EP 467 – Doing Deals In High Heels with Nancy Wallace-Laabs

Foreign this is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for pennies on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now here's your host, CEO of We Close notes, Scott Carson. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Nope Closure Show. As always, Scott Carson, your host, excited to be here today. And I am jacked up to have a friend as a guest on TODAY who is doing some amazing stuff out there, just absolutely rocking it. I mean, literally killing it. Not only in her own real estate side, but she's also got a new book out called Winning Deals. Join us, Dallas, Texas, this morning. Right.

Good morning on your podcast. And yes, I'm super excited about my book. It was a really good feeling to get the book out and I think it's going to help a lot of people that want to get into real estate investing.

Oh, I think so, too. I love how the book is written. I love how you got some great stories in there, some from very strong women in heels out there doing some great stuff out there. But for those that don't know, because you're a note nation now. All right, We've known each other for a couple years from different real estate events and we got a chance to kind of reconnect on the Financial Friends Network cruise last February and then meeting UPS again and stuff like that. Take a second to share a little about what you and your husband are doing with your real estate investment stuff.

All right. Well, we started investing about 15 years ago. And so we were originally from Phoenix, Arizona. And when the market, whoa, went like that, we had been looking to move from our house that we had lived in for eight years. We were amazed at what people were paying for houses there. It was insane. But you know what we did? We just quit our jobs, sold our house and moved to Texas. Texas hadn't actually rebounded quite. That gave me the freedom to start investing. And I always had a passion for real estate investing, wanted to get into it. I was very fortunate to meet a woman who mentored me and helped me buy rental properties and taught me everything. I got into property management. So fast forward, when you're in real estate investing, there's so many avenues to go. You can do flips, you can do buy and hold. And last year I literally fell into owner financing. I found a house, $10,000 paid cash for it, sold it three days later for $50,000. So I got the terms were get the $10,000 back, 20% down and I'm carrying the note for 40. And that made a true believer out of me on owner financing because you still get that monthly check and you don't have all the repairs. And so I found myself so many opportunities if you go out and network, meet great people like you, and it just like it gives you ideas about, oh, I could take my business this way. So I found myself is I didn't know everything about buying houses. And then through the book, which I know we're going to talk about here in a minute, I started meeting different women that were doing different things, had a different story. But one of the things we all had in common was one, we had a passion for real estate. Two, we were pretty strong women in terms of like, we knew we were willing to take chances, calculated risk, and we were consistent with what we did. And then that paid off. And each of us has our own story of how we got started, but those are the three elements that we all had in common.

Yeah, that's definitely an underlying thread throughout each chapter. Each woman you interview definitely is drawing quite a few of them. I honestly think we need more women out there sharing their stories and really speaking up. It is, I'm a guy. It's a very male dominated industry for the most part. Right.

And that's kind of, I wanted the book was to kind of highlight, I mean, there's a lot, a lot of successful women real estate investors. But I found over the years as I went to conferences and there might be out of a three day conference, there might be one or two women speakers. It's not that they're not out there, it's just that they haven't had maybe an avenue to showcase their results or a lot of times this is a woman's perspective. But sometimes women are too busy taking care of the family and the kids and maybe they're holding down a job and so time becomes not an ally for them. Right. And sometimes they just lack the confidence and, or knowledge and. And there's plenty of women out there that will mentor you and you do not have to pay them tens of thousands of dollars. There's a lot of information. So I just felt like it was important to highlight women in real estate investing. So. And that's why I wrote the book.

Well, that's the beautiful thing. So talk about your background. What were you doing before you got into real estate though?

Okay, so I have a degree in social Work. And so for a long time I was a programs manager over section 8. And this was like, I don't want to date myself. But this was before they had vouchers.

Okay.

I was actually instrumental in setting up in Johnson County, Kansas, the first Section 8 program. And back in the day Johnson County, Kansas was the second richest nation in the country. So the city council members and the population didn't really think they had needy people. So I actually devised the waiting list and got very familiar. So I got into housing way back when. So fast forward a few years, I landed, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona and I answered a blind ad in the newspaper and I got hired at United Blood Services which at the time was the second largest blood bank in the country. And I was a field rep, went out to the companies and set up the blood drives. And long story short, I inherited the call center. Now there's probably viewers that don't even know what a rotary phone is. But this is in the day when they had computer printouts and they had a rotary phone and they would call people. So I worked with another company and we computerized the call center. Right. And I merged. Well then that led to different opportunities where I traveled all over the U.S. canada and even did a stint in England where I worked with blood banks to consolidate their cost. Call centers become more cost effective because it's less expensive to get a donor into a center than taking a mobile vehicle out to a company. So that was kind of my claim to fame after 911 again dating myself, but I was involved with my first published article is in transfusion medicine, if you can believe that. And it has to do with a first time donor study. After 911 a lot of people came out and donated. If you're a blood donor you're going to understand this. And so in our market in Phoenix and the market in San Francisco, we had over 3,000 first time donors. So team of doctors contact us, asked us if we would run a study for a year. We broke the people up into four categories and basically called them and marketed to them to see what made them come back a second time. Because a lot of blood wasn't used after 911 if you're a blood banker, you know what I'm talking about here. Then after that was done, that was actually published and I'm one of the authors of that article. So transfusion medicine, I'm not going to say that you because I have a copy of the Transfusion Medicine magazine.

