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In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Dre Medici, a successful entrepreneur and agency owner. Dre shares his journey from humble beginnings in Uruguay to building a thriving Instagram agency and investing in real estate. He discusses the importance of networking, overcoming challenges, and the strategies that have contributed to his success. Listeners gain insights into the real estate market, personal branding, and the power of relationships in business.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Dre Medici (00:00)
    Sometimes

    yes, so we’ll say we like to say within 72, but we have tons of case studies where we’re doing it within 24 hours So somebody will join we’ll get started and literally that same day or within 24 hours They’re getting people saying yes, I’m looking to buy this is what I’m looking for or I’m looking to buy But I’m also looking to sell as well ⁓ So yeah, it’s really incredible what we’re doing on that

    Quentin (00:03)
    Gotcha.

    Gotcha.

    everyone. Hello, hello. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. And ⁓ if you know, you’ve been following me, you know what I’m going say. I’m excited. I’m excited about our next guest. This gentleman right here, this guy know how to build a business. I’m going let him tell you everything he’s involved in, but he really know how to deal with business. He know how to connect with people. He’s a networker. He listen.

    This guy has an agency that’s really going, that’s really helping real estate people, investors, realtors. And I’m just excited for him to tell you everything that he knows. I’m excited for you to peek into the world through his lens. And so I want to introduce you guys to Mr. Dre Medici. Mr. Dre, how you doing today,

    Dre Medici (02:42)
    Amazing Quintin, thanks for having me. Excited to share more with your audience.

    Quentin (02:46)
    Absolutely, man. Well, listen, I know they are going to get some very, very good value out of what it is that you’re going to talk about. And so I’ll be honest with you, Dre, man, I want to dive in. I want you to take us into your world. want you to tell us what your main focus is these days. If you want to tell us a little bit about how you got started, like where the passion behind what you do, where it comes from. I’m sure we’d love to know that. But then also tell the people what markets you’re operating in as well. So Dre, honestly, man, the floor is yours, sir.

    Dre Medici (03:16)
    Amazing amazing. So I’ll give a little bit of a backstory. So I’m originally from Uruguay, South of America So I’m fluent in both English and Spanish and I moved here to Miami when I was two years old ⁓ You know, my parents were both employees. So I never really had you know a luxurious lifestyle and Basically that led me to want to create one for myself. So literally from the age of eight nine years old I was selling sneakers toys, whatever I could ten to twelve years old I built one of the biggest sneaker businesses I

    would

    go to all the conventions and have big tables with different peers and sell a lot of shoes. From 12 to 16 years old, I was reselling ticket events, hosting my own events in high school, and also reselling events to Ultra Rolling Loud.

    different events and concerts happening in Miami at 17 years old, you know, taking all that business experience and already making money from such a young age. I launched my first Instagram business, which was a fitness company. I quickly realized, you know, that fitness was great. And one of my passions, how people transform their bodies. But I was a lot more passionate about helping people transform their income. So I made, you know, over six figures in profit before I got into college with my fitness business only lasted about three months at the University of Florida until I made the

    of dropping out since I was already making a substantial income, moved over to New York right after that, didn’t want to go back home to my parents in Miami, got my own office in New York and I launched my Instagram agency which is known as Grow With Us Agency which I’ve had now coming up on eight years.

    Since then we’ve done over 20 million plus in sales with zero investors literally from the first year already had done over a million dollars in sales and I knew that was already gonna happen because it was a winning offer. Basically what we focus on is we can help anyone

    empower and transform their social presence from their following their content from all the small details that make up an amazing Instagram page and now we help you know on all platforms as well and then most importantly we know how to bring leads for the lowest price in the market without just leveraging ads we have a lot of unique in-house strategies as well that I developed used for my Instagram business when I started at 17 and then also for my restaurant that I opened up with the funds for my business at 17 for my father

    I’m the investor. I’m the marketer We’ve had that since 2018 and I did all the same marketing strategies there now as I started making a lot of money in my career I started investing in real estate. So by the age of 21 years old I had already invested a hundred eighty thousand into a multifamily project at 22 years old I bought a three-bedroom apartment for 1.5 million dollars started getting myself heavily involved in real estate a year after that I started realizing after I paid that realtor commission

    Check and I saw how much he had made from that simple transaction that I need to get involved in real estate with my clients Because there will be a lot more upside in that industry So my agency had always focused on helping all industries dentists restaurants you name it It’s just a plug-and-play system, which we still do but now over the last two years we’ve transitioned into focusing on the real estate industry because we do have a model where sometimes we’ll partner up with realtors and also take a Commission on some of those deals and we bring them buyers and sellers which we can do in a

    72 hours from having a realtor sign that signs up because we don’t need to rely on them giving us creatives. We don’t need to rely on getting ads up. We literally just start messaging people that we know are actively in the market looking to buy and sell and just like that we start getting them leads coming directly in their inbox right away. So that’s a little bit about you know me and where I’m currently at.

