Marketing: Critical to Your Success

Mike: This is the flipnerd.com Expert Real Estate Investing how. The show for real estate investors whether you’re a veteran or brand new. I’m your host, Mike Hambright, and each week I bring you a new expert guest that will share their knowledge and lessons with you. If you’re excited about real estate investing, believe in personal responsibility and taking control of your life and financial destiny, you’re in the right place.
This is episode number 401 and my guest today is one and only Adrian Nez. Now, if you’ve been around me for even a little while, you know that I believe that successful real estate investing all starts with becoming a lead generation expert. Simply put, if you don’t have leads, you don’t have a business. Getting good at lead generation is part art and part science. And today, Adrian is going to share his thoughts with us. Adrian is widely known as a lead generation expert. So, you want to listen very closely to the information he’s going to share to you today.
Now, today we discussed what’s working now in lead generation. How did it get started or shift your lead generation efforts and the importance of talking to your customers differently and not treating them all the same as they have different problems that they’ve come to you. So, it’s going to be a great show. You’re going to learn a lot. Get a pen and pencil ready. Please help me welcome, Adrian Nez, to the show. Hey, Adrian, welcome to the show.
Adrian: Thank you, Mike.
Mike: Yeah, excited to have you here and excited to talk about marketing because I think as you know, we’re actually going to be meeting here in a couple of days by the time this show airs, it’ll be after the fact that we’re about to meet for our masterminds and you’re in the group, Trevor’s in the group. And we’re going to talk about a number of things, but one thing that I always emphasize is the importance of real estate investors being a good marketer. You have to be good at generating leads and you had to be a good operator. There’s a few things you need to be good at, right? But ultimately, if you can generate leads then nothing else matter. So, it’s going to be a great topic to cover today.
Adrian: No, I’m excited and thank you for having me. It’s definitely a topic that I’m very passionate about and been really . . . I continue to be a student of it as well. So, I might be perceived as an expert, but I’m a continual learner and always, yeah.
Mike: You have to be that, right? It’s always changing.
Adrian: Exactly and I think that’s why. Maybe this call is very critical because, I think, the years of just saying, “Hey, we buy houses. We can do this.” And people just ran to us in droves, I just think that era is kind of gone. You know, there’s a lot of dynamics that play a role in why I believe so, and I think if we just . . . we come to that place that where investing is evolving. I think we still have a lot to catch up on. I think me and you had this conversation offline about as investors I think we’re still behind the times in terms of intentional marketing and, I think, that’s what we’re going to talk about is how can we be more intentional. Because, I think, it’s necessary if you want to be relevant, you want to stay ahead of your competitors, and more importantly, convert your traffic a lot better because at the end of the day, our customers in this case, motivated sellers, they’re not in it to help build our business. They’re in it for their benefit. You know, what’s in it for me is their mentality and we just make sure that our marketing lines up with that. So, it’s that about this call.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Well, before we dive in here, why don’t you take a couple of minutes and just tell us all about you, your background and how you got started, and a little bit more about who you are.
Adrian: Yeah, so, I’ve always been in . . . my name is Adrian Nez, obviously. Most people probably do know me through InvestorCarrot. I’m the head of strategy. So, primarily my job is to really help our members utilize the Carrot system effectively. Just simply because, I’ve been a long-time customer and still, a paying customer with them and I emphasize that because I just value the system. So, I, really . . . years ago, I helped, probably, quite a bit of investor with their online marketing and using the InvestorCarrot system. So, I just connected with Trevor and InvestorCarrot, I just love what they’re doing over there as a company, as a culture and just their methodology.
I’ve always been a student of inbound marketing. Even before I came into real estate investing, I’ve always loved inbound marketing, but the funny thing is that when I first begin to learn about it, back then, it was in its infant stage. No one really didn’t know what it was, but it was just funny how it began to take off at the same time that I began to wholesale.
I’ve always been in real estate. Some background of my real estate, I’ve always been involved with it, but the funny thing was more in the new development. I had a lot of friends and I always involve with it more on the money side, but this is when I was in Phoenix, Arizona, and that was it. That was my whole world when I came to real estate investing. And me and my wife, we moved up to West Virginia to do some mission work. We’re not missionaries, but we just wanted to really do some cool stuff, give back.
Mike: Yeah, that’s awesome.
