Do you have the mindset it takes to raise private capital? Join John Casmon and Steven today as they walk through this and other huge keys to successfully raising investment capital to build your legacy.
Do you have the mindset it takes to raise private capital? Join John Casmon and Steven today as they walk through this and other huge keys to successfully raising investment capital to build your legacy.
Key Takeaways
About our Guest:
John Casmon founded Casmon Capital Group, and since then the company has helped families invest in over $90M in multifamily apartments to create generational wealth and impact. John hosts the Target Market Insights podcast, and is the co-founder of the Midwest Real Estate Networking Summit.
In his previous life, he held budget and campaign accountability for Fortune 500 companies including General Motors and MillerCoors.
John’s driving purpose is to leave a legacy for his family and the people he cares about. His upbringing and experience of financial hardships when he was young have driven him to work even harder to ensure that his family doesn’t have the same experience he did.
Steven Pesavento 00:00
How do we master the game of raising capital for real estate investments? With mindset? Well, in this episode, we're going to dive deep with John Kasmin, who is a phenomenal marketer phenomenal capital raiser and we're gonna walk through the six C's the six steps, pieces that go into every capital raise that's going to set you up for success. You're not going to want to miss this episode. Let's get to it.
Steven Pesavento 00:25
This is the Investor Mindset podcasts and I'm Steven Pesavento. And for as long as I can remember, I've been obsessed with understanding how we can think better, how we can be better, and how we can do better. And each episode we explore lessons on motivation and mindset for the most successful real estate investors and entrepreneurs in the nation.
Steven Pesavento 00:48
Alright guys, welcome back to the investor mindset Podcast. I'm excited as I always in because today I have John Casmon in the studio. How you doing today, John?
John Casmon 00:56
I'm doing excellent. Steven, thank you for having me on today.
Steven Pesavento 01:00
That is what I like to hear. And he is a podcast veteran over 100 episodes, and founder of the Kasmin Capital Group, who's helped families invested over $90 million in multifamily apartments to create generational wealth and impact. And he's hosts the target market insights podcast. And as a co founder of the Midwest real estate network, networking summit. You know, he's worked in corporate America, fortune 500 companies, including General Motors, and Miller Coors, he's been doing some amazing things on the multifamily and marketing side, and we're gonna really dive deep in this episode, into something very specific capital raising, and it's going to apply to all of you investors out there, but especially folks in the multifamily space, as we know, it requires a lot of capital to buy big apartments. So if you're ready to jump in, I'm ready. Let's go. Let's do it. If we start off by taking a look back earlier in your life, what events or influences from your childhood shaped who you are today?
John Casmon 01:56
Well, I'll say growing up, you know, money was always a bit scarce, we were kind of lower economic, right. You know, it was always a challenge, getting money for things that may be basic for for most people. So a field trip, for instance, you know, might cost 10 bucks to get a field trip. But I always felt pressure, because I knew my mom didn't have it. So I think just those kinds of things in regards to money kind of shaped the way I view money, mostly in a sense of, I didn't want to continue to have those experiences and those feelings of money as I grew up. So it's really important for you to find ways to make money to break kind of a cycle and kind of create a new lifestyle, ultimately talk about, you know, changing lives and creating legacies. And this was really what this was about for me. So, as I kind of found ways to do that, you know, I started reading more and more, I decided I wanted to go to college, first person, my family go to college, graduate college, and kind of my serious school, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So like a lot of your listeners, you know, that book really opened up my eyes to understanding the way money worked. And it wasn't just about going to college, getting a great job, and, you know, paying bills and living off of you know, the difference. It was really about how do you create, you know, passive income, whether that is through assets that you own, or businesses that you own. So that was something that always stuck with me. And also as a young like, Hustler, slash entrepreneur, as a kid, you know, worked a bunch of odd jobs, everything from selling video games, to candy to T shirts, and gloves, did you not I used to sew latex gloves to beauty salons where we really would drive around the city going to beauty salons, a little 10 year old kid, and I'd pop in and, you know, sell these gloves. So that kind of stuck with me as well, just a sense that, you know, a lot of times if you could put the right product, the right service, with the right audience at the right time, there could be great value there. So those things kind of shaped me ultimately, what really had the biggest impact, though, was early in my career, I was a young executive, as you mentioned, working at General Motors from 2007. Ultimately, if anyone remembers, you know what it was like going into the recession? Well, I was at the company in the city. That was really the epicenter for that collapse, you know, in the in the financial industry, but primarily in the automotive industry. And I was working at General Motors. And I remember the moment when they made the decision that we were going to have to lay a lot of people off, and we were going to go into bankruptcy. And what happened for me was, I went into work, I was told not to worry that my job was safe. But nonetheless, I still had concerns because things change all the time. And I went into work, and the guy who sat in front of me directly in front of me. He had been let go earlier that morning. The person who sat to my left had been let go earlier that morning, and I had a red blinking light on my voicemail. And I was scared to check that voicemail because I didn't know if it was going to be Hey, John, we need to see you in HR, or what exactly that message was. Ultimately, after about 30 seconds and staring at it. I picked up the phone. I hit the button. And it was a voicemail from the guy in front of me and he talked about how after 22 years working for the company, he had been let go. And he was diabetic, he didn't know how he's gonna pay for his insulin. And he was completely distraught. And as I listened to that message as a young executive, two things happen to me. The first was empathy. I felt bad for someone who had dedicated their career to this company, and now didn't have a plan or didn't know what they were going to do. And I empathize with that situation. The second thing, though, was, I never wanted to be in that position. And no matter what the company, no matter what the industry, no matter how great I may have been, I knew that it wouldn't be enough for me to fully secure kind of my future and that I needed to find a way to create my own sources of income, and not rely on corporate America or corporate job. And that's kind of what I focused on going for.
