Join host Mike Zlotnik, “Big Mike,” on the BigMikeFund Podcast for an insightful episode with Leon Barnes, Director of Membership at Collective Genius Mastermind. Leon, a long-time friend and real estate veteran, shares his journey from Kansas City to Tampa and his role in scaling Collective Genius, a premier community for real estate investors. Discover the evolution of Collective Genius, now with over 500 members across four tiers: Elevate, Select, Premier, and the exclusive CG CEO for visionaries with $10M+ in revenue or $15M+ net worth. Leon highlights the power of community, humility, and intentional learning, with a focus on leveraging AI for marketing, call analysis, and deal flow.
Get practical insights on hiring the right team using Who Not How principles, embracing 10X thinking, and skating “where the puck is going.”
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE
00:00 – Welcome to the BigMikeFund Podcast
00:19 – Intro: Welcoming Leon Barnes
01:00 – Leon’s story: From Kansas City to Tampa
02:17 – Work-life balance: Moving for family and career
06:07 – Collective Genius: Community growth and culture
08:08 – Director of Membership: Leon’s role in scaling
10:07 – CG CEO: Exclusive group for real estate visionaries
12:28 – Membership tiers: Elevate, Select, Premier, and CG CEO
13:35 – Success stories: 44 members graduate to Premier
15:21 – Community strength: Humility and learning
15:51 – AI in real estate: Tools for marketing and calls
18:17 – Skating where the puck is going: Future trends
20:51 – Practical AI: Answering calls and analyzing deals
23:07 – AI call analysis: Improving sales and fundraising
25:22 – Book recommendations: Who Not How and 10X Is Easier Than 2X
27:44 – Hiring wisdom: Culture fit over technical skills
30:27 – Finding the right COO: Complementary strengths
31:04 – Leadership mindset: Hire those who elevate you
32:09 – Connect with Leon: Social media and CG websites
34:18 – Takeaways: Community, AI, and visionary growth
If you found this episode substantial and want to dig deeper into real estate, or maybe you want to discover better investment opportunities, be sure to check out www.tempofunding.com.
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Website: www.tempofunding.com
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CONNECT WITH THE GUEST
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leongbarnes/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lgoner
Website: http://www.explorecg.com/
Wesbite 2: http://www.cgceo.com/
Full Transcript:
Mike Zlotnik: Welcome to the BigMikeFund Podcast. I’m the Big Mike, Mike Zlotnik, and today it is my pleasure and a privilege to welcome Leon Barnes, my really good friend. He’s the Director of Membership at the Collective Genius Mastermind, close friend, just a wonderful human being. Great to have you, Leon. Thank you for coming on the podcast.
Leon Barnes: It’s great to be here Mike, thank you for that great introduction, personal friend. I feel the same way about you. Appreciate you having me and one day, maybe one day, I can be called the Big Leon. That’s, that’s my hope.
Mike Zlotnik: You could be called the Big Leon today. You have a big heart. you’re not as big of a guy as I am, but you have a big heart.
So from that perspective, yeah, I shall call you from this point on Big Leon.
Leon Barnes: Big heart. You know, Leon does mean lion and the cowardly lion, you know, needed a heart, needs some courage, right? I guess the 10 men needed the heart, whatever. It works. Big heart, big Leon.
Mike Zlotnik: So wonderful to have you. Would you be so kind as to tell folks, a little bit about you, your family, where you live?
Leon Barnes: Sure. We’ll, we’ll start that way. So, I like to tell people that I’m a Kansan. I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, Northeast Kansas. but I now live in Tampa, Florida. like a lot of people in 2020. Moved to, Florida, but I didn’t do it because of COVID.
I did it because, I was working remotely for the collective genius. As you mentioned, I’m the director of membership. and so, collective genius started almost 15 years ago. Now, here in Tampa, Florida is where we’re based. Most of our meetings, at least back then, we’re here. and I have, a 13-year-old son now and an 8-year-old son at the time.
They were eight and three, when we moved. And so, I did not wanna be on a plane all the time. Mike, you, you’ve talked about this, we’ve had many of these conversations about work life balance, and I just didn’t wanna be, you know, we, we were starting a second group, a second community for the first time about five years ago.
