Building a Social Brand to Maximize Your Real Estate Business

Mike DeHaan: [0:00] He's still spending $80,000 a month on his lifestyle. Wow. And you know what was very interesting, he's like, you know, I do wonder what's gonna happen when most of us, like most of us real estate guys going around, all of a sudden start going bankrupt because things happen that we don't expect. He's like, but the one thing that I do have going myself for myself is I have my personal brand. He's like, and I am very confident that if I needed to make $1,000,000 in a weekend, I could do it. What is going on, guys? Welcome to this episode of the Collecting Keys Real Estate Investing Podcast. I am Mike DeHaan, and I'm here with my cohost, Dan Austin. Hey. And this is the Wednesday Mike and Dan show where we talk about real estate investing business and whatever else we feel like for the week. So thanks for joining us today, and we're going to dive into a whole bunch of things because I know Dan is very passionate about a couple of topics that we have today. Oh, should

Dan Austin: [1:01] we dive into the Oprah conspiracy first or some real news?

Mike DeHaan: [1:05] Conspiracy. Like, for for real. So I don't know if you guys have heard this whole thing, but there was this massive fire in Maui, which I'm sure everyone heard about that, especially because a lot of people who are in real estate have probably been here to Lahaina. It's somewhere that's very near and dear to my heart. I've been there Beautiful. Probably 25 times in my life. Just that was kinda where I went for vacation. You're affluent, you're affluent. Affluent. Yeah, remember going there like before it was crazy expensive. And like it was still like Hawaii, but it wasn't like the crazy resort or something that

Dan Austin: [1:33] it just Yeah. Was more chill, like less developed, all that sort of Yeah. Could

Mike DeHaan: [1:37] see But, know, there was this whole situation where everything sort of aligned, and there was this massive fire that burned the entire town of Lahaina to the ground. This place That Oprah started. Yeah. They had this this place, thousands of people. You know, it's caused billions of dollars worth of damage. It's killed, I think, pushing a 100 people now. Like, it's insane situation.

Dan Austin: [1:57] Yeah. It was over a 100 last time I saw

Mike DeHaan: [1:58] But now the current then and as a result of this, there's all these conspiracy theories that are out going around. And, you know, I'll I'll loop this around. This is a real estate specific topic because a lot of people think that the value of their real estate was why Oprah, of all people, chose to burn down the great town of Lahaina. And I don't even actually know, like, why people think this. But outside of that

Dan Austin: [2:23] Well, they're they're connected it to apparently, there was another fire near whatever other compounds because Oprah's been buying land up, which wouldn't you if you were Oprah and you're like, well, I can't really go in public without people freaking hounding me and having cameras at me. So they shoot probably, like many famous people, buy hundreds and hundreds of acres around her compound to have privacy because that's how you get privacy. And then she had another compound. There was a fire near it, and it didn't burn down. And her one in Maui didn't burn down either. I'm like or it could just quite possibly be a coincidence that she lives in places that could catch on fire and that her place didn't catch on fire. And then more so, can you just, like, leave it alone? Like, do we have to have a bad story about somebody that actually is not even in that limelight anymore?

Mike DeHaan: [3:05] Yeah. Well, the thing that's so weird about all sort of stuff is every time that there's something terrible that happens, there's always conspiracies about it. Right. In my mind, it's kind of a way that people cope with stuff. Like, they refuse to acknowledge that something like that could happen to them or like

Dan Austin: [3:20] Like, naturally.

Mike DeHaan: [3:22] Yeah. Like, the crazy shit does happen, so they have to, like, think that something's intentional. Yeah. But, you know, I I mean, here's the unpopular truth about this. Everyone is saying that these people lit this stuff on fire so that they could, like, develop the land and, like, do all this sort of stuff instead of having it be a town. But, you know, especially if it's like a high profile person, unpopular opinion is, you know, Lahaina is beautiful. It's great. But, like, it's just another island. There's shit tons of islands everywhere. There's a lot of them. Like, for some billionaire to go and, like, destroy this whole area so that they could just buy more land, that doesn't make any sense. Like, they can do that tons of places around the world and not have to, like, go through this whole process. So why the hell would they do that? You know? It does it's people are just dumb. I mean, the the thing that always worries me about stuff like that is people's affinity towards wanting to have some sort of conflict towards things that shouldn't really like have a conflict.

Dan Austin: [4:15] Right.

Mike DeHaan: [4:15] Right? Like, we should just all acknowledge, oh, damn. That situation's fucked. Like, that's really bad. But instead, people try to turn it into this point of contention. And by people, I mean the Chinese and Russian governments putting AI people out there to start up these conversations.

Dan Austin: [4:30] Right. But then, the ignorance in our human American human mind is like, oh, man, and then it gets shared on social media and then people believe it. Yeah. And it doesn't matter if it's true or not because the damage is already done, and that's why psychological warfare works so Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [4:45] I mean, does, and that's something that But they've been doing since the Cold all this to say though, there has been this big uptick with real estate investors and developers now heavily marketing to this area, because all these houses have burned down trying to buy land. Oh

Dan Austin: [5:00] my god.

