#7 Cold Calling Can Never Go Out Of Style with Greg Helbeck
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Itunes – www.TonyJavier.com/itunes
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Guest Bio: Greg Helbeck has done more at 25 than most have done in their career. Greg invests in New York while living life in sunny San Diego. He works really smart in his business and is scaling fast with little effort.
More about him – www.TonyJavier.com/greghelbeck
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Show Transcription:
Tony (00:02):
All right. Welcome to today’s show. We have Greg Helbeck on the line. Greg is a new generation of real estate investors. Typically the investors we have on here, uh, are closer to my age. We’ve got a young book on the show. He is doing deals in New York, California, the Midwest. He’s got his own podcast as well, and he is the King of cold calling and follows up as well as many other things. So I’m glad to have Greg on the show. How are you doing, buddy?
Greg (00:30):
Oh, Hey, how are you doing man? Greetings from us San Diego, about 20 minutes North of you right now. How’s everything going today?
Tony (00:35):
I know we’re far away, but so close.
Greg (00:38):
I know. I know. Well, yeah, I’m doing well. I’m happy to be a guest on the show, man. We’ve been connected for a while now. It’s good to hop on here.
Tony (00:46):
Yeah, we met a couple of years ago and I’ve kind of been in the same groups and ran around in the same circles and connected on Facebook a little bit and whatnot. So it’s good to reconnect with you again face to face. So tell us how you got started. What’s going on with you and where you got to, I guess where you are today?
Greg (01:01):
Yeah, for sure. So Greg Helbeck I got started. Oh man. Long story short is I was playing hockey. I was 20 years old at the time and I was 19. I was super young and I was trying to get to the NHL, Tony and it did not work out and I was devastated cause that’s all I wanted to do. I thought that was the way I was going to get wealthy. And I had to kind of accept the reality that I wasn’t gonna play in the NHL. Anyway, I went back, moved back in with my parents, like a loser and you know, and I was like, I gotta figure this out and had no college at the time.
Greg (01:32):
My parents made me go to community college and I was super kind of like defeated. And I remember going to community college and I was like, trying to figure like, what do I want to do with my life? You know, like I want to like do something special, right? Like not just be like everyone else. And I started reading personal devolvement books, got into the whole thing and ended up long story short, my friend, got a postcard in the mail and he sent me a picture of the postcard and said real estate seminar in town. Uh, and I went to the seminar and they talked about, I was the youngest guy in there by far is 20 years old. And they’re like, you could flip properties with no money. You know, you just need to find motivated sellers and lock the deals up and use someone else’s money flip up. And I was like, I can do that. Went out, uh, took all that stuff at, you know, literally. And I was like, I’m going to get rich two months. It took me nine months to get my first property. And I remember I made a $5,000 wholesale with a $1,000 wholesale fee. And then from there kind of stumbled my way into like three or four properties. And I got a right at marketing, like I was really consistent, but I had no like idea of like running a real business or like having like campaigns or an ad budget or anything like that. I had no idea how to call. I had no ability to close. So I did a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes, but as long I made some money eventually, uh, I was at the point where I was kind of at a crossroads. I was spending a lot of money in marketing. I was not getting a good return. And I had to really, and I had some experience at this point, like I wasn’t brand new. And I said, I need to go into a market Because I was living in New York where that area is, is a tough place for newbie to get started. Cause you have to deal with attorneys and there’s very, very expensive and you have to put down huge deposits. So for a newbie, that’s a very hard market. It’s kind of like San Diego. And I said, I need to go virtual and I need to see if it’s easier in another area.
Greg (03:16):
So I literally like kind of, you know, what it was like, I’m going to go into Texas and I’m going to learn how to do cold calling. And I’m going to cold call properties that I think have the best chance of being deals because I did a deal and I made 15,000 and it was a vacant house with back taxes. So I said, what if I just find lists of vacant houses with back taxes in Texas long story short that ended up working out like three years ago, really? When cold calling wasn’t a thing, I was cold calling people in Texas when it wasn’t popular. And that’s really what put me on the map. I started doing like three to five houses a month, like over the phone virtually, you know, making like $20,000 to $40,000 profits per deal. Cause I was closing at that point and that really took my business off, man. And then ever since then, I’ve been kind of, I haven’t been a high, high volume guy, but doing like 15, 20 a month, but I’ve always been consistently not talking out anywhere from like two to four, two to five properties a month with really healthy profit margins. And I’ve evolved from more of a wholesaler to now just an investor I’ll do rehab, I’ll do rentals I’ll do wholesaling and uh, yeah, that’s kinda the backstory for me man.
