WS908: Overcomplicating Things Could Get You Nowhere with Whitney Sewell

EPISODE 908

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:00.0] ANNOUNCER Welcome to The Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication. And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

[0:00:24.4] Whitney Sewell: Something I love doing is being out early, working on the farm. It’s like vacation to me. It really helps me get my day going, helps me to accomplish a lot quickly, and really just makes me to think clearer. It helps me to breathe some fresh air. As you all heard me talk about many times, being up early, just… It is great. I love being up early and accomplishing a lot fast. I’ve interviewed so many people. You’ve heard me talk about it. And the common thing to success.. I mean, one common thing – not the most common – probably, but one very common thing is that people are up early. And any business is up early every day, no. Many people opt to stay up late and sleep in. But more times than not, I find that people are up early, accomplishing things quickly when their mind is fresh and ready to go. And I say If you’re not a morning person, it’s probably a wrong way to think. It’s like you can be a morning person if you choose to be… I had to choose to be…

[0:01:28.9] WS: I had to change that many years ago. But one thing I wanted to share with you as I was out working this morning, I was loading up some old wiring and fence posts, and things I need to take to the dump before we start mowing and stuff – I don’t want that stuff get tangled in our mowers – but anyway, I was just thinking about numerous projects that we’re working on. And I was just thinking through different details about these projects. And I think… And think, I think about these things. I go to bed thinking about different details, and how can we do it better? And what if we did it this way, or what if we did it that way? And I just contemplate, well, okay, wait a minute. Who on the team is gonna do this? What’s our process going to be? What’s the best way to do it? How does it affect other people on our team? How does it affect our listeners or on the podcast? Or how does it affect our investors in our deals? And I’m trying to think through all those things, right? But I go back often, there’s many times, there’s many, many projects where it’s a big deal that it’s correct and we wanna think through these things. But often more times than not, we over complicate things. And I wanted to share a little story with you, where when I was getting started with the podcast specifically, where I just tried to over-complicate it and it delayed me in months in getting the podcast launched.

[0:02:53.7] WS: And so, at that time, we were living in a house where… Actually, it’s not long after we sold our farm, if you don’t know that story, I’ll share at some other time, if you don’t know it. But we sold our farm at that time, so we could be completely committed to the commercial real estate business. And obviously massive commitment on our part – it was an entire family commitment – it was very difficult, very difficult on our family. But that’s another story I’ll save for another day. But we sold our farm and we moved into town, and we were living in this house, had run a house for a few months, so we bought another small house in town. And then in this house, you could hear everything from one end to the other. I you can imagine recording a podcast in a place in a building where there’s other people, and in this case, two little boys that would run through the hallway, training their stick horses, you know, “Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra.” They’re training their stick horses up and down in the hallway, or even them reading books at the other end of the house, I could hear from the room that I was gonna start recording the podcast from.

[0:03:54.6] WS And that just bothered me. And I wanted this podcast to be as good as it could possibly be. Ultimately, I wanted it to be perfect, right? I wanted it to be perfect, but that mindset though, to some extent, kept me from getting started. And if you never get started, you’re never gonna go anywhere. And if you don’t get started, you’re never going to improve it, right? So, I had to get started, but all I could focus on, you know, it’s just gonna be horrible. It’s just gonna sound bad and there’s gonna be so much background noise, all those things is… That’s what I was focusing on. So, I had a mentor. And I highly encourage you to get a mentor. We’re mentoring a few selected people, if you’re interested, you’re welcome to reach out or go to the website and apply. But I had a mentor, and I was talking to him about this. And he also had a very successful podcast. And if you’re listening to this most likely, you know who Robert Keane is, and you know that Robert Kiyosaki’s a very big name in real estate. He wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad which has transformed so many people’s lives in real estate. It encouraged them to get into real estate and change their lives long-term. Robert Kiyosaki is somebody that most real estate investors look up to in a big way. But I encourage you to read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, if you haven’t already so you can just wrap your mind around real estate investing and getting started and just the way the Rich Dad thinks versus the Poor Dad thinks.

[0:05:23.6]  WS Just some very basic things that are very crucial things that you need to learn and understand from the beginning, or it just helps you in a big way. But my mentor, he had interviewed Robert Kiyosaki, and at this time I was sharing with him, you know. I was just saying, “It’s so loud in my house. It’s not gonna be quality. I’m trying to figure out something else I can do. Do I go rent a hotel room and record in a hotel room? I was contemplating like all these things. What can I do to record a better show? And even recording in a hotel room, it was an option. I thought, “Do I rent a hotel room and just try to record a dozen to 15 shows?” That’s what I was doing at the time we started doing. And I thought that way I could be in a quiet place and have better quality shows, be better focused, not be distracted, or don’t have the background noise. And I was explaining this to him and he just said, “Done is better than perfect.” He said, “I interviewed Robert Kiyosaki while sitting in my Toyota Camry. And that’s all he had to say.

[0:06:23.7] WS You know, that stuck with me because I was over complicating it. It was hindering me from getting started, and it held us way back. And we look back now over the growth of the podcast, the growth of our business. Just think if I could have started a few months earlier, or six months earlier, instead of having that mindset of over complicating every little detail of something about starting the podcast. Of course, I wanted it to be the best that it could be, and I had a couple of different mentors that helped me at that time, in different ways. But that was a big problem and it hindered me from getting started for months, trying to think through, I guess, focusing on details that didn’t… They do matter, but in the grand scheme of things, they didn’t matter a ton at that time. Getting started was much more important. And so I had to get started. I finally did get started after he made that comment. I did find another place to record, but it helped me to think about the bigger picture. It helped me to think about, “let’s move forward, let’s get this going on”, as opposed to focusing on little details like that, so I just encourage…

[0:07:29.0] WS I wanna encourage you as you are trying to scale your business, maybe you’re starting a podcast, or maybe you are starting some kind of business that you’re over complicating some details that just don’t matter as much as you think they do. There are details about any business that matter in a big way, of course. And you have to terminate what those things are, but I want you to really think through. Are these details keeping me from getting started? Am I over complicating details that just really aren’t going no matter. What is that for you today that’s hindering you? Without getting started, unless you use a podcast, obviously for an example, my first 10 shows, obviously, we’re not that great. The first 20 shows were not that great, and I’ve improved obviously, I just still have such a long ways to go. We’ve done almost 1000 shows now, but I still feel like I’ve such a long way to go. And so I’m still just working on that constantly, right? How can I ask better questions? How can I improve the interview process? How can we find better guests, more qualified guests? All these things, right?

[0:08:35.5] WS But if I had never gotten started, I would have never gotten to a thousand shows. I would have never improved. And so I just encourage you, What is that thing you’re working on for your business? What is it that’s holding you back? What are you over complicating specifically that’s hindering your growth? What is that for you? I would love to hear from you. I would love to know if we can help in some way. You’re welcome to reach out on the podcast. You’re welcome to email me, at [email protected], or call or text me. You’ll see it’s pretty easy to find my number. But let us know how we can help you? I hope you have a blessed day. I look forward to speaking with you again tomorrow

[OUTRO]

[0:09:13.6] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to the Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Life Bridge Capital. Life Bridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Life Bridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.LifeBridgeCapital.com for free material and videos to further your success.

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