Build a High Net Worth Network with Greg Dickerson

Full Transcript

Taylor   0:02  

What's going on guys? This is passive well strategies for busy professionals. Thank you for tuning in. today. Our guest is Greg Dickerson. He's coming back to the show and today we are talking about networking skills and networking strategies that he uses to build relationships with potential investors for his real estate investments. There's a lot of nuts and bolts type of information and action items in this episode. So if you're somebody who knows you need to improve your networking skills to grow your real estate portfolio, grow your real estate income, grab a pen, grab a piece of paper, and listen to what Greg has to say today.

Now, I'll give you a little warning. We get into talking about some of the state of the market on this episode and this was recorded before the coronavirus pandemic and actually, Greg make some predictions that ended up Up, coming to reality on this one, so that was a definitely been interesting to go back and listen to and hear how he was right. For those of you who are new to the show, I'm your host Taylor boat. I'm a real estate syndication real estate investor. I buy multifamily real estate with passive investors and split the return. Thank you for tuning in. Once again. Our guest is Greg Dickerson coming back to the show. Without further ado, here we go with Greg.

Unknown Speaker  1:27  

Greg, thanks for coming back on the show.

Greg Dickerson  1:29  

Yep. Taylor. Glad to be here, man. Thanks for having me.

Taylor   1:32  

So last time, we covered commercial real estate beyond multifamily. Now I wanted to talk more about raising capital from investors and not not just raising capital, but really building a powerful network. Before we get into that though, can you tell our listeners just a bit about what you do and why we should listen to you on this topic?

Greg Dickerson  1:56  

You should know, just can know so I've been at it for you know, since I was 19. 97 and I have built my relationships in my pool of investors and network over that period of time. So it's been a long journey. It doesn't happen overnight. So I've been doing this since 1997 started out as a builder remodeling contractor, built that very quickly in seven years into a $30 million building company, started getting into development, commercial and residential, and started 12 different companies along the way. So I do real estate, investment development, and I do equity capital. So we buy companies, we roll up companies, we raise capital for businesses, things like that. So I've done over a quarter billion of my own transactions with my own money bought development sold, and I've done other deals outside of that.

That's me personally, and, you know, borrowed, you know, hundreds of millions dollars for businesses for real estate, things like that from banks, traditional lenders, institutional lenders, as well as, you know, high net worth people. So that's me in a nutshell. You know, you've heard the term inch wide mile deep, I'm a mile wide mile deep because I've done a lot of different businesses, and I've done a lot of different types of real life. State and classes of the different types of real estate.

So it's been an interesting journey and it's been a lifelong journey. So what I've done, you know, isn't significant, the whole mean, you know, scheme of things. There's people in the billions, right? hundreds of billions, the same cells of the world and Donald Trump's Donald, Donald Trump's not even a player in the real estate world, right. He's a small player, there's guys that are huge. But I learned from guys that were developers that were in the hundred million to $500 million range a couple of them in the billion now.

Those were my mentors, and that's who I learned from and they all started small. They all started either like me as a builder remodeler, or they started developing strip centers and self storage units and then built it all up from there. So everybody has to start from somewhere and I started from nothing with nothing and didn't go to college when the Navy left high school. So I've learned all the hard way I've learned by doing I've learned by winning, I have lost, you know, and had some bad deals and bad you know, not all my companies have worked some work better than others. You know, so I've seen both sides of the coin. So I've got a lot of good experience of what to do. Do and more importantly what not to do.

Taylor   4:03  

That's great and and you're based in Charlottesville, I'm based in Richmond, really, we should have done this live or, you know, in person wants to do the next one.

Greg Dickerson  4:09  

Yeah, that'd be an awesome person. Would a song location be somewhere , maybe one of those mixed use projects you were talking about? That'd be great.

Taylor   4:15  

That'd be great. But so the network component of all of this is huge. I mean, we start, you start with nothing, but eventually, you know, the best investors or the most effective investors eventually typically tap out their own capital and need to bring in investors and bring in outside money in some way. So, I mean, what is that all about? You know, I raise money from investors, but I'm always looking to get better at that and to, you know, build my network and provide more value. So, I mean, how do you look at that? What do you recommend that people do to get started building their network

Greg Dickerson  4:58  

So you know, your net worth. Is your net worth right? You've heard that. So networking is a contact sport. And I will use the analogy of real estate. So you can go buy and rent single family homes and take that path. But if that's what you surround yourself with, your net worth is only going to be so much. Or you can go buy big apartment buildings, 20 1500 million dollar buildings, mixed use developments, commercial developments, and your net worth is going to be up here, right?

So your relationships with your business network and your social network are the same thing you are who you hang around. So if you're hanging around a bunch of people that are making 100 grand a year, you're not gonna be able to raise a whole lot of money. You know, until unless these people have been saving money for years and years and years I had before one case, but in general, that's gonna be a difficult crowd to raise a lot of money from right, you need a lot of them.

So you want to go and meet and network with people that have means that are looking to invest. So there's two things for people to remember number one, that is a commodity right now equity is a commodity investor investor capital investment capital is a commodity. There's a lot of people looking to place capital. So I've got, you know, clients that I work with, as well as people that reach out to me on a regular basis. And they can be anywhere from 10 million to, you know, 100 million or 200 million. And they've got capital just sitting in money market accounts or bank accounts that are earning two 3% interest, and they're dying to put it to work. I mean, they are, they are feeling a sense of urgency to deploy that capital like you wouldn't believe.

