From Bedside to Buildings: How Dallon Schultz Became the Capitalist Pro | Jake & Gino Poadcast

[00:00:10] Hello, everybody. It's Jake Sons, and I host Jake and Gino Podcast. Here with my co-host, the Multifamily Mentor, the coach of Chef, the Father of Six, the bestselling author, the G Daddy. Gino Barbro. Gino, how's it going? Jake, I'm doing good today, brother. How you doing? Always making it happen, big man. Today's guest is a seasoned fund manager and co-founder of Capitalist Pro. Since beginning his real estate journey in 2018, he has progressed from managing a fourplex to participating in multimillion dollar acquisitions.

[00:00:40] With current projects exceeding $150 million. So without further ado, Dallon Schultz, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, guys. Really looking forward to it. Hey, it is our pleasure. Welcome. We welcome you from sunny Phoenix, Arizona. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Looking nice in the background there. So pre-2018, I don't want to hear about the armpit of New York where you grew up, but pre-2018, what were you doing before the real estate?

[00:01:09] Before the real estate, I was a registered nurse. I had my bachelor's in nursing. I was working in an emergency room and later in a cardiac hospital. ER, it's got to be tough, man. ER, yeah. But I like the challenge, the fast pace. I think it fed my ADD, always doing something different every moment. And so that's what I was doing. And I wanted to specialize. I wanted to become a nurse anesthetist.

[00:01:35] They're the ones that give you the anesthesia when you go under for surgeries, make a few hundred thousand dollars a year and then get into real estate. So I always wanted to get into real estate. I grew up in a real estate home in the armpit of New York. Just kidding. Western New York. Hey, go Bills, baby. Go Bills. No, I absolutely loved it there. My grandfather owned a bunch of multifamily units at one time and my father managed it.

[00:02:00] So growing up, I was around real estate, but I was doing all the dirty grunt work. And I was like, this is that was my view of real estate. I was like, this sucks. So I wanted to go into the medical field. I always wanted to make an impact, wanted to serve people. And so that was my plan, get in the medical field, make a few hundred thousand a year and then get into real estate ownership. But a few months into that, I broke my leg playing soccer.

[00:02:24] And one of the core reasons for getting into the medical field was that I had safety and security. I knew people were going to get sick. I knew people were going to get hurt. Married, two kids. I wanted that security. But when I broke my leg, I realized that that was a false sense of security because I failed to realize what would happen if I was the one that got sick or injured.

[00:02:47] And so going through that experience, not being able to work, wondering how I was going to provide for my family, that led me into podcasts and books about real estate. And two weeks after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, we bought that first fourplex without any of our own money. Dallin, do you think your parents had any kind of influence over you of you not getting into real estate and then pushing you to go to college? My parents were always very, very supportive of whatever I wanted to do.

[00:03:14] They never pushed me in one direction or the other, just whatever. Even when it came down to sports and what I wanted to focus on, what I was passionate about, they were there all along. So I think unintentionally, my upbringing in real estate led me to, I think it planted that seed, but it took years for that to sprout and realize that that's really what I wanted to do with my life. So they were supportive, but they also taught me how to work hard as well.

[00:03:42] And let me, so let me ask you this, when you, when you're. Have those thoughts of, I think this is the only path for real estate. When did you realize that that wasn't the only lane that real estate could provide for you? In regards to doing all that grunt work, all that. Yeah, in regards to even doing like a fourplex, like syndication wasn't probably even a word. Mark Twain has a quote. It goes like this. It's not what you don't know that what's going to get you into trouble.

[00:04:11] It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. So if you're brought up into the real estate world, thinking that you have to do everything, thinking that you can't raise money, thinking that you have to put this for a down payment, thinking that you have to stay small. That may be true. That may not be true. But if that is a belief that you think is true, when in reality it isn't, it's holding you back. So where was the point in your life that you said, well, this doesn't really have to be my reality. This could be someone else's reality, but it doesn't have to be my reality.

[00:04:40] Honestly, it's when I started listening to podcasts. Yeah, so when I had that broken leg, I was sitting in a recliner. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't work. I was wasting away time watching TV, playing games on my phone, and I went into this little depression, if you will. So I started listening to podcasts and started hearing what other people were doing. And I think that's when the light bulb flipped. I was like, wait, there's this other side to real estate ownership where I don't necessarily need to be in the trenches doing all that grunt work and that dirty work.

[00:05:10] Now, don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for that because it taught me a lot of useful skills that got us into that fourplex. When you buy a fourplex, you don't have money to hire a management company and a maintenance person on site and all those beautiful things that go with large multifamily. So my brother-in-law and I, we did it all. We did the renovations. We did the turns. We did the maintenance. We did the management. And so that foundation growing up gave me that jumpstart.

[00:05:36] But I knew by listening to podcasts and learning that if I got more real estate, I could start offloading that. And that piqued my interest. And how did you go from a smaller multifamily into a larger multifamily? What does that first deal look like? We raised money for it. So we bought a fourplex. A couple months later, bought a second fourplex. Then we attended an apartment investing conference. And that's when we learned about funds and syndications.

