Side Hustle? How Leon G Barnes is Buying 30 Properties a Year

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. So we got my great friend, mister Leon g Barnes with Collective Genius and Kansas Property Solutions. Leon flew in from Tampa to share how he's buying 30 properties a year remotely as a side hustle. Now I am on a mission to create a 100 millionaires.

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Leon G Barnes: I'm so ready. Long time coming.

Steve: Long time coming. So first question is is what was your life like before real estate?

Leon G Barnes: Wow. You've you've switched up questions on me there. Yeah.

Steve: I

Leon G Barnes: feel like I've had I'm the youngest you know this. I'm the youngest old person you'll ever meet in your life. I feel like I've had, like, three three careers, three lives, multiple chapters. I started out wanting to be on SportsCenter. I was a basketball player, and I loved SportsCenter in the nineties.

And so I was a broadcast journalism major.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Looked at what my first job would be as a television sports reporter. I was gonna make less than I was making in college at the time. $17,000 didn't sound fun. So I took a job as a radio play by play voice of a indoor soccer team, and then went in the arena football for for a few years and realized that in order to become Joe Buck, or Al Michaels and make the type of money that they make, I just didn't have the patience for it.

Steve: I mean, like, we're talking about how long?

Leon G Barnes: Five and a half years. Five and a half years? In broadcasting in general.

Steve: For a chance.

Leon G Barnes: Oh, for a chance. Now if you are Joe Buck and and and guys like that that have that type of talent, which I did not, you know, you can get a fast track. For me, it was probably gonna take me a good fifteen years, ten, fifteen years. That's off

Steve: the table.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. And so I was just gonna have to grind, and I would have gotten there. There's no doubt in my mind that, just work ethic wise, I would have gotten there. But I had friends, man, that were in pharmaceutical sales and all these other things that sounded so much more cooler than my experiences because I was with sports teams traveling, working all the time, and making they would make as much as I would make in a year. They would make in maybe a two a month or two.

Right. And they said, Leon, you are in public relations in broadcasting. You would be perfect in sales. And so I made a switch into advertising sales into corporate and did that for eleven years, before I got into real estate. Loved selling, did that.

And going up the corporate ladder, you know, I'm the first person in my family to graduate from college, and that I know of. I mean, I I I don't know anybody in my family other than a cousin that has graduated from college. And so going up that corporate ladder was winning for me. It's what my grandfather told me. Get a good job and go up the corporate ladder.

I did that. Was he even living in Hawaii at the time, running the entire state there for that company? And I just realized I was done with corporate after eleven years. It really was probably more at, like, after eight and then made that switch.

Steve: Why were you done with corporate?

Leon G Barnes: I probably wouldn't have been done with corporate. I was just done with that corporation. Mhmm. I have I don't pat myself on the back for a lot of things because I feel like a lot of my successes come from relationships and working hard. But I always feel like I'm pretty good at knowing when the bottom is about to fall out of something.

Mhmm. I say that with proof behind it. Right. Every sports team that I ever worked for, all are out of business. No.

There were, in in that industry, I know, again, I'm the youngest old person you know. Mhmm. I started selling yellow pages. The belly the belly to bellyest business that you could do with small business owners selling advertising in yellow pages. That's what I did.

I enjoyed the hustle of the of getting to know different industries. Man, I would see an attorney in the morning and a pig farmer in the afternoon that was selling tarps as a side hustle and needed to have an ad in the phone book. Even though it wasn't a 20,000 ad, it was that ad, that $200 ad makes me a lot of money as my side hustle so I can keep my farm going. I just it it allowed me to develop my my ability to connect with anyone.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Leon G Barnes: So I'm very thankful for that. I love that. And then as you continue to go up the corporate ladder and you get into a area sales manager and a regional sales manager, and then it becomes, I won't say babysitting, but it becomes management of people that don't have the same work ethic as you. Mhmm. And in addition to that being handcuffed by the policies and procedures of big corporations that have a lot of liability.

I get it now at 46 years old. I understand why they have those things in place, but it just it wasn't fun anymore.

Steve: Mhmm. What'd you do? I mean and whatever you did, you're gonna have to leave Hawaii, or you're trying to stay in Hawaii when you transition?

Leon G Barnes: That's a great question. I could have stayed in Hawaii, but my wife and I just had our first son. We made the decision that we were going to go back to the Midwest because the amount of money that I was making in Hawaii, what made me, really close to the poverty line in Hawaii. Even though I was making really good money, I felt like I could never catch up in this in state, and I love it. I miss that state.

I met some great people that I consider family to this day. My son was born there. He has the name Kai for that very reason. But we we made a decision to go back to Midwest. I'm originally from the Kansas City area, and, my wife and I both graduated from Wichita State University.

So we're both a lot of my professional career was in Wichita. Mhmm. And so I knew that I had enough contacts to go back there and her we had family support there. My wife's family their entire family, for the most part, lived there.

Steve: So then what'd you do?

Leon G Barnes: Interesting. In my yellow page advertising by the way, that evolved into digital, which was fun. I was selling mostly digital in Hawaii, And converting that business was fun. But I also knew that Google ruled that and to make that switch was going to be tough. So, again, when I say in the when I saw the writing on the wall that print advertising, it was gonna be tough uphill battle.

Right? And so I I knew I wanted to get away from that at that particular point. But, you know, along that journey, my first year selling, 2003. Remember, it was like it was yesterday. And this goes to any salesperson that's listening to this, whether it's business sales or real estate sales.

Back in the day, they had the dot matrix print. Again, I'm the youngest old man. You know what I mean? We had leads that were on green bar paper, and they were like this this big with the things you had to pull off the sides. And one of them, they were all we call it was cold calling, basically.

It was the leads that were non advertisers with us. One of those my very first year selling advertising. I didn't know what I was doing. I just called people.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Just it's like you have conversations about we have conversation often about being a realtor. Just call just talk to people. Right? Tell them what you do. I was cold calling one day and I called this guy that was a realtor.

And he's like, yeah. I'm actually interested. Really? I didn't know what I was doing. I just called him.

Right? Yeah. I'm I'm interested. Come to find out, I didn't know what flipping was at the time. This is 2003.

It's prior to the crash. And, he said, I really wanna buy an ad because I wanna buy houses. I was like, What? Buy houses. You're a realtor.

You you you you mean for clients? You wanna gain clients because every everyone else in that section had, they were realtor ads.

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: He's like, no. I wanna add in there that says I buy houses. I was like, oh, you're like the, you know, the the franchise guys. Mhmm. No.

I do that on my own. Okay. I buy them up, I fix them, and then I resell them. I like I like this. I don't still don't know really what it's about, but okay.

So let me add that first year, and every year for ten years, we stayed in touch. Continue to sell him larger ads because he kept buying more houses off of him, buying more and more and more. And eventually, you know, we just I I say this to business owners all the time now within the collective geniuses. If you see talent, you may not be able to hire them right now because you can't afford them. You don't think you can't afford them.

Build relationships with everyone, especially talent.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: Ten years later, he posted an ad and I said, I think I think it's time for me to come over. Mhmm. Let's talk.

Steve: Yeah. And that's how you got into real estate.

Leon G Barnes: That's exactly how I got into real estate. I went to work for someone else, running day to day operations. I had all of the background of building teams, building culture, sales background, advertising background. What are what are we doing in real estate? We're advertising in in sales organizations.

We just happen to drive a car that's real estate. Right?

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: And so my skill sets fit what most visionaries don't love to do. Mhmm. And I will say that I now I lean more visionary than, when it comes to, you know, integrating things. But back then, I was still integrating. I was loving it.

I was hiring, setting up processes, all those type of things, but that's how it was a ten year relationship that I'd known someone for ten years, reached out. And at that time, they were finally ready to bring me on and and well, today, we would call a COO.

Steve: Right. So what was your first responsibilities in a real estate company?

Leon G Barnes: Everything. First one, that having the experience that I had, I said, first thing is I need to assess talent. Let me look at what we have here first before I just I'm never a person that was gonna come in and do the old Deion Sanders. Although, I think that's the right move for Colorado. I wasn't gonna do that.

I need to know, do we have talent on the team today? The answer was no with the exception of, a couple.

Steve: So you're like the the Bobs office space?

Leon G Barnes: Yes.

Steve: Been in there with the efficiency expert.

Leon G Barnes: Yes. Yes. Unfortunately, I didn't have the guy with all the answers that I was like, yes. That's exactly what we should do. Yeah.

We we downsized. We we we evaluated. We gave ninety days, and then we made decisions based upon honestly, we didn't have to really let go of anybody because they saw the writing on the wall because we were going to set up new standards, and set new goals and those type of things. So I would say out of the gates, the thing that I leaned towards was team building because that's what I knew. I didn't know real estate.

Mhmm. I didn't have a real estate background other than buying up my own personal home. I didn't have that background, so I relied on my advertising knowledge, my sales knowledge, and how to build a team and find talent. And I think that the the best thing I ever did for the organization was help the the, build a, a team that was cohesive. We we we gave back to the community.

And it was a true team with really good people in each individual spot. And how I know that are a lot of those people that we developed as talent are now either business owners

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Or executives for other people.

Steve: Gotcha. That's pretty cool. How long were you there?

Leon G Barnes: Five years. Just short of five years.

Steve: Short of five years. Mhmm. When you left, I think you were involved in a lot of project management as well.

Leon G Barnes: I did it all. And and then that's being a true leader, I'm a firm believer that when I was, as a, a sales manager, I rode in the car every day with a new rep. Now I say every day. Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursday were my ride days. I needed to understand what they were going through so I could help coach them through it and also take a a couple sales over because they were losing the sale.

But I did the same thing when I when I joined that organization. I didn't know property management. I didn't know acquisitions. In fact, the first contract I put,

Steve: you know, put

Leon G Barnes: that first house I put on the contract, I was sweating and shaking because I thought I paid too much. Turned out it worked out okay. But, you know, I needed to know that fear. Mhmm. That fear that that first contract that you signed as someone that puts a house under contract.

I needed to know that. I needed to feel that. Mhmm. So there I I showed rental properties, you know, because we had a portfolio as well. So there wasn't a position that I didn't do.

What I ended up doing longer term was raising a bunch of capital, having networking, being the face of the company, and helping out our staff. You know, at any given time, we'd have 25 flips going on, and one project manager wasn't able to handle that. So I would oversee, a few of my own projects and help oversee all the projects, walk in projects, advising those type of things. I do like that part of it. I'm just not good at it.

Steve: So you didn't have that skill set beforehand?

Leon G Barnes: No. No. But I do think that in this business, if you find people that have talent and they're smart, I'm not that smart, but I'm smart enough that if you show me how to do something, I'm gonna figure it out. Coachable. Very.

Very. Because I wanna know. I'm the person that says, no. I'm not I I'm not gonna sit in an ivory tower. Show me how to do it because I can't develop or hire the right people for positions unless I know every, intricate detail and how we could potentially make it better.

That said, I have been a part of, I think, in a just short of ten year time frame about 400 overall flips. Mhmm. I think we've in the last five years, I think we I know we've done over a 100 in the last five years, probably a 140, 150 Mhmm. That we've done on our own, since, going out on our own.

