Alfonso Salemi: REITE club nation, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I'm Alfonso Salemi and I'm here with my amazing co-host Sarah Larbi. We interviewed Mark French who is an executive coach, and he talks a little bit about, what, how to achieve those goals.
Sometimes we do get scared and, I didn't mention it on the podcast, but that's what sometimes, if you would've thought four and five and six years ago, okay, hey I want to retire. That's a huge goal, but you had to take the steps to get there. It just didn't happen overnight.
But I'm really pumped for this podcast today. Mark, what a great interview. He had a lot of great tips. Yeah, why don't you say, let's get right to the interview.
Sarah Larbi: All right. Let's do it. Hi, mark. Welcome to the show. How are you?
Mark Frentz: Thank you. I am fantastic right now. Yeah, things are going well.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. So for those that may not know of you or have met you, can you give us a 30,000 foot view of who you are and what it is that you do in real estate?
Mark Frentz: Who am I and what do I do in real estate? Yeah, that's a big question. I'll try to be succinct here. Who I am. I'm a coach, I'm an executive coach that helps people get to their goals. So there are a lot of coaches that teach systems or whatever. I'm not that coach. I'm the person who helps people get to their goals and that's how I fit into real estate.
I originally hired a mentor. We were just actually talking about this before the podcast, but it's amazing how people get into real estate and build wealth through real estate, and I was always fascinated with that. Bought my first property when I was 19 years old, but then when I realized I needed to get more coaching myself and learn more, I hired people in my life.
That was a fantastic investment I've made many times over and went and got my psych degree, practiced psychology for a while and went. I think I can help people really well with getting the things done that they know they already need to do. So that's a 30,000 foot view.
Alfonso Salemi: Right on. So when you're working with a lot of your clients or coaching and working with them to get through the things that they need to do, what's one of the most common things or the more common things that you see that you know, that maybe it's really simple for you from the outside view, but people just can't get past that? Or that it's something common that comes up with a lot of your clients?
Mark Frentz: I would say probably two things. One is the sales process. Sales terrify most of the people I know and they used to terrify me. This is something that I really struggled with, and sales has gone from this really complex, scary thing for me and for most of my clients to something that can, is actually not scary at all.
It's actually not a chore. It's something fun to do. And the switch there, that simple thing that you're asking about, the switch is, Instead of manipulating people, instead of forcing people to come around to your point of view it's getting to know people and that's something that's enjoyable to get to know people, get to know their issues, get to know their problems, get to know their objection, get to know what gets in their way.
Once we get to know that, it's a delight. To find solutions that really do fit their situation. And to me that's what good sales is. I think the other thing would probably be simply procrastination with the things, and I mentioned this before, but the things we know we need to do, we're simply not doing it. That's another thing that I consistently find that I can help people with.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. So my background is actually in sales and so I've worked in sales, in my corporate world from whether it was Cintas or Xerox or Lavasa just recently. But you're right, people are terrified of sales and it's, I think when you think of sales, you think of that used car salesman type of like persona of, wheeling and dealing and doing some shady stuff, but it definitely doesn't have to be that way.
What are some of the things like that you do tell somebody that I want to, help people and I wanna be able to? Not only to help people, but take my life and make an income from coaching or from whatever it is, but I'm terrified of sales. What are some things that you do to work with them through that mindset piece?
Mark Frentz: One quick thing that I take every client through is simply teaching them that everyone is a salesperson. We're already salespeople. We already sell people. We sell our kids on eating broccoli, and we sell our spouse on which vacation to go on, and we sell everyone on everything every day, that's what we're doing every day now.
Most of us are terrible salespeople. We're terrible at actually getting to know what people's problems are and then investing in them, and rather than focusing on ourselves, but that's the key, is simply fully focusing on another human being for a period of time. And the cool thing is we've got all these people talking about all these tricks with sales.
People talk about, oh, build rapport or do this and do that. I found out if you listen well. So few of us have ever been listened to well in our lives. So few of us feel understood. So when we have somebody come by, actually, this is an exercise that I do with a lot of people. I say, Hey, listen, when's the last time you went to a gathering, a party, whatever it was, and you met somebody and you came away going, that is a fascinating person.
Then you realize, Wait a second. They didn't even talk about themselves very much. We find other people fascinating if they listen to us. And so if we can become that person that listens and engages and gets to know somebody, we create a beautiful experience for somebody. We build far more rapport than we ever would in any other way.
