Mike Hambright Talks About the Power of Building YOUR Network

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we have Mike Hambright, and he flew in from Dallas to talk about the power of building your network. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, broker and owner of Stunning Homes Realty, founder of the Office of Fast Homes app, the only MLS for off market wholesale properties, and I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires. If that's something you wanna do, let's connect on Instagram at steve dot trang.

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And this is a live show, so please ask your questions for for Mike to answer. You ready?

Mike Hambright: Let's do it.

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

Mike: So in there's always there's a short version and a long version of the story. Right? We got time. Yeah. You know, I, I went to college.

I got a degree in finance, and I was the first person in my family to go to college. And and, it's just I wanted to get out of my kinda small hometown, and so that's the path that I that I chose. Got into my first job after college and, you know, kind of felt like I was had some level of success because nobody in my family had ever done that. I worked for a large bank in Chicago. But the truth is is I was a low level guy sitting in a cubicle, a sea of cubicles of people just like me wondering, is this all there is?

Yeah. You know? And that's what happened. So I was there for a couple of years and, then went on to another job that seemed prestigious. It was a prestigious company.

And but it's just like it's the same it's the same role at a new company. Mhmm. And in that one, it was a smaller operation. It was a large company, but, like, there were two of us that reported to one guy, and then two of those guys reported to one director. And you could see, like, the next fifteen years of my career, like, within 20 feet of my cubicle.

Right. I was like, is this all there is? Yeah. Right? And so I did, what, what you're supposed to do.

I went back to graduate school. So got more formal education.

Steve: Supposed to do.

Mike: Yeah. And, so I went down that path, went to a top, MBA program. And, about a week to be humble? What do you want? What do you program.

And, about a week into

Steve: humble? Which one which one?

Mike: University of Texas is a top, 20 program Nice. In Austin. And, met my wife there. It was the best part. I had met a lot of great friends there.

So she was in the same program. But, about, you know, a month into our program, September 11 happened. And the economy just shifted. Right? So all these people went back to grad school coming out, you know, planning to make six figure jobs right out of school.

And the truth is, is when we graduated, half of our class didn't have a job. And a lot of those things were kind of gone. Right? So I

Steve: remember those days. Days. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike: So I did I did end up finding a really good job and was there for about three years. And it was a very unusual job. It was, I worked directly for the president of a $5,000,000,000 company. And so we're flying around on private jets. Like a lot of really cool stuff.

Like, literally meeting with, you know, Fortune 100 CEOs at dinner and coming up with strategic plans, stuff like that. It was really an amazing experience for me at the time. But then about three years into it, he got promoted to CEO. And then there was a little bit of a little bit of a smear campaign going. Basically, he got fired.

And I was his outspoken right hand man that had no I had no coverage anymore.

Steve: You were screwed. Yeah.

Mike: I was like, he's they were like, you know, he's next Yeah. Basically. And I was. And so got fired from that job, really, from nothing on my own. It's just like politics.

It's just like so it was, it was kind of a slap in the face. I was like, I was a made man. The rest of my career was a made, but I'd never thought, like, it's tied to one person. Just didn't really think about that, you

Steve: know.

Mike: Had all my eggs in one basket.

Steve: Politics is powerful.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. So, left there, licked my wounds, and found another, job that, moved us from Dallas.

My wife and I, moved to Washington, DC for for what ended up being about eighteen months, a little bit under two years. And it went to work for more of a startup there. So it was a smaller company, but it was they had grown from, like, idea in a bedroom to, like, dollars 500,000,000 retail online retailer in a really short period time. Went public and everything was kinda great. And, so I went there.

The job was fantastic. I my division that I was running was growing super fast, but the company filed for bankruptcy. And, and, my son had just been born a month earlier, and we were living in a far off land, had no family in DC. Yeah. And it was just this kind of back to back two years of, like, I can't control my destiny.

Steve: And,

Mike: so I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I kind of dabbled in trying to start my own online business at that point, at that point, because I have some experience I had in my last job. We ended up moving back to Dallas, which we knew we were gonna do. And, I had always been interested in real estate investing and had just never done anything about it. It had been to some weekend workshops and read some books.

And Mhmm. You know, just it's interesting how, discomfort pushes you forward, because Yeah. I was always in a comfortable position, and a lot of people deal with that. In this industry, a lot of it happens with a lot of people. Right?

They're interested. They want it. They just don't want it bad enough. They're not uncomfortable enough.

Steve: Real estate is everyone wants to get into real estate. Right.

Mike: Yeah. Right. And so, you know, I have a podcast too, and I talk to lots of guests. And you have to you know people that, like, until they hit some sort of rock bottom or something bad happened, then all of a sudden they see the success that they just needed to get out of their comfort zone to hit. And so that's what happened to me.

Steve: Ninety eight percent of the people that have been in the show had, like, major Right. Adversity.

Mike: Right.

Steve: And that's what helped What what's the word? It's the it's the, when you do the coal, but, you know, it toughens it. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

That's how you that's how you create diamonds. Right. So Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. So got into real estate in, the 2008, and everybody else was running away. And with all this education and everything, we were still naive. Like, I didn't know, like, in hindsight, it actually ended up being the best time to get in.

Mhmm. But I didn't know that at the time. We just thought, you know, failure's not an option. Yeah. So we're gonna make this work.

And, and we did. So we our first kinda calendar year took a few months to get going. Our first calendar year, we ended up flipping 65 houses in Dallas with no prior experience and went on to do kinda sixty, seventy houses.

Steve: Sixty five first year. Yeah. It's pretty good.

Mike: Yeah. It was just, you know, it was like some of it was the bounce off of these jobs. It was just like, nobody's gonna tell me I can't be successful. And it was the fear of, like, I'm a brand new father and, have no insurance. Like, I never had to deal with these things, you know, and and had been married for a couple years.

And my wife had said a couple of things over time. Like, they kind of questioned my ability to support my family. And whether she said something or I thought that, I was like like, shit's getting real. Mhmm. Right?

So I have to make this work. And so we worked and I say, you know, I say we. It was my wife too. From the beginning, we worked really, really hard Yeah. To, to get up off the ground.

Steve: So let's talk about that. So you're it was 2,008. Yep. And you're going to buy houses. Right.

How are you finding these houses?

Mike: All through advertising. We just advertise. So we learned how to advertise, have sellers call us directly.

Steve: Okay.

Mike: And the benefit, in hindsight now, is know, a lot of the competition competition wasn't gone, but it had slowed down.

Steve: It depleted. Yeah. Everyone lost their advertising budgets. Right. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike: Or people just, you know, were maybe, like today, picking up bad habits Mhmm. And, you know, paying too much for houses. And then when things started to shift, they they were upside down. Or lenders are pulling their lines of credit, things like that.

Steve: Yeah. So 65 houses, your first year Yeah.

Mike: And then your next year. We kinda stayed at that level. Sixty, seventy houses a year for a few years. And then as time goes by, you know, your business starts to get more complicated. Right?

You're like, well, now I have a rental portfolio and a company, and now I start doing some coaching. And just like you start bolting things on,

Steve: Yeah.

Mike: That, you know, other businesses start to suffer because I'm focused in other areas.

Steve: So but you weren't just flipping. You were also wholesaling.

Mike: Yeah. So we we probably were rehabbing during those first few years. We were probably rehabbing about 70% of the houses. So I'm doing it the hard way too.