Steve: Gotcha. So when did you go out on your own?

Leon G Barnes: This is an interesting transition. So I had accepted a job to go back in corporate. I had just we just had our second child, and I had an offer that was too good to refuse. And I I I was I needed my plan was to go back into corporate and build well through rentals like a lot of people do. Right?

You have a high paying w two job, sales job, and it was, man, it's almost too good to be true. I had a buddy that was doing it, was making, you know, quarter of $1,000,000 doing it. I was like, I know him, and I know I can do at least as much as him, probably more. So I took that opportunity, and then something just kinda fell into my lap that I felt like was the best opportunity for me after I had accepted that other position. When we were, when I was with the other company, we joined the Collective Genius as members.

And when I left, during that time, I I stayed in touch with Jason because I just I'd loved the community. Mhmm. I'm I'm a connection person. I learn from others and I need that. I need their energy as much as I wanna give energy.

Mhmm. And Jason was somebody that helped me through a lot of things while I was a member. And so we kept in touch as friends and he was looking to grow and said, hey. If you're no longer there, you're, with this other organization. Let me talk to you about something over here at the Collective Genius.

And so I had to do one of the hardest walk of shames I've ever had to do because a friend had recommended me for a job. I accepted the job. I was supposed to start, I think, on that Monday, and I walked into the boss's office face to face and said, I hate to do this to you, but I've got an opportunity I can't refuse in real estate and community. I think it will be perfect for for me. I know I can do what you do.

I just I can't accept. And I'm sorry. That's a that's a hard thing to do, but I wanted to do it face to face.

Steve: What was that job?

Leon G Barnes: It was something that you would've you personally know me, so you would think I can't see Leon ever doing that. But it was IT sales. K? But not mom and pop IT sales. This was for

Steve: Costco. Or not Costco.

Leon G Barnes: Big organization. Hospitals, governments. Oracle. Yes. Big projects.

You go in because especially in small town, Midwest small towns

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: A lot of them are exposed from a security side. And there are towns that are being hacked, and they're shutting down things. And so security through their technology is super important. And so there is a massive switch over to these small communities that don't have a lot of money, hospitals, what have you. They're they're so exposed, and they're starting to find that out.

I don't know if you've seen some of these stories, but

Steve: Yeah. The ransomware.

Leon G Barnes: Small towns being shut down. There was a story on sixty Minutes about that where they held them ransom. We want $3,000,000. The town's like, well, we don't have $3,000,000. Well, what do you have?

Steve: So That's not that's

Leon G Barnes: what it was going to be.

Steve: I think I was seeing something, like, the one of the hotels in Vegas right now. Right? Right? It's been on shut down for, like, three days or something.

Leon G Barnes: It was it was a group. It was MGM group. Yeah. Because I think Caesars was one of them. Exactly.

Now think that think about this. It doesn't it's not just big organizations. It's small town governments that are being hacked that there's taken a 250,000 here because those governments have no choice. And so that type of IT software that's being sold, we're talking 6 figures and 7 figures for install. Hence the reason why the the pay is what it is.

But it would have been in a small town USA. Nothing wrong with that. But, being in a having sold Yellow Pages for eleven years and eight of those years being in small towns, in motels, and hotels, it it it was a little, less appetizing for me Right. At that time in my career.

Steve: So then was it CG and then Kansas Property Solutions? What was the

Leon G Barnes: So I had been buying rentals on the side. Anything that, you know, didn't make sense. In fact, I over like most people, I overpaid for my first five, but I had a good friend that wanted to help wanted to be a part of it. And so we kinda went in and a broadcast friend that I went to broadcast school with that was successful in a shorter time frame was a a main anchor in Chicago. He and I kinda teamed up to buy some rentals while so I had, when I left, eight.

Call it eight rentals at the time. And, I honored my noncompete for a year. And I know you don't believe in those, but I actually had one and and honored it. The only problem is

Steve: believe in them now.

Leon G Barnes: Oh, that's right. You

Steve: do believe in them. Recent convert.

Leon G Barnes: Well, yeah, about time. I did I think I bought a couple properties that agents brought me because I was licensed at the time as well. I was kind of my wife was running a small team with Keller Williams, still has her license. In fact, in fact, she's about to get licensed in Florida. So I bought a few properties direct from agents that we turned into rentals, but it had always kind of been there, as a rental only Mhmm.

Division. And then a year after. And I needed the year with CG to get up to speed with, you know, all the things that were on my plate there. So after a year, Kansas, Property Solutions evolved from just a rental to, KPS. And we're not, you know, we're not like CGE members.

We would be on from a business standpoint. We'd be like a select level member. Right? We focus really on a one or two channels. We go really deep on those one or two channels and don't we've we've done a lot of other stuff that we've wasted money with.

But we're a small operation. I don't want it to really scale beyond that. It's a wealth builder long term. Right.

Steve: You know? Which is really the purpose. What, when did you join CG?

Leon G Barnes: 2018.

Steve: So in 2018.

Leon G Barnes: In this what is it? 2023? Yeah. '18. So this five years in August.

Steve: Yeah. So when we met, you were still I mean, you were It's

Leon G Barnes: about a year in, I think. Yeah. Because you've been with us for four.

Steve: I I joined, I think, probably

Leon G Barnes: '19.

Steve: Because of COVID.

Leon G Barnes: But it was before COVID?

Steve: It was, like, COVID was, like, starting to become a big deal.

Leon G Barnes: Was it I thought your first meeting was, like, December of of nineteen. '20. So it was March 2020?

Steve: I joined, like, in April 2020. You did?

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. Wow. I thought for some reason you joined before then. But, yes, April 2020, we it changed our entire model Yeah. Because we needed to go membership.

If you join April 2020 in the or April in the past, you would have to wait until, the next meeting to really truly take advantage of it. But, yeah, that that changed our business model for the better, quite frankly.

Steve: Okay. So what was your first role then at Collective Genius?

Leon G Barnes: Union? First role, it's kinda rolled up into kind of what, we have now as a member concierge, which was going to evolve into membership. It I mean, my title was membership director. Mhmm. But I wasn't taking, consults at that point.

It took a I think Jason finally handed over after thirty days. It was gonna be ninety, but we made it at thirty day. And also, I headed up all the I created the the ambassador program was there, but it wasn't evolved. Not a lot of process to it. And mainly just getting to know members as much as I can and make connections.

It was really a connect out of the gates, it was connection specialist.

Steve: Yeah. Which makes a lot of sense Absolutely. Given your skill set.

Leon G Barnes: Absolutely. And and and hence the reason I I I could not turn the opportunity down. It's in real estate. It's actually what I love. I love waking up to do when I get a text message and I can think I can connect that person with Steve Trane because they're what ails them right now, doctor Steve over here can cure him of it.

Right?

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: That, I mean, I get emotional when I even think about it. The changes that that can the trajectory of how that can change someone's business just by connecting them, It it was exactly what I wanted to do. Gotcha. And the sad part is I still do it. I just do less of it because we have more resources within the organization now.

Yeah. But my OGs are still my OGCGs are still, you know, reaching out to me.

Steve: I'm texting you.

Leon G Barnes: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. My friends that have been with me about the same amount of time, you know, that or that I knew as a member prior to still reach out to me for those connections.

Steve: So you were there because I think it's kinda grown explosively. Right? Like, in the last few years.

Leon G Barnes: The last two and a half, call it almost three now, is the growth came from the tiered system. Yeah. We didn't have tiers. You know, when I joined in '15, we had one group. Mhmm.

As a member when I joined, we had one group. It was 80 some odd members, four meetings a year, no trainings in between. And so it was all you needed and more because you needed a full quarter to just implement one of those things that you learned because the business was so evolving at that time. I remember when I started when I started in real estate, you didn't exist as a podcast. Nope.

I wish you did because my learning curve would have been a lot less. I wish you were born younger or or earlier. Man, there was only like a couple podcasts, couple books out there. The Keller Williams flip book was out there. There wasn't a lot of information available like it is today.

So I remember those rooms going in there and it was it was truly a fire hydrant that you were drinking out of. Not that has changed. It's just there's more information readily available. Yeah. And so when I came on board, it was four meetings, and one group.

And we only cater to the elite level real estate investor in The United States. Single family, multifamily, landlords, flippers, wholesale wholesalers wasn't really a thing at that time. People were doing it, but it wasn't their main core business.

Steve: Not a it wasn't necessarily, what's the word I'm looking for, a model that people were pursuing.

Leon G Barnes: Right. Right. Because most people back then felt like you left a lot of meat on the bone if you wholesale or signed something. Assignments were for for commercial agents.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: It's very very popular and made popular in commercial. Yeah. Assign contracts of commercial things. But it was something that people did because another investor said, hey. I saw you got that house.

I really want it. How much would you sell it to me for? That's generally what you would see at that time. And so most of the most of the gives were related to fix and flip, fixing and flipping in multiple markets, which I don't advise. Some some people can do it, but very few.

It was a lot of that. It was a lot of marketing, what's consistently working. Podio was introduced in 2015 to the real estate world in a meeting in CG. Traction was I remember I was in the meeting when traction was introduced to real estate investors, and it started, you know, spreading like crazy. Yeah.

I hated Podio, but everyone successful that I knew in CG was using it. Right? So we we gotta figure it out because they're successful. That's the thing I love about the community. I know I'm jumping up here a little bit, but that's one of the biggest things I love about the community is, generally, you have a one or two year start on most of your competition, and back then especially because, it was, you know, 80 people roughly that were mostly doing fix and flip.

And, it was to scale Mhmm. All those people now I look back, most of them are the monsters in the group now when it comes to size.

Steve: I mean, Sean Terry was there. Mhmm. The,

Leon G Barnes: All the influencers that you know today, for the most part, were in those groups.

Steve: Yeah. I I look back. I wish I was in that room when lead Sherpa was was rolling out. Wish I was in the room then. And I remember so I went to, a Sean Terry event.

Right? And he was on the show, a few weeks ago. Went to Sean Terry event. He's like, here's all the masterminds I'm in.

Leon G Barnes: Yes.

Steve: And that first one, collective genius. What is that? And I looked at it. It's like you gotta apply. Well, I'm not even close to a position where I can't even apply.

Mhmm. But I remember looking at it. I was like, oh, man. That's gotta get in there one day. Yep.

Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: That that right there, what you just said, led us to the growth that we have today. Mhmm. When I first started, you know, the the most frustrating thing was I would have an application that would come through. Somebody referred over to me. They didn't know the volume.

They just knew that they were were close. And that individual wouldn't be qualified quite yet, but I would have a conversation with them because they were referred by someone like, yeah, I'm gonna talk to the individual. Yeah. And they didn't qualify and I would say, you probably need a six to twelve month window here before you're ready for the room. Because quite frankly, as you know, the room can be a detriment to you as much as it can be positive.

Right? There's a lot of negative that can come out of a group if you're not ready for it. There's levels to this as Eric Brewer always says. There's levels. And so I I I I didn't have a spot for these people and they were great.

You could tell they had value. They could give value, but just maybe not to that room.

