Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Vicki Wright Hamilton, and welcome to Ignite. Are you ready to spark your passion and fuel your leadership journey? This is where ambition meets action and transformation begins. Let's light the fire and keep it burning. Today we're going to light that fire and keep it burning with a guest that I am so happy to have back again, Susan Drayton. And Susan is an author. She's into art. She has so much to share with us. I enjoyed speaking with her last time about Reiki. It was a great, great segment. If you didn't get to see it, you need to go back and do so. Let's welcome Susan to the show. Susan, hi.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: How are you?
[00:01:09] Speaker B: I'm great. How are you, Susan?
[00:01:11] Speaker A: I'm doing well.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Great, great. So I want to hear all about this new book, this book that you have put out. I would love to hear more about it. Worthiness.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: This book started in 2014 with just strictly illustrations. I had no intentions of writing a book. It was more therapeutic for me. I was at a crossroads in my life, having to make a difficult decision, wasn't sure how to go about it, really, truthfully, did not want to deal with it. So I escaped to a place of fantasy where I can just somehow come to a place where I'm not overwhelmed with anxieties in having to make the action of those adult decisions.
So that's what I did. I did a bunch of illustrations and I created the character Seth. Seth is a dragon, a very colorful dragon. And outside, he's this majestic creature that is just so beautiful. But inside, he's not really sure who he is and where he's going. But also from a distance, he is noticing a fairy realm with bunch of berries, but is afraid to approach them. And then there's Mother Earth with her beautiful majestic powers all on its own.
So, yeah, the book is quite lovely. And this is Worthiness.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I love it. I love the COVID Oh, my gosh, the colors. And, you know, it looks so warm.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: So I wanted to stick to the earth colors, the earth tones, but I did this all by hand. And this is the. Like, this is it. This is how it started on paper.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
So it took a bunch of colorful pencils, which at that time, I guess they decided to do the adult coloring books. So the pencils that I was using ran out, and I did a bunch of these.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: Those are so beautiful, Susan.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Thank you. And I wanted to have more of a vintage look. And here he is just looking at the water, trying to figure out who he is and where he's going. And he's not sure, but he sees this beautiful reflection and just doesn't really know where to go. And what I love about this book is that anyone of any age can identify themselves at that crossroad.
And it's always interesting that sometimes we go into this hermit mode, or we feel so alone, so isolated, that we forget to reach out to people. And we deal with our anxieties or depressions or worries behind closed doors, sometimes by ourselves, and makes it worse, I think. But in the other hand, it's almost like you want that solitude.
So I thought it would be nice to reach out to the younger generation and hoping that the words would just help the children. If you don't mind if I can.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: Read, I would love to hear you read some. Okay.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: So very, very simple. He wanted to be a great dragon, but he didn't always know what that meant. Sometimes he didn't even feel like a dragon. I'm not sure who I am, but other than what I'm called, Seth. On the outside, I know I'm a colorful dragon. But on the inside, I'm scared and confused. I'm only me. Am I enough? Will I ever be accepted? What lies ahead? I'll never know if I don't move forward.
Wow. That's how the first page starts.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So the pictures get even more vividly. And this is where Mother Earth comes in, as well as the ferry. And the fairies all have their place in the realm, and they know to just detach and just have this wonderful free spirit. And they go about. There's no boundaries, per se. It can fly to and from, and it's adventurous all the time. And then Mother Earth comes in, and she's this powerful, wonderful giver. And no matter what she goes through, whatever the storm is, she somehow knows how to come back better than ever, on time every time, with such beautiful blossoms.
And her part that I love in the book is how she. Every night with the fairies, they're playing and laughing, and as they do so, everyone's just walking on Mother Earth and she tickles their feet in hopes that when we get grounded in her, that she lessens the anxieties, lessens the worries and the fears, and being grounded in the beauty of her blossoms, of her trees, the grass, the waves of the ocean, and just the simple sounds of the river.
And somehow it brings us to the present moment, and the calmness just starts to come over us like a beautiful warm blanket.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: You know, Susan, this is so fascinating to me. Number one, I believe art is beautiful anyway. Right. And art tells a story. It gives you a feeling, it gives you an emotion that you can relate to. But when you started doing this, you know, did all of your art go by pencil? Did you use pencil to do everything or did you paint some things first or how did you begin to put that together?
