It was an incredibly challenging industry – I negotiated against billion dollar publicly traded companies and sat at tables with oil patch billionaires. I learned a lot during this time and developed a strong level of paranoia in the process, which is the reason I left the business. These three things have left an impact that won’t soon dissipate:

Lesson 1: Full-Disclosure is a MUST

Whenever you are working with invested capital (not your own and not loan proceeds), you must be transparent, open, and clinical in the information you provide. If things aren’t going well, then tell them that things aren’t going well and take that opportunity to show them your plan for corrective action. If things are going well, take that opportunity to reinforce your value but also temper their excitement with a brief note about how your investments could fluctuate – this was a constantly reoccurring theme in the oil and gas industry.

Lesson 2: Do Your Own Due Diligence – ALWAYS

In a business built upon the tears of would be investors, the oil and gas space is an obvious choice for “must do” due diligence protocols. This goes for ANY business venture. You need to, at the very least, verify the diligence that has been performed and presented to you. It doesn’t matter how much you trust the person who gave you the information. Not every bad deal begins with someone trying to take advantage of the other – more likely it is a mistake somewhere in the process. I had to verify reserve estimates, development costs, and that services ordered were being completed. This is just like hiring a consultant for your business, a general contractor for your real estate deal, or choosing a refrigerator for your kitchen.

Lesson 3: The Energy Business is an INCREDIBLY PROFITABLE BUSINESS

Despite the challenges of dealing with snakeoil salesmen, dishonest venture partners, harsh weather conditions, and the Bureau of Land Management, the energy business is incredibly profitable. One leasehold we had was purchased for $850,000. Another $350,000 or so was invested into one of the three wells and in December of 2007 alone, it produced over $220,000 in revenue.

The great thing about energy is that everyone needs it. You want your lights to come on? Then you need to pay your utility bill. You want your car to run so you can go to work? Then you need to put gas in it and pay for it. If prices rise? Well, you’ll just pay those prices. You may try to limit your consumption, but more likely, you will reduce costs in other areas.

I am extremely happy to announce that I will be soon realizing a dream of mine – setting up a charitable foundation. I’m very thankful to be in a position to commit time and resources to a passion of mine without any expectation of compensation. I will be teaming up with my brother and other family members to make a huge impact both locally and nationally. Too often I’ve found myself wondering where my money is going when I make a donation. This way, I will be able to control the funds and I’m pleased to say that 100% of proceeds will go to our causes.

I have spent the last nine years working crazy hours, taking risks, and embarking upon what many would call fools errands. I’m very close to reaching some great milestones and this is a big one.

I will be posting more information here as I move through this process. Thank you all for hel
ping me get to this amazing point in my life at such a young age.

A Goal Written Isn’t Always Great

Unfortunately, many of these events push really hard on the writing of goals, but on on what a well-written goal looks like. It’s very important that you set proper goals so that you can benefit most from writing them down. Then, there is also the question of “What do I do now?”.

Let’s look at a great acronym that will teach you what a “proper” goal looks like.

Proper goals are SMART goals.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Action-Wording
• Reasonable
• Time-Sensitive

S is for Specific

Each goal you write needs to have enough specificity that you know when you have achieved so you can have a clear target. For example:

In 2012 I want to have more clients is not nearly as powerful as “In 2012, I want to increase my number of paying clients by 30%.

M is for Measurable

Very closely related to “Specific”, Measurable means that you must be able to consistently measure yourself against the goal you have set. Also, it means that you need to have a system for measuring your progress towards that goal throughout the time period.

In 2012, I want to lose 19 pounds isn’t very meaningful if you aren’t checking your progress against that goal each month or quarter.

A is for Action

This one is really important. I’m a firm believer in the concept of abundance. I believe that we get what we think and if you are always thinking of what you need, I believe that you will continue to need it. Instead, let’s shift how we think.

On December 31, I have 12 more paying clients, increasing my number of paying clients by 30%.

R is for Reasonable

Goals cannot add value if they are unreasonable. If you are in the network marketing business, you have unwittingly been a victim of this. “Just make it your mission to add 2 people per day to your downline” or “Double your downline every week”. Yes, it’s possible, but it isn’t reasonable. As you fail to achieve goals, you lose your motivation to attain them, feeling stress instead of empowerment from your objectives. I am by no means saying set lazy goals. Determine what is reasonable and go just a bit past it so you have a strong target but will also have a reasonable chance of achievement.

