Use Social Media Right & Make Millions

Cole Ruud-Johnson (00:00): Today y'all we're talking about social media and how to use social media to make millions in your off-market real estate company or whatever else you're gonna do. I can't express enough to you guys how important social media is and in the outro of this episode, I'm gonna give you very tactical advice on how to create a content plan for yourself and your company to becoming a niche expert in what you do. So guys, without further ado, let's get right into the show. People don't fail at real estate because they suck, they fail because there's too many ways to succeed. That's why I suggest you focus on the most important skill and all of real estate, which is finding deals. I'm Cole Johnson and in this podcast I shared the exact steps. I've used the source 400 deals by age 24. And this will allow you to do three things, control your deal flow, make unlimited income, and build your empire as an off-market operator. (00:54): Today we're talking about this thing in my hand right here, your phone. We all use these things for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 hours a day. And my phone is a big reason, if not the reason. One of the main reasons why over the past, you know, 3, 4, 5, 6 years of my life, I've been able to make millions and millions of dollars of revenue across my company. So today, you guys specifically in relation to deal sourcing, becoming an off market operator, that's what I'm gonna be talking about today with social media is how I view social media to, to position myself in my market as an authority in the business that I'm in. Okay, you guys, in 2023, no one uses business cards. We all use one thing when we meet a new person, when we meet a new vendor, when we wanna look someone up and see if they're legit, we all use one thing. (01:37): What is that one thing That is their phone talking Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. That is how we verify if someone is legit. If someone emails me asking, Hey man, can I get on your buyer's list? And if I wanna know if they're legit, I'm not saying, Hey man, send me a business card. I'm saying, Hey man, I'm looking at his full name and I'm getting on a, you know, Instagram of Twitter, LinkedIn, and I'm seeing what this guy's about. If the guy has 20 followers, nothing on his account about real estate, I'm sorry you guys, but the world we live in, most people are ignoring them. Unless you're a a Warren Buffet at Elon Musk, at Jeff Bezos. Unless you're at that level and everyone knows who you are, you have to have a brand and represent yourself on social media, on these platforms. I don't care what your excuse is, I am a naturally introverted, I'm not naturally extroverted. (02:21): No part of you was born. Being sitting in front of cameras talking to you is what I was naturally good at. I did it over and over and over and over again. And now I love getting on a stage and talking in front of a bigger group of people. I love doing this podcast. I love doing other people's podcasts. I love talking in my social medias because I'm now aware of every single month the bigger my brand gets, the better our companies do and the less friction we have of all of our customers. Okay? And a real estate, it's not really a business. You're gonna be getting a ton of leads in terms of people calling you or DMing you on Instagram saying, Hey, buy my house. But that doesn't matter. What matters is your vendors, right? Your lenders, your buyers. You guys, I can't tell you how many times a buyer comes to us and wants to work with us just cause they see me online and see our brand and they wanna do business with us specifically. (03:05): And a lot of times they'll pay a premium to do business with us. Besides that, you guys, most of my lenders that have lended on our fix and flips and allowed us to do flips with no money outta pocket for the last few years have found me on social media. Have we built a connection on social media? I had him on my podcast a few weeks ago, but James Dainard, this guy is a killer, has on about 3000 flips and I was able to build a connection with him through social media. Cause that's what led me to going to Maui's, to Maui, to Brandon Turner's first ever mastermind out there where I met James and we built a friendship. But you guys don't, you don't realize like social media is what makes a lot of people wanna do business with you. Across all my companies, I get inbound dms, inbound Instagram messages with guys that have years and years of experience. (03:44): I'll give you an example. I put out a tweet last week and I'm sitting here recording this episode towards the end of March. This is about mid-March when I put out this tweet and that tweet was around, Hey universe, hey Twitter, hey Instagram. I'm looking to hire two positions. The first position I'm looking to hire is a VP of sales. The second position I'm looking to hire is a coo slash cto. Okay? The reason I'm hiring these is you go back and listen to my last episode, which is all about hiring and buying back your time. The reason I'm hiring these positions is mainly so I can start buying back my own time even more so, and I can't tell you the amount of dms that flooded my uh, Twitter, my Instagram, my LinkedIn are people