By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

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The brilliant American entrepreneur Bill Bartmann once asked the question: "Where do you go to catch a fish?"

He remarked that most people would say "a lake", "a river", "a stream", "the ocean" etc. and all of these are bodies of water do indeed contain fish.

Most entrepreneurs and real estate investors try to catch fish randomly in the ocean. They spend thousands of dollars on fishing line, casting nets, driving their fishing boats far away from land to catch the proverbial fish in their business - the customer.

The time spent chasing the fish, the money spent on the gas, the risk of bad weather, the cost of the boat and the crew are often too much for an entrepreneur to bear. Many businesses are bogged down with too much overhead because we think that we need to own the boat, spend the money on the gas, own the nets, own the fishing rods, hire a crew and take all the risks of the storm.

Oftentimes, these entrepreneurs will venture into the water and come home empty handed with no fish. The ocean, the lake, and the river all vast bodies of water and the chances of catching fish can be slim.

Catching fish, and catching customers in the traditional sense has a very high risk and a relatively low chance of success.

I once spent $2700 on a magazine advertisement that only produced 1 phone inquiry for a business that I just started. The expense wiped out my business and my boat capsized. The salesperson who sold me the ad told me that it would be a great investment and that I would get lots of customers. The only person who made money on the transaction was the salesperson and the magazine. In my foolishness, I was the fisherman who had bought the expensive boat, bought the nets, bought the lines and hired the crew to catch no fish. I may as well burned my cash because my money was never coming back. I told myself I would never do traditional advertising again.

But how would Bill Bartmann catch a fish? The question he asks has an answer better than all others. While most people say a river, lake, stream or ocean, Bill's answer is smart. If Bill were to catch a fish, he would go to a fish farm.

Some of you reading may say "that's cheating", but I can guarantee that Bill would catch more fish at a fish farm than most would by taking their chances in the ocean.

Of course, going to a fish farm may be associated with a premium, but the premium would be well worth it. The fish at the fish farm are trained to swim to the surface when it's feeding time, they can hear your footsteps at the edge of the tank and are ready for the food you are about to give them. They are fed throughout the day and any amount of fish can be harvested with no risk and all for a small fee.

Outside of fishing, where can an entrepreneur find a proverbial fish farm for customers? Anyone with a list of customers, or a group, or a club, or a media outlet can be a fish farm. Anyone who is a centre of influence can be brought into a  joint venture in which you offer your product or service and pay the influencer a fee on all sales generated.

If it's so easy, then why doesn't every entrepreneur skip traditional advertising, forget the fishing boat and run straight to the fish farm? There are two things that hold most people back:

1) Most entrepreneurs and investors don't know about joint ventures or the "fish farm" mentality.
2) Most entrepreneurs are too cheap or greedy to pay the fish farmer his fee to access the fish.

The biggest expenses in life come from the opportunities that are not capitalized. It is time to change the way we think about lead generation, get creative and explore new avenues for growing our businesses!

Action Step: Analyze your ideal customer and begin to search for centres of influence or "fish farms" where these customers congregate. Do some research and figure out how much it would cost per sale to access this new audience.

Thanks for reading!

Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

Better than a thousand days of study is one day with a great teacher. – Japanese Proverb

When most people get started on the path to "self made wealth", many of us choose one of the following:

1) To become a real estate investor
2) Start a business with an MLM company aka Multi Level Marketing

Both of these paths are very difficult and there is no easy way to success. For myself, I chose to become a full time real estate investor and dedicated all of my resources towards success in my field. In some ways, I envy the people who start with MLM companies because MLMs are:

1) Cheap to start
2) Come with training
3) Have an "Upline" of information (aka coaches and mentors are part of the system)
4) Build a residual income by establishing a team or downline
5) Offer great and cheap personal development programs

When I look back on the resources, time, money, opportunity cost and risk that I spent to get into professional real estate investing, I am astounded at the "startup cost" of the business. In many ways, an MLM would have been safer, cheaper, and faster than becoming a pure real estate investor. Here is why,

Real Estate Investing is:

1) Expensive to start (down payments are expensive and training is expensive)
2) Mistakes are expensive
3) Risk and leverage can crush you
4) No set path for success
5) Coaches and mentors are hard to find

However, as I advance further into Real Estate Investing, I begin to see more similarities between Real Estate and MLM's than differences.

The first similarity is what I would call an information "up-line".

THE UPLINE

One of the biggest mistakes that I made when starting out in business (first music, then debt buying, then real estate) was that until fairly recently, I had absolutely no informational up line. I define an informational up-line as a coach, mentor or teacher who has more experience in the business, a higher degree of success and has accomplished what I was trying to do. Completely ignorantly, I fumbled around in the dark for far too long making costly mistakes. Appropriate coaches and mentors could have prevented 90% of my mistakes, but I was too cheap to hire one.

