Motiv8td's Blog

Recently I've decided to explore human behavior and deception detection techniques.

I've reviewed a few of the most recent books I've read, one of which is by the same author as this book: You Can Read Anyone by David J. Lieberman Ph.D 

This book started out the same as the last book I read by him called: Never Be Lied To Again which I also wrote a two part review on. I'm not goingt to do a two part review of this book simply because I want to use an example that happened to me in real life that I've fortunately been able to learn from because of these books and others like it that weren't as good but did have a nugget or two. 

I'm learning though as I explore and learn about the human behavior and deception detection, as well as how human behavior is related to how, why, when and where a person is deceitful, I'm growing concerned. 

See, as I continue my day to day activities I'm picking up on lies being told to me. I'm certainly not going to claim that I am a expert lie detector but when you read these books, you'll easily started picking up on these things as well. 

Just the other day, I approached what I thought was a friend, colleague and someone I thought I could trust or at least, wouldn't lie to me about a project I'm putting together that will benefit a lot of people. This project will also greatly benefit this person I approached about being involved. 

I also have approached several other people and every single one of them agreed and thought it was great because they saw the value I was bringing to them. I don't want to say this persons name because they are a member of BP even though I know they've personally never read my blog. Even the slightest hint will easily give it away and I, even though I felt insulted now, do not wish to engage in that. 

I do however want to show you an exact example so that you can see how these books are making me realize who is being deceitful and who is being truthful. 

One of the techniques taught in this book is called "Self Interest" People act in their own best interest. Whenever you are questioning a person's desire for something, consider what he does, not what he says. 

Then the author gives a snapshot to put this in perspective. This is where its get interesting for me. 

A person saying he is too busy to pursue something of interest is not truthful. We would see this more clearly if our own desire for his interest to be genuine wasn't clouded. 

Ask this person to invest something, anything - time, money, energy - and see if you get excuses or compliance. The more willing a person is to invest of himself, the more interested he is. Life is a matter of priorities; we all have them, and we make time for what really matters to us. When a person says he has not time, he often means that it is not worth his time. 

So what I learned was that when I approached this person about an opportunity that I was providing for them to add value to them and I was told they didn't have time for it, was that they meant to say, it wasn't worth his/her time. Has this ever happened to you?

Why couldn't this person just be honest with me and tell me he/she didn't think it was worth his/her time? I can assure you that this opportunity does not include giving me any money, I was not asking for something outrageous, just simply a small portion of time every once in a while. 

I've asked Harrison Painter, Peter Giardini, James Ward and others that are not on BP but that I know personally to participate on this upcoming project. They've all happily agreed because they saw the value. None of them lied to me by saying they didn't have time. Others that I have not asked yet, I certainly hope will agree to help participate or at least tell me the truth that they do think it's worth their time. We'll see. 

So that's just one example. The more I explore and learn these things, the more I notice it happening to me all the time. 

I know this isn't a standard book review but I wanted to show you the value and the power that the book has. This book will teach you things about what a person says that you can read what they really meant. The way certain words are said or written in the order that they are. 

It truly is amazing stuff that is directing me to more aspects of it. I originally wanted to explore this interest to use it as negotiating tools but the more I learn, the more I'm realizing its use in everyday life. I even had two phone conversations today where I was clearly lied to and I instantly picked up on it. 

The problem is, now that I'm learning and literally picking up on this stuff, I'm having a hard time with accepting it. It's hard to digest that you were just flat out lied to. I worry about the relationship I thought I had with these people that are lying to my on a daily basis. I wonder if they do so because they feel they need to or feel they are protecting themselves or myself from myself?

It's all really hard to digest. I've started realizing those that I also lied to and tried to think of why I was lying to that certain person. I start to choose my own words more carefully so that even though I am telling the truth, my words can't be mistaken for deceit because I'm worried that the other person may be thinking I'm lying to them when in reality, I'm being truthful.

I really think there needs to be a book for how to cope with being constantly lied too. I don't think it's someting where you can say to stay away from those that lie because it seems to be so implanted into our daily activities that we're lying and not even realizing it when we're doing it. 

So, there it is! This book along with his other books are flat out amazing! Just know that if you do read these books of his, you will without a doubt, pick up on these things and it might be harder to deal with than you might think. You may be able to deal with a seller flat out lying to you, but when a close friend or loved one does it, it's hard to know what to do and I haven't learned how to deal with that just yet. When I do, I'll let you know. 

