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What’s Your Super Bowl?
The thing I want to ask you is what is your Super Bowl? That’s the thing I want to ask because it’s Super Bowl week. I am a big fan of football. Everybody gets excited about Super Bowl week. They’re all going to a party or having fun or gambling or doing all this stuff. The NFL has done a great job making this the number one sports event in the world. The question I want to ask each and every one of you in our audience is what’s your Super Bowl? We often will have different Super Bowl events throughout the year. I’m not just talking about me. I’m talking about all of us in our audience. We all have different big events. Getting married is often a big event. Sometimes even divorce is a big event for you. Sometimes a trip is a big event. Sometimes it’s your kid graduating whether it’s from middle school or kindergarten or junior high or high school or college or going on something big. That’s your Super Bowl.
You have to think about that. We all spend time doing big things. We all enjoy spending time for many weeks dating back to the draft and figuring things out there. Those are big gung-ho football fans who spend a lot of time focused on this. It all leads up to this weekend, all those leaks of working out and running and pounding each other and stuff like that leads up to this event. That’s the question I ask each and every one of you. What is it? Is it closing your first deal? Sometimes that’s the first big deal. Some people close on a big trade or I get my first bids accepted. These are little mini things along the way, but what’s the big thing for you? What’s your big Super Bowl? What’s your event that excites you or gets you rock and rolling? It doesn’t have to be a sporting event. What is it?
Scott’s Super Bowl Events
One of the big events for me in life as a note investor early on was to go to the NoteWorthy Convention held in Vegas. My goal was ultimately to win the Educator of the Year Award. I won this on October 9th, 2014, the Jon Richards Note Educator of the Year Award for Excellence in Education and Training. I was excited about that. It’s a reminder. It’s a piece of plastic. It’s something cool. This didn’t add anything to my life. I’m not like, “I want to thank God for all those things. I want to give the glory to God for me winning this trophy.” It’s great to be honored and I’ve won other awards along the way for education. I’ve had things posted in the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily and all these things. That’s great but those aren’t Super Bowl events to me.
My Super Bowl event, I have it three times a year and it’s my Mastermind weekend. That’s my favorite weekend of the year. Those are my Super Bowls. Every four months we host one and that’s my Super Bowl. I love coming to it. It’s one of the weekends I work the least at. Stephanie does so much more preparation for that with coordinating with hotels, room blocks, food and beverage, and excursions. Make sure everybody’s on time. I just show up and I have a little outline of how it goes, but my Super Bowl is seeing all the other students doing amazing jobs of investors closing big deals or getting excited. It’s seeing how others are doing and seeing what changes are taking place. That’s a Super Bowl event for me. I don’t have kids. I don’t have children. What I’m trying to get at is we all see ourselves at some point. There’s usually some award. I can remember seeing other people win that award and get excited. “I want to win that someday,” and you get to that point, “Thanks. I appreciate it.” That’s not what drives me. What drives me more than anything else is helping make others successful because I’m a big believer in servant leadership. I’m a big believer in making those around me successful. Ultimately help the cream rise to the top and we’ll ride with the tides. I’m successful. We’ve bought a ton of deals.
I was talking to a couple of investors. They heard me speak on the Multifamily Investors Summit that Dan Handford did. He was on here in an episode. I spoke at his summit. They’re here local. They’re nice people but they’re brand new to real estate investing and they’re like, “We’re in Austin. We buy multifamily in any major city in Texas.” I’m like, “You mean you’re looking to buy, you haven’t bought yet.” They’re like, “We’re looking for some nice zip codes in Austin.” I’m like, “This is a tough market and if that’s what you’re looking for, you’re going to have a rough time.” I spent some time with them on phone and talk about, “You need to look at other markets. You need to look at any stuff that’s a plane ride away in Southwest,” which is one of the things I love about being in Austin is I’m a two to three-hour flight from basically any market in the country for the most part. Let them invest in it. There are some rolls to get their first deal. Get your first deal. That’s the first thing, but what happens next?
