Investing For Good With Whitney Sewell

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This is Real Estate Investing Live from New York with James Nelson, the principal and head of Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group. In this program, you'll learn about the world of commercial real estate and find.

Out why it's one of the largest.

Investment opportunities in New York and around the world. Now here is your host, James Nelson. Welcome to episode number 102 of Real Estate Investing Live from New York. This is your host, James Nelson. I'm principal and head of Tri State Investment Sales for Avis and Young. Thank you as always for joining. Thank you for your ratings, your subscribing and certainly telling your friends. That's how we get the word out on the show. And the purpose here is to make you the best possible investor to, to give you the insider's edge to real estate investing. And while we're at it, you have to check out my new site, james nelson.com I built this site for you. So not only can you find all the podcasts in the show notes, but you can also sign up for an exclusive video series. You can also connect in, you can access our exclusive listings that we have for sale. You can enter your investor criteria so we can keep you posted on deals in the future. There's also a lot of great collateral key terms in there. I want that to be your hub for investing. By the way, if you have suggestions, if there's other things that you'd like to see on that page, let me know. You can reach out to me@jamesperiodnelsonvisonyoung.com or you can connect with me at James Nelson NYC on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram. So that's it for my intro. Now I want to intro really interesting guest Whitney Sewell. Whitney in 2017 he was a hard working family man with and he's still a hard working family man I should say. But he had a background in military, law enforcement and yes, horse training. And he went all in on a dream that had been building for quite a While, which is LifeBridge Capital LLC. It was founded out of a love for structure and discipline, a unique interest in real estate and desire to help others create passive income. They would support and bless their families. Whitney began working with accredited investors to help them improve their investment returns via the exceptional opportunities that multifamily syndication offers. So he also has, get this, a daily podcast, the real estate syndication show that's been running now I believe for over two or three years. I know he's, I think he's at least a thousand episodes and I can tell you all how much work it is to do this even once, once a week. So that's certainly a testament to his work ethic. So the reason why I am entitling this episode Investing for Good is Whitney and his wife, who adopted their first two of their three beautiful adopted children, have unearthed a even deeper why, a way that he could use LBC to not just operate as a business, but to bless those in need. They pledged to give 50% of their profits to orphans and their adoptive families and continue to do so to this day. So I know you're going to really enjoy this interview and get a lot out of this. We're going to have a brief word from our sponsor and we'll get right into that interview with Whitney.

A Different Approach to Putting Our Clients First Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group sells multifamily office retail development and specialty sales throughout the New York metro area. As experienced thought leaders in their industry, our 35 member group is available to help you make informed investment decisions by advising you on your current holdings or identifying new opportunities in the marketplace. Our one unified team is built on an industry unique platform which promotes unparalleled collaboration and teamwork. We share core values of hard work, integrity and expertise. We put our clients first, providing tailor made strategies to achieve superior results. Please Visit us at aytristateinvestmentsales.com and and follow us on Twitter LinkedIn and Instagram amesnelsonnyc to learn more.

And now it's time for our Investor Spotlight and with us today is Whitney Sewell, who is a seasoned real estate investor, podcast host and philanthropist. He is CEO and a founder of LifeBridge Capital, a multifamily syndication investment firm. With 900 doors and 150 million in assets under management, Whitney was able to scale his business at a groundbreaking pace starting from nothing in 2017 to now consistently raising over $10 million in a few hours. His daily podcast, the Real Estate Syndication show, has featured over 1000 experts in the field. Whitney recently founded his new nonprofit, the LifeBridge foundation, the latest exciting development in his commitment to donate 50% of his profits to support orphans and their adoptive families. Whitney and his wife Chelsea, have three children by adoption and love spending time their free time together in the great outdoors at their home in the country. Whitney, welcome so much. Thank you for joining us today.

Honored to be here James. Thanks for the opportunity.

Wonderful. So maybe tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us where you grew up and maybe how you ultimately got into the business.

