In this episode of the Creating Wealth podcast, Jason Hartman discusses how smart technology is improving property self management. He starts live at a single-family investment trade show in Arizona. He is joined by Investment Counselor Carrie and the two discuss their amazement at the information and resources available to the single-family investors at the event. The implementation of smart technology has become a useful tool for investors to self-manage their properties from a distance, and it has opened new opportunities for management in general.
Hartman then speaks with Cameron Herold, the author of Double Double; How to Double your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less, and Meetings Suck. They discuss his newest book and the concept of his Vivid Vision creation, and how it can help people illustrate their purposes in both their business and personal lives. Herold explains how his method helps ensure that businesses are aware of their own mission, and that the employees are on board with where the company is headed.
Single-Family Investments
Jason Hartman opens the podcast on the exhibit floor of the IMN Conference in Phoenix, Arizona with his returning guest, Carrie, an investment counselor. The two discuss the exploration of the vendors attending the conference dedicated to single-family investments.
With around one thousand people in attendance with an interest in single-family homes, the different vendors are available to provide scores of information on related topics like financing, property self management, maintenance, and other single-family tools like review technology for both property managers and tenants.
Hartman points out that this sort of technology is a great opportunity, beneficial to both sides of a manager-tenant relationship. The ability to review opens doors for the betterment of business as well as easy access to a tenant’s merits. He gives examples of Yelp and Trip Advisor being used to review businesses, and states that a similar concept is emerging with property managers and tenants.
With tenant information, credit reports and criminal background checks are simply not enough to make an informed decision regarding the possible business relationship with a potential renter.
With review technology, both landlords and tenants can agree to have rent history appear on their credit reports, as well as tracking payment records and establishing responsibility. To accomplish this, data from the property manager’s software will be downloaded into the review system to populate information about the tenant, the reliability of their rent payments, and what condition they left the property after moving on.
Better tools are being developed all the time, and Hartman states that he wants to continue bringing information to his listeners and clients as it comes.
The conference hosts many panelists with different points of view and pieces of valuable information to take in. Hartman mentions that the conference details that a lot of new construction is dedicated to making new, single-family homes specifically for rental purposes.
In relation to property self management, Hartman mentions the emerging technology of smart homes, such as electronic locks. These developments are moving investors toward empowerment and successful self-management.
He gives an example of a panelist from Tampa, Florida, who left his properties abruptly due to an oncoming hurricane. He and his child left the area, and before he returned, he was able to check on the state of his property from a distance by signaling the electronic locking system of the home and having his dog sitter look in on the property.
Because of this technology, the panelist was able to gather insight about his property and know that it was secure so that he did not have to rush back to it and begin repairs.
Smart homes are becoming a popular development, and aside from making life and management more convenient for investors, the technology is also cutting costs, Carrie points out.
The 5-Year Plan Contest
The 5-Year Plan contest is still open and Hartman states that he loves the creativity in the videos submitted thus far. He encourages listeners to keep up the good work and go about their videos as best they can. He mentions a particular video involving the contestant dressed as a pro wrestler to stand out, commending the creativity involved.
Hartman reminds listeners that one of the criteria for winning is the popularity of the video, how many views, likes, and comments it receives. While quality and content are very important factors in video creation, gaining popularity is also important. He encourages listeners to share their video to as many people as they can, on as many platforms as they can. More information regarding the contest is available at www.jasonhartman.com/contest.
Hartman states that the Meet the Masters event is also coming along quite well, and that scheduling is underway. He advises potential attendees against leaving early or arriving late, because there is going to be a good deal of activity throughout the entire event. Meeting the speakers and attending every section of the event will be a great benefit to everyone involved.
Monday is also the Venture Alliance meeting, taking place on Martin Luther King Day. It’s advisable to stay for Monday’s event to meet with Venture Alliance members and gain important concepts and information from their experience. As the 20th anniversary of Meet the Masters, there’s going to be a good deal of events packed into one weekend. More information is available at www.jasonhartman.com/masters.
Vivid Visions to Author Your Future
Hartman introduces his guest, Cameron Herold, to the podcast. Herold is an international speaker and mastermind behind the growth of many companies, as well as the founder of the COO Alliance and the COO of the company 1-800-GOT-JUNK. He’s the author of Meetings Suck, as well as Double Double. Hartman first saw one of Herold’s speeches in Morocco ten years ago, when he spoke for YEO (now known as EO) and mentioned the concept of Vivid Visions.
Hartman recalls going to Portugal after hearing Herold’s speech, and he was inspired to take time to himself to write his own Vivid Vision.
Introducing concepts from his new book about Vivid Visions, Herold states that the problem most people have with planning their future is that they’re doing it wrong. He mentions that we’re taught to have a mission statement in our businesses. We spend days working on these statements and never look at them again once we’ve finished because we don’t feel that they explain anything about how the company looks and feels.
“It’s only one sentence. How could that possibly describe your future?” Herold asks.