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: And that's when we it'll be three years in January when we started our select level community. It actually took out two birds with one stone. Because we're starting to get some of the chatter that you hear in any community of, hey, you're letting some people in that are not quite ready for the room. Mhmm. Light bulb went off.

We can level up that group as our highest level, and we can have a core the select group is the core group of the it's it's a great representation of investors across United States. Yeah. People doing between 30 and a 100 transactions generally have a small team Mhmm. Or a virtual team. And their their scale is through operations.

They they've got advertising and marketing pretty pretty well figured out. Now the next level is operations is what Sharper offers. It's that that process and system. All the things you do in corporate that no one wants to do. Right.

Right? But without it, it's hard to scale.

Steve: Absolutely.

Leon G Barnes: It's a great representation of investors across The US right now. What are

Steve: some of the coolest things you've seen come out of Collective Genius?

Leon G Barnes: Oh my gosh. Man, I would need an hour. It's but to to boil it down to one thought would be the relationships, man. Like, the relationship I have with you, Eric, guys like Francava that I would've I would've never had relationships with, with without this community. My myself who who makes me wanna be a better father, you know.

It's it's it's it's it's the the Sean Wolfswinkle and Joni Wolfswinkle that, the Coco's and the Gina's. I mean, that we're all wired the same. Right?

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: It's it it you know, and it all comes from Jason. Right? You you are as good as your leader and it trickles down that culture. And so meeting Jason Medley is probably one of the best relationships, that I've been blessed to, to be able to to find. And I knew that from the day I met him.

I was like, I you ever have I I remember back in junior high when I first moved to another school. We moved around a lot when I was a kid. And I was like, I'm gonna make that guy my friend because he's cool. And if I make that guy my friend, then I'll be cool. And I felt like that with Jason.

I was like, I I know that that guy will connect me and he's genuine. Mhmm. So if I had to boil it down to anything, it would be relationships. Right? And then it would be the connections that build relationships.

Like, I think of this story is there's a million of them, but I all I always come back to this one. Casey Ryan, Brian Higgins, two investors, one out of Vegas, one out of Oklahoma City. They meet in a September meeting in 02/2020. Mhmm. So a couple meetings after you join.

They meet. Casey's got a tax problem. He needs rentals. Meets Brian, says, I need to talk to you before the end of the year. He's got a big tax bill.

2020 was a good year for a lot of people. Right? By December, he's like, I need to talk to you again, and we need to speed this up. Mhmm. He bought seven properties on, like, December 31 from him, which has now turned into hundreds of properties.

Mhmm. He goes back and forth between Oklahoma City because now they brought in a third partner through CG, Scott Myers, to to take down a self storage, facility in Oklahoma City. I got a thousand of those.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: But those are the type of stories that not only are they doing business together, they become friends, man, and they're lifelong friends. That's the best thing that all the business stuff is great, but it's those relationships that you'll have for the rest of your life.

Steve: Definitely. I mean, I can even speak right just for myself. On top of being a sales trainer, which has been very, very beneficial for myself. Right? We got, after a couple meetings in, it's like, Eric, what what is this Novation thing?

Leon G Barnes: Yes. Right?

Steve: Well, let's not call it Novation because that's just a stupid name. Like, that's just a legal term that no one knows what the hell that means. Yeah. Right? Because in 2020, what the hell is Novation?

Yep. Everyone knows what Novation is today. 2020, what is this? I was like, hey. We're gonna call this brew method.

Mhmm. Let's launch this thing.

Leon G Barnes: Let's stop right there real quick. Remember earlier, I said you get a heads up and you get a leg up on everybody at least a year or two.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: His first presentation on novations, 2018.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: He presented on it in the room, And I'm kidding. You can look back at the room that he presented on No Patience. And there were a few people like this. Right? The rest were like, walking out using the restroom.

Like, they they were doing well enough that they felt like they didn't need to implement this other thing to get a few more deals.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: Right? So the ones that listened got a head start on it, and they already knew how to do it. By the time that the market started to shrink and in and, inventory started to shrink down, well, you can still catch up, but those people had a head start on you that actually listened to it. Oh, and we

Steve: left a lot of money on the table. I know that for sure. And not implementing it soon enough. Right? So this brew method, I bought an apartment complex with Stephanie Betters.

Right? We're one of her, private lenders, syndicators. Bought a bank with Jack Bosch.

Leon G Barnes: I do know that. Yes. I didn't I don't think I knew the Stephanie one.

Steve: Yeah. So I bought a bank with Jack Bosch.

Leon G Barnes: I do remember that.

Steve: Did sales leadership training with Wren.

Leon G Barnes: That's right.

Steve: And then, and now you and I, we do part of the disruption together.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. That's that's one of my favorite. It's what the happiness that I have from doing that show on Thursdays has gotten, to a point where Jason has finally said well, it's been a while now, but he said, we gotta get our show. Because I can see the happiness that doing a podcast brings you and that you enjoy it.

Because he'll hear me. Because you know I'm loud in general. I'm pretty loud, especially if you work next to me. Sorry. Yeah.

I'm just loud because I'm, you know, I'm energetic and I I'm passionate. I think it comes from, coaching. Like, I love coach basketball. It's one of my biggest passions. And, you can't be soft with kids, man.

They need to hear your voice. But when I'm doing that show, we have a ton of fun. Yeah. We're all friends, but we're all doing the show to give back, to help, and have fun doing it. Mhmm.

And, yeah, I I can't wait. We're we're launching our I I I putting the cat out of the bag here a little bit, but I think we're gonna launch in January, the CG podcast. That's awesome. Yeah. Look looking forward to it.

Just wanna make sure we have a cool studio like this.

Steve: Yeah. So make sure you get one of these.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. Tell Jason if you're listening, we need that board.

Steve: So 2018, you go work with CG. Yep. You got your one year non compete. You're surrounded by operators who are buying houses. Right.

So when does Kansas Property Solutions start, like

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: Going gangbusters or or starts going again.

Leon G Barnes: It's the who, not how. Right. So I wanted to do that, but I needed the who. Mhmm. And one of my he's like my little brother, hired him in 2003 to work with me in sales.

He followed me as I was a regional sales manager in Hawaii. He followed me to Hawaii. He followed me back into, back to Kansas. We're the only people that have ever moved back to Kansas.

Steve: You from Hawaii

Leon G Barnes: to Kansas. No military orders either. We're coming to to Kansas from Hawaii.

Steve: I like you a lot. I don't know if I follow you from Hawaii to Kansas. Hey.

Leon G Barnes: I've never said I was the smartest person. But he he followed me back there. We got him a job in acquisition. His family all from Kansas as well. Gotcha.

Eventually that didn't work out. Long term, he was there for I think four or five years, something like that. And when he became available,

Steve: I

Leon G Barnes: was like, let's do this. Mhmm. As to who, not how. I needed someone to run acquisitions because I couldn't do what I was do I was doing three to five consults a day for CG. We were in growth mode.

And so where when am I gonna squeeze in a cellar after hours? Of course, I could, but I had two kids at home, my wife. I gotta get get some time for them, right, as you know. Yeah. And so when he became available, I was like, what are you gonna do?

He goes, I'm coming over, and we're gonna start this company. Perfect.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: I'm surrounded by operators that blow me away. Mhmm. But I'm thankful that I have some wisdom behind me at this stage of my career that I can not necessarily put blinders on, but I can stay focused on closer rather than more. Right. It's something that I've learned recently with your help and Paul Sparks' help.

Something I've always known. I just defined it now.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: So we know our niche. We know our model. We have two full time employees. Do I wanna do more? Of course.

But only if it makes sense for our model. So we've we've consistently purchased, about 30 houses a year for the last five years. During COVID, because interest rates being so low and appraisals being so high, we bird almost 80 90% of our properties into our portfolio. So therefore, our portfolio grew a lot in the last three years, pushing I think we're right at 70 doors now. Yeah.

Ended up bringing property management in house. So if I hired a second employee

Steve: Property manager in house?

Leon G Barnes: In house.

Steve: Okay.

Leon G Barnes: In house. You look at the numbers.

Steve: I know Kava Kava has said to do it.

Leon G Barnes: Kava told me to do it at 30. Yeah. And I was like, no. I'm not ready for that yet. We had someone and staff that could handle it, but, I my magic number was 50.

Based upon the calculations I did that we were paying the property management company. And we had a really good, which I know a lot of people that are listening to this. Property management. Good. That they don't exist.

Yeah. But we did actually have a really good one. And but I could see the right on the wall. Once we got past 50, then I I was no longer in a situation where I could, ignore what COVID was telling me. Right?

It was like, I'm gonna pay them more than I should be paying a property manager.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Why would I do that? Only for less headaches. But we had a we have a all of our rentals are all burrs. So every single one of them are flips. So we win necessary.

We change out all the electrical, plumbing. So we're doing what we need. We spend a little bit extra upfront, so we have less calls on the back.

Steve: I remember what Kava called it. Right? Frank Kava for those of you guys who are wondering. It was, it was making it, like, it was, like, break proof. There was what is

Leon G Barnes: Yes. I I I remember the term Eddie talked about it a lot on our construction call. Yeah. But, yes, it's,

Steve: yeah.

Leon G Barnes: The and and I have always ran that model. Mhmm. They do it on their new construction. I don't have any new construction, although I I I do wanna do some I've got some lots that I would like to do some new construction. That's my next kinda is is not more.

It's just something else that I can add, to to the portfolio. But so we brought in the house in March. Mhmm. And anytime you switch, this is good advice for those out there. Anytime you switch from one property manager to the L's, what do you get?

Steve: A lot of headache. I can't think what Well turnover?

Leon G Barnes: You get tenant calls. Yeah. Why? Well, that property manager never fixed this, this, this, that, this, this, and this, this. So they got they got a list of things that they want the new property manager.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: So the first three months were rough because every house had well, they didn't do this or they didn't get out to do these things. Good news is we have all those relationships with contractors to go out and fix those things. Right. And so they they, you know, it it it just made sense for us to do it because it's not like we're wholesaling. We're flipping.

Right? So we have relationships that we've built now over ten year almost ten years now that we've had.

Steve: Yeah. So you got the who. His name was Amos. Amos. And Amos became a free agent when?

Leon G Barnes: Well, four years ago. So it'd been right after it was right before, my one year. So I think it's four years ago.

Steve: Alright. So he becomes a free agent. And then right off the bat, like, what what's the first thing you guys are doing?

Leon G Barnes: First thing we do is try to turn on some leads.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Right? So, I wanna say at that time, we started sending direct mail. We, we use LightMark for PPC. This is, again, when your w two is in a community that has the best service providers that are referred into the community, you you don't I can push a button pretty quickly and turn that on. So the first thing we did was turn on leads because he wasn't we didn't have any projects, you know, going.

Mhmm. We needed to get leads. So, our small real estate team started working our Keller Williams office at the time. I think we had 200 agents in that office. Probably a lot less now.

But we have about 200 agents and they started working that side so we could get any low hanging fruit that we possibly could. But the good thing is is that the the leads started coming pretty quickly. I think we, at the time, Liberty AI was a provider within the group and they had a batch of leads that you could buy at ten. And so we just did everything we could do to push leads out of the gates. And then from there, we were consistently buying two or three.

