Epic Real Estate Investing - Rob Kosberg - Be a Best Selling Author | 493

Episode Date: October 11, 2018

Meet Rob Kosberg, a two-time international best selling author and a founder of the Best Seller Publishing. Find out about his real estate crash and how it inspired him to write the book, Life After Debt, that led to a successful business story! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terio Media. Within a year, this brand new business in a terrible economy went from zero, ground zero, to doing seven figures. And then multi-seven figures thereafter. And it was explosive. I got on radio. I ended up having my own radio show. I got on TV. I got speaking engagements.

And, you know, organically, best-seller publishing grew out of that because business owners started coming to me and asking me, how are you doing this? Right? Like, what are you doing in 2009 that's exploding your business when we are dying on the vine? Hello, I'm Matt Terrio of the epic real estate investing show and welcome to another episode of Thought Leader Thursday. All righty, so today I'm joined by two-time international bestselling author, founder of bestseller publishing, publisher of bestselling books in 23 different industries successfully marshaled over 200 authors to bestseller status. He's a speaker and business growth expert, former syndicated radio show host, and so much more. So please help me welcome to the show, Mr. Rob, welcome to the show. Thanks, buddy.

Yay. Yay. Glad to them on with you, man. I know. We've known each other for so long. We've never been able to do this, and I'm glad we're doing it now. So I want to talk about your current business, but one thing I was thinking about was, I really don't know what you're doing prior to this. So before we get into your current business, what were you doing just prior to becoming

the bestseller publisher guy. How do you not know this? I was in real estate. I'm selfish and I focus on myself and I never asked about you. You know, that's not totally true. But I owned a financial services company. That's what I wrote my first book about. But prior to that was real estate, you know, on and off since I was 18 years old.

Got it. That's it. Well, I can, I'm more than happy to share with you the crash of my real estate business and career. Okay. So what's the crash? Maybe that's the answer to my next question. So what inspired you to start bestseller publishing? Yeah, you know, I guess I probably have to take a step back from there. I mean, I was in real estate for a long time. I had a successful real estate brokerage, did real estate investing, didn't do it as well as you do. I owned a mortgage company and I was also a licensed title agent. So we were doing in South Florida, we were doing about a hundred million

a year in transactions. You know, a good-sized business with 20, 25, you know, associates, full-time employees, all that stuff. And we just got absolutely crushed in the financial crisis. I mean, I remember like the big pendulum swing, the big domino that fell was American Brokers Conduit closed. And ABC, American Broker's Condo was like, you know,

the biggest Alt-A money lender at the time. And they went from having 7,000 employees being at the top of the industry to the next day, literally closing their doors. And I was like, uh-oh. This is this is not good. And it was it was domino's man. We weren't doing like first-time home buyers or conventional stuff. We were doing unconventional, you know, high-ticket stuff.

And we couldn't get financing. We couldn't close a deal. So the whole thing collapsed on me. Mm-hmm. So what did that, uh, was that? I remember when that kind of happened in our world, but it was more on numb when the digital down below came along and just kind of turned the whole music industry upside down. I was like, oh, my God, nobody's buying compact discs anymore.

Right. For me, you know, there I was in this was April of 2008. And, you know, I had 6,000 square foot of office space and, you know, dozens of desk computers, you know, as you might imagine. And I'm literally putting an ad on Craigslist to sell this stuff. for 10 cents on a dollar. And, you know, I mean, I didn't know what I was going to do. I mean, I, you know, I was making millions of dollars in income. I lived in an 8,000 square foot house and an equestrian center and drove a $150,000 SL 600 rent tech. I mean, you know, I'm like,

oh my God, I got three kids in private school and, and I'm like not making any money anymore. I had some savings, but so, you know, I was, fortunately, I had a couple of great mentors and independent of each other. I don't know if I ever told you a story, but independent of each other, I told them that I was going to reposition myself in financial services because I had some experience in insurance and other things as well. And what would they do if they were in my position? This is 2008, right in the heat of it. And both of them said independently they would write a book. And I was like, wow, I never really thought of writing a book before. But something rang true to me. And so I wrote my book. I mean, I even got it here. I got a bunch of my clients' books

there on my desk, but I wrote this simple book, Life After Debt. That's a great title. Yeah, great title, especially since I needed life after debt myself. And most of my clients did as well. We thought we had good debt, right? But really, we didn't. And, you know, within a year, this brand new business in a terrible economy went from zero, ground zero, to doing seven figures. and then multi-seven figures thereafter. And it was explosive. I got on radio. I ended up having my own radio show.

