Episode 405: Prioritizing Yourself and Your Business, with the Wicked Smart Certified Coaches

Welcome to another episode of the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast, your source for actionable real-life examples and advice to help you move to the next level of investing. Each week we help you make a quantum leap in your business, your finances, and/or your life. We want to help you take back control, help you thrive during chaos, and lead you through the current crisis to a better tomorrow. For more resources, check out smartrealestatecoach.com and be sure to give us a rating and review on your favorite platform.

Good morning and welcome. Wicked smart listeners, thanks for joining me this week. This is Chris Prefontaine again, and my focus every week is to empower you in some shape, form, or fashion to simply take some action, change some behaviors, and think differently, and to plan your escape from your J-O-B using the power of real estate. Now, for those of you that may have missed the summit, and I'm sure that's tens of thousands of you, because if you were all there, we wouldn't have been able to fit in the hotel, uh, the summit took place in, in the end of March And as it does every year. And we have an event coming up here in September, that's the QLS Live event. But 2 of the 6 or 7 or 8 vendors that were in the networking area as people entered the event were NAT processing in REI BlackBook. Now I'll tell you a couple things here. REI BlackBook is a well-known name and a well— a very trusted name in the industry, but the customization that's going on with the Wicked Smart community is absolutely nothing short of amazing, uh, to the point of flying into private masterminds and customizing all kinds of workflow. It's just off the charts. As of the— literally this month, the founder Damon, uh, spent a better part of a day behind closed doors with our Chairman's Club doing exactly that. So it's not something you want to miss. To run your real estate business, to automate, to develop some lead flow options and variations. Just absolutely amazing. Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/reiblackbook. And then for all of you, I don't care if you follow this because you're in creative real estate or you're buy and hold or you have apartment buildings, it doesn't matter. You absolutely want to check out Nat Processing. This took years for us to connect with. That's N-A-T Processing, natprocessing.com. They're going to go ahead and collect your rents from your tenants or your tenant buyers. In our case, they're going to pay their underlying debt and they're going to— or mortgage payment or seller finance payment— and they're going to drop the difference in your account. NatProcessing.com. I'm just going to put those 2 plugs in and make sure I hammered that out before we get into the show here. Okay. With that as a backdrop, buckle in while we bring you the next family cast. Now, I called it a family cast because I'm due to bring one of those to you guys. But today, Nick and I, my son Nick and I, get to spend some time with Our certified coaches, which is absolutely amazing. They're an amazing bunch. I'm not going to give them any accolades right here because I'm going to let them talk. I want to let you understand how special they are. And you can go back to episode number 364, which was similar to this one, pre-QLS live event, but it was last year. And you get to hear most of the certified coaches on that podcast. And here we're going to jump into a little bit of their thoughts now a year later, or whatever the date is, to get some insight, to get some motivation, to get some hope in an uncertain market, and see why the path is so, so super clear for creative real estate when you have a team like them on your back. All right, so with that non-intro, for anyone with no background on the show, welcome to the show, you guys.

Thank you, Chris.

Thanks.

Good to see you.

All right, so it's gonna be a busy show for the Wicked Smart listeners that are on the podcast itself. So I encourage you to get over to YouTube, uh, and perhaps maybe we'll put the whole video under the, the PlayStation for, um, just the podcast. Okay, so here's what I want to start with. We have zero agenda. I want these guys to understand this. The coaches are absolutely amazing. Um, they're all either certified coaches or coaches, uh, in the making, onboarding. And, and so They're gonna bring it to you from the heart. Uh, first question, you guys, and I honestly don't— here goes first. I might start with Steve just because he said something that sparked this, and that is, what do you guys know? Because you've been in the community for a while, right? What do you know that outsiders looking in don't know, especially relative to the upcoming QLS live event? That's probably a good place to start, and we can keep it simple. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I know all the secrets, clearly. Um, no, what I would say is this is a big part of this, guys. And I was just thinking about this, Chris, before I came on here, specifically about prioritizing your business, right? What we've seen from day one is the people who show up to everything, they show up to the events, they show up to their nightly calls, all that stuff, they are prioritizing their business. And the people who don't are just telling me, telling us that this isn't as important to me yet. It's just, I'm not there yet, right? And if you come to these events, What ends up happening? Yeah, the speakers are great, the coaches are great, Chris and Zach are great, the information, everybody who talked to is great. What you're missing out on is some of the most important things is like when you go out to eat with people and you're in a group and you get to know them, you get to, you get to be able to figure out what their fears are, what, what, what are they missing? Like the tiniest little nuggets that aren't even attached to the actual event is what makes these like unmissable. That's not even a word. That sounds like a Zachism, but either way.