"The only way to know the right steps to take is to study with those already taking the right steps. Douglas Vermeeren"

MLM's are smart businesses because many of them come with an up-line of information. The up-line shows you the ropes and teaches you how to achieve success in the business. In real estate investing, I have paid some obscene fees to coaches and mentors to correct my past mistakes and take my business to the next level. What is even crazier than the fees I pay are the results. Although the fees are high, the results are always worth it. If you are in real estate investing, and don't have an "up-line" to help you on your path, I would suggest that you get one immediately. Of course, your "up-line" will have to be paid somehow, so consider paying a fee or give them equity in a deal you are doing. One of the reasons why I love real estate is that it is a blank canvas, whatever you wish to create, you can create. The possibilities are endless.

A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside of yourself – Oprah Winfrey

THE DOWNLINE

In multi level marketing, there is an up-line of experienced mentors to help you in the business, and of course, you have a downline underneath you to push you to higher levels of success. In real estate investing, you must build a downline as well. The downline, in my opinion, is everyone on your team who helps you build a passive income. These people are:

1) Your contracting teams
2) Your wholesalers
3) Your bird dogs
4) Your realtors
5) Your property managers
6) Other investors who invest in you and refer business to you

I have made it my mission to adopt the Coca-Cola philosophy and "pay everyone who touches the product". Anyone who refers business to me, whether it be realtors, bird dogs or other investors, will always get paid in cash or equity because these people make me income, and mostly passive income. It's my job to be the up-line and train everyone on the team to work together, work efficiently and work the way I want them to work. I must educate them so that they can be the best team members possible and help me achieve success.

THE SUMMARY

The more I study the business of real estate investing, the more I see that real estate is the same as an MLM company. If you are not yet started in real estate, I would recommend joining an MLM for the training to learn how to run a business. More investors fail to become professional investors because of a lack of soft skills in general business. Many investors know how to do deals (real estate is very primitive), but have no idea how to run a business. The skills you can learn by joining an MLM are priceless. I chose to bi-pass this education and paid a much higher price for my skills. Looking back, having an MLM business on the side would have saved me a lot of time, money and effort. If you are in real estate today, make sure you have an up-line and build a profitable down-line - It's imperative to your success.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

Why do some businesses grow to enormous while others fail in the first five years?

90% of businesses fail in the first five years and of the survivors, 90% will fail in the following five years. Business is not an easy game.

Consider the average realtor; Average realtors make less than $40,000 per year and do 12 transactions or less. You see realtors printing their faces on park benches, printing their faces on note pads and mailing them to strangers, and sending letters that say it's the "perfect time to buy and sell your home" (which makes no sense). If it's the perfect time to buy, it's not the perfect time to sell and vice versa. However, because Realtors make such great commissions, buying and selling is always good for them (perhaps not for you).

These self employed salespeople do some of the most ridiculous things to hunt and "kill" new prospects every month. It's a proven fact that it takes 7x more effort to sell to a new customer than an old customer and yet, most realtors, business people and entrepreneurs are running around chasing new business when they should be focusing on their existing business. Existing customers are much more likely to do business with you than new customers, yet most of us do not consider the lifetime value of an existing customer.

This year I did 12 joint venture deals and I learned very quickly how valuable pre-existing customers are. I was originally planning on doing 12 deals with 12 different partners. However, after acquiring 6 partners, my existing partners were lining up to do more deals with me and I didn't have to pick up the phone to call on new business; such is the magic of existing customers.

My goal in this upcoming year is to strengthen my current relationships with my partners and grow my business organically by emphasizing my new mission to create partners for life. If we do the math, we actually do not need very many customers to make a decent living. I saw a book a few years ago targeted towards independent musicians and the premise of the book was "you don't need a record label". The message of the book was that with 1000 paying customers, you can make a decent living in the music industry. Many bands have more than 1000 fans, yet the bands do not bother to create ongoing relationships with those 1000 people. Since most bands don't build 1000 relationships with their fans, the band members have to work at McDonalds to keep the music dream alive.

If you are in real estate investing, you need less than 10 customers to make a very comfortable living and can even become very wealthy by establishing less than 5  partners for life. The lifetime value of a few good relationships is more than enough to send both you and your partners to higher levels of wealth.

Build your relationships vertically rather than horizontally, keep in touch with your customer base, know your audience and give them what they want. We are all standing on very fertile soil, we just need to work the land and reap what we sow.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Thanks for reading,
By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” 
― George Bernard Shaw

So many people spend their lives trying to "find" themselves. The sad thing is, often, there is nothing to find.

In my own life, I spent much of my late teens and early twenties trying to "find" my identity. I worked at different jobs, I dressed differently, tried different hair-styles, played in different music groups, and struggled to answer the question "what do I want to do with my life"?

