68: Knowing Isn't Doing With Rod Santomassimo

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This is Real Estate Investing Live from New York with James Nelson, the principal and head of Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group. In this program, you'll learn about the world of commercial real estate and find out why it's one of the largest investment opportunities in New York and around the world. Now here is your host, James Nelson.

Welcome to show number 68 of real estate Investing Live from New York. This is your host, James Nelson. I'm principal and head of Tri State Investment Sales at Avison Young. And thank you as always for tuning in. It means so much to me. Please keep the comments coming and starting to get some questions through LinkedIn as well. You can find me at James Nelson NYC and want to be able to answer some of those questions on this show as well. But for this week and before I introduce today's guest, let you know that we're going to have a quick public service announcement from Jay Ackerman at the Real Estate Board in New York on a very important topic, which is getting out and voting. So stay tuned for that, especially for all those of you listening who are New Yorkers. And then after that, we're going to have a great interview. And back with us is Rod Santo, Massimo. He's a real friend, mentor and coach of mine. And we've had some great speakers on the show, investors who've talked about their stories. But the title of Rod's book, latest book, knowing isn't doing building the business and life you desire, I think is really fitting because you can't have one without the other. We're teaching you a lot of great things here, how to be a successful investor. But Rod talks about how to put those thoughts into action. And so I thought it would be a real treat for you all to hear. And he's talking about his book through the eyes of an investor. He has a very successful coaching practice, coaching, working with real estate brokers. I'm one of his clients. But this message he has is going to apply to all of you. So we're going to have a quick word from Jay at REBNY and then a word from our sponsors and then back for that interview with Rod. Thank you again.

And before we begin the show for today, I have a very important message for you all and a guest with us, Jay Ackerman from the Real Estate Board of New York is here to talk to you all about some important dates coming up and some elections. And I'm very passionate about this. It is a privilege, a constitutional right for you to vote and Hear your voice heard. So. So, Jay, thank you for joining us today. Please let our audience know. And again, I know we're speaking specifically to New York. We have a global audience. But for those of you listening here who are New Yorkers, Jay, let us know about some of the important dates coming up so we can help get the vote out.

Absolutely. And great to be here with you, James. And echoing what you mentioned a little bit ago, this is something that we care about very much, too. It's something we're very passionate about and also something we're very eager to get everyone who can engaged and involved as best we can. So the upcoming election cycle has a number of different dates that are very important if you'd like to participate and get involved. Our first one that comes up is as early as February 14th. New York State has changed the deadline registration to change your party affiliation, and that deadline is on February 14th. So if there is anyone out there in the audience who's registered at a different party but would like to participate in a different district that you may or may not have a party that represents your current party that you're registered for, you have the ability to go online and change your party affiliation up until February 14th. It's really easy to check. It's really easy to follow. And the next one to actually register in the event that you're not registered to vote in New York State or New York City is May 28th. So there's plenty of time to do that. But again, we strongly encourage everyone to do it as quickly as you can because it's a very short process. It's a very quick process. It's all able to be done online. And finally, we have the most important dates, which are June 22nd. That's the actual primary election. And there's a lot of different seats that are gonna be up for election citywide on that date. And then finally, on November 2nd, we have the general election that will decide our new mayor and our new city council going into 2022.

Wonderful. Yeah. Thank you for this call to action. I know for many of us, sometimes we wait until the general election, but a lot of these races are decided in the primary, so very important that people get involved early in the process. So, Jay, if someone does want to, whether it's change their party affiliation for this year's elections or if they want to register to vote, how do they go about doing that?

So it's a really simple process. Usually you can find it just at the Board of Elections websites.

That's.

You could start@nycvatersearch.com that's how you can check if you're actually registered to vote, just in the event that you've moved and maybe you have a different address or if you'd like to just check your registration registration status altogether. The other site then that you follow is actually at the DMV's website. And this is in the past it was relatively difficult to actually register to vote because you had to mail it in. You had to fill out a form on paper or actually turn it into the Board of Elections, depending on your borough. But Governor Cuomo has allowed members to change the party registration or the registration or register to vote in general just by going to voter red.dmv.ny.gov that's voter reg.dmv.ny.gov and you'll have a form there that only asks for your New York State driver's license. The last four digits are your Social Security, your current zip code, an email address that you'll create an account for, and then all you have to do is just fill out your address, your gender information, date of birth, and then you'll be registered to vote. All done online.

Wonderful. And last question before we go. We have a very important mayoral election that's coming up. How can our listeners find out about the candidates? I know you've been hosting forums, I know the 92nd Street Y has had many of the candidates come and speak. But if our listeners want to learn about the various candidates and their platforms, where would they go to find more information on that?

Well, so there's a number of different websites from candidate to candidate. So if anyone know, depending on what district you live in, my first suggestion would be to find out which council district you reside in. Look up the council district, find who's running in that seats, and then once you find the name of that person, most of them have websites up and running and ready to go. But if you'd like to learn more, depending on where you live, if you live in New York State, particularly New York City, REBNY is going to be hosting a number of different candidate forums in the future with candidates who agree to participate. This is all nonpartisan. We're happy to welcome everyone and we'd like everyone to attend on a candidate level if they'd like to. But we'll be releasing that correspondence as soon as we get those events scheduled. And those will be coming up around the springtime, probably around like March and April.

