Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Dusten Hendrickson and Michael A Forman

Welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections. I'm your host, Michael Forman, and this is the show where relationships, meet real results. Today's guest works at the intersection of money, housing, and long-term security. We're talking about solving the affordable crisis, building wealth through hands off real estate, and creating a future where retirement comes sooner without cutting back the life you've worked so hard to build.

This conversation goes beyond property and numbers. It's about access, trust, and the right, right relationships that open doors. Most people never see. If you care about freedom, stability, and making smart moves with the right people around you, you're in the right place. I'd like to welcome to the podcast today, Dustin.

He is incredible background. And would you mind just telling my audience who you are, how you got here today? And that's how we're gonna start. Hey, thanks for having me, Michael. Yeah, my name's Dustin Hendrickson. I am the founder of Mailbox Money Real Estate, and we raised private equity to develop multifamily housing, workforce housing for professionals, and I've been doing it since 2003.

My mom wanted to build a duplex, and so we started, that's how I started, and then I slowly scaled up. But. About 2018, 2017, 2018 we started flatlining on our growth or on our profitability. Actually. We felt that we were still growing, but we were not as profitable or just flat on profits, even though we were busier than we ever had been.

And that was actually because of a lack of connection. So we found. We discovered syndication, the LPGP structure, and it was all about networking and connections. And from there we started networking more. We met, I met another partner that taught me how to do the syndication process in Nashville at a networking conference, all about syndication.

And yeah, from there, from all the connections we started building and the networking, we started being able to scale and expand. Great. That's great. So you found out that I feel that networking is the lifeblood of business and we can't seem to get away from that. All the AI talk and everything else, it's the person to person networking.

Okay, so let's do this by the numbers. When it comes to real estate and housing solutions, how often does success come down to you? When you know what? When it comes down to who you know before, what you know, 99% of the time. Yeah. You wanna expand a little bit on that? Yeah. So in our business, it's all about buying land.

So we have to first purchase the land, then we have to raise the money from a bunch of investors, and we have to know bankers and each. Each person that we meet, it's about trust. If the landowner doesn't trust you to close on the land, they're not even gonna talk to you. They're, they might talk to you, but they're not gonna take you seriously so that you have to build a relationship with them.

They have to trust you. Then you go talk to the bankers. The bankers obviously have to trust you. And the more bankers that you know, the better it is because the better terms you'll get. And then. The investors, it's a hundred percent trust. Most investors don't even really look or study the deal. They more, they like the location and then they like you.

So the trust that you build with the investors is extremely important. And then you have to have partners and employees that also you have good relationships with, that work with you to do all the. To get all the details done. So every single aspect of it is relationship based, and the higher up you go, the more relationship based it is.

The less about the work, the less about doing the work, and the more about who you know. Yeah, I I, I go all over the country and I teach workshops and I do breakout sessions, keynotes and things like that. And I have a hard time telling the 20 somethings and 30 somethings about networking about the person to person because they're always behind a computer screen or their cell phones they forgot, or they were never taught how to network and how important it truly is.

Yeah. So one, maybe one way that you could break through that cycle with a young crowd is to let them know if AI can take your job, which, if you're working behind a computer or a phone or doing, just doing the work, AI can take your job. If AI can take your job your security is not really there, so your security comes from.

All the relationships you build and being able to get something done through those relationships and not actually doing the work. So that's really how you scale up. And AI can never take my job. We've tried to, oh, I've tried to have AI help me, and AI does not help me. It tells me, get some of the little tasks on, but it cannot do what I do.

No I use AI as a tool and that's all you know, because you don't have the emotional support when you use ai. It takes all that out of it. Yeah. So the, you have to bring the human element into it, and until they fix that, AI really isn't going to replace what I do. But I use it as a tool.

Yes. The affordable housing crisis isn't something one person fixes alone. What types of relationships have mattered most in making real progress here? Relationships with the municipalities. So if you can convince a municipality that you have the solution for their problem, what we find is that most cities, that's the top three on their problems.

Top three issues is affordable housing. Sometimes it's number one, sometimes it's two, sometimes it's three, but it's always in the top three, no matter where you go. And if affordable housing's not an issue, that means they got way more issues to deal with. But yeah, affordable housing is almost always top three everywhere we go.

And if it's not top three, then that's a really good community and they've got everything figured out, which is very rare. Very rare. Real estate investing involves large financial commitments. Does trust get built inside investor networks and how do you spot it early? Yeah, it's all about trust.

