The Collective Genius Podcast

Tim Vitale is a Wilmington, North Carolina based multifamily investor who owns 28 properties and roughly 1,100 units across the Southeast, 25 of which are LIHTC affordable housing. A former Wall Street accounting and finance professional who hit assistant vice president at 28, Tim walked away from the corporate ladder and will mark five years as a full time real estate investor this September. In this episode, Tim breaks down why he built his entire business around a niche most operators avoid, including 0% interest 40 year debt, property tax abatements up to 90%, and why he now underwrites strictly on day one in-place cash flow. If you're a single family investor eyeing commercial, a multifamily operator trying to buy in today's market, or a W-2 employee wondering how to make the jump, this conversation is for you.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Leon opens the show and introduces CG Legacy, the commercial room formed through the merger with Tim Bratz's group [3:14] – Tim explains LIHTC affordable housing and why he's the only person in the room focused on it [3:54] – 28 properties, 25 of them LIHTC, and why a tight buy box makes it easy to say no to deals [5:38] – Why nobody wants affordable housing: paperwork, red tape, housing authorities, and difficult residents [6:21] – The upside: 90% property tax abatements, 0% interest loans with no payments for 40 years, and one asset free and clear [7:37] – The bad stuff: inheriting prior owners' compliance mistakes and why Tim built an in-house compliance department [8:59] – Inflation's hit on affordable housing, with rent collection slipping from 80 to 85% in 12 days to 80% in 15 to 20 days [11:10] – Why LIHTC deals rarely hit the market and why Tim and Tim get the first broker call in the Carolinas [12:07] – Selling two Alabama assets and consolidating into the Carolinas for centralized operations and shared resources [13:13] – Why AMI growth in Charlotte and Raleigh makes major metros outperform tertiary markets [15:26] – Refining underwriting after insurance costs jumped 2,400% and putting the weight on day one in-place cash flow [19:25] – The Wall Street AVP promotion, a 3% raise, and the dinner that made Tim ask when the life changing money starts [21:26] – Doing the books for his grandmother's Connecticut portfolio and realizing how much passive income real estate created [22:10] – First condo bought in November 2019, a flat appraisal, and the loan officer comment that pushed Tim into commercial [24:36] – Selling the house, downsizing to an apartment, and giving himself two years and $150K to make it work, his wife's idea [28:44] – Why it's better to do no deal than a mediocre one, and the confidence that comes from not needing the next deal [30:05] – Tim's forecast: construction starts down 80%, no new supply until 2030, and why 2029 into 2030 is when things heat up [32:49] – Values down 20 to 30% in 24 months and why the next 6 to 24 months could be the buying window of the decade   5 Key Takeaways The Riches Are in the Niches — Tim built a 1,100 unit portfolio by focusing on LIHTC affordable housing, a niche most investors avoid because it's hard. Being the specialist means brokers call you first when the rare deal surfaces. Affordable Housing Comes With Real Trade-Offs — Tax abatements, 0% interest debt, and higher cap rates are the reward. Compliance audits, higher delinquency, heavier CapEx, and difficult residents are the price, so build the team around the problem. Underwrite on Day One Cash Flow — After a 2,400% insurance spike, Tim stopped paying for someone else's future upside. In-place cash flow is the baseline now, and rent growth is gravy on top. No Deal Beats a Mediocre Deal — Marginal deals drain your team and your investors. Tim would rather sit out than put his people through another property that doesn't perform. Going Full Time Requires a Runway, Not Just Guts — Tim bought one rental in three years, got up at 5 a.m. to study, and sold his house for $150K of runway before quitting. Active income or savings has to bridge the gap while commercial deals take shape.   Links & Resources Collective Genius and the CG Legacy commercial room — https://explorecg.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If Tim's story of trading a 3% raise for 1,100 units got you thinking, you know someone stuck on the same corporate ladder he climbed off of. Send them this episode. And if you want more conversations like this every week, follow the Collective Genius Podcast and leave us a rating and review.

Vance Courtney is an AI implementation expert who co-led two overflowing AI masterclasses with Steve Trang at Collective Genius Select and Elevate in Clearwater Beach, May 2026. His focus is practical: building agents that audit 100 percent of your sales calls, and giving operators a repeatable framework for prompting AI like they'd lead an employee. In this live episode, Vance walks through the RACE prompting framework, why auditing sales calls is the best zero-to-one AI project for real estate investors, and how Claude's Cowork mode lets non-technical operators build working agents by describing an outcome instead of a task. If you're a real estate investor who wants to use AI in your business right now without learning to code, or you're trying to scale without bloating your team, this one is for you.   Timeline Summary [0:00] – Leon opens live from CG Select and Elevate in Clearwater Beach, where AI is the hottest buzzword in real estate investing [0:50] – Why CG runs an AI session at every Select and Premier meeting, and why Vance's masterclass room was the fullest of the day [1:29] – What the masterclass built: a custom GPT sales auditor, then a full agent that pulls, transcribes, scores, and sends feedback to reps [2:50] – The RACE framework for prompting AI: role, action, context, and expected output [3:38] – Why "world class digital marketer focused on Facebook for real estate investors" beats "digital marketer" as a role [4:26] – Context is everything: feed it your lead manager script, grading rubric, and training docs, plus guardrails on what not to do [5:01] – Treat AI like an employee: lead it the way your best self would lead a new hire, and define the output format up front [6:12] – The case for sales call auditing: only 2 percent of recorded calls get reviewed by a human, AI can hit 100 percent [6:48] – Leon on listening to every recorded call as a CEO, and why AI makes that job easier instead of replacing it [7:38] – Where AI has the least impact: the closer you get to human connection and leadership, the safer the job [8:30] – Getting started with agents: download the Claude app, open Cowork, and describe the outcome you want [9:38] – The one-prompt agent: connect to the call system, download, transcribe, score, and post to Slack [11:14] – The biggest takeaway from the room: when the AI tells you to go do something yourself, tell it no, you do it [13:16] – Automate what's standard, use AI where your business is unique, and start with the step that eats the most time [14:37] – Leon's Gen X take: the next 20 years of distressed sellers will still want a trusted local human at the closing table [17:16] – Why AI means hiring the best five instead of a bloated ten, and how lean operations replace armies of VAs [18:25] – Using AI to score interviews, load Predictive Index results, and evaluate candidates against your own criteria [20:40] – The daily huddle question that builds an AI habit across your whole team: how did you use AI yesterday?   5 Key Takeaways Prompt With the RACE Framework — Give AI a specific role, the action you want, as much context as possible including guardrails, and an example of the output. Most bad results come from skipping context. Audit 100 Percent of Your Sales Calls — Only about 2 percent of recorded calls get reviewed today. An AI auditor scores every call, surfaces the best and worst, and lets a human coach the gap. Lead AI Like Your Best Employee — Give it the what and the why, expect clarifying questions, and when it hands a task back to you, tell it no, you do it. Persistence beats technical skill. Automate the Standard, Own the Unique — Every wholesaler runs similar processes, so automate those. Point AI at what makes your business different and start with the step that costs the most time or produces the most revenue. Scale People, Not Headcount — AI lets you hire five great people instead of ten average ones. Use it to score interviews and assessments so the humans you do hire are the right ones.   Links & Resources Vance Courtney on Instagram — https://instagram.com/vanceconnect Vance Courtney on X — https://x.com/vanceconnect Claude (download the app and use Cowork) — https://claude.ai ChatGPT — https://chatgpt.com Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com   Vance's advice to tell the AI "no, you do it" when it hands work back to you might be the most useful sentence you hear about AI all year. Pair that with auditing every sales call and the daily huddle question, and you've got a zero-to-one plan you can start on Monday. Share this one with the operator on your team who says AI is too technical. Head to https://explorecg.com to learn more and apply.

Adam and Paul Vincent are brothers and real estate attorneys behind Vincent Esquire, a Northeast Ohio law firm they founded a little over ten years ago after walking away from their old jobs to represent a bulk tax lien buyer. Today the majority of their practice is securities work: private placement memorandums, syndications, and debt funds for flippers, multifamily buyers, and business acquisitions, plus general counsel and estate planning for entrepreneurs. In this episode, the first ever with two guests and the first with attorneys, the Vincents break down why volume flippers are moving from one-off notes and mortgages to debt funds, how the best commercial operators are still finding deal flow through banks, receiverships, and broker relationships, and the legal risks around texting, wholesaling, and assignment laws that are tightening state by state. If you're raising capital for flips or multifamily, trying to fix inconsistent deal flow, or wondering when pooling investor money means you need a lawyer, this one is for you.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Leon welcomes Adam and Paul Vincent of Vincent Esquire, the first attorneys and first two-guest episode in the show's history [3:34] – What the firm does: startups, general counsel, capital raising paperwork, debt funds, and estate planning for entrepreneurs [6:28] – How two brothers with English and history degrees stumbled into real estate law through a bulk tax lien client [7:41] – Adam's path from adjunct professor and writing centers to law school after Paul was already practicing [10:00] – The tax lien "golden goose" lasted two years, then dried up when a county prosecutor took over the work [11:55] – Lesson learned: one big client is zero clients, and 30-something Paul had to learn to network from scratch [13:33] – How work with single family flippers evolved from one investor, one note and mortgage into pooled debt funds [15:37] – The Costco hot dog strategy: giving flippers a free note and mortgage template to build relationships early [18:29] – What a PPM actually is, and why pooling money from multiple investors is the trigger to call a lawyer [20:08] – Where operators buying a couple hundred units a year are finding deals: direct from banks and receiverships [21:21] – Why broker relationships still beat direct to seller on commercial, and how to reach special asset managers [23:48] – Why direct mail and cold outreach are drying up, and the legal exposure of texting unconsented sellers [27:07] – The clients the Vincents love working with: hands-on operators who visit their properties and think long term [29:09] – The biggest mistake right now: buying too far away and failing to manage your property manager [30:47] – A Zoom call is not a site visit, and spreading yourself thin can quietly kill team morale [34:26] – Why debt funds beat one-off mortgages for volume flippers, and why 10 to 12 percent is the sweet spot for investor returns [38:15] – Legal watch list: be able to close on your wholesales, check your licensing, and beware of state and city crackdowns [40:12] – Leon on CG's quarterly legal updates: Phoenix assignment rules, Missouri's 14-day disclosure, and lobbying efforts [41:41] – How to reach the Vincents, the free How to Syndicate walkthrough, and what they can do for clients outside Ohio   5 Key Takeaways Pooling Investor Money Triggers the Lawyer Call — One investor secured by a note and mortgage is simple. The moment you combine several investors into one deal, you need a PPM so everyone is on the same page before something goes sideways. Debt Funds Keep Volume Flippers Liquid — Raising into a fund while you're working on projects means the money is there when the next deal appears. It also keeps you honest about raising continuously instead of scrambling deal by deal. Deal Flow Lives in Bank and Broker Relationships — Operators still doing multiple commercial deals a year are buying from special asset managers, receiverships, and brokers hired to unload troubled properties. Ask your commercial lender for the intro. Distance Is the Silent Portfolio Killer — If you can't see your building regularly, you're not managing it. Third-party managers get paid at 75 percent occupancy nearly the same as 90, so someone has to manage the manager. Wholesaling Law Is Changing State by State — Texting unconsented sellers, assigning without disclosure, and operating without required licenses are feeding entire law practices. Be able to close, disclose, and stay plugged into a group that tracks the rules.   Links & Resources Vincent Esquire — https://vincentesquire.com How to Syndicate (free video and slide deck walkthrough of a sample deal) — https://howtosyndicate.com Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com     Two attorneys with more personality than most operators, and more useful legal insight than most podcasts. The Vincents' point about relationships driving both deal flow and capital, whether that's a special asset manager at a local bank or a core group of 5 to 10 investors in a debt fund, is the thread that ties this whole episode together. If you've been guessing at when you need a PPM or why your direct-to-seller pipeline is drying up, you now have answers. Head to https://explorecg.com to learn more and apply.

CJ Moss runs a wholesale only company on the Rhode Island and Massachusetts line, operating out of a hub in Seekonk with a stated goal of becoming the biggest wholesale company in the country. He was named Collective Genius Newcomer of the Year in his first year, and this conversation was recorded live on stage in Clearwater Beach right after his track presentation on disposition. CJ breaks down how he maximizes dispo fees, why he tells every seller upfront that he is not the buyer and plans to make a profit, and the 2030 plan to hit 100 million across 20 northeast satellite offices. If you run a wholesale operation and keep getting told to graduate into flips or multifamily, this episode makes the case for staying in your lane and perfecting it instead.   Timeline Summary [0:23] – Leon opens day two of the live podcast from Clearwater Beach and welcomes CJ Moss to the chair [1:31] – Why former athletes tend to make good entrepreneurs and where the drive to win actually comes from [2:22] – The go giver culture Jason built 14 years ago and the candle analogy that keeps competition healthy [3:56] – CJ on running a wholesale only business on the Rhode Island and Massachusetts line with the blinders on [4:35] – The goal of becoming the biggest wholesale company in the country and competing with New Western [5:19] – What his dispo track presentation covered and why fundamentals beat market conditions [6:19] – The first step operators should take, committing to open houses instead of dishing deals to one buyer [6:57] – Telling sellers upfront that you are not the buyer and you will make a profit on the deal [9:24] – Why wholesaling gets treated as a springboard instead of a business worth perfecting [12:04] – The 2030 plan, 100 million across 20 northeast locations at 5 million per office [12:21] – Leon connects CJ with Joseph Beck, who went from 56 deals in 2020 to over 450 [17:12] – The Rhode Island anti flip bill and the two minutes CJ got in front of the House of Reps [19:16] – What CJ is taking home from the event, hiring high level people who have already done the job [20:16] – Why operators stall at 5 million and the profit margin that quietly signals understaffing [23:52] – Inside the CG tier structure with 33 members in the CEO room and 186 in Premier [29:00] – Winning Newcomer of the Year and why three quarters of the room is chasing a belt   5 Key Takeaways Perfect One Thing Before Adding Another — CJ turned down flipping, multifamily, and lending to stay wholesale only. The plan is to make the home base close to perfect, then replicate it across 20 offices rather than collect new asset classes. Tell the Seller You Are Not the Buyer — Wiggling around the truth always felt sticky, so he started disclosing upfront that the house gets assigned and he makes a fee. Nine times out of ten the seller has no issue with it, and it makes the open house strategy work. Never Dish a Deal to One Buyer — The single biggest dispo lever is committing to open houses on every property. Selling to the first buyer who says yes is the fastest way to leave fee on the table. High Margins Can Mean You Are Understaffed — When operators brag about 45 or 50 percent net, they are usually still doing acquisitions and lead management themselves. A healthy margin in this business sits closer to 20 to 35 percent because the rest goes back into talent. Hire People Who Have Done the Job Already — Most companies get stuck between 4 and 6 million because they put middle managers into C suite seats. Integrator has become a buzzword, and calling someone one does not give them executive track record.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://www.explorecg.com New Western — https://www.newwestern.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If the part about telling sellers straight up that you are assigning the contract and making a fee made you rethink your own script, send this to the acquisitions manager on your team. CJ makes a real case that the boring fundamentals are where the money actually is. Follow the show, leave a rating, and drop a review so more operators can find these live conversations.

Colby Kirk has spent eight years building a Kansas City real estate business across three buckets: wholesaling, multifamily repositions, and private lending. Before real estate he was, in his words, a failed entrepreneur, running a custom suit company out of Georgetown with product made in Pakistan after a Peace Corps stint in Costa Rica. In this episode Colby walks through the 33 unit package he closed with 18% hard money after a year of follow up, the 32 unit deal that broke when interest rates doubled in 2022, and how he found a hard money lending opportunity in Wichita where borrowers were paying 24 to 36 percent annually. If you are an operator trying to figure out how to stack multifamily and private lending without letting one starve the other, this conversation is for you.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Leon welcomes Colby Kirk to the show and heads back home to Kansas City for the conversation [3:01] – Colby breaks down his three buckets, the wholesale company he is winding down, multifamily repositions, and private lending [4:58] – Why he walked away from the retail agent path within months of getting his license in 2018 [5:58] – Finding an old vacant property rental registration list and cold calling his way into off market deals [7:14] – The businesses that failed before real estate, a men's suiting company, affiliate marketing, and lawn care [8:31] – Peace Corps in Costa Rica, grad school at Georgetown, and why bureaucracy pushed him back toward entrepreneurship [9:38] – Building a custom suit company with product made in Pakistan, priced at 500 dollars against 1200 dollar competitors [12:21] – Selling suits on the corner of Wisconsin and M Street in 85 degree heat and getting laughed at [17:32] – The 33 unit package from owners in their 80s, closed December 2019 with 18% hard money [21:17] – Growing up with a poverty mindset and still actively working to unlearn it [24:01] – The handwritten 30 page list that served as his CRM and a full year of monthly follow up [24:44] – Closing the deal over Denny's lunches and the elderly landlord avatar he still targets today [29:22] – The 32 unit fourplex play that broke when rates jumped from 3.5 to 7.5 percent [32:21] – How renovating one model unit set a new comp at 375 when the highest was 325 [35:25] – Why Wichita borrowers paying 24 to 36 percent annually signaled a lending opportunity [39:45] – The barbell strategy of pairing a debt fund with multifamily equity so capital never forces a bad deal   5 Key Takeaways Give the Business Five Years — Colby's earlier ventures died because he got bored and moved on inside two or three years. He committed to five years in real estate no matter how it looked early, and that commitment is what let the business compound. Follow Up Longer Than Feels Reasonable — He called the same elderly owners roughly once a month for twelve months before they came off their price. The 33 unit package closed because nobody else stayed in the conversation that long. Sell to the Avatar, Not the Address — Elderly landlords with no professional management and kids who want nothing to do with the properties became a repeatable buy box. He found it on one deal and has bought from that same profile many times since. Lender Relationships Are the Real Backstop — When rates doubled and the fourplex exit vanished, he went back to capital partners who owned half the deal and asked for more renovation money. That relationship turned a stuck project into a profitable one. Pair Debt With Equity So Capital Never Rushes You — A standalone multifamily fund pressures you to deploy, and pressure produces bad deals. Running a debt fund alongside it keeps capital working while you wait for the right asset.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://www.explorecg.com Vetus Capital, Colby's lending and multifamily company — https://www.vetuscapital.com Colby Lee Kirk on Facebook Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill   Enjoyed This Episode? If the story about setting a brand new comp at 375 in a market where nothing had sold above 325 got your attention, you probably know an operator who is sitting on a deal that stopped penciling. Send this one to them. Follow the show, leave a rating, and drop a review so more investors can find these conversations.

