I was leaving a Marriott grand opening at the National Harbor in route to lunch with the Washington Wizards Organization. At both events and not surprisingly, there were a lot of VIP faces including J.W. Marriott himself. There were other more important VIP's as well, a fact that will come into play later. The next day, I was attending a book signing for real estate mogul R. Donahue Peebles. He and I were chatting back and forth a bit as we were both releasing real estate investment books around the same time - I think his outsold mine but I'm cool with that. On the family's private jet in route to D.C., Don Jr. turned to Don, Sr. and said, "No more $400,000 cars (for a while) dad." I was really impressed with this young fourteen year old. While he was already nearly six feet tall, a very good basketball player and perhaps could have met the challenges to go Pro, his mind was fixated on running the family business and not the least bit interested in pursuing an NBA career. What was even more impressive was while many people his age were having typical teenage thoughts, he was acutely aware of the 08' recession. He had already determined the difference between assets and liabilities.
As much as I'd like to think many of us as adults can make the easy distinction, it is not always as easy as it seems. I tend to spend money where I can get some type of return, preferably one in perpetuity. I ask myself, "If I make this purchase, can it yield me any more assets two years from now?" That being said, one night in the middle of writing Real Estate for Real People, I received a few emails from people wanting my rolodex basically. They were convinced that they can't meet the same people I meet. I begged to differ and knowing people often don't carve out a lot of time to read, I decided to put the concept on DVD. I knew I would call it the High Impact Presentation tool but I had no way of getting that concept to disk. I rushed out to Best Buy and got there within minutes of them closing. The associate introduced me to Adobe Premier (mountain size learning curve but great product) and Light Scribe. From there, my infrastructure costs and hours of diminishing freedom were just starting. Eventually, I had to add months of time, website design, marketing, case covers, business cards etc but I knew what I was creating was a long term asset.
A few days ago, I received a call from Mrs. Frankie Felder, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at Clemson University who was introduced to the DVD by Hilda McIntosh, Don Peebles' aunt who was an iconic face standing near J.W. Marriott who I somehow overlooked at the hotel grand opening. She was also at Peebles' book signing the next night and ensured that I received an invitation to go to his Miami estate to meet President Clinton. We immediately struck a great chord. Mrs. McIntosh's support in conjunction with her sister Mrs. Doris Carroll who is the director at Sojourner Douglas College's Owings Mills campus became supporters of the DVD. They passed the word along to Mrs. Frankie Felder, and things got really interesting. As it turns out, Clemson was intrigued enough by the concept of meeting highly valued people that they are naming a greater issues speaking program after the DVD's subtitle "Who You Know Matters" and have asked me to be the inaugural speaker. By the way, they helped close the gap in the number of books sold between me and Peebles by placing one of the largest order of books I've ever sold at one time. I think they dig the whole, "mobile home to where moguls roam" concept and not necessarily out to make the people of Clemson, SC real estate moguls.
The points I hope to make are many. For starters, if your money isn't as long as you want it to be ask yourself tough questions before you spend it. Also, you earn within 20% of your closest contacts so Who You Know really does matter if that point hasn't been thoroughly conveyed enough. Most importantly, a lot of you have great side projects that are lying dormant in your head, basement, computer, etc. The payoff from them might not be immediate, but your skill set in general gets stronger the more you involve yourself in these dormant projects. Did I know a university was going to get behind the High Impact Presentation DVD? Honestly, yes in this case because the concept came to me via The Citadel where I learned it and they've always supported it but I had no remote clue that Clemson would not only follow suit but outpace The Citadel in terms of support.
Just for the record, Peebles can probably buy another $400k car with interest from one account or ease, whichever comes first and from personal experience exotic cars, while do a great job at turning heads, are also generally sold at a profit. I'm a Murcielago guy, not really a Mercedes McLaren guy so you'll have to see him for details. Need to reach him, buy a copy of my High Impact Presentation DVD, it may help you out :>) I would love to linger on and on but I think you get the point. Besides, the deadline for Slide 68 is getting closer and this time the side project isn't a home based DVD but more the kind you see in the theatres. With that, the cameras are rolling out and so am I.
p.s. Thanks Mrs. McIntosh, Mrs. Carroll and Mrs. Felder
Anthony "Von" Mickle
-from the mobile home to where moguls roam
