It's Friday morning and I'm catching up on work...on my vacation. Weird, I know.
But I'm a weird duck anyway.
I didn't want to go on this ship trip (a.k.a. "cruise") to begin with and there's a sense of comfort in doing what I do all the time (and what I'm best at): work!
So here I am trekking back to Miami in the Caribbean on a ship and I'm working on my laptop. There are only so many Mai Tais anyone can (or should) consume and so many rays of sun the skin should take (without becoming a cancer risk) when one is ready to get back into the swing of things.
As I sit here, I started thinking about the direction I see the economy going and where I see myself leading my students in 2014 and beyond.
During a couple of my beach escapades in the past few days, I kept thinking about this one student of mine who emailed me last week. I won't tell you her name because I can't. That's right. I can't. (She has to remain in "hiding.")
You see, this student went to one of my seminar events years ago. It was an apartment building event. And she had physical signs of "survival," if you will. Her story is actually quite brutal. She was physically abused by her husband to the point where he almost murdered her one day. She survived but her physical disabilities from the incident were very clear.
And sad.
But this student is a survivor in ways we'd never imagine. She had to overcome so many trials and tribulations that make our "problems" seem like a cake walk through Disneyland on a breezy warm day.
Unfortunately (and I didn't have the nerve to tell her in the email I sent back to her) but she still has that "victim mentality" where she likes using her survival story as a means of getting sympathy from other people. And that's the part that rubs me the wrong way.
I can tell you that I've also gone through an extremely abusive marriage when I was in my early 20s. I was hit so hard just above my left eye that I still get stabbing pains in that eye periodically (and usually out of the blue). I was even told by a doctor that there is a likelihood I'll slowly lose eyesight in that eye to the point of blindness as I get older.
And I can also tell you that I went through 2 crippling battles with the government...both I had lost my ass with. And both had altered my lives in ways you'll never imagine nor would I wish on my worst enemy; all because of some business errors, misunderstandings of the law, and a business that went financially belly-side up that pushed the full blame of culpability on my shoulders. (If you don't know the law you're liable, even if you don't know the law. Note, if you are ever thumbing through a "business opportunity" magazine one day and see a business that could be awesome, it may actually be illegal. This is actually what happened to me. I started a business that I thought was legal and it turned out that it was "partially legal." Go figure!)
And right now, I have a spouse that lives in another state. I'm basically a single parent to a 5-year-old because her dad is the worst type of deadbeat you could ever imagine. I have been paying the guy both child and spousal support for years and yet he sees his daughter for a few hours on the weekends.
Listen, I'm not telling you all this because I want to make you sad. In fact, I've never told my students this stuff before.
I'm telling you this to make a point because the difference between someone who has a "victim mentality" and someone who doesn't is...
The someone who doesn't believe they are a victim keeps moving forward and doesn't use "the victim story" to prompt a response from people.
And I'll call that non-victim a "warrior."
That's the category I put myself in. A warrior moves forward without lingering on the "feel-sorry-for-me" bullsh** and concentrates on "what can I do now to move forward and make a better life for me and my family?"
Back to my student...or "former student" as she referred to herself as in the email to me...
Here we are several years after this seminar event she attended and it's apparent that she didn't do much with what was taught there.
Yes, it's very easy to use any physical disability as an excuse but that can only get you so far before it just becomes an annoying excuse.
Did you know that I've made millions off both eBay and the Internet while never seeing a person or talking to anyone on the phone?
Did you know that the majority of the time when dealing with real estate, I actually don't handle any of the elements of the deal at all from visiting a property to even talking to a seller or real estate agent on the phone? (Other people do this for me.)
Shucks! I guess I can't use any type of physical excuse to not succeed now, can I?
Yes, being a woman in real estate has always been extremely challenging which is probably why I'm a bitch, I tend to be pushy and angry when dealing with people, and I'm a "straight-shooter," as I'm routinely called.
But I've always known one thing and it's the same thing I hope you understand:
I've always known I have a choice. And you have a choice too.
Sit on your ass, make excuses, and rally a bunch of people to feel sorry for you with an elaborate pity story?
Or say f*** the past, focus on what you really want for yourself, and go get it without further ado?!
I've chosen the latter, obviously.
Stop making the "happenings" in your life be the defining elements of you and who you are.
Last weekend I was shopping with my daughter. I was crossing this section of the parking lot to get to the store where I had to grab my daughter's shirt and pull her back because this stupid hag of a woman was clearly not going to stop for pedestrians, as she's legally required to do so. It wasn't like I was just walking right in front of her car. We were well on our way on our path and she was at least 100 feet away before she whizzed around a bend and seemingly intentionally wanted to blow past us because, after all, she can't lose 3 seconds out of her "busy Saturday schedule."
Even more weird, she was a mom. She had a toddler strapped in the back seat. So...apparently she just doesn't care about other people and their kids.
I gave her the middle finger, yelled exactly what it meant (in case she didn't know) including a few other choice words with it, and watched her miserable face as she absorbed every bit of what I said. And it would have completely made my day if she would have stopped because I swear she would have gotten a physical parking lot beat down right in front of a department store. (Otherwise known as the PLBD or "parking lot beat down.")
Yes, I was steaming for the first 15 minutes as I was struggling to concentrate on shopping, whizzing around in the store in a circle, looking at nothing and being as pissed off as you can possible imagine while my daughter looked at me confused as to why we were on our 4th run around the entire store without stopping to look at a rack or picking up a single item. It irritated me beyond belief how freaking inconsiderate, rude, selfish, and ignorant people are. Then I let it go and quickly moved on after my 15 minutes of excessive anger.