And I still had people calling me from old business cards that I'd given out and things like that that we would buy.

Steve: So were you when you were buying these these leads coming in, I mean, you're talking about how you're buying and you're flipping. Is there any wholesaling, or is it just straight you're just

Leon G Barnes: Wholesaling.

Steve: So you're wholesaling.

Leon G Barnes: We'll wholesale some. Like, we just bought a property last two weeks ago.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: And we threw it on the MLS. We have some, investors that, are mom and pop Mhmm. Flippers that we've sold some to. And generally, it's just for cash flow. As you know, you know, cash conversion cycle for for anybody in this business is important, especially when you're a smaller operator.

So we have costs that we have to cover every month. So, yes, do we we we right now, we're probably at fifty fifty split where

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: We are, fifty fifty in regards to Burring and 50 on either retail or hotel. Got it. Because right now, in my price point in the Midwest, I'm at affordable, 200 or less ARVs in my market. The highest I'll go is two fifty. I know I know where we're at.

I know what we how we can move properties quickly quickly. And so anything that we flip is ARV is $2.50 or, below.

Steve: Gotcha. So it sounds like you already had the team in place, and you you brought in a talent talent individual. You turned the marketing, and that's it. Is it I mean, is it still the same team, or has this been I

Leon G Barnes: didn't have a team in place.

Steve: Oh, you didn't have a team.

Leon G Barnes: Amos was the team.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So

Leon G Barnes: I say that I was, you know, at the time, any rental properties I bought directly from a real estate agent, that would say, hey. I can't sell this, but you can. Because I worked in a Keller's office. And so I got to know everybody, networking in over coffee. And I'd have agents say, hey.

This is one that is probably good for you and your rentals. So I would I would manage those until What

Steve: were you doing doing working at a KW office?

Leon G Barnes: K, CG. I rented space.

Steve: So you're working at Collective Genius Uh-huh. And you're working out of a KW office.

Leon G Barnes: Correct.

Steve: So everyone knows that Leon's the guy when it comes to off market stuff.

Leon G Barnes: In there was one other agent in that office, maybe one that did, some off market stuff, another that had an a big investor in the area. Mhmm. And so she let everybody know anything you get that's cash buyer type of deal I've got. So there was, like, I was I was the main one, but there was a couple others there.

Steve: I mean, I think that's a big hack that we just haven't really talked about. Just rent an office inside a big brokerage.

Leon G Barnes: And I promise you, they want your money.

Steve: Just let everyone know that you rent the space Yep. And just let everyone know.

Leon G Barnes: For two years while working for Collective Genius, I had my little office in the back Mhmm. And people were so I had CG signs all over my office, and people would walk by and go because they're you know, there's a real it's a retail office. It's a Keller Williams office. And all the train and I was right by the training, conference room. Right?

I I wanted to be near it, and it was the biggest one of the bigger, cheaper offices. And so everybody would and and there were days I didn't like that, obviously, but every they would walk by my office every day.

Steve: That's a lot more effective than a billboard.

Leon G Barnes: Oh, gosh. Yes.

Steve: Right? Like 200 agents.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. That on any given week, let's face it, the top producers are not always in there. Yeah. But the people that needed me the most But

Steve: the top producers don't need you.

Leon G Barnes: Exactly.

Steve: It's the ones that's doing two The 80%. Eight deals a year.

Leon G Barnes: 20% doesn't need me. It's the 80% that need it. Yeah. The 80% were in there getting training.

Steve: So you got, like, premium traffic right by the training room. Yep. It's like

Leon G Barnes: And lifelong friends Yeah. That still to this day will call me and say, hey, Leon. I got this deal. Is there a way that we can kinda pocket this so I can you know, not a problem. If the numbers work, for sure, we'll do it.

Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, I think that is probably, if everyone's watching, maybe a hack that has not really been discussed a lot.

Leon G Barnes: And I and I I will say I'm I wasn't smart enough at the at the time to figure to to go that deep with it. Looking back at it, totally a hack. But we also had Barnes Real Estate, our retail Keller Williams team. So we had the Barnes Group. And so Barnes already had an office in there, so we just added another office for me.

So but but to that point, you do not have to have you do not need to be a realtor to rent space Right. From a Keller office.

Steve: I mean, like, I'm doing an event. We'll see how how big this goes. But I'm doing an event, and I'm teaching realtors how to find motivated sellers, how to pull that list, skip trace it, get ahold of these people worth texting or cold calling them, and how to pitch them. Right? It's that whole thing with Chris, Chris Richter.

He's like, you know, they're drinking your milkshake. This is the whole presentation about, like, look. All these wholesalers and iBuyers are drinking your milkshake. Right.

Leon G Barnes: Right? Hey. Instead of being mad at them.

Steve: Yeah. Learn how they're doing it. Yep. And by the way, if you don't want to do it, right, but you got deals

Leon G Barnes: I I'll do them for you. Yeah. I feel like we had this conversation on PTD recently.

Steve: PTD. Right? But what you're doing at that time was, hey. Just rent an office at a brokerage and maybe just park your office by the training room or maybe by the front door where every realtor walks by. Maybe right next to the commission desk.

Or just

Leon G Barnes: I mean, if I'm nothing, I'm a good networker. Yeah. Kansas is nice. So my wife lived in New York for five years, and she's got this secret for not having conversations with people. And it's don't look people in the eyes.

Yeah. But I can't do that. I walk by somebody. That's just Midwest values is you gotta say hi.

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: And even when I don't want to necessarily, you still do. Right? And so, I I would just have conversations that would spark up just getting water in a conference room or the realtors would say, hey. There's extra food in here, Leon, if you if you want some. Because they saw me grinding in there every day.

They knew of it. They think, man, that guy is always on calls. What is he doing? Mhmm. They didn't know if I was a coach.

In fact, they thought I was a team leader, which is even better. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: And so anytime I go back there, which is every every year to, number one, to go back and see my business, number two, go back to see family, I spend the entire two or three weeks that I'm there in that office.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: They they we have a team office still there now to this day for Kansas Property Solutions. My property manager's licensed, so she manages there. And then when I come in town, they give me an office to work out of.

Steve: That's awesome. Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: Nice little hack there. And I didn't put two and two together until we were just talking about it. I was like, yeah. That actually wasn't a bad deal. I was like, I was just networking and doing deals.

Steve: Right. So you start off just Amos, hire two employees who's working the, the the leads.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. I just have two ploys. I have, Amos handles, all with the exception of we do a bunch of campaigns. Mhmm. Our property managers will will take those as a lead manager.

So we just have a property manager, and Amos who is a he's now a partner in the business. He is, acquisitions and project management because it's not like we have I mean, we'll have five to six projects going on in any given time.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: He can handle that workload because we're only buying two or three a month.

Steve: Yeah. So pretty simple model.

Leon G Barnes: It's very. Exactly the way I want it.

Steve: And doing 30 deals a year.

Leon G Barnes: Roughly. Yeah. Some some some years have been, like, 22. Others have been 35. So, yeah, it's it's been pretty consistent.

And here's the thing is that what I've learned for those that wanna keep a small business like, people come to CG because they wanna scale their business. Right? But I realized, I you don't have to scale, to have the business that you makes you happy. Scaling sometimes will not make you happy. Mhmm.

Right? What I've learned is that there's limiting returns when you start to get to certain levels. Right? I tried this because one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't do more during that run between '19 and '22. We talked about this on, pardon disruption.

That window, I should have doubled down. Mhmm. And I waited too long to double down, but I did some more. I spent the most money I've ever spent on a marketing channel. And what I've it was good.

It was a good lesson because what I learned is I didn't buy any more deals by increasing it at at least doubling it. In order to truly make impact, probably would have had to triple it or quadruple it, and I didn't wanna do that. Yeah. It would have still made money, but then now I potentially break the model. Now I've gotta hire another person, a lead manager specifically.

And now I've gotta have somebody manage that person because these other two people have worked with me before. Yeah. They understand that I can't I don't want to be have my thumbs on them at all times. I respect them. They're good at what they do.

Mhmm. Then I would have to bring somebody else in. And and the lesson learned was laser focus on one or two channels. Mhmm. Laser focus on those and get really good at those, and the business will be profitable, less headaches.

Steve: What are your primary one or two channels now?

Leon G Barnes: Primary. I always wanna buy good data.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: You can there's so many ways, to pivot when you have good data. And I'm in a close information state, not quite as close to Utah, but close. It's opened up a little bit. I remember when I first started in CG in 2015, I went up to Richter and I said, hey. We need that Richter list.

It wasn't even called authentic back then. It might have been called authentic, but everybody called it Richter list.

Steve: Yeah. Well

Leon G Barnes: And Richter had just made that transition out to a full data company instead of because he hated doing real estate in Seattle.

Steve: I can see him hating Can you see

Leon G Barnes: him talking to sellers? No. We'll make sure he gets this. Make sure

Steve: he gets his mentality T shirt.

Leon G Barnes: He's funny as can be, but I can't can't really see him talking to sellers. So I went up to him and I said, hey, man. I want that data. He was like, what can what state? I said, Kansas.

Sorry. I can't get it. You know, we can get it. It's just you won't be happy with it because we're working on it, but there's just too many blocks, for to get the data that we need. Now, eventually, they got they were able to get it opened up.

So I buy good data, and I buy, leads. Mhmm. So PPC is pretty consistent for me. Mhmm. There's not a lot of up, not a lot of down.

Mhmm. But what I found is consistently, I get at bats while buying buying leads and then running very specific niche list with Direct Mail. Those two. That's that's really all that's really all I can do other than working on just always optimizing my placement digitally. Because I think for me, real estate on Google, Yahoo, Bing, all your search engines, I think that is one of the most underrated things, in this industry that we don't focus on that.

Because when you get there, you gotta hold that spot.

Steve: Mhmm. Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: But it's super important for you to be served up by Google because Google is saying you're an authority. And if you're not served up there, someone else is, and they're gonna get that lead before you do.

Steve: Yeah. So two people, two lead channels

Leon G Barnes: Yes.

Steve: 30 deals a year

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: Fairly profitable, building wealth because you're adding to your portfolio. Not a not a bad situation.

Leon G Barnes: Here's here's the key to that model, though. Okay? I don't want anybody leaving this thinking that, that model is one where you're going to be super wealthy, super rich overnight. This is a long term. This is a grind.

I've been buying houses, rentals. Now it's a hockey stick. It's really the last three years have gone up.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: But those first three years, I bought, I don't know, eight properties, what have you. So this is a almost a ten year play now. The business full time is about four even though it's it's really, you know, going on four, five in that range. I don't take money out of that business. K?

So this is super important. And if you're building something like that, you cannot be jealous of your employees making a good amount of money. Yeah. You can't you you just have to if you are working a good w two job, if you are a doctor, attorney, a great salesperson, you I've seen this model work for others as well that I've talked to for CG. Just don't go into it thinking that, man, I'll I'll put an extra $10 a month in my pocket.

Mhmm. It's not I mean, it can be. You could do that, but you're robbing resources Mhmm. To build wealth. It's a long term play for me.