Steve Casamassima spent 14 years as a police officer in South Jersey, becoming the youngest sergeant ever promoted at his department at age 30, all while quietly flipping roughly 100 houses on the side. Today he is the closer at Hall of Fame Real Estate, where he personally drove $5 million in gross profit in 2025, his first full year in the business. This episode breaks down how he did it, including the relationship network he built with postmasters, UPS and FedEx drivers to find off-market real estate deals three months before anyone else could, and the brokerage strategy that produced four deals in a single month. If you are a real estate investor trying to scale past your marketing spend, or an operator who knows the next level depends on hiring the right people, this conversation is your playbook. Timeline Summary [0:22] – Host opens live from the Q2 Collective Genius event in Oceanside, California [1:20] – Steve joins the show and the conversation turns to hiring great people to scale [2:24] – How Santini found him, and why he was a police officer for 14 years first [2:38] – A torn ACL on a soccer scholarship sends him into the police academy at 18 [3:16] – Youngest sergeant ever promoted at his department, on his 30th birthday [3:32] – Roughly 100 flips in seven years while working full time as an active sergeant [3:55] – Why nearly every cop and firefighter runs a side business, and how he used his [5:01] – The end of 2022 flip that made $43,000 and changed the relationship [5:17] – Selling to a fellow officer with a 3.9 percent pension rate lock from 2021 [5:56] – The bagels story, and how one small gesture led to the job that changed his life [7:21] – Host on why you cannot scale anything special without special people [9:12] – $5 million in gross profit in his first full year, with 42 percent from relationships [10:43] – The only instruction Santini ever gave him, which was just go get deals [12:36] – Building a lead source out of postmasters, UPS and FedEx drivers [13:15] – Why he became his own predictive data company and ran three months ahead [15:42] – Advice one, partner with small wholesalers who can acquire but cannot dispo [17:07] – Advice two, buy dinner for a brokerage and turn 20 minutes into four deals [20:33] – Why giving away all your secrets costs you nothing   5 Key Takeaways Recruit Before You Need Them — When you meet someone who fits your core values, start the relationship now even if there is no role for them yet. Steve was recruited for close to two years before he ever left the police department. Small Gestures Close Big People — Steve dropped off bagels for a family that had just moved in, expecting nothing. That five dollar gesture is what turned a strong acquaintance into the business partnership that produced $5 million in gross profit. Build Your Own Predictive Data — Postmasters, UPS drivers and FedEx drivers already know which houses have 100 unopened envelopes piling up. Steve turned those relationships into off-market leads that reached him three months before any list vendor could sell them. Partner With Wholesalers Who Cannot Dispo — Find the operator who is great at acquisitions but has no buyers list, capital or construction team. Even at a 50/50 JV, your systems can double their average assignment fee, so they make the same or more while you get the volume. Go Straight To The Broker — Instead of chasing individual agents, Steve bought dinner for entire brokerages and spent 20 minutes explaining what a wholesaler actually does. One meeting produced four deals that same month.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://www.explorecg.com Follow Steve on Instagram — https://instagram.com/stevecas_hof Hall of Fame Real Estate, South Jersey Steve's direct line, call or text — (609) 519-1782 Cameron Herold, Q2 event keynote speaker — https://cameronherold.com Tim Bratz on the CG commercial room announcement, previous episode   Enjoyed This Episode? If the bagels story stuck with you, that is the whole lesson. The relationships you build when there is nothing in it for you are the ones that pay you back years later. Send this to the operator you know who is stuck at their marketing ceiling and needs to hear how 42 percent of a $5 million year came from people instead of ads. Follow the show, leave a rating, and drop a review so more investors can find these conversations.

Dan Rivers is the co-founder of Synergy Stays, a short term rental revenue management company operating in 45 markets including Mexico, and a CG Legacy member out of Charleston, South Carolina. He started in Tampa in 2005 with 600 units handed to him on his first day at 25 years old, spent 13 years in property management, and has since done over 350 deals across flips, rentals, wholesaling, and private lending. This conversation covers why short term rentals are a hospitality business and not a rental play, the two revenue blockers Dan sees on almost every new client, and how native language search is about to change how listings get found. If you own Airbnbs that are plugging along at okay instead of profitable, this is the episode that tells you where the money is leaking.   Timeline Summary [2:24] – The Collective Genius merger with Legacy Family, and Dan joins as a CG Legacy member [3:25] – What Synergy Stays does and why they go five layers past pricing [5:02] – Why Airbnb is a hospitality play, not a rental play, and why so many investors missed that [5:19] – The four separate businesses hiding inside every short term rental [6:16] – Killing the full service management arm to be great at one thing instead of good at four [7:00] – Day one in Tampa at 25 years old with 600 units and 16 properties handed over [9:30] – Two open heart surgeries before 16 and the willingness to bet on himself it created [11:13] – Moving to Charleston in 2018 and finding the investor breakfast room that changed everything [12:25] – Hiring Kelly Garrett as a coach, setting a $500K goal, and finishing 2021 at $775K [14:41] – Over 350 deals in eight years and the shiny object problem that came with all of them [19:34] – Native language search is coming to Airbnb and how to write a listing that gets found [22:12] – Name your photo files what they actually are, because the search reads words and not images [23:17] – The two biggest revenue blockers, cell phone photos and refusing to move off your ADR [29:41] – Run year one pro forma at the 50th percentile, save the 90th for year two [32:38] – A client's Outer Banks property goes from being listed for sale to netting six figures [35:09] – Cutting minimum stay from four nights to two adds $22,000 in a single quarter   5 Key Takeaways Be Great at One Thing — Dan grew a full service short term rental company to 28 units, then cut it because they were only excellent at revenue. Being good at four businesses is worth less than being the best at one. Stop Defending Your ADR — Owners who refuse to price below $300 a night while the market prices at $220 end up sitting empty, and empty is $0 a night. A $270 average across five nights beats $300 across two. Write for Search, Not for You — Guests are starting to search in full sentences instead of clicking filter boxes. Neighborhood descriptions, plain language, and descriptively named photo files all feed the words that engine reads. Price Year One for Velocity — New owners underwrite at the 90th percentile, miss the number, and get hurt. The first 6 to 12 months are for reviews and momentum, so run the pro forma at the 50th percentile and grow into the rest. Experience Is the Moat — In a K shaped economy the higher end properties are pulling away. Look at what the top 5% in your market already has, then find the one thing past it, whether that's an indoor pool, a simulator, or something nobody there has tried.   Links & Resources Synergy Stays — https://www.synergystayslocal.com Follow Dan Rivers on Instagram — https://instagram.com/danriverslifebydesign Collective Genius Community — https://explorecg.com The Helm, the Charleston investor hub Dan co-owns   Enjoyed This Episode? If you own short term rentals and have never once looked at a pacing report, the ADR section alone is worth rewinding. Send this to the investor you know who bought an Airbnb in 2021 and has been quietly wondering whether to sell it. Follow the show, leave a rating and review, and head to https://explorecg.com if you want to be in the room where these conversations happen.

Stella Han is the founder and CEO of Fractional, a platform that lets real estate operators legally raise capital from both accredited and unaccredited investors without setting up a fund or a syndication. Her investment club model runs about $3,500 and can be live in a day, against roughly $30,000 in securities attorney fees and a month of paperwork for a traditional fund. Recorded live at the Collective Genius Q2 event in Oceanside, this conversation breaks down exactly where the club model fits for operators who have outgrown deal by deal private money but are not ready to run a fund as its own business. If you are managing a different lender on every flip and wondering whether a debt fund is the answer, this is the episode that shows you a third option.   Timeline Summary [0:23] – Leon Barnes opens from the Collective Genius Q2 event in Oceanside, California [1:23] – What Fractional does, letting operators raise from accredited and unaccredited investors legally [2:05] – Who this is actually for, and why a fund is the wrong first move for most operators [2:43] – The operator with a different private lender on every deal becomes an accidental loan servicer [3:41] – The wall people hit, attorney fees, months of paperwork, and a network they legally can't touch [4:19] – How the introduction to Fractional came through one of CG's own lenders [5:21] – Leon's Cookie Monster analogy, why a fund becomes its own business you have to feed [6:31] – Why a fund forces you to shut out roughly half your network and stop marketing [7:07] – The club isn't a security under the SEC, so you can market it publicly [7:49] – One club can fund multiple projects, so it scales without a new raise each time [8:13] – Automated tax documents, K-1s, and distributions handled instead of hiring an admin [9:27] – The debt club, building your own bank at 10% annualized and recycling capital for years [10:28] – Typical raises run $250K to $5 million, with the CG room clustering at the higher end [13:14] – Club members vote to approve deals, and why that transparency drives investor retention [13:59] – A CG member's $700K debt club, RV park clubs, and a group rolling up candy stores [16:01] – Where to find Stella and why she prefers one on one conversations on structure   5 Key Takeaways A Fund Is Its Own Business — Setting one up is the easy part. Somebody has to raise for it continuously, and if you're already running a fix and flip operation at volume, that's a second full time job you didn't budget for. Unaccredited Doesn't Mean Broke — Stella sees unaccredited investors bringing $25K to $125K each. A fund structure legally cuts most of your friends, family, and followers out of the deal, which is where a lot of the available capital actually sits. The Club Isn't a Security — Because members vote to approve deals, the structure sits outside SEC securities rules. That means you can post about it, talk about it publicly, and raise from anyone who believes in you. Build a Bank Instead of Chasing Deals — Rather than returning capital every six months and starting over, form a club, borrow at around 10% annualized, and recycle the same money across projects for two to three years. Voting Is a Retention Feature — Bringing deals back for member approval sounds like friction, but it gives investors real visibility into the process. Operators using it are seeing investors come back with bigger checks on the next deal.   Links & Resources Fractional — https://www.fractional.app Follow Stella Han on Instagram — https://instagram.com/hellastellah Collective Genius Community — https://explorecg.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If you've ever priced out a debt fund and walked away when you saw the attorney invoice, the club model is worth twenty minutes of your attention. Send this to the operator you know who's juggling six private lenders and quietly turning into a loan servicer. Follow the show, leave a rating and review, and head to https://explorecg.com if you want to be in the room where conversations like this one happen.

Chip Ferguson is the founder of Smooth Closing in Austin, Texas, a direct to seller home buying operation he built after spending eight to nine years as a full time online poker player. He went from flipping houses completely solo to running a team of nine in office and two overseas, with Q2 of this year landing 50% above his previous revenue record. This conversation walks through the whole arc, including the single hire that doubled his deal count in 12 months, why standard operating procedures were the hinge that changed everything, and the hairy deal niche most investors walk away from. If you are a solo operator who suspects you have hit your personal ceiling, this episode shows you exactly what the next step looks like.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Leon welcomes Austin based CG member Chip Ferguson to the show [2:41] – What Smooth Closing buys today, mostly wholesale with flips on rural and messy title situations [5:01] – From Ohio to Northwestern, a school he picked by sorting national rankings [5:45] – Catching the online poker boom in college and going pro before he turned 21 [8:25] – Biggest single night win, worst pot lost, and why the losses stick harder [10:02] – Playing 30 tables at once online versus the slower grind of live tournaments [12:19] – Buying his first duplex in 2009 and getting scammed by his first contractor [13:35] – Entering wholesaling in 2014 by transcribing a podcast role play into a seller script [19:22] – Doing all of it alone, acquiring, project managing the GC, and listing the flips himself [21:39] – Hitting 36 deals two years in a row and reading that as proof of his ceiling [22:38] – One acquisitions hire takes the business from 36 to 65 deals in the first 12 months [25:37] – How lending to Sean Grabow sight unseen led to the introduction to Collective Genius [28:49] – The SOP problem, when every process lives inside two founders' heads [32:15] – Bringing dispo in house after years of handing deals to a third party company [37:14] – The hairy deal niche, chasing broken chains of title and estranged heirs nobody else finds [42:47] – Best quarter ever in Q1, then Q2 comes in 50% above the previous record   5 Key Takeaways Hire What You Are Not Good At — Most operators are their own best salesperson, so acquisitions is usually the last seat to fill. Chip was honest that talking to sellers was not his strength, hired for it, and nearly doubled the business in a year. A Repeated Number Is a Ceiling — Doing 36 deals two years running told him the constraint was him, not the market. When your output stops moving no matter how hard you work, that is a capacity problem and not an effort problem. Process Beats Instinct at Scale — Running everything from memory works right up until you hire someone. Without documented procedures you will keep churning through people and blaming the hires for a gap you never filled. Be the Worst Person in the Room — Chip joined CG specifically because everyone there was doing more volume than he was. The upside of being the least experienced person in the room is that everything you need has already been solved by someone sitting near you. Nobody Chases the Hairy Deals — Broken chains of title, estranged siblings on an inherited property, owners who cannot be found. Chip closed 10 to 15 of these because most investors will not do the research, which makes it one of the least competitive deal sources available.   Links & Resources Collective Genius Community — https://explorecg.com Smooth Closing — https://www.smoothclosing.com Chip Ferguson on Instagram — https://instagram.com/thechipferguson Chip Ferguson on Facebook — https://facebook.com/thechipferguson Email Chip directly — [email protected] BiggerPockets Podcast — https://www.biggerpockets.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If Chip going from 36 deals on a whiteboard to a team of eleven hit close to home, send this to the operator in your life who keeps saying they are too busy to document anything. The hairy deal conversation alone is worth a second listen, especially if you have let a title issue kill a contract this year. Follow the show, leave a rating and review, and head to https://explorecg.com if you want to be in the room with investors like Chip.

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Collective Genius Q2 event in Oceanside, California, Leon Barnes sits down with Jason Pritchard, a CEO level member out of California's Central Valley who has been on Leon's radar since the days when territory restrictions kept him out of the room. Jason started his home buying business in 2014, now runs around 120 deals a year, built a rental portfolio north of 100 units, and three years ago began redeploying that capital into land and development deals. This conversation covers why the active side of the business has to keep running before the bigger opportunities are possible, what it actually costs to shift a company away from being all about the founder, and the two hour breakout that produced a back of the napkin exit strategy he had been overcomplicating for months. If you are an owner operator trying to build the team that lets you take your eye off the ball, this one will land.   Timeline Summary [1:44] – Two years in the CEO room and why the timing of the tier expansion worked out perfectly [2:28] – The territory denial folder and what Leon was actually screening applications for [3:33] – Why the Central Valley is full of strong investors, and the mentor culture behind it [3:57] – People poured into Jason without strings attached, and why he does the same thing now [5:04] – The model, 120 deals a year at 60% flip and 40% wholesale, plus rentals and land [5:50] – Central California as the last affordable place in the state, and the demand that creates [6:30] – A white collar approach layered on a blue collar work ethic, and where that caps out [7:31] – Building the org chart so the home buying business runs without him [8:08] – Why the active grind funds everything else, and how hard that is to teach newer investors [9:11] – The season where profits go to salaries and marketing, one step back for a bigger one [10:08] – Shifting the identity away from everyone needing to talk to Jason [10:56] – What the CEO room delivers, tactical accountability plus proximity to high level operators [12:45] – Inverting the ratio, from 60% flip to 40%, because land deals are so cash intensive [13:28] – The napkin math from a two hour breakout that solved a partnership structure [16:00] – Parking at development sites years ago and finally being close to building them [17:12] – More time with the kids, and being the youngest grandpa in the room   5 Key Takeaways The Active Business Funds Everything Else — Without the home buying operation there is no land deal, no rental portfolio, no bigger swing. Everyone wants to jump to the sexier projects, but the grind years are the domino that knocks the rest over. Hard Work Has A Ceiling — Ten years of piling responsibility on your own shoulders gets you to a level and then stops, and it comes at the expense of family. The next level requires an org chart, not more hours. Expect The Profit Dip — Owner operators are highly profitable precisely because they are wearing every hat. Building the team means forgoing some of that for salaries, marketing, and overhead, and you have to be financially prepared for that season. Proximity Beats Information — The tactical accountability matters, but the real value is sitting next to operators who are further along and being willing to be a sponge. That is what compresses years into months. You Are Probably Overcomplicating It — Jason spent months in his own head on a partnership structure. It took a two hour breakout and the back of a piece of notepaper for someone to say the answer is simpler than you think.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com   If you are the bottleneck in your own business and everyone still has to come talk to you, go back to the section on shifting the identity of the company. Jason is candid about what that transition costs in profit and in time, and about the fact that it does not happen overnight. Send this to the operator who keeps saying they will build the team next year. Get in this room. Whether you are doing a couple of deals a month or thousands of deals a year, there is a tier for you, from Select and Elevate up through Premier, CEO, and now commercial through CG Legacy. Head to https://explorecg.com to find the application. It is invite only based on that application, and these are salt of the earth people.

Armando Banuelos has been buying real estate since 2005, and at his peak his Visalia based operation was fixing and flipping 400 to 500 homes a year, nearly all of it acquired at trustee sales on the courthouse steps. He came to it from a farm working family, followed the crops to Washington every summer starting at age eight, and built a corporate career at Hewlett-Packard and Deloitte before an e-business layoff sent him back to the Central Valley with no plan. This conversation covers how you actually manage hundreds of construction projects a year when you are, in his words, one of the least handy people you will ever meet, and why after twenty one years the goal has shifted from buying more properties to buying fewer of the right ones. He also gets honest about the hardest personnel decision he has ever made, and why he could not have made it without the room. If you are running a construction heavy operation and starting to suspect that bigger is not the same thing as better, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [3:50] – Based in Visalia, primarily fix and flip, buying at auction since 2005 across Central California [5:37] – Four to five hundred homes a year through brute force, and everything came from trustee sales [7:25] – How you actually run hundreds of construction projects, and the leaks you ignore at full speed [9:16] – What Hewlett-Packard and Deloitte taught him about bringing systems to chaos [10:31] – A farm working family, following the crops to Washington, and a mother who would not let up [11:17] – Chico State, a switch from engineering to accounting, and the rejection that redirected everything [12:33] – Laid off from Deloitte and the friend's passing that led him to the courthouse steps [15:16] – Two properties bought on December 26th, 2005, and six months to rehab and flip them [17:09] – Going full time in 2008, in the middle of the crash, watching loans drop from 350 to 100 [18:00] – Any property priced correctly will sell, in any market, up or down [22:34] – The least handy guy in the room, a conductor who does not play any instruments [26:26] – Not the CG slap but a roundhouse kick, and the inefficiency it exposed across the business [28:59] – The hardest personnel decision he has made and why he never would have made it alone [31:46] – Team basketball, why the star who needs the ball can cost you the whole chemistry [33:23] – Buying fewer properties on purpose, more net over more gross, and nobody working weekends [37:06] – The health phase, reprogramming into a leader, and making room for the next one   5 Key Takeaways You Do Not Need To Know Construction To Run Construction — Armando calls himself a conductor who plays no instruments. What scaled the business was systems, technology, and people who had been with him fifteen and twenty years, not personal expertise with a tool belt. Speed Hides The Leaks — At a hundred miles an hour you stop noticing what the business is losing. In-house construction did not eliminate the leaks, but it kept them small enough to see and to price. The Hardest Fixes Are Personnel, Not Process — The room did not hand him a new acquisitions system. It told him the real issue was a person, and that answer took wise counsel from more than one voice before he could act on it. Price Solves Almost Everything — Any property priced correctly will sell, in a hot market or a crashed one, because someone is always looking to buy a house. That belief is what carried the business through 2008. Bigger Is Not The Goal Anymore — Fewer properties, managed correctly, with less leakage and a team that does not work weekends. The metric that matters now is net, not gross, and the freedom the business creates for everyone in it.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com   If you have been telling yourself the problem is your systems, go back to the section on acquisitions and the decision Armando had to make. Sometimes the leaky bucket is not a process at all, and you will not see that clearly from inside your own office. What got you here will not get you there, and the answers are usually sitting in a room with people who have no reason to tell you what you want to hear. Get in this room. If you are a full time real estate investor looking to grow and scale, head to https://explorecg.com to find the application and see which tier fits your business. We are invite only, and worst case you have a great conversation about your business and meet a new friend in the industry.

