Building a Brand, Raising Capital and Acquiring Assets with Josh Cantwell – ep 264

The Fastest Way To Build A Six Or Even… Seven Figure Real Estate EMPIRE! 

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In this episode, I want to share some very simple steps that you can use to build a brand to help you raise capital and acquire more assets as quickly as possible.

Ultimately, I want to help answer the question: What does it take to build a brand so that clients are always ready to do business with you?

We recently had a webinar with the goal of raising $5.4M for a new multifamily syndication. And because we’ve built our brand, built relationships, and built trust with those relationships, we were able to secure almost $9M in soft reservations in less than a week, with a lot of that money coming from recurring investors.

I’ll run through the steps that I’ve personally used, which have been huge factors in my success today. When you’re trying to raise money to get deals funded, you want to have the chips stacked in your favor, and in this episode, I’ll show you how you can make that happen in your business.

Key Takeaways with Josh Cantwell

  • Josh’s Process to Build a Brand and Raise Capital:
    • Create online content with a content machine with an online brand.
    • Turn your content into social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and any others.
    • Create live events face to face interactions or even virtual events like a masterclass.
    • Become a guest on other podcasts.
    • Ensure that you have a Call to Action on your branded website.
    • Build your email list and broadcast your content automatically with an email blast or with a physical newsletter.
    • Get your subscribers on a one-on-one call or strategy session to develop the relationship.

Josh Cantwell Tweetables

“The best thing you can do in sales is to have something that a lot of people want with limited supply. It's simple supply and demand.” - Josh Cantwell

“One of the toughest ways to sell anything, to sell your business, to raise money. is when there's no urgency from the buyer.” - Josh Cantwell

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Josh Cantwell: Hey, guys. What’s going on? Hey, it’s Josh. Listen, I’m really excited to be with you today and talk about building a brand. I have to tell you, yesterday, I got a webinar and we needed to raise money for our latest multifamily syndication. The goal is to raise $5.4 million, and we’re very fortunate that between yesterday’s webinar and the week or so leading up to the webinar, we were able to secure almost $9 million in soft reservations for this transaction, and a lot of them are from recurring investors. So, we’re sort of thinking about this last night and this morning and thought, “Hey, what has it really taken to build a brand, to build a business, whether it’s in e-commerce, whether it’s in real estate, whether it’s in manufacturing, or really any kind of brand where it could be business-to-business?” But specifically, for this, I was thinking more business-to-consumer, business-to-investor like how to recruit investors, how to build a brand to recruit investors into whatever kind of offering you have. It could be physical products. It could be some kind of e-commerce opportunity. And of course, real estate self-storage, multifamily, mobile home parks, all those different kinds of things require a process to build a brand so that people are ready to do business with you.

 

I remember years ago, over 15 years ago, I heard a talk and somebody say that Joe Polish that many people aren’t familiar with from Genius Network, Joe Polish, there was a quote that he said that marketing is sales in print. And I thought, “Oh, well, that really resonated with me.” Then I also heard Joe say that if you want a business to be easy, lucrative, and fun, he called it an ELF business, easy, lucrative, and fun that you want to have people who are predisposed, predispositioned, and ready to do business with you. So, yesterday, as I was kind of just reflecting on the webinar yesterday, we had over 300 people registered, we had 125 people attend, and we already had about $5 million raised prior to the webinar and then we got another $4 million raised during the webinar. Only needed 5.3 million and raised nearly $9 million. I started thinking, “Okay. Well, Josh, what have we done right? Like, what have I done right in the last 5 or 10 years that allows you to raise this kind of money in such a short amount of time?” And I really came up with several steps that I thought have worked for us that I wanted to turn around and share with all of you today, those steps in building a brand in order specifically to raise capital for your business and also to purchase assets.

