Jason Medley is the Founder and CEO of The Collective Genius which is a real estate mastermind group that brings together 200 of the nation’s top real estate investors on a quarterly basis to brainstorm about housing market changes and to share their most intimate secrets, strategies, resources and systems. He has over 21 years’ experience in real estate where he has partnered in over 2600 multifamily doors and funded more than 1500 loans.
Through this sharing, the members of the “The Collective Genius” thrive regardless of housing market changes or economic fluctuations and live life freely on their own terms, by their own rules.
In this episode:
- Founding The Collective Genius: How Jason Medley launched a premier real estate mastermind community.
- Becoming the “Chief Connector” in fostering collaboration and building meaningful connections.
- Vision for the Future: Jason’s plans for the growth and impact of The Collective Genius.
- Joining The Collective Genius: Opportunities and benefits of becoming part of this thriving community.
Episode:
Narrator Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a show committed to bringing you insights from thought leaders shaping the real estate industry. In each episode, we’ll dive into conversations with industry experts and local insiders, all aimed at helping you thrive in an ever-changing real estate market. continuing the legacy that Bruce Norris created, sharing valuable knowledge, and empowering you on your real estate journey. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a newcomer, this is your go-to source for insider tips, market trends and success strategies. Here’s your host, Craig Evans.
Craig Evans Alright. Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for joining us for part two with Jason Medley from Collective Genius. When and why did you start the Collective Genius?
Jason Medley So, I started CG back in 2010 if I recall correctly, and if I’m being honest, I started it as side hustle, right? I had my core lending business. I had a transactional funding business, um, and, you know, I was part of a Mastermind that was all about marketing, and I realized I could just invite my customers that I was lending the most money to, that were doing the most deals sticking the roof. And they were from all over the country. They’re not really in each other’s backyards, and so they would, you know, share their systems, their strategies, their resources, come in and do presentations on how they’re doing what they’re doing, right? Because here’s the deal, write this down, if you’re new, hell, if you’re older and listening, you got experience and no experience. Write this down, right? Like there aren’t a lot of secrets, if any. There’s only ruthless, relentless execution. So that means getting it done, getting it done, right, getting it done quickly. And so that’s really the ultimate goal of a mastermind right, like, you may get to a point where you’re like, hey, I did five rehabs last year, made 30 G’s on each of them made 150 grand. And, you know, each one of them took me, you know, 72 days on average to rehab, and you got somebody out there who’s down at doing them at 20 days, and you think, Okay, well, they are executing better than me. Not only executing, but how much money did they save get in that house on the market 52 days sooner than I did, all the debt service, all the carrying, all the like, Okay, so let me get this right. I’m going to come to this, this groove, and I’m going to sit next to someone who gets their rehabs on the market in 52 days, less than less than I do. And they’re going to show me, because I’m in Tampa and they’re in Oklahoma City, they’re going to show me how they do, how they’ve done that, how they systematized that process. And now, wait a minute, I can do that once and save all that money and then do it on all my rehabs. How much more money and I’m am I gonna put in my pocket by expediting that right? And wait a minute. After I met the guy, he told me that they’ve also managed to reduce their cost overruns on East rehab by 24%. Whoa, four out of five of my rehabs all went over, you know, like I can’t wait to get to know this individual. And the best part about it is is he only rehabs. He doesn’t do any wholesaling. And I’m doing like, 300 wholesale deals a year. And so when he gives me all that information I’m going to share with him how, because he’s buying everything at the auction, I’m going to share with him how to generate his own leads. Now, instead of him making 50 grand on rehab, he’s going to start making 70, because he generate right? So you just get this dynamic exchange of information between members, you know. And it’s not just information, it is, you know, there are houses being bought, houses being sold, there’s money being lent, money being borrowed. There’s, you know, there’s somebody who’s got a piece of land, and then there’s another person who does ground up construction self storage. And the one guy says, I got the land, you got the construction expertise and self storage. Let’s come together and do a joint venture partnership, right? So, it’s just really exciting when you get driven A players together who are intelligent and enjoy connecting with other human beings. It is a nothing short of magic. It’s like anything else. It takes an investment. It takes some time. It’s a commitment, but it can for the right person at the right time. Being a part of any mastermind, as long as there’s a high caliber individual in there can be a very marked moment in time in your career.
Craig Evans So, you know, we were kind of joking about it earlier on, Jason, you say you’re now the chief connector, not the CEO. So for those listening, tell them what you were telling me about that and how your mind kind of wraps through that process.
