The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom

Mark Kenney is a seasoned real estate investor, entrepreneur and founder of Think Multifamily. Mark started his real estate career over 20 years ago and has extensive experience in property valuation, acquisition, and operations. He has a passion for helping other succeed in the multifamily arena. Mark is invested in over 3,500 units and has a top-notch reputation among the multifamily investment community for providing exceptional value to investors and the community while being easy to work with. Mark is a 1993 graduate at Michigan State University, Accounting and is a CPA. Mark has also provided IT technical and business consulting for 20 years and is leveraging his vast IT experience to bring new creative technologies that will help others in the multifamily space. He has worked for large organizations such as KPMG Consulting, EDS, SAP, and HP; he founded Simplifying-IT in 2008 which provides IT services to fortune 500 companies. Key Points Turning the corner from small multifamily properties to large apartment deals How to position yourself to raise capital What value you can bring to partnerships  Real estate is a relationship business - you have to build personal relationships  Be willing to be scared  Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Mark's biggest hurdle was the fear of raising capital. TO overcome that fear, he put himself out there by going to events and talking with people.  Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success? Always stay humble and exercise.  Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Google.com What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? The ABC's or Real Estate Investing by Ken McElroy If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be? You don't have to start out small. Find someone who is doing what you want, and learn from them.  Resources Visit Audible for a free trail and free audio book download! Think Multifamily Email: Mark@ThinkMultifamily.com

In life you are faced with an almost unlimited number of options. In fact, some studies suggest that the average person makes up to 35,000 decision every single day. Most of these decisions are menial - what color shirt will you wear for the day, what social media app will you open on your phone, will you make coffee at home or pick it up at your local coffee shop, etc. Very few decisions you make are big picture questions, for example - what am I doing today that puts me closer to my long term goals, how do I want to spend my time in my 30's, 40's, or 50's, what am I doing now that brings me gratification, etc.  We tend to just go through the motions making the small easy decisions, while avoiding the harder questions and decisions. Anything worth pursuing in life comes with challenges. Starting that side hustle, learning that new skill, travelling to that new place, saving for that investment opportunity, or anything else you want comes with challenges. These things require your time, dedication, and mental toughness. These are the things that won't simply just fall in your lap. You have to work for them. You have to want them enough. You have to make them happen. Simply saying you want to achieve something isn't enough. You have to do things today that will put you in position to achieve those goals tomorrow. If you don't wan't that thing enough, then the challenges and hurdles to get there may prevent you from making that big decision to pursue it. "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty. I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well."  ― Theodore Roosevelt When you've made the decision to pursue something challenging, take on that endeavor with the mentality that you are going to make it happen by doing whatever it takes. If you stick with that mindset and don't quit, then you will most assuredly achieve that goal. Understand that you can achieve any goal that you set your mind to. You just have to make the decision, stick with it, and make it happen. Here are 5 steps to achieving any goal: Start with your mindset. Understand why you want to achieve your goal. Use emotionally based reasoning here. Describe to yourself how you will feel if you do or don't achieve the goal. Identify how you will feel if you don't give it your best effort. This emotionally based reasoning will resonate with you and give you the motivation you need to achieve your goals. Decide that you are going to make it happen by doing whatever it takes. Commit to yourself that you will stop at no barrier. You will find a way to make it work. Write your goals down. One of the best ways I've found to make something happen starts with writing it down every single day. When you do this, you are keeping that fresh in your mind and reminding yourself of it daily. There's significant research and psychological studies around this topic, if you want to learn more about it. I can speak from personal experience that writing down your goals every day does impact your mindset. If that goal is fresh in your mind every day, your mind begins to find ways to make it happen. Take action. This is where the rubber meets the road. You've laid the foundation with your mindset and you're prepared to take action. Do something every single day that puts you one step closer to your goal. Chances are it will be a long journey, and you are in this for the long haul. Lastly, don't give up. If you have built a strong mindset anchored by your reasons why and coupled that mindset with action, then you have a recipe for achieving any goal you set your mind to, so long as you never give up. This is where you make things happen. You will run into unexpected challenges. You have to find a way to make it happen.