Perfect. Jay, thank you for shedding light on this very important topic in These dates. And again, February 14th is coming up very quickly if you do want to change affiliation, if you want to be eligible to vote in the primaries. And thank you again for everything that you all are doing for New York and to get us back on track. And now for today's spotlight. I'm thrilled to have back with us my friend, my mentor and coach, Rod Santomssimo, who is a best selling author, speaker and consultant. He's also the founder of the Massimo Group. The mission of the Massimo Group is to assist independent contractors, solopreneurs and small business owners in transforming their businesses and ultimately their lives. Rod is a best selling author on Amazon, having written Brokers who Dominate, Teams who Dominate, which I was fortunate enough to be included in. And his latest hit book, Knowing Isn't Doing, which is going to be the topic of today's show. I thought you all have benefited so much from hearing many stories from successful investors, but without having the right plan and how to go about your business teaching you these things, or to quote Rod's book, Knowing Isn't Doing. So, Rod, welcome back. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Hey buddy. I'm always thrilled to spend time with you, either on a podcast or over a glass of wine. So, James, it's my honor, my privilege. Thanks for having me.

Wonderful. So, Rod, maybe tell us why you wrote this book and what makes you qualified to be the author of it?

Well, I'm qualified to be the author because I lived it. It's basically every lesson I've learned in the last 30 plus years of doing what I've been doing, doing. But really the last 12 years of working with individuals like yourself and seeing why some people really excel where others struggle. So, and I will share with you, James, my sales team was flabbergasted when they read the draft. I said, what the hell are you doing giving away all these methods and approaches to making a living? Right? Isn't that we do we try to sell this stuff? So I said, boys, read the title, read the title. That was the essence, James. It's so easy. Look, knowledge is so powerful to a point, right? Someone. I'm not, I'm not a gun guy, I'm not. But someone said knowledge is like ammo. What are you more afraid of, the ammo or the trigger? Well, for me it's the trigger, right? It just is. So this is doing the action, the activity that matters the most. And so that's why I wrote the book. So people can just understand and give them a game plan, do this do this, do this.

It's amazing how again we're going to do this podcast and thousands of people are listening to it and I wish for all of their benefits that every single person is going to take this to heart and they're going to execute on this. The reality is, look, people get busy and look, if they hear one good thing today and they go and they act on it, great. But a lot of the brilliance of what you've done is to create a program that will serve you over time. On one hand, it is simple, your guidance, it is step by step, but it is also hard work to follow through. But yes, the reality is you can in essence give away all the trade secrets and at the end of the day there's only few people who actually do it. And those inevitably are the successful ones. And whether you're a Tony Robbins fan talking about taking massive action or I'm reading Don Miller's book, who you were kind enough to introduce me to his teachings and he's talking today about the key attribute for successful people is their ability to take action. He said there's not just one successful type of person. You might think maybe it's that, you know, type a hard charging leader. But sometimes they can be very quiet. But what they have in common is this propensity for action. So maybe, maybe talk a little bit about that.

Sure. And look, one thing we do in our, our coaching program, we work with clients. We actually have everyone go through a natural behavior assessment. So you know, you can be a top, top producer, you can be the best investor, but doesn't mean you're all wired the same. In fact, they rarely are. And there are some attributes and national behaviors to those top producers. There are, that's a fact. There are tendencies, not absolutes. Right. So you look at your top investors, what are their natural behavior tendencies? I would assume that they probably are based on my understanding and my experience of thousands of work with thousands of people. They probably tend to be more assertive. They do, they have a goal, they're oriented, driven, they want to get things done. And I'm talking about the one time investor at one asset. That's not what we're talking about. The professional investor. It could be a private owner, but still they will tend to have those desires. Now there are other things besides. But besides James, and we'll get into this, but niftily other things. If you're saying I'm not wired, it doesn't matter. There's definite things you can do to become the premier investor in Your market, the premium broker in your market, the premier appraiser, engineer, whatever it is. There are certain things that you can do that we're going to talk about.

I like that a lot. I really appreciate how you put that. And I think it's helpful for this podcast audience to know because you run a very successful coaching practice where you coach real estate brokers. Again, I'm a client and a long standing one. I've certainly found the benefits of coaching because if it's just kind of me in my head, I have tendency to wander off. I mean, what I love about the coaching is that there's a plan, there's accountability and to check in. But to your point, this doesn't just, what you're talking about in this book doesn't just apply to brokers. It applies to investors, it applies to people who want to start their business. I mean, these are really universal principles, wouldn't you say?

Oh, no doubt. Because I know we've knock on wood and fortunate. And it was my vision to get this thing beyond commercial brokers just because I felt it would apply beyond that. So I gave a quick story. We're currently working with this indicator, right? An individual who's, who's, who's with our company, who's going out and going out and try to procure funds for his various investments that he's offering to the marketplace. The tools are exact same in prospecting for money as it is for prospecting for a tenant to go to your building or, or owner to sell their asset. It's the same exact process. It's the same exact, well, equation. And we'll get into what the equation is. And when he realized it, he said, he said to us, my goodness, I'm so much more productive and I'm getting the deals I want to get, which by the way, any investor, that is the goal, right, to get the deals you want to get those. That's, that's the case. So James, should we share some of these things that professors should be asking us?

