GRAB THE MAP
Johnoson Crutchfield on Marketer of the Day (2025)
GUEST PODCAST INTERVIEW
From Learning to Doing Real Estate Deals
Johnoson Crutchfield joins Robert Plank on Marketer of the Day.
Johnoson talks with Robert Plank about turning education into action, setting buying criteria, making time around a job, and getting experienced people involved in decisions.
Listen for these decisions
- Turn learning into a schedule of specific actions.
- Get clear on your criteria and available time.
- Look for experienced feedback when a decision becomes difficult.
Watch the interview
Video 30:52 | Audio 31:18. The editions have different runtimes.
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Original episode title
Grab the Map: A Proven Strategy of 90 Days to $100K in Real Estate Investing with Real Estate Investor Dr. Johnoson Crutchfield
Browse the transcript sections
- 1:29 - From teaching to real estate
- 4:50 - What people need beyond information
- 10:58 - Accountability and community
- 14:54 - Practice and investing behaviors
- 19:14 - Matching the approach to the investor
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Automated transcript from the supplied archive. Speaker wording is preserved, including transcription errors. The recording is authoritative for names, figures, and timing. Statements describe the interview period.
Robert Plank | 0:01
Hey, we're here with Dr John Crutchfield, and if you're serious about getting into real estate or scaling your next deal, then this conversation is for you specifically. Dr John is the founder of grab the map. He's the author of 90 days to 100k in real estate investing, and he's done the work. He owns over 300 properties, maybe over 500 across single family homes, small, multi family units, commercial buildings, self storage, totaling over $20 million in assets. And John has done deals every month for the last seven years. He's formerly a school principal, but now he mentors educators and working professionals and everyday people to close their first high profit deal, which is what we'll be discussing today, is why perhaps it might be taking longer than expected for you personally in your real estate journey. What can be done with John's help? What are the possibilities so dr, John, glad to be speaking with you.
Johnoson Crutchfield | 0:59
Robert man, I'm glad we get to talk again. I get to talk to you all the time, but I'm glad we get to talk again. You're a big part of that, that 90 days to 100k in real estate book, too, by the way, I don't know if people know that you, you, you're very helpful with helping us get our message out there.
Robert Plank | 1:15
Well, thank you very much. You're too kind, and I'm on board with you. And I love your message, I love your mission. And what is that exactly, you have grab the map. You have 100k challenge. What are you all about? Why? How do you stand out?
Johnoson Crutchfield | 1:29
Yeah, so, you know, I started off as a school teacher. You know, a lot of people probably identify with the story of, you know, being told that you can go to school, get good grades, get a good job. And so I did that, and I actually got good grades and got a good job, and ended up, you know, not really making enough money to take care of everything. So then they said, go back to school, get better grades, and maybe you can get an increase, right? So I got my masters, same situation, very fulfilling career as a teacher. I love, love being a teacher, which is why we still teach today. But, you know, still end up not being able to have enough money to take care of my family, right? And so some, for some people, it takes a lot of lot of effort. And so for me, it took three times like going back to school, getting good grades, and this time getting a PhD, and realizing, okay, now I've got the most education that you're supposed to get. I've got a great job, and I'm still not quite making enough money to provide the lifestyle that I want to provide for my family. So got into real estate investing simply through connecting, networking, talking to people about what they were doing to take care of their families. Had a really good mentor church member who stopped and took me through how he was building his retirement through real estate investing, and really got coached into learning how to create value through real estate investing. And so that's what I do now. I help people that are looking to create value create additional income through real estate investing. Some of the folks I work with are full time. They want to get into real estate, and they work it 100% and then some of the folks I with work with are part time. You do a deal or two a year, especially for for working professionals, teachers. You want to keep your job, you want to keep your benefits. You know, you like where you at, but you have that extra time after work or on the side of work. A deal or two or three or four a year is like, you know, potentially doubling your salary in some cases. And a lot of people like that idea,
Robert Plank | 3:44
Oh, yeah. And I like that idea. That sounds great. That's exciting. And you said a few helpful things there, right? You said this idea of the people are important, right? You and we've all been there, right? We've had that principal we love, we've had that teacher that we liked, and then the teachers say the same thing, right? They don't say, Oh, I love this teaching technique. They say, you know, my kids are really great. This was a star student, and in your journey with finding mentors, finding help, they say, it's about who, not how that Sure. You can have a system. You can learn stuff all day long, but you really need that coach or that mentor or that advisor to help get you there, especially through all the nooks and crannies and where everyone's situation is different, right? You say some people, they have different obligations, time constraints, things like that. And it helps someone understand, okay, like this is exactly the conversation I need to be listening to. Dr John is the guy that I need to help me. How does somebody know if they're a right fit for doing these real estate deals and if they're a good fit for learning from your guidance?
