Let's Bring The Voice Back to the People

Mike DeHaan: [0:00] What is going on, guys? Happy Friday. And on today's episode of the collecting keys Friday focus, I'm going to talk about some of the changes we are making to the podcast next week to make sure that we are continuing with our goal of helping you make massive income, not just passive income with your real estate investing business. If this is your first time here, my name is Mike DeHaan, and my two favorite pastimes are closing deals while traveling in foreign countries and talking crap about past corporate employers that I had that made my life miserable before I figured everything out and started my own business. So when we started the collecting keys podcast back in October 2021, coming up on three years ago, which is freaking wild, our mission was to share our stories and bring truth to what it actually means to run an off market real estate business. We want to share the goods, the bads, and the uglies around what a real estate investment business looks like, since all the other podcasts were basically just these highlight reels of what people are doing. And we're always just like the top of the top, the oversimplification of processes, people trying to subtly sell you things that probably didn't need, and they knew that. But because they had grown big enough, they didn't really care. And ultimately, just talk about being an operator because we felt that that was kind of getting lost in all of the noise as everyone was continuing to make money through the early twenty twenties, during that real estate boom. Right?

Mike DeHaan: [1:30] And so when we started on that mission back in the day, our business was pretty simple. At that point, our our investing business, it was just me, and it was Dan. And we had two team members, and we just operated up here in Spokane, doing on average five to... I think our peak at that point was like nine or 10 deals a month. And that was like incredible month. And so it was like pretty easy for us to be always kind of like representing the average operator because we were the average operators at that point. Well, as our company has grown now to a dozen markets, and we have gone from being kind of like a basement, you know, like, rewarding your mom's basement style of podcast to having a full on production team, we have unfortunately, ultimately kind of lost that objective in the way that we have found ourselves being dragged towards the same realm that so many, quote, unquote, content creators find themselves, which I guess I am a content creator now because I've been doing this with a level of serious commitment and financial investment for a number of years. And so, ultimately, we kinda fell into the same trap so many people do where our guests started consisting of, like, professional podcasters and people that had kinda, like, made it. And the average investor no longer really had like a voice. They were kinda losing it.

Mike DeHaan: [2:47] And, you know, we bring in all these people trying to, I don't know, get some of their audience or have these like high level conversations. And ultimately, we kind of heard that people don't really care about that. And honestly, it wasn't very fun for us. Because, like, I don't know, when I talked to some of these people, and sure, they started buying houses in 2013. Like, I freaking hope they're rich. Because if they're not, they did something wrong. You know? And I can't tell you how many inquiries we were getting for interviews that were people that, like, I would ask what they did now, and they would just say, oh, their full time job is to manage their property manager. Sometimes you don't freaking do anything. You don't have anything valuable to add because nothing that you did is applicable anymore. So we decided that we wanted to change this and go kinda back to our roots. So starting next Monday, everything is going to kind of change a little bit with these interview episodes. So you probably have already heard in the past that... In the past couple of weeks, on Wednesday, we brought in Dylan Cook, who's a longtime scale community member and a good friend of Dan and I's, who has become a third voice on the Mike and Dan show on the Wednesday show, which personally, I think has been a great addition. If you disagree, please send me a DM on Instagram at Mike underscore Invest and let me know.

Mike DeHaan: [4:01] But overall, Isaac really enjoyed it. He brings a, you know, a little bit of a more on on the ground voice to that show as well as brings a different sort of level of knowledge and commentary since he is very researched. And Ken and I are kinda just two knuckleheads, as you guys know. So he's added some flavor there. But on Mondays, we are basically completely abandoning this interviewing style of, like, these... Having on these big established real estate personalities or these, like, random people that just happen to be huge operators in their markets or trying to, like, pedal services or books or whatever else. And we are actually... We're gonna be relabeling these Monday interviews to be what we're gonna call the scale show where every single one, we will be interviewing an everyday operator who's in the active process of trying to scale and grow their real estate business. Right? So we're trying to get away from the ones who have, like, already made it. Our goal with this change is for the bulk of you guys who are in that scaling phase, which we found out is the vast majority of our audience. We want you to be getting actionable content from operators who are just like you about what is working now. K? What is working in their businesses? What is working in their lives?