That's perfect. Unmissable. Nick, can you write that down please?

That's perfect.

Yeah.

Write that down. So from day one, and I can say everybody on these calls, we don't miss events, we don't miss any opportunity to take in more information. You are doing yourself and the people around you a disservice.

Well, I— okay, so I have a follow-up question because I'm going to try to treat this with 6 people on as much as I can like an interview, only it's just not one person. You said 2 things, Steve. I'm gonna go back to one of them, and I don't care who answers it, but it'll bounce off of you so we can keep this rolling. And that is First of all, you said prioritize their business. Yes. But I would suggest that they prioritize their life, right? Because we don't do just deals. I wish it were that easy. We just do deals, but it's not. So here's the question for whoever. Do you think the reason they don't prioritize their life and come to the event, and I hope to spark some hope or whatever for people to come to the event in September, do you think it has anything to do with belief or are there other things stopping them from coming to the event? Because if they— here's what, let me frame this. If, if everyone thought, oh, if I go to this event, it's a life changer, like if they absolutely thought and knew and believed that, they'd be there. So I don't know, who wants to comment on that piece?

Yeah, I'll comment real quick. So there's 3 things that we have extracted from successful associates, uh, within the community. Um, number one being mindset, right? And you just, you just touched upon that. It's like, where are they at with their, with their mindset? Like Do they believe that they're business owners or do they believe they're just going to do a couple deals here and there? Right. The second one is dials, right? I mean, anybody can just make dial number one. What's important is, are you including your coach? Are you sending your calls in to your coach to get critiqued? Are you, you know, what are you doing with those dials in order to get better? And then the third one is engagement. So coming to the event is engagement, right? It's those— the people that come to the events get the most out of these events, and you see how, uh, they just, they just flourish in their business because they're hanging around people, like-minded people, and they're— they, they start thinking like they're a business owner.

Russ, you mentioned the word— Russ, you mentioned, um, dials. So I want to tease everybody with this, the listeners, but you guys don't know this either. So this morning we had our, we had our meeting about this event.

We start right away.

We just come off the other event. But what we're gonna do live this time, we haven't done it in years. We did it at ARIA in Philly in 2020, and that is live calls. Live calls in the room to sellers in the event so people can hear that. And I know that's helpful for people to hear those, that live. So I had to say that. Brian, you are shaking your head, so something's got the itch.

Yeah. By the way, I feel that we're just 2 squares away from The Brady Bunch. Just, I don't know if anyone's—

Oh yeah, nice.

On the screen, all-male version of The Brady Bunch.

Oh my goodness.

So life is a series of moments the way that I, the, the way that I view it. And coming to the, these events, like one moment can change your life. One conversation can change your life. One speaker can change your life. Like you don't necessarily have to be there. Now you, you want to be there for the entire event, but it's these little side conversations or these little, especially if you're intentional about it. I was intentional about my event. And I had a conversation, I had several conversations, but one that stood out that's going to completely change my business. You said before you asked Russell the question about prioritizing your life, that was a moment for me. And I remember who I would've never met, this person, Brett Gilliland, who coached me personally as a result of being in this community. And he said, I was at his event in Arizona. He said, prioritize your life or somebody else will prioritize it for you. And I've never forgotten that. Like, and I lived my whole life by like that, by that. And it's these little moments, these little things that you hear from people that you would not necessarily have met in your W-2 life or the life that you're, that you're in. 'Cause you're, you know, that's the, that's where you're stuck versus coming to an event like this where you're around the right people, you're around the, you're in the right room.

Mm-hmm.

You know, my grandfather used to say, Through my father, you start to hang out with shit, you start to smell like shit. And the opposite is completely true. I mean, the, all, all of us are in, are in the room. These guys have become my, you know, my, my best friends. You know, that wasn't the case 3 years earlier. I was hanging out, I was hanging around with like a completely different group of people who would've never been thinking the way that I, that I think. And it's all as a result of being in this group and coming to these events. And I'm looking forward to the next one. You gotta be there.