Mike DeHaan: [5:00] Honestly, if you're one of those people, shame on you. What is wrong

Dan Austin: [5:03] with you?

Mike DeHaan: [5:03] Scumbag. Honestly.

Dan Austin: [5:04] Yeah. There's a thirty day grace period.

Mike DeHaan: [5:06] Well, at least give it time to get back on his feet. I mean, you're not completely wrong. Right? Because when there's an action plan in place, things start to move, there will be people that wanna exit from that situation. K? But it's just like going to a place where there's a hurricane or a tornado and it destroys like a whole town. Yep. You go there and like if that is your business acquisition strategy, you are what we call a scumbag. You know, you are literally, you know, doing predatory practices at that point on things that are completely out of people's control. And I think you can make yourself available, but there have been a lot of complaints about these hard sales tactics that people are coming in with to try and buy this land to put whatever on it at that point.

Dan Austin: [5:48] That's pretty terrible. Yeah. However, on the same topic, when you talk about that, because that is a lead source, right, like homes that So burn outside of Lahaina, regardless of that situation, hypothetically, the reason why these people wanna go there is that somebody's house could burn down, they could get an insurance check, which would take a while, and then they could sell you the land and take the insurance check and not rebuild.

Mike DeHaan: [6:12] Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's a common thing that we see all the time. Yeah.

Dan Austin: [6:16] Right. That's like a typical, like, you can find those types of leads where a house is caught on fire. Sometimes it's partially needed to be real, but other times it's you're just buying the land, and that's why they'd be incentivized to sell because they wanna collect the insurance money, and like you said, maybe just exit from that situation entirely. Maybe this was their moment where they're like, you know what? I need to get off the island. This is the I've been getting stir crazy here, I'm ready to leave, now that I had to jump in the ocean because my world is on fire.

Mike DeHaan: [6:43] No shit. Right? I mean, it could be. I don't know. Either way, I think the key thing is to be selective about your opportunities that you pursue, especially when they are things that are

Dan Austin: [6:54] Yeah. Have some ethics.

Mike DeHaan: [6:55] Like world changing that are completely out of somebody's control. You need to show a little bit of sensitivity to that. I mean, we market the people that have distresses, but a lot of it's self inflicted. Right? It's people that have, like, bankruptcies and those sort of things. Like, they made bad decisions. It's a little bit different than they were kinda just hanging out, and then all of a sudden, over the course of thirty minutes, everything that they knew lit on fire. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So I don't know.

Dan Austin: [7:20] Yeah. And I think too that just the whole conversation around how we do market distressed sellers, because these people are distressed, just like a person in bankruptcy, maybe they're going bankrupt because of medical bills, who knows? But showing up with that value first mindset of like, hey, I'm gonna serve this person, usually the bigger the problem you solve, the bigger payout. So, showing up as a problem solving, the problem solving mindset, and also having some ethics and being open and honest, because it's too easy. We actually talked about this earlier today, it's too easy. The barrier to entry is too low that there are scumbags that get into the industry just like any industry. And so with that barrier being low, it's too tempting to make ethical and moral decisions based on a set of common values that most of us follow. And so people do dirtbag things. You just don't have to be that person. And I would like to think if you're listening to our podcast, you're not that kind of person.

Mike DeHaan: [8:08] Yeah. Absolutely. And one thing that you can do if you do wanna help out the island is to book trips there or plan to go there, which is contrary to what a lot of people are doing. A lot of people are backing out and that sort of stuff, thinking that they need time, which they do, like, in the short term. But I also can guarantee you that there are a ton of people whose entire livelihood depends on your tourism and what happens in every part of the world when there is some kind of disaster and and all of a sudden everyone stops coming, all the business is shut, all the people are unable to pay their bills. So if you really wanna support it, you know, keep your vacation plans, plan to, you know, go there next year or, like, in the wintertime or whatever, and just expect it's gonna be a little bit different than you were thinking it was going to be. Might be a little bit better. It'll definitely be quieter than it was. For sure. And go there and be prepared to spend your hard earned money because that's honestly what these people need at this point. And for some reason, that always gets overlooked when there's stuff like this happened.

Dan Austin: [9:06] I don't know why. Totally. But you know who doesn't need our

Mike DeHaan: [9:10] hard earned money? Dave Portne from Barstool Sports. What a segue.

Dan Austin: [9:14] That guy segue into business. This is the business part of the podcast, because Mike and I enjoy entrepreneurship outside of real estate. This is very real estate specific, but we're entrepreneurs at heart, and we love business. I've been following Dave for several years now, probably since, I don't know, like 2017 with Barstool Sports.

Mike DeHaan: [9:34] Yeah, if I get too long didn't read of his whole arch.

