Building Relationships with Podcast Guests with Dave Dubeau
Welcome to The Real Estate Espresso podcast. Your morning shot at what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce. This is the weekend edition where we interview notable people from the world of real estate investing. Today is no exception. We have a great guest all the way from Kamloops, British Columbia. Welcome to the show, David DuBos.
Mr. Menasce, it’s an honor and a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Great to have you here Dave. You and I have known each other for a number of years. And you’ve been investing in a number of different jurisdictions. Today we are going to talk a little bit specifically about marketing. I’m excited to have this conversation, but before we dive in, maybe you could give a little bit of your backstory and how you got to this point in your journey.
Thanks, Victor. I’ve been around real estate since 2001, that’s when I first started dabbling in it, then jumped in full time, 2003. I’ve done a whole bunch of stuff, from the creative no money, low money down American guru type real estate investing. I’ve worked here in Kamloops of all places, and it’s actually worked out. But then I got more into the marketing side of things, because I realized that I’m not particularly great as a hands-on investor. I don’t particularly like tenants or toilets. I’m not particularly handy, but I’ve been involved in real estate these days more as a passive investor, sometimes partnering up with my clients, usually in multifamily real estate type deals.
Fascinating. You’ve put your focus more on, what would you say is the limiting factor for you then? Is it access to opportunity? Is it access to tenants? Is it access to capital? What’s your focus?
The limiting factor, or rather opportunity for myself as a real estate investor, is a limited desire to deal with that stuff. So I’d rather work on what I’m good at, which is the marketing side of things. That’s where I focus now, and I prefer to partner up with smart people who are much better at the operations side.
You’re also a podcaster like myself. I think we started around the same time. Is that correct?
That’s right. Yes. I’ve hosted my show since 2018, although nowhere near as many episodes as you. My show, the property profits real estate podcast, has been going since 2018. I’m still coming up on a thousand published episodes, and another couple of hundred in the hopper. At this point, we’re starting to work with syndicators and capital raisers and fund managers to help them leverage a podcast to connect with potential investors, especially accredited investors
One of the things that I’m very cognizant of, having done this from a podcast perspective, is the fact that there are securities regulations that we have to comply with. They vary from one jurisdiction to the next, and under some circumstances you’re allowed to solicit, and others, you’re not. And of course the podcast itself knows no boundaries. So how exactly does that work?
What we’re doing is a little bit different. There are a lot of podcasters, myself included, who are creating podcasts about real estate, inviting other real estate enthusiasts onto the show, and talking shop. The podcast that we’re creating for our syndicators and fund managers, however, is more of a personal, professional, financial success type show. Basically, we start with the end in mind. So who does our client want to connect with for example?
One of our clients, Tim, is based in Phoenix, Arizona. He’s a naturally introverted, somewhat shy individual, but he’d like to connect with local high income, high net worth individuals, and start building relationships. Ultimately, he hopes to guide them towards eventually becoming an investor with him, provided they fit the criteria and are accredited investors. The criteria in the States are very similar to those in Canada – high income, high net worth. So we’re aiming to connect him with these individuals in and around Phoenix. As such, we’ve created a show called the Phoenix Prosperity podcast. We reach out to these people and invite them to be on Tim’s show. That’s the whole idea.
Another example is syndicator, Dr. Tutor Franco, who’s also a medical doctor. He really wants to connect with other medical professionals because they speak the same language, and those are the people he tends to bring on board as his limited partners in his syndications. His show is all about success for medical professionals, and that’s who we do the outreach for, on his behalf. Does that make sense?
It does. So what’s the interplay between the audience, the listening audience, and the guests? So you’re attracting guests to the show, who might turn into future investors. That’s part of the relationship building process. Having a direct dialogue deepens that relationship. What about the relationship between the host and the listener, and the guests and the listener? How does that part work?
Our main focus is a little bit different. Our initial focus is 100% on getting the ideal guest Avatar booked on the show. And we do this not in huge volumes, but consistently. We’re getting our clients booked with four or five of these interviews a week, very consistently, which amounts to about 20 every month. They conduct these interviews a couple of times a week back to back on Zoom, making it very efficient for them.
The main focus is to create a connection with those ideal guests. Then, to grow the audience, we encourage our guests to promote their episode on the show. We do that by creating content from their interview. We create social media posts, LinkedIn articles, and more based on their interview. And most of them use these materials to spread the word. You and I are used to this whole podcast thing, but most business owners and executives have never been invited to be a guest on a podcast before. So it’s kind of a big deal for them – they like to strut their stuff and show it off. We grow the audience organically primarily from the guests and their associates, their friends, their family members, and like-minded individuals. It’s like an organic audience growth mechanism. Is that clear, Victor?
How does this approach work from the point of view of production value? When I have a first-time guest on a show who’s never been a guest on a podcast before, they often don’t even know how to speak. Every third word is ‘um’ or ‘ah’ or ‘you know’; it’s a dreadful experience from the listeners’ perspective. It ends up being heavily edited in order to clean it up to sound even halfway decent. What’s that experience been like for you, as someone who’s promoting this approach?
We don’t edit that heavily on the interview side of things. It’s fairly short and sweet. You’re going to get good ones, you’re going to get not-so-great ones. It’s like a radio talk show in a way. But the key point here, Victor, is that it’s all about the connection between the host and the guest. It’s all about starting that relationship. It’s about having a conversation. It’s about focusing on the guest’s version of personal, professional, and financial success and leading them to the next steps. That’s really the whole focus.
If someone wants to learn more, if they want to get immersed in this system, this process, how can they do that?
Thanks for asking, Victor. I’ve got a new book that’s just come out called How To Get 20 Accredited Investor Meetings Every Month. I’d like to offer your audience a free copy of that, a PDF copy, along with some other goodies. If they go to 20accreditedinvestorsbook.com/bonus and then put in the coupon code ‘espresso’, you’ll get immediate access to the book plus a couple of bonuses.
I’ve also got my ultimate investor enrollment script, which is a one-pager, and a video training. Additionally, there is my number one referral investor referral process, which is another one-pager PDF and a video training. The book itself is only 68 pages. It’s an easy-to-read, fairly large print so it’s quick to read and it covers the whole process.
I love it. It was great catching up with you Dave. For the listeners at home, definitely check out Dave’s podcast, the Property Profits Podcast, and get a copy of his book. Give us that website one more time.
The website is 20accreditedinvestorsbook.com. Please enter ‘/bonus’ after the URL if you want all those goodies. When filling in the coupon code, enter ‘espresso’.
Definitely check out the website, 20accreditedinvestorbook.com. The link will be in the show notes. And there will be a link to the bonus page as well, with ‘espresso’ as the code. In the meantime, have an awesome rest of your weekend. Go make some great things happen.
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