So I think the first thing for people to understand is number one, who are you surrounded with? Do these people have the ability to invest? Number one? And are they the type of people that will invest you're not going to convince somebody to invest in commercial real estate or multifamily real estate that doesn't have an appetite for risk? Okay, so you got to understand who these people are number one, and it's a sorting game. You've got to sort through them and you've got to qualify. So it's a sales game. It's a contact sport to contact games you need to qualify and find the people that are looking to invest. You know, it's kind of like when you open a restaurant, right, who's your best customer, the one who's hungry, right.

So when it comes to investing in raising capital, you want to find people who are looking to put the capital to work, that's going to be high net worth individuals, people with means and with money, that are looking for opportunities. And that's what you're really providing as an indicator as a capital raiser, you're providing somebody an opportunity to put their capital to work, you're doing them a favor, because you've got, you know, institutional quality investments that are secured and insured for them to invest in and get a 10 to 15%, sometimes even 20% IRR, you know, on that investment over a three to five year period, they're not going to get that anywhere else.

So that's really the key is understanding where these people are, that are looking to invest, what they do, what they read, who they hang out with, the types of things that they're looking at, and you've got to insert yourself into those environments. And just be yourself and just get to know them and sincerely get to know them. You know, ask about them, their family, what they're doing. take an interest in, I'm talking about a manipulative way I'm talking about you have something people need So you need to get to know them sincerely understand their goals, whether or not they're going to be investors or not. And look to serve them.

So you know, the term value add or add value is a big term out there in the industry, I call it serving, we were put on this earth to serve others, right? So seek out individuals that you can serve that you can help. And you just start the conversation by asking about where they live, what they do, eventually, it's going to come around. What do you do? Well, I help people invest in institutional quality assets, great returns, we can talk about that later. So you know, you want to kind of plant the seeds and kind of get them thinking and depending on the environment, and may or may not be a great time to talk about it with sec regulations. You want to have multiple touches.

So you just kind of plant the seed. And you say, you know, yeah, these are great institutional quality assets, whether it's multifamily Self Storage, mobile, home parks, industrial properties, land, whatever it is mixed use. Just say yeah, I do these types of deals and I help people like you invest and in a nice, you know, secured insured return. But you know what we can get together next week. Let's grab lunch or coffee. What we'll talk about a little bit more. So then you put the conversation back on them and learn as much as you can about them. When you ask questions when you ask thoughtful questions, people, people realize how smart you are by the questions you ask and how qualified you are and how experienced you are, by the questions you ask.

So in order for somebody to invest with you, number one, they want to know you're an expert. They want to know your sincere, they want to know you know what you're doing, they want to know that you're interested in them, not just their money. And, you know, and then after all of that, it's about the deal, right? But all that other stuff comes first and sometimes that could be weeks, months or years. But I'm telling you, people are out there itching to put money to work, you just wouldn't believe the phone calls I get sometimes.

Taylor   9:42  

But you know, you worked yourself into that position. You got yourself there over the course of decades and put your name out there and everything. Now, I'm a pretty nuts and bolts oriented kind of person. If you're telling me about you know, doing this This sales process of building relationships with people and getting engaged absolutely makes a lot of sense. But sales and networking being a contact sport. I, one of the stumbling blocks, especially that I had early on is how do you manage all of these contacts and continue to build these relationships? I mean, you're, you're one of the experts at this. So what kind of like tools and processes do you use to keep in touch with people and to take some of that cognitive load off yourself? I got to keep up with Bill. I just remember it, I need to call him in a month. And here's what we're going to talk about. And here's some details about Bill. What do you do there? And in terms of like steps and systems and all that,

Greg Dickerson  10:50  

yeah, that's funny. So I'm involved in some groups where I have a lot of members, a lot of people you know, some men's leadership groups, faith leadership groups that I'm a part of, and I use MailChimp to send mass emails to those groups. And you know, anything like that, but throughout my career, I've used Microsoft Outlook. So I use my phone and I use Outlook and I've got all my contacts in there.

And, you know, I've got them grouped by investors, I've got them grouped by, you know, past clients. I've got them grouped by vendors, you know, subs, you know, realtors brokers. So I have all these groups of contacts. So when I put a contact in my phone instantly, right there on the spot I've got and I've got it tagged, and they go right in there. So yeah, so there are CRMs you can use but for me, I've just always used Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Exchange is what I use. So it's on my phone. So I use that for my calendar, my contacts, notes, everything. So I've got it all in there. I mean, it's a robust CRM, the only thing that you can't do effectively with it is, you know, email autoresponders and things like that, but I don't do that, you know, so, I do it individually. I'm very good at keeping track of a lot of things in my head.

So I'll set ticklers and reminders, you know, remind myself Hey reach out to so and so. So I use my calendar. And I've always done that. So back in the day it was a date timer may remember the Franklin Covey day planner. So everything I have to do every day, including contacts is always written down in terms of who I need to talk to and who I need to reach out to. So it's always been a habit. So I've got it into my CRM that way and is not my CRM but my you know, Microsoft Exchange that way in my contacts, so it's just a matter of setting reminders, putting those things on your calendar and just looking through your list. The other thing is I keep my email folders very organized. So under my mail folders in Outlook, I've got different folders and subfolders. So I've got a folder for you know, clients, investors, realtors, brokers, bankers.

You know, every little thing very detailed, and then every email correspondence, the last email in that chain I put into that folder. So I've got every conversation we've had, you know, all of those text messages, same thing, copy the email to myself, put them in there if I need to save it, or I'll put it on a Word doc and save it and I've got files in my mind. folders for all of the different areas of my business. So I'm very organized and detailed, and it sounds crazy, but it's very simple to do. And if you file your emails, just like you do a piece of mail, you know, as it comes in, you do something with it, either put it into a folder, I know a lot of people just, you know, fly by the inbox, right?