Mike DeHaan: [5:15] What is working with their marketing? What's working in their sales? And we want it from people that don't have, like, infinite resources, just kinda throw us stuff. They don't have staff where they can just go, I have this idea. And then it magically gets done because they have team members, which honestly is kind of where Ted and I are at right now. Okay? And so we want to have people that are just like so many of you that if they're gonna be making a 5 or $10,000 marketing decision, that's a big deal. And we wanna learn what they're going through and how they are overcoming those things. Right? And so the kind of operators we're looking at are like the 250,000 to a million dollar business range. A lot of the initial interviews that we have are scale community members since those are verified operators that we know have some great knowledge to share. We already know that they are doing what they say because we meet with them on a very regular basis in the scale community. You know? But as we continue to grow, we are going to need introductions to more people. And so like I said, our main target is going to be 250,000 to million dollar businesses that are either, like, solo operators or super small teams to come and share their stories and brand things that are super actionable.

Mike DeHaan: [6:25] So I have a couple of asks to help make this transition very successful and to make sure that it brings as much value as possible. Number one, can you please go and subscribe to the show? Leave us a five star review. And also just leave us, like, a little review saying how much we have helped your business so far or how much information we bring you that has been helpful to, like, I don't know, get into real estate or grow or or do anything. Because that helps us make sure that as many operators as possible that are getting on their podcast platforms, just looking up, like, real estate show, they see us, and it will help us get in front of more people. And, ultimately, we want those people to be actually learning how to improve their businesses and not just filling their brain with more just, like, highlight reel poison and junk that oversimplifies what success looks like and makes people feel bad, and they're just getting it from these people that aren't actually operators anymore. So go and subscribe, leave this five star review, and also just, like, leave us a nice rate of view saying how helpful we've been to help us get in front of more people. And number two, share this show with any of your operator friends who want to grow their businesses for the same reason as above. Okay? We want you to get away...

Mike DeHaan: [7:37] Want people to get away from kind of like the brain candy and more something that is more applicable. It will help us continue to spread our message and help as many real estate investors as possible. And then number three, shoot me a follow at Mike underscore invests on Instagram and send me a DM if you or someone you know is in that 250,000 to $1,000,000 operator range and is interested in coming on the show. I would love to have a little conversation to see if you're a good fit. So again, if that's you or anybody you know would kinda like fit that criteria of scaling operator. And, you know, if you have a podcast, that's awesome. If you don't and your podcast curious, I would love to have you come on. Might be a little bit awkward for you. It'll be the first time on a show, whatever. I don't really care. I just want you to be willing to come and bring some actionable content to help other in the weeds operators like you get better at what they're doing so that we can all continue to grow and make money and not have to listen to all the people on their high castle or whatever and pretend like what they did nine years ago is still applicable to what we're doing today. So subscribe, do a faster review, share it with people, send me a DM on Instagram if you're interested in being a part of this, or if you know someone that is, that would be super, super helpful. Awesome. Alright, guys. Well, I'm super excited for these changes.

Mike DeHaan: [8:52] We've already recorded the first four episodes. And, honestly, going through those, it felt right back in line with where we started, and I'm super, super excited for them. Keep an eye out. It'll be coming out over the next, you know, Mondays into the future. And it'll be this way, unless you guys tell me that you hate it and you wanna go back to the old style, then that's what we'll do. But otherwise, it's gonna be like this for the indefinite future. And I appreciate you guys coming along with the journey because, like I said, we just wanna be the voice of the people that are actually out there doing the work and not just the, you know, higher ups promoting higher ups because it really doesn't need to be that way. There's so much knowledge opportunity for everyone, and we wanna make sure that it keeps growing and adapting. So, anyways, appreciate you guys listening. Super stoked to continue bringing you all as much actionable value as I possibly can. And I'll talk to you guys next time. Thanks so much, everybody.