00:00.00

wongga

Welcome investors good afternoon. My name is Garret Wong I'm your host of the investing to win podcast today I have Brad Blazar is it Blazar or blazer brad.

00:11.23

Brad Blazar

Ah, yeah I'll I'll respond to both. It's actually blazer but Blazar And yeah.

00:15.21

wongga

Laser all right? Well I'm gonna you know we'll call it blazer then because I don't want to butch your name there. But anyways, um, thank you for coming on the show and it's been an honor and what I'd like to do is for those of the audience who don't know you although I don't know how many there would be that wouldn't. Why don't you give us a little bit of background kind of tell us about your story.

00:36.38

Brad Blazar

Yeah, you know I'm kind of known globally as ah, the guy that's raised $2000000000 through his efforts and the efforts of other people but my journey as an investor and more importantly, as a capital raiser started relatively young I was in school starting to be an architect. And ultimately went to work for a very small oil company part time where they taught me how to get on the phone and build relationships with individual investors and over the course of about a year I realized that I was making considerably more money than most of the architects I knew. And so I doubled down and at the age of 21 invested in myself Garrett launched an oil company printed up some business cards some letterhead and looking back I laugh because I knew absolutely nothing about drilling for oil. Absolutely nothing about building businesses. But I knew how to surround myself with people that did and built a pretty profitable, nice size oil business. We had about 35 employees and we were drilling the Texas Oklahoma Louisiana and you know we were raising millions of dollars from individuals all over the United States and fast forward when I started consulting entrepreneurs about three and a half years ago I would always ask them a key question and I would say something like Garrett if you weren't doing what you're doing now. What would you like to be doing.

02:01.37

Brad Blazar

And I would get all kinds of answers from oh my god I've always wanted to open a restaurant or I've wanted to go into business or get in real estate and the second question would always be great. What's holding you back and the interesting thing is it was never the fear or the limiting belief. It always came down to the fact they didn't have two nickels to rub together and they lacked the capital to get their big project off the ground and I said man don't you realize every day when you wake up, you're surrounded by all the money you need to pretty much do anything in life. You want we call these other people investors. And so a little light bulb went off in my head and I realized I could take my 30 years of knowledge raising roughly $2000000000 package that up codify it create key concepts that I could then deliver to the world in really help people in a dramatic way. Have this desire to do something big in life where those desires maybe have been extinguished or diminished and now need to be reignited and so you know today we're doing business in roughly twenty five 30 countries around the world I think we're probably 1 of the largest if not the largest coaching and mentoring platform. Really just teaching others how to attract investors imparting the knowledge as to what you say to people when you get their interest how to launch funds and how to do all those things but really, that's how my journey got started it really that I wasn't looking to do this I kind of just have her stand spell right into it.

03:31.65

wongga

Okay, no that that's super super interesting I got to back up. Um, couple minutes here so you started an oil company without knowing anything about that tell tell me a little bit more that's that's really interesting.

03:41.69

Brad Blazar

Yeah, so when I was in school like I said I wanted to be an architect. Yeah, this was now in my fourth year architecture is a five year degree program and so in my senior year you know I'm in my early 20 s starting a date. Realize that you know you need a little bit of money in your pocket to go on the good dates and so I started looking for part time jobs and you know back then of course we didn't have the internet I was just getting out the newspaper and circling ags and mailing out and faxing over resumes. And I got a call from ah this very small oil company and they said you know is this bred? Yep great. This is so and so over here and the Ceo would like to bring in an interview you and I had no idea what he saw in me I mean I was a little cocky confident 20 year old kid. And he said I'd love to give you a job. We're going to bring you in in between your classes and after school because we can call out to the West Coast we're going to teach you how to get on the phone and build relationships and develop trust with individuals and basically ah you know, hopefully convince them to invest with us in our oil and gas drilling programs I said great. And I was being paid a commission back then but literally working probably 12 to 15 hours a week I was making 6 figures and I'm like if I'm doing this just working part time 12 to 15 hours like how much more can I make you know work in a full forty hour work week.

04:55.28

wongga

Wow.

