Unlock Hidden Legacy Clients: Serve the Circles You Already Lead. Guest: Josh Washington

So, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for taking the time to spend some time with Josh and I. I want to introduce Josh Washington. Josh is an extremely talented capital raiser, has done multiple real estate deals, has been involved in syndications, and he is a coach on how to make not just raise money, but involve people in raising money with you. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn this over to Josh Washington and let him tell us a little about. A little bit about creating your ideal client avatar in raising money. Back over to you, Josh.

Awesome. Thank you, James, for the amazing introduction. Yeah, this is a very exciting topic for me because it's really all about finding your tribe and then bringing them value through real estate investing or whatever it is that your product or service is. Right. So, yeah, let's go ahead and jump right into it. I'm excited.

Perfect. Let's see if we can't figure out how to change. So there you go. Just tell me when to click the button and I'll. I'll move the slides for you.

Awesome. So a little bit more information about myself. For the last three years, I've been a coach at raising capital.com and I've helped over 200 clients raise somewhere around a quarter billion dollars. And the main thing that these people did that was the differentiator is they were able to tap into who they were as a person. Right. Their branding. Right. And be able to connect with people who are like them. Right. Often, just like it says, hidden gold is in plain sight. The people who are already around us doing the activities that we already enjoy are often our. Our tribe, our ideal client. Right. And all we need to do is break through that barrier, that limiting belief when it comes to talking to the people that we already know and who like and trust us and serving them. Right. Giving them an opportunity to join us on this journey. Right. Whatever the journey is, it could be investing in real estate, it could be learning how to overcome ADHD and the obstacles that come with that, or it could be how to get their car service quickly and easily. So this is something that covers a huge range of industries and services and products. But like I said, it all starts with tapping into who you are as a person, what you're already doing in your day to day life, and then opening it up so that way you can talk to other people about it. A really good story I'll tell is actually when I first met James, right. One thing if you know James is he's a lifelong learner. He Loves learning things, sharpening the saw, so to speak. And that's one thing that we connected over. I love reading books, I love going to conferences and joining masterminds. So just that one thing that both of us already do, and you know, that's one way you can connect with someone. So often it's those things about yourself that don't necessarily seem, you know, exemplary or that someone will actually connect to is what's going to actually form that connection. Now, most of the time, what we try to do as business owners or coaches or service providers is we try to get very generic. So that way we're casting a wide net, right? No one wants to get too specific with the fear that you're excluding people. But what's actually counterintuitive is when you're talking to everyone, you're talking to no one. A really good example I like to give is right now I'm in a lobby, like a hotel lobby, right? And let's say this lobby was full of people, right? And if I saw all these people around me and I said, hey, you, you. Hey, you. Right? Someone might turn around, someone might give me their attention, someone might spark up a conversation. But if I'm more specific and if I say, hey, James or hey, John, right, That's going to actually be the thing that's going to get someone to turn around in a crowded room. What business owners have to realize is, especially online, the Internet is a very crowded room with everyone shouting, screaming and trying to get people's attention. So what you need to do is focus in and get really specific about the type of person and the person that you're talking to. You don't want to do generic. Generic does not build trust and it does not get intention. The one thing that you have that everyone that's listening to this has is your own personality, your own interests and yourself, right? The combination of those different things are specifically unique to you, Right? And those uniquenesses, once you share them, that's what's going to help you to attract your ideal client or the person who's going to go along with you on that journey. Let's go to the next slide. So that leads me to the mirror test, right? That's pretty much what I spoke about earlier when I was talking about your own personality, your own hobbies and your own interests, right? A way you can go even deeper with that. And this is like the secret sauce is you can ask yourself, five years ago, three years ago, maybe even one year ago, who was I? What were the obstacles in my life or the challenges that I was facing and what have I learned since then? So that way, essentially what you're doing is you're leading a past version of yourself to the place that you are at now, right? And I'll go a little bit deeper with an example. Let's say I'm crossing a river, right? And there's rocks on this river sporadically, right? And I'm hopping from rock to rock to get across the river. And that's a part of my journey. Now if there's someone behind me, they don't have to be, you know, I don't have to be five years ahead of them. I just have to be one rock ahead of them and then I can kind of give them information. Hey, this rock right here that I just jumped on, it's a little slippery, so you're going to want to watch out when you jump. And this rock right here, it wiggles, so be careful. This rock right here, this is a safe passage, right? So you're able to lead people on their own journey using your own experiences. And that was, makes things pretty much way more relatable and will allow people to want to follow you across and you can be the guide, you can be their Yoda. So that authenticity about your own journey, right? Sharing those hardships, that's what's going to really connect people with you and lead them to that next step. Foreign. Let's go to the next slide. So this is getting a little bit more specific, right? We kind of talked about the type of person that can be our ica, right? Someone who was like us in the past, right? And this is kind of where you can find those people, right? Once you kind of have an idea of who you're talking to now, like where do they hang out? Very counterintuitive, some people might say. It's actually obvious. Right? But where do you hang out? Where are the places that you go? Right. James, I'll ask you specifically. I like a little bit of interaction, right? Like, what's one thing that you do often in your own life that you think you can find your ica or that you found. That you found your ica?