And I loved it!

As most of you know, I LOVE mortgage brokers! I truly think they are a powerful force to have on your team and without them, I don't exactly know how one succeeds in Real Estate. 

I spoke to a Mortgage Broker today by the name of David Krushinsky. I connected with him via Twitter through Matt Rosen from right here on BP. If you don't know who Matt Rosen is, he's another guy you BETTER connect with! Guys like Matt are great to know for many reasons, I won't go into those now because this blog post is all about David. 

So David and I connected, I realized that he was also from Phoenix and I gave him my number after we connected and we had a conversation today. The conversation lasted 47 minutes and 03 seconds. 

This wasn't your average conversation, David is smart and I quickly realized that which was refreshing, I didn't feel like I had to pitch him why he needs to work with me, rather I was actually interested in what he does and how I was able to help him, I was actually interested in connecting. 

I learned some great things about David today. I learned that he's very conservative in his business which actually translates to me as stable and trustworthy. I learned that he's been in the same shop since '02 which is flat out amazing! Most brokers play hop scotch like you wouldn't believe when it comes to brokerages. I know another David that calls me what seems like once a month and tells me he's with someone new. I have yet to refer any business to that guy and I don't plan on it any time soon. I just keep taking his calls and thanking him for remembering me blah blah blah.

I also learned that his success and ability to survive the recent downturn was because he doesn't subscribe to the 'crowds mentality' of what everyone else is doing. When everyone else was shoving out 100%, 105% and even 110% loans, he was still on the straight and narrow. This is important to me as I look to build my relationship because I know any referral I ever send him, they will be placed in the best possible loan product available and their best interests will be looked out for instead of the brokers best interests. 

After learning more about him, his business and what exactly he does, I learned that a majority of his business is originations from referrals. I learned his thoughts on the current mortgage industry and where he thought it was going. 

All these things I wanted to know about because I was testing him, his beliefs and what I thought his true abilities were. I'm not an old school investor from back 'when I was your age' days but I'm also not a newb fresh out of a seminar either so I know what to look for, what questions to asks and what triggers I was looking for to be set off to whether I like this guy or not. 

He came off as actually interested in what I was doing. I told him my two things are Short Sales and Subject2's. He wasn't familiar with Subject2's but I can assure you that when he's got a free moment, he's going to look into it and realize even more of his abilities to provide higher quality services to his clients which will benefit everyone involved. 

And after a great conversation, is when he called me out! I don't mean in a bad way. I don't mean that he challenged my positiion as an active investor. 

What I mean was that he made it very clear that he wanted to meet face to face, build a relationship instead of the possibility of referring business my way or vice versa without actually knowing each other. 

This was huge! I thought it was great because I knew he truly was interested in building a business relationship because he wanted to take it step further. Instead of sayin, I'll call ya or I'll let you know if I get anything. He just wanted to sit down, chit chat and become friends. 

This if you're not aware, is what builds businesses! Friendships, loyalty and trust between two people. 

Some of you know, I'm not really an outgoing person. You don't see much of me, or any of me for that matter. Justin Schnettler has only met me in person one time and that was AFTER I coached him through two successful deals and he's never seen me since. For me, I'm just more of a homebody. I love spending time at home with the family and doing my business via telephone/email. You can call me and I'll talk your ear off but I'll be in the comfort of my own home doing it. 

But when he called me out like that by telling me in not so many words that if I wanted to build a relationship with him, I was going to need to actually work on building that relationship, I was impressed. I felt like he was sincerely concerned with building long lasting relationships as opposed to make a fast buck on a shady deal gig. 

So that was part of my day, I enjoyed it and felt like I needed to share it with you guys today.

It's important for you to have Mortgage Brokers on your team and make sure when you do, you get brokers like this one! You're business will thank you later for it. 

ok, so try to follow me here because I feel I may lose you.

This isn't really a rant but rather simply a expression of confusion and maybe you can help me with it. 

I've had Skype for sometime now and I think it's great! I love that you can download it for free, call Skype to Skype for free and even do video Skype to Skype for free. You can also purchase different plans that will allow you to make unlimited calls for literally a fraction of a regular landline. As well as also purchase an actual telephone number that people can call you on. 