Investors, if they don't trust you, they will not invest. It's way too much money. There's way too much money at play for there not to be trust there. So how, and then how do you, how does that come into, what'd you say about it's, or how does it come in early? Yeah. How do you spot it early? I don't know.

How do you spot trust early? I don't know. There's a mantra in network networking. Yeah. No, I, I don't mean to but there's a mantra in networking. It's if they know you, if they like you, if they trust you, yeah. Then they'll do business with you. Yeah. And to know you you know everybody. So that's not a problem.

But like you that narrows the scope down just a bit because listen, as good as you and I are, everybody isn't going to like us. But then you get to the trust factor and the trust factor is so important that, nothing can be built if you don't go past that point. Yeah, and it really, it, I find it just takes experience to, you can see if somebody is truly telling you the truth or if he's just that good of a con artist, you've got it that you spot that early because you can tell whether somebody is.

It's not right. Yeah, I guess so when I, it is easier for me to see if someone is trustworthy than to see if, than for me to notice if they trust me. Probably if they take your advice, if they want to get on the phone with you. Those things, maybe that's just a. They like though, maybe that's when they like you when they're answering your phone call.

I know as soon as they, they invest with you, they trust you, that's for sure. I think they really don't have a choice, okay. Because they've given you the money and so they have to put some sort of trust in what you're doing. Yeah. Okay. So many people want hands off real estate opportunities, but never see them.

How does being in the right circles change? What opinions, I'm sorry. Change what options even become visible? Knowing, the, knowing all the right people will put you in front of all the opportunities as well. So when you, as you start to network, as you start to introduce yourself to different groups, more and more of these opportunities will come up. And. At first, when you first start investing, there are no positive no, or there's no passive opportunities.

So everything seems to, it seems to be that you have to go and do the work yourself, except for stocks and bonds. But those are not, those don't really pay that well because everyone has access to them. So you gotta find the passive deals that the wealthy have access to, and the more that you get into that.

Ecosystem, the more you'll see different deals open up to you, like you could do, there's many different real estate deals you could do. You could start getting in with some developers that are local and that, a lot of these deals are closed off and they don't act, they don't go public ever.

So you have to get within the ecosystem to find those deals. But talking to the wealthy people, that's where all the deals are. This is why it helps to have at least one rich friend. You have one rich friend and that rich friend will start introducing you to other rich friends or more opportunities.

I just watched something the other day that said. One, a rich person will mentor you and help you and show you they like, like that's very, that makes rich people feel really good is when they can help somebody climb the ranks. Whereas poor people just want to pull you back down and crabs in the bucket type mentality.

So try to upgrade your network, what they say. Your network is your net worth. You take the five people you're closest to average up all the salary, and that's probably what you're gonna be. Miss salary you're gonna be making, that's great. As a matter of fact, if on my website are digital courses that I've written, and my number one biggest seller is network to network worth, and that is what it's all about.

What role have warm introductions played in opening doors to deals, partnerships, or capital that would've been unreachable otherwise? I met my partner Omar, down at the syndicate first syndication conference I went to, and so then he taught me all about how the LPGP structure works and then getting that knowledge.

Being able to talk the way he talks has opened up a lot of doors for me. Bankers tend to open up a lot of doors for you to get relationships with those guys. I don't know. I guess it's, I don't look at just one thing. I guess it's all just seems to compound so rapidly once you start growing.

Yeah, so it's definitely, it's the warm introductions that can lead to other introductions and it goes all the way back down to that trust factor so that if the warm introduction to a person, and if they trust you, then they'll introduce you to somebody else. If they're not gonna trust you, then they will never introduce you.

Yeah. Yep. I guess I feel like I just, I do the work, so I'll get an introduction and then I'll do what I say I did. I do what I'll say I'm gonna do, and then I'll add value first. And then by adding the value and not really seeking anything in return, the return comes back to you. And then that's how you get introductions, you get brought onto the team, so they'll bring you onto a team, and then on that team, there's a bunch of other people, and you'll start working with those people.

What you just said is the key to networking. You always bring value to the relationship before you do an ask, right? I firmly believe in having a servant's heart. You go there and you do what you say you're gonna do. You do it for some other people, and when you do enough, they're gonna turn around.

They're gonna say, wait a second. You know what, Dustin did all this let me listen a little bit closer, or Let me do something for him. Yeah. And it, it starts that symbiotic relationship. Absolutely. When someone is focused on not outliving their money, how should they think about building relationships differently than someone chasing short-term goals?

