What is Investor Fuel?

[00:00:00] Mike: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome back to the show today. I have the privilege of actually a sense of bland joining me today. You don’t know since instance, and has been a real estate investor for probably about 10, 11 years or so. And here in my market, we actually worked together. He’s my right hand man with the best refuel to work together, a coaching and a lot of things, uh, over the years.

And Stinson helps me run. The investor fuel mastermind and, uh, has really his ear to the ground, um, with our members. What’s going on? And what we wanted to do is take the opportunity to create a show today to talk about what some of the top investors in America that are members of the investor fuel mastermind are doing right now in things like lead generation, a number of other things, and just kind of give you an update.

So if you’re an experienced investor that you’re going gonna get some great nuggets out of this. Uh, so we’re gonna go and jump in. Yeah,

Stinson: [00:00:43] Mike, I appreciate it. Your app, you’re also getting humbled there. You forgot to mention that I had no real estate experience and that you, you sold me on the idea of getting into the industry and training me. So

Mike: [00:00:53] Yeah

Stinson: [00:00:55] One of your OG students for about

Mike: [00:00:56] That’s right. That’s right. You are OG. You don’t have your, you don’t have your big gold chain on [00:01:00] today. So, um, yeah. So it’s great to talk about, here’s the funny thing. This is working from home right now. I’m actually at my office, which is about a mile from my house.

I’m the only one in my office. And so normally since it’s here in the office with me, but, uh, we’re kind of virtually meeting today even though we usually are in the same office. Um, but you know, we started the investor fuel mastermind a little over two and a half years ago. Started with kind of an idea and a really solid network.

We’ve talked about this before, that probably our biggest asset is our network and our relationships. And I think that first meeting we had. I don’t know, 25 people there, maybe a bunch of them were just friends and guests and people that we asked to come check it out. And then it’s turned into something much bigger than that.

I think our last event, we probably had 170 people there and, um, it’s really turned into something, you know, pretty amazing. I know you agree with that. You helped kind of build it, right? So,

yeah, I think, you know, uh, you know, I take a lot of the calls coming in, um, on new people, new people asking about an investor, if you will, what it is.

And they’re always like, what makes you guys different? Or what’s special about you guys? And [00:02:00] I always tell him, it’s that. We’ve been to a lot of his moves and been involved in large groups, but a lot of  on stuff. But when they, when people around us, the family won’t, like, I’ve never been to a networking event or a mastermind or a nice party, and like truly like that has that family atmosphere.

So that’s what I’m always most proud about. And that’s what I mean, baskets. Yeah.

Yeah. I think we, you know, and in some of the same people that are in other, not taking anything away from any other masterminds, but we’re, I think we kind of realized upfront that, Hey, we. The reason that all of us are doing this business is to live a better life.

And so, you know, I don’t think, uh, I think it’s, it’s typical in a big mastermind or a big networking group for people to show up and not lie, but feel like they need to be somebody that they’re not on a daily basis. Right. And we’re just like, Hey, just. Come as you are, be who you are, be yourself. Don’t lie.

Let’s just be honest about the situation that you’re in.

Stinson: [00:02:51] Yeah. Or even better yet, if you haven’t, making a note to yourself, leave that at the door.

Mike: [00:02:56] Yeah. Or don’t come right. Yeah. We’re selective about the people that [00:03:00] we have come in for sure. So, um, so what’s been, why don’t you kind of share, I know some of these are kind of softballs cause you and I know what’s going on, but I want to share, you know, one of the, I’ll be honest with you, one of the concerns I had a couple of weeks ago, first concern is taking care of our members.

And there’s a little bit of concern for us as a business. Like, are we going to lose members. Over this. Right. And that that hasn’t been the case, right?

Stinson: [00:03:18] Nope. That’s as of now we’re growing, which is a. I w I’m, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m always a little bit skeptical of things and you have to convince me some things and I would, if I was nervous like you, and I thought for sure when people start looking at expenses to cut, um, we might be one of them.

Right? And what I realized really quick is you and I would proactive, right? Where I tell everybody not to be reactive to proactive, reactive, live proactive. We started contacting people and people are really quickly saying, Hey, this is, this is what I’m just, I need this group right now and even network.