[00:08:26] Speaker A: I started sketching. That's what I did. I started slowly sketching the imageries. What I was doing was going in to the forest where I go and hike to Destruction Brook. And anybody from Massachusetts knows how beautiful it is out there with small little rivers and ponds and so forth, and they've got benches. And so I would just go in there just to escape and go for a hike. And within the hike, I just let my imagination go and started taking pictures of the bottom of the trees and the roots. And some people would do art with the rocks and just. Just looking at the layout of just Mother Nature itself, how she had the tree moss and so forth. So I started taking those pictures and based on those pictures, I then took it from there and started just sketching. And then on top of that is where I was bringing the Prisma colored pencils, which you blend them all together and. Yeah. So this is the book of this picture and then there's this ginormous one.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: You know, wow. Yeah, that was my feeling too when I saw the book totally completed. Because like I said when I first did this book, I. I had no, I. No intentions until my mentor was like, well, what are you going to do now? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't even know who would take me seriously. So mascot books came into play and mascot books, what happened with that was I did some research and based on that, I then hesitated because I was so scared, you know, because I'm like, oh, what am I getting myself into? I've never done this.
But the angels made sure that I never slept. So anywhere between like 1:33, 30 in the morning, my sleep was interrupted. And so finally I said, you know what I'm going to do, what I got to do. And I just typed everything, sent them the images. And I remember just slam shut the laptop and I just put it on the side of the bed. I went back to sleep, totally forgot about it because I'm like, no one is going to take.
Little did I know how blessed I was going to be. And I got the email and they said, we love the illustrations and here we are.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Well, let me ask you a Question before we take a stage and break right quick. You submitted, did you notice submitted to this organization? How did you end up moving that forward?
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Mascot books. About mascot books. Yeah. So I put it out there that I was in search of how I was going to do this procedure. I remember going into Peyton Arum Village in South Dartmouth and I went to a restaurant and one of the waitresses, I was there with a friend and we, and she was serving us and she heard our conversation. She goes, oh, I just published a book myself and, and look into mascot books. And I was like, okay. So I took my time researching it. I didn't just want to just throw myself into it, but based on that, you know, I would just go back and forth. I would look up reviews and other people that have had their books published and so forth. But I was still hesitating because I didn't feel so confident, you know.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Well, we're going to take a station break and when we come back, I'd love for you to give our audience some guidance on you went about doing that. We'll be right back.
We'll be right back. Welcome back. As you heard, it has been a very interesting first segment. If you missed it and just join us, please go back and listen to it. Susan was telling us about her imagery book that she put out and how she has taken it just like the art of canvas, right. And taking it forward, it was so, so interesting. So before the station break, Susan, we were talking about how you went to go get it published and you mentioned you were in a restaurant with a friend and a waitress overheard the conversation saying hey, I just published a book and she gave you a company to look into. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that process was like as I'm sure we have many listeners that are like, okay, I did this book, now what do I do?
[00:13:26] Speaker A: So, so when I got the information, I went to the website which is www.mascotbooks.com and when you go into that platform, they're going to have all of their listings of what they do and so forth and how they go about it. And it's so user friendly that you're going to put, you put your imageries in the PDF forms. They have it all laid out, how it, how they want it and it's just basically typing it in and uploading, downloading, however, loading, which way you want to go. But if Mascot is one of many, which is great mascot books, but also what I like is to go to the bookstores, libraries and you can look to see who published the books that you love, the genres that you are interested in, the genres that you are more favorable in your niche of writing or illustrating. That would be the best book that. Go to the libraries, go to the bookshops and just look to see who published their books. And you will have an overwhelming, like, list of a roster to look and research. And that's what you need to do. You need to take the time to slowly compare research what it is that they're. They're compared to. Of doing. Do they have a team. Team of people to help out with putting this book together. And that's what I loved about mascot books. They made it so easy for someone who's new to come and start a. Start a book. They would constantly be in communication with me. I didn't just send it just over, but also there was a lot of communication going back and forth. How simple as something as simple as the letter font and which pages do you want to put first, second, third, and the storyline and so forth, which is great.
