SPEAKER_00 0:00

Most of the time on that on on the bus and we're talking to people, we're not talking about real estate. I'm not talking about moving. I'm not talking about mortgage rates mostly because I don't want to. But we're not we're just talking like as a person to another person.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

All right, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Connections That Matter. We have conversations with Northern Colorado's best networkers and find out the partnerships they've made that have led to their success. Today we have a special episode where we're doing a partnership deep dive featuring two former guests. Uh we have Joe Poochie from Choice Moving and Austin Foss from American Capital Home Loans. And uh super excited. Uh well, one, thanks for coming back on the show, both of you. Yeah, thanks for having us. Super excited because I'm hearing of opportunities where you guys are collaborating and want to get into that. But uh uh for those who didn't maybe miss the first episodes or haven't met you, share a little bit about what each of you do.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Um, well, I own Choice Moving Company, uh locally owned moving company based out of Fort Collins, and we have a Denver location. Um, we do anything within Colorado locally, and we also go out of state for cross-country moves. Basically, just if you need moving and storage, that's kind of what we do. Um, we've been in business for 11 years, and um, yeah, it's kind of it's kind of it. It's our focus. Yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

For myself, I'm a mortgage broker. I've been doing this for about eight and a half years. So I'm locally based here in Northern Colorado, Johnstown to be exact, but we service all over the country. Very big focus on first-time home buyers, veterans, and just overall education in terms of making the home buying process a little bit better, less stress, and a little, you know, just easier overall because there's a lot of information out there, but not a lot of it is easily consumed, like it can be very dense, and there's a lot of it that's not correct. And so we aim to just educate and just try to make things as stress-free as possible when people are making the biggest or one of the biggest financial investments of their life.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Well, it makes sense that you guys would want to collaborate. Obviously, uh, Austin, if you're doing uh a loan, there's probably a potential move in the near future. Um, but Cher, how does it, how does working together or collaborating actually look like?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

So it's it's pretty straightforward for me. If I'm having, you know, if I have a client who's who's moving, or I hear of people who are moving, they're generally going to talk to two people that are gonna talk to their lender and they're gonna talk to their real estate agent. And that's a very simple referral for me to just say, hey, I have somebody that you know I personally know and that has worked with friends of mine that does a great job. And that's so much more important than just saying, like, oh, I hope you find a good mover on Facebook, or I hope you know Google does a good job for you, which it probably will for choice because they have you know eight, 700, 800 five-star reviews. Yeah. So maybe that's a good thing. I should just say, hey, go look on Google and you'll end up finding choice. But it it just makes a huge difference because not only does it make them look good because it's a strong referral, but at the end of the day, it makes me look good too because I've given a strong referral and they're like, oh, Austin recommended these people. Maybe I'm gonna go back to him if I think of something that I need. Um, and so a partnership just makes sense um to me at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Yeah. No, I agree. Everything uh that Austin touched on, and it's like we work in the same ecosystem of real estate, we have the same key ref referral partners and realtors, and we're at different kinds of lines of the transaction of people buying a house. And so the way that I can help, you know, facilitate referrals towards Austin is I'm gonna be focused on people before they're moving, letting them know that like in my network, I have a great loan officer if you need somebody to work with you on your mortgage or if you need you know extra plans or or specific knowledge on loans. Like he's he's really resourceful and he's really good at explaining things. And again, we're in the same network with realtors, so it helps to know the realtors that he works with, that I work with, and there's co-branding there and co-association there that you know it's nice to know the same people when you work with them, and that it's been a good working relationship. So the referrals come in more like up an authentic way. Um, so yeah, just again, like he said, he's he's reaching us after the move is kind of in the works and he knows about it, and they're going, Oh man, we've got this coming up, it's getting real now. We're doing the numbers with you. And he's like, Great, since it's getting real, you better really start packing and you know, letting them know that the move is the next step after that this wonderful process of working with him. And again, we're we're at the process of trying to spread the word before it even happens that if you need a good realtor, if you need a good mortgage originator, if you need a good banker, like let us know. We we work with great people, and so yeah, a lot of synergy in in the ecosystem.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