    Quentin (07:39)
    Absolutely, man. No, man, I love it. That was a very succinct timeline that you gave us. so, man, you’ve grown into a very, very successful business. The way you talk and I know us listening, you make it sound easy, but I know it has not always been easy specifically in this climate. So what’s been some of the, let’s say, systems and strategies that you have in place to kind of keep that thing running smoothly?

    Dre Medici (08:08)
    Definitely, of course, you know, it’s not only me behind, you know those 20 million dollars in sales I wasn’t the one making every single one of those phone calls So when I opened up the company the agency back in 2018, I basically started to hire and build a team So I’ve had you know five to seven sales guys that have been with me on my team for about six plus years I’ve been added, you know a COO and a CSO which stands for chief operating officer and chief sales officer that have then been able to help manage those sales

    sales

    teams and the COO helps manage fulfillment operations across our different departments to make sure that I have systems to allow me to fulfill at the highest level. And then obviously we have very big fulfillment teams, which I constantly can reinvest back into since our company does well financially, which has been a big blessing. You know, I’ve probably hired

    over a thousand people. And thankfully most of that has been directly from my big Instagram network where I mentioned I have over 700,000 followers. So tons of people are always coming there asking me for a job. And thankfully we have work for many people. And as far as, you know, the speaking side, you know, on one end you’re thankful for God, for the blessings that he’s given me. And on the other end, I’m thankful that I leverage God’s blessings and I use my resources and my blessings to actually work on them every single day. And yeah.

    You know, I’ve been speaking on Instagram like I said since 2018 and when I had that fitness business You know, I was the one doing all the sales calls to get to a hundred thousand in profit So I had to be on like, you know 12 15 calls a day to make that work at that time So just a lot of trial error practice and most importantly consistency and discipline

    Quentin (10:25)
    man, you’re talking that talk, you’re talking everything that I love. was out on my morning exercise today and I was leaving a voice journal. And one of the things that I was saying is that there’s a song that I love and it says, we don’t want to die empty. Meaning we don’t want to, we want to die empty. we want to, once our time is up, we want to make sure that we’ve poured out everything that we said we was going to do, all of our purpose, all of our resources. Like we want to die making sure that we have.

    put our best foot forward. And so just listening to you, with the fitness, with the things that you built with the agency, it’s like you’re on a path to making sure that everything you can touch, everything you can turn to success, you’re going to make sure you turn to success. And so when it’s all said and done, you can look back and say, yeah, I poured everything that I need to pour out. And so I love you mentioning God and I love you talking about leveraging what God gave you. mean, that’s phenomenal, man. That’s really, really phenomenal. Yeah, absolutely. So now listen, now, you know,

    Dre Medici (11:19)
    100 % content. Yep.

    Quentin (11:24)
    This is the point I always say at a point of the podcast, you know, we always show people to success, but sometimes we got to show them the journey to success because things are not always easy. There are times when things get real, when deals go sideways, moments when you have to pivot fast. And because we have so many people that listen that’s on different parts of the journey, I was wondering if you could share a story with them because you are at the success, but can you also share a story maybe when things…

    wasn’t as successful, you had to work it out to get to where you are now.

    Dre Medici (11:56)
    100%. So I’ll share a story that, you know, for me, it was really just another day, but to the people around me, team members, family members, my parents, they really couldn’t believe it. And they really felt that the reason why I was successful was because of the way that I could handle challenges. And I’ll get into this story, but before I do, I want to mention that when you go through challenges, you have two decisions. One, you dwell on that challenge. You sit around, eat unhealthy,

    Get depressed, know use substances whatever the case may be and the other one is realizing that nothing is gonna change Unless you just keep putting one foot forward and go after making it a new brighter day month year and so when I was 20 years old I went through quite a few challenges, you know, some were simple some were bigger, you know, and obviously I went through many but this was probably one of my biggest ones So obviously at 18 years old I said, you know, I launched my agency did a million dollars in revenue

    19, you know the numbers just kept growing 20 numbers kept growing and so at that time what I struggled with was payment processors because at a young very young age, you know doing over $250,000 per month in revenue sometimes these payment processors don’t trust if you’re actually a reliable person because those people that are joining you as customers Technically have a hundred eighty days where they can charge back your money So if a credit card company that you’re using is depositing the money into your

    account they are now trusting that those people aren’t going to charge back and even when you have a perfect record

