How to Brand and Market Yourself as a Real Estate Investor

Mike: Hey, it’s Mike Hambright with FlipNerd.com. Welcome back for another exciting Expert Interview. Where I interview successful real estate investing experts, pros, and entrepreneurs in our business. Today I’m joined by Chase Thompson. He’s the managing member of Brazen Equity, a defaulted note buying company, where he specializes in buying non-performing notes on residential and commercial properties.
Chase is also the co-host of the NoteMBA podcast. He really has a passion, we talked about this before, for how you, as an investor, can brand yourself, how you market yourself, using a number of approaches, from social media to other things that we’ll get into today. And just how important it is as part of your business to talk to people about what you do and be consistent. So we’re going to go into a lot of detail with Chase here in a moment. Before we get started, let’s take a moment to recognize our featured sponsors.
RealtyMogul.com is an online marketplace for real estate investing, connecting borrowers and capital from accredited and institutional investors. Get a rehab loan fast, and close in as little as 10 days with rates starting as low as 9%. For more information, call 888-296-1697.
B2R Finance makes loans tailored specifically for rental investors. They can help you unlock equity from existing properties so you can get cash to grow your rental portfolio. That’s huge and it opens up lots of opportunities previously not available to rental investors. Need a loan? Call 855-819-4412, or visit B2RFinance.com today.
National Real Estate Insurance Group is the nation’s leading provider of insurance to the residential real estate investor market. From individual properties to large scale investors, National Real Estate Insurance Group is ready to serve you.
We’d also like to thank Crestar Funding, MidAtlantic IRA, and Renters Warehouse.
Please note, the views and opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of FlipNerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers, or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
Hi, Chase. Welcome to the show.
Chase: What is up, how are you doing sir?
Mike: I’m good, I’m good. Excited to talk to you about this. I don’t think we’ve actually covered this topic before. Surprisingly. We’ve talked about marketing.
Chase: Wait, but we just talked about you having 240-something shows.
Mike: I know. I tell you, it’s actually getting more and more difficult to say, “What have we never covered before?” We talked about some of this in tips, but it’s really an important space. I think there’s a lot of people that… this will resonate with a lot of folks. And I know you’re very passionate about it. I couldn’t get you to stop talking about it, so I said, “All right, let’s make a show out of it.”
Chase: I hope it works for everyone listening.
Mike: Before we get started, why don’t you tell us your background? You said you’re 30 and you’ve already conquered the world. Take it from the top.
Chase: I think my two little daughters would not agree with you on conquering the world, I would barely conquer sleep every night after sending them to bed and everything. I got started in real estate at a mortgage company here locally in San Antonio, Texas, and I immediately fell in love with real estate. I fell in love with everything about it, the product that you get to deliver and the way that you get to interact with so many different moving parts I thought was really fascinating. I quickly moved from becoming an LO to doing business development within that mortgage company, which led me down this marketing path that I think we’re going to cover today.
Mike: Yeah, by the way, LO, you’re dropping acronyms. Loan Officer, right?
Chase: Loan Originator. Loan officer is technically, is that illegal? You can’t call yourself a Loan… on your business card, I say, “Loan Originator,” it can’t say, “Loan Officer.” Or an RMLO, as they like to call them.
Mike: There you go.
Chase: Real acronyms there. So in 2014, I was laid off for someone that was a little younger and a little cheaper than I was for the job that I was doing, which hurt the ego a little bit. I still had quite a passion for the real estate space and the mortgage space specifically. So like you mentioned what I gravitated to very quickly was the note buying space, the mortgage, the default side of the real estate investing world just because it was the world that I came from, except the other side of the coin. Instead of originating them, I’m hopefully fixing the ones that might have some issues or something like that. That’s kind of the genesis of where I’m at now and where I came from and why I’m here.
Mike: It sounds like it’s a perfect fit, you know how to talk to lenders about the defaulted notes, whether it’s negotiating to buy them or, of course, trying to negotiate changing terms.
Chase: Sure, I don’t often like to talk to borrowers, and there’s all kinds of CFPB and other types of regulatory, both groups and legislation, that permit and unpermit certain types of communication between you and borrowers and things like that. But I am very comfortable talking with borrowers, very comfortable talking with… Even to a certain extent some of the stuff that we have that are now rentals, very comfortable talking to those individuals as well because I view them in that same space and I talk with them for so long.