Yeah, yeah, I'll share that story and I'll include that as well. But ultimately grew up in a little bitty town in Kentucky. One stoplight, James. There was. It was banks and gas stations. I think it's about all we had. But there was a lake, and if it wasn't for this lake, I don't think we would have had a town. But ultimately it was a great place to grow up. But one thing that happened, that took me out of that. Out of that town, which I'm very thankful for, was the military. And In March of 2001, I joined the National Guard. Ultimately, at that time. And you know what happened six months after that, right? In March of 2001. So had no idea when I joined that I'd be going to Iraq very soon and spending a year of my life overseas and toting a machine gun around every day, praying every day I get to go home. And unfortunately, a guy in my squad did not make it home. And so I'm very thankful the Lord brought me home safely. But what I see is the military taught me to have a never give up mentality. And that was something that's just. I mean, it's helped me in so many ways through the rest of my life. But I quickly came home and tried to figure out what I was going to do as a career. I didn't have any college, and I almost felt kind of helpless, like, what am I even qualified to do? And so policing seemed like a great transition, and it actually was a good transition. I was 1200 applicants and only five positions, and I got hired with Kentucky State Police. I was thankful to have one of those positions. But, you know, as much as I loved working the road, I mean, I would have done it for free the first couple of years. I loved the service, the uniform, the self discipline, all those things that really the military had taught me. And that was just necessary. Riding combat, it's not an option to give up. Well, as a police officer, it's just as important that you have that never give up mentality. And that had to show from the way I wore my uniform to the way I did everything, every responded to every dispatch. But however, there was a problem, and that problem was income. I started meeting guys that were retiring with 25 and 30 years on who were still making like 30, 35,000 a year and maybe 40 with a lot of overtime. And so finally I realized that, you know what, this is just not what's best. There's no room to make really any more money. And I had to make a change also. I got married during that time. My wife Chelsea and I just passed each other in the hallway the first whole year of marriage. So I could quickly see that this is just not what is best. And so it was also at this time where, you know, I started looking for some other way to supplement my income. Again. I felt, I felt helpless. This is like 2008, nine now and I had no college and I thought, well, what else can I do, you know. And so I started looking and I figured out that hey, lots of people have built wealth in real estate. Not like one or two people, but like, you know, hundreds of thousands of people. And in, you know, 90% or more of millionaires have built their wealth in real estate. And so I thought, okay, if all those people can do it, I can do something, right, I can do something to supplement my income. Quickly bought two triplexes, made a bunch of mistakes. It was a university to say the least. It man cost a lot of sleepless nights. So I was self managing these units. We were remodeling a house. We were working the worst schedule as a police officer. Newly married, quite stressful time in a new marriage to say the least. But the Lord was faithful and sustained us. I quickly then transitioned as a federal agent. I became a federal agent and that moved us to Virginia where we live now. And so I at the same time, and this is same from way out in left field, however, it's very true. And I had a passion since I was a little boy and just dreamed about being a cowboy. I had passion to ride horses, train horses. And so guess what? I started. I'd been riding quite a bit, but I took it to a whole nother level at this time. And we bought a farm and I was training horses. I was doing clinics all over the country. I was selling horses for more money than I ever imagined. I was still working full time as a federal agent and actually had bought a 15 unit property with another partner and dabbled in some other real estate as well, all at the same time. So if you can imagine just the madness. But however, I found myself still not spending any time with my wife and actually at that time my two boys, I would be in the arena till most nights till midnight and, and found out, you know what, this is just, it's just not worth it. And so my wife and I were walking on the beach one fall and really having what we call, I like to call thinking time. And we were just praying and walking and thinking, you know, what are we going to keep doing this? Is it going to help us to reach our goals? Are we going to. Are we going to accomplish our goals, say, three to five years from now? Is this going to do it? And it was obvious that while I was making very good money training horses, and it was never going to be passive, it was always going to require me to do it. If I get injured, guess what? That's gone completely. Right? And so. And those people wanted me to train their horse.

They didn't.

They didn't want somebody else working for me to do it. And so I. We had to make a very big decision and a very tough decision that I know if we hadn't have made this decision now, we would not be where we're at today. However, we decided to sell our farm. And I share a lot of that story because it was a. It was a deep passion, and I loved training, loved riding. It came very easy to me as well, and. And I still do a little bit now, but nothing like I did then. But we gave all that up. We sold the farm. We sold everything related to that business and completely committed to the commercial real estate business. And so over the next, you know, say, few months after that, I made some massive changes. We moved into a small house in town. I built an office in a basement of this little house that we bought in the corner, and that's practically where I live the next two and a half years, unfortunately. And so we started the daily podcast at seven days a week. And so we've recorded almost 1200 interviews now in the last three years. That podcast pushed me to build teams. It pushed me to hire people. I mean, it pushed me in ways that I never imagined. So before starting that podcast, I don't know that I'd ever spoken into a microphone twice in my life and didn't even know what a podcast was. However, I'd seen it work for many people, and I thought, okay, there's no reason to reinvent the wheel here. If. If they can do it again, if they can do it, I can do it, too. I can do something right? I can make this happen. I'll figure it out. There are many roadblocks or bumps in the way, people telling me I was crazy, all that stuff, but you know what? I said, you know what? We're going to keep pushing forward, but there's something. And actually, the podcast, I mean, it's got me on many stages now and just speaking in front of more people than I ever imagined, but something that's behind that growth, and. And I think for your show, it would be. I'll elaborate as much as you want, but on that, that two and a half year period, there was just a very stressful time. And there are some details there that I think would be helpful to many listeners. But, but, but moving forward, you know, we, my wife and I, when we moved to Roanoke, we heard a pastor talk about how they had adopted and how there's 150 plus million orphans in the world. And growing up in that little town, we had never been exposed to adoption. We didn't even, I don't think we even knew anybody that had ever been adopted. However, on our way home, we kept asking ourselves, why would we not adopt? And it seems so simple to us. Like, that just seemed like the right thing to do. So within, within a week, we turned in our application to adopt from Ethiopia. And two years later, our first son, Samuel came home from Ethiopia. A year after that, our second son, Elijah came home. And then now we have a daughter as well. You enjoy. That came to our family, who is two and she is two and a half. I. It came to our family through adoption. So our family has been just greatly blessed by adoption and by our children. And what the Lord has done there, however, is a massive financial burden. And so it can cost 40 to 60 grand to bring a child home through adoption. And so Lord just pushed my wife and I to help other families to commit. Right. Oftentimes couples will tell us, hey, Whitney, that's more than we make in a year. How could we even start that process to bring a child home through adoption? So we started the Lockbridge foundation, committed half of our personal profits from our Lockbridge capital to that foundation that are helping families now commit in a big way where they can actually see accomplishing being able to afford to adopt now. It's been incredible to see that start to happen. It allows our investors to play a role in that as well, even though it doesn't affect their returns. But that's been a big thing that's motivated my wife and I and our family and now many other people as well. It changed everything for us and now it's beginning to change everything for many other people also. I'll be quite a minute, let you ask some questions.