[00:06:03] And that, I never knew about that side of the business before. So again, another paradigm shift in my mind where I was like, oh, this is how people buy these large units. So we got into some smaller multifamily, eight units with some land, got that land entitled. We were going to develop 30 units. But after some time, we realized that the larger projects we wanted to get into, we were starting to compete with some established operators in regards to trying to bid on those deals.

[00:06:31] And we realized that if we could just focus on raising capital, then we could partner with those operators rather than competing with them. And that's really what got us into that first syndication was we were approached to be a part of the general partnership and help raise some capital and be involved in other aspects of the business. Because at that point, we had started growing a network, a presence, a brand. And so that operator approached us to participate in that first deal.

[00:07:00] And I think that's when it started shifting to like, hey, maybe we should focus more on capital than sourcing and management deals, which is a lot of work. Do you look for when you're looking at a sponsorship group or somebody that you're going to bring your capital to the table? What are some of the things that you need to be looking for in a sponsor? Great, great question. So back of a napkin, we won't even start looking at an operator unless at minimum, minimum,

[00:07:26] they've had five years in multifamily and have taken minimum five deals full cycle. Now I say minimum because in the last five years, a lot of people look like rock stars. And they may have been in it for five years and they may have taken five deals full cycle. But those deals may have been a 18 to 24 month turnaround because the market was just booming and not so much because of their ability to manage the asset.

[00:07:53] So I think we're getting a lot more clarity on the established operators and who approach these deals conservatively. So those are a couple of things back of a napkin. We won't even look at the operators if those two things aren't even met. And then we go through a pretty deep due diligence. We fly out, we look at their properties, we look at some renovations they have in place, we ask about their process for turning units, how much reserves they have on hand.

[00:08:23] And so those are just some of the basic things we really look for before we commit to anything. Jake's framework, because he created it because he was sitting on this grass one day, cutting the lawn, buy right, manage right, finance right. He saw a wheelbarrow tipped over over there. When we're looking at that framework, what kind of deals are you looking at? Even if the operator is good, even if he's done five deals, what kind of deals give you pause in this part of the market cycle? Deals that pique our interest that we want to get involved in?

[00:08:53] Both. Get involved in or even stay away. Let's go with the positive. Get involved in. Get involved in. A lot of it comes down to the financing right now. What types of deals can you get in or what type of debt can you get in place? And one of the deals we jumped into about a year and a half ago, seven years fixed financing at 4.75%. And 18 months ago, that was people were getting 6, 7, 8%.

[00:09:20] So the fact that our operator got seven years fixed, none of this bridge loan, that was super appealing to us because we knew whatever happened over the next few years, we'd be able to weather. And then they could just focus on the operation. So that's a big thing that we look at. And if people are doing more bridge loans three-year, do they have a rate cap in place? Are they locking that interest rate at least for three years?

[00:09:47] And then what exit strategies do they have in place? And there's got to be a few, whether it's a refinance. Another thing we look forward to is whether or not the operator's done a capital call. And that's hard to find an operator nowadays that haven't. And it's not necessarily a deal breaker for us, but it's one of those things we look at and we ask about it. Hey, what led to this capital call? What did you learn from it? What are you guys preventing from it happening again?

[00:10:16] One of the things I hate seeing, and I hear about it time and time again, people are going through these capital calls and there's no strategic plan in place. The operator's just doing a capital call to kick that can further down the road. We just need the money. We just need the money to hold on. What's the result going to look like? Well, it's going to get us another 60 days down the road. Right. And then a few months after that, they're like, oh, hey, guys, we're actually in foreclosure. So now their operators put up even more money just to kick the can down the road. What do you need the money for?

[00:10:46] I want to get a couple more months to get into foreclosure. Yeah, it's brutal. Honestly, it's not something we should laugh about, but it's just... But no, I'm laughing because I think anybody who's been in this business, honestly, guys, you've gone through that. I went through that in 08. And I remember I was just my own deal personally, and I was kicking the can down the road with the bank. And I was just trying to work with the bank. And fortunately for me, I got lucky. I was so persistent. I wore this bank out. They finally just said, okay, we'll negotiate the loan.

[00:11:16] Jake, it was like I was hounding them. I'm like, guys, do you want the keys back to this building in LaGrange, New York? I don't think so. So how can we work this out? You know what I mean? Like I had a plan. All I needed to do is to get some kind of debt relief. So, I mean, when I'm chuckling, I'm chuckling to myself and remembering the pain that I went through. But what you both said is so important. If you're going to do a capital call, understand what you're going to do with the funds. Is it for debt relief? Is it paying back-back taxes?

[00:11:44] Is it putting in CapEx to finish units that you haven't done? I think if you can give that level of clarity and try to save the deal, then absolutely capital calls should be done. But if you're just sitting there going, you know what? I don't know. I just need to pay this debt off. That's something I think you need to really stay away from. Yeah. Have you been involved in that, Dallin? Where someone asked you for money and didn't provide a clear sort of resolution in what the future looked like? Fortunately, I have not.