What are other people doing? And it’s been neat to watch. We’re both going through this motion and talking to all these numbers and getting the feedback and then going back. It’s like you getting this information like, Oh, I need to run back and tell it to these three guys and then connect these guys up.

It’s really neat [00:04:00] to watch the, the community’s always been amazing, but it’s almost like flourishing right now. Like then now that scaling and stuff like that, just

Mike: [00:04:06] really. Yeah. I think, you know, when it comes to networking, because of the cycle we’ve been in for so long, like a lot of people assume we kind of, it’s true.

When you get together, it’s been celebrating, celebrating the good times, crushed it last month, whatever the truth is, is your network is even more important when time starts to slow down or there’s uncertainty, right? Because at the end of the day, um, you know, the truth is, is you also know that we’ve heard this over and over again.

Many of our members are saying they had their best month ever last month, which was March. A little bit of a surprise. Now, will that continue if the market continues to slow down? Lending tightens up, you know, things are gonna change here. No doubt about it. But, um, I think where we provide and not, and it’s the funny thing is it’s not even us, right?

I mean, we kind of group, but I think, um, early on we made the decision of like, Hey, I don’t want people to come see me. Yeah, I’ve got a bunch of experience. I’ve got some street cred, whatever, but I want people to come to be with one another, to [00:05:00] share ideas with one another. And so I think that that has paid off for us and has paid off for the relationships that we’ve allowed people to build because it’s a lot of people can’t imagine not being part of this family right.

Stinson: [00:05:11] Yeah. I mean, for me personally, um, outside of the business, I, I have a few people in the group that I’m kind of, they’re my accountability partner and I’m their accountability partner outside of what we already do for accountability and investor relationships. And you know, it was like on Monday it was raining outside and I’m like, I’m a busy body.

I can’t sit still. I’m stuck in the house. I was having a down day. I’m like. Who can I call right now, Josh, Bob and Tyler. Like those three dudes are all super positive. They’re writing affirmations every day. I’m like, I’m having a down day. Let me steal some of their energy. I know they’ll give it to me, and the next day, like they all only what they were doing to stay in a positive mindset, the next level of the five 30 exactly what those guys were doing.

And boom, I’ve been like back again, the sun’s Apple game, so you know what I mean? So it’s. That’s going on all throughout the community is cool. Just like me personally, when the, when the virus broke [00:06:00] out, I didn’t know who I want to double down on my advertising or I went back out and started talking to people.

I went to the networking side pool that’s been through the down cycle or there for Oh seven Oh eight and I realized, Hey, I have guts. I have finances behind me. I want to double down. If I didn’t have this network, I definitely would. You’re 40 cash right now, right? I cutting off my Netflix before you cash instead, I’m doubling down, and that’s what a lot of people are doing.

That’s for sure.

Mike: [00:06:25] Two darts, that’s for sure. Yeah. If I compare it to like people that you know, we do some coaching stuff to people on the coaching side. If you’re new and you’re newer and you’re, you’re afraid you’re dipping your toe in the water, you still have a job or whatever, people are kind of tightening up.

Right now they’re moving to the sidelines, so I just want to see what happens. But when you’re a professional real estate investor. You. The truth is, we’ve all, we’ve been talking about looking forward to a downmarket for quite some time. Nobody knew what happened like this, but I think after a little bit of initial fear, there’s still some uncertainty.

I think people are getting a little more comfortable with uncertainty at this point. Um, and I think people are, you know, uh, kind of gearing up [00:07:00] to kind of pounce on the opportunities that are going to present themselves

Stinson: [00:07:03] in the last two or three meetings. . The topic. The main topic there has been, what are we going to do to adapt to the changing market, right?

Like we’ve been saying for 18 to 24 months, it’s coming. It’s coming, it’s going move. We got hit in the face with it. We didn’t expect that. But everybody from the newer guys to the veterans in the group has been like, when it happens, all these hot, let’s just call them hobbyists or newer people, they’re gonna.

They’re going to tighten up and back out, and that’s when the opportunity for our advertising dollars go farther, and then that’s going to be opportunity for less competition and just in this terrible time, there’s more opportunity. Sellers are being put under a lot of pressures and the markets change.

