Epic Real Estate Investing - Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran, Adam Carolla and the $1,000 Epic Video Contest Results | Episode 92

Episode Date: March 10, 2014

Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran joins Matt Theriault to discuss: What she would do differently if she were to start over Where she thinks the real estate market is going The mentor that made everything possilbe Her secret for staying on top With whom she spends most of her time How she hires the people that work for her The ripest investment market Why only 2 out of 3 deals reached on Shark Tank actually close Also, Matt joins Adam Carolla in the fight against "patent trolls" and announces the winner of the $1,000 Epic Video Contest. Say goodbye to your favorite podcasters. It's the end of podcasting as you know it.http://fundanything.com/patenttroll  ------------------------- Join Matt and his team on the next Cash Flow Savvy Property Tour on May 1st & 2nd. Get the details and register here: EpicRealEstateTour.com Download the free real estate investing course "How to Do Deals | No Money Required" at FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text FreeCourse to 55678 "Click" what interests you most:   Education Properties Income Coaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Matt here. Real quick, before we get on with today's show, if you listen to this podcast, you likely listen to others, and your favorite shows in the way that you know them are being threatened. Personal audio, a non-operating company, meaning they do not provide a product or a service, meaning they are not an actual business. What they are is a group of lawyers and deep pocket investors who have purchased a vague, loosely worded, all-encompassing global patent. and are using it to accuse and sue businesses in the name of violating that patent. And, you know, maybe you're familiar with this practice. Maybe you're not.

Either way, what these companies are known as are patent trolls. Maybe you've heard of them. They've been making a lot of news lately. It's not a new practice, though. It's been going on for years. But it's really reaching a point where the spirit of the law and the boundaries of ethics are being pushed and in many cases downright violated. Simply put, patent trolls are more and more commonly assuming

the role of extortion artists. They're shaking down honest businesses. So I'm sharing this with you because this particular troll, personal audio, they claim they own a patent for the delivery of all media over the internet. Now, you can imagine how far that would reach, right? I mean, just about anyone on the internet is in violation. When I'm speaking of iTunes, of Facebook, YouTube, you name it. They all deliver media over the internet.

But here's the thing, personal audio, they aren't going after iTunes. They're not going after Facebook and they're not going after YouTube. What they're doing is going after the individuals that use those services, that use those websites. Individuals like you, individuals like me who post content on iTunes, who post content on Facebook and YouTube. They're going after the people they know can't afford to fight. Yet they know that they still have a little bit of money to avoid the fight, to settle. So with that said, they are claiming that all podcasters are guilty of patent infringement. And that's who they're starting with.

They're starting with us. Specifically, they're starting with the biggest podcasters like Mark Marin, Chris Hardwick, and Adam Crolla, to name a few. And should any of these podcasters, should they settle to avoid the fight? What it does is it sets a precedent. It gives the patent trolls leverage to extort money from every other podcast. and as you probably know, podcasts are inherently small, owner-operated businesses that do not have the financial resources to fight off this type of assault. Most podcasts do it just for the love of it. Most podcasts don't even make any money from their podcast, and they can't afford to fight.

Therefore, podcasts, as we know them today, would cease to exist. Fortunately, no one has settled yet, though. And the first court date, though, is set for September 2014 against Adam Carolla and the Adam Carolla show. And I'm happy to hear, and I'm happy to share with you that Adam is a hero. He will not be settling. He will be fighting the patent trolls on behalf of all podcasters, including all of your favorite podcasters. Now, as you can imagine, the legal defense to fight the patent trolls, it's not cheap. And thus far, Adam has funded his entire defense on his own, upwards of $50,000.

That's the last figure that I heard. But it's going to go up fast. It's estimated that the team of lawyers he's having to hire to fight the team of patent troll lawyers will likely reach a price tag of a million bucks and above. So what he's done, he's started a crowdfunding campaign to help pay for his defense and he's asking for all podcasters and fans of podcasts to contribute whatever they can to help. In every dollar of your donation to the Save Our Podcast Defense Fund will go toward the legal cost of defending the Adam Krola Show against personal audio's frivolous lawsuit. But it's not just for Adam. This fund is being raised on the behalf of all podcasters and their fans. And to send a crystal clear message to all patent trolls that we're not going to back down.

