Earning Freedom with Michael Santos

Flip Host

Jared Lichtin is a 28-year-old real estate entrepreneur who hosts the top-rated podcast Flip. Through his podcast, Jared teaches people how to make money buying, rehabbing, and flipping residential real estate. He tells people that they can make enough money in real estate to leave jobs behind and pursue the much more lucrative career of real estate investments.

What makes Jared’s story and his podcast so compelling is that he doesn’t ask anyone to do anything that he doesn’t do. Indeed, despite graduating law school and earning a six-figure income as an oil-and-gas attorney, he quit practicing law to focus exclusively on real estate investing. Jared is 100% transparent. Through his podcast, he provides real-time insight into exactly how he succeeds. Today Jared told his story of Flip for the Earning Freedom podcast.

Jared also hosts the wildly popular podcast Flip, teaching others how to make enough money in flipping real estate. With so much volatility in the stock market, and terrible yields in the bond markets, Jared describes a real niche industry in flipping real estate.

First, he persuades investors to believe in him. Once he gets the capital commitment, Jared ventures into the market to find the ideal property. He negotiates a great price. Then, using a combination of sweat equity and subcontractors, he refurbishes the property in an effort to increase market value. He then sells the property and he splits the proceeds with his investors.

Many who listen to the Earning Freedom podcast will want to create their own entrepreneurial ventures. They will find value in listening and learning from Jared Lichtin on today’s episode. I trust they’ll want to subscribe to Flip, a great resource for those interested in lerning more about real estate investing. 

Contact Jared:

Flip Website:

http://www.flipjl.com/

Flip Twitter:

https://twitter.com/JaredLichtin

Flip Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/FlipPodcast

Flip Instagram:

https://instagram.com/jaredlichtin

Project Rebound

Jason Bell leads the Project Rebound program at San Francisco State University. Earlier we heard from Airto Morales, Jason’s colleague who works with him at Project Rebound. Together, they devote their time and energy to help formerly incarcerated individuals advance into society as law-abiding citizens. 

I have an indirect relationship with Project Rebound. While I was incarcerated, I read about the program’s founder. While serving time in a California State prison, John Irwin enrolled in a college program. He advanced to earn his Ph.D and to become one of America’s leading penologists. He founded Project Rebound in the 1970s. I reached out to him from prison to let him know how much his work inspired me.

Jason also learned about Project Rebound while he was serving a prison term. Upon his release, he enrolled and now he works to spread the value this program offers to others.

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James Jones met me at the Oakland airport in a beautiful Lincoln SUV. The city of Santa Rosa retained his company to drive me from the Oakland airport to the Hyatt Hotel in the beautiful city of Santa Rosa. As we drove, James and I spoke and it turned out that we shared a history of imprisonment. On the spur of the moment, I asked James to tell our audience at the Earning Freedom network to reveal his story. We recorded his audio while driving. I wanted listeners to hear James’ thoughts on the importance of preparing for success after incarceration. After serving about one year in the California state prison system, James has gone on to lead a law-abiding life.

Project Rebound: Airto Morales 

Airto Morales is a leader at Project Rebound, an innovative program at San Francisco State University. The Project Rebound program helps the formerly incarcerated transition into the university.

Today Airto tells his story on the Earning Freedom podcast. Prior to joining Project Rebound, Airto was in prison. He began serving a sentence in state prison for a serious crime. While serving nine years, he began contemplating how he would spend the rest of his life.

Another prisoner told Airto about Project Rebound. As soon as authorities released him, Airto visited San Francisco State University to inquire how he could participate. He went on to earn his undergraduate degree and his master’s degree from San Francisco State University. Now Airto teaches undergraduate students, facilitates the Project Rebound program, and he continues efforts to build a more vibrant community by helping the formerly incarcerated transition into society as law abiding citizens.

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Andres Idarraga is a role model. He tells the audience at Earning Freedom about challenges that came with growing up in a low-income, crime-ridden area of Rhode Island. Early influences led to his participating in crime. When he was 20, Andres describes being sentenced to prison for his role in drug trafficking. In prison, however, he earned freedom through a pursuit of education. 

Another prisoner inspired Andres to begin spending time in the library. He fell in love with literature. While on a visit, he pledged to his mother that he would pursue a college education upon his release. He began applying to universities from inside of prison walls and he was accepted to the University of Rhode Island.

