Epic Real Estate Investing - Olumide Gbenro - Globopreneur | 481

Episode Date: September 27, 2018

Grow your brand and become a successful real estate investor! Learn how in today's episode with Olumide Gbenro, an entrepreneur, a multilingual executive, and an owner of a marketing agency. Discover what inspired Olumide to step into entrepreneurship, the 2 types of persons that Olumide connects, and the crucial things that real estate investors should do.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terio Media. I would say for a real estate investor, it's about storytelling and telling your story personally. You know, like sort of showing your life and what you're doing, whether it's going to a local restaurant, whether it's, if you have kids and you feel comfortable, showing your children as a part of your life is sort of the way to go. Telling a story and being authentic with your personal brand, I think, it's the most important things that people can do. Hello, this is Matt Terrio at Epic Real Estate, and today is another episode of Thought Leader Thursday. All right, so today I'm joined by a multilingual executive who leads investor in startup relations

for Teams Inc., a platform based in Tokyo, Japan that connects investors with entrepreneurs from around the world. His primary role is to facilitate the relationships between major stakeholders from the United States, China, and Japan, and facilitate the growth of our growing international communities. In addition, he runs a marketing agency where his focus is on public, relations and brand monetization. So please help me welcome to the show, Illumaday Benro. Alumade, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Matt. It's a pleasure, man. I'm really, really happy you reach out to me. Thank you so much. Oh, you bet. I'm happy to have you here.

And I want to talk about your business and what you're up today. But before we do, what were you doing just prior to your Teams Inc. Endeavour? So before Teams, I was actually a graduate student here in San Diego State University. So, you know, unlike a lot of people or like a lot of people, I took the traditional route. I went to undergraduate. It took me five years. And then I did my master's at San Diego State University in public health. Totally unrelated to entrepreneurship or anything like that.

Got it. So what was it about going into entrepreneurship? What inspired that? And this thing with the investor in the startup relation? Yeah. I could tell a little bit of that story. So for me, you know, being someone that's global, I was actually born. in Nigeria, I was raised in London, England.

I moved to the United States when I was 13. So I've had this global perspective, always had friends from all who were Brazil, South Africa. And while I was in college, I was a social sort of guy. I started to throw little events here and there, parties, to be honest, and things that help me pay my college bills. And at the end of the day, as I got older,

I also realized that although I have a talent for attracting people, getting people together, where is this going? This can't just be a party all. day sort of thing. How can you turn this into something that will be beneficial for yourself and everybody else around you? So I started to throw networking events for entrepreneurs. And it was more of an international spin. Come network and meet people from around the world, exchange ideas. But what ended up happening was as I developed elements of luxury,

was that it attracted some of the wealthiest, some of the most established people in Southern California. So everything I do, I try to class it up and put it, uh, presented in the best way possible. So, you know, it'd be something in a state, something very formal, you'd have to wear a suit. It'd be a very nice, a gala sort of effect. And from doing that, I inadvertently invited a wealthy audience to come in a network. And I started to act, you know, 25, 26, meet some of the most successful people in Southern California, and in some cases the world. So that was the root of how I began to rub shoulders

and sort of create this network. Got it. So one of those connections, is Teams Inc. your company, or is it a company that you work for? This is company I work for. Technically, the company is two years old. I parted with them with my company Tribe Network when I first started throwing these luxury events.

