you elaborate on your view on why you have VAs and then how to maximize that?

Todd: Yeah. I mean, it started off basically that, you know, virtual assistants are very affordable. Mhmm. They're more affordable than, American people working in The States. The way I looked at it, you know, we we start our virtual assistants off at, like, 4 to $5 an hour.

If I were to hire somebody local, I'd have to pay them, like, 15 an

Steve: hour. Mhmm.

Todd: So I could have three virtual assistants. So three people doing the same job as one person, and there's no way that one person can do as much as those three virtual assistants. Never. For me, it made a lot of sense.

Steve: Right.

Todd: Right? Get more bang for my buck, more calls. And also, somebody that makes $15 an hour isn't always, like, the happiest person in the world. But what does virtual assistants make? They're, like, the happiest people ever because they're making good money.

And, it's just a lot easier to retain the virtual assistants, in my perception, than a a US based person.

Steve: Yeah. You know, it's interesting, like because I see so many people will say, like, I can't hire anybody. I can't hire anybody. Right? And it's like, what are you paying?

It's like, well, you know, $15 an hour. I was like, alright. Like, the next time you're at McDonald's, that's who you're trying to hire because that's what $15 an hour gets today. Yep. Right.

Like, you can't be out there posting job ads for $15 an hour and, like, be frustrated you can't find anybody.

Todd: Right.

Steve: Okay. So you got the why the VAs. How are you able to run a a successful sales business? I know you were talking about the KPIs and so on. Like, are you, like, actively training these guys?

Do you have regular, call listening? Like, what what are you doing to make your VAs better? Because a lot of people try the VAs for sales, and they struggle. Right. Right?

So, like, what what is separating your VA team from the average VA team?

Todd: You know what? I I would kinda just say I, you know, I wouldn't say lucky, but just being persistent, again, at what I do. Again, that's one of my superpowers, being persistent, consistent, not quitting. And, we just kept hiring them, hiring them. I kept training them, and and then eventually, we got a really good one.

Right? And then we just I just kinda leaned on that guy. Like, okay. Like, who do you know that you could bring in that would be just like you? And, you know, they take pride in ownership as well.

Like, you know, I tell them, it's not my company. It's it's our company. Like, they they are part of the company, part of the culture. So was able to get one really good one who found another really good one who found another really good one, and it was just kind of like a snowball effect. And then and, like, now we have a team that's that's so reliable and consistent.

Like, if one of them starts slacking off, the the they're you know, we're having a meeting.

Steve: Group accountability.

Todd: Yeah. So it's like, hey, you need to pick it up. And they're they're kind of patrolling for me. I don't even really have to be involved now, where I have a lead, you know, a lead VA now, and he basically does all my training. So they're training each other now as well.

I I'm really not involved that much anymore. I we do a Friday, training call

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: And I do go in on on that meeting and listen to the calls with them, and we talk about, hey, you know, here's where we could get a little better. Here's all the things we did great, and here's what we need to work on.

Steve: Yeah. So and

Todd: I just kinda oversee that part of it once a week with them, and and, that's that's about it at this point.

Steve: I think one of the best signs to see that your your your culture is working is that they're calling each other out. Yep. Right? Because that's and it's not easy to develop that culture. You can encourage that culture.

You can say you want this culture.

Todd: Right.

Steve: But once that happens, it's like it's like a magical, like, pivotal moment Right. In your business. Yeah.

Todd: It's awesome. Yeah. One of the things I did to to, to make that the way it is now is I also bonus the virtual assistants. Mhmm. So they get their base pay.

Anytime they get a deal, we give them a $100 bonus on top of that. And then another thing I do is we have our our company revenue goals. And if we meet our revenue goals, I also throw another bonus into a into a kitty that we pay out at the end of the year as, like, a as, like, a big Christmas bonus. So they're they're incentivized. Like, they wanna hit these bonuses, and we keep them informed all the way through.

Hey. We're we're at goal. We're short of goal. We need to pick it up. Yeah.

So it it's always pushing them a little bit harder, but yet showing them appreciation, for what they do because it is difficult because they are working you know, they're Filipinos is who I hire.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: So they're working all through the night. You know? They're like zombies.

Steve: So Yeah. Right? Absolutely. They're working that burning them in that oil literally. So so you have VAs.