There's a lot of legislation going on in Washington right now to combat patent trolls, to at least reform patent law. I don't know if you've been keeping up to date with Mark Cuban in his cause and his campaign. He's leading the cause against patent trolls. But although this good stuff is happening, it's probably not going to happen in time before Adam's court date arrives. So we want to send a message that we're not going to back down. Most importantly, your contribution is going to allow your favorite podcast to remain an operation. So contributions as little as $5 are accepted.

And if you'd like to support Adam or if you'd like to support this show and or just your favorite podcaster or by just doing the right thing out of sheer principle, go to fund anything.com forward slash patent troll. And you can help the cause. I mean, if you're anything like me, I've been listening to podcasts for several years. and that has been several years of free entertainment, several years of free education. The least we could all do is contribute $5. I'm going to ask for you to stretch it and go for $10. But $5 is fine. Do what you can.

Go to fund anything.com forward slash patent troll, and I'll put that link into the show notes too in case you can't write it down. All righty. So thanks for your ear. Thanks for your help. And now on with the show. Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Yeah.

Here we go. Hello. And welcome to another episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. This is the show that I'll show you how to escape the rat race once and for all so you can do what you want, when you want, with whom you want, wherever you want to do it. That's financial freedom. And anyone can do that in a relatively short period of time. if they do just one thing. And they don't really have to do this one thing one time.

And that is to shift their focus from making piles of money to making streams of money. That's it. In the real estate world, we call that a cash flow focus. And that's what the show is all about, freedom. And from the mouth of Kevin O'Leary, Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank, I don't know if you watch that show, it happens to be my favorite show. Kevin says, don't be greedy for money. Be greedy for freedom.

and in today's world freedom does not come from piles of money it comes from streams of money and in Mr. O'Leary's world they call it dividends in our world we call it cash flow and speaking of cash flow cash flow savvy's next cash flow

tour is coming up May 1st and May 2nd in St. Louis. Love that city by the way I don't know if you've ever been there but I highly recommend it day one of the tour consists of a cash flow workshop conducted by yours truly. And then we will adjourn to a happy hour reception where we get to just relax and chat real estate. Then day two consists of a light breakfast, a three-hour tour of St. Louis, and you get to see all of its cash-flowing real estate opportunities. You're going to see houses that we just acquired. You're going to see houses in mid-rehab. And then you're going to see

houses fully restored and spitting out monthly cash flow to their owners just like clockwork. That's the system that we've got set up in six different markets currently. And if that sounds like something you'd like to look further into, go to Epic Real EstateTor.com. Epic Real Estate Tour.com. And then you can join us in St. Louis on May 1st and 2nd to witness in person how the entire operation it continues to perform to the satisfaction of many delighted cash flow investors. Epic Real EstateTor.com. You're invited. Come on.

Hey, Matt. My name's Adam. So the investing course helped me a lot. Well, I just got introduced to it last week, and it's starting to make my days more productive. Hey, Matt. Just wanted to shoot this quick video and tell you about how your podcast has helped me in my business and in my life. And I can say that I closed my first deal, and I made $3,600. Hi, Matt.

My name's Ben Peterson. I'd like to give you a quick testimony on why the epic real estate investing podcast has changed my life and my business. Hey Matt, Carl Rutherford here from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The content that you have has been super helpful to me. Hi, my name's Jeff Woods. And after listening to the podcast for just a short year, I have just purchased my second personal residence, and I'm currently in escrow on a fourplex in Kentucky

that's going to give me great cash flow. My name's Dick Kielfen. Thanks, Matt. Hi, Matt. My name's John Purcell. A few weeks ago, I got turned on to your podcast just by poking around, seeing what I could find. And ever since I've discovered it,

it's given me a whole different level of confidence to get into this business, which can be very daunting at times. And you break it down, layman's terms, it's worth every second I spend. Hi, I'm Courtney. I made $7,600 after three months. And let me tell you, it was easy.

Matt explains it to you step by step. He's been there. He knows the things that you will go through. And guess what? If you're still not quite sure on what to do, getting discouraged, you can send them an email. A live person will get back to you. That's what I did. What are you waiting for?

