How a Real Estate Conference Can Change Your “Real” Life
Whenever I attend conferences or seminars, which are generally a considerable investment of one’s valuable time, I conduct a bit of a mental post-mortem to evaluate if I achieved my goals for the event and consider critical takeaways.
Attending Michael Blank’s Dealmaker Live Conference in Dallas was a resounding success that impacted not only the way I approach my Real Estate Investing Business, but also how I will endeavor to approach my “real life” moving forward.
Surrounded by successful syndicators, entrepreneurial investors and passionate newbies I learned, laughed and networked with attendees I knew and many I didn’t. And a diverse set of panels and keynotes, including an awe inspiring session by Hal Elrod, provided the knowledge and inspiration I was seeking from this event.
Encapsulating it all for you are my key takeaways, or… “The 5 P’s Learned at Dealmaker LIVE!”
PEACE – Investing in Yourself
The degree to which we resist reality determines our degree of emotional pain.
One of the most profound take-aways from the conference came during the keynote speech from Hal Elrod. If you don’t yet know Hal’s story or incredible work, I suggest googling him ASAP. He shared a simple yet extremely powerful component from his new book, The Miracle Equation — which is to give ourselves the gift of peace. Very simply stated — the degree to which we resist reality determines our degree of emotional pain. Letting outside influences determine if we’ll be happy or not is a recipe for frustration. Peace and gratitude will serve us best when events try to steer us off course. I’m definitely leading with Hal’s 5 minute rule since the conference – I give myself 5 minutes to have all those feelings of anger, frustration, sadness – you name it, and then I simply say “Can’t change it” and move on. Ahh, the gift of inner peace!
PARTNERING – Your Network is Your Net Worth
We are the sum total of the 5 people we are closest to.
You’ve likely heard the saying that we are the sum total of the 5 people we are closest to. But have you let this sink in and adjusted who you spend time with, do business with or learn from? To fast track your progress it’s critical to surround yourself with those who are already successfully doing what you want to do. Very few of us are high performers in every aspect of the game. Some of us are analytical, others the more creative type — and yet most ventures require a breadth and depth of expertise to be successful. Thus who you partner with becomes a critical component of your level of success and even how quickly you can achieve it.
I’ve learned so much from, and been inspired by the people I’ve met while walking down this real estate investing road, and Dealmaker Live was no exception. Sometimes the learnings were practical and other times the take-aways came in the form of critical life lessons learned from someone’s hard work, mistakes, and experience. We’re certainly not all cut from the same cloth, but when we find people with similar aspirations we can help each other on the path to achieving our life goals. And when we do, a huge burden can be lifted off of our shoulders as we breathe a bit easier than before knowing we don’t have to go it alone.
Personality – Your Personal Brand is Your Cache
When building a business, the one thing that no one can replicate is YOU.
We’re not living in a one-size fits all world and it takes myriad personalities to build the fabric of our lives. The real estate investing space is no different. Across the many panels at Dealmaker Live we were treated to a diverse group of successful investors with equally diverse business models. Yet they all shared a similar trait: they all remained uniquely individual in their approach to their businesses in a way that was authentic to their personalities, core strengths and life experiences.
The key take-away? When building a business, the one thing that no one can replicate is YOU. And that’s a good thing! If you’re authentically presenting yourself as you grow your business you will naturally attract people to your message. And remember, investors will only invest with whom they feel most comfortable – so this becomes a critical component to success. Think of it like the 31 flavors ice cream store. Everyone wants ice cream — some gravitate to mint-chip while others like pecan praline. Which flavor are you?
Persistence – Act “As If”
Part of the learning process is making mistakes along the way.
We all know that persistence is the key to any success in life. We get excited by an idea and start down the road, but we’ll never get there if we don’t maintain persistence. Yet how often do we feel shaken by what we don’t know or when hitting a stumbling block along the way? During a “Deal Analysis” panel one investor shared how she ‘faked it till she made it’ by relying on the experience of the team she’d put around her. Even though this was her first time leading a multi-family deal, she’d learned enough from previous deals and had successful syndicators as her partners, that she wasn’t shaken from her game every time the broker asked ‘how many times she’d done this before’.
Be confident that you’ll learn along the way, ask a lot of questions as you go and know that part of the learning process is making mistakes along the way. But not attempting something because you’re intimidated or don’t have all the answers deprives you of learning how much further you can progress if you just persist!
Platform – An Opportunity to Educate & Inform
It’s critical to consistently deliver your Real Estate investing message.
If you are your personal brand, then your online presence is your brand’s home. And whether your goal is to attract partners and investors to your deals, or even to find new deals, these days you need your own platform to communicate your message. Every panelist at Dealmaker Live hit on how critical their brand platform and their lead generation mechanisms were. From your personal social profiles, investor email lists and marketing funnels, to simply updating friends and family on your successes, it’s critical to consistently deliver your REI message. Someone may not be ready to invest or partner with you today, but may resurface down the road if they’re still receiving your communications. Panelists discussed tactics from: meet-ups, daily social posts including video, weekly podcasts, monthly emails and blog posts, quarterly deal updates or even snail-mail newsletters out to your full database. And don’t forget that you can divide-and-conquer by partnering up so your business is firing on all cylinders.
Remember the P’s…
Be Persistent in building out your Platform to showcase your Personality which will inevitably attract Partners! When it’s all working together, not only will you be unstoppable, but you’ll find the greatest success through inner Peace!
Are you looking to jump into Real Estate Investing, where a passive approach might work best for your circumstances? From my experience, it’s so much nicer to let others do the work while you kick back and reap the rewards. And you can still “scratch that itch” by visiting your investment properties, even as a limited partner! Echo Investment Partners can help educate you on the benefits of passive Multi-Family syndications and you can learn more at www.EchoInvestmentPartners.com
On a mission to share the benefits of passive investing through multi-family real estate.