Steve: Okay. And then at some point, you got into, selling less than good looking homes Mhmm. Companies. Yeah. Right?

Okay. So let's talk about that. So you're you're you're wholesaling. You're flipping. Right.

And then you start, selling some, you know, some of these franchises. Some franchises. Yep. So that what was that that like? What was that journey like?

Mike: Well, yeah. So the the big the big company in the country, I was selling franchises for them. And I was effectively like a distribution partner. It was like, hey, you're doing really well. Teach people what you do.

Mhmm. And, my story was, you know, sexy too for people wanting to get in. Like, I wanna do what you do. I wanna leave my job. You know?

I wanna Right. Be able to do that. And so I leaned into that, and it wasn't disingenuous. Like, I I I know that if I could do it, somebody else could do it too. Mhmm.

Steve: And I

Mike: could show them the way. So so, yeah, it ended up I mean, it really started in a way to where this is the truth. Like, when I started in real estate investing and left corporate America, it got a little lonely. Like, my my friend none of my friends did what I did. Mhmm.

And there were no more office birthday parties or happy hours after work or That just didn't exist. We It was just my wife and I and an admin and acquisitions guy. You know, a couple people that would be around us, but they weren't, like, our friends. Like, they're great people, but we didn't, like, hang out with them socially. Right?

And so it got a little it got a little lonely. And I'm, you know, I'm I'm like a little social butterfly. So Yeah. So I started, like, let me go to these Ria clubs. Let me sponsor this.

I'm gonna start to make some new friends, teach people what I know. And then I would start to take them onto my wing and show them exactly what I do. And Yeah. So for the first couple years, it was really about me kinda giving back and sharing with people. Because I it made me feel good to, like, share what I was doing.

It's just like and also it turned into a great acquisition source. So next thing you know, I'm j b'ing with people or they're assigning deals to me that I'm rehabbing. And so it turned into I mean, I made truthfully, I made more money in those early years off of, opportunities that would fall in my lap from teaching and showing people how to do things. Right.

Steve: Yeah. And then at some point, you launched Flip Nerd. Yeah. Because, we were talking offline. So I've got my app, OfferFast.

Mhmm. Right? And I said, okay. Well, before we go and see if we can make this thing happen, let's just see what the competition is out there. Yeah.

And my cousin, Wayne, he's a partner. And OfferFast is like, hey. Check out this Flip Nerd thing.

Mike: I was

Steve: like, alright. Let's see what this Flip Nerd thing is. And I'm looking at you, and I had no idea who you were. Yeah. Right?

But that's when you first showed up on my radar. I was like, okay. This is interesting. So they're kinda like it looks kinda like my house deals

Mike: Yeah.

Steve: But a little bit different. And you and I were talking about how, you know, that's not, something that you're you're focused on anymore. And the reason why I wanna talk about it is because, there are we have listeners to the show that are brand new. Right. And it's great for learning technique and learning mindset.

We have other people that do have success. Right? They're doing one to maybe five deals a month, and you don't really need to make more than 20 k a month. You really don't. And at some point, boredom starts kicking in or, you know, you the entrepreneur mindset where you just, shiny object syndrome starts coming in.

No doubt. So you went and said, well, I'm gonna start this listing platform.

Mike: Right?

Steve: So what were the what was that journey and what were the lessons learned?

Mike: Well, what happened is, I was doing some something I call rehab live in Dallas, and I was doing this to recruit franchisees and build my network. And what I did was I basically say, hey. Come visit come to a house with us, and we're gonna you're gonna show up three times and watch us rehab a house. It was like HGTV without the drama, and, it was real. Right?

So people would come. We'd have thirty, forty, fifty, sixty people show up sometimes. And we'd come at the beginning before we've done anything Yeah. Like, in all its glory. And we'd always pick, like, the worst houses because they were just the the best transformation, the biggest transformations.

Yeah. And, come halfway through, and then come, you know, a couple weeks later, and it's done. And, like, let's sit around and talk about it. And lots of people asking questions. How'd you do this?

Why'd you do that? Who did you use for this? Mhmm. You know, all sorts of stuff that just spurred, like, great conversations. And, then it got to a point to where without me really I didn't I didn't really know where I was going or what I was trying to do, but I was just trying to, you know, maybe a little bit of ego of, like, teaching people what I know.

Like, makes you feel good. Truthfully

Steve: Definitely makes you feel good.

Mike: Yeah. And I like I really enjoy helping people. Yeah. And so and I know that, a side benefit of all that is benefit comes my way. I don't necessarily know what it is, but if you put good things out there, good things come back.

I found that. Right. And so then I was like, okay. Well, this isn't DFW. How do I get a bigger audience?

And so I hired a videographer to start following me around, and we were like because I was constantly we were rehabbing at the time, you know.

Steve: Three years ago you were doing this?

Mike: So this is about six years ago.

Steve: You're really ahead of the curve.

Mike: Six or seven years ago. Yeah. Yeah. This was so we've launched FlipNerd almost six years ago. This this, Christmas, it'll be six years.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, even before that, we were we were doing this. And I had no idea how to market. Like, my marketing skills are far better now, and I still feel like they're weak compared to some people.

But, yeah. So he was following me around. We were creating these little videos of kind of like a rehab live, but we could share it online on social media without having any idea how to use social media, you know, really. So, then that evolved ultimately into the podcast. Mhmm.

And so, and then I'm like, well, if we're gonna have a podcast, we need to have a nice site. And so, anyway, I I had, like you said, had a lot of you

Steve: know, I

Mike: hate to say the word excess cash flow, but my businesses were doing really well Mhmm. Generating way more money than we needed to live on. And, apparently, I felt the need to go burn it. So I, we we built this custom platform that was, like, every possible thing I could think of that we're gonna build the best site that's just gonna revolutionize the industry without really thinking from a business standpoint of, like, how am I gonna monetize this? Mhmm.

I was just building something really cool Yeah. Without really thinking about, people gonna pay for this, or how am I gonna offset all this expense, you know, which is totally dumb. But it's just, we kept doubling down. You know? Like, the developers would come back.

Oh, well, this is gonna this is gonna take longer, longer, longer. It's gonna cost more and more and more. And you just kinda get to a point where you're like, just do it. Just do it. Just go.

We gotta get it done. You know?

Steve: Right. It's like, when you remodel, like, 80% of

Mike: the house.

Steve: Yeah. You can't just leave the other 1%. Yeah. You can't

Mike: turn back. You're in. Yeah. So, you know, that led to, launching, the original Flippinridge site. We're on, like, version three or four now.

Mhmm. But, it had all these bells and whistles, and it was like a beast for us to maintain. And it was just, like, a ton of expense to maintain. We built it on a custom platform, so we always had to use these very expensive developers. And it just got to the point to where we just literally, one day, I said, I'm gonna throw this entire thing away.

Yeah. And it was painful because it was a 7 figure investment.

Steve: So where were the lessons learned?

Mike: Well, you know, I think you really need to understand what who your customers are and what they'll want. Mhmm. And, and I think for me, it was definitely a shiny object. Like, I did it because I wanted to do something that had never been done before without really thinking about, does the market even want this? Mhmm.

You know? So we had a listing platform. We had there's an education platform inside of there where we had to build launch a new training. Every month, we were committed to, like, launching this these, we call them master classes. These you know, sometimes there were 20 videos long.

And it was just like it was a beating, to continually create that. It's like, okay. We're gonna do one on wholesaling. We're gonna do one rehabbing. We're gonna do one on notes.

