https://www.biggerpockets.com/show451 Does it ever seem like working overtime is a competition? We often see people bragging about how they work 60 hour weeks, work on weekends, or spend the most time at the office or in front of their computer. Does this constant overworking actually accomplish something or is it more of a chest-beating competition? Michael Hyatt argues that working crazy hours rarely does anything for our productivity, and if anything, can make our work sluggish and dull. He should know, in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as teams were working more than ever from home, Michael decided to do the opposite. Michael lowered his (and his team’s) working hours from 40 hours a week, to 30 hours a week. The result? A profit increase of nearly 100% and company-wide productivity boost. Not only does your work quality benefit, but so do your relationships, your health, and your outlook on life when you are off of the “grind mode”. Michael believes this so much that he wrote a book about it. Win at Work and Succeed at Life goes through what Michael calls the “double win”: winning at life and work, with no tradeoffs! Michael lists a handful of ways you can instantly improve your work/life balance. Tips on sleep, nutrition, and getting your “daily big 3” done so you can accomplish goals that matter, instead of just being productive. If you ever feel like a workaholic, these tips will help you align back to a productive yet enjoyable schedule. Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show451

https://www.biggerpockets.com/show450 First-time home buyer? At some point, all of us were. How do you make sure you’re getting a great deal, how should you pay for it, and what can you do to make sure it’s a purchase that will help you grow your wealth. In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Scott Trench and Mindy Jensen, hosts of the BiggerPockets Money Show. Their new book, First-Time Home Buyer, shows how to buy your first property in a way that sets you up for long-term success. Most people see their primary home as an investment, but that isn’t usually the truth. Housing is a cost, and like many costs in life, we should try to minimize it when we can. Having a lower housing cost can allow you to invest more of your money, build up safety reserves for repairs, and have the financial bandwidth to live with less stress. Scott and Mindy debate cash flow vs appreciation, how much you should put down on your home, and what kind of liquidity position you need to be in to find success in your purchase and future endeavors. Even if you’re not looking to build a rental empire, this is a fantastic book for anyone who is looking into buying for the first time. Don’t know about equity, title insurance, or other real estate terms? No problem! First-Time Home Buyer has you covered. Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show450

We’ve known for a long time that humans aren’t great at multitasking. Once distracted, our brains find it hard to let go of the new information we’ve just learnt or seen. This is why the constant onslaught of emails, messages, texts, and phone calls could be killing our productivity and creativity. Cal Newport, author of A World Without Email, has seen this first hand. Cal discusses something he likes to call “Hyperactive Hivemind Workflow”, which is essentially what happens to our brains when we’re constantly being nudged by electronic messages. When you’ve got your head down and are working hard on an important project, just a simple glance at an email can spin everything out of whack. Here’s the thing, this is happening to all of us, all the time. We are constantly monitoring our emails and messages, and by the mid afternoon, we’re out of energy. We’ve exhausted all of our cognitive resources. But isn’t it productive to check emails and respond to them quickly throughout the day? This is what Cal refers to as the “fool’s gold of busyness”. Luckily, there are some ways to get us into a more productive state, without having a barrage of emails in our inbox. Cal talks about efficient meetings, Kanban boards, restricting ad hoc communication, having office hours, and being intentional with your time and attention. While these small email responses may seem like just a minute here or a minute there, they actually eat up a huge part of our work life. Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show449

https://www.biggerpockets.com/show448 Busy people tend to be...busy, and often, real estate investing is one of the things that they “just don’t have time for”. If you feel that way, listen to today’s guest, Dion Mcneeley as he describes his own system for buying real estate the “lazy” way. After buying his primary home, Dion heard of success in owning rental properties, so he decided to move out of his house and into an apartment to see if he fit as a landlord. He rented the house to his friend, who later moved out without notifying him. Dion tried to make landlording work with another tenant, but ended up being underwater on the house payments. This is when he found BiggerPockets and read Rich Dad Poor Dad. What was Dion’s mistake? He wasn’t running his rental properties like a business. After upgrading his processes, he went on to buy and house hack a duplex. Then he bought another duplex as an investment, and another one, then another house hack duplex. Within just 6 years, he had 7 units and was raking in $2,700 a month in pure cash flow! Dion talks about the mistakes he made, why he prefers side-by-side duplexes, how he’s located his properties for maximum asset protection, and goes into his amazing strategy for getting tenants to sign longer leases and raise their own rents. You can check out Dion’s Youtube channel or find him on the Real Estate Rookie Facebook Group! Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show448