Mark Dolfini is the author of The Time-Wealthy Investor.  He is a husband, father, and a veteran of the United States Marines.  He is a real person who owns several million dollars worth of real estate, and has actively managed over $40 million in real estate in his 20 years of being in the real estate business.  That is not what makes his story so compelling.  He has  Time-Wealth.  He is now able to control his calendar to do the things he wants, when he wants, and with whom he wants to do them.  What makes my story compelling is not that I have concocted the latest real estate scheme or similar nonsense.  No, he thinks what others find so compelling in his story is that: Key Points From Marine to millionaire real estate investor Learning from this mistakes of managing 92 single family properties  Being over-leveraged n 2008 VIP - Vision, Infrastructure, & Process Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Figuring out how the banks underwrite deals.  Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success? Mark is viscous about how he spends his time, by batching activities (ex. - email) Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Contactually  What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be? Value your time. Not every day is promised.  Resources Visit Audible for a free trail and free audio book download! LandlordCoach.com/theway Landlord Coach Instagram

Real estate investing is a dollars and numbers driven game, from cap rates and internal rates of return, to lead generation response rates, and occupancy rates. It can be easy to to get lost in all of the numbers, looking at each and every opportunity through a spreadsheet. Sure, the numbers are important. Afterall, that's why you are investing in the first place. But it's important to remember that behind every number, behind every deal, behind every loan, insurance policy, management company, mailing list, and contract is a person. Some would say real estate is a numbers game, as they measure and focus on ROI, Cash-on-Cash Returns, Cap Rates, interest rates, etc. Others will tell you it's a operations game, as they focus on property management, leasing, implementing value add business plans, and exit strategies. Then, there are the people who say that real estate is a relationship game, as they focus on building relationships with brokers, investors, property managers, property owners, etc. No matter what game you are playing, it's important to remember that you are dealing with people. People who want to be treated like people, not numbers on a spreadsheet. The best way to connect with someone is to be personable.   Being personable means you are able to relate to others and be relatable. By understanding that each person has their own agenda, challenges, and goals, you can relate to that person and understand their perspective. This is especially vital when negotiating. Building a personal relationship with each and every person you come across will pay dividends. Here are 5 ways you can be personable. Find a common topic you can relate to with someone. That might be the holidays, weather, sports teams, news, etc. If you can find some common ground, you can relate to that person and start to build some rapport. Share something about yourself. If you can share a personal detail about yourself, it will show that you too are a human, with challenges and goals just like that other person. Ask questions about the other person. Get to know them on a personal level. This might be the easiest way to connect with someone. Simply ask a question about the person and listen. Talking about yourself is easy for most people and it's natural to want to do so. Run with that and let the other person do that majority of the talking. Ask the person for a small favor. This one sounds weird, I know. It comes from a psychological trick I read in Robert Cialdini's book, Influence. If you ask someone for a favor, they are inclined to say yes. Their rationalization kicks in and they come up with reasons why you are worthy of such favor. Be sure to return that favor in the future! Be understanding of the other person's position. Put yourself in their shoes, and think of their interests before your own.  Real estate investing, although number and dollar focused, is a relationship business at its core. People before profits should be your mantra. If you want to be a successful real estate investor, you should focus on helping other people. Don't focus on what you want. rather focus on the other person's interests. 

Greg McCluskey is a professional real estate investor with over 21 years of experience. At a young age, his father instilled within him the importance of family, education and entrepreneurship. He started his real estate training after graduating college where he worked for Franklin Covey for 3 years. With limited experience, he purchased three properties in a span of 30 days each returning a hefty profit $88,000, $76,000 and $74,000. This allowed him to quit his job and go on to build several successful businesses such as: a construction company, mortgage brokerage, real estate consulting company, development company and dealt with multiple investments in numerous real estate properties and construction projects. In 2004, Greg was able to flip a total of 104 homes in the Salt Lake area. His success allowed him to expand his business to Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Massachusetts. His business was involved with over $175 million in real estate. This allowed him to spend quality time with his children where they traveled often together. In 2008, Greg was hit hard by the real estate meltdown. He lost everything; except the people whom he cared for the most, his Children. Their unconditional love and support inspired Greg to use his knowledge and expertise to bounce back and rise above his struggles despite having no money and credit. Greg just exited a project in 2018 controlling over 1,000,000 sq. ft. of residential and commercial real estate in and around Dayton, OH; in addition to 57 properties flipped in the Columbus, OH market. Greg has built a new business, Breakaway Training LLC, where he provides an affordable solution for people interested in learning and mastering valuable skills in real estate without breaking the bank to get an education. Key Points From rags to riches to rags From picking up his first Carlton Sheets course to flipping homes Greg has learned everything he knows in business from coaching girls soccer Finding flip properties in foreclosure Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Mindset. Greg improved his mindset by reading books, focusing on positive thinking. Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success? Reading. Greg also wakes up everyday with faith and expectations. Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Google What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? Being Happy by Andrew Matthews The Servant by James C. Hunter If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be? Go get your first property. Just do it. Don't wait. Find a mentor and follow that person. Resources Visit Audible for a free trail and free audio book download! BreakAwayMindset.com Greg's Facebook Profile Greg's LinkedIn Profile

