Brant Phillips Show 23: How To Make a Million Dollars in Real Estate. Epic 2018!

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Hey everybody. This is Brant. Welcome to today’s show. Today’s podcast is a little bit different. Today’s podcast is a recording of a webinar that I did about how to create an epic 2018 and also how to make a million dollars in real estate. What that’s pertaining to is I was preparing another webinar that I did just a few weeks ago and it was actually about how to flip flood houses but when I was putting together that presentation, I hadn’t been tracking things. I’d been tracking things and we’d been tracking things in the office but I hadn’t really taken a moment to sit back and look at results from the previous quarter. I didn’t even realize that we had bought almost 25 houses in 100 days. Technically 24 houses in about 100 days that was a gross equity capture of $1.5 million essentially, it was like $1.496 million.

What this recording is, is a webinar where I talk about how to create an epic 2018 and really just how to create epic results and to create a great business and a great life. It’s more about just getting really clear about what it is that you want and playing all in, just diving deep into the work and into just creating this epic huge, incredibly awesome thing because quite frankly epic results require an epic type of attitude, actions, effort, mindset, determination, all that stuff or you’re not going to make a million dollars. You’re not going to create epic results and I’m using the word epic a lot but I think it’s really important, it’s a powerful word. A lot of people use it, but they don’t really actually create it.

I hope that you enjoy this podcast. If you want to watch the presentation that I did, just go to brantphillips.com and search for Epic 2018, you’ll find it there or how to make a million dollars in real estate. Enjoy the show and I appreciate you watching and being a faithful member of the podcast. You all take care. One second.

Okay my friends, we’re diving into how to create an epic 2018 and just a little kicker for you, how to make a million dollars in real estate. First tip, a lot of caffeine, a lot, a lot of caffeine. All right. That’s my first tip to how to create an epic 2018. Yeah, we’re going to dive into how and there’s a keyword here, how to create an epic 2018, because this is going to be, there’s going to be work required by you of course because it’s something that you’re going to have to create. It’s not something that’s just going to happen. Just like making a million dollars in real estate’s not just going to happen. There’s going to be work that’s required. There’s going to be things that you have to do. The good news is, is that there is a model that’s already been created, that you can go out and have an incredible life, year, business, financial success, well-rounded success. That’s when we share a little bit about today.

For those of you who don’t know me, maybe just found this off of who knows where and you’re like, “Who the heck are you Brant Phillips and why in the world should I listen to you?” That’s a fair question. Just a quick introduction about myself. Who am I? I’m a founder and owner of a company called Invest Home Pro, a real estate investment company. Last year we were awarded an Inc. 5000 recognition. I’ve wrote a few books, been considered to go and be one of the guys on this flipping houses shows. We even had a pilot shot. I go on the news every now and then. That’s a little bit about me, about I guess some of the success or whatever the accolades that we’ve created. That’s great and you should seek mentors and listening to people who’ve actually created results that are similar to what you’re seeking before you even take their advice. That’s one of my prerequisites before I hire a coach or a mentor.

Some of the stuff that’s not so glamorous that I would like to share is that when I started in this business, 10, 11 years ago I can say now, I had zero experience. Not only zero real estate experience, I had zero business experience. I didn’t know what in the hell I was doing. I didn’t have any money. My wife and I were living in an apartment. We had paid off our credit cards. I had good credit and I used my credit to actually purchase my first investment property while still living in that apartment. I went on to buy houses my first year in real estate using some creative strategies. The next year did the same thing about 10 more. I was just buying, buy and hold, I was buying rental properties at the time. I was able to buy 10 more rental properties.

Then the following year, I had bought about four or five more. I was up to about 25 rental properties. I bought, financed, renovated, rehabbed them, was managing it all myself while working a full-time job, a very demanding full-time job. After I got to about 25 properties, I decided to leave my job and become a full-time real estate entrepreneur and do some of the things that I do now and this is what I’ve been doing in the last eight years, eight and a half years, full-time. I’ve been loving almost every single minute of it. It’s not always an easy business so let me tell you that right now. This business is tough at times, it’s challenging at times but it’s so very rewarding and very, very lucrative when you do it the right way. I’m going to do my best to teach you how to do it the right way.

One of my books called How to Flip a House is based on seven fundamentals. On that particular book, the tagline was Seven Fundamentals of a Highly Successful Flip, of a highly successful deal. Now, it’s more of my training and my business model. My business model started with rental properties but my business models have really changed even more significantly in the last five years where these seven fundamentals are really integrated into not just seven fundamentals of a flip but these are the seven fundamentals that we run our business on with one of the most important changes in my business which is number seven is that you give yourself more than one exit strategy with the deals you’re doing, rather than just flipping, give yourself multiple exit strategies.

I already knew how to rent and that was fine but I really enjoyed flipping and that was great. It’s even a better business model and it’s more sustainable, and it’s more lucrative when you have more options. We also owner-finance deals as one of our exit strategies and we wholesale deals. Those are the four ways that we make money with single family homes in real estate, and so it’s really important that you have all these fundamentals.