That's not really me, but I'll pull Scott Carson. Like, we would like you come up with, like, five or six, and then it started to get harder. Like, what's the next one on? I don't know. What can we do?

And, oh, we only have seven days to finish it. Let's figure it out. And it just became a burden. Right. And so we ended up just, stripping the site down to just be podcasts and blogs and simplify.

Steve: Yeah. And so I think the lesson here for, some of the other guys out there is there's nothing wrong with trying new things. Right? I'm all about trying new things. Right?

Shiny object syndrome. Like, there's a reason why that exists, and and some of them hit. Yeah. You know, like, this podcast is, like, let me just give this a shot. Let me see, you know, if it sticks.

Right. But you have to know why you're doing it. Yep. And you have to be sure, like, if you're gonna do it, you're committed to it. Sure.

So

Mike: Yeah. And we we bootstrapped the whole thing. So it was it was probably, like, if if I had had the burden of having other people's money in it, I probably would have found a way. But, like, it just after some period of time we talked about this a little bit upfront. You get a little complacent.

Like, if you have a business that starts to do well, you get a little complacent. And you're like, you know. I do think, the one of the biggest benefits we have as entrepreneurs is, when you have a business that sustains you, like, it's not about survival anymore. My family is gonna eat. I don't have to worry about making my house payment.

Like, that's not an issue anymore. It starts to be about it's different for everybody, but impact. But I think it's, it's such a blessing to be able to have to take risks, to try things. Yep. Now, I would argue that don't take them as big as I did.

Mhmm. And other people have taken some big risks too, obviously. But I'm constantly trying things, and I know that some of the I know that most of them won't hit. Right. Like, I'll we'll throw tens of thousands of dollars at marketing campaigns or different things and try it.

And then when it doesn't work, I'm not totally disappointed So I think that's a cool thing for entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs that are more of a visionary that, like, have a lot of ideas. Like, I can actually go try those ideas now. And if they don't work, then, you know, they would. If I can find one that works every once in a while Yeah. Then that's great.

Steve: Very cool. So one of the messages that, I know is important for you to talk about was the power of your network. Yep. So let's talk about that.

Mike: Yeah.

Steve: What do you what what did you wanna talk about in regards to

Mike: that? Yeah, I just think, you know, network, it's so easy these days with social media to be connected to thousands, have thousands of friends,

Steve: but you

Mike: don't know any of them, right? Or you don't know who they are. And, I think, the net networking really can help your business in many many ways. Like, you see you're seeing it through your show. Right?

You meet people. Like, you and I have never got a chance to meet in person until today. Mhmm. And we don't know where that'll go, but I know our relationship's not gonna end here. Right.

Right? At least I hope it doesn't. So, we'll see how the rest of the show goes now. But I think, just through networking and meeting people, it'll open up opportunities for you. Now, if all you're doing is investing or wholesaling, it's it's a different type of networking.

You're networking with maybe real estate agents or other wholesalers that you might be co wholesaling with or whoever it might be. It kinda depends on where you're trying to take your business or where you're trying to go. But I think just the you know, I gave a presentation. We had this million dollar meeting last week. And I gave a presentation on networking on steroids and using tools and stuff to actually build your relationships and effectively using a CRM to kind of manage those relationships.

Mhmm. Because if you're doing it in mass, you don't remember little things. Yeah. Like when it's somebody's birthday or something just happened to somebody. I just wanna I wanna record these things.

But I think, you know, for so long, we've thought that networking is going to a real estate club and getting a big stack of business cards that we throw in a drawer and never see again. Right? The the the art of the the kind of act of networking is not business card collection. That's It's starting a relationship.

Steve: When I started in real estate, that's exactly what I heard it was.

Mike: Yeah. It's like

Steve: I got all these business cards. Now what? Yeah. I wrap

Mike: the next thing is wrap a rubber band around it and throw it in a drawer. Right?

Steve: Yeah. I got several of those. Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. The great kindling. But, but, yeah, I think, it's hard to know where networking can take you. Mhmm. And it kinda depends on knowing where it is you wanna go.

But a little bit of faith too, that if I give back, if I help people, I think really good networking starts with being a giver. Like, I'm gonna help somebody, and I don't expect anything in return. And I don't know what will come of this. Probably nothing. But every once in a while, kinda like just taking the risk on business we talked about.

Yeah. Every once in a while, 10% of the time, something will come back to me. And when I least expect it, probably.

Steve: Yeah.

Mike: And so

Steve: But I think that's something you really hit there that was important, is that you're giving. Yeah. Right? The, something that happens and I've been in multiple masterminds. And you got the guys that give.

You got the you givers, you got the matchers, and you got the takers. Yeah. And the takers always seem to get removed Yeah. From the Yeah. So talk about like the importance of giving.

Mike: Yeah. You have to If you're if you're not willing to give to somebody, continuously, then people people are people feel it. Right? Mhmm. If you're a taker, people know it.

Yeah. They feel like, hey, I'm gonna give you something. And, oh, in like the next breath. By the way, can you do this for me? Mhmm.

You know, it's like, it just feels odd, you know.

Steve: It was calculated.

Mike: Yeah. For sure. For sure. And, you know, I think if you give long enough Like, we had this meeting last, week, the million dollar meeting. It was everybody loved it.

I mean, it was, like, raging success. It was just kind of a one off thing that we did. You know, every speaker that was there, people traveled from all over the country to come speak on my stage. I didn't pay them anything. Nobody hesitated.

I don't think there's even anybody that I asked that didn't come. Like, and somewhere in there, that's because I've probably helped them and or they know that I would do the same for them. Yeah. And, and I didn't do something for them in the past saying, hey, like, a year from now, I'm gonna have this event, and I want you to come. Mhmm.

But we regularly have that. Inside of our investor fuel mastermind, we have people that come you know, we have two different groups. So we have people that come early to the earlier group to, like, help them. The earlier group is the less experienced group generally. And so it's just this amazing network of people, like, helping one another.

And I'd like to think that I had a small role in starting that, kind of fostering, like whenever somebody asks, like, how can I you've helped me? How what can I do to help you? And I'm like, just be good to our fellow members here. Just, like, help them. I don't need anything.

So help other people. Because I know that that, just comes back around

Steve: for everybody. So for someone that's newer, like, let's say, you know, maybe not Dallas. So let's say Austin. Right? And they want to start building their network.

Like, what advice do you give someone in how to build their network? Because you're talking about, like, you you you gave a presentation on this, like, using the CRM, whatever. Like, what first steps should someone take in building their network?

Mike: So I think you can, and some of these things, that I gave in the presentation, I'll talk a little bit about here, sound a little, systematic and it may be unnatural. Like, you're supposed to if you're building a relationship, you shouldn't have to use a CRM. But I just I think there's, like, a science and an art part of networking, I guess.

Steve: And Well, we can't actually remember all that

Mike: you Yeah. There's no way you could. There's no way you could. Just like it when I do I do a lot of coaching when I teach people to buy houses. I'm like, when you're at the house, like, start to pick up little things about them that that you can put in your CRM.

Take a note. Like, or they have a, you know, cowboy's jersey on the wall. They're a Cowboys fan or they're in the fishing or whatever it is, or they have a family member that's sick or passed away or not doing well or whatever, if you put those things in your CRM when you're following up and you're like, how how's how's your mom doing? I know she wasn't well the last time I was with you. Mhmm.