Steven Pesavento 05:46
I mean, that's absolutely incredible, because you grew up with a lot of adversity. And it's, it's interesting, because when people grow up with adversity, they they end up going down one or two paths, they either make that the excuse of why they are never going to go and do great things. Or they make that the reason why they have to go and do great things. And for you, it sounds like, you know, I have a similar story of not growing up with a lot. I don't know, for me, and I'm sure it's similar as there's that feeling of like, I never want to feel that way. Again, I never want to have that feeling of having to fear going and asking for something for my mom or my dad, or, you know, all the stress and fighting that goes with it. And I can imagine that as you're sitting at General Motors, and you're seeing this happen in 2007 2008, that you're probably having a flashback to that feeling of seeing other people going through that when they went the secure route. And so, you know, based on that, you know, going through that feeling, I mean, what change, what do you do next?
John Casmon 06:44
Yeah, so let me keep my two this is, you know, in 2001, when that.com Boom happened, as well as 911, I was still in college. So I wasn't really in the professional world. I didn't know about a recession, or any of that kind of stuff, what the paying attention. But I do know that my mom struggled to find a job at that time. And my father went on strike at his company, he worked a blue collar job at a factory and he was on strike. So I do remember seeing hardships, but you know, I was out of the house at that time. So to your point, you fast forward to 2008. When that went down. For me, it was a combination of Luckily, I was secure, my job was safe. I was you know, I didn't miss a check or anything like that. So I was fine. But I did realize that, hey, you need to start figuring something else out. So my first thought was, hey, I read the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, real estate would be a great avenue to get into, except I was living in Detroit at the time where the real estate prices just kept dropping like a rocket going backwards, right. So I didn't feel comfortable investing in Detroit. At that time, in hindsight, you know, if I would have waited another year, 2010 would have been a great time to invest. But nonetheless, you know, at that time, I didn't want to invest here, I started looking to Chicago really wanted to move to Chicago. So ultimately, I left in 2011, moved to Chicago, worked at an advertising company and started investing on the side. So I bought a two unit building, I lived in one unit rent out the other. Many people may know this as a house hack. I did not know that term at the time. But we did a house hack in 2011. And that went really well for us, we create a lot of equity in that first property. And we continue to save our money bought a three unit building shortly after that. And we actually create enough equity in that first property to create a six figure line of credit that I used to buy an eight unit building. So that kind of got the ball rolling from a multifamily standpoint, while I was still working in advertising and working with big brands, and doing large promotions and activations and integrations, you know, I was building my real estate portfolio on the side. And ultimately, what happened to me was, we were running out of our own money, you know, I was finding these deals were investing, I was saving every dollar. And I really wasn't, I was making progress, but not the progress that we were hoping to make, you know, over the course of, you know, five or six years, you know, we have certainly more passive income, but it was nothing to protect me from losing my job, you know, it was like $1,000 a month, it wasn't really that much to walk away from a job or feel completely insulated from the effects of, you know, outside, outside outside sources. So part of it for me was we had to continue to find ways to grow, but it could rely on how much money we could save, that really opened up my mind to working with other investors, and potentially starting to raise some capital for deals.
