2018 Top 10 Award Winner: Steve Streit

Mike: This is the flipnerd.com, “Expert Real Estate Investing Show,” the show for real estate investors whether you’re a veteran or brand new. I’m your host Mike Hambright and each week I bring you a new expert guest that will share their knowledge and lessons with you. If you’re excited about real estate investing, believe in personal responsibility and taking control of your life and financial destiny, you’re in the right place.
This is episode number 435 and my guest today is Steve Streit. Steve operates out of the Detroit market and has seen his business thrive after undergoing a mindset shift that changed everything for him. Many of us are conservative on our approach to business especially those just starting out, but that can often hold us back. And our discussion today will likely hit home with a lot of you listening to this episode. You owe it to yourself, your family and those all around you to live an abundant life. I hope today’s show helps you on your path to freedom. Steve is a great guy and a fellow Investor Fuel Mastermind member. So let’s go ahead and get this party started. Please help me welcome Steve Streit to the show. Steve, welcome to the show.
Steve: Mike, what’s happening?
Mike: Yeah. All kinds of stuff, man. I’m excited to talk to you today. And, you know, I probably say this on too many shows, but we spent some time talking for a while before the show and just catching up and learning a little bit more about each other. And I’m really excited to talk about the mindset piece today and really your story because a lot of people that are . . . Really, this would impact anybody that’s trying to start any business, but I think this obviously is a real estate investing show. But the mindset piece of this business is like more important than anything else. I always say, if you don’t have leads, you don’t have a business, which is true, but if you don’t have the right mindset, it doesn’t matter how many leads you have, like, you’re not going to be around long. So just kind of knowing what you want and how to get it is just super important. So it’s going to be a good show, right?
Steve: Absolutely, man.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah. Excited. Well, hey, before we kind of get started here, I’d like for our listeners to learn a little bit more about you and a little bit more about your background.
Steve: Okay. Cool. So, hey, everybody. My name is Steve Streit and I’m in the Detroit area market. And starting out, I’ll go right into high school. I started painting apartments. That was one of my first jobs so I had to paint . . . The goal was to paint one apartment entire day. It could have been a two-bedroom apartment or a one-bedroom apartment. Sometimes we had to paint cabinets. I mean, it was a hustle and a grind and I was working by the hour, so you can imagine that it was not a huge wage but it got me going and it got me doing something that I could focus on and make money. It was good money in high school and that quickly transition into a job that I had for five years and it was my favorite job. I was helping other people. I was a peer counselor at a community center for recovering youth ages 13 to 17. So, they were struggling with addiction, some mental illness, family problems, you name it.
So, it was a really rewarding job, but the pay was not good. So, it wasn’t a sustainable career. So, I did that for about five years and I was going into my . . . I don’t know. I was about 22, 23 somewhere in that range and I had an appetite at that time for like money. I wanted to make money and there was no room to grow there. So, I got the great idea to go ahead and start that painting company like I did as a worker. And I’d always been painting doing the side hustles while working. I always had two jobs and I thought I was going to strike a big one there with that painting company, and it ended up being a great learning experience and it happened for about . . . I don’t know. It started in 2005 and I finally shut it down in 2016/17’ish. And I give that ‘ish because . . .
Mike: Yeah. A long time.
Steve: I was holding on to that thing. Like, I don’t know what. It just . . . Even when it wasn’t working I was holding it on. It was like one of those things to where I’m not going to fail at this, I’m going to turn this into something big. And I always had big ideas with it, I want to scale it, and I was the biggest in the market. I was. I was the biggest in my market and I was failing. If you can imagine that.
Mike: Some badge of honor, right? There’s like some ego that kind of keeps driving you forward even though you don’t want to admit to the outside world even though nobody . . . It’s funny, like, failure is a weird thing. Like, it’s all in our heads and if you just tell somebody like, “Man, it just doesn’t work out. I’ll just shut it down.” And they’re like, “Oh really? Okay. Well, cool.” It’s like they’ll kind of . . . Their grieving is like seconds and yours is like years, right?
Steve: Years.
