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Ep 26: Regenerative Communities & The Power of Connection | Brandon Barnum
48 Plays1 month ago
"Belonging is a human desire that we have. And so, you know, we just want to help people connect in a meaningful way. And here at HOA.com, we focus on doing life with your neighbors, the people that you live next to, and we believe you should help the people around you and really get connected to the neighborhood that you live in.”
Regenerative design isn’t just about soil health and water conservation—it’s about people. Strong, connected communities are the foundation of resilient, thriving ecosystems, and the way we design neighborhoods can either foster or hinder those connections. By rethinking homeowner associations (HOAs) and integrating communal spaces, shared green areas, and meaningful interactions, we create a future where people feel a deep sense of belonging. In an age of automation and digital distraction, real human connection may just be the most valuable resource we can cultivate.
Brandon Barnum has spent his career mastering the art of community-building, from the mortgage industry to tech startups to his current venture, HOA.com. He believes that unity through community isn’t just a slogan—it’s a necessity for both personal and business success. In this episode, he shares insights on how referrals, collaboration, and local engagement can transform the way people connect and do business. From creating local events to structuring partnerships that benefit entire neighborhoods, his work focuses on making communities more connected, functional, and profitable.
Brandon Barnum is the founder and CEO of HOA.com, a platform designed to improve homeowner associations and help local businesses connect with their communities. He is also the author of Raving Referrals, a book that teaches business owners how to build strong referral networks. With a background in the mortgage industry and tech entrepreneurship, he has dedicated his career to fostering trust, connection, and economic growth within communities.
Learn more & connect:
Home Owner’s Association website:
Raving Referrals by Brandon Barnum
https://www.amazon.com/Raving-Referrals-Blueprint-Attract-Clients/dp/1953153898
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
https://www.amazon.com/Ikigai-Japanese-Secret-Long-Happy/dp/0143130722
Podmatch (Podcast guest and host matching platform)
https://www.podmatch.com
Explore these valuable resources to further your journey in regenerative design:
Discover more about Paulownia trees and their sustainable potential at https://www.paulownia-la.com/.
Dive into the Twelve Laws of Nature and unlock the secrets of harmonizing with our planet at https://www.12lawsofnature.com/.
Fulfill your garden aspirations with expert guidance from the Garden of Your Dreams masterclass at https://www.gardenofyourdreams.com/.
Ready to take actionable steps towards your dream garden? Book a complimentary 30-minute training session with Matthieu for immediate results: https://calendly.com/garden-of-your-dreams.
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Transcript
What is the Number One Thing to Impact Life?
00:00:00
Speaker
When? What's important next? Or what's important now? And as you go through your day, constantly be thinking, what's the number one thing that I can do that's going to make the biggest impact for myself, for my family, for my community, for my business?
Introduction to the Regenerative Design Podcast
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Regenerative Design Podcast. I'm your host, Mathieu Mehuys. And in this show, I interview the leading authorities in the world of regenerative practices.
00:00:26
Speaker
People who do good and do well. Are you a person that cares about your environment and our planet? Are you a person that wants to leave the planet to our children to be something that we can be truly proud of?
00:00:38
Speaker
Something to enjoy for many generations to come?
Making the Planet Better and Enhancing Business Success
00:00:41
Speaker
But are you also a person that believes we can do all of this and do good in business? Well, I have really good news for you.
00:00:50
Speaker
You're here listening to the podcast that is all about making our planet a better place and making your business more successful. Enjoy the show.
00:01:04
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Regenerative Design Podcast.
Meet Brandon Barnum, Community Creator
00:01:08
Speaker
Today, we have another great guest. His name is Brandon Barnum. So, Brandon is the founder and CEO of HOA.com, a dot com ah company that's all about what is in America known as the Home Owner Association that is working around creating community.
00:01:25
Speaker
So he's also the author of the book Raving Referrals that I'd love to talk more about today. And his main slogan of his life and what he does is creating unity through community.
00:01:37
Speaker
So I'm super excited to have Brandon on the podcast today because we'll dive really deep in how communities can actually be part of a regenerative life, regenerative design.
00:01:48
Speaker
So Brandon, thank you for coming on the show. How are you doing today? Matthew, I'm blessed beyond belief. Thank you for having me. I love it. Blessed beyond belief. So tell me, Brandon, where did all of this start? Like, were you born with the with the intention of ah helping communities or how how did you end up in this work that you're doing today?
Brandon's Journey in the Mortgage Industry
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, no, not so much. You know, I went to to school and after college, I got into the mortgage business and In the mortgage business, it's all about helping families and helping people achieve the American dream, which is to buy their home. And so um that's really where I started focusing on community.
