The Art of Passive Income

Are you a real estate investor who is coming up short on funds needed to close the deal on that great opportunity knocking at your door?Our guest today, Bruce Mack, is a professional real estate investor who has done over 102 million in transactions and has been a licensed financial advisor for over two decades.Bruce discovered that there is a big hole in the funding boat when he saw real estate people coming up short on their funding and were losing out on deals. So he founded Platinum Financing Group to plug that hole.Platinum Financing offers a variety of unique finance solutions and he’s going to talk about some of those solutions today.Bruce, who says there are few asset classes they won’t work with, starts us off by going over two critical pain points—getting funded when you’re first starting out and then protecting your funds.Listen in as we go over:The various programs offeredWhy corporate credit is not a workable solution for real estate investorsHow not to be classified as a dealerThen, find out what Bruce uncovered on his search for the holy grail of trusts as he does a deep dive into trusts and the program, Asset Protection Tax Mitigation Trust.“Specifically with asset protection, it’s bulletproof in as much no lien or judgment could ever be executed against an individual or against the trust.”Are LLCs a viable source of protection?The answer and so much more on today’s valuable and informative episode of The Art of Passive Income!TIP OF THE WEEKMark: My tip of the week is to go to PlatinumFinancingGroup.com.Bruce: Check out the book, The One-Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. It’s an hour read to learn how to be a good one-minute manager.Also, if you are interested in learning about the financing component, go to PlatinumFinancingGroup.com. There is an active calendar and you can block out 15-minutes to discuss what you want on initial consult.And, for those who are looking for complementary trust consultation go to PlatinumTrustGroup.com.Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?.

Scaling your business is a vital part of the process to create passive income through the niche of raw land investing. And in order to scale, you will need to create a bulletproof system that will allow you the freedom to work on the business, not in the business.So, how do you create a bulletproof system with your VA team?Joining Mark to answer that question are:Erik PetersonScott BossmanMimi SchmidtMike ZainoTate LitchfieldScott ToddListen in as Team Geek goes over their own processes and how they put together a good team of VA’s and built their bulletproof systems. They offer sage advice, share tech tools along with:Running a litmus test before it goes to the VACreating systems that can hold up if a VA quitsRecognizing a good VA and more!To sum up it up…Know how to do the processes yourself before passing them off to someone else. Then map them out, hire well, cross train, and keep an open line of communication! Make sure your VAs see the big picture and what their role is in it. It also helps to break up the work into smaller micro-tasks.Then, Mike gets his spirit animal! Find out what it is and why it’s a perfect fit for him!Plus, the team takes a vote on reclining your seat on a plane, is it your right or just plain rude? It’s almost a unanimous verdict!TIP OF THE WEEKMimi: If you’re just getting started with Zapier, you can learn some good tips from the Facebook groups, Zapier User Community and Zapier Automation Community. There’s also Mentorship Program where you can either be the mentor or the mentee.Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

With maintenance costs eating up his rental profits, our guest started looking for new ways to generate enough side income to cover the monthly mortgage on his apartment buildings... and he found them!Al Williamson—LeadingLandlord.com, is a former civil engineer and the author of Building Wealth With Inner City Rentals: Success the Catalytic Landlord Way. And today, he joins us to talk about the ancillary cash flow opportunities in property rentals.Al spent years doing the research, packaged all his ideas up and put them into a book called 40 Ways To Increase The Net Income of Your Rental Property.On today’s show, Al explains how the short/long term rental business works and shows us some creative ways to earn extra money on your rentals every month.With years of testing, Al has concluded that furnished rentals set the stage for all these other income streams, earning about 30% above market. Listen in as Al delves into the details of this strategy and how it compares with corporate extended-stays. Plus, we dive into:Other ways to bring in extra moneyRental arbitrage & the risksWorst advice Al has seen givenAirbnbs and more!Also, find out the details behind the incentives he offers to his long-term tenants… it’s a win win situation for all.Al proves that he is not your traditional landlord, he has taken an old strategy and put a unique spin on it by constructing the perfect formula of cash flow options, which covers the mortgage on his units without using the rent!Al has generously offered to give one of the Art of Passive Income listeners his book,  40 Ways to Increase the Net Income of your Rental Property. Check out The Motivation & Wealth Creation Group for details!TIP OF THE WEEKMark: Learn more about Al Williamson and his incredibly creative ways to increase the net income of any rental property by visiting LeadingLandlord.com.Scott: Check out Elephant.Rocks for text reminders. What’s cool about it is that you can text elephant and use real normal language like, “Hey, remind me to call mom tomorrow at 10:00 AM”, and then it will schedule it and remind you at 10:00 AM to call your mom.Al: My tip of the week is to practice preventative maintenance, use Green Gobbler for your drains before clogs appear. It’s a biologically friendly product that is proven to prevent clogs and prevents any unnecessary plumbing bills.Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

