Been A Long Time Since I ....

"Been a long time since I rock and rolled.Been a long time since I did that stroll."  So go the lyrics from the song Rock and Roll by Heart.

Sorry for my absence on this blog.  It's been a long time since I wrote this blog.

In truth, I move most of my blogging to two other sites - my political blog "Defending Our Rights" and "The Home Finders" blog where I focus on helping people to afford quality homes by teaching them how to manage their career or build their own small business, how to invest, and how to buy their own home.

Since the last posting on this site, back in 2002, I went on to become Chief of Staff for JT Foxx and then, shortly thereafter to part company with JT and to publish the book "Millionaire Liar: What The Gurus Won't Tell You About Making Your First Million in Real Estate (but Tom will)".

In fact, I have been investing a lot of time in the past couple of years writing.  Much of what I have written and published are concepts and approaches that I have been using in my own real estate investing business as well as things I have done to manage my own career before I went into business on my own.

Here is a list of my recent real estate related publications, with links to each...

• Millionaire Liar; available in paperback too - as mentioned above, I wrote this one to reveal the truth behind some of the most commonly used sales pitches in the real estate guru world.
• 5 Ways to Buy a House Without a Bank Loan;  - I wrote this to help people to get started using creative financing approaches to get around the horrendously tight lending situation we are currently facing.
• Buy a House at 70 Cents on the Dollar; - I wrote this to help people understand ways to buy homes at below market prices ... and to promote my business where I buy them this way and then sell them at a modest markup.
• How to Price Your House to Sell; - I wrote this because many people overprice their home when they want to sell it, and most real estate agents don't (won't or can't) deter them from this and it hurts their ability to get a quick sale of their home.  Many times that delay triggers financial catastrophe for a home seller. 
• 5 Things Every Home Buyer Should Know Before Signing a Contract; - A huge number of contracts to buy a house never get all the way to closing.  When that happens there is a lot of frustration and sometimes shattered dreams.  This book was written to help people dramatically increase their odds that when they make an offer to buy a home and sign the purchase contract, they will get to buy and move into the home they want.
• Market Your Home Better Than An Agent; - Unfortunately, most real estate agents no very little about selling homes.  They are trained how to do contracts, but get little training in how to market a home.  No home seller should rely solely on a real estate agent, no matter how good they are, when selling their home.  This short guide gives you what you need to know to sell your own home, or your investment properties.
• Seller Finance For Buyers; - This gives several different ways you can make offers to buy a home without getting a new bank loan, by getting the seller to finance the deal instead.
• Seller Finance For Sellers; - This gives several different ways you can sell a home, even if buyers cannot get bank loans - like they are having trouble doing right now.
• What About Land Trusts in North Carolina - I wrote this one as a result of having lawyers run screaming from the room when I wanted to buy a house into a land trust.  They told me that land trusts were not protected in the laws of North Carolina.  I did some research on my own, instead of paying one of them $100 per hour to go look it up, and I found they are wrong.  Not only is there law in NC handling land trusts (although not enshrined in specific statutes like in Illinois or Florida) but the State of North Carolina is one of the biggest holders of land trusts in the state.  If the courts ruled against land trusts, they would cost taxpayers millions as the state government would have to totally pay up and change its handling of land trusts. I don't think that is likely to happen.  

And of course

• Strategic Planning for Very Small Businesses: Using Big Business Tools to Get Big Results for Small Business, Real Estate Entrepreneurs' Edition - I managed the strategic planning process each year for a division of a Fortune 500 Company.  I then used those same processes for my small business and figured out how anybody can do the same.

In addition to these books and articles on Real Estate, I have published several on Career Management and Life Coaching and I even published a science fiction trilogy.

Here are my Career Management and Life Management titles to date...
Fire Yourself: Get the Job You Want available in paperback too
Career Insurance: Keep the Job You Want
Come Out On Top: Goals to Live By
A Guide to Self-Directed Learning
Your Career ~ Your Business: Using Small Business Tactics to Manage Your Career

AND... the writing I did just for the fun of it... my Sci Fi trilogy "The Masterless Sword"  (available in paperback and ebook form)
Origins

Rise of the Master Mage

Queen of the Wildwood

I hope you enjoy my return to this blog and I hope you will check out my other blogs and publications.  Know that there is more to come.

And, I want to publicly state here my gratitude to one of my mentors, Raymond Aaron.  As he explained to me the ease with which I could publish my works, I got inspired to do just that.

If you have a book inside of you, but just can't seem to get it out, let me know.  I can help.  I have created a process I call Book Whispering.  Even if you aren't good at sitting down and writing things out, especially if you aren't good at sitting down and writing things out, my process will help.

If you would like to know more, send an email to WhisperMyBook@gmail.com with the subject line "I Want to Whisper My Book".  My initial consultation is free.  If you decide to enroll in my program, you can expect to see your book in print and available online in as little as three months.

Tom Sheppard is the author of "Fire Yourself: Get the Job You Want" available from XLibris Press and through Amazon.com. Tom has been successfully investing in real estate since 2001 while working part time. In 2008 he left a six-figure job as an enterprise project manager with a major national bank to manage his real estate business full-time. His goal is to help 100,000 people find peace of mind by finding quality, affordable homes. He is currently looking to expand his network of funding partners who are helping him achieve this goal. If you would like to know more about how you can Do Well By Doing Good (TM), go to www.CharlotteWealthPartners.com

Mega - WOW: JT Foxx's Mega Partnering VI Tops the Charts

I just got back this morning from Los Angeles,  California where I spent invested most of the last week (Wednesday through Monday) getting my head crammed full of the most powerful business building information while rubbing elbows with about 650 of the most successful entrepreneurs in the US and with some of the most amazing celebrities who you never knew were business geniuses (genii) when out of the public eye.

