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.

Thanks for Being a Good Friend to me.  Let me Give something back to you!

Name:

Email:

We respect your email privacy

Powered by AWeber Autoresponders

 Your Success is Our Business (TM)

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 

360 Millionaire - Last Chance

Why you should be beating down the doors to attend the 360 Millionaire Class with JT Foxx and what you will learn there!

Because JT Foxx continually updates his materials to work in the current market, the exact details of what he teaches in one class are not the same in the next class. So even though I have attended his class before, the list of learnings I give here is partial, generally accurate, and probably won’t be covered in exactly the same way as it was when I heard him teach it before.

Last year, JT called this class, “Partner Your Way to Millions” and it was a great class. Since then he has renamed it, retooled it, and completely updated it to be even more effective.

Why would anyone want to attend a class about millionaires? Very simply because we all want to be financially independent. Some of us want to be stinking rich.

Robert Kiyosaki (a friend of JT’s) in his book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” teaches that financial independence is when you have income sources outside of your job that meet or exceed your ordinary expenses. For many of us financial independence is enough. Others want still more.

Many of us who were raised working-class, like I was, have been taught to look down on people of wealth as some form of leech on society (some politicians try to manipulate us with this ploy today). This is a way for us to make our relative poverty into a virtue and their wealth into a vice that we aren’t afflicted with. This is really just a mental coping mechanism, an excuse to help us to avoid feeling bad that we haven’t been good enough with our talents to lift ourselves to that level. Jesus taught in his parable of the talents that we should be very aggressive in turning our 5 into 10 and our 10 into 100. And yet, we sneer at those who turn 10 into 100. My mother taught me that this is what is called, “reverse snobbery.” It is actually a form of pride and envy. Did you realize that even us poor folk can be guilty of the kind of pride and envy we imagine is in the heart of the wealthy.

A wise man taught me that being wealthy won’t make you a good person or bad, it will just make you more of what you already are. If you are a jerk, you will be a bigger jerk. If you are nice, you will be even nicer to people. Wealthy people give more to charities that poor people, because they can and they want to. A little while ago I spent a weekend with a man who is worth $300 million. He doesn’t need to work another day in his life. He was paid to be there with a group of us and teach us his secrets of negotiating. Every dollar he received for being there was contributed to his favorite charity – a children’s hospital. How would you like to be able to give $30,000 to your favorite charity? You can’t when you need that money just to pay your bills. But if you are financially independent and wealthy you can do that, if you choose. Financial independence is about having the ability to choose what to do with your time and your money.

Do you want to spend your whole life depending on how much your boss likes you so that you can improve your financial security? Most of us dream of the day when we can sing along with Johnny Paycheck and say to our boss, “take this job and shove it. I ain’t workin’ here no more.”

In our society today we equate the term millionaire with someone who doesn’t have to depend upon their job anymore. If you become a millionaire, you can join those who have gone before you to tell their boss to “take this job and shove it.”

But are we willing to do anything to make that day happen? What is keeping you from making that happen? If you are like I used to be, there are several things (fears) holding you back. For years these prevented me from even trying to be too successful:

• I am afraid that I will have to give up what is most important to me in order to attain financial independence. The stories of wrecked lives on the path to wealth are many and legendary. It is true that the enemy of our happiness wants us to give up the sources of true happiness in exchange for worldly wealth or fame. But, that is a false bargain. There is no reason you cannot be financially independent while not sacrificing the most important things in life.

The trap of trading what is important for the mundane is even more prevalent when you are depending upon the pleasure of your boss for your financial well being. How many opportunities to do what you know is important have you missed because you couldn’t afford to take time off from work?

Many years ago I realized the danger of the lure of corporate success. I decided then that I wasn’t going to accept the notion that others pushed at me that the only way I could succeed in the company was to give my life to the company while sacrificing everything else that was important to me. I decided that when I retired from a successful corporate career, I wanted to go home to my first wife and children, not to an empty home or one filled with reminders of failed relationships that had been destroyed in my quest for financial success in my career.

In 2008 I retired from a job paying me six figures per year. I went home to my first wife and children. My successful career did not cost me my marriage and my family. If I had learned many years ago what JT Foxx teaches today, I could have succeeded in my career much quicker and I could have retired to become my own boss much sooner, all without sacrificing the most important things in life.

• I don’t know what I need to do to become financially independent. Some once told me, “if you think education is expensive, try ignorance and experience and see how much more expensive they are.” That is really true. I have paid the price in ignorance and experience on some things and paid for education on others. I can authoritatively say that education, no matter the cost is much less expensive than the alternatives. Education gives us a chance to become wise by learning from the ignorance and experience of others.

