Episode #237 – Turning Struggle Into Mastery and Success, with Joe Dillon, Part 1

You're listening to the REI marketing nerds podcast, the leading resource for real estate investors who want to dominate their market online. Dan Barrett is the founder of AdWords nerds, a high tech digital agency focusing exclusively on helping real estate investors like you get more leads and deals online, outsmart your competition and live a freer, more awesome life. And now, your host, Dan Barrett

[0:42] All right, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the REI marketing nerds podcast. As always, this is Daniel Barrett here from AdWords nerds.com where we help real estate investors of all shapes, Stripes and colors, get more leads and deals online. If you want some help. putting together an online marketing strategy for your business, you know where to go? It is add words nerds.com We will help you out. Okay. This week I've got a really fun interview with Joe Dillard. Now if you don't know, Joe, he's got a really incredible story. I kind of don't want to spoil it. I want you to kind of go into this interview, you know, without a lot of preconceptions, but suffice to say Joe is an incredible investor, an incredible coach, someone who is really, really good at connecting with people and helping them figure out exactly what they need in order to succeed, right.

He's not someone that just gives the same plan to everybody. This is someone that really works closely with people and understands what makes them tick. He is a wonderful investor. Like I said, wonderful coach, just a really great person and a really wonderful person to learn from. So without any further ado, we're going to jump into my interview with Joe Dylan. I am here with Joe Dylan from sever seven figure wholesale Joe Dylan, man, thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate it. Hey, I'm honored to be here. My man thank you for so much for having me. Yeah,

[2:11] I did. I will. I will. I promise I will not. I will try not to say sever again. Because it sounds very ominous. But yeah, man, we have so much to get into. We were talking before we started recording and there's just so much stuff I want to touch on in your story and your business so much fun stuff. Before we get there. Let's just kind of back up over people who aren't familiar with you. Let's talk a little bit about kind of your what most people know you from, which is probably the seven figure wholesale program. So kind of give people an overview of you and what you've been doing up till now.

[2:44] Alright, so I'll give you the nutshell version. Okay. So essentially, in 2014, I really got into what really like 2013 really got into the law of attraction that led me to attract, meeting this guy named Raphael into my life, we ended up partnering on this wholesale business like, and I was like, Oh, what is this whole selling thing about? And it was we started off tons of door knocking, we were doing cold calls before it was cool. And we did tons of tons of tons and tons of calls, a lot of mail, stuff like that. I had, you know, built a little bit of cash from my job, ended up leaving my job.

And I just went all in, you know, and just real quick, I'll just jump straight into it. But for anybody that's starting, you know, I know you I know, you have a lot of listeners here, Dan, that you know, are already doing deals. But for anybody that's starting your number one thing is getting over your own mental blocks, and actually just doing the work. At the beginning. It's all about numbers. It's literally about getting practice. And it's about just getting numbers, okay, meaning making as many calls as you can falling on your face making mistakes. And eventually you will get your first deal, then it snowballs from there, right. So we did that grew the business that next year, we were a really good team professionally. But we made so many mistakes just like anybody else.

And so we grew this business to a pretty large scale through a lot of trials and tribulations, our bank account went up and down. You know, constantly, we would almost hit zero like three times we're almost out of business. But we finally kind of figured it out when we put structure into the business. And so I'm huge on structure. And seven figure Wholesale is all about implementing structure into your business, which you know, is systems data, accountability, right? literally putting structure to your entire operation, so that it's way more efficient. And when you get efficiency, that's when your numbers start to go up.

Right How many calls you can do a day, how many offers you can make in a day, how much you can handle and the number of deals ultimately, that you're going to close. And so, you know, seven figure Wholesale is all about giving active real estate investors, the tools, the structure, the systems, and most importantly, which most people don't talk about the roadmap, which is like, Hey, don't do this, do this first. Don't do this right now. Right, which most people don't talk about which we can get into the order of your actions matters, right. But that's what it's all about is giving those active investors the tools to really, really, truly scale and know where they're going. So that's what it's all about, maybe

[5:45] file. I love that. So there's a ton of stuff I want to talk about that's kind of happening currently in your business stuff that's changing for you. Before we get into that stuff. I do want to spend some time talking a little bit about kind of your background and this this whole story behind kind of the founding of seven figure wholesaling. And I want to start with this idea of like you going all in, like you said, like you kind of you sort of attracted this person into your life. And then you kind of like, all of a sudden, you're running this business and you like quit your job and like all this stuff, right?

