by Preston Ely

Let’s cut to the chase.

The goal is a few hundred leads per month.  You want billboards, commercials, and mass mailers going out in the tens of thousands.

There is only one small problem…

You currently have $327 a month available for marketing.

What do you do?

You have champagne taste and a malt liquor budget.

Simply put, you must start where you are and work your way up.  And where you are is broke, by the way.  Let that both embarrass you and motivate you at the same time.  Don’t like it?  Oh yes, you do.  If you really didn’t like it, you’d change it.  It’s comfortable to you, and you’re scared of anything else.  You don’t want the responsibility.

Isn’t that true?

How does that make you feel?

You need to become a networking machine.  You need to start networking so consistently and constantly that you literally hand out 95 business cards to imaginary people in your dreams at night.

Doesn’t sound fun, does it?  Well how much fun is being broke?  Which one is less funner to you?

The answer to that question will determine whether or not you get off your lazy arse and DO something about your life.

You gotta get in the mix, man.  Mix it up.  Stir it up.  Put it in the oven and bake it till a cash cake appears out of nowhere.

Then eat it.

Eating the cash cake is so fun, let me tell you.  Oh how glorious when cash cakes just come to you every day.  What a life.

But you gotta pay your dues.

No dues?  No cake.  No cake for you!

Your entire community needs to know that you buy houses and close fast.  That you’re the “go to” guy or gal when someone needs their house sold quickly.

How do you plan on accomplishing this?

If you have lots of money then this is easy.  If you don’t, then it takes work and high levels of creativity.

Are you willing to work?  How willing are you to put in some 15 hour days to really get this thing off the ground?  Are you all talk by any chance?  Or are you one of those rare souls who actually make something happen in this world?  Who are you really?

Get out there and make some friends.  Hand your card out to every single person who comes within a 3 foot radius of you.  The exact card to use and the unbelievably easy conversation you need to have with these people are in my digital book that you should already have by now.

I was just having lunch with a friend of mine who has been in the real estate investing game for years already.  He still hands his business card out to people in an effort to get new leads.  As a matter of fact he just recently did a deal that he made over $20,000 on, and he got it from handing his business card out to a stranger at my office – Starbucks!

It is more comfortable to do nothing.  It feels better to stay home and watch tv.  But does it feel better really?  How do you feel about yourself?  About your life?  On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think your spouse respects you and what you have accomplished in life?  How does that feel?  Do your kids respect you or pity you?  How does that feel?

Are you really safer doing nothing?

Me personally, I would rather die doing something than live doing nothing.

Get out there and mix it up.  Shake it.  Flip it.  Bake a cash cake.  Eat it.  Smash it in your boss’ face.  Whatever.

Until you have the funds for the big time marketing…network your way to millions.