Real Estate Investing – How To Generate Success With Effective Leadership Skills

Three.

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and today's guest has a very interesting model. But before we talk to our guest, I'd be remiss if I didn't properly introduce my co host. You know him, you love him. Scott Todd from Scott Todd.net landmodo.com if you're not automating your Craigslist, your Facebook postings, postingdomination.com thelandgeek learn anything but anything. Investor ninjas.com Scott Todd how are you, Mark?

I'm great.

How are you?

I'm in the mood for cheeseburger now.

I mean, you know, who doesn't love cheeseburgers, right?

Yeah, I don't know. Anyone that you know doesn't love cheeseburgers. My wife, my daughter. But no, they don't like cheeseburgers, Mark. They don't eat hamburgers.

Really?

Yeah, it's very interesting little tidbit about my family. So the boys and I go to In n Out burger all the time and the girls eat Thai food. I don't know, they're very sophisticated. But our guest is Ron Brooks Jr. Born in Chicago, raised in Memphis and an avid cheeseburger lover. Also a former athlete and he got involved in leadership early. After a 17 year banking career, he began bank consulting in real estate investing. His specific focus is on helping distressed sellers and tenant buyers as well as land acquisitions. Land acquisitions. Scott Todd. Ron currently lives in Memphis with his wife, three daughters and his dog, Ron Brooks.

Welcome. Hey guys, thanks for having me. Mark and Scott, man, it's awesome to be here. And yes, you're right up my alley with cheeseburgers. I love them.

Yeah, Very few people in the world don't love cheeseburgers, but there are a few people those vegetarians out there. Although I like that impossible burger idea.

You know what? I tried an impossible burger and it was impossible for me to eat it. Back to a regular burger.

All right, well, we can't talk about burgers the entire podcast, Ron Brooks. What we can talk about is you. So let's rewind the tape and kind of walk us through your journey from I imagine a corporate drone to real estate investor.

Yeah, corporate drone. I once was. So, guys, here's kind of the deal. If you go back to 2002. I'm a junior in college at the University of Memphis. I'm two years away from what I thought would be this lavish basketball career. So. So I played basketball my freshman year, which was 99 to 2,000 at the university of Memphis. This is prior to John Calipari coming on. That coach was involved in the scandal my freshman year. So imagine walking out of class, say economics 101 and you've got all the local media, you've got ESPN and everybody with a microphone in your face wanting to know why your coach has had an affair with a 22 year old grad student. Yep. So welcome to college, Ron. So that whole thing turns over. John Calgary Perry comes on. Everybody knows the story that goes from there. He had great recruiting classes, that sort of thing for those that are in the college athletics. So again, 2002, I'm in the career advising office there at the University of Memphis. I see a sign that says regions bank tellers $13 an hour. I had never made $13 an hour. I thought this is what the rich people do. Marc Scott they make $13 an hour and they drive in Mercedes Benz and they live in the suburbs and they have six kids and a gorgeous wife and that's how they live, right, at $13 an hour. So I called, I called the lady at Regents Bank. I'm still in touch with her now. She took mercy on a poor kid because I was just floored that you could make $13 an hour. She took me in and that's where my banking career started in management and that sort of thing. So I developed a reputation for leadership in regards to leading distressed branches. With banks either starting up new ones or ones that nobody really wanted to go to that were more in distressed areas of town, I would go and turn them around because simply I wanted to hire the right people and have good customer service and have progressive conversations that lead to deepening household growth when it comes to banking. I had a buddy that I played ball with that got started early in real estate investing. He hit me onto it. I got started then just buying and rehabbing and that sort of thing. So this is 06 and 07. Of course, 08 happens as we often talk about. 08 happened, right? And so I was over leveraged. I had mortgages on properties, complete dingbat, over leveraged myself. And then the bottom drops. Tenants move out. I had tenants that were very defiant in some cases. And yeah, there's some unfortunate pieces of that story. But all in all I came out of it, you know, took the hits, took the lumps. I did all this guys, while I was still working at the bank. So I'm still at the bank. I'm doing this real estate investing. My wife and I are Having kids and everything's moving. And so now you Fast forward to 01-04-2018 at 03:45pm I am the vice president of retail for a local bank here, managing 10 branches, 96 employees, which was two thirds of the employee count, coming off a really great 2017. At that time I get called to the CEO's office. HR is there and I'm told thanks but no thanks. All right, this is at 3:45 on January 4th. So I take it that decision probably wasn't made January 4th. Right? It was probably made at some point prior to that, not the fourth day into the year. All right, now what do I do? I had a six figure salary job that now I no longer have. Finding another VP job was not the easiest thing. It's going to require price on relocation, that sort of thing. So I said, you know what, I've got skills. I built up this reputation, this skill set. Let me go out and kind of do my own thing. I found that people took my calls when I was the VP of retail, not so much when I'm not. Right. So even with networking and doing that sort of thing, I knew it was going to take some time. And so what I've built is my own bank consulting practice where I help banks invest in low to moderate income communities, which a lot of that includes real estate. Banks have a requirement all around the country from a federal standpoint to make sure that they're investing these communities equally. And so I'm able to do that. Along with that I really began ramping up my real estate business in helping distressed buyers and in terms of tenant buyers and then distressed sellers. And so in doing that I've got a model that is not completely uncommon but allows me to get involved and know without having a real estate license. Right. So I'm not a real estate agent, but I come in as an investor and I'm able to purchase property on terms and then I'm able to then find tenant buyers who may be ready to buy today. But unfortunately the mortgage company may say different as it does for about 80% of the market right now who are unable to qualify for the traditional conventional or even FHA mortgage.