Tony (04:18):
Now one of the cool things that when we met a couple of years ago that, um, you know, I saw as you were doing the cold calling and you know, for me, I had, you know, a large staff, a lot of employees and I was like, you know, pretty jealous that you were just like a one man show doing the phone calls, no overhead, I mean pretty much no overhead. And I’m like, that’s pretty sweet. You know? I mean, there’s obviously a good size to both. Right. You know? Um, but that’s cool. So you got started cold calling. That’s like where it happens, man. That’s like, that’s like utilizing resources and just being in this cause that’s not easy, man, like calling people and getting told no and probably hung up on and screw you. And how did you get my phone number? I imagine you got a lot of that, right.
Greg (05:03):
It’s just especially in like NY and CA man, you’re, you’re just, you’re going to get rejected. Uh, but that’s what builds that entrepreneurial, grit man, like you gotta have that pigheaded persistence and doing that, learning how to get rejected. I learned that very young, which I’m thankful for. It has allowed me as I’ve gotten into bigger deals and things like that, like to not get as kind of stunned when things don’t work out and kind of getting used to rejection a little bit. So, it was a great foundation to get started and cold calling, like you said, is a great way where, you know, a lot of people, they, you know, they, they, they have big teams and that’s great. And it works. I was kinda like, how do I like, cause I, at the time I had no resources, I’m like, I need to be lean and mean I need to be profitable. And if I have a couple bad months, like I need to be able to still be in business. So like I need to keep my overhead low. And at the time it was like, let’s, let’s cold call because the objective is get leads, right? Like how do we get these leads and how much does it cost? And you know, from there it’s like, how do we build out our marketing systems? And uh, yeah, man, it was, it was a leap of faith because I’ll tell you what Tony, I was on the brink of, of being in a real bad situation. If I didn’t get into cold calling because I was running out of money and it was, it was not cool, man. It was not cool, especially cause you know, I wasn’t really established yet. So I had, you know, it was tough, but it was a good learning lesson for sure.
Tony (06:22):
But you know, I think most of us entrepreneurs have been there where we, we kind of get back against the wall in some respect. And one thing I found, I mentioned this the other day on a call that like, man, anytime I’ve been in a really tough spot at the time, it really sucks. Like you feel like so defeated and you feel so down, but there’s always, I mean, there’s, there’s so many different ways to say it, but like there’s always a silver lining and those doors, another door that opens, there’s always something good…. For you. Like almost running out of money. It was like, shit, I got to do something like get on the phone and do something to save money. Right.
Greg (06:57):
Big time.
Tony (06:58):
Yeah. And then before the call or before we started recording you mentioned, um, kind of evolving and being a little bit smarter with the deals I think basically maximizing the profit on each deal. So kind of tell us about that, how you just wholesaling to other things that you’re doing as well.
Greg (07:19):
I’m glad you brought that up. Cause this is something I like to preach now when I can, because when I started Tony, I think everyone, you know, get started they see a lot of guys online who have great information, but they’re always teaching a sign, sign, sign, sign the contract, get a cash buyer. And I’ve found that that business model, if you do it as your primary business, you know, it can have challenges because number one, there are some deals that if you assign it, it could be problematic. At least, I don’t know, maybe I’m doing it wrong, but there are some properties where if I were to assign that contract, um, it would have been a problem with a seller or, you know, it would, I would have had to rely on someone else. So I started to look at myself as I, you know, had a little bit of savings, saved up from a lot of properties. I said, what if I just, and I was another thing I was looking at the people I was selling things properties too. And I was seeing what they were doing. They weren’t doing a lot and they were making three, four, five X what I was making on an assignment. And I’m like, wait a minute. This is the same lead. I mean, I could have just bought this myself. So eventually I started realizing if I closed on these properties and took title and either renovated the property or did like a wholesale, which is just cleaning it up, basically listing on the MLS. I could essentially make two to four times more money on the same exact lead without having to do another deal. So I started doing these deals before I would close on the really good deals and, you know, resell them. And you know, if I was either renovating or wholesaling, I was making so much more profit, like net, net profit on that same lead that if I were to just wholesale it, like I would have made 10 grand, but I closed on it and, and did a renovation to meet 45. And yeah, it took a little bit longer, but still it wasn’t that harder because in my opinion, getting deals is the most important part. so, my point of that is like, if you’re watching the show and you’re new, um, start to look at yourself as an investor, not just the wholesaler, if you are a wholesaler, right? Like, look at yourself as like I’m a problem solver. I’m going to, you know, do whatever I need to do to try to maximize the profit on this property and solve the customer’s problem at the same time. And when you do that, you’re going to start to realize like, you know, some properties, if you wholesale might not make any sense, but if you close on them, you can make twice the amount of money or three times the amount of money essentially with the same lead and you can ultimately work less and make more, you know, even though it’s kinda cliche, but it’s true.
