Making Your Passion Pay

Making Your Passion Pay

This is part 2 of my thoughts on the importance of pursuing your passion.

In Part 1 I talked about why it is important and how to discover your passion.  Now, I want to get very practical and talk about how to make your passion pay.

For many years now I have heard some very successful people tell me that I should forget about earning a living and pursue my passion.  "The money will follow," they would tell me.

It seemed to me that was easy for them to say since they didn't have to feed and house me and my family while I pursued my passion long enough for the money to catch up to me.

So, I came up with a practical guide to following your passion until the money catches up.

1. Identify your passion - we covered this is Part 1, so I won't go over it again here.
2. Start pursuing your passion as a hobby
3. Convert your hobby into a small business
4. Build your small business over time
5. Quit Your Job and Pursue Your Passion 

The idea behind these five steps is simple, but not easy. 

#1 - see part 1 of this article
#2 Pursuing Your Passion as a Hobby: By first pursuing your passion as a hobby, you are investing a bit of time and money in learning and doing and acquiring some of the skills, knowledge, tools, and network needed to turn your passion into your life.

You show up as an enthusiast.  You go to trade conventions.  You buy the books and videos of the guiding lights in the area of your passion.  You experiment and hone your skills while keeping your investment of time and money appropriate for a hobby.  You continue to pay proper attention to your job so that your bills get paid.

Maybe you do some things in your hobby well enough that other people want to buy them.  From the trade shows, you have a good idea what is a fair price for what you do.  Go ahead and make the sale. It will help offset the costs of your hobby.

For sure you find forums where other enthusiasts are discussing your passion.  Join in the dialog and make sure you give good value as much as you can.

Lastly, make sure you put names and contact information for every other enthusiast you meet into a spreadsheet, a rolodex, a notebook, your PDA, phone or anyplace else you can keep and retreive it later.  More on this later.

#3 Convert Your Hobby Into a Small Business:  I could go on for a long time about how everyone should have their own small business and why.  Instead of doing that, I will focus on why you want to convert your hobby into a small business.

As soon as you convert your hobby into a business you can deduct the full cost of all your business related activities and supplies that you were already spending money on, and then some.

By showing the IRS that you intend to make a profit, you change things dramatically.  A hobbiest hopes to make a profit.  A business intends to make a profit.

Establish your company name, logo, and brand.  Make business cards and get someone to buid a quick website for you that may be little more than an internet billboard.

Keep going to the trade shows and forums.  Now, you may also be setting up a table at the show.  Start blogging about your passion.  Write at least 50 great blogs and set them up to go out at a rate of 1 per week for the next 50 weeks.  You don't have to write all 50 before you start posting.

If you are a terrible writer, then you can either figure out the 50 blogs and go to elance.com or guru.com and hire someone to ghost write them for you, or you can go on YouTube and make 50 video blogs on the topics of your passion.  Again, you should spread their release out over time.

And, if you can't write well and you have the kind of face that is really suited to radio, you can record your 50 topics as audios and post them for your friends and fans, again spacing them out over time.

Keep gathering those names and make sure your blog/video/audio has a way to capture new names as people find you.  Only now you also want to start reaching out to those names and letting them know that you are doing your own thing.  Let them know that if they or someone they know is interested, you are now providing this product or service.  These people may be your first customers or referrals.

#4 Build Your Small Business Over Time: The reality with nearly every business is this - if you cannot make money doing it part-time, you won't make money doing it full-time.  So, start your business part-time while still getting a steady paycheck elsewhere.

By now, you should redo your website so that it can be a storefront and let your fans become your clients.  Sell them information that they can download and get them to buy the products of your passion.

As your blog and website pick up traffic, you can also begin to leverage the power of advertising by reaching out to some of the companies that supply the materials that make your passion possible and invite them to pay for advertising on your blog or website.

Your financial goal with your small business is to build it up to the point where the income from your small business is enough to meet or exceed your ordinary operating expenses.  This is where you begin to be able to get out of the rat race.

#5 Quit Your Job and Pursue Your Passion:  When you reach the point where business is able to support itself and you, and your job is getting in the way of you making more money with your business, it is time to give serious thought to quitting your job and investing yourself full time in the business of your passion.

It is not a decision to be made lightly and you will want to consider all the money that may be on the table in terms of retirement benefits, health benefits and such, before you plan to exit your job. 

