Unlocking Growth: My Top 3 Tools for Personal and Professional Development

All right, welcome back.

So today's show I want to talk about the top three tools that I've used and continue use for growth. Not only with real estate investing, with self storage, but also with personal development. And before we get into it again, want to thank everyone for listening. I want to thank everybody for the feedback that I'm getting, which is absolutely awesome.

The idea behind me doing this show is really just to give back things that I've learned, things that I'm learning, things that I have gone through and going through. I enjoy sharing those and also other guests as well.

We learn so much from each other and that's a perfect segue for my very first, the first tool there's, and this is no particular order, but the first tool that I use and have used for, for growth is networking. Pretty simple, right? Learning from others. And there's a lot of ways to do that.

I do believe being in person and connecting and having, you know, good relationships, I believe that's probably the strongest way because there's so much you can learn in person compared to, you know, a zoom call or something like that. But networking, right? Relationship, relationship capital. And obviously you've got to meet these people somewhere. So where do you meet these people?

I've met them in masterminds, and that's been storage masterminds, that's been personal development masterminds, that's been high level real estate investing masterminds. I've been to quite a few and have definitely met a wide array of people. And I don't want to say a pick and chose, but have kind of, you know, gravitated to certain people. And those people I've definitely stayed in contact with. And my circle is relatively small and I like to keep it small.

But yeah, I've met all sorts of people, whether it's in self storage, multifamily, you know, hard money, wholesaling, senior living, you name it. I've got a pretty good friend and pretty much any asset class and can learn something from anybody in different asset classes. So it's pretty cool. Also gone to one off events, seminars. Those are from what I've seen, there's a couple different kinds. There's some that are, I guess more you're gonna learn tools, right?

You're gonna, you, you're gonna learn tools of the trade, whatever you're going for. So if it is a self storage seminar, hopefully you learn self storage stuff, you know, the nuts and bolts. And then I've also been to other ones where it's more kind of Rah, rah, kind of pump you up kind of thing. Both are great. It's, you know, where you at in your season of life. What do you need?

You know, where, where I'm at and, and most circumstances now my seminars have changed from more nuts and bolts to now more, I don't say motivation, but kind of just being around that energy. Right. In fact, one event I went to in, in Phoenix a couple months ago, Tommy Mello, garage door guy, his energy was unreal. I don't know that I got a ton from him as far as nuts and bolts with him speaking in the room and it was a smaller room, it was about 50 people.

But just his energy, his drive, it's just, just that kind of motivated me. And you know, I still feel that today and it's been a couple months ago, so those are the kind of things that I'm looking for when doing that. And then, you know, once you've gone to those, now you're, you know, those type of events, masterminds seminars or whatever. Now you've kind of got your, your current circle, right?

And we've kind of, myself and Ian Horowitz have kind of made it more of a, I guess official kind of to keep a circle intact and have done our own mastermind and that's been pretty cool that way. We're almost forcing ourselves and anybody and everybody else in the group to stay in touch more and you know, motivate each other more, keep each other accountable and that's been pretty cool. So yeah, first tool is networking, relationship capital. Pretty self explanatory for the most part.

But yeah, probably, and probably the most important, I don't, I think a lot of people overlook this and myself being more of an introvert, I definitely push back on this for a while. My first Mastermind was in 2020. So what's that? Five, six years after I started getting into real estate investing, which is insane. And I tell buddies today that, that are trying to break into real estate investing or buy a business or whatever.

I tell them today that they need to get around other people that are doing it. You're not gonna, you can only go so far by yourself in your own echo chamber and not, you know, not having those people around you. So. And I've talked about this quite a bit on the show, but yeah, definitely get around people, create those relationships and you bounce ideas off each other. It's pretty cool and you keep each other motivated.

Number two is probably a change of how this looks, especially in my world. It's Social media. So I would say even maybe a year ago, maybe definitely five years ago, I saw Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, I saw those outlets as more entertainment and now I see them as tools for my business and personal development. So people that I'm following are, are not, you know, Mr. Beast. I don't really know what Mr. Beast does, but I know he's, he's the most watched YouTube person.

To me, that's probably entertainment from what I know about them. I'm not watching that stuff. I'm not watching, you know, America's Funniest Home Videos on that stuff. I will dabble with, you know, some comedy here and there. But really what I'm looking for is, you know, guys like Dan Martell, Ed Mylette, you know, Robert Kiyosaki, guys that are providing value, Tony Robbins, guys that are providing value in their Instagram, Facebook, YouTube content.