Steven Pesavento 09:21
I mean, that that's it's such a cool story because you slowly built momentum. And then you have this kind of epiphany of realizing that, well, if I want to be able to grow this the way that I believe that I can, in order to be able to leave the job and have some true security, then I might need to work with some other people. And you know, bringing that marketing skill set in that background that you already have, I'm sure was a really great segue into you jumping in to you know, the multifamily, the syndication and the capital raising space. And so what I'd love to talk about here is talk to me, but let's really dive deep into this thing about capital raising right it's it's one of those fears that a lot of investors have this fear of, well, I don't have enough money, I don't have enough capital. And you know, if you know my story, I started with almost no money, I put almost everything that I had on credit cards, like up to $30,000. To get started wholesaling, hustled my way up, you know, started flipping, some houses started making some money. And nearly every dollar that I made was based on borrowing money, or by raising capital in some kind of way, shape or form. So I know firsthand how important this is. But it's so easy still to fall into that trap of thinking to yourself, well, I don't know, if someone's gonna want to invest in this deal with me. We're having some limiting beliefs about it. So I'd love to hear from you like, what is the process in your eyes? If somebody wants to get started raising capital? And what goes into, you know, a great, a great process for raising capital?
John Casmon 10:51
Well, I mean, I think you nailed it right there. Before you could go into the actual process of raising money for a deal. You really have to understand your mentality and your goals. What are you trying to accomplish? You know, what are you what are your limiting beliefs that you have, I will tell you, most people who have concerns, those concerns fall into one of three buckets. Either one, they're concerned that they don't have the network to raise money, and people won't want to invest with them. Or two, they just are concerned that they don't want to really ask their friends and family for money, they don't want to beg or, or feel like they're putting people in a tough position. Or they're concerned that those relationships may go sour if something bad happens. So they don't really want to ask friends or family. Or the third thing is, you know, they don't have the education, the knowledge or the experience themselves, to feel comfortable in knowing what they're doing. So one of those three reasons, that's usually why someone is apprehensive to being out there and raising money for deals. The first thing I would say is, depending on where you fall with those three objections, you have to ask yourself, what value or can you provide for other people? You know, it's one thing when you look at it from your own perspective, and what you get out of it, because it's easy to say, okay, hey, I need half a million dollars to do this deal. Okay, who can get me half a million dollars, that mindset is going to take you down one path, where it can feel like you have walls against you. And it's hard to overcome those obstacles. Versus, hey, we have cash flowing assets that have phenomenal tax benefits, that can help diversify assets. Who can we go talk to who would have interest in a product like this, or investing in something like this, if you're focusing on serving other people, versus what you get out of it, then it makes it much easier to go in and just present an opportunity. And I think that's really a big shift. And a lot of people starting out, it's tough for them to understand that. And it seems nuanced, but it's really important. Because if you're focused on what you get, then you're not going to say the right things, you're not going to think about it the right way, it's going to be very difficult. And you're just going to see all the objections and the hard work that you're going to have to do. If you focus on serving other people, and creating a product or service that helps other people get what they want, get what they need, get what they're looking for reach their goals reach their objectives, then it's going to be much easier to understand what those solutions are. So as you're talking to people, either it fits what they're trying to do, or it doesn't, and you can come up with solutions for those individuals. So the mindset is really important. When it comes to this,
Steven Pesavento 13:25
it's so critical, you've got to get in the right mind space to be able to go out and, and do anything, but especially when you're talking about bringing other people into into the wheelhouse into what it is that you're doing. And what a big shift that is to go from, hey, well, what am I getting to? How is this actually really great for other people. And we hear that a lot. But sometimes we hear it and we think it but then when we actually go to raise the capital, we go back to what we're thinking about, we need to stay in that mindset of why is this valuable to the other person and not take it personally if they don't see that value, and just move on to the next person or work on our on our delivery to be able to, you know, show, hey, if you're this kind of person, this is probably be a good fit. So I'd love to hear a little bit about that delivery and kind of what goes into actually going and doing the raise once you got your mindset in the right place.
