Why Creative Finance & the 3 Paydays System Beats the Old Ways

Welcome to the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast, your source for actionable, real-life, practical investing advice. Each week we help you make a quantum leap somewhere in your business, your finances, and/or your life. Subscribe, leave a rating and review, and learn more at smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com. Okay, smart listeners, it's Chris Prefontaine, your host again with— actually, today I'm bringing you a solo cast. I'm recording this at the beginning of January, so regardless of whether this is aired early or not. I want to give you some thoughts for the new year because I'm sitting here doing some notes for a mastermind call we have coming up. And I thought, you know what, this is worth sharing and on a lot of fronts. So it's going to be a little bit— there's no rhyme or reason to my order here. I want to get some things out to you guys via this solo cast. So first of all, there were some cool things that happened in December that are worth mentioning to you as a smart listener. Because I know that every single one of you, or at least I hope, were thinking about your 2026 plans. Historically, people would do what in January? New Year's resolutions, goals, et cetera. I tend to do that back in October so that New Year's no big deal and I'm full steam ahead. But as we transitioned into January, we were giving some high fives to some people in the community with new deals, like all in the month of December with 3 payday deals, like Jessica over $55,000, Ronnie over $100,000, Rich over $119,000. Janice over 50 grand. That was a one payday deal. But my point is, those are big numbers, right, guys? I could go through our community. That was the month of December. That was some good sold activity on deals they have. We call them taken. So home goes under agreement. It's called a taken. Then they sell them with a rent to own. And and and those are the kind of numbers. So all that to say, if you've been learning, learning, learning different niches in real estate for say the past. whatever it is for you, year, 6 months, 3 years, some of you a long time. I'm going to suggest, I'm going to urge you to jump into action. I'm not so naive to think that we're the only thing that you should look at. I am biased because creative real estate allows you to operate regardless of the market, right? But whoever it is, engage for goodness sakes this year, like take action. And in doing that, set it— well, let me say this, because if you're not, it's costing you like so much money. As the market bops and weaves, people are just extracting huge amounts of money out of it by helping sellers and buyers, at least in our community. So why not that be you? When you look at our average paydays being so large, why not that? Why not you? So just a thought. Now, setting up the year would be important, right? Because here we are in the new year. Now, you could be hearing this in February or March, or you could be hearing this in January. I don't know. It doesn't matter. In your mind, please, when you hear me say new year, Just reset. Boom. Reset for 12 months. That's that. That will do it. So setting up 2026 or setting up your next 12 months, as I just alluded to, is super important. So I want you to be able to look back in December of '26, or if you're hearing this in February, in February or March, in spring of '27. Doesn't that sound crazy? In the spring of '27, I want you to look back and say, wow, I am so glad I nailed my goals and my plans. I am just on it and I'm obsessed and I'm I'm focused and I'm having fun. That's what I want you to be able to say versus, oh no, I didn't nail my goals. No, I wished I had done this. I wish, I wish, I wish, I should, I should, I should. Let's get out of that crap. Let's just make sure we're laser-focused. So, here are— I've got a list in front of me. I'm going to say 4 things, no particular order. Just, I have chicken scratch in front of me. So, one is last year or your last 12 months, right? So again, if I say year, just picture your last 12 months. Yeah. has absolutely zero to do with your 26 plan, your goals, your success. Rather, what you choose to be, like you personally, you just can't look back. What you choose to be is the important piece here. And by the way, on one of my Motivational Mondays recently, I suggested this book, and I'm sorry, I don't even have the author in front of me, but if you put this title in Amazon, you'll find it. It's called Happy Pocket Full of Money. Happy Pocket Full of Money. One of my President's Club members, small private group I coach privately right now, suggested that. And I loved it for a year-end reset. So, that's a suggestion for you in thinking about you, number one, then letting go of the past and just thinking about what you choose, who you choose to be. Okay? Number 2, at the QLS Live event, In October of '25, I struck a nerve with a comment, and so I wanted to repeat it here in this solo cast. And I want you to just, if you do nothing else from this solo cast, I want you to just go deep on this one. If you journal, great. If you don't, I'd encourage you to, and I'm happy to help you with what that might look like for you just on like a simple minute or 2 a day. Just email me, chris@smartrealestatecoach.com. For anything I say that you want help on. But it struck a nerve. So if you don't journal, maybe just get a pad of paper out and just in a quiet room, think about this. Here's