Invest in Sqft

In this episode of Invest In Sqft, we delve into the art of niche marketing and how it can supercharge your business growth. Our guest Ben Albert shares a his journey that began without a clear niche, taking on clients from all walks of life. It's a relatable story for anyone starting a business, but the real transformation happened when the stumbled into an unfamiliar territory: the world of estheticians.

The revelation? Despite having no prior knowledge of the industry, applying fundamental marketing principles made all the difference. Ben explains how, by avoiding the monkey-see, monkey-do approach and focusing on basic marketing strategies, he was able to double an esthetician's traffic in no time.

We explore the power of niche marketing in various contexts. Whether you're a skincare professional, contractor, or service provider, the key lies in identifying your niche and refining your approach. Discover the benefits of setting your prices right and optimizing your business strategy for a specific location.

Join us in this episode to uncover the secrets of rapid business growth through niche marketing. It's time to learn how you can naturally attract the right clients and build your business effectively, all while staying true to your unique niche. Don't miss out on this valuable lesson on the Invest In Sqft podcast. Dot forget to leave a review and subscribe!

If your a business owner looking to grow their networth by investing in real assets go ahead and check out InvestInSqft.com

In this thought-provoking episode of Invest In Sqft, we delve into the importance of creating a social structure where competition and comparison don't steal your focus. You shouldn't constantly worry about what others have or whether they might take what's rightfully yours. It's a distraction that can keep you from designing the life you truly desire.

Our speaker shares a powerful message: it's not about driving someone else's luxury car, wearing their watches or rings, or emulating their possessions. Instead, it's about cultivating your unique tastes and pursuing what genuinely resonates with you. The path to success is as diverse as the people on it.

We explore the value of embracing your individuality, whether it's your choice of attire, like the Aarons preference for camo in professional settings, or the way you express yourself. Be unapologetically you while respecting others, and focus on contributing positively to those around you. The podcast emphasizes that by looking out for others and offering help, you can achieve incredible personal growth and success. Join us to discover the transformative power of embracing your uniqueness on the Invest In Sqft podcast.

The best communities are not built in a day thats like ageing a wine overnight and expecting it to turn into a full, well rounded, rich tasteing necter.

This is a 33 minute master class on creating a thriving community with multiple income streams that all feed into each other. Tim Kelly and his partners have created a growing thriving community of 75,000 poeple in just a few years.

If you want to create a strong community of your own this this episode is one that you dont want to miss.

Welcome to Invest In Sqft: where in this episode we dive deep into the world of raising capital for your ventures.

Join us as we explore the fascinating journey of entrepreneurs who found success not in polished pitch decks but in unfiltered conversations.

Discover insights, strategies, and the pivotal moments that led to chooseing candid discussions over traditional presentations.

Get ready to reshape the way you think about fundraising and empowers you to navigate the capital race with confidence and authenticity.

Tune in and transform your approach to raising capital!

In this episode, we delve deep into the treacherous terrain of entrepreneur burnout. Join us as we explore the subtle yet powerful warning signs that often go unnoticed, leading to the demise of even the most passionate and driven individuals. From relentless workaholism to deteriorating mental and physical health, we leave no stone unturned in uncovering the silent saboteurs that lurk beneath the surface.

But fear not! We don't stop at mere identification; we equip you with a toolbox of strategies and insights to combat and conquer burnout. James shares his personal experiences and battle-tested advice on how to regain control, rekindle your passion, and build resilience in the face of adversity.

Tune in to discover the transformative power of self-care, boundary-setting, and purpose-driven decision-making. We'll guide you through practical steps and mindset shifts to not only survive but thrive in the entrepreneurial world. Don't let burnout extinguish your dreams—ignite a new flame of balance, fulfillment, and sustainable success. Join us on this empowering journey toward reclaiming your entrepreneurial fire. #highperformance #burnout #selfcare #health 

Awareness Plug / Ad:

Podcast Guest: James Williams
Company/Organization: The Growth Edge
Position / Title: Certified High-Performance Coach
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-r-s-williams/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/73776466/admin/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesrswilliams/
Website: https://thegrowthedge.com/
Email: James @TheGrowthEdge.com

This is just a reminder. This is something that I've come across a number of times in my career as an entrepreneur, but it absolutely is true. If you know that you don't have the right people in the right seats, you should really look into changing that and getting the right people in the right seats.

We've had. A lot of turnover in some of our companies in the last six months or so, and a lot of it had to do with underperformance and me wanting to give people the opportunity to be able to quote unquote, grow into the position since we've replaced them and found other people to be able to be in those positions.

Those. Opportunities, those areas has have absolutely flourished. So don't be afraid to make that change when you see things not happening, uh, no matter how much you might want to keep kicking the can down the road. So,

 On invest in square feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners just like you, protect your wealth so that you can invest passively into multifamily real estate. And speaking of investing passively in multifamily real estate, if you are looking to learn more about that, head over to invest in square feet and sign up for our monthly trainings where we walk.

Are potential investors through some of the knowledge that you need to have as a passive investor. In the multifamily industry today we're gonna talk about a topic that does not get covered nearly, nearly enough, and it's something that pretty well all entrepreneurs are going to face at one time or another, and they may not even realize that they're facing this.

The questions that we're going to answer today is, are you pushing yourself toward burnouts? We're gonna learn the hidden signs that high achievers normally will start portraying when they are on their path to toward burnout. And we're, we're gonna learn how to identify them and what to do when you are in those situations, or even have your loved ones listen to this episode so that they can understand whether or not.

You might be going through a burnout situation and they can help identify those particular situations. So with that, let's get onto the show. [email protected]

  Well, the interesting thing about high performers like yourself is that high performers, you know, naturally can actually. Like go through burnout whilst not knowing they're in burnout, right?

