Episode 96 | Beka Shea | Military Millionaire Podcast

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's up military millionaires, today's episode is with Becca Shea of seven figure flipping, I got to first hear her speak on the stage at flip hacking live about accountability and goals and this episode is going to drastically help you improve your efficiency as well as understand some of the key things that go into a good mastermind group that will help you stay accountable stay on track with your goals and even some little things that can save you time like well you know what, I'm not going to ruin that so stay put till the end this episode is awesome.

Again as always show notes are found at Frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast. Now relax, enjoy the show.

Intro:

You're listening to the military millionaire podcast, a show about real estate investing for the working class. Stay tuned as we explore ways to help you improve your finances, build wealth through real estate and become a person that is worth knowing.

David:

Hey guys, if you're looking to take your investing, business, life or just yourself to the next level, then I have something for you. The War Room real estate military mastermind group is a mastermind group that meets weekly in small groups of five to six people to help you hold yourself accountable and really experience that growth.

But we also have a monthly guest speaker that we bring in and we've had guest speakers talk about mindfulness taxes, or bringing in somebody to talk about marketing, we bring in very specific topics that will adhere to very broad any any kind of real estate investing or investing or entrepreneurship that you want to do, and will really help you out.

And we let you ask these speakers questions and get very personal with them. And then back to the small groups, weekly accountability for what you're trying to achieve and just being surrounded by like minded people, and they say your network is your net worth.
I know that's an overused phrase, but I recommend that you check it out. So just shoot An email to Wr[email protected]. Once again, that's [email protected].
And we'll send you some more information.

David:

Hey, what's up everybody?
It’s Dave with the military millionaire podcast. And I'm here with Becca Shea who is a Navy veteran who works with seven figure flipping, and I got to hear her speak, flipping live on goals, accountability, and she was awesome.
The whole event was awesome. And so I'm just really glad that I'm able to get her on the show this time. Last time we recorded I am ashamed to say I, for the first time ever slept through a recording. It was fun.

So Beka thanks for being willing to be flexible with me. And thanks for joining us today.

Beka:

Well, we can thank the craziness of COVID for you sleeping through it. It's not like it was a normal time in your life.

David:

That's, that's fair. So why don't you tell the audience a little bit about some backstory that we're gonna dig into some fun stuff today?

Beka:

Sure. So I grew up the youngest of four daughters from Pennsylvania.
That's where I now live after Military galavan sitting around, and I decided to join the Navy ROTC. I thought in high school, I was like, I want to be a pilot. I want to fly things. So I did. Maybe ROTC, got a degree in mechanical engineering, got out, went to flight school, my eyesight disqualified me, it was sad.

But the interesting thing is like I had set that dream 10 years previously to be a pilot. And by the time I was actually at the point of becoming, you know, being a flight school, things have changed.
And I realized that maybe that setback really wasn't as huge a setback and it allowed me to do some other things at that time. It was to serve my time and get out and start a family. Because, you know, at that time, I know that the policies have gotten a lot better, but at that time, it was like 30 days you can go back to see after you have a baby and I don't know how often they actually did that. But it was not exciting to me.

So I was in a different place in my life, right? So I served on George Washington, there. It was my last duty station. And we did some really cool stuff there. I'll be forever grateful for that.

And then I got out and actually went to put to work that mechanical engineering degree that Uncle Sam paid for thankfully, I did energy efficiency work for the federal government actually, it was a nice tie in. So we would go to like VA hospitals and bases.
And we would either build power plants, or we would do like lighting or steam traps, or, I mean, you know, how bases are there. They were built forever a day ago, and I've had no capital improvements.

So the company I work for would basically fund the capital improvements out of energy savings. It's kind of like my first foray into commercial construction stuff and these huge timelines and logistics, you know, how do we do a 100 million dollar project at eight different VA hospitals in six months, or at least plan it in six months, the construction would then take a year or so.

David:

The fastest moving government contractors ever.

05:00 - 10:00

Beka:

Yeah, we were fast. So while I was doing that I had my babies and after I had my third daughter, even though I loved my job, I had to go wherever the bases were.
So I was traveling all the time. I mean, I was nine months, right? Oh, sorry, I was nine months pregnant, eight months pregnant. And I traveled for six weeks.
I was literally like, I probably shouldn't have been doing this. I now know. But I was climbing up ladders, like onto the roof, me and my big belly.

And this is pretty typical for being a woman in a male dominated world like at first the military and then engineering. I think they were afraid of me like the other male engineers were a little afraid to tell me no, I couldn't do that thing. So I would just do it and I look back I'm like, they should have told me no.

But I did that. And then I was traveling so much that I really wanted to spend some more time at home so I when I was on maternity leave was like my husband. I've always talked about flipping house, let's flip the house.

And that was a whole fun journey, which I can go into like how I did it. I ended up partnering up with someone who also had never done it before and we kind of like helped me buddy system up right to get through this experience. It was great. We bought it from a wholesaler. And I did that first year. I rehabbed three houses. I quit my full time job than I did six houses. Then I set a goal to do one house a month. And right about that time was when Bill Allen was my roommate at flight school, actually. And he caught, we had gotten in touch.