that have been working in successful businesses for 20, 30, 10, sometimes more years than that or have sold their own companies and want to work with me. (04:29): Cuz I see a young guy hustling on social media and that looks fun to them. I am not kidding, I probably had 20 people send me a resume saying, Hey man, I'm crushing it in business. I've sold this company, I run this company but I want to come work with you because I see what you're doing. I see what you're about and I want to be part of that. And I can't tell you how easy that has made the hiring process for sales guys, for leaders in our companies all around the board that has made it easier. So direct correlation to your real estate company. If you're watching this and you're doing trying to do more wholesales or more flips, start talking to the world about what you do. And no, I don't mean like showing like watches and showing cars and showing houses. That stuff is cool. (05:06): And yeah, it shows that you do know a little bit about what you're doing if you're able to afford that stuff. But the stuff I'm talking about is explain to people your process. Explain to people how you do deals. Explain to people the kind of buyers you're looking to work with. Explain to people how to get on your buyer's list. Show them pictures of houses, show them pictures of you at a Title one escrow company. But make an effort guys, in 2023, the world is getting more and more digital and truly social media is becoming a business card and people are getting laughed out of the room. Now I see all the time, no matter how big of business you run, a lot of times if you don't have a presence on social media, people either don't believe you or wanna do business with you. (05:40): It's just the reality of the world that we live in right now. You don't need a massive, massive, massive audience. But you do need to be sharing with the world what you're doing in my, in my opinion in 2023, whatever that is specifically for you guys and real estate. Cuz everyone thinks real estate is cool and there's a lot of buyers looking in the weeds. If you're doing fix and flips right now and one day you want to consult, okay, having a brand makes that way easier. And I know on this podcast we talk a lot about actually tactile information and tactics to sourcing more off-market deals. But you guys, this makes your off-market real estate business a thousand times easier, way better and way more fun for you cuz we remove all the friction point of people wondering who you are and what you're about. (06:20): Once you have a digital business card, your life changes forever and these platforms are not going anywhere. You guys, I promise you that. So I'm gonna give you guys a story back in 2018, uh, Seattle investor, Washington investor, Nate Robbins, good buddy of mine. Now I had seen them at a conference earlier in the day. This was, uh, I think it was one of Thach Nguyen, who's a big investor, you can file one. Instagram has almost a million followers. He used to put on these like mindset mastermind events in, in Seattle. And I went to him, a couple hundred people there and I went there and I was 18. I was still a broker. I'd never done a wholesale deal, another never done the flip. But man, the way Thach just talked about business and the future and and how to think and how to act in a confident way is you build your business and your future. (06:57): I saw Nate and Tarl, Nate was Tarl Yarber's business partner and they worked together on a lot of stuff and Tarl has been a huge factor in my success. And I saw them stand up, didn't know them at the time, and they stood up and they started talking about their business. And I go, man, like those are the guys to know in Seattle area. Man, I didn't know James at the time, James Dainard's another big guy to know in Seattle, but Tarl and Nate and I was like, those guys, man, those are the faces you see everywhere. They ran a big monthly meetup at hundreds of people that went every month. And I've gone to a few of those and I've seen their face on stage and I'm like, man, I want that relationship. And you know, I was doing what every other 18, 19 year old does when they get into real estate. (07:28): They start sending out, Hey, take me to coffee. Hey, take me to that. Of course no one responds actually how still have those Facebook messages to Tarl of me sending out those messages. A little bit of a tangent. But that night, right after that event and I saw 'em stand up and I go, man, I really want to meet those guys that night. I'm at LA Fitness in Bellevue, which I live in San Diego now. I used to live in the Washington area and Bellevue's a suburb of Seattle. And I'm, and I'm in Bellevue. I I worked at Keller Williams. So I left the office and I I went to this LA Fitness and I'm walking out to get on the treadmill cause I used to lift and get on the treadmill every single time I went to the gym. And Nate Robbins, uh, who I saw at that event is standing on the treadmill next to me. (08:02): And I go, man, if this isn't like divine intervention about the universe, God, like I don't, I don't know what else is. And so I start talking to Nate and for some reason I had the instinct of that age. I didn't have a social media presence, but the reason, I'll get back to that in a second. I