div]:bg-bg-000/50 [&_pre>div]:border-0.5 [&_pre>div]:border-border-400 [&_.ignore-pre-bg>div]:bg-transparent [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8"> _*]:min-w-0 gap-3 [&_>_*:last-child]:mb-0 print:block print:[&_>_*_+_*]:mt-3 standard-markdown"> In this CG Live episode recorded at the Collective Genius Select and Elevate event in Clearwater Beach, Florida in May 2026, Matt Viebrock joins the show for the first time to preview his masterclass on hiring and team building. Matt runs a fractional COO firm along with Acquisition Reps, a branch focused specifically on hiring for acquisitions, dispositions, and lead management, and he spent years in the acquisitions seat himself running a wholesaling and fix and flip operation. This conversation covers why most operators plateau between $1 million and $2 million, why pulling yourself out of the acquisitions seat too early kills growth, and what A player compensation actually looks like right now in a market where good salespeople have options. If you are stuck doing the selling yourself and afraid to hire, or you have made two bad acquisitions hires and cannot figure out what went wrong, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – The event, the theme, and the four or five challenges every real estate entrepreneur runs into [1:44] – Why acquisitions is a completely different sale and you cannot just move someone into the seat [4:38] – What the team should look like at every stage, from one deal a month solo up to ten [4:57] – Culture comes before hiring, because if you never define it you still have one [6:23] – You are only as good as your recruits, and identification comes before acquisition of talent [8:06] – Why operators plateau between $1 million and $2 million and stop acquiring talent [8:47] – Reverse the hiring mentality, get operational help before you hire your first acquisitions rep [10:01] – The baseball analogy, why pulling your best home run hitter to manage kills production [11:28] – A players will not work for C players, and why leadership has to level up first [12:47] – The biggest hiring mistakes right now, rushing the process and going off gut feel [13:31] – Gary Keller on making your world big enough that nobody wants to leave [14:57] – What A player acquisitions comp looks like, 15% with a small base as a draw [16:13] – What the masterclass includes, job descriptions, training plans, and full playbooks   5 Key Takeaways Define Culture Before You Hire — You already have a culture whether you named it or not. Deciding what you want it to be is the first move, not something you fix after the team is in place. Always Be In Hiring Mode — Build a bench the way a football team does. Identify people you would want twelve months from now and start the relationship early, so a departure does not stall the business. Buy Back Your Time Before You Replace Yourself — Start with a time audit and an EA rather than an acquisitions rep. Get out of the admin work first so you can stay on the phones and actually double revenue. Your Best Closer Is Not Your Next Manager — Sales production and management are different skill sets. Pulling your top producer into a manager role because a book told you to be the visionary removes the person driving revenue. Pay Like You Want An A Player — Top acquisitions people are pulling 15% with a small base as a draw. W2 with real benefits beats 1099, and the honest test is whether you would take the job you are offering.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com   If you are the one still taking every seller call and telling yourself you are too busy to recruit, go back to the part where Matt explains why the plateau between $1 million and $2 million is almost always a hiring problem in disguise. The fix is not a better closer, it is buying your own time back first. Send this to the operator you know who just made their second bad acquisitions hire. You have to get in this room. If you are a full time real estate investor who wants to grow, head to https://explorecg.com to see the different levels of the Collective Genius and find the application. You are where you are right now, and this community exists to help you get where you want to go.

Trey Chandler is a West Point graduate, former infantry officer, and co-founder of My Tennessee Home Solution in Nashville, where he and his business partner Jordan run a wholesaling operation doing hundreds of transactions a year across Middle Tennessee. Since closing their first deal in 2020, they have grown from 80 deals a year in CG Select to a CG Premier promotion and a belt on the wall. This conversation covers how military leadership frameworks translate directly into real estate operations, why brand and personnel decide who wins in competitive markets, and how their Dispo team built a Buy It Now program that now moves half of their deals without a single walkthrough. If you are scaling a wholesaling business in a crowded market and want to know what actually compresses a ten year learning curve into five, this one is for you.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Leon Barnes introduces Nashville investor and CG Premier belt winner Trey Chandler [2:56] – The model, wholesale assignments across Middle Tennessee plus sub two deals held as rentals [4:47] – Scaling responsibly, why they held off on construction and hard money until the right people showed up [6:48] – West Point, infantry, and combat deployment as the foundation for high tempo business execution [8:09] – Putting himself and Jordan in front of the camera and what that did for inbound trust [11:56] – Applying the military decision making model to business, intent, left and right limits, desired end state [13:43] – The settlement statement Jordan showed him at Fort Benning that ended his Special Forces plan [15:10] – First deal was a flip with six figure profit, and he pulled his packet shortly after [17:35] – Enablers that cut a ten year learning curve to five, including Collective Genius, Ramp, and Atlas [20:19] – How a referral and a conversation with Brad Bowen led him into the CG room [21:14] – From 80 deals a year in CG Select to hundreds of transactions and a Premier promotion [25:07] – The one CG conversation about sales process that led to signing with the Ramp team [26:32] – Why breaking bread with a service provider beats hiring off a recommendation alone [30:04] – The Buy It Now program that now moves 50% of their deals with no walkthroughs or outreach [32:28] – 45 day project check ins with buyers and why he does not want to sell a deal that loses money [35:38] – The purpose indicator behind the company, positively impacting 8,000 people by 2030   5 Key Takeaways Add Verticals When People Arrive — Construction and hard money stayed on the shelf until the right business unit leaders showed up. Perfecting one thing is what attracts the people who let you safely add the next thing. Give Intent, Not Instructions — Set the desired end state and the left and right limits, then let the team figure out execution. The Buy It Now program came from the Dispo director, not from the owner dictating a process. Brand Compounds Faster Than You Think — Trey and Jordan decided early that people needed a brand to trust, then put their own faces on the marketing. Five years of intentional brand beats twenty years of accidental reputation. Vet Providers Before You Need Them — The advantage of a peer group is not just the recommendation. It is sitting across the table from a provider and finding out if they will push back on you before you ever sign. Protect The Buyer Side Of The Deal — Weekly deal reviews, ARV and rehab variance tracking, and 45 day project check ins keep buyers winning. That trust is what makes half their deals sell at Buy It Now pricing.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com My Tennessee Home Solution: https://mytennesseehomesolution.com/   Enjoyed This Episode? If the Buy It Now breakdown or the 45 day buyer check in process gave you something to steal, send this episode to the operator on your team who owns Dispo. The answers Trey talked about are not theoretical, they came from being in the room with people already doing it. Follow the Collective Genius podcast, leave a rating and review, and head to https://explorecg.com to see which tier fits where your business is today.

Steve Trang is the founder of Objection Proof AI and the former operator of Max Cash Offers, and he now builds practical AI tools that review sales conversations, run role plays, and work follow up for real estate investors. He joined us on stage at CG Select and Elevate in Clearwater Beach ahead of his masterclass on where investors actually are in their AI journey and what the next step looks like. This conversation covers what it costs to run AI across a real company, why the operators seeing the best results are running humans and AI on the same leads instead of choosing one, and how automated follow up is producing $1,000 cost per contract on leads most investors throw away. If you have a CRM full of leads nobody has touched in a year and a sales team that says it follows up but doesn't, this one is for you.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Host opens at CG Select and Elevate with 200 plus full time investors focused on getting better, not just bigger [3:19] – Framing the conversation around practical AI you can use today, not technology that's 30 years away [4:23] – Why 90 percent of the room has used ChatGPT but almost nobody has AI actually doing work for them [5:04] – Steve's team spent nearly $4,000 in tokens in one month and learned mostly what not to do [5:30] – Every employee gets a paid AI account, and why nobody has been let go because of AI [5:49] – The April lesson on using AI responsibly and setting budget overrides by team member [7:13] – How CG member conversations pushed Steve to build the AI product in the first place [7:31] – Automatic sales conversation review on every call, including an app for recording in person appointments [7:59] – Ten role play bots covering cold inbound, form fill to appointment, and appointment to contract [8:39] – The old Max Cash Offers cadence of nine dials in 24 hours and why it never got done consistently [9:20] – AI now calls forever until it reaches the homeowner, with no sick days and no bad days [11:37] – Why the top performing clients run humans and AI on the same lead instead of picking one [12:35] – Most teams have six closers and two good ones, so let AI cover the rest [15:30] – Peeling off $1,000 a month for Facebook leads and seeing $1,000 cost per contract [16:20] – The text message channel that dominated 2019 to 2021 and still has no real replacement [18:57] – Jacob Matlock closed a $60,000 deal eight days in from a lead untouched for two years [20:03] – What's next, an AI closer built to buy houses virtually over the phone   5 Key Takeaways Run Humans And AI Together — The clients getting the most out of this aren't choosing between a human lead manager and an AI caller. They put both on the same lead and let whoever connects first take it. Activity Is Now Guaranteed — Sales training has always assumed the follow up actually happens, and it usually doesn't. AI removes the variable, calling nights, weekends, and holidays without getting discouraged. Cheap Leads Just Got Viable Again — Facebook and other low cost leads used to die because working them took too much human labor. Strip out that cost and a $1,000 monthly ad spend can produce contracts at $1,000 each. Follow Up Is Where The Money Is — Somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of deals come from follow up, not first contact. A two year old dead lead turned into a $60,000 deal eight days after one operator turned the system on. Budget Discipline Beats Enthusiasm — Getting the whole team on AI is only half the work. Once everyone is using it, you need spending limits and clear rules about who is allowed to go over.   Links & Resources Objection Proof AI: https://objectionproof.ai Hear the AI caller: text AI CALLER to 33777  Hear a role play bot: text ROLE PLAY to 33777  The Collective Genius: https://thecollectivegenius.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If you've been telling yourself your team is handling follow up, go pull a lead from two years ago and see what happens. Steve's breakdown of running humans and AI side by side is the kind of thing that changes how you staff your sales floor, so send this to the operator you know who is still trying to hire their way out of the problem. Follow, rate, and review the Collective Genius podcast so more investors can find these conversations.

Bobby Kough is a West Point graduate and former Army engineer officer who partnered with Jimmy Vreeland to run a wholesale operation across St. Louis, Little Rock, and Wichita, with his brother Gerrad running the Little Rock side. Six years in, the business is on pace for eight figures and running roughly 200 percent net profit growth in the St. Louis market. Instead of the usual founder story, this episode follows the path most people are actually on, going from a W-2 job to working for someone doing it at scale to becoming a partner in the business. If you're still employed and wondering how to make the jump without burning the bridge behind you, Bobby lays out exactly how he handled that conversation and what it turned into.   Timeline Summary [3:53] – Wholesale makes up 80 to 90 percent of the business across three Midwest markets [5:25] – Southern California football, playing alongside Bobby Wagner, and the road to West Point [11:24] – The plan was a corporate engineering job at Honeywell until a COVID quarantine policy changed it [13:33] – First flip in summer 2020 nets $25,000 while he's still an active duty captain [15:08] – An Army football headhunter connects him to Jimmy Vreeland in St. Louis [16:38] – One dinner at a Mexican restaurant and 72 hours later the Phoenix plan is dead [19:20] – Why he told Jimmy on day one that he planned to leave in two years and build his own thing [21:38] – 100 plus properties in year one, then an outside group offers him 25 percent of their company [22:22] – Jimmy responds with a question instead of a counteroffer and it reshapes the business [24:29] – The Branson trip that proved the culture was worth keeping together [28:00] – The simple CG feedback on lead response speed that became a massive early unlock [29:56] – Relationships, revenues, reviews as the Q3 theme in a business heading toward eight figures [30:52] – Why hiring middle managers and chasing initiatives pulled them off buying and selling [34:41] – 200 percent net profit growth in St. Louis and the path from 300 to 700 houses [36:17] – An executive coach analyzes the team and identifies the real X factor [38:59] – Why sellers stopped trusting text offers and started wanting a human conversation 5 Key Takeaways Be Honest About Your Exit — Bobby told Jimmy up front that he wanted to build his own company in about two years. That transparency is the reason the relationship turned into a partnership instead of a competitor problem. Ask What They Really Want — When Bobby brought an outside offer to the table, Jimmy asked what he actually wanted long term. Finding out someone's real end goal is how you keep good people instead of bidding against strangers. Small Nuggets Beat Big Ideas — The advice that moved the needle early was how fast they responded to a new lead. It sounds too basic to matter until you check your own numbers. Middle Managers Are Not Growth — Every time they added layers and ran internal initiatives, performance dropped. The business grew when the whole team stayed pointed at buying and selling houses. Genuine Care Is The Edge — No AI stack, no cutting edge tech. An outside executive coach analyzed the team and found the differentiator was people who actually care, and sellers can tell the difference immediately. Links & Resources • The Knock Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-knock-podcast/id1829544728 • The Knock Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheKnockPodcast • The Collective Genius: https://thecollectivegenius.com Enjoyed This Episode? If you're sitting in a W-2 job with a few flips under your belt and no idea how to make the leap, go back and listen to how Bobby handled that first conversation with Jimmy. Being upfront about wanting to eventually leave is what got him a partnership instead of a resignation letter, and that's worth sending to anyone you know who is stuck on the fence. Follow, rate, and review the Collective Genius podcast so more investors can find these conversations. EPISODE TITLE OPTIONS How to Tell Your Boss You Want to Leave and End Up a Partner Why Middle Managers Slowed Down a Company Doing 300 Houses a Year The Question That Turned an Employee Into a Business Partner From Army Captain to an Eight Figure Real Estate Business in Six Years Why Sellers Are Done With Text Offers and Want a Human Again What Actually Separates You From the Competition in a Trust Recession How Three Partners Scaled Across Three Midwest Markets Without Losing Culture The Quiet Advantage That Beats Every AI Tool in Real Estate Right Now Why the Best Operators Answer the Phone Faster Than You Do How We Went From 300 Houses to 700 Without a Hiring Spree A few things to verify before this goes out: Names. The transcript renders the guest as "Bobby Ko," "Bobby code," and "Bobby cough." Correct spelling is Kough. His brother is spelled Gerrad, not Jared. Worth a find and replace anywhere else this transcript gets used. The company. Bobby's operation comes through the transcript garbled as "I buy Saint Louis" and "I buy houses." It's I Buy STL. No website was given on air, so I left it out of the links. Send me the URL if you want it added. Bobby's Instagram. He gives it verbally at 43:29 but the transcript doesn't capture a usable handle. I left it out rather than guess. The CG website. Same issue as the Steve Trang episode, the URL comes through as "explore." I used the main site address.

Marc Ensign runs a fractional CMO agency that steps into real estate investing companies as marketing leadership, managing budgets, strategy, internal teams, and outside vendors after 25 years of running his own agency. At the May 2026 CG Select and Elevate event in Clearwater Beach, he sat down ahead of his "First 48" masterclass with Benmont Locker to talk lead response, follow up, and vendor accountability. This conversation breaks down why most seller leads die in the first 48 hours, why the same copy-paste text message fails leads from TV, PPC, and direct mail, and how to hold marketing vendors accountable when results slip. If you're a real estate investor spending real money on marketing and not seeing consistent deal flow, this episode is for you.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Host opens live from the May 2026 CG Select and Elevate event in Clearwater Beach, Florida [1:13] – Consistent deal flow named the number one challenge facing real estate investors right now [1:30] – Marc explains the fractional CMO model: managing budget, strategy, team, and vendors, not running the ads [2:20] – Shiny penny syndrome, and why investors throw money at the wall instead of mastering the basics [3:46] – The four marketing channels the most successful direct-to-seller investors rely on consistently [4:31] – Can AI run your Google Ads without management fees? Marc on where automation falls short [5:03] – The human element: why empathy wins with distressed sellers aging out of homes or in financial trouble [5:47] – Inside the First 48 masterclass with Benmont Locker and why speed to lead beats 6-month nurture plans [7:40] – The copy-paste text message problem: TV, PPC, and direct mail leads each need a different first touch [9:22] – 75 to 85 percent of closed deals don't close on the first appointment, making follow up non-negotiable [10:51] – What members will do differently with their sales teams after the presentation [12:28] – Personal touch beats automation when sellers make this transaction only 1 to 3 times in a lifetime [12:54] – How to confront a marketing vendor after five years when results start slipping [13:59] – Run the meeting yourself: replacing vanity metrics with the business owner's actual lead goals [14:38] – Marc's 60 to 90 day probationary framework for coaching up or replacing vendors [15:35] – Why every vendor joins the same weekly call, so the PPC guy answers to the whole room   5 Key Takeaways Win the First 48 Hours — Investors obsess over 6-month nurture sequences while losing the first five minutes. If you haven't connected within 48 hours, that opportunity is likely gone. Segment Leads by Source — A seller who saw your TV ad already knows your brand, while a PPC lead has never heard of you. Sending both the same "we'd love to buy your house" text ignores where they came from and what they need. Personal Touch Beats Automation — AI can run campaigns, but it can't replace empathy for a seller dealing with distress. The investors leaning into the human element right now are doing business at a higher level. Run Vendor Meetings on Your Goals — Stop letting your SEO team celebrate rankings for keywords nobody searches. Set the specific lead targets that matter to your business and make every vendor report against them. Weekly Accountability Drives Results — Vendors will always work harder for the client checking in every week than the one meeting quarterly. Marc puts all vendors on one shared call so data flows and nobody hides in a silo.   Links & Resources LoudMouth (Marc Ensign's fractional CMO agency) — https://loudmouthed.com The Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If Marc's breakdown of the first 48 hours made you rethink that copy-paste text your sales team sends every new lead, put it in front of them this week. Share this episode with an investor who's still letting vendors run the meeting with vanity metrics. Then follow the Collective Genius Podcast, and leave a quick rating and review so more investors can find the show.