And and I think one of the best things you can do as somebody who is in a you know adjacent industry when you're doing something as big as a real estate transaction, is to have everybody on the same page, right? And kind of in the same, not bubble per se, but that have experience working together because it's gonna create a seamless experience for the buyer, but also a seamless experience for all the parties that are involved. Like I know that the mover is gonna do a good job. If it's a real estate agent that Joe and I know already, we know they're gonna do a good do a good job. A title agent, an insurance insurance agent, there's less of a man, I hope they don't drop the ball. Like it's more of a, I'm gonna make this referral or I'm gonna work with this person. I know they've got it, I'm gonna go focus on other parts of my business.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah, it's like a circle of accountability that you kind of sign into with good partnerships. And um, like if the feedback comes back negative, you learn about it right away versus a situation that's just an individual client, and maybe there's something that happens and you never hear about it. When it's referral partner based or when it's in your ecosystem, you hear about it right away, you can address it right away, you can make it right right away. Like it's it's a great opportunity to build bridges and avoid burning them at the same time. Like you're always you're in building mode. So, how did you guys meet?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Um, well, we met dating app um, yeah, we met through the dating app called NIA. Um just through you know, you setting up the um the group in in Fort Collins, yeah, I guess technically is where it is, but just through um yeah, through Elevate, through Networkers in Action Um was a chance for us to really get to meet. And it's been good for us because when we actually moved up here from Texas, we had a fantastic mover down in Texas that did just a phenomenal job. And then our experience up here was okay, right? But you know, we had been spoiled by what we had down there. So now having somebody that is in my network that I can again, like the pastor of my church was moving what a month ago, and like that's a referral that you kind of want to get right, because otherwise he can just call you out every Sunday for the pulpit, right? If it doesn't go great, right? And I've had that happen before, it's not the best experience, but um somebody that I can you know refer really well and and does a good job. So that's that's how we met was just through a networking group, you know, and the one thing that's important about being a business owner is you want to be in the room as much as you possibly can, right? So the network as an action group is a chance to be in the room, and that's why we're here, and that's why I've built my network of people that I can trust.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

One thing I've seen both of you do is you went beyond no like and trust, so obviously you guys built a relationship, but you guys are doing joint marketing activities, doing some higher level um things to really help each other. Um I mean it seemed very intentional. So um, you know, a lot of people go, they join networking groups or they seek out groups with people they might want to meet, but it doesn't turn into any actual business. What was the decision point where you guys each chose each other um to do business? And what was that first kind of deal like or referral like?

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Well, it helps for me that when we had started in the elevate group, it was small, and it gives you that chance that like after only a few times kind of really seeing what the individuals are about personally with their business, how they carry themselves, why they're showing up to the networking events and putting in the time. Um, so you know, that kind of gained my referral right away before even sending someone to them because I just knew that in a circumstance of like how you carry yourself in in a setting like this is how you're gonna conduct business, and um, it was always top-notch. And so um those environments allow you to kind of push aside just the fluff of like a social introduction or a business one-on-one that can sometimes just be very surface level when it's one engagement and then you're like, okay, I'm gonna start studying the business, hope it goes well. Like, like you say, you put in the time to really get to know someone as a person, you develop a bet a better relationship and you're more willing to kind of put your neck out there for them because you know that 90% of the time it's gonna go well, and if there's a 10% it they're gonna make it right because of that accountability we talked about.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

So and how you do anything is how you do everything. And so if you're if I'm taking the time to meet somebody, you know, like Joe, and I can see that he, you know, has a lot of integrity and just his normal conversations, or how he spends his time with his family, or anything that's not even related to moving, there's a much better chance that I'm going to know how he does his business without even having to ever talk about how he does his business. Like at the end of the day, like I'm not gonna be like, hey, like what's your you know, what's your pricing on this specific product? Because like to me, that doesn't matter. Like I know that there's gonna be integrity there, and I know that he's gonna take a good job or do a good job of taking care of my people. And that's what that's what people are, I think, more interested in at the end of the day, is knowing that they're going to get a good experience.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

And Austin, you have quite a bit of communication with your clients throughout the loan process, right? From the when they first apply to clear to close. Um when do you bring Joe in or when do you start to mention Joe? Do you bring it up ahead of time and then asset it up? Like what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 9:56