00:02:27
Speaker
and did that for 12 years. After that, I helped create a for-profit company called Humanity Unites Brilliance. And we sold a personal development training program and membership in order to donate 40% of top-line revenue, not net profit, but top-line revenue, is really geared to just you know change the world.
Unity Through Community: Brandon's Motivation
00:02:52
Speaker
And so that's that's where I got deeply involved and committed to creating unity through community.
00:02:59
Speaker
And that's certainly the mission that I'm on now. so that's interesting So even, well, is there some traces from your childhood maybe that that could indicate that you were going to work in this in this area?
00:03:09
Speaker
No, I don't think so. You know, I was a child of a hippie lesbian. And so my mom, we moved all over the place. I went to a different school every single year from kindergarten, first grade, all the way through sixth grade. So I was constantly changing schools and Maybe there was a longing to be part of a community because i was always having to make new friends and start over. And so for those seven years, it was pretty tumultuous. I wouldn't say I had very deep roots because I was always packing the bags and going to meet new friends.
00:03:42
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. maybe Maybe that is what exactly had to happen for you to help communities to be built.
How Technology Facilitates Community Connections
00:03:50
Speaker
so It's possible. and And I think also, Matthew, you know i'm ah I'm a tech guy, right? So my last tech platform before this was called refer.com. And we built that up to 5 million members around the world.
00:04:02
Speaker
And so that helped me kind of see things differently. Because what I realized is, we're all part of communities. The question is, what community are you a part of? And I think since you know, 2020, people are less connected than ever.
00:04:17
Speaker
But we all have that yearning of feeling like we're part of something. Belonging is a human ah desire that we have. And so, you know, we just want to help people connect in a meaningful way. And here at H-O-A.com, we focus on doing life with your neighbors, the people that you live next to. And we believe you should help the people around you and and really get connected to the neighborhood that you live in.
00:04:42
Speaker
I love that because, but and I fully agree with you, I think there's an aspect of as we are moving into the future, it's like somehow the future is already happening, like the whole AI revolution, it's going very, very, very rapid.
00:04:57
Speaker
that A lot of the things are are becoming automated or a lot of jobs are are disappearing.
Future of Community and Creativity in Automation
00:05:03
Speaker
yeah Maybe for worse, but I believe actually for better so we can actually focus on things that that inspire us rather than doing things that that are very repetitive.
00:05:13
Speaker
So how i look at it is is that because of the automation and and all the AI that's gonna take away a lot of the workload, let's say, one of the few things that will be left to do is is building community and being creative. Like these are all trades that today, and i don't think it's gonna happen very soon, that you have that human connection robots. I don't think they'll be really good at that.
00:05:41
Speaker
anytime soon. So yeah, I think it's it's one of the most important ways to build a business in the future is to create a community around your your business. That's probably the most important thing because a lot of the information is readily available. It's like, how can you learn from other people? How can you spend time with others? How can you inspire each other?
00:06:00
Speaker
So yeah, i find it very fascinating that you're doing that work.
Raving Referrals: A New Approach to Business
00:06:04
Speaker
Now, before we go further into that, I'd love to hear a bit more about your last book. Can you explain what it's all about and why people should read it?
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, you bet. So I've been in the business world ever since college and really since 1997 is when I got into the mortgage industry. And I was only making $20,000 a year at that point.
00:06:26
Speaker
I had gotten custody of my son. So I was, you know, a single dad making 20 grand a year. I had bought a house, but once I got custody, I couldn't afford the mortgage and daycare, right? So I had to make a change. I got in the mortgage business and I had someone who mentored me in the art and science of what I now call raving referrals.
00:06:46
Speaker
And so what raving referrals is all about, it's it's really all about how to attract more business and the best form of You know, some people talk about leads. I teach a lead as a four letter word. i don't want a lead. I don't want somebody finding me on the internet and just, you know, blindly connecting with me. i would much prefer a personal introduction or what I call a raving referral. and The reason for that is is so many, it's a multitude of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that people are 400% more likely to hire you and do business with you when you are introduced to them by somebody that they trust.
00:07:26
Speaker
Because there's a transfer of trust that takes place. And in the business to business world, 84% of all B2B sales start with a referral. So if you wanna sell to the boardroom in the C-suite,
00:07:39
Speaker
You've got to give introduction because otherwise you're competing in a hyper competitive environment.
Building Partnerships for Mutual Business Benefit
00:07:46
Speaker
And the other thing and with with referred clients, if a client is referred to you, overall, they're 16% more profitable. Why?
00:07:55
Speaker
Because they trust you more, so they stay with you longer. They're willing to pay more or buy more from you overall because they're not worried about getting screwed over, right? They know that they're going to be well cared for because somebody they trust is has recommended you or your company. So those are just a few of the reasons why raving referrals are so important.