Ok, so I'm not really here to sell or promote Skype, just follow me here. 

So, Skype is basically an online phone company right? 

So I've got a few things with them, I've got two telephone numbers with them that I pay like $30 a year for. Here's where I get confused. 

I was noticing that my bill was still getting charged $2.95 a month even after purchasing a number. There have also been a few weird charges of .09 cents completely separate. It's odd to see a charge on your account for .09 cents so after seeing a few times I decided to find out why I 'thought' I was getting overcharged. 

Remember, I already purchased two phone numbers for $30 a year so I 'assumed' that I didn't have to pay the additional $2.95 a month and I have NO idea where the .09 cents is coming from. 

I diligently search the Skype website for a customer service phone number to call and find out whats going on. At this point I'm not upset, I just wanted to make sure things are clear. 

I can't find ANY phone number or ANY means of contact besides EMAIL??

This is where I get completely confused and I seriously doubt my own intelligence or lack of I guess. 

Here I am trying to get in contact with a PHONE COMPANY whether it's online or not to ask about my account and they have NO PHONE NUMBER???

Ok, so I email them with this: (copied/pasted actual email)

I bought the $30.00 phone numbers but I'm still getting charged $2.95 a
month, in addition to that, I'm also being charged an additional $.09
cents on a separate transaction.

I expect to speak to a live person about this matter immediately. 

Now, even though my last sentence is a little strong, I'm not actually upset, I'm just upset I can't find a phone number to call for customer service

To my surprise I do get a quicker than expected response from them, here is their response: (copied/pasted)

Hello Nick,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

We are sorry to hear that you are having difficulties using your Skype
subscription.

We have checked  your calls and we have found tha all of your calls were

covered by your subscription.

Please check the link below to see a detailed list of the calls you have

Now, let me ask you, do you think they even addressed my question? I sure don't!

So my reply back to them was: (copied/pasted)

thats NOT the problem I'm concerned with! If you read my comment I made
to you guys you would clearly see I'm not concerned about the calls I've
made. I'm concerned that I'm being charged for two services when I only
need one!

I also request to speak to a live english speaking person please. I do
not appreciate having to resolve matters via email. I would like an
actual phone number I can call into to get this matter resolved. 

Ok, so at this point I'm a little annoyed so I press a little harder. I'm clearly upset that a PHONE COMPANY is NOT providing me with a customer service number. This could have all been addressed in a matter of minutes rather than days via email.

Here is where I really lose my mind! 

Their response to my last response above(copied/pasted)

Unfortunately, we do not have live phone support, most of our support is
conducted by e-mail. We do not plan to have live phone support in the
near future but we are gradually introducing live chat support, starting
with our larger users.

At present email support requests gives us time to deal with each
customer and each problem more thoroughly, because we have time to
search and develop the answers to different problems and to find out the
best solution. The best solutions are not always the fastest ones.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Ok, so follow me here. I know I've drawn it out a little long and remember, I'm not really ranting, bashing or trying to give them a bad name. 

But, let me ask you this.

With as far technologically advanced as we are on this planet how on earth does a PHONE COMPANY NOT have customer PHONE support? 

This is crazy to me!! They're SKYPE. How does SKYPE not have PHONE support? Why don't they have a SkYPE to SKYPE customer support?

Am I the only one completely confused about that? I read that last email this morning before I took my kids to school and all morning I've been completely besides myself! I just don't get it!

So, I decided to see if they have a twitter and a facebook and guess what, they do! 

I mean C'mon! if that doesn't boggle your mind then I don't know what will

That's it for now, it's been a weird Tuesday morning so far. 

So I'm sitting here in my little corner desk hacking away at work that needs to be done. I've got a short sale I'm processing for a personal friend, another project regarding short sales that will be getting announced hopefully in December by a freind of mine that I was fortunate enough to be a part of, and I've got a new site I'm working on that will be a lot of fun for me and the veiwers of the site(more on that later)

So it's mail time and I'm outside enjoying the great Arizona weather and the mail lady stops by to drop off the mail, thankfully no bills today :)

What I did get(or rather the wifey) was 4 different mail order catalogs and they are all hopped up on cool graphics and of course 'Must Buy Now' type of deals. I thought to myself, "gotta love the holidays" All of a sudden I was like, "I do love the holidays!!" 

