Scaling Up: 428 Doors in One Year with Zach Rucker featuring Jeff Ervick

In this episode, Jeff Ervick of Valoris Capital Partners discusses his real estate journey, partnerships, mindset, growth strategies, sales skills, raising capital, and success.

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Transcript

Multifamily mindset podcast. 
S
Speaker 2
00:03
Think bigger. Welcome back to another episode of the Multifamily Mindset podcast. I'm your host, Zach Rucker, co founder of Black Cedar Investments and coach here at the Multifamily Mindset. If you're just joining us, welcome aboard. We're excited to have you here in our growing community and to give you a quick rundown. Every Tuesday we do interviews and stories from students within the MFM network. And then on Thursdays, our mindset mentor, my friend Dallas Pruitt, unpacks these powerful interviews and impacts mindset principles to share with you and give you more information on how to improve. Then from there, Wednesdays, Tyler Devereux, the founder of the multi family Mindset, has his own podcast on the outcome, where he interviews high level individuals and impacts powerful tips and tricks for you and your business. 
S
Speaker 2
01:09
So with that, I'm super excited for our interview today, so I just want to dive into this. Today we have Jeff Ervic with us from Valores Capital Partners. Jeff, so excited for you to have beveridgesthe here today. So thanks. Thanks for joining us. 
S
Speaker 1
01:25
Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Thanks, Zach. I'm very excited to be here and hopefully we can add some good value to the team and tell our story a little bit. 
S
Speaker 3
01:32
Right? 
S
Speaker 2
01:33
For sure, yeah, I love it. So let's go ahead and just jump into where you're at today, and then we're going to backtrack. So give us listeners, what's your real estate portfolio look like already right now? And then we'll actually, before we do that, we'll do one tidbit. When. When did you join MFM? And then we're going to jump in, then share your real estate experience where you're at today. 
S
Speaker 1
01:57
Sure. Yeah, definitely. I joined MFM back in April of 2023. 
S
Speaker 3
02:02
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
02:02
So just over 1213 months ago. Almost a little over a year ago.  and since then, we've acquired, four different properties.  and I've been LP and GP and most of them LP inda, in all of them, actually. But besides that, I do have an LP on. On the side as well, too. So roughly just over 528 doors and pushing roughly about 50 to 760 million with another 20 million under contract right now. So, yeah, we're. We've been moving and shaking in year one, man, and we are so excited and so blessed with this opportunity, for sure. 
S
Speaker 2
02:39
Well, that's crazy. That is awesome. First off, congrats. Like, that's huge. That's a lot to accomplish in one year. So I'm sure you've been busy working on those deals and dive into that. So we will unpack how you came about getting these deals or finding partners. You haven't been doing this alone. Flores Capital Partners is an awesome group. So with that, how did you end up closing 428 doors within the year? 
S
Speaker 1
03:11
Yeah, so, as you mentioned, it is, it's all about partners. It's all about who you network with and your partnerships in place. And that was one of the main reasons why I joined MFM, is for the network. 
S
Speaker 3
03:23
Right? 
S
Speaker 1
03:24
Because. And also to learn how to, obviously, buy multi family properties. I didn't know I was a single family investor. I've got a. I still have a portfolio of single family homes. I was doing private lending and a lot kind of stuff as well, too. But I want to scale and get bigger and better, and that's when I found the multifamily mindset, joined it, and then I joined because of the network, right. So that way I could meet my partners. All four of us. We met together. We met, actually five. We met at Multifamily family mindset. And so we've got myself, Claudio Sanchez, Ritesh Patel, and you might know this guy, Jim Bone, who is our resident expert over there. Multifamily side. That works for you guys as well, too, or that does coaching as well, too. 
S
Speaker 2
04:08
So, yeah, that's awesome. So, you know, it's. It was. You're. You nailed it is building relationships, right? You have these partners that have helped you know, dump, jump in and tackle as much as you have in the past year, the 528 doors. So what are these kind of deals look like? I know were talking a little bit before this.  I'm really excited for our listeners here, like, the different types of deals. 
