Episode #667 - The Winning Formula with Gary Wilson, Founder of Global Investor Agent

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on ready. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

Let's go back to year one. You get this and you say, okay, I'm going to do it. And probably now you're much more. It's second nature to you now. Let's just say do that experience. But year one, it wasn't second nature. So how did you. And so people are hearing this and say, this may be something that could turn me around or elevate. Because you can't elevate a team unless you're elevating yourself. And what I used to do, Gary, is like the end of October, early November, I started thinking hard about the next year. And the one thing that I wanted was to make sure that our organization was not limited by my thinking. I wanted to make sure I was the biggest thinking person on that team. And I had these fears of going to a convention and having our people come back and say, you know, I wish I was that other team over there. They're so fired up, man, I wish I was inside that, why can't we do some stuff like they're doing? I wanted them talking where they want to get on our team. They were saying like, why can't we do things like Widel's team is doing and stuff like that. But I knew that had to come from me. And so this is really not an option. You know, you got to have a vision that's big enough to get not only yourself excited, but your people excited. Room for them to excel and explode and do something exciting. So year one, now you're sitting down to do this. How did that go, as you can remember?

Yeah, it's actually quite emotional. Yeah. Frankly, I was sitting there, so I was a scout master at the time and I had all my boy Scouts up in the mountains in a lake doing their weekly or once a year week long retreat where they do activities and stuff. And all the dads sit around a campfire, right. The proverbial burping and farting we call it. I go off down to the lake and do my vision exercise and then the goals the next day. And it literally felt like I met myself for the first time. But I was so supercharged. I mean I was so inspired. I came out of there and I mean I hit the ground running with a vengeance. We set goals. Some audacious big giant, we call them BHAGs big hairy, audacious goals. Right? And I didn't get discouraged if I fell short here and there because I just was making so much progress. And it all came back to the inspiration but the planning part. So here's what's magical about this. When your plan takes a predefined set of actions, drives them through your goals to accomplish your goals that are in alignment with your vision, it's a foregone conclusion. You're going to hit your mark, you're going to hit your target. But you've got to take that part seriously. Too many people just want to jump in. I'll ask them, hey, Garrett. Or you know, Larry. What does he want to do? What do you want out of this? What can I. How can I help you, man? I want to be like you. I want to be, I want to.

Be a millionaire, blah blah, blah.

And I say, I understand that, number one. I think you should be better than me, okay? Because I'm just a regular person and I got lots of battle wounds to show for it. I said number two is the money actually isn't the goal. The money becomes a measurement of who you have to become as a person to be able to make that kind of money. And these are the kind of conversations I have with people. Nobody pays me a dime, Larry. Upfront for anything anymore.

Right.