How many VAs right now?

Todd: We have nine.

Steve: Nine. Yeah. And they're predominantly cold calling.

Todd: Yeah. Seven seven are cold calling, two are data VAs. They they're scraping all of our data, doing all of our lists, performing all that. And actually, one of the seven that are, caller is actually my acquisition one of one of my acquisition guys. So he did such a good job at the at the cold calling level.

I I, promoted him and let him try his hand at being a, acquisitions person. And last month, he signed the most deals of all my acquisitions people.

Steve: Better than some of your salespeople.

Todd: Better than some of my salespeople. Yep.

Steve: Okay. Wow. That's incredible.

Todd: Yep. Now that's just one month, though. So Yeah. Yeah. So you got

Steve: Our US guys our US guys crush it too. So Well, and they're probably listening.

Todd: Really good team. Yeah.

Steve: They're probably listening, and they're probably a little motivated.

Todd: That's right.

Steve: So you got alright. So you got the nine VAs, and then do you have lead managers as well or just straight sales managers?

Todd: I do not have a lead manager currently. So that's one of the things we were talking about earlier that I'm definitely gonna look at incorporating into my business because I think that could definitely take it to another level as well.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So then you have three local sales guys. Yep. Okay.

So we got bunch of questions about your business, which I'm gonna jump into, before we before we get into there. So you're also doing the Unifin Real Estate Group. What's that?

Todd: Basically, one of my one of my passions is is coaching, training, just trying to pick pick somebody up. And, I'm just starting this out right now. So it's it's not all implemented yet, but I'm in the process of putting it all together. And I just wanna be, you know, like you. I wanna train people.

I wanna make millionaires and, just help help people be accountable and show them the path and how to get to being a millionaire, through real estate investing.

Steve: That's awesome. Yeah. Alright. So before we jump into questions, guys, real quick, we do have, our workshop coming up. It's gonna be June.

It's, two and a half days. We're gonna go over our business, how we source deals, how we source talent, how we manage p and l's, balance sheets, literally everything you need to know to turn a wholesale in business. Max Jimenez, my business partner, and I are gonna be going over sharing the blueprint to our business. If you guys are interested in that, go to disruptors.com/workshop. Alright.

So we got a whole bunch of questions, so we gotta get through these.

Todd: Alright. Let's go.

Steve: Alright. So first question was from Joshua on YouTube. How many people are on your team? So we talked about the VAs and the salespeople. How many people total are on your team?

Todd: So we have, three acquisitions people. We have, seven cold calling VAs, two data VAs. My wife is our COO. Then my actually, my son is our dispo person, and I have a dispo VA as well that helps him to to add buyers to our buyers list. And then I have a, another son that works for me who's kind of our local outreach type type person.

I did have a, project manager, but we had let him him go for performance reasons and haven't replaced him yet. But I definitely need to for our our re retail rehab and rental property projects that we have going on.

Steve: Got it. You know, one question I didn't, ask I meant to ask earlier. So, you felt like you were living paycheck to paycheck Yep.

Todd: Because you

Steve: have a big family. How many kids?

Todd: We got five.

Steve: Five kids. Alright. So how do you run a business with five kids? Now it sounds like you got some adult children in the mix. Yep.

But how do you run a business, you know, with family and balance all that?

Todd: It's actually very, very hard to do. It's not it's not easy always. So but, just having a a spouse that supports supports you is a big key, and I have the best spouse ever. So she's there for for me and and helps helps me, supports me, gives me the freedom and the time that I need to be able to to run and do my business. But I have started to focus more on just being more systematized, being more time management, and sticking to that.

And then when I'm done with what I need to get done that day, shutting it down and basically being present in, what I do with my family.

Steve: Five kids? Mhmm. How do you balance a business with five kids?

Todd: So, basically, like I said, it's it's it's having a a a great spouse that supports you. Really, I couldn't do it without without my wife.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: She's an integral part of of the company as well as making it all possible. So she handles a lot of stuff for me, so I don't have to handle a lot of the stuff. So she gives me the freedom and the time and just to basically to do what what's needed to be done for the business. Yeah. And then, you know, I've I've really tried to become more cognizant of being able to get all my tasks done for that day and then just shutting it down, you know, putting my phone away and and just just trying to be present when you're when you're at home with your family.