S
Speaker 1
04:34
Sure. Yeah. Excellent. So the core that we do is value add, right? So, I mean, that is the best and fastest and easiest way to get into a multifamily deal is to find value add deals and value add opportunities. So that is the core. We closed a deal in Jacksonville, Florida, which was called the eyesore of the neighborhood. Right. I love buying a DLS eyesore of the neighborhood, because then we're just going to make it a better place with our value add strategies for the community and for the residents of that community, and also make it a non isore, make it a staple in that community, which is huge. So diving into those deals, valueadd is kind of our main staple, but we also started an industrial light industrial section. So not necessarily self storage, not necessarily gigantic warehouses. 
S
Speaker 3
05:30
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
05:30
But somewhere in between. So we just closed on a deal down in North Carolina that is a 35,000 square foot warehouse, and that will be changed into a multi tenant facility. So it's got different load doors, different availability for people to drive up. Drive into the. Drive into the facility as well, too. So getting something different for our investors is key because I'm a. I'm a big, huge proponent of diversification when it comes down to my own personal investments. So being that I invest in every deal we do and more, I even invested in a bank. So having different portfolio for myself, I know, brings a lot of different assets. I think I'm trying to get to seven different asset classes in my investment portfolio. So that way it continues to grow in different ways. 
S
Speaker 3
06:25
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
06:26
So we started with value add, core value add as well. We got the industrial side, and then we did acquire a large 72 acre site in San Antonio, which I'm super excited about. But it's a. It's currently going through development or going through entitlement for a ground up development deal. And then we ask, we also do have under contract right now a, another four acres in St. Pete, Florida, where we're going to build a 16 story, 150 class a high rise facility, top pool, amazing amenities, and it's awesome. It's literally like a mile from the Tampa Bay raised stadium where they're about to put like six and a half billion dollars into it. And you heard me correctly, b, with a billion, it's going into that environment right down the road from our place that we're going to be building, which is amazing. 
S
Speaker 1
07:14
So those are the three, kind of three, so to speak, asset classes that we are targeting, that we're going after. 
S
Speaker 2
07:21
Yeah. Well, that's awesome. I love that. So were talking a little bit about this, but how did you get into these other asset classes? Jumping into the multifamily mindset, the core focus and what we teach is value add, multifamily deals. Right. And jumping into that. And you quickly did that. Right. You have your Jackson Phil deal, but since then you've expanded and diversified into these other industrial. And now into development, new development. How did you jump to those? 
S
Speaker 1
07:56
Sure. Before I go there, I do want to say that the partnership that we formed is very vital to our success, because the way I look at it is that you have to find partners that don't do exactly what you do. 
S
Speaker 3
08:13
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
08:13
But do something better and do something different than what you do. So, like, you can't have five investor relations folks on your team, right. You've got to have, you got to have somebody who's in charge of strategy, acquisitions, underwriting. You've got to have folks for investor relations, and then you also have to have asset management. So we actually, we have a fifth partner that we brought on recently who was another a student of the multifamily mindset, Paul Landman, who runs our asset management program. 
S
Speaker 3
08:42
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
08:42
So now we've got a full asset management team, and behind that we also have a full marketing team. So we do a ton of different marketing events and so forth. But ultimately, the most important thing that I did, that we did right as a team, is network. 
S
Speaker 3
08:58
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
08:58
And I believe that is, you know, that's the key. 
S
Speaker 3
09:00
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
09:01
That's why I love the multifunction. That's why I joined it, right. Is because I wanted to be a part of that network special where there's a ton of really good, high level folks involved in it. So were part of that. We've networked within mindset and then outside of mindset as well, too, where we find, we found some really key partners who are experts in ground up development and then our experts in the light industrial flex industrial space, just like we found partners and ourselves who are now experts in the value add space. So I think that's the key, right. Is finding the right people to be part of the team. 
S
Speaker 3
09:41
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
09:42
It's kind of like they like the old homages, you know, you get the right people on the bus and you put them in the right seat. 
S
Speaker 3
09:48
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
09:48
If you can do that, then you got. That bus would be driving forward and it will not be stopped, that's for sure. 
