#7: Josh Grant, Realtor/Tiny House Investor - Tiny house investing, Airbnb arbitrage, and building a personal brand

It was a mind shift of, like, it's not about promoting, it's not about marketing. It's just learning to be a better storyteller. And so I tell people, don't try to get so overwhelmed with filming, taking a picture and then trying to make a post right when that's happened, because then you miss the moment. So I encourage people, like, film everything. And then whenever you're in your downtime, lying in bed at night, in a long line at the airport, whatever, then go through your content and put something together and create content. But you just. It's so much easier to create content if you have tons of content to choose from.

On today's episode, we have Tiny House investor and Realtor Josh Grant. All right, Steve. Josh has officially convicted me that I need to get back on social media to build my personal brand. I've been off for, like, two years, so I feel like I've been catching up to do.

But he's convinced me, you know, Jake, he's convinced me, too. At my age, he said, go for it. Just keep. Film it and go for it. I'm excited.

Yeah. One of the things he talked about, which was so true, is that the skill set that you have in digital marketing and social media, like, those are helpful skill sets, but the advantage of having a personal brand is that it could be leveraged into a multitude of different areas. If you have the viewership, if you have the audience who they've already subscribed and said, I like you, I want to follow you. Whatever you're doing, I don't really care. You could take that in a lot of different directions. So if you're making a life change professionally or you're starting something new or starting a business, you can leverage that personal brand towards that new endeavor. And I. So this episode, he goes through a lot of things of how people can leverage their personal brand for real estate, for whatever they're doing, and just, yeah, again, convicted to start social media again.

And what I got from Josh is I didn't realize how you can use the multiple social platforms forms in innovative and unique ways to grow your brand. I had no clue until he started talking about that. Yeah, it was amazing.

We'll have him on again just to just get more, like, granular tips on how to do this. But I know people are going to really enjoy this episode. So we're just going to head west. They can get in. So stay tuned as we discuss Tiny House investing, Airbnb Arbitrage, and building a personal brand with our guest, Josh Grant. This episode is brought to you by Skyline Point Capital. If you're anything like me, you're always considering where to invest your money. Stocks, bonds, crypto, a rental home. The list is literally endless. As we've all seen over the past year, the stock market is unstable, the housing market is just weird, and inflation is on the rise. In times like these, the clear place to invest my money is in multi family real estate, AKA apartment complexes. Here's why. Returns on real estate investments have little to no correlation with the stock market. There's lower volatility, stable income streams, and the tax benefits are insane. And let's not forget that the apartments will typically appreciate in value over time, which means you can walk away with a pretty nice return when the complex is sold in three to five years. Best of all, multifamily investing is passive, so you get all the benefits without the hassle and headache of your typical rental home investment. Getting started has never been easier. Head to skylinepointcapital.com to learn how you can start investing today. You're a guy, Josh, that when if anybody goes to like your YouTube, they go to your Instagram, they're going to see you're sort of a prodigy when it comes to content creation, which I guess prodigy is the wrong word because you're in your 40s now. You just turned 40 this year, right? I can't. Well, you don't look 40.

It's worth 43 this year.

Oh my gosh.

This is the conus.

Silence.

This is the conus.

Silence. Don't worry. But you just have this knack for creating content. You've always been the person who's got, you're utilizing new technology, you're at the forefront of that. If something comes out new on, on social media, like when stories came out, you implement it immediately into whatever you're doing, whether it's the job you're in, the hobbies you're doing. But has this always been sort of how you were wired to take new technologies and implement them? I mean, where did your social, where did your social media start begin? How long you been doing this and how'd you learn?

Great question. I love that. So I was social media before social media was even invented. Back in the 90s, my junior and senior year, I was voted by our student government at our high school as one half of the social chairman, like board, if you will. So I was the guy like organizing events, communicating with people, and planning and organizing all sorts of different things. So I was social media before social media was invented.

So how then how did you get into social?

Social media just made it easier for me to do what I already was passionate about.

Yeah, how'd you learn, though? Did you. Did you just get in there and start figuring it out? Did you take courses? Like, give us a rundown on how you became such a. An expert in utilizing it?

Well, first of all, you can't go to a college and learn anything about social media because the stuff that they teach you is already going to be dated. So you have to, like, diving in the web and looking at what people are talking about on a weekly basis, because things change all the time. But what got me started in it is early day. My wife was actually on Instagram and YouTube even before me, just messing around. She was never recording and broadcasting, if you will. But I. I wanted. I was a youth pastor and I wanted to create something for all the kids of my youth that was cool because I felt like within the Christian industry, they were not marketing to the youth. And so I wanted to initially make a more tamed version of mtv. And I thought that the way to do that would be through Instagram and YouTube. And so I got on Instagram and I just started like, posting about music. And a thing that I did right away was I was using hashtags to find other people that had the same interest and kind of, you know, so if you already like this person, then check out these. And I was doing that, like, hand to hand combat and using hashtags to find people that might be interested in the other type of music and content that I was promoting. And. And then whenever I got a follow, I would actually, I never use the word follow. I said, thanks for joining with this. Thank you for participating and believing in what we're doing. And I would directly communicate with a new follower whenever I got that new follower. Yeah, I felt like it was the best time to, you know, give that person unique attention.

That makes sense. So you were utilizing DMs as a way of actually creating a relationship, like a deeper dive relationship than social media actually allows you to have, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And so then I had good practices. So when Instagram started creating like auto reply direct within Instagram, I was like, oh, sweet. I was already having like copy paste messages that I was utilizing. Now I was able to put them directly inside of Instagram so that I could tell someone else. That was like, looking at and managing the Instagram account. I was like, just use these same, like, direct replies that I already created. And that was even before Manny Chat and like, the Whole messenger bots was created. I was already kind of had that idea. And then when they implemented like audio text within, like where you're voice can be recorded inside of there, that was even better because no one was utilizing. So many people said, josh, you're the first person that ever made me use like audio text, you know, And I just like used it all the time. I just. I just loved it. You know, I say I'm allergic to paper and I'm like super digital. I never touch a pencil or a pen or a piece of paper. Yeah, I take a picture. I take a picture of it and I store it in my cloud. If Apple sees this, Apple, please make a larger storage than 2 TB, because I almost use that all up and I'm having to go back in and delete stuff.

That's our business.

