Who is Michael Jake?? And How did He get to be such a Successful Real Estate Investor?

Answered by Michael Jake:

Someone asked me a darn good question yesterday.  (No Foolin'!)

I was interviewing someone for my upcoming Platinum Mentoring Program, and I was asked, "Who mentored you?"

Some of you have already heard the story, but for the rest of you, my goal creating my Platinum Mentoring Program was to be what I NEVER HAD! 

I did NOT have a mentor local to this area to help me put all the pieces together for this market.

I started at the library and read every book they had on residential real estate investing.  The library fit into my budget when I started since I was broke.  But the benefit of the library was a 3 week deadline.  3 books at a time and a 3 week deadline got me through more books in a short period of time than I could have conceived of.

Books still didn't give me, an over-analytical thinker at the time, enough to jump into the water.  One book, however, led to a fr.ee preview seminar, a high priced paid seminar and a 'hotline' national mentor which led me to my first real life seminar.  What appeared to be a good deal, and something my hotline 'guru' told me to jump on, which led to a slow cash flow bleeding over several years and an eventual $18,000 loss on resale just to make the pain go away.

My 'mentors' came in the books, tapes, courses, bootcamps, and seminar variety.  I got a nugget here and there and through my own Failing Forward and constantly making a mess of things, spending over 100,000 on my education, and much much more of learning the hard way, I put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

You shouldn't have to take the 'licks' I've taken, you shouldn't have to take a financial bath doing bad deals or dump over 6 figures into an education to make real estate investing work for you.

In the corporate world, I would wake up in the morning and loathe, going to work.  Every new quarter would come a new announcement of cut-backs, reduction in force, loss of benefits, outsourcing of jobs to overseas and other such wonderful depression inducing news.  This was my "why"!  Why I committed to investing.  I wasn't going to take that stress for the rest of my life.

Many of the motivation books I read said, invest 3-10% of your earnings in yourself.  I had a timeline that demanded more, so I upped the ante, I invested 50% of all my investing profits back into my education.  Speed!  This was my solution to making it happen faster. 

It worked!

Now, I wake up and feel excited.  I can't wait to get started.  I start my day with my family, relaxed, enjoying quality time together.  I have a work out (most days), enjoy my morning coffee, read, spend time with my wife and my son, and then start my day on my own terms. 

Working at real estate investing just doesn't feel like work to me.  I love it.  And I love the freedom it's given me and my family.

I'm not different than you and you are no different than me.  If I can do this, so can anyone willing to commit themself to it.  Yes, Commit!  Try = Fail!  Commit = Success.

In 2005 I started Colorado Springs first ever One on One and small group mentoring and coaching program.  When I first started my journey, listening to Zig Ziglar tapes helped me to keep motivated and stay on track.  One principal Zig is famous for teaching is that you can get anything you want out of life if you just help enough others get what they want.

At my first ever Dan Kennedy Seminar, I got invited to have dinner with Ron LeGrand, Richard Roop and Marco Kozlowski.  It was a very memorable dinner.  Ron pretty much ignored me for most of the dinner, yet at one point he asked me, "so what do you do?'  I gave him a 30 second rendition, as what I knew of Ron, he likes to cut the fat out, but I told him of the last months success investing and doing over $176,000 in January, which was at the time, a record month.  He poked around a little more, seemingly uninterested but mildly curious.

Later that night, Ron talked about me on stage giving his speech to, I don't know, maybe 400 or 500 people - if you've ever been to a Kennedy event, he packs them in.  I bought the CD's of that event, just to have the recording of Ron talking about me there.  It motivated me even more.

The next day Ron hosted a round table and while sitting there before it got started some guy sat down next to me and asked what I thought of all this.  He said it seemed pretty over the top.  I told him I was the guy Ron talked about last night and that you really can make some serious bucks doing this.  We traded cards.

A few months later He called.  He said he wanted ME to mentor him in this business.  Hmm, I thought.  I told him to give me some time to think it over.

Add to that I talk I was asked to give at the local CAREI meeting, after which I was mobbed with people asking me relentlessly to mentor them.

Several books I read and in fact, Ron LeGrand himself told me at dinner, based on my success, I should be teaching people how I do what I do.  He said it will take your investing to the next level.  He said, if you teach others, you will learn more than you can ever believe.

So with all these 'events' that happened, I truly felt I was being called to do this.  Called to help others succeed.  And that's how I started.  I selected a handful of people from that first talk I did. 

I still coach, I still mentor, but most importantly, I still invest.  I still have my feet grounded in the market as it unfolds along the front range.  Yes, word got round and many people along the entire front range, and in some cases across the country, heard about what I was doing and signed up.  Word of mouth referral is still my biggest source of mentoring clients.  Because they were overwhelmed with what I delivered to them - and continue to deliver.

When I first started I questioned the morality of real estate investors.  I had seen stories, talked to people, many of which who had negative opinions of investors.  Yet as I dove into the world of investing, I found exactly the opposite to be true.  The people I met for the most part where good honest folks who really wanted to help others.

Training other investors is my way of raising public opinion of investors by training only honest ethical people how to do this the right way.  How to make a positive impact on our community through real estate investing.  And along the way, I've created, and continue to grow, a community of like minded investors who look out for each other.  Investors who work together, do deals together, make money together, share information and experience together.

Well, thus ends, Mike's warm and fuzzy thought for the day.  Hope you enjoyed the story.  If not, no trees were harmed in the making of it.  :)

If you want to make investing work for you, if you want to be associated with a community of like-mind folks sharing information, if you want to work with someone who will mentor you, not sell you hard and leave you out to dry, I invite you to apply for my Platinum Mentoring Program. 

You Won't Get left behind.  You will get 1:1 coaching with ME.  Not a hot line.  Not a receptionist.  Not a tele-marketer reading from a flow-chart and a computer screen who's never done a deal.  Of course you don't need to do real estate to teach real estate.  That's what they say right?  Right!

Never will you be pawned off to an underling, nor will I take the "holier than thou" approach.  You want a mentor who is there when you need one.  One who IS the person who mentors you.

My Platinum Students have purchased millions and millions and millions of real estate right here in Colorado.  Right in their own back yards.  Won't you join us?

If you make a commitment to you, I will make one to you as well.  Go to http://www.localmentor.com/platinum.asp for details.  Click on the application link for all the details of what my Platinum Program gives you.

I do only work with 10 or less investors.  It's the only way I can give the personal attention you won't get elsewhere.  I start a new group each quarter.  Don't miss you opportunity.  Like I said, if you make a commitment in yourself, I will too.