So that's okay. But that's the thing is I Wanted to highlight a little bit because it's a different background, some people, and that's okay. That's the beautiful thing about real estate. Note investing and owner financing. It doesn't matter what your background is, as long as you're diving in, getting knowledgeable, and, as I like to say, pulling the trigger when it comes to.

And, you know, it's kind of funny because even though that's blood banking, there are some similarities to calling distressed sellers, because, number one, we always used to say getting blood out of a turnip and getting a seller to take your offer. Kind of similar skills to get them to kind of do what you need them to do to get the quota or get the deal or whatnot. Because we were measured on. I mean, even though it's nonprofit, they start to make a dollar to open.

Yeah, it's definitely a good point. Totally agree with the similarities there. Now let's kind of transition back a little bit into the book. So you talked about wanting to highlight more women out there. It's a beautiful thing. I think it's a great thing out there. Talk about the book. Let's talk about what's probably, now that you've gone through it, interviewed some great women throughout the chapters. What was probably the most surprising nugget that you took away from your interviews with these women?

So the most surprising nugget is none of them had a real estate background. They all come from different kinds of fields. Some of them were college educated. Some college wasn't for them. So everybody. Some had families early. Some waited a bit. I mean, they all admitted to not knowing what they didn't know what they were doing. They just started in and started. And what I learned the most was that it was a very real education. Everybody made mistakes, and they all said, but you learn from your mistakes. They all said, find a mentor. And I think the most surprising thing for me, even though I've been investing, I learned every single one of those gals in the book. I learned something from them that can help me in my business. And I think we ended up having a group book signing where I think eight of the 11 of us were able to come. And some of them don't know each other. Like, I didn't know every single person in the book. So I would talk to one person. They'd say, well, why don't you talk to so and so? And then why don't you talk to so and so? And I probably could have written a book that had a hundred women in it. I'm thinking about Doing book two. And so I just learned that they all had a passion. They found mentors and they networked and they just made it work. And they would go down one road and it wasn't working, but they just didn't stop, they didn't quit.

That's a good point. That they found a way to make it work. Their own little angle, their focus, unique set of eyes to situations. And I think a lot of us as real estate investors, male or female, we get so used to being in a groove, in a rut of doing the things, it's sometimes hard to see a deal with a fresh set of eyes.

Yeah, when I first started the book, I was actually going to write it. From the angle of the differences between men and women in real estate investing. You've been in the workplace, it's kind of the same whether it's real estate or whatever. Right. But one thing that is kind of underlying is that women do feel, if they felt confident enough in what they knew and they were assured as far as what their skills were and they were open and honest about that, then it didn't matter if it was male or female. You know what I mean? The reason I kind of. One of the things that happened with the book, I was like, don't do that. A good friend of mine, she's fairly new into real estate investing, she was doing her first flip and she called me up and she was in tears. And she was in tears because the contractor, she just didn't know how to manage because really it's about skills, you know, people skills. You have to have management, time management, organizational. And she's like, I didn't know what to do. And I just started crying in front of him. So again, I'm old school and I was taught, brought up women kind of always have to be a little tougher, you know what I mean? And I was like, well, you know, that's probably not the best way to handle that particular situation because if you're a manager of a company, whether you're male or female, and you go in and people aren't doing what you need them to do, you're not going to start current. And I felt bad for her, but I was able to give her some tools. And what she really was lacking was process and X and balances, and she didn't have the knowledge to put those things together. Because again, in real estate investing, there's a lot of skills everybody talks about, well, I'd love to find the deal. Great. When you find the deal, you still have to manage it, whether you're going to wholesale it, you have to track your performance because you got to know where your marketing dollars are going to. And so sometimes we watch hgtv, which I love it, but it's not real. And I.

It's a great fictional show. Very great fictional show. Right.

You'll meet people and you'll ask them, well, why'd you get into this business? Well, I love watching hgtv. Well, great. But one of the things that kills me, I'm a real estate broker. When they do all of those, how we sold and how much money, they never tell you how much they paid that realtor because I always hire one. Right. And it's just so unreal. I think it would be really great. There's a couple I love the lady in the Windy City. I love her. She's pretty dramatic. But again, when I go to a flip, like when we get done here today, I have to go out to a house, and I will not be dressed up to go to that house because it's a mess. I might be slinging a hammer, but my hair is going to be up and I'm going to have my grody jeans on and all of that.

So, yeah, you're not going to be wearing your heels, be wearing tennis shoes or boots.

Yeah, I do have. Depending on when I do the final walkthrough, I'll wear my heels then. So I think just kind of being focused, and we had our first meetup, which I know you're going to talk about, and one of the gals said, I just lack focus. Again, you'll meet real estate investors, and they're. They're trying to get into flips, and they're trying to get into rentals, and they're trying to get into owner finance. They're trying to. And I think the other nugget that I learned from the women is, and they learned this pretty early on is you got to master one thing, then move on to the next. Don't try to do it all, because you'll just fail. I always say to people, you cannot be all things to all people. You just can't do it. And it's unrealistic expectations. I'm a good project manager. I manage. But I have other people that follow up with the sellers or do my data entry or whatever. But I manage my process so that things get done, and that's how you can scale your business.