[00:12:12] I have colleagues, friends, partners that have been involved in some of those deals. Fortunately, we haven't been involved either personally or with our investors. There have been capital calls we've been involved with, but there is a clear plan in place to where we were comfortable saying yes. And this is what's interesting. So we approached our investors when we had to go through one of these calls and we explained the reason for it. And I mean, it was minimal.

[00:12:38] On a $50,000 investment, I think it was another $4,500 or something for this call. But we explained the plan and they're like, yeah, no, that makes total sense. Oh, by the way, I have another $50,000 that I'm looking to deploy. So even though this capital call was happening because of the trust, the rapport we had with our investors, they were letting us know that they were ready for that next investment.

[00:13:03] So I think it really just comes down to the communication with your investors and just a clear plan of action. Most people are pretty understanding when stuff happens. But if you're not communicating or you don't have a clear plan of action, I think that's where people start getting fearful or you lose some trust with them because they just they don't know what's happening. And so I think keeping that communication openness is critical.

[00:13:30] Down to your point, if you're an operator and you go back to your investors or your partners and you say, hey, we've executed on the business plan, but we didn't foresee insurance doubling. We didn't foresee rents just completely stopping. We didn't foresee other expenses. I'm not even talking about bridge debt. Let's say you have fixed debt, all of these other foreseen actions.

[00:13:51] And you're saying, hey, if we have a little bit more time to be able to get that rent growth going again, if you have a little bit more time to stabilize the asset, I think most investors will be like, oh, OK, that makes sense to me. I think if you're raising capital, I want to get to that raising capital part. But I think that's important, laying out what's going on. Before I ask that question, though, what markets are you investing in? Are you agnostic with the markets? Are you picking certain markets? Currently, we're very Texas heavy.

[00:14:18] We do have an RV and a self-storage development, ground up development that we've done here in Arizona. We're not exclusive to just Texas. We were looking into Nashville with some operators and the East Coast, the Georgia area. Florida, I don't know. I don't know. I just I know a lot of people are investing there. Some are doing great. But it seems like every time you turn around, there's another freaking hurricane blowing through there.

[00:14:45] So I just I can imagine just property taxes, insurance stuff are going to be a little bit more challenging. So. So, yeah, those are those are markets we're really looking at. Interesting fact for the both of you. Don't know if the either one of you knows that there has not been a hurricane to hit the East Coast of Florida, I think, in the last 10 years, believe it or not. I think every hurricane that's hit has been in the Gulf Coast. Even for us, it's come across the state. So that's very interesting. Nothing like from Deerfield. Define hit. Well, I mean, like a cat one or a cat two.

[00:15:15] I knew Gino was going to get sensitive about this because it's a hometown to him now. He's like, whoa. Well, let me tell you a little bit about the East Coast of Florida, Dallin. All right. We get rain, but but you know what? We don't identify the rain as a hurricane. OK, we call the rain rain. Actually, we do have a microclimate here in Jacksonville where the hurricanes come. Oh, no, we got a microclimate. And they curl out, baby, and then they come back and hit North Carolina. So that is the truth.

[00:15:42] If you don't believe me, if you're fact checking me, go online, say Jacksonville Hurricanes. You're going to see the shit's getting deep in here is all I got to say. You know, and Gino, you like all joking aside, you bring up a really good point because you asked what markets were involved in. And and maybe I got ahead of myself. The way we vet deals before we get into them, we spend 80 percent of the time vetting the operator, 10 percent on the market and then 10 percent the deal. So the market is less important to us as it is the operator.

[00:16:12] Now, we find an operator that's been operating in Florida with a very, very successful track record. That's a completely different conversation, especially when it's microclimates and it's hurricanes that don't identify as hurricanes. Right. Like that's the kind of stuff we're looking for. Like when I see the OM. Right. And it's it's hey, this is rain that doesn't identify as a hurricane in a microclimate. I realize it's a it's a, you know, a super deluxe value add from, you know, a broker that I can trust. Well, that being said, everything you said, I sort of agree with you.

[00:16:41] I wouldn't I would tend not to look for deals in this market if I already have a presence in Knoxville or another market that I like more. But if I'm in Florida and it is my backyard right now, I'm looking at it because insurance is not going to go crazy like it did over the last three years. You can actually underwrite for a certain insurance level. People are still coming down here. There is parts in the center part of the state where you're looking at different markets,

[00:17:06] submarkets of Orlando, Ocala, Lakeland, those that may be less prone to weather events and you can get decent pricing there. But I do agree with the both of you. All joking aside. You know, I love Florida. I just love busting your chops. So you explained it so well, though. You're so right, because once you're once you're here, all you hear is hurricane, hurricane, hurricane. I'm like, seriously, I've been here. The last one we had on the East Coast for us, I was living here in 2017.

[00:17:33] I just moved here in three months and I called Mr. Stenzion on the phone. I said, Jake, I've got to evacuate, bro. Can you take on six kids, husband and wife into your home? And Jake opened up his house, got in the car. Twelve hours later, I'm up in Knoxville for the week and really not that big of a deal. I didn't really have to. No, we bought a deal that week. We found a deal. So it was worth you coming up. Oh, dude, it was phenomenal. We had a great time. But my point is when you're not used to it, when you live here after four or five years, it's like the boy who cried wolf.