00:08:18
Speaker
And what we do is we teach ah we teach a referral partner blueprint. This is one of the main things that we teach is, you know, are you partnering with other businesses or professionals who serve your perfect prospect every day?
00:08:33
Speaker
And what we find is most people aren't. It's kind of the 80-20 32% of the people that we've surveyed, and we've surveyed thousands, say they have zero referral partners. Nobody that has referred them at least one client every 90 days.
00:08:49
Speaker
47% said they have one or two. So when you add those together, that's 79% of people, like the 80-20 rule, that have two or fewer referral partners. And those people typically report always having to search for and hunt for new
The Power of Personal Connections over Social Media
00:09:04
Speaker
clients, right? Whereas 2% of people say they have 10 or more referral partners and those people on average are making over $250,000 a year. So part of my mission is to help people team up with others who are serving your perfect prospect. I like to say one plus one equals 11.
00:09:22
Speaker
eleven See that, Matthew? you See that on screen? One plus one equals 11. It's about leverage. And when we work together and really create a business that's community within our business, then everybody wins.
00:09:36
Speaker
Oh, I love that. I had to write it down. It's really interesting that the whole the whole statistics around it, like many people, including myself, trying to get exposure on social media, LinkedIn, and it's important to do it because it's kind of like your – your like your little card that is being used less and less.
00:09:55
Speaker
yeah Your business card, that's what it's called. But but you what you stressed out, it's like, a okay, if you want to get more business, try and get in contact with people that serve your clients. Like, wow, that's a great advice.
00:10:10
Speaker
So how how do you actually do that if if you could put some tips around that? Yeah, and here's the key. Find other people. What we recommend is, number one, you identify. There's kind of three different groups, Matthew.
00:10:21
Speaker
Who is already sending business to you? Who is already sending clients to you? Make a list of those people and then meet with them and say, hey, I'd really like to do more business with you and and my clients could use your services too.
00:10:36
Speaker
right So one, you start with the people that are already sending business to you. The second group of people is people that you are referring business to. We work with a lot of real estate agents, for example, because they help homeowners buy homes in HOA communities.
00:10:53
Speaker
Well, they give a lot of referrals out, they don't get many back. So what we teach them to do is formalize their partnerships with their mortgage lender, insurance agents, interior designers, their painters, their plumbers, all of the other people who are out there serving homeowners every day.
00:11:11
Speaker
And what you want to do is you really create what we call a trusted team. And on HOA.com, we actually have a process where your professional profile isn't just about you.
00:11:22
Speaker
It also features the people that you recommend, your trusted team. and so everybody cross markets and cross promotes and helps each other and here's the real key. Oh, I forgot the third group.
00:11:34
Speaker
The third group is your social sphere. So all of the contacts in your phone, the people that you already know, maybe you've had a relationship with you for years, but you've never approached them to say, you know, I've got clients that could use your services and so I'd like to sit down and discuss creating ah a partnership, a referral partnership with you. Is that something you'd be interested in?
Key to Referrals: Solving Partners' Clients' Problems
00:11:58
Speaker
Now, most people have never gotten that phone call. And if you have a relationship with that person already, they're going to be happy to go have coffee or lunch or just sit down and talk about how you can build your business together. And the whole key to this is that you're helping them solve their clients' problems, right?
00:12:18
Speaker
When I was in the mortgage business, I worked with realtors who had clients and they needed financing in order to buy their house. So the problem that I was solving is I was helping the realtor's clients get approved and I unlocked the ability for them to finance the property that the realtor got paid on. The realtor didn't get paid unless that property got financed most of the time. Some pay people pay all cash, not very often, right?
00:12:46
Speaker
So think about your business and what problems do you solve who has the clients that come to them with those similar problems where if you show your partners that you've got the solution to their clients problems that they're going to be thrilled to refer you because you're helping solve their clients problems that's the key yeah brilliant well and you build a whole well you wrote a book about it and then you you build a business around it to teach people how to do it properly is that correct
00:13:18
Speaker
Absolutely, and we we teach courses on it, and we actually certify trainers that go and teach our raving referrals methodology around the U.S.
Courses and Certification in Raving Referrals Methodology
00:13:28
Speaker
Nice, I love it. And it's interesting that it's so related to creating community because it's it might be even a global community. It doesn't really matter, but it's all about like how can you build a community or in in your business.
00:13:42
Speaker
I think that's where it Well, and and we go so far as we tell you. One of the things that we teach is unity through community. What does that look like? It's about creating events that bring the community together.
