Episode 22| Adrian Smude: MY WIFE BUYS MOBILE HOMES! How Adrian Uses His Brand to Create Connections

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Transcript

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welcome back to the art of connecting podcasts. This is your host Hayden Fike here with another episode for you guys. So today we have Adrian smooth with us. I got connected to him because I drive to Knoxville from Chattanooga for a real estate meetup. And I'm in that Facebook page and he posted in the meetup page and was like, Hey, I want to go on some people's podcasts. I think I have a cool story and reached out to him. We had a phone call. We talked for like, what was it like an hour and a half on the phone and got connected with each other. And I was like, man, this is the person I need to have on my podcast. So so excited to have you on Adrian. How's your day going so far? I appreciate it, Hayden. Today is an amazing day, like every day, because I built a life that I don't want to leave. I live life on vacation is another way to word it. And that doesn't mean I don't work. I love getting on podcasts. Actually, I love podcasts. People ask me why I don't start one. No, I let you do all the hard work. I show up and have fun. I've got to edit for an hour and a half tonight after I get done with my day. So I don't blame you at all for not wanting to make your own podcast. But in all reality, thank you for having the podcast, because again, I don't want to do it. We need to get more information out there. It helps a lot more people. Everyone wins from it and someone's got to do the hard work So thank you for letting me live my vision of getting here to you know, i'll take one for the team I'll take one for the team, but you've earned the right to not have to edit your own podcast So we'll give you that I I agree on the vacation thing though. I I finished my Monday yesterday and I was like, is it Wednesday? We talked about that. And in the Action Academy, it's like we want everyone to confuse their weekdays with their weekends. And I know for me yesterday was one of those days. It was like, holy crap. I just toured a penthouse of a building downtown. And then I went lay by the pool and then I networked with someone for a few hours. And that was like my whole entire day. And I was like, what is this life? When you're intentional of what you want and you take the action for it, I mean, we know it's possible. Hopefully the listener, the listeners are listening. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all buckle up. We're going to have a good episode. So let's go and roll it into it. Can you tell the guests a little bit about yourself, what you do, and what your brand is? And we'll roll into how you got started a little bit later if you want to save that. Okay. I am Adrian Smoot and Central Florida is what my driver's license says. Plant City, Florida, the winner, sorry, capital of the world. And I am a mobile home investor. So I buy individual units that can be a double wide, single wide, but I want one unit and I want the dirt and I buy them and rent them out. I found a lot of success there and then what I ended up doing is traveling, speaking about it. I wrote a book that ended up becoming a bestselling book and I'm enjoying that giving back, teaching people exactly what I do. I know we're going to talk a lot about networking today because that is one of my biggest lead sources. That is probably the shortest version of me. I love traveling. That's why I travel and speak. I love nature, so I try to incorporate that. I, I said my license says, because I'm probably there less than half the year, because I travel around. I'm up visiting cousins right now in New Jersey, and it fit in. I got to go speak and teach and help people. And then I get to visit my cousins, and I get to go play pickleball today, get to go play as a five year old after that, so life is great. So did he, if you aren't watching this on video he, Adrian has a big banner behind him. Did you just take that with you everywhere? Yes, I do actually. My wife is a little annoyed with the amount of stuff that's in the car right now because... I have to have all this yellow stuff in boxes. I got some books in case people want them. I'm a bright yellow guy. Yeah, and he, I saw your little microphone cover you have too on, on your Instagram with the, the bright yellow microphone cover even. Everything, I, I didn't get into branding until it was working. So my brand is a t shirt. It fits my personality because I'm more of a casual guy. Let's just have a conversation. So it's a t shirt that is a bright yellow, neon yellow. So then became popular. People like it. So everything became neon yellow. So my microphone cover, my Yeti mug, I just ordered a collapsible water bottle, so when I'm hiking, because the one I had was blue, I was like, I need a yellow one. You need a yellow one. And it's all a tax write off anyway. So why not? Right. I asked my mom for Christmas for a neon yellow colored robe. She's like, where would I find it? I'm like, I have no idea. I don't know if it exists. And she bought one in the UK and had it shipped over. So I have a, it's more on the greenish side, but it's close enough and it's fun. Do you have neon shoes? I do. I used to wear neon yellow shoes every day back in the day. Currently have three pairs of those. And one of my friends Dave Garcia likes to make fun of me that I'm just a construction worker and it's true. The color is very similar. I like the jokes. Because we'll get into the networking. It's memorable and the construction worker color actually makes it easier for me to find stuff. I shop in the construction worker and the little kids section. Those are the two places that I find my color. I love it. That is so much fun. Let's kind of talk about branding for a little bit. Cause not, I don't, a lot of my guests I have on don't necessarily have like a big brand or anything like that. You know, how did you decide to start doing the brand and how has that helped you? Well, I started out with a Fiverr brand. So I went to the fiverr. com. I think I paid 10 and got a logo. I liked it and I was, it was fast solutions for homes. That was my brand name. It had like this little like almost tornado looking thing with a house on top and I was proud of it. And then a mastermind one day, one of my friends, Peter's like. Adrian, your brand sucks. Huh? That was her. And he's like this t shirt you're wearing. Now my, this is my, let me clear some things up for the listeners. What the t shirt I'm wearing is lifestyle