We have a fun and interesting topic for you on this week’s Round Table discussion. The team is going to give an evaluation of each others superpowers that they think propelled them to success.Joining Mark for this fun exercise are:Scott BossmanMimi ScmidtErik PetersonMike ZainoScott ToddBut first, the team shares their favorite Bootcamp moments...Scott Bossman—Meeting the people he’s been talking to on the phoneErik—Seeing everyone in person and the St. Anthony hotelMimi—Meeting everyoneMike—Seeing the successScott Todd—Meeting flight students face to face and hearing their successMark—Seeing the success around the room and how many lives he’s he impacted. Mark also gets complete gratification when all questions have been answered!What rituals or superpowers do we think helped propel our colleagues into success?Scott Todd on Mimi—She slowly and methodically built her business. Went to every Bootcamp and used the opportunity during the open sessions to work on her business to get out of working in her business.Mimi on Erik—Erik developed a niche within technology to create processes.Erik on Mark—Mark saw the opportunity in land and ran with it. Eventually he decided to share it with the rest of the world, taking it from opportunity to community!Mike on Scott Bossman—The master of getting things done. He believed in the model and carved the time to make it happen.Mark on Scott Todd—There are two components that are Scott Todd’s superpowers:infrastructure building—He is very good at building a good laser focused team to avoid bottlenecksHe is the master of execution—He doesn’t put off what needs to be done and gets it done quickly and efficientlyScott Bossman on Mike—He is the king of rituals. The first year his goal was to erase debt so his repetition was to mail and market. He stayed the course and he got it done!Did everyone agree these were fair and accurate evaluations? Listen in for more details and to find out everyone ‘s thoughts on how they are perceived by their colleagues.Also, Mike gives everyone a spirit animal and why it symbolizes them.Scott Bossman—Buffalo. Endurance to overcome, great emotional courage and provider to all.Mimi—Armadillo. Slow, sure of yourself, in no hurry, keeper of the houseErik—Elk. Teaches that pacing yourself will increase your staminaTate—Butterfly. Outer transformation, and the ability to know and change the mindScott Todd—Eagle. Creator, teacher, loyalty, integrity, and a spiritual connection to the great divineMark—Mtn lion. The power of leadership and ability to lead without insisting others followTIP OF THE WEEKMimi: 2 tips this week. The first is the chrome app—Message Saver for Facebook.The second is a blog post from Hubspot to improve your sales—The Ultimate Guide to Objection Handling: 40 Common Sales Objections & How to Respond.Bonus tip—don’t volunteer to do the tip of the week!Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

Today's guest is going to take one of the biggest pain points in your business, bookkeeping, and solve it.Ben Day, owner of LionShareBookkeeping.com, gives business owners back their time, money and sanity. He specializes in small businesses and real estate investors: from wholesalers, flippers, and rentals.Listen in as Ben talks about all the moving pieces of accounting and why, as a business owner, you need to educate yourself and get financial clarity so you know how to communicate with your accountant.We dive deep into:Why bookkeeping is killing people’s businessesThe biggest mistakes Ben sees people makeBusiness types—LLC, S Corp, C CorpFind out why Ben suggests to do a deal before you choose your business type. Plus, he gives advice on getting set up right from day one.To learn more about bookkeeping in general, Ben recommends reading Rich Dad Poor Dad to get financially literate. Also, check out his website for free resources.Most of us can probably agree, bookkeeping ranks pretty low on the fun-o-meter. But, whether you do it yourself or you outsource it, it’s important that you get educated on this vital piece of your business.TIP OF THE WEEKMark: My tip of the week is to get yourself out of bookkeeping, let the experts handle it, go to LionShareBookkeeping.com. Focus on working on your business, in growing your business, and allow the bookkeepers that are experts on it to make our life better, improve your cash flow, do some tax planning.Scott: We just made a change, we took Posting Domination and Accounting for Land Investors, we put it under the umbrella of InvestorNinjas.com. Go learn how to build your accounting system for your business.Ben: Work communication is always the hardest part of any business, regardless of the business type. Check out the Chrome plugin—Loom.com, a tool that helps you get your message across through instantly shareable video.Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

