EP 326 – Knowing You And Your Message

NCS 326 | Your Message

NCS 326 | Your Message

 

One of the issues people have whenever they go to an event is that they don’t prepare their messages. By this, we mean knowing what you want for your business and embodying it. Part of who you are is representing the message that you want to get across, and it’s very necessary that you look the part. Scott discusses the importance of knowing you and your message to your audience and tribe. Part of what you need in an event is bringing business cards, dressing up properly, networking, and more. At the end of the day, it’s all about connection whether you’re new or not.

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Knowing You And Your Message

I had a great event in Dallas with Ryan Harper and Chad Moore with the DFW Real Estate Investor Meetup put on by Propelio Investor Tools. It was a great event. There were hundreds of people at the event, probably close to 600, 700 people in attendance so it was nice to catch up with people. It was nice to meet Austin Payne in person. It was nice to meet Brady Duran in person for the first time, see Jack DeWeese, who is known for years, and other people out there, and also make connections to other people that we’re friends with online. That’s always a good thing when you can get out, network and run into people that you’ve met online or communicated with. Now, you have met face-to-face. That’s a beautiful thing to an event like that. A big kudos to Ryan for literally doing just an amazing job. I’m excited about all the relations we made.

Getting Your Message Across

Our topic has a little bit to do with what you do in an event and how do you get your message across? One of the biggest things that we saw out there is people are struggling. Steph was working on the booth while I was speaking for a few minutes and then back talking with everybody. It was very loud and hard to hear everybody. It was interesting seeing how many different messages people had or people walking into an event not being prepared for the event. Why are you not being prepared for the event? They walk in and they don’t have business cards. That’s the first thing. They don’t have a card at all. Something they can literally give their contact information and that’s a frustrating thing. I literally forgot to bring a bunch of business cards too, but we had flyers. We had flyers made up. We had a booth. It’s hard not to miss our thing. What’s amazing is people don’t have cards. I was asking them, “What are you basically doing?” They do this deer in the headlight look. That’s okay if you’re brand new. If you’re a brand-new investor, just say it, “I’m in the process of learning things.”

When we were asked, “What are you doing?” We start talking about notes and they go glazed over like they hadn’t heard the concept before. I was like, “It’s okay. Relax.” Let’s go through baby steps here and stuff. That’s the interesting thing is a lot of people are interested in the note business but they don’t always seem to understand the concepts. If you’re brand new to real estate investing, you’re brand new to own a home, you have not had to go through those processes or understand what’s going on, and haven’t done any fix and flips. It’s always a fun thing when you’re dealing with new people out there at an event. I could tell you this. Know your message. Know what you want to do. Have a target of what you want to do.

NCS 326 | Your Message

Your Message: A lot of people are interested in the note business but they don’t always seem to understand the concepts.

 

We met Caitlin Haddigan with Community National Title. She did a good job. She and her message were great. Melody Medley out there with Oyezz Real Estate, she’s a short sale agent out there. It was great talking to her. It was great talking to these ladies about their business, what they’re doing, their target, what they’re focused on. It’s hard to literally talk with everybody because there are so many people. The best thing I can tell you is to know your message, whether you’ve got a shirt with a message on it. When you’re out talking to people, don’t be afraid to go up and bullying the conversation sometimes.

You’ve got to know what you want to accomplish in an event. What was our goal for the event? With as many online events as we do, an online podcast and things like that, we don’t go to too many events like that anymore. Yes, we were in the Ohio event. Yes, we went up to Dallas. Yes, we’ll be in San Antonio. I don’t mind going to those events. I don’t mind going to Meetup groups as long they’re going to be fruitful. They’re going to be something that we can use and meet with good people to either expand our message, expand our audience, bring on students or raise capital or find buyers for stuff.

