Time for some focus and *maybe* some guidance

I've been thinking a lot about my poor time management and how I'm going to overcome this insanely large hurdle on my own. I loved all the comments I received after my previous post, "So Apparently I Suck at Time Management." It would seem I'm not the only one! Yes, we all obviously get the same 24 hours each and every day, and its heartening to know that many of us still have not figured out exactly how to make the most of them.

I realize that first and foremost I must learn to focus better. With so many different things that need my focus, I have been crazily trying to do them all at once, which is only creating chaos and not results. A month of floundering is enough for me to know that things aren't going to simply fall into place on their own, I need to be proactive about setting specific times and days for each focus area. A written schedule (and maybe even a timer) will be my next order of business.

The second idea that has been rolling around in my head is the possibility of finding a mentor. It makes my insides recoil to even contemplate it, but the thought is there nonetheless. So far I've gotten in the game with no mentor, very little advice, and only a few books and home-study CD's. I'm the type who learns just a little, then hits the streets and gets to the fun action part of the game. I am a fiercely independent person and can not stand to be told what to do, how to do it, or to answer to anyone else. Gee, I wonder why I often didn't get along with my previous bosses! I also really like to pave my own way, learning from my mistakes and not buying into anyone else's "proven system for success." My success will be my way, not simply a copy of some other more successful person's.

But, with the clock working against me and so many other things pushing me back, I'm starting to think that having a little guidance and a little pushing from an outside source would be a big benefit to help get my priorities straight faster. I did manage to start my real estate investment business on my own and got my feet good and wet with all the mistakes and challenges that go along with that. Now that I'm in the water though, I think I'm realizing that wading into the shallow end and really swimming through the deep water are two very different concepts, and that I'll learn to swim much faster if I have a swim instructor standing along side of me.

So now comes the question of WHO I will choose to be my swim instructor. The choices are nearly endless, especially when I have several different interests within the field of real estate. Then there's the question of going with a well-known name or a local "Joe" who is doing well. I do have a short list of about 4 or 5 individuals, but which one at the top of the list varies depending on the day/week/latest webinar I've logged into. I'm very pleased to have connected with most of them through various social media, especially Facebook. I think that seeing the interactions of these people in their everyday lives and businesses helps show their true character and lets me know if they are someone I can A) get along with and B) respect and actually want to listen to.

I leave tomorrow morning for another long postponed trip to see more family this week. Next week (after my return) starts the new daily FOCUS plan and further decision making of engaging a mentor. Gonna be giving myself some tough love and really working to get my top three priorities some individualized attention. Call it my mid-year resolution!

Do we all really need our 15 minutes?

I'm sometimes perplexed with the way the entire real estate investing industry works. The more I network, both in person and online, the more it seems that everyone is out to sell you something and/or get their 15 minutes of fame out of real estate. Don't get me wrong, I love making money just as much as the next person, but I just can't identify with this phenomenon.



Anyone who has a few deals under their belt is suddenly planning a "training package" or offering to be a mentor (for a hefty fee) or is writing a book. There are plenty of people out there that have incredible experience and offer some really excellent services (Dave Lindahl, for instance, is the real deal with a great program: http://www.rementor.com/). The thing that gets me is that so many investors are now flooding the "market" with training systems and home study courses galore. They see the "Gurus" making tons of money and want a piece of the action, its only natural, right?


My problem with it is two fold: First, I don't see that many of these people understand that in order to make it big in any venture, you need to give before you can get. Second, they are not setting themselves apart from the crowd or finding a good niche to carve out to really make the product shine.