You may recall a tiny little entertainment company named Disney?  Well, we were party to the most amazing conversation with the man who took Disney from $1.3B to $60B (yes, that is Billion, with a "B"), Michael Eisner.

International Entrepreneur JT Foxx, Top One Coaching Chairman Tom Sheppard and Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner on the red carpet and Mega Partnering VI in Los Angeles, December 2012

JT didn't do a "Mickey Mouse Job" in the interview. An experienced and talented talk-radio host, he did a fantastic job of drawing out the usually staid Mr. Eisner into a wonderful and revealing interview about how he achieved such amazing results at Disney, his rock-solid long term marriage, and his personal and working relationship with Apple and Pixar founder, Steve Jobs.

After the speech, Mr, Eisner attended a gala dinner with select attendees from the Mega Partnering event.  One of the ladies at the table with Mr. and Mrs. Eisner told us that Mrs. Eisner said she had NEVER seen her husband so relaxed and having so much fun in an interview. 

Rumor has it that Mr. Eisner has indicated to JT that he would like to attend the next Mega Partnering in June of 2013.  I can't wait!

As if having one of the most successful CEO's in the world come to teach us, JT had to bring one of the most beautiful and successful businesswomen in the world to teach us also.  Former Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Model turned business tycoon Kathy Ireland regaled us with her story and business savvy.

She is both beautiful and charming.  But, don't let the good looks fool you guys!  This woman has a real head for business.  Take a minute to check our her main website http://kathyireland.com/.  After she decided she had enough of striking stunning poses in bikinis in front of the camera, Kathy moved act to the board room where she has been quietly building a business empire that is her real legacy.  

She started her empire by selling socks!  Now, she has lines of apparel, flooring, linens, wedding dresses, jewelry, and the list seems to go on and on and on.

International Entrepreneur JT Foxx, Business Mogul Kathy Ireland, Top One Coaching Chairman Tom Sheppard on the red carpet at Mega Partnering VI in Los Angeles, December 2012

What was this fabulous event with a cornucopia of celebrities, entrepreneurs, millionaires, billionaires, and business moguls?  This was the sixth semi-annual Mega Partnering (www.MegaPartnering.com).

As a veteran attendee of Mega Partnering (I have been at all six events), I knew I was in for a week that would be jammed packed full of powerful insider business information designed to help me move my business forward by leaps and bounds.  And, I knew from experience that JT Foxx (JTFoxx.com) excels at bringing in some of the sharpest business minds in the world today.  But, I was still blown away by this conference.  WOW seems like too small a reaction by orders of magnitude.

Just to give you a glimpse of what we got (I am including links so if you don't know who these folks are, you can go check them out yourself).

Dr. Ivan Misner (http://ivanmisner.com/) taught us about how to unleash the true power of networking (done the right way) to create sustainable business growth based on giving value first and then monetizing our relational capital.  Yes, it sounds kind of mercenary, but it is anything but that.

I was introduced to the conference by "The Voice of Champions" Michael Buffer (http://www.letsrumble.com/main.html).  I was also able to renew my friendship with Michael's younger brother, Bruce Buffer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IxJxyGXAdo) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8IrFQ-U8rY).  

Top One Coaching Chairman Tom Sheppard and Eric Trump

Eric Trump, son of the world-famous Donald Trump.

Tom Sheppard, Author of "Fire Yourself: Get the Job You Want" with millionaire businessman and the current President of High Point University, Dr. Nido Qubein

Dr. Nido Qubein, who is on the board of BB&T, Lazy Boy, Dots, and is Chairman and majority owner of Great Harvest Bread Company.

And the marketing genius, Jay Abraham (http://abraham.com/) ...

The Chairman of the Board of Top One Coaching, Tom Sheppard with marketing genius Jay Abraham

Gretchen Rossi from Real Housewives of Orange County, and many others who I will tell you about in the days to come.

Before I close out (or pass out... I came in from Mega Partnering on a red-eye from LA just this morning and I haven't been to bed since 7AM yesterday), I wanted to put a plug in for a friend of mine who spoke at Mega Partnering, Chris Van Cleemput.  I just bought his Kindle book after hearing him speak about this to the crowd and Mega Partnering.  If you have ever been in a relationship where you felt taken-advantage-of, you need to read this and apply it.  When I heard him talk about it, I realized why some of my business relationships have been dysfunctional and what I can do about it.

Tom Sheppard is the author of "Fire Yourself: Get the Job You Want" available from XLibris Press, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Tom has been successfully investing in real estate since 2001 while working part time. In 2008 he left a six-figure job as an enterprise project manager with a major national bank to manage his real estate business full-time. His goal is to help 100,000 people find peace of mind by finding quality, affordable homes. He is currently looking to expand his network of funding partners who are helping him achieve this goal. If you would like to know more about how you can Do Well By Doing Good (TM), go to www.CharlotteWealthPartners.com

In addition to his own businesses  Tom Sheppard is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Top One Coaching, the company that hosts Mega Partnering.

Mega Partnering is an elite conference of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world.  Since 2012 admission is by invitation only.