And they do, they'll store it now, you know, I'm telling you, you know, if you just set these folders up, and you keep everything in there, you can just click into your investors, and you can see who all's in there. And you can even break it down by the investor if you want to, which, depending on the deal I'm doing, I may do that. But you know, I have one big email folder full of investors and I'll look through it every once in a while. So you have corresponded to see what's going on.

And then anything that's top of mind I'm already on because I take care of everything right now. You know, so I have no backlog in my life. You know, everything has always been right now, I've always had a team around me that I can delegate the little tasks to, so I don't have to worry about it. But that's been my CRM that I've used my entire life, just Microsoft Exchange. I mean, it's a powerful tool.

Taylor   13:58  

Wow, that's impressive. I have like a little bit more automation in my system. But I just looked back. I mean, you texted me on the sixth a few weeks ago and just said, Hey, how are you doing? You got time for a call soon then we talked for like an hour or so. Yeah. But I was curious about how you've done that. But I guess you

Greg Dickerson  14:17  

just go through, I look through my messages, and I'll just, Hey, you know what I'm talking about, you know, so that's just what I do. You know, I'll just start whenever I have a minute. And it's relationships, right? So you just reach out to people and no agenda. No, just Hey, how's it going? Just to see how people are doing so people like that. They're like, number one, they're like, Man, you're thinking about me? I'm like, Yeah, absolutely.

I'll just, you know, drive by your office. So that's the other thing. A lot of people will think about somebody and then not act on it, right. So whenever somebody pops into my head, I always call them immediately. So if I'm just humming, just randomly, somebody will pop in your head. There's usually a reason that happens and if you have faith, you can say it's the prompting of the Holy Spirit that God's you know, guiding you and that kind of thing. You know, if you're into the universe, if the universe is talking to you, you know, whatever you're into I'm telling you, if you get an instinct, man, I need to call someone or somebody pops in your head column. And just watch what happens.

There's usually a reason you know that that is on your mind. It's really interesting how we are all connected. And I'm not just like this hyper spiritual guy, I'm just saying, in life, it's about relationships, and we are all you know, very similar and every time I've somebody crossed my mind, and I've called them there's always been a reason I'm not saying it's just business, it can be a personal relationship. Somebody might be needing help going through something, whatever it is, you call them up just Hey, just wanted to see how you're doing I'm talking to while there how's everything going? Like you asked me tonight You never know.

I might say, dude, man, you know, I lost my dog or you know, my, my kid ran away or I got into more you just never know what could be, Hey, I just hit the lottery. You want to go out, just you know, I'm ready to invest. You got anything going on? And it could be that you could have talked to an investor that has lots of money, and maybe they were tied up at a point in time. You haven't talked to him in a while. All of a sudden you just think about him. You call them up. You know what, I'm glad you call it. I just sold this and I've got this cash. You got any deals going on. So, man, that's how it works. That's what I mean. It's a contact sport, you've got to stay in contact with people.

Taylor   16:05  

Hmm, interesting. Now, you mentioned kind of at the top of our discussion a bit about, like, being in the right room being in the right groups of people you want to be around, especially if you're raising money, you want to be around people who have money to invest. Right. And that can be tough, you know, for a lot of people, especially at the beginning, you know, finding out, where should I go? And what do you think about that? I mean, is that going to, you know, national or regional kinds of conferences, or is that hanging out at the country club? Is it some mix of that? I mean, what do you do? What do you think about that? And what do you teach your clients in that regard?

Greg Dickerson  16:45  

Yeah, so there's, you know, these industry con conferences are great. There's a lot of people that attend those from all walks of life. So what you want to look forward to at conferences is not the people you see on Facebook, look for the ones that you don't know and you're not sure who they are and Meet them. Because you never know who's in that audience. I mean, I've got some of my clients that are very, you know, very high net worth individuals that go to these things to get sponsors, right? That's the reason they're going to learn a little bit about and to meet sponsors. And what new ever, what does everybody do that's going well, they want to go see rod or they want to go see Brad, they want to go see all the yummy look for the people that are looking for sponsors, and that are looking for opportunities and people that you don't know.

You don't want to go to those meetings necessarily to connect with everybody you connected with on podcast and I'm not saying ignore them and say, Hey, you know, if I see you Hey, Taylor, how's it going? Good to see you. But dude, let's go find some people we don't know. And we've never seen it, right. That's what you need to do. And you don't want to do speed dating. You want to make sure that you pick out one or two, you know people and you get to know them. Spend some time with them. Don't you know, hey, I'm Taylor and Taylor, you know, and go from one to one to one. You know, you want to give everybody an opportunity to do their thing. And don't don't reach out to the speakers. They're busy. Everybody's reaching out to them. Look for the people you don't know and try to spend some time with people to get to know and find out what they're doing. What After, and, and you just never know what will come from that. So that's conference networking in the industry that we're in, then you have other conferences that you can go to where high net worth individuals go. So doctors attend conferences and events, dentists attend conferences and events, money managers, I mean, you know, so people have means to go to different events and different things. So you can attend those and just kind of meet and get to know people there. Those types of things. And then country clubs are a great place to meet.

I mean, here locally, we've got one of the meetings that I lead every week is in one of the wealthier country clubs, the wealthiest country club here, and it's a faith meeting and faith life and work and we you know, Tom in and we just talk about that and we meet every week, but there's a couple of guys that are syndicators that join that club and they raised all their capital for all their deals by joining that club.

