A little while ago I laid out a recent property deal I'm working on in a Midwestern ghetto area that was listed at $260,000, I put in an offer at $190,000 (but ended up getting it accepted at $195,000) that's worth $9,479/month in bottom-line cash flow.
And how I had 4 investor partners fighting over this deal because of the low cost of entry, their complete lack of involvement in the property itself (including management), and the incredibly high monthly cash flow such a property provides.
The problem is the class of the property. They are Class D properties, to be exact. No, this isn't even an "official" classification yet it seems that many listing agents have been using the term "Class D" so often in the past decade that it's now becoming more "official" of a class than not.
The other problem is figuring out how to taken an under-performing property in these areas (such as those as low as 1/3 occupied) and finding renters. It's not as easy as posting on Craigslist and thinking people will be beating a path to your door to live in a drug infested drive-by shooting riddled community, even if the rental rate is way below market.
Another building I'm putting an offer on was listed at $399,000 but since I'm going in with 100% cash with a private investor, I will able to get the seller down to $199,000 for a quick 2-week close (which you can easily do with an all-cash offer). And this property isn't even under-performing since it's 100% occupied.
And what kind of building is this one?
Again, I'm not going to tell you exactly where it is but I will state that it's in the Midwest, it's 22 units and is located in a C- area.
So, what type of cash flow is a POS property like that even worth? We're looking at a $4,167 monthly positive cash flow walking into the deal. And this is for a Class C- POS property in a less-than-savory neighborhood.
First of all, where do you find investors that are interested in these types of deals? Deals in ghetto neighborhoods that are actually worth nothing when you think about it aside from the cash flow that they could make.
You start creating your own network of investors through postings on the Loopnet Big Board, for example. But the easiest and, perhaps, the most effective way to create your own network of investors is by meeting them in person. I'll get to that in a minute.
The second obstacle is figuring out how to manage such a challenging property. This task isn't for everyone. But there is one secret to doing this that'll be something you've probably never thought of.
Most of these properties are lacking in tenants. Forget finding "quality" tenants because that just won't happen. Instead, you need to care about having tenants that will pay their rent most of the time while not harassing other tenants. That's the best you can hope for. Otherwise, if they're growing weed in the kitchen, so be it. Having a makeshift "massage parlor" in their living room, whatever. Not much you'll be able to do about this type of stuff in these types of areas. Reality is, you're not getting tenants with 800+ personal credit FICO scores with executive jobs at Microsoft who are 100% upstanding law-abiding citizens unless you're living in a mental fantasy land of some sort.
How do you "cure" tenancy problems in these areas?
There are management companies who specialize in these types of properties. Some of them do a kick-ass job managing a property that you wouldn't even want to fly over in an airplane let alone driving by at 90 miles per hour because of where it's located.
I put $0 out of pocket for each deal and they will be "financed" at a 100% LTV with all cash and no mortgage through private investors.
This is my newly discovered "niche" for getting private money and cashing out the deals with 100% cash. They are easy to "sell" to private investors even though they are in "shady" parts of town because guess what? They never have to deal with the property. I do. You do! Everyone elsebut them!
How was the $4,167 per month deal set up?
Here's what I arranged:
1) 50% goes to the investor partner; 50% goes to me.
2) These are 10-year deals which are highly unusual for investor partnerships (which are typically 3 to 5 years in length); the stipulation is that I will cash them out on just their investment plus a 10% straight-line interest on the original cash they put into the property.
3) The investor partner will make approximately $250,000 in cash flow over 10 years PLUS will get the $190,000 back with 10% interest. And this is assuming we won't be increasing rents but we will. It'll probably be closer to $350,000 that they'll receive over the next decade.
Why wouldn't they want to "cash out" by selling the property and taking out the gained equity?
Because of these reasons:
1) The property is in a crappy part of town and...truthfully (if the building is still standing), it won't ever sell to another investor. If it does, it'll be for a fraction more for what we paid for it...if we're lucky. Why do this when I can keep raking in the cash flow?
2) This allows the investor partner to be completely off the hook without having to wait for years (in most cases) if ever to sell that type of property. They'll get their cash flow, their money out of it, and walk away without breaking a sweat.
3) I get the property. It becomes mine 100% with or without a loan attached (depending on how well I managed my cash flow on this and other properties) and, conveniently, rents will nearly double in another 5 years after the property becomes mine. Providing I don't have a loan on the property, I'm looking at a monthly cash flow of at least $15,000 on this same POS property that's "worthless" on the real estate market as a property sale but is a freaking cash cow that would make a drug dealer drool. (Actually, at that time, I could probably sell the property to a drug dealer who probably lives in the same building!)
And this is how you get rich in real estate.
Let's review:
1) You'll get OPM on a POS property that no other investor wants by paying 100% cash for it.
2) You'll cure any vacancy problems, start bringing in a kick-ass cash flow, and keep your investor happy while he never touches, manages, or deals with the property.
3) You cash out and separate ways after 10 years. Everybody is happy and you get the property 100%. Even though it's a POS...who cares? By the time 10 years rolls around, I'll be making about $8,500 per month on this property. And this is just one of many!
And here's the clincher...
You do this times a minimum of 5 deals.
You can see what 5 x $8,500 a month can bring you. That's $42,500 a month in case you don't have a calculator.
What is that a year? That's $510,000 per year. From a pile of POS don't-want properties in the "shady/questionable" part of town that you can get for cheap that you ain't even paying for!
One way you can tap into these funds is by attending my upcoming event and meeting with a few investors who will be attending, looking for high cash flowing deals just like these. And no, they don't care where the property is located. They are simply looking for a deal that will make them money.
You can see my "Monica's-Gone-Crazy!" deal on my upcoming seminar event that ends on Monday. CLICK HERE for the deal!
If you have any questions, just call Lea. You know the drill. It's preferred that you CLICK HERE to check out what's going on first before eating up Lea's phone time.
I met a fellow writer who was talking about how she had gone through an intensive 2-year MFA program for creative writing, costing her over $30,000. Her true passion, of course, is screenwriting. She even sold a romantic comedy script to an "indie" (independent) production company.
I commended her on her success, even if she believed it was small, and started asking questions about whether she signed up for the Burbank Pitch Fest. This is a once-per-year deal every June where you can meet with real agents, studio execs, and production companies looking for scripts. She had said she never heard of it.
Hmmmm.....
This is the first part of the problem. People jump into something without knowing what the end-goal is or how to streamline an action plan to get there.
When she asked me how much the Pitch Fest charges, I told her that it's $750 to be able to attend all the classes, meet with people, and get the maximum effect of the multi-day event.
"Well, that's too expensive!" That was her response.
Double hmmmmm....
So, let me get this straight. You'll dump $30,000 into an MFA degree for screenwriting, you've written a couple of screenplays, but when it comes to investing in that "moment" where you can unlock the vault to agents, studio executives, and other important Hollywood types, you can't scrape together $750? Freaking really??!!
I started thinking about it and realized that there are a couple of things happening here.
I think some people psyche themselves out when that "moment" comes up that can change everything. Maybe they're afraid they'll fail or maybe they're afraid they'll actually succeed. Because, after all, do you really think she wouldn't find that $750 somewhere if she knew -- without a shred of doubt -- that she'd find the person that that would ultimately buy her script in a few weeks after the event for six figures? Or if a studio executive told her (over the phone) that he'd be there and that, since his schedule is so tight, he could only meet her atthat event that required payment to enter?
