Foreign.

You're listening to the Master Passive Income Podcast Network.

Hey guys, this is Charles Seaman here with Erica McNew and we're hosting the Master Passive Income Multifamily Podcast.

And today we're going to be talking about a really important topic, the importance of networking and masterminds and all these different events that are out there.

As we're recording this episode in September 2024, Erica and I are just coming off the first Root Club event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

So we're really excited and that's kind of what led us to talking about this.

Welcome to the Master Passive Income Multifamily Podcast where we guide you to invest in commercial real estate with a special focus on raising money from others to buy bigger and better deals.

And now, here are your hosts, Charles seaman and Erica McNew.

So, Erica, I know there's so many different things we can talk about, but from a high level, why is networking important?

What should listeners take away from this?

I think we all know your network is your network, and I found that to be very, very true.

And in my journey in real estate for the last 10 years, a lot of the key moments where I was able to move forward and continue progress with anything that I was looking into and doing was due to a relationship typically that I met through a networking event.

So networking events have completely changed my life.

I started going to them early on in real estate in 2016.

I've probably been to, I'd say probably over almost 50 plus conferences since that time and a variety of different conferences from wholesaling to commercial real estate to sub two community.

So I've been to tons of these different events and a lot of the progress I've made throughout my career was directly due to a relationship from one of them.

So I think that it kind of catapults you when you get around the right people.

So that's really interesting.

So using these events, you would say that a lot of the success you've had in this industry has actually come from.

Absolutely, yes, absolutely.

And I think that what's really cool, especially as a real estate broker, is so many people get into real estate and think that they need to cold call and door knock.

And while I absolutely agree those are amazing ways to get business, networking events has been something I've always done that doesn't feel like work.

It's fun.

I enjoy it.

You know, like they give you a free drink ticket every once in a while and who doesn't want that?

So it's like it's an Enjoyable thing that technically is lead generation for me as a broker and.

But one that I enjoy so much.

It doesn't feel like work.

So love them for that reason.

Awesome.

Well, let's get into it a little bit because, you know, networking, obviously is very important, you know, for me, too, it's something that's been very key, and you have to.

You know, one of the things that's really important is you have to figure out what you want at an event, Right?

So you can go to an event, you can meet 20 people and not follow up with them, and then you kind of waste your time.

You need to be very intentional with what you're doing.

You need to be planning who you want to meet, what you're hoping to get out of them, what you can offer them, and most importantly, you need to follow up after the event ends, because if you don't do that, then it's all for not.

So you got to do that.

What should people be taking away from this?

Well, let's talk about how you can leverage networking events for real estate success.

So the first thing we mentioned is the right events.

So you need to have a clear picture of what you want.

If you're looking to buy your first single family property, or if you're looking to go out there and buy a duplex, or if you're looking to buy a $50 million apartment building, they're going to be very different events.

Generally, while there will be some crossover, usually those crowds are going to be in different spots.

So the old saying, birds with feather flock together.

So same thing that applies at these events.

Figure out what you want and who you need to meet to be successful.

I totally agree.

When I actually, in 2022, I had a need to raise capital for my company at that time and strategically went to commercial events, in particular, knowing that I would be meeting commercial brokers that potentially were doing syndications.

And I knew that was where I more than likely would find my resource for capital, and I was correct on that.

So I agree.

Like identifying what your need is currently and then making sure that the events that you're trying to attend match that need.

Wholesaling in 2016, I had barely any money but wanted to do real estate investing.

So I took a wholesaling course.

Right.

So I think that's really important.

Identifying your need and then matching the event that you're going to and finding these events is pretty simple, too, I'd say.

Right, Charles?

It can be.

What are some of the ways you used to find events?

I love, love love meetup.com I go on there often Eventbrite.

I just go on eventbrite and meetup.com and just start typing in real estate, see what pops up.

And that's how I found a lot of the great local networking events that I go to.

In particular, I also make sure to follow certain people on social media.

So, you know, investors especially that are on Instagram, I'm always following them.

A lot of them will host events which I can then see through their Instagram.