Mike: It doesn’t matter ultimately. Like, nobody’s going to care that you failed. I mean, in fact, as you know, the funny thing is, is the best learning experiences are when we fail. We just have to . . . We have to admit it, right?
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. The first part is admitting that there is a problem. So that denial is a real thing. But anyway, I managed to get out of that, relatively unscathed. I mean, there was a lot of mental back and forth because I was really trying to make that thing work. Just not wanting to let myself down was probably the biggest thing, but I was . . . At the end of the day I was in the wrong vehicle. Okay? I had the right attitude, I wanted to hustle, I wanted to do good, but I was in the wrong vehicle. And I think a lot of people are in the wrong vehicle if they want to do something. And I found pretty quickly in the last few years full-time real estate is definitely the right vehicle for me. My life has changed dramatically and it’s just a total night and day, total night and day.
Mike: What are the . . . So the vehicle is one thing. Do you think with something like painting, and I don’t know this for sure, but do you feel like you’re . . . I mean, we feel this a little bit as real estate investors, but that margins are constantly being squeezed because like prices are going up, labor costs are going up and there’s always somebody that will do the work cheaper. Like, there’s somebody that like what? You get a bid, they’re like, “Oh, somebody else bid it for . . . ” And it might not even be apples to apples, but they bid it for, like, half of that and you feel like you’re . . . I feel like a lot of trades and a lot of people are in this like race to the bottom by trying to compete on price.
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. It wasn’t duplicatable, it wasn’t scalable, at least my model wasn’t, and it was always about price. And quickly, well, not quickly, after several years I figured out that the only people that were making money in the industry were the ones I was doing the work for. A lot of times I was working for builders and home flippers, so I got a really, really . . . I figured out what they were doing pretty quick. And then the paint suppliers. So, it was the guy in the middle that was getting squeezed that was figuring out how to put all the pieces together because there’s a ton of moving parts and you can imagine. It was like, “Here, paint this house.” Okay. Well, guess what? There’s about 100 steps to that. And then you’re going to get about 100 phone calls if it’s not right.
And yeah, you could implement systems and processes, but the labor is shortage, the workforce is not so great. So you’re depending on other people to complete projects for you. And it was the wrong vehicle. I don’t remember what the question was, but it was . . . Now maybe if you had something industrial, you had government contracts, that’s a whole nother story.
Mike: Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah.
Steve: That’s a whole nother story. Somebody tapped you on the shoulder and give you a $10 million contract. Now, that’s a business but this was all ground up, referral based, spending money on marketing, and we could . . . After you sell a job, you’d have to schedule it out and then show up and then perform on the job and then warranty that job. There’s so many steps in that and looking back on it how low the profit margins was, it was ridiculous. I don’t even know how I sustained for over a decade.
Mike: If you are an active real estate investor already doing deals and looking to double or triple your business, you should consider joining the Investor Fuel Real Estate Investor Mastermind. We’re a small group of investors that share our best practices, tips and tricks with one another and effort to all win. We limit our membership to only one to two members per market, so everyone shares their knowledge, tips and tricks openly and honestly. Our members include some buying one to two houses a month up to some of the most respected investors and leaders in the real estate investing industry, some of which have personally done over 1,000 deals. If you’d like to be considered for our invitation-only, a world class mastermind, please visit investorfuel.com to request your personal invitation. Our next meeting is coming up quickly. Go to investorfuel.com now to learn more.
Steve: After you sell a job you’d have to schedule it out and then show up and then perform on the job and then warranty that job. There’s so many steps in that and looking back on it how low the profit margins was, it was ridiculous. I don’t even know how I sustained for over a decade. It’s amazing, you know.
Mike: Yeah. Well, you found your way, my friend. So, let’s talk a little about . . . Let’s kind of transition into . . . Because you and I talked ahead of time about just the scarcity mindset. And I know you’re obviously a member of our Investor Fuel Mastermind. I see you sporting our gear there, so that’s awesome, my friend. I do see you have the Red Wings hat on. You know we’re about to go to a Stars game, right? So, I don’t know if you’re going to try to infiltrate my peeps or not, but . . .