Adrian: So, we moved to West Virginia and in my free time, I started to kind of just, you know, a fun way to keep busy. I start searching around. I want to get back into it. Then, that’s what I discovered in that free time. A whole new world in real estate investing which was wholesaling, subject to, lease options, like this whole new world of investing opened up to me. And then, I began to learn more about wholesaling and I said, “Wait a minute, like, wow.” Then, that’s when everything start rolling, and so, wait a minute, inbound marketing, this is where I can apply it. So, it’s like, for me a match made in heaven, I think’s the saying, and just went from there and start doing it for my own business.
I start doing a lot of wholesaling. Discovered InvestorCarrot, started helping other members in my own time. I started helping people ranking their sites, but I also not just ranking their sites. But also, helping them hone in and giving the ability to convert better because another passion of mine really understanding marketing from a psychology’s point of view. I started marketing for a long time and that’s something that’s always stuck with me is marketing is psychology. So, I naturally learn before coming in to real estate that everything should be about the customer. Right, so, I didn’t really get into inundated in my mind about mail piece or any of the stuff that we tend to be inundated with us when we’ve first get into real estate. So, I guess that was a blessing in many ways. I had a strong background coming in and I’ve been able to leverage that ever since then.
Mike: Yeah, that’s awesome. I think, one thing I should say real fast is I’m an InvestorCarrot client too. In fact, I have a team of web developers that have built Flip Nerd and unfortunately, we’ve built it many times over and over again. And we had a site previously that we had built, but as time went by I just thought, “Man, my guys are not experts at lead generation for buying houses and my developers aren’t even experts at lead generation there, just web developers.” So, as time went by and we kept fixing it and having issues with the site, I was like, “I’m just going to go with InvestorCarrot.” And so, for anybody who’s not using right now, we have a link down below the video here for you, but obviously, they have tons of real estate investor clients and it’s definitely a proven platform for real estate investors.
But Adrian, I’m really excited to talk about . . . let’s talk more about the importance of marketing because I think a lot of real estate investors especially early on or even those that fail and they give up too early which is a lot of people. It’s because they never become good at generating leads. They never become a good marketer and they want to buy houses, but they’re not. You know, I tell people, if you . . . I always use an example of how you need 30 motivated seller leads to buy a house. Kind of thinking of the funnel like you get 30 leads and then half of them don’t qualify to even go out on appointment to talk to because they’re saying, “Hey, I just want to save a realtor commission or something like that. They’re not really a fit. They’re more on retail customer,” and then, as you go through the funnel, you make less than 30 offers and then, you get one out of it.
And so, I always tell people like, if you want to buy two houses a month, then you don’t need two houses. You need 60 leads and we talk a lot about the importance of becoming very good at generating leads consistently. I mean, I guess, you work out from the same cloth in that regard, right? You’ve got to get leads to buy houses. Do you agree with that?
Adrian: Absolutely. I mean, traffic and when I say traffic, it’s simply getting people into your funnel, right? So, traffic, I think is the bloodline of this business. I know it’s said so many time that marketing, we’re not in the real estate business, but we’re in the marketing business. It’s such a cliché, but it’s 100% true. And I think we touched on this too, is to how I think investors, we . . . I believe one of the reasons why so many fail is they come into the business with the wrong mindset, one, and then, two then they’ll treat this as a business.
And I think one of the things is, I think, most of us, many of us, gone to this business because they saw an infomercial that what probably hooked us is, “Hey you can buy houses with no money down, no credit.” So, it’s almost, like, you can do this business without being invested, I guess, or skin in the game, per se. So, I think what happens is people with that same mentality they come into this business and they keep that same mentality when it comes to marketing. They think they can generate leads without putting any money down per se.
Now, it’s a very true on this part of it. Yes, you can buy house. I’ve done it. You know, picked up a property through a credit of acquisition. So, there’s no money down, no credit. That’s very true, but you can’t have that same mentality and carry that over when it comes to marketing, right? So, if there’s an investment that needs to be made, it has to be into marketing and, I think, the mentality sometimes is if we don’t treat this as a business, the mentality we tend to create is we look at marketing as more of an expense. So, when things get tough, what’s the first thing that people do? They cut back. You know what I mean? Or they cut back when they feel like things are slow, and instead of just pumping through and ramping things up. So, I think it just starts with having the wrong mindset first of all.
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Adrian: And they feel like things are slow and instead of just pumping through and ramping things up, I think so. I think it just starts with having the wrong mindset first of all.