I have to give a big shout out to RJ Bates of Titan Investments. He posted a million-dollar check on a flip that he did in Hawaii. Kudos to RJ Bates, that’s phenomenal on a big flip. That’s great. I don’t want to do a big flip in Hawaii. That’s not my goal. My big goal, my big Super Bowl is the day that we’re living somewhere where I’m doing this in front of the water. We’re doing it somewhere where there’s a breeze. That’s my Super Bowl. My Super Bowl’s having enough money coming in from my reperforming assets. It’s coming in from our cashflow we bought and we are taking a major step towards that now. I got approval on 64 bids. These are performing notes for the most part. Got some equity. It’s roughly about a 15% to 17% yield across the board. It’s going to be a pretty good thing. $1.4 million, $1.5 million purchase price. 60 assets already with the servicer. We’re pretty stoked about that. I’m pretty excited, but what I’m more excited about is when we close on that one.
Not only is that going to be good for our investors, but it’s also good for our accounts. I’m going to put a chunk of that in our IRA, some of those assets. The thing you have to realize is what’s your thing? Is it closing on a million-dollar trade or a million-dollar asset? Is it closing your first deal? We all evolve over time and one of the great things I’m honored at is our podcast, The Note Closers Show podcast, and being asked to speak at Podfest in 2019. When I went there in 2018 as a guest and Chris Krimitsos was all excited about it as well and asked me to speak there and now have sponsored for it. I’m stoked about it. There are many things that can be your Super Bowl. That’s my Super Bowl for our marketing thing a little bit and then going on later on to other events.
Super Bowl: When you’re seeing some success, you’re seeing some things going forward.
Victories And Dynasties
The thing you want to look at, whatever your focus is, that’s great. There’s nothing wrong with rooting to having a fan, but who’s rooting for you? Who’s rooting for team Jim, Team Ryan? Who’s rooting for Team Juliana or Laura? Who’s rooting for you? Do you have a cheerleader squad? Are they dressed in scantily clad and that thing? Are they big burly men? You know what I’m trying to get at here. There’s nothing wrong with being a fan of things. Many of you are fans of the WCN Club and things like that. We’re proud of you. What we get jacked up more than anything else is things that show that we’re doing things successfully is when you let us know that you’re closing deals. It’s us finding out, “I closed on two deals this week or I closed on 50 deals in a year or closed on 30 deals.” Whatever that number is, that’s phenomenal. We want to encourage you guys to share that stuff. Please share that. Share that in the private Facebook group we’ve got, the WCN Crew. Shoot me an email. Shoot me a text message.
As you’re winning these victories and you’ve got to realize you look at some of the teams. Look at where the Rams were. In 2018, they made the playoffs, but they hadn’t made it to Super Bowl since 1983 I think it is. They changed cities a few times. You have to look at that. It takes some time. They got a new hot coach Sean McVay. They made the playoffs in 2018. Didn’t win a game, but then they won a game in 2019, although the Saints should have one. Look at the Patriots too. They’ve been in two Super Bowls before Belichick comes in. When you look at the loss to the ’85 Bears and then you look at the loss to the Packers in the Brett Farve Super Bowl when The Big Tuna was coaching them. They were for two, but they’ve since won five out of eight and it’s been doing a lot of the same things. We can all agree Coach Bill Belichick is probably the saltiest Tom Brady and is no longer that wide-eyed kid, that rookie out of Michigan that took over in the middle of the season to lead them to the Super Bowl. We all start off as that bright-eyed, wide-eyed, bushy tail kid like, “What am I doing? This is amazing.” Especially when you’re seeing some success, you’re seeing some things going forward.
Now, he’s the old salty, “I want to play until I’m in my 40s.” I’m like, “I’m 41, and you’re younger than me. What the hell?” That’s great. He’s got his training. He’s got a supermodel for a wife, millions of dollars in endorsements. What’s your Super Bowl? Who’s your supermodel? Who’re your endorsements? Who’s helping you? The answer here is it’s mostly you guys that are responsible for yourself unless you can sell it around yourself with a good team. A good core group of people, of peers that can help you take things to the next level. I’m excited. I’m rooting for the Patriots. I hope they win the six range because I don’t think we’ll ever witness something like this again. It reminds me of a young boy rooting for Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the ‘90s. I’m a huge fan of them.