REI. That is my education brand. But the very first brand of the yellow shirt was my buying brand when I buy the mobile home. And that shirt says my wife buys mobile homes. And he's like, This shirt you're wearing is great. That thing, that card, he's like, it sucks. It looks like you got it from Fiverr. oof, I did. So anyways, they challenged me in the room to get rid of that brand and go with a t shirt. And if I'm gonna be honest here, I will said okay, only to prove them wrong. That the fiber brand was better. Well, I won because they were right. And I got a better brand. I didn't really have a losing way there, but I didn't care about branding. That's what they were telling me. You got a brand. I was like, I don't care about branding. I just want to buy mobile homes. That's all I care about. I want to buy them all. Well, the very longterm now I'm reaping the rewards. Of kind of building this brand on the side while I bought mobile homes And now years later Anytime people see a neon yellow something a car shoes A guy running shirtless. They take a picture and send it to me So I get pictures from all over the country actually all over the world of neon yellow stuff because i've done What coca cola? nike all these big brands, they've trained us. They don't have words next to them, their logos anymore. They just have their logo. Look at AT& T. I think it's been a decade since they had the words AT& T. It's a globe where they've trained us that that's their brand. So that's what I've done by mistake. I'm not going to say I'm as genius as them, but I understand why it worked because I've studied what they've done. Let's talk about the Speedo. I should have grabbed it. I could have put it on for you. Ah, man. Actually, I'm really happy that you didn't. Thank you. Let's talk about how, how did you come up with that idea? And, and tell me the story. Just explain to my guests what the Speedo is. All right. So I have it's not quite neon yellow, but it's the most yellow Speedo I could find. And the front side has a trailer on it because I buy trailers, mobile homes. And the backside says. My wife buys mobile homes right on the butt right there. Yeah. Why would I need that? I mean, how many mobile homes do you think I bought off of this speedo? Zero. But I like to be branding at all times. I learned that consistency is key. You have to Omni presence, you know, all these different things that we learn and we hear. And I was like, all right, well, I gotta go. Well, in Florida, we can swim like most of the year. I like to go scalping and I like to swim, but I don't want to be wearing my shirt, but I got a brand all the time. Well, what do I do? So I made the Speedo. And I had already worn Speedos beforehand, so it wasn't, I'd say, the fear of wearing a Speedo, but it was like, man, it's a real estate world. Are they going to be okay with it? My friends are. My family is. But so it was difficult for me to do it at first. I will tell you now it's memorable and you just proved it was memorable. You didn't want to know about my past. You want to know about the Speedo. See, you never forget that. Well, and I didn't, so your meetup that you did was one meetup before the first time I went to Knoxville's Best. So people were like still kind of talking about you and they were like, they said that there was somebody that came on that was wearing a Speedo that says my wife buys mobile homes and it may have been David Olds too that said something about it. Do you know David Olds? I think, I think David Olds may have talked about it too. I'm pretty sure he did, but some way, shape or form I heard about it. And I, that net that just never gets out of your head. If you like it or not, it never leaves your head. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I may have even watched something that you did and, you know. Saw it and it just, you never forget. I forgot you apparently, but I did not forget that. And again, I'm going to say it again. That is exactly why that marketing works because we can, we blur with all the rest of the marketing, but the speedo is different. It breaks the norm. Even if you hate it, you still remember it. And then what else I've learned about the marketing, and I didn't know this going into it, but I understand now. The, my wife buys at that time. I knew that women are better for marketing who doesn't want to talk to a girl over a guy. Everyone does. And we can go into the psychology of why that's true, but it's true. So I knew my wife is better and then being a third party person. So now it's not so much me. The question I always get is she involved in the business? She used to be behind the scenes. It's not her favorite thing. So now she just likes the bank account more than being involved in it, but it freed her up to do what she loves as a travel nurse. And so the, my wife, it's fits my personality. I can't say that enough. If wearing a Speedo doesn't fit your personality, don't do it. If it's wearing a nice suit and that fits you, do it. If you put me in a suit, I would, I would not have the energy I have right now. I'd feel a little more stiff. So we got to do it fits our personality because then it's fun and then we repeat doing it. We don't resent it. Yeah. If not, we get drained. Yeah, we resent it. It just doesn't work. And then if you're not doing it, it doesn't matter what the marketing is. It won't work. Right. Very cool. I love that. And I think branding is a part of, you know, it can be very helpful in networking as well. I mean, you kind of alluded to it earlier. You, you have people sending you pictures that you met probably one time. They got your contact info and they're like, Oh, I remember that guy just because they see something. So that, you know, if you brand yourself, people won't forget you as easily. And that's kind of what it's all about. You don't want to be forgotten. Yeah. I'll give you an example of that. Before I had the bright yellow neon shirt and I would go to the real estate meetings, the Rias, when I would go to one that I knew people were going to be dressed up, you know, wearing colored shirts and everything. I wear my Ninja Turtle shirt and that's because I actually like Ninja Turtles. My mom gives me a new Ninja Turtle shirt every year for my birthday. Doesn't matter that I'm 40. I get Ninja Turtle stuff because I like it. Now I went to the meeting that I knew they were going to be holding the pants and maybe sandals and like they dress down. I'd wear a collared shirt because in both of those scenarios I stand out. I don't have to have a certain brand on my shirt. I