Finding world-class mentors in Real Estate - W Marketing Pro Danny Bellish

Lose Your Job. Start a Business. Get Married. All within a few months.

NYC native Danny Bellish (against massive odds) pulled this all off - and his story will entertain, motivate, and educate.

Danny is a Disney Partnership Director and top performer, developing dynamic 360-degree national marketing campaigns.

Danny's standards are exceptional - ultra-premium service, a winning attitude, attention to detail, a creative approach, and a sense of urgency. He believes in winning together and returning to the drawing board if it's not an award-winner.

Danny will share his valuable insights on partnerships, marketing, and finding mentors.

Take advantage of his gems!

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Contact Info:

Danny’s Profile

linkedin.com/in/danny-bellish-19ba50a

Email

danny.bellish@gmail.com

Live free. Get Educated. Master Your Money.
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Transcript

Johnny Nelson: 0:00

Hey, everyone here at the Investing Definitional Podcast. We got an exciting guest with us today, Danny Besh. Hopefully I'm not mispronouncing his name. Danny lives in New Jersey with his wife. He his anchor market has been kinda New York City, New York area, New Jersey area. But he's got an exciting story. His how they were in corporate and then they partnered into kind of step right into syndication pretty quickly. This resonates with a lot of my audience where people, they want to be in real estate, but they don't know whether it's active or passive. And also there's that bridge challenge of how and should I get from, or go from corporate to perhaps real estate as a side hustle or maybe full-time. So Danny's gonna break that down. So Danny, thanks for being with us here today. Yeah,

Danny Belish: 0:37

you got it Johnny. I appreciate you having. Awesome,

Johnny Nelson: 0:39

man. Awesome. Let's again, like I said, but people wanna hear it from your mouth, and also why should they listen to Danny? Just give us a couple of highlights, that intrigue and that share, like maybe I'm just maybe you yeah, maybe you've done other things and people wanna know why should I listen to this guy about real estate investing and even your corporate life, so share a little bit there.

Danny Belish: 0:57

Yeah, sure. Again, appreciate being in front of you all and it's. It's a pretty wild story that my wife and I have been on over the last several years. I've been in the nine to five my entire career and, I worked in the New York City corporate advertising world, advertising, marketing. I still hold a W two. With Disney heading up their digital and social advertising strategy.

Johnny Nelson: 1:18

Is it just a quick side sidebar there, Danny? Yeah. Is basically, is everything about New York, is that just always like super high pressure? There's so many like shows and whatnot set in there. Is that is that like the pinnacle and Everything is like super intense, like marketing and advertising and record. Like all this stuff. Is it, is that true? Is it like

Danny Belish: 1:33

everything on TV is a hundred percent true. Okay. So

Johnny Nelson: 1:36

like, it's everything's epitomized there. It's it's distilled like the most, ruthless, climbing to the top and getting what you need and the best of the best. That's what I, that's how I think of

Danny Belish: 1:44

New York. It, you know what a lot of that is true, right? Yeah. Because there's it's so densely populated. There's so many people that want to be here. There's so many industries that are here and anchored here that, it, it makes for a competitive and manding space where you have to be climbing to the top at all time. It is an absolute rat race, but there are it teaches you so much about. How to conduct business on a B2B level, on a B2C level, on a C to C level, that we have been able to take our corporate experience and apply it to our real estate investing business that we now do all over the country. And I think that's important part of our New York City, hustle that helped us get in with folks who have a wealth of experience, decades of experience, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets because of that.

Johnny Nelson: 2:36

And I think the training, just like an internship or a co-op, I think the training if in a larger sense of life is so intense and happens so quickly. But I think that's a part of the compelling story of, you're in this really intense and competitive environment and then you're connected and you're working at a high level, at your job. And then that just shows the kind of trial by fire that you guys have learned and thrived. And then of course a step through that. That's awesome, man. So give us the first we had a little pre-chat before the show. Give us the first foray into real estate investing and obviously I think you said you were in corporate and then you Hey, I think there's, we need some additional income. Some maybe some time freedom and that kind of compelled you give us that story there. And then of course the first that first nugget of why, what went wrong if it did go wrong. So we'll leave that one.