My wheels are already turning. I'm trying to stay the course here. But I've got to say that example that you just gave, and I hope people are really listening because that building of the audience and a lot of what we talked about on the show is how do you raise capital? How do you build an audience? How do you get credibility? And it really made me also think about some of the guests that we've had on this show. And look, Rod, we've got an incredible following on the show. We've had over 115,000 downloads now. So luckily our network, if you're on real estate investing live from New York, just by showing up, you're gonna get a lot of downloads. But there are standout guests who, yes, have an incredible story, but they have their own audiences as well. And I've been amazed to see that how some of my guests have actually run with and they've posted it and they have their own way of really being top of mind and really establishing their own brand as a best in class developer or residential operator. So I don't want to go too far astray, but we are going to come back at the end of the show if it is okay with you. I want to talk about the presence pyramid that has been so helpful in my career and I'd love for you to talk a little bit about how that can help investors as they grow their business. But before we get to it, very early on in your book, you talk about the importance of building wealth, not income. And you know, for a lot of our listeners, you know, maybe they're thinking a successful real estate investment means you double your money and then you go out and you try to do it again. But for you talk about why building wealth is essential for any business.

Well, certainly if you're investing in real estate, hopefully you're not doing it for active income, right? Because it's not going to be. You never know what happens. Heck, a pandemic hit your city and all the income's gone. Right? So if you're investing this, obviously you're trying to build wealth. And look, James, I'm a little lucky, I guess, that my wife is a former cpa. And so every time I run into her office and I say to her, honey, look how much money we generate this month in revenue, she looks at me and she says, what the hell does that matter? And she's all right, it doesn't matter. What matters is some people think it matters is what, how much you make. Right now I'm going to go one level deeper and say no. In fact, we're coaching our clients now. Tell me what your savings goal is for the year. Because if you have a savings goal, not an income goal, but a true savings goal, then you start to do things differently. You do. And that's why this idea of wealth margin, freedom, doing what you want, saying no. So your audience has an opportunity of two assets. Guess what? They can say no to one that's so attracted to everybody else because they're in a wealth position, they have more Margin, they have more freedom. Saying no to anything in your life is a very powerful thing because you don't have to. And so it's all about wealth. And I think one of the least valued vendors, investors, think of them as vendors. I get that influencer circle of proprietors you have in your life, without a doubt, is going to be your accountant. He or she just is. Some of you have accountants, that's great. They help you do your taxes. You know, I just, by the grace of God, I was referred to a different kind of person who said, yeah, I'm an accountant, but I'm more of a tax strategist. And I saw my wealth not double, but truly more than quadruple when I realized, oh, I could do that. Oh, there's that program and this program and I could change these different companies. And by the way, any investor can do this. I can change these different companies around. And before I knew it, I mean, not only was I making a hell of a lot more money for my company, but more importantly, I was saving and then investing a hell of a lot more money because of the right tax strategies. And we dive into that in the book. In fact, it's a bonus section in the book that you get when you buy the book about what are the right tax strategies to truly create wealth. If you don't appreciate what's available in the United States election or not, I'm sorry, most of these things are still going to be around. It's incredible what we can all do with the money we save.

Well, that was really great to hear and I know it sounds like an obvious question, but I think again, the depth and the way that you look at that and what defines success is very helpful. So I think this next question, and for those of our listeners who they've already, maybe they're still holding down a full time job, they've made their first investment on the side, maybe a second. It's getting to the point where, okay, we're ready. We want to jump off. This is a full time thing. I'm passionate about it. You have in your book the five essentials of any business. So you talk about the five divisions of ME Incorporated. So for someone thinking about going full time becoming a real estate investor, what are the five essential pieces of their business that they need to establish?

Okay, let's say you have a full time job. By the way, this doesn't matter if you're an independent, contract listening or it doesn't matter. Right. So most solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, small business owners, independent Contractors, where they fail is really that that endeavor becomes more than us. Nothing but work. That's all it is, it's work. It's not a career, it's not a business. So we found and we press that everyone, everyone should say, you know what, I'm the CEO and I'm going to run my business. And once you're the CEO and every company from Amazon to Joe, whoa, every company has five divisions and those five divisions are really straightforward, right? So you have sales, you know, you have to produce revenue. So if you're an investor, you're, you're accumulating assets, right? You have marketing. So how are you marking either those assets for a lease to get some rents, or you're marking yourself to other potential buyers that you, you're, you're the quality person to buy their asset. Sales, marketing, finance, I think that's self explanatory, but for a lot of you. Are you running, I just talked about it. Are you truly running your financial health every single week, really exploring it? I mean, I sit down and I explore my financial position every single week just because I need to know, okay, so now I got operations. If you can go out and start investing, how are you going to, where's the process? Right, and the process is huge, but we'll get into that later where the process is, how are you actually going out, finding, operating, securing, where it's going to be. These assets, the operations. And the last slide that most people just chuckle at is of course, every opera, every company, hr. Now you may say, I don't have any employees, I don't have any independent contractors. Well, if you're an investor, you probably do. Probably a maintenance man, maybe a leasing agent, you know, and the like. But are you developing yourself? Most people fail there. They won't improve themselves, they'll just take, I'm good, I'm not coachable. Well, if you're not coachable, as we say, you better get comfortable because that's what you're going to be. So sales, marketing, operations, finance and hr. If you break it down to everything you do and run it like a company, you're just going to have substantially, exponentially, exponentially greater results.