Business Cards

A thing you’ve got to keep in mind is if you’re going to an event, bring plenty of business cards and ask for cards. If you’ve got a sheet with you, if somebody doesn’t have a business card, get their information, first name, last name, email. You may want to put something on your cell phone where you can take a picture of them so you remember them. When you go to an event, when you’ve got 600, 700 cards, you want to have a business card with your face on it so I can remember, “That was Melody.” That was a great thing about Melody is she commented on a podcast on Facebook. When we met, she was like, “We talked. We exchanged messages on Facebook.” I’m like, “Yes, we sure did.” It was like we already knew each other.

Know what your message is. Know what you want to focus on. I know it’s hard going into an event, you’re like, “I don’t know who the vendors are. I don’t know who else is going to be there.” The thing that’s going to be the most effective for you is to go in and literally make it a vendor search or a business card grab. What do I mean by that? Get down, network and meet people. You see conversations, you see vendors, you see people hanging around, vendors that you want to talk to. Go up and talk to them. Get up, visit with them and find out what’s going on. If anything, you walk away with some pretty interesting swag for your grab bag.

Dress Up

Bring a bag or a backpack. That was one thing too. I know a lot of guys, we walk around with just our wallets because we’re pretty lucky we don’t have to carry a pouch or anything or purse. Oftentimes you’re grabbing fliers and things like that. You want to have something to put them in. Take a portfolio, take something with you that you can slide stuff in so you’re not dropping stuff and being confused. It also looks a little more professional. That’s a thing too. Dress a little up for these things. Some people are going wearing t-shirts or dirty, dry-fit shorts or stuff like that. Do dress up. Your first impression is one of the most important things when you go to a networking event.

NCS 326 | Your Message

Your Message: To dress up your first impression is one of the most important things when you go to a networking event.

 

I put on a sports coat. I don’t wear many sports coats. I’m usually wearing a t-shirt and shorts here in the office, but it’s the office. That’s my home. That’s okay here, but if I’m going out somewhere, I want to look a little professional. Ladies, you don’t need to dress up in short skirts and slow tops. That’s not always professional. We saw a little bit of that. I don’t think that’s a professional thing. I don’t think it’s the image you want for your business because you’re going to attract the wrong type of clientele. You’re going to scare off the right clients and attract the wrong people. They’re just there to get a peek.

Networking

I spoke with Ryan Harper a little bit. It was a great event, and he’s a little exhausted. If you get a chance to check it out, put them on your calendar, schedule for it. If it’s such a good event, I’m glad to go to it. If it’s not the ideal event, I’ll tell you, it may not have been the best ideal event for us as note investors because there were not too many people there doing the note business. We had added a speaker to Note CAMP 6.0 from that event, so that was worth it. Who knows how many other people are interested in notes and want to sign up for a class? That’s the thing to keep in mind. Show up with your business cards. Show up smiling. Don’t be afraid to network. What’s always disturbing is when I walk into an event and they had their vendor area which is packed and they got a big auditorium. I got to the auditorium and nothing started until about 6:00 in the auditorium. There are already twenty people hiding out there where they’re against a chair. I’m like, “There’s nothing in here. Are you just going to hide out from everybody else?” I’m like, “That’s not good. You should not go to a networking event to hide out.”

I know you want to hear me speak and the other people speak. I get it. When you go to a networking event, who cares who you sit next to? Get in there and talk with people, elbow in, make use of your time. If you’re only there for an hour, get in there and try to meet five, ten people because we’re all one business card, one contact away from our business exploding with other deals, with other funding.

You’ve heard the story about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. We’re all literally six degrees away of separation from about everybody out there. This world gets smaller with social media and Facebook. There are people I was meeting there that I’ve only known online. Before that way, I saw them on a comment or on a thread. It literally felt something like, “It’s nice to officially meet you. It’s nice to get to know you,” and to go from there. I highly recommend you do that. If you literally jump on Vistaprint, you could go and print some cards from FedEx. Take some time and make it look nice though.