And I felt even though I had major training wheels on, they were so helpful in guiding me every step, step of the way. But I would definitely, definitely say, you know, check out mascot books and libraries and bookstores and see your favorite books, even the books that you got at home. Look through it, who published them. Be curious.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: That's awesome. That is awesome. I have to tell you, that is just a gem of art. When I look at it, I feel emotions. You know, with all the things that are going on in the world today, our ability to escape, our ability to dream and imagination is where that freedom comes from. Right. I don't want to. I don't want to think about anything else. I just want to be free to think anything.
[00:16:49] Speaker C: I want to think right now.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: I just want to let my imagination go. And what you have created is a beautiful pictorial of images that did just that.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Yes, Yes. I. I love it. And he's on a quest.
Seth is on a quest to figure out who he is and embrace, or maybe not embrace his flaws. It's up to him. And noticing how to be in the movement of moving forward no matter what, and surrounding yourself with beautiful people that will support you and embrace you and slowly and gently just teach you how to take those steps to go forward.
So as he's doing this, he. He's at a place that he has to make a decision if he's authentic or not, is he worthy or not? You know, and that's the beauty. Don't we all have to do that, look inward to find what it is that we still need to work on and not be so harsh, but be patient and gentle. And not everything's going to be healed or transformed immediately, but the journey of it, the journey of the lesson, the lesson in the journey to going forward and building those tools, those skill sets to express yourself and as many times as you need to and just to invest in you. No, I think that is so important that people should know that no matter what part of life you're dealing with or what phase you're at in your life, life is life and you're here to live it. And sometimes it's going to be thicker than other times, but I think the perception of it all and who you surround yourself with and how you choose to think is what makes things more flourishing. And sometimes it can be difficult. And I think that's where you have to reach out to your friends and the things that make you feel good that put that warm feeling in you, you know, and yeah, we're, we're always worried and I don't think we learn enough to just stop and breathe and say, you know, what's really going on? How can we help you? Or people checking in on each other. That would be a nice thing sometimes just hey, today. Or just sending a sunshine kind of, kind of emoji type of thing, you know, it's the small stuff, I think, that makes us just feel alive and happy at times. But yeah, my creativity is, is what makes me enjoy me.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: That's awesome. Well, I cannot let you get off this show without taking a few minutes for you to tell the audience about your phenomenal YouTube show. Susan's adventurous path. What's your canvas?
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Yes. So what I love about that is it's aiming to the self confidence and self worth. And I write all the short stories and the illustrations are all mine and I'm the one that is that you'll hear my voice in the videos. And that is just basically the continuation of worthiness. It's just, you know, having those uplift moments that, yeah, you may be going through some dark time, the shadows within us. And we're always quick to suppress it because it's easy to not face it and it's easy to just run instead of facing with it with the issues at hand. But I think it's important for people to know that you don't have to look at the whole entire picture all at once. Just choose a small portion to work on and heal and move on and it won't be so Ginormous and heavy on one's shoulders or on one's mind. And that's what I love about that, is that I can take it to so many different ways with the topic of self worth and the anxieties and the worries and how to go about it and so forth. And I hope the illustrations, I hope people enjoy the illustrations. But I, I had a, a great videographer that worked on those videos as well and making my imageries come to life. And some of those videos, I'm in it myself and costume, so I had fun with my.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: So that was you in costume, huh?
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Yes, that was me. You know, I had, I had to experience that inner child moment and I. And you know what? That is the key. The inner child with love, unconditional love. If you will allow your inner child to, to teach you again how to detach and just be in that moment of excitement and not worrying about the outcome and the attachments, I can say life will be a little bit more easier. And I'm speaking from my perspective because once I've learned how to switch that, I noticed that life wasn't so bad.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: You know, what you're giving the audience is so important because you're really allowing us to look at ourselves and evaluate how do we get to our calm, how do we understand enough to stop, reflect, think and then move, stop breathing, moving, you know, and just doing. And it's so important. But it's easier said than done.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Yes, because our minds. I used to, it used to be in one way and I, and like what I always tell people is with my clients is, you know, when things get overwhelmed, if you can, in the middle of that anxiety, just bring it back to your breathing. Your breathing will set the tone and it will bring you back down and more grounded. And then you can start thinking a lot clearer. And the more you do that, the more that you are retraining your brain to automatically go to that action. And then from there you're going to pick up other tools, you know, whatever that skill set of tools may be, you know, and you implement it and hone in on it. And then before you know it, you've got this beautiful list of to do's that are going to amplify you in a more positive way.