Dan Austin: [9:36] Yeah, yeah. So he's been around for, I can't remember when they started, but it started out as Barstool Sports. And it was almost the reason why I started following it when they got a big online presence was it's more satirical, but it's also legit, real sports media, and then there's just a bunch of funny stuff around it. And as he built this basically making no money as a newspaper, got on, and then he went online with it, and he's a young guy. He's probably in his mid forties now, younger, I should say. And once they got online, really was able to curate an audience, and his personality is super verbose and out there. He is kinda a lot like us, like no bullshit, doesn't pull any punches, says how he sees it, which of course people love that. And then, he's just a genius marketeer. So basically, all of his key employees that he's hired into his business are all online personalities. He's spun off huge podcasts, like Call Her Daddy's a big one that everybody knows about that podcast, because they started there, and Alex has gone on Duersting or whatever. But lots of different characters who have built online presence, and then since left, or stayed with the company, and he really built his company in the limelight, and he also is the guy, most people know him from the Pizza Reviews, where he goes around New York City trying all pizzas, and he does it other places too, but they're based in New York City. He's in New York City.

Mike DeHaan: [10:54] They're so many things I've never heard of before, like any of this. Really?

Dan Austin: [10:58] Okay, so I'm glad you haven't heard this. So, maybe this is a person that I follow that a lot of people don't, but anyhow, he's built this media empire. Just genius, just good business practices, and is a, like I said, a marketeer, understood how to build a brand in the A big brand in social media world, right? TikTok, and Instagram, all that sort of stuff. So, he is also like, I got fuck you money, and always make sure people understand that he has fuck you money by doing stuff. That is just funny,

Mike DeHaan: [11:27] So I

Dan Austin: [11:28] he sold this company to Penn Capital for $500,000,000. It was done in a couple different transactions, like they This was a couple years ago, like, they dipped their toe in, bought a share, and he's like, hell yeah, I'm rich. Then he ended up selling basically the company to them, so it's in a private equity transaction. And so then fast forward probably twelve, twenty four months of them fully owning it, and it hasn't performed what they want it to, so they're basically saying it's like an $850,000,000 loss because anytime you go from, and you know this, the CEO, the owner, founder, CEO running the company, and then it gets sold and rolled up into a bigger company, they just can't be as nimble, they can't be as good, tons of bloat, people kinda start falling off, and it could've been a poor timing thing too, maybe if Barstool was ready to do Anyhow, long story short, they now have a deal with basically Disney's holding companies, and Disney's like, yeah, we can't be associated with Barstool, so you guys need to drop it if you wanna partner with you, if you wanna come together on this. And so they basically called up Dave, and they're like, hey, I know we paid you 500,000,000 for Barstool, we'll sell back to you for a dollar.

Mike DeHaan: [12:33] Why like a dollar? Why not like a million dollars?

Dan Austin: [12:36] I'm sure there has to do something with the shareholders, and just like, you can't give it away for free, but then also, don't just whatever, don't negotiate it. We're just basically trying to give to you. We don't want any lawsuits, anybody suing us, anything like that, let's just make it as clean of a transaction as possible. I have no idea why. But, I'm like, that is incredible.

Mike DeHaan: [12:58] Like, do you think that you went through escrow?

Dan Austin: [13:03] Sure it's not even done Like, I'm sure they it happened probably months ago, and they're finalizing, and that's why it's coming public now. But I just thought, like, wow, that's that's an amazing situation to come back into after getting paid 500,000,000. And the funny thing is too, he moved to Florida part time, or 51% of the time to save on taxes, because he's like, I'm super rich now. And so, got all that money, and now he's just back in the game for basically free, and then he said now he's never, he'll never sell it again, because why does he need to? He got a half a billionaire exit, which he'll be a billionaire by the time he's probably in his sixties, to be honest, if

Mike DeHaan: [13:41] he just barely invested his money, and now he owns the company. That is crazy, it's an easy way to make a large sum of money.

Dan Austin: [13:48] Yeah, and he's not the CEO, and he probably won't remain the CEO, because he has this, they call it the token CEO, which is a woman. It's that's her Instagram handle. Oh, really? CEO, who's a woman. But she's like legit, like, you know, it's not like bullshit, but like so he'll just be basically the single shareholder, which I think is absolutely incredible.

Mike DeHaan: [14:04] So he he'll he'll be completely privately owned then too. That's interesting.

Dan Austin: [14:08] Yeah. It'll be him. It's just him. He'll be the owner.

Mike DeHaan: [14:10] I wonder where that falls on size of like 100% privately owned companies. Because that must be up there.

Dan Austin: [14:16] Well, again, what the actual value is if they overpaid for it Yeah. It's definitely up there, but he's not. I mean, there's billion dollar corporations that are just privately owned. You know what I mean? Multibillion.

Mike DeHaan: [14:25] Are they that are owned by, like, a single person?

Dan Austin: [14:28] Oh, by a single person? Golly. Yeah. I don't know. So you

Mike DeHaan: [14:31] know what the largest company that was owned by a single person was for many years?

