RG 236 – Building Thought Leadership Platforms w/ Adam Adams

Adam is the host of the Creative Real Estate Podcast and founder of Blue Spruce Holdings. Since 2005 he went from part time to full time real estate investor ad has partnered in 7 multifamily syndicates with approximately 1400 doors, valued at over $100million. Blue Spruce focuses on finding ad managig apartment communities to allow investors diversifications of cash flow, tax benefits and time freedom. Adam made his first dollar as a child watering plants on his family farm.

Adam’s entreprenurial spirit came from his step dad who bought him some land in 2005 and he made a 1200% return on it in 2 years while he was at uni bartending. He netted $12k which was more than he made in a year and was hooked. His dad bought it for him but then he bought it from his father. He then went on to manage properties and followed Kiyosaki and skipped out single family and went straight to multi. In 2008 he bought his first apartment building, which wasn’t a great time, and then in 2015 he got into tax deed investing and did all sorts of things. He got back into real estate after the crash. Some properties he doubled in value but he also lost money during a Florida hurricane.

Adam believes in the importance of a personal brand and no one is doing business with logos anymore. People are doing it wrong – they think they need to build the business brand and jam education down people’s throats but Adam believes you don’t need to do this. Your customers should see who you are – they want to see the real person. So do social media live videos, meet ups and podcasts. Pick one of these and get really good at it.

Taking the leap of faith is important but it’s event more important to do it consistently. When he started his meet ups he promised himself he’d do it every week for a year. He learned lots of things from his supergroup in Colorado;

• Consistency – schedule for meeting up each week
• Get the same people to come back repeatedly
• Make sure the group has a personal brand story – gives people the reason why they meet weekly

Top tips

• habit – gratitude
• person – parents
• tool – VAs
• raisingmoneycoach.com

Adam Adams (00:35):

So to me, consistency and follow through is one of the most important things. In fact, I only have one tattoo and it’s persistence, determination equals endless potential. But, um, I think it’s, I think that if you’re going to, if you’re thinking that you might want to start a meetup, you got to do it for at least three years. If you’re thinking you’re going to start a podcast, you got to do it for at least three years, because the value that you get is slow in the beginning.

Reed Goossens (01:14):

Welcome to investing in the U S a podcast for real estate investors, business owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs looking to break into the U S market join Reed. As he interviews go getters risk takers and the best in the business about their journey towards financial freedom and the sheer joy of creating something from nothing

Reed Goossens (01:34):

Good day. Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another cracking edition of investing in the U S podcast from Los Angeles. I’m your host, Rick, Goossens good as always every with us on the show. Now, I’m glad that you’ve all tuned into learn from my incredible guests and each and every one of them are the cream of the crop here in the United States. When it comes to real estate, investing, business, investing and entrepreneurship, each show, I try and tease out their incredible stories of how they have successfully created the businesses here in the U S how they’ve created financial freedom, massive amounts of cashflow, and ultimately credit extraordinary lives for themselves and their families. Life by design. As I like to say, hopefully these guests will inspire all of my cracking listeners, which are you guys to get off the couch and go and take massive amounts of action.

Reed Goossens (02:21):

If these guys can do it. So can you now, as you know, I’m all about sharing the knowledge with my loyal listeners, which is you guys, and there’s absolutely no BS on this show, just straight into the nuts and bolts. Now, if you do like to show the easiest way to give back is to give us a review on iTunes, and you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter by searching at Reed Goossens. You can find the show wherever you podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google play, but you can also find these episodes up on my YouTube channel. So head over to Reed goossens.com, click on the video link, and it will take you to the video recordings of these podcasts, where you can see my ugly mug, but the beautiful faces of my guests each and every week. All right, enough out me, let’s get cracking in into today’s show.

Reed Goossens (03:10):

Jen. The show shows the pleasure of speaking with Adam Adams. Adam is the host of the credit real estate podcast and the founder of blue spruce holdings. The journey for Adam started way back in 2005, when he took the plunge, like most of us in the part-time real estate investing, however quickly, that became a full-time passion today. Adam has partnered in seven multi-family syndications with approximately 1400 doors, slightly valued, over a hundred million dollars. His company, blue spruce holdings focuses on finding and managing apartment communities to allow investors diversification of cashflow, tax benefits and time freedom, which is the most important thing we all crave, right? Adam’s primary role in the company is to attract capital successfully raising millions of dollars from private investors. I’m really excited and pumped to have him on the show today, but not for me. Let’s get him out of here. Get I, Adam, welcome to the show head on today, mate.

Adam Adams (04:00):

I’m fantastic. How are you, mate?

Reed Goossens (04:02):

I’m even better talking to you. Big fella. It’s Friday. Um, where are you dialing in from,

Adam Adams (04:07):

Uh, conifer, Colorado up in the mountains. Not too far from Denver.

Reed Goossens (04:11):

Nice, nice. How’s the weather up there? How are you surviving COVID and all this sort of stuff. Yeah.

Adam Adams (04:16):

We’re barely surviving. COVID and the weather’s okay. It’s chilly. It’s probably 40 degrees. Wow.