And obviously all those platforms have different ways that you can consume that stuff. Right? Twitter, Twitter is more written. I've gotten off Twitter, but Twitter's obviously written. Instagram's, you know, you're going to have shorter reels. So it's going to be a quick, quicker video, probably 10 to 30 seconds for the most part. And you're going to get one or two tidbits out of that.

And then obviously YouTube is more, it can be a combination of all those, but it can also be longer form where you've got hour long videos. In fact, I'm watching in the middle of one right now with, oh gosh, what's his name? Dean Graziosi and Dan Martel. So I'm learning from those, I'm treating those outlets, those social media outlets as education where I think majority of people, especially in the past, but I still think majority of people are treating it as kind of a dopamine hit.

And they're just scrolling, endless scrolling and endless scrolling. Right. For myself, I'm doing that, but I'm also making sure that I'm getting value out of it for myself, for my business. And yeah, it's been, it's been really good. Especially that change of.

It's not just Entertainment, it's probably 90% personal and business development. So don't be afraid to get on there if you're not on those socials. Just be, I guess, responsible with it and you know, follow the people that you need, that you want to follow and learn from. That will provide value in your life, positive value. Because obviously you can go the other way. Third thing, and I am going to have a bonus, but the third thing Is podcasts and books pretty simple, right?

You know, obviously you can learn a ton with books, you can learn a ton with podcasts. I think podcasts for myself are probably, I probably get more out of those than books just because I kind of feel like I'm, you know, I, when I go for walks, I put headphones in and I'm listening to podcasts and it's almost like that person or the people on the podcast are with you and obviously talking to you guys right now on one.

So it's pretty cool to have those experts kind of in my ear as I'm walking or driving or whatever. And yeah, that's. Podcasts have definitely been, and started with bigger pockets and some other real estate investor podcasts, but that's been a huge, huge, huge, huge education tool for myself, especially when it comes to real estate investing in general, but other professional development as well. Podcasts have been absolutely awesome. And books too, obviously.

I unfortunately read about three or four books at a time and don't gain a ton of traction. I read a few pages a day, so podcasts definitely go further for me. And same with YouTube videos, so that's top three for me. Networking, get around people. Two, social media. I don't think it's talked enough about how powerful social media is when it comes to education, learning and obviously again, follow the right people.

And then podcasts and books which are self explanatory and then my bonus is just go out and try it. So many people are afraid to take risks and it's not even risk, right. Like most of these things that, that we're talking about on the show and have talked about, whether it's, you know, buying a business, building a business, buying real estate, ground up development, which we haven't talked about, but there's risks in that.

But to me, and again it's, we all have different paths, but for me, for myself, on the path that I'm on, where I've gotten to, to me, working for someone else is riskier than me doing it on my own. And I've probably had that mentality for a while, probably majority of my life, but it took a little while to get there, to realize, okay, you know what? I would rather be, you know, in control of my own path, my own destiny than someone else.

And obviously there's, there's definitely we need employees out there. And I've talked about this before, we need employees for sure. And I have some great ones on my team. I also do my best and trying to do better with empowering those people because I don't want, I don't want to lose those people. And two, I know what it's like to be guess under the guidance or leadership of, of someone else. And it's not my company.

So I want to make sure that they're feeling like they are definitely not just along for the ride, but also steering the ship. But with all that to say, go out and try it, right? No matter what it is, you want to buy a business, you want to buy real estate, quit talking about it, quit thinking about it, do it. And you got to start with today, right? Whatever it is, start with today. What's one thing you can do to get that ball rolling? Because that's all it is. It's just momentum.

So get that ball rolling. Do one thing today, and then guess what? Tomorrow you got to do something else. And then day after, you got to do something else. You.

And you can't stop. Every day you've got to do something. And each day you, you're probably picking up steam and doing more and more and more. And that ball is just going to turn to a snowball and momentum down, down that the, the mountain, turn in the avalanche. So, yeah, bonus, go out and try it. That's my top three tools that I use personally for growth. And that's not just professional, but also personal as well. And again, thank you guys for listening and we'll see you guys next time.

Thanks for following subscribing and listening to this episode of the Do More podcast, hosted by John Farling. To learn more or ask questions, go to L4Investing.com.