And, like, whatever their answer is, they can't believe that you remember that. Right. It's like little things. And I think it's important in terms of networking to remember those things. It helps you stand out because nobody really does that.

Mhmm. You know? But, back to your question in terms of what can newer people do, I think you need to kinda know generally what is what is your goal through networking. It's I wanna do more deals, it could be. Mhmm.

Or I want to find private money or something like that. Right? And then kind of put people into categories. Like, if I want to, do more deals, I'm like, okay. Well, I'm gonna network with wholesalers.

Mhmm. I'm gonna network with, probate attorneys. Whatever it might be, just find those buckets of people and then just kinda have a concerted effort to go after and meet those people that kinda raise their hand. And I don't believe that you should try to build a relationship with everybody that you meet. It's like, if you had some connection when you first met, those relationships are higher quality than the ones that was just like, I have somebody's business card that they handed me.

Right? There was

Steve: no there was no initial There's no initial There's no

Mike: forcing it. Right. There's no relationship there yet. Yeah. But I think those relationships that start to kick off, like, find a way to reach out to people, email them, text them, like, do these things over time.

Yeah. And so I think, you know, for newer investors, if we're talking to them, it's like, what I what we just talked about here might sound overwhelming, but it all starts with you meeting one person.

Steve: Yeah.

Mike: Like, that's how everything begins.

Steve: So is that CRM you recommend for newer people to for their networking?

Mike: Yeah. So what I what I talked about so I use one. There's two that I talked about last week. One that I used to use and and, it's called Contactually. Mhmm.

Might be familiar with it. So a lot of realtors and brokers use it. And I don't use that one anymore, and I can't really speak to the, improvements that they may have made over the past couple years because all these tools are constantly evolving. Right? So we use, one that is more of a selling CRM that is called Pipedrive.

And, it's not really a con it is a contact manager, and that's how we use it. But it's also good for I don't want people to go, like, shiny object. I gotta go get a new CRM. Right? Yeah.

But, the the thing that I like about it, and there there probably are other tools if people wanna look around, is that I can connect it with my Gmail account, with, a texting app and a phone app. And anything I text, email, or call is all registered in this thing. So and, the beauty of Contactually and Pipedrive is you can set it up to where you'll get notified. You can say people that are in this category. It could be realtors that I wanna network with.

I can say, turn that person's, kinda name, basically. Turn it red or turn it a color or notify me or set me a task if I haven't talked to them in x days.

Steve: Mhmm.

Mike: So it's constantly reminding you, you haven't talked to this person in a while, some preset number that you suggested. And it's a constant reminder to keep talking to people. Keep you know, you just keep tapping them on the shoulder.

Steve: Like, hey.

Mike: How's it going? Just wanna check-in.

Steve: I'm still here.

Mike: Even have anything, but just, like, just wanted to check on you. I thought about you today. Or it's like, hey. I was in this disgusting house today. The toilet was, like, gross.

Here's a picture. I saw it and I thought of you. So I just say stuff like that. I mean, relationship building is is partial partially entertainment. Right?

Right. I'm gonna educate or entertain people along the way. And it just makes you memorable. Right. And so to this day, there are people that I've done that with over time that, you know, there are agents that bring every burnout in Dallas that they ever come across to me because they know I'm the burnout guy because Oh, you are.

I took them to a rehab live thing there, and they kinda watched me. And I'm just like, hey, if you ever get a burnout, make sure you come to me. And I've kinda cemented that in their head. And so I'm the go to person for that.

Steve: Gotcha. So that was kinda leads to my next question, which is, can you give me example? Because we're talking about the power of building a network. Yeah. Can you give me examples of how building your network has helped you in your journey?

Mike: I mean, for sure, in, the early days when I was just real estate investing and I started selling franchises and coaching people and mentoring people, My I was doing way I was doing more and more business, more and more, deals. Usually, I would rehab them because people would assign to me. Mhmm. But I I kind of became the go to person. Like, they trusted me.

I and I would tell them I'm I'm not gonna advocate that I'm always gonna pay you the most, but I'm gonna be the most reliable person you're ever gonna sell to. Mhmm. And so I was like, you know, you may not get the best price, but here's what I can offer, and I can also close in, like, three business days. Yeah. So what do you think about that?

Or if people couldn't sell it and they come down to the wire and they really need to move it fast, it's like I can close quickly because I had access to cash. So Mhmm. But that all came through helping people, building those trusting relationships. As time went by and starting the podcast six years ago, I mean, we've done over 1,500 shows now. And so I'm fortunate to have just an amazing I don't think I found another word other than a Rolodex because that makes that totally

Steve: That's right.

Mike: Easier word

Steve: I would go with. Yeah.

Mike: But I have an amazing Rolodex of a who's who list of the industry. Truthfully, many of them are friends of mine. Mhmm. Many of them are in my mastermind. Right?

But Yeah. I could have never done the mastermind. And investor fuel is, truthfully, it's like a culmination of everything that I've ever done. All the networking together Mhmm. Is there.

Like, I could have never done that without all that I've been through, ups and downs with FlipNerd and all that. Yeah. That's probably the most vivid example to me is, like, right now, I can pick up a phone and call anybody. If there's somebody that I don't know, which isn't many people in this industry, they're they're one degree away. Like, I know somebody that knows them well.

Right.

Steve: Right. It's really interesting. Yeah. The for me, the journey I've had with this podcast No doubt. People that, if I don't know them, I can make a phone call.

It's like, hey, can you make an introduction for me, please? Yep. Yep. And they're happy too. Right?

Right? They're not like, no. I can't do that.

Mike: They're happy. Yeah. The people that trust you and like you, whether it's in this space or it's in house buying, they look forward to making introductions. It's a way if you've added value to them, it's a small way they can add value back to you that's easy for them.

Steve: Yep. So color blue has a question. It's how do you define networking?

Mike: So I define it as the I actually gave a definition that I have on a slide. I'm trying to remember. But, effectively, it is, it is, kind of a the beginning of an effort to start to give and add value to people. Mhmm. So if I start to do things and add value to you, then that builds our relationship, and we don't know where it'll go from there.

It's kind of like everything you just pivot. Like, this happened, and then, oh, well, he's interested in this. Maybe we could do that together. Or maybe I can introduce him to somebody because he said he likes this. And so I think it's this coming out and saying, I wanna add value to people.

It's like a wide net, right? It's like lead generation. Right? It's like direct mail. I'm gonna put a bunch of stuff out there.

Yeah. A couple things are gonna hit, and I'm gonna go deeper with the relationship on those things that hit and just see where it goes from there.

Steve: Right. There were a lot of comments about the quality of your jacket. So someone wanted to get this jacket.

Mike: My wife my wife picked this out. This is kinda funny. We were at a random store in a random town in Illinois, where my family lives. And, I can't even remember the name of the store right now, so if you're gonna ask me that. But it it it's like a small, like, boutique, type store in the middle of the Midwest.

There might be a couple of them. But, yeah. My wife picked this out. She's like, this is your costume. I've only had three opportunities to wear this, and so, over the past couple of months, so today's the day.

Steve: That's awesome. And Bobby Paffin wants to know, you know, when you're talking about providing value, if what advice would you give to someone that's trying to network with a fix and flip flip cash buyer, trying to build that network?