T is for Time-Sensitive

I used to have a poster in my room when I was in middle and high school of a basketball hoop with the text “Goals are dreams with deadlines.” While my aspirations of becoming a professional basketball player expired with my last growth spurt (at the ripe old age of 12 – I’ve been 6’ tall since middle school), that statement has always stuck with me. Use this strategy to break larger goals into smaller pieces and set a tiered goal for one objective.

Let’s bring it all together – Specific, Measurable, Action-wording, Reasonable, Time-sensitive.

On December 31, 2012 I have lost 19 pounds of fat and am feeling lean, mean, and incredibly energized. I will lose the fat by exercising for at least 90 minutes per week, reducing my cupcake intake to one per week, and taking the dog on a daily walk.

On March 31, I have lost 8 pounds and am feeling empowered by my progress.

On June 30, I have lost 4 more pounds (total of 12) and can see the changes.

On September 30, I have lost 3 more pounds (total 15) and am almost there.

5 Action Steps for Creating Your Own Powerful Goals

1. For Whom Are You Goal Setting?
   Only you can answer this question. Why are you losing weight? Why are you increasing your sales numbers? Why do you want to spend more time at home? What does an extra $1,000 per week mean to you? Determine the WHY behind your goal and dial in on it. If you’re losing the weight for someone else, it won’t work nearly as well as if you’re doing it for yourself.
2. Live the Achievement.
   Write down how you will feel once you’ve achieved the goal. Go deeper – visualize your LIFE once you have achieved those goals. Are you happier? How does your spouse look at you? How do your children talk about you? How do your coworkers see you?
3. Reinforce Your Goal.
   As human beings, we are motivated by pleasure – seeking out things that please us – and pain – avoiding things that hurt us. To reinforce the power of your goal and the need to achieve it, write down what happens if you DON’T achieve that goal.
4. Commit. Commit to your outcome.
   Pour yourself into your goal – invest yourself in your own results.
5. Plan.
   Put a plan together to achieve each goal. Break it down into pieces. How are you going to lose the weight? How are you going to increase your client list? How are you going to spend more time at home with the kids? What are you going to do to increase your business’ brand value?

Some have been around for years while others have been around for a short time. They are all heavily regulated, but what they offer and how much they charge are items that vary greatly. Choosing the best self-directed IRA custodian is going to depend on a variety of factors.

• How many transactions do you think you will do each year?
• How much do you have in your account?
• Are you making contributions or just looking to grow what’s in there now?
• How old are you and what is your time frame on that capital?
• Are you self-employed? If so, do you need tax breaks on contributions?

These questions will at least give you a start. Let’s examine each one.

Self-Directed IRA Number of Transactions

While there is no limit to how many transactions you can do, we all have limits to our patience for mundane forms and fax numbers (yes, people do still fax). Some self-directed IRA custodians offer what is called “checkbook control” over retirement assets and others do not. If you are going to do several transactions per year (tax lien investing, property flipping, note flipping, note portfolios) then you might want to cross any company that doesn’t offer checkbook control off your list.

With checkbook control, you as the retirement account owner can directly invest on behalf of the retirement account. You don’t need to fill out transfer forms or any other nonsense with the self-directed IRA custodian.

Self-Directed IRA Balance and Options

If you have less than $20,000 in your IRA or rollover 401k, you will want to take a long, ahrd look at the fees that each company charges upfront vs. the yearly maintenance fee. If you have a substantial balance, say over $70,000 you will want to put more emphasis on the annual fees. Some self-directed IRA custodians charge a flat fee after a hefty upfront fee. That hefty upfront fee easily is made up for by the ongoing flat fee compared to a percentage of assets.

If you are just starting out, you may not want to go self-directed quite yet. Sock your maximum contribution into a TD Ameritrade, or bank IRA account until you have enough in there after a year or two to justify the expense of having a self-directed program.

Self-Directed IRA Contributions and Maximum Contributions for Self-Directed IRAs

The 2012 maximum contribution to a self-directed IRA is $5,000. For self-directed SEP (Self Employed Pension) IRAs this amount could be increased to up to $11,500 if you are under 50 years old and $14,000 if you are 50 or over. Self-employed individuals can contribute up $49,000 tax deductible to a 401k program that can also be self-directed.

Okay, Now What?

You have your IRA set up, you’ve chosen the best ira plan for your unique situation. Now what. What do you do with the money? How do you direct your self-directed IRA?

The great thing here is that you have several choices. YOu aren’t bound by the traditional restrictions of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and index funds. You can get involved in options trading, forex, futures, and even better – real estate and notes.