Long-term, long-term relationships, I don't. It's hard for me to put myself in the shoes of someone TA chasing short term anything, so I don't really understand what they would be doing as opposed to the long-term people. This just comes down to just putting in the years, just do what you say you're gonna do.

Trust takes many years to build in just a few moments to destroy. So you put 20 years into building trust and then you do one shady thing. And then now all that trust is eroded. So short term, I don't know. I guess the short term, to me, short-term thinker would be just trying to get something for themselves, being very selfish, which doesn't work in the long term at all.

So short-term thinking, I don't really understand how they even operate. 'cause it seems like a very low mentality to be a short-term thinker. You just reminded me of. Something. I'm a, I'm an old, I'm a Air Force vet and when I was in Desert Storm and when I was in McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, the commander would, I'd say, would give you an attaboy, you did a great job, you did this great, you did this good and everything else, and you can get a hundred attaboys.

But they have one all crap, one negative, all crap. It wipes the hundred away. So you have to always follow through with what you say you're going to do as a minimum. Then if you want to go above and beyond, that's different, but what you said was key because is if you do what you say you're going to do, that's 80% better than your competition.

Yep.

For those who want freedom sooner without cutting back their lifestyle, how do relationships accelerate that timeline?

I don't know if you can get freedom sooner without cutting back because the reason why you're probably in the position you're in without the freedom is 'cause you're over extending yourself somehow.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. You have to cut back somewhere because if you're not, if you're doing everything right, then you already have the freedom. So I would say you have to examine, you have to examine where your money's going. Do do, are you do you have a bunch of loans and a bunch of debt?

You have a bunch of debt on depreciating assets. So I would say you have to think, start thinking long-term again, and you have to put, you have to put money into things that don't necessarily pay you immediately that aren't liquid. You have to buy long-term assets. You have to buy assets that do that reduce your taxable liability.

So I guess that's one thing you could do. Maybe you don't have to cut back, but instead of paying Uncle Sam with your taxes, you start investing in real estate. But the thing is that inherently. Makes you have to cut back for the first year because you have to invest the money. You don't necessarily get the tax benefits till the following year or the following two years.

So all the money you're paying Uncle Sam, so you have these high earners and they're paying 50% to Uncle Sam, 40 to 50%. That can all go into investments, and then you can get your taxable income to zero. So instead of paying Uncle Sam 200 to 500 KA year, put that money into investments. Five years from now, you're gonna have some really good passive income, and your regular ordinary income should be very similar.

So that's what I'd say replace all the money that you're paying in taxes and put that into investments, real estate investments that reduce your taxable income. Okay I'll go with that. I'll go with that. Not every group is worth joining. What signals tell you a network will help you grow instead of draining your time or money.

I use, I go off of intuition, so if this resonates really well with me and I feel like I've got some aha moments right off the bat and I wanna learn from it, then I'll go into it. But. Going, doing the program is really the only way you can tell if it's a waste of time or not, and then cut the program off once you realize you're not really learning that much anymore.

But you also have to put yourself, you have to do the program, right? You can't just go in and then not do the work and then quit. But if even if you find yourself not doing the work, it's probably not for you. You're probably not inspired enough. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the wrong program. It might just be the wrong time.

You might need some more knowledge upfront before you join that program. But I say intuition, if it aligns with, if it aligns with you, if everything looks like it's gonna work for what you want to do in the future, I'd say join it. Give it a try. It's, you're never gonna. You're never going, some people are like, oh, if you go do that, you're gonna get ripped off. Oh, don't do that. You're gonna get ripped off. And then they end up doing nothing. So pay a little bit of money, see the, see what you feel about the course. And if it's a bad course, that's fine. Quit the course and move and do another course or get into another group.

So how long would you suggest somebody stay in a course or a networking group or something else before they can really truly find out? I don't know, month, two months, three months. It's all, it just all depends on you and how much effort you're putting in. You'll know when you're done with the group.

That's what I always say and most people probably keep, they stay with the group 'cause it's familiar, it's comfortable. But once you get to that point, you should probably move on to another group and put yourself in a more uncomfortable position where you're learning. I like to learn though, i, I I'm always the one who, 'cause everybody asks me where I am and what, because I have a networking group. I meet weekly with about 17 or 20 businesses and we discuss the networking and everything else, and they ask me, they have a thousand other networking groups. They always ask me a timeframe, like, when do you know, when you find out if it's good for you or not?