There’s not, you know, it’s, it’s the moment of momentum is in our favor, not, it sucks that it happened this way, but it is what it is and that’s, we’re in a position to capitalize and help people. Right. Like they help

Mike: [00:07:50] you. Yeah. Yeah. Right now I’m getting 48

Stinson: [00:07:53] calls a day, a four to eight leads a day. Um, and two weeks ago that wasn’t happening unless one tire [00:08:00] kickers, but we’re building relationships and maintaining them and we’ll be there on the back end to help.

Right. Yeah.

Mike: [00:08:04] I think the difference is like for professional real estate investors, you know, a lot of the, we’ve all been complaining about. Like competition, increased competition over the past few years, and a lot of them are the newer folks not taking away from newer folks. We were all newer folks, newer investors at one point.

But I’ll say the people that we’re not kind of principled in how they buy, they’re like paying way too much for stuff over promising things, backing out on deals, like just kind of causing this disruption in the market that just was never made sense. Like that stuff is kind of partying and it’s like the professionals can step in now.

Right.

Stinson: [00:08:38] Well, and for some of it, you know, I was talking to the talking. It doesn’t matter who I spoke to. They’re in a major market and what’s what’s happening, which is really cool, is a big competitor that came in really high buyers right? Years ago, they weren’t, they were there. They were very disruptive to our business.

What’s cool is they’ve all pulled out of there their marketing right now, they’re done. They’re not buying houses. They’re on. Right. Well. [00:09:00] Anybody in these big markets that has the advertising budget needs to grab it and say, Hey, I’m not, I’m not truly, I’m a local home buyer. I’m from this area and I’m still buying house.

Why? Those guys backed out of contracts and ran, I’m here buying. So there’s opportunity everywhere, but you have to. You have to fight through the negativity. I struggle with this as much as you know, is better than anybody fight. The next day we go to the resource gap and you know, position yourself and go, let’s take that action.

And that’s, these masterminds are all about,

Mike: [00:09:28] yeah, in our group, you know for sure we’ve got, like I talked to Jerry Green this morning and he said they did 17 houses last month because we just were, as we were time of recording this, I’d say it’s April 2nd here, and he had six. They were closing on this week to sell.

Um, and he’s, he’s just a beast. He’s been doing this for 20, 25 years, buying 15 to 25 houses a month. And having veterans like that in our group that people can aspire. I mean, Jerry loves to teach and share that knowledge and he’s one of the more veteran guys in the group. And then there’s newer men and women in the group that, you know, it gives them confidence to see that, right.

To kind of [00:10:00] learn like, okay, this is what happened. This happens. You know, cause if you, if you’re, this is be honest, there’s a lot of newer people in this industry. Over the last even 10 years you’ve been on this same market cycle. You have a veteran downmarket

Stinson: [00:10:12] industry,

Mike: [00:10:13] right? You haven’t known anything other than this, and then, so somebody kind of moves your cheese.

And you know, you can’t help but be a little suspicious about what’s going to happen next. But when you can surround yourself with people that are like, okay, this is when you pull out this playbook and here’s how you, here’s how you deal with it in this market, then it just provides a lot of confidence.

Stinson: [00:10:29] And perfect example is a, for me personally, I had to close in the last week. I didn’t know, I didn’t know what to do. I went to the most veteran groups, guys in the group and said, Hey, what would you do? You know? And they also just go to the seller and see if he can, you know, get price adjusted. I guess it’s understandable.

Times are different. You’re not right. You’re not, you’re not doing anything dishonest. And I haven’t, we, we’ve always talked all this really huge problem with that, that whole seller game of renegotiating. But when the market’s law and stock markets shooting down on five, 10% a day, it’s understandable. If you’re going to go back in and [00:11:00] I was, I hit 50% right.

Like once they, they’ve yes. And one said no, and we close on both deals. So

Mike: [00:11:05] yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Stinson: [00:11:06] So Donald’s resources, would it never,

Mike: [00:11:09] you talked a little bit about lead generation and a lot of our members are. No, not pulling back some or doubling, tripling down. Some are lean into this, uh, opportunity. Let’s talk a little bit about, um, systems and processes.

