Collaboration VS Competition: An Interview With Byron From Mobile Home Elite Investors

Hey guys this is Jay. This blog post is a condensed version of a 50 minute conversation and Q&A session I had with a good friend of mine, Byron Sellers.

Byron, along with his wife Sharnice, are co-founders of Mobile Home Elite Investors. They’ve been doing some amazing things in the mobile home investing space for quite a while now.

It’s funny because Byron told me that they got into mobile home investing a little bit after us. In fact, they discovered our Youtube content just as they were getting into the business.

Byron and I are like best friends. We message each other almost every day. When I first read the book Go Giver and I felt the urge to share it with somebody who can really be impacted by this book, outside of Samera, outside of my own household, Byron’s name came to mind first.

And then when Byron and Sharnice took the initiative to get out there and start educating people about the mobile home business that was a huge inspiration for us to start Trailer Cash Academy.

So in this blog post you’re going to get Byron and I just talking about the mindset of collaboration vs competition. And how both our businesses exist in the same space but we’ve come to the realisation that we’re all better off if we collaborate rather than compete.

Interview with Byron from Mobile Home Elite Investors

The first point I want to get into is how collaboration encourages information and resource sharing.

When I first started off, I thought it was all about me. I thought a lot of people don’t even know about mobile home investments. And so, any information that I have I’ve got to keep it to myself because I don’t want anyone to take my next opportunity.

But we all know that’s just scarcity mindset. It took a lot of trials and tribulations to eventually get to the abundance mindset.

”When we first started I had the same kind of mindset of let me try to get as much as I can.

But it clicked to me maybe in month 3. And I remember the situation I was in when we first started. When I was broke and credit was bad.

So, when I started mobile home investing, I’m like, ‘I got nothing else to lose. I done been through the fire. I got nothing else to lose.’

By month three I realized there was a lot of people like me. It was a lot of people that were in my same shoes. So how can I get that information out?

And like you said, the collaboration just leads to the information. I learned so much.

The more dealers I met in the industry, the more people I met in the industry, park managers, park owners… even when we first talked, I was blown away by your knowledge. On how much you knew about the industry.

And I learned a lot from you. Just being able to have that conversation was just refreshing ‘cause nobody else understood what I was talking about.”

When we first started off we thought we were in this alone till we found a small group of mobile home investors. And we would all meet up at this small coffee shop in Phoenix.

It was really cool to do that because, first of all, it helped us know that we don’t know everything. And then we started actually sharing more and more information. And that’s kind of what helped lead us to some of the strategies that we have right now.

By meeting up and talking, we realized we can pool our resources together, our time, our money, our experience to actually turn this thing and make more profit for all of us.

We could get more and more deals done just by deciding to collab and bring other people in.

”It’s amazing because Jay and I will be on the phone for 1 hour or 2 hours and then have to realize ‘Oh okay, we’ve got to get back to our regular scheduled program.’

It’s always about elevating. How we can continue to be in this mobile home sector but maximize what we can do.”

“Like, we all are a collective resource and we all can help each other get to heights. So that us as a collective, we can really put a stamp on the market.

And when you talk about market share, Jay and I know the opportunity. Especially being African-American males.

Jay and I went to the Mobile home Hall Of Fame together. It was a dope experience because it was history. You have Jay and I, two of the largest African-American educators in the sector, and now here we are, we’re looking at the wall, but nobody looked like us.

And that’s okay.

But we knew that, we’re going to be on this wall and we’re going to have so much impact when it comes to mobile homes.”

And it’s not about necessarily getting on the wall just for ego. It’s about getting on the wall because no one that looks like me is on the wall.

We want to show other people that by collaborating, by sharing ideas, by sharing our resources, we can come together and we can all get on the wall. We can create our own wall if we want to.

I read a quote that says, ‘Competition is about feeding the ego, while collaboration is about pulling strings together.’

”The thing about the competitive spirit. That’s normally within. And so it is about ego, right?

When you win you’re celebrating right? Like, I did this! The ego is I.

But when you talk about that collaboration piece that’s when you see championship TEAMS win, right?

Even the star player is hugging the person that didn’t even play and get minutes in. Because they understood collectively how hard they all worked together”

And the real win is crossing the finish line with other people. The worst thing you want to do is just be crossing that finish line consistently all alone.

What information are you sharing? Who else are you helping cross that finish line with you? How happy are you? Because at the end of the day, more and more money doesn’t bring more and more happiness. More money is just a tool to go out there and help other people.

So many people that come into this space, see the mobile home opportunities out there and feel that they can take on this market here and then go to a whole other market and take on that market by themselves as well.

That’s never going to happen.

You’re actually going to be able to expand more by just sharing this information and helping other people out. That’s what actually helped all of us grow as a collective unit.

When you’re just in it alone you stay stuck in that scarcity mindset. It’s hard to get into that abundance mindset and get bigger and better opportunities drawn to you.

Here’s the next quote I found, ‘Collaboration encourages people to perform beyond their current expectations.’

This reminds me of a couple of our favorite students, Jasmine and John.

They took a vacation off in February. And when they came back, they told me they were feeling a little burnt out and maybe even a little unmotivated.

So a couple of months later we decided to partner with them and do some 50/50 deals together. And since then, they’ve been crushing it with over $50,000 worth of profits in the pipeline.

The reason I bring that up is because I think it was the accountability of us coming together, having a goal, and holding them accountable to those key 4 items that need to get done to complete their goal.

I think that was what allowed them to expect more out of themselves, and even expect more from us.

”I love that example you gave.

For the last year we have been really hunting for mobile home parks and the hunt was on.”

“We had this collaboration going with a park owner who saw the impact that we were making.”

“At first he offered us a few homes in his park. We were able to do some things with his homes, and then we said, ‘Hey, if you ever have a park deal, let us know.’

So he reached out to us. And what I love about it is he’s quarterbacking the deal. He’s using his expertise and we’re able to come in and help fill vacancies.”

“I could’ve been in there blind. This is my first time ever doing things with mobile home parks. But here we have somebody to actually quarterback and just show us the way.”

I always say look at the individuals that are out there that have stood the test of time. Obviously, they’re doing something right?

So, collab with them and follow their blueprint. Whether it’s information from courses, whether it’s individuals that own parks and you want to start learning parks, individuals that have mobile homes on land etc.

Figure out who’s been doing this for 5 to 10 years. And really just figure out what type of value you can bring to them in return.

I really don’t think we would be where we’re at if it wasn’t for collaborating with Mobile Home Elite Investors and really sharing information and resources.

It’s so easy when you get into the game to just think scarcity and think small. But you actually think bigger by bringing more people to the table. When we all eat and we’re all winning, that’s the true win.

I want to see Mobile Home Elite Investors helping more people because that’s going to bring even more opportunities.

And also, because I don’t know everything. There’s a lot of things, like with these mobile home parks deals, Byron and Sharnice are out there finding opportunities and presenting the opportunities to us. We have an opportunity to come together right now and work on a mobile home park. And I wouldn’t be able to do that just being out here alone.

”That’s so true, man. And vice versa. This is how we learn.

But what I love about it is people message both of us asking, ‘Which program should I get?’

And honestly, both. I’ll tell you in a heartbeat, you can’t go wrong with either one. I just want you to get the information and learn.

You’re not hurting us by going over there and vice versa.

I love it. Collaboration versus competition. We’re not competitive. We’re not putting each other’s product down. And that’s how we thrive because at the end of the day, we just want you to win. That’s the plain and simple. We just want you to take the information, apply it and win.”

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