“Real” Estate Entrepreneur

Tell me what are you doing?  Are you in control of your life in 2010?  Mind, body, and spirit, what are you doing?  My wife and I are working out 5 to 6 days a week for body.  Mind, we are both getting back into school, I am going for my Masters in Leadership Coaching Psychology and she is finishing up her Poli Sci degree for law school yay;) and spiritually we have been going to church a couple of times a month to a non denominational christian church and are looking into maybe going to a buddhist group once a month or so.

So now that you know that I am trying to better myself, what are you doing?

Please comment!!!  We can motivate each other.

Tags: charleston real estate, Motivation, Personal Growth
Posted in Real Estate | | 3 Comments »

Here is another great post by me or at least I hope it will be.  If not a great post, it is definitely a great topic and hopefully one that you will comment on.

I read a book the other day “The Law of Spirit” by Dan Millman, and this book is great.  It was the first time I had ever read a book cover to cover in one sitting.  It may be a very small book but still a great read.  It is what they call an adventure parable in which a story tells much about life.  I personally have been learning so much about myself over the past couple of years and now that I have a beautiful baby girl, everything that I thought was correct, of course was not.

So in this book, a man meets a sage in the woods and they go on a mystical journey.  My half Indian wife ( feather no dot) would call this some type of nature quest or something.  Though I cant remember all of the law, I do remember some stuff that sticks out to me particularly.  The first part of the law deals in balance.  Balance not meaning standing on one leg but balance in your life.  Are you working more than you should be?  Playing too much?  Is it time to get out and start your life?  Move out of Dad’s basement?  How does your wife or spouse feel, are you giving enough emotionally?  That kind of balance.

This part of the law says that it is easy to identify what is off balance in your life but hard to correct.  You are so used to being off balanced that it is hard to change.  The book says to try to act completely opposite of yourself to find the corrections needed.  If you have been told you are very aggressive, try for a day to be very passive and see how it feels.  This will help you guage where you need to be.  Overcorrecting is what Mr. Millman calls it.  It is easier to understand if you think of throwing a baseball.  Throw a baseball at a picture 10 ft away.  Try to hit it dead center.  Did you miss?  Well, odds are you missed dead center.  Now overcorrect to the opposite of how you missed.  If you missed high left, throw low right and purposely miss.  Now that you have purposely missed you can appropriately gauge where to throw.  Well, howd you do?  Hit it didnt you?  Even if you still didnt keep throwing and it will happen.

That is balance.

The next two posts are going to be about my lucid dreaming and what it is doing for me, Aikido and Jiu-jitsu, and the cycles or seasons of life.

I am going to try to consistently write more and I hope you intend on reading more.

This blog is also changing from a real estate investing blog into a “real” person blog.  It is changing with me.  I am understanding more about life and am sharing it all with you.

Tags: charleston real estate, dan millman, lucid dreaming, tony robbins
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Well, Real Estate Entrepreneurs, what do you think this blog is going to be about. It is about how I feel today and how I feel about life. I have been writing a book for years about real estate investment and entrepreneurship and today I realize that there are no shortcuts. I was offered a position as BIC for a franchise and it just wasnt something that I was interested in. Why, because it wasnt for me, I am an entrepreneur not an employee. Same “E” different life.

I believe wholeheartedly in manifestation and we are manifesting a great life ahead.

I believe that entrepreneurship is like breathing. Not like unconscious breathing but like conscious sport breathing. We all know how to breathe, well we hope so. When you are able to breathe consciously you are able to give yourself so much more in life. You can work harder, longer and have more energy for everything that you are doing. In entrepreneurship, when you are on a role, doesnt everything come easier to you? How do you stay in that universal flow? By practicing over and over? Much like your conscious breathing?

Well, that is my two cents for today and hopefully you consider what I have to say. Also, try this, only breathe out of your nose for the next couple of days. If you cant do it, come back and donate a dollar to the blog. If you can do it, comment on if you were able to do more with more oxygen in your blood and if you feel better than you did before you were consciously breathing.