Put some money in your pocket. Love it. Thank you. Thank you so much. The results are in from the Epic Video Contest. As you were just hearing from a small sample of those submissions, I will award $1,000 to the winner today. It's very difficult to choose, by the way. They were all great.

I wish I could thank each one of you personally. You guys totally rock. Thank you very much for those. And if you missed out on the contest, no worries, you'll get another chance. And if you didn't happen to win this one, you can reenter and try again. And I'll share with you how a little later, as well I'll be sharing with you the winner. And I'm going to share that with you at the end of the show as I want to introduce to you the guest that I have had planned for months. I've mentioned it last episode.

Her credentials include straight Ds in high school and college and 20 jobs by the first. the time she was 23 years old. It was her next job, though, that would make her one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country when she took a $1,000 loan to launch what would become a real estate empire. As one of the sharks on ABC's hit TV show Shark Tank, did I say that was my favorite show? I think I said that a little earlier, right? That's my favorite show. She has ponied up her money and invested in 22 businesses total, competing to make those deals for all to see, sharing her secrets, laying it out there, so you get to see how she does what she does. And then what she does is she goes ahead and she shepherds them and molds them and takes them all the way to the front door of success.

Her newest book, Shark Tales, takes you behind the scenes of her life and business and her scene on TV venture capitalism. She is famously brash and blunt, bold and courageous. She's awesome. And a brilliant identifier of opportunity and talent. often that talent being invisible to others. I think that's what makes her really special. So it's my honor and privilege to welcome Mrs. Barbara Corcoran to the show. Barbara, welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing.

Pleasure to be here, Matt. Thank you. You know, I'm really excited to have you on my show because, you know, your... I bet you say that to old girls. No, actually, I don't because what I'm going to follow up with, I've never said before, because your show is my favorite show. And it's an absolute honor to have you here. And actually, congrats for the amazing success of Shark Tank.

Oh, thank you. It took a good five years to climb that mountain, but we're doing very well now, thank God. Yeah, it's awesome. And I'm very happy to say that I was a watcher of the show from the very, very beginning. Good for you, because you know why the first two years we were getting colds every week saying it might be canceled. So if not for those loyal beginning viewers, we wouldn't be on today with such a big success. Right. I can't even imagine that show not being on the air now.

It's like a normal Friday ritual. It's pizza and wine night in front of the TV. And we had the worst time spot. They stuck us in Friday because we weren't working. Go figure that one. It was so powerful. I've canceled all Friday night plans from this point forward. I'm so sorry to hear that.

No, it's awesome. When you were approached to do the show, did you have any idea as to how popular show could become or would become? No, I didn't have any feel for that because I wasn't a TV watcher, but I felt instantly that people would really relate to it because I thought it offered so much. So I knew it would be a hit. I just didn't have any idea it would be as successful as it is right now. It's awesome. I'm so happy that it is. You know, I live in LA. I had never heard of you or your New York firm prior to Shark Tank, but obviously you're doing very, very well. What was going on with you and your business at the time when you were asked to do the show?

Well, actually, I had already sold my big business 12 years ago. Actually, I sold it right on the heels of 9-11. Oh, really? But I was already in the TV space doing a lot of real estate talk on the Today Show, Fox TV, and many different news shows. And I think that's what actually attracts. the producer Mark Burnett to at least give me a shot at going for Shark Tank. But actually, after he hired me, sent out the contract, I never even read the contract. I'm just signed this darn thing. I don't care what it is, you know. And then just a few days before I was headed to L.A., I even bought a new wardrobe, signing autographs.

I had this Hollywood tape running in my head like a little kid, you know. Then I got an email saying that they changed your mind, and they wouldn't be hiring me. I couldn't believe it. And so I wrote a very well-written, very instant email immediately back telling him why he was making a big mistake. And then I found out, and of course he reversed his decision. And I found out weeks later that they had rejected like, I think they had 20-some-odd sharks they had sent contracts to, and they rejected everybody except four. And then nobody complained. I was told I was the only one that wrote an email.