So Yeah.

Steve: That's helped

Todd: a lot.

Steve: Like she's the COO for the business Yep. And the family.

Todd: Yep. She is.

Steve: Alright. So a follow-up question from Giveaway earlier was, you know, how did you make money during the the real estate boom, but it took you years to get going? That's an interesting question. I'm not sure we were saying that you struggled to get going. I think, really, it was you didn't want to take the leap because you still had benefits.

Todd: Right. Yeah. I mean, I was it was I was just comfortable. Right? So making 6 figures in your job, making 6 figures at real estate, that that's a pretty good life.

You're making $200,000 a year on the East Coast. That's that's a pretty good living. So Yeah. It's just you get comfortable and you just kinda stay there, and it's like something has to smack you in the face, right, to to wake you up to get you to that next level.

Steve: Someone has to move your cheese. Yep. Yep. So Steven Coller, what will you do differently if you had to do all over again? I don't know

Todd: if I would do anything different, to be honest with you. Just besides learning learning faster, hiring coach quicker, I I would do that. Yeah. So that I think that helped me elevate to to the next level, just having somebody hold me accountable. You know, because we're entrepreneurs, and we like to do things our way.

And sometimes we need somebody to to sit us down and be like, hey. Here's here's how you systematize. Here's how you do this, to help push you to to be be better. So

Steve: Gotcha. So Rich Casio, wants to know, can you explain why you do better than they do in direct mail? I'm not sure you've said that. You're you're killing indirect mail. But, can you share how you have good results with direct mail?

Todd: Just being consistent. Again, that's that's one of our superpowers. It's just that consistency of you you've gotta send it out each and every week. You can't stop marketing. Mhmm.

Like, the the business is marketing and sales. That's all it is. It's not houses. It's not real estate. It's marketing and sales.

If you cut off your marketing, you're you're you're sacrificing your sales already at that point. So just being consistent. We're gonna spend you know, we set our marketing budget, and we're gonna spend that money each and every month whether we get calls or whether we don't call don't get calls. Now you wanna react pretty quickly if you're not getting calls, but we're still gonna spend that money.

Steve: So if you're

Todd: bringing leads

Steve: do you use Todd for the for for Darknet?

Todd: Yeah. We should do Yellow Letter HQ right now.

Steve: Yeah. So Yellow Letter HQ, there's a shout out there. Todd Swaggerty. So on YouTube, are they contractors, or are they employees if they're 100% commission?

Todd: Ten ninety nines. Yep.

Steve: Yep. So I think the confusion here is it might be just really nuanced, you know, whether you call them contractors or employees.

Todd: Mhmm.

Steve: And then on YouTube, Ian Ross. Welcome, Ian. Did your previous success in sales help you approach your KPIs?

Todd: Probably not help me. No. I think it probably hurt me more than anything because, again, I'm I'm I'm a visionary person. I'm not an implementer, so I I really struggle with that. That was one of the things when I hired a coach to to go through my business that he was like, dude, you gotta do this.

Like and I wasn't doing it at the time. So Yeah.

Steve: Well, I and I think the reason why he's asking this because I actually talked to him yesterday, and he's actually, has a lot of success in sales as well before. Mhmm. Right? And I think it's really interesting because, you hear a complaint in our industry, like, well, I train these sales guys, and then they end up just competing against me. Yep.

Right? It's frustrating as all it can be, but the reality is that the people that we attract to ourselves also have a very similar profile to business owner.

Todd: Yep. Right?

Steve: And but when we're in sales, like, I don't know about you. I'm gonna speak for myself personally.

Todd: Sure.

Steve: Right? When I was working at my old broker, I wasn't so good at putting notes in the CRM. Right? And then, you know, as business owners, we get frustrated with our salespeople. We're not putting notes in the CRM.

Correct. Right? So I think, there's a lot of behaviors that we need to fix.

Todd: Yep. We we stay on I stay on top of that pretty pretty well, though. So Well, we do. That's that daily meeting. Right?

Steve: We do. Yeah. As business owners, because we recognize the importance of it. Right. But when we're on the other side, we didn't really recognize the importance.

Like, don't worry about it. Like, we'll remember.