 

You see, I believe in the concept of building a business and then investing the profits passively. So, I just happen to be in one of those businesses where I build a business in real estate and then also invest the profits in real estate. Other people build a business in e-commerce, let’s say, and then invest the profits in real estate. Like, I have several passive investors that own e-commerce businesses, physical brands. One of them owns a crafting, a craft online store and puts together all kinds of online content and then sells physical crafts, and then they invest the profits from that business into real estate with me and with other syndicators. And so, whatever the business is, it could be for you. It could be maybe a W-2 income. You have a W-2 income. That’s what you do to make money and then you invest the profits passively. Okay. So, for me, that’s what a lot of people are doing, building businesses, W-2, then investing the profits passively. So, how do I get in front of these people that have $100,000? Our largest investor that’s with us right now is about $1.5 million with us and continuing to make additional investments all the time. And I thought, “Okay. What have we done well? Where did this kind of start with?”

 

Well, I’m going to tell you first the end goal. The end goal is to ultimately have a webinar, have some sort of online webcast, whether it’s Zoom or GoToMeeting or whatever, where you can get a bunch of people on the line live and you want to have all of the chips stacked in your favor. Okay. So, I’m talking about the end here and then I’m going to tell you how I get there. But the goal is to have a webinar and just like we did yesterday, have 300, 400, 500 people on the line and then have, you know, maybe you need to raise, again, like I did $5 million so you need 50 investors at $100,000 each or you need 10 investors at $500,000 each. But the goal is to have way more people register for the webinar than you actually need to invest. So, all of that leverage is in your favor because you have now a product that everybody wants and it’s scarce. The best thing you can do in sales is to have something that a lot of people want in limited supply. It’s simple supply and demand. So, for us, it was supply 50 units, roughly $5 million, but the demand was I already pre-raised the money prior to the webinar, and then the demand was, “Oh yeah, by the way, we had 300 people register, 125 people attend, and there was more demand than supply.” That creates scarcity and it creates a sense of urgency.

 

Okay. One of the toughest ways to sell anything, sell your business, raise money, whatever it is, is when there’s no urgency from the buyer. There’s no urgency from the investor to do anything. Then they can take their sweet time and when they can take their sweet time, they have now all the leverage in their direction and they can determine the terms of the deal. They can negotiate a better deal. Well, when you have a lot of demand and not a lot of supply, and all the leverage is in your favor when you’re raising money for your business, that way allows you to dictate the terms, give up less equity, pay a lower preferred return, just get all the terms in your favor. Now, look, guys, I’m not stupid. I know that a lot of my passive investors are going to listen to this, right? So, I’m just trying to be as transparent as possible. I’m not trying to one-up anybody. I’m not trying to do better than my private investors. In order for this to work, this has to be win-win-win-win-win all the way around, right? So, I’m not trying to one-up anybody but I am going to pull back the curtain and tell you what I do to put the leverage in my favor, and I’m not looking to “negotiate a better deal.” My goal is just to recruit all the money I need and to sell out my investment, okay, to sell it out.

 

So, yesterday, we pretty much sold it out, right? We needed $5 million, $5.3 million. We had over $9 million in commitments. Pretty much oversold it. That doesn’t even include my own money. So, that’s the end goal. The end goal is to capture all of that in a webinar where you get everybody together and then everything gets in your favor. Now, that’s the end goal. How do we get there? Step number one is we’ve got to find a way to create online content. And for me, it starts with this podcast. So, step number one is what I call content machine. And in that content machine that we create the first step in that is having an online brand or a voice. For me, it’s the podcast. I get on record, talk about my thoughts, talk about their deals, interview guests. I even get invited to other people’s podcasts. And when that happens, the podcast becomes the voice. Then the podcast itself can be syndicated through a YouTube video, Stitcher, Spotify, iTunes, our website, all of it starts with the podcast. So, I jump on a record then I give this podcast recording to our production company. We use a company called PodPost Media. Maybe some of you guys have a podcast or want to create a podcast, I highly recommend Derek and Charlie over at PodPost Media. They also do major podcasts for some other major, major producers, including my friend, Justin Donald, over at Lifestyle Investor. And so, they’re really, really, really well done.