For me, I worked at it for about 5 years before I was ready to make the transition.  Then, I waited another 2 years for my retirement to fully vest so that I wouldn't leave any of that behind when I moved on.  Then, I waited until just the right moment for me and announced my retirement plans.

Although it has been a challenging ride since then, I don't regret making the move.

Tom S.

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

Tips on Getting Started in Real Estate

Recently on LinkedIn my friend Matt asked the question:

"Anyone have any good tips on how to get started in real estate investments? Myself and two friends are looking to get going, but aren't real sure where or how to start."

In less than a month he had more than 80 comments.

I found it amazing how many of those comments weren't tips, but instead were offers to sell him an investment opportunity.  I am including a few here (edited to remove last names, investing links and other information).

To his credit, James, the very first responder was at least selling education:
James  said,

"Hi Matt, I don't have all the answers but I do provide a real estate investing learning center on my website at http://www.proapod.com/LearningCenter.htm you might find helpful. Good luck."

I don't know if James' teaching is any good, I haven't checked out his site.  But at least he was offering to educate Matt before trying to convince him to throw tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, into real estate before being sure Matt would know the difference between an REO and an Oreo.  For that reason alone I left his link intact when I quoted him above.

Dylan, the very next posting, offered 

"I am a developer/contractor who puts together investment opportunities.... If you would like to be contacted when I have a project ready for review just send me your email."

Dylan didn't mention to Matt that development is the most risky form of real estate investing and is one of the quickest ways to lose everything.  Yes, there can be great rewards, but with the rewards there is risk - and if you don't understand the risks, then you are gambling.

Subranshu offered Matt several services and properties all in India. And then came back later to offer him more, and more properties.

Investing far from home is a recipe for disaster, even for experienced investors.  When you invest, there is always an element of chance or risk.  When you invest far from home, you are often totally unaware of the very local risks that abound.

When you invest close to home, you know the neighborhoods.  You know the local market.  You know the local ecomony.  You see it everyday when you go buy groceries or read the lcoal paper.

Unless you are going to go live in the far-away market for six months or a year before investing (in which case it now becomes a local market for you) then you are investing in ignorance and the education you get will be much more expensive than it needs be.

Manish came on looking like he was taking the moral highground, but advised Matt not to listen to anyone but him, which sounds like a dangerous avenue to me. 

"dont need any book/ any course/ or dont let any investor here take any of your profits or have them be equity partners. Depending on your criteria, and cities, states you want to invest, I will give you a free consultation on how to exactly invest whereabouts to get everything done A-Z. Developing is dangerous, as its not a buyers market, its a rental market. I am not trying to sell anything, I am a simple investor. A sole investor with portfolio of over 30 units. All acquired in one year. Not using any investors money. But I was able to leverage properties i bought to acquire more. I will be more than happy to show you the way. Stay out of other countries, do areas you know!!..msg me I will be more than happy to assist you or help you."

I suspect Manish is not being totally honest when he tells Matt not to buy any books or courses and instead just listen to him.  If Manish hasn't gotten any good education, then it is only a matter of time before his mistakes catch up with him and his whole real estate empire will go down in flames.       

I know from personal experience that there are many people offering real estate training that is actually worthless.  Most of the "gurus" are selling strategies that they used five years ago to get rich.  Then they quit buying real estate and started selling their program.  Five years later, the program doesn't work in today's market, but their sales pitch is perfected and they keep bilking people out of $2,000 to $5,000 a pop for their "bootcamp."

Even worse is when their "bootcamp" turns out to be a pitch-fest where they keep brining in other "gurus" to sell you on even better ways to make money in real estate.  Before you are done, the $5,000 course you attended has given you a $25,000 balance on your charge card that you will play hell trying to pay off, because you are spending all your time in course and don't have any time to implement what you learned.

In spite of all that, paying $5,000 to learn a srategy doesn't work, can be better than losing $100,000 on a house you bought and cannot sell because you didn't know the right strategy for today's market.

Antonio let Matt know he is

"looking for investors, buyers, funds for new projects. Excellent investment opportunity for development projects in ... Philippines."  

Then, he proceeded to make several posts offering a variety of investment opportunities.  He even make a very compelling argument citing several points about why it is a good idea to invest in his market.

See my comments above about Subranshu, 'nuff said.

Terry offered to sell Matt discounted bank notes.