So that's such great words of advice there, because I think that's a big handicap for A lot of people, as they get sold the idea, well, hey, let's add this to our tool belt. Let's add this strategy to our tool belt so if it pops up, we can jump into it. And they're trying to sometimes squeeze blood out of rocks. Deal, you know what I mean? Versus being focused. And everybody struggles with that. I mean, I struggled that I'm going to be a wholesaler, I'm going to be a landlord, I'm going to raise some capital, I'm going to do subject to owner financing. Everybody struggles with that. And you said it best there, and that's a big nugget for everybody is find something that fits you and stick to it and master it before you add something else to take away your focus.

Right, exactly. And even I still do it too. So, like when I writing the book took some time and I had to be careful because I was just super excited about the book. Like I saw. I'm getting rich from the book, right? So I still have to like make money over here. So you have to balance your time. And I'm a big believer in, I look at tasks I have to do on a day to day basis and I figure out how much is that going to cost if I have to do it. Such a funny story. So my husband, he does help me, right? So, so I told him last year, I said, we need to hire somebody to be our assistant in the office. And he goes, oh no, I can help you with that. Once you start getting busy, you have the paperwork handle the rehab budget. And he's like, oh no, I can handle that. I was like, great. So I took him up to the office and said, okay, I have these eight things that are all pretty much data entry. And he looked at it and he's like, yeah, I think we just need to hire somebody. At some point. You have to go. Don't say, I can't afford it. Ask yourself, how can you afford it? That's what I say all the time. If I want to go on a vacation or I want to hire more staff or do more deals or spend more money on marketing, I always say, okay, well how. Not that I can't afford it. Because if you say I can't afford it, you're not going to be able to scale and grow. So you have to find a way. Just ask yourself, how can you afford it? Maybe you have a $300 gym membership that you're not going to or whatever it is. Each person has to make those choices because what you do today and the Choices you make are going to benefit your future on down the road.

Not only benefit, but they can also un benefit down the road too. It's the truth. So many people and I love that you said that. How can I find something versus why I can't do it?

Right?

Can'ts versus I cans out there, right?

Well and if you have that attitude, you're just. That's the other thing from the book is that they all figured out a way to do what they wanted to do. I mean some of the gals had full time jobs and didn't really like their full time jobs but they knew they just couldn't quit so they started doing this. Or some of them talk about the money they spent on gurus and didn't really get anything. Now sometimes you have to make those mistakes, but hopefully you're not making 25, 30, 40, $50,000 mistakes like that before you start going to like podcasts. And you know, there's so much information on the Internet and you do have to take the time to, to learn things. You can't just jump in. And networking is always great, you know, meeting quality people and can help you. And there's a lot of people out there that will help you.

Yeah, that's the truth. Your network is your net worth basically. And that's the thing. You're going to learn a lot networking. You learn a lot from YouTube videos. You learn a lot, especially podcasts. There's such a wealth of information out there for great things out there. But you're going to learn more from pulling the trigger and doing your first deal. But you always want to make sure you're educated first.

Yes, don't do that. Don't down, don't go out and second mortgage on your homestead so that you can go buy a house. Don't do that. Now one thing, I'll give everybody a little nugget that helped me. So I found a way in the early days to go to conferences that had to do with real estate investing that were outside of the Dallas Fort Worth area because you got to get outside your area because most investors are kind of close to the vest about their secrets and what's working. But if you go to another market, a conference, oh my gosh, your eyes will be open and you'll be able to bring that back for your business. And I have found that's one of the keys to new ideas and not that you don't get them when you're networking, but you just get so many more because you can literally ask somebody okay, well, I have this issue, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they are completely open and with whatever it was that they resolved their issue where sometimes you go and you ask that question and you might have to talk to four people before you get some answers you can put all together. So. And that's just my experience.

Well, but I think it's also people realize, oh, hey, you're not my next competitor.

That's what it is. It's. We're all very. I mean, if you're going to be in this business, you do have to be driven, you do have to be competitive. And yes, that is the thing. So. So go to other markets.

Yeah, exactly. Or in cases, sometimes, if there's events taking place on the high seas, which you're getting ready to jump on the Financial Friends Network cruise here, it's going to Cuba and some other things. And you're gonna be speaking on there as well. Walter's got you speaking on a couple of things, right?

Yep, yep. So I'm very honored to be one of the guest speakers. It's a great list of people. So when he asked me, I was like, sure. And I'm gonna be talking about using virtual assistants to do cold calling. So I'm really excited about it. And it's just kind of interesting how life kind of circles back. Because who would have guessed when I left the blood banking industry that I would be learning what I knew about call centers to apply it to my real estate business. But we've been able to apply KPIs key performance indicators. I'm very familiar with calling times. How to. I'm just going to give another little. Like any of you out there that have people that are cold calling, this is no lie. What would work, we used to have mirrors sitting at the table where they were calling. And we would always say smile before you dial because when you smile, your muscles in your face go up and it makes your voice lighter. So we would literally put little mirrors and remind the staff to look at your staff. Make sure you're smiling when you're dialing. So that's a tip for everybody to use with their cold callers.