The point?
A "victim" would make this a part of who they are. They would make something somebody else did to them as a part of who they are.
"Oh, poor me! This stupid bitch in this cheap ugly silver 3-series BMW almost ran me and my daughter down in a parking lot so...I must be stupid, useless, dumb, and a failure in life otherwise...why would somebody do something like that to a good person like me? I guess I'll always be a loser so why bother trying? In fact, while I'm at it, I'm going to repeat this stupid-bitch-in-a-cheap-BMW story over and over again to as many people as possible so that I can get a whole bunch of people on my side about how awful my life is turning out."
Do you see how stupid that type of victim mentality is?
Yet this is what those with a "victim mentality" do...just on a larger scale.
A warrior would say something different such as...
"It's apparent that the extremely overweight bitch in her cheap BMW not only has very low self-esteem -- thus not valuing the lives of others let alone her own useless self -- but she was probably in a super hurry to get across the street to get to the food court at the mall to stuff that fat pie hole of hers. After all, it does take quite a few thousand calories every few hours for her to maintain that hefty figure of hers and she was probably going through food withdraws since the 4,500-calorie lumberjack breakfast she ate was only an hour before. Her stomach must've been rumbling up a storm, scaring her toddler in the backseat to distraction."
(Okay, I know this must offend some people but I really don't care. I used to be overweight and I learned something called self-control and discipline which means I eat fewer French fries and I work out 45 minutes a day. Furthermore, everyone -- politically correct or not -- has their own "things" they say in their minds during their most irate and angry moments that they wish they could express just as a form of release. This is actually a very normal emotional and psychological response when put in situations that piss you off. And if you don't admit it or state that you never have a negative angry thought in your mind ever, you're either a liar or you're simply not human. You get to choose which that would be.)
As you can see, the "happening" in your life -- no matter what that is -- doesn't become "part" of a warrior. It just becomes an "unfortunate event" that isn't taken personally. Why? Because sh** happens to everyone. Period. No one is "immune" to piles of sh** occurring either daily, weekly or monthly. How you process it though determines what kind of person you are.
The warrior might be pissed off for a moment but then eventually they move on with their path and productive lives. They don't let the "victim thing" define who they are nor do they use it as a feel-sorry-for-me pitch for anyone who cares to subject themselves to the verbal torment.
There isn't a damn thing I can ever do for you as a mentor or teacher in your life if you first can't get past any possible "victim mentality" hang-up that you may have. You can either choose to blow off the things that "happened" to you or you can choose to hang onto it as if it's part of your identity.
I'm recommending you blow it off and move forward. The faster you can make that happen, the better.
Here's a direct request:
Don't get involved in any course, mentorship, or seminar I have unless you are a warrior. Period.
I have no use for "victims" or those looking for a crutch. I can't be either one for you. All I can do is deliver the information and it's always going to be up to you to engage by putting the teachings into action.
Yes, the stuff I teach works and it works very well. Yes, it can make you wealthy in the shortest amounts of time possible.
What I can't do (as much as I'd like to) is slap you in the back of the head and say, "Stop it! Stop acting like a freaking victim and grow some balls already!"
I'm going to say this one last time in case I wasn't clear enough.
I'm really serious about "cleaning out" my student database as we roll into 2014 since I only want to work with people who really want the highly profitable information I teach by demonstrating that they're willing to put it into action.
While I was conducting my last seminar, I had a student come up to me and say, "I've bought all your stuff but I haven't used anything yet..."
Gee, thanks! (That's the wrong way to open up a conversation with me, by the way!)
I'm not like other gurus out there who don't care if you buy their $300 book and use it as toilet paper because I actually do care if those are your intentions.
I actually want you to use my stuff and become successful using my stuff.
You should know by now if you're a person who "does" vs. someone who "doesn't." And a person who "doesn't" can't be helped no matter how many courses or books he or she buys.
Again, it all comes down to choice. You always get to choose what to do with your life. And you can always start choosing something else in a split second.
Right now I have guests from Detroit staying with us. They've been here in California for the past week almost and they're awesome people.
Caesar, the guy staying with us, is retired out of law enforcement. He had a couple of big retirement parties thrown for him, one of which I threw for him. This was the last time I was in Michigan since the appeal for going back and forth between 2 states has really worn me out.
He's been retired for a full 4 months with a nice fat pension that actually exceeds what his paycheck was when he was still on the force.
And guess what?
He's already talking about going back to work.
He's been retired for 4 months with a nice hefty check coming in regularly plus a nice little nest egg he's built up for the past 3 decades and he wants to return back to work in his old position he left.
If you think "freedom" is not working, think again. The definition of not working and sitting around on your ass is called "boredom" and not "freedom."
I think a lot of us dream of the day when we don't have to work anymore but if you closely analyze what that dream really is, you'll realize (for most of us) that it's about not doing what we don't want to do anymore. It's not really about not working (unless you're my lazy ex-husband...then it's really about not doing anything).
When you're doing something you like doing, is it really "work"? I don't think so.
One of the things that gotten me my "groove" back (after coming dangerously close to a nervous breakdown from working too much) is my newer business which started out as a small New Wealth Ninja business...as an experiment for a book I was writing (and haven't finished yet).
Since I know myself and what I'm capable of, I figured I'd be my own best experimental guinea pig. I couldn't rely on my "average" student because the "average" person doesn't have the same drive, motivation, and work ethic that I have. So, I had to use myself as my own experiment when doing research for my New Wealth Paradigm book I had intended on writing. (I think I'll change the book's name to The Main Way to Wealth. It has a better ring to it.)
