Shaping Your Investor Mindset With Student Guests

Money is the first thing, but time is the greatest asset. In this episode, Jeff Rutkowski and JD Esajian discuss using your time wisely in real estate investments. Discipline is crucial in using time and money to your advantage. For instance, if you let lesser things occupy your time, they will directly affect your finances and the growth of your business. Therefore, you need to create time for essential matters. Jeff and JD also interview student guests to give you additional nuggets of wisdom. If you want more tips on succeeding in real estate, you wouldn’t want to miss this episode. Enjoy!

—

Listen to the podcast here:

Time Is Your Greatest Asset: Learn How To Use It Wisely | Ep16 With Student Guests

What’s up?

I’m good. Good to see you as always. I’m great to be here. I’m pumped, as they say.

I am pumped as well. Let’s get into the word of the week. I have an exciting topic and a surprise. You’re going to love this one. Let’s kick it off as we always do with the word of the week. The word of the week is the investor mindset. One thing that you probably realized if you’ve been following this show is investors think differently than the average person. When you talk about mindset, mindset is a word that’s thrown around in all different ways in culture. There are some certain ways investors need to think.

I think of it as setting a thermostat. If you set it to 72 degrees, that creates the optimal environment for that temperature and for you to live or whatever you want to do. There is an optimal atmosphere and way of thinking that will give you a greater likelihood of success as an investor. Contrary to that, there is an adverse mindset that will hinder you from building this business. JD, that’s what we’re going to get in this episode.

 

It’s a perfect topic because it is directly related to someone’s success.

We’ve been getting into some heavy and technical stuff. How to get more of your offers accepted? How to sell your properties quicker? The Xs, Os and strategies. I would put the investor mindset in a category of intangibles.

They relate to everything we have been teaching about and will continue to talk about. If you’re not focusing on that, other areas are not improving at the rate you want them to.

One thing you taught me is there is no business development without personal development alongside it. A book that you and I greatly benefited from years ago was the book called Mindset. Carol Dweck was the author. That’s something I recommend if you’re thinking about getting started in the business. Pick up that book. She doesn’t do a good job in terms of saying what to do but she helps you identify.

She breaks mindset into two big categories, fixed and growth. I remember picking up that book and thinking, “I’m mostly a growth mindset of a person.” How do you interpret failure? Your competitive and non-competitive nature. Outside of that, we know how you view debt, using your own money and time. What I’ve learned from observing you and other high-level investors over the years is you think differently. My biggest growth over the years has been not from doing one particular deal or buying this particular property but it’s been a breakthrough and how I think.

You can apply that to anything you want to do and be successful if you’re focusing on the right mindset.

I purposely didn’t want to do any prep for this show. I wanted to be spontaneous, raw and off the cuff. Let’s break it down to when you think the investor mindset for you, what specific items come to mind?

The first thing that comes to mind for an investor mindset is focusing on time at a high level. What you value your time will directly relate to what you end up making on a deal or an income annually or quarterly. If you let other things occupy your time that isn’t the best use of that time then that’s going to directly affect your finances and the growth of your business. I do this well sometimes. To be frank some days I don’t do it. I load up my calendar with stuff thinking like, “I didn’t need to do half of that stuff.” Focusing on your time and understanding that time is the most valuable resource that we have. If you waste it, you don’t get it back.

We have a saying here, “Time is money.” Money is the first thing that the audience will think of but time is everything. It is the greatest asset. Once you spend it, it’s gone. That time is not coming back. What you described, we’ve all been there. We fill our calendar with stuff that wastes a ton of time and has us running into circles at times. We’re all guilty of it. What are some practical tips you use to use time properly?

The word time-blocking gets thrown around a lot. It’s hard to do but it’s important in this conversation of managing time correctly. What I’ve done and what I’ve seen other very successful people do is when you commit to doing something, you have to understand what value you’re getting out of that activity. Not just saying yes because someone else is asking. You want to be comfortable saying no to things in terms of doing a better job of managing your time. I’m not saying that we don’t commit to anything that doesn’t bring revenue in directly because there are things that we do beyond that.

