Money School Podcast

No matter how successful we are in life, we're all bound to run into obstacles at some point, especially when we're trying to achieve a goal. How can we surpass the external obstacles, like a lack of starting capital or unfavorable market conditions? What does it take to overcome internal obstacles like self-doubt? On this episode, Co-Founder and President of The Science of Flipping, Justin Colby shares how he has experienced both internal and external obstacles on his journey, and how he triumphed over them. To boost your self-confidence, you have to block out all the outside noise- bad and good. Don't let people gas you up, and don't let naysayers bring you down. -Justin Colby 3 Things We Learned Exposing people to the work we do attracts opportunity The easiest way to not make money is by asking for it. Rather than directly approaching people, asking for funding, show them what you do. By putting yourself into a public space - like social media - you're putting yourself in a position to get opportunities. Talk about what you do, and you'll soon attract someone willing to invest in your business. A market downturn is inevitable. Don't deny it, prepare for it The market affects us all - it's one of the biggest external factors we have to deal with. While our current market cycle continues to improve, it will inevitably decline at some point. When that happens, those who have been preparing will have the greatest advantage. We should all start preparing for the storm now. Block out the external voices and build confidence from within A major inhibitor of self-confidence is outside noise. By listening to others' opinions, we stop ourselves from reaching our full potential. This is true of our detractors and our supporters. While our critics hold us back from trying in the first place, if we pay too much attention to our supporters, we risk stagnating. While no one wants to fail, our barriers to success are ultimately what push us to succeed in the long run. It's not our victories that take us to the next level, but our downfalls. What matters is how long it takes us to get back up again. In the meantime, we can protect ourselves from the impact by allowing opportunities to find us, and by paying attention to our goals and intentions, rather than the voices of others.

Three huge factors that get in the way of an entrepreneur's ability to achieve long-term success: not focusing enough on building a personal brand, making too many excuses and overanalyzing. Why is a strong personal brand a key business principle, and what are the benefits of intentionally building our personal brands, not a corporate one? Why is taking action more important than doing everything perfectly in business? On this episode, I'm joined by business expert, entrepreneur and CEO of Stapleton Group Inc, Jason Stapleton. He shares his fascinating business journey and the lessons he has learned from starting and running multiple businesses. The more you realize how easy it is to start a business, the fewer excuses you can get away with. All the other obstacles are secondary and tertiary to your mindset. - Jason Stapleton Three Things We Learned Personal brands ensure long-term success Most people are worried that building a personal brand tethers them to the company and makes it hard to step away, but there's another side people totally miss when they think this way. When you build a strong personal brand, that authority and success follow you to all the other ventures. Consider how Elon Musk is known for his personal brand, not the business failures he has had. When we build a strong enough personal brand, the people who know, like and trust us will always come along and support what we're doing. Lack of money and time are no longer an excuse in starting a business Setting up an online business has never been easier or cheaper than it is today. In the past, setting up a website was extremely expensive or incredibly time-consuming. Now we have drag-and-drop websites that allow us to build something great in under an hour. Once we had to network to find clients, now we have online lead funnels. There is just no excuse when it comes to the difficulty of setting something up. Being overly analytical can kill our business before we even launch them Very often, entrepreneurs think the best way to successfully launch a product is to do all the testing they can, and wait until every detail is perfect. The truth is, getting into action, and learning and tweaking along the way is a better approach. You need to make sales and move product in order to see what's working and make a better product. When we don't take the time to build our businesses correctly from the ground up, they will eventually trap us and reach a ceiling. If we don't deliberately build solid personal brands, we won't connect with our target market, and sustain our success over time and different ventures. If we spend too much time analyzing and testing our idea, the right time to strike will pass us by. If we make the excuse that starting a business is too difficult, we'll lose sight of how much opportunity there is right now. Ultimately, money is attracted to the right principles, and if we build them into our businesses, we will win.

One of the biggest issues we have in our conversation about success is that it's too business and money-focused. How can we build more effective businesses, while ensuring our drive for wealth doesn't take over other aspects of our lives? What are some of the common regrets of top-level investors? On this episode, founder of Omaha's Elite Real Estate Group, Elite Real Estate Systems and host of the Team Building Podcast, Jeff Cohn shares insights on how to build a successful life in all areas. Remember that it's not all about money. To be truly successful, you have to be winning in the personal, spiritual and physical areas of your life. -Jeff Cohn 3 Things We Learned To build passive income, we shouldn't just focus on flips Flipping is exciting but it doesn't create generational wealth. In fact, something most top-level investors can agree on is their regret for not holding onto their own properties. Rather than concentrating all our efforts on flipping homes, hold onto them as rental properties. We become more effective at using time when we leverage As business owners, we want to be able to step away from our companies and still see growth. To do this, we need to hire people to perform certain activities, so we don't have to. Pay attention to your purpose Success is about more than financial gain. Our family life, health and spirituality all require our attention. It's important to refocus on what motivated us to become successful in the first place. If we find we're spending too much time and energy on making money, it may be time to slow down. Real estate is the best industry to build wealth - and if we start thinking differently about how to make money in the industry, the opportunities become abundant. Our goal should be to build businesses we can step away from. Allowing us to make money without trading in our most valuable asset - time.