I got on TV. I got speaking engagements. And, you know, organically, best-seller publishing grew out of that because business owners started coming to me and asking me, how are you doing this? Right? Like, what are you doing in 2009 that's exploding your business when we are dying on the vine? Right. And so I was like, well, I wrote a book and you should write a book.

And they were like, how do you write a book? And I'm like, well, don't do it this way because I made a mistake. And don't do it this way because I made a mistake and don't do that. And I just started organically helping people. And I fell in love with it. I, you know, grew my business from there, sold my financial services company about five, six years ago and have been going all in on this ever since. Got it. Actually, very similar.

Yeah. You were just bagging groceries. How are you playing golf on Tuesday now? And I'm like, well, I'm buying cheap house. and selling for more. You should do the same. Right. Right. Well, how do I do that? Exactly. Well, glad you asked. That's super. All right. So this, so that was the next stop right after. So you crashed and burned and you rose up really quickly with with this new venture. Bestseller publishing. I love the title. Pretty much know everything all that we need to know, right?

Exactly. Authors, aspiring authors, and you turn them into bestsellers. So rather than just being so general, what, what does that business kind of look like? So, you know, we're here in L.A., Pasadena area. I have 12 full-time employees here in my office, as well as a bunch of contract people like writers, et cetera. So we take people anywhere along the process, right? People need help writing their book.

So we have 11 full-time writers that can actually write our clients' books for them with their content. We have a whole very organized process that, does all that. Along the journey, people need help launching their book and getting traction. So we do, you know, big book launches for our clients with press releases and, and social media and paid advertising. And then at the end of it, people want to know, okay, how do I make money with it? How does it go from being a cool book to actually putting money in my pocket, which isn't royalties? You know, most authors think it is. It's not. And so we then help them

with lead generation. We have our own PR department, which books our clients on TV, radio, media. We just had a client yesterday on KTLA, you know, number two market,

top TV station and the number two market in the United States. So we have these done for you services and elements of coaching to help them blow it up. Got it. Yeah. See, I wrote two books on my own before we ever met.

Right. I did everything from A to Z all on my own. And now I'm writing my next two books with you. We've got two in the pipeline. Yep. It's a totally different experience. I wish I would have found you much sooner. Yeah, I wish I'd have found me too.

I mean, because I blew so much money and so much time. I mean, I paid a ghost writer in 2008 to do my book, and it was a disaster. I mean, I lost all the money I paid and I never got what I wanted. So I saw all these holes myself. Right. Absolutely. You know, one thing that you had mentioned that when you're, explain how the business works was I think the big myth and I certainly went in believing

this that I was that was going to be part of my resurrection was I was going to become a best selling author and I was going to put my book out there and I thought the royalties would pay me in the exact same way that they did in music and it was very much not the case at all right yeah so there's no money in the book there's money in what the book generates for you indirectly right yeah what is some of what does some of those indirect opportunities look like yeah so um you know start with me. Like I had a narrow target, you know, I was in financial services. And, you know, this was pre-Facebook, pre-social media, right? So I wasn't doing any Facebook marketing or anything like that. So what was I doing? Well, I was actually using my book in conjunction with radio,

giving my book away to generate leads for people that were interested in getting out of debt, getting life insurance, you know, figuring out what their financial future would look like. And You know, fortunately, those same mentors were lead generation experts primarily. And so they showed me how to use the book to generate leads. And of course, we've used it a dozen other ways. Today, it's different. In some ways, it's a lot easier today, right? Like, the number one working funnel online is book or free book to offer, right?