We make a friend, and in the end, even if it doesn't turn into a sale with them, it's gonna turn into a sale with someone down the line because we've made some connections, a deeper connection with somebody who cares about us Now.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. So I wanna shift this to the real estate investing world and, those that are in the businesses, networking is a big piece. Okay. And I, and this is just a question for you, I'm gonna put you on the spot, but networking is a big piece and there were some people that were able to sell, quote unquote by networking and like you said, listening to others and understanding them.
Now that we are virtual, How can we get across and still be able to network from a virtual standpoint, not being in front of somebody. So I know I'm putting you on the spot, but if you have some tips and some suggestions, this is a real dilemma that we're working with right now.
Mark Frentz: This is a fact. If you get into the high end business world, we all know this, that when you get into the high end business world, why do people play golf? Why do people go for coffee? Why do people go for dinner? Because the, that. Person to person contact is really important. We get a read for people when we do that, and I've had a Zoom account, I'm proud to say, for four years now.
I've used Zoom a lot and I find Zoom is actually a really unique tool. Before I started doing virtual calls, I thought, come on, like you missed so much. And it's true, it's not the exact same, but a Zoom call actually. Can substitute a lot. So any chance I get to have a Zoom call to still meet with somebody for coffee, but have a zoom call at the very least rather than a phone call makes a difference.
But again, it comes down to the basic skills when you can look into somebody's face and you can ask a really good question or you can see, hey that's, that was uncomfortable for that person. Let me ask about that. And you get into it a little bit deeper. It's not person to person contact.
It's close and again, the basic skill set is the same. All influence, whether it's networking, whether it's sales, whatever it is, all influence. Whether it's, again, broccoli with your kids, comes down to finding out what somebody's going through. What's coming up in their minds and then helping them out with it.
Alfonso Salemi: It's alleviating those fears, really. Because we're born, we're neat, the environment that were raised in, the things that we experience throughout our lives impact the way that we view things, right? So the three of us could look at one thing and see it, probably even 20 different ways, but at least maybe three different ways.
Getting onto that same track. And I love what you said about it. Focusing in and listening in, and sometimes I'm guilty of that. Maybe using my ears and mouth out of proportion. And you're supposed to, you have two ears and one mouth, but maybe what are some like constant things that people can practice every day, maybe on their own.
I think you said we're always selling, reading, selling ourselves on what to do, whether it's working out, reading more, improving ourselves. So what are some. Like daily tips that you know somebody can go and apply right today that somebody's listening to this at the Right Club Nation can leave this podcast and go and start applying today.
Mark Frentz: I'll give you some that are far on, really far on the simple end and some that are a little more complex. One thing that I would really encourage anyone to do is to practice what Brian Tracy calls Maximum achievement. He talks about developing a pleasing personality. When we have a pleasing personality, people wanna be around us. So a couple of quick tips with that one. Read how to Influence, how to Win Friends and Influence People that is a seminal book, ridiculously simple.
But help people go, Hey, if I listen well, if I, there's so much cha, I read this to my kids all the time because they practice this at school and it's so valuable in influence when people like you, they're influenced more by you. A really even, an extremely simple tip. Practice smiling more. When we smile, more people are drawn to us and I'm gonna be completely transparent here.
Some of my clients struggle with this, and it's gonna hurt your face for the first while if you're not used to this. But if you practice smiling, like anything, like riding a bike or whatever, you get used to it, your muscles develop more and it does take a lot of facial muscles to do this. But once you start smiling more, you will find people interact with you completely differently.
I've lived in China, I've lived in Sweden, I've done a whole bunch of crazy things. And no matter where I am, no matter what culture I'm in, when I smile a lot, people are drawn to me. And so it's this thing that I learned accidentally that's been really useful for me. On the other end of things that we can practice, it's practicing, and I'm gonna simplify this.
Usually I take time to teach people this, but something that people can work towards asking open-ended questions versus closed-ended questions. And the difference is real. And I know you guys know this, but for the audience, a close-ended question is anything that can be answered with one word. So what's your favorite color?
Green, blue, yellow, whatever. What did you like about school today? Yes or no? These are horrible questions. We use these all the time and there is a purpose for them at certain times, but for the most part, if we wanna get better at getting to know people and going a little bit deeper, We ask open-ended questions, meaning we ask a question where somebody else can control it a little bit.
For example, instead of asking an investor or potential investor, hey, What date did you get into real estate investing? Or how many homes do you own or properties, do you own those? Those are close ended questions instead saying, Hey, what drew you to real estate? That's a question where somebody can go anywhere and again, people start to feel understood when they can go on their own terms rather than dictated by the question if you ask a kid, again, coming back to kids, but when you ask a kid, what's your favorite subject at school?
