July 7, 2025 • 60 mins
What happens when radio broadcasting skills meet real estate opportunity? Dave Cole's journey reveals how unexpected pivots can lead to entrepreneurial success when you're paying attention to the possibilities others miss.
Dave's story begins in Chicago's radio industry, where a station sale forced him to reevaluate his path. This unexpected development led him to telecommunications and eventually into real estate marketing, where he discovered his talent for finding unique angles to promote properties. When an expensive real estate kiosk technology was rejected by agencies for its high cost, Dave didn't see failure – he saw an opportunity to create something more affordable using phone technology. This pivot became the foundation for his success.
Throughout his career, Dave has maintained a competitive edge through meticulous tracking. Using nothing more sophisticated than an Excel spreadsheet as his CRM for 25 years, he records every contact, conversation, and follow-up. This discipline enables him to recall specific details from conversations years earlier, building credibility with clients and keeping perfect track of who delivers on promises. Dave's approach exemplifies how simple systems, consistently applied, often outperform complex technologies.
What truly sets Dave apart is his understanding of presentation strategy. He advises treating property marketing like a process: just as a cover letter gets someone to read your resume, which leads to interviews and eventually a job offer, property marketing should follow a purposeful sequence. His practical advice includes practicing 60-second property "commercials" without notes to develop your ability to highlight what makes each property unique. For formal presentations, he recommends preparing for five minutes, then condensing to three, and finally to two – ensuring you deliver your strongest material while having additional information ready for questions.
Ready to transform your real estate marketing approach? Subscribe to Forged in Fire for more insights from entrepreneurs who've navigated the challenges you're facing. Leave us a review to help others discover these valuable lessons from the trenches of real business building.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Forget what you've heard.
Forged in Fire is where realentrepreneurs come to share the
untold truths of success thelate nights, the crushing
setbacks, the moments thatchange everything.
No fluff, just fire, ready tostep into the heat and unlock
(00:25):
what it really takes to build abusiness.
This is where legends are made.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another
exciting episode of Forged inFire.
I am your co-host, NateFarmer-Eden.
Allow me to introduce mycounterpart, Cole.
What's going on, brother?
Come on stage.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Nate, how are we doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Let's be honest with everybody that's listening.
Today has just been a day,brother.
My laptop went down on me.
I'm using a whole other setup.
It's a struggle, but you knowwhat?
This is how legends are maderight.
We persevere, we push through,but enough.
This is how legends are maderight.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
We persevere, we push through.
But enough about me how youdoing.
That's it.
I love it.
Now, same thing Another Tuesdaytrying to enjoy the journey.
Today's one of those gruelingdays where it's just tons of
attorneys, emails, lenders, refi.
Just part of the process,though, so you know enjoying it
though, trying to enjoy thejourney, so I'm excited for this
.
So this is always a highlightof the day doing these episodes,
doing these recordings, meetingour guests, and so you know,
(01:28):
before we jump into that, acouple quick housekeeping items.
As always, guys.
First, please leave us a ratingand review.
We want to help other peoplegrow and we want to keep
educating others, so that willhelp us do that.
Second, please subscribe so youdon't miss another episode.
And, of course, last but notleast, sit back, relax, enjoy
(01:48):
the ride.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's gonna be awesome here.
So today we have the honor,pleasure and privilege to
introduce a dear friend of mine,dave cole.
Now, dave and I we met a fewmonths back and it was actually
a complete like fluke accidenthow it happened.
I had a few spare moments and Iwas on alignable.
For those that are out therewho don't know about alignable,
uh, it's a platform forentrepreneurs.
(02:11):
There's a few people in thereal estate industry that are
out there as well, but you canutilize it if you are short for
time or you want to just jump inand do quick meetings to get to
know and network with folks.
So five minutes before hismeeting, I was just searching
and this guy, dave Cole, washosting a commercial real estate
meetup online.
So I was able to stay rightwhere I'm at, jump online, jump
(02:31):
in and get to network with aroom full of other investors and
folks within the industry.
So, without further ado, dave,come on stage.
Brother, how we doing man.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I'm doing great.
It's great to be with you onthis Nate.
This is going to be fun andhopefully we'll help some folks
give some inspiration.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh, a thousand percent man, this is going to be
awesome.
So please, without further ado,kind of tell us a little bit
about yourself.
What got you here?
What brought you?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
here Originally and born and raised in Chicago, and
that's all the way throughcollege and the school that I
went to, the college I went toin Chicago, had a training
(03:20):
program for radio and TVbroadcasting, which was my goal
at that time.
And I did wind up working forsome radio stations and going
about my goals.
And then a couple thingshappened along the way, those, I
guess, light bulb moments, youcould say.
So I wound up just to condensethe story I was working
(03:42):
part-time for a couple of radiostations in Chicago, had the
opportunity to get out there anddo my first full-time radio job
in Lexington, kentucky.
So I moved there and got to befriendly with you know, becoming
friends with co-workers, and soone that I kept in touch with
was more, he was the chieftechnician for the station and I
(04:05):
eventually wound up back inChicago and was working for a
radio station there and also fora sports phone, and this was
before the internet and back inthe days when sports fans
actually would have to, you know, had the phone number to call
to get all the updated scoresand all that to keep track of
the games.
And so one, and my friend thetechnician, actually got hired
(04:30):
by a radio ownership group outin San Francisco and they were
actually building a new.
They got licensed for anotherstation and were building the
studio and literally building aradio station.
And that was part of his role.
Well, at radio stations youdidn't have to worry about the
phone bill, and so it sohappened that I would be working
(04:51):
on Sunday nights and actuallyrunning the board, so I didn't
have much to do.
He'd be in there working on thestation on Sunday nights when
other employees weren't around,and we'd just sit there and talk
on the phone for an hour or soevery week.
And he mentioned that he hadheard that then Pacific Bell was
looking to create theserecorded telephone announcement
(05:12):
services for California.
They were doing it in Chicago,new York, some other cities, but
not there.
So he was saying, oh yeah, howdoes it work?
How do they get calls, how dothey make money?
And I'm just, you know, havinga good time talking to him.
And it turns out that he hadsome contacts through Pacific
Bell, then the phone company outthere, and was getting
(05:35):
information about doing this.
And we wind up in this wholeconversation about, yeah, if
we're going to do a sports phoneand we can do all this stuff
for other people, and I know howto do the announcements and get
all this information into a oneminute or a two minute script
and how to update and do allthis.
And, him being the technician,he knew how all the equipment
worked, which I didn't.
(05:56):
And so we're talking andtalking and eventually the
opportunity was such that I well, meanwhile the radio station I
was working for I had actuallygotten more hours and was really
liking it, and one of those Ihave no reason to leave.
And it's getting to the pointof this, opportunities coming up
(06:16):
in Los Angeles that I'd reallylike to do, but I'm happy
working at the radio station inChicago.
And just as it was getting neardecision time, it's like the
biggest decision in my life wasmade for me.
I come into work one Saturdayand there's a note for me in the
box and it's like in red penand I'm thinking, uh-oh, what
(06:38):
did I do now?
And I open it up and it was aconfidential note that the radio
station was being sold and theycould not guarantee anybody any
jobs past the first of the year.
Well, that kind of made thisdecision easier.
So it was a radio station salethat had nothing to do with me
(06:58):
that made this decision to moveout to LA and get involved with
this.
We're calling it atelecommunications service
bureau, so it was doing that andit turned out that another
company was able to get onsooner doing a sports phone
thing and that kind of hurt ourdeal.
But we were already talkingwith other companies about, you
(07:22):
know, doing similar work forthem.
So there at least was work forme, although it took a little
while.
And in doing that, so after afew years and it, you know,
picked up and I was enjoying it.
And one day, well, a couple ofthings happened while I was out
there in LA.
(07:42):
One was that I was buddies witha couple of guys that worked
with a small manufacturing firmand so just hanging out, and
we're having dinner one nightand they go, dave, we got
invited to do a bid presentationfor one of our products to a
large manufacturer.
If they were to buy this fromus, this would be a really big
(08:04):
deal.
And I'm like, oh, that's great,you know anything I can do to
help?
And they're like, well, we'rereally poor about our
presentation skills.
Knowing that I had thebroadcasting background and
doing all this kind of stuff.
You know that when a report'ssupposed to be 75 seconds and be
on the air at 2.17 PM, I've gotit ready and I can do it
(08:27):
differently an hour later andtalk about it and all these
things.
So they hired me to do theirpresentation.
So it was like the next week wego to this big manufacturing
plant.
We get there and the peoplethat had presented before were
just packing up to leave and Isee their presentation board and
I'm like, well, this is kind ofgoing to be a tough act to
follow.
So but I went in, did my job,did the presentation, thought I
(08:50):
thought I at least did my best,answered the questions look like
I knew about springs and partsand stuff that I had never heard
of till a week earlier.
And you know, off, we went anda couple, a couple days later,
the one buddy calls Dave.
We got the bid and I'm like, oh, congratulations, that's great,
he goes Dave.
(09:11):
So I asked the guy what madeyou choose us and the guy said
it was your presentation.
So the light bulb went on.
A couple of months after that weget approached at this
telecommunication service Bureauby a group that had technology.
They actually had then theearly version of a kiosk system.
You touch the screen, you gothrough pictures, that type of
(09:34):
thing, and their idea was to usethis for real estate.
Like you would put it in a youknow shopping mall or office
building where there's a lot ofpedestrian traffic.
You'd go up, touch the screen,see photos of different
properties in the area and again, this is before the internet.
So it was and if you'reinterested in one you'd press
the button and out would come alittle printout with the agent's
(09:55):
name and more information aboutthe property.
So, and my involvement was goingto be to kind of be updating
and, you know, scripting theproperty information and
coordinating all that.
And then the other guys weremore of the technical for
running the equipment andinstalling the computers and
doing this.
(10:16):
So since I was going to beinvolved kind of in the
marketing and the production, Iwent with on meetings to was
like four or five pretty bigreal estate firms in Los Angeles
when they were presenting thisconcept.
Well, they all love the concept, but not the price.
So we're, you know it's like,well, this isn't going to work.
(10:37):
And back at the office and thenext big moment was they're like
yeah, that's really too bad.
And I said wait a minute,moment was they're like, yeah,
that's really too bad.
And I said wait a minute.
They didn't say you know, theproblem was the price.
They didn't say the problem waswith utilizing technology to
market properties.
So we had all this phoneequipment to do these recorded
announcements.
(10:57):
At that time, before theinternet, if you wanted to go
look at open houses in whatevercity and you know you'd have to
wait until the Saturday orSunday newspaper came out to do
it.
We knew they had thatinformation ahead of time.
So we set up a phone number andI produced some recorded
announcements.
Example ones called a couple ofthe people we met with the real
(11:20):
estate offices and said here'sthis phone number.
We're going to do the openhouse hotline so that we can
people can call this number,hear descriptions of houses and
then get the open house schedulefor the coming weekend.
Send me your open house list,we'll do this at no cost.
We think this could work andthey did so.
(11:41):
Then I had a couple of them onthere.
They said, yeah, this soundsgood.
So then I called back a coupleof the other offices we had met
with and said, hey, remember me.
But now instead of thousands ofdollars we're talking tens of
dollars.
So we charged them, I don'tknow, like 25 bucks a week or
something to do this for theiropen house list to at least get
a little bit of money in.
(12:03):
And it kind of started takingoff.
In my going out to promote thisto some meetings of real estate
agents and opportunities Iwound up getting acquainted with
and was able to form apartnership with what was then
an official publication of theLos Angeles Association of
Realtors, which was once a weekand out of the whole week it
(12:25):
happened to come out on dingding ding Fridays.
So they started publishing thelist to alert the realtors to
these open houses and then Iguess they sold you know
advertising along the side.
So that gave me the chance tonow approach these other offices
, say, hey, we've got these bigcompanies on it where it's being
published in this you knowrealtor.