Mike: Trying to find people to sell to? Mhmm. I think, you know, if you just spend time with people asking them, like, what it is you're looking for, like, how can I serve you? Sometimes it's just simple as asking people. Mhmm.

Steve: Like, I

Mike: I wanna find some ways to work together. What can I do to serve you? What can I do to help you? And, you'd be surprised where that sometimes sometimes it's just as simple as just asking, like, how can I help you? But I think, you know, at the end of the day, I think one of the problems, that gives wholesalers a bad name is, ultimately, their customers are rehabbers, right, usually, or landlords.

And if you've never wholesale I mean, if you've never rehabbed and you've never kept a rental, everything you're doing is trying to position yourself to sell to somebody that you don't actually know what they want. And so I think, you know, a lot of wholesalers would be better served if they got to know their customers better. Like, what did it what is it what is it that you want? Mhmm. Can you show me, even if you sell to them, like, can I come back and you tell me how much money you spent?

I wanna see what you did here. Just learn the process of rehabbing. Because you you're effectively trying to estimate repairs, rehab repairs. Mhmm. And you're trying to, you know, estimate and make a bunch of assumptions, at the end of the day, you're most wholesalers are just trying to make money.

And I and I get that. I get that. But as the game goes on, you have to know who your customer is. Yeah. Same thing we talked about with Flippinger.

Like, you're just throwing stuff out there and thinking if I build it, they will come. You know? The end the the cycle has been such that if you get a deal under contract, you can sell it if you bought it right. Mhmm. But I think as things kinda tighten up, as rehabbers start to contract and pull back back a little bit, it's more and more important to understand, what does it really cost you to do this?

And what is it you're really looking for?

Steve: Yeah. Well, I think that this, when you're talking about having follow-up with your buyer Mhmm. And find out what they actually spent in rehab, those two things. A, it shows that you actually care about them. Right.

And, b, you're actually gonna get better at quoting the estimated rehab. No doubt. No doubt. There's two huge benefits there.

Mike: Sure. So

Steve: there's no reason not to

Mike: do this.

Steve: So I think that's a great question, Bobby,

Mike: for doing that. How was the answer?

Steve: I think that was a great answer. Great answer.

Mike: So I

Steve: mean, I learned something there too. We should start doing that. Okay. So then, you know, so you got the coaching. You got the podcast.

Multiple podcasts. So the two podcasts are

Mike: We have two podcasts now. Yeah. With the Flipnerd Real Estate Investing Secrets. Mhmm. The Flipnerd show is the original, and that's been running for six years, almost six years, coming up here in a couple months.

And, I've kinda rebranded it a little bit. And then this year, we kinda rebranded it as Real Estate Investing Secrets. And, it's more of me just sharing my thoughts. It used to be interview based. And we still do a little bit of interviews, but it's more of, like, me sharing thoughts or something just happened to me or, short stuff, sometimes in my car and stuff like that.

So that's evolved. And, I kinda switched with the real estate, with the interview style. We moved that over to the Investor Fuel Mastermind podcast. So we have the Investor Fuel Mastermind. We have over a 100 of the top real estate investors in America.

And I was like, you know, for years, I would have a show, and we're constantly trying to find new prospects. And it just kinda hit me, you know, around this time last year. I I was like, why do I have to keep finding people? They're already in my mastermind. I could interview everybody.

Even if I interviewed them once every two years, I have enough content for a weekly show.

Steve: Right.

Mike: And so and plus, it's a way for me to get to know my members better. Mhmm. It's a way many of them are not, you know, some are well known, you know, celebrity type folks, you know, Trevor Mock, John Martinez, Gary Harper, many others like that. And some are, like, crushing it in their market, but nobody knows who they are. And they're cool with that.

They're just they're that's that social media isn't their thing. Right?

Steve: Right.

Mike: And so but but, you know, they have a great message to share if I can get them on the show.

Steve: Right. So then was that those two going on? So you got two podcasts, coaching,

Mike: your mastermind.

Steve: Right. Now are you still in the business as far as, like, flipping and wholesaling?

Mike: Yeah. So what Yeah. We don't do as many deals as we used to. And, so lately, one of the things that I shifted was started partnering with people. So in in the Dallas market, for example, we launched and it's a little bit of a a beta test, as to how this will evolve, but we have about 10 real estate investors that we partnered with, and we do all their marketing, take all the calls, text message, cold calling, all this stuff.

And they're doing acquisitions and dispositions. And so kinda modeling how to do that. I mean, I'm always at this point for me, real estate investing has changed my life. Yeah. And, I'm also investing in multifamily now, which is a whole another story.

Steve: Mhmm.

Mike: But for me, I realized so I have a a a good friend, Matt Andrews, who said this a while back, and I never forget. I talk I think about Real estate investing isn't the thing. It's the thing that gets you the thing. Mhmm. And I know that for me, I've you know, we've been in real estate for twelve years.

I've we've worked really hard. But the transactional side of the business is not exciting to me anymore. Mhmm. So we still do deals. But it's like, how can I do deals through people and with other people so that I can help them in a way that allows them to grow and I can benefit at the same time?

So looking for more and more and more opportunities to kind of JV. Gotcha.

Steve: Yep. So you're building a system for cold calling and texting and direct mail. Mhmm. For other people. Yeah.

Mike: Interesting. Well, we're partnering with somebody that's that's created it. So yeah. Okay. A little early to talk about too much that in too much detail.

Steve: Okay. Sure. So then what does your organization look like today?

Mike: So we have about, I think we have about nine people on our team. So in the office, there's five of us in my office. We're pretty virtual too. So five in the office, four, out of the office. One is virtual in America, and three are overseas.

Yeah. So I have a graphic designer and a video editor. She's in Serbia. And I've got a guy in Chicago that does all my IT stuff and, have a virtual assistant in The Philippines. Gotcha.

And then business development and sales and event planning and all that stuff is in our office.

Steve: Is event planning, like, its own job?

Mike: It is. We we do so many events. Yeah. Yeah. We do a lot of events now.

It's turned into so for us, you know, event planning, though, like, the mastermind is not it's not just the events. It's the experience. Like, we give a lot of gifts. So there's a lot of things that we do, to build relationships. I mean, so our events are opportunities to build our relationships further with people.

It's not the act of setting up something at a hotel and getting it over with as fast as possible. You know?

Steve: So Right. You're actually touching and showing that you care. Yeah. No doubt. Alright.

So then what are some valuable resources that people need to to know, you know, listeners on the show, that you're seeing is is highly effective, not necessarily just for you, but that you're seeing is good for a lot of the people in your program.

Mike: Yeah. For for coaching students or you know, at the end of the day, I think it's really easy for people to for if are we talking to people that are just trying to get started in real estate investing?

Steve: Or people that are just getting started, or they're doing one or two deals a month?

Mike: Yeah. So the best part of this business is after you scale it up to something to where you can start to outsource your roles. Like, if you're doing a deal a month, you can't afford to have an admin and acquisitions person. Right. Right?

Or or if you have the money, I guess you can't afford not to hire those people Mhmm. Because it's an investment. But it's hard. As real estate investors, we're trained to be frugal or cheap or scrappy or, like, just move. I'll just do it myself.

Right? But the problem is is that gets in your way of doing more volume. And, we all want this, like, freedom. I wanna be able to have business that runs without me. Right?

And so it's you can have it, but you have to get up to a point to where you can afford to pay yourself what you think you're worth, and you can have a a small staff at least that allows you to get. So I think when you get up to it's like a stair step. You start off one or two deals a month. You're probably doing everything yourself. Mhmm.