00:13:54
Speaker
Let me give you an example. We have, we have a hundred different impact guides, community impact guys, ways that these professionals who serve homeowners can bring homeowners together through different fun, family forward, festive events. Right?
Community and Business Opportunities through Events
00:14:10
Speaker
So for example,
00:14:12
Speaker
one One way you bring people together is you do a community barbecue or a potluck. And we did one of these recently, not far from my house. So I got to go and and attend. And, you know, these happen all over the place. So I don't always get to be there.
00:14:25
Speaker
But there was about 50 people that came out from this community to the party in the park. And it was put on by a realtor and a mortgage lender. They teamed up. They hired a teenager to go door to door with an invitation to all the homeowners to come to the community barbecue on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.,
00:14:46
Speaker
bring anything that you want to grill. The realtor and the mortgage lender brought the sides and the sodas, right, to the drinks. So they kind of provided that. They had their ban banners up so they were able to, you know, really get in conversation about what they did. But what was great is they facilitated the community all coming together.
00:15:07
Speaker
And for me, it was awesome because I got to attend and I got to see it all happening. And it was great because there was about 50 people there. And as I was looking out over the park, there were kids that were playing kickball.
00:15:20
Speaker
And there were dads that were playing cornhole. And there were moms listening to music and laughing and dancing and just chatting with each other. And the coolest part is, as I was looking, I looked at every single person at this party.
00:15:33
Speaker
Not one person was on their cell phone. You want to talk about networking communities? right They were just laughing and having fun. and And that's where people feel connected. So that's the mission that we're on is to really connect communities.
00:15:49
Speaker
And when you do it for your business, it's really good business too. Very interesting, wow. Yeah, I think that's something that's definitely lacking these days, or or we're on our phones and then you're busy with your work and there's limited time, but if you everybody has three hours on Saturday to get together, at least most people.
00:16:12
Speaker
Well, and and that's one example. We do ah an Easter egg hunt around Easter. We do events for you know Halloween and for Christmas and for Thanksgiving. So there's some that are sort of holiday themed,
00:16:24
Speaker
But also, you can you can just go out and collect canned goods or clothes for the food bank or the homeless shelter. And by doing that, you're basically telling all of the homeowners and the communities that you you serve that you care about your community, right? It's not just about business. And when you show you care, people care about doing business with you.
00:16:49
Speaker
Nice. So let's talk a bit more about your more recent business. I don't know, how how long or how long ago did you start HOA.com?
00:17:01
Speaker
Yeah, we started it five years ago. And from what what what problem were you solving with that?
HOA.com: Connecting Homeowners with Professionals
00:17:09
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, so the company, we started it as the homeowneralliance.com. And so our original goal was to connect homeowners to professionals they can trust. That was what we wanted to set out to do.
00:17:22
Speaker
And what we recognized is there is no like referral network exclusively for professionals who serve homeowners. And so that's what we wanted to create was to help these professionals work together and serve more families.
00:17:37
Speaker
Along the way, I realized the homeowneralliance.com is too long of a domain to to go create into a really world-class business. And i I was meeting with my partner one day and I said, you know, if we could wave our magic wand and we could have any domain on the planet, what would it be? And this is an important lesson because you can do have anything you want if you put your mind to it, right? The power of intention.
00:18:03
Speaker
So we said, okay, if we could have any domain on the on the planet, what would it be? the Home Owner Alliance, HOA. So I looked up HOA.com and I just thought, I wonder what is HOA.com? There has to be an HOA.com. And sure enough, there was at that point, the owner was licensing vanity email addresses.
00:18:24
Speaker
So I purchased Brandon at HOA.com as an email address for me to you. So I bought the product And then I got into a conversation with the owner and I said, you know, if my email ah address was available, you're probably not selling as many of these as you'd like.
00:18:41
Speaker
You know, i just exited a company that we built to 5 million members. And so here's what we're doing now. I'd love to, you know, be able to utilize that domain. So we ended up creating a great partnership, made him an offer he couldn't refuse. And here we are today.
00:18:55
Speaker
That's so cool. Yeah, it's really good domain. So where... Tell me but more about what the company is mostly doing. Yeah, there's really two sides of our business.
00:19:09
Speaker
One is we focus on improving homeowner associations. So here in the United States, 53% of all homeowners live in
Software Solutions for Community Management
00:19:19
Speaker
an HOA. It's like a little...
00:19:21
Speaker
government that just governs that neighborhood. And it has rules and regulations. When people buy a house in that community, they agree to operate by all the rules. Well, we have a software platform that helps them manage their community, everything from communicating to their homeowners,
00:19:39
Speaker
ah voting for their their boards, managing all the finances and the budgets, managing the architectural review. So if somebody wants to paint their house a certain color, they have to get approval. If they want to make a change to the property, there are rules that they have to abide by and they have to get approval. So our software helps manage all of that.