I don't know. Really, I don't know the answer.
I'd like to think that people have no confidence in themselves. They wouldn't attend an event because they honestly don't think they have the resources and skills (whether they have them now or will acquire them at the event), therefore thinking, "Why even bother paying the money and wasting my time?"
But here's the scary part.
I think that some people -- even when given that "moment" that can change everything and knowing that it's right before them -- would pass on it because it's too scary to change your life, even if it's for the better.
What about the responsibility and meeting new people and having deadlines and being immersed into a new world? A lot of people simply aren't ready for that.
They have a routine. Go to work, complain every moment of every day about the freeway traffic, the gray cubicle they sit in, the florescent lights that are sucking the juice out of their brains through their eyeballs and how co-worker Chatty Cathy won't ever shut the f*** up...then fight traffic home, make a TV dinner, watch a minimum of 5 hours of their favorite shows before passing out. Only 5 days a week...then you have the weekend. Beer, BBQs (in the summer), hanging out, recharging...then start over on Monday morning.
As crappy as a life that is, at least they know what to expect. Not many people like change or surprise, even if it probably will be better than what they have now.
My mom hated her job. She worked in the accounting department of a multi-billion-dollar construction building supply company in St. Louis, Missouri. She was one of those people who did exactly what I outlined above...yet she did absolutely nothing to change her life. Nothing. She thought about it, talked about it...but actually did nothing about it. (This is when I realized that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink it.)
In the wee hours of a Monday morning, she had a massive seizure. Once rushed to the hospital, this is when they found the brain tumor that would kill her less than 6 months later.
But think about it. Many heart attacks, strokes, and seizures actually do happen on a Monday morning before the start of a work day. I believe my mom's brain was getting back into I-gotta-go-to-crappy-work mode and started creating more stress than normal.
Isn't that telling you anything?? If you're brain can't process what I'm telling you then maybe your body can understand.
You see, logically it seems like a brilliant idea not to "buck the system" and create any significant change in your life because that means "instability." But your body would completely agree with me when I say that living a much more low-key stress-free lifestyle is the ticket to true wealth and happiness.
Not to mention the fact that you'll never have to worry about money again when you set yourself up correctly.
Many of my students don't understand what I'm doing yet I see the end-goal as clear as day. Less stress, doing the things I really want to do, investing more, working the 80/20 Principle, and working a lot less. Of course, this requires me cutting back on my business participation. Hence, the move that's coming up next week (and throughout July), cutting back on Global Success, and moving into different directions.
And I haven't been this excited about anything in a very long time!
The difference between me and many other "gurus" out there is that I walk the talk. Once I decided that I was going into a different direction, I began to set myself up. This is why I'm going from a 4,200 square foot office/warehouse down to 1,200 square feet. Yes, cutting 3,000 square feet off is a bitch but too much crap slows the energy down.
I'm also cutting all of my phone lines down to two, one for each business. And a fax line with Internet service. This is down from my current 10-line configuration that I have between both companies.
My hours have dropped from 55 hours a week to 40 hours a week and now to about 25 hours per week. Simplicity = happiness. Happiness = less stress.
And the Universe opens up for you.
So, what am I getting at here?
I have a 2-day seminar event coming up on September 13th and 14th in Los Angeles where I'm laying out exactly what I'm doing and how you can create a simplistic, easy-to-operate (with no/low overhead) business that cash flows anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 and how you can dump those profits into Passive Income Assets for a solid streamlined 36-month (or less) retirement plan.
I have some kick-ass guest speakers including my star apartment building student who went from living in a hotel room to acquiring $18,000,000 in property in the snap of a finger...just by following my methods. And he'll show you exactly what he did to get what he's got.
And, he's also looking for partners.
One other little surprise, too!
I have an investor partner of mine who will be in attendance looking to invest with some of my students on his property deals. He won't be speaking but he'll be sitting in the audience with my students, getting to know you on breaks and via the Platinum VIP dinners. His goal is to find people he has a rapport with so that he can inject some of his vast wealth into your deals.
You can't network with these people if you don't show up. Period.
I have a deal on my seminar that is ending on Monday. Platinum VIP is almost full. I have 2 seats left and that's about it. By Monday those seats will be long gone, if you want to wait around that long.
I have a buy-one-get-one free deal on the Gold VIP at a super low price. This will also be ending on Monday by 5pm Pacific Time.
Here's the link for the deal: http://www.monicamain.com/new_wealth_warrior_seminar_event
Now would be the time that you could be honest with yourself (because I don't care either way). Do you want to do something to completely change your lifestyle...or not?
In case you haven't figured it out, this could be your "moment" that I was talking about. Like Eminem says in his song Lose Yourself..."Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted. One moment. Would you capture it...or let it slip?"
See you at the top!
Your mentor,
Monica Main
www.MonicaMain.com
P.S. I was accepted into the UCLA Professional Program for Screenwriting today. (Yay for me!) My new life is getting more and more real each day as I stay committed to my New Life timeline chart. To see exactly how it looks (and how you can use it to "form" a New Life for yourself) and how it's all miraculously falling into place since I created the timeline, click here and scroll down to the "P.S." section to see it.
In the past couple of months I've had a surprising slew of testimonials from students who have finally got off their asses to start doing something.
And guess what?
All of them told me the same thing. They said that it wasn't nearly as hard as they thought it would be and that the "process" to get to where they wanted to go was more difficult to do in their head vs. how easy it turned out to be in real life.
I was talking to a student on the phone yesterday who started buying income property. I asked him how he did it. He said that he went through my course, followed exactly what I said, and started buying property. Each property was small as in "quad" size but he told me that he was able to negotiate taking over these properties for a couple grand each one. Not bad!
But I think what got me the most is how cool he seemed about the whole thing. I think all success stories -- even small ones -- are super awesome and deserve to be showcased. But this student (as many others seem to be) was overly humble about his successes.
The most critical part of the conversation was how he told me he did it. It was so nonchalant like he was talking to someone at a cocktail party and said, "Yeah, so I read this book about investing in apartment buildings, did all the stuff in the book, and now I have a few buildings under my belt since last year. And it wasn't even that hard either."
It started to get me thinking. Is success really as "hard" as most people perceive it to be?
Then I realized something quite critical in why people never make it and I've been able to flesh out exactly 3 reasons why people fail.
Reason #1: Most people who grew up with the "broke" (or even worse, "poor") mentality can't possibly wrap their heads around the fact that there is endless abundance out there and that they deserve a nice big piece of it. I was at Niagara Falls last week and the amount of water that pours over every second is mind boggling. The first thing you have to ask is,"Where does all the water come from?" And then, "How come it never stops?" It's calledendless abundance and it's available everywhere in every aspect of life from water to food to money to happiness. Until you can grasp it, understand it, and truly know it deep inside of you, success and prosperity will continue to elude you.