And then, like you said, talking with other banks, lenders, even some of the hedge funds that we do business with is just… it’s really comfortable for me to cut through some of the speak that they want to try to drop on some people, or just really relate with them. It’s really cool to be in the same space.
Mike: That’s great. When we first started talking a little bit ago before we started recording the show, my assumption was we were going to be talking about notes today. But you couldn’t stop talking about branding and your passion for marketing and how a lot of people are doing it wrong, but could be doing it differently.
Chase: Just like the listener, just like the watcher of this show. I’m a fan of the show and I know you had a note guy on less than a month ago or about a month ago and so we could obviously talk a little bit about that. But you’re right, my immediate passion is technology, is branding and marketing, that whole side of it. So it’s just easier for me to rap on that. Plus, I got the by [inaudible 00:06:38] on notes, so it’s fine and it’s easier-
Mike: Yeah. It’s going to be an interesting discussion As long as I keep saying it’s going to be interesting, then I know it will be, but No, really, here’s the reality. I know it’s going to be interesting and it’s going to resonate with a lot of people and here’s why, probably a lot of listeners of this show, I know a lot of listeners of this show are smaller to mid-size real estate investors. We have some high-flyers on here, too, but they’re going to get this as well. When you were working for a company, you probably weren’t worried about branding, marketing, and stuff like that. As a smaller real estate investor, you’re the chief bottle washer and everything.
I think a lot of real estate investors, quite frankly, do it wrong. They don’t know how to brand themselves, how to position themselves. They end up looking like… And, more often than not, they try to be conspicuous as to who they are. I mean, if you’re using bandit signs and stuff like that, you don’t want anybody to know who you are, right? I think there’s a lot of people who don’t know how to make themselves stand out from the next guy. A lot of real estate investors… I mean everybody is a real estate investor, or wants to be. I know because of other relationships I’m part of, obviously, a large system that branding is everything, and I’ve always been part of large corporations where branding is everything, so I get it. I think it’s going to be a good show.
Chase: I think that with a lot of real estate investors… It’s funny that you mention bandit signs, I know that one of the biggest forums for real estate investing is BP, bigger pockets, and they’ve got a take on bandit signs. It seems pretty universal across they’re whole platform and their forum. I don’t necessarily disagree with it for the same reasons that they do. But like you said, that anonymity and things like that are really interesting. What else would you sell or try to sell or try to gather leads that way?
Mike: It’s two in the morning wearing a ski mask with something [inaudible 00:08:25].
Chase: Yeah, what are you pushing? There’s only one other thing that people push, right? It is a really weird thing. And ultimately, one of the guys that is my mentor, he basically when I was in the business getting in and he said, I was like, “Man, I need to find a $100,000 investor. Someone to put $100,000 into this deal.” You need to start hanging out where people with $100,000 hang out, right? And they’re not hanging out by this stop sign on this access road. That’s just not happening.
You’re going to get leads, I get it. Everyone’s going to throw hate mail at me all you want, but ultimately that is the truth, right? If you want x, then you need to hang out where x is, and that’s the thing. So yes, from marketing and branding and all that kind of stuff, that’s just a salient point. That’s a really interesting one piece of marketing to bring up that a lot of traditional investors use that I just think is a little, not something I would use. In the general sense, for sure.
Mike: Let’s talk about the importance of branding yourself and marketing in terms of authenticity. There are things that people do, like you and I both have a show. We try to use our network to bring out good information to people. Not everybody has to start a podcast. There’s enough podcasters out there. No more podcasts, guys. No, I’m joking. But let’s just talk a little bit about the importance of the authenticity part of it.
Chase: I’m going to piggyback on that no podcast. No, I’m kidding. Authenticity is a massive, massive deal across all kinds of spectrums. You get a lot of old school people that talk about how important the handshake is and that’s really what it is, right? Authenticity just covers the whole spectrum when it comes to marketing and when you talk about it. The biggest thing that I like to talk about when it comes to authenticity for marketing though, is this idea of doing it in a way that is true to how you are and who you are.