Jason Medley Sure. So it’s not just me. We have a staff full of people on our team to where, when we have our or events, we we do what we call, we have what we call forced connection, if you will, right? And force connection is, say, for example, the room that you were sitting in, Craig, there’s a gentleman in there named Lorne Wealth, and he has fund that he’s looking to raise capital for. And when he gets up and talks about that fund, right, I know of members in our organization that are looking for the type of return that his fund yields and looking to just write a check and get a check. And so when Lorne is talking about that, I say, Lon, I want to connect you with Clint Flowers. I’m going to connect you with Damon Liaison, like connect you with these people, and tell them about what you’re doing. And then you guys can, you know, do a zoom, call whatever you need to do in order to see if they’re interested in investing in your fund. Or a modular might get up and say, Hey,I’m doing an apartment to Office conversion in York, PA and I need to raise $2.2 million in in equity, and I can connect him with people in, you know, like a Jason Byrne might say, I am super interested in that to deal. You know, you’re offering two points 12% and it’s only six months long. Super internet deals. Okay? I’ll make sure that you all get connected. And so we literally, when we come together at our events, I can show you spreadsheet up, spreadsheet up, spreadsheet where people are talking about the things that they need in their business, which can just, can be information, or it can be capital or whatever we are documenting, okay, I’m going to put that. I’m going to put them with this person and put them with that, and then we literally come behind them at the events, and physically through text and email, introduce them with a recap of why we did so, and that is what makes the magic happens for everybody.
Craig Evans So you started, and I love to hear, especially seeing what what CG is now I love to hear, and it’s so cool to hear that it started as a side hustle, you know, so but how do you see that Collective Genius has changed since you founded it? What do you think the biggest change is since you founded it?
Jason Medley Because the biggest change in me, or the business, or like, come down at the bottom of the funnel, for me, a little bit on it.
Craig Evans In the direction of what CG was in 2010 to what CG is now, what is the biggest change that you see that’s taking place for it?
Jason Medley Yeah, that’s an easy question. So when I first started CG is, we cater to a very, very high level investor, right? And for probably eight or nine of the 12 or 13 years we’ve been around. We had one product for one caliber of individual, and that was it. And I had a foothold on that, a strong hold on it. It was super concerned that if we did, if we went outside of those boundaries, that we would lose the reputation that we had developed around, like, Hey, man. Like, that’s top of a heap right there.
Craig Evans Right.
Jason Medley But as I got to the point where I was like, Okay, there’s going to be a lid on their business if we just do that, and I actually want to grow this business, and so here’s a great business tip as well, when you are marketing or advertising or word of mouthing for a very high level product or consumer, over time, you will begin to generate a lot of leads for the consumers who are beneath who you’re marketing for and their journey as entrepreneurs. And so we already had the leads of our next product, of people who filled it. They were already coming in. They just weren’t, they just didn’t qualify. A ton, right?
Craig Evans Yeah.
Jason Medley They’re on. And so the biggest change was, is we came out of that and started to build a really a full product suite. You. Uh, you know, like, right now our Premier Level you need to be, you know, you need to be doing at least 100 plus transactions a year. Or you gotta be running a, you know, a $3 million business. And then, you know, our Select Level, which was our second product was, you know, you gotta be anywhere between like 500 to 3 million, or 750 to 3 million. And then our Elevate Product is 250 to like 750 and then we recently came back. We so we started the top week down now. We recently came back and went even higher with our CG CEO, which is, you know, for high net worth individuals that typically have a net worth of at least 15 plus million dollars, or running a ten million business or can show in a consistent pattern of earning $2 million a year. So the biggest change was, I thought I was, when I started the business, it was just going to be this, just this one product, and that was going to be it. I was scared to kind of, you know, build a, an ascension, uh, path, if you will.
Craig Evans Yeah.
Jason Medley Um, finally, once we made the shift, uh, turn this little, cute, cute little, uh, decent little business into, now what’s turning into a pretty good size, you know, pretty good size, a little, little monster.
Craig Evans Well, and, you know, Jason, the thing is it’s a phenomenal organization, phenomenal group. I mean, the the thing that I loved about walking in was people were just collaborating and talking, there weren’t a lot of egos. I love that you guys get up and within the first 10 minutes of starting the week, you know, you’re like, hey, check your egos at the door. In essence, you know, like there’s no room for that here. You know, I love that because, boy, in the real estate world, man, people always want to try to prove that they’re the bigger dog on the street, you know. And, yeah, dumping their chest and, man, that was honestly, Jason, it was really refreshing to walk in the room and to see that kind of mantra, that that’s not who we are, you know. So, so you’ve done a lot with with CG, what is, and you just kind of laid out what some of the stuff is growing, and how you’re creating a vertical ascension path, really, not just to grab more people, but to also, I mean, if I see that right, I mean, hey, that’s a great way to take that person, that’s 250 to 750 and say, now let’s help you figure out how to grow and scale, and then not just to be in a different level of our platform, but that’s, you become a better person and a better business operator. And so you’ve laid that out. But what is your vision for the future of Collective Genius? If you pick one thing, what do you think of that would be?