Hey, we've got these bigcompanies on it where it's being
published in this you knowrealtor newspaper and charging
(12:48):
them for doing the properties.
So of course I mean we got someto do it and wound up getting a
lender to sponsor it and itjust kind of went from there.
Now, at that time, before theinternet, the real estate agents
and brokers.
Their copy was for the MLS bookflyers, newspaper ads,
(13:09):
magazines they weren't writingfor like broadcasting or other
sources.
So they started hiring me tohelp them write their
announcements.
And then a couple of yearslater, well, along came the
internet, which kind of knockedoff the phone service.
But by then I'm getting hiredbecause now it was the same
thing.
They weren't used to writingfor the internets and using that
(13:29):
in their marketing and learningemail.
So that's kind of how thisstarted, by accident and from
you know we're still producingthe announcements and that and I
was still.
I did some part-time stuff forradio stations and then I moved
back to Chicago in the early 90sand actually took that with me,
because by that time we put thephone service was still going
(13:53):
but it was on an 800 number soit could be from anywhere, was
able to make deals, to add acouple of cities, and in fact a
lender in Texas got me connectedwith at that time in the
mid-90s or late 90s actually,remax of Texas was buying time
on a Houston TV station to do ahome showcase show.
(14:14):
So they started putting thephone line number, the 800
number to call, press this Codefor more information on the
property and to be connecteddirectly to the agent.
And so now this was on TV.
So they actually brought medown to Houston to present to
other REMAX offices, to be ableto use this phone service to
(14:34):
promote properties that theycouldn't afford.
I mean that there was no timeto put on TV, so we had this
going in Houston.
We had some other things going.
So that's kind of you know whereall this started and it was
just, you know, either takingadvantage of or seeing the
opportunities or basically, inmy case, using both those
(14:57):
stories, my friends with themanufacturing group and the
people bringing the technology.
It's what happened after andmaking the difference.
So that's my lesson that Ilearned and benefited from.
And I guess if there's onething and hopefully there's more
than one thing to get out oftalking with you both today,
(15:17):
it's that it's.
You know, a no or a situationdoesn't have to end because
that's what you were expected todo.
How can you keep that going?
And that's the one I love,sharing that story and that
lesson.
And then we fast forward, youknow, 30 years later.
So I'm involved with technology, such as virtual reality tours
(15:40):
for proposed properties, takingthem from floor plans and
architectural drawings and doingthat, and you know a couple of
other things, some geo-fencingor geo-targeting, as far as you
know, retargeting people,advertising based on their
online preferences.
But 30 years later, I'm usingtechnology, but I'm also helping
(16:01):
real estate professionals, bothcommercial and residential, to
do what they do.
So to me it's kind of doing thesame thing what they do, so to
me it's kind of doing the samething.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It just keeps getting updated.
So interesting and it's verycool to hear that story and kind
of where you came from, how itprogressed and how you ended up
where you are now.
So tell me a little more interms of after all that, after
that whole journey you mentioned, you're doing a couple
different pieces now.
So what is like the bread andbutter that you're working on?
What is your favorite thing todo and why?
So, out of that, what's yourfavorite?
(16:34):
Why?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I think my favorite thing to do is to create real
estate deals.
I found up I do some coachingand consulting with investors a
lot more than brokers these daysand investor groups, and it's
(16:57):
being able to combine theoriginal broadcasting skills and
knowing how to put apresentation together and how to
do the research and how to makeit your own and not be reading
the same copy that everybodyelse is Combined with being
involved in all different phasesof a deal.
I also do some little bit ofinvesting myself in single
(17:18):
family properties, so I've kindof been either involved with or
in some fashion at like, almostevery end of a deal.
So what I like is the putting adeal together where I'm
bringing components to the table.
And it was a proposal.
It was in place for a mixed-usecommercial development where it
(17:54):
was going to have the retailand restaurants and parking and
then one tower was going to bethe hotel and the other tower
condos, like all is kind of ayou know city within a block or
within the same structure kindof thing.
And so the guy that I well,actually I didn't know yet, but
it turns out that there weresupposed to be two partner, two
(18:16):
different groups, partnering inthis.
The one group had somethinghappen aside from the project
and had to pull out.
So here's this guy that had putin all this time and effort and
had the plans and the approvaland everything all ready to go
and needed either the financingor an investment partner to get
(18:37):
the project done.
So I was brought in to.
I do know some lending sourcesand also I've got some sources
that will look at joint ventureopportunities into some private
money and private investors.
So I was brought in to see whatI could do to help get either a
partner or investor, whateverthe case might be.
(18:59):
In doing that I was able topresent the technology that we
could use the virtual realitytechnology and some of the other
things to help attract buyers,tenants, whatever the, you know
guests, whatever the case mightbe.
So I was going to get that work, you know, if I could put the
deal together.
(19:19):
Now, how I got put in thissituation was I knew the
architect on that deal.
So they lost out on workbecause the deal wasn't ready to
go through.
So the architect put me intouch because by doing that then
both myself and them would getthe work, plus I'd be involved
(19:41):
in some way with thisdevelopment and that would
obviously be a nice springboard.
So that's the kind of thing Imean, that's kind of extreme,
but that's the kind of thingthat I enjoy doing the most is
putting things together.
And I still do have, you know,access to private money and
non-traditional lending and tothe technology that help
promotes, and I've worked onfeasibility studies, done market
(20:05):
research, so I've had somereally interesting projects of
(20:30):
you know.
It's things like and this iswhat I enjoy I actually had the
owner of some laundromats hiredme to research another city, to
go in and do things like thetraffic counts, the demographics
of the neighborhood apartmentbuildings where there were no
in-house laundry facilities, orin other words, find some areas
that might be ripe for planninga new laundromat, to then
explore how much or how littlecompetition there was and the
location, to then look at whattype of storefront space is
available for lease in thoseareas front space is available
(20:52):
for lease in those areas, and somy role there was to come up
with the research, not to givean opinion and not to say, oh, I
found a spot, here you go.
It was just to provide theinformation so that they could
make the necessary decision.
So I like that and being ableto, you know, help in the
decision process come up withthis information.
But there have been times whenI've been asked to make a
recommendation.
(21:13):
There's times, like this, whereI'm asked not to, to help them
make the decision.
So I think that's the kind ofthing that I enjoy is kind of
putting things together, being apart of bigger deals than you
know.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
My own situation would normally allow me to be in
than you know, my own situationwould normally allow me to be
in.
Oh my gosh, I love that athousand percent, dude, and it's
so amazing to be able to hearyour journey from the very
beginning.
I'm echoing exactly what Colewas saying, and the word that
just keeps coming to mind herein your story is just being able
to adapt and to be able topivot.
(21:46):
As technology started to spin,you were just like okay, I can
figure out where there might bea pain point of issue and I can
go ahead and try to figure out asolution, and then I'm going to
present that solution and thenwe're just going to adapt and
overcome whatever the challengeis.
I think that is awesome, sohats off to you.
So I'm at the same wavelengthnow, especially with access to
(22:07):
MLS and we were talking yearsbefore the internet.
Then we were talking kiosk andnow, with all these new pieces
of technology and of course someof it would be you being able
to do virtual tours andwalkthroughs and all that.
But what are some of thestruggles that you're seeing on
a day-to-day from otheroperators that you talk to and
with your personal brand andyour personal business?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
what are some of the other struggles that you're
running into with investors aswell, that you've been able to
sort of tackle and overcome forthem okay, I think that, uh,
some of the struggles are thatin a way, uh, with real estate
that it's almost become toospecialized now and, granted,
there are times you need aspecialist and special skills,
(22:50):
and granted, there are times youneed a specialist and special
skills, but it's like you can'tjust say, hey, I'm a multifamily
investor, because multifamilyinvestor could be a six-unit
apartment building in the middleof Montana or it could be a you
know 300 unit building inManhattan.
(23:13):
Those are still multifamily.
And so it's like you know, youhave to almost like, pin that
down I do single family.
Or even the different types ofinvestments out there.
Yeah, fix and flips have beenaround for a while, even though
they've increased in the pastfew years, but now you have just
these different versions whereit's like, okay, I do minor
(23:36):
rehab, fix and flips, or I'mlooking for teardowns.
Now there's build to rent andthat's really hit within the
past two or three years wherethere are entire investor groups
that focus on build to rent.
In some cases it's buying andconverting.
In more cases I'm seeing it'sbuilding from the ground up,
(23:58):
where they're actually building,in some cases a development of
single family homes.
In other cases it may be likefor condo units, but instead of
selling them they're doing themas rental.
So that's becoming.
That's what I mean.
That's probably the bestexample of how specialized it's
becoming.
And so I've well, I was goingto say I've had to, I haven't
(24:22):
had to, but I've made it a pointto learn and understand those
differences so that I canexplain that.
And another thing too is thatand it kind of fits in with the
combining the last two questionsof what I like to do and you
know what are the trends goingon with being specialized is
(24:44):
that, from coaching and teachingand working with especially
newer investors, is explaining,to find the property and then
run different scenarios.
So there are properties outthere where it may be more
financially feasible in the longrun to build it, to rent or
(25:07):
make it a rental as opposed toflipping, so things like that.
So I think that's kind ofwhat's going on and kind of be
the interpreter I use theexpression just on that line
with the virtual reality thatbefore the pandemic we would
actually go out and present thedue demonstrations of the
(25:29):
virtual reality and present thedue demonstrations of the
virtual reality and we were in,like some large retail stores,
some real estate offices andsome conferences.
We'd kind of rope off an area,put the virtual reality headset
on people and we'd had a monitorso we could see what they're
looking at.
And they could walk around likethey're walking around inside a
property and we'd go turn toyour right or take two steps
(25:51):
forward and they'd be in thekitchen and look under tables
and bring up a selection paneland change the colors of the
walls and the type of flooringand all these things that we
could do.
And so it was that you know Idid, I was doing you know the
marketing and the real estatepart of it and we had a
technician that would go and doall the setup and plug this into
(26:14):
that.
And I still don't know how allthat worked.
I tried to set it up myselfonce.
It took like an hour and hewould do it, you know, in 10
minutes.
But you know people would go upto him and go, well, hey, I've
got this three-bedroom, you knowdevelopment, and they'd talk to
Dave.
And people would go to me oh,is that the XYZ software?
And I'd have to be talked tohim.
(26:34):
And so I joke that with thetechnology that I'm the
interpreter, I speak real estate.
I translate it that way Becauseagents didn't call and say,
dave, get me some virtualreality by 6 o'clock tomorrow.
They'd go Dave, hey, how can Iuse this to promote my whatever
it might be property?
(26:54):
So it's kind of knowing thedifferent, you know the
different opportunities that areout there.
So if you're looking to investor you're looking to do
something, look at it from fromall points of view.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
That's awesome and I love that.
And one of the things I reallywant to dive into because I keep
hearing you reference it, itsounds like it's one of your
specialties is kind of not justthe presentation but how you go
about it, um how you finding theright people to present to, and
whether it's like real estatespecifically, um, whether it's
for raising capital, maybe it'sfor a sale or something similar,
or maybe it's for an agent,whatever it is, um, you seem
(27:29):
like you're very dialed in onfinding these people and
presenting in a certain way.
So can you elaborate on kind ofhow that looks and kind of how
you frame it?
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, I think you need to do that because, part of
it because there's so manyspecialties and, you know,
having the social media and allthese newer forms of marketing,
it's past the days when aresidential agent gets a listing
and they call up the newspaperand run an ad every Sunday.
You know we're past that pointwhere now it's kind of niche and
(28:04):
so it's getting people to think, okay, who's my candidate, who
would buy this?
And I get into this discussiona lot of times, even with some
longtime agents that because ofyou know equal opportunity and
just the way things are.
It's not like you could say,hey, this property is perfect
(28:25):
because it's in an Asianneighborhood, no, or whatever it
might happen to be.