Mike Oberholtzer is the VP of Franchise Development for HomeVestors, the "We Buy Ugly Houses" franchise, where he oversees a network of roughly 900 individually owned and operated real estate investors across about 180 markets. With eight years leading franchise growth, he helps everyone from corporate refugees to plateaued investors build a scalable "business in a box." In this episode, Mike and host Lee break down what actually separates growing real estate investors from stalled ones in the 2026 market, from net lead generation and talent recruiting to diversifying beyond direct-to-seller deals. If you're a real estate investor trying to scale past a revenue ceiling, combat wholesaler noise, or figure out where a franchise model fits your journey, this conversation maps the path.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Lee opens the show and welcomes HomeVestors VP of Franchise Development Mike Oberholtzer as a friend of the CG community [3:24] – Mike explains his role growing a network of 900 investors and who HomeVestors actually attracts [4:43] – Why "We Buy Ugly Houses" operates like Subway or 7-Eleven as a franchise across 180 markets [6:14] – The states still wide open for deals: North Dakota, Montana, and Alaska [7:22] – How the HomeVestors and Collective Genius relationship started and where the synergies live [9:52] – Mike pitches the idea of HomeVestors as a "path back" to Collective Genius membership [13:26] – The gap in the market for W-2 earners who want structure and a playbook right out of the gates [16:36] – Cutting through the noise of $20K Facebook groups and endless real estate tech [17:10] – Why confidence, not tactics, is the number one thing HomeVestors gives new investors [20:11] – 2026 market read: divorce, death, and relocation deals don't disappear with market conditions [22:17] – Investors pivoting to co-living and PadSplit to turn a $2,500 rental into $7,500 [26:27] – Combating basement wholesalers and why the offer you make should be the offer you close [29:20] – The single biggest differentiator in 2026 is a trusted brand that offsets the individual [34:35] – Net leads over gross leads and why the lead-to-appointment ratio decides who scales [38:17] – Stop relying on one lead vehicle: build relationships with title companies, agents, and appraisers [43:31] – Embrace technology and operate professionally as state-level regulations tighten   5 Key Takeaways Confidence Is The Real Product — What HomeVestors sells new investors isn't just a system, it's the confidence to sit at a seller's table backed by capital, a mentor who has done hundreds of deals, and technology watching the numbers. A Trusted Brand Beats Hustle — In the 2026 market the biggest gap between top and bottom investors is a brand built over years. A local reputation lets you promise the offer you make is the offer you close, which separates you from bad-actor wholesalers. Net Leads Are The Bottleneck — Scaling isn't about gross leads, it's about the lead-to-appointment ratio. Moving from 20-to-1 toward 10-to-1 is what unlocks the revenue needed to attract and keep top talent. Diversify Beyond Direct To Seller — Investors jumping from five to ten million stop leaning only on direct-to-seller marketing. They manufacture deals through relationships with agents, title companies, contractors, and probate attorneys. Pivot Or Get Passed By — The investors who last don't get locked into one buy box or one lead source. Co-living, PadSplit, seller financing, and new MLS tools all reward operators willing to evolve instead of staying stuck.   Links & Resources HomeVestors Franchise — https://franchise.homevestors.com Collective Genius Application — https://explorecg.com International Franchise Association — https://franchise.org   Enjoyed This Episode? If Mike's point about net leads and the lead-to-appointment ratio hit home, you already know where your business is really getting stuck. Share this one with an investor who's plateaued and still relying on a single lead source, because the fix might be diversification, not more spend. Follow the Collective Genius Podcast, and leave a rating and review so more operators can find these conversations.

Dr. Tyson Cobb is a former orthopedic surgeon who left his practice group in 2019, moved into triple net commercial real estate, and became one of the most respected capital raisers in the Legacy Family Mastermind, now part of the Collective Genius commercial room. Before medical school he rode bulls professionally in Texas, and as a resident he published more papers than anyone who ever came through the Mayo Clinic program. Recorded live at the CG Q2 event in Oceanside, Tyson walks through the exact moment his career pivoted from acquisitions to capital raising, why decades of academic publishing and teaching turned out to be the real superpower, and the terms of a deal he tracked for eight months that converts old hospitals into inpatient facilities for foster children rescued from trafficking. If you are trying to raise capital and wondering where your first investors actually come from, start here.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Leon Barnes opens from the CG Q2 event in Oceanside and introduces the new CG Legacy commercial room [1:31] – Dr. Tyson Cobb on leaving his orthopedic surgery group in 2019 and moving into commercial real estate [2:16] – Why triple net was the easy on ramp and how tax mitigation pulled him toward real estate in the first place [2:44] – The CPA who told him not to complain about writing big checks, and why he eventually fired the guy [3:08] – Life as a frustrated entrepreneur under the glass ceiling of surgery, where the day has a hard ceiling on it [4:30] – What he needed most walking into the mastermind, and why he no longer has to solve every problem himself [5:46] – The professional bull riding career that came before medical school and why big deals scratch the same itch [7:22] – How a 118 unit building a mile from his house led to the question that changed his career [8:52] – Gabe asks if he can raise capital, so he calls his closest friends, all orthopedic surgeons, and it is done in a week [9:29] – The line from a mastermind stage that made him push all his acquisitions work off the desk [10:28] – Why publishing at Mayo, holding patents, and teaching surgeons for decades built the capital raising superpower [11:13] – Knowing people matters less than people knowing you, and why raising from surgeons was never a hard sell [13:07] – The deal he followed for eight months, converting old hospitals and schools into inpatient care for foster kids [14:00] – The terms, 18% paid like debt, backed by real estate they already own, liquid after a six month lockup [15:12] – The Steve Nash KPI and why intentional connection is the metric CG actually tracks [16:26] – The one connection Tyson needs before he leaves the event, capital that is ready to deploy   5 Key Takeaways You Only Have to Be Good at One Thing — Tyson was grinding out acquisition offers into a market where nothing would pencil. A speaker told him that multifamily has a hundred moving parts but you only need to be excellent at one of them, and he went home, cleared the acquisitions work off his desk, and went all in on the capital raise. Your First Investors Already Know You — When asked whether he could raise capital, Tyson had never considered it. He called his closest friends, who happened to be orthopedic surgeons with money looking for a home, and the round was closed by the end of the week. Reputation Compounds Before You Need It — Decades of publishing, patents, teaching surgical procedures around the country, and leading an international organization kept Tyson in front of the same people year after year. None of it was built for real estate, and all of it became the foundation of his raise. You Do Not Need the Answer, You Need the Number — The value of the room is not that Tyson can solve every problem himself. It is that for any problem he hits, he knows exactly who to call, and if that person does not know, they know who does. Track Intentional Connections Like a KPI — Steve Nash reportedly tracked how often he encouraged his teammates because he wanted to lead the league in it. Leon applies the same idea to the mastermind, scanning the room and physically walking people to the person who can help them, and it is why the culture works.   Links & Resources • Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com    Enjoyed This Episode? If you have been sitting on a capital raise and telling yourself you do not have a list, listen to Tyson again at the nine minute mark. His list was a handful of friends from his old profession, and he closed it in a week. Send this one to the operator you know who is stuck on acquisitions and does not realize where their real superpower is, then follow the Collective Genius Podcast, leave a rating and review, and hit the bell so you catch the next one.