Dan Austin: [14:35] I do know this. No. I can't remember now.

Mike DeHaan: [14:37] You're not you're not gonna think of it because it's kinda weird. CrossFit. CrossFit was the largest company that was owned by a single individual for like four or five years, which is just so random. And it's because, you know, Greg Glassman, he

Dan Austin: [14:49] owned

Mike DeHaan: [14:49] all of it. It had no shareholders, no like 50% partner or anything. And so there's like these but that was worth honestly, it's like, don't think it pushed a billion, but it was a few 100,000,000 for sure. Yeah. But I know I'm curious actually. I'm gonna look. Largest company owned by a single single person. Because that has to be up there, I feel like. No shit. Well, according to Reddit from a post in 2023, so a very credible source, they actually say the current one is Dyson. Dyson vacuums owned 100% by James Dyson with an estimated worth of $3,000,000,000. Damn. So who knows? It's on Reddit, so maybe it's true. Maybe it's completely bullshit. You can fact check me on that,

Dan Austin: [15:33] but Yeah. Who knows? So

Mike DeHaan: [15:35] that's crazy though to think about. And like Yeah. Think about how much of a pain it is pain in the ass it is to run our 7 figure ish company. I think about that. A thousand x. Well, one of

Dan Austin: [15:47] the things with Barstool, just because they have high, they're really profitable, but they're not that large of a company as far as employees, and I'm sure it'll swim down, and they'll focus more on what their core business is. But they got into online gambling, and all sorts of stuff, sports betting, stuff like that, so they're very super profitable because of a lot of those things, because they have a cult. Anytime you have a cult following, That's where you make money, and we're in the, I guess, to bring this full circle, we're in the era of where influencers are the ones that are making money, because people, you build a social media following where people can know, like, and trust you, they get a portal into your life, and then they'll buy products from you, and so from a real estate standpoint, from your business standpoint, having a presence similar to that, as well as in your local community where people know, like, and trust you, that's where you're gonna get value. Difference is that social media allows you to take what you could do locally before, or you're that go to real estate guy, or that go to business, and they let you take that internationally, worldwide.

Mike DeHaan: [16:45] Yeah. Well, I mean, there's such an incredible thing to be said, though, about, like, the having that personal brand

Dan Austin: [16:51] Yeah. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [16:51] With that and how much value that brings. I mean, that's that's Alex Tremozi's whole thing, right, about why he started that is he was seeing people like Conor McGregor who had no business being in the whiskey space, and all of a sudden they start a whiskey business and it's worth like 600,000,000.

Dan Austin: [17:05] Yep.

Mike DeHaan: [17:05] Right? They or like he has this he's talked about like the different people who have inspired him along the way. Even looking at smaller scale, like Brandon Turner, he said he was on Ryan Pineda's show, it was a couple weeks ago, and they get all into his spending, all this money, and all sort of stuff. And he's like, I have pretty much no income right now, just because we've paused most of our acquisitions, and a lot of our stuff is in transients. But he's still spending $80,000 a month on his lifestyle. Wow. And what was very interesting, he's like, I do wonder what's gonna happen when most of us, like most of us real estate guys going around, all of a sudden start going bankrupt because things happen that we don't expect. He's like, but the one thing that I do have growing myself for myself is I have my personal brand. It's like, and I am very confident that if I needed to make $1,000,000 in a weekend, I could do it. Right. Because of his personal brand. Because of his personal brand. He's like, I was like, all I would need to do is have some sort of launch or some sort of business idea. I was like, and I could make a billion dollars in three days guaranteed. Right? And that is only because he has such an incredible following. Right?

Dan Austin: [18:13] Right.

Mike DeHaan: [18:13] So, you know, I would say if anything, that is probably the newest gold rush is like Followers? Followers. Right? And like audience. And like but doing so in a way that it's not so transactional or that you're not gonna like lose favor. Sure. Because people that have longevity with that is where the real value starts to come in. Know? Like, you're looking at some of the names that have been around for a long time, like Tony Robbins.

Dan Austin: [18:40] Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [18:40] Right? Like, he's kinda like the original guy that did that. Look at how successful he is, and people still go to his stuff.

Dan Austin: [18:46] They pay him. There's people that pay him up to a million dollars to be in proximity.

Mike DeHaan: [18:50] I know. Yeah. Like like just for being in his cool kids club. That's wild. Whatever even that entails, you know?

Dan Austin: [18:56] Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. Definitely. So I think it used to be users. Mhmm. Was like the most recent gold rush when you talk about like, why would Facebook pay hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for WhatsApp, which is not something you can monetize. It's because they brought in users into their platform, right? All these different things. People are looking at users from a corporate and enterprise standpoint now. An individual sole proprietor can get you Not users, but followers, monetize that on an equivalent scale, if not massive scale, when you think about what an individual is compared to a massive corporation or shareholders like Facebook. On an individual level, with how low your overhead could be as a sole proprietor now that you have, say, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 100,000,000 followers.