That is a set it and forget it, Ron Popeil for me. K? I'm not touching that until that is my retirement. That is wealth building. I was lucky enough to fly in Arizona early today and have lunch with a good friend of ours named Doug Hopkins, who everybody knows in this marketplace and the other marketplace because he owned their television channel in San Francisco and San Diego and other places.

I the last two times I've talked to him, he's talked about the the the impact of having a free and clear portfolio has had on his life Mhmm. And how it's helped him get to a place that he said he talked to you about in March is that he's the purpose.

Steve: Yes.

Leon G Barnes: His purpose. Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: With getting free and clear real estate and having discussed success that he's had, it's helped him get to that point where he's going, okay. Now I gotta redefine purpose. I wanna be there. I told Doug today. I said, you're so lucky to be able to, number one, identify that.

Number two, re reestablish that purpose because you have had so much success. So I just wanna make that point because if you're trying to take a ton of money out of that, you know, you know, you're you're trying to do it to be, you know, added a boat and other I don't have any of those things. Yeah. We've we've talked about this on part of disruption. I'm not car guy.

Steve: Duke Cherokee.

Leon G Barnes: Yes. Yes. Newer. Always newer because I I think there's a couple things you can't skimp on. Right?

I don't think you can skimp on transportation. I don't think you can skimp on toilet paper. Yeah. There's one other that I'm missing there, but those are two important ones that you can't scamp on.

Steve: We're going to, Family Mastermind in two weeks. Mhmm. Right? And then ClickFunnels with CJ. And then my wife and kids are flying in.

Leon G Barnes: Okay.

Steve: We're gonna go to, Universal Studios.

Leon G Barnes: Oh, nice.

Steve: Right? And I can tell you the other thing I won't skimp on is the VIP tickets.

Leon G Barnes: Gotcha. Experiences. That was my third. Experiences. Do not skimp on experience.

Steve: Like, waiting in line is not an option. It's just not an option. I don't care about anything else. If I have to wait in lines, it's just gonna be a problem.

Leon G Barnes: So having have I have two sons, one six, one 11. We got this window of Disney. We live an hour and a half waiting Disney World. And, so we've taken full advantage of season passes the whole night. Right?

Don't get me wrong. I don't love, waiting in lines either. But I also there's a there's some lessons I wanna teach my sons about patience. Maybe not three hours worth of patience, but you know what I mean. There's some lessons there I'm trying to teach that you you you can't always skip the line in life in general.

Mhmm. Going a little deeper than I probably need to on that. But we also try to time it in in which a time that we know that a lot of people aren't gonna be at these parks. Yeah. Right?

So we get pretty lucky that way because we live in the state. Right?

Steve: When you go there more often?

Leon G Barnes: I do. And that's another part of that. I'm trying to teach them lessons about standing in line, and they've been to Disney, like, 70 times since we moved to Florida. I'm trying to balance that out. That said, I had the same conversation with Annie Yatch, who's a CG member, and she was taking her kids to Disney World for the first time this week.

And my message to her was the exact same as yours. Only because another CG member, again, a community comes together that lives in LA, was flying for the first time to go to see Disney World. We met him there one day. Mhmm. K?

We go and meet him there, and he has every pass you can imagine.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Leon G Barnes: This line, that line, and I we hadn't done it consistent. We had a couple fast passes or whatever they call these days. We've had a couple of them in the past, and it's it's cool. Mhmm. It's nice.

Yeah. But when you have every ride as a FastPass, it's a different experience.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: And so I said, I would have had a different answer for you until I did that with him, about two months ago. Do it. It's worth it.

Steve: Well and it's not just the FastPass, but the VIP experience?

Leon G Barnes: Where do you get to meet characters and things

Steve: like that? Other things, but you you you also get to cut in front of all the people with the FastPasses.

Leon G Barnes: Oh, that's a different level. I didn't even know. So we haven't done Universal yet. Yeah. My kids are six and 11.

Universal, we're trying to hold out Universal's like teens. Like, we're

Steve: Well, we have a it's because my kids are Harry Potter fans. So, apparently, when you're 11 years old, right, you become a wizard or or whatever the other thing is. Oh. Sorceress or some I don't know. A witch.

Whatever. Like, it's a big deal.

Leon G Barnes: Pay a lot of attention.

Steve: So my kids, when they turn 11, it's like, this is the thing.

Leon G Barnes: This is very cool.

Steve: When they turn 11.

Leon G Barnes: Very cool. I will say, are are where are you staying at? Are you staying at Airbnb?

Steve: No. We're gonna be staying at I haven't even booked that one yet. I just took care of

Leon G Barnes: I I'm glad I asked. There are houses Mhmm. Airbnbs. We rented one of these that have themed rooms. So at the time, my 11 year old was probably nine and in way into nine or 10 and way in the Harry Potter.

One Airbnb had a whole Harry Potter bedroom. My six year old at the time was probably four, really in the Mickey. Mhmm. Mickey mini rooms, goofy the whole nine, had a Mickey room. Like, there's Airbnbs with specific themed rooms that your kids would love, so check it.

Check that out.

Steve: Definitely check that out. Yeah. And I'm glad you brought up a moment ago closer over more will club because I I failed to mention that, actually. That's one of the other things that came through. Like, you personally It's

Leon G Barnes: one of my proudest moments.

Steve: Connected Paul Sparks and myself. Yeah. Right?

Leon G Barnes: It's another one.

Steve: Yeah. So, like, that wouldn't happen if I'm not seeing you. It's it's profound, and I'm just one example. Yeah. Yeah.

One profound example.

Leon G Barnes: That makes me emotional, man, just hearing, or seeing that last week for the first time going to Denver Mhmm. Being a part of, that group, Whale Club, and, seeing because the thing is that it's it's it's such a what's the word I'm look a compliment to CG, because it's it's it's more about framing this.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: We are very good at practical tackle relationship collaboration, But there's a there's a niche here that the Whale Club is fulfilling within the structure and the framework of solving problems

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Specific to your goals. Loved it. And going there last week and seeing that half the room are CG members that are doing both Mhmm. And the other half are not, to see the growth of that, that's, when the alarm goes off, I think about things like that, and it makes me happy. And and more importantly, to to have I'm very blessed, I feel like, to have that gift of knowing that I remember when Paul reached out to me and said that he had reached out to you.

And then me, I don't know if I text you or called you, and I was just like, hey, man. This dude is super sharp. I see a opportunity here for you and him to collaborate. Don't know what it's gonna look like.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: But with your reach in his brain and what he's thinking of, especially at the time, it was crypto. Mhmm. Right? So that's kind of where it started. And I knew at that time you were really into that.

Those are type to be able to identify and connect and see the fruit blossom, it's it's just it's one of my proudest moments.

Steve: Yeah. And this is gonna be something that I think is gonna be huge.

Leon G Barnes: I agree completely. Totally. I told Paul the same thing. Yeah. I had to take a red eye that night, but other than that, it was all good.

Steve: I had a crying baby on the flight back. I was like, man, this trip has been great. And then there's this crying baby.

Leon G Barnes: Well, at least you had a big fat steak in your stomach that I see you saw you scarf down before you got on a on a on a plane.

Steve: Had to had to make sure that steak was taken care of.

Leon G Barnes: It was really good.

Steve: It would've been a shame that steak was unfinished. Right?

Leon G Barnes: It would've been.

Steve: Yeah. So the other thing too we haven't talked about was, basketball. Yeah. So you reach out to me. Right?

Leon G Barnes: I have you to thank for this.

Steve: Yeah. You reach out to me. And by the way, like, I said when I was at Sean Terry's event, I was like, I wanna join this Collective Genius thing. Right? And then Kong Lee joined CG.

He's like, hey. You should join us. Like, I'm kinda busy right now. Right. Ryan Pineda reaches out.

Steve, I'm in CG. You need to be here. I was like, kinda busy. I don't wanna travel right now. Like, I I kinda like Jason Lewis.

Right? Like, there's a budget to how much I can travel.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: Right?

Leon G Barnes: Me too.

Steve: And then Gary Harper is like, hey, Steve. Like, talk to Leon. It's like, okay. Let me if my

Leon G Barnes: coach be.

Steve: If my coach says

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: Talk to Leon, talk to him, and I do. Yep. And when we first jump on the call, we don't even talk about business. No. We're talking about basketball.

Leon G Barnes: Yep. That's kinda my style. Right? Like, business, we especially if you know about CG Mhmm. Which most people that are at least 30 and up do.

Yeah. 20, only been in the business for two to three years may not, just because, you know, they just they haven't gotten to that level yet. Right? But I what's important for me on those consults is to get to know the person. And I think you can tell a lot about someone with their activities.

What do they love spending time doing? And I this is one thing I do have to thank you for. Like, you mentioning that, hey, why don't we play basketball at CG has added an element of community beyond anything that we ever had. For those that don't know, we play basketball every single morning. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at our three day events.

Yeah. We play basketball usually 06:00 to 07:30 or 06:30 to seven. Whatever we can get in and if we're outside, the sun's up. Right? We're playing.

And it started out with, like, 18, 15 players and then we grew like 18. And now consistently, we have over 20 Mhmm. Two full courts running at any given time. And the connections, the collaboration, the fellowship that have happened for, not only those basketball games, but also the breakfast meetings thereafter, the type of connections that happen.

Steve: The conversations.

Leon G Barnes: But more than that, you know, I think I I tell my 11 year old son this all the time is that he loves the game of basketball. Mhmm. And which I love that he loves because I do. But I told him last night as we were getting our haircuts, because I knew I was gonna be on the show.

Steve: I had

Leon G Barnes: to look tight. Right? Yeah. And by the way, our bar my barber is a huge fan of the show, so shout out to Chino. Awesome.

He listens every week. And we're we're we're on the way home and I we're just talking about basketball. No radio, no podcast on, nothing. And I said, buddy, this game that you love, don't just love it for scoring or passing, winning. Love it because of the relationships that it brings you in your life.

High school, pick up. There's an 18 year old or 16 year old kid that plays at a high school right down the street from us. Saw Kai at practice the other night when we're coming out. He said, Kai, what's up, buddy? Because we play pick up basketball with him.

Steve: I was

Leon G Barnes: like, those are relationships that you you would never have without the game. And so incorporating that into CG, has has changed the dynamic of especially when new people come out. Like, they're like they get to we get to immediately see who they are.

Steve: You plug them in

Leon G Barnes: right away. Immediately. And you know, okay. They try hard not good at basketball, but they hard they work hard so I know what type

Steve: of investor

Leon G Barnes: they are. Mhmm. If they don't know the game, it's okay. We just wanna see that they at least work hard. Mhmm.

And if they don't work hard, we it may not be a real a good fit for CG because I don't know if they really care about growth and and scale because you can tell a lot about someone that the way they play basketball. But that led to pickleball. Now that's leading led to people running in the mornings. So not everybody plays basketball.

Steve: Jujitsu.

Leon G Barnes: Jujitsu. People walking. It's just it's just elevated that. And and, also, I have to thank you, this person. I don't know if I've told you this.

I think on our call, I told you at forty, I just said I'm done with pickup basketball.

Steve: You're retired.