Reed Goossens (04:22):

Okay. So still not it hasn’t hit the summit yet. Let’s say here in Los Angeles, it started to warm up a little bit. So, um, yeah, this is good. I’m glad that someone’s, someone’s just around the corner mate. The first question I ask all my guests, when we dive into the show is rewind the clock and tell me how you made your first ever dollar as a kid

Adam Adams (04:38):

First ever dollar happened when I was five years old and, um, my stepdad who we were, we just, we just moved in with him and, uh, my parents were engaged. He and my mom were engaged and they, he was, he owns a, um, a tree farm and on the, on the tree farm, we had just thousands of trees. And so it was one day he, I was only five years old and he said that I needed to start learning how to be a man. Like I was like, okay. Um, and so what I did was I got sunburned watering, all of those plants. So we had the longest hoses you’ve ever seen. And I was, I got paid a dollar an hour, uh, to water those plants. And so my first ever dollar as a kid happened, uh, getting sunburned, watering trees on the farm

Reed Goossens (05:33):

Hard manual labor is definitely a way of valuing a dollar because, uh, as I guess, how many years did you spend growing up laboring on the farm, watering trees, planting trees, just doing the hard yakka.

Adam Adams (05:46):

Um, I grew up so five years old all the way till I was 15. And at 15, I decided to go work at burger King because I like I’m not working outside anymore. I just can’t, I can’t get in the sun. It makes me sick. Um, it’s, it’s too hot. I don’t, I hate being hot. Like just, um, I, I live up here in conifer because it’s 10, 12 degrees colder than it is in Denver. So we’re up at 8,400 feet versus, uh, 5,200 feet. Um, so anyway, that way I can, I can sleep where it’s cold and I don’t have to be outwards where it’s too hot. But back then, um, I decided, you know what, I’m going to get an indoor job. So as soon as I am old enough, you couldn’t get a job until you were 15 in Utah, back in that time. So soon as I was old enough, I said, I’m, I’m out of here. And so I started working at fast food restaurants, um,

Reed Goossens (06:44):

Flipping votes. Yeah. So my fill in the gap, you know, we talk it, we spoke about in the instruction, what you’re doing today, but like, where did it all come from? And, and did you go to uni? Did you have a trade? Like where did all this entrepreneurial spirit come from? Over the years?

Adam Adams (06:59):

It probably came from my dad. My dad, um, wanted me to read my stepdad, wanted me to read rich dad, poor dad. Um, ever since it came out, like he’s, he’s an avid reader, he’s always reading and this book came out. It, it, you know, opened up his mind a little bit. He was already a entrepreneur and he was already, um, an investor. So we owned land and agriculture all over. We owned multi-family so that I grew up owning multifamily when I was about nine is the first time I ever collected rent. I was eight or nine years old. And, and I collected rent from one of our multi-families cause someone was late and he couldn’t be home in time to collect it. So, um, that’s really where that came from. You asked if I went to university, I did end up going to university.

Adam Adams (07:49):

And while in a while I in college, my dad, uh, bought me a piece of land 2005. I was able to make a 12000% return on that land in two years. Um, more money than I had ever seen. I was in college and I was bartending. And you make maybe like a hundred bucks, a shift, 120 bucks, something like that. And, um, all of a sudden I made, I netted like 12 grand or something. And that was more than I had seen in a whole year on this piece of land after paying commissions and stuff like that. So I was, I was hooked. Um, my dad bought it for me, but I left this part out on accident. His CPA made me buy it from him. Like after he gave it to me, he was like, actually, I can’t give it to you. You have to buy it.

Adam Adams (08:38):

So I paid for it and I thought that was a terrible 2005 Christmas present. But, uh, I finally owned a piece of America when I sold it. Two years later, I started, I started actually managing property because I found out that Robert Kiyosaki in that book that I read, I found out later on that he actually, um, made his wealth, not with single family, but with multifamily. So he, he was running his business and he had, he was investing in multifamily. And so I said, I’m skipping single family too. So I went straight from land to property management. And then in 2008, I bought my first, uh, my first apartment building. So, um, which didn’t turn out so well in 2008, but that’s okay. It’s totally other story. Fast forward. When I finally got my tail out of my legs in 2015, I got back into tax, deed, investing, um, buying.

Adam Adams (09:39):

I did all sorts of stuff. I on tax deeds. So, so that’s how I got back into it. About five years ago, um, some properties, I made a lot of money on, I doubled money on two or three properties. And then I ended up losing about five grand on a property during a hurricane that I owned in Florida that, um, that I had to lose the money because the, the, there, it was in process in progress. And it was like taken apart. And as the hurricane was coming through, I was told that by the city of Sebastian, it’s a city out in Indian river County, but they said, look, if you don’t, if you don’t demo this property, we’re going to demo it for you. So I, I hurried him, paid for somebody to demo it, and we had to sell it during the hurricane for a loss. So it was first one that I ever lost money on, but bring, brings us to starting to syndicate about three years ago. And, um, it started off slow. My first deal took eight months to syndicate. Almost could have had a baby. And, um, and the next one closed about a week or two later, maybe three weeks later. Um, so they, you know, what’s his name? Michael Blanca always talks about law, but the first deal and so fast forward three years, um, we’ve closed on seven total syndications.