Tags: charleston real estate, Personal Growth, Real Estate Entrepreneur
Posted in Experience, Motivation | | No Comments »

So, I am sitting here watching Extreme Resorts on TV and watching all of these wealthy people have as much fun as they possibly can.  I sit and grind my teeth in awe and in anger as I am sure that these people dont try harder than I do.  Then I changed the channel and this dumb blonde is talking about her 8000 sq ft house and the bathroom bigger than one of my condos.  I am happy for these people because someone in their line had to put in the work for them to be able to live this life.  Great job to that person. 

 I hate these people, I constantly try to acknowledge that behind all of these rich people that someone had to put in the work for them but I can not stand these people.  I rack my brain everyday about trying to give my family a better life and all these people worry about is if their lap dogs are going to have enough space in their 8000 sq ft mansions.

I was watching the news this morning and the lady said that the recession has started to recover and what that means to people with money is that they need to be finding ways to capitalize and what it means to people without money “working people” is nothing.  Just by the way she said it, you can tell that she was handed that position because her Dad knows someone.  Well, okay I am not sure that was the case but if I had to bet, I would. 

I love capitalism and i love that I am able to run my own business, but I just wish I had a bit of backing.  I wish I could have just a hand every once in a while.  Not a handout that these silver spoon brats believe they are entitled to, just a ” hey, let me watch the kids and here’s a couple of bucks so you can take the wife out, you deserve it!”  Instead, I fired my Dad and made him move out of my house!

Well, enough of the pity party, I just wish that these people that think they are entitled to something realized how much of a benefit their parents are to them. 

I just want everyone to know that we realize the pains of running your own business and we understand why you subject yourself to it.  We understand that you could live a mediocre life with a mediocre job and be ok, but ok isnt good enough for us.  One day we will be those wealthy bastards at the worlds largest resorts or sleeping in snow igloos (you know you are rich when you pay to sleep in a snow igloo resort).  Our children will have the stupid lap dogs, and they will have the same feelings of self entitlement.  We will be able to look at how much they are given and know that we made that possible.  We will know that we broke the mold of low and middle class, and we will look at each other and we will know who made it and who it was given too.  We will carry an insurmountable level of respect for entrepreneurs.  When we make it, if I see you and we will know each other, Ill buy you a beer! 

Thanks and good luck real estate entrepreneurs!

Tags: charleston real estate, Real Estate Entrepreneur
Posted in Motivation, Personal Growth | | 2 Comments »

REAL ESTATE ENTREPREURS HELLO!

Well, first of all if you havent watched my new baby please watch the video blog below as she is the cutest.

I just wanted to hit on a couple key points today.  I wanted to tell you how great of a job you are doing and how proud I am to have you read my thoughts.  Just by reading this, I know that you are just like me in the fact that we want more out of life and we are willing to work for it.  If that isnt a description of you, PLEASE STOP READING THIS!!!

I have an appreciation like no other for people like us.  I just hope you realize that we are in the worst economy since the GREAT DEPRESSION right now and if you are still standing tall with your own business, keep it going!  When the market and economy turns we will be an unstoppable force.  Here in Charleston, In 2007, there was around 7000 Realtors in the area and now we are under 2000 with a bunch of inactives.  What does that tell you?  That those of us that are left are willing to put in the work!  Stop a second, give yourself a pat on the back!  Congratulations! 

Well, with that being said, if you know of anyone that wants to buy or sell here in Charleston or wants a renter or anything, let me know, we can all use a bit more business.

Keep working hard and believe in abundance!  Believe in the universe and believe in yourself.  Love everything and everyone!  Be kind, rewind and all of that too!

Tags: charleston real estate, Motivation, Real Estate Entrepreneur
Posted in Business, Motivation, Personal Growth, Real Estate | | No Comments »

Well we are going through with it and here it is.  Wish us luck with the new brokerage!  Check out the logo and send us some new business.

