This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Ted Thomas. Ted is a real estate expert, especially in the tax lien and tax deed areas. In fact, Ted’s organization is the single largest “SOURCE” of Tax Lien & Tax Deed Information Products in the world. He’s written over 30 books and helped over 75,000 clients learn to invest in tax liens.
On top of that, Ted is an internationally sought after speaker and has created sales systems and selling processes that many of the of top gurus pay Ted to teach them. He’s shared the stage with everyone from Donald Trump to Tony Robbins. I am really excited to have Ted on to talk about his experience in real estate and get his wisdom on business in general.
Ted’s first career was as an airline pilot. He traveled the world. After a while, he decided to move on and get into business. He moved to California and started into real estate. He did very well and hit things at the right time and right place and amassed it to over $200 million in property in 6 years. But, then the 80’s savings and loan crises hit and he lost everything.
He then had to start over again and decided he didn’t want to put himself in situation with as much risk. This led him to the business he is in today.
As Ted says, “Crisis are good, because you learn a lot more on the way down than you do on the way up.”
What did you learn through your business crashing?
Explain tax liens and how you invest in them…
What are the risks of investing in tax liens?
How is it possible to create a 6-figure income in less than a year doing this?
Ted starts with an example of doing something different…
Anything else we should know about tax liens and deeds?
What are the principles you teach on how to sell?
Is there a format or steps that should be followed to present well?
What is your best advice to succeed as an entrepreneur and what would you tell a new entrepreneur starting out today?
Where do you see thing going in real estate? What is the trend and are we getting close to another downturn?
Ted talks about Schiller and his book on the history of real estate as well as the Case-Schiller index.
Best Quote: Crisis are good, because you learn a lot more on the way down than you do on the ways up.
Ted's Misfit 3:
This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jonathan Levi. Jonathan is a serial entrepreneur and lifehacker born and raised in Silicon Valley. He’s the author of the blockbuster “Become a Super Learner series,” founder of Superhuman Academy, and host of the top rated podcast, Becoming Superhuman.
And he’s just released his latest book, The Only Skill That Matters.
Jonathan has taught hundreds of thousands of students what it means to be superhuman and live richer, fuller, healthier, and happier lives.
And it all stems from asking one simple question, “How do you know how to learn?” I can’t wait to explore this with him and have him share what he has learned along his entrepreneurial journey.
www.SuperhumanAcademy.com/book
Free 7-Day Trial www.SuperhumanAcademy.com/squad
Jonathan has always felt like a misfit. When he was young, he was the quirky kid in class and had ADD. His parents didn’t want to medicate him and things worked out ok until he got into his early teens. He had trouble keeping up and learning and keeping up socially. Even some of his friends turned on him and made him the butt of their jokes. He went through several years of depression and contemplated suicide. He felt worthless.
Then he discovered entrepreneurship. His first stab at it was as a DJ for parties. He then started doing web design. He realized that through entrepreneurship he could develop and improve himself. It helped to understand that if he can be good at entrepreneurship, he could be good at other things and develop into the person he wanted to be.
The way he got our of depression was through accomplishment – but also learning about being the type of person he wanted to be. He realized his self-esteem was based on who he was, not what he wanted to achieve. Learning and the ability to learn is what made the difference. After graduating college and selling his business, he went to an accelerated MBA program where he met some individuals that were experts in accelerated learning. Jonathan immersed himself in learning this skill.
What does it mean to be superhuman?
At the 10 min mark, Jonathan and I talk about how being superhuman is also about the standards you have in all areas of your life…
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
Explain Pneumonic Training…
At the 17 min mark, Jonathan goes through an example with me on how to use pneumonic training to learn a different language.
What can people do to read and comprehend at a higher level?
Tell us about the “slipstream technique…”
Tell us about the Only Skill That Matters…
What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned in building your businesses?
At the 43-minute mark, Jonathan and I have a discussion about what it is like to have our eyes opened up to bigger possibilities and be shown by others what can happen in this world.
Best advice for an entrepreneur starting out?
At the 47 min mark, Jonathan talks about Brain health….
Jonathan’s favorite quote: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
Jonathan's Misfit 3:
Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!"
In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.
"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.
This week’s Lesson for Hannah
Hannah, I recently hosted our 3rd annual Grow Thrive Revive event with my business partner in the venture, Evan Money. Yes, that is his real name. Each time we do the event, it gets better and stronger. It is a unique event in that we keep it small – 15 to 20 people. Our goal is to not only provide an amazing experience, but to really focus with our guests to help them have real breakthroughs both personally and professionally and get the tools they need to double their business or more over the next year.