Such a great tip. I totally recommend it when people are dialing for banks and asset managers, because if you call and you're in a bad mood, it comes across and it.

Will not go well. The energy, cold calling is the worst. And I do have to say, if you're going to add that to your business, you need to do it first. Whether it's for the banks, asset managers, Sellers because it's a brutal job. I mean there's, I think if you want to cut your teeth, go to Craigslist and call some fizz bows, you know what I mean? But remember to smile while you dial because a lot of negativity, a lot of no's, and you just got to realize, you know what the next call could be that $40,000 profit deal you're looking for. You have to go through a lot of, what do they call it? Kiss a lot of frogs before you find the princess.

Well, the thing I always say is you were one no closer to yes, exactly. I would do. And then I would always, when I, I'll still call banks from time to time. I called some last week on some smaller lists we're going on, but that's how what I cut my teeth on the first really year was just dialing, making 50 to 100 phone calls, calling banks, getting their non performing notes. We still podcast earlier talking about that. And you have to make it a game because yes, you'll get a lot of no's. You're in a negative mood. A no will only make you dive deeper down.

Right. You just kind of got it, kind of just check it up.

And so what I used to do is, I would also say, okay, each no was worth something, that if I got a yes, it was probably going to be somewhere between 35 and 50,000 profit on that yes, whether it was a list of assets or a deal that we're flipping or something. So that mean every no was worth at least probably 500 bucks to me. And that's what I would do. Hey, I got another $500 closer to that $35,000 paycheck. The way I looked at it.

Yeah, so just that thing. And you just can't give up. But it is. And if you're going to add virtual calling or cold calling of any kind, it doesn't necessarily have to be virtual assistants. You need to do it yourself. Number one, you're going to know what it feels like so you can be a better manager. Number two, you're going to get an idea of the times you should call and you're going to come up with some measurements. Because if you spend money to buy a list and then you're going to spend time and money on hiring and training people, that's all a cost that you're going to incur before you see a result. So you have to have ways to measure it. And then of course, you have to be able to follow up. So we do Follow ups with our gals. Every day I have a report. It tells me exactly. Now another little tip. So if they're not performing to where they need to be, I don't just automatically assume that they're not doing their job. So I look at the list that I gave them. Maybe it wasn't very good. Maybe there was a computer malfunction. Usually the two things are the list. And maybe I didn't match the right script to the right list. So there is some list management. So someone called me today and asked me about all of this. And I said, well, you have to have a plan. Like, what's your plan? Who do you want to call? When do you want to call them? Right. Which I can help them with. But then I said, what are you going to do when this phone starts ringing? Who's going to answer the calls? Are you seasoned enough to talk to these sellers? What kind of sellers are you talking to? So there's a whole lot more than just, oh, I'm going to call some people. You know what I mean?

Yeah. So now you're using VAs to do this?

We are using virtual assistants. Exactly.

So the U.S. or Philippines or where.

They located from the Philippines. So I just hired them through upwork, but we did a little vetting system. I love the book fire yourself. If you don't know the book, go get it. Because I'm all about firing myself. It's actually about hiring assets, acquisition managers. But I took that same format and I used it to basically qualify my virtual assistants and also my assistants that I have that do my day to day. I have a couple of assistants that work in our office. And so I also use that same kind of process to weed out because number one, I'm a busy gal. I do not have time to do 10 interviews to find one person. And so that book kind of gives you some ideas about how, how you can screen qualified applicants so that you can get the one and you're spending less time interviewing but more likely getting the better, more qualified person.

That's important. Time is money. And that's one of the hardest things is in labor and training.

Right, right, right. We use virtual assistants. I will say that it was a learning. I'll just kind of tell you how I started with it. I said, okay, well I know how to do this. And I have personally called and got on the mojo dialer and been yelled at and gotten deals. So I personally know. And then from my blood banking days, of course. And another little tip. So when I wanted to do This I started asking, well, hey, Scott, how do you do this? And, hey, Joe, how do you do this? And hey. And everybody would give me this much info. So what I ended up doing was interviewing, like, 20, 25 people, just saying, hey, can I buy you lunch? Can I get you a cup of coffee? Networking. And so after I talked to all those people, then I was like, I just put it all together. And I will say that we had some learning curves. We started in a different market that wouldn't affect the Dallas market. I had a chance to market in the Atlanta market. It's competitive here in Dallas, But. Whoa. But we actually tested our virtual calling in Atlanta first and worked out all the bugs before I started doing it here in Dallas. So then we got through the holidays, and then we lost one va. Because you do have to realize that it's call center business. You got to constantly monitor your folks and probably replace them because they just don't hang around. And we saw their numbers go like this. And then when you call people around the holidays, you can use a little bit more softer script. But, you know, when it's right after the first of the year and all property taxes are due. Yeah, people are kind of grouchy about that here in Texas.