This is how my health supplement company started...as a "project" to write about.
Now it's a multi-million dollar company. All because I needed a "case study" for my New Wealth Ninja teachings.
How did I get my "groove" back with the new company?
I do a lot of design work for packaging as well as marketing pieces, postcards, brochures, etc. I notice that time flies when I get in my "creative zone" and I literally lose track of time. It was these bouts of "creative zone time" that pulled me out of a slump.
This is when I realized that I could never retire and sit around the house doing nothing. I hate being home as is let alone being stuck at home for months by myself. What the hell would I do with my time?? What a nightmare that would be!!
You're probably a lot like me in that you don't mind working provided that it's doing something you like. And my New Wealth Ninja stuff is right along those lines of finding some easy-to-do home-based business that you'll enjoy while making loads of money.
I did my first New Wealth Ninja trainings last summer (2012). I had one student in the group who was part of my first NWN mentorship and got the videos from both of my summer in-office trainings. His name is Gregg.
Gregg couldn't afford to attend my NWN in-office trainings as much as he says he wanted to so he took the course materials, NWN mentorship and dissected the videos over and over again until he "got" it.
Gregg didn't have the option of dilly-dallying around as a typical tire-kicker student that I tend to have to deal with. He had a small business and ended up losing it in the recession. He lost his home, his car, and even his wife.
Let's just say that Gregg was at rock bottom financially.
Gregg was a student of mine since about 2010 via my real estate courses. He, like many students, got my stuff and started working with it but "life" got in the way and he lost focus. He was just too busy with family and work that he didn't do anything at all with any of my real estate teachings. (And that admission in the email he wrote to me made me sad.)
But (he went on to tell me) that it literally took him having to lose everything for him to "wake up" to do something else with his life. As with many students (who have reported the same thing), when I introduced my NWN stuff in the spring of last year, it was at just the perfect time for thousands of my students who needed it the most.
Gregg decided to use my strategies and techniques that I teach in NWN to start a small eBay business. I can tell you what he sells. (Health supplements.) I can't tell you what his eBay user ID is...but I will tell you that when you type in "weight loss" in the eBay search bar, you'll see his supplements come up in the first 5 listings, guaranteed.
Two weeks ago when Gregg reported his latest update on his business progress via email, he told me that he's now making over $60,000 a month with his business. No, that's not gross. That's his net profit.
Amazing, isn't it?!
Now, it did take Gregg over a year to get to this $60,000 per month net profit amount but, as he's directly indicated to me, he was making $10,000 net within his first 6 weeks of starting and it just went up from there.
Not bad! Not bad at all!
In his exact words, this is what he said in his email about how he was able to start making money.
"...I just did what you said and started to hustle. You said in one of your trainings about how you'd never be worried about losing everything because you'd get your ass in gear and work your ass off round the clock until you set up your business. What made the most sense to me was how you talked about emulating other people with businesses online and that's what I did. I took the top 3 sellers of health supplements on eBay and basically copied everything they did without committing plagiarism. I also took your advise about naming products and creating product labels that stand out."
This is just a short except from his lengthy email. Here's another short except that I think you should read:
"Deep down inside of me I knew that I always wanted to have the flexibility of a home business but didn't know exactly what to do to get there. I thought it was out of reach for someone like me who isn't really that smart when it comes to any type of marketing. Right now I work about 6 hours a day and the rest of my time is my own. (This isn't some 4-Hour Work Week business and anyone wanting to take the lazy way out won't do well with the New Wealth Ninja teachings you do.) I never thought I'd actually have a business that would be successful like this and it's great!"
People do significant things when there is a need. Gregg was in that position of need. Maybe you are too. I don't know. But when we're forced up against a wall, we suddenly become capable of kicking some ass and taking names later.
You may be in that "in between" state where you know you need to do something else but you are comfortable enough to where need hasn't been forced on you. Why wait until that sense of "need" is forced down your throat before you decide to do something else?
One thing I love about business is that it's about as good as a well-trained house pet. If you give it focus, attention, and love, it'll love you back. It won't disappoint you so long as you put the appropriate time, effort, and energy into it from the get-go.
And it can make you extremely happy!
Of course, business and pets are vastly different but -- unlike people who are nothing more than "loose cannons" to me -- pets and business can give you "love" if you give them the appropriate attention from the beginning.
And that's what I like.
I like to know my result from the beginning.
If you give a dog love from the start, he's going to give you love back.
If you set up a business correctly from the start, the business will give you money back.
Those are basic rules of how I've found that life works.
I have a new kitten. It's a boy. I generally stay away from male cats but he sort of fell in my lap when a neighbor moved to San Diego last weekend and they didn't want to take the cat with because their daughter is allergic to cats.
So, essentially this kitten "adopted" me in one way or another.
I made it my daughter's cat. She's 5 and she's old enough to learn responsibility now. She does well feeding her aquatic frog and 2 fish so a kitten shouldn't be a big deal to add to her responsibilities.
Because it's her cat, she got to name him. She chose Pineapple. Ronnie was trying to get her to name him Louie. Louie (or Lou) is a cute name but nothing a 5-year-old would accept. So, his legal name can be Pineapple Louie...named sort of after a bar I know in Panama City Beach, Florida called Pineapple Willy's. (That place is cool as hell. You can even watch people walking on the beach on PCB right now on their website: http://www.pwillys.com/. Damn, I wish I was there right now!)
Pineapple, the kitten, is "off the hook." He's a crazy kitty...pounces, jumps, attacks, and tried to eat my face off yesterday. My 2 older cats can't stand the little rat and find their days filled with the exhausting endeavor of fending the little sh** off. Since they're both 10-years old, this can be extremely taxing on 2 old lady cats.
I have to admit; I love the new energy of the little one. He's shaking things up a bit in our household and change is something a Gemini (me) absolutely loves.
I also love animals.
I was thinking about this yesterday.
Animals are pretty predictable. Especially domestic pets. As I mentioned already, you just have to give them some love and they'll love you right back. It never fails.
People...not so much.
I had an unfortunate incident with a friend of mine and we ended up having a complete falling out after about 3 years of friendship.
And it makes me very sad.
I started thinking about business and, believe it or not, it's actually quite predictable. Much like domesticated pets.
Give it love, you'll get love back.
I think this is why I've done so exceptionally well with business and yet have continued to fail miserably in family and friendship relationships.
Business is extremely predictable because you'll get out exactly what you put into it. And you will get the result you're seeking provided that you know precisely what that is.
People are unpredictable and never have your best interests at heart because they're too busy focusing on how they can personally gain, even if it means you'll get the short end of the stick.
Now I know why I see so many old people in the world wobbling around with their old-as-dirt dog or cat while ostracizing themselves from the world. Somewhere along they way they've determined that people are too much trouble and they'd rather pal around with a scruffy dust puff of a pet because at least they know it won't maliciously hurt them.
Yesterday I indicated that I'm stepping out of the game of real estate investing training for awhile...or maybe forever...simply because after this upcoming Atlanta event in November, there will be nothing else to teach you on how to capitalize on the real estate market past the end of 2014.
There has been a huge demand amongst my students for more New Wealth Ninja "stuff" including the stuff I'll be teaching my students at my Underground Secret Event in a few weeks from now in Los Angeles. (And you can still get a deal to attend that event by clicking here.) This event, as you know, is non-real estate related and is all about Aggressive Income on Speed and Steroids.
Last year I started teaching my New Wealth Ninja strategies because my students wanted to know more about how to raise cash to inject into passive income real estate since the market started changing, competition with other investors became apparent, and it was obvious that if my students wanted to enter into the New Real Estate Market in our New Economy, they were going to have to cough up some cash for these deals.
This is how my New Wealth Ninja (NWN) trainings began...as a means for students to raise funds for real estate deals.
Then NWN became a demand in and of itself.
I started getting more and more stories of students with graduate degrees, a load of professional experience, and who were still sharp as whips sent out to pasture because they were too "highly paid" in their field and "too old" to play anymore.
Companies that were in the midst of the economic crisis (and many still are) found out about a little trick called the Dump-the-Overpaid-Old-People-on-Payroll-for-the-Moldable-Cheap-College-Grads Game. I noticed that this game started back in about 2007/2008 and has become more and more predominant in the employment arena.
It sucks to be an experienced professional or in a highly paid management position in a company, especially if you're in your 50s or beyond. Because chances are, you're probably not employed or employable anymore.
It didn't hit close to home until recently when my dad (who, unfortunately, I had to terminate out of my own company due to embezzlement issues) had to take to working at Lowe's part time because he can't get a job anywhere else. And he needed the position mostly for health care because he can't get government health care until next June when he hits 65.
It became even more abundantly clear that we're in trouble as a highly-populated Baby Boomer nation when I recently interviewed dozens of people for an entry-level low-paying job for both of my companies and found that I was sifting through hundreds of resumes from people who were overqualified (including those with degrees) to those who were over 50 years old to both.
And they were vying for a job with a starting pay of $11 an hour.
Rewind to about 2003...I interviewed people in a completely different economy and I couldn't get anyone to start at less than $15 an hour. And even this was like pulling teeth. I had people who were qualified and even under-qualified for the positions I had applying for jobs, 50% of the people who I scheduled an interview with didn't show up, and I had a hell of a time finding people who would work for me. (Interviewing was a bitch back in those days.)
What a difference a freakin' decade makes.
As an employer and business owner, I tend to lean toward hiring older people with more experience because they tend to be more loyal and dedicated in their positions. The young people in this day and age are texting their friends all day while having Facebook minimized in their "tray" on their computers. They are lazy, take too many sick days, and basically suck as employees.
Yet larger companies want these deadbeats to work for them because, (a) they start out as "cheap labor" and, (b) because they figure they can "mold" these screw-balls into whatever they want them to be for their company.
I couldn't disagree with that mentality more because, to me, it's like burning useless dollars to pay some Gen-Yer to text their buddies all day while uploading pictures to Facebook from the party they went to the weekend before when they got sloshed out of their gourd. But hey, at least they can "multi-task," right?
And then there's the whole $15/hour fast-food debacle where all these people who think working at McDonald's is a "career" feel like they should be getting paid more than minimum wage. Last time I checked, flipping burgers and making a milkshake doesn't take much skill, certainly not enough to justify $15 an hour.
WTF is going on with our nation?!
What these people don't realize is that there are ship loads of robots made in China coming over by the day that cost, on average, about $5,000 each that can do everything a low-wage worker in McDonald's can do...yet this robot won't require a wage, worker's compensation insurance, personal days off, sick days, vacation days, health care insurance, and you don't have to worry that this technical creature will sue you for sexual harassment, call in sick at the last minute, or steal from you.
I don't know about you but, as a business owner, I'll take the robots any day. And to think that all I'll have to pay for is some maintenance and a couple of software downloads here and there.
It's a lot closer than you think.
Then what happens to all the people who are minimum-wage workers...?
They may go from $8/hour to $15/hour. But I can guarantee you that they're about to go from employed to unemployed as things start to become more advanced in our society.
Gotta love Asia and the advances we can enjoy as a nation.
As an employee, do you hate the possibility that a robot can take your job?
If so, stop thinking like a f*****g employee and start thinking like a business owner...because as a business owner, you'd love the idea.
I have a machine coming over from China in a couple of weeks. No, it's not a robot but it'll be replacing a few minion jobs in the warehouse.
And a few weeks after that I'll be ordering another machine to replace a couple more minions.
And on and on it will go from there.
As a business owner, I've run the gamut with government regulations and have always noticed that they don't like to make it easy to operate as a business, especially in sunny California. I think the reason this is the case is because you have a bunch of dumb sh** government "employees" making decisions about what business owners should and shouldn't be able to do. And, unfortunately, these dummies don't take into account what the consequences of their dumb sh** thinking can be which usually has something to do with taking your business out of state or out of the country where -- guess what? -- no one can benefit from employment or the tax dollars associated with doing business here.
But what makes running a business most difficult are the employees that are associated with the business because they never do what you want them to do.
So...I can't wait for the robots to take over the employment market.
But if you're an employee, that doesn't give you really good job prospects in the decade to come, does it?
Guess what...you have to stop being an employee and start being a business owner otherwise you're not going to make it. Period. No exceptions. Especially if you're 40 an over...you're really in trouble now!
In the first half of 2014 (and until I turn 40 in June), I'll be focusing on showing you some cutting-edge New Wealth Ninja strategies to teach you how to have either a small cash flowing Aggressive Income home-based business or a larger cash flowing Aggressive Income multi-million dollar business.
Your choice.
Bottom line, you do have to choose one of the above presented options if you're going to survive and thrive in the years to come.
Until I turn 40 in June, that is. Then, after that, you're guess is as good as mine on what I'll be doing. Maybe I'll lay down and die on a beach in the Bahamas. (Doesn't sound too bad acutally, does it?)
Many of you have heard of Andrew Shaw. He started out with me sometime in late 2008 when he purchased my Apartment Building Cash Flow System. In 2009 he signed up and completed one of my first signature Apartment Building Mentorship Groups including taking the 9-week Advanced Group later that year.
But, like many of my students (unfortunately), he ended up in a phase of information overload paralysis. And did nothing with the information until the next year when he decided to kick himself in the ass.
He hasn't turned back since.
In this first couple of years of being a "serious" real estate investor, he climbed up from $0 to making $74,000 a month in passive real estate income.
Now he's at the $138,000 per month mark. And no, that's not gross receipts. That's what he gets to put in his pocket each and every month after all of his mortgages and expenses are paid on all of his properties.
So, here's what happened last month. I tried twisting Andrew's arm until it just about fell off to speak at my upcoming November Atlanta Boot Camp Seminar but, of course, he said no. Again.
You see, Andrew is the type of person that I think would literally have a heart attack if he had to utter 2 complete sentences in front of even a small crowd of people. (Goes to show you that even timid people who aren't socially adept can become massively successful in real estate.)
And that's why I have never been successful in getting him to speak at any of my events over the past couple of years. He's shown up at my events before and, even then, I wasn't allowed to point him out that he was there. Yes, that's right! For those of you who have been at my events before, you actually were sitting in the room with Andrew Shaw. He was even at one of my recent non-real estate related Underground Secret Events. (Can anyone remember who was in the room at my last Detroit event?)
But here's what Andrew did do for me. He wrote a book on exactly what he did to reach the level of success he's reached today and, in his own words, explains that if anyone can do it, you can too.
Andrew started with less than nothing. In fact, if I remember correctly, he had something like $40,000+ in credit card debt when he got started with me. He wasn't working and he really needed to hustle to get himself up and running in the real estate game.
And he did.
Without any money. Without any credit.
He did it easily, seamlessly, and quickly by following a simple plan that he created himself.
And he put down this exact plan on paper which you'll be able to get so that you can use his exact well-laid out plan for your own real estate success. Click here for more details on getting this book.
Why commercial-commercial real estate? Why now?
I'm going to be honest with you; not that I'm not always honest but I think it's time that you really come to an understanding of what's going on with both me and the real estate market right now.
Here's what I'll never become: a "guru" that stands on a soap box in front of a group of seminar attendees talking about irrelevant and non-profitable real estate topics that don't apply in our current real estate market. I promised myself that I'll never become anything like that which is why my students have always appreciated me being a teacher and mentor.
Come 2014 and I'll have thoroughly introduced and talked about every cutting-edge real estate strategy you can use including all of the "supporting" education such as building personal and business credit, raising capital, and all of the other needed elements to get to where you need to go as a successful real estate investor.
When we are in a recession, you will get your best deals and opportunities in almost every type of asset class in real estate investing out there.
When the economy starts to "thaw out" and take off, the opportunities immediately disappear.
And that's what's happening now.
Why do you think I've meticulously "planned" my real estate training "end" date to be December 31, 2013 since last year?
I knew the end was coming. And, sadly, it's almost already here.
Let's talk about what opportunities are left in cash flowing real estate deals and then we'll talk about what I'll be doing for my students until I turn 40 (next June).
What do we have left for profitable real estate in the remaining portion of 2013 and all of 2014 that you can realistically get into with some creative financing, little/no money down, and for a bargain in a market where things are getting very hot very fast?
1) Small multifamily properties ranging from "quads" (4-plexes) to 10-unit apartment buildings.
