The Collective Genius Podcast

5 Habits That Build Rockstar Teams & 5 That Break Them featuring Amanda Dean

In this episode of the Collective Genius Podcast, host Leanne Barnes sits down with Amanda Dean—fractional operator, CSO coach at Sharper Business Solutions, and one of the most experienced team builders in the real estate investing world. Amanda spent 18 years at Tennessee Homebuyers growing from a two-person garage startup to one of Nashville's most recognized home buying operations, sitting in every seat from admin assistant to CEO along the way. Now she travels the country working with 40-plus real estate teams a year, and in this episode she walks through the award-winning presentation that earned her a belt at the Collective Genius: Five Habits That Build Rockstar Teams and Five That Break Them. From creating a winning culture by design to the likability trap that quietly caps so many businesses, this is one of the most practical and immediately actionable episodes in the show's history. If you lead a team—or want to—this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [0:51] – Welcome and intro to Amanda Dean, CSO coach at Sharper Business Solutions [1:58] – What Amanda does today: coaching and consulting 40-plus real estate teams a year [3:39] – 18 years at Tennessee Homebuyers: from two people in a garage to a full leadership team [4:25] – Sitting in every seat—admin, TC, project management, brokerage, construction—before becoming CEO [8:06] – Why Amanda left even though she could have stayed, and what she misses most about the team [10:05] – Intro to the presentation: Five Habits That Build Rockstar Teams and Five That Break Them [10:55] – Habit 1: Create a winning culture—by design, not by default [12:26] – Recognition rituals, record walls, and why winning culture needs to be intentional [15:18] – Habit 2: Invest like you mean it—budget for your team's growth, not just your own [16:20] – Cross training: why walking a mile in another role builds appreciation and retention [19:07] – Habit 3: Lead people, manage process—people hate being managed, processes love it [19:50] – Path of progress: why every hire needs a visible growth trajectory [22:28] – Paint by numbers: how to give new team members clarity without micromanaging [25:33] – Habit 4: Make decisions based on what you know, not how you feel [27:34] – Staying focused on what works instead of chasing what sounds good [30:53] – Habit 5: Celebrate the lessons, not just the wins—why safe-to-fail cultures grow faster [33:21] – Praise publicly, criticize privately—and always address behavior, not the person [37:38] – Bad Habit 1: Chasing shiny objects—and the one filter that separates distractions from real opportunities [39:32] – Why AI is not a shiny object—and the 13-week AI education program Amanda is running with teams [42:07] – Bad Habit 2: Keeping low performers too long—and why it's actually selfish to hold on [43:58] – Bad Habits 3 & 4: Avoiding tough conversations and micromanaging—two sides of the same trust problem [48:32] – Bad Habit 5: Falling into the likability trap—you're not running for prom queen [52:18] – How to get started: be intentional, ask for feedback, and put culture on the calendar [54:41] – How to connect with Amanda and access the free business assessment [55:36] – Amanda's ten years in CG and her favorite memory from the community 5 Key Takeaways 1. Culture Is a Design Choice, Not a Default – Ping pong tables don't build culture. Intentionality does. Define your core values, hire and fire by them, and recognize the people who live them out loud. 2. Lead People, Manage Processes – People hate being managed. Give them clarity, a path of progress, and the autonomy to do their job. Reserve your management energy for the process, not the person. 3. Make Decisions Based on What You Know, Not How You Feel – "I feel like direct mail isn't working" is not data. The best leaders ask one clarifying question constantly: do we know that, or do we just feel that? 4. Don't Keep Low Performers Too Long – B players don't get raised up by A players. They bring them down. Keeping someone in a role they're not suited for isn't loyalty—it's selfishness. Hire slow, fire fast. 5. Celebrate the Lessons, Not Just the Wins – Teams that are afraid to fail stop making decisions. Create an environment where mistakes are learning opportunities, feedback is private, and 80% done is better than nothing done. 6. Links & Resources * Sharper Business Solutions – Amanda's coaching and consulting hub: businessstartersolutions.com (includes a free team culture and business assessment) * Amanda on all socials: @AmandaEnglishDean * ExploreCG.com – Learn more about the Collective Genius community If this episode gave you clarity on what's holding your team back—or showed you what a winning team actually looks like from the inside—share it with a fellow operator who's been struggling with people problems. Odds are, they're actually process problems. And if you want to be in the room with leaders like Amanda, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Dave Janis: How to Sell Properties Faster by Thinking Like a Buyer

