This Lesson Changed My Real Estate Business

So far this year, I have been trying hard to implement intense focus — and it has already changed my business. I am referring to a high-intensity focus on one thing until you master it. In previous years, I had scattered focus. And looking back, it was too early to scatter my focus. I was an educator, rehabber, landlord, and wholesaler. I’d seen others do it, and I just knew that was the way things were done — and besides, doing all that sounded really cool. Right? It’s like you can do everything. It’s a great bragging piece as well — at least that’s what I thought. Well, last year I joined a high-level real estate mastermind titled “Collective Genius.” I can’t share any details so I will give you an overview.

The Invaluable Lesson I Learned From My Real Estate Mastermind

Last year, I had about 5 rehabs or so going on at once with a partner. I knew for a fact I was going to have a rockstar year. Three of them we were set to make 6 figures for the year as projected profit. I also joined the Collective Genius. In this mastermind, there were so many heavy hitters, it was completely mind-boggling. I’m talking everyday Joes we will never hear of who are completely dominating their local markets. I went into total shell-shock because I came to the realization that I had not been doing much of anything with my real estate business. I wanted to implement everything as soon as I got home. There was one problem — my rehabs were going over budget, staying on the market longer than they were supposed to, and, of course, in the end, we made very little money on them. It was a BIG learning experience for me. Oh yeah, by the way, I had hard money payments, I had to run my wholesaling business, and, of course, I had to maintain my personal lifestyle.

Related: 3 Steps to Identify Your “One Thing” (& Start Rescuing Lost Time!)

I forgot to mention that Collective Genius is a traveling mastermind. We met 3 times last year. I sat in these 3 meetings soaking up all the knowledge, knowing things were not going as planned in my personal business. I noticed one thing about all the investors, both men and women, who were there: They had highly intense focus. They knew what they were good at, and they got it automated. The people who were rehabbing and wholesaling mastered one thing, automated it, and then moved onto the next thing. I mastered wholesaling, but never automated it. As the fourth quarter approached, I fortunately started to see some light and began to have some breathing room in my own business. I decided not to monetize my education business, to slow all the way down on rehabbing, and to focus on marketing and wholesaling. I then made the big leap and hired an acquisitions manager in the fourth quarter of the year.

What I’ve Accomplished With Intense Focus

Fast forward to the first quarter of the year — I made $250k, with $150k of that just via wholesaling. I was able to accomplish that with the intense focus on one marketing channel, which was direct mail. I’ve currently maxed out one marketing channel and will soon move onto the next marketing channel. I also primarily wholesale now. Before, I was ashamed to say I was just a wholesaler. Now I realize if I make 7 figures wholesaling, who cares if I only wholesale? My plan is to get better at wholesaling and do some more automation before I jump back into taking on multiple rehab projects again. I am still looking to buy more rentals, but that’s more of a “set it and forget it” model for me. I think I will always use property management for my rentals. I have to give major credit to the Collective Genius mastermind for setting the foundation for all the things I have going on currently. It’s crazy because focusing on one thing has gotten me two speaking gigs — one was in Atlanta, and the other will be at a real estate club about two hours or so from me.

In conclusion, the point of this post was to step back and ask yourself what one thing you’re actively focusing on. That one thing could be rentals, rehabbing, wholesaling, or notes. It may sound foolish, but you can make more money doing one thing than scattering your focus doing five things — and there’s actually less work and stress focusing on one thing. I don’t know about you, but in my case, having more disposable income accelerated my goal to create more passive income. These days, I am very strategic about what I take on. It must make a lot of money that offsets the stress factors involved.

Investors: What ONE thing are you focusing on now? Do you find you do better when focusing on one thing or many items at a time?

Let me know with a comment!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.