And when I got over there, I saw the reality of sort of, of venture capital funding that was available and the opportunity to join the team and become one of their founding members was there. So I sort of shifted my role to full time on teams. I still throw these events once in a while. They have to be geared in charity or working with some of the celebrities, right? I feel people that I partner with. But my main role right now is Teams Inc. based in Tokyo. Sweet. So who is the ideal person? that you're looking for in your business and that business and how do you help them? So for us, it's two-sided, right? So one side is the investor, someone who is either an angel

investor or someone who comes from sort of a group of investors who's looking to put money into, funny enough, real estate, into tech. But on the other side is also upcoming entrepreneurs, startups, people who are funny. So those are the people I try to address this two-sided street. I think I'm not really going to advocate on the startup side because I've worked. I've had a couple of startups, a lot of big learnings, and I understand how challenging it is to start a business. So I advocate and try to find talented people, talented startups, people in different genres, connect them with some of these people who are looking to invest. So kind of like a business matchmaker, so to speak. Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say so. It's sort of like there's value for both

sides and I try to find the best value for people and match them and make sure that everybody benefits. Sure, super. So you just take, you go out and look for great ideas and great entrepreneurs and that need the capital and you introduce, make that introduction and that's how you do it. Is that awesome? Yeah. Yeah. And we and just to mention with teams is that we do have two large summits that we hold in Tokyo, Japan every year. It's called the Teams Business summit. The one that's coming this September, September 28th and 29th, is actually geared towards blockchain because we follow the trends we understand so the innovations that are happening. But those are the two main other ways that we aggregate a large amount of people who are similar-minded

and who are looking to get deals done. And those are the times where we really have the big hitters come from China, Japan, and who are ready to invest and put their money to something that's really going to blow up. So this is how to make sure I mentioned that. Got it. Cool. So you're the investor side of it, is there a trend or something specifically that they're looking for? Is there some sort of common denominator amongst the ideas and entrepreneurs that you're matching them up with? Yeah, right now, everybody loves blockchain. And we know, I know there's a lot of issues with sort of these ICOs that are raising a bigillion dollars. But the main focus right now, because we understand the trends and the change that's coming, is that a lot of investors are looking into blockchain technology-based projects. especially ones that are, you know, U.S.-based, things that are related to trying to invest in the U.S. market, they're really interested, because I deal with all the people in Asia, it's like they're really interested in doing things abroad.

It seems like it's, I wouldn't say saturated, but they're really interested in getting money out, which has its own issues as well we can talk about, but interested in putting money into projects, blockchain, especially, in America and abroad. got it so you know the layman like myself that just knows crypto just because everyone talks about it but i don't know much about it um and it seems like there's all this hype around the bitcoin thing and then it kind of died down because it kind of settled and but uh from what you're saying is like there's a lot of power a lot of money a lot of ideas and energy going forth pushing that forward right there's i can't tell you how exciting it is and uh there's a company i work for also called apix and it's a social media-based blockchain app that basically rewards you for every time you get a like

or every time you get a comment, you actually get rewarded in cryptocurrency. And that's incredible. It's a new way of thinking. It's a new way of bringing value to this ecosystem. So to tell you, like, I'm excited as an understatement because there's certain things that are going to start to happen. These transitions are going to start to happen

that's going to hit people upside the head. One thing I can mention since we're on, on that trend and we're being open here is attention, just like you know with the Gary Vee School of Thought, attention is so valuable in that in the future, I don't know when people will start, companies will start paying people for their time, for watching videos or watching commercials,

instead of sort of the company paying an influencer, and we're watching influencers video, they're just gonna pay us directly through the blockchain for watching their content. So there's a lot of stuff going on. But also on the other side, to be honest, too, is that not all these, just like when the internet came around, not all these are going to be successful, right? There's only a cream of the crop top executors that are going to be successful.

And I believe, as I mentioned, Apex, I referenced Apex. That's going to be one of the ones that really does a great job in this transition. And shortens the time between now you or a lot of people watching right now are listening, not knowing a dang thing about, you know, blockchain or cryptocurrency, but you will know because it's just going to be merged into things in the next, I don't know, two, three, five, 15 years. We don't know. But, yeah.

Got it. So, I hadn't planned on going down this path, but now I'm intrigued based on this. Yeah, I'll open up the Pandora's box. We have to go. Totally. Now I'm really going to pick your brain. No, but let's kind of get practical with regard to. to the total layman that just knows cryptocurrency by the name and knows really nothing about or how it works.