I don't sell a thing. People want to work with me, got to join my team. And then I. We call it teaching and preaching. I get inside their head. Let's allows me to get inside their heart. And then the practical steps of how do you identify, analyze, negotiate good properties? That becomes a foregone conclusion. So I'll give an example. Early on I'm buying these little duplexes and four plexes. Right. For years had ended up a total of about 170 something units. The biggest thing I had was an 11 unit building. And one of my old teaching buddies approached me, he's an accountant, Vince. And he said, what do you think about buying a big property, like a hundred units? And I said, you know, I'm not going to say no, I'm going to say yes. And let's figure out how we did. We ended up actually, it was actually a 78 unit apartment complex. That was our next move. And what that taught me was everything is just a matter of scale. Once you learn the fundamentals, there's steps involved. There going to be more steps involved with a 500 unit complex. Absolutely. You're going to have environmental studies, topographical surveys, all kinds of stuff that has to happen and that are different than a duplex. But those are things you learn, just like you learn how to buy a duplex. But the fundamental psychology is the same. This is what people to recognize here. It's who you are as a person, who you become as a person that's more important than what you know academically. Because what you know academically is a finite set. Anybody can pick up a book and learn this stuff. I'm telling you, I'm. If I'm not a Harvard graduate, right? Real estate investing is not that complex. Let's keep it simple. But gather the tools that we. Our motto is education plus information plus action equals results. So we start with education. We learn how to find the right tools and information and learn those tools and learn the information. And the cool thing is the right learning teaches you where to get how to use the right information, which is the second part of the formula. Then taking action is now informed. Educated action. Right? Based on education information. That's really our motto. So we do a lot of learning. We have like six training programs on our team that we use. And of course you already knew about the ebooks. We use websites that either we've developed or have bought or get for free. They give us information. For example, we can see for every single bank in the country which banks have properties in distress, what they have called non performing assets. We can see using IRS tax filings, where money's going, where's it coming from and where is it going to down to the county level, right? So we have all this information that makes us really smart. So we make really smart decisions for ourselves and our clients. And quite frankly, it's just stuff that most agents, they're not even aware of it. I'm not knocking them, they're good at what they do. We just happen to be good at what we do. But the key is you've got to study your market and find out what is the market doing. So instead of coming and saying, well, my guru said I should be doing this. And that may be true in some markets, but it might not be true in this market. So let's study the market, let's see what the market's doing. And then you paddle down river, you go with the flow. So if your market is short term housing is the way to go, then that's what you do. Don't do long term housing. Don't try to squeeze a round peg in a square hole. Whatever your market is doing, that's what you should do. And real estate Allows you to be nimble and flexible. So if it turns out midterm housing is the next thing coming down the road, that's your corporate travelers then, by golly, transferring some of your units into that kind of housing. Right. You go with the flow. That's, that's the beautiful thing about real estate is it's a tangible asset. It's always going to hold value and it also generates revenue. So you get. It's like dividends in stock, right. So you have the tangible, physical, tangible asset that's also generating revenue. And there's no other asset like it in the world. Gold is a tangible asset, but it doesn't generate revenue. Right, right. So any case, I know I just gave you a real head full there, but the practical stuff is the easy part is what I'm getting at. It's the helping people see in themselves what I see in them and helping them believe it and becoming the person you need to be to do the things they need to do, to have the things they want to have. That's really where the magic happens.

Well, and the magic happens when they have go, they put themselves in a cooperative state. You can't help somebody who doesn't want to be helped, not willing to be helped. And then they follow through. They don't just sit there and ask questions. They follow through and then they have some success. And then a light bulb goes on inside their head that, hey, I can do this. But until that happens, Gary, that's where you and I are, behind the eight ball. Until that happens, they take that. And that's why I believe they deserve the credit, not me and you. Maybe I don't. But the thing is like, you know, we talk, you talk to millions of people. Why don't millions of people have successes? Because they don't follow through. But the people who follow through, they're doing proven thing like you say, this proof is not guesswork, you know, from Stephen coming on, I mean, and the stuff people came before him, this stuff follows a pattern, but you got to actually apply it and use it and give yourself a chance to, to be successful. Then all of a sudden the molecules in your brain and your body start to change and you start to believe. And now you go into full activation mode because it's going to become a game to you, it's going to be fun to you. It's going to be, you get over this. Can I do it? Am I good enough? Stage once you start having some success. But there is a stage you go to where you've Got to be cooperative. You got to learn, like, here's what worked for us, not other things. Once you learn it, then you can kind of put your own stamp on it, but get it working. You know, get your eight cylinder engine running first before you want to modify it.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I always tell people I know what it looks like to them because I'm the one that's, that's doing all the teaching and preaching. The reality is, though, is if you think about what we're doing, Larry, you and I are, we're the guides and we're making them the heroes. That's really what's happening. When they get that, all of a sudden that cooperative part becomes a lot more pronounced. They realize, hey, I better, you know, this guy's really pouring his heart out here. The other thing too with me is I make no bones about it. I don't. If they don't make money, I don't make money. So you can put my stretcher shirt, I'm going to cooch their little pants off. Yeah.