So Apple, make a larger storage, please.

Yeah, yeah.

Hey.

Hey, Joss. That's awesome. When you start thinking about social media, and I'm 66, so you have these range of audience from your kids, from church, all the way up to young seniors like me. And when you hear social media, can you kind of describe it, what that really means to the audience here? Because you mentioned Instagram, so you must have figured Instagram would be great for your youth pastor kids. How do you use that through the age spectrum? All the. Because you got YouTube, you got TikTok, you got Facebook. And I. And people say there's certain, okay, use Facebook for this demographic, Instagram for this demographic. Can you help us understand that?

Yeah. So, I mean, Facebook was first. And there's a term that says we are going through a youth ification of society. So never in the history of society have older parents been so dependent upon the advice and counsel of their kids. Because technology is rapidly advancing so quickly that something that used to take 10 years took five, things that took five took two. We saw a direct example of that with COVID hitting and what they thought the predicted, you know, people buying groceries online, that it was going to take X amount of years to reach X amount of sales. And then Covid hit and it rapidly accelerated that whole timeline. And it made people so much more comfortable with making a digital grocery purchase online. And so we're going through a youthification of society where the parents are like, oh, we need to buy a new tv. And then the kid instantly has something to say. But like, well, I saw this YouTuber talk about this new TV and we should get this one and you know, like, buy a new couch. Well, we should buy this couch. Because I saw this influencer talk about it on my social and it's people that they follow and they're really easy to like look up and Google something and find out the reviews on a new coffee maker or a new air fryer and stuff like that. And the parents have no clue how to do that. But that's complete norm for the youth, whereas in the past the older parents would never seek the counsel of their kids for any household purchase.

So on the platforms that are out there, is there a target demographic for those platforms?

Facebook definitely skews older. And it's just funny that people think that Facebook still can't be used to market because it absolutely can, because the older you are, the slower you scroll, right? So, you know, and the cool thing about social media now is that everything, even like Pinterest, Pinterest has added stories to Pinterest. And for a crazy example, I'm a real estate agent and I had came up with this idea of creating boards, right? Essentially like playlists, if you will, within Pinterest for bathroom remodeling, laundry room remodel, kitchen remodel. And I was just like scrolling around on Pinterest, finding cool designs and ideas of cabinets and storage and all these different things and just dropping in the according board. And once they started adding stories, I said, oh, I've known from past things, whenever Instagram or anyone implements a new, a new way of sharing, they always kind of really promote that heavily and allow you to reach more people. So I said, well, let me try like sharing something that I saw on Instagram on Pinterest. And I took this 8 second video that I screen recorded off of Instagram and I shared it on Pinterest. And it is absolutely blown up. We are currently, I mean, it's like it's given me something along the lines of 11 million followers because of this post.

Are you trending on Pinterest?

So Yes, I have 11,000 followers because of this one post on Pinterest. I have 11 million impressions, 262,000 people have clicked on my pin, 154,000 people have saved this pin in their Pinterest and 8,000 people have visited my Pinterest profile because of this one post that I did. And I'm currently setting at. I am following nobody on Pinterest and I currently have 17,000 followers on Pinterest.

Now, how will you, how will you monetize something like that? I mean, you're a real estate agent down in South Florida. You know, I know you do a lot of this because you're just testing things, this is fun for you. But in a lot of ways, this is a way of driving business to the bottom of the funnel. So how, like, give us a game plan of how you would actually monetize something like that.

So Pinterest has now added a whole creator community, creator economy within Pinterest, that they're actually paying out people for it. But so I originally looked into it and I found out that it's by invite only. And I'm like, how have I not been invited yet? I have 17,000 followers, millions of views on this thing. How have I not been invited? So I might have to dig a little bit more. But like, that's the crazy thing about this. I just don't get overwhelmed with all of it. I'm constantly experimenting, I'm constantly creating. And it was a, it was a mind shift of like, it's not about promoting, it's not about marketing, it's just learning to be a better storyteller. And so I tell people, don't try to get so overwhelmed with filming, taking a picture and then trying to make a post right when that's happening, because then you miss the moment. So I encourage people, like, film everything and then whenever you're in your downtime, lying in bed at night, in a long line at the airport, whatever, then go through your content and put something together and create content. But you just, it's so much easier to create content if you have tons of content to choose from. So, I mean, I'm currently sitting on tons of stuff that could absolutely be made into more content. I don't kick myself in the butt too hard about it. Just constantly keep moving forward, just experiment. Would I like to do more? Absolutely. But I'm trying to juggle everything. So to me, most important thing is just always experimenting and never stopping.

When you said content and you mentioned videos, can you tell us how you're using the videos? Or what are you videoing to create content?

So I was a big. Before TikTok popped off, I was telling a company that I was working with that I go, we need to stop using fancy high end equipment to make ads for companies. And we need to shoot the content on our iPhone because when we post that on Instagram, that was our main area that we wanted to start posting in. I was like, it needs to, we need to trick the person who is swiping through Instagram stories that the content that they are looking at is actually content from their friend. And so the only way to do that is to make it look like that your friend filmed it on your iPhone. And so for the split, two to three seconds before the person realizes, oh, wait, this is an ad, or I'm not following this person. But then hopefully they're already engaged and they continue watching. So I was like, man, we need to film content on your phone. And I was telling people like, stop overthinking it. Everyone thinks about quality and I think about quantity because if you're doing a lot of quantity, your quality will get better and better and better the more quantity you put out. So obviously, you know, research, find the best means out there. Which is why I always get the latest and greatest iPhone no matter what, no questions asked, because I want to have the best camera. And people always are like, what camera do you use? I'm like, iPhone, it's all you need. IPhone.

Yeah.

Film it on the iPhone.

Yeah. So just to kind of recap that. So you're, you're sort of alluding to that company as a brand is not very personable. Like, you know, if you, if they were to run that ad from their brand and using a high end quality, you know, camera and an agency to produce it, it's probably overproduced and it probably doesn't have really of a personalized touch to it. It's kind of this cold.

It's cold.

It's cold. Whereas is if it's on its iPhone and it's probably maybe sponsored by or you know, being posted by, you know, somebody fairly well known, it seems more personal, personable and they can relate to it a lot quicker and especially before they realize, oh, this is an ad. I see it now. Yeah. So is that kind of what you're. You were saying? Are you hinting at.