stood out of the crowd and now I'm the different person. And now I'm very good at going and approaching people when I'm at the meetings. But I used to be more shy and that was not in my comfort zone to go out. So I needed people to come talk to me. And that was another reason for the shirt. I wanted people to approach me because I was too shy to go out and I've built my confidence up that now I can go and talk to anyone. Right. Very cool. So let's roll into the networking part since you know, that's, I want to really dive into it because, because of your experiences. So tell me about your beginnings. You know, what did, what did your day look like when you were first starting to get into real estate? I really didn't get into the networking side until about 10 to 11 years into real estate. Okay. I was a hobby landlord. I didn't even know there was a meeting that existed. So I just was in the shadows. Got invited on Facebook back when like those event things were brand new. Everyone now is probably like, they didn't always exist. A long time ago, you needed there was a brand new thing and somebody invited me over and over and over again. She was persistent. And eventually one night I said, I'm just going to go. And that's when I fell in love with them. I was literally going to four to eight a week, every single week. Now I'm spoiled in the Tampa area because we've got that many, most markets do not have that many, but I was what I was like you driving two hours. If there was a good speaker or there was, I would drive there and I'd go. And I went to learn and I started meeting people and people started realizing that I was serious because we get people that come to these meetings one time, two times, by March they're done. Maybe they show up another time, but they're not consistent. Well, just by going every single meeting. I was proving that I'm serious and determined that I'm going to make it. Obviously you start talking to people and then you make friends and then you can start doing deals. But that consistent show up and I was learning obviously the whole time too. She was working. My wife, Erin was working overnight at the time. So if she was working, I was like, well, I'm not going to be at home. So I would go to a meeting, I didn't care how far it added to it, I would go to the meetings and learn, take notes, meet people, and I would follow up. So I actually ask for business cards, still, I'm old, old school, I'm 40, but I like a physical business card. I'm not resisting, so I'm going over the digital world, but no matter how you get it, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I have one, I just forget to use it. But what I do, it doesn't matter how you get the contact information, I actually follow up the person. I send him an email. I like email, so I email, but it can be a text message, email, Facebook, Slack, I don't care what it is. Send him a message. And what I do is I send him a message, something about what we talked about. Let's say that we were at a networking meeting right now. You know, I'd send you a message tomorrow. Hey, it was great to meet you at that event last night. I hope you learned as much as I did. Hey, how was that mansion you went? I'd love to throw. It wasn't a copy and paste. I threw something in from our conversation so that you knew that you meant something to me. It wasn't a copy and paste. I just threw it out to everyone. I want to know that I, you, I want you to know that I actually listened to you. Because I do, I want to do that. That's awesome. And I, I love the cards too. I, I, I need to get real estate cards'cause I just hand people my food tour business card, And it is a memorable thing too, because I'm, they're like, food tour, what is that? I'm like, oh, this is the other business that I run outside of real estate. So maybe it's kind of a strategy that I use, but mainly it's just because I don't have my own real estate cards. But whenever I get a card, I remember that person based off of the details of their card. Cause I grabbed the card and I look at it and I'll say like, Oh, that's interesting that your logo looks like that or something like that. And then I'll look back up at the person and you correlate that card with their face. At least I do. Yep. The Dale Carnegie method. I think that's where, that's where I learned it from. So yeah, that's exactly why I struggled with the digital because of the person doesn't have their face there, or it's just a QR code. I literally went to an event that they didn't allow cards. They wanted all digital. And all it was was a contact. It had no faces. I couldn't follow up and tell anyone. All I could say is, I hope you enjoyed the event. I didn't know who they were because I couldn't link it in my mind. It was, it was difficult for me. That's the, so I use Popple as my digital business card, which is actually a great, great topic for my podcast because my listeners, I need to get this. I'm like a sponsor for them, but I never actually plug it. So I need to put the code in the description or something like that. But with Popple, you're, you put a, like a picture of you. And so as soon as you scan the code or tap the code on the back of my phone, it automatically shows a picture of me. And just like Facebook, it has a background. So the background is Art of Connecting Podcasts. It's my logo. And then it has all of your social medias and everything. Now, when someone clicks on save my contact, not only does it save it in their phone, but as soon as you click done, it takes them to put their contact information into it. And then that sends their contact information to me. So, and then it sends out next day reminders for you to follow up. It'll say, did you follow up with Adrian? Did you follow up with this person? Did you follow up with this person? So that's really helpful for me to have that follow up reminder A, but also, and then in the Popple app, I can just click add contact. And it just instantly adds all the information that they put in. So I have their email, their phone number, and their name. This is perfect. I'm the old school guy. All I did is I would leave my business cards I collected on my desk and they would get in the way. So this is a perfect digital, makes it, makes so much sense. It makes it easy. I gotta say, I have about 200 business cards in a stack. There's actually. A stack in my, in my bag, but you know, not, not every business card is useful at the moment. Right? Like there's not always at the moment, at the moment. So that's something else I learned. I did. I saved everyone. Oh yeah. I'm showing