That assumes they like school. And that's why it's not a great question because now if a kid doesn't like school, they can't go anywhere with it. But if you ask them, Hey what is something? What did you enjoy most about your day? Now they can talk about the playground cause they didn't enjoy school.
That allows people just a little more freedom to express themselves. Once people start talking, you can then go a second level deeper. We're gonna talk about this just for a second. That second level is. So if somebody says, Hey, I enjoyed this, you can ask, what did you enjoy about that. I'm scared of this.
What are you scared of? What? What? What is terrifying you in this? When we go deeper into the emotional realm people share far more, they feel safer with us, and we will find their objections, which is key to solving problems. I hope that answers that.
Sarah Larbi: That's a really great answer and I will say, imagine how boring these podcasts would be if we just ask you these close-ended questions where you give us one word answers and it would actually make our lives so much more difficult cause we would have to have a whole series of questions versus just having that conversation and asking those open-ended questions and like you said, taking the conversation in any which direction.
It just makes it a lot more entertaining. So the next open ended question that I would like to ask you is, there's a lot of people listening that want to either get a joint venture partner or work with somebody that is bringing something to the table that they may not have. So for example,
Somebody has the ability to hold financing, but they need a partner to bring in the money.
Or if somebody has the experience and they're looking now for people to bring the money and the financing, what are some things that they could do to, bring and attract some of those potential partners to them?
Mark Frentz: I believe that so much of the time. We get stressed because we think everything needs to happen in the next instant, and people pick up on that stress. So it actually pushes people away from us rather than drawing them in. Every situation is different, so I'm hesitant to give one size fits all approaches, but in my opinion, What we need to do is, again, get to know somebody in their stuff. So many times I've been on a call or like in person, been in a meeting with a potential investor.
I ask them a few questions and I realize, wait a second. I've got a, I don't know, a rent to own deal that I'm working on right now. This doesn't fit them. What fits them is a long-term buy and hold property based on their answers. So instead of pushing my deal on them because I've been asking questions and listening to them, what I'll do is say, Hey, and this is a really good question, I think for everyone.
Ask hypotheticals, Hey, so you've said this is important to you. If I were to find a property that could do this and this, would that be something that interests you? And when I provide hypotheticals like that, sometimes I've got something in my back pocket, sometimes I don't.
But then I at least know what to work on. So much of the time when it comes to financing and those kinds of things, we're in a rush. So I would say the best thing is, and I'm sorry cause I'm not really answering your question, Sarah, but the best thing is to back up a step and say, listen, if this deal falls apart, that's okay.
How do I get the next five deals done? And the way I'm gonna get the next five deals done is getting to know somebody well and not pushing what I have in my back pocket necessarily, but making sure I answer their questions appropriately. Hey, listen, this is what we need to be prepared for the next deal.
When the next deal comes, sometimes they move quickly. Are you okay with moving quickly when this happens? They say, yes, we get the paperwork done. Now they're ready. Now, even if it comes in a month, two, three, whatever, when the deal is in now, we can close it quickly. So the people that I find that are excellent at this are always preparing.
They're playing the long game. They're not simple. Pedaling their little trinkets at the side of the road. At the moment they're going, how do I really take care of this person? Because if somebody I've had investors consistently that will close 2, 3, 4, 5 deals with me that's way better than closing this one deal in front of me. So again, I don't know if I answered your question, Sarah, ask again in a different way.
Sarah Larbi: It was really good. And I think that urgency sometimes backfires, right? And then just setting the legwork for that long game I think is really important because if you are urgent and you, maybe people will think that you're a little bit more desperate and you don't wanna ever come across as needing them versus trying to help them get to their goals.
I think that's the big difference where I see a lot of new, newer investors and they're like, I need a JV to get started because I don't have other means. And then they come across as it's about them versus the other person, what their goals are and being able to, I call it trial, closing my sales lingo, but really understanding what the other person's needs are.
Saying, if I come across something like this, is that something that you'd like me to present with you to you? Whether it's, a month from now, three months from now, etc. And I think setting that groundwork builds trust. It builds credibility. And they likely will feel like you've got their best interest versus just looking out for yourself and trying to get something that you don't have because you urgently need to close it. So I think it's a great answer. So thank you for that.
Mark Frentz: Sarah really quickly. You said something there that I think is extremely important for people to pay attention to and both Alfonso and Sarah as best. Fantastic questions. So pay attention to everyone in the interview, right? Because we can learn so much. But somebody, you said, Sarah, you talked about trial closes, but you said it's not about playing the game.
It's not about pretending that we need them or pretending that they need us or they're gonna lose something. It's not about the game, it's about taking care of their needs. You said that very specifically, and I agree 100% with that.