05:06.42

Brad Blazar

And so unbeknownst to my parents who like most parents scrimped and saved to put their kids through school I just one day turned my back to my education and just basically got straight fs that semester flunked out quit going to class my parents went ballistic. Of course when they got my grades. And um I just doubled down and I started doing this full time and you know was making great money. Um took $10000 and I printed up some business card in some letterhead and went to the investors that I had largely cultivated and said look I've hired a petroleum lamb man I've got a geologist. Raising money on our first deal. We're going to be drilling for some oil and natural gas here on these leases and people started throwing money at me and I think the reason is I knew the system you know Jordan Belfort the wolf on wall street talks about a sales process. He calls it basically the straight line method the the system I use which I've codified in the concept. We call it the 4 step blueprint but the 2 of them are very similar and. The biggest mistake that we always see people make Garrett that try to raise capital is they have somebody that is of significant net worth or could be a potential investor and they pitch the opportunity way too prematurely in the process and that other person is naturally going to say.

06:34.32

Brad Blazar

Garrett you know it sounds like an interesting deal. Do you have some information you can send over to me that I can take a look at and so you send them everything you send them your pitch deck you send them the memorandum or whatever you got your executive summary and when it comes time for you to close them. They never open their checkbook and you're sitting there going like what did I do wrong? Well what you did wrong is you did not give them enough time to know you see people won't invest with you until they trust you obviously trust does not happen overnight. It does not happen on the first conversation or the second. Typically takes 3 or 4 meetings or conversations. So the best advice I always give to people is slow the process down. Let people know yeah before they will flow you Grant Cardone says that line as well. But um, yeah before I knew anything about oil all I knew how to do was race capital and. The big message I think for your listeners is you do not have to be old or more mature to raise money successfully you do not necessarily have to know a lot about the business. But if you surround yourself with a team of other people that you could point to. That can show investors you have the depth and experience within the team. You can become very successful building a business of raisingcing millions of dollars it all comes down to 1 word in Kevin Hearingington from Shark Tank who was a speaker at one of my events said that word is execute.

08:04.25

Brad Blazar

If you can convince me, you can execute. You got all the money in the world.

08:08.53

wongga

That's that's really ah, profound because I mean I'm 52 years old it's a lot easier for me. It seems anyways because I've been doing this for twenty five plus years you know to to get with an investor even on a smaller deal and. I've got that track record but I mean a lot of our audience are just starting out. You know again, your mid 20S you don't have a track record. How do you establish that? trust.

08:27.10

Brad Blazar

Um, yeah.

08:34.79

Brad Blazar

You know it's a great question and what I will share with you is one of my close contacts met him actually at an event that I was speaking at about a year and a half ago his name is aas mohamed. He's in the multifamily in the commercial sector. And the host of the event said I want to recognize somebody here in the audience office stand up and this little kid must have been 25 26 stands up. He said how many apartments do you own and he's like 780 and how much have you raised 25000000 and I'm going this guy's in his twenty s what makes him any different than everybody else in that room that's in their twenty s thirty s forty s I think the real secret is he just got started. He was confident. He took action see I was in my twenty s and I got started and as a result of the momentum and just meeting with people and having conversations. I became successful. So the way that you basically convince individuals and investors to invest despite any track record despite any prior history despite any experience is you build a team of people you say look I've got a Cpa He's going to be keeping the books and records he's going to be sending out the quarterly statements. He's going to make sure you get your tax reporting information at the end of the year I've got an attorney. He's going to make sure we dot our eyes. We cross our teas I've got this guy over here. That's got 30 years of experience and renovations and rehabs as our contractor.

10:11.10

Brad Blazar

I've got this guy over here. That's also got experience and so by showing that you've got a team what you're really doing Garrett is you're showing that potential investor that you are not a solo doing everything yourself, you're an entrepreneur that understands how to build a business. And that's what people want to invest with is entrepreneurs that know how to build businesses.

10:36.31

wongga

Okay, um, but you use the word I think you said Harrington I said it execute. Um what? what's the definition of executing when you're presenting something to a high net worth investor I mean what does execute mean in in your mind.

10:39.61

Brad Blazar

Threat.

10:53.10

Brad Blazar

It's really giving that individual the perception that whatever it is. You're trying to do are you rehabbing some houses. Are you developing a multifamily property. Are you acquiring a property as a value add. If you can convince me that you and the team of people you've assembled can follow up on that investment objective and bring this project or projects to fruition then you're much more likely to get me to invest with you if I look at you and I kept out. And I'm like well I don't know if this guy can pull it off then I'm going to be much more apprehensive and perhaps ask many many more questions but really the key is can I look at you with the belief that you can do what you're telling me you want to do. So if you're raising money to do this. Can I believe that you'll be successful at doing it. That's really at the end of the day. What that word execute or execution means is can you execute on the investment objective to deliver a return to me as an investor so that if I give you my harder and capital I'll get it back. Plus the return on investment. That you're telling me hopefully you and your team can provide to me, you're good.