One, mindset. We’re going to be talking about that a little bit about today. We’re talking a lot about that about today and how you create results, how you, I’m talking to you, how you create your results, nobody else does. You’re not a victim here, you’re not a subject, we’re all subject to certain things and changes in the market but we create, we can produce whatever results we want from whatever situation when we’re really committed to things. That’s what we’re going to be talking about today. That’s why your mindset is absolutely a fundamental to success.

If I was just going to dive into teaching real estate with my students for example and not really diving into their mental makeup and what their commitment level is and what their clarity level is and what they’re going to create, I’d be doing them a huge disservice. This is why with me personally, I’ve spent so much more time and so much more money with my coaches sharpening my mindset and building my character so much more than just learning about the X and Os of real estate because quite frankly the Xs and Os of real estate can be quite simple when you’ve got a good plan, you’ve got a good map and I’m going to try to share a little bit about mine today.

The fundamental one is mindset. Fundamental number two is deal flow. You have to be able to create deal flow. If you don’t have deals, you’re done. Number three is learning how to evaluate deals, not only accurately before you purchase a deal but really, really quickly. That you’ve got to have a method and a process where you can create a lot of deal flow so you can analyze a lot of deals quickly using a system that works and then very methodically you filter out the bad deals so you can cherry-pick the best ones. That’s how that we’re really successful by generating a lot of deal flow, not that we want to do all those deals but we want to cherry-pick the very best ones that fit our business model.

You need to learn how to estimate repairs. Once again, quickly and more in-depth accurately before you move forward on a deal. This has very overwhelmed people. We’ve created a really simple system. Financing. You can generate all the deal flow in the world and you can cherry-pick the cream of the crop but if you can’t get it funded it doesn’t matter. We finance almost 100% of our deals with private money. That’s I guess one of my strong suits, something I’ve really, really focused on over the years beginning this my second year in real estate is how to raise private money from lenders, and not just how to raise private money but how to cultivate long-term trusting relationships with my lenders. No matter how many deals we’re doing, we’ve raised millions of dollars just in the last couple of months with the deals that we’ve done and I haven’t had to worry. Every time we sign a contract with the motivated seller, I know that we can close on that deal because of our private lender relationships, so it’s critical.

Then you got to know how to rehab. I know this is scary to people and it should be because this is where a lot of people get burned but you got to know how to rehab. Once you do those first six steps, then you move into what I talked about, number seven, which is generating income, having multiple exit strategies whether it be renting, flipping, wholesaling, owner financing but when you give yourself multiple exit strategies and multiple ways to make money, your business is so much more profitable, it’s so much more sustainable, it’s more enjoyable, it’s just fun when you have these options. That’s what my real estate business is built on, that’s what my first book was written about. That was the outline so to speak and so when I’m talking about creating a business model and some fundamentals, that’s what I’m referring to in this presentation.

Let’s talk about your next year, your 2018, your 2018. Let’s talk about the typical New Year’s Resolution. I just Googled like what are the typical New Year’s Resolutions? Exercise more, lose weight, eat more healthy, learn a new skill or a hobby, drink less alcohol, stop smoking. Okay, cool. Those are good, there’s nothing wrong with any of those. Those are really good goals and resolutions. I would say some of them are a little bit more vague and you need to be really specific and you need to be really clear when you come to creating goals.

Then the other thing too, the name of this presentation is How to Create an Epic 2018. Maybe if you stopped smoking that would be epic. That’s probably pretty good but if you just exercise more, is that going to be an epic year? I don’t know. If you lose some weight, is that going to be epic? I don’t know. I don’t know where you’re at. I don’t know how much weight we’re talking about. I don’t know some of the circumstances.

Let’s start talking about like creating epic 2018 is going to require like doing some stuff above and beyond, doing some stuff that’s epic. Start thinking about first like, “What would be epic to you?” If you could create what it is that is in your heart, what it is in your heart like this burning desire for you to create in life and business, what would that be? What would that be? Really try to be clear, try to be specific, try to visualize that success and whatever that means to you. Maybe it is doing a few deals and getting out of debt or salvaging a relationship or losing weight or dropping drinking or smoking, whatever it may be and whatever your financial goal is in real estate, visualize, really, really visualize. There’s some power in this. I’m not like Tony Robbins, okay? I not going to actually walk over coals but I’ll tell you I spend a significant amount of my time on goal setting and envisioning and focusing on what is important, vision boarding like creating a board.

Now let me throw a little curve ball at you. I’m going to give you another perspective to think about when it comes to your resolutions. Here it goes. You’re going to die, you are going to die. You’re like, “What are you talking about Brant?” This is a strong, strong motivator for us all. This, in my opinion should be and I know it was for Steve Jobs and I’ll let you read this but I’m going to read the top sentence and it says, “Remember,” by Steve Jobs, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

What Steve Jobs is talking about right here is actually a little bit about what a lot of marketers do or what most good marketers do and businesses do and they create scarcity in their offers. They create scarcity in their offers. “For a limited time only. You can only have this for the next 15 people that sign up or only for the next three days, you can have this offer. You can only get the McRib sandwich like whatever it is one or two months a year.” It’s because of scarcity. “Oh no, I can’t get a McRib unless I get it this month.”

