255: Journey from Teacher to CEO with Julie crocket

Julie Crockett, welcome to her Empire Builder Show.

Oh, thank you so much, Tina. I'm so excited to be here, let me tell you.

Well, I mean, we've been in each other's world for a long time now. You've been a member for four years, which is very, very exciting. And I've seen so many different iterations and growth, everything that you've done in that time, but you've been in business for 14 years, 15 years now.

Yeah, 2010, I set up the business, so. Yeah. Yes.

So you've had a lot of iterations. And so that's what I, I love to talk to members about with our member story series is how this all came about. And so you were a teacher. How did you get into property from being a teacher? Like, was that a personal interest or how did that happen?

Yeah, great question. Personal interest. I. Many, many years ago, being a single mom, I got a super statement in the mail and I thought, oh, no, like, I had such a little amount of money in there. And we kind of go into this whole, what is going to happen in old age when I've got, you know, very, very little super. And I've still got to support my kids through high school. I've still what I do all these things. And I just thought that investing would be the way forward. And that's exactly what I did. I, I grabbed that with both hands and after doing a bit of exploration, started investing in, in residential property back in 2002, actually. Yeah.

And so did that just come, like, did you read a book? Did you hear someone speak like, where did that come from? And, and thought, you know, as a single mom, because it's quite a big thing as a single mom to go, I'm going to go and start investing in property.

Yeah. Especially as I already had a mortgage as well. So. Yeah, I mean, a mortgage and two kids and. Yeah, it was a bit.

Was that back when. So I think the first, my first property. I'm trying to think of how old I am and when that. Because I bought my first one when I was 18 and I think that would have been. I graduated high school in 2001, so it would have been 2002. So that was the time when they were giving 100% loans. Right.

Yeah, I don't think I, I think you're right. It was around about that time. It was a whole lot easier to get money.

Yeah. Well, I bought three properties by the time I was 21 with 100% loans as a casual worker and a full time Student. Which is impossible now.

Yeah, it is, yeah.

We were very lucky to have that opportunity.

Yeah, there's a great message in there that if the opportunity is there and you think it makes sense and you want that, then do it. Like don't think twice. I think that for everybody it's such an important message because times like that don't necessarily come back.

Yeah, but I mean, you don't know how lucky you are until it passes sometimes though too.

Yep, very true. Yeah.

I was having this conversation with a friend the other day about our 2% fixed rate home loans that we got for a hot minute there and going. See, I didn't really like, I wasn't luxurious in that as much as what we should have.

Yeah, I think the next rate drop we get and it will come at some point. Yeah. Just gonna hear this enormous. Yippee. Totally in landscape.

Totally. Anyway, back to your story, Julie. Sorry to hijack that and go off on a bit of a digression there. So you, you started buying property while you were teaching still?

Yeah, so that's sort of that my teaching funded my. What became my passion. But to answer the first part of your question, the thing that got me started was actually my parents in their lifetime had one investment property and I could see that it worked for them and I thought, yeah, maybe I should try that. And I, I had, I didn't really understand shares at that stage. I didn't really have any other avenue and so that's why I went down the property sort of track. Yeah, yeah.

And then. So from there that was eight years until you started in the business. So what happened in that? Eight years?

Yeah, I got, I had a friend who was also a teacher and she had a huge property portfolio and we used to get together and just talk property. Other people thought we had like three heads because what are these women talking about? But we just loved it. And we do our research through term time and then come holiday time we jump on planes and we go to, oh, amazing places around Australia and we'd check out stuff and mostly we bought like we, we were just, yeah, quite chronic investors in those days. And, and so yeah, the, the, and what I did, I used my teaching income to, to source that, to fund that, to do all of my acquisition. And then I had people coming to me and saying, oh, you know, what do you, what are you doing? How are you doing it? I'd really love to do that. Can you show me how to do that? Can you help me how to do that? And so I was helping People invest. And then basically, yeah, I got to 2010 and I, I got to a significant age and I, it was like the crossroads, you know, when you hear crossroads in life. And I thought, you know, I could go on teaching for the next, you know, 10 years and it would be okay, I can do that, I enjoy it. Or I could launch into this space which is, you know, I'd never set up a business, I'd never run a business, I'd never done anything in business. But the property part of it really excited me and helping other people do that really excited me. So that's how I got into, to the business in 2010, got my real estate license and then, you know, just started helping lots of people. And it's been, it was at a time when people had no idea what a buyer's agent was. So I'm a buyer's agent, I work with investors and people would say, you're a what? And you do what? And so, yeah, it was all very new. But I love, I've since learned that actually I really love the new spaces because. Yeah, totally. So much opportunity.