S
Speaker 2
09:53
Yep. Hey, guys, if you're enjoying this podcast, we'd really appreciate it if you could take a moment, leave us a review and a rating you. Your feedback helps us improve and reach more listeners. Plus, we love hearing from you. Thanks so much for your support. Right person, right seat. That's key.  I learned that from, Gina Wickman's attraction book on traction. It's really great. 
S
Speaker 1
10:15
Yeah, I'm actually done. I bought the book and I haven't started reading yet, but I've heard so much good things about it. I'm like, I'm reading a few other books at the point right now, too. 
S
Speaker 2
10:25
Yeah. Such, such a great book. And just how to operate as an entrepreneurial business.  that's what my team, we run off of they call it, Gino calls it eos, entrepreneurial operating system.  but yeah, such a good, tools and ticks and tips and tricks in that. So with that, you mentioned, you know, bring in the right people on the bus and putting them in the right seats. 
S
Speaker 3
10:48
Yeah. 
S
Speaker 2
10:48
You mentioned you got marketing, you got Paul Landman. He's awesome. I love working with Paul in the asset management, you know, space. Now, what's your role within your team? What's your kind of specialty? 
S
Speaker 1
11:01
Yeah, so I handle investor relations. So Ritesh and I both do investor relations for our company. So my focus is in because I know we haven't gotten to my background yet. But I'm a 20 year sales, technology sales guy, right? I've been doing sales my entire. My entire career. In fact, I only worked. I've only worked for two companies my entire career doing sales. Right? So that aspect, my focus is raising capital within that group of people that I've networked and been part of for 20 years. So investor relations is big for me. And that's a key aspect to anything you do. So being able to raise capital is key to success for any team. I feel like you can find a deal, right? But if you can't raise capital for the deal, you're not going to be able to close the deal. 
S
Speaker 1
11:53
And you're not going to be able to operate the deal. That's for sure. So, yeah, I handle. So Ritesh and I both handle investor relations. And we call Jim our master networker. Jim just networks between everybody knows everybody and everyone out there. Right? So he puts the puzzles together. And then Claudio runs our strategy and runs our operations, acquisitions, back end. All the. All the marketing machine that we put together is all based on him and his. His knowledge. So very exciting. 
S
Speaker 2
12:22
Yeah. Solid team. A solid team for sure. Lots of experience. I love that. So with all that, you started to highlight some of your background. Let's jump into that. Let's let the listeners know. Now, you have 528 doors, three different asset classes. You have a stellar team. Focus on investor relations. Let's jump into a little bit of, you know, who is this Jeff guy that's done all this in the past year? Who are you and where's your experience? And why did you jump into this space? 
S
Speaker 1
12:57
Yeah, that's a lot to unpack right there. I'll try my best to explain it. Right. So as I mentioned, I've been in sales for 20 years, right? I worked for two different companies right out of college. I was doing technology, recruiting sales. And. And from there, I cut my teeth on how to work my butt off. 
S
Speaker 3
13:18
Right? 
S
Speaker 1
13:18
In order to ensure success and make sure that I was not going to lose, not going to fail. So with that, developing key aspects of how to build relationships with customers, self working hard myself and not letting anything get my way. I'm a very big self starter. I'm constantly thinking that I'm one step behind, right. Which makes me hopefully ten steps ahead. So that's a big aspect for me. But regarding real estate, so all through this sales career, a high earner doing what I need to do to make sales and make my salary for my family and survive and so forth, I started looking at how can I pay less taxes? What's the best way to do that? Right. Well, it's real estate, right. So I got into buying single family rentals. I did a couple flips. I buy and holds. 
S
Speaker 1
14:16
I still have a handful of rentals right now as well, which are in my other portfolio. And then I was actually doing some private lending. In fact, I'm an investor in a hard money lending business up here in the Maryland area, in Baltimore, Maryland. So being able to see both aspects of the lending side as well as. And making returns off that, but also owning the multi or owning the single family rentals from there, being that I still work a full time job, I'm like, how can I scale up without having to put so much more effort into managing these single family properties and so forth? And that's when I realized that I needed to find something else to catapult me into the next, the next, I guess, level. Right, which, and level up, so to speak. 