This is kind of the same thing. This is kind of the same thing because we all have whether it be written down or just in our head little bucket list things that we want to do in life, things we want to get done, things we want to accomplish, things that we want to experience. We all have those things but there’s this scarcity factor, like we’re all going to die. The problem with life is this. The problem with life is this, is it’s so easy to go on a drift, it’s so easy to go on a drift and get caught up in life. Time goes by fast. A year, two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years. I know some of those, if you’re listening to this, you’re coming from maybe you’re in different stages in life. Some of you may be in your 20s, some of you may be in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, I don’t know. We’re at all different stages of life.

One, the first thing I want to say is if you’re beating yourself up because you know that you’ve drifted for far too long, that’s okay. First off, one of my big, big, big things with my students and myself is no self-abuse, no self-abuse. We’re not going to get any further or create any improved results by just beating ourselves up about something that we could have, should have done in the past. Acknowledge it, accept it, forgive ourselves and let’s move forward and build from it, let’s take action moving forward to create something new rather than whining about the past.

Case in point for me was previous to going into real estate, previous to even going into the corporate world which was where I was at before I went into real estate, I was in law enforcement. When I was in law enforcement, I was in law enforcement for seven years and it was good, it paid the bills and it was stable, whatever but I knew it wasn’t for me. I knew this somewhere around year five, a little bit, year six, for sure. I’m like, “You got to get out, this is not for me, this is not,” especially when I had my first child. I was working late nights, weekends, holidays, blah, blah, blah, hardly seeing him and my wife. I’m like I knew this wasn’t for me, I had to get out.

I made a choice fairly quickly within about a year’s time how to transition out of that. I remember that there were so many people in my department, my friends, coworkers they were so unhappy and they used to complain all the time and they used to count down their years. They would say, “I only have 15 years left to retirement. I only got eight more years, 10 more years, 20 something years.” Guys my age, I was in my early 20s at that time. I’m listening and I’m thinking to myself, I’m 27. 28 here, 25, 26, 27, and I’m like, “That’s a long time you’re talking about. You know 10, 15 years? That’s a significant amount of time and we’re the officers here, we’re not the inmates so you can actually leave, you don’t have to stay here.” This is my message to you, whether you be in a bad job or relationship, whatever it may be, you don’t have to stay there. You have free will. Most of you, we live in America, this is a free country, right?

Here’s the funny thing that happened though. I left the police department and my particular department where I was at was very close to a hospital here in the Houston area where we have, my wife and I have five kids, we have four and we adopted one. All four of our children were born at the same hospital. After I left the police department a couple of years later, I had another baby so I was at the hospital which was, it’s literally like across the street from our police department. I went back, visited my old buddies. Guess what they were talking about? A lot of them were a few years older, maybe a few pounds heavier whatever and same stuff, complaining about the police department, complaining about this, that and the other thing and talking about, “I can’t wait till I retire, I only got X amount of years.” Just counting down the years.

Guess what? I had another baby a couple of years later, went back to the hospital. We checked out, told my wife, “Hey, I’m going to go visit my buddies for a little bit and come back to the hospital later on.” I went and visited my buddies, guess what? Same people, same complaints, yadi, yadi, yada. A couple of years later, about four years later, I had another child. Same thing, went back, I visited the police department, talked to my old friends, talked to my old buddies, a few pounds heavier, a few years older, talking about the same thing. I’m like, “You don’t have to stay. You don’t.” For you, whoever you may be watching this right now, remembering that you will be dead soon can be one of the most important tools that you can use to help you create a sense of urgency and go out and take action, right freaking now, no more excuses.

Look, I don’t know who this guy is. I just Googled it. He says, “Just 8% of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions.” I’m not even really sure it’s that high. I don’t know what these resolutions are. Let’s just assume that’s a true statement. The thing that we need to do is do what the 8% do. Do what these successful people are doing to create results with achieving goals. That’s what this is about.

Let’s first look at and make sure that you’re not doing what the rest of the herd are doing, that’s what I’m calling the herd, that’s what I’m calling the masses, this is what the majority of people do and this is why one of Warren Buffett’s sayings is like, “You don’t follow the masses.” You want to do one of the opposite things. When the masses are running out and the herd’s running out, us as investors, we probably want to run in. When the masses are running out of a market, we want to run into that market. When the masses or when the herd is running into a market, we probably want to run out to it.

Let’s look at goal setting like that. I say like, “Don’t be like the herd.” We’re not judging the herd, we’re just saying there’s some results and some things we want to do different in our lives and our businesses. Don’t be like the herd. What does the herd do? Constantly work their butts off but not getting any closer to their real goals. They set goals for the year but a couple of months later, they’ve probably already forgot about them, likely because of, one of for sure, for sure the biggest reason is right here. The lack of certainty and commitment by none, lack of certainty and commitment. I’ll digress and keep going. I want you to understand that is the real problem here. That is a real, real problem, the lack of certainty and commitment.