And I knew I was going to be on a plane at least, at least five times a year, for events. And then from there, you know, for meetings and things like that, I just, I knew I was gonna be on a plane once a month. And so we made the move here to Tampa. Been here for five years. My, oldest is one year away from high school, believe it or not.
and my, youngest is about to enter the third grade, as you know, it goes. Really, really fast. My wife and I made the decision, even though we’re both originally from Kansas, that this was the best decision, for our family. And I’m so excited that we did It took some time. Mike, as you know, you know, I didn’t move from, a country, one country to the next, but sometimes some people could argue that Kansas and Florida, like two different countries.
And so it wasn’t an easy decision and it took us some time to build our community. But over time now. this is Kansas will always be home with it, but this is our now home.
Mike Zlotnik: Well, that’s wonderful. the, collective Genius Mastermind is a great community. I know you’ve, you’ve been close friends with, Jason Madley, founder, and, Tampa is a great place to be.
Honestly, it’s, if I had a choice where to move, from New York City, I would, I’d, I’d seriously consider. Tampa is a, is a good place to live. So, at least I, I say this at least you’re, you’re in, you’re in Tampa, not, I don’t know, Wisconsin and fe your butt. Oh, of course. At whether the better. Of
Leon Barnes: course, of course.
If Jason would’ve said, you know, you know, it was, it made the decision a little easier. I don’t love cold weather. I don’t mind it, but I don’t love it. and so, having lived in Hawaii for three years, this was the closest thing that, I could get. you know, to, to that, to that warm weather that I had there.
but I will say this, I do like that the fact that Tampa has grown significantly es especially since 2020 when COVID, a lot of people moved here from New York. a lot of people in New Jersey, Philadelphia. and same thing with Miami. And we were actually in Miami this past weekend just for a nice getaway trip.
It’s a four hour drive, so it’s not bad at all. And I can tell you that Miami is a great city to visit. It was fun. but it’s just, it’s too big. Like I wouldn’t if, if Jason would’ve lived in Miami and started. This in Miami. I don’t know if we would’ve wanted to live in that big of a metropolis unless there was on the outskirts or something along those lines.
It’s a Tampa’s a, it’s a big little city, and that reminds me of the Midwest. It reminds me of Kansas City or, or any of the cities that I’ve lived in that are, you know, not these big metropolis like, like New York or la.
Mike Zlotnik: Yeah, I appreciate, that sharing and Exactly, exactly my feeling. Tampa is a, is a big little city, so it’s just a little bit more of a, there’s still traffic, but not as bad as in New York, la, or Miami, et cetera.
So That’s
Leon Barnes: right. It’s all, it’s all relative. It’s all com, you know, you know, what’s your, like, I, it’s, it’s more traffic than I’m used to, but if you’re, you know, in a city like New York, obviously this is nothing.
Mike Zlotnik: Yeah. so I appreciate that and, let’s move, let’s move forward to the business part of the conversation.
So Sure. Let’s talk a little bit about, the collective genius, sort of what, where it’s evolved. I had Jason on the podcast a few times in the past. It’s great to have you now. Little different, a little bit of a different perspective. Mm-hmm. And, I also wanted to talk a little bit about the CG CEO.
It’s kind of being one of the. Recent, areas of focus and, a number of veterans have moved in that group. And, yeah, just talk a little bit about CGCO. How is it different from the collective genius? And talk about the collective genius. It’s, it’s kind of the current form. It’s great strengths, great benefits to membership.
Just, you, you got the floor.
Leon Barnes: Sure. So I met you 10 years ago as a member of this great organization when I joined. I think back then we had a roughly 85, 88 members, something along those lines. And I remember walking through the door and meeting people like yourself and others that just immediately were willing to, help, in this field of real estate investing.
You know, that wasn’t always the case 10 years ago, and I just felt it just was a warm, welcoming community of people that were doing more things, and in some cases better things than. That I was doing and the business that we were running at the time, I just remembered falling in love with the community.
And I remember saying to Jason when I first met him and saying, man, you just have an unbelievable culture that you’ve built. and I wanna be a part of it. There’s anything that I could ever do beyond just being a member if you ever need, you know, just even a volunteer, because at the time he was really running it by himself.
he had one other person. Corey Boatwright, a good friend of yours, I remember was helping him in the back of the room do, the hot seats back then. and I just remember saying to him, man, this is just so, this is so special that it, it needs to be, you know, bigger for more investors and not just those that qualified at that particular time.