Steve: Yeah, I got a rep hockey town a little bit here though, for your listeners. But yeah, I’ll still go to the game and I might wear a Red Wings hat over there, but, you know . . . No, I’m just messing.
Mike: No, that’s cool.
Steve: So, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike: I know that you’ve had . . . But I know we did in some talks we’ve had, I know that you’ve had kind of a transformation yourself even over time here about the kind of transitioning from the scarcity mentality or some components of it to getting some stuff out of the way, getting some stuff right in your mind and kind of having this vision to say, “There’s a lot of opportunity out there if I can get some of these pieces out of the way that are pulling me back.”
Steve: So, if you’re a new real estate investor, you’re probably struggling with some of the very things that I struggled with getting into this business. And the biggest thing is the scarcity mindset, thinking that there’s not enough to go around. “I can’t share a deal with somebody or else they’re going to steal it from me maybe.” or, “I can’t let anybody else on in this deal because this is a big chunk of profit. I want all this profit for myself because there might not be more deals.” And that’s the whole idea is the scarcity is there’s not enough, there’s not enough to go around so you better preserve what you have.
And when I’m running on my preservation mode and my scarcity mode, that’s like hoarding. Okay? So, hoarding is the opposite of sharing, so you pull stuff in close to you, you don’t let anybody in on it, and it ties into the mindset so you don’t want to share your ideas, your feelings about something and that and that stifles growth for me. And I’m talking about myself. I mean, I did all this. I thought I was winning by keeping all the chips for myself and I had all these great ideas, but, guys, it’s a wrong attitude. It really is. And to break through that, I mean, it was a lot of beating my head against the wall. The reality of the situation is there’s more than enough. There’s more than enough deals to go around. Yeah, okay. It’s a seller’s market right now. It’s harder to compete, but there’s more than enough deals. Okay. There’s plenty of houses to buy. There’s plenty of money. There’s not a shortage of money. Okay. There’s . . .
Mike: Money is easier to get right now than I’ve ever seen in my time as an investor, yeah.
Steve: Yeah, yeah. It really is. And a year and a half, two years ago I would have probably struggle with the money thing. Like, wait, I got to get money for this? Because I thought in order to invest in real estate you had to have money and the whole idea of borrowing money from other people was foreign to me. It wasn’t a part of my . . . It wasn’t something I’ve ever done. So, when you introduce that idea to somebody especially new real estate investors on how I flip houses, there’s money . . . There’s people who will lend you money if you have a deal.
Mike: No doubt. No doubt. Do you think . . . Not everybody on here that’s listening right now is going to quite get this, but I grew up in Illinois, you’re in Michigan, and I’ve always thought there are these hardworking mid-Western values. And I know in Detroit like where you’re at, Motor City, lots of factories, lots of ups and downs in the auto industry over the years. And I grew up in an area that has lots of farm equipment, so like John Deere is based there, Caterpillar is not too far away, like, a lot of my family members work there. Just growing up there was very much this kind of feast or famine mentality.
And maybe some other people can resonate with that and other parts of the country they had family that were blue collar growing up is like there’s market cycles where there’s good times and there’s bad times, and when there’s bad times it usually impacted your family in a negative way, right? You got to, like, things buttoned up and then . . . What it kind of felt like for me when I look back when I think about it now having this conversation is, we’re always like . . . We stayed in famine mode . . . You kind of like . . . You’re always worried about the next famine or the next downturn, so you just kind of stay conservative and you like don’t take risks and don’t invest in yourself and you just have this mindset of like keep it simple. And not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it holds you back when you want to take off, right?
Steve: Mm-hmm. Hundred percent, yeah. And I can relate to that and I think it’s like the whole industrial kind of Midwestern thing like you said. And everybody feels it. When you’re dependent on a job and you get a paycheck every week and all of a sudden that paycheck is threatened, there’s some psychological things that happen and there’s some fear that kicks in and you go on preservation mode and, yeah, that can really change and that’s why I don’t advocate depending on an employer for that. You got to count on yourself for me. And it’s okay if you do have a job right now, but probably if you’re watching this video, the thoughts in your head to at least transition from that job to become more independent and . . . For the last, I don’t know, 13 years if I didn’t produce, I didn’t eat, so I’m used to it. I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve been doing it for a while. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s just the fact of the matter. If I didn’t produce income, there was nobody that was going to give me a check.
