You got it! Gurus who constantly pitch & sell; speakers who charge you for their “bootcamps” then proceed to have 2,3,4 additional speakers there pitching product to you; $15k,$30k, (gasp!) $60K mentoring programs!
So now that I have more than my little ‘ol blog as my soapbox – and now have this club, where I am more in the public eye and have to be “professional”, “responsible”, “respectful”, and “fair and impartial” (Yuck! Doesn’t that all sound so safe and quite frankly “Stepford” REIC owner? Gag me with a spoon!) I guess what I am trying to say is; Is it still OK or “appropriate” for me to poo-poo all these tactics in such a public way?
I ask because I have my own personal obligation to speak out against these seamy practices of the real estate club world and now I have my own real estate club business where I vow to never allow these practices to go on… which way do I go, which way to go? Is it enough to just simply not have these situations happen at my club? Or do I do continue to speak my mind about it?
I identify so strongly with this because as a newbie investor I got sucked into much of the hype. I have many-a-product that I didn’t need, didn’t help, or never got around to studying because I already had so much other stuff that I still hadn’t finished studying! I llike, many others got sucked into the excitement of the SELL, I believed those guys when they pitched “take action for your future! Do you want to start making the millions of dollars you dream about? Well then get off your arss and run to the back of the room because we only have 10 systems left at this price! You will never get this opportunity again! Run! Run! Little sheep!” All the while you just spent $5000 ea. on a system last week and last month, and 3 months ago.
I remember my very first epiphany around all this. I had just started going to REIC’s about 3 years ago and was feeling very vulnerable because I had lost my shirt (and consequently, my nerve) in my first go at real estate investing several years prior. As I began attending meetings and seminars again, I started to feel hopeful because those speakers and clubs really seemed to care about my success. I bought another training that was going to change my life. Then a couple of months later at another seminar – I thought: “oh my gosh… I need to buy that too! But- let me just ask the people in the back of the room cuz it seems like this system is similar to the training I just bought last month and the might contradict the one I bought before that…”
So at the back of the room I asked the people at the club – “I just bought such and such last month, and prior to that I bought so and so… do you think I still need to buy this one? Without a moment of hesitation, I kid you not – without even looking at me in the eye – they said “YES! You do!”… well alrighty then….if you say so, I trust you, it must be true!
It wasn’t until I started working in the club world that I sadly discovered that it’s about the sale – and more often that not, not about what was best for each investor’s individual needs or goals. Never once did anyone ask me when I was questioning a purchase; “Well what are your goals? What is your experience? Tell me more information about yourself so that I can better serve you…”
When this epiphany came to me, and the utter realization that investors individual needs and stories wasn’t taken into consideration before they were advised to spend $3000 plus on a product & bootcamp, was when I lost my virtuous viewpoint about this industry and started to share my insights… thus Naked Lady Real Estate.com was born last year and now, Naked Real Estate Investors Club & Community.