Even when we really want to become financially independent, most of us have no idea how to make that come to pass. I did it in 2008. I met JT after then and he taught me things that have helped further my dream. If I had known years ago what he is teaching today, I could have made my exit from being under someone else’s thumb years ago.

What You Will Learn from the 360 Millionaire?

The truth is that what you learn is a function of what you are open to learn and what is taught. Because I don’t know how open your mind is to receive the knowledge you need to change your life for the better, I cannot tell you what you will learn in this class with JT. But, I can tell you some of what he will teach if you are able to learn it.

A fundamental truth that JT teaches in all his classes is that the key to building your net worth is your network. Building your business or advancing your career is tied to your ability to build and utilize a network of strong relationships with people who become willing to help you achieve your goals. Your network is equal to your net worth.

Some of what you will learn in the 360 Millionaire Class with JT Foxx

• How to build your network

Effective ways to network
How to find millionaires in your community
How to build relationships with millionaires
How to monetize your network

• The model JT used and still uses to get the funding he needed to start his business

Step by step how to apply this model to fund your own business
Keys to maintaining this model indefinitely

• Secrets of branding

How to tell someone about your brand in under a minute
How to get them to ask you for more information

• Secrets of marketing

How to get your brand in front of people
How to bring people to your business
How to monetize your marketing
How to become The Expert without being branded a “know-it-all”

• How to manage your image
• Secrets of successful businesses

Key functions you need to create or have in place
Key information that will make or break your business

This short list just scratches the surface. There is a lot more he will teach in the two days of this class.

This Really Is Your Last Chance

JT has announced that although the class will be held in 2011, he will no longer be personally teaching this class. Yes, you will still be able to get some wonderful instruction, but you won’t be getting it directly from someone who is widely recognized as a marketing genius.

If you are a friend of mine and want to attend the class being held in Charlotte on this December 4th and 5th you need to get in contact with me right away.

Tom ~

PS: You can enroll for the class by going to www.360millionaireclass.com If you are a friend of mine, send me an email letting me know you have enrolled in the class in Charlotte and I will give you a special promotion code that will give you a significant discount off the $5,000 fee that is regularly charged for this class.  My email is at the bottom of this blog.  But you must act fast, seating is filling up quickly and when the seats are gone the discount will be irrelevant.

If you are sick and tired of seeing your investments go into retirement long before you do,

call us today for the cure.

704-699-6080

Or

Leave a message for us 24 hours a day at 704-900-1488

We will call you back within one business day.

Why Buy Retail?

www.BuyBelowMarket.com

See my latest video about what we do at The Gold Seal Homes Group: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACJx3wpKezQ

About J.T. Foxx

J.T. Foxx started investing 6 years ago with nothing more than a rusted out Ford pick-up truck, $974 dollars and the clothes on his back. Now just four 6 years later, he has closed over $40 million in real estate deals, become an internationally recognized speaker and developed a multitude of successful business ventures - all by mastering the Art of partnering, branding & marketing.

J.T. is most recognized as a very successful real estate investor and entrepreneur but he is also a popular nationally syndicated weekend radio personality of the "J.T. Foxx Show" and the "Canadian Wealth Show". His radio program features such celebrity guests as Senator McCain, Secretary of State, William Cohen, Rev Jesse Jackson, Trump, and George Ross (Donald Trump's right hand man), and celebrated authors like Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Bob Proctor, from The Secret and Mark Victor Hanson from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

Even though his recognition and success in business and radio continues to rise, J.T.'s true passion is teaching and reaching out to those who dream of achieving their goals by creating differentiation and thinking differently. J.T. teaches the same practical applications he utilizes daily and that actually get results in today's rapidly changing marketplace, bottom line his techniques work.

J.T. is beloved by his audiences for his results oriented, no-nonsense approach to business and to life - but most importantly because he gives them the tools not only to make more money, but to thrive and make a powerful impact for the better.

Tel: 1-877-272-3031
events@jtfoxxorg.com
http://www.askjtfoxx.com

About Thomas K Sheppard
Tom started investing about nine years ago with no money and no credit. Learning avidly from established experts, following their instructions and working part-time he was soon able to build a real estate business with more than a $1 million in assets.

Two years ago Tom retired from a six-figure salary with a major national bank to work at his real estate business full time (www.adbproperties.com). Since then he has founded The Gold Seal Homes Group which has the goal of helping 100,000 people attain peace of mind by finding quality, affordable homes. In the current market, the primary thrust of the Group is to help people buy homes at below market prices(www.buybelowmarket.com).

Tom can be reached at: 704-699-6080 or tsheppard@adbproperties.com

You Can't Make Money in Real Estate in THIS Market... WHATEVER!