Jason Medley Yeah, I mean, you know, the thing that I enjoy the most, like you said, it’s not just about, you know, well, let’s get some more members the thing for me, that I fundamentally get the most joy out of is being a catalyst in people’s lives. You know, emails all the time, text messages where people are saying, Man, I just can’t thank The Collective Genius your squad. All you got can’t thank you guys enough. Because, you know, when I came in, I was here, and now I’m here. And it’s not just here from a money perspective, but you know who I am, my level of intentionality in regards to who I am as a man, as a woman, as a mother, as a father, as a spouse, leader. You know, that is my paycheck. You know, of course, I like making money. I still certainly don’t want to stop making money. But I’m also at a point in my life, at almost 53, years old, where more of it is really not going to change a whole lot, right? Not going to change a whole lot. So I love being a catalyst. That’s probably my best paycheck, if you will. And you know, if I was going to talk about the future of CG, I don’t see any really an end in mind. I think we’ve got plenty of new products to launch. You know, we kind of started out initially in the largely in the single family space, if you will, wholesaling, flipping, landlording, etc. And now I’m really excited about CEO and scaling that. But I envision, as we continue to grow, we will launch new verticals, right, not just levels in single family whether you’re 28 and three years on the field, or you’re in, you know, 58 and, you know, been on the field 30 years and got a gazillion dollars, not just different levels, but new verticals, where we say, Okay, we’re going to build what we did in a single family space, in the multi family space, we’re going to build what we did in the single family space, in the cell. Storage space we’re going to right and so I just really can continue to see the expansion of different verticals in the future. And really, really excited about giving me people on my team the same opportunities that their business has given me in the last, you know, 12 to 15 years that too is probably my biggest joy at the moment is helping them advance financially and helping them grow and on all fronts. And so at this phase, this stage of my life, I’m definitely becoming more conscious than ever that there is no destination, however, it’s just the journey, if you at all. And so I don’t have a stopping point, per se. As long as God continues to bless me and people continue to join The Collective Genius, we’re gonna just keep trucking right low.
Craig Evans Well listen as first of all, Jason, I know we’re all busy and and we’re literally two days before Christmas, and so I am so grateful for you taking out of your time and time away from business and family and everything else that we’ve all got going. But you know you mentioned joining Collective Genius. So in closing out, I really want to give you, and I know you’ve got Leon and some, just some great people that that do a great thing for CG and do that. But, you know, tell our audience, listen, they want to learn about CG. How do they get involved? How do they get that information from you?
Jason Medley Sure, there’s a couple things that you can do. You can go to the collectivegenius.com and right at the top, it’ll give you a breakdown to tell you to kind of choose where your business is at. You know, are you 250, to 750? Are you 750 to 3 million, right? We have our different levels there. When you click your level, it’ll kind of take you on the right path to educate you a little bit more about what that particular community looks like, if you want to kind of see some behind the scenes of an event, you can go to dominatethedownturn.com. And we kind of use that domain, because, like right now, the the real estate market has, has, has slowed from a volume perspective, rates continue to be stubbornly high. And so there’s a new set of challenges that we didn’t have, you know, in 24, 36 months ago. And so, but if you’re around the right people, and you know how to execute on you, you will eat other people’s lunch during times like these. And so that’s why we call it dominate the downturn. So again, collectivegenius.com kind of pick your level. If you’re at the CEO level, that’s not something that we really advertise. If you’re at that top of the heap, you’re high network person. But in the real estate game, that’s not something we really advertise. That’s so but if you’re if that’s you, you can click on the Premier Level button on our one page. You can complete an app there, and it’ll go to the right person based on the day that you put in there. But you know, we are not just, as you said earlier, Craig, not just looking for members. We are looking for good people, good men, good women, who are dedicated to really advancing all facets of their life. And so it’s great if you have financial qualifications or deal flow qualifications, but we’re looking for people who really want to be intentional about everything else too.
Craig Evans For all of our audience listening, I can tell you you want to be a part of a group that’s unique and special in what they do. Collective genius is a phenomenal, as Jason said, a phenomenal group of people, you know, very intelligent, high level of what they do, but phenomenal group of people. So, Jason man, listen, I can’t again. I’ve probably said that a ton appreciate your time. Appreciate your commitment to jump on and do it. Look forward to seeing you in 2025 and all that brings. Okay, thanks everybody. Have a great day.
Jason Medley Alright. Thank you.
Narrator For more information on hard money loans, trust deed investing, and upcoming events with The Norris group. Check out thenorrisgroup.com. For more information on passive investing through the DBL Capital Real Estate Investment Fund, please visit dblapital.com.
Joey Romero The Norris group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE license 01219911. Florida mortgage lender license 1577 and NMLS license 1623669. For more information on hard money lending go to thenorrisgroup.com and click the hard money tab.