I want you to know a dynasty doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re out building your own dynasty, whether it’s a software service or it’s a note service or it’s a rental service or to turnkey or you’re buying performing notes. Whatever that service is, you don’t immediately become a Super Bowl champion by just getting into the business. You’ve got to practice. You have to hone your craft. You have to show up and practice. You have to show up on a regular basis. You’ve got to make offers. You’ve got to be in the game and you’re going to make a lot of mistakes, especially at first you’re going to make a lot of mistakes initially. You can’t be scared of making a mistake to go out there. You can’t be afraid to throw an interception and then say, “I’m going to sit down,” and you pull yourself out of the game. You’ve got to keep working for it. You’ve got to keep failing forward.
You’re going to have tough times. We have tough times. We have up days and down days like anybody else. The beautiful thing is there are more up days than down days. I challenge you all to up your game. You have to realize that above and beyond all things, you are responsible for your success. You’re responsible for what you show. You can keep showing up or you can go ahead and say, “This is not for me,” and move on. That’s totally fine. Whatever it is, maybe it’s not Super Bowl. Maybe you’re more of an NBA fan. The note game is not your game. If you find this is too difficult or there are too many options, I want to go back to wholesale. I want to go back to fix and flip. I want to go back to doing a subject, do some wholesaling. What I want you all to do, if I can have you all sit and think something while you’re reading this is what your Super Bowl is.
What’s your big event? What does that look like? Is it being able to retire your spouse? Is it being able to put your kids through schools? Is it being able for you to tell your boss, “This is my two weeks or this is my last day?” That’s a big Super Bowl moment. I look forward to hoping you guys being able to do that. I had a buddy reach out to me who’s been a student for a while and a great friend. He had to take a step back for a while. I was surprised when he told me that. I was like, “You’ve closed on a bunch of deals?” He’s like, “I’ve got to take care of a couple of things. Step back on. Don’t be a stranger. We’re here for you. We’re not going anywhere.” It made me think back for a little bit that sometimes people have to do that. You’re burned down for a little bit, put your dreams down aside to fix some things, solve some things and get back in the game.
I look back over the last several years, since 2008 when everything hit the fan. We get our ups and downs. We had some pretty good Super Bowl moments. I’m pretty excited about some things, but we also more than anything else, I’m more excited about what the future holds. I’m excited about what the next couple of months hold for us. 2019 is going to be an interesting year. You’re going to see a lot of people that are in the business right now probably leaving. When you see a downturn, you’re going to see a lot of people there get snake bit and be like, “Maybe I need to step away back. I don’t want to do this. I’m going to sit here and wait.” Waiting doesn’t solve anything. You can still be making money even in an up or down economy with no business based on what you’re buying and where you’re buying and what your longer-term timeframes. Many people get bogged down in a short-term exit strategy. Sometimes you need to turn your short-term into a longer-term exit strategy. That’s what you have to do. Let it rebound.
Super Bowl: You’ve got to figure out what your goal is, otherwise, you will experience burnout.
You’ve got to go with an exit strategy that’s different than we initially thought. I wish every one of our assets turned into a performing note. I totally wish that was always the case. That doesn’t always happen. It doesn’t happen. What do we do? We pivot. We change our strategy. We work to find something else that we can solve and go from there. Don’t we all sometimes get tired of having to show up? Aren’t there days you want to sleep in bed like, “I don’t want to go back to work now. I won’t get back into it.” That’s one of the most important things you can look at the long-term future. You got to look at your long-term goals. What’s your Super Bowl? What are you working for? Do Tom Brady and Jared Goff and those guys take a week off or day off? They do. They have to take days off for their bodies and minds to recover. They’re taking times off. Those that have been out of the playoffs, my beloved Cowboys have been off for a while. You have to do that sometimes. As you get tired, don’t let that bog you down from continuing to work in and realize there’s an ultimate goal. If you don’t know what your goal is, you’ve got to figure that out first. Otherwise, you will experience burnout. You will get tired and look for something else and not be as focused as you need to be.