John Casmon 14:17
Absolutely. So there are six things, you know, I like to call them the six C's of raising capital, okay, there are six seeds that you really need, and anyone who's raising money right now and having success. They're following the 60s, I'm going to say what they are, and then we're gonna hit on the specific elements of each one. Okay, the first one is confidence. The second one is credibility. Third one is connections. Fourth is channel. The fifth is communications. And the last one is consistency. So the first one confidence that comes from what you're just saying, right? It's how you speak how you convey your message. You know, think about I'm going to say a salesman, but don't take this the wrong way. But anyone who's selling anything, a good salesman, they're not trying to sell you. They're educating They're sharing the knowledge. They're answering questions. They're, you know, letting you know which product works and you're trying to understand your needs. So you, they can help you find the best solution for what you're trying to do, right. And that's really what the confidence is. But if you don't know those solutions, if you're not educated yourself, if you don't have the experience yourself, it's going to be hard to do that. So the first thing you have to do is focus on your own knowledge and your own confidence and building up that confidence. Now, sometimes you could be in an industry forever, and still not be confident. So those are things you need to work on yourself. So part of that self confidence. Part of that is your knowledge and your expertise. Another way you help yourself with that confidence, is by building on your credibility. So if you're new, if you've never raised money for a deal, or, you know, you're where I was starting out, you did a few deals, but not enough to feel like, you know, you could go out and raise a million dollars or, you know, you really have mastered the art of investing or multifamily. You know, what other ways can you build that credibility? Well, one thing you can do is leverage a team's credibility. So your property manager built that team around you get a mentor, or coach or somebody who can help consult you and be in your corner, you know, build a team overall, that you can lean on. So even though you don't have all the knowledge, you have a team around you that can help you navigate and look at any kind of deal, that's going to build your credibility as you're talking to people, it's also going to make you more confident because worst case scenario, you know, if your property manager, your lender, and everyone else looks at this deal, your partner is your mentor, and they all say it's a great deal. Even if you still aren't 100% Sure, it probably means it's a pretty good deal. If everyone else in your team thinks it's a good deal, right. So that confidence and credibility kind of go together, I will say that if you're confident, but not credible at all, you're probably just cocky. And that's a really bad sign. Okay, so the next thing is connections, you have to have the network to be able to raise money. Now, you may not have that network today. And I'm going to disagree with what many people I know many of the, you know, the real estate professionals, gurus, educators, they will tell you to start with family and friends. And I'm going to disagree to it to an extent because your family and friends are not your ideal investor. Some of them may be but generally speaking, your family and friends are not your ideal investor. So what that means is your cousin, your best friend you went to school with, they love you. But they may not be the person who was ready to invest $100,000, if the deal, the right deal comes across their table, they may invest with you because they know like and trust you. But they're not generally out there looking at investment opportunities. Now, there may be some people in your circle, who absolutely are. So when I say this, part of the reason I want to make make this clear, is it's not about going out and asking all your friends and family to invest with you. The real key, I'm going to give you a big secret right here. The real key is to use those individuals to help you identify people in their networks that actually fit that criteria. That's a powerful way to build your connections, and to identify those investors that may be looking for investment opportunities right now. Now, the next thing you have is your channel. How are you communicating with people? Are you on social media? Are you doing email marketing? Are you doing? You know, you know, I highly doubt anyone's doing TV or radio, but what kind of platforms and channels are using to get your message out there? So that's kind of a fourth one. Yeah.
Steven Pesavento 18:23
So that that's huge. I mean, right? Guys, I hope that you can see that there's a set process here that you can follow by getting these ideas right in your head first, before you head out the door. Right? If you get your confidence and credibility in line, they both play together. And then when you start understanding that that is going to lead you to being able to build a great network through those connections. And then obviously, how are you going to be able to communicate to those people? Well, what channel are you going to be able to use these all build upon each other. And it's fairly simple. That doesn't mean that it's easy to do. That means that it's something that you can definitely go out and do yourself?
John Casmon 18:59
Absolutely, absolutely. This is a fairly and I'm giving it a high level, obviously, there's a lot more involved, but just you can wrap your head around what that process is, you know, once you have a channel and that channel doesn't have to be complex. The channel may be, you know, phone calls and text messages, right? It doesn't have to be a big media platform, but you have to figure out how are you going to communicate with individuals? The next piece is the communication itself. What's the message? So what are you going to say to them, you know, understanding the information that they need, and being able to answer questions that they may have, how do you educate them to get them comfortable, it's much easier to educate somebody and then talk to him about an investment opportunity, versus trying to talk to him about investment opportunity where they don't know anything about multifamily or real estate investing. And then the last piece is consistency. And this is key, especially if you don't have a super long track record. Because if you have a 1015 year track record, your consistency isn't doing it 10 to 15 years, so if you haven't been doing it that long, you have to have other areas to demonstrate your commitment level, you know, whether that is, you know, a podcast, you're on over 100 episodes, right, I'm on, I'm getting close to 200 Episode episodes of my podcast. And it's not just the number of podcast episodes, but you can go back and look and see when were they published, had they done this consistently each week, over the last year. You know, if you're writing a blog, if you're sending out emails, whatever the case may be, people want to know that you are seriously committed to what you're presenting. And if you do something over a period of time, that longevity and that consistency is just going to make it easier for you to, you know, drive those connections, connect with people, and build your own credibility and confidence as well. So they all kind of work together in some ways. But I think those six elements, the confidence, credibility, connections, the channel, the communications and consistency, those six elements are really key to raising big capital.