what I said. You not nailing your goals, like from last year, if you didn't nail your goals and nailing them with certainty, like in predictability. So you start your year going, I know I can nail them if I just do ABC. If you didn't do it, it has nothing to do with who you are. And people go, wait, well, of course it is. No, it's not. It's 100% though about who you think you're not. So just think about that for a minute. I'm going to repeat this on many videos coming up. I think it's so important, not just for year-end. You not nailing your goals with certainty and predictability and having fun and profitability has nothing to do with who you are. It is 100% who you think you're not. So, So what is that? What is this screaming? This is screaming that your thinking, your thinking is stopping you or slowing you down at least. You know, it doesn't matter if you're brand new to real estate or if you've been doing this for several years or a whole bunch of years. I learned the hard way back during the crash that doing creative deals is much better. It's a much better path in real estate in general than let's call it the old way, getting paid once, using banks, signing personally. 3 paydays, getting paid 3 times on a deal. It's better 3 ways, not one. Money now, money over time, and money long term. And I don't care if you're in an up-down sideways market, it doesn't matter. You can and should operate with the utmost confidence. There's literally nothing I love more than helping people create systems and simple systems and processes to become massively successful with our 3 Payday System, and doing so in literally any market. And doing it geographically, literally anywhere. So if you've been learning and learning and listening and studying and not taking action, I'm telling you, after going through it myself, it's costing you tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars by not taking action on the 3 paydays the way you should be getting paid. Many of the people that were brand new, just like you, that joined our community have fast-tracked their startup. Now, I mean, wouldn't that be ideal? Yeah. If you said, okay, should I go fast or slow? Should I take action now or later? It's costing you too much money to wait. Each one of you are at a point in your life, I'm sure, where you want things to be easier. You want things to be better for you and your family. You probably realize that you not only want more, but you deserve more in this life. So, to be able to give your family everything they want, build a legacy for you personally too, and to have time freedom to start enjoying life, frankly, whatever else you're seeking. And for some of you, now's the time, for example, to just focus on security. Maybe it's building a big solid bank account for retirement. We take these things super, super seriously, and it's my life's biggest reward to help you achieve them. I want to give you a free discovery session with our team. It's free. It's 15 or 20 minutes. You have zero to lose and everything to gain. And to understand how you might fit into the 3 Payday System that we've done now in over 80 markets as of this filming, go to smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com. Smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/discovery for a free call with our team. smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/discovery. Because it's not whether or not you can do it or whether or not you fit. You can do it. It's whether or not you'll take action and do what it takes. And we can guide you through that process. smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/discovery. We'll see you soon. Now, because You're never going to rise above the stories you tell yourself. I invite you to be super conscious of what's being exposed to you. And I'm talking news, media, social media, people, things in the background. Like, be super conscious of that because that's influencing the stories you tell yourself. And so is the past. For example, if I let The 2008 crash influenced me, which I did, by the way. I'm human like you. And coming out of the crash for 4 freaking years, I was in my head about the crash. And so because of that, I was telling myself stories, right? Without knowing it consciously, but I was. So how can you change your thinking without dwelling on the negative there? How do you change it then? Well, exposure. I used that word a little bit earlier. Like, association matters, guys. I don't care how you look at it. You can't doubt this. Your exposure to some of the things I alluded to, like people, events, things you listen to, things you read, et cetera, it matters way more than you think, way more than I think. I got to remind myself this all the time. So for example, you being around a community, it doesn't have to be ours. Again, I'm biased, but please understand this is not me pitching you to come in our community. It's your choice. There are a crapload of nice solid communities out there. Pick one. But don't not pick one. Don't not take action on this. Like our apprentice program is a group coaching and our associate levels are more one-on-one. Okay? Those are different experiences, right? Those are different exposures. And the people in those that are having success, so those 4 people or 5, whatever it is that I mentioned, had deals. Guess what? They're not smarter. They don't look better. They're not more talented. And I'm sorry to say, I'm not downgrading them, but than you. They're not. They just chose a different