And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever young kid. but I remember just keeping in touch with him and eventually we had a conversation about me coming on board. as director of membership, and I just remember at that given time saying to him. And when I first started taking over all the consults, because the way the community works is you have to qualify for any of our levels.
At the time, we only had one and seven years ago when I came, on this side, as the director of membership, I remember saying to him, and there’s so much more that we can do with this than just this group of investors that we currently have in the group. What I meant meant by that was the qualification.
At the time, it was very low. It was either $2 million of. A gross annual profit or 50 transactions a year, and that was really high 10, 15 years ago, but seven years ago, it wasn’t that high, and so we were able to level up and create a second community again. One of those reasons why I ended up moving is because I knew once we started a second community that I was gonna be traveling a lot more, but I just saw the opportunity.
I know he saw it as well. But this will be, you know, a lot of people that listen to this as you grow and scale a business, you can’t just do that on your own. You gotta have people, you have to have systems, you have to have process. And he found, you know, me, brought me on board and we just continued to grow from there to allowed us to, to grow these new communities.
And we started. By leveling up the longest tenured group, which we now call our CG premier group, and I wanted to go a another level higher, and Jason was like, you know what? It’s probably best if we start one level below that because that is our normal avatar that we target real estate investors, that single family operator that.
wholesales hotels, like you mentioned, I think you’ve mentioned before, fix and flip rentals, getting into commercial assets and probably own some commercial assets as well. That’s the traditional avatar. Someone that’s making over a million dollars of gross annual revenue all the way up to 10.
And so we had this big, swath of investors that we could go after and we started a third community, and then I, we finally, I finally got my wish of creating that. The fourth tier of our community, which is to make sure that the people that have been with us for 10, 15 years, that were giving all the value to the community now had their own almost private group with a smaller, more intimate setting of people that were financially verified.
And so that group started just over a year ago. We call it cg, CEO. A lot of people. And that have been scaling over the years, have just graduated into that visionary seat, or looking to be in the room with other founder CEOs and not just operators, right? Not just someone in the weeds. They want to be in the room with visionaries and I.
I like to say this particular room, more intimate setting, financially verified over $10 million of annual, gross profit or $15 million of net worth. So you’re dealing with a higher caliber individual, someone that’s in the owner’s true owner’s box, but not wanting to sit my ize on the beach. They still want to grow, their business and are looking to do new things and want to be in the room with other visionaries.
So when you look across. All of the peer-to-peer groups, we could not find one that offered what we offer specific to real estate investors, commercial, industrial, single family multifamily. It doesn’t matter what the asset, cla land flippers developers, it doesn’t matter what the asset class. There are groups out there for CEOs, that are, you know, not specific to real estate where this particular group is.
A CEO, a founder. That is very specific to real estate. Everyone in the room does some type of real estate niche. That’s what they do. That’s what they focus on. And so that was, that’s what C-E-G-C-E-O is, and that’s the, the latest group, one that we’re the most excited about because there’s so much more opportunity because we’re opening up, to an avatar that we’ve never really targeted before.
Mike Zlotnik: Thank you, lean, I appreciate, all that great details. Just curious, how big is the CG premier? I, I, I could just tell you that the group has grown a lot. Like I remember, I remember those days, yes. When we had a small group, 60, 70 people, and it’s, it’s all evolved and change. It feels like there are many hundreds of people in the CG Premier, and I think select’s got pretty big too.
And the cg, CEO you are, you’re growing.
Leon Barnes: So the way the tiers work, Mike, is Elevate is our entry level group. We don’t work with any newbies. It’s the most entry level group that we have. Someone that’s doing at least a couple deals a month in the single family space. Mostly our goal is to make sure that they continue to graduate ’cause people come to us to grow and scale their business.
So we want to help them along the way and be in the right room at the right time. Because as you know, Mike, there are people that you’ve talked to, I’m sure, that bring a deal to you that are not ready to do certain things. They’re not ready for certain conversations, and it can be a detriment to their business.