With the new year approaching, many people are considering how they can do things differently, be more effective, grow personally, do more, do less, and overall become better. Sometimes, in order to do more, you have to learn to do less. If there is anything I've learned in my own real estate investing journey, is you cannot do everything on your own. Real estate investing is a team sport. There are a lot of moving parts that require specific skills and expertise. From CPAs, to SEC attorneys, contract attorneys, lenders, property managers, brokers, etc., each person has something they contribute to the deal. Even further, as a real estate investor, there are even more skill that are needed just to complete one deal. From finding deals, to making offers, securing financing, raising capital, vetting property managers, managing the asset, refinancing or selling the asset, investor communication, etc., there are so many things required in sponsoring a deal. It doesn't make sense for someone to think they can do all of these things on their own. Instead, you have to identify what you can do well - your superpower. Make a reference to how a superhero doesn’t do their own taxes, swim when they can fly, etc. They focus on what they are good at. As a successful real estate investor you will have to identify your super power. Each person has their own unique skill, capability, or expertise. I'm sure you have something you are better at than anyone else you know, whether you know it or not. You might be very analytical and able to build financial models with attention to details. You might be a person with the ability to think of the big picture, and able to visualize what needs to be done on a larger scale. Maybe you are a great people person and are able to connect and relate with almost anyone. You might be able to raise capital from investors using this skill. Perhaps you are great at telling stories and would be good at marketing. No matter who you are, you have a unique skill that you can use. If you haven't unlocked your super power yet, here are a few ways to find that super power. Think of what you are good at What do you like to do? What do others look to you for? The intersection of these 3 things is your super power. By now, you've probably started to think of your super power. Even further you can enlist the help of friends and family, by asking them. Here are two simple questions you can ask them. What is my unique ability? What do I naturally do better than most people? Having external feedback from people who know you well will help you further identify how others see you. This plays into point 3 above, in what do others look to you for. By asking yourself and others these few questions, you will get a really good idea of what your super power is. Don’t worry about trying to make your weaknesses your super power. There’s too many skills when investing in real estate to master everything. Instead, focus on your super power and partner with other people with complimenting super powers. Use your super power to the best of your ability. Use it to help others and yourself. Soon enough, you look back at all the things you've accomplished by focusing on using your super power.

Lee Kearney  is one of the nation’s most successful single-family real estate investors. Since 2004, he has bought/sold 7,000+ properties, and is known as the expert in leveraging real estate market cycles. He now owns several real estate businesses in Florida, all operating under the Southeast Property Investments Network (SPIN) brand, to fix and flip properties across the U.S., with a total sales volume exceeding $50M in 2017. Lee taps into his expertise and passion for mentorship to educate others on leveraging market cycles to grow their own real estate businesses. His education platform FLIP YOUR INCOME offers several levels of training designed for beginning investors, mid-level operators who wish to scale their operations, and seasoned investors looking to manage their profits. Key Points Asking questions to learn the business Parlaying flip profits into rentals Learning from mistakes as you go Buying properties in foreclosure  Earning $2M in your 20's - all good things must come to an end Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Raising capital. Lee made raising capital a part of how he operates.  Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success? Lee sets himself up for success with a morning routine.  Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Google Suite - Sheets, Tasks, Calendar, etc.  What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? Tools of the Titans by Tim Ferris If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be? Put your foot down when you see an opportunity.  Resources Visit Audible for a free trail and free audio book download! SPIN Real Estate FLIP YOUR INCOME