It is always interesting as people are not sure what to expect when they come in and then we start teaching and doing our focused sessions, and at some point it clicks for each attendee.
One of the best parts of the event – and where we see some of biggest breakthroughs, is when Evan takes everyone through an exercise in ROF. The Return on Forgiveness.
Think about that for a second, the Return on Forgiveness. In fact, Evan will tell you that the best return you will ever get is the return on forgiveness. But, what does that mean?
It means that the more you forgive in your life, the bigger benefits you will get. How does that work? Well, a lot of us carry around some very heavy burdens and loads in our lives due to anger, resentment, and apathy to negative events or those that have wronged us in the past. These burdens weigh us down, eat at us, and act like a dead weight holding us back. They occupy our thoughts and keep us from thinking about the more important things in life – like what we need to be doing to find higher levels of success and deeper relationships with the ones we care about.
And don’t get me wrong, most of the time, people have every right to feel this way. In fact, many people, including our guests at Grow Thrive Revive, have been through some really bad times which I won’t go into detail on.
But, if or when they ever get to a point where they can truly forgive those for their wrongdoings – the results are incredible. It is like the giant albatross is lifted from their back. They see life differently. They shake off the things that have held them back. They leave their old self behind and almost renewed in a lot of ways.
There are so many stories of this. One that Evan tells is about a young man living in the inner city, who was abused by his father. The young boy named Emmitt was very good at writing. So good, that his friends told him he should put on a play. So, he did. He failed. In fact, he failed several times over and over. All the while, he carried this major anger toward his father. It ate at him almost daily. He got to a point where was ready to give up. But, before he did, he decided he would do one last show and that before he did it, he would just forgive his dad. He did it for himself. He just wasn’t going to carry the burden any longer. After he did so, he had an inspiration and re-wrote the whole show. It was a success. In fact, over the next year, his income went up over 1000% and he had successful show after successful show on his way to bigger stardom. And he credits the thing that changed…that made the real difference was when he finally forgave his father. Who is Emmit? His full name is Emmit Perry Jr. You know him as Tyler Perry, one of the most successful directors, producers, and actors of our time. Imagine that. Just by forgiving someone, a whole life can change.
Yours will too if you practice Return on Forgiveness in your life.
In fact, sometimes the biggest return on forgiveness is when you forgive yourself. It may not always be outside influences that affect us – but a guilt or burden that we carry from our own actions that eats at us and weighs us down. At some point, you have to come to terms with it. At some point, you must not push it aside any further and confront it head on in your life. I know, because the person I had to forgive in my life years ago was me. I carried some guilt and regret from actions in my past that I kept buried. They made me feel like an impostor at times, a fake. But, it was all in my head the whole time. Finally, I had a enough and had two choices. I could let these things continue to pull me down and let them win, or I could shed them and move on. I chose the latter. I truly forgave myself. I wrote a letter to myself forgiving me for those few things out of an otherwise incredible life that I had done and that were holding me back.
As soon as I finished the letter, I instantly felt different. I felt better. I felt like I could see things more clearly and I felt a new level of energy.
Hannah, and for those of you listening, forgiveness is the answer to many of the biggest issues we have in our lives. Write a letter to those you want to forgive. Drop the dead weight and the negative feelings that are holding you back. And remember, the person that you may need to forgive the most in your life, is yourself.
Resolve to practice forgiveness and learn the true power that it holds for you and watch the difference in makes in all areas in your life.
Hannah, I promise that if you make it habit to forgive, it will be one of the greatest things you can do to live at your true potential.
I love you,
Daddy
Best Quote: Resolve to practice forgiveness and learn the true power that it holds for you and watch the difference in makes in all areas in your life.
Misfit 3:
This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Tori Dunlap. Tori is the millennial founder of HerFirst100k.com – a company dedicated to giving millennial women financial and career advice to help them succeed…and sock away their first 100k. And Tori is proof that it is possible, she’s not even 25 and is on track to save more than $100k before then. Tori’s been featured everywhere from CNBC, MarketWatch, Business Insider, to Yahoo Finance. She started her first business at 9, no joke – a vending machine business that she grew to over 15 vending machines which taught her how to save, invest, and negotiate.
What I love about Tori is that she has built this business, while at the same time working a full-time position as head of marketing at a global security company – because she likes what she does. She is a great example of how to build your business or side hustle while still succeeding in the corporate space – and that is just one of the things I want to speak with her about in this episode.