Wow, Whitney, that was unbelievable. I mean, what an incredible story. Thank you so much for sharing with our audience and I mean, just so much hope and passion there and just wonderful to hear, especially your dedication and your mission to help orphans from around the world. So I'd love to now kind of go back a little Bit. And I want to talk about that decision when you made the jump into full time commercial real estate. So this is right when you sold the farm, so to speak. And I mean, that must have been a really scary time. And I believe that fear is one of the main reasons why people don't invest. Right. It might be because they don't have the knowledge, they don't feel that they have the wherewithal. So here you literally put it all on the line. How did you think that you could turn commercial real estate investing into a full time profession to support yourself and your family?

Yeah, great question. It was a massive commitment. And you have to remember, like those first two triplexes I bought, they didn't turn out so great. You know, like, that was not the greatest experience. However, we learned a lot. We learned a lot the hard way. And so that kind of tainted that experience a little bit for us, right? Especially for my wife, like, do we really want to go do that again? But you know, it speaks volumes to what the Lord did in our marriage as well. And it only strengthened us in a big way. So when we decided to sell the farm, we literally sold the farm. I knew that if we were going to, we were just going to make this happen in a big way, that that was the commitment level it was going to take. I knew that many people were going to ask me to keep training their horses. I was always going to be tempted to do that and want to do it too. And so I knew that, hey, we've just got to cut this off completely. I mean, I built a brand in that industry and started doing some big stuff there. And so it was great. I mean, it was like I said, it was like a passion since I was a little boy. But I knew that, hey, if we're going to do this, it won't be forever, but we've got to do this and change our entire family's trajectory altogether. And that's what we've done. It was not easy. I remember my wife and I pulling out of the driveway. I'll never forget it. Both of us just bawling, you know, just, you know, sad, right, that we're, that we're selling the farm, the house, I mean, really, that we had always dreamed of. But you know, James, right before that, when I was exposed to more commercial real estate conferences and businesses and people in this space, I started traveling to conferences and again, remember all those times where I've exposed myself to other people and it's like, okay, well, if they can do it, guess what? I can do it, too. And that's what happened again. So I started going to these conferences and people were. I started meeting guys and gals who were buying 100 unit complexes. And they had only been in the business maybe a year or two, you know, and if you had asked me if that was possible before that, I would have laughed at you. You know, I would have said, oh, maybe 20 years from now, maybe 30 years from now. However, by being around all these people, it was like, okay, hey, if they can do it, I can do this too. And I just want us to be completely committed and make it happen as fast as possible.

So let's talk about that first deal. Because you said that you had invested, you did the triplexes, those didn't work out so great. But then you end up doing a 15 unit. So I would assume that kind of gave you a window into the possibility of doing multifamily. So you must have had a capital partner, or did you literally take all the proceeds from the farm sale and kind of plow it into your first investment, maybe for our audience. Because I love talking about that first deal because I think that one can sometimes be the hardest. So, you know, did you already have a capital partner or were you out finding the properties? Talk about how, you know, you made your first.

Yeah, so I'll briefly go into both those projects just a little bit. So the triplexes actually had one investor. Who was the capital. I mean, I was a police officer not making anything. Right. I didn't have the down payment for a project like that. However, I did know, you know, somebody that would invest with me or I built a relationship with who would. Who did partner with me on those triplexes. They were paid every penny. They were promised or projected. Just, just so everybody knows. But, you know, and that was just, like I said, a big learning experience for us in a massive way. That. And, you know, that was like, like I said 2008, nine time period, the crash didn't mess with me. I didn't. It wasn't making enough money for it to even matter at that time. But, but, you know, the 15 unit, I actually had a business partner on that or a partner that, that we went together on that project. However, we got seller financing. And so we had a connection that, you know, they were. They knew we were looking for property. And I didn't Even imagine a 15 unit at that time. I was thinking fourplex, maybe fiveplex, if I could find it, you know, and then somebody, somebody at a meetup, hey, they knew of somebody that Their, I think their father had passed away or was very sick and he had been living in this, in one of these units for like 30 years, you know, managing self. Managing this property. And he had actually done a really good job. He had kept it up very well, but he was willing to self manage, obviously, you know, he was expecting not to survive too many more years. And he knew if, that if he could postpone some capital gains, you know, and those things, if we, if he self managed and carried a note, things like that, or became a partner for a short period of time. So that's ultimately what we did. We ended up selling that project, you know, probably a year to two years in. But finding a project that somebody was self managed or self finance, that's what I meant to say. He self financed, our owner financed that project and that's what allowed me to get into that property at that time.