Mike: Yeah and I think a lot of people don’t . . . they sometimes don’t equate, like I said earlier on, I need 30 leads, whatever the number might be. Everybody’s conversion is different how you’re buying a house. If you’re doing creative financing, you probably convert at a higher level. But they have a hard time setting their goals which is it’s something that I focus on at for when we bring our new coaching students or I have been training people for years, or even for my business. I say, “Look, I want to make this much money at the end of the year,” just start with the end in mind and how many deals does that mean I need to do. So, you’ve got to make some assumptions, like, if I’m going to assign half of them and I’m going to rehab half of them, then my average assignment, the margin is X and my average rehab, the margin is Y.
And you can come to back end to, “Okay, how many deals do I need to do based on about what my mix of exit strategies is and then, how many leads do I need to get there?” and then, break it down by month. Hey, if I get 60 leads per month, then I can buy two houses per month, 24 houses in a year, and half of them are going to be assignments at $10,000 margins and half are going to be rehabs at $30,000 margins and therefore, I’m going to make X. Of course, you have to make assumptions on how much is going to cost you in advertising to get those leads and we’ve got expenses in our business too, but it’s a pretty easy business to reverse engineer if people would just think of it that way.
Adrian: It is and I think too, the other part, I’ve seen so many and would encourage anyone to step back. If you want to be successful in this business, you got to look at marketing from a math perspective not an emotional perspective. I think when things get tough, people tend just to pull back, right? Or they’re just hoping that, “Hey, let me send 100 mail piece or 500 mail piece, or let me spend $300 on PPC and let’s just see what it gets me,” without doing the math, and not, like you said, reengineer.
And I think that’s why like me personally, I’ve decided to focus on Google because I just like having the leverage when it comes to talking to people. And some of you may be thinking give me an example. So, for me, I believe, like I said, at the beginning of the show, I’m a big inbound marketing guy. I like to position. I don’t like creating traffic. I’m positioning where the traffic is. And as you position yourself, and as people come in through your funnel, you’re more perceived as an authority.
I think you increase your ability to do creative financing because as the authority, people are more open to your suggestions. Like for example, I don’t know last time you knocked on a door and said, “Hey, can we do the subject two?” You know what I mean? But a lot of that creative acquisition deals I have done is just really taken through that process and not trying to sell them, explain this is your option, this is your best benefit, this is what you get over here if you choose this or this is what you get over here, and then just simply guiding them through the whole process.
And not just say that’s the only way to generate leads. Obviously, you’re capping yourself if you just stay with one marketing channel, which I’ve done for years to be honest with you. I mean, this year, we’re also going to pivot into some cold calling. We’re going to open up some new channels from marketing because I do want to grow my business, so I can’t just be dependent just on inbound marketing even though that’s my preference. And I believe that Google is one of the best ways to do that, but again, it just continue to evolve, continue to learn. Being open to new ideas. Do you know what I mean?
Mike: Yeah, a lot of real estate investors because they just want to set it and forget it, and do things the same way for years. If it’s working, they say if it’s working, in this business, sales and if you’re doing deals, it covers up a lot of potential errors, right? It’s good enough, like, “Hey, I’m still making $700,000 a year,” but it’s like, well, what if you could double that just by being a better marketer, right? We don’t often think that way. We just say, “Ah, it’s working. So I don’t have to worry about it.” But one thing that I know that you believe a lot and I’ve heard Trevor talk about this the same concept. Some of the things that you were just saying, inserting yourself into the conversation that’s already happening, right? Is a lot of us tend to and I’m guilty of this too. We’ll do some marketing and it could be . . . so, Google is probably a perfect example. You’re running the ads and you have keywords for . . . a couple of extreme examples here.
“Sell my fire damaged house” and something about being getting divorced, “sell my house after divorce.” We all cram on right to the same page, we take them right to the same page of like, “Hey, we buy houses generally, so fill out my form.” Instead of saying, “Well, I have some fire damage keywords and we’re going to take them to some pages where they can learn maybe more about buying fire damaged house.” If you’d been in the situation, we’re going to communicate to you differently or even your people knowing we use CallRail, I suspect you do too, where you have leads come in and we know if this is from a fire damage list. Like, if they call the general number, we don’t know, but we have that whisper message that says, “Fire damage list Dallas,” or something like that. And I try as best I can to teach my people, like, anticipate what that means for them. When you hear that before you even heard them say, “Hello,” you know the lead source and therefore, start to think about that communication a little bit differently than if it just came in as a probate lead for example, right?
