What’s going on, fellow real estate investors? Welcome back to REI Wealth Academy, I’m John. Coming at you this week we’re talking about finding mentors. A lot of people come to this aspect of it from a mindset of scarcity; I want you to come to this with a mindset of abundance in providing value. So, what are four ways that you can provide value to a potential mentor?

Number one, you can pay for their time. I know that sounds crazy, but people pay for personal trainers to get fit, that is a form of mentorship, a form of coaching that’s going to be. REI Wealth Academy, helping people get started on their path to real estate investing. Going from where they are now to where they want to be, identifying that and helping them along the way to be able to do that. People pay tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars sometimes to get around people that are the best on this planet at one particular task. They’re there to fill in the gaps for you, but you have to find the right way to provide value, and sometimes that is simply trading some of your money for their time.

Conversely from that, number two is talking about trading your time filling in a gap that they might have. So you have strengths, you really do. And by the time that we’ve gone through the big why, figured out your goals, really assessing what your strategy is for real estate investing and starting to understand yourself and your personality a bit more. You know what your strength is, and if there is something that you can do that you can work your butt off to go help provide value for that mentor, do it. Is it worth it to you to be able to do something like that? In a lot of cases I really think it is. If there is something that you’re really good at that you know and that you can perk your ears up for and you can really listen to what that potential mentor might need from you, do it. Do it.

The third thing is going to be using your network. Leveraging the network you already have. Again, this involves a lot of listening and that’s what you should be doing. Even though you should be telling people what you’re doing, especially from your mentor, you should really, really key in to what it is that they might want with your ears and really listen in to what they might absolutely need or want in the time to find out where you can put that.

So, if they have an issue that’s coming up with some sort of legal issue with real estate, and you happen to know a real estate attorney, one suggestion would be to make sure you can identify that problem and broker that relationship, and then go back to them and make sure that you can continue to provide that checkup on it. Follow up, make sure that they got what they need from it if you’re going to be giving someone services, referring someone services by doing that, make sure that you’re following up with both people to make sure the relationship with you and that person is still intact when that occurs.

And the last thing is, is asking for charity. I know that sounds crazy, and some people want someone else to help them for free, but a lot of times you’re afraid to ask. The one caveat I have to this is make sure that you’re doing it from a community where you really connect with people. And that could be your church, a synagogue, that could be from your workplace, that could also be from, If you’re into adventure races, or marathons, or some people you meet that they come together for some cause other than what you’re doing. Just simply ask. Ask somebody that you really connect with, and oftentimes a lot of people who are in a place that you want to be are more than willing to help you out.

Again, the one thing I want you to really think about if you’re asking for charity is to come prepared to any meeting that you have with them. Do not waste their time if they’re giving y...