12:06.34

wongga

Okay, the team approach. No I like that because there's going to be a lot of listeners who might have done. Let's let's let's do a case study. Let's pretend that I am 25 I've read rich dad poor dad like everybody else has and I yeah.

12:21.87

Brad Blazar

Um.

12:23.84

wongga

Been attending a lot of networking events and I'm now ready right? I feel like I have the knowledge. Um I've got a good wholesaler and I've got some potential properties but I don't actually have a deal under my belt I've never actually executed on whatever it's going to be a flip or a Bur Whatever What's your flavor. How does that individual even with the team approach convince an investor that they can do it.

12:50.72

Brad Blazar

It's really just being Confident. It's understanding that you know in your pitch Deck. You should have more than just your picture ask the cpa ask the Attorney ask the other professionals that you might be working with your general contractor. The. Person that's going to be doing the Rehab If you're doing any renovation work. You know, hey do you mind if I basically ah you know put you in my presentation to potential investors as one of our strategic partners or as one of my advisors and if they say no then in your pitch Deck. You know now you've got depth. You've got an organization. Person can see that they see well you know while you might not have an accountant or an attorney on staff that you're paying a salary to you have 1 That's a good Sign. You have this, you have that and really for that investor. The perception is I see depth in your business. You get it and at the end of the day. It's really that investor looking at you saying does this other person get it like they understand there has to be some form of transparency so they've got this for the accounting. They've got this for the legal. They probably are going to send out hopefully at a minimum a quarterly newsletter to keep me and other investors abreast and up to dateated on what's going on with the various projects and so when you look at this process of raising Capital. It's really articulating what you.

14:20.51

Brad Blazar

And the people you work with are capable of because in the coaching and mentoring that we provide to literally thousands of people I talk about a concept and it's called the trust sequence once you understand this 6 step process of building trust within another person. You understand what you're supposed to be trying to accomplish in each meeting or conversation. Very first thing on the list is perception when a potential investor meets with you. They're deciding in the first few minutes whether there will ever be a second date. And so if you're able to convince them through the perception and that's largely based on what's the quality of the materials you have what is your website communicate what does your social media presence communicate. But more importantly, what do you and your team communicate. They'll move forward. To the next step in the process which is they want to learn more. They want to get some information they want to take a closer look and then it's just a matter of following the steps in the process we teach to hopefully get them to open their checkbook and invest with you.

15:30.97

wongga

Okay, well, you've used the word pitch deck a few times already in the interview. Um, obviously I know what that is but some some some of our audience might not why don't we break down that down get into the weeds a little bit. What exactly is a pitch deck.

15:43.53

Brad Blazar

A pitch stick really I believe is one of the most important things anybody that wants to raise capital can have it takes your business your executive summary your business plan and it really articulates that to an investor and. Pictures are great because you know the old saying a picture is worth 1000 words it is so true, especially in raising capital where the desire for somebody to invest is largely driven by an emotional desire the relationship that's developed. And I certainly would not argue that people do get emotionally attached to certain projects. But really what the pitch deck is. It's a powerpoint presentation typically that introduces you and your team talks about the investment or the investment objective. Might bring up any prior performance or any experience you've had in the space talks about the returns that hopefully will be derived and provided to investors and then usually compels that person to next steps and really all you're trying to do when you pitch. And your pitch should be no more in 15 to 20 minutes is to very concisely articulate 5 to 7 key bullet points or benefits to that investor as to what this investment will do for them. 1 of the big secrets about raising large amounts of capital.

17:15.95

Brad Blazar

Is to be able to tie that investment to benefits so that that investor realizes by investing I'll be able to do this and that comes about in what I call the temptation phase which is actually step 2 in that 6 step trust sequence I referenced earlier. It's asking that potential investor a lot of great questions like have you invested in anything like this before when you invest what are you looking for income growth tax benefits maybe a combination of all the above What's your time horizon. Are you trying to do something special with the money that you're investing with us today and if they say something like yeah trying to save and put my kids through school or I'm trying to save and grow my capital to buy a vacation home when you're pitching wouldn't be great. In your crm system where you've been keeping good notes say Garrett can you see how investing with us in this project will help you accomplish that goal that you stated earlier by growing your capital to put your kids through school or buy that vacation home that you mentioned earlier. Now they see the 2 connect and that's how you close people. It's that emotion that says if I do this I'll get that and so you have to be a really good question asker in raising capital which is why I provide all of the students a list of roughly 25 questions.