00:20:00
Speaker
And then we are just introducing a new AI community concierge where are our AI knows all the questions that homeowners call in with. So they they call in, talk to our AI, and it answers their questions in an average of three minutes and 39 seconds.
00:20:18
Speaker
So it normally takes a lot of human power, just like you were talking about earlier, we're automating it, which gets the homeowners the answers they want quickly.
00:20:29
Speaker
And it also frees up the people that would normally have to answer those phones or that email message and and give the information, the computer is able to just give it automatically. And in that process, we connect the homeowner also to the certified pros. So the two sides of our business, one is all about improving and creating a new way to HOA.
Transforming HOAs into Beloved Organizations
00:20:51
Speaker
Most people hate their HOAs, at least they don't love their HOAs. So we're on a mission to help people love their HOA because we're doing it different. We're creating a better way to HOA, the gold standards of HOAs and helping HOAs improve how they serve their homeowners.
00:21:08
Speaker
The second side of our business is what we set out to do at the beginning, which is connecting homeowners to professionals they can trust. So we vet, research and and approve professionals if they're five-star pros and you know we've gotta make sure that they're gonna do a good job and take care of people, but that's really what we're creating is an ecosystem a community of communities where we're helping the homeowners, which are also the board members and really helping everybody win in the process. This podcast is brought to you by the Garden of Your Dreams Masterclass.
00:21:45
Speaker
Are you struggling with finding the right tools and tricks for your garden? Are you lacking the confidence to be a self-sufficient gardener? Do you sometimes get overwhelmed by the lack of knowledge and time you have to actually do gardening?
00:21:59
Speaker
Then the Garden of Your Dreams masterclass is for you. Nice. So all HOAs across the US, s maybe other countries as well, can learn from each other on how to optimize it.
00:22:10
Speaker
how to bring more value so that the property or the the whole community is managed better. And yeah, that's very interesting. So what are some of of the pillars in your opinion of what a good HOA should be focusing on?
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, great question. You know, when I introduce myself as the CEO of HOA.com, I usually hear complaints and horror stories and people love to tell me about all the things that aren't being done well. And that basically comes down to three things.
00:22:43
Speaker
Number one is transparency. People want to feel like they know what's going on and they've got access to the information. A lot of people say that they pay a lot of money in their HOA dues, but they don't really know what they get from it.
00:22:58
Speaker
So one is transparency and two is communication. We want to improve the communication to the community so people feel educated, empowered, and in the know.
00:23:10
Speaker
And then the third part is the politics. we We hear oftentimes about either board members or presidents that feel like, you know, it's it's their community, it's their money.
00:23:23
Speaker
Like even in the community I live in, my wife joined the board about a year ago and the board president referred to the money of the community. There's $400,000 in the the reserve account and she called it my money.
00:23:39
Speaker
right? It was her money in her mind. She's like, well, I don't want to spend my money on that. And my wife's like, listen, woman, this isn't your money. This is our money. We've all paid into it. So um there's some political issues sometimes with leadership and sometimes there needs to be a change. And also the policing of the community is an issue because In America, we live in a free country, but sometimes we don't free feel free in our own community.
Maintaining Standards with Kind Reminders
00:24:07
Speaker
We've agreed to operate by a set of rules and the HOA has to enforce those rules. So we're creating a better, kinder version of that.
00:24:17
Speaker
ah One example, Matthew, is people leave their garbage cans out, right? You you set your garbage can out once a week. And if you don't bring it in in back to your house in time, if you leave it out on the street,
00:24:30
Speaker
HOAs will fine you and you'll have to pay $25, $50 because you didn't bring it out in time. Well, rather than sending you a ticket and a fine, we'd rather send you a text and a reminder saying, hey, Matthew, you know we noticed that your garbage can is out. We really don't want to have to fine you.
00:24:49
Speaker
Will you please please bring it in and just text us back and let us know when it's been taken care of? That's a better way to HOA. Now we're connecting our communities and really serving homeowners, which is what it's all about.
00:25:02
Speaker
Interesting. Nice. So what are are the biggest challenges in in your business at the moment when it comes down to managing the HOAs? think you raised a few already.
00:25:13
Speaker
yeah What is like the biggest one? People. People. there's There's really only one issue and it's people. You know, the reality is that, again, I kind of gave you an example. Some people feel like prideful about their position within the community, which is good. We want people to feel proud of what they do, but not from an egocentric base. We want people to serve their community.
00:25:38
Speaker
And so sometimes there are some relational issues that One of the things that we're doing is we're teaching emotional intelligence. We have a communication program that we teach that is called bank code.