Mike DeHaan: [19:38] Yeah. Well, you have like influence. Right? So you can do pretty much whatever you want once you have that. I mean, even even if you're someone that's trying to do like large business stuff compared to like other people. Right? Elon Musk is a perfect example of that because he has that following. He has influence. He can go and start whatever business he wants. Right. And even though 70% of the people out there will hate him for it, he's still gonna have an incredible number of people that buy into that product because he's the one that launched it. Right. Versus you go to like the person's number eight on the billionaire list, I don't know who that is, but no one cares about that person. So they can go and launch the next thing and they're gonna have to go through the slow launch just like everyone else. Yeah.

Dan Austin: [20:13] That's true.

Mike DeHaan: [20:14] Yeah. Even with resources, like having that name and that attention from the public is so unbelievably valuable right now.

Dan Austin: [20:21] I would be curious how much money Elon made overnight. I know you can't see it now, but the burnt hair back there that we talked about, I think I paid like $60 for that, and he probably sold like, I don't know, 10,000 bottles or a 100,000 bottles. It probably cost him nothing. And he just, because of his influence, people will

Mike DeHaan: [20:37] buy I mean, that's what they do. So Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, that's why I think it's a really important thing to take into consideration as you will, know, and that works on like a large level, that also works on a local level. If you can go and you can be that person that has that name, and you're like your local real estate community, that's the easiest way to become the person that has a lot of deals coming their way or finds a lot of deals. I mean, even looking like locally in our market here, one of the guys that has, like, the most, I would say, like, renowned names because they've been doing it for a while, and they've really made a point of putting their names out there locally. They're not even that good of investors, but everyone sort of, like, perceives them that way. And so they've built a whole business around doing these, like, JV deals and this other stuff just because people bring them opportunity because they're the first person they think of. You know?

Dan Austin: [21:26] Yeah. Absolutely. And and I think just putting yourself out there as a real estate investor and sharing the deals you're doing, even if it's where you don't feel like you're doing a lot. First of you're doing a lot more. If you're doing stuff, you're doing a lot more than 99.9% of people that call themselves real estate Right? So, you're past step one, which is call yourself real estate investor. You're at step two, you're doing a deal. But sharing that information, and sharing what you're doing, people will just ask questions. Especially, it's like random, I mean, you and I get it. Gotta, you know, we're talking to people about novation agreements. We're not experts by that by any means. We had Eric Brewer on our podcast. We've talked about it's a tool on our quiver, but people hear that, they're like, I wanna know about Or they hear, you know, just a deal that you're doing, and they wanna get involved, cause now you've put it out there, and now you have a connection with somebody that can bring you opportunity, and vice versa, like a valuable interaction there, as a genuine. It's not just value, right? It's just a genuine interaction. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [22:18] Yeah. I mean, it's funny though, it is one of those things that I would say is kind of tricky because, like, how do you stand out? Because a lot of people know what we're talking about. And this is, I mean, this is where it gets so tricky. So you try to outsource it because you're not a creator yourself, try to get on staff, you know, or you try to hire these services. But all of a sudden, we and all see this, and we even are guilty of this ourselves. Everyone's shit looks the same. Sure. And after a while, it's like an echo chamber where it's like everyone's like, oh, you're doing the content thing too. You know? High five. And then it's like, where are the actual consumers of all this?

Dan Austin: [22:48] Right. You know? Yeah. It's echo chambers sometimes, because then you're all following the same people, and it's not the same yellow highlighted I words and do think, and I'm still trying to figure this out myself, but like, I think that there's a way, I'm looking at this through a lens of how do you create genuine relationships with people, starting from your local market. Because if you go to a Ria, and you meet people, you introduce yourself, say there are people you know and don't know, and they happen to follow you on Instagram after you kinda give your Instagram handle over. So now you have followers in your local Maybe you have a 100 people in your local market that are part of the Ria, or Riyas, and they're following you, and they're seeing, oh, I'm posting about my new Flip, you know, all that sort of stuff. I think that showing those existing followers some life, the day to day stuff, the day to day transactions you're doing through utilizing your stories, and not just post, because people generally will see that, and that's looked at as kinda more for your followers, right? And so, I feel like a lot of times, my interaction with other people, especially locally, is through my stories. They comment, or they whatever, that. And like, for example, I'm having lunch with a guy I haven't talked to probably twenty years.

Mike DeHaan: [23:58] Oh, shit.

Dan Austin: [23:59] Maybe a little, yeah, probably about twenty years I grew up with, and he's in real estate here locally, I'm in real estate here locally, we just haven't connected, we both moved on, and just from Instagram, hey, let's grab lunch, talk real estate. Yeah. Great, sparked a conversation with somebody. So I think that just in that small dose of sharing something in my story, or being available for people to see and communicate, which is hard for me as an elder millennial to see the value in that right away, straight away, But from a business standpoint, it's really valuable. They are genuine connections. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [24:29] They are, and that's something that is always regularly shocking to me too, is how genuine connections you can build with, like, through people that you establish this way. And I think it's because they already especially if you're kind of the creator, which we are in a lot of these. When people reach out, they already kind of feel like they know me. Right. Right? Like, I've gotten on Zoom calls with people, and they're like, oh, I've been, like, listening to your stuff for, a year, like, following me on Instagram or the other type of thing. And so at least from my perspective, being an introverted person, I don't feel like I need to break down that initial barrier.

