Founder and CEO of Smart Real Estate Coach, as well as host of the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast.
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I’ve always made it a point to seek entrepreneurial advice from successful people who did what I’d like to do, because success certainly does leave clues. There are two pieces of advice in particular that have been meaningful to my career, and they are things that every one of us can keep in mind and constantly conduct a self-check of.
The first is to remember that you cannot outgrow yourself. It almost doesn’t matter what profession you are in; this advice is universal. But in the real estate profession, for instance, you dictate the size and pace of your growth and your actual profits based on your ability to:
• Learn and convey powerful scripts.
• Negotiate terms on deals.
• Delegate and outsource.
• Get rid of daily minutia that’s slowing you down and focus on top money-producing activities.
• Find and hang out with big thinkers who have been there.
It’s an interesting phenomenon. We will never outgrow ourselves, meaning our income cannot exceed our mental capacity and skills that we have. You may on occasion have what I consider to be luck or artificial inflation of income, but long-term, you must continue to grow in order for your income to grow.
For example, when one of our students joined the highest level of our coaching program with some lofty $1 million-plus-per-year goals, I said that based on our model and on pure math, that was more than possible. I went on to tell him, however, that he must become a person who was mentally and skill-wise able to do that, and only then would the income follow. Aside from being sound advice for this student, it also enabled him to manage his expectations. Fast forward 16 months or so, and he had completed three deals, each exceeding six figures in profit. Worth the wait and time spent on personal growth? I’d say so.
If you’re not happy with the speed or size of your income, dramatically increase the time and effort you are spending on yourself. In my opinion, one of the most important steps of this process is seeking out mentors, advisors and programs that further your growth in your particular industry or niche.
That leads me to the second piece of advice that I continue to speak about, which is a three-step process I was first taught in my 20s that has been instrumental in my own entrepreneurial growth.
Step 1: Find an industry, niche or business that you can really get behind and feel passion for.
Step 2: Find a person or organization in that industry, niche or business that has done what you want to do and is still doing it. In real estate, the second part of that is so important because the industry changes quickly, as do markets, and you can get hurt if following outdated guidance.
Step 3: Follow that person, group or program for a minimum of 36 months without deviating or getting side-tracked by what I call “shiny objects” — for instance, starting in the terms niche with us and after 90 to 120 days deviating to learn about rehabbing homes.
I admit, the last step is much easier said than done. But any endeavor requires this, in my opinion. It’s not enough to simply try something out, and with the amount of information you can find on Google or YouTube about any subject, there’s no reason to not keep doing your due diligence until step one is all set, and then complete steps two and three. “Trying it out” in this sense would be like a real estate developer starting a venture, asking investors to buy in to help and then saying, “Hey, thanks for your trust and money. I’ll give this effort a try for three to six months.” Do you think they’d invest in you? No. They’d laugh you out of the room.
I encourage entrepreneurs and aspiring real estate professionals to work on these pieces of advice that have not only served me well, but have also served our students in the real estate investing industry.
Forbes Real Estate Council is an invitation-only community for executives in the real estate industry. Do I qualify?