experience. They just chose a different exposure. They just chose a different association. Super important. Okay. So that's 2. Let's see here. Number 3. Ideally, in the next 12 months, set up more routines for yourself that are going to be in alignment with and support your goals and plans. Now, why do I say that? Because this is like not a new thing, right? Well, Because I was going through my routines. My mother-in-law is going through a tough time right now. Therefore, we're going through a tough time right now. And during that, I thought, man, my routines are what keep my head from being all boggled, right? Because routines help us with clarity. They help us with focus. They help us with simplifying, right? Because you don't have to think. If you have a routine, you're not thinking about it and what to do, right? Do you have to think about brushing your teeth? Do you have to think about taking a shower? You don't have to think. Do you have to think about eating? No. Why? It's a routine, right? I know that's a ridiculously simple example, but the routines will literally reduce the amount of decisions that you make that clog your brain and clog your progress, right? So for example, we hear that my mother-in-law falls, has to go to the hospital, and we've got to go there. Well, Okay, so my head can spin out of control for an hour or 2, and I know this is only one little example, or I can go through my routines and then close that chamber door, so to speak, close that door and go to the next thing, which is go to help her, right? That's why I'm giving you a simple example, but that's how life is, right? You're going to have all these interruptions. Maybe not as bad as that, but you're going to have interruptions. So why not have routines to just simplify that? Let's see, number 4 here. Um, I mentioned earlier, I said if you didn't nail your plans and goals, there was a reason I said that. If you watch all my videos, that would be tough, but if you did, you probably heard me talk about plans versus goals. Now, why do I talk about that? Because every single In the Trenches boot camp we have here, and I'll give you some links so you can go check out what that means if you're not familiar, because they're super powerful. In fact, the biggest thing, the best thing, the most profitable and helpful thing we've done for students like you than that we've ever done. And I've been at this 30— this is my 35th year coming up. So what do I mean by plans versus goals? Well, I say to everybody in the room, how many people set goals last year and '25? And they'll go, yeah, yeah, me. I set it. Okay, great. How many people nailed it with certainty? No hands. Why? Or maybe one or two hands. Why? Because it was a nice warm fuzzy, that would be cool goal. But it's not a, here's my plan. I want help. I want accountability. I want predictability. I want to nail this and I'm not turning back. That's different, isn't it? Doesn't it feel different? And I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I'm not saying if you do that plan instead of the goal, you're going to— no, I'm just saying to do that, it's going to make your journey a little bit more predictable. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. What is actually? And actually, you need, we need, we all need challenges and curveballs to make us stronger. Welcome them. And then if you're in our community anyway, or whatever other community, then go to your coach or your mentor or me if you're in our community and say, hey, I'm dealing with this. What next? Let me give you an example. I mentioned earlier President's Club, right? President's Club is this higher-level group. It's not advertised. You won't find it anywhere on the site, so I'll explain it. We have associate levels, Starter, Immersion, and High 6. We always have. I think that goes back to 2015, maybe in that range, very successful. But every now and then I'll start a private club with those that are real serious and committed. And this President's Club was started March of '25. There's only 5 people in it. I said, I'm going to take 5 people. I reached out and handpicked 4, and one person asked me if they could apply to be in it. In that group, back to my point, there are challenges and curveballs every single day. The difference is I get to hear about them. Because I coach them personally. And every single time, do you think it's about only a deal? No. In fact, 90% of the questions I get from that group are not deal-related. Their mindset, lifestyle, health, those curveballs, like I mentioned, hey, my mother-in-law fell, I had to do this, this. Okay. They're those curveballs that you are going to have this year. Sorry to say it. You're going to have those challenges, right? It's how fast can you get through them with perhaps someone that's already gone through them? Most of the time they'll hit me and I'll say, yeah, okay, I've dealt with this before. Here's what I did. Or, you know what? That's interesting. Let me ask so-and-so in my dream team, my dream team, my coaches, my mentors. I just reach out to them. And sometimes it means hooking them up with them for a private call. It happens a lot. There was a person in President's Club this year that I sent to my personal naturopath that I've had for 20, let me think, 21 years now. There was a person in Presidents Club that I connected with Peter Tan, the founder, and he's since exited of Snap Fitness, one of the largest fitness brands that existed. Like I hooked them up with him with a blink