Billy Keels  0:00  The truth about my $25,323 mistake. Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's makeitoptional.com. The truth about my $25,323 mistake is for you, especially if you have ever been in a situation where you're like, you know what, you know it. You know it. You know it. You know it, until you don't know it, and then you wish you would have had somebody else there to help you know it. Yeah, this is for you. Or if you know somebody who's going down that track, make sure that you share this. Because this is going to be a really, really brief episode. I'm going to get really vulnerable. I'm going to share with you something that cost me a lot of money, and I'm going to share it with you so that it doesn't cost you or someone that you love the same amount of money, or, heaven forbid, worse, right? Because I want to take you back to like, 2014 and in 2014 I am a corporate executive who is overachieving against my targets. I just made a lateral move. I started getting ready to move to my role because I knew that I wanted to become the CEO of a region. Ultimately, I really wanted to become CEO of a big company. So that was my goal, and I just moved into position for that. I was having some success already. I've maybe I've talked about it before. I'm pretty sure that I have, I have this five year plan. I wanted to be able to create four figures of net income, and I want to be able to do that in five years. And I wanted to be able to do that through at least having 10 doors, which is like streams of income, the way that I thought about it back in that day. So things are going really, really well, right? I've got two young kids at that point in time, and things are going forward. And if I start thinking about what was going on in the side business, like I was gaining more experience because I'd already had six doors in like 12 months, something like that, and I finally started this five year plan. And so I was already 60% into the five year plan, like it one year. So I probably could have been a little bit more aggressive, but that's a whole different thing. I don't want to digress. But more importantly, and the reason I'm telling you about the truth about this $25,323 mistake, so that you don't make it and others that you know don't make it, is because I was following a very specific process, right? I was following it on my own, and things had started working out the first 60% of getting to that five year goal. Remember, in five years, I wanted to have four figures of net income, and do that through having at least 10 doors. And here's the thing, right, when that starts happening, I'm building the momentum. I'm feeling really, really positive about where we're going, and I wanted to be able to prove to everybody, Hey, listen, I got to this five year goal, and I got into it a lot less time. Although I didn't think it was going to take me so quickly, it started happening. But more importantly, like, I was stacking these streams of income. Because I realized, like, I didn't want to just, like, stack money to the ceiling. I was really about, how do I get more stacking streams of income? Because I wanted to be less dependent on my employer, and I was making a lot of money like I was doing really, really well in my corporate job, I just didn't want to be as dependent on my employer. Because for me, in the way that I grew up, finances was a lot of what kept me feeling like I'm dependent on somebody else. And so starting to develop these streams of income, I was still crushing it at the office, and I was feeling more independent, which started which was good for everybody. And because I was doing this myself, and I was following a very specific process, things were working well, and I knew that I was on my way, right. I was absolutely sure that I was on my way. And the thing is, is, because I was doing it my way, I was doing it all by myself in a silo, just me. And of course, yes, there were people that were on the team that I was using, individually or independently or very like at one moment, like a lawyer would come in and would sign contracts or get the loan documentation from the bank, but I was going through that whole process. And the thing of it was, is I knew the entire process back and forth. Are you noticing how much I'm saying i knew i Well, this is part of the $25,323 mistake that I'm going to share with you. Why? Well, because I got to the certain point that I knew what I knew, I didn't know more. I knew what I knew and what I knew was working. Up until that point in time. I knew everything that I knew, and because of that, it was going very, very well, and the process was working, and everything was working. And so much to the point that when I would go through these, these first couple of properties, and I would get the home inspection, like I read, and everything seemed to make sense, well, in this third one, some things didn't necessarily make sense, or I wasn't 100% sure, but I followed the process, and I knew that had the paperwork, so everything was there. And the thing that happened was, because I was by myself, I didn't feel comfortable. Hello, if you happen to be a high achiever, high type A, any of this kind of stuff, this is for you. You, because I don't want you to make the $25,323 mistake that I made. I want to save you that pain and agony, because it doesn't feel good, I promise you that. So the thing is, is, as I went through this I had this security deposit, I knew everything was going to go in the way that it was supposed to go. But let me just share this part with you, because this is the painful part. This is the part that I want you to take into consideration, the one that I want you to learn from. Because sometimes, when they talk to you, no, not sometimes, but all the time, when someone tells you about a mistake, they paid 100% 100% for that