Alfonso Salemi: To Sarah's point, right? I think I forget it was said on one of our podcasts or one of our events, but like needy is creepy, right? If you come across as needy, it sounds oh, what? Why is that? I don't really wanna work for somebody That sounds needy. And again, when we're like, again, we've worked with over, I don't know, over 80, 90 joint venture partners that we've worked with, and it is really about, All, every single one of those people are different and have different wants and needs.
Yes, a return on investment, like somebody might take a lower return on investment because they feel better about a certain deal or a certain area, and it's not always one, size fits all. And not to sound like cheesy or anything, to be understood is really to understand.
Right to understand what that, where that person's coming from. We all have different life experiences, things that we've encountered that we view differently. So really great advice. So let's talk a little bit more about real estate. So what type of investing, what type of investing gets you excited or is it just helping investors?
Did you have a portfolio yourself that you're like, Hey, I really like this type of portfolio cause we help people we can parlay a few D type types of things. What is, what does your portfolio look like? I'm being really questioned, really careful about my questions right now as well too.
Mark Frentz: When at the beginning I didn't know much, so it was just single family homes, wasn't even a suite of properties. I knew nothing and I wasn't very creative in my investing. I met a couple of individuals that coached me along the way. Fantastic investment for myself and I started learning creative strategies, so not simply.
I don't know the strategy of buy and hold, fix and flip, whatever we've heard the BRRRRs strategy or whatever we've heard of. But more importantly, how do we connect with people to solve problems? So again I know that in Ontario, agreements for sale aren't as popular as they are out west, but they're absolutely doable.
An agreement for sale is this. Magic solution for many problems where all of a sudden we can say, Hey, based on your needs, so again, oh, you don't want a bunch of money right now? Because you're gonna be taxed on it. Great. I've got a solution for that. Oh you don't want whatever. So actually for my strategy it's not actually real estate.
I love real estate. I love the properties. For me, it's about, again, developing these relationships and finding the way we can position deals, agreements for sale are fantastic. Vendor Take Backs are fantastic vendor Take Backs, though I don't find them every day, sometimes it takes me a while between vendor Take Back finances.
As far as actual deals, I would say I like sweet spots. So in certain markets there are sweet spots with certain types of property and certain price ranges. Right now, one sweet spot that I like across Canada are multi-units that are above. About 12 units is a magic spot for me, so that the financing is easy with banks as long as it's a good deal and under about 30 units.
Those are, to me, the big players in real estate are not interested in them, but the small people, the people that are just starting out in real estate, don't even know about them yet. So they're like this, playing the supply and demand game and then finding those sweet spots. That's probably how I would answer that.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. Now, is your focus these days on real estate or is your focus on the sales and everything else that goes around helping other investors become successful?
Mark Frentz: That's a good question. I would say that my focus used to be really on real estate and getting deals done and helping people. Over the last four or five years, I've actually slowed down on how much I acquire, and I've really focused on my coaching business. It is truly my earliest memory. Of things that I wanted to do were being a doctor, a vet. I've always liked helping. And then, I never became a traditional medical doctor, but I love helping people and what excites me every day right now is meeting people and finding solutions.
Whether that's in real estate that still happens, or whether it's just with clients that I have helped them get to their goals. And so much of the time it's, they're just, there's such little tweaks that we can make to a situation. That starts to solve problems where people have a little more confidence or they feel a little bit more comfortable talking to people or having those conversations. To me, so much of the time we notice, and this is normal for human psychology we notice big things.
We notice when somebody purchases a multi-unit and we get excited about that or starts a new REIT. We get excited about that. But the biggest changes that happen in human beings are the zero to one type changes where we're, I don't have any properties and I'm terrified of asking for money, but I did it. I'm working on my first deal. Those are super exciting for me because those are the people that can take huge steps later on. It's the start of the process that's most difficult.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Sorry, go ahead, Alfonso.
Alfonso Salemi: I was gonna say just recently, Sarah and I have been talking and I asked Sarah, I said, what's new? What's exciting in your life? And the first thing that she said was, I'm so excited. One of my new students, they just went through their first BRRRR and they're going through the first steps. And I think sometimes we get lost in how many transactions, how many deals that we've done?
Maybe it's the fifth one, the 10th one we've done, hundreds of rent to own properties. And you get in that monotonous stage. It's just normal. But then when you're seeing somebody else experience it for the first time and seeing it in a different light, it re-energizes you a little bit.