Sometimes I felt like I was chasing the wind. After many years of chasing, I learned that there was nothing to chase in the first place.

Everyone at some point gets to experiment with identity. We try different things, we experiment, we find things that work and things that don't. Some of the most successful people in history have shifted their identities and morphed as the world changes with them.

Some people I admire for re-inventing themselves are: Madonna (who is still relevant after 25+ years in pop music which is like 1000 years in real life), Steve Jobs (a man who re-invented himself and his company, Apple, many times) and Johnny Cash (who went from mainstream into obscurity and back into the public's eye).

These people have all gone through the highs and lows of identity by becoming relevant, obscure and then relevant again. They all created identities that were true to themselves and re-created them when necessary.

We are all human "be-ings" and not human "do-ings".

I always find it interesting that people ask on a daily basis "what do you DO for a living?" what do you "DO" with your time? What do you want to "DO" with your life?

Doing implies actions, which is important for success, but I think that being is much more important because we are human BE-ings.

If we know who we want to "BE", then we can quickly find out what we want to "DO".

For myself, I have stopped asking myself the question of "what do I want to do"? and have switched to the question of "who do I want to be?"

Since changing this one question, my success rate has sky rocketed.

I keep a list of 25 people that I admire and want to "be". Of course, I don't want to directly copy these people in every aspect, but what I will do is copy the things that I like about them. These 25 people that I want to be are "targets" for myself that I can attempt to emulate.

What I find most exciting about the list of 25 people that I want to "be", is when I write the things that I like most about them, I can find the common traits that I admire most.

For example, some of the people on my list are:

BRAD LAMB - Expert retailer, sales genius, branding genius
DONALD TRUMP - Branding genius, luxury developer, luxury brand, luxury retailer, maverick, media genius.
RICHARD BRANSON - Conceptual thinker, Venture capitalist, extremely prolific, branding genius, media genius, knows how to get press, risk taker, maverick
STEVE JOBS - Artist, Icon, Rebel, challenged the status quo, came from nothing, has ultimate career comeback, more relevant after death, maser retailer.
JOHNNY CASH - Artist, Icon, Rebel, challenged the status quo, came from nothing, ultimate career comeback, more relevant after death.

My list of people I want to be includes: Real estate entrepreneurs, retailers, developers, inventors, musicians, artists, military generals, chefs, movie and fictional characters.

What is more important than the specific people on the list, are the traits that I associate with each one.

For example, most of the people on my list are: Artists, Iconic, rebellious, mavericks, prolific, branding geniuses, luxury, media stars and retailers.

If most of the people on my list have those traits, and I want to "be" them, then those are the traits that I must focus on and strive for in my own life and business.

After finding 25 people for your list and taking an inventory of the traits that you admire in each person, you can quickly find out what kind of identity you must create for yourself.

What I find interesting about the "list" is that there are many successful people that I can think of that didn't make the cut. These are people I study and admire, but they are not people that I would want to "be". 

For example: Robert Kiyosaki is someone I admire and have studied in great detail, but I do not wish to be Kiyosaki. He is a great teacher, but I don't want to be a teacher.

The more specific and detailed you become with this list, the more you will find your identity.

We can see ourselves only when we see our reflection in the mirror. The list of 25 people is our way of creating a mirror to see into ourselves. This mirror allows us to see what we are on the inside.

Once we can see who we want to become, we can begin the process of reverse engineering our identity so that we can become the person we were destined to be.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” – Christopher McDougall

In every market whether business, jobs or investing, there are lions and there are gazelles. The lions are the fastest, strongest, fiercest animals in the field while the gazelle is a fast, light, pack animal that finds safety in numbers.

The lion represents the leader in the market: he feeds on his competition and swallows up the slowest weakest gazelles. There are few lions, and only the best can become lions in the field.

The gazelles symbolize the “herd” of average players that flood the market and swarm the terrain in packs. Where one gazelle goes, the rest follow.  Unlike the few lions on the field, there are scores of gazelles. As a gazelle, you do not have to be the best to survive. Instead, you must only be faster than your slowest competition to win another day of life.

The lion requires a complex skill set and a high standard of performance to live, He must become strategic while hunting and move contrary to the direction of the herd. He must appear where the herd does not expect him if he is going to kill and live another day.

The gazelles only need an average skill set and average standard of performance. The herd feels secure when everyone is the same and the gazelles organize themselves in a crowd. The crowd makes the gazelles feel safe because it gives them a thin veil of protection from the lions. This thin veil keeps the lion from focusing on any one gazelle, for the lion cannot catch them all. The lion can only catch one gazelle for his dinner and let the rest of the herd go. The gazelles know this and they base their survival strategy around this fact.