 

So, step number one, content machine starts with a podcast, your voice. I had a student of mine, actually, that’s in my mastermind and his name is John, and John PM’d and said, “Well, Josh, what would I even talk about on a podcast? I don’t have your experience. I don’t have your charisma. You know, I don’t have much to talk about. I’m kind of shy and quiet.” I said, “Well, John, listen, what are you into?” And he said, “Well, I own several franchises.” He owns like a massage franchise, he owns a gym franchise, he owns like a fast-food franchise, he owns a couple of different brands of franchises, and then he also enjoys investing in real estate. I said, “Well, create a podcast around that, around how do you run a better franchise and take profits from that franchise business, and then invest the profits in real estate. That’s your message, John. That’s who you are. That’s what you do.” Okay. So, number one, content machine podcast.

 

Number two, that podcast, the spoken word in the podcast can become all kinds of written words. Facebook posts, Facebook posts on your personal page, Facebook posts in Facebook groups, Facebook pages, Facebook Lives, LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Lives, Instagram, even Snapchat. So, all of these posts are really created from the podcast because on the podcast, I can just let it rip, right? I can just get out and talk. Hopefully, this is entertaining. You enjoy it and I let it rip. And then my team then takes that podcast, which is my authentic voice, and then creates written posts from it. And we push that out to Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups and Facebook pages and people see all that stuff.

 

Then you go to number three, which is meet-ups. These are face-to-face events, right? So, we do face-to-face meet-up events as part of our brand building which includes going to live events, showing up, meeting people in the bar or the hallways at the different breakout sessions, face-to-face seminars, going to those. It could be an online seminar that you get asked to participate in. It could be a speaking opportunity that you are asked to engage in. So, any type of face-to-face physical meet-up, it could be online, it could be face-to-face. Obviously, we’re in a very virtual world right now with everything that happened with COVID so a lot of things and groups, seminars went online. That’s great. But where can you speak? Where can you physically network? Where can you meet people face-to-face, shake hands or say hello on a virtual event? That’s number three is the meetups.

 

Number four, become a guest on other people’s podcasts. We’re always seeking content creators and people who have a good, authentic message. So, it could be a podcast about real estate investing, business development, leadership, how to build a business. Even like John, my friend in my mastermind, talking about franchising, running a better business, how to run a more operationally efficient business. So, these are all topics that you could cover as a guest on somebody else’s podcast.

 

So, those four are the building blocks. The content machine, which starts with the podcast, the posts, the face-to-face meet-ups, and then finally being guests on other people’s podcasts or other people’s videos. All of that traffic then has a call to action. That call to action is to go visit your website and register for either free information like a free opt-in for a free report or a free video or a free class, or opt-in on the investor portal to see our future deal flow. So, got to be something, some sort of what we call ethical bribe that people will jump on to register for so they log into your investor portal. I’ve used a program called Syndication Pro. I’ve also used a program called AppFolio. We’ve built custom websites with free reports, free coaching classes, a free autoresponder, a free mini-course, all of these things to entice people to opt-in. Again, we call it an ethical bribe.

 

Then step number six, you’ve got to have your branded website. You can check out our branded websites at FreelandVentures.com, StrategicRealEstateCoach.com, AcceleratedInvestor.com, AcceleratedInvestorPodcast.com, or even a personal website like JoshCantwell.com or JoshCantwellCoaching.com. There you want to have links to all of your stuff, right, links to your portfolio, links again to opt-in on the passive investor portal, links to your podcast, links to your YouTube videos, links to your Facebook groups, links to other podcasts that you’ve been on. Okay. You got to have that branded website because limited partners, lenders, passive investors, banks, and even brokers, wholesalers, they’re going to check you out. They’re going to look you up. So, got to have a branded website.