Yes, absolutely alluding to that.

That makes sense because you're starting to see that as a trend now on especially Instagram and Facebook. Like I get ads all the time for like knockoff Lululemon. Not knockoff as in like fake Lulu's but like built Bylt or you know, great products. But it's not them sponsoring. It's some other, some guy who's, you know, fairly well known, I don't know.

User generated. There you go. User generated content.

I bought it. I totally bought it. I was like, this looks great. And I'm not being sold to. Oh, I'm being sold to. It still looks great. I'll buy. Totally works. I feel duped.

And it's just crazy that the car industry hasn't caught on to this. Even though there's Tons of people making great content with cars. Like, think about it, like, cars. Everyone says, oh, you got to test drive the car. But, like, I'm no expert of driving the car, right? So I would rather go to YouTube first and listen to someone who is a car enthusiast who's driven tons of cars and listen to his commentary talking about the driving experience of the car that I'm interested in, with other possible second or third options to validate my decision in buying the car that I want to buy. Because, like, yeah, I could go and I could drive it, but am I driving a whole bunch of different cars and am I driving across different environments? You know, am I driving it on the freeway? And, you know, I've never done a test drive and taken a car out on the freeway. I've only driven it on the streets near the dealership. So there's all these different things that you go to, you know, these new medians, which are micro influencers even, that are giving so much value.

That's awesome. Is Josh, you got, you got your cell phone. You're out taking videos. What. What should you not do? If I'm going to video something or act something or do something. Can you give us any what not to do?

Don't film long, extended videos.

What's long?

30 seconds.

That's.

Yeah, you're, you're, you're better off pulling your phone out, recording it for five to 10 seconds, and then analyzing the situation and then maybe going in for yet another angle, get closer to whatever you're filming, get, you know, move forward, pull it out again, get another angle, or then film people's reaction to the thing that you're filming instead of, like, trying to get one long video of, of content. Because the cool thing about Instagram, Instagram even has templates inside of it now, and they tell you how many different clips to use with these templates. So if you record one long video and you drop it in that, it's going to still ask you for other clips. And then if you could repeat using that same clip, but it's going to use the same part of that same clip. Whereas if you've gotten three different angles and three different cuts, you literally come across a cool sound and a cool template that instantly someone on Instagram has already created. You click use template and you drop in the three clips that you've got of that thing. And now, literally without any external software or anything, you've now created a cool post with edits and everything in it.

It's just so easy now, 30 seconds is a long clip.

30 seconds is long.

Isn't that amazing? I mean, years ago you would say two to three minutes is long and now it's 30 seconds.

But. And I'm saying more. Right. So like it just don't have long extended clips, have multiple short clips because it just makes the editing process easier.

And what about content? I get on Facebook and I get sucked into the reels and I just saw one after another. It's like, oh my gosh. I mean, this is so much fun. User generated content and you see all sorts of things. But there. Are there any taboos about what you film and what you. If you're in the business world or you're trying to real estate or marketing, don't do this.

Yeah. Don't start off with saying, hi guys, my name is Josh. Because here's the thing.

That's not natural.

Either everybody knows who you are or they could care less who you are. Tell me why I should keep watching.

Yeah, especially because, correct me if I'm wrong, with the first two seconds, you've got to capture them. And if you got in. Hi, I'm. You lost them.

Yeah.

It's interesting you say that because I was just watching a clip this morning and this person got on and just got right into it. It was like, okay, I'm sucked in. They got me. Yeah, I'm going to watch the whole thing.

Yeah.

And it was awesome.

So, Josh, I still don't know who.

Their name is, so it doesn't matter.

So, Josh, you started, you started getting into social media. You're building a personal brand, right? Because you got into this as a hobby. You started playing around with it. It's your interest. But over time, a personal brand started to develop. Not only were the personal like your own, your own brand, but also some other projects you're working on. Like you were doing this, some stuff in music, you were doing some stuff in media. How did that. Yeah, how did that, did that open doors for you in other areas of your life where you could leverage your skill set of social media, content creation, digital marketing that you were able to say, oh, I can just pivot this to this new industry. Can you kind of walk us through that?

Yeah. So yeah, it started in music because it was a hobby. And I basically was like, I don't want to keep buying music on itunes, so I'm going to build relationships with artists and have them give me their music for free. And that already would be a savings to me. And I'm like, I'm cool with that. And that really did work. Nowadays, I barely listen to any music from people that I don't know because I've built relationships with so many different artists. And so I only like listening to music from people that I know personally. But by. By making content, it allowed me, and it gave me so much training so that when I got into real estate, I was already. I already had the tools in place. I was already doing it. I. You know, people say, you know, oh, you're so good on camera. I was like, I wasn't, you know. You know, and I go, everything that you see on camera has been edited. Like, I'm just. I don't get mad at myself when I reshoot content, you know, even my stories, you know, I'm guilty of even sometimes, hey, guys. And then I'm like, gosh, I started with, it's Josh. Like, I still, to this day, I still sometimes like, hey, guys, I gotta. And I'm like. And I just redo it, you know? And it's funny, when I'm filming other people, you know, they'll say something and they'll mess up, and they're like, so apologize to me. I'm like, doesn't matter. We're not shooting on film. Like, go again. It's totally fine. Do it again. Do it again. And they're like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm wasting your time. Like, just do it again. You know? And then on the fifth try, they're like, what do you think? Is this good? I was like, sure, but if you do it 10 times, the 10th time is going to be even better.

Yeah.

And they're like, really? I was like. I was like, but I don't want to spend my time waiting for you. Ten times. Yeah. So I was like, so for now, it's good. Your fifth time is good enough.

Yeah.

You know, it's way better. Do you feel comfortable now versus the first time that you're like, yeah, absolutely. So I'm like, well, there you go. That's why you got to keep doing it. So I've helped a lot of people, you know, get started, if you will, and just creating content and filming them and just encouraging them.

