Real estate expert and investment strategist Andy Dane Carter is all about coaching people to achieve the success they deserve. His passion for real estate and helping clients “unlock their potential” has led to millions of dollars for investors.

In today’s episode of Stay Paid, Luke and Josh sit down with Carter to find out how he has turned his own experience in real estate into success for so many others, and the tools he uses to maximize results.

Key Points

• Taking action and following your gut will lead you to your goals
• Consistency and discipline are essential tools for any business
• Be self-aware in your marketing, and follow your pursuits through to success

About Andy Dane Carter

Growing up with very little money, Andy Dane Carter learned at an early age that if he wanted anything in life, he would have to make it happen for himself. Raised by a single mother who worked three jobs at a time, Carter witnessed how her incredible work ethic provided for herself and for her children.

After he found great success in the wine industry, Carter decided to step back and take a break to focus on his health, and in 2008, found his way into the real estate business. Working with investors, he realized the power to change people’s lives with the new information he was uncovering and decided to help millions of people unlock their potential in real estate.

Q: What is driving you in helping people and sharing this knowledge? Was this a strategy to help you grow your business? Has giving away this information for free helped your business?

A: One hundred percent, and that was never the plan. I just knew deep in my soul, there’s a lot of stuff I wish somebody had told my mom or me at a much younger age.

There was a very simple question asked of me by Gary Vaynerchuk. He asked what I would do for the rest of my life for free, and I said I would help people get unstuck and set themselves up for ridiculous stability through real estate. He said to me, “Perfect. Do that for free for the next 2 years.”

I literally put my head down, grinded my face off, and I’ve invested thousands of dollars in myself so I can help others. There’s so many people who don’t have all of this stuff. I’m fortunate enough that I do. It’s my ability to take action instantly—I get motivated, I get fired up—and that’s where a lot of people stop.

Q: What did that time look like where you were putting together those two years—writing the book, doing videos, getting those resources together, and investing in it? And where has it grown today?

A: I had no idea what I was really doing. It was very clear to me: Here’s my truth. Here’s my message. Now what? I went all in. My friends and family were like, “What are you doing?” And I didn’t fully know, but I knew I wanted to help people. The only way for me to do that is if they know who I am. The only way for them to know who I am is if I build my personal brand from the ground up, and I did it by telling the truth over and over again.

Q: What platforms did you go to first?

A: I went to them all because I’m crazy. I said, “Here’s what my YouTube is going to look like. Here’s what my Twitter is going to look like. Here’s what my Instagram is going to look like.” Because they’re all very different platforms. People behave very differently on Twitter than they do on Instagram or another format.

This is all trial and error. I had to learn all this stuff because that’s the only way I’d be able to help people. Through that process, I fired eight of my first ten people and launched my own media company, Andy Dane Media; it flipped everything for me. Now it was me, and I was fully responsible for the brand, marketing, everything. We hit these crazy numbers, I got an incredible business partner, and now, we’re a pretty big company and that’s just the media side. We’ve scaled this thing like crazy.

Q: You’ve gone from 70,000 Instagram followers to over 162,000 followers in just a couple months. How did you go about growing your Instagram following?

A: On that particular platform, about a year and a half ago, I was, once again, in a meeting with Gary Vee. We started talking about Instagram and I knew this was going to be a very important platform. My Instagram was a perfect page in the beginning. Everything was a perfect shot, a perfect quote, everything was curated. It was good, but it wasn’t getting any traction because you couldn’t see me. You just saw this façade I was putting out. So, I changed the whole thing up.

It was becoming vulnerable. It’s exactly what Gary Vee says, “document versus create.” Just put it out there. So, I got really vulnerable and honest. What completely catapulted everything was my Instagram stories. It was way more of me, personally. I used my stories as a daily vlog, with my kids, my wife, my meetings. There are 15,000 to 20,000 people who view my stories every single day. Instagram loves when you post between ten and twenty stories a day. It drives you to the top of the algorithm. That’s literally tripled my followers. You think it’s boring because you’re living it, but a lot of people don’t. There are a lot of people who want to know your journey.

