How We Navigated A Turbulent Real Estate Market And Still Made $50K/Month
This is a follow up story for FMTM LLC. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 2 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I’m David Pere, and I built the largest Military Real Estate Investing community in the world in a few short years!
In 2008 I enlisted in the Marine Corps to travel the world and have some adventures while trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I enjoyed it enough to re-enlist and found myself on recruiting duty in Springfield Missouri in 2015 working long hours, and with no money set aside to allow myself to exit the rat race. A friend handed me Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki on an audio CD and told me to read it while I was driving to various high schools recruiting the nation's future Marines.
That friend changed the trajectory of my life forever. Within months I had bought a duplex, to house hack, and begun my journey to financial freedom. In 2018 I began documenting everything I was learning and doing—really just to learn how to write a little better, and because I thought it would be cool to look back on one day. I never dreamed that a little blog would turn into a full-blown brand helping service members and veterans learn how to build wealth and achieve financial freedom!
You can find my original story here.
We are focused on exorbitant amounts of free content throughout the community, as well as growing the mastermind group with better resources, speakers, roadmaps, and tools.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Yes and no.
We are up to $51,126/mo in (average) income for 2023, which is not significantly higher than last time we were interviewed here. There have been some changes to how we are receiving that income though that make this a much better year (in my opinion) than 2022.
Firstly, our real estate referral business dried up significantly with the rate hikes this past year. We earned less than half of the previous 2-3 years!
As you can imagine, this was a fairly frustrating–though not entirely unanticipated–development. We continued to make people in the community aware of this free resource, and then I outsourced 99% of this arm of the business so that I could reinvest the time/energy normally spent on the referral business in the mastermind group …the 20% of my business that is currently producing 80% of the revenue!
Secondly, I didn’t push courses at all this year, and I barely mentioned any products or services outside of The War Room Mastermind group.
Thirdly, we didn’t sell nearly as much real estate in 2023 as we did in 2022.
In essence, the vast majority of the revenue last year came through our recurring membership for The War Room mastermind, as opposed to more active income streams such as selling investment properties, or farming for referrals to send to other real estate agents.
This year's revenue is much more reliable, and I worked far less this year, and traveled more!
I also hired a new–and better–Executive Assistant, as well as a copywriter, full-time video editor, and community manager for The War Room.
I also migrated my entire business to GoHighLevel as an all-in-one marketing platform, which eliminated my need for: Calendly (scheduling), ClickFunnels (sales funnels), Mailchimp (email marketing), Nutshell (CRM), and more. GoHighLevel allowed me to integrate everything into a single platform, have better oversight of all aspects of my business, and be able to automate more of it.
Here is a snapshot of the GoHighLevel leads/revenue for 2023. Keep in mind, that this does not include all of the income that still automates through Teachable for The War Room and courses.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
I had to fire my Executive Assistant (EA) at the beginning of the year, and I tried to upgrade to more of a Chief Operating Officer (COO). After 4 months of paying this person very well, I realized that it just wasn’t the right fit for where I was at the moment, and had to start from scratch. Said COO also tried to help me replace my EA with a virtual assistant, but that person didn’t pan out due to issues in the country he was currently residing in.
Through this process, I realized that one of the issues I was running into is my personality. I’m the “influencer” personality on the DISC test. That means I’m an extremely high “I”, which signals that I’m a people person through and through. This is great for communication, networking, podcasting, etc. It is NOT great for interviewing, and other vetting processes.
You see, the issue is that I’m entirely too trusting. I want to assume the best in people and take everything they say as truth. I struggle to see through the issues people bring to the table, and will hire too quickly.
This year, I brought my friend–and business partner on a few ventures–Hugh Carnahan into my hiring process. On at least one of the in-person interviews with a candidate, Hugh will sit in and help me with the interview. He asks a couple of questions here and there, but I predominantly still run the interviews.
More importantly, Hugh provides feedback from an unbiased and objective viewpoint. So far, this has helped me land much better candidates, and I hope to maintain the same levels of success going forward!
On the flip side, the new EA, copywriter, and video editor have crushed it for me this year! Hiring them has allowed me to free up a lot of time that I would have spent working on non-dollar productive activities, to focus more on my “Zone of Genius”, and drive revenue.
Focus on the things you do that are uniquely you. The 20% that drives revenue to your business!
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
Outsourcing is an incredible weapon …when done correctly.
I worked less, traveled more, and created more memories with my son this year, all while generating more revenue, and more recurring revenue at that.
Most of you are aware that interest rates did not help the real estate market a ton this year. One of the decisions I made that helped me this year was to completely outsource my referral arm of the business to my EA. This allowed me to focus my energy on the revenue drivers that were less affected by this external factor, and increase revenue therein!
I also hired strategically to replace myself for tasks that I either didn’t enjoy or wasn’t that great at.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
Our goal is to help 10,000 service members and veterans achieve financial freedom.
To accomplish this, we are focused on exorbitant amounts of free content throughout the community, as well as growing the mastermind group with better resources, speakers, roadmaps, and tools.
We are also rolling out an affiliate program for existing members, in order to better incentivize word-of-mouth business.
I also plan to write two additional books in the next couple of years, of which the outlines are already drafted.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
The two best books I read this year were:
10X is Easier than 2X by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy
- This book leans into scaling your business by shedding the old “you” to replace the 80% of yourself that no longer serves you, with the new “you” and all of the acquired skills that will help you take the next leap forward.
Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell.
- This book is a very tactical guide to when (and how) to outsource tasks to other people, and in what order you should outsource said tasks.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
Hire an administrative assistant–whether in-person or virtual–sooner than you think you will need to. You can hire them part-time and grow into full-time…and you will be amazed at how much more productive you can be once outsourcing some of the mundane admin tasks you handle, that aren’t producing income or firing you up.
Focus on the things you do that are uniquely you. The 20% that drives revenue to your business!
Filter all of the advice you receive through the lens of “has this person achieved what I want to” and/or “does this person live a life that I would trade places with” …if not, take their advice with a grain of salt and get around people you can answer “yes” to these questions with. Even if you have to pay to get close to them!
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Over the next year, some of the hires I anticipate making will be:
- Another community manager (client success role)
- An operations expert
- An appointment setter
- A media buyer
- Some team members focused on taking my content game to the next level. I don’t need an editor, but help with choosing and researching topics, optimizing hooks, titles, thumbnails, and SEO/reach for various platforms, etc.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
You can find my press kit with additional links, bio’s, and headshots here.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