Only in Memphis, Ron, or all across the country.

Well, so most of what I'm doing in Memphis is probably within a three hour radius. So through Nashville, Little Rock, Arkansas, Jackson, Mississippi. So I'm kind of within a three to four mile radius for the most part. But I have done a deal in Omaha, Nebraska that I did last year, so I have been able to branch out some.

Yep. Scott, Todd, were your thoughts. That's quite a story.

I'll tell you what, man, I feel a lot of. A lot of his pain. I mean, he's kind of echoing a journey that I had, you know, and it's funny, Mark, because just yesterday, yesterday was the fourth anniversary from that dreaded call that I got when I was a VP that said, hey, we've outsourced all of. All of our IT teams to another company and you're affected. I mean, like, that is, that is a. That is always a shocking thing, right? Because you follow the path that's been laid out, go get your education, go get the job, go climb the corporate ladder. Safety will be there. And look, I don't know, maybe that was great advice back in the day. Today, I think it's terrible advice because there's no safety in large companies or safety in. The only safety that I have is, like, me providing for my own family. That's the safety.

Right?

And I think that a lot of times we get put into this trap that, like, oh, well, it's scary out on your own. And look, it is until you do it, right? Like, it's scary. And then when you pay yourself for a month, well, okay, you did it. Okay. But you see, I think a lot of people get stuck in this trap of, like, the entrepreneur trap, Mark. You know, the trap where you either have to go get yourself another job or you have to, you know, you have to think of like the entrepreneur who has this business. You see him on Shark Tank all the time. Oh, I've had this business. We've sunk all this money into it. Well, how much have you taken out? Oh, nothing. I haven't given myself a salary in years. Decades. That's not an entrepreneur. Sorry. Sorry to say it like, you're just. I don't know, you're messing with the hobby. That's losing.

But you have a bad job.

You got a very bad job and your boss is terrible. That's all I got to say. But I mean, it's, it's. It is an interesting story because, you know, like, like Ron said, you work your way up, you. You become a vp. Well, they don't hand out VP jobs like, like, I just can't walk into a local store and get a VP job.

Right?

Like, it, it is a long time to get another VP job when, when, when you don't have one all of a sudden. And oftentimes that does lead to relocation.

Whatever.

It's a pain. It's a real world problem.

Man.