Danny Belish: 3:18

Yeah, sure. Like I said, my wife Christine, and I are from the New York City advertising world. That really hardcore grind. But we were doing really well. We were high income earners, but at the same time we were working our asses off. Yeah. And we, like probably a lot of your listeners don't wanna always tie, trade their time for money. We started trying to be more savvy about how we were going to. So that we could have more passive income, we could create more generational wealth, we could have more time freedom to do the things that we wanna do in life because frankly, anything is possible. You can really make anything happen out of nothing. So we started by having my wife. Leave her corporate job. She actually got let go as part of a a large layoff at her company and she got a severance and we said, Hey, let's use this as our catalyst to, move into real estate investing, which is something that we've always been interested in. Yes, it happened to be the same year that we were getting married, so there's nothing. Losing your job, starting a business and getting married all at the same time. No big deal. Yeah. But so essentially what we did was we started by getting our real estate licenses in both New York and New Jersey, just so that we could get a better understanding of how things work contractually. We could meet sort of lenders, brokers, insurance people. We can really get more familiar with the space. But our first foray into real estate investing was buying a duplex, a hundred year old duplex in a really cool beach town in New Jersey called Asbury

Johnny Nelson: 4:51

Park. Just a sidebar. I'm living in a hundred year old duplex in Minneapolis. It's not cool by the beach, but it is a hundred. It's over a hundred years old. But yeah, so I know the kind, I know the beast. They could, and I'm

Danny Belish: 5:00

living in a 60 year old duplex also, so I love that we're house hacking. That's one of the, bigger pockets lessons and the lessons that we all know that is younger people should employ in order to, start to gain some equity, start to get some experience as a real estate investor and also keep their expenses low. So I love totally. So essentially we brought this a hundred year old duplex, had this, grand idea of burring it. And we ran all of the numbers, we ran all of the comps, we did all of the research that we knew to do at the time. In real estate you don't know what you don't know. So at that time we didn't have the experience that we do now, and we ended up working with a total nightmare co. They're out there. They are out there. They are prevalent. Do your research, boys and girls. W it, he was actually referred to us, but it turned out that he was more of a glorified handyman than he was an actual contractor. Yeah. So we are budget we went 50 K over budget. Our timeline went from three months to nine months, and this is a 1200 square foot house, nine months for a 1200 square foot house. You're

Johnny Nelson: 6:04

probably walk in there, you're probably walk in. What was that like? How you're probably, you probably would walk in there like, how could this small, the small cube of a house or a residence, take this long to do anything?

Danny Belish: 6:14

A hundred percent. We found out, he, he proposed to us that he was doing the work with the team and he ended up doing all of the work himself so that he could keep all of the money. We found out he was sleeping in the house to which my first thought was, you're sleeping in the house and you're still behind schedule. I don't understand like how this isn't getting done. Yes. To make a long story short we ended up burring out of that project. So for Yes. Those of your audience that I'm sure they know it, but it's buy, renovate rent, refinance, and repeat, right? Yes. So it allows you to take the equity that you've built in the home out and continue on your way. So we ended up doing that. It's actually cash flowing really well today, but my wife and I looked at each other after nine months of blood, sweat and tears and said, how are we going to scale this to a place where we're gonna have enough passive income for us both to leave our jobs? And that's where we ended up going to a meetup for purchasing multi-family out of. And what we thought it was duplexes, triplexes, quads out of state, where it's more, landlord friendly better cost basis, better tax rates and it ended up being about real estate syndication. Which

Johnny Nelson: 7:28

and then so you didn't, like folks like us maybe initially getting into the space. We don't even that's a weird word. Is this like something to do with gangs we don't know what's going on. Yeah, like syndications okay. Yeah. And there's movies out there syndicate of some sort. The syndicate, it's like it's strange. But typically, honestly, that means. Really large, much, much larger than fourplex is what that means normally.

Danny Belish: 7:46

Yeah. It was a whole new world for us, and frankly, even 90% of my investors today had never heard of syndication before. I, educated them on it. So essentially it's when people pool their money and resources in order to accomplish something bigger. It's not just in real estate. It happens in every industry across the world in real estate. Mostly it's when a really experienced operator, also known as a general partner. Is the one who, finds the deal, does the underwriting sources all of the lending, has all of those relationships. They're the ones who raise the capital for the deal, and they're the ones who operate and manage it, and everyone shares in the profits and the equity in the deal. And for the most part, these are large. Commercial projects. Think anything like a 300 unit apartment complex or a brand new development or a redevelopment or even a retail type property or an office type property. So we're at this meetup and these folks who had literally half a billion dollars in assets under management at the time. It's more now. Yeah, we're telling

Johnny Nelson: 8:57

us about That's because you've been helping

8:58

them.

