Growing Your Wealth With The Investor Mindset With Steven Pesavento – Real Estate For Women

Surround yourself with people who align with your values. Moneeka Sawyer’s guest in this episode is Steven Pesavento, President of VonFinch and host of the Inventor Mindset Podcast. Steven talks with Moneeka about how he turned from failure at 27 to flipping 200 houses in less than three years. His secret? He changed his mindset from not valuing coaches, to going out of his way to connect with them. Be around mentors who’ve been where you want to go. With their guidance, you’ll skyrocket your way to unprecedented success. Tune in!

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Growing Your Wealth With The Investor Mindset With Steven Pesavento

Real Estate Investing For Women

I am so excited to welcome to the show, Steven Pesavento. Steven is a real estate entrepreneur and expert relationship direct response marketer. He’s a Managing Partner of VonFinch Capital and investing full-time since 2016. He’s completed over 200 transactions, renovated nearly 100 houses, and transacted over $26 million in residential investment real estate. Steven’s investors have entrusted him with over $10 million of investor capital, delivering solid, consistent returns. Steven is the host of the top-rated show, The Investor Mindset and he interviews some of the smartest investing minds and authors like Chris Voss from Never Split The Difference, Jay Papasan from The ONE Thing and we had his wife on the show, which was amazing, then also Joe Fairless from Best Ever Podcast and many others.

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Steven, welcome to the show.

I’m so excited to be here. I love your energy. That’s what energy everybody should be bringing to their life.

We talk a lot about this on the show and you are a mindset guy so we will cover this too but our attitude is everything in our businesses, our lives and for our bliss. Wouldn’t you agree?

I agree absolutely.

You’ve got this awesome story. I can’t wait to know about it where you went basically from a failure at 27 to 200 flips in less than three years. Could you tell us your story at a high level?

When I’ve got started in real estate, I had some of the same feelings a lot of you feel and almost every new operator has gone through this at some point. You have that desire. You want real estate to be your thing. You are excited about what it can do for you. The financial freedom bug has bitten you but there’s something that seemed to hold me back from taking action. I started my career back in management consulting and I thought that I had it all figured out.

I thought that if I go this traditional path, go to university, graduated from a great school and get a killer job, I was making more money than I ever could have imagined and making more money than my parents growing up. As a kid, we didn’t grow up with a lot. There was one subject in our house that always caused pain and that came down to money. Always the focus was, how I can create more? How can I make sure that I don’t ever have to feel those feelings? I’ve got into the career and it didn’t solve all the problems.

I had the money but I didn’t have the answers. I started going on this journey where I’ve finally got down, ready to get started in real estate and a lot of false starts but the beliefs were what was really holding me back. It was that belief that I didn’t have enough experience, the family connections, the money and know people with lots of money. All these things were a wall in front of me wanting to get started. I can remember when I finally made that decision to move forward and dive in. I was sitting on the couch of my girlfriend’s home at that time, jumping up and I said, “I’m doing this, not another day, not another minute. I am going to make real estate my career.” That day, I decided that I was going to push all in. That’s my mentality. It’s 100% once I decide something, it’s done.

From there forward, I was able to scale up to over 200 houses in about two and a half years flipping in two different states. Out-of-state, I was able to do this all by building great systems, hiring a great team and most importantly, getting surrounded by mentors who had already been down the path. I’ve got some stories that I can share about exactly how I went about doing that but that was the key to my success. I made a decision after I had got clear on what I wanted, and then I found a way to get surrounded by other people who had already done it.

I talk a lot about finding a mentor in this show. How did you find your mentors? There are a lot of people out there talking about this stuff.

Investor Mindset: Talk to somebody who can help you gain clarity so you know what to do next.

There are a lot of people who are real estate professionals. They maybe flip some houses, buying multifamily or some rentals. There are a lot of folks that you can look to but what you need to start and where I always advise all my clients, friends and audience. I’m the host of The Investor Mindset show. We dive into a lot of these types of conversations about thoughts and how those thoughts lead into action but it’s about figuring out what do you want first. What do you want and why is that important to you? It comes to the who and then once what that is, then you go and find somebody who already has been down that path and already done it.

For me, I found a local real estate investor event. It was the first action that I took. It was the same day that I made this decision. It’s what I recommend everyone else do. When they make a decision, they should immediately take some action. I committed myself to go to this event. One of the speakers happened to be a very well-experienced real estate flipper. I researched this person in depth. I listened to every show I could find. I tried to ask myself, “How could I be of value to this person? How could I make a difference in this person’s life? What skills, knowledge or frankly, the fact that I have time, how could I make an impact?” I thought of this plan, went to the event, listened, asked questions, engaged during the conversation, and then waited until everyone else had left and the conversations had died down, as all these people were going to go and talk to the speaker, that’s what often happens.

I made a pitch and my pitch was, “I will do this for you and build you this $10,000 to $15,000 website for free. All I’m asking is if I can be a part of your inner circle and if I might be able to follow you around at a property or ask you some questions from time to time.” Before I could even finish asking or making the offer, her hand was out in front, ready to shake it to lock it in it. It was because I found a way to be of value to her, to be able to help make her life easier and better. I thought to myself, “What are those skills that I could do?’

The reason that I went this route was that at that time, I had a lot more time than I did money. I had a lot of beliefs about coaching, training and spending money on these things. I didn’t know that that was only limiting my success. Fast forward, I ended up joining a Mastermind group that I was able to get surrounded by 50 other people who all had the same dream, many of who already were on that path and a few who already had that success. By being a part of that community, I was able to see the exact formula, the blueprint about how my business could look. That gave me the belief because I said, “If they can do it, then I can definitely do it.” I modeled my business that first year. We had flipped over 75 houses.

That’s another one of those things like there are a million masterminds. I probably get an invitation to a mastermind every single day. How did you pick the mastermind? Did you research everybody that was in it or what did you do?

The key to getting a part of a community is you have to one, it’s a little bit of luck but two, it’s mostly about showing up. I had committed myself to go to this event. It was the first conference that I have ever gone to. I ended up going to this conference and it was full of a ton of other people from the community who are also on that same path. There are many people who are friends of mine now because I met them at that first real estate conference. I had gone to many events and meetups. I had done plenty of free training but spending $1,000 to go to this conference for three days was a huge thing for me. Did I have the $1,000? No. Was I committed to going and finding even more people who I could get surrounded by? The answer is, absolutely.

By getting into this community, I ended up going to the event. I did not join a mastermind and pay for any training as a result of going to that event. What I did was I’ve got connected to some amazing people. Through those amazing people, I ended up getting my mindset shifted on paying for coaching and mentorship. It was because of a business partner of mine that I, again, was trading my time to be able to do a bunch of services within his business to get access to some more training. Through that conversation, it ended up leading to a partnership and through his lessons, I ended up realizing the value of joining this mastermind. I thought, “I’m splitting with my partner. It seems like it’s a no-brainer,” and within about 24 hours of joining that group, I had already received enough value that directly led to paying for that whole $25,000 or $30,000 ticket price.

The lesson for me was, it was costing me money to be sitting on the sidelines and not taking action, not joining something. That’s not saying, “Go, fire off,” and buy any program but it’s about getting an experience with the people who are going to be a part of that program. It’s going to a webinar and training. It’s getting on a coaching call or strategy call with somebody who can talk through and help you gain clarity so that you know this is absolutely the direction I want to go. It seems like it’s a no-brainer for me to head down this path with you than to go but to try to go through the forest on my own without a map about exactly how I’m going to get where I need to go.

Steven, I love how incredibly concise you are, articulate and how you went boom. Thank you so much for that. I want to talk to you a little bit about this whole idea of building your business based on your clients. This is how I have always built my business so I love to know your perspective on what this is, first of all, because we all see things differently, how you have done it and advice around that.

It goes back to what we were talking about. I went from this place of this mindset and this belief that I can’t spend money on coaching. Otherwise, I’m a fool. I met people who had spent $30,000 or $40,000 on some program. I had thought to myself, “Those guys got hoodwinked.” I remember I can think of a couple of couples that I had met at the events and those people are complete idiots. Now, I realize that I’m an idiot but through that process and doing lots of coaching, mentorship, different programs and personal development, all these things, I ended up learning what was most important to me. I’ve got clear on who I was, what was important to me and what I was good at. Through that process of building my business, VonFinch flipping all of those properties, managing a team of fifteen people in two different states, and spending over $1 million in marketing in about a year and a half, I learned a lot about what I loved about the business and what I wasn’t in love with.

I came to this point where I thought to myself, “Is this the business that I want to be building for the next twenty years?” The answer was no. If you do the old rocking chair task or in this case, I better not be in a rocking chair at 50 but I was envisioning in this position in this place where I was going to keep running this house flipping business, this high-volume, a low-margin machine that was turning out deals and was making us great money. I realized this wasn’t where I wanted to be or what I wanted to be doing. Part of the reason was that the people that I was surrounded with weren’t in alignment with my values. I didn’t feel like I was serving on the level that I could and people weren’t open to these ideas that were so important to me.

I had been enlightened by the idea that mindset is the core of all success. When you can change your thoughts and beliefs, then you end up changing the actions you take and therefore, the outcomes that you experience in your life. Having this belief and realization, I wanted to share this with people around me. Fortunately, in my business, I was able to share that with my team, members of my mastermind community and certain clients but not all of them. As I looked at the flipping business, we are buying houses directly from homeowners, $0.60 to $0.70 on the dollar. We are doing that at volume and making a huge change in these people’s lives. We are changing their day-to-day. We are taking them out of a difficult situation and the majority of the people are absolutely thrilled but it wasn’t enough for me.

Investor Mindset: Repetition is the mother of skill and the father of learning.

What I ended up doing was I started searching for some answers. As I was sitting, after learning and being reminded about the importance of this idea of an ideal client, I started thinking through how I could change my business to start serving these clients. I came back and started taking some action because that’s what I do, making some shifts to start focusing on the investor first and making our business about serving them. I also realized there’s something that’s still in alignment. It’s not quite there.

After getting to this point where I had already made this decision that it was time for a change, I ended up stumbling upon the power of multifamily real estate and frankly, commercial investment. As I started getting more familiar with that, I saw a lot of the attributes of things that I like. The ability to scale, to have economies of scale that can happen by buying multiple units at one given time and the professionalism that is true within the industry. What ended up leading me to was this idea that this could be a great place for our business to grow into. What ended up doing it for me was that I knew that at the end of the day, I wanted to be surrounded and working with people who are like me, who were success-minded, successful, have been earning a great income and want to figure out how can they create freedom flexibility and the ability to be able to make an impact in the world. You can do that directly by investing.

If you can start getting the money that you are making from hours worked or from companies that you own working in real estate, you can start to see massive growth happen. For me, the reason why that was so critically important was that the people that I’m surrounded with are the people that I ended up becoming like. I wanted to make sure, I am surrounded by people who are working at a high level and I’m able to make a direct impact.

The second big piece for me was thinking about one-time sales versus long-term continuous relationships. I’m a guy who likes to move fast, talk and I sometimes can be curt from moment to moment but when people know me, they know that I’ve got a big heart, I’m here to support them and I do care about their success. By building these relationships, I knew that this is a business that I would be thrilled to be in for the long-term. That’s what ended up leading to the shift of deciding that this is the path we needed to go. We completely changed our business a few years ago to help be able to support and move in this direction.

When you look at your clients that you are building this business around, from my perspective, we have three different clients. We have the client that we are buying from and hopefully, you build a relationship with because many of these clients that may have several properties or maybe they want to let go of an entire portfolio. There are the people that you are buying from, you sell to and the people that you work with. What is your biggest focus or do you focus on all three? Your team is also they are your clients, too.

At the core, we are clear on what our values are and we value the idea of partnering with experts throughout everything we do. We hire, partner and bring experts internally onto our team because we know that everyone has a unique ability. It’s something that they are amazing at. It’s their superpower. I know mine. You know yours. Our team members each know theirs. By being able to partner with experts, we can leverage what we are good at while leveraging a track record of years of experience in the business so that we have been able to scale quickly to be able to make a direct impact without necessarily having to go and do everything ourselves.

We believe that we are putting our clients as well as our business, which is built upon our team, in a much better place by doing this because sometimes people get stuck in this idea that I need to get everything for myself. We are not like that. We truly believe that it’s all about when we do better, we all do better. We want to make sure that our limited partners and our investors are supported that they are going to do great in these deals. We want to make sure that our operating team on the ground is going to be well-supported and their experiences are going to help support all of us to be able to go out and do the things that matter most. In our real estate business, that’s our key focus. We know that we’ve got operators, people that we are purchasing deals from on the ground and investors. Throughout that experience, there’s a track record of who we are, how we show up, what’s important to us and all of those things end up coming true. Over time, we have developed into having a reputation that stands for exactly what I have been describing.

I love the way that you talk about your operators being in their genius zone. I’m doing a construction project and we have these balconies. We’ve got all this rod iron stuff and it was hideous. I walked upstairs to look at it up close and I was like, “This is horrible.” My contractors came out and they were like, “We agree with you.” I was like, “Thank goodness.” They worked hard to find this for me. We are looking for something different and one of the things that I have noticed is that I love working with exceptional people. He is an exceptional contractor. He makes my life and my business so much better. That’s so true that who we work with, those vendors and operators, all of those people are such a key piece to running a business that’s aligned with our values, that feels good and is sustainable over time. Thank you so much for mentioning that.