If you’re 65 years old and not really cool with technology, more kind of old school, going about it that way might work for you. Whereas, let’s say you’re a 22 year old person and you just got out of college and your first real estate investing foray is you bought a four-plex. And then you rented it out and now you’re using tools like Periscope, which is a great video app, or you’re using Twitter, Instagram, or whatever to market and brand yourself.
Being authentic to you, who you are, and that person that they’re going to be talking to consistently, whether that’s giving you JV dollars or you’re sending yellow letters or whatever it is that you’re marketing as, being really authentic to who you are. There’s almost nothing more important. Again, another mentor of mine likes to say that people whose words and actions sink are the most powerful. If you can have those actions and those words in the things that you do within the marketing space be true, authentic, and you, everybody knows what they’re getting. And that’s so, so important.
Mike: I think, especially in this industry, because there are so many… historically, I don’t want to say that, I think there’s been a lot of improvements. Largely probably because of social media and how easy it is to connect to people, but I think there was a time where, and there probably still are some folks out there that, they’re really not who they say they are.
Chase: Being a charlatan was easier.
Mike: Specifically in the real estate investing world. The guru of yesterday was not really practicing what they preach, you know?
Chase: Completely agree, completely agree. That’s one of the best things, everyone is down a little bit on the privacy side of social media. But again it also speaks to the fact that, if you are who you say you are, it’s going to show through pretty quick. We talk a lot about due diligence, obviously, from a note investing side, and of course, it’s important in all real estate investing.
But people are going to do their due diligence on you, whether you’re trying to get JV dollars from them of you’ve reached out to them on the phone or you’re driving for dollars, whatever the case is. They’re going to do as much due diligence on you as they can and as information permits, even if you use the bandit signs. And it will start to show pretty quick if you’re being inauthentic or you’re not really on the up and up.
Mike: You know the funny thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever said this on the air before I don’t know if this is considered on the air since we’re recording this, but I’m saying it through the air with my mouth.
Chase: Live to tape.
Mike: For example, I had to make the decision when I started this show, I have a lot of experience buying a house, I bought lots of houses. How many shows could I do that was talking about me and my experiences? I have, probably, a lot more experience than the average person, but I’m going to run out of stuff to talk about, and therefore not be able to be original or, I guess authentic is the word we’re using now. If I have to keep saying how great I am because I’m only a little bit great, not super great. But my point is I’m not an expert at very many things, actually. Turns out I know nothing about notes, never bought any multi-family deals, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t know anything about. My niche is very specific, but I know the experts. Let’s bring those people on, bring the best of those people out.
Chase: Sure, and it’s exactly the same thing, right? They might have a buddy who’s trying to do some fix and flips, but if you’re able to present yourself in a much true and authentic way to them, they might have a little bit of experience with this guy. But you’re the one who is going to start doing business with him. Whatever the case is, because he’s been in this business and that business and doing this kind of thing and doing that kind of thing. Even if you just started, if you look that way and you kind of sound that way and you are that way, you’re going to get that business. Which is what we all what to do anyway, right?
Mike: So the important message here is, don’t represent yourself as somebody that you’re not. Just kind of be yourself. Quite frankly, it’s a lot easier to do that in the long run anyway, right? You’re going to get tired of being a fake person if you’re not real.
Chase: Totally. One thing I would do as a side note is talking about the same thing over and over again. I mean, that’s the Dave Ramsey Show pretty much every day, right? He talks about his baby steps, then he talks about the way he invests. He’s been able to do a really great job with it. Mike, I think you would have done an awesome job, 240 episodes in, just talking about what you know. You would have done pretty good.
Mike: So just take a minute to talk about why this is important. We haven’t really talked about… We’ve kind of said when you’re branding yourself, or when you’re marketing, but you’re not necessarily talking about marketing for leads for houses. Just kind of like, how you represent yourself in how you do business. Is that just kind of a general theme here?
Chase: Yes and no. You should always be swinging the hammer as hard as possible because you don’t know who’s looking and you don’t know who’s watching and you don’t know at which point they’re going to come in to that particular action that you’re doing. So I really think that marketing… Number one, I think everyone is a marketer, regardless of if you are a sole entrepreneur doing real estate investing or you’re at the front desk at a dentist’s office. Everyone is a marketer now because everyone can hop on their phone and tweet about how sassy the front desk lady was at ABC Dental. So I think everyone’s a marketer, number one, and that’s important.