2) Small MHPs ranging from a handful of pads to about 20 pads.
3) SFR flips in certain areas of the country.
4) Smaller REO apartment buildings.
5) Commercial-commercial buildings, particularly office buildings and industrial warehouse space.
6) Self-storage.
7) Building small multifamily buildings to either buy-and-hold or flip to investors who will pay top dollar for them.
Again, these opportunities will begin to diminish one-by-one as we kick off 2014, definitely starting with SFR flips. Then vacant REOs. Then MHPs and small multi-families.
Then any commercial-commercial opportunity by the end of next year.
For my students that have been learning from me for the past several years, they already know that you shouldn't build a piece of investment real estate until you're in a hot market. Otherwise, building will cost you more per square foot than what you can buy it for in a slump market.
And that's a complete waste of money!
The next huge money-maker is buying raw land and building, especially small multifamily buildings anywhere from "quads" (4-plexes) to 8-unit buildings.
These can make you a fortune in this market because now, in many super hot areas, it actually costs less to build than buy a fully occupied multifamily (and even commercial-commercial) property.
What's awesome about this strategy is that, once you take a piece of raw land and build, you can quickly lease the units (because they are brand new, there is a higher demand and you can get top rent dollar) but you can "flip" the property to other investors who want the leased-up high-in-demand rental property.
In fact, you'll get more money per unit than comparable buildings in the area because the units are brand new and getting more in rent than other units in the same area.
Plus, this strategy can put you into Class A and B areas whereas before you were probably only investing in (or considering) Class C and D areas because it was more affordable to get into.
I have a new lender that handles financing both raw land and the construction portion of the deal. A construction loan goes up to 1 year and then you refinance it into a conventional loan after the construction (and lease-up) has been accomplished.
Why buy a Class C property when you can buy raw land and build a Class A property that commands top dollar in both rents and cost-per-door when you flip it?
There is a specific step-by-step strategy required to make a fortune with this investment methodology. I've never taught this rare, little-known strategy to any of my students.
Even better, this lucrative strategy can be used to build any type of asset class from 8-plex multifamily buildings to a retail strip mall.
And no, you don't need to be a contractor to pull this off nor do you need to get ripped off by a GC (general contractor) in most states. As long as you know the steps, you can contract the job yourself by subbing everything out one piece at a time.
Rehab and new construction have always been my favorite method of real estate investing just because it allows you to be creative and to become part of a process in making a nice home for people. It's the one facet of real estate I enjoy the most, even down to choosing the color of the exterior paint of a building.
Back to School, Hello Fall, and Happy Halloween All in 10 Days!
My daughter started school almost 2 weeks ago and even though technically summer isn't over, it's pretty much over. Yesterday I walked into Lowe's and saw this 16-foot grim reaper staring straight down at me. I'm like...WTH?? Didn't we just celebrate the 4th of July?
I bought a 16-foot Grim Reaper at Lowe's the other day.
Strangely enough, when I saw this amazingly tall and oversized blow-up Halloween lawn decoration, it made me smile. In fact, I couldn't stop smiling when I saw it. I still can't stop smiling about it. :-)
You see, I'm a Halloween junkie. It's my favorite holiday and it's the only one I actually go "all out" with a variety of different blow up "things" in my lawn with the precise intent on showing up my neighbors. Yet by the time Christmas rolls around, my yard pretty much has nothing to celebrate the overrated retail-money-suck-driven holiday. Even a Charlie Brown Christmas tree much more than what I do for Christmas.
But Halloween is different.
It's a day where you can do something different...be somebody different. There's a magical element to that to me, for some reason.
So, there I was at Lowe's, smiling my ass off at a grim reaper that is about as tall as my house, and thinking how freakin' awesome it'll be in my yard since I live at the end of a cul-de-sac. I stuffed 1 of the last 2 boxed grim reapers they had in stock into my cart while thinking..."Isn't life awesome?!"
Lately the seemingly dumbest things have been making me happy. And I'm not sure why I was so ecstatic about this grim reaper. Is it because he's so unusually large in size and I've never seen any holiday yard blow-up thing so cool? Or is it because I can spend $200 on something so stupid and not think twice about it? Or because my neighbors will gasp in shock and awe at how awesome it is? (Nah, I really don't care about them but I do care about the kids gasping and being in awe! Halloween is for the kids, after all.)
I figured out the real reason why a dumb holiday yard blow-up grim reaper makes me happy.
Because I'm not miserable about anything else.
Yes, that's right. You read that correctly.
Most people are running around feeling stressed about money, or their job, or their future, or making a mortgage payment, or a variety of different things revolving around "survival" and "trying to make it." They'd be too stressed out to enjoy something as goofy as an overpriced, oversized lawn decoration.
I've been extremely lucky that I've been able to figure out business and investing early on. I've been pretty good at bringing in a consistent cash flow into my life from real estate investments, business activity, and even residual income from things I've written.
I had a conversation with a student of mine a short while back. He has 2 Master's degrees in business, he just turned 50 years old, and his six-figure-annual job just gave him his walking papers because they believe they can hire 2 college kids for a fraction of what they pay him, mold them to their liking, and have another set of slaves for at least 2 1/2 decades when they know they can't get that amount of time out of a 50-year-old.
Now he doesn't know what to do.
This is exactly what I've been talking about when it comes to the "New Economy," folks! Things just ain't what they used to be anymore.
But guess what?
If you can -- even for a few minutes -- stop thinking like a Paycheck Charlie and start thinking about an entrepreneur, you'll very easily see how this New Economy can work in your favor.