Leon G Barnes: I I officially not that anybody cared. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna retire from pickup basketball. Who what? Who cares?

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: I was playing in the men's league. I hit from behind on a fast break. Young kid was mad that I stole the ball from him. I was still decent at that point. Mhmm.

And I go up for a layup, and he just smashes me. I break my ankle twelve hours before my second son is born. Oh. Probably didn't tell you that part. And not only did I break my left ankle, they say, yeah.

You broke it on the joint, so you're gonna have surgery immediately. I'm like, no. My wife is due in a couple days. I can't go into surgery right now. They go, the everyday you wait, the more their your foot's gonna be clubbed.

And say, well, I probably needed to consider that, but it's not gonna be tonight. I can tell you that. Yeah. And so I was done with basketball. I was like, I can't I was on a knee roller after surgery for, like, eight weeks.

I couldn't put pressure on them when I could put pressure on. I couldn't be a good dad, and I just didn't like the injuries that came, especially right at I had just turned 40.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: And, I have you to think for now outside of minor soft tissue issues. I played consistently two or three times, and I can't think of a better way to start my morning than playing pickup basketball with new friends in South Tampa.

Steve: Yeah. It's great. And then, the very first one so I remember I I can't remember if it was Eric or Ryan. I was texting. I was like, I know I started this thing, but I'm a little worried because we have a bunch of, you know Yes.

Alpha males Yes. That are past their physical prime Right. That need to flex.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. And we had some wrestlers and some hockey players out there, out of the gates for sure

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: That were setting some pretty physical screens. And I think at at some point, I was upset enough and you were upset enough because we didn't wanna come out there and get hurt. Mhmm. That it's it's I think it's I think it's evened out

Steve: a little. I had some coaching conversations. Like, you know we're here for fun. Right?

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. There's a couple people that need but, you know, this is what happens.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: I can tell you this, that our premier level group, our highest level group, I prefer to play Mhmm. Because I know that the select level group average age in the late twenties, early thirties

Steve: is gonna be

Leon G Barnes: a different game.

Steve: Different speed.

Leon G Barnes: And I know my hamstrings and calf may not make it through that game. But I will say, I play in both, and I learn something new, about our community, about a member at each one of those, and, we have you to thank for that. Because without you saying we need to do this, I don't I don't know if we did. And the first time we played, it was right here Mhmm. In Scottsdale that we played slipping around on a on a court that was still wet, would do, I think, in March 2021.

Steve: Yeah. It's

Leon G Barnes: been now we're going on three years of playing.

Steve: And you set the tone on the very first one.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. I haven't played as well since.

Steve: Yeah. But you set the tone. You hit a whole bunch of threes. And I was like, guys, whatever. I'm guarding Leon.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. And I haven't played well since. That was I was like, I should have walked off on that that performance. But Yeah. You know, you know, what what I love about it is that I've always been attracted, to athletes, in business because I feel like and and especially hiring him.

Like, my partner in in Kansas, a former college baseball player

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: There's nothing I can say to him from a managerial standpoint or management conversation that he hasn't heard from a coach.

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: Right? And, you know, now some people, I think, are recruiting on their team just for CG basketball.

Steve: Santini.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. Hiring, former hey. I just happened to get a new hire that can we bring this, our new COO? Sure. He happens to be six seven, two fifty.

He, he's a hall of famer at his division two school. I was like, what? Where did they get that guy from? But it's been fun.

Steve: I think, yeah, you talk about, former athletes and then, former military.

Leon G Barnes: Yes.

Steve: Alright. There's nothing you could say to a person that's former military that's gonna hurt their feelings.

Leon G Barnes: I agree with that. Although, for my experience of hiring, this goes back to my sales hiring days. There's one caveat with military. And I think it probably applies to sports as well, but you have to make sure that the that you have proper process, systems in place, standard operating procedures.

Steve: It needs to be regimented.

Leon G Barnes: Has to be. Because if not, soldiers not all. I'm not trying to blanket this, but not all. But the ones that I had struggled with is if they didn't know marching orders, they would flail in the wind.

Steve: That's how they're aware of it.

Leon G Barnes: What I'm supposed to do. What am I supposed to do that your standard operating procedure stinks? Mhmm. What am I supposed to do right now? And so I'm saying that from a, perspective of a real estate investor that's looking at hiring, specific profiles, make sure you have your stuff in order.

They're going to lead. They're gonna wanna lead, so you have to be a better leader Mhmm. For that individual.

Steve: And there's something else that, I was talking to Eric Brewer, the the other day. He was talking about his new favorite people to hire are people that have coaching experience.

Leon G Barnes: Mhmm. We've we've had that conversation.

Steve: Yeah. Do you wanna elaborate on that?

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. So, coaches have passion. It's my I think we've talked about this on part of disruption. If I left real estate, what would I do? If I left CG, what would I do?

I would go immediately back into a summer basketball program in a high school and say, you don't have to worry about paying me. I just want to I wanna be a coach here.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: And that's what I did in Kansas before I we moved. I won't work remotely for CG for two years. I coached a summer basketball program, 15 and 16 year olds. And then, I luckily enough was able to springboard that into an assistant job at a high school for varsity and junior varsity team. And I can tell you that every coach that I've coached with, that is a full time coach, probably most of them are teachers.

Just they're underpaid, underappreciated. Mhmm. They put in the most hours of anybody, and they're already natural leaders. Yeah. Like, why did I I love I'm I'm attracted to coaching because it's my way.

It's my ministry of giving back to youth. I had a single mom, four boys. I didn't have a father figure in my life. My coaches were my father figures, the best father figures I had in my life. And those coaches, they weren't doing it for the money.

Clearly, they weren't doing it for the money driving up in a hoopty to practice. Right? But they came in. They gave us everything. No matter what their day was like, they gave us everything.

And so those individuals, Eric sees this. You know, Eric's son just, you know, got a full scholarship to play basketball. He's a really good athlete, sneaky good athlete, and I'm sure was really good. I've seen some of his old high school tape when he actually had hair. Mhmm.

Ask him to show you that if you haven't seen it. But he's he's spot on because find people that are natural leaders, underappreciated, overworked, and underpaid. Mhmm. How could that not be someone that you would want on your team? And they're connected.

Most coaches have coached like, when I walk in, I had a father that I, we live close to each other when I first moved to Tampa. Hadn't seen him in a while. And we had just gotten down with basketball practice at, our YMCA. I'm still coaching, but I'm only coaching my 11, 12 year olds, my son. We walk in and every kid is like, hey, coach.

Hey, coach. And not just my team, and I've only coached there for a year. Mhmm. It's connected me to the community. Parents are saying, hey.

How are you doing? Good to see you, coach. It connected me to a bunch of people, you know, and I've only been in that community. I've only been coaching in that community for a year. His guys that he's coaching or that he's hiring have been coaches in that York Metro Area for ten, twenty, thirty years.

Yeah. So there's just so many positives that can come from it.

Steve: Yeah. So I'm gonna have to update my avatar. We had Patrick Leggings off on the show, a few weeks ago, and he mentioned that during the interview, I knew he had a checkered past. Yeah. I was like, hey.

Do you ever deal any drugs? He's like alright. I was like, okay. Cool. You can work here.

Because they have hustle.

Leon G Barnes: There's hustle. There's hustle. I I grew up in a neighborhood that a lot of my friends, sold, drugs. You know, just they that was their there's a lot of neighborhoods where drug dealers are the role models Mhmm. Because they drive nice cars and fancy jewelry and all those type of things.

And so but they're they're not lazy.

Steve: They're not lazy.

Leon G Barnes: They're not lazy. And if you have moved past that and you're on a straight and narrow, then you you know what hustling looks like. There's no doubt about that. Again, you can't say you you can't tell me you don't know how to hustle. Show me what you did when you sold drugs.

Steve: I mean and it was like an epiphany because when I was, running my brokerage

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: I just looked around to see who the most successful realtors in my brokerage were.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: And the and the ones that, you know, surprisingly, Mavericks.

Leon G Barnes: Yes.

Steve: Right? And it's like, these are the ones that dealt in the past and never got in trouble.

Leon G Barnes: Is that why you're attracted to misfits is because you've seen like, you call them misfits. Yeah. I all I when you say that, all I can think about is the land of misfit toys.

Steve: That's That's exactly what that's the allergy analogy I use.

Leon G Barnes: That's all I could think about. Yeah. You're attracted to them. Why? Because they're you know that they're they're, they're they're trying to overcome something from the past?

Steve: That has a soft spot for me, but that's not the reason why.

Leon G Barnes: Okay.

Steve: The reason why is because, the people I attract and also I am even though I did everything by the book growing up

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: I did it in the gray line area.

Leon G Barnes: Okay.

Steve: Right? So, like, I was always like, what are the rules so that I can, like

Leon G Barnes: Sure.

Steve: Manage around them.

Leon G Barnes: So You'd have driven me nuts, but okay.

Steve: Yeah. Right? So I attract these people, and these are people that generally won't fit in any it's like putting a square peg in a round hole. Right?

Leon G Barnes: Mhmm.

Steve: Just turns out when I say we attract misfits, apparently, they're just all mavericks.

Leon G Barnes: Oh, so there there's there's some science behind it. They're not just misfits. They are driven by they're they're motivate they don't need your motivation. They're individually motivated.

Steve: They're they're motivated. They've got they got inner drive.

Leon G Barnes: Yep.

Steve: And rules just aren't for them.

Leon G Barnes: Right?

Steve: And I was like, hey. I can work with this. I will put parameters in place

Leon G Barnes: Got bumpers.

Steve: Where you don't have to follow the rules. Right? We will like, I built my entire brokerage based off of, like, whatever you need Yep. So you can go out and sell. I'll take care of the rest.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: I'll take care of the transaction coordinating. I'll take care of the lock boxes. I'll take care of the assigned. I'll take care of the paperwork. Yep.

Whatever you gotta do to go out there and sell, right, because I know you can hustle and sell, I'll generate the leads. I'll generate the leads. You sell. I'll I'll clean up your mess.

Leon G Barnes: It's a great lesson. It's a great lesson for anybody who's listening to this that's looking to hire, especially salespeople.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: When I first took over the market in Hawaii, the state was that that particular piece of the business was not doing well. Mhmm. Mainly because they had navigated the transition between print and digital Yeah. At all. Right.

And it was a local company bought out by a big conglomerate, so that had something to do with it as well. And I just said to the team from the beginning is there will be zero excuses for you to not have success here. Here's why. Here's what I commit to you. Number one, you'll be trained.

Mhmm. I will train every single week. You will have a full training, very similar to, like, the training calls that you do. Mhmm. I did one of those for my team in person.

Probably would have done better back in the day if we had Zoom virtually. But in person, every meeting, we I I was doing something on what I was hearing from the streets. I was out with them. Right? The second part is is that it said, I'm gonna take every obstacle.

I've listened to you now, and you all told me that the CRM stinks.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Contracts are this or contracts are that. I'm gonna streamline as many things as possible. So the last thing I I can hear from you is that it can't be done or I can't do it. So what happens in that particular you set your people that are mavericks, especially, to have success, and those that are not are gonna weed themselves. You'll never have to fire anybody if you do that.