Dan Austin: [25:01] Right. Yeah. The small talk Yeah. Is

Mike DeHaan: [25:03] Small talk is generally pretty minimal because they are driving the conversation with what they wanna talk with me about. Mhmm. And so it, you know, builds genuine relationships relatively quickly. Yeah. It is interesting. I think it's something that's super valuable. If you're looking to get in real estate, looking to grow your real estate, there's a reason that you see so many agents and stuff that go to go through this because Yeah. It builds their sphere amongst,

Dan Austin: [25:24] you know, their Sphere of influence.

Mike DeHaan: [25:26] All the people that they wanna potentially, you know, help buy and sell a house. But on an investor end, it's exactly the same thing. I think the biggest thing is that you need to make sure that the stuff that you're doing is at least genuinely you, and not just go hire some VA company that goes and just copies everybody else. Or just goes and like or just do the stupid Yeah. We've never done that. We just we literally just hired and fired. So if you saw like the spam where you're like, yeah, their shit looks different. And now it's back to normal. Yeah. We we learned our lesson there. Or like there's nothing worse than like the 45 year old dude in like a suit that's doing like a dance. I'm like, come on, bro. Just like talk about interest rates or something.

Dan Austin: [26:08] Or like, we know what we don't need. We don't need another real estate agent that raps music instead of like gets deals. There's so many of those. It's the worst. So unoriginal at

Mike DeHaan: [26:17] this time. Know, they're so cringey. Like, it doesn't have to be cringey. Yeah. You can make it not that way, you just have to have a little bit more intention Yeah. Around

Dan Austin: [26:26] I enjoy, I I like some of the folks even in our instant investor group, they've got their their social media popping, and like, just showing what they're doing day to day, and putting their own spin on it, I think is just, that's that's cool. Like you could still be doing the exact same thing somebody else is doing, but putting your own narration to And

Mike DeHaan: [26:40] then you know, with all the hate that social media gets, there is so much business value to be made. Know, even back before we started doing the podcast and everything else, we made hundreds of thousands of dollars just through social media. You know, by like buying houses from people that were on there that we were the first to respond to or by selling houses to other people. Yeah. It was such a reoccurring pattern. Exactly. And the biggest reason that it was able we were able to do that was because we were very, very active on the social media pages for our local market. Right. And so when self would come around and we would be the one that would chime in, people would actually care what we have to say because you weren't the person that like just chimed in that one time.

Dan Austin: [27:19] You know what's fascinating about that? That's like a whole strategy

Mike DeHaan: [27:22] Totally.

Dan Austin: [27:22] In of itself where, say, you join a group, like a Facebook group, could be for anything. I don't know. Moms that make salads on Wednesdays. Whatever. Like, whatever the face of a group is, however rich it is, you could show up and not be a mom and never make a salad, and definitely not make salads on Wednesdays. And you're active in that group, talking about stuff, asking dumb questions, doing this, you become an authority within that group. I do. And I've seen that happen, you've seen that happen. Yeah. Where there's people out there that are not necessarily an expert in anything that they're within that space, but they are active and they're engaging, which by the way, the people that start those groups love. Right? Because they start the group because they wanna have engagement. Yeah. And they somehow become an authority even though they're maybe the least authoritative person with their experience.

Mike DeHaan: [28:11] Yeah. I mean, there's people that do that and they start legitimate business out of it. Right, just from leveraging the authority they have in that group that somebody else made. Back when I was super into competing and crossfit and different things, I was involved in this, it was called RP Strength, which was like a nutrition program that a lot of people did.

Dan Austin: [28:30] Yeah. I remember you sent me some stuff from them.

Mike DeHaan: [28:32] Yeah. And they had a very, very active Facebook group. And there was people that launched, that basically got involved in that for diet needs and education. And they ended up launching these different meal prep businesses or different kinds of apps and different stuff because people would always express issues in those groups. And they're like, oh, maybe I could fix that. Entrepreneurs, they came in and they were like, hey. So I'm launching this you know, first for RP strength people. And because they were such a reoccurring name, they all of a sudden would go from zero to having like a 7 figure business over the course of like a couple of months.

Dan Austin: [29:09] That's incredible.

Mike DeHaan: [29:09] You know? And there I can think of three separate businesses that started up in that. You know? One of them was a mobility and stretching app. The other two were these meal prep plans. Right? Well, sorry. The, like, the original sort of meal prep where you could, like, send them your diet plan from RP Strength, and they would, like, prep all of the food and stuff and just send it to you. Yeah. And people made like insane money off that. That's awesome. So but again, they were going out of their way, providing value, establishing that influence. And if you have that influence, you can make big big money without having to work nearly as hard as an entrepreneur who doesn't have that.