Yes, I completely agree.

Yeah. So then that excites me a lot. Yeah, yeah.

And so when you first started, because I'm always interested when people go from, from employment into self employment, did you start doing the buyer's agents before you let your teaching job go or like did you have a buffer or did you cut that and then went all in? How did your transition go from, from quotes, normal life into this wonderful world of entrepreneurship?

Yes, what happened was I being a teacher, you can do that part time. So I started doing, I initially took a 12 month period off and then I had to come back into my role because one of my staff got quite, quite, very, very ill. And so, but once that's that phase finished and she was absolutely fine, thank goodness that I could then do my two days a week into teaching, two days a week and then doing business. And of course, when you're doing something half, half, that's a real challenge as well because you're constantly drawn to, you know, the things you should be doing in the teaching and the things that I need to be doing in the business role. And at that stage I had a business coach who was really down to earth and she just laid it down one day to me after I'd been doing business for about 12 months and she said, well, what are you going to do? Are you going to treat this like a hobby or are you going to get in there and do business with a Few expletives in the middle. And, and I kind of it. And it hit me that, yeah, I'd replaced my income, my teaching income with business income and now I have to make a choice. Yeah. And I just, I lost it. Literally lost it. Because that security of having especially a government employed job. Yeah, yeah, it was a private school job. But even so, like, irrespective of all of that, it, it, it's security that I'd never known any differently ever. And to let that go. Oh boy, I was a mess. Yeah. 24 hours and I, I, it tore me. And I thought this is what got me over the line. This is your one opportunity to do what you actually want to do. Yeah.

Well done. That's always a massive, massive moment in the story.

Yeah.

And so you went all in then. And so that was about 2012, 2010.

Yep. Yeah.

And then you kept being a buyer's agent until you found the online space. You didn't have any other iterations in between.

No, just buyer's agent right the way through. And then I think what got me over the line with the courses was the fact that I knew I could put a course together. I knew I had the ability to be able to, you know, generate content and, and make it meaningful and, and be able to, to do all those parts of it. And I really wanted something to diversify my income as well, like have another income stream. Because in property, yeah, it's, it can be feminine or feast, depending on interest rate rises, depending on election time, depending on like people. Property investment runs on sentiment, a lot of positive sentiment. And if there's not a lot of positive sentiment in the market, then people don't buy because they don't have to. So. Yeah. So having that diversity was really, really, again, exciting to set up. Yeah. But also to, to see it work. And it's taken some time because yet again, and I've just come to the conclusion in order to move into the course creator space, you actually have to carve out time from poor business. Yeah. To be able to make that happen. So it's a similar kind of.

Yeah, you have to do the same thing. One foot in. One foot in.

Yeah. And not as intense because I've, I've worked out, yes, I can make income from property. Being a buyer's agent, that's fine. But yeah, just now grappling with, and taking on with you know, both hands, I grip, when I grip them like that because it's taking that on board and going, yeah, I can do this as well. Yeah.

That's so good. And so you started with us in 2020.

Yes.

And then Millionaire Property Investor Program was born in 2021. How did you distill everything that you wanted to do in buyer's age? Because I know a lot of people are in this situation where they've been doing their traditional business and they've got all of their knowledge and there was probably, you know, 20 different courses you could have done around property. How did you settle on Millionaire Property Investor to start with and tell us about how, what that looks like from an offer point of view as well.