Joseph Back is co-founder of Rapid Fire Investments, a wholesaling operation running five brick and mortar offices across Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama and Georgia. When he and CEO Eric Masiello joined Collective Genius in December 2020 they were doing 65 deals a year out of one Montgomery office, and they have grown every year since, from 205 to 310 to 391 to 459, with a push to break 500 closings in 2025 and a projected first million dollar revenue month. Joseph shares the five small changes his acquisitions team made that lifted average profit per deal from $14,092 to nearly $17,000 in a single year, covering in person appointment recording, templated decisive action plans, weekly RPA accountability meetings, lost deal analysis, and raising your least acceptable profit. If you are running a real estate wholesaling business with one to five acquisitions reps and you want more revenue without adding more transactions, this is the acquisitions playbook to copy.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Host Leon Barnes welcomes longtime CG member Joseph Back for the long form version of his acquisitions playbook [3:25] – Rapid Fire's growth from one wholesale office in Montgomery to five offices across four states [5:30] – Chasing two milestones at once, 500 closings for the year and the first million dollar revenue month [7:14] – The year by year deal count, 65 in 2020, then 205, 310, 391, 459, and a push past 500 [8:34] – Why expanding wider only makes sense in small markets and why metro investors should go deeper [10:44] – Kaizen as a core value and why Joseph calls his mastermind time the rip off and duplicate department [12:04] – How a CJ Moss dispo presentation pushed profit per deal from $14,092 toward the $17,000 goal [20:07] – Small thing one, Siro, the in person recording software that turns every appointment into game film [21:57] – The scoring rubric built on Steve Franks' perfect seller appointment, and why you have to actually listen [27:05] – Small thing two, templated decisive action plans that trigger automatically when a department goes red [29:53] – The exact five actions the home buying team runs during a red week, from triple dials to a door knocking blitz [34:20] – Small thing three, the 15 minute weekly RPA meeting covering results, pipeline and activity [38:38] – Full team structure, seven lead managers, ten home buying specialists, five dispo reps, five transaction coordinators [40:22] – Small thing four, custom software that cross references appointments against sales data to find every lost deal [43:02] – Two coaching lessons from lost deals, never leave the living room and never quit on a seller too early [45:39] – Small thing five, raising your least acceptable profit from $10,000 to $17,000 in the MAO calculator   5 Key Takeaways Record Every In Person Appointment — You invest heavily in sales training, but without recording you have no idea whether any of it survives the drive to the seller's living room. Siro turns appointments into reviewable game film, and Rapid Fire's director of home buying carries a KPI to review and comment on multiple appointments every single week. Never Let Two Red Weeks Stack — When a department finishes below 80% of goal, a pre built decisive action plan kicks in Monday morning with no debate and no research phase. Triple dial cancellations, work the pipeline to zero, ten long term follow up dials a day, survey calls on lost appointments, and a five house door knocking blitz. Build the Plan With Your Team — Rapid Fire did not hand down the red week actions from leadership. They sat with each department and built the plan together, so when it triggers, the team is executing a commitment they made rather than a punishment they received. Study the Deals You Lost — Most unconverted appointments drift into a long term follow up graveyard while the seller quietly sells to someone else. Rapid Fire cross references sales records against every appointment they ran, then walks each loss through a monthly one on one, which surfaced the biggest lesson of all, that they were giving up on sellers who later sold for a number Rapid Fire would have paid. Raise Your Least Acceptable Profit — Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets, and if you bake $10,000 into your max allowable offer calculator, $10,000 is what you will make. Rapid Fire changed one number in the formula to $17,000, watched their appointment to contract conversion rate hold steady, and added more than $1 million in revenue on the same deal count.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com Rapid Fire Investments — https://rapidfireinvestments.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If you have ever watched a rep walk into a living room with a script you paid good money for and had no idea what actually came out of their mouth, this one is for you. Send it to the operator you know who is grinding out more deals every year and somehow making the same profit, because the fix might be one number in their MAO calculator. Follow the Collective Genius Podcast, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Collective Genius Q2 event marking the debut of CG Legacy, the new commercial mastermind room, host Leon Barnes sits down with Dan Costantino, a Pittsburgh-based multifamily operator and hard money lender who scaled to a roughly 660-unit portfolio and runs his own debt fund. Dan came up through trucking and logistics sales before flipping his first house for a 27,000 dollar profit in 91 days, then built a commercial operation through what he calls brute force and relentless focus on operations. This conversation goes deep on jumping asset classes from single family to large multifamily, why operations can make or break a great deal, and how Dan navigated the brutal 2022 to 2023 multifamily stretch by pausing and later restoring preferred returns and taking big properties full cycle. If you're a commercial operator or a single family investor eyeing the leap into apartments, storage, or lending, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Leon opens at the CG Q2 event and introduces Dan Costantino from the new CG Legacy commercial room [1:04] – Why CG built a dedicated commercial room and how the Legacy group was integrated into the family [1:57] – The anxiousness of change and the white glove approach to welcoming Legacy members [2:22] – Dan's business today: a large Pittsburgh multifamily portfolio plus nearly a decade of hard money lending [2:59] – From W2 trucking and logistics sales to almost walking away from a first flip over cold feet [3:46] – Making 27,000 dollars in 91 days on that first deal and getting hooked on real estate [4:27] – What made jumping from single family to multifamily easy: diversification and loan sizing [5:12] – Why Pittsburgh's stability made the rental numbers work and why operations is everything [5:34] – Six years in Legacy since day one, and discovering the life-changing power of community [6:42] – The "no finish line" tagline and pushing past your own perceived ceiling [7:03] – Learning to underwrite large multifamily: cap rates, valuation, and where profit really comes from [8:06] – The current challenge: converting promissory-note debt into a proper fund with new hires [9:16] – Taking big deals full cycle in a tough exit market, including a 152-unit sale [9:43] – Pausing preferred returns as one of the hardest things in his career, and paying it all back [10:25] – The power of these rooms: compressing the learning curve and the emotional side of hard decisions [11:37] – Surviving 2022 to 2023 and why battle-tested operators never worry about raising capital again [12:00] – A 305-unit portfolio case study: selling half to reset financially and get current on returns [12:27] – "The market is the star, not you" and the 2020 to 2021 warning to build reserves [13:37] – What Dan is most excited about for the rest of 2026: scaling the debt fund [14:00] – Converting to a 506(c) structure to advertise publicly and raise capital at scale [14:23] – Creating clean, affordable, safe housing and funding other operators to rehab neglected homes [16:14] – Closing on Pittsburgh pride, the value of fresh talent, and how to apply to CG Legacy   5 Key Takeaways Operations Makes or Breaks the Deal — You can buy a great multifamily deal and still ruin it with poor operations. Sizing the loan correctly and executing on leasing and stabilization is what actually builds a portfolio. Diversification De-Risks the Jump — Moving from single family to multifamily meant one vacant unit no longer zeroed out his income. For a buy and hold investor, spreading risk across many units is what made the leap feel manageable. The Room Compresses the Learning Curve — Dan credits the mastermind with teaching him how underwriters actually value deals and how to handle the emotional weight of hard calls like pausing preferred returns. Being around high performers shows you they aren't magical, just further along. The Market Is the Star, Not You — In good years even average operators look brilliant, so the real test is who survives the downturn. Build reserves while times are good, because market cycles always turn and you'll have to give some of it back. Survive the Hard Years and Capital Follows — Operators who made investors whole through 2022 and 2023 proved they're battle tested. Once you've navigated the tough times and returned capital, raising money stops being a worry.   Links & Resources Collective Genius Community — https://explorecg.com   Closing Dan's story is a case study in what these rooms are built for: he walked in worried about change and walked out having converted 7 million dollars in promissory notes into a proper fund, taken a 305-unit portfolio full cycle, and reset his entire capital structure with guidance from members who'd done it before. His point about the market being the star and not the operator is the kind of message that keeps people building reserves before they need them. If you're a commercial operator in multifamily, storage, industrial, or retail, the new CG Legacy room was built for exactly this, so head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Jose Luis Morales is a first-generation entrepreneur and Collective Genius member of five years who scaled from doing 100 real estate deals a year as an agent to running a diversified investment operation spanning wholesaling, flipping, ADUs, and a 25-unit apartment building in Ventura County, California. Raised in his family's Oxnard cowboy store, he built a 350,000-follower TikTok presence and a real estate business that treats every motivated seller lead as a monetizable asset. This episode breaks down how Jose qualifies leads across nine specific data points to route sellers into cash offers, listings, wholesales, or creative finance without confusing them, plus how he raised private money in second position and turned carports into approved ADU units. If you're an investor-agent trying to grow both sides of your business at once instead of picking one, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [1:07] – Host opens on the 2026 shift from bigger to better, and why leveling up your team beats chasing scale [1:54] – Guest introduced as an agent who became an investor over five years in Collective Genius [3:04] – Jose gives his background: 38, two boys, Ventura County roots, 100 deals a year as an agent [4:44] – His mother arrived through the Bracero Program and his parents built a paid-off 25-unit portfolio [5:18] – Growing up in the family cowboy store in Oxnard and the business lessons learned by age 23 [8:18] – The check-cashing strategy that grew revenue during the 2008 recession while others shrank [9:45] – The raise his dad denied and the lesson that tenure doesn't equal value [11:17] – Six months with zero sales, then a mentor took 50% of commissions and changed everything [12:40] – Why he outgrew his first mentor at 30 deals and found one doing 150 to 200 a year [15:15] – How King Kong taught him a social media formula that 10x'd his following in six months [17:35] – Why the investor and agent businesses feed each other by chasing the same motivated seller [20:25] – The nine qualification points that route a lead to cash, listing, wholesale, or short sale [23:59] – How the cash-buyer model outperforms "list with me" for lead generation [25:33] – Raising private money in second position after asking 30 people before the first yes [27:08] – What's working in 2026, why he killed 11 Airbnbs, and doubling down on strengths [30:00] – Turning carports into six approved ADUs, adding $20,000 a month to the apartment   5 Key Takeaways Value Beats Tenure Every Time — Jose asked his dad for a raise after ten years and got a no, then a yes once he started adding real value. Time served means nothing if you're not moving the needle. Qualify Before You Pitch — Great deal flow comes from asking questions across nine data points like motivation, timing, loan balance, and condition, not from being attached to one outcome. Let the answers tell you whether it's a cash offer, listing, or short sale. One Avatar, Multiple Exits — Investors and agents chase the same motivated seller, so building multiple exit options means you monetize far more leads instead of throwing 90% away. Serve what the seller actually wants and the deal follows. Find Someone Already Doing It — Every jump in Jose's career came from a mentor already operating at the next level, from his first coach to the member who taught him private lending. The fastest path is copying someone who's already there. Scale People, Not Yourself — A great operator, marketer, and sales leader let Jose build across brokerage, investing, and construction without everything falling on him. You can't scale a business without building the team first.   Links & Resources Follow Jose Luis Morales on Instagram — instagram.com/joseluismorales (Luis with a Z)  Jose Luis Morales on TikTok — 350,000 followers  Jose Luis Morales on YouTube — 10,000 subscribers  Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If Jose's nine-point qualification framework got you rethinking how you route seller leads, go back and listen to that stretch again because it's the difference between monetizing every lead and tossing most of them. Share this one with an investor or agent who's trying to grow both sides of their business and doesn't know it's possible. To go deeper with operators like Jose who've completely changed their trajectory, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Collective Genius Q2 event in Oceanside, California, the host sits down with Kelli Garrett, one of the standout new members entering the community through CG Legacy, the commercial mastermind founded by Tim Bratz that recently came under the CG umbrella. Kelli is a Charleston-based lender and investor with nearly 27 years in the business, and she's about as respected as they come. Multiple members had already gone out of their way during the event to name her as one of their favorite people, and it's easy to hear why within the first few minutes. Kelli's story is a full circle one. She started in lending as a mortgage broker, used that knowledge to build a portfolio of around 400 units, sold nearly all of it in 2018, and split the proceeds into two buckets: one for private lending and one for passive LP investing. Today she's CEO and co-founder of Rehab Wallet, running a debt fund of roughly $130 to $135 million and having raised over $250 million across her career. This conversation moves from her days as the all-time leading scorer at the College of Charleston to hard-won lessons on raising capital, protecting investors, and why she may play a little defense for the first time in her life. If you're an investor trying to raise capital or build the kind of reputation that makes people trust you with their money, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – The host sets the scene at the CG Q2 event and introduces CG Legacy joining the Collective Genius umbrella [1:29] – Why so many members named Kelli one of their favorite people the moment she walked in [2:09] – Kelli explains her business and how she came to join Tim Bratz's Legacy mastermind [2:34] – Her "I'll date you before I invest" philosophy on vetting operators before becoming an LP or GP [3:06] – Nearly 27 years in business, starting in lending and building a 400-unit portfolio [4:12] – Selling almost everything in 2018 and splitting the proceeds into lending and passive investing [4:32] – Inside Rehab Wallet: short-term fix and flip, ground-up construction, and how the debt fund works [5:42] – The keynote she delivered on consistency, time, and staying the course [6:03] – The lesson from her father: pick one thing and get good at it [8:14] – The three avatars who thrive in real estate: former athletes, military, and engineers [9:00] – How being the all-time leading scorer at College of Charleston shaped her view of teamwork [9:37] – Why she paid for all her teammates to attend her Hall of Fame induction [11:34] – Her advice for investors who want to raise capital but don't know where to start [12:19] – The yellow-notebook method: writing to everyone you know and asking for help [14:39] – Walking the walk once you raise capital, and why everything you do is now measured [16:31] – What she's most excited about in 2026 and why culture drives results [17:11] – Weighing whether to grow the fund or play defense in an uncertain market [18:07] – Who Rehab Wallet lends to, why they stay in the Southeast, and how to reach her   5 Key Takeaways Date the operator before you invest — Kelli spent real time getting to know Tim Bratz and watching how he treated people before committing capital, and she coaches investors to do the same rather than rushing into a deal. Raising capital starts with people you already know — Her first move was writing to 300 or 400 names in a yellow notebook, telling them what she was doing and directly asking for help, because a few early wins generate referrals that make every future raise easier. Your job is to protect investor capital — Kelli tells her team they work for their investors, and she treats protecting their capital as the single focal point of the business, especially in an uncertain market where she's willing to play defense for the first time. Once you raise money, everything you do is measured — Using Caitlin Clark as the analogy, Kelli notes that raising over $250 million means people watch how you carry yourself everywhere, so professionalism and walking the walk are non-negotiable. Sports build the exact skills real estate rewards — As the all-time leading scorer at College of Charleston, Kelli credits sports for teaching her time management, dependence on teammates, and the humility to recognize the people picking and rebounding behind the scenes.   Links & Resources Rehab Wallet: https://rehabwallet.com Kelli Garrett email: [email protected] Rehab Wallet general inquiries: [email protected] Tim Bratz / CG Legacy commercial mastermind (referenced in episode) Collective Genius Community: https://explorecg.com   Kelli's line that hard work will eat pressure alive is the kind of thing that sticks with you, and it runs through everything she shared, from her keynote on consistency to the way she still credits the teammates who created space for her decades ago. Whether you're just starting to raise capital or you're scaling a fund and figuring out when to grow and when to protect, her approach is a masterclass in doing the simple things consistently and treating investor trust as the whole job. If you want to be in the room with investors like Kelli, whether you're a single-family investor, wholesaler, flipper, or commercial operator in multifamily, self-storage, or RV parks, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Brad Bone is a longtime Collective Genius member who, alongside his twin brother Justin, has been investing in real estate since 2015 and built a wholesaling operation in Jacksonville, Florida while running it remotely from California. He's also the founder of River X, an AI platform that helps real estate investors automate follow up and appointment setting through their CRM. This episode covers how Brad scaled a flipping and wholesaling business three time zones away, why he eventually paired his team down to run leaner, and how he turned an in-house AI follow up solution into a second company. If you're a real estate investor who wants to tighten your ROAS, fix your follow up, and understand when a side opportunity is worth building into a real business, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [1:30] – Host Leon Barnes introduces longtime CG member Brad Bone and his two businesses in real estate and AI [3:00] – Brad shares how he and his twin brother started investing in 2015 after buying at the courthouse steps [4:30] – Growing up on a Kansas pistachio and cotton farm and where his work ethic came from [8:34] – Watching the 2006 real estate run up plant the seed while selling advertising to mortgage brokers [11:38] – Why direct mail replaced the courthouse steps and what it took to be a player in 2015 [15:18] – How attending IMN conferences pushed the brothers to leave Bakersfield for the Southeast [16:01] – Picking Jacksonville almost at random and sending a cousin to run acquisitions on the ground [18:42] – The real secret to operating remotely: building culture and core values over Zoom [19:36] – Why pairing the team down to 10 to 12 people beat chasing growth for growth's sake [22:04] – The 2026 theme of more marketing and headcount lifting gross revenue but not net [23:42] – Lessons from 2021 rate hikes and why he stopped buying off inspection reports alone [24:14] – Knowing your exact return on every marketing dollar and every employee [26:46] – Where the AI idea started and hearing about ChatGPT from his barber [31:42] – Launching the Rainmaker platform with real AI texting, emailing, and voice calls [34:51] – His philosophy of letting AI set appointments and humans build rapport and trust [36:58] – Treating AI follow up as a ROAS enhancer that takes you from 3X toward 6X or 10X [39:32] – Narrowing the buying business to pure wholesaling for a simpler, cleaner operation [42:35] – What his farmer parents think of two sons running real estate and tech companies 5 Key Takeaways Pair Down to Scale Net — Bigger teams and more marketing can lift gross revenue without moving the net. Brad found his sweet spot at 10 to 12 people and treats leaning up as its own form of success. Culture Has to Be Built On Purpose Remotely — When your team is three time zones away, culture and core values don't happen by accident. You have to make a deliberate effort to create them over Zoom. Know Your Return On Everything — Track your return on every marketing dollar and every employee. In a tighter market, you can't blindly throw money at channels and hope they work. Let AI Do Follow Up, Let Humans Close — AI is best at reengaging dead leads and setting appointments. Keep humans focused on rapport, trust, and solving problems, and you've got a winning split. When You Solve Your Own Problem, You Build a Business — River X started as an internal fix for follow up. The opportunities worth chasing fit naturally into what you already do; the rest are just shiny objects.   Links & Resources River X — riverhub.ai  Prime Buyers (Jacksonville home buying business) — primebuyers.com  River X on Instagram — search River X AI  Brad Bone on Facebook — connect directly  Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If you've ever felt your follow up slipping or watched good leads go cold in your CRM, Brad's take on treating AI as a ROAS enhancer is worth a second listen. Share this one with an investor friend who's still trying to figure out whether their next big idea is an opportunity or a distraction. To hear more conversations with members who've grown through real trial and error, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Q2 event in Oceanside, California, Tim Bratz joins host Leon Barnes to announce the merger of his Legacy Family commercial real estate mastermind with Collective Genius, creating a new division called CG Legacy. Tim built Legacy Family into one of the most respected commercial and multifamily masterminds in the country while simultaneously scaling his own portfolio to 5,000 doors and building a property management software company now operating at an enterprise level. The conversation covers the business logic behind the merger, what CG Legacy will look like on a quarterly basis, and how Tim thinks about the tension between transactional income and long-term wealth in commercial real estate. He also breaks down how he and his team navigated rising insurance costs, property tax reassessments, and market headwinds by controlling what they could, including cutting $1.5 million from their annual insurance bill through a master policy. If you're a commercial operator sitting at 20 doors or a $10 million portfolio and wondering what it would take to scale to 100 units and beyond, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [0:23] – Leon announces Tim Bratz and the big news dropped at the Oceanside Q2 event [0:59] – Tim's background: nearly 20 years in real estate, peak portfolio of 5,000 doors, current holdings around 3,000 [1:36] – How demand from his audience led Tim to launch Legacy Family as a commercial real estate mastermind [2:26] – Why Tim started feeling pulled in too many directions between software, Legacy, and his portfolio [3:27] – The 90-day process that led to merging Legacy Family with Collective Genius to create CG Legacy [5:37] – What the merger frees up for Tim, and why he's still fully present as facilitator at all four annual events [6:31] – The case for doing both: transactional income now and long-term portfolio building simultaneously [7:06] – Why living off multifamily cash flow is harder than people think, and when it actually starts to pay off [9:22] – What a CG Legacy quarterly event looks like: blitz market updates, keynote speakers, and roundtable hot seats [11:23] – How Tim used mastermind rooms to grow from zero to 5,000 doors and build a nine-figure business [13:53] – How to pivot your existing single-family team members into multifamily roles without starting from scratch [15:33] – Why the $1M to $3M revenue range is the "hell zone" for hiring, and how commercial scale solves it [17:31] – How a master insurance policy cut $1.5M from Tim's annual insurance expense and added $20M in enterprise value [19:09] – What separates operators who survived the post-2021 market from those who handed properties back to the bank [20:26] – Who belongs in CG Legacy: accredited investors, 20-plus doors minimum, aiming for 100 units in 12 to 24 months   5 Key Takeaways Do Both or Fall Short — Running a transactional business while building a long-term rental portfolio is not optional if you want real wealth. Cash flow alone won't sustain you in the short run, but a decade of compounding rents and principal paydown will. Your Single Family Team Is Already Your Multifamily Team — You don't need to hire from scratch to get into commercial. Tim pivoted his acquisitions rep, project manager, and dispositions person into multifamily roles without replacing anyone, showing the transition is more of a redirect than a rebuild. Control the Controllables When Markets Get Hard — Tim's team reduced insurance costs by 30% through a master policy, saved $1.5 million annually, and added roughly $20 million in portfolio enterprise value, none of which would have happened if markets hadn't forced the discipline. One Problem Per Quarter Drives Quantum Leaps — The CG Legacy hot seat format is built around solving one high-leverage problem every 90 days. Tim credits this approach, not volume of advice, for taking him from zero to 5,000 doors. 100 Doors Unlocks 98% of All Deals — Once you reach a $10 million rental portfolio, you qualify from a financing, experience, and net worth standpoint for 98% of all commercial real estate transactions in the country. That number is the threshold, and Legacy's curriculum is designed to get members there inside 12 to 24 months.   Links & Resources Collective Genius — explorecg.com Tim has built and sold what most people spend a career chasing, and watching him put that experience into CG Legacy is a genuine differentiator for commercial operators at any level. If the idea of a room full of multifamily, self-storage, industrial, and commercial investors solving real problems together every 90 days sounds like what's been missing from your growth, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Aaron Gaunt is a Navy veteran turned firefighter turned full-time real estate investor who runs a wholesale operation in Southern California's Inland Empire — one of the most competitive markets in the country. He went from a $22,000 assignment fee on his first deal in 2019 to building a laser-focused wholesaling business that pushes more direct-to-seller inventory than almost anyone in his local market, all while raising three kids and treating recruitment like a lead generation engine. In this episode, host Leon Barnes sits down with Aaron to trace the journey from his time aboard the USS Carl Vinson to quitting his firefighter job on the day a $55,000 deal hit his account, to the leadership and culture breakthroughs that unlocked his business growth. Aaron lays out his full hiring process, the interview questions that reveal character before you ever make an offer, and why getting smart, culture-fit people in the right seats has been the real driver of growth in a brutal market. If you're an investor hitting a ceiling and wondering whether the answer is more leads or better people, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [1:30] – Leon introduces Aaron Gaunt from Southern California's Inland Empire and what his business looks like today [3:25] – Aaron describes his wholesaling focus: a pure sales and marketing company that does nothing but transactions in a high-price-point market [4:43] – Leon on why the most successful operators post-2022 are the ones who stayed laser focused on a single asset class or exit strategy [5:26] – Aaron's Navy background: eight years, tours in Asia and Europe, stationed in Sicily, and being on the USS Carl Vinson when Osama bin Laden was buried at sea [8:39] – From crash crewman to firefighter: why Aaron left the military to start a family and how he ended up in San Diego chasing a dream job [9:02] – The real reason Aaron got into real estate: needing attorney fees to fight for custody of his daughter, picking up Rich Dad Poor Dad again, and Googling "how to get into real estate with no money" [10:48] – Going $5,000 into credit card debt to hire a coach, closing a $22,000 wholesale deal two months later, and putting half toward his attorney [12:50] – Cold calling out of his car trunk with the radio in his ear at the fire department — until the chief called him in and said it had to stop [13:36] – The $55,000 deal that closed while he sat in an ambulance refreshing his bank account, and walking into the chief's office to give his two weeks notice [17:45] – Why most investors hit their ceiling between $1M and $2M, and what Leon has watched happen at years 1–3, 3–5, and beyond [19:03] – The leadership shift that changed everything: deciding "I need A players, but I need to be an A leader" and spending years studying leadership [21:58] – Whether balance actually exists for a competitive investor and family man — and Aaron's answer on prioritizing fitness, time-blocking, and 4am wake-ups [27:01] – Aaron's full hiring process: funneling candidates like leads, VA pre-screens, in-office skills tests, role play rounds to test coachability, and one question that reveals character fast [30:22] – The interview question Aaron uses to spot toxic hires before they get in the door: "Name three people who inspire you — and they must know you" [34:11] – Why CG score minimums matter in acquisitions, and why Leon would take a smart team of five over an average team of ten every time [37:29] – What Aaron is most focused on in 2026: becoming the go-to source for local buyers by pushing more direct-to-seller inventory than anyone else in the Inland Empire 5 Key Takeaways Focus Beats Diversification in Hard Markets — The operators who have thrived post-2022 are the ones who stayed in their lane. Aaron runs a pure wholesale business in one of the most competitive markets in the country, and that single-mindedness is what's allowed him to go deep enough to dominate. Leadership Unlocks the Ceiling — Most investors stall between $1M and $2M because they're grinding without culture or team infrastructure. Aaron's breakthrough came when he stopped trying to get better people and started trying to become a better leader — the people followed. Hiring Is a Lead Generation System — Aaron treats recruiting the same way he treats deal flow: a constant funnel with a defined multi-stage process. Candidates go through VA pre-screens, video reviews, in-office shadow days, skills tests, and multiple role plays before an offer is ever made. You Can't Coach Character, So Screen for It Early — The interview question Aaron uses isn't about sales skills — it's "name three people who inspire you, and they must know you." What candidates say reveals who they are or who they want to become, which matters far more than their pitch ability coming in the door. Balance Isn't Real, But Center Is Achievable — Aaron doesn't pretend balance exists when you're building a business and raising kids. Instead, he time-blocks ruthlessly: 4am workouts, protected family time in the evenings, and deliberate seasons of sacrifice so the things that matter most don't fall through the cracks. Links & Resources Aaron Gaunt on Instagram — @algaunt88 Collective Genius Community — https://www.explorecg.com If Aaron's story hit home — going from firefighter to $55K deal to building a team that runs without him in the room — share this episode with someone in your network who's trying to figure out what the next level actually looks like. And if you want to be in the room with operators like Aaron, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