As an investor or entrepreneur, which would you rather be? The Lion or the Gazelle?

Would you rather have the illusion of safety and move with the herd as a gazelle?

Or would you rather have the freedom of the lion to hunt and kill on your own terms?

In my investment/entrepreneurial career, I have always chosen to become the lion.

In my opinion, the lion is a better choice in the investment/entrepreneurial world because I have always had a rule for myself: Whatever the average person does – do the opposite of it and you will succeed.

Most people are not successful at all, so if you do the opposite of the average person, logically you will be a success.

If the average person wants to buy, then sell.

If the average person drinks, then don’t drink.

If the average person smokes, then don’t smoke.

If the average person has a 60-inch plasma screen TV, then don’t own a TV.

If the average person has a PC, get a mac.

If the average person doesn’t exercise, then exercise.

The formula is quite simple and it works more often than not.

People are pack animals, much like gazelles. As mammals, we flock and freeze when we are scared. We form packs to feel safe and we want to belong to a group.

Unfortunately, groups don’t know how to make decisions or create good ideas. Decisions and ideas come from an individual and never a collective.

A committee of professionals built the titanic while one man built the Ark.

No matter which subset of the world or the market you look at, there is always a majority and a minority.

Pareto law states that 20% of your actions create 80% of your results. This relationship applies to markets and people as well. 80% of the market is dominated by 20% of the players.

In the case of the lion and the gazelle, it would be more skewed. Perhaps the lions as 5% of the animals control 95% of the gazelles.

In America, 1% control 99% of the world. This is exactly the same concept as the lions and the gazelles.


The question is, why would anyone want to be a gazelle when you could be a lion?



The truth is, most people are not lions because it’s easy and convenient to be a gazelle while it is extremely difficult to become a lion.

The gazelles have safety in numbers; they do not have to be fast (just faster than the competition), they can feed on grass, which is plentiful and at the end of the day they can go to sleep with a belly full of grass. They don’t have to worry about hunting and killing because they can graze all day. Gazelles know that tomorrow will be the same easy routine and find security in the herd.

Lions on the other hand hunt alone or in very small groups. They have to be much faster than the slowest gazelle or they starve to death. Lions cannot eat grass like the gazelle and require meat survive. Every day the lion must be tracking and hunting for his next kill.  If the lion fails to kill a gazelle, he goes to bed with an empty stomach and too many empty stomachs in a row means death for the lion. The lion has no security and must be better than the gazelle to survive.

To be a gazelle is to be average.

To be a lion is to be a champion, a performer and an athlete.

Every day, both the lion and the gazelle are running, to survive. But what makes the two animals different is “who” they must be on a daily basis to survive.

In every business, every industry and every market, there are lions and there are gazelles.

Every morning when you wake up, you must make the choice between running the field as a lion or a gazelle. No matter which one you choose, you are going to be running anyways.

Are you committed to being the best in your field and taking the lead as the lion? Or would you rather blend into the crowd and take your chances as a gazelle?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter which animal you are. Either way, you will be running. But if you’re running anyways, you might as well choose excellence and learn to be the lion.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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In nature, male frogs attract female frogs by croaking loudly in mating season.

From the female perspective, a deeper croak equates to a bigger frog. Female frogs want the biggest male possible to mate with to produce the biggest offspring. In mating season, female frogs listen for the deepest, loudest croak they can find.

If you are a big frog with a deep, loud croak, you get access to any female frog in the jungle. However, if you are a small frog with a small croak, attracting a female can be very difficult.

So what is a small frog to do?

Small frogs can be smart frogs.

A small frog, who is a smart frog, will hop into a drain pipe or a large cavernous space. Once he's inside the pipe, he will croak as loud as he can. The cavernous pipe amplifies the sound of his croak and makes him sound deeper and louder.

Suddenly, the small frog sounds like a huge frog and he can attract an endless stream of ready and willing females.

Although life is easier as a big frog, not everyone is a big frog. 

What if you are the small frog in your business? 

What if you are already a big frog and want to be a gargantuan frog?

We can learn a lot about business when we study the mating patterns of frogs.

5 FUNDAMENTALS THAT MAKE HORNY FROGS INTO MARKETING MACHINES:

1) MINDSET - You don't have to be a big frog to win like a big frog. Think big, find ways to get the results that the "big frogs" get while still staying small. Play the game like a professional from day one and practice thinking big.

2) AMPLIFY - Small frogs use leverage to make their croak bigger, deeper and louder. Whether you are a small frog or a big frog, we all need to amplify our message to reach the market. Find your message and amplify it to your audience. Objects always appear larger from far away and use every broadcast channel to your advantage: Radio, TV, social media, email, youtube, google etc. to broadcast your message.