Yeah, I think what really honed that idea was the fact that I was working with a lot of women over the time that I'd set up the business. And it just, it still guts me really that so many women want to invest. They love the idea of investing, but when it comes to doing it, they find a mean and one ways where they can't do it. So, you know, I like confidence. I don't understand what I'm doing. I need to know more about property investing before I take the leap. I'm too old, I'm too young, I'm too like there were so many things that kept coming out of that and end result being, you know, if people are confused, they tend not to do it. Yeah. And then we get, of course the spin off effect of that is, you know, women that are retiring with nothing and you're kind of going, oh, it just. So yeah, I took that step to try and help women come into the space with me and their property investor program to give them the knowledge and the understanding in order to then move on into to investing.

And what was that first offer that you launched with?

Yeah, the first offer. I mean I've had as many people do.

I think as all of us.

Do iterations, you launch in with all the right things that you think you need. But there's things missing. There were still gaps in what I did. You know, I had no one to show up. I had, you know, I thought I'd have a webinar, no one show up. So I went and did an affiliate, approached someone who was a great affiliate for me and did that. So the offer was basically that it was 12 weeks, a 12 week course. It was, I've offered it at various price points. I think the first price point was 997. Yeah. And then. Yeah, basically. And that was weekly hand holding, weekly Q A, weekly, you know, sessions, all the rest of it, to try and help them as much as I could. And so, yeah, And I've had fairly mixed results with the. The affiliate group that I've used. And they have been amazing. They've been wonderful. I'll tell you this bit because this sort of breaks my heart in many ways. I. The last round that I did with them, I thought I'd offer a couple of spaces in the course. So I had about, I think six came on and purchased full price. But I. I asked if there were people who would like to join in two sponsored spots. And 14 people applied for the sponsored spots. In other words, yes, you can come in free of tight. And I got to the first. I started interviewing them. So I called them up. Please leave me a number. Yeah, I called them up. First woman, she was in her early 30s. She'd just gone through like six years worth of cancer treatment. She was like, you know, her early 30s. Yeah. And she sort of was really, financially had been smashed through. Through that and, you know, wanted just to get a foothold into understanding how she could get onto the property ladder. So I thought, okay. And then the next call I made was a woman, a woman who was living in a hotel room with her two little children and her dog who had flee. Domestic violence situation. Oh, my gosh. And after the second call, I couldn't make any more calls. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're like, okay, that's it.

Yeah, I can't do this. And then that opened up this whole other world, of course, of reality. Yeah. How many women are actually going. Yes, through all and sundry. And yet still how important that message is. Yeah. Don't get the knowledge, if that's what you need. Get the knowledge, get whatever to get into investing when you can. Yeah, yeah, that's. It's been a huge journey, that one.

And so what we touched on at the start, how lucky we were to get into property when we did. How does that compare to now if people wanting to start to buy their first investment property now?

Yeah, look, I think if we hold on to the narrative that then was easy and now is tough and now is easier and next year will be tougher and I mean, we really don't know what that means. Yeah, yeah. And I think the huge message is like, investing. And you may say the same thing. And I'll ask you the question in a minute, Tina, even though you're the one to ask me. But from my perspective, Investing back in 2002, building a portfolio, and the result that it brought me was being able to move into this business because I did have a financial backing. If all else fails People said if all else fails, you can go back to teaching. No, if all else fails, I can just sell something and I'm cash flow to the wazoo to do whatever comes next.

Yes.

So I think the message is for everybody, if you've got the capacity to, to invest in property now, now is the time you do it. Whether it's easy, whether it's hard, if you put it off, the most powerful thing you will ever, ever have is your time and your income. Yeah. And while you've got those two things, you can make an amazing difference to the outcome. You know, your retirement outcome down.

Yeah, completely.

Yeah. So would you agree, I mean, what would you say, Tina has been for you, the most powerful thing with property, your property investment journey?