Lack of simplicity, you have a goal and you don’t really understand it, you don’t have a model or a map so like real estate. It’s overwhelming. You don’t have the simplicity of seven fundamentals or whatever strategy it is that you’re going to execute, lack of simplicity. The lack of progress, you just give up, you just give up because they’re not really seeing any results or much change in a short period of time.

Then maybe it’s this, maybe you become a yes person, you say yes to almost anything and everybody. I refer back to a lack of certainty and a lack of commitment because if you’re really committed to something, you’re really certain to what it is that you want to do and what you want to accomplish, you know that you can’t say yes to everything. Just by default, you instinctively say no because it’s not going to move you closer to the result that you want. Maybe you are part of this herd and you spend a lot of days feeling overwhelmed, pressured with all the things that you have to do with your life and your job and whatever it is so that really there’s a lack of time, there’s not really a lack of time, it’s just the way that you’ve organized and structured your life that’s created this sense of a lack of time but that’s how you feel and that’s what you’ve created and that’s where you’re at. Where you feel like there’s really a lack of time to do whatever it is that you really want to do. There’s really a lack of time and it feels real, there’s just lack of time to spend the time that you need to devote to your real estate investing business. That’s what the herd do. Most of them unfortunately and sadly give up on their dreams forever. Don’t be like the herd. Don’t give up on your dreams, even if you’re in a place right here where it feels really difficult to believe and difficult to achieve, just really, really, really, I don’t know, just out of reach, don’t be like that, like, “I can’t.”

Look at so many stories of the great entrepreneurs of the world and of America and of our great leaders, so many if not all of them have this, incredibly so this story of being on the brink of bankruptcy or living homeless out in the street or whatever it may be and this is where the turnaround comes. This is where that power happens when you’re down to your last dollar, down to nothing and you turn it around and create results.

I remember, I’ll share a quick story, which I think is very applicable here. I heard a story about Robert Kiyosaki and his wife when they were … this is like early ‘80s and so on. They were new entrepreneurs but I believe they were newlyweds and they had a business that had just failed, totally flopped, crashed and they lost everything. I heard this through an audio, or CD or tape, like I said, at the time, I can’t remember what it was. I’m dating myself a little bit here, but they were down to nothing except they had like 25 bucks or 50 bucks, something like that. They had friends calling them, offering them, “Hey.” They didn’t have a house, they had their car left and they had friends and family, “Hey, you can move in with us, you can stay with us. Hey, you know we can help you get a job.” They had job offers, they were very educated, they had previously been very successful, they were very educated, very employable.

They were down to like $50 and they were like, “This really became,” and I’m speaking on their behalf, they were talking about how, “This really became our defining point in life where we were at this essentially bottom. We had lost everything. We’re sitting here with like this 50 bucks or whatever it was, that was the last $50 to our name and we’re like, “You know, are we going to go get a job and go stay with our friends or just be okay that this is the bottom and we can be okay in this place and we can begin to take that next step on the journey of a thousand miles? This is it.”

Here’s what they decided to do. They decided to take their $50 and they said they bought, they rented a motel, a cheap motel, they bought a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a six pack of beer and they said they just had some good times. That was like where they just laughed and were like, “This is okay. If this is the bottom, we can be okay here and we’re not going to give up on our dreams,” and you know the rest of the story obviously they didn’t and they have been incredibly successful.

In terms of going back to not being like the herd, that was my path whenever we moved in from law enforcement to the corporate world but I really found like how unhappy I was and I realized that I was unfocused, I was unhappy, I was just busy, I was working a lot but I was so unhappy and I was focused on the wrong things for a while focused on this company is going to take care of me. I’m going to climb this ladder and do this job that I don’t like. It was truly for me a path to a status quo. Just being completely average, middle blah, blah, blah, boring, not that there’s nothing wrong with working a job and being a useful member to a company. I’m not talking down on that if that is you and that is your path and that’s what you desire to do but I knew I didn’t desire that. There was something in me that wasn’t okay with me.

If you’re okay with that and you want to do real estate for example on the part-time, and I’ve got students like that who are totally cool with their jobs, like, “Man, I like my job. I like what I do. I desire the security or just the stability of a job but I really want to do real estate on the part-time as a hobby.” Cool, then just do that. I’ve got students who come to me. On a scale of one to 10, I’ll ask them, “How much do you enjoy your job?” They’re like, “Zero, like one, like I hate it, it sucks.” Cool, you need to do something about that or you’re out of integrity with yourself. That was me, I knew I was out of integrity if I stayed on this path.

