The Little Things Matter Most

[00:00:00] Mike: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Excited to have my buddy Corey Peterson. Actually, he’s calling my brother from another mother, uh, with us today. We’re gonna be talking about how trying to be big and grow these big businesses and do all this stuff, but it’s really the little things that matter as we’re gonna talk about today.

Professional real estate investors know that it’s not really about the real estate. That real estate is just a vehicle of freedom. A group of over a hundred of a nation’s leading real estate investors from across. The country meets several times a year at the investor fuel real estate mastermind to share ideas on how to strengthen each other’s businesses.

But also they come together as friends and build more fulfilling lives for all of those around us on today’s show, we’re going to continue our conversation, fueling our businesses and our lives. I’m glad you’re here.

[00:01:00] Hey, Corey, welcome to the show, buddy,

Corey: [00:01:05] man, Mike, thanks for having me brother.

Mike: [00:01:06] Yeah. You know, I’m always excited to see you. Uh, So it’s interesting. We, you and I have come a long way and we’ve talked a lot about all these big, we all have these big goals, obviously, where we worked together on some stuff. And, uh, we were talking about, we’ve talked about this all the time.

Just like things like no cards and brands and like little things that kind of matter. Ultimately the relationships that matter, right. We’re, we’re kind of casting these wide nets, but, um, at the end of the day it’s one-on-one relationships like you and I have that really kind of moved the needle in our businesses.

Right.

Corey: [00:01:36] Yeah, it’s the people. This is family. I think sometimes we forget, like we all get caught up on systems and processes and, you know, the whiz bangs and the, and the tech tech stuff, but at the end of the day, and it’s still just as important now, as it was back then, as it will be in the future, as it comes down to people.

And when it comes to people, it’s the little [00:02:00] things I think, I think that truly matter that move the needle. Yep. Yep. Hey, before

Mike: [00:02:06] anybody that’s reported dive into it for anybody that doesn’t know you yet, the big kahuna. Tell us a little bit about your background, how you got started in real estate investing.

Corey: [00:02:14] I started like probably most investors broken with a dream and that dream was real estate actually like 20 years ago, I went to Hawaii. My mom was married to this man named Bruce. I call him Bruce Wayne. Um, he wasn’t Batman, but he was loaded and he truly gave me a vision. Because we get to the why he’s got a house right on the beach.

And I look at this guy, I’m like, what in the hell does he do? Cause he had time and money. Like no doubt. That’s what he had. And so when I asked him what he did, guess what he said, he said the magic words, he was in real estate that he owned apartment complexes. That’s all I needed. So that was the download from the mothership.

Um, and, uh, I read that book, rich dad, poor dad. And it really just set me off. That was in 2005. I [00:03:00] started the journey, but I didn’t start with multi-family. I started off as a wholesaler because I had no money and, uh, you know, I had a lot of time and I just needed to figure out how to get a deal. And so I start off as a wholesaler and then quickly learned how to raise private money, um, and then went to fix and flip.

And, uh, and then ultimately the market changed again. And I got into apartment investing in 2011 and that’s all I’ve been doing ever since. And now I think we have a portfolio of about $95 million of real estate of apartment complexes that we own. And, uh, the cashflow life is real. Yup.

Mike: [00:03:35] Yup. That’s awesome, man.

And it’s never, you know, it’s always interesting when you talk about your background, that was like probably a minute, but there’s so much more to those stories, right? We all, and I think that’s one of the problems is, you know, a podcast here that we’ve done over 1500 podcasts, talk to a lot of amazing people and it’s hard to encapsulate the whole thing, but for those of you that are listening to this and you know, that made it sound easy.

See, I promise you it was not easy.

[00:04:00] Corey: [00:04:00] It was never easy. It’s never, if I could write the story, it’d be like, How to fail every step and keep getting up, right. Because that’s really what that’s the journey of real estate is. Uh, it’s not actually quitting. It’s just to keep failing forward. And eventually we call that experience.

Mike: [00:04:19] Yeah. That’s exactly what it is. So many people fail and they give up and that’s why the failure rate is so high. I think in this industry is. Is people fail and then they quit. But the truth is, is failure. I always say this failures, I don’t know if this is trademark we’ve been in trademark. This failure is just a stepping stone on your way to success.