Danny Belish: 8:59

Yeah, exactly. They were telling us about, these projects and some of the returns that they're able to offer and they were better than the returns that we had gotten on our Nightmare project. Yeah. So our first thought was, oh my God, that's incredible. But then my kind of New York City skepticism kicks in and I was. I don't know. This seems like way too good to be true. I'm gonna hand over,$50,000 plus of my money and I'm just supposed to trust you to do this right. So my wife and I did about nine months of due diligence on, not just syndication in general, but these, two individuals. And we looked at their track record, we looked at their markets. We studied their strategies. We spoke to their investors, we spoke to their attorney. We were probably the most annoying passive investors of all time, but we knew that this was something that really interested us. So we asked them every question under the.

Johnny Nelson: 9:56

And I just if I could just pause there real quick, Danny. Yeah. I think that's a really good message for the audience, for the people that perhaps are looking into getting into rec syndications or commercial real estate. And you really do have to have a bit of a strategy and a plan. So you need to go in a deep educational spree or deep. And that's actually really crucial, but also put a timeline on it or a ti you know, make a time down because many, some people get stuck in the analysis of the educational piece and that's where they live. Until this day, they're still spinning. 10 years later, they're still wanting to do that. So just notice what, how Danny approach King's wife did that deep education skepticism, knowing it, interested in them and they knew they were going, knew where they were going, but also put a time on, like you said, nine months and then the story continues. But I just wanted to

Danny Belish: 10:42

make that. Yeah. And for our investors now where we, in the span of two years, a little over two years now, we have, over a hundred investors at this point, and we get everybody from, one phone call on the ready to invest to people that I talk to for. A year and Yeah. Educate them. But that's how it has to be. It's a two-way street. You need to really vet those operators and understand that they are somebody that you know and trust. And that they have a track record that they can stand behind. So we spent all of that time really trying to get to know these guys. Cuz for me personally, if I'm going to invest that kind of money with someone, yes. Not only do I want to trust that they have the right business skills and acumen, but it's gotta be somebody that. I can get a beer with, somebody I can have a drink with, somebody that I can relate to in that type of way, and that I can call them when I need them and know that they're gonna answer. So eventually we felt comfortable enough to invest passively in two of their deals. One was an A-class multi-family complex in Dallas, Texas. Yeah, about 250 units. And another was in Euclid, Ohio. And that was about 280 units.

Johnny Nelson: 11:53

That was probably a b, C class.

Danny Belish: 11:54

Something in Ohio then that was a C class. But it was a different structure. It was a debt structure. Yeah. So that

11:59

was

Johnny Nelson: 11:59

adding change just real quick. So you sampled both of those and I think it's important just to real quickly for the audience there, Danny a class, typically if it's well new build or a class sometimes doesn't cash flow as well. And then basically a C class or B class can cash flow. So they have different they can actually fill different buckets depending on what the investor wants to see. But you stand, you sounds like you sampled both. Explain that. Why what a class does and typically the investor profile and what B or C class does and the investor profile that

Danny Belish: 12:24

would. I think that's a phenomenal question and it even goes a little bit deeper than that. Please. So I think a lot of people want to diversify their portfolio by investing in real estate, but what they also don't necessarily realize is you can heavily diversify within real estate itself also, right? You have multi-family, the three businesses that we are involved. Is multi-family new development and redevelopment and what are called double and triple net lease assets. And those sort of run the gamut of risk reward. So when you're talking about A, B, C, D class assets, that's normally in the multi-family space, right? And it has to do with. The market that it's in, the age of the building, the condition, the level of amenities and things that they offer. Think that an A class is a luxury building in Miami, with all the amenities and a doorman B class, might be a few years older, might not have the doorman, might have some amenities, but might be in a nicer area, and you could see as it goes down the line. It gets a little bit more risky from a volatility standpoint. You're gonna have to deal with a little bit more, maybe renovations, a little bit more delinquency and vacancy from your tenants, but you're usually buying it at a better cost basis, and there's maybe more opportunity to get a larger return. It's, the more work you put into it, the more money you can get out of it. So that's kind how the multi-family, division