him my giant stack of business cards that I have here. This is the, this is the collection. You're going to be a longterm, you're a longterm thinking guy, which means in the next few years, there's a good chance that someone that's in that stack that you thought I'll never need that person. You'll, somebody will ask for that referral and you're like, Oh yeah, let me go find, or the food tour someone in the next few years in your market that you met is going to have someone say that they would wish this thing existed and they can say, Oh yeah, I know a guy actually. Well, and you know, just looking through these cards here. So if I ever need an attorney, I've got an attorney's personal card with the cell phone number on it at a good firm in town. You know, I've got a guy that runs a home solutions. So, I mean, I'm sure they're, they buy homes or something like that. You know, it's just all of these cards. I look at them and I think about, I remember exactly where I met these people. I met this lady at a real estate meetup at Goodfellas Pizzeria down and I remember it because I was like, what a weird card It's called, I'll just shout her out because maybe people will look her up It's the we of me flips and it's got a picture of an old beat up house and then a house that's fixed up And I just remember meeting her and she has her picture on the back of it and I remember meeting this lady She actually had a kid with her and I remember that just because of this card. Now if you said The we have me flips LLC. I would have no idea what you're talking about, what company it is, but since I have this card in my hand, I'm like, Oh, I remember meeting this lady. So getting cards, I guess this is kind of like a long winded thing, but I think cards can be incredibly helpful for you and digital cards as well, but especially physical and collecting them can help too, because you never know when you're going to need your stack of business cards. And I love that she was there. She didn't use the excuse. Oh, I don't have someone to watch my kid. She didn't use that as an excuse, and that was another memorable piece for you. Now, her kid was there when he or she made a Lassie impression just because they're there that young, maybe learning something or doing. They're there. They're well behaved. They weren't just, well, they're screaming. They're going to be memorable as well. Yeah, I mean, either way, it's I mean, not too many people bring their kids to a real estate meetup. So, I mean, that, that actually can be a piece of memorable, hopefully in the good way, not the bad way. I think these kids were well behaved, if I remember right. I mean, this was this is another thing, this was like, probably a year ago that this meeting was. Well, if they were misbehaved, you would have remembered. Yeah. Everyone remembers the kid on the plane that's crying the whole time. We don't remember the ones that were well behaved. That's right. Yeah, no, I think it's just... It's, I look at these cards and I, I personally, I think it's so cool to really think about how I had the pleasure of meeting all of these people and you know, and it's maybe a gift that I remember what a lot of these people do and you know, where we met and all that kind of stuff. But really, if you just start doing it more and more, you just, you really start collecting cards and you just start collecting resources to be able to solve problems. That's exactly it and I've had people tell me, well, I already have enough contractors. Unfortunately, there's gonna be a day that the contractor is sick, already over busy, moved. We don't know. It can never hurt. You know, I have some title companies that have been after me for years and I've even felt bad going to their lunch and learns over and over and they've even bought me stuff and like, you know, I'm very happy where I'm at. She's like, I'm not trying to win your business right now. But when that day comes, I want you to already know me and I'm your plan B. Just put me as your plan B. Just give me a call on the day that you need me. I hear this. This is one of my arguments that make people have Airbnbs long distance. I'm not a huge fan of that strategy. I think that's incredibly risky, but I mean, to each their own, you can do whatever you want with your money. But, you know, I'll ask, I was at a meetup two weeks ago, I guess. And I asked how someone manages their Airbnb in Florida from here. And they're like, well, I have a cleaner and a backup cleaner. Well, I know my buddy, Travis, he's got a cleaner and backup cleaner. He's been up cleaning his Airbnb the last few weeks because his cleaner and his backup cleaner went kaput. So it's like, how, you know, what do you do in the situation when your backup to your backup isn't, doesn't show up? What do you do then? And so I can't agree more to have as many contingencies and backup plans as you can. And that's only allowed by knowing people. And if you network enough, you're at the meetings on a regular basis, now when you call someone at the meeting and say, look, my backup and my backup and my backup are all out, that time's going to happen one day if you're in business long enough. You can just call people or put it in the Facebook group and say, Hey, I really need that cleaner. Does anyone know of someone and they, everyone wants to help, but they're going to help a little bit more for their buddy Hayden, not just some random guy in the group showed up. They don't know where the person's really at. Well, and I know I, I mean, I'm more helpful to people when I'm close to them. I know, like whenever I see some random posting in the group, I'm like, Oh, maybe I'll give some free assistance, but I'm not going to go and jump through hoops to try and You know, educate someone that I don't even know that they're going to listen to me, I guess. And I always try my best, you know, it's kind of not a good mindset to have of like, Oh, I'm only going to help people that I know. But it definitely is. It's a subconscious thing, right? It's a recency bias. You want to help people that you're familiar with. Yeah, it's your community. And, and to add to that, you don't want to get burned out, right? You know, there's a lot of people that are never going to do anything. There's a lot of people are just asking for free stuff. And unfortunately, if you help every single person, you don't have enough time, but also you're just getting burned out because you don't see the success afterwards. And I had to start limiting that because I was starting to get burned out. It's like, I love helping. I don't