That's, yeah. They can actually, they can actually do that because, I mean, I dunno if you under, you know what human design is, but there are all sorts of different personality profile testings. And so my wife's what's called a manifesting generator, and so that archetype has the ability to generate a huge amount of energy and we're not talking about fitness.

We're talking about this natural drive that you were just born with. And so you have this ability, but then what start, multiple things start happening. So, um, intrinsically things can start happening. Like you get very used to, um, your quality, your quality of sleep. Mm-hmm. Right? You get very used to, uh, certain pains.

You get very used to, um, your mood fluctuations, and it's what I call unconscious incompetency. So, You get used to things and you think that it's normal, right? Mm-hmm. And you're so focused on your goal, you're not even paying, you're not even comparing yourself to how other people run. Cuz you're just, this is just how, how I am and I'm fine.

Mm-hmm. It's your fine though, right? Then the other things is on the outside, your relationships. Right? They're just, they just, they, they start distancing a little bit. You feel like you can't trust people 100% anymore because you haven't spent the time to cultivate that. Maybe the marriage or those relationships, they're just, they're not fluid.

And again, the high performer will be like, oh, that's just normal. It's normal to argue with my wife every day, or it's normal for this thing to happen. That's, that everyone else is saying is bad. And so what often high performers do, because they, they don't think there's a problem. They normalize problems.

So, Yeah, that 

makes sense. 

Right. Until then your hair starts falling out. Right. Or you get that call from the doctor. Right. Or something really, I had a, a good friend's father who, you know, was always so happy and chirpy, um, and driven and worked really hard and, and then he, he, all his hair just fell out.

Wow. Yeah. Eyebrows as well. Everyone thought he had like cancer or something and it wasn't, it was a stress-induced, it's your body saying, listen, I'm trying every way to tell you to change how you are running me. Yeah. And you are not listening, so I need to do something drastic. And that's what happens is the signs get more extreme until you listen.

Mm-hmm. And my goal is to, is to try and educate. Because I don't want you to wait that long because sometimes that sign is unrecoverable. Mm-hmm. And if you get real burnout, that can take years to, to come back from that years. Yeah. Right. And that's if you do what you need to do to recover and then you, doesn't matter how clever you are, it doesn't matter how motivated you are, you won't physically or mentally be able.

To do what you want to do. Yeah. So, 

so what are some of the, the steps that we can take to, um, you know, help make sure that we're, I guess, not going down the burnout path, make sure that we are taking care of ourselves. You know, what, what are some of those, what's some of that advice that, you know, we 

can, I mean, that's a big question, but I would say the most important thing, so I, I, I run a, a training called Running the Business of You.

And I developed this for this mindset because, Like, let's say we just talk about business owners, entrepreneurs, right? Mm-hmm. Entrepreneurs understand the construct of a business. They understand SOPs, they understand company culture. They understand cash flow, they understand profit and loss. They understand these concepts, so, I turn those concepts into the roles within yourself.

And so step one, if you were to go into a business and audit that business and run a diagnostic, the first thing you'd want to be is com is awareness of everything. I wanna just be aware of everything I wanna, I wanna understand, you know, though, if we talk about the person, I wanna understand my level of energy.

I wanna understand. My sleep, how much I'm sleeping, what my REM and my deep is, you know, so I want stats. I want data, right? I wanna understand, without normalizing or judging anything, I just wanna literally audit my performance. So become aware of everything and then have some data about what, say a high performer that does the same thing as me.

Who is happy, healthy, energized, great relationships? What are they doing that I'm not doing? So we ga we gain data first, right? And we compare. Um, sleep's a big thing. Stress management's a big thing. Time is a big thing. The ability to put to bed. The work and now be husband or wife or friend. Yeah. Yeah.

It's quite often these, those AA types, they actually think about everything all the time. Mm-hmm. So it's com compartmentalizing, it's the ability to be present. So before we teach what, what are, which are habitual patterns, which takes time, we, we gain awareness, um, which is kind of like sales, right? So if I wanna sell you something, you need all the information so you can understand the benefit.

Of what you're investing in, because no, a type entrepreneur is gonna invest any more time in something unless they are sold on the, on how it's gonna benefit them. Yeah. In what they find important. Exactly. So that's my first job, is to sell to them why their ti, why their time addressing this thing is gonna, is gonna make

Are you ready to unlock the secrets of the booming short-term rental market? Look no further than this captivating podcast with, Kirby Atwell. Join Kirby as he takes you on a journey into the world of investing and running short-term rental units, providing you with invaluable insights, tips, and strategies to maximize your profits and achieve financial freedom.

We cover both novice and experienced investors' questions with the knowledge and tools necessary to thrive in the short-term rental business. Kirby's expertise shines through as he shares his proven methods for selecting the right properties, optimizing listings, attracting guests, managing operations, and ultimately maximizing returns.

Whether you're looking to start your short-term rental empire or seeking to enhance your existing portfolio, this episode is your go-to resource for valuable advice and practical strategies that deliver results.

Awareness Plug / Ad

Start for a masterclass on the short-term rental market with Kirby Atwell
Livingoffrentals.com

Today, I'm afraid I don't have very much insightful wisdom for you. I've been covering a property management position at a large property, 275 units here in Shaker Heights during a transition period between our property managers. So essentially we have our own property management company, but the.

Person, the individual who is managing this particular property decided to move on. A few weeks ago we found a replacement and he's gonna be starting in about a week and a half, and I'm covering during that period. So it's been a little bit busy and haven't had too much time to learn that much, but I hope you enjoy today's episode nonetheless.