Tori says she was lucky to have a great financial education growing up. Her father came home one day with a vending machine he had got from one of his clients and asked her if she wanted to start a business. She said yes. She learned how to run a business, P&L, checking and savings, writing checks, how to pitch herself, starting at 9 years old. She used the profits from her vending business to fund her college.
Tori ran the business and grew it to 15 vending machines by the time she was a junior in college and ended up selling it to a 10-year like her that wanted to do the same things.
Tori has a degree in organization communication and theatre. She works in marketing, but never thought she would be teaching and promoting financial literacy to millennial women.
She thought everyone had at least some base financial knowledge. It wasn’t the case. In fact, Tori was the one all of her friends came to for money advice. So she started a blog in late 2016 on how to manage your money and career for millennials. This led to HerFirst100k.com
At the 14 min mark, Tori talks about building her business while working full time…
Tell us about HerFirst100k.com
Why don’t we teach financial education in schools?
Tell us about your unique budgeting method…
Best negotiating tips?
One of the best places you can negotiate is on your recurring bills. Phone, insurance, credit card, cable, etc. can all be negotiated.
Other marketing secrets?
Best Quote: You need to find your “why.” You do this by following your passion and your curiosity. You must have a personal stake in what you are doing. You must deeply care about the mission.
Tori's Misfit 3:
Gino took his entrepreneurial leap at 21 years old. At 25 he took over the family business and brought it out of debt and got it growing again. He ran it for 7 years and then successfully sold it. Through the experience, he got involved in the young entrepreneur’s organization or EO. It was there that he had his “light-bulb moment.” He felt that his calling was to help these other entrepreneurs. Over 5 years, he developed the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) and over 15 years, he built it up to thousands of companies as clients around the world. He then sold a majority stake in EOS in 2018 and started his newest project, LEAP.
LEAP is all about helping entrepreneur’s in the making get a huge jump-start on making the entrepreneurial leap.
Of everything you’ve learned, taught, and done in your career, what is the single most important lesson you’ve learned?
Define an entrepreneur…
What is an EIM?
Your book and methodology LEAP is broken into 3 parts: Confirm, Glimpse, and Path. Explain what confirm is and the 6 essential traits you speak about.
At the 12 min mark, we discuss the “long game and 10 year thinking…”
Let’s break down the 6 traits….
If someone starts a business for the sole purpose to make money and don’t have the passion, they are missing the ridiculous obsessive passion that is needed to truly succeed.
Gino explains Glimpse in more detail….
What are the 8 critical mistakes entrepreneurs make?
The last area of LEAP is Path and covers the 9 stages of building a business. Can you walk us through them?
Free assessment to help confirm you have entrepreneur DNA: www.E-Leap.com
Best Quote: “Don’t forget about the other people in your life. Your time is shared, if you realize it or not – and it is important to not lose sight of that.”
Gino's Misfit 3:
Sarah grew up in Tasmania. And after finishing school, she knew she wanted to go into business. She studied HR and Business Psychology. She took the standard path, got a good job, and started to climb the corporate ladder. She had some great success. She had a family, a good job, etc. She realized that everything she had done in work had really stemmed from her head and not her heart and this put her on the path to open a new chapter for herself which lead to everything she has done and helping other people find their purpose in life. Steve had the exact opposite journey.
Steve grew up in New Zealand and moved early to the Cook Islands. Steve’s parents pushed him to be an academic, but he was more content climbing trees. He was always intrigued with what was possible and at 15 had a goal to one day write himself a million dollar check. He also was a star athlete and even go to compete for his country. He had 4 successful exits before 30 years old. He had a family, 3 kids, but, he was not fulfilled at all and at one point, he hit rock bottom. Picking himself up and getting out of this was how he and Sarah realized what it truly means to wonder and wander in life.
Steve, you went through a time or burnout in your entrepreneur and athletic journey that you overcame. What was your biggest lesson that you took from the experience?
How do you put the practice of little wins into your daily life? Is there a system or set of principles you’ve developed?
What have you learned about how to work well together as a couple in business?
At the 23 min mark, we talk in depth about self-awareness…
What are the keys to building a great a business?
What is one thing that you believe every entrepreneur should know, but most don’t?
At the 38 min mark, we have a great discussion on what happens when you play the long game… What should people know about how to create an amazing event?
Tips to get the word out?
Sarah, can you explain what a Mompreneur is?
Steve, what is your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
Best Quote: "Don't forget about the other people in your life. Your time is shared, if you realize it or not - and it is important to not lose sight of that.