So the lesson there is always one more shot at everything, right? Right. That's amazing. I was in the business for 15 years, and I was on the brink of stardom so many times and having contracts and stuff like that retracted. It was... Oh, really? Well, I thought it was personal when it happened to me. Like, what's wrong with me, you know? Yeah, obviously they would have made a significant mistake. You know, the one question that I wanted to ask you, and I was actually curious about this, the very first time I ever saw the show a few years ago,

the introduction states that you built a real estate empire from a thousand dollar loan, and I'd love to know how you did it, but I'm even more interested in how you would do it today knowing what you know now. Is there anything that immediately comes to mind that... Yeah, so nothing's changed in a few regards. One is, I started young,

and that's the best time to start any business. The great majority of successful businesses have started very young in life. And I think what you have going for you there is you have absolutely no memory. You have no knowledge, which most people would say, oh, you better get a really buttoned up business plan. But I'm a great proponent to having almost like being too stupid to know any better. And there's something about risk-taking. Once you hit your head, you fall down.

What happens? You get scared, right? But if you could get out of the gate really young, you don't know what there is to be afraid of. You really don't know what kind of walls you're going to hit, and you have that high-energy optimism that only comes with youth. So I'm not saying that people can't start a business at 40 or 50, but what a leg up you have if you do when you're really stupid. And I think that's a formula that worked for me then, and I think it's a formula that works very well on the entrepreneurs I work with at Shark Tank. The great majority of the entrepreneurs I've invested in Shark Tank, I don't even think about it when I'm investing, but now looking at my crowd of really top people.

people that are doing well versus my group that hasn't done well. Youth is a big component. There's no replacement for it, really. So you've got to get out there and do before you have the mortgage and the two kids while you can do it and while you're still dumb and naive, really. So to some extent, ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is bliss. And you know what's great about ignorance?

It's not edited. You can't edit ignorance. It's just ignorance. And so you can't edit your enthusiasm because of it. because of knowing too much. You know, coming up in your business, did you have a role model or a mentor? Sure, I did. I had my mom.

She raised 10 kids as though it was effortless. She ran our household like a boot camp. She never worked outside the home. Needless to say, she had enough going on inside the home. But we had two bedrooms, and she squeezed her 10 kids into those two bedrooms. My parents slept on the couch in the living room. So for romance, right, I guess you don't need a romantic atmosphere to have a lot of kids. what was great is she was a

walking, talking, role model of enthusiasm, energy, organizational skill, and pushing her kids not to be successful. We never ever heard that word. She just pushed us to be, do the best he can and be a nice person. That was her mantra. That's pretty easy. Most kids

can pull that off, do the best they can, and be a nice person. We never felt a lot of parental pressure on that one, you know. And then we, of course, had the great advantage of having my mom as a role model as a leader. She was She was a, if I had to compete with her in business, I think she put me under, honestly. So it kind of became second nature.

Ironically, my family, we have 10 kids except for my sister, who's a hospice nurse. Every child is self-employed. And I think the reason for that is because of the horrific role model my dad gave us, which you would think a negative role model would be bad. But my dad's instance, he worked two jobs his whole life, would have loved to work for himself. He was always five for insubordination. And we watched a man who, really was not happy working for the next guy and regularly tell him where to go and losing his

job. So we got that arrogance from my father and none of us grew up wanting to work for anybody. And so he indirectly influenced us as much as my mother did. You had said in the beginning that you had sold your real estate business and I wasn't aware of that. What does your business look like today? My business today is all media. I do a tremendous amount of speaking engagements. I do a lot of TV, needless to say, and I work my buns off at the growing group of entrepreneurs that are under my wing right now from buying them on the shark tank over five years. I'm sure that keeps you busy.

Oh, a little bit, yeah. A little bit. You know, having attained the level of success that you have, is there anything specific that you do to stay sharp and on top of your game? Not really. I don't even think about it. I just work my buns off, you know what I mean? And I think if you're fully engaging in your mind, always learning things, you're going to stay sharp,

I hope. I hope. We'll see. Ask me in 10 years. Okay. Well, we will. You know, it's been said by many, and I'm not sure who actually said it by, who said it first, but they say you're the average of the five people that you spend most of your time with. Who do you spend most of your time with? My office staff. Your office staff. My husband and my kids and my three very close friends. I mean, I have a lot of friends. I call them second tier friends. They'd die if they heard me describing it that way. But my idea of a good friend is someone you just like could just drop in. a second and you're really happy to see them and it takes no effort. That's a great friend. Kind of like family, really. Right. But I spend a lot of time with the people at my office.