So we make sure that we meet them where they’re at, give them value to pull them up into the next room. So I’m most proud. That select has been around our select level group, has been around for almost five years now, and we’ve had 44 members graduate from our select level, which is people doing between 500,000 and 2 million of gross annual revenue.
Those individuals have now, 44 of ’em, have promoted into our premier level group, which is $2 million and above.
Mike Zlotnik: That’s very impressive.
Leon Barnes: Those, those are my, you know, I’m so, happy and those people, like for instance. At our, our most recent meeting, we had two of our four belt winners. Our belt winners are people that give the most value, typically through a presentation.
Well, two of the four were, were recent graduates that had graduated into that premier level. so I’m most proud about that. We had four tiers to the community, meeting people where they’re at and helping them grow and, and, and get to that next level. People are really excited about getting to that next level.
Now that we have CEO, which is $10 million and above. I have people that are, either on the pod, my, our podcast or having conversations. They’re like, I’m so glad you guys created that group. It gave gave me another, community to look forward to. I’m gonna, I’m gonna be where my feet are right now, but I wanna be in that next level.
So, to answer long-winded way to answer your question, we have over 215 members at the select level, in. In five, in less than five years. CG Premier, which is again, that $2 million and above, that’s 186. It fluctuates between 180 and one 90. we haven’t hit that 200 mark, but overall through all the communities, we’re well over 500 members.
And I remembered what I took this role, in, in this position, Mike, we were sitting at 117 members. for what, one community and now we have over four and I’m just, I, I, I can tell you that that growth is exciting, but the, the, the investors’ growth within this community is what I’m most proud of.
Mike Zlotnik: Yeah.
And I, I, I, you know, as an observer, as a member of the community for many years, I can tell you, I appreciate, you and Jason and the entire team and other, folks who have been the facilitators, guys who’ve been super veterans who’ve been. helping. It’s a great community. I, I really have to say that.
I, I love Jason’s, humility and your humility and other key members. People ch check their ego at the door. People are there to learn. I wanna say last couple of meetings. lots of credit to, bringing in a lot of AI presentations. we are, we are, we are living in a very evolving, world. AI seems to be, dominating technology, evolving technology, changing fast, giving great tools to folks at every level.
And, yeah, I just, just, just giving the credit where it’s due. It’s a great community to learn, network. and, and, I, you know, I consider myself an old cat and I am learning AI faster than I thought I would. And I just kind of opening my own, horizons, that the opportunities are great and having.
This as a supporting environment and learning, is important because we all live in our own little cocoon. We, we do our own business and then four times a year we get together, typically nice, nice places, right? I, I, of all places in Diego is great. We’ve done a few in Dallas, down down some in Tampa at the end of the day.
It’s, it’s actually, I look forward to these events. It’s a, it’s a great way to bind with people to connect, to talk, and the, yeah, I mean, community has grown a lot and it’s just, it’s, it’s just kind of wonderful. I ask myself a question, why I’m in the community. Sometimes I correct the joke.
It’s the good old boys club. And then I, I I, I say, wait a minute, that’s not true. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a little bit of that old friends, right? Sure,
Intro: sure.
Mike Zlotnik: But ton of learning and ton of fresh networking and ton of fresh opportunities. So I’ll just, just, just say that,
Leon Barnes: yeah. We, we find Mike, that the lifeblood of the organization, is the combination of members that have been with us like yourself for a very long time, and the new fresh blood that comes in with new ideas, like right now.
The technology piece is all being led by most of our younger members, the members that have, you know, hit a certain spot, in their business where they’re relying on technology because they know it. Like I think about, the intentionality that we have with every single meeting. we do that because everyone, the most valuable asset that everyone owns, in that room is their time.
And so we wanna make sure that we’re helping everyone in that room connect with individuals that help them to the old Wayne Gretzky quote, right? To skate where the puck is going, not necessarily where it is today, and we know. Based upon the feedback we get from our membership base and all the things that are coming down the pike right now, we know that technology is a big play, and so we don’t wanna overwhelm people with a ton of it every single meeting, but we’re gonna make sure that we get it in there with intention.
Like this is something that is going to change your life and change your business. Maybe not today, but you can start the process now. It reminds me of you ever seen that old clip of the Today Show? where they’re talking about the email and they’re talking about it at symbol and they’re, they’re just, they have no clue how to send an email.
