How to be successful with Robert Shemin

Mike: Welcome to the flipnerd.com podcast. This is your host, Mike Hambright, and on this show, I will introduce you to VIP’s in the real estate investing industry as well as other interesting entrepreneurs who’s stories and experiences can help you take your business to the next level. We have three new shows each week which are available in the iTunes store or by visiting flipnerd.com. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Hey, it’s Mike Hambright from flipnerd.com. Welcome back for another exciting VIP interview. I interview some of the most successful real estate investing experts and entrepreneurs in our industry to help you learn and grow. Today, I’m joined by Robert Shemin, an internationally respected wealth creation expert, best-selling author that’s published over 16 books. He’s been on stage with Tony Robbins, Robert Kiasawki, and a whole bunch of other folks. He’s a wealth advisor for CNN, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Times. We could probably spend the whole show telling you what Robert’s done. He has spoken to crowds of tens of thousands but today he’s here with me one and one and with you, obviously, and we’re going to talk about what’s holding you back and keeping you from being more successful. There’s lot of psychology to success, and that’s probably what’s holding you back, and Robert’s going to tell us all about that today. Before we get started though, let’s take a moment to recognize our featured sponsors.

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Please note, the views and opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of FlipNerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions as real estate investing can be risky.

Mike: Hey, Robert, thanks for being with us today.

Robert: Hey, Mike, great to be here. How are you doing?

Mike: Good. Good. So glad to have you with us. You’ve got a resume to die for. Obviously, you’ve had a bunch of great experiences and I’m glad that you’re going to share some of those with us today.

Robert: Well, it’s great. I’m calling in from South America. I’m on a little vacation down here, and I do charity work. Everybody has to pick the reason why they want to start investing or grow their business. I got started to take a vacation. I was working for somebody, making no money, miserable. I just wanted to be able to take a week or two beg a boss. Not working for the man. I’ve retired three times from real estate investing, and now I invest again and take most of my proceeds and donate them to charities and foundations and help street kids. We’re doing eye operations and that’s one of the reasons I’m down here, too. That’s the thing about real estate. You have no idea where it can take you, but you got to get started, and I think that’s the hardest thing.

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. I found myself recently talking to some friends-, I’m what I call a corporate refugee, so my wife and I left corporate America to get into real estate investing. We’ve had some good success. Not quite the successes that you’ve had yet, but some great successes that have allowed us to not have to work anymore and not have to do things. We do it because we love it. I found myself lately talking to people that are in the corporate world, friends of mine, and saying, ‘We’re going to take a trip. We’re going to do this or that. You want to come with us?’ And they’re like, ‘No, man. I only get two weeks of vacation a year.’ You just start to think about it differently that we’ve left that world behind. I think a lot of people want to get there.

Robert: Well, we teach and talk about Quantum Success. People think, and we’ve been brainwashed, trained, that to be successful you got to work hard, you got to suffer. You know, I was brought up to go to school, try to get a degree, get a good job, stick with it, sacrifice, suffer, make somebody else rich, and then maybe if things work out okay when you’re 65 or 75 you can take a few years off, save a little bit of money, and then you die.

Mike: Right.