Steve and Sarah's Misfit 3:
Steve
Sarah
This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jason Pohl. Jason is a former wealth management entrepreneur turned professional athlete, specifically Ironman Racing. As many of you know, I race Ironmans and have a real love for the sport and what it takes just to finish one of these races.
But, Jason takes it to a whole other level. He races internationally all over the world and has been featured everywhere from Running Magazine to Impact Magazine. He trains 7 days a week for 7-8 hours per day and has finished Top 5 in many Ironmans around the world, as well as qualifying for the world championships in Kona. Additionally, he coaches other athletes on training and nutritional programs.
There are so many parallels between Ironman racing and entrepreneurship and I wanted to have Jason on to share his thoughts and what it was like to take the leap of faith and sell everything to pursue his dream.
Instagram @jason.pohl
Jason was an elite hockey player for 16 years into college. After school he was looking for the next challenge and got into triathlon. He thought because he was an elite hockey player, he would be good, but was quickly humbled by the sport and what it takes to really compete.
2014 was his first amateur season for Ironman at 22 years old. After his first Ironman, he found out that he qualified for the world championships in Kona, HI. He still didn’t know much about what he was doing. He raced Kona and ended up in the hospital because he didn’t understand nutrition and did not take care of his body during the race. It was in the hospital that he made the decision to go after it as a career.
2015 was his first year going toward pro and after 2 years, became a pro with 2017 as his first season.
Tell us what it was like to make the leap and leave your business and become a pro…
What advice would you give people that are in the position you were in to help them make their leap?
Can you explain Ironman and what it takes for you to do what you do at your level?
Tell us more about the business around being a professional athlete…
How do you get and hold onto sponsors?
How does training and competing in Ironman’s relate to business and entrepreneurship?
At the 27-minute mark, Jason talks about persistence and his hardest time in Ironman…
Talk to us about the power and importance of mindset and the mental game…
Best Quote: “Get clear on your goals and commitments. When you get clear on why you are doing what you are doing, everything will fall into place as you connect into your purpose."
Jason's Misfit 3:
Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.
"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.
This week’s Lesson for Hannah
Hannah, You’re getting a little older now. You’ve recently turned 7 years old and have entered first grade. As you start to grow more, build relationships, and be accountable for things like your grades and other things in your life, I’d like to talk to you about respect.
What is respect? The dictionary defines respect as due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others or a deep admiration of someone, their abilities, talents, etc. For example, I have deep respect in regard to both these areas for your mother. I respect her feelings, wishes, rights, etc. but I also greatly respect her amazing mind, beauty, talent, and capacity for love.
It’s important that you learn to understand respect, and might I say, learn to honor those you have in your life. At home, it is your mom, dad, family, friends, other parents, etc. At school, it is your teachers and other students.
Everyone you interact with deserves your respect. This can be tough because some people are hard to be around. They may have a bad attitude. They may not like you. They may not respect you. But, you must be the best version of yourself and show respect to them. Why, because it will make you a better person and it will allow you to have a bigger impact in your life – as well as have a deep respect for yourself.
I think this is part of the essence of what Jesus was saying when said, “Love your enemy.” Even your enemies or detractors in life deserve respect – even if they are lacking it themselves.
You see, I believe a lot of times, the people that have the bad attitude or disrespect others, or treat them poorly, do so because they don’t respect themselves. They don’t see the greatness in themselves or how truly amazing they are. Every individual has something, that as dictionary says about respect, that you can admire or show due regard for. But, if they can’t see it in themselves and respect themselves, it’s easy to understand why they cannot respect others.
Hannah, you have so much talent, ability, goodness, intelligence, and amazing attributes. Learn to respect them. Be humble about them. But respect them. Understand that they were given to you to make a difference in this world – and you can make a difference. Every day.
I love you,
Daddy Best
Quote: “I believe a lot of times, the people that have the bad attitude or disrespect others, or treat them poorly, do so because they don’t respect themselves”
Misfit 3:
This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is William De Temple. William is a serial entrepreneur, author of Raise Capital Quickly, and has taken multiple companies to over $100 million. He is the founder and CEO of 9 Figure Company which teaches entrepreneurs a system to scale their company to $100 million or more in 3-7 years. And this isn’t just theory, William has proven this system doing it with his own companies and now a number of clients.
I don’t know about you, but if someone was going to sit down and teach me a process to grow a company to over $100 million, I’d sit up and listen very quickly – and that is what I’ve asked William to do in this episode for you. To share his system, experience, and knowledge gained through an incredible Misfit Entrepreneur career!