Hey, this is Brant and I hope you’re enjoying today’s show. If you’re in a place in your life or your business or your real estate investing where you just feel stuck, maybe you don’t know what actions to take next to get you unstuck or just on that path of creating the results that you really desire, please take a few minutes and go to my website at brantphillips.com. There are some really valuable resources and information that may be able to help you out. If you’re interested in really speeding up results with the help of a coach or mentor and adding true accountability and guidance to your life and business, please reach out to me from my website, you’ll see a link at the top or by going to brantphillips.com/coaching. Now, let’s get back to the show.

Whenever I dove into real estate, I really like not just real estate but just learning more about myself and creating an incredible just trying to create an incredible life and just a whole, this existence on earth, I really found that sustainable energy, sustainable energy is so important. This is what I want to encourage you guys, when you’re setting goals, don’t become what I call myself which is like this one-dimensional money douchebag where I was like focused on money for a while.

Create sustainable energy. I want to encourage you to create goals. I go back to the smart acronym of specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely, all that kind of stuff, that’s really, really important but focus on some things that are bigger than just making money. Focus on some things that are going to make you a better person to create a better life, to help you create a better legacy, create goals that revolve around spiritual, things that revolve around your faith and giving to others, things that resolve around your family and your relationships, giving back and those investing on those relationships, really getting clear on what you want those things to look like. Your health and fitness, you need to take into perspective your body, this is your body and this is the vehicle that we’ve been given to go out and produce real estate success and results. The more well-rounded you are in all those areas, it will help you go out and create success in business.

This is for me, I’m sharing with you how to create an epic 28 team because I’m in this, I’m probably hitting you a little bit different angle and you thought just like, “Hey, the strategy on how to make money in real estate.” I’m going to teach you how to do that. I want you to be able to make a lot of money. I’m just telling you, I’ve made a lot of money when I was in a burned out space and I’ve made a lot of money where life’s really freaking awesome. Guess what? It’s so much better. Create some goals that are motivated more besides just financial goals, sorry about the little typo though but focus on goals that are going to motivate you more than just financial goals. Use this acronym, it’s really, really important being specific, making sure it’s measurable, making sure it’s attainable, relevant and timely, time stamped, time dated.

I talked a little bit earlier about being clear, being clear on what it is that you want, what it is that you’re going to accomplish and having that clarity because once you have it, you’re able to really, really decipher and filter out what is useful and non-useful to getting you towards that goal. I saw a picture of a friend of mine who over the last nine months, I don’t know how much weight he’s lost but literally he posted a picture of himself, he just went AWOL, he went dark for a long time on social media. He posts this picture of himself, it’s black and white and I’m like, “Who’s this dude?” I looked at his name and I’m like, “Surely that’s not him.” Totally transformed himself, completely transformed himself. Now he’s sharing all these things like, “Hey, here is what I did. Here is what happened, I had this mind shift change blah, blah, blah. I limited my calories to less than 1,500 calories, I did this workout plan, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

What happened was he got really, really clear on what it is that he wanted. It was essentially like incredible health and a good body and all this kind of stuff. He got really clear on that. Once he had that clarity, the action steps became much easier, not that they were easy but they became much easier. He created an automatic filter in here saying like, “Hey, I’m only eating 1,500 calories per day no matter what.” He got his little Fitbit, MyFitnessPal tracker or whatever it was, plugged in every single thing that he ate. He made a plan, he made a plan, tracked out everything that he ate to make sure he was staying on track of that plan and then he just kept doing it over and over and over till he got the results that he wanted and now he’s got to maintain it and keep doing it because if he loses that clarity and that certainty guess what? He’ll lose it all.

Realize that each, every minute, second hour of every day, you’re either spending time on something that’s very useful to help you to create the result that you desire or non-useful, something like you’re drifting and blah, blah, blah. There’s times where it’s useful to drift but that’s a very small limited portion of time. This is what you need to focus on. If you are spending your time on a goal, on a mission, on something that’s incredibly exciting to you, it’s exciting, it’s rewarding, it’s profitable, it’s something that goes towards your legacy, these things that we’re talking about creating, these well-rounded goals, guess what? The more time that you spend working on those things, it creates this sustainable energy, like you could do it over and over and over and over again.

If you’re at your job and you’re looking at the TPS report or whatever it may be and you feel like you want to bash your head into your laptop because you can’t take it anymore, not really sustainable energy so that the point is here is that you’re building a life and you’re building a business where you’re spending as much time as reasonably possible working on things that are going to help you create sustainable energy. This is so critical to creating an epic life and an epic business because when you create and invest your time and energy into goals and activities that truly excite you and are driving you to something much bigger then my friends, my friends welcome to the next level. This is it. This is where we want to get to. This is where you want to get to.

The funny thing is this is where we lose ourselves. I almost want to play that Eminem like, “Pam pam, you got to lose yourself in the music, the moment.” It’s like that. It isn’t like that, it is like that. I’m going to share with you a little bit when I get into how to make a million in real estate. It’s like we did that in the last 90, 100 days in my business. I didn’t even realize it because I was so focused, so deeply just immersed in what I’m doing and loving it. The financial things, they just take care of themselves.