So, yeah, just a little bit. Then we've got to get the high profile.

Right. I'm personally protesting my own taxes this year.

It's not as difficult as it used to be.

It's easier than, you know. Yeah.

So that's good stuff there. Now, out of the book. Out of the book, is there a story that kind of stands out the most to you? Not your favorite one. We don't want to be impartial to the rest of the amazing female authors on there, but is there a story that kind of where somebody overcame probably the biggest hurdles to find success that you can think about?

That's a hard one. I'm going to give a shout out to Kristen Gerst, because Kristen, I met her. In fact, we were talking about it last night. I met her at this random meetup that she was doing, and she only did this one time, and it was about owner financing. And I went home and I did everything she said about how to find them and get them and all that. And I got my first deal within three or four weeks of that meetup. So that was kind of my connection with Kristin. She knows a ton of people. I know she's on your show and whatnot, and she's so helpful. So I just started talking to her. She was actually the first person I called up and I was like, girl, I'm thinking about writing this book. What do you think? I think it's a great idea. So she was actually the first person that I interviewed. And then from her, Amy Sayer from August rei. But I think I'm gonna have to give a shout out to Belkas. Belkos is in Houston and she's got two little kids and her and her husband. I mean, all the women are amazing. But my special heart for Belkos is that she's in the Houston market and I'm in the Dallas market. I was kind of struggling a couple years ago and her and her husband ended up mentoring me just via phone calls. They gave me some focus, they gave me some nuggets that I could use in my business. And it wasn't like they were giving anything that everybody else doesn't say, but I think they felt because they were in Houston and I was in Dallas and I was like, well, how do you do this? And so they actually were the ones that told me about Fire Yourself, that book. I had a couple more follow up calls. So Belkas and her husband have done an awesome job. They paid off their house, they're raising their children, and they're living the life that everybody wants to live in this industry. And they're wonderful people. They're very sharing people. And I think her story is more real as far as she's just a regular gal. She's a mom, she's a wife. And she just said, hey, let's do this. Because they haven't been investing that long, you know what I mean? Like under five years, I think. And they were so gracious. I just appreciated that as someone that's been in the industry. Not that I knew everything, I knew some things. But how was this not working? Because like I said, I've been investing in real estate for 15 years and so now I wanted to go do flips. And I'd never been in a competitive Dallas market with all these other hundred thousand investors. So they really helped me get focused and they gave me nuggets that really helped me. So I think I'm going to just give a shout out to her. And then she took time to do that while she continued to grow her business. And they're an awesome couple.

Such a great story. And I think it's so powerful and impactful, the fact that, hey, sometimes when you're dealing with an issue, pick up the phone and call somebody. I think so many times we get so bogged down into, oh my gosh, Wallowing around mud. I'm doing something wrong. I'm really hateful self. Talk that if we said that to other people, the cops would show up to ourselves. Right. And you have to realize that, hey, sometimes you gotta pick up the phone, talk to somebody, get an outside opinion or outside counsel is probably a better way to look at it. Somebody can give you some great advice and tell you, hey, I went through this or try this and go that route. Right?

Yeah. Every woman in the book, they all have amazing stories. I will tell you about Jamie Woolley. I did not know her, and she ended up being the last person that I interviewed. And our good friends at Propelio, Ryan Harper. I was actually on a show there and I was kind of finishing up and we were friends on Facebook, but I had never met Jamie. And so I called her up, texted her, she responded right away, said she would love to be in it. And at the time, I knew that she was kind of big time, but I didn't realize how big time she was. So I was like, oh, my gosh, thank you so much. Because I just got a magazine where she's on the COVID of Think Realty magazine talking about her business. And she's not really been doing it for years and years. She's been doing it for some time. And she's got an amazing story as well where she was just kind of didn't really like the job that she was in and now she's kind of blown it out of the water. So then we actually, at the book signing, got to meet in person for the first time. One of the things about the book is it was a really good way to connect not only with myself, with the other women, but some of the women in the book didn't know each other. Sandra Nesbitt, she has a great story too. Sandra, don't know if you're watching this. She started in real estate and she's from New York, and so she was like, oh, I wanted to find out about real estate. And so her story is that she did pay one of those to go to someplace or whatnot. It didn't really help her. And she's built a great wholesaling business. She has rentals and all of that. So she also has a really good story. So Amy Sayer, she'll tell you that she's grown up in the business and everything. And so now that we kind of have this relationship, it's really an awesome feeling when you go to different events and you see them, because it's like we have this special sisterhood connection. And I feel very comfortable picking up the phone and calling any one of those gals, and I know that they're gonna help. Sue Abrams is a good friend of mine and she's kind of low key, but she does a really good wholesale business and has built her business up. And you have to remember, most of these women, probably about half of them, they're doing it on their own. Now, Kristen and Amy, they own companies and they have people and whatnot. But most of the women in the book are started out on their own and they're still working on their own. And they might have some help, but they're doing it maybe their home. We're talking about women that could be CEOs, but they're running their business the way it fits their lifestyle and it's making them happy.