 Invest in square feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners just like you, protect your wealth so that you can invest passively in multi-family real estate. Today we're gonna learn all about short-term rental units. And why? One of the biggest misconceptions about short-term rental units is that you have to be in a vacation area in order to make it work.

The fact of the matter is, is that short-term rentals can be done in every city and everywhere in the country, and we get into some of that reasoning on today's episode.

 Yeah. Uh, so I think there's probably two main things that I can point to back then. Number one was I was not clear on the outcome that I was after. So I, I got out of the military and I sort of, Envision just business success is making a bunch of money. And I started self-educating, going to a lot of different conferences and stuff, and you'd see the, the gurus on stage and they'd have, you know, uh, all the flashy things that they'd, they'd point to as success.

And that was kind of like, I guess my, my. Version of success at that time. And I, I was sort of chasing this, this idealistic version of success. And then it wasn't until till years later that I got really specific on what's my version of success. And I realized none of that material stuff even matters to me.

Um, and it was really, freedom is what I was after and cre and to get there, I needed to create cash flow. And so, So what I was doing in the beginning wasn't matching with the outcome that I really wanted, and so I, I could never get there because I wasn't very specific on, on what that outcome looked like for me.

Once I got real specific, then I could backwards plan and create the steps and then just follow the steps. Mm-hmm. Um, and then the other thing was I wasn't, um, I, I don't know if it's realistic or just I, I wasn't educated enough to understand the numbers and what it would take. To create a business and where to spend the money in the right place, that's actually gonna matter in the beginning, you know, and everyone telling you you need to do all these different things.

There's a million things you can spend your money on, and 90% of it is just bs. It, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. It's you. If you didn't do any of it, you didn't set up your website if you didn't go out and get business cards and didn't do any of that stuff in the beginning, that people tell you you need to do.

I mean, that's just a few examples of a laundry list. Um, it, it doesn't, and you just focused on creating a product that people. Want and, and need, um, and then figured out how to sell that, uh, you'd be so much better off. But in the beginning it feels better to, to market yourself and spend money on all this stuff.

That's just nonsense. 

 So if you, if you had to look back and do things over again and, you know, not invest in the website, not do the business cards, not do you know what, whatever, like the trade shows, the, you know, the, the various different marketing, um, How would you approach, how would you approach starting the business or, or, you know, getting in and figuring that out?

What would be your approach there? 

Yeah, uh, great question. I, so I, what I did in the beginning, I, I, I got out of the military and I started flipping houses. Cause I thought well make these big chunks of money. And it seemed like that's a way to start building wealth. Um, instead, what would've been much smarter is to figure out.

How can I create streams of income as quickly as possible and create the largest streams of income, the most cash flow possible. And by doing that, it, it allows you, it starts to free up capacity. You know, because I was in this constant. Um, this constant like treadmill that I was never gonna get off of with flipping where it's like you're constantly looking for that next deal.

You have no capacity in your life. You just add more and more deals, which take up more and more of your time. But by adding cash flow, That's totally different. The more cash flow you add, the more capacity it frees up, and the more ability you have to go out and add more cash flow then, um, so it's like this perpetual cycle.

And I didn't, I didn't get that in the beginning, so I would've focused purely on. What I'm doing now, if I, if I had the knowledge that I have now, um, which is high cash flowing, short-term rentals, um, and things were different back then. I mean, this was 2011 when I first started. So, uh, you know, Airbnb was different.

The, the market was different, but, um, the, the potential was still there. Maybe I would've done it slightly differently, but, um, to create these, these. Streams of income using these sort of non-traditional short-term rentals that really just cash flow phenomenally well. And it's, and that's what's gotten us to a point of financial freedom and, and not having to, um, to rely on a nine to five job.

Yeah. 

 So obviously focusing in on the cash flow and, and your. Your method of creating that cash flow is through short-term rentals. So I, I'm, I'm assuming you're taking the assets that you, maybe you already had. Um, and rather than renting them out on a monthly basis, you, you're doing short-term rentals instead.

Is that, is that the approach? 

Um, somewhat so. So we had. Initially I flipped for five years and then realized that that was getting me nowhere. Uh, and so then I transitioned into long-term rentals and we built up a portfolio of 24 of those, which, which were good, but, um, very unreliable. You know, you'd have a tenant move out and you'd have to rere rehab the whole place and it would eat up all your cash flow.

Um, and then we transitioned into, we tested out on our basement actually. We were moving and we tried. We, we created our basement. Uh, In, in our unfinished basement, we created a one bedroom walkout apartment, you know, um, that we rented on Airbnb and it worked phenomenally well. And so we kind of took the thesis behind that and started buying in this affordable town right next door where, you know, the properties would work really well as long-term rentals, but we could convert 'em into short-term rentals.

And by these small multi-family properties and the cash flow is just off the charts compared to long-term rentals and the properties stay in tiptop shape because you're cleaning 'em constantly and repairing any little things that come up. Um, so, so we sold off all the long-term rentals cuz they were in areas that we really didn't want to be in.

I didn't, we, we had been in Illinois where, You know, I, I'm not super bullish on the future of, uh, of that state. We moved over to Indiana where the taxes are much lower. The, uh, bureaucracy is lower, the crime's lower, um, and things are heading in a positive direction, in my opinion. So, um, so now all of our properties all around northwest Indiana in these, in these utilitarian markets that are, most people would say, Nobody goes on vacation there.

How can you buy a short term rental there? But that's the perfect place to buy. There's still local draws. It's affordable enough for people to rent for all kinds of purposes, not just vacation. And people come to vacation cuz we're right near Lake Michigan as well. 

 So that's something that I've always wondered, you know, with short term rentals, do you need, obviously vacation?

That makes perfect sense. Um, If you, if you, uh, I feel like this goes back to location, location, location, but is location as important with the short term rental is what it is? You know, with, with other things, like if you, I don't wanna say if you, if you have a, an undesirable location, um, but. Do you find like these homes can still be leased out on a short term basis, even if there isn't like this, you know, major attraction, major draw, major reason for people to come to the area?

Is it, is it still,

This is the story of Roger Blankenship an experienced and highly successful house flipper turned educator, we take you on a  journey through the world of real estate entrepreneurship.

Roger shares invaluable insights, proven strategies, and real-life stories of triumphs and challenges from his own remarkable career. With a passion for teaching and a knack for breaking down complex concepts into actionable steps, he empowers aspiring house flippers with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed.

Whether you're a novice investor looking to dip your toes into the world of house flipping or an experienced pro seeking fresh perspectives and advanced techniques, this episode is a go-to resource. We discover how to avoid common pitfalls and learn from Roger's own failures and triumphs, gaining a competitive edge in the dynamic world of house flipping.

Awareness Plug / Links and Resources:

Flipping America Podcast with Roger Blankenship
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/flipping-america/id1449888255
Personal LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerblankenship

I made some ribs recently and I get asked this all the time for my rib recipe, so I figured I would go ahead and share it here.  Basically, all I do is smear.

Yellow mustard all over the ribs. You tried to trim up the ribs, ribs a little bit. You know, think of the ribs as needing to be aerodynamic so that the smoke flows over those ribs. So trim them up a little bit. And then yellow mustard. And then I do a mixture of, uh, two parts, pepper. Uh, it's a black crushed pepper, and I, I crush up my own, uh, fresh pepper.

Uh, and then the third part is salt. Uh, you. Push, uh, uh, sprinkle that all over the top, give it a good coating, and then go ahead and place that on the smoker. Uh, and then once an hour, I will spray it with apple cider vinegar. And then, um, about three hours. So, so every, every hour you're spraying these things.

And then in about three hours or so, go ahead and wrap them in foil. When you wrap them in foil. Um, take your favorite barbecue sauce and dilute it with. Apple cider vinegar and then spray that on top. And what ends up happening is that bubbles and creates this great, wonderful. Uh, um, you know, juice inside of the foil.

So you hook that for maybe about another two hours or so on the grill, on the smoker. Uh, and what I like to do is I like to smoke them with hickory wood, so that's pretty well about it. These ribs are gonna be fall off the bone tender. Uh, so, so good. They create a great juice, a great, uh, a great sauce right inside of there.

Uh, you don't even need barbecue sauce with them. Hope you enjoy.

 On invest in square feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners just like you, protect your wealth so that you can invest passively into multi-family real estate. Today we're going to be talking to Roger Blankenship, who has a long history of real estate investment.

Roger also hosts a very, very popular podcast called Flipping America on Flipping Real Estate. The one thing that I learned from this episode that I think is really interesting is Rogers. Thoughts on entrepreneurial success and what it takes to be able to get there. So we are gonna get right into things and start learning from Roger.

 I. Did pretty well as an investor for many years.

And, uh, then I know this, you're gonna find this hard to believe. I got cocky and I, uh, felt I was feeling bulletproof. Everything we had done had worked out well, and so I decided, uh, I either gotta decided to retire or go large and we decided to go large and I went out and got a big line of credit and I started buying properties all over the southeast.

Long story short, bad hiring decisions and uh, mainly it was just bad hiring decisions. We followed a thoughtful process that I got from my coach, but uh, that business imploded and we lost everything 2014, not in the crash, years after the crash, we made all of our money during the crash years. And then while I was trying to pick up the pieces and start all over again and rebuild confidence and so forth and try, try to figure out what went wrong and uh, and so forth.

I was on another small business talk radio show. And, um, you know, my background is I've been an educator and a public speaker and, um, I only got into real estate out of sheer desperation and a lack of communicable job skills. But, um, So I did this interview with this guy on his show and afterwards he said, you know what, man?

You ought to have your own show. I said, nah, nah, nah, I'm not understood. He kept on bugging me for three months straight and finally he convinced me and um, we decided to call it Show Flipping America. And um, the first show we did, Had 2000 listeners, and then by the end of the first month we had 20,000.

And, you know, just a few months ago, we had in, in, uh, January of 23, we had 1.2 million. Wow. And so without any intent on my part, it's sort of become the tail that wags the dog. Um, And how do, how has that affected the investing? Well, it's giving me contacts around the country that I wouldn't have had before.

And you know, the other thing too, Matt, I. I have had the opportunity to talk to so many people. We're in the 600 s now on episodes, and I've talked to so many brilliant people with great ideas. And, uh, you know, I've sat here during interviews just taking notes, writing it all down, and transferring that to my computer and putting it in my brain.

And, and I've learned so much from the people that have come into the show and I've. I've been privileged to meet some of the top players in the industry and, and watch what they have done to build businesses without that massive failure in the middle of it, you know? Mm-hmm. And, um, uh, I even got to interview Tillman for tida, the owner of the Houston Rockets, who is a, uh, billionaire casino owner and so forth.

And, uh, The, that interview didn't go the way he expected because I wanted to talk to him about business failures. I was still trying to figure out my own life. But, um, these conversations have brought a whole nother level of education to me and opportunity, um, as the word get got around, you know, people started coming to me with opportunities and some of the things I'm into with the auction houses, and now we have bought properties in 28 states.

Wow. And, um, uh, it's been, it's been a pretty wild ride. And yeah, the, the story's not over flipping America. We've got some big things on the near horizon. That's, that's 

amazing. That's amazing. Um, so I, I, I wanna go back to so many different things. I, I, let's go back to the failure of, of the business in 2014, and you said that it was basically attributed to hiring mistakes.