So my passion is accountability and logistics. And we had gotten in touch as I set this goal to do one house a month. Somehow he and I could reconnect. I think I talked about flip hacking live. It was a Facebook random Facebook post that he responded to. And he said I'm thinking about rehabbing houses so he joined this group seven figure flipping called me from the first meeting and was like, You know me, I don't be as you should be in this room, like It's the place to be. And I was like, no.

It's a lot of money to join a mastermind, it was $25,000. At the time. I was like, absolutely not. He's like, look, if you do one more deal, I was averaging around 20k net profit on my rehab. So can you do one more deal? Then it's a wash. And if you do two more deals, and you made money on your membership, I'm like, alright. Plus, it was Bill. So like, he is no BS.

David:

I'm a fan for sure.

Beka:

Yeah. So, um, so I joined that group, and I didn't realize it was called seven figure flipping, but when I joined it, it was actually mostly wholesalers. And I didn't really have any experience aside from buying a couple deals from wholesalers. I didn't really know that world. I didn't know how it worked. And there were definitely some rehabbers in there as well.

So I got this kind of back end exposure to wholesalers. And I think up until that point, I had this kind of negative opinion of wholesalers like they're kind of slimy sleaze bags and salesy like salesmen, right? No good deals. But then I got to meet Andy McFarland, who has got to be the nicest, sweetest most ethical person in the world. And, and he showed me how his business ran, and how he approached sales, which is very much like it has to be a win win for all parties, like the seller has to benefit, your end buyer investor has to benefit. And in the middle, we hope that they both see value and we get paid.

So I saw that they all opened up their systems, and I thought I could do this. So I started wholesaling. And over the past couple years, I've rehabbed about 60 houses of wholesale around 120 deals. I've had a team of seven or eight people, I've had no people. You know, I started a construction company. And then as a typical entrepreneurial journey somewhere around early last year, I was spread way too thin trying to do all the things and I kind of stepped back and said, alright, you've done all the things now and I have rentals I've done rehabbing. I've done wholesaling. I stumbled into doing marketing analytics for some other investors who tend to be much more on the sales side of things, right? They're really good at making the deals happen and have no idea what's happening with the dollars they're spending.

So I started doing work for them and, and, and it came out and they were like, you do this thing. It's really good. It's a need that's not being filled. Why don't you just do marketing consulting for other investors, you hate the sales piece of wholesale and I hate the sales piece. And so I decided I was going to throw all my eggs in that basket and then just keep rehabbing a couple houses on the side. And Bill at right around the same time. The guy who started seven figure flipping Justin Williams approached him and said, I'm looking to do something else would you want to take over the mastermind?'' So kind of around the same transition point bill was like, whoa, I'm taking over this group. We started it together. back then. You know, in 2016, we've been on this journey together. I would like you to come aboard full time. Like if you're going to do something else. This is something else. So, I'm sorry, I feel like I'm talking at times. But.

10:00 - 15:00

David:

No no, this is exciting.

Beka:

But so the reason why Bill asked me to come aboard is that probably about this is what I talked about slip hacking live around three years previously, I had read this book called The 12 week year. I heard about it on the Brian Buffini podcast, those of those resources I recommend your listeners check out.

And this book kind of changed my life a little bit. No, first a lot actually. It changed the way that I viewed goals goal setting and accomplishing things from this kind of one year like over the next year I'm going to flip 12 houses because what happens when you view things in like the 12 month spectrum, you wait till like month nine to realize, oh, crap, I got to do a bunch of stuff. So if you break things, there's something about the human psyche. It really works well in this 90 day three month window. And there's a bunch of different accountability and goal setting strategies based around that time frame. But 12 week ago was the one I read.

And it was basically like, Okay, if you want to flip 12 houses in a year, that means you got to flip three houses in the next three months. So let's just focus on that. What does that mean? What are the actions surrounding just just forget about 12 houses in a year, just focus on getting three done as fast as you can.

So I started running in 2017, I want to say maybe at the end of 2016 I started, I basically read this book, and I said, this is awesome. And one of the key components is having this weekly accountability meeting, where it's just you and a couple other people. And I might say to you, hey, Dave, I'm gonna make if my goal is to flip three houses, I gotta buy three houses. So I'm committing to making 10 offers every week on houses, and I would meet with you every Monday morning. 20 minutes and you just tell Beka how many offers that you make for 12 weeks. That's it. That's the only thing we talk about is my actions and how much I completed them.

So I started doing this in like 2017. And bringing in groups and then you know, grew from like, three people to 12 people to 25 people, somewhere around 30 people, we realized, that's too many to have a weekly meeting. So then we started breaking up into small groups. And when I came aboard a seven figure flipping bill was like, that's it, I just want you to do that. I want you to help investors, focus on the next 12 weeks, break it down, get them into a small group, and figure out what the right actions are to move the needle and just do that. So that's what I do.

David:

Yeah, which is awesome. So I have read the 12 week year and although I read audio audiobooks, so I didn't, I probably didn't absorb as much of it as I could have. But I've been doing 90 day goals. It's just easier to keep. For one it's easier but for two it actually challenges you because you're exactly right. If I said I was gonna write a book by the end of this year, I don't feel like writing today. So I've got a whole year to do it. Yeah. But, you know, but if I say I'm gonna write a book by June 1, I don't feel like writing today, but I don't. I got the right choice. Yeah. And so I've always, well, not always, but I've been a fan of that concept for sure.