Johnoson Crutchfield | 4:50
Yeah, one of the things that I was noticing, first of all, let me say, you know, you mentioned, you know, 300 units or 500 units. I don't even. To know what the number is now, because it changes all the time. We're selling we're buying. So it's kind of funny that you you mentioned it could be 300 or it could be 500 like one of the things that I noticed doing deals is right from the beginning, I wanted to create spaces for other people who are trying to get in that would make it easier for them than than I had it. You know, I've lost money, you know, on contractors. I've lost money on deals. I've taken too long to finish projects. I've, you know, damaged some relationships that I wish I would have kept right things that I think a lot of people would love to know up front. So it kind of fast tracks their learning process. And so from the very beginning, I've always wanted to create spaces where people can get together, talk about real estate, do deals together, and so I've done them in person, and we also do them virtually. And what I've noticed is that a lot of people love those spaces. A lot of people love our content. If you go out on YouTube, Robert helps us push our message out there. But a lot of people, they come to the spaces, they get the information, but then they still don't do anything. And so I was trying to think of how we could solve this problem where, you know, people want to do a deal, they're ready, but they just want somebody to work with them, right? They want to do it with somebody who's experienced. They want to do it with somebody who's seen some things and can give them warnings and coaching and trials and error, and that person that's ready to do a deal, they probably have some cash, right, or they have access to credit. They may or may not have struggled with deals in the past, like almost getting to the finish line, or they did their first deal, but it didn't work out well, those people are great to work with us.
Robert Plank | 6:54
Well, very nice, and it makes it less scary, right? With all these extra tools there, you say that basically it's really just discouraging to have to do this big leap, this big jump. But if someone goes to the meetups and goes to your webinars, your calls, and they can be around these people, and they can, like, sort of warm themselves up right, build up the courage and and figure out what don't I want to do, what do I want to do? And then when they're stuck in some kind of situation, someone else in the peer group can say, hey, you know, I've seen this exact situation. You're worried about burning this one relationship. You're concerned about losing money on this deal. I've seen this. Here's my two cents about that idea and and so especially as far as getting into some of these next steps here, right, which sometimes you say, some they failed, uh, previously, or they're like, so close, they know so much, but they just can't take that next step. And sometimes people just need the encouragement or the stories. And I know that you've helped a lot of people. You've got some amazing people in your group, and there's like, one or two people come to mind. As far as someone who has been a student who's gotten some really cool results,
Johnoson Crutchfield | 8:09
I think of several people that come to mind that we've helped over the years. First Lady, you know, she she really was ready to do a deal, but she really was having some issues with figuring out how to fund the deal, like, how is she going to pay for it? She had great credit, and she comes into the group. She's ready to take action. She signs up once we got her connected with a fund, a lending partner that would fund her. She said that was her biggest takeaway. Another student really wanted to wholesale. She wanted to be able to find deals off market. She wanted to be able to negotiate, talk to sellers, know what to offer, how to analyze properties. And I mean, I think to this day, she'll say, you know, she'll say she absolutely loves the education that we provide around strategies for getting properties discounted. And she actually took her first deal and wholesaled it to us. So she found it off market, and then she actually sold it to us, and we we flipped it, and she made a fee for doing that.