Hope you like it, if not, keep it to yourself as this is it for now anyways.  Have a great Fathers day all of you real estate entrepreneurs.  I just ordered our first shipment of signs today.

Tags: charleston real estate, Real Estate Entrepreneur
Posted in Real Estate | | No Comments »

So this is a very important post to me and I wanted to go briefly over it with you.  Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to meet with some very important people and these meetings have been vital in my growth as an adult as well as a real estate entrepreneur. 

At one time, I was getting personal advice from a man who won the entrepreneur of the year award by a major entrepreneurial organization, had exposes in upper end magazines, and was an overall great individual.  I am still in contact with a President of a local bank  and was on an acquaintance relationship with the Lt Governor of the State.  How did all that happen? Well, people like me and I am a helpful person.  Eventually, it just ended up happening and I am very grateful for all of my experiences.  One of the greatest experiences I have ever had has been to sit down multiple times with an actual billionaire who made his money in real estate.  I wanted to share just a bit of this information with you.  Would you like to learn something?

This man, was so brilliant that I couldn’t even understand the way that he thought.  All I know was that I was so awestruck at the time spent with him that it took me years to even grasp his words.  He thought on so much of a greater level than I have ever seen.  We talked about world economics and he even warned me about this recession that we are currently in.

He warned me of over leverage and what it was causing which was all correct and he also explained to me this.  He explained that it doesn’t matter how much money you make this year or even over the next couple of years.  What matters is how much money you have in ten and twenty years.  What he meant is what is happening to everyone right now.  All of these real estate “millionaires” had so much and now that  the market has corrected they are losing everything.  Now I over leveraged a bit but not to the point where we were not able to manage through the down times.  We are actually still able to grow and put money away but had I now been given that information, perhaps we would be in the same position that 12.5% or 1 in 8 people are in these days; foreclosure.  I hope that it is not too late for you and just heed those words.  A self made BILLIONAIRE is definitely someone to listen to.  Thanks a bunch Jack

Well, there are a couple points to this post.  First of all, I have experienced great success from all that I have learned and what I continue to learn from everyone in my life.  From people with more real estate experience than me to watching my four year old little girl and how she enjoys life and everyday experiences. 

The point that I was trying to show in what I had learned from Jack was that it doesnt matter how much money you make this year.  If you lose it in a year than you might as well never have made it. 

So good luck, make mistakes and keep pushing forward.

Tags: charleston real estate, Motivation, Real Estate Entrepreneur
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Well, here we go again Charleston Real Estate Investors.  This is the real estate entrepreneur, and I am going to give you just a short tidbit on a fun and easy way to save some money.  At my house we have an allowance account.  Just like you give your kids or you remember getting we put a bit of money in our account every week separate from all of our money and we build up the excess very quickly.  We like to spend a good bit and we put $300 in our account every week.  That is not saying that we couldnt easily live off of $200-$250 per week.  Even dropping to $250 per week would save another $200 per month.

For us $300 allows us to spend $75 on gas between both vehicles, $100 on groceries, and $125 on miscellaneous.  We can go to the movies at $20 a bunch of times, or go to the movies and buy a couple or really do whatever we want.  It also aids us in not buying big stupid purchases that are caused by spontaneity.  You know the things that you buy because the box looks cool.  Well, check out our website at www.charlestonrealestateinvesting.com

Go out, make mistakes, and make some money!!!  Thats what Im doing!

I just wanted to add a couple of things real quick.  This $300 is just for my spending money.  It includes things like movies, clothes, oil changes, and the like.  It does not include things like business marketing materials, recurring phone bills, utility bills and the like.  Of course this account is a goal oriented account and say we had some emergency we would of course use the money from one of our other accounts.  Comment!

Just wanted to throw in an update.  I think next week we are going to lower our allowance to about $200 and get gas out of our other account.  This is because the more business we are doing the more we are driving and we need to spend the money on gas.  I am believing that gas is too important to have a limit on it.

