It has been a long time since I have received a random e-mail asking me to interview for a book or article or anything like that. It has happened in the past and I have taken the opportunity. It is part of my business strategy. The more ways I can get my name out there the better.
It was soon into this interview that I realized it wasn’t for this guy’s book. It was to set up a sales call so he could sell me his method. He ended it with the agreement mental minefield asking me if I would like to be more successful. That is how agreement works. Ask a question people can’t help but agree to like would you like more money, a nicer car, to lose weight, so on and so forth. It can even be something really small like a car salesman saying, “Nice weather we’re having today, isn’t it?” The theory is once a salesperson has you agreeing with them it is easer to get you to agree to the next thing they say and it is one of the more difficult mental minefields to navigate.
The sales call was yesterday and it was awkward. Largely because I made it so. You see this guy came in with a script. He has a mental picture of what a business person looks like and what their desires and motivations are. Most people in my position are still in the phase of their business where they are working 60 plus hours a week. I do not. I have a few two to three hour blocks each week when I do the marketing and then I answer the phone when it rings. Most of my time is spent with my family or dealing with other issues.
So when he asked my biggest struggle and I answered figuring out what to do with my time it confused him. When I went further and explained that I could double the time I spend working on my business but I’d have no idea what to do with that extra time he got even more confused. I watched his face fall and the wheels of his mind struggle to turn.
He eventually pressed me for an idea I hadn’t acted upon and I told him about my subscription box idea. Especially with Bark Box receding in the marketplace. The reason I haven’t acted on this idea is not because of a fear of failure like he said it is because it requires a little more research to understand if Bark Box is failing because no one wants subscription boxes anymore or for some other reasons, and is there really a hole in the market or have the desires of the marketplace changed.
Eventually, as he attempted to push further and lead me deeper and deeper into mental minefields I told him about the real estate investing business and the 1031 exchange that I am in the middle of executing. He asked me why I wasn’t doing this for myself or hadn’t been doing this all along. He told me how it was all in my head and a personal mental block. That is like saying a person could fly off the JRB if they just believed hard enough.
Business isn’t about mentality it is about mathematics, and the mathematics on me trying to do real estate investing with no money aren’t kind. Let’s look at the property we’re closing on next Friday. The PITI on it with no money down is $2847 according to the Bankrate mortgage calculator. The top estimated rent we could get for the place is $2800 a month. No amount of mental gymnastics will make those numbers work, and the bank would never loan me a dime if I walked in with those numbers.
It is pure silliness to blame preserved failures on mentality when mathematics shows, very clearly, why certain decisions cannot be taken and would be a waste of time to even attempt. Honestly, the entire bait and switch and assumptions on how I view myself piss my off. Add on top of it the fact that this dude was one of those people that believes you have to be broken to be built back up upsets me even more.
The entire prosperity gospel mindset is something I have never understood. I am at a point in my life where I am starting to understand my successes a lot more than my failures and I wish to continue to ride that wave.
David Huzzard Writes 