And it's about finding what that would be for you and, and what works for one may not work for the other, you know?
Yeah, I always say breathing, that's, you know, breathing.
Everybody does it, it doesn't cost you anything. And instead of reacting so quickly, I Think just listening to your breath, it's a miracle. And that itself is. Is worthy.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, you know, this has been a phenomenal conversation, Susan. And, you know, I, I hope, audience, that you're out there listening to these things with Susan Drayton, that you're thinking about the imagination, the creativity, but the healing, because she's giving us a lot to deal. How we're dealing with anxiety today, challenges today, how do we really overcome them? So today the answer is take one step and breathe.
Breathe deep in and out. And let's start there. So I'm a, you know, I'm a breather. I'm a meditator. I'm a prayer. So I definitely understand that and definitely appreciate those words because I truly believe in the impact of being able to breathe and to make that happen. So, Susan, thank you so much for coming on the show.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Thank you for having me and to allow me to introduce Seth to the audience.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: It's my pleasure. But I want to know about the next series of Seth coming out, too.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Well, audience, thank you so much for joining us on another episode of Ignite where we left the where we light the fire and keep it burning. Look forward to the next time. See you then.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: Welcome back. And if you missed our last episode with Cliff, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. To really talk about how our faith, our belief and honesty can really help us when we're selling our businesses and moving forward. I am so excited. You need to sit back and relax. I am excited to have Kurt Jaffe here with me from Kirk Jaffe Consulting. And he is all about what getting you to that road of success.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: Hi, Kirk.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Welcome.
[00:27:11] Speaker D: Hey, Vicki. Thank you for having me on the show.
[00:27:13] Speaker C: No problem. Thank you so much for being here. Why don't you tell our audience a little bit about what Kurt Jaffe does to get us to the road of success.
[00:27:23] Speaker D: Yeah, well, the road to success is paved differently for everyone.
My career really started about 35 years ago. I was a chef and transitioned from being chef on private yachts and the best restaurants in the world. Moved out to California from the east coast and got into real estate because I figured what do you do in California to make money? You better get into real estate. So did that. Ended up opening a business, running the third largest default loan servicer during 2008-2014, during the financial crisis. Spent time in Washington, D.C. working with the House Financial Services Committee to craft some of those regulations around the Dodd Frank act. And from there went to work for myself. So Kirk Chaffee Enterprises and Tall Pines Consulting and all our. We have six companies over here all together.
But this is really about a lifelong of experience and helping people save that 25 to 30 year learning curve that you and I definitely have experienced over the, you know, some of those road bumps. Right?
[00:28:28] Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely. So, Kirk, you know, a lot of people in our audience are really trying to grow wealth and it often feels like they're stuck, they can't move forward. So one of my questions is what are the biggest financial mistakes that keep people from building wealth and moving forward from your perspective?
[00:28:49] Speaker D: Yeah, I think the biggest financial mistake is not staying a course.
And so people jump from one thing to the next. They spend a lot of money making those jumps, but they don't actually master any one of the tools that they were out, you know, seeking out to get.
So I really tell people, if you're going to, if you're going to go into education. So when I started out in my business, I, I spent about $250,000 on sales education. I took every single sales training that was available, anywhere I could find it. But that was my mandate. I was going to become a professional sales trainer, salesperson, and I was going to learn everything there was to know about it. And it took me about, you know, seven years to get through all that. And, and then it was marketing and then I said, well, I need to learn how to market. So that was a 20 year experience, you know, and I only focused on that, obviously, keeping up licenses and day to day work. You know, qualifications are always important, so we do those things too. But I think people need to get focused on one thing and finish it.
[00:29:57] Speaker C: Now that's an interesting perspective, getting focus and finishing it, especially when there's so much change around you. So how can someone start making smarter money decisions when the change is constant?
[00:30:12] Speaker D: Yeah, I talk a lot about my consulting business and we consult with all different kinds of companies. You know, small businesses, doctors, restaurants, I mean, you name it, we're involved with them. Probably principles, you have to have principles and how you make decisions and what that decision making tree looks like. Right, Vicki? So I think a lot of times people go into it and they go, I want to be rich.
Okay, that's fine.