00:25:52
Speaker
And what it is, is it creates instant empathy. Once you understand. the the personality traits of the other people that you're communicating with and you realize, you know, oh, this person's asking a lot of questions because they're a high knowledge personality, right? theyre Their mind thinks differently than somebody who's high action that's just going to take action quickly. And, you know, they they get bored and overwhelmed by all of the details.
00:26:20
Speaker
right? Then you've got the nurturing people that just want community and they want to be in relationship. They don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. And then the last personality is called blueprint. They're all about the process, the systems, predictability.
00:26:35
Speaker
And so, you know, they want things on time, on budget and on schedule. And if it not if it's not, it bothers them. Well, once you understand how people are wired, who God created them to be, right? You and i sort of coded to be a certain way. And so once you understand how people are wired, then you learn to appreciate the differences rather than being resistant to them.
00:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, so being resistant to them. So more towards, so it I think it it might be very challenging to restructure existing HOAs.
Creating Gold Standard HOAs from the Start
00:27:16
Speaker
Are you also active in in like starting from scratch, which sounds like there's more opportunity when you're like in a new development and you can set the rules early and get involved early?
00:27:27
Speaker
Oh, great question. Yeah. So we're we're committed to both. In the US, there's over 375,000 existing homeowner associations. And there's about 8,000 new each year.
00:27:40
Speaker
okay So we have to focus on 375,000 because it's a much bigger number than the 8,000 new each year. But we just brought on a new advisory board member and she is a real estate development attorney. In fact, President Trump just endorsed her as the next governor of Arizona.
00:27:59
Speaker
Well, she is a real estate development attorney. And so she's helping us create the gold standard for HOAs, starting before a house ever gets built. So in the real estate world, land gets developed.
00:28:13
Speaker
There are rules about how it gets developed and a plan for the land. Once the plan is developed and approved, then the homes get built, right? So you've got the development stage and the building stage. Well, HOAs get created in the development stage, the planning stage.
00:28:32
Speaker
So we have to start here. And with our new advisor, Karen Taylor-Robeson, she's helping us to, our plan in 2025 is to partner with all of the biggest builders in the United States. She's worked with them for decades.
00:28:48
Speaker
And so we're creating a better way to HOA and we're going to take it to them. So they install our strategy and system before they ever build the first home.
00:28:59
Speaker
That's very interesting. I think it's important to be early in the process. It's same with my work as a landscape architect. a lot of, well, not a lot of time, but often it happens that we get involved in the process when architectural drawings have been made, there's already, or even a part of it has already been built, and then it can be very challenging to get the most potential out of of the the green space and and creating those community elements so for us it's always good to be in it ah early in fact with the business now with my business we're gonna step in first so from a landscape perspective we're gonna decide like where can we put put the houses where where where is better to
00:29:42
Speaker
put a lake, plant trees to really start a development from from the landscape rather than starting by building houses. And there's a lot of value to that that ah can be created along the line.
00:29:58
Speaker
Smart. i love it. So also related to that, is that something that's in the in your work with the homeowner associations, like how a property is managed, how is it maintained?
00:30:12
Speaker
How do you deal with these kind of things? Yeah, so again, there are rules by which the community is managed, but the HOA boards will either manage their community themselves or about 65% of the time they hire a professional property management company.
00:30:32
Speaker
That company manages the grounds, right? The landscaping. and And honestly, that's one of the biggest budget items on an HOA's budget is the grounds, the landscaping, because they've got to mow the grass and trim the trees and make sure that there's pretty flowers and bushes around. And so that's part of the HOA's responsibility is to manage the grounds.
00:30:57
Speaker
They manage the plan for that. The board creates the plan and then they typically hire either the property management company or the the landscape architects directly.
00:31:08
Speaker
And then that's how the grounds are kept. Interesting. I'm actually curious. I'd love to hear from you. Like how are those property management companies, how are they rewarded? Is it like ah a yearly fee, a monthly fee, or do they even get a commission on the maintenance of, and let's say the contractors?
00:31:26
Speaker
Well, they shouldn't get any commission. That's not usually how it's done yet. They have ah a fee, a management fee that they charge. It's normally based on the number of of homes that are in that community.
00:31:38
Speaker
And it can range, I'd say the average is about $10 per community. Sometimes you get it up to $20 per community. With what we're- What you mean your community per- So in my neighborhood, we have 133 Yes.
00:31:53
Speaker
yes So if it's $10 per door, per per home. Per door, not per community, you mean? yeah No, correct. Per home. for home So in in my case, that would be $1,300 per month or about over the course of a year.
00:32:12
Speaker
and just Okay. So do you see opportunities to to improve that when it comes down to the community experience?