Super Bowl Moments Recap
We have a question, “Scott, if you could do a recap of your past Super Bowl moments, what would they be?” My first one was when I graduated from college. I graduated from Southwest Texas State University in August of 2001. That was a big moment because the first couple of years in college I transferred twice from Texas A&M Commerce where I was on the football team and transferred to Angelo State. I took a year off and wanted to figure out what it is and finished up at Southwest Texas State, which is now Texas State. It was a big moment for me graduating. I thought my wedding at the time was a big moment, which is for most. Turning back it wasn’t a Super Bowl moment, which is okay. It was an exciting one. There were 300, 400 people at the wedding. It’s a big wedding, but I’m glad it wasn’t because I’m much happier now with Steph. Graduating from college was a big one.
The second biggest moment for me was overcoming my hurdles, my bad initial deals that I bought. I was married and learning real estate investing in a proper way. That was a big moment of leaving, do some things, sit down my dream for a while and take a job. I took a job for a while. I did my best and got into banking. I was a successful banker for JPMorgan Chase before we jumped in the mortgage side. Going from the mortgage side and back in real estate investing and close some deals and make some things happen and doing well. That was a big moment for me of speaking in front of investors.
The next thing was being honored for the Educator of the Year 2014 after spending a couple of years traveling and speaking and building a name for me. The last few years were big Super Bowl moments. Big Super Bowl moments would be our Mastermind. Having a lot of people come together, I’m always humbled. The Mastermind we had in Cape Coral, Steph and I are sitting there at dinner and roll up at The Lobster Lady and I got friends around me. I see people like Jonathan Berg drive in from Louisiana or flying in after having a tough time. Dan Zitofsky sitting next to me and others that are there, Charles Wilson and Pam Wilson, Laura Blunk. Seeing a lot of successful people like Wayne Snell and Robby Woods and others, that’s always exciting. I’m always humbled when I can sit down with a big group of things like that. Those are our bigger events. When I do pop the question, which will be a big Super Bowl event with me and Steph. We’re excited about that at some point.
The thing I want you to know is that will change. A year from now my Super Bowl moments may be different. They probably will be. I know where I’m working towards. I got a little bit of a piece of that when I was in the Bahamas and doing a couple of webinars from there. That was a piece. It can be done. What we’re doing in marketing can be done and we’re taking some bigger steps. We’ll probably be adding one to two acquisition people for some things that we’re focused on and I love where we’re going. You’ll see things too that happen along the way. You may not know things that you wanted to happen and they don’t. They don’t happen for some weird reason and they weren’t meant to be. I had a thing like that happen. Tom Hazzard my buddy from Podetize. If you’re looking to have a podcast or you have a podcast and you need somebody to help you with production or hosting, check out the guys at Feed Your Brand and Podetize. They do a phenomenal job. I could not do what I do without that.
Tom and I are doing some webinars for podcasting and trying to help with marketing and provide a couple of webinars between him and Tracy and Stephanie, the four of us do that with the idea we were going to launch a podcasting mastermind and do something affordable. $90 a month and we had a good chunk of people that have been on the webinars, excited about it, and it bombed. We canceled it. We had 22 people sign up. That’s disappointing, but you know what that means? It means I get to focus back on the WCN Crew and spend more time with our members and spend more time in little different angles of where we’re going, then the Podcast Peeps Mastermind. It’s a failure on that aspect, but it also breeds opportunity.
A touchdown moment that I forgot about and I totally forgot about this. A touchdown moment was when we wrapped up our first Note CAMP. The touchdown idea was when Steph came up with the idea while we were driving to Dallas after an event bombed for us. One of my biggest failures as a marketer was the failure of putting together the Build Your Legacy Summit that we had in Houston. You don’t know about it because it bombed. I pulled the trigger the week before. I’ve never been more stressed out in my life. I thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to put this event together. Nobody was signing up. We had vendors. We wrote a huge check to the hotel. We wrote a huge check for marketing. We dropped 15,000 postcards. It bombed. We had eight ticket sales. I called every speaker and said, “Don’t bother coming. We’re canceling events. Enjoy your weekend,” and Steph said, “Let me do online.” I’m like, “No.” Then I’m like, “Why can’t we? Let’s give it a try,” and it happened.