Steven Pesavento 20:56
Yeah, that's, that's incredible. Because what it does is it shows us that just about anybody can go out and do this stuff, right. So if you're listening right now, and you happen to be one of those people who falls into the category of having one of those limiting beliefs, that says, I don't know if I can do this, I don't know, if people are gonna want to, you know, participate in these real estate deals with me. Well, now you have somewhere that you can specifically, look, you can go and focus on these succeeds, and improve in those. And so I want to kind of dive in for a second here, with the time that we have left to talk a little bit about what some of that messaging is, and what are some of the channels that you use yourself. Because I imagine as you're you've shifted, when you first got started, you know, you probably were using one set of messaging, and now that you've been doing it for a while, you know, you're probably using a different set. And so I'd love to hear what's the difference between, you know, when you just were getting started, and what you'd recommend, versus somebody who's been doing this for a while, and has been consistent in their channels?
John Casmon 21:53
Well, I think one of the biggest thing to starting out is that you're still very nervous about your own credibility and capabilities. And that's just true. It's human nature. And that's just a natural thing. But the reality is that most people care about themselves, they want to know about you, for sure. But they really care about themselves more. So as you're talking to people, the message should really be about how what you're doing can serve and benefit them. And I would say, starting out, you know, that was kind of a dance to figure out, Okay, how much do I spend, you know, demonstrating my credibility and proving my value and my worth, versus truly just educating them on how they benefit. You know, and again, especially you're talking to people that you have a close relationship with, it's easier just to focus on them, you certainly need to talk about your credibility and highlight that. And if you don't have experience doing multifamily, for instance, like you know, I had a small multifamily multifamily portfolio, but I did have a strong business, you know, success. And most of the people knew me from the business success, the marketing success, the different accolades that I achieved from that perspective. So I leaned on that more. And I would say the same thing, you talk about that credibility, you want to lean on whatever credibility you actually have, as long as it's transferable, and then supplement whatever weaknesses or gaps you may have with other folks on the team. So your message really should be focused on what they want more than anything else, what the benefits are, highlight your skill set, highlight your team that you're doing, and then pivot. And I would say, I think starting out, we probably leaned a little more heavily on what we were doing. And what would be much better thing to do for your listeners, is focus on the value that you can provide for your audience. And then just, you know, you have your lines and have your messages and your proof points that justify why you're the right person to to help them do that.
Steven Pesavento 23:45
Hmm. Well, that's some really powerful stuff. And how do we go about educating people on this stuff? And and what kind of information should we be sharing with folks to educate them on some of the benefits of what it is that we're really offering?
John Casmon 23:58
Well, I mean, there are a lot of different ways to do it. Right? There are different platforms all out there. What I would tell you is, you know, just to make sure people understand there's podcasting like we're doing right now, there's blogging, which is a big platform, a lot of people love social media and posting on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and, and YouTube videos and things like that. And email marketing is huge. I really love email marketing. So those are different ways to convey your message webinars are starting become more and more popular as well. So creating these webinars. So those things are becoming more and more popular. Those are big ways of doing it. The key though, is you have to build so those are the those are the channels, those channels audience on That's right. Those are the channels that you want to build your audience and communicate your message. Once you kind of have that. As far as the things that you want to say to those audience. You need to understand what they need to learn and this really comes down to who your I call them an avatar but who your investor target is or your investor avatar. You know, are they current investors? Are they current real estate professionals? Are they doctors are the engineers. What exists? Do they do? What knowledge do they have? What are the gaps, what's going to prevent them from making a decision. So you have to really understand where they're at, because you don't want to stay so high level that you're not really adding value to them. If I just talk about, you know, how to determine what NOI is, and net operating income, that may not be enough for someone who is really, you know, they've already invested into syndication, right. So maybe they're trying to understand how I look at deals and how you know, how much money reserves I put or my perspective on, you know, bridge loans versus agency debt. So, you know, it kind of depends on your audience. And so someone new, they're like, what's a bridge loan, you know, so you have to understand where your audience is, and kind of pull them down the funnel. And I would say, a great thing to do is you create different tiers of messaging based on that someone really brand new, someone who, you know, is really learning about multifamily for the first time, you can start educating them about the high level ins and outs of multifamily. And then as they get more and more comfortable, you can start to transition them into the more advanced terminology or theories and strategies, things like that. The point though, the biggest thing with all the messaging is to educate and inform, but then also to position yourself as a subject matter expert, if you do those two things, you'll be successful, you just want to make sure you're not going over people's heads, or not providing real value to them if you're not educating and informing them. So sometimes when you write, you may want to right, to the point where it's kind of tiered even in one message where maybe the top piece of the message is very introductory. So that person who doesn't know a lot of like, go back to noi, you know, you know, that could be, you know, in or for those listening, or it's all of the income minus all the expenses is the net operating income. Okay? So that right, there might be a piece that we write, if we were to do a blog, or or podcast or something like that, we might talk about in a lie. But then for a more sophisticated investor, someone who's more season, we may talk about ways to optimize NOI and get into some of the advanced strategies we use to optimize and why all in one piece of content. So for that new investor, who doesn't even know what NOI is, I can educate them, but they can still follow the rest of it. And we will break down the strategies in ways that they would understand how we're looking at our strategies to optimize the net operating income, which ultimately mean ultimately means more money for investors, right? So you can you can tear it, depending on how you want to write it. But I would say you definitely to keep thinking about the user, your audience, and where they're at on their scale of knowledge.