It has made such a big difference. We have clients on our investor side who, from time to time, will ask, “Why don’t you operate directly? You are in the market and have a good understanding, why don’t you put the team in place?” It’s asset management. It’s this and it’s that. The answer is, “You are absolutely right. We definitely could. We can hire internally and bring on people that are on a payroll that means that we get to make more money. The thought is that if we were to do that, we would be going against what we believe in, and then second, that we truly do believe that by going and partnering with somebody who is in their genius zone, their unique ability that’s good and has that track record, we are setting ourselves up to make a lot more money as a result.” Rather than doing the things that we don’t like doing, don’t fill us up and aren’t our unique ability than we are taking away from time that could be spent growing, making an impact and difference.

This conversation has been awesome. Tell everybody how they can reach you.

The best place to reach us is, if you have liked the conversation we have had, I encourage you to go subscribe to The Investor Mindset Podcast. If you liked what we talk about, we talk about this twice a week on the show. If you feel like this has been valuable and you enjoy the mindset stuff that I encourage you, we put together a great free resource at TheInvestorMindset.com/success where we are diving into the Top 5 Success Principles of a Successful Investor and lessons that have been learned over hundreds of interviews with some very impressive people. You can grab a copy of that. If you read and like what we are talking about, you can hit me up on any of the social media platforms, shoot a little DM over, let me know that you read about this show and I would love to connect with you.

Thank you so much for that. I love free gifts, too. That sounds amazing. It was a 5 Principles of Success of a Successful Investor, right?

Investor Mindset: Meditation is a great way to catch ourselves when we have a set of beliefs that aren’t serving us.

Yes, that’s exactly it.

Thank you for that. Steven, are you ready for three rapid-fire questions?

Let’s do it.

Give us one super tip on getting started investing in real estate.

The most important tip when you are getting started real estate investing is to get clear on what you want, why you want it and then figure out who is going to help you get there. The reason why I have repeated this three times is that repetition is the mother of skill and the father of learning. If you are going to do this and you haven’t done it already, I encourage you to sit down and get clear on what is that thing that you want? What does life look like on the other side?

Once you get that clear, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that you are going to take the action to get there because you are going to be able to feel it. Sometimes people want that freedom, flexibility and independence but they don’t take this time upfront getting clear, and then you will end up where I was, where you built a successful business and made a huge impact, and then where you would say, “It’s time to pivot.” Even though I was clear on what I want, it wasn’t what I was going after. You might be able to save time by going directly to go rather than around the way. It’s just the way things go.

That’s very aligned with how I teach people, too. Always start with you, build around the business around the truth of who you are and where you are headed. Talk to us a little bit about a strategy on how to be a successful real estate investor.

It starts with the exact same thing but when it comes down to investing, you want to be in a position where once you know those two things, then it’s time to take action and figure out who you are going to partner with, work with and help support you within your business. That might be employees, coaches, masterminds and training. Whatever those things are for you, you’ve got to get clear on who’s going to help get you there. That might mean going out to your network and saying, “This is what I’m doing and what I want to accomplish. Would you happen to know anyone who might be able to give me a lead or make a connection?” By going directly to people who already know, like and trust you that are in the space, they will be able to connect you to someone else and so on. It’s that power of your network that when you combine getting super crystal clear with going out and building phenomenal relationships and you bring those two pieces together, you will be in a strong position to not only scale but to do it in the right way.

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

There’s a set of practices that I consider my one practice. Every single day I wake up with a movement, meditation, mapping and mindset. What I mean by that is I get up and I move for at least ten minutes. It’s often quite long but I will go for a great run. I get that blood flowing and I start to get my brain in a place where I’m ready to step into my day. I’m a lot smarter when I’m moving so will you? I encourage you all to do that. Meditation is a great way to slow down, especially if you are a driver type A person like me but even if you are not, we can start to see our thoughts and be able to catch ourselves when we are thinking something or we have a set of beliefs that aren’t serving us at that moment. I listen to some mindset. I love reading obviously great shows like the one you are reading, as well as other content that’s going to help enrich my brain and start putting me in the right state of mind for the day. Finally, I always start my day with a map with a very specific plan of what actions I’m going to take and what’s most important for me that day. When I do all four of these things, I end up operating and frankly, working from a much happier place.

How long does that whole process take for you normally?

It could take as little as 30 minutes or as long as an hour or hour and a half. It depends on the day but by committing just 5 minutes of breathing, 10 minutes of running, a quick 5-minute process of mapping out the day and while you are running, you can throw on a little something to motivate you to put in some of those thoughts and beliefs that you know are important. You can put that altogether or you can separate it out depending on what works best for you on each given day.

Investor Mindset: Every time you go listen to the investor mindset, take action on it.

That’s so actionable. This has been awesome, Steven. Thank you for everything that you have offered in this portion of the show.

It has been amazing being here and the biggest thing that I want you to take away from this is that in every single conversation, everything that you listen to, every time you read about the show, listen to The Investor Mindset, read a book, go to a conference or open up some course that you are diving into, there is always something that you can take away but the most important thing is that you take some action on it. Decide what’s one thing from this episode that you can do, who is one person you can reach out to, and what’s one show you can follow that’s going to end up setting you up to be in a much better place. I encourage you to figure out what that is and take that action. I look forward to being able to serve you in the future.

Ladies, you can do that. I love the way Steven does that. I made a decision and that day, I met this person. Most of us don’t act that quickly on decisions that we make. One of the biggest determining factors for success is our ability to make quick good decisions. That means you have to be aligned and intuitive about what feels right, what feels wrong and what’s settling with your gut but you have to be able to make decisions fast and take action on them. That’s a huge characteristic of successful people. Thank you so much for highlighting that.

When you hear the story of me taking action, immediately deciding, and a week later being at an event and a few days later, having a mentor and a year later having 75 flips under my belt was that it took me ten years to get to the point of making that decision. It took a long time. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad when I was 17 and I was 27 by the time that I had bought my first property as an investment. It goes to show that in that moment I decided and everything great happened from there. Why wait ten years? Why not decide now?

We do have more in EXTRA. We are going to be talking about scaling a business remotely. Ladies, you know that for me, freedom of choice and freedom of time are the biggest things that I strive for. That’s how I define blessed. I want to be able to travel. I want to be able to spend time with my aging parents. Time is my thing. Systems, processes and your team allow you to create that freedom. Since Steven is an expert in this, I asked him to please share with us how he’s done it so we are going to be doing that in EXTRA. Definitely stay tuned for EXTRA for that. It’s going to be awesome. If you are not subscribed to EXTRA, you should get subscribed for this one.

Go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com. The first seven days are free so you can try it out. Get this EXTRA and as many as you can download. If you love it, you stay and if you don’t, no obligation but check it out. For those of you that are leaving us now, thank you so much for joining Steven and me for this portion of the show. I look forward to seeing you next time and until then, always remember goals without action are just dreams so get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires. I will see you soon. Bye.

Important links

• VonFinch Capital
• The Investor Mindset
• Chris Voss – The Investor Mindset Past Episode
• Never Split The Difference
• Jay Papasan – The Investor Mindset Past Episode
• The ONE Thing
• Best Ever Podcast
• Joe Fairless – The Investor Mindset Past Episode
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• TheInvestorMindset.com/success

About Steven Pesavento

Steven Pesavento is a real estate entrepreneur and Managing Partner of VonFinch Capital. Investing full time since 2016, he’s completed over 200 transactions, renovated nearly 100 houses and transacted over $26,000,000 in residential investment real estate. Steven’s investors have entrusted him with over $11 million of investor capital, delivering solid consistent returns.

A former Management Consultant for some of the Fortune 500’s top companies, he brings his years of process improvement, marketing and sales experiences to every project. Steven graduated with honors from prestigious St. John’s University in 2011 and is active in multiple charities including working with youth teaching business with Junior Achievement.

Host of the top ranked podcast the Investor Mindset he interviews some of the smartest minds & authors like Chris Voss – Never Split The Difference, Jay Papasan – One Thing, Joe Fairless – Best Ever Podcast, Mark Manson – Subtle Art of Not Giving A F&#k and many others.

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• https://blissfulinvestor.com/

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Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

How 30% More Courage Can Double Your Revenue And Your Happiness With David Wood – Real Estate For Women

When do we muster more courage to focus on what we really need and want in life? Join Moneeka Sawyer and David Wood of Focus CEO as they delve into staying focused on your goals and staying on track so you could achieve your personal and professional happiness. David shares how he discovered personal growth and why he’s an absolute advocate for the truth. We learn how important it is to stay committed to growth, self-expression, and emotional freedom because the world is changing and we need to adapt in order to stay on the path. If you need a boost up in your courage and confidence in facing life’s challenges, then this show is perfect for you. 

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

How 30% More Courage Can Double Your Revenue And Your Happiness With David Wood – Real Estate For Women

Real Estate Investing For Women

I am excited to welcome to the show, David Wood. He quit his career as a consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies to create the world’s largest coaching business. He now coaches rockstar entrepreneurs to double their revenue faster, overcome shiny object syndrome and be more extraordinary entrepreneurs and humans. David, welcome to the show. 

Thanks, Moneeka. I’m glad to be here. I like how you grounded yourself before we started this interview. It gave me a chance to take a breath, drop in, feel into my body and maybe even a little beyond. I’ve done 160 interviews and I haven’t seen a host do that. I’m appreciating that about you. 

Thank you so much. That’s such a great way to dive into your topic too. When you’re doing something and you want to be extraordinary at something, I can’t say I am extraordinary but that’s certainly my goal, you want to make sure that you can focus, that you’re grounded and present in every moment, breathe, thought and piece of the conversation, don’t you think? 

That’s the goal and the ideal. I’m not always there but how present can I be? Sometimes mid-sentence, I realized I stopped breathing. I could take a breath because it’s easy to get amped up when I get excited about things. It’s a constant journey. Get excited and amped out, but can you also stay grounded at the same time. 

It’s a skill and thank you for recognizing that. I want to know a two-minute version of your story of how you became the guy that you are now and doing what you’re doing. 

I didn’t realize this was the story until I started podcasting and answering questions. When I was very young, I had a tragedy in my family. My little sister was killed when I was seven and I was there. I witnessed the accident. I didn’t know until years later that I had switched off a large part of myself. Now the benefit was I got good at schoolwork, left-brain stuff, numbers, money and systems. I came top of my school. I got paid to go to university then I landed a job at a corporate consulting firm on Park Avenue in New York. I’m like, “This is rocking and I’ve got it made.”  

I discovered when I found out about self-help, which I was very reluctant to go to and I’m like, “These people all wear name tags. They’re smiling way too much.” When I went and did it they cracked my heart open and I realized I had a lot to learn about intimacy, vulnerability, communication, leadership and influence. I knew nothing about those things. I’m an unusual coach. I’m good with the number systems and money but that’s not my main priority. I’ll help you with that. Let’s make more money but I care about how you show up in the world. How’s your courage, truth-telling and self-expression? I want everyone to be able to die with zero regrets knowing they gave it everything they can.  

I live in Silicon Valley. I am surrounded by brainiacs everywhere. They live in their minds. They’re all about the numbers. They’re software programmers and changing the world with what they create but they’re not connected to themselves. Often, they’re not connected to each other or to their partners. They’re connected enough. We see this in different pockets where we all live. We see societal expectations form the communities and the way our relationships work but they’re not as much into self-help usually. To watch you and have someone on the show that’s gone from that similar mindset as your mindset, heartset and connection make such a big difference in your success. It’s lovely to have someone on the show who’s made that transition.  

I’d call it making that transition because I’m a work in progress. I’m not perfect by any means. I’ve lots of flaws, vices, crutches and all sorts of things. Hopefully, one of the differences between me and the average bear is I’m watching a little closer. For example, there was a shooting in my local supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. I was having my reaction and then I’m watching the reaction. My initial reaction was one of fear and like, “Maybe I should leave the US.” This was my safe bubble and my safe bubble is getting smaller all the time. As I kept watching it, I’m like, “Is that the reaction that you want to have?” 

I started having a little compassion for the shooter. It’s not a lot of compassion but a little bit like, “How unhappy would someone have to be to go and start shooting in a supermarket?” I started feeling compassion for the people who were injured, then all of the people which includes a lot of the world right now who might be feeling fear at that. Someone else got shot. It wasn’t me but we still feel fear. I’m a constant work in progress. My work is never done. If I ever get to that point, I’ll probably be dead. 

Thank you for that vulnerability because that’s true of anybody who’s deep into the path of evolution, that developing our mindset, our heartset and the people that we want to be and how we show up in the world. That’s a constant evolution. As you say, it only stops when you die. How long are you able to actively engage and becoming your very best self? That’s what you decide. You will continually evolve until you die but you decide how long you completely engage. I love when you talk about it in such a vulnerable way that, “I’ve got so far to go.” I say the same thing. There’s no possibility for perfection. There’s just evolution. Thank you for sharing that. 

It’s funny that I present a great image when I’m speaking and it can sound like I’ve got everything together. I’ve learned a lot. It’s great and I’m happy to share that but I want to be transparent and say that there’s another side. You guys should hear me swear when I’m playing a video game when it’s not going well. I even get annoyed. I could be playing with some fifteen-year-old in Sweden. They quit with not even a good game and I still get annoyed. I’m like, “Where are your parents? Why aren’t they teaching you how to shake hands properly?” You still got lots of judgments. I’m taking it on as a challenge like, “Can I have my heart open even while I’m trying to win, crush and dominate? Can I be giving if someone quits and disappears?” I’ll go and chase them up and say, “You played a good game.” I got plenty of flaws. Don’t worry about that. 

