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Grant Wise is a serial entrepreneur and Founder of Real Estate Marketing University, an online media training company. Starting in the construction industry, Grant has worked with every aspect of the home building process. His move into the real estate world was a welcome dream. From working on building a brokerage to building an amazing business training platform, he’s always kept himself busy and stayed focused. “Focus” is something he’s developed over time and it’s something he teaches his students.
City where you’re from: Rogers, Arkansas is home. Always has been. Always will be. That said, I have given serious thought on more than one occasion to packing up my belongings and bright ideas and moving to Colorado. There is just something about it for me; but things are different now. I have a family and I am looking forward to raising my two children in Northwest Arkansas. I’m also going to continue to build my business here in a booming, local economy.
Hobbies: I love to spend time with my family whether it’s just fun time or working with them to help build initiatives to help people all over the world. We already have one project in the works. More on that as it develops later. Spending time with them is always a treat. It doesn’t matter what we do. Other than that, I work and enjoy the hell out of what I do for a living.
Favorite quote: “I’m not trying to be the most successful as much as I’m working to be the most valuable.”
Twitter: @likegrantwise
Great having you here Grant! Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I was born into this. Since birth, I’ve refused to do what others told me to do. The job thing made absolutely no sense to me. The idea that I go into an office and work and then receive a tiny bit of money never made any sense to me. I’ve always been a thinker; an idea guy; a creative; an artist…whatever you want to call it. I had “it.” I’ve always had that bug. I get up every morning and want to make the world a better place.
Who were your biggest influences? Or Was there a defining moment in your life?
There have been a few defining moments in my life: 1) my faith. My life transformed immediately in October of 2015 when I got very serious about my faith. 2) bankruptcy. I was hemorrhaging money and making terrible decisions. For example, I bought a 2015 brand new Jeep Cherokee. It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I couldn’t even make the first payment. I asked a friend of mine if he could help me with what was actually the third payment. He said he would get back to me later that night. He did, but with a different plan. He told me that I needed to reevaluate. “You don’t deserve anything that you have in your life right now,” he said. “You need to evaluate where you are and where you’re going because I don’t think it’s somewhere you want to be.” Right then, I did a 180. I made the decision to file for bankruptcy, but that conversation was a defining moment. I remember everything about that day: what I was wearing; what I was thinking about; what I was drinking. I had help though. I had grace, love, and people who cared about me and helped me get out of my own way.
What are you working on?
We are building Real Estate Marketing University which teaches real estate agents how to grow their business using the power of social media; how to sell; how to structure; how to get organized; how to automate and more all to support the life they’ve always wanted to live.
We now have Social Hustle which is designed to teach people how to grow and build a social media agency which extremely exciting for me.
Witly is our newest creation. It’s a software company that invented Intelligent Marketing Software that pre-builds landing pages, email automations, text sequences, communication sequences. It’s a smart CRM, but it’s also so much more.
What triggered your idea?
Teaching real estate agents using social media is something I was just thrown into. At the time, I had nothing else to do. I was kicked out of a business I spent two years working with. I dedicated my life to that and got booted out of it. A week later, I decided I was going to teach people what I had been trying to teach them all along which is how to grow their business. From there, the idea of the entire university blossomed. It’s changing people’s lives all of the world. Social Hustle was triggered by need. I had a lot of agencies asking me how I did what I did. I decided I would teach them and that’s what Social Hustle is all about. Witly was created out of necessity as well. I saw a problem and I created a solution.
How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision?
Intelligent Marketing Software doesn’t exist. There are no platforms that currently automate systems that are easy to use. We are innovative, but we stand out in the way we deliver; the way we teach; and the way we get results. People log in to our platforms and get results if they do the work. There is something to be said for the way our clients get results.
Who are your customers? How do you find them?
Our clients are real estate agents, mortgage agents, and brokers who are all trying to generate leads using innovative ways to grow their business. We find them via referral or our paid social media advertising campaigns.
Value-add questions:
Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
I don’t think entrepreneurship can be taught. You can teach people how to own a business, but you can’t teach a desire to wake up everyday and work for free for the greater good. You need to work. Don’t talk. Work. Just execute. It’s never going to be perfect. Take imperfect action. Show up every day to help make someone else’s life successful; make someone else great. I often think about a quote from Zig Ziglar: If you can help other people achieve what they want, you can achieve what you want.
Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media, fundraising or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic?
Yes, Real Estate Marketing University and Social Hustle.
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
Focus on that thing in their brain that never goes away; that tick in their heart that keeps things in motion. They should focus on the vision that they were gifted; that divine purpose that most entrepreneurs are born with. It doesn’t matter if you’re not getting paid right now. It doesn’t matter if it takes years, but that’s what you should focus on.
What are some of your favorite books?
The Bible. That’s first on my list. After that, I love all of the works of Tim Ferriss, Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk. I am working my way through “Tools of Titans” right now.
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?
Changing more lives than I ever have in a few years. I see the exact same thing happening a few years after that. I wake up every morning thinking about how I can change other people’s lives. I’m going to wake up one day and have the most amazing relationships; the most amazing connections. I will have changed people’s lives. I will have created movements. I feel like things are going to scale in ways that I cannot foresee. This is what I challenge you to do: Wake up every single day and think about how you can make one single step in a direction towards your dream and the dream of other people. If you do that, you’re going to wake up a couple of years from now and you’re going to be blown away by what’s happened.