  In this CG Live episode recorded at the CG Select and Elevate event in Clearwater Beach, Florida, Zach Betters joins the host for a deep conversation on new construction investing. Zach and his wife Stephanie have built their Charlotte, North Carolina business through multiple iterations — from rentals to flipping to wholesaling — before making a deliberate shift into new build construction around 2018 and 2019. This episode covers how to get started in new construction using third-party GCs, how to approach lot due diligence, and how the shifting buyer pool is forcing experienced operators to rethink their price point strategy. If you're a real estate investor who keeps hearing buzz about new construction and wants a practical, no-fluff entry point, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Host sets the scene at the CG Select and Elevate event in Clearwater Beach, Florida [0:45] – The member feedback that made new construction the focus of this event's master class [1:32] – Zach Betters is introduced; he just wrapped a packed two-session master class on new construction [2:17] – Zach describes the three types of attendees: active builders, those just starting, and the curious [3:22] – Zach traces his business evolution from rentals to flipping to wholesaling to new build construction [4:29] – How and why Zach made the transition to new construction starting in 2018 and 2019 [4:51] – The case for using third-party GCs: what they protect you from matters more than what they cost [7:05] – Why "who not how" applies to new construction and how to vet a builder relationship before committing [7:37] – The due diligence framework: why most problems show up before a shovel hits the ground [10:15] – The most common early mistake: taking on too much variability in lot conditions and project scope [11:09] – The shifting buyer pool and why Zach is moving from affordable housing to the $600K–$1.2M range [14:39] – The long feedback loop in new construction and why Zach is using a "bullets before cannonballs" strategy [16:00] – The biggest self-limiting belief holding investors back from getting started in new construction [18:33] – What Zach is most excited about in 2026, including expanding the wholesale operation across the Carolinas   5 Key Takeaways Hold Tightly to Purpose, Loosely to Plan — Zach's business has gone through multiple evolutions because he stayed committed to the mission of bringing homes to market and improving lives while adjusting the strategy to match the market. Knowing when to evolve versus when to double down is a skill in itself. Third-Party GCs Are a Protection Play, Not Just a Cost — Most investors get stuck on the percentage a GC takes. Zach flips the question: what are they going to save you from? Their expertise protects your project from the costly mistakes you don't even know to look for yet. Minimize Variability Before You Build — Starting on lots with city sewer and city water gives you fixed, knowable costs. The moment you introduce wells, septic systems, or complex site prep, you're padding an unknowable number. In competitive markets, those pads will price you out. New Construction Has a Long Feedback Loop — Decisions made today won't produce results for months. Zach intentionally slowed his pipeline and started running smaller test projects so he can read the market before committing full gunpowder to a new price point or product type. You Don't Need All the Answers to Start — The biggest self-limiting belief in new construction is thinking you have to know everything about codes, utilities, and site prep before taking your first step. Every county is different. Use your network, lean on your GC partner, and commit to learning as you go.   Links & Resources Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   If Zach's breakdown of new construction got your wheels turning, send this episode to someone in your network who keeps saying they want to get into new builds but hasn't taken that first step yet. The clarity he brings to the due diligence process and the GC relationship alone is worth a listen twice. For everything you need to go and grow your real estate business, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this episode, host Leon welcomes back Bobby Triplett, Senior Vice President of Renovations at Offerpad, for a deep dive into what it actually takes to scale construction operations across multiple real estate markets. Bobby leads a renovation team spanning 25 markets nationwide, backed by 1,300 to 1,400 licensed, bonded, and vetted trades and suppliers, and has helped 64 different investors complete over 1,900 flips in a single year. The conversation covers everything from market-specific renovation quirks to the right way to vet and keep great contractors, and why having boots on the ground is the only thing that actually protects your budget and your timeline. If you're a fix-and-flip investor struggling to scale past a few deals a month, or you've ever thought about expanding into new markets without blowing up your overhead, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [1:30] – Leon introduces Bobby Triplett and his role leading renovations across Offerpad's national portfolio [3:35] – Bobby breaks down what Offerpad does as a publicly traded iBuyer and how his team renovates thousands of homes a year [5:09] – How Offerpad Renovate works as a service for outside investors, and the sports car analogy that explains the value proposition [7:20] – Bobby's ten-year tenure at Offerpad, the 25 markets they operate in, and why Detroit just opened as market number 25 [9:03] – The full list of active markets and who should be calling Bobby right now [11:33] – How renovation challenges vary market to market, from Texas foundation issues to Denver radon mitigation to Midwest permitting nightmares [14:03] – The Saint Louis story: what it took to learn 91 different municipalities and why that knowledge protects investors expanding into new markets [16:37] – What Bobby is seeing right now that matters most on the rehab side: insurability, electrical panels, and why spending money twice is the real budget killer [18:07] – Crawl spaces, vapor barriers, and why fixing the invisible stuff before listing protects your days on market [20:33] – How Bobby's team acts as a pressure relief valve for investors already doing deals who want to scale without adding headcount [26:10] – The exact conversation to have with a contractor to lock in volume-based commitment and reliable pricing [30:45] – Why inspecting what you expect is the only way to stay on budget, and the Safety Harbor tile story that cost a full gut rehab rework [34:58] – Red flags when onboarding a new contractor crew, and why the automatic yes is a warning sign, not a green light [39:12] – How to reach Bobby and where Offerpad Renovate has the most capacity right now 5 Key Takeaways Boots on the Ground Is Non-Negotiable — Whether you're flipping locally or expanding into new markets, W-2 people with real accountability are what separate successful renovations from expensive disasters. Remote management without local representation is how investors lose their shirt. Fix the Uninsurable Stuff First — Cosmetic upgrades mean nothing if the home can't clear an inspection. Electrical panels, vapor barriers, and permitting issues will come up at the worst time. Handle them while walls are open and avoid paying for the same work twice. Volume Commitment Unlocks Better Contractors — The investors who attract and keep great trades are the ones who communicate consistent deal flow upfront. Promise volume, pay fast, and spell out the win before the job starts. That's the conversation that earns contractor loyalty. Renovations Aren't One-Size-Fits-All — A flip and a rental require completely different decisions on what to replace, what to roll the dice on, and what to prioritize. Make sure your contractor knows the end goal of every project before a single wall gets opened. Start Small With New Crews — Giving a new contractor too much volume too fast is how you cripple their operation and your own timeline. Start with one or two projects, let them earn the equity, then scale. Misses are cheaper when the exposure is limited. Links & Resources Offerpad Renovate — offerpadrenovate.com Email Bobby's team — [email protected] Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com Bobby has been in 25 markets, managed nearly 5,000 renovations in a single year, and built a team that investors across the country now rely on as their secret weapon for scaling without adding overhead. If the idea of expanding your flip volume, entering a new market, or simply getting a pressure relief valve for your existing operation sounds interesting, the conversation with Bobby costs you nothing and might change how you think about construction entirely. Head to offerpadrenovate.com to connect with Bobby's team, and if you want to be in the same room with operators like him, head to explorecg.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Collective Genius Select and Elevate event at the JW Marriott in Clearwater Beach, Florida, Brandon McCurdy of Sharper Business Solutions sits down after leading back-to-back masterclasses on KPIs alongside Amanda Dean and David Richter. Brandon does fractional CMO work for large real estate teams spending $150,000 plus per month on marketing, and he has helped ten teams hire marketing directors in the last 12 months. This conversation breaks down the marketing KPIs that separate investors stuck at $500K to $2 million from the operators who scale past them, including the GNACC framework, customer acquisition cost, speed to lead, and why follow-up wins 75 to 85% of contracts. If you're a full time real estate investor doing 1 to 2 deals a month and you keep "trying" marketing channels instead of committing to them, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Live from the CG Select and Elevate event at the JW Marriott in Clearwater Beach, Florida [0:44] – Brandon McCurdy of Sharper Business Solutions joins after teaching KPI masterclasses for Select and Elevate members [1:31] – Inside the stacked masterclass with Amanda Dean and David Richter covering purpose, profit, and performance indicators [3:02] – Who Select and Elevate members are: investors doing 1 to 2 deals a month and businesses between $500K and $2 million [3:46] – The cold calling burnout trap and why investors quit direct mail before it has a chance to work [4:47] – The GNACC framework: tracking gross, net, appointment, contract, and close on every channel weekly [5:37] – Why cold calling creates vanity metrics at the top of the funnel and when it still makes sense [6:01] – Stop trying, commit: why marketing spend is always relative to the size of your business [7:09] – CJ Moss grew from 14 deals to $11 million in six years by committing to one consistent marketing channel [7:48] – Seth Godin's Purple Cow and why ripping off someone else's playbook leaves you as just another piece of mail [9:19] – The Revolutionary War analogy: beating six figure spenders with guerrilla marketing tactics [10:19] – 500 premium mailers at $10 beats 5,000 cheap postcards, plus the $1,000 sword in a box that closes every time [11:18] – Speed is the small operator's only advantage, and the golf cart giveaway producing 4 to 5x ROI [14:18] – It costs $1,200 to $1,600 to get into a seller's living room, and answering faster drops that number [15:23] – 75 to 85% of contracts come from follow-up, not the first appointment [16:36] – Same-day appointments are 4 to 5 times more likely to close, and 20 to 30% of calls come in after hours [19:08] – Why every Elevate level investor needs a real internal marketing department before chasing new lead channels [20:17] – The self-limiting belief around marketing and why winners zig when everyone else zags   5 Key Takeaways Track Every Channel With GNACC — Gross, net, appointment, contract, close. Review those five numbers weekly for each lead channel so the ones making you the most money get the most attention, instead of trusting vanity metrics. Stop Trying, Start Committing — Direct mail won't perform on day one, and everyone says it takes six months. Commit fully, watch the data religiously every week, and stop pulling the plug before the channel has a chance to work. Differentiation Beats a Bigger Budget — You can't outspend teams putting six or seven figures a month into your market. Win by being different: 500 premium mailers at $10 a piece will outperform 5,000 forgettable postcards. Speed to Lead Lowers Acquisition Cost — It costs roughly $1,200 to $1,600 to put yourself in a seller's living room, and same-day appointments are 4 to 5 times more likely to close. Pick up the phone faster than everyone else and that cost drops. Follow-Up Wins the Contract — 75 to 85% of signed contracts come after the first appointment. Treat every lead like gold and build a real follow-up funnel before you scale your spend.   Links & Resources Sharper Business Solutions — sharperbusiness.com The Purple Cow by Seth Godin Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   If you've ever said "I tried direct mail and it didn't work," this episode is your wake-up call. Brandon's challenge to stop trying and start committing, paired with the GNACC framework for tracking every channel, gives you a clear playbook for finally making your marketing dollars accountable. Share this one with an investor who keeps channel-hopping every 90 days. These are the conversations happening inside the room at Collective Genius events. If you're a full time real estate investor ready to scale with people who have already done it, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Dan Underwood is a Georgia-based real estate investor and CG member who has spent the last decade methodically transitioning from high-volume single family wholesaling to a commercial portfolio spanning apartments, self-storage, mobile home parks, and an RV park. What started with a $17,000 down payment on a rough first flip has compounded into a multi-million dollar commercial portfolio built entirely through 1031 exchanges and disciplined tranche rolling. In this episode, Dan shares the full arc of his investing journey and how he thinks about long-term wealth building vs. active income. From burning out in a wholesaling partnership to sourcing off-market commercial deals through relationship-driven outreach, this episode is required listening for any investor ready to stop starting over at zero every month and start building something that stacks.   Timeline Summary [1:30] – Host introduces Dan Underwood, a CG member based just south of Savannah, Georgia [2:11] – Dan reveals this is his very first podcast interview despite years of investing experience [3:51] – Dan explains his current business: flipping 2 to 3 houses a month to fund commercial acquisitions [7:37] – Dan's origin story: flipping washers and dryers out of his living room before ever touching real estate [10:15] – The 80-to-90 hour week working as an entrepreneurial apprentice for an Ohio business owner [13:01] – His brutal first house flip: three contractors, a stop work order, three months of putting a tenant up in a hotel, and still netting $50,000 on a 900-square-foot house [16:34] – The spreadsheet moment that flipped his mindset and convinced him to go all in on real estate [18:51] – How Dan quit his job: drove 8.5 hours to Troy, Ohio to hand his resignation letter to his old boss in person [21:19] – The day a $10,000 consulting session led Dan to end his wholesaling partnership instead of setting up ROBs [23:29] – What he was holding when he made that pivot: 35 apartments, a mobile home park, and a $400,000 commercial wholesale closing [27:33] – The tranche system explained: how Dan rolls smaller assets into larger ones using 1031 exchanges with no additional capital out of pocket [34:08] – Why compounding growth only works if you start, and how Dan learned self-storage from Scott Myers before buying his first facility [39:12] – How Dan sources commercial deals today: direct mail, relationship-driven cold calling, and driving 50,000 to 60,000 miles a year to meet sellers in person [43:04] – What Dan is most excited about for the rest of 2026: multiple tranches ready to roll into the $3 to $5 million range [47:29] – What CG has meant to him: the Roger Bannister effect of seeing peers do what you thought was out of reach   5 Key Takeaways Single Family Funds the Long Game — Using active income from flipping to fund commercial acquisitions is not a step backward. Nearly every successful commercial investor Dan knows kept single family in the mix specifically to create the cash flow that makes long-term deals possible. The Tranche System Builds Real Wealth — Rolling proceeds from smaller assets into larger ones through 1031 exchanges, without pulling capital out, is how Dan turned a single $17,000 flip into a commercial portfolio now worth over $3 million in equity. The compounding effect only works if you stop spending what you make. Commercial Deals Are Won in the Relationship, Not the Marketing — Sellers who have owned a commercial asset for 20 or 30 years are not responding to a mailer the same way a distressed homeowner might. Dan drives 50,000 to 60,000 miles a year building relationships because trust is what gets you first dibs and a seller willing to negotiate. Start the Next Thing Before You're Ready — Dan learned self-storage from a course before he ever bought a facility. He started working on the commercial side while still wholesaling full time. If you wait until the current business is perfect, the compounding clock on your next asset never starts. Diversifying Asset Classes Is a Feature, Not a Flaw — Pigeonholing into one asset class means going dry when deals in that space dry up. Dan holds apartments, storage, mobile home parks, and an RV park not because he couldn't focus but because the market doesn't always cooperate with a rigid strategy.   Links & Resources Contact Dan Underwood — [email protected] Scott Myers (Self-Storage Education) — scottmyers.com Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   If you've been grinding through single family wondering when the wealth-building part actually kicks in, Dan's story is the blueprint. Share this episode with an investor in your circle who's thinking about making the jump to commercial but doesn't know where to start. If you found value here, please take a moment to follow, rate, and review the Collective Genius Podcast wherever you listen. Ready to be in the room with operators like Dan? Head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Q1 2026 Collective Genius Premier and CEO event in Dallas, Texas, Phil Vaughan joins host Leon to share how he built a South Jersey wholesaling operation doing a couple hundred deals a year and now pushing toward $5–6 million in revenue. Phil has been a Collective Genius member for nearly five years and brings to the table one of the most remarkable origin stories in the entire CG community. What makes this conversation different is that Phil doesn't talk much about lead gen funnels or conversion metrics. He talks about where he actually came from: a teenage dad, 14 criminal convictions, kicked out of ninth grade, facing a two-year state prison sentence at 24 before a pastor's story changed everything. From that moment to supplying steel for New York City high-rises to closing wholesale deals at scale, Phil's story is about what happens when faith, drive, and the right room collide. If you're a real estate investor who believes your background disqualifies you from real success, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Host introduces Phil Vaughan, a South Jersey wholesaler doing a couple hundred deals a year and a CG member going on five years [1:24] – Why Phil runs 80% wholesale and why he believes most flippers are making less than their wholesale fee while chasing social media clout [2:28] – Phil's current pain point: a comping and underwriting bottleneck that's costing him higher spreads and better exit strategies on every deal [4:38] – How two new closers coming online at the same time created an unexpected operational crunch and what solving it is actually worth [5:50] – Phil's revenue trajectory: from $500–600K his first year to $5 million today with a $50 million long-term goal [7:22] – Why Phil set a less aggressive revenue goal this year and how his team of captains and mavericks talks him down from the ceiling when the numbers don't yet support the dream [9:15] – Leon reflects on how many CG members Phil has name-dropped and why Phil's personal story is one of the best in the group [10:05] – How the CG public speaking belt was the original reason Phil joined and what he thought he could possibly offer a room full of high-level operators [11:34] – The South Jersey neighborhood where Phil grew up: parents split, wrong crowd, and how he went from street hockey to breaking into cars at 13 [13:48] – Locked up, on probation from 14 to 18, kicked out of ninth grade, two kids by 17, and facing two years at Jamesburg for Boys [16:17] – The courtroom moment that changed everything: a judge who let Phil walk and told him exactly what his life would look like if he didn't stop [19:56] – A pastor named Brother Sam who visited Phil in jail for years and delivered the story that finally broke him down and turned him around [21:08] – Phil voluntarily checks into Faith Farm for nine months, comes out transformed, and within a year is supplying steel for New York City high-rises making $330,000 a year [24:34] – What Phil shared at his first CG public speaking contest, why he felt naked telling it, and the relationships that came from showing up that vulnerable   5 Key Takeaways Comping Speed Kills Margins — Moving too fast through disposition creates a hidden tax on every deal. Phil's team is leaving money on the table by defaulting to wholesale when a creative exit might deliver 2.5x the profit, simply because nobody has time to slow down and underwrite it right. Your Environment Is Your Destiny — Phil joined Collective Genius for the same reason he ended up in trouble as a kid: you become whoever you're around. Surrounding yourself with people operating at a higher level isn't a luxury — it's the mechanism of growth, in both directions. Vision Has to Outlast Obstacles — Phil has carried a $50 million real estate goal from the time he was grinding through his first $500,000 year. The goal felt insane at the time, but having it on the wall kept him moving through years when most people would have settled or stopped. The People Who Believe in You Before You Believe in Yourself Matter More Than Any Strategy — A judge who saw something in Phil, a pastor who kept showing up to his jail cell, a coach named Cody who eventually helped him leave his W-2 — these weren't tactics. They were the turning points. Vulnerability in the Room Builds What Logic Can't — Phil almost didn't tell his story at CG because he didn't think a room full of high-level operators would connect with it. The relationships that came out of that speech proved the opposite. The most powerful thing you can bring to a mastermind is often the truth about where you came from.   Links & Resources Connect with Phil Vaughan on social media — search "Phil by source" on all platforms Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   Phil's story is a reminder that what you're building right now has almost nothing to do with where you started. From a courtroom at 20 years old to a couple hundred wholesale deals a year, the common thread has been getting into better rooms and refusing to stop growing. If Phil's story hit home for you, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. And if you're a full-time real estate investor ready to get into a room like the one Phil's been in for five years, head to explorecg.com to learn more and apply.

Dek Bake brings an undrafted mentality to real estate wholesaling in Southern California. Since 2020, his team has completed over 2,500 wholesale deals across LA County, Orange County, Riverside County, and San Bernardino County, with years hitting 500+ transactions annually. This episode walks through how a former NFL defensive lineman built one of California's most competitive wholesaling operations in the state's toughest markets. Dek sits down to share his journey from junior college to Texas Tech to undrafted free agent, then to scaling a seven-figure acquisition company. If you're scaling a real estate operation in a competitive market, building and managing a lean team, or trying to think at the CEO level while staying grounded in operations, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:00] – Host Leon Barnes welcomes guest Dek Bake, a member from California, to discuss his real estate wholesaling operation [2:35] – Dek shares his location in Irvine and primary markets across Southern California including LA County, Orange County, Riverside, and San Bernardino [3:31] – Over 2,500 deals completed since going full-time in 2020, all wholesale acquisitions in California [4:23] – Plans for expansion remain flexible; the Southern California market is large enough to build a multi-billion-dollar company [5:16] – Dek reveals his unique background as a former professional football player from Texas Tech, undrafted free agent who took the hard path to the NFL [6:39] – Journey to Texas Tech: junior college transfer from Fresno City College with no high school offers, recruited by Coach Leach [7:49] – Made it to the NFL despite being undrafted, played in multiple organizations and eventually shifted to real estate [14:30] – Turned his first real estate deal at age 31, which came from a failed wholesale assignment and pivoted to building acquisitions [17:45] – Built team from ground up over five years; now has systems in place with 30-40 employees handling acquisitions, marketing, and operations [22:15] – Marketing strategy focuses on direct mail, skip tracing, cold calling, and relationships; spending $30,000-40,000 monthly on acquisition [27:33] – Company hit 500+ deals in 2024; 2025 goal to return to 500+ deals after market slowdown in 2024 and 2025 [31:20] – Leadership philosophy: let talented people do their jobs without micromanaging; invest in training first, then measure results [36:45] – Model is scalable to other major markets, but expansion only happens with the right executive-level person aligned with company values [38:40] – As a defensive lineman, brought work ethic and preparation mindset to business; now able to think at 20,000-30,000 feet level without getting caught in minutia [41:22] – Excited about upcoming Collective Genius event in Oceanside, which he calls the best CG event of all   5 Key Takeaways From Undrafted to Operations Leader — Dek's path to professional football—junior college, then Texas Tech, then the NFL—mirrors his real estate approach: embrace the hard path, focus on preparation and work ethic, and don't rely on backup plans. That same mentality built a 500+ deal-per-year wholesaling company. Build Your Team First, Scale Later — After five years of grinding solo, Dek hired his first employees when he had the capital and systems to support them. He doesn't hire ahead of revenue; he hires to scale proven workflows with people aligned to company values. Let Talented People Do Their Jobs — Micromanaging talented employees tanks productivity. Dek invests heavily in training, then trusts his team to execute without daily oversight. The result is a lean operation that handles 500+ deals a year without him touching every transaction. Your Market Can Be Enough — California's competitive, high-tax environment pushed Dek to excellence. He has no urgent need to expand out of state; the market is deep enough to build a billion-dollar company. Expansion only happens with the right person, not just opportunity. CEO Thinking Requires Distance from Daily Operations — Dek credits his ability to scale to operating at the 20,000-30,000 foot level instead of getting trapped in minutia. That requires hiring smart people, building systems, and trusting the team to execute so you can focus on direction, not tasks.   Links & Resources Dek Bake on LinkedIn — search "Dek Bake" or "Fair Trade Real Estate" Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   Dek's calm, calculated approach to scaling a seven-figure wholesaling company stands in sharp contrast to the high-energy chaos many founders create. His willingness to invest in team first, scale systems second, and operate at a strategic level—rather than staying stuck in day-to-day grinding—is exactly the playbook that separates operators who hit 500 deals once from those who do it consistently. His story also proves that competitive markets like California don't hold you back; they push you to become sharper. Head to explorecg.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Q1 event in Dallas, Texas, Pat Martin sits down with host Leon to break down how his company Pro Source Home Buyers went from a bruising 2022 to 650 closed transactions last year across Knoxville, Chattanooga, and the Tri-Cities, markets most investors would never expect to produce that kind of volume. Pat has been investing for 15 years and spent the years after 2022 tearing the business down to its foundation, rebuilding around the right people, the right accountability systems, and a marketing operation that tracks lead-to-contract ratios by individual channel on a rolling 12-month basis. The conversation covers how Pat identified that his best salesperson was never going to be his best sales manager, why hiring his CEO Coburn right out of college turned out to be the franchise quarterback moment that changed everything, and what it actually looks like to define winning for every role in the company before you expect people to perform at a high level. He also drops a sharp marketing insight near the end on why TV became his third-best channel after staying committed through six months of it not working at all. If you're a real estate investor trying to figure out how to double your business in secondary and tertiary markets without chasing new cities, this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Leon introduces Pat Martin, longtime CG member and first-time podcast guest, live from the Q1 Dallas event [0:49] – Pat's operating markets: Knoxville, Chattanooga, and the Tri-Cities, and why Chattanooga is wildly underrated [1:45] – Pat's background, moving from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Tennessee and building in markets most investors overlook [2:56] – The number that changes the conversation: 650 closed transactions last year, up from roughly 325, in markets with a combined MSA of about 1.5 million people [3:47] – The three things Pat credits for doubling the business: A-player team members, culture, and operational excellence [4:31] – What 2022 exposed about the business and the hard truth that the best salesperson is rarely going to be the best sales manager [6:28] – How Pat identified Coburn as the franchise quarterback hire, a finance-minded ops leader who came in straight out of college and set a new standard for accountability [7:29] – Why one strong ops hire creates a domino effect that pulls existing team members up to a higher level [9:07] – The role success statements play in creating clarity: every position has defined KPIs and a written description of what winning looks like each week [10:00] – How top-tier talent started competing for open positions once the culture and standards were clearly defined [11:08] – Why auditing every system and channel was the non-negotiable step before any growth was possible, and what the rebuild actually looked like [13:46] – What is working best right now: marketing accountability and tracking lead-to-contract ratios by individual channel, not just as an aggregate [14:32] – The actual numbers: four leads from radio and three and a half from TV to get a contract, versus 20 leads from Facebook to close the same deal [15:38] – Why all marketing audits at Pro Source run on a rolling 12-month basis to eliminate seasonal noise and knee-jerk reallocation decisions [17:01] – Pat's honest moment: realizing everyone on the team is now better than him at their specific jobs and what that means for where he goes next as a leader [18:22] – What the next chapter looks like: casting vision, developing middle managers into executives, and using that to fuel new ventures [19:41] – The TV marketing story: starting at $10–15K a month, watching it not work, committing for six months, scaling to $30K, and suddenly becoming the third-best lead channel in the business [20:30] – Why secondary and tertiary markets are ideal for TV saturation and why the same budget that gets ignored in Boston becomes dominant in Knoxville [22:27] – The Glengarry leads conversation: TV callers as inbound, motivated sellers who convert at one contract per three and a half leads   5 Key Takeaways Your Best Salesperson Is Not Your Sales Manager — These are two completely different skill sets, and promoting the top performer into a leadership role is one of the most common ways growing businesses stall out. Pat learned this the hard way in 2022 and rebuilt his team structure around it. One Franchise Quarterback Changes Everything — Hiring a strong ops leader who can build systems and hold people accountable creates a ripple effect across the entire team. Existing employees rise to meet the new standard, and the culture starts attracting talent that fits rather than whoever is available. Define Winning Before You Demand It — Every role at Pro Source has success statements: a written description of what a great week looks like and the KPIs attached to it. Without that clarity, accountability is just a buzzword. With it, people know exactly what they are being measured against and top performers seek out those standards. Track Marketing by Channel, Not by Average — Knowing that it takes 20 Facebook leads to close one deal versus three and a half TV leads fundamentally changes how you allocate budget. An aggregate lead-to-contract ratio hides the performance gap between your best and worst channels and causes you to underinvest where the returns are highest. Give New Channels Six Months Before You Judge Them — Pat committed to TV for six full months before it started working, ramping from $15K to $30K a month before the channel turned on. A competitor in the same market tried it for two months, called it a failure, and walked away. Patience and spend are both required inputs, not optional ones.   Links & Resources Pro Source Home Buyers — Facebook and Instagram: search Pro Source Home Buyers Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com   If Pat's story resonates with you, especially the part about rebuilding off an honest audit rather than just pushing harder on a broken system, share this episode with an investor in your network who is grinding through that same wall. The gap between where Pat was in 2022 and 650 deals in secondary markets isn't luck or a bigger budget. It is clarity, culture, and the willingness to look at everything and fix what is actually broken. Head to explorecg.com to learn more about joining the Collective Genius community and applying for the level that fits where your business is right now.