Johnny Nelson: 13:53

works. Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you for breaking that down. That's awesome. The detail and the I guess kinda the risk perspective there and the philosophy really. It's a philosophy of investing and how those different things break out. But anyway, so that's, so I thought, so you guys went into that to an A class in Dallas and a B class, like you said, in Ohio or BC C class. Sorry. B, C class. Then you, I think this is super important here and this is something that people maybe have, hey, they struggle with, and then as, what can I offer right now? I'm not necessarily a professional real estate investor. I haven't been, my dad, I didn't grow up, doing, being a broker in a giant city or whatever. What could I offer? Clearly you guys are confident in your skillset that of marketing and sales and perhaps, and that, that space well, you, she j you, you mentioned at the beginning of the show, Danny, that you guys actually started working or offered to basically work for free. Tell us that story. That was

Danny Belish: 14:41

a really cool story. Yeah. Once we invested in these two deals Yeah. Passively and started to really get to know these guys. And we started receiving quarterly checks, right? So it started to actually happen the way that they had proposed and projected, and it was like a light bulb that went off. That this is the way that we're gonna be able to scale the way that we want. And also this caters a little bit more to our skillset, right? So we come from this corporate background. I don't have a background in development. I can't wield a hammer to save my life. I, I blame my dad for that, right? But I'm not a very handy guy. Yeah. But I'm good with numbers. I came from a sales background and a marketing background. My wife is extremely meticulous and comes from a research background, so we thought that this was maybe a really good avenue for us, but we don't really like starting at the bottom. That's not that's not our forte. Even in our careers, we we are personable people and we of always went to, we tried to go to the most important people in the room and try to make them our best. So that's what we did in this circumstance, but essentially in this business, these guys who have, 500 million worth of assets across seven, eight states, and they've been doing this for decades, they normally don't have the time of day to just be your mentor. Absolutely not. Yeah. Yeah, so we,

Johnny Nelson: 16:00

and always the one, it doesn't, I think how many people go approach these people, they're successful for a reason. And there's lots of people that want to, be their buddy and get in with'em and, have favors done. And people wanna pick their brain. And these people that at this top level don't do that. They don't have time for that. Don't you need another strategy. And that's not to ask'em to pick their brain or talk for 15 minutes. Go ahead, please. You.

Danny Belish: 16:21

I totally agree. No that's a little bit of a misconception, right? I love that people are out there looking for mentors. That is what you should do, but at the same time, you need to understand what it takes to get a mentor at a certain level, right? And we understood that, and we did this with five to seven syndicators before we did this with these guys. But essentially what we did was we did an audit of their entire business. We looked at all of their consumer facing materials from, marketing, social media, branding. And now that we were investors, we could evaluate their investor relations, right? So my wife and I took it upon ourselves to create an entire presentation for them of how they could make their entire business more efficient, how they could get more investors, wow. How they could reach more brokers to get more and better deals. How they could hire an investor relations manager to, to give them more time back for them to pursue more deals. And we asked them for an hour of their, we gave them a few. Yes. We asked them for an hour of their time. We presented it to them and they absolutely loved it. Yeah, and basically we said we're going to execute this for you totally for free pro bono because we wanna learn from you guys and we wanna help you guys as much as we possibly can. Plain and simple. Not asking for anything in return, not asking for a barter agreement, but just saying, let me be of value to you as much as possible. Yeah. Manam. So we, and that's the

Johnny Nelson: 17:47

kinda, that's the kind of, that's the kind of play you have to come in. That's the kind of hand, strong hand you have to come in and play with folks to, to get, to skip multiple levels and to be that. Maybe your skillset doesn't match that. It's I'm not Danny and his wife. Couldn't, just jump into that. You always have something. There's always some level. It doesn't have to be, it does not. And typically, it does not have to be at zero. You could jump into some level, some skills set you have now with Focu dedication, you can provide value. Like Danny was saying, just pro bono, just boom, here, take this from me. I'm not asking for something. I'm not asking for your time. I'm not asking you to tell me what to do. I'll tell, don't tell something. I'll work for free. And then say, what do you have for me? No. Danny brought this incredibly valuable package and he said, Hey I think they can do this. And obviously the, these the GP were blown away and accepting like, absolutely, let's.