Robert: I didn’t like those rules. I wanted to be able to do things when I want to do them, and I didn’t know how because we’re taught you have to have money to make money and you have to come from a great family or be super smart. Real estate investing business is competitive, and I believe people, like hopefully listening today to your show – which is great, will have like a Quantum Second. It’s called a quantum minute where you make a decision and everything changes. So, I met a guy – no background, no education, no sophistication, started with no money, and I met him he was making over $1,000,000 a year taking six months vacation, and I looked at this guy, and I said, ‘Wait a minute. If this guy can do this, I have a chance.’ What if I do 10% of what he did, and in one second, I made a decision. Everything that I learned about wealth and money and real estate went out the window. That you got to have money to make money. That you got to be super smart. He wasn’t. He was a great guy. He was my first mentor. I followed him around for two years, and he showed me exactly what to do. How to buy real estate without using your own money. How to get money partners. How to find great deals below market, like talking to insurance adjusters and calling for rent ads and networking. For two years, I was scared to death. I had no money. I couldn’t even pay my own rent. I had no credit. I moved out of my house when I was 15 and worked at Ruby Tuesdays cleaning tables, so never really developed credit or any income.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: He told me exactly what to do, and like most people, I thought I was pretty smart, and I didn’t do what he told me, and I made no money for two years. I made no offers, and I got no deals. So, we got to stop there. Real estate investing, and I hope you agree with this, Mike, is pretty simple. Yeah, you got to work at it. Yeah, you got to stick with it [inaudible] business. I’ve done infomercials and watched infomercials. It’s never easy as the infomercials say, right?

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: But, it does work. There’s one question I ask people. What is your risk for making an offer on a property? You have a way out. You have a contingency. What’s your risk for not making an offer? For two years, I would not make an offer on a property because I over-thought things. Well, once I get it how am I going to do it? What if this happens? What if that happens? The way we help people get started is to just break things down. Everything you do. What’s the risk for doing it? What’s the risk for not doing it? Well, what’s the risk for you not to have made your first offer is developing 50, 60, 100’s of deals. 40, 50, 60 a year sometimes for you 100’s for me. An extra 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 grand for somebody on a rehab or an extra four or five hundred bucks a month positive cash flow. Tax benefits. What’s the risk for making an offer? Nothing.

Mike: Right.

Robert: So, I look back and I go, ‘Why don’t I make offers? Why don’t I make more offers?’ And, I go around right now and ask people one question. And myself, and my team. What kind of offers we’re making? If we don’t have any offers this week, we’re not getting any deals. If we’ve got a lot of offers this week, we might get a deal. That’s it. This stuff is simple. So, people ask themselves, what is holding me back from making an offer? What risk? What’s not the risk? And Why not make more offers?

Mike: Yep. Yep. You know, there’s a lot of psychology in success. I just read a quote right before we started here. I was looking at Facebook, fooling around, and somebody said, ‘Does anybody notice that the harder you work the more-‘, basically it was a comment to as you start to achieve success the more opportunity there is there. So, it begets itself, but there’s so many people that never get to that point. They just kind of get frozen. Even if they have a mildly successful business, they can’t get up over that hump, and they start to pigeon hole themselves and say, ‘This is where I’m supposed to be’ for one reason or another. It’s, ‘I don’t want to add overhead’ or ‘I don’t want to add people’ or ‘I want to do it all myself’ or ‘I don’t know how to get started’. It could be any of those things. What’s some general guidance you give people to think differently to try to achieve their goals?

Robert: Number one [inaudible], and there’s only two types of questions, or two types of people. One is, ‘I can’t do it?’ and the other is ‘How can I?’ Right? So, how are you talking to yourself? You have to be very aware of your own conversation with yourself. Number two is you create your own reality. Everything starts with a decision. What are you thinking about? What are you thinking about right now? I can do it. I can’t do it. Real estate is hard. Real estate is easy. It’s difficult. There’s competition. I always tell people, ‘Whatever you think, you’re right.’