Steve: When you

Mike: get up to three and four, then it's like, okay. I'm gonna bring on an admin and acquisitions person, and then your business can start to stair step up to that third step. So that's one tip is, like, you have to invest in your business. Otherwise, you have a job. Yeah.

Right? You're you're self employed. And the other thing I would say is be very, very careful on, social media. It looks like there's people out there that are living this life that and and I'm guilty of that. I mean, I've been traveling a lot.

I'm out here, visiting friends and doing things, and we travel a lot. We're fortunate to do that, but I couldn't do that at the beginning. Mhmm. And so, but I would say don't look at social media and compare yourself to anybody else. Like, just get your own goals, set your own goals, and be you.

Just do your thing. Let that inspire you. But the truth is is, you know, at best, half the story is on social media. Right?

Steve: So Yeah. You see the best 5% of their lives. Right. And guys, these are, this is a live show, so please, you know, post your questions. Mike's happy to answer them.

So something you and I talked about before the show started, or And this is something I ask every guest, is what is your why? So, you wanna talk about your thoughts on that.

Mike: Yeah. I it's something I struggle with because Mhmm. It was like, why am I doing this? And I think it I think a lot of entrepreneurs and real estate investors get to a point to where you're like, this isn't about survival anymore. Like, I don't I don't need to do this.

I didn't need to fly out here today to do this. But I I for me, it's it's like trying to find my purpose, and I think my purpose is by trying to impact other people. Yeah. And so, you know, at the end of the day, I I struggle with that balance because I'm away from my family now. Right?

Mhmm. And so you have to, like, balance that of, like, sometimes we say I'm doing things for my family. And then, you know, you hear people say, well, your family would probably rather have you at home right now versus out saying you're doing stuff for your family. So it's real easy to get caught up in this thing of I'm doing this for my family. And, you know, I think some of what I do is self serving.

It makes me feel good to help other people. I know that'll come back to me somehow. And I won't I won't be use the cheesy cliche and say that I'm doing it for my family. Ultimately, my family comes first before everything else. Mhmm.

But I'm just fortunate to have a wife that supports me in trying to do these things. And, you know, sometimes it's burden on her, and we have those conversations about, hey. We need to pull back on this because I need more help. Yeah. But I think, you know, we talked about this a little bit upfront.

Sometimes I don't really know what my why is, and I struggled with that. And we had, Sean Whalen come talk to the investor fuel group, in Salt Lake City back in February. And he made some comments about how some people beat themselves up so bad about not knowing what their why is. And it really resonated with me because I'm like, sometimes I feel it's like this and, like, why am I doing this? Why do I wanna do this?

I think sometimes it's okay to say, I don't know why, but it just feels right. And Yeah. I'll find my why eventually.

Steve: So this is something that I I think is a great point because I struggle with this a lot too. Right? Because, like, when we first start, everyone, what's your why? Money. Yeah.

But money doesn't get you out of bed. Well, if money's still getting are you still getting out of bed? It's probably because you're still in survival mode. Yeah. Right?

And then we get to this next phase, like, you know, impact. And that's kinda where I I read, you know, there's Simon Sinek, start with why. Mhmm. And then he has another book, which is Finding Your Why, because I struggled with it. Right.

And I was reading it, and I think mine is very much like yours, which is impact. Yeah. And there's a lot of guys that say, you know, my my family is your why. But like you said, your family probably rather you have you at home. And I actually have those same exact conversations with my wife.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mike: Right? Like I was reading an email as I sat down here. My wife's like, hey. I look at your calendar and, like, we need to talk. Like, gotta watch a trial.

I'm I'm gone next week for something else. And she's like, why is this all happening in one month? You know?

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So I got I got Houston this week. Yeah. Yeah.

I got Biloxi end of the month. And then actually have a mastermind that I'm in that's next week that my wife's like, look, you can't leave three weekends

Mike: Yeah.

Steve: Out of the year. Right. So, yeah, I have that same exact struggle. So, I think that's in one month. Yeah.

So I think that's a very good point that, you know, a lot of people that say, I'm doing this for my family. Sit back, reflect. Are you really doing this for your family? Right. Because your family might actually want you at home.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. It's a struggle. I mean, as entrepreneurs, like, a lot of us are, no matter how much success you've had, we we've been through the feast and famine mode.

Steve: Right?

Mike: So we're kinda like if you ever met anybody that's that's really old that's, like, been through the depression, they're just, like, they're usually you can tell they've been through the depression. Right?

Steve: Very, very frugal.

Mike: Yeah. Even if even if they don't have any problems anymore, they're just frugal. They're, like, they don't think. Mhmm. They're not flashy.

And so we've been through that. They're not gonna have an abundance mindset. They can't. Yeah. Right.

And so we've been through those things. And so sometimes it's still even though there is no famine and there's no famine in sight, you still have in the back of your mind, well, there could be. You know, what if somebody takes us all away from me or whatever? You know, you never know.

Steve: Yeah. There's, it's like a pit bull.

Mike: Like, yeah, they could be a lot of people say pit pit bulls are really calm. But in the back of their mind, they've got they've got some fight in them if they need it.

Steve: Oh, yeah. So, something that my wife and I, had had multiple heated discussions about was leverage and how much do you leverage. You know? Yeah. And for me, I was like, just, you know, let's put it all out there.

Let's Let's invest every dollar. And she's like, no, I need this amount of safety and security.

Mike: Right.

Steve: And about a month ago or a month and a half ago, she started having conversations about like, hey, let's take more chances right now. And I'm like, no, we need to have because we've been through the famine. Right. We went through 2007, 2009, 2011. We were facing foreclosure and massive credit card debt.

So even though we're not going through any, famine right now and it's not one

Mike: Yeah.

Steve: In the near future, it's still in the back of my mind as well.

Mike: Yeah. I think one thing that really helps, back to this, like, taking risks and trying things, is when you get to a point to where you're like so, for example, we we paid our house off, our personal house, which doesn't make sense that we could borrow cheap money and go leverage. I'm a finance guy. Like, I get that. But there's just some security and, like, I don't have a house payment.

We live pretty I mean, we have nice stuff, but we live below our means. And we have some money tucked away. So it's like, if the shit ever hit the fan, like, we're okay. Mhmm. And I know enough now to know just everything I've been through because of my network and stuff like that.

Like, if somebody took it all away from me, like, give me a year, and I'll be back.

Steve: Right.

Mike: You know? And I don't know what that looks like. And I hope I never have to figure that out. But I know I think as an entrepreneur, once you get to a point to where you know, no matter what happens, I'm resilient, and I can come back from anything. There's a lot of it it really kinda eases your

Steve: your It does.

Mike: Eases your pain, I guess.

Steve: In fact, I had that conversation with Jesse Burrell, who's in your group Yeah. That, you know

Mike: I watched with him yesterday. What's that? I had lunch with him yesterday.

Steve: Okay. Yeah. So he was saying, like, you know what? Even if crap is a fan, we're gonna be alright because of our net worth. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, Omero Corona wants to know how much is the investor fuel mastermind?

Mike: Yeah. So If you don't wanna answer, you don't have to because I don't have.

Steve: Yeah. The best thing to

Mike: do is we have two groups. It's not cheap. I'll just say it's not cheap, but is the best investment, you know, you could you could make. I mean, there are commonly people in our group that, say that they've tripled their business this year Mhmm. Because of investor fuel.