Dan Austin: [29:41] Mhmm. So Totally. That's why OnlyFans is an incredible platform for real estate investors.

Mike DeHaan: [29:47] But seriously, so that is why some random lady can go on OnlyFans and make no money, but you have a chick that was on what's a sitcom, That Seventies Show for one season, right, in the nineties, and she goes and starts with OnlyFans, and all of sudden, she's making a million dollars a month.

Dan Austin: [30:04] Did this happen, or are you making that up?

Mike DeHaan: [30:05] No. This, like, this has happened over and over and over again with, like, random people.

Dan Austin: [30:09] Oh, I thought you're talking specifically about one of those Nat seventy show girls because I'm like thinking of who would

Mike DeHaan: [30:13] have one from one of those other shows though that went and did that, and she's now like one of the top people.

Dan Austin: [30:17] Right. And there are a few. Yeah. Exactly.

Mike DeHaan: [30:19] But even though she's like twenty years older now than when she did that. Right.

Dan Austin: [30:22] It's like Stephanie from Full House or some random shit that people are like, can't Yeah. Good stuff there. I think that's valuable for people listening on a small scale. Not the only fans team, but the social media influence at small scale, even within your own market. And I bring that up because I get a lot of questions from people asking, okay, so how do I figure out, I wanna do wholesaling, I wanna be in a virtual market, or even my own market, like, how do I establish the, quote, boots on the ground? And well, a lot of it is just connecting with people, and you're going to likely use social media for that these Yeah. I don't know where else you're gonna do it, especially if you can't be there locally, you you can go to the Ria, and that's gonna be an in person connection, but you're still gonna connect with people through social media that is such, in this industry right now, in this day and age, that is such a common way to work and communicate with people.

Mike DeHaan: [31:10] It is. Yeah. I mean, and with more and more younger people coming up too, it's gonna just become more common.

Dan Austin: [31:15] Mhmm.

Mike DeHaan: [31:15] And that's a great example too. If you're going to start a new marketing boots on the ground, if your social media is like a picture of you from 2015 and nothing else. Like blurry. Yeah. And it's all blurry. Yeah. It was taken with a Polaroid camera, then you scanned it and put it out, whatever the hell old people do.

Dan Austin: [31:29] It's always like that too. You have, like, spiky hair with frosted tips, like a what's the the what kind of shell necklace is that? Kooky shell necklace. Popped up polo shirt.

Mike DeHaan: [31:39] Yeah. If

Dan Austin: [31:39] you But you're, like, 43 now.

Mike DeHaan: [31:41] I mean, but yeah. It's like, okay. We get it. You used to sell Toyotas. You don't do that anymore. But so, but for real, like that you have that, or you have something that like you were showing that you were actively involved in real estate, right, and you were doing these deals, or at least like in trying to do deals, and you go and you look for boots on the ground, you're gonna have a lot more people that are willing to work with you. Just even if you have the most amateur level social media. Totally. I think it's just a great thing for people to keep in mind as they are going through any sort of journey with their business or real estate of whether you're you're just the beginning. Mhmm. You are, you know, looking to do it along the way. Are you trying to, like, grow your business. Right? Making sure that you're doing social media on a regular clip along the way. You know, definitely don't be making up a bunch of bullshit if it's not

Dan Austin: [32:23] true. Sure.

Mike DeHaan: [32:24] Nice. Right? Because that's the easiest way to completely destroy your reputation is if you do that. You know, like going and posting that you're doing 17 deals a month when in reality you're doing four. I don't

Dan Austin: [32:33] think people would ever do that.

Mike DeHaan: [32:34] I don't think anyone would ever do that. Definitely not locally here in Spokane. Liars. But like going through and just making that a regular habit, it doesn't need to be complicated, but it will absolutely elevate your your game over the short and the long It will. So anyway, here's your quick tips today. So cool. So I guess if people did wanna do that, what do you think is the easiest way for someone to start? Let's give them an actionable tip.

Dan Austin: [32:58] To start a social media empire from the ground up.

Mike DeHaan: [33:02] Doesn't need to be an empire. Just make just like making it something that they add into their repertoire. Something that I've

Dan Austin: [33:08] had to learn is to think about what you do during the day and how can you explain that to a kindergartener, and who would find value in And recognizing that there are people that will find value

Mike DeHaan: [33:18] Absolutely. In I think that's a huge thing. And I would say that for me one of the biggest sort of things I had to overcome was you feel like, especially because people kinda hate on it, that people are gonna judge you and those sort of things, you feel dumb. Just know that people either enjoy it or they don't care. Very rarely are people gonna be haters. They either don't give a shit or they think it's cool.