Brian, you said something interesting with— so 3 years ago today is what, '19? Sorry, '20.

'20.

So you had just started really with us?

Yeah, December of '19. I was probably— I probably was— my first sold was in April of 2020.

Interesting. So I'm going to come back later to paydays and I want to do disclosure here just because you have to these days. But when I talk about paydays with these guys, it doesn't mean that's going to be your result. Please don't misunderstand this. It's what they had, and the results vary on this, on this call, on this podcast. And, um, I will tell you that we're all talking about how cool the event is. I'd like someone to comment, or a couple of you guys to comment, if they do what though? Because another disclosure is I show up at the event, I leave, and I make a million dollars. No, that's not what we're saying. So can you comment on Well, I'm assuming if they hear this, they're coming. So if they're listening to this, if they're going to come to the event, what should they do to prepare? There's a thought just based on what Brian said. So anyone?

All right, I'll jump in. One of the things, Chris, you told me years ago, which obviously same thing comes out of my mouth with my students, come to these events with like, say, you know, 3 things that you're going to specifically try to get from it. The realistic side is the attraction. Why did I think of the word here, guys? What is it? The attraction? What?

The law of attraction.

Yeah, law of attraction. Law of attraction tells us that what we seek is what we'll find, right? So if you go to these events prepared, my business needs this, I need this personally, and maybe it's like you're hiring employees and I know I need to learn how to lead. If you go there with those things, I promise you, you're going to find it. You're going to get so much more out of it. But like you said, Chris, Just because you extract these things doesn't mean you don't have to go home and work on them, right? And put yourself in a position to be continually challenged and, and personal growth, right? That's what we focus on. You have to be better when you go home, but the only way you can be better is by putting these things into action. That is the most important thing. We can't just extract information and sit there with it because then we're just somebody else that just follows a group on a, on a Zoom call, right? And we don't ever take action. We just Sit there and take it in. So I think that's a huge point.

Watch a sheep.

That's it.

That's it.

We have to show up for ourselves. A lot of times we show up for other people, but we don't show up for ourselves. And that's a huge missing piece, in my opinion.

Yeah, I'll make a comment that you guys—

go ahead, Nick.

Yeah, I was going to say anyone can jump in.

I was just going to say, Steve, I would love to kind of dovetail off of that. The reason that there are a lot of people that are sitting on the sidelines is it's because, oh, it's not the right time. I'll wait until— I'll wait until this happens, or I'll wait until the market changes, and then it's better to get in. If you— I'm just taking— I was trying to restrain myself and do an exercise to let other people get involved in and to discuss. But Brian, you got involved at probably the easiest time when you could have just said after a few months, you know what? COVID.

COVID.

I'm not— I'm just— it's not right. I tried that real estate thing and it didn't work. So your commitment, and that really comes back to a belief in yourself. What I was saying, the people that are sitting on the sidelines wondering if They've been checking out like the, the sit-downs, the live trainings. They've been checking out things here or there, but they haven't made a commitment. And they're thinking about not making that commitment of not coming to the event. Oh, okay. You know, I'm not going to go through the trouble of having to fly out there and do the actual in-person event. Because there are so many unknowns, there are so many things that are happening. But I think once you make that commitment, I think things change. And Brian, you can probably attest to that. Everyone on this call can probably attest to the fact that once they made the commitment, doors started opening to them. And even like the people, Steve, you were saying, the people that you're supposed to meet, you're going to meet them. at the event. So I think the, the commitment and the belief in yourself, um, are 2 huge things when it comes to, uh, this upcoming event.

Rick, I'm looking at you, Rick, on the screen. First of all, you're going to say something, and I have a question for you.

Yeah, I was just going to say, again, it goes back to Steve when he said treating your business like a business. It's no different than a franchise. If you owned a franchise, you would make the commitment to be at the event. You know, and as far as the side discussions, yeah, we, during the event, we talk about mindset, systems, process, and it's all pretty much covered. But those side discussions, when you're talking to somebody, and none of us are any different than any other investor, you know, or any other associate in the business. But when you're talking to one of us, then that allows us to get to know you personally. Which helps us be more effective as coaches too.