In this CG Live episode recorded at our Q1 event in Dallas, Texas, I sit down with CG Premier member Dave Janis — a Boulder, Colorado-based real estate investor, former 18-year real estate agent, and luxury new construction developer doing six new builds a year. Dave is a different kind of operator, and his presentation brought a perspective that most high-volume wholesalers and flippers rarely hear: how to think like a buyer when you're selling a property. We dig into Dave's framework for getting properties sold fast — from the "long skirt" photo strategy that gets you into a buyer's top seven, to pricing by percentage of homes under contract, to the finish quality details that separate a house that feels flipped from one that feels like a home. Dave also breaks down the hotel strategy as a middle ground between a cleanout and a full flip, and pulls back the curtain on building luxury new construction in the Boulder and Denver market in 2026. If you've ever had a property sit longer than it should, this episode is full of tactical insight you can apply on your next deal. Timeline Summary [0:22] – Live from Dallas at the CG Q1 Premier and CEO event at the J.W. Marriott Arts District [0:51] – Introducing Dave Janis: Boulder, Colorado investor, former agent of 18 years, luxury new construction developer [2:12] – Dave's model: luxury new builds, flips, wholesaling, and how cash conversion cycles connect them all [3:22] – Why wholesaling and flipping feed the new construction business and keep active income flowing [4:10] – The fifth pain point: not just getting the contract — getting the property sold [4:35] – The "long skirt" photo strategy: fewer, better pictures to get buyers in the door [5:21] – How buyers shop: 30 homes on the market, they look at seven — you just need to make the cut [6:23] – Pricing strategy: using percentage of homes under contract by zip code and price band [7:07] – When to wholesale versus flip: reading the market data before deciding your exit strategy [8:17] – Condition as a competitive variable: raising your quality threshold above your contractor's [8:39] – Blue tape is always out — the house has to be 100% before anyone walks through [10:00] – What to do if you don't have a construction background: hire an agent who tells you the truth [10:36] – The punch list mindset: caulking seams, matching light bulb hues, tightening every knob [11:16] – Keep the heat and AC running — an uncomfortable house feels like something is broken [11:42] – The goal: make it so buyers can't tell it was a flip [12:50] – Staging: at least a 5% premium, faster sales, and buyers who fall in love with the furniture [13:36] – What happens when staging is gone at the final walkthrough — and why that's a signal you did it right [14:00] – Where to stage: living room, kitchen, and bathrooms matter most [14:17] – Partnering with a local furniture company to deliver, set up, and stage in one move [14:35] – How staging shifts attention away from minor imperfections and toward the vision of living there [15:48] – Empty houses feel smaller — staging solves perception as much as presentation [16:30] – The hotel strategy: cleanout plus paint, flooring, and fixing anything disgusting for about $25K [17:09] – The emotional buyer reality: the wife has to want to take a shower there — at minimum, epoxy the bathroom [17:56] – Why the hotel middle ground often returns better than a full flip at a fraction of the cost [18:42] – The pricing trap: being emotionally invested in your own property and overpricing it [19:05] – Why listing at the lower end of your range almost always results in faster sales and more money [20:04] – The market has loosened: selling has gotten easier, which is why this event focused on not missing leads [20:22] – Luxury new construction in Boulder and Denver: buying lots at $800K–$2M and building at $1.5M–$2.5M [21:28] – Listings from $3.5M to $8M — and why location and architecture drive luxury pricing, not just square footage [22:12] – Views as an asset: buyers will pay $2M extra for the right location [23:34] – Thinking like a buyer: knowing what they're thinking before they walk in the door [24:14] – The importance of an honest agent partner who knows the market and can guide where to build [24:36] – Dave's three meetings with CG and the culture difference from other mastermind groups [25:00] – Hiring a director of operations directly from the CG community — and how that one connection paid off Key Takeaways 1. Get Into the Top Seven — That's All You Need Buyers in most markets look at about seven houses on a weekend. Your job isn't to show everything online — it's to show just enough to earn a showing. Too many photos, and buyers self-select out before they ever walk through the door. 2. Use Market Data to Drive Your Exit Strategy Before you decide whether to wholesale, flip, or hotel a property, check the percentage of homes under contract in that price band. The data tells you how fast the market is moving and what level of investment is actually worth it. 3. Your Contractor's Definition of Done Is Not Yours Every contractor will try to get away with the least amount of work possible. The details that matter most to buyers — caulk lines, light bulb hues, loose knobs, running HVAC — are often the cheapest fixes and the most overlooked ones. 4. The Hotel Strategy Is an Underrated Middle Ground A cleanout plus paint, flooring, and fixing the one thing that would make a buyer uncomfortable can run around $25K, take three weeks, and return nearly as well as a full flip — often better when you factor in time and carrying costs. 5. Staging Is Not Optional at the Top of the Market Staging adds at least 5% to sale price, reduces days on market, and shifts buyers' attention away from minor imperfections toward imagining their life in the space. If buyers are asking to buy the furniture, you've done it right. Links & Resources * Follow Dave on Instagram and Facebook: @janispropert (search "Janis Properties") * Explore CG Membership: https://www.explorecg.com [https://www.explorecg.com] Closing Remark If this episode changed how you think about preparing, pricing, and presenting your properties, take a moment to rate, follow, and review the Collective Genius Podcast. And if you're ready to be in a room with operators like Dave, visit https://www.explorecg.com and apply today.