The 'holidays' started for me this past weekend. My father who still insist on driving truck cross country for JB Hunt was in town for some time off. We knew he wasn't going to be back for Thanksgiving so we had a pre-thanksgiving dinner with all the fixins minus the turkey, we had honey baked ham instead. It was great! The whole family all together doing the family thing just because we could was a great thing. Of course, we all stuffed ourselves to where we were physically uncomfortable and taking a nap was the only solution. Even today as I write this, I'm just finishing a ham sandwhich from leftovers, ya know what I'm talking about!! the 2nd best part of thanksgiving is all the leftovers for the next week.

My sister got engaged to a great guy who is currently serving in the Navy while he was in town for a few days leave. So that was cool! My little sister is all grown up now :( I feel so old.

Everything is everything in my little world. 

So we have the rest of this month and next month until we hit 2010, crazy isn't it? I remember back in '99 when they said the world was going to crash because the banks didn't have the ability to do 2000 and they thought everyones money was going to dissapear LOL!!! We still made it!

My experience has been that there are not a lot of sales happening for the last two months of the year so hopefully I get at least one more short flipped before christmas because I'm liable to do something crazy like blow the whole check on christmas presents :) Last year, we had to dedicate the entire family room to christmans and take out all the furniture because the tree and the mounds of presents were literally overflowing out of the room itself. It took us 2 full hours to open all the presents and get to the actual tree. Lets see if I can outdo myself this year :)

I'm excited about getting to watch all the same 'ol christmas movies, the same ones I grew up on like charlie brown, miracle on 34th street etc... For some reason you can only watch these movies at this time of year and they never get old even though we just watched them last year! I can't wait! 

So there it is! I'm excited about another holiday season! I'm excited that I have thanks to give, presents to wrap and a loving family to share it with! 

What does the holidays mean for you? what do you have planned? What most are you excited about this holiday season? Whats got your holiday spirit sparked?

Ah, the good old landlords - these are tough individuals in my book! They deal with troublesome tenants and broken toilets far more than they would like. You'll find that many of them have worked very hard getting where there are. I know many landlords that hold regular day jobs because they don't usually buy right from the beginning and place just anyone in their properties, hoping to get rich off of equity and cash flow.

To me it's a catch 22, if you've got equity, it doesn't mean much unless you pull it out somehow with a loan, which then you'll have to pay interest on and means you lose cash flow. Cash flow is great, unless you're spending it on repairs and/or upgrades that tenants trash while they're living there.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against landlords; I just think most of them work far too hard for their money. Now, the landlords that buy right obviously don't have as many problems, but I feel for those that work their butt off trying to get ahead only to keep getting brought back down.

There are a number of ways to find landlords; I'm going to give you one of the easiest ways to do it. Go to your title company and ask them to get you a list of all non-owner occupied properties. Why non-owner occupied? Well, think about! They're landlords, that's why!

Take that list and simply mail them a postcard or letter asking them if it would offend them if you notified them of a property you had for sale in the same areas they have rentals. Ask them to respond to your phone number or email and you'll explain to them how you can sell them turnkey properties for $5k – $10k.

Do you think you'll get a few calls? Probably, and I'll tell you why. First, they're going to wonder how you got their information, and then they're going to wonder how you can sell a property so cheaply, when they've spent too much money on their current rentals.

Once you've got them calling you, I wouldn't go into detail how you buy Sub2 because most landlords have no clue what that is and if you tell them how easy and amazing it is, chances are they're going to go searching around the web and find my Subject2 e-Book and you'll lose a possible buyer. Therefore, keep your mouth shut for the most part, just simply ask them again on the phone, "Would it offend you if I notified you of properties that I had for sale" and mention most of them will already have tenants in them.

I have had a few that told me no and I'd hate to give you the impression that these methods are foolproof, but the truth is, you've got to get used to being hung up on or get used to hanging up on people.

Again, there are other ways to find landlords, there are a number of online resources that can compile a list of these types of things; just know they are out there and more importantly promise yourself you'll go the extra mile to find them. Your bank account will thank you for your hard work I promise!