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: If you think it’s easy, it’s easy. If you think it’s hard, it’s hard. I will give you a real example of this, and I really want people to really understand that whatever they say is true. I do big conferences with 20,000 people, and I ask this question, ‘How many of you think there’s competition in real estate investing?’ Everybody’s hands go up. Oh, yeah, there’s a lot of investors. Everybody’s buying. It’s hard to find a deal. Then, I go, ‘How many of you think there’s no such thing as competition in real estate investing?’ My hand goes up, and there’s big companies out there like yours and other wholesalers and rehabers, I know most of them, and the first thing I tell people is, ‘In your town, go network. Find the four, five, or six biggest wholesalers, biggest retailers, biggest rehabers, and they are your best source of deals. They’re you best source of buyers. They’re not competition’.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: All the other big wholesalers in my town, I call them every few weeks, they have a deal they don’t want to do, and I pick it up and make some money. I find a deal that I can’t do that week because I’m on overload or I’m overextended on my rentals or rehabs, and I’ll wholesale it to them. So, again, whatever you think, you’re right.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: If you think there’s competition, there’s competition. Get to know them. Talk to them. They are your best source of money, best source of deals. That’s how I got started. I met all the investors in my town, and I had a lunch program. You know, talk about fear? Take action. Once a week, invite an investor to coffee or lunch. When I was starting out, I had no money, so I used to tell my investor friends, ‘I’ll take you to lunch anywhere you want to go as long as there’s a drive through’ because I couldn’t afford much in the beginning, starting out. What would happen, be a giver, I would take people to lunch just to suck them for information, or whatever. I’d say, ‘Listen, how did you get started? What’s the most challenging part of your business? Is there anything I can help you with?’ And some would say, ‘Yeah, I need more deals. Can you go find me some duplexes?’ Okay, I’ll go look for some duplexes.

Mike: Right.

Robert: So, do that. About fear, let me give you a real example, a scientific study, about how you talk to yourself. Today, I want all of you all to be aware of are you saying, ‘It’s hard’. Are you saying, ‘It’s easy’. No politics here. They got 1000 of the top Israeli soldiers, which is regarded as one of the top armies in the world, highly trained, combat trained, the top, top soldiers. There’s special forces, Navy seal type people. They divided them into two groups. Group A, 500 soldiers, they said today is going to be the worst day of your life. Usually, you hike 20 kilometers, today it’s going to be 50. We’ve tripled the weight in your packs. We’ve taken all your water away. Most of you won’t even finish [inaudible] the hike. 40, 50, 60 percent had trouble, didn’t finish [inaudible] dehydrated. It was a nightmare. The other 500 soldiers, they said today is going to be the best day of your life. Usually we hike 20 kilometers, today it’s going to be five. It’s all downhill. We’ve given you triple the water. We’ve emptied your backpacks. There’s really no weight. As a matter of fact, at the end of the hike, you’re probably going to want to go to the gym and do a little workout, build up a sweat. It’s going to be so easy for you guys. At the end of the hike, they interviewed them. Most of them, 85 percent, said it’s the easiest hike. They didn’t break a sweat. They didn’t get out of breath. It was the same 15 kilometer hike. Same weight. Same water. No difference. Here are highly trained people and what was the only thing that was different? What they were told.

Mike: Right.

Robert: What they anticipated. What they expected. What they created.

Mike: Yeah. What’s interesting in real estate in my experience is people isolate themselves. It becomes a lonely business. You won’t share ideas. You think everybody’s your competitor. I used to think that way, in all honesty. We were pretty successful out of the gate, and it wasn’t because the thinking but it definitely held me back, and when I started to mentor people and brink people right into my market that I mentor and coach, people are like, ‘You’re bringing in your competition’, and I was like, ‘Yeah, but we’re doing deals together. We’re sharing ideas. We’re taking things to another level.’ I think a lot of people don’t really have that mentality, but it absolutely does hold you back, no doubt about it.

Robert: I come from a poverty/scarcity mentality. If I spend a dollar, I’ll lose a dollar. If somebody else is doing what I’m doing, it’s competition. We can’t afford this. These are all things in your subconscious that affect you. There’s 5.6 million residential real estate transactions going to happen this year in America. I’ve only got to do eight of them or maybe twenty or maybe four or maybe one big one, to make a lot of money.

Mike: Yep.

Robert: Then, people go to markets. Well, how’s the market? Here’s what I say, ‘Which market?’