Yeah. The reason I was asked about the personal brand, too, is I see this. I see this with, let's say, like, actors, you know, let's take Ryan Reynolds or Dwayne Johnson. Yeah, he's Ryan Reynolds. He's an actor. He's on social media to. To bring attention to himself and to give out, you know, fun content to people. He's hilarious. But he's able to bring, like, he's. He's got, like, an unsane, insane amount of followers on Instagram, but he was able then to parlay that viewership then into his gin company and drive up the valuation of that. And now he's negotiating contracts with. With production houses, like movie production houses, where they're not spending a hundred million dollars in advertising anymore, like for billboards and this, that the other. They're paying Ryan. He's negotiating his own contract, like $20 million to promote his own movie on his social media account because he has the viewership, he has the skill set he built, he has the personal attention, he has personal brand. Now he's leveraging it in other areas. And to your point, you were able to take that from, you know, music, and now you're leveraging it towards real estate because you made a big pivot from what you were doing before to real estate complete 180, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I. I realized that all the time and effort and energy that I was putting into the music industry, I said, bottom line, if I sell anything or have anything to promote, I'm promoting it to broke artists. Because let's be. Let's face it, most musicians do not have a lot of money. And I go, it's all about making content. So if I make content and I'm going to spend X amount of hours making content for ultimately a musician or, you know, anything in the music industry versus making, spending the same amount of time making content, but now I'm using it to sell a house. Like, the ROI on my time and margin is like, I mean, no comparison.

Yeah.

So I reached out to close friends of mine that had actually helped me purchase my last two properties. And I said, hey, I would like to help you guys do some digital marketing for your real estate business. And they're like, oh, sure, absolutely. And I was trying to, like, the same thing that I was coaching musicians and how to talk on camera. I was gonna coach them, but they were older and he just couldn't do it. And he was like, josh, you're such. You're so good at this. Like, you should totally get into real estate. I was like, ah, I just don't want to do all the studying for all the legal side of things because it's so, you know, I don't want to get into all of that. And then I had another friend that I started. So then I reached out to another younger real estate agent. I'm like, surely she's going to Get a hold of this. Because she's younger and so I started working with her and then she said the same thing. She's like, josh, I just can't do it. You should do it. She's like, you should get your license. And so that was kind of like the final straw. And I jumped in and I purchased the course in December of 2019 and then procrastinated with it. And then Covid hit and then I had all the time in the world to like sit my butt.

No more excuses.

And no more excuses. And so, so thank you, Covid, for making me sit my butt down and actually do all the studying and get license and I passed my real estate exam on the first try.

So yeah, I think it's important for anybody listening is that is, is these are, you know, I'm 37 and even at some point I used to look at social media and be like, that's just a waste of time. Like I look at, you know, my brother in law's 18 and, and his sister is 21 and I look at them on social media. I'm like, these aren't skills you're ever going to be able to like. You're just wasting time. You can say that about video games too, you know, to an extent. And now I look, look at today, I'm like, oh wow. These were skills that could have been transferable to a lot of different areas. And so there's, there's skill sets that come with creating digital media and content and digital, digital marketing that can be leveraged to a multitude of different areas of business, of life and to your. For you, it ended up pivoting your life to real estate.

Right.

So, but I love, I'd love to jump into the real estate conversation here in a minute, but before we do, I want to kind of wrap a bow around this for anybody who's, who wants to really start to focus attention on building their personal brand. What, what advice would you give them? Like what are the first couple things they should do to really start building their social media footprint?

Just don't, you know, don't, don't hate yourself too much. Just make the content. Don't think that, oh man, you know, like I'm talking on camera to myself. Which is why so many times people start filming in their cars.

Yeah.

Because they feel comfortable and safe in their cars. They won't get out on a sidewalk and walk and film. And I could tell you like, I not only do I get out on the sidewalk, I film like at the movie theater at Home Depot. And I have people stop me, like, oh, what are you filming? And like. Like, it's. I give out my business card to just people because I'm out in places filming in public, and people stop me and ask me what I'm doing, you know, so everyone, for some reason thinks that they have this negative thought that people are going to look at them and think, you know, less of them, that they're filming stuff, when in reality, people are jealous that they're not doing that themselves and they have so much questions to ask.

Yeah.

So it's. Just start filming and use the resources that you have. Even if it's an iPhone 10, just start filming, post it and learn, and just keep. Keep telling stories. Keep telling stories.

That's good. Just start heading. Josh.

I've seen. I've seen people started heading west, Joss. I've seen people when they start something, let's. Let's say it's social media content, they go in really hard. They're taking all these videos and all these videos and all these videos and all these videos. And a week goes by, and then Celeste videos. And then it's less and less and less. You know, you start. It's like buying the exercise equipment January 1st, use it for a month, and then it sits there.

Oh, great example.

So how. Give us some advice so we don't. For the listeners here, that they just don't jump in and they get fatigued, and then I'm not seeing results after a week. And then they start following off Two.

Two ways to do it. One, one approach. Don't buy anything. Don't overthink it. Don't think. So many people think, oh, I need to have one of those, like, stabilizer handheld things, or I need to have a better iPhone, or I need to buy a microphone to attach to my iPhone, you know, and then they spend all these things, and then they're overwhelmed because now there's all this additional pressure to, like, look more professional when you're not. Right. So just start with what you have and be honest with people say, you know, hey, I saw this thing. I have a challenge for myself. I'm going to start documenting my life and telling my stories for myself and for my family to be able to look back on, you know, and. And just start that. That would be one way. And then the other way would be to gather up content. So that this is a little. Involves a little bit more strategy. But, like, think through everything that you have, and before you post anything, you already have a surplus of inventory. If you will, so that you can. So you don't have to live life. Try to create and post at the same time. You've built up that inventory, and then you just kind of, like, allocate it on a weekly or monthly basis. So even for myself on YouTube, you know, I would. I know that it would be great for me to drop a video once a week, but I'm like, my goal right now is once a month, you know, and I was doing really great at that. And then I ran, and then I switched real estate companies and I lost all my software, and I had to start all over again. And that kind of put me a little bit behind. But again, I still don't get mad at myself because I know that, like, for all of the social media things, it's consistency. When you first start something, people are going to be like, oh, they're going to, like, encourage you. Like, oh, that's so cute. Like, you started posting a video. That's nice. And then as you continue on, you're not going to get the same. Like, it's going to be crickets. Like, no one's going to care. When people are going to start caring is once you've been doing it for a year, once you've hit episode 100 of your podcast. So even you guys with your own show, you know, why should anyone care about episode four? Why should anyone care about episode 15? Why should anyone care about episode 57? Like, big deal. People have done a lot more, you know, and so it gets really interesting when you're consistent.