And you mentioned mental blocks, huge problem for people who are getting started. And like, you know, let's be honest, right? It's probably for everybody, it doesn't really matter anything. It's just a different kind of mental block. It's always kind of in your way. Absolutely. Why do you think that you were so willing to jump in sort of like both feet first, right? Like, why were you willing to make that jump? And I think a lot of people would feel very nervous about a very threatened by that, why do you think you were so able to do that? Is that like a personal background thing? It's a philosophy thing, like, what do you think,

[6:45] man, I'll tell you ever since I was a kid, I always aspire for greatness. Like, I knew somehow, I knew some way some shape. Like I was going to be successful. How that initially showed up. When I was a kid, I was I thought I was gonna be the world's best soccer player. Right? Because I saw Pele and like, it was you know all about that. Right? When I was a kid, right? Obviously, didn't, didn't happen. But I think one, it's just installing really good software into your own brain. Right. And so, you know, I was blessed that I had, I think, loving a loving mother who, you know, was constantly pouring into me, you know, just like anybody else. I mean, there's, there's a balance with that, right?

But I just, I just believed it. That's the most important thing. I believed it. Number one, number two, we were poor, growing. Okay, so that, like, I learned not even to ask for things, because I didn't even want to put us in a bad spot. And I know, you know, my dad was constantly working jobs. My mom was at home taking care of us. And so, you know, through that, like, I was like, Man, this, I don't want to fucking live like that. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I was able to see what I didn't want, right? And that drove me to create the life that I did want. Yeah. And so when I found the opportunity, I was like, Let's go all in the third piece of that is like getting connected with the right person, like, I just attracted this person into my life.

And who knew he knew a lot more about real estate than I did. So he kind of showed me the ropes. And then we went into it together. I'll tell you right now, for sure. Like, I wouldn't be where I am without that person. Yeah. And so, you know, because of that, I think there's so much value in accountability and collaboration, even if you're a solopreneur. You can find another solopreneur and like, just collaborate, hold each other accountable. I think there's, there's so much to that, man. So

[8:47] that's fascinating. I really liked that. And I do think that, you know, so interesting write your story is kind of like, I think a lot of people are like, Oh, well, you know, what's better? Is that the carrot or the stick? Right? Are you attracted by the compelling vision of the future? Are you really like just trying to put distance between yourself and this kind of reality that you don't particularly like you had both simultaneously? Right? And you put yourself just like you said, into the structure, that relationship and business relationship that really held you to that didn't let you back off of it? I think that's such a cool sort of origin story, for lack of a better word.

[9:21] Yeah, I think like, we can't underestimate the power that comes with community whether it's like, you know, Napoleon Hill have said it best himself like the idea of a mastermind. I will bet way more on two partners that are both hungry versus one solopreneur that's, that's just hungry by himself. Right? Because it's just, it's just so much better to, you know, to try to take on things as a unit as a team and even again, even if you're a solopreneur you can find elements of this with masterminding with other people that are in the same boat as you so yeah,

[10:00] I always say I was, quote, my friend, Jeff Moore, one of the most compelling, least sort of like famous entrepreneurs who are gonna be but like, is there in the background of a lot of people that, you know, people know if you follow entrepreneurship or whatever. But Jeff Moore always says Write an entrepreneur alone is an entrepreneur at risk. Right? I think about that all the time. There's so much stuff I want to get into. I want to one last question about this sort of origin story process, which is, you mentioned, you mentioned this in passing has went by very quickly.

Okay, I want people to like, go back and kind of listen again, you said you almost went out of business three times three. Yeah. So I think for a lot of people, there's part of them that is looking for proof that they're bad at everything. Right. So it's like, if you're, you have success, there's a part of you that like, doesn't believe that it's real. And then the second you hit that moment where it's like, all the bank accounts are negative, which has happened, right? They're like, well, there it is. There's the proof. I'm, I'm bad at this. What got you guys through those periods where, you know, objective clinical, objectively, look at the evidence, you look at what's around you, things are not going well. What got you through those periods, faith 100%

[11:17] Faith. So there was something that was just like, so fiery that was brewing within both of us that just like we were both striving for greatness, we were both striving to get out of our situations. We were both we both knew, like, hey, this business can work as long as you make it work. And so like, it just wasn't even an option. Yeah, I'm not like, there was one time that I was like, oh, gosh, I was like, dang, we haven't gotten a deal in like four months, right? And we were banging the phones. We haven't gotten a deal in four months, like, What the hell is going on.