Dan Austin: [33:43] If they're haters, you probably don't hang out with

Mike DeHaan: [33:45] them Exactly. Don't wanna talk to them anyways.

Dan Austin: [33:47] Don't worry

Mike DeHaan: [33:47] about it. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Austin: [33:49] Exactly. You know, I would say the only frustrating thing would be is the people that you know that as close as like, that are close to you that maybe wouldn't support you. That is something Like, why didn't you share my post?

Mike DeHaan: [34:00] Talk. Oh, yeah. Right? Absolutely.

Dan Austin: [34:01] You know what I mean? Like, that could be frustrating.

Mike DeHaan: [34:04] Or or when my mom had to tell me that she was no longer listening to my podcast because I made her uncomfortable. You did well, you were

Dan Austin: [34:11] dropping some f bombs there for a bit. I get it.

Mike DeHaan: [34:13] Yeah. Slips out sometimes. You get especially when you're getting excited. I can't help it. Yeah. So anyway but cool, guys. There's your there's your tip for the day. I think that if you wanna grow your business, make sure you work in some personal brand stuff in there because it will pay you exponential dividends. And I think one of the hardest parts is getting the consistency going with it. But I mean, I can tell you

Dan Austin: [34:33] It is very hard. I can tell you that right now.

Mike DeHaan: [34:35] Very hard for sure. But when we are consistent with it, we definitely have more opportunities. From this podcast alone, we have had tons more opportunities that have come around. You know? And this is a relatively small show compared to a lot of people. Again, it's not teeny tiny. We get what? Five five to 6,000 downloads a month with it. But let's think about what it would take for us to get in in a room of five or 6,000 people. Like, that's a pretty big event.

Dan Austin: [34:58] Right. And we enjoy all five to 6,000 more people. We don't forget or miss any of Absolutely.

Mike DeHaan: [35:04] So, anyways, if you want to help us increase that number to 10,000 and beyond, you should share this with your friends. That's the easiest way for us to help grow this thing is to, you know, think about how you heard about this show and go and share with someone the same way. Post it on social media. Tell someone about it. I don't know. Do smoke signals for it. Put it behind your plane and fly around. That would actually be sick. We should do this.

Dan Austin: [35:28] You should do it because I do have a goal written down, which would equate to 12,000 a month. So get out there, share it. Yeah. Like it. Give us some we need some more five star reviews.

Mike DeHaan: [35:37] We do need some

Dan Austin: [35:38] more five star promotion there.

Mike DeHaan: [35:39] Especially because we got, like, our first one star review, and I don't know why.

Dan Austin: [35:43] Oh, yeah. Was it just a one star? Or they like at least leave a comment like

Mike DeHaan: [35:47] No. There's no comment. It's just like someone just went and let left a one star. I think it's probably because you made that joke about real estate curious and being like rainbows and unicorns, whatever you said. That definitely triggered somebody.

Dan Austin: [35:59] Oh. Yeah. That might have triggered him or one of the other many things that one of us would say that would trigger people.

Mike DeHaan: [36:05] Yeah. Or we like make fun of meth heads and other things, which people are like

Dan Austin: [36:08] We make fun of a lot of people. But hey, we can dish it out. Can also take it.

Mike DeHaan: [36:12] I bet it was Jamil. I bet it was one of those guys. It was one of the key glee guys.

Dan Austin: [36:16] Can't believe he did a little sneaker. Well, did you see that he has the kung fu panda, the kung fu panda now? No. So he ripped off kung fu panda? So I I figured out his I figured out what he does. So what he does is he pays for advertisement on some silly silly advertisement, like, for whatever is just ridiculous. Like, I comp better than people, that's why I'm the best wholesaler in the world. Mhmm. Next, it'll be like, I take pictures better than anybody, that's why I'm the best wholesaler in the world, right? Whatever it is, but then he runs ads on that, and then tries to sell things for like $20 to people as many times as he can, and then all of a sudden that that's gone. Yeah. Like the Jumanji challenge. I don't even know if he actually does those things.

Mike DeHaan: [36:53] I don't he probably doesn't. And you know what? We are validating this whole podcast right now, because you wanna talk about personal brand with zero credibility. There we go. We can't stop talking about them because we're fucking obsessed apparently, and it's someone that everyone else seems to know. If you don't know who we're talking about, good. Don't go look them up. So

Dan Austin: [37:11] Don't go look them up.

Mike DeHaan: [37:12] Anyways, guys. Alright. Well, we'll finish up there. Thanks for listening, everybody. Seriously, go and share this with your friends. It's the easiest way to help us grow is if you just tell other people about it. You know, they say that a referral is worth what? 6.5 future clients 5.4. I don't know. Dyslexia make sure all the numbers but share there you know it helps out a ton and besides that if you did want to follow us to social media so we talked about that a lot you can follow me on Instagram at Mike underscore invest and you can follow Dan at investor man Dan and your peers are listening. Thanks, everybody. Talk to you all next week.

Dan Austin: [37:45] See you.