In this first recorded episode of 2020, the gang's all back together and ready to discuss their newbie expectations when first starting out in the land business and what the reality really was.Joining Mark are:Tate LitchfieldMike ZainoMimi SchmidtErik PetersonScott BossmanScott ToddEverybody comes into this business with some sort of expectations, whether it’s with high hopes of getting rich quick or cautious optimism, I think I’ll dip a toe in and see if I can do this. The question is, what is the actual reality?Team Land Geek is going to share their reality with you today.In short:Mimi—Thought there would be more cash soonerMike—Just wanted to make enough to pay off debt but didn’t expect what really happenedErik—Very optimistic but then the sales didn't comeScott B—Approached with cautionTate—Underestimated the amount of work requiredScott T—Thought they would be knocking down the door with accepted offersAnd Mark, well, he had to come to terms that he couldn’t go through life buying everything .25 cents on the dollar!The reality is—this is not a get rich quick plan! This model is simple, but it’s not easy and it’s not going to happen overnight. You’re setting up a business and that takes time and effort. So take the time you need to set up your systems and a good team of VA’s that will ultimately take tasks off your plate giving you that time freedom you seek. GRIT—Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. It is the ability to persist in something you feel passionate about and persevere when you face obstacles.Mimi, who is the epitome of Grit, reads the definition and the importance of having it in this business. And, Mike comes up with an acrostic for GRIT…GetReadyIt’sTough!Listen in now to find out all the details of the team’s expectations vs. reality and how they overcame the obstacles… you just might find you can relate to one of them!TIP OF THE WEEKMimi: Subscribe to the Hubspot Sales Blog for some great tips!Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

Our guest today is Scott Krone—founder of Coda Management Group. Coda teams up with investors to purchase strategically located, undervalued warehouse space and convert it into climate controlled self-storage facilities. They are a top three operator.Scott began his career in multifamily 25 years ago and when the crash came in '08 he began buying into the commercial realm and started seeing that there were some inefficiencies within the self-storage arena that he could take advantage of.Listen in as Scott gets into the weeds of self-storage and why it makes such a great investment. As Scott describes, “it's apartments without toilets”... a more simplified version that costs about 1/10th of multifamily. There's a lot less risk making it the safest asset class in real estate with the lowest default rates of all asset classes.We delve deep into:The costs that go into buying a buildingLocation, Location, LocationMitigating the risksA typical hold periodCreating valueThe definition of pace financing and opportunity zoneInvestor’s ROIThe perfect time to sell is when you don’t have to sell - Scott KronePlus, find out the biggest mistake Scott sees people make in the self-storage arena and so much more on today’s Episode of The Art of Passive Income!TIP OF THE WEEKMark: Learn more about Scott and his company at CodaMG.com.Scott: Google the 12 Steps to Intimacy in Attracting and Keeping Customers. If you think about this through the same concept as going through and building a relationship with your customer, you can apply the same 12 steps to marketing and to your customer.Scott Krone: Check out the book, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron. This book has helped us the most in the past few years. The concept is—that we all have— the nine personality types; the idea of this is the more healthy you are, the less this personality types get highlighted; the less healthy you are, they become more magnified and ugly in essence.Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

In this week’s Round Table, the team rings in the new year by taking a look back at a few of their favorite things in 2019.Joining Mark are:Scott BossmanTate LitchfieldScott ToddWithout giving away too much, listen in as the guys talk about their:Favorite land dealsFavorite booksFavorite showsFavorite habitsFavorite purchases—$100 or lessWhen it comes to favorite deals, find out who said:“The moral of the story is if you remain consistent, these little gold nuggets show up in this business.”“I was able to buy 700 properties from one person. That might sound crazy to those listening to the podcast for the first time, but I basically bought a whole subdivision. I was one of the largest property owners in the county overnight.”“My favorite deals were the ones that I didn’t do.”And, find out whose sales team talked them into purchasing a property for a considerable amount more (8k) than usual (3k)...with the promise it would sell for 25K.Did it end up selling for that much? Find out now along with all the usual antics & banter as the battle of the razors rages on in this week’s episode of The Land Geek Round Table!Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