Reed Goossens (11:07):

That’s awesome. What’s a massive, a massive background in real estate in seeing seeing that you had a bit of a hiccup, it sounds like in 2008, but to come back and Dustin ease off and get back on the horse, it takes a few of those to, to know that, to know what you’re doing and how to make it better the next time round. Right? So I’m sure those lessons that you learned along the way we’re not in vain and that you have to imply apply them to your, your portfolio today. So, so well done. Um, I want to dive into what we were speaking a little bit about in the green room. Really? What about your passion? Uh, is it in when it comes to real estate investing? Uh, and what I discovered, which was, I know I’ve known you for a little while now that you’re really passionate about, um, building communities, building podcasts, building meetups, building a brand. So let’s, let’s start there and then talk, let’s talk about the branding side of it. And, you know, I like, I love branding just as much as the next blog. Um, but what’s the importance of having a good personal brand and maybe you don’t even think that a personal brand is good bit, but what’s your, what’s the important step to take when you’re first starting out to wanting to brand yourself as a, as a, not necessarily thought leader, but maybe a key person of influence in your own sphere. W where do you start? Yeah.

Adam Adams (12:17):

Well, you did say you did say a personal brand, and I think that’s really important because in my opinion, people aren’t doing business with logos so much these days. They’re usually doing business with people that they like. So with the personal brand, I think people are usually going around and, and, and approaching it at the wrong angle. When they’re trying to do the personal brand, they think that they think that they need to build their, their business brand in a, they think that they need to, um, you know, jam, uh, education down people’s throats. They think that they need a jam, um, you know, ideas down people’s throats. I think it’s a lot different than that. I think to really build a personal brand where people, um, can start connecting with you. You’re you’re, you shouldn’t be building up the business. You should just be, um, showing people who you are to the core.

Adam Adams (13:11):

So, in my opinion, when I help other people, you know, launch podcasts or launch, uh, get on social media, I talk to them about making sure that they understand their own story first. Like, what is your story? What are you, what do you, what do you like? Are you big into wine? Are you big into, are you big into CrossFit? How about running or yoga or, or are you a big foodie or do you love geeking out watching movies, whatever it is. Um, you think about some of those things because people, um, people want to see somebody who’s real and well-rounded, so you start to try to build who you are to share it with the world, be the light beacon that just kind of shows people exactly who you are. People get deep into this, and they start thinking I’ve got every post has to be, has to be about business, or every post has to have a call to action.

Adam Adams (14:03):

Or every thing that I do has to be about my business, I would say maybe 20% of it does the other 20 is you’re talking about your kids. You’re talking about the salsa lessons you’re doing with your sweetheart. You’re talking about, um, enjoying this special kind of wine from this one region, and you studied about it and you learned all about it. And as, as you people start seeing like, Oh, he’s a, CrossFitter also, I love CrossFit. And that they’re going to be, they’re going to be tied to, and others who hate CrossFit aren’t. So you’re talking about yoga or CrossFit or whatever it is that you do. That’s what I mean by building a personal brand is, is allowing people in like opening up the doors and showing them who you really are. And some of your posts about 20% of it’s going to be about the finance, if you’re syndicating deals.

Adam Adams (14:53):

So if your goal is to syndicate deals, bring in, um, bring in passive investors, for instance, every now and again, you’ve got to post about how important the finances are and how important passive investing is, but you gotta be speaking to your, um, to your exact avatar the right way so that they, um, so that you’re in their shoes, putting yourself in their shoes and answering the questions that they want to know. And so that’s, I think building a personal brand is incredibly important. And I think that people generally go at it a little bit wrong. And if they think that that the personal brand is personal, they’re going to have a lot better results.

Reed Goossens (15:33):

Yeah. Things that come to mind when you say stuff like that is, is, is two things. One thing is that we, it seems like we’re all starting, and this is where in this world of personal branding. Um, but we’re, we’re essentially creating nearly a lifestyle business first, like that could morph into a corporation or a big, you know, you’re talking about logos before, but, and, but I think starting with intrinsically who you are, and so people get to know like, and trust you because you know, when they invest with, particularly in real estate, when they invest with you, they’re investing in you first and foremost, the deal sort of secondary. Um, the second piece that I wanted to bring to that was, um, I had a quote one time and I’m, I’m, uh, I’m not going to be able to remember the person’s name, but I do remember the quote and what was being different is better than being better.

Reed Goossens (16:13):

And so what w what that means to me is like, you don’t just have to be better. You don’t have to try and be beat Adam Adams or re Goossens or the next bloke, but you got to be different and being different is good, because you spoke about the CrossFit, you know, you’re in a CrossFit, cool. Some other people go screw CrossFit, you’re your jock, you know, whatever. You’re not going to track those people. And that’s good because you’re using that personal brand and what you love and feel to attract people who you want to do business with. Right. And sort of in itself, it’s going to weed out all the people you don’t want to do business with. Um, and that’s because the message of the personal branding is coming through, because it’s, you get to go to the core of who you are and what makes you tick. Right. So I think that, that, that, that quote to me, always being different is better than being better. Any, any comments or thoughts on that?

Adam Adams (16:57):

It’s yeah, because it really shows that we all know that there’s more, if let’s just say the listener wants to attract private capital, let’s just assume that for a second. Um, we all know that there’s more money out there than there is deals there’s by far more money than you could ever use than there is deals, but there’s a lot that’s untapped. And if, if I try to start another podcast, that’s exactly your podcast, your pro, your everything. And I, and I even copy your accent and everything like that. Well, I’m not helping anyone, right? So if I, if I am, if I can find my niche and create a niche, that’s not already there, then I’m, I’m attracting a certain type of person, and there’s more than enough money for everybody. We could have thousands and thousands of syndicators and still have too much money for the amount of deals that are out there.