18:45.40

Brad Blazar

Because you know most people just that have never raised capital that are new to this need a little bit of training and a little bit of guidance but people if you ask proper questions will actually tell you the things you need to properly close them and get them to invest in your projects or in your business. But you got to do it the right way. That's why so many people set out trying to raise money and blunder and go about it in a very haphazard process and then they just give up unfortunately thinking that raising capital from Investors is next to Impossible. It's really not.. It's just that it requires you to practice. And really understand the process of building trust and getting people to come in.

00:00.00

wongga

Okay, so Brad that was that was really interesting because you're saying this is a multi-step process. You can't just come out and here's my business card here's my pitch deck here's my deal. You're taking the time to actually meet the person establish trust build a relationship ask those. 2025 questions to try to get to know them and then when you're actually trying to match a deal with them. You are picking those points that you think will resonate with them with is that accurate.

00:31.82

Brad Blazar

Ah, absolutely 100 % garrett when I coach a mentor people. One of the first things I explain to them is I've taken roughly 30 years of raising hundreds of millions of dollars everything I've done right. Everything I've done wrong and I've codified that knowledge and created key concepts and these key concepts we call the 4 step blueprint the trust sequence the validation phrase the million dollar pitch and as a student once you understand these things and then. Apply them to the conversations and meetings you have you will ultimately have tremendous success but the pitch really should not take place until the third or fourth conversation. You want to really get to know people you want to allow them more importantly to get to know you. Your values that you can be trusted as a person but within the pitch what you're largely doing is you're going back using the information. You've hopefully discovered and you're saying by investing with us. Do you see how this will help you accomplish the goal you stated earlier. Doing this? Yes, great. How much do you see yourself investing with us today and then you just go straight to the close and you begin the process of hopefully onboarding them. So really the pitch and more importantly, the presentation.

02:01.22

Brad Blazar

Is probably the most important element of raising capital and the biggest mistake like I said earlier is people generally pitch wait too early in the process that other person doesn't trust you enough to physically open their checkbook. They're going to be cordial and they will be polite. But more than likely you'll get a lot of excuses as to why they don't want to move forward.

02:22.72

wongga

Yeah, do you find I mean as your students get on. Obviously you know in their courses and experience they're going to have a quite a few investors that they're going to be having relationships and pitching to once you have that. So. You know that crm that database of those questions you find it's more advantageous to really try to match a deal that does resonate better with certain investors I mean obviously I mean maybe that's an obvious question but I mean is that something that you would encourage.

02:55.33

Brad Blazar

Um, if you can certainly do that yes, but that's really not that important I personally don't believe and the reason for that is. You don't want to silo your investors and really try to remember or delineate. You know this person only does this or this person only does that. Ah, we just basically work with all of the investors and those that have expressed interest. We bring any and all deals to um, the thought is you know some will. Some won't so up. There's always going to be people that are interested or who have expressed interest that are willing and wanting to invest most accredited investors realize that their money is nothing more than a tool and their money should be working for them and so. They're always looking for opportunities and things to be placing capital in and the way that we go about this is we use something called the validation phrase which I always ask at the end of my second conversation with somebody because what I'm doing in the first call the second call. Is I'm really disarming people and I'm letting them know hey right now I just don't have anything that I can discuss with you as it relates to an investment and I just told them that and I in the end of my second conversation use this phrase because what it does for me.

04:18.50

Brad Blazar

Is it confirms. They trust me enough to move forward in the process to now let me pitch. Yeah and this is golden I mean it's literally taken me literally years to perfect this but it goes something like garret. You know I really have enjoyed getting to visit with you as as I've expressed right now I just do not have an investment. That I can discuss with you and the reason is I typically like to give my existing investors the right of first refusal on any new program or any new deal that comes about but here's what I'd like to do I keep a list of people on my desk. And I'd like to add your name to that Liz Gar because you've expressed interest and get back with you in the future if I have a deal or a project that I think you could get real excited about how does that sound to you and when they yes, please do that.

05:04.95

wongga

Here here.

05:10.46

Brad Blazar

They're exceptionally acknowledging subconsciously that they want to move forward in this process with you and so what do you think you're doing on that third meeting you're calling. You're spending 3 to 5 minutes You know, warming them up again and you say if you remember you asked me to put you on my list. Just so happens I'm working on a deal. It's great project I think you're going to get real excited when you hear it you have 5 to 7 minutes and this is when you pitch and this is when you give them 3 to 5 of the key bullet points and they hopefully say yeah send me the information I'd love to take a look at that. So what you're really doing is you're setting yourself up for that presentation but doing it at the right time with this framework that we've developed over many years of raising hundreds of millions of dollars so that you're not pitching or presenting too early and then getting an excuse. Why that person can't invest by asking that phrase getting their acknowledgement and then pitching you're significantly increasing your chances of closing them and raising potentially millions and millions more in dollars. Then going about it in in a proper method because I always get people that say brad look you know we've already raised fifty million bucks we're looking at your program but realistically what can you do for us that we're not already doing and it's a simple answer. It's like well you want to be good at raising capital where you want to be great.

