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The Magic Of Asking With Mark Victor Hansen – Real Estate For Women

 

When we were young, we always asked questions regarding things around us out of curiosity. The answers to those questions provide us with the knowledge we need to face the unknown. In this episode, Mark Victor Hansen talks about the magic of asking and some of the roadblocks people usually have that prevent them from doing so. Mark is best known as the co-author for the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series and brand, setting world records and book sales with over 500 million books sold. Tune in and rediscover the magic of asking. Plus, learn Mark’s technique for asking your higher self, the universe, or God how to find out what your destiny is and what you’re supposed to be doing.

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The Magic Of Asking With Mark Victor Hansen – Real Estate For Women

Real Estate Investing for Women

I am so excited to welcome to the show Mark Victor Hansen. Mark is best known as the Coauthor for the Chicken Soup For The Soul book series and brand, setting world records and book sales with over 500 million books sold. Mark also worked his way into the worldwide spotlight as a sought-after keynote speaker and entrepreneurial marketing maven, creating a stream of successful people who have created massive success for themselves through Mark’s unique teachings and wisdom.

With his endearing charismatic style, Mark captures his audience’s attention as well as their hearts. Having spoken to over 6,000 audiences worldwide with his one-of-a-kind technique and masterful authority of his work, time and again, he continues to receive high accolades from his audiences as one of the most dynamic and compelling speakers and leaders of our time. Mark and Crystal Hansen have coauthored their newest book that was released called Ask! The Bridge From Your Dreams To Your Destiny.

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Mark, Happy New Year. Welcome to the show.

 

It’s super exciting because it’s a new year and a new you or a new renewed you because everybody is into the transformation of consciousness, awareness, thinking, and ready to burst with joy and enthusiasm and euphoria. How’s that?

Do you know what I love about the New Year? I don’t set New Year’s resolutions. I set New Year’s intentions. I figure my New Year is on my birthday, which is May. I feel like I get two New Year’s every year and they’re about six months apart. What I love about this winter New Year is that we are planting the seeds that are going to burst in the spring in a couple of months and there’s so much anticipation. There is so much possibility at this moment. Wouldn’t you agree?

I 100% agree. It could not be more exciting. What you’re going to do is you got to ask yourself. Ask! The Bridge From Your Dreams To Your Destiny is our best-selling book, but what is your destiny? That’s the question of the new you, the new year, because as good as you are, you could be better. As big as you are, you can be bigger.

You got to know what it is you want to be, want to do, and want to have. All of that is done by one miraculous three-letter word that no one ever wrote a book to, and you get the trademark of the title ASK. How could it be easier because all I got to do is ask yourself, ask others and ask God what you want to talk about? I’m thankful that we’re going to ask, what are you going to do to make this the best year, best decade, and best life that you’ve ever had, and you’ve got to figure it out and put it in writing. I’m going to talk to you about how simple that is.

I want to say that there are many people that binge this show, so you might be reading this in September or any time of the year to understand. I know how trite this is going to sound, but I have to say it. This is the first day of the rest of your life. This conversation is relevant no matter what time of year or when you’re reading it, so keep that in mind. One of the things that I wanted Mark on the show for ladies is, as we start to build our dream and meet our destiny, as Mark is going to talk about, we start to ask ourselves, what is it that we want? We have talked a lot about that in this show.

We set our goals and we ask the universe for support. Mark, you can correct me if this is for everybody, but I’m sure that it is, especially for women. We have trouble asking the people in our network, the people who love us, around us, and the people we don’t know yet. I know that Mark and I are aligned on this. We’re going to talk about all of those three different ways to ask. The very first thing I want to ask you, Mark, is why did you write this book? You gave us a little bit, but dive in deep on why you and Crystal did this.

My beloved wife and I wrote Ask! The Bridge From Your Dream To Your Destiny is very simple. We have traveled and been more blessed than anybody did in 80 countries around the world. We talked to 7 million people live and what’s so extraordinary is most people never ask themselves what they want. I have medical doctors. We have people pair bond and do what you said. They say, “Your class was more important than all my medical school training or engineering training, or whatever.” We asked them 50 times like, “What do you want?” What happens is you get past the super system, “I want a wardrobe that’s good enough to own a men’s store or women’s store. I want to be a fashionista. I want to have this car, that car, electric car, or a Rolls Royce,” or whatever it is that you want.

By the time you hit 50 times asking, you suddenly go, “What is my personal life? What am I going to dedicate myself to humanity for?” The big question we asked, the last question in a book from our friend, Dr. Peter Diamandis is, “What are you going to do during this decade to positively affect one billion people?” You’ve got ten years. You’re going to affect one billion people.

As good as you are, you could be better. As big as you already are, you can be bigger.

What it does is it blows the lid off because what is asking does and what we learned gives illumination, insight, answers, and solutions. It gives new protocols, so your life becomes what it’s supposed to be because all of us are here with a destiny. That’s what this critical little word here destiny. Most people never ask themselves what their destiny is. Your mother said, “You’re going to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer or a businessperson, dentist, or a garbage person.”

All of which is noble, but that’s not the issue. The issue is all of us is a polymath. It’s not for Ben Franklin to be a writer, a statesman, an inventor of bifocals, hama-hama, and fly the first kite to find electricity. All of us are intrinsically polymaths, meaning many opportunities. In other words, “Yes, I’m the world’s best-selling author of 500,000 books. I’ve talked to more people live. I’ve created more millionaires,” but I’ve also own one of the fastest-growing alternative device energy companies that pop up windows called Natural Power Concepts and other companies. They are extraordinarily doing wonderful stuff because the question isn’t how little you can do and get away with. The questions are, how do you become financially free independent, so you can express who you are by having your self-awareness, self-expression, and realization of yourself.

You’re speaking my language. We are a real estate show and I love how you brought that financial piece in there because many people think that it’s noble not to focus on money. I love the word that you used noble and I love that we talked about the ability to expand. It does have a lot to do with our financial bearing. Can we take care of ourselves and do we have the money to give to the causes, whether it’s causes or the companies that we want to build that can then reach and benefit the planet in many ways. Many people think money is a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing. It’s simply a tool. As we ask, sometimes we feel a little bit like, “Should I be asking for this? It’s a financial base thing. It’s a goal to help me to grow in this particular way. Maybe people will judge me.”

The first thing is to understand within yourself that your financial security is a huge part of the amazing things you can do in the world. You want to reach a billion people and maybe some of you want to expand your family. Pay for college for your kids. That’s your big deal or your big expansion. You still can’t do any of that unless you’re taken care of and have the financial access to support all those things. Wouldn’t you say?

 

First of all, you and I are talking the same language. Let me say that first of all, from a spiritual point of view, ask yourself, ask God. God created the universe and we now know that there are 40,000 other planets in our sources. We’ve discovered that in the last few years in the Hubble that are like ours. We’re probably not the only intelligence in the universe, but we’re the highest intelligence on this planet.

Therefore, if you’re of high intelligence, one of the things you’ve got to do is earn more, save more, invest more than you could ever do. I was bankrupt in 1974, which I now think is my best work experience. I lost $2 million in one day. I went bankrupt after living in New York. I had to go to the world’s biggest library, the New York Library, and check out a book on how to go bankrupt by yourself because if you ask the wrong question, you go the wrong way.

I said, “How do I go bankrupt?” It got me out of what I shouldn’t be doing into the speaking. Once I was speaking, I said, “You’re supposed to earn it, save it, and invest it. Don’t buy two cars but buy one home. If you buy one car and two homes, the second home is an investment income home.” Let’s do my own story because it was a real estate company. I’m back in Long Island, New York. I have a mastermind group, which everyone has got to have. Two people come together and it’s the power of eleven. We had this little family, who’s still my best friend years later. They are buying and fixing up real estate and they say, “We got a house to sell to you for $2,000.” I remember I had no credit. I went bankrupt and no credit for seven years.

I was like, “Here’s a check for $2,000.” I bought a $14,000 house. This was in East Islip, Long Island, New York. The only mistake is I called Steven in Bel-Air. They are still in real estate and have done exceedingly well around the world. Three years later, I sold it for $58,000. I thought I was again the smartest guy in New York. The mistake we made was one, we should have bought all of East Islip and fixed it up, but at that time, I had not written a book that I’ve now written that I’ve finished called How to Think Bigger Than You Ever Thought You Could Think. Little thinking doesn’t pay off. Big thinking pays off.

The second thing I did was a book called Stand Up, Speak Out, and Win. I sold 20,000 copies from platform and I made $200,000. It’s $10 a book. I was selling in little itty bitty audiences. It’s not available anymore, but that’s it. The little audience is 6 people, 12 people, and 50 people. I said, “This isn’t a New York Times Bestseller or National Bestseller, but it is my bestseller, and I want to sign it for you, your spouse, your kids, and even dogs outside of your car,” and they all laughed. The first time I told them that is 37 people were standing in line and I made $370. I thought, “This is a good business.”

The second mistake I made is like the first. We should have bought all of East Islip. I’m holding up a mirror, so you look at my story and find your story of all the parables. The first thing is look for the parable. It’s the story within a story. There’s a literal story. The literal story is Mark went bankrupt and decided to become rich. The figurative story is you should have bought more of East Islip.

I write 5 to 7 books at a time, and I’ve got 318 books. Most of them are bestsellers. I have done more New York Times Bestsellers than anyone alive before the Guinness Book of Records. I’ve sold more books that are titled and more number ones. We’re number one in a lot of countries. The point I’m making is I could have started that earlier if I had thought differently. I’m holding up on a mirror. It’s the New Year, a new you or a renewed you if you’re watching in May or September, December, a year, two years, or five years.

How big can you think? You go inside your deeper innermost and what we’re saying is ask. Ask yourself, ask others, ask God. “God, what’s your destiny for me and how big is it? How miraculous is it? How empowered is it? How much favor? Can I be younger to buy however many points of income-producing real estate in new, innovative, exciting ways that may or may not include bank financing?”

I didn’t have any bank financing. Steve financed it out of the $14,000 I gave. In 2008, I financed the other $12,000. I bought the house for $7,000. It was a shack. We had to put in new heating and new walls and everything, but it still works. The only thing is that you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing enough and maybe I’ve overstated that or gone too long. Did that wrap for you?

Big thinking pays off.

Absolutely. First of all, I love when people speak inspired, so thank you for that.

I got to do one more subpoint. Do I believe you’ve got to read books? Yes, you ought to read at least 1 to 3 hours a day, self-hope action books. I do write fiction books and I love them. The fact of the matter is you need to have the basis. The foundation is got to be deep, so you know simple stuff. You check the Law of 72 because the first question is when I have 387 employees and demand a $100 million company in Newport Beach. The first question I ask all these MBAs that came in immediately is, “What’s the Law of 72?” If they didn’t know it, next. How could you go through your school and not know the Law of 72? These are some basic laws I teach.

Mark, I love that you said there are a million ways to make $1 million. I say that at least once a month on this show. There are a million ways to make $1 million in real estate. You have to find the one that’s perfect for you.

There’s a niche for everybody. We had a meeting with a guy who owns 10,000 units in town and he did it in his way, but everyone can do it in their own way. There’s a lot of ways to do it and there’s a lot in the world that needs it. When I was back in graduate school, the smartest guy, as far as I know, was my teacher, Dr. Buckminster Fuller. His teacher was Albert Einstein, but Bucky had us write down our goals. Now remember, I’m a 21-year-old and a 71-year-old is telling us to make the world work. One of my ten macro goals let’s be totally considerate environmentally in every other way. Let’s get it done.

We’re 1 billion people out of 8 billion people alive who don’t have a house, so let’s get that program going. Everybody reading or somebody out there is going to go, “I heard what Mark said. I can go figure out how to do it in Africa, India, China, Latin America or in America.” We were helping out people in the Indian tribes right here at the four corners area of Arizona. A lot of them don’t have houses and you go, “This is 2022. What are you telling me?” Not only do they not have houses, but they also don’t have electricity. They got the wind farms up there. I’m Danish and we said, “Something doesn’t smell right in Denmark.”

That’s such important work. It’s another one of those things where you’re doing something that’s beneficial for you. You’re also doing something that’s beneficial for a community or for people. There are so many ways to do good in the world, and we still expand for it in many different ways.

I wrote a whole book called The Miracle of Tithing, in which businessmen say, “What is a miracle kissing?” I said, “You haven’t been kissed enough lately.” I said, “You’re going to tithe your thinking.” That’s the most important and very few people do it, then you tithe your time. We tithe every book I’ve ever done. That’s why I sell more books than anybody, then you tithe your treasure, your money and you’re thankful in advance that you’re going to tithe it up. It’s bonus points. The point is, I’ll open up the windows of heaven and I’ll open up my sky vault and before you know it, you’ve got such a ritual, or you won’t be able to receive it. That’s why so many people watch my YouTube videos in Africa. They go, “I didn’t know that.”

I didn’t know it either. When I was coming through, I went bankrupt because I wasn’t thinking well. I teach people to think right, talk right, act right, and live right to go get the roads up because you and I are here to have an impact. When the game is over, you look back over your life, “I wasted it.” If I’m being honest, I said, “I could have bought East Islip for nothing.” All those houses went from $14,000 to now $500,000 houses.

I released my TEDx Talk. It’s called, Who is the Boss of You? It’s about living a life of choice. The biggest thing about living a life of choice is what we get to do with that choice. If we make choices that include other people, whether it’s contribution, travel, being active in your community, whatever it is. That contribution and connection with other people is a thing that brings us to happiness. If anybody wants to watch the TEDx, it’s at BlissfulInvestor.com/TEDx.

I love what you’re talking about with this whole piece of what we can do or what contribution tithing means. I do talk about it. If you don’t have money, there are many other ways to tithe through your thoughts, your actions, holding a door for somebody, helping somebody to their car if they can’t walk, or working in a soup kitchen. There are all different kinds of things and there are many different levels of tithing that starts up in your mind.

 

When you wake up in the morning, you’d say, “You’re either a giver or a taker.” If you’re a taker and think you can take it all, here’s the question I ask. “Hold on to it. Don’t ever let it go. If you can’t do it, you got to give a breath before you can take the next breath.” One time, Bob Allen and I were at Maui Writers Conference. We’re on the beach and the beautiful Pacific. It’s 6:00 and we’re talking at 9:00. Bob says, “Come on, Mark. You wrote the book on tithing. Explain to me how it works.” He’s a Mormon and a good one and a Bishop and all that good stuff. I am not a Mormon, but I should respect every religion. The point is, we’re walking and he said, “You got a metaphor for tithing,” and it came to me spontaneously.