And so, we tend to have one-size-fits-all marketing. So, talk a little bit about that because I know that that’s important to you.
Adrian: Yeah, so, I think first of all, I forget who it was. I might have been Ken Wade [SP] or something . . . someone that’s been around for a very long time. I really love their approach and really drilling in like, “Real estate is a local business,” and I think as you treat it as local, you should treat it as its own entity to where you can’t treat at the same way that you’re doing just over here or you’re doing this over here. So, like you said, I love what that example you gave about the phone call was, if I know that a call is coming from a fire damage, let’s say, source, I need to become relevant and understanding to that specifically. Like you said, I can’t treat this person like, “Okay, I’m sorry you lost a loved one.” They’re going to say like, there’s just no substance with that.
So, I think for many years, we’ve been too general in terms of care in one message and not really identifying the true needs because we made about us or we made it about our marketing. And sometimes we put too much on the marketing and not enough about learning the customer. What I mean is I’m in the SEO and PPC world and a lot of times people say, “PPC just didn’t work or it’s too expensive.” And they blame everything on that and not really dig deeper in understanding why it didn’t work. Do you know what I mean? But that’s just because if you’re a bad marketer, I think one sign that you’re bad marketer or you need to be better is when you become so dependent on SEO or PPC, or the mail piece for your success, right? Those are just vehicles. Those are just carriers over your message.
Mike: Well, the traffic sources, yeah.
Adrian: That’s it. Yeah, so, I think just having that mentality change of understanding and being relevant, really, that’s when it comes down to. I think some of the best deals that I’ve done is because I just related to them. I was just nice, I listened, and they felt on their end like I understood what was going on. And a lot of times they’ll tell me, “You know what? Make me an offer. I’m not going to talk to anybody else until I hear back from you.”
Mike: Yeah, we get that to. We’ve definitely bought houses from people that said they had other offers and they sold it to us ultimately for less than other offers they had just because they trusted us more because we take a lot of time to . . . I teach this and this is the way that I learned it early on is we take a lot of time to get to know that person, build rapport, try to understand their situation, and ultimately we’re in the problem solving business, right. We want to buy houses, but we can’t buy houses unless we solve somebody else’s problem.
Adrian: Right and I think this is the best way to look at. I mean, you’re talking before we came online was, we’re so different, but yet, we understand each other. Do you know what I mean? And we just have a likeness in terms of just our mentality and that makes me trust you more. That helps you trust me more and we just built, it’s just a natural relationship that’s happening without trying and I think through marketing . . . so our job is to eliminate that gap and build that bridge. Do you know what I mean? And that just doesn’t come just from guesswork or shouldn’t come from just guesswork, or just hoping that your mail piece does that for you.
Mike: Right, yeah, for sure. So, let’s talk a little bit about different platforms, traffic sources, if you will. So, it’s Google, pay-per-click, there’s SEO, Facebook advertising, direct mail, lots of things, but maybe go through these a little bit. So, just share your thoughts on these. We’ll dialogue a little bit on just Google, pay-per-click, kind of where it’s at today and where you think things are going with.
Adrian: Yeah, so, I think it goes back to . . . I teach strategy, so I tend to respond better to the real situations, but I think really back to psychology marketing. I think when you have a good understanding of your customer; you’ll know where to position yourself. Do you know what I mean? I think so many times we want to treat Facebook the same way as we do Google. That’s kind of like saying that Google and door knocking is the same. It’s not. Door knocking is you’re going to complete . . . you’re knocking on someone who’s not expecting you, who doesn’t know you’re coming and what happen is they open the door, now they have a big shield or resistance, or whatever and you got to work through that. To where Google, they’re coming to you. So, they’re more receptive, they’re more open.
And so now, as you understand your customer, you begin to understand where they’re going to go proactively and how are they going to respond reactively depending on what your marketing is. So, to me, I personally like Google over everything just simply because that’s where someone is going proactively. They’re more open. They’re ready to take action. So I guess it’s less work.
Mike: They had to search for you.
Adrian:Correct.
Mike:Direct mail and we still do a lot of direct mail, but direct mail is we approach them and they’re like . . . we’re usually ambiguous in our message like, “Do you need to sell a house?” We don’t say, “Hey, we’re going to offer you 50 cents on the dollar.” We just say, “We’re discount buyers,” but we don’t really beat them over the head with it and so, a lot of people just call this to check it out, but online people are searching for a solution, right?
