From Zero to 7 Figures: An Incite-ful Profit Podcast Episode with Christine McCarron

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Insightful Podcast. We have an amazing guest on today, Christine McCarron. She is a coach, she does courses, she does podcasts, she even has books. Christine McCarron loves sharing what she's learned to help other women exceed their expectations and create a legacy. When it comes to that, Christine, we'll just get right into this. You mentioned you went from less than $0 to a 7-figure net worth starting at age 50, thanks to real estate investing. So first, tell me about the starting at less than $0.

Well, it's easy to do if you have a lot of credit card debt, and that's where I was coming from. So very easy actually to be less than zero. Like, zero would've been a big improvement and was a big improvement once I got there.

Yeah, that's interesting. But when you're in that scenario, if you can remember back then, what, what led to being like basically being in that much debt?

I think scarcity mindset would probably be the easy answer because you've— when you already feel sort of hopeless, like what difference does it make if I just charge another whatever? Do you know what I mean? You figure I'm never going to make enough money to get out of debt, so what difference is another $100 going to be? And that mindset will just Right. It's perpetuating whether you have $20,000 and now you have $40,000 in debt. You're just like, well, still sucks, still hopeless. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a sad, it's a sad place to be. And I know there are a lot of people in that place. So.

And well, so then you went from that less than zero to a 7-figure net worth. And here's the thing, at all of this at the age of 50. So what can you say to those 50 and older who feel like You know, any change is too late.

I hear younger, even younger people than that saying that, like, oh, 40, I'm too old to go back to school. I'm too old to do this or that. And I thought, well, you know, how long are you planning to live? And that, that's kind of the question that I came to. And it happened when my aunt turned 100 because she, you know, my dad's sister, she turned 100 and I went to her birthday and she was just like this amazing, vibrant, intelligent, incredible person who walked there under her own steam, lived alone. You know, she's like an unbelievable woman. And I thought, oh my God, you know, like, okay, I'm 50. Yeah, that's really old and I really screwed up, you know, going on. But for 50 more years, you know what I mean? You want to keep this going. So, that, that was a real big mindset shift for me. And so, I guess that's the question people should ask themselves. If you're only going to live to be 51, then yeah, 50 is really old. But if you're— even if you're planning to live till 70, which is not really that old, you still— do you want to spend 20 more years in that shitty situation?

Yeah.

If the answer is no, then just you know, use what you've accumulated over those past 50 years and do something, you know, smart.

How fast was that turnaround from 0 to 7 figures?

It was about maybe 5 years all told. So, that's pretty fast, you know, in the grand scheme of things.

And you mentioned it's in real estate investing. Did you have any prior real estate investing knowledge before starting the turnaround?

Yeah, I actually had lost a lot of money in real estate investing prior to that. And instead of thinking, Gee, I can learn. At that time I thought, oh, I just, I'm just awful at this. I just shouldn't do it. But actually, you know, when once you shift your mindset, you're like, oh, actually there's a whole bunch of things that I'll never do again. And using that knowledge, oh, all of a sudden things become a lot easier and a lot more clear. And—

Yeah, interesting. Is there any moment in that period when you're transitioning and realizing like, I got this, like any like really big aha moments that still stand out to you to this day?

I feel like when I made the decision, because I was living in a, Like, like a college kid. I was living in a house that somebody else owned. I was just one of like 6 roommates and, you know, just really living in really kind of college dorms lifestyle and, and just feeling like, you know, oh, too bad I'm such a loser. And then when I had that, you know, experience with my aunt and once my mindset shifted, it was just unbelievable how things just fell into place and everything was just There. Do you know, I'm sure it had always been there, but I just didn't see it. So that there were a lot of times when I was just like, okay, this isn't going the way I want it to. What is going on in here that's screwing me up? And, and like, it might just take like sleeping on it and getting out of my own head for a night and then waking up the next morning and like those problems just, you know, went away on their own or they just became really manageable.

Isn't it so interesting how many people probably have latent potential. Like, it's there, they have the knowledge, but the only thing keeping them from that is limiting beliefs.

Absolutely true. And that's what's— that's all that's keeping all of us from being whatever it is that we dream that we can be.

Yeah. So probably a good segue then. Um, you have a book, it's called Empower Your Inner Millionaire.

I do.

There it is. Yep. Let me ask you some questions about the book first. So how would you describe your reader?