An active income is one that requires you to do something. For most, this is working a job, either for an employer or for one’s self. Active income encompasses more than just working a job though. It can include active investing, building businesses, teaching, or even travelling. Passive income is income that doesn’t require you to do anything. Common types of passive income include income from investments like real estate, stocks, and even investing passively in businesses. There are investments that can either be active or passive, depending on how you manage those investments. Real estate is a good example. If you are living in one unit of a duplex and renting out the other, then chances are that investment isn’t totally passive. You will likely be collecting rent, paying utilities, managing tenants, showing and leasing the property, hiring contractors for repairs, paying taxes, shopping insurance, etc. This structure is hardly passive. Al alternative model would be hiring a property manager to take care of all of those things. You would simply review your monthly statement from the property manager. This is a much more passive approach. So why do we concern ourselves with active vs. passive income anyways? If you can build passive income streams, that require little to no time to manage, then you can use that time to build more and more passive income streams. Whereas, active income streams you are limited with your time an energy. There are only so many hours in the day you can work and spend energy doing. Passive income and active income can be compared using the analogy watering your garden. Your garden is your life. Watering is the fuel to your life. Active income is carrying buckets of water to that garden every day. If you don’t carry water, your garden goes unattended and left on its own. Passive income is setting up a sprinkler system that automatically waters your garden every day, whether you are attending to it or not. So, are you carrying buckets or setting up sprinkler systems? You can ask yourself this question for more than just investing. It applies to your finances, diet, exercise, education, etc. Are you building processes and systems that will work for you? Or are you doing the same work day in and day out, wondering how you could accomplish more? Real estate investing is one of the areas where you can set up your own sprinkler systems. If you are investing in real estate but are still carrying buckets, then what’s the point? Here are some areas in which you can set up sprinkler systems in your business. Searching for deals – this is perhaps the most time consuming task of any full time real estate investor. Finding deals is a process that requires constant work. You can find a deal, purchase it, rent it, etc. then you’re back to square one searching for the next deal. Rather than doing this one by one approach, you could instead build a pipeline of deals that come to you. There are tons of different strategies on lead generation – from direct mail campaigns, to bandit signs, websites, etc., just to name a few. Building systems and processes that create a constant stream of deals is perhaps your most important sprinkler system. Without deals, you have no investment. Analyzing deals. Starting out it can take hours to analyze a deal, and with one wrong assumption you can derail the entire analysis. Setting some criteria and using some rules of thumb can filter how many deals you look at in depth, leaving more time to analyze the deals that fit your investment criteria. Rather than doing napkin math on every deal, find a good calculator you can use. I like to use the rental property calculator on BiggerPockets for small multifamily rentals. Raising capital. Raising capital is not something everyone does.

Tim Bratz  is the CEO and founder of CLE Turnkey Real Estate, a real estate investment company that acquires and transforms distressed commercial and apartment buildings into high-performance investment assets for their own portfolio. Working in real estate, Tim has learned how to build a passive business and create a residual income that allows him to live the lifestyle of his choice. He’s here to educate and empower others to become financially free through commercial real estate. Key Points From brokering deals, to learning to invest in deals Using resourcefulness as the ultimate resource Building a resume by giving up large amounts of equity partners Time blocking Finding money and finding deals - the two most important skills Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Youth was a hurdle with Tim, getting started when he was in his early 20's. Tim used that resourcefulness to find deals and find capital, leveraging partnerships. Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success? Time blocking. Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Excel and Google Docs What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? Twelve Pillars by Jim Rohn If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be? Find a mentor or mastermind group. Resources Visit Audible for a free trail and free audio book download! www.CLETurnkey.com Commercial Empire