Mike: Yeah, yeah.
Steve: And that’s an interesting position of being and it teaches you a lot and it’s not always fun. And sometimes I wish I would have had that check that rolled in every week because it’s comfort thing. But, anyway, I don’t know where we’re going with that but . . .
Mike: Well, I thought with the . . . one thought is I want to kind of transition to talking to more of an abundance mindset, but I want to kind of wrap in because I think I talked about this a lot just in my life or we have a lot of coaching students. We talk about this transformation from being . . . Because I think what happens with a lot of real estate investors, they have this fear of leaving their job or that paycheck to jump into something else that’s not certain.
And then even if they do, sometimes what happens is a lot of real estate investors that I know, some people that a lot of people would say are very successful and they are making more money than they’ve ever made, but now they’re self-employed and they’re doing everything themselves. And I know you dealt with kind of that making that transition as well. But you got to get out of this mindset of, like, it’s still like a scarcity mindset, right? Like, I can do it better than anybody else, or I can’t count on anybody else, or I don’t want to have to pay anybody else. I’ll just stay small and keep it all, if you will. But the problem is, is, like, you’d never going to have the life you want if you have that mindset. So, let’s talk about that transition and maybe share your story and maybe liken it to the people that are listening that are kind of stuck in that rut.
Steve: Perfect. You said a lot. The stay small . . .
Mike: I’m the guy asking the questions though.
Steve: Yeah, man. You’re really rolling with this. So, stay small and keep it all. That’s . . . I think about half the people that I encountered, that’s their attitude. Hey, why do I want to share with you? I can just do deals on my own. I don’t want to spend my money on marketing for deals. Why would you do that? I would have to risk losing money to market for deals.
So, the fact is there’s more than enough to go around. Let me back up for a second. I think it comes down to this. Do you know what you even want? It’s okay to stay small if that’s what you want. So, first thing I would do is figure out what you want. What do you want your business to look like in two years? Where do you want to be in two years? Set some goals. Go five years out. Go 10 years out.
Most people that I talked to still don’t know what they want to do and that’s a big problem because you’re going to flounder. You’re going to go in many different directions. But if you have a set goal, you know, “I want to be living at such and such place in two years and I want to be making X amount of dollars. I want my life to look like this. I want to work this many hours a week. I want to have this many employees. I want to serve this many people or help this many people, buy this number of houses.” Like, all that’s very important. I think start with what you want to do. So, you can carve out a business to cater to your desires and your wants and what you want your life to look like. I understand that what I want and what other people want are two different things, two different visions.
Mike: For sure.
Steve: Some people are okay with making 100,000 a year and only working the 40, 50 hours a week, and they’re cool and they’re happy. That’s just not what I want. I want to scale, I want to grow and I want to help more people. And somebody said that by staying small it’s actually . . . It’s actually more selfish to stay small than it is to go big. And then I was like, “What the hell are they talking about?” I think Jim Rohn might have said that. I don’t know where it came from, but it was one of these mindset gurus.
But it was the whole idea that when you grow, you grow the people around you and you’re going to inspire them. So, realistically the only reason why I’m on this video is because I watched 1,000 of these videos with you guys talking about mindset, real estate, prosperity, and it was just a bug that caught on and then I couldn’t stop. And I remember watching a ton of FlipNerd videos and a ton of other . . . I mean, it was just . . . It was constant. So, it sinks in and it’s contagious, so you are going to help people when you grow.
Mike: Yeah. And you have to . . . And the thing is, is I think some people fear . . . Some people don’t want to set goals because they just say, “Well, my goal is just to do more. I want to make more. I want to be bigger than I was last year.”
Steve: Exactly.