I spend a lot of time at home and with my kids, thank God. I have them. And, of course, with my husband, I tolerate them and spend 25 years. It takes tremendous willpower. And then with the great people here, I have at the office. My entrepreneurs, I should say, and let me tell you something. Let me not overlook the entrepreneurs. When you have a great entrepreneur that has wild-ass,

enthusiasm is really smart, hustling like crazy. They're not operating from a fear base, but an attitude if they can do it. It's contagious. You can't have a bad day. And so I drop my entrepreneurs very quickly if I don't think they've got it. And I spend a lot more time with the entrepreneurs that I really think got the winners. You know, in the last six months, I've hired my first six employees. That's a lot.

You can afford that. It's a big growth. That was always my fear that I couldn't afford it. And now I look back and I couldn't afford not to. It's been amazing. But it wasn't an easy process in hiring. How do you find the people that work for you? All the good people that have worked for me almost my entire life I found on the outside.

All right. I just, the woman who runs all of the sales, now there are like 2,000 salespeople, the top person at the corporate group, I found on an airplane. She was a stewardess. She was well-organized, extremely personalable, not over-bearable. not overbearing. I could see that she was very smart. I witnessed her having one of the passages in the plane complain about his dried potatoes. It was a weird story, but she endeared me forever, and she took the plate back, and then she said, are these the potatoes? And he said, yes, and then she scolded the

potatoes, bad, bad, bad, bad potatoes. And I thought, this lady's the greatest, and I offer her job right on the spot. She didn't come right away. She came like nine months later. She had been at the airline. But I always pick up people based on attitude, not on what their life experiences or what their past jobs are, but attitude. Because, you know what, I find you take a great person, you stick them in any job, they do a great job. There are certain jobs that are better for people than other jobs. You have to say you have to suit the person's job.

But no, all the gold is on the outside. Ideas, people, everything. Right. Right. Right. At your desk. Never in an ad. Myself.

You know. I like to find the person and figure out what they could do. I've always thought sometimes when I go to a restaurant and I get really great service and I was like, you know, if I had a restaurant, I would steal this person right now. Oh, why wouldn't you steal a person? Restaurants are ripe with over-talented people who are great with people and are looking for what they should really be doing. It's like an interim stop for a lot of great people.

Hey, my boyfriend, wait, let me not overlook this. My boyfriend, Ramon Simone, found me at the diner at a counter. Is that right? I got $1,000 to start. Thank God for the waitressing. John. That's awesome. That's awesome.

Let me ask you a real estate question because this is a real estate show. Hope I know it. I do too. It's going to be a little speculation probably. But the residential real estate market of the last several years and most parts of the country has seemingly been impacted by investors more than really any other time, at least in my memory. Do you see this trend continuing or do you think it will return back to its normal dynamic of, you know, resident owners buying and selling new homes to each other?

You know, it's already waning by a lot, right? what the great news is that investors pulled most of the hardest hit areas of the country out of the Depression, without a doubt, because the prices were cheap enough, and the number of tenants who couldn't afford to buy a home were plentiful enough that it was a perfect, like the perfect storm for having all these investors come into the markets and clean up. They had the ability to renovate. They had the ability to pay off the mortgages. and so most of the recovery was fueled by investors, thank God, but that has already changed. It used to be that in many of the hardest hit areas, like I remember only, I think it was like roughly a year

and a half ago in Detroit, four and five homes are bought by investors. Right now, the majority of being bought by users because the investors got priced out of the market as the markets recovered. So I think that's the thing of the past, not totally, but it's waning and it's waning very quickly. Well, having that change, you seeing that change, do you see an opportunity for investors? still? There is, but much less so, because the margins of skinnier. Mm-hmm.

And financing is getting easier again. So they are tribal as the user. You know, the person who's going to actually move in and raises kids there. So, no, I see that as disappearing tremendously quickly. I think there's always a ripe investment market. You know, where I think is always ripe and often overlooked during college towns because you have guaranteed influx of kids. coming in and out, guaranteed turnover so you could raise your rent.