Today’s guest has a really intriguing niche, in fact, it leaves both Mark & Scott with that shiny object twinkle in their eyes.Brad Smotherman joins the guys to talk about his unique niche within the niche of house flipping. Brad is a professional house flipper but the way that he sells houses is very unique and as Mark says, very cool.What makes Brad’s strategy so unique from the typical house flipper?After doing some fix and flips, Brad soon realized that there was no money there and that the real money was in the financing, so he became the bank. Brad's strategy is to get the property under contract, buy it with equity and sell it on owner financing, creating a wrap note.Listen in as Brad walks us through an average deal, along with:The passive income on an average noteFinding the houses and the buyersThe types of properties he buysWorking in multiple statesForeclosures Another perk to Brad’s strategy, there are no repairs to deal with!What about the Dodd Frank act?Dodd Frank is a banking regulatory act, part of which  clamps down on owner financing, but Brad says it’s not a concern in his strategy and explains why.He also give us the details of a buyer’s pool that is vast with very few players in it... and so much more in today's episode of The Art of Passive Income!TIP OF THE WEEKMark: Learn more about Brad at BradSmotherman.com also check out Brad’s podcast, Investor Creator Podcast With Brad.Scott: Check out ColorZilla.com—a chrome extension that allows you to get the colors from any website.Brad: Read the book, 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson.Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. -Lucius Annaeus SenecaThere is always some level of fear when it comes to scaling your land business—whether it’s spending the money, losing control, or putting your trust into the integrity of others, the fear of the unknown can be debilitating.So how do you get over those fears in order to grow?Joining Mark this week are:Scott BossmanMimi SchmidtTate LitchfieldScott ToddListen in as the team talks about their biggest fears in the beginning, which in short include:Mimi had a fear of making mistakes that resulted in losing money and how it would reflect on her family. She was able to move forward by taking little steps and working through it. But it’s something she still struggles with today."I feel a lot of anxiety but I take the steps and work through it, then realize, it wasn’t a big deal afterwards." -MimiScott Bossman had a fear of outsourcing because he felt the quality of work would suffer. And like Mimi, he finds that moving forward is the only way to get over that fear and explains it will get easier the more you do it.“One of the reasons we do this business is for money but a major reason is for time. So you need to approach your business in that regard. You need to hire people that are going to save you time and scale your time, and it all starts with that first one. So if you're on the fence you need to just do it. Take the most mundane tasks, the thing that's mundane but painful and costing you a lot of time. Then create one training video and get a couple of people on it and your life is going to become that much easier and then you just continue down the chain.”Tate brings up a fear he sees often and that is the fear of success and not being able to keep up with productive VA’s.“You don’t have to be an expert at anything except hiring expert VA’s.” -TateScott Todd’s fear, of all things numbers, almost sent him running in the beginning. He reverse engineered his passive income goal and the results left him feeling sick. But once he started taking other factors into consideration he realized it can become self-funding if you start asking different questions.“You can't financial model this business the way that you think you can and ultimately that was my biggest struggle, getting my brain around the fact that I don't need a ton of money to do this business.” -Scott ToddThen, Mark talks about how he fought scaling, tooth and nail, until an upsetting conversation he had with a mentor. It was the pivotal moment that ultimately helped him overcome his superhero syndrome.Find out what Mark’s mentor said to him, the questions that turned the tables for Scott, and the full details of the teams fears and how they deal with them, then & now, on today’s episode of The Land Geek Round Table!“The temporary pain of going through the process of hiring somebody, training them and getting them going is temporary, but the time that you save now is permanent. Then the passive income that you continue to grow is permanent. But you do have to go through that initial piece of being uncomfortable, being anxious, exerting some energy and some forethought into doing this, but it’s a one time process and boy does that scale.” -MarkTIP OF THE WEEKMimi: Check out TitleSearchCourse.com. It’s a great and inexpensive way to train your VA’s on title searches.Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?