I said, “We’re looking at the water. Water has three forms. Tithing has three forms. When it’s frozen is when you don’t give. You’re constipated, stifled, stopped, or shuffled. When you get a little ambient, then you have a little bit of flow. You give a little bit. You go to church and get 1% or you help out somebody once. You do a little, then you get a little. Once you heat it up, then you become like vapor.” Everybody has been in a closed bathroom when you took your shower and one drop of water will steam up a whole mirror. You can’t see, and you got to wipe up. That’s what tithing does. It takes that 10% that you give to the noble good charitable causes that are worthy and getting the results you believe in and expands it.

It’s not you and I that’s expanding. I’ve learned three levels of money by writing this book From Wishes to Riches. I learned from one of my close friends in New York. He got me out of poverty when I got bankrupt and upside down. He said, “There is the material form of money, but then you go to the psychic form of money where you think about it. The real goal is to get the spiritual form of money where you can create it almost instantly because think and grow rich is what Napoleon Hill said. He emerged to that. Andrew Carnegie emerged to that.” I’m telling you that Elon Musk, who’s my hero, who’s the richest man in the world, he’ll be one of the two first trillionaires with his partner, Kiyo, as far as I’m concerned.

The point is it’s explosive and extraordinary what somebody can do when they go to the higher levels of what money is because you’ve got to get out of you working for money. One of the ways that money works for you and you pick, how much do I need a month? Do I need $1,000 passive, massive cashflow coming from real estate? If I have a house that rents for $1,500 a month, then I pay HOA and all the stuff for $500, then I get $1,000. If I need $10,000, then I need ten single-families or I need ten units. Pretty simple and you go, “Is it that simple? Come on.” I’ve been in real estate in seven different states at the same time, so I understand you can do that, and it still works, but it doesn’t matter.

There are a few things that matter. You need to know what to ask for, take action and support. I want to talk about why it is hard for people to ask? What do you think is it that stops them?

The second chapter in the book, after we do the fable of McKayla, which everybody can get. We’re going to give it to you free if you want by going to AskTheBookClub.com. We’ll talk about it later. We say there are seven roadblocks to asking. First of, all of them hit us once in a while. Some of us have all seven hits then you get prepped to respond. It’s good that you read our book or listen to it on video or watch it on YouTube. Overcome your lack of self-worth fullness because self-worth will usually be first.

The second is fear, then doubt, then naivité because you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know you can buy real estate even if you don’t have any money. I didn’t have any money, but I did have the right friends. It’s like what we’re saying, your net worth comes from your network. One of my many market trends includes shapes. You’ve got pattern paralysis where you do the same thing and keep expecting something new. I cited if you keep doing the same thing and expect new results, then you’re crazy.

I don’t watch shows like yours and listen to people who have done it. Be careful because all of us have friends, neighbors, and relatives. My wife and I start every day with an hour of meditation. The story of Jesus is not a prophet in his own hometown. We were talking about our role. If she is 1 to 9, I’m 1 to 4 and you go, “That’s true.” It’s your own role in the dark spectrum, no matter how rich you get, no matter how wise you are and no matter how the world accolades you.” I’ve won some of the biggest words. Like I’m a ratio of Jury Award Winner who came from rags to riches and been exceedingly prosperous and generous and wants to be more so.

The point is it’s exciting to be alive and fulfill your destiny and your mission by overcoming the seven obstacles that all of us have. If you look at somebody else’s story, you go, “That’s what stifling me, stopped me, detouring me or warning me. I’m now empowered by Mark.” We also say, “Here’s the stop sign and here’s how to eliminate the stop sign.” We give you three ways to eliminate stop signs.

It’s exciting to be alive and fulfill your destiny or mission.

Can you give me a quick synopsis?

No. If I did that, you wouldn’t have to read the book.

It’s okay if you don’t want to give it, but I would love it if you gave us a little bit.

I’m teasing you and I will answer your question in the second. A book is the best screening value ever, whether it cost $20 or $10. I’m going to telling you the crazy thing that’s happened when we became number one. The book is $21 on the cover in America. Now, we’re selling number one on Vietnam and maybe in Australia and all kinds of England. The point is Amazon does the opposite. They brought the price down to $14. It might be the best $14 you ever invest because you’re not investing in me. I’ve already done it. You’re investing in yourself, so you know how to ask yourself because that’s the real trigger here. Our research shows that 75% of people are afraid to ask. You’re born an incredibly inquisitive kid and we’ve got grandkids or something.

We were in Hawaii in our company. It’s a natural park concept. We’re on the beach and all of a sudden, I get a call from our six-year-old. For Christmas, you got to give him a watch. He phone calls his parents and the grandparent’s house. He said, “Grappy, are you alone?” I’m looking around at the beach and I go, “I’m here with Grammy.” He calls her Mimi. I said, “Mimi and I are here.” He said, “Can I talk to you privately?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Are you still writing great books like the ones I’ve read of yours?” He’s six years old. He’s amazing. He can do the Rubik’s cube in one minute the first time, he got it. God bless him.

He said, “Are you still writing those books?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “Can I write the next book with you?” The first story we’re doing here is about our grandson. That was all of the spreads. You got to buy my book. He’s going to grow up and do wonderful things. The point is, little kids were told, “Gramps has got many questions. Can’t you shut up? You ask why, how, when, and all that,” and then you go to school and I say, “I’m going to tell you what it is about. You go into the military and they tell you. You go to business and they tell you. You go to the life and your spouse tells you. Only two people’s opinions matter, yours and God. That’s it.

You’ve got to ask yourself, “How do I overcome it?” Here’s what you and I are going to do now that everybody is out there to answer your questions. This is M and M. Mooneka and Mark are giving you 100% permission to ask bigger, better, stronger questions with metaphorical biceps and triceps. You can go vigorously, valiantly, courageously, and bravely into a future that is worthy of you. Would you agree with that?

Yes. I’m not going to say anything else. That was so good.

We’re here to empower people to enlarge them. There’s nowhere in any spiritual literature that you’re supposed to be small and unworthy. That’s what roadblocks are. They make you less than because the world was out of its way to work against you. Now, it’s going to sound very self-serving, but I don’t go to sleep without reading positive self-help books.

Sometimes I read my own books and I read other people. In my library, I’ve got 50,000 of other people’s books. I’ve touched more books. I haven’t read every one of them wall to wall, but I’ve read 6,000 biographies and autobiographies. I’m writing biographies for people and writing autobiographies because I’ve had an exciting life. I have climbed Machu Picchu, Whitney, Fuji, and Kilimanjaro. We’re here to do cool, great things.

I’ve hung a week with Richard Branson on the Necker Island and, “I’m a little person.” I have the library 3.0 because the first great library was created by Alexander The Great. He conquered the world, but I got the wisdom, the insight and understanding. Here it is an Alexandria. Where do you live?

San Jose, California.

If you go to New York, you want to go to Andrew Carnegie’s house. It’s 60,000 square feet and it’s 95th and 5th Avenue. It’s owned by the Smithsonian Institute. The first thing he says is, “No man or woman get rich without enriching all others. You were like, “You’re rich and you make me poor.” Hell no, I don’t make you anything. You make you. I don’t touch you. I’ve made more millionaires than anyone other than Napoleon Hill. I go by all the research. The second thing he says is, “Authors are the wealth of the nation.”

The only thing I’ve switched with Andy’s line, the Scotsman, is authors are the wealth of the world. I think everyone is the author of him or herself. If you’re going to author yourself, you better be reading somebody who’s authored themselves well. That’s why I’m saying, “Go ahead and start reading biographies and autobiographies and read all my self-help action books.” Some of the other superstars that you got to read, they will change your thinking and change your life because you’re here to make your life bolder, bigger, better, brighter, more exquisitely exciting, penalizing and we love.

 

I want to say I have a book called Choose Bliss, ladies. Check that one out also.

In this book, this is the 20th Anniversary edition, I said, “Will you write the fourth to it?” I went through a painful, extremely expensive war. What I did is I never told Crystal who I married long ago now, but I wrote down 267 wants. What do I want? What are the characteristics, values, and virtues? When you’re sixteen years old, what do you say? “She’s got to be slim, beautiful, and eye candy.” It’s very superficial if you think about it.

“I want them super strong. I want Arnold,” or whatever you want. I wrote everything I wanted. “She’s got to like and love me. She’s got to demonstrate making her own money,” because I don’t want her marrying me for my wallet. “She’s got to be a great lover and wonderful. She’s got to be cooperative, have financial savvy and underspends below her needs. She is flexible.” We do yoga every day. She loves to dance, thinks abundance and wants to create superior memories. She’s a non-smoker, non-drinker or non-drug user, charitable, and has great etiquette.”

This is what you asked about want. Most people, “On Mondays, I want to go to work, come home, have a quick drink, go to sleep after I watch TV.” No, you want to be a dullard. What the hell would you want that for? You’re a meandering generality. All of us weren’t born in dug. We were born over in dug. You’re born of eighteen billion brains cells. You are here to use them. “I get up, have coffee, go to work, come home, drink, pee, bed. You want me to read an hour to three hours?” Not for me. You read for you.

Mark, I feel like we can talk forever. I’m going to have to have you back on this show because I want to keep talking, but I want to be respectful of your time. We’ll do it again. Does that sound good? Before we move into our three rapid-fire questions, share with us how people can get in touch with you. I know you’ve got some great gifts that you want to offer my audience.

I want everyone go AskTheBookClub.com and it’s free because Crystal, my beloved beautiful wife, which you’ll see and you’d go, “Why would she marry you?” It’s because she’s super smart. I had the goals. She had no choice. I didn’t show it to her until after we were married. Here’s the truth. I’ve got to quit goofing around here. Everybody wants a soulmate but what you really want is the higher level of that, where two lit candles come together. It’s four-fold to eigh-fold higher and that’s called a twin flame. We’re twin flames. We can mirror each other 100%, which you’ll see if you watch any of our videos on YouTube or Ask The Book Club.

I want you to go to the other one, if you’ve got a story in you and you qualify, we want to help you publish. It’s called MarkVictorHansenLibrary.com. Alexander the Great had the first one. Andrew Carnegie did 2,500 benefactors libraries in America. The media, the dumbasses and the school teacher says he’s a robber baron. He’s the biggest philanthropist ever. Now, we’re doing Library 3.0 because I want everybody in every form to have a book, audios, memorabilia, films, and all that stuff codified. I call it the road library because it’s a repository of the wealth and treasures of your mind, heart, soul, and a story of your beingness. If you go there and look through this stuff, you’d go, “I do have a story.”

I will say releasing a book is the most magical experience in the world. You’ve done 300 something. I’ve done three, but still, you impact many people each time that goes out there. You think, “It’s only my story. Like big deal.” No, your story matters because there’s someone that will read that story and it will completely change their paradigm. If it’s one, but usually, it’s many thousands of people. If you have a good publisher that gets it out there, that’s what makes the big difference.

For those that are reading and in business, it’s the best business card. It makes you the authority. Author is in the word authority. It’s the authorship of your story. People will read it and you’ll assign it to them. They’ll take your business card and put it in the cylindrical file. Nobody throws away books that are assigned to them. To the spouses and their kids, the best scientists now they’re stuck.

Mark, you also said something that I think is cute, but I do the same thing. You were like, “I read a lot of books. A lot of them are my own.” A lot of times, I’ll pick up Choose Bliss and read that and go, “That was good,” because I feel like I channeled so much of the book and so much of that wisdom happened when I was in the zone, but they don’t always live in the zone. When I read, it’s as if I’m hearing from somebody that gets me. I’m like, “That’s great.” Every once in a while, someone is like, “I need to read your book.” When you get them, I’m like, “I need to read it again too.” That’s the thing. Ladies, when you write, you capture something so deep inside you that now you have access to for the rest of your life. It’s incredible.

There’s nowhere in any spiritual literature that says you’re supposed to be small and unworthy.

Everyone has more than they think. What are we teaching in my book? You have a book in you. My seminar, you can go to MarkVictorHansenLibrary.com and all that. You don’t try to write one book at a time because then you’ll have writer’s block. Maybe three or four, you never have writer’s block and screen for things at the same time. We all have it in us. What we do is we’re teaching differently. We say, “We start with a title and then we start with a cover,” because everybody else finishes the book then tries to come up with a title. It’s wrong. Start with the title, then the cover.

When you look at our website, you’ll go, “Look at the cover that these guys are doing.” Forgive me for being a little bodacious, but I’ve come up with this cover before we did the book. I teach everyone all that stuff because everybody is a brand and you need to make your brand. Be a brand that commands.

We’re going to talk more, Mark, just so you know. Also, ladies, if you want to go and get the book, go to AskTheBookClub.com. They’re going to be doing a webinar about the book and there’s all good stuff there. Go check that out. Mark, are you ready for our three rapid-fire questions?

I’m ready.

Tell us one super tip getting started asking and receiving in your life.

Start asking yourself all day long, “What do really I want?” Write it down. We’re going to have an Ask Journal, but we’ll have you do that every day because you’re going to ask yourself like, you got bigger and better and stronger. You’ll have new apps and each app will open up different stuff.

What is one way in being successful in continuing to ask and receive in your life?

Be crystal clear about what do you want. I wanted to be a speaker who talked. I want to care about things that would make a life transformative and different. If you can, write down that as a purpose statement. For Chicken Soup, I changed the whole world one word at a time. We only did stories that were seven things. We said personal was goosebumps, chilly bumps and the second one, instantaneous behavioral change. All that stuff had to be written because once it’s codified, it’s a commandment from you to you. Metaphorically, it’s marble and it’s solid.

Mark, what would you say is one daily practice that you do that contributes to your personal success?

I make all my own decisions and think for myself. It’s easy to get swayed by other people. Somebody offered me a bunch of stock for nothing in a company called Facebook. I asked the guy who created the internet and they said, “They will never make it.” I’m never doing that again. That was a dumb idea. It’s big and bold decisions. I’m willing to live with my decisions. You’ve heard me say my failures and stuff. Nobody is 100% successful. You see a lot of financial values show up and say, “I only know how to make money. I never lose money.” Warren Buffett says, “The first rule is make money and never lose money.” He got money out of a few things. Overall, you’re going to make more money than you’ll lose.

Mark, this conversation has been amazing. Thank you so much for bringing in our New Year with your wisdom.

Thank you. My pleasure.