Todd: I got the deal. Right?

Steve: Yeah. I got the contract. What are you complaining about?

Todd: What do I need to know for?

Steve: Okay. So, Al Entrepreneur, are you using any monitor monitoring systems for UVA's, whether it's Time Doctor, Hubstaff, whatever?

Todd: Yeah. Onlinejobs.ph, when you join join that, I think it's, like, $70 a month right now for the program, or you can get, like, an a $99 level. They have a time proof app where I make the virtual assistants log in, and it takes a, screen capture of their computer every ten minutes. So matter of fact, we just caught one of the virtual assistants slacking off last week, and I let him go because he had, like, three hours of downtime. It was the same same screen for three hours in a row, and he wasn't meeting his quota.

So he made it pretty easy to, to let him go.

Steve: A lot a lot easier. Yep. Elijah Rubin. What's up, Elijah I, on Instagram? How do you fight against this VA speech curve?

So, a lot of his people he's trying to hire in The Philippines, I guess, struggle, with some of the the words.

Todd: Yep. So my my one and only requirement really for the virtual assistant is that they speak really good English. Like, that is the the first thing that I'm looking for. If their accent is really, really bad, I'd I do not hire those virtual assistants. I'm looking for the ones that can speak really good English.

And a lot of mine that I have right now, you wouldn't even know that they're Filipino when you're talking to them. So

Steve: Really?

Todd: Yep. And I I I can train anybody. So it's just training. They're smart. They learn quick.

They pick up quick.

Steve: You

Todd: know, I I do like for them to have some form of sales background. Mhmm. But the number one and most important thing to me is that they talk really good English.

Steve: Yeah. So, I guess to answer your question, Elijah, is he doesn't train them on how to speak well. They speak well, and he trains them on everything else.

Todd: Right. Absolutely.

Steve: Yeah. There was, I remember I I was listening to a story. Right? It was, Darren Hardy talking about, like, he went to, like, the Ritz Carlton or whatever. And, it was one of those hotels.

And he's like, how you know, like, the the person that checked them, it was really nice. The the concierge, the, the I don't know. It's not the bell boy. Like, whoever, like, handles the the luggage, but, like, like, everyone here is so nice. Right?

So he was talking to the the the president. He's like, man, like, how do you train your staff to be so nice? Like, we just hire friendly people. Mhmm. Yep.

Right? It's it's it's a lot easier that way. Yep. So on YouTube, do you mail and cold call? So it sounds like you mean you do both.

Todd: Yes. Yeah. We do both.

Steve: So how much mail mailing do you do, and how much cold calling?

Todd: Actually, direct mail is the majority of our marketing budget right now. It's probably, I would say, 8080% of our marketing budget.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: We we have two cold callers right now, and I used to just have one. So we just started, two, like, last week. So I'm still kind of expanding on the cold calling right now.

Steve: Got it. And then you were saying so you said two cold callers on who you're mailing? Or

Todd: two when I say cold callers, I'm talking about on the dialer. So we have we have ZenCall. This is what we use. And so I have two specific, virtual assistants that are that are auto dialing.

Steve: Got it.

Todd: And the others are just basically following up with leads for us.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So there's so you kinda have lead manager. You just don't really call them or give them that

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. I guess so.

Steve: Okay. So then, Wyatt on YouTube is what CRM are you using, and and how do you like it?

Todd: We it's it's it's called REI Control now. So it used to be investor PO, then I think it changed to realestateinvestor.com, and now it's called reicontrol.com. So, it's it's it's good. I mean, I wouldn't say it's the best because you always wanna change certain things about it that you can't really do, but it it functions and has preset follow ups and stuff like that, so it works fine.

Steve: I think that's the story of every CRM.

Todd: You're right. Right.

Steve: Right. Like, we have this as business owners. Like, man, wouldn't it be great if there's just this one platform that we can call from, take leads from, and, like, all these follow ups are automated, and, like, systems never fell apart, and it just always worked and this and that. Like, wouldn't it be great? That doesn't exist.

Todd: No. It's not out there. Okay.

Steve: And then, Michael Kennedy on YouTube is, what is your cost per contract?

Todd: We're right at about, 2,500.