In this episode of the Collective Genius Podcast, host Leanne Barnes sits down with Amanda Dean—fractional operator, CSO coach at Sharper Business Solutions, and one of the most experienced team builders in the real estate investing world. Amanda spent 18 years at Tennessee Homebuyers growing from a two-person garage startup to one of Nashville's most recognized home buying operations, sitting in every seat from admin assistant to CEO along the way. Now she travels the country working with 40-plus real estate teams a year, and in this episode she walks through the award-winning presentation that earned her a belt at the Collective Genius: Five Habits That Build Rockstar Teams and Five That Break Them. From creating a winning culture by design to the likability trap that quietly caps so many businesses, this is one of the most practical and immediately actionable episodes in the show's history. If you lead a team—or want to—this one is required listening.   Timeline Summary [0:51] – Welcome and intro to Amanda Dean, CSO coach at Sharper Business Solutions [1:58] – What Amanda does today: coaching and consulting 40-plus real estate teams a year [3:39] – 18 years at Tennessee Homebuyers: from two people in a garage to a full leadership team [4:25] – Sitting in every seat—admin, TC, project management, brokerage, construction—before becoming CEO [8:06] – Why Amanda left even though she could have stayed, and what she misses most about the team [10:05] – Intro to the presentation: Five Habits That Build Rockstar Teams and Five That Break Them [10:55] – Habit 1: Create a winning culture—by design, not by default [12:26] – Recognition rituals, record walls, and why winning culture needs to be intentional [15:18] – Habit 2: Invest like you mean it—budget for your team's growth, not just your own [16:20] – Cross training: why walking a mile in another role builds appreciation and retention [19:07] – Habit 3: Lead people, manage process—people hate being managed, processes love it [19:50] – Path of progress: why every hire needs a visible growth trajectory [22:28] – Paint by numbers: how to give new team members clarity without micromanaging [25:33] – Habit 4: Make decisions based on what you know, not how you feel [27:34] – Staying focused on what works instead of chasing what sounds good [30:53] – Habit 5: Celebrate the lessons, not just the wins—why safe-to-fail cultures grow faster [33:21] – Praise publicly, criticize privately—and always address behavior, not the person [37:38] – Bad Habit 1: Chasing shiny objects—and the one filter that separates distractions from real opportunities [39:32] – Why AI is not a shiny object—and the 13-week AI education program Amanda is running with teams [42:07] – Bad Habit 2: Keeping low performers too long—and why it's actually selfish to hold on [43:58] – Bad Habits 3 & 4: Avoiding tough conversations and micromanaging—two sides of the same trust problem [48:32] – Bad Habit 5: Falling into the likability trap—you're not running for prom queen [52:18] – How to get started: be intentional, ask for feedback, and put culture on the calendar [54:41] – How to connect with Amanda and access the free business assessment [55:36] – Amanda's ten years in CG and her favorite memory from the community   5 Key Takeaways Culture Is a Design Choice, Not a Default – Ping pong tables don't build culture. Intentionality does. Define your core values, hire and fire by them, and recognize the people who live them out loud. Lead People, Manage Processes – People hate being managed. Give them clarity, a path of progress, and the autonomy to do their job. Reserve your management energy for the process, not the person. Make Decisions Based on What You Know, Not How You Feel – "I feel like direct mail isn't working" is not data. The best leaders ask one clarifying question constantly: do we know that, or do we just feel that? Don't Keep Low Performers Too Long – B players don't get raised up by A players. They bring them down. Keeping someone in a role they're not suited for isn't loyalty—it's selfishness. Hire slow, fire fast. Celebrate the Lessons, Not Just the Wins – Teams that are afraid to fail stop making decisions. Create an environment where mistakes are learning opportunities, feedback is private, and 80% done is better than nothing done.   Links & Resources Sharper Business Solutions – Amanda's coaching and consulting hub: businessstartersolutions.com (includes a free team culture and business assessment) Amanda on all socials: @AmandaEnglishDean ExploreCG.com – Learn more about the Collective Genius community   If this episode gave you clarity on what's holding your team back—or showed you what a winning team actually looks like from the inside—share it with a fellow operator who's been struggling with people problems. Odds are, they're actually process problems. And if you want to be in the room with leaders like Amanda, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at our Q1 event in Dallas, Texas, I sit down with CG Premier member Dave Janis — a Boulder, Colorado-based real estate investor, former 18-year real estate agent, and luxury new construction developer doing six new builds a year. Dave is a different kind of operator, and his presentation brought a perspective that most high-volume wholesalers and flippers rarely hear: how to think like a buyer when you're selling a property. We dig into Dave's framework for getting properties sold fast — from the "long skirt" photo strategy that gets you into a buyer's top seven, to pricing by percentage of homes under contract, to the finish quality details that separate a house that feels flipped from one that feels like a home. Dave also breaks down the hotel strategy as a middle ground between a cleanout and a full flip, and pulls back the curtain on building luxury new construction in the Boulder and Denver market in 2026. If you've ever had a property sit longer than it should, this episode is full of tactical insight you can apply on your next deal.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Live from Dallas at the CG Q1 Premier and CEO event at the J.W. Marriott Arts District [0:51] – Introducing Dave Janis: Boulder, Colorado investor, former agent of 18 years, luxury new construction developer [2:12] – Dave's model: luxury new builds, flips, wholesaling, and how cash conversion cycles connect them all [3:22] – Why wholesaling and flipping feed the new construction business and keep active income flowing [4:10] – The fifth pain point: not just getting the contract — getting the property sold [4:35] – The "long skirt" photo strategy: fewer, better pictures to get buyers in the door [5:21] – How buyers shop: 30 homes on the market, they look at seven — you just need to make the cut [6:23] – Pricing strategy: using percentage of homes under contract by zip code and price band [7:07] – When to wholesale versus flip: reading the market data before deciding your exit strategy [8:17] – Condition as a competitive variable: raising your quality threshold above your contractor's [8:39] – Blue tape is always out — the house has to be 100% before anyone walks through [10:00] – What to do if you don't have a construction background: hire an agent who tells you the truth [10:36] – The punch list mindset: caulking seams, matching light bulb hues, tightening every knob [11:16] – Keep the heat and AC running — an uncomfortable house feels like something is broken [11:42] – The goal: make it so buyers can't tell it was a flip [12:50] – Staging: at least a 5% premium, faster sales, and buyers who fall in love with the furniture [13:36] – What happens when staging is gone at the final walkthrough — and why that's a signal you did it right [14:00] – Where to stage: living room, kitchen, and bathrooms matter most [14:17] – Partnering with a local furniture company to deliver, set up, and stage in one move [14:35] – How staging shifts attention away from minor imperfections and toward the vision of living there [15:48] – Empty houses feel smaller — staging solves perception as much as presentation [16:30] – The hotel strategy: cleanout plus paint, flooring, and fixing anything disgusting for about $25K [17:09] – The emotional buyer reality: the wife has to want to take a shower there — at minimum, epoxy the bathroom [17:56] – Why the hotel middle ground often returns better than a full flip at a fraction of the cost [18:42] – The pricing trap: being emotionally invested in your own property and overpricing it [19:05] – Why listing at the lower end of your range almost always results in faster sales and more money [20:04] – The market has loosened: selling has gotten easier, which is why this event focused on not missing leads [20:22] – Luxury new construction in Boulder and Denver: buying lots at $800K–$2M and building at $1.5M–$2.5M [21:28] – Listings from $3.5M to $8M — and why location and architecture drive luxury pricing, not just square footage [22:12] – Views as an asset: buyers will pay $2M extra for the right location [23:34] – Thinking like a buyer: knowing what they're thinking before they walk in the door [24:14] – The importance of an honest agent partner who knows the market and can guide where to build [24:36] – Dave's three meetings with CG and the culture difference from other mastermind groups [25:00] – Hiring a director of operations directly from the CG community — and how that one connection paid off   Key Takeaways Get Into the Top Seven — That's All You Need Buyers in most markets look at about seven houses on a weekend. Your job isn't to show everything online — it's to show just enough to earn a showing. Too many photos, and buyers self-select out before they ever walk through the door. Use Market Data to Drive Your Exit Strategy Before you decide whether to wholesale, flip, or hotel a property, check the percentage of homes under contract in that price band. The data tells you how fast the market is moving and what level of investment is actually worth it. Your Contractor's Definition of Done Is Not Yours Every contractor will try to get away with the least amount of work possible. The details that matter most to buyers — caulk lines, light bulb hues, loose knobs, running HVAC — are often the cheapest fixes and the most overlooked ones. The Hotel Strategy Is an Underrated Middle Ground A cleanout plus paint, flooring, and fixing the one thing that would make a buyer uncomfortable can run around $25K, take three weeks, and return nearly as well as a full flip — often better when you factor in time and carrying costs. Staging Is Not Optional at the Top of the Market Staging adds at least 5% to sale price, reduces days on market, and shifts buyers' attention away from minor imperfections toward imagining their life in the space. If buyers are asking to buy the furniture, you've done it right.   Links & Resources Follow Dave on Instagram and Facebook: @janispropert (search "Janis Properties") Explore CG Membership: https://www.explorecg.com   Closing Remark If this episode changed how you think about preparing, pricing, and presenting your properties, take a moment to rate, follow, and review the Collective Genius Podcast. And if you're ready to be in a room with operators like Dave, visit https://www.explorecg.com and apply today.

In this episode of the Collective Genius Podcast, host Leanne Barnes sits down with Casey Ryan—born and raised in Las Vegas, engineering grad, and one of the most operationally disciplined investors in the CG community. Casey's story starts where a lot of great ones do: grinding without a roadmap. From flipping Jeep Cherokees in college to running 110-plus house flips a year on a brutal split with a two-person team, Casey learned the hard way what high volume without high margin actually costs. But the pivot changed everything. When Casey went out on his own in 2018 and built a direct-to-seller operation from scratch—starting with a legal pad and a million text messages a month—he engineered something most investors never crack: a lean, automated, highly profitable business doing 200-plus transactions a year with a team of 12. This episode is a deep dive into how he did it, how AI is turbocharging what's already working, and why margin has always mattered more to Casey than volume.   Timeline Summary [1:51] – Welcome and intro to Casey Ryan, Las Vegas investor and CG member [2:51] – Current business model: 70% wholesaling, 30% fix and flip, direct to seller since 2018 [4:02] – Born and raised in Vegas, engineering degree, and the brother-in-law who opened the door [5:34] – Flipping Jeep Cherokees in college: the buy box mentality before real estate [9:05] – Riding along to properties, learning acquisitions for free, and committing to finish school [11:11] – Graduating in 2015, jumping ship on engineering, and deploying $15M with a two-person team [12:07] – 75 flips the first year, managing contractors, materials, and acquisitions solo [13:47] – The ugly math: a 25/75 investor split leaving Casey with roughly 5% per deal [17:39] – The 2018 split from his partner and why Casey chose direct-to-seller out of respect [19:44] – Starting from zero: SMS marketing, ring-less voicemails, a legal pad, and two VAs [20:41] – Over 100 direct-to-seller deals in year one of going out on his own [22:12] – Why flippers make great wholesalers: deadly accurate underwriting from razor-thin margins [23:27] – When the legal pad became a CRM and how automation started with efficiency, not ego [25:25] – Why Casey chose lean over large and what 12 people can actually accomplish [28:11] – Practical AI in the business: call analysis, lead scoring, and data enrichment [29:25] – The cron job that monitors 10,000+ leads and surfaces the ones worth calling today [30:47] – AI calling, live transfers, and the goal of keeping reps talking to people all day [33:43] – How Casey found CG, what a mastermind even was, and why he applied anyway [35:41] – What CG actually gives you that local meetups never could [37:13] – $80,000 in referral fees from CG members and the personal advice that shaped his family [40:22] – AI in 2026: extreme leverage, rapid growth, and why this revolution is right up Casey's alley [41:29] – Personal highlight: traveling with his wife Casey and their three daughters under five   5 Key Takeaways Margin Over Volume, Always – Casey ran 100-plus flips a year taking home roughly 5% per deal. The lesson stuck: a lean, high-margin business beats a bloated, high-volume one every time. Master One Channel Before You Add Another – Casey scaled SMS to the breaking point before layering in the next lead source. Discipline in sequencing is what separates efficient operators from overwhelmed ones. Your Engineering Brain Is a Superpower – Whether it's a custom CRM, automated follow-up sequences, or AI lead scoring, systems built by people who think in systems compound over time in ways hiring never will. AI's Real Value Is Surfacing the Right Lead at the Right Time – Call summaries are nice. But a cron job scanning 10,000 leads for changed circumstances and routing the hottest ones to your reps? That makes money. A Team of 12 Can Do What Most Think Requires 30 – With the right automations, the right people, and a relentless focus on margin, Casey runs 200-plus transactions a year and can disappear for two weeks without the business skipping a beat. Links & Resources ExploreCG.com – Learn more about the Collective Genius community If Casey's story lit something up for you—whether it's the lean team model, the direct-to-seller pivot, or the AI applications you haven't tried yet—share this episode with an investor who's been told they need to hire their way to scale. And if you want to be in the room with operators like Casey, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at our Q1 event in Dallas, Texas, I sit down with CG Premier member Andrew Jobe, a Houston-based real estate investor doing over 100 deals a year alongside his partner J.R. Reid. Andrew presented on one of the most costly — and most overlooked — parts of the real estate investing business: what happens after you get the contract signed. We dig into how unmet seller expectations quietly drive up fallout rates, why the acquisitions manager's job doesn't end at the signed contract, and how Andrew's team uses credibility packs and structured communication touchpoints to keep deals alive. Andrew also breaks down the installment sale strategy his team learned right here at Collective Genius — a two-closing process that puts cash in the seller's hands immediately, removes the problem from their life, and dramatically reduces the chances they walk away before closing. If fallout is eating into your revenue and team morale, this episode is packed with practical systems you can implement right away.   Timeline Summary [0:22] – Live from Dallas at the CG Q1 Premier and CEO event [0:42] – Introducing Andrew Jobe: Houston-based investor, 100+ deals per year [1:10] – The four pain points driving this event: leads, appointments, contracts, and closing [2:11] – Houston is a competitive market — and fallout is a real problem even for high-volume operators [2:32] – When Andrew knew fallout was an issue: team morale started showing the cracks [3:16] – The real cost of fallout: wasted effort across acquisitions, TCs, and disposition [4:20] – Root cause number one: unmet expectations from sellers who heard "we close in a week" [5:03] – What sellers are thinking when they sign — and why weeks of title work blindsides them [5:47] – The fix: training the acquisitions team to walk sellers through every next step before leaving the appointment [6:43] – Transitioning the seller relationship from Act manager to TC within 24 hours [7:35] – Why sellers need information repeated — they've never done this before, you do it every day [7:59] – Credibility packs: the written leave-behind that sets expectations even after you've said it five times [8:40] – What goes in a credibility pack: next steps, contact info, and a visual flowchart of the process [9:22] – Owning the gap no matter how many times you've communicated — live in the seller's reality [10:04] – Signing the contract is not the end of the deal — it's just the beginning [10:55] – The installment sale strategy: what it is and where Andrew's team learned it [11:14] – How the two-closing process works: inserting into chain of title and giving a cash down payment upfront [11:54] – Two problems solved at once: cash in the seller's pocket and the problem property off their plate [12:36] – How the Act team, TC, and Dispo team work together to identify a good installment candidate [13:46] – When to use it: real cash needs, moving costs, deposits — solving the seller's immediate problem [14:51] – Risk awareness: always run a pencil search and verify the seller actually owns the property [15:32] – The risk of solving problems too well: sellers who no longer feel urgency to close [16:13] – How inserting into chain of title protects your investment before the final close [16:37] – Four risk mitigation steps: pencil search, quick title search, full closing packet, and third-party notary [17:40] – Why you must use a third-party notary — never someone on your payroll — for these closings [18:50] – Documents, disclosures, and promissory notes: building a closing packet that protects everyone [19:35] – Houston context: massive market, massive competition — this strategy is another tool in the belt [20:26] – Why Andrew comes to every CG event focused on leadership development, not just tactics [21:13] – The keynote takeaway: sometimes you might be the virus in your own business [22:38] – Process without governance is incomplete — you need a mechanism to audit whether the process is actually being followed [23:41] – Being terrified to look at the data — and why you have to anyway [24:23] – The difference between having a great process and having a complete process [25:04] – People don't want to be taught — they want to be reminded, and they want to be held accountable [25:35] – Get rid of anyone who doesn't want accountability — they're hiding something [25:53] – Even Steph Curry has a shooting coach: everyone needs someone pushing them to their highest level   Key Takeaways Fallout Starts With Unmet Expectations Sellers hear "we close fast" and build an expectation around it. If your acquisitions team doesn't walk them through every next step before leaving the appointment, the gap between what they expected and what they experience will cost you the deal. The Acquisitions Manager's Job Doesn't End at the Signature Handing off to the TC without properly transitioning the relationship and resetting expectations is one of the fastest ways to lose a contract you worked hard to get. Credibility Packs Reduce Fallout Passively A written leave-behind with next steps, contact info, and a process flowchart does the communication work for you long after you've left the appointment — even when the seller forgets everything you said. The Installment Sale Is a Fallout Prevention Tool By inserting yourself into the chain of title and giving the seller cash upfront, you remove their urgency to walk away while solving their real problem immediately. It's not just a creative financing strategy — it's a retention strategy. A Process Without Governance Isn't Complete You can have the best systems in the world, but if you're not auditing whether your team is actually following them, you don't have a complete process. Accountability isn't optional — it's what holds everything together.   Links & Resources Follow Andrew on Facebook and Instagram: @jobe (search "Jobe") Quick Title Search: Pro Title USA — https://www.protitleusa.com Explore CG Membership: https://www.explorecg.com   Closing Remark If this episode gave you new ways to protect your contracts and serve your sellers better, take a moment to rate, follow, and review the Collective Genius Podcast. And if you're ready to be in a room with operators like Andrew, visit https://www.explorecg.com and apply today.