It was so fresh and so new, and I believe it not I’m old enough that I didn’t have, I learned how to type on a typewriter. That’s how crazy the technology has changed just in my lifetime that I didn’t even have a computer to learn how to type on In high school, I learned on a typewriter that same evolution.
I see that already happening. Right now, especially in non-institutional sized businesses. So if we’re speaking to, you know what people consider the mom and pop investor, business owner, that’s our, that’s our core member, right? That individual, their business, if they do not evolve and change over time, then they are not going to have that business, or they will not be able to lead that legacy long term.
And that’s down the line, but it starts today.
Mike Zlotnik: Well, yeah, I mean most of the business in America is small business, right? That’s, so you hear about big corporations, but there, there’s a lot more small businesses, and this is where a lot of innovation happens. And, yeah, so I’m, I’m completely in agreement supporting small businesses, working with small businesses is kind of a lifeblood of America.
And, yeah, it’s a great community. So where is the puck go? The puck going now. So what do you see? And I, I, I kind of bring ai, into the, conversation because it is, Sort of a, you know, transformational technology. It, it, it’s been changing how we, we, we do business. I’m trying to figure out from the wonderful, from the presentation of so many AI tools.
it, it, it’s overwhelming to a degree. Its, I’m just curious, I know you’re doing some work within the community and trying to figure out how much of this is applicable to different folks and different strategies and what are the best tools. That’s the beauty about the community. One person figures it out and then they share, Hey, in my market I’m using this and this is how it works.
Leon Barnes: That is the money right there. Mike, what you just mentioned is that I can tell you that based upon the feedback that I get from our membership base and also the connections that the, the people that respond and say, Hey, this person really helped me out with this thing right now that help my business the most.
So where the puck is going, I can say is this. We try to show two different things with the technology side. We try to show what is possible. Right. It may not be. It’s like the, when you go to those future car shows. You see that car and you go, man, that there’s no way that car, it would be something that anyone would buy.
But you’re pushing the boundaries of what automobiles will be like in the future. So we do two, the last two meetings specifically for the premier and the CEO levels, we have pushed what is currently possible and what will be possible down in the future where. You have where you and I are not doing this podcast where ai, is not only doing it in English, but they’re doing it in, in, in Spanish and other languages, and it’s just AI doing it for us, right?
That’s stuff that we won’t, that won’t, we won’t do today. But it is possible in the future for you have AI agents that are taking all the phone calls, not only for, you know, the deal flow, but also for any other things that you would need, to, to answer phones for and respond. Then we try to get practical, tactical, alright, what right now can help your business?
So for instance, a lot of our foundation investor, their foundations are built on single family assets, single family multifamily assets. And because they’re not institutions, they have to get, they have to get really good at marketing for direct to seller. And a lot of them, when they do market direct to seller.
some of the biggest issues that we’ve had over many years. Has been just making sure that every call is answered. I know that sounds remedial. I know that sounds like it’s, that that’s the issue. Yes, it can be an issue when you are marketing, you know, six figures a month in marketing expenses and you can’t necessarily get to all of those calls.
And so practical tactical today, I would say one of the. Easiest ways to utilize AI is having AI technology answer every single phone call. It’s better to have AI answer that call than no one answer that call and technology seems to get better each meeting. Each quarter, the technology continues to get better and better and better, and we’re not just seeing it in real estate.
I’m also having conversations with people in AI that are doing this for HVAC contractors and plumbers because how many times have you ever called one of those services and no one pick up? Right, so there will be in the very near future, any service industry that you’re calling, those are mostly gonna be AI and then transferred if you need something very, very specific so that we try to meet them where they’re at right now.
Practical, tactical, and then what’s, what’s to come in the future.
Mike Zlotnik: Yeah, that’s a great point. And I think analysis post call also. Yeah. I can do the analysis of these calls, and just kind of improve, the quality of the future conversations. That’s right. by learning what has transpired.
Leon Barnes: It’s, that’s one, it’s, it’s so amazing, Mike, that, that AI will break down that call for you to, to add to that point.
It will break down that call and it will. It will give you tips on, at this time, you could have paused, or you could have said this in regards to a sales conversation or your fundraising, what have you, like, it, it, it really is that good that it can help you and the people that you have working for you.