You can take your retirement account and invest in income-producing property. You could buy TICs (tenant-in-common interests). A TIC is where a large property – typically a commercial office complex or multifamily property – is separated into small pieces. Each TIC investor owns a piece of that larger property and enjoys a pro rata share of the income produced by that property.

If you can arrange to purchase a property for $75,000 and you can rent that property out for $900 per month, the rate of return is going to be between 10-14% per year without accounting for any type of appreciation. You could purchase the same property inside your IRA and then sell it on terms to someone on seller financing, sell your note on the secondary market and reap a significant reward.

The options are truly endless…

Real estate investing and note investing are 100% based on filling your funnel with quality leads. In order to do so we need two things – a list or a prospect database, and a way of reaching out to them. After that, it’s all experience and execution – that’s the easy part.

Online Marketing for Real Estate Investors

Marketing online is a pretty important aspect of your marketing plan, and one that we’ll spend a lot of time addressing in the future. If you don’t know how to market online for your business, try investing some time into listening to some internet marketing podcasts like Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Podcast and check out one of the thousands of internet marketing blogs out there.

Direct Mail and Traditional Marketing for Real Estate Investors

I feel obligated to tell you that traditional marketing is not dead. Many people think that Facebook, LInkedIn, Twitter, and Google Plus are the future of business and they may be. I will assure you though that in the immediate future there is no substitute for a conversation, a coffee, and a handshake.

Cold Calling

Dialing for dollars. What an apt description. Cold calling is not for the feint of heart, but neither is starting a business. So, my advice to you is comb the internet or check out the resources I have here on cold calling and acquiesce to the fact that it produces results and that if you want to maximize your reach, you will want to include it in your marketing plan.

Signage – Bandit Signs & Billboards, Bulletins

There are a lot of real estate investors who have profited significantly just from bandit sign placement. There are others who have invested in billboards and knocked it out of the park. For locating deals, billboards and bandit signs are fantastic marketing efforts. White text on a blue background seems to be the most reliable color scheme and the higher the placement on the poles the better. Know your local regulations before you go wallpapering your community or the code inspector may call you for an appointment and  fine you for your trouble.

With billboards it’s really all about cost benefit analysis. Billboards don’t make sense for the investing in notes business as it is such a small niche compared to foreclosure hunting, equity hunting, and distressed sellers.

Bulletins are better saved for marketing to renters and prospective buyers on owner financing.

Buying a List & Direct Mail

List buying is a great way to locate absentee owners and a variety of other high-conversion prospect categories. Getting the list is much easier than grabbing their attention. Consider using a yellow letter mail service that actually writes your script on traditional lined yellow note paper to stand out from the crowd. Some of the yellow letter mail clients are seeing a 16% response rate!

Reverse Ad Marketing

For investing in notes, there are two main profit centers – flipping existing notes and manufacturing new notes. Manufacturing or creating new notes is called note manufacturing. We typically use direct mail to locate existing notes for sale. There are list providers that will sell you a list of owner financed mortgages that you can mail to pretty easily. Remember, high impact mail piece and know what to do with the lead if they call!

For note manufacturing, some of the best leads are existing ads. When someone markets a property for sale and includes the keywords “owner will carry” or “seller financing” they are a great potential note manufacturing candidate. This is where you become a note specialist and walk them through the transaction and part of the deal could be you selling their note on the secondary market and making a fee. You could integrate yellow letter mail here as well to create an additional touchpoint as well as phone calls, email, and postcard marketing.

5 Powerful Tips for Real Estate Investor Marketing and Note Investor Marketing

1. When placing bandit signs in areas where placing bandit signs is “discouraged” try posting on Friday evening and pulling them either really late Sunday night or really early Monday morning. Code inspectors don’t typically work weekends.
2. Personal branding is a great supplement to your direct mail and signage compaigns. Before they call, they’re going to Google you. What are they going to find? If the answer is nothing, or they’re going to find some dubious stuff, you need to work on your reputation management and personal branding online.
3. Track your progress. Especially for direct mail, start tracking your progress. Signage too. Does blue and white work better than black and yellow? Do yellow letter mail pieces work better than postcards? Do door hangers work better than post-its?
4. Set cold call goals that have nothing to do with money. If you’re going to make calls, and I strongly suggest you do, then track the calls. How many did you make? How many people picked up? How many appointments did you set? How many appointments did you have? How many deals did you do? This way you can track and if you need 100 calls for 1 deal and you want to do 10 deals you can fiigure out how that works.
5. Be ready for objections. Every once in a while and I mean once in a WHILE, you may get someone who says – I just want out. Most of the time, you’re going to need to guide someone into the deal and to do so you will have to overcome objections. Find out the top 8-10 objections and have a response for EACH one. Study, memorize, make part of your thought pattern.