want to ever get burned out of this. Yeah, that's such a great point because I have to guard my calendar now, you know, cause it's, I mean, I was showing a mentor that I was having lunch with today. I was like, look at my calendar. Like this is just insane. There's not enough little gray spaces to fill with all the things that I need to do. And you know, that's great that I am afforded a life that I'm So busy and I mean like right now we're just having a conversation and this is like part of my work, right? however if you just If you aren't careful and you just fill all those spaces and you don't give yourself your own time to actually be relaxed and to read, to self educate, you just get burnt and toasted. And I've been there. And I want to touch on that. That's. More important for the introverts. It's important for everyone. Everyone has their amount of recharge time they need because that goes back to the networking we were talking about. So introverts, if you're extreme introvert, everything that we've basically talked about with a speedo and a bright yellow, it probably scared you. Yeah. And even going to these meetings, that many meetings a week. What works for you? You might need to take a nap beforehand or whatever it is to recharge, get your alone time. And that's why that fitting your personality is so important. I actually an introvert and I even fought the guy a little bit that told me I was, I'm big into personality tests and everything. And I was like, wait a second, this is a really smart guy. I respect, let me hear what he says. And he put, he said, if it's like a spectrum from introvert to extrovert, you're right on the introvert side. You can move over to be extrovert. I thought about some more. So the real definition of how we know which side we are is how we recharge. And I really studied that more on myself when I'm at a week long event, if I'm never alone, I am drained at the end. I don't want to be around people and I'm just drained, but if I can get my morning time, a few hours in the morning, maybe an hour in the morning, hour in the evening, and just alone in my recharge, I can make it all week and still have energy. And then I have also found for me, nature's a big recharge. Now my wife, she needs more than just an hour and morning, hour and afternoon. She needs way more to even make it through three days. She's a much more of an introvert. She's much. I think I was going this direction, whatever direction it was. She's much more of an introvert and there's nothing wrong with that. Introverts from what I have read actually are better networkers. Because they care a little bit more. The extreme extrovert, we've all seen them at the meeting, they just go around, interrupt our conversation right now, hand us both a card, and walk off. Everyone's met that guy or girl once, and people look at each other a little weird, like, what just happened? Who? Oh, okay. A roofer. Well, alright, I'm probably not gonna call that guy or girl. Yeah, I've, I've been in the middle, like, middle of a great conversation with someone and someone just butts in and starts talking about no one but themself. I'm like, what? I just, I just want to get back to the conversation with the person I was having. And exactly that, you look at each other as soon as that person walks away like, what the hell is this guy think he is? And he's gonna brag that he got everyone's card there and you only got three people's cards. I'd rather have three people's cards that I remember who they are, than 20 people's cards who don't know who I am and I don't know who they are. Exactly. And I have learned that through my own journey, and then I've studied enough of it that that is extremely true. I think that goes back to consistency too, because if you just meet three people at every networking event you go to, Eventually you're going to be able, you're going to walk in, like when I walk in a room now, it's pretty normal for me to know 10, 15 people, to have a good connection with them, and they know who I am and what I do. So then I can say hi to those people, and then I can go and say, hey, I'm going to go and meet some new people today. And so that way, instead of just trying to meet everybody all at once, it's a slow burn kind of thing, you know, you just got to keep going back and especially build relationships with those people that are there every, you know, every month or every week or whatever the meeting is, that is how you create good connections with people is, you know, really digging down, just meeting, focusing on meeting three or four people in the two hours that you have. And then, you know, from there, Cultivating those relationships. So then you can add new ones in. I couldn't agree with that. Yeah. I mean, I used to literally, one of my tracking items I used to have was I number of offers I make that's always there, but it used to also be, I was tracking that and how many new people I met. So right now I'm actually focused a little bit more on realtors in my area. So that trackable items. How many new realtors did I meet out there? And it's, I just got bought a list of emails. So I got 2000 emails. I didn't count any of those because we haven't had a conversation yet. Right. I got their information, but until I can actually have a conversation with them, even if it's only emails, now they're counted and. You mentioned like, all right, you go and you meet two or three people, then you meet four people. Let's say you have 10 people, you know, you've been there a few months, you know, 10 solid people that are there. You walk in, you say hello to them. Those are the core of the group. It doesn't, I don't know, maybe there's five, maybe it's 10, maybe it's 20, but every group has a core number of people that are there regularly. They've been there longer than you've been going. Sometimes they're there more than the host has been there. That core is your credibility now, because now when you go and talk to someone that's only been there a few meetings, well, you know, so and so that gets called out at me that, you know, is one of the regulars, you get instant credibility with that. Yes. And I've learned that not by studying it, just by doing it. And I was like, oh, well, that, oh, that's cool that that just happened. One time I was at, at a networking meeting. And here in Chattanooga, and this is when it really hit me. And I've been doing my podcast probably at about, this is probably about 10 episodes. So I've got 21 now out. And someone walked up and said, someone walked up to me and they're, they introduced me to someone