Go ahead, Mike. Who's going to say something?

I want to piggyback off of Steve and Nick's point as far as taking action. And I could distinctly point out times in my life that I just sat on the sidelines and watched others take action and succeed and accomplish what I wanted. And it wasn't until then where I realized that I started to take action myself, and that was back when I first started in 2017. I told myself that I was going to find something, commit to it, put all I had into it, and I had no other choice but to succeed, right? Because my action and my work ethic is going to outperform everybody else, right? And it's going to get me to my goals. And when I started doing that, even on the littlest things, right? It doesn't have to be business, even, you know, on a personal side, maybe even on the health side, right? When you're making a few small adjustments and you're taking small steps, but you're actually, you're taking action. Um, that's when I saw the biggest growth in myself, um, and in my business. So, um, you must take action, get out to the event because you're going to get so much out of it. Um, that when you go back, it's going to help you not only in your business but in your personal life.

Yeah, I, I got to do the guarantee I always do, and then I, then I got a couple more questions for you guys. The guarantee I always, always, always do, and frankly, no one's ever come up to me and said, I need that, I need that guarantee you gave me. And that is, if you can come up to any one of us at the event, you can do it privately with a coach, you can do it with me or Nick or Zach. If you can come up to us and say, look, look us in the eye and say, this was not the best use of my time for 2, 3 days, because the VIP day is day 3. This was not the best use of my time. We will refund you whatever the heck it costs you to get there, if it's gas or if it's plane, whatever, and your hotel. And if you paid to get in the event, we will refund you. That's how clear I am. I say that every year, guys. I think you've heard me say that. So qslive.com, by the time this goes out, won't be fully populated, but you'll have enough detail to know what's going on there. Here's a thought for— I think this accounts for everyone on the screen. Just 3 years ago. Mike, you've been around for long enough, but, but success-wise, I think of Brian, I think of Rick. Rick, how long you been with us?

Just going on 2 years this coming month.

Okay.

And Steve and Mike have that beat. So I'm going to, I'm going to default that for Rusty. How about you? How long for you in the community or yours? Brian, 3 and a half.

Approaching 3.5, yes.

Okay, so let's do this. Let's go back. Let's go to, uh, for Rick and Brian, 5 years ago. 5 years ago, you had certain goals, and this piggybacks what Mike just said. Very important what Mike said. You had certain goals 5 years ago. A whole bunch of other people who are listening did too, and sadly, they're not better off. They're in the same exact freaking spot they were 5 years ago. That's a fact. Statistically, I'm talking to the whole community, right? You guys made a decision 5 years ago that made that difference. So on the— on that front, making a decision, looking back 5 years, any, any thoughts on that? Because that is the difference maker, what Mike said.

Yeah. So for me, I mean, mine started even, even beyond that where I knew I wanted to get out of my job, like, because, you know, I hated it. I hated traveling. My, you know, Will was super small and I hated being away from, from my son. And going back to the decision that I made, I was kind of, I kind of was on the path. I was really looking, I was searching for this group in hindsight, like I really was. And, you know, what, what had been stopping me the whole time was me. It was all me. And then, and then all the excuses that I put on, well, that might not work, or I, you know, I, you know, I don't know enough, or I don't have any help, or, you know, I might lose money, just, I might lose the house. Just, you know, all these, all this. I went out and went out and just tried to justify exactly how I was feeling. And in actuality, I just didn't believe in myself and I didn't think that I was capable of it. It was a lot of self-worth stuff as well. And that's why I say what stops us is us, right? And for anyone that knows me, you hear me talk about this all the time. And when you, like, taking action is great, like you got to take action, you have to do that. But I always just go back to like, what is the reason that I have? Because this hasn't been easy and no one in this room is going to say that doing this real estate business is easy because it's not. It's difficult.

Yeah.

When you have to have a reason not to quit, you have to have a reason not to quit. So whether you're doing real estate or trading stocks or whatever it is, you're doing something different than you are now. You have to have a reason not to go back to your old life. And it wasn't until I got super clear on that that things started to change for me. Because I've wanted to cash it in many times, or like, I'm not feeling it today. I don't want to do this anymore. This is too hard. Well, guess what? Sometimes your W-2 job is hard too. Do you just walk in and quit? No, no, we don't quit that, but we're just, you know, we, we won't even, we won't even try. So that's my advice to anybody, cuz that's what really got me to the point where I am now, which is every time that I've thought about cashing it in, I just always go back to the words that my son said to me, said to me, and I'm like, he's never saying that to me again. Like, I'm not ever going back to that, to that life. And then it's a fleeting moment. It's over with very, very quickly.