Mike: But you got to define exactly what you want, right? And then I think . . . And the important thing for people to understand . . . And I’m just sharing my experience. We’re just share our experiences here. But I think an important thing for people to understand is your goals are going to change over time, and that’s cool. Like, it depends on where you’re at, how old your kids are, if you had any health issues in your life or your family. Like, goals change. I mean, I used to . . . I’d be willing to work like myself to the bone. And we still work pretty hard now, but whatever it took to just build, build, build my business, and then I got to a point where it’s like, “Okay. I’m kind of . . . ” I’m not saying this to brag, but it’s like we live fairly frugally. We live well within our means. It’s like, “What do we do with the extra money? What do I want to do with that?”
And it’s like, well, it’s not really . . . And you start to realize it’s not about the money. Like, there’s things that I want. I like to travel, I like to do nice things, but it’s, like, just the money part of it is . . . After you get above a point where you’re living comfortably and you’re doing the things you want to do, that part doesn’t matter as much anymore. It’s like, how do I enjoy what I do every day? How do I leave an impact? And don’t get me wrong. This is not some fluffy stuff that I’m saying money isn’t important, but there’s a way to start to shift towards, “Now I care more about impact.” And there’s ways you can impact people and stuff and still have that be a business as well.
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. That’s for sure. And here’s the thing. It’s not all . . . Obviously, it’s not all about the money because if it was . . .
Mike: We wouldn’t be doing a video right now. We’d be out . . .
Steve: Yeah.
Mike: . . . [inaudible 00:21:39] leads or . . . Right? We’d be doing something else.
Steve: Yeah, yeah. We could be cranking leads right now and motivating our team to go out and bring us checks. I mean, that’s what we could be doing, but there’s a sharing component that comes to this that allows you to get more. So, you give more and you get more. That’s kind of an oxymoron, but it’s true because you bring people in, you talk about it, and when you teach, you learn. That’s probably something that you figured out early on is the more you teach this stuff, you hear yourself say it.
Mike: Yeah.
Steve: So, when you go against that, when you find yourself deviating from what you just told or what you just talked about, there’s something in your brain and most people’s brain, unless you’re a sociopath or you just don’t care, that says, “What the hell are you doing? You just made a really powerful suggestion to somebody that works and now you’re going to go against that and do something different.” So, there’s a real power in sharing because you say it out loud, it gets it out of your head, and you’re able to put a little bit on paper. You write it down. I mean, it’s a whole process that allows you to move forward and scale in a way that you couldn’t individually with keeping to yourself. So, I’m a big advocate for that.
Mike: Yeah. It’s funny that you say that stuff because I do a lot of coaching, I do a lot of stuff, and I don’t have . . . I shouldn’t say this. I don’t want to attract more, but I don’t have a ton of haters that I know about but I’m sure I’ve got some. But people post stuff up all the time on . . . Because I’m in coaching, I’m sensitive to these things. And I’m an emotional guy, so I’m probably too emotional, man, so I see people like, “Oh, those that can’t do it coach and teach and like it’s a big . . . “
Steve: Oh yeah, right. Yeah.
Mike: There’s a lot of shitty trainers out there and coaches out there and people that really have very little experience that shouldn’t be training yet. But I totally think that that’s bullshit when people say that people that can’t do it, coach. Like, man, I’ve done like 700 transactions. I’m still doing deals. I don’t even have to really work . . . I don’t have to work this hard anymore. But I think what you just said is exactly true. I know that when I am showing somebody how to do something or telling somebody how to do something that I have to be on top of my game. Like, it forces me to do what I say not just say something that sounds good. So, yeah. I agree with you there. A little sound bite for myself.
Steve:No. Right on.
Mike:Honestly, I do agree with you. I think it makes you a better practitioner in your business if you also have to teach other people how to do it because . . . Unless you’re just spewing out academic crap that you read in a book, like, this is exactly how we did this when that happened to me before and when it’s happened to me, or if it does happen to me, here’s exactly how I’m going to handle it.
Steve: No, it allows you to grow a lot faster I think. That’s for me. And it could be different for other people, but again, for me, and you seem like we’re similar in a lot of ways to that teaching asset, but . . .
Mike: So, Steve, talk a little about that transition. I want to kind of cover this a little bit more about how you transitioned from scarcity mindset to more of an abundant mindset. And I know there was a while where you were doing way too much yourself and starting to add in a team and grow your business. It’s like what helped you make that transition?