Unless you've been hiding under a rock like I have apparently for some time, you know this name: Gary Vaynerchuk

Before I get into the review here, I want to tell you how horribly ashamed I am for not even knowing or having heard this man's name until I actually picked up this book. As most of you know I like to do book reviews. My active investing career allows me to do little things that may not interest you, but they interest me. A while back I noticed that @HarrisonPainter of GoGladiatorTV had recommended this book, all I remembered was the book name, not the authors name, I should have paid attention!

Is book reviewing my passion? No, but I do enjoy moments of my life like I experienced today where I felt many emotions due to reading someones book. Today was literally a ground breaking day for me! I'm not here to say I'm going to be the next Oprah(inside joke, read the book) but I can tell you I realized my level of passion was weak sauce! It's time to step it up and live my passion! 

Like always, I never opened the book prior to reading it. I always find that staying focused on the book you're reading at the time is the only way to do it. The last book I read isn't worth a review and I was disapointed the whole time. I actually couldn't wait to get to this book simply because of the recommendation, even though I had no idea what it was about, it certainly had to be better than the book I just read.

While initially inspecting the book, I noticed that I liked the cover but couldn't figure out why. While I'm typing this I'm actually looking at the book and still don't know why I really like the cover or why that's even important to me. Maybe because I now know the truly life changing contents but that doesn't explain the initial impression I had. Weird, I know. I know you're going to buy this book so when you do, maybe you will comment on the cover and give me your opinion, who knows, maybe you'll figure out why I like it. 

Again, with my usual systematic way of giving it a once over to get a feel for what it's going to be like I check the contents page and I thought okay, this is another one of those make you feel good books but I still didn't really know what it was about. 

Let me say this, I had no idea what was in store for me! 

Page one of chapter one I thought DAMN!! NOT another one of these stupid books again!  Ugh! 

By page five I was thinking I should have read another book! I made the horrible mistake at the time of thinking this was going to be like so many other books out there and it was going to be saying the same damn things all the rest of them say. 

Boy, was I wrong. Remember I said it was an emotional day today? This is the part where I felt slight anger and a lot of annoyance. See, even though I use the first dozen or so pages to decide whether I'm going to like the book or not, I always finish the book. You never know when one of them is going to give you a nugget towards the end or completely blow your mind starting with the next page. Why sell yourself short without knowing the rest of the story? So I kept at it. 

By the time I got to chapter two I could really tell I loved this guy! I loved his attitude, I loved his passion for what he was doing even though it did not appeal to me, HE appealed to me. I felt connected to this guy and never heard of the guy before cracking open this book of his. 

I felt a mancrush coming on and it just kept getting stronger as I read. 

There was a certain page with a single word on that page. This single word was such a strong word that it was designated a whole chapter! This single word was the only word on this page and yet, it had so much meaning that a complete series of books could be written about this word. This single word, all by its self on a single page comprising its very own chapter meant more to me than any other book I have EVER read. 

That single word made me realize what I am NOT, and, what I NEED to be. This single word made me realize that no matter who I am, where I have been or where I will end up, this single word will be exactly who I am when my name is mentioned. 

That single word made me feel an emotion I don't think I ever felt before. Before reading this word, I thought I did, but after reading that word, I realized I didn't as much as I thought I did. 

Now, I do understand that single word and I have Gary Vaynerchuk to thank for that! Having said that single word in the way he said it, I will be able to attribute my future to Gary Vaynerchuk and there will be a day that I personally get to thank him for that single word. 

I could go on and on reviewing this book and telling you all about it without EVER saying exactly what is in the book or what it was about. 

Why?

How?

Because this book will literally speak to you in a different way it spoke to me. This book isn't a real estate investing strategy book where I can analyze the stratey itself or the technique being used and its effectiveness or relativeness to the current market. This book isn't about Gary Vaynerchuk. 

This book is about you! so without you reading it, you will never know what it is truly about for you. It doesn't matter WHO you are, WHERE you are in life, WHY you are where you are in life, HOW you got there or WHEN you are going to get there. 

in conclusion to my favorite book review I urge you to take a stand! Beg, borrow and/or steal if you have to! This book is worth its weight in gold a million times over. I'm going to make it a personal goal to get Gary Vaynerchuk to make an appearance and give me his opinion on my review of his absolutely amazing book in the comment section. I urge you to connect with him via twitter @garyvee and let him know you are going to CRUSH IT!

Cash in on your Passion and CRUSH IT! with me!