Right? So the end of the day, failure, our lessons it’s like touch a hot stove. Don’t do that again. You know? Texts while you’re driving and you get in a wreck, you’re like, don’t do that again. You just kind of learn,

Corey: [00:04:43] what do you learn more from, right. From your wins or from your, your, uh, losses. Yeah, absolutely.

And I say you either win or you learn.

Mike: [00:04:50] Right. Exactly. Right. Well, you and I, and I I’ve gotten some tips, uh, from, from you over the years with like handwritten postcard. So we talk really a lot about just kind [00:05:00] of little things. Cause we, you know, this, this pod. These podcasts go out. You have a podcast too.

We’re talking to thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people out there. But at the end of the day, you know, that wide net approach I guess, is necessary. And that’s kind of how a lot of these mediums are, right. It’s like broad, but at the end of the day, it comes down to individual conversations and relationships.

Right. So when did you kind of realize that? Cause I think we were doing big things. We’re putting on a big events, like all this stuff, but those one-on-one conversations in a corner somewhere, or that phone call. When somebody is interested in something and then touching somebody in a way makes all the difference.

Right. That is all that matters.

Corey: [00:05:36] Yeah. That really is the key difference. Differential in like, Uh, we can cast the wide net, but at the end of the day, it’s it’s, you know, who do you know, how well do you know them and do they know like, and trust you? Right. And how do you build know like, and trust and it’s with, um, I think it’s with conversations.

Other than what of business, right? Like if you can talk [00:06:00] to somebody and this, whether it’s a motivated seller or a, you know, a vendor or a, uh, someone that you’re gonna sell deals to. Right. Um, it all comes down to the same. Why do you sit down and spend 20 minutes before you get to know a motivated seller?

Why are you spending that 20, 30 minutes to. Find out who they are, what they like, and what’s, what’s their hot buttons. What’s their, why getting to know them is because that’s the little thing that matters if you, if you’ve got to find some common ground. And for me, one of the first things that I really learned how to do, and I, I learned this actually in a business that wasn’t even in real estate.

It was when I was a financial advisor. Edward Jones, Edward D. Jones, the little green investing company, right. Uh, they taught me how to do what I call a handwritten. If you’re watching this on YouTube or whatever, a handwritten. Uh, cards. Thank you cards now. Um, it was a requirement from [00:07:00] them. Like if you met somebody and you got their name and address, you immediately sent them a handwritten thank you card.

And, um, that has stuck with me because what I, what happened was. The response I got from that was like tenfold, because it’s a forgotten art. Yeah, no doubt. Right. So, and what I did, what I made sure I did is on the card stock. So I, this is something I didn’t go cheap on. A lot of people go get it. You know, they go onto the quick little, uh, websites where you can order a thousand of them real quickly cheaply made.

And that it’s okay. Like that’s version one. If that’s where you’re at, that’s version one, version one is better than version none. But when you understand. What you’re trying to do, which is influenced you might want it. That’s a good place to put a little bit of an investment. So my card stock is very thick.

It’s linen. It’s got a textured pattern in the card stock. I’ve got gold embossed, [00:08:00] foil of my logo and my, and then my name. And so it looks like it’s coming from this CEO of a fortune 500 company. That’s how I want. Mike cardstock to look like,

Mike: [00:08:13] yeah, we do the same thing, but here’s the, you know, I’ve got the investor fuel ones.

Corey: [00:08:17] Yeah.

Mike: [00:08:17] It’s kind of like Crump from the desk of, and honestly we take it seriously. Like some of these things I learned from you, I never made it quite with the wax. It was so much work, but, well,

Corey: [00:08:27] hold on. No,

Mike: [00:08:30] I’m talking about the wax seal.

Corey: [00:08:31] We’ve learned Solon, let me show you, I’m going to bring out my, you got to watch it this right here.

This is a glue gun. K. You can buy Watts inserts. And so, uh, this is funny, but so we’re talking about these cards. Like, so what you put on them is important. Just, you know, a quick little message. Hey, great meeting you. If I can add value to you in any way, call me up or whatever, but people will call you back once they get these in the mill.

And then what I learned, how to level it up is when I made sure not only did [00:09:00] I hand write the message I hand wrote the address. I put a cool stamp. So most people, again, they get the United States flag stamps, not Cory right now. Like I’m rolling with it street. Right. So I went to the post office and I’m like, show me your cool stamps.