So for me, you know, I typically have stages where I introduce different people. You know, a lot of times somebody's coming to me, maybe already having a real estate agent. So when they go under contract for that next house, that's when I start to bring up, hey, you know, let's talk about insurance. You know, who are you working with? Yeah, I've got somebody, I've got an insurance partner that I trust really well. You know, let me send you their information. Um, you know, and then maybe if there's a home inspection, I got a home inspector. And then typically once we get, I'd say maybe like halfway through, then we start to have the conversations of, okay, cool. Like, do you have all of your utilities figured out for your new place? You do. Okay, great. Do you have your move or set? Like, how are you planning on moving? Like, are you gonna do the college? Like, I'm just gonna, you know, get some guys some pizza and beer and have them help us. That's great, you know. But they've probably you probably got a family, probably got kids and everything. Like, move is expensive and it's a lot that goes into it. Like, let me introduce you to somebody that's gonna take this off your plate. It's gonna make your life a heck of a lot easier, and it's you're probably gonna save money going with the movers as opposed to dealing with the stress of going back and forth and everything. So typically about halfway through a loan transaction is when you know I start to make that introduction, you know, and people don't even think about it a lot of times, you know. Um so again, that comes off as something that can help me stand out in my business to say, like, hey, because I know somebody really good, Mr. or Mrs. Homebuyer, I'm looking out for you by making this introduction. So it's I don't want to say selfish, but it it does help us stand out because all of us are in businesses with a lot of competition. So we have to do something to stand out other than racing to the bottom on price, which is just not sustainable.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

No, yeah, absolutely. I agree with that. Is we're in a situation, especially with our referral partners, of trying to sell the value that that individual brings or that that company brings, and not so much um even get into the like deal that mentioning my name can get you or whatever. Um, even though there's a lot of the times those programs built in, it's more so just about like how they're gonna get a great experience, the customer service is gonna be top notch, and the overall environment is one that like it's not just coming from me, it's coming from your realtor, and it also came from your house cleaner and it came from your painter. Like, that's the power of a really good network, is the referral comes from multiple angles and it just creates this huge brand authority locally where you're like, dang, like a couple people I worked with had already mentioned this. Like, that's that's uh a powerful aspect of it.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

And it makes it clear that there's no sort of like financial entanglement, right? That there's no sort of kickbacks if it's coming from multiple places as well. I think it's easy for people to think, like, oh, I could you referred me this person and you're the only one, so y'all may be like passing money back and forth on referrals and stuff. You know, if it's coming from multiple places, that's so much easier for people to trust, especially from multiple different industries, that makes a huge difference. And that's not gonna happen unless you're getting out and knowing different people in those industries.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yeah. And so Austin, when you're helping people uh buy a home or uh sell a home, um a lot of times it's upsizing or downsizing. It is uh right, and are people thinking about their stuff and like how it's gonna fit in the new house? And and uh, or if if I'm downsizing, like you might need to get rid of a bunch of stuff to that uh people and Joe will attest to this, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

People don't realize how much stuff they have, you know. They they think they have a lot less stuff than they actually have. I know that in all the times that I've moved. So yeah, I I'm I think the one time that I didn't make a referral to a mover is when somebody was purchasing the house next door to them. So I was like, I think you've probably got this, right? I think you can handle the trip back and forth, you know, from one driveway to the next. But outside of that, yeah, I mean, you know, they just they're kind of looking at the square footage and they're looking at all the things like, oh, the bedrooms for the kids, or you know, downsizing. Oh, I have this, you know, this garage full of stuff that I need to get rid of. Or, you know, in Texas, it's a huge attic. Here it's basements, right? And you know, people maybe are going from a finished basement to a crawl space, for example. They just don't think about it, right? And so those are questions that we ask in kind of the discovery phase is hey, what's this gonna look like for you? Let me again, let me do something to take this off your plate. Let me introduce you to a professional who's going to get it taken care of. Because now you, Mr. and Mrs. Homebuyer, can focus on the real estate part of it. You don't have to think, you don't have to stress about the moving part. You can just focus on what your numbers, what you want your numbers to look like and what you want your house to look like because everything else is taken care of.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Well, uh let's let's talk about the bus. Yeah. Okay, because one thing I see both of you doing is using your partnership and your alliance to attract third-party referral partners. Like both of you want to get in front of more real estate agents or insurance agents. Uh, and you've created a system to actually facilitate that. So um, whose idea was that? How did you guys implement it? Um, you know, tell us uh about what you're doing with the bus.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