Steve: Got it. So going through some, additional questions here. There was a a question on on Instagram auto close. What's the best price? I think if you could ask that question in another way, I don't quite understand that question.

So giveaway is he's asking about, you know, tell us more about your sales team. So how are you training them, and, what are you doing to train them?

Todd: I mean, basically, just recording their calls, you know, and and listening to the calls, having having a group group meeting, you know, once a week to go over, just kinda review them and with each and everybody, like we said, and just point out, you know, things that they did good, things that they did they need to work on. So, you know, you take one example, and you can help the whole group by the one example that you're listening to. So, again, just just trying to be consistent with that.

Steve: So Yep. And then, what is your profit what profit margin does your business operate on? This is from Al Entrepreneur.

Todd: I think right now we're running about 60% profit.

Steve: That's pretty good.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty high.

Steve: Yeah. So, and you just had a killer month. We, we were talking about it before we started Yep. The podcast. Can you elaborate on your killer month?

Todd: Yeah. I mean, so one of the things I I always try to focus on is your your your deal size, your average deal size. It takes the same amount of effort to close a $5,000 deal as it does to close a $100,000 deal.

Steve: Sometimes it takes more effort to close a $5,000 deal.

Todd: You're you're right. Because there's usually issues with that. Right?

Steve: So Yeah.

Todd: So I just, you know, really put my brain together and and and was like, you know, what can I do to get our deal size up? And for me, it was multifamily and portfolios. So we we pulled multifamily lists and started direct mailing and cold calling those. And then we also found the portfolio people that that owned properties in our market, and we started marketing and and advertising to them as well. So and we were able to to lock in.

We had a, a 10 unit, complex down in Hopewell, Virginia that had a the guy owned the duplex right next to it, so it was 12 units total. And we were able to wholesale that one this month. And, we also had a a huge portfolio deal down in, Petersburg, Virginia, which is about 30 miles south of Richmond that we closed at the same time, and both of those were were over 200 k deals. So

Steve: Yeah.

Todd: You throw those into your mix, like, it it's a cash injection into your company. So that's awesome.

Steve: Yeah. And I think you're, we were kinda joking. Like, there's literally nothing you can't do now. Like, whatever was on your list, like, alright. One day, might be able to do to do this.

Yep. So you you you got one thing that you're gonna be looking at on your wish list. Yeah. Wanna share what that is?

Todd: On my wish list?

Steve: Or something like you you may need to do, but you were, like, maybe capital, strapped.

Todd: Yeah. I mean, just with with the capital infusion, you're you know, it's just doubling down and increasing, you know, marketing channels and Yeah. Just going deeper into the market that you than you already have. So it it frees you up. Again, back to marketing and sales.

Right? To to spend more money on the marketing, to get more leads, in order to do to do more deals, which, you know, if right now, we're doing 10 to 15 deals a month, we snowball that in. And, you know, hopefully, in the next two to three months, we should be at, you know, 15 to 20 deals Mhmm. A month. Keeping the same profit margin and and everything.

And that's how you kinda grow it. So you just, you know, grow it slowly. Don't don't try to get go from one deal to 20 deals in a month. Right? You gotta that makes you have the people in place and the and the standard operating procedures in place, your KPIs, to to grow the business gradually.

Steve: Alright. So Resh Casio wants to know, does your sales team go to see the property?

Todd: We are 99%, I'd say, over the phone virtual. So

Steve: Got it.

Todd: We don't typically. So there are some sellers, you know, that you just have to go shake their hand and have to go meet them to get the contract signed. We'll obviously get in the car and go out and run to their properties when they're ready to go Yeah. To get it signed. But outside of that, no.

Steve: Alright. And then Michael Kennedy wants to know how much of your business is wholesale? How much of it is wholesale?

Todd: I would say 90% of our business is whole wholesale right now.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: Maybe 5% wholesale and another 5% retail flips. So

Steve: Got it. And then how do you get your cash buyers into the property?

Todd: How do we get the cash buyers in the property? I mean, we it we we just try to set the tone with the seller once we get the contract signed. We don't we don't push it all, but we we always try to get a lockbox put on the property because that makes it easier.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: Whenever we can do that, it's pretty easy to get your buyers in and out of the property. If it's like a rented type property or we can't get a lockbox on there, we'll just put the deal out to all of our buyers and put them on hold, basically, and say, hey. We're gonna have, you know, an a showing at this point in time and push all the buyers in at one time, which that works pretty well sometimes because you can get a lot of little competition, little auction stuff going

Steve: on there. Auction effect for sure.