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Ladies, stay tuned for EXTRA because we’ve got more. Mark is going to be talking to us about his technique for asking our higher selves, the universe, God, or whatever you want to call it, how to find out what your destiny is. What are you supposed to be doing or if you’ve got a business problem and how to get the answer to that business problem? Stay tuned for EXTRA for that. If you are already subscribed. If you’re not subscribed but would like to be, please go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com. You get seven days for free, so check it out. If you love it, you get to stay in. If not, at least you’ve got some great new content.

For those of you that are leaving us, thank you so much for joining Mark and me for this portion of the show. Wasn’t it a great way to start the New Year? I had so much fun and I appreciate you. I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, remember, goals without action are dreams, so get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires.

 

Important Links

• Chicken Soup For The Soul
• Ask!: The Bridge From Your Dreams To Your Destiny
• Dr. Peter Diamandis
• Choose Bliss
• Natural Power Concepts
• How to Think Bigger Than You Ever Thought You Could Think
• Stand Up, Speak Out, and Win
• Guinness Book of Records
• The Miracle of Tithing
• Who is the Boss of You?
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com

 

About Mark Victor Hansen

Mark Victor Hansen is an American inspirational and motivational speaker, trainer and author. He is best known as the founder and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.

 

 

 

 

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• https://blissfulinvestor.com/
• LinkedIn
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______________________________________

To listen to the EXTRA portion of this show go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com

To see this program in video:

Search on Roku for Real Estate Investing 4 Women or go to this link: https://blissfulinvestor.com/biroku

On YouTube go to Real Estate Investing for Women

0

Financial Freedom And Bliss With Caterina Rando – Real Estate Women

 

You deserve to enjoy your life, but sometimes, you just can’t feel that sense of fulfillment no matter how hard you try. You could not get the feeling of ultimate happiness you’ve always dreamed of because of different circumstances or tragedies. So, it’s time to explore the possibilities. In this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando, Moneeka Sawyer shares the key things that helped her overcome the challenges and trials in her life that made her stronger, braver, and wiser. As Monica attains financial freedom and wealth, it helps her reach her goals and experience bliss in her life. Tune in to learn how to acquire yours!

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Financial Freedom And Bliss With Caterina Rando – Real Estate Women

Real Estate Investing For Women

As you might imagine, as a podcaster, I am often invited to be on other people’s shows, which I love. It is such an honor and it is so much fun. Every once in a while, I am on a show that is so good. We cover stuff that I haven’t covered elsewhere and sometimes I want to share those conversations with you. This conversation that I had with a good friend of mine, Caterina Rando, is one of those conversations. I thought this might be exactly what you need as we were heading into the New Year, so I wanted to share it with you. Here is the episode with me and Caterina. I hope you enjoy it.

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Welcome back to another episode of the Expand Your Fempire Show. I am extra blissing to be with you because I have the Blissful Millionaire, Moneeka Sawyer, as my very special guest on this episode. She is a dear friend, a TEDx speaker and a real estate mogul. What I want you to know about Moneeka is that she embodies bliss and lights up every room she walks into. You cannot be with her and not leave blissing. Moneeka, thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. You made me blush. That was so cool.

We have been to Hawaii and on other adventures together. You are always so wonderful to be with. You are a leader. You don’t just teach about bliss and you not only live your bliss, but you bliss every room that you are in. I am so happy to have you. Let me have you share a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey because you are living an amazing life. You travel all the time and you have financial freedom. How did you get from that blissing little girl to where you are?

 

Thank you so much for asking that. It is a journey that is a little bit unexpected. It is not something people would expect to hear from me when they meet me. I was not a blissing little girl. I was a tormented, bullied little girl because I lived in what you might call a Lily-White community in Ohio and was the only person that was not White. I’m Indian so I got bullied and treated very badly. From a very young age, my journey, passion, and the thing that I focused on most were how was I going to be happy because people were not kind. I was like, “Could I be happy?” That journey towards bliss started as a very young girl trying to survive and figure out how to be happy.

The journey went on for many years. We have eventually moved to California, but things didn’t get much better. In high school and college, I became a people-pleaser. I wanted to make other people happy because I thought other people being happy would make me happy if they liked me. How many of us girls can relate to that? We were like, “If they like me, I will be happy.” Horrible bullying happened were things that boys do to girls happened. Eventually, I left for college and found that no matter how hard I tried, it didn’t get better. I put my strong face forward. I always had a big smile. I was always the nicest person in a room and people were so unkind.

The one thing that kept me sane through most of my life was I was a dancer. I started dancing when I was five. All of you ladies know exercise helps with the endorphins, our confidence and keeping us strong. Plus, I loved it, so it was my anchor throughout my entire life. I got in this car accident when I was 21. I became a cripple and lost my legs.

I did not lose them but I couldn’t use them anymore, so I even lost dance. At that point, I fell into such an incredible depression. I wanted it to be over. I had been depressed and in bed crying for a week. I remember one morning, I woke up and I heard my mom’s voice in my head. My mom says, “Moneeka, get out of bed. Get some air so you will feel better.” I pushed the covers over my head, swung my legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand up. My legs were so weak that I fell to the ground.

At that moment, I sat there crying and prayed. I said, “God, I can’t keep doing this, so either bring me home or teach me how to live.” About an hour later, a girlfriend called me, who I hadn’t heard about for years. I tell her frequently that God sent her to me at that moment. She turned me on to a coach and that coach is the man that saved my life because he taught me that we are all born in these little blissful bundles of joy. We come into the world so full of excitement of being alive, learning, and experiencing. We were blissing, and then life teaches us that it is hard and bliss is okay. He told me that my journey and all the study that I had done were going to serve me. He was going to help me get back to where I needed to go, and so we did.

It all starts with the decision. I wrote a book called Choose Bliss, and the reason I say choose bliss is because it always starts with a choice. Bliss is a choice and it started with a choice. It didn’t mean that the journey was easy, but it meant that the journey started, I was committed to it, and therefore, it could happen. That is how the whole bliss thing started for me.

We are all born in these little blissful bundles of joy. We come into this world full of the excitement of being alive, learning, and experience.

The first thing you did with your coach, did you choose bliss? Was that the first step?

I chose to live, which was not the first step and then the next choice was to try to find happiness. At that time, it was this very basic, “I didn’t want to be miserable.” Sometimes, the first step is to not be something. As we worked together, I expanded so great because it was truly in my heart to experience bliss. Also, I want your audience to know how I define bliss. Bliss is not being happy all the time. Bliss is that deep sense of joy and contentment with life so that you know that anything that comes your way, you can handle it emotionally. It is emotional mastery and resilience. That wasn’t where I started but that is where I wanted to go.

He hired me on as an executive coach underneath him and I found that there were all these people that I worked with that were multi-millionaires. I would go into their offices. They had a great job and a beautiful wife. At that time, all the executives were men. They have these beautiful children and beautiful homes in the Silicon Valley but they were miserable, so I became the Bliss Coach.

I took what I had learned through my own experience and taught them how to bring their passion, motivation and bliss back into their lives. I could only reach so many people in coaching or speaking, so I wrote a book called Choose Bliss. That is where I grounded this idea of bliss, where I defined what we were looking for and the specific steps on how to get there based on my experience with myself and my clients.

You know that I am a huge fan of focusing on bliss and I host the Bliss Retreat, which I’m looking forward to. For someone reading who wants more bliss and does not have it, let’s keep it out of business. We are going to go to business shortly. How do they bliss more in their life? What tips do you have for them?

I have already said that it is a choice and I know that sounds trite. We hear this all the time. I want to be clear. Learn from what has happened to me. There has been abuse and a lot of horrible things that have happened in my life. The thing that I realized is that I was not going to be able to be a happy person unless I was willing to get past that somehow. The very first thing is to understand that bliss is a choice and here is the next piece of that. We can’t control what happens out there in the world. We can’t control other people, what happens to us or what people do to us, but we must always control how we choose to respond. That is the ultimate key to living a life of bliss. That is the start. After that, we have got some techniques. There are many in the book, so take a look at it.

I do tend to agree about choosing bliss. What I also have seen and know is that for women entrepreneurs who are the women that I focus on and our key audience here, one thing that can impact your bliss is when you are struggling financially. You are concerned about whether you can pay your bills and if you can deliver what you promised to your clients because your financial situation is challenging.

People may be in that situation. What I also know about you is that you have created financial freedom for yourself. I would like to shine the spotlight a little bit on that because that is a place where you are like, “I choose bliss but if I can’t pay my bills, it is hard to keep choosing bliss for a lot of people.” Can you talk a little bit about your financial freedom journey? Let’s give some super tips to our audience.

 

That is what my TEDx is about. My TEDx is called Who is the Boss of You? It is about living a life of choice. At the age of 21, when I got out of school and looked for my first job, I was lucky enough to recognize that if I wanted to be free, marry the man that I wanted, and have the life that I wanted or be able to live in choice. I had to have the financial wherewithal to make that happen, so I wasn’t desperate to get married, get a job or sell myself into society. For me, it became this journey very early on that financial freedom was the key to my freedom and choice in life.

It is interesting because part of why TED wanted me to talk about this is because it is so controversial. People do not want to recognize that money is an important piece of freedom. It is not necessarily happiness, but freedom often leads us to happiness. Money buys us freedom. Freedom buys us choices. Choices can buy us happiness. For me, my big focus is empowering women so that they understand that they need to focus on money.

It is not the most important thing in the world but it is certainly important, and a lot of women want to ignore it or turn their back on it. They feel somehow wrong if they are focusing on the money. I will back up a little bit and say that you don’t want to be selling services to someone that they don’t need. Money is a king but money should be the thing that sets your foundation so that you can be of service in the biggest, best way possible.

For me, I found that I did that through real estate. I had my businesses and I was in corporate. My side hustle was real estate. Even in the very beginning or when I wasn’t wealthy, the one thing that I knew was I would always be okay because I had this asset. Whether the bills were bothering me or what was going on, I knew that I was always going to be okay. As that asset grew and I grew that side hustle that I paid very little attention to, the freedom came within 10 to 15 years. I knew that I would never have to worry about money, so whether I was coaching, speaking, or whatever it was that I was doing, I didn’t have to struggle to make money. I knew I was taking care of it. I could do what I felt was right and give my very best.

Freedom often leads us to happiness, but money buys us freedom. Freedom buys us choices, and choices can buy us happiness.

I want to jump back for a second, Moneeka. We need to shine the spotlight that women can make a living or a business doing what they love that may or may not be their source of wealth. I also have some real estate and I call it my old lady money because I believe that as long as I can give a talk, I can come home with clients. There may also be a day when I can’t give a talk or I don’t want to come home with clients. That is what my real estate is for. It does provide this feeling of security and the feeling of knowing that you are going to be okay financially, thus giving us more freedom. Real estate is not the only solution.

I do emphasize with my clients the importance of creating financial surplus and looking at how to create financial surplus so that they are okay with those things that are unexpected. I do feel that a lot of women who don’t value money as a high value have their attention on serving and helping, which is great. We want to be sure, though, that we were filling our cup first so we were not trying to give from an empty cup, and therefore, we can also be enjoying our journey more. What are your thoughts?

I want to highlight that. You cannot pour a cup of tea out of a pot if the pot is empty. Your life is that cup and what is inside you is the tea. You’re the pot. If you are empty, there is nothing to give. You can go out there, keep trying and pushing, but that is why we have sickness and disease, why women get very depressed and on medications because we were not taking care of ourselves. This is not just a trite talk about self-care and building yourself up. It is real. The most courageous thing that we can do is to take care of ourselves. People think it is the opposite. You take care of others and then that takes care of you.

As women, we do get so much from giving to others. It does feed us but remember, you are first because if there is nothing left in you, there is nothing left to give. It does matter financially. Part of filling yourself up is making yourself feel safe, taking care of your bills, and making sure that everything is paid so that you can be solid in the world that you are safe because that matters. Women don’t want to pay attention to that. Money has gotten a stigma. That is what I think but it’s not. It is a girl thing too. We need the money to make our lives work, safe and stable.

Moneeka, you have been kind enough over the years to support our charities through the community. We have our charities that support women and girls. You have organizations that you are involved with supporting youth and education. When we take time away from our business to do our philanthropy, we can’t do that consistently if we are struggling. One of the things that financial ease does is it gives you a choice to take some of your time and invest that time in the causes that you care about, and that has been extremely rewarding.

I remember one day I was sitting in traffic near the Bay Bridge in the Bay Area. I was high vibration blissing in my car even though I was in traffic because we had raised $10,000 for one of our charities. Another way to bliss in your life is when you are helping other people. You are not able to do that consistently when you do not have financial ease.

The other thing, though, is that during the pandemic, I haven’t been able to kiss or hug all my ladies. As a result, I have been sending them cards and note cards. We have made this bliss roll-on aromatherapy that we gave everybody. I have spent so much money on postage, and fortunately, everybody knows I have a crush on my mailman, Antonio, who gives me excellent service.

Here is the thing. You can’t do all those little special things when you are stressed financially. The other thing is it impacts your ability to think about the future and what possibilities you can create for yourself in your life when you have no resources. I love what you were saying that when you have financial freedom, it gives you a choice for your whole life. That is what we want for our audience. Moneeka, let’s talk to the audience. They are reading and saying, “I get it.” What steps do we want them to take?

 

First, decide if both of these pieces are important to you. We have been talking about bliss and wealth. It does start with a choice. Choose that it is important for you. It is a choice and it starts as simple as that. The first thing is you are going to have a relationship with the joy in your life and with money that brings you joy. That is why I call myself the Blissful Millionaire because the focus is on keeping even the conversation about money joyful. It supports all that bliss in my life not just by giving me freedom, but the actual process is a blissful one.

The next step is to find one little step in each of those areas that you can take. Don’t allow it to be overwhelming. You can eat a big chocolate cake but it takes one bite at a time. What is that bite going to be on the bliss side and also on the wealth side? Beginning steps should have something to do with your relationship, those ideas in your own life, and the role that they play for you. Make a decision, find what that first step is, and then take that first action towards achieving that first step.

You have a way of making me feel like there are so many possibilities. You have shared with our audience your phenomenal book, Choose Bliss, which I highly recommend. How can everyone connect with you? Is there any excitement that you want to share that you are up to?

Go to BlissfulInvestor.com. You will find all my books there and my show, Real Estate Investing for Women. If you are interested a little bit, peaked on that. We have a blog. You will find out all kinds of information there. I did a TED Talk called Who is the Boss of You? It is about this journey of financial freedom to creating a blissful life so you can look that up. It is on TED.com under Moneeka Sawyer. I will eventually have it loaded up on my website. That is what’s been going on.