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: Even in Dallas or Atlanta or Miami or Nashville, there’s 22 different markets. There’s low income, middle income, high income, commercial A, commercial B, commercial C, but people always look for a reason not to do something.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: So, write down three reasons to do it. Here’s the thing about motivation, and it’s so simple. People have heard it, but they don’t really do it. What’s your real motivation? Why are you really doing real estate? Unless there’s enough pain, you’re not going to do it. Or pleasure. The number one human motivator is pain and fear of loss. If somebody is comfortable and cushy and making money, and they aren’t really in that much pain, they probably aren’t going to do real estate investing.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: Now, if you’re really driven to build a retirement, financial freedom, spend more time with your kids, get rid of your silly boss, and that pain is great, then you’ll do anything to get rid of the pain.

Mike: Right.

Robert: That’s what did it for me. I had a horrible boss. I couldn’t get time off. I was making no money. The pain it took two years to really build, and I tell people, if I get a group of mom’s together, and we do a seminar and teach them about wholesaling. I say, ‘How many moms want to wholesale a house next 90 days make and extra 5, 10, 15, 20 grand. Without any risk?’ True wholesale deal. Put it under contract. Sell before you have to close. You have a contingency. I still do a lot of wholesaling. No risk. No market risk. No cash risk.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: Fifty moms will raise their hand and say, ‘Oh yeah, I want to do it’. In the real world, how many are really going to do it? They’ll get busy with life, school, kids, work. Then, I say, ‘Listen, I hate to use this as an example, but let’s say somebody really bad. One of these ISIS characters got ahold of one of your kids, the one you really like, and say, ‘If you don’t wholesale a house in the next 20 days, we’re going to do something bad to the kid’. Every mom would go out there and wholesale six houses.

Mike: Right.

Robert: The other moms would wholesale another house just to help out the other mom.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: What’s changed? Motivation.

Mike: Right.

Robert: So, I tell people, write down-, we have an exercise called seven levels deep. Why do you want to be a real estate investor? Most people say the same thing. I want to make some money, be financially free. Okay, great. That’s level one. Why do you want to make more money? Well, I want to pay for my kids’ private school, take a vacation, take a trip, donate more money to my church, synagogue, mosque, whatever. Okay. What’s important to you about donating money or taking care of your family or being financially free? That’s level three. You got to really dig down deep and find out what that true motivation is.

Mike: Yeah

Robert: Right?

Mike: Absolutely. Yep.

Robert: Then, all of sudden we go from, ‘I want to make more money’ to ‘I really love my family, I really want to spend more time with my kids, I want to spend more time with my husband, my wife, I want to treat them better. I want to give them things my family couldn’t give them, my parents couldn’t give me.’

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: Okay. Well, that’s your true motivation. Then, nothing will stop you, but you got to dig down. That was just three levels. We want people to go seven levels deep. What’s important to you about making money? What’s important to you about spending time with your kids? Where does that come from?

Mike: Right.

Robert: Why? Why? Why? When you dig down deep and tap that real motivation, nothing will stop you.

Mike: Yep. Yep. What about the more experienced investor? Because I’m seeing some things-, in all honesty, we’ve been doing this for six years. I see some people that have been in the business about the same amount of time that I have. They’ve been really successful, and then sometimes people start to flounder. They’re like, ‘It’s not about the money anymore’. Their motivations are different now than they were when they first started. How do you think, for successful real estate investors, they maintain that? I know it’s many of the same things, but most don’t want to stop. If they wanted freedom, then after they’ve hustled for that long, they can’t see-, you know, they’ve figured out the real estate game in many ways, and they don’t want to stop. It’s like, ‘What am I going to do if I retire early?’ Just like you.

Robert: That happened to me. I’ve retired three times.

Mike: Yep.