Adrian: Right and I think that’s why I like the online aspect of it because their just mentality already that we just all have that, “Hey, if you need an answer, go to Google.” We’re trained. I think it’s in the human being DNA now. It’s like even my kids, they’re so fluid with iPads and it’s really weird just how they just pick it up so easy. I think all of our kids are that way, but with Google, I just like that because, again, like you said, they’re proactively, they’re looking for information. So now, my job is to provide them with information. I think where direct mail sometimes can be challenging and I’m not dissing direct mail because me and you probably know plenty of people that doing very well with direct mail, but also, they’re doing it at a high volume. They’re just not throwing here and there, but with direct mail, I think it’s tough. I really see direct mail as being tough because we’re summarizing a big transaction.
So, back to psychology, I think sometimes we forget because we know how it works. It’s so easy for us to understand how this whole thing works, so we just expect people to get it, but people are not. I mean, you got to put yourself in the shoe of the customer or the seller in this case. You get a piece of mail, someone’s promising you a closing and to buy your house with all cash in seven days. This person probably doesn’t even know what they’re going to be doing next week. So, what happens is instead of them jumping up for joy, like, “Oh, Adrian, I love you. You just saved my day.” But man, this Adrian guy looks suspicious. That doesn’t sound right because here’s a thing. People’s understanding of real estate is going to always be in the traditional sense. Okay.
So, if you guys don’t believe me, go up to 10 people today and say, “Hey, if I were to tell you I can help you sell your house fast, what do you think I do?” 10 out of 10 probably will say, “Oh, you must be a realtor.” Right. So, now when someone like me comes along and makes all these big promises because they are big promises, their reactions and they’re probably be more, “Wait a minute, is this a scam? Hey, what’s the catch? What do you mean there’s no fees? Nothing is for free.” Because people are so flooded with negative information, fear, every day through news, through friends and family. You never know. A week earlier, there might’ve been someone in your area that was scamming people. So now, those people are going to associate you in that same category.
So, I think direct mail, if we’re honest with ourselves, I think sometimes it can come across as predatory. Even though, we may not think so. You got to look at it from that point of view, so we got a find ways to really bring that message to where . . . yes, we have to summarize, but at the same time, do a better job of really communicating, and I think that’s why credibility is probably more important like never before just simply because of technology. I mean, I was looking for a quick example. I was in the market for a car years ago and I don’t know it’s weird. So, I happened to get a mail piece. I never heard of this company before. I’m so used to getting Capital One, Citibank. So I know the name brands I’m always getting, but this one, never heard of them and they were offering a killer interest rate because I don’t want to buy the car with cash.
So, I said, “Man,” and again, back to human nature like instead of jumping for joy, here’s the answer. “Man, it just sounds too good to be true.” So what did I do, I grab my cellphone and did a Google search on them. Before I engage, I wanted to make sure that these guys were legit because one, I never heard of them. Two, their offer was pretty too good to be true because our mentality is if when they say if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t or it probably is, or something like that. There’s just the mentality that we already have. So, people are doing that same thing with us. So, we have to find ways to strategically position credibility to where that one piece might make all the difference.
Mike: And I think sometimes with direct mail specifically, people . . . it depends on the list you send to, but sometimes it’s very blunt, right? Like, I’m going to send a one-size-fits-all letter. Like you said, if it was somebody that had been recently been divorced . . . you might customize your message from a general list of just somebody is over 65 and has a lot of equity in their house. And so, I think the message is important on those postcards—what you say and how you say it.
And then, like you said though. I was talking to somebody about this last week. They’re like, what? This is somebody that’s new and they’re like, “Yeah, I’m not really planning to do any pay per click, so I’m going to hold off on creating my website.” I was like, “Well, I’m telling you, people are getting your direct mail piece and then, they’re going out to research you.” So you’ve got to have a brand out there no matter what even if you’re not doing traditional online advertising, right?
Adrian: Right and that’s one of the things that we teach at InvestorCarrot is that, obviously, people come to us because the platform is so strong and helping you generate leads. But we live in a day to where your website should be helping you close deals, even though you didn’t produced the lead through the website. Do you know what I mean? So, that’s the credibility aspect of it. I just know that just because something worked 10 years ago, doesn’t mean it’s going to always work. We have to evolve and a lot of people say, “Well, you know.” And we have to admit, some deals that we get are just luck. So and we can’t equate that as success, and what happens is we just . . . that becomes our methodology and we never find ways to improve and because simply we’re always looking at things from our perspective, how we see it, how we would do it, and which we can’t do that.