You bliss every conversation that you are in. You bliss me out to be with you. Readers, we want you to have more bliss in your business and life. Choose bliss, get more bliss and do that through selling more, serving more, and the thing that will bliss you out the most uplifting more lives.

 

Important Links

• Caterina Rando
• Moneeka Sawyer
• Choose Bliss
• Bliss Retreat
• Who is the Boss of You?

• Real Estate Investing for Women – Moneeka Sawyer’s Podcast

 

About Caterina Rando

Caterina Rando is a master certified coach, business strategist and author of the national best-seller Learn to Power Think from Chronicle Books 2002. Caterina is also the creator of two live events, The Sought After Speaker Summit and the Business Breakthrough Summit.

 

 

 

 

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

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• https://blissfulinvestor.com/
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______________________________________

To listen to the EXTRA portion of this show go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com

To see this program in video:

Search on Roku for Real Estate Investing 4 Women or go to this link: https://blissfulinvestor.com/biroku

On YouTube go to Real Estate Investing for Women

0

The Joy Of Giving With Catherine Gray – Real Estate Women

 

There is joy in giving. If you want to feel good about your own success, you need to help others. Moneeka Sawyer’s guest in this episode is Catherine Gray, the Co-Founder of She Angels Foundation. Catherine talks with Moneeka about how it’s crucial for women to get behind women and invest in one another. To prove this point, do you know that women and girls get less than 1.6% of all charitable giving? That’s why Catherine helped create the She Angels Foundation. To help women! If you want to experience the joy of giving, tune in to this episode.

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Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

The Joy Of Giving With Catherine Gray

Real Estate Investing for Women

I am excited to welcome to the show our guest and a dear friend of mine, Catherine Gray. She is the Founder of She Angels Investors, a producer, author, and TEDx speaker. She is also the host of Invest in Her Podcast. Her focus is on getting women funded and she launched a new online video course called Six Ways to Fund Your Business. She is also the Cofounder of the She Angels Foundation, a nonprofit that gives grants to female foundation nonprofits that are helping women to thrive. Catherine, welcome to the show. How are you?

Moneeka, I always love your beautiful energy. Thank you for having me.

Ladies, I wanted to let you know that for about a year and a half, I have been on the advisory board with Catherine. Catherine’s one of the Founders of the She Angels Foundation. She is someone who I’m very close to and we do amazing things together. That’s why we wanted Catherine to come on the show because I wanted to emphasize that as we’re going through the holiday hustle and bustle and thinking about our families and all of those things, sometimes we get a little frustrated.

Catherine and I started with a little bit of a gripe fest. I don’t normally indulge in that but Catherine is uplifting that I felt like I could bend and she would uplift with me. Even blissful people need help. We’re going through stuff. Although the holiday is as joyous as it can be, it can bring up some stuff. I find that one of the things that help me to get out of that place is to think about giving to others. How is it that I can serve a family a little bit better?

This is one thing that Catherine and I talked about. I’m not going to be able to keep everybody happy. This is one of those seasons where everybody is as determined as me to stay happy but I can’t keep myself happy. A lot of that has to do with my mindset. I love opening presents on Christmas morning. For us, my husband has got instructions. There need to be lots of gifts under the tree. He can buy a box of pencils and wrap each pencil separately. I want lots of little gifts. That’s the fun thing for me. It’s not about the presents.

That’s the little girl in me wanting to have fun on Christmas morning. What keeps me uplifted through the whole season is thinking about how I can be of service. How can I be of service to my family? When I’m buying gifts, it’s like, “What would this person love?” It’s thinking about the best in each of the people that I love and then giving that person the best of me.

What can I get them that they would love? It doesn’t have to be expensive. I got someone pepper jelly. What is it that would make them smile? I imagine that smile. There’s that. There’s also the broader vision. How can I give to the world? You know that for me, bliss is about how I contribute to the world.

I wanted Catherine to come on because I want to focus to help everybody and on this idea of giving. Christmas is the season of giving. We get out of our way and allow joy in. That’s what this show is about. Since Catherine and I are in this foundation together and she’s the Founder, I thought there was no person better to have this conversation with than Catherine.

Women and girls get less than 1.6% of all charitable giving.

Happy holidays. We’re excited. You and I both love the holidays. I agree with you that giving can mean giving a gift but also what we’re talking about is giving something to an organization or nonprofit that’s helping somebody who’s underserved. What a great feeling that is. That’s why we launched the She Angels Foundation, which Moneeka and I are both on the board for that.

The reason that we started it is because women and girls get less than 1.6% of all charitable giving. It’s bleak. We thought, “Let’s create a foundation that we give to women and girls’ initiative.” We give to female-founded nonprofits that are helping women to thrive. Let me give you an example. We gave to an organization that helped women veterans get back on their feet. Women came back from the war and they are very underserved as getting financial and other help to get them back in the workforce. We gave it to an organization that helps that.

We gave to another one called Hope Gardens that helps women of domestic violence have a place to be housed while they are getting back on their feet. They help educate them, get a job, and get back in the game. Another one is the People’s Pottery Project. They help formerly incarcerated women that need to learn a profession. They teach them the craft of pottery making and sell the pottery on their site to employ these women to give them a future.

This is a cross-section of who we’ve given to. It’s a collective giving circle. When you become a member like we are, it’s tax-deductible. It goes to a grant that helps one of these entities that’s helping women. The fun part of it is all the members are invited to both online and offline salons with other fabulous and amazing accomplished women for free.

Once you’re a member and make your tax-deductible donation, you get to attend everything for free, collaborate with other incredible women, and be part of the check-giving for the grants’ recipients. You’re stronger when you do collective giving. When we all pool our money together, we have more money to make more of an impact than you and I writing a $100 check to some organization. We don’t see or know where it goes.

 

This way, you get to meet the recipients, hear what they’re doing with the funding, and feel like you’re a part of it. It is a magical organization. It’s SheAngelsFoundation.org for any readers there that’s a female-founded nonprofit that is helping women to soar, or if you are around the holidays or anytime during the year and you want to become a member and make a donation. Giving is one of the biggest highs that we can feel.

It has been named. It’s called the giver’s high.

It releases endorphins when you give and help other people. It’s a real thing. It’s something everybody should be partaking in during the holidays.

I want to mention a couple of other things. First of all, you can give without giving by going through AmazonSmile, because the She Angels Foundation, you can look them up and put them in as a foundation that you want to give for AmazonSmile. A portion is donated every time you make a purchase. It’s like giving on secret or blindly. As you go along, there’s this wake of giving that happens. Everybody in my world is donating to the She Angels Foundation through AmazonSmile. I love that you set that up.

That’s passive giving. Every time I make a purchase on Amazon, I do see it says you gave two She Angels Foundation. It reminds the person that a portion went to a nonprofit. It’s so cool.

When we’re doing all of our shopping, I don’t know how many people are out and about. I tend to be more of a hermit. I cocoon during December. My Christmas shopping is done but if you’re shopping online, that’s a great way to do it. We all like passive forms of dealing with money. This is a real estate show. We like passive income and can also do passive donating.

The other thing that I wanted to mention is I’ve been to several of the salons both online and in real life with the She Angels. What’s fascinating about these ladies is, first of all, they’re all very successful. You go and you have these conversations with all these women that are so much smarter than you in what they do. It’s a huge expansive experience hanging out with these ladies.

The other cool thing is that much of the time, as women that are aspiring to success or have reached a certain level of success, what we start to notice is that the people around us don’t support us in that success or they’re not happy for us. There might be some jealousy, some people making unkind comments like, “Don’t get too big for your britches,” or whatever it is that people say.

When you hang out in a community like with the She Angels, all of those women are dealing with those same things and they become successful anyway, not by stepping on others but by lifting others. You’re in a community of women that are like-minded and can help you to expand and where the conversations and the connections are magical.

Together, we raise our bliss by making contributions to uplift other women. It’s this beautiful synergy of women supporting women all the way from the top and to the people that we give money to. It’s the people that we’re giving money to who they serve. It’s indescribable until you experience it. From Catherine and Deb, Catherine’s wife, I know why it’s this way, because I know them and I know it would be this way. It’s hard to describe that until you experience it.

To feel good about your success, help others.

I would recommend that you go to SheAngelsFoundation.org and check it out and see what they’ve got. The website’s never going to produce the enthusiasm or understanding that talking to people would or anything like that but they do have salons where you can attend as a non-member for free to check it out. If you’re interested in that, you can contact Catherine or me and we can get you hooked up. This isn’t supposed to be a total sales pitch for She Angels Foundation but both Catherine and I are passionate about it, so we thought we should bring it up. Let’s move on.

It’s a gift when we get to talk about it because when people participate, it impacts their life in a beautiful way. It’s a piece of information we’re sharing and we’re saying, “This is a way to lift your soul during the holidays throughout the year and feel good about your success by helping others.”

Let’s talk specifically about funding women. This is one of those things you’re passionate about. That’s what your TEDx was about. Talk to us a little bit about what this looks like in the world, why women aren’t getting funded, and what the statistics are like.

I certainly am passionate about it, as you know. I did a TEDx Talk called Fund Women-Save The World. I do believe that by funding women, we can save the planet. Many women have the solutions for the environment, cures, and all kinds of technical innovations and they need to be funded. Why are we talking about this? It’s because just like in the charitable world, in the for-profit world, women get less than 2% of venture capital funding. This means 98% goes to men and that is mostly White men.

 

Why is that? People tend to invest in people they identify with, as I mentioned in the TED Talk. That’s because they understand better the connection that the product of someone that looks like them. That’s why it’s important that we have more women and more people of color in the investment decision-making world. What does that mean? In venture capital, young people can start studying business and say, “I’m going to go work for a venture capital firm and start from the ground up learning that exciting world of new innovations that are helping to change the world.”

 

The more women we have involved in that, moving up the ranks into the decision-making arenas of venture capital firms, the more it will level the playing field. What else can we do besides that? Every woman reading should become an Angel investor in another woman. There are many ways that you can do that. It could be as easy as a $100 donation on a crowdfunding site, such as IFundWomen or an equity crowdfunding site like Wefunder, StartEngine, and Republic, which is affiliated with SheWorx. There are many out there.

Equity crowdfunding is something new. You don’t have to be an accredited investor to invest in equity crowdfunding, which is something new since Obama signed this into law. It made it possible for smaller businesses to sell equity in their company. An accredited investor has over $1 million in assets and earns over $200,000 a year. That’s a small part of the population that used to be the only people that could invest for equity shares in a company but now that has changed. Equity crowdfunding is something that everybody should educate themselves on and jump into.

Sometimes I hear all these words and I’ve been listening to them, so I’m like, “I understand all that.” Ladies, do you know what equity an equity share is in a company? I’m sure you do. You’ve heard of it. It’s called stock. That’s how normally a layman is interested in a company but isn’t formally involved in the company. They’re not on the board, working for the company, or any of that stuff. We can invest, so we buy stock. You can buy that for very smart portions.

A lot of these smaller women-owned companies have not yet gone public. They still need funding. It used to be that as a venture capitalist, you could come in, have $100 million, invest, and have equity. Those of us that have a $100 don’t get any equity. It’s not stock, so don’t misunderstand me, but I’m going to say it as an analogy. You can buy stock in a company to help them to start and get off the ground. You in return, get a piece of that company. You might have a $100, $1,000, or $50. You can get in for any portion of a company that you believe in or a company that’s providing a service that you believe is needed in the world.

That’s what we’re talking about. Equity funding is a new way of funding for the people that don’t have a ton of money. That wasn’t available to us before. We’ve heard a little bit of this stuff like with Kickstarter, some of the others that are out there, and the crowdfunding. It’s a similar thing but with crowdfunding, you don’t usually get equity in the company.

It’s like a donation. You get swag or the product.

If you go with some of these other organizations, you get equity in the company, which means you are a piece of their growth and excitement of what they’re going to do in the world. It is exciting and fun because you’re watching them, not because you’re going to get something cool but because of the impact that you’re now making on many women’s lives.

Women tend to be more successful business owners.

If you want to play a little bigger game, more women need to be Angel investors. There are so many Angel investment companies and groups popping up all over the country, just about in every city. You can look up angel groups that focus on women and go and learn. What does it mean? How do I become an Angel investor? It’s exciting.

It can be way more profitable than investing in stocks, bonds, or things of that nature that are our typical investments. A lot of Angel investors will make 6 to 10 times their money. You could also lose your money like in any stock. You could buy a stock on the stock exchange and lose your money in that or make money on it. When you do Angel investing, you’re in on the ground floor before companies are going public.

It’s a rare opportunity. It’s where the very wealthy make a lot of money but now it’s more of an opportunity for smaller entities or people to invest $1,000, $5,000, or $20,000 as they jump into it. Don’t do it blindly. Go to an Angel investment group and learn about it. They already know how to vet the people and understand that.

I’m not saying to Angel invest in someone on the street that asks you to invest in their company but these Angel groups are wonderful. They have groups of women that are doing this and they vet it for you. You can learn and understand about how they value it, caps, and all these things that let you know if it’s a good investment. It’s an exciting world.

It’s like the new book club. Instead of getting women and reading a book, you get with a group of women, look at a pitch deck, and see all the innovations that are happening. This is one of the things I love about doing Invest in Her Podcast. Every week, I either have on women that are investing in other women or women that are looking for funding. They always have incredible, extraordinary innovations.

I’m exposed to this every week and anybody could be by being an Angel investor and joining one of these groups. You get to hear about the newest, latest innovations that are coming on the horizon that women are inventing. Without them, the world would be suffering from not having all these innovations. It’s important that women get behind women and invest in another woman.

Whenever I have a platform as I do with your show, I always say, “Everyone that’s reading, be sure that this week you go and invest in another woman, whether it’s in an Angel group if you’re a bigger investor as a venture capital partner or just $100 in an equity crowdfunding campaign.” Everyone can do this. If everyone does it, we will move the needle more quickly so that we’re getting at least 50% of all the funding and not such a small percentage. It will impact the world and you will have a part that you’re playing to solve this issue. It starts with each of us.

What’s important to remember is that so much of the time, we think, “I can’t make an impact. I’ve got $5. I can’t even make it to get enough gifts for my kids.” $5 makes a difference. A hundred thousand people getting $5 is $500,000. Don’t minimize your ability to contribute if it’s in your heart to contribute. Find it in your heart to contribute simply because then you get to have that experience of the giver’s high and understand why I call this one of the bliss practices. You can make it a part of the way that you live your life to help to up-level your bliss in your life.