Well, yeah, Josh, you know, I am a, I'm, I am a mastermind junkie, if you will. I'm a member of about 4 very high level masterminds. And so what I've done is, you know, I've created my I, my ica, my, my avatar to be the, an entrepreneur, somebody who's interested in growing, becoming more somebody who's looking for other pathways to build wealth and build income and, but typically there they are the type of people that go to masterminds, they go to business and professional and networking events. Like, you know, I'm today I'm at this Aspire Tour in San Antonio. You know, that is, you know, a great way to, great place to meet people and find people that are, you know, that actually fit in my customer avatar.

100%. And one thing you did just now that I want everyone to really focus in on is you started off with something that was, I would say slightly broad, right? Entrepreneurs. But what you did is you kept digging, right? You added two more things. You're like, I want to attract entrepreneurs, but not only that, I want entrepreneurs that are growth minded and love learning and love going to events, right? And when you add those I'll say adjectives, right? Digging a little bit deeper into it, that's when you're really going to find people who will connect with you. And yeah, that's a, that's an amazing avatar to have especially since it's something that you're already doing. So you don't even really have to change your life that much to get in front of these people, right? It's something you already enjoy, you're already going to be excited about and you know, it'll bring that energy naturally. So if you can find, for the people listening, if you can find something like that, where it's something you're already doing, whether it be pickleball, right? Maybe you're really into golf. Maybe you like to, you know, donate your time to non profits and maybe there's a specific, you know, organization that you're really attached into or maybe it's a faith based community. I've helped lots of clients, you know, who have been able to turn, you know, the congregation at the church they go to into their icp and all it took was kind of opening it up and sharing as well as looking around you with the people that you can already connect with. So very powerful stuff right there. Now once you've figured out who is it is who's your ideal client avatar, once you figured out where they're at, right? Normally it's places you're already at. It's how do you, you know, get past that barrier of actually talking to them about what it is you're doing, right? And that's gonna be, that could be a limiting belief for a lot of people. I don't want to bother people, you know, if they're there for pickleball you know, I don't want to start talking about my business or what I'm working on. One thing I like to remind people is that energy is contagious. Meaning if you give someone some energy, right? If you're curious about what they have going in in their lives, they're normally going to mirror that and reflect it back to you. Now, the curiosity does have to be genuine, right? Because you can't fake. You can't fake genuine curiosity. So, you know, really, like, want to know who these people are, really dig deep into, like what they're doing, what they have going on for them, things that they're excited about in the future, what they're working on. And inevitably, if you give them that curiosity, they're going to reciprocate, right? So that is probably the path of least resistance when it comes to sparking up conversations is just to be curious and they'll give you that curiosity back, and then you can start talking about ways that you can help them, whether it be your business or the service you provide. So, yeah, let's go ahead and hop to the next slide. Okay, sweet. So this is a case study. Actually, I haven't seen this slide, but the event lever case study. So pretty much, and this is something that I've seen for all of my clients, right, that I've worked with, is once you start sharing those lessons that you've learned going back to the river analogy, right? Hopping from stone to stone, once you're able to open up and be a little bit vulnerable, right, about your. Your journey, that's what's really going to add that human touch and that emotion so that other people can hop on there with you, right? It's one thing to be aspirational, right? Hey, I've raised X amount of money. You know, I have passive investments and I'm able to live off of them. Some people, that's going to be inspiring to them and they're going to want to look up to it. But at the same time, people want to hear a good hero story, right? One of the reasons everyone loves Batman is because he started off, you know, in a hard situation, right? Like his parents were killed. Like, it's a really sad story. But, you know, at the same time, he's able to go out there and protect people and save the day in Gotham City, right? So we need to do the same thing, and you need to do the same thing with your ideal client avatar. You need to tell them about the, the road bumps you hit along the way, right? Maybe even the pain that you felt right. I have one client, PETA's Mobile Home Parks. And his. His background was basically he was working a lot. He was working very long hours to the point where he felt like he didn't even know his own kids. Right. So he shares that story. Right. And that's what made him take the leap into real estate. And now, you know, he's able to spend more time with his family and people are going to relate to that, the people who invest with him. It's because they can hear that story and, and see themselves in it. Right. So don't be afraid to be vulnerable. Don't be afraid to share those hard times. It's not a sob story. Right. You're not trying to get pity. I hear that a lot. What you're doing is you're giving people a chance to grab on to something that you've done and that you've experienced. So that way they can see that in themselves. And then from there they're more likely to be like, you know what? This is someone who understands me and I want to now, you know, learn more about what it is they do. Right. Maybe they can help me with their real estate or maybe they can help me with xyz. So that's just a case study and how that vulnerability. Right. And your storytelling will help you connect with more people. Let's go to the next slide. So as you can see, we're kind of stacking it up. We started off with who is our icp, Right, Right. Or our ideal client avatar profile. Now it's where are these people at right now? It's how do I get into conversations with them? Once you have all of those three things put together, it all comes down to consistency. Right. You can't do this one time and accept results. You have to be consistent with it. Right. So once you meet these people, how are you following up with them? Do you have a follow up sequence? Do you have a system in place? Right. Are you continuing to tell your story on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on social media platforms? Whatever. Whatever social media that you're most comfortable with. That's what I would say to start and just try telling your story and see what responses you get. Right. Also, personalization is better than mass automation. So you know, if you're starting off, it's worth it to send texts to these people individually. Hey, was great meeting you yesterday. We had an amazing conversation. How else can I help you? Or are you interested in learning more about xyz? Not only do you have to stack these Three things. Now you have to be consistent with your outreach and that's what's really going to move the needle down. The. Move the needle. Sweet. Let's go to the next one. Sweet. Okay, so this is a chance to book a 30 minute ideal client avatar mapping session where pretty much everything we talked about. You'll be able to hop in and get personalized feedback on, you know, what you should do, what the next step is, how you're going to find these people, how you're going to tell your story. And yeah, this is something I love doing. It gets me energized. So if you're finding yourself stuck and you need some help, reach out. And I got you. Let's go to the next slide. So, yeah, go ahead, book your session within the next 48 hours. We're also going to have a live Q A session with both of us, James and Josh. We'll be able to answer any questions live. And like I said previously, just be authentic. Look around you and find the gold. You don't have to go digging too deep. You don't have to go too far. Start with where you're at, the people you know, the places you're at and you'll be amazed at who you'll be able to connect with.