You now can easily make a six-figure-annual income...working 20 hours a week or less and never having to leave your house.
You now can easily take advantage of some incredible loan programs for commercial property allowing you to be a real estate cash flow millionaire by solely using other people's money.
It's all in what you know.
A Paycheck Charlie only knows how to put together a resume and how to start applying for jobs. He or she also knows how to do reasonably well in an interview, how to get a job, and how to take orders from someone else for 40 hours a week. He or she knows how to trade hours for dollars.
And that's hard work in my opinion.
Recently I had to do some interviewing myself. I was replacing 2 employees in my warehouse. The job pays $11 an hour.
And I had dozens of people with degrees applying for the job.
What??
What the hell is going on here??
It seems that once someone adopts the Paycheck Charlie mentality -- no matter what economic changes occur -- they can't break free of that limited type of thinking.
It's not a matter of deciding to change your thinking process because it might be good for you.
It's a matter of being required to change your thinking process because you don't have a choice anymore.
While people are demanding minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour, little do the small-minded thinkers realize is that there are shiploads of robots coming in from China as we speak to start replacing these minimum wage workers.
After all, if you owned a McDonald's, what would you rather have:
An employee who not only demands $15 an hour in minimum wage (for very limited skills, mind you, such as mopping the floor and flipping burgers...brainless skill-less activities) but calls in sick, steals, files a Worker's Comp claim for slipping in the back, steals, punches another employee out in the parking lot (and now the other employee is suing you), files a discrimination lawsuit against you, and then slacks off on the job to the point where you have to terminate him...now he's collecting unemployment that you have to pay for!
Or...
"Hire" a robot imported from China which costs you $5,000 plus maintenance including upgrades on software...and that's it.
No salary, no lawsuits, no insurance, no days off, no calling in sick, no hurting other employees, no stealing, no drama...nothing.
It's coming, folks! If you think I'm joking, just wait around for another couple of years and watch those minimum wage jobs evaporate left and right.
Now, you have another choice...and no, it's not going back to college to get a useless degree to become "educated" so you don't have to sink to the point where you need a minimum wage job. (Because, after all, I just demonstrated that those jobs are going to be disappearing very soon.)
You have to become "educated" in another fashion.
This is why I love America. I recognize the never-ending opportunities everyone has here at their fingertips...including you. Especially you. Because you're already here!
And if you're reading this, you probably read and speak English well.
Simple elements needed to be highly successful in our New Economy.
I was watching a Secret Millionaire episode recently where I was comparing the difference between the millionaire and the guy who was barely able to make end's meet.
And, as far as I could tell, there was no difference except for one thing:
The millionaire "knew" something about how to navigate through commerce and the other sap had a Paycheck Charlie mentality.
But that was the only difference!
What did the millionaire know? Did he have some wiz-bang degree from a college?
Nope! In fact, he was a high school drop-out.
He knew how to develop a product that would sell and he also did well in investing.
Oh, one more thing: he wasn't afraid to take risks and start a business.
That's sort of important.
Our economy isn't going back to where it was so now you're faced with a question that you have to answer:
How are you going to start cashing in on the New Economy in order to not only survive but thrive these major economic changes? Are you going to invest or are you going to start a super successful Aggressive Income business? Or both?
The only thing my mother ever taught me about anything "financial" in my entire lifetime was about credit. She always told me to take good care of my credit because our entire world revolved around having an excellent credit history.
She cautioned me about using credit wisely, about not getting into debt, and about "constructive debt" vs. "destructive debt" long before Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad came into the picture.
And that's all she taught me about economics. Period.
Turns out, it was one of the most important lessons a young chick like myself could have possibly learned because I'm only now just figuring out how extremely important all this "credit business" really is.
And the more fractured and delicate our economy has become over the past several years, the more cautious banks had to become. The more cautious, the better your credit has to be in order to tap into the financial resources (i.e. loans, credit cards, etc.) that they have to offer.
None of us really could have predicted what happened with our economy. The only thing any of us really could have known was the regular "ups and downs" economic conditions tend to wave through as the years roll on.
Now it takes really good credit to get to where you want to go...and that includes anywhere.
Let me give you an example:
Right now I'm in Las Vegas at a trade show for my other business. There are hundreds of exhibitors, all of whom cater to retail stores and wholesalers. This means that anyone with a business is considered a prospective buyer to these exhibitors.
But here's the deal...
The buyers qualify for "show deals" on placing orders directly with these exhibitors during this 4-day trade show.
However...
There are what they call "purchase minimums." This means that you're not going to walk up to a booth and realistically get one of anything. In many cases, you won't be getting a handful of anything either. You're looking at purchasing in volume.
We just closed out the first day of this 4-day show. I, of course, had to walk the show to see the hundreds of exhibitors and what they had to offer in a variety of different categories.
And all I could see is dollar signs.
Why?
Because most of the items that are being sold at this trade show are not only being offered at incredible wholesale prices but the "show only" deals that are being offered for orders placed here at the trade show are...absolutely mind-blowing!
The money that can be made by simply buying products and selling them to the general public is nothing short of amazing. Even if you had an eBay store, you'd make a killing.
But if you don't have the money to be buying these required volumes to get these "show only" deals, you're screwed.
Unless you have the credit, of course.
I started thinking about the new credit cards I just got for my newest company within the past couple of months, adding up to tens of thousands of dollars that I could simply use at any of these booths to essentially "flip" product and make a fortune.
And guess what, folks?
I may actually just do that.
After all, many of you who know me already know that I like doing different things just to change stuff up a bit (since I'm easily bored).
