Table of Contents
Podcast Transcription
Dave Dubeau [00:00:09] Hey, this is Dave Dubeau. Would you like to access private capital so that you can buy more properties and scale your real estate business? And check out my brand new podcast. It’s called How to Raise Capital 101 Show. Now, the first nine episodes are a mini course on how to raise six figures in a matter of weeks and seven figures in a matter of months. Even if you’re starting from scratch so you can find this new show again, it’s called The How to Raise Capital One on one show. Wherever you listen to podcasts or feel free to visit us at Raise Capital One or one show dot com. Everybody Dave Dubeau back with another episode. And today we have the pleasure of chatting with a syndicator, former executive kind of guy that got into real estate, investing full time, a fellow marketer and a big time capital raiser, not to mention a podcast host. My God, you’re busy guy. John Kasman How are you doing today, my friend?
John Casmon [00:01:07] Dave I’m great man. Thank you very much. And yeah, I guess I do have my hands on a couple of things. A lot of those are former things that I used to do. But the good thing is a lot of those skills are transferable, so they still apply. And what we’re doing now.
Dave Dubeau [00:01:20] Well, that’s right. Because you got a background in, you know, working in corporate working in corporate marketing. Now you’re doing big time deals with syndications in multifamily properties, 100 million bucks worth of apartments. That’s more than two or three units, that’s for sure. And we’re going to talk today about one of my favorite things, which is attracting capital. So you’ve got what you call your three C’s to attracting capital. I’m fascinated by that. I’ve got my three C’s of magnetic capital marketing. So I’m curious to see what your three C’s are and how they how they jive with my three CS.
John Casmon [00:01:57] Absolutely. Listen, I don’t know what it is about the letter C, but there are a lot of great words that you can use a C, so if you’re ever looking for like a three something, look at C, look at the letter C, A better you can find a letter C for some. And because my last name is Kasmin, I think I’m always like a little buy is to the letter, see. So I was really excited when I saw this come together but check it out. So really what it is first and foremost, as you mentioned, the three C’s to attract capital and the key word in there is attract because you want it to work like a magnet. You want to pull the money to you as opposed to you pushing. You’re chasing the money. That’s not fun. I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but I am not a natural salesman. Yes, I have a background in marketing, but in marketing we’re kind of talking to the masses, you know, we’re putting out key messages. We’re putting together what the key benefits are, and we’re hoping to connect with that potential. Audience Member But in sales, that’s more one on one. You know, you’re now trying to talk to an individual, you’re trying to learn more about them. You’re trying to get them to see things where you see them. You’re trying to help them understand how this product or service can benefit them. And you have to ask for the business. And that’s not exactly my strength. So what I realize is it really helps to attract capital to you as opposed to raising capital. So people like to talk about raising capital. And in my head or I think a lot of people envision picking up the phone call and everybody you ever met telling them what you’re doing and asking if they want to invest with you. That’s not something that.
Dave Dubeau [00:03:28] Looks like fun in the movies like Wolf of Wall Street. They made it look like a lot of fun there. But real life is quite different.
John Casmon [00:03:34] One, and it’s a wolf, right? I mean, the wolf of Wall Street, really, guy? I’m not the wolf. I’m not the guy who’s going to sit there and just call everybody I’ve met. And by lunchtime, I’ve raised $10 million. That’s just not how it works. However, what I can do is share what we’re doing with people, and that makes it easier to attract capital. So those three C’s are confidence, credibility and connections, and I’ll explain exactly what each of them mean. Let’s start with confidence, because confidence is really important. Confidence is not about manufactured hubris. All right. I’m not talking about taking the walk, you know, and talking.
Dave Dubeau [00:04:09] It’s yeah, I was going to ask you to translate those big words. They’re manufacturer movers.