Danny Belish: 18:31

Yeah you make a great point. It's, and it's tough. Don't ask how you can help. Just try to help and everybody can help. Everybody has something. Even if it's your, you can be boots on the ground. If they need something at a particular property, if you know you're a graphic designer, if you are, come from an engineering background. If you come, if you're. There are all types of ways where you can offer value or try to see, how you can insert yourself in these people's business, cuz that's what you have to do in order to get them to pay attention to you. Absolutely

Johnny Nelson: 19:04

man. So you offer that, so you put that incredible package together, the marketing package hey, let's work together. Did that go in for a year? And they're like, what was the result of that? Just, to move through the story.

Danny Belish: 19:12

Yeah, so we did that for an entire year, and in that timeframe, learning more and more about real estate investing, syndication, multi-family, all these different business types. And eventually we asked him, Hey, would it be okay if we gpd with you acting as a general partner, the basically the operator of a syndication alongside you Yeah. In an upcoming syndication. And immediately the answer was Absolutely. We have a 293 unit apartment complex in Cleveland, Ohio that we're closing. Why don't you come in as our partner?

Johnny Nelson: 19:45

That's amazing, man. And what what was the value proposition on that? To take a stake and people, many people know this, but when you're on the GP side, of course you the risk is a lot higher. You're responsible for living with the property. Sometimes the debt, depending if it's recourse or not. And then of course, but then also the upside is much more, is much, much higher. Yeah, definitely. You're growing up from going from LP to GP if far, if that's where the direction you wanna go, which obviously it was. What was the value? What was the, why did they let you on and what did you offer in addition? What was your job and what did you, what were you gonna do

Danny Belish: 20:12

as gps? Yeah. So with these guys, they're very down to earth regardless of how successful they are. Nice. So it was a very easy partnership to, to become involved in. But it is a role and responsibility for each of the gps to help raise money from passive investors. So part of, they told us the news, we were super excited and he. But just one thing, I'm gonna need you to bring a million dollars to the table. Yeah. And we were like, wow. So it was a five and a half million dollar total raise. And this guy does that with his eyes closed. But we have never done that before. We've done many multimillion dollar deals in a, in the advertising business, but never going to our individual network, our friends and family and friends, and fr friends of friends and asking them to invest it with us in this type of way. And with these types of deals, the minimum to get in is, 25,$50,000. And some of them are even much more than that, right? We had a holy shit moment. Yeah. But at the same time, we got to that point, what are we gonna do? Say no. So we were like, all right, let's go pedal to the metal. And we essentially reached out to every person that we've ever met in our entire lives. Yeah.

Johnny Nelson: 21:27

I know that I to learn Yeah. What, and that's, and that, but that'll, I guess one, just a quick side sidebar, there is, of course, you gave us you. The direction you wanted to go. You committed, you provided that incredible sense of value. You work for free for a year, of course. And then we're just, simplifying things. And then of course, then when the time for the big game happens, you don't like just show up and oh my god, Danny and his wife, they're the incredible people. No more is asked of you. You're at this level now the kind of things that people at this level do, then you're asked to participate at that level. So it's Hey, if you wanna be part of this can you bring a million dollars, 20, can you bring 20% of the equity needed for this deal? And you're like, Yeah, you just say yes.

Danny Belish: 22:05

Yeah, just say yes and figure it out later. Yeah. And we also asked, Hey, what happens if we don't bring a million dollars? I don't wanna ruin my reputation with you. I don't wanna blah, blah, blah. And he, we had this thing where it was like, You'll owe me on the next one, or if you exceed it by some miracle, will owe you on the next one. Sure.