Plus...
Since I have my seminar coming up next month in Los Angeles for my Underground Secret Event talking about the most Aggressive Income Strategies (on Speed and Steroids), within the past couple of months I've been creating this special "case study" that will be presented at the event to show you how you can build a $20,000-per-month home-based business literally starting from nothing.
And I can just add to that special case study I'm doing by buying some stuff at this trade show, "flipping" it online, and taking in some huge profits by using other people's money.
Yes, that's right.
By using the bank's money with the new business credit cards I just got!
There's nothing worse than building business credit and using it for anything but business and investing related endeavors. In fact, using business credit for personal reasons should and probably is considered a crime on certain levels. As it should be.
There's only one reason to get business credit: to use the money to make money.
And the last time I checked, a big screen tv or a new Mercedes doesn't make money.
As long as you are responsible and understand the importance of why you are fixing/rebuilding your personal credit while building business credit then you're responsible enough to do the right thing with all the money you're going to have access to.
And that is to use that borrowed money to make money.
If you don't understand that basic concept then don't even bother trying to get personal or business credit otherwise you'll be irresponsible with this newfound secret strategy.
You need to now choose how you'll position yourself for 2014. You can choose to be broke and feeling sorry for yourself for missing the boat. Or you can choose to seize these opportunities by positioning yourself slightly ahead of the curve so you can cash in big when the next year rolls around.
As I always tell you, the choice is always yours.
Again, you can choose to take advantage by both learning what I have to show you but by also (most importantly) applying the strategies I give you.
Or not.
You choose. The nice part about life is that you always get to choose your own fate. You just might be realizing for the first time ever that you actually do get a choice in the matter. You always have.
Some of my students who are part of my business credit building teachings like to put the cart before the horse, usually even before they get or read my course materials.
I got an email today from one such student who asked about opening up several BLOCs (business lines of credit) at the same time. After all, he wanted to open up as many as he possibly can in the shortest amount of time. (Who doesn't?)
First of all, business credit access doesn't work like this.
How does it work?
Glad you asked!
In order to gain access to lines of credit from $50,000 and up (preferably a lot more than that), you have to start establishing yourself with a bank. Preferably a large bank.
You can't realistically walk into any bank in town and say, "Hey, I have a DNB profile with a 90 Paydex so...where's my $200,000?"
As you can probably guess, that's not how it works. Not by a long shot.
When getting unsecured BLOCs, you have to understand that the bank has to "get to know you" on a financial level.
And this starts with an unsecured business credit card.
Now, here's the trick and something I've learned the hard way:
You can't have your business bank accounts at this bank where you want to establish a relationship (to get a BLOC eventually) unless you do a sizeable volume of business (i.e. have a huge business cash flow). If you just open a business bank account with $100 in it, never have any volume or business transactions, and expect that they won't consider this inactive account in their credit decision on a BLOC, you have another thing coming.
So...
You have your business account somewhere else.
Here's a scenario for you:
1) Open up a business bank account at Chase.
2) Get an unsecured business credit card at Wells Fargo. (Wells Fargo is the only bank that offers secured business credit cards now too; in the event that you have poor personal credit, you can start with a secured business credit card now.)
3) Get a second unsecured business credit card at Bank of America. (May as well establish credit with 2 banks at the same time, right?)
4) When basing credit decisions (even down to getting your unsecured business credit cards), these decisions won't be based on what's in your bank account or what type of business volume you do since they don't have access to that information.
5) Once you establish a payment history with your business credit cards, you can now start the process of getting a very low BLOC...like $5,000 to $10,000.
Now, in case you don't understand what a BLOC is...it's a line of credit. And it's revolving, much like how a credit card works. You gain access to a certain amount of money that the bank allows you access to. Say it's $10,000. You can draw out $5,000. This means you still have access to $5,000 that's left. Say you make a payment of $2,500. This means now you have access to $7,500. Say you pay all $5,000. You now have access to all $10,000 again.
Eventually, after showing that you can take money, pay it back, take it again, pay it back...you can now ask for the bank to increase your BLOC.
So, this goes against my students' common misunderstanding that a BLOC is a loan. A loan is an open and closed deal. You get a certain amount. You get the whole amount, usually in the form of a check that is deposited into your account. You make payments on the loan. Once the loan is paid off, the loan closes. It's not revolving in any way.
A BLOC is not like this at all. The account stays open...forever (or until you die, close it, or screw the bank over, which I hope isn't an option for you).
So, when a student is asking me how he can open up as many BLOCs as possible, my question is..."Why?"
You need to establish a solid relationship with a bank, first starting with a business credit card then a small BLOC. Once you get this relationship going, they'll keep increasing the size of this one BLOC. No need to have 20 BLOCs when you can keep increasing and stretching the one you got!
Then, hopefully if you paid attention, you will have started establishing a business credit card at a second large bank and this is when you can also get a small BLOC with them for the purposes of establishing credit.
Now, when I say "for the purposes of establishing credit," I mean you're not using this money to buy anything. You're taking the money out, parking it into a savings or checking account, then using the same money to pay back the bank.
Get it?
Within a short time, you'll notice that you'll have a BLOC (or two) that are collectively worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars that you can use for investing, starting a business, etc.
As you know, to compete in real estate investing right now, you are going to be going up against seasoned investors that have money down. This is the way it's going to be from now until about 2020. So, if you don't have the cash to compete, establishing solid business credit is your last chance aside from robbing a bank, hitting up rich Aunt Sally, or winning the lottery. (You could get an investor partner.)