Hmm.

That's good, Brian. Yeah, I mean, 5 years ago, Chris, I was at the peak of me being— me bitching about literally every little thing that I could possibly bitch at. That's where I was 5 years ago, because that's when I met you guys in 2018, right? And in 2018, who did I hang out with? People who bonded with me from negativity and bitching. That's who I hung out with, and that's who I was, right? And I think it's important to know, guys, that everybody has this breaking Right? The enough is enough feeling. Now the question is, is how long do you want to live the enough is enough on the edge of the world feeling, right? Because realistically, and I'll leave it this very short, I think what it comes down to is eventually what ends up happening is the fear of the unknown and all the doubt and all the insecurities, they get outweighed by your current state, your current position, your current Unhappiness. And when you get there, you sprint. The only difference of you sprinting and not sprinting is exactly what Brian said. It's the belief and it's you, what you say to yourself inside your brain. So do not, do not sit there like Brian did for 10 years, like I did for, I think it was like 7 to 8 years, talking about, oh, big things are gonna happen because this sucks, but not do anything, right? What could you do right now? If, if you're somebody who shows up to Wicked Smart sit-downs and you have been for the last 3 years and you're just taking in information an hour at a time and doing nothing with it, enough is enough. It's time to make a change. You have to make a change because nothing changes if nothing changes. I think you just, at some point, you gotta take a leap not knowing what the result is gonna be, but you put your chips on you because that's who you should be putting your chips on.

Awesome, awesome energy. Rick, I see you saying something. I got a question for you too.

Yep.

No, I— you want to ask a question first?

Nope, I just want you to roll.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, mine is pretty much in alignment with, you know, what Steve and Brian said. You know, it was the W-2, you know, getting up there in age, and I'm looking— pensions are no longer, for the most part. And, you know, I look down the road and I say, okay, what's gonna happen either when Contracts end, and I enjoyed my job, and I can say enjoyed very soon.

Well, give some context here. We're sitting and we're filming this in April, almost May, and just 3 or 4 or 5 days ago you had a monumental, like, moment. What— talk about it, please. So you brought it up.

I gave my notice to my employer.

After how many years?

After 30-plus years.

That's a long-ass time.

Yeah. So, but, you know, I looked at it and, you know, between contract changeovers, changing companies, you know, that job security thing, and I've had a pretty secure job. But at the, at the end of the day, when I get that quote retirement age, and right now there, to me, there is no such thing as retirement doing what we do now. But, uh, I was looking at, okay, what can I do to make myself more secure for my future. And when I came across this whole group, it was— it just fit just right, and it was exactly what I was looking for. The only question in my mind is, does this work like I think it's going to work? And then, of course, working with Steve and, you know, all the coaches in the Community, tying into the Community, you know, I came to realize there is no question that this works. And it just blew up from there and became more real, more real to me.

Well, let's put the icing on the cake, okay? And again, disclosure, this is just Rick's experience. But Rick, a year ago, eh, maybe a year and 2 weeks ago, I called you 'cause Steve Myrnik sitting here with us said to me, yeah, this guy's crushing it, you gotta talk to him. He said a lot of other good things, but we don't have time. And I said, I picked up the phone and called you and said, let's work together. Now fast forward a year later, how many deals in Order of the 3 Paydays accumulated?

Uh, 4 deals accumulated, each a 6-figure deal. So $450,000.

Almost half a million in 4 deals, um, from just running at it hard. Again, that's Rick's experience. And by the way, Rick's like 2 hours from Nick and I, and our— we have had 6-figure paydays, but our average is not 6 figures. Our average is closer in the 70s somewhere, 75, 78. So Rick's 2 hours away crushing us.

It's great.

Any comments from you guys on any of this?

I was just going to say, you know, you said multiple times, and I think you said it to Brian, that, you know, the W-2 is the risk right now. In Rick and I's situation, the W-2 not necessarily was a risk because we probably would never get fired, but the risk was the mental aspect, right? For me, it was mentally—

Someone's overconfident over here.

