Power of Group Coaching

Episode 424: Power of Group Coaching

View this episode on:

Learning is fun but learning with others is a whole new experience. In this episode, Mitch Stephen flies solo to talk about the power in group coaching. Hosting his own personal group coaching question and answer sessions every week, Mitch has seen the great benefits and advantages of learning with a group. He shares what those are with us and talks in-depth about what you can get from it, what the cost is, and what to expect. As they say, experience is the best teacher. Through group coaching, you get to listen to other people’s experiences and learn from them first-hand.

—

Watch the episode here

Advantages Of Group Coaching

I’m going to be doing a solo cast and I’m going to be talking about my personal group coaching and question and answer session that I have every week. It’s on Tuesdays at 7:00 Central Standard Time all year round.

I probably missed 4 or 5 weeks out of the whole 52 weeks in the year. That’s usually around the holidays when I get sick, or I’m out of pocket and can’t get to a computer. For the most part, I hardly ever miss and when I do, you’re probably glad to have a break too.

This is The Power of Group Coaching and Q&A Sessions. I’m going to be talking to you about what you get, what the cost is, and what to expect. There are a lot of reasons why you would like this, but let’s start from the top. It’s super affordable.

My one-on-one coaching is $25,000 per person. It includes group coaching and everything I have, but not everyone can afford it or needs that.

I call it group coaching, but sometimes I call it Q&A. For the purpose of this show, let’s call it group coaching. It’s affordable compared to the one-on-one coaching for $25,000 a year and I reserve the right to change my prices anytime, but I’m $4,000 a year for group coaching.

This is affordable in light of the fact that it’s on a LIVE call.  It’s me and/or my partner Mike Powell every night. I may have a guest sometimes to kick it off and people are filtering into the call to kill a little time while people are struggling, but it’s always us and we rarely miss. I’ve been doing it for years and part of what we’re talking about and my commitment to this once-a-week call is that I’m going to stay on the line until every question is answered. I don’t care if it means 1 hour or 4.5 hours. I think the longest I’ve ever gone one time was five hours.

We were having a lot of fun. I might’ve had some eggnog. It was around Christmas time. We were stealing exceptionally jovial, and everyone was chiming, we were laughing, asking questions and having a grand old time. It didn’t seem like five hours, but normally it’s about 1.5 to 2 hours. You don’t have to stay on, you don’t even have to show up if you don’t want to because we’re not taking roll call or anything. I’m there if you need me, but I find that the people that show up regularly get ahead of the people who don’t because there are lots of stuff going on. Some of it is redundant. Some of it is Real Estate 101 because sometimes, there are some new people there, but there are also some experienced people there.

There are also some situations that new investors and veterans get themselves into that served well to have them before it happens to you. You’ll recognize it when it’s about to happen to you and you’re getting to take steps to profit from it or you can take steps to run away from it, depending on what the issue is. We’re talking mostly about finding and funding deals and finding buyers, but it doesn’t stop there as there are legal issues and resources. One of the things I like about Q&A when I’m feeling with the students there is that its real-life situations.

We’re dealing with real deals. These are real numbers for real deals, real people in parts of the country where things are going on. When you take real-life versus hypothetical, it’s a lot easier to follow a case study when you’re going right down the line of how it happened or what we might do in this exact circumstance.

When you get into hypotheticals, the options can start branching off that you even forget what the question is. I love dealing with real-life situations because those situations are not infinite. The result and the circumstances are finite, so it’s easier to follow. One of the things that you get when you sign up for Q&A, $4,000 for the year is hundreds of hours of archived Q&A calls. If once a week is not good enough for you, you can listen to Q&A until you’re blue in the face. All you have to do is go in and start playing some of the archive stuff that changes because I’ve done way over 500 hours. We tried to mix and match some of the better Q&A sessions in those hundreds of hours.

Getting Social Proof

One of the things that’s important about group coaching is you get social proof and there’s no way for me to make up or orchestrate these calls or anything in them. I’m calling, picking up, and I’m on the phone. Other people on the line, you press *2 to raise your hand if you have a question and I’ll click on it. Half the time, I don’t even know who’s on the other end because the identifications on the phone numbers are incorrect or playing, “Don’t say anything.” I don’t even know who I’m going to talk to. Second of all, it says what state they’re calling from, but half the time people have phone numbers and don’t live in those states anymore. I don’t know who I’m going to get when I click on raise hand and I certainly don’t know what they’re going to say or ask. I’ll tell them to describe a situation or a problem and maybe we come up with a resolution.

