In this episode we sit down again with the Grit Brokerage team to discuss recent sales and collaboration on the sales of Story.com, Dare.com, Analysis.com, SwiftConnect.com, UsedMotorHomes.com, GrantWriting.com, DogTag.com, and more. Grit also discusses attending a recent domain conference and the trends they are seeing for 2024.
Welcome to the Grit.org podcast with Colby Harris and Brian Harbin. In these episodes, they speak to top achievers in athletics and business to understand the habits and mindset they apply in order to build more grit.
[I can. I can. I will. I will. I'm going to. I'm going to.]
My name's Colby Harris, and I'm here with the grit man himself, Brian Harbin. And we are joined by the Grit brokerage team, Michael Law and Maureen Sullivan. Michael, Maureen, thank you for joining us, as always.
Maureen Sullivan: Absolutely!
Colby Harris: Yep. Always going to be an exciting day when we get to get on the pod, talk a little bit about what's going on in the domain industry. We've got a lot of new excitements today, and the real point of today is to discuss a little bit about teamwork and collaboration, which I think everyone could work on in 2024.
So nonetheless, Brian, why don't you open us up? I know you got a lot of exciting things to cover today, so let's dive right in.
Brian Harbin: Yeah, definitely. So by the time this episodes drop, we'll be at the end of Q1 for 2024. So I hope you guys checked out episode one. Kind of our kickoff to the year. And, yeah, this today we really just want to talk about teamwork and collaboration. That's one of the things that, you know, we feel like we do really well.
One of the things we focus on and not just within grip brokerage, but outside of grip brokerage and other brokers and buyers and sellers and just networking in general. And so got a few updates on some of the domains that we've been selling over the past few months and wanted to share some of the backstory on those and the teamwork and collaboration that was involved.
So first one wanted to talk about was story.com. That's one we've been working for about six or seven months now. And Colby, I know you had made a commercial for it, but we did just come to an agreement and officially have a buyer for story.com and so that one's just a really neat story. I know Michael, he'll dive into that a little bit, too. But what's interesting about it is the person that eventually bought it, we talked to about six or seven months ago about buying the domain, and they're like, no way we're going to pay seven figures for a domain name.
And then fast forward five or six months later. And there were some teamwork and collaboration involved with another broker that we're able to get that one, um, over the hump. And one of the things, too, that's so interesting about just the teamwork and collaboration, all the different resources within, uh, the domain world is just the ability to have creative financing.
And so, you know, even if something seems expensive at first, it's kind of like buying a house, right? You don't have to pay all cash for it. There's other ways to, uh, to buy it over time or, or lease it or rent it or, uh, whatever that looks like. So. But, yeah, so that's the first one. Story.com is officially off the market. And so definitely stay tuned that the new site is already live.
Another one I want to talk about, too was dare.com. This was one that was a lot of fun. Really neat. Just how, talking about relationships, there was a financial planner that reached out representing the sellers. They were looking for a good broker. Get on the phone with this guy. Turns out he's in Ponte Vedra beach, which is 20 minutes from me. He has kids at play lacrosse. I have kids at play lacrosse.
And so we had a great connection right off the bat. And so they trusted us to work on selling the domain. It was owned by dare.org, who they've been a nonprofit organization for a long time. And so we were working this domain, and recently, Michael and I and Tess, we went to the ICA meeting in Vegas, which is a domain conference. And really, the ICA is a nonprofit organization that represents domain of rights.
And so at this meeting, it's, you know, by comparison, other meeting is a relatively small group of people, but you have some of the largest portfolio domain holders in the world. You know, pretty much every major domain brokerage was represented there. A lot of great buyers and sellers. And so just a great networking opportunity and to talk to buyers and sellers and just, you know, let people know of our inventory and just having a chance to network.
And of course, there's some funds sprinkled in. But, you know, one of the conversations, Tess was actually sitting at a bar before a meeting with a guy that's been involved in the domain industry for a while. She tells about dare.com. He makes an offer right there on the spot, and we take that back to the sellers. And even though it didn't work out with that particular buyer, it really got us on the track of getting to a point where the sellers were, they had their best number.