Reason #2: For the lucky low percentile of people who actually know what they want to do with their lives (or at least have some glimmering idea), it seems that the value of apprenticeship has been stripped out of our get-it-now society and has been replaced with the "osmosis" mentality. Apparently people are supposed to go to sleep and wake up with all of the education, experience, and knowledge they need to accomplish their goals. No need for reading or study or gaining experience as having your own "boots on the ground." After all, time is too valuable and better spent watching America's Got Talent, CSI, 24, and every other show you have recorded so...obviously there is no other time to devote to even simple reading to gain the knowledge you need just to get started on your success plight.
Reason #3: Lack of action. For those who do make the effort to gain the necessary knowledge -- whether they have spent devoted years to every book, course, video, seminar, etc. or they just finished reading a book on the subject -- many simply do nothing more than park the materials on a shelf to collect dust while they promise themselves that somedaythey'll get around to implementing what they've learned after [fill in the blank] happens. Unfortunately, "someday" means never. By the time a couple of years roll around, you'll have forgotten what you've learned anyway and/or it'll become outdated and you'll have to start over building your mental knowledge base. Not only is action required but it has to be consistent, well-planned, and "massive" (as Tony Robbins talks about). As I tell my students over and over again, to be successful in mail order, you only need 1 out of 100 people to buy your product. Reality is that 99 out of 100 people will throw away your marketing piece. But you only need that 1 person out of 100 to buy from you and you can become a multi-millionaire within just a handful of months. Yet that's a 99% failure rate, right? But to get to that 1 success out of 100 means you have to "try" 100 times. Trying only 1 or 2 times will get you exactly nowhere.
To achieve success -- whatever that may be in your mind -- is fairly easy to do. It's getting rid of the psychological demons that keep telling you how hard things are going to be that's really the most difficult thing to accomplish. That's why I say that my "dumber" students tend to be successful. Their demons don't exist as much as for those who are "smart" and have to over-analyze/complicate everything.
I have been barraged with emails from students who have been asking me about whether I'll be doing anymore mentorship groups. I may do another couple of groups before the end of the year but I do not have them scheduled at this time.
My students keep asking me about whether I'm truly going to disappear into the sunset or not. I'm still sitting on the fence. On one hand, I like training and helping people. On the other hand, it pains me to go through a bunch of students who get my stuff yet do nothing with it. Maybe if I stopped focusing on the non-doers and focused exclusively on the doers then I'd feel a much deeper sense in the gratification of helping people.
After all, don't we all have to focus on the glass being half full instead of half empty?
It never ceases to amaze me how some people sabotage themselves and yet continue to blame everyone else around them.
Listen, people. Life is pretty freaking simple. Let me illustrate just how simple it is.
You set your sites on a goal, you acquire the information and skill set you need to achieve the goal, then you go after the goal with as much aggression and passion as you can until you get what you want. You get that "warrior eagle eye" focus and you just go for it.
Yet most people try to create more complication, usually in the form of 2 things:
1) Excuses - the more you try to negate responsibility by making 101 excuses as to why you cannot achieve a dream you have, it simply means you're either (a) not passionate/motivated with the life changes you'd "like" to see in your life, and/or (b) the thing(s) you claim you want in your life aren't really your dreams but maybe someone else's.
2) Blame - this is the part when you blame everyone else including, but not limited to, the president, the government, your parents, your siblings, taxes, lack of education because of...whatever reason, the fact that you're a certain race/sex/sexual orientation/from a certain country/too old/too young/whatever, or that the gods haven't parted the seas for you, sent a ship in to "rescue" you, or whatever other blame game you're playing with forces outside of yourself.
I look at people like my brother. He's a full-fledged alcoholic who bleeds the welfare system dry for every hand-out he can get. To me it takes more work to research programs and find ways to bend a government to get me stuff without having to work for it than to do the obvious: to actually work for it.
Then you have my former employee Jeanine. Same deal. Except that her set of excuses about why she can't get anywhere is completely different. Same result, though. Blame others for why she isn't making it and make excuses as to why she doesn't have time, money, resources, etc. to achieve what she wants.
Even worse. After I terminated her last week, she's finding it necessary to be vindictive in any way she can because...who the f*** knows why! It's like when someone breaks up with you and decides to move on. What purpose does it serve to stalk that person, upload nasty comments or dirty photos/videos of that person, or otherwise try to "ruin" them in some way? Do they hope to get that person back by doing all of this? Will it get them any further in life by ruining the life of someone else?
It just shows people's true colors.
But the worst part: they don't realize the karma they are reaping upon themselves by spewing such negative bullsh** into the world about other people. Then they have the audacity to wonder why they never get a break or can never get ahead. It's because they think like losers. Therefore, they get what losers get which is exactly nothing!
I was fortunate enough a long time ago to understand the boomerang effect of karma and how it works. And because it seems that things are "speeding up" in the universe, karma comes back much faster...almost instantaneously. It used to take a lifetime. Now it can be a matter of minutes.
What I keep telling people is that -- in addition to figuring out what you want to do and really going for it -- you have to treat others in the same way as what you expect to sow yourself. So, for example, if you don't want anyone taking a baseball bat and busting out your car windows with it...I strongly suggest you don't do the same thing to someone else.
What seems to floor me time and time again is that the very people who are not conducting their lives in the way they should (including maliciously hurting others, etc.) simply don't see what they're doing. It's like they're completely blind to it! It's amazing.
Could you be doing things that are sabotaging you?
What could I mean?
Maybe you're mean to people. Maybe you're not conducting yourself in a way that is putting out positive energy that you'll be getting back; instead maybe you're putting out negative things and getting negativity back.
Or maybe you're guilty of items #1 or #2...or both. Are you making excuses for yourself? Are you blaming others for what's going on in your life and/or why you're not successful?
You have all the benefits, resources, and opportunity to get anything you want in this lifetime right before you.
I was watching the news last night and there was a story on border patrol and immigrants trying to get into the United States. They're discovering that there are an alarming amount of kids trying to cross our American borders and they're without their parents or other adults! In certain areas of the world, including those south of our border, there is such political turmoil and strife that many people are trying to escape these conditions by coming here to our land of opportunity.
And that's just south of our border.
What about what's going on in the Middle East? There was yet another story about how about 500,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are fleeing to another bordering country in order to save their own lives. They showed video of kids sleeping in cars and outside on the ground; I couldn't help but to empathize because I have a young daughter. What would it be like to be forced from my home and to have to flee to another unknown country with little resources and with no idea what our future would hold? Where would we go? How would we survive? What would happen to the home we just left?
Listen, folks. We have it easy. Really easy. Ridiculously and amazingly easy! (Did I get my point across?)
And we're all lucky like you wouldn't believe.
Yet I see people every day who complain about how "bad" things are. Really? Are things really that bad for you? Why? Because they put 2% milk instead of soy milk in yourStarbucks coffee this morning? Because your boss is a jerk off due to the fact that you didn't finish a project that was due 2 weeks ago and he yelled at you? Because your iPhone 5 fell on the floor and broke today? Because some politician said something that personally "offended" you? Because you got a traffic ticket for blowing a red light?
Why do you believe your life is sooooo hard??
I wake up every morning and the first thing I do is tie back my curtains in my bedroom. I look out the window and I see an extraordinary resort-like backyard. I see the mountains in a pinkish-orange hue. Sometimes I see a light fog and it looks a little...mysterious. Sometimes I see a rabbit eating my plants. Sometimes there's a large bird, crow, or hawk standing on my back fence. But in every instance, I'm so incredibly grateful that I can feel this sense of excitement in my stomach. I simply cannot believe how awesome my life is.