else. And they're like. This is Hayden. He's someone that you need to know. And I was like, wait, what? Like, and the funny part was I barely knew the person that was introducing me as the person who this other person needed to know, and that was kind of like and it didn't really hit me until I like got home that night. I was like, did that really happen? Like. Someone walked up to me who I know very little, like, I mean, we've, we probably connected twice and they were saying that I was the person that they need to know and that I was going places and doing things and that I was going to be able to help them much less the age difference. I'm 22 and this person was 45. So the credibility that you can build just by showing up is pretty incredible. I mean it's insane. I'll bring it a step further and I'll get a little on the woo woo side for some people is it's the genuine wanting to help as well. So you show up and then not for yourself. Yes, we're in business. So there is a business aspect, but not putting your business only first, truly show up to help. And the woo side of that is I believe that people can feel that there's an energy that's different. If you were there to truly learn about you. And help. That's how we were connected. That's one reason I stay active in the best real estate networking, Knoxville. I can never remember the exact order. Knoxville's best. Yeah. I'm dyslexic, so I switch it all around. I got just the right words there. Richard will forgive you, I'm sure. But Richard, when him and I met. And then I spoke there and I met everyone there. I couldn't leave until like 1. 30 in the morning because I kept talking to people. I liked it because people were truly there to help each other. And I love that. So then I got into the Facebook group and I was like, this is a good group of people. I'm attracted to that. I believe that you can feel that energy as being portrayed when people are genuinely there to help. And I think that's probably one of the reasons this guy just introduced you, didn't know you really well, he felt that you were jingling. Yeah, well, and my goal is always, anytime I meet someone, to see if I can plug them into someone else. Like, if I, let's just pull a card out here of my stack. So if I met, when I met Chip, so this guy's a he's a politician in town, but he also owns a business, you know, I met him and I wanted to learn about his business to see who his ideal client is, you know, if I meet someone that is a good client for Chip, if I can find out that he's a good person and runs a good business, then I won't afford him business, you know, because For me, that's super helpful, not only for Chip, but it's also helpful for me because I'm able to solve someone else's problem, too, on top of that. But the big point, you know, you have to really think, too, when you're doing that, though, is like, if it's someone that you've just met, I would advise to be cautious at first before you send someone business. Make sure you get to know them a little bit, maybe take them out to coffee or lunch or dinner or whatever. But once you do know that someone's the real deal, you know, you can, you can tell pretty quickly usually you know, once you know someone's a real deal, then sending that person a connection to be able to help solve one of their problems and that's just been, it's so fulfilling for me. Like, I would rather make no money and help three people get connected to who they need to be connected to than to make money. And that might be part of the reason why I'm kind of broke, but I would rather do that. Like, it's, it's fine. I don't care that I'm kind of broke, because it's fun. So the Business Networking International, it's a paid group you have to be in, but the slogan is Giver's Game. We got rated on how many referrals we gave out. So every week we'd have to go around the room and say what you're looking for, what, who a good referral would be. And then your job for the rest of the week would be to connect everyone in the room with someone else that you met. And I love the philosophy. I love the education of it. You can't, I'll give the system as another, I don't know who I learned that from, but. I'm consistently, like you said, we're just trying to give, and if you stay with it long enough, it'll work. You won't be always broke as you're calling it. Because you, you're going to keep giving and you can't outgive the system. It'll keep coming back every time now. I'll get back to the woo woo. I give a lot, you know, I have a, I've manifested money because if I donate to something that means something to one of my friends, a charity of some sort, it's pretty common that three fold somehow money comes to me that I didn't expect. Well, I think too, like for me, when I just focus on Giving as much as possible like whether it's monetarily or really my main way of giving is in connections You know because monetarily I'm not quite there yet to be you know I besides tithing like I I'm working towards being a more charitable person but Even just giving out connections, right? Like it seemed, it's just every time that there's a need it gets, it ends up getting filled. And you know, I'm a Christian myself. So, I mean that's part of my belief system is, you know, when, when you really focus on giving other people what they need, the Lord takes care of you. But that, I think that, you know, if you focus too much on giving too much, you're not, it's not gonna go too well for you, most likely. At least that's not, that's what I've seen with other people. So that, that makes me think of a time I went and spoke at a a self directed IRA company, Advanta IRA. So it's where you can invest in real estate through your retirement fund. And it was new in my speaking world. And my coach said, give it all. Now this was in my backyard. I was like, well, people are going to copy me. I'm not going to get as much business. He's like, give it all, hold anything back, just give. And I did that. And that meaning and every time since I get people to approach me, well, I get all of this mobile home stuff. Do you just want some money to invest? I'm like, well, no, I'm just here to teach you about doing it yourself. Like, yeah, I know. I get all that. I don't want to do the work, but I have some money. You just take some money. It's like, huh? That blew my mind. And that, that happens. Yes, I do. You can go the negative route. It's yeah, I'm teaching my competitors. I don't get as many leads as easy, but I'm still helping people. And I still get people that say, you know, I want a JV, or I just hear some money or