Johnny Nelson: 22:25

That's awesome,

Danny Belish: 22:25

man. That's awesome. So it was, we felt comfortable and confident and knowing that we had a sales background and I'm. Frankly, also the type of person that we'll talk to anyone at any time about anything. Like I'll shoot my shot at any time, but try to do it in an authentic and genuine type of way. Like my wife and I really care about people. We want our friends and family to make money like, and being able to educate them on how this works makes us feel like we are helping. Attain their goals

Johnny Nelson: 22:57

as well. Yeah. It's not just the feeling. It's a true sense. You can do well for yourself, for your friends and family, and then of course investors that come in as, as well. As we take this kind of the final chapter here, Danny you and I chatted real quick, and this is a little bit more, a little more specific. Some people may not care about this, but That's okay. I think you really, you recently or maybe at the beginning, you started out a fund. Let's talk just as I, as one fan fund manager to another. I recently launched one. Talk to us about a couple of challenges or some of the challenges you've seen after having operated a bun, a fund for a bit.

Danny Belish: 23:25

Yeah. Raising capital in general can be challenging until you figure it out, right? Sure. Did you start

Johnny Nelson: 23:32

a to, to part, to, to do that million dollar raise, did you set up a fund

Danny Belish: 23:35

for that? No. So that was a single syndication. Okay. That we it was just for that one portfolio of properties. Okay. And we to make a long story short on that deal, we ended up raising 1.3 million for that

Johnny Nelson: 23:48

deal. That's astonishing, man. That's even now just feel like the excitement of like actually hitting that. So kudos, kudos to you for

Danny Belish: 23:54

that. But that's awesome. Thank you, man. Yeah. I appreciate it. It was crazy and we saw wow, like maybe this is the part that we are really good. Among some other things. So we immediately got into a 291 unit deal. Right after that, we raised 1.5 million for that. Or toward that deal, which was a 6 million raise. Then we got into another deal and then we started our fund, which for your, you know, for your viewers that aren't familiar with the fund model and how it differentiates is usually with a. You have conceptually the types of assets that someone is trying to target, right? And they're raising money in order to purchase multiple assets within the fund in order to diversify. But mainly within that, those target or criteria parameters. So for us, we had only done individual properties. And now we were doing a fund where it's a little bit more conceptual, right? Yes. We go to an investor and say, Hey, we are trying to raise money in order to purchase assets like these, right? And for us, our fund was focused on double and triple net lease properties, single tenant net lease, they're called. People drive by them every day. They are the Starbucks that they got coffee at this morning. They're the Wendy's that they got lunch at. They're the c b s that they stopped by, before they went home. These are usually single tenant structures where you buy the building and the land where a business is operating and they. At least for us, we're buying these essential businesses. So we're buying like dollar stores, like Dollar General pharmacies, like c v s, urgent Care and veterinary Care centers and even auto services and auto parts stores. That's why

25:42

I

Johnny Nelson: 25:42

mind VA and oil changes. When you were speaking, I, but I don't wanna interrupt the flow there, buddy.

Danny Belish: 25:47

Exactly. So part of the challenge was really, One was educating people on this net lease space, right? Yeah. So most people can understand multi-family because they've either rented before or they know somebody that's rented. They know how the apartment building, works. They pay rent and landlord collects money, right? And there's opportunity if there's a gap in the rent of where it is and where it could be, right? With these single tenant net lease deals, it's a little bit different and people start to think about retail, right? And what we are doing is we're buying these essential businesses and they come with long-term leases, built-in rent increases in the lease. With massive,

Johnny Nelson: 26:30

with large companies, large stable companies. So that's also a plus. Mostly

Danny Belish: 26:34

publicly traded and they come with corporate guarantees. So they corporate guarantee the rent every single month. Yes. And what triple net and double net actually means is that they pay for the majority, if not all of the expenses, right? So as inflation increases taxes and insurance and utilities and maintenance, right? That's all covered by the tenant. So

Johnny Nelson: 26:56

we're working through all these different levels of abstraction here. So like first, I first it's okay, invest in this duplex. Then it's oh no, invest in this or invest in this multi-family. It's okay, I'm gonna give you 50 K or whatever the amount is, and I'm gonna own a small piece of that. Now we're talking to fund and this fund. Buys these kinds of buildings. Now these, or this kinds of asset and this kind of asset, like I, my fund is focusing mul, multifamily and self storage. Yours is even a little more abstract, like these kinds of of buildings that companies, rent from, so there's a lot of explaining to do. That's a huge challenge actually. So let's as do the last little bit of the show what are a couple of tips that you have found and really to shorten up that explanation, that educational piece, so you're not just, you and I aren't just sitting there rambling on and all this technical jargon for 10 minutes because we're gonna lose people. We will lose people. I don't, I'm not following this, right?