So just making sure you're connecting in the right circles, that totally goes a long way.

You know, I probably think a little more of an old fashioned approach, but I think Eric is a little more tech savvy and sophisticated than I am.

Most times I just ask people, you know, what events I should be going to.

And you know, one of the things I've always done in real estate and really with anything I do is I quickly identify who I need to be around.

And then I, then I'm like a sponge and I stick to those people and I figure out, you know, what they're doing, who they're associating with.

And I try to replicate that as closely as possible so that way I can figure out what the right things to attend are.

Very neat.

Yep.

And I guess when you're going to these events, one of the most important things is creating value.

So I, at the very beginning I would go to a lot of events and just kind of like absorb everything I possibly could.

And now when I go to events, I try to ensure that my elevator pitch demonstrates that I'm somebody that can create value for them.

So, you know, I've made sure that my elevator pitch matches, matches which one of the events that I'm going to.

And then how do you create value?

I know you do a lot of these events as well.

Yeah.

So a lot of times what I, what I do is just go to events and listen to people.

I see what they need, listen to, listen to what they're saying, listen to where they're struggling.

Sometimes they've helped me as well.

You know, there's events that I went through when I first started out in the space where it was like people would tell me they gave such great advice.

I'm like, you know, and it's funny, like people come back and tell me they made money off my advice.

I'm like, oh, why didn't I make money off it and maybe kind of rethink and re examine.

So being around the right crowd and being around people, you just have to listen to what they need and figure out how to fill that gap.

And I think that's with any problem.

Right.

You got to go out there and for lack of a better term, give the people what they want.

Absolutely.

And I think from the perspective of being a speaker at some of these events, in creating value.

Absolutely.

Identifying their needs through other networking events where you're just listening to where they're struggling, and then, you know, strategically choosing what to speak about and targeting that avatar within the audience.

So, for instance, like, I wouldn't go to a fix and flip conference and start talking about multifamily.

Maybe I would if my intention was to be that niche person and draw the multifamily investors to myself.

However, for the most part, I'm really trying to make sure that my speech matches the avatar of who's in the audience and that it's creating the most value and helping them to overcome some of the struggles that I know that they're having through listening.

One of the things I think you find by going to these events is a lot of times as investors or business owners, we think that we're kind of on an island by ourselves, and maybe some of us even like it that way.

Admittedly, I kind of do sometimes.

But what you realize is getting around other people is that you're not the only one having these struggles.

There's other people that are having the same doubts.

There's other people that are having the same challenges.

So by getting together at these events, it gives you a chance to exchange information.

So aside from just networking and building relationships, you can.

You can exchange ideas.

You know, maybe somebody's faced that same problem.

Maybe they figured out how to overcome it, and maybe they can offer you insight from their own path and their own successes that you can use in your business and your journey.

Absolutely.

Something else, I think, kind of before we move on to the next point.

So a lot of times when you're going to these networking events, in the past, they were all in person events, but obviously in the post pandemic world, things have changed quite a bit.

And now there's a healthy mix of both in person and virtual events.

You can build relationships with both.

But what I would always tell you is if you have the opportunity to get in front of somebody in person, just builds the relationship that much deeper and that much faster.

People begin to trust you more when you.

When you look them in the eye and you shake their hand and you sit down, you have drinks, you have a meal that goes a long way towards Expediting that trust process.

Absolutely agree.

Ain't no school like the old school.

That'S, that's this business.

So let's talk about something else you mentioned there.

He talked about creating value at Masterminds events.

So you know, I know we were talking about that a little bit.

What, what are some of the ways that you find that you create value when you go to events?

So somebody listening that way maybe looking for some ideas to use at events that they go to?

Yeah.

So again, just depends on the actual event that I'm attending.

So for instance, some of the events I've attended were for my company, Keller Williams.

And with those events from the very beginning, I had T shirts made and it was T shirts with my little Bitmoji on it and my name, my number, my social media on the back.

And I had so many people sending me pictures of the back of my shirt, following me on Instagram saying I'm so glad we connected.

So the amount of people that stopped to say hi and were like, oh my God, your shirts.