Steve: Being around other people who were also making that transition. Earlier this year, I joined a mastermind which I thought was ridiculous first that I would spend money to hang out with people. And I’m just being honest. Like, I was kind of like, buying into a group. Well, if I’m buying into a group, how is this legitimately going to work? But I quickly realized that it was, by me not wanting to do that, that was just me trying to just dismiss the idea that I needed to invest in myself and invest in my future and . . . Whatever way I could find to try to scale and be around other people, that was the mindset shift. I wanted to be around other people.
I wanted to figure out what other people were doing because in my market, we’re not collaborating. There’s nobody I collaborate with here locally in my market. Everybody is . . . There’s a lot of people doing a few deals a year. There’s not very many big players in this market. And the ones that are, we really don’t talk for whatever reason probably because they’re running their own business. I’m running mine and they’re not going to be really apt to share their techniques with me because we’re competitors in that sense.
So, going out of my area and talking to people who are doing deals like I want to do and structuring deals and getting into the multifamily and the apartments, just whatever stuff on a bigger scale and I’m seeing this and slowly but surely the mind starts to open. So, I think one of the keys is you need to be around people. And the saying is, you know, you see five people walking down the road, you add up their annual salaries and you divide it by five and that’s probably what you’re going to make. So, if you’re hanging out with those five people, chances are there’s not going to be a millionaire in the group of people that are making 50,000 a year. So, you need to be around the people that are working on themselves and doing the deals. And if you’ve got to pay a little bit of money to get involved with that, that’s called investing in yourself.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. And a group like ours, the Investor Fuel group, it’s easy for . . . Like you said, it’s hard to . . . I know it’s not cheap, right, to make those investments, but when you get around . . . The truth is, is if you do one deal a year, one extra deal a year, it pays for itself or more and it’s like, if that’s all that’s happening there, then you’re doing something wrong. I mean, you know when you come there. I mean, I know there’s people that are in our group that have doubled or tripled their business in the past year just by getting around some people to help them frame what they’re doing wrong or say, “Why are you doing it this way? Why don’t you do it that way?” And just it really helps inspire you if nothing else, right?
And I think . . . And I’m not . . . This isn’t meant to be a huge promotion for Investor Fuel, but go to investorfuel.com if you’d like to learn more. But I will say that as you know in our group, and then probably you might have had a different perception when you walked in there is we really focused a lot on trying to give and share with each other and not be some . . . It’s not a beauty contest or a chest thumping contest to come in and see like, who can brag the most about themselves. It’s really just a group of people that have worked really hard to get where they’re at and now they’re around people that they can share their story with and even if it’s negative, like, you’ve got people to help lift you up.
Steve: Yeah. Oh, and bragging rights are fun. Like, we all like to brag a little bit about ourselves, but I agree with you. Talk a little bit about the deals you do and you can throw out some numbers and get a little bit of feel good from everybody, people look up to you. That’s cool. Now move on to the solution, like, how we can help each other? Because the biggest guy in the room if he doesn’t have something to learn from everybody else, then why is he hanging out there?
Mike: Right.
Steve: And the reality of the situation is you can always learn something. So, get around those people, get around people that can help you, get around people who can bring you up. Get away from the friends and family members that are trying to get you to think small. Give them a little time, but give them less time. Give your time to people who want to help you grow. So, that was a big thing for me. I just say no to a lot of people. No, I ain’t going to go there. I ain’t going to hang out.
Sometimes you hang around people and your mind will start to revert back to that. So, get around the right people. Don’t believe it. When you spend money on yourself, it’s a good thing. Invest in yourself. Invest in whether it’s a training course, an online course, a mastermind depending on where you’re at. I think everybody should do that if you want to scale. And that goes right into the abundance mindset and investing in yourself. It’s not about going out and buying yourself a brand new car, a new pair of shoes. Like, you can do all that if you want, but it’s about investing in the ideas that are going to grow your business and then paying people. I’ll get right into it.