Steven Pesavento 27:40
Yeah, that's such such a good reminder. And talk to me a little bit about how do you actually come up with this, the right avatar, the right person to go after when you're talking about raising capital? Because you know, what I hear from a lot of folks as well. My Network is X type of people, or I know a few people who are in this type of business or I know real estate investors, and therefore, that's the only people I'm thinking about raising capital from. But there's probably a best practice on coming up with who's the right avatar, even if they're not the people you're serving right now. And how would you go about that from a marketing perspective?
John Casmon 28:13
Yes, I mean, this is something we deal with in marketing for years, you know, for all my clients, we always have basically, two two customer profiles, we have who our ideal target market is, that's where marketing to, and then we actually have our buyers or who is actually purchasing the product, I'll use my time and beer as a great example. So when I worked on beer, typically you're going after younger drinker younger being legal age drinking, but say 21 to 35 years old, especially 21 to 27, right, that person who's still figuring out which brand preference they're going to have, or their Miller Lite drink, or their Budweiser drinker, or they, you know, craft beer drinker, we're trying to figure out who that individual is, right. So that would be our targeting avatar. So the say a 25 year old, graduated from college a couple years ago, maybe has a roommate love sports, you know, working in their career. So mindset wise, that's our target. So we're creating our communications with that person in mind. Okay, so when I sit down or write a piece of creatives, or I'm writing an article or anything like that I'm writing with that person in mind. Now, if you actually look at who the buyer is, the buyer is like a 45 year old you know, guy in the middle of you know, Iowa or something like that. Not the cool hip, young, you know, drinker in the middle of New York or Chicago, that we have an avatar it's actually it's like 45 year old guy just like to drink a six pack on a weekend. Why sit on his couch right? Way less intriguing from a marketing standpoint, but that's actually who is buying so we're always trying to find ways to you know, attract that younger person. So, you take that overall marketing philosophy and you kind of bring it down because ultimately you Don't know who your investor is, is going to depend on who they just decided. That's right, you can write whatever you want to write as far as your avatar. If you say, hey, I want 35 year old doctors, great, but you're not going to turn away a 55 year old engineer, right? I mean, it's not how it works. So with that said, the reason it's important, even though you may not get that person is you still need a bull's eye to start creating. And then you also may change where you send your messages to in the same way for us from a targeting standpoint, if I'm going after that 21 to 27 year old in major urban markets, then I'm going to advertise in places where I believe that individual is that the mediums that they use, whether it be college sports, or nightclubs, or bars, or whatever, right? So I'm going to build my marketing plan based on reaching that audience. And you're going to do the same thing. So in this case, I would say, let's, let's take what we're talking about with mediums, right? Let's say you want passive investors and your passive investors are 45, let's just say 45 Plus highly skilled accredited professionals, meaning that they make over $200,000 a year, if you're talking to engineers, doctors, accountants, lawyers, those kinds of individuals, right? Well, you may say, all right, where can I find these people? People ask me right now about tick tock, well, are these people on tick tock? Probably not right now. You know, I know tic TOCs. Hot is the new cool, young thing. But if you're trying to go after 45, plus year old professional employees, are they on tick tock? No. Are they on Facebook? Are they on LinkedIn? Are they on Twitter? Or on Instagram? And if so, what's their mindset on each platform? And how do you engage with them appropriately on those platforms? Right? So you have to go through all these different things, so you can understand how to connect with them. I mean, right now, most of us are at home, you know, on lockdown with kids, I don't know if you can hear my kids running around upstairs. But you know, so do they have kids? If they do, can you relate to them as, as a parent, right, understand what they're going through as a parent, a busy professional, with parent with kids, you're thinking about, you know, getting into college or thinking about, you know, all the different things you have to do. So, really understanding that avatar really helps you drive a connection with that consumer, whether it be an investor or any product, quite frankly, but just understanding who they are. It's a vital piece. So it may not be who you actually get. But I think you need to have a target profile persona, that makes it easier for you to identify who is the right person who's ideal for you.