S
Speaker 3
15:08
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
15:09
Which is, you know, the multifamily properties, being able to acquire apartment complexes and then from there, no, obviously we've done, we've talked about obviously how we've got into ground up development, industrial, so forth. But that's me as a nutshell. You know, I'm married, I got three kids. So I coach my son's baseball travel, baseball team and I got, you know, three very active kids and it keeps us busy and a beautiful wife who supports me and allows me to do what I need to do here. So it's been a great journey so far and we're just getting started, which is amazing. 
S
Speaker 2
15:45
That's right. 
S
Speaker 1
15:46
So I'm so excited to see where the next year will take us. 
S
Speaker 3
15:49
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
15:49
If we've done, you know, over 70 million of assets under management in the first year, imagine what we can do in year two. 
S
Speaker 3
15:55
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
15:55
When we're just getting started, we're just warming up. 
S
Speaker 2
15:58
Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. I love that. And it all led to, you know, you working your job and saying, I got to figure out how to pay less in taxes. Right. And it just led down to this road of real estate and then understanding the power of it.  and then you just can't deny the power of real estate that sometimes it does. It pulls you all the way in, and you take it on. And so I love how you just evolved in that sense. Right. Lets reduce taxes and then you continue to look and evolve and found more and more ways to grow that portfolio and then take this leap into multifamily. And again, youre diversifying into all these different asset classes, not just multifamily but continue to scale. 
S
Speaker 2
16:46
And I think thats a big part that a lot of our listeners get stuck in the single family space. Like they see the benefits of real estate, but the common trend is, yeah, you go to single family first, but a lot of people just stay there. What was that push that really pushed you to like multi family and making that jump? 
S
Speaker 1
17:11
Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's just something just, it's something more challenging. 
S
Speaker 3
17:17
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
17:17
Something bigger. 
S
Speaker 3
17:18
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
17:18
And I can do, and I did the single family rental side like mobs, and my wife helped me and so forth. She's our asset manager on that side. And we got a couple properties. We did that well and so forth. But, you know, there was something else that I just something else I needed to accomplish. I think it's also one of these things I love to put a challenge in front of myself, right. And be able to figure out how I can solve that challenge and solve that problem, whether it's for my technology sales stuff, or for the real estate side. What can I do and how can I help add value to other people and also to accomplish something like that myself. And that's, I think, leads into how I define success, too. 
S
Speaker 1
18:06
It's not necessarily, is it, that I'm, you know, I've made all this money and I'm got great net worth and all that kind of stuff that really has nothing to do with it. It's more about tackling those challenges. 
S
Speaker 3
18:17
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
18:17
And one step at a time, figuring out what is the next step. How can I get to better? How can I better myself, you know, from doing this? You know, I've raised capital now for the last 1213 months, 14 months. And every single time I'm just getting, I feel like I'm getting better and better at it. And now we're scaling to, we're actually in the midst of starting a fund, and we'll have the fund kicked off here soon. But going after family offices, that's the next step in our portfolio, is really diving into how to raise it on a bigger scale and work in that realm. So that's kind of where our next step is. But hopefully I answered the question. I know I just ramble sometimes. 
S
Speaker 2
18:59
No, no, you're good. Now, the big piece that I took from that is like, you have the entrepreneur mindset, which is, I'm a problem solver. I look to find these issues and problems, and I go and tackle them and I figure out the solutions, and I continue to improve that. And you're not okay with just being comfortable. Like, you're always uncomfortable and pushing, and that's a true entrepreneur mindset.  and growth mindset is. Cause you are continually wanting to push the boundaries and your limits, and believe that there are no limits, you can continue to push that up. Right. And I think that's, I think it's. 
S
Speaker 1
19:40
Also, I think it's also, you know, not being content. 
S
Speaker 3
19:44
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
19:44
So, great. I closed the deal. Awesome. Cool. That, that's great.  now I'm going to sit back and relax and, you know, collect my, my checks when I, when the rank clears and that kind of stuff. No, that's not going to happen. 
S
Speaker 3
19:56
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
19:57
I, I'm, you know, it's a matter of pushing myself. 
S
Speaker 3
20:01
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
20:02
And not staying complacent, so to speak. Right. If I, if I stay complacent in anything I do, then you're gonna, you're gonna fail. 