because these are people that I have relationships with. So I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but I am saying when you're around the right people, to my other 3 points I gave you, It becomes easier and more predictable. Okay? So just a thought. Now let me simplify this because I gave you a lot. As you go through the next 12 months and as I wrap up here, think about some of these other little things. Like, what can you— let me ask 2 different questions here. What's— and they're going to be opposite ends of the spectrum. So one is, what is the one thing? Like if I said to you, look, you own, you You're the owner of your business. You're the president, CEO, treasurer, second, you're everything. You're just starting out and you want to do, you want to embark on this journey of 3 paydays and you want to have success. Clearly you wouldn't do it. A few things to think about. What's, if I said to you only had one thing you could do, like you can't do anything else, like I will allow you to do one thing. What's the one thing you could do in '26 that would absolutely raise the bar, that would actually absolutely move the needle more for you? You know it would, you just haven't done it. And again, it might not be real estate related, it might be personal related. Okay, second question on that gut check is, what's the one thing that you're going to carve out in 2026 or the next 12 months? You're going to stop doing it because it's not always, I always talk about stacking, right? You stack these little pieces, you keep learning, you keep tweaking, but sometimes it's what can I get rid of? It's clogging the The path. Think about that, guys. And last but not least, as I wrap up, is now with all that that I said, if you knew, you absolutely knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that success was guaranteed for you personally, okay? And it was 6 months away. What would you do differently? Think about it. What would you do differently if you knew it was guaranteed? Because I, I rack my brain on this. I talk to my wife Kim about this all the time because why don't people, and you'd be, some of you are in this batch, why don't people, she'll ask me, if they have a job they don't love and it's strapping them and it's keeping them away from their kids and their spouse, why don't they just take action and go do deals? Because she looks at it as like second nature, right? When we're talking like, yeah, just go do 5 deals. Like if we have a goal we want to go to, she'll be like, hey, can we go create like 2 or 3 more deals and that'll fund that goal? Like just, this is how we, this is how she thinks, right? Because it's been around real estate for 35 years. So for you, I think the only thing stopping you is you for sure. And the only thing, because some of the earlier points I gave you, but also if you just kind of switch that mindset and go, all right, all right, guaranteed I can nail this in 6 months if I had the right help, the right exposure, the right mindset, the right plan versus goal. If I have all that and I know it's guaranteed in 6 months, here's the question. What would you do differently? Like, how would you act and behave And go at this differently? I don't know. Think about that, guys. I appreciate you hanging with me for this solo cast. I love doing them. I would, however, love your feedback. So, comment, rate the podcast, share the podcast with someone because I want to affect as many people as I can. And quite frankly, if I affect a dozen of you instead of tens of thousands, I would feel like that's a win. I did mention some things throughout the solo cast. that I should give you. So for example, I mentioned apprentice experience and associate experience. I mentioned those words. So check out the apprentice program, which by far is one of the best things we've done combined with the Youth in the Trenches bootcamp. Go to 3, the number 3, 3paydaysapprentice.com, 3, numeric 3, paydaysapprentice.com, and use the coupon code podcast. It'll give you a discount on that program. I'll tell you, sneak peek, it's like, I don't know, $11,000, $12,000 worth of stuff for under $2,000. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy. If you'd like to just kind of, hey, I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm new to the podcast, or I've been listening to you for a while and I think it's time to take action, I'd like to kind of have an exploratory or a discovery call with your team, go to smartrealestatecoach.com/action. Podcast. So smartrealestatecoach.com/actionpodcast. Now, I would hope that every single one of you listening has gone through my Real Estate on Your Terms book as well as the— there's 4, but the 2 I'd like you to review if you're newer to us is the Real Estate on Your Terms Revised Edition as well as the Deal Structure Overtime. To get those totally free, don't go to Amazon. Free, free, free. Go to 3paydaysbook.com. You'll get them for free. No credit card for shipping like those crap free offers that make you put a credit card in. That's not ours. Ours is free. 3, the number 3, paydaysbooks.com/podcast. All right, guys, I hope that was helpful again. But your feedback and your rating will help me pull more stuff together for you guys that you think will help you in your next 12-month journey. Let me know what that might be. Until then, see you next week on the next smart episode in Masterclass with SmartRealEstateCoach.com. Make it a great week. 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