Now, I have to say, I have worked for a home lender and am a Certified Cash Flow Consultant with the American Cash Flow Institute and I wouldn't dream of offering to sell someone a bank note without educating them first.  There are two very good reasons for this;

1. It is ILLEGAL.  Clearly Terry either is ignorant of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations or he doesn't care. A bank note is a security and is therefore a regulated investment.  To sell regulated investments you either have to be a licensed broker or be exempt from the securities laws.  If you don't know what it takes to be exempt, then you are certain to breaking those laws and a very unpleasant conversation with government agents is looming in your future.   
2. It is bad business to sell a bank note to someone who does not understand the risks.  If you buy a bank note, you better have a very good understanding the real estate that backs the note and the person who is paying the note, as well as the terms of the note.  If you don't know those things, you WILL get taken. 

It looks like Joe is trying to get Matt to buy properties for no money down in Canada.  I find that fascinating since so many Canadian investors are flocking to buy real estate in the US and they tell me that many of the most important real estate laws are very different in Canada than the US.  Offering to sell me real estate in Canada right now seems to be like swimming against the current.  My stock investing coach tells me "the trend is your friend until it ends."  Sounds like Joe is bucking the trend.

Owen wants to help Matt find properties.  Good for you Owen, but if Matt is just getting started then he probably doesn't have a clue about how to tell a bad deal from a good deal.  This sounds like a setup to me.

Cheryl said,

"Hi Matt! I have some places you can check out at your leisure! We have access to Investor Opportunities in Phoenix/Arizona, Chicago/Illinois, Atlanta/Georgia, and our 1st. International Local . . Seaside Mariana/Nicaragua! These Webinars are FREE and are on your time . . . any time! All you have to do is click on the provided Link and  . . then sit back and enjoy!"

Cheryl gets a trifecta. 

1. She offers investments to someone who is new. 
2. She offers investments in far away places to someone who is new.  And,
3. She offers to educate the new investor on why doing these foolish things is actually a good idea.

Well, I could go on an on, but hopefully you can clearly see why I felt strongly enough to write this column.  What I pulled out was representative of a large percentage of what Matt was told.

If you have waded through those few select comments, I hope you have gotten the same feeling I did that for a new investor to through out a question like Matt did is like throwing out chum for sharks.  You will soon have more interest from hungry predators than you know what to do with.

In all fairness, a few people offered Matt some good advice.  Some experienced investors recommended programs that they have found to be good investments.  Some recommended Larry Goins, others touted Robert Kiyosaki's group.

Having spent in excess of $200,000 on real estate education, some of it wasted and some not, I recommended to Matt that he reach out to Phill Grove at Love American Homes.

I told Matt,

"I encourage you to look at what Phill Grove provides. He gives you a good understanding of a variety of proven strategies instead of just beating on one horse (that might be dead in today's market). And his training is a very good value.

Once you have gone through his materials, like Charles suggests, pick one and do it until you master it before worrying about adding on to your toolbelt.

The gurus will keep tempting you with "earn $10,000 a month do this" and next month it will be "earn $10,000 a month doing something else." Focus is key."

If you are wanting to get started in real estate here is the best advice I pulled from all those responses to Matt.  I say it is the best based on my own experience of more than a decade of investing in real estate and being personally acquainted with many of the leading "gurus" of the real estate today.