S
Speaker 3
20:10
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
20:11
It's going to catch up with you and so forth. So it's kind of just always getting a little bit better. Every single time we do something, every single time we, you know, join a partnership, now we got, we have a better idea of how to join a partnership, how to vet other partners, how to, you know, vet the deal. Right. You know, we're just better and better, and we're just, we're going to continue to grow and not be complacent. And, you know, we're looking for a, that kind of, is the whole growth mindset thing. 
S
Speaker 3
20:41
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
20:41
It's just, how can I get better and bigger and build it faster? 
S
Speaker 3
20:45
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
20:45
I think that's a big aspect. 
S
Speaker 2
20:47
Yeah. No, 100% it is, it's, it is a big aspect of it. Just continuing to improve, daily right. A 1% better. That's the goal, right? So with this, you know, you've accomplished a lot and you know, you had a career in sales. What, what do you learn? What are some, maybe some tips and tricks you can share with our listeners that you learned from your career in sales that's helping you in raising capital or at least helping you succeed in this space in such a short time? What are some, maybe some advice that you can share? 
S
Speaker 1
21:25
Sure. I think the biggest thing is that people can read through your b's, right? I mean, that is really what it is. If you want to be successful, you have to be genuine, you have to be yourself. This is who I am inside this podcast and outside with my family and outside with my friends. I meet you at a networking event. You're getting the real Jeff every single time. So if I can be real with you and I can be genuine, I can care about what you want, I can ask questions about what you're looking for, not say, hey, I got a deal, you should invest in this deal. But no, like what are you trying to do? What is your benefit? You know, mister client, mister customer, missed customer, whatever it might be. 
S
Speaker 1
22:08
And one of the key aspects, I think the best, you know, I learned that from, you know, day one, right out of college in sales 20 years ago. And that was because we read the book how to win friends and influence people. And that is a key in that entire book that I always, it stuck with me is people don't care about you, they don't want to hear your story too much. This is great. I love the fact that I can get to tell my story for once, but it's really what can you do to help them and what questions can they answer? People love talking about themselves. Can I, can I get a chance to learn something by asking questions and just being genuine? 
S
Speaker 3
22:48
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
22:49
You don't even need to talk about an opportunity, right? You just talk about, you know, what their weekend was like, whether what they did with their kids, you know, or, you know, if they don't have kids, if they have a dog, right? Or whatever it might be, or they go on vacation recently. What are you doing for the 4 July? All those kind of things, right? I mean, I think that's the biggest thing is just getting to know and build and develop a trustworthy relationship by being genuine. And if you can't be genuine, then maybe you're not in the right business. 
S
Speaker 2
23:13
So I love that. That's just solid advice. Just be genuine. Just be who you are. Don't be fake about it. And I think with that to be genuine, some people struggle with a imposter syndrome. 
S
Speaker 1
23:35
Sure. 
S
Speaker 2
23:36
I think we all do. 
S
Speaker 1
23:37
Yeah. 
S
Speaker 2
23:38
And I think we continue to do each level, right. At any point, we could continue to feel that. But if you're being genuine behind that and if you still feel that lack of confidence, maybe some advice with that. And I'm sure you did this was, you just dove in and you learned, but then you also practice as you were doing it, which, like what you said is you're continuing to learn to each deal and every person you're probably talking to, you're learning how to better. Right. Which then continues to help you be not necessarily more genuine. You've been genuine the whole time. But to get rid of that imposter syndrome, that's maybe there, right? 
S
Speaker 1
24:18
Yeah. And that's. It's a mindset thing, right? I mean, it kind of goes back to where did we join multifamily mindset. The reason why Tyler put mindset in there is on purpose. Right. I. It does. It takes your. You have to. You have to train yourself to think a different way. 
S
Speaker 3
24:34
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
24:34
Even though you might feel that you're an imposter because you don't have the experience, right. That some people might want or, oh, you know, I can't raise capital because this person's not gonna trust me and so forth or whatever it is. Well, I mean, you need to confront those issues with yourself, right. But also, you know, just go out there and do. 