And, you know, attending social events and just talking to people, you know, now they're legitimate, they have a business, they have a company, they have a property management arm, and they, you know, buy commercial buildings and you know, they have a real creative deal but that's where they've raised all their Capital you know 10s of millions of dollars by joining that Country Club so that's an environment that you want to join attend get to know people get on a social committee something like that. You know, play the golf tournaments get to know people meet people, not the schmoozing, you know, sleazy sales guy, but genuinely interested in other people and getting to know them and how you can serve them, you got to approach it from that standpoint, and you have to wear the right clothes to the party, you know.

So if you're going to go to a country club, and it's a nice event, you need to wear nice business casual clothes, you need to upgrade your outfit if you don't have an upgraded outfit. You know, you need to wear a sport coat when it's appropriate. And look the part so you've got the country clubs, if you're going to fly Fly first class, because who flies first class, right? People that have means so you want to fly business or first class when you're flying and meet people in that environment. When you go out to eat at the nice restaurants don't go to the cheap places, go where the affluent go. And you know when you're at events, try to get the VIP ticket, never going to go to a race or if you're going to go to a you know whatever it is any kind of an event. If there's a VIP option, take the VIP option, like you went to the next thing, you know, you want to invest in the best seats there because you're going to be surrounded by other people. So just thinking like the fluent, where do they go? What do they do? Where do they hang out?

What type of events are they going to and when they go to them, where are they going to be, and that's the ticket you want to buy. Now, you may not be able to afford that. So you got to kind of work your way up to certain things. And if you can't afford those things, then you can find them in other social settings, nonprofit events, fundraisers, you know, places like that is where you can meet, you know, find people to meet and get involved and even at your church, you know, there's there's a lot of people in there and that's an easy way to meet people where you don't have to spend money. So it really boils down to being able to understand who they are, where they are, and being genuinely interested in them and what they're doing and how you can help them and how you can serve them. Hmm. And

Taylor   20:55  

You know, this is where I think many people might struggle with striking a balance going to these events and really trying not to have an agenda and not trying to pitch people and not trying to be a sleazy salesman. But ultimately Look man, if we want to convert people into our investors, not just our friends, we want them to remain our friends, but we want them to invest in our company or properties deals, whatever. Yeah. How do you make that switch? I mean, I get to talk to them about building relationships. Absolutely.

But how do we migrate from the point where Okay, I know this person, I understand them to making an offer or getting them on our list or you know, presenting them a deal. I mean, what do you think is the most powerful or effective way to make that switch?

Greg Dickerson  21:49  

Right? So you've met them a couple of times, the first time is the initial Hey, how are you doing? This is what I do. We'll talk about that another time for lunch or coffee. If you invite somebody out, pay always pay And whenever you invite somebody, and after that meeting, so that's your second touch. Your third touch is when you can call and talk about an opportunity, right? So one of the ways let's say you're raising capital for a deal is, you know, you met somebody somewhere, whatever, you've had a couple of conversations, you just call them up. You know, hey, Taylor, it was a good chat the other day, I really enjoyed talking to you, you know, how's everything going? Did you know The small talk first, right? So Hey, how are you doing? How's everything going? Look, you know, I enjoyed talking with you. The other day, we talked about, you know, the deals that I'm working on. I wanted to run one by you and see what you think.

I'm gonna email this out to you. It's an apartment building we're doing, you know, down in Florida, I'm not asking you to invest. I just want you to take a look at it. Tell me what you think. And, and then we'll circle back, right? So you send them that deal. You let them look at it, let them come to their own conclusion. Don't pitch them, don't do anything. Just let them look at it because the pitch deck has the pitch, right? And it's got all the investor information in there. So they either follow up with you or you follow up with them. However you leave and say, Hey, you know, I'm gonna send this to you. You know, would you like me to follow up with you when it's a good time to follow up with you after you've had a chance to review? Hey, I'll look at it over the weekend. Give me a buzz on Monday, one o'clock. So you call back? Yeah. Hey, you know, Taylor, this, Greg, you know, did you get it?

You know, I hope everything's going good. i had a great weekend. So right. Did you have a chance to take a look at the deck? I sent you on the Florida project? And then oh, yeah, I mean, I did you know, well, what did you think? So, you know, again, thoughtful questions. Oh, you know, I thought it was a great property, you know, you know, did it under but what about this, this and this, they're gonna start asking questions, right. So don't defend the deal. Don't sell the deal. Just answer the questions. Oh, yeah. Well, this is x. Well, that's x. If you don't have an answer, you know what? I'm not sure about that. I'll check with the sponsor, I'll check with my partner, I'll check with the property manager, I'll check with whatever. And then you get back to them. But, you know, you're just answering questions and you're getting their feedback.

So at that point, say, Well, look, it sounds like you really like this. Are you ready to invest? You know, you saw the investment. You know, and maybe before you've qualified them in terms of how much they HAVE to invest or how much they have available to invest. If not, they say, look, you know, are you like, sounds like you'd like the deal? You know, would you like to go ahead and get started and invest in this deal? How much money do you have that you'd like to go ahead and put in this deal, and then you can start talking about how much money they have. And it's obviously a little bit smoother than that. We're just kind of doing it off the cuff here. But, you know, it's conversational, right.

So it's not a pitch it is, but it's not. So you have your points, generally, you're going to know, on the second or third conversation, like the second time when you're talking about what you do in depth, that's when you say, you know, you'll get to know them and how much money they have to invest if their investors, right. Oh, yeah, you know, I got four or 500 grand, I'm looking. So when you come back here, say, hey, you said you had about four or 500,000? You know, do you want to go and put that all into this deal?

Or how would you like to do it? You know, and you just, there's not so nonchalant, you know, you're ready to go. And if they say, you know what, I really don't like this deal. Well, what don't you like about the deal? You know, and let them tell you, right? So objections are oftentimes just concerns or just complaints. They're not really objects. I don't want to do that. It's just like Yeah, I'm really not sure, really not ready. Okay, we sent you out about four or 500 grand, you know, once you put 100 in this thing and just kind of test the water, what do you get to lose? You know, or you know what I mean?