That makes so much sense. And I want to talk a little bit more about that last piece because the way you've always taught me about building a team and building a business is I'm really making an investment in myself and looking at that return on investment. So for those looking to start off, they might just say, well, hey, I got to run this On a shoestring. So I'm going to do it all on my own. But, you know, you talk about if you don't have an assistant, well, guess what? You are the assistant. So maybe talk about delegating, maybe finding help. I mean, maybe it's even getting an NYU student right now who would love the experience to work for an investor, to help underwrite, to help go find opportunities. But how important it is to build from the very start.

Yeah. And I, you know that that's a famous line from a book sales playbook called if you're. You don't have an admin, you are one. Which is really so true. But look, if the fact is, if you, you can do something better and faster than somebody else, and this, this is just the way it works, it's not going to make you wealthier and just the way it is, because, for example, I'm really good at Excel. I am. I'm really good at Excel. But now I can pay someone In Mexico, frankly, $3 an hour, do really good Excel spreadsheets. I can. It's out there. You ask where? Just go to upwork.com that's probably one of the main worldwide, independent, you know, work freelance sites. Upwork.com I built my company using freelancers across the globe doing work that I didn't want to do, didn't know how to do. They did it better and they did it cheaper. So, yeah, if you can get it for free, there are a lot of people right now, they're willing to do these for free. I remember when I was in college, I went around. I had no idea what it was, James, but some broker said, rod, I'm going to pay you like five bucks an hour. I know it was. And all I want you to do is walk around the city and knock on doors and ask them about their lease and how much longer they go. That's all I want you to do. I didn't know what I was doing, but guess what? I made a couple hundred bucks. And the broker, you know, he probably made hundreds of thousands of dollars on the information I gave to him. Just what it is. So there are definitely people out there. I just don't everything. There's a great book by a gentleman named Dan Sullivan who runs a company called Strategic Coach. But here's the theme that was the most important thing he would always tell his audience. It's not the how, it's the who. Because most of us think of that, right? You think something. How am I going to do this? How am I Going to do this? How am I going to do this? Instead you think, who's going to do this? For me, things start to change. Things that crystallize, clarify confidently. So think of the who, not the how, and you'll be moving in the right direction.

It's great advice. So, you know, I know we're already a little bit into 2021, but I did want to talk to you about goal setting because it's so crucial to keeping focus, to really reach, continue to push ourselves. So you have this incredible workbook. You refer a lot to goals in your book, but one of the worksheets that I fill out every year is the seven days to your best CRE year yet. So maybe if you could just walk our audience through what goes into a good goal set, and then we can talk a little bit about the accountability to make sure that these things happen.

Yeah. And being that this podcast is in early 2021 and early February, we're recording this, I would always ask people, how you doing against your goals? Now it's we're a month in, and people go, I didn't make my goals, really. But look, even if you're an investor, there are certain things you should do. Number one, you should reflect. First thing you should always do is review on what you did, both qualitatively. You know, maybe it's a personnel decision, life decisions, and quantitatively looking back at deals you made or didn't made, won or did not win, and why. Right. Look at the financial aspects of what you did. So that initial review that says a review of quantitative and qualitative aspects is the most important thing in this journey of what you should do in goal setting, because that's the basis of everything. And then you reflect and you ask the key questions, okay, what worked? Why did it work? What did I do? What didn't work? What didn't meet my expectations? Why didn't meet my expectations? And the problem is, you can't blame everything on the pandemic. That's why I see it as the problem. And everyone's saying, well, it was the pandemic's fault. No, it wasn't. Because I know hundreds of people, if not thousands, who had their best year ever in 2020 wasn't because of the pandemic. Now, don't get me wrong, New York investor pandemic had a lot to do. What was going on? 100%. Yes, but. So be honest, you know, reflect. And then once you do that, now you can start repositioning, Repositioning on things you Want to get done moving forward. Maybe it's financial, maybe it's personal. Whatever your goals will be, just make sure that I can. And you can measure them, but if you can't measure them, for example, if you said, I'm going to make more offers for apartment for investment assets next year, I know what the hell that means. What does more mean? I have no idea. You don't. You don't know. So how about you say instead, I'm going to make sure that I make at least three offers a month and secure a minimum of three to four new assets in 2021. Maybe. If that's your goal, again, use your own numbers, but quantify where you are so I can measure it. So I can't measure it. You're kidding yourself. You're going by gut. Nothing but works by gut. Except for my wife's intuition, but nothing else I know works on gut. So now we're at. Right? We reviewed, we reflect it, we start to refine. Sorry, reposition what I want to do, then refine it, Set the metrics, what I want to do, and finally just accept it and say, now I'm set to go for it, refined it, and now you do it. So again, but we didn't talk about James, and I don't talk about in the seven days, which I've done that for years now. But what I always go back to is why? Right? So, investors. Why do you want to risk the capital for the potential high return? Right. Why? Well, you're saying because I get a greater return. Okay, so what? Well, then I get more cash. Okay, so what? Then I get, like you said, Rod. Then I become wealthier. Okay, so what? Right now, if you're fortunate enough to be in a position of wealth, and I'm saying I am or I'm not, I can tell you I have a hell of a lot more money today than I did 10 years ago. I do. Does that mean all your troubles go away? No, they don't. They absolutely don't. So just understand. I mean, if you don't understand why and every cause, like, for example, James, when I walk into my office, the first room is a big whiteboard. And that is my goal for 2021. The one big thing I want to do in 2020 is sitting there. So I look at it every day when I walk in, and when I go out and turn up the lights, I got to stare at it again. Did I make progress towards that goal today? Yes or no? So, because that's my why, that's my why? So I'm not going to put you on the spot, James, but everyone has seen that, why they're trying to achieve certain goals, because without it, it's just a number.