I thought that . . . A lot of people think. I know that because I talked to you guys. “Why would I pay somebody if I can just do it myself? Why would I pay somebody if I can just do it myself?” You have go back, “Okay. Well, how much money am I worth an hour? What do I think my hourly wage is? Let’s just go on the really low end.” Okay? I hope it’s not true. But let’s just say I’m worth $100 an hour. Okay? If I’m worth $100 . . .
Mike: And you know what’s funny is like a lot of people that hear you say that might say, “That’s the low end, $100 an hour?” which it’s funny, just the mindset of you knowing that you’re worth way more than that, right? But there’s a lot of people that are like, “Man, I only make like $14 an hour. How’s $100 low?” But it’s funny that you said that and it’s awesome that you said that because you understand the value of your time, right? So, I’m sorry. Go ahead.
Steve: Yeah. Value of time . . . Yeah. And that’s a whole another discussion, value of time. But let’s just say I’m worth $100 an hour. Throw that out there. And I’m complaining that I don’t want to hire somebody. I don’t want to take anybody in my business. So, I’m going to do all the tasks. I’m going to make my own copies. I’m going to make all the phone calls. I’m going to do all the clerk’s tasks. I’m going to be a clerk. I’m going to be $100 an hour clerk, but I don’t have to pay somebody an extra $500 a week, $12 an hour, that equates to or whatever it is to do that.
So, every time I pick up the phone, I want you guys to think about this. Every time you pick up the phone and make a call that you shouldn’t be making, you write an email that you shouldn’t be doing, you spend time at Home Depot, that doesn’t make you any money. Every time you do those $15 an hour tasks or $12 an hour tasks, why don’t you think about it like this? You are losing $85 an hour. You just gave that up. Okay? That’s what you did.
So, stop thinking like you’re going to mow your own lawn, you’re going to wash your own windows, you’re going to paint your own room. What are you doing? Get away from that mentality and start focusing on the bigger tasks that can help you grow your business. I’m not saying that sometimes you don’t got to do it. Of course, you’re going to have to do it. Not everybody’s going to be there. You’re going to still pick up the trash. Okay? You don’t just look at the trash and say, “Well, my guy will grab it.” Pick up the trash, put it in the garbage. But it’s the whole shift of, by hiring more people, it’s going to allow me to do more tasks that are more my pay grade, and then we want to see 100 go from 200, 200 to 400. Like, that’s how my mind thinks.
Mike: Absolutely.
Steve: And before it was opposite. People that want to grow businesses, want to empower other people to do their job and do it well. They’re not trying to get in the middle and take care of everything themselves.
Mike: Yeah, no doubt. No doubt.
Steve: So, I know went on a little rant there, but it’s really important.
Mike: No, man. It’s good stuff. Well, Steve, hey, thanks for joining us on the show today.
Steve: All right. Thanks, Mike. I appreciate you inviting me on the show and I look forward to seeing you at the next mastermind here in November.
Mike: Yeah. In a couple weeks. Hey, so, if folks wanted to reach out to you, want to learn more about you, anything like that, where would they go or how will they track you down up in Detroit?
Steve: Oh, man, I’m really easy to find. Stevemovesdetroit.com, that’s my motivated seller website if you need to sell a house fast, but you guys probably don’t. So, you can email me [email protected], [email protected]. Yeah. So, if you have any questions or anything, you can reach me there.
Mike: Cool, buddy. Hey, thanks for your time.
Steve: Thank you, man. Have a great one.
Mike: [inaudible 00:33:56] buddy. Hey, everybody, this is episode number 435 with my buddy, Steve Streit up in Detroit. Good guy, making things happen, and I think he has been through a lot of the things that maybe a lot people listening have been through is like the struggle of, “I want to be independent. I want to make a business. I want to build a business and improve my family and the lives of those around me,” but having to give up some of the things, trying to give up being frugal and trying to like, you know, step over, what do they say, stepping over dime to grab a nickel type stuff, right? You got to focus on the bigger picture. And as they say, you can’t save your way to prosperity. You got to be willing to invest in yourself.
So, everybody, this is episode number 435. We appreciate you. If you haven’t subscribed to us yet, please subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, anywhere where you can find us, at YouTube, and of course you can watch all of our episodes on flipnerd.com. I appreciate you guys. See you on the next show.
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