The fund, the people that are raising capital, the people that are talking to sellers, it will grade them to help them get better and even role play with them. That you can use that technology right now to fill gaps in your business.
Mike Zlotnik: Yeah, practice, and it’s both practice and analysis of existing calls.
That’s a very good point. any great book suggestions? kind of the, the, these, we could continue talking for a long time, but Sure. I, I’m a big fan of Star Trek, one of the episodes, you know, they, there’s the cue, the, the what’s it called? Omnipotent being, tells Picard all good things must come to an end when he’s about to destroy.
humanity as a joke, but it’s, you know, I say all good things. Like this episode must come to an end. Not to reference anything negative about that, but it’s just kind of, we’re running out of time. So any great book suggestions or any any business advice?
Leon Barnes: a couple different things here. I seem to reference this book more often than not.
For those that are watching on video, you can see it’s Who Not How By Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. We actually had Dr. Benjamin Hardy. at an event as a keynote. That’s one thing that we do. Say it again? I
Mike Zlotnik: didn’t hear What’s the book’s name?
Leon Barnes: who, not how, who not how. Yes.
Mike Zlotnik: Yes. That’s the, it’s a classic book.
Yeah.
Leon Barnes: Very classic. All of Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s books. I would suggest for business owners, but this one in particular because as I mentioned earlier, everyone that comes to our community wants to continue to grow. They’re not in the room if they have a thousand doors and they’re okay with that and living off of those thousand doors, nothing wrong with that.
They’re in the room because they want to continue. They’re at 5 million, they wanna get to 10 million. They’re at 10 million. They want to get to 20 million. Yeah, they’re at $15 million in net worth and they wanna get their $30 million in net worth. These are all high achievers. And so high achievers. One of the biggest issues for them to scale is to understand that they cannot do it on their own.
There has to be an operating system. There has to be systems in general, process, core values, all the things that. Most entrepreneurs maybe didn’t go through, don’t, don’t have MBAs or didn’t go through corporate structure. They have to build those things out and then hire really good people and get out of their way.
And this particular book that I referenced a ton in our community is because most people still have, even the people that are at the highest levels, still struggle with the who. instead of, they’re always wondering about how to do it instead of who should I get to do it? So this is the book that I referenced the most within our community.
10 X is, easier than three X is another one of Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s as well. and Dan Sullivan’s that I really like because again, it pushes those boundaries of thought of I wanna three x my business when the, when reality it’s, it’s much easier. And Dan goes through that in the book. to 10 x the business than it is to three x.
Those are two good ones that have referenced a ton within this community. It’s amazing, Mike, how many people struggle with people, and to truly get to that next level and, and understanding that even if it’s someone that does the job at 80% of what they can do it, the only way you’re gonna scale is to have the right people in the right seats.
Mike Zlotnik: Yeah. Yeah. I, I concur. And, not only that, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve referenced that thought who, not how, many times myself and, and every time you have a team member, you’re really thinking, is this the right person? that’s right. You’re not looking for perfection. You’re, you’re looking for the right learning mind, the right cultural fit.
and I, I, I’ll just tell you this. having many years in technology world and how we used to hire many, many years ago, we hired based on resume technical skills. While that approach may work in computer programming, it is actually not the way most entrepreneurs hire, and they need to hire based on, personality profile based on culture, number of other, like a DISC index and other ones that as long as the person that you’re hiring is a good fit, they’re the right person on the bus.
you can figure out the seed for them, or maybe they are one of these folks who could be one of the leaders. So who not how is a, is a great concept. And then, yeah, 10 x is easier. I thought it was 10 x easier than two x. Maybe it says than three x, but the, the concept is the same. I think.
Leon Barnes: I think you’re right.
I think I made up the three x. It sounds better for me.
Mike Zlotnik: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember the book, I know the book, I’ve read the book and I, it’s, it’s a mindset. It’s like in 10 x you gotta go break things. So two x, you’re just doing incremental. So you’re doing, that’s exactly right. Transformational versus incremental.
But it is a great book. Thank you for sharing. Those are two wonderful books.
Leon Barnes: I, I can tell you from, having, Dr. Benjamin Hardy as one of our keynotes, that’s something that we do every single quarter, is try to bring in, bring in thought leaders, business leaders, for keynote presentations. And I remember while we brought him up to speak on specifically on who, not how he was most excited to talk to us about 10 x.
