In this special episode, Steve Rozenberg shares his experience as a commercial airline pilot who turned to real estate investing after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He and his business partner started a real estate investment company, buying properties but soon found that their business model was not working due to the challenges associated with low-income properties. They had to self-manage and eventually went to a business coach who helped them understand the core functions of a business and how to build a successful one, rather than just focusing on property management. Steve learned the importance of being a business owner, not just a real estate investor, and that the business model running inside the property is what makes a business successful.
Steve believes that to become successful, one needs to have coaches and mentors and practice regularly. He believes in focusing on three aspects of life: health, wealth, and relationships, and suggests focusing on one task at a time. In order to make a business successful, he believes in three key elements: monetization, systemization, and scalability. Monetization involves sales and marketing, and it’s important to know your target clients and the problem you are solving for them. In terms of sales, it’s important to have a script that works and practices it, as 80% of all sales happen between steps 5 and 12 in the sales process.
For Steve, the most successful people in the world are not the hardest workers, but the best communicators. He believes that business is all about relationships and communication and that the reason people succeed is not that they work harder, but because they can communicate effectively and establish rapport with others. He also mentions that successful people have teams and are able to communicate their vision to their followers, which is essential to being a good leader.
Steve shares a story about the craziest real estate transaction he had, where he sold an apartment complex located in Houston to a church. The church needed the property as a parking lot and paid full value for it in cash. He and his business partner had to make the leases expire so the church wouldn’t be on the news for kicking out families. Despite being a man of faith, he still had contracts in place to protect himself.