Todd: Yeah. So it just kinda depends on the, you know, what we have going on with the with the seller letting us put a lockbox on or not letting us put a lockbox on.

Steve: And do you do any digital marketing?

Todd: Not currently. We we have a website. That's that's about it. So that's that's my next step for our marketing is getting SEO going and getting PPC going.

Steve: And then all entrepreneurs, what's the biggest mistake you've made while building your business?

Todd: Biggest mistake that I've made? I don't really look at them as mistakes because I think we grow from everything that we do. But, you know, I would just say not being not being systematized more earlier. Mhmm. So because, again, I'm a I'm a visionary person.

Like, that's not my strong points. That's my wife's strong points, and she's really good at it. So just being more systematized with, operating procedures.

Steve: And what's your average fee? This is from Michael Kennedy.

Todd: Our average wholesale deal, we're right at about 20,000.

Steve: 20,000. Okay. So that's all pretty good. Yeah. You were saying that it wasn't as great as ours.

I mean, that's pretty solid.

Todd: Yep. That's good. I'm happy with it. So

Steve: Okay. So, you know, a lot of guys come on here, and I think they all have different motivations. Mhmm. So what is your why?

Todd: Just wanted to provide a a a good life, not only for me and my family, but for my my employees that that work for us. You know, their their team members, their ownership, it's it's it's a team atmosphere that we build. And I just wanna be able to try to to help help them reach their goals and just understanding your team's priorities and what they want in their life as well. And then just basically trying to provide that for them. And that's one of the reasons why I wanna go I'm starting the undefeated real estate group is I wanna I wanna touch people.

I wanna help help people and and help them on their path to get out of the rat race and to to meet their financial goals for their family, as well as their personal goals. Right? Maybe they wanna spend more time with them. And and that's all possible with real estate and how you do your business. Like, you don't have to go out and try to make a million dollars if all you wanna do is, you know, spend more time with your family and and and have have enough money to do the things that you wanna do.

Like, that's very possible. You can do one to two deals a month, live comfortably, and have a lot of time. A lot

Steve: of people have for you. Right? Yeah. That's a Chaim is, like, the best role model

Todd: for them. Chaim is greatest.

Steve: Yeah. What is your biggest struggle right now?

Todd: My biggest struggle right now, I would say personnel. Right? Just finding the right people to put in the right seats to keep keep it growing, keep it going. Right?

Steve: How are you right now solving that problem? I'm asking selfishly for me on this one.

Todd: Selfishly for me? I would say I'm probably not handling that problem right now. It would be my COO, which is which is my wife. So, you know, she's pretty good at at putting putting things in place and trying to find job sites, job boards, word-of-mouth stuff, you know. With the virtual assistants, it's easy.

We just we just, you know, talk to them. Like, hey. We're ready for another virtual assistant, so we need an another one. Then they'll go out and find them nine times out of 10 for us. So

Steve: Yeah. So we got pretty now. We got pretty creative, you know, for us. I put out a video about, like, how, you know, we actually, have found that people that have sold some, questionable items in the past do really well in our in our business.

Todd: Okay.

Steve: So car salesman?

Todd: Is that what you're saying?

Steve: No. Cars aren't questionable. So, anyway, we posted that. We actually actually had someone reach out. It's like, you know, there's actually, a job boards for, convicted felons.

Todd: Okay.

Steve: So, you know, so we're we're advertising on websites for convicted felons. We're advertising on websites for, vets. Right? So it's not just Indeed because everyone goes on Indeed or WiseHire or whatever. Like, we're we're intentionally marketing other places, for for people because, man, like, the the the old days are just, like, posting a job Yeah.

And getting a whole bunch of quality applicants. Yep. Those days are those days are gone moment.

Todd: Yeah. Gone.

Steve: How do you stay motivated?

Todd: You know, it's it's that's another one of my superpowers. It's just it's just in me. I'm highly competitive person. You know, I wrestled all all through my years and in college.

Steve: So I don't see the cauliflower ears.