Beka:

And now imagine every Monday you had somebody saying, David, you said you were gonna write five days last week? Did you?

David:

Yeah, so I don't know that I have a specific interest in a mastermind group. And it's wonderful.
I don't know if I specifically do it like that. So I'm probably just gonna add that in. But yeah, yeah, but it's it's accountability is huge.

So you transitioned into helping people out with goals and accountability. What are some of the things that you think go into that? Like, what, uh, what would be some advice you would give? If someone was thinking they were going to start a call, like, what would that look like if they were just like, Oh, it's a great idea. I'm going to start a call.

Beka:

I think about so many things. The preparation is key, like people you win or lose that 12 weeks. Before you even start, if you don't set a very clear, you know, we talked about smart goals, specific, Measurable, achievable, relevant time bound, the 12 weeks is the time bound. But a lot of times I'll see people set a goal like I want to increase my marketing and you don't know if how do you know if you've succeeded or not like what that looks like?
It has to have a number on it and, and increasing marketing should really be what is like the outcome of increasing marketing, right? So that should really look something like, if I'm getting two appointments a week right now off my marketing. I want to get five appointments a week for the next 12 weeks. So that's 60 appointments, right? That's your goal, get 60 appointments in 12 weeks.

So right there. That's my advice. It's like if your goal doesn't have a number in it, it's it's not clear enough. How do you know if you did it or not when you get to the end of 12 weeks, and then in the actions, really digging into this is what people don't like is that the grunt work is really what produces most of the results. And people want just the quick solution, the quick fix, like, I want to get 60 appointments. So I'm going to send, I don't know what the number of mail pieces is 60,000 mail pieces right?

15:00 - 20:00

Beka:

Today, but that's really the most beneficial thing would be to send 10,000 a week or 5000 a week every week. And that's just the first piece to getting an appointment then the second you know, the first piece is like, make sure your marketing goes out consistently every week.

The second piece would be to answer your phone live like 80% of the time. And then the third piece might be five minute follow ups to every missed phone call or 10 minutes. I mean if you're working a job that might not be realistic, right but but definitely responding to the calls as soon as possible, whatever that is in your world, and then maybe it's some way to make an offer on every appointment.

The number of people who go on appointments or like I'll get back to you, you're like, well, I went on five appointments by getting contracts. So if you just did those consistent actions over and over and over and over, you probably get to your goal.

David:

It's funny you say that because the phone call piece like having been a recruiter, the asking for commitment and the returning phone call or answering the phone when it rings or like it's one thing to have to like cold call and if someone but I remember like when I first started and I was terrible at recruiting, it was like, it'd be on the phone in my head I'm like, please don't answer please don't answer your voicemail. Oh, no, please. Like because I just you just get sick of like the rejection piece or or it's awkward or, or what ifs are but I like that you you.

We didn't necessarily touch on it but you focus on lead measures in that a lot of people, they get like you mentioned, you know, hey, I want to lose weight. Well, great, you know, but if you want to lose 10 pounds, like, what are you going to do? Because you could say you want to lose 10 pounds all day, but like the goal should be what actions will you take to make that happen? Like, that's the base.

Beka:

Like losing 10 pounds is a lag indicator. It comes as a result, what are the leading actions? Yeah, that's a great way to look at it. So that I mean, it's something I'm super passionate about. And I think that's honestly, the nicest reason to have an accountability partner, is to have someone sit down and really ask you that question, is it measurable? Will you know at the end of this session that you achieved it or not concretely, and then what's the most impactful so you're only supposed to pick three to five actions every week. So there are lots of things you could do to get appointments.

But pick the three most impactful and it might be different for everybody like one of the guys in our group. You're, he's awesome. He set a goal to do driving for dollars. He wanted to launch a successful driving for dollars marketing campaign. And so he committed to I wish I can remember off the top of my head it was something like four hours a week of driving, sending letters to everyone on his driving for dollar list and then probably answering the phone live or something like that.

It was simple. But I gotta tell you, within week one or week two, he's like, I had my accountability meeting today. So yesterday, I had to go out for like five hours right before it and go do my driving, right? It just helped him stay consistent. And he's gotten like, I think he just got his fourth contract off of it. Now. That was his goal back in from October to January.

So for backing live to January, he did a driving for dollars small group accountability. Now we're in April, May, we're in May. And he's gotten four contracts off of it. And that was a zero dollar marketing channel.

David:

So yeah, that's a huge ROI. And yeah, I mean, even at a low end like 5000 on a deal, which is, I know, plenty depending on your market, that's super low. But I mean, that's, you know, I mean, that's nonetheless that's, I mean, in my market that I invested in, that's half a median salary off, you're around for, you know, a few hours.

Beka:

A few hours a week for 12 weeks. And then, you know, maybe an hour of follow up sending letters and answering calls and stuff, but I just, I just can't like stress enough the power of consistent action, which is we kind of talked about this before we started recording, but like, that's the thing that entrepreneurs struggle with consistent execution.