Yeah. And it's not it's just because of one, it's getting around people that are it's, like, saying something that you thought was true, and you're like, oh my god. Why am I doing it that way? I'm gonna do it this way. Mhmm.

Or just little you know, when you operate at a high level and you learn a little tip and trick, like, sometimes that little nugget, like, moves the needle in a significant way in your business. So we really have two groups. We have a group for people that are doing 10 to 50 deals a year, and

Steve: then

Mike: that we call that the gold group, and then we have the platinum group, which is 50 deals and above. Yeah. And so, our next event actually, our last event for the year actually is in about three weeks from now. So if anybody's interested, they should just go to investorfuel.com, and we have a little process where you can apply and get on the phone with us, and we'll, talk more about it.

Steve: Gotcha. And then Bobby wants to know in regards to virtual wholesaling, are realtors the best resource for finding cash buyers? So if you're going outside your market and you're trying to expand, finding cash buyers, a realtor is the best resource.

Mike: So I don't I'm not a virtual investor myself. So, I've done some deals virtually, but that's not really my core focus. But I know a lot of people that invest virtually. Right? Or a lot of people that are in our group.

So I think, that's a possibility. I mean, you could always ask realtors Mhmm. If they have any cash buyers. Every realtor will generally say, oh, I work with investors. You know?

Sometimes you know how that goes. Like, sometimes it's like, well, one time five years ago, they sold a house to a guy that was keeping it as a rental. But, no. I think, depending on the market you're at, if you can pull data and find cash buyers, like, if you can pull, if you can access the MLS and you can find where where were the cash transactions Mhmm. That's that's a great way.

Or if you pull, like, who owns houses in that area, specifically for landlords, like, who owns more than one house? And then you can start to find other investors that you could sell to. So those are a couple little tips.

Steve: Gotcha. And then Savada wants to know, how did you find your first multifamily deal?

Mike: So I, I've been doing them through partnering with, Corey Peterson, the big kuna. So I was with him and his wife last night. Corey's like my brother. And, his wife was heavy handed with the wine last night. But, but, yeah, through Corey.

He's an expert. I mean, just like I have become an expert in single family. I'm like, I wanna get into multifamily, but I don't wanna go learn everything myself. So let me partner with somebody that I trust that I think is one of the best in the business, and that's where I went. And, dude, does that ultimately cost me money when I invest?

Like, he's benefiting from that and other people have benefited from that and it's not me? Yeah. But that's just kinda how this works. This is it's the same with my coaching. Like, if people pay to to get coached, they're learning.

Eventually, they'll be self sufficient, but I don't wanna go learn multifamily on my own. I don't wanna build up all the relationships that are needed to make that work. Right. And so I've done it with, with a friend.

Steve: Yeah. Something that, we were talking, on Sunday with, Chris Rood. He was saying we were talking about, you know, this is the cheat code. Right? This is back in the day when you're opening in in the Power magazine.

Yeah. And you went you went straight to the like, for me, when I as a kid, when I got that magazine, I went straight to the cheat code section and looked for any games I was playing.

Mike: Right?

Steve: Right? And that's what masterminding and coaching does does for you. Yeah. Absolutely. Right?

So why why why why spend all that extra time and lost opportunity when you can shortcut that learning

Mike: process? Right. Let me go ask somebody that's that's that's done that before so I don't have to to learn.

Steve: That solved this exact problem. Not even, like, a similar problem. This exact problem. Yep. Okay.

So, Isaac Aviles wants to know where do you hold your REI meetups?

Mike: I don't have meetups. Yeah. We have a mastermind.

Steve: Okay. So what is your where where do you where do you

Mike: do that? Investor fuel. So we, we have, we have four main meetings a year. These are the, like, the big ones. We have some other get togethers as well, and we'll be doing more and more, like, adventure and travel type things in the year ahead.

I'll I'll tell I'll tell you about that a little bit later. But the four main meetings, we host two in Dallas Fort Worth where I'm based, and then we rotate the other two to other. We just started doing that this year. So in, February, we went to Salt Lake City, and then we went on a ski trip afterwards. We had about 40 people from our there were about a 100 and maybe 60 people there.

Mhmm. 40 came skiing, and then a small group of us went, snowmobiling and dog sledding at Yellowstone afterwards. So and then, then we were in San Diego, and then, that was just last that was August. And then, February, we're going to Nashville. So we kinda try to do one a little bit east, one a little bit west, and then two in DFW where we're based at.

Steve: Interesting. Yeah. So right. With with what with what we're doing, all four are in Phoenix. So I'm thinking maybe we should not do the July 1 in Phoenix because it's a little it's a little warm here.

Mike: It's a

Steve: little warm here. So what is your biggest struggle right now?

Mike: My biggest struggle is probably something that we talked about, there. It's like trying to do it all. I struggle with that still. And I I've gotten better at saying no to stuff. Mhmm.

But, you know, my team if my team were here, they would they would kinda tell you, I'm like, hey. Yeah. I've got this new idea. If you have a second, I wanna tell you about something. And they're just like, here we go.

Get the popcorn out. You know? So I, I struggle with staying focused on I don't think that it's causing any problems with what I'm doing now because I've gotten way better, but I still am always looking for taking whatever I'm doing to the next level.

Steve: Have you looked at strategic coach?

Mike: Yeah. So I thought you know, you ran into so Todd Swaggerty's a good buddy of mine. Yeah. And, and I've thought about it. And and the truth is is I want to do it, but here back to the travel thing, I'm like, my wife will kill me if I say I'm gonna go to four four meetings next year.

So I might, but Yeah. We'll see how we'll see how, the next month goes. Yeah.

Steve: Because that's, one of the the impact filter. Yeah. Maybe have Todd teach you the impact filter. Yeah. Hopefully, he's mastered it.

Mike: So Todd's family and my family were going to, Cabo together in, next month. So Yeah. We'll spend some time talking about that. Yeah.

Steve: Because that's that's exactly the one thing, the tool to keep the visionary from causing problems. Yeah. Right?

Mike: I'm a I'm a pro I cause problems.

Steve: Me too. It's almost

Mike: like the cat with a ball. Like, you're kinda bored, and you're like, I'm gonna start batting this ball around and just, like, play with yourself, you know, or, like, figure out some entertainment. That's what I do in my business. I'm like, let me break something so it has to be fixed. Or

Steve: I mean, that's how most visionaries are. You gotta cause problems, but that those problems lead to bigger, better solutions.

Mike: Hopefully.

Steve: Right? So then on the flip side of that, what is your superpower?

Mike: I would have to say, you know, we've talked a lot about it, but relationships. Like, I'm I I don't hesitate to try to help people. And it starts to come to another level. Like, we've I have, you know, really good friends, a lot of people that have been on your show, people that you know that I we talk regularly. Like, how can I help you?

What are you doing right now? What are you struggling with? Just asking those questions. Yep. It shows people that I care, and I do I do generally care.

I not generally, genuinely care, and I want I I wish them well. And, so I think it's you know, we've talked about it. We've kinda beat it dead on the show, but I think it's kinda networking and relationship building, I'd have to say.

Steve: Gotcha. And your favorite best or most interesting failure?

Mike: Favorite. I don't have a favorite failure. I never that's like an oxymoron. Right? Yeah.