S
Speaker 3
24:53
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
24:54
I mean, no one says, you know, you're going to fail, right. You're going. You're going to have some issues, you're going to have some setbacks every once in a while, but it's how you deal with those and how you build up your tools and your tool chest, right. To make sure that every single time you get better, like I said, the 1% every single day, but then also continue to just develop better relationships. I think one of the biggest things that we, again, the reason why in my name there's velour's capital partners is because you're going to have partners. You're going to have people who have been there, done that, have fallen flat in their face and got straight up again and kept moving. And that's the thing. 
S
Speaker 1
25:34
You got to keep going, is be resilient in this industry and continue to build relationships and build good partnerships. And that doesn't happen overnight. It takes some time. 
S
Speaker 3
25:47
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
25:48
And it takes a lot of hard work. 
S
Speaker 3
25:50
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
25:51
But, you know, it's, I feel that that's a key to any success is just being able to find the right partners for yourself, to be able to continue to, you know, build upon your practice and grow yourself professionally and personally, too. 
S
Speaker 2
26:08
Yeah, 100%. I love that. That's perfect. So with this, I kind of want to jump into, you know, I think bigger questions. Cause we're kind of around this topic. So first question is, you know, how do you choose to think bigger? 
S
Speaker 1
26:25
That's a tough one. I mean, you just, it just kind of has to happen, right? I mean, there's, you know, you have to wake up in the morning, right. And you have to know that you're going to accomplish something great today, right. And you have to tell yourself that. I mean, this morning I got, I go to gym usually a couple days a week. Three. Two or three days a week. I go to gym at 06:00 a.m. I. I do a crossfit gym. And this morning I, it was a long day yesterday. We drove home, six and a half hours. We played baseball. I was up at five. I was up at 06:00 a.m. To get ready for baseball in the morning. Then we drove home afterwards, got home and didn't get to bed. I couldn't sleep. 
S
Speaker 1
27:02
I didn't get to bed late, but I still woke up because I knew that I had to make a change. I had to do something. If you don't, you know, force yourself to grow every single day and force yourself to move in a better direction, then you're not going to, you're not, you're never going to change or you're going to stay in your old habits. So like I said, you're going to have the, what do they call that? The, where you're on the fence, but you're not, you haven't. Deal analysis by paralysis. Know, if you're, if you're continuing to review deals or you're continuing to, you know, not call investors or whatnot, you just gotta do it. You just gotta make the choice, right, to make yourself better, right. 
S
Speaker 1
27:47
And by making yourself better every single day, even if it's practice, right. You just, even if you call your best friend and you just have a conversation, your best friend that, you know, probably might not be investing in your deal, or maybe they will, or maybe they won't, but at least you can say, hey, listen, I want to just try this out. And help me out a little bit, right. I think that's the key is just constantly push yourself to get better every single day. And eventually that constant pushing of yourself will become a habit and then that habit will become natural, right. And then it just continues to take off and then you add something else to it. You continue to add more every single day, right. 
S
Speaker 1
28:27
And then by that time, a year later, you're going to be, you know, you're gonna be great. Like I tell my son's a, is a really good hitter, right, in baseball. He's eleven years old. But I said, you know what? In order to get better at hitting, even be even more spectacular, right? And you need to hit four or five buckets a day, you know, on the tee or soft toss or doing something like that, right, in order to continue getting yourself better. And if you hit four or five buckets a day over a span, you're gonna hit a 1000 more balls in a year than you're, then the next person will, right. 
S
Speaker 1
29:01
And that's going to make you a thousand times better, be able to pick up that ball and hit it and know how to control that when you hit that baseball. So I think it's the kind of same thing. Hopefully. I'm hopeful, I'm making sense here. But yes, again, I like to ramble. I appreciate the, you know, cut me off if you need to. 
S
Speaker 2
29:15
Oh, you're good. You're good. Jeff, with that is what I took away is, you know, push yourself out of your comfort zone, right. Continually. You have to set those, guidelines for yourself of I'm going to push myself out of my comfort zone. If I always do what I'm comfortable with. You're, you're not regressing. And like they say, if you're not progressing, you're digressing, right? You're, yeah, you're not moving forward. And so the only way to do that is to really push yourself out of your comfort zone. So if you don't want to call investor today, call an investor today. Or like you said, start. Yeah, make the effort. Start with someone, you know, simple. And make that call first. At least get you in the right mindset. I know I need that from time and time again. 