And they always got cool stamps, man. And so right now I’m rocking Sesame street. So I put the Sesame street, uh, little, uh, post, uh, stamp on the, on the deal. And then what I learned now, this is, I got this from my daughter. This is not even my idea. She goes, dad, that’d be cool, but why don’t you put a wax seal on the back?

And I was like, well, how do I do that? So of course, you know you with anything in the world, we Google stuff, right? How did you wax seal stamps? And on Amazon, you can custom get one. So I created one with my logo and my little initials. And so now, and then. Learn was this glue gun is the most vital important part of that process.

Yeah. You put a wet thing in there and then you [00:10:00] just heat this thing up and you squeeze it. Boom. And then you come and stamp it and it’s done. Yeah, that’s cool. Any other way is too much work.

Mike: [00:10:07] And I think even for the no family, you know, sellers out there, you might not use a wax stamp and stuff. But I think just the handwritten note with like, for many, many years, sometimes we get away from these things and we’re like, why don’t we stop?

We look back you’re like, why did I stop doing that? But my acquisitions people would, uh, leave a house and we would, uh, they would have a stack of, of cards. We would write hand, write a card, put their business card in and Hey, it was really great meeting you. I hope you’re. Hope your father starts feeling better or whatever the issue might be.

That’s kind of personalized. Right. And just, just to remember those things, because I tell you like nobody, nobody is, nobody does that. And it’s so many people are like, walk in, like. Can I see the house real fast. Let me see, let me say, well, here’s what I’ll give you for this dump. It’s very impersonal and it’s it’s and you don’t stand out.

I mean, you must stand out in a bad way. If you do that,

Corey: [00:10:52] you can get referrals, right? So like you’ve got a motivated seller and you want to get referral after you close your deal and you send them a handwritten card saying, I really appreciate doing [00:11:00] business with you. You know, you were such a great, you know, I’m glad that we were able to help you out.

If you know anybody else that’s in need, make sure you send them our way, right. Or something like that. And then even for the, for your buyers, you have a new buyer that buys first time they bought from you, right. As you know, wouldn’t you want to like say, Hey, John man, great working with you on our first experience together, let’s look forward to, to do many, many more right.

Call me when you have a chance I’d love to catch up with and, and get to know you better. Yup. Right. All that stuff. That’s why these handwritten cards, they they’ll go as far as you allow it to. And you just gotta, um, but you just gotta do the work, right? This is one of those things. It’s a little bit of time commitment, but the truth is in today’s society.

Listen, I can have my VA do the whole thing and all I gotta do is sign the back. Or whatever, if I really want it to or whatever. So like there’s a process for it. It can be easily done.

Mike: [00:11:58] Yeah. I think all of us are feeling that [00:12:00] pinch of competition. Right. I mean, it always exists. It feels like it’s harder right now.

It always feels like it’s the hardest it’s ever been right now, wherever you are in time. Right. But I think it’s it’s how do you stand out amongst the sea of other people that, that customer, or that potential friend or whatever person could be working with. Right. It’s like, how do you, how do you differentiate yourself?

Things like

Corey: [00:12:19] that. It’s called relationships. Right. Right. W how do you know you have a relationship with somebody? Well, in my opinion is when you can, like me and Mike have a relationship, I can talk to Mike about things other than real estate. Right. We can talk about travel. We can like, that’s one of the things we have in common.

You like travel, I like travel. Like, what’s your favorite spot? Why? Right. Why should I go? And like, anytime you can open up a conversation with anybody, whether it’s a motivated seller, whether it’s a, um, you know, a potential buyer list, if you can start talking something other than the business that you’re currently doing.

Like [00:13:00] golf, you name it, whatever they are interested in, that you can find a common bond. Now you’re cooking. Now you have a relationship other than the same boring crap of, do you want to borrow the house? Do you want to, you want to sell the house? No. Yeah. So

Mike: [00:13:17] let’s talk a little about, I know you’re big on branding.

We’re big on branding. We’ve got, we never show our office. I don’t really know why, but we’ve got signs all over the place. Cause I’ve got a bunch of brands. I, when you have a graphic designer full time, like you just come up with brands, so you just like lots and lots of t-shirts, you know? And so you’ve got obviously your kahuna stuff on and all your vehicles are wrapped.