And I guess that threw off enough cash flow then that you could see how if you scale this enough that this could become a full time business for you.

Not so much. Not so much, you know, a little bit. But no, you know, that honestly, that property didn't give me hope that I could go do this thing. I mean, it was more so again, meeting all these other people that had, that had done it, who had built a commercial real estate business. And the more I ingrained myself in the syndication business and figured out, hey, you know what, I can get really good at a part of this business and then I can start building my team of experts and start growing a business. And that's ultimately what we did.

Amazing. All right, so why don't you define for office or for audience what syndication is? Because it means different things to different people. So how would you define syndication for what you do?

Yeah, that's a great question. And yeah, depending on who your audience is, that can be a term that people aren't very familiar with. But ultimately, you know, somebody's buying a large apartment building or a large commercial project, oftentimes it's not one person buying that. And if somebody has $10 million to invest, they're typically not wanting to put all of that in one project either. Right. And so we may bring together 100 investors in one project. And so the process of bringing all those people together so we can buy a larger project is syndicating. Right? We're syndicating that piece of commercial real estate. And it's as simple as bringing all those people together. There's a legal side to that that has to be accomplished, of course, but.

But you know, there's a private placement. I mean, are these typically.

That's right.

Investors. So these are. And again, people will have to, you know, consult with their own advisors. I know there's rules, what you can and can't say, but. But, you know, again, these are private placements where you're bringing in accredited investors.

That's right. That's right. And so it is a private placement. I mean, they are buying a share of this property. I mean, they actually physically own the property. They're making cash flow every month. They're also getting the tax benefits every year as well.

Got it. So talk to me about the podcast, because you said that very early on you committed to doing this daily, which it just blows my mind. I mean, we do the podcast once a week, and it's a lot of work. It's a lot of effort, lining up everyone's schedule and doing the research and the recording and the editing. So, you know, it amazes me that you said, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do a daily podcast. And here you are over a thousand shows later, so maybe talk about getting that off the ground. And again, if you were new to the business, who did you even know who to interview to start with?

Great question. And so I started with other podcasts, ultimately to find people. Right. And it's difficult at first when you don't have a track record. You've never interviewed anybody before who wants to be on your show. Right. Because who's listening? Well, nobody at first. Right. But you have to start somewhere, and you can't give up that easy. But you know what? I noticed some other people, even in other industries, who really exploded by having a daily show. And so I thought, okay, if I'm going to do this, I'm just going to go all out. We're just going to make this happen. And a quick story. You know, I was at a couple conferences, and I was speaking with two different individuals who are very highly respected in our industry, who most people, if you even know, if anything about real estate, you've probably heard of these two people. And I was sharing with them about the daily podcast, and both of them said, whitney, you're crazy. Why would you do that? You know, and considering who those people were, it made me question it. Right. I typically wasn't, like, thrown off that easy. But like I said, considering who they were, I was like, okay, maybe I should reconsider this. But I had. I had a great mentor, and I was. I told him about it, and he Was like, Whitney, that's why you have to do it, because it's too much work for most people, right? And so I was like, okay, I'm going to figure this out. And so often I talk about, you know, I over committed in a massive way. There's no way I could get all that done. And so that's why it pushed me to build a team. It pushed me to hire people. So I have never personally hired or I've never personally edited the first piece of audio or video or found the first guest. Okay, there might be people I meet at a conference, I'm like, hey, you should be, you know, you should, you should be on our show or something like that. But I built a team to do those things. And I, because I knew from the very beginning if I tried to do a weekly show, I would try to do it all myself. I would try to do the audio editing and video editing and post all the stuff in the show notes. And I would have gotten behind, probably quit, honestly, especially anyway, probably would have quit. But I knew by doing a daily show, it just was not possible. So I had to build a team. And that's pushed me. And I mean, we're producing podcasts for a lot of other people now as well. It's, you know, become almost its own business because we had to build good processes, we had to build systems that, that would help us to streamline that entire process. And so that way, when I have a recording day, I mean, I used to record. So during that two and a half year period, every other Monday, I would record 12 to 15 interviews in one day. Just back to back to back, as hard as I could possibly go. Uh, my wife and I called it my marathon day. She would literally pack me lunch to go down to the basement. Uh, and so my, my kids unfortunately knew that they wouldn't see me till Sunday most weeks. You know, during that time. I'm not proud of that, but that is the level of dedication it took during that time.

I gotta imagine that, you know, over a thousand interviews every time. I mean, I know when I interview someone I'm learning that. And that's part of the fun as well is I'm picking along the way. So I got to imagine if you're new to the business, you know, you're a sponge, you're picking up things from your different guests and you're applying, so there's that piece to it. But then you're also building up this incredible following and investor base. And I'm looking at your, your website@lifebridge capital.com and people you know can go there and they can find out about your platform and your investments. So, you know, maybe speak to both those parts as far as, you know, your guests, and I'm sure they've been helpful for your business and then also your listeners who've become investors.