And so then I was able to take that and put it in front of some targeted buyers, and we were able to get that deal closed. So dared calm is officially off the market as well. Another one that you did a commercial for Colby talking about collaboration. So we do a monthly newsletter that goes out to thousands and thousands of people each month and all of our current inventory.
And so there's a domain analysis.com that we had listed on there. Broker reached out about six or seven months ago, made an offer. It was too low, you know, kept in touch. And then sure enough, this week we closed on sellinganalysis.com for a good six figure price. So shout out to Steve for working with us on that one. You know, done a number of deals with Steve and just a great broker, you know, one we have a verbal agreement on right now, and hopefully we can share more details by the next podcast. But it's a major city.com domain, so that's one we're excited about and going to be working to get over the finish line.
As a matter of fact, even just this week, Maureen closed on a threeletter.com that was a buy request from an existing client. And what's neat about it, the seller ended up being someone that I'd met at a domain conference a couple years ago, had an extensive conversation with them at one of the after hours events. So it was really neat to kind of see things come full circle with that. Again, getting back to that, you know, networking and, and collaboration and good communication.
Another neat domain that I personally have loved, this one is wampum.com. dot. [It's w-a-m-p-u-m]. Really neat backstory on that. So wampum was actually the original form of currency started by the Indians, and it was actually a type of bead. And I thought it was a phenomenal name for a crypto company. Right? Because crypto companies are looking for credibility. And so having that original form of currency in the form of a domain name.
And we actually just, Michael did a great job actually working through another broker to get that one closed, and that one just closed out actually, today. And then kind of in the spirit of teamwork and collaboration. So obviously we do a ton of sales. Our big specialty is selling premium domains through outbound sales. But we also have a domain acquisition service where we helped, you know, clients go after really their perfect domain.
And so there's one, I started working on this one probably about two years ago, swiftconnect.com the buyers came and said, hey, they were on the IO and they said, hey, we really want to ghetto .com. and so for months and months and months was reaching out to these owners. They were just responsive, but not really. Not really giving a figure, not really saying it's for sale. And then all of a sudden, their it guy starts communicating and it just got really odd. And, um, and so it just kind of died down. Right?
And so at this point, I said, hey, Maureen, you know, I'm not sure if this is going to go anywhere, but if you want to take over this one and see what can happen. And then, um, really cool story. I know Maureen's going to talk about more about that today, but, um, you know, ended up getting that closed out about, you know, six months after that. So I'll let her kind of go through that story about all the things involved.
So, but, yeah, that's kind of an update on my end. Again, just talking about teamwork and collaboration. And I think that's one of the benefits that good brokers can do for you, is just that ability to network. And we talk all the time about how there's millions of domains out there, but really a lot of the best domains, it's a small group of people that can help you either find it or get in touch with that right person.
And we're just really only one or two people connected away from getting a deal done. And so it takes, you know, sometimes time and patience, sometimes it can happen quickly. But, you know, at the end of the day we believe it takes grit, and so that's why we do what we do. So that's it for me. I'll flip it over to you, Colby.
Colby Harris: Yeah, I actually want to come back to you on that, Brian, because I think when you talk about being in the right room, meeting the right people, starting the right conversations, and something as niche as the domain industry, you do have to travel.
So I wanted to ask you, like, when you talk about that teamwork and collaboration and connecting with everyone at that conference, like, do you feel like for other people with their businesses, it's one of the number one things they can do if they're not investing in all these other areas of the business, like investing, getting out of your area and being in those rooms with other people you work with?
Brian Harbin: Absolutely. I mean, it's just really being a professional in your industry, reading all the up to date articles and the trends and what's going on, but then really also just talking to people that also do what you do every day, it's an immediate connection you have with people and especially with something like, you know, working with domains. And, you know, almost everything we do is through, you know, email and phone and text. And so being able to meet somebody in person really just gives you that, what I call that fourth dimension of building a relationship.
And so, you know, our big thing is, you know, we like to be easy to work with. Right? We're responsive, we're friendly, and we bring, you know, our goal is to bring a good energy to the deal to help get the deal done. And so we're an advocate for getting the deal done and the best interest of our client. And at the end of the day, we're all building something in terms of just helping people have that awareness for the value of a great domain name.