No, you can't do that.
But the formula there is okay.
Let's just say I have aproperty that you know it could
be commercial, residential.
It's in an area that'sprimarily Asian and so you can't
directly market that way.
(28:47):
But you know what?
There's publications aroundthere, there's websites that
serve that area that maybe arein one of those languages, so
that's where you promote theproperty.
So you're not saying it, butyou're looking for those ways to
do it and that's why I'm alwaysasking the agents and brokers,
(29:09):
and it's residential, it'scommercial.
Who would buy this?
Who are you talking to?
It's not anywhere, anybody,anything anymore.
I mean it could be, but you'rereaching you're paying to reach
too many people that are notlikely candidates.
Yes, somebody may hearsomething and know somebody that
are not likely candidates.
Yes, somebody may hearsomething and know somebody.
A non-Asian could still wantthe property or know somebody
(29:31):
that is, but you still want tohave your focus toward who would
buy or who would invest.
And so that's kind of the basicpart of the theory of just
really, you know, thinking thatthrough and have it be the.
You know, if you're looking toreach teachers, okay, a
(29:58):
kindergarten teacher is going tohave different needs than a
high school teacher that doeshigh school juniors and seniors,
yet they're both teachers andthey could be in the same area,
but you would have somedifferent products to market to
each of them.
And these are things that a lotof people don't look at.
Because, you know, I know, inpresenting to an investor, if I
present a property to Nate, forall I know Nate's looked at 10
(30:22):
other properties that day.
He's not looking at my propertyon its merit.
He may be looking at mineproperty on its merit.
He may be looking at minecompared to nine other
properties, so mine has to hitthose buttons that he's not
seeing in those other nine.
I mean, yeah, the numbers haveto work, but we're talking the
initial part of the process.
Another thing that I preach tomy clients and to investors is
(30:49):
to look at it as the process,and I use the getting a job,
even though that's not somethingI'm having to do, but I use
that as my example.
So it's the purpose of thecover letter is to get them to
read the resume.
Purpose of the resume is to getthe first interview.
(31:10):
Purpose of the first interviewis really to get the second
interview.
Purpose of the second interviewnow it's to get the job.
So, ultimately, you want thejob, but you have to respect the
process and do it that way, andthat's the example that I use
with a property, Okay, what areits best features?
What distinguishes this?
You know who would buy it, andit's even things like using a
(31:34):
residential development as anexample.
Your house that you're lookingto sell.
It's a you know, two bedroomand it's in one of those you
know, oak Hills Estatescommunities and it's one of 48
houses that all look the same,but there's going to be
something about your unit.
Maybe it's closer to the frontentrance so it saves you the few
(31:57):
minutes of having to drivethrough the complex.
Maybe it's in the back so youdon't have traffic going by, or
it's further away from therailroad tracks at the other end
, or it's, you know, near theaccess road, or it's near the
swimming pool, or it's nearwhere the school bus stops.
It's finding that one thingthat makes your house different,
(32:19):
even if the ones down thestreet look the same, and these
are the things that I preachmake it unique, make it, you
know, distinctive.
And it's the kind of thing whereand I talk about this in
working with residential agentsdoing listing presentations but
this is probably an even betteranswer to your question, cole is
(32:39):
that you want to haveinformation that's not commonly
out there.
You're interested in a house.
You could ask five differentreal estate agents about that
house and chances are at leastfour of those five is going to
give you the same informationthat you just heard from the
previous agent.
So I want my client, or I wantto be that agent that says oh,
(33:05):
you know what the house nextdoor has this.
You know their basement's notfinished, this house is, or just
the little things.
That says, hey, I've been inthat property, I'm much more
familiar with that area.
Here's what's going on.
Here's some little nugget thatnobody else is going to give you
, and that's what I like to workwith with my clients.
(33:26):
That's the way to.
I think that's what makes thedifference.
That makes you kind of standout that you're hitting that.
You know hitting that target.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
This is so good.
Everybody that's listening,pause it, rewind, play it back
because it's so propertyspecific and then being able to
do your due diligence properly,to be able to market and then
catch that target audience.
And I think that is awesome.
You hit the nail right on thehead.
So, just as completely noscript, just follow up.
(33:57):
Question that in today'seconomy, what are you finding to
be the best method to be ableto get that traffic in?
So you talked a little bitabout going from thinking about
getting a job.
So let's go from cover letterto resume, first interview to
second interview.
But how are you bringing folkstogether to be able to have that
target audience?
Are you thinking webinars orinvestor dinners, or how is that
(34:19):
looking?
What are you finding the mostsuccess in?
Speaker 4 (34:23):
You know, I think, nate, great question, I think it
depends an unscripted answer,by the way, just to add to that.
You know, I think my answer isgoing to be and it is to a lot
of questions it depends, becauseit depends on the type of
property or opportunity that youare looking to have.
(34:44):
So if it's for using the jobinterview or getting the job
analogy, if it's for anexecutive position, it might be
something where you, you know,have somebody to your private
box at a football game or, youknow, put the in a situation
where you can talk at a higherlevel.
If it's for a maintenance job,it may be, you know, meeting by
(35:07):
a job site.
Or you know, hey, come meet me,I'm working on the.
You know the rust building overat the corner of third and elm.
Come meet me there and thenyou're on the site and you can
see, hey, this is what see theguy doing, the you know painting
the ceiling over there.
That's the type of thing wherewe need somebody to support that
, where maybe it's more of ashowing or that type of thing.
(35:30):
So I just think it depends, butagain, it's the you know making
it very.
I guess I'll say, you know like, try to customize it, make it
unique.
So maybe it's not just anotherjob interview to show.
This is why I'd like to, youknow, work here.
Now you have, you know, someoffices that have a ping pong
(35:51):
table in the lobby or in the youknow their conference room or
something, just to have thingsfor employees, and that's things
that, hey, that'd be neat, Icould go play ping pong during
work days.
Companies are doing things likethat.
So I think it's kind of the,you know, not making it the
typical.
You know, don't be the okay,here's what I'm supposed to do.
(36:12):
This company did this, thiscompany asked this question and
just kind of make it to wherethey're going.
To remember your opportunityBecause I talk about this too
when some of these you know realestate agents or people on
their own, they'll go look atthree, four open houses or three
, four properties in a day.
Well, it starts to run together,and so I've even suggested to
(36:36):
agents and to me not enough ofthem do this is to why not have
an open?
Well, I got one to do this, so,just for the quick story, but
this is kind of to your point,to making it unique where I got
them to hold an open house for asingle family home on a Tuesday
(37:02):
from 4 o'clock until 6.20.
Four o'clock until 620.
Now of course people are goingto go.
You know, okay having it on aTuesday, but why until 620?
That would be the firstquestion everybody would ask.
The answer was becauseeverybody could be on the 630
(37:23):
train back to downtown.
Now, right there, you knownothing about the house, but
you're already getting anamenity that you're right by the
train station.
You can get to and from workwithout having to go park and do
all this stuff.
The other part to it is okay,you know, and that's why a lot
(37:45):
of agents don't do this, becausethey figure the seller is going
to be disappointed if maybe oneor two people or nobody shows
up.
But whoever does show up,they're interested in the
property, they're coming at thattime and so by doing it on a
Tuesday or a Wednesday now hey,this is a really neat property
(38:08):
Well, if they want to go seeother properties, they're not
going to be open house untilSaturday or Sunday.
So this house gets theadvantage and even if they
schedule a showing, that mightnot be until Thursday or Friday.
So you're getting at least atwo-day advantage for that
potential buyer to think aboutthis property, plus seeing it
(38:29):
under those circumstances, ifthis house was open between noon
and four on Sunday, yeah,they'd have had more people, but
those people might be lookingat two other properties that day
and then they're comparing.
So I guess that's.
You know, that's a betterexample and I kind of wish more.
(38:50):
You know more people would dothat, but can't win them all.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I love that, but one of the things I want to
highlight that you were justtalking about is, like true
strategy.
It's doing things differently,like you said, and it's not just
strategy but it's also, I wouldsay, then, being an expert kind
of like you mentioned earlier.
You're doing somethingdifferently with intention, but
you also know your product, orknow what you're doing, better
than everybody else.
So not only do you have acompetitive advantage because
(39:14):
you're just being better, butyou're also strategizing to get
another step up.
So I just think you'recompounding those things
together.
With that being said, nate, doyou think it's time to jump in?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Oh, I think Dave is ready, I think so.
I think it's time for thesurprise.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
All right, dave, here's what we're going to do.
All right, we call this thefire round and we're going to
ask you a couple questions thatwe ask every guest.
You can answer shortly.
You can answer at length.
Whatever you want to do, we'regoing to try not to interrupt
you and or to give our ownanecdote to it.
We're going to fail.
We do every single time, butwe'll see what we can do.
(39:50):
So kick us off, nate.
Let us know when we're ready.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Performing entrepreneurs from the rest of
the crowd you know I missed thebeginning of the question.
It kind of muffled.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Sorry Again.
What separates top performinginvestors or entrepreneurs from
the rest of the crowd?
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Okay, I think it's the amount of attention and
research and knowledge.
Attention and research andknowledge, it's the approach.
Maybe it's confidence too, thatyou know what I'm looking for A
(40:39):
, b and C as opposed to I'mlooking for hey, do you have any
apartment buildings or do youhave any multifamily in the city
(40:59):
of whatever?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
that have this many units and were built after 2010?
And I think that's thedifference.
Love it, what is?
Speaker 4 (41:05):
a daily habit that's contributed to your success
Tracking everything.
So I use and the people thatyou know are selling CRMs are
going to, like you know, gothrough the ceiling at this but
I've used an Excel spreadsheetas my CRM for close to 25 years.
Before that, I used to have aspiral notebook by my side and
(41:26):
keep track of everything duringthe day.
So the Excel spreadsheet, I donot use it for formulas, I use
it for tracking.
I've got, you know, the name,the company, the phone number,
the email and a contact history.
So and I've done this withpeople, I've gone, you know,
been on the phone with them andhad their thing up and I'll say
(41:47):
you know, I think we did someproject together.
I'll go, yeah, in 2018, we didthe project over on Taylor
Street and I mean I will justhave this information there and
for each person in my database,I will have a next contact time
in there.
It may be six months from now,it may be next year, it may be
tomorrow at 3.30, but it'skeeping track of my resources.
(42:13):
Who told me what?
So I would know when I met them, where I met them, and it's
good for a number of things, forknowing resources and finding
things.
But I use it as a credibilitycheck at times, too, because
you'll find somebody tells yousomething and then, oh, call me
back in three months and youcall them back in three months.
And it as a credibility checkat times, too, because you'll
find somebody tells yousomething and then, oh, call me
back in three months and youcall them back in three months
and it's a whole different story.
(42:33):
So I'll make a note of that andif they go call me back in
three months, I may call themback in one month, acting like
that's when I was supposed tocall them back, and oftentimes
they don't know the difference.
But now I know that and theydon't know that I know that.
So that's my one thing is justkeep track of, like you know
everything, who you talk to, andthen I also.
(42:54):
With Excel, you can do colorcoding where it could be the
background or the text.
So I've got that where I can go.
Okay, I've got to call my bluestoday or the reds or whatever
color it may happen to be, andonly I know that color code.
So if I get hacked or somethinglike that, then there's things
that only I would know.
So that's my uh, that's mysecret is just keep track of a
(43:19):
lot of stuff and contactinformation and who told you
what and who didn't follow up,and but of there's the who did
and who you know you can rely onand, if you need, you know an
investor that does this you kindof.
You know.
The idea is to know who to go toand not do things like I've
told the story quite often thatjust personally in and this was
(43:44):
back in 06, actually a long timeago but my wife and I bought a
townhouse and we were buying itfrom one of the big builders
where you didn't really need arealtor, but they were
realtor-friendly.