[00:18:03] Every freaking week, there's a deal going on. Well, Dallin, have you seen Forrest Gump? Yeah, I have. I have. Yeah, you remember when Lieutenant Dan is sitting on the sail and the hurricane comes and he just takes his shirt off and starts screaming at it, right? I get videos from his wife now when the rain comes. He goes out there with this bandana on and he stands on the pier and he just starts screaming like a crazy person. I'm like, dude, get a grip. He gets a little like we hit a nerve here, but we can move on. All right.

[00:18:33] I'm going to get back into some serious questions because I know something that Dallin did. He launched Capitalist Pro. And I think some of the questions that I really want to focus on right now are about raising capital. For the person who's getting into real estate that doesn't have money, like a Jake and Gino, the pizza guy and the drug rep when we started, we didn't have a lot of money. We had a lot of grit. We had a lot of tenacity. But we had a lot of lint in our pockets. Let's talk about raising capital and some of the things you did right when you started raising money.

[00:19:01] First and foremost, it doesn't happen overnight. I think people get so excited to get into their first deal. They commit. An operator comes to them and says, hey, can you bring half a million to this deal? Can you bring a million dollars? And they're like, yes, I can. I know people. I got family. I got friends. They all have money. Then they go to these family and friends and they're like, hey, I'm jumping into this multimillion dollar apartment deal, 240 units in Jacksonville, Florida with Gino. And they're like, who the hell is Gino? What's apartments? I didn't know we can invest into it.

[00:19:31] What? Dallin, you're you're a registered nurse. What are you doing? Raising capital for this deal? And he's a guy with micro hurricanes, micro hurricanes. But they have pineapple on it. So, you know, it's weird. So I think I think that's one thing to recognize is that it doesn't happen overnight. And for me, speaking from experience, I had to go through a rebranding. People knew me. Is that where the stash came from? But part of it.

[00:20:00] Yeah, it actually started as a joke for family pictures just to irritate the wife. But she ended up liking it. So I kept it and it's worked great for personal branding. But all joking aside, I had to go through that that rebranding faith, that rebranding phase. And I think a lot of people getting into real estate, they often operate with one foot in two different worlds. And not that they can't be successful with it, but it can be challenging when you're trying to raise money from friends and family.

[00:20:28] And that's typically the first place you go to until you start building a brand. You start building reputation and clout in the space. If you if you're not focused on that personal brand and people don't know what you're doing, it's very difficult to raise that money. So just posting stuff, sharing with people what you're doing, what you're getting involved. And I'd say give it six to 12 months.

[00:20:52] So when you were starting out, were you focusing on people in your in your field, your avatar? Was that the person you were speaking to or you're just trying to throw a wide net and I'm just trying to speak to anybody? I was throwing a wide net when people heard that I was in the medical field. They're like, oh, doctors, you got access to doctor money. I was like, no, like as as the nurses, like you're you're there every day bedside to to the patients and helping out. And it's a different dynamic.

[00:21:22] And so, yes, I was interacting with doctors, but they weren't necessarily like the ones that knew me, knew me as a nurse, not a real estate investor that they were going to pass that. Right. But if they see you online as the capitalist pro, you know, with the sweet stash, you know, maybe I can I can get with that guy. But if I'm like, you know, it's you like you like punching up to the doctor. It's almost a weird dynamic. So it probably made it challenging.

[00:21:48] It's almost made it better being out of that field and saying, oh, hey, yeah, I was in the medical field at some point rather than trying to actively be in it, trying to raise capital. Because so that first that first capital raise, though, after six to 12 months, you start getting money coming in. How does that look? How does that feel? What did you do? Did you convince them that you weren't just a nurse that you're doing this? Did you come with a business plan? Did you have a credibility book? Did you have a website? What did that look like?

[00:22:16] There's two ways to get started in real estate. You bring the deal to the table or you bring the money to the table. So we started with the deals. And the first people that we raised capital from, those first few deals, it was one or two investors that were bringing on. We didn't syndicate. We didn't do these these big funds. We just we just did more of a joint venture. And so those were people that already knew us. They trusted us. They they understood. They had some familiarity with real estate.

[00:22:46] And it was just it was good timing. It just worked out the way it was it was supposed to work out. Now, when we started getting into raising more so for a syndication or for a fund, it was we had to have that presence. We had to have that that reputation. A couple of years ago, we we started and grew the largest monthly gathering in Arizona focused on apartment investing.

[00:23:09] So just having that meetup, having that platform, posting about it, inviting people to it, that in itself provided credibility. People want to see that you're active and that you're involved in whatever it is that you're asking them to participate in. And so I had at some point, actually, it was October 2019. That's when I left the medical field completely and jumped in both feet with real estate.

[00:23:32] And that's when I really started gaining traction, because that's really when I took on that that new identity, if you will, as a real estate investor. There's a lot of challenges in raising money, a lot of different stuck points. There's a lot of places of friction. And I know that you've created the product to alleviate a lot of those challenges. Can you discuss some of the challenges? And then if you'd like, you can talk about Capitalist Pro, how they solve the problems for the syndicator.