It sounds like you're really confident that some big wave is about to happen, whether it's next year or 10 years from now, it's coming because there's so much energy and capital being pushed towards the blockchain. What would be to say the top three things someone could do, the total layman, the top three things they could do to kind of prepare themselves, maybe inform themselves a little bit more? That's good. Okay, you put it in my toes here a little bit. I like this. That's right. And again, guys, this is not an investment advice. I'm not a cryptocurrency expert. I'm just someone who enjoys learning about it and I can tell you my experiences that I've had. So if I were to say top three things, because first of all, you got to do your research. You can't expect other people to sort of tell you where to invest, what to put your money in.

But that's one thing I'm kind of talking about. Like, hey, you got to do your research. research, what's a good source of information that's reliable, dependable, or information? I would say, I don't even, I don't, right now, everything is so young, I can't tell you there's a cryptocurrency website that has all the ideas and everything to go sort of check it out. I would say my advice and the answer to that is go and find people who are leaders and her trusted in the field of cryptocurrency. I'm not going to name names.

I'm not responsible for that. Google people, you go look on YouTube, check who's trending when it comes to blockchain technology, top blockchain companies, top cryptocurrency companies. There's some ideas to throw out there. Then go look at their LinkedIn and look at who they're associated with. Look at the sort of deals they've done. How much have they raised for their ICO? Is this someone that's reputable and respected by other people in the field?

Then you can start to say, okay, maybe some of the things that they're saying, and they're claiming are something that I can trust it. So for me, it's been a personal journey knowing people in the blockchain. I know influences in a cryptocurrency world, and it's more about, I want to get to know you as a person. You know, do you have the moral aptitude and character that I can trust? Because then it doesn't matter what you're talking about. I know that what you're going to say is going to be true.

So that's the best answer I have for that. I'm not going to say a website. I check out. So really it's investor beware. but understand it's coming, so keep your eyes and ears open. Yes, yes. And I say keep your eyes and open right now because the ones that are going to be successful five, 10 years from now already working and developing right now.

So get you put in the door and start to build relationships with these companies or start to invest in the ones that you do trust and you have personal connection or background checked so that when the boom does come in whatever field that is because there's so many different types of blockchains, then you're part of it. Okay. Got it. All right, let's, let's not, let's not go down that anymore. Let's shift ears, but that was good. Thank you for sharing that, and I think that's actually really good advice. It's, you know, it's best or beware, but it's something you should probably take some time and delegate, or, what's the word I'm talking about? Give some of your attention to it and stay up as up to date as you can, right?

Definitely. I like it. Cool. So, let's do. So, let's do. So, Let's talk about your marketing agency where you focused on public relations and brand monetization. Tell me, what's that all about? Sure, sure. So it's funny that a lot of the events and the luxury theme things I did earlier in my career are sort of where these relationships and connections came from. So for me, at my PR and branding agency, I focus on creating content for entrepreneurs, real estate agents like yourself, financial advisors, people in the luxury niche. to create content that's valuable to other people. And from there, basically bring them in on a funnel.

Bring them in into your mailing list. Grow your Instagram to over 100,000 people. Get yourself social proof to the point where people know that you're the authority in that particular niche in that particular area. So that's primarily where I focus. And I have a few clients who are real estate agents. That's why I was happy.

When you reached out to me, it wasn't so far off me, not being primarily in real estate and the luxury and sort of the wealth demographic was a match for us. So basically, yeah, that's sort of what I do. I help professionals create content and put it in front of the right audience to collect a mailing list or a following online that they can monetize early,

but also after a few months up to a year, monetized to their products and services. So that's sort of how we do it. Got it. So I'm a real estate investor. I'm not an agent. And that's right. Right.