 

Then when somebody opted in, ideally, we would now drip on them. That’s step number seven, drip on them. So, we want to have automated content that goes out to them in the form of an autoresponder, okay, which could set up through any email marketing platform. Then you want to do email broadcasts where you’re going to have them on your list. You’re going to send out maybe once a week or two or three times a week. You’re going to send out an email blast, an email broadcast with your content with a message to just bring them into your ecosystem, bring them into your community. And then what I like to do with nobody else does to drip on people is a physical newsletter. Everybody likes to send newsletters electronically through email and through websites and through email broadcasting. That’s great. But do that and do a physical newsletter that you put in the snail mail and it goes out to them. That’s so important for them to get something physical in the mail. Right? There’s so much stuff, so much scam, spam, stuff online that you can definitely set yourself apart by physically sending something to them. It might cost you $1, $2, $3 per piece to send that out but it’s a lot of the same things I would send online talking about our portfolio, talking about deal updates, talking about the state of the market, what did I talk about in a podcast. All that becomes content that I physically send in a physical newsletter.

 

Finally, you move on to, okay, what’s the goal? The goal is after they’ve registered on the portal, after they’ve seen your branded website, after you dripped on them, number seven, then, number eight, the goal is to get them onto a one-on-one call with you, one-on-one strategy session, one-on-one so that you can develop and build a prior existing relationship. Okay. Up until this point, we’ve made no offers. We haven’t asked them to invest. We haven’t pitched them a deal. Right now, the goal is I use my Calendly link, send that out via email or text that out, and then have them register on my Calendly link, which automatically creates a Zoom link. And then they can get on my calendar and we can do a one-on-one. Now, during those Zoom calls, my goal is to fact-find. My goal is to find out this high-level discovery of who they are and what they do. And remember, the person who asks the questions is the person who’s in control. So, when I got on a Zoom, everybody wants to ask me questions, “Hey, Josh. Tell me about your deal. What’s your offer? What’s your pref return? How much equity do I get? What’s the refi proceeds? How much cash flow?” And I’m like, “Eeeh, time out. Before I tell you any of that stuff, the SEC requires that if we’re going to do a private placement, a Reg D, 506(b), 506(c), that I’ve established a prior existing relationship with my investors. So, if it’s okay with you, I prefer to take this slow and find out exactly what you’re up to and what’s important to you.”

 

And they’re usually like, “Oh, that’s great.” You know, actually, this week I talked to three new passive investors and they said, “You know what, Josh, you’re the first syndicator that actually spent time getting to know who I am, what my risk tolerance was, what’s important to me. You know, you’re the first one that really just didn’t go into the details of the deal.” So, maybe that’s the secret sauce, right? The secret sauce is that these other syndicators are just about the deal like, “Can we just pitch you the deal?” When I take my foot off the gas and I spend time to get to know people and I go through this fact-finding interview where I ask them the questions, I have to make sure that they’re qualified. First of all, it puts all the control back on me. I have control because I’m asking the questions. And number two, I slow roll that relationship, one, because I’m required to with the SEC but also, two, I truly get to know people. So, it might be the first Zoom call and then another Zoom call a week later and another Zoom call a week or two after that. Now, we’ve established this prior existing relationship. And now you know what they’re saying? “Josh, when are you going to have a deal? How can I invest? How does it work? Tell me when you’re going to have your next deal.”

 

And then when I do the webinar like I did yesterday, everybody shows up and all the leverage is in my favor because we’ve gone through this process of creating a content machine, doing the post, the meetups, guesting on podcasts, creating the investor portal, having our branded website, dripping on people, doing the one-on-one Zoom calls. And then when the webinar comes up, dude, it’s over. Goodnight. That’s how I raised $9.3 million yesterday when I only needed $5.3 million, and I’m sure we’re not even going to close this deal that I’m raising. I’m going to close this deal for about six weeks. So, I’m sure we’ll get even more commitments over the next couple of weeks, probably raise over $12 million for a $5 million raise. We’ve got all the deal stacked in our favor. It’s pretty fantastic. So, check out that nine-step process. Use that in your own business. If you want more information, go to FreelandVentures.com or FreelandVentures.com/Passive. I look forward to working with you in the future. Talk to you soon. Take care.

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