Money is the biggest obstacle for most hopeful investors, along with the belief that every investing model requires lots of it. How can we get into a model that doesn't require a lot of money out of our pockets? Why is this model a great way to take advantage of a downturn? How can we protect ourselves from the risks associated with the model? On this episode, I'm joined by successful investor, best-selling author of Real Estate on Your Terms, and founder of SmartRealEstateCoach.com, Chris Prefontaine. He shares on his no-credit investing business, and some of the obstacles he faced on his journey. Real estate is not all smooth sailing and there will be headaches, even if you're doing everything right. All you can do is prepare for that. -Chris Prefontaine Three Things We Learned Why the owner financing/lease-to-buy model is recession-proof While people believe wholesaling works, when the market dries up and cash buyers start to dwindle, it will become a challenge to keep it going. The owner financing/lease-to-buy model isn't just downturn-proof, it thrives in a down market. It can position us perfectly, because we can be the solution for sellers who want out but can't sell, and people who want housing but can't get a bank loan. How to protect ourselves from lease-buyer defaults All businesses have headaches, and owner financing /lease-to-buy model is no different. 1-5% of the people will default, even if we're doing everything right. A life event will always happen, but we can protect ourselves by having lines of credit set up, just in case. Creative ways to attend high-price mastermind events Joining a mastermind can be expensive, but we shouldn't let the lack of money stop us from attending. We can find ways to pay for the mastermind through the help of people with more resources. We can also offer to donate our time to a mastermind, helping out with the event, in exchange for attending. There are so many ways to get into real estate investing, even if you don't have access to money for bigger deals like buy-and-holds and fix-and-flips. The owner financing /lease-to-buy model is great for cash-strapped investors who are still new to the business. A great bonus is that it's a great model to use when markets are softening like right now. Ultimately, this deal structure is a great reminder that money doesn't have to be a huge obstacle in us achieving our goals, if we know where the opportunities are.

When it comes to investing in real estate, there's a plethora of strategies and tactics we can employ, and sometimes the unique ones yield better results. If we're looking for money to pay for renovations, why are credit cards a great solution? Is it possible to run a successful investing business remotely? On this episode, real estate investor, coach, and author of the book "Action Driven," Brandon Elliott shares on how he became an investor, and one easy way to access funding for flips. Money is the last thing you need to worry about, not the first. If you get a solid deal under contract the money will show up. -Brandon Elliott Three Things We Learned How to find the best location to buy property Location is a very important part of any real estate investing strategy. We should be looking for job growth, population growth and something unique about the area. Use resources like http://www.usa.com/, census.gov, www.citydata.com, and bestplaces.net to research an area. A unique way to make use of credit cards Most people in real estate know about using credit cards to buy construction materials, but we can also employ credit cards to pay contractors and even purchase properties with credit cards. There's so much favor in using credits, and it's easily available. Additionally, we can also get the credit companies to protect us against getting shortchanged by contractors, and we get free flights and hotels as well. How to run a successful investing business remotely Brandon runs his real estate business from 3000 miles away, and he believes it has actually made him more efficient and grow and scale his business faster, because he's more reliant on leverage and systems. The biggest mistake many people make is thinking that finding the money is the first step to invest in real estate. What actually matters most is having a strategy in place, being educated about the area you're planning to invest in, and having a solid deal in place. Once you have a deal, the money is actually very easy to access. The lesson is to never let a lack of our own money stop us from successfully growing a business.

The idea of retirement has changed because people are living a lot longer, and things like Social Security are going to fall away. How can we prepare ourselves for a long retirement, and avoid buying into The Big Lie? Why is real estate the best and most stable investment we can make? On this episode, I'm joined by life-long entrepreneur, CEO and managing investor at Grande AMA & Associates, Anne Amagrande, who shares on her work, her lifestyle and how she helps clients build an environment of financial success. Real estate is the preservation of capital because the money you're putting into it is still secured by the asset, and you get to live off the interest without dipping into the principal. -Anne Amagrande Three Things We Learned Why we should avoid buying bulk portfolios Many private equity firms buy someone else's portfolio in bulk, a lot of the times they are just buying the problems the portfolio owner is selling. It's often a lot wiser to buy individual properties and then create the right portfolio. How real estate boosts our cash flow When we invest in real estate, it means we never get to degrade the principal of our investment, and we get the cash flow from the interest, while our capital is being preserved. The unique lifestyle Anne chooses to live Anne chooses to live in a 650 sq. ft condo, and it allows her to put all her money into her investments. What holds a lot of people back from being able to build wealth is being too preoccupied with the trappings of money, not the things that actually allow us to become truly financially free. One of the biggest mistakes people make in the process of building generational wealth is failing to understand that success is all about being able to delay our gratification. If we get too caught up in the now, and buying all the fancy and flashy things, we'll never be able to focus on building assets. If we do the foundational work now, we'll have a more stable future. Ultimately, we should always be looking for ways to preserve our capital and live off the interest.