Yeah. I mean, I could have been the worst teacher in the United States and still not get fired, right? But mentally, it was a risk, right? And that's where I was heading. I was heading towards this path of just go to work, come home. But this has changed my life considerably mentally, financially. My relationship with my family is so much better now. It's just unbelievable on how this has changed my life. life. So if you don't go to QoS, you're sadly, you are the risk now. You're risking a lot if you don't go to QoS for sure.

This whole thing is about the event, but we're not hammering the event because we don't need to. I wanted them to get to know you guys a little bit, which is pretty cool. And here's the thing, guys, I think, I forget who said the side conversations, a few of you did, but I'd ask the listener to just think of this or the viewer if you're watching this on YouTube. Think about just having a 5-minute conversation with any one of these guys, let alone VIP night and VIP day where you can hang out like literally for a couple hours and pick— I won't say pick their brain because that's like one way, but have a conversation and have a brainstorm and have some direction. Hey Rick, how did you do that? You worked for the government for 30 freaking years. How'd you do that? Like there are people I'm sure that can relate to each one of your stories. And if you're listening, by the way, go on the podcast. They've each been interviewed minimally once. if not 4 times. So some of these guys, either individually or in groups, and you can get more of their story and say, okay, that's the person I want to talk to. And to Brian or Rusty's point, whoever said it, then come to the event and go, here's my 2 or 3 people I gotta talk to. I promise you, you'll get more— as good as we do with the agenda and as good as we do with content and the speakers, you'll get more out of that than you will, uh, anything else. What else are we not telling these guys, um, amazing coaches?

I think just to keep it simple, you know, it's most of us over as human beings, we tend to overcomplicate everything. Like, okay, well, there's a bunch of people on here that have left their job. Everyone's unemployed. Assume, Rick, you will be too. But we all, I think we're all looking at that result. Like we're looking at, you know, the million dollars in 3 paydays or 10 deals or whatever it is versus, okay, what is the first? And that's daunting. Like, that's scary. Like the big redwood tree, as I say, like you gotta knock this thing down. You can't do it. Like, what's the first step? The first step for you might be coming to the event. The first step for me was having a 15-minute conversation with Chris 3 and a half years ago. That was step number one. The second step revealed itself. He helped me get to that and so on and so forth. And again, I go back to these side conversations now, you know, I'm not tooting my own horn here, but Steve, you mentioned, you know, people who come to the Wicked Smart sit down for 3 years. Well, I talked to a guy at the event. I know this changed his life. I said, hey, and I'm not going to mention his name, But I said, why do you keep coming here? Why do you keep coming here and not doing anything? And that guy signed up.

All right?

So for him, a conversation with somebody like me, and I've had those conversations with other people, that's the kind of stuff that can move the needle in your life. He didn't know that that was going to happen. He just says, well, I'm going to come to the event, right? So just the next step will reveal itself to you. Just take the first one.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And I, I'll say this, I say this for the new people because you guys get sick of hearing, I'm sure, but we, we do not and will not at the event or here today tell you guys to do things that we haven't done. All of us. Nick, on his own business in addition to Wicked Smart, has spent 6 figures on a coach. He knows how that feels like to go to sleep at night and get up in the morning and go, I gotta sprint like Rick said because this is like a franchise to me. I'm gonna— this is— I'm making it work. So we all have been there and every single one of them have done that. There's no coach in our community Not currently anyway, that has, um, not gone through the entire system and changed their life in some shape, form, or fashion. So I want to make sure I put that out there. The second thing I wrote down is this, and love you guys' opinion on this so we can maybe wrap up with this. There are 2 choices, basically. I don't think I've said this in a while for everyone listening or watching. 2 choices. Yes, come to the event. We want you to come to the event. You will have a great experience. I think we hammered that home. You— I guarantee you will. The second choice, however, and you can leave there and go, oh, this is cool. I'm going to get going. And by 24, you'll have a little bit of a business. Or you can hear this podcast and you go, you know what? That's great, but I want to get a jumpstart. And you could actually be in the community if you choose to. And I'll tell you how to chat with us, be in the community, show up at the event with some foundation. That foundation could just be skill sets. That foundation could be a deal. I don't know. I don't know you if you're listening now. But it could be a lot more of a foundation versus, I'm excited, now I gotta start, and it's end of September '23. So I'd love you guys' thoughts on that. I haven't asked that in like forever, and see what you guys think of that little— the, the difference of the 2 options.