Colby Harris: And you're fun to have a drink with at these conferences as well, I'm sure. So it's always good. Yeah, that fourth dimension. No, I love that.
Maureen, I'm going to come over to you. You have a couple things you want to discuss today. As Brian's kind of foreshadowed, a number of different stories you want to dive into. So I want to send it over your way to fill us in.
Maureen Sullivan: Sure. So as Brian mentioned, I'm going to talk today about the journey with swiftconnect.com and Brian had worked on this, as he mentioned, a long time and really could not make the progress we needed to. He had a buyer that very much wanted the domain and kept saying, keep working on it. So last February, Brian asked me to dig in and do what I do best for grit. And that's what I got into grit mode and tried to see what I could do to find the right contact at Swift Connect. And within a couple of days, what I found was there was a parent company out in Minnesota called Midwest Medical that was the parent of Swift Connect.
So I went that route, found a phone number, didn't find any specific contacts, but I said, I'll give the number a call and go from there. I called the number. It worked, but it was all automated, meaning hit one for this, hit two for this, et cetera. I couldn't get anyone live, and I hit two for sales, hoping I'd get somebody live, and I didn't. But I ended up leaving a voicemail.
So that was what I did first and hadn't heard anything back. And then I did. I dug into all my ways of, you know, a database of finding contacts, etcetera, and I got lucky. I found the CEO of the company. I found his email, his phone number. His name was Larry. I ended up calling the parent company back, leaving him a voicemail, sending an email, and putting in an offer. That was significant. It was a six figure offer. I figured I'll hear back from them. And two weeks went by, not a word, nothing from anyone that I had sent emails to.
So I decided to go back to the main number, the prompt number, and I said, I'm just going to smile and dial here and hit every single extension, every single prompt. So, you know, customer service, sales, finance, whatever.
The fourth prompt was accounting. And I almost skipped over it, but I said, no, I'm just going to hit it. And somebody said, hello. And it ended up being the nicest lady. Her name was Jackie. And I told her, hey, you're not going to be able to help me, but I'm happy to get a live person. Maybe you can direct me. And she couldn't believe I hadn't heard from anybody. She's like, let me help you out. But one thing that the reason you haven't heard is Larry, the CEO left at the end of the year. He's retired to – That's why you haven't heard back from him. But she was kind enough to say, richard's the new CEO. Here's his extension, here's his email. And I will let him know you called today.
So I let Brian know we're making progress finally. I'll keep you posted. So this was like two weeks into this whole process for me. And so I left a message for Richard, an email, knowing it was a new CEO. I'm like, I might not hear from him for two weeks. He wrote me at the end of the day, said, I never knew there was an offer. I never knew that anybody was inquiring. This is a good offer. Let me go back internally and see what I can do. So that was great. I updated Brian. I'm like, this is going in the right direction.
But then I didn't hear from him for three weeks. So now we're into March and, and he would respond a couple of times and say, I'm just working on this. Finally, we talked middle of March and he apologized for the delay. And he said, the reason for the delay is I've gotten big resistance on this side to sell swift connect from it and other departments because our company's email, every single email that's used use Swift connect and we don't want to let it go. He said, but on the other hand, you put an offer in on the domain. So he said, the challenge is where I need a new domain ASAP that works for my company.
Secondly, I need time, like 90 days to transfer this domain out. It's going to be a whole big project, et cetera. So I said, this is what I do. I can find you the right domain for your company. And so I was able to find him a three word domain that was an exact match. I also found him a shorter version of their company name, both of them, like hand registered names. He picked one of those and he said, I'll be back to you. And two days later, he sent in an offer that was our counter offer, 20,000 above what we had put in, which I was like, this is great. Went to Brian. We both felt like this can get done. This is a reasonable counter. And then back to Brian. Now as to what happened next with the buyer, Brian.
Brian Harbin:
Wwell, it was crazy! I mean, I remember exactly where I was when I filled this call. This was late March, early April, and the banks had just failed, right? There was like two or three banks that had just failed in California. And so we had the buyer ready to go, but the seller now, or, I'm sorry, it was the seller that was good to go, is the buyer that we've been working with now for a year and a half.