I think that, you know, we focus a lot on, we’ve always focused a lot, even in the coaching stuff about building your business like a business. And. You know, there was a lot of successful real estate investors out there. I’m using kind of air quotes here. It might be successful financially, and I’m not taking anything away from anybody, but they’re still working way harder than they should.

And you know, putting the right systems and processes in place, the right people in place allows you to truly build a business instead of being self employed or, you know, move more in that direction. So what are the, I know you see some opportunity now, or some of our members are a, not opportunity, but spending the time to finally get shored up in some of those areas where they had shortfalls.

Right?

Stinson: [00:11:56] Yes, it’s, we’ve all had the excuse of we’re too [00:12:00] busy making money or it’s been busy with our family. It’s busy workings and do the things that we don’t want to do right. And I’m guilty of this. I have them right here on my board, but it’s right now we have more, more time than ever. I mean, the weekends come and you’re still stuck at home and it’s like right now the members are literally sharing their, what their processes are, what their flow charts are, and there’s a couple of them.

Their numbers are taking this time to, to even change it. The new CRM, like case who, you know, returns the door in or even the members and they’re going back. They have kind of pulled back on advertising and building a system around going back to their old, the trying to build those relationships and reignite conversations that end die.

I mean, died. They were buried, right. They disappeared. They’re pulling those back out cause they’re going through these systems or these processes they put in place and are pulling deals out or positions,

Mike: [00:12:49] pull those out for future

Stinson: [00:12:51] people. So,

Mike: [00:12:52] yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s a, you know, I think people are just, like you said, using this time to say, how do I.

I do. I come out of this [00:13:00] stronger. How’d I come out of this better than when I went into it? I know I had some shortcomings, and so let me use this time to. Does strengthen it. They’re doing the same thing with kind of the networks. I mean, obviously we have a network, which is the mastermind, but I would say people are more active than ever.

Right now. We’re more active to trying to support them and we’re doing like later today, we have this twice a week we’re doing this investor fuel happy hour, which is kind of a fun thing. We all jump on zoom and we’re talking about what’s going on and having a, having a cold one or whatever your drink appropriately,

Stinson: [00:13:27] your gear

Mike: [00:13:28] hat.

Yeah, we’re a beer hat. We’re trying to have a little fun with it. I’m really getting into props. I don’t know why I’m

Stinson: [00:13:32] getting,

Mike: [00:13:34] uh, but my point is, is that, um, you know, I think our network is really strong and people, it’s getting even stronger now. If people are, are counting on each other more than ever right now.

Would you agree with that?

Stinson: [00:13:45] Absolutely. You know that the thing that you, I know you’re doing it. I’d do it as well as we’re, when we talked to somebody. The main, main thing I tried to say is, Hey, it’s all mindset right now. We’re fighting the steamer gave me a C positive, so anything could happen in your business.

Share it in a group. It’s not. Most [00:14:00] being we’re allowing egos right now. You need positivity and you close a bunch of deals come in there. It’s just like Josh, last month, he’s, you know, he came to us and a small time wholesaler. He had his best month ever last month. He still have his, a few deals that have been pushed because of lending and stuff like that, but he had a six digit month, you know.

Everybody in our whole group. That’s kind of their first big goal, right? Like their big audacious goal. As long as the six digit month he hit it and it’s like, dude, share that stuff or the group. So everyone else gets inspired. Like. We’re not running away this time. It’s time for us to grow forward and make art.

Mike: [00:14:32] Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think in an age where, you know, everybody’s on social media now, I mean, everybody has been on social media. There’s lots of zoom calls. We’re creating a lot of free content too. I mean, there’s a lot of, there’s more content than ever out there right now, but I can see it, cause you know, I’m doing all these live of it, these live FlipNerd events three times a week.

And. In the communication inside of these things. I mean, I think it’s really good content. We have a lot of great speakers on what the communication is still kind of lackluster. And I think, you know, we’re all members of a bunch of free [00:15:00] Facebook groups and there’s just so much misinformation out there, or everybody has an opinion, even if they haven’t really earned their stripes to share that type of opinion yet.