Here is the true story of how one of my partners and I recently made more than $23,000 in just 10 weeks. And, how one fortunate home buyer was able to buy a home at 30% below market.

My partner put up the money and I did all the work. Then we shared a 77% (annualized) return.

My partner and I bought this home in a good neighborhood in South Charlotte in late July for $140,000. Just ten weeks later we sold this same house for $181,497.

In the interim, we put on a new roof, cleaned the place up, made a few repairs, and got bids for upgrading the kitchen. After spending about $5,000, we sold the property for $181,497.

My partner didn’t have to attend any of the closings. I was there when we bought it on July 28, 2010, he was in California. I was at the closing on October 15, 2010 when we sold it. He was back in California after just returning from Australia and New Zealand.

He didn’t have to pound any nails or take time off from his busy schedule to manage the property or the work. I made all the arrangements and wired him the funds at closing.

After taking out all our costs (including real estate agent commissions) we had just over $23,000 to split between us. That was a 16% cash-on-cash return in just 10 weeks. If you annualize that it is an annual return rate of 77.22%.

How would you like to earn 77% a year on your money?

I meet people every day who, when I tell them that I buy and sell real estate, they tell me that, “You cannot make money in today’s market buying and selling real estate.” I tell them, “Don’t tell that to the guy who partnered with me on this house. He will call you a liar.”

Many people believe that if you make money it is because someone else got ripped off. I don’t work that way, but how about if I give you the facts and let you decide.

How did we get such a great deal when we bought the house?

I won’t kid you, finding really great deals in this market is not easy. There are a lot of houses offered for sale, but not many that are really on sale.

We bought the house from an estate. The heirs had left the house sitting for months and they didn’t want it. They were happy to get an ALL CASH offer that didn’t depend on a bank loan (which is pretty hard to get on a house that needs repairs). When we closed, they took their money and ran away, happy.

When they left, the house was filled with stuff that we had to remove before we could go forward. Also, the roof was in danger of collapsing, so we had to get a crew in there fast to fix the roof. Instead of just slapping on a few shingles, we took it down to the wood, replaced several sheets of plywood and then put on 30 year architectural shingles. Boy, were the neighbors happy to see that!

Did the Buyer get ripped off when they bought the house?

We don’t work that way. We sell houses at below market prices. Here are the facts, you decide.

We removed all the trash from the house, and there was a house full of it. Then we pulled up the carpets and revealed beautiful hardwood floors that had been covered up since the late 60’s and were in fantastic condition. We went out and got bids on upgrading the house to current standards. We negotiated those bids down from $60,000 to $42,000 and then passed those on to the new buyer at closing.

If they do the upgrades, the house will be worth about $260,000 right away. So, do the math. They paid $181k to buy the house. If they pay $42K for the upgrades, the property will be worth $260K. They will have $223K into a house that is now worth $260K. That is more than $37,000 in owners equity, beyond what they paid. In other words, after everything they will have bought the house for 14% below market value.

Why pay retail when you can buy below market?These buyers bought this house for

30% below market value!

When they complete the upgrades they will still have bought the home for

14% below market value!

Why pay retail when you can buy below market?

Are you tired of seeing your 401K turn into a 101K?

You need to learn how to get your money working for you!

Are you tired of seeing your IRA acting like it has retired before you have, in spite of the money you keep putting into it?

Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad has correctly taught people that financial independence is when your investments earn enough to pay all your bills. Then you are no longer dependent on your job and your boss. You need to make investments that consistently earn money for you at double digit rates!

Real estate is the thing that has made more millionaires than any other business in history.

Any investment advisor will agree that you should always buy low and sell high in order to make money.

Right now real estate prices are the lowest they have been in decades!

This is the time to buy real estate.

But, if you don’t know real estate and local markets you could still end up losing money by making bad buys. For your money to make money for you in real estate, you need to partner with a seasoned real estate investor who knows the local markets and knows how to make money in real estate no matter what the market is doing.

Our company has been actively investing in real estate in the Charlotte market since 2001. We didn’t get hurt by this big market downturn because we always buy our real estate the right way. Our systems, processes, and expertise allow us to find the really great deals and make money on them.

We are actively seeking to expand our network of investors and potential partners. If you want to take advantage of the BEST REAL ESTATE MARKET IN DECADES, but are afraid you don’t know enough or you don’t have enough time to learn what you need to know, don’t worry, just contact us. We will help you get started making your money make money for you.

No one cares more about your money than you do!

We are more conservative with our partners’ money than we are with our own.

If you are sick and tired of seeing your investments go into retirement long before you do,

call us today for the cure.