[00:23:58] Yeah. So this is continually evolving and we're continuing to learn more and more. And I love sharing what we've learned and what we've experienced firsthand as capital raisers and then help others in the space. One of the most painful mistakes that we made that made me realize we really had to get our shit together was we were talking to this gentleman. He just sold his HVAC company, one of the largest ones in Arizona, to a private equity. So you know they're sitting on money. And we had multiple conversations.

[00:24:27] He never knew you could invest in real estate or apartments the way that we had it structured. So a lot of conversations around that. He was definitely interested. He said, hey, let's revisit this when you have a deal. I'll be ready to go. So we went quiet for about two to three months. We're like, sweet. We got that soft commit. We can move on. We went quiet. We didn't reach out for about two to three months. And then a deal came active. So we reached out to this gentleman and said, hey, we're ready to go. He's like, Dallin, I wish you called me two weeks ago.

[00:24:56] I just wired the $200,000 I was going to invest into another deal because I forgot what you did. Whose deal was it? It wasn't an apartment deal. It wasn't a multifamily deal. And my mind, initially, I'm like, how do you forget? We had multiple conversations about this. I thought you loved me, baby. But what we realized is that we dropped the ball because we weren't remaining top of mind.

[00:25:23] And it's hard when you're focusing on deals, when you're focusing on raising capital. We're usually pretty good about getting those one to three personal touch points in. But then we drop the ball because life gets busy. So that's when we realized we needed to really revamp our systems. And not to mention, it was a disorganized cluster. We had five or six different softwares. We're trying to have them communicate through Zapier. And it was just a complete mess.

[00:25:51] And so we stumbled into a solution called Go High Level. A lot of people are really familiar with the software. The challenge is it's a blank slate. Yeah, Go High Level is the big thing today. It's like a white label. But yes, I am. Yeah, so it's a blank slate. It's like giving somebody WordPress to build a website. You give it to 100 different people, you're going to have 100 different websites. And understanding the functionality, the tools, the workflows, the automations, the triggers.

[00:26:18] My business partner, Paul and I, we went head down into that to design a solution for ourselves. We had no intentions to bring this to market. We just knew we had a serious problem and we needed to get it organized. And because of the way our minds work, we just gravitated to that tool. And we just fell in love with how you could tell people to go a certain way and guide them and direct them. And once it's built out, you step back and you let the system do it on autopilot for you. We love that idea.

[00:26:45] So we built it out for ourselves and it was working phenomenally. And the next raise we had, we had soft commitments within 24 hours. We'd never had that before. And so it just instilled those consistent touch points in between our personal touch points that we were making as well. Now, naturally, as we started networking and talking to more people in the space, realize that we weren't the only ones with the challenge.

[00:27:10] And so that's when the idea came to us and we realized that maybe this is a bigger need in our industry than we realized. And so that's when we took what we developed, white labeled it into Capitalist Pro and now started offering it to other operators in the space. And we have people that are raising their first money for their first real estate deal up to people that have raised $80 million utilizing our platform.

[00:27:38] So we're really able to help people and meet them where they're at. I'm still stuck. It's their CRM. It's a CRM. So most people are using ActiveCampaign. Most people are using MailChimp to do some email marketing. Some people aren't using that at all. A lot of people are using Excel spreadsheets to track their investors. And then they just use his cell phone. And it can work. You can like dial in the HVAC guy with the 200 G's, son.

[00:28:07] That's what Gino's got you on his phone is. Yeah, I don't think so, Jake. And then he texts you when he's taking a poo-poo. And he's like, oh, man, you still got that money, right? Hey, it works for some people. So it's just an organized tool to manage those relationships. Because everybody comes in at a different point in that investor process. Either they're ready to invest with you today or they just heard from you on the Jake and Gino podcast.

[00:28:36] And so they are going to start doing some research and try to figure out who you are. And so it's your job to make sure you're staying top of mind, educating them, providing them what they need. So this customer relations management CRM tool is what helps manage that. And then you can integrate a lot of automation as well. So you have emails going out every single week. Let's go through the journey. You know what? Let's take a quick timeout to hear from our sponsor. And when we get back, we're going to go through the journey. Is that fair? Excellent. All right. Quick timeout.

[00:29:06] This episode of the Jake and Gino podcast is brought to you by Wheelbarrow Profits, the premier multifamily education community. Wheelbarrow Profits proof is in their results. Their members have closed over 86,000 units. That's over $5 billion in student deal volume. Are you serious about taking your real estate game to the next level? Do you have the confidence to take action? Schedule a call with the Wheelbarrow Profits team today and supercharge your real estate knowledge.

[00:29:32] Build lasting relationships through unparalleled networking opportunities. Obtain lasting knowledge on how to buy multifamily real estate with intensive training. Gain hands-on experience through their live events with like-minded individuals and industry professionals. All while experiencing the personal touch and family atmosphere that set them apart. Visit wheelbarrowprofits.com for more information. All right. We are back. So it's our first date. You and Gino are at the coffee shop sharing an espresso.