I mean, I think it's exactly that, that I did when I could kind of thing. So for me, it started so young because I'm very, very close with my grandma. She's 97 now, and she was amazed when I turned 18 that I could get a loan without a man's signature. She thought that was the most incredible thing. And for her, like, I remember her still now, all those years ago, like, grabbing my face with her hands and saying, you have no idea how lucky you are. This is going to change your whole life. Your life will be. You can be an independent, strong woman. You could. Like, she was so excited by the opportunity. That to me was so normal. That to her was groundbreaking. And so I kind of saw it as my responsibility to take on this loan and do this. And when I say I bought property, my first property was in Canberra and it was $70,000 was a little apartment. My second was $50,000 was a house up in Mackay. So, like, I bought. I couldn't buy anything in Sydney, where I lived or anything like that. I would search far and wide for what I could afford next at the time. And then once I had got to a comfortable place, I was like, can I. Can I go again and do that? Until I started having children and then borrowing capacity and everything changed there. So we had to change that. But I am really glad that she, she did that for me in saying, like, now's the time, because I think had I not done that, I would have. I don't know when the time would have been right. And I talk to a lot of girlfriends of mine that if they don't have properties, that it's such a big thing in their minds. And to me, share, like, similar to you, I didn't understand shares. I was like, how can the value of A company go up and down that much, like, it just makes no sense. To me, a house was like something stable and something solid. I could see it, I could visit it, it made sense. And to me it was still. I still. Now I invest in share, I invest in all sorts of things, but to me, houses are still stable. They're still predictable. Yes, they go up and down. I've had one property that I sold seven years later and made like $10,000 and we had one, I remember we sold one of our houses and then that was just before COVID hit. And then Covid hit and it went up by a million dollars. And I was like, damn it. So, you know, you take all of that in there, but being in the game and actually having something there is like, I know my retirement will be fine because of that. So I completely agree in that, you know, you need to learn about it and educate yourself about it so that you know how accessible it can be and if it's not accessible now, what you need to do in order to make it accessible. Because I still remember you've asked me this question. Now I'm like going off on a tangent, but I remember reading the Financial Review a couple years ago when they were talking about all of property investing and it was like the percentage of people that had more than one property and then the percentage of people that had 2 and 3 and 4 plus and it was only like zero point something that had more than four and women made up like 2% of those. Like it was tiny. And so that is why I love your program. So tell us about what are you offering because I know your offer has changed a lot in the last four years. What does it look like?

Like now, just to clarify that stat, it's 0.06% of all investors own six or more properties. Wow. Yeah. And it's a tiny amount of people in, in relation to the population of Australia.

Yeah, yeah.

It's becoming more and more a thing now, which is really good because people are understanding that. Yeah, if, if I want to have a great retirement, then I've got to do other things. My income will not cut it. And. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what's changed is I've, I've rejigged, I guess, refurbished my millionaire property investor program and changed the name to Property Investor Boot Camp. And so I've done it in sort of smaller bite sized pieces because it was quite an enormous course. I basically took all my knowledge and.

Yes. Which is what a lot of people do at the start and overwhelm Everybody, Yeah.

And they can't. I had these women going, oh, look, the course is great, but wow. So anyway, I've trimmed it back and what have you. But in most recent times, I mean, last year, because I'm. I'm in the market all day every day talking to sales agents. I was having conversations with sales agents that went like, oh, Julie, I've got. I. I talked to these buyers agents and. And I'm ripping my hair out. They have no clue what they're doing. They've like, I want and half of them I won't deal with. I just don't even pick up the phone. And I thought, oh, that's really sad, but interesting. And when I dug a bit deeper, I realized that, yeah, there are more and more buyers, agents coming into the real estate industry that are not really prepared or they might know how to buy property, but they actually don't know how to work with clients. They don't know how to onboard people that don't know how the business side works. They don't know how to work with people who might be very, very nervous about being buying their very first investment property. And what we, what I do to sort of help them through that patch, you know, and so I thought, right, okay, maybe there's a course in this thing.

Spoken like a course creator.