I go into it and I say, I want to be rich because I'm going to be the best home builder in the country. And I get real focused on what do I need to do to be the best home builder so I can make the most money. Right. That's one of our companies.
[00:30:57] Speaker C: Well, you know, I, and because you have so many companies, I really want to ask this question, question a lot of times, and you said this a second ago, okay, you need to be focused. But what if I have multiple capabilities just like you have multiple with different businesses? How do I stay focused but doing the things that I want to do of the portfolio that I enjoy doing it in?
[00:31:23] Speaker D: Yeah, I have, I have a very good friend who's older than me and, and he asked me years ago, why are you doing so many things? You're doing too much. Get focused. I never understood what he was talking about. Kind of what you're mentioning now. Right. And what I learned over the years was this concept of do something until it's completed. So why do we have six companies? Because I have built, launched and completed six companies. I didn't start one and then jump to the other and then jump to another and then jump to another. I put one in play. I made sure it can make money and create stability for me and my family. And then I started a complementary company. So to your point, all of my companies are integrated in my abilities. Right.
Like I said, I spent all those years running large finance companies and mortgage companies and real estate companies. And I was responsible to build 2200 units at that time and oversee a portfolio of insurance on all these different properties that was, you know, pushing multiple hundreds of millions of dollars. So now today I can take my expertise in insurance analytics and work with my clients to make sure that they're getting the right insurance policies. I can build a single home because one home is very easy for me. I've done 2200 at one time. So doing one means I'm really focused on that one. And I do that because these are high dollar luxury homes. But the interesting thing about it is I'm building and using modular technology.
So I shifted. I'm not a traditional home builder and it took me seven or eight years to learn factory built technology and all that goes with that. So again, get real focused and then integrate and dovetail your expertise into a bigger platform. Why do we want six companies? Multiple streams of income. How do people get rich? Don't be dependent on one income source. Because the only thing I can guarantee you is something's going to shift in the world that's going to make one income source a problem. If you got six income sources, you'll probably be okay somewhere.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: But you know, that's, I think that's what I'm really hitting on. So for example, when I started my business, I used what I knew that I had done all my life in corporate. I was in technology, and I was using technology to move forward. But as time started shifting and companies may not be hiring consultants as much or whatever, the opportunity allowed itself to pivot, to be able to actually do a lot of leadership transformation simply because of the connections I was having and people wanting to transform their careers, transform what they wanted to do personally, et cetera. So I built another arm. Well, the first arm of technology didn't go away. It slowed down. But I built the other arm to leverage it out. Right then as times change and things were happening, the people I was talking to found out they want to transform, but they want to start their own business. I said, da, da. An opportunity. So I became a certified profit coach to actually help them start their business. Take it from beginning to end. How to double, how to triple their revenue, how to use low cost strategies and be successful to get what they wanted that time and financial freedom. Right. But I never stopped the other two. So does that mean I should stop the other two and make different businesses or does that mean that that focus is off? I'd love your perspective.
[00:34:57] Speaker D: Yeah. Well, it sounds to me like you've dovetailed. Right. And the most important word that you said in that explanation to me was pivot.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:35:07] Speaker D: You know, being able to recognize when something is working or something is not working, it takes discipline to be able to pivot. I've had to pivot all the time. Right. We always are pivoting.
But you have. But again, if you, if you take pivot and combine it with principles.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:35:24] Speaker D: So one of my principles is every one of my companies has to stand on its own two feet. It's like a child. So if one of my companies hits a roadblock, I can't overcome it. I can't find the resource. I can't. I just can't work it out. It's time to pivot. It doesn't mean shut down the company because it'll come back around.
[00:35:41] Speaker C: Right.
[00:35:42] Speaker D: Because I opened it with a principle and an integrated concept of why we did it to begin with. So we know there's value. But maybe we need to pivot for a moment and pick up something where we can leverage the environment that we're in to get something else done, move something else forward. I love that book. Who Moved my Cheese?
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly.
[00:36:02] Speaker D: You know, are you scurrying? Are you huffing and puffing or you keeping your shoes, you know, ready to go in case you need to run and pivot? And I Think that's, that's the lesson in there for sure.