It’s looking at your calendar or the time that you have, being very conscious and strict in what you do and what you don’t do. Time-blocking is part of that. It’s also important as a business owner and an entrepreneur, which go hand-in-hand, to create time to work in your business because that’s going to happen. If it’s not daily then it’s weekly to work on your business.

Improving your business, developing systems and networking, whatever you need to do to work on your business. Whether it’s a real estate investor or any other activity, if you’re always doing the day-to-day, managing people or whatever it may be and you’re not working on your business to improve it then you’re waiting for the organic improvement, which may or may not happen.

If you let lesser things occupy your time, they will directly affect your finances and the growth of your business.

Hope is not a good strategy. One of our team members here, Noah, shared his calendar. I remember seeing it. From 6:00 AM until 9:00 AM, he had everything budgeted from playing with his kids to reading a book and exercising.

It’s color-coded. I remember seeing that same thing. Maybe it was the same day when he showed it. I thought that was effective in time-blocking. You made me look like a rookie when it comes to that activity. You learn from other people.

What would you say to the person who may be reading this or that you ran cross and say, “I want to get into real estate. I don’t have the time?”

I would say, “I agree that you said that. That mindset and thinking will always prevent you from doing whatever you want to do.” Whether you have 1 hour a day, 25 hours a week or full-time, you have the time. You need to maybe create more time over time but you have the time and that mindset will hold you back. It’s something of that nature. That thought process and making that statement is not indicative of you not having the time to invest in real estate. It’s more indicative of the way you look at a lot of things would be my guess. I’ve been there too.

Before we started studying real estate, successful people, getting into real estate and focusing on this, I would tell myself that too. “I don’t have time to read that book. I don’t have time to go to that class.” I told myself that I didn’t create the time where now I do the opposite and I create time like you do for things that are important. That statement of not having time changes too. I’ll make time for that if it’s important.

I find ultimately in life, we do what we want. We make time for what we want to do. I would ask the person, “How bad do you want this?” I always remember Than shared early on when you guys were starting CT Homes, I believe IKEA. He lived without a TV for two years because that would suck him in and waste time.

He wanted to maximize that. We love to play and watch sports but not having that TV there created hours and hours of time. There were other things that we did, although we didn’t have a lot of money then. With the money that we did have, we would pay people to help with things that weren’t the highest and best use of our time like going shopping. It sounds crazy. When we were younger, we weren’t established and didn’t have a lot of money but we would carve out money to have someone go shopping so that we could spend more time analyzing deals, studying or networking, those kinds of things. You’re right. You create time for the things that you want.

In addition to time management, time-blocking, whatever you want to call it, an important attribute of an investor mindset is how you view and interpret failure. You could view it one way that could limit you or another way. How do you look at failure in the journey of an entrepreneur?

 

I wasn’t always this way but I understand that anything we do whether it’s new or established, we’re going to have failures. We’re going to have things that don’t go right. We embrace it. Not to say that we’d like it, although in some instances we do like it because it shows us what we need to improve on and gives us an opportunity to get better. We embrace it and understand that it’s part of an activity. When it comes, we understand what created it, learn from it, improve it and hopefully that failure or hiccup never happens again.

A lot of our business in the early years have been built off of that like, “That didn’t work. How do we make it work? How do we adjust the template, the contract or a scope of work?” It’s embracing it. It’s so different than the way I used to look at failure growing up and think about it whether it was in a sports activity. It never feels good. That’s never what you say, “I’m going to go in. I can’t wait to fail.” If you look at it and understand that it’s opportunity knocking, you have a different outlook against it. You understand that you’re never going to run from it so you might embrace it.

We have a saying around here, “Either win or you learn.” One of my big takeaways going back to Carol Dweck’s book was how she described failure. She said, “A fixed mindset person when they fail, they interpret it as, ‘I’m a failure,’ where the growth mindset person said, ‘I learned one way. That doesn’t work. I’ll not use that one again.’” That’s important.

It’s a big distinction. What you described and how subtle that difference is, that is a secret to success right there.

It’s better to get it going than to get it right.

There was a story that I heard years ago. It was a scientific study where they had two groups of children. I forget the ages but maybe 2 to 6 years old. One group of 5, another group of 5, a same puzzle to put together. One, they would watch the kids and when they tried a piece that didn’t fit, they would encourage them, “Good try. Try another one.” That type of thing.