Yes. So, I mean, podcasting does lots of things for you and your business. It has pushed me to grow in so many ways, like I've already expressed. But that connection like you just talked about, you know, with that guest, I mean, it's. You just can't even put a value on it, you know, and so it's like networking on steroids. Right? You go to a conference, you're trying to meet as many people as possible. Well, I mean, that is what the podcast almost is essentially, you know, getting to meet people in the business. And early on, it's people that, like you mentioned earlier, James, that wouldn't typically maybe take the time to speak to you. Right. But if you have a podcast, then you have a means of reaching out to them in a way to add value to them. And then all of a sudden, you have them on your show for 30, 40 minutes or however long, and you get to ask any question you want, you know, of the experts. Right. So it became my own university. I got to ask all the experts, all the questions. And guess what? If we're working on a project and I, you know, there's something we are trying to figure out, guess what's probably going to come up during some of the interviews. You know, I'm going to ask some of those people those questions. So that as my network exploded. Right. Very quickly, with no doubt, it had a direct relation on our business as well and our ability to raise money. So credibility is called credibility by association. Right. Associating myself with all these experts, so eventually, you know, I'm viewed as an expert as well. And eventually you become an expert after you talk and ask questions of so many people.

So it seems that your audience and your investor base now has really grown. So you. In your bio on your site, it says that in some instances, you've been able to raise $10 million in a matter of hours. So talk about how that actually works. What is the process when you launch a new investment? How do you bring it out? I mean, the idea of raising that kind of money in only a matter of hours, you know, you must have this down to a science.

It's. We've had to get it down to a science. I mean, it's. Been a must. And so I would say the first project, you know, I raised $250,000. And I say that because I don't like the limiting beliefs that people have as they. Well, I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody that's accredited or I don't. I'm not. I don't ever go to the country club or, you know, those types of things. And guess what? I was not raised in a family of anybody that were investors and anybody that could invest. And honestly, I had the best job that most people had ever had in our family. And so you can imagine, you know, when I was a federal agent, so you can imagine when I tell my family, hey, I'm going to leave this federal agent position. I mean, that's a massive shock, right? Massive shock that I'm planning to do that. However, it was a must, obviously. But I lost my train of thought. Remind me.

Well, I wanted to understand what is.

Oh, the capital raise process for raising.

Capital, because you've got the podcast, you got your website. I mean, I've had a lot of investors come on the show, and they also leverage social media. So I don't know if that's. But how do you reach your audience? And what is the process for raising money for your deals?

That's right. So I wanted to blow the myth out of the water that, hey, if you don't have a network, you can't raise any money or you can't get started. So I started going to conferences. I would travel, flying all over the country two, two times a month, typically going to conferences and meeting as many people as I possibly could. And that first $250,000 came from people that I had met at those conferences. And so I did another deal probably four or five months later. So we had started the podcast at this time, but I started another project a few months later. We doubled that. Okay. I started another project. Probably six months later, we more than doubled it again. So now we're almost to one and a half million on the third race. And by the next raise, we had more than quadrupled that as well. So that between the podcast going out and there's different things about the podcast you need to know. I mean, obviously you're utilizing that guest network as well. You know, you're hoping you're. And you're making as easy as possible for them to share the show. But that's your. That's your goal, right? You know, for them to be able to share the show. You want to promote them. But they're also promoting you at the same time. And so also the. Another piece that I want to share there that helps us to raise a lot of money is having that mission and having that why, having that. And everybody says, I, you know, don't tell. I don't want to hear about your having a why, whatever. And let me tell you, when I first started going to those conferences, when somebody get up on stage and talk about having a why, that's when I would check out. I go to the back of the room. That's when I start networking again, saying, I, you know, I don't want to hear that nonsense. Give me some, some actionable steps here. And let me tell you, that is probably the most actionable step we've taken is having that strong why that strong mission behind Lockbridge Capital that's bigger than just a financial gain. Because that, believe it or not, your investors want to be part of something that's bigger than just a financial gain. And when you can show them how they're a part of something like that, you know, and you're a great operator, of course, and all those things, it just, they start referring other people, right? They love working with you. They will even hold their capital to work with you because they are a part of something bigger than even just their income, that financial gain. And I'll tell you, everybody talks about no like and trust. You've probably heard that so much. If you're trying to raise money, you're trying to work with investors, you've heard that this triangle everybody talks about no like and trust. And so I often say, you know what, there's a corner of that that's missing, and that's loyalty. And loyalty. When you can gain loyalty from investors, you can raise so much more money than you ever imagined. And so and faster. And so, you know, that's why, you know, a year and a half to two years later, we'll have ten, you know, $10 million in signups in just a few hours. And so, and I, and I'm happy to go through that process, but I wanted to give you an example of that. You think about somebody like Harley Davidson, like that brand. I mean, people tattoo Harley Davidson logo on their arm or on their back. I mean, that is somebody that is so loyal to that brand, right? I mean, that tattoo's not going anywhere easily. And they're advertising that to their friends, how committed they are. And that person's probably going to own a Harley Davidson the rest of their life, right? Or even Apple, right? People wait outside in the cold, sleeping all night to get that next device when they could go a week later and probably get it in 10 minutes. Right? So that's the type of loyalty you want to be able to build. And by having a bigger mission, something that sets you apart, something that's different, something that's bigger than just a financial gain, that's how you're going to do it. So to go in your, your process, as far as, you know, we blast out an email and as a link, ultimately our investors know that the deals fill up very fast. I mean, sometimes, you know, within hours they're full. And so they, they know ultimately they have to get in very fast. And that how that has helped that, you know, obviously, when investors, they've been in numerous projects with us and they get upset that they can't be in the next one because they didn't get it in time. But, you know, as deals get bigger, obviously we allow more and more investors, but that helps that. So there's many other steps to that process. Happy to go into as much of that as you want.

