Last night I took my daughter Brie to her first ever luau in Hawaii. I've been to these before and they're not my favorite. They seem to drag on and on.
But I wanted Brie to see the fire throwers.
So we went. And it was pretty fantastic!
But one thing irritated me while we were there.
As we all entered into the venue, the staff there had us take pictures with a male and female dancer. This would be for the obvious sales pitch later on where they'd sell the picture to us. That's fine. I actually like getting pictures like that. (I'm not a good photographer so I like having someone take a good picture and to give it to me already printed out and in a frame; I never have time for such activities in my busy life.)
We sat at a table with a lackluster couple from New Jersey with their ill-behaved 6-year-old little boy and a mom and daughter from Chicago. My hometown.
And there's always an obnoxious guy at the table who found it necessary to be loud, extremely opinionated and bossy. He was at the other end of the table so...it didn't bother me too much.
The picture sales pitch guy made his rounds. He hit the New Jersey couple first. The guy immediately shut the sales pitch down saying, "What a rip off. I'm not buying that."
Okay, so it was $50 for the entire package of pictures. It included a framed picture, some refrigerator magnet pictures, a key chain and something else. It was a pretty beefy package compared to others I've seen.
But what this clown was REALLY saying (at least the way his wife would have interpreted it) was, "For $50, my family isn't worth it for me to get a picture of all of us that will last forever. They're just not worth it!"
The wife said nothing but I could tell she was mildly disappointed that the cheapskate didn't get the family photo at the luau. But she kept her lips zipped.
My point: she said NOTHING because she has NO freedom, NO money of her own (obviously) and NO BALLS to stand up to the porker she's married to. And while she seemed uncomfortable with having lost her freedom, she doesn't feel strong enough to speak out or to say anything.
And that REALLY sucks.
For all of you ladies out there, NEVER lose your freedom! NEVER! Especially not for some man. Please. Don't make that choice because it's a bad one.
If I was there with a man who would have shut the picture sales guy down, I would have (a) RAISED HELL, (b) IMMEDIATELY REACHED FOR MY CREDIT CARD TO BUY THE PHOTOS, and (c) TOLD THE MOFO I WAS WITH TO NEVER SPEAK ON MY BEHALF OR MAKE DECISIONS FOR ME EVERAGAIN! (Needless to say it would be an uncomfortable scene for the man involved if he ever found himself in this position.)
Perhaps that's why I'm single. Who knows? (Not many men can handle an independent and strong woman. And that's really too bad.)
Ron always knew better. He knew to shut up during sales pitches of ANY kind and he would always let me decide if I wanted it or not. And he definitely NEVER spoke on my behalf without me getting a say in on whether I wanted it or not.
On the flip side, some men have lost their freedom to their wives. NOBODY should lose their freedom to a spouse or a significant other. NO ONE!
And if you're one of those people where you've given up your freedom -- especially because of your spouse holding the purse strings, being the breadwinner, etc. -- then NOW is the time for you to get your freedom back.
Or maybe it'll be the FIRST TIME you have any freedom at all!
It's time for YOU can be the lion that roars when you want something without ANYONE shutting you down otherwise. After all, it'll be YOUR MONEY and therefore you would have earned YOUR FREEDOM.
Right now I'm in Hawaii so I thought I'd take a pic of the pineapple drink I'm now consuming.
I have to say. This trip to Hawaii was a long-time coming. I had a rough start to 2018 so far. Lots of work, lots of working overtime, lots of stress.
And this is my first real breather for the year and then it's back to the grind shortly thereafter.
This year was supposed to be the year where I was to take a step back -- a GIANT step back, actually -- but it didn't happen that way. Instead it seems that I'm working harder than ever.
I think this is because mostly I LIKE what I do. Do you like what you're doing?
If the answer is NO then you need to change something...and you need to change it fast!
When I was in Detroit earlier this month, I was telling my student in attendance about how AMAZING it is to be able to have so many choices and options in your life simply because of having cash flow coming it.
And yes, that means being able to up and leave -- jetting off to Hawaii for 10 days -- and then coming back rested and relaxed.
Or deciding to take a few days off just to do some gardening work. It seems the older I get, I actually find relaxation and enjoyment in these activities that I once thought were "lame" when I was younger.
Freedom. That's what I have. Do you have freedom?
I have deep gratitude in what I've been able to build and if you haven't started building this yet, I have a way for you to do that...STARTING NOW!
I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I completed my 3-day Detroit Real Estate Cash Flow Boot Camp Seminar and hopped on an airplane to head home.
For some reason, it seems like it was 2 months ago and not 2 weeks ago.
I think part of that is because so much as been morphing, changing, and progressing in my life since last November (around Thanksgiving) when something pretty incredible dropped in my lap.
And I'm about to show you what that is...
In fact, CLICK HERE and you'll discover more about it.
Listen, this has been so life-altering for me that THIS is the reason why I'm stepping back from everything else for awhile. I have something absolutely STUNNING to get out into the world and I need the rest of 2018 to do it.
Last week I was in Cleveland participating in a marketing mastermind group with other highly successful business owners. The leader of the group told me that I'd get sued over this SECRET PROJECT I'm about to put out into the world. At first his lewd (and misinformed) comment pissed me off then I thought: I'll be LUCKY if they sue me! It'll give me nationwide (and possibly WORLD WIDE) publicity to get this project to heights maybe never seen before! The publicity alone would be worth MILLIONS in advertising for me!!
CLICK HERE and I'll tell you a little more about this SECRET PROJECT and how it can dramatically improve your life too!
Sometimes you just have to roll the dice and take a risk if you want something massively different in your life, otherwise you're stuck with more of the same thing. And who wants that? Unless, of course, your life is perfect as is.
A couple of days ago I was with my daughter when I decided to get some gas. Every time my gas tank hits the halfway mark, that's way too low for my comfort level so as OCD as I am, I have to fill up with gas before it gets to the line. (And I always take it to the exact rounded dollar OR the 50-cent mark...I can't tolerate uneven change when the gas pump stops. Another OCD thing.)
So at EXACTLY $48.00 I stopped topping off the tank, got in the car and left. As I was driving down the road I saw a small animal flopping around on the side of the road. As I got closer, I noticed that it was a bunny rabbit that apparently got hit by a car. I told my daughter about it since she didn't see it and she immediately burst into tears. "Mom, why do you tell me stuff like that?" She was so upset.
I asked her, "What do you want me to do? Go back and get it?" As soon as that slipped out of my mouth, I thought: What the hell am I thinking? We can't just go get a half-dead bunny on the side of the road?
"Yeah, let's go get it," she said. Tears and sadness instantly gone.
So, at the next street light, I did a quick u-turn in front of about 20 racing cars. (The benefits of owning an expensive BMW is you can beat most of the cars out on the road, making these kinds of driving risks doable. Sometimes I actually believe I was a race car driver in another lifetime.)
"We'll take the rabbit to the vet, okay?" I knew the bunny would have to be put down the moment we got there.
Then, I had to make one more u-turn to get this bunny who was still there, helplessly flopping around and nearing closer into traffic. It was only a matter of time before somebody else hit him. He looked like he was in A LOT of pain. (They say rabbits don't ever express sounds when in pain but he had to be hurting because there was severe damage to this little dude.)
I popped open the trunk, took out my UCR blanket, and demanded my daughter close the trunk while I rushed to scoop up the little guy before the next on-rush of traffic came in. Some idiot in a silver Nissan was staring at me, missing his green light, wondering what the hell I was doing. He was probably thinking it was a small dog or a cat...not a rabbit. Who would pick up a half-dead roadkill rabbit, after all?
Me, apparently.
After scooping the bunny up, I wrapped it like it was a newborn baby as gingerly as possible and handed him off to my daughter, instructing her to get into the back seat while opening the door for her. She put the bunny in the middle, clicked in her seat belt, and sweetly talked to the bunny the whole way down the road while I started to ask Siri to call every vet in Stevenson Ranch: none were open at 6:30 p.m. EXCEPT for one, which was closing in 30 minutes; I only needed 6 minutes to get there. The bunny was really calm. I think he knew we were there to help him.
We went into the vet and explained the situation. I told them that the bunny sustained a severe injury by being hit by a car and that I needed the vet to put him down immediately, to take him out of all the pain. It took forever it seemed for the actual vet -- a short, mild-mannered blonde woman in her 50s -- to come out and talk to us. All the while we had the bunny still wrapped in a blanket with his nose sticking out for air...fleas jumping around everywhere. Never did I see fleas so large and I used to live in Florida where I thought I'd seen the largest fleas and cockroaches in the world. Not the case. The fleas this rabbit had on him were the size of large gnats.
When the vet started talking to us, she was very calming and had a serene way about her; I instantly felt better. I knew my bunny would be in good hands.
She explained the damages to the rabbit, which I already suspected. She said there was head trauma and a lot of internal injuries and explained how they would put the bunny down. Gas mask first and when the little dude was sleeping, a needle to finish him off; he wouldn't feel a thing, I was reassured TWICE (because this was important to me). Because my daughter was there, the vet said, "And the bunny will go over the rainbow bridge into happy-land." My daughter looked at the woman like she was crazy; she is, after all, almost 10 and is well beyond that kind of description for dying, death, and making it to the other side.
I asked about the body of the bunny. What do they do with the body? I couldn't fathom them throwing this adorable bunny into the trash. The vet said that a company picks up all animal bodies, cremates them, then they spread the ashes in the ocean. Somehow this seemed far-fetched but I needed to buy it because that's what I wanted for my bunny.
They charged me about $100 to put the bunny down including a small donation I contributed for animals that didn't have enough food. I didn't bat an eyelash, paid the money, and felt awash with gratitude that I had the ability to pay for things like this. To me, this was necessary. It was required. The bunny may be considered a run-of-the-mill wild animal that most people wouldn't think twice about but it was important to me that this damaged little guy wasn't in pain anymore...and that he could die in peace.
I was sad...all night. Into the wee hours of the morning. Because I didn't actually know where the bunny went.
After my mom passed away, I was able to visit her and my grandmother on the other side. So I know all about the other side. I've even seen my cats and dogs there.
But what about the bunny? Does the bunny get to go there too? I'd like to think he would be there, maybe with his mommy now. But what if he doesn't go there? If not, then where?
This bothered me...still does. Deep down I'd like to think I know the truth; he's in a happy place on the other side eating grass in beautiful picturesque meadows by a glittering crystal clear waterfall. But is that really true? Is that where he got to go? The same place the rest of us good people go?
A couple days ago I was telling you the story about Gary -- a student of mine who managed to totally screw up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with investor Andrew Shaw -- because he insisted on not reading a lick of the course materials provided to him nor was he interested in reading the very clearly laid out submission instructions to Andrew Shaw either.
Well the story becomes more interesting.
He called the office on Friday and insisted he now wanted to return his Commercial Cash Flow System. (You know, the one he refused to read in the first place?) Evidently the cry-baby didn't like how Andrew Shaw laid it out for him in his response to Gary's list of stupid questions (or "f****** stupid questions" as Andrew referred to it as).
Listen here...to ALL of you: getting involved with REAL PLAYERS in this business is going to REQUIRE you to grow some thick skin and to learn how to take constructive criticism if you are to GROW and SUCCEED as an investor yourself. And based on what Andrew told me he said to Gary, there wasn't much that I felt was too harsh. At least not too harsh for any MATURE ADULT to handle. (Andrew basically told the guy to read the course materials that were provided and to follow the simple instructions.) Evidently this sent Gary into a boo-hooing tailspin and it was just too much for him to take. (Succumbing to such easy failure must be his strong suit in life and will continue to be the case until he grows up a little.)
These investors like Andrew want to do deals with you. But they want to work with smart people who do research, homework, and WORK to make these deals successful. If you show the smallest indication of weakness, you'll scare of anyone who will want to do business with you including investors, bankers, sellers, brokers, real estate agents, and everybody else in between. So, maybe this is a painless lesson for you (since you're not Gary). And that is...read the course materials, follow the directions (especially when submitting deals to investors), be willing to do the research and the work. It's really THAT simple, folks! Seriously, it is!!
Meanwhile, I'm working on 2 deals with Andrew as we speak. One is in the Santa Clarita area and the other is in L.A. (This is why Andrew came out, to look at both properties.) Both of these deals can be worth over $10 million EACH within the next 5 years. So...yes, it DOES PAY to know your stuff, to come off professional (and not like a "stupid f****** bozo" as Andrew would call 'em), and be willing to do what it takes to make a deal work...especially in pulling your weight in the deal. Even going above and beyond if necessary.
You're lucky. You didn't lose out on something so valuable as a once-in-a-lifetime million-dollar opportunity to work with somebody like Andrew Shaw. Because you didn't screw it up like Gary did. And I hope you NEVER do either!
And you won't as long as you do only 3 things:
1) LEARN THE BUSINESS OF INVESTING like the back of your hand; READ your course materials and study them as if your life depended on it (because it probably does)
2) FOLLOW DIRECTIONS that are given to you -- to the LETTER -- if you want your deal to be accepted
3) BE PROFESSIONAL and not a whiny cry-baby. Nobody likes a whiny cry-baby, especially if you have a penis between your legs. (Somehow that's so unbecoming.)
I have another opportunity for you and it involves working with MULTIPLE investors directly. CLICK HERE to find out what I'm talking about.
Sorry to be so REAL but...well, the real world is like that. It's, you know...REAL.
Most of you know that I had a VERY RARE opportunity recently to work with my star student -- Andrew Shaw -- in doing a very unique, specialized and PROFITABLE commercial real estate partnership.
This was a VERY RARE deal and I figured that I'd have hundreds of students blowing up Andrew's email inbox with new deals just to have the opportunity to work with him.
I know I submitted 2 deals myself which is why Andrew flew out to the L.A. area last week to take a look at them. Then he drove up to Santa Clarita where we went to a local Italian place for lunch. One of the first things he said when he sat down with me was this:
"What kind of bozo students are you working with these days?"
Oh, this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all!
"What do you mean?" I knew what he meant. While I had a lot of really good students, there were more than a few who were what I call the "bad apples" or "problem children." Take your pick on which term you prefer.
But I was shocked at this question coming out of Andrew's mouth because only 2 weeks before he had sent me an email saying that he scored a really good deal with a student of mine in Dallas where it's looking like both Andrew and my student are going to make about $2 million just in the first 36 months! I thought things were going great!
Of course, I knew the reality of "the good." There's always the "other side" or the "flip side" where things aren't so good. There's always somebody who has to come in and ruin the party.
He went on to tell me about this student of mine and how he didn't read anything that was presented in the Commercial Cash Flow System. To add insult to injury, he didn't even read Andrew's instructions on what to present when contacting him by email.
"You know the deal; I don't 'school' your kids. That's your job. I can do deals with them but I don't 'school' them on how it all works!"
Ouch! That's pretty harsh. But I'm a big girl and I can handle it.
I asked him what the issue was and he was telling me about the "bozo" he was talking about...somebody by the name of Gary.
"He didn't read anything. He doesn't know the first thing about real estate investing. He was asking me a bunch of questions, one that was so f****** stupid that I didn't even know how to answer him."
I assured Andrew that everybody who received his investor-direct information also got the Commercial Cash Flow System that is a very comprehensive system showing anyone who bothers to read it exactly how commercial real estate investing works.
Then Andrew laughed...sarcastically. "Yeah, well this f****** idiot was telling me something about how real estate agents or lenders or somebody was telling him that nobody can do second positions...and I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. I told him to go back and read through the stuff because it's not my job to give him the ABCs of how real estate investing works. It made no sense. I told him that we don't need a second position on anything. We go in, put a cash down payment, we get a first position loan from a lender and that's about it. That's how 99% of real estate deals are done in this country. So his whole delusion about second positions was f****** stupid and I think he was trying to make me believe he knew what he was talking about. It just made him look stupid. Made no sense at all. At all!"
Oh, wow. That's all I could think. Wow, wow, wow! You have a handful of students who got a very rare ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY to work with a high-level, high-echelon investor DIRECTLY and you have somebody screw it all up by making a first approach be nothing more than a series of stupid questions...just to showcase that he refused to read the materials sent to him. This is what we call self-sabotage. On some inner level, this student obviously didn't think he deserved the success so he decided to blow it.
And blow it he did. Because Andrew said: "I won't work with anybody that f***** stupid. Never."
(He swears a lot, if you haven't figured that part out yet.)
Then he went on to tell me about the deal he's doing in Dallas, how he went there the prior week, and how awesome THAT deal will be for him with MY student. So I didn't feel all that bad anymore about sending him "bad apples" and "problem children." But I still couldn't stop that nagging let-down feeling in the back of my stomach, realizing that Andrew really took a risk to take deals directly to my students and -- so early in the game -- there are f****** "bozos" ruining the deal for everybody else simply because they're too lazy or stupid to read the materials given to them. Why would ANYONE ruin this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like that? I shake my head in dismay because I just don't get it.
I know that stupid people are a reality in this world. But what I DON'T get are people who decide to completely skip over the educational part AND the instructions that ultimately BLOW IT for them ever getting a deal with a prominent investor partner. I just DON'T understand this!! Do you?
While I was in Detroit for my 3-Day Real Estate Cash Flow Boot Camp Seminar a couple of weeks ago, I presented quite possibly my last ever investor-partner opportunities. (This was only for those who attended the event.) But one thing I AM able to offer to you (if you didn't attend the event) is my lengthy list of 100% fully vetted and accredited investors INCLUDING a powerful letter you can send to them. Just fill in the blanks on the letter template about your deal and send it off...yes, via "snail mail" if you want the best response.
THAT is the first and ONLY time I've ever offered such an opportunity. And I shutter at how many will manage to screw THAT up. No instructions to follow. Simply fill in a ONE-PAGE letter template and mail the letters off to (ideally) local investors so you can ultimately meet them for coffee or lunch about your deal or opportunity.
CLICK HERE to find out how you can get this highly exclusive list!
Just promise me that you won't screw it up like the f****** "bozo" did (as Andrew refers to him as). Opportunities like this are VERY rare, once-in-a-lifetime in MANY cases. Use these investors to get money and partnerships. And don't screw it up.
You'll find this funny. I know my daughter thought it was.
But for me, it wasn't amusing ATALL.
Today I went to Walmart. Yes, I shop at Walmart. I actually like Walmart.
This is because I'm usually very short on time so when I need to hit a place where I know I can get a blow-up pool float for our upcoming Spring Break vacay in Hawaii, hair ties for my daughter, cat litter, milk and glue sticks for a glue gun among other things...Walmart is the ONLY one-stop-shop I can think of for such an eclectic shopping list.
On my way back home with my Walmart goods, I heard a fly in my car. You know, that buzzing sound hitting the window, right? I heard it. And I asked my daughter, who was in the back seat, "Is there a fly back there?"
"I don't see anything."
She kept telling me that she heard and saw nothing after I insisted several times that I heard something back there.
A short moment later, I felt something hit the back of my neck and drop down the back of my shirt. Hoping (rather praying) it was a fly, I awkwardly took my right hand and was trying to feel around my back...while driving, mind you. I couldn't feel anything...
So I sat back.
And felt a major shooting pain the second I did.
I instantly knew that it was a bee. (Now praying that it was a bee instead of something else like a hornet.)
And it HURT like hell. But I kept driving, focusing on the road, and told my daughter that I'd have her check my back when I swung by to pick up my suits that I had wore at the Detroit event from the cleaners.
At the cleaners, my daughter saw my back. It was beat red. And the bee fell out onto the floor, dead and crumpled up in a small ball. I actually felt sorry for the little dude (or dudette).
