In this interview segment, Shark Tank original Kevin Harrington sits down with real‑estate coach and direct lender Toby Potter, known as the “Unshakable Investor.” Toby recounts his entry into real estate in 1994, building a RE/MAX franchise, a title company, and a fix‑and‑flip empire before losing it all in the 2008 financial crash. He rebuilt by launching an exclusive hard‑money lending operation in 2015, which survived another disruption during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Drawing on those experiences, Toby has created a 90‑day, hands‑on coaching program that not only teaches investors how to evaluate and execute deals but also offers direct financing when traditional banks decline borrowers. Kevin frames the conversation around the need for mentorship, emphasizing that Toby’s model combines education, mentorship, partnership, and capital to reduce the guesswork that often leads new investors into costly mistakes.
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Real estate is a path many want to take, but it can be challenging. Many make mistakes, but there are those lessons to be learned from. Definitely learning from the experts. Well, many people operate on guesswork, and that can lead to disaster. In this week's Get Down to Business Shark Tank original, Kevin Harrington shares an idea for mentoring, coaching, and guiding in the real estate process. He introduced introduce us, us to somebody who's called the unshakable investor, so you never have to operate blind.
Hi, I'm Kevin Harrington. I'm an original shark from the hit TV show Shark Tank, and today I'm here with Toby Potter, and he's called the unshakable investor, and you're going to see why, because he's done some awesome things in the real estate world. He's a real estate coach. He's also a direct lender. And, you know, on that note, Toby, how long, good to see you, by the way.
Good to see you again, buddy.
Thanks for being here. I wanna know, as part of your program, you not only lend money, but some people, they need a little help, they need advice, they need some coaching. And I guess, I mean, you have this real estate coaching program. It's a pretty exclusive program. It's a 90-day program that you now teach. You've launched this, and let's talk about that.
So yeah, so let's go back a little bit A little bit, so you're right, started in '94, as we all know, had the big crash of 2008, so we'd built an empire through that, was doing real estate, had a RE/MAX franchise, had a title company, was doing fix and flips and all that, lost all that through the crash, and then had to rebuild, started another company in 2015, was building it for exclusive hard money lending.
Gotcha.
People looking to buy real estate, dilapidated, wanna fix it up, resell it, turned into rentals or rent, uh, sell it out. Then we had COVID hit and another debacle who shut down that industry.
Wow.
And so from all those pitfalls and disruptions, we were able to rebound and build bigger.
That's awesome.
I felt, you know what, there is so many people out there trying to get into real estate and investing that I want to share how we were able to achieve that. And so we created this course that says, I've been there, done that, and I'm gonna walk you through it, I'm gonna hold your hand, I'm gonna mentor, coach, partner if need be, but I'm also going to lend my money on the deal. So we take it so many more steps deeper than any other program out there.
[Speaker] People go to banks today and banks are cut and dry, many people aren't able to get the loans. You are a direct lender that will actually, if someone didn't get approved, you might be able to provide them that financing, but then you also teach them in the process because if it's your money, You want to make sure they're knowledgeable people, right?
Right, right.
That's pretty important.
If we're going to put our money into it, we're going to ensure that it has success. Yeah, we're not going to put money into something that has potential to fail. So we're going to mentor, coach, and guide you as to why this deal works or this deal doesn't work, right? And if it does work, then we're going to put our money into it to help support, make sure that thing comes through