No, I'm not where I'd ultimately like to be. But who cares? Setting the bar even higher gives you something else to strive for. And that's exciting. If you had everything dropped in your lap the moment you snapped your fingers, life would certainly suck. It would be boring and unfulfilled if you didn't have to work for anything or challenge yourself to get a goal.
If you feel like you hate your life and want something else, here's what you have to do:
1) Immediately stop complaining...about everything. Even if you think you have something legitimate to complain about, shut your trap. Please. You're hurting yourself by sending out negativity which will always come back like a boomerang to harm you. Considering how other people have it in the world, especially in war-ridden countries, you don't have a single f****** thing to complain about. And if you think you do, imagine being a 10-year-old kid who is forced to come up to America from Guatemala to avoid getting killed or dying of starvation...and you're alone because both of your parents are dead. And when you get to America, you're detained in unbearable overcrowded conditions with no rights and, in some cases, being beaten by border patrol. Imagine being that kid and then tell me that there's something wrong with yourlife right now! (Yeah, that's what I thought.)
2) Focus on yourself. Stop zeroing in on what other people are doing, saying, thinking, or wanting. This includes not clicking on those Yahoo! articles about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West or getting upset because some politician said that he hates gay people. If someone pisses you off, start letting things roll off your back...like really quick. If your significant other dumps you, don't spend an ounce of time being angry or vindictive. Move on. Focus on you and what you want...and figure out how to get there. Everyone else around you should be views as bees swarming around a beehive. They're there but you can tune them out and stay focused on yourself and what you want.
3) Start realizing how many incredible resources you already have. You may not have money or credit or talent or the things you believe you need to get yourself going but you are a lot farther aheadin the game than you think. Just by being in a country where you have endlessamounts of opportunity, presumably being able to speak English well, being educated to some degree to be able to perform basic intellectual functions, and being able to pick up a phone and communicate something with someone (or sending an email) puts you way ahead of someone who is -- somewhere in the world -- dreaming of a way just to be able to get to our country to start a life...any life! Look at what you have and where you are right now! You have so much opportunity and potential that it's mind-boggling!
4) Really narrow down what you want for yourself. This may seem like the hard part and, in actuality, it is. What I've found is that if you have an inkling of an idea of what you want to do (but you're not 100% sure), start following that path. Other things will open up for you once you start moving in some direction toward what you believe you want for yourself. The universe loves movement. Move in some positive direction and you will be directed to where you need to go. Move in no direction and you'll be sitting on your ass exactly where you are now except 10 years will have gone by. And you'll still be nowhere. (Scary thought, huh?)
5) Start getting the skills needed to get your goal. Centuries ago it was an accepted practice that someone would be an apprentice for many years and even decades to learn a trade or skill. These days people think they can watch a YouTube video for 10 minutes and somehow instantly have the precise skill set needed to accomplish some pretty lofty and grandiose goals. Even worse, many people are even too lazy to watch the 10-minute YouTube video because they somehow think that the information they want should somehow seep into their brains while they are sleeping in a sort of osmosis-type of fashion. Please. You're never going to get anywhere by being lazy and certainly other people aren't going to be doing the dirty work for you so that you can get ahead. (Instead they'll be doing it for themselves so they can get ahead instead.) This is why I tell people to get involved in things they are passionate about so then the learning and doing parts of getting what you want are fun and not "work."
6) Start swinging the bat using your new found skills. Lots of action is required to become successful. Some (if not most) of your actions won't amount to much. Any sales person can tell you that there are many more rejections than successes yet the most successful of those in sales understand that it's all about the numbers. The more rejections you get, the more successes you get. Anyone in direct mail knows that 99 out of 100 people will throw away your marketing mailing piece. Yet you can get filthy rich from that 1 out of 100 that buy your product. The majority of what you do will fail and/or get rejected. As long as you understand the law of numbers, you'll do extremely well in all of your endeavors if you just swing that bat as many times as you can. You'll undoubtedly hit your home runs, guaranteed. Even if you get 1 home run out of 100 swings, that's okay. But if you only swing the bat once...you can guess (by the law of numbers) how well that'll turn out for you. It won't. Period.
7) Have a level of persistence and commitment. One thing I could never understand about my dad was how flighty he always was. He'd start some type of business or endeavor and then he'd move onto the next thing within just a couple of weeks before he had a chance to get anything off the ground. Yes, you can get ahead by being a "quitter." After all, if you've been at something for 10 years and it's not panning out at all, maybe it's time to stop beating your head against the wall and start focusing on something else. But...after a couple of weeks? Days even? When should you quit and try something else? How long do you "stick with it" to see if something works out? That's subjective by person and by project, of course. You don't set out to build a ship then drop the project after 2 months because it's not finished. But if it's taking you 2 months to write a simple one-paragraph synopsis of the book you want to write then...maybe you're just not cut out for writing or you need a better skill set. Again, this all goes back to doing something you're passionate about so that you can push through the times of doubt and depression you will come up against when traveling on your goal path.
So, what do you do now? How does it all begin?
You have to figure out where you see yourself in a few years from now. What type of how do you want to be living in and where? What is your work lifestyle like? What's your home life like? How much do you make a year? How many vacations a year do you take? You have to think about the whole thing, even details of it.
This will help point you in the right direction.
Once you make some decisions, start getting your skill set in place. This is vital to being able to start swinging your bat, if you will.
So, how do you start building your skill set?
Funny you should ask!
I have a 2-day Total Wealth Building Boot Camp Seminar in Los Angeles on September 13th and 14th that will fully cover both Aggressive and Passive Income Strategies. In fact, this event will be so intense that I have a total of 4 speakers (including myself) and the speaking days will go about 2 hours longer each day than with prior events.
And for my 40th Birthday Weekend Blow Out (that ends on Wednesday), I'm offering a ridiculously low price to attend this event.
I've never offered this incredible of a deal before to attend any of my prior events. And once 5:01pm on Wednesday hits, you'll lose out on this one for good.
Right now I'm on my way to Michigan. Many of you know that I've been going back and forth between California to Michigan (and back again) for the past 4 years.
There are a couple of reasons I'm going.
1) To set up the new warehouse for my health supplement company.
2) To look at some incredible cash flowing property deals.
Now, many of you who aren't familiar with the greater Detroit area don't know what's really going on there. And since you probably don't know what's going on, I'm about to "clue" you in.
Detroit is getting worse. Much worse. If you thought it was a 3rd-world-country war zone, that's true...plus a lot worse than that! When a city goes bankrupt, it affects many things including local businesses, job opportunities, and the need to take on "extracurricular" activities (i.e. illegal activities) to support your family. When people are hungry, they become desperate.
People are getting shot and killed for a few bucks in their wallet. People fear going to a gas station since many end up getting car jacked while filling up their tanks.
But I think the most horrifying truth about all these tragedies that happen multiple times a day in Detroit is that, on top of it getting progressively worse, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.