Right. Yeah. Do you, was there, was it hiring, the hiring unscrupulous people where they were stealing from you? Or was it, you know, you didn't have the right, no. Leadership that was going in place. What, what do you 

attribute that to? Uh, good people in the wrong seats. Um, mainly, and, uh, I'm not gonna say his name, but, um, the, the contractor who had worked for me almost exclusively for the previous, I guess.

Four or five years. Uh, we made the decision to expand in 20, in 2012, late 20 11, 20 12. But the guy that had worked for me, he had rehabbed, uh, something between 350 and 400 houses for me. And we had been thick as these, doing a hundred houses a year. Um, between him and uh, some of the houses I could run myself with just subs.

Um, And we had become very good friends. Uh, I, and when we, when he did his, when he completed his three on his rehab, we kind of stopped counting, but I gave him a motorcycle as a thank you. And, um, and all this to say he had become a good friend. Mm-hmm. And when I decided to expand, I made, and, and he's the same age I am.

None of us are getting younger, but, uh, we're getting up there. I said, look, man, why don't you come and be our project manager? We're gonna be hiring contractors in Metro Atlanta, in Macon, Savannah, Augusta. And as we branch out into other, uh, States, I need somebody to run point and, and hire those contractors.

And he said, man, I'd love to. I'm tired of crawling around on my knees and crawl spaces in the mud and getting up on roofs. He said, I never wanna do that again. I said, okay. Turns out he wasn't very good at it. In fact, he was not. That's, that's putting it mildly. He didn't hire good people. He didn't have a a, you know, he himself was a good person, but he, he didn't have a sense of what a crooked contractor looked like, and he hired a bunch of crooks and then he didn't run 'em well.

We had a few good people that he just drove crazy because, He had his opinion about how things ought to be done. It differed from theirs and, um, no conflict management. Um, no real sense of project management. Uh, he could manage his own, but he could not supervise 20, and it was a disaster. I waited too long.

We were bleeding cash. Uh, to the tune of about a hundred thousand a month in interest spans on this big line of credit. Mm-hmm. And when I finally set him down, are you familiar with the Peter principal? Peter Peter Drucker, business management leader. Uh, the principle is everyone rises to their own level of incompetence.

You see this in organizations. People do well, they get promoted, do well, they get promoted, they finally get to a level where they don't do so well. Well, unfortunately what companies do is they get rid of 'em. What they really shoul

Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn your life around completely? In this extraordinary episode, our host, Matt Shields, takes you on a riveting journey from the confines of a cargo van to the heights of a real estate empire spanning hundreds of apartments across the country.

Prepare to be inspired as Matt fearlessly shares his personal story, unraveling the transformative moments that propelled him beyond the limitations of his circumstances. Through tales of resilience, determination, and unwavering belief in the power of possibility, Matt's incredible journey will challenge you to ask yourself: What's holding you back?

Join us as we delve deep into the triumphs, setbacks, and pivotal decisions that defined Matt's path to success. Discover the secrets behind his rise from living on wheels to becoming a prominent figure in the real estate industry. This gripping episode will ignite your own dreams and leave you with a newfound belief in the infinite potential within you.

Don't miss out on this thought-provoking episode that will empower you to break free from the shackles of doubt and embrace the boundless opportunities that await. It's time to unleash your own potential and embark on the path to greatness. The power to transform your life is within your reach - tune in now and let Matt's remarkable journey be the catalyst for your own incredible story.

Today on Invest in Square Feet, we have a special episode. We've received many comments, wanting to know more about my background and how I got to where I am today. So today I have Troy, who is a recent guest on the Invest in Square Feet Podcast, interview me about some of my upbringings and the way that I look at certain situations.

We all have events that shape and mold our responses and our reactions to things, and I get pretty deep into some of the personal experiences that I've gone through, some of the hardships that I've gone through in my life. My goal with all of this is to be more open and more transparent with all of our listeners so that you guys can know me a little bit better and understand where I might be coming from, from specific events or happenings that I might have gone through in my own life.

 On Invest in Square Feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners protect and grow their business so that they can invest. Passively into multi-family real estate. So today's gonna be a little bit different as the intro had described before.

I'm going to be interviewed today and tell a little bit about my story and the reason why I wanted to do this. So that everyone can understand that we all go through setbacks and struggles. I reveal some of the things that I've gone through, some of the low points in my life to where I am today, how I sprung back from those situations, and literally today I own multimillion dollars worth of real estate.

I hope this inspires you and I hope that it connects you a little bit more with my story. And what I've been able to accomplish, and I look forward to having you reach out, and I'd love to be able to help you take your business to the next level so that you can also do the same thing, and also invest in multi-million dollars worth of real estate.

 I love, the mindset of referring to these ebbs and flows of life, as,  seasons right? So many people get so bogged down into my life is falling apart. Things aren't going well. And, that's not the way that life is always going to be. You know, you're going through a season, maybe it lasts six months, four months, a year, you know, things will get better and you have to recognize that it's a learning opportunity and it's a learning opportunity to be able to really spring yourself forward because now you know what not to do, right?

You've already, you've already made it to that part, part where you feel like you failed or what have you. So, um, we all go through it and you just have to, to have the perseverance to keep on, keep on going. 

It gives me chills because, you know, Matt, when you think about it, when people think, you know, is it, why is everything getting worse and or why is this happening to me, the good news is, is if you pay attention and get recalibrated, you can actually realize that there is a winter coming up.

There's gonna be a time where we can sit back a little bit. We don't have to get out there and cut that grass right away, if you will, and you know, we're gonna ha we're gonna have a little bit of snow and, and it's some time to recalibrate and then get ready to spring back out. Um, like what you call it, seasons.