06:41.76

Brad Blazar

Because you see amateurs practice until they get it right? prose practice until they don't get it wrong and I've been doing this third years and if I can impart some knowledge or share with you. Some things that just help you close an extra 50 to 20% of the people you're talking to. How many more millions does that translate into your business over the next twelve months they're like um yeah.

07:03.43

wongga

Of course, of course you know, um I was going to ask you? Um and I guess once you get good at this and you have a rolodex of people you might have a so-called good problem to have but let's say that you've pitched this deal to however, many investors. And they all want in.. How do you choose who gets it.

07:22.75

Brad Blazar

Yeah I mean that's a great problem to have you know when you oversubscribe an offering and you can't take everybody or you have too many people. Um, you know it's on a first come first serve basis. We just tell people. It's first on first then. Um, and so you know if we oversubscribe we'll just keep a list of people and if some people basically are not forthcoming with their capital commitments. We eventually give them a couple of days and we just tell them looking if you're not able to write the check I got a list of other people that are. And so I'm sorry we'll have to get you in on our next deal or our next program or you go back to people and say you know I know that you had intentions of investing a hundred would you be okay, putting 75 and doing 25 maybe on our next deal because I have a couple of extra people that would like to get in on this. And I need to try to make room for them. So there's always ways you can finangle a capital raise in a deal and that's a great problem that I have I mean I wish that was a problem that everybody had yet, you're doing such a great job. You're oversubscribing and you're filling up your fund or you're filling up with your deals. But it's one of those things where a lot of people will commit and then what you'll find is they're not able to move forward or they're not able to move forward. Perhaps at the level that they had committed to and then you just take a little bit less.

08:44.92

wongga

Okay, Okay so I'm just trying to you know you used a term accredited investor. Um I Actually only work with accredited investors I know a bunch of different investors that you know choose to work with friends and family. Can you define for us. And the audience. What an accredited investor is.

09:02.85

Brad Blazar

Sure and accredited investor by definition is somebody that has an earned annual income of $200000 in the 2 most recent years. It has the expectation of earning that in the current year. But if they don't meet the income threshold has a million dollars in personal net worth exclusive of their home that is the definition of an accredited investor now if that person is married and has a spouse the accreditation on the income and goes up to 300000 the problem that a lot of people have that choose to work with non accredited investors. These are typically friends and family or people that might be professionals but only make $8000000 a year. Don't have significant net worth maybe their net worth is 500600 is at least here are the United States and maybe they're in Canada. It's very similar because I know the canadian laws are very similar the disclosure standards go up tremendously meaning you really need to provide much greater risk disclaimers disclosures to them. But what a lot of people don't understand is the regulatory environment also says you're supposed to maintain the same accounting standards as that of a public reporting company that means audited financials and for a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs. That's a huge expense in a huge commitment.

10:34.55

Brad Blazar

Most people don't have the infrastructure to have audited financials. Um, and when you look at the regulation d environment that many people operate with the reg d here in the United States you can only have up to 35 non accredited investors. No more than that. And so if you're trying to raise you know let's just say $25000000 in a fund or for a large project. You may only end up realistically having 8 twelve fifteen non-accredited investors. You may not use up all of those slots. Why do you want to go through the mental brain damage. For maybe a dozen people or 20 people were much like you said Garrett and much like we do as well if all your investors are accredited or if you're dealing with more institutional quality like family offices, private wealth management firms that invest with you r I a. You don't have to deal with any of those headaches matter. Of fact, there's no law or there's no scc requirement here in the United States that says you need to have a private placement memorandum if you're dealing with accredited investors people always ask me like why am I spending all this money.

11:41.82

wongga

A.

11:47.55

Brad Blazar

Getting one if I technically and legally don't need it. The answer is it's your insurance policy. You see all the best underwriting and all the best planning cannot protect you from a recession. It cannot protect you from a change in tax legislation.

11:52.31

wongga

Hundred percent

12:06.14

Brad Blazar

That changes the tax code. Yeah maybe takes away some of the tax incentives that were in place when you started the project but might not be there 3 years down the road certainly something like covid that came out of left field.