[00:36:13] Speaker C: So I really like the fact of the way how you talked about it's okay to pivot because I can't tell you a number of times I've had people say, oh, you're not focused. Yes, I am focused. Just because I pivoted doesn't mean that everything's the same. So there's a number one priority every time based upon what's happening around me. But if I didn't have the opportunity to do that, I'd have been left with nothing when things changed. Because I wasn't ready. But because I was ready, I have opportunities to pivot in multiple directions. And I think that's important when we start talking about wealth. And that leads me to another question. What are some of the simple habits that lead to long term financial success that you would give to others?
[00:36:59] Speaker D: Yeah, the simple habits are spend less than you make, put away money into savings and find ways to force some of that savings. So I use insurance policies as one, one of my investment strategies. The reason I like it is because it's a bill that's paid every month and I don't think about it, but when I look at the account, there's a whole bunch of cash in it.
So spend, spend less than you make. Put away automatically into wherever things you can. And if you're going to invest in things like the stock market, that's fine too. But again, have principles. You know, Warren Buffett, the greatest investor in the United States in the last hundred years or so, only has like what, 12 companies that he invests in. Right. It's not a huge thing. And he holds his companies for a long time. He buys when there's trouble, he sells when they're doing great. So have some discipline. Put money away automatically and also surround yourself with people that are high net worth or succeeding in whatever they're doing to save their money and grow their money. So, you know, we're a product of the top five people we hang around, right? So hang around people that are highest quality and you will end up creating highest quality investments and savings too.
[00:38:26] Speaker C: Well, you know, I love how you said that we are, it's the top five people we hang around. Right. I mean, I think that's really important in terms of setting our mindset, understanding that we're all aligned and how do we get there and how do we make sure that when we're looking for high ticket item clients that we're not hanging around people that are low ticket item clients. That don't understand, right. That really putting yourself in the circle that's going to allow you to prosper. And I think that's so important because our environment is an influence and a feeder to our brain. It gives our brain food, right. It nourishes it by whom we're around and what we're doing as we continue to move forward. So I think, you know, you're hitting on something that financial growth also is not only manifesting, but you manifest when you put yourself in around positive people and other people who think the same way so that you're all going in that positive direction together. And don't forget, we're going to take station break and when we come back, I'm going to pick up on this conversation. We'll be right back.
[00:39:33] Speaker D: FOREIGN.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: Welcome back. Boy, are we having a great conversation with Kirk Jaffe. We're talking about overcoming financial roadblocks. And during this segment, we're going to even expand it into making smart investment choices. Now, Kirk, in today's environment, and we know all the things that are happening around us, things that we don't have control over, things that are just going on in our world and in our economy. And people want to invest their money wisely, they want to move forward, but it feels overwhelming and too risky to do anything. What are the top things to consider before making an investment as we're facing these challenging times today?
[00:40:24] Speaker D: It's a great question. It's a challenging question. I like it.
I would say again, have a strategy, principled strategy of how you're going to make your investments.
There's a concept called dollar cost averaging, which I think is hugely important. It doesn't matter if you're investing in stocks or a business or whatever, how much money can you afford to put into your investment on an ongoing, regular basis? The concept of compounding interest is hugely important in this kind of thinking. It doesn't take a lot of contribution. It takes good compounding interest and a good bit of time and things start to grow. And you could find even putting a hundred dollars away a month for 10 years with, you know, 10% compounding interest is going to turn into a lot of money. Right? And so I think that's one of the things if you're looking to invest a greater amount of money, you know, say you have a couple hundred thousand dollars to invest.
I would say it's really about getting to know the people that you're investing with, building that relationship.
We take investors here when we're building our custom homes out here in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. But I insist on bringing everybody here to meet me in person. So I fly them in, I meet with them, I show them the project, I introduce them to the architects and all the people that we're working with so that they know where to find me. Right.
You don't want to be investing with people that are behind the golden screen, so to speak, in my opinion. So that keeps, keeps you out of trouble if you get to know people. And it doesn't mean an investment's always going to win or lose, but you have a better chance if you can see it, touch it, feel it, and really understand it and then mitigate some of that downside risk wherever you can.
[00:42:10] Speaker C: So because you do things and they meet you personally, which I love that concept. I mean I, I love the fact that you're saying, if you're going to invest in this project with me, I want you here. Is it better to invest in projects rather than investing in the market? Because it ain't like we're going to be able to go meet everybody that we're investing in, the stock market. So help me understand how to evaluate the different that both aspects. So I'm making the smartest decision possible.