We have all the ideas, and we really want to get to the point of hiring somebody to execute all the ideas, but that's not where we start. We got to start by being consistent and I had this epiphany last week because I'm, that's something I'm really focusing on right now is consistent execution, automations. You're streamlining stuff. And I was like, man, I guess there's no secret to it is an execution. The only secret is to consistently execute.

20:00 - 25:00

David:

Yes. 1% better every day, right? And the worst part about that, and it's almost like a mindset shift in a way that, like, I will, at the end of the day, if I didn't accomplish everything on my little checklist, I will like talk myself out of like, I'll feel like it was a wash I'll get I'll get in bed or whatever. And I like doing my journal at the end of the day. I'm like, God, I forgot to do that. In that order. Today was such a huge failure. I'm so unproductive. And then I'm like, looking at it. And I'm like, Oh, my God, like seven and a half hours of stuff that I did do. Yeah. Okay, you know, but it's like, there's this like, bug in the back of my head now that's just like, hey, you're, you're messing this up. You're not doing enough, do more.

Beka:

I think that's also the mindset too, is that we feel like entrepreneurs in general feel called to do more and bigger things and were very probably the harshest critics of ourselves, and so that that comes down to if I didn't accomplish it, I'm a failure.

And, look, you're not going to get out of this game without some failures. And the bigger your vision is, the bigger your failures are going to be. So start working on that mindset now.

David:

I love it. I love it. All right. So we mentioned something before the call about what service members have a little bit of an edge. All of this. Could you elaborate on that concept a little bit?

Beka:

Yeah. Back Back to the consistent execution thing. The accountability groups are great and seven figure flipping we do have and I made me think 15 or 20% of our membership is former military, but most of them aren't.

And I feel like they need the accountability groups because it is the thing that gets them to do it. But the cool thing about military members is we have a long history of doing what we don't want to do, because it needs to be done. Whether or not we feel like it like this is just what has to be done. This is the SOP This is how it gets accomplished. Just put your big boy pants on. Make it happen.

So, I have noticed that the military like I'm pretty sure Yuri, that guy I mentioned driving for dollars. Don't quote me on this. I'm pretty sure he's former military. You know, like, it's like, Hey, this is what I said I was gonna do. I'm gonna do it.

Like Bill we've done, he and I have done accountability groups, but for the most part, he just puts his mind to something he's like, Alright, I'm just gonna knock it out. So.

David:

Yeah, I agree. I think there's a I don't even know if it's an edge. Like, I've often wondered that like, what is what like, are these people who are self starters and they that's how they made it through recruit training, or is it like years of being told, hey, the hike starts at five but you need to be at the armory at 2:30 why this guy doing this thing doing this thing doing this thing. Just just be there. And you're like, okay, like, Alright, and then like, I wonder if that somehow I’ve got.

Beka:

The chicken or the egg, right?

Are our self starters drawn to the military therefore they're good at getting stuff done regardless of the circumstances, or does it train it into you. Maybe it's a little bit of both.

You know, what I think the military does really well, though, is show you because you get locked into a contract and an MLS, that I think that it shows you how to become an expert at something. And it's not a secret sauce, it's usually getting good training, and then consistently implementing that training over and over and over. I mean, you look at the guys who've been in 20 years, and like, they can just do their job cold in their sleep.

David:

Yeah, you're right. I mean, what is it the 10,000 hour rule? Yeah, I'm glad, but if people are like this in this day and age, people like to bounce around a lot. So maybe maybe it is just the fact that like, hey, look, you're stuck here. You're good at it like and the ability to turn that into relentless learning, maybe it would be a good way to put that out. You know, a lot of people harness that power into, like, how much alcohol can I put away this weekend.
But, I don’t know, hopefully.

Beka:

I’ve been that person once or twice, not a long time.

25:00 - 30:00

David:

I think it’s pre-req for joining the military. Not maybe not joining, but anyway, um, yeah, so that's, I mean, that's awesome.

Accountability is huge. I'm a huge fan of mastermind groups. I'm a huge fan of just even the accountability piece is great. But I think what's powerful about it is like, if, trying to find a way to word this, that doesn't sound like I'm a jerk, but it'll find if like, my mom or my, you know, somebody who, like felt obligated to tell me like, hey, you should do that. It wouldn't matter to me or if like a friend of mine that I was just like, some dude I grew up with in high school doesn't know the first thing about real estate was like, hey, did you drive your car today like to go away, but like the fact that you're with people who are like doing the same thing, and it's almost like I look up to them, but at the same time, we're kind of on a level playing field. But like, it's like the competition thing, I think adds to the ability because you're like, why can't let Joe beat me? Because he stuck to his goals, and I didn't. So I think that's like, another part of the secret sauce to masterminds is that it's just the people you're around. Because, yes, the accountability is huge. Yes, the goals are huge. But it's also like, who's holding you accountable with that? I think,

Beka:

Right. If you respect people, you know, it's gonna hurt a lot more to get in front of them. And I see this happen because we record so let's say in that one example, I gave like make 10 offers a week, if I show up and I say, I made six offers. I'm at 60% that week, and in 12 weeks here, they talk about if you're getting like 80 85% on average of your actions, you're likely to accomplish your goal. But if I have to show up and keep saying I'm at 50%, I'm at 60%. And meanwhile, you know, Joseph's over there and he's like, oh, man, 95 like, I was like, no way next week. I’m gonna make a hundred.