I'm a big fan of Simon Sinek as well, and I'm sure people have seen the power of why and really getting to the essence and what is behind this. And it is a challenging exercise to really get at the root of this and sometimes even ask myself. I'm doing this show and it started as a passion project and I wanted to help people and I wanted to get people involved because I think commercial real estate investing is so exciting and yet there's very few places where you can learn to do this. So, I mean, I don't. My. Why? I don't know if that's compelling enough for you, if that makes sense. Now, sure, there's a lot of benefits that I get out of the show. I meet a lot of interesting people. It certainly helps my brokerage business. But that was not what I set out when I started recording this show to do more real estate deals. It was really to try to put this out there to help people. So I don't know. And sometimes getting to that why can be very challenging for people. So if you can, you know, based on what I just told you, does that make sense to you or to help someone else? I mean, how would you suggest they determine their why?

You know, it is hard and it's harder for people to articulate than anything else. I mean, they know why. So, James, you obviously are doing what you're doing and because a, you feel good about it and you're helping so many people and that in itself gives you value. It does, right? It does. You know, you're not getting paid for your podcast, but you're doing this because it has some. Some impact on a goal you're trying to achieve. It does. Now, probably has a lot to do with your boys and, you know, making sure you're your legacy and all those things that happen. Same with me, of course. But I always continue to ask the so what? But Simon says and other coaches will say, so what? So what? So what? Challenge yourself to say so what? So what? And you got. Don't think the explicit. Explicit has very little to do it. In fact, explicit has very little to do with transactions. It does. It's the implicit that drives every transaction. So you have to get to the implicit point of why you're doing what you're doing. It's just what it is.

That's great. Really. Really helpful and really encourage the audience to think about the why. And for those of you who are thinking about getting into the business and investing, why are you looking to make this move? And certainly I would also add that it's got to be something that you're passionate about. It can't just be about the dollars and cents. Do you enjoy creating something, building? So these are all wonderful things to think about as you are setting these goals. And I love how you talked about how they have to be quantifiable. So, Rod, how should someone hold themselves accountable? And I know you're a big fan of Weekly Review, so what happens if, and let's say our audience already put goals in place at the beginning of the year. Here it is February, they're already falling behind. You know, I know for tendency for some people might be to just throw up your hands and say, all right, well, there's always next year or kind of put those goals, so to speak, in the desk drawer and, you know, just check in at the end of the year. So how do you stay accountable? How do you stay on track to accomplish the goals that you set out for?

Well, you could do things like I said, and put reinforcements around. You know, your goal like mine is on my wall when I walk in. So I, I can't help it. I work out of my house and so I see it every day. And then it's everyday reminder. I have clients that put sticky notes in their refrigerators and their bathroom mirrors. So it's the first thing they see when they wake up in the morning. And then when they go to the refrigerator, maybe if you're trying to lose weight, you know, do I really need this on the pantry? Do I really want this? Whatever it is. But those, those little notes can go a long way. For some people it can. But notes taking notes especially are easy to take off your refrigerator and your mirror and just throw it away and say, screw it, not going to work. There's no doubt. And this is. Look, it doesn't mean it doesn't need to be the Mossimo group, but James, accountability partners are the essence of goal attainment. It just is why you go to gym and you don't do really well, yet you get a trainer. Next thing you know, you start getting in shape because that trainer is waiting for you at 6:30 in the morning to be there. And you can't let that trainer down. Plus you're paying for it, right? By the way, one good thing is you should get an accountability partner. So think of anyone. So it doesn't be sewn in your industry. That's the really cool part about this. Accountability partners could be anyone that have different goals. You may have a friend who's trying to lose weight and meanwhile you're trying to raise a certain amount of money for a certain investment, whatever it might be, but. And you have each certain metrics and you have certain tasks you're going to do every week, every month towards that goal. And you got an accountability partner you need to report to on a zoom call. They can be across the world, they can be across the street and say, okay, now it's time for our accountability call. You know, years ago, as my brother and I did that, we were trying to achieve something differently. And it worked. It really worked with check in because you'd be embarrassed if you didn't do it. And, you know, you definitely disappoint the other person if you failed it. Just forget disappointing yourself. That's easy to do. It just is. Disappointing someone else is really hard. It just is. So I love accountability partners. I'm not saying you got to hire a coach. Yeah, I run a coaching organization. But you've got an accountability partner and they're dedicated to the finish line. That's a great way to do it.