The other group didn’t get it perfect. They got harsher feedback. It was talking about parenting, how you raised your kids, not letting them explore and make mistakes. I was raised as, “You got B plus. Why wasn’t it A?” It’s perfectionism. A lot of people are raised in that mindset. If I don’t get it right, I failed. Any experience with that? Any thoughts on that?

It’s interesting being a father. We’re both parents. As you’re telling that story, immediately, I’m going to, “Am I doing the former or the latter? What am I telling my son?” It’s so well-documented in that study. It’s an easy adjustment to make. I’m thinking about going home, doing a puzzle with my son and making sure I encourage him. Encouraging them to try again is a different message than being more upset when they don’t get it “right”.

What comes to mind is sometimes we have a choice but how we got there in terms of how we look at failure was taught to us. It’s hard to unlearn something that has been part of your mindset or your parents showed you or ingrained in you. It’s a differentiator between having the success you want and or not.

I remember reading a study that Tony Robbins had done years ago. It was a survey of 500 of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. It was asking them what the number one reason for their success is. You would think a lot of things like time management, failure and things like that but the number one thing that is a mindset was the speed of implementation. What does that mean to you? How do you apply that to your business?

You know as well as I do that there are not many people better at that than Than Merrill. I always learn things from him when it comes to that. It’s better to get it going than to get it right. I can’t stand here and say that I just came up with that. I’m sure I heard that from someone but that speed of implementation is so true. If you wait for something to be 100% perfect to implement, you wait a long time. It’s better to get it going, learn from mistakes, make those adjustments and then improve. That speed of implementation is what creates wealth and happiness. If you look at the time period of some businesses that got established like Amazon, PayPal and these different iconic companies go on and on, they implemented faster.

One of them is Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin companies and all of that. I remember reading an article on him that impacted me. The title of the article was Screw It, Let’s Do It. His mindset is when you’re presented with an opportunity, you’re looking to build a business or whatever it is in life, a deal comes across your desk, learn about 50% to 60% of the subject matter you need to know. Surround yourself with people that know the rest and take action. If you wait to know 100%, you never will. You’re going to be sitting there the rest of your life staring at this thing. He even said if you wait to no more than 60% then somebody else is going to beat you to that opportunity and they get the money you should have made.

That’s well said on his part. He knows that better than most because he’s established some of the best companies in the world, going to space, of all places.

I want to throw one more at you. The audience is always asking, “What are you doing on a regular basis aside from a call debate and growing your mindset?” Before I ask you that though, let’s talk about how an investor views debt. We’ve been taught most of us in this culture since we were little to stay out of debt. Debt is bad and evil. What do you think about that?

I don’t agree with the statement that debt is evil and stay out of it. Debt as an entrepreneur is an accelerator. If you look at it properly and acquire the right debt like purchasing a yacht, going into major debt on something like that is different than borrowing capital on sub-three in the environment, 4% or 5% and using it to buy an asset that’s worth multiple millions of dollars or much more than the money that you’re borrowing. Any successful entrepreneur whether in real estate or otherwise that we can think of has used debt to help them get to the wealth that they’ve acquired. Proper debt is required to be successful in most industries, especially real estate.

One of our mutual mentors compares debt to fire. Is it good or bad? It is both. It depends on how you use it. I don’t know what you do in the rehab bootcamp but I give my students a little quiz. I’ll give you the same way quiz here. It’s important that we understand what an asset is. To me, an asset is anything that puts money in your pocket. I want to go into debt for anything that puts money in my pocket. JD, asset or bad debt, rims for your new Mercedes-Benz on your credit card?

 

I would say bad debt. My father was in the wheel and tire industry. I also know that rims can increase the value of your vehicle.

Rental property that makes you $500 a month cashflow?

It’s good debt.

A 72-inch big screen TV on your credit card?

It’s bad debt.

We’re always curious to hear the answer to this one. Asset or liability, spouse?

It’s always an asset.