Group Caching: It’s a lot easier to follow a case study when you’re going right down the line of how it happened. When you get into hypotheticals, the options can start branching off.

I’ll tell them, “Go out and try X, Y, and Z and come back and tell me what works better.” Next time, when they get on the call, I don’t know what happens. I’ll say, “Last time we talked, you were supposed to go out and try to solve this problem. What happened?”

A lot of times you’ll hear me say, “Tell me the truth. I don’t care if it was good or bad. I don’t care if it makes me look good or bad. What happened when you went out and did what I told you to do?” They give you the answer. Most of the time, it’s in our favor. We’ll get the result that we were looking for, but a lot sometimes, we don’t. It’s important to know. I like to talk to people about when you ought to raise private money. Someone says, “I got three appointments. I’ve been rehearsing the script that you told me. I’m going to try it on three people. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

The day comes up and I say, “You were supposed to call three people. Did you call on them?” They say, “Yes.” I said, “Tell us the truth. What happened? If they shoved a pencil in your eye or shot you in the foot while you’re in the office, you need to tell us exactly what happened so that people can know what to expect.”

Nobody gets a pencil shoved in their eye and shot in the foot, but what I’m saying is, “I’m not soliciting for an answer that makes me look good. I want to know what happened to you in real life.” We can make adjustments or try to avoid if it wasn’t good, then we can try to modify, regroup or readdress the issue to stop that reaction. If it’s good, then everyone can take notes.

When the social proof comes in though, as you watch these people start growing week after week, it appears who are also on the call start growing. There have been many times when I had people who didn’t think they could find good deals on houses and then we got a plan. They got started on the plan and started finding good deals on houses. They heard this with their ears week after week.

They then get the problem like, “I’ve got too many houses. I don’t know how I’m going to fund them.” I said, “You’re going to have to go out and get some private money,” and then you can hear the drop in their demeanor. “This is going to suck. I’m not going to be able to find private money. I’m probably going to lose these deals.”

You can hear it in their voice. I say, “This is what we’re going to do. Try this.” They come back and all of a sudden they found some money. What it says is, “If this guy who didn’t even believe he could, because you could hear it in his voice, went out and found some money, then why can’t you?”

You can too. That’s the right thing. If they can do it, you can do it. That’s what’s cool about the Q&A is they start thinking, “I’ve been listening to this guy and he isn’t all that sharp. If he can go out and get private money, I certainly can.” You’re comparing yourself to other people. The social proof is important. I’ve had people say, “I don’t think I can find enough deals.”

All of a sudden, they start to get too many deals. They say, “I can’t find the money.” All of a sudden, they have too much money. “I need to go out and find some more deals because I’ve got too much money. I’ve got to get this money out.”

You watch this in the week-by-week progression. You see that it’s real and it can happen. If it can happen to them, then it can happen to you. The social proof is big and it’s a place to get some confidence because you’re thinking about making an offer in this house or you don’t know what to do with this situation, you called up Mitch Stephen. You state your case and what your fear was.

We then had some conversation about it and all of a sudden, you got the right angle, you got some confidence, and you run out there. You’re going into this deal with confidence instead of second-guessing yourself because you got to have some conversation with someone who’s been there before.

Not to mention the fact that sometimes the audience chimes in and they’ll tell you, “I’ve been in that position, I did what Mitch said, and that worked.” “For me, I have a little twist on that because it wasn’t working because of X. I modified a little bit from what Mitch says and I went and did this.” That’s fine. That’s what it’s all about. It’s a group effort. It’s a group coaching.

It’s not me telling people what to do because frankly, I don’t like to tell anybody what to do. I like to tell you what are the different options that we have and how we might circumvent whatever problem that is or achieve the shortest distance to your goal. I, by no means, know everything and it’s great to have other people on the call.

On these calls, it’s usually between 15 to 40 people. We get slower during the school year and it gets a little slower during the holidays. As a matter of fact, in the holidays, I’ll take a couple of weeks off so everybody can get a break and they’ll do what they’ve got to do. It’s the holidays and everyone’s usually had enough for that year.