Yeah, I can speak to that personally because I didn't go to my first event, um, until I was— what was it? So I had to have been an associate Hi6 member for at least 5 months before I went to my first event. Um, so I did come out and do an office visit because we were able to do that as a High 6 member, um, part of the package, right? But the event itself, I didn't, uh, take part in until I had a foundation, just like you said, Chris. So I went there, um, already having, uh, done certain things within my business, achieved certain things early on that— I mean, the event catapulted me to another level, right, going forward from there. So Do exactly what Chris said. I mean, if you can get a head start on this, uh, get, get things going, get things set up, um, get in the right mindset and the right, uh, mind frame, uh, for this business, um, and, and come with, you know, all open, open, open mind and just take everything in and go back and just hit the ground running even further. I mean, you're going to see a big difference in your, in your business, uh, doing it that way. I can guarantee it.

Who else wants to comment on that or anything? Quite frankly, whatever's on your mind, let's, let's get those thoughts out before we wrap up.

Yeah, let me just jump in real quick because if I don't, then, you know, I'm just going to interrupt someone. So let's just jump in. Release, like, release the fact, like, we always look at people's highlight reels, right? And we're like, and then we get like excited, but then we also get super intimidated. Like, how am I going to get there? We look at the top of Mount Everest and we're thinking about how we're going to get up there. Like, Rick, Those 4 deals he did, you think he just— somebody showed up to his house with $450,000 and gave him a bag? That's not how it works, right? It's not always so sexy to think about, like, the— like, what the actual work that was done to get there. The work. Yeah, it's the work, right? Like, like, I want you guys all to think about this, right? So Mike, he's making phone calls in his cars while he's working a crazy sales job for crazy hours. Like, you've got to do What you got to do. We got Brian calling in airports. You got Russell telling his students to go run 2 miles. So, by the time he got back, he had a couple calls that he made. I'm making up management positions so that there's less people looking at me so I can hide off and make phone calls, right? Nick's knocking on doors. Chris is sitting there calling person after person after person to do deals. If you are committed, you are ready to surrender to all of the crap that you put in your mind You will do it, but it has to start somewhere, and it starts with fundamentals, right? Russell, you can tell people more than anybody, it has— like, the people who are the best at anything master the fundamentals. And the fundamentals, at least of what we're talking about with this business, is just dialing discipline, commitment, and showing up relentlessly, right? We always say David Neres, that relentless consistency, like 2 words he put together, was one of the most impactful things I've heard from most speakers because it's, it's so practical and it is what we do on a daily basis, right? Like, Brian, you said it before about like, I've multiple times thought about packing it in. This is an easy business, but it's difficult, right? It's difficult to, to just keep showing up. But the people who keep showing up are on this podcast, and there's many other people outside of who's not on this podcast. But that's the difference, right? We all have times in our brains where we're like, Ugh, can I get to the next level? Can I continue to scale? Oh, this is challenging. And we start doubting ourselves. But you have to be able to shake that off and focus on the task in front of you. And it's just one step at a time. Nick, you know more than anybody, one step at a time.

Yeah, that's what I was going to harp on. Brian, you talked about it, but that you got to, you have to, if you're out there listening to us and you've been checking us out for months and months and some of you have been even showing up to the Make It Smart Sit Down for years and not done anything. You gotta take action. You gotta, you gotta take, you have to take at least that step, that first step, because once you take that first step, the next step is always going to be available to you. And you gotta at least believe in yourself that much that you can just take that one step. That's all you have to worry about is taking that one step. So I just think there's so many people that are either dipping their toe in the water, not sure they're ready to commit until they understand it a little bit more, or they want to get more information. If you're out there and you feel that you need to get more information before you make a decision, you've already waited too long. You already have enough information. You need to make a decision and just take that one step. Because as far as— and look, I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. This community that you're aligning yourselves with and that you're hitching your wagons to, we're the best out there that's going to actually jump in the trenches and get deals done with you and help you transform your life. And I believe, I wholeheartedly believe that.