[00:42:41] Speaker D: Yeah, I invest in, I've learned over the years to invest in what I understand.
So when I was younger and I was a chef, as I said, I was maybe 22 years old, I was a day trader and I was getting up every day at 4:00 in the morning and reading every prospectus about every company and doing the day trading and all this stuff. And I would work from, you know, 4:00am till about 9:00am when I had to go off to the restaurant and work. And I just got destroyed. And the reason I got destroyed is because I didn't really understand this basic concept. You invest in the market, whatever you think you're investing in today in the market actually happened probably six months earlier, if that makes sense. Imagine Vicki, you, you work with a lot of big companies.
[00:43:28] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:43:29] Speaker D: Before they roll out a concept, they have a whole bunch of meetings and plans and budgets and I. And thinking and higher level approvals and possibly goes to the board. All that happened before the thing happened that you saw on TV or read in the paper that this company is doing big things. It already happened. So I prefer to be at the leading edge of these conversations to really understand who, what was the thinking that went into the decision making process. And then I can get aligned with it or I can walk away from it. Very hard to do that. When you're dealing with the stock market in public companies and things like that. Nearly impossible.
I read this morning, actually. Why is Warren Buffett so successful in his investing strategy? One reason he owns so many big segments of the economic part of this country that he's getting real time feedback from all his different companies. So he can see what's going on in the shipping and the railroad industries and the airline industries and the banking industries before any of us. Because he's getting the data real time. Well, we don't have that luxury. So I would say for me, I invest in real estate because I understand real estate. I also invest in digital currency, but really more on the infrastructure of blockchain. I believe the infrastructure is going to be needed in this country. So I've invested in something that I believe is going to happen, but probably not for 10 or 15 years. So I don't even look at it. I put the money in and I'm waiting and that's how I do those. Otherwise it's, it's look for the base hits. Not everything's a home run, you know, be willing to invest in things that you can. If you're going to invest in the stock market as an example, it's tough to do it, you know, you want to be in it for at least a year, Right. Otherwise you have the, the real time tax liability. Right. So you can be a day trader potentially. But really for a normal human in this country, better to do it long term, at least 12 months. Right. So I look for opportunities to build new companies, to buy new companies or buy old companies, I should say. A lot of baby boomers are selling their companies, right. These are great cash flowing assets that you can buy for the same amount you might put in the stock market. So. And then you have a cash flowing situation that you can get that money to continue to invest in different places. So I buy companies, I look for things that I know, like real estate, which I'm an expert at. I really understand those things and a little bit of forward looking. What do I believe the country needs down the road? And that's pretty much my principles on how I invest.
[00:46:04] Speaker C: Wow. What are some of the smart investments people often overlook that they should be paying attention to now that we're talking about how to make those investments.
[00:46:15] Speaker D: Yeah. I think that the, the highest yielding investments are the ones that are the most boring. Right. So.
[00:46:23] Speaker C: Wow. Explain further. When you talk about the most boring, I think that's very interesting.
[00:46:27] Speaker D: Right. So think about, you know, waste management, right. A huge industry, not Very sexy, kind of dirty. Right.
But it makes tons of money and everyone is going to keep creating garbage. So it's going to be an ongoing problem.
[00:46:45] Speaker C: Right.
[00:46:46] Speaker D: Anything in the waste management industry, house building. Again, I think one of the things that we buy are landscaping companies because the grass is going to keep growing, the trees are going to need to be treated. AI is not going to solve the landscaping business problem. Problems. Right. And by the way, neither did artificial grass, you know, out in California. I lived in California 25 years. They encouraged people to put in artificial grass to save water. But then 15 years later, they came back and said, everyone has to take the artificial grass out because now we found out it's causing cancer. So, you know, I prefer just regular old grass. Right. And we'll mow it. It will take care of it, and that's the best thing. So I look for those opportunities that are not, you know, not pie in the sky.
There's always people coming around going, I got the newest, greatest AI concept, or I got the newest, greatest, you know, disruptive concept. It goes into this idea. And I know you'll appreciate this, Vicki. You got, you know, sneezers, early adopters, late adopters, never adopters. Right. And that bell curve that goes with it.