• Set realistic goals:  Greed kills.  Setting goals that are too high makes you an easy mark for every get-rich-quick real estate scam out there, including gurus and grifters.
• Start part time: if you cannot make money investing in real estate part-time, then you won't make enough to live on doing it full-time.
• Invest in a good education.  Find a real estate training program that someone who you know is successful recommends.  Of all the courses I have taken, I recommend Phill Grove's Training.
• Take that education and follow the program exactly.  Adapting it to your own understanding will almost certainly result in failure.
• Do it immediately.  Don't wait for more education.  Take that first program and start doing it right away.
• After you have mastered one or two related strategies, then feel free to continue purusing your professional education with other training.
• Implement before learning more.  Don't sign up for any other courses until you have spent three to six months implementing and mastering what you learned in the first course.
• Invest close to home.  Some of the most successful real estate investors I know have made all their money buying and selling single family homes within 50 miles of where they live. And considering that some of those are in Ohio, then you know I am not talking about people living in real estate "hot spots."  Many people will try to convince investors to buy far from home.  In most cases this will result in a very expensive educational experience that will leave you poorer and wiser.  I know.  I have been there and done that.
• Get a good coach or mentoring program.  The best one I know is www.TopOneCoaching.com.  They are focused on your success instead of just trying to upsell you some additional training. They operate all over the US and have coaches with a wide variety of skills to help you learn real estate and business.  They require that their coaches spend 90% of their time actually doing what they are coaching.  That way you don't get someone coaching you from a manual - they are coaching you from what they know is working today.  In the interest of full disclosure, I was recently appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Top One Coaching.
• Network with other successful investors and learn from them.  Your local real estate investment association (REIA) is one source.  However the quality of investors you find in your REIA is highly variable.  Some of the folks there are sharks looking to make you their next meal, others are talkalots - they talk about real estate but don't do any actual deals.  If you want to connect with one of the best networking events for serious and successful investors and bussiness people in the US, you cannot get any better than Mega Partnering. JT Foxx is the mastermind behind these events and he is launching his fifth event right now.  I have attended all four previous events and they are AMAZING.  If you attend and make any effort at all, you will find yourself networking with millionaires.

If you want to invest in real estate, right now is one of the best opportunities in more than eighty years.  With home values down, and unemployment beginning to falter, the window of opportunity is starting to close.

Working with an experienced investor as a partner is one of the safest ways to learn the realities of investing in your market.  If you are looking to get into real estate investing, contact me.  I have a network of successful and experienced investors that reaches across the whole country and even to places on the far side of the world (like New Zealand, Australia, and China).  I will be more than happy to introduce you to one or more of them so that you can have a chance to work with the best instead of getting taken like the rest.

Tom S.

PS: For all those who were eagerly throwing investment opportunities at Matt:

In the US, real estate is considered a security and selling investments in real estate is a regulated activity.  To stay inside the law, no one who isn't a licensed securities broker can legally offer you an investment in real estate if you are not one of their friends, family, or associates who they have known for more than 30 days and had at least 3 conversations that did not involve investment offerings.  All these folks who were eagerly throwing "money making opportunities" at Matt were breaking the securities laws.

Exceptions are if they are doing a private placement (which requires a private placement memorandum) and they know that you are a "sophisticated investor" or a "qualified investor."  Both are terms with specific meanings defined by the SEC.

For all of you who were ready to give Matt a "deal" and take his money, I recommend that you go to www.acowgill.com and sign up for Alan Cowgill's bootcamp on Finding Private Money.  He teaches you how to do it while staying inside the boundaries of US law.

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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 TSheppard@CharlotteWealthPartners.com

Welcome to the Lemonaide Stand

If we let it, life tends to move us toward where we need to be.  I realized many years ago that my greatest satisfaction in life comes from helping others to succeed.

When I started this blog, it was with the purpose of drawing attention to and promoting my real estate investing efforts with the intention of helping others to succeed along with me.  Along the way, I have realized that for others to enjoy the success I have experienced, they need information that focuses on more than just real estate.

To this end, I will soon release my first book, "Get Promoted to the Life You Want: A No BS Guide to Help You Get and Keep the Job You Want."  Why this book?

Because I realize that many people are suffering the effects of unemployment or underemployment, and their career paths are not getting them the rewards they hope for.  In 30+ years in the work force, my career has had its share of ups and downs.  But for the last 20+ it has been a steady climb into six-figure salaries.

During those 20+ years, I did not have a single day of unemployment, even though I was laid off, merged, acquired, divested, down-sized, etc.

Looking back, I realized I had learned and used some valuable skills that I can pass on to help others navigate the winds of workplace change.  I learned how to change potential disasters into stepping stones to greater prosperity.

But success is not just about getting and keeping the job you want.  It is also about having the kind of relationships you want, the health you want, and the financial strength you want.

This column will bring you a variety of topics all aimed at one goal.  Helping all of us to turn potential disasters in our lives into stepping stones to greater happiness and prosperity.

Along the way, you will find that I frequently recommend some helpful book I have been reading.  Here is the most recent I have found to help us parents to do a better job than we would if just left to our own wisdom.

My wife just finished reading this book and highly recommends it.  I will be reading it soon.  From what she told me, I wish I had been able to read it many years ago.  My children might have had it a bit better if I had known this then.


I hope you enjoy this book and find it as helpful as my wife and I.