https://www.biggerpockets.com/show447 What do you want out of life? What do you want to accomplish in the next 3-5 years? When asked this question, most entrepreneurs give a pretty simplistic answer. Something like “Oh, we’ll get more clients by this time next year” or “I’ll buy two more houses and then I’ll be happy”. How often do we sit down and paint a picture of what we want our life to look like? Today we’re discussing Vivid Visions with their creator Cameron Herold. Cameron is a veteran in the business world, he likes to say that he was “groomed” by his entrepreneurial grandparents and father to become a success story. By the time Cameron was 21, he had a full-on business that had 12 employees, and at 22 he bought his first rental property. He later became a franchisee for College Pro Painters and was so successful that he went on to coach new franchisees. He’s partnered with hundred-million dollar companies, grown and sold businesses for millions, coached the CEO of Sprint, a monarchy in the middle east, has written 5 books, and runs the Second in Command Podcast, where he talks to successful COOs. Cameron is someone who clearly has accomplished a lot and has a TON of wisdom to share. Cameron has serious knowledge on business management and talks about the importance of the CEO and COO relationship. Cameron describes how a COO needs to be a partner to the entrepreneur (the CEO) and operate as the ying to the CEO’s yang. If you’ve heard the terms “the visionary and the innovator” from books like Traction, this is exactly what Cameron is talking about. If you’ve been wondering where the idea of a “plan” or “vision” comes into play, Brandon, David, and Cameron all discuss their “Vivid Visions” and how it’s led them to success in their life. Cameron coined the term “Vivid Vision” because most entrepreneurs were simply writing down a 1-2 sentence mission statement instead of creating a vision of what they wanted their company and future to look like. This vision not only helps you build a life you want by design, it also entices great executives, employees, and partners to join you on your path to that clear and decisive “Vivid Vision”. Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show447

Have you ever had analysis paralysis? Maybe you have it right now and that’s why you’re listening to this episode! Kyle and Lauren Clugston would call that “productive procrastination”, and the only way to get out of it is to move forward! They should know, it took them over 3 years before they made their first move in real estate investing! In college Lauren stumbled upon Brandon’s old blog about real estate investing. As she read, she gained more confidence in the craft, and knew that real estate was what she wanted to do with her money. She then started trying to convince her partner, Kyle, that real estate investing was the way to go. As someone without an investing background, Kyle was hesitant, but took a leap of faith which paid off! Now they're BRRRR-ing their way through New Jersey, with single family and multifamily properties throughout the state. Lauren and Kyle had to learn a lot before they became the real estate success stories they are now. Things like doing inspections, estimating rehab costs, getting financing, setting up systems and procedures, and getting legal documents prepared were at one point a great challenge to Lauren and Kyle. Now, they’ve got them down! Lauren and Kyle lay out everything they wish their former selves had known, and go through the things that early real estate investors should worry about, and the things they definitely shouldn’t lose sleep over. This advice could save months, weeks, or hours off of your deal analyses and might be just the thing you need to get out of analysis paralysis!   Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show446

The BiggerPockets podcast has quite a diverse group of guests that come on the show. We’ve had writers, speakers, businesspeople, and actors, but this may be the first rapper we’ve had with us. Chris Greenwood AKA Manafest is in the studio, and instead of recording beats, he’s recording the best lessons he’s learned through his music career, real estate investing, and online business. Chris started out like many of us, working a stable job for a large corporation. After years of doing music on the side while working his full time job, he decided to take the jump and make rapping and rocking his career. Chris is the first to admit that this may not have been the best financial decision, and staying on the job for a little while longer could have relieved him of a lot of headaches. That being said, Chris didn’t just survive, he actually thrived in the music scene. When Chris and his wife decided to move out of their condo to upgrade to a larger home, they brought up the idea of renting out the condo instead of selling. This opened Chris up to the world of real estate investing, and as he saw the checks start to come in, he realized that this was a money maker that could help bring in stable income, passively while he worked on his music. Now Chris owns various properties and mainly buys from turnkey companies. Brandon, David, and Chris all have their own opinions on turnkey real estate investing, but they all agree on one thing: for those that don’t have much time to be an active investor, it’s a great way to start or stack up rental properties. Aside from rentals and rapping, Chris developed his own online course to teach other musicians how to successfully market their music in an industry that has such a high barrier to entry. Chris talks through how he separated himself from all the other “course gurus” and how you too can serve as an authoritative figure in your own community with knowledge, experience, and perseverance.   Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show445

