In this interview, Shark Tank original Kevin Harrington sits down with Toby Potter, known as the Unshakeable Investor, to discuss his three‑decade career as a direct real‑estate lender. Toby explains how he started lending in 1994, survived the 2008 housing crash and the COVID‑19 shutdown, and rebuilt his business, earning Private Lender of the Year and a spot on Inc.’s 2022 Top 100 Fastest‑Growing Companies list. Leveraging that experience, he created an exclusive 90‑day coaching program that pairs hands‑on mentorship with his own capital, allowing students to fund their deals while learning. Toby emphasizes that unlike typical courses, his model aligns his financial stake with the student’s success, providing rigorous deal analysis, risk management, and scaling guidance to avoid over‑extension and build generational wealth. The conversation highlights the benefits of a mentor‑investor approach, the importance of personal accountability, and provides contact details (theunshakeableinvestor.com, @tobypotterofficial).
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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 Unshakeable 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. How long have you been in the the real estate lending business. It's a very exclusive industry to be involved with.
That's right. So we started in 1994, so we've been in it for a little over 30 years now.
Wow. Loaning money to people that want to buy real estate.
That's correct. Yes, sir.
Individuals.
Individuals, right? That's correct.
Yeah. And so that many years of experience, you've seen some trends in the industry, some, you know, some good stuff. And, you know, just I want to know as, as part of your program, you, 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, it's a pretty exclusive program. It's a 90-day program, right, 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 in 2008. So we built an empire through that, was doing real estate, had a RE/MAX 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, turn it into rentals, or sell it out.
Yeah.
Then we had COVID hit, and another debacle who shut down that industry. Wow. And from all that, and then of course rebuilt immediately, was named Private Lender of the Year of the year. Nice. Was Inc. Magazine top 100 fastest growing company in 2022. So from all those pitfalls and disruptions, we were able to rebound and build bigger.
That's awesome.
And so from all those headaches, heartaches, disruptions, I felt, you know what, there is so many people out there trying to get into real estate and investing that I wanna 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, right, in the process. Because if it's your money, you want to make sure they're knowledgeable people, right?
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, gotcha, to help support, make sure that thing comes to good work.
Mentor, guide, coach, I think you said. Coach, guide, and mentor. 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 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, 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, right, to make sure that that deal comes to the finish line.
A lot of times banks that will loan money, they'll actually sell that loan off. That's right, they're gone.
That's right, okay, they're out.
You loan money, this is your money, right? You're there, okay? So you're there to maybe help and coach and mentor and all the other things. But, um, in fact, You can help people build their own business by doing more real estate deals too, correct?
That's the whole deal, is you don't wanna just, we're gonna teach you how to do one. Most people, that's where they fail. It's not that hard to do 1, 2, 3, 4 deals. The problem is, is they have success after 1, 2, 3 deals and then they go buy 4, 5, 6, 8 deals at once. They scale too fast.
Right.
Or they get greedy.
Right.
This is where that mentoring starts kicking in, is to, We want to make sure that you have generational success.
There you go.
A legacy built that this sustains not only for you today, but for your family for tomorrow.
The most important thing I think I've heard here today, not only you've been doing this 30 years, but you've been through some of the ups and the downs of the world, right? You know, the meltdown in real estate, COVID. But now we're in a very nice time for real estate. And I think 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.