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, Ron, when you were talking about your leadership skills, and I'm going to just take a leap of faith that the leadership skills that you've been able to leverage really helped you get into the consulting, then from there create that credibility with other sellers that want to sell you their distressed homes. So if we were going to, you know, like sprinkle in or create sort of a leadership stew, what leadership characteristics do you think you possess that allow you to create this, the stew of success, if you will?

Yeah, absolutely. So I would start with, you know, obviously guys, here's the deal. When you break it down to its common denominator, it's trust and confidence. So people do business with people hang around. You know, if people have trust in you and they have confidence in you and what you deliver and what you bring to the table, it doesn't matter if it's banking, doesn't matter if it's real estate, it doesn't matter if you're collecting yachts or boats or whatever it is. People have to have trust and confidence in you. So you have to exude that. After that, then you've got to listen and you've got to be someone that has a good ability to listen, know how to ask the right open ended questions and then how to tie in a pain point with a solution. And that's really, you know, what that is. You know, when you, you know, there's all kinds of different buzzwords and things like that for leadership, but whether you're leading yourself, whether you're leading the team, whether you've got a bank branch or, you know, like Scott said, you're the VP or you're helping distressed sellers or even distressed buyers. You know, they have to have trust and confidence in you. Right? And so you have to value that. And so then you have to be transparent in your presentation. You've got to understand people's motivation and that helps you develop the, that empathy level with people that then connects you to the trust. And the confidence is when you ask them questions to understand their motivation. And I always found that again, whether I've got a teller in a bank or whether I've got a director reporting to me or I'm at someone's house and they can't pay the mortgage anymore, I've got to understand what their motivation is. And once they articulate that motivation, that that's kind of the, you know, the key that unlocks all the doors. Because now I know how to, you know, connect with them and I know how to Address whatever issues. And I know how I get a better sense of how they'll handle success. Right. A lot of times we focus in on how someone's going to deal with the issues, guys, and that's great, and the problems and the challenges, but you also want to know how someone's going to deal with the success. Right. What happens if it works? Right. A lot of times we don't think about that. If it works, how will this person respond? If it goes well. Right. If I talk with a teller and it goes well, and I promote them to the next level at the sales desk, how will they handle that? Right. How will a distressed seller handle find getting there at the price that they're looking for? Right. Sounds simple. But if you don't understand what that motivation is, sometimes you can find some wrinkles in that, Mark and Scott, that can come back to bite you. So you've got to begin building the foundation with trust and confidence.

Scott.

Todd, you know, I think that's the thing. It's like, you gotta. Like Ron said, like, you know, he's. He's hitting it, right? Like, you've got to continue to build that trust and confidence to get what you want. I mean, like, he's. He's nailing it, man.

Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I think what's missing in that, Stu is experience. So, you know, Ron had a ton of experience, which then allows him to lead. So how many times do we see somebody who's in their 20s with very little experience try to be a leader, and we kind of shake our heads like, well, what are you doing, pal? Like, have some experience. Like, you have the confidence. You might be overconfident, but you're not gonna have the trust. So does that make sense?

Yeah, no, it definitely makes sense. And that's a part of the trust is that you're able to exude and demonstrate that you have the experience. So then your question may be, well, how do I do that? Well, no matter what it is, if, again, if you've got the ability to listen and you can share. You know what, Let me tell you a story. Here's what happened with me. Here's how I dealt with that. And you're able to be transparent, not just on the wins, but on the lessons as well, then you're able to demonstrate that you've got the experience. And so like you said, sometimes those of us that may BE in our 20s, we think of leadership as being on this pedestal. And I'm more managing. I'm telling people, here's what to do. Here's what not to do. That sort of thing versus great leaders work on shoulder to shoulder with people. So just like you guys in real estate, whether it's land, whether it's property, right. You're working shoulder to shoulder with a buyer, shoulder to shoulder with a seller, right? You're not dictating and telling. Right. You're a partner, you're working together and you lead because you develop the trust and confidence in where you're going. Right? And so people get that trust and confidence in you, again from you sharing in transparency, your experience. And not from an elevated level, but from, hey, I have been there. Let me tell you the story about when I mucked this up. Let me also tell you the story about when this went extremely well and how I dealt with the success, like Scott said. And Mark, you said this too, as you elevate, as I did in banking, how was I handling the success as I went from teller to desk side to branch manager to director to vp? Told a lot about my character, Right. And how I was able to then demonstrate leadership. And so it works all the way around. Whether you're leading yourself and whatever industry you're in. This is applicable.