Robert Plank | 9:17
Oh, cool. So there's so many possibilities
Johnoson Crutchfield | 9:20
lots of possibilities. I give you one more. Matthew. He just went through, you know, our 90 day 200k program, right? And Matthew wanted to flip a property. So he actually took, took an easier route, and he went right on the MLS to look for properties on the market that had been on the market a while. And he made an offer right there on the MLS, and was able to get a property for almost $100,000 less than what it was listed on the market for. He fixed it up, and then he turned around and put it on the market for more than you know, he ever thought he would it would be worth and so he's one of those 90 day 200k Like made it happen, because he was willing to make the offer and negotiate
Robert Plank | 10:05
very nice. So there are basically many different paths to success, and sometimes I imagine someone just gets stuck at one of those steps right, gets stuck on the lending partner making the offer, and they just need you to get to that next step. And there might be eight more steps in the process, but it's if you get stuck, and you get stuck there a long time or forever, that's really a lonely place to be, and you sometimes need additional help to get unblocked. And I imagine that someone might be saying, All right, well, there's Matthew and there's this person, there's that person, there's all these people that have helped. But then the the low self esteem kicks in, right? The imposter syndrome. Someone says, Oh, well, that's great for uh, John's people, but I'm not sure if I can do that. And maybe let's tackle that. Like, what do you think are the biggest reasons people don't succeed in real estate, and how does your mentorship help with that?
Johnoson Crutchfield | 10:58
Well,there's a there. You know, there's a lot of hurdles to getting into the real estate business, and that's actually a good thing, right? If it was easy, everybody would do it. That's that's a kind of a saying people say, but it's actually true, right? So we want there to be barriers to entry, because it creates opportunity. I would say that, you know, if you're going through that imposter syndrome, I want you to know real estate is one of those businesses where you don't need a PhD. Like I very rarely mentioned that I went to all this schooling, unless I'm telling the story, I've never needed it, right? I use my calculator on my phone, and now, of course, with AI and chat GPT, I just think it's making me even less likely to use my brain. But it's really a business for people that are willing to hustle. That's something that we can't substitute for. But with the right mentorship, with the right person supporting you a lot of times, you've got the information, right? You've got the the I can do it. You've got the the knowledge. What you really need some is some accountability and community, right? So, you know, people don't realize, but I still do this, and I've done hundreds of transactions, like, if I run, if I have a deal, like, I I call people and say, Is this a good deal? Right? You have that community. If you work with us in this program, you know, I still to this day, you know, check with my lenders, or, you know, go to masterminds and meetups in order to find out what's happening new what's happening in the marketplace. You have that connection in our program, but the person who's really struggling with with you know, I don't know if I can do it, I will tell you that, hey, with this particular program, we won't put you through it if we don't think that you can do it. And that is a real benefit, because usually we don't have very many slots for this at one time, and so that that means that I want to work with people that that are going to get results
Robert Plank | 13:13
very good. And we just, we keep, seem to be revisiting this idea of how important your peer group is, right? The people you hang around with guilt by association, and something that blew my mind when I was younger, Dr John is hearing that Tiger Woods has seven coaches, including a hypnotist. So even someone with a lot of talent, they they have all these people on their team. And you have to imagine that that's a big part of their success is, you know, they, they, have this potential, but it's easy to waste your potential unless you're surrounded by the right people, and you always think about like childhood baggage, right? You have this like your neighbors and your family and your friends, and they sometimes hold you back, especially with this real estate stuff, or making you believe that you can accomplish it, right? It's just human nature to want to hold people back down, so that way, it makes you more comfortable. And so you hear about that, that cliche of you're the five people you surround yourself with. So it makes perfectly logical sense why someone should be around you and be around these other real estate investors entrepreneurs. That way they can change their thinking and increase their confidence and solve some problems. And one of those big problems people have is they say, Well, I don't have the time. And I like how we've already said a few times that, like many of your students, they have careers, right? They have day jobs, they have professions, and they don't give that up. They just use this real estate thing as a side income. Sometimes double their income. And so it's not necessarily a time suck, but as far as someone believing that's possible, can someone with a full time job really make all this work in 90 days? Like, how do they find the time and about what it is the time commitment,