You talk so much about truth. What do you think it’s so hard for people to talk about that naturally? Why do you think it’s important? 

As a kid, I know I wasn’t always rewarded for telling the truth. You get in trouble and there’s a definite hierarchy in most parental situations where the parent has all the power. I learned and a lot of people learned how to tell lies. I heard a developmental expert say, “Don’t get upset when your kid tells a lie. It’s an important part of their evolution that they learned to fabricate something.” I was like, “I hadn’t thought of it that way.” That was my life. I haven’t spoken about this in a show. My parents are good people with integrity. It’s not like they lie or go out of their way to rip someone off.  

My mother is 78 and my dad is 83. They’re selling the caravan which is a big deal because I guess they’re no longer going to go caravanning. I’m not sure how I feel about that. She said, “This guy drove from Sydney in the rain for two hours to check out the caravan.” He’s deaf, can’t speak, uses sign language and he said, “He sent the money via his app.” The money hadn’t arrived and my mother said she didn’t have the heart to send him back to Sydney and have him do another drive to come and get the caravan when the money arrives. She let him take the caravan. She’s like, “I’m just going to trust him that the money’s going to come.” It’s an $8,000 caravan.” I have a lot of respect for my parents’ integrity. If my mother could ever steal money from someone else, then she wouldn’t trust this guy. She couldn’t even imagine that someone could not follow through with the money. 

When it comes to business, ideas are endless and entrepreneurs can see all the opportunities.

They have that and yet a lot was hidden as I grew up. Maybe you don’t say something because it’s going to be awkward. You don’t say that because it is going to get you in trouble or you tell a white lie. That’s very common. Fortunately for me, I discovered personal growth and I had some good coaches who were showing me another way of being. They showed me what it’s like to have pristine integrity and to have those tough conversations. I had to make a list of all the people that I had anything less than full love for. It’s people I resented, hated and felt guilty about how I treated them right throughout my entire life. They’re like, “Now go and call those people and complete.” I said, “No, you’re kidding. I’m not going to call that bully from high school and tell him I’ve hated him for twenty years and I’m letting it go. I’m not going to call that girl who dumped me twice and gave me the cold shoulder. I’m not going to call that boss who I sued and see if we’re good now.” They helped me dive into why I didn’t want to do it, all the fears I had around it, and then they showed me a way to go and do it. 

Those calls were incredible. I was terrified but when I got on the phone with these human beings and spoke my truth and was connected with a slightly open heart, these people surprised me over and over again. The bully said, “What can I do now to help you or us move forward?” The girl who dumped me twice, I said, “I don’t need an apology. You don’t have to do anything. Just listen.” She said, “I’m so sorry. I was young and stupid. I’m sorry for how I treated you.” I’m in tears. The boss that I sued. I said, “I want to check if we’re good. Is there anything I can do?” He said, “At the time, I’m sure I didn’t enjoy it but that’s water under the bridge,” and then we got talking about his life. We never had a personal conversation. Now he’s sharing about his divorce and what it was like going through that. I’m an advocate and evangelist for truth, not all the time and I’m happy to get into that. If you’re willing to model courage, take a risk, reach out, connect and share your truth with another human, 9 times out of 10, I found you’ll be happy that you did it. 

I’ve done an interesting thing that’s pretty similar to what you talked about, but I didn’t have the conversations with the people. Some of it is because I don’t have access to them. For me, I did it a lot for my own closure. What happened for me also is that moving forward, I made sure that I don’t miss the opportunity for truth or honesty. Maybe I don’t go back, although I can see how incredibly healing that would be to get that all out, but it also sets the groundwork for what we do in the future. The past doesn’t determine who we are or who we’re going to become. It’s who we decide to be now that decides who we’re going to become. Doing that exercise even internally to make the decision to not miss opportunities for truth is also a possible good benefit. It’s shown up well in my life. I have never recommended going back to those people but I did the exercise for myself so that in the future, I would remain open to capture any opportunities for truth. Do you feel like that’s valuable or do you recommend people to go deep and talk to all the people? 

Let’s take a situation. Some people say should you say anything, should you not. I know a guy who had the three-times rule. If it comes up in your brain three times, it’s time to say something about it. Your question is a good one. What if it’s something from the past? It depends on how committed you are to growth, self-expression and emotional freedom. If it’s a minor thing and you haven’t thought about it in twenty years, maybe you don’t care. If it’s something you have thought about more often than that, it might be something unresolved for you. 

I do believe it’s possible to get some healing and completion by writing a letter and you don’t even have to mail it. You can mail it to yourself. This is particularly important if someone has died and you cannot speak to them physically. You can have a role-play conversation with them with your coach or you can write a letter. I’m a big fan of that. In fact, I had someone in prison. I was coaching them on reconciling with their mother. They were so scared to have a relationship. I said, “Write a letter and then it’s up to you if you want to mail it. You may not get the result you want but it’s up to you if you want to take that extra risk.” 

Having gone through this myself and had those scary conversations with people from my past, I am a massive fan of that. It takes courage so you get to exercise that muscle of courage. You don’t know what impact that conversation is going to have on the other person. My brother did this with an ex-partner. He wasn’t going to call her. He’s like, “It’s weird. I’ve moved on. She’s moved on.” His coach said, “You’d be surprised. Just have the call,” and so he did. He said, “I want you to know it wasn’t you. It was me. You were wonderful. I just didn’t want to be in a relationship at that time.” She broke down crying. She’d been carrying that around for years thinking there was something wrong with her. This was a guy who had no money at the time. He said, “That conversation was worth $10,000 to me and the difference I made in her life.” I’m a big fan of doing it. 

There’s a way to do it well and badly. If you go in with, “You wronged me. I’m a victim and I need you to apologize,” that might work but you’re setting yourself up for a tough time. If you can get to a space where you don’t need anything from the other person other than listening, it’s going to go better. I have a model for this called the CARE and I’m happy to give it away to readers. I’ll tell them how to find that. It’s a wonderful download. It’ll give you clarity. You don’t even have to decide if you’re going to have a conversation with a person. Just fill in the worksheet and get the clarity. After that, you’ll know if you want to go and have it with them. It will give you a wonderful paint-by-number system to have the conversation. 

This conversation could go so much deeper than we’ve got time for. I think that there’s also the whole conversation of abuse. Do you go back to people that have done that? The CARE Model might help work through whether it’s a good idea or not in that circumstance. 

It’s wonderful. Initially, you’ve got this feeling of like, “I don’t like that person. I wouldn’t like to see them on the street. I’m annoyed at that person. That person is a jerk. That’s all you’ve got.” When you do the worksheet in the CARE Model, you will get clear on what your intention is. What’s the positive intention if you were going to have the conversation and what are you afraid of? That’s good information. “I’m afraid they’re going to think I’m an idiot, it’s going to make things worse or I’ll feel awkward.” Just get clear. The clarity is wonderful. It’ll ask you, “What could go wrong?” There’s a checkbox, “I am willing to accept these consequences.” If you’re willing to check that box, you’re good. If you’re not willing to check the box, for example, if I have had a conversation where I confessed to a crime. I called someone and I said, “It was me. When I was a teenager, I did this thing. I’m very sorry. How can I make it right?” I could have gone to jail. You may not be willing to accept that consequence and I respect that. 

I confessed when I was eighteen, I did one of the worst things in my life. I cheated on my partner and I felt so bad about it. If I was filling in the worksheet, “What could go wrong?” She’ll break up with me and never go back with me again. I checked the box. I’m willing to accept that consequence because my intention is to have a relationship full of integrity and trust. I’m going to risk everything to have that and so I did. I went and had that conversation. She did break up with me. I had to earn her trust back and we ended up getting married. While we’re no longer married, I went and stayed a couple of years ago with her, her new husband and a six-year-old boy who calls me uncle David. I’m a big fan of telling the truth. I’m a big fan of not cheating in the first place, but if you have been dumb enough to go and make a mistake like that, I personally am a fan of making it right and risking the relationship. You may choose not to. You’re like, “No, I’m not willing to risk that,” so that’s not a conversation you would have unless I’m your coach. If I’m your coach, you’re going to be hard-pressed to get away with not making things like that right because I know what’s available when you do. 

Could you talk a little bit about the monkey mind? One of the things that I find on this show is that about 50% of the time I’ve got a new strategy. Someone has come up with a new product or strategy. I always tell people, “There are a million ways to make $1 million in real estate but you do have to pick one.” What that means is that you can’t consistently and constantly engage with this shiny object syndrome. It takes focused action. Could you talk a little bit about that shiny object syndrome and how to move away from that to having a peaceful and focused mind so you can take focused action? 

The question is, is the human mind like a monkey on crack? Is it important to overcome shiny object syndrome and focus? It depends if you want to be coursed in your life. I mean that. I’m not setting this up. One way to enjoy life is to surrender and be with the flow, wake up, check email, check voicemail, and do what feels natural. That’s a valid way to operate. Some of the teachers that I followed speak a lot about, “Don’t do. Just be.” There are times to do that. However, another game that’s great to play in life is being coursed in the matter. Being coursed in how your relationships go, your own health and energy, how your job goes in your career path or how much money your business makes and how many people you impact. I’m a fan of that game a lot of the time. That’s where coaching comes in for me. 

As human beings, I do believe the human mind has become like a monkey on crack. If you disagree with me, sit down and set the timer for five minutes, close your eyes and count your breaths. See how many breaths you get to before you’ve drifted away. The mind has taken over. It’s thinking about your socks, what you want to order on Amazon, some business problem or someone who insulted you. When it comes to your own business, it’s even worse because entrepreneurs can see all the opportunities. We see all the target markets. We want to help and all the problems that we want to solve, all solutions that we can come up with, and all the traffic sources we’re going to try and use. It’s overwhelming. 

Entrepreneurs never stop providing solutions to problems and crafting the sources they would use.

If you’re happy to surrender or if entertainment is your goal, keep doing that. I mean it. It can be fun. I’ve got days where I do that. Let’s say you’ve got a goal that you want to double revenue in the next twelve months, that goal matters to you. Maybe you want to double your time off so you’ve got more time to spend with your kids, write that book, go swimming with dolphins, volunteer in prisons or whatever it is, then it starts to matter. We need to focus so that we can be on course. If you don’t do it, you will be at the effect of life. You’ll be bounced around with other people’s agendas. Check the email in the morning and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. You’re working on other people’s agendas. I caught myself checking through for important emails. That’s so difficult then I found one and it required me to go to a website and enter something to unsubscribe. I’m like, “David, step away from the task. Let’s get back to being on course.” 

I have some recommendations. I’ll give you a few tips to help you focus, then at the end of the show, I’ll give you a cheat sheet that’s got the full checklist. Firstly, you’ve got to know where you’re heading. Twelve months from now, what are the goals that would have you do the happy dance should you achieve them? If you and I were talking twelve months from now, looking back, celebrating and you’re dancing your ass off, what would those goals be? Three big ones. You can have lots of little ones but those should go in the drawer for when you’ve achieved the others. I had a client, “I’ve got twenty goals. Is that too many?” I’m like, “Yes. Have three goals that matter and put the rest in a drawer. You’ll pull them out when the others are done.” That’s tip one. 

Tip two, you’ve got to layer the goals because a year out is way too long. It’s pie in the sky. It doesn’t mean anything. Bring it back and have the three-month version, then you need the seven-day version and what are you going to do tomorrow? Tip three, that’ll set you up for now but what about next week or next week after? It’s super important to have a date with yourself once a week for twenty minutes where you look at what you did and celebrate. That’s all I’m asking for. You can pat yourself on the back and say, “Good job.” I sometimes do something and I say, “David, you’re a legend. Great job for doing that. We need that because you probably did ten times more than you think you did.” The next part of that date is you look at your three-month goals and choose what you’ll do for the next seven days, “This is what I will care about.” Those are three important tips. 

How do you stay on track with that? Let’s suppose you do it. A lot of people put it in their calendar and they don’t even show up for that date with themselves. I can’t make you do that. That’s where discipline comes in. I set it up for a while where if I did not create my weekly action plan by 1:00, Friday, Mountain Time, I had to pay $5 to somebody. That’ll get your attention. You set that up but how do you stay on track? Tip four is to book sprints in your calendar. You can’t expect to be focused 24/7. That’s ridiculous. You’ve got to tell your brain when it’s time. For example, Wednesday, I have no calls scheduled. That’s going to be a six-hour sprint for me but other days, I might have a two-hour block. I say, “I got 9:00 to 11:00.” That’s my sprint. I set the time and four specific goals because it’s two hours. I said a year is too long. Two hours is too long. I need to know what am I achieving in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th half-hour. I got those four goals then I set the timer for 25 minutes. Game on. That’s a sprint. That keeps me focused. 

You’ll find that when you start doing this, you might fall off the horse. That’s fine. You get distracted. You’re doing something else and not doing that goal as it’s written down, that’s the monkey mind, “I got caught up in email. Someone came and knocked at the door.” You’re going to have to learn how to guard that time jealously. Guard it, put a sign on the door, talk to your family, let them know how important this is, turn off all notifications and set the phone on airplane mode. These things are more covered in the full checklist. 

I love the way that you talked about “game on.” 

It’s like a boss is waiting for your deadline. You are generating artificial accountability because if you have a boss that does it for you, “I need this by Thursday, 3:00.” You’re working like crazy. You’ve got to do that for yourself. If you say, “I got three hours. I’m going to work on my website.” Bad news. Working on your website is an infinite game. When you constrain the resources to three hours and then even further, 25 minutes and you’ve set a goal. 