So I had actually my bestfriend's sister that had been
doing real estate for years.
I was like, hey, you know we'regoing to get this house here,
go ahead.
You know, represent us.
(44:05):
You know you get the commissionand you know all that.
And that was fine and she did agood job.
We're in the townhouse and itwas somewhere between four and
six weeks after we moved in.
I get a postcard from her.
Now is the time to sell, and soit's like what a nice reminder
(44:25):
that I'm just another number inher database.
It's like what a nice reminderthat I'm just another number in
her database.
But this is something that Ipreach to agents and even
investors that I coach is it'snot just your list, it's who
you're sending to for whatpurpose.
And that's part of what I getout of the Excel spreadsheet.
I'm not just going to send toeverybody I know.
(44:46):
If it's something that needs abuy, I'm going to send it to
people that could legitimatelythat.
I've kind of vetted in my ownway that could be potential
buyers at least first and notmake that mistake of saying, hey
, you're just somebody in mydatabase.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
So good.
I love the tracking.
We live and breathe by thetracking.
So good, good.
What is a piece of advice thatyou'd give to yourself if you're
starting again?
Speaker 4 (45:14):
um, yeah, well, uh, I guess I'd say spend my money
differently.
So I wish that I had uh moremoney, or had either more it
would have led to more money tobe investing later on or just
make better investments from thestart and to think long-term
(45:37):
rather than short-term at anearlier age.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Love it.
What is your favorite businessbook?
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Love it.
What is your favorite businessbook?
It's actually, I would go withI don't remember the name of the
book actually from years agothis was probably like at least
20 years ago Mark McCormick, whowas with what is it like?
(46:11):
Igs or it was an agency thatbecame sports agents and all
that, and he did a book about.
It was something like the Poweror the Art of Negotiation I
don't remember the exact title.
It was by Mark McCormick, buthe went into about the with
negotiation and just strategiesthat I still use and it says, if
(46:31):
it's a really big deal, youknow, ask for 24 hours or to
sleep on something you knowovernight and not rush into a
big decision, that you want tolook into things and then do
some research, make some calls,look at it from all points of
view, because I will, you know,I will try to do that.
So that would be and it alsofrom my background that while
(46:55):
growing up and through grammarschool and high school we kind
of had our core four where therewere four of us that were all
really close.
Well, two of the other threeguys went on to be lawyers and
so I kind of grew up where wewould kind of challenge each
other, and it's almost like wewere playing lawyer in school of
make our case where we wouldjust come up with I mean, we
(47:21):
would do, you know, like mockdrafts who would we draft for
our favorite football team?
But we had to make our case.
It wasn't.
Oh, they need a defensive end.
We would like come up withnames of people.
And this was before you had allthis information available.
You know, we would likeresearch guys and it was like we
wanted to win.
You know our argument and thisis what happened.
(47:43):
And as we went on in ourprofessional life, the level of
trust was such that we would runlike super top secret business
things by each other and my onefriend in particular he actually
we would get together and hewould do business presentations.
He'd say, hey, he waspresenting this like tax
accounting software to groupsand he would do the presentation
(48:06):
for me because I didn't knowsoftware, to see what questions
I would ask.
And then I would point thingsout that, hey, you should
mention this, oh, great idea.
Or I knew you would say that,and so we did these types of
things.
So I think that to me was as bigof a help as the, the book by
Mark McCormick, but that's oneas far as the looking at the
(48:27):
negotiation.
So to me it was not the subject, it was the skill, because so
much of what I'm doing for realestate could be done in any
industry and I keep you knowside of that.
There have been times when I'vedone projects that have nothing
to do with real estate, butit's because of it calls upon
skills that I already have.
(48:48):
So I'm reasonably able to do it.
That is awesome.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
What is your favorite part of running, operating,
owning however you want to takeit, your business?
Favorite part?
Speaker 4 (49:17):
it's just.
It's the satisfaction of eithercompleting the next step or
completing a major project,seeing that deal come together,
having somebody that I'vetrained or redone their database
for or done something for, andit works what is something new
that you've implemented intoyour business that's helped
drive your success.
What is something new thatyou've implemented into your
(49:38):
business that's helped driveyour success?
I would say the, actually, andthis will fit right in Nate, but
I would say that the being moreaggressive on social media in
the last couple of years hasmade a big difference.
And so, with the you mentionedAlignable, which is how we came
to know each other.
But there's LinkedIn andthere's some other platforms and
(50:03):
it's really you.
To me it's you get out of itwhat you put into it.
And, yeah, the majority of thepeople just scroll through.
Maybe they like something,maybe they do this, they do that
, but to really get into it andcomment on posts and that's
something that's led me toconnections is following or
(50:24):
looking at posts frominfluential people, very
successful people, and insteadof just liking something, come
up with a comment, withsomething to say.
That's got some meat on thebones.
So it's not like you have todisagree with them, but talk
about a situation so they maypost about.
You know some big.
You know housing development,that's closing and it's, you
(50:47):
know, 80% sold or whatever itmay be, and it's like a big deal
so to be able to comment that.
You know, typically the last20% doesn't sell until three
months after the project is open, because people want to make
sure that something you know orthat type of thing, and I'm just
, you know, kind of making thatup.
But it's the idea of having aquality response, because I've
(51:11):
gotten like very importantpeople to engage with me because
of comments or strategies orshared things.
There was a time and sometimesyou've got to give away a good.
You don't have to, but youcould give away like a really
good chunk of the pie.
So there was a time a couple ofyears back, I was at a, I guess
(51:33):
I'll say like a marketingluncheon and it so happens that
I was one of.
It was something like 18 peopleand it was the luncheon.
But you know, you'd go aroundthe room, introduce yourself and
, for whatever reason that dayit was like 12 of the people
were lawyers and it just wasn't.
There was like I don't know ifthere was anybody else there
(51:54):
that had much to do with realestate.
So I did my thing.
When we're introducing, it'slike it wasn't like a you know,
major, oh, dave, hey, questions,because it wasn't, you know,
turned out to kind of not be mytarget audience.
But then something came up inthe discussion about.
They were talking about withyou know methods of generating
(52:15):
leads.
Talking about with you knowmethods of generating leads.
And so I jumped in with tellinga story about how, yeah, this
was a mortgage broker that Iwork with who was doing VA,
veterans Administration loansand working with military and so
the campaign that he came upwith and I helped with I was
actually trying to sell him onanother campaign and he was
(52:37):
explaining why he didn't need itand then I wound up working
with him on this.
So, because he was doing VAloans, he was looking up when
there'd be like military battles.
So just to use, well, I mean,unfortunately we've got things
going on now, but when you hearof like these cities in Ukraine,
(52:57):
just as an example this wasbefore that, but like cities in
Ukraine so he would buy thoseplaces as keywords or military
actions or things that relate tothe military, figuring that
whoever is searching themprobably has some involvement
with they're either active, theycould be deployed it's a family
(53:20):
member, somebody with someinvolvement.
That's what he did.
He stopped buyingmortgage-related keywords and
went to this campaign so I wasable to suggest some places to
do that and increase it.
Doing that doubled his leads inless than three months with the
same spend.
So I shared that story at thisthing, where it was mostly
(53:42):
attorneys that you know, that'sthe type of thing for lead
generation.
Hey, you know what, sometimesit's finding the right keyword.
And before I left that luncheonI had business cards from two
attorneys, one of whom I woundup meeting with and actually did
do some things to help him out.
So that is part of the, youknow, making it with the
situation and thinking.
(54:03):
But that's from the natural.
Okay, how can I make thisunique?
You know, recalling anexperience.
Usually that's something Iwon't share until or unless
somebody's hired me or about tohire me or I really need it.
But I put it out there that onetime, more than I usually do,
but it led to business.
So that's, you know, that's howI would answer that question.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
I love it.
It's so interesting to hearyour journey.
I love how you incorporate thestories in here and kind of like
really paint the picture and Ihope somebody listening can kind
of see the value that he'sbringing just from the stories
and how it's implemented and howa lot of it's so tried and true
.
I'm just thinking back to whenwe started this, right on doing
(54:52):
your first presentation,realizing the power of that and
then growing slowly and endingup where you are now doing a lot
of the virtual stuff, doing ads, doing all these cool things
and just kind of having thisexpertise in what you're working
on, little pieces that I wantto keep bringing up, like the no
doesn't mean no in a way, beingan expert, trust the process
(55:13):
and know that the process has apurpose.
So many good things that youmentioned.
So I have two final questionsfor you One, where can people
find more info on you or contactyou?
And two, do you have any finaladvice?
Speaker 4 (55:29):
Yeah, I guess, as far as the contact, probably the
best way because I do, I oftenstart with people, even by kind
of coaching and consulting.
So there isrealestatemediacoachcom is
probably the best for contactingme.
I don't know if we should putthe email out or how you want to
(55:53):
do that, but that's up to's upto you.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
We can put it below, everything below, but if you
want to share it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (56:00):
Okay, we can do that.
That's, dave, at first incomand then, as far as the uh, the
final piece of advice, that itis to um, you know what?
Well, yeah, I will, now that Ithink about it.
It's kind of the keep track ofeverything, even minor details,
(56:20):
but it's also, whatever it isyou're doing, whether it's real
estate or not, and if it's realestate, to make it specialized
is and this comes from my doingthe presentation and public
speaking coaching, and that is,let's just say, you've just
looked at a property it's to buy, to rent, whatever the case
might be, for whatever reasonand you get back in the car and
(56:42):
you're heading back to theoffice or you're sitting around
later that day with no notes,with nothing in front of you,
but maybe a stopwatch or a clock, do a 60 second commercial for
that property.
So that's the advice because,yeah, you may fumble and stumble
, but that's the point.
(57:02):
You want to keep doing it.
Maybe you do it every day for aweek or three hours later to
learn how to do that, becausethat's the skill.
So you just saw a property.
Maybe you've got a partner ormaybe it's your spouse or
significant other that you'vegot to talk about that property
to.
Maybe it's a potential buyer.
You want to be able to developthat gift of gab, that ability
(57:26):
to talk about it, and so thefirst time well, let's see, it
had a bedroom upstairs, but bythe third or fourth time you're
doing it, it's a three bedroomhome.
It's this, it's that you don'thave to do it in a professional
broadcast place but be able totalk about it for 60 seconds.
So that's my advice.
And the rest of that is whenyou have a presentation to do
(57:49):
and that could be a listingpresentation you're presenting
to a potential investor.
It's you're talking, you know,to two people about a job,
whatever it might be is to ifyou know you've got two minutes
to do your presentation, preparelike it's a five-minute
presentation and practice it andpractice it and practice it.
Then knock it down to threeminutes and practice it, then
(58:13):
knock it down to two minutes,because by that time you've got
the best half of what you wantto talk about.
You're well rehearsed and ifsomebody asks you a question,
you know you can talk about itfor three more minutes easily
and that could give you theconfidence.
That's what makes thedifference, so you're not
fumbling and stumbling aroundfumbling and stumbling around.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Holy sheesh, my gosh Mic drop.
This has been amazing.
I appreciate you so much.
I think this is the first timewe've ever done a show where, on
the very last question,somebody gave out two pieces of
homework and I think it'samazing.
60-second commercial and thenpractice, if you're doing a
two-minute presentation, as ifyou're doing it at five, and
then count it down and foreverybody that's listening, of
(58:58):
course, get home safe but, moreimportantly, also reach back out
to Dave.
Let him know how it went afteryou did those two homework
assignments and how it was ableto affect or impact any of the
changes that you had coming.
Rather be getting on newclients or bringing a new
business, or maybe justpracticing and pitching it to a
spouse or a loved one.
We definitely want that.
Let us know.
(59:19):
I want that feedback Again.
Thank you all so much for tuningin to Forged in Fire.
This has been an amazingepisode.
Dave, I don't even know if wetalked about this earlier, but,
cole, actually we connected Davewith Eddie, who was another one
of our partners on the 54 unit.