David:

Exactly. And that's the real power, right? You guys, everybody feeds off each other, they hold each other accountable and then also have people who aren't afraid to hold you accountable.

That's, you know, sometimes sometimes people are like, oh, it's okay.

Beka:

It's okay.

David:

No it’s not.

Beka:

Doughnuts this week. You'll lose that weight eventually.

David:

That seems to be the way that my office shows their affection. We have no windows. We don't ever go outside. But somehow donut day is like, at least twice a week. Oh, I want to show the office.

Beka:

You should make a salad day a thing.

David:

Yeah, well, I like to move the doughnuts out of sight. A thing and then people get mad that I moved on to another table. Like.

Beka:

Okay, you just do this. You can have a doughnut but you have to do 10 push ups. Yeah. pay to play here, buddy.

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Beka:

So you mentioned something about your to do list personally right now, one of the things that we noticed while we I noticed while going through all these accountability sessions with you know, probably about at this point we've put like, we've gone from, like 300 400 people, you know, sessions, that goal setting and the action setting was really hard. So we sat down a couple sessions ago and we said what are the main goals that the real estate investors in our group are going after, and you can scale it but number usually it's like number of contracts, number of appointments. Time to complete contracts if you want to get better at project management or wrapping your head around cash flow.

But by and large what I see, especially for the more experienced investors, we created this productivity section. And, and that's for the people who like to have 20 things. They've got a couple employees, they've got all these new ideas they're trying out and they're just, you know, like you at the end of the day, just feeling like I didn't get my stuff done.

So that actually is the session that I embarked on. And we're in the second week now. And it has been a like, huge for me, aside from the accountability piece, and like having someone check in to make sure I did the actions, the actions themselves, it's it's like you said it's your to do list brain dump everything, get it all out of your brain onto a piece of paper once a week.

Immediately this weight is going to lift off your shoulders, because you don't have to worry about forgetting something. And then writing out your schedule for the week. A common thing that I see happen is well I have a meeting from 10 to 11 so we can meet at 11, you know, and then you don't give yourself any downtime, there's no gaps, you don't think about the drive time if you have to drive, or even just the recoup time and the prep time. So like to write everything in your schedule. And make sure you see it that there's something about what they say when you write things down, you're seven times more likely to accomplish it.

But for me, I normally do those two things, the brain dump and the scheduling. But the two actions that have added in that have been just huge, have been the days so I actually stole this from I can't remember I think might be Andy for Sella. I saw him speak at TEDx. And he talked about every day he has his top three things that he has to accomplish to win the day if he gets those done. It's a success. If you get you know everything else on top of that's gravy, but those three things have to get done.

30:00 - 35:00

Beka:

And then the second thing is time blocks. So picking two slots, one or two slots every week, you're going to work on your business. In your business, I have to do my time locks first thing in the morning or else stuff impedes on it. You know I get caught up on a call or I feel like I have to get my day done. So I move my time blocks so like this morning from six to eight I worked on the thing that I'm working on right now is our 12 month membership experience right from the day you enter till the end of the 12 months, what happens where do you you know, what do we give you, where should you be engaged? What do we need from you?

And it was like 100 different tasks. I'm never going to set aside time to sit down normally. We use Asana for task processing so it was like it was the thing that has been on my mind for three months and I finally had morning time blocked. It was like this is important. It doesn't move the needle on the day to day it's not my actual win the day because this projects going to take me a month or two to roll out but I'm committing to two hours right here to do it.

So those two things when the days and the time blocks huge.

David:

I absolutely agree on time blocking and I think I've subconsciously been doing to win the day, kinda.

Beka:

Sounded like it from your..

David:

Because I definitely, I definitely write out my schedule, I definitely write out my most important, you know, next steps or whatever. But it's often not like these are the three most important. It's like a list and then I'm like check checked and I try to do like most least and I'll, you know, whatever.

I think it may be more intentional about like, these are the top three like today it would be sending out letters for the list. I just purchased cycling and I'm starting a podcast editing and partnering with my editor, so I need to get the site set up. So because I..

Beka:

If you just did those three things, and nothing else would you feel like today was productive?

David:

Yes.

Beka:

Yeah.

David:

Yeah. And that's good, because I have three other things on the list. You know, or four, or I don't know so yeah, that's that's good to know. Actually, a lot of those things are like little things too. That shouldn't matter. You know, like one of them is you have to send a check to the closing company or title company.

Beka:

Send gifts to moms because Mother's Day is Sunday.

David:

Thankfully, my wife already took care of that. She remembers things like that. She said she sent me the other day. She's like, oh, yeah, you know, I already sent your brother's birthday gift.

Beka:

That is a good woman right there.

David:

Oh, yeah,

that's coming up.

Beka:

My poor husband. I'm like, She's your mom.

David:

Oh, man,

Beka:

I love her. I mean, I will always make sure she gets a gift but I'm trying to train my husband to be intentional about these things. It's not working, we've been together for 20 years.

David:

I love it.

Yeah, time blocking is huge. And you know, you said you hit on what your time block is today. And that is something that I had to do. It took a lot for me to finally realize like you specifically said that what you did today isn't going to move the needle today but it will save you time. I can't remember there's a phrase for this and I can't remember what it is. But like the concept that if you take five hours a day to do something that's going to save you one hour every month, or one hour an hour every week, then it's 100% worth it.