[00:30:02] And you're drinking it with your pinky up. Right? Take us from there. I would want to know what Gino is. But this is not how it goes. What? Not with the pinky out. But everything else you had pretty spot on. And you're not doing Starbucks. One of the biggest mistakes people make in raising capital is on that very first date or conversation, if you will, whether it's drinking espresso with your pinky out or on a Zoom call. They jump right into the deal.

[00:30:32] The returns, the IRR. This is what you're going to get. Who's they? Look how beautiful this property is. People raising capital. Inexperienced capital raisers. Operators. They jump right into the numbers, the deals, because they're trying to sell you on the deal. And you do what? I asked Gino what he's looking for. I get to know Gino for who he is, what his experience is in investing. Has he worked with, has he invested in real estate before? Has he invested in apartments? Is he using retirement accounts?

[00:31:00] Did you know you could use, you might be eligible to use your retirement accounts to invest into something like this? So spending more time in discovery, I speak quite often from stages and I relate this to your point, dating. I've been married going on 12 years, 13, 12 or 13. Because she's in the CRM. She's getting constant touch points. Yeah. She's in my CRM to remind me. He's like, I've automated marriage with AI, brother.

[00:31:31] So the first date, I didn't ask my wife to marry me. And I think a lot of people... Gino did. Gino, did you? Second date. Hey, they were still a first date. They were still a first date. Too many people walk into this game of real estate and raising capital, treating it as a one night stand. They're just trying to go in, find the low hanging fruit, score, and then move on. And most of these deals, you're in with these people for three to five years.

[00:31:59] So people try to accelerate or bypass that dating phase completely. So when you think of it that way, that first conversation you're having with a potential investor, figure out what energizes them, what drains them, what are they scared about investing, what have they invested in previously. And so we don't typically talk about deals until the second or third call. So I think if you set right expectations and you do adequate discovery,

[00:32:26] the following process just happens organically. Because people are either interested or they're not. You mind if I ask a couple of questions based on that? Because I want to get into the idea that you can't automate the first call. I think everyone wants to go on automations and use AI from the very beginning. But it is a relationship-based business. And possibly if you're an event and you want to put somebody and somebody goes to your website and they opt in, it's a different story. But you still want the need to have a conversation with the person

[00:32:54] because you still need to create a substantive relationship, especially if you're doing 506Bs. But you still just want to know the person. I know when we did our event in Nashville back in 2018, it was MM2. We had a gentleman back there, pretty wealthy gentleman from Nashville. He came to the event. He met my family. He met everything. We're doing a raise two months later. He calls me on a Friday at 5 o'clock just to talk to me, just to get to know me. And I didn't even tell him about the deal. He's like, yeah, I'll invest with you guys.

[00:33:22] So if you think that you're going to go out and raise money by just putting out an email newsletter, by people opting into your list, especially when you're starting out, and then going to be throwing you $50,000, more likely than not, you're not going to be raising capital. You may get a self-commit, but then when push comes to shove, they are not going to raise that money. So you've got that first conversation with me. I like my espresso, short, strong, no sugar. I finished drinking it, pinky down. Didn't use the lemon. I don't like the lemon on the thing. I like to go al natural.

[00:33:52] Just hit me dark, baby. Yeah. So we've done, we've had that conversation. We've had a great time. Do you put me into the CRM after that conversation and start a drip campaign, start automation? Do you have different organizations? You're in the CRM way before that. Okay. You're in the CRM way before that. And we, to your point, you can't automate a hundred percent of your capital raise. It just, it can't be done. You have to be having these conversations, these interactions, and preferably in person, whether that's at an event, at a meetup.

[00:34:22] Next best thing, in my opinion, is Zoom. Now, I think if you're putting content out, educating people, getting your face out there, and you're sharing valuable information, people are hearing you and seeing you. They're building that trust and that relationship with you when you haven't even heard of them. And then they opt into something, maybe even before they get on a call with you. So when I say you're in the CRM way before that call, I think a lot of us that have experience

[00:34:49] in raising capital or doing real estate, we've gotten stuck on these phone calls or on these conversations that we probably shouldn't have been spending 30 to 60 minutes of our time on because that person wasn't qualified. So what we've integrated in is automations and quiz funnels and different tools and things to help qualify and disqualify that person before you're sifting them, before you even get on a call

[00:35:14] with them. And I think we're so excited to just start raising capital, especially in the early stages. We'll talk to anyone and everyone. We'll go to lunch with anyone and everyone just to talk about what we do. You need at-bats as well in the beginning, right? Because you start, hey, I'm getting into real estate. I did a fourplex, right? Well, you may want to say that a few times before you pitch the guy that's worth 50 mil. So just in my opinion. So I think what I'm

[00:35:40] trying to do is if I'm, you know, Dallin from 10 years ago, you know, and I'm listening to this show right now, I'm trying to get playbooks and relevant, you know, actual information because the 49ers back in the day, you know, made it famous scripting their first 10 or 15 plays or whatever. So not that everyone's going to be different, but do you have a playbook? Like, is it, is it three zoom calls to drip campaign or what is, what is the structure of, uh, of your,