That's a great point. That's what I loved about the underlying for someone, it's a side hustle around their life, their job, and they're making it happen. Now, you mentioned about networking, stuff like that. You guys, you were just at an event just recently with the Investher kind of meetup. You want to talk a little about that too?

Yes. I was very fortunate to meet Matt Faircloth. He does private lending and whatnot. And one of his seminars, and after he heard about what I do, I help people with small dollar IRAs as well bundle them and become private money lenders. And so his book was about private money lender lending, but he had never heard of that before. So anyway, he said, well, you need to meet my wife. So he introduced us and we had calls and she's out of Philadelphia, and she started the Invest her community and there's 25 chapters and they did not have anybody to organize it here in Dallas. So she asked me if I'd do it. I said I'd love to do it. And we had our first inaugural meeting last night. And the focus is going to be, okay, no food, no booze. We're just there to network. And it is geared towards women. But we did have two guys last night, which we were happy to have them. We just told them, hey, this is from a woman's perspective, but it's more of a mastermind. So what we did is we everybody got a chance to talk to themselves. And then we identified 10 areas, this was just last night, of obstacles that can stop you from growing your business. And what are those obstacles? Then we broke up into small groups and each group said, tackled one of those. Then we came back to the table and said this is what we came up with. And everybody walked away with an action item. And so the group was challenged to say how they're going to implement that into their business. So one of the topics last night was how to use social media to do your marketing. And one of our co hosts, we have a Haley Gantt from Quest, Kristin Gerst, Kelsey Wallace, who's also my daughter, all organizers of the group. Kelsey has a social media background and so she's going to give a presentation next week about how to use Instagram to grow your business. Because we said how many of you even have Instagram? And about half of the hands went up. So social media is powerful and it's a great way to get your name out there. But if you don't know how to use it, which some of the people if they don't have Instagram. I personally myself just got an Instagram account this last year and I'm posting and hashtagging and it works.

It definitely does. And that's a great thing of having a invest her not investor for those who are listening. Investor with an H on the end her out there. But that's the thing is it's great. You bring life like minded people together, you're solving issues. That's the beautiful thing about a true.

And they also have like a Facebook group so you can like and now like Wednesdays is posting you post anything. But it really is focused on overcoming obstacles to grow your business. That's kind of what we're all about and it was really good. One of the guys that came last night, he was one of the last people who spoke and he gave us the biggest compliment. He said it was the most honest group that he had ever been to. The stories were real, the problems were real. And you know what, that was a really good compliment to the group. We'll be posting some testimonials from the people that came last night and got a lot of good feedback. And I don't think there's very many networking events at meetups that follow that kind of format. It's usually like, well we know which ones are the ones that you go and you network and whatnot. But this one really is. It's all about problem solving and about what can we do and what can you walk away with to help you grow your business?

Mm. Well, it's kind of a funny thing and think it pops. My head is like going Steph and I go with a couple or something like that. When somebody's kind of new to dinner or drinks or something like that. And we walk away and the guys have a simple conversation and then the girls know everything that's going on. Like, oh, they're over there dealing with this, they're dealing with that, they're dealing with this. And they're like, well, why didn't you ask them? Like, I don't know, it just didn't go that way. But it's different conversation because you have a lot of issues. I mean, but issues everybody's commonly overcoming, like how are you dealing with this? And women seem to share a lot more of that than guys do. A lot of us are, Bravo. Oh no, you know, I'm indestructible. I can deal with it. Very macho attitude. And women like, girlfriend, what are you doing that right.

One of the topics that came up last night was partners and how to vet them, not just how to find them, because I think that's pretty easy. And a couple gals shared real stories about just because you and I like real estate investing necessarily mean we should be partners. Right. And we talked about the ethics and you have to be able to talk to people about money. I mean, that's what real estate investing is all about. And depending on how you feel about money, it might be uncomfortable. And if you're in a 50, 50 partnership. Yeah. So it was some good stories about vetting partners and what you should be. Some people talked about we should run background check. Depends on kind of what you're partnering about. But yeah, that was another good one. The other one was about scaling your business and put like us women, we like to have everything. We're the control freaks, but we are usually taking care of family and the household and maybe holding down a job. So how do you scale your business? Well, you have to put processes in place in order to be able to let somebody step in your shoe. But you also have to have the ability to let go. And I know I suffer from that. It's hard sometimes for me to let go. But you have to let go if.

You want to grow real estate investors. We're all control freaks. Everybody is. Not men or women. I think a lot of women don't realize in the notes space especially it's a male dominated space for the most part. And I actually think that women don't realize that it's easier for women to be calling, especially cold calling. We're talking about calling, ask me. Because when a guy calls, a wall immediately goes up. What are they going to sell us? What are they going to dramatical wall. When a woman's calling an asset manager. As I like to make a joke, if we have 50 voice messages, who are we going to call first? We're often called the ladies first as guys with stuff like that. So I've seen proof, especially in those space, if women are dealing with things they're calling out, they have a better time, they have a better callback ratio, they have a better completion ratio, they have a better deal flow because it just works out that way, which is great. But a lot of women are scared to take those steps because they're all. They're scared of failure. And I'm like, it's having a mastermind group or a meetup group that you can get together helps people take those initial first steps because they've got a support group, right?