For example, when you and I are done with this, I have a coaching offer. I need to tweak it because someone’s about to send an email to a lot of people because I’ve opened up a few coaching spots. I’m going to do that but working on the page is not a goal. Having the first draft done in 25 minutes is a goal, then drafting the application form in 25 minutes is the second goal. Having it finalized could be the third goal, for example. Those are some tips to help you tame the monkey mind and focus, also that you can be coursing the matter and be directional. The metaphor I like to use is, “It’s fun to be adrift on the ocean, enjoying the sights, but it’s also fun to set your sail, pick a direction, get hold of the steering wheel and say, ‘The game is I want to get from over here to over there. Game on.’” 

Do you take a five-minute break every half-hour? 

That’s roughly five minutes but what I do is most of the time I can get myself to agree to get up, go to the bathroom and maybe get on the Pilates ball for a quick stretch. It might only be three minutes, then I’m back in. That’s part of the reason you make yourself do this break so that you’re constantly hungry. The timer goes off and I’m like, “Are you kidding? I just got started on this.” By forcing myself to honor that, I can stay hungry, keen and interested. If I hit repeat which I sometimes do, that’s a mistake. Sometimes I do it. I hit repeat, I’ll do one hour, and then I’ll do the break and come back. If you do that too much, you can burn out. You end up going, “What a day? I got a lot done but I’m burned out. I don’t want to even look at that website again.” We don’t want to do that. 

You want to focus on one thing. It’s like a batch of activities on the same project, let’s say. It’s not like what you would do is you would start on your website for a half-hour and work on your copy for that, and then you would jump to making customer service calls, then you might jump to, “I’m preparing my itinerary for next week’s travel.” You wouldn’t do it like that. It would be four half-hour spots focused on one project. Maybe it’s the different aspects of your website or your offer. 

This is a good thing to do the day before. Set your alarm for 4:00 to say, “Choose the two things that I’m going to do in my business tomorrow or job that’ll make the biggest difference.” That’s focusing the mind already. For me, the two big things are finishing this coaching offer and getting a bookkeeper started on my books. I’ve already interviewed a bunch of people. It’s a matter of picking someone and saying, “Get started.” I’ll probably do two hours on the website and then if it’s not done, I may keep going because I do like to batch. 

If I try and multitask, it’s not as rewarding. It’s like I’m loading up all this stuff in my brain for this coaching offer, how I want to offer it, how I want to serve, what I want people to do and then the email sequence. That’s a lot to load up. I don’t want to do half an hour of that. It’s crazy. It’s multitasking. Multitasking is at the same time, but if I do half an hour on this and that, it’s fine if they’re small projects. No problem. I got to get three testimonial videos off to my video editor. I can do that in half an hour so that’s fine. Setting up a call with my programmer. I can do that too in five minutes. I don’t mind going through a sequence of small jobs. If it’s a bigger task, I don’t want to do a little piece of it and then go through it. 

How good is it going to feel when I’ve got the thing done, I love the webpage, I feel like it reflects me, my heart and all that’s handled? That’s going to feel good then I can send it off to my friend and colleague who can queue it up and send it out to the world. There’s a result. I’m a big fan of batching. If you’re going to call prospects, batch it. You don’t want to load up everything and get yourself psyched up for one call. Usually, the first two calls for me are the scariest and after that, I’m great to go. I want to milk that. You might have Monday from 9:00 to 12:00 as calling time and be like, “Let’s crank it up.” 

Before we end this show, I want to talk a little bit about what we’re going to do in EXTRA. We have a couple of topics. I’m hoping we’ll get to both. The first one is, what are the nine skills that business owners need to have to double their revenue? I thought that would be relevant for you, ladies, because what David does is he gives you what those nine skills are so you can discover where your strengths are and weaknesses might be. David, why don’t you talk a little bit about it? 

I’ve identified nine areas. The plan for one person is not the same as the plan for another person. The first thing you need to do is work out which areas of your business were you strong in and which of these nine skills your weak in so then you know, “Now I know what to do for the next three months. I need to boost these up. That’s how to double revenue.” We’re going to talk about that. 

That’s going to be in EXTRA, ladies. Stay tuned for that. David, could you tell everybody how they can reach you and about your free gift? 

I’ve lined up some tools that’ll be valuable for you. One is the checklist on how to double your productivity. It’s quadruple because you can get twice as much done of what matters in half the time. We went through about four of the list. There are ten things that you’d need to know on that checklist. The other thing is these are nine skills. I have free training. It used to be two hours and I spent all day getting it down to 35 minutes. You’ll know at the end of that, “These are my projects for the next three months.” You’ll also know if you’re a fit for my program where I walk step by step through it with you and help you double revenue over a year. You can do all of that at MyFocusGift.com because I want to give you the gift of focus. It will take you straight to my website. If you want to get a couple of videos from me you can do that too. I did promise people the CARE Model for tough conversations. Again, go to my website. You’ll have to look in the navigation menu and you’ll find the tough conversations CARE Model. It’s a free download. 

Thank you so much. 

It’s my pleasure. 

Are you ready for my three Rapid-fire questions? 

Yes.  

Tell us one super tip on getting started in real estate investing. 

Talk to Moneeka Sawyer. 

Give us one strategy for being successful in real estate investing. 

Get a mentor, someone who’s done it and been there. You can do it the slow way. That’s fine too if time doesn’t matter to you but if you want to accelerate, I’m always a fan of grab a coach, mentor or someone who’s been there and done it. If it’s good enough for Bill Gates, I figure it’s good enough for all of us. 

What is one strategy you use every single day that contributes to your personal success? 

I meditate, lay down and rest for twenty minutes each day. It’s something that I need to reset and recharge. 

Thank you for that. Ladies, he opted to not prepare for those questions so he didn’t even know what those were and that was so well done. This has been an amazing conversation, David. I can’t wait until we talk in EXTRA. Thank you so much for what you’ve offered for this portion of the show. 

It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me and great to meet you, Moneeka. 

More Courage: Focus on the goals that matter to you and if you’re happy, keep doing that. If you have a goal that you want to double revenue in the next twelve months, then do it.

Ladies, in EXTRA, remember we’re talking about the nine skills that business owners have to have to double their revenue. If you’re not already subscribed to EXTRA, please go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com. You can get signed up. The first seven days are free so you can get this one for free and then if you decide not to stay, that’s perfectly fine. It’s up to you. For those of you that are leaving us now, thank you so much for joining David and me for this portion of the show. I appreciate having you here. I look forward to next time and until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams. Get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires. I’ll see you next episode. Bye. 

Important Links

• David Wood 
• CARE Model 
• MyFocusGift.com 
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com 

About David Wood

A former Consulting Actuary to Fortune 100 companies – including Sony Music, Chanel, and Exxon – David left his cushy Park Avenue job 20 years ago to build the world’s largest coaching business. He became #1 on Google for “life coaching”, serving an audience of 150,000 coaches, and coaching thousands of hours across 12 countries.

Alongside his clients’ successes, David is no stranger to overcoming challenges himself, having overcome a full collapse of his paraglider and a fractured spine, witnessing the death of his sister at age seven, severe anxiety and depression, and a national Gong Show!

He is the author of “Get Paid For Who You Are,” with a foreword by Jack Canfield. He was nominated to the exclusive Transformational Leadership Council alongside such thought leaders as Don Miguel Ruiz, John Gray, and Marianne Williamson.

David believes that the tough conversations we avoid, are our doorways to confidence, success, and love. They become the defining moments that shape our world. He coaches high-performing entrepreneurs, executives and teams – and now prison inmates – to create amazing results and deep connections. Achieve more, by focusing on less.

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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

Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

Real Estate Investing For Lifestyle Design With Ali Boone – Real Estate Women

If 2020 has taught us nothing else, it’s that we’re not guaranteed anything. If you’re not enjoying the journey, then what’s the point? Sometimes, that’s very hard to say in real estate investing. With countless how-to guides out there, so many people either never get into it or have enough of a failure to deter them from coming back. Lifestyle entrepreneur, real estate investor, and author Ali Boone has been involved in real estate investing since 2011. She joins Moneeka Sawyer on today’s show to talk about her new book, NOT Your How-To Guide to Real Estate Investing. Ali talks about the importance of figuring out who you are first and starting with a real estate investing strategy that’s best suited to you for a better chance of achieving financial and time freedom. She also shares her idea of what makes a great investor and the one strategy to succeed in real estate. 

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Real Estate Investing For Lifestyle Design With Ali Boone – Real Estate Women

Real Estate Investing For Women 

I am so excited to welcome back to the show my friend, Ali Boone. It’s so fun to call her my friend because we met through the show. We’ve done so much together since then. I love when she comes back to us. 

I think you’ve had me back on her show more than anyone else. I’m like, “Why don’t we do it again?”  

The conversations are so much fun.  

It gets dangerous because I’m like, “How long can these things be?” I think we get to talking and completely forget the record button is even going. 

You did that right now. Ladies, let me remind you who Ali is. Formerly an aerospace engineer, Ali Boone is a lifestyle entrepreneur, author and real estate investor, new author, which is what we’re talking about. After leaving her 9:00 to 5:00 to pursue ultimate freedom through entrepreneurship, her company Hipster Investments managed to facilitate over $18 million in real estate transactions in its first five years of business. She has a Master’s degree in both Aerospace Engineering and Spiritual Psychology. Ali also teaches flying and can often be found snowboarding or volunteering in prisons. Her ultimate goal is to one day challenge Tim Ferriss to a lifestyle design duel. I love that last slide. 

I’ve gone a little lazy in that pursuit because I’m like, “I like sitting on my couch now.” I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen, but we’ll see. I figure, keep it in there just in case Tim’s listening. 

It adds a little spice to the bio. It’s not like yours needed more spice. Ali, you released another book. I got highlighted in that, which is totally cool. 

I would call it more than highlighted. You played a big part in this book. I‘m so excited. I was like, “Who can I have?” You were literally the first person I thought of because we’ll talk about the book. I wanted to interview investors because I want to give people a day in the life of. You can read about flipping and wholesaling and all that, but what does it look like? I wanted to find successful investors in their particular strategies and cover a wide variety of strategies. I was like, “What are you doing?” Honestly, your interview came back.  

It was so great because you captured the essence of what I was trying to get at, which is the real-life perspective, not using big fancy words, how–to guides, or like, “Here’s how you flip a property. Here’s how you wholesale.” It’s a very stoic type of thing that everyone reads. Yours was obviously your experience, the actual things you go through, in English. In some of the other interviews, God bless them. I was, “Okay, follow up questions,” one word answers. I was like, “Yeah.” Pretty sure yours is even the first one of everyone’s. It was a good one. Everyone should take a look at it. 

It was fun. When I got the book, it’s so good, Ali. Let’s start by telling why you even wanted to write a book. Ladies, you know that this show is released on YouTube under Real Estate Investing For Women. It’s also on Roku on Real Estate Investing For Women. I think you can look it up under Moneeka Sawyer on Roku too. I know you can on YouTube. If you want to check these shows out on video, that’s a great idea. You can check it out of those two places.  

What made me write the book? I’ve been involved in real estate investing since 2011. There are all the how–to guides. There’s everything we all go through, trying to learn real estate investing. How to be a real estate investor? You hit it in Google. All these things pop up. We all go to the guru seminar. We all do the same thing. Over time, I was investing for myself, but I was also working with a lot of other people. I work with turnkey rental properties. I was working with a lot of new investors. Over the years, I have seen so many people trying to get in this industry. I have seen so many people either never get into it or get into it and have, I won’t say epic failures, that sounds terrifying, enough of a failure to deter them from coming back.  

As I was watching people, I realized so much of this is a mindset game. When I think back to googling how to be a real estate investor, what is the thing that you see? All you see are how–to guides. I have a theory that if your mindset’s not correct, there’s not a how–to guide in the world that’s going to help you. There’s a huge, high percentage rate of failure. It’s entrepreneurship. They say 95% of small businesses fail in their first five years or whatever. I think it’s a similar challenge. It’s not so much the business itself. It’s just that people don’t know what they’re doing. If you think back to when we were all in school, I don’t know what they teach now, but none of us learned real estate investing or business. We didn’t learn how to do our taxes. We’ve had to figure all this stuff out on our own. That’s great but think about when you type that in. All you hear is you need to flip houses, to wholesale, to do this.  

Here are the steps. I was like, “Okay.” That may work for some people, but there’s such a mindset component. Should you be wholesaling or flipping? I don’t know. For me, personally, I assumed I would have to be a flipper to be in real estate. I’d be a terrible flipper. I’d hate it, also. Could you have paid me to think I’d end up in turnkey rental properties? No, but it works. I titled the book NOT Your How–To Guide to Real Estate Investing. It’s like a prerequisite, in my opinion, to the how–to guides. Before you can get into the how–to guides, let’s take a step back and look at which how–to guides might be best for you to try out. What’s the mindset you need getting into this industry?  

NOT Your How-To Guide to Real Estate Investing: Life Lessons on Hacking Your Mind Before You Hack Your Wallet

The book starts out talking about the real estate investing industry as a whole, what the different characteristics of it are because it is a unique industry. There’s a lot of unique characteristics, which in a lot of ways, are phenomenal. You don’t have to have a college degree. You don’t have to be a high school graduate to be in this industry. You don’t even have to have a good resume. You don’t have to have a good personality. How cool is that? For people who like certain levels of structure, they don’t want to be so independent, or they don’t want to have to do so much creative problem solving, maybe it’s not the industry. That’s where we’re starting.  