Building a High-Profit Wholesaling Machine Doing 200+ Deals a Year with a Lean Team featuring Casey Ryan

In this episode of the Collective Genius Podcast, host Leanne Barnes sits down with Casey Ryan—born and raised in Las Vegas, engineering grad, and one of the most operationally disciplined investors in the CG community. Casey's story starts where a lot of great ones do: grinding without a roadmap. From flipping Jeep Cherokees in college to running 110-plus house flips a year on a brutal split with a two-person team, Casey learned the hard way what high volume without high margin actually costs. But the pivot changed everything. When Casey went out on his own in 2018 and built a direct-to-seller operation from scratch—starting with a legal pad and a million text messages a month—he engineered something most investors never crack: a lean, automated, highly profitable business doing 200-plus transactions a year with a team of 12. This episode is a deep dive into how he did it, how AI is turbocharging what's already working, and why margin has always mattered more to Casey than volume. Timeline Summary [1:51] – Welcome and intro to Casey Ryan, Las Vegas investor and CG member [2:51] – Current business model: 70% wholesaling, 30% fix and flip, direct to seller since 2018 [4:02] – Born and raised in Vegas, engineering degree, and the brother-in-law who opened the door [5:34] – Flipping Jeep Cherokees in college: the buy box mentality before real estate [9:05] – Riding along to properties, learning acquisitions for free, and committing to finish school [11:11] – Graduating in 2015, jumping ship on engineering, and deploying $15M with a two-person team [12:07] – 75 flips the first year, managing contractors, materials, and acquisitions solo [13:47] – The ugly math: a 25/75 investor split leaving Casey with roughly 5% per deal [17:39] – The 2018 split from his partner and why Casey chose direct-to-seller out of respect [19:44] – Starting from zero: SMS marketing, ring-less voicemails, a legal pad, and two VAs [20:41] – Over 100 direct-to-seller deals in year one of going out on his own [22:12] – Why flippers make great wholesalers: deadly accurate underwriting from razor-thin margins [23:27] – When the legal pad became a CRM and how automation started with efficiency, not ego [25:25] – Why Casey chose lean over large and what 12 people can actually accomplish [28:11] – Practical AI in the business: call analysis, lead scoring, and data enrichment [29:25] – The cron job that monitors 10,000+ leads and surfaces the ones worth calling today [30:47] – AI calling, live transfers, and the goal of keeping reps talking to people all day [33:43] – How Casey found CG, what a mastermind even was, and why he applied anyway [35:41] – What CG actually gives you that local meetups never could [37:13] – $80,000 in referral fees from CG members and the personal advice that shaped his family [40:22] – AI in 2026: extreme leverage, rapid growth, and why this revolution is right up Casey's alley [41:29] – Personal highlight: traveling with his wife Casey and their three daughters under five 5 Key Takeaways 1. Margin Over Volume, Always – Casey ran 100-plus flips a year taking home roughly 5% per deal. The lesson stuck: a lean, high-margin business beats a bloated, high-volume one every time. 2. Master One Channel Before You Add Another – Casey scaled SMS to the breaking point before layering in the next lead source. Discipline in sequencing is what separates efficient operators from overwhelmed ones. 3. Your Engineering Brain Is a Superpower – Whether it's a custom CRM, automated follow-up sequences, or AI lead scoring, systems built by people who think in systems compound over time in ways hiring never will. 4. AI's Real Value Is Surfacing the Right Lead at the Right Time – Call summaries are nice. But a cron job scanning 10,000 leads for changed circumstances and routing the hottest ones to your reps? That makes money. 5. A Team of 12 Can Do What Most Think Requires 30 – With the right automations, the right people, and a relentless focus on margin, Casey runs 200-plus transactions a year and can disappear for two weeks without the business skipping a beat. Links & Resources * ExploreCG.com – Learn more about the Collective Genius community If Casey's story lit something up for you—whether it's the lean team model, the direct-to-seller pivot, or the AI applications you haven't tried yet—share this episode with an investor who's been told they need to hire their way to scale. And if you want to be in the room with operators like Casey, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Andrew Jobe: The Installment Sale Strategy That Keeps Contracts From Falling Apart