Yeah.

And if you tell people along the way what your plans are and you don't hold you, you. You. You are completely comfortable with no attention whatsoever because you're like, I'm gonna prove everybody wrong. And so when I do hit episode 100, or when I do hit a year of doing it or. Or whatever, and stuff like that, everyone that I've told along the way that kind of is like, oh, that's so cute. They end up like, wow, like, you really exploded. I remember when you first told me you were starting to do this. Then people come out of the woodwork and they're all, like, complimenting you, and then they're like videos and all these. All these sort of things.

So the magic number is 100.

That's the goal for your podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Episode 100.

Well, Josh, I think you're episode eight. So we'll. We. We'll get there. We'll put you on episode 100.

Yes.

Yeah. To your point, though, I. I'M that guy. Like I'm a guy who, I mean, they're 0 or 100. And so I had done that before. I was doing, you know, doing videos every other day and I went guns a blazing for like two weeks and then just lost steam. You know, this, that and the other. Tons of excuses. No real good reason why I stopped, but I, I read Atomic Habits by James Clear recently and he talks about one of the keys to, to building a lasting habit is to set your goal low. Like your goal, if you have a workout habit, it shouldn't be to lose 30 pounds, it should be to step foot in a gym three days a week because you're more likely to achieve that and you could build upon it. And so in this case for me, it should have been, I'm gonna post one 30 second video a week and I'm gonna nail that. And then I'm gonna go one 30 second video twice a week and then nail that and build upon it. And so you build that consistency through baby steps rather than big bite sizes. I haven't yet figured out how to actually teach myself to do that, but I know it intuitively to start to start small and move up from there.

So one other point on that, I know we want to move on to real estate stuff, but so I don't think there's anybody that has like one follower. Everyone's opened a Facebook page, everyone's opened up an Instagram, you know, some sort of profile and has a few people following them. And I say, you know, if you were having two people come over to your house for dinner, how much preparation would you do to prepare for those two people visiting your house, right? So we have the opportunity with this device to influence people that have given us permission. They are choosing to follow you, right, because they know you or they find something about you interesting. And so you have this, you have this opportunity to speak into people's life and what are you doing with it? And we don't do, we think that our content needs to go viral. And I, like, nothing needs to go viral. I go, if I'm happy, if five people saw my video, like, cool. Like, I shared my life and what happened with five people, that's cool. I had an amazing opportunity. I was up in Tennessee. We were, you know, getting this tiny house company out of the ground and I made some content about it. And I got back to Florida and a real estate colleague of mine, she sent me a message like, hey, that's so cool you're doing something with tiny houses. My Husband's doing something with that too. You guys should talk and connect. So now that she connected us, we had this really long meeting. They're doing something really interesting in there and started a whole nother negotiation. Whereas if I would have just, like, kept it secret and in silence, you know, and not taken the time to promote it. Instagram and all social media is already going to stifle your content. So people think that everyone is going to see and the whole world is going to know. If you post something on your social media, they're not, like, you'll be lucky if it reaches 10% of the people that follow you. So post everything. There is no secret. The secret is going to be for the. The 90 plus percent of people that didn't even see you talk about that thing that you're planning, you know, so again, to what you said, like, these arbitrary numbers, like, I'm going to do it till I have 100 or a thousand followers on YouTube or 100 followers on Instagram or like, any of that stuff. Like, it doesn't matter. I agree with you 100%. Just, like, have the goal of, like, tell a story that you can post somewhere on social media once a week, and the cool thing becomes five, 10 years into the future when you look back on that content. Like, there's stuff that I posted on Facebook, even though I don't spend as much time on Facebook anymore, concerts that I went to, and they were just photos, right? But, like, I remember, like, I had photos that they're not in my camera roll. But I'm reminded by Facebook, oh, that Dave Matthews Band concert that I went to back in 2012 or whenever the heck it was, you know, so it's like, oh, that's so cool that Facebook is reminding me of these memories that I don't have any photos because back in the day when we had the early iPhones and stuff like that, that stuff didn't convert over for whatever reason. The content that's on my phone only dates back to, I think, 2014, maybe 15, I don't know, something like that. So, like, just make the stories because you're going to look back on them. Like, scrapbooking. People do scrapbooking? Like, yeah, we're telling stories. It's scrapbooking. Video scrapbooking.

So you were just in Tennessee, you said, working on a tiny house project or business. Excuse me, can you tell us a little bit more about that? You hear tiny houses thrown around, you might see on hgtv. But what exactly is this business about?

Right? So Ours are technically called park models. So they're smaller than a mobile home. They are technically still considered a tiny house, but they're definitely bigger than these tiny houses that HGTV really talks about that are like. Those things are like 100 square feet. Ours are just under 400 square feet. And why is that? Because they go. They're able to leave the factory with an RVIA certification that allows you to bypass zoning and permit laws because it leaves the factory as an RV.

Really?

Yeah. So anything under 400 square feet on wheels is considered an RV and it leaves the factory with all the certification. So if no matter where you are, they can't really block you from if they're going to allow you. So you go to the city and you pull the permits and you say, hey, I want to be able to hook up my RV on my lot. And if they allow that, you're good.

Super interesting.

Do you find that within Tennessee or what states easier to work with from that mindset in of it's an rv or are you getting to the point? Or neighbors are complaining or. Neighbors are.

And that's why we started up in that area. We're in north, north eastern Tennessee, very rural. It's the Mountain City, Johnson City, Bristol, Butler area, very close to Boone. So once you get in within the city limits of Boone, they don't allow tiny houses. And they're trying to block these things from happening to a certain degree. And they're kind of picking up on the whole, you know, permitting for an RV and they're not allowing that on. In certain areas of the city. But when you're in a rural area, especially the area that we're focusing in on, they're. They have, like, no permits. No. Like, there's nothing over there. And so you can basically do whatever the heck you want. And so it's an awesome idea for people that are. I just had a client right now, and you know her, her first option was she was working with a contractor and they were going to build a small home. She's calling it a tiny house on her lot. Right. But with that, with any type of construction, you know that it always ends up being, I mean, probably 50% more than what you calculated. Right. Whereas this right here, you know exactly how much square footage you're getting. You know exactly what type of countertops, what type of cabinets. It includes appliances, light fixtures, everything for a set price, no surprises. And we can ship to you within 60 days.