I don't know the origin of the bus tour, but I was brought in by Austin as the uh uh ability to be a sponsor because he was chatting about his experience with it, and I said, you know, that's right up our alley. We like uh an opportunity to reach out with realtors and and get in um a setting where they can let their guard down a little bit versus the like classic fast motion networking kind of environment. Well, first explain what the bus is because there might be some confused people like it's right, like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

So the bus tour is essentially it's an opportunity for real estate agents. It's in northern Colorado, so basically it goes from as far south as Johnstown, as far north as Fort Collins, you know, and different, you know, different cities in between. And it's an opportunity for realtors to come in. And we typically go to see somewhere between four to six listings, typically five to six listings on the tour, and it's one consolidated method of transportation to take anywhere from 10 to 15 to 20 real estate agents to a property to give real-time feedback. Maybe the property just hit the market and they want to make sure they're priced correctly, or they've been going back and forth with their seller about a type of paint or something that they think should be done, the seller does or does not think should be done. Or if it's priced right, or if it's priced right, it's an excellent chance for feedback. So it's a huge value add for real estate agents, in my opinion, rather than trying to get a bunch of people into a bunch of open houses, having to get your sellers to vacate the property a bunch of times or a bunch of different showings. This is a chance for everybody to come in and give you know one set of feedback. And like Joe said, it's a good chance for us to just have normal people conversations as opposed to you know trying to corner somebody for you know a cup of coffee or lunch for 30, 45 minutes. Yeah. So it's been going for I want to say two years now. Um, I've been a sponsor on it for about a year at this point. And again, it's it's a good opportunity to just network and and meet other people. And most of the time on that, on the bus when we're talking to people, we're not talking about real estate. We're not talking about moving. I'm not talking about mortgage rates also because I don't want to. But we're not we're just talking like as a person to another person. And that's how an actual relationship is formed. And in my opinion, that's how business actually gets passed, is when you actually have this relationship with somebody.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Well, I think it's you know super smart because a lot of people go network because they they try to get into rooms where the people they want to meet are, but you guys are creating an environment where the people you want to meet come to you. So, how do you how do you market it uh to get real estate agents on the bus, uh to get house open houses to attend? How do you how do you fill up your pipeline? It's a good question.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

That's something we're still working on. Um, but ideally, you know, I think a lot of people don't like doing open houses, for example, and a lot of sellers, maybe they, you know, because sellers they have to get out, they have to go find something to do for three hours. And if you're just a a person who's running a business, let's like let's take it away from real estate entirely. Do you want to be captive to one location for three hours, or do you want to be able to go do something else for those three hours? Maybe you can go to three or four different listings or something like that. This is basically a chance to have an open house for real estate agents with the eyeballs of 10, 15, 20, 25 other professionals that are going to give you great feedback that you can in real time take back to the seller and say, Hey, you know, I had a bunch of other industry professionals come in and tell us we should do X, Y, and Z to sell it faster. Because like there's a lot of collaboration that takes place, and there's not, it's never viewed as competition, in my opinion, from what I've seen. Like these these realtors aren't trying to like be like, oh man, I'm not gonna tell you anything because maybe that listing will expire and then I'll get it, right? Everybody's on there to try to help the listing sell because as business flourishes for other people, then maybe business overall will flourish for everybody. Um, it'll create a more in-demand market or whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Because it's blended, they're bringing their own like mini network with them. So they're coming from different agencies and they're competitors in a space-ish, but really like they're all they all have their different reasons for for wanting to be on the bus and have their house on it or not, or give feedback or not. And one of the things we've seen is people, you know, I have a seller for this, actually might have an interested buyer in that, or somebody in my agency is actually has a buyer they've been working with that's looking for a home like this. I'll chat with that. And you can get like cross-networking that happens kind of outside of the initial conversation on the bus just because of the exposure. You're just being exposed to more people in your industry, to more homes, and to more like this is what's going on right now this month. This is top of mind. We're trying to sell it. Who knows who? And it's got people top of mind thinking. So um, yeah, good things come out of those outcomes.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

So you were doing it before Joe and then chose to bring him in, or Joe wanted to sponsor, or how do you guys come up with that kind of arrangement so that it's mutually beneficial?