Let’s introduce you to the industry. It lets you understand how it works. Let’s go further. What are your strengths? Let’s help you navigate the process of figuring out what strategy might work for you. I feel like if you start in a strategy that’s better suited to you then everyone’s like, “Go, flip properties.” Great for some people, but super misleading for the people that’s not good for. Let’s look at different strategies, so you can get a feel for picking one that is better suited to you. Therefore, you have a better chance of success. What are the steps to get through that? The investor interviews, to further exact reason, to give you a better perspective, would you like the life of a wholesaler or would you like land-lording rental properties? I don’t know. Here’s some information to help you decide. My whole motivation with this was to take that step back and try to give people a better start to help increase their chances of succeeding once they get into all those how–to guides. 

With my coursework too, it’s an exact same process. I think that’s why you and I are so well aligned. Everybody’s watching HGTV and it’s sexy. “This is what can happen to you. You can wholesale, no money down. Look at what can happen. You can make how many dollars.” Sexy, yeah, for some people that work. In the HGTV world, none of what happens there happens in real life. There are people that are successful at flipping. There are people that are successful at wholesaling. There’s a lot of successful opportunities. It’s important to figure out who you are first. As you say, and like I’ve been saying for years, if you start with a strategy that’s best suited to you, your goals, resources, personality, what you love, what you don’t, how much time you’ve got, all of those things, you’re much more likely to stick with it. You’re much more likely to make it through the challenges because every business has its challenges. You’re much more likely to experience great success. 

I’d say it’s not even more likely. That’s the only way it’s going to work. I could choose a strategy that’s not well suited to me, but I’m not going to enjoy my life while I’m doing it. In my opinion, I don’t think there’s any way to be as successful doing that as I could be doing a strategy that is suited to my strengths, interest, whatever. I think strengths and interests go hand in hand. How many of us are good at doing things we hate or terrible doing? We don’t usually love the things we’re terrible at. I love what you say about sticking with it through the challenges. For me, that rings true about entrepreneurship.  

Entrepreneurship is hell on wheels. This whole time that I’ve been doing it, if I weren’t desperate for what it gets me, I would have quit a long time ago because it’s not easy. Real estate investing, in a way, is entrepreneurship. There are going to be challenges. If you’re hating what you’re doing, and you’re not succeeding terribly great with it, what’s going to happen when you get challenged? When are you going to quit? You’re going to be mad at real estate investing and jaded. I care so much about people’s experiences. That crushes me if that happens to somebody because I get where they’re coming from. I‘d probably be traumatized from it too, and never come back. I don’t want someone to give up unnecessarily when there might be a perfectly good strategy there.  

One thing you and I always talk about is we have different strategies. You landlord your own properties, I use property managers. What I love about us doing different strategies is while they’re different strategies, we’re also doing exactly the same thing, which is working to our strengths and working in what comes naturally to us. Both of us have succeeded with that. I don’t care what strategy someone else does. As long as everyone’s working to their strengths and doing something meant for them, that makes me happy. We don’t know what we don’t know, which is 100% true for real estate investing. How do you know what strategy is for you? Chances are, you’re not. That’s part of the motivation too. I’ll help you figure that out before you lose a ton of money doing something that someone told you to do. 

I want to back up a little bit to the place where we talk about getting better or things went badly, never wanting to get on that horse again. What they say, if you fall off the horse, you have to get back on it and run. When you think what happens in real estate is, if you’ve tried a few things, and they haven’t worked, you’re like, “It’s never going to work.“ That’s exactly why a book like this is relevant. I always say there are a million ways to make $1 million in real estate. If there are a million ways and you’ve tried 3 or 1, what is that? There are a million opportunities. 

The good news is you don’t have to try 999,000. You’ll get it on 3 or 4. Looking at these things, how can you get there faster? If you read this whole book, the idea is to get you closer to figuring that strategy out. It may not get you right there. You and I have talked about how you did things in the past with your strategy is slightly different than how you do it now. We all evolve over time. How can we put it more in 1 to 5 attempts range versus 50 attempts range? Chances are, you’re not going to stick around to have successful number 50. How do we narrow it down to what seems might be the right thing for you? 

That’s very true. We want to make sure that we pick a strategy that’s aligned with us, probably going to be 3 or 4. You can try 3 or 4. Maybe you’ll hit it on the first one. Maybe you’ve combed the others in. For me, I’m a better person with executive properties. Yes, I have wholesale. Yes, I have flipped. Yes, I have done construction. Yes, I’ve done those things. It happened par for the course without me looking for it while I was doing my main business. It keeps it interesting and spicy, but the main business is where I make my money.  

The other thing that I want to say is we’ve had people on this show that built massively successful businesses and then lost everything in 2007, 2008 or because they went through a divorce and their spouse take everything or for whatever reason. There’s a lot of reasons that people see failure. It’s not necessarily because the strategy was bad, but because something happened and they weren’t prepared with how to deal with it. There are so many people that would be in that situation and be like, “I’m out. I’m done.” The people that are on this show are the people that are like, “I am not going to let this defeat me. I know there’s a way for me to have success. I love real estate enough to pursue.” There’s a lot of different reasons for success in this business and there’s a lot of different reasons for failure. The biggest thing to remember is who you are is the most important factor for your success in this business. 

I love what you just said. I don’t think I told you this. I’ve started offering coaching. I’ve done it on the side. I’ve never publicly offered it. I’m doing more coaching, mostly because we’re all still stuck at home. It’s 2020. We can hop on some Zoom. Let’s see if I can help some people on Zoom. I was working with a coaching client. In one of her initial information types of things, she made the statement. She said, “I don’t want to be a good investor. I want to be a great investor.” When I saw that line, I highlighted it. I was like, “What a great line.” I asked her, “What is a great investor to you mean?” I feel like a lot of people would say, “If I’ve made $2 million, put a financial whatever on it.” I told her, “When I read that line, it jumped out at me so much. I was thinking, ‘Why is this in my thoughts? What to me is a great investor?‘”  

Real Estate Investing Strategy: You have to look at different strategies and pick one that is better suited to you so you’ll have a better chance of success.

It’s exactly what you just talked about. I don’t think whether you’re a good or great investor has anything to do with how much you’re making. If you want to be considered a great investor, you pick yourself back up when something happens because something is always going to happen, whether it’s your own oopsie, you don’t know what you’re doing or whatever. As you said, everything’s going along great and all of a sudden, the bottom falls out of the world. 2020 or 2008, things happen and that’s fine. There’s nothing that you personally could have done for. There are some mitigation strategies. Some things aren’t your fault. It’s not about who’s at fault. Even if you made the dumbest mistake on the planet, it’s not your fault. To be that great investor, you pick yourself up and keep going or you adjust. In 2008, what did all the successful people do? They adjusted. They didn’t quit. It sucked 100% at the moment, but they adjusted. Got kicked down, brush the dirt off, how are we going to do this? Same with entrepreneurship, things happen. You have to just course. 2020 and the pandemic happens. We’re all stuck at home.  

I watched Shark Tank all the time, hearing how the entrepreneurs have switched modes because it’s like, “Stuck at home now, what am I going to do?“ I’ve seen so many people adjust course and come out way better off. It’s so cool. When you were talking about that, I was like, “It’s the great investor.” I had this whole conversation with my coaching client. I want to be clear. What I see as a great investor, it’s not about what you buy, what you invest in, what your returns are. Do you keep getting up when you get knocked down? If you do, you are great, in my opinion, because if you keep doing that, there’s no way you’re not going to succeed. 

The other piece about that is there is something incredibly fulfilling about not allowing yourself to be defeated. There’s so much of what we talk about with bliss. How do you feel about yourself? We each define success differently. A lot of times, especially when you’re looking for a blissful life, that success isn’t defined by money. Money helps. It creates a foundation for a lot of blissful things, but it’s not the big end result. The big end result is how do you feel in your life most of the time. When we look at success that way, you can look at real estate in your strategy in a very different way too. I want to tell a little story. I do these journals on starting something new. I’ve started some new projects, some good ones. You can listen to this so you can find out what’s going on. I released this in Thanksgiving of 2020.  

I went on vacation. Four projects came to a head, 2 to 4 days before I left. One, I had been working on for nine years, one for three years, one for six months and one for three months. They all had to-dos. Everything came. I had to do it right then just a few days before vacation. We were laughing, my husband and I. We’re like, “I need to go on vacation more often.” What’s so funny about that is there was all this urgency before I left. On the day that I was leaving, I left on Tuesday morning. My flight was at 8:30. I texted everybody on Monday night. I said, “I’m out. You guys need to manage it. I’m only gone for ten days, so handle it.” What’s awesome is I came back and it was handled. Everything moved to the next step. For me, that is success. I can go on vacation and have a vacation. How are we defining success? How does real estate fit into that? 

That’s a cool segue into one of the chapters of the book, if you remember, the one that’s called The Three True Currencies. I have this theory that there are three currencies that we’re all using at all times in exchange to get something. First one is money. We all know that. The second one and the third one that I feel like people aren’t talking about as much are time and sanity. If you think about it, anytime you want to get something, whether it’s a service, a product or an investment, you are paying for that thing in one or more of those currencies. When you can step back and look at the value of each of those currencies for you, it can change everything.  

My most important currency is sanity. You’re talking about for some people. It’s a monetary success. What’s my definition of success? I can tell you what it’s not. It’s not anything that involves me losing my sanity. If my sanity is not at peak, intact, and I’m happy, to me, nothing else is successful. If I’m not happy, I’m not successful. If I’m successful, I’m happy. Anytime I’m going to get something or do something, I look at that. In some scenarios, we’re talking about putting this book out. Usually, I’m not a fan of sacrificing my time and sanity at all. I’m much more apt to pay someone to let them do it. They’re going to do it better than I do anyway. If it means I get to keep my time and sanity, I do that.  

When I went to put the book out, I wanted to go through the experience because I had never been through it before. I lost all time and sanity. In that case, I did it purposefully. I didn’t do it because I thought I had to be doing it. I use the currencies all the time. If I want to hire a housekeeper, is it more important to keep my time and sanity in that case or do I want to save the money? How much does the housekeeper cost? It’s exactly what you’re talking about. It’s this definition of success. How are you doing things? What you described about going on vacation, you might have been able to do all things with all those projects in ten days. Ultimately, is that what matters? No. That ten–day vacation matters. There’s always going to be a balance. It’s honestly my favorite chapter in the book for exactly what you just described. When people put the stuff in context, it can literally change everything.  

I laugh a little when someone has a full–time job and a family with five kids and they say they want to wholesale. I’m like, “When are you going to do that?“ Someone in that case, I would assume that time is your most valuable currency. How is wholesaling, which is the most active strategy on the planet, going to fit into them? Do you, though? You might want to find a more passive strategy unless you hate your family and your job. It’s so simple, but it changes every decision I’ve ever made, like flipping properties. I think that’s one of the examples I use in the book. My sanity would be so far in the toilet, I don’t care how much money I was making. Turnkey rental properties, I’m going to pay more for those than I would if I did a BRRRR. For me, I keep my time and sanity most of the time. 

There is truth. We get to live in that space as best we can. We need to make it a priority, but things happen. Life happens. Our priorities shift for short periods of time. It was interesting. I’ve been trying to refinance my primary residence. Lenders are going crazy because of all the stuff that the feds are going through and putting them through. We don’t know that on the front end unless you’re on the back end. I have a lot of mortgage friends. I know what they’re going through. It takes six months for me to get a primary residence refinanced through.  

They want me to sign while I’m on vacation, or I’m going to lose the lock. The lender has not finished the undersigning. They haven’t finished the documentation. It hasn’t gone to title. They’re not done. They’re going to get done the day before the lock ends. I was sitting here for six months. I told my broker, “No, you’re not going to disturb my vacation.” He says, “I can send somebody to you to sign, where you are.” I was, “Fine, call me. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t, but I am not going to lose my lock.“ He’s like, “There’s nothing I can do about it.” I was like, “We’re going to do something about it. I waited here for six months.” We’re good friends. He knows I dig my heels and not to argue with me. I did call from the airport. I’m like, “Jerry, what’s the deal?” He said, “We’re going to get the lock extended, and I will cover whatever the cost is.” As it turns out, the lender didn’t charge for the extended lock. I didn’t work on vacation. 

We all hate mortgage loans. I don’t know if I could possibly hate the mortgage process more. They’re like, “We need your left arm, your firstborn child. Now that you already gave those to us, can you give those to us again?” I’m like, “I already gave them to you.” They’re like, “We need them again.” “You already have it. It’s on your desk.” It’s bad. 

It’s hard right now too because we’re trying to be conscious and caring for people that are suffering, but the Feds are not giving them a break. It’s a nightmare. The compassion doesn’t go all the way to the top. I can’t believe they can’t be compassionate. If you look at what they’re willing to do, the Feds are not willing to support them. They’re putting demands on them and then not supporting them. It’s a bad situation. 

They’re swamped because rates are so low. I know a lot of the lenders I work with have now had to push back the refis and just say, “We’re doing primary, but now refis are on the back burner.“ It’s a crazy time. 

At the time, I wasn’t able to get any of my non–owners refi. The point is simply that sometimes we have to set our boundaries. This is what I like these to look like. How much is enough? It has to do with how I feel, rather than how much money is in the bank, cashflow I’ve got, all of those things. Let’s say they are important, but they don’t have to happen yesterday. It can happen at the pace that keeps me blissful. 