S
Speaker 2
29:59
You know, I, my strengths has been underwriting acquisitions and, you know, investorations has been a struggle at times.  but that's what I tell myself. I just gotta call someone and keep that moving forward and get out of my comfort zone with that. And, man, it's crazy when you do that consistently. Like you said, it is a habit, and it almost, in a way, it kind of gets easier, but in a. In a sense, it doesn't, because then you continue to pile on something a little bit harder and pushes a little bit more. Right.  to continue to grow. 
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Speaker 1
30:35
I mean, I I agree. I take it back to, you know, when I first started out in sales, I was cold calling a ton, right? And the first time I called a candidate or I called somebody and I set a meeting, oh, my gosh, it was like I, you know, I was like, yes, this is amazing, right? But I practiced so much, right? And I continued. Got better and got better at my craft and continued to hone in on certain things that maybe were, you know, caught a little bit better and so forth. So, you know, but again, it goes down to just practice. Right. If you don't practice, you know, like they always say, practice makes perfect, right? But if you don't practice outside of what you're normally doing, and then there's. There's no way for you to get better. 
S
Speaker 3
31:18
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
31:19
So you have to continue to, you know, push yourself in a positive direction every single day, and you will get better. 
S
Speaker 2
31:27
Yeah, 100%. So with that, you know, the next question, and you kind of answered a little bit earlier, like, how do you define success? 
S
Speaker 1
31:36
Yeah. So, so success is just, to me, is, you know, accomplishing, you know, 100 little things, right? Putting all of those little things together will make you very successful. 
S
Speaker 3
31:51
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
31:51
And if you can. If you can push yourself to get up early in the morning and go get a workout in right before your day starts now, you can push yourself to make sure you make those phone calls that you need to make or underwrite those deals you need to underwrite or build that relationship with that broker or do that market research in that area every single day, and you compile all those things together that will make you successful, you might not see it right away, but it'll continue to be building and building. By the time you realize that, you'll be like, oh, cool, that was easy. I accomplished that. But for me, personally, success is just helping other people. I think being able to. To add value where I can to folks maybe who are just starting out. 
S
Speaker 1
32:42
Right, maybe they're not sure of how to raise capital or they're not sure of how to vet a deal or vet a partnership or whatever it might being able to help somebody else become successful has been great. So when I mentored junior level sales folks, if I saw them lock up their first deal or they were able to get promoted into a new role. Those are the things that I define my success. I hang my hat on versus however many deals I locked up or how many deals I've closed or whatever it might be. For me, if I can teach somebody else to do the same thing and they can become successful, then that, to me, is a key success. 
S
Speaker 2
33:31
Yes. That's awesome. So next question is, what is the best advice you can give new multifamily investors or students? 
S
Speaker 1
33:41
Yeah, we've talked about it, too. It's network. 
S
Speaker 3
33:44
Right? 
S
Speaker 1
33:44
It's get out there, put yourself out there. I was at peak partnership, which, again, was an amazing event full of, tons of amazing people, and I met so many people just by going out and saying hi. 
S
Speaker 3
33:58
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
33:58
Someone standing instead of sitting there on my phone looking at, like, you know, news or emails or something like that, just go up and talk to somebody. Hey, where are you from? You know, give me your backstory. Tell me about what you've got going on, where I can help you out, or maybe I can partner with you or whatever. I think networking is key. So going out to different type of networking events, being, if you're in the mindset, being active on the Facebook page, you know, putting yourself out there, commenting on other things, you know, building up a partnership, those are things that can help out. 
S
Speaker 3
34:30
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
34:30
And again, I think also it's key of finding the right people to partner with. Right. If you are a great underwriter and you can't raise capital or don't want to raise capital or. So go find somebody who loves raising capital. 
S
Speaker 3
34:46
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
34:47
And then work together. And then if you are not a good asset manager, go find a poll. 
S
Speaker 3
34:52
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
34:52
Who can be an amazing ass. 
S
Speaker 3
34:53
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
34:54
So those are our keys, I think, to success, right. For us is being able to find the right people, network with the right team, and continue to grow professionally and personally every single day. 