Giving before you get is something I've always believed in passionately. Some of the most successful people you'll meet probably started out asking people "What can I do for you" rather than asking what can I GET out of you. Its one reason why I'm working with Local Real Estate Deals Media, we are looking to help other businesses in their goals first and foremost, and we know that in approaching our business that way we will see exponential returns in the future. We're already seeing that return coming back to us with incredible speed. Dave Lindahl (to use him again as an example) is offering his boot camp for free to people who sign up for his newsletter (visit http://is.gd/Nbtz), a great deal and an example of how even the big guys still abide by this rule. So no matter if you are working on your own training system, book, or just some good real estate deals, don't forget to ask "What can I do to help YOU?" before you even start thinking about your check. Chances are the check will be much bigger and more satisfying when it comes your way.



The second thing that gets to me with all these "Nuru" wannabes (and I know some that will make it because they believe in the things I'm talking about here) is the fact that few are offering something special. I'm sure many of you can relate to having your email boxes full every morning with promotional offers for everything from webinars to boot camps. Which ones do you automatically delete? If you're like me its most of them, because its the same old noise over and over. Please people, tell me something interesting about why you are different, what can you offer that I can't get at 10 other websites? And speaking of websites, am I the only one that wants to see some actual content on these sites, not just an exceedingly long plug on how great the system is without any real statement about what the system DOES. I'm sure some marketing person somewhere did research that proves you get more response without telling site visitors what they're getting, but I can't fathom who those people are that sign up for things blindly!



Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with developing new businesses out of your real estate investing business, I strongly support individuals coming up with multiple streams of income. There are many great tools, seminars, home-study courses, etc out there that are worth every penny. Just for my own selfish benefit and thousands of others like me, consider a few things before you make your leap into these products, though.

Ask these questions:

• Am I doing this to help others or to get my own piece of the proverbial pie?
• What can I offer to help others before they can help me?
• How is my knowledge and/or system different or better than all the others already out there? (if its really not, you should probably refer to question #1 since you might not be in it for the right reason!)

I, for one, do not need and am not looking for my 15 minutes, and I'm also not looking to sell anyone anything just to generate sales. I'm looking to help those that can benefit from my help and in doing so see all of our success grow. If someday I do come across an idea that prompts me to develop another business, you can be sure that it will be done for the right reasons and with the right methods. A good product will always sell itself no matter what's going on in the world. I would much rather be a part of something that other businesses want to be a part of themselves than one in which I have to force-feed the product to everyone I meet. If I had to do the later, no amount of revenue is worth the bad ju-ju I'd be creating in my life and business.

Investor Cardinal Rule: SHOW UP!

Last night I went to my local REIA meeting as I do every month. This night they had a particularly big turn out for the particularly energetic national speaker. I saw people last night that I haven’t seen at meetings in a while and also met investors that I’ve never met before. Which led me to wonder, why in the world do I not see these people every month???????

When I started out I took the advice of all the books and Gurus that tell you “Join your local investor club, it’s a great resource for education and networking.” Um, yeah, duh… I joined 5 of them and still go to the big 3’s meetings nearly every month as well as some others where I can fit them in. I average attending four real estate investor meetings a month, which is pretty much one a week. And up until recently, I did this while working a full time job, working my real estate business and having family commitments including two kids, so I don’t want to hear that people don’t have the time to go to meetings. I even ended up running one of those meetings as president, which was an even greater time commitment.

So do people just not care enough to make the time and commitment to attend??? One person told me that the meetings are sometimes dull so he didn’t bother to go or even be a member any more. I seem to remember a lot of high school and college being quite dull, but I went anyway and ended up learning a thing or two, or at least making some friends to hang out with later. And that’s really what its all about for me. Sure, not every meeting is going to be relevant to what I’m doing and not every meeting will have as engaging of a speaker as last night’s did, some may be downright dull, but I‘ve got news for you: YOU STILL NEED TO GO!!!

Unless you found a magic crystal ball in your Grandma’s attic, you do not know what tidbit of information you might pick up that will help your business, or what new contact you might make that will turn things around or open you up to new deals. I actually met Robert Cass with Local Real Estate Deals Media at a previous REIA meeting and that has gotten me started on an entirely new and WAY more exciting path than I ever would have seen. Where would I be now if I had decided I was too tired or too busy to go to that meeting? A very different place that I wouldn’t like nearly as much and doesn’t have nearly as much potential, I’m sure. What other opportunities are out there that I won’t know about if I’m not in the right place at the right time?