Well, I'd love to talk about, you know, that first meeting, right. Because I think for a lot of our listeners, they're probably, you know, we get a lot of real estate professionals, maybe they're brokers, they're thinking about doing their first investment and they're going to these conferences, they're meeting people. So, you know, I'd love to hear what was your pitch, right? Because you said you go to these conferences, you know, twice a month and you know, from there that was really your investor base. So, you know, again, when you, when you take us back to when you were going to these conferences for the first time and you didn't have a track record, right. But you got an idea. How are you, you know, again, you're meeting these people for the first time, how are you gaining their trust and ultimately their loyalty?

That is, that is an excellent question. And so I talk about this often and I talk about that first conversation and often as well when you're building loyalty because it's so crucial, right. And so if you only have five minutes with someone, what are they going to remember about you? Okay. And like, listeners should think about that, right? Like, what is this person going to remember about me, you know, and did I talk about me more or did I talk about them more or ask more good questions, you know, about this person. Right. To learn about them more? So just a couple questions for you to think about, but also, so I would encourage you to not talk about real estate so much. You know, think about this. You're at a conference, you know, there's 200 people there, 300, whatever, a thousand. Or even if there's 25, and you're at a meetup and everybody's talking to all these people, if everybody's talking about real estate or the next duplex or commercial property, whatever, how many people are you really going to remember? Right? And so not very many. Ultimately. You might remember the first couple or the last couple or maybe one or two things that stood out to you. However, when I would go to a conference and everybody shakes a hand, right, and says, what do you do? And I would say, when my wife and I started a foundation that helps families adopt children. And so we committed half of our personal profits to that foundation to help these families to bring their children home. But we do that through our commercial real estate business, and our investors get to play a role in that by investing with us. And then I'm just silent. And so all of a sudden, there's a different string of questions that come after that than the conversations they've had with everybody else they've talked to that day, right? And so now they're asking me, well, wait a minute, you know, tell me about the nonprofit. How is that connected to your business? And, you know, and then they're out there asking about adoption and those things, right? So it's something that. It's something that obviously I'm passionate about. And they can see that, you know, they can feel that, you know, as we're talking. And so even if it's a short conversation, they start asking questions about that, you know, learning about that, and then I'm going to ask about them, right? I'm wanting to learn those things about them. So when I follow up, up the next day or even if it's a week later, you know, I can say, you know, hey, John, you know how, you know, great to meet you. I enjoy learning about your desire to fish more or whatever it may be, that personalized thing. But guess what? They remember who I am because of that unique conversation that we had, even though, as short as it may have been, it's very different than all the rest of them they had that were just about trying to get somebody to, you know, selling somebody or selling them, you know, to invest in their dealers.

Whitney, I really hope that our audience, they're listening closely and they're taking notes because what you said just there is so powerful, and it's certainly been my experience as well, and looking to get to know people beyond just a transactional level and really separating yourself from the masses. And I love what you had to say about your why and your driving force. So from there you've got your investor base and I would imagine then you've got your follow up because I'm sure that's part of it as well. You meet someone at a conference, it's not like then you just send them an email and they invest. So what happens? How do you stay in touch with your audience?

Yeah, that's a great question. And that's changed over time. We've improved. I mean, it's just this continual improvement process. Right. And early on I did not have a great process. I would do that manually. You know, I would, I would have to put that person's business card in our little CRM at the time and you know, and try to follow up with that person and try to get them on the phone again or to build that relationship, you know, in some way, hopefully adding some kind of value to them. Or hey, if I knew they were interested in a specific asset class or something else, I may try to even find an article to send them. Right. I didn't even have to write the article, but I could maybe search for just a few minutes and find some way to add value to them. That was early on. That's how I would do that then. Now obviously we have a system and a much more robust system where we're able to add a lot more value to investors with a lot less work on our part. Right. So there are streams of emails that go out to investors now over a year to two years where they're receiving content from me, they're receiving videos from me that are telling them and educating them about parts of our business. And so my goal is for them to be educated investors for. Right. I want them to know what they're investing in and everyone there to be a surprise. You know, when they invest with us, I want them to even just feel educated too and be confident in decisions to partner with us or even anybody else in the business as they're learning about commercial real estate.

Perfect. So, Whitney, I'd love to now talk about the types of properties that you're investing in. So if I'm not mistaken, you live in Virginia now, you've made investments in Denver, I think you had also said in Idaho. So talk about the types of deals you're doing, how you find them and how you're operating them.