Greg (09:33):
Like there’s, I have countless amounts of deals. If you want to go through a case study to where, like, if I did not close on that property, I would have left, you know, 40 grand on the table all day long. And that’s a lot of money when you, when you really look at it like to your bottom line, I mean, you want to maximize your leads. And once I shifted my mindset from just being a wholesaler, to being an investor, it absolutely changed my income. And uh, you know, the way I look at everything now, like I just, you have to have that different perspective if you want to really maximize your, your success and all your marketing.
Tony (10:02):
Yeah. And there’s probably pros and cons to both of you wholesale, it’s quick money. You can turn it, you don’t have to manage, you have to raise money and hire contractors and go with the whole thing. But if you like, I’m a rehabber to like my team rehabs. Like I love it. Cause I can make five grand on a wholesale deal or I can make 20 to 50 grand rehabbing the property. So for me, it totally makes sense. But not only that, I mean, I’ve been doing it for a long time, but like once you built a process and system for it, you haven’t like I’ve got investors I can throw deals to all day long and I get them funded in a couple of days. I’ve got my sister that manages all the projects. I’ve got contractors that I’ve built over the last 20 years. We can just throw them in there and get rehabs done in 30 to 45 days. So, you know, it could be really tough in the beginning to do those rehabs, but um, you know, you do them, you do them smart and build the processes and the systems. They become a lot easier over time and you can make four to maybe 10 times the amount of money that you do close the deal.
Greg (10:56):
That’s the key there with the rehabs, you’d need to have a good team on the ground. And if you’re doing it in your market or if you’re doing it, like I’ve done it remotely, I’ve done most of them remotely. And you just hit a great point. You got to have a team, whether you’re being with somebody in another area that you’re not familiar with, or like in my area, in New York, I have a project manager who does projects for me. I have private lenders I’ve built relationships with and the most important thing. And you, you know, this obviously is you’ve got to know that market. If you’re going to close on a property, you need to know what’s going on. You need to know the days on market. You need to know the area. You need to know the sub market because if you’re wholesaling, you know, it’s a little easier to do that virtually because you’re just trying to find a buyer to take the contract over, which, you know, you just need to know a buyers, but if you’re going to start taking your money and investors money and hard money, and you’re going to be closing, you need to become an expert in your specific market. You’re going to do that because, uh, you know, if you don’t, you could put yourself and other people at a lot of financial risk. So you need to really know that. But once you know that market and you know, you have some experience, it’s a great way to kind of evolve, you know, as a real estate entrepreneur, getting into the actual purchasing of the properties and in renovating for sure.
Tony (12:04):
So tell me about your evolution. So like for me, it’s, it seems like a lot of people get into real estate and it’s a means to it. They get in there, they’re hungry, they do deals, they make money and then, you know, it may be fulfilling and maybe not, but either way they typically find something else that they want to do later. you know, that’s either more fulfilling or more, I don’t know, more sexier, like whatever it is. So, you’ve started your podcast, you’re doing some other things. So tell me your evolution and transition to some of the other things that you’re doing.
Greg (12:37):
Totally. So that’s a great question and it really, you know, I have not been an admin in the game for 20 years like you, so I have a lot to learn, but I’ve been doing it for like five years now and I’ve done it every day, right? Every day for five years, you learn some things. And I really started to realize that, you know, a lot of, a lot of it is personal development, right? Like, you know, the, the better I became as a person, as a marketer, as a salesperson as a leader, to some people who work with me, the more money I ended up making, the more success I ended up having. So I started realizing like the more I can work on myself, even though it’s cliche, that the better everyone will do. Right. So, I figured, you know, the way, the best way to, to, uh, to get is to give you always gotta give before you get. So I ended up starting a podcast last year just really for the point or for the purpose of providing Goodwill, uh, to the marketplace. Number one, and number two, being able to use it as a networking tool to, to connect with people that I’ve always wanted to connect with and then help help them out by getting them some exposure on the show and in exchange, get, get some value for myself from some listeners. Um, so I ended up starting to show pave the way and really had no idea what I was doing. Like had no clue didn’t even wanna start a podcast. I had to look it all up on the internet. And from there I’ve been able to really, you know, use that show as a vehicle to number one, raise some money for some real estate deals and also kind of get into, you know, some, some, uh, some stuff I have, you know, that I’m working on some projects and then some information stuff, and really, you know, found that the, I guess the teaching aspect of it, not necessarily real estate, like the stuff that I’m kind of rolling out is more like productivity stuff.