Group Caching: You can measure a mentoring or group coaching program by how much the mentor helps you make those extra gains.

It’s a great networking area. I can’t tell you how many times a student has chimed in to help another student with a problem that they’re having. I can’t even count the times that’s happened over the years. There are resources and people are sharing resources. One of the reasons that I do this Q&A call is not because I want to bestow my vast knowledge upon all the underlings out there that are starting out or whatever.

The ego part of it left a long time ago. It is not fun showing up every Tuesday for many years. There are times I think to myself, “It’s Tuesday again. I’ve got to be ready to go at 7:00 Central Standard Time, whether I like it or not because people are going to show up and I can’t disappoint them.”

It’s a little pressure, but I stay on it because I learn from these calls. I learn more about resources, apps, software, more companies that opened where new sources of money are, what’s going on in the laws and the books, and the legislation. I’m learning about all kinds of stuff on these calls because together, we are better.

You want to take two people in a room, me, by myself, that’s not much of a think tank. That’s a stink tank. Me, by myself, has its huge limitations. Me and one other person, we’re getting better. Me and five people, that’s better. Me and 40 people, that’s great. If there is something going on out there, someone probably knows of an angle, answer, resource or something.

It’s nice to be there. I’m on this Q&A because I learn from it. I’m glad that I show up.  Another thing you can get from this once a week contact with your mentor, Mitch Stephen, is accountability.

If you want to be held accountable, tell me while on the call. All the callers and I will hold you accountable. If you’re going to do something and you want to be held accountable, let us know, we’ll be happy to. There is a lot of networking and a lot of resources.

The Price For Group Coaching

Let’s talk about prices. It’s $4,000 for a year and it’s $1,500 for renewals for another year. If you look at it like that, it’s $2,700 a year for two years. If I can’t make you $2,700 a year when they show up once a week to talk to me, I’ll kiss your butt on national TV if you can find a cameraman in a station that’ll air it.

There’s no way that you can call me and talk about what’s going on in your life 48, 47 or 45 times a year and may not be able to give you advice that would make you an extra $2,700. It’s insane to think.

I’m not trying to blow my own horn here and I don’t think I’m the smartest guy in the world, but I’ve been doing the same thing for many years. I’ve had my you know what kicked up to my throat many times that it’s not even funny. I’ve been through similar life experiences for many years over 2,000 transactions in my hometown that have to do with everything from flipping to owner financing to subject to. You name it.

There’s no way that I can’t bring you an extra $2,700 that you didn’t see lying somewhere or that you didn’t know to go for. I know sentences that’ll make you $2,700 in one transaction, depending on the transaction. I know sentences that can make you more than $2,700 in one transaction if you use that sentence.

When you recognize a certain situation, it will make your money back. If you’re out there doing anything at all along the lines that I teach, you’re going to run into that circumstance several times a year. You don’t look at mentoring or coaching like, “This is going to cost me this much money.”

If you pick the right mentor, you put the money out and it should come back. I’ll point it out to you when it happens. Someone called and said, “I did what you said and I was able to find a buyer with an extra $5,000.” I stopped the whole conversation and said, “I don’t want you to blow my own horn here, but it’s important that I get this off my chest and that you understand it. Remember what you paid me to be on this call?” He said, “I paid you $3,500. I said, “You got the money back plus $1,500. Do you see that? How long would it have taken you to figure out that little angle that I showed you that made you that extra $5,000? Would you have ever figured that out?”

I’ve been doing the same thing for a long time and my intuition and my instincts of these deals, although every deal is different, there are a lot of similarities between people in these transactions. I can start to smell the way conversations are going. When you start telling me about how the conversations are going with your prospect, I can almost tell you, “This guy is headed in this direction. This is how you hit it off.

Dragging back over here by saying this. Shutting down by doing this. You better make sure you get this signed because I don’t like the way this is smelling and I want you to protect yourself from something that might happen.” That’s another thing.

You can measure a mentoring program or a group coaching program by how much the mentor helps you make extra. The one thing that you can’t measure is how much did that group coaching call keeps you from losing. You can’t measure the negative. Did I keep you from losing $10,000 or $20,000? Did I keep you from losing so much that you’re going to quit the whole business in the first place? Without having the right mentor, you might be out of business. I know for a fact if I hadn’t got the right mentor at the time that I did, I was going to be out of the creative real estate investing business.