And I remember turning to my partner at the time, his name was Darrell and I was like, bro, like, man, if we make it, I told him this. Actually, I think I told him when we make it, it's it's going to be so much more of a sweeter victory. Because it's not like things just started smooth sailing from the jump. And sooner, like basically about, I think a week or two weeks after I told him that, again, we were hitting, pounding the phones. It had been like, I think three months or four months since we've had a deal. And we were working full time.

So that's a lot. Right. And so I think two weeks after that, I make this call. And I still remember the guy's name Reggie peg room. And it was this condo conversion deal in DC. And we ended up being under contract went on a massive report with the dude. And we got it under contract. And it was like 140k Deal. Wow, I was like, Whoa, talk about reviving, right talk about a reviving revival right there. And so when you have that faith, it's like during those times, it's during those times of your of your your lowest low when you one everything around you is pointing to the fact that you're not going to make it as if you hold that faith strong. And that you know ideally led by a compelling vision. Yep.

If that's if that's you like and you hold that faith strong I promise it will happen for you it's almost like it's almost like a universally spiritually energetic at that point. It's like it's almost like a test and that's kind of how it felt and and it felt like it felt like God was watching out for us Yeah, it's like hey, man cans going down there you go. And that happened twice. I think that happened twice or three times. And you know, it got it got us to a point where like, Alright, well let's create some stabilization let's let's create some consistency as opposed to like getting these big hits and then we'll go a month or two without deals and then getting these big deal. And so you know, that's when we started to read certain books we started to hire the right mentors, we read the E Myth. I started to read the book traction you know, we hired certain mentors and we really started to structure put structure into the business and then took off from there. I love that so much.

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[14:45] Look folks, real estate this there are Reggie's out there and it's gonna happen. Right? Not him. He registered that Reggie's taken but there I think that's so cool, man. So, so that is like the perfect I feel like transition a little bit because we were talking about But before we started recording, and we're, you know, we're just kind of catching up or whatever, and you're like, yeah, like the kind of period of basically COVID to now, you know, COVID still around, but you get what I'm saying, right, like sort of peak COVID to now is has been kind of a rough one for you. But it's also been sounds like kind of a period of real kind of rebirth and kind of re enter zation that or gestation, whatever the word is. So walk us through, like, what was that period for you?

I mean, I will, I will get into this now. But I'll just say like saying, like, I am 42 This year, I'll be 43 This year, I don't feel like I was a grown up until after, like, COVID COVID. That basically, like, made me a man, in a lot of ways. You know, it's like, there's a first time where I was like, I'm like, stocking my basement with oatmeal, because I'm like, I don't know, like, maybe zombies. I don't know what all right, like it was, it was a real wake up call for me in terms of like, hey, no one's coming to. I mean, I don't mean this in like, an idealistic way.

But like, in terms of like, my family, my business, no one's coming to save you. You got it? Right. Right. Right. That was really formative for me. So like, what was that period? Like for you? I mean, it sounds like you went through a lot of stuff. So walk us through that story a little bit, as much as you're comfortable with.

[16:15] Yeah, I'm an open book. Man. I, I think vulnerability is one of the most courageous things that you can do as a leader and influencer. And there's other people have the platform to be open and vulnerable to hey, I'm going through the same thing, right? I've noticed this so much, the more that I open up, so. So, alright, I'll kind of take you from where we were. And I'll complete the story in like a very brief 30 seconds, and then I'll catch you up to where we are now. So you know, that actually, that partnership, you know, even though we were very good professionally, together, personally, there was a big mismatch. And we didn't mesh well, right.

And so basically, we ended up hitting on our first million, we made our first million in 2015. We grew every year since then, and, you know, a few years past that we've got, you know, 1.5 1.8 2 million, you know, et cetera, et cetera. We had a whole team, we can understand, but we're doing business in multiple markets. It was great. We had, you know, 1213 people working for us, it was it was awesome. It was a great culture.

But, you know, I ended up leaving that partnership, because I wanted to pursue my passion, which was coaching, we had an event, and I think in 2017, where might have been 16 where we, we got like, you know, 1518 real estate investors, they flew in, they learned our systems, they paid five, the pit is 5000, we taught him everything that was so impactful to me, I was like, buzzing and I was like, hi, for like, a week.