So by that, it is talking about leads, it is talking about getting, say, an injection of capital in your business. While at the same time, you’re talking about how you present yourself. Exactly, absolutely. I just think, in general, I think a lot of people, doing the business that I do, in helping people that I help and consult with on their marketing, they like to say, “Oh, I don’t like marketing,” or, “I’m not a marketer,” or whatever the case is. And what I often tell them is, “Okay, well you’re going to lose. You’re going to get beat because everyone’s a marketer now.
My daughter’s a marketer now. She’s constantly wanting XYZ toy, or this app.” She’s hustling at three and a half to try to get me to do these things. She’s marketing on behalf of wanting a thing and you can call it what you want to call it, but that’s what that is. Absolutely, it is about leads, it’s about all those things, because everyone is listening and everyone is watching what you’re doing and you just have to be swinging the hammer as hard as possible.
Mike: Let’s talk about the importance of consistency in your efforts.
Chase: To me, consistency is the one true human superpower. You see, say, a four-star general who is 68 and he’s still up every morning at 4:30 hitting the gym and he’s just doing… Sure, it’s engrained, and it’s habitual or whatever you want to call it, but when you see someone who truly has unbelievable growth in their business, or unbelievable… They just emit this kind of thing, it’s because of that consistency, and that, to me, is vital. If you’re sharing messages on social media, you’re sending out particular mailers. The way that you present yourself at every single REI event that you go to, whatever that is.
Consistency is the only true human superpower. And the people that we notice and we talk about, the Steve Jobs, all these are highly consistent people in everything they do, as best as they can. And they achieve amazing things because of it and from a marketing or branding perspective, that’s what it is. It’s not doing an email this week, then waiting four months, then maybe I’ll trickle something else out to my list. Then maybe I’ll do the yellow letters this month, but I’m not going to do them this month. It doesn’t work that way.
Mike: Right, right. I think, especially for real estate investors, there’s such a long cycle time.
Chase: Totally.
Mike: A relatively small conversion rate on any kind of sales funnel you have. You’ve always got to be putting stuff into that funnel or always building something that’s going to be coming back around in months and years ahead.
Chase: Yep. And that consistency in your marketing, like I said, yellow letters is a great example. As a note investor, we don’t use them, but I understand why a traditional real estate investor would. Ask anybody who does that consistently if they stopped every 90, 60 days what would they expect earlier versions to do right, or how… They would absolutely tank. And that’s just one aspect of the marketing and branding that you’re doing for you and your business. The same thing applies, let’s say you do your first real estate deal, it’s a wholesale deal, whatever the case is. I’ve been seeing this a lot from new investors. And I think it’s awesome.
They’ll post a check, right? They’re holding they’re kid, and they’re like, “Just started real estate investing.” But then they don’t post anything else. Even though they might be doing deals or other things, for whatever reason, someone may have given them flak or they’ve got a mentor that’s like, “Hey, I don’t know if I’d be posting $3,000 checks,” but then they really don’t talk about it as much anymore. And so now, what am I to think? As your friend, who was like, “Oh, cool. Mike’s getting into real estate investing. That’s awesome. He did a deal, this is crazy,” but I never see it again. Now I think you’re just selling some multi-level product.
Mike: Or you assume it never happened again, that’s why they didn’t post another check.
Chase: Right. You struck gold once and it’s never going to happen again. It’s the same kind of thing. If it’s on Facebook, if it’s yellow letters, if it’s bandit signs, whatever it is, you need to be extremely consistent about it if you want any kind of true growth and true momentum to be built up. Stuff the pipeline as fat as you can make it, that is unbelievably important.
Mike: Yeah, yeah. So talk a little bit about, we kind of tiptoed around it, the importance of social media in all of this.
Chase: I ultimately don’t think social media sells as well as other people think it does. I’m a huge Gary Vaynerchuk guy, I’m not sure if a lot of your listeners-
Mike: Yeah.