And I could just see the, you know, the conversations that are happening out there in a network, if you will, but it’s just not the same as a group that’s kind of more exclusive like ours. Right. Well,

Stinson: [00:15:16] not only exclusive, but we’ll call them on their BS. I mean, here in about five weeks. Again, to put Mary KPI’s on the screen,

Mike: [00:15:23] right?

Like if

Stinson: [00:15:24] you know, we all know and trust each other because we offer a fully transparent, everybody in the group is going to share their numbers every quarter. We know if people are growing. You know, we’ve had people on the stage say, Hey, I’m on the brink of disaster here in the watch. Everybody come together and try to help build that person up.

I mean, will you, you know exactly what the situation I’m talking about. I’m watching these new and come out these big holes in the group, just support them and help build them up as amazing and we’re all kind of in that rep now. We don’t know what’s great, certainly the, for everybody to come together and say, Hey, this is what I’m working on.

Or give me all these ideas. People are sharing what they’re doing on the SEO side [00:16:00] system sides. It’s really neat. I mean, Facebook, our Facebook group has never been this app ever. Yeah. You know, before we got on this call, we had like nine months in post and the group, while you and I were just chatting about what we’re going to do for this.

Yeah.

Mike: [00:16:11] Yeah. And it’s always active, but it’s like, it’s just lit up more, even

Stinson: [00:16:15] though it’s on

Mike: [00:16:15] fire. Yeah. And I, you know, one of the things that, that I think that we have instilled in our group is that. There’s always the real estate people that are out there that are appear to be crushing it, but their lives falling apart behind the scenes, or they’ve got health issues or the wife’s leaving them or whatever.

Like I think from the very beginning we’ve said, look, the reason you build a strong business is to build a better life. And yes, you know, I think right now that’s more important. That message is more important than ever, and I think people are reflecting. What is this all for? Why am I even doing this? The people that are kind of considering, should I fold up shop and leave, like the real estate investors out there, you know, they’re not really committed to living a better life because real estate is still a great vehicle to be able.

There’s a lot of uncertainties right now, but it’s still a great vehicle to. [00:17:00] Live a better life than you did in the past. Right. And so I think we’re taking this opportunity to talk to our members and say, look, it’s not about unit volume. It’s not about like what’s your exit strategy? It’s not about anything other than building a business that supports your life.

I think that’s a unique thing that we do in investor fuel. Absolutely.

Stinson: [00:17:16] Absolutely. I just think it’s really cool to watch. I personally, you know, a doom and gloom guy, this kind of stuff happens. At first I was like, Oh man, this stuff’s going to be freaked out. And I’m personally using it as a sounding board to stay positive and keep my head outside of the news and stuff like that.

So I’m just, I’m really impressed with what the community is done, the investor group needs. Just

Mike: [00:17:39] so,

Stinson: [00:17:40] and I have no doubt that on the backside of this, there’s gonna be some huge winners, and I hope it’s everybody in our group because of what we’re doing. To build that, right? Yeah. Like you said, we’ve had very, very little fallout with one person today.

And I think that’s because there’s so much value being created in there and motivation and actually getting paid for this. Like this [00:18:00] is, this is a new expense to me right now. This is, this is actually pain, right? Knowledge and action. So,

Mike: [00:18:06] yeah. Yeah. So we have our next, uh, investor fuel events coming up here.

Pretty soon. We, we meet quarterly. For those of you that are listening right now, if you’re not aware of this, we have a couple of groups. We have a group that we call the gold group that’s usually people that are doing 10 to 50 deals a year. And we have what we call the platinum group, which is 50 deals and above.

And so we’ve have members that are doing, you know, several hundred deals a year in some instances. Um, and our next events coming up. And so what we’d like to ask you guys, if a, if you really want to be a part of a, of an amazing network that’s. Truthfully sharing first and giving, kind of giving first and getting back second, which is really what happens in our group.

Um, we love to talk to you now. We don’t ever have a hard sell or anything like that. If you, if you go to investor fuel.com we do say that you’re applying, but the truth is that that’s just the process to schedule a call. You should schedule a call and talk to us even if you’re not sure if the mastermind is a fit for you right now, we’re all about building longterm [00:19:00] relationships and networking, so we’d love to hear what’s going on in your business.