Q: What are some big risks you took that didn’t work out for you, and what have you learned from that?

A: It’s all been a massive learning experience. I’ve had humongous failures in my life, in marketing, business, my personal life. But I don’t let any of it stop me. Each failure adds another layer of armor on.

People get stuck because of their fear of everyone else’s opinions of them. That’s the biggest thing. I’m like, “If you don’t like it, stop following me.” But sure enough, they all come back around.

Q: How have you justified all the money you spend for your business? Has it paid off? How do you weigh that balance?

A: It’s really hard, but strategic. It’s all about self-awareness. If I’ve spent a lot of money on something I’m probably going to stick with it a little longer to make sure it works. In the very beginning, I had spent so much that I was already so committed I couldn’t slow down.

It became a weird thing for me. I’ve always been great at sales, but I didn’t understand marketing. It was a huge blind spot in my career. About 3 years ago I went all in. I knew I had to learn it. Not kind of, not so I could hire someone else to do it, but so I could learn the psychology behind marketing, and why it’s the most important thing in business.

What if I told you that you were going to spend a thousand dollars a month in Facebook or Instagram ads, and you aren’t going to see a penny for 18 months? But, through that entire journey, you would learn how to market. You would become an expert throughout your city in real estate. That would multiple itself 20 times over, because now, your phone is starting to ring as a real estate expert and you spent $12,000. If you went from 6 deals to 20 because you spent $12,000 dollars, you would do that all-day long. You have to give yourself permission to market, and let the marketing work.

With your incredible product, I tell people to take a 20 second story of themselves, opening up the magazine. Turn it over, and then post. Now you have a digital asset of your print that can work on social media, and the print can be left in real life. It’s a massive tool.

Q: Your “Unlock Now” video series gets inside your mind in the decision-making process of a real estate investment or property purchase, in real time. Are people coming to you as clients because of the videos, or just letting you document the process?

A: A little bit of both. Again, my really good plan in the beginning was to set up this big boardroom table, have you sit at the other end, and me tell you what to do. You should listen to me, and do this. I did about twelve of those and they bombed. So, I had the same crew and there were 3 different properties to go look at. Nothing was planned, everything was organic, and all I did was talk in my car for a few minutes about what I was doing. But, for the first time, I verbalized what was going on in my head as I lock a piece of real estate. What I look for, all this value you could add, and that was it. We posted it, and it got 38,000 views. Six months later, we get a phone call, “Hey, we’d like to have your show on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon—the sky was the limit after that.

Q: What routines or processes are people doing in their life and business every day that drives success for them? Do you have any routines you do every day?

A: One hundred percent, and they’re called my “non-negotiables.” It’s literally the entire foundation for my world. Without it, I would be a trainwreck. It’s no secret. All I’ve done is follow the most wealthy and successful people in the world, and guess what? They all have some things in common.

I don’t care if you’re male, female, young, or old, it’s consistency. Consistency mixed with discipline is the recipe for success. I literally wake up at 4 a.m. The first thing I do is jump into a ten-minute meditation. No matter what. No excuses. From there, I sit in deep gratitude for five minutes. Whatever comes into my mind is what I’m thankful for. It changes the entire molecular structure of my physical body, being in that state of mind. Then I go and workout. That gets my body charged, and then I fuel it with something good and clean.

It’s the same every single day, and then I turn my phone on. Everyone thinks it’s business first, but, for me, it’s business last. The first thing I do is mental clarity, and then getting my physical body in a certain state, and then I take care of my family, and then I go attack the world. Now I’m ready to go out there and attack from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and then back to family time.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you go back and tell younger Andy?

A: Buy the duplex in Sunset Beach for $240,000, because now it’s worth $1.8 million, you idiot. That’s just one of many things, but for me, there’s so many other ways and you have time. Learn the game of real estate younger. Three years ago, last week, I didn’t have a website. Fast forward, I’m now getting paid to speak across the country about digital media through the media company I own. You have time.

Action Items

Following this podcast, our goal is to provide you with as many actionable tips as possible. This episode includes…

• Remove your fear, and commit to your social media strategy to build recognition for your business.

As always, take action on these tips!