With the new year approaching come new years resolutions. It's tradition to take on the new year with aspirations of improvement. From health and exercise, to hobbies, finances, jobs, vacations, etc., people make plans to develop new habits and change their lifestyle. The new year represents a time for people to form half-hearted plans to radically change their lives. The problem with new years resolutions is they are pinned to an arbitrary date. Sure, the date is significant as it starts the new calendar year. But other than that, what does it have with your lifestyle and habits? Nothing really. That's why so many people find themselves back to their old ways by February.Unfortunately many new years resolutions are short lived and often produce little to no results. I know because just like everyone else, I've set New Years resolutions only to let them fizzle away. To those who have set new years resolutions and stuck with them, congrats to you! You are in the minority, and your efforts should be applauded. Now I don't mean to come down hard on New Years resolutions. At the very least, they're better than doing nothing to try to improve yourself. But there's a much better way to work on your self improvement, if that's what you want. Rather than setting New Years resolutions, I think it's much more important to set both long term and short term goals anchored by your vision. Your vision is the anchor here, not January 1st. Step one is develop a vision. Your vision is just as it sounds, literally. It's your vision for how you want your life to be. From work/life balance, to family, finances, hobbies, lifestyle, travel, etc., you should visualize as specific as possible what you want your life to look like. Some questions you can ask yourself inlcude: How much time do I was to spend working? How much time do I was to spend with family? How much income will I need to live the life I want? What ways do I want to spend my free time? What things are important to me that I would like to spend more energy doing? These are all questions that will help you determine your vision. From there, you can create some goals that will drive you to that vision. For example, if you want to spend 3 months per year vacationing with your family, completely unplugged from work, then you need to identify some goals that will get you to that point. You might find that you need to earn $10,000 per month in income for 9 months per year, so that you can afford that lifestyle. Great! Now we're making real progress here! You can see how this anchor is much stronger than an arbitrary calendar date. If you have emotions and a dream tied to your daily tasks, then you are more likely to stick with those and actually realize results. Once you have your vision crafted, it's time to identify some goals. Having long term goals are great. They give you something to strive towards, something to work for and look forward to. Short term goals are just as important because they are the stepping stones to your long term goals. You can't set and forget a long term goal, and expect to achieve it "one day". Rather, break that long term goal into smaller attainable actions. I like to start with a decade out and identify some goals there, then I break those goals into annual goals, then then the annual goal into weekly steps. This approach takes that large goal and breaks it into small attainable actions. When you take this path towards goal setting versus the new years resolution, it's easy to see why you have a better chance of actually sticking with a plan and realizing improvement, day after day, week after week, year after year. It's okay to change your goals as you go. After-all, you won't be the same person in a year as you are today, especially when you are on an upward path of self improvement.

Juan Vargas, host of the Commit To Wealth Podcast, is a full time entrepreneur and real estate investor with a focus on multifamily. Juan's desire to be involved in his family's lives is what drove him to quit his job as a BMW Technician to pursue real estate investing full time.  After buying his very first home, to doing some flips and eventually deciding to pursue apartments, Juan has gone on to control over 200 apartments. Juan has been able to purchase apartments by finding creative ways to find, finance, and form partnerships.  Key Points Understanding the importance of hard work Going from single family to multifamily investments Creative ways to crack into multifamily - partnering, financing, and finding off market deals Educate yourself, but also take action - you don't have to know everything Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Fear of the unknown. The best way to overcome that fear is to take action.  Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success? Juan reads every day, and joins up on weekly and biweekly calls with like-minded people.  Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Slack.com Facebook groups What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson Extrememe Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be?  Work to earn, not work to learn. Find someone who is doing what you want, and learn from them.  Resources Visit Audible for a free trail and free audio book download! www.TheJuanVargas.com  Commit To Wealth Podcast Juan@committowealth.com