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Um, I think it it kind of worked both ways, right? We were looking to bring on an additional sponsor, and you know, the idea is to have it be, you know, industry exclusive and in industries that are going to directly impact the people on the bus, right? And you know, previously we had an insurance person, they backed out, and now it was hey, when people buy a cell, guess what? They gotta move. And I thought it was just a perfect opportunity to bring in somebody that was well regarded, and you know, he actually had a previous relationship or a relationship with one of our other sponsors at the time. Um, so it just it just made a ton of sense to have somebody else on there that again, people just they don't think about, you know? And even if it's something just as simple as needing extra storage or whatever it is, they don't think about it until it's too late and then they're scrambling at the last minute. So yeah, it just it just made total sense.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yeah, he was telling me about it at the event that this is this is one of the things I do, it's unique, and I'm like, that is unique. I like the sound of it. Is there an opportunity to join? Yeah, yeah. And he's sure enough, yes. Um, and so yeah, we we joined in it's um, you know, again, a pretty casual format. We're not sitting there trying to like sell, sell, sell every person. It's kind of providing information from one house to the other, giving a platform for the different realtors to get up and speak about their homes or their listings, and then while on the bus, somebody might say, What's the craziest thing you've ever seen in a move? Yeah, yeah, do you move orders or whatever? And you chat and you storytell, and they uh either get to like you or don't. And it's one of those things where um it tends to be a positive.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

So did but did you pitch it like as a as a partnership, like, hey, I want to work with you, or is it with like, hey, I need I need some financial sponsorship for this thing, or I need a like how do you how do you uh how did you enroll? It sounds like Joe is a it was a no-brainer thing to sign up for, but um how did you enroll it so where you create the vision of what you guys could do together?

SPEAKER_00 21:56

I think we knew we wanted to bring on another sponsor. Um Um and to just add, you know, to add some value to the people who were on the bus was the biggest thing. Yeah. And, you know, because the event runs from 9 a.m. to about noon. And as I was just saying with the open houses, three hours is a lot of time. And time is the one thing that we can't make more of. And so bringing in a partner like Joe to add value to this and have people come and meet a really good home inspector who's one of our sponsors, a really good title agent, now a really good lender, I think. Really good lender and a really good mover. Like that's for people who are maybe new to the area or are newer to real estate, they're not going to have these connections. And so, you know, this is a really good chance to bring somebody in that's, you know, going to immediately bring value to them as a real estate agent and then bring value to the real estate agent because they know these people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Yeah, we make it like a turnkey referral base for them to come into and go, a great group on the bus. They all work with each other, they all know each other, they all refer each other, and they all brought a ton of value on this three hours that I was listening to them talk about their individual space. And so yeah, it's just kind of a no-brainer that happens naturally, because especially when one of those is like, oh yeah, I wrote on the bus last time too, and and whatever, and people just naturally talk. And again, that it's like that ecosystem of it's not just the lender, it's not just the inspector, it's also two other realtors who I know that all said good things. And um yeah, and then you know, there's opportunities beyond the bus of of being in each other's affiliate programs or of doing different uh value add shares, like being able to provide physical marketing or digital marketing that are like ways to help your clients before moving, and you know, whether it breaks it down in weeks or days or whatever. There's all kinds of add value education and just different cross-promotional things that you can come up with to like we're working with the same clients, we're working with the same realtors and the same referrals. Let's try to add ways that we can both be paying for the same thing that's gonna benefit both of us is is usually what's you know mutually beneficial for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Well, you Joe, you moved my family and uh uh one of our one of our properties while we're building a house, so you're gonna get another move here in in a couple move months when we we move that. But um, I guess have you moved the same family multiple times, or maybe what's your record for most moves?