My ideal reader, the majority, the vast majority of people who read the book are women. And there is women in the title, although some men have read the book and enjoyed it. And they're mostly younger than I was, which is probably not too surprising, but they are just hungry, hungry for information. Like, this is not the only book they read. They're reading lots of other books. They're taking in podcasts and lots of other information and just really motivated and looking for anything that they can do to get started in real estate investing, which is exciting.

What would you say, like, the life circumstances of your reader, typical reader, is why picking up the book?

A lot of them have encountered me in some way, shape, or form. They don't— I don't think— I mean, maybe people are finding it on their own, but I think the majority of people have met me in some, some way, and they thought, oh wow, you know, if she can do it and it— and she waited that long and she was such a loser beforehand, you know, like, maybe I can do it too. I think that's a lot of that mindset, like, oh wow, okay.

I mean, what does your reader want? Is it just simply like, I want to make money in real estate investing? What does the reader want?

I think they want a primer. I think they want to to not feel stupid when they walk up to the negotiating table, right? We, we, it's, it's a real, I don't want to say it's like a beginner book, but it doesn't assume anything. A lot of the people that I had proofread it when I was going through the writing process were people who didn't know anything. They didn't even own a home. And that's what I wanted is just what, what assumptions am I making? What am I, where am I starting at step 5 when I should be starting at step 1? So, it, I think that that's what they want is to be able to read this book and have a nice foundation so that when they actually get ready to go to the next step, they feel a little bit more confident and like get some of the lingo and, you know, things like that.

Okay. So is that their core problem? Like, I just, I'm uncomfortable with real estate or I don't want to feel dumb. Like, would you put other things in that core problem that they have?

You know, women are really excellent real estate investors for a lot of different reasons in general. Like the general woman, they're going to be more analytical. There's less like ego going on. They're just doing their due diligence much better. But There is an impression out there that it's a man's world. Even when I was reading, looking for books and researching and doing things to write my own book, almost every book was written by men. So, that's the thing, like, oh, can I really do this? And pretty much everybody has somebody in their history who failed at real estate investing. So, they think, well, you know, can I really do it? So, yeah, I don't think it's that. I don't necessarily know that they're going into it saying, saying, I don't want to be— I don't want to feel dumb. But I do think that they're going into it saying, can a woman really succeed in this industry? And could I see some examples of how they did that? Because there's a lot of out-of-the-box ideas in the book. And sometimes the way women start, you know, they're not going to necessarily go syndicate a, you know, 25 or 30 or 100-unit building, right? They might just start out by Airbnb-ing one of the bedrooms in their house and getting that confidence. So that they can take the next step in a more sort of educated fashion, I guess, or confident fashion.

Okay. So when you think about your reader journey, what are some of the things that are preventing them from solving the problem?

The problem of their wealth creation or—

Well, whatever their problem, however you define the problem in the book, is if it's wealth creation, if it's just, I want a little bit more knowledge, whatever that is, what are some of the things that are getting in their way?

It's, it's just like all of us, it's their head. Their, their head is getting in their way, I think. And that's, I, I feel like that's the only thing that can get in our way is our own heads. Although sometimes the way, the reason our head is like it is, is because of the people we surround ourselves with, right? So that's another thing you need to do is to get not just out of your own head, but also out of the heads of some of the people around you that are saying, you know, are you nuts? You're gonna lose all your money. You can't do this. You can't be a landlord.

Mm-hmm.

What's gonna happen the first time the person doesn't pay their rent, right? There's a lot of naysayers out there, a lot of people that, out of love are saying some— that you can't do it, right? There's no way you can do this. So having a tribe, you know, figuring out how to build your tribe, that's another huge thing because you need that support and that masterminding sort of feeling.

Yeah, that's interesting because we talk about limiting beliefs and then you actually just brought in the another challenge component, which is all the other people. Like, we have the voice in our head and sometimes that voice feels like a lot of different voices. And then there's actually the people that are like Also the poo-pooers of everything. Yeah. And a lot of times in order to get past those roadblocks, we really do need someone to help guide us through that because it's hard for us to see that we even have limiting beliefs. It's hard for us to see that we think that person's well-intentioned, but in fact what they're saying is not good. And not everyone— I mean, honestly, even some people who seem like they're well-intentioned are subconsciously saying things because of just human nature. Uh, there's a— this reminds me of a study they did with monkeys. They put bananas at the top of a pole, and as the monkeys climbed up the pole, they would spray the monkey violently enough that the monkey gave up on trying to get the bananas. And so they did this for a bit. So all the monkeys are now conditioned, and they slowly started replacing the original monkeys with new monkeys, and they cycled through all of it. What they found is once all the original ones were gone, Because when a monkey started to climb up, they would pull them down. Like, hey, you're gonna get blasted. We gotta protect you from this. So now they have a cage full of monkeys that have never been sprayed that are still now exhibiting the behavior of pulling down the monkeys from climbing higher. And, and you know, we do that unfortunately sometimes as humans.

We do.

What advice do you give to, to people in that scenario where maybe they are getting some poo-pooers naysaying some stuff? How do you help them get over that?

Well, it's the 5, right? Jim Rohn, the 5 people you spend the most time with are the ones that are going to— you're going to be the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So, if you want to define yourself with the lowest common denominator and you want to be part of that, you know, we're all trying to emulate the wrong percentage of the population, right? I want to fit in. No, you don't, because you're fitting in with the 95% when you really want to be one of the 5%. So, find those people that are Doing what you want to do, even if you can't meet them in person right now, read their books, listen to their podcasts, listen to their YouTubes and stuff, and like mentally surround yourself with those people. And and then you'll begin to meet new actual humans who are going to help you to to do that. Because when you're in the middle of the crowd, you can't see up above to what what else is going on. But once you start to step away from the crowd, then all of a sudden you're like, oh wow! Here's somebody that I know in some tertiary fashion that I, oh, I didn't realize that you were a millionaire or you're a real estate investor or you're whatever. And then all of a sudden you just start making these connections. And yeah, I mean, I would say join a group, start a group, you know, do a meetup, something so that you can at least start to talk to other successful people who are doing what you want to do. And then you start to believe it's possible.

Why, why did you write the book then? I'm hearing Your story of less than 0 to 7 figures and now who your reader is seemed like there might be some commonality there. But why, why did you decide to write the book? Because I know writing a book is a lot of work. Until someone writes a book, they just, they don't get it. So why put yourself through that?

Yeah, well, it's an interesting question because I think part of it was once you get to the point where you've written the book, it's your own self-confidence as well. Like, okay, when I started to write the book, there were things I didn't know. And then I researched them and I talked to people and I interviewed people and I got to the point where, okay, now I do know those things and now I have knowledge and self-confidence and even connections that I didn't have when I started the process. So in some way it was like proving to me that I did now know enough to write a book. And part of it was the desire to reach a hand out and to help somebody who's in the same situation, who's just thinking, I'm— am I going to die like some broke loser, you know, living in practically a dorm situation, right? That there's somebody else out there who could benefit from it. And you have to do that. I feel like you have to.

Yeah.

You know, once you get to somewhere, you got to turn around and put your hand back and help somebody else out.

And that's such an interesting observation. I had the same experience writing both my books, like the clarity I got on the concepts. I mean, there was one scenario I remember with writing the Cashflow book Like, well, this is how we explain it to clients. And so I'm writing this chapter on how we explain it to clients and like it basically became this gigantic decision tree. I'm like 3 pages into my explanation of what this chapter would be and I stopped and I said, I'm confused and I'm the one who just wrote this.

Yeah.

So it helped me clarify like, well, how can I make it less confusing? And that work then helped us because now then we changed the way we approached it even with our clients because like, you know what? Yeah, instead of this giant decision tree, let's simplify it under a different scenario. When it comes to your readers, here's a question sometimes we don't think about, but I'm curious what your thought is. What secret fear is your reader afraid to admit?

Right, so I think a lot of them would admit that they, you know, that they're afraid that they'd have lousy tenants, or they're afraid of being a landlord, they're afraid of sort of failure. But I also think there's a fear that is not quite as overt and easy to dismiss as that. I'm afraid I'm just not actually as good or smart or clever or whatever as I need to be, or as the guys who are doing this or whatever. And I mean, it's not the insecurity, but it might just be that little bit of, you know, the, the nasty voice in your head saying, you know, are you nuts? You know, I, I don't know. I, I do think that there is— the fear is more just you're an imposter. It's the imposter syndrome.

Yeah, no, that makes sense. So the book, uh, you obviously have a business, you consult with people, you do courses. Tell us about that, because obviously I'm hoping our listeners here are realizing like maybe they find themselves in that situation. Maybe they want to get into real estate and they're not sure what, what their hurdle actually is. How do you help people?