Corey: [00:13:37] Um,

Mike: [00:13:38] but just talk about the, the kind of power of a branding as you see it.

Corey: [00:13:42] So. I didn’t really understand the power of this early on, but as I’ve gotten and matured, I realized that the one thing I did consistently was make sure that, um, We stayed consistent. And how do you do that? I think it’s, I call it a branding guide.

[00:14:00] And so like, if like for kahuna investments, you know, we have our little house logo. Um, we, we have, first of all, we have our logo. Everybody should have a logo, but the truth is how do you use your logo? Right. If it’s in front of the back a colored background, is it the same? Is it different? Is it changed?

Like what’s your rules on your logo? What, how does it get presented? Um, what’s your fights? Right? So we, we know our fonts and then what’s your color codes? To your fonts, to your logos, do you, you know, your most color palettes are in threes, right? So even like I’m looking at investor feel you’ve got your green or orange and you’re kind of your yellow, right?

That’s I’m just looking behind you right now watching this video. That’s that’s the colors. That’s every time I see that, I know that that’s that’s investor fuel. Right. And that’s, it’s consistent raining, like, think about McDonald’s Mike. We [00:15:00] know this. When you walk up to the counter, you know, where are the fries they’re to your left every time.

That’s right. And they’ve modeled, you know, it’s the systems and process branding that’s consistent. And so that’s how your brand should be as well. It should be very consistent. Whether you go onto your website, whether you go on to print material, it should always like, that’s why those fonts matter, because you want the same fonts every time you want it to look like, Oh, that’s investor fuel.

Mike: [00:15:29] Yeah. I think, and from a single family perspective too, when you brand yourself, I do think these things go hand in hand, right? If you have a really awesome brand, but you’re not. You’re not good at building relationships and rapport with people when you’re talking to them that brand’s not going to matter, but if you treat people right, you can build relationships with people.

You’ve got a brand that’s catchy or kind of stands out and you just do that consistently over time, years and years and years, like eventually. You’ll be getting business that you don’t even know where it came from. It just happened.

Corey: [00:15:57] You have a true brand, right? It’s like you start off [00:16:00] with an idea, but you’ve got to, it’s kind of like a living, breathing process, right?

It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s like, Oh, it’s not like GE we bring good things to light. It didn’t happen that way, but they kept on saying the same message for the longest time and they built trust and, you know, consistency to the game. That’s when people say, Oh, they know they start, they start to know you by, um, a little bit of brain power in everybody’s brain of what your company does.

Mike: [00:16:30] Yup. Yup.

Corey: [00:16:31] Then you’re moving the needle.

Mike: [00:16:32] One of the things we’re talking about is kind of a little thing that you guys want to consider is just the relationships you build and who you surround yourself with. So there are REIA clubs and, you know, with COVID and all that, a lot of that stuff is down. But the truth is, is, you know, I’ve been to, we used to sponsor REIA clubs for many, many years.

I’ve been the. I who knows a hundred, a hundred plus REIA club meetings. I’m sure. Maybe way more than that. And the truth is, is a lot of them are a little sterile. Like you kind of get there. Nobody’s really there to build relationships. They’re kind of there [00:17:00] to give and take a lot of times. That’s how a lot of those clubs are set up.

It’s like, there’s tables. I want to give you something in exchange. Give me your email address. And it’s very kind of just cold and mechanical. But when you get in a room full of people where you can surround yourself with and just drop your guard and just open up and talk about what’s going on, what do you need help with?

How can I help you and be genuine about it? Like everything changes we have obviously have the investor fuel mastermind. This is the investor fuel show. Corey has been a member for my diesel. Oh gee. From the very beginning, for over three years now. And, um, and you know, talk, maybe share your thoughts, Corey, on just kind of the power of really getting around other people like that.

Corey: [00:17:34] Changed my life forever. Like there’s no doubt. Like if I could say, if I would go back and look at my history and say, when did I really start to move the needle? It was the moment I started joining masterminds and I’m, I’m in part of like three different masterminds. Um, but I didn’t start, you know, I started with one, um, obviously part of investor fuel, like.