Both of them are in Chicago I'monly a couple hours away, so
I'm looking forward to as soonas the weather gets a little
warmer and it's not negative 10degrees outside getting together
(59:42):
with the two of you I know bothof you are hosting meetups, so
this is going to be an exciting2025.
So, with that being said, in2025, we thrive.
Everybody, get home safe, takecare.
We'll see you all on the nextepisode of Forged in Fire.
Thank y'all so much.
Take care.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Forged in
Fire.
If you enjoyed today's raw,unfiltered stories, don't forget
to like, subscribe and leave usa review.
Your feedback helps us bringmore real world insights to
entrepreneurs like you.
Be sure to join us next timefor even more lessons, struggles
(01:00:23):
and breakthroughs on the roadto success.
Keep forging ahead.
Forget what you've heard.
Forged in Fire is where realentrepreneurs come to share the
untold truths of success thelate nights, the crushing
setbacks, the moments thatchange everything.
No fluff, just fire, ready tostep into the heat and unlock
(00:25):
what it really takes to build abusiness.
This is where legends are made.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another
exciting episode of Forged inFire.
I am your co-host, NateFarmer-Eden.
Allow me to introduce mycounterpart, Cole.
What's going on, brother?
Come on stage.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Nate, how are we doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Let's be honest with everybody that's listening.
Today has just been a day,brother.
My laptop went down on me.
I'm using a whole other setup.
It's a struggle, but you knowwhat?
This is how legends are maderight.
We persevere, we push through,but enough.
This is how legends are maderight.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
We persevere, we push through.
But enough about me how youdoing.
That's it.
I love it.
Now, same thing Another Tuesdaytrying to enjoy the journey.
Today's one of those gruelingdays where it's just tons of
attorneys, emails, lenders, refi.
Just part of the process,though, so you know enjoying it
though, trying to enjoy thejourney, so I'm excited for this
.
So this is always a highlightof the day doing these episodes,
doing these recordings, meetingour guests, and so you know,
(01:28):
before we jump into that, acouple quick housekeeping items.
As always, guys.
First, please leave us a ratingand review.
We want to help other peoplegrow and we want to keep
educating others, so that willhelp us do that.
Second, please subscribe so youdon't miss another episode.
And, of course, last but notleast, sit back, relax, enjoy
(01:48):
the ride.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's gonna be awesome here.
So today we have the honor,pleasure and privilege to
introduce a dear friend of mine,dave cole.
Now, dave and I we met a fewmonths back and it was actually
a complete like fluke accidenthow it happened.
I had a few spare moments and Iwas on alignable.
For those that are out therewho don't know about alignable,
uh, it's a platform forentrepreneurs.
(02:11):
There's a few people in thereal estate industry that are
out there as well, but you canutilize it if you are short for
time or you want to just jump inand do quick meetings to get to
know and network with folks.
So five minutes before hismeeting, I was just searching
and this guy, dave Cole, washosting a commercial real estate
meetup online.
So I was able to stay rightwhere I'm at, jump online, jump
(02:31):
in and get to network with aroom full of other investors and
folks within the industry.
So, without further ado, dave,come on stage.
Brother, how we doing man.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I'm doing great.
It's great to be with you onthis Nate.
This is going to be fun andhopefully we'll help some folks
give some inspiration.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh, a thousand percent man, this is going to be
awesome.
So please, without further ado,kind of tell us a little bit
about yourself.
What got you here?
What brought you?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
here Originally and born and raised in Chicago, and
that's all the way throughcollege and the school that I
went to, the college I went toin Chicago, had a training
(03:20):
program for radio and TVbroadcasting, which was my goal
at that time.
And I did wind up working forsome radio stations and going
about my goals.
And then a couple thingshappened along the way, those, I
guess, light bulb moments, youcould say.
So I wound up just to condensethe story I was working
(03:42):
part-time for a couple of radiostations in Chicago, had the
opportunity to get out there anddo my first full-time radio job
in Lexington, kentucky.
So I moved there and got to befriendly with you know, becoming
friends with co-workers, and soone that I kept in touch with
was more, he was the chieftechnician for the station and I
(04:05):
eventually wound up back inChicago and was working for a
radio station there and also fora sports phone, and this was
before the internet and back inthe days when sports fans
actually would have to, you know, had the phone number to call
to get all the updated scoresand all that to keep track of
the games.
And so one, and my friend thetechnician, actually got hired
(04:30):
by a radio ownership group outin San Francisco and they were
actually building a new.
They got licensed for anotherstation and were building the
studio and literally building aradio station.
And that was part of his role.
Well, at radio stations youdidn't have to worry about the
phone bill, and so it sohappened that I would be working
(04:51):
on Sunday nights and actuallyrunning the board, so I didn't
have much to do.
He'd be in there working on thestation on Sunday nights when
other employees weren't around,and we'd just sit there and talk
on the phone for an hour or soevery week.
And he mentioned that he hadheard that then Pacific Bell was
looking to create theserecorded telephone announcement
(05:12):
services for California.
They were doing it in Chicago,new York, some other cities, but
not there.
So he was saying, oh yeah, howdoes it work?
How do they get calls, how dothey make money?
And I'm just, you know, havinga good time talking to him.
And it turns out that he hadsome contacts through Pacific
Bell, then the phone company outthere, and was getting
(05:35):
information about doing this.
And we wind up in this wholeconversation about, yeah, if
we're going to do a sports phoneand we can do all this stuff
for other people, and I know howto do the announcements and get
all this information into a oneminute or a two minute script
and how to update and do allthis.
And, him being the technician,he knew how all the equipment
worked, which I didn't.
(05:56):
And so we're talking andtalking and eventually the
opportunity was such that I well, meanwhile the radio station I
was working for I had actuallygotten more hours and was really
liking it, and one of those Ihave no reason to leave.
And it's getting to the pointof this, opportunities coming up
(06:16):
in Los Angeles that I'd reallylike to do, but I'm happy
working at the radio station inChicago.
And just as it was getting neardecision time, it's like the
biggest decision in my life wasmade for me.
I come into work one Saturdayand there's a note for me in the
box and it's like in red penand I'm thinking, uh-oh, what
(06:38):
did I do now?
And I open it up and it was aconfidential note that the radio
station was being sold and theycould not guarantee anybody any
jobs past the first of the year.
Well, that kind of made thisdecision easier.
So it was a radio station salethat had nothing to do with me
(06:58):
that made this decision to moveout to LA and get involved with
this.
We're calling it atelecommunications service
bureau, so it was doing that andit turned out that another
company was able to get onsooner doing a sports phone
thing and that kind of hurt ourdeal.
But we were already talkingwith other companies about, you
(07:22):
know, doing similar work forthem.
So there at least was work forme, although it took a little
while.
And in doing that, so after afew years and it, you know,
picked up and I was enjoying it.
And one day, well, a couple ofthings happened while I was out
there in LA.
(07:42):
One was that I was buddies witha couple of guys that worked
with a small manufacturing firmand so just hanging out, and
we're having dinner one nightand they go, dave, we got
invited to do a bid presentationfor one of our products to a
large manufacturer.
If they were to buy this fromus, this would be a really big
(08:04):
deal.
And I'm like, oh, that's great,you know anything I can do to
help?
And they're like, well, we'rereally poor about our
presentation skills.
Knowing that I had thebroadcasting background and
doing all this kind of stuff.
You know that when a report'ssupposed to be 75 seconds and be
on the air at 2.17 PM, I've gotit ready and I can do it
(08:27):
differently an hour later andtalk about it and all these
things.
So they hired me to do theirpresentation.
So it was like the next week wego to this big manufacturing
plant.
We get there and the peoplethat had presented before were
just packing up to leave and Isee their presentation board and
I'm like, well, this is kind ofgoing to be a tough act to
follow.
So but I went in, did my job,did the presentation, thought I
(08:50):
thought I at least did my best,answered the questions look like
I knew about springs and partsand stuff that I had never heard
of till a week earlier.
And you know, off, we went anda couple, a couple days later,
the one buddy calls Dave.
We got the bid and I'm like, oh, congratulations, that's great,
he goes Dave.
(09:11):
So I asked the guy what madeyou choose us and the guy said
it was your presentation.
So the light bulb went on.
A couple of months after that weget approached at this
telecommunication service Bureauby a group that had technology.
They actually had then theearly version of a kiosk system.
You touch the screen, you gothrough pictures, that type of
(09:34):
thing, and their idea was to usethis for real estate.
Like you would put it in a youknow shopping mall or office
building where there's a lot ofpedestrian traffic.
You'd go up, touch the screen,see photos of different
properties in the area and again, this is before the internet.
So it was and if you'reinterested in one you'd press
the button and out would come alittle printout with the agent's
(09:55):
name and more information aboutthe property.
So, and my involvement was goingto be to kind of be updating
and, you know, scripting theproperty information and
coordinating all that.
And then the other guys weremore of the technical for
running the equipment andinstalling the computers and
doing this.
(10:16):
So since I was going to beinvolved kind of in the
marketing and the production, Iwent with on meetings to was
like four or five pretty bigreal estate firms in Los Angeles
when they were presenting thisconcept.
Well, they all love the concept, but not the price.
So we're, you know it's like,well, this isn't going to work.
(10:37):
And back at the office and thenext big moment was they're like
yeah, that's really too bad.
And I said wait a minute,moment was they're like, yeah,
that's really too bad.
And I said wait a minute.
They didn't say you know, theproblem was the price.
They didn't say the problem waswith utilizing technology to
market properties.
So we had all this phoneequipment to do these recorded
announcements.
(10:57):
At that time, before theinternet, if you wanted to go
look at open houses in whatevercity and you know you'd have to
wait until the Saturday orSunday newspaper came out to do
it.
We knew they had thatinformation ahead of time.
So we set up a phone number andI produced some recorded
announcements.
Example ones called a couple ofthe people we met with the real
(11:20):
estate offices and said here'sthis phone number.
We're going to do the openhouse hotline so that we can
people can call this number,hear descriptions of houses and
then get the open house schedulefor the coming weekend.
Send me your open house list,we'll do this at no cost.
We think this could work andthey did so.
(11:41):
Then I had a couple of them onthere.
They said, yeah, this soundsgood.
So then I called back a coupleof the other offices we had met
with and said, hey, remember me.
But now instead of thousands ofdollars we're talking tens of
dollars.
So we charged them, I don'tknow, like 25 bucks a week or
something to do this for theiropen house list to at least get
a little bit of money in.
(12:03):
And it kind of started takingoff.
In my going out to promote thisto some meetings of real estate
agents and opportunities Iwound up getting acquainted with
and was able to form apartnership with what was then
an official publication of theLos Angeles Association of
Realtors, which was once a weekand out of the whole week it
(12:25):
happened to come out on dingding ding Fridays.
So they started publishing thelist to alert the realtors to
these open houses and then Iguess they sold you know
advertising along the side.
So that gave me the chance tonow approach these other offices
, say, hey, we've got these bigcompanies on it where it's being
published in this you knowrealtor.
Hey, we've got these bigcompanies on it where it's being
published in this you knowrealtor newspaper and charging
(12:48):
them for doing the properties.
So of course I mean we got someto do it and wound up getting a
lender to sponsor it and itjust kind of went from there.
Now, at that time, before theinternet, the real estate agents
and brokers.
Their copy was for the MLS bookflyers, newspaper ads,
(13:09):
magazines they weren't writingfor like broadcasting or other
sources.
So they started hiring me tohelp them write their
announcements.
And then a couple of yearslater, well, along came the
internet, which kind of knockedoff the phone service.
But by then I'm getting hiredbecause now it was the same
thing.
They weren't used to writingfor the internets and using that
(13:29):
in their marketing and learningemail.
So that's kind of how thisstarted, by accident and from
you know we're still producingthe announcements and that and I
was still.