Even in our personal lives, Vivid Visions can be used to catalog what we want to see in three years. Often, people work tirelessly with no real direction and no concept of why we manage our lives, what we’re working toward.
Herold mentions a quote by Seneca from nearly 2000 years ago stating, “No matter what harbor you’re going towards, it doesn’t matter where the wind blows from if you don’t know which harbor you’re pointing to.”
This means that, if we do not know where we’re going, any direction will take us there.
With a Vivid Vision, writing a four or five-page document describes your company or personal life, and how you want to see it three years into the future. Every aspect of how it’s expected to work is included in the vision, designed to stretch out across time for a sensory-rich look at the future.
Reverse Engineering Your Vivid Vision
Herold explains that reverse engineering involves looking at the picture you’ve painted, and going back to make it happen. He gives an analogy of building or renovating a home. During this process, the homeowner has a vision, he knows what he wants and doesn’t usually care how the vision reaches from Point A to Point B.
The contractor is involved in the planning. He takes the homeowner’s vision and turns it into a blueprint or plan of action. The pair then come to an agreement and show the plans to the employees, so that work on the renovation can begin with everybody involved on the same page.
Herold explains that this is the way a Vivid Vision works. For every sentence of the document, find a couple of projects to make them true. Build a foundation first, a plan, and then build up from the bottom.
Herold has had a good deal of companies make Vivid Visions for their businesses. It asks where leaders plan on going and what their company will look like in three years, and in looking into the future, it helps form ideas regarding how to get there. Instead of traveling from Point A to Point B, a Vivid Vision develops a plan to make a smarter, better trip.
Ideal Length of Vivid Visions
Hartman asks about the element of danger involved in making a Vivid Vision too long, and if doing so can make the finished document too complicated to get behind.
Herold agrees and clarifies that four or five pages is ideal and advises that the document be designed to where it is easy to understand. It’s easier for viewers to wrap their heads around. He advises that the Vivid Vision be visited and reread every quarter with the team involved to guide future decisions toward the achievement of goals based on what is written.
There are several sections to the Vivid Vision, Herold explains. These sections include goals regarding friends, family, fitness, faith and spirituality, finance, and who individuals would like to be as a partner, spouse, or person. There are also sections dedicated to self-care and daily habits, and each area is covered by three or four bullet points.
Herold prefers to have his plans polished by a professional writer. He develops the ideas and has a copywriter make the work look better and more exciting by illustrating his ideas in ways that only a writer can.
Sharing Your Vivid Vision
Hartman brings up conflicting advice he’s heard from other professionals. Some say that sharing a plan with everybody around is a bad idea due to the fact that people might not understand and may try to discourage goals. Others say that sharing a plan publicly makes the planner more accountable, and he asks Herold his opinion on the matter.
Herold states that it’s a great idea to share plans. He finds that he’s happy with people seeing his vision for the future, and he’s happy with the challenges that come from sharing. Having to deal with doubt coming from others encourages him to be a stronger, reinforced person. The more people he shares his plan with, the truer it becomes, and he has come across people that help him reach his goals once he has shared them. It’s a potential networking tool.
Herold allows as many people to see his vision as he can, and they are usually behind him in his plan, or at the very least they understand where he wants to go and what he’d like to achieve.
He admits that the concept feels stupid when it is first introduced, because people are so accustomed to the mission sentence concept, which doesn’t work. He advises listeners to remind people that the vision is set for three years into the future, and it will take a while before anyone notices that it is unfolding.
When Hartman asks why Herold chose three years into the future to set his plan, he answers that three years has enough tension. Five years is too far out and one year is too close. With three years, there is enough excitement involved in reaching goals, without too much pressure.
Herold’s Vivid Visions book will be released in January and both samples and worksheets are available upon request to his email address at [email protected].
Running Meetings Properly
Herold had a client that, while his business went from 60 to 700 employees in only four years, everyone at the company hated meetings. Herold explained to the client that meetings could be beneficial and interesting if done correctly. The lack of training involving proper meeting strategies was the problem, not the meetings themselves.
Herold mentions that sending people into meetings untrained is like sending a 10-year-old child to Little League practice for the first time with no idea how baseball works. The child is likely to hate baseball because he has not been trained to play. The same can be said for teaching employers and employees how to participate in meetings. It’s important to know how to attend meetings, how to lead and run meetings, and what sort of meetings to run to build a successful company. There is a good deal of topics to cover in order to run successful meetings, as well as a proper time period to conduct them.
When it comes to the length of meetings, Herold advises booking half of the time you want for a meeting. If you want to conduct a meeting for a day, book only half of a day. This way, you’re more inclined to stick to an agenda and keep people engaged. Follow the right systems and keep everybody on track to complete a successful, concise meeting.
In wrapping up the episode, Herold offers listeners an opportunity to access his website at www.cameronherold.com for more information about him, as well as the available recorded speeches he has completed. His books are available at Amazon.com, Audible.com, and iTunes.