People are an interactive species. We build communities, groups, and nations. We identify with causes, organizations, teams, and professions. We are social creatures. We rely on each other for almost everything. This network can best be summarized with the term Social Capital. Social Capital the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively. In almost anything we do, we need the help of other people. From work to family and everything in between, almost everything is a team sport. You need help and support from other people, and likewise, other people need help and support from you. The same is especially true with real estate investing. When investing in real estate, whether that's single family, multifamily, fixing and flipping, etc., you need the power of a team. Rarely can you be successful going at it alone. The problem is everyone is busy. It's not that people don't want to help you; they just often don't have the time to. So what is one who needs help to do? The solution might be a bit counter-intuitive. In order to receive, you must first give. What does this mean exactly? You have to provide value to other people. Go above and beyond to help others out. This is what I like to call social capital. If you can consistently provide value to others, then when you need something, they will be more likely to give back to you. It's a give before you take structure, and rings true for almost any situation. In fact, the formula goes something like this - give + give + give + give = ask. You should have some much social capital in the bank that anytime you need something you can be sure that whatever or whoever it is you need will recognize the value you have provided and be willing to reciprocate that value in return. Here are just a few ways you can provide value to someone: Find good deals and bring them to someone who can act on them. Successful real estate investors are busy. Finding good deals is perhaps the hardest part of the real estate equation, especially in today's market. If you can find a good deal and share it with someone who values that deal, then you are doing that person a great favor. You might do this with no expectation of return on that deal, or very little - perhaps a finder's fee, a small equity split, or just to tag along and learn the process of due diligence, raising capital, closing the deal, operating, and executing the business plan, which in my opinion is more valuable than a small amount of money. If you can find deals, then you can find friends and partners. Find capital. Like deals, capital is another part of the real estate equation. If you have a network of people who are interested and qualified to invest in real estate, then perhaps you can introduce them to a real estate investor. By sharing these connections and building those relationships, you are providing value to both parties. There are people who make a living out of raising capital for investors and are very good at it. David Thompson, who will be on an upcoming episode is a good example of someone who is doing this. Sweat equity. Sweat equity is a term for trading work in exchange for, well.. equity. If you are just starting out your sweat may not be worth any equity just yet though. You could find someone who is doing what it is you want, like syndicating large apartment deals and offer to help them. You could help analyze properties, shop competitors, prepare presentations, etc. If you can help by providing some sweat equity, you can realize value from just the information and knowledge you'll acquire, alone. If you don't understand the concept of social capital, you might find yourself fighting an uphill battle. You can't expect everyone to help you out, in exchange for nothing. If you aren't being proactive in providing value,

Sterling White is an investor and business owner on a mission to make the world a better place through principled and efficient real estate investment. Before transitioning to multi-family, Sterling had been involved with the purchasing and selling of 100+ single-family properties. Today his focus is on purchasing income producing multi-family properties while scaling his 300+ unit portfolio across the nation through the company he Co-Founded, Holdfolio. The success of Holdfolio's technology gave birth to SyndicationPro, a fast growing all in one software solution empowering investors to efficiently and easily raise capital online. Key Points No capital, no experience - what to do Find and buying your first multifamily property Building your team for a successful syndication Leveraging your partner's experience using "The Power of We"  Off market strategies - cold calling, personal visits, follow ups, etc.  Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Fear of failure. By taking on a huge challenge of completinga  Guiness Wolr Record for the world's fasted fireman carry for 1 mile. By acknowledging defeat, Sterling realized that at the end of failure,  Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success? Training in sales every day - reading books and Grant Cardone's Cardone University.  Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Cardone University What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale Discipline Equals Freedom by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be?  Find a mentor to work with, and work for them for free.  Resources Visit Audible for a free trail and free audio book download! Holdfolio SyndicationPro Sterling White's BiggerPockets profile 