had, I was posting some about what I was trying to do and at that age, I got on next to him, man, 18, 19. And Nate looked at me, he is like, oh my, another guy that wants to freaking take me to coffee. And I didn't go that route. I went the route of, here's what I actually know. I had gotten really good at like systems and automations and CRM work at that time. And I said, Nate, here's what I know about CRMs and systems and automation. (08:36): And Nate looked at me and said, this is interesting. I think we could actually use this in our business. And he actually got me a coffee with him and Tarl about a couple weeks later. I got there with him, did my normal spiel, blah, blah, blah. Pretty much what they told me at that coffee is, Hey, if you bring us a deal, we'll do business. And I brought them a deal, we flipped it together and they become major friends of mine. And as I was building my brand, I wasn't all these social media, I was building my brand. I had enough of a brand, a couple thousand followers in that relationship now where I got invited to the Maui Mastermind, which changed my life forever. That's where I met guys like Ryan Pineda, AJ Osborne, James Brandon, who have been a big, big part of my inner circle and learning and, and growing and heading towards in the direction that I am. (09:15): So I can't speak enough about building yourself into a brand and, and building yourself into someone who is notable in your market. It's worthwhile. You guys, I see a lot of guys out there that are posting stuff of their flips and their wholesale deals and they don't have a massive following, but I think in my head, man, they're making their life so much easier they don't even understand yet, but they're making their life so much easier as they continue to grow. Yet you guys, it doesn't take long. And like with everything else in this business, how do you get better at social media? How do you get better at being comfortable on camera, in front of people talking on stages? You do it. And for me, if you go back and watch my the first a hundred tos, I posted a bunch of the first reels I posted. (09:54): Like I used to care. I used to, I was so worried that I was gonna put something outta the world that was gonna get bad feedback. And you just build that muscle, you build that muscle, you build that callous, and eventually you just don't care. And I want you all to get to that position where you, you can selfishly share your business across every single social media platform without caring about what anyone else says in relation to that. Cause the three people that need that information or that want do business with you are worth the 20 people that don't want to see that or leave a weird comment on your, your video, your picture. The reason I'm doing this podcast, you guys is to further build my presence in the, in the niche that I'm in, which is, you know, real estate, off market, deal sourcing, call center and everything else that I do focused on getting leads in the door for our real estate company and other companies. Thank you guys for hanging out, but I just wanted to drop a quick note on this Monday and let you guys know why I'm so big and why I preach so much to people in our coaching group on social media. And you guys, if you haven't checked this out@wholesaleheroes.com, I highly, highly recommend that you guys, we give so much to our people on how to grow their social media presence and they get deals sent to them all the time by other people that see them on social media and wanna do business with them. So as always, you guys, thanks spending the last, uh, 10, 15 minutes of your day with me and I look forward to catching you on the next one. (11:27): Man, I can't express enough how much social media has changed my life, how important it's to your business and building a digital business card that digital the blueprint going into 2023 and, you know, beyond which we're in 2023. I wanna give you guys a quick actionable item to leave this episode today in the outro here, which is you guys just choose one platform, start on one platform, start on Twitter, start on LinkedIn, start on Instagram, and just start by posting one story in one post today. Okay? Start there. You don't need to overcomplicate this thing. And as you learn that platform, you can continue to expand into others. But again, one story, one post. Today my strategy is I post actual piece of advice every single day. I post a story every day as in like a story about my business, either on my Instagram story, my Twitter, and then I post a personality post, something that shows my personality so people can connect with me and, um, it's worked incredibly for me. (12:12): So you guys, as always a review, a testimonial, a like a share on your story means the world to me for this podcast. I really, really wanna help the next generation of people in real estate learn how to source off market deals and how important that is for their business to the skillset that'll pay you the rest of your life. Um, on Apple Podcast, you guys please cook the plus button and save this podcast so you can notify with new episodes pop out, which is every Monday and Thursday. Same for Spotify or wherever else you like to listen. And as always, you guys, until next time, you're one deal away.