Even if in your head, you're like, Oh, yeah, well, I could just spend one hour doing that today, instead of doing the five, like people think, oh, I don't want to spend five hours changing all this when I could just do it in one hour this week. But if you think about it as far as like, doing the five hour thing, replace that one hour for every week in the future, for example, just setting up a checklist and handing it to a virtual assistant or something like that.

You know, I can't remember what the phrase was that I heard used for that specific concept of like regaining your time, but it's not an easy thing to like, objectively say your. Yeah, but man, it's a game changer. The moment you can outsource something.

For example, it took me probably four hours to find a podcast editor and It has saved me at least one hour.

Beka:

But how long have you had to edit one of these podcasts yourself?

David:

Including the video and everything else? At least an hour.

Beka:

Yeah.

David:

And so now, you know, that's I do one or two episodes a week. So that four hours hiring someone finding someone that I'm now actually partnering up with the potential anyway. But like, that's saved me at least 50 hours now. So yeah.

Beka:

Yeah, I mean, I just and that's, that's kind of how I view it, you know, back to the, we do the 12 week, year, and that's about three months in seven figure flipping, and a lot of the businesses run on traction and the EOS system, which is rocks, 90 day rocks.

So I'm simultaneously doing this productivity accountability session, which is just to help me be the best I can be right now. But this membership experience thing is one of my rocks for 90 days. And I am looking at it and I'm like, Oh, this is gonna feel so amazing when it's implemented.

35:00 - 40:00

Beka:

Because right now I'm like, did they get that thing did we do that this person didn't get what that person got. And that makes me sad. And from a business perspective, I implemented my wholesaling business, right, we set up a checklist with a lot of touch points. And we created a bunch of videos for different points in the, in the process that was like, when they first signed the contract with us, I made a video and I was like, thank you so much for trusting us with your property, I just want to give you a quick overview of how this process is going to work, we're going to send it to the title company, we're going to send escrow, we're going to set up one or two times to do showings through your property and bring our partners through. But we're going to close on this date, like kind of what to expect.

And then like the day before their open house and we get another email, a little video, like just a reminder, here's what's going on. And here are the next steps going through to closing and you can create those videos one time and then set up the emails. I mean, the transaction coordinator would be the one to send them but now that learning active campaign, you could actually set it up so that you just put in the dates you go into Active Campaign, you just schedule it for the seller. And then for the next 30 days from here to closing, they get these automated check ins that feel very personal.

David:

Yeah, there's some, I need to do better with the email thing. But like, you can set stuff up to where the moment you add an email, it's every three days every week, every need to do individually like this email goes after six days after that email. The next one comes two days later.

And it's incredible. And I don't use it nearly as well as I should. If I was a real estate agent, especially and normally it was a 30 day close, I would immediately set up like, bam, here's everything you need for that 30 day process. Now I don't have to worry about those emails. I'll just give updates via text. And yeah.

Beka:

Oh, and by the way, think of how many times that saves the seller from calling you and being like, what's happening are we closing? Where are we going and then you spend two hours on the phone with them or you're like chasing them around? That automation ends up like making them feel better and it gives you your time back. You want to know what my current time hack is?

David:

What? I would love to.

Beka:

Video text messages in lieu of phone calls because you want to do a phone call right because you want a very personal connection and text messages do not you lose something in that.

But number one when you call somebody on the phone, they may not be available so then they go to voicemail nobody listens to voicemail then they call you back the timing isn't good.

So I've started doing just recording video text messages. I can convey all the emotion and the feeling really gets the message across that I want it's very personal because I am you know hey David, just excited about our podcast tomorrow. I want to make sure I didn't forget anything that I'm supposed to do ahead of time let me know. We we have a personal connection they've seen my face and if they want to jump on a call then I usually that's how I ended I say if you want to jump on a call or an email chat, hit me back however, but what I find is a lot of people they got what they needed from me, and they're just like, okay, that's great.

David:

Yeah, that's cool. I've been using the audio, you know, stuff, but I hadn't thought about just doing a quick video. That's, it would convey better and it makes sense. And honestly, I would probably prefer that from a viewer standpoint, because a lot of times when I get the audio ones I'm like, I'll listen to that later. Like, yeah, you know, because if I'm just looking, I would rather just read but if you know, audio, I never know what I'm gonna get. But if it was a video, I'd be like, Oh, what's this? And then.

Beka:

And you know, it helps if you're like, I'm a relational person. So I can convey a lot with my face and my tone of expression. So that's listeners I hope you appreciate it that just gave you some time back.

David:

Yeah, I think that's awesome because I think I mean, you're right the phone call thing is, it's so hit or miss and, and, like I yesterday, I had a phone call from I probably don't, I probably shouldn't say a name because they might listen to this, but you you know, or even a relation, but from somebody I know, who I really enjoy talking to, I get along with this person, they're smart, you know, whatever.

But every time they call, it's a longer conversation and I need to have it because it's just like one question leads to the next question leads to the next question, which is fine. I find myself thinking like, do you watch my youtube channel? It's all on there. But that's, you know, neither here nor there, but.

Beka:

Oh man, we just side rail for one second.