And that offer can be to a high ticket thing. It can be to other digital products and information that you give. And these are like automated systems that we have in place in our business. And a lot of our clients have in place in their businesses too. So it's a fortunately, I mean, it's, it's not harder. It's easier now than ever. Right. So you've been doing this for a while. Tons of success. We're here on a real estate investing show and you can certainly do it for real estate investors. Yeah. I know other people have other interests outside of their real estate investing. Typically people get involved in real estate to support their other interests. And, you know, And you've done this and created this type of experience, these bestseller status for over 23 different industries. Can you narrow down like who is the ideal person you're looking for in your business and, you know, who stands to gain the most? Like what type of person should might be listening to us right now and consider maybe I should go take off on this? Yeah. Easy.

Number one, they have to have a high client value. So we're talking nonfiction, of course. We're talking about experts, coaches, consultants, financial advisors, doctors, dentists, you know, anything along service providers, et cetera, if they can look at their average client value and it's two or three thousand bucks or more, right? Like getting a client is worth this amount to me over the lifetime of that client, then it's a no-brainer because you're in competition, right? with, if you're a financial advisor, you're in competition with, geez, every licensed insurance

agent, every licensed money manager, every certified financial planner. And so you need something to position yourself as an authority to attract attention and to put in their hands that isn't like, you know, a crappy little brochure or something, right? You know, something that really has client case studies and all of those things. And so it's easy to get a return on investment if you have a decent client value. You know, if you're selling balloons, and I've actually had a balloon like salesperson, come to me about a book, and I'm like, dude,

you don't need a book to sell balloons. You know what I mean? Just sell balloons. Yeah, just sell balloons. I mean, just, you know, they're a dollar or whatever it is for a package. Just sell balloons. Now, if you want to tell your story and that means something to you legacy-wise

and internally and to your family and friends, sure, that's cool. but you're not going to attract a million balloon buyers by writing a book. That's funny. Got it. So, yeah, like you said, you're professionals, right? Your consultants, your coaches, mentors, stuff like that, educators, possibly, right? Perfect.

So, let's see. I have a list of questions here to ask you. I'm trying to think what's going to be the next most empowering and compelling question I could ask of you. Let's see. What would you say is your greatest victory to date as an entrepreneur? Oh, it's got to be my rebound, right? I mean, you know, like looking back, it seems fast, right? But when you're in the midst of it, right, it like, you're wondering if this is ever going to end.

Like you said, from bagging groceries to playing golf on Tuesdays. And so, I mean, I was, you know, I'm, I'm, 53. I know I look 33. I get that. I never guessed. Handsome devil like you. Yes. We only have handsome people on this show. Of course. But, you know, so I'm in my early 40s. You know, I'm 42 years old. I'm like, you know, is that it? I mean, my confidence was crushed. You know, I'm, I'm sweating bullets. You know, how am I going to do this? So, so turning that around, you know, I mean, is amazing. I mean, to be able to, support my family and and now, you know, make more money, make a greater impact, do something

that quite honestly I enjoy even more. Ten years later is like, holy cow, you know, that's cool. You know, when I made my rebound, there's specific things I've applied to the business I'm in right now of the mistakes that make that happen again, can't let that happen again. Is there anything like that for you or like that you've prepared yourself for now so, you don't hit 54 years old and you're starting all over again. Yeah, well, look, from a real estate perspective, I still, I'm still in love with real estate. I'm still in love with real estate investing, but quite honestly, I, even though I had been in it since I was 18, I was more a speculator than

a real real estate investor. So, you know, I'd say the number one mistake that I made from an investing perspective, because I was heavily invested in real estate, is I didn't invest for cash flow. So now I do make some investments. And of course, I've talked to you about, you know, doing stuff with you guys. And, you know, that was a big mistake. I mean, I really got caught with my pants down, you know, during that time. And I got crushed in it. I'd say the other thing is from a business perspective, you know, I always, from this point on, from

that point on, I don't want to have all my eggs in a basket as far as generating leads for my business, right? Like, like, I, I look to generate leads and have myself kind of diversified in that regard. And also, you know, I think, and maybe this is a scar, right? But I also look at the economy and things are booming right now and I'm thankful for that. But I'm also, I also look at it like, okay, you know, when's the shoe going to drop here? You know, like, like, I know, hey, this isn't going to go on forever and I've got to make sure that I have multiple streams using an old Robert Allen term you know to protect myself when one oil rig goes down and goes empty I need to have another oil rig that's that's working even though this is my primary business does that make sense