When you have the right fundamentals or you build the right team and you just lose yourself in the moment and you’re focused on things that are useful and productive, it’s you’re like, “Holy crap, I think we just made a million dollars or maybe 1.5 in 90 days.” This is what I’m going to show you and this is why this is so important. This isn’t like fluff BS. I hope that those of you who are listening to this are like really not just taking notes but taking notes, but taking to heart some of the things that I’m saying because this is real life for me. This is real life, real estate, real world talk, this is what we do and this is what you have to do.

My boy Albert E. says that we are most productive when we focus on a very small number of projects on which we can devote a large amount of attention. That’s what I was talking about. It’s like just immersing yourself into your goals, just focus on those things, saying no to other things, not being a yes man or a yes woman, learning how to say no and say yes to the right things.

What do you focus on and how should you organize it? What do you focus on and how should you organize it? Let’s talk about the herd again. The herd typically, they make goal setting like a once a year thing, it’s like a resolution and they’ll choose some big yearly goal that sounds good or maybe it sounds good on Facebook so they can post it on there and so that it looks good or whatever but the goals are usually vague, lack specificity, and they definitely lack clarity and commitment. I didn’t even put that in there but they definitely lack that. Most people are going to give up on their goals before the end of the first quarter, a lot of them in the first 30 days. Here we go again, it’s the end of the year, the gym’s going to be packed first week of January and then be back to what it is right now. I was at the gym yesterday and there was nobody there.

All right, so the 8%. This may be 1% I’m not really sure. This is what more of the people who are successful are doing. Here’s a suggestion, create a focus for the year. What is your focus? What is your mission? What is your rallying cry for this next year? Think about doing that. Set outcomes in all areas of life. I already talked about this. This is your renewable energy, this is your sustainable energy. Don’t be a one-dimensional player like I was. Create real accountability. I’m going to get in more into accountability in just a minute but it’s absolutely critical. If you think it’s not, you’re kidding yourself. Create a real plan, a real plan to, 10 extra goals. If you’ve got a goal, create a real plan how you can bash that goal out of the park and exceed it.

If things happen, if life, circumstances come in, if you don’t 10X it or if you don’t 5X it or even 2X it, maybe you still hit that goal. Make a plan to overcome and overachieve that goal. Allow yourself to fail. This is really big. Allow yourself to fail because you’re going to fail at times but I encourage you to love and respect yourself more than that failure so that every time that you fail be okay with failing. It’s okay. I’ve failed so many times. It’s okay. Love yourself more, be clear on your legacy more than your failure. Like, “Oh this is where I am down on the ground, this is where I have to get back up and keep going because my legacy, my dream, my goals are so much more important than mopping around in my failure.” Be okay with failing because it’s going to happen. It’s actually a prerequisite to success. It is a prerequisite to success so just know that.

Also really important, 90-day goals, 90-day goals and challenges. We’re going to break that yearly goal down into 90 days because here is what happens in 90 days. This is what I do with my students. Like, “Cool, I get it, this is what you want to do a year from now so let’s reverse engineer, what do we have to get done in the next 90 days?” There’s a time pressure there. It’s the scarcity factor once again. If you’ve got a year to accomplish a goal and it’s like, “Well, you know I didn’t do anything today but I’m going to tomorrow.” Tomorrow comes, “Well, I didn’t do anything today or yesterday, I’m going to do it next week.” The end of January comes, “I didn’t do it right in January but for sure in February I’m going to come.” The end of the first quarter comes, “You know, it wasn’t such a great start of the year but I’m definitely getting on it now.” We’re in Q2 like, “I’m going to get after, yeah, yeah, all on, yeah.” It doesn’t happen.

Break it down into 90-day goals like, “This is what I’m going to do in the next 90 days.” Therefore, each and every day is absolutely critical that you move the ball forward, that you do work, that you create some type of momentum and some type of building block because when we’re building, when we’re creating an epic year, when we’re creating a result in life and business, so for 2018, you’ve got this goal, let’s view this goal symbolically like as a house, metaphorically like it’s a house. You’re going to build a house for 2018. This is like it’s your goal and this is going to cumulatively happen by all of the work that you do each and every day for the year.

We can say like every day, every day we may be able to put three bricks on that house or four bricks on that house. If we’re really busting our tails, we can add four bricks to that house. If you don’t add any bricks on certain days, your house ain’t getting built, your goals aren’t getting reached. If you can like steady like add a brick, add a brick today, two bricks tomorrow, three bricks the next day, four bricks, boom, boom, like steady but surely, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, holy crap, into 2018 boom, like you did it. That’s how it happens though. Reverse this thing into 90 days, create that time pressure like, “No, I don’t have a year to get this done. I’ve got 90 days to hit this target, this amount of deals, this amount of marketing etcetera, etcetera. I have to build this in 90 days.” You hit 90 days, take a little bit of breather, a little bit of rest, take a little, assess and boom right back on the grind. Get back in that grind. That’s how it works, 90-day goals.