I like that. Tell me a little bit about you today, Matt, describe yourself today. If you were to look at yourself in, in maybe three areas, if we could.

I'd like to talk about. Um, I'd like to talk about your relationships. Um, I'd like to talk about, about your wealth. I'd also like to talk about health, um, maybe mentally and physically and taking a look where we are today, but then also, you know, I'd like to then after go back and talk about was it always like that and, you know, and how did we get up to this point, kind of working in reverse

I have a, a number of different companies and a number of different focuses. I have a technology company and we build custom software, custom apps for many businesses. , one business has sold more than, uh, a hundred million dollars using, uh, our apps, uh, so that they're on the, the sales side of things.

So it. We have a great understanding of what drives people and what, where the, where the blockers are, where the issues are that. A lot of people may not necessarily see, right? So technology company, um, is doing well and a number of years, probably about five years ago or so, I started getting involved in large multi-family real estate.

 We've got about 780, uh, units, uh, under management right now.

Uh, and to a company, those, those assets. We also have our own property management company and our own construction company to be able to, to feed and work off of one another. Um, and then I also have a podcast. That is in the top 3% of all podcasts, uh, out there. So that's, that's in a nutshell, that's what I'm doing today.

It's a great journey and, and I'm learning every day as well. And I think that that's, that's one of the keys, like we said before, there's always seasons, there's always things that are not going to go the way that you had planned.

But if you have this perspective where you are always open to earn, uh, to, to learning and to bettering yourself and, and approaching things from a positive perspective, no matter how bad they may seem, um, It's gonna serve you well, right? And again, we're all gonna go through things. We're all gonna lose things.

We're all going to have the days that aren't going to go the way that we planned. But at the end of the day, you know, keeping that positive perspective is really key for what, what I found. Um, and again, i, I app approach that with pretty well everything in my life. Um, relationships, I always look at the positive side of things.

Uh, I choose. Not to have assholes in my life. Like if I don't get along with you, then you know, I'm, I don't keep banging my head against the wall trying to, you know, make things work. I prefer to have positive people and people that are, um, you know, out there doing things that motivate them and drive them.

So that's the type of people that I like to surround myself with because then that, that just feeds my energy and that motivates me as well. I wanna do better. I want to be able to keep up with them or beat them or whatever it is, right? So, so that's how I approach. Pretty well ev every relationship, um, you know, that I, that I have.

Um, and then from the, the fitness side of things, again, always learning. Uh, but I've, I, I feel like I've pretty well always been in, you know, pretty good shape. Um, I, I'm, I'm pretty active ski play volleyball a lot. Um, you know, we used to run a lot more when my knees were a little bit better, but, uh, yeah, I feel like health has kind of always been one of those things that I've, I've been pretty lucky with, I guess you can say.

Uh, and, and interestingly enough, one thing on the health side of things, I don't go to the doctor at all. I, I don't take aspirin. I don't take medication. Um, I believe in healing myself naturally and. Um, you know, with the foods that I eat and, and, you know, I don't take cough medicine. I don't do any of that stuff.

So, um, that's the way that I've pretty well always been. And I, and at the same time, I don't eat any type of fast food or anything, don't drink pop. Um, it's probably been 25 years since I've had a sip of any type of pop. So, um, again, it's just, just my lifestyle. It's the way that I have chosen to live so, It did.

It's, uh, it, I I would believe that, um, having those areas balanced like that today would be a dream come true. Would I, would I say that that would be an accurate statement? 

 It's interesting that you say that and. I don't, I'm not one to brag at all. To me, I feel like I haven't even started yet.

I, I feel like the things I've done are normal. Um, And yet other people tell me all the time, like, oh my God, I can't believe that you did that. How did you do that? That's, that's incredible. That's amazing. But to me it's just, it's just, it's life. Right? So I, I think the goal with all of this is be is, is to bring other

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In this podcast, we delve into the secrets of exceptionally wealthy individuals with net worths of $100 million or more. Surprisingly, their key to success lies in their failures. We explore how failure is an integral part of the entrepreneurial journey and how learning from mistakes is the ultimate catalyst for growth.

Discover the concept of business blockers and how they can unknowingly hinder your success. We uncover practical strategies to identify and overcome these obstacles, empowering you to unlock your full potential.

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Join us on The Profitability Paradigm on Invest in Sqft " as we challenge conventional notions of failure, embrace resilience, and inspire you to thrive amidst setbacks. Get ready to embark on a transformative journey of learning, growth, and ultimately, achieving your fullest potential.

Links and Resources:
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresakuhn
Personal Website:  http://teresakuhn.com
Company Website:  https://100yearrei.com/tag/teresa-kuhn

 I was talking with Amanda Holmes about a week ago or so, and if you don't know who Amanda Holmes is, she is the daughter of Chet Holmes who wrote the Ultimate Sales Machine, which is known as the Red Bible in the marketing industry. Unfortunately, Chet passed away a number of years ago, and Amanda has taken over her father's companies.

We were talking about time management, and Amanda made a statement that I feel is so simplistic, but yet we all completely screw it up, right? We make things so much more complicated than what they should be. She said the number one technique for time management, and we've been deploying this ever since.

She said This is to only touch the thing once, so don't keep kicking the can down the road. Don't let things keep coming back up again. Talking about things re re. Engaging with things, touch it once, get it done, get it off your plate, and move on to the next thing. What this does is it allows you to keep moving things forward because basically what happens is if you  keep  doing a little bit here, a little bit there, before you know it, your bandwidth is completely.

