Cody Davis bought 81 units by 21 using a three-part story framework: where you come from, where you're going, and why it matters. He started with $3,000, coached gymnastics, dropped out of college, and partnered on a 38-plex. A compelling story backed by clear goals attracts mentors and investors.
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Hey YouTube, this is Cody. Today's video is all about crafting and presenting your story. What I have found over the past few years is that most people know their story, yet they don't know how to best present it. And I've tried to figure out how to present mine over the past few years, and I've come up with a couple tips that might be able to help you out today. And so I want to break this down into 3 simple— not quadrants, but sectors. And these 3 sectors are really just about your universe. If you put yourself on the middle of a piece of paper, circle that, and you map out everything that you've done up to this date that's gotten you to where you're at. Not just about real estate. If you want to start a business, it's not just about business. It's about every little piece that's gotten you from where you're at 10, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, depending on how old you are, to today. And the 3 sectors are relatability, targets, and significance. Now, your relatability is what's going to get you into the room. It's going to get you to the table. That's going to allow you to get new opportunities. And the relatability section is all about where you come from. It is the stories that you've had that have gotten you to today, and that's going to allow you to relate to others and at least get to the table and have a conversation. Then you have targets. You've got goals. And these targets and goals are what's going to get people to want to work with you. People will find motivation from you based on where you're looking to go. So you got relatability, where you come from, and you've got targets of where you're going. The last sector is significance. It's one thing to go out there, try and conquer all your goals and sell your ideas to get people to want to work with you. It's another thing to get buy-in. When you get buy-in from folks, you don't have to sell your ideas. You don't have to just go convince everybody. People will buy into who you are based on the significance behind your message. And so as I've been working in the real estate space and I've been going and buying properties, working on scaling up, in the very beginning it was a little bit more difficult. And if you were anything like me and you're 18 years old, 19 years old, 20, you're in your 30s, regardless of your age, if you're getting started, where just about everybody starts with nothing. You got one thing and it's your story. And you're going to find that your story is more valuable than any asset you're ever going to purchase. It's what allows you to start over if you mess up. It's what allows you to get buy-in from folks. And it allows you to help others do the same thing that you've done. So when I got started, no properties, relatively no money. I had $3,000. I I'd saved from a part-time coaching job. I was coaching gymnastics. And I wasn't even that great at it. I shifted from parkour. I shifted into being a real estate agent. Dropped out of college, first person in my family to do that. And I had to go make an impact and an impression on a bunch of people. And by a bunch of people, I meant the brokerage that I was joining. Because I had no sales experience. I didn't know what I was doing, but I did have a why. And so when I was going into this space, getting licensed as a broker, what I had to figure out was how do I get people to buy into who I am and give me a lift up? And so my why— I wanted to help my mom. I wanted to build a portfolio so that I could take care of her as she took care of me when I was growing up. Really meaningful for me. And my why evolved over time because I got licensed as a real estate agent and I didn't do very well. I didn't sell a lot and I didn't get a lot of money because I didn't have people in my space that I knew I could sell to. Not a lot of my family friends had money. And so I had to develop my skills and get people to invest their time into me. And the way I did that was through the significance of why I was doing what I was doing. I wasn't a great salesperson, but I got buy-in because I was so committed. Because of the reason behind me. It was pushing me forward and people elevated me up. And so I got elevated up, I got help from mentors that a year prior I didn't even know. They messaged me through Facebook because I made a little post. I got a little bit of help and then I bought my first rental. They taught me how to do the math. They taught me how to talk to investors about getting a loan for down payment. They showed me how to do the seller-financed route. And then I kept working on my skills. I helped some other folks do the same thing with a fourplex, with a duplex. And someone bought a fourplex seller-financed, and then I helped someone else buy an eightplex seller-financed. And then I bought another twelveplex. So I doubled my portfolio following after my first one in 9 months. And then shortly after that, I bought another 6-plex, and that was actually just in 2021. And that 6-plex gave me the confidence— that was my first deal I did without the help of my mentor— to go think bigger. And later that year, I ended up partnering with Christian, and we bought a 38-plex together. And that 38-plex inspired a lot of confidence from other people in me. But all of this was driven based off of my story. It was based off of someone who didn't have experience in the real estate space but had the significance of the why to get people to buy into who I was. Because when you're starting with nothing, it's very hard. And if you're anything like me, I thought information was the most important thing. It's not. It's the application. If you can go just do things that other people aren't doing— most people get stuck just trying to get information. And that's the wrong way to look at this. Don't just get information to have information. Get information to have knowledge. And the way you do that is go apply. You got to apply what you learn and go do the things every day. And you're going to be motivated to do that, and other people are going to be inspired by you doing that if you back everything you do with the significance of why you're doing it. So to loop back, what you've done is really important. It's going to get you to the table. I made a post talking about how I want to get into real estate. Other people saw that, I got to the table. I got to go meet with people. I set up some targets. People started working with me. And by people, I only mean a few. I had a handful of folks in the beginning that were willing to meet with me. One person's name Brian, another person was named Robert, and I got to go meet and get coffee with them. And then the significance is what got them to buy into who I was and push resources my way so that I could scale up and do something that my family's never done, so that I could take care of my family in the future. And then in mind, and back then, I wanted to help eventually take care of other people as well and share. So I wasn't where I'm at today back then, but this is what it builds to. And if you just back everything with utilizing your story, sharing it with folks, sharing your target so that people want to work with you, and then sharing the significance of why you're doing what you're doing to get buy-in from folks. You don't have to sell your ideas anymore. Just work on sharing and presenting your story and know it's not going to be perfect the first time. But if you just put it all out there and you have a great reason behind why you're doing what you're doing, you will get buy-in from folks and you'll be able to get help. You don't have to do this by yourself, but you'll be able to get help and go accomplish your wildest dreams, whatever those are. So I hope you guys got some value out of today. It's just a solo video. Christian will be back for the next one. But if you haven't already, just let me know in the comments what you think. Follow along if you'd like to see the journey, and I'll see you guys next time.