Right. And there's only a very small nucleus of buildings that appeals based on proximity of the school that appeals to the kids. And every kid by the time they hit 30, you want to get out and rent an apartment. So it's always amazing to me that people, and prices steadily go up in all college towns. It stays right in pace with tuition, ironically. So I think that's always a ripe investment opportunity, but very few people specialize in it. Super. I'm doing it right.

After watching Shark Tank weekend and week out, it seems that your business acumen reaches much further than just real estate. And obviously, you might have already answered this question already. But were you investing in other businesses outside of real estate prior to your involvement with Shark Tank? No way. What would I do that? The best way to make money is to stick to you knitting and invest in your own ballpark. And that's what I did my whole life.

All the real estate invested in that I still own today that is appreciated over the years have been in the New York City area, things I know. I never went outside and did things I didn't know. Shark tank forced me to do it because there weren't any real estate companies. I think there was one in five years that was put forth. Everything else is something else. But guess what I've learned? I've learned that business is business.

I'm not saying that there are millions of nuances between a fashion product and a food product versus a technology product. There are. There's lots of nuances. But you know what undermines, what not undermines, underlies all of them is common sense. and what is the top line item on all of them is a great entrepreneur. You got a great entrepreneur, it's going to work out.

You got a lousy entrepreneur, it ain't going to work out. I don't care what business you're going to have good your ideas. Got it. That was actually my next question. Business is business then? Oh, business is business. Yeah, for sure. I just wonder if you could share a little bit behind the scenes a question that I have.

On the show, when a shark reaches a deal with one of the entrepreneurs, it's, you know, it's really at that point it's just a verbal handshake-type deal. Do all of those deals go through? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I would say two out of three usually closed because what happens then is there's a verbal deal and the entrepreneurs know it's simply a handshake deal until a due diligence is done. We couldn't possibly lay $100,000, $200,000, bang on the table on just a short question on Shark Tank. You don't know if you'd lose your shirt and maybe a house along with it.

Now, I would say two out of, well, speaking for myself anyway, two out of three of the deals typically closed. one out of three typically fall by the waistside. Why? Because sometimes the numbers given are not exactly right, or sometimes they're not right at all. Sometimes the orders that they have are really just conversations where a store said, yeah, we would order it, and then the orders never come in. Sometimes the patent that they own is really owned by the brother-in-law, and that comes out in the due diligence.

You get all kinds of stuff. And so in a typical investment community, the investor does all the due diligence on the front side and then commits on Shark Time because of the TV piece, we commit on the front side, and then we do the due diligence on the backside. So really misinformation is probably the biggest thing that breaks those deals out? Misinformation, I would say it would be number one, and number two would be actual quality of the product. When you actually get the product, like I distinctly remember having a cupcake tower,

great entrepreneurs, a durable product, but we had that cupcake tower that comes in parts, and I have pretty smart people working at my office. We all worked on the Cupcake Tower, reading the directions. We couldn't put it together no matter what. And then going online, you see the throwbacks from the customer. There's the same complaint impossible to put together. That's a problem. That's a product problem.

Got it. So now that you have several seasons of Shark Tank under your belt, what have you... Five. Five. That's awesome. What have you learned from your experience on the show that you might be able to apply to your real estate investing or what? advice could you give to a real estate investor? Well, I don't really learn anything on the show that would apply to real estate investment,

honestly, because it's like a different talent set, you know? If you don't mind, I could certainly give you some real estate advice or tell you what I learn on the show, but they probably don't meet in the middle somewhere. A lot of my audience is just getting started, and I teach a lot of creative strategies of how to do this with very little money and without using banks. someone coming from that. Or investors. Yeah, the great majority of businesses uproof-strapped.

Right, right. For someone getting started like that, you know, what kind of advice could you give them? You mean getting started on their own without a big investor going into the business? I would say... Say it with a $1,000 check from their significant other. Yeah. Figure out how to spend that money super wisely, as though every penny is worth $10. Because when you're starting, every penny is worth $10.