Especially in real estate in the United States of America, it’s the number one advantage that we have as investors. I remember somebody teaching me years ago saying, “You can never save your way to wealth. You borrow your way to wealth.” It’s a different way of thinking. I want to get into what you do on a regular routine basis to share with the audience. Before we do that, I want to remind everybody that if you’re interested and you feel that, “I want to commit. I want to start learning how to become a real estate investor and how to think like it?” Not just think like it. “What are the systems tools and resources that I need to make this a reality?” We have an invitation for you to free one-day training by one of our top trainers that is going to teach you where to get started and how to get started. It’s FortuneBuildersShow.com. I have a surprise for you, JD. I know how much you love surprises.

I love surprises. It’s not my birthday. What do you got?

I have live from Albany, New York, Bela and Laurie Schuch. What’s up?

How are you guys doing?

We’re fine.

You’re hanging out in San Diego. I’ll say sunny San Diego but it is sunny where you two are. I’m assuming in New York.

We’re in Albany, 72 degrees. It’s a beautiful day here.

That’s hotter than it is here. It’s great to see you both. How is everything? Is everything good out there?

We’re doing good. Everything is doing great. Plugging along, staying busy, doing what we want to do and making our own hours. It’s been great.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Learn the basics first and ask a lot of questions.

The music picked back up and everything. I know that you’re avid music and drummer. How is that going?

It’s going well. I’ve been doing it for many years. It’s one of those things you never know how to quit.

Who is the greatest European drummer of all time?

One of them had died, Neil Peart. That was a shock when he passed away. He was the first one that comes to mind.

I would say Neil Peart or John Bonham. Those are my two favorites after you.

One of these days we’ll come out and play at FortuneBuilders’ event. How is that?

I play a mean tambourine. If you need me on the rhythm section, I can play tambourine like no one’s business.

You’re hired.

That’d be better than me.

We are honored to have you on show, not just to surprise JD but also to inspire our audience. We’ve been at this show for months. The growth and number of people reading have been above and beyond what we’ve been even hoped for and expecting. You guys started in 2013, if I’m not mistaken. What was your background prior to real estate? What lead you into starting a real estate investment company?

I was in the automotive business. I ran an auto body shop for almost 29 years. Before that, I worked for a car dealer for eight years. It was good money but it was working how many hours a day. I’d leave in the morning and wouldn’t come home until all hours at night. It got to the point where I just had no life. I did have a couple of rentals back then that I didn’t know what I was doing with them. I had to also manage that and fixed everything myself. I never hired anybody. I’m trying to save money. You’ve heard that story before.

Laurie, what were you doing before real estate?

I did a few things. I was stay-at-home-mom for a while. I was a paralegal at a law firm and I quit that job. I was working for the state of New York for a while. Years ago, I quit my job, stayed home, helped Bela with the business and take care of my mom who’s in a nursing home. We have six grandkids that I get to spend a lot more time with.

We have so much going on. I don’t even know how we could handle an 8:00 to 5:00 job. It would be impossible.

It’s awesome to hear that real estate lead you to retire, focus all your time on real estate and spend more time with your family and six grandkids. You two must have started having your own kids when you were twelve. You guys look still young. I don’t know how you have six grandkids. How long have we known each other? When did you end up hearing about us at FortuneBuilders? How did that introduction happen?

It was 2013 and I was driving home from work. I heard Dan, which I thought was Dan, on the radio advertising the two-hour class. I thought, “Bela needs to get out of his business. He needs to start doing something else. The car business was taking too much of his time. This would be a perfect opportunity to go see what’s out there.” We went to that 2-hour class and we signed up for the 3-day. We kept going.

I missed half of it. I got sick during that three-day and they spent half of it in the hotel.

You guys made a good decision to be there. I’m glad you move forward with more education. As I’ve seen your business grow, change and evolve, I’m sure there are lots of cool stories that you have. What’s business look like? Are we focusing on rentals and rehabs? What are you guys diving into?

The passive income is looking better and better to me because we’re getting older. I’m not the kind of guy who can sit behind my desk all day long. I like going out to job sites and visiting. Don’t get me wrong. I’m one of those guys that being an entrepreneur is number one. Sometimes I’ll be a manager. I’ll stop by and bring the guys coffee or donuts. I like to have a good rapport and relationship with my contractors. I love the job site. It’s been going well. The competition has been fierce out here. We put a lot of offers. You know how the process goes with the deal analyzer. We make our offers. If somebody else wants to pay too much for it, I let them have it.