[00:36:06] your guys's, you know, sift to drip to phone call, to zoom to Gino espresso martini here? What are we doing? That's, that's, that's a loaded question. Cause again, people are at different places in their journey. I'm not saying like this, that's right. But I'm saying, is there like, do you have a playbook where you attempt to, you know, this is, this is what we see, you know, producing best results? Yeah. I mean, we, we have, we have those, I would say key stages or metrics or things that people need to go through. So what we have found personally is nobody's invested into

[00:36:34] our fund if they didn't take the time to watch the 60 minute webinar. And so now we use that webinar as a way to qualify and disqualify people as well. So we might have that initial, we might have that initial 30 minute conversation after they've expressed interest to us. And then before we take that next step, say, Hey, look, Gino, I sounds like there's some alignment with what we invest in, what you're looking for. Love to jump on another call. But what we have found to be most effective

[00:37:04] and helpful is to take 60 minutes and watch this webinar on our fund launch. This is going to answer 80 to 90% of your questions. And then that way, when we jump on a call on our next call, we can be much more intentional and effective with our time. Any reason you wouldn't be on board and watching that? No. Okay, great. Well, about a week, would that give you enough time to set some time aside to watch that? Great. Okay. Let's get that next call scheduled. And so we're helping to move them along.

[00:37:30] So that's one of the things. Discovery call, absolutely. That's number one. Your discovery call should be that very first metric. And then I think getting people to watch a webinar, because if there's interest and they commit the time to that, it signals that they're probably pretty interested in what you have to offer. And then different people have different needs. If they're looking for the tax benefits of investing in real estate, only talking about the cash flow

[00:37:58] probably wouldn't be appropriate. So it's also understanding where that investor's at, and then touching on the different aspects of that deal and not overloading them with stuff that may not be as pertinent to them. Dallin, can I ask you in the webinar itself, just some key points? Because I think when you're speaking to other operators, everything seems obvious. But what are some of the things that a person listening to this should put in that 60-minute webinar to make it more understandable?

[00:38:26] As if it's someone who's never really done a real estate deal, what are you trying to harp on? What are you trying to focus in that webinar? Don't emphasize so much on the deal itself. And I would focus more time on how these deals are structured. If you think of any investor, when they invest, what's their number one fear? Losing money. Losing money. So rather than talking about how great this deal is and how much money they're going to

[00:38:53] make, what if you spent a little bit more time focusing on your execution team, your business team, the systems and processes you have in place to turn these units, the debt structure, why you chose that debt structure, what that debt structure does for you. So focusing more, I think, on the overall structure of the deal than the deal itself is absolutely critical. Because that's when people are going into these webinars

[00:39:22] asking themselves, okay, how are Jake and Gino going to preserve my capital? How are they going to protect it when I give them $100,000? And if you're talking about all the growth and the rents that you can push, yeah, that's great. And it's good to talk about, but talk to their fear. Talk to their fear and show them that you've considered those, that potential loss and what you're doing to mitigate it. Mm-hmm. You know, I love Jake. I mean, with all my heart.

[00:39:51] I love you too, Gino. But if he had to send me an email every single day talking about himself and talking about his deals, I think I would probably opt out. What's the cadence? Or, I mean, is there a specific rhythm that you want to have? Because like you said, you hadn't spoken to somebody in two months, but should you have been emailing that person every day, twice a week, three times? What is the, I guess, the rule of thumb or what are your thoughts on rhythms? You're going to hear and see so many different things across the board. We start out with a

[00:40:19] weekly email, value-based, not asking for anything. It's value-based, it's education, and we don't give that to people unless they opt in. They're raising their hand for something, whether it's a free resource or a workshop or something that we had, they're raising their hand. And so those are value-based emails. And what we're doing on the backend as well, and what we set up for our users, and this is part of the reason we do weekly, we track the engagement. We quantify what these people are doing on the backend. So if they're

[00:40:48] opening an email, we give them some points. If they're clicking in that email, we give them some points. If they're registering for a workshop, we give them some more points. If they schedule a call with us, we give them even more points. So we're quantifying these actions. Do they see the points? They don't. We do. So we're tracking their engagement based on what they're doing with what we're putting out. And that helps us look at it and say, hey, we had a lot of opens and clicks on this email. What was it about

[00:41:15] that that triggered it? And so it allows us as an internal team to look and analyze that. But at the same time, these people are engaging with you and you may not even realize it. So now next to their name, we can see, hey, Jake has an engagement score of 100. Gino's at 300. But Gino hasn't scheduled a discovery call yet. But he's opted in. He's opening. He's clicking. Let's give Gino a call.