I teach thousands of new and seasoned investors basic real estate investment principles. From real estate investing for beginners to advanced note investing concepts for the most advanced real estate investors, the common theme is capital, credit, and aptitude for starting a business. Let’s tackle the most important one first.

Aptitude for Starting a Business

You thought it was going to be capital didn’t you? It’s not. You can make money without money. You need to have the hustle though. What I mean by hustle is your willingness to embrace and overcome fear. What are you willing to do? To sacrifice? It’s not just you that will have to make sacrifices. Your spouse, your family, will all have to make sacrifices for you to pursue this especially if you don’t have a lot of capital to invest.

Time, Money, and Fear

These are the three biggies. Time is something we should all hold more dear than anything else – it’s not like you can go out and make more time. Money should be invested in a business opportunity, not spent. Fear should be considered, discussed from the standpoint of RISK, and then decided upon.

Most of my students battle with fear more than anything else. I’m not going to talk about fear of success because frankly either I don’t understand it or it doesn’t exist. I’m afraid of losing money. I’m afraid of risking what I have. I’m not afraid of making $10 million.

The fear of loss is intense, especially if you are risking hard-won assets in the pursuit of something foreign. My experience with thousands of investor clients over the past 8 years is that the fear of embarrassment is more intense. They’re afraid of losing in the public forum. They don’t want to be seen as “the guy who did a bad deal”. If you care so much about what other people think that you will let it inhibit your own personal success, then you should not start a business.

Available Capital

If you’re starting with less than $10,000, you are going to want to focus on what we call wholesaling. You’ll be spending a lot of time and effort on marketing for potential sellers and then immediately locking those properties up and selling to your buyer’s list. How to invest 10000 is very different than if you have a bit more to work with but all investors should understand the wholesale model.

If you have between $10,000 and $100,000 you can start considering the purchase of rental properties, lease option properties, or properties that you sell on terms for residual income. You need to consider your goals now more than ever when determining what type of purchases and exit strategies you want to entertain.

How to invest 10000 and how to invest 100000 is going to be pretty similar in that neither goes very far in the real estate world, not even in really depressed markets like Phoenix where you can pick up houses for $50-60,000. So learning what wholesale model is really important to your success.

If you have more than $100,000 and you know nothing about real estate investing, you may have some managed account options. This is where you can pool your investment with a handful of other investors and it is typically managed by a company for a percentage of profits and a small management fee.

Conversely, you could put large down payments on mid-level properties for the tax advantages of depreciable rental properties, buy some low priced properties all cash and create notes for low-hassle income, and several other strategies including commercial property, land speculation, and tax lien and deed investing.

A word of caution – the uneducated investor is a dangerous one. If you are trying to figure out how to invest 100000 and you have no experience, strongly consider joint venturing with a successful investor in your market or anywhere really that can mitigate your risk while still producing a profit for your capital.

Credit

If you have lousy credit, you’re back to wholesaling. Even with great credit, the lending climate is difficult right now. You could have all your ducks in a row – good credit, great down payment money, and a good job, but perhaps you’re self-employed or in a declining market according to some appraiser. Those little factors can inhibit your ability to get a loan.

Get a handle on where you are right now with your credit. Pull your report and score and make sure you understand all the influencing factors. If your score is lousy, invest $400-$700 in a real credit repair program. Don’t pay someone $20 per month because it’s cheap. Your results will be a long way away as their interest is to charge you as many months as possible. Pay upfront, pay a lot, and execute.

Investing for Beginners

Most financial advisors would tell you that investing for beginners is a bad idea completely. That’s because they want you to invest your money with them. Remember, when you are looking for advice on investing for beginners or even if you’re more advanced, know the source of your advice. Is it someone that has achieved your financial goals? Is it someone who has practical knowledge of the options you are considering?

Investing IS for beginners – we must all start somewhere. Take control of your financial future!

Tax Lien Certificates Rate of Return

When you purchase tax lien certificates, you need to be focused purely on the rate of return. Each state has its own statutory maximum interest rate the can be realized by a tax lien certificate holder. Some states are better than others and each state has its own procedure. Fore example, Florida bids the interest rate down to determine who gets the certificate at the auction. Not all states are going to go this route.