 

Our numbers are the numbers. We got to be disciplined when we buy. It’s good for you.

We’ve been through a lot with our rentals. We have an eight-unit Victorian that we bought years ago in one of the hottest rental markets in Albany. We ended up Airbnb-ing all the units and we’ve been killing it with it. It brings in a higher percentage of the rent, anything in that whole area because of the way we run it.

How many doors do you own for rentals?

We have seven including that one here in Albany. We have two vacation rentals in Florida that are 2 miles from Disney. We rehab those down there and they’re doing well. We bought one in. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Windsor Hills right by Disney. We bought that years ago for $239,000. They’re selling them for $350,000. We probably put maybe $10,000 into it. It’s amazing down there. The market’s going crazy.

You guys are currently owning and operating B&L Quality Homes Incorporated and B&L Property Group LLC. You got your active and passive businesses going. What are three tips that you’d like to share with the readers in terms of how to get started in real estate and how to succeed in real estate from your point of view? Bela, let’s hear one from you first. I want to hear from you too, Laurie.

How to get started is you just can’t jump right into it. Like you guys always say, don’t reinvent the wheel. Learn the basics first and ask a lot of questions. Ask people that are smarter than you that you look up to. I’m going to do it this way. Don’t be stubborn about it. Do as successful people have done it. Like CT Homes, ask as many questions as you can and follow their lead, especially when you’re getting started. If you don’t know something, ask questions. No questions are too dumb. If you don’t know, you got to ask because you’re dealing with a lot of money, lenders and people. If they’re going to take you seriously, you lie to them and you act as you know it all, they’ll see right through that. That’s the way I know. I still ask people questions. That would be cool.

What’s number two, Laurie? What tip would you give the audience?

I don’t do the business that much as Bela does. I’m behind the scenes.

You always tell me, “Check the ARVs. Do this.” She keeps me in check. She knows what she’s doing.

Follow the systems would be part of it.

Do your homework.

You’re the entrepreneur in all the shots.

She sees a lot of people that we deal. She might see mistakes here and there. I was like, “Why didn’t they check this or that? Why did they jump into this?” You might see some people do one rehab and then they quit after that. I’m like, “You learn all these mistakes. You’re going to learn more from that than anything else.” Let’s jump into the second one. Why you don’t give up? We’ve rehab probably 60 houses in the last years. We’ve made tons of mistakes. I still make mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. That’s how you say, “I’ll never do that again. I’m going to do it this way.”

Any deal that comes to mind that stands out? Do you want to share that example with everyone?

We purchased it back in January 2021. It was in a hot market, not too far from where we live. It was brought to us by another realtor that I’ve made a good relationship. Anytime she gets a pocket listing, she calls me first. One day, I bought a house from her. She was a sweet, old lady. She asked me if I would take the signs out of her car and put them out. I’m like, “Of course.” I helped her. I sat there and talked to her for half an hour. She’s been my friend ever since. We bought this house. She told me about this house and this unit in New York. I went and looked at it that day.

Be around other people who have the attributes, qualifications, and mindset you strive for.

That was our second one from her because we bought one and rehabbed it and then she called with this one.

We looked at it that day. I called her right from the property and said, “I’ll buy it.” It was like playing Monopoly. I know what the house to sell for. I didn’t have the rehab estimator in my hand but I had a good idea what this house was going to cost. I was very conservative on my numbers. I gave them what they wanted for. It took us about 4 or 5 months to rehab it. We put it on the market and sold her for about $50,000 over what our ARV was. We made $130,000 on that deal. That’s probably the biggest profit on a house yet.

That was one of if not your biggest profit on a single-family, buy, fix and sell that one right there. That’s amazing. Following the system’s pocket listing, it wasn’t on the market. Executing the things that you’ve learned and getting over there right away. Good deals don’t last as you two well know. You bought, fixed and sold it already in 2021. That’s a great example. I’m going to come out there and invest with you. We can exchange. You come out here and teach me some drumming and rhythm. I’ll come out there. Maybe I’ll be in the field managing some rehabs for you guys if you’re open to it.

Maybe if we retire from here, I’ll call out there. Maybe CT Homes will give me a job.