David:

Absolutely.

Beka:

On onto that topic, because it is in the mastermind education space right now. This is a thing you run up against a lot, right? When you've put out the information before and people don't take the time to go search it, I've been guilty of that too.
What is the appropriate nicest way to get people to find it on their own?

David:

Yeah, I don't know. Oftentimes, if it's something it's like, if it's a VA loan question, I have an article that's like 4500 words that talks about everything and I'll just shoot the link and just say, hey, I'd love to answer, but this probably does a much better job and will answer all of your follow up questions, you know.

40:00 - 45:00

Beka:

Quick, a quick reference guide, like a fact guide, you have it.

David:

The plotline is yes. Yeah, exactly. The problem is that for a YouTube video, it's like, I would have to go in and search for myself to copy the link. And then it's like, so what? It depends on my relationship, though, with the person because, like, I'll get questions sometimes. And one of my buddies might actually listen to this, you might pick this up, because he's done it to me too. But I did it to him the other day, you'll ask me a question, and I will respond with, hang on, I'm gonna go Google it. And then they feel like oh, man, and it's like, you know, but I do that to people all the time. If it's like a good friend that I know can take it because it's kind of a jerk answer, but it's like, don't worry, I'll go find you the answer. But yeah, if you haven't..

Beka:

I will do the same thing you can do.

David:

I don't think a lot of people I don't think people realize like as a content producer, that, a lot of times the reason I decided to make a video is because I got that question.

So, in January, I got asked five times in one week, whether or not someone should refinance their house. So I made a video about how and why you should refinance your house. And now when people ask me, I'm like, here you go, here you go, here you go, because it goes into way more detail than I would want to have. But anyway, all back back on the normal non rabbit trail.

Beka:

It's really how you just how you phrase it, right. Like saying that is a great question. I think this is the perfect resource for you.

David:

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So the guy called the other day, and I just remember thinking like, I don't want to answer this right now. I want to do something else. But maybe it's important and it ended up being a good call. And it was important and it was somewhat short. So I've been trying to figure out the best way to, have you read anything, they talk about frame control?

Beka:

Yes.

David:

So I'm trying to get much better at answering the phone and just being like, hey, man, just let you know. I only have about five minutes. What's up? And just like setting the right off.

Beka:

Yeah set that frame.

David:

I did it yesterday, I had a 30 minute phone call that went 45 minutes because I enjoyed talking to the guy and it was great. But then I got out and then all of a sudden I'm behind, so.

Beka:

Yeah, well, I'm so impatient that I'm really bad at phone calls, so.

Beka:

Okay, good. Oh, yeah. Oh, your family. How's your family?

David:

I do that too.

So I work. I told you the 24 hour thing. So we have a 24 hour clerk at work because we're always tracking movements and stuff and I have my phone phone on at night. If there's flights coming in and something changes I get a call from one of the Marines I give him a hard time all the time. But he calls it like two in the morning. He wakes me up.

And they'll be like, hey, CSR, and it's so and so. I'm like, what's up? I'm sorry for college. What's up, and it's like this long and I finally sat him down last week. I was like, Look, I don't want to be woken up at two in the morning. You don't want to wake me up at two in the morning. This is how the phone call goes. staff's arm. This happened. What do you want me to do? That's it. No sorry, no, I don't care about anything faster we get off the phone call and I go back to bed the less angry I will be for you calling me and I think that that's kind of a military thing like just yeah, hate to the point and we're done. Like I love talking to you. But if it's a short ask, like.

Beka:

Just get it done especially in the morning gap. So that's all we got for derailing us but you know, just, I think to wrap up with the listeners, the biggest thing that I have noticed because now I have done this like hundreds of times with people is if you want to accomplish something, you need to be crystal clear about what the path looks like from here to there and I talked about this at flip hacking live I get my div paga which is like you can have a dream and that's financial independence to real estate.

But then you need to have a vision and that might be set up a wholesaling company that does 100 deals a year with a net profit of 20%, right, like, that's a vision, it's very clear. It's like I want to own a house someday is a dream. A vision is a yellow two story house in this town with four beds and two baths. That's a vision, you can sink your teeth into that.

And then you have to have the plans, the goals and the action. So the plan is like, if that's my financial freedom is my 10 year goal. What do I have to do in this one year to get there, and that might be like just a back out that wholesaling one, if you've never wholesale the deal to get from here to a machine that does 100 deals a year, you got to learn how to wholesale.

So like your plan for one year might be wholesale, five deals. And then your goal in the next three months is probably just to get a contract on a property. So then you break it down into the actions. All right, I'm just laser focused to get from here to 100 deals a year, the first step on that path is getting a contract.

What do I have to do every week? Every day In order to get a contract and talk to sellers and make offers, yeah, so you the only way to get from here to there like dreams are nothing without execution. So you gotta get to know what that path looks like. And some people will be like, they'll have a path from here they are straight path and then they get distracted by a shiny object and they realize that their financial independence looks like a company that does wholesaling a 100 deals a year and then they see somebody else buying multifamily rentals and they think, oh, I want to buy a multi family. I haven't gotten a contract yet, but let's see what a multi family looks like. And then on the way to get to their multifamily. They see a rehab one of their rehabbing friends put a house on the market and they're like, well actually rehabbing. Super cool.