Yeah, great question. So I'll back up a little bit. You know, When I was going to all those conferences, I was introduced to a guy through a mutual acquaintance and who ultimately became my business partner. But before this, I had been asked to partner with lots of people and had turned them down. And I had said, yeah, I mean, it was just too much. Too much risk. Right? I had spent so much time and money building this investor base, working so hard to build that trust and loyalty like we've been talking about, that I was not willing to partner with just anyone and just waste it. Right. And blow it away. So I was very patient and tried to be very patient and said no a lot. Just so listeners know that you need to be able to say no often, you know, and make a very wise decision on who your partners are going to be. Because I treated this just like a marriage. But at this conference, I met this guy, and immediately I heard him talking about how, you know, just his faith, his family, and how much he. And he had accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. And so we had a lot of things in common. But I could also tell that we had complimentary skill sets. And so my wife and I had been praying for a partner for a long time, and it was obvious that, hey, this. This is. This is it. Like, he's got skill sets that I don't have. I have skill sets that he does not have. And I think. I think we'd be a good partner or make a good partnership. So the last night of the conference, I pulled him aside, and I was very open with him. We didn't have much time, but I pulled him aside and I just said, you know, we've been praying for a partner for a long time, and you seem to fit the bill. I'd love to ultimately get to know you better if that's something you're open to. And so. And that was really our first conversation around it. We had a great conversation. He lived there where this conference was. He ended up taking me to his house. It was like, 10:30 or 11 at night. And his wife had, like, homemade bread and coffee there when I got there. So I knew it was meant to be. Right. But ultimately, I got to meet them. He took me to the airport, and what we ended up doing was spending hours on Zoom together, he and I and our spouses. Okay. And knowing that we were moving forward in a partnership or that was the plan. Okay. And we knew that, hey, this is your time to ask any question that you can even think of. We want to be as open and honest as possible because we both treat this like a marriage. And so, and we did. We want our spouses to be involved in that as well. And so what happened is he had the deal flow, right. He had been, he had been networking with brokers for a while and had built some relationships, but he didn't have the network. Right. He couldn't raise the money. And so I had been working on that part. And so when we were able to join, our first project was $30 million. And so that's, that's pretty uncommon. But that was our first project together. And you ask about where we're finding deals, they're all through brokers, especially right now. They're all through broker connections and those relationships, especially as we've done more and more projects and they know we can close, they know we can do these deals and have worked with them many times. It's building that relationship. So the projects typically are our C class, some type of value add. They've all been mid to late 70s vintage. Other than we have one that's a class A project in Boise, 172 units. And we also have three developments happening in Boise as well right now. But majority of them are older type projects that have a problem that we can fix. And so there's some way that, hey, we can go in and remodel or sometimes just better management and increase the value drastically.

Wow. So I love what you said about finding the right partner who complements your skill set. And that makes a ton of sense. And that's great advice. But I'm still in shock and amazement that your first deal together was $30 million. So I mean, I gotta imagine that again, the equity check on that probably was close to $10 million. So you've got this network, you've got this following, but how do you know, how did you know that they were going to step up at that level? It sounded like some of the earlier deals you raised a half a million. A million? A million and a half. I mean this was really like going from double a ball to the pros.

It was, it was a little scary to say the least. We weren't sure, but we hope that we could raise it. And Sam could raise some money as well. He had a really good network, so he did raise quite a bit of money as well to help us to get to that, to get to that point. But it was, it was close to $8 million raised. And so honestly we didn't know 100% that. I mean, and you don't. Right? I mean, every time you go out to do a Bigger raise. You don't know till you do it right. But you need to have some confidence. Obviously you don't want to go do a $10 million raise if all you've ever raised, $500,000, it's probably not going to happen. We did have backup plans. We did have other people that could help us if needed, but we were able to make it happen.

Amazing. So, Whitney, I'd love to hear more about kind of your way of doing business because, look, real estate gets a reputation. Oftentimes you're doing business with people with sharp elbows. I mean, you're clear, you're mission driven. You've got this incredible foundation with your faith. I mean, how do you approach the business on a day to day basis? And you know, this sounds like the kind of situation where, you know, where the good guys win. So, you know, talk about, you know, your business ethics and how that's been important to your success.

