If you’re in real estate, you’ve heard of syndication. It’s the new industry gold rush, and much like the dotcom bubble in the late 1990s, investors are wondering if they should get in on the action or wait for the market to correct. Award-winning syndicator Bruce Petersen says it all depends. If you do it right, syndication is an amazing way to grow your business exponentially and achieve a life of freedom you never thought possible.
However, syndication isn’t for everyone. Bruce wrote Syndicating Is a B*tch: And Other Truths You Haven’t Been Told to share the stories other syndicators won’t, like finding a dead body on a property and having Homeland Security take $5.2 million of your money. Along with the unvarnished truth, Bruce gives readers the step-by-step guidance they need to close their first syndication deal. I recently caught up with Bruce to learn what inspired him to write the book, his favorite idea he shares with readers, and how that idea has impacted his life and work.
What happened that made you decide to write the book? What was the exact moment when you realized these ideas needed to get out there?
I was tired of seeing people selling education and/or mentoring without truly letting people know that syndicating is really difficult and that many folks shouldn’t do it. They will hear during these free seminars or events that anyone can do it and listen to a procession of students talk about all of their successes but not really, if at all, share the rough stuff with the audience.
Most of these groups are led by good people but their interests are not always fully aligned with their prospective clients. If they share too much of the difficulties and trials and tribulations, it won’t help them sell their product. Syndication is a great way to build wealth and income for you and your family but it comes with a lot of hard work, stress, and some sleepless nights.
I wanted to be the guy that gave them the unbridled truth about what they were thinking of doing, and if most decide not to do their own syndication, then I will consider the book to have been a success. I am not looking for coaching clients or even investors, I simply want to be the check on the emotional pitch they receive at the seminars.
What’s your favorite specific, actionable idea in the book?
To me, the number one most important thought or idea I hope people take away from the book is to somehow find it in yourself to be self-aware. Most people, myself included, can overestimate or over inflate our abilities and lie to ourselves especially when money gets involved.
It takes a lot of introspection, soul searching and honesty with ourselves to be able to recognize that I may not be as brilliant and hard-charging as I think I am. We don’t like to admit that something may be too big for us or not a good fit for our personality.
By lying to ourselves we risk hurting ourselves and others both emotionally and financially. Doing your own syndication, there is a good chance that you will be out of pocket tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the deal done. By the time we finally realize that we are in over our heads, your money may be gone with no way to get it back.
Not everyone can handle the stress and the reality of finding a dead guy in your pool or having the government confiscate over $5 million of you and your investors’ money. Please be real with yourself and know that you are going to face some tough situations. Do you have the intestinal fortitude to be transparent and open about what happened and work your way through it?
I believe many people don’t!
What’s a story of how you’ve applied that idea in your own life? What has this lesson done for you?
How being self-aware has played out in my life is that I finally fully understand and accept many of my own weaknesses and have found ways to address the areas where I lack personally.
I have a rather big personality and love nothing more than speaking, teaching, and inspiring others from the stage. Speaking to hundreds or thousands of people lights me on fire.
On the other side of this, networking when I don’t know anyone is one of the most socially painful and uncomfortable things that I could ever do. I have, on more than one occasion, simply walked out of the room rather than mingle with people that I need to develop a relationship with.
Luckily for me, I have a very social wife. I’ve learned in networking situations to follow her around the room and let her strike up the conversation, at which point I work myself in.
By leaning on my wife for this, it has made us a stronger team than either of us could be alone. She stresses a lot any time she has to address a large crowd. We now fully understand each other’s strengths in this area and have learned to stay in our own lanes.
I’ve also had to embrace the fact that I am a leader and a big picture guy by nature… but not so great at the admin side of business. Being aware of that, I have learned to hire others to do the things that I am not great at, which in turn has freed me up to do what I do best.
For more advice on syndication and whether it’s right for you, you can find Syndicating Is a B*tch: And Other Truths You Haven’t Been Told on Amazon.