00:32:25
Speaker
Because, okay, everybody has their own garden, but do you see potential in creating community gardens, more shared spaces in those HOAs that can help people to have those barbecues that you talked about?
00:32:38
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And again, it depends on if we're talking about the existing community It's already built, right? So they they've got so much space. And the question is, what are they doing with that space? In my neighborhood, we just created ah a butterfly garden.
00:32:54
Speaker
And so we took some some space that really wasn't being utilized very well. And we had a Girl Scout group that wanted to install a butterfly garden, which is just some specific flowers that attracts the butterflies that they can you know, attract the pollen. And so that's what we did here. But ah we also have green space is what's called here in the US where it's the common space.
00:33:20
Speaker
We've got a nice little playground and a basketball court. I love playing volleyball. So I have a portable volleyball net and I go out with my neighbors sometimes and we'll go play volleyball in one of the parks in the middle.
00:33:35
Speaker
And about once a year, we'll have a community picnic. ah So, you know, the kids are out there playing, people are walking their dogs, but it really depends on the amount of space that's in that neighborhood.
00:33:47
Speaker
And I think to your point is we plan for the future yeah in the development stage, it's super important that we plan communal spaces and opportunities for
Enhancing Community Living with Green Spaces
00:33:59
Speaker
people to get in. And I think we're going to see more and more community gardens. I think that's one of the things that People want to get their hands bent in the dirt again. I think there's ah a longing for that for some. I know my mom is a master gardener and she moved from a two acre parcel where she had a pretty significant garden to now she just turned 80 yesterday. So she lives in apartment here and doesn't have much. She misses getting her hands in the dirt.
00:34:27
Speaker
Oh yeah. So it's so potent. Like there's a lot of research around what is called the blue zones of the of the planet, is the zones where a lot of people live well over 100 years old.
00:34:39
Speaker
And they, um um I think you're aware of those researches, but the the key, like they so they figured like what what do all these communities have in common, even though they're like disconnected globally, they're like, it's in Japan, in Costa Rica, in Bali, I think as well.
00:34:59
Speaker
So what do they have in common? And what they figured out is that there's there's a strong sense of community. So like when your child comes home from school and you're not home, maybe they can go to the neighbors or to the grandmother.
00:35:13
Speaker
and So that's hugely important. And then another big aspect is is the garden. So people spend a lot of time taking care of their garden and producing their own food.
00:35:25
Speaker
And then it gives them a lot of pride to like produce their own food. And then they will share it with their community. They'll, they'll either like just bring it to their neighbors as like, Oh, here's some tomatoes that I grow. Or they, they invite everybody to come over. So like it gives, even for the elderly people and in the community, they saw like, they do, they keep doing that until they, they pass away. Even my grandfather, he was still gardening. he was,
00:35:52
Speaker
96 and just about six months before he passed away he he was still working in his garden nice so it keeps them young active and and and there's like a ah sense of pride and achievement in growing your own food so yeah i'm curious to see that more getting involved in into that from an early stage in the planning and it sounds like you're the community that you're living there must have been an a good master plan that and allowed those spaces to be there and to be not be built.
00:36:23
Speaker
Maybe they could have put an extra house in that park, but then you wouldn't be able to play volleyball. And that's that's a huge value decrease. and There's also a lot of research in in that field that they, in some cases, even see that the properties are double as expensive when they have proper communal green spaces to be used for a lot of activities because, yeah, eventually people really want to live there.
00:36:51
Speaker
People want to live by a park. Yeah, absolutely. And I love you brought up the blue zones. I'm reading a book right now. My oldest son bought me a book for a Christmas called Ikigai.
Ikigai: Purpose and Community for Longevity
00:37:01
Speaker
just all not Yeah, and it talks about the blue zones and talks about how connected people feel and ikigai is that needed for purpose, right?
00:37:10
Speaker
What is the purpose of my life? And when people have that, and they feel connected, then they live longer and and not just longer, but richer lives, more fulfilled lives. And so I think that's the the way that we want everybody to feel fulfilled and be purposeful about what they're doing, be passionate and excited about what they're doing. And you our goal is to manufacture that at least as much as we're able to and in our short time here on Earth.
00:37:38
Speaker
Nice. So how do you, from this interesting conversation, at least from my side, from this interesting conversation, how do you think you can incorporate that further and into the services of HOA.com?
Using AI to Foster Community Friendships
00:37:50
Speaker
Well, I think it starts just like you were talking about at the development stage. Right now, what we're working on, and we haven't figured it all out yet, but what we're working on is solving the the planning part of this, the master plan for the community so that we take these things into consideration and actually build them into the master plan long before the first home is built.