Here’s the, the value that [00:18:00] you get by surrounding yourself with like-minded people that are operating, if not at your level or at a higher level is intoxicating. Okay. And what happens is, is you don’t know what you don’t know. Like there’s stuff that, you know, and then there’s the stuff that you think, you know, but you’re not sure.

And then there’s things that you don’t even know that you don’t even know. And that’s what gets introduced in these masterminds is the possibilities of what’s possible is mindblowing. It expands your idea of what you could do, but more importantly is you can get the help. I think that’s the difference for me, it was like, not only did I hear some great ideas and things, I didn’t even know that you could do like RVM, ringless, voicemails, um, Podio, when I first started like using as a CRM correctly, not only did I say they get, you know, like those like, Oh, you gotta use Podio, but it was like, here’s exactly how you use [00:19:00] this system.

Yup. And like that, that piece of nugget was like, Oh my God. And then you implement it into your business. You put it in. You’re like, wow. And everybody’s like, wow, you’ve got a real system now. And then, but the truth is it’s copied your way to success, right. It really is about, um, everybody rises when that high tide comes in.

Those groups of people come in. It’s amazing. What happens in the result of everybody gets risen to a new level.

Mike: [00:19:28] Yeah. The difference is like, uh, you know, I, uh, I thought I was thinking about this recently in the context of something else, like a Lego kit. So we, we have kids, I don’t know if your kids play with Legos or not, but my, my son, Jay, you know, Jake, we were like, he was just really into Legos for a long time, not anymore, but he was, and he was very good at if he had the book, like he could put it together.

He was like, you know, he’d be like six. And they were like, this is like for eight age, eight to 12. And he’s just like cranking stuff out without us, you know, which was awesome. But. Inevitably, if your kids were in the low Legos, what [00:20:00] you have now is this just like buckets full of Legos from all these different kits that you could never put back together again.

Right. Right. And so the pieces are there, but you just don’t have the kind of the blueprint of like, okay, do this now. Here’s how we did it. We did this, we did this, we did this. It’s almost like a blueprint of a recipe of like, here’s

Corey: [00:20:16] how to do it. It’s a great analogy. Right? Cause what, what that is exactly.

A lot of us come into. The a group, like a mastermind as a bucket full of Legos with no plan. Right. And what happens is you get in there and all sudden someone brings in a new Lego kit, like it brings in the death star or something. Right. Which is a powerful, you know, thing of menace. But when he says, okay, not only do I bring in the death star, but I’ve actually got phase one Lego’s phase two phase three, phase four, and then here’s the booklet on how to start assembling it.

Now it’s like, Oh, okay. I can do that. I can take a chunk and get that piece done. Okay. Now the next chunk is that piece and the next piece, and [00:21:00] next thing you know, you’ve got the death star or, you know, or the millennium, Falcon, whatever you want. Like, if you want to go the light side of dark side, doesn’t matter, but you can build that.

That’s a great analogy, man. That’s the one that best. I think I just,

Mike: [00:21:12] I made myself a note. I’m going to make, I’m actually going to make an investor fuel commercial that now I’ve been thinking about doing for years and, uh, anyway, it’s time. So, but, uh, the point is, is. You know, when you, when you look, I think one of the challenges is we’re all connected to thousands of people on social media, but the relationships tend to be very shallow.

Right? You hear, Oh, I did this. Oh yeah. Call me sometime. I’ll tell you about it. That may have that call may or may not ever happen, but it’s just, it’s not as deep as like. I want to help people because the people in this family, which is called an investor fuel fuel family helped me. Right? So when you get around people that true.

Cause I believe this, that you don’t see it on social media. You don’t feel it a REIA clubs, but real estate investors and entrepreneurs are, are some of the biggest givers out there. We know how hard it, it took to build something and an exchange. Maybe it’s ego. [00:22:00] Sometimes, maybe it’s from the heart, whatever it is we love to like help other people learn

Corey: [00:22:04] family.

The word is family. Right? So I would say that’s. That is what I feel like when I go to an investor fuel meeting. Um, and you know, we’re meeting every quarter. Um, when I get to that group, it’s like, I’m finally around the same group of people. They don’t have to be ashamed of what I do. Cause, listen, when you start making money in this business, it’s actually pretty lonely business.