The skin in the game. Be careful. Who, if you're getting advice from people who don't have skin in the game because it's not coming from the same place. Let me ask you this. If you, I'm going to take you back, if you don't mind, back to year one on your goal and vision session. And the reason why, Gary, is that set off a dramatic explosion of activity and success and achievement in your life. And so how about revisiting that and kind of get into that a little bit more specific for people who want to go through that same process? What did you. Because you said it was emotional and because I'm sure you're saying, am I doing this right? How's it going to go? I'm not sure how to do this. And so what did you do? Because I'm sure at some point you.

Had to force yourself, I'm going to.

Get off, I'm going to make myself do this. And how did you coach yourself through those steps?

Yep. Well, really, that, that when I started that, it was very pivotal moment in my life. I was again in the corporate world for 18 years and I was just turned 40 that year. I was leaving essentially the corporate world, retiring at the age of 40. So I had this big, beautiful blank canvas. But I also knew that I really didn't know what to do. I was like, I like a ship without a rudder, without a sail. And in all those years before that. This is going to sound crazy, but I wasn't really fulfilled. I was materially blessed, but I wasn't fulfilled, which is different. I didn't feel like what I was doing. How was I doing? Impactful to the world, that kind of thing. And leaving a legacy. What am I showing my children? That kind of thing. So when I sat there by that lake and I did that vision exercise, it was like I met myself for the first time. That's why I was so emotional.

Did you have a pad and a pen with you? Were you writing things down?

Wrote for about two hours straight.

What are the first things you wrote down?

Mostly it was about me and my relationship with God and my family, my children, my spouse, my parents, my brothers and sisters. At that point, still had two of my grandparents alive. And I thought, I'm really lucky here. I mean, holy crap, I got nothing wrong with me physically. My kids are healthy, my wife's healthy. I can walk them to the bus stop every day. I don't have to fight traffic to go to work every day. All that was over and I was free. I was literally free. But it also meant I had a great responsibility and I had to figure out what that was. And thank goodness. I just call it, you know, just. I don't know where it came from. It was God's part, I guess. And so that next day, I realized I got to figure out, what goals does this person have? So I wrote this down, the top of the page. What goals does this person have? And again, for about two hours, all it is, write down goals. And in terms of business, you know, was of course, acquire so many units in the next 12 months. And I broke that down by quarter, then by month, then by week, then by day. I literally got. The fourth day is when I did the planning part and I got it down. I literally was planning in 15 minute intervals. That's how unbelievably precise and specific this was. No stone left unturned. Was it perfect? No way at all. I mean, because life's going to throw you some curveballs. It's going to change your plans, you know, but you still need to make your plans because that's your roadmap to follow, right? And what's ironic is if your goals are in alignment with your vision, and your vision's in alignment with not just yourself, but God. If you want to believe in God. Or how about other people? Is your vision, Is that serve other people right? How is this good for everybody other than just yourself? I promise you, when you have that answer, you got yourself a plan and it's going to happen. You might get there 10 years later than you thought or three years earlier. You might get there taking a different path than you thought. But I can promise you, you're going to get there. So when it came to application, every day I'm waking up and by the time I turn on my cell phone and my computer, I was already had, already lived a full day. I go to visit the workers, the tenants, the properties. Ultimately, like in me now.

You'd already lived a full day? What did that mean?

I'd already gotten up, said repairs, meditated, exercise, had breakfast, had a shower, walked my kids to the bus stop, came back. And a lot of people's lives, unfortunately, that's pretty much that's what they accomplish in a day. That's it. And I was ready to rock and roll, man, I was so pumped up. So when I turn on, I call it turning on the world. When I open up my cell phone and computer, it was just basically checking off boxes on a task list is what it was. And then end of the day, I'm back with my family, we're having dinner, having a good evening. I really learned to be a good custodian with the resource of time and energy and of course, money and everything.

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