Like he had already completed the book and it just wasn’t printed yet. In fact, gave us a PDF copy of it. Like I, I enjoy people that have just said, alright, this is a great concept. Now I’m working on the next concept. That’s the individual that we, really attract in this community is the person that says, all right, I’m good with this.
I’ve taken this concept, now I’m ready to do the next thing. And the best way to do that is have people that you can rely on. To take the things that you’ve done before, right? And grow upon that with new, new ideas, allowing you to be more of a visionary, which again is the, the individual that we attract within the collective genius.
Mike Zlotnik: And I’ll add one more point to that. So what you just described is many people struggle to bring COOO. to, free up their time and to help them run the business. That’s right. So basically to free up their time. But I’ll also add that there are situations where you bring a person who’s completely complimentary to you and they may do better things, at things that you try to do.
So it’s, it’s not just to replace, but to enhance because a person can do a better job than you can, and, and you have to be humble enough and, and, smart enough to recognize that there are people who are better at something that you’re not. And that creates a great complimentary, environment. So
Leon Barnes: I, I worked in, in corporate America for 11 years in sales management.
Mike, my goal every, and I mean this sincerely, my goal every time I would interview someone is I wanted to enthusiastically hire someone that wanted to take my job. I mean, seriously wanted to take my job. Because I knew that if they had that type of enthusiasm, then I would obviously be very happy with hiring that individual because I had no ego, zero.
Why? Because I knew that individual was going to elevate me and I was gonna help elevate them. We all rise together. If you hire. Smart, enthusiastic people, and I, I don’t, you know, most of our entrepreneurs, most of our members understand that concept. It’s just finding the right people, which is, that’s not uncommon.
That is for almost every single mom and pop business and even institutional businesses in the United States. But when you do find them, take care of them and make sure you help them elevate as much as you’re trying to elevate yourself.
Mike Zlotnik: Thank you for that wisdom. What’s the best way for folks to reach out to you, the CG website?
so, share, share the kind, the how, how do folks reach out?
Leon Barnes: So, a couple different ways. I’m on social media, Leon G Barnes on Instagram and Leon Barnes on Facebook. We share a lot of the Collective Genius podcast, which we just started this year. Members like yourself, on long form interviews, talking about the, the member experience and the entrepreneurial journey.
so that’s, one easy way to find me. And then there’s two different websites I’m gonna give you here, for, you know, the two different avatars that we attract. Number one is for the collective genius, premier, select, and Elevate groups. Those are mostly for the real estate investors that is out flipping homes.
Big rental portfolios, maybe getting into, mobile home parks and other things like that, and looking to grow and scale. That’s explorecg.com. Explorecg.com takes you to a website where if you’re interested, you can fill out an application there. Now, the group that, we started a year ago that we are super excited, we’re excited about ’em all, but this one is the one that, I’m most excited about because I’m along with Jason, our founder, spearheading this group to continue to help it grow and it’s cgceo.com. That site, as of this recording, was not live, but by the time that this goes live, it will be live, cgceo.com, that is for the real estate entrepreneur that has scaled and has executive C-suite teams, $10 million and above $15 million of net worth. These are people that are onto the next thing.
They’re commercial, they’re developers, they’re looking at the next big deal, the, the next big business. True visionaries that want to be in the room with other founders. There are a lot of groups out there for big, high level financed, entrepreneurs, but not necessarily specific to real estate investing.
And so that’s why we created CG CEO. You can find that more information about that at cgceo.com.
Mike Zlotnik: Thank you Leon, very much for sharing. Appreciate CG for many years, and looking forward to many more ahead. And, grateful to you, Jason, and the whole team, for your leadership and for keep moving the community forward.
Thank you.
Leon Barnes: Likewise, Mike, thank you for the time. Always appreciate the conversations and as always, if there’s anything I can do to help you, you know how to reach me.
Mike Zlotnik: Thank you.
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Thank you for listening to The BigMikeFund Podcast. To receive your copy of Mike’s how to choose a smart real estate fund book, head to BigMikeFund.Com or visit Amazon and type Mike Zlotnik. Keep listening and keep investing, Big Mike style. See you in the next episode.