Greg (14:16):
But I think if you can Grow as a person, right? Whether, you know, you’re a real estate or any business, you know, you’re essentially, you’re, you’re going to be more successful because you’re going to be, you know, you’re going to become the person that is worth the money you want to make or whatever the case is. So I’ve always used personal development as a way to grow as an entrepreneur. And the podcast is a way for me to, to help others, uh, you know, achieve the success they want to achieve. So if you were to tell me when I started out, Hey, you’re gonna start a podcast and maybe have a couple information things I would’ve said. I don’t know man. I don’t think that’s really for me, but as time goes on, you start to realize, Hey, this may be an opportunity here. Maybe I kind of have to be a little bit different than everyone else in terms of the content. And man, it’s been a lot of fun, you know, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a lot of work. And, you know, I think that, uh, I made a mistake starting where I didn’t really have an objective for the show. It was just kinda like let’s put content out there, but now that I’m a little bit more strategic with it and I have some more kind of goals for the show. It’s a little bit more motivating. And I also have my team, a couple of VA’s kind of put the show together for me. So I think as, yeah, as entrepreneurs, we’re always kind of looking for the next thing to chase and take down. And, uh, you know, we all kind of have that shiny object syndrome. And I think it’s, it’s definitely a blessing because it always makes us curious and hungry, but sometimes it can be a curse because, you know, we tend to kind of go all over the place. But I think if you have a couple of things that you’re working on at once, that’s definitely manageable, but there’s some people I know, I have some friends who have like 10 projects going on. I’m like, how do you do all that, man? I’m like, I have two to three things going on and I’m losing my mind. So yeah, it’s always interesting, man. It’s really always interesting, but I’m always looking to grow and learn, you know, as I am sure.
Tony (15:55):
Over the last 20 years, I have chased so many rabbits, especially for like 10 to 15 years, man, I was chasing so many rabbits and I was that guy even probably a year, year and a half ago. Um, you know, when I was building the house, I was just, you know, we were just talking about it. I was doing Masterminds around the country and then I got pregnant with a baby. And then, uh, we ended up moving out of our play. I mean, we had like a hundred things going on and it was like crazy. And so ever since then, like in the last year and a half, I’m like, just like you said, I gotta be way more intentional with what I do. Like, is there a true intention behind it? And I just mentioned this earlier to someone that if I take something on it’s like, it’s got to be scalable to the point to where it doesn’t take any more energy for me and it brings positive energy, you know? Cause flipping houses and stuff can really suck your energy especially if you’re doing the wrong things in it. Right. So like, you know, I’m sure you’ve, I mean, you’ve been in it five years now. You probably learned this already that there are things that really raise your energy level and you love doing, and then there’s things in your business that you feel like I need to do. And I’m the best at that. Once you get rid of them and you’re like, Holy shit, actually, I’m not the best at it. And I freaking hated doing that. I feel so much better not doing it right. Oh. I used to think that I had to do it because I needed to be in control and it’s like…. I haven’t managed the project in five years and I don’t ever want to do it again.
Greg (17:33):
Yeah. man, and some of the thing is some people love doing it.
Tony (17:37):
For sure.
Greg (17:39):
More power to them. Like I have, my project manager loves it. Hates marketing, loves managing Rehabs. And it’s a great synergy, but it’s such a good point you made there because if you spend your whole day doing things that you hate, even if you own your own business, you’re going to not, if you’re not, if, but when you burn yourself out, you’re going to be like super frustrated. But if you could just figure out the things that you do that are number one intentional, but they give you energy. You don’t even feel like working like it. It’s like, Oh, I’m creating a, you know, whatever I’m doing this today. But it doesn’t even feel like work because I want to do it. You know? And that’s a big point to make because I see a lot of people, um, especially like if they’re in the real estate business, like they think sometimes they even have to fix the houses and that’s, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you, if you want to really grow your real estate business, you know, you need to get good at doing the things that matter and then have other people do them for you. And you always gotta look at like, what’s the best use of your time? Like if I put an X amount of time, what could though, what could the potential outcome be on that time? And like, you kind of said earlier, it’s gotta be exponential. It’s gotta be something that’s scalable where you have a high ROI or not are rot, I guess, in this situation. And, uh, you gotta be specific with that because in the beginning, I guess new investors, sometimes they have a tough time figuring that out cause they just want to make money. But once you have some, some deals under your belt and some income coming in, like you start to get like pay a little bit more strategic on things. And you really look at the 80 20 principle and try to apply it to that. And that’s something I try to do, man, like using the 80-20 principle and having the discipline to really apply that 20% that matters consistently, it can be tough to do sometimes.
Tony (19:16):
Have you heard of attraction and visionary vs integrator?
