The day that turned my life around... and tripled my income

I’ll never forget that day. Our friends Tony and Katie had just lost their young son to a 2 year battle with cancer. Born the same week as our son, we felt a tremendous amount of empathy, and a little bit of helplessness. We knew they would turn to Lory’s Place, a non-profit center in our small town that counsels those who have lost a loved one. Up until that day, I believe I had my priorities completely out of alignment with my ultimate purpose. At the top of the list, was money. Making it, keeping it, growing it – never giving anyone the bad end of a deal, but certainly not giving it away. I felt something needed to change, no, I needed to change. My favorite personal development quote from Jim Rohn kept repeating in my head: “For things to change, you must change. For things to get better, you need to get better”. So, I walked into Lory’s Place and asked for a tour, to get to know exactly what they did, and to discover if it was where I should start my charitable giving plan. Sure enough, by the end of my chat with the Director, I gave her a check, hands slightly trembling, for $3400. I walked out the door, got in my car, and felt the most peace in a lifetime, and a clear sense of purpose that I was designed to make an incredible impact on others.

That was 4 years ago, and since that day our income has tripled. Not by working any harder – if anything, I’m working a couple less hours per day and playing with my 2 boys in that time – but simply by giving each month, and putting that mysterious force of good karma on our side. I’ve steadily been attracting great people and opportunities to me, certainly not with ease but much easier than before. 18 months ago when I began my real estate investment career, having just lost $50,000 almost overnight in the stock market, I knew that was simply a push and the proper sendoff I needed to exit that up and down house of cards and learn how to do real estate the right way. I dove into the BP podcasts, devouring them each morning for an hour while at the gym. My first couple of deals didn’t go that great, but I kept after it and knew mistakes would happen in the learning.

Almost exactly a year ago, I received a direct mail letter with a simple yet authentic offer to purchase high yield properties. In my 38 years, I don’t believe I’ve ever responded to a direct mail piece, yet something about that letter pulled me to investigate. I found myself the next week in Indianapolis, scouting out properties, meeting the team, and making a purchase. My real estate career started with no other intention then finding solid cash flow producing properties, at a fair price, with great management to keep me passive. A few months later, having an incredible experience, and a newfound passion for real estate, I had already sent at least 6 friends and colleagues to buy, and around $2 million in business to my source. It wasn’t long before I realized I could seriously scale and market the properties, give other investors great returns and serve them well, and increase my personal income, with the ultimate goal to fund our CASA program to reach and mentor disadvantaged children in Jackson, Michigan, home of one of the worst high school grad rates in the country.

It's been surprising how fast this business has grown, especially never intending to do it in the first place. I have another successful business, and enjoy it. But then again, it’s not surprising, because I have no proof, but I believe karma to be on my side. Although, I have all the personal proof I need. And with a fantastic tool like Bigger Pockets, where I can network and help other investors, it makes it that much more streamlined. Thanks to BP, this past month I closed over $700,000 in business, with another $300,000 in signed PA’s. A simple yet profound lesson that so many overlook in all the chatter, forums, blogs about price to rent ratios, markets, A, B, or C class, go for capital gains or cash flow, etc. etc. etc. – is to simply give. Give it a shot, message me what crazy things happen to you in a few months. I won’t be surprised to hear it’s been mind boggling.