[00:47:53] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:47:54] Speaker D: I'm not a sneezer. I'm a late stage, early adopter is kind of where I sit in, in that cycle. So people come to me all the time with new ideas, and I just. Thank you. I'll keep an eye on it. I'm probably not going to be your type of investor for a little while until I see some things line up. So, again, principles.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: Yeah, and.
[00:48:18] Speaker C: And again, I love the principles that you're giving as a foundation because I too, believe in the fact that if you're going to grow, then I'm all about generational wealth. I'm all about wealth building. I'm all about, you know, seeing things grow and develop and help the community, et cetera, as we're moving forward. But I also believe that it's important that when we're doing an investment, that we also look at a portfolio of investments. Now, to that point, I'd love for you to leave with my audience some things about how to create a strong investment portfolio, even when you're first starting out. I'm just getting started. Let's pretend I'm just beginning and doing this portfolio. What would you say are some of the things that you want to make sure that you do to create a strong one?
[00:49:06] Speaker D: Exactly. This is, this is a great question. There's a couple of different ways I could, I can think about. This one is I look at investing like a chair. So you've got four, four legs in your chair. You want cash. And to me cash is cash. Stocks, bonds, all that's cash at the end of the day for me. You have businesses, you have insurance and you have real estate. So in building a long term investment portfolio, balance your legs. You don't want to be too heavy on the cash side because the insurance side could fall over if you're missing that leg of the chair. So you want to build things up in a reasonable way. Also look for cross benefits. There are benefits in the real estate industry and owning businesses that are, you know, contradictory if you will, to what you find in the insurance industry or just the straight cash industry being stocks, bonds and short term earnings. And cash earnings. Right. Also W2 income.
So I would say balance the balance that chair out is the first thing. The second thing, have a, a, a short, medium and long term vision for any portfolio. So if you're buying bonds, they call it laddering and it's, it's this idea of buying bonds that come to maturity at different times so there's always another set rolling over that can be withdrawn from that investment piece or it can be rolled back into. Now the lower, the lower rung of the ladder and keep growing.
I love the idea of laddering not only bonds but also businesses and having that long term, medium term and short term vision for what can a business really do and how much work is it going to take to turn that business over? So that, and cash contribution too, to make it, you know, really perform at its highest level, which is something I know you're an expert at.
[00:51:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:02] Speaker B: Oh, well, thanks.
[00:51:03] Speaker C: I appreciate that. Now, in the last minute, before we go, this is something that's near and dear to my heart in terms of informing our viewers and I'd love for you to give your perspective. What are some of the common investment scams or traps people should avoid?
[00:51:20] Speaker D: Oh, wow, that's a good one. The common investment scams, I would say anything that gets you too excited, gets your heart beating really loud, probably is designed to get you feeling that, you know, decisions are made emotionally most of the time. Right.
So, you know, for me, anything that's get rich quick is probably not for me.
Timeshares generally don't work out. They can be good for families that have a, a pattern of traveling or things like that and want to invest that way. But I generally would stay away from timeshares. Land banking can be interesting and challenging because you have to understand where your land banking because you can get stuck.
Another thing I've seen is municipal tax or real estate tax sales people go in and they go, oh, I'm going to make a ton of money buying a property on a tax failure, you know, from the county. But they don't realize a lot. You know, every county has different rules and a lot of states have 15 year redemption. So you could buy that property off the tax rolls and seven years down the road they come back and go, oh, sorry, we're taking our property back now. So you've made zero. There's a lot of complication in investing in mortgage notes and land banking and these things. You really have to be an expert or align yourself with an expert if you want to invest in those areas. Otherwise for most people, I'd say skip it.
[00:52:49] Speaker C: Well, I have truth. Boy, let me tell you, Kirk, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and I know you have left my audience with some nuggets that they can use. And I can't thank you enough for being on the show. Thank you so much for all your wisdom and knowledge.
[00:53:06] Speaker D: Thanks Vicki. Great to be here.
[00:53:08] Speaker C: Well, thank you so much and let me tell you, audience, I hope you will go back and listen if you missed any part of this. Thank you so much for joining the show of Ignite where we keep the buyer burning. See you until next time.
[00:53:24] Speaker D: This has been a NOW Media Network's feature presentation.
[00:53:28] Speaker A: All rights reserved.