It's very, very easy to spend money, and it's exciting. It's a new business. Let me get the letterhead going. Oh, my gosh, let me get this, let me get that. It's usually all misjudgment. I think what you have to figure out is how to spend the little money you have super wisely. Almost think like a cheap skate. Not that you're not willing to risk it all.

You are risking it all. You wouldn't be an entrepreneur. But think of how can I get the most money out of every buck I'm spending here. And the things that people typically waste time on are patents. What do you need a patent for? What do you want to make the attorney rich? Why not keep the money in your coffer? Patents might be important later if you get some sales traction.

And I think the number one question you want to ask yourself is every penny I'm spending does it directly lead to sales. A lot of people misinterpret that. They say PR, yeah, yeah, my name gets out there will get sales. That's so indirect and something that only a little bit more established business could have So how do you do PR on the cheap where you don't have to spend a dime, right to the bloggers, send your product out to the people who have influence, right? Whatever you have to do it on the cheap. How do you advertise on the cheap?

I don't know. But you figure out how to advertise on the cheap. But most importantly, who you're going to sell it to and how you're going to reach that buyer. And you know what? If you can't figure that one out, you might as well save all your money to begin with because you ain't going to work. You ain't going to succeed at your business. You have to figure out who you're going to sell it to. whether we'll buy it at what price, whether you can make a buck on that.

If you can't figure that one out, you don't have a business. Right. So, Barbara, I've really enjoyed this time with you. You're easy, Matt. I could tell you're an easy-going guy. You're going to enjoy almost anything you do. And I do. I've been blessed enough to build a business that is so much fun for me.

I would love to know what's going on in your life right now that really excites you. Skiing is my most exciting thing. As far as outside relaxing pleasure, I love to do it. We're going off with my office this weekend. to go skiing. And I would say my kids. My kids are my dream. I mean, I've got to have them.

I have treasure every moment. I'm old enough to know better, not to miss any of it. And how many do you have? And I'm rich enough to have the time to do it. How many kids do you have? I have two. Seven and 20. My son's 20th birthday today.

That's awesome. Well, super. I'm looking forward to the, say again. End of the teenage years. End of the teenage years. That's great. Well, thank you so much for your time and taking time out of your schedule to be here, and the best of luck to you.

Okay, you too, Matt. Best of luck meeting a payroll, huh? That's right. That's right. Take care. Bye. Bye-bye. Okay, a couple of takeaways there.

First, ignorance is bliss, she says. You don't need to know everything before you get started. Just start. It's just another way of saying what we say here almost on every single episode. Travel as far as you can see, and when you get there, you'll see further. Second, of which I thought was interesting. She thinks there's much less. opportunity for investors and that the window is closing quickly. Well, I agree to some extent and

I moderately disagree in another. I mean, I agree that the window is closing. We've been talking about that for a while. But the word quickly that she used, I don't know, it's relative, I guess. It might be quick to her and not so quick to me. We just have maybe a different perspective on that word. But when she says it's closing, I mean, I agree with her there. I'm certainly not buying property right now at the steep discounts I was just two years ago. But I'm still buying at steep discounts. So there's plenty of opportunity in there. And when I say discounts, I'm speaking purchase price compared to replacement price, meaning in most parts of the country, it's still much cheaper to buy an existing house

than it is to build a new one. So yes, yeah, the window. It's closing for sure. And none of us know when it will actually close, though. But as long as you're investing for cash flow, doesn't matter? To me, it doesn't. It doesn't to me. I also think Barbara's perspective should be taken into consideration.

I mean, she swims with the sharks, right? She swims with the big boys. And perhaps within that world, the majority of opportunity in buying in bulk direct from the banks, the type of stuff that Wall Street would be attracted to, you know, that type of purchasing from the banks and the government entities, I think that's all behind us for the most part. But for us, the individual, I think that's actually good news. I think that means less competition. I think that means there is more.

more opportunity for us, the individual investor. I mean, we're already, we're already seeing signs of the giant firms, the hedge funds, and the institutions slowing down with their acquisitions. We're seeing that out there in the market right now. The, the auctions for sure are slowing down. We know that the REO market is slowing down. And I think that's what, I don't know, I think that's what Barbara was referring to more because that's her perspective. That's her world. And I'm sorry, I wish I was quicker on my feet to ask her about that and probe a little bit more. So my apologies for that. I was actually having a little tough time hearing her as well.