William grew up on a ranch and they were always stretched for cash. At 11 years old, he got a paper route which quadrupled through some innovative ways to sell. He even delivered papers on the winter on horseback.
After he graduated college, he got a job, but very quickly discovered that having a job was not for him. He decided to start his first company. It was the early 70’s. It went from $0 to over $12 million in annual revenues in about 7 years. A buyer came along and offered an amazing offer, so he sold it.
He then went on to build companies in everything from tech, which he took through an IPO to service and manufacturing. Each of them growing to over $100 million each.
He then got recruited by venture capital to be a turnaround expert. Things were great, but William’s father in-law got very sick and it required he and his wife to move to Florida to help him. This was a culture shock for William compared to Silicon Valley.
After a little while and some discussions with friends, he decided to start helping companies grow and learn and put into effect the strategies he used to grow companies over $100 million.
What did you learn from growing up on a ranch that helped you most in your career?
At the 9:30 mark, William tells us about his system for 9-Figures…
Every business is in business to solve a problem…Most entrepreneurs when they start a business think that all they need to do is market and sell. And if that is all you do, you will never achieve great success.
Let’s go through each of the 8 areas. Explain them to us and give us something that in each area that an entrepreneur can do to succeed in each area.
First, it all begins with the founder.
The 2nd area is Marketing
The 3rd area is sales
The 4th area is operations
The 5th area is finance
What else is needed to be considered investment grade?
The 6th area is human resources
The 7th area is IT
The 8th area is quality control
You’ve spent time with everyone from Les Brown to Richard Branson – what have been your biggest takeaways? What have you seen most consistent across these people?
Best Quote: “Every business is in business to solve a problem…Most entrepreneurs when they start a business think that all they need to do is market and sell. And if that is all you do, you will never achieve great success.”
William's Misfit 3:
This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Brendon Kane. Brendan is the business and digital growth strategist to the stars and the guy who generated over a million Facebook followers in less than 30 days. In fact, he has over a million followers on Facebook and a million followers on Instagram alone.
Brendan works with Fortune 500 corporations, brands, and celebrity clients such as Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Xzibit, Charles Barkley, Michael Strahan, supermodel Adriana Lima, and pro skateboarder Ryan Sheckler. He also served as vice president of digital for Paramount Pictures and helped scale one of the largest social optimization firms in the world, working with brands such as Disney, Fox, NBC, Xbox, LinkedIn, and many other notable Fortune 100 companies.
He is the author of the best-seller, One Million Followers, and that strategy is just one of the many things we are going to talk about in this episode.
@BrendanKane
Brendan initially went to film school to learn how be a producer and the business of movies. He quickly learned that they don’t teach much about it. So, he decided the best way to learn was to create his own business. He started a few internet companies and then moved to LA after the Dotcom bust. He started to work with producers and directors to leverage how to grow brands and get more reach for their projects.
He began to help craft strategies for films from $15 mil to $100 mil budgets. In order to be more efficient as he grew, in 2006/2007, he built one of the first influencer marketing platforms for Myspace. He continued building technology and setting up partnerships with companies like MTV, Paramount, Lionsgate, and others. The JV partnerships with Viacom and MTV opened the doors to work with celebrities like Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and others.
He then got into the paid media space with a company that was managing paid spend on social networks. Brendan helped them craft their growth strategy from $1 million a year in spend to over $100 million. A lot of money was being wasted by these companies as they didn’t have a way to really tell if they were advertising in the right ways.
That is when Brendan decided to create a system of testing methodologies on top of social media that allowed to test content at scale and see which audiences really resonated, etc.
Over 3 years, he optimized the process working with the top people and brands.
But, he had the idea that “What if you took someone from scratch, who didn’t have the start power or anything – could you grow their following like you can the others?” And that is where the 1 million followers in 100 countries in 30 days experiment came from.
How did you create 1 million followers in 30 days?
What did you learn about content to consistently generating the most interaction? What should people do in their posts?
What other things should people know to maximize their footprint?
At the 20 min mark, Brendan gives an example of different types of posts and how they work and grow following.
Other platforms?
$20 million on LinkedIn? Is there a process you use? How are you doing this?
Posting guidelines for platforms?
Paid advertising? What should we know?
Where do you put your dollars?
Any tools that you recommend people use?
What is the most important lesson you have learned for entrepreneurship?
Anything you’ve learned from working with top stars, pro-athletes, etc.?
Best Quote: The thing that really separates the successful is that they will find the answers. They know how to find answers and create solutions and they will not give up.
Brendan's Misfit 3: