Flipping Over $75MM Worth Of Real Estate

Steve Trang: Steve trains. What? Jump on the Steve train. We real estate disruptors. Hey, everybody.

Thank you for joining us for today's episode of real estate disruptors. Today, we got my good buddy, Will Dennis here, Willie Numbers. And, he flew in from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to talk about how he's flipped over $75,000,000 worth of real estate in his entire career. Now I am on a mission to create a 100 millionaires. Information on this podcast alone is enough to help you become a millionaire.

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You ready?

Will Dennis: Ready.

Steve: Alright. So first question is, what was life like right before you got into real estate?

Will: I had just been fired from my job. I was a corporate America guy, so I literally just got fired. What was the job? It I was a commodities analyst.

Steve: Commodities analyst. That I was a junior trader. That sounds pretty, I know that's a crazy business, but, like, that title just sounds like really,

Will: I don't

Steve: know, bland.

Will: Yeah. It's big.

Steve: Right? Yeah. So what did you do?

Will: I was on a hedge fund in New York.

Steve: See, the hedge funds is a little bit more glamorous.

Will: Yeah. It's a little more glamorizing. So I was on an internal hedge fund Mhmm. At Merrill Lynch that traded oil. So we would hedge a lot of bets Okay.

Within the the whole trade floor. Mhmm. I got an internship there, and then I got hired, and I was there for about a year. So I was on my way to become a real trader. I was a junior trader at one point, and I was margining a lot of, you know, big banks.

It was institutional, but we would margin, Citibank and stuff like that. Yeah. I will say that at that time and during that tenure, one thing I took away was I was 24, and I did a margin call to Citibank. And I margin called them over a $100,000,000. And within, like, four hours, the the wire hit, and I saw the wire hit.

And I just remember how mind blown I was. And the first thing that went through my head, I was like, god. There's so much money out there. A lot of money out there. And, god, I'm so broke.

And I was making, like, $78 a year living in New York, which is, like, negative 50 in in reality. So that that kinda stuck with me. So when I did get fired, I didn't know that I was gonna go into real estate. It wasn't my first choice. It's not even what I studied.

I have a background in finance. Mhmm. But I stumbled upon a podcast, which was actually Sean Terry's at the time. Yeah. So

Steve: before you get into that, that right? So Mhmm. So you said your background. You went to college for this?

Will: Yes. Do you

Steve: have a degree in Finance. Finance. Yeah. Went to college. Got a job.

Dream job?

Will: Yeah. I was on Wall Street. On the

Steve: way to my dream job.

Will: Yeah. Yeah. It was, like, my dream that I wanted.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. And so you're talking about, you know, seeing a $100,000,000 wire. So, like, for me, in my part of my real estate journey was that I was working with, you know, all these different ways in real estate, but one of them was work was selling properties to hedge funds.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: And so Blackstone Yeah. Was a pretty big fund. Boy. And so they sent over this proof of funds. Like, hey.

We wanna buy your property. They're okay. Like, what do you got? Like, let me see the proof of funds. Right?

Yeah. Comes over, like, $86,000,000. Yeah. Okay.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: Same thing. Like Yeah. Crap. I'm poor.

Will: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So you talk about you got fired. Before we talk about Sean Terry, let's talk about what got you fired.

Will: Yeah. That's a great question. So I was young, obviously, dumb. And, you know, my whole life, I've watched Wall Street. It was it was a passion of mine.

It was a goal. It was an ambition. Mhmm. And when I got there, you know, you always see the movies and this and that and, you know, Wall Street where, you know, streets are paved with gold and this and that. And it you really could hustle your way if if you work hard in New York.

An average week for me was a hundred hours a week. That was no problem. You know, I I slept on you know, beneath my desk. That was standard, for Really? For that world.

Yeah. I mean, it it really is. You sleep in your office, especially when you're starting out. I mean, they treat you like shit. Mhmm.

And it's expected.

Steve: So it's just like boiler room.

Will: It's just yeah. A little bit. That's more of like a sales room, and that was, you know, that was a little pump and dump. But, yeah, it really you are you know

Steve: treat you like you are the bottom. Yeah.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: Deserve to be at the bottom until you prove yourself.

Will: Yeah. And it's it's more it you know, Merrill Lynch is a great company. It's not like they go out of their way, you know, like, to violate HR or anything like that, but it's more like a rite of passage. And the guys that are twenty, thirty years senior, they've been through that. They've been through worse.

So I guess it would be like the military, so to speak, right, where, like, you gotta eat shit for a while Mhmm. Till you graduate. But, yeah, you start seeing people, bail out real quick. Mhmm. So I was always talking to my boss.

Name was Jay, and I won't say his last name. But I was always talking to him, and I was trying to push. I was like, hey. This is this is what I wanna do. Hey.

Could I do more? Hey. Could I you know, I like, I am right now with my own business, but in the

Steve: quarter trying to, push the envelope.

Will: Yeah. And, you know, 24 year old punk kid. You know? I didn't have a beard. Nothing at the time, so I probably seemed very annoying.

Mhmm. So it got to a point where one day he told me in a conversation, he's like, listen. I understand what you're trying to do, but you really need to stay in your lane. And that irked the shit out of me. And I just kept pushing.

And one day, he told me, he's like, look, either I'm gonna fire you or you just stop, fall in line. This is it. Just ride the wave, you know, until until otherwise. And I told him, I won't say what I said, but I I said some nice not nice words, and I got fired. So that was a not stay in your lane.

I did not stay in my lane. I I I veered off the lane. So, yeah, that happened.

Steve: Alright. So then you happened upon Shontre's podcast. So when Yeah. Like, What year was this exactly?

Will: So I got fired in late twenty fifteen, maybe early twenty sixteen, if I remember correctly. Alright. At that time, I had a friend who because I moved back in with my mom. Mhmm. So now this is, like, a depressing stage of my life.

Steve: In Florida?

Will: Back in Florida. Okay. So now I'm back home with my mom. She's an immigrant. She's looking at me like, what the hell are you doing?

You can't live here for free, and I didn't

Steve: get why we came to America?

Will: This is not why we came here. You better get your shit together.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: So, anyway and I I had a friend who was buying and selling diabetic testing strips. And I know this is gonna sound a little out of left field. But at the time, I told him, I was like, hey. I'll put up the banded signs. And I didn't know anything about banded signs.

But I would literally go out in the middle of the night. I'd put up these banded signs, and I'd take the calls in the morning with my, business partner at the time. And as I was doing this, I would I would listen to podcast. And one time, I remember Sean Terry's I think it was Flip to Freedom Mhmm. Was the podcast.

And I heard a guy in Miami that was on an interview that he had flipped, like, a bunch of real estate. He was, like, two years younger than me at the time. So I heard the podcast, like, three times, and he left his office number there. So I cold called his office. I lied to his secretary.

And when I got him on the phone, I told him, I was like, look. You don't know me. I don't know you. Just please don't hang up. If you teach me what you know about this business, I'll split my first five deals with you fifty fifty.

And there's kind of a moment in silence, and he said, can you come in tomorrow at eleven? And I was there, and that was that. I I bankrolled everything off of credit cards, and that was that.

Steve: So, you know, you talk about bandit signs for diabetic strips. Yeah. I see these signs Yeah. Periodically. Yeah.

Is there really money in diabetic strips?

Will: Yeah. So look. The best thing I can say is it was a it was a season in my life, and it's a gray area. But, yes, you can make I

Steve: fully recognize it's a gray area. There's no question it's a gray area.

Will: It's a gray area.

Steve: Right? Yeah. Is it actually, like, worth if you weren't in real estate, is it actually worth the time?

Will: No. Now it's not, obviously, because I've made other kinds of money in real estate. But it was enough to make me, you know, some weeks, 700 a grand, right, where a guy that got fired and is unemployed is making a thousand bucks a week. It was pretty cool. And I was running my own schedule.

I was doing my own thing. I would literally just collect them. I would pick them up Mhmm. And I would sell them on eBay Yeah. At at a markup.

Steve: So tell me about if you teach me everything you know, I'll split the first five deals with you. Yeah. So what did you learn?

Will: So he taught me how to make a list. Right? What wholesaling was, what real estate was to to do it, you know, creatively. And he taught me how to make lists. He taught me how to speak to sellers.

You know, he showed me the the AB contract that he used, just little things like that.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: I bankrolled it off of my credit cards. I started with direct mail, which, by the way, anyone who's watching, not a good way to start unless you have money. Yeah. So It's

Steve: good. Just don't start.

Will: Don't start there. I I wouldn't start there. It's like starting with probate leads. I wouldn't start there. It's it's it's gonna be a longer grind.

Mhmm. But I did that, and, you know, he would be on calls with me and stuff like that, little things that I would learn, what to say at appointments, how to disposition them. Mhmm. He had the buyers list. I had nothing.

So I think it was ninety one days, and we did our first five deals. So I was hustling. You know, from from from the very get go, I I wasn't lollygagging because Yeah. Once I saw the first check hit, which was, I don't know, might have been $6,500. But it was, like, all the money in the world to me at the time Right.

Because I had done it. It was my own thing, and I knew, like, oh, shit. If I could do this and this is part time, and I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Mhmm. I was just in New York a couple months ago.

Like, this can scale.

Steve: Sure. Yeah. So your first one was from direct mail?

Will: It was from direct mail. The first five were direct mail.

Steve: My first five were direct mail.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: I did those first five deals with him.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. What were the challenges on those first five deals?

Will: So the first deal I ever got under contract, it was 10748 North Saratoga Drive. I still remember the address. So that first deal actually ended up, the seller backed out. Mhmm. And so I get this contract.

I'm all excited. It was a good spread. It was like a 30 k pop at the time. And the seller decides to call me and say, hey. I'm not selling, and he hangs up the phone.

So I didn't know anything about a lisp pendants or specific performance or anything like that, and he didn't wanna pursue that. I I I don't think he really knew how to do that at the time. So it took a year, and that was my first deal. Mhmm. And then I ended up closing on it a year later.

Mhmm. I actually flipped it myself.

Steve: Why how did you close it a year later?

Will: I raised private money, and I I closed on it, and I fixed and flipped it. And I that was my first flip ever.

Steve: But the guy didn't wanna sell. So what did you do to get that?

Will: Up suing him. Got it. We ended up suing for a specific performance, and then he came back. I think we increased the price by, like, 10 k. Mhmm.

And we still made a good deal.

Steve: On your very first deal, you did a lispendence super specific price. Yeah. I mean, that's that's gotta be a little discouraging.

Will: To say the least.

Steve: Right? Like, I mean, I guess, like, real quick, because there's two things here we talked about. So for everyone that's listening, let's first explain what's a lis pendens is. And after that, let's talk about specific performance so you can elaborate what those are.

Will: Yeah. So a lis pendens or an LP is a lawsuit that you're gonna file Mhmm. Against the property owner. So banks do it from a lender side Mhmm. When somebody goes into preforeclosure or delinquency.

So it's pretty much a cloud on title Mhmm. That a lot and it's attached to a lawsuit, and you can force what you what you wanna enforce. Mhmm. Where in this case, there was a contract signed. I had equitable interest in the contract, right, in the house, and I'm enforcing the sale.

Yes. Because now they're trying to back out.

Steve: It's you're allow you're you're letting the public know

Will: Mhmm. That

Steve: there is a pending lawsuit on this property. Correct. Right. Exactly. Right.

So then no one can record a deed on this property.

Will: Yep.

Steve: Right. Okay. And a specific performance.

Will: Or you or that seller can't take out a loan. They can't do anything like that. They can't refi. They can't do anything.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: So in other words, you are first position. Mhmm. If there's a bank, you're probably second position, but you are first position in line. So if another investor was to come along or something like that or they were to sell it with a realtor, you're first in line. Yep.

So it's a cloud on title. Sure. Yeah. And specific performance. Specific performance is suing to enforce what you agreed upon in a contract.

So you said you were gonna sell at $200, let's say. Now you're backing out, and you don't wanna sell. Now I'm going to sue you for specific performance, which the performance would be to sell to me.

Steve: Yeah. So Who coached you through that?

Will: Dude, honestly, I I I didn't get really any coaching. I just I remember calling a lot of attorneys. I didn't have my title attorney like I do today.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: I met him a few months after that, actually, ironically. But I dude, again, just resourcefulness. I started calling around title companies. I started speaking to attorneys. I knew a couple guys at some RIA meetings that were seasoned investors and, you know, kinda coupled all that information.

Steve: So you had a community of sorts to kinda walk you through it. Yeah. So, again, gotta be a little discouraging, like, the first deal. Right? Because, like, there's this there's this roller coaster.

Right? And for everyone, like, when you do a deal, whether it's your first deal, your 50, whatever, bad things happen. Yeah. Right? And in those bad things, you're like, man, I can't believe this is real.

I'm gonna get paid. And then what? Yeah. Right? And it's a gut punch.

Yeah. It is. So talk to me about, like, you know, the adversity you face, especially since this was your very first deal.

Will: Yeah. So, you know, the thought of the natural thoughts come out, which is, is this real? Now you start questioning everything. Maybe real estate is bullshit. Maybe you can't do this.

Maybe it's not meant for me. Maybe I don't deserve this. Right? All those thoughts ran through my head. But I knew even when I started, and it's just my natural personality, I said, well, if it's not on the first one, then I'm just gonna go stack up some more.

So Yeah. That was my mentality. And I I made a decision when I got fired where it was I literally told my mom. I was like, I am never working for anybody else again. And I remember saying that very verbatim.

Mhmm. And, you know, I stuck to it. So I I didn't wanna quit and, you know, I kinda it was it sucked at the time. Mhmm. But I took it almost like a challenge.

I was like, alright. Well, not every deal is gonna be like that was my mentality. I was like, well, not everyone's gonna back out. Right. And they didn't.

You know? And it ended up clearing out. And I think my second deal was a few weeks after that, and that one closed. It was pretty smooth per se. And then the third one was, you know, some leans on it.

The fourth one had some violations, so that was a whole another learning experience. And, yeah, just kept going through there.

Steve: Okay. So you said, you know, first five deals, we're gonna do fifty fifty.

Will: Mhmm. After that,

Steve: do you continue working with them, or did you, like, go off to

Will: your own thing? So I did, I think I did, like, another three deals, but it was more he co wholesale them because I didn't have a buyer's list still at the time. So I would bring them to him, and he would kinda have, like, first right of refusal. Mhmm. And, you know, it was like a flat fee.

It was, like, $3 or something, and he brought a buyer. And then after that, yeah, at that point, I was just I was off to the races.

Steve: And when your business when when did it become a real business?

Will: I would say two and a half years, into it is when I think I had joined the supergroup and all that. Mhmm. And the first time that I was ever in that room with with those guys, and I I still, to this day, don't know how I ended up in that room, but I'm glad I did. But, yeah, just seeing how people ran things Mhmm. And not treating it as a hobby.

So it I got pretty serious and intentional. Mhmm. Like, KPIs started coming out, you know, things like that where you start to track your marketing, and I I was I was intentional about it.

Steve: Yeah. So, Supergroup. Let's talk about Supergroup real quick. Yeah. What is Supergroup?

Let's just start with Secret society. Supergroup? It was a Secret society. So let's start with what is Supergroup? Group?

Will: Yeah. So secret group or super group, is a mastermind that we're both a part of, actually. You came in, like, a little after me, but we've both been in there for a long time. Yeah. So it's a group of guys that were in other masterminds Mhmm.

Excluding myself because I was never in a mastermind before super group. So Yeah. But it's a group of guys that kind of got a little tired of the other masterminds. Mhmm. And they were like, hey.

We're gonna make this private group, and we won't charge ridiculous fees and all these dues. We'll just pay enough to make the events happen, and we'll travel, and we'll be in noncompeting market.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: When I came in, that's kinda how it was.

Steve: Right.

Will: It still is that way. Yeah. So, yeah, it's a it's a it's a, like, a private I would say it's a private mastermind Yeah. Per se.

Steve: So the super super group. Right? Because I remember, like, Donald Ross.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: Right? So I just signed up for beast mode CRM. It's like, you know, this thing's, like, the coolest thing. And he's like, yeah. You know, this, you know, I built this out because you got a bunch of people in super group asking for this and for that, so I just made it.

Like, okay. I gotta go hang on. What's supergroup?

Will: Yeah. Tell me about that.

Steve: Alright? He's like, oh, you know, we got Scott Hughes, Joe Taylor, and, you know, some of these other guys. And, like, wait a minute.

Will: So you

Steve: guys all just hang out?

Will: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: And you guys just share what's working you guys' business. How do I get in? He's like, I get locked out.

Will: So what

Steve: do you mean I'm

Will: locked out? I was like, oh,

Steve: you're in Phoenix. You're locked out. I was like, okay. Well, that sucks. Yeah.

Right? Had to wait and bide my time Yeah. Until I see vacated. But, yeah, Supergroup is, is is such a great group because you got a good community of of guys there that are truly go givers Mhmm.

Will: And are

Steve: actually helping each other.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: Alright. So when did your brother get into your operation?

Will: So he's my half brother. But yeah. So we started together in in in the operation. So he he had graduated from Notre Dame, and and I was fired from Maryland. She played football.

Career was over. So when I heard the podcast, I stormed into his room one day, and I told him, I was like, we're getting into

Steve: real estate.

Will: Yeah. And and I was like, we're getting into real estate. Be ready tomorrow at 8AM. Yeah. And he was playing Madden, I think.

And he just looked at me like, okay. And I just shut the door, and I ran out. So and that was, like, you know, the day after I cold called this guy.

Steve: Yeah. So if only recruiting was so easy.

Will: If only recruiting yeah. But, again, you know, dude, look. I'm the type of person that when I want something or when I wanna go get something, it's latched on. It's a dog with a bone. I don't care.

Whoever's coming is coming. Whoever's not is not. I'm going. Right. So that was the intention, and I and I think I still carry myself that way now.

It's just a little bit different. A little bit more poised, I would say.

Steve: Oh, you learned some things along the way.

Will: Yeah. Just a little bit.

Steve: Yeah. So what were some of the struggles then, you know, like, along your journey? Like, as as you're growing it, what were some of the biggest struggles you faced along the way?

Will: Delayed gratification is is one thing that I'm 31 now. So when I started, I was 25. Mhmm. You know, know, when you start making a little bit of money and you start having some success, you kind of try to you count that. You add extra weight to that, and you feel like it's never gonna stop.

So you feel like, oh, man. I made $40 this month. Mhmm. No problem. I'll go get this car.

I'll go buy a stupid watch. Whatever it is. Right? And not that there's anything wrong with those kinds of things, but I've learned the biggest lesson is that there's a time and place. Mhmm.

Don't get overzealous ahead of time because I know some people that in the last two years, for example, that have gotten into this business and things let's not kid ourselves. Things were skyrocketing. Mhmm. Everybody and their mother can make money. With easy money.

Yeah. So it created, like, a fallacy of how good you were or how successful you actually were and how much you're making because it was so inflated. A little bit overconfidence. Right. And and now they're in trouble.

Mhmm. Right? I see it across the board. And, you know, even myself, I scaled out my operation in the last year and a half to a size that was wow. Right?

It was 7 mil a year. It was great. But that also came with a $120 a a month overhead. Mhmm. While the market is great, that's awesome.

No problem. When you're having five hundred k months, no no issue. Mhmm. Now when the market decides to take a shit and the Fed starts to raise rates aggressively, you got a problem. And that's not an easy stop.

That's like a big train that you have to slow it down. It takes like a mile to finally stop, and it hits anything in the way. So that's that's one of the best lessons I've learned, and it's just making another thing that I've learned over the last six years, I wish from the beginning, I would have thought a lot bigger. That's definitely something that I now I have the confidence, and now I am thinking bigger. Mhmm.

But I I think that when you're first starting out, you don't have a lot of self confidence. You might have enough belief or self belief to start Mhmm. Which is great, but you think smaller because you think that that's where you belong. Mhmm. And I wish I would have just thought a lot bigger.

You know, maybe some commercial deals, multifamily. Even though I did some, but I did the mass backwards, I wish I would have put more intention on it. Yeah. Does that make sense?

Steve: That makes total sense. So what are some of your biggest wins along the way? We just talked about, you know, some of the challenges. What are some of the biggest wins along the way?

Will: Financial or what? Or just in general? Dude, I I helped a lot of people, create serious financial freedom. Mhmm. You know, I probably single handedly changed a lot of neighborhoods, which is pretty cool to drive around them.

A lot of people have come through my organization over the years. They've learned a lot, you know, their words, not mine. I've been able to be around a lot of cool people like yourself and all that. The relationships is great. The money is also, you know, of of course, incredible.

Steve: For sure.

Will: But it's more proving to myself the the biggest one I've had is proving to myself that you you can set out and do something, and and you can go a lot further than what you actually think you can.

Steve: How does it feel saying that after getting fired?

Will: Yeah. It's pretty cool. I wish I ran into the guy today. Honestly, I would just say thank you, And he probably wouldn't even know who the hell I am.

Steve: But I

Will: would just say you have no idea who I am, but I appreciate it.

Steve: So then, I guess, you know, talking about, like, realizing this. Right? Like Mhmm. There's a point where you realize real estate could be real. Mhmm.

Right? Might have been very, very, very beginning. What was that feeling like when you realized real estate could be real?

Will: That feeling was when I got my first check Mhmm. Or wire. Actually, no. It was a check. And I deposited it, and it was $6,500, I think.

It was more than I was making working a hundred hours a week at Merrill Lynch in New York. So and at this time, I'm living at home with my mom. So Yeah. At that point and then the the second one hit, the third one hit, the fourth, the fifth, probably within a month and a half from each other. Yeah.

So it was the most money I had ever seen ever in my life, and that was proof of concept for me. That was literally everything I needed because all in all, in a ninety one day time span, that's really not a long time. So to go from not knowing anything to, hey. I just made $30 in a month, that's pretty freaking cool. So that just forced me to drive harder.

Sure. That's all as possible.

Steve: So then let's talk about you know, you've done 75,000,000 in transactions in your career. Yeah. But, you know, let's talk about someone where to build out their business to look like what yours looks like today.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: What are some of the things I have to do to build a business that looks like, you know, Willie numbers?

Will: So be careful how fast you scale. Mhmm. Less is more. I learned that the hard way.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: The answer is not always, hey. Let's throw more money at marketing. That was my answer. And and I think a lot of guys in the super group too.

Steve: It is an answer.

Will: It's an answer, but I don't think you're gonna like the response that you're gonna get, especially not in an economy like what we're in today. Sure. The last two years, I couldn't throw enough money at marketing. I I honestly, I should've thrown a lot more. And I thought I was throwing a lot with a 100 k a

Steve: month. Yeah.

Will: But, yeah, be careful how you scale. Make sure that one thing I did with with Sharper and Gary and all that, who awesome. I know you've done it as well.

Steve: Gary Harper's an amazing individual, and they got an amazing organization.

Will: Super plug to Sharper

Steve: right there.

Will: But, really, it's it's document and systemize your business as you're going through it. It's much easier to do when you're a one man or a two man band or women, because everything's so small. So there's less processes. There's less everything.

Steve: Right. We're in the same room. Hey, Will. Did you talk to

Will: that guy yet? Yeah. Just document simple things. Like, hey. How did I go back for that reduction?

Alright. Well, this is this is what didn't work. Well, this is what worked. Okay. Cool.

So let's let's design a system around that. Hey. The house is vacant. Okay. Cool.

What did we do? Well, we put a lockbox. Okay. Cool. How do we do that?

Well, let's write that down. Mhmm. You know? And and and if this, then that. Right?

Those kinds of things. So I wish I would have documented my journey sooner rather than later. Because as you start to scale and now you got a team of five, ten, 15, like, oh, shit. Now I gotta go back and and backtrack. Because if you don't create a process, your employees will create one, and you won't really like it most of the time.

Yeah. So, you know, that's why McDonald's is so successful. Right. Because there's two 16 year old punk kids that can run a McDonald's Mhmm. Because everything's documented Right.

And everything's systemized. Can't screw it up. No. So that's definitely something I I I would be careful how you scale. Mhmm.

I also wouldn't be afraid to dream, and I wouldn't be afraid to invest in marketing. And make sure that you go deep before you decide to go wide. Right. Yeah.

Steve: So what does your organization look like today? What is the, you know, all the people inside your company?

Will: So we went from an organization of about 20, I think, at the top end, including VAs and everything, probably 25. Our organization today is probably, like, 11. Mhmm. We're a lot leaner, obviously, with the economic times. Yeah.

We went from a 120 k a month to probably spending $40.30, give or take on the month. We're long story short, we're a lot leaner. We're going deeper. We focus more on the sales process, and it's more creative. Sure.

Meaning, it's not so much cash offers everywhere running around with a hammer and selling everything as a cash sale. Right? I think you need to learn novations. You need to be good with subject twos. You need to be a little bit more creative Sure.

In order to fulfill your the needs of that seller. Yeah. And and in this economy, that's it's clear as day. Yeah.

Steve: So let's talk about this. So Yeah. 120 k a month to 40 k a month.

Will: Yeah. Pretty big It happened over a period of five months. Right. It didn't happen overnight.

Steve: It didn't happen overnight. No. But, like, for me, June 15 was a was a big day. Same for you? Yeah.

Alright. So talk to me about this journey. Right? Because, you know, we talk a lot. Like, you've done some substantial numbers.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: Really impressive. Thank you. To now downshift Yeah. Must have been a little painful.

Will: It is painful. Yeah. For sure.

Steve: So let's talk about how you what was the process in downshifting? I know it's not as exciting as a topic, but No.

Will: It's not. Real. But it's an important topic. And I think for for a lot of people out there, they need to hear it because I think one fallacy that people see is, you know, I did a lot of numbers and and and I transacted a lot, But they don't really talk a lot of people don't really talk about, well, this is what I look like today Mhmm. Right, and and are vulnerable about it because it's not always that way.

Steve: Right.

Will: So it was painful. It's hard to see 15 to 20 transactions a month go down to seven to 10. Mhmm. Right? Which is still respectable in my opinion.

It's still a 100 deals a year, which is a pretty high ticket, or high volume organization. But you learn a lot through that. So one of the things that I learned as I was scaling down, which which no one teaches you how to scale down. They only teach you how to scale up. Mhmm.

So that's a topic right there.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: So as you're scaling down, because it was the first economic shift that a lot of us had experienced. Since 2017, all I've ever seen is this. When did you get in?

Steve: 2007. Okay. Oh,

Will: yeah. You you got it.

Steve: I gotta cut my teeth in different Yeah. In different markets.

Will: That that was a tough one. Right? You you hit the airbag right at the beginning. Yeah. So I didn't.

Right? So all I ever I remember in 2017, people were telling me, oh, dude. This market's so saturated. Prices are so high. That was in 2017.

Look at where we are today today. I wish I could buy everything at the prices I was buying in 2017 and 2018. So as you scale down, you start to notice mistakes and and cracks. And what do I mean by that? So I did all the numbers.

We did over a 150 transactions, give or take, in that year. And when I look back after everything started to slow down, you know, you start to let go of some people, the noise kind of dissipates. Mhmm. And I looked at all the cancellations and everything that didn't move, and I did an inventory of it over the last twelve months. And what I found was an extra $2,000,000 in revenue that somebody else converted, either another wholesaler because we didn't follow-up.

We didn't have the processes to do so because we were such a high volume activity. Mhmm. So you what you learn is how to dial it down and really have your team, accountable and to to dial into their leads. So I think a sales organization has the tendency to go for low hanging fruit.

Steve: Of course.

Will: And yeah. Right? Why why would you do anything otherwise? So follow-up sucks. Right?

Yeah. But the fortune really isn't the follow-up, not to sound cliche. I mean, you know, you're you're a sales trainer. I mean, you you know, what what's the average touches? Six to eight.

Right?

Steve: I think you wanna get a deal close is probably, like, at least 12.

Will: Yeah. Exactly. And and the average person touches, what, two to three times?

Steve: I don't think it's two.

Will: Exactly. So I think it's one and a half. Exactly. So imagine that. Right?

I mean, that's a huge problem, but it's also a huge opportunity. Yeah. If you view it that way and you can train your sales team to do that Mhmm. And you have systems, auto follow ups. I mean, there's a lot of things we can talk about, but you're already gonna be ahead of the game.

Yeah. And for a volume business like mine that did over 7,000,000 to find another two plus, and that was when I stopped looking because I was just getting depressed, imagine that. I could have been an 8 figure business is what I just told you. Yeah. And that was just not by doing more, not by doing extra, not by marketing more, not by hiring more.

It was just following up more Yeah. And having my team dig deeper. You know? So that's one of the major things that that it was a pain point, but it was huge for me to rebuild the team back up. Yeah.

Steve: So you had the patience to actually go through and dive through all of that.

Will: Yeah. Yeah. And I came home, and my girlfriend was there. And I was super pissed, and I remember. She's like, oh, what's wrong?

And I and I just I just lost it. I I was, like, venting about it.

Steve: So I had an incident last year where I was going through this and auditing and finding things out. And I saw, like, oh, just these three just these these three deals alone was, like, 90 k in lost revenue. Right? And I just left home I I I went home early that day. Right?

So I normally stay here five, 06:00, whatever. I remember leaving early Yeah. Getting home, sitting down, talking to my wife. It's like, how was your day? I was like, you know Not so good.

Not so great. And I just looked at her. I was like, hey. You know, are you okay if I just, like, go to the casino right now? Right?

It's like, why? I was like, feeling a little bit edgy right now, and I just don't wanna be I just don't wanna say anything stupid at home. Just left. Just went to the casino, you know, just got all the anxiety out there. So, going back to your situation here.

Right? So you you went through and you reviewed the notes, reviewed the pipeline, the CRM, and all that Mhmm. Which is amazing. One of the things that, not a lot of people talk about are the difficult conversations that need to be had. Right?

Because you need to recalibrate your sales team

Will: Mhmm. And you

Steve: need to let people go. Yep. So talk to me about those two things.

Will: Yeah. So I'm a data guy. You know, Mark Evans always says data, not drama. Mhmm. I I really believe that.

I think when you blur the lines of emotion, now it's now you're making decisions based on emotion. Mhmm. So one thing I wanted to do was, firstly, make sure that I had the data to back what the hell I was gonna do. Mhmm. So once the data was there, first of all, I have as a leader, you have to take accountability.

Right. Your your own self. So I admitted, and and I told my girlfriend. And she was like, why are you upset at yourself? I'm like, because I'm the guy at the top of the totem pole.

Steve: You allowed it to happen.

Will: Yeah. I allowed it to happen. And that's one thing that if if you're a leader, you you have to start there. But I started looking through the numbers, and then and then I combed through because everything was tagged in my Salesforce. And it was very easy to pick out, okay, this was the rep.

This was the person. This is what happened. Where were the notes? Where was it? Because I wanted to make sure that I didn't I didn't, like, go at somebody and fire them given that maybe that wasn't the scenario that happened.

Right? Yeah. So I had the full story. I start I I made it very simple. Again, I'm a numbers guy.

So, yes, I have emotions and all that, and I care about my team, but I I looked at where the bottom averages were, who dropped the ball the most. Mhmm. I had some conversations. I I did do some layoffs right away, because it was so blatant Mhmm. Where it was clear, okay, this person literally doesn't give a shit.

And they're after follow-up one, it's like, gets kicked out. And Right. Okay. Cool. Now the market's not there anymore, so this person's not gonna be a good fit.

Mhmm. And then I just started backtracking and backtracking, and I started noticing conversations come from that. You know, hey. If we woulda had this or, hey. We coulda done that.

Right? But it was I allowed the organization to get complacent Right. Is the long of it. Mhmm. So that's kinda how I went through it, and I started, you know, laying people off.

And then I started to really tighten up the follow-up process. And then the first thing I did was, alright. Well, this was the last twelve months. Mhmm. Let's look at what we've canceled in the last ninety days, and let's see if we could do a rescue mission there Mhmm.

Because this is gonna happen. And one thing I found was the average deal had closed from a cancellation on our end in four point three months. It was it was almost to a science Mhmm. Out of a 100 deals. So I had a 100 deal sample size.

So I'd say that that's pretty good.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: So it was four point three months almost to the day where 80% of these things converted. Mhmm. And it was either a cash sale or a direct buy from a rehabber Yeah. Or a sale on the MLS, which was a cash sale. Mhmm.

So I I kinda worked backwards. We were able to save some more deals and all that. And, again, it was just going through the process. I was waiting, you know, as we all were with the Fed, every decision. And I was like, alright.

Well, we're gonna have to cut more. Okay. Well, what's going on? You know? And in South Florida, we have a lot of cash.

We have a lot of money down in South Florida. But I started seeing the the big boys that are the serious investors pull back.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: And and when I started seeing that, you know, we started to we're already doing novations, which Brewer shout out to Brewer. Mhmm. Because he's a he's a genius with novations. So we really started to hammer down on novations. Right.

And and sub twos, which I had done a little bit in my career. I've probably done, like, 20 of them. Not that I wouldn't consider myself an expert or anything like that, but I started to look at opportunities differently.

Steve: Yeah. So let's talk about, you know, getting those sales guys on board because now you're like, hey. This whole time, follow-up however you want. And now it's like, hey. We gotta make sure we're consistent.

We're in the notes. We're in the CRM, and we're consistent. Yeah. How was that journey getting your salespeople on board with that? Because salespeople don't like that.

Will: No. They don't. So how was that? They don't. So here's the funny thing about salespeople.

They're kinda Mavericks in in you know, as we know. The best ones are Mavericks Right. In my experience. I don't know about yours, but, that's that also means that they're free spirits. So it's kinda tough.

And, you know, again, it's it's the burden's on me because now I have to tell them, hey. Everything we've been doing for the last two, three years, which has worked great, wasn't because you're great or we're great. It was because the market was so great. Mhmm. So now we have to backtrack.

So the short answer is some people fell off right away. Yeah. Some people were like, f this. I'm not doing it. Right.

I don't wanna be told what to do. You know, this is BS. Look at all the money I've made you. Right? Those conversations.

Yeah. So that was an easy conversation for me where I'm like, well, there's a door. This isn't the organization for you. Yeah. And then the other people, it was it was it was a slow process to get them into it because it's tough, man.

They're so used to feed me leads, feed me leads. 200 new leads a week in my 200 new leads. Yeah. In in a week. I mean, it was spending a lot.

Yeah. You know, on average, some weeks would be one sixty, but that's still a lot. Right? I have four or five salespeople at the time. And now they're going down to, hey.

There's sixty, seventy leads a week. Mhmm. And now you gotta go deeper in your pipeline. Yeah. So now they get antsy, and they're pissed.

And they're looking at me like, why am I not getting new leads? I'm having the same conversation with the same person. Right. I'm like, yeah. But you don't understand.

The data says that in April, this shit's gonna convert, so I need you to stick with them. Right. So it's a give and take. It's a give and take.

Steve: Well, so this is something that Ren and I, you know, we talk about sales leadership. It's something we we we coach, all our mentees on Yeah. In this particular aspect. But, you you know, managing salespeople is very special thing. Right?

Will: Tell me about it.

Steve: Right? And and, you know, I try to explain this to other people. Right? Like, if you're if you're managing, like, administrative people, right, general, employees, this and that, like, it requires, some humility. It requires empathy.

It requires, you know, thoughtfulness and all these other things. And then you manage salespeople. It's like a special flavor. Right? You ever watch, like, that Steven, he video, he talks about, you know, emotional damage.

Right? Like, there's, like, there's, like, easy, medium, hard, and then Asian. Right? And what I try to, get people to understand when you're managing salespeople is, like, you're managing a person who's got an ego, not a not a big ego necessarily, but, like, an ego, like, they're they're a little more confident Yeah. And this is the right way.

Regardless whether it's true or not

Will: Sure.

Steve: They're more confident. Yeah. Right? They tend to be more independent. Right?

And, ultimately, like you and me, they have the mindset that rules don't apply to me.

Will: Yeah. Which is tough.

Steve: So you gotta manage people with these three things going on Yeah. At all times. So it's another level of difficulty.

Will: And it's also what you know, to chime in here, it's also what makes good great salespeople.

Steve: Make some great salespeople great. Is why it's so hard to manage.

Will: Exactly. But it's a it's a catch 22 for the business operator or owner because I'm telling you that I don't rules really apply to me, and I'm this and I'm that, but they apply to you. Mhmm. So, you know, that that's where the dichotomy kinda comes into play.

Steve: And you gotta be more accountable in order to enforce those rules.

Will: Absolutely.

Steve: Yeah. So you're talking about going a 120 k a month Mhmm. 40 k a month. Mhmm. What was a 120 k a month going towards?

Mostly direct mail. Yeah.

Will: So I came back to direct mail. Direct mail has been a constant for me. Once I started to actually make money and I started to understand it, we started building out lists and all that. I think at our peak, we were mailing out close to 200,000 pieces a month. Okay.

But,

Steve: I mean, was a 120 k, like, all direct mail?

Will: No. No. No. Mostly direct mail. We had, I wanna say at the height, 12 cold callers.

Mhmm. Texting was, like, 7,500 messages a day. Some PPC was sprinkled into there. Not much. I'll be the first to admit.

I I dove into PPC. Maybe I had the wrong people. I tried three different services. In South Florida, it is extremely it can get very expensive to do PPC. Mhmm.

And in with PPC, if you're not on it in five minutes, it's gone.

Steve: Oh, yeah. If you're not gonna get on in five minutes, I mean, don't even do it.

Will: Yeah. And and and, you know, the cost per lead in South Florida sometimes could be $500 a lead. Mhmm. Maybe even a thousand depending on the click work. Right.

And homevestors dominates that a lot in South Florida. So I tried the whole little approach of piggybacking off of homevestors and copying all their stuff. And anybody from homevestors listening to me, oops. But but yeah. Well, I got a

Steve: cease and desist from homevestors.

Will: What's that?

Steve: Because I copied it. I got a cease and desist from them.

Will: Oh, yeah. It was

Steve: a very nice letter. So we changed a few things, and we fixed that problem.

Will: Good for them.

Steve: Alright. So a 120 a month was mostly direct mail

Will: Yeah.

Steve: And then sprinkled PPC and some cold calling

Will: Yep.

Steve: And texting.

Will: And data. I mean, that was our burn rate, like, through the whole month. There was some salaries in there. That's not all marketing, but yeah.

Steve: Okay. So then 40 k. Mhmm. What are you what are you spending 40 k on now?

Will: So it's light direct mail, cold calling, and texting. So I I brought it honestly back to the base. And it's a lot of a lot of my money now is is being invested into remarketing, into what I have a CRM that has about 16,000 leads in it all time. So I figured the best approach would be why don't we just start with the damn CRM that we already paid for? Yeah.

So that was doing, like, once overs again and again. So I'm really trying to have the cream rise from the top in the CRM, and then it's it's getting, you know, the new new leads in.

Steve: Yep. And then you were talking about, Novations and Brewer Method. Right? So, obviously, you're in Brewer Method. Yep.

So talk to me about how Brewer Method, impacted your business.

Will: So the first time I sat with Brewer, I we were already doing I think we were doing, like, four mill a year. Never done an ovation in my life, to the point where Brewer brought it up to me. Mhmm. And I swear to God, my first thought in my head was, this guy. I'm like, who's this guy?

Novation. I was like, I don't need Novations. I'm doing 400 k a month. What are you talking about? Yeah.

Which is stupid, by the way, kids. So with that being said, once I learned Novations and I saw it, a lot of my dead leads and a lot of the leads that were I call them tweener deals Mhmm. But where they're not they're not wholesaleable, but you can't really close on them because it's not a wholesale. It's not enough margin. Mhmm.

But you got just enough if if you can work an ovation where a dead lead can turn into 20 k. Yeah. I I don't give a shit. If it's 15 k, which our average deal at the time was 35 k. Mhmm.

So, you know, face value, I was looking. I was like, what a waste. Right? But when you inverse it, it's like, but it's not a waste because it literally is a dud right now.

Steve: Well, it's zero.

Will: It's zero. And and by the way, it's negative because you paid for it. Yeah. You paid for the lead. You paid for the time.

You paid for your employees, etcetera, etcetera. So you might as well turn it into something. Mhmm. So we started to do novations, and we pretty much added it to all of our language on our contracts where I wanted to have that exit possible. Maximum flexibility.

Steve: Correct.

Will: Exactly. So I

Steve: actually was on the phone with someone else in Supergroup actually earlier today.

Will: Okay.

Steve: And he's like, he just signed up for brew method.

Will: Okay. Alright.

Steve: I think he said to sign up for it yesterday. And he's like, Steve, I'm looking at this. I'm going through the modules. There's literally a thousand leads in my CRM right now that qualify for this.

Will: Like Yeah. I know. I know. Dude, if if you're if you're in, like, if you're smaller, you might not see it as that big. But an organization like mine, where I looked at it, I was like, holy shit.

This is 7 figures. Yeah. I mean, right there.

Steve: Right.

Will: And and and it's really there's no extra remarketing or buying a list or, you know, you don't have to put them through the sales process. You know? It's just framing. You already spent the money. Correct.

Steve: They're in your CRM.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: And they've told you what they want.

Will: 100%. And you can and here's the beauty. You can give them what what they want.

Steve: Give them what they want.

Will: Exactly. You just have to frame it differently.

Steve: Yep. Exactly right. So, you say you also run your business in two languages. Yes. What is that about?

Will: I just wanted to make it extra hard. Yeah. So I I obviously, my first language is Spanish. I'm in South Florida. It's no secret.

Mhmm. I would probably say 35, 40% of my business. The sellers are Spanish speaking only. So you're dead in the water Mhmm. If if you can only speak English.

Right? Yeah. So I run it in two languages because we deal with a lot of sellers that only speak Spanish.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: It's tougher. It it's a different approach.

Steve: In what ways is it tougher?

Will: So I was telling one of your, your crew members here that he asked me the same thing. It's it's more of a trust barrier. Mhmm. And Hispanic people tend to be more emotional. We we like to have more rapport.

Historically speaking, we're always kinda looking at someone like they're trying to pull one on me. Like like I've

Steve: heard that.

Will: Like a fast one. Right? Mhmm. And and you have to kinda get through that. And it's it's obviously, the language is is the first thing.

If you're a native Spanish speaker and you don't speak English and I'm speaking to you now in Spanish and and I'm fluent in it, I don't sound bad. Mhmm. Your guard is already gonna be dropped significantly because now now it's like, alright. One of one of my people. Mhmm.

You know what I mean? Yeah. So from there, you can build rapport. They're a little bit more rigid, Spanish speaking sellers. Yeah.

They're like, this is how it is. This is how it's going. You know? So that's its own little, you know, they're they're not as flexible per se. So, you know, little nuances like that.

But culturally, for me, I I grew up, you know, with a Cuban American household, so it's it's what I was brought up with anyway. So Yeah. Easy.

Steve: And then recently, you joined Collective Genius as well.

Will: Yeah. I I I think, it's close to a year now.

Steve: Close to a year now? Yeah. So talk to me about, like because, you know, we're in Supergroup.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: We're in Collective Genius. Talk to me about what, in Supergroup, you you got all the the the KPIs, processes, procedures, actually running a business.

Will: Mhmm. And

Steve: now you're also in Collective Genius. Talk to me about why a second mastermind and why are you in a mastermind.

Will: So I'm in four now. Four. Yeah. So I'm in four. Look.

The last question that you asked is the easiest one. Why am I in a mastermind? A mastermind changed my life years ago. So I got into supergroup by the grace of God. I don't know how.

I

Steve: would have vetoed that. I mean

Will: But you weren't in I tried vetoing you when we came in. But, anyway, but who's this trend guy? But, you know, at the time when I got into supergroup, I I realized my first meeting, like, a lot of things clicked for me. Yeah. So the mastermind's a simple one because I went through it verbatim what happened, and and it skyrocketed my business.

So CG your other question was why CG? Why

Steve: are you in Collective Genius?

Will: Yeah. So CG was always like the Rolls Royce of masterminds in in my eyes, and, you know, I'd always heard everybody talk about it. It's in Tampa. It was very convenient for me. Yeah.

About a three and a half hour drive. And I I was shocked because I was like, yeah. There's a lot of guys out here that live three and a half hours away from me. That's pretty dope. Kinda like you guys over here in Phoenix.

Yeah. There's, like, 47,000 gurus out here, and everybody does real estate out here. Yeah. So I don't know how much real estate you guys have to buy here, but must be

Steve: a lot.

Will: Yeah. It must be a lot.

Steve: A lot. Maricopa is busy. I mean, we look at I was told someone came on the show. They're like, yeah. You know, like, Phoenix has become the the guru capital of the world.

Will: Like the Mecca. Alright.

Steve: It's Mecca. But it was Tampa.

Will: Yeah. I It was

Steve: Tampa. Yeah. Alright.

Will: I Matt Andrews is a great friend of mine, and I was talking to him because he's been doing this since, like, '98. Yeah. And he was like, dude, this place used to be, like, it. Mhmm. Phoenix wasn't the thing.

Yeah. It used to be Tampa. I'm like, what would you guys do? What what happened? I'm like, why why did everybody go to Phoenix?

Steve: I think Sean Terry put us on the map. Yeah. And I think Matt Andrews. Right? I think for being since '98, he looks really good.

Yeah. Right.

Will: I call him old all the time, and I just like Tennessee. He's in town. He's in town now.

Steve: Is he

Will: in town right now? He was

Steve: in investor fuel. Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. So, yeah, he that's the third mastermind that we're in together.

Yes. Family mastermind. Alright. Oh, you're

Will: in that too?

Steve: I'm in that too.

Will: You're kidding.

Steve: I'm just kinda quiet.

Will: I don't know. The guy that that tags me with everyone in every video at everyone.

Steve: I mean, does that really matter? Yeah.

Will: You get me to look at every video for that reason.

Steve: Are we talking about this right now? Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. Actually, you know what?

I want I've I've actually been meaning to record material about this, but let me touch touch

Will: on it right now.

Steve: Yeah. Because people watching this right now might be pissed at me because I always do it. Right? So, like, as a marketer, right, as a person that's trying to help people, am I better off not tagging at everyone or better off tagging at everyone?

Will: Better off.

Steve: And I totally understand the people that get frustrated would be tagging every I totally understand why you're frustrated.

Will: I'm I'm

Steve: more annoyed. Right? You are one of them. Right? Yeah.

But the reality is if I am on a mission to create a 100 millionaires, is it better to tag at everyone Yeah. And get this message to as many people as possible? Am I better off not tagging people?

Will: Yeah.

Steve: If my purpose is to create a 100 millionaires, then I would argue it is my responsibility Agreed. To tag out everyone.

Will: I agree.

Steve: I do feel bad that people get upset about it. But the engagement that we get from it, not the engagement as far as, like, likes and follows and this and that, but the people that are getting value from it. Mhmm. Right? Because, like, we have people responding to these videos that we tag at everyone, and they're asking questions, and they're getting value.

Yeah. So then how can I, as a person that wants

Will: to help people I agree?

Steve: Not tag at everyone?

Will: It's it you would make a perfect segue into my next point, which is why I got into education. Yeah. For six and a half years, I didn't want anything to do with it. Mhmm. I was the guy behind the scenes who built a crazy awesome organization in my opinion, But I was like, nah.

I'm not gonna teach people. No. I'm not gonna be on Instagram or social media or whatever. But I had a conversation with a friend, and he's like, dude, you have done some pretty cool shit. Mhmm.

Okay? I know your story personally. I know who you are personally. And you are doing a disservice, especially in South Florida where where we're from, that you're not teaching people this. Yeah.

And you're not you the fact that nobody knows you, but there's so many people that buy from you at one form or another, but they don't know you, there's no face to it. It's sad because there's a lot of people out there that might be inspired or might learn something from you, and they can change the trajectory of their life the same way that you did from a Sean Terry podcast. Right. So that's kinda why it clicked for me. It's doubly important because I am bilingual.

So for me, I'm I'm teaching in English and in Spanish. So it's a rarer bird. So I'm excited to to kind of empower Latinos and all that in in that regard because I think it's such an underserved community Yeah. In in our space.

Steve: Who pulled you out of your shell?

Will: There's a bunch of you that pulled me out of my shell. But Max Maxwell is probably I gotta hand it to him because three and a half years ago, he told me that. Once again, I I kinda blew it off because I was focused. It wasn't to be clear, it wasn't like I blew it off because I didn't believe in it. I was focused on building my business.

Right. And the the fallacy in my the story I told myself was, well, I can't do both. You know? And what you know, if I'm not focused on my business, then how can I teach people? Mhmm.

And what I should have done again, should could've, sorta, would've, but what I should've done was do both earlier rather than later. But I'm here now, and and I'm better for it because I I've been through so much. So to go full circle

Steve: Yes. How did you connect with Max Maxwell?

Will: Through Instagram.

Steve: It's through Instagram? Yeah. Okay. But you got to connect with him Mhmm. Through Supergroup.

Will: So no. So this No. This is the actual story. This is how it happened. This is on air.

So probably four years ago now at this point, Max makes a post. At the time, he had, like, 6,500 followers. Imagine that. He's, like, at 400,000 now.

Steve: So Nobody with a 6,500 followers.

Will: Yeah. Like, it it whatever. But at the time

Steve: Compared to who he is now?

Will: At the time, I had, like, three followers. One of them was my mom. So, you know, it was a lot to me at the time. So I I saw him post a video, him driving around for dollars with Land Glide, and he made a post, and I saw the Land Glide for the first time. I was like, holy shit.

This is incredible. And I DM'd him. And I was like, hey, dude. What is that? And he's like, oh, it's this app called land glide.

Whatever. And we started talking via DM back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. This led to months. Mhmm. And then we became friends, and we we started having phone calls or whatever.

It was like our journey, wholesaling, whatever. Mhmm. And one day, I was like, hey, man. It's my birthday. This is like a year down the line.

I was like, hey. It's my birthday. You should come down to South Florida. He's like, you know what? I will come down to South Florida.

We never met. Comes down, family dinner. He shows up, and we meet for the first time. Super cool. We became good friends.

Mhmm. He flies back. He does his first WeLive event. He calls me. He's like, hey.

Come to Charlotte. In a few weeks, you're gonna speak at WeLive. And I was like, I I've never spoken in front of anybody in my life. This is I don't even know what the hell I'm gonna speak about. Right.

And he's like, God, don't worry about it. Just, just talk about your business and how you scaled so far. Mhmm. Alright. Great.

Granted, this is 2018. So I fly out there, and the person ahead of me who speaks is Scott Rudz. And he was well polished. He had spoken in front of a lot of people. He was running, like, a $5,000,000 a year business at the time.

So I shit my pants, and I'm like, god. I gotta follow-up with this guy. So I go up. I probably bomb the shit out of it at

Steve: the time.

Will: And we go to dinner that night, and who sits next to me? It's Utes. Mhmm. And him and I start drinking. We start, whatever, talking.

And he's like, hey, man. I we just we have this group called Supergroup. Mhmm. And we just let go of a guy that was in your Miami market. Yeah.

So there's an opening, and I'm gonna vote you in. And honestly, bro, I I don't know what the hell he was talking about. I had no idea what a mastermind was. So I was like, alright. Cool.

Sounds great. Like, I don't know what he was talking about. And next thing you know, Max is like, yeah. You're in. I'm like, great.

I'm in. And I got back, and then I realized I was like, oh, shit. I'm in to this super group. And that's how it happened. Gotcha.

That's full circle. Right?

Steve: Gotcha. And then, you know, you were talking about, like, how, you know, Max pulled you

Will: Yeah.

Steve: Out of your shell. Yeah. You know, one thing you know, go back to that everyone thing, like, I actually had someone pull me aside at an event. And he's like, I had no idea you offered coaching. It's like, yeah.

You know, I just don't like promoting my own stuff. Like, it just feels weird promoting my own stuff.

Will: Kind of ironic.

Steve: Right? He's like, I wish you would have been more loud about it because I just spent money on this other guy that didn't help me at all. I was like, oh.

Will: I can't tell you how many times now that I'm doing coaching and mentorship, how many people come to me, and they say the same exact thing. They're like, dude, I just dropped 12 k. I just dropped 15 k, and I really didn't feel like I learned much. Yeah. And and I'm like, wow.

Like, that's that's tough.

Steve: You know? Right. So then, like, me being quiet is not serving people. Correct. And, you know, it it may not appear, you know, for people watching.

It may be obvious, may not be obvious, but I actually don't like putting myself out there. That's a lie.

Will: He he loves to put himself out there. No. I don't. I can't get enough.

Steve: But I do it to help. Right? Yeah. And so but, yeah, when he when when the guy said that, I was like, oh, now I feel like and I feel really bad about myself. Yeah.

Alright. So I wanna get to, the audience's questions. Yeah. We got a whole bunch of people here. So, before we get into the questions, we're gonna do a real quick commercial.

Speaker 2: These eight steps are why I was able to build a sales floor that produced over $20,000,000 annually in wholesale profits. If you take and embrace these same steps, I know for a fact it's gonna work in your organization too. Now we only have 30 seats available in this classroom. I can't work with everybody. This is super personalized and super custom to your organization.

I will personally work with each and every one of you to craft the language, the culture, the KPIs, the fifteenth and thirty day protocols, and help you go home with a toolbox for leadership that is going to drive results. I hope that you can take advantage of this opportunity during this two day workshop. I'm gonna be going over these eight steps and so much more that I didn't even have time to mention in this video. I'm going to personally sit down with you on a one on one basis and make sure that you have the tools that are going to get you success. This sales leadership program has a money back guarantee.

If you don't see improvement in your revenue numbers, improvement in culture, improvement in accountability, we personally guarantee to refund the full amount of your payment.

Steve: Alright. So before we can get to all the questions, Corey, thank you for the donation. I appreciate that. When are you gonna have Roughnecks to Real Estate back on that? I love Corey.

Do you know Corey? Corey who? Corey Thompson.

Will: I've met him before. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Roughnecks to Real Estate. Yeah. I love Corey because he's like, I can't go out there and blast people. He can't.

Corey can't. So I love Corey. So I'll get back to you on that. So open letter marketing. Will has put a massive numbers with our mailers.

He's right through he's right, though. It's a long game. So shout out. Thank you. Open letter marketing.

And you wanna talk about who that is?

Will: Yeah. So open letter marketing, Justin runs it. Mhmm. He so I used to mail with another mail house. Mhmm.

And then I I don't really remember how I got connected, probably through the mastermind or something. But, yeah, I've been using Open Letter now for over three years, I think. Yeah.

Steve: Is that, Invelo? That's the

Will: Yeah.

Steve: Right. So yeah.

Will: So we And he developed that after the fact. Yep.

Steve: Yeah. So we we we partnered up with them. Cool. So if you guys haven't seen

Will: stuff that

Steve: we're doing with Invelo, definitely check that out. Yeah.

Will: And they're actually sorry. But they're they're a great mail house because I've I've done so much mail in my career, and I've seen it done badly on a lot of ways. Mhmm. They actually really mail what they say they're gonna mail. Mhmm.

And they actually get your return mail, and they scrub it, and they do all these things. Mhmm. Sounds like So yeah.

Steve: Sounds like it's a it's a hot issue. But an even bigger testament. Right? Even a bigger testimonial is important. So open letter marketing.

So on YouTube, Michael Lopez, we scale and got burned. What would you do if you had to start from the ground up again? So it's February 2023, and you're starting from zero. Uh-huh. What are you doing to build your business?

Will: Do I have money this time around, or is this from scratch?

Steve: Let's just say you lost everything in 2022. Right? You're zero.

Will: Easy. So I I would go pull as much of a list as I could buy Mhmm. Of of the highest motivated sellers. I would hop on a dialer day in, day out, and I would text in between. And I would just wholesale the shit till I had a million bucks.

Yeah. And then but in the process, one thing I would do much sooner rather than I did the last go around, I would hire yourself, people in masterminds and professionals, Harper, Dave Richter, etcetera, etcetera. Mhmm. All of that. And I would incorporate experts much faster.

Yeah. And and and and one thing I did do, though, the last go around was seek a mentor very fast. Mhmm. I knew for whatever reason, there were people that had been where I wanted to go, and I was willing to cut equity and or put money in their pocket for valuing their time.

Steve: Oh, you did that with your first five deals. Correct. Right.

Will: And that's how I approach things. That's why for anybody listening, please take this as the best piece of advice I can give on this podcast. Do not approach someone. And I know why people do it. I get it.

I used to do it too. But do not approach somebody and say, can I pick your brain? You should pick your nose. Don't pick my brain.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: Okay. You should approach people, mentors, etcetera. People that that you perceive to have value for you, you should approach them with value. Right. Because they're getting bombarded all the time.

Mhmm. So one way to do that, hey. I will split my first five deals with you fifty fifty Mhmm. If you teach me what you know. That is a totally different conversation.

If somebody approaches me like that, which they do now Mhmm. I am much more inclined

Steve: to listen

Will: and learn Yeah. And teach. Yeah. Not, hey, man. Can I take you out to coffee for fifteen minutes and learn everything I can about real estate?

I'm like, it's such an insult. You know? And and what am I gonna teach you in fifteen minutes? Yeah. Really?

Steve: Well, I mean, what people fail to recognize. Right? If if we have an organization, let's just say hypothetically, hypothetically, we're only making a 100,000 a year. Yeah. Right?

That's $50 an hour.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? For me to take fifteen minutes to go have coffee with you, it costs me Yeah. $12.50. Yeah. Like, it literally cost me money to go.

That's assuming I have a $100,000 in your business. Correct. Right? Yeah. Odds are the mentor you're talking to is making more than a $100,000 a year.

Correct. Right? Okay. So there's a few things here. Let's break it down real quick.

So you would call, you

Will: would call, you would

Steve: call, and you would text. Mhmm.

Will: What are

Steve: you using the cold call? Well, back

Will: in the day, I used to use Mojo dialer. Today? Today, I I probably I don't know that I would use Mojo. I haven't used the dialer because we've used the calling service for many years. But Okay.

I've heard what's the name of that that dialer? I can't think of the name right now. But Okay. So for for the Multi line dialers.

Steve: We use call tools two point o. Okay.

Will: Call tools. That's the one.

Steve: So how would you be texting? Launch control. Launch control for texting?

Will: Yep.

Steve: Who would you be calling and texting? What list would you pull?

Will: Yeah. So it's an easy one. I'm in Florida. Right? So there's a lot of absentee landlords.

So absentee landlord with some equity Mhmm. Out of state would probably be where I'd start. And tax delinquent, which is how I made millions from starting off anyway. Mhmm. I I got taught that by a mentor.

And then preforeclosure. Preforeclosure right now in today's market is a great list Yeah. Because they're starting to feel the fire now. Mhmm. Forbearance is over.

Yeah. So they've been sitting on the sidelines for a long time. Yeah. And I've picked off a lot of good subject to deals, which we can talk about one if if we have the time, which I'm actually I'm pretty proud of.

Steve: So Yeah. Alright. So then you said David Richter for finances. Yep. Right.

Getting your financial house in order. Your business financial house in order. Correct. Gary Harper to shape your business. To systemize it.

Yep. Right. And you said you're hiring me. So Yeah. Instead of me promoting it, why don't you talk about why you hire me?

Will: Well, Well, I mean, you're just such a great guy to talk to. You know? Yeah. This is no. Just the sales training the sales training.

I I wish I would have, rather than train them myself. But I did hire you, though. I know you did. Do you

Steve: As I'm saying later, I want you to share, like, what how that helped you. Like, how did hiring me help your team?

Will: Well, number one, it was accountability. Mhmm. So it was it was coming from a different party, not me, the business operator Alright. And the owner who you have to see every day.

Steve: Mhmm.

Will: So it was coming from an authority. So that's number one. Number two, you have really good stuff. It actually works. Number three, it's accountability.

So your weekly calls and all of that Mhmm. Keep my sales team accountable. Mhmm. And they know where to show up. I I it takes the guesswork.

I look. Being an operator, being an owner already has a million things a day that I have to do. Obligations. Yes. Where one less off my plate, which is the most important one in my opinion because it's a sales organization.

It's where your freaking revenue comes from. Yeah. That's awesome. I can if I can put a custodian in there that that's great and is a good steward of that, that's a huge thing off your plate. And to be honest, sales is not my natural thing.

I'm good at speaking to people. I've had to learn to sell and to, you know, to learn to be good at sales, but but that's because I've had to learn. I don't think I'm a natural born salesperson.

Steve: Right. Yeah. I think you're a natural leader, natural driver.

Will: Yes. Yeah. Thank you.

Steve: So alright. So then let's talk about that sub two deal. Yeah. Well, you're saying there was something you wanna talk about.

Will: It's pretty cool. So a student of mine brought this deal to me. And, again, the importance of having someone in your corner that knows what they're doing, right, to maximize, the deal. So long story short, ended up buying the deed, 6 k for the deed. The ARV on the house is 900 k.

Alright. Now let's stop there for a second because it seems like a huge disparity. There's a first position mortgage that I took sub two Mhmm. At $4.10. And then there's another there was a lot of liens, violations, bullshit on the property.

So probably the all in figure is, like, $4.80 Mhmm. With everything I got into it. The ARV is 900. Mhmm. Now I'm going to do a cash out refi, and I'm gonna keep this property.

And I'm gonna renovate it, etcetera, and keep it as a rental. And a cash out refi, number one, is tax free. So who doesn't love tax free? Right. Number two, it's gonna pay itself off in cash flow.

And number three, I started and this is why I was proud of it because it's it's for your listeners, the mindset shift of looking at things. If you expand your time horizon long enough Mhmm.

Steve: You'd be

Will: impressed with the different kinds of decisions you can make. Yeah. Why do I say that? I could wholesale this deal today and make a $140. No question about it.

Yeah. I've done that enough times in my life where I'm like, okay. If I have the $140, it's it's not gonna pay me ever again long term. Right? It's not residual.

So now if I expand it out to ten year time horizon, that deal is worth a million bucks to me Mhmm. Over the next ten years. I could also depreciate it. I can use it for tax savings, and the list goes on and on and on. Right.

And over the next ten years, I view it, and I'm like, I can conservatively say, and I I'm sure you would agree, I could probably cash out refi two more times in the next ten years. That's a full cycle. Yeah. Right? So I've done the math, and I'm like, man, this deal is gonna pay me out close to $900 over the next ten years.

Right. And I'm gonna save a lot of money on taxes. So that's what I'm saying about extending your time horizons and just delaying gratification.

Steve: Yeah. So tax free money Yes. And you're reducing your taxes. Correct. Right.

So That's a double whammy. So you said it was it was d to two for six k. Yeah. What kind of deed? It was a warranty deed.

Warranty deed. Okay. So, you had a homeowner with 410 Yeah. First mortgage, whole bunch of junk liens, and then the remaining 6 k.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: And I'm just curious. Yeah. Were you able to reduce or renegotiate all these other subsequent liens

Will: Yeah. After this? Yeah. So I I'm in the process right now with the city. Mhmm.

I'm at the finish line, really.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: So it's a it was a lot of hair on this deal. It's it sounds so clean because it's it's Well, the best deals

Steve: are the areas deals. Correct.

Will: Now the lady, the seller, we've helped her find a place. She was not in a good headspace. Like, you know, there was a lot of stuff that had happened to her. A roofer took took off with all her money, left 3,500 loose tiles on a roof, imagine in South Florida, which is one of the reasons why the violations came in. So hurricanes could've came in and blown those tiles and hurt people, at any given time.

So she's living in a really, really bad poor condition. No water, literally, no electricity. So we've we've helped her with that. We've paid those things. We're helping relocate her, and I'm gonna clear off the foreclosure so that her credit doesn't have to get dinged and she doesn't have to go to bankruptcy, etcetera.

Steve: Yeah. I think one of the cool things that, you know, people don't really talk about it, but, you know, something I learned along the way is that you can buy this deed for 6 k, and you get all these liens in between. Once you bought the property, those liens, although they're tied to the property, they're also tied to the person. Mhmm. And when you come in, when Willie comes in Yep.

It's like, hey. I'm the owner here. I see there's these these liens

Will: Yep.

Steve: But they're not my liens. Right. What can we do about this? They'll settle at a steep discount. So for her, it was, like, $80,000 worth of liens or whatever.

For you, it's, like, $8 $8,000 worth of liens. Yeah.

Will: I have that.

Steve: Right? Yeah. So just, you know, hopefully, just you guys watch all the way through here. Like, that alone, right, on top of him getting 900 k in tax free money later on Yeah. That you can learn.

Like, there's other ways to get creative on these deals.

Will: Correct. Yeah.

Steve: Alright. So, next question here is, the only smallest who are as a guest today. I mean, Willie Numbers.

Will: What did he say?

Steve: Who is our guest today is Willie Numbers, obviously. So David's asking Come on.

Will: Wake up.

Steve: On IG. Are you texting in Spanish?

Will: I do text. Yeah. Some of the texts are in Spanish, but they're follow-up texts. Yeah. So I don't text in Spanish, right off the bat because I don't know who in my list only speaks Spanish.

So it'd be a little tough to do. Sure. But once I see that sellers respond in Spanish back because they'll get an English message, and they'll just respond back in Spanish, like, whatever. Or they'll just tell you, like, in Spanish, yes. I wanna sell my house, whatever, for this because I guess they translate it.

But then it will switch to Spanish. There you go. Not cold marketing, though. That makes a ton of sense. Yeah.

My cold callers, though, they they're both they're fully bi bilingual. Mhmm. So they will

Steve: pivot immediately. Gotcha. So KO Real Estate on YouTube. Do you do JV deals in South Florida?

Will: I absolutely do.

Steve: What's the best way for them to bring you a deal?

Will: Willjv.com is one of them. My my Instagram is another one. I'm very, very active on Instagram. And then willynumbers.com, so with a y Mhmm. Is my full website.

Everything's on there, and you can reach me out.

Steve: Willjv.com. Yeah. That's a brilliant girl.

Will: Isn't it? Thank you, man. You know, I had some static from some people. They're like, oh, I don't really know if I like it. I was like, it's Will JV.

Like, you Will JV? Yeah. But Will JV. I know. It just makes sense.

Steve: A double entendre. That's

Will: Double entendre. Thank you, Steve. That is You're enlightened, Steve. You know that?

Steve: Thank you.

Will: You're enlightened, man. You really are.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love opportunities. You know, we had max cash offers. Right?

Yeah. Like, the reason why it was max cash offers was that we'll give you the max amount of cash, but my business partner at the time, it was max.

Will: Yeah. He meant it. Yeah. Exactly. So I

Steve: was like, hey. We should just call it Max Cash Offers. So yeah. Exactly. I don't know.

Maybe I'm just silly, but I love the It just makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. It's uniform. Or, like, you know, our show is Certainty Talks.

Right? Certaintytalks.com. But, like, we talk about certainty, but also, you know, the show is called, like, we're talking about certainty. So, like, if you have certainty, it speaks volumes.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? But also talking about certainty.

Will: So I

Steve: don't know. Like I said, I may I I might just be a total nerd. So, follow-up. So, it's rough. Makes me reevaluate the group.

I get the notification from. If I say after an hour, it's because the group is offering solid content. Anything else, then I'm gone. Oh, so that was nice of him. Okay.

So, YouTube, Julio says, did deal with Will. Super cool. Very knowledgeable. That's a nice

Will: Thank you. That's a

Steve: nice plug from Julio.

Will: Thank you, Julio.

Steve: Julia on IG, when you find owners of 30 plus property rentals, what do you think the probability is they want to sell?

Will: Well, that's a great, great, great opportunity to do a portfolio deal. Mhmm. And I would try to structure owner finance on something like that.

Steve: So let's talk about it. Alright? So you got a lead. Mhmm. 30 plus properties.

Yep. Or you got a lead, and you find out he or she's got 30 plus properties.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: What is your approach from when the lead comes in? Like, someone on your team is like, hey, Willie. We got a deal. We got an opportunity. What is your, you know, procedure or process for that?

Will: I'm gonna take that opportunity. I'm I'm gonna

Steve: So Willie is gonna say, hey. Let me review this.

Will: Hey. Let me review that. Okay. Let me look at it, and I'm probably going to, deal with that seller myself. Mhmm.

I'm definitely gonna wanna meet with that seller. This is not something that I'm gonna take lightly or do it over the phone. Mhmm. Chances are that is a very sophisticated seller. Mhmm.

That is an investor. But I bought my first 16 doors. So some real life, feedback for her is I bought my first 16 doors from a seller who owned 450 doors that gave me owner finance at 4%. Yeah. So I got in the game only because I asked.

Mhmm. So those are great deals that you can structure as a portfolio deal. Funds will buy that. You have a more sophisticated buyer and or you can figure out ways to carve out some of the properties, keep them for yourself, sell the other ones at a profit. I mean, I can go on and on and on.

Yeah. It's it's a hell of an opportunity assuming that the seller obviously is within the realm of reality.

Steve: Yeah. So I would say probably, Julia, reach out to Willie. Yeah. See maybe you guys are working this deal together.

Will: Yeah. Absolutely. Especially if it's in South Florida.

Steve: Yeah. No question. I think one of the things that you look at anytime someone's got a lot of properties, there's this, like, ideas, like, they're too sophisticated. They'll never work with me. Right.

Right? Like, they're such a smart investor. Like, they won't take me seriously.

Will: Sure.

Steve: Reality is everyone's got problems.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? If they popped up on your list, they popped on your list for a reason. Correct. Right? So I think that's first thing.

Like, get out of get out of this mindset that they're too sophisticated for me. Mhmm. Second, my default with the portfolio is they're probably older, and they're probably more interested in owner finance than a cash offer. Yep. Right?

Will: They don't wanna get wrecked on taxes either.

Steve: Exactly. That's a good conversation. They don't wanna pay taxes.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And they enjoy the cash flow they've had this whole time. If you can give them that same cash flow, they're open to owner finance.

Will: Correct.

Steve: Right.

Will: And the way that I frame an owner finance conversation is so simple, and it's always worked out for me, which is how would you like to be a landlord and get cash flow without being a landlord? Mhmm. Exactly. That question's an opener, and they're like, yeah. And I'm like, listen.

How How would you like to save a shit ton on taxes? Mhmm. I don't say shit, but how would you like to save a ton on taxes? Right. And, oh, what do you mean?

Not a ten thirty one. But if you sell to me and I'll put down a significant down payment and you hold note, you do not get wrecked on taxes. Imagine if you've owned something where I bought the real world example. Someone's owned something for twenty five years. They paid, let's just say, a $100.

Now they're selling me that something for $600. Well, their cap gain is 500. K? That's a huge tax burden. Yeah.

Imagine if it's in the millions. Some people are gonna have a 7 figure tax bill. Mhmm. Who who do you know is excited about paying 7 figures? No.

People are gonna do anything to avoid that legally, obviously. And owner financing is one way. Ten thirty one tax changes is another way. Converting that seller into a lender, great way. Mhmm.

What are they gonna do with all that money? That's a natural conversation I'm gonna have with that seller. Hey, mister seller. I know you're getting a million and a half out of this. Have you thought about what you're gonna do with that money?

Chances are, they have not. Yeah. Probably gonna sit in the bank or go to some stupid wealth adviser. Right. Right?

You can loan you you don't you could you loan me that money, and I can put the money to work for you. Securitized by an asset, first position. Easy conversation. Alright. Easy segue.

Steve: Yep. So I think that's powerful. I there was someone, within CG actually. He was talking about how he does portfolio deals. He's like, yeah.

You know, we have Yeah.

Will: I can't remember his name. Who is it?

Steve: It was Lance.

Will: Yeah, dude. He did a he did a 2 and a half million dollar deal Yeah. Off of 40 homes.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. 2 and a half million dollar assignment fee.

Will: Yeah. Yeah. I mean and and and the same thing. He's like, yeah. Nobody markets to me.

Steve: Yeah. He

Will: was like, you're kidding. He was

Steve: the only one that was talking to the owner. Correct.

Will: And that's another thing too. You know? I've started to focus on bigger deals. Mhmm. Like land split deals, multimillion dollar deals because think about it this way.

A $300,000 property, 10% rip on that is 30 k. Mhmm. K? $2,000,000 property, 10% rip on that, 200 k.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: Could be bigger.

Steve: And Slightly different conversation.

Will: Less competition. Mhmm. A lot just by default by what you said, which is, well, a lot of people those people aren't gonna wanna deal with. Yeah. Well, great.

That means 98% of people aren't talking to these people.

Steve: Yeah. Well, you know, I I remember we had had drinks with Tim Brotz one night. Yeah. Right? Again, to come back, you know, CG.

Right? We're just hanging out.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: And I just asked, like, Tim, how are you doing these deals, these apartment deals? Like, how is this happening? How does it even make sense? Like, are they more sophisticated? You know what he said to me?

Same exact thing we just said here. They've got problems too.

Will: Yeah. Right? You don't think rich people get divorced? Rich people get divorced all the time. Rich people don't have bad tenants?

Absolutely. Rich people don't get code violations from the city. They do. Yeah. And and the thing is they do have problems.

And when their problems arrive, they have more zeros attached to them. Yeah. So just remember that.

Steve: Right.

Will: They're much bigger problems.

Steve: Much bigger problems, and therefore, we get paid.

Will: And, also, they value their time differently. Yeah. Where they value they when you're making money, your decision making is much quicker. Mhmm. You're not, well, I gotta think about it.

No. I value my time. You're telling me it's cash. It's faster. I I put I put a premium on that.

Steve: Not just value the time, but they've got no problems with you making money.

Will: Correct.

Steve: Because they Their relationship with money is different. Correct. Yeah. That's

Will: a really good point.

Steve: Yep. Alright. So, what does your business look like right right now versus your first year in the business?

Will: First, my first year in the well, my first year in the business was a two man band. It was like that till almost my second year in the business when we hired our first VA. Mhmm. My business today is seven VAs, six cold callers, three in house people, and myself. Yeah.

So we we used to have a lot bigger team, but we used to have a project manager. We let go once we started slowing down on rehabs and all that.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. What freedom does real estate afford you? The freedom of choice.

Will: And I'm probably you're probably gonna ask me what do I mean. Yeah.

Steve: I was gonna exact exactly where I was going with

Will: this. Yeah. The choice to to decide what I wanna do with that specific asset Mhmm. At that moment. Yeah.

For example, this sub two deal could wholesale it, make a bunch of money, could rehab it, make more money, could keep it, cash out, refi, tax free, make money for life. Mhmm. That's a choice.

Steve: Yeah. Besides financial freedom, what else do you love about real estate?

Will: That I never stop learning. And just when I think that I'm hot shit, I'm not. And and there's always a level up from there. So, you know, I I would venture to say that I've mastered the single family game and all that stuff, and I feel very confident in that. And there's still stuff that I'm learning day to day.

But now I'm playing in the multifamily space, and it's a totally different conversation, totally different lessons. I'm I'm playing in a different conversation now. So there's always a level up in real estate. And the more you figure out the the coolest thing, in my opinion, about real estate is that since the dawn of time, it's been used by wealthy individuals to mitigate taxation and for perpetual growth of of wealth. Yeah.

Once you figure out that game, that's a totally different conversation.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: And now it's like it it's literally like the game of monopoly where now you're playing with assets, and you're like, what what if I could do that? What if I could cost seg that? Well, you know, and you can do all these creative things, and I'm just scratching the surface. So it it it's crazy how much I can you know, you still learn day to day.

Steve: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. What is your why?

Will: So I come from a single mom and a single grandmother. Didn't grow up with money, but my why was always to be able to help them, and retire them. And, you know, I bought my mom a house in 2021. So that was the best real estate, transaction I've ever done. Mhmm.

So for me, my why was was always them. You know? And and it's just, like, I'm getting, like, watery right now. I'm just talking about it. So, yes, it's always that.

So anytime, you know, I've faced adversity or anything like that. And anyone listening to this right now, if your why is that big, it doesn't have to be your family, whatever. Mhmm. But if your why is that big and it's and it's unmovable, there's nothing nothing that'll keep you down for more than, you know, just a temporary time.

Steve: Yeah. Tell tell me about the house you bought your you bought your mom.

Will: I bought my mom a house in Boca, East Boca. It's nice. And, I bought the house, like, right after COVID. So I picked it up for, like, $500. It's probably worth, like, $9.50 today.

So kudos to my mom. She's got a bunch of equity in it. But, yeah, it was it was, I had reached a certain accolade and, a certain amount of success financially. Mhmm. And my birthday was coming up, funny enough.

And I wanted I was kinda, like, thinking, like, I wanna get myself something, like a gift. You know? And I thought about it and I thought about it and I thought about it, and then it just hit me. I was like, you know what? I have all this nice shit and this and that.

My mom is also a flipper, by the way. So I taught her how to fix and flip, and she's crushing it. She does, like, 20 homes a year by herself. Oh, wow. Yeah.

My girlfriend actually works with her, and and they do projects together. So it's it's it's an all family affair. So anyway and I spoke to a buddy of mine, and I was like, you know what, man? I think I'm gonna buy my mom a house, because that's, like, the greatest gift I can give myself. So I took her out to lunch, and I thought I was just gonna tell her, hey.

I'm I'm buying you a house, and it was just gonna go over. No problem. So an hour of crying later at the lunch, it looked like I had fought with her or something. And she just broke down. I was yelling and everything.

You know? Oh my god. It was like a a a disaster, and it was at a public place. I'm like, oh my god. This is so embarrassing.

That's just not how I planned this. But, yeah. So I bought her the house and the closing and, you know, renovated it. And she lives in it with my grandmother, and they love it.

Steve: So Why was she yelling at you?

Will: Oh, she was just, like, yelling because she was so happy. Like like, she was literally she's Cuban, man. She's just, like, she's just yelling, like, for anything and just crying and, no. You're not gonna do that. And, like, all these things came out.

I was like, listen. It's happening. So you're not gonna take this away from me. I was like, you did everything for me.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: Don't take this from me. And I started crying, and it it was just not how I planned it. I thought it was just gonna be like, hey. By the way, I'm buying you a house. She's like, alright.

Thanks. And then we were just gonna go home. Yeah. And that's not how it worked out.

Steve: So So this was you told her before you closed?

Will: Yeah. So well, I told her, you know, I'm this is what I what I wanna do. Mhmm. Pick a house. Like, you know, I was gonna buy it for her and all that.

Yeah. So then that was the process. So what

Steve: was it like when you handed her the keys?

Will: It was dude, man, it's, it's surreal. Yeah. Every time I go visit her, it's still it's it's like it gives me such peace of mind, no matter what turmoil or whatever, like, ups and downs in business or whatever. When I go to sleep at night, at least I know there's something there that and she's a stud. She makes her own money.

Like, she she does well, but it's something that at least a little bit of something that I I know no one could take away from

Steve: her. Mhmm.

Will: And my grandmother, and they're comfortable. And it's a really nice house with a pool, and we can go over there. And it it's it's a peace of mind that that nothing, you know, can replace.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I mean, I love this story because, like, we all talk about, like, you know, what's your why? You know, this and that. And, like, the idea like, it there's a lot of adversity in building a business. There's a lot of diversity in sales.

And if you're clear on your purpose, then you can get through that adversity.

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? So it's cool to see, like, not only do you have your purpose, but you fulfilled it. Yeah. Right? That's pretty awesome.

Yeah.

Will: There's a lot of things I haven't fulfilled yet.

Steve: But on that one, you were clear.

Will: But on that one, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was, there's there's nothing like, if the last six years were worth nothing, if if it was just worth that, then that's everything. Yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah.

Steve: What's your biggest struggle today?

Will: Biggest struggle today? I wish I had twenty eight hours in a day. I really do.

Steve: You just need some time management.

Will: Yeah. Right? Man, my biggest struggle today honestly, man, I feel like I I've I had a rough last year and a half. So many things were being thrown at me, the economy, you know, bad partnerships, whatever, where I feel I feel more clear than anything. So I actually feel like I don't have a huge struggle right now.

It's just I guess the struggle would be to make sure that I stay on track and that I stay as focused and committed and as hungry, even when when you get higher up.

Steve: And how are you resolving that? How are you ensuring that?

Will: So my network is big. So accountability, you know, through the masterminds and all that stuff. Mhmm. Making sure that you know, one thing that I would tell anybody here, if you're in a committed relationship or anything like that, make sure that your spouse or your significant other or whatever buys into the dream too. It's very difficult to go on a path, with someone else, and they don't fully understand the path that you're on or they don't agree with it.

So make sure that you guys have some pretty clear cut goals, and you're running in the same direction. Doesn't mean that you have to be the same, but that that you're both gonna support each other.

Steve: Yep. How will you know when you're successful?

Will: How will I know? Mhmm. I'll let you know when I get there.

Steve: How are you measuring it?

Will: Fulfillment now. Mhmm. It's not a monetary thing for me anymore. Once I started educating people and seeing you know, I started hosting live events in South Florida.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: The amount I I I I I know it's gonna sound super corny, but the amount of fulfillment that I get from watching somebody come to me and hit their first $20.30 k deal, and that that light bulb goes off Yeah. You know, I could go do a 200 k deal, and I'd be excited for, like, a day.

Steve: And that's that.

Will: But it's not the same as you know. Yeah.

Steve: So Well, I mean, for me, I I got them like a lot of people, we get into business for money. Yeah. No shit. We get into business for money, but the money doesn't really drive you after a while. Right?

No. But when you see other people winning because you helped them, like, that can kill you forever. The dopamine you get from that

Will: Mhmm.

Steve: Or exceeds any dollar figure.

Will: Yeah. It and and I'll say this, just kinda couple what you said. I'm more in a race, and this is just maybe somebody on this thing needs to hear it because I know I wish I would have heard it before. But I'm more in a race today with myself, and I've kind of accepted the fact that, hey. I'm and I'm good with I'm running my own race.

Yeah. I think comparison is the the mother of all suffering, and I think it's very easy in today's society to see what somebody's doing or to see me up here on an interview. It's like, oh, I wish I had what he had or Yeah. I wish I was there, but you don't really know the full backdrop behind it. Mhmm.

You have to run your own race.

Steve: Yeah.

Will: And as long as you see that and you live that, dude, you will make it so much further, so much faster. Mhmm. And I wish I would have seen that earlier. Yeah.

Steve: I mean, I think so wise. You know? We talk a lot about uncertainty talks is, like, you know, play your game.

Will: Yeah.

Steve: And nobody wins a race. They don't wanna be. Correct. Right? Yeah.

So I think that's powerful.

Will: And life is an infinite game. You know? Yeah. I used to think I I it's so crazy. I used to think if I can make $200 a year, then all my problems would be solved.

And I can tell you from personal experience, far exceeding that goal, it just created a whole another set of problems. Now I wouldn't trade them, but it's not it never stops.

Steve: It's it's always stops. Else. Yeah. What will be the

Will: fun if it did stop? Exactly. No. We'll all be bored.

Steve: You're wired to solve problems. Correct. Exactly right. What is your superpower? What is my superpower?

Will: Consistency and resiliency.

Steve: Yeah? Yeah. Talk to me about that. How are you consistent?

Will: When I latch onto something, I latch on. So consider it done. Yeah. So, when I got into education and all that, it was just that was it. It was dialed in for me, and and I said to myself, I was like, I'm gonna be the number one educator in this space in English and Spanish.

Mhmm. That's a goal. That's an affirmation I say every day, and Yeah. So it shall be. So Game on.

Game on. Yeah. Right? Steve, I got you on language one, though, but you you got Mandarin. That's that.

Steve: You know, I I love that you said consistency. So I was on Rafael Cortez. I was at a studio yesterday. We recorded a podcast, you know, and we we made the joke. Right?

Like, entrepreneurs, like, you know, I will do whatever it takes except for consistency. Let's just let's leave that one off the table.

Will: But Yeah.

Steve: Right. Everything else, I'll do anything else except for consistency.

Will: Yeah. Consistency. Listen, man. I know it's such an unsexy word. It's not cool.

It does it's not flashy. But, dude, consistency is is honestly probably the most underrated thing. Mhmm. Because if you do anything consistently and I'm not talking about for, you know, years and years and and years. Obviously, you're gonna change course if it's not working, but 90 Okay.

Mhmm. Like, whether it's your health or meeting new people Mhmm. Or starting a business or doing a new activity in your business, just commit for it for ninety days, a quarter. It's really not anything. But if you track those results and you consistently put up those those efforts due to ninety days, I guarantee you, it's gonna be a totally different outlook.

Yeah. Guaranteed. Yeah. And I if people did more of that instead of the pizzazz and the flash, you'd get there. Mhmm.

You'd have the fat the pizzazz and the flash. Yeah. You know?

Steve: So no. It's absolutely a great point. So final question here is what book have you gifted more than any other?

Will: Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I I love that book as well. And, you know, again, I say this time to time. Like, that's one of the two books that most successful people have.

Yeah. Right.

Will: That one and and what this one, I haven't really gifted, but, I was about to say get rich or dry try him, but that was a 50¢ album.

Steve: I I I I sorry. I actually have that poster in my office.

Will: No. Kiyosaki. I mean, obviously. Yeah. Kiyosaki is the the legend.

Steve: Yeah. Absolutely.

Will: Rich dad, poor dad is is a staple.

Steve: So I want you to think about a message. I'm gonna leave all the listeners with while I make a couple of quick announcements. Cool. Guys, if you have value today, please like, subscribe, share, comment. It helps us reach more people.

And we do have our leadership event coming up in just four weeks. Actually, I think it's three and a half weeks. So if you're interested in coming up to our sales leadership event, text leaders to 33777. And be sure to tune in next week. We got Mark Dela Torre coming out, to do the show next week.

Alright. So last thoughts, what message would you like to leave everyone with?

Will: It's a good question, Steve. If you're looking to get started, or you're looking to scale, regardless of where it is, I am in the space now to help and empower people to do that. Mhmm. Particularly in South Florida, the message that I'll leave is that I'm looking to I've been putting together live events. I'm looking to take that all the way.

It will be the premier event in South Florida Yeah. Within the next year or so. Quote me on that one here. And, you know, I'm looking at bearing a lot of what I've seen in Phoenix to South Florida. So if if you really wanna work hard and you wanna get to it and you wanna learn this business or scale it, hit me up, contact me, and I'd be happy to help.

Steve: How can I attend one of your live events? Just be there.

Will: Just be there. You mean you personally?

Steve: No. Any anyone. Right? Like, someone

Will: I sent you there, Steve.

Steve: Of course. Of course.

Will: Fly the opposite direction. Yeah. I mean, you you book a

Steve: first round trip. We'll we'll we'll we'll talk. So but generally speaking, someone's listening, how can they attend your live event in South Florida?

Will: I do a webinar every Tuesday Mhmm. At 6PM, which is a 100% free. And then every month, we're gonna be doing these live events. So we always post them on Instagram, on Linktree, everything, and it's just a live event. I host them with, my buddy, Henry.

Mhmm. And we're doing them in Fort Lauderdale. So, eventually, we'll I'll grow that venue and, you know, we'll do it. But but it's free to attend. Anyone can go.

I'm gonna start having guests come on, but it's really a live q and a, and it's a networking event as well. We can answer anything and run real deals real time, deal with real issues from people. Again, whether you're you've never done a deal or you're doing three couple deals a month and you wanna scale to seven figures Yeah. Anything is is free game there.

Steve: Awesome. Very cool. So if someone wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way to do that?

Will: Instagram at willy numbers. TikTok, the same. Willynumbers.com, it's the same thing. All my information is there. And, willjv.com

Steve: as well. Awesome. Thank you very much.

Will: It's been a pleasure.

Steve: Glad to have you out here. Appreciate it. See you guys

Will: later. Take care.