And I get on the phone with the CEO and I'm like, hey, we can get this done. And he says, Brian, I can't be the CEO. I can't go back to my board and spend six figures on a domain when all these banks are failing. And I said, Richard, I mean, I forget his first name, but I said, I said, you know, this is our opportunity. And he said, well, listen, I said, let's give it a few weeks. Let's see what happens. I'll try and buy some time with the seller. And then luckily we were able to get that done a couple months later.
Maureen Sullivan: Yeah, we ended up doing a payment plan. Originally we thought we were just going to do it as a one lump sum. And also we ended up, if you remember Brian, the seller wouldn't come up at all and he wouldn't meet the 120. So we ended up going back down to the original offer and getting it done and negotiating that. And the seller wanted 90 days to transfer all the emails over. But we ended up working together, you and I, collaborating to make sure it got done in 60 days time. So it was great teamwork.
Brian Harbin: Absolutely.
Colby Harris: The theme of the call today in particular, of course, as well. So now I believe we're going to move on to Michael. Does that sound over to you, Michael, to talk about what you have in store for us today? As always, excited to see you and hear what you have to share with us. So, Michael, you can go ahead and dive in.
Michael Law: Yeah, thanks guys! And good to be here on the podcast with you. Yeah, I really didn't have too much more to add on the story.com deal, but kind of with the theme of the call. I mean it really just helps to have a good rapport and relationship with other brokers in the industry. More and more buyers now are using brokers to acquire domains so having that network in place really helps us get our inventory, you know, the best exposure possible.
And yeah, again, just, you know, working with other brokers on high end sales really kind of pushes the needle forward in a lot of, a lot of different ways. And it's really been helpful over the past couple years getting those bigger deals done.
And yeah, you know, just on the, on the outbound side, you know, we've had a solid start to the year. I've definitely been keeping busy with pushing some outbound sales out there. It's been cool. We've been seeing end user sentiment continuing to shift favorably towards premium domains.
The companies we're reaching out to, they're more receptive being offered domains that are relevant to their business. And of course we're still getting a ton of no's. And outbound for domains is not easy. But there are more yeses coming through as well and more conversations being started.
And you know, the companies that actually get it and understand domains, they're adding more and more premium domains to their portfolios and a lot of them, they're not only buying domains that are central, they're going to be their core name for their brand. We've sold several this year that already that are names that are addition in addition to their brand. So, you know, maybe they're a keyword domain that represents a service that they, or a service or a product that they do or maybe a different spelling to their current domain.
So I've got, you know, a couple examples of names that we sold this year similar to that. One of them was called usedmotorhomes.com and this one was picked up by a camper company over in the UK. I think their name is Motorhome depot or something like that. You know, a very smart acquisition on their end. You know, whether they redirect the domain to their current site right now and just capture the traffic and leads that come in or they decide to do something with it later on. Either way, now they dominate that keyword online. So kudos to them on that one.
And then another one that we sold outbound recently was dogtag.com super short, catchy name and it was actually purchased by the company that was operate, that is operating on the plural version. So dogtags.com was the buyer and really smart acquisition on their end. Now they short up their security. They don't have to worry about leaking traffic or emails potentially to the wrong domain from people that might mistakenly type in dog tag instead of dog tags.
And then the other thing they do by taking this name off the market is, you know, they shutting out, they're shutting out any competitors from being able to use the domain, you know, buy it and maybe potentially outrank them in the future.
So, yeah, you know, really smart acquisition on that one. And that was a good sale. Everybody was happy. And then one other name that I wanted to mention that we had sold outbound was grant writing.com and this was a domain that was previously used by a grant writing company. And, you know, as the owners were winding down business, they decided to put it on the market and see if they could get a solid offer for it and, you know, just take some money off the table and hopefully the domain goes to a company that can benefit from it in the future.
So it was also an interesting name because, you know, it had actually a few leads coming through every month. And in the grant writing business, that adds a lot of value for that niche. To get leads generated basically by buying a domain, that's pretty huge.