I think a lot of the time and you alluded to it and I wrote it down here, I think we are in that instant gratification society, right? Like Jesus, it's called Instagram, right? It's instant, right? We want everything right away. So when you're working with clients, and I know Sarah works with clients as well too, what are some practical tips for practicing patience?
Because I know myself and especially, in the midst of, pandemics and anxiety and we want all this now and we see the goals and we see people pulling up in the million dollar homes and it's probably just the set or something like that. But what are some of the things that we can practice patience to get to that point or setting that plan?
Is it a course of action, because obviously there's a big plan. It doesn't just happen overnight. What are the key fundamentals to practice that patience, to say eventually we will get there. What are the proper steps to take?
Mark Frentz: I see that a lot of people fall into the trap of, so we've got like the people who love, I would say like the group of people that love the movie, the Secret. Then those people that go, I simply wanna visualize. I don't have to take any action. And again, I'm being extreme here, but I don't wanna take any action. I just wanna visualize and get everything. And they're, they live so much in the. Future that they're not taking action at the moment.
Then we've got another group of people that, again, another good group of human beings that work hard, and just end up spinning their tires cause they're not building systems and they're not seeing the future. And I think really the secret of what you're talking about as far as I've seen with my clients is how do we bridge the gap?
We have to think about the future. We need to visualize, we need to dream, we need to see what we want in the future, and we need to take action now. Those are both facts. Bridging the gap, in my opinion, is the key. And the way I do that with my clients is reverse engineering and just going, okay, so if this is your goal, two years, five years, 10 years, whatever it is, What is something you can do in the next year that will get you closer?
What is the next thing you can do in the next three months that will get you there if we bridge the gap? There's a great book that talks about this, it's called The One Thing written by Gary Keller, who started Keller Williams Real Estate brokerage fantastic. Again, a person that puts together really simple ideas in a unique way, but it's bridging that gap.
How do I see myself in the future consistently? I need to visualize that every day. And I also need to see the plan to get there because if I only focus on myself today I'll start going off in different directions and get lost. If I only focus on the future I can almost live in a dream world where I'm escaping reality and not taking action.
To me, it's about bridging the gap by practicing the planning by always having the plan in our heads by consistently reminding ourselves every day. Hey, if I do this today, I'm getting closer to this goal. What's the next step? What's the next step? I'm always writing this out every month. I write out my plans over and over again, and sometimes they don't change at all.
Sometimes they change significantly, but it's simply to get it in my head all the time, and this is the way I explain it to people. We need to brainwash ourselves. Because we live in a world where you talk about Instagram and instant everything. We live in a world where everyone is marketing to us.
Everyone's trying to influence us towards seeing things their way. That if I'm hungry, I need a burger, or if I'm whatever, that I need these types of G whatever it is. And we need to brainwash ourselves more. Then outside people are brainwashing us. We need to influence ourselves more than others are influencing us, so that instead of getting distracted with the bobble in front of us and the new strategy or whatever we are influencing us ourselves so much.
We are so on track every day where we're thinking about this nonstop. That subconsciously this just becomes who we are, that we're working towards us and nothing will distract us so many times, if you, I just watched that series on Michael Jordan I don't remember what it's called, the 10 show series or whatever.
It was fantastic. From this standpoint, Jordan had a single focus. And you could not remove him from that focus. You couldn't distract him at all. He could not be distracted. If you talk about people who are higher achievers than anything, talk about Elon Musk or whoever else, and you will find that they don't easily get distracted.
You can't take them off what they're thinking about. And that's the gift, that's the secret, is to get so focused on one thing, become beautifully obsessed with something. So much so that's what you're working towards. All day, every day. And that doesn't mean you don't think about others again, you think about others because other people fit into every planning goal. But we become obsessed with a certain idea and we work towards it every day. It was what my quick answer would be, that's not so quick.
Sarah Larbi: You say it right? It's just that one thing to focus on and you keep that top of mind. I'm very big on the examples and the how. And you went back, just going back and you were talking about planning and writing things down. So you're saying all these great things. Somebody that's listening to this right now, What are some like specific action items that they can say, okay, listening to this podcast, here is how I can bridge this gap. Here's how I can get rid of some distractions. Here's how I can do better in planning.
Mark Frentz: Good. So I'm gonna give a very simple thing that I give to almost every one of my clients. So if you're listening right now, I want you to take out a piece of paper. You can do this on a computer screen, but what I want you to do is write down what is your goal?
What is it a number of properties? Is it an amount of income? Is it what that income's gonna give you? Whatever, it's, doesn't matter what it is. But when you write out your goal, be really specific about what you want. Make sure that if you give it to somebody else, they know exactly whether you've achieved it or not.
Give, and this is why dollar amounts are really easy, because they're really specific. Write down a date. So really what a good goal needs is very few things. Okay? It needs a date. It needs a specific thing and what you're gonna do for that, okay? How you're going to achieve it.
You write down that goal, and then what I want you to do, let's, so let's play the example of it's five years out, so it's 2025 as of this recording and near the end of the year. And what you're gonna do now is you're gonna ask yourself, okay, so that's my five year goal. What could I do next year?
I always go, I start my plans with just a year. I want you to write down on paper what are one to three things that I can accomplish in this next year. Take action on this next year that will bring me closer to this goal. Now, let's say it's an amount of money. It's an, it's a million dollars, or it's five properties or something like that.
The danger that I see with most people is that instead of saying everything ramps up near the end, we always make more money near the end of our goals than in the beginning. They simply break it up into five, so they, oh five properties. One property this year, and that's not the way it works.
What I would say is have the mindset of that long-term thinker where you say, okay, five properties. All five properties, if they came in the last month, Just before mine, I set my goal. Would that be okay? Yeah. Okay. So how do I prepare for that? So what are one to three things? Never more than three more.
More than three things. We get distracted again, we start to get lost in our own head. So one to three things. What are one to three things I can do to help myself? Purchase these five properties and what I would suggest is think about what you need. What are things that we are lacking? For me, at the beginning of my real estate journey, I lacked an understanding of how to negotiate, how I lacked an understanding of how to find deals.
I lacked coaching and mentorship and those kinds of things. So actually, Those would be the one things. If you haven't had coaching or experience with that before, I would say start with that. Start with learning and growth. Even if the first year was just dedicated to learning and growth and getting everything you need and starting to take action, don't get me wrong, but really learning and growing through that action, would that not be valuable?
For example, I've got a friend in Calgary. He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars and we were just talking. He's got a new position to open up in his company. I'm trying to help him fill it a little bit. Where somebody's gonna be managing to get this 500,000 square feet of commercial real estate space.
He was talking about this and I thought if somebody wanted to get into real estate, if somebody wanted to buy five properties, would the best thing they could do in the first year, not be, forget about all the residential stuff right now, work for this guy for a year. Make money working for him.
You would get the education of a lifetime. You've got mentorship right there. You're working for somebody, you're helping somebody else, but you're learning and growing at a furious pace. Far better education. So make sure it's one to three things for this first year. And then ask yourself what those three things or less need to be?
Things that I'm gonna be learning, growing, so that I can never lose this information. And then once I've got these, so let's say work for. I'm not gonna give his name, but we'll work for this guy. Okay? And if that's my one year plan, then I would step back and go, okay, in the next quarter, what do I need to do in order to hit those metrics?
If I need to learn about types of deals and I need to work for somebody, then in the next quarter, what do I need to do? In the next quarter, maybe what I'll do is I'll start to develop my network. To find the right opportunity for somebody to work for or I'll develop my network so that I find the right coach to, to hire, or I develop my network to do something else.
I'm simply working my way towards that year's action step. And then I'll back off again and be honest with myself next month. What are one to three things that I can do to hit my quarter goals and my quarter action steps? And then I'll go back to the week and I'll ask myself this week.
What are one to three things that I can focus on in order to hit that monthly action step and this is why this process is so valuable. I'd even do it for my day. So I've got three things. I actually only have two things today, but two things today to focus on so that today is successful when it does a number of things.
One, it keeps us focused. When we have more than three things, we get unfocused. So when we've got the three things that we need to accomplish this month, now I know what I need to do. I know what will allow me to be successful. I know what'll allow me to build momentum in my life and to feel good about myself.
We cannot underestimate feeling good about ourselves. When we are stuck and we're not taking action and we go, where's your direction? Am I even going in? We feel lost. That is not a good place to be. But when we've gone, you know what? I don't know all that I accomplished. I know that I was distracted somewhat, but you know what?
I got these two things done today and I know that they were important because I think about this all the time. We build forward momentum. We build confidence, we start to feel better about ourselves, and then we are more likely to take action tomorrow and next week and next month. And that's all it is, it's building momentum in a direction.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. Thank you for providing all of those examples. And as you're saying this, cause at the beginning of the podcast you were talking about procrastination as well, and I feel you're talking through it and that could easily be something that happens if you don't have those daily goals and those weekly goals and those monthly goals. And you don't take little steps towards your five year procrastination and all of a sudden you haven't moved forward in the five years.
Mark Frentz: Procrastination comes from one of very few things. It's either we don't know the next step to take, we don't know how to take that next step, or, and then there, there can be other things here, but the third thing that often comes up for people is they simply lack confidence.
