BiggerPockets

Give away free useful information. Later on sell your products and/or services to the people who open your emails and appreciate what you have given them for free in the past.

I think that its best to give before you expect to receive anyway. But this reciprocity typically is what makes the most gurus successful in the first place.

It sounds like your heart is in the right place. So if you truly are interested in how to do it, without turning people off you should probably learn how people have done that in the past.

That being said, there is no way you will do it without someone whining about you, making fun of you, or saying you are a scammer or something.

ryan i dont know you personally but just the time i have been here on bp i've learned alot by goin to your profile and reading your posts,i mean man if the opportunity is their for you to make the money make it,anyway that you can help me or give me guidance then im more than thankful for it

All that said, the best thing you can do is to teach in a group format, using your real strategies that actaully work in specific markets, and offering this education at affordable rates all the while reducing the amount of time you actually spend doing the teaching, therefore making it worth your time and worth the money to the ones wanting the education.

I agree with Will on this but perhaps you can do a combo of the two payments strategies.

1. Setup a hourly, weekly or classroom fee.
2. State you split the first deal with them minus the fees they've already paid.

That way you get paid if they flake, and if they are successful you still get your 50% split on the first deal.

The newbie is happy because he splits his first deal with you but most of the cost of hiring a mentor is not paid directly out of his pocket.

I agree with Mr. Dorkin about the mentoring.
I would recommend, running an ad in the paper that states that you are looking for property locators. Train them and split the profit.
Or, become a broker and train your realtors to do it for you.
The good thing is that you don't charge them up front for a whole bunch of money and promise them the sky! You help them make money and you split the profits.
I'll send you some detailed info on what I've seen work.

Also, writing a book that actually has the answers instead of a motivational sales pitch to buy more stuff seems like an original concept when it comes to REI. The good thing about a book is that the reader will get out of it what they put into it so that you don't end up wasting your time. You have the possibility of reaching and helping millions of people without actually being there.

When considering these two possibilities it is clear that writing a book (compiling all of your posts....lol) is the most effective way to help people without wasting your time or their money.

Lastly, I'm actually kind of impressed with Charles Parrish's approach to the whole thing. Create a curriculum and start your own university!

The way to stay away from the Guru status is by allowing people to earn money using your program, even if they just use the money to pay for your program. The guru's who say "pay me $2,000 up front and I guarantee you will make 200 times that amount in 10 days" are the same guys who will not let you work it off. If these gurus guarantee that the student will make that money back in a short amount of time then why wouldn't they just let them earn it using their system and then allow the student to pay them from their earnings?

Also, don't sell seminars. If you are a great public speaker and someone wants to hire you to give a lecture or speech, that's one thing, but when you sell tax-deductible cruise ship seminars to Somalia then you become a guru-pirate!

Ryan,

The problem with trying to become an honest "guru" and yet utilizing the guru system of seminars, bootcamps, and mentoring is that you will NOT make money. The ignorant masses want INSTANT RICHES WITHOUT WORK! They don't want to work to build their credit rating or build up some cash. They don't want to work 12 hour days while they're getting their business started.

So, when you, the honest guru, tell the truth which is that "I make a respectable income with my real estate, but I've put in years of my life and hundreds of thousands of dollars into figuring out how to do what I do. I still have to work many parts of my business to keep it growing", which newbie is going to pay big bucks to go to that seminar? Your competition is going to be saying that he got filthy rich working 5 minutes a month with his "system" that requires no cash, no credit, no brains, and absolutely no effort! That same competition is going to say that he has "THE SECRET" to fabulous riches and wealth; and that secret will be revealed if you go to his seminar. If you're going to tell the truth, you'll be saying that there is no secret and that a little common knowledge, hard work, and persistence are the keys to success! Your potential students will be thinking YUK! Why would I go to Ryan's seminar to hear about working hard when I could go to the Guru's seminar and get THE SECRET?

Not gonna happen Ryan!

Mike

Well Mike I have to disagree with some of what you said. The knowledge required to be successful in real estate is not common, which is one of the reasons that many investors are not successful. The other main reason being laziness.

Now I have personally spent a tremendous amount of time and a good chunk of money on learning how to do what I do. From my own personal experience and from watching the countless mistakes of new investors, I have to say that there is some very essential knowledge that needs to be understood to be successful in this business. Is it "secret" knowledge? No. Any investor will inevitably figure it out if they become successful in this business, but the question is how long and how much money will it take to figure it out.