Johnoson Crutchfield | 14:54
right? So with the 90 day to 100k program, what we what we are really committing to? Is that in 90 days, you will have a full practice and walk through of the activities that it takes to be successful in real estate. Okay, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to, you know, have all of this down, or be able to quit your job full time, or anything like that. There are five behaviors that we are training you on and walking you through the process of during the program. And so in 90 days, we feel like, hey, not only will you have the education, which you could just get, you know, you could buy a book, it's on Amazon, 90 day to 100k in real estate. It's only one out there, but you could also actually go through the practice with investors that are doing deals, and that's that's the real value, right, to connect with other people that are doing deals, be a part of a community where people are doing deals that's going to teach you so much. And a lot of times, Robert, what's interesting about it is, I have this list of things that I say people get when they're in the program. But when you ask somebody at the end of the program, what did you get from it? They all come out with their own unique things, right? Like, you know, like, I, I've mentioned a few of the testimonials, but it's like they those are things that we don't even really advertise. Like, you know, I we can connect you with credit partners or lenders. You know, we don't really advertise. I think we've added some of this stuff to advertising, just to to because people tell us, hey, this is what I really got out of it. I'm like, okay, cool. Like, we should tell people that they get this too,
Robert Plank | 16:36
right? Yeah. So different people have different needs and different benefits. And just to give us a little bit of the details here, I know that we've said, like, everyone's situation is different, right? There's different approaches. But as far as, like, the the types of properties that you target, the deals that you make, and what makes them profitable, can you give us a little hint about that?
Johnoson Crutchfield | 16:57
Yeah, so this is very specific to the client, right? We have clients that are looking for single family wholesaling deals, for single family flips, for small and medium sized, multi family projects, for commercial projects. The group is, this is not some mass group where you're going to have a bunch of people in it, right? This is a small, connected inner circle of people that I choose to work with personally, right? And so I think that's the advantage of working with a real estate investor who has a passion for mentoring and teaching. We work with you on a very individualized basis. That said, I've had coaching students again, wholesale flip. Of course, I'm a big property manager, so rental properties, we teach people how to build portfolio and rental properties. And then I've got people who've, you know, wanted to buy a commercial asset and just wanted to get a good deal. You know, I had a guy just this week who wanted to get a good deal on a commercial building, and he's actually the owner, I command. He owns a insurance company, and he wanted to buy his office, and he worked with us just to, just to secure his building. And I I'm pretty sure we saved the guy, you know, 5050 grand. And you know, he paid us a little bit to do it, but we have the experience making offers and negotiating that he wanted. And of course, I think it saved him a little money,
Robert Plank | 18:25
very cool. And I imagine that if someone is trying to make some of these decisions, it can be overwhelming, and they're trying to figure out where their fit is right, you think about, okay, well, with my my time commitment, with my lifestyle, with my aggressiveness, with my personality, and then to see someone that does the wholesaling or the property management or the commercial, you can say, okay, there's that person, and there's how they seem to be, like, how do they how do I fit that profile? I can see how that once again, it's very valuable to see the people instead of just getting the facts and figures. And you know, one thing that I think came up with us a moment ago is the idea of borrowing money, right? There's funding partners hard money. And what would you say to someone who's perhaps never borrowed money before?
Johnoson Crutchfield | 19:14
Yeah, I mean, if you we do find this out during our intake process, like, are you interested in borrowing money, or are you a cash buyer? Because some people don't have a comfort level with borrowing money, and we teach them, like how to do deals with cash, how to build up their cash. A lot of people, though you know, to get in this business, realize that leverage is very helpful in helping you scale and do more than one deal, more than one deal at a time. We really work with people on individual basis. So I don't want somebody listening to this thinking that you have to borrow money if that's not your thing, or that you don't don't have to borrow money because. Um, again, if you're getting into our program, we are going to, we are going to ask you, you know, you know, what's your financial capability that you're interested in investing in real estate, what's your credit? Like? We ask those things not because we necessarily need a certain answer, but because we want to work with you and have you be successful during the program, and knowing those things helps us kind of tailor the program to you.