I did some research on exactly when the most beautiful formerly-higher-end Detroit neighborhoods with these gorgeous English tudors went from "normal" neighborhoods to downtrodden hell-holes. But I didn't get the answers I was looking for. In fact, when I did pinpoint the "when," I was even more bamboozled as to the "why" part of the equation.
You'd think, just by understanding when the Big 3 auto manufacturers started declining in the 1960s, that these neighborhoods would have started unraveling about then...or maybe a decade later like in the 1970s perhaps. Right?
Wrong.
Strangely, a lot of these gorgeous neighborhoods with stellar and unmatched architectural beauty started falling apart to "the element" in the mid-1990s.
I know. It's pretty freaking startling, isn't it?
Why the 1990s?
No clue. And that's what scares me the most.
It reminds me of a school of fish. You don't know who the leader is. But one of them is the leader. And it's uncanny how fast they change course in near-unison within a fraction of a second without a "why" or "when" to use as a barometer.
That's much how Detroit is except that you can bank on one thing being for certain: when it changes, it just gets worse. Never better. You just don't know which neighborhoods will suddenly go to hell in a hand-basket or when.
Everyone in Detroit is running scared right now. It's like someone sucked all the oxygen out of the air while normal law-abiding citizens either prepare for war in the streets or are packing up their caravans and leaving everything behind for good.
So, why do I bother with an area that's a war zone?
First of all, you can still buy smart. There are "somewhat bad" areas, "just bad" areas, and "really bad" areas. Yes, it's like taking "Class D" properties and giving them grades. So, you have Class D+, Class D, and Class D-.
But what about Class C...or even Class B?
See, that's the part I'm getting at here. You don't have to take a war-zone area like Detroit and choose while level of shitty you will subject yourself to.
Instead, you bank on the fear with apartment building owners running around like chickens with their heads cut off, thinking the world is ending, and wanting to get out before "all hell breaks loose."
Years ago I did extremely well doing letter campaigns to lists of apartment building owners in specific parts of the country that I'm targeting. Then the bubble ballooned and the letter campaigns stopped working. The bubble popped (or rather exploded) and rocked the banking world to the point where we were literally hours away from a complete banking collapse in 2008 (which a lot of Americans don't even know how close we were). People who took cash out of their property by gutting their equity instantly found themselves upside down on their property. Doing creative deals with apartment owners became a thing of the past. Letter campaigns stopped working. Property owners started losing their properties to the bank. We all know the story.
Recently, there's been a revitalization in letter campaigns as of about 2 years ago.
Even more recent (since only a few months ago), I've been working with an incredibly unique letter campaign targeting apartment building owners in the greater Detroit area (including Macomb County).
But...this campaign is unique. How? Because I'm targeting the first and most powerful sales motivator: fear! I'm playing on the fears of "the sky is falling down" with these apartment building owners.
And it's working.
No, it's not like your traditional letter campaign where you're sending a letter to offer more to your apartment building owner or even to offer him a fair market-value price. In fact, you're not even mentioning anything about price or an offer at all. You're simply playing on the fear that their property is becoming more and more worthless as the minutes tick on because their area is becoming infested with the worst type of criminal element Detroit has ever seen in its history.
The good news? You can pick and choose your deals. You can offer them much less for their property than what's "fair" or even "market value." And, best of all, you don't have to choose between shitty Class D property #1 or shitty Class D property #2. Instead, you focus on the suburban cities where the element hasn't reached...yet.
And this strategy can work anywhere there is any type of criminal problem or element. This includes Memphis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Sacramento, St. Louis, Chicago...and on and on.
So...what does this "top secret" letter say since it's not like the rest of the letters that you'd use in a more "traditional" letter campaign?
Guess you'll just have to come to Los Angeles on September 13th and 14th to find out. I'll be revealing this incredible secret during my 2-day Total Wealth Building Boot Camp Seminar. I'm doing a kick-ass 40th Birthday Weekend Blow Out deal that will literally blow your mind.
Plus you'll be extremely excited to know more about the impressive guest speakers I'll be having.
Plus...something I didn't mention on my website but I have at least 2 of my investor partners who will be attending as audience attendees who will be talking with my students to find solid equity partnership deals to fund. They'll be making the rounds, having drinks with students, and seeking out places they can put their money!
Here's the link to register and get the deal: http://www.monicamain.com/birthday_blow_out
Questions? Call my office after 9am Pacific Time at (661) 295-5050.
Just in case anyone is ever wondering why I never "go away" like I threaten to, it's because of stories like these. Check out this email that mysteriously ended up coming to me in my personal email inbox (which is an email I never give out to anyone):
"Monica,
I read your book about apartment investing back in 2010. Fast forward 4 years and today I own $18,000,000 in commercial real estate, over 630 units. Your book helped me tremendously and the confidence to make it happen! Thank you again Monica and see you at the top!!
Stephen"
I sent him an email back about how I was blown away with his email and told him congratulations on his success. I asked him if, by chance, he was willing to come out and speak at my event in September in Los Angeles. This was his reply:
"Monica,
Thank you for responding. I do have a humble beginning. Just 26 months ago I was living in a hotel in Dallas with less than $1,000 to my name. The one asset during that journey was my mindset. I read your course and had a millionaire mind. My first deal was a 50 unit apartment in Texas at $16,500 a door. I had it under contract for the right price but I had a huge problem. No money! I went to my step dad and he didn't have the 20% for the down payment either, which was $165,000. We got creative and went to the bank. My step dad had 1 rental property free and clear and we asked the bank if they would take his rental property as collateral, which they did. The second problem was we needed $50k to do the rehab. We didn't have it. The same bank agreed to give us a rehab loan. Fast forward 6 months later we refinanced the 50 unit and the appraisal came in at $1,500,000. We created $500,000 in equity on our first multi family deal in 6 months!
Our second deal is even better. Its a 108 unit in Dallas. We paid $2,850,000 for the property and it was 80% occupied. The seller agreed to hold 10% on a second note, so we got into the property with 10% down which was $285,000. Most of the $285,000 was equity we created on the first 50 unit. We filled the property up from 80% to 95% in 45 days. We just got a appraisal on the 108 unit last month and the property appraised for $4,000,000!! We created $1,150,000 in equity in less than 6 months on this deal! The great part was the previous owner had just rehabbed the property and just wanted out. She was 83 years old and her hard money loan was ballooning. I have several other apartment deals I could talk about. It really blows my mind on my balance sheet that I became a millionaire within 2 years. The best part is my step dad and I own 100% of our deals with no outside equity partners, except the 224 unit in Houston. I would love to share my story with a group of apartment entrepreneurs. I have not done a lot of public speaking but I am sure I can bring it. I have a lot of passion and multi family is the fastest way to accelerate massive wealth in the shortest period of time. I am sure I can come up with a PowerPoint and go over the properties we've purchased. We just closed a 85 unit apartment last week. The property was originally listed for $2,400,000 and we closed it for $1,625,000, again with no money down. We used equity out of our 108 unit and cross collateralized on the 85 unit. As you can tell I am really passionate about multi family. If you can let me know the day and time, along with how long the presentation should be. I will get working on it! :)
Stephen"
Stephen gave me his cell number so I called him today. What an incredible person! He's full of energy and inspiration like you wouldn't believe.
But more importantly, he made me think about some things.