Real estate is actually kind of lonely because you’re kind of in your little Island. We can, a lot of times we work, I work from home. I don’t have lots of interactions with lots of people. And then I sure can’t tell, like my neighbors always what I’m doing, because it would, it would sound like bragging.

When I’m talking about what I’m doing and like what I’m trying to build. And so I, I just kind of like a shrunk down. I can’t tell anybody when I go to fuel investor fuel it’s, it’s like a celebration. And then, and then it’s the merging of minds [00:23:00] and it is family. Cause like, these are my friends. Like if I’m ever in somebody’s state, I’m gonna, I’m gonna like, Hey, yo, I’m coming to town.

W and come stay with me, let’s go do this. And it becomes way more than just a simple. But, you know, call me and maybe I won’t call you. That’s not what it is. It’s really like, how do you need to move the needle? Let me help. I’ll invite you to my office. You can come in and take a look. I’ll give you the process here.

It is never before in my life. Did I ever experience stuff like that? But when I, instead, when I got jumped into masterminds, true giving masterminds, not all masterminds are the same, but when you find one like the fuel, cause it is, and Mike. This comes back to leadership. It’s only that way because you made it that way.

Right? You made it about people again, this is like the beginning concept we talked about. It’s you’re, we’re in the people business. Even when I don’t show up to a mastermind, I get this gift [00:24:00] basket thing that says, here’s the roster. Here’s what you missed. Here’s your shirt, you know, like. Who does that? My camera does that because why?

Because he’s in the people business, he cares and listen that that leadership trickles all the way down to everybody. And that’s the difference in masterminds. When you find the right one, it is a rising tide.

Mike: [00:24:24] I appreciate that brother. Thanks for, thanks for the kind words.

Corey: [00:24:26] Thanks man.

Mike: [00:24:27] Awesome, man. Well, Hey, if folks want to connect with you.

So Corey is a multifamily investor. He started as a single family. If you don’t know, his whole story found his way into multifamily has never looking back. Now, in fact, we’re investors in some of his deals, we’ll do some deals together and uh, if folks want to connect with you, you get your podcasts and a whole bunch of stuff.

Where should they go to connect

Corey: [00:24:45] two best places. A podcast is one multifamily legacy podcast. Find us on iTunes. Um, that’s a great place to get in. I would actually recommend you listening to, uh, find the search for the pillars, the six pillars, right? That series is a great [00:25:00] series to listen to, to understand that.

And then, um, also, uh, kahuna wealth builders, CUNA wealth builders.com is our main website for teaching. We got some free stuff. If you want to opt in and then can I, can I plug my book? Yeah, buddy. So

Mike: [00:25:15] like

Corey: [00:25:15] one which one? The, my second one, cause this is my, it’s the one that I wrote every word. Okay. The first one I had help writing.

The second one, I wrote all it was called. Copy your way to success, standing on the shoulders of giants. And it really is about my real estate journey and it’s really stories of me failing and learning. It’s a very inspiring book. Thank you laugh, cry, and maybe get inspired. And so if I can do that for you, I would love to do that.

Get it on iTunes or whatever, wherever you buy books.

Mike: [00:25:44] Awesome. We’ll uh, we’ll add some links down below in the show notes here. So Corey always good to see you. My friend,

Corey: [00:25:49] man, listen, Micah, you keep fighting the good fight. Anytime I get a in touch with Mike and hang out. It’s always a great day for me.

Mike: [00:25:56] Yeah.

Yeah. I appreciate that, buddy. Everybody. Thanks for joining us. I hope you got some good [00:26:00] insights from today. I think it all comes down to it. Like we said, it’s about the little things in your business and in your life, right? We’re all kind of out there trying to take over the world, but it’s the relationships that matter most.

So appreciate you guys. Uh, if you haven’t checked out investor fuel yet go to investor fuel.com. You can schedule a call with us and we’ll have to tell you more about it. If you’re an active investor. And otherwise we’ll see you on the next episode, take care,

active real estate investor. If so, and you want to latch onto the

Corey: [00:26:27] power

Mike: [00:26:28] of surrounding yourself with over a hundred of the nation’s leading real estate investors.

Corey: [00:26:33] All

Mike: [00:26:33] committed to building stronger businesses and live richer fuller lives. You should jump on a call with us to learn more about investor fuel.

Simply visit investor fuel.com. Get started. [00:27:00] .