Chase: I’m sure you know who he is. He says, “Social media sells shit,” that’s his moniker, he loves that thing. And I agree with a lot of things. With real estate investment, it’s a little different. It’s a really high priced thing, especially a note investor, if I’m raising capital or bringing on JV dollars or what have you. Seeing a Facebook update from me and going, “Hey, that’s really cool. I think I’m going to cut that guy a $100,000 check.” It might happen, but it’s not going to happen as much as me hitting the phone, sending an email, as the attrition and meeting the person.
That being said, though, I think it’s incredibly important to be posting to some social network. Whichever one that fits you, at least be posting to one because that is, as I said before with the eyes and ears of everyone, that’s where we’re all at. Give as many people as you can as authentically as you can, as consistently as you can, the eyes and ears on at least one platform. I prefer all of them just because I love them all, but for the new person starting out or if you just want to crush it on one, it is so, so important. I don’t know how much it will sell for you, but it will pique interest, it will give them a reason to reach out to you, and then that’s when, I think, you close, from a real estate perspective, I feel.
Mike: I think if nothing else, it’s kind of brand building.
Chase: Sure.
Mike: There are certain things you do in advertising, depends on what business you’re in, so I’m trying to not give an example here because it will end up probably destroying us somehow. But basically, let’s just say you’re a huge retailer and you’re doing TV. Well, the TV stuff isn’t generally as much call to action as it is brand building, and the flyer that comes in the Sunday paper behind it kind of cements that brand that you saw on TV, and now you take action because you have something in your hand.
Chase: Right, exactly.
Mike: Social media may not be tool that you’re using to get somebody to take action, but it kind of cements the next thing that might come along, like that other layer of marketing.
Chase: A really great, I say really great example, what I feel is a really great example would be something like, my wife and I were talking…
Mike: Are you saying my example was not really great, what?
Chase: Your example was perfect.
Mike: Just to make sure, I would give another one then.
Chase: But to stack on top of this awesome sandwich of [inaudible 00:23:08], is this idea that my wife and I were watching TV the other day and Coca-Cola had a commercial and we both kind of started to have a conversation about why, who doesn’t know that Coca-Cola exists? I get it that if you’re in the middle of nowhere, but in America. Who doesn’t know that Coca-Cola is a thing and that it exists and they consume it, it is delicious, for like 99% of the population. Nobody doesn’t know that, right?
Why do these big brains keep doing that? And then we go all the way back, and I’m going to bring it back. And everyone’s heard it a million times, to the Oreo Super Bowl half time, with the lights, that took a brand that everyone knows and put them in the spotlight now for six straight years because they did it so well and crushed so phenomenally with real-time social currency that they were able to build up with that one thing.
Now, I’m not saying that you need to be Oreo or anything, but I think a lot of people just forget that. They can compete with these companies in this space so much easier than they could on radio, and way easier than they could on TV. And yet they’re just like, “I don’t really know if I want to learn how to,” You got to get rid of that mindset, you have got to get rid of it. Because you can now compete with the larger organizations, the bigger investors out there, the guys that you feel are crushing it, you can compete with them in these spaces. And that’s important.
Mike: No, it’s easier than ever to build your brand through social media.
Chase: Totally.
Mike: There’s one more reminder, it’s very, very difficult to start a new podcast, so no more real estate podcasters, please. No. I’m joking.
Chase: Mike, you are so [inaudible 00:24:51] Mike: Many of these guys are some of my very best friends now. I think that’s important. Some of it is a defensive move, too, right? If you’re not there, what does that say about you?
Chase: No doubt. I think you got a lot of people that aren’t there, right? Like you’ve got Apple, or Warren Buffett, or these bigger juggernauts that aren’t there. We’re going to talk about the outliers not being there, and that’s the reason why you’re choosing not to be there. So are you saying you’re Apple? You’re not. Get it out of your… That’s not you. Unless you are, and get with everybody else, because this is where the action’s happening, this is where the eyeballs and ears are, and if you want to be able to do business, and if business is your full time job, being successful is your full time job, this is the space that you need to be in.
Mike: So talk a little bit about, without getting into a lot of detail, this isn’t a workshop, but talk about how people can use social media to… Because now, more than ever, truth be told, through our social media stuff, we have some of the stuff planned out weeks in advance. We start to have kind of a promotional calendar. But I think it’s a lot easier than ever for people to… You can go take 10 pictures of a house a post them all right now, or you can say, “Hey, I’m going to schedule these,” Or, “I’m going to systematically post these things over time so that I’m staying top-of-mind,” Or, “Hey, I’m top-of-mind right now, but you’re not going to see me again for a week.”
