There is a wealth of free information available to us via the web. I know many of us “old folks” are not in love with the web, computers or new technology, but it is really incredible how much you can learn for FREE if you know where to go for the information you need.
In my day job as a home designer, I was recently looking for information on Solar Panels. Search for that on YouTube.com and you get hundreds of videos, everything from where to buy them, what brands to buy, to how to install them, how to link batteries – both serial and parallel (whatever that means) and how many do you need for the Watt hours you’ll be using… WAY more information that I could actually digest, but extremely helpful!
Last weekend I tried to pick up a pair of knitting needles that had been sitting in a basket for over 2 years. I couldn’t remember the first thing about knitting. I opened a knitting book, but it was full of these weird abbreviations causing me to get lost immediately. “YO” and “Slip 1” and “PSSO” and “K2tog”. I was lost until I remembered YouTube. So I searched for “Knitting YO” and there were dozens of instructional videos about that one stitch. So each time I came across an abbreviation that I didn’t know, I searched for that thing specifically. Before I knew it, I was knitting again.
It doesn’t matter what you are interested in doing, whether Real Estate Investing, starting a Food Truck, cooking in a Pressure Cooker or Knitting there are YouTube videos and Pod Casts for every walk of life, even Real Estate Investing. To prove my point, go to YouTube.com and type in “Real Estate Investing” and you’ll see a list like this:
Click on any one of these topics and you’ll get a bunch of videos to watch.
If you are not an experienced investor, M.I.G. is definitely the best place to be for monthly meetings and break-out meetings as far as education and networking are concerned. Many M.I.G. members are very experienced in their particular course of investments (Wholesaling, Buy & Hold, Hard Money Lending, etc.) and are happy to help educate the rest of us, but one thing we could all use some help on every once in a while is running the business of ourselves better. When it comes to our own Real Estate Investment companies, many of us work for ourselves and though we may extensive formal education, most of us need refresher courses in running our daily business of ME. How do we recharge ourselves to get re-invigorated about the business we own (or aspire to own)? How do we plan out our day to keep the main thing the main thing and to avoid having the tail wag the dog?
How do we prioritize our daily activities so that we:
1.) Get the things done that need to be done; and
2.) Improve ourselves a little bit each day; or
3.) Become a better business person and overall better individual?
There are countless self-help books that can be checked out at the local library that we can read for free, or purchased in a store or online, but which book would you begin with? There are thousands to choose from! You can get recommendations from other M.I.G. members or from your friends. A few favorites would include Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Seven Secrets of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, or Failing Forward by John Maxwell. There are literally hundreds of books out there that will come highly recommended, but if you are like me, the first thing you’ll get is overwhelmed by so many choices. My quick answer to this “where to begin” question would be podcasts and/or YouTube videos. They are generally short and free. You can listen while you are otherwise bored: while driving or waiting in a line at the DMV or the doctor’s office. You can “subscribe” to these which makes listening/viewing very easy. My suggestion on the perfect place to begin this year: Listen to the Bigger Pockets podcast # 157 (created on January 14, 2016) and work your way back to # 1.
I am a member of Bigger Pockets (www.biggerpockets.com), a national club, a lot like the Memphis Investors Group where you can go online to visit discussion forums, get forms for your investing business, network, ask and answer questions, etc. They even have calculators where you fill in the blanks to see if a deal is worth the investment (membership has its privileges). Kevin Perk, former M.I.G. president (SmarterLandlording.com) has a regular posts on Bigger Pockets.
Last Thursday I got the weekly email about their new podcast and as I was reading through the main page (on my phone at a traffic light – it was red!) I accidentally hit “play” on the podcast and because I was driving, decided to let it play rather than listening to my music (for a change of pace) because I have a daily one-way commute of 30 minutes and podcasts really make the time fly. WOW! Was it AMAZING! It was not about Real Estate Investments per-se, but about beginning your day better regardless of your line of work. The guest was Hal Elron, who wrote the book The Miracle Morning which has sold THOUSANDS of copies to date. The podcast was certainly worth the time spent listening and that has prompted me to actually purchase the book as I believe it will be well worth the read.
I highly recommend the podcast and/or YouTube video (of the same thing). You can listen to the podcast here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2016/01/14/bp-podcast-157-simple-morning-ritual-help-dominate-every-area-life-with-hal-elrod/ (even while you drive) or you can watch the interview on YouTube here from your home computer or mobile devise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeiqShce96w
I find it cool that a well respected person like Robert Kiyasoki has not only enjoyed this book personally and put its principals into practice, but has highly recommend it to regular folks like you and me.
Quote from Amazon: “As my rich dad often said, “I can always make another dollar, but I cannot make another day.” If you want to maximize every day of your life, read Miracle Morning.” – Robert Kiyosaki
I hope some of you out there will read this book with me, but will also recommend other books that are especially meaningful to you as I’m always up for a good read… but often get overwhelmed at all the choices!
Janne Zaccagnino
Ralph Jones Home Plans, LLC
901-756-6070