There's a big deal. But I'm just like, what I'm thinking about is, what is, I mean, this is, this, this is turning into a really big deal for a lot of entrepreneurs, the personal brand. That's, it's become an expression in our, in our world now that everyone's pretty familiar with. They understand that it's important. How would you see, what would you see or what advice could you give for a real estate investor and how they could leverage that?

Yeah, I think, and it all comes out, I love Gary Vaynerchuk, I'll always reference him in different things and techniques and the things I've learned through, through his books, through his teachings. But I would say for a real estate investor, it's about storytelling and telling your story personally. You know, like sort of showing your life and what you're doing, whether it's going to a local restaurant, whether it's, if you have kids and you feel comfortable, showing your children as a part of your, life is sort of the way to go. Telling a story and being authentic with your personal brand, I think is the most important things that people can do. If you love flashing cars and you love going on, you know, driving it and showing off, that's fine as well. You know, you just have to be authentic and to be real with yourself. And I've seen a lot of people be successful doing both being, hey, I'm a family man. I love showing pictures with myself and my wife for on vacation.

I love showing you myself in the office and talking through a deal I just did, a vlogging type of relationship with your followers. But I've also seen people who are making a lot of money, flashing, going down to Bali and showing their luxury lifestyle. I have friends that are literally living that life, and it's something that's authentic to you. So people who relate to that and who want a wife and a child and a secure lifestyle, or who want a Maserati.

They can relate and it's a way of drawing people and sort of using that as a technique to draw people in to who you are. Because, yeah, the real estate thing is great, but people really more connect with you and the authentic part of you. And if you're able to show that, it will really attract people to your main core business. Got it. All right. So who is the typical client for your agency that you can make the biggest impact for? or the fastest. Fastest.

Anybody actually, no. I would say the typical person is someone that offers a product, someone that offers a service. So I'll give you an example in the way to answer this question is one of my clients is a celebrity chef. And for him, the way that we got, let me tell you how fast we got in results. and this is just a great empirical way of showing how I do what I do, is that he was a guy who was friends and connected to NBA players, NFL guys. He grew up with them.

He's from the South. These guys got drafted, and he was really the guy that literally followed them around and cooked for them, you know, meal planning, all this stuff. And it turns out I looked on his Instagram and he wasn't showing any of this. He was like a chef privately, just sort of like handling, you know, know, a multi-million dollar NBA players and people who you would be like, wow, he works with him? Yes. But it wasn't being shown on his Instagram and it wasn't being communicated effectively through his personal brand.

So what we did is we literally swiped out his own Instagram, not all the pictures, but mainly the stuff unrelated to his career as a, you know, professional chef. And we started to take pictures of beautiful pictures of food, him at these private properties at the events he was catering. when he did a Valentine's dinner for one of his clients. And after we put the pictures up for three, four days, I delivered a website as well to him with pictures of the clients he's worked with, some of the San Diego charges when they were here. And we created, and again, when you talk about directing traffic or directing leads, we created a link for people to go book his services.

And three days after we dropped this website, from the social proof, the personal brand that was not being pushed, The description in his bio that said, professional chef to NBA and NFL players, great emojis. Three days later, he booked three clients for private chef kind of services. So that's the fast I've ever done it. Three days, you know, taking the right photos, presenting yourself in the right way, having a place to send people.

And that's social proof. Hey, I'm here with the running back of so-and-so team. That's sort of like people can't deny who you are. They know who you are. They trust. And he booked easily in three days over $1,500 worth of work. You know, boom, done. And he was having me a little bit trouble getting his consistent hits.

And with a personal brand being directed in front of the right audience, that was all it took. So I'm really proud of that that sort of turnaround. And I've sort of done that same model with real estate agents, with people in the financial planning area. And it works great, seriously. Got it. So let's break that down into like three action steps you could create for any clients. So one would be you're going to go ahead and assess their profile, right? Yep.