You just kind of test them in terms of a soft clothes, you know, and say, Well, you know, if you don't want to put it all in there, why don't just put a little bit, you know, and they may say, yeah, maybe I'll do 50, you know, so you can, you can get the ball rolling, most investors are going to start you out with something small. And he who is faithful with little will be faithful with much, right, so they're going to start small, and they're going to work you into the big stuff. So you want you don't want to pressure you don't want to push but you want to give them an opportunity. Sounds like you like this deal. Are you ready to go ahead and invest?

You know, I'll send you the documents, here's what here's all you got to do. And if they say no, not really well, you don't want to just test it out and put you know, hundred grand in something like that. You know, I'm really not, not really, you know, it's really not the right time to look, I understand, realize it's not the right time. Do you know anybody else who might be interested in something like this that I could, you know, reach out to and send them to the deal. You know, I'd really like to give people some opportunities to invest. You know, I mean, I know your returns aren't great. Over here over there. It's hard to make money right now with money sitting in the bank, this is a great deal. I don't want it to get stale, who can I send it to, you know, kind of like that. Just kind of talk to him like that.

So basically, you're reaching out to them and getting their opinion, hey, I have this deal. I'd like you to take a look at it and tell me what you think. If you're raising money for a business, the same thing, say, Hey, I'm, you know, have this business opportunity I'm looking at. I'd really love to get your input.

I'm a seeker of wisdom, you've got great experience you've been in x world, would you mind taking a look at this and kind of giving me your feedback, and you send them the opportunity, they look at it, and then you get back to them? And you know, they start asking you questions, and you're asking them, what do you think about it? And then there will come a point in that conversation, where they're, they're gonna say, you know, what, I might be interested in this or you say, you know, it sounds like you like this, would you be interested in investing? And then, you know, see what they say. And then then you work it down, you know, hey, well, if you have, you know, well, how much do you have to invest?

Anyways, right now, what is it that you would know, if you could invest or you're going to invest? How much do you have available? Hey, I got a million bucks. 100 Yeah, put 50 in, you know, start small. So that's kind of how you work it obviously, it would be much smoother than that. I'm kind of brainstorming as we're going along. But sure, general conversation, you're asking for their opinion on the opportunity or on the business?

Taylor   27:19  

Yeah, I, you know, it strikes me that throughout this process, and no matter what we're doing, there's going to be some amount of rejection through here because, you know, you're gently, you know, you're, you're asking people, would you be interested in taking a look at this, you know, even if I even if I do in your opinion, I'm genuinely not trying to close I actually do want to know what you think. But at the end of the day, it is kind of a it's, it's kind of a little bit sort of a solicitation. These people aren't stupid. They've got a lot of money. I've had people approach them with investment opportunities before Yeah, they realize there's a bit of a proposal going on here. So sometimes they're gonna say Now I have no interest in sharing my opinion with you I guess that's

Greg Dickerson  28:03  

fine and if you know if they say you know I'm really not interested I'd really rather not look at it okay appreciate you know appreciate it just thought I'd run it by you would you like me to take you off my list? Or is it just not the right time so find out what it is is it just your this isn't the right time are you not interested ever so you're not wasting your time on somebody who's not going to ever do anything right so you know no can be no no can me Not right now.

No can be never you know so that's what you want to get to? You know Taylor Hey man, I got this deal I would really love to get your opinion on it see what you think you might you know you mind if I shoot it over to you can you know when can you take a look at it and you know, I could follow up with you. You know, Greg, I really I'm not interested. I really don't want to invest in that kind of stuff. Okay, so would you like me to take you off my list? Or are you open to looking at some deals down the road? You know, is this just not a good time for you man just you know, going to take me off the list. Okay. I appreciate it. But I'd still love to get together with you. stay in contact with grab you know coffee or lunch.

A couple weeks or so, you keep the relationship going. If you like the individual and you feel like there's benefit to that, you don't want to just seem usery because some people might use that to test you, right? And see, you just want my money, you know, and people might even say, No, leave me alone, and then you never know, they might reach out to you again someday. So that's kind of how you handle that. And then the same thing, if they've looked at the deal. And again, they say, No, well, why don't you just test it out? You know, it's really not a good time. I'm not. It's okay. So, would you be interested in looking at another deal? Or are you just not interested in investing at all? So you want to get a definitive answer? You know, you want to get a yes or no, that way you can move on and then you don't have to bug him anymore.

Taylor   29:39  

Okay, I like that. Yeah, we've touched on sales skills a little bit. Do you have any particular sales methodologies or maybe thought leaders that you suggest people look into and read more about any books, courses, anything like that?

Greg Dickerson  29:57  

So you know, I've got a lot of content on my podcast and YouTube channel on sale. I made a bunch of videos on sales and the process of sales because it's changed. You know, I came up with the grades right, the zig ziglar and the Brian Tracy's and the Jim roans. And, you know, I don't I can't remember now Who else it was. But you know, I've studied a lot of great salespeople sales training, you've got the grant cardones out there, that's just go, go, go Never give up on people until they tell you to drop dead, you know, it doesn't work that way. Okay.

It's its relationship. People don't like to be sold. They like to buy now. There are some people you know, there are few, there's exceptions to every rule that love to get pitched. They love to be sold. But generally, especially when it comes to investing, people want to reach out to you, they don't want to be sold.