Reed Goossens (17:53):

Tell me a little bit about this idea of the marketing piece. So it was always spoke about the personal brand. Yes. You want to, you want to create a story about who you are, and I think that’s really important, but then going out and using different channels, and then the channels we talked about podcasting, I know you’re heavily involved in meetup. There’s blogging, there’s newsletters. How does one determine what’s the best channel for them to go out and essentially have a megaphone to, to, to just preach their, their story and their who they are? What makes them tick? What, what would you say to those folks?

Adam Adams (18:24):

Well, there’s gotta be one that you resonate with. What, there’s a lot of people that are listening that don’t resonate with any, because they’re just afraid. Like they would have resonated with one, but there’s something holding them back. Um, so for it to that person, and would you say this is pretty important? Like Reed probably raises tens and tens of millions of dollars a year because he has a podcast. So like, I know that I have people logging in and jumping onto our passive investor list. Uh, every single week, we, every single week, we get more and more, and I don’t have to go out and have conversations. So by, by something you said read earlier, you said, no, like, and trust, you got to, they got to know you like you and trust you. Now, if you’re not authentic, they can’t like you or trust you.

Adam Adams (19:13):

They just can’t. There’s no way that they would believe that you were going to perform what you say you’re going to perform if they don’t, if you’re not an authentic person, but the know you part is also really important. Because if, if five people know you like you and trust you, then great, you might do business with two or three or four or five people. But, but if 10,000 people, or even a thousand, no, you like you and trust you. You’re probably going to be doing business with 20, 30, 40, 50, a hundred different people. And so if you’re, if you’re skipping out on, if you’re skipping out on the branding, if you’re skipping out on having something like a blog or a Facebook group, or a podcast, or a workshops that you host around, passive investing, um, then it’s going to be really hard for people to even know who you are, the few that do, they’re going to be connected, but, but you’re not going to hit your goals until you do that.

Adam Adams (20:07):

So you asked how do you select which one to do? And in my opinion, one of those, once you get over the fear of, and, and knowledge that you got to do something, um, now it just goes with what resonates the most with you. Does it does hosting a weekly or a monthly meetup resonate with you? Does it feel good to kind of be the life of the party and put it all together, maybe a podcast, cause it’s simple, it’s easy. You could do it from your underwear and nobody would know, you know, and maybe you like that. Well, even on video, your, the bottom half, doesn’t have to show, um, uh, or do you want to do a YouTube? Like, do you love getting in front of a camera? Because if you do YouTube would be a phenomenal way for you to start growing that influence.

Adam Adams (20:55):

Um, blogs work really, really well. And a lot of the people that read blogs are very sophisticated people. So, um, it’s, it’s your choice, but you got to figure out which one kind of resonates with you. Um, I help a lot of people with podcasting. That’s kind of the one that I, I personally love myself, but you can get just amount, just the same amount of value by being a, uh, a Facebook group leader. Like you start your own Facebook group, and then you can, you can be on there for two hours a day or 10 hours a day, and you’ll be pulling a lot of your target avatar. I call it passive investors. If you want to raise money, or if you were like a coach, I would mentor you. You’d be pulling in the right people there. Or if you had a product to sell, some of my clients are attorneys.

Adam Adams (21:45):

I have a couple of securities attorneys that work with me, uh, that I just helped them brand to help them get out in front of people. But however it is, you got, you gotta figure something. Uh, your personal Facebook page, you got to you maybe hosting dinners. Let’s just say all of the others are hard, at least hosting small dinners, like where there’s four potential investors that are going to sit with you. Um, there’s, there’s more ideas that could resonate with you. You just got to figure out which one you’re willing to do. And if none of them do that just means you’ve got to partner with someone like Reed, right? You got to, you’ve got to partner with somebody who’s willing to do it.

Reed Goossens (22:26):

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Reed Goossens (23:13):

Um, podcasting takes a lot of time, you know, being in front of the YouTube, uh, in front of a channel for YouTube takes a lot of time with lighting and making sure you look, you know, bags under your eyes. Like there’s a lot of things that go could go into it. Uh, and I’ve done all of them, right? I tried a little bit of each and actually podcasting was the best because it was able, I was able to do it from my home or my studio. And I was able to reach so much more people listeners, uh, that I was doing my meetup or doing YouTube. So, um, it, it, and, and the other thing I wanna add to that is, is the consistency piece, because a lot of people get into this world of trying to have a brand or trying to, um, take their business to the next level, but they’re not consistent with it. They don’t understand the consistency. So talk a little bit about what you try to teach with your consistency, because that’s the real important key in my mind, not like this is obviously taking the leap of faith and just doing it, but then you’ve got to do it consistently complete wise. It’s not going to work. It just will never work.

Adam Adams (24:07):

So-so member. I told you I was, I used, it was watering plants, uh, when I was five, uh, I was, I don’t remember how old I was in this story. Maybe, maybe six years old, seven years old. But, um, I was, there’s thousands of plants and I, and I, I was watering and watering and watering them. And it was one of those days that I just felt like I just got way too hot. It was July, it was Utah in the desert. And I was just like, I I’m, I’m done. And I thought to myself, you know, I helped my dad out because I watered half the plants. And I thought, Oh, Hey, I already made $2. And I don’t want to be out here with the crappy weather for another two hours. It’s just, I was done. So I went home and actually my stepdad said, Adam, like, how did you do that?