[00:41:41] So to Gino, it comes across as a cold call to us. We're going into that conversation much more confidently because we can see what Gino's been doing on the backend. And that call is just like, hey, Gino, this is Dallin, owner of Rev Equity Group. We see that you've been in our community for quite some time. Tell me a little bit about what you're looking for. There must be a reason why. And then just get you talking about it and then just go from there. And then if it makes sense to

[00:42:07] schedule an official discovery call, great. Let's do it. Dude, you ready to shake things up? Sure. I was going to ask you a question. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on. Go total transparency. Share the points that they're winning as they're going through and saying, as they're going through, share that. Just give them transparency. We're getting closer. We're getting closer to each other. You're building, you're growing. Motivate them. Just take it off, baby. Share that and test

[00:42:35] 10 of them and see what kind of result you get. And then let me know. Share it with the leads. Through the emails as they're coming through. Hey, we're getting closer. We're growing. We're engaging. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Give them those little dopamine hits as they're going. And then let's see what the results are. Take 10 of them, dude. Just try it. That's a very, very interesting take that I could see. You got to get creative nowadays. And if people know that you're, I mean, I could see- We're getting closer. This is a fit. We love

[00:43:01] each other. Dude, ball out. Try it. Gina, you got one question. I got one. Then we got to wrap this. I did. As far as the company, your Capitalist Pro, you do provide a lot of these email templates and automations as well, correct? We do. So the framework, the automations, the structure of it, that's all pre-built for our users. And people can go sign up for Go High Level. None of that's done. They're going to have to learn it, figure it out themselves. So we

[00:43:27] significantly cut down that learning curve by having it pre-built. And then we offer a ton of support with the implementation. We have people from other Go High Level platforms, other white labeled Go High Levels coming over to Capitalist Pro just because they're lacking the support and implementation from some of these other users. And this is primarily what we focus on. So we're able to really help them where they're at. I was just going to say before Jake asks his next question,

[00:43:54] you're utilizing it. You created a solution for what you're doing. You're using a day-to-day. It's not something that you're just creating from a different perspective. You're creating from a user perspective. You know what you want. You know that having five different platforms where you got to connect with Zapier. You know that the email templates, what they need to look like. You know that what needs to go into the webinar. You need to, you know, what's been working with you, the flows. So I think that's the benefit that your platform has versus a different, just generic Go High Level, much different.

[00:44:25] 100%. And now that we have nearly a hundred users on our platform and we're on track to have a thousand by the end of the year, we're able to see what's working with our users as well. So that enables us to fine tune our systems and processes and even help other users on the space. So it's grown more than just what we've been able to do. And it's been really exciting and fun to be able to help others implement it. Okay. Earlier you were talking about essentially the capital raising side of the

[00:44:53] business and owning a fourplex and how owning a fourplex with your brother-in-law, that was work, right? Why do you like the capital raising side of the business versus operationally or like a deal driven GP spot? Playing to my strengths. I, I, I'm a relationship person. I can, I can execute on things, but I've known about myself and it's not that I can't find a team to do this, but personally,

[00:45:21] if there's something I have to do over and over and over and over and over again, AKA manage, lease, operate, I struggle with that because I, I like the excitement of meeting new people. I like the excitement of helping them get from point A to point B to C opportunities. So really it's just playing to my strengths. And there's some people that absolutely would despise networking and talking to people and talking about what they do, but they're hell of a good

[00:45:49] operator and manager. And so that's just why we decided to focus on the capital raising. And we no longer wanted to compete. We wanted to collaborate. And so now because we focus on capital, we could partner with some of the top operators in the country and in the markets we want to invest in and not compete with them, we're collaborating with them because they're always looking for capital. So the takeaway there is if you want to get into the space, be honest with yourself, look yourself in the mirror, try to understand your strengths. Don't force it. You don't got

[00:46:17] to be a capital raiser. You don't got to be a maintenance man. Find out what you're good at and drive the lane. Drive the lane hard, Gino. Pinkies out. Pinkies out, doggie. What you got, Gino? Take us home. You want to wrap it up? I mean, from what I heard earlier on, I heard that Dallin is from Livonia, New York. Don't even know where that is. I think Honeyoy. Honeyoy. O-E. O-E-Y-E. Loon Lake. Do most New Yorkers know where it's from? I don't think so. But anyway, he decided...

[00:46:45] Do you qualify as a New Yorker coming from Western New York, Dallin? I don't know. We don't associate with the classic New Yorkers. You should know this, Jake. He doesn't identify as a New Yorker, Gino. Exactly. We got microclimates. You got hurricane that's not a hurricane. I'm just trying to get my mind wrapped around that one. But if you think about it, he leaves, goes to Hawaii. It's like polar opposites. He went from death in the winter to this haven of palm

[00:47:12] trees and sunshine all the time. Ends up going to Phoenix, buying a couple fourplexes and says, man, this is hard work. There's got to be something different here. I'm working my nursing job full-time here, trying to do the real estate, trying to do sheetrock, trying to change the toilet here. What else can I do in real estate? And then I start listening to podcasts after I broke my leg, hanging out. And I'm like, wow, I can actually start raising money. I can actually start pulling funds from elsewhere and investing with people who have the experience and the knowledge

[00:47:42] of that. And then from that iteration, creating a platform called Capitalist Pro, where all of a sudden I've got all the tools that I've used to raise millions of dollars. And I'm helping others raise hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to get into multifamily and to help other people who would not have the opportunity to invest in real estate. That's a really cool tool that I've been creating over the last few years. Dallin Schultz. Well said, Gino. Gang, as always, we believe in buying deals for the long-term. Think in decades. I'm Jake. He is the G-Daddy.

[00:48:11] We make it happen. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Dallin. Thanks, guys.