Robert Plank | 20:26
100% you have a personalized plan. I like it. And so as far as the support people get, we mentioned that how you're involved, how there's the peer group, there's the meetings, there's the accountability. What sort of support do students get during these 90 days? Are they really talking to you directly, talking
Johnoson Crutchfield | 20:46
to me directly, couple of times a week. Actually, we have coaching calls where not only are we going through some of the content, but we're also troubleshooting particular steps of the processes that folks are in during the program, so they're going to learn how to like, find deals. They're going to learn how to make offers. They're going to learn how to network right, how to connect with other investors. They're going to learn how to like, sort through professional development, where to get your information, and then they're going to learn how to reflect on what's happening and make adjustments. These are five components of our program, but as they're going through that process, we're meeting every week, they're definitely connecting with me. They're connecting with members of my team. There's also a 27 24/7 support channel right where people can connect, ask questions and not just be asking questions to people that have never done a deal before, like we have lots of people in our group who've done deals, and not only that, but they just love helping other people, and that's a support as well. Along the way, there's mentoring regarding project management, because for a lot of our folks, they're flipping and they're remodeling, and so it helps to have our contracts, the templates that we use for project management, the the even we even give out, like the SKUs that we use for paint and doors and cabinets, so people have a list of exactly what to put in the house if that's if This is their first project, and they're not a design type person, I think we have a whole Amazon list of products that we buy, and those are the finishes that we use in our houses. And we give all of that away as value with this program,
Robert Plank | 22:36
very nice. And we've all been stuck in one way or another of just like too much thinking, right? Like, what, what, paint, what, cabinets, and to have that list already, and then you can apply your thinking to something that pushes you forward. That seems like an ideal alternative. And for some reason, just when I talk to you, I just keep thinking about all these parallels to the school. Right? In school, you don't learn just from a book, you have homework, you have activities and projects, you take tests, you do presentations, you work with your peers. It's like to hit it from all kinds of angles. That way, you're not just reading pages out of a book. And so if someone out there is just they know a lot about real estate, they're just stuck in book learning mode. But it's time to add some more dimensions to this. And so in our last few minutes, or last little bit of our conversation, how does someone actually find and fund their first deal with your help, what does that process look like?
Johnoson Crutchfield | 23:34
Yeah. So again, once, once we decide that it's a good fit for everybody, we get clear criteria from you on exactly what you're looking to do right? Generally, we say in our program, you're going to either profit 20 to 50k on a deal or you're going to add that to your your balance sheet. A lot of people decide that they want to keep properties as rental properties, and they realize that that's how you really scale your net worth, and that's one of the results that folks get. But in the beginning, we set up your buying criteria. We make a plan with you. We also schedule your perfect week so you have your perfect week schedule where every week, you know, this is what I'm these are the behaviors that I need to do in order to get the result that I want to get. And then, not only that, we provide leads. Hadn't mentioned this, but we provide leads in the market where you're going to do your deal. So this means that you'll have opportunities to look at both off market and on market opportunities. I will say that part of this program is that we are a little pushy, right? So we don't work with people who don't want to do a deal in the next 90 days. This means that when we're presenting opportunities to you, we're going to nudge a little bit right, because that's part of the in that's part of the process for some. Somebody new. It's like they're trying to decide, do I want to do this? Do I not want to do this? And so, you know, we're going to say we'll do it, so you can go through the process learn. And of course, we're going to push you in a direction where we think you'll be profitable, you'll be successful. But along the way, you're going to learn all the steps required to go from start to finish and get that again. Result. 20 to 50k is kind of what we shoot for. And then hopefully you have a repeatable, scalable process that you can repeat, either with us, again as a partner, or by yourself if you choose to start doing it that way.