Greg (19:19):
Yes. Yeah. Gino Wickman. Yeah. For sure.
Tony (19:22):
Yeah. You’re a big book guy. You do reviews all the time on Facebook. but yeah, I mean, that’s, that was an eye opener for me so that, you know, for those you don’t know about that, it’s visionary integrators. So visionary like Greg and I can tell you right now visionaries, it’s like, we know where we want to go. We know we want to do, we have this big vision. We have all these big goals and we don’t like putting all the details together. So we need integrators to go in there, clean up our crap that we’ve messed up, get it all together, package it up, implemented, manage the projects, you know, all that good stuff underneath it. Um, people don’t actually that picture back there that you see that people don’t see. You see the, see that picture back there. The other one, the iceberg. So it’s got all that underneath that. That’s the integrator. That’s managing all that crap underneath we’re on top. Just like, Hey guys, you know, just, Hey, we’re the face of all that.
Greg (20:14):
Oh, that’s a point, man. That’s a good book where he talks about that. Cause I didn’t know, like I didn’t understand. Cause before I heard of that book that you brought up traction, I was always like, man, I’m good at getting stuff going. But like actual day to day, like I I’m just, it doesn’t give me fulfillment. Like I remember when I first started 20, it was like bandit signs. Like I knew how to put them out. I knew what to do. I knew why I should put them out. But the actual mechanics and I’m like, you know, I don’t need to be doing this so I can have someone else do this. And having that, some people are the opposite. They, the mechanical and the structure. And like my girlfriend is an engineer. She was very analytical, which is good. And uh, you know, she’s very into details and like, I’m like, I’ll just get it going. You know, we’ll figure out the marketing and then I’ll just, you know, whatever, we’ll change it. Is it.
Tony (21:00):
Ready. Fire. Aim is what I call that.
Greg (21:03):
That is my yeah. Greg ready Fire aim Greg Helbeck.
Tony (21:06):
So here here’s something you can, you can tell, hopefully the listeners will too. So like, you know, to me, it’s like, I love starting that first 10 to 15% of the project. Yes. Hand it off check in the middle a little bit and then come to me at the end and I’ll critique it and make that little change and then we’ll get it out there, whatever it is, you know, I love, you know, like right now I’m creating a course. I put the outline together. I’m going to have to record a lot of it. But I gave the slides and my vision of the slides to somebody they’re putting all the slides together and making it all pretty.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I just did that. I literally just did what you said. Verbatim on fiverr. Like I just was working on that before we got on this call. What you just said
Tony (21:49):
People think that they have to manage all the little details to make sure they are right and don’t get me wrong. You have to inspect what you expect. But at the same time, like if I can only be responsible for 10% of anything, that’s going on at any point in time, I’m happy with that.
Greg (22:05):
A hundred percent. You gotta, you, you cannot have that micromanaging mindset. You just, that was a great example with the core slides. Like you knew exactly what content you wanted to put out, why you’re putting it out, how it will help people, but you don’t need to get good at the slides and the design and all that. Like there’s people out there who do that for a living. They love it. Like you go on fiverr.com. I just did what you said and had my, you know, freelancer put together these fancy slides on the logo. I didn’t create the logo. I didn’t like, you know, I gave him everything that he needs to be successful. And then he’ll send me the file. I’ll look at it. We’ll probably stamp it off as approval. So you got how they get used to doing that because you can spend all day doing things that will drain your energy. Like, you know, for me like graphic design, I’m like, you know, I, I don’t know what you got. I don’t even know what to do. I’m like, all right, just hire someone to do it, you know, but I can
Tony (22:54):
I used to, I used to sit for like a full day and try and freaking like, you know, 15, 20 years ago when I was doing the bit, I’d try and like do all these things and like half a day doing it. And I’m like, Oh yeah, of course wasn’t Fiverr and Upwork back then still it’s like, I could have found somebody. Yeah. How much did you pay for those slides? If you don’t mind me asking to be done.