So you're sharing information, you're providing an opportunity, you're not selling, you're not closing. So that whole always be a closed thing. You know that that just doesn't work anymore. You have to be providing value. You have to be giving away what it is that you want to charge for and you have to look at serving Other people, and giving other people what they need first, then they will come to you. So, there is a process and depending on what it is, you know, from a deal standpoint, so what I am is exclusive, right?

So people want what they can't have. I say no more than I asked, you know, people call me Hey, you got anything going on? Yeah, but you know, it's when it's not for you, this is different. So I don't let people in. So I have more people wanting in because I'm very selective in who I let in and who I bring into a deal. Now I've got a handful of people.

And, and I get calls everyday people always reaching out to do a business, wanting to do a deal, wanting to do something. So I keep myself exclusive. Same thing with speaking engagements, people always want me to speak. I don't do it. I'm like, Look, I'll come but I'm 100 grand, you know, so you better make sure you've got a nice and want me to show up. It's $100,000 you know, so, you know, that's just how it is. So, by being exclusive, you become more exclusive.

Now, if you're trying to raise capital, that's not going to work for you right now. Right? Yep, build up to that. So this is again, I've been doing this since 1997. People know me, I've got a reputation in the region, you know, things like that. So, you know, it's a little, a little different ballgame there. But when it comes to the sales process, let's say you're, you're, you're, you're selling an investment opportunity, you want to share that opportunity, you want to provide them with the opportunity to invest in that deal. And you want to serve them, you want to give them what they're looking for. People are looking to invest in things, they want to get their money working, so they get to know that you know what you're doing, that they can trust you, they gotta like you, and you can't be pushy. You have to let them know, come along the process in their own time. But you have to get to a point, somewhere in that process where you got to ask, you know, is this a yes or no? Are you an investor now, or ever?

You know, so you don't want to get to that point. If you're selling a product, it's kind of the same thing right? And show them the features and benefits. Hey, this sounds like it's the right fit for you. Are you ready to go ahead and place the order you got your card out, let's go and ring it up. And It's either gonna be a yes or no. And you know, if it's a no, you know, why is this not you know, sound like this was a great fit? What is it about the product that doesn't work for you? Right? So you ask the question, you don't push and try to overcome objections. Again, objections are just complaints, right? There's too much money. Well, I understand I understand it's too much money.

It sounded like this was the right product for you. What is it about the product that you don't think is the right fit? And just get them? You know, talking? And they might just say, Well, you know, you're right. It is a great product that it uh, you know, Okay, are you ready to go and place the order? You know, and, you know, they're either gonna be yes or no. So you just kind of keep working on that line that eventually you got to say, you know, so is this the right product for you? Are you ready to go and buy now?

Or is it going to be sometime down the road? So that's kind of how it works for a product and a service kind of works the same way, you know, features, benefits, all that kind of the process of presenting, not selling, sharing what it is you have that you have to offer, how it's going to benefit them that you know, the whole sales process, what it can do for them, things like that. People talk about Oh, you got to give them the ideal, you know, what, what is their life going to look like after they do this? You know, people know that, right?

They're coming to you for reasons they know what their life's gonna look like. So you don't have to really go through all that, you know, the whole webinar thing. You know, you just describe the features and benefits and all that. And then you just ask for the sale sounds like it's a great fit for you sounds like this is the right opportunity. Are you ready to go ahead and invest? Can I go ahead and send you the, you know, the transfer documents? You know, the final paperwork?

Are you ready to go ahead and sign up? You know, it's either gonna be a yes or no. And then based on that, yes or no, and the complaint that they provide with it, is it just not the right time for you? Are you not an investor ever? Is this not the right product for you? Or, you know, are you looking for something else that you know, whatever it is, you know, so you got to get that definitive answer.

Taylor   34:49  

Yeah. You know, over the time, that you've been kind of in this world, things have changed I mean, since 1997, the internet was around at that point, but absolutely nothing like it is today. Today where anyone like a guy named Taylor can have a thought leadership platform and put the word out there and interview people like yourself. So, to what extent does being a thought leader and putting that content out there lend itself to you know, your strategy and getting those inbound leads coming to you and saying, hey, Greg, you know, what are you doing? Tell me about your deals, what are you investing in? So then you can know, ultimately tell it man, I know this is not right for you.

But you know, how does that thought leadership and and kind of inbound lead marketing aspect incorporate into your capital raising business and then also how you think about marketing because I originally reached out to you the first time we met, I sent you a message on bigger pockets or something. But you know, I'm sure you're getting a lot of those messages. So how's that work for you?

Greg Dickerson  35:55  

And you know, the exclusivity thing so that's a sincere thing. So I don't have a bunch of investors. I've got A handful of people, so I'm very selective about who I work with, right? So that's a real thing. And the more you say, No, the more people want you. It's funny. So back in the day before the internet and even Tony Robbins, you know, and Grant Cardone, you know, the prolific influences are out there, Gary Vaynerchuk. Well, he built his reputation on the internet, Grant and Tony didn't.

So the way they did it before the internet was they went and spoke. That's how you got to people, right? You had to go do these events and do these speaking engagements. They traveled all over the country speaking. So why did they do that? They did that to show people they know what they're doing and to get themselves out there and to get known. So now you have the internet, okay. And people have different appetites. They have different, you know, consumption habits. They like different platforms. So if you're trying to reach people, and you're trying to convey your expertise, and to have people get to know you, and like you and trust you, you've got to get out there. So you've either got to go meet them in person, or you do it through the internet, and the internet is the best way in the world to do it. Because you're all about the world all at once. You can be on all these different platforms. And the content delivery is different on each of the platforms. So it's a huge part of it. So for somebody that has no experience starting out, by interviewing experts, you get positioned as an expert. By asking thoughtful questions you actually learn. You become an expert, because you're interviewing experts. And one of the first ones that did this Well, well at scale was a guy named Mike Lippman.