I did some part-time stuff forradio stations and then I moved
back to Chicago in the early 90sand actually took that with me,
because by that time we put thephone service was still going
(13:53):
but it was on an 800 number soit could be from anywhere, was
able to make deals, to add acouple of cities, and in fact a
lender in Texas got me connectedwith at that time in the
mid-90s or late 90s actually,remax of Texas was buying time
on a Houston TV station to do ahome showcase show.
(14:14):
So they started putting thephone line number, the 800
number to call, press this Codefor more information on the
property and to be connecteddirectly to the agent.
And so now this was on TV.
So they actually brought medown to Houston to present to
other REMAX offices, to be ableto use this phone service to
(14:34):
promote properties that theycouldn't afford.
I mean that there was no timeto put on TV, so we had this
going in Houston.
We had some other things going.
So that's kind of you know whereall this started and it was
just, you know, either takingadvantage of or seeing the
opportunities or basically, inmy case, using both those
(14:57):
stories, my friends with themanufacturing group and the
people bringing the technology.
It's what happened after andmaking the difference.
So that's my lesson that Ilearned and benefited from.
And I guess if there's onething and hopefully there's more
than one thing to get out oftalking with you both today,
(15:17):
it's that it's.
You know, a no or a situationdoesn't have to end because
that's what you were expected todo.
How can you keep that going?
And that's the one I love,sharing that story and that
lesson.
And then we fast forward, youknow, 30 years later.
So I'm involved with technology, such as virtual reality tours
(15:40):
for proposed properties, takingthem from floor plans and
architectural drawings and doingthat, and you know a couple of
other things, some geo-fencingor geo-targeting, as far as you
know, retargeting people,advertising based on their
online preferences.
But 30 years later, I'm usingtechnology, but I'm also helping
(16:01):
real estate professionals, bothcommercial and residential, to
do what they do.
So to me it's kind of doing thesame thing what they do, so to
me it's kind of doing the samething.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It just keeps getting updated.
So interesting and it's verycool to hear that story and kind
of where you came from, how itprogressed and how you ended up
where you are now.
So tell me a little more interms of after all that, after
that whole journey you mentioned, you're doing a couple
different pieces now.
So what is like the bread andbutter that you're working on?
What is your favorite thing todo and why?
So, out of that, what's yourfavorite?
(16:34):
Why?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I think my favorite thing to do is to create real
estate deals.
I found up I do some coachingand consulting with investors a
lot more than brokers these daysand investor groups, and it's
(16:57):
being able to combine theoriginal broadcasting skills and
knowing how to put apresentation together and how to
do the research and how to makeit your own and not be reading
the same copy that everybodyelse is Combined with being
involved in all different phasesof a deal.
I also do some little bit ofinvesting myself in single
(17:18):
family properties, so I've kindof been either involved with or
in some fashion at like, almostevery end of a deal.
So what I like is the putting adeal together where I'm
bringing components to the table.
And it was a proposal.
It was in place for a mixed-usecommercial development where it
(17:54):
was going to have the retailand restaurants and parking and
then one tower was going to bethe hotel and the other tower
condos, like all is kind of ayou know city within a block or
within the same structure kindof thing.
And so the guy that I well,actually I didn't know yet, but
it turns out that there weresupposed to be two partner, two
(18:16):
different groups, partnering inthis.
The one group had somethinghappen aside from the project
and had to pull out.
So here's this guy that had putin all this time and effort and
had the plans and the approvaland everything all ready to go
and needed either the financingor an investment partner to get
(18:37):
the project done.
So I was brought in to.
I do know some lending sourcesand also I've got some sources
that will look at joint ventureopportunities into some private
money and private investors.
So I was brought in to see whatI could do to help get either a
partner or investor, whateverthe case might be.
(18:59):
In doing that I was able topresent the technology that we
could use the virtual realitytechnology and some of the other
things to help attract buyers,tenants, whatever the, you know
guests, whatever the case mightbe.
So I was going to get that work, you know, if I could put the
deal together.
(19:19):
Now, how I got put in thissituation was I knew the
architect on that deal.
So they lost out on workbecause the deal wasn't ready to
go through.
So the architect put me intouch because by doing that then
both myself and them would getthe work, plus I'd be involved
(19:41):
in some way with thisdevelopment and that would
obviously be a nice springboard.
So that's the kind of thing Imean, that's kind of extreme,
but that's the kind of thingthat I enjoy doing the most is
putting things together.
And I still do have, you know,access to private money and
non-traditional lending and tothe technology that help
promotes, and I've worked onfeasibility studies, done market
(20:05):
research, so I've had somereally interesting projects of
(20:30):
you know.
It's things like and this iswhat I enjoy I actually had the
owner of some laundromats hiredme to research another city, to
go in and do things like thetraffic counts, the demographics
of the neighborhood apartmentbuildings where there were no
in-house laundry facilities, orin other words, find some areas
that might be ripe for planninga new laundromat, to then
explore how much or how littlecompetition there was and the
location, to then look at whattype of storefront space is
available for lease in thoseareas front space is available
(20:52):
for lease in those areas, and somy role there was to come up
with the research, not to givean opinion and not to say, oh, I
found a spot, here you go.
It was just to provide theinformation so that they could
make the necessary decision.
So I like that and being ableto, you know, help in the
decision process come up withthis information.
But there have been times whenI've been asked to make a
recommendation.
(21:13):
There's times, like this, whereI'm asked not to, to help them
make the decision.
So I think that's the kind ofthing that I enjoy is kind of
putting things together, being apart of bigger deals than you
know.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
My own situation would normally allow me to be in
than you know, my own situationwould normally allow me to be
in.
Oh my gosh, I love that athousand percent, dude, and it's
so amazing to be able to hearyour journey from the very
beginning.
I'm echoing exactly what Colewas saying, and the word that
just keeps coming to mind herein your story is just being able
to adapt and to be able topivot.
(21:46):
As technology started to spin,you were just like okay, I can
figure out where there might bea pain point of issue and I can
go ahead and try to figure out asolution, and then I'm going to
present that solution and thenwe're just going to adapt and
overcome whatever the challengeis.
I think that is awesome, sohats off to you.
So I'm at the same wavelengthnow, especially with access to
(22:07):
MLS and we were talking yearsbefore the internet.
Then we were talking kiosk andnow, with all these new pieces
of technology and of course someof it would be you being able
to do virtual tours andwalkthroughs and all that.
But what are some of thestruggles that you're seeing on
a day-to-day from otheroperators that you talk to and
with your personal brand andyour personal business?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
what are some of the other struggles that you're
running into with investors aswell, that you've been able to
sort of tackle and overcome forthem okay, I think that, uh,
some of the struggles are thatin a way, uh, with real estate
that it's almost become toospecialized now and, granted,
there are times you need aspecialist and special skills,
(22:50):
and granted, there are times youneed a specialist and special
skills, but it's like you can'tjust say, hey, I'm a multifamily
investor, because multifamilyinvestor could be a six-unit
apartment building in the middleof Montana or it could be a you
know 300 unit building inManhattan.
(23:13):
Those are still multifamily.
And so it's like you know, youhave to almost like, pin that
down I do single family.
Or even the different types ofinvestments out there.
Yeah, fix and flips have beenaround for a while, even though
they've increased in the pastfew years, but now you have just
these different versions whereit's like, okay, I do minor
(23:36):
rehab, fix and flips, or I'mlooking for teardowns.
Now there's build to rent andthat's really hit within the
past two or three years wherethere are entire investor groups
that focus on build to rent.
In some cases it's buying andconverting.
In more cases I'm seeing it'sbuilding from the ground up,
(23:58):
where they're actually building,in some cases a development of
single family homes.
In other cases it may be likefor condo units, but instead of
selling them they're doing themas rental.
So that's becoming.
That's what I mean.
That's probably the bestexample of how specialized it's
becoming.
And so I've well, I was goingto say I've had to, I haven't
(24:22):
had to, but I've made it a pointto learn and understand those
differences so that I canexplain that.
And another thing too is thatand it kind of fits in with the
combining the last two questionsof what I like to do and you
know what are the trends goingon with being specialized is
(24:44):
that, from coaching and teachingand working with especially
newer investors, is explaining,to find the property and then
run different scenarios.
So there are properties outthere where it may be more
financially feasible in the longrun to build it, to rent or
(25:07):
make it a rental as opposed toflipping, so things like that.
So I think that's kind ofwhat's going on and kind of be
the interpreter I use theexpression just on that line
with the virtual reality thatbefore the pandemic we would
actually go out and present thedue demonstrations of the
(25:29):
virtual reality and present thedue demonstrations of the
virtual reality and we were in,like some large retail stores,
some real estate offices andsome conferences.
We'd kind of rope off an area,put the virtual reality headset
on people and we'd had a monitorso we could see what they're
looking at.
And they could walk around likethey're walking around inside a
property and we'd go turn toyour right or take two steps
(25:51):
forward and they'd be in thekitchen and look under tables
and bring up a selection paneland change the colors of the
walls and the type of flooringand all these things that we
could do.
And so it was that you know Idid, I was doing you know the
marketing and the real estatepart of it and we had a
technician that would go and doall the setup and plug this into
(26:14):
that.
And I still don't know how allthat worked.
I tried to set it up myselfonce.
It took like an hour and hewould do it, you know, in 10
minutes.
But you know people would go upto him and go, well, hey, I've
got this three-bedroom, you knowdevelopment, and they'd talk to
Dave.
And people would go to me oh,is that the XYZ software?
And I'd have to be talked tohim.
(26:34):
And so I joke that with thetechnology that I'm the
interpreter, I speak real estate.
I translate it that way Becauseagents didn't call and say,
dave, get me some virtualreality by 6 o'clock tomorrow.
They'd go Dave, hey, how can Iuse this to promote my whatever
it might be property?
(26:54):
So it's kind of knowing thedifferent, you know the
different opportunities that areout there.
So if you're looking to investor you're looking to do
something, look at it from fromall points of view.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
That's awesome and I love that.
And one of the things I reallywant to dive into because I keep
hearing you reference it, itsounds like it's one of your
specialties is kind of not justthe presentation but how you go
about it, um how you finding theright people to present to, and
whether it's like real estatespecifically, um, whether it's
for raising capital, maybe it'sfor a sale or something similar,
or maybe it's for an agent,whatever it is, um, you seem
(27:29):
like you're very dialed in onfinding these people and
presenting in a certain way.
So can you elaborate on kind ofhow that looks and kind of how
you frame it?
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, I think you need to do that because, part of
it because there's so manyspecialties and, you know,
having the social media and allthese newer forms of marketing,
it's past the days when aresidential agent gets a listing
and they call up the newspaperand run an ad every Sunday.
You know we're past that pointwhere now it's kind of niche and
(28:04):
so it's getting people to think, okay, who's my candidate, who
would buy this?
And I get into this discussiona lot of times, even with some
longtime agents that because ofyou know equal opportunity and
just the way things are.
It's not like you could say,hey, this property is perfect
(28:25):
because it's in an Asianneighborhood, no, or whatever it
might happen to be.
No, you can't do that.
But the formula there is okay.
Let's just say I have aproperty that you know it could
be commercial, residential.
It's in an area that'sprimarily Asian and so you can't
directly market that way.
(28:47):
But you know what?
There's publications aroundthere, there's websites that
serve that area that maybe arein one of those languages, so
that's where you promote theproperty.
So you're not saying it, butyou're looking for those ways to
do it and that's why I'm alwaysasking the agents and brokers,
(29:09):
and it's residential, it'scommercial.
Who would buy this?
Who are you talking to?
It's not anywhere, anybody,anything anymore.
I mean it could be, but you'rereaching you're paying to reach
too many people that are notlikely candidates.
Yes, somebody may hearsomething and know somebody that
are not likely candidates.
Yes, somebody may hearsomething and know somebody.