Now, I would encourage you though before you just go out and say, “I’m going to do all this stuff.” Make sure you have the right map, the right map is really important because you get, if you’re going to Disney World, you want to go to Disney World and you got the wife and the kids in the car, you want to go to Disney World but you got a map to Nebraska, that’s a problem. I share with you my map which is the seven fundamentals. I don’t care if you want to go into one of my programs or systems or just something that works but make sure that you have a map, make sure that you have a map that’s going to help you get where it is that you want to go.

I talked about this a little bit already but strategic planning and metrics like reverse engineer your goals, create achievable quarterly missions, plan it out, plan it, plan it, write it down, whiteboard it, whatever you need to do, get a coach, get a mentor, get a sounding board, have people around you that you can say like, “This is what I’m going to do.” Help them hold you accountable. You have to have accountability then you go and execute and assess, execute and assess. Be okay with failing, be okay with the failing, assessing and learning from executing and assessing over and over and over again.

Some strategic planning specifics like don’t lose sight of the big plan. We get lost in the rat race even just in business like we get lost and caught up and things change and it’s really easy to drift. Like, “Well, I’m doing this thing in business so it’s not really drifting.” Maybe it is because you’re not really focused on your goal that you originally created at the beginning of the year and let’s see what’s more important to you.

Create a little space each, every couple of weeks, create whatever your KPI, your key performance indicators are to help you reaching that goal, it doesn’t have to be really, really in-depth or specific but have some KPI that’s going to help you reach your goals. With our acquisitions department for example, my acquisitions agent who sends a simple report, each and every week. He sends me how many leads he received, how many appointments he went on, how many contracts he submitted and how many contracts were accepted. It’s really freaking simple. I know he’s got to go on X amount of appointments in order to get X amount of offers and to find the right amount of deals and to get X amount of offers accepted. That’s the way it is. What are your criteria? Make sure that you’re measuring yourself and staying on track with your goals.

Take some more time out. Every quarter and then just get away. Get away at some point in time during the year and just really just go and whether this just be at Mastermind or just time alone to just focus on your life and your business and what you’re going to create.

I want to talk a little bit more in-depth about what I call four X factors, four X factors of success. We’ve talked about mindset, you have to have the mindset, you have to have that clarity and commitment, period, or you’re done. You have to have the skillsets. I shared with you my seven fundamentals. That’s what we use in our business. Whatever it is that you want to create in real estate or life, you have you have to have those skillsets. Make sure that you have those skillsets. Make sure that you have that map. It goes without saying how incredibly important it is.

I will say in my opinion, in the day and age that we live in though that skillsets which were also called education and information, it is less important in today’s day and age than having the right environment and accountability. Really critical, make sure that you plug yourself into an environment that’s going to help recharge you, that’s going to help you stay on the path of creating results.

I use the example of AA. If you’re struggling with alcohol and you’re hanging out in a bar, it’s probably not the best environment to help you create this result of being, staying away from alcohol, stop drinking alcohol. This environment with real estate, this is why I’m a part of Masterminds, a member of and an administrator of. It’s really important to stay in an environment where iron sharpens iron so to speak. That way you’re learning and growing from others and consistently being in this environment, not like once a year but consistently. That’s why I go to a lot of boot camps, workshops, those types of things. It’s in this environment of learning from others, hearing from others and just getting that energy and sharing with others as well, helps me and motivates me to share with others.

Then accountability. If you don’t have someone holding you accountable, forget about it. In today’s day and age, we’re dead. It’s absolutely critical, so find someone that will really, really hold you accountable, not tell you what you want to hear. That’s not going to get you where you want to go. Whether it be a coach, whether it be a mentor, whether it be someone you can really, really trust to hold your butt accountable to your goals, that won’t let you quit whenever you want to give up.

I know some of you are probably wondering like, “Brant, how does this help me make a million dollars in real estate?” I’m hoping a lot of you have already seen some things of how this can help you make a million dollars in real estate but I want to share with you something, a slide that I created for another presentation recently that really made my jaw drop a little bit, quite frankly I wasn’t expecting this. I was putting on a webinar called How to Flip a Flood House for those of you who know, I’m in Houston and we’ve experienced a lot of flooding during Hurricane Harvey.

I threw a statement out just here in a staff meeting. I was like, “Man, we just probably made a million dollars in equity at least, in equity, real estate.” I’m talking real estate dollars in the last 90 days. I just made that statement and so it got me thinking. I went back and I plugged in all the deals that we had done. Now, quite frankly, this is a little over 100 days and actually the deal, the very last deal at the bottom, that one busted out but we’ve got another two deals since then so it’s actually 25 deals. Anyways, it doesn’t really matter. It’s insignificant.

