My New Coaching Gig

Ask Me About My New Coaching Gig

I have been a real estate entrepreneur since 2001.  Between then and now, I have invested a lot of my time and money to learn and apply the "tricks of the trade."  Along the way, I have been asked by many of my fellow entrepreneurs to evaluate deals they were considering.  Without fail, when I did that, they always told me how clear I was in teaching them what they needed to know and calling attention to the parts of the deal that they needed to consider.  They told me I should be coaching other real estate entrepreneurs.

I didn't really take all that talk seriously until a couple of years ago when I realized how much I know about buying and selling real estate compared to most of the people who are trying to be real estate entrepreneurs.  At the same time, I realized that it wasn't fair to me, my family, or my teachers, coaches, and mentors to just give away the knowledge I had paid for so dearly in time, money and experience.

But, I had no clue how to monetize all that accumulated expertise other than to keep doing succesful deals.  Also, I was worried that setting myself up as a real estate coach might look like I was trying to compete with my own coaches and mentors.  About a week ago all that changed.

About a week ago I got an email from a nationally renown real estate guru named Preston Ely.  I have bought several products from Preston and always found them to be a good value.  He gives very good information at a very reasonable price (here is a link to one of his most comprehensive courses - Real Estate Empire - reempire.com

So, when Preston sent me an email offering to help me establish my own coaching business, I was interested enough to check it out. 

I listened to his whole pitch and immediately bought what he was offering.  The short version is, he is co-branding many of his materials with me and is teaching me the same model he has used to build his own very successful coaching and real estate business.  So, I don't have to create all original materials, I can take what he has, add my own and use it all day long with his permission.

I realized that setting up my own coaching business is not really competing with my own coaches and mentors any more than my buying houses is competing with them.  There are so many deals out there, that there are plenty to go around, the same is true of coaching clients - different people need different types of coaches.  My coaches and mentors are so much more successful than I am that we can only compliment each other's businesses, we don't compete.  So, I thought I could do this, emphasizing the local nature of my services and only taking on distant students as the exception.  Also, by strictly limiting the number and caliber of students I take on, I won't be poaching from my coaches and mentors.

Preston gave me permission to compete with him as a coach and he gave me what I would need to succeed at it.

Preston's program starts with five days of "Quickstart Lessons" followed by another lesson each week.  He also provided me with several wonderful tools, including a version of his own sales page for coaching.

I promptly loaded up the site, customized it to reflect my own experience in addition to Preston's, and published the site.

Then, I sent out an email to some of my close friends and associates letting them know that I was "hanging out my shingle" (that means going into business for those who don't know the phrase) as a real estate coach.  My email gave them a link to the site (www.coaching.thomasksheppard.com).

The next day, I got a phone call from Lori.  It went something like this.

     "Hi Lori. How are you doing?"

     "Tom, I need a coach."

     "You went to my site?"

     "I sure did!  I sent in my application right away."  I immediately checked my email and found Lori's application to my program in my inbox.

I signed her up on the spot.

Okay - I actually had to scramble and really quickly download the model contract and several other things Preston provided me with, including some student bonuses like an ebook and an audio.  Then I had to modify the contract so it was from me instead of Preston and I edited the ebook so that I could legitimately be listed as a co-author with Preston.

I fired off the contract and a roles and repsonsibilities agreement in an email to Lori and by the next day, I had a signed contract in hand and payment the day after that.

When I mentioned my quick success in an online forum with others who have purchased Preston's program, they hounded me with questions about how I did it so quickly.  So, rather than pound that out in a forum posting, I decided it would be easier to just post it in my blog and let anyone who is interested come read it here.

So, here is the quick recap of how I managed to garner some overnight success as a real estate coach:

1. I spent years learning how to master my business
2. I spent years building my reputation and giving value to others
3. When Preston made the offer - I took advantage of it right away.
4. I took Immediate, Massive Action.  I immediately did everything I could with what he gave me, as soon as he gave it to me.

So, here's to overnight success!  May it endure at least twice as long as it took to achieve.

Regards,
Tom S.

Tom Sheppard is the author of "Fire Yourself: Get the Job You Want" available from XLibris Press. 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

Surviving and Thriving in Good Times and Bad

Why is it some businesses thrive in good times and bad while others can't seem to catch a break?  One good reason is something called strategic planning.  Many people don't know what it is, many others don't know what it can do for them.  I know both.
What's In It For You?

• Would you like to figure out what your customers are going to do before they do it?
• Would you like to see how you stack up to your competitors?
• Would you like to understand how you can adapt to changes in the marketplace and legal environment?

Strategic Planning can help you with these problems and more.  At the heart of strategic planning are two things, learing what is happening or about to happen that affects your business (or job) and learning how you can use your strengths to take advantage of opportunities and protect yourself from threats and your weaknesses.

If you can understand what is going on with your customers, competitors, market, business, and the legal environment, you can have a pretty good handle on what is affecting your success or failure in business.  Add to that, an in depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your own business, you can then clearly see the opportunities and threats that will make or break your business.
By doing this periodically, you can make sure your business is prepared for what is coming and what is happening, assuring that you can survive and thrive in good times and bad.

For several years I provided strategic planning services for a division of a Fortune 500 company. During that time I adapted those tools to use on my own small business. In my book, I give you the tools I use.

I have taught other entrepreneurs all over the country how to successfully use these same tools in their own business and in their careers.

I recently published my first Kindle book, Strategic Planning for Very Small Businesses, on Amazon.com.  In my book, I give you the opportunity to invest less than $10 in your business that could pay you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in return.

Although Strategic Planning for Very Small Businesses is written from the perspective of my business of investing in real estate, it is applicable to any small or one-person business.
By the way, part of my strategic planning revealed and opportunity to capitalize on some of my specialized knowledge by publishing it.  I could have opted to create a $500 training course or hold seminars for $199 a head.  Unfortunately for a one-person business $500 is a lot of money.  And paying $199 isn't so bad, but you have to spend a whole day away from the business.  So instead, I opted to put this information into a book and sell it at a price anyone can afford.

UPDATE:  I have made this book on Simplified Strategic Planning for Very Small Businesses available on both Amazon.com as  a Kindle book and ebay as a downloadable pdf.  Here are the direct links:

Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/simplifiedstrategicplanAmazon


E-Bay: http://tinyurl.com/simplifiedstrategicplan

I learned that e-bay doesn't accommodate selling ebooks.  Fortunately, I have been able to get my book loaded to to an ecommerce site with A+ Results.  You can buy my book as a pdf at http://tinyurl.com/simplifiedstrategicplanning

PS: tinyurl provides a great service that allows anyone to convert a long and awkward url into a much shorter, usable url to help people find what they want.


The Kindle and the pdf are each priced at $9.97.

You Can Benefit If

• You own your own small or one-person business
• You are self-employed
• You work for a small business

You can even use these same principles to help you manage your career, but if you can't quite make that mental leap to understand the relationship between your career and a small business, never fear.  Soon, I will be publishing another book, "Your Career ~ Your Business."

It too will be modestly priced and available via Amazon.com

Tom Sheppard 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. Why pay retail when you can buy a home at below market prices? www.buybelowmarket.com. 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, contact Tom at Tom@CharlotteWealthPartners.com.