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If you can learn from anyone about how to be a successful real estate investor, it’s Brian Snider.
We had the opportunity to hear about Brian’s climb up the ladder as a real estate investor, a mentor and, now, as a leader of one of REI’s largest community platforms, Collective Genius. We also learn more about his experience with Motivated Leads and how a number of Collective Genius members are leveraging our services.
Once a teacher, always a teacher
“I'm a former teacher that got into real estate and then started doing some coaching on the side and got involved with the Collective Genius as a member running a business here in Indianapolis, Indiana,” Brian recalls.
Initially, he was supposed to become a principal.
“Once I finished my Master’s and started doing principal stuff, it was terrible and I didn’t like it – it didn't fit my personality,” Brian says. “So basically, from there, I got connected with a buddy of mine at church named Brett Snodgrass. He was running a business here in Indianapolis and I came on with him not knowing anything about real estate or having any experience in real estate or wholesaling or anything like that. I just really involved myself and started learning as much as possible through Brett and through other CG members in the community.”
Under Brett’s wing, Brian was able to begin making some sales and working his way up through the business, from running operations to eventually stepping into the CEO seat. For five years, Brian was running a team that was doing about 300 deals a year between wholesale, flips, and some retail deals.
As a CG member, he became interested in coaching and working with other people to reach their goals – a call back to his teaching roots.
“I'm able to do that through Collective Genius by working with a lot of different investors. Basically, Collective Genius is a platform for real estate investors to come together, to collaborate, and to learn from each other: Learn from the things that are going well, learn from the things that are going bad, learn from the mistakes, whatever it may be.”
His love of coaching led him to an open leadership position as CG’s COO this year and has been embracing leadership as a means of continuing to mentor members.
Brian’s coaching philosophy
“I approach coaching as I did teaching,” Brian shares. “It's the same thing. It's not necessarily providing clients and people with all the answers, but really asking the right questions to get them to understand the ‘why’ and the reason they want to do certain things.”
He continues: “So, as a math teacher, I was always that teacher who would continually ask my students ‘Why? Okay, well, if six plus four is ten, why is six plus four ten?’ I’d make sure they understood why that is. It's the same thing in the real estate world. ‘Why were you able to acquire these ten properties last month? Why did that work for you? What was your return on investment in those? Why did that work? Why do you want to put more money into this marketing channel?’ So it's really just understanding the why behind everything that makes it work.”
His inquisitive, inspiring coaching philosophy catapulted him into a leadership position at CG where he’s able to help a wider breadth of investors and move the community forward.
Becoming COO of Collective Genius
Fresh into his real estate investing career, Brian sought out Collective Genius to learn and build his network.
“I came in as a newbie in real estate and not really knowing anybody. I think when I first started going to the events, nobody really talked to me,” Brian recalls, laughing. “They just wanted to talk to Brett and to work with him. The community really started to embrace me when they realized that I was there to help. I wanted to be a go giver. I think anytime you come into a group like that, if you have more of a giving mentality, you're going to receive it ten-fold back. If you come in as a taker, it will be kind of tough for the community to embrace you.”
Brian was a member for five years, working as a facilitator for Collective Genius’ mid-level group, CG Select. “That’s where I realized, man, I really love this. I love growing the community and working with people on this mass scale. I was kind of tired of that point of just buying and selling houses. I wanted to help build businesses and help people grow.”
After putting his feelers out, he learned that CG had that COO position available and seamlessly stepped into the role. Already, he’s helped the community grow in strides.
There are now three different levels in the CG community:
- CG Premier: 75+ deals a year. Investors who have a business and possibly some team members underneath them who want to have multiple revenue streams and need to learn how to really be a leader to start thinking about the legacy that they’re leaving behind.
- CG Select: 30-75 deals a year. Investors who have built up a legitimate business and are ready to scale that business.
- CG Elevate: 10-30 deals a year. Investors who know how to do some deals, but they're in a position where they really want to understand the business a little bit more and get some processes in place to double their deal flow.
As COO, Brian has managed to really pinpoint the unique needs at each level and bring more community members into the fold to learn, engage, and network.
Brian’s advice to breed more successful investors
In building this aspect of the business (and from years of running his own business), Brian has accumulated a ton of wisdom that he shared with us for investors.
“I am a little bit biased in this, but I truly believe it: Get involved with the community and get around people that you can talk to about things. I used to be that person that prided myself on being the smartest person within my friend circle. I've realized that's not how I want to live my life or really run a business anymore,” Brian says.
He goes on to say that community was pivotal for him in his career to talk through challenges and find inspiration and motivation, but learning how to work off of fact or data rather than intuition was the biggest lesson learned:
“A lot of times, especially when investors are just starting a business, they make decisions based on their gut. Just because something worked for one investor doesn’t mean it will work for me,” Brian says. “But that’s what community is about: Our businesses are different, and we’ll pick up things here and there that work or don’t. Get into a community where you can talk with other people and grow along with them and through them.”
The Motivated Leads experience with Collective Genius members
“I didn’t know about Motivated Leads until I came on full-time with CG, so I never really had the opportunity to use Motivated Leads [for my own business]. I wish I had used them in the past,” Brian says.
But a number of Collective Genius members use Motivated Leads as a pay-per-lead source, so Brian has heard about our business and is attracted to the model because of founder Bryan Driscoll:
“He’s such a go giver,” Brian says. “He came into all of our member groups and dug into helping other people understand what was going on on their Google page or in their social media and things like that. He has such a giving mentality, and that’s the way he runs his business.”
Brian goes on to say that he’s heard from members that Motivated Leads really focuses on quality, not quantity. “I know with other PPL providers, you might get ten leads a week, but I really don't care about how many leads I get. I care about how many qualified leads I get. That's really the big driver, and I know the people who have really signed up with Motivated Leads – that's what they're getting: qualified leads that they can actually have a conversation with.
It’s one of the highest qualities I've seen through any PPL provider.”
Learn more about Motivated Leads and Collective Genius
If your PPL provider prioritizes quality over quantity, you’re using the wrong partner. Click here to learn more about Motivated Leads and our national reach of qualified, pre-vetted leads.
If you’re not a Collective Genius member yet, you can learn more about their events, trainings, and membership benefits by clicking here.