In this episode of the Collective Genius Podcast, host Leanne Barnes sits down with Josh Stech—Stanford-educated entrepreneur, CG founding member, and one of the most prolific builders in the real estate investing space. Josh's journey reads like a masterclass in spotting white space: from fixing and flipping in Las Vegas, to co-founding Lending Home and scaling it to over 15% national market share and a $1 billion valuation, to building ventures that help everyday investors access the same wealth-building tools that changed his family's trajectory. This episode goes well beyond business biography. Josh unpacks the strategic thinking behind every major pivot—why he left Lending Home at its peak, how the SoFi business model shaped his thinking, why focus is the most underrated growth lever, and how AI is about to reshape real estate in ways most investors aren't prepared for. He also shares two ventures—Just Be the Bank and Access Insiders—that open the door to private lending and early-stage investing for anyone ready to level up.   Timeline Summary [0:46] – Welcome and intro to Josh Stech, founding CG member and entrepreneur [3:08] – How a CG meeting 15 years ago led to the first private loan that changed Josh's family's trajectory [4:20] – Stanford, economics, and why Josh chose flipping over private equity right out of school [6:09] – From 220 flips to 1,000+ loans in three years: recognizing a superpower in capital raising [7:22] – The lending landscape in 2013: a massively fragmented market with no dominant player [10:11] – The honors thesis on the subprime crisis that pointed Josh toward real estate investing [12:08] – Lending Home: bootstrapped vs. venture capital and what it felt like to build a unicorn [13:42] – The Mike Cagney / SoFi model that inspired Josh to think about serving one customer broadly [17:49] – The real cost of expanding your surface area: complexity compounds faster than revenue [28:05] – The biggest opportunity in real estate right now: folding AI into your business [29:09] – Why smaller brands are about to disappear from AI search results—and what to do about it [29:31] – AI for inside sales, voice models, and inspection tech: what Josh is testing right now [31:37] – Just Be the Bank: the two-and-a-half-day course teaching private lending from scratch [33:04] – Access Insiders: the alternative investment club doing early-stage venture deals [35:24] – The passive income continuum: flipping → rentals → lending → lending funds [37:26] – Foreclosure reality check: why the risk most people fear almost never happens [39:14] – What Josh is most excited about heading into 2026—and it's not business   5 Key Takeaways Find Your Leverage, Then Follow It – Josh pivoted from flipping to lending the moment he realized raising capital was his superpower. Knowing where you have unfair advantage changes everything. Serve One Customer Broadly, Not One Product to Everyone – The SoFi model: find the right customer and surround them with everything they need over time. Focus Is a Feature, Not a Limitation – Lending Home grew to $800M months after Josh left—largely because they stayed in their lane. Expanding surface area multiplies complexity, not just revenue. AI Is the Biggest Opportunity in Real Estate Right Now – From dominating LLM search results to voice-based sales and AI-powered inspections, the window to get ahead is open—but closing fast. Private Lending Is the Most Scalable Path to Passive Income – One borrower can generate 100 loans. The underwriting bar is lower, foreclosure rates are under 1%, and the checks just come in.   Links & Resources Just Be the Bank – Two-and-a-half-day private lending course + book (Amazon #1 bestseller): justbethebank.com/genius (exclusive resource page for CG podcast listeners) Access Insiders – Alternative investment and early-stage venture club (run with Josh's father) ExploreCG.com – Learn more about the Collective Genius community   If Josh's story sparked something for you—whether it's the lending path, the AI opportunity, or just the reminder that there's always a bigger game to play—share this episode with someone who's ready to think at a different level. And if you want to be in the room with builders like Josh, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at our Q1 event in Dallas, Texas, I sit down with CG Premier member Ryan Weimer — a Boise, Idaho-based real estate investor who signed 200 deals in 2025 and then discovered he lost nearly 1,000 more. His main stage presentation stopped the room, and for good reason: the data he brought was something most investors are too afraid to look at. Ryan walks through exactly how his team uncovered 998 missed deals in a single year — all sitting in their own CRM — and what it revealed about their hiring, their lead management, and their leadership. We dig into how he reframed that painful number as an opportunity for his team, why attacking your database beats spending more on marketing, and how the shift from sales company to data company is now changing the way they hire, manage, and grow. If you've ever wondered how much money is sitting untouched in your CRM, this episode will wake you up.   Timeline Summary [0:23] – Live from Dallas at the CG Q1 Premier and CEO event [0:50] – Introducing Ryan Weimer and the presentation that stopped the room [1:07] – How Ryan came into this meeting knowing the data — and still got slapped by it again [1:51] – The market shift: recalibrating from the Boise boom years to doing the real work [2:15] – The number: 998 missed deals in 2025 in a market of just over a million people [2:34] – Context: 200 signed deals, nearly 1,000 lost — five times more missed than won [3:21] – Why this means you don't need a second market — you need to mine what you already have [3:44] – Their CRM only represents 2% of all housing units in Idaho — the pie is enormous [4:31] – How AI and property sales tracking made it possible to identify every missed deal [5:09] – Breaking down the 998: off-market sales they had in their CRM, both inbound and outbound leads [6:00] – Nearly half of the 998 were sitting in the "new" bucket — never contacted beyond initial reach [7:20] – Four pain points every investor is facing: leads, appointments, conversions, and closing [8:40] – Calculating the real cost: $39M in lost revenue and $5M in missed team commissions [9:32] – Two major realizations: drastically under-hired and a total failure of leadership [9:52] – Lead managers had no consistent system for attacking the database — all different answers [10:09] – "People need to be reminded more than they need to be taught" [10:56] – How Ryan took ownership before pointing fingers at the team [11:34] – Reframing missed deals as opportunity: showing the team what's in it for them [12:13] – The shift in team buy-in: from chasing visionary optimism to trusting the data [13:03] – Breaking through the $5M ceiling and building a culture around visible opportunity [14:08] – The real fix isn't more marketing spend — it's better sales ops [14:46] – Why pressing the easy button on marketing digs a deeper hole in profitability [15:11] – How attacking your CRM can take a 3X ROAS to a 5X without spending another dollar [15:30] – Being afraid to look at the skeletons in your CRM — and why you have to anyway [16:10] – Most contracts aren't one-call closes — only about 3 out of 10 are signed on the first appointment [17:35] – The transition: from real estate marketing company to real estate data company [17:56] – What a great CRM makes possible: hiring data-minded operators like Tory to run the numbers full-time [18:19] – Using AI to let the cream rise to the top of a large database and identify who's most likely to sell [19:03] – How the data changes your recruiting pitch — and why top sales talent leans in when they hear it [19:59] – The cycle every growing investor needs: sales, marketing, data — in that order [21:00] – How data removes the blame game between sales and marketing and creates real accountability [21:45] – Sales contests as a 0-to-1 tool for boosting sales ops without overhauling your CRM [22:09] – Using missed deal data to coach high-performing but hard-to-manage acquisitions reps [23:25] – Leadership has to shift from yelling to coaching — especially with today's workforce [25:06] – 2026 update: 108 missed deals in 9 weeks, on pace to cut annual losses by 37% [25:27] – It's not about being perfect — incremental improvement in this industry means millions   Key Takeaways The Opportunity Is Already in Your CRM Ryan's team had 998 missed deals sitting in their own database. Before spending more on marketing, audit what you already have — the gold is there. Under-Hiring Is a Silent Revenue Killer One of the biggest contributors to missed deals was simply not having enough people to follow up. If your lead volume outpaces your headcount, you're leaving money on the table daily. Leadership Failure Shows Up in the Data When your lead managers all describe their day differently, that's not a training problem — it's a leadership problem. Systems and reminders matter more than one-time training. Frame Missed Deals as Opportunity, Not Failure Ryan didn't go to his team and say "we lost 1,000 deals." He showed them $5M in missed commissions and asked what they were going to do about it. That framing changes everything. Data Transforms How You Hire and Lead When you can show a recruit exactly how many people you helped, how much opportunity exists, and where the gaps are — the best candidates lean in. Data turns recruiting into a competitive advantage.   Links & Resources Follow Ryan on Instagram: @realryanweimer Explore CG Membership: https://www.explorecg.com   Closing Remark If this episode made you want to open your CRM and start auditing what's been sitting there, take a moment to rate, follow, and review the Collective Genius Podcast. And if you're ready to be in a room with operators like Ryan, visit https://www.explorecg.com and apply today.

In this episode of the Collective Genius Podcast, host Leanne Barnes sits down with leadership coach and longtime CG collaborator Annie Yatch—founder of Northstar Leadership—for a conversation that goes well beyond the typical real estate investing playbook. Annie brings a uniquely powerful background: a counterterrorism master's from Georgetown, work with the Defense Intelligence Agency, and years spent backward-engineering the leadership systems of Navy SEAL teams to apply them to entrepreneurial businesses. What Annie found after working with thousands of entrepreneurs is that the biggest obstacle to scaling isn't leads, marketing, or even hiring—it's leadership gaps. In this episode, she walks through all five, with a deep dive into the delegation gap and a practical five-step framework any entrepreneur can start using immediately. From trauma patterns that quietly cap your revenue to the nervous system habits that keep you in grind mode, this episode is a masterclass in the inner work that makes outer scale possible. Timeline Summary [1:30] – Welcome and intro to Annie Yatch and Northstar Leadership [4:20] – Annie's two focus areas: leader development and couples in business [6:48] – Overview of the five leadership gaps every entrepreneur needs to address [7:49] – Gap 1: The delegation gap and why quick handoffs fail [8:53] – Gap 2: The feedback gap and why criticism kills team motivation [9:19] – Gap 3: The planning gap and why entrepreneurs don't contingency plan with their teams [10:03] – Gap 4: The nervous system gap and how grind culture destroys decision-making [12:28] – Gap 5: The trauma gap and how your 7-year-old self may be running your business [14:38] – How Annie's framework was born from working with Navy SEAL teams [16:26] – Why the entrepreneur's own trauma pattern derails even well-trained teams [19:07] – The five-step delegation framework: an overview [20:02] – Annie's story: 120 guests, five trash bags in the lobby, and the lesson it taught her [21:29] – Step 1: Awareness — why it has to be personal to the individual, not the company [25:05] – Step 2: Standard of performance — your common sense is actually your genius [29:49] – Step 3: Power to act — walking your team through contingency planning in advance [31:30] – Step 4: Personal commitment — getting an explicit yes with a deadline attached [37:44] – Step 5: Feedback and requests for support — asking what's missing before they get stuck [41:42] – Why "people problems" are usually delegation and management problems in disguise [44:17] – Can someone who's "not good at delegation" actually learn it? Annie's answer [47:48] – The story of a client who couldn't break $2M for five years—and why [52:42] – Marriage in Millions and the Authority Shift: Annie's core programs [54:00] – Final advice: slow down to speed up, and build your business from your ideal day first   5 Key Takeaways Your Common Sense Is Your Genius – Anything that feels obvious to you as an entrepreneur must be spoken, documented, and trained. Your team cannot meet a standard they've never been shown. Delegation Is a Five-Step Process, Not a Handoff – Awareness, standard of performance, power to act, personal commitment, and feedback. Skip any step and you're setting your team up to fail. The Trauma Gap Is Real—and It Has a Revenue Ceiling – Unresolved personal history quietly caps how much you can earn and lead. Many entrepreneurs can't break $2–3M until this is addressed. Your Nervous System Affects Your Leadership – If you feel guilty resting, can't sleep, or can't stop grinding, your nervous system is dysregulated—and it's affecting how you show up for your team. Slow Down to Speed Up – Build your business from your ideal day, not the other way around. The most successful entrepreneurs protect time for thinking, planning, and vision—before they can afford to.   Links & Resources Northstar Leadership / Reinvention XO – Annie's full resource hub: reinventionxo.com Marriage in Millions – Program for couples in real estate and business together The Authority Shift – Group program for breaking through subconscious wealth barriers Annie on Instagram: @reinvention.xo.annie (DMs open and responded to) ExploreCG.com – Learn more about the Collective Genius community   If this episode opened your eyes to the leadership gaps that might be quietly holding your business back, share it with a fellow entrepreneur—real estate or otherwise. These lessons apply across every industry. And if you're ready to be in the room with leaders like Annie, head over to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

In this CG Live episode recorded at our Q1 event in Dallas, Texas, I sit down with CG Premier member Shadi Tamimi, a Central Florida-based real estate investor doing roughly 100 deals a year through wholesaling and flipping. Shadi recently presented in one of our breakout rooms on a topic that doesn't get nearly enough attention — fallout rate — and shares what he uncovered when his team went looking for the real source of the problem. We dig into the gaps between acquisitions and disposition that quietly killed deals, why celebrating a signed contract too early is one of the most dangerous habits a team can have, and how a mindset shift around serving the seller — not chasing the contract — transformed his close rates. Shadi also opens up about his own challenges on stage, including his early learnings with television advertising, and shares one of the most memorable seller stories you'll hear this year. If you're losing deals after the contract is signed and not sure why, this episode is for you.   Timeline Summary [0:23] – Live from Dallas at the CG Q1 Premier and CEO event [0:48] – Introducing Shadi Tamimi: Orlando-based investor, ~100 deals per year [1:06] – Business breakdown: 75% wholesaling/novations, 25% flips [1:38] – How Shadi started virtual across multiple metros and tightened his market focus [2:36] – Why he pivoted to Ocala and manufactured homes as an affordability play [3:24] – The four pain points driving this event: leads, appointments, contracts, and fallout [4:40] – What Shadi presented on: reducing fallout rate and getting contracts to the closing table [5:20] – Fallout was above 50% — and the team was blaming the wrong people [6:04] – The real gaps: seller expectations not set properly on novation deals [6:23] – The fix: adding a flowchart and required initials on DocuSign disclosures [7:14] – Why transparency matters: sellers sell a home once or twice; we do this every day [7:59] – The second gap: contract quality and how they were measuring the wrong win [8:25] – Celebrating signed contracts before they close — why that's like celebrating in the first quarter [8:48] – Tracking contract quality by acquisitions rep and coaching to trends before they become problems [9:31] – The mindset shift: stop telling your team to "get a contract" — tell them to serve the seller [10:10] – How that one phrase change produced results within the same week [10:41] – Core values in action: empathy, intention, and serving others first [11:08] – Elevating the whole industry by focusing on true service over the transaction [12:08] – How every team member — especially lead managers — is impacting far more people than they realize [13:40] – Shadi's most memorable seller story: a cancer patient, a $40,000 offer, and a text six months later [15:33] – How Shadi came to CG with his own challenges and the power of showing vulnerability on stage [16:10] – Being open about what went wrong and helping others avoid the same mistakes [16:47] – Shadi's challenge on stage: getting feedback on television advertising [17:13] – Key takeaway from the room: creative is the most important variable in TV, not the spend [17:54] – The value of learning from someone who just went through what you're about to try [18:22] – The three-legged stool of inbound marketing: direct mail, PPC, and television [19:04] – Pat Martin's TV journey: three months of doubt before it became their highest-converting channel [19:29] – Why a conversation with someone who just figured it out is worth more than any course [20:27] – What CG has meant to Shadi since joining in early 2024 [21:03] – Feeling lost and alone before finding a community built on giving, not selling [21:32] – How CG and the people in this room have impacted his business tenfold   Key Takeaways Don't Celebrate the Contract — Celebrate the Close Signing a contract is step one, not the finish line. Tracking quality over quantity at the contract stage is what actually drives revenue. Fallout Starts Way Before Disposition Most fallout issues trace back to gaps in acquisitions — unclear seller expectations, poor disclosure, or weak contract quality. Fix it upstream before it becomes disposition's problem. Serve the Seller and the Contract Will Follow When your acquisitions team focuses on solving the seller's problem instead of chasing a signature, close rates go up. The mindset shift is simple, and the results are immediate. Vulnerability on Stage Pays Off Sharing what went wrong is more valuable than showing off what went right. Multiple people in Shadi's breakout said they were in the exact same position — and walked away with a roadmap. The Room Is the Shortcut Whether it's TV advertising or any other new channel, finding someone who just went through it — and can share what not to do — is worth more than months of trial and error.   Links & Resources Follow Shadi on Instagram: @shadi.tamimi Email Shadi: [email protected] Explore CG Membership: https://www.explorecg.com   Closing Remark If this episode challenged how you think about fallout, seller service, and what it actually means to close a deal, take a moment to rate, follow, and review the Collective Genius Podcast. And if you're ready to be in a room with operators like Shadi, visit https://www.explorecg.com and apply today.