S
Speaker 2
35:08
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so I want to jump into kind of the recaps, you know, what I took away from this. So for our listeners, you know, keep track of this, and I suggest go back and re listen to this.  Jeff's been awesome today, right. So much value, and you've accomplished so much in the past year.  so it's really inspiring. But with that, you know, the big key points I took away is the most important, I feel like, is be genuine, you know, be genuine to who you are, and share that. Share that with others. As you're talking to people, raising capital, building partnerships, be genuine. There's no secret sauce to doing that. At the end of the day, it's be who you are, be genuine. 
S
Speaker 2
35:53
You'll connect with the right people and you'll attract the right people at the right time with that. 
S
Speaker 1
35:58
That's right. 
S
Speaker 2
35:59
Then jumping in from that, a couple other key takeaways is, you know, diversify, continue to look at other opportunities, and then with that as networking, and networking led to that, I believe, as well. But networking is key, building those relationships.  just like if you're trying to raise money for deals, like you're networking, you're building relationships, you're talking to people.  and that's what's going to lead you to where you're at. You, you, came a part of Velour's capital through networking in finding the right people, and you found the right people to be in the right seat on the right bus. Right.  it's the same thing in any of this. But then you continue to partner with people. You mentioned that earlier in this island, your team isn't just a solidified team, it's continually changing partnerships. 
S
Speaker 2
36:47
Each deal, you're bringing on new people. And I think that's important for everyone else to know is this is a relationship business. It's about building those relationships and that trust. So those, the big two points, really be genuine and network. Right, and talk to people. 
S
Speaker 1
37:03
Yeah, I think you nailed ahead. I love it. And yes, if you can network with a genuine mindset, then that's going to lead to other avenues that you might not even thought about, which is what's happened to us. So we've built a reputation. Hopefully it's a good one so far. We'll continue to want to build that reputation and know that we're always going to do the right thing. That's also one thing we didn't really talk about, really, is just doing the right thing. 
S
Speaker 3
37:38
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
37:38
Because there's a way to do something. There's a right way, and there's a wrong way. A lot of people choose the wrong way, which is the easy way. Sometimes the difficult way is usually the right way. But if you're forming a partnership and you want to build longstanding relationships with those people, then you just got to do the right thing, be a nice person, be genuine, be happy, and spread the positive energy, and people will want to be around you and surround you with opportunities will come your way. I think that's what happened to us is we've just been the four of us, or five of us are really genuine. People, and people have seen that and that success breeds success. Again, I appreciate the time. Let me come up here and rant and ramble and so forth. 
S
Speaker 1
38:31
So hopefully I answered all your questions right. I didn't, you know, backtrack on too many of them. 
S
Speaker 3
38:35
Right. 
S
Speaker 1
38:35
But. But I really appreciate your time, Zach. It's been. 
S
Speaker 2
38:40
And I appreciate you jumping on Jeff. And you're right, you know, be genuine, be, you know, do the right thing. And I know that I can feel that from your team at Valores.  you know, I've been trying to get a Paul on here, so send him a little nudge. Get Pauldin to get on here as well, and maybe at one point, I'll be your whole team because you guys are genuine. And I think it is definitely reflected out there. So appreciate you guys. I appreciate you jumping on, spending your time, sharing your knowledge, your experience with our listeners, and hopefully that they are able to take away something important that they can go and apply in their business with that. 
S
Speaker 2
39:19
And so our listeners, if you want to connect with Jeff, you know, we have his information in the show notes, so feel free to scroll down and connect with him and his team and get to know them. You know, they're moving and they're doing. Doing things, big things, and they're. They're going to continue to grow and expand. And, I'll say this for you, Jeff, I'm sure, always looking for partners, right? Continue to grow. And with that, if you guys liked this episode, please, like, subscribe, share it with someone, to help reach more people, to create a bigger impact with that. Jeff, thanks so much. And listeners, we'll. We'll see. We'll see you next time. 
S
Speaker 3
39:58
Awesome. 
S
Speaker 1
39:59
Thanks, Zach. I appreciate your time. Multifamily mindset podcast. Think bigger.