12:17.92

wongga

Here.

12:20.43

Brad Blazar

Now in private placement memorandums if they're well Written. We actually have something called the Covid clause that states in the event something similar to this ever happens Again. So really, what you're trying to do is you're trying to be as transparent as you can be and provide full disclosure. These are the potential risks. That can happen most of them probably won't but they can and by disclosing them. You're creating an insurance policy around yourself to hopefully eliminate arbitration in lawsuits because no credibility. But also we know that any business.

12:51.13

wongga

Well, it's also credibility too right.

12:58.57

Brad Blazar

Has fluidity to it. You know you can't predict in 3 to 5 years what will happen in real estate. But if you say you know look at the historical track record real estate does go through cycles while we're telling you that we anticipate a 3 to 5 year hold on this investment. It may end up being five to 7 years. Because we certainly don't want to sell the property at the bottom of a cycle so by being totally transparent. You're really like you said being much more professional but you're also protecting yourself throughout the entire process. A good capital razor. And somebody that is a true professional will actually tell the investor in the pitch I would be very remiss scared if I didn't share with you. What some of the risk were because every investment really does have risk so here's one risk but here's what I do I respond. To what we would do in the event that happened and then I disclose another risk and I disclose to the investor here's what we would do in the event that happened well, what do you think that investor's thinking to themselves. They're thinking like yeah those are risk but because Garrett has just responded to me. How his company would react in the event those happened more than likely. He's probably thought of all of the potential risks and so what you're essentially doing is you're basically now diminishing any objections they have in their mind.

14:17.19

wongga

Here here.

14:27.89

Brad Blazar

Because you're putting that big Gorilla right in the center of the stage and you're shining a flashlight on it and their subconscious mind is saying those concerns I had I don't need to ask because I'm subconsciously thinking they probably have thought of these other things too and they probably have answers to how they would handle those in the event they. It appear in the normal cost of doing business. So A good capital razor does not hide the risks. He actually presents the risks responds to the risk from their framework and basically then just moves forward in the capital raising process.

15:04.20

wongga

Hundred percent and I wanted to clarify for the audience because you've used the us obviously being based there and um, doing your capital raising ah about accredited investors but given that this is a canadian podcast. We do have the exact same rules here. Um. Here in Manitoba where I'm based. You know we have the Manitoba Securities Commission um and the reason that these regulatory bodies exist is to protect the public and I I think the you know the overarching theme there is that an accredited investor.

15:28.84

Brad Blazar

Um, no.

15:37.39

wongga

You know, knows better I guess they and they should know what they're getting into versus Joe public that is maybe just trying to give away $50000 or they're harder and money just on a promissory note right? I mean that's what they're trying to avoid.

15:51.64

Brad Blazar

Absolutely and you know of course in all the provinces you have throughout Canada Ontario has their own securities regulatory agency as well. Um I think that the mindset is that somebody that has significant wealth. Um, can bounce back and recover from a loss much easier than somebody. That's not accredited. You know if I'm making $300000 a year as a physician and my net worth is 2000000 or more and I invest 40 or 50000 and the deal goes belly up. I can recover much faster than a guy making 80000 whose net worth might only be 3 or 400 that's a much more significant percentage of that person's overall net worth and it's going to really affect them a lot more dramatically than that physician. So I think that also certainly comes into play. But it also is a you know investment experience. 1 of the questions I always ask people is tell me about your prior investments. How have they worked for. You. How successful have they been because if I find out that the person might have had a history of investing in some things that have not worked out. Or gone as planned more than likely they're going to be very apprehensive and I'm going to have to spend considerably more time building that trust. But if they say oh you know I've invested over the years and they've all gone great. We've made money in each and every deal I know that they're going to be much more inclined.

17:22.20

Brad Blazar

Perhaps to feel more comfortable because they have a very different track record than that other person and so that just comes with knowledge and more importantly, asking great questions. But again like I said earlier in the podcast people will actually tell you what you need to know. To move them forward to hopefully get them to close and open their checkbook and invest. But if you're not asking proper questions and you're not giving yourself the time to know them and allow them to time to know you, you're going to be very very unsuccessful when it ultimately comes time to close. Because usually what I do at the end of my fourth or fifth meeting is I close the person by saying something like you know Garrett um, it sounds to me like you have the desire to really work with us how much of this Do you see yourself wanting to invest in. Do you see yourself doing 50000 ah, hundred Thousand a hundred and fifty thousand or perhaps do you see yourself doing nothing and here's the secret when you give an investor the option to say no very rarely. Do they ever do that and in closing. Sales trainers will tell you the first person that speaks next typically loses so as the person that closed bite your lips and wait and they're thinking and they might come back and say Brett tell me again, what? what do 2 units in your program look like.

18:52.58

Brad Blazar

Or what does $100000 in your program represent it represents this. It's an ownership of 10% in the program is that something that you're comfortable and capable with today second they say yes boom you go straight to the paperwork you start the process of onboarding because they've just committed. And now you want to basically memorialize the investment get them signed up tell them how to wire the money or fill out the check and then you got to spend what I call 10 to 50 minutes in that cooldown telling them what's going to happen next. A lot of people make the mistake they get the money. They thank the person and boom they're out the door and what happens is that investor gets anxiety a lot of times they get cold feet so I teach all the people that I work with hey spend 10 to 50 minutes and tell them what happens next. You're going to get this in the mail or you're going to get a certificate You're going to get newsletters at the end of the year you're going to get your tax reporting here's how you contact us if you have any questions here's a link to your investment portal hug them take a picture say you're part of our family. We're gonna treat you as if you're one of us and leave the relationship. Where they're on an emotional high. So hopefully they now go out and they tell their friends about you I literally have had calls from people within days of closing an investor where they just call my office and say hey is this Mr. blazer. Yeah hey my friend garrett just invested with you was telling me about this investment.

20:23.69

Brad Blazar

And if you have any left I'd like to know about it and potentially get in 2 because most people that raise money overlook the low hanging fruit. They never ask for referrals and it just absolutely amazes me because if you're doing your job and you're delivering solid returns that person. Knows other people more than likely of significant or greater wealth. We all know we've all heard this in the coaching business. You are the average of the 5 to 7 people you spend most of your time with who do you think that rich person is hanging out with other rich people.

20:51.80

wongga

Here? yeah.

20:59.30

wongga

Yeah, no I think what? you ah you'd just said there resonates because by spending that extra five ten fifteen minutes after they've committed what you're really trying to do is reduce buyers remorse that is I mean we do that I mean any business should be doing that you go in and you buy a corvette or ferrari.

21:08.80

Brad Blazar

Yes.

21:16.29

wongga

The next day you're like what the heck have I done you certainly don't want to do that after investing in in a fund. So I want to transition just briefly before we ah quit here because you know in the pre-show we were talking about you as a real estate investor you were mentioning. You know.

21:19.97

Brad Blazar

Absolutely you bet.

21:35.43

wongga

Transitioning out of your old single family portfolio and now you're on your second fund but as a real estate investor and you're deeply involved in your syndications. How do you see these current market conditions. You know I mean how does a market sentiment influence your your capital racing strategies.

21:47.54

Brad Blazar

Um, you know.

21:52.80

Brad Blazar

I personally have been telling people and I strongly believe that over the course of the next eighteen to twenty four months we are going to see so much opportunity in the real estate space. Um, you know people are distressed. Ah, many people of course had floating rate debt and it's become more challenging for them to meet those obligations just here in Houston Texas which is where I live a big Texas operator lost 3000 units in an over two hundred million dollars foreclosure that represented 4 different properties. Why because he financed them a few years ago with loading rates and the rates went from 3 to little over 8 um, so I think there's going to be tremendous opportunities in all sectors of real estate. Um I think that given where we are with you know, recession conversations in the news and. Inflation certainly a lot of people have become very skittish on the stock market. Ah, the stock market while it's not in bare territory certainly has not produced for many people. The types of returns that it has historically and so people are looking for other alternatives. And obviously real estate is in that alternative bucket and so when we talk about alternative investments what we're really talking about is things that are not correlated to the broader market so not stocks not mutual funds not etfs.

23:22.26

Brad Blazar

We're talking about tangible assets real estate oil and natural gas drilling. Maybe you're investing in things like exotic automobiles or you know rare coins or gold. These are what we call the alternative investments that make up the alternative asset class. But I think that right now at least for us. In our business because we're always having conversations with people. We're always talking is it's as easy as it's ever been. It really has not been any more challenging because people are sitting either with cash looking for opportunities or again. They realize their money needs to be working for them doing something real estate has always been I believe one of the best investments because it provides consistent income. It provides considerable upside appreciation. But more importantly, it provides tremendous tax benefits to people. And so for high income earners and accredited investors. It really is a great investment because it can hit on all 3 things. It's like look man. We're going to be able to give you cash flow. We're going to grow your capital over time and we're going to help lower your taxes so you know. I think there's going to be tremendous opportunity I really do and I think that the people that want to master what I call the opm game using other people's money need to realize that the way to do that is you need to create number 1 lead generation.