Steven Pesavento 32:45
This has been beautiful, this has been amazing. Being able to see and understand like, how can we actually come up in craft with intention, who it is that we're trying to serve, and what the messages that we're going to use to attract them, and how we're actually going to provide benefit to them. It's, it's so incredible, it makes it seem so simple to go out and raise capital, which is amazing. Because really, if we could just take the right steps, and obviously, we couldn't get into all of them right here. But getting that overarching view into what that might look like, really helps us lay the foundation for us to go out and find out. Well, what are those individual steps? So in closing on this subject, particularly just on the capital raising, is there anything you want to share with the audience? Before we move on to the next section of our time together?
John Casmon 33:31
Yeah, I would say two things. So one, you know, developing a marketing strategy, it's, it's paramount, you know, you can actually just go through the steps, and I've worked with, you know, mentors, myself, and different people. And even still, sometimes there was gaps between building kind of a true marketing strategy that's efficient, and allows you to optimize. So if anyone is interested in learning more about how to do this, how to work with investors, or how to start, I call it attracting capital for real estate, not raising capital, we attract capital for real estate, if anyone's interested in that, I'm happy to do a quick 15 minute consultation to talk to you about your marketing strategy. And, you know, we're happy to share some thoughts and give a little bit more of the context of things that we do to help some of our clients, some of our students, and building up kind of their marketing communications. But I'm happy to take 15 minutes, and I'll send you the link for that, where they can schedule that time with me as well.
Steven Pesavento 34:23
That's amazing. Do you see what he just did there guys, he just placed his marketing message, his call to action after teaching us about all this information. And so that's the same kind of thing we can do ourselves with our different avatars that we're going after when we're looking at attracting capital, as you said, so, you know, moving on, talk to me a little bit about how you define success and what is success to you.
John Casmon 34:45
Yeah, you know, success is freedom and independence. You know, the ability to make your own decision is the ability to be where you want to be when you want to be there and who you want to be there with. You know, right now, a lot of people are very frustrated being stuck at home and I gotta tell you, I've had to shift my day around But other than that, you know, we love, we love our home. And we lived in a city for eight years. And this is the first time for me living in a real house. So I'm, I'm still a little static about that, and got plenty of space to stretch out and be in different rooms and be all together and do family nights. I mean, watch the movie last night together. So I think that's, that's it. And it's really about just the simple things for me about being able to do the things we want to do when we want to do them who we want to do them with. I think that is really success.
Steven Pesavento 35:29
That's amazing. And talk to me about what are some of your Keystone Habits, the things you do on a daily or weekly basis that help lead to some of that success.
John Casmon 35:36
Yeah, so I was not a big journal guy. But after talking to so many people who just rave about the power of journaling, and I would sit down and journal by our notes, right, you know, those those weird for me, but I finally picked up a planner, and from that planner that has allowed me to really get into journaling a little bit more, because it's more structure. And really just looking at my day, a week, a month, my quarter a year, and being able to break it down where you know, weekly goals. And it's like really simple, like, either you did it or you didn't do it. So that's really helped me. You know, waking up earlier, has been very beneficial. I mentioned earlier, my two kids, if anyone's out there with kids, you're busy and you feel like you just don't have a lot of time to do the things you really want to do, or to push yourself for, you know, if you can wake up 30 minutes earlier an hour earlier, I know it may sound like a lot. But if you really think about your day, you can probably find time to you know, wake up before everyone else. And for me, that's the key. It's not just about, oh, I'm not gonna watch TV, or I'm not gonna do this, it's I have to be up by myself. So I have that time for an hour, at least each day. It allows me to be productive. It allows me to think maybe to get a workout in, but allows me to prioritize my day, knock out something have a big win before anyone else in the family wakes up. So for me, the big thing is waking up at least an hour earlier than the rest of my family. It's usually it's about two hours earlier, but at least one hour.
Steven Pesavento 37:08
Huh. That's such a good reminder for all of us to get up a little earlier and take some time to do the things we know are important. So we've made it to the growth rapid fire round, where the questions are quick, but the answers don't need to be. Tell me what's a book that's impacted your life the most or one you're excited about right now.