I’m not a big fan of the tear-at-home cards. Take some time and pay for them at Kinko’s or FedEx office if you need to. It’s worth it. Look nice because your business card is a reflection of your business and your image. A lot of people come and go. We talked to a lot of people who are working full-time in a job but they’re trying to figure it out. They’re trying to get their feet wet, but they’re not taking action. What will happen next year? There’ll be another round of people, another round of investors or wannabes coming to an event. That’s the frustrating part. When we teach workshops and seeing people flake off, it’s like, “Everybody can do what we’re doing here. It’s not that difficult. It’s a matter of taking action and finding time to get done it.”

My discussion was about the 5%, the little bit extra that you could do every day to expand your business, expand what your focus is, to get things done a little bit faster. Literally, it’s three minutes an hour or 72 minutes a day. When you start adding that up, that extra 5 % adds up to a lot of time in a year’s timeframe. When you look back it’s like, “I took advantage of that 5%. It’s helped separate me from the rest of the crowd.” Let’s face it, the rest of the crowd doesn’t want you to leave the herd. The rest of the crowd wants you to remain in the sanctity or the safety of the herd. If you step outside that herd, you’re on your own. That can be scary sometimes, but often that scarcity tactic or scarce mindset is just a mindset. You get out away from the crowd and a few other people that are doing or are at where you want to be. They’ll also help you literally get things done a lot faster. They’ll help you avoid potholes and hurdles along the road. If you can, one of the best things to do when you go to a networking event, find out who’s doing deals. Talk to the people that are running the event. They can often put you in touch with people out there.

Email

I have to give a big shout-out to Brady Brady who was out talking with people. If they say anything about notes, he herds them over to our booth, which is great. I got a chance to talk to him. It was great seeing Steph. Steph enjoyed the event, getting to talk with a lot of people outside of the house and interacting. I had a hard time hearing things, but it was nice talking to people and connecting with a different crowd. It’s something we don’t do on a weekly basis, but we’ll do it every once in a while. It was worth the trip and you never know who’s going to link to. I want everybody to realize too.

If you’ve got a stack of business cards at home that you’ve not reached out to or sent an email to follow up with them from an event or just to say, “It was great meeting you,” you’re hurting yourself, you’re hurting your business and you’re hurting you growing. You never know when somebody you’ve talked to in the past will come across something, an investor, a lender, someone with money that needs to put it in something and they think of you. Please take the time to drop an email out to the people that took the time to give you a business card. They took the time to say, “Let’s exchange cards. Let’s talk some more.”

NCS 326 | Your Message

Your Message: You never know when somebody you’ve talked to in the past will come across as an investor or a lender in the future.

 

The adrenaline is an important thing, especially if you’re introverted. If coming out to the crowd is not your thing, it can be stressful. It gets the adrenaline flowing, talking to people. I’ve always made it a game. When I first started in the note business or in real estate, I always made it a game to try to see how many cards I could collect at an event. It was always a game to me see how many people I could connect and add to my database. There would be times I’d walk away with five but those are really valuable five because they were really great conversations. I’d walk with 200, which I may not have a lot of conversations, but that I made a lot of connections.

Here’s a little thing. Sometimes walking by the vendor tables, there are often business cards out there. That’s a great grab for your database, just to grab those and put them in. I’ll give you an example. Some people have their address. Some people will have their phone number, email, cell phone. That’s the important thing. Some have websites on here as well. It’s important to have that on your business card so people can get ahold of you besides your smiling face, all your contact information. That helps with the adrenaline rush because you get a chance to meet, “I recognize you, I know you from online, I get a chance to talk with you now.” That’s an adrenaline rush that is often very addictive when you’re out networking.

I know a lot of times we don’t want to leave the house. We’ve worked eight hours a day and the last thing you want to do is drive 30 minutes or an hour to go to an event to hang out for three or four hours. The only thing you guarantee by not showing up is that you don’t get anything out of that event. Kudos to Ryan and them for doing it as a free event. I usually don’t like free events because you get a lot of tire kickers or people that aren’t serious. Value comes when you offer up something of value and once they pay for something that gives you an investment that they’re going to be there. Kudos to the guys. They did a great event. There was alcohol, Chick-fil-A, and plenty of people showed up to network and have a good time. Haley Gant did a good job with Quest. It ran a little long, but she did a good job otherwise. Gale Black is a hard money lender here. Kristin Gerst, who’s also an owner finance note buyer out of Dallas, she did a good job in her presentation, and then a few other people there as well.

