How to Raise $5M in ONE WEEK Through a Thought Leadership Platform

Kathy Fettke, who is the co-CEO of an investment club with over 24,000 members that helps people become “job-optional” through cash flowing real estate, is one of many speakers who will be presenting at the 1st annual Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Conference in Denver, CO February 24th to 25th.

In a conversation with Kathy all the way back in early 2015, she provided her Best Ever advice, which is a sneak preview of the information she will be presenting at the Best Ever Conference.

What was Kathy’s advice? She outlines all the advantages of creating a powerful thought leadership platform, including how she was able to raise $5 million in ONE WEEK!

Kathy’s Real Estate Background

According to Kathy, until about 10 years ago, she was a happy housewife. She used to be in the broadcasting industry, working in a newsroom for years. After marrying and having a child, chasing fires in the newsroom was no longer an alluring concept, she reports. Kathy made a choice to be a stay-at-home mom and life was great. But that all changed when her husband came home from work and said that the doctor told him that he had six months to live. The news shocked the couple and pushed them to make a few decisions about their life together. In the end, it was discovered that Kathy’s husband had been misdiagnosed.

Kathy faced a situation that is most people’s worst nightmare: how would she live without her husband? Since she no longer had a career, she also had to figure out how she would cover the bills and feed her family on her own.

At this point, all Kathy had was her podcast, “The Real Wealth Show.” Using this platform, she interviewed as many wealthy people possible. The goal was to see how they created their wealth because she needed to replicate that success. However, the podcast wasn’t making any money, and Kathy needed to monetize it immediately. To solve that problem, she started bringing on sponsors, most of whom were previous guests. It was around this time that Kathy found out that her husband had been misdiagnosed. That was excellent news, but that’s not the only good news. By then, Kathy’s podcast was gaining momentum, so she stuck to it!

“The Real Wealth Show” is a weekly podcast on all the different ways you can make money as a real estate investor. Each week, a different investor is featured as Kathy asks great questions on how they built their wealth. Every episode covers a different topic such as leverage, tax benefits, asset protection, inflation, how to buy right, triple net leases, credit repair, and more.

Over time, the podcast grew to the point that Kathy was able to turn it into her business, Real Wealth Network, which mimics the information found in her podcast. It offers information to help their members succeed by providing free content, including weekly blogs, newsletters, and webinars.

Best Ever Advice: Success Leaves Clues

Kathy’s Best Ever Advice is to “make sure that you have someone helping you that has done what you want to do. To many people take advice from people that just want to make commission or they have never done it before.” She continued by saying, “that was the problem in 2006 when so many people jumped into real estate without any experience or knowledge. They were getting advice from real estate agents, [who] are in it for the commission and most aren’t investors, or getting advice from neighbors, and it doesn’t work that way.” Many people who took this path ended up failing. Kathy believes this resulted in investors getting a bad name and being blamed for bringing down the housing market.

Advice in Action #1 - You don’t have to fall into these same traps. If you are going to buy an investment property, make sure you are getting advice from someone who is not going to make money off of you or, if they are, that there is an alignment of interest in the deal. Instead, work with someone who has successfully invested more than once; someone who can actually help you and look out for your best interests.

Kathy says this is the main reason she created her Real Wealth Network. She was desperate for financial information because she didn’t know how she was going to pay a $4,000 mortgage and take care of the kids if her husband were to die. Getting a job was out of the question because she didn’t want to be away from her children. Kathy wanted to understand how to invest properly, but couldn’t find anyone that had her best interest at heart. Therefore, instead of simply settling for bad advice, Real Wealth Network was born.

Putting Advice into Action

After Kathy’s show increased in popularity, and after she had spoken to countless self-made millionaires, it was time for her to get out there and take action herself. During a time where her local market – California – was overheated, Kathy and her husband refinanced their home and took the cash out to purchase five investment properties in Texas. Part of what Kathy had learned from interviewing millionaires is the importance of market timing. California was in a bubble while Texas was undervalued. Based on that information, Kathy decided that Texas was the better market in which to invest. Buy low and sell high is the name of the game. However, it wasn’t easy when it came to investing in an out-of-state market.

When they first went to Texas to meet with real estate agents, Kathy and her husband realized that they were being perceived as “California money.” Kathy said, “[the agents] were like sharks and were trying to sell us $400,000 to $500,000 properties in Texas. Terrible investments!” But Kathy continued by saying, “over time, we found the right people. The people who understood and owned 40, 50, 60 investment properties in the area [and] property managers who knew where the rental demand was.”

After successfully investing in Texas, Kathy set out to replicate her success in other markets. She and her husband went out to different emerging markets where they knew there was job and population growth. Then, they focused on building a team in each of those markets. Kathy and her husband met with more and more success.

As Kathy’s investment career was taking off, her listeners became interested in learning more about how she was able to purchase investment properties all across the nation. As a result, the Real Wealth Network, which recently eclipsed over 24,000 members, emerged.

The Real Wealth Network enabled Kathy to help educate even more investors on how to be successful and is a great network for referrals. It is such a good referral network that Kathy was able to leverage it to raise $5,000,000 for a deal in one week. The combination of her podcast, her business, and the network she created made people flock to her for advice and guidance. Kathy proved herself a trustworthy go-to person in the industry, which made people comfortable and trusting enough to send her a $100,000 check without even thinking twice!

Advice in Action #2 – Think having a platform like the Real Wealth Network would benefit your business? Yep, thought so. Start small by interviewing people for a blog, podcast or YouTube channel then grow from there over time. I’ve seen first-hand how having a platform can grow business exponentially. You’ll learn from people you interview and you’ll get additional opportunities through the network you’re spearheading.

Want to learn more about real estate thought leadership, as well as information on a wide range of other real estate niches? Attend the 1st Annual Best Ever Conference February 24-25 in Denver, CO. It’s the only real estate investing conference whose content and speakers are curated based on the expressed needs of the audience. Visit to learn more!

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