And it was important to me to have like a wide range of folks. I've been in the industry and in the work industry for a few years. There's millennials out there that want to start, too, my daughter being one of them. So I felt it was important to be able to present if we're going to talk about a community, we want everybody, right? If you're new, you're seasoned. There was a lady there last night, she's just getting ready to start and she's in an older age bracket, you know what I mean? But she's worked all of her life. Because one of the reasons I wanted to write the book is to give people a sense of, oh, you know what, it doesn't matter if you're retired, you raised your kids, you got divorced, you're looking for second income, or you just watch too much hgtv that we all started somewhere and there's a group of women out there that will help you and will kind of point you. Now, one thing I will say is you got to be open. You've got to be open to new ideas and trying things and sometimes getting a little out of your comfort zone. Because one lady said, well, I know I can speak well, but I'm just not sure I could talk to a seller. Well, then you know what? You probably need to get a partner so the partner can talk to the seller. You know what I mean? So you've got to know your strengths and weaknesses, and then if you can't overcome them, then get people on board your team that can help you with that.

That's a big thing out there. You gotta have a team. You can't do it all. And there are people out there willing to help out. Definitely important. We got some fan clubs Online. Here, give them some shots out. Bob McNeese says, Hi, Nancy. Our friend Nicole, the short. So Queen Espinosa says, hey, Nicole, thank you.

She's awesome too.

She is. She goes, you have an awesome guest.

Too late.

Say that one again.

Nancy said, I met her too late. I would have loved to have her. She got her own book, so I got them.

Book number two for you.

We gotta do book two.

So, yeah. And then Derek Long from Quest is so good. Some other people out there watching out there as well, like Ingrid from Quest, everybody. Chris Sevigny. Bob still watches well too. So that's the thing. How difficult was it for you to write the book? It's gotten easier and easier to get a book published here. And I know a lot of people think I get a book in me, but they don't know that we're in the process of writing a book right now where we're using like zoom to just record short interviews, 20 to 30 minute interviews on stories, get it transcribed, and throwing it to a writer to put all the chapters together. How did you.

Okay, so let me just tell you. I thought, oh, I'm gonna self publish, right? And so if I didn't do anything else, I could self publish, right? So I did interviews and then write them with an app and then I downloaded into Word Documents. So I was gonna actually. Oh, yeah, about two pages. And I was like, no, this is not for me. And then I was gonna have my assistant do it and no, that wasn't gonna be for her. So, yeah, we ended up hiring somebody to transcribe it. And you know what? I'm so glad I did, because yes, you can do it and you can spend time finding out how to do it. But you know what? I did pay to have my book published. And the guy that published the book, he was so funny because he goes, now why are you. He asked me why, like he didn't want to take me on as a client unless he knew why. He goes, well, you know, you're not going to get rich. And I joked with him and I said, well, if I'm not going to be on the Oprah show for my book, you know, in the book club. But I said, no, I'm wanting to do a. Been a lot a childhood dream of mine to write a book. Just never knew what it was going to be about. And the other cool thing about this book is I chose to donate part of the proceeds to Hope's Door, which is a organization here in Plano, Texas, that helps family heals from violence. So I feel that the book, not only is it a good tool for people to start their real estate investing, but when you buy the book, part of the proceeds go to Hope's store. So you're giving back. And that was very important to me to give back, get the message out, highlight some of these successful women. And it was fun. It was a lot of fun.

So that's good stuff. Now, best way for people to get the book, it's on Amazon, correct?

Yes, it's on Amazon. They can also go to my website site, kbnhomes.com or they can even google winning deals and heels and they'll take them right to it. So have everybody pick up a book today. Let's support all the women that are in the book. Why don't you read it and you can see a perspective that you might not have noticed in other women's or other.

I like it because it's a great book. If you've got a spouse, maybe is not on board spouse, that may be not just different spouses, but different viewpoint of that. And it's a great way to say hey.

See, not only that, here's the thing, this is what we. I wanted to make it accessible, right? I wanted to say, hey, we're out here, we're real people. And at the back of each chapter.

You'Ve got the social media, you've got the contact info for everybody, which is great.

One of the gals, I'm going to give a shout out to Chenoa Grove because she's one of the really, really successful gals. She runs a great big RIA here in Dallas. And so when I reached to her assistant, because that's how far up she is and she was so gracious with her time, we scheduled it and she has an amazing story too. I mean she's like fourth generation real estate investor. Just everyone I want to make sure I'm like, okay, who am I leaving out? So we got Sandra. Oh, Sue Tierney. Oh my gosh. I didn't know her either. And she is owner, finance person. She's partnered with Scott Horn for years and years and I had not met her and her night actually sat down. I call her a good friend now and I think that's the thing too. I became friends with these gals that I did not know and that was simply I took the risk to reach out and say, hey, would you mind? Would you love, could you be in my book? And the reception I got for their participation was awesome. I mean a big shout out to every Single one of them.