I wore those shirts now to many different conferences and always get that same result.

I like that because at those conferences people do things like bring pens to give away or gift packages to give away with all their branding on it.

And while I love that and I think that is brilliant, you have to be very careful of putting too much in on the front end of the event and not doing any follow up because you're not going to get anything out of all of those branded items that you just gave away.

So in my opinion, I really love like you give a branded item, you collect content about contact information.

The way that you collect contact information becomes extremely important as well.

When you're meeting 20, 30 people in one day that you want to follow up with after the event, you need some type of system before you go to make sure you can collect all of their information in one place and have it all consolidated to go back to.

So I think that your system before you go, anything that you're trying to give away, your branded items or your T shirts, I think that stuff's super cool and it helps you kind of stand out from the crowd.

Totally does.

So let's also give a little bit of clarity.

So for somebody who's brand new, Erica, when would they use a mastermind versus just attending like a networking or a meetup event?

So in my opinion, when you're just starting out especially you are low on capital.

And so I've seen a lot of people that go to a dozen networking events A year and are not actually doing enough business to have that much travel expenses, even if they're tax write offs.

So I think that you, you definitely, in the beginning, you want to scale into networking events more by going to those local masterminds and meetups.

Getting in with those local masterminds and meetups allow you to get the knowledge you need to start producing revenue.

Now you can start proactively putting networking events on your calendar.

There's been lots of networking events where I saw it, boom, bought the ticket, was flying out the next week.

However, most of my networking events were proactively planned.

I had them on the calendar, knew they were coming up within several months, and was able to prepare properly for them, keeping in mind the red light, green light on your expenses.

And so I think that the local masterminds and meetups are like amazing for people scaling in and then one or two really great networking events a year that keeps you on track for your goals.

High level of accountability around those groups.

Yeah, absolutely.

So.

So one thing I think that's really important to take away is that, you know, there's a lot of different events out there, right?

So you need to be selective, as Erica was saying, with the ones that you go to.

Like, even when people ask me about like different multifamily conferences, like which ones they should attend, I'm like, well, look, nowadays there's so many different conferences and so many different events.

You could probably find a different one to go to like every single weekend.

And if you want to do that, good for you.

That's not me.

I usually pick a handful of them a year and I kind of say, okay, which ones do I think are going to give me the best bang for my buck, for who I want to be around?

And you know, networking is always great, but you can quickly spend more money and what time on going to too many events versus just picking the ones that are going to give you that targeted approach.

So be selective.

And again, it comes down to figuring out what you want and then really honing in on it.

So, like, for me, when I first started out, the events that I was looking to go to were people with events for people who were either just starting out or maybe a little bit ahead of me.

There were largely multifamily or commercial real estate events and things that I was able to network with maybe somebody who was a little ahead of me, but not super ahead of me.

Now the events I want to go to are probably family office events.

They're, they're, they're really more finance event than commercial real estate.

Because the, the people that I want to meet now are different than the people I wanted to meet five or ten years ago.

Yeah, absolutely.

It evolves for sure.

Yeah.

Yep.

So let's talk about also virtual events, Erica.

So that's, that's something that's obviously really had a major uptick in the last couple of years.

I mean so many of our lives changed with the pandemic and you know, now we have all these, these wonderful virtual events.

So how do you use virtual events versus like an in person meetup?

Yeah, the virtual events for me have been more, more learning based than networking based.

So if I get on a virtual event, like for instance, one of these larger funds that I know of actually was hosting an event around the interest rates that dropped and the repercussions of that and what we should anticipate because of that and just this whole economic prediction and that was a really timely virtual event to jump on.

It wasn't for networking though, it was for knowledge.

So a lot of the virtual events that I get on are more, I'm absorbing knowledge like you said though, like it's better to be in person.

Especially for someone like me with adhd.

I tend to like, you know, put the, to put, stop the video and walk off and do my thing and come back.

So I like the in person because it keeps me where my feet are.

However, the virtual networking is really, really good for knowledge absorption.

Yep.