Whatever it is that you have to contribute, find a place that makes your heart sing and speaks to you. Catherine and I would say to contribute to something that supports women in some way. We’d love it if you did SheAngelsFoundation.org but there are lots of different organizations that you can give to that might speak more to you.

I give a lot to She Angels. My husband gives a lot for women, specifically in our area that are victims of domestic violence. In our area, there are many women that are very wealthy that get abused and they don’t get a lot of compassion. It’s not spoken about but they still need support. My husband feels for these women. They need support and they’re not getting a lot anywhere else. He contributes locally to that organization. We’ve got our places where our heart goes to those people and it makes us feel good.

You also know that I continue to contribute to a school in India to raise the education of women and girls in the villages in India and the boys that support them. For me, it’s all about community. If a woman’s trying to rise but the men are pulling them down, it’s still a patriarchal society. The women will never rise. You got to educate everybody.

I put a lot of my time, energy, and money into an organization. SchoolOfHopeFund.com is the website. That one is where I contribute to the education of girls in India to uplift those communities. We’ve created a huge impact in those communities over the years that I’ve been contributing there. We all have our places that our hearts feel like we want to make an impact.

It’s funny that you mentioned this because we’re talking about Amazon and while Amazon is very convenient, there’s another site that I’m a big fan of called guudguuds because everything you buy on the site goes to a cause for the greater good. You might buy socks and it helps save the rain forest or you might buy a belt and it helps save the elephants. Every product you buy on that site does something for the greater good. There’s another one called TheWMarketplace. It’s all women-owned businesses so it’s women helping women. I’m a big fan of both of those.

There’s SchoolOfHopeFund.com and TheWMarketplace. There are some places to go take a look at ways that you can contribute but don’t be limited by those. Find a way to make a contribution that makes your heart sing. What Catherine and I are trying to emphasize is to make sure that we’re supporting each other as women. A friend of mine, Leeza Gibbons, has a quote that I love. She says, “Girls compete but women collaborate.” I hate to say it this way but so much of the time, we women don’t pay attention to the way that we need to support each other.

We’re focused on our children, husbands, or the men that we work for at work. A lot of the time, there are a lot more women out there at the top, fortunately. There are so many people that we’re trying to satisfy that we forget that we need to support and uplift one another. We feed each other. We’re the ones pouring tea in each other’s cups to keep ourselves uplifted and capable of continuing to give to all the people out there. Remember to support each other. We need it.

In the profit world and the nonprofit world, every woman needs to be doing something to help lift another woman, whether it’s for nonprofit or for-profit. We should be doing both. Women are very comfortable giving to a charity but women need to get more comfortable investing in another woman. Women tend to be more successful business owners, so it’s a good bet and investment. I hope we plant that message that it’s important in every way we can to be supporting other women. You and I are big believers in that. We’re big supporters of each other and there’s such magic or gratification in helping other women.

Ladies, we have more with Catherine. We’re going to be doing a deep dive on the Six Different Ways to Fund Your Business since we’re all about funding. Catherine, can you tell us a little bit high level what we’re going to be covering in EXTRA?

In EXTRA, I’m going to be talking about my eVideo online course called Six Ways to Fund Your Business. Every week, I have the honor of talking to all these different women entrepreneurs that have incredible ideas that they’re launching or businesses that they’re growing. They always want to know, “How do I launch it? How do I take it to the next level?” I’ve done all the leg work for them as to what are the various ways that you can get funded and how do you access that funding. That’s what the core Six Ways to Fund Your Business is about. That’s what we’ll be talking about.

People can find out about it on my website www.SheAngelInvestors.com and everything’s there. When you sign up, we give you a free white paper that talks about the various ways you can get funded. If you want to get the online course, it’s a deeper dive so that you learn what is the best fit for you, what are the options, and how do you access it.

Could you tell us one more time how people can get in touch with you if they’ve got questions about She Angels Foundation, the eCourse, or any of that stuff?

 

You can always reach me at [email protected] right from the website. You can go to the website and send me an email. You can also find me on LinkedIn. I’m on Instagram Catherine Gray. Invest in Her is my podcast, which you can tune into any time. Follow us there. She Angel Investors is on all the other social media like Facebook, Instagram, and @SheAngelsInvest on Twitter. We would love to connect with you online wherever you’re swimming.

This has been an amazing conversation. Thank you much for talking about this with me.

Thank you.

It’s my pleasure.

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Stay tuned for EXTRA. We’re going to be talking specifically about Six Ways to Get Funding for Your Business. It’s going to be exciting. If you are subscribed, stay tuned. If you’re not subscribed but would like to be, go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com. You get the first seven days for free. You get signed up and check things out. If you decide to stay, that’d be amazing. For those of you that are leaving us now, thank you for much for joining Catherine and me in this conversation. I wish you very happy holidays. May your heart be filled with joy, love, and laughter. I will talk to you next time.

 

Important Links

• She Angels Investors
• Invest in Her Podcast
• She Angels Foundation
• Hope Gardens
• People’s Pottery Project
• Fund Women-Save The World – TEDx Talk
• IFundWomen
• Wefunder
• StartEngine
• Republic
• SheWorx
• SchoolOfHopeFund.com
• guudguuds
• TheWMarketplace
• [email protected]
• LinkedIn – Catherine Gray
• Catherine Gray – Instagram
• Facebook – She Angel Investors
• Instagram – She Angel Investors
• @SheAngelsInvest – Twitter
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com

 

About Catherine Gray

I’m Catherine Gray – a Producer, Author, TEDx Speaker, Host of www.InvestInHerPodcast.com, the Founder of www.SheAngelInvestors.com and the Co-Founder of non profit www.SheAngelsFoundation.org.

Also, I am an angel investor in several companies, a member of Wealthing VC Investment Club, and an equity crowdfunding investor too.

My focus is always on empowering female entrepreneurs. My passion is to utilize our multi media platform to fund women, to level the playing field, since women are severely underfunded- getting less that 2% of venture capital funding.

This is why I produced an e-video online course called “6 Ways to Fund Your Business” about Funding Female Founders. It can be found on our website www.SheAngelinvestors.com, along with a free download of tips on funding your business.

Also, I produce and host a popular podcast series called INVEST IN HER, to discuss ways to accelerate the funding of women, and provide resources and inspiration to our listeners. We feature both female founders and funders! It is distributed on Apple, Spotify, IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts.

She Angels is my multi-media platform that creates everything from films and shows, to game-changing events to empower women, plus informative and compelling podcasts, and more.

In my past, I am so grateful and proud to have produced several award-winning films including the very first documentary film about gay marriage called ‘I Can’t Marry You,’ narrated by Ellen DeGeneres’s mom Betty, which aired on PBS in more than 60 cities nationwide. Also, I co-produced several documentary films for the LOGO network. That led me to start my own production company called Showbiz Shorts aka Corp Shorts, and eventually 360 Karma Productions- before launching SHE ANGEL INVESTORS.

As the top producer in the country in cable television advertising in Miami for 15 years, I left the position to become Vice President of Advertising for the first ever gay cable network and decided from that day forward, all of my ventures would be working on projects for the greater good.

My favorite quote is from Mahatma Gandhi “Happiness Is When What You Think, What You Say, and What You Do Are In Complete Harmony.” I also believe the quote of the Dalai Lama, “The Western Women will save the world”!

 

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Top Investing Strategies For This New Market With Dwan Bent-Twyford

 

The pandemic caused a lot of suffering in most business industries, and so much transition happened. But we’re all figuring out a way to survive. So, tune into this episode to learn the secrets to success amidst adversities. Moneeka Sawyer talks with Dwan Bent-Twyford on the top investing strategies in the new real estate market. Dwan is affectionately known as the Queen of Short Sales and the nation’s number one expert on short sales and foreclosures. Her goal is to help and make a difference in people’s lives. She shares about taking the initiative, sending your message across, and staying persistent in what you want to achieve. She also shares the importance of self-care and healthy routines.

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Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Top Investing Strategies For This New Market With Dwan Bent-Twyford

Real Estate Investing For Women

In this episode, I’m excited to welcome to the show Dwan Bent-Twyford. She started as a broke single mom who had been fired from Denny’s. She now heads up Investor’s Edge University, a company that specializes in training new and seasoned investors in a wide range of real estate investing techniques through live workshops, weekly webinars and other stuff. Having flipped over 2,000 deals herself, she is more than qualified to share her vast knowledge of real estate investing with America.

She is affectionately known as the Queen of Short Sales and is considered to be the nation’s number one expert on short sales and foreclosures. She has written three bestsellers, Short-Sale Pre-Foreclosure Investing and How to Sell a House When It‘s Worth Less Than the Mortgage. Her most recent New York Times Best Seller was written with Steve Forbes, SuccessOnomics. Her goal never changes. It’s always to make a difference in the lives of others. Dwan, welcome to the show.

I’m excited. I’m happy to be here.

We had so much fun on your show. I have been looking forward to this conversation forever.

When you were on my show, it was so great.

Forbearance has caused millions of people to inadvertently find themselves in foreclosure right now.

Ladies, her show was supposed to be an hour. We were on for 1 hour and 15 minutes. We were both like, “We can’t stop talking.”

Everyone listened. It got a lot of hits and people loved it.

I’m glad to hear that. I’m always happy to offer my experience and wisdom. Now, it is all about you. Dwan, tell us your amazing getting started story because I love it.

It’s funny when I think about getting fired from Denny’s because I used to work the third shift. I worked from 10:00 at night until 6:00 in the morning. It was in Fort Lauderdale and it was what they call the Big Denny’s, which is all the nightclubs were around there. People came in at night. I knew a lot of people that were in the bar business and different things. Once in a while, I would maybe have a drink or something with one of my people and probably does something I shouldn’t have done.

They had transferred this daytime manager. She was in trouble for something. She got to transfer to the nighttime. She hated the nighttime people because she was like that 5:00 AM, getting people their breakfast in the one door. She hated all the loud and the people that came in at night. One night, I might have had a drink or two at work. She had said something to me and I pat her back pretty solid. At 3:45 in the morning, I got fired.

I remember looking back and thinking, “Who gets fired at 3:45 in the morning? What is that about?” In hindsight, getting fired from Denny’s was super embarrassing. I’m not against anyone out there that works at Denny’s. I worked there for a long time. I still love those Grand Slams but I thought, “How on Earth am I fired from a job like that?” As it turned out, in my twenties, I was fired from a lot of jobs. You can look at all your friends, you know what all their problems are and you can tell them how to solve all the problems. I was that person.

I would work for a company and go, “If you would do this and this, your company would be so much better to the owners of the company.” Many people did not appreciate me telling them how they could do a way better job but they were listening to this young twenty-year-old girl that had blonde hair, big Madonna perm and not taking me seriously. I got fired from a couple of jobs for faffing, back-talking and giving my opinion too often and too freely. I’m an entrepreneur inside. I just didn’t know it yet.

Tell us about the real estate story.

I was in my late twenties. I got married. I had a baby. I was 30 years old. In my mind, I thought this was my prince charming. I was going to stay home, raise kids and be the Girl Scout mom, homeroom mom and cookie mom. That was where my head was at. I remember my daughter was only eight months old when we separated unexpectedly. He took the car and the money and cleaned out the bank. It was gone. All of a sudden, I was like, “I have this eight-month-old baby and I have no job. Now, I have no husband.” It squelched my thought of what I thought I would do. It was smashed in one swoop.

There’s this term where people say they have a come-to-Jesus moment where something bad happens in your life. You only have to look hard and make a decision that could be life-changing. I was 30 years old. My daughter was little and I was like, “I still want to do those things. I want to be the homeroom mom, cookie mom and field trip mom. How do I make that happen because I have been fired from ten jobs?” I thought, “I could work for myself. I could take all those opinions I have had and put them to use but I didn’t have any skills and I didn’t know what to do.” That was my big dilemma.

As I was going out looking for jobs and something to do, I ran across some guys that were investors. They said to me, “We buy houses. We fix them up and we sell them.” Because I know nothing about real estate, investing or anything, my mind here was, “We’ll buy houses. We decorate and then we sell them.” I thought, “I can decorate. I have excellent taste. I will buy, decorate and sell them.” As you know, rehabbing and decorating are not remotely the same thing. I think this much but I didn’t know that.

I honestly think partially being so naive was a blessing for me because if I had truly understood rehabbing, the depths of it and what it would entail, I’m not sure I would have had the guts to do it. For me, personally, being naive was one of my greatest blessings because I didn’t know what I was getting into but once I was in it, I was like, “I have to make this happen.” I rehabbed this house. I took classes at Home Depot because I didn’t know how to do things.

I made $22,000 on my first house and I thought, “I was in this house. I worked in this house. My daughter was with me. I made $22,000. This is the greatest thing in the world. I’m going to do it again.” Many years later, here I am. I got this house. I ordered a carpet. I knew how to paint so I painted the house. Back then, people made a lot of custom-made blinds. I put in the plants and dealt with stuff. I can remember looking at the kitchen going, “That avocado kitchen and the yellow appliances, I don’t know who is going to buy the cabinets.” I thought, “Who is going to buy this house?” I said, “I need to fix that but I didn’t know how.”

I had been to Home Depot a lot buying some things and the guys were like, “You should take some of the classes.” I was like, “What classes?” They go, “On Saturdays, we do these classes.” I was like, “Okay.” My first class was how to lay a tile. I thought, “The kitchen and the bathrooms need tiling. This is a good class for me.” I measured the kitchen. This was a one-hour class. When I was done, I said to the guy, “These are the dimensions of the kitchen. I need the tile, the grout and the spaces for this much.”

I went back in all my excitement and tiled an entire kitchen. Later, I thought, “I should have started with the bathroom or something smaller, the whole kitchen.” I had to take some of it up. It wasn’t even. It was my first time. I remember looking at the bathroom and thinking, “I should have started in a smaller space but at this point, it was done.” When it was done, I thought, “It looks pretty good. I’ll pat myself right there.” There I went and I started learning how to fix things.

After all this time, you have been in the market for a long time. The market is a little strange now. Talk to me a little bit about what you see happening in the market now.

Grow your own wealth so that you can do more good in the world because if you don’t have wealth, you can’t do as much.

The big thing is everybody had that giant forbearance agreement since March of 2020. We’re rolling up on the end of 2021 but there are millions of people who have not been able to make their mortgage payments. One of the biggest things is when you listen, the banks and the people in the media use the word forbearance specifically and most people don’t understand what a forbearance agreement is. When you’re on a forbearance agreement, the bank may say, “At the end of the time, we’ll put your payments on the back. We’ll take your late payments, divide them up over two years and add them to your payments.”