John Casmon 37:25
I just read relentless by Tim Grover, and really great book, I've read a lot of different books. But Tim Grover, his book has been really good. It just gets into the mindset, there's three, three types of people that he calls out a cooler, a closer, and a cleaner. And the cleaner is kind of that, you know, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant type mentality where they really don't care what you think about them, they just get it done. And it was really interesting, because, you know, it gets into what it takes to be truly great from a mindset perspective. And it really is, it goes counter to most of the things all of us learn about business and relationships and all those things. And it just really talks about the importance of setting your goals in doing whatever it takes to accomplish those goals, even if it means rubbing people the wrong way, not crossing people not being dirty or anything like that. But just, you know, a relentless pursuit of greatness, which I thought was just really interesting. And it's good reminder, so that sometimes we just have to plow through and do whatever, we have to take the drive success.
Steven Pesavento 38:29
Hey, man, what a great reminder. And so inspiration, what impacts have mentors made in your life? And how do you look at going out and finding great mentors?
John Casmon 38:39
Listen, I'm a huge believer in mentorship. You know, I was fairly successful in my own corporate career. And I hired him into a real estate primarily because I was concerned that I might mess up somebody else's money. You know, I felt like I knew what I was doing. I was probably 85 90% confident, but that last 10 to 15%. You know, for me, once we start to expand and work with other people, I just thought it was critical. And I owed it to myself and I owed it to all my potential investors to do everything in my power to create in an era of success, where you know, we could have everything we needed to to move forward. So mentorship is huge, you know, my mentor has been very helpful for us to to grow over the years, we've mentored a lot of different people as well. And it's been amazing watching them grow and blossom and, you know, attract capital for their deals and grow on to build their portfolios. And mentorship is just a key element of moving yourself forward. And I would say, this is the one area where if I could go back, I probably would double or triple down my investment in mentorship. Just because people can help you identify challenges or opportunities that maybe you don't see. There are things that we all have, we have all we all have unique talents. We all have unique abilities, our own unique story, and we can find ways to tell our stories. To convey our message with people, and to double down and push those things, we can have success much sooner. But you know, if you want to do it all by yourself and bootstrap it, you can, it's just going to be a longer road. And ultimately, you have to look at everything as an investment. So it's not about what it costs. It's about the investment and the return on the investment. So if you're looking at a mentorship, or a mastermind, or any type of thing to continue to push yourself forward, think about it as an investment. What am I going to have to put into this both financially and other resources, my time? What other commitments am I going to have to make here and sacrifices? And what am I going to get out of it? What am I going to get back, and if you love the returns, that you're going to get, and that outweighs the investment, then you should look to move forward with that.
Steven Pesavento 40:43
Such a good reminder for all of us. You know, it's it's in times like this, that's even more important to have mentorship to be able to fight through any battle and make it through any storm. And so finally finishing on this purpose, what drives you to live your best life every day?
John Casmon 40:58
Legacy? Legacy, man, so the biggest thing is, you know, we talked about my childhood, right, growing up and not knowing if I was gonna have 10 bucks to go on a field trip and having to call my uncles and see who would let me borrow it. You know, when you think about death, let's just go real morbid. For a second, we're dead. When people say about us, what impact will we actually have on those that we love? And I don't just mean immediate family, my kids will probably be fine. Right? Um, but what about my extended family? What about my community? What about the causes that I'm passionate about? You know, what kind of impact will I have there. So when you think about what you want to create, for me, it's all about legacy, it's all about being able to make an impact, all these things that I'm concerned with, that I care about. And that is really the best thing that I think we can do with our time on Earth is try to make it a better place. Try to help people leave a positive image, positive memory on the individual to people you touched me, if you come across with for them to say, Man, I got helped me do XYZ or he helped us do this or, you know, he may whatever donation but to leave a positive impact and create a legacy for yourself for your family. I think that's really the biggest thing that we all can do. So legacy is really the biggest thing and making an impact.
Steven Pesavento 42:19
Hmm, that that makes a big impact on me. And this, this conversation has made a big impact. So I just want to thank you for that. You're such a clear, prolific speaker, and thank you for sharing so much with our audience. Where can people find out more about you or get in touch?
John Casmon 42:34
Yeah, absolutely. So if anyone's interested in doing the 15 minute consultation on marketing, I'll send you the link so they can, they can reschedule that. Other than that, if you want to learn more about multifamily investing, I actually have a sample deal on our website. It's another great way to understand the way we think about real estate, multifamily and deals and what you may want to convey to a potential investor or for passive investors if you want to see what a sample deal looks like. So you can start to understand the questions you would want to ask or what kind of returns you should be expecting and things like that. It's a great resource for both groups. So you can check that out at casman Capital comm slash sample deal.
Steven Pesavento 43:13
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And I'll leave everybody the way I always leave you guys. And that is, you know, go out and live a life worth inspiring others and you can do so today by applying some of the lessons that are shared in your own life and your own business. Thanks, and I'll see you next time.
Steven Pesavento 43:32
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