Todd: Not too bad. Not too bad. I've waited

Steve: a while.

Todd: So you mostly

Steve: won.

Todd: That's right. Yeah.

Steve: Got it.

Todd: But just I'm just competitive. So, you know, it's it's if I see somebody doing, you know, 20 deals a month, I'm doing 10 to 15 now. Like, hey. I wanna do that. Yeah.

It's possible. Right? So just, always pushing, always getting 1% better.

Steve: So And how do you measure success? How

Todd: do I measure success? Mhmm. Just wanting to leave a legacy is is really my measurement of success. I wanna, you know, put my family in a better place once I'm not here anymore, you know, just have them be able to to have the things in life and do the things in life that they wanna be able to do. And, you know, my father has done a great job with that with with me, and I wanna just be able to continue that legacy down to to my family and my kids and grandkids because I do have a grandchild too.

Steve: Wow. Man, already.

Todd: Already. Yeah. Already.

Steve: Alright. So, there's a couple more questions here. Michael Kennedy was, how much are you spending monthly right now for marketing?

Todd: We're right around $30,000 a month for

Steve: marketing. Yep. Okay. And then, your process for your VA is to follow-up with sellers. Is there is can you share more details about how your VA's follow-up?

Todd: Yeah. We have a ninety day touch rule. So every lead, we're gonna basically touch every ninety days. Those are obviously the cold leads. Warm and hot leads, you're gonna alter that.

You know, warm leads, we might follow-up with every thirty days. And then the hot leads, obviously, we're calling almost every day until we get the contract signed. So but the CRM that we use basically all that. You know? But I'm very big on when we train the VAs to come in and I and my sales team, you know, you you complete your task and you set a new task.

Mhmm. You complete your task and you set a new task. And then I tell them, you complete your task and you set a new task. Right? If you don't do that and I see that they don't do that,

Steve: like,

Todd: you know, we'll write up the virtual assistant right away

Steve: Yeah.

Todd: To to know that that's the serious like, I paid money for that lead. And if we don't set a follow-up task for that lead, that lead, it's like burning a $100 bill and just throwing it out the window. Right?

Steve: Right.

Todd: But we can't have that happening. So

Steve: Of course. Harvey Martinez, is there an onboarding process for your VAs when you hire them?

Todd: Again, you know, we recorded everything when we started out, and that's basically still the onboarding process. So they just come in. They they watch the videos. And then our our lead VA also manages them and and trains them. And so I'm basically hands off with the virtual assistants for the most part now.

We the lead VA handles it. You know, they do a great job in just tracking them and training them.

Steve: So you mentioned earlier that, your superpower is consistency. Yep. Can you elaborate on what that does for you?

Todd: You know, it just just basically gives me this mindset that I'm I'm not ever gonna give up. You know, you're gonna have good days, and you're gonna have bad days. Right? And when you have those bad days, it it really sucks at the time. But you know what?

I always look at it like I could go broke tomorrow. Right? And if I did go broke tomorrow, which won't happen, but if if I did, I still have a skill set that I could be right back in the same position in a few months because you can make $20,000 like that overnight. Like, there's not a lot of people out there that have that skill set.

Steve: Right.

Todd: But I do. So and, you know, training my team to have that same skill set to to work together to to get it back. And that's you know? So I don't I don't really worry about that for the most part because I know that we can get it back always.

Steve: So I think consistency is one of the most important skills or or qualities, but it's not easy for most people.

Todd: Nope.

Steve: So how do you impart that on your team?

Todd: We talk about it each and every day. We talk about, you know, winning winning the day, being a champion. We we call our, VA's Team Campion, which is champion in in Tagalog, which is the Philippine language. So and it's it's it's embedded into them. Right?

Each and every day, we wake up, go out, win the day, make the call, win the hour, win the call, like, get the appointment, get the lead. Right? Mhmm. So just being the best that they can. And then we also just preach about, like like, truly helping people when you're talking to them on the phone because I feel like this industry can get a bad name sometimes, and most people are just, like, wanting to get on the phone, get the details, and give them the offer, and then get off.