So are you shipping to individuals or are you buying land and doing a.

Development so we originally bought land. My partner and majority owner of the company bought land. And we, we're going to start off first with a tiny house community. The one problem that we went with is that it was so rural that we were going to have to do septic tanks instead of city sewer. And if we wait a couple years for city sewer to come all the way down the road where our property is at, we're going to be able to more than double the amount of lots that we can put on this land. So I mean, it was going to cut less than half if we would if we put in all the septic tanks for the amount of lots. So we said, you know, we'll just hold off on this idea. And, and we're selling directly to people to put on their land because most tiny house communities don't allow you to buy outside of their own sales office. So does this make sense?

Yeah.

So they're selling, they're selling you a tiny house and renting you the land.

Right.

Or they're selling you a tiny house with the land, but you got to buy it from them.

From them?

Yeah, yeah.

So would this be something they go to your website, order it and have it shipped?

Yep. So you go to my Casa Vita. Casa Vita standing for home life. My Casa Vitamyhomelife.com and we have video walkthroughs of all of our eight different models and the blueprint floor plan, everything that it comes with. We're trying to build our site more. My goal is to be able to get our site that you could actually do everything on our site. Choose the siding, what color siding, the roof, everything. And my inspiration is like if you could buy a car from Tesla off the website and have it delivered, be able to buy a tiny house. People think I'm crazy. They're like, but that's a huge purchase. And I'm like, have you like, do you see what Teslas are going for?

I mean, right?

Our home Prices range between 120 and 160. Premium fixtures, solid wood quartz countertops. I mean really, you know, really nice vaulted ceilings. I mean under counter lighting. I mean really nice stuff. And right now we're running a sale where you can get, you can get our models for as little as 115,000.

Are these coming fully, fully built out or are they coming and you have to.

Wow, all built out. You choose cabinets.

Yeah.

All turnkey, just no furniture. So you can even choose to have like the built in nightstands. You can have a built in queen size bed or A king size bed that has like, under, under mattress storage. They have lofts, you can get models without the loft. So therefore it's going to give you a even bigger sense of space because then the whole, the whole home has vaulted ceilings in it, including your, your, you know, your bedroom. They come with porches on the front. You can add a porch on the back, you can enclose the porch on the back and make your master bedroom larger. A lot of different options.

I have to.

Josh, who do you. Go ahead, Josh, who do you target? Who's your target ideal customer for a tiny house?

So our company is new, we're just over a month old, and I've been doing a lot of Instagram, Facebook, target marketing. Right now, we're primarily shooting our content towards Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. And our target audience is, you know, the almost retired or the retired individual that, you know, the American dream is changing and people don't want to have as much land and they don't want that uptake, you know, for keeping up for all of that land. And so this gives you a super easy option that you can, you know, buy it, you can finance it. 20 down for, for financing, 50% down if you're buying it in cash and, you know, no surprises. You, you could even buy a big plot of land. You could put this on your land now and then decide to build later on, and then this becomes like a mother in law suite. It becomes extra square footage on your property. There's all different options that you can do with it, but we are targeting a little bit more sophisticated individual. We believe there's a lot of cash buyers out there that are hoarding cash and this is a way that they can add extra square footage. Throw this on Airbnb, vrbo and start putting it to work for you instantly.

That's what I was going to say. I have to imagine that this is a great option for somebody who wants to, to open up their own Airbnb on their property, has dropped this on in their backyard or wherever appropriate, and it's now a new stream of income for their household. Are you seeing that a lot in, in the conversations you're having and the orders you're. You're seeing on the website?

Yes, the majority of people that we're talking to, yeah, I couldn't put a number, but the majority of people that we're talking to are looking to increase the square footage of their land because they have ample amount of land and they're wanting to drop something on it that Will that they'll be able to use, have friends, family come, but then they also be able to rent it out and put it on Airbnb.

It's brilliant.

What about the younger professionals out of college? Is that a market for the tiny house?

Absolutely. I mean, they're, I think there, there's huge potential for them right now. What we're finding is that all the land prep and site prep is what is kind of holding us back from being able to close more deals because it falls back on them to be able to do their research. So we're working on the ground. That's why I just got back from Tennessee right now, on the ground, building out teams, building out all of that so that we can actually offer land, you know, site prep, that kind of add on feature that they can just be like, great, we'll pay for the site prep. You guys will handle all of that and. And we'll just take care of everything. So that's a big focus right now, being able to add that as an add on option, you know, as a service. Almost like a middleman for a contractor.

Yeah, sure. Speaking of Airbnb, you and I are on a call a couple weeks ago and one of us had to jump off, but before the phone ended, you said, I'm starting to do this Airbnb arbitrage, and then, like, hung up. Please tell me what in the world Airbnb arbitrage is. I know what arbitrage is. I know what Airbnb is. But kind of explain to listeners, is this a new trend? Is this something that. Yeah, been around for a while. And what is it?

I mean, I get served up, and I've gotten served up tons of ads about this on YouTube. And so it's something that was definitely on my radar, but I hadn't met or spoken to anyone that had been doing it until I got a phone call from a Colombian woman that is running Airbnb in Columbia and is managing 50 properties in Columbia and had two properties in Delray beach in the city that I live in. And she used the words, and I got excited when she used the words because I'm like, finally, someone who is like asking me if I know what this is. And I'm like, yes, I know exactly what this is. Yeah, let's do this. And so I went out and we identified 14 different properties that were in the area that they wanted to focus on because it was close to their existing properties that they had already purchased. But they felt that basically what they want to do is find Someone that's willing to sublease the property to them. That's Airbnb. Arbitrage is the fancy way of finding someone that's willing to sublease the property knowing that we will be putting this on Airbnb and we're going to have multiple people live in it. And so I basically end up having to call 14 different realtors and the, the Realtors that were brokering this property for a singular investor, they all shut us down immediately. The ones that I got traction with were real estate agents that owned the property that had been trying to rent it over the years, have had some success, but identified that like, property management is a lot of work and it's not the business that I would like to be in.

Sure.

And so they're like, yeah, I get it, this sounds great. So basically this is a hands off approach. We get guaranteed money from you guys and you guys deal with all the day to day problems. They're like, sweet, let's do it. Go for it.

Yeah.