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 TSheppard@ADBProperties.com

What Gene Simmons of KISS Taught Me About Business

You might be surprised at what you can learn about business from a guy who wore more makeup and bigger high heels than his mommy.

Pictured below, left to right, are JT Foxx, Gene Simmons and Thomas K Sheppard.  This picture was taken February 12, 2011 at Mega Partnering 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

June 10 through 13 of February 2011 I attended the JT Foxx Mega Partnering event in Los Angeles.  If you have ever attended a celebrity business event, they are typified by headline speakers punctuated by 90 minutes pitches for programs that promise you wealth and happiness, each easier than the programs touted before.  That is NOT what happens at these JT Foxx events, especially the Mega Partnering brand he has built.  In these events you get a collection of powerful, unarguably successful speakers who teach you their secrets to living the life they want.  They don't pitch you on products to make you happy, healthy, and wealthy.

The event this February (JT holds two of these each year), featured Gene Simmons, the legendary rock star from KISS and the star of Family Jewels (yes his wife Shannon Tweed of Playboy fame did make an appearance).

I openly confess here that when JT told me he was going to get Gene to headline this event, I asked him why?  I really couldn't imagine what I could learn from a guy who made himself famous wearing more makeup and taller heels than his mother while puking up blood and sticking out his tongue.  In case you don't release it, most rock stars end up broke and destroyed almost as soon as the passion of their fans for their music fades away.  So, when JT told me that Gene Simmons has a worth in excess of $700 million and is considered a branding genius and a formidable businessman, I was intrigued.

I was not disappointed.

Gene Simmons is more than just a guy with a long tongue.  Although I cannot tell you all that he taught us over the course of about two hours, because I would probably get a call from his lawyers, I can share a couple of nuggets that I took away from his conversation with us.  Yes, it was a conversation.  He came down off the stage, mic in hand and walked up and down through the audience asking pointed questions and challenging our thinking.  He pulled up several different members of the audience and on the spot taught them how to brand themselves and their businesses - a quick consultation that would have cost them at least $100,000 if they had approached Gene and asked for a consultation.

In case you didn't realize it, Gene is an immigrant to America.  His mother was Hungarian, a holocaust survivor and he was born in Israel.  Did you know that immigrants to the US are 4 times more likely to become millionaires than native born Americans?

Here are some nuggets he shared:

• You cannot fail in this country.  You can rack it up and then go broke, declare bankruptcy and then start all over.
• Don't rely on just one business for your money, build several.
• Learn to speak English with a mid-Atlantic American accent - that is what you hear from the new folks on TV and the most successful people in the world.  American English is the speaking pattern and accent of success in the US.  English is the language of money.  Although learning Mandarin (not Cantonese) is a pretty good idea right now.
• Use trademark laws to protect your brands and use lawyers to enforce your trademark rights, or you will lose them both - by law.
• Operate your business like a Navy Seal.  Come in below the RADAR.  Minimize your exposure by having a lean and mean operation.
• Educate yourself, don't rely on the drivel that passes for education in our schools.  Go to the library and take advantage of the best free education in the world, reading library books.  And now we can get a lot of that over the internet too.
• Be nice to rich people because a poor person never gives you a job.
• Be a rock stat - walk into the room and own it.

Although I could go on with what he taught and fill up several entries in this blog, I will leave it at this, feeling it is sufficient to illustrate my point.  I am glad that JT Foxx had the good judgment to look beyond the comic book image of KISS to bring to his friends and students the knowledge and influence of a business and branding powerhouse like Gene Simmons.

Likewise, I am glad I had the good sense to trust JT and not turn up my nose at the prospect of expecting to learn some serious business from someone who wore bigger high heels and more makeup than his mommy.

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE - Gene asked if anyone there spoke Spanish.  I raised my hand and he asked me to translate how his Puerto Rican students greeted him each morning when he was a school teacher.  Although I was able to translate it, I couldn't bring myself to translate that without being prepared to fight to the death.  I later determined a tactful way to convey it which I include here and leave to you to struggle through my deliberate obfuscation to get to the reality of what they said.  Here is my sanitized translation, "Hello my odoriferous Jewish friend who mates with boys. I want you to know that I really enjoyed getting to know your mother, in a very Biblical way."  Yes, that IS cleaned up. Sorry Gene, I hope I didn't ruin the effect you were after.

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 TSheppard@ADBProperties.com