They don't believe that they have what it takes. Okay. And so really growth towards our goals is simply taking care of those things. So how do I take this step? I don't know. So let's ask somebody. Let's find out that information. Oh, I don't believe in myself. Okay what is something that I can do where I start building that confidence in some way and as soon as we do it's always the emotional side that we struggle with.
The logical side is fine, where we're fine. That way it's the emotional side and we can take care of that. What am I scared of? How can I handle that? Let's take the next step. That's it. If we're asking those questions, what can I do? What am I struggling with? What's the next step? If I'm asking those questions consistently, I'm going to start moving in the right direction.
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. And I'm gonna take a quote of yours there, and you said beautifully obsessed, and I love that. I love that. And I've been listening to different podcasts and reading different books about the actual process and falling in love. With the actual process. Most of the time, I even think about sports leagues and like winning the Stanley Cup or something like that's the end result.
The actual process, the pursuit, the actual pursuit, if you're not falling in love with the actual pursuit and doing that every day, that's, you're not gonna get beautifully obsessed if all you're worrying about is that end result. The result is not gonna give you the fulfillment that you want. It's that pursuit of continuing to get there and going along.
Making mistakes, finding other people that are along the journey. We're all making mistakes every single day. Finding out a better way to do it right. And again, getting that confidence, I think that's what it really breaks down to. Honestly, I feel like I should lay back on the couch here.
This is like a therapy session. This is awesome content. And can't thank you enough for the amazing stuff that you've provided for our REITE Club Nation and definitely reach out to Mark. But I think we've gone to the part of the podcast where we're gonna do our lighting round Sarah, why don't we start off with our first question of the lightning round?
Mark Frentz: Do something. Take action.
Alfonso Salemi: Great answer. Take action. We hear that quite a bit. Alright, so I'm gonna change this question up just a little bit, but what is your favorite resource? So just a resource we say usually for real estate investing, but for a lot of what you're talking about is mindset. Taking that next step. So what is one resource? Is it a book? Is it some training, a specific person that you follow? What's one resource that you could share that you use in your day-to-day life?
Mark Frentz: This is such a difficult question. I'm gonna give two and it's gonna be weird. So instead of one book or one resource, because everyone's a little bit different, I would say audiobooks to learn constantly in the vehicle and or podcasts. So exactly what you're listening to at this moment.
Podcasts are free, audiobook books are almost free. They're such an inexpensive way to learn and grow in the ways that help us. I would suggest biographies of people who are successful. We learn ridiculous amounts from other people's stories. All right.
Sarah Larbi: That's a great answer. And that's how I learned too, is listening to those podcasts. And then I started listening to a lot of audiobooks as well. And you can accelerate, like you're learning so much tenfold by. Using these things where you're just listening and you're maybe, in your car driving, you're doing chores around the house, like it's huge to get you that boost. So I'm glad that you mentioned that. Number three, what is the one attribute that has made you most successful?
Mark Frentz: My curiosity, I'm ridiculously curious, and because of that, it makes it really easy to engage with people and ask them questions and that really allows me to get in with people far faster than the people often that I see around me.
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. And the curiosity, but I want to add is your passion. You can tell that you are passionate about what you do and you actually care about what you do. So the curiosity mixed with the passion and the actual involvement in what you do, makes you the person that you are. Last question of the lightning round. What are you doing on a typical Sunday morning?
Mark Frentz: I'm getting up at five Sam as I get up every other day because it's consistent. And typically on a Sunday morning, I'm relaxing with my kids. I'm starting getting my mindset right. I still visualize, still do affirmations and look at my goals and then think I'm always right now, I always learn something in the morning.
Right now it's French, and then in the morning I love that first moment when my nine and 11 year old wake up and they come and snuggle with me on the couch for a few minutes and we just relax. Cause I don't have to do anything. I don't have to run anywhere for business. I just hang out with my kids Often. We play a game in the morning. I love that. Kind of morning.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome family time. That's great. Mark, where can the REITE Club Nation, the listeners, reach out if they want to know more about you?
Mark Frentz: Probably the easiest way would probably just go to markfrentz.com and then start exploring that site. I've got lots of free resources there to help people. Really, I help people. I honestly love this. So go there and if there are some free resources that help you fantastic. The other thing that I would say could be useful for people is on Instagram, and I put these up, videos up on other places, but every morning, five days a week, I put up something called a Morning With Mark.