It’s not like a loan modification where you make a couple of payments and you’re out of foreclosure. People have been moving along in the foreclosure process, even though banks weren’t allowed to go to a foreclosure sale. Forbearance has caused millions of people to inadvertently find themselves in foreclosure now because they are not able to put eighteen payments on the back. People who were behind before didn’t qualify so they are at the door of the foreclosure sale now. It has made for interesting real estate investing time.

One of the things that I’m a big fan of is creative financing. I’m a very big subject to person. If they have a large amount of equity, I will partner with homeowners like that. I wholesale and rehab. Even rehabbing is tough now because all the supplies cost so much money. Plywood is $100 a board. I feel like creative financing is the place that people need to be coming out of COVID, moving forward and trying to get back on track with their mortgage payments.

 

My daughter was door-knocking in Denver and she met this young girl who was 27. She has $20,000 behind. The banks said they were going to put the payments on the back. They have been trying for a month and they haven’t done it yet. She got a foreclosure notice. This is a young 27-year-old girl. Her dreams are crushed because the banks didn’t do it.

They never said they put them on the back. They said they put people in forbearance. As soon as I heard the word forbearance, I was like, “This is going to be a wicked disaster. When this ends, this is going to be bad for people.” I told everyone I know and every student I have, “Do not miss your payments. I don’t care. Do not because when it’s all said and done, it’s going to be a disaster,” which is turning into as we speak.

It’s hard because people don’t understand. There was so much transition happening even with the banks. The government was not taking care of the banks. The banks were trying to figure it out and survive themselves. It’s not that I’m saying the banks are good. What I’m saying is that there was pain all the way from the top because the government was trying to take care of certain people but it wasn’t taking care of the entire supply chain. In the banking industry, there was a lot of suffering. Now, it gets spread out to everybody. It’s not like the intention was that way but that’s how it was working out because it was unprecedented. We have never seen anything like this.

I have never even in my wildest dreams imagined something like this could happen.

Now, the banks are trying to figure it out. They are scrambling too but we get caught in the shuffle. Unfortunately, I also see a lot of painfulness happening for the people that didn’t pay their mortgages.

I understand a lot of people live paycheck-to-paycheck. When they had no paycheck and they were getting unemployed but it wasn’t enough, people had to buy food and keep the lights on. They have to keep on the power. People had to focus, “I have to eat and feed my kids and family. I need these things.” People are like, “The government is letting me not pay. It’s good.” Now that it’s done, like this young 27-year-old girl, she says like, “I don’t know what to do. I owe $20,000. They won’t put it on the bank. They said they would. They haven’t. I’m arguing. I hired an attorney.”

This person’s life is completely upside down. I met a lot of people that had more money who were able to stay on track and keep their payments a lot. It’s always the middle or lower-class people that get hurt by all these government decisions. It’s sad because those are the people that end up in foreclosure the most to start with. It’s a snowball and it’s getting bigger.

We don’t know if those things hadn’t happened, what would have happened either. I do want to say because I feel like we have gone down a rabbit hole and it feels bad. Ladies, I want you to know this. If you’re one of the ladies that is in this situation that Dwan and I are talking about or end up having to deal with foreclosure, please understand that it turns your world upside down. It is not the end of the world. Every successful person has had huge setbacks. It does not end your life. It does not define who you are. It is simply a circumstance now.

We get paid for the problems that we solve.  So, if you are solving a foreclosure problem, there is nothing wrong with making twenty-five or $30,000.

For those of you that are part of the suffering, I’m sorry. Let me know how I can help. Understand that it’s part of our journey. Please stay with us. Don’t leave us. For those of us that are not there but are looking at what Dwan is saying as far as strategies, you can help people get out of that foreclosure situation. You can help them get out of trouble and pain by some of these strategies that Dwan is talking about, which is why I’m excited to be talking to her about it because I’m starting to see it.

We’re at the end of 2021. 2022 is starting and this is when it’s going to hit hard because as the foreclosures are coming, they don’t hit the markets for 3, 4 or 6 months. That’s when you finally discover, “This is what it really was.” What Dwan is going to be talking about is how we can help those people get out of trouble so that they don’t have to suffer that pain. You should get paid for doing good work in the world.

It’s okay for you to get paid to help them. You help them and grow your own wealth so that you can do more good in the world because if you don’t have wealth, you can’t do as much in the world. That’s part of the way that I set up my life too. The wealth is a piece of the goodness that I can provide. It amplifies all that goodness. I want to move forward from that because I felt like we were going down this rabbit hole.

When I went through my divorce, I lost the house in foreclosure and I had my car repossessed. I know how these people feel because I have no husband, car, house and money. I was like, “I have a baby.” I get the winning ticket right there. Part of what made me be successful and helped me was, everyone I met, I was like, “I know exactly how you feel.” My foreclosure working in that space became more about helping people than how much money I could make because I know if I help people and do good, the money will come.

Another thing I want women, men and everyone to understand is we get paid for the problems that we solve. If you are solving a foreclosure problem, there is nothing wrong with making $25,000 or $30,000. If you are mowing someone’s yard, you are probably making $100 a month. What you and I do and a lot of your readers and my readers is we solve some people’s biggest problem they’ll ever have, which is losing their home. There’s no shame in making money doing that because the person that we help gets a fresh start.

They will eventually own a home again and their life will get better. They will always remember how Dwan and Moneeka helped them move out of this tragic situation and get a fresh start. They will look back on us. It’s like, “Those were angels that God sent to me to help me start over.” People don’t need to feel guilty about making money for what we do because if we don’t help them, they are going to lose their house. They are going to get kicked out and it’s going to be a mess.

Thank you for that one. I have been uber lucky and I’m super conservative on so many levels. I haven’t had to suffer through those particular challenges but I have had many people in my life that have and I have had my own set of challenges. Understand that Dwan knows where you’re coming from and I understand the challenge. That’s another reason why I wanted Dwan to talk to you about these strategies because she has been on the other side. When she comes to the table to teach about this, she comes from a broader perspective than a lot of people.

I always say, “Your mess becomes your message.” If you have gone through something, it gives you a message for other people to try to help them maybe not go through it or help them out of it.

In this market, let’s talk about your top three strategies that you love. I want to move into doing a little bit more of a deep dive on sub-tos. When we talk about it, people are like, “What is a sub-to?” We do need to break down what those titles mean too.

My top three things, one is doing short sales because the banks have millions of properties that people aren’t making payments on. Some people owe what their house is worth. The market is coming to you all. It will correct itself and the prices will go down. A short sale is the homeowner is in trouble. They contact you and reach out to you. You’re like, “I’m going to help you out but you owe what your house is worth.” You negotiate with the bank to take less as a full payoff. You might find a $200,000 house. The bank will take $100,000 as full payment. Now, as an investor, you can rehab it, keep it for a rental or wholesale it but the homeowner gets the fresh start.

I trademarked the term short sales back in the ’90s as it applies to real estate investing. I also trademarked the Queen of Short Sales. It’s not to brag but I wrote the very first short sale home study program for real estate investors. I’m excited that I helped start the industry. Short sales are great but they are not an exit strategy. You still have to get rid of the house. I’m not a big fan at this very moment of rehabbing and things that a lot of people will want to do because the prices of all the supplies have gone up so much. It kills your profit margin.

 

I’m a big fan of rentals and a lot of people are not going to like this because they don’t understand it. I’m a big fan of the Section 8 Program. All my rentals are Section 8. To summarize in a sentence, what it is designed for is for these single women that have multiple kids. The program was designed to pay their rent. They go to college, get a degree and get a job. The government takes a piece of their paycheck and matches it and they get an FHA house. They get guaranteed to buy a home at the end of the program.

There are women in the Section 8 Program, which is government-subsidized housing, that is using it properly. There are lifers that their whole life, the mom, dad and their kids all live on government subsidy for life. I don’t rent to people like that but I rent to the ones that are in the program going to college. When they are done, they buy a house. What better thing than to help a single mom with multiple children get out of poverty and get their family out of poverty.

During all of COVID, when people weren’t paying rent, Section 8 paid that the first of the month was an automatic deposit. I never missed a rent payment. I’m not being like, “I don’t know those people.” If you understand it, it’s a great way to help people. We’re mostly helping women. In all my twenty years, I only had one male tenant. They were all women. I’m a big fan of rentals that way because if there’s ever another rental moratorium and people don’t have to pay rent, landlords go bankrupt because they can’t make their payments and then I’m huge on subject tos.

The quick version is a homeowner is in distress. They don’t know what they want. They want to walk away at this point. They don’t know what to do. They deed the house to us. Now, we own the property. We can rent it out or owner-finance it to somebody else. We’re there on the mortgage. We’re on the title and ownership side. They deed the house through us. We take it subject to the existing mortgage and then we turn around.

I personally owner-financed mine back out. I do owner refinancing, which you and I are going to be talking about coming up soon. In owner financing, that is the person that wants home ownership again but maybe they can’t qualify for a bank loan because they had a blip like COVID or a health issue. The bank says, “I can’t give you money.” I look at their credit and I’m like, “You had a blip and you paid. You deserve a chance.” I give people a chance for homeownership again. When I think about it, I’m trying to help everybody. Every single math that I do is to help somebody to get back on their feet.

Your mask becomes your message.

Is subject to legal in all states in the United States?

It is. The number one question when you tell something about subject tos is they go, “What about the due-on-sale clause?” Everybody says that. In my twenty years and my hundreds of subject tos, I have done close to 500 subject tos. No bank has ever said, “You’re making the mortgage payments on time. They were not on time and now they are. I want the house back.” It doesn’t happen like that.

The thing is, investors are like, “I heard about this subject to. The bank could take the house from you,” but it doesn’t happen. The homeowners have not been making payments for maybe a year and all of a sudden, those payments are coming in every time. The bank only cares about the money. They don’t care where it comes from. I have never even known of an investor to have a bank called a due-on-sale clause.

The homeowners deed the house to me. My name is on the deed. They are on the mortgage. At some point, you want to refinance them off. I sell the house to somebody else and help them fix their credit. In a few years’ time, they can refinance the house and own it completely by themselves. This other homeowner that is always on time with payments, all of a sudden, their credit got better and I made money in the meantime. On an average subject to house that appears to have no equity, it is not uncommon to make $50,000. Subject tos are a lot of money.

I have heard a lot about subject to myself. I had a couple of people on the show that have talked about subject to. I’m excited because I have been trying to get some of them back. Let’s talk about this again. This is the thing. We are all out there educating and we’re doing the business. I don’t deal with anybody who is not in it because they need to know what’s going on in the current market. Many of my contacts were like, “We’re doing the thing. We’re not teaching.” I’m glad that we’re getting to talk about this.

What I want to do is talk about a webinar that Dwan and I are going to do. This is funny because we didn’t decide on this before we got online and then I got so excited. I was like, “Let’s do a webinar.” First of all, ladies, here are a couple of things that you need to know. Dwan and I are doing a webinar on January 6th, 2022, at 5:00 PM Pacific time. To get more information, go to BlissfulInvestor.com/dwan. Dwan, tell us about what you’re going to cover in the webinar.

I get so excited when I can do a subject to webinar because a lot of people don’t understand it. When you understand it, it is one of the greatest ways to make money. You’re helping the original homeowner restore their credit and you’re helping the new person be able to own a home again. What I’m going to teach is I’m going to show a couple of ways to find deals because you have to find a deal.

I’m going to show people an actual case study, how I found the house, what they owed, what their interest rate was, what their payment was, how we structured and owner financing. I’m going to show exactly how to do that owner financing. I also have a five-year guide to show you. One a month, I’ll say, “You make this bunch per month. In year two, you add. Over the course of five years, you can make about $1.2 million doing one little tiny deal a month, which is easy to do.”

I’m going to show people how to become millionaires. It’s a perfect formula and it works 100% of the time. I have done close to 500 of them and they have all been amazing. I love the homeowner and the tenant. I’m happy to structure this deal. It’s not even hard to do. It’s a matter of having the right paperwork and knowing how to structure the deal so that everything is above board and legal and somebody won’t come back and say, “I didn’t understand.” Everybody gets it. I’m excited to do a webinar with you. I feel so honored.

Ladies, Dwan tries to keep her separate webinar to an hour but we can’t stop talking to each other. Allow 90 minutes and then we’ll do Q&A.

I try to keep it to 1 hour and 15 minutes because I know people are busy but it is a great topic. I honestly believe that creative financing will be the powerhouse of 2022. I’ll even send a couple of little videos out with some, “I’m going to teach you this and this,” so they can get excited about all the things that they are going to learn.

Ladies, if you’re not on my list yet and would like to get reminders, please make sure that you go to BlissfulInvestor.com. Sign up at the very top. There’s an opt-in for my download, which is my favorite strategy. You can opt into that and then you get onto my list. In that way, you’ll get updates on when these things are happening. Go there and sign up for the opt-in so that you can get the reminders too.

We’re going to start everyone off with such a bang. They are going to be like, “I cannot believe that there are these many deals and so much stuff out there. This is the best January ever.”

Dwan, we need to get moving over to EXTRA. We have got three rapid-fire questions before we move to the next show. Before we do that, I do want to let the ladies know what we’re talking about in EXTRA. We’re talking quite a lot about how women treat women. As we’re moving into 2022, there’s so much that has changed in our worlds and lives. One of the things that I would like to see change and I’m already seeing it is how women lift each other up. I find that successful women, we have already learned that it’s a necessity and women have to move towards that.

 

I remember a friend of mine. Her name is Leeza Gibbons. She said to me once, “Girls compete. Women collaborate.” Dwan and I were having this phenomenal conversation about women and how we treat each other and how we each see things. It might give you a little bit of perspective on your own life and who you’re hanging out with and help you to start engaging with people that will be more uplifting and you’ll also be an uplifter for them. We’re going to be talking about that in EXTRA. Stay tuned for that. Dwan, give us one super tip on getting started in real estate investing.

To get started, you need to find someone that you feel like you’re on the same moral compass with them and maybe you learn and listen and not try to wing out as I did. I was a trial and error for a decade. Go in with some knowledge but pay attention to who you listen to and make sure they are a real estate investor, not a marketer. Shiny objects don’t make you any money.

Tell us one strategy for being successful as a real estate investor.