Taken over, right? You are completely using everything that you can concentrate on just to get all of this stuff done that you have in your life. So by getting rid of it, seeing it once, touching it once, addressing it, accomplishing it, filing it, whatever the thing is, that is the way to be able to properly manage your time 

I was talking with Amanda Holmes about a week ago or so, and if you don't know who Amanda Holmes is, she is the daughter of Chet Holmes who wrote the Ultimate Sales Machine, which is known as the Red Bible in the marketing industry. Unfortunately, Chet passed away a number of years ago, and Amanda has taken over her father's companies.

We were talking about time management, and Amanda made a statement that I feel is so simplistic, but yet we all completely screw it up, right? We make things so much more complicated than what they should be. She said the number one technique for time management, and we've been deploying this ever since.

She said This is to only touch the thing once, so don't keep kicking the can down the road. Don't let things keep coming back up again. Talking about things re re. Engaging with things, touch it once, get it done, get it off your plate, and move on to the next thing. What this does is it allows you to keep moving things forward because basically what happens is if you keep kicking the can down the road and keep touching things and doing a little bit here, a little bit there, before you know it, your bandwidth is completely.

Taken over, right? You are completely using everything that you can concentrate on just to get all of this stuff done that you have in your life. So by getting rid of it, seeing it once, touching it once, addressing it, accomplishing it, filing it, whatever the thing is, that is the way to be able to properly manage your time and effectively manage your time.

I was talking with Amanda Holmes about a week ago or so, and if you don't know who Amanda Holmes is, she is the daughter of Chet Holmes who wrote the Ultimate Sales Machine, which is known as the Red Bible in the marketing industry. Unfortunately, Chet passed away a number of years ago, and Amanda has taken over her father's companies.

We were talking about time management, and Amanda made a statement that I feel is so simplistic, but yet we all completely screw it up, right? We make things so much more complicated than what they should be. She said the number one technique for time management, and we've been deploying this ever since.

She said This is to only touch the thing once, so don't keep kicking the can down the road. Don't let things keep coming back up again. Talking about things re re. Engaging with things, touch it once, get it done, get it off your plate, and move on to the next thing. What this does is it allows you to keep moving things forward because basically what happens is if you keep kicking the can down the road and keep touching things and doing a little bit here, a little bit there, before you know it, your bandwidth is completely.

Taken over, right? You are completely using everything that you can concentrate on just to get all of this stuff done that you have in your life. So by getting rid of it, seeing it once, touching it once, addressing it, accomplishing it, filing it, whatever the thing is, that is the way to be able to properly manage your time and effectively manage your time.

 On invest in square feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners just like you, protect your wealth so that you can invest passively into multi-family real estate. Have you ever looked at very, very wealthy individuals or maybe even banks, for instance, and wonder how they protect their wealth, protect their business?

No matter if you're looking to enhance your investments, safeguard your assets, or simply increase your net worth. This episode that we're gonna talk about today dives into the realm of achieving financial success. Today we're gonna learn how some of those wealthy individuals and incredibly large banks power themselves into wealth building machines so that we can all do the exact same thing with our businesses.

 You, you know, the level of success as I worked on myself and I healed parts of myself and I understood more and more about me. Um, my success grew and that's not an accident. Um, wherever someone is in life in terms of business and relationships, et cetera, it is a direct reflection to the healing and the growth that they, uh, they have within themselves.

 When somebody presents themselves with, Hey, I can only reach this level of success, or I can only do this, or I'm struggling with this, you know, it's all about my, my suggestions to them is go inside because only to the level of your healing and your self-awareness is the level of success that you're going to have in life.

And I'm not talking about just financially, but for me financially, As I heal certain parts of myself and as I figured stuff out and as I worked on myself, it's not a surprise that my revenue and my income went up right, and as I became more comfortable in my skin, the world opened up to me because I was not projecting my insecurities and my lack of feeling comfortable in my own self on other people.

As I loved myself, I could love more people. As I accepted myself deeply, I could accept more people. Well, what happens when you can expand your world and accept more people? You have more opportunities. Mm-hmm. Then the question becomes, are we aligned in terms of those opportunities, energetically, values, you know, et cetera.

So, um, yeah, entrepreneurship, you can. Dig a great hole in terms of energy and time suck and distractions. Um, and for a lot of people, I think they, I know it was me, like I worked my butt off n to distract me from whatever pain I was in. Um, but the more people go inside and heal those parts of themselves, I think the more success they have in every area of their life.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And just real quick, do you, you know, in your coaching or however you want to, to call it, um, are there any, I guess, steps maybe that you would suggest to be able to start to realize that maybe I have something to, to, to fix or maybe even steps to be able to start, um, you know, that self.

Uh, you know, self realization, self awakening, anything come to mind as far as, you know, steps that you can do to, to start realizing that? 

Um, we

As entrepreneurs, we know that the journey can be lonely, confusing, and downright difficult at times. However, today we have a special guest who will share with us his powerful strategies to overcome obstacles and turn your life around when you get stuck.

Our guest is no stranger to adversity, having experienced his fair share of challenges in his entrepreneurial journey. But he managed to rise above the difficulties and achieve incredible success, including creating more than 5 times his company's average sales for a whopping 40 million dollars!

If you're an entrepreneur feeling stuck or frustrated, this episode is a must-listen. You'll discover practical strategies to transform your life and business, including how to develop amazing relationships, achieve breakthrough sales results, and gain the confidence to navigate the often-unpredictable terrain of entrepreneurship.

Whether you're just starting out or have been in business for years, the insights and advice you'll gain from this episode will help you take your life and business to the next level.

So grab a notebook and pen, get comfortable, and let's dive into this episode of Invest in Sqft, where we explore the fascinating world of entrepreneurship and discover the secrets to overcoming obstacles and achieving success.