Yeah, that's a great question. And you know, as far as how we look at the business, I mean, we have, you know, I would say we have big goals just like anyone. We, you know, want to do big things, of course. And, but I think, you know, as far as looking at the business, some of the first things I think of is like our culture, culture within our business, you know, within our team. I mean, we have five full time people in the States right now. We're hiring, we're looking to hire a couple more right now. An asset manager, another, an acquisitions director as well, full time, possibly another marketing person. But we have like 10 right now, I think 10 full time people in the Philippines as well. And so our team has grown a lot. But I think within the business, it's having good culture, having a culture where everybody feels like they're part of the team. Everybody feels like they're respected. By myself, you know, the CEO, you know, myself, they feel like, hey, they can talk to me anytime they want. I have meetings with, I have meetings with almost. I don't, not everybody in the Philippines, but my manager there and a few other people. But then everybody else, I meet with them individually almost weekly. Um, you know, and so to have those conversations of where we're at, where are we going? Are we, are we checking those boxes off? Are we, you know, what do you need? You know, do you need something from me that you just don't have? You know, are there questions that I need to answer that you don't have answers for? But then it's also equipping those people, right? Finding the right People. And I would say, you know, finding somebody that you can trust is more valuable than finding somebody with skills. And so we can train people, right? Or get them training. We want them to be talented individuals. But hey, you know, if you're trustworthy and, I mean, we can train you, right? And I think some of that has played into that. But then finding people that are. That will go after it and get the job done, you know, without me holding their hand, has been crucial as well. But then giving them the reins as well, right? You know, giving them the reins to run a little bit and make some decisions, even if they're. If you think they might mess up a little bit, it's usually not the end of the world. And, hey, they learn a lot, you know, and knowing. And I've had people say this. I've had my employees say this. You know, there have been investors. Their investor was upset about something recently, and you know what, and it was something that one of our employees did. But I just emailed right back and said, you know what? I'm sorry, this is completely my fault, you know, and we're doing this to fix the problem. Right. Or I may even call that investor personally and say, hey, I'm sorry. It's completely my fault, you know, then this is what we're doing to fix that, you know, and trying to make it as right as we possibly can or going above and beyond. We're not above mistakes, to say the least. However, man, that's. I didn't even think about it, honestly, as much at the time, but that spoke volumes to that employee. Right? I mean, they, like, they did an annual review with that. With that employee recently, and that was a big thing. They brought up that they just appreciated me going to back for them. Right. And me not just turn around and casting them down because they had made a mistake. Right. I didn't bring it up again. We talked about what we're going to do to fix it, of course, but I did not talk about, again that they had made a mistake. They knew they made a mistake.

That's incredible leadership. And to allow your team to make decisions and knowing that sometimes mistakes are going to happen, but you've got their backs. I mean, that's really incredible. So, Whitney, this has been an amazing conversation. We only have a minute or two left, but always love to end the interviews. Just your advice for the aspiring investor. For someone who's yet to make their, you know, their first deal, where do they start? What advice would you give for someone starting out?

Yes. So there's so many trains of thought around that I think you have to decide what your goals are personally, you know, obviously your level of risk that you're willing, willing to take. But are you, you know, are you, are you. How much work are you wanting to do? Right. How involved are you wanting to be personally? And so it's something to think about. Am I going to be active? Am I really, am I going to go find a duplex or a four plex and get started? Or, you know, do I, do I really love my job and I just want to invest passively, Right. And that's a great option for most. Right. It's not the only option. Obviously, you know, are you going to make more money in real estate if you're doing your own deals? Maybe it's possible. But, you know, it's also a lot more risk too, at first if you've never done it. Right. And so, you know, I was talking to an investor the other day. He and his wife had sold a house. They made like $300,000 or something. And so they were like, well, why should we invest passively when we can do that? You know, And I said, well, you've done it once, you know, and how long did you own that home? And how many, you know, how can you, how many more can you find like that, Right? How much time is that going to take? Or can you find another one? Right. Who's going to do that? Who's going to manage them? Who's going to, you know, fix the toilet? Who's going to take those tenant calls, right? And so, you know, and then they're like, okay, well, that makes a lot of sense because I don't know if I could find another one. Right? And so you have to think through what your goals are, right? And you want to get started passively investing. Well, obviously you want to, you want to figure out good operators, you want to figure out deal sponsors. And when I say sponsor, it's somebody like myself, you know, who, who's fine, who has that team already, who has the systems in place, who's buying projects. You can invest passively and own part of the project, you know, and never have to take the first call. You get a check and an update from us every month. But you want to get to know that person. And there's so many questions, and I'll just say this and I'll quit, but you want to get to know that person because that relationship with that individual is, is so much more important than the deal or the market or any other those things that we could talk about. Those things are important. However, if you don't have trust in that person, that sponsor that operator, then man, you're going down a dark road already. Right? So get to know that person. And I would say start there. Even think about passively investing if you can, before you try to be an active operator as well. You're going to learn a lot.

Whitney, that's phenomenal advice and I really hope our audience takes it to heart. You've got such an incredible story and we really appreciate your sharing it. And I would really encourage our listeners to check out your daily podcast, the Real Estate Syndication show and how else. Whitney, what's the best way for them to find you?

Lifebridgecapital.com I would tell you though. Email me whitneyifebridgecapital.com and also you can call or text me 540-585-4338. Please reach out if I can help in any way.

Whitney that was phenomenal. Thank you so much for joining us. This is your host, James Nelson, Real Estate Investing Live from New York. I really appreciate your listening your support. If you haven't already, please subscribe and rate the show. It helps other like minded investors find us. And lastly, if you haven't checked out my new website, james nelson.com Please do it. I built this site for you as an investor hub you to help you gain the inside edge to real estate investing. There's plenty of helpful tools on there. Don't forget to subscribe to the exclusive video series and connect with me if you haven't already at James Nelson nyc. Thank you again. And until next week, thank you for.

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Sam.