Yeah. No, I love it. So, Ron, what's the best lesson your father or mother taught you?

You know what? My dad, who's. He's actually at the University of Memphis, he's over physical plant and planning. And he had a modest, you know, beginning, you know, Mark and Scott. And so one thing he always shared with me or would tell me is always assume that you're being watched. Right? And so what. What he was speaking to was again, trust, confidence. And then another thing was, which is integrity. Right. And so if you always assume that you're being watched, then what that does is it compels you then to ensure that even if something's not in your best interest, that you always maintain that level of integrity. And, you know, that's a big thing in our industry with real estate, right. Whether it's land or property is having the integrity. And there are those out there that do, and then there's those that unfortunately don't or. Or don't value that. But he always said, assume that you're being watched. So I carry that with me, not so much in the Big Brother sense of there's a camera on me. And, you know, there's always somebody that way. But just assume that you know what you're saying.

And Ron, if you have Alexa, there really is.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah, that Is true, Bart. But. But, yeah, just assume that someone's, you know, there's some oversight as to what you're saying and doing with people. So whether I'm sitting in someone's living room, whether someone calls me because they're responding to an advertisement I've sent out about, you know, wanting to purchase their property or a potential buyer, whatever that is. Guys, you've got to make sure that, again, you've got the proper communication with that and that, you know, again, what dad would say is assume that you're being watched. And so that just always sticks in my mind as I do business with people. So at the end of the day, even if we were not in position to do business, I'm not doing anything outside of character that could jeopardize my position. Because like Scott said, what I don't have right now is I don't have the cushy VP title, Right. And I don't get paid every other Friday. Right. So my, you know, more sensitive to even, you know, more so than even before of what my reputation is. And, you know, how I make moves out there because now, like, you guys, you know, I eat what I kill. Right? And so that's different than before. So I have to have an elevated sense of that because I don't have a brand to land on. Right. There's no bank of America, you know, I'm one of the 10 million VPs. And so if I, you know, if something doesn't go quite right, they just eat it and just insulate it. Right. There's always a workaround now, you know, like, you got, like you, Mark, like you, Scott, your reputation is everything, right. And how you're perceived. And you know what your reputation is before you walk in the door. So it's. It's very critical.

Yeah. I mean, for those listening that don't have a Ron Brooks senior sitting on their shoulder saying, hey, assume you're always being watched. Is there a daily ritual or habit that you would recommend for somebody to, you know, maybe experiment with where they could really, you know, whether it's certain books that you would recommend or some type of ritual that just as sort of that reminder of, hey, you know, that definition of character is to always do the right thing, even when no one's watching. Or, you know, like the leadership pieces where. I think there's a great book, you know, Leaders Always Eat Last. Is there anything like that that you employ in your life?

Yeah, you know, I've read all the different books. You know, Jack Welch winning. I mean, Name a leadership book. You know, I've either been exposed to it or I've read it. I tell you, the big thing that I share now, Mark and Scott, instead of people just sitting down and reading and doing all that, that's great. But like we're doing right now, podcasting is a phenomenal way for people to learn. And you think about this from a 2020 standpoint. You know, I would imagine that someone just listening to this podcast right, with you guys will learn more about leadership and how to conduct themselves. And then if they sat down for two weeks and read a leadership book, that will give them a lot of theory. I'm not knocking that. I'm a believer now that giving people application. How do you apply leadership? How is leadership personified versus, again, someone's book from the past that gives you the theory of leadership, right? It gives you leadership when all the inputs are fixed, right? So. So as long as I can fix all the inputs, I'm great. But that's not life. Matter of fact, life. Most of the inputs are variable, right? They vary depending on situations and timing and that sort of thing. And so I would recommend podcasts like this, podcasts like many others. So listeners, go and find podcasts, whatever you want to be, find the podcast about it. I'm sure there's one about it. If you want to be a doctor, you need to be listening to doctors talk, right? You need to get around. You want to be in real estate, you need to listen to people talking about real estate. When I wanted to play basketball, I didn't really hang around the baseball guys because they weren't playing basketball, right? And I wasn't going to become a good basketball player hanging out on the baseball field, right? If I want to become a good baseball player, that would be fun. But a lot of times what people do is they hang out on the baseball field and. But they want to be great basketball players, and it just doesn't work. And so they're wondering why they're sitting there catching a baseball, going, well, God, my jump shot's not great. Got to get on the court where the basketball players are, right? And so I recommend podcasting as a great way to learn leadership along with YouTube and all those different things. But because I'm big on the application of leadership, you need to hear from someone who's messed it up before, and you need to hear from someone who's done it well and how, again, they handled that success.

Yeah, I love it. Scott, Todd, with your thoughts.

You know, Mark, I think that one of the values of podcasts, probably an unwritten value. An unwritten value or unrecognized value of podcasts is that they're real people, right? Like, you get to hear the voices of real people. Not, not, you know, authors. Yeah, you can listen to authors podcast, but like, we're just real people. You and I are real people. Ron's a real guy that's just making it happen. Right? We're going out there. We're. And I think that ultimately where you can get leadership from is in these podcasts. And I say this all the time, like the podcast. Like first listening to your podcast, Mark. Like, it propelled me to continue to energize myself because I just kept saying to myself, man, if those guys can do it, I could do it. And I'm not trying to, like, dumb you down or anything. I'm just trying to say that when you hear real people achieving real success, all of a sudden it's different than some guy sitting on an infomercial. You know, who's, who's trying to sell you something. These are real stories, real lives and real people doing things. And Carlton sheets back in the day, or any infomercial guy, he could be having real people in there. But in the podcast, you really get into the meat of how it gets done.

Right.

Like you, it's not high level stuff, it's people doing things. I think that's one of the cool things about podcasts. So keep listening.

Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. And Ron, we're now at that point in the podcast where we're going to ask you for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the auto passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. What have you got?

Yeah, absolutely. So you can check me out@legacyliving real estate partners.com. so that's legacy. And then living without the G. Realestatepartners.com I'd love for you to connect with me there. If you're interested in learning more about how to buy and sell real estate on terms, which means on terms meaning not utilizing your personal cash or personal credit to be able to acquire and be a real estate investor. Definitely reach out to me. I'd love to be able to connect with you there. I have my podcast as well. The mind of your business podcast. Mark had a great episode with me back the latter part of last year that I still get calls about, by the way, Mark, which is great, people listening to that episode. And you can check me out there. Listeners at the T H E my B that's Mary Yellow Brown podcast.com so the NYB podcast.com and again, you've got to stay in the game. As far as advice, just, you know, I found that when I played basketball, I wasn't the most talented guy out there. Mark and Scott, you know, I'm not six, eight, you know, right. None of that. I've been able to have success by simply just staying in the game and outlasting people. And I love it. I can't get any more blunt or honest than that. So stay in it. Whatever you're doing, if you're struggling right now, if your spouse isn't the most, you know, supportive and you got a lot of noise around you, just stay in. Keep listening to Mark and Scott and the folks here on this podcast as well as others, and you'll be able to make it through. One last quick thing, too, guys, is I sold a piece of land. After my episode with Mark, I was inspired. I actually had a piece of land here in Memphis, a vacant lot that I bought for $50. That's right, $50 I bought for $50 cash. Corner lot that's in now a redevelopment zone. I sold it for 2,500 bucks. I bought it for 50 bucks four years ago. Just been cutting the grass on it. Didn't have a plan, no rhyme or reason, just I owned it, depreciated it down, whatever, right. And I was able to sell that for 2,500 bucks to an investor that's actually in that neighborhood. And there's a ton of that here in Memphis, a lot of that across the country. So that came from inspiration of talking with someone like Mark and then listening to his podcast, even for someone that's in the industry. So I appreciate you, Mark, for that and your communication and support on that. And then, Scott, you as well, you've been on episodes where things that you said have inspired even myself to keep going and to, you know, to get involved. And now I've got another leg to my business now with these lots that are in these development zones that I didn't have prior to speaking with Mark. So, guys, I really appreciate that.