3) ATTRACT - Smart small frogs know that chasing females is a complete waste of time. Instead, they know how to attract and seduce prospects. Why chase? Let business come to you. Set up your branding and marketing so that you have a laser focused message that attracts the right qualified prospects so that you never have to chase again.

4) OVERSELL - A great marketer once told me "always oversell... even if you have the goods, always oversell". Create a frenzy by playing to the emotions of your audience and oversell your inventory. Use scarcity: If you have 3 items to sell, sell 6. Manipulate supply and demand to create a frenzy by overselling.

5) DON'T PLAY FAIR - Exploit your unfair advantage over your competition and play the game on your terms, not theirs. Find out what your "secret sauce" is and pour it on everything. Make the game unfair so that the odds of success are stacked in your favour and set yourself apart from your competitors. Make your products and services the only choice in the market by differentiating yourself with an unfair advantage.

In business and in the jungle, it's always survival of the fittest. However, whether you are the fittest or not is completely irrelevant when you play the game like a horny frog. Have the mindset of a big frog, amplify your message, attract your audience, oversell, and never play fair.

Find ways to apply these principals in your business and begin dominating your market. Whether you are a small frog or big frog, find a pipe to croak in and watch your prospects line up for a chance to work with you.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

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Photo: My colleague's condo that is not selling.

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio

Today I was flying from Winnipeg to Chicago with a colleague of mine and we were talking about business building and namely flipping houses for profit.

My colleague mentioned that he was having trouble selling his condo that had been sitting on the market for quite some time.

He initially put his condo on the Winnipeg MLS with a competent realtor at $120,000. The condo is between 400 and 500 square feet, 1 bedroom, located in downtown Winnipeg and has no parking.

The comparables for the condo indicated that it could be sold for $120,000. 


Since Winnipeg is a semi-hot market, the realtor listed the condo at $99,000 hoping to get a bidding war.

However, the condo has sat on the market for 5 months with little to no interest. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the condo, it's cosmetically appealing, priced well and should theoretically sell quickly on the market.

However, serious buyers have avoided this condo for 5 months.

The price dropped from $99,000 to $95,000. Next it dropped from $95,000 to $89,900 firm. Yesterday, my colleague got an offer for $80,000 and his realtor was suggesting that he close at $85,000.

What went wrong with the well priced, cosmetically appealing condo in Downtown Winnipeg? It hasn’t sold even though it is priced $20,000 under comparable value.

I asked my friend if the condo had parking, he replied “no”. Immediately, I knew what the issue was.

I asked him what the demographics were like in the building and he said that it’s composed of mostly students who take the bus to the local university.

At $99,000 or less, this condo is very well priced and a good product, however, no parking and the downtown location create two problems:

1)   Downtown locations have no peripheral street parking.

2)   If the condo doesn’t come with parking, there is nowhere to park the buyer’s car.

People who can qualify for mortgages have jobs, which usually require cars, which require parking. No parking is a huge issue and limits the profile of buyers who would find this product attractive.

Further, the purchasing power of a person looking to buy a condo in the $100,000 to $150,000 range is too great. There are far too many options in the condo market in Winnipeg in that price range and a buyer can easily get a new condo, with parking, in a location of their choice.

My colleague’s product is a nice product, however, his audience is very limited and the people who would like to purchase the product (namely students) do not have the money or purchasing power to buy.

A rule I have learned in my career thus far: The people who are very enthusiastic about buying usually have no money. 

I used to see examples of this rule all the time when I used to rent out my affordable luxury rental suites. People that were the most eager to buy had no purchasing power. Another challenge was the people who actually had cash had a wide range of options and really needed to be sold to buy.

To capture a person with purchasing power, you need to offer the best product at the right price and make your option the only option in the category. My friend with no parking will have a very hard time competing in his category.

When I began my business career, I would create a product I liked and would attempt to build or engineer an audience for it. This formula was extremely painful for me. I lost money numerous times and felt the crushing defeat of failure after failure while trying to create markets for my products. Creating a market and demand for a product is very expensive, very intense and very risky. I would not recommend it to anyone.

 

BUSINESS RULE: Do not try to create an audience, find an audience and give them what they want.

Today in my career, Instead of creating a audiences, I find audiences who are looking for specific products and offer them what they are looking for.

This subtle difference has made the difference between the failures of my past and my current successes.

For example, 2 years ago, rental vacancy in Winnipeg was 0.7% so I built affordable luxury rental units to fill the demand. The units were quickly absorbed by the market and have been 100% occupied since day one. I found an audience and gave them what they wanted.

In January this year I noticed that there were a local investors looking for good cash flowing Real Estate Deals. I made it my mission to find them Deals, partnered with them and have done 12 Joint Ventures this year. Finding partners has not been hard because I fill the demand of the audience.