Chase: Sure, sure. I’ll mention an app after this little bit, talking about how you can use social. Number one, you pick a platform, right? Right off the top, just pick a platform. I love LinkedIn for the note business because we’re a little bit more B2B than say a lot of traditional real estate investors would be. But pick a platform, number one. Then, whatever that platform is, really dive in. There’s so many people. Snapchat is a great example of a social network that a lot of people don’t even know certain bells and whistles about it because they just look so surface at a particular app. For them, Facebook is just a place for them to go post status updates. They don’t understand this whole other ad side, the psychology. When to post, how to post, the colors to use in certain things that you’re doing. They don’t know simple things like the way that the edge rank algorithm works in terms of… The more interaction I have with you, Mike, on Facebook, the more likely Facebook is going to go, “Oh, wow. These two guys really like each other. So every time one of them posts something, I am going to let the other one know.” Is basically how that works, right? It’s very simple, the way that that can be ordered.
So when you post certain types of content, Facebook is the example here, you need to post stuff that is really easy and really, really engaging for people so if all they do is give you a “like,” that’s just like one check, “Okay, cool. He liked my photo, so lets shove him another one in three hours. Oh, he checked that one. Two hours – check.” So you’re doing these things, that is incredibly important. Not just picking a platform, but making it your job to really understand it.
If that means going to Lynda.com, which is a really cool website that teaches online courses, or Udemy or something like that. FlipNerd’s probably got a ton of really great content on the forums in the back end and the things that you all do there and just really diving in on that one that you use. And then when you’re talking about posting and editorial calendars, one of my favorite apps to use for short term sharing and scheduling of some shared content is a really great app called Buffer, B-U-F-F-E-R. Not sure if you’ve talked about this on the show before, but-
Mike: I know what it is, but we haven’t talked about it before.
Chase: Yeah, you couldn’t find it on buffer.com, it was at bufferapp.com, I don’t know if they’ve now purchased it or what have you. But you can find it, it’s on all of the Google Play store and Apple Store. Buffer is really cool because it allows you to schedule those posts that you’re talking about. So if you got 10 deals, or 10 articles, or 10 photos, or whatever things you want to do, you can schedule all 10 of those to go out at specific times. You can say, “I want these to go out at these specific times.” But Buffer is really cool because they tell you when they think, analyzing your feed, the best time to post would be. If you wanted to do 2:00, but you get more engagement at 4:00, you’re like, “Oh, snap. I should probably do 4:00.”
Mike: Yeah.
Chase: Really, really cool app. Especially if you’re that solo person, you don’t have a team or what have you. Being able to have a mini editorial calendar over the next seven days or so for some pieces of content to go out across multiple different social platforms. Really, really cool app. The free version is great, the paid version is really great. Just the free version alone will get you a ton of traction.
Mike: We will add a link for anyone who is interested. Buffer app, and there’s Hootsuite, there’s a number of other products in this space.
Chase: Which is great.
Mike: Yeah. We just have a couple more minutes here. Talk real quick, just share your thoughts on everything we just said and kind of going back to one of the first things we talked about, which was authenticity. So at what point do people start to, when you start using posting tools like this, it’s funny, because we’re talking about authenticity, consistency, kind of being present. Being present, we’re saying, “Hey, use social media tools and it will help you with your consistency.” Does it take away from your authenticity?
Chase: I think if you’re posting something, I think the question you’re asking is, if I post something automatically on a Tuesday that I didn’t physically push the button to post, is that authentic? That’s the question, right? I think that, again, if you’re a Gary Vaynerchuk fan, he says don’t use any of that automation in terms of that kind of social posting and things like that. And that’s great. He’s hired a team of eight people to follow him around and create content. I don’t know how you’re doing, Mike, but I’m not in a position to hire eight people to follow me around to create content for me and I know that he does a lot of his own tweeting and that type of thing and that’s cool. And I know that he even does some of his Facebooking and that’s cool.