Let's kind of see where does it look like and where do we actually want to go and then what changes we have to make. Obviously, Instagram is very picture-oriented, right? It's picture-centric. So we want to get the right pictures. We want to, and then we want to add social proof. Exactly. I hear everything. If you claim to have a, you know, a high net worth group of people,

you better have some pictures with these people. You know what I mean? You better have an interview with a key person. Just like you're doing, you give me the opportunity to talk to you as a big hitter in real estate investing. Appreciate it. That's social proof to show that really you are associated in getting the trust of somebody in that area. right right super all right so illuminate what what's uh in your future that you're most excited about right now man there's there's a lot of different things happening um i'm most excited about scaling

this PR branding agency like i've had a great clients but i want to scale this to where uh you know i can offer this to some of the top people in the world you know i want to be a world renowned uh brand expert I don't want to just be the guy that's, yeah, you're great of branding. You work with these key clients. You've helped people. I want to be the guy when it comes to branding for any company in the world, to be honest, globally. You know, and along with that, the two main companies that I will be spending a very long time within the upcoming future is Apex, the blockchain-based social media app.

And also, when it comes to the investment side, Teams Inc. in Japan, I mean, I can announce. Yeah, I can announce it. So at Team Zink, we'll be raising out first fund, something between $3 to $5 million, just something to start off with in Japan. And I'm excited to be able to travel to places like Tokyo, Japan, places like Germany. So for me, in the future, it's a lot of traveling to stakeholders and people who are important that I can provide value to through, you know, my personal brand, but also providing value to people in the investment.

niche and people who have money to invest and people who need it, just sort of being the person who's able to connect. People, just like I said, since I've been a child in Nigeria to a student doing international events at San Diego State, I see myself traveling and providing value to people, simply put. Sweet. I love it. So if someone wanted to get in touch with you and, you know, discuss everything that we've discussed today, we've discussed a lot, what would be the best way for them to do that. Honestly, the best way is to send me a message on Instagram, I think I could give you my email and that, but I could just tell you, go to Instagram and look me up, the globalpreneur, G-L-O-B-O-B-O-P-R-E-N-E-R, the globalpreneur. Along with that, my website, Illumidatea-B-E-N-R-O-com.

Maybe it's hard to spell my name, but if you type in Aluminate, G-B-E-N-R-O-com, that's my personal brand, my PR and branding website. So those are the two things I'd say. And along with that, when it comes to the luxury marketing side, I did wanna make sure I mentioned that I'm dropping my course soon, my first course. It's called monetized influence. And basically it's a way of showing in the last two, three years,

how I've built my circle of influence with some of the wealthiest people in the world from here in Beverly Hills to Tokyo, Japan, and China, how to build a luxury, luxury network through event marketing, luxury event marketing. And for anyone who wants to jump in on my first pre-release, there's a huge discount. And it's a great way of really providing value to people coming on early. And really, like, if I can do it, the quiet kid, how I grew up, and somehow turning into someone that could connect with people all over the world in just a few years and benefit,

provide them value and also be valued as well, anyone can do it. I really appreciate the platform you've given me, Matt. And I'm looking forward to learning. I'm going to have to jump into some of the stuff that you're doing. I'm going to listen to your podcast because I see myself as well in the future as you as a reference earlier learning and investing in real estate. I know you're one of the best in the country. And I'm coming for your content, man.

I'm telling you. All right. Sweet. Hey, if someone wanted to go to and check out your new course, monetize influence, where do they get that? Is that through your regular website? Yeah, it's on my website. It's not on my website yet.

Go to my Instagram. It's actually a link on my own. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Go ahead and DM me. Please DM me and chat with me and let me know you're interested in the course. And it's a great way of starting that relationship as well with people.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Let's stay in touch. Deal? Stay in touch, man. Thank you so much. Take care. All right.

You bet. So thanks for tuning in to Ethnic Real Estate Investing. God bless to your success. I'm Matt Terrio. I'll see you next week on another episode of Thought Leader Thursday. Take care. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.