Business
In this episode, I have the honor of interviewing my good friend Danny Johnson, who does a great job of introducing himself as we start things off a little bit differently for this show. Danny started flipping houses in 2003, made it successfully through the housing market crash in 2008, and started scaling his business up about 5 years ago. As a software developer prior to flipping houses, Danny started developing real estate investor websites by creating the software called LeadPropeller. Recently, he has developed and released FlipPilot 2.0, which is lead/deal management pipeline software. Danny is also the host of the ever-popular Flipping Junkie Podcast and Flipping Junkie Blog. Danny shared some details of his personal life and how circumstances really forced him into looking hard at his life and work. He had removed himself from the day-to-day operations of his house flipping business, but he found that this was something he really wanted to change. As he is re-investing himself in real estate investing, he wants to keep things simple and look at his long-term plans for the business’ growth. I asked Danny to talk about the development of FlipPilot and what drove him to produce that software. Because his background is in software development, it was natural for him to want to create vehicles to help with his investing business. He talked about the whole progression of building the software and the lessons he learned along the way. Danny talked about how he started the Flipping Junkie Blog as a means to hold himself accountable and to be transparent about the deals he was finding and all of the associated numbers. He ended up writing a book titled Flipping Houses Exposed to share all of the information he learned during this experience. But he wasn’t happy with the conversion ratio, which is what led him to the development of FlipPilot. We wanted to dig into the whys behind the lack of success in converting deals and solve it for himself going forward as he became more involved in real estate again. We talked a lot about how FlipPilot incorporates your systems and processes and how valuable this is for being effective in your business. We discussed integrating personal touches such as follow-up notes and how they sound like a great idea, but they need to be part of your process or you won’t take the time to do them. Danny stressed how important it is to be able to visualize each system, putting it in a place where you will see it so that you actually work it. This also makes it much easier to scale and have your whole team working on the same page. It also makes getting things done fun and rewarding. Because of this unique situation of talking to an experienced investor who is, in a sense, starting over, I asked Danny to describe how this journey is going. Even though he doesn’t plan on employing a large group of people, he is treating it as a scalable company. He is looking at being more effective and efficient, making his time and effort really count, rather than spending a ton of time and money for little gain. His marketing strategy has also changed because he is more focused on long-term investments in specific markets. Danny also discusses being more profit-oriented, rather than focusing on a random number-of-deals goal. This interview feels like two guys, sitting around a fire-pit, having a beer, talking real estate and life… you don’t want to miss this episode with Danny Johnson! Notable Quotes: “That rush of excitement you felt is really an indication, a confirmation of what you want.” Mike Simmons “I always wanted to create software to help out with the house flipping business.” Danny Johnson “I don’t want to go in thinking I know everything… I want to learn fresh.” Danny Johnson “One of the hardest things to do well, in this industry, is follow-up.” Mike Simmons “Treating people like people is a huge part of this.” Danny Johnson “Who doesn’t want to be seen and heard?” Danny Johnson “Referrals is another thing that people in our business overlook.” Mike Simmons “You got to make it such a “WOW” experience so that they can’t help but to tell their friends about it.” Danny Johnson “What is not measured cannot be managed.” Danny Johnson “Enjoy this business - every day of it.” Danny Johnson “How much money do you need to live a comfortable life?” Danny Johnson Links: Flip Hacking Live Lead Propeller FlipPilot FlipPilot Demo Flipping Houses Exposed Flipping Junkie Blog Flipping Junkie Podcast Work the System Traction Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months