Right. Never. Because you have told them these are I've been taking all the excuses away from you, so just go perform. Yeah. Go do.

Rise.

Steve: Go hustle.

Leon G Barnes: Right?

Steve: And and, you know, looking back now, it makes all sense in the world. But at the time, I'm just kinda, like, trying to put this thing together. Like, alright. These guys like sales. They just don't like everything before it or after it.

Leon G Barnes: Yep.

Steve: I'll take care of the rest. Like so, yeah, I mean, looking back, right, I was paying for leads, and then I was paying for VAs to call the leads to set up appointments. Yep. And then I would pay VAs to listen to calls, to transcribe the notes. Yep.

Just so all you have to do I

Leon G Barnes: would say that to start, that's a great plan. I think you can evolve over time,

Steve: your talent level and

Leon G Barnes: PI and those type of things. But, you know, I think it's a great lesson for those that understand that the performers in any setting, there's always gonna be cream and it's generally a twenty, eighty, eighty, twenty rule. The 20 is gonna do 80% of the work, especially when you're starting making sure that you take all of the the hurdles that are potentially coming up for those individuals. Now that said, you also have to be careful. If that individual continues, to grow, they're gonna have more expectations potentially upon that.

But those people just would normally just wanna be left alone and paid well.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. Now that as we've learned, sometimes Mavericks aren't the best to continue to scale with, but definitely to grow with out of the

Steve: gate. Well, the challenge eventually was like, man, this is really easy. I can go do this myself. It's like, you have no idea.

Leon G Barnes: That that's my point. Everything I put in in a magazine. That's the point, right, is that that individual has gotten, I did all this. Well, yes. You did.

Thank you. But at the same time, do you remember this this this this this, all of these checklist things that I've done for you to be successful? You won't have those if you go and try to do this on It's

Steve: funny. We actually had some people leave recently, and they're like, wow. Like, you guys made it really easy here. We have no idea. Yeah.

So you have the opportunity because you guys are at 300 members now.

Leon G Barnes: 300 plus.

Steve: 300 plus. So, like, for someone right now that's doing deals but not doing a high volume

Leon G Barnes: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. What advice would you give someone, like, three things? Like, here are three things you should focus on if you're doing deals right now, but not consistently to get to a point where you can get into a select room.

Leon G Barnes: Yep. So this is actually perfect because we had this conversation recently. Our communities have evolved. We've got premier. That's where people doing a 100 plus transactions a year or revenue equivalency.

You flip 10 houses a year, do the same revenue with someone doing a 100 or 200 deals. You belong in that room. Right? And generally, it's the people that have been with us for the longest. There's people that have been in that room for ten to thirteen years.

Right? They're they're the OGs of this business that continue to learn from people like you and younger. Right? Then there's a select level group, which we started almost three years ago, sitting at a 150 members as of yesterday. It's amazing to see that community grow.

That individual is doing between 30 and a 100. What we realized is that's a big gap. Right? 30 to a 100 between that is there's a there's a the the person doing, you know, three or four deals consistent consistently needs something different than the person doing, you know, 80 to a 100 transactions a year revenue equivalency. So what we realized that that individual needs more, we do a community with training.

Mhmm. Whether it's sales, advertising, marketing, what have you, we're we're, operations. We're doing all those training calls in between meetings, but that person needs more coach. They need more of a coaching community. So we just launched in May.

We haven't even really told many people about this, but we just launched our our new group called Elevate. Mhmm. Goal is to get them elevated into a full time scalable business. And that individual is the person you're talking about. We don't we don't deal with any newbies.

You gotta do at least be full time and do at least 10 transactions a year. But they have a coaching community, So they meet at the same time as Select but separate. So they are specifically getting what they need at that given point. And, thankfully, Eric's CSO and COO are are the people that are training it. People that have consistently doing 400 plus transactions in a little bit of York.

Right? They're really good at what they do, so they have a coaching community. And what we focus on that group is to double your deal flow. So if you're doing two right now, we're gonna help you give you a blueprint to get to four. You're at three, we're gonna help you to get to six.

And really, it's two things. At that phase, to get to a select level, you gotta be good at really good at two things, leads, converting leads

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Marketing or advertising and

Steve: sales. Right.

Leon G Barnes: Those two things need to come in being good at those. Generally, someone that's really good at operations, isn't going to scale without those two things. I can't I'm not gonna say can't be done because we don't allow the word can't. Mhmm. You'd be using my household.

But, where we start to phase in operations at the select level, that's the transition. Mhmm. Right? Now we're getting into a scalable community with training. This is a coaching community.

So it would just be easy two things. Get really good at at acquiring leads

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: And converting those leads into deals.

Steve: How can someone get really good at at marketing?

Leon G Barnes: Well, good question. There's a lot of coaching and then we've talked about this before. A lot of coaching available and some really good mentors that are available, to those that are out there. I wouldn't overthink this. Okay?

If you have zero background in in advertising and making the phone ring, look for the lowest hanging fruit. If you don't want a cold call, you don't want a text, you don't wanna do those things that are are tough. You gotta go through a lot of leads in order to go through that. Then there's there's there's companies out there like Motivated Leads that you can turn a county on and turn it off. Mhmm.

Right? It's an easy way to make the phone ring. There are there are programs that pay, like, pay per lead, like, motivate leads. There's driving for dollars. It to me is so underrated.

Mhmm. There's apps, that, that are so sophisticated to be able to help you, with that, like, dill machine. I would focus on the lowest hanging fruit that the things that cost you the least amount. And and then other thing is get really good at I talked about this on part of disruption, at reverse engineering.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: If you know there's a certain ZIP code that one particular landlord is buying in, and he's buying a lot because you networked at the local RIA with that individual, you get really good at finding leads in that particular area by door knocking, by driving for dollars, what have you. That I don't think that I don't think on your own, you will be great at it. But if you start with those things and then start to piecemeal and add based upon knowledge that comes from mentors or community, I think that that you'll continue to scale and grow, especially if this is what you wanna do. This is not rocket science. It's not.

The only difference I tell people all the time. The only difference between our lowest level room and our middle tier and premier is just execution in time. That's it. Doug Hopkins has been doing this in Phoenix for thirty years building relationships. Mhmm.

You're not going to be him overnight. I'm not talking to you directly, Steve. But you're just not. And even five years, you're not going to be at that level. No.

Continue to edge to to execute, and you'll look up. I went from having twenty, thirty doors to all of a sudden, like, woah. I'm getting I'm closing on a 100 here really, really quickly. My goals are changing. Right?

But it's just time. It's just gray hairs.

Steve: So this is gonna be a completely selfish plug. We said first one's marketing. How can someone get good at sales?

Leon G Barnes: Well, this is simple. Right? This is not something that, to me, you don't all have to overthink this. You have to the only way to get better at sales is at bat repetition and having a coach. Mhmm.

At bats, repetition, and having someone coach you through those objections because the we're all hearing the same objections.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: Right? So salespeople, I've learned this. Salespeople, through experience, it takes a minimum of seven times for something to absorb and stick, and they need to hear it. Right? So selfish plug for you and sales training.

Having someone like you, you do a weekly mastermind for acquisitions. Mhmm. Right? Where are people going to you don't most people don't have a sales division when they have a sales manager doing that. You're offering that for them.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: Now me, personally, I was the sales coach and trainer for my particular office. And so I would just give them every objection, everything I could to give them, to overcome those objections. But it's at bats. So go see sellers, Repeat it and repeat it again, and then bring back to communities like yours. These are objections I'm hearing.

How would you solve that? And if you if you're not at that point where they feel like they can bring someone like you on, find a mentor. Find someone that is at your local meetups, what have you, and ask them. Hey. How do you deal with this?

They may not give it to you. Right? Find somebody else that will.

Steve: Keep asking.

Leon G Barnes: Keep asking.

Steve: Just like in sales.

Leon G Barnes: I will say this also. I know we give realtors a lot of, a lot of guff on, pardon disruption. But I will say organizations like Keller, and there's others out there, The sales training that they're doing is very similar to the sales training, and they offer it all the time for perspective.

Steve: The recruiting tool.

Leon G Barnes: It's a recruiting tool. So go take advantage of it. Eat their stale chips and have a couple of drinks at their deal and just become this is what I love about you is, Edge, you're you are self made in this. Mhmm.

Steve: You

Leon G Barnes: weren't great at it. So what did you do? You are on a mission to get better at it. Mhmm. And that's where I think the best advice to give anybody is you you have to commit.

Absolutely commit to becoming great at it. If not, if you're just okay with being mediocre, then you just will do less deals. You'll do some deals, but just do less.

Steve: Yeah. So, you know, we've gone and talked about, you know, KPS. We've talked about CG.

Leon G Barnes: Yep. What is your why? Why, transitions, chapters. Right? I'm not a a material, individual, and I I'm not gonna sit here and say my family is my why.

They're a part of a bigger thing called, you know, this life experience. Right? My why is to have the best, hopefully, eighty years on this planet, that I can have, especially between forty six today and 8082, whatever I'm lucky to get to, and, leave legacy. I talked about this, at the Well Club last week is, the why has changed because of presentations like Glenn Schwarm. Man, Scott Myers, recently did one as well that is hard to hold back tears because they talked about, the the impact that their fathers and Scott for his father and his father-in-law, Glenn, his father.

And he talked about it. It just really moved me, and I was like, man, that's that should be my wife. And I know this may sound kooky, kooky to some, but for me, it resonated with me. Because I think about, I'm working currently on, getting a scholarship, for my high one of my high school basketball coaches and, Biddy Ball kind of basketball coaches. He's had such a big impact on the community that I wanna I wanna help fund a scholarship, in our community that I grew up in in in Northeast Kansas.

I wanna put a scholarship in his name to impact beyond, leave legacy. Mhmm. And I think about him, and I think about those two presentations, and I think about having a line at my funeral that wraps around the building, or my life celebration is a better way to put it. And that's not me be being self absorbed. It's me saying I wanna impact that many people in their and then make a difference in their life that they say it's important for me to make time to come and celebrate his life.

Steve: Well, I think you've already done that. I guess the only thing I would say as a friend, just don't screw it up.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. No. You hey, man. One bad decision. One bad decision will take forty plus years

Steve: Don't be don't be of good stuff. Kiyosaki saying these crazy things.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. No doubt, man. I I can tell you this. I probably because of launching a podcast here in the future, we'll be more active on social. But I think that's Eric and I talk about this quite often.

If we had social media back in the early nineties, late eighties when we were in school, holy cannoli, man. I would have had I definitely couldn't have ran for office. Not that I want to anytime soon. But it's it's it's made me hesitant, because you there are certain posts you see of people and you go, man, I thought you were different Mhmm. Than that post.

And so, yeah, I I just wanna add to it, Steve. Like, I I love and I always admired your mission. Mhmm. And from the day I I haven't told I haven't said this to you in a long time. But I when I first moved to Tampa, when I was making that transition, I was really on this big because all the gyms were closed.

It was COVID. I was on this big running kick. I was running half I was running half marathons, and I remember running, 10 miles a day on a Saturday, and 10 miles was exactly this podcast

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: The length of this podcast. And I'm, so appreciative of it. I remember it just was ingrained on me. You said every show. You know, I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires.