Robert: It’s exactly the same thing. First of all, two things happen to the experienced investor, and I know all the stuff we’re talking about, I’ve learned the very hard way.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: This is not some theory. Number one is a lot of investors work really hard. They love it. It’s exciting, and what I call ‘dealitis’. Where we do deals whether it’s rentals or rehabs or flips or wholesales, and we get burned out because we’re typical business. We’re doing everything. I want people right now to write down all the jobs they’re doing. Property acquisition, subcontracting, general contracting, repairs, property management, finance, accounting, bookkeeping, human resources, asset protection, being your own attorney, closing coordinator, leasing expert. How many jobs can a person do well? So, they’re burned out because they didn’t build a team. They don’t have a real business.

Mike: Right.

Robert: They’re doing everything themselves. I’ve got about 80 people working for me today. I want to be very clear about this. The first seven years I did everything myself, and I was good at most of it. I loved it. It was fun.

Mike: Yep.

Robert: Burned out. It’s fun. It’s exciting making great money working seven days a week. And what’s the whole reason we got into real estate? Financial freedom, but nobody has the freedom because we love it, and we’re working all the time.

Mike: Right.

Robert: So, number one, there’s balance. Build a team. Let go. And number two, same thing we just talked about. Why are the investors floundering? Why do we lose our motivation? Well, what’s our motivation now? We have money in the bank, cash flow, we paid off some houses, we can take time off, and one of the worst things about goal setting, and the people are going to be shocked by this, is when you achieve them.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: So, you want to make 100 grand a year or 500 grand a year or build a million or two million dollars net worth. Once you do that and you have free time, what are you going to do now?

Mike: Right.

Robert: That’s what happened to me. I retired. Then, I went back to work because whatever your motivation is it’s fun, once I went and traveled around the world that was fun for about ten months. Then, I came back and said, ‘I want to contribute something’. So, now, I use real estate as a vehicle to help others fund foundations and charities and still live a great lifestyle, don’t worry.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: That’s one of the reasons I’m down here. We have this huge charity. We pick up street kids. So, the real estate deals fund that. Now, I’m more motivated to do real estate deals because I’ve got a new reason to do them.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: If someone asked the tired older investors that are being successful, ‘What’s your new motivation?’ Is it your grand kids? Kids? Maybe it’s a charity. Maybe it’s getting a big new house or another Lamborghini.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: Whatever it is you better know it. Write it down and look at it because your motivations, your goals, will change especially when you meet them.

Mike: Yeah. I think it’s interesting that you say that because I know a lot of veteran real estate investors, and I see them go from needing real estate to get them financial freedom or time freedom or whatever it might be and then they get to a point where they see a house as a vehicle. Houses are vehicles for things. Not necessarily personal things, but maybe it is, I want to take a big trip, therefore, I need to do three deals to pay for it.

Robert: Yep.

Mike: Or I want to contribute . . .

Robert: It’s 25 grand and all 10 of them or 15 of them its going to be rehab or two wholesale deals.

Mike: Yep.

Robert: That’s how I’ll look at it.

Mike: Yeah. Or I want to give back to a charity, I want to do this. I want to pay for that. Or help fund this. I need to go do a deal to get that done, and that becomes the currency is the deal, and I think that’s what keeps them in the game and excited about doing it where you might get burned out on doing the same thing over and over previously when it was just about the money.

Robert: Let’s talk about goals for one more minute, because I’ve been to every seminar. I love all the speakers, all the books. I write self-help books, but self-help doesn’t really work and goal setting really doesn’t work. People are going to be shocked by that. I’ve been to three day seminars on goal setting. I used to set 100 goals on New Year’s, and how many other people like me have done that and all of the sudden you look at your list and say ‘Wow, I wrote down 20 things and maybe did one of them’.

Mike: Right.

Robert: Maybe two. Here’s about goal setting. I believe business life can be very simple. That’s why we don’t get started. We complicate things. I’ve out thought and out analyzed and out worried myself out of millions of dollars. I’m sure you have, too, right?

Mike: Yep.

