Hey,

I wanted to write you really quick… I’m sitting in a Starbucks in San Francisco in Union Square getting some work done.

I learned a little something this past week that will help me be more successful in ‘09 that I thought you’d enjoy and be able to apply
yourself in your biz and life… both real estate investing and otherwise.

An epiphany

Have you ever had one of those epiphany moments where something suddenly clicked and you finally saw the light?

Well… that’s happened to me this last week while I’ve been on the road for “work” and play.

Here’s the deal…

Last week I went to Vegas for 4 days in a big real estate entrepreneur mastermind session… hung out w/ about 100 fellow real estate entrepreneurs and millionaires at the Palms.

You sure do learn a lot about business and enjoying life when you surround yourself w/ people who are more successful than you… and you see what they’re doing that got them to where they are.

Then, I headed down from Vegas to meet up w/ my little brother in the middle of nowhere the in desert in S. California (he’s going to college down there)… hung out w/ him and his buddies for a day and preached (as I sometimes do) on the fact that they don’t have to put up with the “quid pro quo” the society tries to place on everyone… especially college professors.

The Mindset

Don’t get stuck in the mindset that you have to work 8-5 to make it… or that you have to live a delayed life plan where you work for 30 years just so you can have enough money to enjoy your life when you finally retire at 60.

Why not create a business and life where you intermingle spurts of highly focused “work” (that you enjoy to do)… and take mini-vacations throughout the year while we’re still young and able to enjoy it to the fullest? (I give credit to Tim Ferriss for this by the way… I didn’t make it up).

Heck, even if you’re 45 years old and reading this (not saying you’re old… I’m just saying this to squash the objection you’re probably having right now)… there’s still time to create the business and life that lets you live the best life possible.

So, here’s the epiphany I had this week

So, truthfully the past couple paragraphs aren’t directly related to my point in this article… just a little side rant.

But, while I’ve been away from the office this week… in Vegas, then Palm Springs golfing, now San Francisco…

Rubbing elbows with millionaires in Vegas and Palm Springs (actually stayed with a close family friend in Palm Springs that is the CEO of a company that did $120 million in production last year) the most successful of them all had one major thing in common.

They all run their companies as CEO’s…

You’re Probably Saying “Duh”… Right?

Ya, I know… it sounds too obvious.

But, most of us (me included) have been running our businesses as salesmen, or technicians, or even worse… as a jack of all trades.

When I was in Vegas the most successful of the entrepreneurs I met all had small teams of people (including virtual assistants) that they managed.  It was these people that implemented the strategy and tactics for the CEO.

Right now, I’m guessing you’re a lot like me…

But I’ve been for the most part doing the implementation rather than acting as a CEO and managing the people who implement strategies and tactics for me.

This is a real estate investing business killer

I do have a virtual assistant team… but I haven’t been acting as a CEO with them… but rather, I’ve been very heavily micro-managing them and not letting them run w/ my ideas like I should.

While I was in Palm Springs, my friend and I were masterminding ways that he can grow his business to a billion over the next 5 years.  And truthfully, I’m pretty darn confident that w/ the plans we were talking about… he’ll get there.

But the most important element of the entire strategy we talked about all hinges on one thing.

That he be a CEO and set the systems in place so he can manage the people… and let the people manage the systems.

That’s how you grow a business from $100,000 to $10,000,000… or a $100,000,000 company to $1 billion.

So, how does that translate to you as a real estate investor?

Okay, this is a very roundabout way of getting to this point… I know… but here it goes.

This site… thereibrain.com got a bit over 20k unique visitors to the site last month… and we got no less than 50-75 questions sent in from readers about real estate.

And when I boil it down to really delving into their questions… people are missing a huge point… and it has virtually nothing to do with real estate investing strategy or tactics.

You have to learn how to become an entrepreneur… then an investor… then a CEO.  Right now, 95% of real estate investor “wannabes” try to be a real estate investor… and stop there.

That approach isn’t going to make it work for ya… believe me… I tried for over a year.

You with me?

So, my advice for you is this:

• Phase 1: Go to places like entrepreneur.com , Tim Ferriss’ blog, etc. and really put in an effort to learn about starting and running a business… and structuring that business around your lifestyle… not around how a real estate course says you should.
• Phase 2: Then, spend a solid 2-6 months (depending on how fast you learn and implement) learning about the basics of real estate investing strategies.  Any longer than that and I’d be willing to put a $1,000 bet down that you’ll probably never implement what you learn.
• Phase 3: Start implementing what you learn… that’s the only way you’ll really learn how to invest… you’ll always have questions until you actually go out and learn by falling on your face.  Eventually you’ll get it… things will click… and you’ll be making some great money in real estate.
• Phase 4: Now this is where you become a CEO.  To grow your business (real estate or otherwise)… set systems in place so you can plug anyone into the system… and it can be done correctly without your direct involvement.  For instance, set up a system for fielding motivated seller calls… document it on paper… and let someone else take that system over for you… then you just manage the person that’s plugged into the system.

  If you’re trying to systematize your real estate business… here’s  a great resource I found from an investor who has already put together systems mindmaps of his six figure investing business… some great tutorials in there.

  Get the free REI systems tutorials and templates here <<

That’s it… that’s my long drawn out epiphany I had this week… I’m past phases 1 – 3… I’m in phase 4 right now.

My focus the next 3 months is to create more solid systems for my real estate biz and other businesses… so I can plug someone into those systems… so I can do more cool things like I’ve been doing this week in Vegas, San Francisco, and Palm Springs.

Being away from the office with limited internet access this past week has hammered it into me how important it is for me to have people running my systems for me… without it I’ll have a tough time building my business past the point of where it is… and by being a “CEO” rather than a jack of all trades… I’ll be able to take more trips like these and not have to worry at all about the health of my business.

Cool huh?

Pinpoint Your Phase

So, pinpoint the phase you’re in… and figure out what you have to do to get to the next phase.

If you’re already making money in real estate… you need to begin documenting everything you do in your business… and hand it to a person so run the system for you… you’ll double your income and time off in the next year.

Here's A Few Related Articles...

• Advice On Buying Real Estate Investing Courses… My Honest Take
• We’re gettin’ out the hammers and saws…
• Self Improvement Tip of the Week: Thought is the child of action…
• The 4 Ways a Successful Real Estate Investor Sets Goals
• Behind the scenes video of cool short sale negotiation…

Categories: building your business
Tags: real estate investing business systems, real estate systems