Honestly, it’s perseverance. I started many years ago and there were very few women in the industry and hardly any women teaching, for sure. If I had let all the people, naysayers and voices that I heard around me affect me, I would never have stayed true to the path. Cut out the negativity and noise. Focus on your path, stay persistent and success will come to you.

What would you say is one daily practice that you do that contributes to your personal success?

It’s probably not even a success practice. When I get up in the morning, I take care of myself first. I drink my water, take my collagen, eat and do all those things to take care of myself. Whereas I used to open my eyes, grab my phone and get on it. What happens is the day gets away from you. It’s noon, you haven’t even eaten yet and you’re starving. I wake up and in the first two hours of the day, I only take care of myself. Some people go, “It’s selfish to spend so much time on yourself.” If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care and help others.

I learned I got to take care of myself to help everybody else. Women feel guilty about that because they got to get the kids to school and make breakfast. They don’t feel like they have time to take care of themselves especially women. We need to realize that if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of everybody else. I faithfully, every morning, do my routines before anything happens.

I don’t know if you have noticed this, ladies. A lot of successful people say this.

For the record, I’m not that person that says, “Get up at 5:00 AM and do all this stuff.” Every person I have interviewed is like, “I get up at 4:00 or 5:00.” I’m like, “I wake up at 7:30.” I don’t even set the alarm. I woke up at 8:30. I was like, “I needed the extra sleep.” I’m not like, “Get up at 5:00 AM, be the early bird and get the worm.” I’m like, “If that’s the case, don’t be the worm.” Somewhere along the way, you have to put self-care and make it a priority because trying to run a successful business is difficult. It’s mentally and physically challenging. It’s exciting but if you’re not up for it, it’s draining and dragging and it’s not fun.

Thank you so much for all that you have offered on this portion of the show, Dwan. This has been so much fun.

I appreciate you having me on, Moneeka. I have looked forward to this for months. I’m so excited to be on talking to you and all your successful women.

Ladies, we got more. We’re going to be talking about uplifting other women in EXTRA. If you are subscribed to EXTRA, stay tuned. There’s more to come. If you are not, please subscribe at RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com. You get the first seven days for free. Check it out and then you can stay subscribed or not. For those of you that are leaving Dwan and I, thank you so much for joining us. You know how much I appreciate you. I hope you have a lovely week. I will talk to you soon. Take care.

 

Important Links

• Investor’s Edge University
• Short-Sale Pre-Foreclosure Investing
• How to Sell a House When It’s Worth Less Than the Mortgage
• SuccessOnomics
• Show – Moneeka Sawyer – Inside The Minds of Today’s Millionaires
• BlissfulInvestor.com/Dwan
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com

 

About Dwan Bent-Twyford

Dwan is known as the “Queen of Short Sales”® and is considered to be the Nation’s #1 Expert on Short Sales & Foreclosures. She has written two best sellers, “Short Sale Pre-Foreclosure Investing” & “How to Sell a House When It’s Worth Less Than the Mortgage”. She is highly sought after and has been featured on Fox and Friends, MSNBC, Naomi’s Good Morning, Colorado and Company, and many other TV, radio, and print medias.

In addition to being the Nation’s #1 real estate investing expert, she is a Christian, mother, wife, financial counselor for her church, and a corporate sponsor of Orrin Hudson’s “Be Someone” nonprofit organization – a program designed to keep kids off the streets by teaching them to play chess.

Her goal never changes – to make a difference in the lives of others! God Bless…

 

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

• https://blissfulinvestor.com/
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To listen to the EXTRA portion of this show go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com

To see this program in video:

Search on Roku for Real Estate Investing 4 Women or go to this link: https://blissfulinvestor.com/biroku

On YouTube go to Real Estate Investing for Women

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Syndication Series #6: Investing In Climate-Resilient Markets With Dina Buchanan

 

There are more reasons to invest in climate-resilient markets than just the climate piece. Here to tell you all about them is Dina Buchanan. Dina is the Director of Investor Relations and Business Development at PCRP Group. In this episode, she joins Moneeka Sawyer to share the value in investing in climate-resilient markets not only for the environment but also for your wallet. Dina highlights the strategies to incorporate energy efficiency in your multifamily investments to create value and do good for the community. Stay tuned!

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Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Syndication Series #6: Investing In Climate-Resilient Markets With Dina Buchanan

Real Estate Investing For Women

Welcome to the Syndication Series, where you’re going to learn all about what syndication is and how you can utilize it to build cashflow and grow your wealth. It’s an exciting strategy and I’m looking forward to sharing all of our guests with you. Let’s get to the show.

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I am so excited to welcome to the show Dina Buchanan. She is the Director of Investor Relations at PCRP Group, a firm that provides direct access to tax advantage and passive income commercial real estate opportunities. Dina has been investing in residential and commercial properties in the United States and internationally for years and has been responsible for overseeing approximately $200 million of assets under management. Dina, how are you? Welcome to the show.

It’s so great to be here. Thanks for having me.

I’m so looking forward to this conversation. It’s something we’ve never talked about on this show. I’m super excited. Dina, why don’t you give us first a high-level version of your story? How did you get into real estate?

I’m probably like a lot of other people out there. My husband and I wanted to start a family. We had these high-level corporate jobs. We went to school, got our education like we were told to do. We realized we didn’t own our time. We wanted to have more time. We love to travel. We want to start a family. We searched out opportunities for businesses and it all kept coming back to real estate. I don’t know why. Everything we looked at, from franchises to even in real estate, we were like, “This is what we’re resonating with.” We took a class and we got some education. Everyone should do it.

It’s a great idea. It’s like we went, “Poof.” Originally, we were thinking it’ll be me that stays home with the kids and my husband would keep his job but he ended up leaving his job first. I went on maternity leave with our first child and never went back. That was awesome. We did fourteen residential transactions in our first year. That was enough to replace his income.

We started to get involved with passive and did our first apartment community three years later. That’s when it started making like, “This is intoxicating. This is getting good with passive income.” That led to a series of other deals in syndication opportunities. I’m so excited to always talk about real estate and get everyone excited and knowledgeable about it because it’s changed our family’s financial DNA rather than having to go work for money, having money work for us.

Your first fourteen deals in the first year, what were they?

They were residential single-family homes. It was interesting, I thought that you had to start with residential. It’s what everybody did. We’re like, “We got to do it.” We did that first apartment building. I was like, “I wish we did fourteen of those in the first year.” Not that we were doing poorly, we did well. It was such a game-changer when you look at cashflow diversification over 27 units, which was our first one versus 27 single-family homes. When you look at the cash-on-cash return per door, it’s not that much of a difference. It’s a lot less to get in than 27 single-family homes if that makes sense.

Did you flip those homes? Did you buy and hold? What were you doing with those fourteen homes?

The power of syndication allows an investor to have their money duplicate itself faster and not have to do any of the work.

We did a strategy called flip, flip, hold. Our coach was very helpful in helping us reallocate those funds into passive income properties because he said it’s great to have all this capital at some point. He said something to me that was interesting. I didn’t get it then but I do now. You always want your money working and working harder for you.

Holding on to a whole bunch of capital, which probably would have been more of what we thought we were supposed to do back then would have been the thing. Having that opportunity to learn how we can take this money and buy three more properties, spread it out, leverage, use private money and use bank funding. Get a cashflow on these properties and then buy some more, flip those, move that money in and increase our passive income so that we could retire from a job.

You were actively involved in a couple of flips and then you would hold a couple of flips. Talk to me a little bit about climate-resilient markets, the thing that you talked about that nobody else has. Could you first describe what that is? Define it for us.

One of the things my business partner and I are very passionate about is reducing the carbon footprint in our world. People can agree or disagree that it’s necessary and it’s not what we’re here talking about. The big piece that is very interesting to everyone is how it impacts the bottom line for us as investors on all of our projects across the board. Regardless of where we are on the great debate of our generation, the numbers don’t lie when you do the math.

The opportunity in climate-resilient markets tends to be better because we don’t have issues with funding or refinancing. Insurance can play a part and things like that. If we’re going into a market and renovating that building and putting in some energy-efficient appliances or products and using those types of things, it can be great tax advantage for the project. A climate-resilient market would simply be one that doesn’t experience the extreme weather patterns that other markets may face, coastal markets, hurricanes, extreme heat, tornadoes or deep freezes.

They don’t experience those things?

Not to the same level. For example, I live in Florida. A lot of people associate Florida with hurricanes. It’s true. They happen. I live in Central Florida so there could be a hurricane East Coast or West Coast and maybe we’ll get rain and wind. I’m in the middle of Florida and Florida is not that wide so I could be at a beach on either side within an hour. Being 60 to 80 miles inland is a huge difference in what the damage will be or won’t be. It’s fascinating when you think about it. Same product, same state, it could be completely different.

What is the pricing like? You’re in Central Florida, I thought it would be a different product. It’s not a beach product. It’s a different product and location. It’s got to have different pricing, appreciation and demand. Does it have all of those things? What are you finding?

It’s interesting when we talk about Florida because it feels like the entire state is in demand. The beach, waterfront property, people love living on the beach. We had some Airbnb units on one of the beaches. They could be powerful generators of cash and good investments. However because I live in Central Florida, we live where there is a lot of international tourism. We’ve got Disney, Universal, Legoland and Sea World.

The short-term rental business in Central Florida has exploded because there is equally a demand because there are many people who want to come in. Hotels are booked up as well. It’s interesting people want to buy second homes here. A lot of them want to buy them and maybe live in them for four months out of the year and then rent the rest of the time. That used to be reserved for the beach properties but we’re seeing it inland too. It’s interesting.

 

You’re investing in Central Florida. Are there other areas that have similar types of demographics and demand?

Every market is different. The market is in demand. We’re doing multifamily properties. Those are always, in my opinion, and what I’ve experienced over the last couple of decades, always in demand. They keep getting more in demand as we see housing shrinking as far as availability. There is less. We will see that demand. We do have properties in San Antonio and Dallas. I’m talking apartment communities. We have seen a huge demand there.

Our occupancy in one of our properties in San Antonio, for example, hasn’t been below 97% in 1.5 years and it keeps getting higher. I see it in other markets as well. Whether you’ll see the same price point in other markets, that might be different as far as beachfront being inland. The dynamic with Florida’s a little different because of the tourism that we have in the center of the state. If you went to any of the beaches in Florida, you’d see the same.

In one of the questions you sent me, you said that climate-resilient markets tend to give you higher returns. Can you break that down for us a little bit?

Let’s break it down into pieces. Multifamily, we do multifamily mainly. Anytime we can have cash flowing door under the same roof, there is an opportunity there. Whether it’s a climate-resilient market or not, that’s number one. It’s the same principle as if we were going into a market that wasn’t climate-resilient and we’re going to go in and buy a Class B property. We’re going to buy that property below market value so it would be a property that was 10 to 20 years old that needed some upgrades. Where this gets powerful is the ability to do the upgrades because we already are going to pick a property that’s going to be in a high-demand market even though it’s an older property.

We’ve got the opportunity there like any other market to add value. Where the environmental and social governance piece comes in is we will put in our sponsors that we align with. If we do energy-efficient appliances, materials, paints and flooring that are more environmentally friendly, tenants love that because it reduces their overall monthly cost. Your demand and occupancy are going to be higher. We’re looking at the big picture and setting ourselves up for success that way.

How does it reduce their cost monthly? I’m a contractor. I run a construction company also. My experience is that if we do all the green types of things, it’s significantly more expensive to do the improvements that way.

The tax benefits for some operators that are doing that depending on how they set up can significantly offset the cost of those items. How it affects the tenants is their energy bills will be lower. The other thing to add to that is that you’re building your cost segregation where you can depreciate 39.5 years on a commercial and 27.5 years on a residential. If we’ve got a tenant that stays longer, overall, that’s going to reduce the expense for the owners of that building in that syndication as well.

In general, another area that makes sense is when we’re putting a multifamily building in an environment and we’ve got maybe some mass transportation, situations where it’s helpful for them, we can promote more green areas, we’re doing good for the community as well. It can help on a number of levels, not just dollars and cents wise. The bigger piece is getting these properties, especially how the investors will get out from a syndication standpoint. If we are in a climate-resilient market, we don’t risk having insurance issues and lenders don’t want to finance or refinance because there are some climate risks.

Ladies, we’re going to be talking about that deeper and EXTRA about some of the risks of being in a climate-resilient market avoids. Some of the big benefits of being in a climate-resistant area and also how to find those kinds of properties and those areas. That’s what we’re going to do our deep dive in EXTRA. Thank you for giving us a little bit of that and I’m excited to talk more about that. Could you talk to us more about ESG? What does that mean and how does it provide a benefit for investors?

People that are not factoring in climate risk into their evaluations could be setting themselves and their investors up in a syndication that could be very risky.

Environmental Social Governance is what ESG stands for. It’s something that we’re seeing larger companies pay attention to. People who are not factoring in climate risk into their evaluations could be setting themselves and their investors up in a very risky syndication. As things change and progress with the climate and it is happening, we have a huge problem with it. The worst the climate gets, the more risk effects of flooding. Anytime there is an insurance claim on a property due to weather, that’s going to affect that insurance business.

That’s a little bit more of our deeper dive but to give a bigger picture of why we’ve chosen this, we see larger companies paying attention to this and we know if they’re paying attention to it, there’s something there. There’s got to be a reason why they’re looking at underwriting and, “What’s going on?” The other reason is we as business owners and investors, not only does it help us do a better job for our investors but it’s also doing better for the environment and the planet.

Multifamily housing does reduce the carbon footprint. It’s socially responsible as well. Having a diverse team like our business is a woman-owned business. We’ve got a lot of diversity on our team as male to female. Having a diverse group that understands the dynamics of affordable housing and what we want to provide for the people that are going to be living there and how that’s all governed and plays out. Our motto is, doing good while doing well.

I love that because being socially conscious is such an important thing to my heart.

Mine too. That’s why we connect.

Dina, many people have come on my show and talked quickly about what an accredited investor is. Most of the time they don’t define what that is. I’m so delighted that you can finally define that for my ladies. I want to talk about that a little bit deeper. We’re talking about syndications. They have investments for accredited and non-accredited investors. The SEC has certain rules for the operator based on what investor they will take. The SEC understand that this is not the syndicators doing this.

The SEC decides if you’re going to take accredited or non-accredited investors, what you need to do and provide. For instance, if you’re saying that you’re an accredited investor, you need to show tax returns or assets. You need to be willing to show that information, not because the syndicator is being nosy. If they don’t have that paperwork, they can get shut down and sent to jail by the SEC. It’s a big deal.