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. We call them repeat offenders. There's just some some people um for whatever circumstance, some of them in kind of an investing fashion, like we move every two years, three years, whatever. Some people with big families where it's like you move my mom, you're moving here, you move for here. And I'm the logistics person scheduling it all. Um but yeah, well no, we've had, I think when we've looked at our repeat clients, we've got some people in the like teens at this point, you know, and so um in an 11-year span of doing business, there's definitely room there for people to move that much. But some of these people are like prolific. Some people move into a place and then call us in four months and say, I wasn't into it. I'm out, you know, especially if they're renting, bop around and just have us move around and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

So yeah. Well, I think it's gotta be an opportunity to keep working, build relationships if they work with both of you and you guys are highlighting each other. Um that hey, it's not just a one and done kind of transaction. Um and then with the real estate agents or the other people you're bringing in, it's a potential pipeline. I really see that how you working together makes both of you more valuable because they get the the extended resources. Um Joe, do you have a as a mover, um are you being sought after to people wanting to network with you a lot? Or do you feel like maybe moving is overlooked in some of that?

SPEAKER_02 25:39

I feel like it's overlooked um to an extent. Like us service-based businesses stick together, and if it's like has to do with the circumstance of a move in or a move out, you know, whether it's cleaning or carpets or floor guys or whatever, we're all kind of in that ecosystem again. But um, but no, I mean it gets overlooked because the most exciting part is is what's happening over here with the realtor and the lender and your your big numbers and your big stressful decisions, and you're buying it and you're selling it and you're excited, or you're bummed out, and then it's happening, and then you go, oh crap, we gotta get all the shit out of here. We gotta move it all, or we gotta put it all in boxes, or you know, we have that gun safe. Ah, God. So whatever it is, then it kind of like becomes real all at once, and you weren't that prepared, and most people are kind of done with your transaction at that point, and then you get the thank you card or the cutting board or whatever, and um, yeah, you're left usually doing the move or figuring it out, calling movers or looking at Google or whatever. So when you have a referral partner who's been with you through other stages of your transaction and then can give you that confidence that like this is a great way to go, at least get a quote from them and and test it against a couple others. You know, that's how anyone should do it. It moving's expensive when stuff's expensive, get a couple good quotes, get to know the person behind the business or the sales rep or look up the company. Do not just go to Google and get a phone quote and go, that sounded cheap. I'm gonna go for that because you get what you pay for and you'll get two random dudes show up, you know. So um, so yeah, again, the the partnership adds validity to all of that and accountability to all that, and it really leaves people feeling with um a peace of mind more so than just like I got a great deal. It's not so much about the deal, it really is the peace of mind and the reassurance that, like, well, I've got a couple people who have already vouched for this person, and I've got a good friend of mine in my court, and I think this will be a good experience. And then when it's a great experience, they're now in that group of people who will go at bat for you and leave a five-star Google review and all the things. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

My uh my wife went on a uh road trip with my daughter to go to Canton, Texas and go to the world's largest flea market because she was furniture shopping. But uh uh hooked up to the trailer and and uh took it down there um, you know, and brought straps and blankets. Uh one of the pieces came back with some damage of a like a you know, the ratchet strap beating it, like she didn't tie it down. But uh, you know, well, I guess my big takeaway is like moving is not that easy when you're when you're transporting, especially over the period of a long distance and um keeping it secure and safe. But uh I think that's probably you you keep people's stuff in really, really good condition while it's while it's moving.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah, that's kind of the most important part of it, which again kind of goes unspoken about. It's like I just didn't move her, I'm just thinking about costs and stuff. And it's like, no, you need to be thinking about damage mitigation. What's their process? How do they treat things? What's their reputation?