I would say, you know, something else that we talked about here. We we invested about 7 figures into building the original Flip Nerd. Mhmm. And while I don't while I'm not happy with that, it was just like the willingness to not let failure be an option. Mhmm.

And just to continue to pivot until we figured out how to add value to people and how to get customers to pay us for adding that value. Yeah. So I'd have to say, that's that's definitely been my largest failure. I mean, we have lots of properties that have failed, you know, or

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Mike: Lost money on, which we don't have enough time on the show to talk about those stories. But, my my biggest my biggest business failure was the original build out of FlipNerd.

Steve: Yeah. Matt Smith wants to know what key things she won't be looking for when joining a mastermind.

Mike: So I think you you really, you really have to see, like, culturally, does this fit what I want to do? So there are some masterminds out there that are more ego driven, and there's a lot of talk there. It's like social media on steroids. Like, here's all the awesome stuff in my life. But I think one of the things that we've managed to do is allow people to and even ask people to get vulnerable, like, share what's not working because the truth is is if you just get if we just celebrate the good times, like, our value is helping through the bad times.

So Mhmm. At our last event, for example, there's a guy that he almost didn't come because he didn't want to admit that he's got a lot of debt right now with hard money and a bunch of houses that aren't moving and, and, like, millions of dollars in debt. And he was, like, just drowning. And I was, like, get up in front of the room and share that. And, usually, we have these hot seat presentations, and they're twenty minutes long.

Well, we talk for an hour, like, trying to help him through this. People are just pouring love at him. Like, let me let me connect you with this. Let me help you. What can I do?

And, so I think you have to find that culture Mhmm. Of people that will push you to another level and not just stroke your ego, basically.

Steve: Yeah. It's a great great point. And then, Jesse Burrell wants to know who's your favorite sponsor for investor fuel?

Mike: It's, Jesse and Hibo, of course.

Steve: Alright. So and we love Jesse too.

Mike: Yeah. We

Steve: so best way to find a mentor or coach?

Mike: So, again, I think it kinda depends on your your specialty. Like, what is it you're trying to accomplish? If you wanted to do if you wanted to do creative finance things, like, that's not me. I don't do that, for example. If it's fundamental, like, getting started in real estate investing, that's what we do.

It just depends, obviously, if you want multifamily, go to that person. So find us the right person. And I think, again, it comes down to culture. Like, if if you're if you see somebody on social media and they seem like this is an R rated show

Steve: or no. We're good.

Mike: Okay. If they're like a douchebag, like, don't don't work with it. Like, it's they're probably only showing you a portion of their true colors on on social media Mhmm.

Steve: Or when

Mike: you talk to them. So I think it's being around people that that truly care and understand, like one, you know, one of the things that I think a lot of real estate coaching programs, fail from is that they never try to understand, well, what is it that the student wants? Mhmm. They're just like, here's how to get flying private jets and, like, change your life. Like, they're selling the sizzle and not the steak.

Right? So it's like, you know, we take time to say, in our Flipping Program, it's like, what what is your goal? If your goal is to buy to just do a house like, I love when somebody comes into our program and they're like, I make $60,000 a year, and I'd really love to just replace that income. Mhmm. Because I know they can do so much more if that's what they want.

But when somebody's like, I wanna make a million dollars in my first year. It's like, I'm not gonna tell you you can do that. And I'm you probably won't. Like, you're gonna fail. And if you set that expectation upfront and so I think a lot of mentors and coaching and coaching programs out there sell the sizzle a lot more than the steak.

And so just make sure that if you're buying the sizzle that you know you're gonna get the sizzle.

Steve: Is there a book that you've gifted more than any other?

Mike: You know, the the one thing that we've gifted more than anything is a little bit of a shameless plug. My wife created a bucket list journal. Mhmm. So she sells journals on Amazon, and we have I should I should have brought one for you, but we have a bucket list. So we're big on travel.

We do a lot of, travel. And, and and she's always written out, like, these are all the things I wanna do, all the things I wanna experience, all the places I wanna go. So then she ended up just creating an actual journal for it. So it's called the ignited life bucket list journal. And, when she created it, we have hundreds of them shipped to our office, so we give them away pretty regularly.

Coincidentally, that's a little shameless plug there. But Well,

Steve: I'm gonna ask you for that because Yeah. My wife and I have some things that we need to do. Yeah. And we've we've verbalized them, but they have not been written down.

Mike: Yeah. You gotta write it down. Yeah. You gotta visualize, then you gotta do it.

Steve: Yeah. So I'm gonna look forward to that gift. Yep. Alright. So, I want you to think about one last thought I'm gonna leave the listeners with while I make a couple quick announcements.

So guys, you guys, some of you guys saw I posted this morning, all our recorded, coaching calls. You guys wanted access to that. If you guys want access to our coaching calls, please go to disruptors.com with an o. Found out recently that someone is using disruptors with an e to steal my, my listeners. So disruptorso.com, and, fill out the application there.

We can figure we can discuss about our coaching calls. And then I'm gonna be speaking in host in Houston, Wholesaling Live, in just a few days. Wholesalinglive.com, put in r e d for 25% off if you guys, have not signed up yet. I look forward to seeing a lot of you guys there. And then later this month, I'll be in Biloxi, Mississippi, October for a real estate run up live.

You wanna check that out, go to bit.ly/rerlive. And then I'll be finishing the year with Chris Rood in New Orleans on December for Skillathon two thousand nineteen. That's bit.ly/2019 skill. And with that, last thoughts.

Mike: Last thoughts. I would say depending on where you are in your business, if you're just trying to get started or you're trying to take your business to the next level, like, don't let failure be an option. It's It's really easy for us to get complacent and, like, people to feel like, well, I tried. I tried and didn't work. It doesn't work for me right now.

The market's bad. Whatever. There's people that came into you know, people in Dallas, just like Phoenix, that for years have been saying the old school guys that, like, they can't this doesn't work anymore. Mhmm. And then you get somebody like Jamie Woolley or RJ Bates to come in and just rock.

Mhmm. You know, like, it didn't work for you because somebody moved your cheese and you couldn't follow it. So

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Mike: So the market's shifting right now. So don't let people saying it's a bad time to get in, persuade you to not get in. Be smart about it, what you're doing. There's always opportunities. I mean, a lot of our business, comes from, you know, bad things that are happening in somebody's life.

It could be death, divorce, inheritance, problem rentals, things like that. Those things do not follow market cycles. There's always opportunity that exists if you're looking to add value to people and be genuine. And so if your goal is to be self sufficient, to stop working for somebody else, to have a build a better life for your family no matter where you're at right now, real estate is a great vehicle to do it. You just have to stay focused.

Steve: Perfect. Perfect. What is, if someone wants to get a hold of you, how do they do that?

Mike: Probably the best way is, I'm a little bit of an addict with Facebook and, just I just created a new Instagram account yesterday, actually. So it's it's at the Mike Hambright. And so You just created that yesterday? Yeah. I have one.

I hired a guy, and he's like, hey. It's like a I don't know why he said it, but he's like, we wanna start with a new account. So, anyway,

Steve: I think I texted the right one.

Mike: Yeah. Hopefully.

Steve: At

Mike: so it's either, on Instagram, the my cambrite, or on, Facebook. And that's not the my cambrite with the swastika tattoo on his chest. There's one of those two.

Steve: Awesome. Very cool. Thank you very much.

Mike: Absolutely. Thank you, buddy. Thank you guys for

Steve: watching.