So want to, I'm going to go ahead. That's a little bit about me. That's my, my company and how you can get in touch with me. And if you want, if you want a copy of my book, just go to ironmountaincapitalgroup.com and send them an info, sent an email info info at iron mountain capital group.com and I want to thank, I want to thank Josh for his time. Josh is, is a true master. I mean, you can't, I can't tell you how lucky we are to have been able to spend the time with Josh and allow him to spend a little bit of time with us. And of course, I mean, I'm sure you've got questions. Everybody has questions. You know, the biggest problem with people having questions is they don't ask them. So if you have a question for Josh while we've got him, while he's in a very giving mood, let's send out, you know, reach out to me@ironmountaincapitalgroup.com my phone number, 432-687-1408. Let's get, let's get the questions in the queue. So that Thursday, same time, same station, we will be able to answer your questions live. And if by any chance you know you can't be live or you can't attend it. Just send us an email and we'll get Josh to send you an email back and respond to your questions. Want to thank you, Josh, so much. I can't tell you. You know, I'll put in a plug. You have been an amazing coach and mentor to me and I truly want to tell you how much I appreciate all the time you've, you've taken with me because I know it's been frustrating at times. I'm not, probably not the best mentee you've ever run across, but you've been a great help to me. So ladies and gentlemen, want to thank you for your time. Again, if you have any questions about job for Josh, we'll get them to you. And you know, if you're listening to this on the replay, there's, you know, we'll still, we'll still help you. We'll still get your questions answered. So if you need to, like I said, send me a, an email. My email address is james.jamesblakemore.com or info@ironmountaincapitalgroup.com look forward to hearing from you. You all take a. Have a great day. Goodbye for now.

Thank you so much. Really quickly, before we go, I just wanted to drop my LinkedIn, so if you ever want to connect with me or, you know, talk about what you're doing, just go to Joshua S. Washington619. You can connect with me there. And James, thank you so much. You're actually one of my favorite people to coach. I love our conversations and I appreciate this opportunity.

You bet you have. You have a great, have a great week.

You too, James. Bye.

Bye.