Yeah, I was like, Whoa, there's something here. And that's when I tell people this all the time, all the time, follow that feeling, like follow your fulfillment, I noticed something within me and I was like, whoa, this feeling is incredible. Like, it's we're blessing other people, we're showing them the way and they're so grateful. And you know, that changed me and so you know, couple years later is when I made the jump and then I started what I'm doing now, which is coaching I started my coaching business and and so name of the company is elevate coaching group and my brand is seven figure wholesale.

So I teach people how to build seven figure wholesale businesses. Right. And so basically, I've been doing that for about four and a half years, right? We've we've, you know, it's it's gone very well we've helped hundreds of wholesalers and you know, I've created you know, I've helped some of the big names in our industry scale their business which is really really awesome. And it's been a lot of results and it's been a blessing. So I say this it's been like three phases for me the real estate business was like alright, introducing me to money and getting making more money and understanding the business the business structure okay.

The coaching business with me following my passion and I had aligned you know myself with that like my gifts and aligned my interests with what I'm doing. So it was like aligned action in purpose and passion. So I made even more money doing that and then I got sick right around when COVID happened and I call it sick I didn't really look sick from the outside in but I got exposed to black mold and that wreaks havoc on my on my whole system and and I had anything from like brain fog to you know, fatigue to dizziness, like constant dizziness.

[19:40] Did you know at the time what it was like was it like oh, yeah, never have gone to that black mold convention or was it like you know, our was what you was a mystery for a while,

[19:51] bro. It was I had no idea for six months. I thought it was anxiety. Wow. Just like straight anxiety. Yeah. And I was like, I like I kind of prided myself on being a very relaxed, chill mindful person. You know, I've always preached meditation, all this stuff. And so people are like, Why are you having anxiety what's going on? And so I was like, I have no idea six, it was six months of hell, dude, it was hard. But in November 2020, that's when my buddy told me to go take this mycotoxin test.

And, sure enough, I was super high on all the mycotoxins, which basically, mold spores make mycotoxins, that's what they use to defend themselves. And that's what causes symptoms. Right. So like I was experiencing all these things. And I finally started to detox from it took a long time, I think I got a lot of mold out of my system, but it wreaks havoc. So like, there's other things that I have to deal with now. And I'm actually still going through some stuff, even though I feel way better than I did, you know, in 2020, and 2021, I'm still kind of going through some stuff and still releasing and detoxing, right.

And so, that taught me so much. And you know, you can have the money, you can even have something that you're passionate about, but if your health is not in line, and if your health is at risk, brown, nothing else matters. Nothing. So it really taught me to tap in and tune into myself in my body, and prioritize and care for myself. You see, most entrepreneurs are so obsessed with growth, and they're so obsessed with like making more money. And, and, and building a big business, which none of those are bad things, I'm, I'm I'm still doing those things. However, they will totally disregard their self connection is what I call it, right?

They're not connected to themselves to where their body or maybe their souls giving them some signals, like, hey, you know, slow down here a little bit or, you know, take some time for yourself, take some rest, because, you know, I was just going in man I was going in for since I started in 2014, you know, for my real estate business than my coaching business. And sometimes I'll be at the office until like, 10:11pm at night. You know what I mean? And I was just obsessed with building this vision at the cost of me, right. And so it taught me so much about self connection, and you can still be a total fucking badass and build this big business, and follow your dreams and push your limits, while still staying grounded in yourself. And so, um, you know, that's kind of what I learned. And I'm still learning.

And so, because of that, I have now transitioned. And I'm just now creating my new program. And my new vision for my business and my life. I'm tying in all of these pieces. It's not just about how to create a seven figure business, how to create a million dollar business. It's how to build a vision that's so compelling to you, okay, that you wake up charged, and all your actions are meaningful, because you have created this purpose that is aligned with you. But then you're also mastering yourself, like you're deepening your connection with yourself. And so there's like these three major components here, and I've pulled them all together to create this new program, and I call it meaningful, millions. And so that's what I that's what I that's what's going on in my life.

[23:39] That is such a mind blowing story on multiple levels, but also one that I think, you know, it's very I mentioned this to you, right, but it's like a lot of ways like the sort of moment you're sort of ready to hear something or you're like is that time you're alive? You're gonna hear a certain message when people start to show up and like, just tell it to your face. Right. So it's like you're kind of like one of several people who have had kind of an experience like this that I've that I've talked to recently, although your particular one is like more harrowing. I think that a lot of people.

Hey, guys, hope you enjoyed part one of this episode. It's just two good limits one show. Join us next week to hear the rest

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