I'm glad you said that because it's all about— it's not all about, but we're going to be there side by side with you, right? Uh, like you said, we're gonna be in the trenches on the seller side and with you, Nick, on the buyer side, right? Um, super important that, that people understand that we're going to be there, right there, side by side, no matter what. One of us. Even people in the community, right? Not necessarily the coaches, but there are people in the community that are more than happy to, to lend a hand and, and, and answer any questions or help you out.

You guys, several of you said it's hard. And I remember Steven Westner and I, a friend of all of us, uh, said— we were on a call like 2 years ago and he said, this is hard. Like, it was just the 2 of us and he was talking about his business. He was talking about entrepreneurship in general. So if you're gonna ever, ever, ever, ever start your own business, it's, it's gonna be hard. There's nothing that's gonna be easy. Many of you guys have called me with headaches, problems, challenges, and what— and whatever I said back, yeah, I did that. And here's, here's kind of how you get— like, I, I get it. And it's supposed to be hard. There's no way that the returns for this type of business are in place because everybody can do it and it's easy. Doesn't exist. You can find it, let us all know, we'll switch careers tomorrow. It doesn't exist. Um, I want to say this, and if there's any other thoughts that you guys want to add that you just— you said, I got to get that out. So remember the 2 choices? One was grab a ticket, come to the event. It's dirt cheap. It's stupid cheap. We feed you. I don't know of anyone that feeds you like we feed you. Side note, qlslive.com.

But— We don't, we don't feed you dirt. That's an important point to mention.

So if you are in the category that Mike mentioned, I mentioned that, that's, hey, you can come, great. But if not, if you're in the category that says, I want to do this and I want to get a foundation, whatever that foundation means beforehand, I'm going to give my personal email out. I don't want to hear from you unless you're serious and committed and you say, tell me about what that ramp might look like between now and September because I want to be on the ground and have a foundation Fast or slow. If you want to do that, send me a personal email. Yes, I check them. chris@smartrealestatecoach.com. So tens of thousands of people just got that. If you're committed and serious and you want to know what that ramp looks like to crush it coming into the event versus trying to crush it leaving— both are good— then send me an email. Anything that's burning, guys, that has to get out there? And if not, we can, we can wrap it up.

Yeah, I would— go ahead, Rick. Sorry, go ahead.

I was just going to say what, what Rusty just said about being in the trenches. I look back to when I started and I had my first appointment that Steve drove and met me there. We did the first appointment together. And ever since then, whether it's I need somebody on a call, you know, it may be you, Chris, and maybe Brian, because Steve got on some calls with me. So I mean, it's real. And I think that's what really changed my mindset.

Love it. Brian, you can wrap us up. You had something you wanted to say.

Yeah, just a few quick thoughts. Not knowing the result is scary, right? This is what stopped me for years is I didn't know what the outcome was going to be. But when you surround yourself with people who have done it and repeatedly, it becomes a lot less scary because you still may not know the result, but you know, like, hey, if I do X, Y, and Z, I'm going to get this result or close to it as long as I stick with it and don't give up. We talked a lot about Um, your current situation. Like, if you're unhappy in your current situation, you're unhappy in your life, right? That was pretty much all of us. That's why we're here. Like, when are you gonna— when are you going to have had enough? Like, when are you going to stop tolerating your situation? Because that's what you're doing. You're tolerating your life. If you're unhappy, you're tolerating it. You're allowing it to happen, and you're the one who can change it. So you got to take that first step. And the first step is coming to the event. Come to the event.

Love it, guys. You're awesome. I know they're gonna say the same thing I just did when they come to the event. qlslive.com. We purposely did not talk about speakers or anything. We want you to experience the family. The family is the Wicked Smart community. Once you're in it, you will be wicked smart as well. Guys, thanks a bunch. Make it an awesome week, make an awesome, uh, quarter. We'll see you soon.

Thanks, y'all.

Here, guys.

Thanks.

Thanks for listening to the Smart Real Estate Coach podcast. If you're ready to invest in yourself and take your investment To the next level, check out our 90-day Jumpstart Program by going to smartrealestatecoach.com/jump. That's smartrealestatecoach.com/jump, because now is the time to act boldly in this unprecedented market shift.