In the Real Estate Investor world I am approached weekly for mentoring, coaching as well as speaking. I did not get into Real Estate to be a speaker, coach or mentor, but I have started offering services as the demand dictates. If the audience wants coaching, I offer them coaching, if they do not want coaching, I do not offer them coaching. I absolutely hate risk, so I will not invest my time into something that people do not want.

I have also noticed that there is a huge audience of investors on the Internet searching for information. To feed this demand, I have been providing valuable, organic daily blog content to the audience and the results have been overwhelming. My blog has become my secret sauce.


The lesson that I have learned from my experiences is to know your audience inside and out. Know what they want, know what they don’t want and make sure you deliver at the right price. I no longer create speculative products and services because the risk is too high and it’s the formula for failure.

The formula for no risk profits is very simple. Find an audience, connect with them, find out what they want and deliver it at the right price.


You don’t have to be a genius to figure out the formula above and that’s why the best entrepreneurs in the world are middle school/high school/college dropouts:

Business is a simple game, keep it simple.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Aarnio

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
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By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful!

Anyone who has ever become successful in reaching their dreams has always had a series or roadblocks to overcome.

Whether you are a Real Estate investor who has dreams of building an empire, a Entrepreneur with the next great idea or an Artist with the next great vision, we all have a series of challenges to face before we can become successful.

One common challenge that everyone has to face when chasing our dreams is that somewhere along the way, we require capital.

This is true for absolutely everyone. Whether you are the Real Estate investor requiring capital for buildings, the Entrepreneur requiring capital for a venture or the Artist requiring capital for an Art-form. The requirement is universal and every business/successful person requires funding at some point in his or her path to success.

Unfortunately for many people, raising capital is a "black box of voodoo" that many do not understand. Some of us are held back by limiting beliefs that "we do not deserve" to have capital or that we need to be born with it to be successful.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Raising capital is a science and an art form. It obeys the law of certainty much like everything else in this world.

If certain things are done in certain ways, certain results are certain to occur.

With that being said, here are 5 Secrets to Raising Capital shared with me by the very-successful capital-raiser JT Foxx:

1. Dress to impress: We only have one chance at making a first impression. The timeframe for establishing a good impression is a very short window between 3 and 30 seconds. As social animals, we are constantly looking for reasons NOT to do business with other people and we will scrutinize every minor detail to disqualify a newcomer. Some key details for dress are: the quality of suit, polished shoes, quality of business cards. Anyone who is idealistic enough to think that these things don't count is delusional. Even legends like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Hugh Hefner had to wear suits early in their careers. Dressing to impress is an easy way to ensure success.
2. Pay attention to your branding: Effective branding is extremely important for anyone who wants to raise capital. However, branding is so much more than just a name, a colour and a logo. Branding is a feeling and an emotion surrounded by you and your company. What feeling does an audience get from you? Some easy ways to find out if you have effective branding or not are; Do you show up effectively in Google? Do you have pictures of yourself with successful people? Branding is what separates the top from the bottom in any business and it ensures a potential investor that you are not a fly by night operation.
3. Know your numbers and be conservative: If in doubt, always be conservative. The worst mistake so many people make is that we try make our deal look better than it really is. A savvy investor will always poke holes in your strategy and call you on a plan that is too optimistic. If you appear to be misrepresenting something then you will scare away your investor and their money. Provide a "best case", "realistic case", "worst case" and "nightmare case" scenario. If your investor is ok with the "nightmare case", then you know that you have a deal.
4. Back end is more important than the front end: Congratulations! You raised the Capital! Now what...? In a perfect world, raising the Capital is easy. What is much more important, however, is how you manage the "back end" of the deal. How good are you at "taking care" of the investor's money? Savvy investors are very hesitant to part with their money and you need to show them some accurate monthly reports with precise information. One of the worst things you can say to an investor is "I run the business and I do my own books." Investors want to see audited financials by a certified account. If you can provide this information you show that you are a professional, understand what they need to feel secure and have built a competent team.
5. Make it about more than the numbers: Relationships are always the most important thing in business. When you pitch a deal or yourself based on the numbers, you are selling yourself short. If you are placing all of your value on the numbers alone, you are in big trouble. Don't be known as "the 12% guy", because later when the "13% guy" comes along, you will be finished. Instead, focus your presentation on your relationships, philosophy and results. Sell the vision of the big picture to your investors and have strong, realistic numbers. If you can provide all of the above, then investors will be calling you looking for a good place to put their money.

Raising capital is a skill that very few people have mastered. It's a skill that revolves around sales, marketing, branding, relationships and understanding the numbers. If you can focus on the 5 fundamentals above, then raising the capital required to build your dream will always be easily found.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share this article if you found it helpful!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share if you found this article helpful!

Photo: The iconic, Slash from Guns and Roses.