Robert Plank | 25:38
And that's where it seems to get really exciting, right? Where you say, Hey, I got a little taste of what's possible. I had some success. Now I'll keep going. And what's that like? Like, how has it been with your students who say, hey, my first deal went great. Now I'll continue this party.
Johnoson Crutchfield | 25:55
Yeah, I think working with people repeatedly is the best part of the business. Like I said, some people they they go through our program and they just decide, I don't want to flip I just want to wholesale deals to John, like, we'll bring him good deals and he can do them. Some people decide that they want to just be a lender, right? And they just loan us money. We do the deals, and they make a fixed return. There's a lot of different pathways that I love to discuss with people, and that's why I'm glad you get the message out and get as many people as possible to hear what we do, because if we're the right fit and the right connection, we'd love working with people and helping them create the outcomes they want to create for their life. Well,
Robert Plank | 26:39
very nice. Well, I imagine that there might be someone out there who's perhaps discouraged themselves from real estate before, or maybe they're in the process of the self discouragement because they say, Oh, well, I can't do X. I don't want to use this approach. And someone like you would say, hey, you know, there might be a different strategy that's a better fit. And you'd go at it with some other real estate technique, plus you have some of this mindset. We've talking I've been talking about right, like, the perfect week, and having the plan. And so we'll put this video on a web page with a button. But for someone who's watching this right now, what's the next step? And if someone says, Well, is this my right next step? What would you say to that person who says, I'm about to click the button, but I'm like hesitating. How do we convince them to make that first click? Yeah,
Johnoson Crutchfield | 27:26
so, you know, I think that if you've watched to this point in the video, or if you've gotten to this place, you've got a decision to make, right? And there's a future that you obviously want for yourself. That requires you to incorporate new behaviors and new habits, okay, it also requires you to create new connections, and that's what we provide in the 90 day to 100k program, okay, and so this is an opportunity for you to take that leap and create those new connections, new habits, new behaviors, alongside an experienced investor with an experienced team, okay, who's going to encourage you along the way? That said, if you're watching this and you click this and you want to book a call, just know that we are not going to push you into this, if it's not the right fit for both of us, and so does you no harm at all to schedule a call, book a call. We are going to ask you, do you want to do a deal in the next 90 days? Right? We are going to ask you, Are you financially ready to do this? And we will help you this, you know, we will help you kind of make that decision. And, you know, sometimes we get on calls, we meet people and it's not the right fit, and that's totally okay, because this is a select program for select individuals, but a lot of times we meet people where they're like, this is exactly what I needed. Like, I probably would never do a deal if I didn't have this or it, like Robert just mentioned, I probably would never do a deal again if I didn't work with somebody else who has experience. And so I'd love for you to book a call like next step, wherever you're seeing this, there's probably a link near around where you can book a call with us. You can also find us at grab the map, com, or on Facebook. Just look me up, Jonathan crutchfields, where you can find me, but get on our calendar book, a call, and let's figure out if we can help you. I know we can help you, but let's figure out if it's the right time for you to do your next deal in the 90 next 90 days.
Robert Plank | 29:42
Very good, very exciting. So we need to change those behaviors, habits and connections, you said, to get make these real estate deals happen. There's coaching, there's off market properties, there's deal review, there's funding connections. We've been speaking with Mr. Jonathan Crutchfield for. Come grab the map.com. You see that link, you see that button, click it. Make that conversation happen. See if it's a good fit, see if it's the right time, see if you're ready, see if you need to do something to get ready. But there's no harm. There's everything they gain. And having one of those fun conversations, just to see where you're at, see what's possible and make some next steps forward. And Mr. Jonathan, thanks for being here and educating us, since you're an educator, and telling us what's possible and telling us about what you've done, I really appreciate you keeping the dream alive and pushing us in the way that you do.
Johnoson Crutchfield | 30:34
Yeah, I appreciate you again, Robert, for getting the message out, and I look forward to working with folks who feel like we're a good fit. Do.
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