45:00 - 50:00

Yeah, there's definitely a difference between pivoting and between shiny objects. Yeah, I've been guilty of both which, you know, I've definitely justified the shiny out object syndrome by being a guy who talks real estate. So I should just try all the strategies just to make sure that I've done something with them.

Beka:

I can talk intelligently to them.

David:

And part of part of that has been legit. But my main bread and butter will probably always be small buy and hold properties that I just hold on to forever. And I just need to remember like, hey, just just do that. It's easy like that.

Beka:

And I think if you set a goal, like do you have a goal of how many doors you want to add a year? This year?

David:

Yeah, for this year?

Well, actually, for this year, my goal is I have a huge lawsuit that I'm in trying to get my money back out of a deal. And so my goal is just to close that court date in July, and then roll that capital back into yeah, so I didn't necessarily set a goal for doors this year, so much as more just to focus on growing the brand.

Beka:

Yeah. But if you were you know, like if you were an entrepreneur and you decided rentals are going to be your thing, just single picking up a single family like actually just talked to someone last week, and their goal is to add 16 doors this year.

And and they just bought two duplexes. So they added four in April. And they're on track for it. So like if their goal is to buy 16 rental houses this year and they're at like 10. And something else interesting comes up so long as they've got a plan to get the last six, like their goal that their plan is on track. It's okay to dabble somewhere else.

David:

Absolutely.

Beka:

Just don't let it derail your plan.

David:

I agree. Also, I think the rabbit trail we went off earlier about texts and everything. I think that was actually pretty valuable because nobody talks about that. But those are like very actionable ways to save five minutes every day forever.

Beka:

And still achieve the end result, which is a personal connection with them, you know, with them. So I don't know who told me that, oh, you know what, I read the book, never lose a customer again, which is a great book if you're in any sort of service industry.

And it just talks about the whole experience that your clients have with you. And he talks about that, like sending Personalized videos to people. Even if you're gonna send in an email, like one of the things that says, like, put their name on a piece of paper and hold it up, you know. So it's like, so they see you like David. Yeah, exactly. And then that way, they're much more likely to watch your video, they realize it's not mass produced, it's definitely for them.

David:

I have a friend who does that extremely well. And that's what the sign is from, he was on the podcast, and I was showing him what he always says to me and how I appreciate it.

Beka:

Reinforcing that lesson then. Excellent.

David:

Absolutely. Yeah. All right. So if anyone was to walk up to you asking you for life advice, just getting started in real estate or life or whatever, what would be like the one thing that you would have to tell them?

Beka:

It used to take action.

Just take an action because so many people sit in the wings and wait, but I now have realized that before you take action, I would reflect on what you're super power is like, what's the thing that you are very good at that brings you joy, that like you'll do that thing instead of doing something else. For some people, it's sales, right? Like the art of the deal, the thrill of the kill, they love negotiating. And so then I say, well, then probably you want to go into like, some sort of sales arena, right? If you love logistics and project management, like if that's the thing that brings you joy, breaking things down and then putting them back together. That's, you know, kind of figuring out what your superpower is. And then find the thing that aligns with that because when you're energized about something, you can endure so much more.

David:

I like that. I think that's very true. If you're, what you're doing lines up with who you are, it works out very well. All right, what is one resource book course, website, whatever that you would recommend to anyone looking to get started in real estate?

50:00 - 52:40

I'm so bad at giving one answer. Obviously, I got to say seven figure flipping because it changed my life.

We just released a video vault series for people just looking to get started that has online courses if you're not ready to commit to a mastermind but I'm a people person so being around people and committing to people just changed my life and then Brian Buffini his podcast. It's for real estate agents but the whole mindset thing that he does is pivotal every week when his podcast comes out it's like the refresh that I needed.

David:

Awesome. I'm gonna go check that podcast out today while I'm cycling because that's really three things I have to do.

Beka:

My two favorite ones of his are the run rest cycle and a one on gratitude that he did.

David:

And where can people get a hold of you?

Beka:

[email protected], [email protected] and I also run a marketing consulting but it's it's kind of boutique or really only do it for for people spending like $15,000 plus a month on their wholesaling marketing I have a company called market shark market shark shark net.

David:

I'm gonna look at that I'm not spending that much money, but that's cool anyway.

Beka:

Yeah, I just my, my, my excitement is we had a client last year who we improved his ROI by like, I don't know, 70 cents, it ended up adding $140,000 to his bottom line. So.

David:

Whoa!

Beka:

Yeah, you can.

David:

I mean, if you're sending a lot that adds up real quick.

Beka:

Yeah, if you're making like $3 for every dollar spent and you can bump that to I think you move on to like 370. I was like, just think about that based on how much money you made, how much more money you kept in your pocket by getting efficient.

David:

Yeah. Focusing on expenses and lowering the bottom line is, is huge, just ROI and little metrics that I should be much better at but.

Beka:

Yeah, yeah, well that's, that's not your superpower. Stick with your superpower and find somebody else who has a complimentary superpower.

David:

Awesome. Well, Becca, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Beka:

Awesome. Thank you for having me. This was great. Appreciate you.

David:

Have a great day.

End:

Thank you for listening to another episode about my journey From military to millionaire.

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