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Yeah. One thing, you know, some people think about it like, I just don't want to lift that stuff. Uh you know, like the physical part of it. Our bodies tell us that. But it's like, what's the insurance part of like you know, like what is your stuff really worth and what would be damaged? Like some people you don't want to leave it to chance, you want to leave it to a professional.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Sure. Yeah, or because at least if if something goes wrong, which oftentimes things can go wrong, usually they're small, but like a professional makes it right. They're gonna fix it, they're gonna repair it, they're gonna replace it, they're gonna make sure it wasn't an injury, it wasn't a safety thing. So those are the kinds of things that, yeah, like you really can't, it's hard to, it's hard to measure. It and it's one of those things everyone looks back in the rearview mirror and goes, oh, shoulda, woulda, coulda, kind of thing, and it just is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

So also when you're having conversations with people about their, you know, new house or dreams, or they qualify for a loan, then you give them a budget to go shopping for thing, and they get under contract. Um, you know, I know a lot of people when they're going through the open house or whatever, they're like, okay, my couch is gonna go here, and they're they're like already moving in ahead of time. Um Joe, what would you say is like the realistic of like how people's stuff fits into their new place the way that they think they will? Oof, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

The if you're moving up in size, it's less of an issue because all of a sudden those people are usually elated with like, wait, and now we have a storage room. Look at all this basement or whatever. If you're moving down, now you got to get creative. Are you getting rid of stuff? Are you selling stuff? Are you whatever? And are you gonna be able to, you know, fit in the space? Um, if you're moving into something that's modern and new, and now you're going into old town bungalow and you weren't considering like tiny low-cue archways and stuff that your huge armoire doesn't fit through. Like there's a lot of parameters, but for the most part, people have a pretty good idea. It's just like Austin said, we always hear, I can't believe how much stuff I have, or didn't realize how much stuff I have, or wait till you have kids, and I've got two of them, so I know. So like yeah, absolutely. Um, people have a lot of stuff in America, specifically has a lot of stuff, and you know, storage keeps growing, and the need to have things and place to put it is always going to be an issue. So it helps if you're getting a larger place and that's less of a concern, but then it enables the habit just as much to go get more stuff. So you tend to fill the space you live in.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

You get a bigger house, get more stuff. The bid might be a law, right? Exactly. Um Well, very cool. How about like storage to like storage units to actual stuff? Um, I mean, is that a big consideration in what people are buying? Is like, where am I gonna store, you know, or saving money of not having to use the storage units?

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Yeah. If they can like buy into a place that now all of a sudden they don't need the storage unit they've been previously paying for, it's it's obviously a bonus, and they're usually excited to get out of that storage. Um, but then also a lot of people are needing storage because of their move. Aspects of moving have that weird laugh in time sometimes where it's not always just super clean cut, and the day I wanted to be out was the day that I was in, and everything worked out well. Sometimes it, especially when it's new construction, there's so many opportunities, as I'm sure you know, here it's like, yeah, we're just gonna we're gonna stage that, which means we need to pull some of it into storage. Then when the rest sells the rest goes to storage, then when the house is built, it'll come from the you know, and so a lot of the storage needs happen with the logistics of a move um beyond just like I'm storing it as overflow. Typically, if you're in that scenario, you gotta be really considering what you're storing, and you know, just depends on the version. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

So well, you know, it seems like a no-brainer opportunity between a mover and a mortgage lender. Um, but you guys have made it very successful. Like there's probably other mortgage lenders and moving companies and networking groups, and they're not uh they're not working together the way that you are. So beyond being in a group, um, what things do you do to really drive results between each other?