I plugged in how many purchases. This isn’t sales or deals that we had before. These are closings, deals that we purchased, houses that we bought in about the last 100 days. There is 24 deals that we’ve purchased and it turned out to be and so this is kind of like the how to flip a house HGTV numbers that I always bash. These are those numbers. It’s a little inflated I’m not going to lie in terms of this is purchase, price and repairs and then how much equity do we have above and beyond that? What is our after repaired value? Minus our purchase and repairs? Not taking into holding cost, closing cost, our financing cost which is typically about 8% and maybe one point and a lot of times none but this is a gross equity capture of $1.46 million and it doesn’t even include the 25^th deal. I’m pretty sure this is about 25 deals and $1.5 million and that math actually makes perfect sense.

For those of you who are a little bit more involved in real estate, those numbers are actually pretty reasonable. This may be what some of you do in the course of the year, maybe what some of you do in the course of several years. I know that you’re probably starting out at different places but I just wanted to show this to you, not to brag and not to boast and not to impress anybody but once again to impress upon you the possibilities that exist for you whenever you take action, whenever you go out and get really clear, get really committed on what it is that you want to do when you create a plan for your 2018, and for your life and for your business, you get really clear on it, you get committed, you have a plan, get a map that works, get a map that works.

You focus on doing the work, brick by brick, each and every day doing the work, going out, taking action and building this thing day by day by day and just diving deep, immersing yourself into this work, this work that is so incredibly enjoyable and just, I don’t know, I don’t even know what to say, it’s something deeper. It’s in my veins, it’s in my blood, it’s just something that I do and it’s not really work at all. It’s driving me to do these goals and to hit numbers and create a life and create a business that I can wake up every morning and just enjoy it. Just even like talking to you guys right now, I enjoy this because this is part of my goals is to inspire and equip and educate and motivate others to go out and take action and create results.

For you, for how does this really apply like nuts and bolts, how do you make a million dollars in real estate? This is what we do. We operate a business built on proven fundamentals, not some fly by night weekend boot camp or something comes up like that that you don’t know what in this world this guy’s talking about. Fundamentals that work. These are fundamentals that have applied for hundreds of years in the real estate business. There’s nothing new. My seven fundamentals aren’t anything new. They’re just some things that I’ve learned, some concepts, some lessons and some things that models have already been established and we execute them over and over and over again.

We look for unique opportunities in each market and those opportunities change and they shift and they move but we continually go after them over and over and over again. Just utilizing these seven fundamentals, continually sharpening our mindset, getting clear, getting on what it is that we want, what it is that we’re committed to, creating more deal flow, creating increased deal flow and better deal flow, really targeting in and dialing in the properties that we want to buy.

Learning how to evaluate deals quickly and accurately and cherry-picking the ones that we really, really want in today’s market. Quickly estimating repairs, raising money so we can finance our deals. Getting better and sharper on our rehab team. We completed 77 full rehab projects this year with our teams and generating income with multiple exit strategies, flipping, renting, wholesaling, owner financing, making sure that you’ve got that tool in your tool belt.

My friends, like I said, I’m going to wrap this thing up but only actions create results. Only actions create results. Reverse engineer your goals. Create achievable quarterly missions, like these 90-day challenges. Plan it out like the big boys, like the big companies do. These big companies, they’ve got plans and I guarantee you this, they’re really clear on what they want. If you’re not clear on what you want, guess what? You’re going to be spending your money to these companies buying their products and their services and their downloads and their apps and whatever, because they’re clear in what they want, they’re going after you. You can be uncertain and drift and go all over the place, you can get really clear on what you want it is, on whatever that you want is.

Build your team. Build your team of your real estate team and your accountability team. Build that team and go out and execute and assess what’s going on. Execute and assess, execute and assess all the time, executing and assessing your results. Just dive deep, lose yourself and dive deep into what you feel is your destiny. If you’ve got weak goals, you’re going to get weak results. Epic goals, creating an epic year demands much. Much is required but if you have got epic goals and you stay committed and you do the work, you can create epic results. Make sure you have that right map and systematically, methodically go out and create your epic 2018 with an investing blueprint built on proven fundamentals.

Guys, that’s all I’ve got. I don’t have anything to sell or pitch or promote, any product or anything like that. This is just a year in for me and I wanted to go out on a bang. I wanted to share this with you guys, to just hopefully motivate you. Like I said, motivate, inspire you, give you education and equip you to go out and take action. I really appreciate all of you who follow me, they’re online, social media, just for being a member of my email list. I really appreciate you. We’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up in 2018. I’ve added some team members that are helping me create I would say even a more powerful and impactful coaching program for my students. We’re going to have some special events coming out, some things we’re going to be sharing online but not right now, nothing to promote but just to really inspire you guys. Do it, go out and take action.

If this has been useful training to you and you received some good value or just insight and inspiration from this, I’d love just, hit me up on Facebook or send me an email, whatever it may be. That little stuff, it means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me. I appreciate you. I appreciate you watching and I will appreciate it much more if you go out and just do it. Go out and take action, create results, create an epic 2018 and who knows? If you do the work, if you do the work, if you dive deep, if you stay focused, if you stay focused and you stay clear and you stay committed to those goals, you may even make a million dollars in real estate in 2018. All the best.