you know what, you're the real deal buyer as other person's going to pay a little bit more, but I don't have confidence they're going to close now. I want to do this like, and some just don't come to me at all. I have found, I just give. But that's the non money thing. I just give education, and I'm more, I guess, trusted. I don't really know exactly what it is, but it has helped me and I feel better about it. I don't feel dirty after that meeting either. Well, it's a credibility builder, right? That's true. You think about that's the reason why I do my podcasts, right? I do my podcasts because I want to give. I want people to be able to experience the things that I have because of what... Connecting people has afforded me life wise, but also just life, business, everything. So that's why I started, but also I started because I wanted to build credibility. I wanted to be a person that could be the authority on the subject and by educating other people, it tells. Others that you know what you're talking about, right? And if they listen to your education, they actually get something out of it. Clearly, you know what you're talking about. Now, somebody rated my podcast two stars out of five. I saw that on Spotify that I dropped from five to 4. 7. And I'm like, Hmm, I don't know who that is or what's going on. But I don't know where I was going with that. I'm just being petty. Well, no, hey, I remember, I don't know who it was. I'm like. You've made it when you have some haters. Grant Cardone said if you can get half the country to hate you, then you can be the president. That's, that's what I was thinking it was Grant Cardone. And I like a few of his things. I don't like his overworked world, but my omnipresence and, and some of that. And I'll tell you, when I got my first non five star review for my book, it hurt. But I was like, you know what? Sweet. And if you go and read, there's very few comments. With the non five star reviews, I think there's one or two, and those comments, almost all the five star are saying the exact opposite. Hmm. So like 4.7, 4.9, probably. Now it's legit. Now I didn't pay for all my reviews. People look at it a little more legit, and I read somewhere that something that's 4.5 to 4.9 looks and feels more legit to people than a five star, only because nothing's perfect. Right reality. Nothing's perfect. So now those are legit reviewers. I love it. This is therapy for Hayden cuz I It really and I love that about Spotify I can't tell who did it and I it's honestly I think a good thing that I Don't know Maybe they're listening to this right now and they're gonna go and change it from two to one star I don't know But yeah, you know that I I think though that's a great point You if you always are hearing only good things There probably is something wrong too because we all have our flaws in and I think for me I I do wish I could see the comments and know like what it was so I could improve it But I'll never know I can only just do my best But yeah, and you know, it couldn't be nothing that you need to approve on it could be that You're not the person for them. And that was hard for me in the education world. Cause I didn't want any of the negative stuff, especially when you're starting like real vulnerable. Then, and I had to get through my head and learn that I can't teach everyone. We talked about the network in the marketing. I'm the bright yellow guy. I'm the guy next door. If you want someone that's really formal, I'm not the guy for you. And that was really hard for me. It's part of your brand. It's part of your identity. Yeah, I think that's a great point, and if someone's listening to this and you're starting your journey of educating people, you know, if you've honed in on something, you're like, even if you're not an expert at it, I think you should still try and educate people. Because Brian was just talking about this on his Action Academy podcast. He was talking about, it's easier to teach a person that's one or two steps behind you than ten steps behind you. Yes, yes, yes. So, if you just, if you are two steps ahead of where you, you know, you know someone else is, you can still teach them, and you are a better person to teach them than the person who's ten steps ahead because they're thinking so high level, they're thinking about, like, right now, I mean, like, how many mobile homes do you have? We have about 30. You have 30. So it's, it's going to be a lot more difficult, I would think, for you to relate to someone that has just zero and helping them get to their first rather than someone who has two and has just gone through the new process because the banks are always changing things and they're always doing things differently for different sizes of investors. So just get started. Yeah. I learned all that the hard way too, of going through the emotional rollercoaster. So I think of myself in that manner. It's I'm a stepping stone in the education world for some of my mentors. And so some people here, Pete Fortunato is one of my mentors. He's one of the most successful, brilliant minded investors, but some of my mentors have been going to his classes for 40 years, still only know about 75 percent because he thinks at a different level in a different way than most humans. And it's so brilliant. Well, you go there the first time and you're lost. I mean, you just, your head hurts. You literally can't, I don't know anyone that has gone there the first time and actually been able to do much with it because it's such a different way to think and it's so brilliant. Well, now I am a simpler version of that. I'm not even trying to compare myself. I'm a stepping stone. Come in, learn this. And he's not the mobile home space, but we'll say it's the creative world space. I'm a stepping stone. All right, come in, learn some of this. We're going to teach something. Now you understand another, the next baseline up. Well, now maybe you're ready to go and learn from him, or maybe you take a few more. So that has fulfilled me because I get more people to him that he's one of our national treasures in the real estate world. And I mean, he's. I think early seventies, you know, hopefully he's here for another 30 years, but you know, it is life. I was just talking to my one of my business partners and he was like, you need to go to Pete Fortunato's classes. You don't know how much longer you're going to be able to go to the class. And I was another lady I was having lunch with today. She's she's been to his class several times as well. So I, that name, he's popping up and I'm like, I need to go. Just