In this CG Live episode recorded at our Q1 event in Dallas, Texas, I sit down with CG Premier member Andrew Jobe, a Houston-based real estate investor doing over 100 deals a year alongside his partner J.R. Reid. Andrew presented on one of the most costly — and most overlooked — parts of the real estate investing business: what happens after you get the contract signed. We dig into how unmet seller expectations quietly drive up fallout rates, why the acquisitions manager's job doesn't end at the signed contract, and how Andrew's team uses credibility packs and structured communication touchpoints to keep deals alive. Andrew also breaks down the installment sale strategy his team learned right here at Collective Genius — a two-closing process that puts cash in the seller's hands immediately, removes the problem from their life, and dramatically reduces the chances they walk away before closing. If fallout is eating into your revenue and team morale, this episode is packed with practical systems you can implement right away. Timeline Summary [0:22] – Live from Dallas at the CG Q1 Premier and CEO event [0:42] – Introducing Andrew Jobe: Houston-based investor, 100+ deals per year [1:10] – The four pain points driving this event: leads, appointments, contracts, and closing [2:11] – Houston is a competitive market — and fallout is a real problem even for high-volume operators [2:32] – When Andrew knew fallout was an issue: team morale started showing the cracks [3:16] – The real cost of fallout: wasted effort across acquisitions, TCs, and disposition [4:20] – Root cause number one: unmet expectations from sellers who heard "we close in a week" [5:03] – What sellers are thinking when they sign — and why weeks of title work blindsides them [5:47] – The fix: training the acquisitions team to walk sellers through every next step before leaving the appointment [6:43] – Transitioning the seller relationship from Act manager to TC within 24 hours [7:35] – Why sellers need information repeated — they've never done this before, you do it every day [7:59] – Credibility packs: the written leave-behind that sets expectations even after you've said it five times [8:40] – What goes in a credibility pack: next steps, contact info, and a visual flowchart of the process [9:22] – Owning the gap no matter how many times you've communicated — live in the seller's reality [10:04] – Signing the contract is not the end of the deal — it's just the beginning [10:55] – The installment sale strategy: what it is and where Andrew's team learned it [11:14] – How the two-closing process works: inserting into chain of title and giving a cash down payment upfront [11:54] – Two problems solved at once: cash in the seller's pocket and the problem property off their plate [12:36] – How the Act team, TC, and Dispo team work together to identify a good installment candidate [13:46] – When to use it: real cash needs, moving costs, deposits — solving the seller's immediate problem [14:51] – Risk awareness: always run a pencil search and verify the seller actually owns the property [15:32] – The risk of solving problems too well: sellers who no longer feel urgency to close [16:13] – How inserting into chain of title protects your investment before the final close [16:37] – Four risk mitigation steps: pencil search, quick title search, full closing packet, and third-party notary [17:40] – Why you must use a third-party notary — never someone on your payroll — for these closings [18:50] – Documents, disclosures, and promissory notes: building a closing packet that protects everyone [19:35] – Houston context: massive market, massive competition — this strategy is another tool in the belt [20:26] – Why Andrew comes to every CG event focused on leadership development, not just tactics [21:13] – The keynote takeaway: sometimes you might be the virus in your own business [22:38] – Process without governance is incomplete — you need a mechanism to audit whether the process is actually being followed [23:41] – Being terrified to look at the data — and why you have to anyway [24:23] – The difference between having a great process and having a complete process [25:04] – People don't want to be taught — they want to be reminded, and they want to be held accountable [25:35] – Get rid of anyone who doesn't want accountability — they're hiding something [25:53] – Even Steph Curry has a shooting coach: everyone needs someone pushing them to their highest level Key Takeaways 1. Fallout Starts With Unmet Expectations Sellers hear "we close fast" and build an expectation around it. If your acquisitions team doesn't walk them through every next step before leaving the appointment, the gap between what they expected and what they experience will cost you the deal. 2. The Acquisitions Manager's Job Doesn't End at the Signature Handing off to the TC without properly transitioning the relationship and resetting expectations is one of the fastest ways to lose a contract you worked hard to get. 3. Credibility Packs Reduce Fallout Passively A written leave-behind with next steps, contact info, and a process flowchart does the communication work for you long after you've left the appointment — even when the seller forgets everything you said. 4. The Installment Sale Is a Fallout Prevention Tool By inserting yourself into the chain of title and giving the seller cash upfront, you remove their urgency to walk away while solving their real problem immediately. It's not just a creative financing strategy — it's a retention strategy. 5. A Process Without Governance Isn't Complete You can have the best systems in the world, but if you're not auditing whether your team is actually following them, you don't have a complete process. Accountability isn't optional — it's what holds everything together. Links & Resources * Follow Andrew on Facebook and Instagram: @jobe (search "Jobe") * Quick Title Search: Pro Title USA — https://www.protitleusa.com [https://www.protitleusa.com] * Explore CG Membership: https://www.explorecg.com [https://www.explorecg.com] Closing Remark If this episode gave you new ways to protect your contracts and serve your sellers better, take a moment to rate, follow, and review the Collective Genius Podcast. And if you're ready to be in a room with operators like Andrew, visit https://www.explorecg.com and apply today.