"A rock star is the intersection between who you are and who you want to become" -Slash, Guns and Roses.

Years ago between the ages of 16 and 22 I focused heavily on my dream of becoming a "rock star". I wrote songs, put a band together, promoted local rock shows, created websites, sold merchandise and focused on the dream of "rockstardom."

Looking back on the things that I loved about the concept of  becoming a "rock star" was:

1. To be recognized
2. To perform at a high level in front of an audience
3. To have my own business
4. To be in control of my own future
5. To have creative control of my art-form
6. To travel the world
7. To have passive income
8. To build a collection/portfolio of work
9. To earn a nice living
10. To be free from answering to a boss or a J.O.B.

When I look at my life today, at age 26, I have achieved all of the above and I no longer have a band.

I have a theory that we never really love music, art, dance, poetry, fine food, travelling or anything else that we are passionate about...

Instead we love the FEELINGS that we get from experiencing music, art, dance, poetry, fine food, travelling etc.

Rock music doesn't matter, what matters is the feelings we get from the music.

Although I "quit" pursuing the "rockstar" dream at age 22, I have achieved all 10 of the things I wanted in Music from Real Estate instead.

The work doesn't matter, what matters is the feelings that come from the work.

You don't need a band to be a rock star: you do, however, need a BRAND.

The concept of a rockstar really is a concept from the 1970's. Bands/musicians like Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison etc. embody the glory of rockstardom.

When we translate the 1970's concept of a Rockstar into today's market of 2012, there are virtually zero universally recognized modern rock stars.

A list that I was reading for fun the other day was the "30 richest drummers in the world" when measured by net worth.

What interesting about the bands/drummers on the list was that NONE of them started after the year 2000. Most of the bands/musicians on the list are from the glory days of rock'n'roll in the 1970's and the rest are scattered throughout rock history. A select few became famous in the 1990's at best.

Many people have said throughout history that "rock is dead" and I would agree; especially when we examine a list like the one above. 

Although "rock is dead", living life as a rockstar has never been more alive.

The only difference between the rockstars of today and the rockstars of the 1970's is that the rockstars from the 70's all had bands. 

The rock stars of the new millennium have BRANDS instead of bands.

I believe that it is much more important to build a brand than a band/business because a successful brand can be attached to a business very easily ie: Gene Simmons of KISS has attached his brand to 100's, if not 1000's of products and is able to spawn dozens of businesses and licensing deals. KISS is a brand that has made more money than The Beatles and will likely continue to do well after all of the KISS members are dead.

Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and Jimi Hendrix are all examples of excellent brands that make approximately $50 Million dollars per brand annually, even though the "rockstar" behind the brand has been dead for years.

A modern example of a "rockstar" would be Mike "The Situation" from MTV's Jersey Shore.

All of the reality TV stars on Jersey shore are devoid of talent, however, they are highly visible and have a well defined brand with broad appeal. In 2010 alone, Mike "The Situation" made $5 million dollars just off of endorsements and other deals.

The formula is simple, create a great brand, attach a business, rinse and repeat.

Up and coming musical rockstars have lost most of their power, especially rock'n'roll musicians because there is no longer any centralized distribution for music: Traditional radio is fragmented and listenership is down, Satellite radio is highly fragmented, online music is highly fragmented and no one has really figured out how to properly monetize and control the internet. Television is more fragmented than ever and channels like MTV do not feature music or music videos anymore.

Creating a rock star brand is not as easy as showing up on American Band Stand or the BBC as it once was because of all of the fragmented channels.

Modern musicians (especially rap musicians) are focusing more on building great brands and attaching satellite businesses to their back-end. Some examples I can think of immediately are:

1. Lady Gaga,
2. Jay-Z
3. Kanye West
4. Beyonce
5. 50 Cent

The brand is greater than the band.

Both music and business are trending towards brands in the modern economy.

All of this information may be great if you are in the music/entertainment industry, but what does this mean for you and your business?

All of this information means the following:

1. Brand value is more important than ever, focus on creating a visible, high quality brand at all costs. Brands can be monetized later if they are built properly.
2. Visibility is more important than ever. Find a niche, become visible and become the leading expert in the niche.
3. You don't need talent or a band to have a great brand. Consider Mike "The Situation".
4. Focus on monetizing the "back end" of your brand and not the front end. Modern musicians like Kanye West look at their music as a "commercial" for themselves and make money on the back end NOT the front.
5. Build a great brand and diversify your back end as much as possible. No one has a crystal ball and we never know what the next trend is going to be. Have a mother brand with a diverse portfolio of back-end businesses (think of Virgin, Richard Branson's brand with 400 companies under it).

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share if you found this article helpful!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you find it educational!

Photo: Soldiers in the Afrika Korps with an 88mm gun.