That's great advice. I love that and certainly subscribe to it. So now I want to talk a little bit about time management. And in your book, you, you've got this great quote from Charles Buxton. You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it. So with that in mind, talk about your IPAID acronym and what it stands for.

Yeah, I do agree with that. Obviously, comics I put in the book and God, if I hear one more person tell me I'm too busy and this is why I'm not achieving my goals, because I'm too busy, then I'll say, you're working on the wrong stuff. It's just pure and simple. Now, don't get me wrong, homeschooling, kids, pandemic, it gives you less margin, significantly less margin than you had if you were in the office or where else you might be. I get all that. But let's take a stabilized economy, let's take at least a stabilized world. And we're getting there. We are. The problem with most effort and reward is they're too spaced out now, like for a commercial real estate broker, James, you may start thinking about, you know what, I'm going to start focusing on this territory and next thing you know, I'm going to start creating this message. And then I'm going to hone this prospect and call, and then I'm going to make a list, and then I call this person. I'm going to tell you several calls. By the time you call them, it's going to be. And get in contact with them. After several efforts, maybe three, four weeks. But you know what? You start this whole effort a month ago, and now it's a month later. And then you finally get the listing. You finally get the marketing before you. It's three, four, five months until you get, you get a deal sold, right? You forget that what you did six months ago was a reason this whole thing happened. And that win of selling a building or buying an asset or closing on a deal, if you're an investor, it almost fades away. It's more of a relief than a celebration. It just is. You're like, that was a lot of work and that's. You forgot. That's the whole thing you're trying to do. So we crafted this concept of I paid to give you five things to think about every day. As you did these five things every day, you would know you're making progress to your goal. It's really that simple. If you can answer the question, was I paid today? And you say yes, you have to make a hell of a lot more money. Just the way it works. It's not hard. Now, if there are some rules to each of these, I could go over each rule, but it's just, let's look at it, right? So first of all, do you identify? Do you identify? And this means writing it down doesn't mean. This doesn't mean in your head. That doesn't work in your head does not work. You may think it does, but you're fooling yourself. Did I identify what I need to do today? Now, we only allow our clients to identify 10 banks because after that, the rest aren't as important. So that's the second one, the PIP that I prioritize. So I prioritize those three key things that are going to move this day forward. Now, those three things can always be transactions. They're going to be something I go to a doctor, get my kids, soccer game, whatever it might be, right? Their potential should be your priorities. Don't forget, this is not about all money. This is about living life. So identify, prioritize. Now, you got to allocate. You got to allocate three things. Time, people, money. Time, people, money. So it has to get done. But before it gets done, that's the next step. You got to allocate the resources to allow it to get done. Some of you have to put in time. That's, that's the most expensive one, by the way. The time is the most expensive one, right? The money. Ah, that's okay. They, the resources, you can get people to do things. So then that's IPA allocate. And I, the second I implement, by far the hardest part is now you got to do it. But that's, that's where discipline comes in. The doing, knowing isn't doing. I is the, is the big, big part. And then the D, we say it's a D, we say either delegate, which I prefer you do, right on your list, delegate somebody else or delete. You're not going to do it. Now some would say, well, I can defer it. That's a D word. But deferring just creates more demotivation because you'll never get it done anyway. So identify, prioritize, allocate, implement, delegate is really the five steps every day. If you work on that approach, be amazed how much money you can collect and how quickly you can celebrate getting to that goal.

It's so key to success. And you've heard about whether It's Stephen Covey, 7 habits and the 4 quadrants where you spend your time, Is it urgent, but not important? Is it important, not urgent. And finding time for that quadrant two time where you're actually, you know, taking a step back and you're planning, maybe talk a little bit about that because, you know, everyone's busy and our listeners, they've got a million things that, you know, that they have to get done. So I appreciate they're just listening to this podcast because by listening, I would make the case they're in quadrant two, they're taking a step back, they're thinking about their future. Right. Why is that important?