I know. And then. And so, yeah, now I'm sort of smitten with course creation, which is like property course creation. Amazing. So jumped into basically that helping new buyer's agents to be able to become really, really, really good buyer's agents. And interestingly enough, just in the last couple of weeks, I've had conversations with some of the big players in buyer's agent not. And they're scaling. They, A lot of them are starting to scale now. They're sitting around 30 to maybe 40 deals per month, 100 plus. They haven't got the buyer's agents to be able to do that. Yeah. So I kind of went, here I am. I can train them. I can train your existing stuff. So. So I'm starting to move more and more now into that corporate space. And what makes my heart sing is the fact that I've always wanted in do in taking on this step of helping buyers agents to really make. To be an influence. To be an influence and make an impact in that sector of real estate. So I kind of went, that's happening. The opportunity is there. I just need to step in. Into that space now.

Yeah, I need to do the same thing again like you did at the beginning. See the opportunity and go after it.

Yeah. So it's like seeing a niche in your market and then finding the niche within the niche. Yeah. And then even going deeper than that. Like find the niche within the niche within the niche. Because people. When I ran. So I started to created the buyer's agent course and I thought I would put it out there. So off to one bit of a tangent. I guess that's one part of what I've done in recent times is starting to work with the bigger players in. In buyer's agency world, but also to create that first course where I thought, okay, I've got the millionaire property investor program. That's pretty much with a few more tweaks and onboarding and business sort of side of things. That's my buyer's agent course, which I then added a whole lot more to as well, and thought, okay, this time I'm going to put out Facebook ads. This time I'm going to do all the things. And I could not believe the response. Every man and his dog want to be buyer's agents because a really easy way to make money. Go figure that. But so I had my first webinar. I thought, okay, put it out there. Over a hundred people that responded and I thought, wow, I've not talked to sort of more than 10 on a webinar before, but that's okay. Yeah, cool. Probably get like 10 in, right. And on the night. So I set it up and I had my little presentation there and it was just me and I opened it up and of course, 49 people.

Amazing show up, right?

I know. I. I'm kind of going, oh, just one moment because I gotta look like I didn't have an assistant. I've got to let in like six more people and then 10. Yeah. Anyway, we got through that bit and so, yeah, basically the people. And the people who were most on board to come in were those who. Who would actually set up some kind of a buyer's agency, had no clue what they were doing and went, quick, Julie, quick. I need the course. Help me, help me, help me. Yeah, Bang.

I love the way it evolves. And one thing leads to the next thing, which leads to the next thing, which leads to the next thing.

Yeah, yeah.

So good.

Just being open, I think, is to. To all of that and not being too fearful when it all pops up and you sort of going, oh, that's the next thing.

Okay, yeah, that's it. So what advice would you give to others wanting to level up in their online.

Yeah, exactly that. I think Just, yeah, try and find that niche in, in the area that you're currently in because when you do find that niche and people want your thing, they're going to jump on it. Yeah. The greater the need. And I'm thinking of a couple of different ladies in, in your group, Tina. The need comes from a very deep personal one and it's either something to do with family and how can I address the need in my family situation with the buyer's agent course, it's all about perceived income and being able to generate income from something that people feel they will enjoy doing. So there's a lot of people at the moment in this particular point in time that are very disenchanted with their job, their career, whatever, and yeah, they're looking for something else. So if you can find and hit those pain points and solve those problems, I think you, you're on a winner for sure. Yeah. No, it doesn't make it any easier necessarily because it's all about persistence. It's all about making sure that we are looking at what has happened before and trying to adjust it to make it, you know, more relevant the next time around you present or have your webinar or whatever it is. But yeah, and I was, I was the lady who said, rather than do a live launch, Tina, you remember these words, I would rather put poke sticks in my eyes than do a live launch. And I had. Those words came back to me when I was doing the buys. You know, I was setting up to do this buyers agent live training slash webinar. And I thought, you know what, I just need to do this thing, poke the sticks in my eyes and get the hell on with it.

And was it that bad, Julie?