From 220 Flips to a Billion-Dollar Lending Company featuring Josh Stech

In this episode of the Collective Genius Podcast, host Leanne Barnes sits down with Josh Stech—Stanford-educated entrepreneur, CG founding member, and one of the most prolific builders in the real estate investing space. Josh's journey reads like a masterclass in spotting white space: from fixing and flipping in Las Vegas, to co-founding Lending Home and scaling it to over 15% national market share and a $1 billion valuation, to building ventures that help everyday investors access the same wealth-building tools that changed his family's trajectory. This episode goes well beyond business biography. Josh unpacks the strategic thinking behind every major pivot—why he left Lending Home at its peak, how the SoFi business model shaped his thinking, why focus is the most underrated growth lever, and how AI is about to reshape real estate in ways most investors aren't prepared for. He also shares two ventures—Just Be the Bank and Access Insiders—that open the door to private lending and early-stage investing for anyone ready to level up. Timeline Summary [0:46] – Welcome and intro to Josh Stech, founding CG member and entrepreneur [3:08] – How a CG meeting 15 years ago led to the first private loan that changed Josh's family's trajectory [4:20] – Stanford, economics, and why Josh chose flipping over private equity right out of school [6:09] – From 220 flips to 1,000+ loans in three years: recognizing a superpower in capital raising [7:22] – The lending landscape in 2013: a massively fragmented market with no dominant player [10:11] – The honors thesis on the subprime crisis that pointed Josh toward real estate investing [12:08] – Lending Home: bootstrapped vs. venture capital and what it felt like to build a unicorn [13:42] – The Mike Cagney / SoFi model that inspired Josh to think about serving one customer broadly [17:49] – The real cost of expanding your surface area: complexity compounds faster than revenue [28:05] – The biggest opportunity in real estate right now: folding AI into your business [29:09] – Why smaller brands are about to disappear from AI search results—and what to do about it [29:31] – AI for inside sales, voice models, and inspection tech: what Josh is testing right now [31:37] – Just Be the Bank: the two-and-a-half-day course teaching private lending from scratch [33:04] – Access Insiders: the alternative investment club doing early-stage venture deals [35:24] – The passive income continuum: flipping → rentals → lending → lending funds [37:26] – Foreclosure reality check: why the risk most people fear almost never happens [39:14] – What Josh is most excited about heading into 2026—and it's not business 5 Key Takeaways 1. Find Your Leverage, Then Follow It – Josh pivoted from flipping to lending the moment he realized raising capital was his superpower. Knowing where you have unfair advantage changes everything. 2. Serve One Customer Broadly, Not One Product to Everyone – The SoFi model: find the right customer and surround them with everything they need over time. 3. Focus Is a Feature, Not a Limitation – Lending Home grew to $800M months after Josh left—largely because they stayed in their lane. Expanding surface area multiplies complexity, not just revenue. 4. AI Is the Biggest Opportunity in Real Estate Right Now – From dominating LLM search results to voice-based sales and AI-powered inspections, the window to get ahead is open—but closing fast. 5. Private Lending Is the Most Scalable Path to Passive Income – One borrower can generate 100 loans. The underwriting bar is lower, foreclosure rates are under 1%, and the checks just come in. Links & Resources * Just Be the Bank – Two-and-a-half-day private lending course + book (Amazon #1 bestseller): justbethebank.com/genius (exclusive resource page for CG podcast listeners) * Access Insiders – Alternative investment and early-stage venture club (run with Josh's father) * ExploreCG.com – Learn more about the Collective Genius community If Josh's story sparked something for you—whether it's the lending path, the AI opportunity, or just the reminder that there's always a bigger game to play—share this episode with someone who's ready to think at a different level. And if you want to be in the room with builders like Josh, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.