John Casmon [00:04:13] Yeah. Yeah. So this is not about just putting on the ax, you know, it’s not a fake it to you make it thing. This is about putting in the work. This is about focusing on your education. This is about listening to podcasts like this, reading books, learning about the craft. So you know what you’re talking about getting to the point where you are comfortable with the material so that you are ready to move on to the next level. But that confidence has to come from preparation. If you’re not prepared, it’s hard to be confident. Yes, you can fake it, but that is not the position you want to be in, particularly when you’re dealing with other people’s money. So confidence is the first thing that comes from preparation. I think about it as someone like Kobe Bryant, you know, a former great basketball player. Well, Kobe, one of the greatest players on the planet ever, would still shoot 500 shots every day. That confidence came from putting in the work. It didn’t come from just thinking you were the best. It came from putting in the work. And that’s exactly what you want to do. So that first these confidence take the time to learn your craft. Prepare. You’re looking at a deal. Underwrite it. Learn how to underwrite. Learn what to look for in a deal. Get really granular in the knowledge so that you are prepared when it’s time to go to other investors. So first, be confidence. The second C is credibility. Okay? The credibility comes from the experiences you have. So you may not have ever done a deal. Right? But if you’ve put in the work, if you’ve prepared, you can be confident in the work you’ve done. But that credibility is about the work you have done. And maybe it has been a real estate. Maybe you’re like me, a former corporate executive. So while I had done a real estate deal up to that point, I had overseen hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars of deals. As a matter of fact, oversaw $100 million advertising campaign. When I worked at General Motors, I oversaw seven agency partners. I oversaw different timelines, budgets, car launches, all sorts of big time events from Super Bowl activations to New Year’s Eve Times Square activations. Things were precision, were critical. We had to be on stage live at 1151 and 30 seconds on the dot. You know what I mean? Like, we had to be exactly precise in order to hit these timelines. So that kind of thing is what I lean off my experience. I had success in corporate America, and I know that success in those transferable skills in this new world of real estate. And how does that translate? Well. Managing teams. You know, if I can manage seven agency partners and manage different projects and hundred million dollar advertising budgets, it’s likely to think that I might be able to manage a construction crew or property management team or other aspects of the business. Right. They’re not the same. There’s different nuances and different hard things to learn. But a lot of those skill sets from a project management standpoint, they are transferable. Also, the relationships, managing clients, managing investors. Well, I used to be on the agency side where I manage different clients and manage different stakeholders. So working with investors and understanding what they’re looking for, which may be different from what brokers are looking for, which may be different from what a lender’s looking for. So understanding those different stakeholders and how they view an opportunity and how to work things or how to position things to them, that could be very helpful from a credibility standpoint. So you take that and if you have any experience doing these kind of deals, even if it’s a smaller portfolio, two units, three units, whatever it is, you do want to lean on that. The other thing with credibility, though, is it’s not just your credibility. You know, when I talk about the work I’ve done, I didn’t mention it to any of them by myself. I talked about my team, the agency partners I worked with, the clients, the people that were surrounding me. And in this case, it’s the same thing. You’re not going to go out there and invest in apartments by yourself. So who’s around you? Do you have a partner? Do you have a culture mentor? Do you have a property manager who has that experience? Who’s around you and your team? You want to leverage their experience and that’s going to help you with your credibility as well. So that’s the second C credibility.
Dave Dubeau [00:08:06] That’s a fascinating idea. Hold that thought for a second. Hi there. This is Dave Dubeau. And real estate investors hire me to raise capital the right way. Why? Because most of them are stuck with too small of a portfolio and they don’t know how to attract investors and raise money for their deals. So I help them to connect, capture and close their ideal money partners. Bottom line, when you’ve got a deal, you’re going to have the capital to do it. So go ahead and book a no cost capital clarity session with me at Book A chat with Dave dot COM. Again, that’s book a chat with Dave dot COM.