I had 25 rent houses that were killing me. I don’t want them, and I want it out. I happened to hire someone to help me get out and not lose my credit and my reputation. They taught me how to stay in. That was many years and 1,500 deals ago.

How much was that at the time I paid that guy $10,000? How much did I get back from my $10,000? It’s multimillion. You’ve got to get the right guy. If I’m not the guy for you, that’s fine. Find someone who’s right for you. Find someone that maybe there’s a particular. If you want to do apartment complexes, I’m not your guy.

It’s not about owner financing. That’s my specialty. That’s my niche, but I know how to wholesale and flip contracts. I know how to do wholesale sell houses, subject to, lease options, retail and rehab houses, and everything. I’ve done everything. I know how to buy houses and not. We have them in owner financing for double. I know how to do a lot of things. I specialize in and I’m looking for the owner finance deal myself every day, but that’s not all I know how to do. I can answer lots of different questions about lots of different things. Most of all, I can change your mindset. I need you to come if you have fears that you can’t overcome, that there are some problems that you’re struggling with. Let’s go right to it, attack them, and let’s get them out of the way.

I used to be afraid of that multi-page TREC contract down here in Texas because it went on forever. It is a big bunch of legalese and I didn’t understand it at the time. I made a decision that I was not going to be intimidated by that and I was going to get nose-to-nose with it and face-to-face with it. I’m going to have a big old brawl with that contract. Someone’s going to win, but I’m not going to run away from it anymore. I kicked that contract’s ass. I know it inside out. I had them explain it to me. I know what every paragraph is about. I’m no longer afraid. It became the model for the way I live.

When I have a problem or I have a fear, I run right to it. I quit running away from them, hiding, or putting my head in the sand. When I recognize that I’m afraid of something or that this is a problem that I don’t want to address, you go straight forward. I can help you do that if you want to. If you think about it, $4,000 with a $1,500 renewal at the end of the year so you can get another year, that’s $5,500 for two years,

I’ll make you more than $2,700 every single day of the week under one condition. You will get out there and take massive action. I can’t help anybody who sits on a couch. If you’re an action-taker and you’re willing to try some things, fail, get back up, dust yourself off, get back out there and do it again. Even go on some blind faith because Mitch Stephen said so, then I’m going to make you an extra $2,700 and I may make you $100,000.

The thought of me not being able to deliver on some advice that makes you an extra $2,700 somewhere, if not one time repeatedly, it’s not going to happen. If it happens, it’s because you didn’t get off your butt. That’s the end of that.

My Q&A session is every Tuesday at 7:00 Central Standard Time. I rarely miss, so please join us.

You can email us at Support@1000Houses.com. You can say, “I want to get signed up for the Q&A for the year.”

You’ll get twelve months and I’m sure you won’t regret it. Thank you.

This is Mitch Stephen. We were talking about group coaching and Q&A sessions. It’s a good conversation and I hope you join me. We’re out of here.

Important Links

• 1000Houses.com/coaching     Group Coaching
• 1000Houses.com/moat
• REInvestorSummit.com/100     100 PAGES FREE
• Support@1000Houses.com

About Mitch Stephen

Mitch Stephen has been a self-employed RE investor for 25+ years. His real estate investing career started at the age of 23 when he read “Nothing Down” by Robert Allen.

Mitch Stephen has purchased well over 2,000 houses in and around his hometown of San Antonio, TX. A high school graduate, who never stopped learning. Books, CDs, seminars and webinars were his classroom.

Today he specializes in owner financing properties to individuals left behind by traditional lending institutions and giving new life to properties that scar the neighborhoods.

He has perfected a method of achieving cash-flow without having to be a landlord and without having to rehab properties. He’s mastered the art of raising private money and the classic “Nothing Down” deal.

He has pioneered the idea that you don’t have to give discounts to sell your notes.

A passionate speaker who delivers the message of integrity first and profits second; an expert at keeping it simple and explaining, in plain English, the theories that made him financially independent. He is always an inspiration to those around him.

• Here’s How »

• 1000houses.com
• Real Estate Investor Summit Facebook
• Real Estate Investor Summit Twitter
• Real Estate Investor Summit YouTube