Adam Adams (24:54):

So fast? Like, there’s no way you could have been, you could be done already. And, and I was like, yeah, I just I’m good. I’m I, I decided I just literally decided to quit. And that day, uh, I learned a lesson on the discussion that you were just saying on the same topic you were just saying, that is the day that I learned a lesson. I learned it the hard way because my dad really reamed me. Um, he said, if you, you don’t ever start something, you don’t tell me you’re going to do something. And then, and then you don’t do it like integrity follow through, um, is, is too important. And so it takes me to my first ever meetup group. I remember thinking to myself when, uh, when I was creating that meetup in 2016, um, I remember saying to myself, I promise that I’m going to do this for a year, every single week on Thursdays during lunch.

Adam Adams (25:46):

And if I’m the only, even if I’m the only one there I’ll just have lunch by myself and, you know, bring my laptop. So I remember committing to that and I had my dad in mind. And the next day, a couple of days later, I was actually driving to the meetup and we had a huge snow storm. We, it snowed about 10 inches in like two or three hours. It was insane. Um, and as I was trying to drive to, as I was driving to the, uh, to the, to the meetup, it was, it was at a Smashburger. I kept thinking to myself, like, it would be so easy to cancel this. Like it snowed. It was the snow was ridiculous. I should just message people. I I’d actually said to myself, I’ll probably be helping them. I’ll probably be helping them because I’ll save their lives because they won’t have to drive in this.

Adam Adams (26:34):

And, uh, and I kept thinking about that. But my, my, my, it was literally my dad, that story of watering plants, that, that me to say, I’m just going to go. I said, I would do it. I said, I would do it every single week. And it was not easy. But that first day that, that I went there, um, and there was four people, there was only four people that came there was me, my partner and four others. And, um, I actually partnered with two different people in there. I’ve made thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars with two of the people that attended there. And to me, it’s, it’s just knowing that if you start something, you gotta follow three through. Because if I D if I didn’t go that day, it was snowing. It was 10 and 10 inches of snow.

Adam Adams (27:25):

If I would’ve turned around, if I would have not gone, those four people would have probably said, Oh, he’s not consistent. He doesn’t follow through. And they never would’ve partnered with me. Or, and they never would’ve come to us. They never would have trusted me to come to another meetup. And so it’s just, it’s so essential for anyone. Who’s starting something with podcasting. If you stop, if you, if you hold off for awhile, iTunes algorithms, jump on that. And they say, okay, stop sending this. So when you get back to consistent, you’ve already lost it. You’ve already lost it. You’ve already lost your listeners. Your listeners are already listening to someone else’s show. If you’re at a meetup, they’ve, they’ve already decided to go to somebody else’s meetup. Um, so to me, consistency and follow through is one of the most important things. In fact, I only have one tattoo and it’s persistence, determination equals endless potential.

Adam Adams (28:19):

But, um, I think it’s, I think that if you’re going to, if you’re thinking that you might want to start a meetup, you got to do it for at least three years. If you’re thinking you’re going to start a podcast, you got to do it for at least three years, because the value that you get is slow in the beginning. Like, at least that’s how it was for my podcast. Uh, and my meetup, it, it was like a bell curve. So just, you got to understand that if you’re going to start it, you got to follow through with it. And if you have a story that helps you with consistency, you gotta do it because not only is it better for other people, but it’s better for you and your business, for sure.

Reed Goossens (28:57):

There’s some absolute gold in there. And I think the, the biggest part of it is we break it down. It’s, um, mentally preparing for how much work you have to do. Right. I think that’s the people don’t, you know, we talk about getting involved in real estate, investing in achieving financial freedom. And, and even it’s as simple as something is like losing weight or being healthy, like people go at things too quickly and that they don’t have the reality. Like for someone like yourself to say like this, no, this is going to take some time. And, and when you go into something and you do it for six months, like I’m not seeing any results. Of course you’re going to quit because you didn’t have the right mindset going into it. Right. So, um, it’s really important. And I completely agree. I think when I first started my podcast, for whatever reason, the, um, when I got to 50 episodes, which was roughly a year, it just that it was not just a flash in the pan and I’ll, he’s, he’s, you know, he’s not going away and you’ve been there for a year. That was the Mark Russell sort of podcast taking off a little bit more. Um, but yeah, consistency is super, super key. I’ve also done a meetup. Um, and I also struggled with meetups cause it’s so much work in terms of the effort you need to put in. So I know you have been asked to speak at, um, meetup HQ, and you are able to talk to some of the engineers around the platform to maybe leverage it a little bit better. Do you want to talk a little bit about that for the listeners out there?

Adam Adams (30:18):

Um, all right. So when I was at, in Manhattan at meetup headquarters, I, um, w after it was the day after I spoke in front of their top 150 meetup organizers, um, I went upstairs to the sixth floor and hung out with about 10 engineers. So we were in a huddle, if you will, we’re all standing around. And I really enjoy getting around geeks. Like, I really liked just that brainiac. It’s almost the opposite of me, and I’m just always intrigued. So I was asking a lot of different questions. And I remember saying like, out of, out of all hundred and 50 of us, that you flew here from around the whole world, um, why, why was I one of the speakers? Because I know a lot of other people that weren’t just speaker that, um, that in fact have a larger meetup than me.