And I think that if I make those type of impacts, not only will I help make millionaires, I will also make, better human beings. Yeah. And so that's, in a in a nutshell, my wife.

Steve: Love that. What's your biggest struggle today?

Leon G Barnes: Oh, man. I am like a lot of, Doug and I talked about this at lunch today, I'm like a lot of people that are driven. When I get to a certain point, and it's usually a three to five year period, It's not that I hit the mountain top, but I go, alright. What's next? Mhmm.

Steve: It's not

Leon G Barnes: that I've accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish. It's just that that particular thing, I need to I need my next challenge. Mhmm. Not that I wanna stop doing those things. I just need another thing.

What's the next thing? I think all driven people are that way. And so right now is to figure out where, you know, my next role is within this community that will best serve the community and also my purpose and what I'm trying to accomplish in that why. But also, you wake up every day and you do the same thing for five years. You want some nuance to it.

You want some different

Steve: Another experience. Challenge you wanna conquer.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. And I think that's that's coming up. We're we're I think we had a really good conversation about that this week. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to connect. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to facilitate and be at meetings and all those type of things.

It just evolved. What's next? We've got a lot of staff at CG, that, has taken on my identity Mhmm. Quite frankly. And that's a struggle.

Right? I've got Matt Perry that's handling all the the weekly calls, doing the onboarding calls, taking over the ambassador program. And not that I'm not busy because I am, but a lot of the things that I was doing, which was making me really, really, really busy, have now been taken on my plate. And I was like, okay. Eric talked about this when he had a COO and CSO, and he brought all these people.

And Eric Brewer sitting there like, I'm suit exactly where I wanna be, but I don't know what is next for me. And I gotta figure that out. That's kind of my biggest struggle right now is really pinpointing what's next within the community Mhmm. And also adding a little bit of spice, to my investment business as well. Yeah.

We've talked about that. Developing on some, like, just some new challenges because, you know, I've been with CG now for five years. I've been in the, part of the community for six. And, you know, it's it's time for me to to evolve. I can say that this that group has changed my life.

My relationship with Jason, Medley is, probably the one of the most important relationships outside of my family, my wife, my kids, and, everything that man has said he's going to do, he has done. And I can't tell you that I've ever worked for somebody like that before. So much so that, you know, I I never expected this, but I I think this is important for those that are out there listening when they think about having rock star talent on their team. Doesn't mean you have to give them shares. You don't have to make them owners, but you gotta take care of them.

And I'm so blessed that, you know, Jason has taken care of me and my family beyond what I ever imagined, and I'm, excited about what the future holds.

Steve: Yeah. And I know, Eric's talked about it. I remember talking, Wren had the same thing too.

Leon G Barnes: Yes.

Steve: I think when was it maybe when Lane took his position? Now he's just CEO and he just

Leon G Barnes: Yes.

Steve: Just maintain. Yep. Right? Like, your identity. Yep.

We were the guy that built this.

Leon G Barnes: Be careful. Be careful what you wish for in scale.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: Right? Like, if you love acquisitions, do acquisitions. Doesn't mean that you can't have a COO who runs operations. If you love projects and designing, stay in that. No matter how big you get, there's nothing wrong with being in those creative roles or communication and relationship roles.

Nothing wrong with that. You don't have to it's your business. Design it for the life that you want to live. And I will say this, I've been most impressed with our select level group because there's a bunch of 20 like Gino, who you introduced me to. And I was like, this guy's the next star.

And, like, you have not been wrong about that one. Yeah. I love when Gino is in Europe for three months and still crushing his business. Mhmm. The the younger investor understands the value of creating their their business around their lifestyle.

And that's different for us that grew up with parents that, like, you know, my grandparents were the greatest generation. You know, my mom learned from them, the hard work and go to get a job and work hard. And young bucks are like, nope. Nope. I'm gonna design I'm gonna travel.

Mhmm. While I'm traveling, I'll work and make more money than most people do in a nine to five. That's been the most impressive and inspiring thing from that group.

Steve: They have something I was gonna add to that. What is your superpower?

Leon G Barnes: Connection. Yep. Connection. But more more important, is the ability to understand the importance of listening when someone is sharing something with me. Mhmm.

I started my career in radio play by play, as I've mentioned. And especially in indoor soccer, we had players from all over. Last names were really hard to to pronounce, and I needed something because I I didn't have a a color commentary person. I'm doing all this the the entire broadcast by myself. And so I had to have throwaway things and time outs and things of that nature.

And so I would just read every single bio and retain it. And I've always been pretty good about that sports statistics. You want somebody on sports Almanac or sports jeopardy? You want me on your team? I promise you that in a lot of useless knowledge as well.

But I retain the information pretty well and it allows me to say, hey, Steve's got a really good superpower with this. He understands marketing at a high level and sales at a high level, but this individual and Steve, I know will get together. Paul, that's the person I need to connect the two of them, and it's just retaining my listening Mhmm. Is the first part of that superpower.

Steve: That makes a lot of sense. I remember what I was gonna say. I'm going back out in the field these days, and you were kinda like, how are you finding time for this? I know.

Leon G Barnes: I know.

Steve: So the team has a KPI, which is Steve needs to be at two appointments a week, Tuesdays and weekends.

Leon G Barnes: Weekends?

Steve: Yeah. Okay. I am having so much freaking fun Yeah. Going on appointments. Right?

And I remember now, like, what did I like, when I was buying houses? I liked sitting with the homeowner Yep. Talking about their problems. What did I not like? Follow-up?

Right. CRM? Right. Escrow? Any of that stuff.

Right? I was like, you guys book two appointments for me a week. I'll go. Yep. I don't wanna go on, like, 80 appointments.

Leon G Barnes: Right. It's it's that's the way you that's the only way you could do it. Yeah. Right? The follow-up part is the part that I'm not I don't love at this phase of my life either.

Like, especially if, you know, I've given you the solutions to your problem. Mhmm. You know? And if it doesn't make sense, then it's okay. I just I'm not gonna chase you.

Steve: Right.

Leon G Barnes: Right? At this phase, I I don't love chase the chase.

Steve: For sure. So I want you to think about some last thoughts you wanna leave everyone with. But before we go into your last thoughts, we talked a lot about Collective Genius. We haven't talked about how to get a hold of you or or find out more about CG.

Leon G Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. So it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. The collectivegenius.com is our website. You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Leon g Barnes on both of those.

I only have the g on there because of Pardon the Disruption, and I thank you for that because it sounds makes me sound very distinguished these days. And for those that don't know, when we first started that show, it seemed like everybody had a third on their last name or a junior or a middle initial. It's like, man, this is too Leon Barnes is too e. I have to have a middle initial on here. So thank you, for that.

But on both of those, you know, we are if you have a Facebook channel, or a Facebook feed and a and a Instagram feed, we're all over it. So you can follow us on either one of those. Mhmm. Guys, we you know, when the timing is right, our community is perfect for you. But it's gotta be the right time for both.

It's gotta be a good fit for for both. If you fit that criteria and you wanna reach out, we do a consult with everyone. There's no obligation. We wanna make sure it's the right fit for everyone, when they're ready. Only when they're ready.

And we give away a bunch of free content all the time, so it's a good follow.

Steve: Yeah. It's one of the best things I ever done for my business. Alright. So what are some last thoughts you'd like to leave all the listeners with?

Leon G Barnes: Oh, man. Hopefully, we gave them a lot here, during this time frame, and I'm going to commit to running. However long this was, I'm gonna commit to running and relistening to this.

Steve: Long one.

Leon G Barnes: It's a good one though, man. I I don't feel like it was long. I feel like I was talking to a friend. The only thing we're missing is a couple beers.

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: You know, this is going to sound, you know, after everything that we've talked about, I think there's there's there's a million opportunities for anyone that's listening to this. And I think it all starts with being a good human being. Like, if I look at if I look at the what the profile of someone that we want in our community, what makes CG tick We're thirteen years strong to continue to to to attract the best investors that we attract the best people first. So collaborate on everything. It's not a kumbaya moment, but it's close.

Collaborate on everything. Seek guidance. Seek wise counsel. Help others, regardless if it's the business side or the personal. And and and this is maybe some of my Midwest values coming out, but it's gotten me to where I am today.

Steve: Mhmm.

Leon G Barnes: Probably to a fault at some times. Like, you know, you're too nice in this particular case, but I'd rather on that side. And so whether it's our community, your personal regional community, local communities, just get involved, especially if it's this industry that you wanna be successful at. What I have found is the more I pour into others, it it gets and this is, I know, biblical, but it just comes back tenfold. It it really truly does, and that's not just hyperbole.

That's not just me. It's it's factual. I I see it in my life of connecting. Like, the I made one text to Gary Harper. We had lost our sales trainer, and we needed to replace it.

We can't have an organization that doesn't have has all these service providers that are referred to us that people say these are the the best of the best of service providers, and we don't have a sales trainer. How is that possible? I didn't know another one, but I knew Gary and I trust Gary because I know where his heart is. And I knew that he would not send me someone that would not fit our culture. And that is what I'm getting at.

Yeah. Is that when you have a Gary, it will give you a shirt off its back. Mhmm. I know that. Right?

I know that he would not give me somebody that didn't feel the same way about pouring into others. You pour a little differently than most, but you still do pour into and you care about other success. That's important to our community, and I think that's important for future success, especially the way that you know, how divided we are as a country

Steve: Yeah.

Leon G Barnes: And more so here in the last few few years.

Steve: Right. I think that's a great, great message. So, again, someone wants to reach out to you, best way?

Leon G Barnes: Leon g Barnes, both Instagram, and, Facebook, and then you can follow us. You can get all of the informations, fill out an application, all those things on our website at the collectivegenius.com. One day, we'll get collectivegenius.com, but I'm sure that's pretty pricey.

Steve: I'm waiting for that day. That's interesting.

Leon G Barnes: Me too. But that's because you've been squatting on it this whole time, haven't you?

Steve: If I could have, I would have. If I could have, I would have. You know, I tried to buy steve.com. You know? I tried to buy at steve on Instagram.

Leon G Barnes: Okay.

Steve: These people are unreasonable Yeah. And what they were

Leon G Barnes: for it. You know? I at least you're not buying, like, back in the early days when people were buying Shaq handles, and they were buying Magic John's. They're buying all these celebrity names and then holding them hostage to buy it. I mean, that's to me, if you're buying someone else's name now if your name is Michael Jordan, alright.

No problem. But if your name is not Michael Jordan, you should be squatting on that.

Steve: Makes a lot of sense. Alright. It was an absolute pleasure.

Leon G Barnes: Same.

Steve: Thank you so much. Yeah. Long time coming.

Leon G Barnes: Thank you. Long time coming, and you're the only person one of the few people that I'll get up at 4AM for wake up to get to to Phoenix.

Steve: Alright. Perfect. Perfect. And then I will see you next week

Leon G Barnes: Looking forward to it.

Steve: At Collecting Gs in San Diego.

Leon G Barnes: Yep. See you

Steve: guys later.

Leon G Barnes: Out of Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. We real estate disrupt us.