We didn't have the greatest connection. And I also knew we were on the clock. Nonetheless, though, she was gracious enough to join us here on the show, the number one real estate investing show on iTunes. What an awesome lady. I really enjoyed that. We all wish her the very, very best of luck. I hope Shark Tank stays on the show for decades to come.

Now, the winner of the epic video contest. And this was so difficult to choose, but I did. I did narrow it down to two favorites. And then it was essentially, I mean, it was essentially a tie to me, but the office here did think one just slightly edged out the other. So we did take a vote and we did come up with the winner. So runner up of the epic video contest and winner of $250. And I didn't announce that there would be a runner up prize, but I created one at the last minute anyway. And I just thought that this video deserves something.

And the runner up is, and the winner of this $250, Rishita Etta Koya. I hope I pronounce your name correctly. This is Rashida. I just want to share my epic story with you. I want you to check this out. Take a look. You see that house? I just closed on that house two weeks ago. I bought it and sold it all with your help, Matt. So I really appreciate everything that you have done with your podcast. They have been just a wealth of information. So I bought the house two months ago and I sold it just last week, all with the help of your wonderful podcasts. And it's just, again, so valuable in information, all from episode 60 where you talked about the lead generation sources. So I took your advice on that and found me a lead source that helped me contact this seller and put the options of intent letter.

together and with the aid of that information, bought it, sold it, and I am on my way to doing it again. So thanks so much, Matt. It's been a great, great ride, and I'm just getting started. Take care. Awesome. So congrats to you, Rashida. And if you're listening to the show via podcast, Rashida was actually standing in front of the house that she just bought and sold. Very cool. And she referenced episode 60, an episode on Lead Generation. And she referenced episode, accessed one of the sources on that episode as to how she found the deal. So very cool. Thank you for mentioning that. And I'll actually be interviewing Rashida on an upcoming episode to where we'll go into the details of how she did it and what she's continuing to do. So congrats Rashida

and thank you for your video. Loved it. So now the winner of the epic video contest and like I said, it was close, very close. And I mean, he just barely edged out Rashida. But the office voted and he won. the winner of the epic video contest and winner of $1,000, Kenny Castillo. Hey Matt, Kenny Castillo, Academy member, currently in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. You help this happen. It's my first wholesale deal. Check for $5,000. And I couldn't be happier.

And it's all due to your information, the connection I made with you and your free real estate investing course. Keep it up. Thanks so much. Short and sweet, right? Well, what you couldn't see is Kenny held up the actual check that he made from his first wholesale deal. He showed us the money, the check for $5,000. And that little detail right there, that appeared to be the tiebreaker in the vote here at the office. So, congrats, Kenny.

And so you've got another thousand bucks coming. Another $1,000 on top of your $5,000. It's coming your way. So if you miss this opportunity of submitting a video for the Epic Video Contest, we're going to do it again. We're going to do it again this month. starting right now. So submit your epic testimonial video by March 31st. Even if you entered the first time, you can enter again. Now you, I mean, now you've got an idea of what got the epic offices attention. So take that and do what you want with it. And let's do this time.

Let's put in the subject line. Let's put in epic video in the subject line. Just that, just those two words, two separate words, epic video. Because it was actually really, um, a pain in the butt to round them all up. I had to sort through all kinds of emails and search through all emails to get them all together. And I just want to make sure that your video doesn't fall through the cracks. So be sure to put epic video in the subject line

so I can easily find it. All righty? So thanks for all of you that entered. There were some really good stories in there and I'll be playing them randomly in the future right here on the show. Also, thanks to Adam Carolla for fighting the good fight

on the behalf of us podcasters and podcast fans. And thank you for whatever you can do to tip in for the Save Our Podcast Legal Defense Fund, and you can find that at Fund Anything.com forward slash patent troll. And thank you, big thank you to our special guest today, Shark Tank's very own Mrs. Barbara Corcoran. And that would be it for today.

It was a full one, yes? Right? I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream. You've been listening to Epic Real Estate Investing, the world's foremost authority on separating the facts from the BS in real estate investing education. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and share your thoughts.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time here at Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. This podcast is a part of the C-Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.