It's simply, I found mornings are key to our days. And so I simply throw out a quick video, five minutes or less, that encourages somebody in some area of life and business and that's it. So if you wanna learn more about me, watch a few of those videos and you'll see the craziness of Mark Frentz and get to know whether you like it or not, and then you can decide for yourself.
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome, awesome stuff. Definitely check that out. Any last words of advice or things you'd like to share with the REITE Club Nation?
Mark Frentz: Here's my last words of advice, because it has made such a difference for me and it makes a difference for everyone else that I know. Sarah, we were talking before Alfonso, I can tell this about you.
We need to trust ourselves enough to invest in ourselves. And so many people think, I don't have time, I don't have energy, I don't have money. The fact is that those are the times to invest time, energy, and money in ourselves. Benjamin Franklin said, if you empty your purse into your head, That will be the best investment you make.
In other words, and it's not all money, you don't have to be money, but invest time, energy, and money into yourself, not into Netflix, not into the next game on your phone or whatever. Invest it into yourself because no one can take that away once you understand this stuff. So many gurus have said, you can take away everything from me.
In the end, I can have it all back in months. Why? Because I understand how it works and if you invest in yourself, you know how now you have something that nobody can take away from you. No matter what the economy does, no matter what pandemics are coming out or anything else that's going on, you have in yourself what you need to grow and have relationships and business success and real estate investment success, whatever that is. So invest in yourself.
Sarah Larbi: I love it. Thank you for sharing. Thank you, Mark, for being on our show. Thank you for your insights and REITE Club Nation. Go check out Mark's website and get the resources because we are helping everybody grow. And I think Mark, you've done a great job with providing so much valuable information today. So thank you so much.
Mark Frentz: Sarah. Alfonso, thank you so much for having me here today.
Sarah Larbi: That was a wrap. I'm super excited. I'm glad that we spoke to Mark and he's provided a ton of amazing insights and investing in yourself. I have another podcast, as you guys know, and one of the questions is, if you lost everything, your assets and your money tomorrow, how would you start again?
A lot of people will answer that my brain is still there, my knowledge is still there. I would start again the exact same way, but now I have more skills and nor more knowledge because of that experience. And so investing in yourself, those are real words. And I believe that no matter what happens in a good market, in a bad market you do, your self investing and your learning and your education and all of that, and you'll be able to, In my opinion, ride that wave up and down much more easily and efficiently. Because you've invested in yourself, what about you? What's your biggest takeaway?
Alfonso Salemi: I love what he was talking about, when you smile more and have a pleasing personality, and one of my favorite books of all time was winning oh. Was it how to Win Friends and Influence People. Yeah. I always forget the title of how to mix it all up, but it really is that, having that, seeking to understand everybody's got all these different experiences. If you never learn when you're talking because whatever you're saying is what you already know.
You learn when you're listening. And again, I know sometimes I ramble on and go on too much and talk a little bit, but it's that excitement that comes through of hearing those experiences and asking those open-ended questions, and having that, and, that's the biggest skill I think that we get to practice a lot on these podcasts, is asking these open-ended questions.
If we were just asking people. Yes and no questions on this podcast. I don't think we'd have the fellowship and the listeners that we do because it'd be pretty boring, right? Think about young kids, right? When they're two, when they're three, four, or five, six years old, they're always like, why?
And what's this and what's that? What's this like? If you want practice and your negotiation skills, like talk to kids, they're going to ask and ask and be inquisitive and want to get to those answers. I think that's something that we both share, like, why?
What's that? And you don't just take it for face value. And we talk about it. Selling it, selling people on our investments or joint venture partnerships and you're not, you're really helping people understand. And that's, yeah. There's a bunch of takeaways there. Like I said in the podcast, it was almost like a therapy session.
Sarah Larbi: Just like you said, it goes back to what can you do to help others? And I think by helping others, It's going to come back to you tenfold, but don't make it about you as the most important thing. Make it about the others, and the more value that you give to others, the more will come back to you.
Whether it's from whatever standpoint that you're looking at, from a financial standpoint or from, a happy lot of stuff can make you happy, but look at it. How can you give the most amount of value, and I think that will be the best. If you're thinking about getting rich quickly, it's not about you. How can you help others get to where they wanna go? How can you provide content? How can you provide value?
I think in return it's gonna come back your way. So Mark is an awesome guy. Check him out. Also, if you haven't left a rating, Or a review for the podcast if you could. That'd be amazing. And in REITE club nation, check us out now online. Don't forget to register. It is free. Check out all of the great content at thereiteclub.com. Alfonso, what do we say?
Alfonso Salemi: Come grow with us and see you next time guys.
- Log in or register to post comments
- ARNEL-LLEMIT-1637316866's Blog