Links and Resources:
Troy Aberle Executive Strategy Officer
Coaching and Mentorship
The Ultimate Sales Machine - New Edition
The Ultimate Sales Machine - Amazon

I'm curious to learn if anyone has any experiences similar to this. Have you heard of the technique called tapping? It's a way to be able to get over different issues that we may have going on in our psyche. And for me, I learned a few weeks ago that I actually have a phobia, and that phobia is basically.

Me worrying that my blood is going to get damaged. This is something that I've always struggled with my entire life, but I didn't know that it was a phobia until a few weeks ago. So this tapping technique puts us into these different positions where we think about times when we were experiencing whatever the issue is, right?

So for me it was when I was, when my, when I had cuts or when I was trying to give blood, and we quite literally would. Recognize where we were feeling stress in our body. And again, for me, it's right kind of in the middle of the chest and you actually tap on that area and then you do a clearing technique, which I have to tell you as I was doing this, I could definitely feel the tension in my chest, in my.

In right in the middle of my chest and halfway through it did start to clear and I could actually feel myself sort of open up and, and dissipate that feeling. So this is very, very new to me. I've never done anything like this before, but I'm curious if anyone else has any experiences that they were able to clear any type of ailments or blockages that they might have.

So let us know. I wanna learn more about this and dive a little bit more into this topic.

 On invest in square feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners just like you grow and protect your wealth so that you can invest passively into multi-family real estate. Today we're gonna be talking about some practical techniques that we can use to evaluate.

Our life and how our life is playing out in front of us. The goal with this is to be able to increase your personal relationships and also your business relationships to be able to increase sales. And we're gonna be talking to someone who is done exactly that. As a matter of fact, he's sold more than 40 million in a year, which was I think about five times more than anyone else in the company.

By going through and doing these exact strategies.

 I woke up on December 1st and I said, you know what?

I'm gonna start a new chapter. And I wrote down a, uh, three things on my, on my board, and your audience can do this too, is I've taken a piece of paper out and at the top I wrote down a relationship goal. So I wanted to have a better relationship with my wife, um, with my, um, you know, with my children. And, and, and, but most importantly, I wanted a better relationship with myself.

Then I wrote down a health goal, and then I wrote down a financial goal. And on the left hand side of that piece of paper, I wrote down a line down the center underneath those goals. And on the left side I'd written down chapter one zero to 34 years old cause I was 34 years old. And I wrote down all the things about my life that I was, what I was doing, act either mentally or physically to prevent those goals from being achieved on the right hand side.

I'd wrote down 34 years old to 118 cuz I, I feel like I'm gonna eat a little bit better and do a few better things and raise my odds. But that was my chapter two and I wrote down all the things that I needed to do really opposite of what chapter one was cuz it was that dramatic and, and create some, um, some different strategies in a different path.

I ripped that piece of paper in half, Matt and I burnt that chapter one and decided I'm never going back to it. And I committed to that. And so I committed that out to the universe. I'd. I had had to make some big choices. I had to remove some people. I literally fired people out of my life that were negative and holding me back and allowing me to continue a conversation with myself that wasn't productive because I started to listen to what I was focused on and I, and the language internally and externally, um, and my physiology were all being affected by some of these people.

Um, that kept me kind of repetitively in there. And. And then, you know, I changed my diet. I lost I think like 43 pounds, uh, very quickly. Um, you know, like I said, it became alcohol free. Um, you know, I had better relationships that I really focused on and I needed to, to, you know, nurture some relationships that were actually sitting there right in front of me and, uh, and get a lot more gratitude.

But you know, you fast forward on, on to today and what's really happened is I'm living that chapter two and now I'm perfectly in line with those goals that I'd written out. Without those goals though, Matt, I wouldn't know where, what I've, what I needed to do to change. Mm-hmm. 

Yeah, and, and that's a problem that a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with.

Right. They, they never go through that process like what you went through, where, you know, this is where I am today and, and you know, these are my goals. This is what I want to accomplish. So I love the, I love the process that you went through, um, to be able to identify that and, and thank you for describing that.

One thing that stood out to me was that when you were going through the relationships that you wanted to improve, you know, wife, family, kids, You know, friends, I, I feel like this is always an external conversation. Everyone's looking at, you know, who are the people in my life that I want to improve that relationship with?

But you pointed out, you know, I wanted to improve the relationship with me, right? Mm-hmm. And that's a piece that I think a lot of people might necessarily, they, they might not necessarily focus on that or realize that that is an incredibly. Powerful and important piece to be able to, to move forward. Do you have anything that you can identi or, or can, can suggest to give people a framework to be able to sort of self-analyze themselves with?

You know, again, I, I need to, um, you know, I wanna improve this, I wanna improve this. Is, is it simply, you know, just looking at the people that you have around you. Or, you know, are there other mindsets or other things that you can, that you can, uh, pull out from your experience of going through that self-reflection that might help other people to be able to identify, you know, yes, this is, I do need to part ways with this?

Or is it just something that you just internally knew at that time that these people, these things were not leading me to these goals? As simple as that. 

I wish it was that simple, Matt. Um, the, the truth is, is most people, you know, that I get the opportunity I to, to coach at, on a personal level. Um, you know, don't understand really the science of what's happening.

And they can, they'll say, yeah, I hope I can feel better one day, but they don't really understand how. And so, you know, I, I struggled with that. I mean, Tony could only do so much for me. And what happened was is I met a, a gentleman by the name of Bob Proctor from Canada as well. And if you, Bob was, uh, you know, definitely a leader in personal development and, and also, you know, studying the way that the mind thinks.

Him and I were both. Very, uh, infatuated, um, and loyal students of Think and Grow Rich from Napoleon Hill. And what we realized is, is whatever our mind can conceive and believe we will achieve. And if you really start to understand, if you take a look at all of the results today that you have, and you worked it out backwards, your results came at is the result of a couple things.

So everything st