Know what your message is. Know what you want to accomplish. If you’re brand new, it’s okay to be brand new. Go out and start talking to people. You’ll never know who connects you to what or who connects you to whom. Be open. I will tell you this though, don’t be the guy or the gal that goes up and blatantly pitches people on everything. I had several people come up, “I do this and that.” They didn’t even ask to know what we did. If you want a little trick on the best way to talk to people is formal, not form tackle them, but formal. Find out where they’re from, their occupation, what they do for fun, and then your message.

If I’m going to a networking event, obviously I can see what company it was. I like to ask, “My name’s Scott, what’s your name? Occupation, tell me what you do? What do you guys do here?” They’ll go through that. Often, they’ll ask you if they’re great at what they do. “Tell me what you do?” Here’s what I do. Recreation, if you’ve got something in common, great, from occupation, recreation, “What do they do for fun? Is this a good event? Are they Cowboys fans? Ready for football, whatever,” and then the message. “Is there a way for us to work together? Do you know anybody here that might be a good referral for me?” If you’re out talking to people, as you talk to other people that are there looking for something, that makes you valuable.

NCS 326 | Your Message

Your Message: The best way to talk to people is for them to find out where you’re from, your occupation, what you do, and then your message.

 

We should go talk over to the Quest IRA. Steph had people get signed up for three Quest IRA accounts that she was just out there talking with them. They went straight over to Quest, Haley, Rebecca Miller, and Logan over there at the Quest booth and grabbed a Quest flyer and come to fill it up. If you want people coming to you as an expert in your tribes like, “I need this. Do you know anybody that might be able to help me out with?” That’s a good thing, but don’t be the person who gets diarrhea of the mouth and then doesn’t follow up too. There were two guys that came by my booth and I could hardly hear them. Don’t give me a sales pitch or I can’t hear. It’s not effective. Let’s talk a little bit. Here’s my card, your card, let’s schedule a time to follow up afterward.

If you’re going to sit here and rattle on for twenty minutes and not ask me what we do, you’re more outselling yourself. You’re really that annoying person at a networking event that you want to leave, that we don’t want to talk to. If you’re to go out and pitch, make sure you look nice. Don’t wear some dirty shirt or just don’t look unprofessional. Know your message, know what you want to accomplish, don’t be afraid to form tackle them. Where are you from? What do you do? What do you do for fun and recreation, and then the message? If you’re going to be going out, don’t be afraid to form tackle your networking events and make it productive, make it fun, smile, laugh. If anything, it’s a chance to get out of the house and have a little fun, drink a libation or two and network. That’s all I’ve got for now. Once again, a big shout-out to Propelio Investor Tools, Ryan Harper, Daniel Chad Moore, for all those guys and all their staff there who did an event.

Go out, do something great. A lot of people that deer in the headlights, they’re getting their feet wet, and don’t have an opportunity to understand it. I always say it’s an opportunity to educate. That’s one thing when we go to a neutral event. It was neutral because there are people from all over, apartments, hard money, realtors, short sales, software, IRA, all sorts of vendors there looking for different things. It’s an opportunity for your chance to meet because the education lots, there were eight of us speakers at ten minutes. You’re not going to get a lot of in-depth education on specific stuff. It’s an opportunity for you to network or anything else.

I do have a big shout-out to Austin Payne. Austin, it was great to meet you. I’m glad to hear you’re closing a couple of notes. We’re proud of what you’ve accomplished and we look forward to also seeing where you go in the near future. Otherwise, you all go out and make something happen. We’ll see you all at the top. Bye.

 

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