John Casmon [00:08:40] And then the third C is connections in were most people get tripped up as they say to themselves. Well I don’t have a network of people who can invest in these kind of deals. I don’t know super rich people or multimillionaires. So how could I ever raise money for these deals? And the truth is, maybe you don’t know those people. But you know what? I didn’t know all those people either. And what happens is you have to build your network and you start with your connections with the people you do know. First of all, you probably know more people than you think. If you go to Facebook or LinkedIn and look at some of the connections you have, you probably have thousands of connections, at least on one of those platforms. So if you think about those connections, is it likely that some of those people are credit investors who maybe have some money sitting around that they could invest if they knew of the right opportunity? And if you could present them with that opportunity, might they be interested in working with you? If they’ve already developed that they like you, they know you, they trust you, and they have a good rapport with you. Right. So part of what you want to do is build out those connections and not necessarily just for those individuals, but who in their network can they expand and reach you, too? Because they may not be sold on real estate at this point, but maybe they have people in their circle who are interested in real estate. And over time, they will get more and more comfortable. I’ll give you a great example. I have two really good sets of friends in Chicago, and on our very first syndication deal, the 182 unit deal, my one set of friends, they invest. And they invested. They got great returns. We went full cycle on that deal. Very pleased with it. And now they’re doing their own deals, which is amazing. My second set of friends, they were interested in investing, but they weren’t comfortable yet, both from the financial standpoint, the knowledge standpoint and about.
Dave Dubeau [00:10:22] In a confidence in you standpoint, perhaps at that point because you’re new to the world.
John Casmon [00:10:26] Yeah, they were they were confident in me, but not to the point where they’re like, who cares? As, John, let’s just give it to them. Right? It wasn’t that kind of confidence, but they were trying to get more comfortable with the experience, the process. How does this work? And over time, especially as they saw the results we were getting for our other set of friends, they became more and more interested and somewhat intrigued.
Dave Dubeau [00:10:47] A little bit a little bit of fear of missing out.
John Casmon [00:10:50] It was. And part of this also is that everyone moves at their own pace. Right. So their life stage had to change to the point where they now were needing some of the benefits that we could offer. And they invested in our last two deals. So they’ve gotten comfortable. They’ve done invest in the last two deals. They’re in a much better situation financially as well. But now they’re actually getting that benefit right. And they’ve introduced us to other friends and other folks that they have in their network. So that’s the thing with connections. Some people may not be ready today, but they’ll be ready a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, while other people may be able to introduce you to other people who are ready today. So think about the current connections you have and how can you expand on that? One of the things that we like to do, you mentioned the podcast. This is one of the reasons why become come on podcast. We want to expand our connections. We would expand our network and reach and connect with more and more individuals. So that is the third C connections. And if you’re looking to attract capital for deals, you have to focus on these three, you have to focus on your confidence, which comes from preparation. You have to focus on your credibility, which comes from your own experience and the experience of your team members. And you have to focus on your connections. Who do you know in your network? Who is interested in the opportunities that you can provide?
Dave Dubeau [00:12:02] Fantastic points there, John. So I want to, if you don’t mind, kind of dig in a little bit more, especially on the third one, the connections, because people might be thinking, well, hey, you know, this is easy for John to say. He’s this. Silky voiced guy from, you know, from corporate America who’s got a dialed in. He’s got a professional demeanor, the whole bit. It’s really easy for him to connect with people in social media and that sort of thing and turn them into investors. But what about me? I don’t know how to break the ice with people. I don’t know how to get that whole conversation started. So what would you recommend to folks about making those connections and turning those conversations into real estate conversation?