Networking is huge, especially in real estate circles. Just look at the success of online networking sites and the enormous numbers of real estate related people on them. Real Estate investing is really more about people than about properties, and some of those important people are your fellow investors. Sure, plenty of investors are very successful without being members of groups, or maybe they were members back when they started out and just don’t think its worth their time anymore now that they are successful (and to those I ask why they feel they don’t need to give back some of the knowledge and experience to others that are now starting out just like they were). But don’t they ever wonder how much MORE successful they would be if they increased their network and did so regularly?

Find your local REIA or other investor group, join, go to meetings. Go to more than one if you can. Maybe its not even a fellow investor you meet, maybe its just a guy that does windows, or someone that has private money to lend, or the publisher of a national investor magazine. How do you know who it will be or how they can help you? The point is you have to obey one of the cardinal rules of successful business people: SHOW UP. And I mean literally!

When opportunity comes knocking...

This past Friday I found myself suddenly jobless. YIKES!!!! Granted, this is something I’ve been working towards anyway and was even planning on, but I don’t think you can ever be completely prepared for it until the reality strikes. So far it hasn’t completely “sunk in” that I have no set schedule to abide by, no boss looking over my shoulder to make sure my work is getting done, and most importantly, no pay check to count on every two weeks. I KNOW all of these things are what I longed for and are now the facts of my life, but I just can’t wrap my head around the full significance of them yet!

So what does it feel like exiting the normal work force, some of you may wonder…

Truthfully, it feels like a lead brick is resting in the bottom of my stomach 24/7! I’ve prepared, I have a Plan A and a Plan B, and even some ideas for other plans should those two fail, but planning alone can not ease the feeling in my gut. Oddly, this is almost the same experience I had when I was pregnant with my first child (and even my second, come to think of it). Not to loose my male audience, but its true! There are the same amounts of fear, excitement, dread, hope, and “what was I thinking???” moments as after we’d decided to bring a life into this world with no actual experience in doing so. We read books, attended classes, talked and listed to other people who had been there before us, and gathered advice from professionals until we had some level of confidence of our foundation and were ready for the leap of faith. Sound familiar?

I admit I have a parachute of sorts, I have some things going “on the side” of my real estate investing which will enable me to ease into my self-sufficient “jobless” status. Honestly, my real estate investing is no where near ready to support me on its own, but the Catch-22 of time and attention to real estate versus time and commitment to my job has been a major obstacle in being more successful in investing. I can get all the education and mentoring I need, but it does me no good without the time to implement the strategies. Now that the cycle is broken, I am excited to throw much more of my effort into real estate and see my success grow accordingly.

Just like when I was pregnant (sorry guys!), I know that I CAN DO THIS and do it well, and that the fear and doubt are minor in comparison to the rush of empowerment and excitement.

I am embracing this opportunity to strike out on my own and live my life as I wish to live it. I know the road ahead will be a difficult struggle, but it is one I believe I will vastly prefer over wasting 8 hours of every day to help someone ELSE live the life they wish to live. If I fail there will always be other jobs to turn back to, and if I must go back then I will do so without regret, but how else will I ever truly know the kind of success I might have if I never bother to try? The opportunity knocked and I gladly answered the door, ready and willing to follow it no matter what the path. Thank goodness I was ready for it when it did!!!

So tomorrow starts the first day of the rest of my life. I can’t wait to meet it, even if I do carry some extra weight for the moment. What’s a little lead in my stomach compared to the limitless opportunities that I’m about to be a part of? Sounds like I got the better end of that bargain, now if I can just find some cash flowing multi-family properties where the stakes are the same!!!