And so we locked in a two bedroom, three bedroom, two bath, single family home about two and a half miles from the beach in Delray Beach, Florida. And my Colombian clients came in. They. There already was some furniture there, but they went out, they fully equipped the whole kitchen. They struck a deal with the owners to paint all the cabinets. So now we have the cabinets all painted white, which really made the place look a lot more contemporary. The owners were like, man, this is a great idea. We should have done this earlier. The, my Colombian clients, they hired a handyman that patched up walls, repainted one of the bedrooms, fixed the, a lot of the lights that were burnt out. I mean, just did a bunch of odds and ends all around the property and, and then staged the property properly, you know, bought new lamps, you know, bedding, sheets, towels, you know, glasses, plates, pots, pans, everything that they know that an Airbnb needs and set it all up in the kitchen beautifully and got it uploaded and it's been up for about a week and they already got their, their first booking scheduled. So it was a really quick, quick turnaround.

Is this gonna be a new trend in Airbnb?

Yeah, because I think that people are getting fatigued. You know, Airbnb's latest financials came out and they said last quarter was really great, but everyone was like, yeah, because that was quarter July, August and September. Sure, it was through summer. It was a great quarter. But we're already seeing a lot of, you know, declining numbers now. So it's going to be really interesting there. Whenever their next, you know, quarterly update is, if it's, you know, end of December, January, where then a lot of people that have jumped into Airbnb are like, wow, this is a lot harder than what I thought it was. And that's where a company like the one that I'm working with is going to be really positioned to, you know, come in and say, hey, you know, you've been, I see you've been managing your own property. Would you be interested in letting us manage it for you for a fee? And they'll be able to get it because they're, they're, they're, they're owning property and doing Airbnb, they're doing subleases on Airbnb and then they're doing management deals. So there are three different revenue ways that these Colombian clients of mine are making money by managing the properties on Airbnb.

Hey, Josh. So when you have the Colombian client come in and they're doing the arbitrage, Airbnb, if I own that property, you're going to probably want, you'll want a discount on what the normal market rate is going to be. Can you give us an idea what type of discount or what type of deduct or that the owner would see by going with an arbitrage? Because now they don't have the hassle, they don't to manage it. It's just like it's a cash flow.

Q. Yeah, so this property was listed for 4000 and we ended up negotiating and we ended up getting it for 3,500amonth. And so that number was comfortable enough for my clients to, they basically had to shout. And because they were Colombian and they didn't have a history here, so credit and background check was irrelevant. And so therefore, the landlord ended up asking for an additional month of security deposit, which we then further negotiated for. Instead of being two months security deposit, we did first month, last month, second to last month and one month security deposit because they said that doesn't tie up our money and it helps us with cash flow when we get into those months of the year where a little bit slower months, because in Florida, our big peak peak months are November, December, January, February, March and April. Those are prime, prime, prime months for Florida.

Awesome. Thank you.

Speaking about real estate in Florida, what are you seeing in the real estate market these days? I mean, you, you got in a really interesting time. You said you, you passed your classes in, during COVID so 2020, 21, and now you're going full guns blazing. What are you seeing in the real estate market today, and what are you kind of seeing in the next 6, 12, 18 months?

So I'm super bullish on Florida, but I'll tell you why is because of the political instability that's going on in South America. So, I mean, I heard it straight from my Colombian clients. Why are they. If they are. I'm managing 50, 50 properties there, and it's going well. Why are they expanding to do something in Delray Beach, Florida? And they said they would like to be able to start offering this service and dealing with more an American clientele as opposed to a Spanish clientele, because they could have easily gone Miami and still continue to speak Spanish, but their overhead is so low because they're managing all of these properties with Colombian workforce that speak English. But they said, yeah, I mean, we. We need to diversify our portfolio because, you know, we're coming across a lot of wealthy Colombians that want to get exposure in real estate in the United States because the United States is more secure. Also, Brazil just had an election. I was born and raised in Brazil. That's another story. But on the night after the election happened, still complete chaos is going on down there. But I already had two people reach out to me, people, friends that I know from Brazil, and said, josh, would you help me buy something in Florida? Because I'm not certain what. What's going to happen in Brazil. So, you know, Florida, South Florida specifically, is a much different market because all of Latin America has always bought in South Florida. They. They come. They're not buying in other parts of the country. They come to South Florida. And so I really don't see prices coming down as much as other parts of the country for that reason, because Latin America, their safe haven is to come to Florida, and that's where they're going to invest money, first and foremost. So there's that going on with Florida. And then, I mean, the political climate in Florida, our awesome governor, Ron DeSantis, is just killing it here. And everyone loves Florida. So that. That bodes well in our favor. I mean, during this boom over the last 2000, you know, 2020, 2021 and 2022, I've had a lot of clients from Seattle and California and New York. Huh. I wonder why. Sure. Come in and invest into Florida. So, you know, that's, you know, even the old Seinfeld episodes, you know, Jerry's mom was like, we're buying a house in Boca. You know, like, they want South Florida. Like, everybody up in. Everybody up in New York Always comes up. I mean I currently have, you know, two new people that I'm dealing with and three other people that I met with, all from the Rochester, New York era area. So like that's always been a trend. People from up from New York, they always come to Florida.

So yeah.

Josh, are you seeing that with the, the excitement and the bullishness of southern Florida? Are you seeing that in multi family too? Or are you just seeing that mainly in the single family people actually moving down and trying to buy a home? Any, any comments on multifamily?