John Casmon [00:12:44] Well, the first thing I would say is that’s not true what you said. I mean, the silky smooth voice. Yes, that’s God given. And I think the parents do that. Right. But outside of that, no, I’m a guy who was an introvert. And if my parents would, they would laugh at you. Right. Because they know the kid they raised. I was a kid who wouldn’t even order his own food. Right. We went to restaurants and I would whisper to my dad what I wanted. And he would look at me like, tell the waitress she’s right there. I’m like, scared, you know, I can’t look at these strangers. Right? And I was like, I mean, maybe 12 when I finally started being comfortable to talk to other people. So this is something that you can learn. And the biggest takeaway is, and I tell my kids this all the time, nothing is easy, nothing is hard. Either you have enough practice and experience where it feels natural or you need more practice and experience. So don’t chalk something up as, Oh, it’s easy for him to do it, but I can’t do it. You could do whatever you want to do if you are willing to put into practice. Go back to what we talk about, if you’re willing to put in the time and do it. What you may not know is since I was in 12th grade, I have been working on my communication skills. So I’ve been working on this for over 20 years. I studied mass communications in college of the focus on PR. I study marketing. I wanted to go on radio. At one point I worked on my interpersonal skills. I’ve read, I don’t know, dozens and dozens of communication books. I have, you know, taken test and courses on, you know, all these kind of things. It’s a lot of effort that went into it, right? So by the time we got to the podcast and all that, these are just transferable skills. But if you’re going to be in corporate America, you have to know how to speak in a meeting. You have to know how to speak and to communicate your ideas. So, yes, I’ve had a lot of experience in that space, so it may feel easy to me at this point, but the reality is I’ve been putting in work on this for almost two decades. So with that said, if that’s not your skill set, the beauty is that is not the only way to get there. If you take me to a networking event, a meet up or a conference, you don’t get this. I’m not the guy who’s moving and shaking in the room. I’m just not. And I’m telling you, I’ve watched some of the big name people who you may hear about, and many of them are not that person either. When you go, you see them, you watch them. They’re not walking around smiling and shaking hands with every single person. So you have to understand what your comfort zone is. You have to be at a push outside of that comfort zone. But you also have to take that as a strength and say, how do I magnify this? So for me, I’m really good at small presentations, conversations like this. So podcast is a great medium for me. You mentioned a silky smooth voice, so that kind of helps, right? What are you. Are you more natural in front of an audience? Are you a better thinker? Do you like to write maybe a blog, maybe some sort of written platform is better for you to connect with people. Maybe an email newsletter is a better platform. So there’s so many different ways to connect. Again, all of us know how to talk to our friends and family. So that’s something you can do naturally. And one thing I always implore anyone to do, and I have some coaching clients that I work with as well, and one of the things that I kind of mandate for each of them is you have to talk to your friends and family, but the key is you’re not talking to them for them to invest with you. You are sharing this new opportunity with them and you’re asking them if they know anyone who would be interested in learning more, because that removes the pressure for them to say yes or no to you. And ultimately, what it does, it allows them to help you expand your network. So there are a lot of simple things you can do to expand, if you like social media, get on social media and expand, connect with people. Talk to them about what you’re doing, talk about economics, talk to them about finance, talk to them about real estate, and find people who are listening and interested in learning more about this message. So there’s a ton of different ways to go about it. The goal is the same. The strategy can differ based on who you are and what your comfort zone is, but the tactics are going to differ as well. But the reality is you have to find ways to expand your network and connect with people who may be interested in investing.
Dave Dubeau [00:16:46] Well said. Awesome. John, this is great stuff. It kind of feels like we drank the same Kool-Aid back in the day when it comes to this whole concept of attracting capital and investors instead of chasing after them. So I love your three C’s confidence, credibility and connections. Speaking of which, if people want to connect with you, what would you like them to do?
John Casmon [00:17:09] Well, one thing we have is a sample deal package. If you are interested in investing in apartments or you want. See what a deal might look like. You can go to our website kasmin capital dot com slash sample deal and download that there. In addition to that, we have a podcast called Multifamily Insights. It is available anywhere you listen to podcasts, so be sure to check us out and subscribe to the podcast there.
Dave Dubeau [00:17:31] Fantastic. Thank you very much, my friend. It’s been a real pleasure.
John Casmon [00:17:34] Dave. Thank you for having me on today.
Dave Dubeau [00:17:36] All right. Take care. We’ll see you on the next episode. Well, hey there. Thanks for tuning into the Property Profits podcast. If you like this episode that screen, please go ahead and subscribe on iTunes. Give us a good review. That’d be awesome. I appreciate that. And if you’re looking to attract investors and raise capital for your deals, then we invite you to get a complimentary copy of my newest book right back there. There it is, the money partner formula and get a PDF version at Investor Attraction book dot COM again. Investor attraction book. Dot com. Take care.