It's just probably similar to the way any coach or consultant goes about helping somebody is first you really have to understand what is it that they want. You know, what's your goal? If all you want to do is be able to pay your mortgage, then that's one scenario and one way of going about it. If you want to be really hands-on, if you want to learn, like your age. So there's different scenarios, there's different things to consider. How much time do you have between where you are now and when you want to have achieved this goal? How much time do you have to invest in this real estate investing endeavor? And then what is it that you have already for skills? Like what will you need to learn versus what do you already know? So, you know, those sorts of things. So we just sit down and really have some frank discussions about what kinds of things are going to potentially slow you down. You know, do you have an unsupportive spouse? Do you have a, you know, do you have, you don't have any money right now? What are my options? Right? Because that's another big factor. Do I actually have money right now? Okay. No. Then you're going to need to put some people together who have confidence in you. And the only way that's going to happen is if you, when you talk to them, they feel like they know, you know what the heck you're talking about. Right?

Yeah.

Yeah. So, we just sit down and we think, what are your assets? You know, like almost like a SWOT analysis about you, about you as a person. And what you're going to bring to the table versus what you need to learn and things like that. And then we just kind of go from there. We make a strategy. Are you going to need to take this or that course? Are you going to need to join this or that group? Or, you know, and then the market too. What's the market doing right now? Is it a good time to buy this? You know, what are the— where is it a good time to buy residential, for example, or whatever? So.

Yeah, very important with real estate.

Yeah.

Uh, I have the desire to do it, but maybe the market's not the right timing. Right. Um, I think it's good, good things to consider. Do you have any fun success stories with some clients you've worked with?

Yeah, I love running into people, you know. I mean, obviously I stay in touch with people, but sometimes there's like a landmark or a point where it's like, oh, I've just owned my house for 5 years and now— so I have somebody who I became friends with through the process of helping her to buy a 3-family house, and it's basically more than tripled in value now. And the rents are enough to not just pay her living expenses, but also to— she leases a Mercedes. And so, you know, when I, when I met her, she was driving this very old Escort, you know, Ford Escort wagon, and, you know, just like the family car. And, and now she's like got this hot little Mercedes. And so just her confidence level, her— the freedom that she now has to live a life that she really loves. And so when her— she was just had a part-time job, and then when her grandson was born, she's like, I'm just gonna go to Florida for 5 months or 6 months and whatever and just, you know, help my daughter and have a great time with my grandson. And just that freedom is just It's so fun to, you know, to listen to and to be part of. And yeah, that's, that's one fun example.

That is great. Where can people buy the book?

The easiest way to do anything with me is just to go to chrismcaren.com, which is my website, and you can buy it there. You can buy it on Amazon, but the last time I looked for it, I couldn't find it. So you can just go to my website. Who knows? I might have pissed Amazon off or something.

I don't know. Who doesn't make them mad? Oh my gosh. They're kind of bullies a little bit. Both my books are on Amazon as well, and I feel like the hoops that we have to jump through, and it's crazy. Okay, so we'll put the link in the show notes. It's chrismcaren.com.

Yeah.

Any final words of wisdom that you'd like to leave with our listeners?

How about this? It's not what I might have thought of if I would have thought about it, even though I should have thought about it because I've listened to your podcast before. But, you know, we were just talking about that it maybe isn't a good time to invest in real estate, but it actually is always a good time to invest in real estate in some way, shape, or form, right?

Right.

There's, there's going to be one property where the price is right. Or like right now, I feel like commercial real estate is really undervalued in a lot of areas. And, you know, can you think outside the box there? Some towns are allowing you to take commercial and turn into residential. Maybe you can start a coworking space like what I did with my, uh, you know, commercial real estate. So, you know, that could be a fun, cool idea. I'm actually helping a couple right now to start a coworking space in a commercial space. That's— yeah, so that's— it's, it's fun. Just think out of the box and come up with some really cool thing.

It is true. It's the same with— we were doing a home project like, oh man, maybe I should hold off. Look, once suppliers and vendors get one price, they usually don't come down from that.

Yeah, right.

I love that, that with real estate, because it is pretty vast, there's commercial, there's residential, there's even land flipping. There's being a wholesaler, just finding deals for other people. Like you mentioned, if you don't have the money, even like finding the investors for the property, there's like— yeah, such a great observation. And that's probably why they need someone like you to help them think through all those things. I know I'm certainly not a real estate expert, and I would miss opportunities if I didn't have people in my life that are smarter at that than I am. You guys, if you're interested, check out her website, get her book. Thank you so much for being on the show with us today.

Anytime.

And remember everyone, profit is a choice. Have the courage and wisdom to choose it.