Kevin Harrington interviews Toby Potter, a real estate coach and direct lender who lost everything in 2008 and rebuilt by starting a hard-money lending firm in 2015. Potter's 90-day coaching program combines mentorship, partnership, and direct financing, with Potter putting his own money into each deal to ensure he's invested in his students' success.
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 introduces 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 gonna 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 thing. 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. 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, dated, want to fix it up, resell it, turn into rentals, or rent, uh, sell it out.
Yeah.
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 wanna make sure they're knowledgeable people, right?
Right, right, right.
'Cause that's pretty important.
If we're gonna put our money into it, we're going to ensure that it has success. Yeah. We're not gonna 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 gonna put our money into it.
Gotcha.
To help support, make sure that thing comes to fruition.
So what makes that, your program, different and better than the others that are out there?
So Kevin, I think that the big asset that that brings to the table is, is that we're personally invested in the success the success of the deal.
There you are.
So most programs out there, you can buy them, you can enroll them, and there's a mentor maybe there, but they're not invested in your success, right? They put all the burden on you to go do the course, do the work, and all that. We're personally invested in that success of that individual, right? Personally invested by our coaching, mentoring, and partnering, but then also bringing our money to the table.
I think, um, you're helping a lot of people. 30 years of experience, it's great having you here today because you're doing great work, Toby. And I want to thank you for sharing your story here today and connecting with, with myself as well as others out there that might want to work together further with you. So for those that do, we're going to send them to your website, theunshakeableinvestor.com. You can also follow Toby on social media @toby potter official. Thank you very much, and Toby, it's great having you here today.
Kevin, enjoyed it, my friend.
Thank you.
Thank you.