Greg (23:12):
I paid, I think I paid them like 200 bucks or two 250. I’d negotiate with him a little bit. Cause he anchored me pretty high. And I was like, man, like, you know, I get it, but like, how am I supposed to pay it? You know? And I got them down eventually, but you know, they’re really professionally designed and they’re really connected with the guy. So you already got it back. Yeah, they’re awesome. And then I sent them another thing earlier than the course I’m making, it’s like a worksheet that goes with the slides. So like the design has to be congruent. I think he charged me like a buck 50 for them, for all like the professional designs and I’ll take it, you know? Cause I know that, you know, uh, if I could pay someone $200 to $250 and that, you know, let’s say that were to take me 10 hours of my time since I don’t know what I’m doing. Like you got to look at what is your time worth? And like, it’s not necessarily like I have to pay this person X, like I’m going to pay them X and in exchange, I don’t have to worry about it. And as long as I do a reasonable job, you know, I’m cool with that. And they’re cool, and everyone wins, but ya men, Fiverr and Upwork, they’ve been super helpful for my business. Cause you don’t have to take on that. That, you know, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to have that payroll, things like that. You can use people, especially in the beginning that can do what you need them to do, but you can only use them on a contractual basis. You know? So let’s say if you’re an entrepreneur listening and you don’t want to hire employees growing Upwork, going fiber and putting out job posts and getting some experience kind of delegating things. Cause in the beginning, it’s really awkward when you start delegating stuff, never doing it. You’re like, what the heck? Like I’m the boss, this is weird. But over time you’re like, you know, it’s like anything you get used to,
Tony (24:43):
It probably would have taken me two months to do those slides. Cause it’s, I mean, it’s, it’s quite a few slides and so many other things going on. It’s like, man, he’s going to be done with them next week and I’ll be able to afford what I need to….
Greg (24:55):
That’s it, man, it’s tough. I mean, there’s still some things that I have trouble delegating and you know, you just gotta, you know, you gotta just realize like at the end of the day, like the best use of your time is working on the things that, you know, bring the most value to that organization, uh, which usually has to do with like, you know, the vision and make sure the marketing is productive and things like that. Capital raising.
Tony (25:16):
Cool man. So I have a $10,000 question. So if you had $10,000 or if someone else had $10,000 in their hand and you had to advise them how to spend it, how would you advise them to spend it, to get their best return.
Greg (25:28):
$10,000….is this a real estate or just in general?
Tony (25:36):
Could be anything man, you name it.
Greg (25:37):
I would do what I would do. I would take 10 grand before I would spend a cent of it. I would go figure out specifically what my target was that I wanted to achieve. Right. I’d figure out what I want to achieve. Like whether it’s a business goal or it’s probably a business goal. So I want to make X amount of dollars by X amount of day, let’s say a hundred grand in the next 90 days. And I’d get very specific on that. Like before I spent a penny and then I would ask myself a second question, I’d say, who is somebody that could help me get to this number by this day, I would offer them a thousand dollars for their time for an hour. Probably I could probably do it in an hour. I’d offer them a thousand dollars. And I would ask them a set of specific questions on how I can get that a hundred thousand dollars in 90 days, I get their answers. And then I would also ask them, how can I do this with a budget of $9,000 now, because I just paid you a thousand and I have them tell me what they would do. And then I would implement exactly what they told me to do, given the budget that I told them and given the specificity of that goal. And I would, that’s what I would do.
Greg (26:49):
Now, if you were to ask them this five years ago, I would have said, go buy 10,000 bandit signs, but I’m out. But now I would be strategic, yeah. Get specific on what you want, find out who has what you want, pay them for their time, because you’re going to If when you pay, you pay attention, right? Like if you pay someone a thousand dollars for their time and assuming they’re credible, they’re going to give you really good advice. Like take the advice seriously, especially just because you just paid for it. And then the more specific you are, the more specific questions you ask, the better answers you’re going to get. And then, you know, like in my example, if I have $9,000 leftover and I told the person I need nine grand of funds to get that goal achieved, how do I make it work with 9,000? They’re going to give you a really good answer. And I would go implement it exactly to the penny. What they told me. I wouldn’t deviate. I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t say well, that doesn’t make sense. I would just do what they told me to do. And I would send them an email every week, updating them on their progress. So they see that I’m serious. And I bet you, if you did that, you’d get your a hundred grand for sure.
Tony (27:50):
Yeah. I wish I would have known that fit. So I think you’re 25, right? So I was 25, 15 years ago and it took me until about 2010. So I was probably 30, maybe even closer to 32 years old before I really learned the lesson that you just said, and that is whoever, like, whatever it is you want to achieve, go out there and find someone that can guide you in that right direction. It could be a goal. It could be a mastermind group. It could be a mentor. Like it doesn’t matter. Like 10 years of my business, I put my head down and I was afraid to ask for help. Like I was afraid to ask questions of anybody. Cause I didn’t want to look stupid to be like people to say, Hey man, you’re running this business. You don’t know how to do this. And it’s like, no, man, you got it. Like you got to look stupid to find the answers of what you need, man. So super cool that you learned that so early in life and so early in your career, man, that’s, that’s, that’s phenomenal. Yeah.