704-699-6080

Or

Leave a message for us 24 hours a day at 704-900-1488

We will call you back within one business day.

Tom ~

Why Pay Retail for a Home or Investment Property?

http://www.buybelowmarket.com/

See my latest video about what we do at The Gold Seal Homes Group: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACJx3wpKezQ

Thomas K Sheppard has been successfully investing in real estate since 2001. A veteran of the US Marine Corps and more than 17 years in the banking industry, he is focused on helping 100,000 families to find quality, affordable homes. He buys, sells, and rents homes in the Charlotte, NC metropolitan area, including Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Rowan, Union, and Gaston counties. If you are looking to buy, rent, or sell a home, condo, or apartment in those areas, or would like to learn about how you can help 100,000 families find quality, affordable homes, contact him at tsheppard@adbproperties.com or visit his website http://www.buybelowmarket.com/.

Meeting With Millionaires and Making Money With Friends

On September 11 and 12 I spent the weekend in Chicago meeting with millionaires. Really, lil ole me!

I went to an event called Mega Partnering hosted by JT Foxx. Several millionaires stood up on the stage over those two days and each shared the secrets of how they got where they are. In contrast with most celebrity-filled events, they didn't try to sell us anything. With very few exceptions, there weren't any books or tapes available for sale at the back of the room.

In addition to the millionaires up on the stage, there were many sitting in the audience. JT taught us how to network with them and then gave us the chance to do just that.

I met one guy who represents a hedge fund that invests in real estate. I met another who has created a deal exchange where deals and money come together. Some of these folks are looking for deals that start at $2 million and go to $200 million. Others are more in my zone, looking to fund purchases of single family homes.

Some of these are just money lenders. Others are looking to partner with quality people in select markets so that they can work together to make a lot of money in this crazy market.

Why would an experienced real estate investor like me be interested in working with these folks? The reality is that there are many more opportunities in the market right now than I can make happen. So, I need lots of money to be able to buy lots of homes at prices significantly below market so that I can sell them at a discount to people looking to buy a home for themselves but don't want to pay retail.

Why go to a private money source instead of the bank? There are several reasons why a private money source often works much better for buying real estate instead of using a bank.

1. Right now banks aren't lending. I know the newspapers, the ads, and the TV commentators talk about how much the banks are lending. It is largely a lie. The number of loans that banks reject these days is at an all-time high. This means that more people than ever before are jumping through all the hoops the bank puts up only to find in the end that the bank has found some reason not to do the deal. I don't need that kind of frustration only to lose the deal in the end.
2. Banks limit the number of loans they will make to one person, and sometimes they limit the number of loans the person can have regardless of where they got them. As a real estate investor, I have many loans. Don't get me wrong. I understand why banks don't want to make too many loans to one person. It is good risk management on their part. Still, it acts to limit the size and profitability of my business. I am not keen on having someone else tell me that I cannot earn more than a certain amount! I don't like the notion that someone else can tell me I cannot buy more houses than they think I should.
3. Banks are restricted by government regulation. They have to jump through many hoops to lend me money, and in turn they make me jump through many hoops.
4. Private lending sources don't have the limits I mention above. They look less at me and more at the deal. They aren't afraid for me to fail, that will just be an opportunity for them. Because of that, they will fund deals that the banks won't.
5. Private lending sources use common sense - bank employees use policies and procedures.

I could probably go on about the benefit of using private lending sources for pages and pages. Let me leave you with one more reason to use private lenders.

Not all private lenders are millionaires. Most of them are ordinary people with a few thousand dollars in an IRA, a CD, or a 401K with a former employer. Working with these kind of folks, I am usually able to give them a return that is much better than what they are getting from their current investments. I like helping other people to succeed. When I can succeed with them, that is the best.

I have many friends who have let me use their money to buy real estate in my business. They have made tens of thousands of dollars in interest while sitting at the beach, letting me do the work. Private lending is a powerful tool to turn ordinary folks like you and me into millionaires like I met with in Chicago.

Tom ~

Why Buy Retail?

http://www.buyahousebelowmarket.com/

See my latest blog about what we do at The Gold Seal Homes Group: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACJx3wpKezQ

Thomas K Sheppard has been successfully investing in real estate since 2001. A veteran of the US Marine Corps and more than 17 years in the banking industry, he is focused on helping 100,000 families to find quality, affordable homes. He buys, sells, and rents homes in the Charlotte, NC metropolitan area, including Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Rowan, Union, and Gaston counties. If you are looking to buy, rent, or sell a home, condo, or apartment in those areas, or would like to learn about how you can help 100,000 families find quality, affordable homes, contact him at tsheppard@adbproperties.com or visit his website www.buybelowmarket.com.