Over the past few weeks I've been seriously thinking about the direction I want to go in. I re-watched a movie I saw some time ago called The Shift by Dr. Wayne Dyer. Good movie. You can watch it on YouTube.com if you feel so inclined.
I think we all get to a point in our lives where we feel "stuck" or know we want to venture into a different direction but don't know which direction to go into.
I've been at that stage for awhile now. This is what triggered my obsession with all of these different creative writing ventures and classes. Still, there's something missing.
This is what it looks like when we're traveling on the freeway of life. You're in the middle of nowhere with just your headlights illuminating the road a few feet at a time. You're on some path but without a specific destination in mind.
Then a sign post comes into light.
Mine came a few months back when I had a major New York publisher show interest in my Apartment Building Millionaire book and perhaps taking it mainstream.
"No thanks," I said. In my mind I convinced myself that nobody listens to me anyway. After all, we tend to focus on the negative (i.e. the glass half empty) rather than the success stories that I get every week.
So, I ignored the sign post while envisioning a completely different life for myself. It was probably more of a fantasy just to get away from what I'm really meant to do.
Then Hawaii for spring break came around this past April. Out of nowhere I had this really strong pull that I needed to help people on a larger scale. The thought of the New York publisher came to mind. I asked my daughter if I should write screenplays or if I should help people. "Help people," was her immediate response. And that was that.
Three weeks ago I started pounding out a book proposal. Then I stopped. "Is anyone really listening? Does anyone care about changing their life?"
Then Stephen wrote me his mind-blowing email. Out of nowhere. Just like that.
When I got on the phone with him he said, "We really need to do a book to tell everyone about this."
Another sign post illuminated. (The universe is about to hit me on my head with one of them if I don't listen this time.)
Back to Stephen, I think it's amazing that he agreed to speak at the 2-day seminar event in Los Angeles in September. As I explained to him on the phone, nobody cares that he's not a "polished professional speaker" because that's not why people go to an event like that. They come for the information. Not for a show. And his story is incredible.
The most awesome part about all of it is that he plans on sharing with you exactly what he did step by step to go from nothing to where he is now in only 4 years.
I put Stephen in my "star student" category for multifamily/apartment building success. Aran Dunlop is my star student for MHPs and Andrew Shaw is my star student for commercial-commercial buildings.
But $18 million and 630 units in 4 years?! Holy sh**! That's huge. Majorly huge!!
You know what? Anyone can do it if they focus and put their mind to it. And that's the entire point. Even if you know the mechanics, you can greatly benefit by having someone like Stephen rub off on you with motivation, inspiration, and a go-getter attitude.
I think it's your turn now, don't you agree?
For a short time, I have a deal on the seminar for those of you who want to have someone "magical" rub off on them.
A couple of days ago, I told you about 3 of my main Aggressive Income Strategies and how they're working so well that I'm taking advantage of this period of "borrowed time" to funnel Aggressive into Passive Income.
Then I promised to tell you about the top 4 best Passive Income property classes. So, here they are:
1) Single family residences (SFRs): As long as you don't mortgage these babies (and pay 100% cash), this is my preferred investment right now. I get the highest amount of rent per month, have the greatest amount of expense pass-through (on a residential property), and have the lowest amount of expenses (which means higher bottom-line cash flow) on these types of properties. Why no mortgage? Because it's too risky if your only tenant stops paying rent (through loss of job, maliciousness, death, etc.). You'll then personally have to carry the mortgage until an eviction occurs. And if it happens to more than a couple of your houses (because of a dip in the economy), you'll end up losing them.
2) "Quads": These are 4-plexes: You need great credit because you'll get a residential loan on these as an "investor." They require 25% cash down but the qualification requirements (aside from a 680+ mid-FICO and the cash) are nil. They offer a very nice cash flow yet have the highest bottom-line cash flow by percentage out of every other type of multifamily because the expenses are so low. (Not as low as an SFR but pretty damn close!)
3) Small apartment houses (24 units or less): I have really been focused on these for the past couple of years. I haven't even considered anything larger for the last solid 2 years. Why? The economy has changing. All serious "big boy" investors were snatching up all of the larger apartment buildings like they were going out of style since about late 2011. I found myself thoroughly sick of dealing with corporations with snotty real estate agents to boot while competing with malicious game-playing investors. Smaller apartment buildings are mom-and-pop owned and operated while most big investors avoid them altogether because they're not considered "big" money. So, no competition for me and I can negotiate with real people. Plus, lenders don't run me through the loop on requirements and I get much better bottom-line cash flow than I would on larger apartment buildings.
4) MHPs (mobile home parks): Specifically "resident-owned" properties, or at least that's how they are converted upon immediate possession...this means that the residents own their mobile homes (or trailers) and I just get "pad/lot" rent. I don't maintain any of the units, just the grounds. This is the ideal and most profitable situation. MHPs typically have the lowest expense ratio which are equivalent to the low expenses on SFRs.
What do I mean about properties with a "low" or "lowest expense ratio"?
You have something called a GOI or a "gross operating income." This is calculated annually (as with everything having to do with investment properties). It means the "gross receipts" or "gross rents" received in the period of a year.
Your "expense ratio" is the percentage or "chunk" of the GOI that's taken to cover property expenses including, but not limited to, insurance, management, utilities, taxes, etc.
Here's something that surprises most of my students. The larger the apartment building, the higher your expense ratio percentage. For example, a 100-unit apartment building in the Midwest will probably have an expense ratio of about 68%. This means that a whopping 68% of your GOI goes to expenses. And no, this does not include the mortgage payment either!
So, if your building has a GOI (or gross rental receipts) of $100,000 per year, a whopping $68,000 per year is going out for expenses and not even covering a single cent of the mortgage payment. This means that, more than likely, you're not making a damn dime on these types of properties.
However, when you have smaller multifamily properties, the expense ratio (or percentage) is much lower. You have fewer expenses. You have less money going out for property maintenance (including landscaping and snow blowing), fewer dollars for management costs, few (or no) common-area utilities to pay for, and lower property taxes.
If you had a "quad" (4-plex) in the same area of the Midwest, your expense ratio would be shoved down to about 32%. That's less than half of what it costs to operate a much larger property!
Doesn't it make more sense to, say, buy 25 "quads" (totaling 100 units), all with a consistent expense ratio of 32% across all 25 buildings vs. buying 1 single 100-unit building with an expense ratio of more than double? It certainly makes sense to me. Yes, it's more work but it's much more profitable.
Yet, strangely, all of my most fresh-out-of-the-box newbie real estate investing students want to run right out and get that 800-unit building. (I had a property that was so large that it required a freaking unbelievable 88% in expense ratio to keep the property functioning. Once I took the property over, I cured the vacancy problem then sold it. It didn't seem worth it to me to make chump change on the cash flow on such a large building when I could do 100% better on a handful of smaller properties. It just didn't make any sense to me!) These types of assets are a waste of time even if a newbie investor can somehow miraculously raise the millions of dollars needed for the down payment, have the credit requirements in place, show the lender a management resume and prove that they have a vast portfolio of other properties verifying that (s)he is an experienced enough investor. (Yes, all this stuff is required to purchase multi-million-dollar properties.)
This is all stuff you need to know if you want to cash in with real estate in the New Economy.