Greg (28:48):
It’s you know what it’s um, it’s something that like I would have not gotten that answer even two years ago, man. I would have been like go out and, and you know, put your nose to the grindstone, which isn’t going to work. You know, work is definitely inevitable, but I wasn’t specific on what I wanted and I wouldn’t like, I wasn’t really strategic with things. I would just, I always have been like very hardworking, but like, you can work really hard to do the wrong thing and be really burned out, right? Like that’s a realistic thing, entrepreneurship. So you need to get specific on what you want. And then you got to find out, like you said, who’s got what you, who, who has what you want and how do you earn the right to get some of their time to ask specific questions and then go implement, like, you know, I think being a content producer now, like with a podcast, I look at, uh, like I look at the production of things from a different lens because I used to just listen to podcasts now that I produced them. I’m like, wow, like, this is interesting because I want to make sure that the value I put out is someone is going to that. So I have to make sure the information is really good. So I would see how people’s perspectives were. And it really just kind of taught me a lot about things like information and how to, how to approach people and things like that. But yeah, you gotta, you gotta go to the experts, like, especially when you start new stuff, like I’m starting the internet marketing thing. And like, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I,frankly, joined his inner circle and now I know a thing or two about internet stuff, and I’m excited. So you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for sure.
Tony (30:07):
Cool, man, what else do you want people to know about you or know about your business or any kind of nuggets you can share?
Greg (30:14):
Oh, here’s one. Um, definitely the first point is like, if you’re in the real estate business specifically, like once you get past your first couple of deals and you have a little bit of money in the bank, cause you can do that relatively quickly. And in the real estate game, look at yourself as an investor and, and really, so number one, don’t just try to do one exit strategy. Look at the deal from a couple of different angles and see what makes the most sense for you. And the second thing that I could tell your listeners that I hope they can get value from is that, depending on where they are, you know, the, the, the more value like you get paid in direct proportion of the value that you bring to the marketplace. So like if you’re not at a certain income level you’re at, you want to be at, it’s probably because you lack some skills that need to be acquired in order to provide value to them, get the money. So if you can work on yourself to become more valuable and acquire key skills and have an understanding on those skills, you’re going to be able to then make more money because you’re more valuable. And this is the best part. You’re gonna be able to teach people on your team how to do those skills and they can replicate those skills now on your behalf. So you don’t have to always be kind in the day to day. So, you got to learn skills. They’re very important. And you need to, one more thing. One more point I would say is, you know, there’s been times when I’ve been in the weeds on deals where you have to have that persistence. You know, I’ve, I’ve had challenging properties where I’ve been in situations where like, I didn’t know what to do. I had a lot of money on the street and, uh, being persistent and being stubborn about the outcome that you want to achieve, uh, is inevitable. it’s vital. So you need to be able to persist because not if, but when those obstacles come up, like you got to know like, that is the normal, you got to pass the persistence test. And the feeling that you’re going to have on the other side of the mountain is totally worth whatever you gotta do to go through that persistent time. So you gotta be persistent. You gotta have skills and look at yourself as an investor, not just a wholesaler or whatever you are. And if you do those consistently, you’ll definitely have some success. For sure.
Tony (32:09):
Yeah, man. So you said five years ago, when you were getting into it, like you ran out of money, you were in a tough spot. So looking back five years ago, if you knew where you were now would you believe it?
Greg (32:24):
Oh man, that’s crazy. You say that because I wrote a little letter to myself, like a yellow or a January letter. I think Sean Terry talked about it one time and my mom found it in my old house where I used to live before I moved to California. And it was 80% accurate from like where and at the time.
Tony (32:43):
You did know it. So you did know
Greg (32:45):
I did know where I was going, but it is like, I, at the time though, I had no idea how I was going to get there. Like I was, I was broke, just getting started in real estate, was in college, wanted to move to California, live in snowy, crummy, New York. And uh, you know, I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to get there. But like, I just, I had that belief, like I was going to do it eventually. And I’m not kidding. When I read that letter, I had like the chills, cause it was like 80% accurate.
Tony (33:08):
I did the same thing. Same, same, yeah, same story. I went to Tony robbins’ business mastery seminar, pay 10 grand to go to this thing. Cause, you know, I don’t know why I went, but anyway, so that was like 2012. I want to say. And same thing he had, you write a yellow letter to yourself. He shifted to you. Like I think it was like a year later. So I got the letter. It wasn’t quite like I’d accomplished some of the things, but then I read it two years after that was two years after that same thing moved to San Diego met my wife, same audits, automated my business where I didn’t have to be in the weeds all the time, dude. It’s so that’s super powerful. So you talk about intention, man, if you put that on paper. You like, even if you don’t resign to it everyday, like you said, you wrote that, but I don’t know. Did you look at it everyday? Cause for me I saw it like 2-3 times.