like Bill Cook. I tried calling the other day and he didn't answer his phone. I'm going to yeah, for real, you do need to go to Pete and Bill's going to tell you the same thing. He's a national treasure. He's worth coming down to a Tampa area for a, he's got class every year, but he's one of the most giving. Investors, people like, I hope when I'm in his situations and some bad stuff happen, I hope I do what he would do. He's one of the most kind hearted people I've ever met. He's literally moved into people's houses to help them get through some financial struggles in their lives. Like, that is a committed move to help people out. And he's just, he's always, I think if everyone thought like him. We wouldn't need laws. I'm that serious. He's such a There's a right way to do things and I don't do it any other way. He always goes to try to help. And he's very successful. Let's swing it back to this networking that we were all talking about. Look how much I'm talking about him because of how much he's tried to help. He does help. He's got paid classes. He's got non paid. He, he's a good guy out there helping on exactly what he does. He's not teaching stuff. He doesn't do. He connects people. He sends people to me, which was a huge shock. One of my mentors gave someone my number because he doesn't do much in the mobile home space. He's not going to fake it. He's connecting people and then I'm talking about him and raving about him because of the type of person he is. Yeah, that's amazing. So we're, well, some of you before we started the episode, I was like, we might go now we're, we're, we're coming up on our time. I want to go and ask you this question and it's kind of goes back to what I alluded to before we started recording. But I'll boil it down just for time sake. So can you name me like a time that you can think of off the top of your head? And I'm sure there's. several different ones you can think of with this, but a time that you connected with someone that changed your trajectory, changed your life, changed your business some way, shape or form like that, maybe you know, at a meetup or a connection that someone else gave you. What comes to mind and probably'cause we just started talking about them, but I'm gonna go back to that. Bill Cook, the Peter Fordo. When I got to the non-bank world of real estate, the old school, sit down and talk to people like not on the phone, not skip tracing everything. Yes, I talk over them, but getting there and actually solving a problem, asking them, why would you sell a nice home like this? And honestly, when I go to, to on an appointment, Talking about everything but the home, the pictures on the wall. Oh, you went to Hawaii. I want to go there Actually being caring about that. So who is that? I can't remember exactly who got me that direction. I know it was at a meetup. I know it took a little bit of time because I kept trying all the different meetups and then stuck with the ones that fit my personality. And that's what fits me. Is I like that method because I get to help people, human beings. I know their story. Sometimes they throw barbecue and they buy me lunch and I can't even, I have a one guy we bought a property from and he's moving he moved to South Carolina and I told him, Hey, when I'm passing through, I want barbecue because this guy was a professional barbecuer. He had a cell, he had probably 15 or 20 barbecues there. And he, he said, yeah, anytime I'm passing through. So now I get barbecue from, you know, national barbecuer. Heck yeah. Yeah, I think we really are missing that aspect. In life today. And I'm guilty of it. Like in, in our whole selling business, we do text message marketing. So we're blasting out, you know, thousands of text messages a month and you, you kind of lose that personal touch. But I, as soon as I get someone on the, you know, text message marketing, I want to go meet, I call them. I don't continue the texts. I always call them and say, Hey, when can I come out and look at the house? Yeah. Because. And you just, you cannot beat that face to face, looking someone in the eye, looking at the environment around you and you know, just leaning on your human intuition and being a human, I think humanity is so valuable. Yep. I couldn't agree more. Awesome, man. Well, if people want to reach you, where should they reach you? And then also, can you plug your book or... Education, whatever you want to tell people about. The easiest way to get everything is just go to Adrian S 360. The number is 360. com and that has links there to my book, how to buy mobile homes. If you get physical copy, that's going to be through Amazon because I don't know how to do all the work to ship them out. It's on Spotify. It's on my website, lifestyle dash RAI, but all of that is in that website. Adrian s three 60. com. My course is by social media to connect there. For my buying side and my education side. And that's important because how do I create my buying website and my buying social media? I took other people's that I liked and I made it my own. So I get ideas from other people. So I'm basically telling you to copy my stuff. If you're going to copy identical, please leave my phone number on it. Obviously you're, you're changing it for your personality fit, but you see stuff in it and it works. So I'm a text. I don't pick up the phone very well because of that calendar issue we talked about. And I just don't let my phone ring at all time. Reach out to me. If I can help you in any way, please let me know. That's awesome. Well, if you guys got value out of this, please leave a five star review. If 10 of you guys leave a five star review, you can basically undo that person that left me two stars. That helps me out a lot. Also Adrian, I want to have you back on in a few months and maybe talk more about Creating connections inside the buying world of real estate. Like maybe walk, walking us through like a, how a tour with the house goes and that conversation. I think that would be a really, really cool episode for people to hear. Like that, how, how to apply this to not only networking, but also if you want to purchase homes and real estate and stuff like that, I think that would be a cool episode. So well, you guys stay tuned. We're going to have Adrian back on at some point and have that conversation as well. Let's do it, man. If you have a podcast, Adrian likes to be on podcasts, but he doesn't want to edit himself. So there you go. All right, man. Well, thank you so much for coming on and thank you for listening to our connecting. We'll see you on the next episode.