In this series of posts, you will get to be a ‘fly on the wall’ as Rory coaches a real estate entrepreneur to keep moving on his Big Idea, even as his world is rocked by external circumstances.

The client has given his permission to have progress summaries made public, though his identity will remain private.

Background

Mike, as we’ll call him, had his own single family mortgage business for 17 years, and was successful at it, but he was tired of it. He began to get involved in commercial real estate, investing in his own property, and working to create a business of putting together commercial deals with other investors.

He had just converted his first property into an income generating commercial deal when the mortgage crisis began to surface. His investors got spooked, his deals fell through, and Mike is having to dip into savings to support his wife and two children.

Should Mike give up on his Big Idea of helping others invest in conservative commercial deals? Should he take a job somewhere? Go back to mortgages? Or continue to follow his intuition and his heart?

You will find out as we do. Each week Mike will commit to Take 10 action steps, and then report on the previous week’s activities, wins and challenges.

Session One

This is where the rubber meets the road. It’s one thing to talk about goal setting and positive thinking when things are perceived to be good. But when it’s challenging and everyone around you is saying “This is horrible. It’s the worst time since 1929”, how do you stay positive? How do you shake the apples from the tree? So this is an experiment to see how much the Take 10 tools can help Mike stay energized and in action on his Big Idea.

Here’s what Mike says about his current position:

“Going back to the training which was over a year ago, it was all about putting together commercial real estate deals with other people’s money. And I got off to a good start with my first transaction with my money and one other investor. That felt great, and I wanted to get the momentum going. In October, I had another deal that was lined up when the market crashed. That spooked my primary investor. Then I had the rug pulled out form under me on a couple of other deals. So I guess I’ve bought into the gloom and doom a little bit. I had been focusing on long term commercial investments, safe, conservative, no debt, which I thought would be a winner in this market. And it still could be I think. Because either you can’t get loans right now, or people are turned off to debt. But once you hit a couple of road blocks you stop and reevaluate and wonder if you’re going in the right direction. Probably I’ve been doing too much reading and listening to the negative information that’s out there. And like anything, if you see enough of it you start to believe it, and you start focusing on what can’t be done.”

Mike has a strong intuition about the opportunities, but he has never taken a risk like this, and dipping into savings with a child heading to college, he’s experiencing understandable emotions of doubt and fear.

Mike has a feel for real estate, and a strong intuition about the opportunities, so he decides to continue to implement his Big Idea.

We got clear on the financial picture. Mike’s investment property brings in a certain amount per month. He would need a minimum of $1000/month more to cover just the basic needs of the family. We set the goal for him to bring in $3000 a month or more.

With a clear goal, we reframe the ‘dipping into savings’ thought. ‘Dipping into savings’ leads to feelings of fear and anxiety. We reframe this as an acceptable risk for an entrepeur, funding his company. He is building the foundation, sowing the seeds, preparing for the inevitable upturn. This is what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. You take informed risks.

For this week, Mike has a few decisions to make.

  1. Do I put the time in to putting together anotherr commercial deal, knowing that I won’t be paid until it comes together?
  2. Do I focus on getting hired by a commercial brokerage firm, where I’d get paid on commissions?
  3. Do I take advantage of the opportunity in the single family mortgage market and start doing that again, even though it’s going backward, just so I can bring in some cash?

So we set up the following action steps for Mike to do this week, to get clear first on the mortgage option:

  1. Make some calls to see how easy it would be to start doing single family mortgages. Do I have to set my own business up again, or can I work with a large company?
  2. Make calls to old mortgage clients, perhaps they are interested in becoming investors.

Take 10 tip:
Fear is a normal reaction to doing something new and different. The key is to determine whether the feeling is “Future Expectations Appearing Real”, and something to be pushed through, or whether it is your intuition telling you something important. Taking a small action can often help to tell the difference.