The odds of you actually getting the property from a tax lien certificate purchase are pretty slim. In fact, it’s going to be exclusive to properties with no underlying mortgage. This could be a profitable niche for you to explore (for example inheritance properties) but expect it to take a lot of time.

The rate of return that you can expect by making a well-executed tax lien certificates investing business is between 12-16% per year. Not too shabby when comparing to traditional investment options like the stock market, bond market, or CDs at banks.

Tax Deeds

With tax deeds you are shooting for the property itself so it’s absolutely vital that you can quickly assess the value of the property. Know the redemption period in each state in which you’re buying and make sure you are taking title directly in the name of an entity to avoid potential EPA issues. Also, tax deeds are typically going to cost more on a per unit basis, so develop your lines of credit early and often.

5 Strategies for Successful Tax Lien Certificates Investing

1. Get access to comparable sales engines. Zillow.com has some cursory data on comps, but filtering is kind of tough. Realtors will pull comps for you for a while, but buying tax liens isn’t going to give them a commission. Invest in something like realquest.com to get your comp data that is filterable so you know what you’re bidding on.
2. Get a proxy for out-of-state bidding. You’ll go broke real fast if you have to fly to every auction in which you want to participate. Find a proxy bidder who can go on your behalf and bid for you at the auction. Word of caution – make sure they are reputable and you can get references. They have a lot of power.
3. Know the rules. Know all of the rules and requirements of each auction in which you want to participate. If you have to register ahead of time, do so. If you need cash within 10 days with 30% at the auction, then have those funds available.
4. Find the players. Every auction has four or five guys who have been bidding for years. Find out who they are and network. See what they’re buying.
5. Don’t omit the OTC market. There are a lot of tax liens and deeds that go to auction and aren’t bid on. These can create an immediate opportunity for property ownership. Make sure you know your due diligence steps!

Commit to Success

You can’t go halfway. You have to go past the job description. You have to do more than you’ve been doing. You have to work smarter than you have been. You have to be committed.

If you are looking to start a business, be sure that you are ready for the trials that you will certainly face. It all comes down to your motivation for making that decision to begin with.

Unrealistic Expectations

For example, this weekend, I had a client who came to one of my workshops to learn about how he could take advantage of today’s real estate and mortgage market. He told me he was retired, but in reality, his wife was taking care of him financially by working a 40-hour week. He had every reason to get involved – free time, need for additional income, and money to work with. The problem was that he wanted to skip the work part and the commitment part and get straight to the success.

He wanted to work 1.5-3 hours per week. Let’s be serious for a minute here. You can’t really do anything 1.5 hours a week and be successful! You can’t go half in or in this case, even less than half in. You have to commit 100% – not 100% of your time, but 100% of your investment in the outcome of your exploits.

Get Rich Quick vs. Work Now for Tomorrow’s Life

I listen to a really great podcast. It’s called “Smart Passive Income”. For most people, that would throw up a flag and for the rest, it would be the illusion of a magic wand that can be waived to immediate riches. I applaud the author of the podcast for explaining “Get Rich Quick”.

Most of us work until retirement to enjoy a retirement lifestyle equal to that of our working years. Sadly, that isn’t going to happen for 94% of Americans. Get rich quick doesn’t mean immediately, it means quicker than you thought you could before.

What Does Rich Really Mean?

And while we’re at it, let’s define “rich”. What does it mean? Let me post this question: If you make enough to equal all of your expenses and not a penny more either doing what you love or nothing at all, are you financially free?

YES! Financial freedom isn’t some mythical amount of money in the bank – it’s income for a lifestyle that you enjoy!

You Need a MAP

So how long could it take to get to this level? There are dozens of ways to create passive income. There are hundreds of ways to reduce the amount of time invested in active income activities to make it more passive.

What you really need is a M.A.P. – a Massive Action Plan – to help you achieve your goals. Note that

Instead of worrying about going half-assed into a deal, business, or new opportunity, focus instead of no longer going half-assed through your life.

Invest time now and reap the rewards for your entire life!