Well, because they're working on their business. I mean, they're taking time to work on themselves. They're working on the, we've talked about earlier, right, the human resource side of being the CEO. They're focusing on their human resource side, their personal development, their personal improvement. So when you look at those quadrants, that is so essential now in the book, I talk about four different quadrants, if you recall. And so if you look at the same quadrants as Covey, if you know, Covey quadrants, I did a little different. So if you're an investor, think about this. Think about on one axis, on the left hand side, going, going vertical down, you have your probability of getting a deal done from zero I just starting out right to 100. You're going to close. Congratulations. Good, good for you. And then on top, on the top bar, the horizon bar, let's say you just identified an asset all the way to you close the asset right now here are the four quadrants. This is where people get in trouble. So the first one, the top one, top left, Visualize. Top left quadrant is called qualify. Man, if you're getting excited about a deal, you better qualify that deal. I mean, every due diligence you need to do, do but qualify yourself too. Does this investment meet the parameters? Is it a sexy location, therefore I'm getting a little more too involved emotionally, or no, does it really meet the parameters that I set out for my portfolio and the returns I'm looking for? Right. So qualify. Then go to the lower quadrant, still on the left hand side. Still just starting out, but now you're really excited. I want you to verify this means is. Yeah, but this is a deal. Take, give me my brother. This is my brother's deal. Or this is my favorite broker's deal or whatever it might be. I'm feeling good. I don't know. You need to, you need to stop and verify everything you're about to do is in fact true. Validate it. So first you qualify, then you verify. Now let's say the deal's going done, it's going close to the closing. You're excited, great. But now two things can happen. One, it's never going to close because you allowed it to get there because you were too emotionally involved or didn't pay enough attention. And so now you're sitting there busting but trying to get a deal closed and it's not the deal you want. Maybe the seller is unrealistic. Maybe if you're a seller, the buyer is not, not qualified. But you got there. And so now it's the hardest decision you got to make. If there's some cost, I let it go. Therefore I fire this opportunity. A lot of investors can't do that, right? Because they just feel like I got so much time and money. Buying an opportunity is okay, you could do that. And so that's great. Or give it a shot to rectify. It's called rectify the situation. Can I get to a place we can get this deal done that still meets the parameters of my investment criteria? Because if I can't, I can't do this deal. And then finally is the magnify lower quadrant, right, all the way down. High probability closing, it's going to close. I Call that the green zone, the money zone. You're going to make some money. Well, magnify it. Magnify the opportunity. Let people know what you bought. This has to go with, we're going to talk about it soon, your presence. Let people know the success you had. Find out from your engineer or your appraisers or your banker or your broker, you know what. What worked, and make sure and debrief on that and say, okay, this is why we had success. A lot of investors buy deals and don't ask themselves, why did that work? Now when deals, when deals fold, they'll say, oh, why didn't that work? But when they're successful, very few, in fact, very few people say, why did that work? Because that's what you want to copy again, right, James, Why it worked.

It's so important. And one of the things that you had me do in your worksheet is talk about where does business come from? And I think just even for investors, say, where are you having success? Finding opportunities? Is it from this broker who's brought you some great opportunities? Maybe spend more time with that broker, maybe take him out to lunch. Or maybe it's reaching out to the city's economic development corporation and asking what opportunities they have. Or maybe it's tax lien, foreclosures, or whatever it is. Find where you're having success and then instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, spend more time there. So I think that's such an incredible point. And I would just add, and our listeners have probably heard me say this on the show before, but qualifying that opportunity, so important. What's the profile of the seller? Are you dealing with someone who really wants to transact and sell? I mean, if it's just a discretionary seller who's not motivated, you might just be wasting your time. Even if it does check your box. So finding is this someone? Is this a real opportunity? Is it actionable? I think that that all is so important. So we talked a little bit before about what you need for the setup of your business. I don't know if you want to spend a little more time on the process, that operating system, and how you get a deal from start to finish. You want to talk a little bit more?

Yeah, let's talk about two. Really. Just like there's two tiers of brokers, it's two tiers of. Heck, there's two tiers of coaches, the two tiers of investors. So let's talk about the first tier, and then we'll see who's in the second tier. And James, by the way, James, good news for you. You're in the second tier, on the first tier. So this is true. Look, this is true with everybody. I don't care what you sell, what you do. This is just the way it works. And this is. Well, this is a mat. Look, I got my MBA from Duke University. I'm pretty darn good with numbers. But I'm about to share something with you that makes no mathematical sense. But you just gotta trust me on this one because it works. Because I run so many numbers over the years to see what how people make money. And so this is one that investors and brokers and everyone needs to understand. The first tier person has three key things they need to do right? The first one is understanding their value proposition. What is the offer to their audience that's going to resonate? And if they don't, if they can't figure that out, you're a commodity and you're not going to work. Now, some of you investors are saying, I have money. That's my value proposition. Get in line. Both folks. Because I got to tell you, more people have cash today than probably any time in the past 20 years. That's just a fact. Because no one's been spending money. And all these investors are sitting on the sidelines. Heck, I got two brokers and one syndicator call me today telling me, you got to look at this deal. I said, no, I don't. I got money. Yes, but that's not the reason why. So my point is, everyone has money. So if you're an investor, you're saying, that's my value prop. Think again. So maybe you call guys like James. Call James. James mentioned your broker. Tell them why what you're looking for be to update your broker. Because your broker's got many, many opportunities. They do. James is one of the top brokers in New York. He just is. So he needs to know exactly what you have, what's the value you bring? Because he needs to know he can take you to the table saying, yeah, this is the real deal. So investor number one. P is P, number one is your value proposition. What can you bring to the table? What's your background? What's your offering? How are you qualified? Right? This isn't your first rodeo. And if it is, that's okay. Just have all your ducks in a row and make sure you're qualified. You talk to your banker, everything's set, you're ready to go. Second P. And we talked about this, James talking about a little bit Referred to is your presence. Right? What's your presence in the market? What's your presence as an investor, as a buyer, as a seller. Now, your presence can be any, any, whatever you all do for a living. What is your presence now, by the way? Your presence will, will absolutely reflect your value proposition to your audience, not just about you. That presence is how you're going to get your message out to your audience. So if you're an investor and you have a value proposition, how are you sharing that with brokers, owners, bankers, appraisers, lenders and the like? What are you doing besides sitting back and saying, I have cash, I can't do it anymore. And there's a lot of ways to get presence. By the way, Jamie referred to personal, physical, digital, the presence pyramid. Personal is going out and shaking hands and telling, telling James is exactly what I'm looking for. Right? This is who I am. I feel good. I know, like trust. It's digital. Digital is any form of digital. By the way, a zoom call is digital. Nothing wrong with you spending some time in your day as a professional investor and say, you know what? As part of my goal, part of my metrics, I'm going to talk to one broker, one appraiser and one banker every single week. A different one, but one. And this way you're creating a presence in the market that you know what you know right now, if you have your own aligned with great brokers like James, then you don't worry about the broker, you worry about the lender and the appraisers. So that's the presence piece. You gotta have that. But again, what business you're in, you need the presence piece to resonate your value prop. And the third piece that creates all the money on Tier 1 production is the prospecting piece. And that's right, you have to go out and ask for the business. You have to go out and ask for the investment you have. You have to call those indicators, you got to call those brokers, you got to call the lenders and say, look, I want you to know I want your business, I want that investment, I want to get this. You have to prospect. And you think I'm crazy saying, wait, as an investor, I need a prospect. Again, everyone has cash today. They do, everyone has cash now. I don't mean everyone. I get what you're saying, but there are more investors today than there's ever been. It just are. So how are you going to differentiate? You have to those three Ps, value prop, presence, it goes in that order. By the way and prospecting, what we learned is through the Mossimo Group and looking at our clients, those that have those three things and we track everything with numbers, metrics, they tend to have the more opportunities, presentations, pitches and they definitely exponentially make the most most money. Right. Production. So I would say looking at a process Jane, before we get to tier 2, looking at things that your initial investors need to think what's my value prop to the market? Very important. Saying you have cash isn't going to do it. What's my presence in the market? Great one. Personal, physical, digital get out there. And finally, how am I asking for the opportunity to get in front of folks for the investment? So you do those three things, you're going to blow away the rest of the investors and you're going to get more quality opportunities to fill your pipeline.