Back in the day, he had a podcast, he interviewed a bunch of millionaires. And he wrote a book after you know, basically took the interviews and compiled them into a book and called it conversations with millionaires. And he sold that and he was a sales guy that was this thing, right? So smart. The more people you interview, kind of like, you know, if you look at all the top TV interview hosts like Matt Lauer, you know, he's obviously not anymore. But I mean, that's how he built his career. Oprah Winfrey, right. She built her career by having influencers on her TV show and she interviewed. You know, she's not an expert. She was never an expert. She just had this TV show brought back. It's in and it built her status and elevated her status. So part of how and I don't do that. I don't do that, you know, where I don't I don't have a lot of gas. I do other podcasts, you know, with other people, you know, because I'm the expert, right? So people are looking to interview me. But, you know, my podcast and my stuff is just me sharing knowledge and information.

But for people that have limited knowledge in the business, that's how you get it. You bring people like me on the experts to share their knowledge, you ask thoughtful questions you learn, the more you learn the better questions you ask. And then people say again, you know, selling is serving, selling is asking questions, asking thoughtful questions, people know you know what you're doing by the questions you ask. And that's a huge, huge thing. And why this type of platform, this type of medium works, to build your thought leadership platform to build your expertise and to build your status.

Unknown Speaker  38:51  

Nice, yeah, it's,

Taylor   38:54  

it's, it's upfront. It's definitely a substantial investment in both time and money but if it's done deliberately, with thought and, you know, a strategy and a plan, then it should ultimately work out. It's a proven strategy,

Greg Dickerson  39:10  

and consistently, and it's worked across all mediums not just raising capital. You know, again, Oprah Winfrey, many brands have been built conjunct me Grant Cardone, Tony Robbins, you know, a lot of the, you know, top news anchors, you know, that's how they all started, they all built their brand and built their platforms.

Taylor   39:29  

That's awesome. You know, last time, the last time you were on the show, I asked you my three favorite questions, so I'm not gonna ask them this time. But I'd love what we got you. I'd love to get kind of your take on the market where things are today, what you're investing in. And yeah, just just what you think about what's going on? Yeah,

Greg Dickerson  39:47  

so it's interesting times, you know, I like to do infill development, commercial and residential. So I'm doing fewer bigger deals, mixed use, like we talked about. I'm working on a couple of things in Richmond, something in Maryland. A ground up couple of ground up multifamily deals. I had some hotel deals going and opportunity's own deals but I tabled those for now construction costs are just through the roof. And the numbers came back really ugly. But it's really interesting times interest rates are very low. So that has brought cap rates down. There's a lot of compression on cap rates right now. Everybody's chasing the you know, the marquee assets, the you know, multifamily, mobile home parks cell storage, so everybody's kind of going after those, those are all great. There's a nice little niche in mixed use a lot of people are, you know, really aren't really understanding that market.

So there's a great little niche and mixed use meaning residential above commercial, and, you know, different mixes there. Strip centers, commercial strip centers are great, great assets to have. And there's some serious value add there, your financing is different. So those metrics are a little bit different. So you have to be really careful with those. So that provides that's a great opportunity. And I tell you, you know healthcare, healthcare is a great space to be in in terms of having a business or owning assets that healthcare providers use, you know, whether it's medical office dental office orthodontics, you know things like that. So when I look at right now you want to be in a recession proof asset type of asset class.

So you want to be Amazon resistant. If your retail which is going to be you know, coffee shop, you know, Chipotle, a hair salon, a nail place, a dry cleaner, dentist, Doctor, you know, those types of professional offices that can't work out of their house, they have to have a professional storefront. So you want to appeal to those guys. I'll tell you a great use of a strip center. I made a video the other day there was an L shaped center. And then right in the middle of the L which is the worst space to have in the center. Somebody went in there and made it interior storage. And it might have only been like 10,000 square feet and they make kits that you that's all metal little kits that you know, indoors and everything that you put together inside these interior spaces.

And there's a little kiosk out front people slide their card in, they can get access, you know, to get in In store, you don't even need anybody you know attending the thing. So I mean that's something you can roll out all over the place, right little little storage like pop up storage in some of these, you know, dark, big box retail stores and commercial centers where there's a lot of space. That's a great reuse of that space. So pay it when you're driving around, keep an eye out for that. You'll see some storefronts that say storage and like man that looks like just a retail store. It's it's storage that's inside of the space. You know, so I drove around the back of the building like Dang, I wonder if they punched out the back. You know they just did an interior inside the space about 10,000 square feet and you know, they've got them in, you know, all their little shopping centers out in these little little rural areas.

People love it because it's nice and safe. It's lit and it's in a, you know, grocery centered strip center. So stuff like that. You want to be nimble office space, you want to be very careful. If you watch what's going on with the web work these days and stuff you know, they at least got a bunch of space and are doing the whole open space thing. You know, they're going to get their butts kicked because the average building owner is going to be their competitor, you know. And so they're having a rough time because anybody who owns a building that has excess office space, why sign at least when we work when you can just do it yourself. So, that kind of trend is happening. So it'll be interesting to see how the office space sector changes as the economy and the millennial worker. And remote workers are more and more of a thing as we move forward.