But again, if I’m not that guy, if I’m not the Apple or the Steve Jobs or the Gary Vaynerchuk, I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do to grow my business and do what I’ve got to do. So from an automation standpoint, I have two points. Number one, never post with the intention of never following up. So if I tweet something out and someone replies or says or retweets or whatever the case is and I’m not willing to jump back in that conversation, and I see this all of the time, don’t do it. Don’t do it, because then you’ve now lost that person.
Mike: Right.
Chase: They’re, “Oh, hey Chase, that was a really great article.” Crickets.
Mike: Yeah.
Chase: So don’t do that, number one. Number two, the dark side of automated posting is when something happens, good or bad, and specifically on the bad, and then you’re that guy that then has a tweet that goes out that’s like, “Hey. Check out my most recent real estate video.” Or, “I got 20% ROI.” And something just happened absolutely tragic across the country. And you’re that guy.
Mike: Yeah. We did that. I don’t know when it went out, but don’t do it. We have some motivational quotes and stuff that we use. We had a couple from Bill Cosby that, a few months ago, we were like, “Aw, man, we got to get rid of those, where were they at?”
Chase: That is amazing. Okay, so that’s a really great example. But even on the flipside, we just had the U.S. women’s soccer, the national soccer team win the world cup, absolutely amazing, in devastating fashion, and you still got people that are tweeting and Facebooking. Not to say that you have to care that that’s happening, but that’s a national event. You should at least know what’s going on. Or if you’re saying that you’re in that space and that you are engaged in that space and that whole space is talking about this thing over here, no one cares about what you’re talking about over here.
Mike: Right.
Chase: And they care less because you’re not talking about what they’re talking about.
Mike: Yeah. That’s great.
Chase: So I like to one app, I use Buffer. Hootsuite’s great. I use Buffer. And if something happens, I love having one app where I realize you’re saying something’s up, whatever the case may be, where I can literally go in and delete everything. Just delete everything. Because, to me, it will burn your brand and burn those relationships and that reputation that you’ve built up when you do that kind of thing very quickly. If you do it once, eh. If you’re a big brand, absolutely never, right? But as an individual, we’ll give you some leeway. But again and again, it’s not good. It’s not a good look.
Mike: Yeah. Well, hey man, any kind of final words of wisdom, then why don’t you tell us how folks can learn more about you?
Chase: Final words of wisdom would be to go back to that idea that everyone is a marketer now. Period. Because everyone has access to the amazing technology that is now on their phone and this unbelievable network that everyone is now connected to. I said it while we were doing the preshow, but one of my mentors likes the quote, he likes to say that your brand is a commonly held set of beliefs about what you deliver and how you deliver it as told through the eyes of the customer, client, or consumer.
So it doesn’t matter what you say you are. It matters what other people say you are. But again, that all comes back to that marketing. What are you putting in front of them? What are you saying about yourself? How are you doing it? Everyone is a marketer now and it’s important to get in the game, because if not, you’re going to lose.
Mike: Yeah. Awesome. And how do folks learn more about you if they want to learn more into the crazy world of Chase Thompson?
Chase: For sure. They can definitely go check out the podcast, if you know something about note investing or you want to get some initiation into note investing, you can check that out. It’s NoteMBA.com, N-O-T-E-M-B-A.com. I’m on Twitter, I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, all of those links are actually on the website there so there’s no reason to spout that out. But if you want to send me a direct question, you can hit me up at [email protected] and that would be a direct email to send me a question or anything that you want to reach out on.
Mike: Awesome. Well, Chase, thanks for spending time with use today. I think it was an important topic and of course touched the very tip of it. But I think everybody understands that… hopefully a lot of small real estate investors, if you’re listening, you understand that, even though you think, “Well, I’m just small, I don’t need these things,” but you really do need to be able to separate yourself from the next guy, the next woman, for sure. Hopefully, you got something out of this show. Chase, thanks again for your time.
Chase: Cool, man. Appreciate you. Thanks Mike.
Mike: All right, man. Stay in touch.
Are you a member of FlipNerd.com, the most robust real estate investing platform in existence? Where you can find off-market wholesale deals and great vendors, literally in your market. You can get access to advice from experts, and learn about local clubs and events right in your backyard. If not, please visit FlipNerd.com and register for a free account. You can register in less than a minute. It’s pretty much the coolest site that’s ever existed in the real estate investing industry. So get on over to FlipNerd.com.