We’ll take a letter from their CPA confirming it. There is also a tool that we have in our portal that does help them provide the proof of accreditation and we’ll look at that for them.

We invested in another syndication and they wanted us to use that portal. There was a cost involved. It’s a small little cost, ladies but my husband was like, “I don’t want to do that.” There are lots of different ways that we can do. You can provide this. This is one of those pieces that hits people. They get a little blindsided by, “Why am I having to send this information?” I’m so glad that we had this conversation. We had this series about syndication and I’ve gotten questions like, “The syndicators are asking for my personal information.”

The syndicators are not asking for their personal use. They’re asking for it because it’s required of them from the SEC. Don’t be offended because they don’t want to go to jail and help you make money. They would rather you going to end up with any legal problems. It’s a requirement by the SEC. I’m glad that we had that conversation. Let’s again define what accredited is.

 

An accredited investor is someone who has $1 million of income-producing assets minus their personal residence and/or $200,000 a year income with two years tax returns as proof if they’re single and $300,000 if they’re married, again, tax returns that are proof or Series 7 license as well.

I didn’t know about that. That’s interesting. There has to be the expectation of continued income. It can’t be that I’ve got two last tax returns that show this income and I retired this year, which is great if you retired this year. It has to show the expectation of future income. Those are some of the things. Ladies, don’t get offended when someone starts asking you about your situation. They’re not being nosy.

It’s the way we can all do business and continue to do business for sure. One of the things that my husband and I discovered is we had money and we said, “What do we want to do with this money?” One of the things we’ve learned, and this is a cool way to look at it is the rule of 72. The rule of 72 is a barometer of what we use to figure out how long it will take that capital we have to double based on the current interest rate it’s making or the projected interest rate in the investment we’re looking at. A good way to look at this is if you take a traditional 401(k) and somebody had $100,000 in that 401(k) and it was earning 6% a year.

How long would it take for that $100,000 to double? We would divide 6% by 72 and that would be 12 years. Depending on the time in your life you’re looking at that. We’re talking about age. If I was sitting on the side of 35 or 40, all of a sudden it looks different than it did at 20. Retirement looks a lot different. If the money isn’t working fast enough, that means the person, individual, myself or any of you, we have to continue to work. We’re looking to get the money to duplicate itself quicker. The big reason for that is we want our buying power and the money is inflation. We could have a longer conversation with this but the rate of inflation and it keeps going up.

It’s not about prices necessarily going up. Even though it seems like it is, it’s the value of money going down. It’s losing buying power and it’s everybody’s money. There are smart people and very smart people who want to duplicate their money as fast as they can to keep their buying power in check so they can continue and live the lifestyle they want or better their lifestyle if they want. Whatever they want to do if they want to travel more. When we’re looking at an investment of syndication, for example, one of the opportunities that PCRP is considering has an internal rate of return projected of 18% or 20%.

If you divide that by six, now you’re looking at like 3.5 years for that money to double. Significantly different. That means the investor that invested in an opportunity like that can keep their buying power and increase it, which is the real goal to increase the buying power. They can either retire sooner or retire in a lifestyle by design, whatever they choose. This is the power of syndication because it allows investors to duplicate their money faster and not have to do any of the work.

When you invest in syndication, you get the cashflow, benefit of the appreciation and depreciation on your tax returns every year that you’re invested and you are doing no of the legwork. None of it. Someone else is doing all the legwork. You get your K-1. That’s what you get a year. You get to write all that stuff off. I’ve been an investor for a couple of years. At the end of the year, I’ve been making 10% interest on my money invested every year like clockwork. I get my K-1, we’ve got our depreciation. I pay no taxes on that 10%. We will pay at the end when you sell then you have all of that other stuff that has to be wrapped up.

When we’re doing the 10% each year or whatever that particular syndicator will give you sometimes it’s 7% or 10%. There’s different risks, ladies. I know I’m quoting 10%, they’re high-risk projects. If you want to go with safer projects, you’re going to be getting paid probably closer to 7% or 8% usually. I hope that I’m not making too many quotes for you. That’s the way that it works. A syndicator will give you a quote.

IRR is the Internal Rate of Return. What’s interesting about that is you don’t know what that is until the project closes.

Define that. What does that mean?

Multi-family housing reduces the carbon footprint, so it’s socially responsible as well.

Internal rate of return, that’s how the project is projected to perform. It’s a projection and it should be right in line with that. When you add in the tax, depreciation, cost segregation, all of those things that can get written in there, the Internal rate of return should be very close to, if not above, what’s projected for sponsors and syndicators that understand this process.

What I love about the projects that we look at is we have a line with sponsors that can produce that return. We have the climate-resilient piece, which is a little extra layer of protection. They’re not as necessarily high risk as maybe somebody else’s project could be if it’s not one of those markets. It offers a little bit extra security there too and a better rate so we love that.

I know that people have thrown away around that term IRR and it’s not something that we’re used to hearing. What it does is it takes the interest rate that you’re earning each year on your money. Sometimes they’ll refinance a project and then they’ll give you a portion of the cash out piece. That’s included in the IRR. When they sell the amount that you get paid, all of that is also so that’s your profit, that’s all added in. That’s what your IRR is. It’s all of those pieces together. The other thing that you mentioned that I want to highlight for ladies is on this show we talked a lot about retiring early and blissful. We want to help people to have a blissful retirement.

The journey to get there should also be blissful. I’m all about bliss, all through your entire life. For me, I’m on that edge where I’m looking at retiring. There is a lot of stuff going on in my mind that a lot of people don’t think about. Since you brought it up, I’d like to mention, we do have inflation. Whether it’s talked about or not, the prices of goods seem to keep going up. It’s not that prices are going up, although sometimes they are but the buying power is what’s going down. Our money does not have the same value than it had 20 or 10 years ago. I call this a grocery store inflation.

You go to the grocery store and see how much you could buy now with $20 as opposed to what you could buy 10 years with $20. I know this is a little off, ladies. I’m not accurate in all of the things that I’m saying. I’m giving you a high level of how to look at this. When you’re thinking about retirement, a lot of people say, “If I have $2 million and I’m getting 10% that will give me $200,000 a year, that’s what I’m living on right now. That will be able to maintain my lifestyle.” If you don’t continue to grow that $2 million, you’re not going to be able to keep up with inflation and the loss of value of the dollar.

When you’re calculating that retirement number, you need to calculate that you’re going to continue to save 10% a year. Ten percent goes to you. You always pay yourself first before you pay anybody else. Even when you’re calculating that number, let’s say now it’s $200,000 a day, make sure that you can calculate that you’re going to save at least, maybe even more, $20,000 a year and it’s going to go up. Would you say that’s true or would you give me even more numbers or would you say even more?

I would say more. It’s not about what you’re saving, it’s about what your money’s making. If you take that 10%, that could be good. The problem with saving it is we still have this depreciation going on of the dollar. We did a big number of stimulus package and that money is important to everybody to realize that it’s not money that was set aside for these things, it’s money that was printed. They continued printing where they’re at a place where they’re going to continue to print, that’s a whole other subject but the reality is they’re still printing.

The more they print, the same amount of money it would take to retire. If your retirement date was in ten years from now, I believe what you’re saying is, would this be enough? If it’s saved, my answer is no. The money is not going to go as far. However, if it’s invested and it starts to duplicate itself, it could be. It’s probably going to be individual, depending on what type of lifestyle that you’re planning for. Is it the same? Is it better? Does it not need to be as much as you’re making right now. Everything, cost-wise, it’s going to take more dollars to do the same things tomorrow as it does today.

Thank you for that clarity. I always say save because for me, it’s synonymous and I realize that it’s not for others. For me, save means invest. It’s synonymous for me. Ladies, when you hear me say that, save 10%. What I’m saying is invest 10%. I’m always like that. I understand that I misspeak because it’s not precise. You do want to be investing and continuing to have your money grow. There’s a couple of reasons why I love what Dina was saying. The first reason is the value of the money goes down. We have to have that increase to make up for inflation. The whole thing of inflation is a completely different story.

The other thing is, understand that you don’t have a lot of free time when you’re working. When you’re retired, you might want to travel more to see your grandkids and eat out more. You’re tired of cooking. You might want to get someone to clean the house. There are a lot of expenses that we don’t have as working people that we will possibly have when we’re retired. I’ve seen this with all three sets of our parents that they spend a lot more now that they’re retired than they did because travel is expensive. They’re still paying their mortgage and all these other things. Understand that that increase not only should account for inflation but you want to know that your lifestyle can go up.

 

You’ve worked all these years that you can live the lifestyle that you want in retirement and that you’re not restricted by, “I only calculated as much. It was not the right calculation.” As we talk about syndication as a possibility for helping you retire, keep it in mind that it is also after retirement as a strategy to continue to grow your income, portfolio and assets so that you don’t get stuck with this ceiling of what you can afford after you retire. I feel like syndication projects are a big part of my plan as I’m looking at retiring. I wanted to interject that.

Looking at 2020 with COVID, I’ve taught many real estate investing classes and one of the things I was talking to my class about once was everybody was in the same storm but not everybody was in the same vessel in that storm. If you think about it from that perspective, if your worst problem during that time when you were sequestered, which was our family, we’re bored, that’s a good problem. There are people that were not in that same boat. They were in a situation where they couldn’t leave to go make money. They didn’t have any passive income but ours looked a lot different from maybe somebody else’s because we did have passive income.

I’m certainly not saying that to impress anybody but to impress upon you with passive investing and syndications. Those types of opportunities that we can have allow us to have that freedom. Who could have predicted a pandemic? There are going to be things that happen in life that none of us can predict. 2008 wasn’t exactly predicted per se. During those times, not just retirement but important to say, even now, starting to build that passive income, think about how much less you have to trade time for money. It’s almost like an insurance policy of cashflow because it’s going to come in. You don’t have to do anything for it.

I always say, if cash is king, cashflow is queen and the queen is always right.

I used to say cash isn’t king, cashflow is king. That’s so funny but I like queen better.

I can’t believe that this conversation was so good. Ladies, the conversation is going to continue and we’re going to go into EXTRA and we’re going to be talking more about the questions to ask when you’re looking for a climate-resilient project? How to evaluate those projects? How to find those projects? What are the trends and how to find those trends? We’re going to be talking all about that in EXTRA. Before we move into our three rapid-fire questions, Dina, could you tell us how people can reach you? I know you’ve got some gifts for us.

For anyone who wants to learn more about syndication, passive investing, climate resilient markets, how we pick them and why we picked them, go to our website, PCRPGroup.com. Sign up and you can download our free eBook. We are going to have an educational webinar series that I’m going to be leading with my business partner.

We’re going to do shorter snippets of 20 to 30 minutes because we know everybody’s busy and we want to get the facts out. When you’re spending your valuable, precious time learning, you want it to be quick and to the point so that you can get the good information in and go apply it. That’s the goal. Anyone that’s on this episode, please go ahead and sign up. It’s complimentary for you and learn.

Where do they go for the website?

PCRPGroup.com. If you want to reach out to me, it’s [email protected]. You can email me and set up a time to schedule a phone call about your investment goals and passive investing. I’m happy to help out any way I can.

It’s not about what you’re saving, it’s about what your money’s making. The problem with just saving it is we still have this depreciation going on of the dollar.

Dina, are you ready for our three Rapid-fire questions?

I’m ready.

Give us one super tip on how to get started in real estate investing.

The first thing I would do is educate myself. It could be a book or a course. I’m a big fan of classes, seminars, 1, 2 hours, 3 days even. There is a lot of opportunity and knowledge that gets dropped in an environment of people of like-mind. I’m a big proponent of educating yourself. You got to know what you’re going to get into.

What is a strategy on being successful as a real estate investor?

It sounds so simple but it’s have a system. If you’re looking at properties, have a system or checklist. A checklist is a great, simple but very powerful tool to make sure you dot your Is and cross your Ts and have somebody that’s already doing the business maybe look at that checklist. Maybe they’ll add some items that you didn’t have on there. It’s not a how-to renovate a house or a building but it gives you key things that get forgotten or could be harmful in a deal but it also gives you key things to remember to do.

I believe that systems are the key to bliss, simply because they allow you to unload all those things in your brain. Honestly, I have invested in syndications but I might do one a year. Each year when I go back to evaluate syndication, there is a whole process. I don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel every single year. That’s stressful. There is a way that we deal with that. I take notes and then I can go back and look at my notes and read my notes, “Those are the things that I thought about. This is what was important. This is what I’ve learned I add to my notes.”

Each year, it’s a little bit easier. Doctor Sam talked to us about a tool on how to evaluate syndication projects. We could add that in there. We get new tools. We learn more stuff. We find out what’s more important to us, what worked and didn’t work. Creating those systems helps us to feel less stressed and more capable.

SYSTEMS. Save Your Self Time Energy Money Stress.

I’m going to use that one, Dina. Thank you. Tell us one daily practice that you do that contributes to your success.

It’s going to take more dollars to do the same things tomorrow as it does today.

Every morning when I wake up, I’m a big proponent of gratitude. I have a quick moment of gratitude for everything that I have and I’m about to create. In my day, after I have that little meditation moment or a mindful moment, I pick out one thing that I want to focus on for that day and feel what it feels like when I’ve accomplished it. I take that energy and use it and ride that momentum so that at any point in the day if things happen, I got to pick up the kids, this practice was canceled.

This throws off this timing, go back to that mindfulness and click into that feeling because we all have these things no matter who we are. This is life. Anything that can take away from our bliss, we want to remove that because it takes us off track. It takes us down a tangent that we don’t want to be on. I’m very focused on mindfulness every day about what we want to accomplish and what it feels like. I can tap into that feeling and shift it and go about my day. That’s something I do every day.

This show has been amazing. We’ve talked about so much good stuff. Thank you, Dina. Ladies, thank you for joining Dina and I for this portion of the show.

It’s my honor to be with all of you.

We have more, ladies. We’re going to be talking about finding and evaluating climate-resilient properties and one of the big benefits of that. We’re going to do a deeper dive on that. If you’re in EXTRA, if you’re subscribed already, please stay tuned. It’s coming next. If you’re not subscribed but would like to be, go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com. You get the first seven days for free so check it out.

If you’re leaving Dina and me now, thank you so much for joining us for this great conversation. I loved having you here with us and I look forward to seeing you next time. We will see you then. Until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams. Get out there. Take action and create the life your heart deeply desires.

 

Important Links

• PCRP Group
• [email protected]
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com

 

About Dina Buchanan

 

 

 

 

 

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