Definitely could put it, you know, there, there are a lot of opportunities for virtual networking as well, but it just doesn't come off the.

But I find that a lot of events, when you go there for virtual network and most people kind of drop off before the networking starts.

Some of them maybe because they're just timid and they don't want to get out there and do the networking.

Others because, you know, maybe the events run longer than they expected.

That doesn't happen as much as an in person event.

Usually when somebody goes in, they kind of dedicate that time.

So you'll find the opportunities a little bit scarcer on the virtual site, but they still do exist and you can use them.

So it's one, one tool in the toolbox.

Let's talk about something else that's important.

So one thing a lot of people do or aim to do with these events is they go there with the hope of finding funding sources for their deals.

So what do you find works effectively for that, Erica?

So somebody's just coming in to the industry and they're looking to get started.

And let's say maybe they're hungry, maybe they have some knowledge, maybe they go find a deal, but they don't have the money to do that deal.

How can they use one of these events or one of these groups to go out there and find funding sources for the deals?

Yeah.

So in 2022, I was looking for a syndication fund to be the investors for all the down payments for industrial and retail properties that we were going to purchase with an expansion.

And so what I did is I created an offering memorandum for those that don't know.

It's basically like a, like a flyer for whatever it is you're asking for, whatever project it is that you're asking for and what you anticipate returns to be and all that good stuff.

So I created an offering memorandum for what we needed.

And then I actually put it on a QR code and I had it on my phone on the front screen.

And so when I would meet people that I was like, oh, this is potentially somebody that could be one of my investors, I'd be like, hey, here's my offering memorandum.

Go ahead and scan here.

And that was really, really, really impressive to the people that had the capital that I was trying to impress.

So I think that having whatever it is you're asking, having clarity on what you want and what you're asking for before going into the event and then like keeping in mind you don't know what you don't know.

Right.

So like, I had created that flyer and at that time I didn't know it was called an offering memorandum.

I had just created a flyer of what I wanted.

So like, keep in mind, like, you'll learn a lot and, and you stay humble in order to absorb that knowledge from others.

But I think that being prepared for what you want to ask for and clarity on what you're asking for is critical before going into one of these events and trying to find capital.

Yeah.

So I think that's again, a great point that I think the listeners are probably picking up on a recurring theme we're talking about in this episode, and that's clarity.

So whether it's the people you want to meet or the ask you have for a specific deal, you have to be clear on it.

Because if you're not clear on it, nobody else will be clear on it either.

Keep that in mind.

So if you, if you go out and let's say you have a retailer, industrial or 10 unit apartment building under contract, where you have an offer on the table and you need that funding Source, you need to be prepared to tell people, this is what I'm offering.

You know, this is how the partnership is going to be called up.

This is how much money we need, this is when we need it.

These are the return metrics on the deal.

So know your information.

If you go there unprepared, expect that you're going to get a result that's going to be disappointing.

Do your homework, be prepared, look polished, be polished.

And then oftentimes you'll find that you'll get a good result.

It doesn't mean you got to get a yes 100% of the time.

Very few of us do that, probably none of us.

But you'll at least get something that'll put you further in that direction and move you closer to the intended goal.

Absolutely.

So another thing that's always good to have these events is an elevator pitch.

What is an elevator pitch, Erica?

It's my quick, quick 22nd who am I and why should you listen to me?

And I think that's really, really important to have.

Like I said, I actually, I amend it based on what kind of event I'm going to and who I'm speaking to.

But my elevator pitch typically includes a couple words I know people won't quite understand and they'll get their attention.

So I'll put you on the spot.

So for the benefit of everybody listening here.

Yes.

What was your elevator pitch at this past Rule club event?

So when you went into that event, met people, what did you use and how could somebody else use that for themselves?

Absolutely.

So going into that event, I understood that a lot of those people are real estate investors currently or looking to get into real estate investing.

Like we had discussed previously.

I think what people underestimate is like the current company that they built that is producing revenue is a massive asset that they're sitting on, more so than they realize many times.

And it can purchase commercial real estate.

So tapping into that avatar is always my goal at those types of events.