We spend much of our lives chasing success, however we define it. We go to great lengths to be successful, or at least appear successful. At our cores, we want food, shelter, and security for ourselves and our family. From there, success is a rabbit hole with no end. From nice cars to big houses, good jobs, and comfortable or even luxurious lifestyles, we're constantly looking for an easier life. To many, success is living an easy life with no worries about food, money, shelter, safety, etc. But, success doesn't come without failures. Success is found in failure. Success is found in hardship. Success is found in trials and tribulations. We go to great lengths to avoid failure, at all costs. But, if success is what you're searching for, then perhaps you should consider failure and learn how to fail. If you can fail correctly, then success is inevitable. Failure is seen as something that is avoidable and should be avoided. From a young age, we are taught that failure is bad. From education to recreation, failure is not an applauded accomplishment. We think of success as much of avoiding failure as we do accomplishments. But failure can be a signal of something good, so long as you are learning from your failures. Failures are only such if you quit and do not learn from the lessons within.Failure shouldn't be avoided, but embraced. "Fail early and fail often, but always fail forward". - John Maxwell Let's break this down and look at each of these individually. Fail early. In other words, get started now; don't wait.  Be willing to make mistakes early on. Don't let the fear of failure delay you from getting started. By making mistakes and failing, you are learning. If you wait to get started until you feel like you are 100% ready and won't make any mistakes, then you will likely never get started in the first place. Fail often. Push yourself to your limits, then past them. If you are aren't failing, then you aren't trying hard enough. If the lessons are in failures, then how many failures should you aim for - 1, 10, 100, 10,000? Failing often is an indicator you are pushing yourself and constantly growing. Fail forward. Learn from your failures. If you come out the other side from a failure in a better place, with more knowledge, experience, and lessons learned then you are failing forward. Don't let your failures set you back. Don't let them knock you down. Rather, look at failures as lessons, and learn from them. Use them going forward. Learn from them, implement those lessons learned and continue on your path towards success.  People make more mistakes trying to avoid failures than they would if they embraced them and learned from them. If you avoid failure so much as to never attempt anything, then that in itself is a failure. Don't avoid failure. Rather, embrace it. Try not to make the same mistakes twice. If you find yourself repeatedly making the same mistake, then dig to the root of it and solve it there.  Don't let a single failure get you down. Remember, it's only a failure if you give up and do not learn from it. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" - Thomas Edison Map your path to success. Plan for some failures. Understand how to handle those failures, and account for them along the way. Soon enough, you'll have failed so many times that you have no other option than success. 

There are so many ways you can invest in real estate from wholesaling, to fix and flip, buy and hold rentals, raw land, note investing, private lending, syndication, raising private capital, house hacking, etc., the list goes on and on. With each of these different approaches, the same term gets used a lot, even misused. That term is passive income. The truth is, no investment is truly passive. Some investments are more passive than others, but none are truly passive. At the very least you have to vet deals, build systems and process, and manage those systems and processes. When first starting out investing in real estate, you'll likely self manage your property, which requires you to find, screen, and place tenants, manage maintenance requests, pay the bills, keep accounting records, manage insurance policies, handle leases, etc. This is by no means a passive approach. But it is an approach many people find themselves doing with illusions it is passive. Sure, at times it can be relatively smooth sailing. But at other times it can feel as if the wheels are falling off the wagon. I know, because this is where I got my start investing in real estate. There have been a lot of peaks and valleys. So what is one to do it they want a truly passive investment? Well, as far as I know there is no such thing. Here's why I say that. Let's say you have a large sum of money you want to invest of $1,000,000. First you consider traditional asset classes, like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. You're probably going to enlist the help of a money manager. Well now you need to research that manager and firm. Already your investment is not so passive. Then you need to meet or talk with that manager periodically to review your portfolio, make adjustments, etc. You'll likely find yourself watching the news, keeping up with the market, and searching for that next big opportunity. You'll concern yourself with which companies are expected to beat earnings, which are going to increase or cut dividends, etc. Next thing you know you can't go a day without worrying about the market. And the worst part is, that's all you can do is worry. You cannot control the details of any vehicle you invest in. So next you consider investing your $1,000,000 in real estate. As we discussed, there are numerous ways to do so. You could buy quite a few single family homes. You would need to research, interview, and vet a qualified property manager. Then you would have to manage that property manager, review monthly income & expense statements, and navigate through all those other things we talked about. This approach isn't so passive, you come to find out. You decide that instead you're going to loan money for real estate projects. You have to vet the borrower, understand and vet the project, have the contract drawn up by an experienced attorney, and then hope the project is successful and you are repaid your money with interest. This is a bit more passive, but not entirely. With this less involved approach, you lose out on a lot of those benefits of real estate, like the power of leverage, depreciation, principal pay down, etc. The moral of this story is investing money requires at least some level of due diligence and active involvement. Nothing is truly passive. If you are going to invest your money over time, then you should pick the best investment vehicle and strategy that fits your goals. If you want to be very hands-on, then perhaps building a business is the best approach. You're investing both your time and money by doing so, and hopefully one day you can automate that business and step away from it. If you want to be as hands-off as possible, then partnering with someone else or a group of people is probably the best option. But remember our private money lending scenario, where you are less involved, but also less rewarded. So what is one to do?