SPEAKER_00 32:33

I would say my biggest goal every day is to try to find a way to refer somebody, somebody to somebody else or to pass a referral. And you know, just it's very it would be very easy for me to just say when they're under contract, let's say, okay, cool, here are your numbers, here's what's gonna happen next. Let me know when you have your insurance, let me know when you're doing X, Y, and Z. But to me, like, I'm gonna take the time and look through their bank statements to see, like, well, you know, the ones that we actually need. I'm not just gonna like ask them for a bunch of random stuff. But if we need their bank statements to qualify, I'm gonna look through there and say, like, okay, cool, are you guys paying for a storage unit? Like, are you guys doing X, Y, and Z, then you know, you're gonna have a lot of stuff to move. You're not gonna want to move it on your own. Reach out to Joe and his team of choice, right? They're gonna take care of you, they'll you know, they'll get that taken care of. And a lot of times they're gonna be like, Oh my, I didn't even think about that. Okay, cool, let me give them a call. And then it just, you know, that's about as warm a referral as you can give is somebody who wasn't even considering it, they didn't even know they had a problem that needed to be solved. And so the my that mindset of just like I have to pass a referral to somebody that day is it just you know, it helps again, it helps me stand out in my business and hopefully it's gonna help the people that I'm passing those referrals to their business grow as well. Um, you know, and then eventually it'll come back and it'll go to other people in our network along the way.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Yeah. No, that's that's good. And again, it kind of like what we were talking about at the beginning, it it speaks to the fact of where in the in the line of the process we are, and the fact that like we have to get kind of creative and come up with a lot of different ways to promote who our referral circles are, to promote that we have referral partner pages and to you know have those built out on our website and to take the time to build those backlinking and and relationships digitally, because that's a lot of the social media promotions and a lot of the things that are our website driving to them that we're focused on trying to provide is almost like a free educational ad value to people. So before they even get into the process, and maybe they're looking at moving, or maybe they moved with us the next time around, they're in our email drip campaign, they're in our text message campaigns, they're in our process and our ecosystem of trying to reach out to them and let them know that, hey, if you ever need another lender, hey, if you're gonna end up moving into that vacation home, I don't know what happened with the cabin, but and it it lends these opportunities to just do like almost like a soft mention, soft mention, soft mention over the course of a year or two or whatever, however long they're in our pipeline. And, you know, at that point, it's uh again just trying to kind of be top of mind that when they think about it, they remember that, oh, they just got this email from us that talks about all the realtors in town that we were working with. Here's a list of the some of the ones we recommend, and same kind of thing for any partner we work with. We're trying to like highlight them, even at a time where it's not directly needed, but just to, you know, be broadcasting that, announcing it for them, being a marketing co-sponsor for them on their behalf. And then hopefully somebody who's following us is now thinking of them.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Well, it's valuable when um you're advocating for each other because you want the business to land and there's someone who's going to advocate for you back. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Yeah, we're like ahead of the curve trying to say, like, go with any of our referral partners, and then we're hoping that they get the business and go, thank you. By the way, you should use choice when you need to move, they're fantastic. And then they're like, Oh yeah, they told me about you.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Okay, great. And that's another thing too. Like uh instead of just being and connecting with each other at a networking meeting, even if it's a standing appointment, you guys are actually constantly communicating through working on deals, through working on planning the next bus. So that communication, that trust really grows because you guys have were bold enough to give each other a shot, but then have matured that into actual pipelines.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like again, in those relationships, when you're building those bridges, you have no reason to do anything but keep fostering them until for some reason a relationship might turn into a situation where you're like, Yeah, this is no longer productive. But again, that's that hasn't been any reason to make those assumptions on our part. And they and uh when it works, it works and keep doing what works.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Yeah. Well, I appreciate both of you coming on the show again and uh sharing your story and especially uh in the previous episodes learning about your businesses and the connections you made, but to hear about you both talk about it together has been awesome. So uh if a real estate agent is watching this or somebody might want to go on the bus, or maybe I'm moving and I need a refinance or something, like how to how can they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Best way to get in touch with me is just through my website, which is just www.austinfoss.com. It's very creative, I know, but makes it easy. Um, or you know, just give me a call, send me a text, send me an email, all the contact information is there. So, you know, I don't have a team of seven, eight, nine loan officers underneath me, right? If you want to get in touch with me, you're gonna get in touch with me, which I think is is very helpful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Yeah. For us, it's pretty straightforward. Just type into your phone choice moving company. If you're here in Colorado, you'll get our Denver or our Fort Collins location. Call either one of them, we'll help you out right away. Or Google us if that's easier. Yep, wherever you find us, you'll you'll find us online.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

All right on. We'll appreciate you guys sharing how this all came to be and uh how you are able to get your success. And uh we'll see you guys around Northern Colorado. Absolutely. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us. Hey all, thanks for watching. I love networking and building relationships with other Northern Colorado business leaders. So if you want to come meet some of these podcast guests, meet me, or meet some other amazing entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado. I would love to have you attend one of our next events. Uh go in the podcast description. There's a ways so you can see our upcoming schedule. And maybe uh you could be a future podcast guest as well. Thanks.