You both have a job here whenever you want to come out. You let me know. I’ll find a spot for both of you.

You might be sorry you said that.

Many years in the business, over 60 flips, all the doors that we talked about, what does the future hold for BNL Quality Homes Incorporated? What are the future goals?

We’re not sure because we are getting older. There’s been talk about maybe moving to Florida, being snowbirds and maybe doing a little rehab down there. We rehab their properties down there. We also are incorporated down there as well. We’ll still do rehabs here but we’re very careful of what we pick. We’re going to look at more passive income as well.

We’ll always be busy. I don’t think we’ll ever stop. We’ll travel a little more.

Retirement looks like more of the same. Keep plugging away, making money in real estate and helping people along the way. I love it.

We could retire and live off our rents if we wanted to.

How does that feel knowing that?

It feels great. We got a lot going on with kids with mothers and nursing homes. We’ve been going back and forth to the hospitals. I don’t know how we would do it if we had to work somewhere. It would be impossible.

Some of the advantages of being self-employed as an entrepreneur running a successful business. Hats off and congratulations to you two for making it happen.

Thank you.

Couldn’t have done it without you.

We’re happy to be a part of it.

We feel like you guys are part of our family. Even though we don’t see each other that often, you’re part of the family.

We feel the same way.

One of the things you guys have always taught us that stuck out in my mind was to keep your multiple streams of income. Don’t just do rehabs and nothing else. You can’t rehab a house and wait six months to get your money. What are you going to do in the meantime? That’s another thing. I play in the band. That’s not huge money but it keeps cash in my pocket every weekend. I pick up other things. My attorney called me in 2020. He goes, “Can you go and do some inspections for me on rehab?” They lend money out to people. He wanted to know if I would go do some of the inspections so they could get their draws. I’m like, “Yeah.” It’ll be fun because I could go meet more contractors. It was networking all over again. To me, that’s a lot of fun. I like doing that stuff.

A true entrepreneur is picking up other income streams related to the businesses you are in. It’s another reason to hire you out here at CT Homes LLC. We’ll have to take you up on that offer. In all seriousness, we do need to get together soon whether it’s 72 degrees in Albany or you guys make it out here to San Diego or at a bootcamp coming up soon. We can’t wait to see you both again.

I remember when we came out there and first joined in 2013. We went to the office academy and you guys took us all out to dinner. There were only fifteen people in the whole thing. We went to the restaurant and we had all you guys, Dan, Conrad and Paul. We had a great time.

It’s our version. Paul tells a story that when we were starting, treating ourselves was going to Quiznos instead of Subway because Quiznos toasted the Subs. That was us treating ourselves to a nice dinner. That evening with you and the rest of the class was our thank you and giving back taking our friends and family to a nice dinner. I’m glad you remember that story. It was fun to break bread with you.

That was one of the highlights that I always remember. It’s funny. I remember certain things. That was great. We love San Diego. We’ve been out there.

We open invitation for visiting the office. You two know anytime you’re out here. Thanks for getting on. This was a great surprise. I didn’t know what Jeff hadn’t stored when you said that but this is great.

It was our pleasure.

Congratulations on all your success. Thanks for making time to jump on the show. We look forward to seeing you guys soon.

Take care, you both.

We’ll talk to you soon.

Thanks. JD, happy birthday as well.

Thank you very much. See you soon.

That was incredible.

That was a great surprise. I couldn’t ask for a better surprise.

How does that make you feel though? Think about that. They came in 2013, trained with you and fast forward, had 60 flips, all those doors and quit their job. It’s got to feel incredible.

It’s humbling. I’m extremely grateful that they’ve implemented what we teach to get to a point in their life that they can work when they want to or not work if they don’t want to. It’s a lot of gratitude and appreciation towards the things that we get to do in this community. It’s one thing to help yourself but it’s the other thing to help other people achieve what they want.

We need to start getting more of your students on here.

That’s a good idea. It’s cool to get caught up. I’ve known Bela and Laurie for such a long time and I do need some drum lessons so maybe Bela will come out and give me some.

John Bonham is a great drummer of all time.

I said John Bonham but I mean Neil Peart. If you ask most people, those are the two common names that you’re going to get.

Who is that one-armed drummer?