Nice.

That's great. I mean, you know, that's a lot of cheeseburgers, Ron. It's a good return for sure. Before we get to Scott Todd's tip of the week, I just want to remind the listeners, today's podcast is sponsored by flight school, and there's really no in the industry better to emulate than Scott Todd. So let him, over the next 16 weeks, take you up that mountain of land investing. Let him be your Sherpa, and you're going to get up that mountain more quickly, more efficiently, more safely than you ever would on your own. And just like Ron was saying, you know, learn from the people you want to be. And there's probably no one better to be like than Scott Todd and let them take you there. Just learn more. Go to the landgeek.com training schedule a call and learn more and see if flight school is the right path for you. Scott Todd, what's your tip of the week?

Okay, man, this is a Chrome plugin and I hesitate to share this because I think it's so cool, but I'm going to share it anyway. Chrome plugin, you add this thing and what it does is it allows you to come up with some pretty cool, cool formatted email subject lines, you know, like bold, certain things, or underline or double strike or use all these different, like, fonts or. And all this other stuff.

Right?

Like, it's pretty cool.

Yeah, but it has to be with Gmail. Correct. I can't just use this like an aweber or Constant Contact or.

Oh, no, see, I think that I tried that, but no, see, I think once it converts it, you can cut and paste it.

No kidding. Oh, now, now you've got me. Yeah, now you've sold me.

Yeah.

Okay.

Why are you using AWeber? That's terrible.

You know why? Because it's easy. I've been on it forever and I'm scared to change. I admit it.

You know, all right, all right, I'll let you off.

I admit it.

I'll let you off with that one.

All right, Ron, what do you use for your autoresponder email series?

You know what? Right now, to be completely honest with you, I basically, I had a script written in my email. So I've got a really good IT partner. Again, one of my benefits from my banking world is like Scott mentioned about VPs. You know, I wasn't the only VP let go. I had a VP partner that was in it who was also let go after I was. And we were able to connect. So he actually built in a script in my email as an autoresponder. So. So I had that somewhat customized for me. But that was. That was fortunate from a relationship that I've got professional.

That's. That's geeky.

Yeah, it is.

All right, well, my tip of the week is I want to just sort of piggyback off of what Ron said about persistence, consistency. Ultimately, what he's saying is you need to have grit if you're going to be successful in life. And I know I've talked about this book before, but I think it's always worth revisiting Angela Duckworth's book called Grit. A phenomenal book and will really help you see, like, all the examples in there, all the stories, all the science behind grit as well. And then I've got another book as well. It's called 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the world Class the thought processes, habits and philosophies of the great ones by Steve Siebold. So we'll have links to that. We're certainly gonna have a link. To learn more about Ron and his podcast, just go to legacyliving Real estate partners dot com. We'll have a link to that as well. Ron Brooks, are we good?

I think we're good, man. I think it's almost lunchtime. Probably for some people it's gonna be cheeseburger time. So let's load it up and everybody be great.

I'm definitely with cheeseburgers today. Scott, Todd, are we good?

We're good, Mark.

All right. I want to thank the listeners. Just remind you the only way we're gonna get the quality of guests like a Ron Brooks is if you do us three little favors. You gotta subscribe, you gotta rate, you gotta review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review to supporthelandgeek.com we're send you for free the $97 Passive Income Launch kit course as well as the latest wholetailing course, how to double your money 30 days or less. Scott Todd, you ready?

I am, Mark.

1, 2, 3. Let.

Let freedom ring. That's the best one ever.

I think that was really good. Ron Brooks magic.

I think what we have to do is we have to cut that and do it every time now.

There you go.

Yeah, it's not a bad idea. That was really good. Yeah. All right, thanks, everybody.

All right, thanks, guys.