It’s so important too, to sit back. How many of us or how many people out there want the money? I don’t know anyone who wants the money because when we want the money, we want the thing or something that the money gets us. I was talking to someone. I don’t know how I’d never heard this before, but it’s so amazing. He’s like, “The funny thing about financial freedom, which is what everyone wants, is if you think about it, it’s actually time freedom.“ I was like, “Oh my god.” Here I am, preaching these things for years. I’m like, “How come I never thought of that?” It is because you get to do what you want to do. It’s like you’re retired. You get to do what you want to do when you want to do it. That’s what financial freedom gets you. People think it’s about the dollars. It’s not.  

I use the example in the book. I’ve said it so many times. I remember being thirteen years old. I woke up one day, and I was like, “I want to be a gazillionaire.” It wasn’t for pretentious reasons. It was more of a personal challenge. I was like, “I’m going to figure it out. That’d be so great.“ The biggest year being the first year of entrepreneurship, I was more broke than I’d ever been in my whole life. I told people. I was like, “I’ve never been more broke in my life, but I’ve also never been happier.” It’s like, “How is that possible?” It turns out being a gazillionaire isn’t what is most important to me because I assumed being a gazillionaire would get me certain things.  

There are certain things that absolutely do get me. I would rather make less money, be happier, live the lifestyle I want to, have time freedom and all that kind of stuff. If I have that, it’s taking the focus off the numbers. I think we’ve all gotten distracted into thinking it’s about the numbers. When you think about what the number gets you, it can also change your course. It’s the three currencies, money, time, sanity. Chances are, it’s not all about the money. It might be in some cases like, “I definitely want to save the money. In this case, I’m going to sacrifice little time and sanity.” 

When you’re poor, it’s about the money. I will say this. There is a point to which money does buy you happiness. There is a baseline. I don’t want to tiptoe around that. If you’re poor, it is about the money because the money feeds you. The money allows you and your children to sleep. It allows you to get clothes so you can go to work. There is a baseline. 

Even if it’s not a baseline, think of a parent. If they need to financially contribute to their family, to put food on the table, roof over their head, parents, in general, are going to sacrifice time and sanity. You’re right. It’s not a closeted, blanketed statement of everyone should focus on what’s most important because you may not have that option. That does go into the individual analysis of given your situation, which currency needs to be the most important? If you have the luxury of choosing which one you want to be more important, great. As an entrepreneur, and I say entrepreneur applies to investing too, there have been times where I’ve needed to sacrifice my time and sanity because I either didn’t have the money or I needed to get the money. I like that clarification to say that it’s not just about which one we want, it’s one we either need or what’s most applicable to that situation. I think that’s phenomenal clarification. 

That’s so true in every part of our life, not just in our business, not in entrepreneurship, but in every area of our life. We launched and we’re already out of time. We do have an EXTRA. In the book, there are all of these amazing insights from Ali. There are several interviews with actual investors, myself included. It’s a great book. Ali has said that she is going to give all of you a copy for free. How can they get that? 

My company is Hipster Investments. If you go to HipsterInvestments.com/bliss, you can get a free digital copy of the book there. If you’re like me and you have to have a paper book, something in your hands, there’s a link on there too, the Amazon link for the book where you can get it if you just want to gift it out to friends or family. I’d love for you to check out the free digital copy. I’d love to hear feedback. The only thing I ask is, as a brand new author, every review I can possibly get counts. If you check out the book and you like it or you don’t like it, I would love an Amazon review from you. Have fun with it. Enjoy it. I hope it helps you in some way. You get to check out Moneeka. Hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. It’s so good. I love that interview. 

It’s HipsterInvestments.com/bliss. You can get that there. In EXTRA, we’re going to be talking about, at the very end of the chapter or the book, she lists six steps to get started. We’re going to do a little breakdown of that in EXTRA. Before we do that, are you ready for three rapid-fire questions? Ali, tell us one super tip on getting started investing in real estate. 

Read NOT Your How-To Guide to Real Estate Investing: Life Lessons for Hacking Your Mind Before You Hack Your Wallet. What a great opportunity to self–promote. Plenty of experienced investors have read it and I want to help them also, but I focused it on people getting started. That’s my non-self–serving part. I hope and think that it can help you. 

What is one strategy on being successful in real estate? This is more for people that are in it. They’re already doing the thing. 

If you’re already in it, you already know this. We said it earlier. You got to keep picking yourself back up. I’m one of the first ones to admit being guilty in this department. It’s probably quarterly, I have to have a mentor pick me back up. I’m like, “I’m out. I’m done.” Even when we got on the call earlier, I was like, “I hate this industry.” It’s natural. No matter how tempting it is to quit, pack your bags and do something easier, just stick with it. That’s how you’re going to be successful, for sure. That is mostly advice to myself. 

That’s interesting because Ali is very successful. We all have this, all of us. I have the same thing. Good advice. What is one daily practice that you would say, Ali, that contributes to your personal success? 

This is going to sound so lazy. It’s taking time off. Some people have known me to say this. Sometimes I wake up and I have my coffee. I’m like, “I don’t want to start working yet. I’m going to watch an episode of my soap opera.“ A lot of people in a corporate job may not have that luxury or care about soap operas like I do. It’s the idea of we’re in a society now, where it’s like go, go, go. You got to do, do, do. Never take some time. Sometimes you need a day off with a Netflix binge. To me, it’s one of the most important things because I can hit it hard for so long. I’ve always allowed myself and not felt guilty for it.  

You got to take some downtime. If that’s just an episode of one of your favorite shows or it’s like go play with the dog or spend some extra time with your kids, it sounds counterintuitive. It’s like what they say about going to the gym. You have to give your body a break. That’s one of the messages that have gotten lost in our society. Don’t feel guilty about it. That’s the big thing. People do it all the time, but they’re like, “I feel so guilty.” Don’t. You have to take care of yourself. It’s on the daily. Whatever that looks like, do something that brings you some level of bliss. I usually say joy, but we’re talking to you, so bliss. Do something blissful, even if it’s the smallest thing if they can make the biggest difference. 

They’ve done clinical studies on this, that brains without rest don’t perform at the same level. If you’re a very high performer, you’re still going to perform better than a lot of people, but you’re not performing at your best. You perform better and you’re happier. You do need rest. Our bodies need rest. Our minds need rest. That’s why I’m when on vacation, I’m on vacation. That’s the way it goes. 

Be the promoter of take a vacation. Watch a soap opera. Don’t work. 

I do have a chapter in Choose Bliss called Plays the Way. It’s about play, relax and engage the parts of you that feel good so you can take that into the rest of your life. 

It goes back to that theory of it’s probably not about the money, even when you think it’s about the money. It’s about happiness, I would assume whatever brings you that happiness. If you’re missing out on all the happiness along the way to get the money, aren’t you missing the boat a little? 

Why not go to the end result? 

Do you know that short story about the fisherman? I don’t know if he was in Central America or something, but a guy who went out every day fishing in a third-world country. Fisher’s family got the fish and this big, high-end, ritzy dude from the States went down there and met this fisherman. He proposed all these different things about how to be more successful. The fisherman was like, “Why would I do that?” He’s like, “So then you can retire.” He’s like, “What would I do when I retire?” He’s like, “Whatever you want to do. Fish?” Here’s this guy trying to convince him to go through all of this hell to get back exactly where he was. It’s such a nicer-sounding philosophy story type of thing. I can’t even say it back.  

It’s so true. If we’re not living that now, why do we think we’re going to get there later? We’re not. Live it now. If 2020 has taught us nothing else, we’ve probably been learning this for decades at this point, but especially in 2020, we’re not guaranteed anything. If you’re not enjoying right now, how long do you think you have exactly? That sounded a little dark. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow. It sounds cliche, but we’re not. 2020 prove that to us. If you’re not enjoying the journey, what’s the point? Sometimes, that’s very hard to say in real estate investing.  

There’s a reason you’re doing it.  

Real Estate Investing Strategy: If you keep getting up when you get knocked down, there’s no way you’re not going to succeed.

It’s like that year I said, I’ve never been more broke, but I’ve never been happier. I’d also never been more stressed than I was that year, but it was a different stress because it was blanketed on top of something that brought me a lot of joy. I was still making my schedule. I was working as late as I wanted to and sleeping. It was on top of the joy. If you’re missing that joy component, or that bliss component, it might be worth looking at how you’re doing things and maybe readjusting a little. 

That was a good short, rapid-fire answer. 

We are super short to the point we can barely fill the time. Who do you think you’re talking to? If you don’t stop me, you know I’ll keep talking. 

We do get to keep talking in EXTRA. We’re going to be doing these six steps to get started in the least risky way. That’s going to be fun. 

That’s to get started in anything. You don’t have to be real estate investing. These six steps can get you anything you want. 

We’re looking forward to that. Ali, thank you for all that you’ve offered in this portion of the show. I know the ladies are going to want to get the book because you’re so much fun and so down to earth. That was great. Thank you. In EXTRA, we’re going to be talking about the six steps to get started in the least risky, terrifying way. If you’re not subscribed to EXTRA but would like to be, go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com. You get seven days for free. You can download a ton of episodes. Get a lot of good content, and then decide if it’s for you or not. For those of you that are leaving Ali and I right now, thank you so much for joining us. I am looking forward to seeing you next time in either case. Until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams. Get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires. I’ll see you soon. 

Important links

• Hipster Investments 
• YouTube – Moneeka Sawyer 
• Roku  
• NOT Your How-To Guide to Real Estate Investing 
• HipsterInvestments.com/bliss 
• Choose Bliss 
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com 

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

• Here’s How »

Join the Real Estate Investing for Women Community today:

• https://blissfulinvestor.com/
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram

______________________________________

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

Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

Live A Limitless Life With Donavon Hunteman – Real Estate For Women

Life can put many roadblocks in our way. But as people, as humans, we can triumph past these obstacles and live a limitless life. Our host, Moneeka Sawyer is joined in this episode by content director, affiliate manager, and car-crash survivor, Donavon Hunteman. Donavon shares his life journey, triumphing over the physical limitations caused by a car crash, and what he learned he can do. Donavon also shares his four key principles that helped him recover and connect with people.

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Live A Limitless Life With Donavon Hunteman – Real Estate For Women

Real Estate Investing For Women

I am so excited to welcome to the show my friend, Donavon Hunteman. As a car crash survivor which left Donavon with chronic pain for more than a decade, he chose to live a limitless life. In a short time, Donavon has interviewed many influencers including one of my favorites, Dr. Joe Vitale, from the movie, The Secret. He hangs out with Forbes Riley, a $2.5 billion cohost of the Home Shopping Network and many high caliber influencers. He has shared the stage with Henry Gold, Peter Wolfing, James Neville-Taylor to name a few. At a very young age, he served as the Content Director for Limitless Nation TV which is where I met him. Donavon lives his life based on the principle of serving. It is also the reason why his partners and clients love, respect and are willing to do whatever it takes to work with him. Donavon, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me here. I’m so excited.

Ladies, to give you a little perspective on how I met Donavon, I joined a program called something like Limitless Life with one of Donavon’s partners. One of the things that I got with that was I got to be on their show at LimitlessNationTV. We set up the interview. Finally, I meet this guy, the host. He’s Donavon Hunteman. He’s young and hip. It was one of the best interviews of my life. I felt so connected. His heart for service was there in so many ways. I wanted to share him with you. Part of what we connected on was both of us are car crash survivors. For me, I had a horrible car crash. I was a professional world-class dancer at the time. It took away my legs. They wanted to put me in a chair. I was a cripple for two years and didn’t recover for about ten. His and my story are so similar. I wanted him here to inspire you and show you what’s possible no matter what. Donavon, I’m so excited to share your story.

I’m excited to share with your audience and to be able to be around limitless people like yourself.

Tell us all about you. I want to know what happened.

A little bit of a backstory is the way I am now is nowhere near what I was before. When I was younger, I was raised with a lot of discipline. It wasn’t always an optional thing. Some people are told to go clean up the room. Me, it was clean up your room or get spanked. There were discipline and rules. It worked great until it didn’t because about 13 or 14, those are the rebellious years to some people, at least for me, it was. I changed my hairstyle into that of a mohawk, 12 inches tall. I had a product called that stuck it straight up. My parents were not that happy, but that was where my mindset was.

Fast forward back in 2010, my sister and I had finished doing a unicycling parade, which at the time was exciting because everyone was looking at me and my Mohawk. It was crazy. Towards the end of that unicycle ride, it started to rain. The parade got done. We loaded up the unicycles and started the ride home. On the way back home, we were on some highway next to the Campbell River in Ohio which has a series of S curves. With it being a complete downpour, my mom driving went around one of the curves and the car hydroplanes. From that hydroplane, it went off the road, hit a ditch, hit a telephone pole and back into the ditch.

That’s good and bad. It’s good that it hit the ditch because if it had gone the other way, we would have gone off to the edge and into the river. The bad part was I was in this part of the car where the telephone pole decided to kiss it. That wasn’t fun for me. I blacked out on impact. My mom and sister were able to get out of the vehicle without any injuries whatsoever other than being shaken up and seatbelt burn. I’m stuck in this car. I’m unconscious. From what I’m told, I had to be cut out of the vehicle. When I was cut out of the vehicle, it was determined that I needed immediate medical attention. I got an $8,000 helicopter ride but I still don’t remember. I know it’s exciting.

I had what was called white lights which is you can view things around you but you can’t see anything. I don’t remember talking to any of the doctors. I don’t remember the CAT scans, MRI, any of that stuff. I do remember waking up. After asking a series of questions. I ask if I could get up, eat and leave. It’s funny because I’d answer all three of those questions with the resounding no. I had sustained massive trauma, multiple broken bones, the entire side of my face was bruised. What I didn’t know at the time was I had significant nerve damage as well as I was in a neck brace and a lot of other variables. That was crazy because everyone and even the nurses were telling me, “Normally, people in the car accident that I was in, they don’t make it out alive.”