You got always look at things from that other end and simply set up a system to where you’re answering this question if they have it because if you know your customer, you know what questions they’re going to have. So what are you going to do? You’re going to put the answer in front of them. You’re going to put this answer. If they go over here, you’re going to put the answer over here. So, it’s really simple like you said when you’re really think about it.
Mike: Yeah, talk a little bit about the importance of continuous learning and testing. Like you said, I mean, for example, I talk to people all the time and they assume, you’re known as an expert to the industry. A lot of people know that I have a lot of experience doing deals and coaching people, and teaching people. I’ve been involved in a lot of deals, but I’ll tell you two weeks ago, my wife bought a program. We spend $3,500 grand on a program to learn how to do something that we’ve never done before in the real estate space. Literally, yesterday, I put a link down below for this to you because I love to support John, but I booked a trip, I’m going to go to his next sales training boot camp.
And of course, we have our mastermind coming up here next week. So, I practice what I preach, I’m a believer in continuous education and knowledge, and surrounding yourself by people, but I think a lot of real estate investors, they think they know something half way and then, they just stop. They turn off the learning and just say, “Why? I know how to do that.” But this stuff is constantly evolving. So just share your thoughts on the importance of continuous education and learning and testing.
Adrian: Yeah, so, I mean, obviously, one of the mentalities that I learned early on was in marketing there’s really going to be never be any true answers. No true answers and the only . . . well, let me say it over. The true answers are going to only come through testing because there’s so many dynamic into what works, what you should do. That’s why I love the strategy call that we give at Carrot because I said, that was you and you tell me what your resources are, I help you organize it and I tell you where to take action because I can’t give five people a cookie cutter plan because each of them are going to have different resources. Right? Someone might have this and this one other, that doesn’t. So, to answer your question, I think you got to always continue learning and I think the biggest mentality that we struggle as investors because I had was sometimes we’re so anti-guru, which I’ll be honest I can see why. But, we can’t let that stop us from making those investments we need to make if you want to grow.
I know in the last three years, everybody says, it’s so cliché but it’s so true is, I literally went from where I was and in probably three or four short years, we just made a big, big massive jump in our revenue. Part of it was I removed myself as a bottleneck. Obviously, I started to begin more as a business, but big part of it is and the only reason why I’d begin to look at things from the business point of view is because I began to reinvest of myself. Now, when I first got started, my investment was a $20 book. And then, I graduated to the $99 fund, right? And then, the next one is the $500, $1,000 so for. So, I just think that if people are not willing to reinvest in themselves or make that invest, you’ll never grow. You’ll never comprehend what the successful people are saying. We’re hearing it, but we’ll never comprehend it and I just think that it just takes a massive mindset shift in order to always go from this level to next level.
And so, I always encourage people. If you can’t make that $1,000 investment, that’s okay. Go, spend a $40 book. Do you know what I mean? Back in the day when eBay was my source, I used to find these books for $10, used books, but that’s what with badges. That’s where I started. That’s what I have to work with and now I’m able to invest more into myself.
Mike: Yeah and it’s not even really about the money. It’s just about the open-mindedness to be able to continually learn because somehow, I think, people feel like . . . there’s probably people now that were a direct mail expert five years ago and they still think they are, but they’re not doing anything different than they did in the past. And so, I think, just to be open to always ask the question when you can. Not everybody always shares their secrets with you or whatever, but to say like, “Well, what’s working for you now?” Just to be open-minded to say, “I don’t know everything. I’m a student of the game as well no matter how much of a veteran I might be.”
Adrian: No, that’s so good because I think you definitely have to have that open and that you’re going to be humble too. I think a lot of people, this includes myself, I think we can allow pride to get in the way we think that, “Hey, this has gotten me this far and this is going to get me to that next phase.” But I just think it just takes an understanding that we don’t know it all and there’s always a new level to get to. And I think a lot of it just depends on where you want to be. I know a lot of people that flipped three or four houses a month and they’re happy with that. Do you know what I mean? That they’re okay with not learning anymore, growing anymore. They’re okay just being comfortable, but if the goal is like, “Man, I want to go from four digits to five digits, to six digits,” you have to make that investment.
I just love the . . . I think it’s in the “Bible.” I love how it talks about renewing the mind and the word “mind” in the Greek means renovate which is, like, it’s a really powerful word. So, that’s what you have to do. I mean, I bring that up because being in the real estate world, where we understand what the renovate means, right. You got guts and do that stuff, and that’s really what you got to do. We got to renovate what’s up here because we all have a certain mentality. We all have a certain mindset that we came into this business and we just going to have to continue to breakdown these things or wholeness back in. And the only way you can do that is that education, continual learning.