The other thing about this deal that I thought is something to mention and part of why we use an exclusivity of at least six months was that, you know, we started brokering this domain back last year, I want to say maybe September or October. And, you know, we identified and reached out to around 25 or 30 companies and, you know, did an in depth marketing push on the domain to those companies. We had, you know, actually several interested buyers at that point, but none of them really were making offers in the right ballpark.
So again, so this year we went back and we broadened our search and we found more companies that could benefit from the name. And that's how we found and connected to a large tax services firm that ended up purchasing the domain. They also deal with Grant writing, so this is a ancillary name for them that they could probably use to point to that page on their site or, you know, make a spin off company with it. Whatever they do. It was a pretty quick decision on their end to make an offer.
And, you know, we negotiated a price that was really close to the seller's asking price. So a win win for everybody involved and, yeah, really smart for that buyer, you know, now they have a category defining domain that they can benefit from, you know, in perpetuity.
Brian Harbin: Yeah, what's neat about that too is, you know, going to Ryan.com, obviously they understand the value of a premium domain and saw the value in that. And one of the things too, I wanted to kind of expand a little bit more on story.com as well. What was neat about that was that, again, going back to the ICA meeting, there was a broker, Richard, that Michael had connected with, and he works with a lot of venture startup companies.
And what was interesting was that they go to this buyer and say, look, you got to get story.com. This is going to be a game changer for you, um, helping them, you know, figure out a way to be able to make that work. And so Mike, I wanted to ask too, just, you know, obviously you were at the ICA meeting as well, and I know you, you know, obviously go to a lot of conventions, I guess, kind of from your perspective. Anything else on the ICA meeting and kind of the value add you think those bring to our business and what we do?
Michael Law: Yeah, I mean, so as you mentioned, ICA is – it's a great organization for the domain industry. You know, they advocate, they're out at policy meetings. They're really trying to push the envelope and make sure domain owners are protected. And yeah, there's some of the biggest and best portfolio holders at that meeting. And the cool thing about the domain business is that, yeah, it's a small industry, but it has just a huge reach.
And there's a core central group of brokers and registrars and domain investors. And you may see them at most of these different kinds of shows. And it's great to collaborate with them because as you work through your network, you end up reaching people that you may have never met before or just a ton of different opportunities that arise from going to these meetings and networking and seeing people face to face is a big thing because there's trust there. They know you're real, they know you're serious about business. You spend some money to get to these shows and you're not there to really waste anybody's time.
And so the deals tend to fall in place a little bit faster once you, you know, once you actually have established trust with some of these companies, sorry, some of these other brokers and domain investors that hold some of the best names.
Colby Harris: And when you're talking about that too, Michael, I want to ask you a follow up question to that. So given this line of work, you've been in and you've been with grid brokerage specifically for about four years now if I'm not mistaken. But nonetheless, that culture of collaboration and teamwork between the broker buyer, the seller, all these different people, other brokers, other resources, how do you think all that comes together to really serve the client when working with grit brokerage?
Michael Law: Yeah, absolutely. So when a domain investor comes to us to try and have us try and help sell the name and a lot of domain investors, they don't go to these shows and maybe they, you know, they're new to the industry or a lot of our clients just have domains that they've been in their family or it was used to be a business kind of like grant writing and you know, they don't really understand much about the industry.
So being a representative for them and being able to put the name in our newsletters and in our network, it really puts a whole new set of eyeballs on those domains. Our newsletter, we worked really hard to put a good subscriber list together.
I think every top broker and domain investors as well as corporate domain buyers are on the list. Entrepreneurs, web developers. So really not only are we doing the outbound marketing and putting the domains in front of potential end user buyers, but it just really helps to have, you know, if you're an investor, have your name with a broker like grip brokerage that can, you know, put your names in front of other brokers that may have buy requests or you know, they just have buyers looking for specific types of names. So all of that comes together really well to help us get good sales for our clients.
Brian Harbin: And I was going to add one of the things too that people don't see about domain brokers. And we all laugh about this as domain brokers when we see each other. But it's like we get an enormous volume of inbound emails every single day of people saying, sending us lists of dozens, sometimes hundreds of domains and want us to go through.