Rod, I couldn't agree with you more. And I think this is really the heart of the opportunity, especially for those of you who are listening, who are looking to get in the business and you might not have the experience, you might be competing with the families who've been doing this for decades. But I can tell you most investors pride themselves in flying below the radar. They say I want to be discreet. I don't want people to know who I am. And look, I get that piece where you don't want to be a target, especially if with tenant right groups or whatever it is. But I think there is a way to communicate to your audience and as investors, your audience are the brokers out there, the attorneys, people who are gonna show you opportunities. And so I would really encourage you all to stay top of mind. And Rob, maybe you could give an example for someone who maybe just closed their first deal. How would you recommend that they share that success? And let's talk about digital strategies. Cause I think that's what you know, especially while a lot of people remote that that can really be, you know the best way to get the word out there.

And number one, I would ask, I would ask your broker to help you. Absolutely. Your broker, probably depending on who you are, has more alignment and capabilities. On the digital side with social media, they and by the way your broker wants to get that out there in the marketplace. They do. So certainly ask your broker find out if your attorneys or your engineers have some kind of newsletter they both with projects they just closed. Your banker definitely ask them to get it out there. You want everyone to know what you did from all these sources. You're saying your great's one thing third party saying you're great really is a high, more highly impactful look. I would definitely create a video of the building. I certainly, everyone does a picture of the building. I get it. But go out and create a video of the building and put it out there on social media, put it on Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook. By the way, Facebook is more or less your investors. It's now an old man's platform. It is. You know, no kid now wants to be on Facebook. It just doesn't. But Facebook is where all the older folks want to be. I'm saying 40, 50, 60 and above. So. Yeah. And that's. And by the way, that's where your sellers are going to be. So share with them there. Share with them on LinkedIn. A lot of things you could do just to post images, post text. And if you don't know how to do that, by the way, why shouldn't you have a marketing team as part of your platform? Right.

That's a great way to end. And Rod, awesome. You embody your book. Knowing isn't doing. And I hope that my wish is that people listening to this show don't just listen, but they put these thoughts into action. So, Rod, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for everything you do for the community and I'd really invite people to follow your work. I know I get a ton of inspiration from it. So thank you.

Well, James, it's always a pleasure because I know why I love working with you is because you are a doer. That's what I love working with. James, thank you so much. And for your audience, I appreciate all my time. Thank you. Thank you again.

This is your host, James Nelson of Real Estate Investing live from New York. If you, if you haven't already, please subscribe to the show. Please tell your friends and connect with me on social media. My handle is James Nelson, nyc. Link in with me, send me a message. Would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Send me questions. I'm here to be of help to you. So until next week, thank you again for tuning in.

Thank you for tuning in this week to Real Estate Investing live from New York. Please join your host, James Nelson for another program next Tuesday at 7pm in New York, 4pm Pacific Time on the Voice America business channel. All shows are rebroadcast on Wednesday mornings at 7:00am Eastern Time and 4:00am Pacific Time, as well as always on demand. We'll talk again next week.

Sam.