Super Bowl: Where you look at is where your focus goes.
The idea of putting together and then having some more staff that used to work for us like, “This is not going to work here. It’s going to fail.” I’m like, “Whatever. We’re going to have to try.” It’s helped revolutionize the business for us in many facets. It’s an amazing thing for us with the Virtual Note CAMP. That’s a big Super Bowl moment because when that worked and then we had our first Virtual Workshop that worked, those were a-ha moments. Those were moments that changed everything we did like that. Sometimes, you may not know the best. If somebody gives you advice that’s close to you and that has your best interest, it’s better to think and listen versus thinking to talk. I have to give a shout out to Steph for that Super Bowl moment because without her saying a thing, I would have probably been more depressed and kept doing what we’re doing. That’s been a revolutionizing event for us in the past couple of years.
Running this podcast is another big Super Bowl moment designed to do that and Tom and Tracy finally convinced me to do it for about a year saying, “I don’t want to do it.” Where it’s going with that and all the people we come in like that. I was running numbers a day. We surpassed 230,000 downloads. We had our third best most ever downloads for the month of January 2019 and I didn’t do hardly any marketing for the podcast. We had normal episodes uploaded. I got somebody uploading them all, an employee that we filled. We still had a phenomenal month of 6,000 downloads. Our YouTube videos are up. People in 78 countries are listening to us. Our videos are in over 90 countries. People are watching the videos. That’s our responsibility from us doing this stuff and I want to first and foremost thank you all of you for listening to that. Listening to us and sharing it and watching us on Facebook. We exceeded 110,000 Facebook Live views for the podcast episodes for episodes 250 and on.
Guys and gals, I started this episode with you guys in mind, thinking about what’s your Super Bowl? What is the thing that means the most to you guys in the near future? What’s the thing that will have the most impact on your life in the next month? Maybe it’s the birth of a child. Maybe it’s getting married. Maybe it’s getting divorced. That can be the case. Maybe it’s changing partners. You need to have a partner or bring in somebody. Whatever it is, make it a priority. Don’t be afraid to share it. Don’t be afraid to put it on the counter, “Here’s what I want to focus on. Here’s what I want to get done.” Whatever you focus on, you’re attracted to. I was in the gym with Thomas. I’m doing a one-legged dumbbell row where I’m standing there. I’m looking in the mirror and he’s like, “Don’t look in the mirror. It’ll hurt your back. Look down on the floor. Look down the butt. Do it right.” I looked down like, “It’s got easier. I’m not going to hurt my back doing this. That’s an important thing.” A message lies with that. Where you look at is where your focus goes. It can either work with you or can work against you.
Make sure whatever the things that you want is your focus. Everything that you want to accomplish is valuable enough. Share it with your spouse. Share it with your partner. Share it with people that mean the most to you. Share it with WCN crew if you’re a member there. I would love to have you but go out. Score and touchdown for yourself this weekend. While you’re sitting there and watching the game, maybe take a minute or two. Pull out a piece of paper. Jot some things down, a couple of things that you want to accomplish and things that you need to get done, things that you need to overcome to get where you need to go. Those are the things that I would recommend you do or whenever you’re reading this. I’m going to wrap up this up here. Go out and take some action. Go out and score a touchdown. Figure out what your Super Bowl is. Put on the calendar wherever it may be, drop-dead date because a goal with a date is an actual goal versus if you never write it down, never share it, never have a date will never accomplish anything you want. Call me if something happens. We’ll see you all at the top.
Important Links
- Multifamily Investors Summit
- Podfest
- WCN Crew – Facebook group
- Feed Your Brand
- Podetize
- Podcast Peeps Mastermind
- Virtual Note CAMP