100% I couldn't agree more I do the same thing I just kind of phrase a little bit differently is I just kind of look at all the different the single points of failure in my business or the way that I generate income and make sure that I can create some redundancy there or create an additional something from that just for that reason. When that oil well goes down, you've got another oil oil pumping. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not perfect there, not even close, but I am always thinking about it. I'm always looking to, you know, a new partnership or a new opportunity or something that isn't just a shiny object, but is going to get me to my end result, which is, you know, more passivity in it and a way, you know, to protect myself against disaster, right?

100%. Yeah, I just, it's, I think once you've had a certain level of success and lost it, you hit a point like, you never want to go back there again. And it's almost, I don't know, fear driven is it? But you're just, I'm not going to make that mistake again because that low was so crappy, right? Yeah. Yeah, and it can happen, right? I mean, we're, we are at the mercy of things like the economy and there are, as you said, points of failure within our businesses that if this goes down, you know, if you rely 100% on Facebook ads and all of a sudden Facebook goes down or something happens where they no longer allow that, whoa, you know, now you're having to do something completely different for your advertising medium and that could be true in

the economy or anything else. 100%. So Rob, what's in the future that you're most excited about? What's going on? I'd say from a business perspective, I mean, life is good. You know, I've got three awesome kids. I've been married a long time. I've been married 29 years. I have a great wife. I mean, our families are friends, which is really cool. And we're looking to get together and go out to dinner at Mastro soon, so I can't wait for that. That's right. And so, you know, I mean, look, that's always wonderful and a blessing and I'm grateful. When I hear that question, I often go and think towards business. You know, I have some cool partnerships that I'm doing with a couple of people.

You know my partner, Kevin Huddo. And so, you know, Kevin and I are doing some cool things for kind of the next step along the continuum for my authors, right? Once my authors, you know, get there and I happen to have Taki's book on my desk, once they get their bestselling book, you know, they then need systems in place to generate leads, get speaking engagements, make money. with their book and that's stuff that Kevin and I are doing and working on. So I'm, I'm excited about that because that's such a need that we can fill. So, and I have,

you know, little oil wells that I'm setting up and I'm always excited about the next oil well. Right. Great. So, Rob, if someone wanted to get in touch with you because they were thinking about writing a book, what would be the best way for them to do that? I'd say my website, bestseller publishing.org. There's a lot of content on there. There's a place. where they can learn a little bit about our process, fill out an application to work with us if they're interested in doing that. We've done a lot of real estate books. We, you know, I'm doing a book for Matthew Ferry right now, which he isn't focused on real estate as much anymore. Of course, he's from the Mike Ferry organization. I've done a book for Tim and Julie. I'm doing, you know, a couple books for you. So we love, I love this space. It's kind of in my blood. My dad still is involved in real estate at 70 something now. You know, so it's a, it's a great place to get. an ROI if you're involved in real estate.

It's awesome. Bestseller publishing.org. That's right. That's right. Don't forget the dot org. That's right. You go to that real cheap website if you enter anything else. That's right.

We actually own the dot com too, but I started with the dot org and I just stuck with it. There you go. All right, perfect. We'll cut that out. All right. Well, thanks, Rob. I'll see you next week. Let's stay in touch and more than we have been.

let's do this again. Love it, brother. Thanks so much. Great being with you. Okay, so thanks for tuning in to another episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. I'll see you next week for another episode of Thought Leader Thursday. God bless to your success. Take care.

This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.