    When you’re making a new account on a new processor, what they’ll like to do is make sure that they hold payments for six months so that they can assure that there will be no issues with that. So at a young age, I would have, know, oftentimes payment processors holding my money. But keep in mind, I had to pay my sales guys commission with money I didn’t have access to. I had to pay, you know, for influencers and celebrities that we were using for marketing purposes and just all fulfillment costs, my apartment, my rents, my office without money. And so I had

    someone that I was living with that actually knew from when I was five years old and I asked if I could you know use this processor for some time and just to not make the story too long technically I had you know over $200,000 on hold at literally 20 years old for 180 days next thing I know I trust one of my friends to be able to borrow his processors to be able to get money you know faster

    He basically made a deal with me and scam me out of, you know, $300,000 and that money was, all lost. I chose, you know, to choose peace over going and wasting my time in court. And, know, six months after that, I made back those $300,000 that I had lost with new business, of course. But again, what I mentioned was, you know, my mom at the time, she couldn’t believe that something like that could happen to me. And the next day I’m just going back and working my face off like nothing ever happened. And I

    Quentin (14:36)
    you

    Dre Medici (14:55)
    told

    you guys in the beginning before I mentioned that story, it’s just about using those two choices. I knew that, you if I wasn’t going to go deal with court and go do all this, you know, aggressive stuff, I was going to choose a side of peace and going my way and just letting karma handle that person. Then, you know, I was able to continue to excel in my business. But again, most people probably would have quit, probably would have got a job, probably would have said it’s not for them. But I just kept going like nothing had ever happened.

    Quentin (16:03)
    Yeah, man, listen, that’s an amazing story. I find myself for your story, because you said, you know, you got two options. I tell people all the time, you got to choose your heart. There’s going to be hard one way or another, choose the heart. And there was a time when I chose the option you mentioned, a number one. You know, I’ve lost over 100 pounds twice in my life. I’ve lost it, gained it back, lost it, and gained it back. And just like you said, because I allow food to be a coping mechanism. I allow myself to eat my feelings.

    And I wasn’t choosing the right heart. But I love what you’re saying because today I do choose the right heart. Obviously, in that story that you just chose, you chose the right heart. I know it wasn’t easy just to let 300,000 go. I know it wasn’t easy to not pick up the sword and choose vengeance. But you chose a path that you could find peace with and you trusted in yourself. You knew that, okay, if I made it once before, I can make it again. And it sounds like you made it probably multiple times over, so.

    I love that story, man. And thank you so much for sharing. It really helps people with the mindset and perspective that no matter what you’re facing, you can push past and you can get over and you can go forward. So let me ask you this, Dre, what are you focused on scaling or solving next? Like, what’s the next real goal for you?

    Dre Medici (17:22)
    Great question. So, you know, on one hand, I’m also the co-founder of a company named Link Me that’s used by the biggest celebrities and influencers in the world that actually grew from zero, joined the company in inception. Today, we’re currently raising capital on a $200 million valuation. So that’s definitely one of my biggest projects when it comes to valuation. ⁓ But on the other hand, with my agency, which I still run today, I’m the 100 % owner of that. So, you know, that will always be my baby. And on that end, what we’re currently doing and helping with

    is every single day we’re connecting realtors, mortgage brokers, all types of lenders, people helping with flippers, whatever the case may be, but most importantly I’d say brokerages and realtors, connecting them with qualified buyers and sellers every day without needing to go viral, without needing to learn.

    Or paying a media agency to run your ads all just through a simply simple in-house Mechanism that we invented all the way back from when I had the fitness business in 2017 so I have experience doing this like nobody else for the last eight to nine plus years and Essentially what we’re capable of doing is bringing qualified buyers and sellers directly into your inbox within 72 hours And we have multiple case studies doing it in as fast as 24

    hours I just like to give myself that little bit of buffer but if there’s any realtors investors anyone out there looking to connect with more buyers and sellers for a great price unlike any other with the unique mechanism that I can 100 % guarantee they’ve never been offered by anyone else that’s what we do

    Quentin (19:01)
    I want to make sure I got the time frame. You’re giving yourself a buffer, but you say it within 48 hours though. Did I hear that

    Dre Medici (19:06)
    Sometimes

    yes, so we’ll say we like to say within 72, but we have tons of case studies where we’re doing it within 24 hours So somebody will join we’ll get started and literally that same day or within 24 hours They’re getting people saying yes, I’m looking to buy this is what I’m looking for or I’m looking to buy But I’m also looking to sell as well ⁓ So yeah, it’s really incredible what we’re doing on that

    Quentin (19:10)
    Gotcha.

    Gotcha.

    Absolutely, man. I love it. And I know our viewers hearing that, know ears are perking. You’re going to get to a point where people can connect with you, but I already know people is like, yeah, okay. I want to hear more about that. So I love it. love it. Now let me ask you this because I know you said you co-founded Link Me. You talked about, know, there’s been some bad relationship, bad partnership that you had to part ways with.

    but it just seems to me that you’re very good at building relationships and community. And so I want to talk about relationships just for a little bit. So when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, because you even told me you got a pretty big network, what’s made the biggest difference for you while growing your network and building relationships?