5 Ways to Reduce Inefficiencies and Free Up More Time:

1. Stop Multitasking.
   For those of you who know me, you probably just got a big chuckle – Stef (my wife if you’re curious), if you’re reading this you’re probably rolling your eyes and thinking all sorts of unmentionable things about my ADD. Despite thinking we’re good at multitasking, we in fact completely suck at it. Studies show that women are better than men (oh the humanity!), neither gender is especially good at it. Instead, make a list, focus, and check those suckers off.
2. List Management vs. List Overload.
   To do lists are great, I have dozens (see #1 above). Originally, making lists was something I did to get organized, but it only resulted in a maniacal stress level. You see, I was making my lists with big projects. Instead, I learned that I needed to break each project down into bite sized pieces. If I put “Redo website” at the top of a to do list, I’m assuring myself it will never get done. Instead, I could break it down – sketch out flow, website purpose statement, etc.
3. Outsource.
   But wait, I thought you were a fiscal conservative?! Well yes I am, which is why I think you should outsource. Look, I love America and I think it’s the best country on earth. That said, for menial tasks like SEO (search engine optimization), keyword analysis, backlinking, web programming, video transcripts, and several other things are best left for those who only charge $5 per hour. You can find hundreds of contractors to bid on your work online. To learn more, search this site for “virtual assistant” or click here for all posts related to VAs.
4. Turn off the TV.
   Again, my friends would laugh. In violation of this number and #1 above, I used to (nearly always) have some type of video running on my second monitor in my office. Then, I had the epiphany that I get my best work done on an airplane… why? I don’t have room to watch a video and do work. I can’t focus with podcast speak in my ears if I’m trying to type. So, I fire up some non-english wording music and pound away at the keys. Eliminating these distractions helped immensely! Back to the topic at hand: you waste an inordinate amount of time in front of the television – at least 10 hours a week and three times that for the average American. Turn it off – get your crap done, then turn it on (or don’t).
5. Stop Checking Your Email (so often).
   I have definitely learned these five things from my own experience. I check my email at least 20-30 times a day. It’s an obsession. It’s like being able to check the mail multiple times per day. You have to stop (so do I). Checking email interrupts your thought patterns and it’s hard to get back into your productivity flow. Schedule two or three times a day to check email. If you find yourself replying to the same email conversation three or four times, pick up the phone and have the conversation you’re delaying with email.

When you finally make the difficult decision to push your boundaries and expand your financial horizons, lose that weight you’ve been trying to lose, and do anything else that’s not inside your comfort zone, you will always have people who doubt you.

This is never more true than when you take a chance – switch careers, start a business, buy a property – financially. People, especially those who care for you and fear for you, will try to steer you way from what they believe to be financial ruin.

Fly With Eagles

It’s more than that. They are terrified not of you losing money, but of you escaping their world by achieving success. It’s scary how violently some people will react when you tell them about what you are doing! Surround yourself with positive, like-minded people. If that means that you have to fire your friends, then that is something you should definitely consider.

Overcome Fear

When we embark on a new journey, there is a large element of fear involved. There are certainly ways to reduce the risk, but the fear is always there. You don’t need someone pulling you down when you’re trying to get up. You don’t need someone to remind you of the risk you’re taking when your fear is at its highest. Stay positive. Put a plan together and execute it. You are worth it!

5 Must Do’s When Setting Goals for Starting a NewVenture

1. Set Reachable, but Challenging Goals.
   Speak to other people who have done what you’re attempting to do. Find out what a reasonable expectation is in the first 6 months, 12 months, and 2 years. Make sure you set reasonable goals but don’t make them so easy to attain that they won’t challenge you to achieve.
2. Write Down Your Goals and Share Them.
   Once you’ve set your goals write them down as if you have already achieved them and put them somewhere you will see them every day (bathroom mirror, etc.).
3. Determine Your Reasons for Success.
   When your goals are money, there’s always an underlying reason for that money. Is it more time with your family? Is it to be able to have a more secure retirement? Find out the REASON for the money.
4. Remind Yourself of the Cost.
   We’ve set our goals and we know why we’ve set them. As human beings we respond to either pain or pleasure. The goals have the pleasure taken care of. If you’re like me you need a double dose of motivation se we need to remind ourselves of what happens, or what is our life like, if you don’t achieve that goal?
5. Put a Plan Together.
   Setting goals are great – it’s a powerful exercise. You need to have a plan to achieve those goals or they aren’t going to be reached. Identify the steps you need to take. How are you going to generate leads? How many sales do you need to make in order to reach your goals? How long will it take you to close each one?

Real estate investing, note investing, and stock market investing are the hardest things to learn, but once you’ve learned them they are the easiest things to do.

Invest in a coach, get coached, and play the game with someone in your corner!