And I have a round term. I always say three, three months, give it three months. And if you don't, 'cause the first month everything is new and you're really unsure. The second month you're getting your footing, and the third month you're gonna really, truly understand what you're doing, why you're there and everything else.

Yeah. So I always give it the three months. Okay. So in real estate, people often guard information. What happens when professionals choose shared progress instead of secrecy? I think it's similar. I think it's similar with every industry. I think people are inherently scared of giving away the secret sauce and someone coming in and do, stealing all their info and doing what they do.

I've found that. Nobody is gonna take your info. Very rarely is someone gonna take your info and copy you, I put out, put it all out there, put everything out there, what we're doing, and then that actually builds trust with people. And now they want to come in and invest because when they see how much at work it takes to do what you're doing there, they just say, ah, that's way too much work.

I'll just, if I can just join him instead of trying to do all that work, that'll be much better. So it builds a, when you share all of your information, it builds a huge level of trust with people in the public. And then it also. It signals that you're not scared. So you have an abundance mindset versus a scarcity mindset.

And a scarcity mindset will not do you any good. It's never gonna do you any good. And even if you have a scarcity mindset, people can still come in and steal all your ideas. It's not that hard. I'll go with that. Let's bring this podcast full circle and looking back. Was there a single relationship or introduction that shifted your entire path, and what lessons should listeners take from that story?

I would say no because it happens to me all the time. I'll get introduced to someone and then that shifts my entire path, and then I'll get introduced to another someone, and then I shifts my entire path. So I constantly look for that one relationship. But let's see. My partner, Caleb meeting my partner Caleb.

Has really shifted because I realized that I could put all the general contracting work onto him. So I was a general contractor. I did all my own building and all my own development and all my own asset management, property management, all of that. And I always assumed that if you didn't build, how could you create the equity you needed to create to develop these projects?

So that's how I did it. I was the builder. And so I would use that equity in each project. Then I met Caleb and I just, one day I just ga, I think I hurt my back on the job site and I said, I'm done. I'm done with all this heavy lifting and stuff. I'm too old. I've already put in all my time and I'll never be able to expand to where I wanna expand if I keep doing all the general contracting.

So I ended up giving Caleb all the general contracting work, and then that's when I really realized that I didn't even like general contracting. I would rather do the design and the marketing and the capital raising and the land acquisition. That really helped me. But then I did the same thing with property management.

Someone told me one time, you can't find a property manager. It's 'cause of you. You're not the best property manager in the world. It's you just need to trust. You need to trust and you need to find a really good property manager. He said, look at all these buildings down here. These buildings are better than any building you own and someone else is property managing it, not you.

So get that idea outta your head that you're the only one that can property manage 'cause it's not true. And he said, you'll never be able to scale. So that was one of the first where I realized that I have to trust. Other people much more than I was. And then the general contracting was another step. And then you meet people that help you, capital raise and you, I don't know, it just it's once you meet that, once you get that one connection, you're gonna find the next connection and you just have to keep doing the same thing.

'cause you have to constantly scale. Good. Good. Dustin, this was a great podcast. I loved what you had to say. It really made me think about my investments. If what, if somebody wanted to contact you, they wanted your help or to have you consult, where can they find you? Mailbox money, r e.com.

Mailbox money. RE as in realestate.com. That's great. That's great. So that was an eye-opening conversation. What stood out most is how much progress comes down to relationships, the right introductions, the right partners, and the right rooms. If this episode gave you a new way to think about money housing or your own timeline to freedom, pass it along to someone who needs to hear it.

Thanks for spending time with me on networking Unleashed, building profitable Connections. I'm Michael Foreman. Keep building strong relationships. Keep those thinking long-term and keep moving towards the life you want. So until next time, I bid you a due. Dustin, thank you again for coming on my podcast.

Hey, thanks for having me, Michael. It was a good time.

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  a huge thank you to our guests for sharing such incredible insights today, and of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in and spending your time with us. If you're interested in my digital courses being coached or having me come and talk to your company, just go to MichaelAForman.com and fill out the request form.

Remember, networking isn't about being perfect. It's about being present. So take what you've learned today, get out there and make some meaningful connections. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe. Leave us a review. Share it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.

Let's keep the conversation going. You can find me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or my website michaelaforman.com/podcast.

Michael is a business networking expert specializing in enhancing professionals' networking and communication skills to drive profitability. As a leading authority in this field, he is highly sought after for his dynamic presentations and workshops. His extensive experience has consistently led to significant improvements in corporate profitability by empowering individuals and organizations to connect more effectively and efficiently.

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