So just kind of think about those things, you know, when you're looking at deals and opportunities, and that's the kind of stuff that I'm looking at. I'm investing in it because it's really interesting. And then I'm looking for small cap to mid cap companies and fragmented markets that I can consolidate and roll up and, and spin off to an equity fund or, you know, VC or something like that. So, you know, I'm just trying to stay opportunistic and nimble and be careful in this environment and waiting for the shoe to drop in the stock market and that's just a bomb waiting to go off. And it's just a matter of time before that happens. But all that capital is going to be looking for somewhere to go so be ready Hmm,

Taylor   43:59  

yeah. Well, I'm glad you mentioned we work. I was gonna bring that up. And that's, you know, by that time this goes live this is gonna be dated, right? Yeah, as we're talking that is all, you know, imploding and I think a CEO has been fired or something like that. But

Greg Dickerson  44:13  

yeah, at least a bunch of space really fast, you know, and so they had to buy the lease, build the space out, furnish it, lease it up. I mean, that's a very capital intensive business plan. Now, there's a couple other companies on a much bigger scale that are profitable and successful. You know, so I'm not sure exactly what went wrong with wework. But I think it was just they just grew too fast. They're undercapitalized. I think they spent a lot of money on things that they shouldn't have spent money on, you know, from what I'm hearing on the inside there. But that whole business model I think is going to change because a building owner, you know, can just delete that space out themselves.

Taylor   44:46  

Yeah. I was talking to somebody about this the other week, I, you know, you mentioned the medical office. A friend of a friend, I guess, is a medical office investor. And one of the things he mentioned is He's medical tenants, you know, once they get in somewhere, they do other tenant improvements and anything, everything, even when their lease is up and you know, 10, whatever years, they really don't want to move. So if you take care of them, they want to stay there and they, you know, pay the rent on time and all that stuff. And they don't want to leave, right?

Greg Dickerson  45:18  

Yeah, yeah, they're great tenants. People need to know that no matter what the economy's doing, they got to get their teeth fixed, they got to go to the doctor. You know, the urgent care center is a very popular thing and a good business model. So you know, creating space for an urgent care center doc in the box, you know, where people can go for the general stuff, you know, the cold and the flu and things like that. You know, those are a great little tenant to have, they're not going anywhere.

It's something that's needed in every community is becoming more of a neighborhood thing versus a regional thing. So there, you know, there's a lot of opportunity out there to fill space. If you're looking at commercials and like men, I don't want to buy a strip center because I don't know what to do with it. You know, just think about those things. And, you know, that's a great, you know, recession proof Amazon To improve, you know, business plan to have those types of tenants.

Taylor   46:03  

Yeah, it's great. I'm thinking about this. I got a flu shot at CVS today. Mm hmm. And like going into that store, it's like what is this? Is this gonna last? I mean, it's like candy and Halloween stuff because right before Halloween, but you know, I got the flu shots, that's fine, but I can't imagine that's gonna be around much longer.

Greg Dickerson  46:20  

I don't know CVS, Walgreens, you know, the pharmacies. They I mean, they just built a new one here in Charlottesville, right on the corner, and they moved out of a space that they were in forever in a very busy shopping center across the street to get a corner. Very expensive real estate, so it must be working.

Taylor   46:33  

Wow. Well, guess we'll keep an eye on that and see what happens over the next few years. But, Greg, thanks for joining us again, on passive wealth strategies. This is networking is such a big topic and it's personally it's something that I'm always trying to improve on. You know, I look back on my past, you know, behaviors and performance. I'm like, man, I was a knucklehead, but that's just growing that's that's getting older

Greg Dickerson  46:59  

right? Well, the key is follow up. So you got to remember what I said the most important thing is after you're, you know, number one, networking with the right people at the event, so look to meet new people every time versus the same old, same old, and you know, attending new and different events where the potential investors are going to be. And after that meeting, you want to follow up, you want to try to set follow up to there, but if not, you know, follow up afterwards.

And if somebody enters your head that you met somewhere and it just pops in your head holla Don't hesitate, just call them up. And just Hey, this is Taylor. You know, I was just thinking about you just want to give you a call, how's everything going? How are you doing? You know, just no reason. Just, you know, just want to call say, Hi, how are you doing? You know, people are like, they appreciate that, man, thank you for thinking of me, you know, I mean, that means you're actually spending thought time on somebody. That's, that's pretty, that's huge.

Taylor   47:45  

Yeah, I like that a lot of now and you're definitely somebody that lives it. You know, like I said a few weeks ago, you just, you know, kind of randomly reached out. It was like we just had a phone call sto was great. And I certainly appreciated it and I'm sure others do as well. Well, yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks for coming back. I really appreciate it if folks want to get in touch, where can they learn more about you? You know, all that good stuff?

Greg Dickerson  48:08  

Yeah. So it's Greg Dickerson Comm. You know, I have a YouTube channel and podcast and I'm just sharing content every day and it's out there. So I did a lot of stuff on sales, I'm doing commercial multifamily development, those types of things. You know, so yeah, so check out my website. You can see my projects on there and what I'm doing, and that's how to keep up with me. I'm out in the field every day filming something.

Taylor   48:30  

Great. You know, I follow you on Instagram. Everybody. look him up on Instagram. I think is it at Greg Dickerson?

Greg Dickerson  48:36  

Yeah. Hey, Greg Dickerson Yep,

Taylor   48:38  

there you go. So look them up. It's got a lot of content coming out there as well. So give them a follow. It'll be well worth it. But thanks again, thanks for tuning in. I hope you all got a lot of value out of this. I know I always have more to learn when it comes to improving my networking skills. So really appreciate you bringing these lessons to us today. Greg, everybody out there if you're enjoying the show, please Give us a rating on iTunes is a big help to help other people learn about the show. If you know anyone that gives you a little bit more passive wealth in their lives, please share the show with them and bring them into the fold. Hope you have a great rest of your day and a great week and we will talk to you

on the next one. Bye bye