Right? Like, that's not what we do. We focus on their their issue and what's going on in their life, and we really wanna help them. That's the first thing I teach my team to say is, you know, even if we don't buy your house, we're gonna help you as best as we can. If that's just referring you over to a realtor that we know is really, really, really good in our market, that's what we're gonna do.

Yeah. So we want to help you, and we and we preach that. Sets us apart.

Steve: Absolutely. Do you have a VA that listens to you your guys' calls?

Todd: Yeah. Our our lead VA does.

Steve: Yep. Awesome.

Todd: And then, again, they they train each week. So every Friday, they're they're listening to each other's calls as well.

Steve: Yeah. And, again, I think consistency is one of the most important things. Yep. I didn't know this about myself, but, you know, I've had peers say, like, their the quality they admire most about me is I'm consistent. And I I look at myself as an inconsistent person.

But

Todd: You're always hardest on yourself.

Steve: We absolutely are. So, final question. Is there a book you've gifted more than any other?

Todd: I'd say Rich Dad Poor Dad. I mean, that's the one that really, changed my mind shift.

Steve: Mhmm.

Todd: When I read it, it it changed my life, basically.

Steve: Yeah. I should probably give that book out more. Yeah. I think it's a great book. Alright.

So I want you to think about what you wanna leave the listeners with while I make just a couple of quick announcements. Guys, if you got value today, please like, subscribe, share, or comment, or leave a five star review on iTunes. The more people we reach, the sooner we can get to our goal of creating a 100 millionaires. We do have ourselves. We do have a workshop coming up in a couple months.

You guys interested in that? Go to disruptors.com/workshop. And we do have our social media starter pack, which has been pretty popular with some of the people, so, check that out as well. And we do have Anthony Pappas coming in next week, and he's gonna be talking about how he did a million dollars last year. And as a young kid, you know, so, I think he's got an interesting story to share.

You guys are are gonna want to hear that one. What are some last thoughts you want to leave everybody with?

Todd: You know, we talked about it is is basically just the consistency part, being consistent each and every day that you wake up. You know, this is this is a business. If you're gonna do this this business, you you have to treat it like a business. Right? Yeah.

It's not a hobby. It's it's not a job.

Steve: You have to hustle?

Todd: Right. Yeah. You have to show up. And, you know, the people that aren't successful, that's that's usually what you see. It's like, you know, they treated it.

They tried it treated it like a hobby. They tried it a little bit. It didn't work, so they quit. Right? Like, you know, it's the guy that's got the ax picked, like, that far away from the gold.

Right? He quit. Next guy came in and and and struck gold. So it's you just can't quit. You can't give up.

You know, if you really wanna do it, it's possible. It's a numbers game. You just gotta hit the numbers. Right? So

Steve: Well, I hit I made 20 calls yesterday. I didn't get a deal.

Todd: It's not enough. It's not enough. Not enough.

Steve: Yeah. But you hear these stories like, yeah, man. Like, you know, I can't get a deal. I can't get a deal. I said, what'd you do yesterday?

I said, you know, like, they made $20. Like, really? Like

Todd: And that's why you're breaking it down. Like I said, you know, break it break it down. You come up with a plan. This is how many calls you gotta make. You make that amount of calls.

You should get this amount of leads, which should result in this amount of offers, which should result in this amount of deals. And if if you truly break it down to just a daily function, like and that's that's part of what I'll do in my my undefeated real estate group is we'll set those plans in place for you where it's like, okay. I just gotta go out today and get, you know, three leads and make three offers.

Steve: Yep.

Todd: Where where instead of, oh, I gotta go get 300 leads to get, you know, 10 deals. Right? So just just breaking it down.

Steve: Absolutely. If someone wanted to get ahold of you, how can they do that?

Todd: Just they can, send me a message on Facebook. So that's that's probably

Steve: the best thing to do. Todd Miller out there.

Todd: Todd Todd Miller at Richmond Richmond, VA. So I think my link is in there. So

Steve: Alright. Cool. Perfect. And, guys, again, don't forget we do have the Closers Lab tomorrow, 10:00 Arizona time, 10:00 Pacific, 01:00 eastern on this channel. Thank you, Todd.

Todd: Thanks, man.

Steve: Appreciate it. It was absolutely fun. I'll see you guys next week. Alright.

Todd: See you, buddy.

Steve: Shout out to Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. We real estate disrupt