24:55.90

Brad Blazar

You got to have a way of getting in front of accredited investors or people that have expressed interest that can be using social media that can be hosting investor meetups and events that can be buying a list of the credited investors some of our students have done that it can be joining Facebook communities in groups. Or finding groups in your community that you can start attending. It actually is so easy every day to meet people with money but the big secret is how you introduce yourself how you follow up and how you create that activity so that if you do want to be a big time capital raiser. You know you're having 2 to 3 productive conversations with people throughout the week and then you're following up as you move forward. It's just a rinse and repeat process. You know you go from getting your first investor to realizing holy shit this stuff actually works to onboarding your third. Getting your fifth to building your database and you know over the course of a year you got a nice database with I don't know thirty fifty people that have all given you money maybe more but see now it becomes real easy to raise capital because on your next deal. You now have this network you send out an email with a little tear sheet people raise their hand and say yup I'm liquid for 50 grand call me brad let's have a talk about it before you know it you have the propensity and ability literally to raise $1000000 over the course of the week

26:23.97

Brad Blazar

Because you built that neural network you built that database.

26:27.85

wongga

Yeah, yeah, no, it's ah I think there's a ton of opportunity out there I would agree but like you just said you have to position yourself so that you're ready for it. Um.

26:35.38

Brad Blazar

Yeah I mean here's the thing I'll tell you and I have this conversation with the guy the other day that's a student of ours. He was literally like chicken little He's like oh man, it's getting so hard. oh my god you know I'm really struggling and oh my god I'm like where's this coming from. It's like man. It's all over the damn news and I said bingo I said you've allowed your mindset and what you're hearing as an external force to control you. And the conversations you're having with others I said conversely I'm raising a bunch of money I'm like having a heyday I said you got to change your mindset because what you're hearing is affecting you internally and it's kind of like Zig Ziglar said you know whatever the mind believes and conceives it can achieve. So if you buy into the news. And you take that internally and you start basically thinking oh it's going to be tough to raise money people are not going to want to invest you're going to get exactly what you're looking for. But if you're confident and you are of the mindset that money's flowing and people are investing and you got a great deal. You're going to see a very different result but you get exactly what you expect you, you get what you put out to the world. So a lot of raising capital and doing it successfully as you and I both know gear is largely mindset and confidence.

27:57.24

wongga

Yeah, no I would agree and that's a great place to to stop here but before we do say goodbye here I Ask this guest every question and I'd like to hear what you have to say so this is the investing to win podcast. How do you? Define Success. And what does winning look like for you.

28:18.12

Brad Blazar

You know what's changed over the course of my life. You know when I was much younger, it was largely tied to success and you know the material possessions that come with that. But as I've gotten older and matured and. Really got to a point now in life where I pretty much have everything I desire have a great life. Um, success for me really is really seeing success in other people. It's kind of creating that legacy. Um, I get so much of a thrill when I get testimonials or I get emails or I see that somebody has now changed their life because I've touched them in a positive way whether it's through my books whether it's through my coaching whether it's showing up at my boot camps. And so the definition of success at least for me in my life today is really seeing the success that I'm imparting and bringing to other people.

29:16.61

wongga

Nice, no that resonates with me as well. Um, well, you've brought a ton of value to us and I'd like to thank you. We'll ah we'll put your information in our show notes. So people can reach out to you.

29:16.72

Brad Blazar

Are.

29:28.78

wongga

Um, and yeah I'd like to thank you again for for hanging out with me for the last hour.

29:33.41

Brad Blazar

Absolutely It's been a pleasure Garrett and you know we're looking forward to get up to Canada here hopefully in the next couple of months. Ah I've been invited to speak in some events up there in Toronto and also over in Calgary. We obviously have a huge student presence throughout all of Canada literally from Vancouver. All the way up to Quebec and all of the places in between so you know let's stay in touch I hope that I've added value and more importantly for your listeners really touched upon some of the things that maybe they're doing wrong and you know I always tell people if I can impart knowledge and teach you some of the mistakes to avoid. Now that you know what? not to do? You'll get much better at knowing what to do? So it's been a pleasure. You can have me as a guest anytime and thank you so much for reaching out and inviting us to your podcast today.

30:18.18

wongga

All right? well take care and we'll talk to you soon.

30:22.20

Brad Blazar

You bet.