A wise man once said "wars are won by legs, not by arms".

One interpretation of this quote is: battles are won by distance covered, not by physical strength exerted in one battle.

By covering more distance, smaller armies throughout history have been able to wear down massive opponents and take victory over large distances.

Atilla the Hun was able to wreak havoc on the much larger roman legions by having a fast, small, elite, mobile force. 

Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps were able to beat the british into the submission in World War II with a small elite, mobile force.

Lawrence of Arabia employed similar tactics in the pre World War II era that have evolved into modern day guerrilla warfare.

There are two commonalities between Atilla the Hun, Erwin Rommel and Lawrence of Arabia. All 3 men employed the following into their strategy and tactics:

1. Speed
2. Distance

In the days of the Roman empire, business and war were synonymous - there was no separation between business and war. Business was war and war was business. Men in Roman society became wealthy through the spoils of war and later in life would venture into real estate, trade or politics. This is why books like  "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu are found in the Business section of the book store and not the War section. The same principles that apply in warfare also apply in business.

Speed and Distance are just as powerful on the battlefield as they are in the boardroom and let me elaborate on why.

In business, speed wins. First mover advantage, speed of implementation, and velocity of money are all concepts that revolve around speed. In business if you have a chance to be fast or slow, most of the time it is better to be fast.

In business and warfare, distance is just as important as speed. Strategically, we need to have a short position, a medium position and a long position. Whether we are building a company or managing an investment portfolio.

Our ability to win over distances whether short, medium or long is imperative to success.

Strategies that are effective in short positions may not be effective in medium positions and medium positions will not offer the same advantages as long positions.

In business, we need to have an effective mix of 3 types of strategies to be effective over distances and become a leader in the market.

In my past businesses, I focused too much on "long" positions and neglected my short and medium positions.

I would load up my real estate portfolio with long position buy-and-hold cash flow real estate. In my music business, I would pour my time, effort and energy into producing a long term brand strategy and forget my short term strategy. In my debt buying business, again, I had a long term cash-flow strategy but no short or medium position.

These businesses were aggravating, painful and hard to grow because there was no short or medium strategies to generate the cash needed to properly grow and expand.

This summer I began to study JT Foxx. JT Foxx is a very successful real estate investor who has transacted over 500 deals in five years, partnered with some very large money partners and currently owns a huge speaking and coaching business.

JT has very good business acumen and I noticed that he has weighted his business transactions around short positions and the "shortest ways to make money".

The 4 Shortest Ways to Profit

1)   Flipping real estate - Flipping real estate has always been one of the fastest ways to make money in history. Real estate allows an investor to make huge leveraged gains with little or no work and if you do your homework, real estate can be turned in 30-90 days with little to no effort. If you're in real estate, this should be a strategy used often as part of your portfolio and overall strategy.

2)   Local marketing/branding other people - Selling marketing and branding services to local businesses is a very fast way to make large profits. Most business people have no clue about marketing and branding and will pay large sums of money to learn marketing and branding techniques. This is especially apparent in Real Estate Investing and Internet Marketing. Where there is pain, there is profit and branding/marketing is place where many entrepreneurs feel lots of pain. Many companies make large fast profits by relieving this pain.

3)   Public speaking - Donald trump charges $250,000 an hour to speak in public. Raymond Aaron and Tony Robbins have both made over $1,000,000 in an hour giving speeches. Most people would rather be dead than to be speaking in front of an audience. However, this is one of the fastest, most lucrative endeavours for an individual if executed properly. There is enormous leverage in public speaking and tons of branding opportunity. Consider the value of this avenue for a short term strategy in your business. This strategy can be offered for free (just for branding value and lead generation) or it can be monetized - who doesn't love options?

4)   Joint ventures - This year I built my company from the ground up using none of my own money because I used joint ventures to build it. Joint ventures are the fastest, highest leverage business tool available. Only 2% of entrepreneurs know how to use Joint Ventures and this gives savvy entrepreneurs an advantage. Credit Card companies and fortune 500 companies derive major profits from Joint Ventures while small entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves. Whenever I am missing a resource, I will source a JV partner; "why try to own everything?" I have become a specialist in Joint Ventures and I am never low on resources because I know how to create favourable deals for everyone. Some greedy entrepreneurs don't like Joint Ventures because they have to give up a percentage of their business for access to extra resources. In the words of Mark Cuban; "Would you rather have half a watermelon or a whole grape?"

After learning the 4 "shortest ways to profit", I began to re-think my business. I have began restructuring it and adding short and medium positions to my long positions and have begun to find balance. Today my business is healthier than ever and my strategy going forward is more sound. I recommend you review the "4 shortest ways to profit" and plan to implement at least one of the 4 strategies into your business in the next 60 days.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Remember to share this article if you found it useful!