Mike: Yeah, it’s funny how will probably people spend more time maintaining their vehicle than they do maintaining their own mind, right? You know you can get an oil change every 3,000 miles to 5,000 miles or whatever. There are specific dates like, “By this time I have to do this.” But with their own minds, we just drift for years without some check up to say, “How am I doing and what can I do better?” Right?”
Adrian: Exactly and I’ll throw this in real quick is . . . golfing is a great example. How many of us, we always want to determine how good our game is based on the clubs we use, instead of going out and getting lessons. I always say that Tiger Woods would probably beat me on his worst day using Walmart clubs and even if I was using a $10,000 club set. You know what I mean. So, that’s the mentality a lot of us . . . back to marketing, that’s what we’re doing. A lot of people think that by doing more SEO, by doing pay-per-click, by doing more mail, again, you got to do it. Don’t get me wrong, but just by doing it is not going to bring results. It’s becoming a student of it. It’s testing. It’s always paying attention. Even with pay-per-click, I tell people, “Don’t feel obligated to start with 50 keywords. Start with five keywords.” The idea is that not only are you effectively managing it, but you’re also learning through the process.”
So I give that advice not more to be practical, but also to help them to grow through it. So to me, it’s they’re lessons. Instead of just throwing money at it, you got to be really a student and invest in yourself in that way, but that golf analogy has always helped me. When I want to purchase something, it’s like, “Man, I don’t need this. I just need to become a better marketer. I just need to become.” That’s where the education and continual learning comes from I believe.
Mike: Yeah, awesome. Well, Adrian, we got just a few more minutes here. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about if folks are listening to this and kind of imagine you’re speaking to one of maybe two different people. They’re just getting started and they understand that lead generation is important. They just heard a bunch of stuff and they’re little overwhelmed with like where do they start? And then maybe, because at the same time I speak to the person that has been doing this for a while, but they’re stuck and they don’t really know what to do next in terms of generating leads. But they understand the message that we just talked about that lead generation is important. So, maybe share those people a little prescription of where to go from here.
Adrian: Yeah, so, I really think we live in the credibility world. So, I think don’t be afraid to be transparent. I really believe. So I think for years, talking about websites, for so many years, I mean, you probably can go look at 10 different websites right now and I’ll say nine out of 10, there’s no transparency. There’s no picture of the owner. There’s no picture of the investor. It’s like we’re hiding behind a curtain. So, I think a lot of times we all want deals and I think those deals not necessarily . . . I mean, of course, we want to generate leads. We need that traffic, right? But with that, we have to learn how to be more transparent. We’ve got to meet that person with a handshake. Right? So, and I think if someone who’s starting with no budget, start with your credibility.
So, one, I believe, everyone should have a website. I really do. We just live in a time to where if you don’t have a website, you’re not legit. I mean, you could be in business for 50 years, have a flawless record and not have a website, you’re not legit. That’s just kind the mentality that people have. So, I think the first thing is have a website. That’s if you’re doing direct mail, anything because like I said, we live in an era to where you can actually close deals because of the websites not because you got it. You generate the lead through the website.
So, be more transparent. I think that’s everyone is always looking for an edge and, I think, it’s that simple as just be more transparent in your competition. I guarantee, Google your . . . we buy houses in your city, look at the top 10 investor sites. I would say, a good chunk of them are not being transparent. So, to me, that’s the low-hanging fruit. Be transparent, be willing to put yourself out there and build your website around that. And obviously, InvestorCarrot can provide you that in a very easy manner and as you’re doing that, that’s your low-hanging fruit, then you can work on your long-term stuff like the SEO. You can begin to close more deals with the low-hanging fruit through hustle and then you can start reinvesting because that’s the reality of it. You are going to have to hustle. I think so many people hearing my story, “Hey, this guy is generating leads not doing direct mail,” it took me time to build that.
Mike: Overnight’s success, right? 10 years in the making.
Adrian: Yeah, so, credibility I think is probably the biggest things that really is important and everybody has it. So I think that’s the one thing that people can . . .