I'm pretty sure I had heard this same bee 2 days ago while taking my daughter to art class. It was stuck in my car and wanted out. No food or water...and it kind of gets hot in there when the car is sitting in the sun. And now he was dead, lying in a ball on the floor. I felt sad for his final demise.
My daughter inspected my back closer and realized that the stinger was still in there. The cleaner lady offered to try pulling it out with a tweezers; that didn't work.
At home, my daughter worked on my back for 20 minutes with a tweezers, trying to get the stinger out. No such luck there.
The stinger is still in my back. Maybe it'll be there forever. Maybe it'll come out on its own. Who knows?
What's interesting about this whole thing is that I am deathly afraid of bees, wasps, hornets...and anything else that can fly and sting.
When I was about 5 years old, me and my brother were playing in the back yard. He was always a very destructive personality. He was this board strewn over these two cinder blocks, something some kids probably set up years before. My brother decided to rip the board off the cinder blocks. When he did this, a full swarm of yellow jackets came ripping out of some unidentifiable place by the thousands.
My brother ran, leaving me there by myself.
I was trying to figure out what was going on...all while hundreds of these bees instantly gravitated and landed on me all within seconds.
I sustained hundreds of bee stings within only seconds to the point where it was the ONLY time in my life where I was in so much pain that my body went into shock and I could no longer feel anything.
I still remember pulling one of the bees off the front of my shirt that was ferociously stinging me and started to squeeze the life out of it. Then I stopped because I didn't want to kill it. And I let him go.
(This goes to show that the essence of my being couldn't hurt a fly...or in this case a BEE that was stinging the sh** out of me.)
This is the reason why I'll never own a convertible. I'm afraid bees or wasps will come flying at me while I'm driving or sitting at a stop light.
Yet my worst fear came true.
I got stung by a bee while I was driving and I kept my cool, felt the pain but kept driving responsibility and safely, and remained clear-headed the entire time.
It kind of makes me wonder about all the other things I've been deathly afraid of that I've avoided because of pure fear that I would be hurt, would fail...or whatever the fear really is.
What kinds of things are YOU afraid of that you've been avoiding...making the fear take over and prevent you from doing things or having things? All because of fear?
I will always freak out from bees and wasps flying around me because it's just a knee-jerk reaction from my childhood; I don't imagine this will ever change.
But I will no longer feel like I'm going to "die" if a bee stings me...because it happens to land on me while I'm driving, for instance. It's certainly not worth risking my life over -- by over-reacting -- because of this fear.
I deal with so many students who have some pretty stupid fears. These fears aren't stupid to them, of course. But they are pretty stupid.
Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of having to do some work...fear of whatever!
Fear of bees!
All fears that will hold you back...and KEEP holding you back, quite possibly forever unless you decide to move past the fears.
Let the bee sting, keep driving...keep moving toward your goals and your dreams NO MATTER WHAT!
Later my daughter said something cute. I wasn't wearing green today because I just don't own any green clothes. Green isn't my color at all. So she said, "Mom, I know why you got stung. The bee 'pinched' you today."
Cute. If the sting still didn't hurt.
See you at the top!
Your mentor,
Monica Main
P.S. The videos from my 3-Day Detroit Real Estate Boot Camp Seminar from last weekend are now READY TO BE SHIPPED! I'm offering some kick-ass bonuses INCLUDING enrollment into my LAST EVER 8-week 100% online Apartment Riches Mentorship Group (starting early April), a list of accredited investors you can contact directly with your deal, a special letter you can send to these investors that I created just for you, and my special report called $200,000 to $1,000,000 that can literally make you over $1,000,000 in LESS THAN A YEAR! CLICK HERE to check it out now!
P.P.S. If you were part of the back-order group of students still waiting on their Build Business Credit FAST! System, rest assured that yours is out in the mail as we speak. If you haven't received your system yet and you're waiting for it, you'll receive it early next week. I promise! Normally we don't have issues with shipments but we had so many orders, it was overwhelming and we had to order a lot more which took awhile. Thanks so much for your patience!