Being a broker myself.

And so my pitch is really just like, you know, my name's Erica.

I'm a real estate broker since 2015.

I also do commercial real estate and investing.

Very familiar with creative financing.

I actually built out a vertically integrated manufacturing and retail company from startup in 2020.

We purchased a 15,000 square foot industrial building with that company.

We did expansion with that company.

I replaced myself out of that company, stepped back into full time sales where I'm happy and where I belong.

And now I get to help investors build their wealth and purchase Commercial real estate through their businesses.

And it's super rewarding.

I love what I do.

Awesome.

So keep in mind, guys, when you're building out an elevator pitch, you want it to be short and concise.

20 or 30 seconds of goes longer than that, you're probably losing most people's attention.

So keep it short and concise, but also make it attractive.

So like Erica saying, sometimes you put words or verbiage in there that people don't, they don't know.

Sometimes they ask questions about it.

And what you want to do with the elevated pitch is get people to engage.

One of my partners, actually one of the pitches he's used, and it's a really simple one, but I like it.

People say, what do you do?

He said, I buy apartment buildings with my friends.

And, you know, it works.

It's very effective because it gets people talking.

It's like, oh, that sounds pretty cool.

Absolutely.

And something I've realized is like, you know, as you build a resume and a track record, your elevator pitch can't include everything.

Right.

So I can't say, hey, I've done seven, eight tax foreclosures in central Florida.

And that I, you know, I'm in the top 10 recruiters for Keller Williams in the history of the company.

Like, I don't include that stuff.

So what I'm doing now is I have a QR code with my resume so that I can give my elevator pitch, capture them, we start the conversation.

And then within my contact information, they're also getting my resume.

So that whenever they like to, if they thought that my elevator pitch was great and I'm somebody, they should know, then they can go back and read my full track record and resume.

So that can help us connect on other things as well.

Awesome.

So one last thing I would touch on with networking, and this will be tougher to do at in person events in your backyard, but you can do it at in person events in other areas.

You can also do it with virtual events, is having the opportunity to meet people that you wouldn't meet in the local market.

So this is where virtual networking comes in handy.

And sometimes select in person events in different areas too.

You know, oftentimes if we're going to local events, we're limited by our geographic region.

And that's not a bad thing.

You can meet enough people locally sometimes where you don't need to go beyond that.

But depending on what you're looking to achieve and what your goals are, sometimes you need to go beyond that.

And having the ability to connect with somebody in a different part of the country or a different part of the world gives an advantage.

You know, even with one of my recent partnerships, you know, to be honest, all of us are spread out geographically and I never even met them in person.

When we agreed to partner, I mean, we'd only talked virtually for like two years.

I mean, we talked regularly, so it wasn't like it was just a one time thing.

But I never met them in person.

And a lot of the partnerships that I've done in syndication, they're people that, you know, maybe I've met once or twice.

But a lot of them are just like virtual connections that you stay in touch with regularly.

So that's where you can use tools like this to an advantage and with anything.

Keep in mind, with any of these events, masterminds, meetup events, conferences, trade shows, whatever it might be, it's all in the follow up.

And you need to make it a priority to follow up within 48 hours these events.

Otherwise people forget you.

Absolutely.

Some of my vendor partners that I currently use were wise enough to follow up with me after the event and I was like, oh, yeah, you do inspections?

You do commercial inspections?

He's like, yes, I do.

I'm like, great.

He's actually doing a commercial inspection for me next week.

So I think the follow up, all the money's in the follow up for sure.

Yep.

And, you know, having that and being able to utilize it, that's what's going to bring you success in this business.

So use the event, use the connections, build authentic relationships and treat them as you want to be treated.

I agree.

Absolutely.

And so much value to gain from these.

And I think one of the first ones, if you're in Charlotte, definitely the Reeb Club, would be one of the first events I recommend.

Absolutely.

That would be the first.

I'd have to agree.

That's a great one.

Well, guys, we.

We thank you for listening for this, this episode of the Master Passive Income Multifamily Podcast.

Until next time.

Thanks, guys.