Successful Real Estate Investor Now Educates Others
Recently, I received an e-mail from Patrick Riddle of Private Money Blueprint, www.privatemoneyblueprint.com, talking about his history of dropping out of school to pursue a new dream of becoming a real estate investor. Like some of the top business owners in the country, Patrick made his entrepreneurial dreams a reality at a young age, and now, he has the ability to live life on his own terms.
To learn a little more about his success secrets, I recently talked to Patrick, and here’s what he had to say:
Tell us about how you started Private Money Blueprint.
When I was going to school to study engineering, I met a real estate investor who worked for himself, had control of his time and made a lot of money. This sounded like a good idea so I started reading as many books as I could about real estate investing. After buying my first property, I dropped out of school to pursue it full time. Of course, my parents were a little skeptical about this, but I knew it was what I wanted to do, and it turned out to be the right decision.
It took me a little while to see some success, but I was hooked. And after I had some real estate investing successes and experience, I wanted to tell everyone what I had learned. I started a blog and began reaching out to other real estate investing websites and offering to contribute content. This is how I met my co-founder at Private Money Blueprint, Trevor Mauch.
Our mission is to lower the barrier to top-notch real estate investing education and raise the bar as far as quality, honesty, transparency, and member experience. And by “top notch real estate investing education,” we mean education that focuses on the three core elements of real estate investing success: the mindset of a millionaire entrepreneur, the real estate investing strategies and tactics working in today’s market, and the business building knowledge and skills to grow a thriving business that is fun, profitable and systematized so you work less and make more.
That’s great, Patrick. And although there are a lot of very successful entrepreneurs that dropped out of school like you, many people do not have the courage to give up a solid, college education or career path to pursue a “dream” career like real estate investing.
What are some of the secrets to your success?
One of the main things I’ve learned is to get up when you’re knocked down. As an entrepreneur, you’re going to run into the inevitable obstacles. You must have the attitude and commitment that it is not a matter of whether or not you will succeed, it’s only a matter of how long it is going to take.
Also, commit to CANI. This is something I heard from Tony Robbins, and it means “constant and never ending improvement.” As I became a real estate investor, I realized how much it helps to read anything that will help you become a better person and better entrepreneur. No matter how high on the ladder of success you climb, it’s essential to continually invest time and money in your education.
“Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway,” is the title of a book, and I have to say this statement is a key to my success because there have been many times when I didn’t know how to do something, and I had that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I did it anyway and got through the fear.
What PR and marketing activities have you done that have been successful?
As far as PR and marketing goes, the biggest money driver for Private Money Blueprint has been affiliates. These are people who I’ve built a personal relationship with, who are also real estate investing educators, and who market my products and services to their subscribers.
We have been fortunate to have a lot of affiliates who love to promote for us. And I feel this all goes back to relationship building. When I first started reaching out to people, I didn’t ask them to sell my products. Instead, I asked, “How can I help you?” I looked to give value first without asking for anything in return.
This has created a ton of relationship equity with influential people in my industry. One of the great things about having affiliates promote is that it doesn’t cost anything up front. We just pay out based on the sales they generate.
Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs starting out?
Bootstrap! Many entrepreneurs feel they need to start out by putting their business plan together and looking for investors. Instead, begin with the resources you have. When you do this and start generating sales, you position yourself much better to bring in investment capital to grow your business.
Also, don’t rely on your new business to pay your bills when you’re getting started. It’s a tough position to be in. Instead, establish some kind of income to pay the bills until your new business can replace this income.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with the StartupNation audience?
Instead of building actual businesses, most entrepreneurs just create jobs for themselves. If they aren’t there working the business, nothing gets done. Without their day-to-day involvement, everything falls apart. Keep in mind, the point of starting a business isn’t to work in it. It’s to have your business work for you.
Thanks for your great insights and success tips Patrick. We really appreciate it!
To find out more about Patrick and Private Money Blueprint, visit www.privatemoneyblueprint.com.
And if you need more information about boosting sales with PR and SEO content marketing, please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.