A non-Asian could still wantthe property or know somebody
(29:31):
that is, but you still want tohave your focus toward who would
buy or who would invest.
And so that's kind of the basicpart of the theory of just
really, you know, thinking thatthrough and have it be the.
You know, if you're looking toreach teachers, okay, a
(29:58):
kindergarten teacher is going tohave different needs than a
high school teacher that doeshigh school juniors and seniors,
yet they're both teachers andthey could be in the same area,
but you would have somedifferent products to market to
each of them.
And these are things that a lotof people don't look at.
Because, you know, I know, inpresenting to an investor, if I
present a property to Nate, forall I know Nate's looked at 10
(30:22):
other properties that day.
He's not looking at my propertyon its merit.
He may be looking at mineproperty on its merit.
He may be looking at minecompared to nine other
properties, so mine has to hitthose buttons that he's not
seeing in those other nine.
I mean, yeah, the numbers haveto work, but we're talking the
initial part of the process.
Another thing that I preach tomy clients and to investors is
(30:49):
to look at it as the process,and I use the getting a job,
even though that's not somethingI'm having to do, but I use
that as my example.
So it's the purpose of thecover letter is to get them to
read the resume.
Purpose of the resume is to getthe first interview.
(31:10):
Purpose of the first interviewis really to get the second
interview.
Purpose of the second interviewnow it's to get the job.
So, ultimately, you want thejob, but you have to respect the
process and do it that way, andthat's the example that I use
with a property, Okay, what areits best features?
What distinguishes this?
You know who would buy it, andit's even things like using a
(31:34):
residential development as anexample.
Your house that you're lookingto sell.
It's a you know, two bedroomand it's in one of those you
know, oak Hills Estatescommunities and it's one of 48
houses that all look the same,but there's going to be
something about your unit.
Maybe it's closer to the frontentrance so it saves you the few
(31:57):
minutes of having to drivethrough the complex.
Maybe it's in the back so youdon't have traffic going by, or
it's further away from therailroad tracks at the other end
, or it's, you know, near theaccess road, or it's near the
swimming pool, or it's nearwhere the school bus stops.
It's finding that one thingthat makes your house different,
(32:19):
even if the ones down thestreet look the same, and these
are the things that I preachmake it unique, make it, you
know, distinctive.
And it's the kind of thing whereand I talk about this in
working with residential agentsdoing listing presentations but
this is probably an even betteranswer to your question, cole is
(32:39):
that you want to haveinformation that's not commonly
out there.
You're interested in a house.
You could ask five differentreal estate agents about that
house and chances are at leastfour of those five is going to
give you the same informationthat you just heard from the
previous agent.
So I want my client, or I wantto be that agent that says oh,
(33:05):
you know what the house nextdoor has this.
You know their basement's notfinished, this house is, or just
the little things.
That says, hey, I've been inthat property, I'm much more
familiar with that area.
Here's what's going on.
Here's some little nugget thatnobody else is going to give you
, and that's what I like to workwith with my clients.
(33:26):
That's the way to.
I think that's what makes thedifference.
That makes you kind of standout that you're hitting that.
You know hitting that target.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
This is so good.
Everybody that's listening,pause it, rewind, play it back
because it's so propertyspecific and then being able to
do your due diligence properly,to be able to market and then
catch that target audience.
And I think that is awesome.
You hit the nail right on thehead.
So, just as completely noscript, just follow up.
(33:57):
Question that in today'seconomy, what are you finding to
be the best method to be ableto get that traffic in?
So you talked a little bitabout going from thinking about
getting a job.
So let's go from cover letterto resume, first interview to
second interview.
But how are you bringing folkstogether to be able to have that
target audience?
Are you thinking webinars orinvestor dinners, or how is that
(34:19):
looking?
What are you finding the mostsuccess in?
Speaker 4 (34:23):
You know, I think, nate, great question, I think it
depends an unscripted answer,by the way, just to add to that.
You know, I think my answer isgoing to be and it is to a lot
of questions it depends, becauseit depends on the type of
property or opportunity that youare looking to have.
(34:44):
So if it's for using the jobinterview or getting the job
analogy, if it's for anexecutive position, it might be
something where you, you know,have somebody to your private
box at a football game or, youknow, put the in a situation
where you can talk at a higherlevel.
If it's for a maintenance job,it may be, you know, meeting by
(35:07):
a job site.
Or you know, hey, come meet me,I'm working on the.
You know the rust building overat the corner of third and elm.
Come meet me there and thenyou're on the site and you can
see, hey, this is what see theguy doing, the you know painting
the ceiling over there.
That's the type of thing wherewe need somebody to support that
, where maybe it's more of ashowing or that type of thing.
(35:30):
So I just think it depends, butagain, it's the you know making
it very.
I guess I'll say, you know like, try to customize it, make it
unique.
So maybe it's not just anotherjob interview to show.
This is why I'd like to, youknow, work here.
Now you have, you know, someoffices that have a ping pong
(35:51):
table in the lobby or in the youknow their conference room or
something, just to have thingsfor employees, and that's things
that, hey, that'd be neat, Icould go play ping pong during
work days.
Companies are doing things likethat.
So I think it's kind of the,you know, not making it the
typical.
You know, don't be the okay,here's what I'm supposed to do.
(36:12):
This company did this, thiscompany asked this question and
just kind of make it to wherethey're going.
To remember your opportunityBecause I talk about this too
when some of these you know realestate agents or people on
their own, they'll go look atthree, four open houses or three
, four properties in a day.
Well, it starts to run together,and so I've even suggested to
(36:36):
agents and to me not enough ofthem do this is to why not have
an open?
Well, I got one to do this, so,just for the quick story, but
this is kind of to your point,to making it unique where I got
them to hold an open house for asingle family home on a Tuesday
(37:02):
from 4 o'clock until 6.20.
Four o'clock until 620.
Now of course people are goingto go.
You know, okay having it on aTuesday, but why until 620?
That would be the firstquestion everybody would ask.
The answer was becauseeverybody could be on the 630
(37:23):
train back to downtown.
Now, right there, you knownothing about the house, but
you're already getting anamenity that you're right by the
train station.
You can get to and from workwithout having to go park and do
all this stuff.
The other part to it is okay,you know, and that's why a lot
(37:45):
of agents don't do this, becausethey figure the seller is going
to be disappointed if maybe oneor two people or nobody shows
up.
But whoever does show up,they're interested in the
property, they're coming at thattime and so by doing it on a
Tuesday or a Wednesday now hey,this is a really neat property
(38:08):
Well, if they want to go seeother properties, they're not
going to be open house untilSaturday or Sunday.
So this house gets theadvantage and even if they
schedule a showing, that mightnot be until Thursday or Friday.
So you're getting at least atwo-day advantage for that
potential buyer to think aboutthis property, plus seeing it
(38:29):
under those circumstances, ifthis house was open between noon
and four on Sunday, yeah,they'd have had more people, but
those people might be lookingat two other properties that day
and then they're comparing.
So I guess that's.
You know, that's a betterexample and I kind of wish more.
(38:50):
You know more people would dothat, but can't win them all.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I love that, but one of the things I want to
highlight that you were justtalking about is, like true
strategy.
It's doing things differently,like you said, and it's not just
strategy but it's also, I wouldsay, then, being an expert kind
of like you mentioned earlier.
You're doing somethingdifferently with intention, but
you also know your product, orknow what you're doing, better
than everybody else.
So not only do you have acompetitive advantage because
(39:14):
you're just being better, butyou're also strategizing to get
another step up.
So I just think you'recompounding those things
together.
With that being said, nate, doyou think it's time to jump in?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Oh, I think Dave is ready, I think so.
I think it's time for thesurprise.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
All right, dave, here's what we're going to do.
All right, we call this thefire round and we're going to
ask you a couple questions thatwe ask every guest.
You can answer shortly.
You can answer at length.
Whatever you want to do, we'regoing to try not to interrupt
you and or to give our ownanecdote to it.
We're going to fail.
We do every single time, butwe'll see what we can do.
(39:50):
So kick us off, nate.
Let us know when we're ready.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Performing entrepreneurs from the rest of
the crowd you know I missed thebeginning of the question.
It kind of muffled.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Sorry Again.
What separates top performinginvestors or entrepreneurs from
the rest of the crowd?
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Okay, I think it's the amount of attention and
research and knowledge.
Attention and research andknowledge, it's the approach.
Maybe it's confidence too, thatyou know what I'm looking for A
(40:39):
, b and C as opposed to I'mlooking for hey, do you have any
apartment buildings or do youhave any multifamily in the city
(40:59):
of whatever?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
that have this many units and were built after 2010?
And I think that's thedifference.
Love it, what is?
Speaker 4 (41:05):
a daily habit that's contributed to your success
Tracking everything.
So I use and the people thatyou know are selling CRMs are
going to, like you know, gothrough the ceiling at this but
I've used an Excel spreadsheetas my CRM for close to 25 years.
Before that, I used to have aspiral notebook by my side and
(41:26):
keep track of everything duringthe day.
So the Excel spreadsheet, I donot use it for formulas, I use
it for tracking.
I've got, you know, the name,the company, the phone number,
the email and a contact history.
So and I've done this withpeople, I've gone, you know,
been on the phone with them andhad their thing up and I'll say
(41:47):
you know, I think we did someproject together.
I'll go, yeah, in 2018, we didthe project over on Taylor
Street and I mean I will justhave this information there and
for each person in my database,I will have a next contact time
in there.
It may be six months from now,it may be next year, it may be
tomorrow at 3.30, but it'skeeping track of my resources.
(42:13):
Who told me what?
So I would know when I met them, where I met them, and it's
good for a number of things, forknowing resources and finding
things.
But I use it as a credibilitycheck at times, too, because
you'll find somebody tells yousomething and then, oh, call me
back in three months and youcall them back in three months.
And it as a credibility checkat times, too, because you'll
find somebody tells yousomething and then, oh, call me
back in three months and youcall them back in three months
and it's a whole different story.
(42:33):
So I'll make a note of that andif they go call me back in
three months, I may call themback in one month, acting like
that's when I was supposed tocall them back, and oftentimes
they don't know the difference.
But now I know that and theydon't know that I know that.
So that's my one thing is justkeep track of, like you know
everything, who you talk to, andthen I also.
(42:54):
With Excel, you can do colorcoding where it could be the
background or the text.
So I've got that where I can go.
Okay, I've got to call my bluestoday or the reds or whatever
color it may happen to be, andonly I know that color code.
So if I get hacked or somethinglike that, then there's things
that only I would know.
So that's my uh, that's mysecret is just keep track of a
(43:19):
lot of stuff and contactinformation and who told you
what and who didn't follow up,and but of there's the who did
and who you know you can rely onand, if you need, you know an
investor that does this you kindof.
You know.
The idea is to know who to go toand not do things like I've
told the story quite often thatjust personally in and this was
(43:44):
back in 06, actually a long timeago but my wife and I bought a
townhouse and we were buying itfrom one of the big builders
where you didn't really need arealtor, but they were
realtor-friendly.
So I had actually my bestfriend's sister that had been
doing real estate for years.
I was like, hey, you know we'regoing to get this house here,
go ahead.
You know, represent us.
(44:05):
You know you get the commissionand you know all that.
And that was fine and she did agood job.
We're in the townhouse and itwas somewhere between four and
six weeks after we moved in.
I get a postcard from her.
Now is the time to sell, and soit's like what a nice reminder
(44:25):
that I'm just another number inher database.
It's like what a nice reminderthat I'm just another number in
her database.
But this is something that Ipreach to agents and even
investors that I coach is it'snot just your list, it's who
you're sending to for whatpurpose.
And that's part of what I getout of the Excel spreadsheet.
I'm not just going to send toeverybody I know.
(44:46):
If it's something that needs abuy, I'm going to send it to
people that could legitimatelythat.