Adam Adams (31:08):

And so the engineers actually showed me, um, a few different algorithms that they, that helped, uh, why my meetup was placed in front of people. So I think I was the only meetup in the state of Colorado that was considered, they call it a supergroup, a supergroup. Um, and here’s, I’m going to try to give you all four of the things that I learned from them. Cause there was four. I hope I can remember all of them. Maybe I just remember three, um, one of them was consistency. Literally what we were just talking about, one of them was that you have a regular schedule of when you’re going to meet. So we met weekly every single week, um, 51 Thursdays a year everyday, but Thanksgiving. And, um, so that was a huge one. The second one was if you get the same people coming back.

Adam Adams (31:59):

So if you’re able to, if the same people who attended at this event ended up coming to the next event that boosts you in the algorithm’s huge. So having the same people continue to come over and over and over. Um, and so what I did to help people come over and over and over here, second tip or trick for anyone who’s might be doing a meetup is that story, that personal brand that we talked about earlier, I made sure that I had one and I, and I made sure that the meetup group had one, had a story. And so every single time I would tell people, here’s the reason why we meet weekly. It’s because, um, if you look at, um, psychology of sales, that it generally takes you to see somebody meet somebody six times to 15 times before you can start doing business.

Adam Adams (32:52):

And so I know that there’s a lot of great meetups out there understand that there’s a ton of awesome meetups and but most of them meet monthly. And if you come to, if you go to those meetings, like it’s going to probably take you six to 15 months before you ever do a deal with anyone in the room. And then I would say, that’s why, you know, the word because is a human psychology word that anything following the explanation of, of something, it adds more credibility to it. So I say, that’s why at this meetup people keep coming back every single week because they know that in just six weeks, they might be able to start doing deals with each other. And so I just created a story why mine was different. Why I niche down? You know, if you, if you have a podcast, you create a story of what your podcast does.

Adam Adams (33:44):

You might just, for an example, you might say that there’s a lot of podcasts out there that are helping operators. This is the only podcast that helps pass investors be safe or something like that. You know what I mean? And then you, you have your story different. So number two was that I had people coming back every single time and it helped to have a story. The third one that I learned from the engineers up there was that the ratings and reviews, and I don’t know all of the reasons why I had so many incredible ratings and reviews. Maybe it has happens to be that I was meeting weekly. So I just had more events than any other group. But, um, sometimes I would ask for reviews sometimes I would say, Hey, at the end of this, uh, leave a review. Let me know what you think about about it, because I want to know if you enjoyed this speaker.

Adam Adams (34:38):

And, and I would just say that in the benefit of the, the attendee, I want to know, I want the feedback because I need to know if I should have the speaker come back again. So please, when we’re done, leave an honest review, but apparently I had more five-star ratings and reviews than almost anyone in the world. Like it was insane. So the meetup headquarters, that was one of the biggest reasons that got them to put me as one of the speakers because of that. But I think that it was because we had, we were doing more events, right? We were doing more events more often. So I could, if I was meeting weekly, I was, I could, I could get to that level four times as fast as other people. Um, uh, another one that they said was, uh, I can’t re there’s three good ones though. There’s three,

Reed Goossens (35:28):

You just went, you just went through the three. So you went to the regular schedule, um, which is really important, uh, looking to have the story, the reviews and ratings and the consistency of people coming back over and over again. And I think there might’ve been a horrible one, but, but I think that that is that’s so key that the regular scheduling, which I know personally, I struggled when I first started my podcast or my podcast mine, um, meet up when I came, moved to LA, cause I want to try and get some exposure. Um, and it was just, you know, it started costing me money and it was just, it was a lot trying to also work a W2 job. So, uh, consistency is super super key and you’ve got to find what you’re good at. Right? You also got to know that, do you want to host events and you want to be around other people, 30, 40, 50 people every single week.

Reed Goossens (36:11):

Does that sound like a lot to you? Does that sound like a drag? Well, if it does then maybe choose a podcast or maybe do a blog, you know, something where you don’t have to be in front of people. So I think it’s, I think it’s really, really key that, uh, and it just goes back to consistency. So, um, but, but, but well done on, on the accolades there with getting all the reviews and getting me I’m being asked to speak at a made up HQ. That’s uh, that’s awesome. So thank you yet. So I guess coming to the wards in the show yet, what is, what have you got in store for 2020 and beyond with, with the branding and the podcasts and the meetups and the whole sort of tapestry or tool belt, as someone would say that you’ve got your disposal?

Adam Adams (36:47):

Perfect. Um, I would with our company blue spruce holdings, um, based on where we are in, in a market cycle and based on some of what is going on with coronavirus right now, we are probably taking at least three months, uh, to just wait. And instead of buying apartment communities off of a T 12, I think we’re going to at least wait three months and then start looking at the T3 and see, you know, if there was a, if there was a dip. So I guess we’re, we’ve kind of got our tail between our legs, just for the next three months. We’re holding. If I was somebody who, who is brand new and it hadn’t done a deal, I think is a great time to learn because there’s probably going to be some really good opportunities, but for us, we’re taking three months off and we’re, um, we’re doing more, I’m launching my first, uh, YouTube channel.

Adam Adams (37:39):

So I’ve had the podcast for a few years, uh, two, two years or three years. And, uh, this will be my first YouTube channel. Um, as far as what else, what else do we got going on? Uh, coaching consulting. I’m still doing that. And I think this is a good time for people who are looking to brand to, to focus on that. Um, and then, uh, for my meetups, we’re right currently we’re doing all virtual meetups because of what’s going on. Um, but once it comes back out, we’ll go back to weekly. Um, I love the weekly meetups and we’ll keep them at lunch. And as far as I think that answers most of your questions, that’s kind of what we’re focused on in 2020.