Robert: Think, wonder, worry, analyze. It’s all about doing, but here it is about goal setting. I believe you only need two goals. Number one, set a big goal. Exactly where I want to be and set a time frame. I don’t believe in general goals. I want to be thin, rich, and happy. That’s no good. I want to make ten grand a month or a year or I want to retire in five years making 15,000 a month. I want to do three houses and generate me a $1,200 a month. Be specific with the time frames. Set the big goal. Where do you want to be? Give it an exact time frame. Number two, the only other goal that matters is ‘what am I going to do today to get there?’ Work backwards. Well, if I want to get ten houses and $100,000, I probably got to make 100 offers. I’ve got to spend four or five hours a week looking for motivated sellers. Focused. So, we teach about how to block time.

MIke: Yep.

Robert: I’ll only block seven hours a week now for real estate. I used to work 60 hours a week at real estate, but I was getting nothing done. I would do a couple of deals, and now I’m very efficient. We’re going to block 45 minutes and all we’re going to do is look for motivated seller ads in Craigslist. Circle. Must sell. Make offer. Divorce. Estate sale. Probate. We’re going to do mail for two hours. Quick claim deeds. We’re going to call ten wholesalers and see if they have any deals or build a buyers list.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: One thing at a time. The only real goal is, ‘What am I going to do today?’ Most people spend a year thinking, wondering, worrying, analyzing, planning, and I’ll give an example. Being a successful business is like going to the gym. I want to get in shape, lose some weight. Okay, I’m going to go join a gym. Well, let’s go have lunch and talk about going to the gym. Let’s go read some books about going to the gym. Let’s watch some more videos about going to the gym, and I love flipnerd, you got to educate yourself, but what am I going to do?

Mike: Absolutely.

Robert: Go to the gym for 20 minutes. Start walking. Do a little class. If you did that three time a week, something is going to happen.

Mike: Yep.

Robert: Same with real estate. Block time, make offers. The only goals we have in real estate find a motivated seller, make an offer with no risk. Then, we take twelve minutes and decide.

Mike: So, don’t spend your time looking to see what’s going on on Facebook, your saying?

Robert: It’s funny. I teach people a time blocking system, and it’s very simple. What’s the activity I’m doing? How much time does it take? Will it make me money? How much money? And can I get someone else to do it? And, every hour you’re on Facebook or twitter or talking to your friends doing your laundry or watching television while you’re supposed to be working is not going to make you any money. Most people even spend their time doing something that’s makes them no money, that does not get them any results. So, start tracking your time, looking at it, and again, I’ll challenge any investor. 70, 80, 90 percent of what we do doesn’t make us any money, and does not progress our business.

Mike: Yeah.

Robert: So, we get people more efficient, more focused, it’s going to do well. Only one thing in real estate will make you money. Contracts and closings.

Mike: Yep.

Robert: So, every minute you’re not doing that, we’re probably wasting our time.

Mike: Yep. Absolutely. Well, Robert thanks so much for spending time with us today. Any kind of final words for folks to get motivated? Then, tell us a how folks can learn more about you? How to learn more about the great work you’re doing?

Robert: I think one of the biggest ways to get motivated is who you’re around. What I did was create an advisory counsel, I went and found three or four super successful business people, investors, and asked them, I’ll pay them, buy them lunch or dinner. ‘Can we get together? Can I talk to you? Can we meet? Maybe twice a month or once a month for 30 minutes’. Be around successful people. Watch the language you use and watch the language they use. I want everyone to track today and tomorrow how much positive stuff they say to themselves and how much negative stuff and can they say things a little different? Because whatever you think and say, you are correct. And if anyone has any questions or anything, I have a website, robertshemin.com that’s S-H-E-M-I-N. And because I love what you do, I’m going to give people my personal email, if they need something, have a question, if that’s okay?

Mike: Wow. Thanks for joining us on today’s flipnerd.com podcast. To listen to more of our shows and hear from incredible guests, please access all of our podcasts in the iTunes store. You can also watch the video versions of our shows by visiting us at flipnerd.com.