I've kind of vetted in my ownway that could be potential
buyers at least first and notmake that mistake of saying, hey
, you're just somebody in mydatabase.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
So good.
I love the tracking.
We live and breathe by thetracking.
So good, good.
What is a piece of advice thatyou'd give to yourself if you're
starting again?
Speaker 4 (45:14):
um, yeah, well, uh, I guess I'd say spend my money
differently.
So I wish that I had uh moremoney, or had either more it
would have led to more money tobe investing later on or just
make better investments from thestart and to think long-term
(45:37):
rather than short-term at anearlier age.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Love it.
What is your favorite businessbook?
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Love it.
What is your favorite businessbook?
It's actually, I would go withI don't remember the name of the
book actually from years agothis was probably like at least
20 years ago Mark McCormick, whowas with what is it like?
(46:11):
Igs or it was an agency thatbecame sports agents and all
that, and he did a book about.
It was something like the Poweror the Art of Negotiation I
don't remember the exact title.
It was by Mark McCormick, buthe went into about the with
negotiation and just strategiesthat I still use and it says, if
(46:31):
it's a really big deal, youknow, ask for 24 hours or to
sleep on something you knowovernight and not rush into a
big decision, that you want tolook into things and then do
some research, make some calls,look at it from all points of
view, because I will, you know,I will try to do that.
So that would be and it alsofrom my background that while
(46:55):
growing up and through grammarschool and high school we kind
of had our core four where therewere four of us that were all
really close.
Well, two of the other threeguys went on to be lawyers and
so I kind of grew up where wewould kind of challenge each
other, and it's almost like wewere playing lawyer in school of
make our case where we wouldjust come up with I mean, we
(47:21):
would do, you know, like mockdrafts who would we draft for
our favorite football team?
But we had to make our case.
It wasn't.
Oh, they need a defensive end.
We would like come up withnames of people.
And this was before you had allthis information available.
You know, we would likeresearch guys and it was like we
wanted to win.
You know our argument and thisis what happened.
(47:43):
And as we went on in ourprofessional life, the level of
trust was such that we would runlike super top secret business
things by each other and my onefriend in particular he actually
we would get together and hewould do business presentations.
He'd say, hey, he waspresenting this like tax
accounting software to groupsand he would do the presentation
(48:06):
for me because I didn't knowsoftware, to see what questions
I would ask.
And then I would point thingsout that, hey, you should
mention this, oh, great idea.
Or I knew you would say that,and so we did these types of
things.
So I think that to me was as bigof a help as the, the book by
Mark McCormick, but that's oneas far as the looking at the
(48:27):
negotiation.
So to me it was not the subject, it was the skill, because so
much of what I'm doing for realestate could be done in any
industry and I keep you knowside of that.
There have been times when I'vedone projects that have nothing
to do with real estate, butit's because of it calls upon
skills that I already have.
(48:48):
So I'm reasonably able to do it.
That is awesome.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
What is your favorite part of running, operating,
owning however you want to takeit, your business?
Favorite part?
Speaker 4 (49:17):
it's just.
It's the satisfaction of eithercompleting the next step or
completing a major project,seeing that deal come together,
having somebody that I'vetrained or redone their database
for or done something for, andit works what is something new
that you've implemented intoyour business that's helped
drive your success.
What is something new thatyou've implemented into your
(49:38):
business that's helped driveyour success?
I would say the, actually, andthis will fit right in Nate, but
I would say that the being moreaggressive on social media in
the last couple of years hasmade a big difference.
And so, with the you mentionedAlignable, which is how we came
to know each other.
But there's LinkedIn andthere's some other platforms and
(50:03):
it's really you.
To me it's you get out of itwhat you put into it.
And, yeah, the majority of thepeople just scroll through.
Maybe they like something,maybe they do this, they do that
, but to really get into it andcomment on posts and that's
something that's led me toconnections is following or
(50:24):
looking at posts frominfluential people, very
successful people, and insteadof just liking something, come
up with a comment, withsomething to say.
That's got some meat on thebones.
So it's not like you have todisagree with them, but talk
about a situation so they maypost about.
You know some big.
You know housing development,that's closing and it's, you
(50:47):
know, 80% sold or whatever itmay be, and it's like a big deal
so to be able to comment that.
You know, typically the last20% doesn't sell until three
months after the project is open, because people want to make
sure that something you know orthat type of thing, and I'm just
, you know, kind of making thatup.
But it's the idea of having aquality response, because I've
(51:11):
gotten like very importantpeople to engage with me because
of comments or strategies orshared things.
There was a time and sometimesyou've got to give away a good.
You don't have to, but youcould give away like a really
good chunk of the pie.
So there was a time a couple ofyears back, I was at a, I guess
(51:33):
I'll say like a marketingluncheon and it so happens that
I was one of.
It was something like 18 peopleand it was the luncheon.
But you know, you'd go aroundthe room, introduce yourself and
, for whatever reason that dayit was like 12 of the people
were lawyers and it just wasn't.
There was like I don't know ifthere was anybody else there
(51:54):
that had much to do with realestate.
So I did my thing.
When we're introducing, it'slike it wasn't like a you know,
major, oh, dave, hey, questions,because it wasn't, you know,
turned out to kind of not be mytarget audience.
But then something came up inthe discussion about.
They were talking about withyou know methods of generating
(52:15):
leads.
Talking about with you knowmethods of generating leads.
And so I jumped in with tellinga story about how, yeah, this
was a mortgage broker that Iwork with who was doing VA,
veterans Administration loansand working with military and so
the campaign that he came upwith and I helped with I was
actually trying to sell him onanother campaign and he was
(52:37):
explaining why he didn't need itand then I wound up working
with him on this.
So, because he was doing VAloans, he was looking up when
there'd be like military battles.
So just to use, well, I mean,unfortunately we've got things
going on now, but when you hearof like these cities in Ukraine,
(52:57):
just as an example this wasbefore that, but like cities in
Ukraine so he would buy thoseplaces as keywords or military
actions or things that relate tothe military, figuring that
whoever is searching themprobably has some involvement
with they're either active, theycould be deployed it's a family
(53:20):
member, somebody with someinvolvement.
That's what he did.
He stopped buyingmortgage-related keywords and
went to this campaign so I wasable to suggest some places to
do that and increase it.
Doing that doubled his leads inless than three months with the
same spend.
So I shared that story at thisthing, where it was mostly
(53:42):
attorneys that you know, that'sthe type of thing for lead
generation.
Hey, you know what, sometimesit's finding the right keyword.
And before I left that luncheonI had business cards from two
attorneys, one of whom I woundup meeting with and actually did
do some things to help him out.
So that is part of the, youknow, making it with the
situation and thinking.
(54:03):
But that's from the natural.
Okay, how can I make thisunique?
You know, recalling anexperience.
Usually that's something Iwon't share until or unless
somebody's hired me or about tohire me or I really need it.
But I put it out there that onetime, more than I usually do,
but it led to business.
So that's, you know, that's howI would answer that question.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
I love it.
It's so interesting to hearyour journey.
I love how you incorporate thestories in here and kind of like
really paint the picture and Ihope somebody listening can kind
of see the value that he'sbringing just from the stories
and how it's implemented and howa lot of it's so tried and true
.
I'm just thinking back to whenwe started this, right on doing
(54:52):
your first presentation,realizing the power of that and
then growing slowly and endingup where you are now doing a lot
of the virtual stuff, doing ads, doing all these cool things
and just kind of having thisexpertise in what you're working
on, little pieces that I wantto keep bringing up, like the no
doesn't mean no in a way, beingan expert, trust the process
(55:13):
and know that the process has apurpose.
So many good things that youmentioned.
So I have two final questionsfor you One, where can people
find more info on you or contactyou?
And two, do you have any finaladvice?
Speaker 4 (55:29):
Yeah, I guess, as far as the contact, probably the
best way because I do, I oftenstart with people, even by kind
of coaching and consulting.
So there isrealestatemediacoachcom is
probably the best for contactingme.
I don't know if we should putthe email out or how you want to
(55:53):
do that, but that's up to's upto you.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
We can put it below, everything below, but if you
want to share it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (56:00):
Okay, we can do that.
That's, dave, at first incomand then, as far as the uh, the
final piece of advice, that itis to um, you know what?
Well, yeah, I will, now that Ithink about it.
It's kind of the keep track ofeverything, even minor details,
(56:20):
but it's also, whatever it isyou're doing, whether it's real
estate or not, and if it's realestate, to make it specialized
is and this comes from my doingthe presentation and public
speaking coaching, and that is,let's just say, you've just
looked at a property it's to buy, to rent, whatever the case
might be, for whatever reasonand you get back in the car and
(56:42):
you're heading back to theoffice or you're sitting around
later that day with no notes,with nothing in front of you,
but maybe a stopwatch or a clock, do a 60 second commercial for
that property.
So that's the advice because,yeah, you may fumble and stumble
, but that's the point.
(57:02):
You want to keep doing it.
Maybe you do it every day for aweek or three hours later to
learn how to do that, becausethat's the skill.
So you just saw a property.
Maybe you've got a partner ormaybe it's your spouse or
significant other that you'vegot to talk about that property
to.
Maybe it's a potential buyer.
You want to be able to developthat gift of gab, that ability
(57:26):
to talk about it, and so thefirst time well, let's see, it
had a bedroom upstairs, but bythe third or fourth time you're
doing it, it's a three bedroomhome.
It's this, it's that you don'thave to do it in a professional
broadcast place but be able totalk about it for 60 seconds.
So that's my advice.
And the rest of that is whenyou have a presentation to do
(57:49):
and that could be a listingpresentation you're presenting
to a potential investor.
It's you're talking, you know,to two people about a job,
whatever it might be is to ifyou know you've got two minutes
to do your presentation, preparelike it's a five-minute
presentation and practice it andpractice it and practice it.
Then knock it down to threeminutes and practice it, then
(58:13):
knock it down to two minutes,because by that time you've got
the best half of what you wantto talk about.
You're well rehearsed and ifsomebody asks you a question,
you know you can talk about itfor three more minutes easily
and that could give you theconfidence.
That's what makes thedifference, so you're not
fumbling and stumbling aroundfumbling and stumbling around.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Holy sheesh, my gosh Mic drop.
This has been amazing.
I appreciate you so much.
I think this is the first timewe've ever done a show where, on
the very last question,somebody gave out two pieces of
homework and I think it'samazing.
60-second commercial and thenpractice, if you're doing a
two-minute presentation, as ifyou're doing it at five, and
then count it down and foreverybody that's listening, of
(58:58):
course, get home safe but, moreimportantly, also reach back out
to Dave.
Let him know how it went afteryou did those two homework
assignments and how it was ableto affect or impact any of the
changes that you had coming.
Rather be getting on newclients or bringing a new
business, or maybe justpracticing and pitching it to a
spouse or a loved one.
We definitely want that.
Let us know.
(59:19):
I want that feedback Again.
Thank you all so much for tuningin to Forged in Fire.
This has been an amazingepisode.
Dave, I don't even know if wetalked about this earlier, but,
cole, actually we connected Davewith Eddie, who was another one
of our partners on the 54 unit.
Both of them are in Chicago I'monly a couple hours away, so
I'm looking forward to as soonas the weather gets a little
warmer and it's not negative 10degrees outside getting together
(59:42):
with the two of you I know bothof you are hosting meetups, so
this is going to be an exciting2025.
So, with that being said, in2025, we thrive.
Everybody, get home safe, takecare.
We'll see you all on the nextepisode of Forged in Fire.
Thank y'all so much.
Take care.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Forged in
Fire.
If you enjoyed today's raw,unfiltered stories, don't forget
to like, subscribe and leave usa review.
Your feedback helps us bringmore real world insights to
entrepreneurs like you.
Be sure to join us next timefor even more lessons, struggles
(01:00:23):
and breakthroughs on the roadto success.
Keep forging ahead.
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