Reed Goossens (38:24):

It sounds like, you know, um, what’s the word, you know, like the trees where you cultivate, but the way where you, you, you, you nurture the community that you’ve created, right? You, you, you, you’re a little bit in terms of doing online meetups and you’re doing a YouTube channel, but it’s all still consistently, consistently around building a good community. I can definitely see from just talking to you, you really have a passion for that. And I think that is probably why you’ve had so many awesome reviews and so many consistent people coming back is because you love what you do with, in terms of creating a community for other like-minded people to be successful. Right. And I love what you said about the, the touches, you know, the, the six or seven times you meet someone that you’re then are more likely to do a deal. I have heard other statistics out there with social media that you’ve got to, you know, with the different, um, uh, touches, uh, and you do in-person touches, which are really, um, strong touches. But with sort of online touches, you got to like do like 22 or 25, because it’s just so much right.

Adam Adams (39:25):

Any, any it’s completely it’s completely growing. But two years ago, when I started saying that, um, it was six to 15 was, but now online, just like you said, it’s like 20 to 24 touches is where it starts to be. So, um, which is cool because one, there was one of my, um, passive investors that there was somebody who wasn’t yet a passive investor, but I let him know that I had a podcast. And he, he told me that he listened to 60 episodes before he called me. So he listened to 60, and now he’s one of our top, uh, passive investors, but it took him more than the 20 that you’re talking about because on, on these online things, it’s, uh, it can, it can take a little bit longer. So you gotta really, that just adds to the thought about being consistent or, um, maybe doing more than one episode per week, if you can, instead of, you know, one episode a week, if you have the opportunity to do it. So,

Reed Goossens (40:23):

And, and just to, to close that loop is, is really the, the, the podcasting and the branding and the digital assets that you create in your, more of your physical assets with, with meetup. What it does, is it compresses getting to know someone over a five or six year period into like six to 12 months, right then? And, and the more content you have, the, the, the more you can compress that, getting to know people, uh, which is essentially what branding is, right. And you get to, you get to know them enough cause you’ve seen them often. Okay. I trust them because I’ve seen them so many times and yes, I’m going to, I’m going to invest or buy their widget or employ them, whatever they might be for their services. So, yeah, it’s really, really, really cool stuff. Might at the end of every show, we love to dive into this a lot around called the top five investing tips. You’re ready to get into it. I’m ready. What is the daily habit you practice to keep on tracking tool to a goals? Gratitude.

Adam Adams (41:16):

That’s the main, the main one is just focusing on everything that I’ve been blessed with because when I focus on what’s going wrong as an entrepreneur, every entrepreneur listening to this knows that, um, that, that you get hit all the time. So I take time in the morning and the evening, and sometimes I have to do it in the middle of the day to just focus on what I’m grateful for. And it changes my mind and gets me ready to go.

Reed Goossens (41:42):

Yeah. Completely agree with that. And I like how you are trying to catch yourself in the middle of the day. If it starts getting a little stressful just to like refocus. Okay. It’s getting a little stressful today. What am I grateful for? And then just going back onto the back into the, whatever you’re doing. Uh, awesome. Awesome answer. Question number two, who is the most influential person in your career to date? I’m going to have a guest, but maybe you can tell me

Adam Adams (42:02):

There’s too many. There’s too many. Dang it. Um, I’ve I take from everybody? You know, my mom was probably the most influential. Tony told me that I could do whatever I set my mind to. I believe that. But I’ve learned a lot from rod Cleef, Joe Fairless from you, from your, one of your partners. Um, Andrew, uh, I li I learned a lot from a lot of different people. Um, there, there, I would say that I learned a lot from, uh, what’s his name, uh, Russell Brunson who owns ClickFunnels. And he talks a lot about psychology and persuasion. And then, I mean, I read 30 books this year, so far, um, and I learned tidbits for everything. So who are you going to guess by the way your dad? Oh, your step-dad. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, my stepdad for sure. You’re absolutely right. I would, I think you’re right. I should have used that answer. My face is red because I thought that was such an obvious answer. Oh, well,

Reed Goossens (43:04):

Exactly. But we’ll give it to you. Your parents is so important when growing up, it sounds like you had an incredible operating with them at your side, showing you, showing you the way and, and, uh, challenging you to be more and do more so well done, uh, in your business. What did question three? What is the most influential tool? And when I say tool, it could be a physical tool, like a phone or a journal, or it could be a software that you use that you can’t run the business every day without this particular tool. So, so what is it

Adam Adams (43:36):

I’m going to say virtual assistance. I’m going to say, uh, building a team and, um, it’s much easier to pay somebody who is going to take three to $7 an hour versus somebody who’s going to take 12 to 20 or 25. I had an assistant and I paid 50 bucks an hour in the U S for a short time, but, um, yeah, virtual assistance being able to work with people in another completely, another country. Uh, one of my virtual assistants, um, has an accounting degree. Um, the other one has a finance degree. The other one, I have four, one has a business degree and I’m paying them about five, six bucks an hour. Wow.