Def Leppard. He’s still drumming. Hysteria is a great album. One of my favorite albums. He lost his arm in a car accident.

 

I thought it was important to spend some time on the mindset because a lot of the questions that we get from previous episodes are more intangible. There is so much more to it but we touched on the management of time and understanding that it’s your greatest asset. To summarize that one, be intentional with your time, whatever that means to you. Be a good steward. We were only given a certain amount. We talked about how we view failure. It’s you’re winning or learning. I’ve gotten to the point where I would rather make a wrong decision quicker than sit around and not make a decision. You figure out what doesn’t work quicker. We got into speed of implementation, that principle of you don’t need to know it all. Surround yourself with the people that know the racks.

Get going is better than knowing everything.

We’ve talked about that quite a few times on this show but it’s a big one. People get stuck because it’s ingrained in our culture. What are some things you do in a day in the life of JD Esajian or maybe a week, certain things you’re making sure that you do to continue growing the personal development side of this?

First and foremost something that I do a bit every day is something related to my physical and mental health whether it’s meditation, exercise and eating well. Without those things, it’s hard for me to intentional and successful in other areas. I also still have a coach that I work with on a weekly, monthly and annual basis. I practice what I preach. We coach other people but I get coached myself. I do weekly check-ins, monthly calls, things like that with my one coach since 2006. It’s a long time.

There are lots of things but the other thing that comes to mind is continually surrounding myself with the right people. People that have the mindset that I want to aspire to or that are doing things that I want to do at a different level whether it’s a mastermind or going to a seminar. Being around other people that have the attributes, qualifications and mindset that I want to strive for, are the things that are always part of my routine either daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually. Some version of those things is always woven into the fabric of what I do. How about you?

I like to pray in the mornings for sure. Read a little Bible. For me, it gets me in the right headspace, ready to attack the day. Physical activity and how you eat are important. I hate to confess this on live. For breakfast, there’s no excuse for it but I had two sausages, Egg McMuffins from McDonald’s and I feel horrible.

It tastes good when you’re eating it but it’s one of those things afterward. You’re like, “I could have gone with the fruit instead.”

I look at it more weekly. Dan shared his goal-setting thing for a week years ago. It’s evolved for me. On a weekly basis, being intentional about working in the business but then also making sure you’re working on the business because you don’t want to build yourself into a job. That’s what we teach here. Take care of yourself physically. I don’t exercise every day but at least three days a week. The better you feel physically, the better you’re going to perform in business, life and all around. This is something that was tough for me but allocating time to have fun.

It’s not easy for everyone. I know what you’re saying.

For me, it was always go trying to hit goals.

Getting better and improving.

It’s keeping it in balance. Weekly date nights with my wife and I have two daughters. At one point, I was trying to do weekly date nights with all three but that lasted a month. It’s a lot of dates so we rotate that. Making sure that every week, I’m learning something new as it relates to the business I’m in. I have other hobbies and things I’m interested in. It’s a mixture of those things.

You tell us if you’re reading, what are things that you do intentionally to grow not just as an investor but as a person? We’re here teaching a little bit about that but we love to learn. I thought it was important to spend an episode on this stuff. We’re usually in the trenches of the day-to-day operations of a real estate investor. The main takeaway I’d be taking, if I was you is that as you set out to build a business, keep in mind that personal development alongside of that business development is vital. The more you grow personally, the more your business will grow and thrive. That’s it. Any parting words for the audience, JD?

You nailed it. It’s a great summary. I would echo what you said. Personal development business development goes hand-in-hand. If you’re not working on both, you’re not going in the same direction.

Thanks so much for reading this episode. Share it with a friend. We’re on a mission to help empower people’s purposes through financial education. If you know somebody that would benefit from this type of information, please share it. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram as well. Engage with JD and me. We love hearing the feedback, questions and what you are looking for in future episodes. We’d love to create some shows that address exactly what you need. Take care. See you on the next episode.

Important Links:

• Mindset
• CT Homes
• IKEA
• Screw It, Let’s Do It
• FortuneBuildersShow.com
• Bela
• Laurie Schuch
• B&L Quality Homes Incorporated
• B&L Property Group LLC – Facebook
• Facebook – FortuneBuilders
• Instagram – FortuneBuilders