So, no, multifamily is a little bit hard. We don't have as many duplexes as I wish, duplexes, triplexes or quad plexes in Florida as I would like, especially in the area that I'm, you know, primarily operate in. Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton beach. So. But single families are. So one of my clients. This is really interesting. So the new law, if you guys heard of what happened that condo down in the Miami area that collapsed. Yeah, the Surfside, you know, thing that happened. So new legislation hit Florida this year that by 2024, all condos can no longer choose to not maintain reserves on their property. And they've taken the year of, from 40 years to 30 years to have a huge structural concrete restoration happen and then have every 10 years after that. I think there's, there's a lot of nuances going on, but condo association dues are going to hit a lot of apartment complexes really hard. And it already caused my client to want to sell one of his condos because he's like, I think there's going to be a flood in the market of people selling their condos because the prices are going to go up. You know, we've already had prices go up so much and then you throw on that your, your homeowners association or condo dues have a significant increase and now your profits become really slim. So people are going to pour out of condos and into single family homes. And again, like the people up in the northern part, Boston, New York, that sort of thing, they come down, they see the price of our single family homes and they're like, oh my gosh, these things are dirt cheap and have really raised the cost of our single family homes. And then, and then, you know, like we incrementally like start invading the Everglades more and more. But to a certain degree we are far limited on space. If you go up to the Orlando area, Jacksonville, they have a lot more area. They can spread out with and their properties are much cheaper. But you're not living the South Florida lifestyle. And you're not, you know. Yeah, 30 minutes or I'm, I'm a five minute car ride, eight minute car ride to the beach from my house. I could go jogging to the beach if I wanted to. So it's the South Florida lifestyle. That's what I sell everybody on. It's not enough for me to just show you the house. I got to show you how much proximity you are to all the nightlife and to the beach and to outside activities that you can do here in South Florida.

It doesn't sound any different than Omaha, Nebraska. What are you talking about?

Our 30 degree weather. Hey, thanks for rubbing that in.

Yeah, I'm sitting here looking outside and going, great. He can run to run to the beach.

It's 75 degrees in Florida in Delray Beach, Florida.

I think, I think it's a good place to end this podcast. No, Josh, we, we always end every episode with, as you've seen from past episodes, we always end with a speed round of quick questions and quick answers. So I'll jump right in for you and then we'll wrap this baby up. Do you have any daily rituals that you swear by?

Well, it's something that has been a huge learning curve for me in the last two years of being like my own boss in real estate. So I've realized how much of a need for daily rituals that I need to have now. So I'm definitely still working on that more and more. I definitely try to stay very active, but daily rituals, I'm trying to get to bed at a more reasonable hour. That's a daily ritual that I'm working really hard on, trying to get to bed at an earlier hour. I'm a night owl for sure. Yeah, I see some 2am yeah, but I would say it's. It's film something. Whether I post it or not, I gotta film something that's really good.

What's one item you could not live without? I feel like I know your answer to this one already, but I'll ask it anyways. What's one item you couldn't live without? Okay, moving on. What's one business you wish you could go back and start or invest in?

Airbnb. I, I listened to their whole story on the podcast, how I built it with the founders, and man, they are very interesting individuals and how they press through and continue to make it happen to reach what it is today. It's so like, you know, Airbnb and Uber, they're the most, like, common known disruptors. When we think disruptors in the industry and everybody else is like, I want to create the Uber of xyz.

Yeah.

So. But I. But I would choose Airbnb over Uber just because I value your residence and where you live more so than car.

Yeah, that's good. What's one piece of real estate advice you'd give to others?

Start as early as possible, because money, we think money is the issue, but it's not like money is out there. The hardest thing is to find the deal. If you find a good deal, you'll find investors that are very willing to help you make that deal happen, because that's where all the special sauce is. Everything looks easy, and the concept is easy. The hard part is finding the deal, having the conversations, being people, you know, being a people person to have that conversation. A perfect example of that. I heard a story of a friend of mine. They rented an Airbnb for wedding, and they love the house. They met the owners of the house, and just in passing, at the end of their stay, they happen to mention like, man, this is a great house. Would you ever consider selling it? And they said, actually, we are considering selling it right now. And it led to a whole conversation, and now it looks like that my friend might actually be purchasing this amazing house on a lake because they simply opened their mouth and they had a conversation.

Yeah, Josh, that's. That's one of the things I hear the most people. People saying, I wish I would have started earlier.

Yeah, yeah.

Rather than waiting to have everything in place, just go, yep.

Yeah.

What's one thing in life, business or real estate that you're really excited about?

This tiny house company? I think that people are afraid of how much property value and the price of a house and an apartment have increased, and that this is a way that you can really calculate and own something. And even, you know, if you don't have the land, you could have a conversation with someone that owns land and pitch this idea where you come in with the money with the tiny house. They come in the money with the land, and together you. You create something, you know, So I think this becomes a whole new avenue of, you know, creating lodging, because this country is in extreme need for more lodging. And the only reason why local governments are making it hard for people to drop tiny houses in is. Is because of lobbyists that are blocking it, you know, that they, you know, or people are like, have this thing of like, oh, I don't want it to be overpopulated and dense and, you know, or you know, you're going to rent out to Airbnb and stuff like that. The fact is, is that Airbnb owners maintain their property far better than a typical landlord does. So, yeah, occasionally you hear the horror stories of that there was an Airbnb person there and they threw a party. But again, that is not a typical thing that happens. Does it happen? Sure. Do you plan accordingly? Sure. But there's insurances that you even have within Airbnb to cover those damages and stuff like that. But the fact of the matter is that Airbnb owners maintain their property far better than most typical landlords do.

All right, last question. The title of this podcast is Heading west, obviously. And so the. The it comes from Heading west is really this way of saying in the journey of life, you go from one point to the next and you learn and you grow and whatnot. So the question is, as you head west in your journey of life, where do you hope to end up? At the very end of it, what's your legacy?

Where do you end up? I. I really would love to be a housing developer. I would love to create communities. Going back to my social chairman roots and wanting to create experiences and community, I have some ideas for how I would like to create communities. And not just a typical housing development with a pool and a clubhouse and an exercise room, but being able to create developments and communities. And I think I would take a lot of joy in being able to make. Help people take pride in where they live.

So good, Josh, where can people find you if they want to look you up on YouTube on social media.

So just Josh Grant. Three words. Just Josh Grant on all social media platforms. On YouTube, I. My YouTube channel is just Florida Living. But also, if you type just Josh Grant on YouTube, you're gonna end up landing on those YouTube videos as well. But just Josh Grant everywhere. Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, everywhere. Just Josh Grant.

Super easy. That's awesome. You've done this before.

Easy.

I can remember that.

Thanks so much.

I even have my little real estate.

Badge that says Justice Grant. Don't be surprised.

Do you have your. Is your license plate just say just Josh Grant?

No, I gotta make that be the next thing. Yeah, I make that be the next thing.

Thanks so much, Josh.

Thanks. Thanks for the. Thanks for the reminder and the tip on that. Pleasure, guys.

Enjoyed it was awesome.

Appreciate it. Had a lot of fun.

Great. Thanks a lot.