The fact that I was even able to be there was much, in their terms, a miracle. After talking to the nurse and I spent the night there, no surprise to that, the nurse told me, “Essentially, we put all this effort into you to keep you alive because your life is worth something. You might as well do something with it. It’s going to make it even better.” From that point, I decided that I wanted to change everything. I decided that I don’t need to be in this rubble anymore. I want to turn everything around, start being productive, help people and have the mission to help my family. The next day, the helicopter pilot gives me a teddy bear. I still have it to this day but I had no idea who he was. He also shared with me that I should have been dead.

He’s a little bit politically correct when he said that but still, at this point, he made his way home there. From that point forward, I decided to do everything that I could to get out of the hospital and get better. As soon as I got out of the hospital, that day I had a new haircut, new hairstyle, changed my clothes, changed my friends, started exercising and got myself to a completely different level. What I didn’t know walking out was that I had nerve damage in my leg, what that exact nerve damage was the tibia in my left knee had moved enough to pinch my sciatic nerve which is a nerve that goes from your toe to the middle of your back. It’s excruciatingly painful. Some people have called it similar to that of childbirth. I can’t say that for sure because I’m not that. After a few months of my leg being completely numb, I found a way to alleviate some of the pain. I also found four principles that helped shape my life in such a way that I’m now living an impossible life. Would you like me to share with you those four principles?

I would love that.

Limitless Life: Albert Einstein says, “Whatever type of problem that the thinking creates, you can’t use that same type of thinking to solve that problem.”

The first principle is to have multiple goals. You can’t have one goal because if you do, you’re going to run into a standstill. The second principle is to have a why greater than yourself. If you’re doing something solely for yourself, it’s easy to get sidetracked or lose your motivation. The third principle is to master what’s called a B principle. It’s a creative way to balance, “Am I focusing so much on the past than I’m losing focus on people?” The fourth principle is to kick the ball forward which is in layman’s terms, if you want to score a goal, you have to kick the ball and have to move forward.

Using those four principles, I was able to recover 98% from my car accident and connect with people like Moneeka all around the world who have incredible energy, who are passionate about helping people. That was part of my mission after that point. I met Henry Gold and I discovered that when you take something that’s not all focused on yourself, you find someone else’s dream or someone else’s passion and what they’re doing in their world that can inspire somebody else, there’s no other feeling like that. To be able to share that story with somebody else to inspire somebody else to say, “No matter what’s going on in your life, somebody else has already had it or had it worse. You can bounce back from it, no matter what’s going on.”

You are a perfect example of that. I like how you told that story with a big smile on your face the entire time. That was horrifying.

I was rather terrified at the moment. From that experience, I don’t like being in hospitals. It wasn’t that fun because realizing that you have lost all control in an instant like this. The last thing I remember was sitting in a car and that we were going to go to a banquet because my brother and I had placed second in the state of Ohio for being the best chap shoes in the state. We were going forward with that career opportunity. Being in that car accident changed everything because now with broken bones in my hand, I wasn’t able to practice. I wasn’t able to get back to where I was as quickly as I needed to be. It changed the dynamics of what matters because when you’re in the middle of a hospital or better yet if you all of a sudden lose your breath, have shortness of breath, you’re not thinking about, “Is this person going to call me? Is this person going to text me? Is this deal going to close?”

All you’re focusing on is, “How do I get there and into me?” At the end of the day, going through that traumatic experience helps re-evaluate or re-align the paradigm to realize what matters in your life. If it’s something that only you want to focus on or something that other people can also get behind you on that you’re helping more than just yourself, where you can leave a legacy. Moneeka, you have an incredible legacy and you’re still working on it. You’ve written 2 or 3 books now. You’re impacting over 100 million people. That is a legacy that no one else can take away from you. You’re doing it because you care and want to share with other people.

Absolutely.

Ladies, we’re about to know more about how to implement those four keys in EXTRA. Donavon, can you tell us a little bit about what you’re up to and how my ladies can reach you if they want to? 

The best way to reach me is through Facebook. Look up @DonavonHunteman. I’m on another passion project of helping business owners, marketers and as many people as possible because with everything going on in the world, I’m realizing that more people are suffering. As a result, more people need help. It’s not a shame to ask for help. What I do is help anyone and everyone who wants to grow their business, whether that’s an email list, an affiliate product or even a physical business. The best way to explain it is I am a solo ads provider. The best way to explain that is if you had a mall and you wanted to go shopping but you don’t know what store to shop in or better yet, if you’re a store owner and you have your store inside of this huge mall of millions of stores and you were just one small one, what I do is I get customers the number that you want.

If you want 750 customers to stand in front of your door, I get 750-plus people to stand in front of your storefront to see what you have in the windows. Most likely, more than half of them are going to walk into your store and buy something. That’s what I do because if you don’t have somebody at least even looking at your storefront, they’re not going to know you exist and you’re not going to make any money. You’re going to go out of business. What I do is helping business owners maintain and grow so that they can reach more people and provide even more value and even more service for other people.

How can people get more in touch with you and find out more about it? 

The best way is Facebook but in finding out more about solo ads, look up MyLimitlessTraffic.com.

Thank you so much for that. I’ve got one question for you to close the show. What is one daily practice that you would say contributes to your personal success?

Limitless Life: No matter what’s going on in your life, somebody else has already had it or had it worse. You can bounce back from it, no matter what’s going on.

I have two things. Because of my car accident and how I had to bounce back from that, the two things that I had to do, first of all, prior to the car accident, I could touch my toes with my legs fully extended. After that car accident, I could not even touch my knees. I was not that happy about it at the time but over time, I’ve learned to become grateful for it because it instilled a new level of discipline where I’m exercising daily, stretching. I’m working on my body. That way, I don’t have to experience that extreme pain anymore and I can become better than what I was yesterday. The second thing that I do almost every day is I read some books. To work on your body, you got to work on your mind. As Albert Einstein says, “Whatever type of problem that the thinking creates, you can’t use that same type of thinking to solve that problem.” Reading your books is a great way to solve a problem.

Donavon, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for everything you’ve shared on this portion of this show. 

You’re most welcome. I’m so thrilled to be here.

Ladies, we’ve got more coming from Donavan. He’s going to be talking about, in more depth, the four keys to living an impossible life. Impossibly amazing. He’s going to be talking about that in EXTRA. If you are already subscribed to EXTRA, stay tuned, we got more. If you’re not but would like to be, go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com. You can subscribe there. You get the first seven days for free so you can get this EXTRA and as many others as you can download in seven days. Either you can stay subscribed if you love it or not. No obligation. Thank you so much for reading. Remember, goals without action are just dreams. Get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires.

Important Links

• Donavon Hunteman – LinkedIn
• LimitlessNationTV
• @DonavonHunteman – Facebook
• MyLimitlessTraffic.com
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com

About Donavon Hunteman

I am a serial entrepreneur at heart.

I’m self-motivated to achieve, be, and do more than I was yesterday; putting a heavy emphasis on personal development in mind, body, and spirit.

I love progress; especially progress in others, so your success is my success.

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

• Here’s How »

Join the Real Estate Investing for Women Community today:

• https://blissfulinvestor.com/

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram

______________________________________

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

Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business To Over $1 Million In Profits In 12 Months With Mike Simmons – Real Estate For Women

We might think that growing our profits is going to take a lot of time, but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes, what you need is to do a bit of level jumping, and today’s guest is just the right person to teach you how. Moneeka Sawyer is joined in this episode by real estate investor and author Mike Simmons in a great discussion on jumping to the next level. Mike shares his story of getting into the real estate space, and the challenges he faced along the way. Mike also shares his insights on success in the business and the things he learned as an investor.  

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business To Over $1 Million In Profits In 12 Months With Mike Simmons – Real Estate For Women

Real Estate Investing For Women

I am so excited to welcome to the show, Mike Simmons. He is a real estate investor, podcaster and speaker who shared the stage with Gary Vaynerchuk at his Agent 2021 Conference. He is a Co-Owner of the wholesaling company, Return On Investments, Producer and Host of the popular podcast, Just Start Real Estate, which I was just on and a partner in 7 Figure Flipping, one of the nation’s largest real estate mastermind groups. He owns sixteen rental properties and has wholesaled and flipped over 80 properties in 2020. He wrote the book titled Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months, which tells the story of his success as a real estate investor.  

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Mike, welcome to the show. 

Thanks for having me. You’re awesome. I can say that because I had an hour–long conversation with you. Thank you for having me. 

You’re welcome. My pleasure. Ladies, we did this fun thing. We’re doing an episode swap. We did it in one big chunk. I don’t always do it this way. It is fun to get to have a long in–depth conversation with you. This has been amazing so far. I’m excited about what you’re going to share. 

I appreciate it. I’m more excited to do this. I get the benefit of knowing you’re super cool and fun, even before we get started.  

Mike, give us a high–level, two–minute version of your story of how you got started in real estate. 

My story is relatable, which makes it normal. I worked from 9:00 to 5:00. I was in corporate. I went and got my degree much after high school. Ten years after I graduated, I went back and got my degree. The reason is right out of high school, I got a job working for UPS. It was a union. In my family, we were all Midwestern union–minded. My parents, all they wanted for me was to get into a job that had a good strong union. They thought that was it. That was the end game. Once I did that, I thought, “I didn’t love high school so why would I go to college.” I am in a union. This is what my parents said I’m supposed to do. I start working for UPS. Long story short, it wrecked my back at a young age. I couldn’t get out of bed without going to the chiropractor 3 to 4 times a week. I was on the road to being a cripple in my twenties. I was smart enough to look around and go, ” I can’t do this for the rest of my life. Something has got to change.”  

I went into the automotive industry. I’m from Michigan. Everyone goes into the automotive industry. I did that. There was good pay, good benefits. I liked it. It was fun. I was lured away from school there too. We went through this recession. This real downturn and the automotive industry took a hit. People were getting laid off like crazy. I had to be honest with myself. The one thing I learned in growing up with a dad who’s a Marine is how to be very self–critical. I am not someone who has a hard time understanding their faults. When I looked around at this time in my life, I said, “There are so many layoffs happening. I don’t have a college degree. I have some experience. Honestly, if I were a company and hiring and some HR, I wouldn’t hire me. Why would I hire me? There are more qualified people. People with degrees and more experienced. I am very expendable right now.”  

That scared me. I went back to college. I don’t use what I got in college anymore but I went back to college. What college did for me was it expanded my mind a little bit. It made me think about the possibilities. I started thinking about things that I never thought about before like retirement, investing and saving. Up to that point, I’m paycheck–to–paycheck like a lot of people. It’s stupid but that’s what I did. I started looking into the stock market and day trading. We talked about that a bit on my podcast. I did that for a while but I hated it. I didn’t like the stock market. It was boring to me. I needed something more exciting. I came across real estate. I decided this is what I want to do. I love this. I’m interested in it. It’s definitely a vehicle to get me where I want to go. I did the worst possible thing that you could ever do when you make a decision in your life that you want to do something was I got paralysis analysis. I started overthinking it.  

I started reading books, taking courses and going to seminars. I was educating myself to the point that I was overwhelmed with information and I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I don’t know enough about anything. It’s sad to say the reason I called my podcast Just Start Real Estate is because I realized the biggest problem people have with success is they don’t even get started. I decided in 2003 that I wanted to be a real estate investor. I didn’t buy my first house until 2008. I spent five years paralyzed with fear. Paralyze thinking, “What are people going to say if I screw this up? What will my parents say? What will my wife say? Will I lose money? Will I look dumb?” All these crazy thoughts that people have legitimately. I was frozen with that for five years before I got started. The first house I bought, flipped, and made money was like being stuck underwater until you almost are ready to pass out and then being thrust above water. I took this deep breath of air. For the first time, I felt like I was doing what I meant to do and that was to create my own destiny. That was how it started. 

Level Jumping: If you’re not an entrepreneur, it can be a scary, terrifying thing. That’s how you know that you might not be cut out for that.

That’s quite a visual. I felt that viscerally. It is interesting. We talked about this on your podcast, too, that entrepreneurial mindset. Being in corporate, for me, was being held underwater. It was suffocating, dying and miserable. I worked for great companies. I had a great job and great bosses. There was nothing wrong. It just wasn’t right for me. When I was able to get out there, it was taking that big gasp of air and feeling, “Finally, I get to be me.” 

If you’re not an entrepreneur, it can be a scary, terrifying thing. That’s how you know that you might not be cut out for that. For the people who go, “I feel like I’m alive for the first time,” that’s where you’re supposed to be. That’s how I felt. 

What’s interesting is that there’s a place for real estate investing in all of that whether you’re a corporate, executive, single mom, single dad or entrepreneur. In all of those places, that’s the beauty of real estate. There’s room for an investor strategy. Wouldn’t you agree? 

100%. I know a lot of people that do real estate, work full time and love their job. They don’t want to leave. It’s something that helps them supplement and get them to where they want to go faster. For some people, it’s what they want to do. They don’t want to be in corporate. I was like you. I was miserable. I wasn’t the best employee because I was difficult. I always had an opinion of how things should be done. I was not necessarily beloved by all of my managers and things because I was difficult for them. I constantly had a way about how I wanted to do things. It was good to understand where I belong. I always tell folks, “In growing up my world, there was this gravitational pole. The gravitational pole was toward the security of air, unions, working hard and saving your money. That was it.” To become an entrepreneur, was like escaping gravity. It took a lot of energy. It took me twenty years. I skipped over it. I was working for someone else for twenty years before I got started in real estate. It took me that long to break out of the expectational grips that my parents had. It was no fault of theirs. They loved me. They were one of the best. That’s what they knew. That’s what they thought was the best thing for me so it took a while. 