I personally spent about 2 years and lost $30,000 to learn the basics of how to be successful in this business or rather how NOT to be successful in this business. Would it have been more time and cost effective for me to pay an experienced guru $2,000 to teach me the pitfalls before I made them? I think so.

Again looking at the university method of Charles Parrish, I don't see the instant riches claim. The school seems genuinely interested in providing a solid education to its students so that they can become real investors. Its a very fresh perspective on the whole investor education racket.

Ryan, I too like the university type "course" setting. But would think that an investor who has the kowledge and time already invested in investing would know the different types of people who will be successful from the "lazy/easily quit people" from just a few questions or their conversations.

This would lead me into the first investing 101 course which would be designed in such a way that their interaction is required (test maybe) and by their results you would know if they are going to be a waste of your time and theirs. This course could be free and followed up by the paid courses available only to those that pass the test of your knowledge.

How does "Professor Ryan" sound?

I have to agree with Mike. About two years ago, I tried selling a true mentoring program teaching people the simple act of buying cheap houses and renting them out.

First I had a hell of a time convincing people that real estate investing really isn't that f---ing complicated (That was my tagline for a while, "Becoming a landlord is not that f---ing complicated!"). They wouldn't pay unless they thought they were buying some new "secret" or learning some secret of creative financing. My "secret" was buy it cheap enough and you don't need financing. I also recommended against (and still do) leaving a good paying job to be a bird dog or wholesaler. 95% of people who heard me didn't believe me.

Beyond this, my former circle of real estate friends were get rich quick junkies and halfass gurus. When they found out I went off the plantation and started teaching people the truth about real estate, I was immediately targeted for ridicule and assault. I was even targeted by one here on BP who I used to pay to "learn" from. Luckily I was a teacher before and knew the impact I would feel of truly helping a few - like Kim, a young girl with learning disabilities who I taught to read. That memory was worth the disrespect of all the teenagers I endured. Get ready for that. Get ready for teenager level disrespect from those who profit from shoveling more bullsh-- down seminar junkies' throats. Also get ready to look at a very small group of people who's lives you've truly impacted and have truly helped and learn to value that above pure profit. Don't plan on it but I've found that monetarily, chances are something will occur within that small group that will help you in some way though. Someone will get a windfall at some point when you need private funds or something like that.

Personally I don't do any "guru" stuff anymore since the insurance business picked up. I did hang out with another forum member last weekend who knew my market and kind of showed him around my market and pointed him in the right direction. I usually don't do that, but he was already looking in my market and had the right attitude so I figured I'd show him a couple things to help him get a better start.

Tim

The Dark Side is tempting me, so bear with me Mike :cool:

Ok, my initial goal is to teach on wholesaling, which forgive me if I already sound too guruish, but you do NOT need much money or credit to get paid. Now hard work, ABSOLUTELY, brains, somewhat, but I can supply most of the needed brain power to someone who is willing to work at it.

Now to be successful in this business with most other investment strategies you will need the money and the credit or at least it greatly helps to have the money and the credit, but wholesaling is unique in that regard that IF you are willing to put in the time and learn the strategies of it, you can do it with no credit and little money.

Which in and of itself is an honest Guru's dream sales pitch.

I do agree that most of the info you need to be successful you can get right here on Bigger Pockets, and a good part of it for Wholesaling I've personally supplied. :D

But I'm still coming across a large quantity of people that are wanting some type of formal "how to" guide or who are looking for direct one on one mentoring.

So seeing this demand and not tapping into it as an entrepreneur (legally, morally, and ethically) frustrates me. I refuse to be a sell out, I refuse to not be honest, and I refuse to sell a product or teach in a way that won't genuinely help people, but even with those constraints there still seems to be an incredible opportunity.

But of course maybe its just the dark side tempting me.

Ryan, the mentoring business is in need of a genuine investor who's first priority is the success of the students.

Here are my suggestions:
1. Offer 1 program-simplify the process
2. Do not upsell into the latest and greatest "gold package" nonsense
3. Please do not go on the guru bandwagon, and become an affiliate of the latest launch of get rich quick materials. You know the emails.....they all startsomething like "Who the heck is this guy"?
4.Be as real as you are here on BP

I read most all your posts, and learned a tremendous amount of information. I will buy your stuff, or subscribe to it, and when people see your genuiness, they will too.