Tags: charleston real estate, managing, Real Estate Entrepreneur, real estate investment
Posted in Experience, Motivation, Real Estate | | 1 Comment »

This one is something that I have struggled with for years and something that I am finally beginning to understand.  Ill start by saying I was hanging out with a buddy of mine the other day who is much farther in real estate entrepreneurship than I am annd is also a mentor.  check out his website www.woodruffinvesting.com

Well, he was talking to me about my team and how I need to use delegation to create efficiency.  Well I am new to the team concept let alone delegation.  I have always been the type of person that would work twice as hard to make sure something was done correctly.  That often times meant doing it myself.  While that works well in the beginning you will eventually get to the point where you dont want to work from sun up to sun down 7 days a week and you may begin to resent your business, your dream.  Now why on earth would you ever want to resent your dream. 

Well, here is what I have found in delegation.  I now delegate the smaller prospecting and the renovations to our properties so that I am able to focus on the bigger paychecks of listings and the investment management.  I now have buyers out looking for investment property and mobile homes while I am able to keep the big ball rolling and growing. 

My buddy told me to use this delegation as  a tool to manage time and its working.  Right now I am writing this while on the phone negotiating a short sale.  This is something that I am unable to do if I am out putting up bandit signs or answering calls from unqualified leads.  Start thinking of your business as a business and begin to grow.  Dont go wild though, dont over extend.  I like to think of it as taking just a bit bigger than baby steps. 

Well this is a short one, get out and do something!!!

Make Mistakes!!!

Tags: charleston real estate, managing, Motivation, Real Estate Entrepreneur
Posted in Business, Experience, Motivation | | No Comments »

Here is a great topic ladies and gentlemen.  Are you ready to become more productive?  If you are like me than you sometimes have a problem with productivity.  Some people call it, “spinning your wheels”, “moving fast and getting no where”, or even “Im working as hard as I can and not making it happen“.  Well, these are all words of a frustrated individual and I am going to share with you what  sometimes helps me to get through these times.

First of all, realize that this happens to everyone.  We are entrepreneurs and we face struggles.  If this was for everyone than we wouldnt be the exceptions we would be the rule and we would have to find something else to do, right?

Now that you realized, calmed down, and are thinking clearly; be honest with yourself.  What is it that you arent doing, I know, I know you arent achieving but what arent you doing?  Either because you dont want to (that part sucks) or because you have delegated that part to someone who is unable to handle the responsibility.  Did you figure it out?  I am betting that you did.

Well, I was listening to some Tony Robbins and he was talking about how he made it in his business.  It was at the birth of his new son, much like where I am in my life ( I am waiting on a daughter to be born anyday) and he didnt like his living arrangements.  I live in a WIP (work in progress – as one buddy of mine calls it) and I am not ok with that.  I am a real estate entrepreneur and deserve to live like I work as hard as I do.  In fact, I would say that I HATE this house! 

I HATE this house much like Tony Robbins hated his living arrangements when he went from $38k to $1,000,000 in a year.  Now I make plenty enough funds to qualify as a real estate entrepreneur as I am sure you do as well but  I have developed such a hatred for this house and how I force myself to live.  I have developed a list of the mediocrity that I have allowed myself to become content with and how that contentness and mediocrity disgusts me.  You may be thinking, well I am fine with being content, and this post may not be for you.  How can you be fine with being content?  Being content means to not be happy yet not sad.  So you are fine with your life being filled with nothing.  That is at least how I feel about it.

The remedy that I have found is in reading this list everyday and becoming upset with my life to the point where I want to work harder to achieve.  My family deserves more than I am giving and I have a larger role to play in life than the “buy a house, have some kids, get old, and die” mentality.  I am here to make a difference.  What about you?

Make up your list and keep adding to it.  Dont be content and read it every morning.  Realize why you are not ok with your life and what more you need to have.  Well, Get to it, stop reading and start writing, I am changing your life right, make sure you come back and say thank you!

Tags: charleston real estate, Motivation, Real Estate Entrepreneur, tony robbins
Posted in Real Estate | | No Comments »