How are you going to learn all of this stuff overnight?
I'm not aiming at teaching you everything overnight. My job is to get you started. Get you motivated and educated enough to get off your ass and get started in the business of investing.
This is where my September LA event comes in. Not only am I going to show you how to get the money for your real estate but where to invest that money for maximum leverage and bottom-line cash flow.
What I'm going to be describing to you in 2 power-packed days in Los Angeles is exactly what I'm doing on this Aggressive Income side (Day 1) and where I'm funneling the cash (Day 2) into Passive Income Assets.
This is going to be a more intense seminar event than my prior events because the days will be longer. I'm aiming on presenting 3 days worth of material in only 2 days.
Here's the link: http://www.monicamain.com/new_wealth_warrior_seminar_event
If you want to get started with the Aggressive Income side right now, I have my last ever New Wealth Ninja Mentorship Group starting on Wednesday. This will kick-start the Aggressive side into action so, by the time you attend the event in September, you'll already have some cash for your Passive Income Assets!
Many of you have been clued in on the fastest and most streamlined way to wealth:
Aggressive to Passive Income
For some of you newcomers (or those of you who have amnesia), Aggressive Income is when you basically write your own check, making however much you want through a home-based business that you start with next to nothing and operate with next to no overhead. (You certainlydon't want employees!)
With the competition in real estate these days (since the market has been heating up due to our economic recovery), you really should have cash down for your real estate deals.
And why for real estate?
Because there isn't a single investment out there aside from cash flowing passive income real estate that can beat the long-term retirement benefits other than real estate.
And how awesome is it that you can be retired, enjoying a massive increase in your bottom-line cash flow each decade, and being about to more than keep up with hyper inflation, taking trips whenever you want (instead of just talking about traveling the world yet never actually doing it), and not having to worry about making ends meet when you're old and gray?
Here's the cold, hard truth of what's going on out there:
Seniors are working at fast food restaurants and as grocery store baggers, not because they want to but because they have to. Many lost their retirement or are living long beyond the capacity of their retirement savings and they're competing with pimple-faced teenagers over bogus minimum-wage jobs to survive.
Nobody really anticipated the changes of the economy. Nobody knew what our New Economy would look like.
But here's something that would have never changed for someone who would have purchased a bunch of investment real estate in, say, the 70s and was actually smart enough to buy and hold those properties till today: they wouldn't be worried about vying for a job that a teenager should have, wondering how they're going to pay for the drastic price increase of their needed prescription medications, or wondering how they're going to cover their health insurance requirements.
Anyone smart enough to buy investment property in the 70s and who have kept those properties...well, those folks are sitting pretty, literally laughing their way to the bank each and every month like clockwork.
When I first started teaching my successful real estate investing strategies back in 2002/2003, I remember listening to people my parent's age whining and bitching about how they would be "well off" if they only invested in the 70s and how they missed the boat.
I would always roll my eyeballs because (1) I was born in the mid-70s and couldn't invest during that time if I wanted to, and (2) there is always opportunity whether it's now or in the near future.
All you have is right now. You don't have the past to keep hanging your "what ifs" on anymore because that'll never do you a damn bit of good.
What I did notice is that these people who would always complain and insist they should have invested probably wouldn't have invested anyway, even if they had every advantage at the time including (1) perfect personal credit, (2) the down payment cash, and (3) a leprechaun instantly appearing in their lap, jumping up and down, and insisting that there's "gold" in 1970s real estate.
How do I know that this is the case? Because right now we still have opportunities that areeven better than those in the 70s...and these people are still doing nothing about that opportunity.
Maybe you're one of those people. (I sure hope not!)
In order to compete in this real estate market, you're going to have to get yourself some cash for these deals. And the best way I know of is via Aggressive Income Strategies.
Many of my students have asked me since I've announced my major changes in Global Success exactly why I'm stepping back from teaching. (And they often ask if it's forever or just a temporary thing...of which I don't have an answer yet.) The truth is...I put my money where my mouth is and I walk the talk.
For the past 2 years I've been talking about Aggressive Income. I've even used myself as my own "case study" for new experiments so that I could give my students the most precise and timely step-by-step strategies that work in today's economic conditions.
And because of that, of course, I've created some incredibly lucrative and profitable Aggressive Income businesses that do exactly what I need them to do: get me the cash to continue funneling into my passive income (real estate) investments. Since these strategies require much less in the "brain power" department than the energy it takes to teach, train, speak and write for my students, I know that I'm on a time limit on getting more passive income properties before the music stops. (I'm already working on "borrowed" time since the window of opportunity has officially closed in many major cities in the country already.)
Here are my top Aggressive Income Strategies I've been actively using:
1) Health supplement distribution: I have 2 main methods of distribution which are (1) business-to-business (wholesale) and (2) consumer direct (Internet and mail order). Part of the Internet distribution portion is via eBay and Amazon.
2) Information publishing: Global Success fits into this category. (I actually make a lot more money with the health supplement business.)
3) Kindle publishing: This is fairly new for me and is less than a year old. I'm doing extremely well with it and making a nice steady stream of residual income.
These strategies will get you started on the Aggressive Income side and making the cash needed for your real estate deals in no time!
As of a few minutes ago, Jeanine's been terminated. Yes, that's right. She's been the negative chick in my office who can't shut up about how bad life is. I knew I was going to terminate her earlier in the week when I finally had enough of her complaining about...well, every freaking thing. It was giving me a headache.
And I'm sure she's bitching as we speak about what an ass**** I am. Reality is, I just couldn't take it anymore and I'm sure there are other people in her life who are also struggling with her "strong" personality.
What people don't understand is that they bring things on themselves...and then they don't want to take personal responsibility for it.
Don't let that be you.
Just as easy as it is for you to take responsibility for the bad in your life, you can immediate take responsibility for shifting your life in the direction you want to go.
And you can do that today. That's how fast you can make the shift.
You see, it's merely a realization and decision you make.
Do you decide to take personal responsibility? Or do you decide to blame others?
If you admit that it is all you who is creating the crappy life you have, you can empower yourself to know that it'll be all you who gets to create the life you want. Today. Right now.
One thing that I'm constantly in awe of is the amount of opportunity that all of us have in today's global economy. I love it! We have even more opportunity now than we did 10 years ago and it's getting better and better with technology, globalization and a strengthening economy.
If you're not making money, there's something wrong.
A couple of years ago I did an Aggressive Income experiment that ended up turning into a multi-million-dollar per year business. And this was merely an experiment to show my students acting as my own "case study" if you will.
One of the things I keep pressing upon is the urgency behind getting a powerful income-producing Aggressive Income Business so that you can funnel that cash into Passive Income Assets (including apartment buildings, SFRs, MHPs, etc.).
And time is running out.
How is time running out exactly?
As the economy recovers, prices of real estate will increase. This means less (or no) profitability in cash flowing real estate.
The good news for you is that the real estate market has tapered off. It's gone into a slight plateau (with still an upward hardly-noticeable incline). This will give you the opportunity to get your sh** together once and for all.
What's even more exciting is that I'm doing a very intense 2-day New Wealth Warrior Boot Camp Seminar in September in Los Angeles. I'm coining it "Monica's Last Stand."