Greg (34:04):
No
Tony (34:06):
Subconsciously or the universe or whatever, just figures out how to make it happen.
Greg (34:11):
You just that’s it mate, you gotta be intentional. That was a great point. And you gotta just take action like every day. Like there’s so many things that are out of your control in business. Like other people, the marketplace, they’re more likeable, but if you can just focus on what you have control over every single day and get specific on those things and just do the things you have control over overtime, it’ll all work out. You just got to focus on the things you have control over because I mean there’s so I have like 15 properties going on right now. There are tons of fires, but I can only control a select group of things and I can sleep well at night because if I just do my best to focus on the controllable every day, over time, it will all work out over the long game. And uh, that’s really, the best you can do is what you have control over. Like I can’t control the lawyers and all this craziness going on, you know? But at the end of the day I can focus on myself. I can control myself. And like you said, I can be intentional. And, and if you’re in it for the long game, man, you can do some really cool stuff. And it’s crazy how those like yellow letters come from life. It’s scary. You’re like, what the heck is it not
Tony (35:11):
The last point I’ll say is that, uh, Tony Robbins says you overestimate what you can do in a year, but you underestimate what you can do in a lifetime. So if you look at like, why, you know, it’s kinda hard to look at things from a year period. Cause I mean, a lot of good things can happen, but then if you look at it from a five-year standpoint, it’s huge. Like the amount of change that you make. So if you’re in a tough spot, if you’re not where you want to be, just look at it as, I mean, probably don’t have to wait Five years, but you’re going to look back, you know, five years later, you know, previous and be like, why was I sweating the small stuff? Why did I care that much? That I wasn’t where I wanted to be. It’s going to happen.
Greg (35:51):
And that’s it. It’s that like five yeah, five years is a huge amount of time that you can make progress. But like you need, like I said, even a couple of years, like if you’re just intentional everyday and you get after it, you, you just it’s that compounded effort every day, you’re working towards something you want. And uh, yeah, you let that compound over your lifetime. You can just absolutely make startling changes. And you will not recognize yourself as the person you were five years ago. Like, you’re like, Oh my God, like I’ve changed because every day I’m not saying me specifically, but like you yourself changed because you simply get specific on what you want you to do the work every day, you realize you got to focus on the controllable, you’re persistent and you grow. And next thing you know, man, you’re just onward and upward, you know, just as evolving.
Tony (36:34):
Absolutely. Well cool man. Well, I appreciate your time and your insight. I just love what you’re doing, man. Young buck on fire, wanting to take over the world. I remember there being 25 and one to want to take over the world, man. I kind of still do, but not really. Cause I have a kid and you know, other stuff going on, but uh, but no good stuff, man. Anything else? Any last words you wanna, you want to share?
Greg (36:55):
Oh man, that’s just everyone out there listening. Like, you know you gotta, you know, take, listen to this episode more than once. That’s another thing I see. Like I’m a big reader. I put a lot of bookers out, but like I read a lot of the books over and over and over again. If someone were to audit my Instagram and Facebook and like, they’d see this dude’s review in the same book. More like I’m doing that on purpose because you got to go deep, not wide. So people listening to the show, even though it’s a free podcast, pretend you just paid Tony and I five grand to, uh, to, to listen to our insight. Like pretend Tony and I are at lunch right now.
Tony (37:27):
Actually they should take your advice. They should pay us each five grand. That way they take it more seriously. Right?
Greg (37:32):
Exactly. Exactly. So pretend you did that. And like we’re cause we’re just like we’re holding everything back. We got nothing. You know, this is like how we would talk if we went out to dinner, right? So take this stuff seriously, listen to it more than once and really find out the one or two things that you can pull out of this call today that you can implement and do consistently. And if you pretend like you paid five grand and listen to this interview, you will value it much more and you will get more results out of it. So be specific, listen to it more than once and pretend you paying us five grand to listen to this call. And uh, you know, you’ll, you’ll have more quote unquote skin in the game and you’ll get more value out of it ultimately. So I hope your listeners got tremendous value from this and it’s always been an honor to, to know you and I’m really happy to be a guest on your show.
Tony (38:15):
Sweet man, we need to not wait for you two years to get together.
Greg (38:18):
I know, I know. I know stuff has happened to, I mean we live basically neighbors, so we’ll go for a hike up pretty soon here. Once this, this pandemic starts to get even easier. We’ll, we’ll hike up over in point Loma, but where he used to live.
Tony (38:30):
Sounds good, man. Good to see ya. Good to talk to you to thank you for adding value to our listeners.
Greg (38:34):
Hey, no sweat, man.
Tony (38:36):
Talk again soon
Greg (38:37):
See ya. See bud? Yeah.
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