Danny Belish: 27:40

Yeah, a hundred percent. A lot of what we do is, like I said, we come from a marketing background, right? Yeah. So we don't wait until our investor conversation in order it our one-on-one conversation with an investor. Yeah. In order to provide them some education on the things that we're working on. So we use social media, we use email marketing. We do a lot of texting and education. Plus, personally, I make myself available 24 7 to people. Yeah. Whether you've invested or not, because I like to be a resource and I will take as much time as you need in order to understand the opportunities and the risks and how it all works and understand. You know what their goals are because I could have someone who comes to me who's 65 and a retiree Yeah. Who's low risk looking for, to preserve their capital, not put their money at risk, and they just want a check every single month. And then I would direct them to our net lease business. But then I also meet someone who's 25. They're building their wealth. They want to grow, they want to go a little bit riskier. They want high risk, high reward, and that's when I might advise them to look into development or, B or C class multifamily. And there's, it runs every gamut in between. We've been on the GP side of things for a little over two years, and we've raised a little over$4 million. That's amazing, man. So it's all been very condensed. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I think the way to go about it is don't pressure people. Unless it's something out of your control. So a lot of this in real estate is we're up against closing deadlines, so in a lot of circumstances it's not, we're not putting the pressure on you. There's a closing date and you're either in or you're out.

Johnny Nelson: 29:21

Correct. Yeah. That's super important. And it's, that one's kind a fine line to walk we're in. It's like you're not trying to like, it's not so much of a desperation thing oh, are you please gonna come in? It's this is the date. It's set by external factors. This is how these businesses operate. There's timelines and closings and escrows and these different things. And then of course, if you wanna be in on this deal this is the timeline, and you have to be prevent, present some urgency and some firmness, and people decide not to then that's okay. But you do have to present that. That kind of, that that

Danny Belish: 29:48

hard date. Yeah. What I've found for the most part, The majority of people that start down the process are educated by the time I say, Hey it's time to close, or, are you ready to move forward? It's just what you said. A lot of people get stuck in the analysis paralysis. Which the difference between an individual syndication where there's a firm closed date on an asset and a fund, which might be a little bit more open-ended, like our fund was open for ca investment for 12 months. Okay. So it was hard for me to go to somebody who I knew was ready to invest and say, Hey, there's a deadline. Yeah. So it made it a little bit more open-ended and you just have to roll with it. You have to let them do things on their own time, but at the same time, it's okay to say, are you ready to move forward? It's perfectly fine to say that. As long as you feel like you've given them value and educated them on the space. Yeah.

Johnny Nelson: 30:40

And that's that two-way it's a win-win. It's a win for you, win for them. And also the educational piece. It's, they absorb, they receive, of course. And you're you rely on them to do your business and they're relying on you to provide a good return. So that's a, I think that's a really fair and equitable, exchange of value. And it doesn't come across as trying to, sell to some kind of snake oil, overnight. It's very, yeah, it's very equitable. That'll probably do it for this time. Danny, I think it's been, I've learned a lot. I really, it's really cool to know about you guys, you as a couple just killing him over there up there in New Jersey and exciting things there. So what's the best place or spot for people to connect with you on social media? Or do you have a podcast or do you know, like you said, I think you mentioned next you on social media, so give us some, give us the goods there and how do people, how should people reach?

Danny Belish: 31:19

Yeah, so we are very active on Instagram and TikTok at the Mellish team. Mellish with two Ls, and then anybody who wants can always reach out to me in my email, danny@themellishteam.com. Like I said, part of being on this side of the business, you have to be extremely responsive, communicative, transparent, genuine, and that's what we do for all of our,

Johnny Nelson: 31:40

I. That's amazing, man. All right, everyone at the investing stuff? Hu Shino podcast. Thank you for listening to another episode. Hopefully you have a lot that this is, this space is a bit of, a bit new, newer space in this type of model that Danny and his wife are working with. And of course their story has been amazing as well. Until next time, everyone, thank you for listening and of course, Livi likely comment and then spread the word to your friends.