Here's the truth of the matter:
When I started this "case study" experiment 2 years ago, I didn't expect it to go quite as well as it did. What this opportunity allows me to do is get a ton of cash in Aggressive Income to funnel directly into Passive Income Assets.
And I can do this without thinking too much. Or at all, for that matter.
The Global Success side of my company requires thinking on my part. And energy. And stress. I sort of need a break from that for a while.
What I'm going to be describing to you in 2 power-packed days in Los Angeles is exactly what I'm doing on this Aggressive Income side (Day 1) and where I'm funneling the cash (Day 2) into Passive Income Assets.
This is going to be a more intense seminar event than my prior events because the days will be longer. I'm aiming on presenting 3 days worth of material in only 2 days.
On the last night of this event, I'll be throwing a mini-retirement party for Lea and I want you guys and gals to be there since she's been a tremendous service to GSS for the past...damn, going on 5 years now!
I'm offering a kick-ass deal right now since it is my birthday month and all. And it's not just any birthday month for me. I'm turning 40. ;-)
If you have any questions, call my office at (661) 295-5050.
I've been going on and on with me ongoing issues with this one difficult employee of mine: Jeanine.
You know what's strange about looking at other people: you can clearly see what they're doing wrong when you can possibly be missing the point when it comes to looking at those very same issues in yourself.
For example, Jeanine will sit in my office day in and day out bitching about how shitty life is for her. Yet when I've shown her how to improve her credit, her response is this: "Black people don't have credit or credit cards." Hmmm...interesting choice of words, except that I know a lot of black people who have good credit and understand the value of being responsible with their credit.
And I'm still waiting for her to decide that she wants to improve her life by at least getting a brochure to that beauty school she's been talking about.
In the meantime, she sits in my office morning after morning complaining about how difficult life is for her as a single mom.
And I've just about had it with the negative energy that she's been bringing to my office. (I won't tell you exactly what will be happening but her days are drastically numbered here. I'll keep you posted.)
Jeanine, it seems, has a chip on her shoulder. She's preliminarily decided how bad life will be and fulfills that prophecy for herself by refusing to better her life in any way...then says, "Told you so!"
I hate excuse-makers. Period. I know what it means to have an uphill battle. Yet I keep showing up, doing what I can in my power to make things happen, and keep swinging that bat until things happen for me. We can't control everything but we can control more than we think based on making decisions and, most importantly, taking positive actions to get to where we want to go.
Most of you know about my hobby as a screenwriter. Last year I decided to stop talking about it and to start doing something about it. No, I can't control whether my work will be seen by the right people or whether I'll ever sell a screenplay to Hollywood. What I can control is sitting my ass down, writing the scripts, and sending them out to see what happens.
One thing about the universe that is freaking awesome. When you set out on a specific path, if it's not right for you, you'll be purposely veered into the correct direction.
However, here's the catch. If you don't embark on any path, you won't be diverted or re-directed onto the right path.
The universe hates inactivity and lack of movement. You sit on your ass and make no attempt at doing anything for your life, you'll get ass-sitting results (otherwise known as "nothing").
However, when you get out there and make an honest attempt at fulfilling any dream you want for yourself, the universe will part the waters for you. It just may be different waters in a different sea...a much better sea and one that you would have never considered before.
Once I started embarking on my screenwriting journey, I realized something. I've outgrown the dream. It was a dream that the teenage Monica had. It's not a dream I have anymore. Yes, I'm still writing just because I enjoy it but when I started thinking through having meetings with studios and going through the Hollywood charade, I have this sinking feeling in my stomach.
I was put on this earth to serve in a much greater way than to churn out a bunch of popcorn scripts.
Here's what happened when I began my writing journey:
After I finished my first screenplay, I was given a powerful vision in a dream. And when I woke up, I realized what my next step in the writing journey needs to be.
Would the universe have given me this clue had I not set out in any direction as far as writing goes? Probably not. After all, the universe has been withholding this information for me until the force knew I was ready to start moving. Only then did it unfold this revelation once I began moving in a specific direction...any direction!
Don't worry about not moving in the right direction or making the right decision. The only time you need to worry about that is if you're going to make a decision that is irreversible such as having a child or...cutting your left arm off. Otherwise, if you're moving in a direction that you 100% believe is the right choice for now, start moving and your realdirection will be revealed to you only after you've made the "movement commitment" and you're actually moving forth with your goal.
So, what was revealed to me in this "vision" of mine?
I'll tell you soon. Very soon.
What's awesome about being put on the correct path is that you just "know" that it's the right one. You have this sense of excitement in the pit of your stomach with the thought of..."Of course this is it; I was born to do this!" And it feels like the sun and stars are in perfect alignment for the first time in your life. Even winning the lottery wouldn't give you such a high, exhilarating feeling than receiving this gift from the universe.
Meanwhile, we have people (like Jeanine, for instance) whose only movement is flapping their gums about how the world is conspiring against them to ensure that they remain unsuccessful. Forget about the fact that these people refuse to get off their asses to do something to progressively move forward. Let's not mention that little itty-bitty part. No. Instead, let's focus on why it's everyone else's fault that they can't get anywhere.
I was telling Lea this morning that there is not a single excuse anyone can use for not achieving their dreams except for laziness. When I work on my writing, I do so at night (sometimes until midnight) and on the weekends for at least 10 hours (if not longer) because nothing will hold me back from what I want to do. Nothing.
And I'm a single parent. And I work 50 hours a week.
So, nobody has an excuse unless you're lying in a hospital bed in a coma or a body cast.
Do you have any freaking idea how abundant the opportunities are in this country? I'm in awe of that everyday! I clearly see the opportunity and I'm always lining things up for myself to take advantage of what's right here right in front of me day in and day out in this great country we call the United States of America.
This summer is going to be my summer of movement. July is a huge month for me. I'm actually shutting down the warehouse that I have and stuffing everything into a tiny office. (I'm going from a 4,200 square foot warehouse/office to a 1,200 square foot warehouse/office. Yes, I'm shaving 3,000 square feet off.)
What happened to September 30th? Well, remember what I just said about the universe and movement? Once I made the decision that I was going to move, this amazing opportunity just showed up last week for this unit that, coincidentally, I've been looking at on and off for the past few years. I wanted to wait until September but the unit is coming available July 1st and I'd miss out on it if I waited. (These units go lightning fast.) I already applied, was approved, and I'm signing the lease.
And I haven't felt so excited in a very long time.
Why? Because I have a plan in my mind and it's unfolding...quicker than anticipated.
One of these plan elements has to do with real estate investing. The other is Aggressive Income to dump into specific types of real estate.
I love using myself as my own experimental guinea pig. All I'm going to be doing for the next 18 months solid (after I move office in July) is "the plan."
What is "the plan"?
I can't tell you. Not yet, anyway.
But here's how you can find out about "the plan:" http://www.monicamain.com/new_wealth_warrior_seminar_event
Ever since I chunked down my "New Life" timeline back in March, everything has been automatically changing in my life without much effort on my part. In fact, at the link above, I show you what this timeline looks like so you can see it yourself.
My point in all this? If you believe someone is holding you back then you're right. Unfortunately, that person who is holding you back is you. Maybe it's time you stop doing that to yourself. The world will move on...with or without your participation.