Reed Goossens (44:19):

That’s incredible. That’s awesome. That’s, uh, it’s building teams, right. And the whole outsourcing overseas in globalization is definitely, um, where a lot of entrepreneurs help scale their cause I can get out of their own way and they can hire people to do certain tasks that they just hate to do. So awesome stuff. In question four in one sentence, what has been the biggest failure in your career and what’d you learn from that failure?

Adam Adams (44:43):

Probably man, there’s, there’s a lot shoot. Um, biggest failure would probably be the one that I’m most embarrassed about is our first conference that I hosted. Um, I lost so much money. Like I lost a lot of money on that conference and I told my partners that we were going to probably make, um, something like a hundred thousand dollars. Um, I expected 400 people to be there. We had, um, 220 and, um, I had to give a lot of the tickets away for free and, um, and us, like at that time in our business career, we, um, we weren’t in a place that we could lose very much money and we lost, I think, like 40 grand on that. And, um, it was just, it blew my mind. I was embarrassed to and ashamed with my, uh, all my partners that I told him this was going to be like the coolest thing we ever did.

Adam Adams (45:47):

And, um, what I, what did I take away from it? I took a lot away from it. I learned a little bit more about marketing branding. I learned a little bit more about being able to being able to utilize free, uh, resources like the social media algorithm that could allow me to get in front of more people and not have to pay. I learned not to put ads on the radio because I think I wasted $20,000 just on radio ads. That was a big part of it. Um, but man, um, at the same time, I know that it’s important to get in front of people and to support people and help people and be the thought leader. Um, so we tried it again and we lost some money and we tried it again. We finally started making money at these events. Um, and I think it’s important that anyone makes money for awhile.

Adam Adams (46:38):

I thought to myself that, that, that it was better that we, this was like an investment for a while. I was thinking this was an investment, but reading the book profit first, it really made me feel bad. And, um, I started to just say, you know what? I shouldn’t feel bad about profiting from an event. Like I shouldn’t feel bad. Like that’s the way that we keep our business in business. And so I changed a lot after, after that experience and reading that book, um, just so much, but I guess maybe the biggest takeaway was I think I was actually worried about making money with an event deep down. I felt like if I made money at an event that I would be letting my audience down and, and I had to get over that. So,

Reed Goossens (47:27):

Well, I, I will say just to give you a bit of credit that conferences, you know, I know so many conferences, the first couple of years, one monitor years, they lose money. It’s not good. He is three and full that the starting to actually make money. Um, and so I, I know very prominent conferences that, that, that in the first year, and maybe it’s the second year they break even the third year to find the profiting. Um, because you got to get you, you gotta get your legs underneath you, right? You gotta, you’re gonna make so many freaking mistakes. And he goes back to that mindset on the beginning. Um, when we spoke about earlier in the show, like, you’ve, you, you’ve got to commit to three years on a podcast or three years on a, on a blog. It’s the same thing. You got to commit three times to a conference, three years in a row. The first couple of years, you might lose some money, but you’ve got to understand that you’re gonna lose the money in order to think that it’s an investment for then when you do get to hit your stride in year three, year four, the fifth year, it’s just, you know, going bananas and you’re making bloody half a million bucks every quarter.

Reed Goossens (48:24):

And that’s the ones that’s fantastic. Right? Like, you know, but looking back, imagine if I told you that before you started, do you think you’d beat yourself up as much? I don’t think you would. Exactly. So it’s, it’s just, you know, it’s all hindsight, 2020. I’m sure the embarrassment of it was was massive, but man, you dusted your knees off and you got back on the horse. So well done. Um, big follow-up last question. Before we wrap up the show is where can people reach you to continue the conversation they want to be in your sphere? What do they go?

Speaker 5 (48:50):

Raising money, coach.com, raising money, coach.com.

Reed Goossens (48:55):

All right, mate. Well, look, I want to thank you so much for jumping on today’s show. I just wanna reflect some of the cool nuggets and a piece of advice that you’ve given away. And I think the biggest thing for me is, is authenticity. Uh, I wrote that down earlier on the piece of having true authenticity in and around your brand will attract more leads, will attract more business regardless of what you do, not just in the real estate space, but now you’re helping some, some sec attorneys create better brands. And I’m sure in and around that is their authenticity, um, being consistent. I don’t think we can drive that home enough, that consistency and authenticity a huge, and I guess that the last one is you’re constantly learning. I think I just wrote that down at the end there, it sounds like you’re, you’re an avid reader. You’re constantly hungry for more knowledge. And you’re also willing to look at your own failures as stepping stones towards the better future. So, um, hopefully did I leave anything out there? No, that was awesome.

Reed Goossens (49:50):

Awesome. Well, I want to thank you again so much for jumping on the show. Enjoy the rest of your week, wash your hands and we’ll catch up very, very soon. Thank you. Well, they have another cracking episode jam pack with some incredible advice from Adam. If you do want any of his incredible advice, please check him out all over social media. You can check out triple Adam, a AAA or Adam Adams. He is everywhere. Find him on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, you can, uh, you can get into his field and learn a little bit about more what he does and if he can help you with your own brand. I want to thank you all again for taking some time out of your day to tune in, to continue to grow your financial life. Phew, because that’s what we’re all about here on this show. If you’d like to show the easiest way to give back is to it. A get on iTunes and give

Speaker 4 (50:28):

The show a five star review, simple and easy is that, and we’re gonna do it all again next week. So be bold, be brave, and remember go give life a crack.