Well, it wasn't. The thing that I. The fear is that no one's going to turn up or I'll get.

Yeah. And look, you had a 50% show up rate.

Yeah. And so that gets you over the fear because inside you're going, oh, people turned up people.

Is that why you put it off for so long was because you were afraid no one was going to show up?

That was part of it. Yeah. And, and why do I keep persisting when you know it's probably not going to work anyway? Yeah.

Which you're not alone in that. People do that all the time.

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's a, it's a self preservation mechanism, I'm sure, where. Yes. Other than go down that track, learn not to do it and then we don't have to feel that fear. Yeah, yeah.

But then you never reach your potential.

Yeah, exactly.

Never see what you're capable of. Which is my favorite thing about business is you really get to see just what you're capable of doing.

Yeah, yeah. And I. Hats off to people who, when the chips are absolutely down and, you know, they've got nowhere else to go, but they still persist and they just dig deeper and deeper and, and deeper. Yeah. That shows you the real integrity and the character of the person.

Yeah, for sure. What is your favorite thing about being a course creator?

Yeah. Changing lives. Yeah, changing lives. 100%. And people will tell me that.

And yours is such a big change too.

Yes. Like, it's huge.

It's a huge undertaking.

Yeah. Yeah. I say that right at the very beginning. I say, you know, when they first come into the course, I'm, I'm, you know, I give everyone 100%. I. My expectations of everyone in this course is we are going to dig deep and we are going to do all of the work and we're going to, like, I just lay it on so thick because I think if we're going to make changes and people are half hearted about it, then it's not going to work for them. I want them to get the results. I want them to be successful. I tell them that I will keep working if you, if you put in the effort, I'll keep working with you forever so that you are successful in whatever, you know, whatever angle of buyer's agency you're going to do. So. Yeah. Yes. Love that.

That's dedication, Julie. And of course, I have to ask you, what's your favorite thing about being part of her empire builder?

Oh, look, I think there's lots of things actually, because you cannot be what you cannot see. So first and foremost, you know, to see you, Tina, and other women doing what you do, that brings it to reality. And I'm very much a believer of. And it's not, I don't have. It's not. How can I put this? I'll just say it. I, I really believe that if anyone else can do it, so can I do it. Because if you've got to have that level of self belief to know that when things are going great, fantastic, but when they're not, you know, that's when you know yourself and you know that you've got to just keep going. Yeah. And that is role modeled. And I think that is really important. The community is great. I think, you know, having that ability to be able to reach out to people as individuals and we kind of we all know where we're coming from. I think that's been really lovely. I think that, yeah, it's, it's getting that snapshot of and it's a bit like be your future self now. Yes, like getting that snapshot of what you were and then having that vision of what you can be and then stepping into that as if you already were.

Yeah, I love that. Which segues perfectly to my final question is where, where are you heading? What does future look like for you? Like what does that success look like?

Yeah, I've always struggled with that. What does success look like for me? I can answer the first part of that question. So yeah, definitely. I'm absolutely wanting to and will make declaration will make an impact on the real estate industry for the better, particularly in the buyer's agent sector because that people are, I'm passionate about people and helping people and, and seeing them be successful and I always say, you know, I, I, my true hope is that you are way more successful and a way better buyers agent than I am. Like and if you achieve that, you know, everyone wins. And yeah, that, that's my biggest goal at the moment and just being able to help more and more people. I love the tech side of it as well. So that, that side of it is going to be really, really exciting. Where we're heading as a country, I think that is, I'm not digressing. I'm actually still on point is that what's coming for us all in the future is incredibly exciting and the way we do business now certainly will not be the way we do business even in five years time. And how we then navigate that as business owners and how we embrace those changes and step into the tech that's coming to make the difference in our businesses. That's I think going to be the next greatest challenge for all of us.

Yeah, it's so exciting. I can't wait. Julie, we love having you part of our world and cheering you on all the way in the show notes we link to all of your programs and resources and all of the things there. But thank you so much for sharing your story.