mistake. And as they say, as I've had mentors in the past say, by you listening and applying, you get this mistake at a discount, meaning, don't make it. Please don't make it. You may make others, and chances are you're gonna make others, but just don't make this one, because this one was about a home inspection report that because I didn't really understand the language, and I didn't really want to reach out to anybody to ask, because I thought at that point in time, it's probably going to be another cost. Do you remember when I said $25,323 at the very beginning? Maybe if I would have reached out, probably to cost a lot less. This set forward. We definitely learned the lesson. But here's the thing, there was one major issue, because I didn't understand what was happening, and I didn't feel that it was the moment to reach out. When I did reach out, it was one of those things that finally figured it. Figured it all out. Because, well, you know what? It just something that didn't work, and eventually, months, months, months later, actually a little bit over a year later, ended up having a mistake. There was an issue with the roof that had I actually reached out and asked someone who was very knowledgeable in that area, I could have avoided myself the $25,323 mistake. As well as having the residents that were living in the property, guess what? I also had to pay for them to live somebody somewhere else, like they weren't displaced for a really, really long time. But that didn't matter, because the mistake, right? That was the mistake that was on me, and I don't want that to happen to you or anybody that you love, and so that's why I'm sharing it with you. Never get too comfortable in following your process. And more importantly, had I had someone on my team that could have given me an outside in perspective, that could have given me their point of view? Guess what? It wouldn't have just been me, myself and I that's why it's really important to have somebody on your team who has been there before you. Even when you start to think that this is awesome, this is going exactly how you planned it, you only know what you know and when you're ready to build, when you're ready to scale, when you're ready to do something else, having somebody on your team that's been where you want to go, that's like having a really nice insurance policy, right? And that's why I'm sharing this episode with you, of course. So I lost the $25,323 that was painful, but the thing that it helped me today is to help to be able to share this with you so that one you don't make the same mistake, like I said, you may make others. But more importantly, it's the lesson that what it was, the lesson that I took away from that and I have always put into practice since then, I do not go on any venture alone. I do not do that anymore. Why? Because it's really important to surround yourself with others that are more knowledgeable than you. That's the thing that's important, the corporate success, you know. And I started realizing that, like I was very, very I had a professional corporate career that was really successful. When I look back, it wasn't because I did everything on my own. I know it was me with my team, my team with me. We were together. We were building together. We were overcoming obstacles together. It was a team game, that's what it was about. And so I realized that the post corporate success, just like the corporate success meant to have team making sure that you have advisors. It's one of the things that I do all the time now any venture, because when you start to look at it as cost, well, you know what? After that moment in time, I realized that it's important to have advisors. Really important to have advisors, especially when you're doing things that you've not done before, or you're early in the stages of doing things and you're ready to start to scale, you're ready to start to go faster, bigger. Reach out to somebody who's been there before. You mitigate the risk, minimize them. There's so many risks that are out there anyway.Billy Keels  9:42  Just don't do it on your own. Had a client tell me just not, not, not long ago, really glad that that the that particular client, that she made the investment to be able to bounce ideas off of, and I think it's such a wonderful mindset growth. Great way to look at it, because and now she's going forward. Now she has the experience that she has, at least my experience, and other other advisors that she has that are helping her to navigate a new process. And so that $25,323 mistake that I paid for, she's actually doing something a very fraction of the cost to be able to avoid and build faster, go faster. Have ideas to bounce off of, and that's it. So that's the truth about my $25,323 mistake you're going to make others because you're a high achiever. You You want to go faster, bigger at the same time, don't go alone. Don't do that. It doesn't serve you well in your corporate career, and it won't serve you as you're continuing to build a successful, profitable side business. And if it's not you, if you know someone who's suffering through this, or who is a, you know, in that type A just like me, like the guy who's talking to you, who's looking at you in the eyes, if you're watching this on video. So that's the thing, if it's not, you share today's episode, share it with them. After you share it, give them a call. Be that person who is the change agent in their life, the person that cares about them, the person that will talk to them, that will go from theory to practice. And also, while you're doing that, guess where I'll be? I'll be right here, because I'm going to prepare for the next episode. So until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very, very very much.Billy Keels  11:28  Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's make it optional.com.