It seems like young real estate investors get more and more impressive every week. Today we talk with Cole Ruud-Johnson, a wholesaler and flipper out of the Seattle area. The impressive part? He’s 22 years old and has done 150+ deals to date! Even at 22, Cole’s journey wasn’t a linear path, he had lots of ups and downs to get him to the level of success he achieves now. Cole tried to be a real estate agent at 18, but wasn’t getting the hang of it. After failing at a couple of real estate brokerages, he entered into a third and learned how they were creating their own inventory via cold calling. He decided he’d give this a try, and partnered up with his friend to cold call for deals. After three months, an agent brought them their first off-market deal. This first deal alone netted them $105,000. Yes, you read that right, six-figures on ONE wholesale deal. This wasn’t enough for Cole, he knew he had to get back out there and work on getting his next deal. Cole’s small business grew to a small empire, but over time this pushed him into a massive burn out. He had to make some BIG changes in his business, many of which even business veterans wouldn’t be comfortable doing. Now he’s here with us on the podcast, talking through his lean team, his deals, his systems, and how new wholesalers can start getting deals. Cole even throws in the script he uses to get wholesale deals over the phone, so if you’re thinking about getting off-market deals or starting your wholesaling journey, this is the episode for you! Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show444

https://www.biggerpockets.com/show443 During childhood, Jim Kwik experienced a traumatic brain injury. As a result, he lacked focus in school, wasn’t able to read properly, and at one point, a teacher told him that he had a “broken brain”. So how did a kid with a “broken brain” become the leading mental coach for athletes, CEOs, and movie stars? Simple: Jim looked into how to learn instead of what to learn. Soon enough, Jim was reading faster, memorizing with higher accuracy, and doing well in school. His friends asked him for some tips so they could improve their grades as well. With some success in his inner circle, he decided to make a flyer for speed reading and memory improvement classes. He put up the flyer at his college hoping one or two people would show up to his impromptu class. Over 100 students showed up, of which 71 signed up for a full course with Jim. After that, Jim knew it was his life mission to help those who wanted to learn, memorize, and live better. So why is it so hard for some people to memorize things? We forget details all the time, whether it be names, addresses, phone numbers, or other important information. Jim goes through a simple method to memorizing any piece of information, called the M.O.M system. He also outlines 10 tips for a limitless brain, many of which you can implement soon after you finish this episode! Even something as simple as reading slightly faster can allow you to save weeks worth of time each year. So if you’ve been beating yourself up over forgetting that one seller’s name, check out Jim Kwik’s podcast and his new book Limitless. As Jim puts it, increasing your memory and reading power not only adds years to your life, but life to your years! . Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show443

https://www.biggerpockets.com/show442 Hearing Bryce Stewart’s story may sound familiar to long-time BiggerPockets Podcast listeners. That’s because Bryce was on Episode 276 where he gave the great metaphor “vacuuming out the truck” relating to real estate investments. Bryce is back to talk about being a great mentor/mentee, what every contractor needs before working on a rental, how to go from active to passive real estate ownership, and his new book House-Hacker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Bryce understands what it’s like to be a new investor. Every step seems hard, the end result seems almost impossible, so where do you even start? Simply, take a step forward, no matter how small it is. Even just starting to save a few hundred bucks a month can be your first step towards becoming a real estate investor. As time goes on, these small steps become giant leaps, and what seemed impossible at first, can now be doubled since you have the know-how. Bryce takes us back to a time where he didn’t know how to get his property taxes lowered, but through very incremental steps was able to make a case and save himself thousands of dollars in the long run. Looking for a mentor? Stick around to hear Bryce’s top piece of advice for any new real estate investor. This simple tactic can help beginner investors know more about what they’re getting into and also show the mentor they’re serious about their new interest. Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show442