Mike: The cool thing about that is . . . back to the transparency thing is that, I tell people this all the time. I think people assume they have to be somebody that they’re not, like I have to position myself as this like expert that’s bigger than anybody else or has done more than anybody else or as like a realtor driving a fancy car, whatever. Just be who you are, right? At the end of the day, people are going to see through that stuff anyway.
So, if you don’t have a lot of experience, you could tell people like, “Look, I’ve been this business for a little while. I have some great mentors and coaches. I’m not the biggest guy in town, but what I can tell you is I work hard for my customers and I do everything I can to help you solve your problem.” Even if you never bought one house before, you could say that and people would resonate with that. They’re like, “Wow, I appreciate that.” It’s like the same people that want to shop locally and work for small people, they want to help with little guy and so I think don’t be shy to be that person.
Adrian: Exactly and I think . . . and I’ll add this on is that just because someone’s motivated, they’re not dumb. Do you know what I mean?
Mike: Yeah, exactly.
Adrian: I think sometimes we treat them as dumb people and that’s not to be judgmental, but I think we just do that. They’re everyday people like you and me, that’s someone’s aunt, someone’s uncle, someone’s sister, someone’s brother. So, let’s treat them like that. Do you know what I mean? Here’s someone who you never know how much they’re dependent on this to happen. So, they’re putting more trust just by talking to you. That’s a big responsibility and that’s why I do what I do with Carrot is because someone’s actually depending on . . . They’re going to run with what I tell them and a lot depends on that. So I better put some passion behind it. I better put some intentional. I should really care.
So, I think it’s the same way with motivated sellers, just sincerely care, be real, don’t be afraid to . . . I know a lot of people back to the beginners, I know so many people in this business talk about scaling, outsourcing, this, this, and this, but I think when you’re starting out, you’ve got to be the person that does everything. Right?
Mike: Yeah, for sure.
Adrian: I really do. I think there’s so much pressure on new investors because they’re hearing from people that’s been it for five years. So that the people that are ahead of us five years, they’re talking about what they’re doing, but yet, we’re just trying to get our feet wet over here. So again, back to apples and oranges, let’s just be practical. Start where you are, hustle, eventually, if you kept doing the right things and you’re consistent, you’ll begin to progress. Then, you’ll be worth . . . that place to where now you can get help to build a team and stuff like that.
Mike: Yeah, awesome. Adrian, this has been awesome. I think people are going to get a lot of value out of this. So thanks for sharing your time with us today.
Adrian: Oh, thank you so much. Mike, thanks for trusting me to be on your show. I know you got an awesome audience and thank you so much as well.
Mike: Hey, folks want to learn more about you. I know you’re doing a lot of stuff on social media, you’re a true giver. You’re sharing stuff all the time. Where should they go to follow you or learn more about you?
Adrian: Yeah, so, I’m very active on Facebook. Just look me up, Adrian Nez. It’s actually Adrian DNez on Facebook because I put my middle initial in there. And then, you can find me on Instagram. Instagram is really where I have a goal to really give this year on that platform because it’s just a positive platform. I think it just fits well. So you can find me there @theadriannez on Instagram and then, if you guys want to get a hold of me, email me through my real estate business, adrian@chiefres and that stands for Real Estate Solution. So, chiefres.com and that’s my wholesale business.
Mike: Awesome. I’ll put these things down below on the show notes here, if anybody wants to reach out to you. So, Adrian, hey, thanks again my friend. Great to see you and I know by the time people listen to this, it will be past, but excited to see you and Trevor, and about we’re going to have almost 100 other people at the mastermind’s next week.
Adrian: No, I’m excited about it. My first event was banging and I know this is going to get better. So, thank you for putting that on. I think it’s comforting for me to know that, hey, you know what? I’m investing time and effort really lot into this and I’m going to get back through it. So, thank you for having a platform that people can trust.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Well, everybody, this is episode number 401 with Adrian Nez. Marketing is, I say this all time, it leads us equal to the gold in this business and you just have to get good at generating them, which often means just better understanding your customer, who they are, what they’re looking for and how you can help them. So, Adrian, thanks again for being with us today.
Adrian: You’re welcome. Thank you.
Mike: Everybody, thanks for joining us, again, for 401. I forget to say this sometimes at the end, but if you like the show, if you got a lot out of it, please go out to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, anywhere where you’re listening to it at and give us a review. We ultimately live and die by those reviews. They let us know that we’re doing a good thing because we want to keep bringing them to you. This is episode 401, I’m going to keep them coming as long as you guys keep enjoying them. So, everybody, have a great day. We’ll see you on the next show.
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