    Dre Medici (20:15)
    So would you say what is the biggest difference that I feel has allowed me to make networks with the right people or what have those networks done for me? Just so I can re-understand the question there.

    Quentin (20:30)
    Yeah, so I guess you’re honest. I’m being honest. You can answer it either way. I mean, I just want to know how, like when you look at relationships and growing your network, how do you value them and what’s kind of made the biggest difference for you while building those relationships and building that network? So hopefully that’s a better way to say it. Yeah.

    Dre Medici (20:51)
    sure for sure. Yeah, I’ll

    answer it in like a two part because the reason why I asked is because I think one of the most important things that you can do to build a powerful network is position yourself properly. And what I mean by positioning yourself properly, there’s multiple ways to define that, you know, you can define that as you know, you’re going to a bunch of networking events and you’re getting yourselves in the right room, you’re not staying at home. But then there’s a two step to it. One is one person can go to a networking event, but he’s never invested into building a strong personal brand.

    He’s never posted content. He doesn’t have a powerful bio that’s organized and clean and aesthetic Then you have another person that has both people go to the networking event both people shake hands with a hundred people One person is gonna get a lot more out of it than the other and it’s probably gonna be the person that has a strong personal brand because people can see that Resonate with that feel empowered inspired by that

    and actually want to reach out to you after that event, connect with you and continue that relationship going. And so that’s what I always try to preach is make sure that you position yourself right. Because thankfully I’m in the position where because I position myself right with the great personal brand, I’m able to DM almost anybody that I want and instantly get responses and be able to connect with them. And that’s helped me connect with some of the biggest names in the industry and be followed by a lot of big names in the industry. So that’s something that I wanted to share. And then as far as you know, what networking

    in connections do for you. I always tell someone you should always be trying to network and it may feel hard. It’s out of your comfort zone. But even if you’re in your apartment and you’re in the elevator and you see someone there, you know, say, Hey, introduce yourself. Tell them what you do because literally I always tell us people because actually what happened to me, if you’re positioning yourself properly, you’re offering a service that’s high ticket or you have something that’s in demand. One relationship could truthfully lead to a million dollars in revenue easily.

    And I’ll explain how because one relationship maybe that person that you met in an elevator has a community of 2,000 paying clients and now you have a service that costs $500 that all of those 2,000 paying clients really really need and want just because you introduced yourself to someone he then says hey come over next week let’s get you on a live call with all my 2,000 students and introduce them to this $500 offer they all sign up but let’s say it’s a thousand a thousand dollar offer and

    of them sign up that’s a million dollars in revenue just because you met someone that was in the right position to help you grow or they start white labeling your service or they use it for themselves or it’s a brokerage that has you know a hundred agents and they’re paying you a good amount of money per month right so just one high and introducing yourself can literally transform your life so you should always be trying to do that as much as you can no matter where you are.

    Quentin (23:39)
    I love it. mean, y’all heard it. Relationships is everything in this space. So leveraging your relationships, leveraging you and that connection, like you like, listen, just said it best. It can lead to so many different opportunities. so relationships are everything within any space that you’re in, building the right relationship. So Dre, listen, man, I thank you so much. think you have shone just so many beautiful gems into this conversation for our viewers and our listeners to take from and really pin it to that tool bag. And so.

    Listen, man, what you do is unique. You believe and stand by what you do. So I want to take the opportunity before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to get in contact with you,

    Dre Medici (24:26)
    Yeah, please send me a DM on Instagram. Instagram handle is DREMEDICI. Dre Medici. If you don’t have Instagram, my phone number out there. 305-494-6968. Text me. Tell me you came from this podcast Real Estate Pros. I’ll be more than happy to connect with you and give you a free audit, some free pointers.

    Quentin (24:51)
    There he is, Mr. Dre Medici. Sir, thank you so much for your story, for your perspective. Thank you for the mindset, the mindset shift. There’s so many people that want to hear this and they’re going to receive. And so I really appreciate you coming up, taking some time out. This is really good. So thank you again, sir.

    Dre Medici (25:08)
    Thank you, Quintin. I appreciate you as well. Thanks for all the great questions and for sharing your story also.

    Quentin (25:13)
    Absolutely. So listen, y’all got the value. Y’all heard Mr. Dre. Y’all know we’re going to continue to bring you just valuable people that just have so much wealth of valuable experience. So all I’m asking for you to do is just hit the subscribe button. That way, when you get the alert, you can just come right on in. So Mr. Dre, I thank you again. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.

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