The more Andres invested himself into academic life, the more passionate he became. After earning high marks at the University of Rhode Island, he applied to the prestigious Brown University, an Ivy League school that many of society’s most distinguished citizens call their alma mater. From Brown, Andres developed a passion for law. He persuaded Yale Law School, one of the best law schools in the world, to admit him. Andres earned his law degree from Yale in 2011. For the past several years, Andres has been building a career practicing complex litigation at a leading law firm.

Despite his extraordinary success, Andres remains passionate about opening opportunities for others to earn their freedom through education. With two friends who also served time in the Rhode Island state prison system, both of whom also advanced their educational journeys to earn law degrees, he formed a nonprofit, the Transcending Through Education Foundation. Initially using their own funds, Andres and his colleagues contributed tuition resources to help people from prison transition from confinement into lives of meaning and relevance that begin inside college classrooms.

Andres is a role model to anyone who aspires to become more than past bad decisions or current circumstances. In today’s Earning Freedom podcast, he shares his remarkable story. Those who would like to learn more may visit the following links: 

Andres Idarraga: Tedx Talk

Andres Idarraga: Today News

Andres Idarraga: The Sentencing Project

In my book Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term, I describe how I transformed my life. Those decisions had a monumental impact on my ability to return to society strong. By making values-based, goal-oriented decisions like we teach in the MasterMind course at MichaelSantos.com, anyone can build a better future despite past bad decisions. If that strategy could empower me though the decades that I served in prison, just think what the strategy can do for you.

Today I’m offering an extra podcast. This episode describes how I earned my first million dollars in prison. Although I provide much more detail in the Earning Freedom book, I offer a condensed version of the story in this 30-minute podcast.

In revealing this story, it’s my hope that others will see that they, too, can begin sowing seeds for a brighter future. The process requires a commitment to define success. I call that the vision. Then, it requires the individual to consider where he is today. We’ll call that point A. Then, the individual must consider his vision, his definition of success, point B. The individual must reverse engineer the path that he will take to travel from point A to point B. That becomes the plan. Then, the individual must take the incremental action steps along the way. That is what we call execute. 

I adhered to that plan through each of the 9,500 days that I served. I adhere to that plan today. In the Earning Freedom podcast I’ll reveal more about how this disciplined, deliberate strategy empowers me every day. The strategy can empower others as well. Such a strategy leads to fulfillment in every area that brings meaning and relevance to life

If you’d like to learn more, stay tuned to the Earning Freedom podcast. When you’re ready, make the commitment and sign up for our mastermind program.

In today’s Earning Freedom podcast, we’re going to learn from Rachel Rofe, queen of Internet Marketing. She is an amazing young woman who grew tired of working at a department store. Instead of complaining, she took action. Rachel purchased an ebook from Craig’s list. From that book, Rachel learned how to liberate herself through the power of viral marketing.

That was only nine years ago. Over the course of those nine years, Rachel has launched a number of initiatives that have resulted in millions of dollars in revenue. Her monthly income ranges from $10,000 per month to as much as $90,000 per month.

Would you like to learn how you could achieve those same high levels of success?  Because if you would like to sow seeds for an extraordinary passive income, then you can learn a great deal from Rachel Rofe!

Through her website, RachelRofe.com, she offers programs that show how can profit from products she offers that include: 

Rachel has inspired me to work harder. Even if you’re in prison and lack access to the Internet, you’ll learn a great about how you can follow Rachel’s proven strategy of personal transformation.

After listening to her wisdom, I felt so inspired that I recorded a second podcast for the day. In that episode, I described my commitment to work toward doubling the number of people that access the Earning Freedom podcast within two months. I invite you to hold me accountable with the plan that I set! More importantly, I challenge you to work toward earning your freedom today.

On the Earning Freedom network, I strive to show others how they can achieve their highest potential. One pledge that I’ve always made is that I would never ask anyone to do anything that I’m not willing to do. And I’m willing to work hard, to invest of myself to achieve the goals that I aspire to achieve. The same strategies that empowered me through 26 years in prison and resulted in my returning to society strong, with my dignity intact, will guide me to reaching the goals I’m setting for the Earning Freedom Podcast.

I launched the podcast on March 23. That day brought me 107 downloads. 17 days have passed since I launched. During that time, we’ve reached some milestones. Yesterday the show hit a peak of 290 downloads. I’d like to reach a wider audience, so I’ve decided to embark upon the same type of values-based, goal-oriented approach that guided me through other challenges. I’m going to use the Straight-A Guide to reach my objective.

Values:

On today’s podcast I defined success, one of my values, by indicating that I intended to build a bigger audience.

Goals:

The goal I set was to increase my audience size to reach an average of 400 daily downloads within the next 30 days.

Attitude:

I am making a 100% commitment to this goal, which reflects that I have the right attitude. Although I cannot control how many people will download the show, I can invest myself fully into a strategy that will result in my success.

Aspiration:

I aspire to build an audience that results in more than 10,000 people tuning in to the Earning Freedom podcast each day. Yet I know that I must take incremental steps. For now, I focus on finding a sufficient audience that will download 400 episodes a day.

Action:

In order to reach my goal, I must take incremental action steps. I pledge to follow the following schedule:

Accountability:

By stating my actions, I invite the world to hold me accountable. I know exactly what steps I must take because I’ve defined my action plan. Either I succeed executing my plan, or I fail.

Awareness:

This disciplined strategy makes me more aware of my responsibilities and gives me a reason to work harder. Simultaneously, by executing this daily plan, I trust that more influential leaders will want to work with me to spread this message. 

Achievement:

I will celebrate my achievement every day by watching my numbers rise, or taking action when they do not. 

Appreciation:

Those in the Earning Freedom Audience will listen to the gratitude I express for this opportunity and privilege to live as a contributing citizen. 

If I succeed in reaching my goals, I’m convinced that by the end of this year, the Earning Freedom podcast will provide for my family and me going forward.

Asm recently pleaded guilty to a federal crime that will result in his imprisonment. He contacted me for guidance on what he could expect. Since I knew that many people facing prison would have similar concerns, I invited Asm to participate on one of our Earning Freedom podcasts. It’s my hope that he and others find value in the message.

Roman Hossain is a successful business owner who recognized the importance of education. He led several startup ventures that have resulted in tens of millions in revenues. Yet in his mid 20s, with millions in the bank, Roman shifted his attention to education because he sensed a duty to contribute to the making of a better world, and he believed an education would help. But he faced challenges that money could not resolve.

After high school, Roman studied electrical engineering as a fulltime student at California Poly Pomona. Simultaneously, he worked to build a career in the financial services industry. By the time Roman reached his early 20s, he was earning a six-figure income. Business demands resulted in his grades suffering, but real estate businesses he started brought extraordinary success.

Cal Poly expelled Roman from the university for poor academic performance. He studied through correspondence in the university’s extension program, but the businesses he had launched monopolized most of his attention. His business ventures thrived. By the time he turned 26, Roman sold those businesses for a price that netted him more than $4 million in cash.

With financial success achieved, Roman chose to return to school. He wanted to earn a university degree, then use his knowledge to contribute to the making of a better world. Earlier decisions Roman had made to focus on business brought enormous complications to his academic journey. He had to complete a full year of remedial studies in order to boost his GPA to a sufficient level for graduation.

Roman tells his story of persistence. That singular quality served him well in business and in every other area of his life. Persistence sustained his discipline, kept him going. Following his graduation with a bachelor’s in business, he pursued law school and faced new struggles. Numerous schools rejected Roman’s request to study law. To augment his application to law school, Roman enrolled in a master’s program at UC Irvine. UC Irvine awarded Roman an MBA in 2011.

Tenacity kept Roman in pursuit of a law degree even after he earned his MBA. He hired a tutor to help him score higher on the Law School Admissions Test. That investment resulted in Roman scoring sufficiently high enough on the LSAT for three law schools to admit him. California State Western University awarded Roman his law degree in December of 2014. He soon will sit for the California Bar Exam.

Roman tells an inspiring story of a man who refuses to allow obstacles to stop him from achieving his dream. He’s an inspiration to us all. Now that he has his law degree, he is in full pursuit of admission to medical school. When I asked why pursuit of education drove him, Roman said that he felt compelled to contribute to the making of a better world, and education would help.

Listen, learn, and be inspired as Roman tells his story to the Earning Freedom network.