I promise you there’s nobody that ever calls us that. Our goal isn’t to try to add value to that person, even if they decide. Not sure if you’d agree with that. Right. Sense

Stinson: [00:19:10] of 100% man. That’s the bulk of the conversations that I have or you know, I want to learn about their business and see what they’re having trouble with because I’m trying to prove to them we were an asset right off the bat.

So if I can add value right in that first conversation. I’m trying. That’s my hard sales. I want to give you so much value that when you leave, you’re like, Holy cow, what? What would happen if I was part of this network? This guy solved this problem, or gave me this resource and things like that. So that’s how we hard sell.

Right? And we’re on the value and try to help solve problems and help increase reason business. That’s

Mike: [00:19:40] right. That’s right. That’s right. So if you’re interested just talking about your business and what’s going on, whether you’re struggling or you’re having some great successes, we’d love to just talk to you and to see how we can help you.

And you know, we’ll certainly. Tell you a little more about investor fuels. See if it’s a fit. Um, but you just go to  dot com and apply. So we’d love to talk to you. If you’re an experienced investor, you gotta be doing at least 10 deals a [00:20:00] year, up to a hundreds of deals a year. Um, it’d be, it’d be worth your time to have a conversation.

And let’s be honest, you probably have a little more time to have those conversations on your

Stinson: [00:20:09] phone right now, right?

Mike: [00:20:11] Yeah. Yeah. But we don’t really hold back. It’s not like, Hey, we’ve got some secret sauce. I’m not gonna tell you what’s going on. We don’t really know how to do that. We just, we just try to add value.

And. And go from there. So if it’s something you’re interested in, go check it out. We’d love to talk to you. I

Stinson: [00:20:23] miss anything. No, that’s it. And that’s, uh, that’s, I just want people to go to that stay positive out there and just tons of tons of info to keep motivating. And. That’s crushed. It’s on

Mike: [00:20:34] the backs.

All right. Yeah. Yeah. We all know there’s opportunity. I mean, housing is not going away, you know, death, divorce, inheritance, problem, rentals, all the things that drive motivation for people to sell quickly, or it’s not going away. It’s not that we wish that on anybody, but it’s just life. It’s just kind of what happens.

Right. And so 

Stinson: [00:20:52] fiance, she’s skeptical about the whole thing, right? It’s, it’s, it’s foreign language there. Right. Yeah. And she’s like, how do you know like the sky is [00:21:00] falling according to the mediation, reading the Washington post and all this crazy stuff is, you know, we’re going at the world’s Michek Warren.

She’s like, what? How are you doubling down and spend more money right now? Everything I read says we shouldn’t stay mean all along. I said, because there was a shortage of housing before this happened, and there’s going to be a shortage on the backside and there’s not a short answer. I can be more motivated sellers and there ever was so.

If the, if the prices are going to drop, like they probably will, we’re going to get that opportunity because we’re chasing the cashflow. So I’m having to sell her every day. So that’s the only hard side who has her back there otherwise.

Mike: [00:21:33] Yeah. Yup. Awesome guys. Well, thanks for joining us today. By the way, if you have not yet subscribed to this show, we’ve been doing the show for about a year now.

Have lots of other great guests that have been on before. They’re actually all. Uh, members of the investor fuel mastermind. If you want to meet some of our members, you can just watch some of our past shows. You can go to investor fuel.com too. We actually have pages, uh, and information on all of our members so you can learn and see who some of they are.

You probably see some familiar faces out there. Um, but if you have not yet subscribed, [00:22:00] we’d love it. If you subscribe, whether you’re listening or watching this right now on iTunes, Google play, Stitcher, a YouTube, anywhere where you could possibly find us at. And of course, you can get access to all of our shows on investor fuel.com.

We’d love it if you subscribe. Leave us a positive review. If you got some value and we’ll see you on another episode. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to talk to you soon too.

Stinson: [00:22:19] All right, I’ll see you again soon.

Mike: [00:22:21] All right, take care.

Stinson: [00:22:22] Bye. Bye.