00:38:15
Speaker
And I think what we're going to see is we're going to see really an evolution of how communities are created. There are some great master clients. One of the things that we're working with Karen on is she's recommending that we separate out the governance side from kind of the fun side, the connections, the event side, right?
00:38:35
Speaker
And so there's kind of the policing side, managing the money, managing the facilities, making sure people do what they say they're going to do. Mm-hmm. And then there's the fun side, you know, how do we connect people and and help people get to know their neighbors and do more things that are fun. I believe that we're gonna use ai to connect people more deeply because people wanna have relationships, they wanna have more friends,
00:39:02
Speaker
But just like match.com on a dating site, we believe we can use the same type of algorithms and artificial intelligence to connect people that could be, would be, should be friends because they share the same interests, they think similarly, and they just don't know each other or they haven't connected. And so that's one of the things that we want to do is connect people in the local community and help them have more friends in their lives.
00:39:30
Speaker
I love that. Yeah, this dating model, it's working well. It even got us to meet together, not on a dating app, but through an app called Podmatch, which is a brilliant tool to to ah connect people with the same interests and find podcasts. So I think you're right. When you can use AI for that, it's it's very effective.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah, maybe we need Friendmatch. I love that. That would be a great idea. Communitymatch. Yeah, you bet. Nice. Okay, so great. I really learned a lot today.
00:40:03
Speaker
Is there anything else that you would like to share with our audience before we start wrapping up this episode? You know, the the biggest thing, Matthew, if I had only one thing I could say would be this.
Living with Intention and Design
00:40:13
Speaker
Get clear on what it is that you want in life.
00:40:16
Speaker
There's a lot of people that are kind of sleepwalking through life. I say it living life by default. And I'm really passionate about inspiring people to live life by design. Have a vision for what it is that you want to experience in this life.
00:40:31
Speaker
What do you want to take a stand for? What do you care about? What do you love doing? And, you know, create goals for yourself of what you want to do, where you want to go. you mentioned Costa Rica. I was just texting with my 24-year-old son. He's down in Costa Rica right now. And, you know, you went surfing this morning and he just went surfing for the first time yesterday.
00:40:50
Speaker
Oh, wow. Love it. And so you've got to have those goals for what you want to do My other son and my daughter and I are setting a goal to go hike Machu Picchu later this year. And so I think it's so important for people to just have a vision for themselves and their lives beyond just Netflix and chill.
00:41:08
Speaker
I love that. All right. Great. I think this is super valuable. And Brandon, and you're a living example of doing that. You've had multiple successful businesses. you've You've already helped so many people with your work. And in the end of the day, I think that's what makes a successful business. It's definitely how profitable you are, but mostly like how many people have you helped?
00:41:30
Speaker
How much problems have you solved for them? And it's very inspiring to learn that you're doing it again with now with HOA.com. So I'm very curious to see where all of that goes. So thank you very much for coming on the show and hope to see you soon again.
00:41:45
Speaker
Thank you, Matthew. It's been my pleasure.
Taking Action for Success
00:41:47
Speaker
Thanks for what you're doing too, because you're raising the vibe and just inspiring people all over the world. And and i I hope that people that listen to this really go take action because it's one thing to be inspired and it's another to go take action.
00:42:01
Speaker
I agree. that's ah That's what is important the most. yeah You can do strategies. You can write down on paper what you want to do and and get clear on that. But at the end of the day, there's only one thing that you should focus on. It's on taking that next step.
00:42:16
Speaker
And I learned something brilliant from one of my mentors. He said, like, what do very successful people have in common? And we're, like, all guessing, like, maybe it's...
00:42:28
Speaker
strategy, steam, management, good and he was like, no, no, no. Most successful people only focus on one gigantic thing every day. So you don't do five things.
00:42:40
Speaker
Focus on one huge thing that that will have a big impact, and then you can take off and go surfing. that that's kind of Well, you don't have to do that. You can still work on other stuff.
Focusing on Impactful Tasks
00:42:51
Speaker
But if you do one big thing every day, that's where where things start to move fast. Yeah, we we teach wind. what's important next or what's important now. And as you go through your day, constantly be thinking, what's the number one thing that I can do that's gonna make the biggest impact for myself, for my family, for my community, for my business.
00:43:12
Speaker
So constantly be asking yourself, what's important now? And then once you complete whatever that task is, what's important next? And so when you do that, you win.
00:43:22
Speaker
Exactly, wow, I learned something new, win, what it actually means, what? What's important now? Love it.
Episode Conclusion and Call to Action
00:43:29
Speaker
This is a great way to end this episode. So thank you again, Brandon, for coming on.
00:43:34
Speaker
My pleasure, Matthew. Thanks for having me. Bye-bye.