So, yeah, they're all good. I've actually known Shoah since she was a title rep back in the day. Yeah, that goes back a few years, just a little bit, which is great. She's definitely gone a long way. What's the one thing that you would love? Hope's Place. Great. Love that you had a charity involved with it and you're giving back to the community, helping out with that. And that's a very needed thing there in Plano. But what's one thing that you would love for the readers of the book to walk away with when they're thinking about this and they finish the book when they walk away? What's one thing that you would really. That underlying message that you really want them to walk away with that you.

Know what, no matter where you're at in life, that you can do this if you have a passion, if you're open to a little bit of risk and. And have confidence in yourself that if I can do it, if any of the gals in it, then you can too. So. And you have sisters out there, brothers that will support you, but you have to be able to reach out and make yourself available and let people know that you're interested in it. And so I think the main message is that you can do this. You can do it. We did it. And we're just normal gals were normal gas. So we weren't known. I don't think any of us, none of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouth. Whatever we have today is what we created. And you can do the same for yourself. You can make the life that you want. You just have to ask yourself, how can you do this? So buy the buck so that you can start your journey.

There you go in high heels. Your journey, one step at a time. Right? That's the beautiful thing about it is. I agree. So many great stories in there. People getting started for nothing. People amazing women, I know most of them in the book and they're just. It's great stories. Learn some interesting things about some of them I didn't know beforehand, which is great. But that's the thing. Everybody comes from a different background. Everybody's got different obstacles they deal with. And it's all about a not saying no. Say not right now. Or maybe we all have a dream and sometimes life gets in the way of dreams. We just got to set that dream down a little bit and then pick it back up and run with it. There's nothing wrong with that. And that you have to realize what I love about you, Nancy. You're always smiling. You've always got energy. You're always willing to lend a hand to anybody out there. I noticed that this last February, over a year ago, on the FFN cruise. You're always sitting there visiting with people, always learning, always taking notes. That's the beauty.

Okay, funny story, because, remember, I went to the meeting with Kristin, and that's how I met her. And Amy Sayre was also there. And Amy told me last night, she goes, you were sitting and in the second row, third from the end. And the reason she remembered me is because I was taking notes and asking all kinds of questions. I want to be respectful, too. I'm in the company of Scott, yourself, or Kristen or Jamie or Missy Wilson or whoever it is. I want to be respectful of what they know. My way of showing that is to be attentive and ask questions. And sometimes I've been dinged by haters that I ask too many questions. But you know what? I was just born curious. I remember one time I took it. I have to tell this trip. I took a trip to California. I had never been to California. And I was Disneyland when I was a kid, but I had never been to. I think we were up by Sacramento or something like that. And so in the car, there was a person driving and there was another person that had lived there. And I was like, what's that? What's that? What's that? And she literally turned around and said, if you ask one more question, I'm putting you out of the car. And I'm like, well, you know what? And I just never stop asking questions.

Well, that's the beautiful thing. I am a big believer. There's no dumb questions. The only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked. That's the big thing. Don't be afraid to ask, because I guarantee, especially if you're in a crowd, if you're thinking, I bet somebody else in the crowd is thinking it as well, right?

And I don't know. For me, that's how I learn. And I can be a pretty direct person, but if I don't know the answer, then I'll go find it if something's not working. So we have a great problem. You know how when you start scaling and then you start. And when you grow, it's a great thing, but then that creates other problems. So then you got it. So it's always going back and kind of revisiting your goals and your measurements and what are you spending your time on and how can you improve so that you can go to the next level? And I love that we're growing and I know when I meet people, that's what I'll say. You have to have a plan. And when you achieve the goals in that plan and you're growing, well, you got to have a new plan. You just can't stick with the same old plan. You gotta keep revisiting it.

So keep evolving. You gotta that it's a webinar I did last night on how your end game changes constantly. Gotta be definitely good stuff. We could talk all day. Nancy, what's the best way for those that want to get ahold of you, reach out to you? What's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Okay, so they can email me at nancybnhomes.com or they can visit my website at kbnhomes.com or, or they can reach me at 430-9885. Or even better, they can pick up a book and all my contacts in the back of the book.

There you go. Good stuff. Well, hey, Nancy, thank you so much for being such an awesome guest out here on the no Closure show. Once again, everybody go out winning deals in heels. You can pick up a copy portions, go to a great cause there in the Plano area there. Great stories, great gift for Mother's Day or just to somebody who's important in your life and you want to help, give them some great inspirational stories, help them overcome obstacles. So, Nancy, thank you again so much for being a guest on the show. Look forward to your continued success and seeing you on the Oprah show at some point. Right?

All right, very good. Thank you so much, Scott. Appreciate it. Have a good time. Bye.

All right. Hey, everybody, that's going to wrap it up for this episode of the Nook Closure show. Go out, take some action. Make your own winning story today. Don't be afraid, pick up the phone, reach out to somebody. There's always people around there here to help you out there. Whether they're wearing boots or heels. They've got something positive contribute to help you get to that end game a little bit faster for us and make that journey to the top faster. So go out. We'll see you all at the top, everybody. Bye, Sam.