You talk a lot about creating a business that can operate without you. That’s real estate. That’s the dream. You go from a solopreneur to this business. As I say, I work 5 to 10 hours a month. I work very little on this. I call it my multimillion–dollar side hustle. That’s what we want. A business that we don’t have to trade time for money with. Talk a little bit more about that. 

The worst thing you can do is go off from working eight hours a day for someone else to work sixteen hours a day for yourself. That’s not the goal. For me, what that looked like? I won’t lie. I think I’m a slow learner because it took me about 5 or 6 years to dial in and understand what it took to run a business. Up until then, I was running what I like to lovingly call a lemonade stand. The lemonade stand was making a lot of money. It was being run the same way a five-year-old runs a lemonade stand. I ‘m taking money in one hand and handing it in another. I don’t know what’s what and it’s just crazy. Going from a solopreneur to someone who is running a business, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I bounced around. I stayed local. Everyone I talked to was friends, family and a couple of people REIAs who weren’t doing anything interesting in their business. My mind wasn’t able to grow much because, like a goldfish, I was in a very small bowl. That was the entire real estate world to me. These few folks I talked to.  

It wasn’t until I was put in a much bigger bowl that I was like, “There is room to grow here. There are people doing some cool things that I’m not doing.” Specifically, the number one thing that got me out of that little bowl and allowed me to have access to people who were doing things that I wanted to do but I didn’t know how to get, there was no bridge for me to get to where they are. They were in another location with no way of getting there. To create that bridge, I needed to surround myself with people who were where I am at that time and got there. That was a mastermind. If it isn’t a mastermind then at least a mentor who has your best interests at heart which sometimes can be tricky or a coach or somebody. You need to put yourself in an environment with a person or ideally people who are beyond where you are in business and can help you bridge the gap between what you know and what they know that got them to where they are.  

I met a guy named Andy. A very close friend of mine. I went on vacation with him. At the time when I met him, I was running about $200,000 a year gross profits. I don’t want to get CPA here because I’m not. He was doing about $2 million at the time. I was, “You have the business that I want. You have employees. You have people work for you. You have nothing but free time. You’re not doing much most of the time and you’re running this business. How did you get there?” He said, “It took me four years to get from where I am.” I sat down with him over the course of time. He laid out some of the things that move the needle for him to get them to where he was, not just the things that work but the things he tried that intuitively make sense and I would have tried. That didn’t work so well and why it didn’t work. He showed me this field, the path he took and he pointed out the landmines.  

If you’re running through a field with landmines, you have them all clearly marked and there’s a path where you go. It may take you four years to get across that field with no information. I said, “Why can’t I do what you did in four years? Organically, you figured out. Why can’t I do that in one year? Can I?” He said, “Sure. There’s no reason why you can’t.” That’s the groundwork for my book. How did I do it in one year? That’s what I lay out. I took all of his plans. I compressed everything he did slowly and methodically into a year and I executed it. Now, what’s the difference between me and somebody else? Nothing, except when I go to you, Moneeka and say, “You are successful. I want to emulate what you did because I think what you did was smart. I’m interested. Can you please tell me what you did?” You say, “Sure. Here’s exactly what I did.” What I don’t do in that situation is question you and say, “That doesn’t work in my mind. You had an advantage.” None of that. I just did it. I didn’t question it.  

That’s part of being raised by a Marine. Guess what you don’t do when a marine tells you what to do when you’re eleven? You don’t question them. You do it right. That served me well in that instance because I just said, “This guy knows what he’s talking about. I believe it. He’s telling me. Why would I question them?” I didn’t. I executed and went from being a $200,000 gross profit business to over $1 million in gross profit within twelve months. I did that within a year. All I did was follow a blueprint that was put out before me. 

There are some things I want to highlight there. First of all, when you decide to follow or take instructions for somebody, make sure a couple of things. Make sure you want to be in their shoes. There’s a couple of things to remember there. First of all, don’t take advice from someone who is not where you want to be. I used to always say don’t take investing advice from someone who’s broke. Don’t take real estate advice from someone who’s afraid of real estate. You want to be in their shoes. Also, the core mission of their business should be similar to yours.  

For instance, for me, money is great but freedom is more important so freedom of choice and time. When I go to talk to somebody, I want instructions from someone who has freedom of time and freedom of choice, as you did. You went to somebody that has this multimillion-dollar business of revenue each year. They have all this free time. You didn’t go to somebody who has a multimillion-dollar business but working sixteen hours a day. They’re out there. They’re a million. They’re a dime, a dozen. When you’re choosing that person to follow, make sure there’s someone you want to be in their shoes and their life, not jealously, none of that stuff. You’re not aspiring to be them but you’re looking at their life and you want a similar life for yourself. Then follow instructions because they know things that you don’t know. You will make mistakes along the way and they will have the answers for you. After that, you can adjust it once you get good at their system. You can make it your own system. Don’t do that initially. Yes, you’re smart but you’re following somebody for a reason. They’re smarter than you in this way. 

The crazy thing is, being smart is not necessarily a prerequisite for being successful. There’s a lot of smart people that fail. Find a successful formula and follow it. As you said, find the recipe that works. Make it the way they tell you to make it. If it tastes great, great. If you want to adjust it afterward, fine but you have the formula. You know how to do it. I totally agree with you. To your point, somebody who you admire. Someone who you look at and say, “They are in a position that I would like to be in, freedom of time, freedom, money, all that stuff” He fits that bill. He’s still a mentor of mine. He’s still somebody who I look up to and has my best interests at heart. He’s a great guy who I think a lot of. 

You do a full breakdown of what you did in your book, correct? 

Yes. Here’s the thing. One of the things that I’ve learned over the years that I’ve been in business is most people think it’s the software or specific technique that you employ. It’s not. It’s a little bit less sexy than that. It’s a little bit more of belief systems, structure and things like that. For me, going from what I was bouncing around, as a wholesaler flipper, a deal or two a month going to 10 to 15 deals a month, the difference was a couple of things. Number one, I had to learn that every time I bought a house, it should not be a brand new adventure where I change all of my systems and processes. As a flipper, I was walking through the aisles of Home Depot and Lowe’s picking out countertops. It’s, “I’ve already done 30 flips. Why am I coming up with a brand new pallet every single time?” That’s illogical and inefficient. It’s why my bandwidth was only allowing me to do so much.  

Level Jumping: Being smart is not necessarily a prerequisite for being successful. There’s a lot of smart people who fail. Find a successful formula and follow it.

I learned to systemize and create processes that were easily trainable and downloadable so that people could take those processes. Go with them and I didn’t have to be the person doing all the thinking all the time. I learned to create systems and processes that were repeatable that could have efficiencies and economies of scale. That was number one. The second thing was, I learned to track numbers. I was running a lemonade stand. If you ask most five–year–olds how much money they made that day, they hand you a bunch of money. That’s how I was running my business. I learned that I have to track things. I need to track my KPIs.  

I have a couple of different sets of KPIs that I use, key performance indicators. Some of them are what I call my island numbers. My island numbers are if I were stranded on an island or vacationing on an island and somebody gave me this handful of numbers. I would reasonably know the health of my company based on this handful of numbers. It’s not all telling. I wouldn’t know if I’m succeeding or failing by looking at these numbers. That’s important. Certain departments have more granular numbers. At the end of the day, if you don’t understand what money is going out and what money is working when it comes to marketing, real estate investors may be using 2, 3, 4, 5 different marketing channels. They know they’re getting deals and making money but they don’t know which marketing channels are working. Should some of them be turned off? Should some of them be turned up because they’re very profitable and the other one is not profitable? You don’t know because they all blend together and not paying attention. Watching my numbers, knowing my numbers and when it comes to KPIs, we’ll get deeper into this during the EXTRA but as a high–level thing. I think that there are two separate categories when it comes to metrics or KPIs.  

There are performance, result–based, result–oriented numbers, and activity numbers. We’ll break that down a little bit more. Sometimes, tracking the activity can be as or more important than tracking the actual results. We’ll get into that deeper. I did that. The third thing that I learned and dialed in was the hiring part of it. It’s virtually impossible to run a company at scale without people if you value your time. You can do it on your own but even Superman can’t be in two places at once. He can get to a place and be very fast or Wonder Woman but you can’t get there at the same time. I learned that hiring people effectively and hiring the right people cannot only make me more money but also free up my time. Some people think if I hire people, I don’t make as much. No. You hire the right people, you make a lot more and you get your time back.  

I learned that. In the beginning, I hired so poorly. There are a lot of nuances to it that we can get in deeper to but some of it was I was hiring people based on their resume alone. I wasn’t giving any thought to culture fit. Do they have the same values as me and my company? We had to go through some pretty crazy amount of people in that first couple of years because I was hiring with only one thought in mind. I talked about this on my podcast. When you get into business and all you care about is money, it’s going to be tough. I would rather hire great people and train them to be good at their job than hire someone who appears to be good at the job on paper and maybe not the greatest personality fit or value fit with my company. That was huge for me. 

Our conversations are so robust and so exciting to me. They just slip away from us.  

I’m surprised it’s been this long. I love talking about this stuff. 

What I want to do is let the ladies know that in EXTRA, we’re going to talk about business partnerships. I have a business partner. I know how valuable that can be. It’s also something that we haven’t talked about in the show. He also brought up some good points on what those actions are. We talked about results versus activity results. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. We’re also going to talk about hiring and scaling a team. This is a place where I, Moneeka, fall down almost 100% of the time. I have some good people that are working for me now. It’s been years of me and I would rather my ladies don’t have to go through what I’ve been through. I’m no expert. I think it would be fun. If we got the time in EXTRA, we’ll try to cover that too. Those are my objectives for EXTRA. Ladies, stay tuned. That is going to be so juicy. I’m excited about it. Before we end this show, Mike, could you tell my ladies where they can reach you? 

Thank you for that. If you want to find out more about me and what I’m up to, you can always go to MikeSimmons.com. That always has the latest and greatest stuff that I’m working on or what I’m involved in. Also, we referenced a few times. You guys should definitely go and check out Moneeka on my show, Just Start Real Estate. We have fun conversations like this. We don’t always just ask the hardcore real estate stuff. We talk a little bit about life and things. Go, check that out. I’d love to have you. 

Are you ready for our three rapid–fire questions? 

I’m so ready. Let’s do this. 

Mike, give us one super tip on getting started investing in real estate. 

I would say find someone local, hopefully, that has blazed some of that path for you and just ask for advice. There’s nothing better than having someone who’s been there and show you how to get there. That’s what people don’t do enough to ask for help when they need it. 

What is one strategy for being successful in real estate investing? 

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business To Over $1 Million In Profits In 12 Months

This is not necessarily a positive look at it but I always think back to corporate and the thought of that scares me enough to make me get out of bed in the morning. It’s a little bit of motivating me a little more than pleasure sometimes but I never want to go back to that. That’s what I do. 

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

One of my superpowers is I’m very good at compartmentalizing. What I do is when I’m working, I’m working. I’m full–in and full–on. Everyone knows, don’t knock on the door. Don’t come in. Don’t bother me. When I’m not working, I am 1,000% into my family, kids and wife. I’m very good about not checking messages. I’m focused on her. I’m focused on them. I put up high and very thick walls between the things that are important between work and family. When I’m doing one, I’m not doing both. 

That’s a hard thing to do. 

When you’re talking to your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or someone, one of the biggest turnoff moves in the world is to look at your phone and read a message while they’re talking. It’s so rude. You’re holding your phone. You’re running a business. It could be important. It’s hard to not look but, what does it tell the person that you’re across from whether it’s your kids, your husband? What does it tell them when they’re talking, you look down, and your reading? It’s the rudest thing in the world. I try to be careful about that. 

Mike, this has been such a good conversation. I can’t wait for the next part. Thank you for what you’ve offered so far. 

Thank you for having me. It’s been fun. I cannot believe how fast times go. 

I know it’s fun. Ladies, stay tuned for EXTRA. We’re going to talk about the actions that you can take to build your business, hiring a team and building a partnership. All of those things that EXTRA. We got a lot of stuff we’re going to cover so stay tuned. If you’re already subscribed to EXTRA, you can stay tuned and if you’re not but would like to be, go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com. You get seven days for free. You can check it out. If it’s not for you, you don’t need to stay. For those of you that are leaving us now, thank you so much for joining Mike and I for this portion of the show. I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams. Get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires. I’ll see you soon. Bye. 

Important Links

• Mike Simmons
  
• Return On Investments
  
• Just Start Real Estate
  
• 7 Figure Flipping
  
• Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months
  
• Moneeka Sawyer – past episode of Just Start Real Estate Podcast
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com 

About Mike Simmons

As the owner of a successful real estate investing company, lending company, and also a partner in one of the country’s largest real estate mentorship/mastermind companies, I specialize in helping entrepreneurs create systems, processes, and automations that allow them to work on their business and not be a slave to it.

I am also the producer and host of my own online show, Just Start Real Estate, and have conducted over 350 interviews with entrepreneurs who run 6, 7, and 8 figure businesses. Additionally, I have a new book that is now available on Amazon: Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in 12 Months.

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

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Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com