One of the things I'm most passionate about is helping professional athletes plan for their finances after their careers end. Why are pro athletes so prone to ending up with nothing when they hang up their boots? What can be done to help them avoid this? On this episode, I'm honored to be joined by a former pro athlete I greatly admire, Mikey Taylor. He shares how he's been able to leave his skateboarding career and go on to build wealth, success and help other pro athletes. Real estate is the best vehicle for creating passive income. -Mikey Taylor Three Things We Learned How to run a business that breeds success When you run a business and work with people, don't bark orders. You learn how they work and you build relationships and systems so you all work together to grow. Why pro athletes end up in financial crisis Many pro athletes go very quickly from bringing in the money and living a wealthy lifestyle, to having it all go away when they get injured or their careers end. It's so important for them to start planning for the future when things are still good. How athletes learn the truth about what it takes to succeed Pro athletes have to deal with a lot of errors to learn and master something. They have to work and fail to get things right. This can teach us a lot about what it takes to succeed in business. One of the biggest mistakes successful people make is assuming that the money will always roll in. It's a belief that leaves many people struggling when things take a turn. It's so important to remember that we should keep our money in motion at all times and have it working for us, so that when we slow down we won't find ourselves in financial trouble. Ultimately, it's about being willing to learn from successful people and being persistent and knowing that you will succeed, no matter how long it takes.

When it comes to real estate investing, we have to be able to shift along with the market. How can we tell that the market is shifting, and how can we make smart decisions informed by market trends? Why is our emotional state important in our success? How can husbands and wives run businesses and get into alignment? On this episode, I'm joined by investing couple and co-hosts of Both on Board, Ray and Christy Gonzalez, who share on their investing journey, and how they run their businesses. You really have to have your emotional and inner game handled because the outer game is always a reflection of the inner game. -Ray Gonzalez Three Things We Learned The issue investors can face with rentals Rental cash flow is consistently inconsistent. Something unexpected will always happen with a tenant, or the property. Rentals aren't always the right option for everyone, especially if you want to opt for something more consistent. How to predict the market When there's a market storm on the horizon there are always clues. These include inverted yield curves, the stock market and real estate market showing weakness, and seeing more of a buyer's market than a seller's market. Why personal shifts affect us as much as market ones Business is not just about what is going on in the market, people have cycles too, and we also shift. Our businesses and the decisions we make are also affected by what is going on with our lives and families. The truth about the real estate market is that there are always going to be shifts, and when a correction is on the horizon, the wise prepare. We shouldn't be too tied to one vehicle of making money because things can change. In order to thrive through the shifts we have to make sure we lock in our emotional state, figure out our unique abilities, and walk on our wealth path.

The most common ways we've been taught to find money for deals actually sets us up to look desperate and not be in control. How can we take direction from the way banks and wealthy people raise money? How can you raise money from your primary circle? In this episode, I continue my talk about the big money lie, and how we can overcome the common misconceptions. Three Takeaways Our goal should be to turn our liabilities into assets the way banks use our money to grow their own money. We need to learn to talk to people about our real estate opportunities, and get them excited about getting involved. If we create opportunities that solve problems for other people, and raising money will be easy. Most of us are in the dark about how money really works and where to find it, and in order to raise more money, we need to learn the truth. A few things we need to understand is how we attract money, and the importance of acting like the banks and other rich people. Don't think about asking for money, think about how you can solve people's problems and you can get your hands on more money for deals.

Most new real estate investors are intimidated by multi-family deals, but getting into them is a lot easier than people think. What makes apartment building investing such a great way to build wealth? How can we raise money, and why is it so easy to do? How do we expand our investment comfort zone? On this episode, I'm joined by one of the foremost authorities on multi-family investments, Michael Blank. Michael is an entrepreneur, investor, teacher, podcaster and bestselling author who joins us to shares the intricacies of apartment building investing. The most direct path to financial freedom through real estate is with apartment buildings. -Michael Blank Three Things We Learned How to raise money for multi-families through investors While it's easier to raise money for house flips, multi-family deals have a lot of benefits and if we explain it to people, we can raise money. There's consistent compounded returns, and ongoing tax benefits which investors would favor. Multi-family property strategy A multi-family strategy is different from just investing in one multi-family unit. An apartment building strategy means you intend to scale your portfolio over time, getting bigger properties each time. How the property manager impacts your business The quality of your property manager affects your performance and quality of life significantly. With a poor quality property manager, you'll spend time chasing tenants, micromanaging, and your expenses will be high. A good property manager allows you to run your business with limited stress and strain. Real estate truly is the vehicle to becoming wealthy and financially free; and multi-family investing is one of the fastest ways to do it. You can apply the same strategy as one property deals and banks favor those deals. What's even better is, you can get involved in so many different ways and achieve cash flow, long-term wealth and tax benefits. There's no need to be intimidated. You can overcome lack of money by raising it, you can overcome a lack of experience by learning and having a team around you. Ultimately, all you have to do is get started and you can achieve it.