So the curation of going through all of these portfolios to see what's good, what we can sell. A lot of times people email us and say, hey, what's my domain worth? And they want us to reply. But they also don't realize that appraising a domain, there's a multitude of factors. If you want a quick short, hey, I'll give you my quick opinion, but that's exactly what it is. Based on our experience of calling on, you know, tens of thousands of potential buyers of what they're gonna be willing to pay, that's probably not gonna be a number you wanna hear.
But hey, if we were to take this to market, this is what people are gonna be willing to pay. But appraising a domain the right way, you know, takes a lot of time and there's a multitude of things that we have to research to figure that out.
And so just the, you know, the curation that goes, I know so many people that appreciate that about our list and the fact that, hey, it takes a lot of work to get these domains under agreement priced with a contract with everything we do is under contract, right? So we have an agreed, you know, price and a seller and a buyer and they understand the whole process.
So just the curation that goes and is involved in being a domain broker, just knowing that, hey, that's kind of the nice thing about sometimes working with another broker is like, hey, you know, they've already got every, all that, you know, details buttoned up on their end. So hey, if we come to agreement, we can get this deal done quickly and efficiently. And so, yeah, that, that's one of the things that people don't realize too of like how many hundreds of these we go through every single day to get to what we have.
So kudos to you guys too, because it's – And a lot of times that's where the collaboration effort comes in is because my opinion, but then I'll float it past one of you guys and you've got a different opinion. And kind of same thing with what Maureen was talking about. I was like, look, I feel like I'm pretty good at what I do, but I worked really, really hard for a long time on swift Connect. I couldn't get it done. So we have to be able to remove our own ego out of it sometimes and say, hey, you bring in a fresh perspective, a fresh energy to this deal. Right?
Because I'd get pretty frustrated at that point, so. And again, that's where the teamwork and collaboration comes in. And just working together and knowing that, hey, at the end of the day when you add all that up, you know, the results are going to be a lot better than there would have been otherwise.
Colby Harris: If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together, I think that definitely applies here. I mean, you might not be able to move a domain in a week or a two weeks. And I think that if one person tried to in six months, they'd probably pull their hairs out by the time they finish getting it done. But another great session here, talking today a little bit about what's going on at grit brokerage, the domain industry as a whole. Before we wrap up, I want to kick it back to all three of you. If there's anything else you want to say before we close out today. Good, good.
Michael Law: I can go. I just want to mention ICA one more time. You know, the meetup was awesome. They do a great job over there representing domain owners. And, you know, if you're an investor again, I recommend checking them out. You can go to Internet commerce.org. There's membership levels for pretty much, you know, anybody that, you know, get to fit into your budget, and you're supporting an organization, a nonprofit that, you know, really looks out for our industry.
Maureen Sullivan: And I just like to say I love working with Grit because of the teamwork. Brian and I just closed the three letter that we did in two days because of the teamwork that we just, I mean, all three of us work really well together, and that's important. And so I'm appreciative of that.
Colby Harris: Yeah.
Michael Law: And I'll jump in one more time and say, too, you know, we also have the three of us, you know, we're always pinging messages off each other and floating ideas. We're also getting a lot of support from our research team and our sales assistants. And, you know, they help, they give us ideas. And, you know, it's just all around a great group effort over here.
Brian Harbin: For sure. And I would just add, be sure to check out gritbrokerage.net. And you can see all of our previous newsletters. Our next one comes out what basically is the middle Tuesday of each month. So be sure to check that out. You can also go to gritbrokerage.com and check out all the things we have going on there as well. But, yeah, appreciate you guys tuning in and, and look forward to seeing you guys on the flip side!
Colby Harris: Well, Brian just gave a little shout out, little steal my job right there. But gritbrokerage.com, like he said, all the newsletters, stuff like that, gritbrokerage.net. and of course, be sure to find these podcasts at the Grit.org or grit.org YouTube channel. Maureen, Michael, always a pleasure to get to chat it up with both of you. Keep up the great work!
Hopefully I'll have a May 1st of these days be calling up Grit Brokerage can join in on all the fun, but nonetheless, that's a wrap for us here at the Grit.org podcast. Be sure to share this with someone you think it would resonate with or impact. Stay in touch with us, let us know what else we can do to provide value and help you build more grit.
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